Researchers at Tulane University, Stanford University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have discovered an antibody system never before documented in mammals. Vesper bats, a family encompassing more than 500 species, possess two distinct sets of antibody-producing genes, while every other known mammal has only one. Published in Science Advances, the findings reveal a previously unknown source of immune diversity that could help scientists investigate how bats coexist with viruses without becoming seriously ill.

Thousands of peer-reviewed papers on battery devices are published each year, yet the data contained are often reported in different formats and with varying levels of detail and accessibility. Now, a research team led by Maryland Engineering has announced an open-access database that tackles this persistent challenge in battery science.

International research team shows how hydrogen affects Nickel-base superalloys at elevated temperatures. Latest results published in journal Nature Materials

A research team has developed BloomNet, an interpretable deep-learning framework that forecasts harmful algal blooms at hourly resolution up to 72 hours ahead while also showing how risk changes over time. 

Plantations of native fine-flavour cacao in countries like Peru have become rare due to the dominance of high-yielding cacao varieties for mass production. This threatens the valuable native cacao crop’s genetic diversity. An international research team, led by the University of Göttingen and Bioversity International, studied the use of selected genotypes of the native variety “Blanco de Piura”, known by local farmers for their high productivity, for grafting fully grown cacao trees. The researchers found that grafted trees yielded 59% more than non-grafted controls after three years. They also quantified the contribution of management practices, as well as plantation designs using either one or multiple clones of the native cacao variety. Results were published in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development.

Scientists created an AI system to automate behavioral studies of capuchins monkeys in the wild. The novel method provides a roadmap for the first scalable, systematic way to evaluate and monitor the cognitive abilities of wild primates.

Wireless charging is nothing new for our phones, watches, earbuds, and other tech. Now, researchers want to bring wireless power to the skies—recharging drones mid-flight by beaming a laser under their wings. 

Reporting July 29 in the Cell Press journal Matter & Light, researchers engineered a lightweight receiver based on solar cell design that captures energy from a laser beam and turns it into electricity. To keep the device cool, the researchers strategically placed it on the wings of a drone and utilized heat-blocking technology, allowing the receiver to convert more of the laser’s energy into usable power. 

Researchers at Duke University School of Medicine have developed an artificial intelligence framework that can redesign proteins on a scale previously seen only in natural evolution. The tool can create shorter, longer, and highly modified versions of proteins while preserving their structure and function.