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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.

In a consensus statement issued by the European Renal Association and published online Nov. 28 in Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, recommendations are presented for the management of skeletal fragility in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

It's been 54 years since the last Apollo mission, and since then, humans have not ventured beyond low-Earth orbit. But that's all about to change with next week's launch of the Artemis II mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Every day, thousands of images and signals are collected at sea. Sonar, buoys, satellites, and cameras installed on ships generate enormous amounts of data. Artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used to interpret this information. For example, to detect the presence of dolphins in real time to prevent bycatch, to estimate biodiversity indicators, or to automatically identify species caught onboard fishing vessels and improve fisheries management models. But behind this technological transformation emerges a key question: can we fully trust what AI says when the health of the ocean is at stake?

A hunk of romaine was easy pickings for Porkchop and her three flippers. On a rainy day last week, the green sea turtle pumped her limbs and stretched her beak up to chomp a lettuce leaf floating on the surface of a tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. That's where she's been on the mend since early March, when she arrived with a hook lodged in her throat and a flipper that was mostly dead from fishing line that had choked off circulation.

As kids head back to school and attention returns to the daily grind of lunch boxes, new research reveals Australian parents are overwhelmingly supportive of school-provided lunch programs, with nutrition and variety their biggest priorities. Led by Flinders University's Caring Futures Institute, the research team surveyed almost 400 parents of primary school children across Australia, finding 93% of parents were interested in school-provided lunches and willing to pay for them.

If green tea is already part of your daily routine, you may be giving your health a boost without even realizing it.

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.

Fifteen prescription medications, including Botox and the diabetes drug Trulicity, will be the focus of federal price negotiations that could lower prices for Medicare patients.

An estimated 4.2 million people die within 30 days of surgery worldwide each year. A new study suggests that deaths and serious heart disease might be prevented if some patients see a specialist heart doctor as part of their post-surgery care. The work appears in the European Heart Journal.

Researchers at Concordia have developed a new method of measuring the amount of usable water stored in snowpacks. The comprehensive technique, known as snow water availability (SWA), uses satellite data and climate reanalysis techniques to calculate snow depth, snow density, and snow cover across a wide swath of Canada and Alaska.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-supported mammography identifies more cancers during screening and reduces the rate of breast cancer diagnosis by 12% in the years following, finds the first randomized controlled trial of its kind. The trial involved over 100,000 Swedish women, and its results are published in The Lancet.

Ever since Larry Wilkewitz retired more than 20 years ago from a wood products company, he's had a commercial Medicare Advantage plan from the insurer Humana. But two years ago, he heard about Peak Health, a new Advantage plan started by the West Virginia University Health System, where his doctors practice. It was cheaper and offered more personal attention, plus extras such as an allowance for over-the-counter pharmacy items. Those benefits are more important than ever, he said, as he's treated for cancer.

As COVID-19 testing becomes less routine, official case numbers can make outbreaks look smaller than they really are. A research team led by Professor Michio Murakami has now shown that wastewater surveillance can uncover this "invisible" spread, providing a more objective picture of community infections and offering early warning signs for hospital-acquired cases. The study is published in the journal Environment International.

A new study evaluating climate policies in 40 countries over a 32-year period finds that carbon pricing and taxation—combined with investments in renewable energy and research—are among the most effective tools governments can use to reduce CO₂ emissions.

A new in vivo pharmacokinetic recall study involving 114 participants in the Estonian Biobank has provided the first clinical confirmation that previously uncharacterized genetic variants in the drug-metabolizing enzymes CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 significantly affect how drugs are processed in the human body. These results emphasize the need to look beyond common pharmacogenetic markers to improve the precision of personalized drug therapy. The paper is published in the journal npj Genomic Medicine.

Cancer screenings play a critical role in protecting long-term health. They can detect cancer early, when treatment is most effective, and in some cases help prevent cancer before it develops. While screening recommendations vary based on age, sex, family history and personal risk factors, several key cancer screening tests should be reviewed regularly.

At the 2026 Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Annual Meeting, investigators presented a late-breaking study focused on surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) following prior transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a clinical scenario increasingly encountered as TAVR use expands.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a multimodal, bioelectronic wrist-worn device for objective, continuous, real-time monitoring of stress. The Smart Quantitative and Comprehensive Stress Assessor and Sub-Classifier simultaneously tracks molecular stress biomarkers alongside physiological stress indicators, providing a complete and precise picture of how stress is experienced by humans.

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.

The origin of life from Earth's primordial chemistry has long fascinated and perplexed us. Generations of scientists have endeavored to understand how complex biochemistry developed from organic compounds. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have recently found that the conditions inside certain, naturally forming droplets promote reduction and oxidation (redox) reactions, which are crucial for life. The results support the idea that these droplets could have acted as proto-enzymes, enabling the formation of more complicated organic molecules.

In a breakthrough that could power next-generation electronics, sensors, and energy storage devices, CMU engineers have developed a fabrication technique that arranges MXene nanosheets, each a million times thinner than a sheet of paper, into complex 3D structures in just a single printing step.

The 20th century was marked by the discovery of exotic states of matter. First, liquid helium was observed to flow without friction at extremely low temperatures, a phase now known as superfluid. Soon after, it was also discovered that under appropriate external conditions, some materials can conduct electricity without resistance; these materials were therefore named superconductors.

Researchers at Keele University have said that more targeted use of testing for a common molecule could help to improve predictions of cardiovascular disease outcomes in patients at greatest risk.

Patients with CaV2.1 channelopathies face severe and often debilitating symptoms, such as seizures, migraines, tremors, and developmental delays. Although some symptoms overlap among these rare neurological conditions, patients often have different underlying mutations. In a recent study published in The FASEB Journal, researchers report the effects of two human CaV2.1 channelopathy mutations in a rat model, the findings of which could result in personalized therapies.

Researchers in Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Department of Chemical Engineering and at the University of Akron have published research in Chemical Engineering Journal about a new technology that seeks to solve long-standing challenges in plastic recycling that limit the overwhelming majority of plastics to a single use and contribute to the accumulation of plastic waste.

A multidisciplinary team of Brazilian researchers argues in an article published in the BMJ that health systems in the Brazilian Amazon must be redesigned in light of climate change, extreme weather events, and food insecurity. The researchers propose that this redesign takes into account traditional knowledge and the specific needs of local communities.

Assessing the toxicity of food contaminants—including carcinogenic potential—is a major challenge in evaluating the risks associated with exposure. In recent years, as part of efforts to reduce animal testing, two-dimensional (2D) analytical methods using human hepatic cell lines (which make up most of the liver) have advanced predictive toxicology for contaminants. However, these approaches have limitations, because they do not sufficiently capture the organ's complexity.

A surface capable of responding to chemical signals generated by microorganisms and automatically producing biocidal substances—this is not a futuristic vision, but a description of how the B-STING silica nanocomposite works. The new material, developed at the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, acts as a nanofactory of reactive oxygen species, activating itself only when necessary.

Air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide (NO2), primarily produced during fossil fuel combustion, pose a serious concern for human health, contributing to respiratory diseases like pulmonary edema, bronchitis, and asthma. Effective air-quality monitoring therefore requires portable gas sensors that offer high sensitivity, selectivity, and long-term stability. Among existing technologies, organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are promising for highly sensitive portable sensors with their lightweight, flexible, and simple-to-fabricate structure.

Should growing glacial lakes be used for energy production and water supply—or remain protected as ecologically valuable systems? A research team from the University of Potsdam, together with partners from the University of Leeds, has recorded the distribution and volume of glacial lakes worldwide. Their findings allow various usage scenarios to be derived, particularly in areas where the largest glaciers still exist today. Their article has been published in Nature Water.

Researchers from Drexel University who discovered a versatile type of two-dimensional conductive nanomaterial called MXene nearly a decade and a half ago, have now reported on a process for producing its one-dimensional cousin: the MXene nanoscroll. The group posits that these materials, which are 100 times thinner than human hair yet more conductive than their two-dimensional counterparts, could be used to improve the performance of energy storage devices, biosensors and wearable technology.

Wildfire causes most living things to flee or die, but some fungi thrive afterward, even feasting on charred remains. New University of California, Riverside research finds the secret to post-fire flourishing hidden in their genes. The study is among the first to investigate how fungi that are barely detectable in the soil before a fire are able to proliferate wildly once an area has burned.

Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi have developed a new light-based nanotechnology that could improve how certain cancers are detected and treated, offering a more precise and potentially less harmful alternative to chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. The study advances photothermal therapy, a treatment approach that uses light to generate heat inside tumors and destroy cancer cells.

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.

The immune system must maintain a delicate balance to defend against harmful threats while avoiding excessive inflammation. When this balance is disrupted, immune responses can contribute to autoimmune diseases and cancer. A research team jointly led by scientists at National Taiwan University (NTU) and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) has uncovered a previously unrecognized way to regulate the immune-related enzyme TREX1, offering new insight into how immune activity is controlled.

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.

In beehives on the CERN site, a buzzing team of bees collaborates to build hexagon after hexagon of honeycomb—a shape that allows the most honey for a given amount of beeswax to be stored. Working nearby, a team of similarly committed scientists has recently pieced together some more high-tech hexagons to form the first prototype "cassette" for the new CMS endcap calorimeters.

One of the biggest problems facing modern microelectronics is that computer chips can no longer be made arbitrarily smaller and more efficient. Materials used to date, such as copper, are reaching their limits because their resistivity increases dramatically when they become too small. Chiral materials could provide a solution here. These materials behave like left and right hands: they look almost identical and are mirror images of each other, but cannot be made to match.

A new study out of York University has found that the amount of atmospheric trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), the tiniest forever chemical, significantly declined in Toronto during COVID in 2020, which researchers say is good news for the world's ability to mitigate it in the future. The paper, "Atmospheric Removal of Trifluoroacetic Acid by Dry and Wet Deposition: A Multiyear Analysis in Toronto," was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

A major international study has assessed key bacterial targets that could form the basis of a new maternal vaccine to protect newborns from life-threatening infections. The University of Strathclyde contributed analytical expertise to the global project, as part of a long-standing collaboration with leading clinical scientists from the U.K. and Malawi.

In the U.S., a stroke happens roughly every 40 seconds. That means, in the time it takes to read a five-minute news article, more than seven Americans will have experienced this life-changing medical event, which is a leading cause of death and serious long-term disability across the country. For stroke survivors, the road to recovery can be a long and difficult one, often complicated by a number of cognitive, functional and motor impairments.

Living organisms are made up of hundreds of thousands of cells that cooperate to create the organs and systems that breathe, eat, move, and think. Now, researchers from Japan have developed a new way to track how and when cells touch each other to work together in these ways. In a study published in January in Cell Reports Methods, researchers from The University of Osaka reported the development of fluorescent markers for monitoring cell communication under a microscope.

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.

New simulations performed on a NASA supercomputer are providing scientists with the most comprehensive look yet into the maelstrom of interacting magnetic structures around city-sized neutron stars in the moments before they crash. The team identified potential signals emitted during the stars' final moments that may be detectable by future observatories.

Multiple randomized clinical trials and electronic health record studies now show that metformin, a widely used and well-established medication, significantly reduces the risk of developing long COVID when taken during or shortly after acute infection with SARS-CoV-2. The findings are published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

A UBC Okanagan-led research project has given a group of international scientists their clearest view yet of the Milky Way's magnetic field, revealing that it is far more complex than previously believed.

People with compromised liver function may be able to reduce their risk of liver cancer or slow its progression with a simple dietary change: eating less protein. A Rutgers-led study in Science Advances has found that low-protein diets slowed liver tumor growth and cancer death in mice, uncovering a mechanism by which a liver's impaired waste-handling machinery can inadvertently fuel cancer.

A preclinical study published in Nature has found evidence that the hippocampus, the brain region that stores memory, also reorganizes memories to anticipate future outcomes.

The sensory proteins that control the motion of bacteria constantly fluctuate. AMOLF researchers, together with international collaborators from ETH Zurich and University of Utah, found out that these proteins can jointly switch on and off at the same time. The researchers discovered that this protein network operates at the boundary between order and disorder. The findings are published in Nature Physics on January 29.

A QUT-led study has found how increasing aridity and habitat variation and the subsequent emergence of grasslands shaped the evolution of modern kangaroos and wallabies. The study, published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, resolves long-standing questions about when, and why, these iconic Australian marsupials diversified.

US self-driving car company Waymo said Thursday it is working with UK partners to launch driverless robotaxis in London, which are expected to begin operating later this year.

Achieving high reliability in AI systems—such as autonomous vehicles that stay on course even in snowstorms or medical AI that can diagnose cancer from low-resolution images—depends heavily on model robustness. While data augmentation has long been a go-to technique for enhancing this robustness, the specific conditions under which it works best remained unclear—until now.

Researchers have developed a new method for 3D printing objects with very different properties, including levels of hardness and transparency, on a pixel-by-pixel basis while using commonly available materials and inexpensive 3D printers. The method, described in the journal Science by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, Sandia National Laboratories and two other national laboratories, could lend itself to the creation of realistic models of body parts for medical students to practice surgery on or new types of personal protective gear.

Since it was invented in the 1980s, 3D printing has moved from the laboratory to the factory, the home and even outer space.

The promise of smart wearables is often talked up, and while there have been some impressive innovations, we are still not seeing their full potential. Among the things holding them back is that the chips that operate them are stiff, brittle, and power-hungry. To overcome these problems, researchers from Tsinghua University and Peking University in China have developed FLEXI, a new family of flexible chips. They are thinner than a human hair, flexible enough to be folded thousands of times, and incorporate AI.

Recent research in Sweden and Finland shows how used concrete's lifespan can be extended another 50 to 100 years when incorporated into new construction. A team from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Tampere University report they have developed a framework that enables builders to reuse structural elements confidently, saving resources and reducing the climate footprint of construction.

Some blind and low-vision fans will have unprecedented access to the Super Bowl thanks to a tactile device that tracks the ball, vibrates on key plays and provides real-time audio.

Meta Platforms Inc.'s better-than-expected sales outlook helped ease Wall Street concerns about plans for unprecedented spending on artificial intelligence this year. The social networking giant topped projections for holiday quarter revenue and gave a strong forecast for the current period during its earnings report on Jan. 28. Improvements in its online advertising business are making it possible for Meta to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years on AI infrastructure. Meta's shares jumped more than 11% in extended trading.

Inspired by electric rays that generate high voltages through stacked electrocytes, researchers at UNIST have developed a novel energy harvesting technology that mimics this biological mechanism. Unlike electric rays, which require mechanical stimulation, this new approach produces power autonomously, without external inputs.

Over the past decades, computer scientists have developed increasingly advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems that perform well on various tasks, including the analysis or generation of images, videos, audio recordings and texts. These systems power various highly performing software, including automated transcription apps, large language model (LLM)-powered conversational agents like ChatGPT, and various other platforms.

National Taiwan University researchers have developed an ultrahigh-solid-loading (83 vol%) yet highly flowable suspension for 3D printing that produces ceramic parts with extremely low shrinkage and 100% density, overcoming a major barrier in precision ceramic manufacturing.

Power sources used in devices found in or around biological tissue must be flexible and nontoxic, while still powerful enough to support demanding technologies such as medical devices or soft robotics. To achieve this balance, researchers at Penn State are taking inspiration from a "shocking" place—electric eels.

Google is empowering its Chrome browser with the ability to alter imagery and a virtual assistant to help with online tasks as part of its push to turbocharge its digital services with more artificial intelligence technology.

As an emerging technology in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), graph neural networks (GNNs) are deep learning models designed to process graph-structured data. Currently, GNNs are effective at capturing relationships between nodes and edges in data, but often overlook higher-order, complex connections. To address this challenge, a research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed a new heterogeneous graph attention network, revolutionizing the modeling of complex relationships in graph-structured data. This innovation is poised to break through AI application limitations in fields such as neuroscience, logistics, computer vision and biology.

Penn Engineers have developed a novel design for solar-powered data centers that will orbit Earth and could realistically scale to meet the growing demand for AI computing while reducing the environmental impact of data centers.