As the world focuses on repairing damaged ecosystems, especially with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and new EU Nature Restoration law in place, a new study sounds a clear message: when it comes to restoring nature, one size doesn’t fit all. A team of scientists, led by the University of Göttingen and Freie Universität Berlin, found that even ecosystems that look similar on the surface can respond very differently to the same restoration methods. If we want to bring back nature in a way that helps absorb carbon, keep water in the ground, and recycle nutrients, policy makers need to think locally. The findings were published in the journal Ecography.

Bioengineering researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a soft, thin, stretchable bioelectronic device that can be implanted into a tadpole embryo’s neural plate, the early-stage, flat structure that folds to become the 3D brain and spinal cord.

Over the past decade, the fast-growing seaweed Caulerpa prolifera has taken over seagrass in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. While this seaweed provides some habitat, it supports fewer marine species than the original seagrass, signaling a decline in biodiversity. Now, scientists are closely monitoring an unexpected player: small, green sap-sucking sea slugs that feed on C. prolifera and have surged in number. Their presence is prompting new questions about habitat loss, potential pathways for ecosystem recovery, and the uncertain future of marine life in a seagrass-depleted environment.

Exercise can have a positive impact on various aspects of human health. However, we have a limited understanding of the changes that exercise can induce at a molecular level. This is mainly due to the fact that earlier studies have typically involved invasive procedures like muscle biopsies. Now, researchers have introduced two emerging fields–resistomics and enduromics–that use “omics” technologies to change our understanding of exercise-induced alterations in the body. 

β-1,2-glucans are rare bacterial carbohydrates involved in key biological processes, but their structural complexity has limited research progress. Now, a study led by researchers from Japan reports the discovery of new enzyme families that break down these molecules and proposes a new enzyme group called the “SGL clan.” These findings shed light on the molecular evolution of carbohydrate-degrading enzymes and open doors to engineering synthetic enzymes for producing novel carbohydrates.