A massive, multi-year scientific expedition determined that land use on tropical islands can shape water quality in lagoons and that rainfall can be an important mediator for connections between land and lagoon waters. The scale of this research is sigificant: the researchers assessed at algal tissue nutrients, water chemistry, and microbial communities at nearly 200 sites around the island of Mo‘orea, French Polynesia, and repeated this sampling over multiple years.

Florida State University oceanographers have discovered a significant connection between small-scale microbial processes and ecosystem-wide dynamics, offering new insights into the mechanisms driving marine carbon storage.

In an effort to reveal the inner workings of a protein that serves as a cell’s damage detection system, scientists at Johns Hopkins and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) have published what is believed to be the first 3D details of the ZAK protein’s structure. 

Lehigh University researcher Hannah Dailey is leading a new international collaboration to improve predictions of how bone fractures heal. Supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation, the four-year project partners with the AO Research Institute Davos (ARI) to develop computational models that combine mechanical factors—such as implant stiffness and loading patterns—with biological processes that vary from patient to patient. Using ARI’s extensive imaging library documenting fracture healing in sheep, the team will build probabilistic models capable of forecasting how recovery will progress. The models will ultimately be integrated into ARI’s online training platform to help surgeons understand how implant choices and rehabilitation strategies influence healing. Long term, the goal is to enable patient-specific simulations that help clinicians identify complications earlier and make more informed treatment decisions.

A new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison provides the first empirical evidence connecting the chromosomal location of genes to natural selection, indicating the arrangement of genes can influence how quickly populations can adapt to rapid environmental change.

A new study by Rice engineers shows that lab-grown diamond coatings could help diminish mineral scaling in industrial piping, providing an alternative to chemical additives and mechanical cleaning, both of which offer only temporary relief and carry environmental or operational downsides.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati found that monk parakeets introduced to new birds will “test the waters” with potential friends to avoid increasingly dangerous close encounters that could lead to injury.

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, occur worldwide in many varieties, including in single-cell form and in chains called filaments. While these tiny life forms can strongly influence many ecosystems, the details of their behavior have mostly been studied in laboratory settings, under constant illumination. But now, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory  (MBL) have shown that filamentous cyanobacteria are strongly regulated by the day-night cycle they experience in their natural environment. Their study was published this week in mBio.

Mississippi State biologist Matthew W. Brown is part of an international research team whose groundbreaking discovery unearthed a new organism and phylum, reshaping the tree of life. The research was featured Nov. 19 in Nature.