EurekAlert! Staff Picks

As someone who has worn glasses since the 5th grade, I was immediately intrigued by a study showing promise in improving presbyopia—age-related struggle with near vision—with something as simple as eye drops.

While my decades-long hunt for the “perfect new frames” was to manage myopia, presbyopia is a challenge most of us are likely to face eventually. The encouraging study finds eye drops developed by the late Dr Jorge Benozzi could reduce the need for reading glasses. Containing a combination of pilocarpine and diclofenac, the drops were administered two to three times a day in various concentrations and showed rapid, sustained improvements in near vision across all groups. Encouraging news for readers everywhere.

This article reports promising results from water treatment systems designed to remove toxic “forever chemicals” (PFAS). The EWG’s peer-reviewed study found that technologies such as granular activated carbon, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis significantly reduced harmful contaminants, including carcinogenic disinfection byproducts (DBPs), nitrates, and heavy metals like arsenic and uranium.

Although access to advanced treatment remains uneven—especially in smaller and rural water systems—the research demonstrates that PFAS treatment is a breakthrough for public health, offering wide-ranging benefits by removing multiple contaminants at once. Hopefully we’ll see greater investment in these technologies in the near future, ensuring all communities enjoy cleaner water, stronger protections, and healthier futures.

I’ve long been fascinated by ethnobotany and the lessons we can learn by listening to nature, making this University of Regina release of particular interest to me. Researchers from the University of Regina and First Nations University of Canada, working in collaboration with Indigenous Elders from Saskatchewan, discovered that traditional Prairie plants such as bergamot, dock, gaillardia, and dandelion show promise against MRSA, one of the world’s most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria. What makes this project stand out is not just the science, but the approach. It highlights how Indigenous knowledge and Western science can work together to address urgent health challenges, while also modeling respectful, reciprocal partnerships that honor Indigenous leadership, cultural protocols, and long-term trust—offering fresh hope in the fight against superbugs.

Having lost someone close to me, someone young and vibrant one minute and gravely ill the next day, to the sudden and devastating effects of sepsis, I read this news with particular interest. Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the University of Michigan have developed a monoclonal antibody that, in early studies, shows promise in stopping the dangerous immune response that makes sepsis so deadly. Their research, published in Nature Communications and reported in EurekAlert!, also points to potential applications in other inflammatory conditions, including acute respiratory distress syndrome and autoimmune disorders. For the millions of people worldwide affected by sepsis each year, and for families who know the pain of losing a loved one to it, this development offers hope that others may one day be spared the grief and devastation caused by this relentless condition.

As someone who has studied anthropology and has a deep interest in ancient Egypt and its hieroglyphic writing system, I was fascinated by this groundbreaking article. Sequencing the first complete genome from an individual who lived during the rise of the Old Kingdom offers an unprecedented biological perspective to complement the cultural and linguistic records of the time. It’s an exciting step forward in understanding how people moved, lived, and shaped early Egyptian civilization.