The vast majority of US rivers lack any protections from human activities

The Skagit River, pictured above, runs through northwestern Washington. Nearly 160 miles of the Skagit and its tributaries are protected by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers designation to preserve its scenic value and enhance recreational opportunities.
Photo Credit: University of Washington

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• A comprehensive national assessment reveals that existing regulations protect less than 20% of total U.S. river length, leaving nearly two-thirds of all rivers with no protection against human activities.
• Researchers developed a novel "river protection index" by layering local, state, and federal regulatory mechanisms onto river networks to evaluate segments based on ecological attributes such as water quality, connectivity, and biodiversity.
• Only 11% of river length in the contiguous United States receives protection deemed adequate for ecosystem health, with specific measures like the Clean Water Act covering just 2.7% of total river length.
• Conservation efforts historically prioritize high-elevation and remote public lands, resulting in significant protection gaps for low-elevation headwaters and extensive river systems in the Midwest and South.
• The study highlights the urgent necessity for shifting focus from land-based measures to watershed management programs that secure upstream headwaters, thereby ensuring downstream water quality and climate resilience.

New study shows how the cell repairs its recycling stations

Leaks in the cell's lysosomes can be life-threatening. The discovery by researchers Yaowen Wu and Dale Corkery may help to understand and prevent diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Photo Credit: Yue Li

When the cell’s recycling stations, the lysosomes, start leaking, it can become dangerous. Toxic waste risks spreading and damaging the cell. Now, researchers at Umeå University have revealed the molecular sensors that detect tiny holes in lysosomal membranes so they can be quickly repaired – a process crucial for preventing inflammation, cell death, and diseases such as Alzheimer’s. 

Lysosomes are the cell’s recycling stations, handling cellular waste and converting it into building blocks that can be reused. Lysosomal membranes are frequently exposed to stress from pathogens, proteins, and metabolic byproducts. Damage can lead to leakage of toxic contents into the cytoplasm, which in turn may cause inflammation and cell death. Until now, the mechanism by which cells detect these membrane injuries has remained unknown. 

TB harnesses part of immune defence system to cause infection

Photo Credit: Thirdman

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) Subverts Immune Defense: The bacterium exploits Dectin-1, an immune receptor typically tasked with anti-fungal defense, to facilitate its own survival and replication within host cells rather than being destroyed.
• Mechanism of Action: Research reveals that MTB produces a unique alpha-glucan molecule that specifically targets the Dectin-1 receptor, manipulating host cell responses to create a favorable environment for infection.
• Experimental Evidence: In controlled studies involving human and mouse cells, the absence of the Dectin-1 pathway allowed for better control of the infection; specifically, mice lacking this receptor were found to be significantly more resistant to MTB.
• Global Context: This discovery addresses a critical knowledge gap regarding why humans and animals are highly susceptible to TB, a disease responsible for approximately 1.5 million deaths annually.
• Future Implications: Identifying this pathway offers potential for new therapeutic interventions and preventive strategies, such as genetically modifying livestock to remove the Dectin-1 receptor and increase herd resistance.

Harnessing evolution: Evolved synthetic disordered proteins could address disease, antibiotic resistance

Yifan Dai and his team designed a method based on directed evolution to create synthetic intrinsically disordered proteins that can facilitate diverse phase behaviors in living cells. Intrinsically disordered proteins have different phase behaviors that take place at increasing or decreasing temperatures, as shown in the image above. The intrinsically disordered proteins on the left are cold responsive, and those on the right are hot responsive. The tree image in the center depicts the directed evolution process with the reversible intrinsically disordered proteins near the top. Feeding into the process from the bottom are soluble intrinsically disordered proteins.
Illustration Credit: Dai lab

The increased prevalence of antibiotic resistance could make common infections deadly again, which presents a threat to worldwide public health. Researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have developed the first directed evolution-based method capable of evolving synthetic condensates and soluble disordered proteins that could eventually reverse antibiotic resistance.

Yifan Dai, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and his team designed a method that is directed evolution-based to create synthetic intrinsically disordered proteins that can facilitate diverse phase behaviors in living cells. This allows them to build a toolbox of synthetic intrinsically disordered proteins with distinct phase behaviors and features that are responsive to temperatures in living cells, which helps them to create synthetic biomolecular condensates. In addition to reversing antibiotic resistance, the cells can regulate protein activity among cells. 

How Nutrient Availability Shapes Breast Cancer’s Spread

A microscope image of a breast cancer tumor (blue) and its surrounding microenvironment in a mouse model.
Image Credit: Joseph Szulczewski, David Inman, Kevin Eliceiri, and Patricia Keely/University of Wisconsin/National Institutes of Health

Scientists have gained new insights into how nutrient availability in different organs affects the spread, or metastasis, of breast cancer throughout the body.

In a study in mice jointly led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT, the team found that no single nutrient explains why breast cancer grows in one organ and not another. Instead, multiple nutrients and cancer cell characteristics work together to shape the spread of the disease.

The team also discovered that breast cancer cells require the nutrient purine to metastasize, regardless of their location or other nutrients available.

Local Magnetic Field Gradients Enable Critical Material Separations

A new high-throughput Mach–Zehnder interferometry imaging capability at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, developed for critical minerals and materials extraction research, enables direct spatiotemporal imaging of ion concentrations in magnetic fields and reveals sustained concentration waves and rare earth ion enrichment regions driven by magnetic field gradients.
Photo Credit: Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Rare earth elements (REEs) are crucial for energy-related applications and are expected to play an increasingly important role in emerging technologies. However, these elements have very similar chemical properties and naturally coexist as complex mixtures in both traditional and unconventional feedstocks, making their separation challenging. Researchers in the Non-Equilibrium Transport Driven Separations (NETS) initiative used standard low-cost permanent magnets to induce a magnetic field gradient in solutions containing REEs. They found that these permanent magnets create local magnetic fields strong enough to lead to regions enriched in REE ions, with concentration increases of up to three to four times the concentration of the starting solution. Directly observing magnetic field–driven ion enrichment in real time, without intrusive probes that disturb the system, has long been a challenge. The development of a new high-throughput Mach–Zehnder interferometry imaging capability has now enabled visualization of these dynamics as they unfold.

Study shows that species-diverse systems like prairies have built-in protection

The Rainfall and Diversity Experiment, where the study is based, was established at the KU Field Station in 2018. The site includes 12 constructed shelters, each with 20 plots planted with differing levels of plant species diversity and allowed different levels of precipitation. Research at the site continues.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of Kansas

Six years into a study on the effect of plant pathogens in grasslands, University of Kansas researchers have the data to show that species diversity — a hallmark of native prairies — works as a protective shield: It drives growth and sustains the health of species-diverse ecosystems over time, functioning somewhat like an immune system.

The research findings, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), have implications for management of native grassland, rangeland and agricultural lands. The results support regenerative agricultural approaches that strengthen the soil biome long-term, such as intercropping, rotation of different cover crops and encouraging a variety of native perennials (prairie strips) along field margins.

The study emphasized the interaction of changing precipitation and the loss of species diversity.

Scientists develop stronger, longer-lasting perovskite solar cells

Perovskite solar cell
Photo Credit: Xiaoming Chang

Scientists have found a way to make perovskite solar cells not only highly efficient but also remarkably stable, addressing one of the main challenges holding the technology back from widespread use. 

Perovskite has long been hailed as a game-changer for the next generation of solar power. However, advances in material design are still needed to boost the efficiency and durability of solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity. 

Led by Professor Thomas Anthopoulos from The University of Manchester, the research team achieved this by fine-tuning the molecules that coat the perovskite surfaces. They utilized specially designed small molecules, known as amidinium ligands, which act like a molecular “glue” to hold the perovskite structure together. 

This exotic form of ice just got weirder

Researchers paired ultrafast X-rays with specialized instruments to study the atomic stacking structures of superionic water – a hot, black and strangely conductive form of ice that is believed to exist in the center of giant ice planets like Neptune and Uranus.
Illustration Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Researchers hoped to clarify the boundaries between different types of superionic water – the hot, black ice believed to exist at the core of giant ice planets. Instead, they found multiple atomic stacking patterns coexisting in overlapping configurations never seen before in this phase of water. 

Superionic water – the hot, black and strangely conductive form of ice that exists in the center of distant planets – was predicted in the 1980s and first recreated in a laboratory in 2018. With each closer look, it continues to surprise researchers.

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, a team including researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory made a surprising discovery: Multiple atomic packing structures can coexist under identical conditions in superionic water.

New process for stable, long-lasting all-solid-state batteries

An innovative manufacturing process paves the way for the battery of the future: In their latest study PSI researchers demonstrate a cost-effective and efficient way to produce all-solid-state batteries with a long lifespan. The image shows a test cell used to fabricate and test the all-solid-state battery developed at PSI.
Photo Credit: © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Mahir Dzambegovic

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have achieved a breakthrough on the path to practical application of lithium metal all-solid-state batteries – the next generation of batteries that can store more energy, are safer to operate, and charge faster than conventional lithium-ion batteries. 

All-solid-state batteries are considered a promising solution for electromobility, mobile electronics, and stationary energy storage – in part because they do not require flammable liquid electrolytes and therefore are inherently safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries. 

Two key problems, however, stand in the way of market readiness: On the one hand, the formation of lithium dendrites at the anode remains a critical point. These are tiny, needle-like metal structures that can penetrate the solid electrolyte conducting lithium ions between the electrodes, propagate toward the cathode, and ultimately cause internal short circuits. On the other hand, an electrochemical instability – at the interface between the lithium metal anode and the solid electrolyte – can impair the battery’s long-term performance and reliability. 

Stem cell engineering breakthrough paves way for next-generation living drugs

UBC research associate Dr. Ross Jones in the lab where they are working to develop cell-based therapies from stem cells.
Photo Credit: Phillip Chin.

For the first time, researchers at the University of British Columbia have demonstrated how to reliably produce an important type of human immune cell—known as helper T cells—from stem cells in a controlled laboratory setting.  

The findings, published today in Cell Stem Cell, overcome a major hurdle that has limited the development, affordability and large-scale manufacturing of cell therapies. The discovery could pave the way for more accessible and effective off-the-shelf treatments for a wide range of conditions like cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and more.   

“Engineered cell therapies are transforming modern medicine,” said co-senior author Dr. Peter Zandstra, professor and director of the UBC School of Biomedical Engineering. “This study addresses one of the biggest challenges in making these lifesaving treatments accessible to more people, showing for the first time a reliable and scalable way to grow multiple immune cell types.”  

New findings on genomic regulation mechanisms throughout evolution

Studying the regulatory genomes of the bat sea star and the purple sea urchin.
Image Credit: Courtesy of University of Barcelona

The study outlines a new scenario for understanding how genome regulation and chromatin organization influence the evolution of animal body plans. “Our study opens up new paths for understanding the biological and evolutionary significance of this extreme conservation, since for the first time we can compare these very ancient regulatory elements across different lineages, a scientific breakthrough that allows us to understand what properties they share,” says Ignacio Maeso, professor at the UB’s Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics. 

How Many Ghost Particles All the Milky Way’s Stars Send Towards Earth

A map of the Milky Way based on data from ESA's Gaia telescope
Image Credit: ESA

Every second, a trillion of the elusive ghost particles, the neutrinos, pass straight through your body. Now, astrophysicists from the University of Copenhagen have mapped how many ghost particles all the stars in the Milky Way send towards Earth, and where in the galaxy they originate. This new map could help us track down these mysterious particles and unlock knowledge about our Galaxy that has so far been out of reach. 

They’re called ghost particles for a reason. They’re everywhere – trillions of them constantly stream through everything: our bodies, our planet, even the entire cosmos – without us noticing. These so-called neutrinos are elementary particles that are invisible, incredibly light, and interact only rarely with other matter. The weakness of their interactions makes neutrinos extremely difficult to detect. But when scientists do manage to capture them, they can offer extraordinary insights into the universe. 

What Causes Some People’s Gut Microbes to Produce High Alcohol Levels?

First author Cynthia Hsu examines a stool culture from a patient on an agar plate.
Photo Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences

A study of people with a rare condition known as auto-brewery syndrome has found a link between gut microbes and symptoms of intoxication, pointing to new treatment strategies.

Researchers at University of California San Diego, Mass General Brigham, and their colleagues have identified specific gut bacteria and metabolic pathways that drive alcohol production in patients with auto-brewery syndrome (ABS). The rare and often misunderstood condition causes people to experience intoxication without drinking alcohol. The study was published in Nature Microbiology on January 8, 2026.

ABS occurs when gut microbes break down carbohydrates and convert them to ethanol (the alcohol found in intoxicating beverages), which then enters the bloodstream. While the metabolism of carbohydrates can produce small amounts of alcohol in everyone, levels can be high enough to cause intoxication in people with ABS. The condition is extremely rare but likely underdiagnosed due to a lack of awareness, diagnostic challenges, and stigma.

How light reflects on leaves may help researchers identify dying forests

Trees at UNDERC
Photo Credit: Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame

Early detection of declining forest health is critical for the timely intervention and treatment of droughted and diseased flora, especially in areas prone to wildfires. Obtaining a reliable measure of whole-ecosystem health before it is too late, however, is an ongoing challenge for forest ecologists.

Traditional sampling is too labor-intensive for whole-forest surveys, while modern genomics—though capable of pinpointing active genes—is still too expensive for large-scale application. Remote sensing offers a high-resolution solution from the skies, but currently limited paradigms for data analysis mean the images obtained do not say enough, early enough.

A new study from researchers at the University of Notre Dame, published in Nature: Communications Earth & Environment, uncovers a more comprehensive picture of forest health. Funded by NASA, the research shows that spectral reflectance—a measurement obtained from satellite images—corresponds with the expression of specific genes.

Reflectance is how much light reflects off of leaf material, and at which specific wavelengths, in the visible and near-infrared range. Calculated as the ratio of reflected light to incoming light and measured using special sensors, reflectance data reveals a unique signature specific to the leaf’s composition and condition.