Good news, everyone!

Researchers at the University of Maine and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are collaborating on a new way to dry non-aggregated cellulose nanofiber—a material that could replace plastics in a wide range of products.

A new study from the University at Albany shows that artificial intelligence systems may organize information in far more intricate ways than previously thought. The study, "Exploring the Stratified Space Structure of an RL Game with the Volume Growth Transform," has been published online through arXiv.

An upside-down jellyfish drifts in a shallow lagoon, rhythmically contracting its translucent bell. By night that beat drops from roughly 36 pulses a minute to nearer 30, and the animal slips into a state that, despite its lack of a brain, resembles sleep.

The modern world runs on chemicals and fuels that require a huge amount of energy to produce: Industrial chemical separation accounts for 10% to 15% of the world's total energy consumption. That's because most separations today rely on heat to boil off unwanted materials and isolate compounds.

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death worldwide. To save lives, constantly improving diagnostic and risk assessments is vital. One researcher from the University of Missouri School of Medicine is exploring ways to do just that by using machine learning, which is a type of artificial intelligence (AI).

A research team led by Prof. Dr. Christian Hinze, senior physician at the MHH Clinic for Kidney and Hypertension Diseases at Hannover Medical School (MHH), has gained new insights into the treatment of kidney transplant patients. The team has discovered properties of kidney cells that, after rejection, provide information about how well a transplant will recover in the long term.

Fluorine has changed the world of medicine. You might not see it, but newly approved drugs contain at least one fluorine atom. This tiny but powerful element is the "hidden engine" that makes our medications more stable and effective. Over the past decades, chemists have turned the trifluoromethyl (CF3) group into the "gold standard" in organic chemistry.

Desertification is accelerating under climate change, threatening biodiversity, food security, and human well-being across the Mediterranean Basin, southern Europe, and the Middle East. Water scarcity and land degradation reduce carbon sequestration, increase soil erosion, and undermine rural livelihoods, pushing many dryland ecosystems into long-term decline.

Aging muscles heal more slowly after injury—a frustrating reality familiar to many older adults. A UCLA study conducted in mice reveals an unexpected cause: Stem cells in aged muscle accumulate higher levels of a protein that slows their ability to activate and repair tissue, but helps the cells survive longer in the harsh environment of aging tissue.

Solar panels and wind turbines increasingly dot the landscape, but the future of clean energy may well depend on how smoothly we burn hydrogen. Yet as anyone who's lit a gas grill or fireplace knows, igniting a flame can be a bit tricky. Imagine how complex that process can be in commercial and industrial applications. Thanks to U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) ACCESS allocations, University of California San Diego researchers have taken a major step toward taming hydrogen flames with highly precise simulations that could reshape how we design tomorrow's zero-carbon gas turbines.

Time is almost up on the way we track each second of the day, with optical atomic clocks set to redefine the way the world measures one second in the near future. Researchers from Adelaide University worked with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom to review the future of the next generation of timekeeping.

A Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) research team has developed a wastewater treatment technology that integrates a mesh bioreactor with an ultrasound-induced transient cavitation cleaning mechanism. The system can complete mesh cleaning within 3.8 seconds under anaerobic conditions and achieves 10–20 times higher flux than conventional membrane bioreactors (MBRs). The technology operates efficiently with substantially lower energy consumption, produces treated effluent surpassing international and local discharge standards, and reduces the cost of treating each cubic meter of wastewater to 50% of conventional MBRs, offering a sustainable solution for both municipal and industrial wastewater treatment.

Deep in the frozen heart of Antarctica, the South Pole Telescope has been watching one of the most extreme neighborhoods in our galaxy, and it's just caught something extraordinary happening there. Astronomers have detected powerful stellar flares erupting from stars near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. These aren't your average stellar flares, we're talking about energy releases so intense they make our sun's most dramatic outbursts look like flickering candles.

Intelligent drones and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are rapidly evolving from experimental prototypes into essential infrastructure across disaster response, health care delivery, agriculture, logistics, archaeology, environmental monitoring, and numerous other fields vital to human development, scientists say in new research.

Humans are required to make several decisions daily, from choosing what to eat at a restaurant to more crucial choices, such as the studies they wish to complete.

Ankle fractures are among the most common fractures in adults. Some ankle fractures are "stable," so the patient can carry on walking on the ankle without the bones falling out of position. However, some fractures are "unstable" and require more support, sometimes even involving surgery. More than 20,000 people are admitted to hospitals in England each year with an unstable ankle fracture. The best way of treating unstable ankle fractures is an important area of research, for both patients and health care systems.

At the height of the "Great Resignation" in 2021, more than 50 million workers in the United States quit their jobs, driven by stress, burnout, and rising expectations for sustainable work. Nearly half cited inadequate benefits as a main reason for leaving.

University campuses are often places of learning and discovery, but rarely do researchers find a new species living right on their doorstep. However, that is exactly what happened when a research team from Kyushu University discovered a new species of ladybird beetle, Parastethorus pinicola, on a pine tree at Kyushu University's Hakozaki Satellite.

Agricultural waste that is usually burned or left to rot could play a far bigger role in tackling climate change if it were instead used in long-lasting building materials, according to new research from the University of East London (UEL).

Conventional wisdom has held for some time that children who grow up in environments rich with biodiversity—farms, homes with pets, rural settings in general—are less likely to have allergies. The thing nobody has ever completely understood is why? Yale researchers have now found an answer. It turns out that exposure to diverse microbes and proteins early in life creates broad immune memory and a specific antibody that helps block allergic reactions later in life. Rather than overreacting to harmless allergens (ragweed, cats, peanuts, etc.), researchers say, an experienced immune system responds in a balanced way.

Southern Africa is world renowned for its fossil record of creatures that lived in the very distant past, including dinosaurs. But, about 182 million years ago, a huge eruption of lava covered much of the landscape (the inland Karoo Basin) where most of the dinosaurs roamed. After that, the dinosaur fossil record in the region goes abruptly quiet for the Jurassic Period (which lasted from 201 million to 145 million years ago).

Artificial intelligence helps doctors spot more cases of breast cancer when reading routine scans, a world-first trial found Friday.

We may not need to completely overhaul our lives to live healthier for longer, according to a large UK-based study. This is welcome news, particularly as many people will already have abandoned their New Year's resolutions.

Is living in a leafy neighborhood enough to improve your mental health? Not necessarily. What matters most is frequent exposure to nature across different settings, especially while being physically active. That's the takeaway from a study led by Université de Montréal postdoctoral fellow Corentin Montiel, supervised by professor Isabelle Doré of UdeM's School of Kinesiology and Physical Activity Sciences and School of Public Health.

Over the next decades, robots are expected to make their way into a growing number of households, public spaces, and professional environments. Many of the most advanced and promising robots designed to date are so-called legged robots, which consist of a central body structure with limbs attached to it.

New research from Michigan State University finds that how young adults recall adverse childhood experiences fluctuates based on the current quality of their relationships—particularly with their parents.

For the first time, scientists have used satellite data to create a 3D map of the sun's interior magnetic field, the fundamental driver of solar activity. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, should enable more accurate predictions of solar cycles and space weather that affects satellites and power grids.

As companies around the world work to commercialize fusion energy—clean power generated by combining two light atoms—not much is known about public acceptance of the emerging technology. In a first-of-its-kind participatory design, Southeastern Michigan community members and students worked together to plan hypothetical fusion energy facilities.

Robots are getting better at sniffing out smells thanks to improvements in electronic noses (e-noses). A comprehensive review of the state of robot olfaction, published in the journal npj Robotics, has surveyed recent advances in the technology. It highlights how these digital noses are becoming more sensitive and more adept at identifying the source of an odor. This is leading to improvements in a range of areas, from search and rescue missions to detecting hazardous gas leaks.

Ashwagandha is a small shrub that's having a big moment. Used in traditional Indian medicine for thousands of years, ashwagandha is now one of the most popular herbal supplements in the U.S. because of its professed benefits for sleep and stress. In the U.S. alone, ashwagandha was the third-most purchased herbal supplement, with sales totaling $144 million in 2024, according to the American Botanical Council. It's also one of the precious few medicinal herbs that has received the National Institutes of Health's stamp of approval.

DNA can be thought of as a vast library that stores all genetic information. Cells do not use this information all at once. Instead, they copy only the necessary parts into RNA, which is then used to produce proteins—the essential building blocks of life. This copying process is called transcription, and it is carried out by a molecule known as RNA polymerase II.

This week, researchers identified the role of the brain's protein clean-up system in dementia. Fecal transplants show promising benefits in treating multiple cancer types. And biologists found that saltwater crocodiles traveled thousands of miles across the Indian Ocean.

A late-breaking study drawing on more than 15 years of national outcomes data from the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD) suggests that the two most commonly used multi-arterial coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) strategies—bilateral internal thoracic artery (BITA) and single internal thoracic artery plus radial artery (SITA+RA)—offer comparable long-term survival overall, with important differences emerging by patient age.

A type of therapy that stimulates specific brain pathways with electromagnetic pulses combined with physical therapy significantly reduced overall disability in stroke survivors compared to survivors who received sham (inactive) electromagnetic stimulation combined with physical therapy, according to a preliminary study presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2026, held in New Orleans, Feb. 4–6, 2026.

When a car accident or athletic injury destroys more than 20% of a muscle's mass, the body faces a problem it often can't heal fully on its own. Without intervention, scar tissue fills the injury site and can leave patients with permanent weakness and limited mobility.

Breakthrough research presented at the 2026 Society of Thoracic Surgeons Annual Meeting shows that additional lymph node evaluation is needed during surgery for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to accurately identify cancer spread.

Education systems need to focus more on independent critical thinking and rational, evidence-based learning and problem-solving to find answers to many of the unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges facing humanity, experts say.

Protein is having a moment, with federal guidelines significantly raising the recommended amount people should eat every day and products ranging from coffee drinks to Pop-Tarts touting enhanced levels of the nutrient. Eating enough protein is important for good health, Denver-area dieticians said, but people who want to increase their intake need to make sure they choose quality foods and don't crowd out healthy carbohydrates and fats.

There were only 10 reported cases of Guinea worm infections confined to three countries in 2025, a historic low announced Friday by The Carter Center.

The cells in our bodies move in groups during biological processes such as wound healing and tissue development—but because of resistance, or viscosity, those cells can't just neatly glide past each other.

Hydrocephalus is a life-threatening condition that occurs in about 1 in 1,000 newborns and is often treated with invasive surgery. Now, a new study offers hope of preventing hydrocephalus before it even occurs. The paper is published in the journal Molecular Therapy.

Cosmic radio pulses repeating every few minutes or hours, known as long-period transients, have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in 2022. Our new study, published in Nature Astronomy today, might finally add some clarity.

In 2023, more than half of all suicide deaths in the United States involved firearms. "Red flag" laws—also called Extreme Risk Protection Orders or ERPOs—are designed to reduce these deaths by authorizing temporary firearm removal from individuals deemed at high risk of harming themselves or others. ERPO laws had been implemented in 21 states and the District of Columbia as of February 2025.

As green hydrogen emerges as a key next-generation clean energy source, securing technologies that enable its stable and cost-effective production has become a critical challenge. However, conventional water electrolysis technologies face limitations in large-scale deployment due to high system costs and operational burdens.

A new study reveals how bacteria in the gut can help determine whether the amino acid asparagine from the diet will feed tumor growth or activate immune cells against the cancer, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. This casts the gut microbiome, comprising the trillions of microorganisms that live in the intestine, as a central player in the body's response to cancer and to modern cancer treatments like immunotherapies.

Being more active in the morning or afternoon is not just a matter of personal preference. Chronotype, which is each person's biological tendency to function better at certain times of the day, can play a significant role in preserving muscle mass, as well as its quality and strength, and also in metabolic health. Understanding this relationship can help explain why not everyone responds the same way to the same health routines.

It's common to wonder as tax season ramps up: Are taxes too high? According to a new study by University of Cincinnati economics professor David Brasington, the answer is no, at least when it comes to Ohio's city service taxes. These taxes go toward local services such as funds for the fire department, road repair and park upkeep.

A research team, affiliated with UNIST, has unveiled a flexible photodetector, capable of converting light across a broad spectrum—from visible to near-infrared—into electrical signals. This innovation promises significant advancements in technologies that require simultaneous detection of object colors and internal structures or materials.

Tau protein aggregation is a shared feature in over 20 neurodegenerative diseases (collectively referred to as "tauopathies"). New research led by Boston Children's Hospital challenges the current "one-size-fits-all" approach to diagnosing and treating these tauopathies. The study is published in the journal Cell.

New technology from University of Houston researchers could improve the way devices manage heat, thanks to a technique that allows heat to flow in only one direction. The innovation is known as thermal rectification, and was developed by Bo Zhao, an award-winning and internationally recognized engineering professor at the Cullen College of Engineering, and his doctoral student Sina Jafari Ghalekohneh. The work is published in Physical Review Research.

From TVs and smartwatches to rapidly emerging VR and AR devices, micro-LEDs are a next-generation display technology in which each LED—smaller than the thickness of a human hair—emits light on its own. Among the three primary colors required for full-color displays—red, green, and blue—the realization of high-performance red micro-LEDs has long been considered the most difficult.

If you say a few words, generative AI will understand who you are—maybe even better than your close family and friends. A new University of Michigan study found that widely available generative AI models (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, LLaMa) can predict personality, key behaviors and daily emotions as or even more accurately than those closest to you. The findings appear in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

Bees navigate their surroundings with astonishing precision. Their brains are now inspiring the design of tiny, low-power chips that could one day guide miniature robots and sensors.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles used on ground operations could help slash carbon emissions and support airports to reach net-zero targets, new research suggests. The Newcastle University research shows that key airport stakeholders have positive attitudes towards hydrogen-powered ground support equipment (GSE). This highlights their environmental, operational, and health benefits, including zero direct emissions at the point of use, less smell and reduced noise, making them a promising option for supporting airport decarbonization.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as the models underpinning the functioning of ChatGPT and various other online platforms, has grown exponentially over the past few years. Current hardware and electronic devices, however, might not be best suited for running these systems, which are computationally intensive and can drain huge amounts of energy.

Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to invest as much as $50 billion in OpenAI and expand an agreement that involves selling computer power to the AI startup, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. OpenAI is also weighing a deal in which Amazon would use the startup's artificial intelligence models, which power the popular ChatGPT chatbot, in its products and platforms, the person said. Amazon's employees could also access the model for their work.

Apple's iPhone sales soared to a new quarterly record during the holiday season, despite artificial intelligence blunders that prompted the technology trendsetter to get a helping hand from Google.

AI can help displaced people avoid exploitation, but humans must call the shots, warn experts. For Susan Achiech, life began in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp, where her South Sudanese parents fled to for safety in the early 1990s. Now 26, she lives in Canada, running her own gaming company, Tech Femme Algorithms, while working as an insurance advisor and studying gaming programming.

Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory are developing the next generation of solid-fuel ramjet (SFRJ) propulsion, addressing one of the field's most persistent challenges: understanding and predicting what happens inside an operating combustor.

New technologies developed to extract oil and gas from deep within Earth have also opened the door to accessing super-high temperature heat just about anywhere. These enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) could play a valuable role in the global transition to clean, renewable energy and for powering new data centers by significantly reducing land requirements and infrastructure needs and eliminating the need for other constant sources of electricity, such as coal and nuclear, according to a recent Stanford University study.

MIT researchers have designed silicon structures that can perform calculations in an electronic device using excess heat instead of electricity. These tiny structures could someday enable more energy-efficient computation. In this computing method, input data are encoded as a set of temperatures using the waste heat already present in a device.

When it comes to powering aircraft, jet engines need dense, energy-packed fuels. Right now, nearly all of that fuel comes from petroleum, as batteries don't yet deliver enough punch for most flights. Scientists have long dreamed of a synthetic alternative: teaching microbes to ferment plant material into high-performance jet fuels. But designing these microbial "mini-factories" has traditionally been slow and expensive because of the unpredictability of biological systems.

The world may be running out of sand suitable for concrete. Researchers are therefore testing a possible solution for using desert sand as a material. Ren Wei and several researchers at NTNU and the University of Tokyo have made a prototype of a new material: botanical sand concrete. It combines desert sand with plant-based additives and is made by pressing desert sand and tiny pieces of wood together, along with heat. Their paper is published in the Journal of Building Engineering.