While soccer fans watch their favorite teams compete at this summer’s World Cup, Rutgers University’s plant biologists will be looking under the players’ cleats—eyeing the lush, green natural turfgrass they created. Ten of the tournament’s 16 soccer stadiums in the United States, Canada, and Mexico hosting the World Cup will feature cultivated varieties (cultivars) of […]
Research
Urban Rodents May Be Evolving Against Common Poisons
Now researchers at Rutgers University believe they may know one reason why. A study found that 84% of house mice sampled from urban areas in the Northeast carried at least one genetic mutation linked to rodenticide resistance, suggesting many mouse populations may be evolving ways to survive the poisons commonly used to control them. The research was […]
Can Financial Tools Save Biodiversity? A New Review Says “Not So Fast”
The world is losing plants, animals, and ecosystems at an alarming rate, with several causes of this biodiversity decline including habitat loss, climate change, and overexploitation. However, reversing these trends will likely require substantial amounts of funding. Experts estimate the gap between what’s currently being spent on biodiversity protection and what’s actually needed is at […]
Reading the Ocean’s Past to Understand Our Climate Future
To understand how Earth’s climate is changing, we first need to understand how it has changed before. One of the best tools for doing that sits at the bottom of the ocean — tiny, fossilized shells of microscopic, single celled creatures called foraminifera. A new study published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology takes a […]
Marine Science Students Turn Class Papers Into Published Research
Three Rutgers undergraduates achieved first-author status in peer-reviewed journals, transforming their marine science class projects into published research before graduation. The work grew out of a course taught by Richard Lutz, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences within the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and a renowned oceanographer known for his research […]
A Coastal Defense That Becomes Stronger Is Showing Early Success
Scientists report that a living reef coastal defense system can reduce wave power significantly, suggesting the approach could offer a new way to protect shorelines from storms and rising seas. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by an international team that included nine Rutgers University researchers, provide one of the most […]
Debashish Bhattacharya Wins 2025-2026 Rutgers Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research
Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was recognized with the Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research, which honors tenured faculty members who have made distinguished research contributions to their discipline and/or society at large. Bhattacharya was recognized on May 6 as part of the 2025-26 University-wide Faculty Year-End […]
Did Impacts From Meteors Help Start Life on Earth?
Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to research integrated by a recent Rutgers University graduate. “No one knows, from a scientific perspective, how life could have been formed from an early Earth that had no life,” said Shea Cinquemani, […]
Hidden Patterns in Fish Movement and Life History Strategies Revealed
Scientists have developed a powerful new statistical approach that can reveal complex patterns in how fish move and adapt to their environments—information that’s been hiding in plain sight within fish ear stones. A study published in the journal Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries introduces an advanced framework to analyze chemical signatures in fish otoliths—small […]
In the Ocean’s Marine ‘Snow,’ a Scientist Seeks Clues to Future Climate
As any diver knows, oceans can be cloudy places. Even on sunny days, snow-like particles drift through the water column, obscuring the aquatic world below. Scientists have long known that this “marine snow” carries inorganic calcium carbonate – the building block of shells – but couldn’t explain how the mineral dissolves in the upper part […]
