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Feature Stories

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 4-Nov-2025 19:11 ET (5-Nov-2025 00:11 GMT/UTC)

A phone call that changed global medicine

Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

In the fall of 1989, Gary Krishnan, Ph.D., arrived in College Station with a suitcase, a scholarship and an open-ended dream.

Krishnan had left his home in India to join the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Science’s newly formed Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics as a doctoral student, drawn by its growing reputation and a phone call that would shape everything that followed.

Today, Krishnan is known for his pioneering osteoporosis therapy and COVID‑19 treatments, successes he attributes to his experiences on campus.

Hurricane Katrina still offers lessons for disaster recovery researchers, twenty years later

New York University

NYU School of Global Public Health's Alexis Merdjanoff reflects on two decades of data about long-term resilience and how we can better support health and safety in the aftermath of the next storm

Journal: Traumatology An International Journal
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

New class of teacher: SFU professor debuts AI sidekick in trailblazing course

Simon Fraser University

A new Simon Fraser University course this fall marks a world first: a university professor teaching alongside a live, fully expressive 3D artificial intelligence collaborator on stage. This pioneering course introduces a new model for human-AI interaction in an academic setting, positioning SFU at the forefront of educational innovation.

Developed at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology’s iViz research lab headed by professor Steve DiPaola, the AI named Kia is a high-end, expressive digital persona. With real-time facial expressions, lip-sync, and a multitude of emotive body languages, Kia is designed to be a dynamic and intellectual sparring partner for DiPaola for a course exploring the principles, potential, and ethics of AI technologies.

Kia will engage in real-time discussions, debate complex topics, and explore questions alongside DiPaola, creating a uniquely interactive and thought-provoking student experience.

Study examines whether policy intervention could combat ransomware

University of Texas at Dallas

Dr. Atanu Lahiri, an associate professor of information systems in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, said ransomware has become one of the top cybersecurity threats facing organizations worldwide.

Journal: Information Systems Research

Q&A: What would reclassifying marijuana mean for medical research?

The federal government is considering reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance. In the following Q&A, Kent Vrana, director of the Penn State Center for Cannabis and Natural Product Pharmaceuticals, spoke about how reclassifying marijuana would affect medical research and patient access to medical marijuana as well as promising benefits of medical marijuana.

New DuAlumin-3D alloy enhances high-performance automotive parts

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have advanced the use of DuAlumin-3D, an innovative aluminum alloy, in high-temperature automotive components, significantly expanding the possibilities of additive manufacturing.

Back to school means back to headaches for some kids. Here’s how to help.

University of California - San Francisco

As kids return to school and schedules full of sports, clubs, and other extracurricular activities, some must contend with an unfortunate byproduct of their hectic schedules: headaches. Pediatric headaches spike in autumn as kids’ stress goes up and the quality of their sleep declines. Parents may wonder whether it’s time to grab the Tylenol or call the doctor.

Revolutionizing rangeland management: the power of RAP

US Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service

Researchers made significant improvements to the Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) by using higher resolution images captured by the Sentinel-2 mission, which provides a 10-meter cover dataset. The Sentinel-2 mission utilizes three satellites to produce more detailed images with finer resolution and faster updates than the previous 30-meter datasets. These enhanced images offer a more precise understanding of rangeland vegetation structure and composition, covering the period from 2018 to 2024. This new satellite dataset allows RAP to provide new cover information, specifically invasive species, pinyon-juniper, sagebrush, as well as the distribution of bare ground. These new RAP layers allow ranchers and land managers to detect and manage invasive species spread and consequent wildfire risks, woody species encroachment, wildlife habitat condition, and wind erosion risks with high precision across the western United States.

Aging brings happiness

University of California - Irvine

The conventional wisdom about aging is wrong — and UC Irvine Psychology Professor Susan Charles has the research to prove it.

Gaia proves our skies are filled with chains of starry gatherings

European Space Agency

In the past decade, the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope has revealed the nature, history, and behaviour of billions of stars. Our pioneering stargazer has reshaped our view of the skies around us like no other, revealing that star clusters are more connected than expected over vast distances.

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