EurekAlert! National Science Foundation - NSF Funded Research News

NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 27-Jun-2025 00:10 ET (27-Jun-2025 04:10 GMT/UTC)

4-Mar-2025

Video: The UW’s assistive-feeding robot gets tested outside the lab

University of Washington
Reports and Proceedings

Researchers deployed a robotic feeding arm in a pair of studies outside the lab. In the first, six users with motor impairments used the robot to feed themselves a meal in a UW cafeteria, an office or a conference room. In the second study, a community researcher and co-author on the research used the system at home for five days.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

4-Mar-2025

UC Irvine study shines headlights on consumer driverless vehicle safety deficiencies

University of California - Irvine
Reports and Proceedings

For the first time, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated that multicolored stickers applied to stop or speed limit signs on the roadside can confuse self-driving vehicles, causing unpredictable and possibly hazardous operations.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Meeting: Network and Distributed System Security Symposium

4-Mar-2025

Researchers see breakthrough with biofuel

University of Cincinnati
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory achieved a breakthrough in understanding the vulnerability of microbes to the alcohols they produce during fermentation of plant biomass.

Journal: Langmuir
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation, BioSANS, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Ohio Supercomputer Center

4-Mar-2025

Scientists unravel the spiraling secrets of magnetic materials for next-generation electronics

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

UC San Diego engineers have developed a new computational approach to accurately model and predict the properties of a class of magnetic molecules called chiral helimagnets. Their work could accelerate the discovery of new materials for spintronics technologies.

Journal: Advanced Functional Materials
Funder: American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, U.S. National Science Foundation

3-Mar-2025

Rice’s Gustavsson receives NSF CAREER Award to investigate dynamics of gene regulation

Rice University
Grant and Award Announcement

Rice University’s Anna-Karin Gustavsson has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award to advance her research on gene regulation dynamics. The five-year, $788,823 grant will support the development of innovative tools to visualize, quantify and analyze DNA organization and interactions in real time.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

3-Mar-2025

Quantum properties in atom-thick semiconductors offer new way to detect electrical signals in cells

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For decades, scientists have relied on electrodes and dyes to track the electrical activity of living cells. Now, UC San Diego engineers have discovered that quantum materials just a single atom thick can do the job with high speed and resolution—using only light.

Journal: Nature Photonics
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institutes of Health, Office of Naval Research

3-Mar-2025

Scientists use AI to better understand nanoparticles

New York University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of scientists has developed a method to illuminate the dynamic behavior of nanoparticles, which are foundational components in the creation of pharmaceuticals, electronics, and industrial and energy-conversion materials.

Journal: Science
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

28-Feb-2025

How do the universe’s highest-energy particles originate? Magnetic outflows stemming from star mergers, analysis concludes

New York University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new theory introduced by New York University physicist Glennys Farrar provides a viable and testable explanation for how UHECRs are created.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

28-Feb-2025

NJIT biologist wins NSF CAREER award to explore hidden hydrological factor to forest resilience

New Jersey Institute of Technology
Grant and Award Announcement

New Jersey Institute of Technology biologist Xiaonan Tai has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to investigate how landscape positions determine forest fate during extreme heat and drought — a factor that could help explain why some forests perish while others survive.

The CAREER Award, among NSF’s most prestigious honors for junior faculty, includes a grant of $1,162,914 to support Tai’s project, “Unveiling the Role of Hillslope Hydrology in Mediating Ecosystem Response to Drought,” over the next five years.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

27-Feb-2025

University of Oklahoma researcher to create new coding language, computing infrastructure

University of Oklahoma
Grant and Award Announcement

Richard Veras, a professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award to develop the Graph Structure Descriptor Language for the computation of sparse and irregular data.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation