ATLANTA, March 22, 2026 — Hawaii has a plastic problem. The island state faces economic and logistical challenges in recycling plastic waste, including marine debris that lingers in its ocean waters. Researchers in Hawaii are pioneering a method to recycle the islands’ derelict fishing nets and residential plastic trash into asphalt roads. Early demonstrations show that these recycled materials may provide a viable end-of-life fate for the region’s garbage. Jeremy Axworthy, a researcher at the Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR) at Hawaiʻi Pacific University, will present the team’s results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society ...

A major UK-led clinical trial has found that a treatment commonly used to help premature babies breathe offers no benefit for infants on life support with severe bronchiolitis — a seasonal viral illness that hospitalises thousands of babies each year. Funded by a partnership between the UK’s UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and by Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA, Italy, the Bronchiolitis Endotracheal Surfactant Study (BESS) trial is the largest-ever randomised study of surfactant for bronchiolitis. The results are published today (21 March 2026) in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Bronchiolitis occurs when ...

Embargo 21 March – 17:40 CET  Key take-aways   Predicting which patients suffer brain injury after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is challenging.   The current standard of measuring neuron-specific enolase during hospital admission was compared with testing of a novel marker, neurofilament light chain, for predicting long-term cognitive impairment.   Levels of neurofilament light chain but not neuron-specific enolase were associated with long-term cognitive dysfunction.  A ...

University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies scholars Patricia Akojie, Ph.D., Marlene Blake, Ph.D., and Louise Underdahl, Ph.D. have published new research exploring how generative artificial intelligence tools (GenAI) are being used in academic environments. Their article, “Academic Applications of Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools: A Scoping Review,” appears in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Digital Society. The study analyzes current scholarly literature on the academic applications of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, focusing on their role in doctoral research, academic writing, literature review ...

A systematic review of nine randomized controlled trials finds that indocyanine green fluorescence angiography reduces anastomotic leaks by 40% in colorectal surgery. The complication, which can cause sepsis and death, affects up to one in four patients after bowel operations.

For over two centuries, textbooks have described Harold's exhausting forced march from Yorkshire to Hastings before the Norman Conquest. New research from the University of East Anglia shows this never happened. Harold kept his fleet and moved his army by sea.

Physicists have directly visualized compact molecular orbitals in the kagome metal Ni3In, confirming a theory linking flat electronic bands to quantum critical behavior. The work, published in Nature Physics, could inform the search for high-temperature superconductors.

In a trial spanning 77 hospitals and over 21,000 patients, an AI clinical decision support system that analyzes brain scans and recommends treatments reduced new vascular events by 27% at one year compared with standard care. Published in The BMJ.

A Tufts University team built a hybrid AI system that merges pattern recognition with symbolic logic. In robot block-stacking tests, it hit 95% accuracy versus 34% for standard models, trained in 34 minutes instead of a day and a half, and consumed a fraction of the energy.

Among youth transitioning out of foster care, those who reported adequate emotional support had significantly lower odds of incarceration, according to research in Social Work Research -- suggesting that who listens matters more than how many people are around.

When 600 participants were randomly sorted into arbitrary teams, they judged pro-team statements as more credible -- not because of what they knew, but because of what they wanted to believe, according to a study in Psychological Science.

A new biochar-carbon nanotube-iron carbide composite achieved over 90% removal of enrofloxacin and amoxicillin from water under low-frequency ultrasound, outperforming conventional materials by 15-fold while using substantially less energy.

With 45% of flowering plants at risk of extinction and the fragrance market heading toward $100 billion by 2034, researchers argue in BioScience that the industry must move past sustainability branding and directly finance plant conservation.

Micro-nanoscale bone char made from discarded pork bones reduced cadmium accumulation in polished rice grains by up to 68% while increasing yields by nearly 50% in a 140-day greenhouse trial, offering a low-cost circular approach to contaminated farmland.

Researchers created a calcium-modified biochar from corn straw and eggshells that adsorbs up to 290 mg of phosphorus per gram. The study maps how molecular structure determines whether phosphorus binds through chemical precipitation or hydrogen bonding, offering a path to precision nutrient management.

Using Sentinel-1 radar satellites, researchers tracked melt patterns across nearly all of Alaska's glaciers from 2016 to 2024. Each 1 degree Celsius rise in summer temperature added three weeks of melt. A 2019 heat wave drove snowlines 350 feet higher than normal, two months ahead of schedule.

A 27-year analysis of Arctic landfast ice shows the Chukchi Sea's ice season has shortened by 57 days and the Beaufort's by 39 days, driven primarily by warmer oceans delaying fall freeze-up. The loss threatens hunting access, coastal protection, and industrial ice roads.

Rice University sociologist Corey Abramson earned a fellowship at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences to complete a book combining 20 years of clinical fieldwork with computational methods, tracing how social inequality becomes embedded in physical health.

Researchers coined the term "conflict entrepreneur" for legislators who routinely attack colleagues' character. These members dominate cable news yet show no gains in fundraising, votes, or legislation — suggesting media celebrity, not policy power, is the real incentive.

Adolescents who replaced just 30 minutes of daily sedentary time with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity showed nearly 15% lower insulin resistance in late adolescence, according to an analysis of Project Viva data presented at the AHA's EPI|Lifestyle 2026 meeting. Replacing that time with sleep yielded a 5% reduction.

Florida Atlantic University researchers found that the protein Rhes partners with the bicarbonate transporter SLC4A7 to build tunneling nanotubes between neurons. These tubes carry toxic mutant huntingtin protein from cell to cell. In mouse models, knocking out SLC4A7 dramatically reduced that transfer in the striatum.

When you pull a polymer sheet with T-shaped cuts, all the slits pop open simultaneously. Magnetize the same sheet, and the rows open one at a time in a repeatable sequence. Pairing two magnetized sheets back-to-back forces an ordered top-to-bottom opening 90% of the time — and absorbs 30% more kinetic energy.

A Cambridge-led team engineered a hafnium oxide thin film that switches resistance at an internal p-n junction rather than through filament formation. The result: switching currents roughly a million times lower than conventional oxide memristors, with hundreds of stable conductance levels for neuromorphic computing.

A new hydrogel wound dressing developed at Brown University stays inert until harmful bacteria show up. When it detects beta-lactamase enzymes from infectious microbes, it degrades and releases trapped antibiotics, clearing infections in mice with a single application while sparing healthy skin flora.