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A University of Tsukuba research team has found that drinking unsweetened, highly carbonated (sparkling) water during a three-hour esports session can help players maintain mental focus with less fatigue and greater game enjoyment than when drinking plain water. The study is published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports.

Participants in a New Zealand e-bike pilot program say cycling has improved their physical and mental health and helped in managing chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma, a study from the University of Otago, Wellington–Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Pōneke has found.

Regular perovskite solar cells (PSCs)—which place the electron-transport layer beneath the perovskite absorber and the hole-transport layer on top—have limitations with respect to large-scale manufacturing and stability. In contrast, inverted PSCs—which reverse the positions of the electron- and hole-transport layers—boast high power conversion potential and good compatibility with scalable solution processing techniques, making them a promising photovoltaic technology.

Tiny insects trapped in amber could tell us a great deal about their roles in past ecosystems: pollinators, parasites, predators, and prey. But how many of the insects preserved alongside each other reflect interactions during life, and how many are just unlucky coincidences?

New data centers are springing up worldwide as demand soars for artificial intelligence and cloud computing, with Asia one of the sector's fastest growing regions.

The largest ever study of non-meat diets and cancer risk has found that vegetarian diets are associated with lower risks of several cancers—breast, prostate, kidney and pancreatic cancers, and multiple myeloma—but a higher risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. The study was led by researchers at Oxford Population Health's Cancer Epidemiology Unit. It is published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Immunotherapy has been generally ineffective for prostate cancer because the tumors are considered immunologically "cold," meaning they do not attract enough immune cells to mount a strong attack. Hormone therapy commonly used for prostate cancer, called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), can temporarily make tumors more responsive by drawing immune cells into the cancer. But that benefit is short-lived: the treatment also increases levels of regulatory T cells (Tregs), which act as brakes on the immune system and blunt its anticancer effects.

Online influencers claim the secret to low-calorie rice, pasta and potatoes may be as simple as chilling out.

A study published in the Chemical Engineering Journal proposes a new approach to environmental remediation of pharmaceutical pollutants in water flows. This approach is based on a phenomenon known as "sparks," which refers to the sparks that appear on the surface of a metal when it is subjected to plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO).

A researcher at the University of Missouri has made a promising breakthrough in the quest to help people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the neurodegenerative disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. In a recent study, Mizzou's Smita Saxena showed that a natural molecule called GM1 can reach the brain when it's wrapped inside a tiny fat-based bubble. In early laboratory testing, this approach helped improve ALS symptoms.

A monoclonal antibody created by the Nanobiotechnology for Diagnostics group (Nb4D) at the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC), part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has demonstrated in cell cultures that it can neutralize the toxin pyocyanin produced by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which the World Health Organization considers highly dangerous due to its strong resistance to nearly all antibiotics and its prevalence in hospital settings.

An international team of scientists led by the University of Bath has developed a new catalyst—a substance that speeds up chemical reactions—that uses sunlight to break down so-called "forever chemicals" prevalent in the environment and known to accumulate in the human body with unknown long-term health effects.

Future devices will continue to probe the frontier of the very small, and at scales where functionality depends on mere atoms, even the tiniest flaw matters. Researchers at Rice University have shown that hard-to-spot defects in a widely used two-dimensional insulator can trap electrical charges and locally weaken the material, making it more likely to fail at lower voltages. The findings are published in Nano Letters.

A recent study by the University of Bonn and University Hospital Bonn and the University of Freiburg shows that the mitochondria appear to be able to influence the number of lipid droplets in the cell using a mechanism that is actually intended for a completely different purpose. Their results have now been published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

A Phase I clinical trial published in The Lancet has shown that combining stem cell therapy with standard fetal surgery before birth is a safe and promising approach to treat myelomeningocele, a severe form of spina bifida. This is the first time live stem cells have been used on a fetus's damaged spine, which could potentially lead to better health outcomes for babies compared to traditional fetal surgery.

Thanks to modern therapies, a cancer diagnosis is no longer an automatic death sentence. But many patients still suffer from unwanted side effects and limited efficacy. In a recent Bioconjugate Chemistry publication, William & Mary researchers have designed an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) with the potential to improve the potency and decrease the cost of currently approved cancer drugs.

The human genome is a rich, complex record of migration, encounters, and inheritance written over thousands of millennia. Genomic research by members of Sarah Tishkoff's lab at the University of Pennsylvania are revisiting a particularly intimate chapter, suggesting that ancient mating patterns between modern humans and Neanderthals shaped why Neanderthal DNA is largely missing from the human X chromosome.

New research co-led by Burnet Institute and WEHI has uncovered how the human immune system fights Plasmodium vivax, paving the way for the first effective vaccine against the most widespread form of malaria. Published in Immunity, the study provides critical evidence of how protective immunity to P. vivax works, identifying specific targets on the parasite and explaining how antibodies function to prevent and clear infection.

Women with metastatic breast cancer often face multiple chronic conditions, and high blood pressure is among the most common. Nearly half of women in this study population had hypertension at diagnosis, with even higher rates among Black and Hispanic patients. Researchers have recently sought to understand whether more effective hypertension management could improve survival. Their work appears in Cancer Medicine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Dupixent (dupilumab) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients aged 6 years and older with allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS) and a history of sino-nasal surgery.

About 50% of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients develop resistance to therapy. When resistance arises, tumors are more likely to come back after the original treatment, significantly reducing the chances of survival. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered that there is more than one way TNBC can become immune to therapy.

Consumers can protect their skin from damaging ultraviolet (UV) light rays for as little as $40 a year—or as much as $1,400 a year—depending on how expensive a sunscreen they buy and how much of their skin they protect with hats and clothing, according to a new analysis by researchers at UC San Francisco.

Human metabolism is regulated by internal clocks, the so-called circadian rhythms. Many processes, such as sugar uptake, fat burning, or hormone release, oscillate during the day, i.e., they fluctuate and exhibit characteristic 24-hour rhythms. If nutrients are consumed outside the optimal time windows for the internal rhythms, this could promote metabolic disorders in the long term. The field of chrononutrition investigates the underlying molecular mechanisms to optimize eating times and increase metabolic health, ultimately aiming to prevent chronic diseases.

A new material can store energy from sunlight and convert it into hydrogen days later. The material, jointly developed by researchers from Ulm and Jena, can do this even in the dark. The process is reversible and can be reactivated several times using a pH switch. The results are published in the journal Nature Communications.

An autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland, called autoimmune hypothyroidism (AIHT), is the most common autoimmune disease, yet it remains largely understudied. New research from scientists at Broad Institute, University of Helsinki, and other institutions has now found more than 400 genetic markers linked to the disorder, far more than previous studies. Nearly 50 of these pinpoint protein-coding changes in genes involved in immunity and thyroid function.

Wildlife trafficking is one of the world's most widespread illegal trades, contributing to biodiversity loss, organized crime, and public health risks. Once concentrated in physical markets, much of this activity has moved online. Today, animals and animal products are advertised on large e-commerce platforms alongside ordinary consumer goods. This shift makes enforcement harder—but it also creates a valuable source of data.

A small but growing body of evidence suggests that a minimally invasive surgical procedure called lymphovenous anastomosis (LVA) might be an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to a special article in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Minor changes in moisture level can promote lipid molecules to reorganize themselves in biomaterial or biomembranes. This can affect how the skin, lungs and tear film protect us from dehydration. This new discovery from Lund University in Sweden could be the inspiration for smart materials and new drug delivery techniques.

One to two out of every 100 newborn babies are born with a Congenital Heart Defect (CHD), yet the exact cause remains unclear. Human geneticists at the University Medicine Oldenburg (Germany) have now presented a new method for determining whether a NOTCH1 gene variant is causative. Once they know this, doctors will be able to make more reliable diagnoses and develop targeted and effective therapies. In addition, patients and their families will finally be able find out whether a heart defect is likely to be hereditary. A team led by Professor Dr. Marc-Phillip Hitz, Director of the University Institute for Medical Genetics at the Klinikum Oldenburg, and Dr. Gregor Dombrowsky, the first author of the study, reported its findings in Genome Medicine.

Some of the universe's most extreme explosions leave behind almost no trace. The original explosion is unseen, but our observations can capture the long-lived echo it leaves behind as the shock front plows into its surrounding environment. In new research accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, we have discovered what may be the clearest example yet of one of these hidden explosions: the radio afterglow of a powerful gamma-ray burst whose initial blast went unnoticed.

In a new study published in Communications Biology, Houston Methodist researchers led by Sonia Villapol, Ph.D., found that short-term antibiotic treatment significantly reduced neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration following traumatic brain injury (TBI) by altering the gut microbiome in animal models.

Some single-celled organisms are known to transition to multicellularity during their lifetimes, usually either by cloning themselves or when many similar cells come together to form a larger multicellular organism. A new study published in Nature suggests that a combination of the two routes may be more common than previously thought—even in organisms distantly related to animals.

A team from the University of Stuttgart, together with international researchers, has succeeded in enhancing both the efficiency and environmental resilience of perovskite solar cells. This is another important step toward the application of a technology that holds great promise for photovoltaics. The research is published in the journal Nature Energy.

Scientists have developed a new way to help understand what happens in the body when people consume a plant product and the many chemicals it contains. The Journal of Natural Products published the method to quickly analyze the effects of a natural product, developed at Emory University.

Should you ever find yourself playing a trivia game on the topic of moths and butterflies, here are a few facts that might help. Collectively called Lepidoptera, moths and butterflies account for nearly 10% of all animal species.

Researchers from the University of Sydney and the Centenary Institute have discovered how a promising class of experimental antibiotics disrupts the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB), paving the way for urgently needed new treatments.

A 22-meter robot arm will help remove a third sample of radioactive debris from inside Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator said Thursday, as it unveiled the snake-like device.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology is transforming medicine by providing our cells with genetic instructions to produce proteins that help the immune system prevent or fight a wide range of diseases, including cancer and other rare disorders. Before the molecule can help fight disease, mRNA is packaged into lipid nanoparticles to protect it from rapid degradation. These fatty, protective bubbles act as a delivery vehicle, ensuring the mRNA properly enters the cell to deliver instructions for protein production.

In the search for climate-friendly foods, scientists have spent decades reimagining what grows in the field. But a quieter question has lingered in the background: Will anyone actually want to eat it? A new study in the journal Agricultural Economics has applied this question to intermediate wheatgrass, finding that consumers will pay more for the perennial grain if the sustainability benefits are clearly explained—as long as it tastes good, too.

RIKEN researchers have discovered how an enzyme modifies gene expression by targeting certain stretches of messenger RNA (mRNA) while leaving others alone. This finding could contribute to the rational design of drugs that tweak the enzyme's activity. The paper is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Thanks to Fink, a software package created by two CNRS engineers, it is now possible to track millions of transient celestial phenomena observed in the sky by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, in real time and with unprecedented precision. Minutes after each image is taken, Fink receives, processes, enriches, and cross-references the data with existing datasets. This allows even the faintest variations in detected light to be characterized with remarkable accuracy. The data is then stored, classified, and shared with users—scientists and astronomy enthusiasts—in a concise and targeted manner.

The gilthead seabream, a species of commercial interest that migrates seasonally, does not form independent local populations in the northwestern Mediterranean but instead constitutes a single, functionally connected population on a large scale. Individuals spend the summer feeding in the coastal lagoons of the Gulf of Lion and, every autumn, undertake reproductive migrations of hundreds of kilometers to shared spawning grounds in the open sea, mainly in the Marseille region, but also in areas of the Catalan coast. They repeat this pattern year after year.

In the search for more, new and cleaner sources of energy, a largely untapped resource is emerging: natural hydrogen.

Training police officers with a virtual-reality game can significantly improve their ability to regulate stress, even in realistic, high-pressure situations. The VR game, developed at the Donders Institute at Radboud University, has already been integrated into several police training programs.

Reasoning large language models (LLMs) are designed to solve complex problems by breaking them down into a series of smaller steps. These powerful models are particularly good at challenging tasks like advanced programming and multistep planning. But developing reasoning models demands an enormous amount of computation and energy due to inefficiencies in the training process. While a few of the high-power processors continuously work through complicated queries, others in the group sit idle.

Adelaide University researchers have initiated the development of a world-first cybersecurity system designed to protect drones from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. The new study led by the Industrial AI Research Center and published in the journal Computers & Industrial Engineering, paves the way for safer and more resilient unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that are less vulnerable to hacking, signal disruption and malicious software.

A battery's positive end (cathode) and negative end (anode) are two vital components that largely define how well it can perform. In particular, researchers have focused on improving the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of cathode design, since they can account for a significant amount of the costs for producing lithium batteries.

Africa's freight corridors, long dominated by diesel trucks and constrained by unreliable power grids, are emerging as a new frontier in the global shift toward clean logistics, with solar-powered charging hubs designed specifically for heavy-duty electric trucks.

As solar energy is rapidly becoming the world's largest renewable power source, new research from McGill University offers a clearer picture of how much land that growth could require and how smarter choices could mitigate solar energy's land footprint. "Solar photovoltaics are poised to become the largest renewable energy source globally by 2029, but both data and methods are lacking to understand the consequences of large-scale growth to land," said Sarah Marie Jordaan, Associate Professor in McGill's Department of Civil Engineering jointly appointed at the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design (TISED) and the Department of Civil Engineering, and Director of the Energy Technology and Policy Assessment (ETAPA) research group.

The Care Bears taught a generation of kids that sharing is caring, but not everyone has carried this principle into adulthood. Researchers at Michigan State University have found a new angle to promote cooperation: artificial intelligence (AI). The results of this study, titled "Promoting cooperation in the public goods game using artificial intelligent agents," are published in npj Complexity.

E pluribus unum—"out of many, one"—is not only a motto for the United States; it's a good credo for microrobots. A research collaboration between Cornell and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems has shown how a swarm of microrobots spinning on a water surface can together generate the fluidic torque needed to manipulate passive structures without any physical contact. This collective behavior was demonstrated to operate gears and move objects, with the aim of eventually performing microscale tasks and biomedical procedures.

A new glove with more than three dozen actuators across all five fingers and the palm, developed by Cornell researchers, aims to reduce swelling for people suffering from edema. The glove, known as EdemaFlex, was proven safe for unsupervised home use in a seven-participant study, with hand volume decreasing by up to 25% after one 30-minute session.

Pyrochlore oxides—a class of advanced dielectric materials—represent a promising next-generation approach to efficient energy storage. Their structural flexibility and tunable chemical composition make them prime candidates for dielectric energy storage applications.

Green hydrogen is considered to be an important part of the global climate transition, especially as a fuel and energy carrier for heavy transport and industry. However, large-scale green hydrogen production requires sustainable ways of managing water resources to avoid giving rise to water shortages and conflicts with agriculture over access. This has been shown in a unique study from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, that connects local water supply with a range of scenarios for future hydrogen needs in Europe.