Antibiotic residues in agricultural soils are an emerging environmental concern, with potential impacts on soil health, crop safety, and the spread of antimicrobial resistance. A new study published in Biochar reports a promising solution: an iron-modified biochar that helps soil use its own oxygen and iron chemistry to break down sulfamethoxazole, a commonly detected antibiotic pollutant.

The University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) is the first in the Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington D.C. region to offer an innovative cell therapy treatment for patients with an advanced type of soft tissue cancer, known as synovial sarcoma. This single-infusion T-cell therapy, called TCR-T therapy, involves engineering a patient’s own white blood cells to recognize and attack cancer cells.

Depression, anxiety and sleep disorders are among the conditions often treated with antidepressant drugs. Yet, up to 90% of these drugs pass through the body into wastewater. They’re also difficult to remove during water treatment, presenting a possible risk of environmental contamination and threats to ecological and human health. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology found some antidepressant drugs at levels that could be harmful to aquatic wildlife in North Carolina waterways. 

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) officially issued a new patent to Wayne State University and RediMinds Inc. of Southfield, Michigan. The patent protects a pioneering technological advancement developed in the university's laboratories.

In hopes of preventing home-exercise injuries and extending the expert guidance of coaches, researchers from Drexel University and Michigan State University have developed a prototype of a program that uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to analyze video and provide form coaching in real time.

Scientists at the SETI Institute searched for technological signals from 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object observed in our Solar System. Using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California, the team scanned a wide range of radio frequencies for signs of extraterrestrial technology and found none, as expected based on other astronomical observations showing that the object exhibits natural comet-like composition and behavior.

“Eventually, our own Voyager spacecraft will be extraterrestrial artifacts in other stellar systems,” said Dr. Sofia Sheikh, lead author on the paper. “Given that, it is important that we understand the natural distribution of interstellar objects so that we will be able to identify any anomalies that could one day be signs of an artificial interstellar object.”

The team observed 3I/ATLAS for more than seven hours with the ATA, covering 1 to 9 gigahertz. This broad range allows scientists to search for narrowband radio signals, which are not produced by in nature and would be evidence of technology.