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NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 28-Oct-2026 11:16 ET (28-Oct-2026 15:16 GMT/UTC)

How homing pigeons keep navigation simple when winging their way home together

eLife
Peer-Reviewed Publication

When it comes to flocking together, homing pigeons use a simple strategy to find better ways home, according to a recent report. The findings open avenues for future research to investigate the evolution of the mechanisms used by homing pigeons and other social animals when deciding on the best route to travel.

Journal: eLife
Funder: Anonymous gift fund

Global rice paddy greenhouse gas emissions have doubled during the past six decades

Boston College
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Since the 1960s, greenhouse gas emissions from rice paddies have doubled to the approximate equivalent of 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, a team led by Boston College researchers reports today in the journal Nature Food. But practical changes in farming practices around the world could reduce methane emissions and support global climate targets without sacrificing food production.

Journal: Nature Food

Stressed crystal creates nanoscale patterns on chip materials at room temperature

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new chip-making technique pioneered by Rice scientists exploits a material’s crystal structure to create nanoscale patterns at room temperature directly onto hard materials used in devices, including silica.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Army Research Office, Rice University, Welch Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency

Astronomers de-fog exoplanet atmospheres with new cloud-detecting method

Johns Hopkins University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Astronomers have developed a technique that allows them to detect cloud cycles on distant exoplanets. Using data from the James Webb Sapce Telescope (JWST), the astronomers found that mornings and evenings on the gas giant WASP-94A b have extremely different weather patterns: mornings are riddled with sand clouds, while the skies are clear in the early evenings. By isolating the clouds, researchers can more accurately measure a planet’s atmosphere and provide a clearer picture of the planet’s composition. WASP-94A b, for example, has much less oxygen and carbon than astronomers perviously calculated, making its atmosphere much more like Jupiter than they had originally thought.

Journal: Science
Funder: John Templeton Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UKRI, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, EU Horizon Program

New species of massive mosasaur with serrated teeth is named T. rex

American Museum of Natural History
Peer-Reviewed Publication

There’s a new T. rex in the fossil record, only this one terrorized the ancient seas. New research uncovers a new, massive species of mosasaur, a marine reptile that lived during the age of the dinosaurs. One of the largest mosasaurs known to date—stretching up to 43 feet long—this top predator was described from 80-million-year-old fossils that were found primarily in northern Texas decades ago. It was named Tylosaurus rex, or T. rex for short, meaning “king of the tylosaurs.”

Journal: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
Funder: Dallas Paleontological Society, Society of Systematic Biologists, Richard Gilder Graduate School, Gingrich Fund, Carter Fund

Evolutionary arms race stretches hawkmoths and flowers to extremes

Florida Museum of Natural History
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Hawk moths hold the record for having the world's longest proboscis, the specialized feeding tubes insects use to drink. A new study shows how this structure evolved in hawk moths over the last 44 million years.

Journal: Royal Society Open Science

AI helps create miniprotein switches for drug targets

University of Washington School of Medicine/UW Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

G protein-coupled receptors sit in the plasma membrane, the boundary that defines the inside and outside of a living cell. They communicate with nearly every physiological process in our bodies, from the ability to see and smell, to sensing of adrenaline, insulin, nutrients and medicines. Researchers now report using AI to create tiny, computationally designed proteins to activate or block G protein-coupled receptors. The methods used in their study may form a roadmap for future efforts to create new drug candidates for metabolic, inflammatory, and neurological diseases. These approaches would try to target G protein-coupled receptors that have been largely inaccessible to conventional drug discovery.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Austrian Science Fund Erwin Schrödinger Program, BioInnovation Institute Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Novo Nordisk, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Microsoft, Audacious Project, Nordstrom Barrier Institute for Protein Design Directors Fund, The Open Philanthropy Project Universal Flu Vaccine Fund, The Open Philanthropy Project Improving Protein Design Fund, The Wu Tsai Protein Innovation Fund, Cancer Research UK, Department of the Defense and Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, U.S. Department of Defense, CureSearch for Children's Cancer, DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance, ANRF, Department of Biotechnology, Lady Tata Memorial Trust

3D-printed speaker cover can focus audio into a private ‘sound spot’

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Penn State designed a system that can manipulate sound waves so that they are only audible at a precise spot slightly wider than an inch. Despite this tiny focal point, their system can produce high-quality audio, potentially offering listeners a crisp, yet private, sound experience. The team detailed their work in a paper recently published in IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics.

WSU study finds high prevalence of hantavirus in some areas of the Pacific Northwest

Washington State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Sin Nombre virus – a hantavirus that can cause a deadly respiratory disease in humans – may be more widespread among rodent populations in parts of the Pacific Northwest than previously recognized. A recent study conducted in the Palouse region of Washington and Idaho found that nearly 30% of rodents showed evidence of past infection with the virus and about 10% were actively infected

Journal: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Funder: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Cities change storms, but the impacts depend on the storm itself

Texas A&M University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cities don’t just change the landscape, they change the weather. According to a new study analyzing tens of thousands of rain events in Texas, whether urban areas make rain worse, lighter or simply different depends strongly on the type of storm. The research, published in Nature, examines more than 40,000 warm‑season storms that passed over or near Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston between 1995 and 2017. By sorting storms into distinct categories and tracking their three‑dimensional structure using weather radar, scientists found that the four urban areas strengthen some storms while weakening others.

Journal: Nature
Funder: NASA Headquarters, National Institute of Standards and Technology

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