Severe impact of avian flu on southern elephant seals

Elephant seals on Lagoon Island near Ryder Bay, Adelaide Island.
Photo Credit: Steve Gibbs, BAS

New research reveals 47% decline in breeding female elephant seals at sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia following a highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak. 

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have documented the severe impact of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) on southern elephant seals at South Georgia, revealing a 47% decline in breeding females between 2022 and 2024. 

The research, published today in the journal Communications Biology, shows that the world’s largest population of southern elephant seals – which accounts for over half of the global population of breeding age – has suffered unprecedented losses following the arrival of HPAI H5N1 at the remote sub-Antarctic island in late 2023. 

A system for targeted drug delivery using magnetic microrobots

Microrobots can be transported and activated in a safe and controlled manner, marking a decisive step forward in the use of these technological devices in targeted medical treatments.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of Barcelona

The study, led by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) and published in the journal Science, involves Professor Josep Puigmartí-Luis from the Faculty of Chemistry and the Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (IQTC) of the University of Barcelona. He is the only researcher from a Spanish institution to sign this paper, which is the result of the European ANGIE project, an initiative coordinated by Professor Salvador Pané (ETH) in collaboration with the Chemistry In Flow and Nanomaterials Synthesis (ChemInFlow) research group, led by Professor Puigmartí. 

The new microrobotic platform presents an innovative strategy for administering drugs in a precise and targeted manner. It is scalable and can be applied to numerous situations in which the administration of therapeutic agents is difficult to access, such as tumors, arteriovenous malformations, localized infections, or tissue injuries. 

New study finds higher hantavirus risk in drier, underdeveloped areas

A study of the long-term risk of contracting hantavirus across large geographic areas provides public health officials with information about populations most at risk for contracting hantavirus and the potential drivers of disease risk. Humans become infected with hantavirus when they inhale the airborne particles of feces and urine of disease-carrying rodents.
Photo Credit: Zoshua Colah

In a recent study of the contiguous United States, Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers found that the risk of disease from hantavirus is higher in drier, underdeveloped geographic areas with more socioeconomic vulnerability and increased numbers of unique rodent species. This is the first study to examine the combined effects of multiple variables — including socioeconomic, environmental, land use and rodent species — to determine which are most likely to predict the risk of people contracting hantavirus.

“We ran each of these variables separately — looking at where people are most at risk given just the environmental variables, just the land-use variables, etc. — and then we combined them all,” said Morgan Gorris, a scientist at Los Alamos and lead author on the study published in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. “This gave us a map of where people are most at risk of being exposed to hantavirus and contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).”

Biotechnology: In-Depth Description

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences to apply organisms, cells, parts thereof, and molecular analogues to products and services. Its primary goal is to leverage biological systems and processes to develop technologies and products that help solve problems, improve human health, enhance food production, and create more sustainable industrial and environmental processes.

Extensive dog diversity millennia before modern breeding practices

Photograph of a modern dog skull used for the photogrammetric reconstruction of 3D models in the study.
Photo Credit: C. Ameen / University of Exeter

A groundbreaking archaeological study has revealed when domestic dogs first began to show the remarkable diversity that characterizes them today. By applying cutting-edge shape analysis to hundreds of archaeological specimens spanning tens of thousands of years, researchers have traced the emergence of distinct dog forms deep into prehistory pinpointing the moment dogs began to diversify in size and shape – at least 11,000 years ago. 

These findings challenge long-standing assumptions that canine diversity is largely a recent phenomenon shaped by selective breeding which started with the Victorian Kennel Clubs. Instead, the study demonstrates that significant variation in skull shape and size among domestic dogs was already present thousands of years ago, soon after their divergence from wolves. 

Light causes atomic layers to do the twist

Fang Liu, assistant professor of chemistry in Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences
Photo Credit: Fawn Hallenbeck/Stanford University

A study led by Stanford and Cornell researchers shows how light could be used to control the behavior of moiré materials, atomically thin layers that gain unusual properties when stacked and offset. The research has implications for developing superconductivity, magnetism, and quantum electronics.

A pulse of light sets the tempo in the material. Atoms in a crystalline sheet just a few atoms thick begin to move—not randomly, but in a coordinated rhythm, twisting and untwisting in sync like dancers following a beat.

Until now, researchers hadn’t been able to directly observe how those layers physically respond to a burst of light. In a recent study, a team led by Stanford and Cornell University researchers showed that the atomic layers can briefly twist more tightly together, then spring back, like a coiled ribbon releasing its energy.

How fishes of the deep sea have evolved into different shapes

The silvery color of the hatchetfish, which lives in the water column of the deep sea, provides camouflage in dimly lit portions of the ocean.
Photo Credit: Chris Martinez

Fish species living in the deep sea feature a surprisingly large range of body shapes that evolved in different ways and at different rates depending on where the fishes live in the ocean, new research shows. 

Overall, the analysis of nearly 3,000 species showed more diversity of body types among the pelagic fishes, those that swim in open water, than among the benthic species spending their life on the ocean floor. Pelagic fish body types span from the round anglerfish to skinny eels, while benthic fishes generally share a common elongated, tapered shape. 

“We found that evolution pushes and pulls fish body shape in different directions depending on whether they’re benthic or pelagic,” said lead study author Elizabeth Santos, assistant professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at The Ohio State University. 

“We talk about the deep sea as if it is sort of all one thing, when really it is not – it is actually quite diverse,” she said. “There are very different types of environments in the deep sea that have their own different effects on evolution.” 

Rare Particle Pairs Point to Primordial Soup's Temperature at Different Stages

The STAR detector, which is as large as a house, specializes in tracking the thousands of particles produced by each ion collision at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.
Photo Credit: Kevin Coughlin/Brookhaven National Laboratory

At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientists recreate the ultra-hot conditions of the early universe by smashing particles together at nearly the speed of light. RHIC's collisions delve into mysteries about the properties of matter by melting the colliding particles into a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) — a soup of fundamental particles that are the building blocks of protons and neutrons.

A new analysis of data captured by the STAR detector at RHIC revealed the QGP’s temperature at different stages of its evolution following collisions of gold ions — the nuclei of gold atoms stripped of their electrons. These measurements are key to mapping out how nuclear matter changes as quarks and gluons in the hot soup cool and coalesce to form more ordinary nuclear particles. Studying this phase transition at RHIC is helping physicists understand what happened in the briefest moments at the beginning of the universe, the last time the QGP existed in nature.

Carbon-rich waters are becoming even more acidic as atmospheric CO2 levels rise

Orange cup corals, pictured growing on rocks above, are native to the Pacific Ocean. As they grow, corals incorporate minerals from seawater, leaving a valuable historical record in their skeletons. In this University of Washington-led study, researchers compare preindustrial corals to modern specimens to show how quickly the ocean is acidifying.
Photo Credit: Alexander Vasenin
(CC BY-SA 4.0)

The waters bordering North America could soon be inhospitable to critical marine creatures if the Northeastern Pacific Ocean continues to acidify at the current rate, a new study shows.

Earth’s oceans have become approximately 30% more acidic since the industrial revolution began more than 200 years ago. Acidification changes marine chemistry and depletes key minerals that calcifying organisms, such as corals and clams, need to build their skeletons and shells. The Northeastern Pacific is naturally more acidic than other oceans, fueling debate about how much its chemistry will change in the coming decades.

The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that high baseline acidity makes the water more sensitive to additional carbon dioxide from human activities. Analyses of coral skeletons from the past century revealed that CO2 has been accumulating in North American waters faster than in the atmosphere, driving rapid acidification.

Drones Map Loggerhead Sea Turtle Nesting Site Hotspots

Graduate student and lead author, Summer Manestar, holding the UX11 unmanned aerial vehicle that was used in the study.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of  Florida Atlantic University

Researchers from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science used drones and field surveys to study how environmental and human factors affect loggerhead sea turtle nest site selection on a high-density beach in Boca Raton. The team looked at beach slope, sand texture, and proximity to structures like dune stairs – wooden stairways that let people safely cross sand dunes without damaging them. Understanding these factors is important because where turtles nest directly affects hatchling survival and sex ratios.

The study found that successful nests were more likely on steeper parts of the beach and farther from dune stairs, while false crawls – when sea turtles come ashore but do not lay eggs – were more common in flatter areas or near stairs. These findings give researchers new tools for monitoring nesting activity and help guide efforts to protect Florida’s critical sea turtle habitats.