EurekAlert! National Science Foundation - NSF Funded Research News

NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Aug-2025 12:10 ET (19-Aug-2025 16:10 GMT/UTC)

4-Aug-2025

Ancient arthropods on the move: Unraveling the secret steps of the burgess shale trilobites

Harvard University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study published in the BMC Biology, researchers in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, analyzed 156 limbs from 28 O. serratus fossil specimens to reconstruct the precise movement and function of these mysterious ancient arthropod appendages—shedding light on one of the planet’s earliest and most successful animals.

Journal: BMC Biology
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Human Frontier Science Program

4-Aug-2025

New method to steer electricity in atom-thin metals may revolutionize devices

University of Minnesota
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a major step toward next-generation electronics, researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have discovered a way to manipulate the direction of charge flow in ultrathin metallic films at room temperature using light.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, DOE/US Department of Energy, DOE/US Department of Energy, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research

1-Aug-2025

‘Shore Wars:’ New research aims to resolve coastal conflict between oysters and mangroves, aiding restoration efforts

University of Central Florida
Peer-Reviewed Publication

To protect Florida’s coastlines, the researchers hope their new findings can initiate efforts to strike a balance within coastal ecosystems so both oysters and mangroves can flourish without harming each other. Otherwise, the mangroves could eventually dominate oyster reefs.

Journal: Marine Ecology Progress Series
Funder: Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, U.S. National Science Foundation, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society Grants-in-Aid of Research, the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program

1-Aug-2025

New AI tool learns to read medical images with far less data

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new AI tool could make it much easier—and cheaper—for doctors and researchers to train medical imaging software, even when only a small number of patient scans are available. It could lead to faster, more affordable diagnostic tools, especially in hospitals and clinics with limited resources.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institutes of Health

1-Aug-2025

AI reveals unexpected new physics in dusty plasma

Emory University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Physicists used a machine-learning method to identify surprising new twists on the non-reciprocal forces governing a many-body system.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

1-Aug-2025

Breakthrough in 2.5D MOF materials based on triptycene derivatives

Kumamoto University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Kumamoto University and Nagoya University have developed a new class of two-dimensional (2D) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) using triptycene-based molecules, marking a breakthrough in the quest to understand and enhance the physical properties of these promising materials. This innovation opens new possibilities for multifunctional applications in gas/molecular sensors, electrochemical energy storage, and spintronic devices.

Journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Hirose Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation

31-Jul-2025

Superconductivity’s halo: Rice theoretical physicist helps map rare high-field phase

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A puzzling form of superconductivity that arises only under strong magnetic fields has been mapped and explained by a research team including Andriy Nevidomskyy, professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University. Their findings, published in Science July 31, detail how uranium ditelluride (UTe2) develops a superconducting halo under strong magnetic fields.

Journal: Science
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation

31-Jul-2025

Spinning up new flexible material for self-powered wearable sensors

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Could clothing monitor a person’s health in real time, because the clothing itself is a self-powered sensor? A new material created through electrospinning, which is a process that draws out fibers using electricity, brings this possibility one step closer.

Journal: Journal of Applied Physics
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, U.S. National Science Foundation

31-Jul-2025

Beyond the shadow of a black hole

University of Texas at Austin

Supercomputer simulations are helping scientists sharpen their understanding about the environment beyond a black hole’s ‘shadow,’ material just outside its event horizon. Snapshot image from radiative simulations of M87 black hole. Supercomputer simulations are helping scientists sharpen their understanding about the environment beyond a black hole’s ‘shadow,’ material just outside its event horizon.

Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

31-Jul-2025

New algorithms enable efficient machine learning with symmetric data

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Reports and Proceedings

MIT researchers designed a computationally efficient algorithm for machine learning with symmetric data that also requires fewer data for training than conventional approaches. Their work could inform the design of faster, more accurate machine-learning models for tasks like discovering new drugs or identifying astronomical phenomena.

Funder: National Research Foundation of Singapore, DSO National Laboratories - Singapore, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Office of Naval Research, Alexander von Humboldt Professorship