EurekAlert! National Science Foundation - NSF Funded Research News

NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Jun-2025 08:10 ET (23-Jun-2025 12:10 GMT/UTC)

4-Mar-2025

Time will tell: USU geoscientists develop tool to chronicle unexplained gaps in the rock record

Utah State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In the March 4, 2025, online issue of the journal Geology, Utah State University geoscientists Jordan Jensen and Alexis Ault describe a new forensic tool to help researchers understand the creation of unconformities by tracking natural “rusting” reaction that occurs in the Earth’s near surface.

Journal: Geology
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

4-Mar-2025

The complex effects of pesticide exposure on bumble bee health

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The effects of pesticide exposure on pollinator health may be more complicated than originally thought, according to a team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences who recently published an article on the topic in Biology Letters.

Journal: Biology Letters
Funder: U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. National Science Foundation

4-Mar-2025

Video: The UW’s assistive-feeding robot gets tested outside the lab

University of Washington
Reports and Proceedings

Researchers deployed a robotic feeding arm in a pair of studies outside the lab. In the first, six users with motor impairments used the robot to feed themselves a meal in a UW cafeteria, an office or a conference room. In the second study, a community researcher and co-author on the research used the system at home for five days.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

4-Mar-2025

UC Irvine study shines headlights on consumer driverless vehicle safety deficiencies

University of California - Irvine
Reports and Proceedings

For the first time, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated that multicolored stickers applied to stop or speed limit signs on the roadside can confuse self-driving vehicles, causing unpredictable and possibly hazardous operations.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Meeting: Network and Distributed System Security Symposium

4-Mar-2025

Researchers see breakthrough with biofuel

University of Cincinnati
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory achieved a breakthrough in understanding the vulnerability of microbes to the alcohols they produce during fermentation of plant biomass.

Journal: Langmuir
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation, BioSANS, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Ohio Supercomputer Center

4-Mar-2025

Scientists unravel the spiraling secrets of magnetic materials for next-generation electronics

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

UC San Diego engineers have developed a new computational approach to accurately model and predict the properties of a class of magnetic molecules called chiral helimagnets. Their work could accelerate the discovery of new materials for spintronics technologies.

Journal: Advanced Functional Materials
Funder: American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, U.S. National Science Foundation

3-Mar-2025

Rice’s Gustavsson receives NSF CAREER Award to investigate dynamics of gene regulation

Rice University
Grant and Award Announcement

Rice University’s Anna-Karin Gustavsson has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award to advance her research on gene regulation dynamics. The five-year, $788,823 grant will support the development of innovative tools to visualize, quantify and analyze DNA organization and interactions in real time.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

3-Mar-2025

Quantum properties in atom-thick semiconductors offer new way to detect electrical signals in cells

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For decades, scientists have relied on electrodes and dyes to track the electrical activity of living cells. Now, UC San Diego engineers have discovered that quantum materials just a single atom thick can do the job with high speed and resolution—using only light.

Journal: Nature Photonics
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institutes of Health, Office of Naval Research

3-Mar-2025

Scientists use AI to better understand nanoparticles

New York University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of scientists has developed a method to illuminate the dynamic behavior of nanoparticles, which are foundational components in the creation of pharmaceuticals, electronics, and industrial and energy-conversion materials.

Journal: Science
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

28-Feb-2025

How do the universe’s highest-energy particles originate? Magnetic outflows stemming from star mergers, analysis concludes

New York University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new theory introduced by New York University physicist Glennys Farrar provides a viable and testable explanation for how UHECRs are created.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation