EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 7-Oct-2025 17:11 ET (7-Oct-2025 21:11 GMT/UTC)

Centenary of the birth of IVF pioneer Sir Robert Edwards

Reproductive BioMedicine Online
Peer-Reviewed Publication

27th September 2025 marks the centenary of the birth of Sir Robert Edwards, the reproductive biologist who with colleagues was responsible for the birth of the world’s first IVF baby in 1978. This briefing, drawing on reports from the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online, which Edwards founded and edited from the year 2000, measures his achievements in terms of an estimated 20 million so far born as a result of IVF and the possibility that the technique may play some part in addressing the steep decline in world fertility rates.

Journal: Reproductive BioMedicine Online

August research news from the Ecological Society of America

Ecological Society of America

The role of the arts in narrating environmental stories, nighttime cooling in urban parks and more from ESA's journals.

International team publishes framework for study of ‘Earth engineers’

University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s S. Kathleen Lyons, is providing a new framework — Earth system engineering — for examining how organisms, especially humans, have fundamentally altered ecosystems on a global scale. The framework builds on ecosystem engineering, but Earth system engineering is a novel approach that distinguishes between engineering behaviors that have transformed the planet and those that have only local effects.

Journal: Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Not all ALK fusions act the same: Variants influence treatment success in lung cancer

German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About five percent of lung adenocarcinomas, one of the most common forms of lung cancer, are driven by a faulty fusion of two genes, EML4 and ALK. This fusion results in different variants, and until now, clinicians have treated all patients with these fusions the same way. However, new research led by scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Stanford University shows that not all fusion variants behave alike. The team discovered that EML4-ALK variant V3 drives more aggressive tumors than the V1 variant and responds less effectively to targeted drugs. The findings, may pave the way for more personalized therapies.

Journal: Cancer Discovery

Lifelong motor function development: applying percentile reference curves in practice

University of Zurich
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Strength and coordination change over the course of our lives, decreasing dramatically with age. But when it comes to the fine motor skills of our hands and fingers, this is not the case. This discovery was made by a research group led by UZH developmental pediatrician Oskar Jenni. Percentile reference curves could make reduced performance more recognizable in practice.

Journal: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Predicting evolution in cell populations with a scaling law

PNAS Nexus
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A scaling law relates the expected number of mutants to the total population size of cells in a spatially constrained but growing population, which could help clinicians predict when cancers or bacterial infections might develop resistance to treatment.

Journal: PNAS Nexus

Study suggests female crabs are more sensitive to underwater power cables

University of Portsmouth
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new University of Portsmouth-led study has investigated how electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from submarine power cables affect crabs, raising important questions about the impact of renewable energy infrastructure on marine life.

Journal: Environmental Science & Technology Letters

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