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On the Great Plains of North America, bison were hunted for thousands of years before populations collapsed to near extinction due to overexploitation in the late 1800s. But long before then, bison hunters used various strategies and different types of sites, sometimes switching between sites.

Alongside traditional estates, we now leave behind digital remains after we die, from social media accounts and emails to AI-generated recreations of ourselves. Our digital legacies are creating new and potentially troubling questions about autonomy and dignity after death. Dr. Edina Harbinja, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Birmingham, is spearheading a pioneering initiative to modernize European law to respond to novel questions about access, inheritance and privacy. The new model laws Dr. Harbinja is creating will be the first of their kind and will set the standard for how digital succession is regulated around the world.

Every crystal's shape is a mirror of the internal arrangement of its molecules, but the molecules in photoswitchable crystals can expand, twist and change properties—from their color to their electronic conductivity—with a simple flash of light. This has made them highly sought-after for applications like pharmaceuticals and data servers. But scientists have very little control over the shape that crystals take.

Smooth everyday services, a safe environment, and small, friendly encounters with locals are key factors that increase the happiness of international students in Finland. This is shown by a recent study conducted at the University of Oulu Business School, Finland, which followed the well-being of international exchange students over several months.

New research indicates that a drug commonly prescribed for gout may also lower the risk of heart attack and stroke when taken at an appropriate dose.

The application of modulated UV-C light to guavas—emitted in pulses or cycles rather than continuously—combated anthracnose. This fungal disease is caused by microorganisms belonging to the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides complex and triggers dark lesions on the fruit after harvest, reducing its shelf life. An article on the technique was published in the journal Horticulturae.

Early-onset neonatal bacterial infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in preterm newborns. It is most often caused by ascending infection via the maternal genital tract. Identifying risk situations with greater precision is a major clinical hurdle in the development of more tailored maternal and neonatal treatments that reduce excessive use of antibiotics.

Americans love dogs. Nearly half of U.S. households have one, and practically all owners see pets as part of the family—51% say pets belong "as much as a human member." The pet industry keeps generating more and more jobs, from vets to trainers, to influencers. Schools cannot keep up with the demand for veterinarians.

At the top of the South Dade Landfill, a massive oven that turns wood into charcoal is being tested by Miami-Dade County as an environmentally friendly way to cut down on landfill waste.

The Trump administration has rolled out a new website called TrumpRx, aimed at offering consumers lower prices on certain prescription drugs. The site, launched last week, lists discounted medications from more than a dozen drug companies. But it's unclear how much it will lower costs for most Americans.

Artificial intelligence has attained an impressive series of feats—solving problems from the International Math Olympiad, conducting encyclopedic surveys of academic literature, and even finding solutions to some longstanding research questions. Yet these systems largely remain unable to match top experts in the conceptual frontiers of research math. Have reports of AI replacing mathematicians been greatly exaggerated?

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute-led research helped drive an FDA label update for axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) that removes a prior exclusion for patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma, a rare and aggressive lymphoma of the brain and spinal cord. The change is expected to expand access to commercial CAR T-cell therapy for eligible patients with relapsed or refractory disease.

Professor Darren Evans and Madeleine Fabusova from the School of Natural and Environmental Science have published new research that shows that typical levels of artificial light at night can simultaneously suppress early-night activity and disrupt navigation cues in nocturnal insects and spiders. These findings identify twilight as a disproportionately sensitive period, raising questions about how street lighting and other mitigation strategies should be targeted.

A possible alternative to active debris removal (ADR) by laser is ablative propulsion by a remotely transmitted electron beam (e-beam). The e-beam ablation has been widely used in industries, and it might provide higher overall energy efficiency of an ADR system and a higher momentum-coupling coefficient than laser ablation. However, transmitting an e-beam efficiently through the ionosphere plasma over a long distance (10 m–100 km) and focusing it to enhance its intensity above the ablation threshold of debris materials are new technical challenges that require novel methods of external actions to support the beam transmission.

In infants and toddlers who had a stroke before birth or as a newborn (28 days or younger), a treatment that combined restricting the use of the stronger arm with intensive task-oriented physical therapy led to improved function and skill gained on the weak side compared to standard care, according to preliminary late-breaking science presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2026, held Feb. 4–6, 2026, in New Orleans.

A scientific breakthrough not only promises faster testing for antimicrobial resistance, but also an ethical solution to the controversial issue of using rodents in research. University of Exeter scientists have created the world's first genetically engineered wax moths—a development which could both accelerate the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and significantly reduce the need for mice and rats in infection research.

Constructed with tubulin heterodimers connected into a hollow cylinder, the microtubule, an essential component of the cytoskeleton, plays a vital role in various intracellular processes. In a recent study, a cross-disciplinary research team led by Professor Yuan Lin from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, and Professor Jeff Ti from the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), has revealed how the biological function of microtubules is achieved through mechanical regulation at the tubulin level.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed software that reduces the time needed for a key task in the development of custom microbes from a week to just hours. The new tool cracks a key defense mechanism of microorganisms, expediting the creation of microbes with desired traits for the production of new biofuels and other valuable products for the bioeconomy.

A preclinical study led by the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), in collaboration with the Institut de Myologie and the Sant Pau Research Institute, has analyzed the role of the protein HDAC11 in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and its potential as a therapeutic target. The results of the study have recently been published in the journal Life Sciences.

A new study conducted at the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and the Sylvan Adams Sports Science Institute at Tel Aviv University reveals a clear conclusion: strength (resistance) training is the most effective tool for achieving "high-quality" weight loss, reducing body fat while preserving, and even increasing, muscle mass.

Polymer micelles are tiny, self-assembled particles that are revolutionizing the landscape of drug delivery and nanomedicine. They form when polymer chains containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments organize into nanoscale spheres in liquid solutions; these structures can trap and hold drugs that are otherwise difficult to dissolve.

A new study from McMaster University involving 2.8 million children around the world has revealed the most important early-life factors that influence whether a child becomes allergic to food.

A major study led by the University of Hertfordshire has shown how linking care home data with NHS and social care records can improve residents' lives, strengthen policy decision-making and ensure critical health needs are not being missed. The work is published in Health and Social Care Delivery Research.

Using the skin of an Amazonian fish known as tambatinga as the raw material, researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) and EMBRAPA Pecuária Sudeste—a decentralized unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) located in São Carlos, São Paulo state—have developed a biofilm that can be used in food packaging.

Our lymphatic system is like a big network of roots spread throughout the body. It serves as part of our immune system, transporting immune cells and filtering excess fluid (lymph) before returning it to the bloodstream. Following the intricate, intertwined passages of this network is complicated—but a full understanding is essential for developing effective ways to treat lymphatic pathologies.

Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have uncovered how fertilized rice seeds begin to divide and establish their "body axis." Using a new imaging method, they discovered that while the first cell divides in an asymmetric way initially, this is followed by random growth and the apparently "collective" determination of a body axis. This is a significant break with known pathways, a rare glimpse into the birth and growth of plant embryos.

In terms of area, forest is the most important means of avalanche protection. It is also the most cost-effective and is naturally renewable. This insight hit home after the winter of 1951, when over 1,000 avalanches caused immense damage. The SLF began researching how protection forests could be sustainably developed.

Under the leadership of the University of Bonn, a research team led by Prof. Dr. Pavel Kroupa from the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics has discovered that galaxy clusters are about twice as heavy as previously assumed. The additional mass comes mainly from neutron stars and stellar black holes and also explains the observed quantities of heavy elements.

An international research team has demonstrated a new approach to 4D-printed shape-morphing implants that opens the door to increasingly personalized health care. The findings, outlined in the journal Additive Manufacturing, highlight how material degradation can be used to trigger controlled shape change of implanted material.

Can we use nothing more than sunlight and inexpensive materials to produce clean hydrogen fuel while also removing toxic pollutants from water? That question shaped our recent work with γ-In2S3, a semiconductor that has intrigued researchers for years but still holds untapped potential. By making subtle changes at the atomic scale, we discovered that we could significantly enhance its performance under visible light without adding noble metals or forming complex heterojunctions.

As carbon emissions continue to be pumped into the atmosphere at record levels, it will be critical to recapture and sequester as much of these warming gases as possible. While technological approaches face many barriers before they can be scaled up, efforts to capture carbon can rely on proven, natural interventions, like blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs). UConn researcher Mojtaba Fakhraee makes the argument in a Nature Sustainability paper that strategic placement of BCEs can not only sequester carbon, but have the added benefit of helping with the restoration of another vital ecosystem—coral reefs.

Cornell researchers have discovered a new way cells regulate how they respond to stress, identifying an interaction between two proteins that helps keep a critical cellular recycling system in balance. The findings show that a protein called SHKBP1 regulates another protein, p62, which plays a key role in clearing damaged cell components and activating antioxidant defenses. By helping maintain this balance, SHKBP1 allows cells to respond appropriately to stress—a process that can break down in diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.

Most registered nurses who recently left hospital employment are motivated to return to health care work—and safe nurse staffing levels are the top factor that would bring them back, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR). Published in JAMA Network Open, the study analyzed data from 4,043 actively licensed registered nurses who left direct care hospital positions within the last five years. Among them, 8% were employed outside health care, 36% were unemployed, and 56% were retired.

Sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) are gaining traction as a next-generation technology to complement the widely used lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). NIBs offer clear advantages versus LIBs in terms of sustainability and cost, as they rely on sodium—an element that, unlike lithium, is abundant almost everywhere on Earth. However, for NIBs to achieve widespread adoption, they must reach energy densities comparable to LIBs.

Soft robots made out of flexible, biocompatible materials are in high demand in industries from health care to manufacturing, but precisely designing and controlling such robots for specific purposes is a perennial challenge. What if you could 3D print a soft robot with predictable shape-morphing capabilities already built in? Harvard 3D printing experts have shown it's possible.

Sensors small enough to disappear into the body, microrobots that move without wires, and smart systems hidden inside everyday materials—all require a battery to function. As electronics shrink towards the micrometer scale, conventional batteries become bulky, impractical, or impossible to integrate into these tiny devices.

A research team has used advanced 3D printing techniques to develop low-temperature, "sinterless" silica glass. They converted 3D-printed objects into silica glass structures at significantly lower temperatures than traditional sintering, offering a promising route for efficient and precise glass manufacturing. Their research is published in the journal Polymers.

Globally, more than 400 million tons of plastic are produced each year, and less than 10% is recycled. Much of the rest ends up burned, buried or drifting through waterways, a problem that's only getting worse.

Researchers have created a process using liquid metals, powered by sunlight, that can produce clean hydrogen from both freshwater and seawater. The method allows researchers to "harvest" hydrogen molecules from water while also avoiding many of the limits on current hydrogen production methods. It offers a new avenue of exploration for producing green hydrogen as a sustainable energy source.

The global demand for lithium has skyrocketed over the last several years due to the rapid growth of the electric vehicle market and grid-storage solutions. Currently, production capacity is limited and unlikely to meet future needs. However, researchers are making headway in innovative lithium capture technologies. A new study, published in Device, describes one such technology that extracts lithium from seawater more efficiently than previous extraction methods, with an added benefit of seawater desalination.

In late 2025, Interpol coordinated a global operation across 134 nations, seizing roughly 30,000 live animals, confiscating illegal plant and timber products, and identifying about 1,100 suspected wildlife traffickers for national police to investigate.

A system developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo lets people collaborate with groups of robots to create works of art inspired by music. The new technology features multiple wheeled robots about the size of soccer balls that trail colored light as they move within a fixed area on the floor in response to key features of music including tempo and chord progression. A camera records the coordinated light trails as they snake within that area, which serves as the canvas for the creation of a "painting," or visual representation of the emotional content of a particular piece of music.

Advanced nuclear is within reach—and a new digital twin reveals how smarter plant operations can enhance the economic viability and safety of small modular reactors, or SMRs. In collaboration with the University of Tennessee and GE Vernova Hitachi, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently published research in the journal Nuclear Science and Engineering on a new risk-informed digital twin designed to enhance operational decision-making for the GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 SMR design.

Demand for lithium is surging, as the world transitions to renewable energy and adopts new technologies. Lithium-ion batteries play a central role in this shift, powering everything from cars to portable electronics. To meet the increasing demand, companies are recycling lithium from old batteries and also looking for new sources and better ways to extract it. While recycling supports a circular economy, experts agree that recycled lithium alone will not meet projected future needs.

Researchers have fabricated a hair-thin microphone made entirely of silica fiber that can detect a large range of ultrasound frequencies beyond the reach of the human ear. Able to withstand temperatures up to 1,000°C, the device could eventually be used inside high-voltage transformers to detect early signs of failure before power outages occur.

Cinematic clips generated by ByteDance's latest artificial intelligence video model have sparked an online buzz for the Chinese company that recently ceded majority control of TikTok in the United States.

As cities grow denser and construction labor becomes harder to secure, the sector is under pressure to deliver projects faster, more efficiently and with fewer workers on site. In the past decade, 3D concrete printing (3DCP) has emerged as a promising solution to those challenges thanks to its high automation and formwork-free feature. However, 3DCP is still limited to non-structural applications for the built environment in Singapore.

In the 1960s, major oil-producing nations formed a cartel to drive up the price of oil. It worked. For decades, nations in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have agreed to manage supply and raise prices.

Wherever hydrogen is present, safety sensors are required to detect leaks and prevent the formation of flammable oxyhydrogen gas when hydrogen is mixed with air. It is therefore a challenge that today's sensors do not work optimally in humid environments—because where there is hydrogen, there is very often humidity. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, are presenting a new sensor that is well suited to humid environments—and actually performs better the more humid it gets.