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Feature Stories

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 9-Sep-2025 07:11 ET (9-Sep-2025 11:11 GMT/UTC)

Cornell to help revamp Chattanooga public transit with AI power

Cornell University

Cornell University researchers are helping to transform portions of the Chattanooga, Tennessee, transit system into a seamless, artificial intelligence-powered network where buses, shuttles, electric cars and bikes work together to provide the most efficient routes – all at the push of a button.

Funder: U.S. Department of Energy

New technology keeps surfaces sterile with silver and electricity

University of Arkansas

The invention combines silver nanowires and a tiny electric current to create a surface that eliminates and repels bacteria and viruses.

Kennesaw State University researcher, students explore clean energy storage solutions

Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw State University assistant professor Ashish Aphale’s research focuses on the development of advanced materials, such as polymers, nanocomposites, ceramics, and alloys, which can be used to improve energy storage systems like batteries, fuel cells, and other energy conversion devices.

‘Who the messenger is matters’: Cultural leaders can positively influence population growth

University of Notre Dame

Fertility rates across the world have been steadily dropping since 1950. Pinpointing the reasons — despite the lack of typical causal conditions such as famine or war — is at the heart of one researcher’s work at the University of Notre Dame. Lakshmi Iyer, a professor in the Department of Economics, found that there was more to fertility rates than a simple economic or circumstantial explanation. She learned that understanding social norms leads to a better understanding of demography. And finding ways to change the salience of specific norms can be crucial in shaping fertility behavior.

Q&A: Effective interventions and policies to reduce tobacco-caused harm

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a new rule to limit nicotine in cigarettes and certain other tobacco products, like cigars and pipe tobacco, which would be a major step in addressing the public health concerns of smoking and tobacco use in the United States. In the following Q&A, Jonathan Foulds, professor of public health sciences and of psychiatry and behavioral health at the Penn State College of Medicine, discussed the role of research in public policy making and what the science says about the benefits of lowering nicotine levels in tobacco products.

Funder: NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse

Real-time monitoring of advanced nuclear fuel now possible with new test bed

DOE/Idaho National Laboratory

To meet energy demands and reestablish the nation’s energy dominance, U.S. companies are developing several types of advanced reactors.

One type of advanced reactor, a molten salt reactor, uses fuels dissolved in molten salt coolants instead of the solid fuels used in traditional nuclear reactors. These reactors feature enhanced safety features and high temperatures, which will offer utilities more flexibility in the form of efficient heat and electricity.

Digging up local history to update the culture of disaster preparedness

Kobe University

“The Kansai area will never experience a major earthquake.” That was how many people felt before the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. But if we examine history, most areas in Japan have records chronicling the devastation caused by earthquakes, and Kobe is no exception. Project Associate Professor MATSUSHITA Masakazu leads the division promoting regional cooperation in education at the Office for Promoting Regional Partnership, and his activities are focused on making it easier for residents to be aware of past disasters, based on information provided by memorial stones and historical documents that remain in local areas. We asked him about the importance of learning from local records and passing on the culture of disaster preparedness to future generations.

Building resilient lifelines with both hard and soft countermeasures

Kobe University

When a natural disaster disrupts the lifeline services of water, electricity, gas, or telecommunications, this can wreak havoc on people’s lives. In order to build resilient lifelines, it is essential to analyze the impacts disasters may have, for example, on underground pipelines, and make use of this information in future designs. Professor KUWATA Yasuko at the Graduate School of Engineering is an expert in lifeline earthquake engineering and, in addition to the importance of strengthening facilities, she points out the need for taking measures based on the assumption that there will be potential damage in the event of a disaster, and for raising awareness among the public.

TUM spin-off launches first rocket

Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Isar Aerospace, a spin-off of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has conducted the first test flight of its rocket - and thus also the first launch of a carrier rocket designed to transport loads into orbit from Western Europe. In future, the system will be used to launch small and medium-sized satellites into space, which are crucial for numerous emerging technologies. The founding of the start-up by three graduates was intensively supported at TUM.

Smartphone-based program helps slow cognitive decline in older adults

Texas A&M University

Study finds app significantly improves cognitive function in assisted living residents with mild impairment.

Journal: Public Health in Practice

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