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Feature Stories

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jul-2025 06:11 ET (21-Jul-2025 10:11 GMT/UTC)

Security scheme could protect sensitive data during cloud computation

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A theoretical encryption technique could enable anyone to perform computations on encrypted messages without learning anything about the underlying sensitive data. The method, developed at MIT, could prove to be efficient enough to implement in real-world scenarios.

Funder: Apple, Capital One, Facebook, Google, Mozilla, NASDAQ, MIT’s FinTech@CSAIL Initiative, U.S. National Science Foundation, Simons Investigator Award

World’s first crowd-sourced neuroscience study aims to understand how our brains predict the future

Allen Institute

Predictive processing is critical for survival but little is known about how our brains attempt to predict future events based on sensory stimuli and past experience. In a first-of-its-kind study, a global team of scientists has crowd sourced and designed experiments that will probe the mechanisms of how brains anticipate events in their environment. The experiments begin today at the Allen Institute in Seattle, Washington using the cutting-edge OpenScope platform.

Global comparative study on ocean alkalinity enhancement begins in Kiel

Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)

13.03.2025/Kiel. How do plankton communities respond to increased alkalinity in different oceanic regions? This question is at the heart of the international research project "Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement Pelagic Impact Intercomparison Project" (OAEPIIP). As part of this globally coordinated comparative study, standardized experiments are being conducted at 19 locations worldwide – including at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. In Germany, researchers are using water from the Boknis Eck time-series station (Eckernförde Bay, south-western Baltic Sea), which was collected on Friday.

Developing disaster education to protect children’s lives

Kobe University

Professor SAKURAI Aiko of the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies has a unique background, pursuing a career in international cooperation before expanding her research to include disaster education. While keeping a focus on teachers and the classroom, she has been exploring the development of disaster education where schools can protect children’s lives, and has been involved in implementing and supporting efforts in the field. We asked her about how disaster education has changed after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the Great East Japan Earthquake, and how she hopes to spread the initiatives to the world.

Disruptive behavior in video game communities: Q&A with USC’s Dmitri Williams

University of Southern California

Some people take part in multiplayer games to enjoy the community generated by in-game experiences, but other players exhibit antisocial behavior.

Summit Supercomputer Draws Molecular Blueprint for Repairing Damaged DNA

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Researchers at Georgia State University used the Summit supercomputer to study an elaborate molecular pathway called nucleotide excision repair, or NER. They built a computer model of a critical NER component called the pre-incision complex, or PInC, which plays a key role in regulating DNA repair processes in the latter stages of the NER pathway. Decoding NER’s sophisticated sequence of events and the role of PInC in the pathway could provide key insights into developing novel treatments and preventing conditions that lead to premature aging and certain types of cancer.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Advanced Scientific Computing Research

NASA's record-shattering, theory-breaking MMS mission turns 10

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Since its launch on March 12, 2015, NASA’s MMS, or Magnetospheric Multiscale, mission has been rewriting our understanding of magnetic reconnection, a key physical process that is important across the universe, from black holes to the Sun to Earth's protective magnetic field.

Studying the health effects of meditation – tools for cancer treatment and early detection

University of Oulu, Finland

The University of Oulu, Finland, is participating in an international research project investigating the health effects of meditation. The study focuses particularly on extracellular vesicles produced by the brain, which transmit information between cells and may play a key role in the connection between mind and body. The goal is to develop new tools for health monitoring.

Research: early-onset kidney disease up nearly 30% in three decades

The global age-specific incidence rate for early-onset chronic kidney disease (CKD) has increased by approximately 28.64% from 1990 to 2019, and it is projected to become the 5th leading cause of early death by 2040. Advancements in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) genetic testing offer new hope for early detection, personalized treatment, and preventative intervention.

UCF among top 20 US public universities granted US utility patents in 2024

University of Central Florida

UCF ranks No. 51 overall in the world and No. 20 among U.S. public universities in a National Academy of Inventors (NAI) list announced March 11.

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