Dwarf mongooses anticipate encounters with rival groups and adjust how they move, communicate and defend resources beforehand, according to new research from the University of Bristol.

Heatwaves are arriving sooner and becoming hotter, with the United Kingdom recording May 25 as its hottest day in May since tracking began more than a century ago, only for the record to break again the next day. While humans can turn to artificial means of cooling, such as air conditioning or swimming pools, plants are left to cope with heat and frequently co-occurring droughts on their own. Sarah M. Assmann, Waller Professor of Biology at Penn State, is working to better understand how plants respond to environmental signals — and is applying that understanding to develop crops more resilient to environmental stress.

Discovering new catalysts to power hydrogen production often involves a time-consuming trial-and-error process. Not only that, but materials scientists often have to comb through troves of scientific data and experimental data. Yet these days may be over thanks to a new AI-powered platform that enables researchers to identify new catalysts for methane pyrolysis— a promising technology for producing hydrogen with lower carbon emissions.

Nylon‑6,6 is widely used but hard to recycle, and most waste ends up in landfills. A new study in Engineering introduces an eco‑friendly way to break down nylon‑6,6 using iron‑based Lewis/Brønsted acidic deep eutectic solvents at 180 °C for 5 h. It efficiently recovers monomers with high yield, works for both new and used nylon products, and shows competitive environmental performance, offering a practical path for circular polymer recycling.

A research team led by Professor Taesung Kim of the School of Mechanical Engineering at SKKU developed an optoelectronic synaptic device that mimics the functions of human neurons and synapses at the device scale.