Decoy molecules trick soil bacteria into attacking persistent pollutants without genetic engineering

Microbial methane leaking from non-producing oil and gas wells is being emitted at rates about 1,000 times higher than previously estimated, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers. "Origins of Subsurface Methane Leaking from Nonproducing Oil and Gas Wells in Canada," by Gianni Micucci and Mary Kang, is published in Environmental Science and Technology.

Quitting tobacco could give a major economic uplift to the incomes of more than 20 million households in India, suggests an economic analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

Optical vortices—light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM)—are characterized by helical wavefronts and phase singularities. While they have been widely studied in recent decades, two fundamental limitations have restricted their broader impact: generating large numbers of vortices simultaneously and achieving high peak power in such configurations. Until now, large vortex arrays have been limited to low-power systems, whereas high-power demonstrations have typically involved only singl

While precision seems critical for science, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Texas A&M University are embracing uncertainty, using it to fine-tune artificial intelligence (AI)-based molecular design models. The resulting models can generate molecules with better predicted properties than those offered by the original models. The work is featured on the February 2026 cover of Molecular Systems Design & Engineering.