ASU scientists create the first complete, high-res global map of seagrass and reveal changes over a four-year period. The invaluable data will help us protect these underwater rainforests.

The National Science Foundation-funded Virtual Experience Research Accelerator (VERA), a platform created through a $5 million NSF award to UCF Pegasus Professor Gregory Welch, has reached two major milestones: launching its first large-scale remote study and awarding its first use grant. Led by UCF Research Associate Professor Gerd Bruder, the study will investigate cybersickness using remote participants in virtual reality environments, while researchers from San José State University will use the first VERA grant to explore how people engage with immersive technologies to improve learning experiences across education, cultural institutions and public engagement. The milestones mark a significant step toward expanding the scale, accessibility and impact of virtual and augmented reality research nationwide.

SAN ANTONIO—June 24, 2026—Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and St. Mary’s University are collaborating to develop a physics-based forecasting tool that can predict the degradation and durability of TiFe-based metal hydride vessels through a chemical and thermo-mechanical framework. It is supported by a new $125,839 grant from the St. Mary’s-SwRI Technology and Applied Research (S²TAR) Program, which fosters collaborations between researchers from both organizations.

JMIR Publications Announces Expansion of Jisc Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Partnership, Adding Three New UK Institutions for 2026-2027

A new remote-sensing framework has produced long-term, high-resolution maps of China's economic sustainability from 2001 to 2021. 

By leveraging a classical mathematical function, researchers at the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute developed a new method that enables molecular dynamics simulations to run 2.5 to seven times as fast — all without sacrificing accuracy. For the most popular software package for molecular dynamics simulations, GROMACS, the researchers achieved a fivefold speed increase in simulations run at high accuracy.

A new wheat powdery mildew index (WPMI) offers a practical way to detect, quantify, and track a major fungal disease of winter wheat across multiple spatial scales.

Trees shape climate, biodiversity, rural livelihoods, and the global bioeconomy, yet many remain invisible to today's large-scale monitoring systems.