The discovery of a possible “super-Earth” less than 20 light-years from our own planet is offering scientists new hope in the hunt for other worlds that could harbor life, according to an international team including researchers from Penn State. They dubbed the exoplanet, named GJ 251 c, a “super-Earth” as data suggest it is almost four times as massive as the Earth, and likely to be rocky planet.

In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the streams are telling us a story about forest recovery following acid rain and logging. According to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, long-term watershed chemistry reveals that recovering forests are mining rocks for nutrients. While this leads to improved pH in nearby streams, it further depletes soils, leaving forests less resilient to future pollution.  The study team analyzed more than 60 years of data from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, established by the US Forest Service in the 1950s for ecological and hydrologic research.

A first-of-its-kind study explored whether more accessible technologies – foot-mounted wearable sensors and a 3D depth camera – could accurately measure how people walk, offering a practical alternative to traditional gait analysis tools. Gait, or walking pattern, is a key health indicator used to detect fall risk, monitor rehabilitation and identify early signs of conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Traditional systems like the Zeno™ Walkway, the gold standard for gait analysis, are accurate but expensive, bulky and not easily used outside of lab settings.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Waters Corporation have revealed that lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) — the delivery vehicles for RNA therapies — come in a surprising range of shapes and structures. Reported in Nature Biotechnology, the study shows that these structural differences directly influence how well LNPs deliver their therapeutic cargo, offering a blueprint for tailoring nanoparticles to specific diseases. The findings open the door to a new era of precision design for RNA medicines, moving beyond today’s trial-and-error approach.

A team of UC Riverside engineering scholars have discovered why a key solid-state battery ceramic material stays remarkably cool during operation — a breakthrough that could help make the next generation of lithium batteries  deliver higher energy density while reducing overheating and fire risks.

The first analysis of recent extinctions across plants and animals finds that, contrary to previous studies, the rate at which many groups of organisms have gone extinct has declined over the last 100 years. The research also revealed that the patterns and causes of these past extinctions differed from current and future threats, making it problematic to extrapolate them into the future: While past extinctions were predominantly due to invasive species on islands, habitat destruction presents the greatest threat currently.

Researchers at the UW have created a recyclable, flexible and self-healing composite material that could replace traditional circuit boards in future generations of wearable electronics. 

A dry season can be devastating to harvests, putting both farmers' livelihoods and communities' food security at risk. Identifying the traits that make crops more drought-resistant is critical for developing hardier hybrids. Researchers at Purdue University's College of Agriculture are using cutting-edge technology and international partnerships to determine what makes certain varieties of corn more resilient than others. With Michael Mickelbart, professor of botany and horticulture, as principal investigator, the project brings together researchers from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Iowa State researchers are working with Polk County Emergency Management to develop an online, multiplayer training game to help emergency forces plan and practice their disaster responses.