Every 25 minutes in the United States, a baby is diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a condition that occurs in newborns who have been exposed to opioids in the womb and develop withdrawal after birth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Historically, research has focused on the impact of NAS—also known as neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome—on the health and development of young children, which has found that prenatal opioid exposure is associated with increased risk for adverse developmental, cognitive and behavioral outcomes in early childhood. [...]
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has successfully completed the largest high-resolution 3D map of the universe ever made, a major milestone in understanding the force driving cosmic expansion. The milestone was reached when DESI's 5,000 fiber-optic sensors captured their final scheduled observations, targeting a region of sky near the Little Dipper. [...]
Over the last several decades, the oceans have become more crowded. Aquaculture, wind and wave energy, and oil and gas exploration are taking up more space. This growth threatens the health of ocean ecosystems and coastal communities' access to food and livelihoods that they have relied on for centuries. [...]
Along the stark and shimmering coastline of the Dead Sea, where desert cliffs meet one of the world's most extreme environments, a quiet drama is unfolding in the skies above. Fan-tailed ravens, intelligent, adaptable, and ever-watchful, are making life-or-death decisions every day. And according to new research, those decisions may come down to personality. [...]
Predicting material properties remains a major challenge in materials science, as it often requires complex and computationally intensive calculations. In particular, understanding how materials respond to electric fields is essential for the development of next-generation electronic devices. [...]
People often solve simple arithmetic problems, such as basic addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, in their minds. The precise mental processes they rely on to solve these problems, however, are not entirely clear. Researchers at Université de Bordeaux and UCLouvain recently tried to better understand how humans tackle simple math mentally by tracking the size of their pupils. [...]
From flash mobs to line-dancing to the Nutbush, experiencing rhythm and movement in a group context is known to boost mental and physical health in people of all ages. Now a University of the Sunshine Coast study published in Behavioral Sciences of more than 200 4-year-olds across South East Queensland has found and measured significant, specific benefits of the practice in preschool settings. [...]
Can you tell if you're working with a narcissist or a psychopath? A new study suggests that people's job choices may offer some clues, especially in fields built on leadership and persuasion such as business, politics, and law, where such darker traits are more common. Those in creative fields or nature-focused work may be more likely to encounter individuals with a Machiavellian way of thinking, according to findings published in Personality and Individual Differences. [...]
Researchers from National Taiwan University break traditional frameworks by unveiling a new symmetry-transition mechanism in ZrO2 thin films, achieving ultra-stable antiferroelectric behavior for up to 108 cycles. [...]
Poison frogs are small and brightly colored amphibians that originate from Central and South America. As suggested by their name, these frogs can release highly toxic chemicals from their skin, which deter and neutralize predators. [...]
Nicholas J. Marantz, associate professor of urban planning and public policy at UC Irvine, is investigating how effectively current data sources track changes in residential housing stock. His aim is to understand how policy changes, such as new zoning laws and broader housing market forces, influence the availability and creation of homes, particularly affordable homes. [...]
Superconductivity is a state of matter characterized by an electrical resistance of zero, typically at very low temperatures. Past studies have found that in various materials, this unique state is accompanied by unusual electron arrangements. [...]
Engineers love a good practical challenge, especially when it comes to spaceflight. But there's one particular challenge facing the crewed missions of the near future that scares mission planners above almost all others—fire. For decades, we've relied on a NASA test known as NASA-STD-6001B to screen material flammability for flight. But space is much more complicated than an Earth-bound test provides for. A new paper from researchers at NASA's Glenn Research Center and Johnson Space Center and Case Western Reserve University details a planned mission to test the flammability of materials on the moon's surface—where they expect flame to act much differently than it does here on Earth. [...]
A new study published in Nature Communications has shown that in the asymptotic limit, extracting the maximum possible work from many copies of a quantum system does not require knowing exactly what state that system is in. [...]
Microfiber pollution from large-scale laundry operations is emerging as a significant and largely unseen environmental issue. New research led by the University of Portsmouth is using Cleaner Seas Group's industrial filtration technology—already deployed in commercial settings to better understand the scale of the problem and how it can be prevented before it reaches our waterways. [...]
This week in science news: Researchers are calling to exploit sewage waste and manure to break U.S. synthetic fertilizer dependence. Wasps have begun disrupting the 10-million-year mutualism of ants and plants. And scientists have taken a step toward using CRISPR to silence the extra chromosome in Down syndrome. [...]
A joint research team led by Professor Park Kyoung-Duck and Associate Director Suh Yung Doug of the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has succeeded in realizing a high-efficiency quantum light source that emits bright lights even at room temperature. The study is published in the journal Science Advances. [...]
Sexual misconduct—including sexual harassment, stalking, intimate partner violence and sexual assault—is a common problem on U.S. college campuses. [...]
A collaborative research group has developed a fully automated roll-to-roll manufacturing platform capable of producing large-area visible metalenses at a rate of 300 units per second, marking a major breakthrough in translating metasurface technology from the laboratory to real-world industrial deployment. [...]
Researchers have found that a group of chemicals known as PFAS can be transferred from mother dolphins to their nursing calves, adding to the evidence that these persistent contaminants can be transferred from mothers to offspring during early development. [...]
In subduction zones, the sites of the world's largest earthquakes, tectonic activity may generate a "pump" that transports long-buried subseafloor microbes back toward the seafloor, according to research presented at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting. [...]
Nitrogen (N) fertilizer supports global agriculture, but its use and overuse drive emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent and long-lived trace gas. Incomplete understanding of N2O flux drivers makes it difficult to make spatiotemporal emissions predictions and evaluate management strategies for emissions reductions. N2O experts evaluated current sources of uncertainty and propose an initiative for accelerating advances in N2O measurement, analysis, and mitigation. [...]
Thawing permafrost buried underneath rivers may be accelerating permafrost degradation faster than previously estimated in these inundated regions, according to new research shared at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting. [...]
Placed within a borehole drilled deep through the layers of a landslide, a fiber optic cable captured tiny, periodic stick-slip events that offer a unique glimpse at the complex movements within the landslide's shear zone. [...]
Burning time for North American wildfires is going into overtime. Flames are lasting later into the night and starting earlier in the morning because human-caused climate change is extending the hotter and drier conditions that feed fires, a new study found. [...]
Canadians swallow millions of pills every day to treat common health issues like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type II diabetes, but scientists are working at the molecular level to turn patients' cells into pharmacies. [...]
Urban parks are often seen as natural refuges from summer heat, but new Concordia research shows that, depending on the time of day, the way trees are arranged within parks can influence whether those spaces cool people down or trap heat. [...]
In recent years, many observers have noted parallels between the current international environment and the 1930s, including rising geopolitical tensions, political polarization, trade conflicts, and regional wars. This raised a broader question: How do changes in the international environment reshape domestic political landscapes? [...]
Rising stream temperatures may be weakening the foundation of river food webs by altering how carbon moves through these watery ecosystems. In a new study published in the journal Ecosphere, researchers from Northern Arizona University found that when water temperatures increase, microbes and aquatic insects process fallen leaves, twigs, and bark more rapidly, but a smaller fraction of that leaf litter supports their growth and a bigger fraction is released into the water and air as carbon dioxide. [...]
Whether social media connects us or leaves us feeling isolated depends on how we use it, according to new research from The University of Manchester. A major review of global evidence has found that online interactions can either reduce or increase loneliness, which challenges simple assumptions about screen time and well-being. [...]