EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 29-Jan-2026 00:11 ET (29-Jan-2026 05:11 GMT/UTC)

28-Jan-2026

Study maps the climate-related evolution of modern kangaroos and wallabies

Queensland University of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Modern kangaroos did not evolve immediately after the rainforest contracted

The kangaroo family tree has had two major expansions in the past nine million years

Only the wombats remain from the once dominant large herbivores whose extinction coincided with the rise of modern kangaroos and wallabies

Journal: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Funder: Australian Research Council

28-Jan-2026

New AI tool accelerates hearing research with unprecedented 3D views of sensory cells

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have developed a 3D, AI-based tool for viewing hearing cells. To understand hearing damage from noise and aging, and develop new treatments, scientists need detailed images of hair cells. The new VASCilia tool uses deep learning to accelerate sensory cell image processing and analysis.

Journal: PLOS Biology
Funder: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, U.S. National Science Foundation, David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Family Foundation, G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation, NIH/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Core of the Salk Institute, Waitt Foundation, NIH/National Cancer Institute, San Diego Nathan Shock Center

28-Jan-2026

How to incentivize problem solving in groups

University of Pennsylvania
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Why do some groups get smarter together while others collapse into groupthink? New research from University of Pennsylvania theoretical biologist Joshua Plotkin and collaborators show that collective intelligence doesn’t emerge by rewarding the most accurate individuals but by rewarding those who improve the group’s prediction as a whole.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Scholarship Council, Beijing Institute of Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research

28-Jan-2026

These caterpillars can hear using tiny hairs on their bodies

Binghamton University
Reports and Proceedings

No ears, no problem! The tobacco hornworm caterpillar, a common garden pest, can actually detect airborne sound via microscopic hairs on its body, according to a team of faculty and graduate students at Binghamton University, State University of New York. The research could have implications for improving microphone technology.

28-Jan-2026

Evasive butterfly mimicry reveals a supercharged biodiversity feedback loop

Florida Museum of Natural History
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have found the first known correlation between latitude and the rate of mimicry evolution in butterflies, consistent with a longstanding theory of biodiversity that can trace its origin to Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection.

Journal: Systematic Entomology
Funder: Leverhulme Trust, Darwin Initiative, Florida Museum of Natural History, National Geographic Society, U.S. National Science Foundation

28-Jan-2026

Hearing angry or happy human voices is linked to changes in dogs’ balance

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a small study, dogs experienced both stabilization and destabilization of their balance upon hearing angry or happy human voices, but angry voices were linked to the biggest destabilizing effects. Nadja Affenzeller and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 28, 2026.

Journal: PLOS One

28-Jan-2026

Microplastics are found in a third of surveyed fish off the coasts of remote Pacific Islands

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A third of fish living in the remote coastal waters of the Pacific Island Countries and Territories are contaminated with microplastics, with especially high rates in Fiji, according to an analysis publishing January 28, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Jasha Dehm at the University of the South Pacific and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS One