Environment

Earth, climate, and ecology

EnvironmentNovember 3, 2026

Widespread plasma jets in the Martian magnetosheath revealed by dual-spacecraft observations.

Plasma jets in planetary magnetosheaths are transient, high dynamic pressure structures capable of strongly perturbing downstream magnetospheres and modulating solar wind energy transfer. Although recently identified at Mars, their formation mechanisms and global occurrence remain poorly constrained. Using dual-spacecraft observations from Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN and Tianwen-1, we show that magnetosheath jets occur throughout the Martian magnetosheath, in striking contrast to Eart

EnvironmentNovember 3, 2026

Defining and measuring proximity to criticality based on univariate time series.

Diverse social, engineered, and biological systems are made up of multiple interacting dynamical components; to work properly, certain components must be carefully regulated so that their dynamics avoid instability. However, many desirable properties, like optimized computation and control, emerge close to the tipping point between stability and instability, i.e., near criticality. Claims that such dynamical systems operate near criticality have been controversial because it is difficult to asse

EnvironmentNovember 3, 2026

Orexin and pupillary modulation for hunger control.

Fasting-based interventions improve metabolic health and are also explored as adjuncts in other clinical settings, but hunger remains a barrier to adherence. Fasting activates AgRP/NPY neurons (ANs), a hunger-promoting population whose inhibition reduces eating in hungry animals. Here we identify hypocretin/orexin neurons (HONs), classically associated with arousal, as rapid suppressors of AN activity. HON ablation increased AN population activity, whereas HON optostimulation rapidly suppressed

EnvironmentNovember 3, 2026

Environmental RNA improves detection and surveillance of schistosomiasis transmission.

Environmental diagnosis of schistosomiasis, a disease affecting over 250 million people globally, remains challenging, thereby limiting efficient eradication efforts. Current methods, including environmental DNA (eDNA), cannot distinguish between infectious parasite life stages present in the environment. Here, we develop and validate an environmental RNA (eRNA) approach that enables detection and quantification of Schistosoma mansoni miracidia (infective to snails) and cercariae (infective to h

EnvironmentOctober 29, 2026

Gram-Negative Bacterial Resistance.

The rapid worldwide spread of antimicrobial resistance among gram-negative bacteria is driven by a complex interplay of human, environmental, and health care-associated factors and accelerated by mobile genetic elements that facilitate the dissemination of resistance genes. Resistance in gram-negative bacteria arises primarily through reduced drug entry, active drug efflux, modification of antibiotic targets, and enzymatic drug inactivation, most notably through β-lactamase production. Cli

EnvironmentOctober 29, 2026

The global geography of threats to freshwater biodiversity.

Human activities are eroding biodiversity, especially in freshwater systems. Despite major advances in quantifying species vulnerability and threats, we still lack a crucial understanding of where threats are affecting freshwater species globally. Here, we produced a species-centered spatial assessment of threats, mapping the impact of 45 threats across 21,490 freshwater species of amphibians, fish, mammals, odonates, and reptiles. We found that species in highly developed and water-managed regi

EnvironmentOctober 27, 2026

Nutrient legacies from elephant megacarcasses create coldspots of biodiversity and hotspots of ecosystem processes.

Terrestrial megafauna (animals >1,000 kg) have substantial impacts on ecosystems while alive; yet, we know little about the impacts of these ecosystem engineers after they die. Like whale carcasses in the ocean, terrestrial megacarcasses may leave ecological legacies via the nutrient pulses they create on the landscape. Here, we investigated the impact of elephant megacarcasses on savanna ecosystems in Kruger National Park, South Africa. To determine how elephant carcasses affect below- and a

EnvironmentOctober 27, 2026

Global origins of tuna and billfish fisheries reveal the transition from coastal access to oceanic exploitation.

Ocean ecosystems have played a crucial role in people's lives around the world for millennia. However, questions persist about when, why, and how people first began removing biomass from offshore habitats and established fisheries in distant, oceanic environments. We explore the antiquity and evolution of tuna (Thunnini) and billfish (Istiophoridae/Xiphiidae) fisheries, two groups of fishes that occur around the world, are economically significant, and are ecologically important open ocean apex

EnvironmentOctober 27, 2026

Toward cooler cities by larger homogeneous functional clusters.

Urban heat island (UHI) intensifies heat-related risks and environmental degradation in cities worldwide, yet existing mitigation strategies have largely overlooked how the spatial scale of homogeneous functional building clusters influences local climate. This scale may matter because buildings with similar functions often share similar morphology, activity schedules, and anthropogenic heat-release patterns, allowing their spatial contiguity to shape ventilation and heat accumulation. Here, we

EnvironmentOctober 27, 2026

A Bering Sea marine heatwave triggers unprecedented crab hybridization, challenging fisheries management.

Marine heatwaves are increasingly recognized for their capacity to generate ecological surprises, yet the pathways that propagate these unexpected responses are often poorly understood. Here, we document an unanticipated ecological response 7 y after a Bering Sea marine heatwave, in which formerly rare snow crab ( Chionoecetes opilio ) × Tanner crab ( C. bairdi ) hybrid abundance increased 13.4-fold, and the proportion of commercial-sized hybrid males increased 13.1-fold, relative to histor

EnvironmentOctober 27, 2026

Diminishing cooling returns of urban greening amid a warming climate.

Urban greening is widely prioritized as a nature-based solution to mitigating intensifying heat extremes in the context of climate change, yet its long-term global efficacy remains inadequately quantified. Here we present a two-decade assessment of vegetation dynamics and associated cooling effects across 3,806 urban clusters worldwide, integrating multisource satellite observations with ground measurements from 4,855 meteorological stations. We identify a pronounced climate equity gap: While ci

EnvironmentOctober 27, 2026

First-principles channel model and capacity-achieving transmission scheme in thermal noise backscatter links.

Thermal noise communication systems transmit information by modulating thermal radiation, eliminating the need for a dedicated signal power source and making them attractive solutions for low-power sensor networks. Their efficiency enables long-lived, unobtrusive operation, which is valuable in the Internet of Things, electromagnetic interference-sensitive environments, and radio frequency identification tag systems. However, a limited understanding of the wireless channel model and efficient tr

EnvironmentOctober 21, 2026

Drought and disease trigger novel interactions among top predators.

Interactions among species are increasingly recognized as key determinants of climate change impacts on ecosystems 1-5 . However, we know little about how climatic perturbations affect interactions among top vertebrate predators. Here we show that, when an emergent disease caused the decline of shared prey (rabbits), after decades of neutral co-existence a mammalian carnivore (lynx) started to prey heavily on a top predatory raptor (kites). These predation bouts occurred exclusively under drough

EnvironmentOctober 20, 2026

Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape.

In most vertebrates, social play among peers is considered essential for behavioral development. Yet in solitary species bearing single offspring, opportunities for social play are inherently scarce. Whether mothers of such species actively facilitate play opportunities for their offspring, and at what cost, remains unknown. We used 15 y of behavioral and movement data (∼32,600 observation hours) from 31 wild Bornean orangutan ( Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii ) mother-offspring pairs to test whet

EnvironmentOctober 20, 2026

Evolution shapes ecosystem resilience through spatial self-organization.

Drylands are globally widespread and ecologically important but vulnerable to climate change. Many exhibit spatially self-organized vegetation patterns that enhance resilience by enabling vegetation to reorganize their patterns under drying, thereby optimizing water use and maintaining productivity. Plants can also undergo evolution in response to environmental change. Although both spatial self-organization and rapid evolution are fundamental mechanisms of resilience, their interaction remains

EnvironmentOctober 20, 2026

Thermal imbalance drives avian performance and responses to climate warming.

Thermal performance curves are widely used to predict ectothermic responses to climate warming but are less effective for predicting endotherm performance across environmental conditions because thermoregulation often decouples body temperature from ambient temperature. We develop theory and provide empirical evidence for performance curves in endotherms structured by net sensible heat flux (Q), an integrative index of thermoregulatory imbalance. Using biophysical simulations in tree swallows, w

EnvironmentOctober 20, 2026

Insights from coproduced scenarios toward urban sustainability transformations.

Urban sustainability transformations call for fundamental shifts in how cities are organized, developed, and governed. Yet we need a better understanding of the diversity of visions and pathways that can enable transformative change. We address this gap through an analysis of 60 coproduced positive scenario visions and pathways developed using the Sustainable Future Scenario process, across nine US and Latin American cities participating in the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Researc

EnvironmentOctober 20, 2026

Altered sperm DNA methylation provides an epigenetic route from overweight and older men to intergenerational disease transmission.

The occurrence of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders has been steadily increasing for decades, yet we have little understanding of modes of inheritance implicated in these diseases. Epidemiology studies have revealed an association between an elevated paternal Body Mass Index (BMI) and age as factors implicated in increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in children. Epigenetic regulation of gene expression by DNA methylation at cytosines is susceptible to environmental, diet, and lif

EnvironmentOctober 15, 2026

Nearly half of reef-building corals face elevated relative risk of extinction.

Coral reefs are diverse marine ecosystems that provide ecological functions and economic and social benefits across over 100 tropical countries. Warming driven by climate change is a primary threat to coral reefs and is increasing the frequency of global coral bleaching events. Here we reassessed the IUCN Red List status of 892 reef-building coral species, first assessed in 2008 1 . Because species-level population trends are unavailable for most reef-building corals, population reductions were

EnvironmentOctober 15, 2026

Construction of Divergent Enantioenriched 3D-Fluoro Scaffolds via Ni(0) π-Lewis Base-Mediated Umpolung of Fluorodienes.

Enantioenriched three-dimensional (3D) fluorinated scaffolds are pivotal in drug discovery, whereas the asymmetric synthesis directly from readily available 2D fluoroalkenes represents a desirable yet challenging synthetic objective. The α-carbon of gem-difluoroalkenes is inherently electrophilic, which typically precludes their utility in nucleophilic assemblies. Herein, we report an umpolung strategy that utilizes low-valent Ni(0) as a π-Lewis base activator for gem-difluorodienes

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Continuous UV irradiation played an inconclusive role in selecting the canonical genetic alphabet.

An abundance of heterocyclic molecules analogous to canonical nucleobases (i.e., adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil) used as the genetic alphabet in DNA and RNA could have been present in various prebiotic environments on early Earth. However, extant biology generally uses the canonical nucleobases and nucleosides as the genetic alphabet, and not any number of possible noncanonical counterparts. Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation was likely abundant on the surface of the early Earth and h

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Fault-controlled natural hydrogen reservoirs as underground hydrogen storage sites.

Underground hydrogen storage requires geological formations with demonstrated hydrogen containment, yet no conventional storage candidate (salt caverns, aquifers, or depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs) offers direct, prior evidence of H 2 -specific sealing. We propose that subcommercial natural hydrogen reservoirs, where H 2 has accumulated over geological timescales, can serve as precertified storage sites. This proposition is evaluated using the Bulqizë fault-controlled natural H 2 reservoir

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Breaking trait scaling via the evolution and regulation of dimorphic decoupling in ants.

The evolution of allometry, changing how morphological traits scale to body size, has fueled adaptive radiations. In ants, allometry has facilitated the repeated evolution of a worker-soldier caste system. Here, we reveal an unexpected morphological pattern and its superorganismal regulation within the hyperdiverse genus Pheidole . We uncovered that antennal sizing between the small worker and the big soldier is identical, lacking intercaste scaling (antennae-body scaling is decoupled) yet retai

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Global grassland productivity and carbon storage benefit from functional diversity under climate change.

Functional diversity plays an important role for ecosystem services of managed grasslands such as their gross primary productivity (GPP) and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Yet vegetation models assessing functional diversity have been limited to small spatial scales. We used the Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed land (LPJmL) competitor stress-tolerant ruderal (CSR) model to assess the role of functional diversity for managed grassland GPP and SOC under climate change at the global scale. LPJmL-CSR si

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Atomic-scale spin sensing of a 2D d-wave altermagnet via helical tunneling.

Altermagnets simultaneously possess momentum-dependent nonrelativistic spin splitting and zero net magnetization (1-6). Their defining crystalline symmetry connects opposite-spin sublattices in real space and imposes alternating spin polarization on the symmetry-related electronic states in momentum space (1-3). Identifying such an order and its associated spin response therefore calls for atomic-scale spin-sensitive measurements in both real and momentum space, an experimental milestone yet to

EnvironmentOctober 12, 2026

Spin Polarization Enhanced Photocatalytic N2 Reduction on Chiral Mesostructured Bi2WO6.

Harnessing the earth-abundant N2 via photocatalysis is a sustainable route to green NH3 synthesis. However, photocatalytic N2 reduction (PNR) remains constrained by the high energy barrier for N2 activation and reduction. In this work, we report that the spin-polarized chiral mesostructured Bi2WO6 (CMB) can facilitate the formation of metastable triplet NOH (3NOH) intermediates, while simultaneously promoting the separation and transport of photogenerated charge carriers, thereby enhancing PNR p

EnvironmentOctober 8, 2026

Safeguarding global terrestrial vertebrate species from future sea-level rise.

Sea-level rise (SLR) threatens terrestrial biodiversity, yet its spatiotemporal and species-specific impacts remain unclear. Integrating relative SLR projections across five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) with Area of Habitat (AOH) maps for 34,120 terrestrial vertebrate species, we project species exposed to SLR will increase from up to 13,680 in 2050 to 15,324 by 2100, including 57-63% of birds, 47-52% of mammals, 28-36% of reptiles, and 20-24% of amphibians. In Southeast Asia, inland inu

EnvironmentOctober 8, 2026

Natural 15 N 15 N abundances constrain fixed nitrogen loss.

Nitrogen regulates primary productivity across much of the biosphere, yet fixed nitrogen loss remains poorly constrained because existing methods rely on indirect proxies or ex situ experiments. In this study, we show that natural abundances of the rare 15 N 15 N isotopologue of dinitrogen (N 2 ) provide a direct tracer of biological N 2 production across diverse aquatic environments. N 2 produced by denitrification and anammox has a near-stochastic 15 N 15 N distribution [0 per mil (‰)],

EnvironmentOctober 8, 2026

Asymmetric enzymatic hydrophosphorylation through O 2 activation

Enzymatic carbon-phosphorus bond formation is extremely rare in nature, limiting biocatalytic access to phosphorus-containing compounds that are widely used in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Here, we report an asymmetric enzymatic hydrophosphorylation through oxygen activation using a repurposed flavin-dependent enzyme. Mechanistic studies revealed that reactive oxygen species are converted into productive phosphorus-centered radicals, followed by radical addition and enzymatic hydrogen atom

EnvironmentOctober 6, 2026

Meteoritic organic matter records primitive oxygen reservoirs of the solar system.

Unraveling the complex formation and alteration history for extraterrestrial organic matter is key to understanding the chemical evolution of the solar system (SS) and potentially even life's emergence on Earth. In this study, we performed high-precision triple oxygen isotope measurements on insoluble organic matter (IOM) sourced from a diverse suite of carbonaceous chondrites (CCs). Remarkably, the IOM from primitive Type 1 and 2 CCs-including CI, CM, CR, Bells, and Tarda-have oxygen isotope co

EnvironmentOctober 6, 2026

Compound drought-heat wave hazards are concentrated in US regions with multiple social vulnerabilities and agricultural dependence.

Compound drought and heat wave (CDHW) events are becoming more frequent and intense across the contiguous United States, increasing risks to human health, ecosystems, agriculture, and energy production systems. However, their distribution across socioeconomically vulnerable communities remains largely unexplored at the national scale. In this study, we develop a CDHW metric by integrating weekly US Drought Monitor classifications with daily temperature extremes from 2000-2021, allowing consisten

EnvironmentOctober 6, 2026

An RNA thermogenic therapy to preserve lean mass and enhance metabolic health during GLP-1 weight loss.

Current obesity therapies reduce weight but often fail to preserve lean mass or sustain metabolic benefit. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) improve obesity-associated metabolic disease, but weight loss is often accompanied by reduced energy expenditure, loss of lean mass, and rapid fat-predominant regain after treatment discontinuation. We hypothesized that pharmacologic activation of adipose thermogenesis could specifically target fat loss, complement appetite suppression by

EnvironmentOctober 6, 2026

The Mader model of muscle energy metabolism simulates key metabolic exercise phenomena.

Energy metabolism matches adenosine triphosphate (ATP) resynthesis to hydrolysis even during abrupt transitions such as exercise onset. In 1984, Alois Mader proposed a mechanistic model that captures this regulation through 33 coupled differential equations linking oxidative phosphorylation, glycolysis, and the phosphocreatine shuttle via adenosine diphosphate (ADP), phosphate, and pH feedback. Despite its potential, broader adoption has been limited by closed-source implementations and key publ

EnvironmentOctober 6, 2026

Uneven attention to climate tipping points.

Climate tipping points have moved from theoretical concern to a practical challenge for climate-risk assessment and governance. Yet whether scientific attention is aligned with risk-relevant characteristics of climate tipping elements (CTEs) has not been systematically assessed. Across 20,736 CTE-specific records spanning 2000-2025 and addressing 14 tipping elements, attention was concentrated on the Greenland Ice Sheet and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, while Boreal Permafrost (ab

EnvironmentOctober 6, 2026

Fragmentation outweighs forest cover in shaping land surface temperature across half of global forests.

Forests are widely recognized for their significant role in climate change mitigation. Global landscape-scale assessments have focused mainly on how forest cover (FC) affects temperature. Yet, changes in forest area are generally accompanied by altered fragmentation, and both the independent effect of fragmentation on forest thermal environments and its contribution relative to FC remain insufficiently understood. We disentangled the respective relationships of fragmentation and FC with land sur

EnvironmentOctober 6, 2026

A structure-aware generative AI framework for revealing functional relationships in protein families.

Proteins can be studied through their sequence statistics or structural properties. These represent complementary views that are useful but lack a quantitative framework to tell, family by family, which is most informative and how to combine them. We introduce a framework that builds both views in parallel: amino acid (AA) alignments are translated into parallel alignments over a 3D interaction (3Di) structure-informed alphabet. Variational autoencoders compress each into a two-dimensional map,

EnvironmentOctober 1, 2026

Snowball refrigeration of Earth's crust mimics glacial erosion.

Glaciation cools the crust by setting its surface temperature to 0°C or well below. During the Cryogenian Snowball Earth glaciations, these conditions were in place long enough to cool the entire crustal column. Although crustal thermal history can be deciphered by thermochronology, these data are typically interpreted to record depth changes due to burial or erosion. Thermal models of the crust under Cryogenian boundary conditions predict that thermochronometers were substantially altered

EnvironmentOctober 1, 2026

Quadrupolar sea level fluctuations reveal episodes of rapid polar wander

True polar wander (TPW) is presently occurring at a rate of ~10 centimeters per year, exceeding the mean rate of differential plate motion. Whether this rate is transient and negligible on geological timescales or whether Earth has experienced rapid TPW lasting millions of years is unclear. Paleomagnetic evidence has been used to propose fast episodes of TPW, but limitations of the paleomagnetic record have precluded definitive results. Rapid TPW will induce global sea level fluctuations associa

EnvironmentOctober 1, 2026

Mitochondrial carrier SLC25A34 links clock, diet, and temperature control of adipocyte lipid cycling

Adipocyte lipid metabolism is coordinated by circadian rhythms, diet, and environmental temperature, but how these diverse signals are molecularly integrated remains unknown. We showed that these cues converge on the orphan mitochondrial transporter SLC25A34 to orchestrate lipid cycling. During the sleep phase, the adipocyte clock suppresses Slc25a34 expression through the REV-ERB transcriptional repressors. Entering the active phase, consuming lipid-rich diets, or exposure to cold abolishes REV

EnvironmentOctober 1, 2026

Climate-driven adaptive microevolution in wild yeasts

Environmental variation imposes strong selection on microbial populations, yet linking ecological gradients to genomic and phenotypic diversification remains challenging due to limited sampling of wild microbes. Here, we leveraged the exceptional abundance of the cold-adapted yeast Saccharomyces eubayanus throughout Patagonian Nothofagus forests to investigate how climatic gradients shape natural microbial diversity. Using systematic sampling across ~1,000 km of Chilean Patagonia, spanning multi

EnvironmentSeptember 30, 2026

Wafer-scale epitaxy growth of high-mobility p-type boron carbon nitride.

A long-standing bottleneck in realizing two-dimensional (2D) CMOS technology lies in the lack of high-performance p-type semiconductors 1-4 . Strong electron-doping tendencies, orbital localization and pronounced hole scattering have collectively impeded the development of stable, efficient p-type 2D materials. Here we report the epitaxy growth of boron carbon nitride (BCN) as a high-performance p-type semiconductor. By engineering the dehydrogenation and surface reaction pathways of monomethyl

EnvironmentSeptember 30, 2026

Carbene transfer from thianthrenium ylides for cyclopropanation.

Carbenes are reactive divalent carbon intermediates that serve as one-carbon synthons to access cyclopropanes. The synthetic utility of these three-membered carbocycles has led chemists to accept the dangers associated with the explosive starting materials 1 or intermediates 2 required for both conventional and modern cyclopropanation reactions. Sulfonium salts, although safer, have not been competitive for cyclopropanation because they typically do not function as efficient carbene donors 3 . I

EnvironmentSeptember 30, 2026

Structure-Dynamics-Property Relationship Reveals the Origin of Porous Integrity in Imine-Linked Covalent Organic Frameworks.

Molecular flexibility encoded in low-frequency lattice dynamics is increasingly recognized as a key determinant of the properties of porous materials, particularly metal-organic frameworks, but remains largely unexplored in covalent organic frameworks (COFs). Here, we establish a structure-dynamics-property relationship for chemically related COFs by combining three-dimensional electron diffraction, low-frequency vibrational spectroscopy, and first-principles calculations. Using 3D electron diff

EnvironmentSeptember 29, 2026

Rainfall extremes drive cocoa yield losses across the tropics.

There is a growing need for human-centered weather and climate forecasts that provide actionable information to farmers and other stakeholders. Cocoa, which sustains the livelihoods of nearly six million smallholder farmers, illustrates this need: Recent production shortfalls have threatened incomes, yet their underlying causes remain unclear, with explanations invoking both climatic and nonclimatic factors. Here we show that heavy rainfall, rather than temperature or mean water availability, is

EnvironmentSeptember 29, 2026

Manure to insect farming for feed mitigates nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions.

Livestock manure is nutrient-rich and represents a promising feedstock for insect farming, with insect protein offering a high-quality alternative to conventional crop-based livestock feed. This pathway has substantial potential to mitigate nitrogen (N) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock systems. Here, we integrate global livestock models with trade, land-use, and cost-benefit analysis to quantify the environmental and economic implications of manure-to-insect conversion while ens

EnvironmentSeptember 29, 2026

Air pollution after the shutdown of US embassy monitoring.

For more than a decade, US embassies and consulates provided independent, publicly accessible air-quality information in cities worldwide. In 2025, this program was abruptly suspended, generating sharp drops in the availability of trusted pollution information. We evaluate the consequences of this change using real-time satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) and a matched difference-in-differences design with same-country control cities. Across 46 cities, we find no systematic trends prio

EnvironmentSeptember 29, 2026

Climate mitigation contributes more to population persistence than evolutionary adaptation in a long-lived seabird.

Evolutionary rescue-the process by which adaptive evolution prevents population extinction following environmental deterioration -is frequently proposed as a buffer against biodiversity loss under climate change, yet its capacity to alter future population trajectories is rarely assessed quantitatively. Most forecasts of evolutionary rescue rely on simplified demographic models, focus on a single adaptive trait, and explore hypothetical environmental scenarios rather than standardized climate pa

EnvironmentSeptember 29, 2026

Liquid-state orientational precursors bias crystal polymorph nucleation.

How crystals emerge from supercooled liquids remains a central problem in condensed-matter physics and a paradigm of first-order phase transitions under metastable conditions. Supercooled liquids often form crystal nuclei that are not the thermodynamically most stable solid, in a manner that cannot be attributed solely to statistical fluctuations, challenging the intuition that polymorph selection simply follows the free-energy hierarchy of crystalline phases. Using molecular-dynamics simulation

EnvironmentSeptember 29, 2026

Climate-driven host ecology as a framework for zoonotic disease risk: Understanding transferability across arenavirus systems.

Mechanistic frameworks linking climate to zoonotic disease risk through host ecology remain rare, limiting transferable insights across systems. We develop a Bayesian framework combining an integral projection model of rodent demography with a compartmental disease model. Applied to capture-mark-recapture data from the Natal multimammate mouse ( Mastomys natalensis ; N = 20,249 captures, 1994-2023) and serological data on the Lassa virus-related Morogoro arenavirus ( N = 7,850 tests, 2010-2017),

EnvironmentSeptember 29, 2026

Ecdysteroid signaling acts as a central switch underlying wing polyphenism in two hemipteran insects.

Wing polyphenism represents a prevalent evolutionary adaptation in insect taxa, characterized by the capacity of a single genotype to produce distinct wing morphologies in response to environmental variations. Across hemipteran lineages, the regulation of wing polyphenism involves taxon-specific endocrine signaling cascades; however, the evolutionarily conserved genetic toolkit that underlies this developmental plasticity remains elusive. Here, we find that the steroid hormone ecdysteroids serve