Nanotechnology using plant-based fibers could be the answer to detecting and cleaning up pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals before they become harmful on the farm and in the environment.

A University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture research project led by Mi Li, associate professor in the Center for Renewable Carbon and the School of Natural Resources, received $300,000 for two years from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative nanotechnology program to create these prototype materials. The project also includes researchers from the University of Memphis and Auburn University.

A new multimodal 4D dataset developed at Institute of Science Tokyo provides a detailed model of how humans and dogs interact through movement, gestures, and speech. The curated dataset “InterPet4D” comprises 6.83 million synchronized frames obtained from 23 human participants and 13 dogs representing 11 breeds. Additionally, the researchers developed an AI framework, InterPetMoGen, using this dataset to predict and generate dog movements responding to human actions and audio cues.

Tokyo, Japan- Prediction is a defining feature of intelligent behavior. Researchers at The University of Tokyo developed a spiking-network model that learned what event would occur, when it would occur, and how likely it was. The single network rapidly recalibrated when timing or probabilities changed, using local learning. The findings suggest a computational framework for adaptive, brain-inspired AI and testable ideas about how neural systems update expectations across dynamic environments and changing real-world conditions.

A landmark survey of the world’s largest free-roaming giant tortoise population has revealed the once endangered species is thriving and stable in the Seychelles. Giant tortoises found on the Aldabra Atoll - one of two population centres in the world - are now numbered at around 180,000 individuals following five years of surveying and the use of sophisticated statistical techniques. 

A research team led by Prof. QIAN Peiyuan, Chair Professor of the Department of Ocean Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), in collaboration with international partners, has made significant progress in uncovering how deep-sea chemosynthetic symbioses cope with environmental change. The findings reveal that metabolic flexibility in the symbionts, coupled with the host's finely regulated population of bacterial symbionts, mutually sustains the host's energy stability. This provides important in situ evidence of how chemosynthetic holobionts at deep-sea cold seeps remain resilient when energy supplies fluctuate and highlights the key role of a tiered adaptation strategy in sustaining the stability of cold seep ecosystems.

Cetaqua–Water Technology Centre and RMIT University have launched a new research collaboration integrating environmental and economic evaluations with public policy analysis.