Pesticides are causing overwhelming negative effects on hundreds of species of microbes, fungi, plants, insects, fish, birds and mammals that they are not intended to harm – and globally their use is a major contributor to the biodiversity crisis.

That is the finding of the first study assessing the impacts of pesticides across all types of species in land and water habitats, carried out by an international research team that included the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and the University of Sussex.

When analyzing odorants in food or their raw materials, the formation of artifacts can significantly distort the results. In a new comparative study, two researchers from the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich have shown that the injection method in gas chromatographic odorant analysis has a decisive influence on the formation of artifacts. On-column injection proved to be the gold standard, while solvent-free methods performed significantly worse.

The National University of Singapore’s Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials (NUS I-FIM) is organising AI4X 2025 for leading researchers, innovators, and industry experts to explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is driving breakthroughs across Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Climate Science, Materials Science, Mathematics, Finance, and more. The conference, which will be held in Singapore on 8 – 11 July 2025, aims to bolster and refine the use of AI research in Natural Sciences, technology and beyond, thereby accelerating scientific discovery and translational potential on all fronts.

An interdisciplinary team of physicists and biomedical engineers unlocked new properties in capillary waves thanks to superhydrophobicity.

DNA hydrogels are biocompatible drug delivery systems for targeted therapeutic interventions. Conventional DNA hydrogels, formed with many DNA nanostructure units, lead to increased preparation costs and design complexities. To address this, researchers from Japan constructed a Takumi-shaped DNA nanostructure with minimal DNA units and optimized its structure for improved in vivo retention abilities and sustained drug release. This study presents a promising DNA-based drug delivery system, which can potentially improve patient outcomes.

A research team from Osaka University and Diponegoro University, Indonesia has developed two new autonomous navigation systems for cyborg insects to better navigate unknown, complex environments. The algorithms utilized only simple circuits that leveraged natural insect behaviors, like wall-following and climbing, to navigate challenging terrain, such as sandy, rock-strewn surfaces. For all difficulties of terrain tested, the cyborg insects were able to reach their target destination, demonstrating the potential of cyborg insects for surveillance, disaster-site exploration, and more.

The researchers applied microdroplets of acidic solution onto small aluminum surfaces and applied an electric current, transforming the metal into glass-like transparent aluminum oxide (TAlOx).