EurekAlert! In the Spotlight

Welcome to In the Spotlight, where each month we shine a light on something exciting, timely, or simply fascinating from the world of science.

This month, we’re focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), a topic that continues to capture attention everywhere. Here, you’ll find the latest research news, insights, and discoveries shaping how AI is being developed and used across the world.

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 5-Nov-2025 04:11 ET (5-Nov-2025 09:11 GMT/UTC)

7-May-2025

Dramatic rise in publicly downloadable deepfake image generators

University of Oxford
Meeting Announcement

New Oxford study uncovers explosion of accessible deepfake AI image generation models intended for the creation of non-consensual, sexualised images of women.

7-May-2025

Migration lawyers call for safeguards on automated handling of data

Flinders University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Around the world, artificial intelligence and Automated Decision-Making (ADM) tools are playing increasingly significant roles in handling immigration and homeland security data.

Migration experts in Australia weighing up the opportunities and risks of such technologies warn that more transparency, monitoring and regulation are required to oversee the use of these tools.

Journal: Griffith Law Review

7-May-2025

Groundbreaking device instantly detects dangerous street drugs, offering hope for harm reduction

University of Bath
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Groundbreaking device instantly detects dangerous street drugs, offering hope for harm reduction

A portable device that instantly detects illicit street drugs at very low concentrations, thereby highlighting the risks they pose, has been developed at the University of Bath in the UK. The device has the potential to address the growing global problem of people unknowingly taking drugs that have been mixed with undeclared substances, including synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and nitazenes.

Journal: Analytical Chemistry

7-May-2025

Transforming hospital sanitation: autonomous robots for wiping and UV-C disinfection

Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

POSTECH research team led by Professor Keehoon Kim develops disinfection robot combining physical wiping and UV-C sterilization.

Journal: IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine

7-May-2025

Stable lithium metal batteries enabled by Al-Li/LiF composite artificial interfacial layer

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

This research shows that 20 μm of the LAF is the most appropriate modification layer thickness.

Journal: Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering

7-May-2025

Making software safer and more reliable: a deep dive into proof scores

Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Proof scores are a promising technique in software engineering for verifying the properties of a software system. While proof scores offer the key advantage of following the same syntax as the specification language they are implemented in, they also have several disadvantages that have limited their wide acceptance. In a new study, researchers study the past, present, and future of proof scores to understand their weaknesses and future directions to overcome them.

Journal: ACM Computing Surveys

7-May-2025

Local learning, global thinking: the power of digital dialogic teaching

Higher Education Press

This study highlights how an online dialogic teaching approach in a university media literacy class fostered students’ global awareness, critical solidarity, and a sense of community when the media provided conflicting narratives of us versus them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal: Frontiers of Digital Education