Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) may not be beautiful, but they are certainly adaptable. A new study published in the Journal of Raptor Research, titled “Turkey Vulture Aggregations at a Water Barrier Provide Evidence of Later Migration and Increasing Population Size over 25 Years” suggests that Turkey Vultures in western North America are increasing in number and delaying their migration departure date. Both findings could be correlated with climate change, although more investigation is needed to confirm. This study presents a new counting method that could prove useful for studying other soaring raptor species, especially at topographical “bottlenecks” like large water crossings.

Excessive bite force does not cause alveolar bone loss but significantly worsens it when combined with periodontitis, report researchers in a new study. While traumatic occlusion has long been suspected to exacerbate periodontitis, the molecular mechanisms behind this link were poorly understood. Now, using mouse models of both conditions separately and combined, the researchers conducted comprehensive gene expression analysis across multiple periodontal tissues, identifying key inflammatory pathways upregulated in bone when both conditions were present.

Conical intersections are crucial molecular switching points in light-driven reactions, but accurately predicting them usually requires computations. A researcher from Shibaura Institute of Technology has developed a new low-cost quantum chemistry method that can simultaneously describe ground and excited molecular states while efficiently locating these elusive structures. The approach reproduces benchmark geometries with strong accuracy and enables practical simulations of photochemical processes, making it promising for applications in photocatalysis, solar cells, and biological light-response studies.