EurekAlert! National Science Foundation - NSF Funded Research News

NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-May-2026 05:16 ET (1-May-2026 09:16 GMT/UTC)

Tulane study reveals how floods drive river movement amid shifting environmental patterns

Tulane University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new Tulane University study shows that the size and frequency of floods play a key role in how quickly rivers shift their course, with sandy banks moving more easily and muddy banks staying stable. Using data from the Mississippi and dozens of rivers worldwide, researchers found that increasingly extreme flood cycles could reshape waterways, affecting communities, infrastructure and regional planning.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: Yonsei University, National Science Foundation of Korea, U.S. Geological Survey

Scientists develop plastics that can break down, tackling pollution

Rutgers University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a study published in Nature Chemistry, Rutgers chemist Yuwei Gu and a team of Rutgers scientists have shown that by borrowing a principle from nature, they can create plastics that break down under everyday conditions without heat or harsh chemicals.

Journal: Nature Chemistry
Funder: American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund

Social media research tool can lower political temperature. It could also lead to more user control over algorithms.

Stanford University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A web-based method developed by a Stanford-led team was shown to mitigate political polarization on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, by nudging antidemocratic and extremely negative partisan posts lower in a user’s feed. The tool, which is independent of the platform, has the potential to give users more say over what they see on social media.

Journal: Science
Funder: Swiss National Science Foundation, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence

Expanding seasonal immunization access could minimize off-season RSV epidemics

Brown University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Providing year-round access to RSV immunization would minimize the risk of large seasonal outbreaks across the nation, including in both urban and rural areas. That’s according to a new study, published in Science Advances and led by Brown University researchers, which examined differences in viral spread in areas with different population density.

Journal: Science Advances

Evolving a flight-ready brain – New study shows brain evolution in pterosaurs and birds took different paths

Ohio University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Flight is a rare skill in the animal world. Among vertebrates, it evolved only three times: in bats, birds, and the long-extinct pterosaurs. Pterosaurs were the pioneers, taking to the skies more than 220 million years ago, long before early bird relatives such as Archaeopteryx appeared, around 150 million years ago. While scientists have a detailed fossil record that sheds light on how birds’ brains evolved for flight, the same story for pterosaurs has been far less clear. Until now. In a new study published in Current Biology, an international team now reveals how pterosaurs evolved the neurological structures required for powered flight.

Journal: Current Biology
Funder: American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Paleontological Society, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

Diamond defects, now in pairs, reveal hidden fluctuations in the quantum world

Princeton University, Engineering School
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Princeton researchers have developed a diamond-based quantum sensor that reveals rich new information about magnetic phenomena in spaces smaller than a wavelength of light. Their new technique uncovers magnetic fluctuations beyond the reach of existing instruments and provides key insight into quantum materials such as graphene and superconductors — opening a new way to study condensed matter physics.

Funder: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

New research by ASU paleoanthropologists gives valuable insight into how two ancient human ancestors coexisted in the same area

Arizona State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With the help of newly identified bones, an enigmatic 3.4-million-year-old hominin foot found in 2009, is assigned to a species different from that of the famous fossil Lucy providing further proof that two ancient species of hominins co-existed at the same time and in the same region.

Journal: Nature
Funder: W. M. Keck Foundation

Making LAZY plants stand up: Research reveals new pathway plants use to detect gravity

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has revealed a previously unknown pathway plants use to detect gravity and orient the direction they grow in. Publishing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study may one day open the door for improvements in crop cultivation.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Tiny traps, big trouble: Small regions within cells aggregate proteins linked to ALS, dementia

University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

U-M researchers found that in protein droplets related to ALS, tiny nanodomains slow molecule movement and migrate to the surface over time, with ALS drugs potentially speeding this process and promoting protective fibril formation.

Journal: Nature Nanotechnology
Funder: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

AI tool helps visually impaired users ‘feel’ where objects are in real time

Penn State
Reports and Proceedings

Over the last few years, systems and applications that help visually impaired people navigate their environment have undergone rapid development, but still have room to grow, according to a team of researchers at Penn State. The team recently combined recommendations from the visually impaired community and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a new tool that offers support specifically tailored to the needs of people who are visually impaired.

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