In a massive scientific effort, hundreds of researchers have helped to map the connections between hundreds of thousands of neurons in the mouse brain and then overlayed their firing patterns in response to visual stimuli. This breakthrough is a critical piece of foundational science to build toward understanding how our brains process visual information to reconstruct the images we see every day.

In 1962, when environmentalist and author Rachel Carson penned 'Silent Spring,' alerting the world to the dangers of the pesticide DDT, it was the reproductive threat to birds -- the bald eagle in particular -- that spurred people to action. Six decades later, researchers are taking the measure of another global environmental pollutant by drawing parallels to the crisis Carson identified. This time, the pollutant is mercury, and the sentinels are penguins living in the farthest reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula.

It's a game a lot of us played as children -- and maybe even later in life: unspooling measuring tape to see how far it would extend before bending. But to engineer, this game was an inspiration, suggesting that measuring tape could become a great material for a robotic gripper. The grippers would be a particularly good fit for agriculture applications, as their extremities are soft enough to grab fragile fruits and vegetables, researchers wrote. The devices are also low-cost and safe around humans.

In a new study, wastewater surveillance for multiple pathogens at five different sites identified local trends that were not captured in larger surveillance programs, and some sites used the data to inform efforts to prevent disease spread.

This handheld device is the first that can detect tuberculosis in saliva, in addition to blood and sputum samples, an important breakthrough for testing children and HIV patients, who struggle to produce sputum. The device was found to deliver rapid, accurate results in under an hour, offering a cost-effective and accessible solution for diagnosing TB in resource-limited areas.

A new, exploratory study has revealed statistical links between the performance of medical detection dogs and their scores on behavioral and affective tests, finding that more 'optimistic' dogs tended to perform better overall on detection tasks, but 'pessimistic' dogs had higher scent detection specificity.

Infections with parasites often entail no recognizable signs in many wildlife species, but can have still negative effects across generations. Infected animals often have a slightly reduced body size and their offspring have a harder start in life. A team of scientists has now shown that the impaired reproductive success is connected to altered movement behavior: Infected starlings have a smaller action radius, which limits their access to high-quality foraging habitats.

'Forever chemicals' are everywhere. But only a handful have been evaluated for potentially toxic effects. Researchers think there may be a faster, cheaper way to figure out which ones might be hazardous to our health -- using worms.

While it may be an unfamiliar sensation to humans, electroreception is relatively commonplace in the animal kingdom. Sharks, bees and even the platypus all share this ability to detect electric fields in their environment.

Wildfire victims have a range of needs, including mental health support and information about wildfire smoke, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed trade-related risks to energy security across 1,092 scenarios for cutting carbon emissions by 2060. They found that swapping out dependence on imported fossil fuels for increased dependence on critical minerals for clean energy would improve security for most nations -- including the U.S., if it cultivates new trade partners.

Nanoplastics are an increasing threat to the ecosystem; however, their mobility in the soil is still underexplored. Against this backdrop, researchers investigated the adsorption and aggregation behavior of nanoplastics in different types of soil under different pH conditions. The study offers new perspectives on the migration and environmental interactions of nanoplastics, while broadening our knowledge of pollution dynamics and soil contamination processes.

Wear and tear on plastic products releases small to nearly invisible plastic particles, which could impact people's health when consumed or inhaled. To make these particles biodegradable, researchers created plastics from plant starch instead of petroleum. An initial study shows how animals consuming particles from this alternative material developed health problems such as liver damage and gut microbiome imbalances.

Iron and its alloys, such as steel and cast iron, dominate the modern world, and there's growing demand for iron-derived products. Traditionally, blast furnaces transform iron ore into purified elemental metal, but the process requires a lot of energy and emits air pollution. Now, researchers report that they've developed a cleaner method to extract iron from a synthetic iron ore using electrochemistry, which they say could become cost-competitive with blast furnaces.

Milky seas are a rare bioluminescent phenomenon where vast areas of the ocean glow at night, sometimes for months. This glow, likely caused by Vibrio harveyi bacteria, has been reported by sailors for centuries but remains poorly understood due to its rarity and remote locations, mainly in the Indian Ocean. Researchers have compiled a 400-year database of sightings, using historical records and satellite data, revealing that milky seas are linked to climatic patterns like the Indian Ocean Dipole and El Nino.

New research into the overlooked environmental impact of pet dogs has found far-reaching negative effects on wildlife, ecosystems and climate.

Evidence shows that hunter-gatherers were crossing at least 100 kilometers (km) of open water to reach the Mediterranean island of Malta 8,500 years ago, a thousand years before the arrival of the first farmers.

Could it be that one of only three known markers directly targeting the DNA does not exist outside the realm of microbes? Now, researchers have demonstrated that this marker -- N4-methylcytosine (4mC) -- is essential for sperm development and maturation in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, a key organism in plant evolution.

A new genomic study has uncovered long-lost genetic diversity in mammoth lineages spanning over a million years, providing new insights into the evolutionary history of these animals.

A new study reveals the modern arid desert between Africa and Saudi Arabia was once regularly lush and green with rivers and lakes over a period of 8 million years, allowing for the occupation and movements of both animals and hominins.