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Analysis of national data reveals Black children are more likely to be placed out-of-home than white children, including when case characteristics are otherwise similar Researchers who examined Canadian child welfare data found that Black children were not only investigated at a higher rate than their white peers but were also more likely to be taken from their homes, even when the only difference between cases was the child's race.

Male birds flexibly coordinate syllable duration and tone when matching rival songs Vocal coordination in duels : Male nightingales rapidly adjust both the pitch and note length of their whistle songs during territorial contests, coordinating these features in real-time as they match rivals' songs.

Aran Nayebi jokes that his robot vacuum has a bigger brain than his two cats. But while the vacuum can only follow a preset path, Zoe and Shira leap, play and investigate the house with real autonomy.  "I see them flexibly play and jump around," Nayebi said. "Their brains are so much tinier than the Roomba, yet these animals have a kind of robust agency." This natural curiosity seen in animals inspired Nayebi and his Carnegie Mellon University colleagues to try to build something that can explore its environment without explicitly being told what to do.

A new observation by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), with the participation of the University of Valencia, reveals in detail the turbulent structure of the magnetic field within the jet of material accelerated from a supermassive black hole. This finding provides an unprecedented insight into the physics of supermassive black holes, considered the most powerful -enginesin the universe.

Drugs that act against bacteria are mainly assessed based on how well they inhibit bacterial growth under laboratory conditions. A critical factor, however, is whether the active substances actually kill the pathogens in the body. Researchers at the University of Basel have presented a new method for measuring how effectively antibiotics kill bacteria.

Potentially more than 90% of Alzheimer's disease cases would not occur without the contribution of a single gene (APoe), according to a new analysis led by UCL researchers. The scientists also found that close to half of all dementia cases would probably not arise without the gene's influence. The researchers say that the findings, published today in npj Dementia , highlight this gene (and the protein it produces) as a powerful yet under-recognised target for drug development, which could have the scope to prevent or treat a large proportion of all dementia.

An international group of researchers says that biodiversity conservation and scientific research are not benefiting from the vast knowledge about the world's plants held by botanic gardens, because of fragmented data systems and a lack of standardisation. The digital infrastructure needed to manage, share, and safeguard living plant diversity wasn't designed to operate at a global scale.

Researchers describe how tomato genes communicate to resist drought and improve fruit quality A study by the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), a joint centre of the University of Valencia and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), together with the Millennium Nucleus Phytolearning (Chile), has deciphered how tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) genes communicate with one another to coordinate essential processes such as fruit ripening and drought response.

A long-term study by the Center for Virology at the Medical University of Vienna shows a significant increase in cases of West Nile virus in Austria. In 2024, 37 confirmed cases were recorded, more than ever before since the virus was first detected in 2009. For the first time, northern Burgenland was particularly affected, with the virus spreading much more widely than in previous years.

A simple blood test can tell doctors when it is safe to stop antibiotics in patients recovering from sepsis, a review led by University of Manchester researchers has found. The review including 21 studies involving more than 6,000 patients who underwent blood tests for procalcitonin, a biomarker that becomes elevated during bacterial infections, is published in the journal Anaesthesia today (9/01/26).

Only a few animals in the world possess the ability to regenerate tissue, enabling them to regrow limb parts or whole limbs after amputation. In a study published in the journal PNAS , a research team from Inserm, the University of Montpellier and Montpellier University Hospital shows that laboratory-grown mouse embryos can only initiate regeneration of forelimb buds, such as the front legs, for an extremely short period: between 10.5 and 12.5 days after fertilization, when limb buds are just beginning to form.

The conservation of genome regulatory elements over long periods of evolution is not limited to vertebrates, as previously thought, but also in echinoderms (invertebrates). This is one of the most notable conclusions of a study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution , which expands our knowledge of the mechanisms governing genomic regulation and biological evolution.

Astronomy Every second, a trillion of the elusive ghost particles, the neutrinos, pass straight through your body. Now, astrophysicists from the University of Copenhagen have mapped how many ghost particles all the stars in the Milky Way send towards Earth, and where in the galaxy they originate. This new map could help us track down these mysterious particles and unlock knowledge about our Galaxy that has so far been out of reach.

Discovery: Researchers have found a new type of endosymbiotic bacteria in up to 50 percent of the wastewater treatment plants they studied that can purify wastewater and produce greenhouse gases. Microbial team: The bacteria live in ciliates and support their energy production by converting nitrate into nitrogen gas.

following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), the risk of recurrence of a major cardiovascular event (new infarction, coronary event or death) is particularly high. This is because some patients have residual or chronic inflammation for which there is currently no treatment.

Researchers from Würzburg, Braunschweig, and the US identifiy Cas12a3 nuclease showing precise activity. Their study is published in Nature. The CRISPR "gene scissors" have become an important basis for genome-editing technologies in many fields, ranging from biology and medicine to agriculture and industry.

Inspired by biological systems, materials scientists have long sought to harness self-assembly to build nanomaterials. The challenge: the process seemed random and notoriously difficult to predict. Now, researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and Brandeis University have uncovered geometric rules that act as a master control panel for self-assembling particles.

A landmark atlas shows lipids rely on specialised transporters to reach their cellular targets. In addition to providing energy, lipids are also essential building blocks of our cell membranes. However, despite their importance, they remain poorly understood. A team from the University of Geneva has revealed for the first time the secrets of their transport within cells.

A research team led by the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna has investigated a possible link between the rising number of people with chronic inflammatory bowel disease and the increasing exposure to microand nanoplastics (MNPs). The research shows that plastic particles influence the immune cells and the intestinal microbiome and can thus increase inflammation.

A new wearable technology could change how we monitor unborn babies at home. PhD researcher Yijing Zhang (Department of Electrical Engineering) has developed a comfortable, portable garment that allows pregnant women to measure their baby's heartbeat without the need for sticky, uncomfortable gel-based electrode sensors or direct skin contact.