A new study from the University of Georgia may ease some of the concerns of Joro spiders out-eating its arachnid peers.

Venomous snake bites can cause illness, disability and death in tropical and subtropical regions. A study published on August 25th in PLOS Medicine by Dileepa Ediriweera and Anuradhani Kasturuiratne at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK, and the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, and colleagues suggests that the incidence of snake envenoming and snakebite mortality is much higher than previously estimated.

A small, nest-dwelling tick found across large parts of Texas could play an outsized role in how the United States responds to African swine fever (ASF) should the virus reach domestic or wild pigs.

In a recent study, researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS), Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Department of Biology mapped where Ornithodoros turicata — a soft tick species native to Texas and the southwestern United States — is most likely to survive and examined what that means for ASF preparedness.

The study is part of a $1.4 million Department of Homeland Security-funded research project through the Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense (CBTS), DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Center of Excellence housed at Texas A&M. Led by Dr. Meriam Saleh, a clinical assistant professor in VMBS’ Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, this project seeks to understand whether Texas-derived populations of the tick could help sustain or transmit the virus if it were introduced into the U.S. — and how that risk could affect the food supply, trade and cross-border livestock movement. By supporting research at the intersection of animal health, border security and supply chain resilience, CBTS helps address emerging transboundary threats before they escalate into large-scale economic or homeland security challenges.

Replacing petroleum-based synthetic fibers with sustainable bio-derived materials is critical to curbing global microplastic pollution, but biomass fibers have long been limited by insufficient mechanical performance. Researchers from Anhui Agricultural University and Zhejiang University developed high-performance cellulose metafibers (Meta-CFs) using a scalable hydrodynamic twisting strategy. By guiding continuously twisted structures on chemically cross-linked cellulose networks via an asymmetric microfluidic field, the team achieved a record tensile strength of 3.29 GPa and a toughness of 349.5 MJ m^–3—rivaling both high-performance synthetic fibers and natural spider silk. The fibers can be scaled into bundles while retaining GPa-level strength, are fully biodegradable, and have been validated as durable trimmer lines that eliminate persistent agricultural microplastic residues.