Latest Releases

At times, 2025 has felt like a series of sprints in a never-ending news marathon. Amid the deluge of stories coming out of the second Trump administration, the growing presence of AI in nearly every facet of daily life, extreme weather events, global conflicts — to name just a few — it can feel challenging to keep up. Good news: Northwestern researchers have been hard at work bringing new information and discoveries to the fore. Here are a few research highlights over this past year that deserve a second look.

The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University presents the exhibitions, “Hamdia Traoré’s Des marabouts de Djenné and Muslim Portraiture in Mali,” and “Teresa Montoya: Tó Łitso (Yellow Water): Ten Years After the Gold King Mine Spill,” Feb. 4 -July 14, 2026. Each exhibition explores how contemporary artists utilize the medium of the extended photographic portfolio to tell a comprehensive story. The exhibitions also focus on artists documenting and interpreting the presentation of their own communities.

New study discovers a key iron mineral in soil has a nanoscale mosaic of positive and negative charges. Varied charges, hydrogen bonding and strong chemical bonds enable mineral to trap carbon. Findings help explain why some carbon is locked in soils for centuries

Northwestern University’s annual commemoration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will pay tribute to King’s vision for a “Beloved Community” with events and projects planned throughout the month.

Tanning bed use is tied to almost a threefold increase in melanoma risk, and for the first time, scientists have shown how these devices cause melanoma-linked DNA damage across nearly the entire skin surface, reports a new study led by Northwestern Medicine and University of California, San Francisco.

Behavioral health care surged to represent 40% of all medical expenditures for U.S. children in 2022, nearly doubling from 22% in 2011, according to a new study from scientists at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

Astronomers discovered a new exoplanet hidden in decade-old data. Planet is bound to binary stars, which orbit each other every 18 days. Planet is six times closer to its stars than other directly imaged planets orbiting binary systems.

A cellular gate, called PANX1, accommodates cargo of vastly different sizes. Study is first to find the channel uses a ring of amino acids to form a flexible gate that dilates and constricts. Researchers also found a common antimalarial drug binds to a previously unknown site in PANX1 to control the gate.

The Winter Chamber Music Festival returns to Northwestern University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music for its 29th season beginning in January. Weekend concerts will be presented Jan. 9 to 23, with a special closing performance on Saturday, Feb. 14.

Lung microbiomes resembling oral microbiomes were associated with recovery.