While probing the escape reflex in the fruit fly Drosophila, researchers at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, found that the synapses of one of the participating neurons can learn – the correct technical term is "plastic". This plasticity likely leads to the synapse not being functional anymore at old age thus abolishing the escape reflex. These findings were recently published in the renowned Journal PLoS Biology.

To increase the power generated by solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), multiple cells have to be connected into a stack. Nonuniformity of cell performance is a worldwide concern in the practical application of stack, which is known to be unavoidable and caused by manufacturing and operating conditions. However, the effect of such nonuniformity on SOFCs that are connected in parallel has not been discussed in detail so far. This paper provides detailed experimental data on the current distribution within a stack with nonuniform cells in parallel connection, based on the basics of electricity and electrochemistry. Particular phenomena found in such a parallel system are the “self-discharge effect” in standby mode and the “capacity-proportional-load sharing effect” under normal operating conditions. It is believed that the experimental method and results proposed in this paper can be applied to other types of fuel cell or even other energy systems.

New University of Hawaiʻi research confirms that “Sharktober” is real, revealing a statistically significant spike in shark bite incidents in Hawaiian waters every October. The study, which analyzed 30 years of data (1995–2024), found that about 20% of all recorded bites occurred in that single month, a frequency far exceeding any other time of the year. Researchers at UH Mānoa’s Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Shark Lab published their findings in Frontiers in Marine Science.

Pistachios are a $2-billion-a-year industry in California. New UC Davis research lends insight into how the nut is "built." 

A team from the Würzburg Institute of Experimental Biomedicine I and the Rudolf Virchow Center (RVZ) has fundamentally changed our understanding of platelet biology with a study published in the prestigious journal Science. The researchers led by Bernhard Nieswandt and David Stegner demonstrate that the surface protein integrin αIIbβ3 is not only a key molecule in blood clotting, but can also act as a pro-inflammatory effector during severe disease processes such as infarction or infection. Under these conditions, αIIbβ3 switches function and becomes a structural component of a previously unknown organelle: a filamentous membrane structure termed a PITT (Platelet-derived Integrin- and Tetraspanin-rich Tether). PITTs are released by platelets, remain deposited at the inflamed vessel wall, and further drive inflammatory processes. Blocking αIIbβ3 with monoclonal antibodies reduces PITT formation.