How did a large crab end up trapped inside a plastic bottle with an opening smaller than its body? Hiroshima University researchers investigated this unusual marine mystery, revealing a lesser-known impact of marine plastic pollution on crustaceans.

We report a novel marine polysaccharide-based biomimetic bilayer scaffold, d-ACT@MIC/SIM, featuring a dense upper layer serving as a barrier layer and a porous lower layer mimicking the native bone matrix microenvironment. This sophisticated architecture, coupled with the programmed co-delivery of minocycline and simvastatin, endowed the scaffold with a multifaceted therapeutic armamentarium. In vitro assessments identified its significant antibacterial efficacy and osteoinductive potential. Animal experiments further validated its capacity to suppress inflammatory cytokine expression and facilitate alveolar bone regeneration. The integrated strategy of a structurally biomimetic, dual drug-releasing scaffold thus offers a significant advancement over conventional therapeutic modalities for periodontitis by concurrently addressing infection, inflammation, and tissue regeneration. As such, this innovative bilayer asymmetric bionic drug-carrying scaffolds emerge as a compelling and prospective therapeutic option for advancing periodontitis treatment.

A new study published in New Contaminants suggests that several drugs widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic can be toxic to marine organisms, even at relatively low concentrations. The research tested five pharmaceuticals, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, nitazoxanide, loratadine, and betamethasone, on nauplii of the brine shrimp Artemia salina, a small crustacean commonly used in marine ecotoxicology.

Tufts University is advancing this mission through a new collaboration with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, giving graduate students direct access to immersive real-world ocean research.

The University of Alicante is participating in the largest scientific assessment driven to date by the United Nations to analyse the health of the world's oceans. This international project brings together hundreds of specialists from across the globe and currently serves as the primary global benchmark for guiding marine conservation policies internationally.

In marine environments, sponges tend to eat other organisms to get their nutrients. But a new study, published by the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) researchers in Functional Ecology, demonstrates how sponges may also use photosynthesis, just like plants. This phenomenon can help with the productivity – or amount of energy and food produced – in tropical coral reefs, and perhaps in other ecosystems where sponges are common too.

High-resolution sediment analyses from the Arabian Sea reveal, for the first time, that summer and winter monsoons respond differently to global climate change. Researchers from the University of Bremen contributed to the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

A new study led by researchers at HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research in an international collaboration with Queen Mary University of London shows that rising water temperatures can shift the diet of an invasive crustacean from animal prey toward algae, a finding with wide implications for how invasive species reshape freshwater food webs under climate change. The research, published in Limnology and Oceanography Letters, found that warming causes a reallocation of diet from carnivory toward herbivory instead of simply increasing feeding intensity, particularly when larger zooplankton prey are available.

The ANERIS project has held its Final Consortium Meeting in person, bringing together all project partners for a two-day progress gathering.