Phosphorus, a nutrient in soil essential for sustaining most forms of life, is increasingly disappearing from land as it is washed into waterways throughout the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

Can artificial intelligence-powered tools help enrich child development and learning? That question is the crux of a series of research projects led by Zhen Bai, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Rochester and the Biggar Family Fellow in Data Science at the Goergen Institute for Data Science. From tools to help parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children learn American Sign Language (ASL) to interactive games that demystify machine learning, Bai aims to help children benefit from AI and understand how it is impacting them.

Mountain lions in greater Los Angeles are proactively shifting their activity to avoid interacting with cyclists, hikers, joggers and other recreationists, finds a UC Davis study.

Computer simulations are helping scientists and engineers improve predictions for liquefaction — a sometimes deadly earthquake effect where the soil loses its stiffness, thus toppling buildings and more. A dataset that provides key input for assessing earthquake-induced liquefaction triggering won a 2024 DesignSafe Dataset award, which recognized the dataset's diverse contributions to natural hazards research.

Researchers at New York University have devised a mathematical approach to predict the structures of crystals—a critical step in developing many medicines and electronic devices—in a matter of hours using only a laptop, a process that previously took a supercomputer weeks or months. Their novel framework is published in the journal Nature Communications.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created a headphone prototype that allows listeners to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 feet. Voices and sounds outside the bubble are quieted an average of 49 decibels, even if they’re louder than those in the bubble.

Scientists at Auburn University have made an important discovery that could improve cancer treatments. Just like a coach places players in the best spots on a football field, researchers found that carefully positioning protein molecules can make them more effective in delivering cancer therapies. By attaching these proteins at specific points on a structure that targets cancer cells, the team was able to increase the proteins' effectiveness by up to four times. This approach could lead to treatments that are stronger, more focused, and better equipped to target cancer cells directly. Auburn’s biophysicists are advancing this research to create better tools in the fight against cancer.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the University of Chicago a prestigious Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) grant to establish MOSAIC, a groundbreaking research center dedicated to revolutionizing our understanding of chemical reactions at the atomic level. MOSAIC will leverage cutting-edge electron microscopy techniques and advanced liquid cell platforms to observe chemical reactions in real-time, with the goal of driving transformative advancements in fields such as catalysis, energy storage, and materials science. This interdisciplinary center unites leading researchers from the University of Chicago, UIC, and UIUC, fostering collaboration and innovation with the potential for significant societal impact.