Honeysuckle flower buds carry medicinal, horticultural, and ornamental value, but their best harvest stage is brief: once buds open, key bioactive compounds can decline and floral quality changes quickly. A new study traces the unusually slow bud opening of the honeysuckle cultivar Lonicera japonica 'Huajin 6' to a genomic bottleneck in jasmonic acid (JA) production. By assembling a chromosome-level genome and integrating comparative genomics, transcriptomics, hormone profiling, and functional assays, the researchers found that contraction of the lipoxygenase (LOX) gene family limits JA accumulation during a critical floral transition. The finding explains how gene loss can lengthen a useful harvest window and offers a breeding route for flowering-time control.

Dr. Deanna Kennedy of the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management and Drs. Ana Diaz Artiles and Bonnie Dunbar from the Department of Aerospace Engineering have partnered to investigate how differences in gravity influence coordination and movement control. Their latest work looks into how the body performs in altered gravity conditions to identify challenges astronauts encounter in space and how the human body adapts when environmental surroundings shift.

“On Earth, we spend our entire lives moving in a 1G environment, where the gravitational force feels natural,” Kennedy said. “But when that changes, the way our body controls movement changes too and understanding that helps us predict where performance may begin to break down.”

As demand for optical communication capacity continues to grow, the 2 µm wavelength region is emerging as a promising new window for future photonic systems. Researchers have developed a high-speed InGaAs/GaAsSb type-II superlattice photodetector that is heterogeneously integrated on silicon via micro-transfer printing. By combining a backside Au reflector with a low-index BCB cavity, the device achieves broadband operation from 0.8 to 2.5 µm and a 57.9% responsivity enhancement at 2 µm, while maintaining 17–18.7 GHz bandwidth and clear 50 Gbps eye diagrams. The work provides a practical route toward broadband, high-speed photodetectors for silicon photonics and next-generation optical interconnects.

Much of the appeal of self-driving vehicles is just that: the fact that they drive themselves. Still, there are times when a driver needs to put their hands on the wheel, and a new study from Binghamton University suggests that task could be more difficult if you have a history of head injuries.