Oil residues can travel over 5,000 miles on ocean debris, study finds

Petroleum residues can survive long-distance transport by adhering to floating debris, dramatically extending how far oil pollution can travel in the marine environment.
Photo Credit: Diane Buhler, Friends of Palm Beach

When oily plastic, glass, and rubber washed ashore on Florida beaches in 2020, it appeared at first to be a local mystery. But through a collaboration that paired community observations with world-leading oceanographic and chemical expertise, scientists traced the contamination across more than 5,200 miles of ocean.

In a new study published in ACS Environmental Science & Technology, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Northeastern University, in collaboration with community scientists from Friends of Palm Beach, show that petroleum residues can survive long-distance transport by adhering to floating debris, dramatically extending how far oil pollution can travel in the marine environment.

Using advanced ocean current modeling and chemical fingerprinting developed at WHOI, the team linked the Florida debris to a massive oil spill that occurred along Brazil’s coastline in 2019.

“This study demonstrates how plastic pollution fundamentally changes the fate of oil in the ocean,” said Chris Reddy, chemical oceanographer at WHOI and a global authority on oil spill forensics. “By hitchhiking on debris, petroleum residues can persist and move far beyond what we previously believed possible.”

Sediments of the Ahr river show recurring high-magnitude flood events

The extreme summer flood of 2021 in the Ahr Valley caused catastrophic damage.   
Photo Credit: Physical Geography working group, Leipzig University

Sedimentary archives provide evidence of four extreme flood events in the last 1,500 years 

Recurring high-energy flood events are not the exception but the rule in the Ahr Valley in western Germany – and this occurs over periods of centuries to millennia. This is shown in a study published in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms and led by Leipzig University, in which researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), among others, were also involved. The examined river sediments document the extreme summer flood of 2021 as well as at least three other flood events in the past 1,500 years, which – measured by sedimentological parameters – exhibited comparable intensity. The Ahr floodplain is characterized by high-energy flood deposits. Flood events of low to moderate intensity are not detectable there. 

Cardiovascular risk score predicts multiple eye diseases

Routine heart health screening tool identifies people at higher risk for age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and other vision-threatening conditions
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated

A new study from UCLA Health shows that a cardiovascular risk score already used routinely in primary care can predict who will develop serious eye diseases years later. Researchers found that people with higher cardiovascular risk scores were significantly more likely to develop conditions including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, retinal vein occlusion, and hypertensive retinopathy. The study appears in Ophthalmology. 

Why it matters

Millions of Americans lose vision to eye diseases that often go undetected until significant damage has occurred. Early identification of at-risk individuals could enable timely screening and preventive interventions before irreversible vision loss occurs. This study demonstrates that information already collected during routine doctor visits could help identify patients who would benefit from earlier eye exams, potentially preventing blindness in high-risk individuals. The findings offer a practical way to improve eye disease prevention without requiring additional testing or specialized equipment in primary care settings.

Exposure to natural light improves metabolic health

The research team provides the first evidence of the beneficial impact of natural light on people with this condition.
Image Credit: © Loïc Metz, UNIGE AI generated

Metabolic diseases have reached epidemic proportions in our society, driven by a sedentary lifestyle coupled with circadian misalignment - a desynchrony between our intrinsic biological clocks and environmental signals. Furthermore, we spend almost 90% of our time indoors, with very limited exposure to natural daylight. To investigate the specific role of daylight in human metabolism, particularly in glycemic control, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG), Maastricht University, and the German Diabetes Center (DDZ) conducted a controlled study with thirteen volunteers with type 2 diabetes. When exposed to natural light, participants exhibited more stable blood glucose levels and an overall improvement in their metabolic profile. These results, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, provide the first evidence of the beneficial impact of natural light on people with type 2 diabetes. 

Hidden heartache of losing an animal companion

Chimmi April 09, 2010 -February 23, 2025
My best friend.
Photo Credit: Heidi-Ann Fourkiller

The emotional toll of losing a beloved pet during the COVID-19 pandemic has been revealed in an international study, revealing that grief for animals is often profound, enduring, and still widely misunderstood. 

Co-authored by Professor Damien Riggs from Flinders University and led by Professor Elizabeth Peel from Loughborough University in the UK, the research challenges the long-standing assumption that grief for animals is somehow less valid than grief for humans. 

Drawing on survey responses and interviews with 667 pet owners in the UK, the study found that the death of a pet — particularly a dog — was frequently described as heartbreaking, devastating, and in some cases, more painful than the loss of a human family member. 

Nature-inspired computers are shockingly good at math

Researchers Brad Theilman, center, and Felix Wang, behind, unpack a neuromorphic computing core at Sandia National Laboratories. While the hardware might look similar to a regular computer, the circuitry is radically different. It applies elements of neuroscience to operate more like a brain, which is extremely energy-efficient.
Photo Credit: Craig Fritz

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Neuromorphic (brain-inspired) computing systems have been proven capable of solving partial differential equations (PDEs) with high efficiency, a task previously believed to be the exclusive domain of traditional, energy-intensive supercomputers.
• Methodology: Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories developed a novel algorithm that utilizes a circuit model based on cortical networks to execute complex mathematical calculations, effectively mapping brain-like architecture to rigorous physical simulations.
• Theoretical Breakthrough: The study establishes a mathematical link between a computational neuroscience model introduced 12 years ago and the solution of PDEs, demonstrating that neuromorphic hardware can handle deterministic math, not just pattern recognition.
• Comparison: Unlike conventional supercomputers that require immense power for simulations (such as fluid dynamics or electromagnetic fields), this neuromorphic approach mimics the brain's ability to perform exascale-level computations with minimal energy consumption.
• Primary Implication: This advancement could enable the development of neuromorphic supercomputers for national security and nuclear stockpile simulations, significantly reducing the energy footprint of critical scientific modeling.
• Secondary Significance: The findings suggest that "diseases of the brain could be diseases of computation," providing a new framework for understanding neurological conditions by studying how these biological-style networks process information.

Ticking time bomb: Some farmers report as many as 70 tick encounters over a 6-month period

Some outdoor workers reported as many as 70 tick encounters over a 6-month period, according to new research led by Binghamton's Tick-borne Disease Center. Image Credit:
Photo Credit: Pablo Tapia Ossa
(CC BY-NC 4.0)

Finding one tick on your body is scary enough – tick-borne diseases are serious – but what if you found more than 10 on yourself in just one month? That’s the plight of some farmers as the threat of ticks and tick-borne diseases grows, according to new research featuring experts at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

New research led by Mandy Roome, associate director of the Tick-borne Disease Center at Binghamton University, State University of New York, reveals that farmers and outdoor workers in the Northeast are facing an escalating threat of tick-borne diseases, which could be devastating to their livelihoods.

Ticks are surging and spreading throughout the United States, causing alarm for all who fall within their path, especially those in the Northeast. Farmers, who spend a substantial amount of time outdoors, in habitats ideal for ticks, face an even greater threat.

Recovering reef fish populations could nourish millions of additional people each year

A new study led by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Assistant Professor Jessica Zamborain-Mason shows that rebuilding depleted coral reef fish populations could significantly increase sustainable food supplies for millions of people worldwide. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the work provides the first global quantification of how much food is currently being lost due to degraded reef fish stocks and how much can be regained if reefs are restored to sustainable levels.

Drawing on one of the largest coral reef datasets assembled to date, the study analyzes more than 1,200 reef sites across 23 tropical jurisdictions. The findings come at a critical moment: reef ecosystems are experiencing widespread climate-driven impacts, and if reef fisheries are overexploited, ecosystem resilience and tropical food systems are at risk.  

“Our study provides clear, quantitative evidence of how much food tropical coastal communities are losing — and could regain — through sustainably managed reef fisheries,” said Zamborain-Mason. “These insights give governments the scientific foundation needed to strengthen food security and ecosystem resilience through effective fisheries management.” 

Plant science with a twist

Images of roots studied as part of new research exploring the molecular underpinnings to how plants twist their roots.
Image Credit: Dixit Lab / Washington University in St. Louis

From morning glories spiraling up fence posts to grape vines corkscrewing through arbors, twisted growth is a problem-solving tool found throughout the plant kingdom. Roots “do the twist” all the time, skewing hard right or left to avoid rocks and other debris.

Scientists have long known that mutations in certain genes affecting microtubules in plants can cause plants to grow in a twisting manner. In most cases, these are “null mutations,” meaning the twisting is often a consequence of the absence of a particular gene.

This still left a mystery for plant scientists like Ram Dixit, the George and Charmaine Mallinckrodt Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. The absence of a gene should cause all sorts of other problems for plants and yet twisted growth is an incredibly common evolutionary adaptation.

AI model predicts disease risk while you sleep

SleepFM utilizes diverse physiological data streams, highlighting the potential to improve disease forecasting and better understand health risks.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated (Gemini)

The first artificial intelligence model of its kind can predict more than 100 health conditions from one night’s sleep.

A poor night’s sleep portends a bleary-eyed next day, but it could also hint at diseases that will strike years down the road. A new artificial intelligence model developed by Stanford Medicine researchers and their colleagues can use physiological recordings from one night’s sleep to predict a person’s risk of developing more than 100 health conditions.

Known as SleepFM, the model was trained on nearly 600,000 hours of sleep data collected from 65,000 participants. The sleep data comes from polysomnography, a comprehensive sleep assessment that uses various sensors to record brain activity, heart activity, respiratory signals, leg movements, eye movements, and more.

Young Galaxies Grow Up Fast

The 18 galaxies from the ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST survey. Each picture shows the location of ionized gas (as traced by the hydrogen alpha line, the spectral signature of hot hydrogen gas) in the galaxies. Several of the pictured galaxies are interacting, meaning two or even three galaxies are in the process of merging.
Image Credit: Andreas Faisst (Caltech) and the ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST Survey team

Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies were fervently producing new stars. The observations focused on 18 galaxies located 12.5 billion light-years away. They were imaged across a range of wavelengths from ultraviolet to radio over the past eight years by a trio of telescopes: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope; NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST); and ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in Chile, of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a partner. Data from other ground-based telescopes were also used to make measurements, such as the total mass of stars in the galaxies.

"With this sample, we are uniquely poised to study galaxy evolution during a key epoch in the universe that has been hard to image until now," says Andreas Faisst, a staff scientist at IPAC, a science and data center for astronomy at Caltech. "Thanks to these exceptional telescopes, we have spatially resolved these galaxies and can observe the stages of star formation as they were happening and their chemical properties when our universe was less than a billion years old."

A new study finds Jupiter’s moon Europa’s quiet seafloor may still hold keys for life

A “black smoker” at the Piccard hydrothermal field, 5,000 meters below the surface, on the Mid-Cayman Rise.
Photo Credit: Chris German / ROV Jason, ©WHOI, 2012

The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, but none have captured the imagination of scientists quite like Europa. Scientists suspect Europa has a salty ocean beneath its icy crust, holding twice as much water as all of Earth's oceans combined. For decades, scientists have wondered whether that ocean could harbor the right conditions for life, placing Europa near the top of the list of solar system bodies to explore.

A new study,  led by Washington University and involving Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), indicates it may lack modern-day tectonic activity at the seafloor that sheds new light on this topic. Using models that account for Europa’s size, rocky core, and Jupiter’s gravity, the team concludes that the moon likely lacks the tectonic activity, or seafloor volcanism, that gives rise to dramatic “black smoker” hot springs on Earth.

Scientists discover key to solving an 80-year-old chemistry puzzle

Scientists have discovered a new way of making specific versions of asymmetrical chemicals.
Photo Credit: Michal Jarmoluk

New research from the University of Bath and the University of St Andrews, published in Nature Chemistry, has discovered the key to unlocking an 80-year-old chemical puzzle, which could have important ramifications for fine chemical processes like those involved in the manufacture of medicines. 

Chiral molecules are asymmetric or non-superimposable on their mirror image – each side is different, existing in “right hand” and “left hand” forms. Often only one of these “handed” forms has the desired chemical or biological activity, while the other may have unwanted side effects. 

Using a combination of lab experiments and quantum chemistry calculations, researchers have now discovered a new way to control the handedness of a notoriously difficult chemical process, known as the ‘[1,2]-Wittig rearrangement’ that will impact on how scientists design selective chemical reactions. 

Study Underscores Role of Sleep in Reducing Toll of Social Adversity on Breast Cancer Survivors’ Health

Photo Credit: Ivan Oboleninov

Where someone lives can affect their health. For breast cancer survivors, their neighborhood can influence their recovery from treatment.

Researchers in UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) led a National Institutes of Health-funded study that found getting good sleep may buffer against the negative effects of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood, easing the transition from active treatment to survivorship.

Crystal Park, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, and Keith Bellizzi, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS), explored whether factors within breast cancer survivors’ control would influence recovery from treatment. Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal, Current Oncology.

Sleep has been found to enhance physical recovery and regulate inflammation, and this study is the first to show that poor sleep may exacerbate the health impact of residential hardship among breast cancer survivors.

How a persistent chemical enters our surface waters

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are not called “forever chemicals” for nothing. These fluorine-containing organic molecules are difficult to break down and are likely to remain in the environment for decades or even centuries, where they can accumulate in humans and animals and may have harmful effects on health. This is a compelling reason to take precautionary measures. 

The PFAS class of substances comprises thousands of chemical compounds. Not all of them have been thoroughly studied. The release, spread, accumulation, and effects of numerous PFAS are the subject of ongoing research. Among other things, researchers are focusing on TFA, short for trifluoroacetic acid. The smallest molecule in the PFAS family is formed as a degradation product of various other substances, such as many fluorinated refrigerants and propellants. Once formed, TFA is hardly degraded in the environment. “TFA formed in the atmosphere quickly enters precipitation, and from there it travels into surface waters and then into groundwater,” says Empa researcher Stefan Reimann from the Air Pollutants / Environmental Technology laboratory.