Virginia Tech researchers received a grant worth more than $500,000 from the National Science Foundation to expand robot theater, an after-school program that helps children explore robotics through performance-based learning. Funding will help researchers refine the program, add artificial intelligence ethics components, and share the curriculum more broadly.

One of the goals of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, which came into force in 2024, is to halt species loss and preserve important ecosystem services provided by agricultural landscapes. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), in collaboration with the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute (SDEI), have now calculated the Grassland Butterfly Index for Germany – an indicator of the state of biodiversity proposed in the EU regulation. The results, published in the journal Nature Conservation, show a negative trend, especially in recent years. For their calculations, the researchers were able to draw on 4 million observation data collected at the UFZ over the last 20 years as part of the ‘Butterfly Monitoring Germany’ programme.

Speed limits on German highways are a major point of contention, seen as a restriction on personal freedom by some, and as life-saving by others. But what is actually true? One scientist at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has compiled new, reliable data for the first time in about 50 years. The results show that a speed limit of 75 miles per hour (120 kilometers per hour) would reduce the number of crashes with severe injuries by 26 percent, and the number of traffic fatalities by 35 percent. The study has been published online in the journal Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from August 5, 2025.