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Ancient quakes along 150-mile fault system in Nepal revealed

A common misconception about research is that it takes place in climate-controlled labs with microscopes, beakers, and Bunsen burners. While that is true for many fields, obtaining geoscience data can demand fieldwork in remote, rugged terrain with potentially extreme weather conditions. These investigations may require flying across the world, hiking for days above 14,000 feet of elevation in the Himalayan mountain range during all kinds of weather, and even sacrificing personal hygiene.

New study challenges the idea of humans as innately nature-loving

Nature is a source of well-being and recovery for many people. However, research shows that there is also a growing number of individuals who experience negative emotions, such as fear, discomfort, or even disgust, toward nature. The phenomenon, called biophobia, is now highlighted in a new study from Lund University.

CERN's ATLAS detects evidence for decay of Higgs boson into muon–antimuon pair

Although its existence had been theorized for decades, the Higgs boson was finally observed to exist in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Since then, it has continued to be heavily studied at the LHC. Now, a new study from the researchers at CERN combines the last two runs of ATLAS—one of the two general-purpose detectors at the LHC—to lay out evidence that the Higgs boson can decay into a muon–antimuon pair.

How inventing political adversaries can create real civil division

While it is widely assumed that civil wars reinforce the existing political divisions, a recent sociological study sheds light on how these divisions actually can be reinvented during social conflict. The study, "Fabricating Communists: The Imagined Third That Reinvented the National Fault Line in Mid-Twentieth-Century Colombia's Civil War," by Laura Acosta (University of California-San Diego), is published in the December 2025 issue of the American Sociological Review.

Pleasant-sounding words are easier to remember, pseudoword experiment shows

Which words do we find beautiful? And do beautifully sounding words stick better in memory? A new study led by linguist Theresa Matzinger from the University of Vienna suggests that the phonemic composition of words influences how beautiful we perceive them to be, and how well we remember them. The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

High-resolution GlyT2 structures point to non-opioid analgesic options

Glycine is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter that reduces nerve activity, helping to regulate pain signals, motor control and sensory processing. Glycine transporter 2 (GlyT2) is a key regulator of glycinergic neurotransmission because it removes glycine from the synaptic clefts. When GlyT2 is inhibited, glycine reuptake is reduced, allowing synaptic glycine levels to rise and enhancing inhibitory signaling.

Watershed sustainability project centers place-based research

The Xwulqw'selu Sta'lo' (Koksilah River) is a culturally important river to the Cowichan Tribes, located on traditional Quw'utsun land on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The land, which was never ceded to Canada, is part of a watershed that faces challenges including decreasing salmon populations, low river flow, flooding, and land use changes.

Eyes for an agricultural robot: AI system identifies weeds in apple orchards

Weed control is essential in apple orchards because weeds compete with trees for nutrients, water and sunlight, which can reduce fruit yields. However, physically removing weeds is not only labor-intensive, but it also can damage soil structure and tree roots. Using chemical sprays to kill weeds can lead to other problems, such as pollution, herbicide resistance and excess chemical residues on apples.

LHC data confirm validity of new model of hadron production—and test foundations of quantum mechanics

A boiling sea of quarks and gluons, including virtual ones—this is how we can imagine the main phase of high-energy proton collisions. It would seem that particles here have significantly more opportunities to evolve than when less numerous and much "better-behaved" secondary particles spread out from the collision point. However, data from the LHC accelerator prove that reality works differently, in a manner that is better described by an improved model of proton collisions.

Measuring Colorado's mountains one hike at a time

In the middle of a chilly October night in 2025, my two friends and I suited up at the Cottonwood Creek trailhead and started a trek into the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Colorado. It was a little below freezing as we got moving at 1:30 a.m., and the moon illuminated the snowy mountaintops above us.

People who talk with their hands seem more clear and persuasive

When people use hand gestures that visually represent what they're saying, listeners see them as more clear, competent and persuasive. That's the key finding from my new research published in the Journal of Marketing Research, where I analyzed thousands of TED Talks and ran controlled experiments to examine how gestures shape communication.

Jim Mork Selected to Serve as Acting Director of NLM’s Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications

James (Jim) Mork, MS, has been named Acting Director of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health, effective December 30, 2023. In this role, Mr. Mork will be charged with continuing LHNCBC’s reorganization to include implementing the new strategic vision and direction for the Applied Clinical Informatics Branch. Jim will also lead LHNCBC in NLM’s mission to support and foster open science.

NLM-Funded Scholarly Work on Nutrition, Health Disparities Wins International Award

An academic work funded by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Grants for Scholarly Works in Biomedicine and Health (G13) was awarded the 2024 Best Book in Urban Affairs Award by the Urban Affairs Association. Dr. Naa Oyo A. Kwate was presented with the award for her book, White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Exploitation, today at the International Conference on Urban Affairs in New York City. The book provides a detailed history of race and the food environment and its impact on nutrition and health disparities.

The Modernized ClinicalTrials.gov Will Become the Singular Website Experience

Starting June 25, 2024, the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) modernized ClinicalTrials.gov website will become the singular website experience for all users. As part of its commitment to enhance the user experience and deliver improved functionality for searching, viewing, and downloading information about clinical trials, NLM is retiring the classic version of the website and its application programming interface.

National Library of Medicine Establishes New Division of Intramural Research

The National Library of Medicine (NLM)’s Intramural Research Program (IRP) has been officially renamed and reorganized as the Division of Intramural Research (DIR) led by NLM Scientific Director Richard Scheuermann, PhD. This milestone reflects NLM’s ongoing activities based on recommendations from a Blue Ribbon Panel Review of the intramural research program, aligns with NLM’s strategic direction, and represents a positive investment in growing a center of excellence for innovation in computational biology and health informatics research.