EurekAlert! National Science Foundation - NSF Funded Research News

NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Jan-2026 15:11 ET (23-Jan-2026 20:11 GMT/UTC)

23-Jan-2026

Wood burning in homes drives dangerous air pollution in winter

Northwestern University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Only 2% of U.S. homes rely on wood as their primary heating source, but residential wood burning accounts for 22% of fine particulate matter in winter air, a new study finds. The researchers estimate 8,600 premature deaths per year are associated with wood-burning fireplaces, furnaces and stoves. People of color burn less wood yet disproportionately experience higher exposure rates.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

23-Jan-2026

Biologists and engineers follow goopy clues to plant-wilting bacteria

University of California - Davis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Slippery, drippy goop makes Ralstonia bacteria devastating killers of plants, causing rapid wilting in tomato, potato and a wide range of other crops, according to new research. The work comes from an unusual collaboration between plant pathologists and engineers at UC Davis.

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

22-Jan-2026

Engineering a low-cost alternative catalyst for producing sustainable petrochemicals

University of Rochester
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Important everyday products—from plastics to detergents—are made through chemical reactions that mostly use precious metals such as platinum as catalysts. Newly identified methods to harness the properties of tungsten carbide could yield viable substitutes for platinum.

Journal: ACS Catalysis
Funder: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, DOE/US Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority

22-Jan-2026

Sourdough starters reveal a recipe for predicting microbial species survival

Tufts University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

People have long said that “bread is life.” Now, researchers at Tufts University are using the bubbling mixtures of flour and water known as sourdough starters to explore what shapes life at the microscopic level. Their findings, published in Ecology, demonstrate a simple way to predict how microbial species will live together, providing insights that could inform baking, food safety, and human health.

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

22-Jan-2026

Scientists illuminate ancient plant-fungus partnership at molecular level

Boyce Thompson Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For 450 million years, plants and soil fungi have been trading partners. The fungi weave through plant roots, delivering phosphorus and other soil minerals in exchange for sugars and fats produced by the plant through photosynthesis. This ancient collaboration supports roughly 80% of Earth's plant species—including corn, wheat, and other crops that feed billions of people. Now, a team from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), led by Professor Maria Harrison, has coupled two powerful tools that allow scientists to identify which proteins work together to make these partnerships function—and to verify those interactions in living plant roots, where the collaboration actually occurs.

Journal: New Phytologist
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, TRIAD Foundation

21-Jan-2026

Study provides new insight into the origin of a rare proton-rich isotope

Michigan State University Facility for Rare Isotope Beams
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have reported new experimental results addressing the origin of rare proton-rich isotopes heavier than iron, called p-nuclei. Led by Artemis Tsantiri, then-graduate student at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) and current postdoctoral fellow at the University of Regina in Canada, the study presents the first rare isotope beam measurement of proton capture on arsenic-73 to produce selenium-74, providing new constraints on how the lightest p-nucleus is formed and destroyed in the cosmos. The team published its results in Physical Review Letters (“Constraining the Synthesis of the Lightest 𝑝 Nucleus ⁷⁴Se”).

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation, National Nuclear Security Administration, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

21-Jan-2026

Positive interactions dominate among marine microbes, six-year study reveals

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that marine microbes had mostly positive interactions with one another during a six-year study. These positive interactions became even more common during times of environmental stress.

Funder: Simons Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

21-Jan-2026

Rye pollen’s cancer-fighting structure revealed for first time

Northwestern University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rye pollen slows tumor growth in animal models of cancer. Chemists determined the 3D structure of the bioactive molecules in rye pollen. With new blueprint, researchers could develop strategies for cancer treatment.

Journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Funder: NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, U.S. National Science Foundation

21-Jan-2026

New UMass Amherst-led study shows that analog hardware may solve internet of things’ speedbumps and bottlenecks

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The ubiquity of smart devices—not just phones and watches, but lights, refrigerators, doorbells and more, all constantly recording and transmitting data—is creating massive volumes of digital information that drain energy and slow data transmission speeds. With the rising use of artificial intelligence in industries ranging from healthcare and finance to transportation and manufacturing, addressing the issue is becoming more pressing.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Army Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research

21-Jan-2026

Velocity gradients key to explaining large-scale magnetic field structure

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a paper published January 21 in Nature, a team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have run complex numerical simulations of plasma flows that, while leading to turbulence, also develop structured flows due to the formation of large-scale jets.

Journal: Nature
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, DOE/US Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS)