EurekAlert! Staff Picks

This recent release from Michigan State University first caught my attention because of the visually appealing image of a beautiful meadow.

The release describes a study published in Ecology Letters that looks at nearly 40 years of data and offers insight into how biodiversity acts as a natural defense against climate threats.

The study reveals that coping with climate extremes is more complex than a simple "numbers game" (where the more species an ecosystem has, the better). They add that different dimensions of biodiversity can help nature survive and thrive in harsh conditions (like dry versus wet years).

They found that in extreme dry years, species-rich plots did better than those with fewer species. However, in wet years, the relative abundance of dominant species was more important.

Picking this release made me more mindful of how climate change impacts the smaller, often overlooked things in our environment. It’s a good reminder that protecting biodiversity is essential for our own long-term livelihood.

For my pick this week, I chose a release from Lund University where they describe a recent twin study published in Scientific Reports. Seeing as I am an identical twin myself, I was intrigued to hear what they had to say!

Researchers measured IQ at age 23 and socio-economic status (education, occupation and income) at age 27, and found that genetics play a big role in both. They state that "IQ is approximately 75% genetically predicted and that the correlation between IQ and socioeconomic status are mostly explained by genetics is 69-98%."

I also like how the release acknowledges limitations like how it didn't control for parents’ IQ and socio-economic status. The authors suggest that accounting for the interaction between genes and environment might shift that 75% figure by as much as 15 points. It's an interesting perspective on how genetics play a role in our success/lives in a big way that I never thought of before!

The headline for a release from University of Zurich caught my attention this week as it was something that I found relatable to the human experience: Why some people change only when enough others do.

Specifically, the study, which was published in Nature Human Behavior, shows that it is possible to measure people’s "individual thresholds" for change. In other words, they identified how much social support a person needs before they'll adopt a new behavior.

They found that the most effective way for social change (like climate action or other public health initiatives) is to understand the audience first (who is ready to change and who is not) and how influence spreads through social networks. Although the study looked at simple social scenarios, the researchers acknowledge that real-life situations involve more complex social dynamics and emphasizes that this is a "promising step toward more effective social change interventions."

It makes me wonder about my own "threshold." How much of my stance on a new issue/topic/product is truly independent, and how much of it is silently shaped by the social networks and algorithms I’m connected to?

I enjoyed reading this release from University of Barcelona because they had an engaging image of a gilthead seabream, a popular Mediterranean fish that plays a prominent role in the fishing industry and in the structure of marine ecosystems. However, information and studies on their reproductive migrations remain poorly understood.

While most of the population migrates to Marseille during breeding season, a new study recently published in Movement Ecology, has found for the first time that one-third of the fish travel in the opposite direction toward the Catalan coast.

The study looked at 222 gilthead seabream that were tracked based on an acoustic telemetry network-- using small acoustic transmitters for three years. The technology used to track the fish was impressive as they also had more than 180 underwater sensors or listening stations deployed.

Since the gilthead seabream is commercially exploited species in both France and Spain, researchers emphasis the importance to agree on fish stock management between shared countries (like they do with other fish like bluefin tuna) to ensure the species remains sustainable.

Taylor Swift + plants were not in my 2026 bingo card of headlines I'd read while processing content submissions. As mentioned in my previous picks, I love to read about stories that intersect the world of science and the arts like this one! This feature story describes an educational innovation project that shows how analyzing Taylor Swift’s music videos improves long-term understanding of plant diversity, ecosystems, and botanical adaptations among environmental sciences students at Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH), a university in Spain.

The course, a pilot program, was titled "“Restoration of Vegetation Cover” and the project integrated music videos from pop culture into a "student-centered learning approach" that helped combine complex botanical knowledge over time.

The students were satisfied with the learning approach and around 90% of the students involved found it useful for assimilating new concepts. Connecting pop culture with science education seems like a fun way for students to learn and honestly, would totally help me learn more things, too!

The project also addressed a broader social issue of "plant blindness," a term used to describe the widespread difficulty in noticing, recognizing, and valuing plants in everyday life. Not only is this project helping plants feel more "seen," but it's a creative way to connect to science and appreciate the importance of plants in our ecosystem.

While we often hear about AI being used for random "wasteful" things on social media, I found this release to be refreshing. A new study led by University of California - San Diego researchers found that AI can help predict colorectal cancer risk in ulcerative colitis patients.

The research published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology found that AI combined with biostatistical risk models can accurately predict colorectal cancer risk for people with ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

The researchers created an automated AI workflow that sifted through past medical records of 55,000 patients in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system (fun fact: The dataset is the largest of its kind in the U.S.). The new technology proved it could accurately match real‑world patient outcomes with high accuracy for more than a decade after diagnosis.

Additionally, the study demonstrates that AI models can be integrated into clinical workflows easily and help offer precise and automated risk assessments to guide the doctor/patient in the decision making process (like timing their next colonoscopy or when to consider surgery). This can also reduce the burden on care teams, which I thought was a thoughtful thing to consider. The release mentions it can also help flag patients who need to return to the clinic, which can help prevent delays in follow-up colonoscopies. This puts readers and myself at ease, knowing that a technology like this can help prevent delays and ultimately save lives.

The researchers are now looking to validate this tool beyond the VA system and incorporate genetic data. Cheers to innovative thinking and new technologies that actually help us!

This Feature Story from Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) was a cool read because it highlights how a simple classroom assignment evolved into a solution for a major national infrastructure challenge.

Two undergrad students from the Mechanical Engineering Department worked together to develop a low-cost solution for India's ageing powerlines.

The project started out as a class assignment "Find a real-world problem and build a working prototype to solve it" that led them to find infrastructure challenges in India and one of them being the powerlines. They found that roughly 30% of total grid power loss is caused by line failures, and the vast majority (80%) of those failures are due to the lines deteriorating over time.

The current line inspection methods for this are dangerous and expensive with having human workers risk their lives scaling towers and drones being costly and having limited battery life. The two students created a "wire-crawling" robot that is capable of crawling directly along high-voltage power lines. This project had lots of trial and errors but with the help of their professor, they found ways to refine the prototype they created.

The coolest part about this robot is that it is cost-efficient and significantly cheaper than using drones. Recognizing this as an innovative idea, the team received funding from Infineon Technologies India Private Limited and Hyundai Motor Group. Moving forward, the team mentions they filed a provisional patent and aims to submit a final application by 2026. Currently they are seeking industry collaboration to test the prototype in real-world scenarios and refine their business model. I'm rooting for them to succeed in this endeavor!

I enjoyed reading this release submitted by Trinity College Dublin related to a study that used brain imaging with AI models to further our understanding of what babies are thinking and how they learn in the earliest months of their life.

They mention that around 2 months, infants' minds were already representing how things looked and figuring out which category they belonged in. The research suggests that foundations of visual cognition are already in place earlier than expected.

I loved the detail about the 130 infants being "comfy on beanbags" with sound-cancelling headphones during the 15-20 minutes where they were shown bright and colorful visuals. Knowing the babies were so relaxed and comfy during the study really put me at ease. This timeframe gave the team enough time to measure brain activity.

It was fascinating to see the role AI played in this study. Researchers used AI models to characterize how the infants' brains represented various visual categories.

The researchers say this dataset capturing brain activity opens up a new way to measure what babies are thinking at a very early age. It also highlights the potential for neuroimaging and computational models to be used as a diagnostic tool in very young infants for future studies.

The release ends by highlighting an artist from the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, whose work was inspired by this research. Their artwork, along with an exhibition essay, beautifully illustrates the intersection of science and art, which I find truly fascinating!

I found this feature story from Kobe University in Japan to be a good read! The first thing that caught my attention were the images used. There are 5 engaging images related to finless porpoises and other animals as well as one photo of the researcher holding a plushy, which I thought was cute (I am also a huge plushy/toy lover so that made me happy to see!).

The story describes animal ecologist Assistant Professor Iwata Takashi, who has performed surveys in oceans across the world researching large marine animals (like whales and dolphins). He uses a method called "biologging," which essentially means a recording instrument is attached to the animals in order to collect data. More recently, he has been focused on surveying endangered finless porpoises native to nearby Osaka Bay.

The story continues in a structured Q&A format, interviewing the researcher about his current and past research and for what's next.

A fun fact I learned is that finless porpoises are quite small compared to other dolphins.

By studying top predators in the ecosystem, Takashi says we can get a better understanding of the marine ecosystem as a whole. He hopes that the data and analyses gathered through research will help form the foundation for marine conservation policies around the world.

Lastly, I thought it was cool that he shared a small anecdote when he studied whales in Thailand. The question asked was "What was a survey you performed overseas that left a particular impact on you?" and he said research on the Bryde’s whale in the Gulf of Thailand was a unique "first-of-its-kind" discovery. Generally whales are known to eat with their mouths wide open in what is called “lunge feeding" but the Bryde's whales were "treading water with their heads stuck out of the surface simply waiting for prey to jump inside." They learned that human sewage on the Gulf of Thailand has led to "hypoxic conditions" (low levels of oxygen) in the water, which pushes all the fish to the surface, so in turn "tread water feeding" is a helpful strategy for them to consume their prey.

In theme with the upcoming holidays, I came across a release posted by Oregon State University related to a study on professional Santas published in the Academy of Management Journal! The new study's findings are based on interviews and surveys of professional Santas in the United States. The researchers categorized Santas into three groups:

Prototypical: Has most of the typical physical and internal "Santa image" attributes (example: older white men with beards and round bellies).

Semi-prototypical: Has some (but not all) of the key "Santa image" attributes, and find creative ways to make up for the differences (example: a skinny Santa claiming he is getting healthy).

Non-prototypical: Has little resemblance to the traditional "Santa image" but strongly embrace the Santa identity year-round despite facing rejection (examples: a woman, an Orthodox Jew or a person of color).

The study further suggests that having a sense of calling to a role because of a personal, moral or social significance (such as teaching, nursing or faith-based jobs), may help people succeed in a role even if they don't meet typical societal requirements. They also mention encouraging leaders to be more flexible with roles in order to welcome more diverse candidates.

I really enjoyed the quotes referenced in this release and it made me happy to hear that i, too, could be a Santa, haha.

As one of the authors, Borbala Csillag, put it: "The expectations for playing the role may seem exclusive, but they are surmountable," suggesting that the findings have broader implications in that you don't have to possess the "must-haves" to live out a calling, whether it's for Santa, teaching, or nursing etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed this feature story by the University of California - Riverside that focuses on tips for eating heart-healthy during Thanksgiving. Since half of my family has high cholesterol or elevated levels, I find it important to prioritize heart-healthy eating for my family and myself (especially during the holidays when we tend to indulge in more richer foods!!).

I appreciated the Q&A style approach of the story, as it was easy to read and provided valuable insights. The timing of the story was def relevant, as Thanksgiving is just around the corner (next week!). Including information about Dr. Sadek in the first few grafs helped establish his credibility and gave me assurance to keep reading. And the engaging opening paragraph, with its descriptive words like “buttery sides” and “decadent desserts,” piqued my interest (because I love food lol!) and encouraged me to continue reading.

I’m def going to share this feature story article with my family in hopes that they can make better (more informed) choices about their Thanksgiving meals this year!

This feature story from Rice University was a interesting read because it highlights an innovative story about co-founder Barclay Jumet, who went from sewing bow ties using his mom's sewing machine to inventing "smart" fabrics. Alongside his adviser Daniel J. Preston, Barclay is co-founder of Actile Technologies, "a startup transforming everyday fabrics into smart, touch-based communication devices." The "smart" fabrics deliver haptic cues (squeezes, vibrations, heating and cooling) through lightweight, flexible materials. The "smart" garments look and feel like regular uniforms or athletic wear, but inside there are woven channels and conductive fibers that can deliver distinct sensations that can act as signals that the body can instantly recognize without requiring sight or sound.

The innovative fabric can have multiple purposes including: tactile cues for communication, warming elements for cold environments, nonelectronic cooling systems that can dissipate body heat (kind of like a phone’s or laptop’s cooling system), which can be used for athletes in pads or soldiers in body armor.

Actile's research has shown to be highly effective and they're quickly gaining major traction and funding! The startup was recently named a finalist in NATO’s DIANA accelerator program, is competing in the U.S. Army’s xTechSearch 9 program, and received grants from Rice’s One Small Step Grant and National Science Foundation I-Corps program to speed up development.

This story really captures the spirit of innovation and demonstrates their journey to apply groundbreaking technology to solve real-world problems.

I enjoyed reading this release about "DNA flowers" because the image caught my attention. The image is a visualization of a flower and it looks visually appealing (also, who doesn't like looking at pictures of pretty flowers?). These "DNA flowers" are essentially microscopic soft robots shaped like flowers that can change shape and behavior in response to their surroundings, just like living organisms do.

The inspiration of the idea came from "natural processes such as flower petals unfurling, coral pulsing, and tissues forming in living organisms" -- all beautiful descriptions of a flower. The researchers wanted to mimic these complex behaviors in artificial materials, a challenge that has long stumped scientists working at microscopic scales.

I like that the release clarifies this technology is still in early testing stages and suggests ideas like potential medical and environmental uses that could be possible with the use of these DNA flowers. And it offers a transparent and realistic view of the scientific process and the technology's evolving nature.

I found this Feature Story from the University of Illinois to be an interesting read because it describes one my fave holiday (Thanksgiving) foods: corn! More specifically the story is about a corn breeder and Ugandan doctoral student, Chris Mujjabi, who found an envelope of seeds labeled 'Kitale Synthetic' in storage room, which resonated with him as a piece of his African heritage.

A fun fact I learned while reading this story is that corn is a staple food among many African countries! The story describes his journey to create three new white corn hybrids suitable for the Central Illinois climate and hopes for it to taste like "home." He references how African corn is considered "starchy and not too sweet" in contrast with the sweet corn common in the U.S. His hopes to create a white corn hybrid that tastes like "home" was successful when he hosted a "Kasooli Party" (meaning white corn in the Luganda language), for the local African community, who preferred the new white corn hybrids in comparison to the American sweet corn.

I think this story beautifully describes Mujjabi's scientific innovation journey while blending his culture into the mix.

I found this release about a study on osteoporosis to be an interesting read last week! My mom recently got diagnosed with osteoporosis, while I have been dealing with shoulder and back pain for some time. For context, osteoporosis is a condition where bones gradually lose strength and density, making them more fragile and prone to fractures. Researchers analyzed health and genetic data from hundreds of thousands of people and found not only that osteoporosis raises the risk of rotator cuff tears (RCTs), especially in women, but that the two conditions share common genetic roots. The study suggests that managing bone health could play an important role in preventing painful shoulder injuries. I am thankful that my mom received an early diagnosis and is taking steps to prevent further bone decay. Her doctor also recommended weight-bearing exercises, so our family has embarked on a "weight exercise" journey together. I want to reduce my chances of developing osteoporosis and other issues like RCTs, and the first step is to increase my strength to maintain healthy bones!

A release by Curtin University describes how researchers helped uncover evidence of a mysterious giant asteroid impact, hidden not in a crater but in tiny pieces of glass found only in Australia. These tiny pieces of glass, known as tektites, are special due to their unusual chemical composition and their age, approximately 11 million years!!! The researchers believe that the impact responsible for creating this cosmic glass must have been huge, although the crater has yet to be found. I think these new findings pave way for more research on Earth's geological past and I am so curious to learn about this unknown crater in the future when they discover it!

When I was in elementary school, I used to love making origami with my friends so I really enjoyed this Feature Story about origami and its surprising link to engineering and geometry! Larissa Novelino, an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University, utilizes origami—a centuries-old Japanese art of paper folding—to help her design buildings, materials and machines.

To provide some context, "origami engineering" takes the geometric principles behind folding and applies them to address real-world challenges. She employs these principles to develop everything from portable emergency shelters to lightweight materials with unique mechanical properties.

Students in her classes are so surprised at how much folding a piece of paper can teach them about geometry, mechanics and design and emphasizes that this method provides an accessible and tangible way to understand concepts that often appear abstract when viewed on a computer screen. I always appreciated hands-on learning, and this one is most definitely an engaging one!

It's truly amazing and inventive to see an art form (like origami) intersecting with science in such a fascinating way! Here’s to more creativity and thinking outside the box!

I was today year's old when I learned that some rodents, including squirrels, have thumbnails instead of claws!? In this release from the Field Museum, researchers examined hundreds of rodents in museum collections to see where thumbnails crop up. They say this research could shed light on how rodents evolved into so many different species that thrive all over the world! It's so fascinating to learn random facts about animals like squirrels because we see them a lot in our daily lives..

I thought this release by the University of Michigan was quite interesting! In the ever-evolving topic of electric vehicles, this research stands out to me because it offers a practical tool for drivers who are thinking about switching to electric cars. The researchers developed a free online calculator that allows drivers to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions based on their vehicle type, driving habits, and location. This innovative tool can give us valuable insights into the environmental impact of our driving choices, which make it a useful resource for environmentally-conscious consumers like myself!

As a Bengali-American, I was interested in this release by Boston University School of Public Health because it relates to Bangladesh! Researchers developed a new evidence-based strategy that has been shown to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions in Bangladesh’s brick manufacturing industry by encouraging operational changes that emphasize practicality and profitability. I appreciated how this benefits both the workers and the environment, and loved to see how successful this study was! When I went there in 2019 (before the pandemic), I recall the city air being so thick and sticky but this study makes me hopeful to see more progress in improving air quality in South Asia.

I found this Feature Story to be a fun read! It highlights a fashion designer named Iris van Herpen, who showcased a beautiful bioluminescent dress during Paris Haute Couture Week. The dress was made using 125 million living algae (!!!) and was developed in collaboration with biodesigner Chris Bellamy and researchers from the Universiteit van Amsterdam. I find it fascinating when science intersects with cool fields such as fashion!

Being an avid coffee drinker, I really enjoyed reading this feature story by The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. It describes a new resource - a digital platform - that is helping Honduran coffee farmers, who are at risk of losing access to the European market due to a lack of tools to trace the deforestation-free status of their coffee. The new platform is tailored for small-scale producers like Honduran coffee growers, which is allowing hundreds of farmers to meet compliance requirements. I thought it was also thoughtful and impressive that the new software is made accessible at little to no cost, acknowledging the financial constraints that may be faced by these farmers.