Researchers have uncovered a critical mechanism behind battery failure in solid-state batteries, offering new insights that could help unlock safer, longer-lasting energy storage technologies. Every time a smartphone is charged or an electric vehicle is plugged in, billions of lithium ions move through a battery to store energy. Future devices could perform far better with [...]

Scientists have uncovered a shared target used by multiple diarrhea-causing bacteria to invade the gut. Despite decades of research, scientists still do not have vaccines against two of the world’s most common causes of severe bacterial diarrhea: enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and Shigella. Together, these pathogens infect hundreds of millions of people each year and [...]

Vitamin B12 is needed in only trace amounts, yet its absence can have far-reaching effects. Two micrograms is an almost unimaginably small amount. It weighs less than a tiny fragment of a grain of table salt. Yet adults need only around this amount of vitamin B12 each day, depending on the guideline used, to support [...]

A new study suggests that altering the gut microbiome with probiotics may provide additional benefits for older adults being treated for depression. Could a daily probiotic help ease depression in older adults? A new clinical trial suggests the answer may be yes, adding to growing evidence that the gut and brain are more connected than [...]

A genetic study of 2,000-year-old grape seeds is shedding new light on ancient winemaking. For centuries, the vineyards of Tuscany have been associated with some of the world’s most celebrated red wines. But a cache of grape seeds buried in ancient wells is revealing a very different story about what people were growing and drinking [...]

Scientists discovered that the visual brain may secretly “feel” what it sees, turning sight into physical experience and helping make empathy possible. Working with researchers from institutions around the world, Nicholas Hedger (University of Reading) and Tomas Knapen (Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) investigated one of neuroscience’s biggest questions: how humans experience [...]

A new study suggests plague was already a deadly threat 5,500 years ago, striking small hunter-gatherer communities long before cities and agriculture emerged. For centuries, plague has been remembered as the disease that devastated medieval Europe, killing millions and reshaping societies. But new research suggests its deadly history stretches much further back than previously thought. [...]