Good news, everyone!

Research from the University of Warwick has revealed that butterfly caterpillars use sophisticated rhythmic signals to communicate with ants, helping them gain protection, food, and access to ant nests. The work appears in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

We know Aotearoa New Zealand is home to many geographically and biologically special features. Yet few of us know it also has its very own measure of "deep time." Known as the New Zealand Geological Timescale, it has just undergone its most comprehensive revision in 20 years.

People with hip and knee osteoarthritis are advised to wear "appropriate footwear" to minimize their pain. Does that mean heels are out? Does it matter if you wear runners or something a little stiffer? How about using insoles?

Cervical cancer rates are plummeting in states with higher rates of HPV vaccination, a new study reports. Overall, cervical cancers have declined by 27% among young women in the years since the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine became available in the United States, researchers report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Waymo will begin dispatching its robotaxis in four more cities in Texas and Florida, expanding the territory covered by its fleet of self-driving cars to 10 major U.S. metropolitan markets.

Biologists have long wondered why caribou are the only deer in the world in which females—like males—have antlers. A study of shed antlers collected from calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provides a new answer. The study is published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

A team of scientists from around the world has created the first system that can predict when and where extremely powerful solar storms, called superflares, are most likely to happen. These storms can disrupt power grids, communications, and satellites, and even pose dangers to astronauts in space.

A new study has revealed how tiny imperfections and vibrations inside a promising quantum material could be used to control an unusual quantum effect, opening new possibilities for smaller, faster, and more efficient energy-harvesting devices.

Telemedicine visits are five times less costly than in-person appointments for the most common conditions able to be treated by both forms of visits, new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows. On average, telemedicine patient visits were billed $400 less, and they also resulted in fewer follow-up visits after the initial appointment. The analysis is published in JAMA Network Open.

Depending on others for something you need may feel like a risky proposition—and perhaps a human one. It is actually a survival strategy found in the microbial world, and far more frequently than one might expect. Discovering why is key to understanding how microbes form stable communities across medical, industrial, and ecological settings.

Researchers at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB) have found a new way to organize molecules inside living cells, opening possibilities for more controlled and efficient biomanufacturing. The team has published a paper in Nature Communications demonstrating that engineered RNA molecules can self-assemble into membraneless organelles inside Escherichia coli (E. coli).

Researchers at UCLA have found a way to supercharge immune cells with a fuel source that tumors can't steal, dramatically improving their ability to survive and attack solid tumors in preclinical studies. The approach, published in the journal Cell, could help overcome a major barrier that has limited the effectiveness of CAR-T and other immunotherapies in solid tumors such as lung, breast, and colorectal cancer, where immune cells are often "starved" of energy by aggressive cancer cells.

Integrating AI with advanced robotics to create self-driving labs (SDL) is a promising approach to tackling molecular discovery. A new SDL system, called LUMI-lab, combines large-scale molecular pretraining, active learning, and robotics, and has discovered that brominated lipids, not previously linked to mRNA delivery, enhance the efficiency of getting mRNA inside human cells. The study, led by researchers at the University of Toronto's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, is published in Cell.

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified two lipids that work together with a quintessential protein known as stimulator of interferon genes (STING) to launch an immune response in the human body. Their findings, detailed in two papers published concurrently in Nature, could lead to new ways to manipulate the immune system to fight infections, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Beaver dams are critical to river health and a source of biodiversity. They create wetlands, slow water and improve water quality. They also reduce flood peaks and delay runoff. But beaver dams are often blamed when extreme rainstorms cause flooding—especially when they fail.

Whether it's redfin pickerel in the Kennebec River or sturgeon in the Great Lakes, nearly one-third of freshwater fish species are facing possible extinction, threatening food supplies, ecosystems and outdoor recreation. As conservationists work to preserve these species, the University of Maine assistant professor Christina Murphy asked herself if there was an easier way to identify threats to fish before they become endangered.

Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) refers to spinal cord compression from arthritis in the neck and is the leading cause of spinal cord dysfunction in older adults. CSM is a chronic, progressive condition that can cause neck pain, muscle weakness, difficulty walking and other debilitating symptoms. While the diagnosis is sometimes clear, often the diagnosis can take years because symptoms aren't recognized until the later stages, and by then, treatment options are limited.

By pairing digital tools with tailored HIV services delivered by community health workers and clinicians, a study has reduced new HIV cases by 70% in rural Kenya and Uganda. This successful strategic implementation of existing health care infrastructure and available HIV prevention and treatment options could become a model for reducing HIV incidence in other countries, including the United States. The findings were presented at the 33rd Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2026) in Denver.

An international study has revealed a surprising connection between quantum physics and the theoretical models underlying artificial intelligence. The study results from a collaboration between the Institute of Nanotechnology of the National Research Council (Cnr-Nanotec), the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), and Sapienza University of Rome, together with international research institutions. The research paper was published recently in the journal Physical Review Letters.

A new study has identified a distinct climate precursor in the Mediterranean Sea that can predict winter precipitation levels in the Levant months in advance. The study, published in Weather and Climate Dynamics, is titled "Mediterranean Sea heat uptake variability as a precursor to winter precipitation in the Levant."

A new study sheds light on the behavior of yeast cells in the gut, paving the way for new lines of yeast that more efficiently produce therapeutic drugs tailored to address specific diseases. The research is published in the journal BMC Genomics.

A new study has overcome a long-standing challenge: how to isolate and study elusive HIV-infected cells called authentic reservoir clones (ARCs) that evade the immune system, making the disease difficult to cure. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University and collaborating institutions offer a detailed look into these hidden HIV-harboring cells and show that some may be more vulnerable to immune destruction than previously believed.

Inside America's junk drawers sits an untapped fortune, and a national and economic security solution. As the global race for critical minerals intensifies, University of Houston researchers have unveiled a breakthrough supply chain model designed to transform e-waste from a mounting environmental hazard into a stable, domestic engine for the U.S. economy.

Countries with stricter and better-targeted climate policies cut carbon emissions faster, according to a major new study by researchers in the UK and EU. The study draws on the most comprehensive climate policy dataset ever assembled, using over 3,900 policies adopted since 2000 in 43 leading economies responsible for well over three quarters of global emissions. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Neuroscientist Soha Farboud of the Donders Institute at Radboud University has succeeded in adjusting activity in specific brain areas using a new technique. With ultrasonic brain stimulation, she was able to influence whether people chose to look left or right. A key advantage of ultrasound is that, unlike existing methods, it can safely reach deep brain regions from outside the skull.

Under current budget pressures in social and health care services, even small but effective improvements matter in everyday practice. A new study shows that valved holding chambers (VHCs) used to deliver inhaled medication to children with acute respiratory diseases differ markedly in their performance. Choosing the right device in emergency care can help reduce costly hospital admissions, and the findings have direct relevance for clinical work in pediatric emergency departments.

Consuming a greater proportion of nutrients from plant sources may aid management of psoriasis symptoms, according to a study published online Feb. 19 in the European Journal of Nutrition.

Variants in a nicotine receptor gene are associated with a lower likelihood of heavy smoking, according to a study published in Nature Communications. The findings are based on data from populations in Mexico and validated in populations with Asian and European ancestries.

Whether people follow a general trend when choosing a partner or consciously decide against it has a noticeable impact on the diversity of phenotypes to choose from. This is shown by a new study by the University of Würzburg.

Mexico stands at a critical security crossroads following the confirmed death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, the founder and leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Researchers at EPFL, Heidelberg University and Roche have built a human mini-bladder to show how urine composition weakens bladder tissue, helping infections recur even after antibiotics. The work was led by John McKinney (EPFL) Matthias Lütolf (Roche Institute of Human Biology/EPFL), and Vivek Thacker (Heidelberg University) and is now published in Nature Communications.

Rice becomes weaker when compressed quickly, while staying stronger under slow pressure—a discovery enabling scientists to design a new material that could be used to build "soft" robots that change stiffness automatically and protective gear that adapts to impact speed. Researchers harnessed this effect to design a new "metamaterial"—an artificially engineered composite structure designed to behave in ways impossible for natural materials.

Vaccines have traditionally worked by teaching the immune system to recognize a specific virus or bacterium—in effect, showing it a wanted poster for a single suspect. But what if one vaccine could protect against dozens of different infections at once? Researchers have now developed a potential candidate for such a vaccine, and a study in mice, published in the journal Science, offers promising results.

Why can the human immune system often remember a vaccination for a whole lifetime? Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen have now investigated this question. Their study provides a surprisingly clear answer: The immune cells responsible for immunological memory seem to switch to a type of standby mode at an early stage. They can survive for many decades in this state. The findings have now been published in the journal Nature Immunology.

Declines in cervical cancer incidence among young U.S. women during the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination era vary by geographic region, according to a study published online Feb. 23 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Never-before-seen 3D reconstructions of human liver tissue have been created at a cellular level. The details obtained by a team of UW Medicine and University of Washington engineers and physicians capture the spatial microstructure of multiple lobes of this multitasking organ.

A research team at Kumamoto University has discovered that a natural compound found in pomegranate leaves and branches can directly break down harmful protein aggregates linked to transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis, a progressive and potentially life-threatening disease affecting the nerves and heart.

Subtle changes in how blood flows through the brain and how brain tissue uses oxygen may be closely linked to Alzheimer's disease risk, according to new research from the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed a multi-source co-evaporation recipe that markedly enhances the crystal quality of vacuum-deposited perovskite films. This advance brings all vacuum-deposited single-junction perovskite cells as well as perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells closer to scalable production. The research has been reported in Nature Materials, in a paper titled "Crystal-facet-directed all-vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells."

When cancer-driving proteins resist various treatments, Northwestern University scientists have uncovered a new solution. Don't fight them—throw them in the cellular trash. In a new study published in Nature Communications, scientists developed protein-like polymers (PLPs) capable of grabbing proteins and directing them to the cell's waste-disposal machinery. From there, the proteins are degraded and disposed of, triggering cancer cell death.

A team from the Institute of Materials Science of Seville (ICMS), a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Seville (US), has developed a new hybrid device that allows energy to be captured from both the sun and rain simultaneously. A thin film created and patented by the research team not only protects and improves the durability of perovskite solar cells, even in adverse weather conditions, but also allows nanogenerators to produce more than 100 volts from the impact of a single drop of water, enough to power small portable devices.

So-called "yo-yo dieting" confers long-term health benefits, according to a new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers. "Yo-yo dieting" is a pattern in which individuals lose weight through lifestyle interventions but gradually regain it over time, leading to repeated attempts at weight loss. These cycles may affect not only body weight, but also body composition, particularly visceral (intra-abdominal) fat, a metabolically active tissue linked to cardiometabolic disease. Thus, for many individuals, the key question is not whether to lose weight once, but whether repeated attempts confer long-term health benefits or risks.

A new study led by researchers at Vanderbilt Health has identified medical conditions that often precede an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. The findings, published in the journal Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, could open opportunities to develop interventions that reduce Alzheimer's disease risk.

Recent technological advances have opened new possibilities for the development of advanced medical devices, including tiny robots that can safely move inside the human body. Some of these systems could help to simplify complex medical procedures, including delicate surgeries and the targeted delivery of drugs to specific sites.

DNA, the genetic blueprints in every living organism, is nature's most efficient storage mechanism, capable of storing about 215 million gigabytes of data per gram. That storage capacity, if applied to electronics, could enable significantly more efficient data centers, speedier data processing and the ability to process far more complicated data. The trick to making this technological leap is getting DNA, a biological material, to work with electronics. A team led by Penn State researchers has figured out how to bridge the wide compatibility gap.

The problem with many types of modern batteries is that they rely on harsh chemicals to work. Not only can these corrosive liquids damage internal parts over time, but they can also leach into soil and water when disposed of, contaminating it. But researchers from the City University of Hong Kong and Southern University of Science and Technology have developed an alternative, a new kind of eco-friendly battery that runs on a solution similar to the minerals used in tofu brine.

Researchers from the University of Münster, ETH Zurich, Stanford University, and the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Battery Cell Production (FFB) used AI-supported patent analysis to show how strongly battery technologies build upon one another. The findings suggest that industrial and innovation strategies must account for these technological dependencies far more rigorously.

Large language models (LLMs), artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can process human language and generate texts in response to specific user queries, are now used daily by a growing number of people worldwide. While initially these models were primarily used to quickly source information or produce texts for specific uses, some people have now also started approaching the models with personal issues or concerns.

A leading cause of disability in the United States is hemiparesis, a condition where impaired motor control, muscle weakness, and spasticity affect one side of the body. Occurring in 80% of stroke survivors, reduced mobility and decreased quality of life are challenges that impact millions of individuals.

Industrial quality inspection plays a critical role in manufacturing, from ensuring the reliability of electronics and vehicles to preventing costly failures in aerospace and energy systems. Traditional vision-based inspection systems typically rely on Red, Green, Blue (RGB) cameras, which are fast and inexpensive but often miss defects related to geometry (scratches or dents), material structure, or heat dissipation.

It is not easy to bring new technologies from the laboratory to market. Researchers and companies face very different demands for new developments and do not always find common ground. Scientists at Empa and other institutions have analyzed two emerging solar cell technologies to identify the greatest risks. Their conclusion: Research and industry must start collaborating much earlier.

A landmark social media addiction trial resumed Monday with a YouTube executive insisting that the Google-owned company's aim was to give people value, not hook them on harmful binge-viewing.

Researchers at the University of Oulu, Finland, have developed new high-performance bio-based resins that can replace conventional oil-based materials in composite products—without compromising strength, cost, or industrial scalability. As composite materials continue to play a critical role in renewable energy, transportation, marine industries and construction, biobased resins may become a driver of sustainable industrial production.

A research team led by Professor Taesung Kim from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University has developed a technology that precisely controls the internal structure of semiconductors using heat, much like stamping out "bungeoppang" (fish-shaped pastry) in a mold. The team report that this approach improves the performance of next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) hardware. With this technology, complex AI computations can be processed more quickly using significantly less electricity than before. The findings are published in the journal ACS Nano.

Large language models (LLMs) are dealing with an increasing amount of morally sensitive information as people turn to them for medical advice, companionship and therapy. However, they are not exactly known for possessing a moral compass.

AI users and developers can now measure the amount of electricity various AI models consume to complete tasks with an open-source software and online leaderboard developed at the University of Michigan. Companies can download the software to evaluate private models run on private hardware. And while the software can't evaluate the energy costs of queries run on proprietary AI models at private data centers, it has allowed University of Michigan engineers to measure the power used by open-weight AI models in which the parameters under the hood are publicly available.

As marijuana legalization expands across the U.S., it is outpacing research on the impact of cannabis use behind the wheel. Researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) recently spent two years collecting real-world driving data from cannabis users to help fill in the gaps.

Superhydrophobic surfaces—those famously "never-wet" materials that make water bead up and roll away—have a stubborn weakness: hot water. Once temperatures climb above roughly 40 degrees Celsius, many superhydrophobic coatings abruptly lose their magic. Instead of skittering off, hot droplets start sticking, soaking into the surface texture and leaving behind wet patches and residue.

In everyday life, designing spaces that both let air flow and absorb sound can be a tricky balancing act. Usually, materials that allow air to pass through—like vents—also let sound escape, making it hard to reduce noise effectively. Conversely, sound-absorbing materials like foam often block airflow, limiting their use in ventilated areas.

New software, developed by the University of Sheffield spin-out AENi aims to transform how the world's essential net-zero infrastructure is planned. The new digital platform will help the organizations shaping the world's critical net-zero infrastructure to de-risk projects and accelerate delivery.

Hydrogen fuel is a promising alternative to fossil fuels that only emits water vapor when used and could thus help to lower greenhouse gas emissions on Earth. In the future, it could potentially be used to fuel heavy-duty transport vehicles, such as trucks, trains, and ships, as well as industrial heating and decentralized power generation systems.

A paper written by University of Florida Computer & Information Science & Engineering, or CISE, Professor Sumit Kumar Jha, Ph.D., contains so many science fiction terms, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a Hollywood script: Nullspace steering. Red teaming. Jailbreaking the matrix. But Jha's work is decidedly focused on real life, most notably strengthening the security measures built into AI tools to ensure they are safe for all to use.