EurekAlert! National Science Foundation - NSF Funded Research News

NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 2-Jan-2026 23:11 ET (3-Jan-2026 04:11 GMT/UTC)

Africa acacias ‘go for broke’ to grow, use up water to survive drought

Ohio State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Young umbrella acacia trees in Africa survive severe drought by putting their natural processes into overdrive when water is in short supply, prioritizing continued growth over water conservation, new research shows. The study is the first genome-scale analysis of any African acacias and focuses on the umbrella acacia, an iconic feature of the African savanna.

Journal: The Plant Journal
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Amid renewable-energy boom, study explores options for electricity market

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Renewable energy sources like wind and solar generation now account for over 20% of electricity in the U.S. — and keep growing after large-scale production more than doubled since 2000. Still, high-profile power failures illustrate persistent challenges from the lack of available capacity to provide enough energy at times of need, said Chiara Lo Prete, an associate professor of energy economics in the John and Willie Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State.

Journal: Energy Economics
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Artificial neurons developed by USC team replicate biological function for improved computer chips

University of Southern California
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and School of Advanced Computing have developed artificial neurons that replicate the complex electrochemical behavior of biological brain cells. The innovation, documented in Nature Electronics, is a leap forward in neuromorphic computing technology. The innovation will allow for reduction in the chip size by orders of magnitude, reduce its energy consumption by orders of magnitude and could advance artificial general intelligence.

Journal: Nature Electronics
Funder: Army Research Office, Army Research Office, MURI, Center of Excellence, Air Force Research Laboratory, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation

New species of spider discovered, just in time for Halloween

University of California - Davis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

UC Davis scientists have discovered a new species of trapdoor spider in California's coastal sand dunes.

Journal: Ecology and Evolution
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Newly funded research to develop defenses against wireless inference threats

University of Oklahoma
Grant and Award Announcement

Song Fang, a researcher with the University of Oklahoma, has been awarded funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation to create training-free detection methods and novel countermeasures to protect sensitive information from emerging wireless eavesdropping techniques.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Light it up: Battery particles tell the true story of a battery's charge

Purdue University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lithium-ion batteries power our phones, cars, and even homes; ensuring their safe and efficient behavior has become incredibly important. Using a simple optical technique, Purdue University researchers have observed a battery's individual particles lighting up as they charge - enabling a more complete picture of the battery's overall health and performance.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation

Team debuts new approach to 6G wireless that offers speed, reliability and scalability

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team from the University of California San Diego and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has invented a scalable technology that enables faster and more reliable 5G and 6G wireless communication.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Meeting: International Symposium on Theory, Algorithmic Foundations, and Protocol Design for Mobile Networks and Mobile Computing (MobiHoc ’25)

Six-million-year-old ice discovered in Antarctica offers unprecedented window into a warmer Earth

Oregon State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of U.S. scientists has discovered the oldest directly dated ice and air on the planet in the Allan Hills region of East Antarctica.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

As ochre sea star ‘baby boomers’ grow up, species showing signs of recovery

Oregon State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The “baby boom” of ochre sea stars that followed a population crash a decade ago is enabling the species to recover on the Oregon Coast.

Journal: Ecosphere
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation, Kingfisher Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation

New research uncovers how bad bacteria know where to cluster and cause infection

California NanoSystems Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a species of bacteria that, when organized on a surface to form a community known as a biofilm, causes lethal infections in cystic fibrosis patients and resists treatment with antibiotics.

A UCLA-led research team has uncovered a key mechanism controlling initial biofilm formation in Pseudomonas, in which cells sense and follow sugar-based trails secreted by other bacteria to organize themselves into a colony on a surface.

This discovery could lead to treatments for deadly infections in people with cystic fibrosis and in hospitalized patients on ventilators, as well as solutions for problems in industry that are rooted in the presence of bacterial biofilms.

Journal: Nature Microbiology
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, U.S. National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Life Sciences Research Foundation

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