Math and science Braille textbooks are expensive and require enormous effort to produce. Now a team of researchers has developed a method for easily creating textbooks in Braille that will ensure production of the books will become easy, inexpensive and widespread.

Not only are mealworms able to consume various forms of plastic, new research from Stanford shows they can eat Styrofoam containing a common toxic chemical additive and still be safely used as protein-rich feedstock for other animals.

Scientists have discovered that events from the ancient past are still impacting the diversity and distribution of mammal species worldwide. Supported by the National Science Foundation, this first-of-its-kind study is the work of researchers at UMass Amherst; Rice University; University of California, Riverside; and Arizona State University. More information at http://bit.ly/39VJ8nm

One way to boost the productivity of a plant is to redirect some of its resources away from maintaining an overprepared immune system and into enhanced seed production. So say NSF-funded scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who have found a gene that could help them tweak that balance.

NSF-funded researchers are using their pattern-recognition algorithm to identify microbial communities in the body by sifting through volumes of genetic code. Their method could speed the development of medical treatments for microbiota-linked ailments like Crohn’s disease.

New NSF-funded University of Arizona research investigates what proportion of the world's land plants are exceedingly rare, where they're found and how location might put them at risk of human development and a changing climate.

Bees 'surf' atop water. When stuck in water, bees create a wave and hydrofoil atop it, according to a new study. The motion they use, though labor-intensive, could one day be used to generate robots capable of flying and swimming.

Researchers have created a terahertz laser using laughing gas. (Yep.) These lasers can be small, tunable, and much more efficient. They could fit in a backpack, in your vehicle for wireless communication, or they could be used for high-resolution imaging.

They can cause heat waves, droughts and downpours. Now scientists have found stalled high-pressure systems will get bigger due to climate change.

An NSF-funded research team at Princeton University has explored how adversaries could cause AI systems to produce unintended, possibly dangerous outcomes.