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Medical Xpress / Why we sleep poorly in new environments: A brain circuit that keeps animals awake

You check into a hotel and toss and turn all night, but your sleep improves the following night. Scientists at Nagoya University wanted to understand why this happens. Working with mice, they have identified a group of neurons ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Neuroscience
Phys.org / Bigger is not always better: Smaller leaves optimize light use in soybeans

In efforts to better understand how soybean plants capture and use light, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign investigated how leaf size and shape affect light distribution within the crop canopy. Using ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Biology
Medical Xpress / Anticipating aging-related mental decline using saliva samples and AI

As humans age beyond early adulthood, their physical and mental functions tend to slowly worsen over time. One of the most common sources of severe mental decline in older adults are neurodegenerative diseases, conditions ...

Feb 1, 2026 in Gerontology & Geriatrics
Phys.org / Perseverance rover completes first AI-planned drive on Mars

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has completed the first drives on another world that were planned by artificial intelligence. Executed on Dec. 8 and 10, and led by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Medical Xpress / Synthetic compound targets malaria at multiple stages to prevent its transmission

Brazilian researchers have developed a synthetic compound that has the potential to treat malaria and block its transmission. The new molecule acts during three phases of the disease cycle, eliminating the asexual form of ...

Phys.org / As Rubin's survey gets underway, simulations suggest it could find about six lunar-origin asteroids per year

Most near-Earth asteroids are thought to drift in from the main asteroid belt. But a small subset may have a much closer origin: the moon. One intriguing example is 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3), an Earth quasi-satellite ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Mapping how Arctic groundwater will respond to thawing permafrost

Dalhousie researchers have revealed how Arctic aquifers—permeable layers of the ground that store and transmit water to rivers, lakes and terrestrial ecosystems—behave today and how these vital resources will change with ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Analyzing an enigmatic enzyme with potential for new antibiotic drug discovery

An analysis of an unusual enzyme could result in a new generation of antimicrobial medicines to counter antibiotic resistance. Key details in the enzyme-driven biosynthesis of a natural molecule with potent antibiotic activity ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Chemistry
Medical Xpress / Open-source HemoLens cuts pressure myography costs from $40,000 to $750

Before tissue-engineered blood vessels reach the clinic, they must withstand the mechanical stresses of the vascular system—an assessment that is essential, but often expensive. One University of Pittsburgh research team ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Biomedical technology
Phys.org / Nanotubes with lids mimic real biology

When water and ions move together through channels only a nanometer wide, they behave in unusual ways. In these tight spaces, water molecules line up in single file. This forces ions to shed some of the water molecules that ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Medical Xpress / A portable ultrasound sensor may enable earlier detection of breast cancer

For people who are at high risk of developing breast cancer, frequent screenings with ultrasound can help detect tumors early. MIT researchers have now developed a miniaturized ultrasound system that could make it easier ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Oncology & Cancer
Phys.org / Our ocean's 'natural antacids' may act faster than we thought

Earth's ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to temper the impact of climate change but increasing ocean acidity. However, calcium carbonate minerals found in the seabed act as a natural antacid: Higher ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Earth