The way scientists name and classify organisms is often seen as neutral, but it’s shaped by the cultural and intellectual traditions of the scientists themselves. A new study introduces the concept of “taxonomic Graecism,” the preference for names based on ancient Greek, and provides the first comprehensive etymological analysis covering all 773 families within the phylum Mollusca. Analysis reveals a strong dominance of Greek over Latin, particularly among European scientists, along with broader patterns such as limited use of personal names and a tendency to honor individuals from the same country. These findings suggest taxonomy reflects not only biological knowledge, but also historical biases and social structures within science. 

How can the mild flavor of flaxseed oil be preserved for longer? A research team led by Roman Lang from the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has investigated this question. As the team demonstrates in its latest study, natural precursors of bitter-tasting compounds can be gently removed from the oil using bleaching earth (magnesium-aluminum silicate). This results in significantly fewer bitter-tasting compounds formed during storage, and the flaxseed oil remains flavor-stable for longer. The particular advantage: The high content of health-beneficial fatty acids as well as the oil’s typical character are preserved despite the purification process.

Researchers at Linköping University show how two important cancer-related proteins can be prevented from collaborating with each other. The discovery shows the way towards future medications to combat e.g. neuroblastoma in children. Their study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Beneath Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a network of flooded anchialine caves hosts a remarkable ecosystem driven by tiny Typhlatya shrimp. Rather than relying on sunlight, this underground food web depends on chemosynthesis - the shrimp graze on methane-consuming bacteria, converting microbial matter into nutrients for larger predators. Different species occupy distinct dietary niches, enabling peaceful coexistence. Published in Subterranean Biology, the study warns that rapid urbanization threatens these ancient ecosystems, as surface deforestation and pollution directly undermine the caves' delicate food web.

The stag beetle Prosopocoilus hachijoensis is the only flightless species of the genus Prosopocoilus in Japan. Researchers at University of Tsukuba investigated the mechanisms underlying the loss of flight by comparing this beetle with closely related species that are capable of flight. Their analyses revealed that the atrophy of flight muscles was the primary proximate cause and that increased reliance on terrestrial locomotion may have relaxed the evolutionary pressure to maintain flight.

An international team from the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the National University of Mongolia, and Okayama University of Science has rediscovered a long-lost dinosaur tracksite in northern Mongolia dating to approximately 120 million years ago (Early Cretaceous). The site preserves 31 footprints from both large herbivorous sauropods and large carnivorous theropods on a single surface, providing the first clear evidence that large dinosaurs inhabited this far-northern region.

The overlapping sauropod trackways suggest sequential movement behavior, while theropod tracks indicate multiple large predators. This discovery fills a major gap in Mongolia’s Early Cretaceous fossil record and provides new insights into dinosaur distribution and ecosystem connections between East Asia and North America. The findings were published in Ichnos.

In patients developing end-stage liver disease, the damage has become too severe for the liver’s normally extraordinary regenerative capacity to repair or compensate for it. Once this “point of no return” has been reached, the only option is an organ transplant. To help bridge the time a transplant becomes available, a Wyss-Boston University-MIT team has innovated BOOST, a novel strategy that combines tissue engineering and synthetic biology to allow on-demand healthy liver growth of genetically engineered tissue constructs upon their implantation. This advanced is published in Science Advances.