In a recent Frontiers in Marine Science article, an international team of researchers published the results of a 15-year-long observation of the skeleton of a blue or fin whale lying at roughly 1,300 meters deep at Clayoquot slope off Vancouver Island. Remotely, they recorded high-definition video during four cruises between 2012 and 2024. They found that species richness has increased from 26 taxa in 2009 to 31 in 2023. They concluded the sulphophilic stage – which starts after soft tissue has mostly been consumed and anaerobic bacteria begin breaking down the remaining lipids in the whale bones – has lasted more than 20 years, with indications that it will last for at least another decade.

Endangered Guadalupe fur seals (GFS) occupy a colony on the San Benito Archipelago, a group of small islands in the Pacific. During the 2024 breeding season, researchers in Mexico and Canada examined causes of neonatal GFS morbidity and mortality and assessed potential threats to species conservation associated with entanglement, alopecia syndrome, and marine pollution. They published their results in Frontiers in Marine Science. For alopecia syndrome – a condition characterized by the loss of guard hair and damage to the underfur – they found high prevalence (21% to 26%), especially among young seals. The cause of alopecia among GFS is currently unknown.

Researchers have discovered a new spider species in the Indian Himalayas, Theridion himalayana, which displays a striking "happy-face" pattern and polymorphic color variations nearly identical to its famous Hawaiian relative. Despite the physical resemblance, DNA analysis confirms it is a distinct lineage that evolved independently, prompting new questions about the evolutionary purpose of these patterns and the spider's specific association with ginger plants.

KAIST announced on May 19th that the KAIST-Hanwha Solutions Future Technology Research Institute, has secured bio-technology capable of mass-producing eco-friendly raw materials for plastics and textiles using waste resources, offering an alternative to petroleum-derived naphtha.

An Osaka Metropolitan University-led research team demonstrated that when female Tongeia fischeri, a near-threatened butterfly species in Japan, feed on an invasive plant during the larval stage, the reflectance spectrum of their adult wings changes, making them less preferred for mating by wild males. 

A new Thought Leaders invited review in Genomic Psychiatry synthesizes more than two decades of work on HuD, a neuronal RNA-binding protein encoded by the ELAVL4 gene. Drawing on RIP-seq and CLIP-seq data from embryonic and adult mouse brain, the authors compare close to 4,000 HuD-bound messenger RNAs and identify 1,926 shared targets. Despite different molecular casts at different ages, fifteen canonical pathways and thirty-one disease and function categories recur across development and maturity. The synthesis suggests that adult neuronal plasticity is, at the molecular level, a recapitulation of early development.A new Thought Leaders invited review in Genomic Psychiatry synthesizes more than two decades of work on HuD, a neuronal RNA-binding protein encoded by the ELAVL4 gene. Drawing on RIP-seq and CLIP-seq data from embryonic and adult mouse brain, the authors compare close to 4,000 HuD-bound messenger RNAs and identify 1,926 shared targets. Despite different molecular casts at different ages, fifteen canonical pathways and thirty-one disease and function categories recur across development and maturity. The synthesis suggests that adult neuronal plasticity is, at the molecular level, a recapitulation of early development.A new Thought Leaders invited review in Genomic Psychiatry synthesizes more than two decades of work on HuD, a neuronal RNA-binding protein encoded by the ELAVL4 gene. Drawing on RIP-seq and CLIP-seq data from embryonic and adult mouse brain, the authors compare close to 4,000 HuD-bound messenger RNAs and identify 1,926 shared targets. Despite different molecular casts at different ages, fifteen canonical pathways and thirty-one disease and function categories recur across development and maturity. The synthesis suggests that adult neuronal plasticity is, at the molecular level, a recapitulation of early development.

Sequencing environmental DNA in seawater shows the local presence or absence of species, but until now could give little information about those measures of biodiversity that are the most useful in conservation. As a proof-of-principle, scientists in the US have now shown that mitochondrial DNA in water sampled near schools of dolphins contains enough information to measure their local effective population size and monitor the health of these populations.

​For the first time, scientists have directly measured how smoking changes the mechanical behavior of human lung tissue. The researchers found that smoking substantially stiffens this tissue in ways resembling fibrosis, a disease that scars and toughens the lungs.