Researchers recreated a nearly forgotten yogurt recipe that was once was once common across the Balkans and Turkey—using ants. Reporting in the Cell Press journal iScience on October 3, the team shows that bacteria, acids, and enzymes in ants can kickstart the fermentation process that turns milk into yogurt. The work highlights how traditional practices can inspire new approaches to food science and even add creativity to the dinner table. 

Scientists have found a direct link between osteoporosis and rotator cuff tears, two conditions that often develop with age. Using health and genetic data from hundreds of thousands of people, researchers showed that fragile bones increase the risk of painful shoulder injuries, especially in women. They also identified shared genetic variants, offering fresh insight into the biological ties between bone and tendon weakness and pointing toward targeted prevention and treatment strategies.

A novel spectroscopic method developed at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, enables highly sensitive analysis of molecules at material interfaces, using a combination of conventional ATR-IR, precise gap-control and advanced data processing. The technique offers a low-cost alternative to conventional interfacial spectroscopy and has potential applications in material sciences, nanotechnology, and biological sciences.

A spinel-type sulfide semiconductor that can emit light from violet to orange at room temperature has been developed by researchers at Science Tokyo, overcoming the efficiency limitations of current LED and solar cell materials. The material, (Zn,Mg)Sc₂S₄, can be chemically tuned to switch between n-type and p-type conduction, leading to future pn homojunction devices. This versatile semiconductor offers a practical path toward the development of more efficient LEDs and solar cells.

Harnessing quantum states that avoid thermalization enables energy harvesters to surpass traditional thermodynamic limits such as Carnot efficiency, report researchers from Japan. The team developed a new approach using a non-thermal Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid to convert waste heat into electricity with higher efficiency than conventional approaches. These findings pave the way for more sustainable low-power electronics and quantum computing.  

Cobalt (Co)-exsolution is a promising technique for improving electrochemical performance of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) cathodes made for Co-based rare-earth layered perovskite oxides. However, it has only been demonstrated in reducing atmospheres, reversing in actual oxidizing operating conditions of SOFCs. Now, a research team has presented the first experimental evidence of Co exsolution of SOFC cathodes in oxidizing atmospheres, presenting a new direction for developing stable and high performance SOFCs.