9 February 2026

Today’s The Life Academic examines which U.S. universities get the most federal research funding. Spoiler: It’s almost always the same ones. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including a “genetic island” in Greece and how people could someday protect their noses from the flu.

Earth Science | Science

Finding hidden quakes

Most major earthquakes occur along subduction zones, places where Earth’s tectonic plates grind up against one another. But a whole host of quakes happen within the continental mantle, a typically stable and quiet layer beneath land.

Since these continental mantle earthquakes (CMEs) occur deeper down than subduction zone quakes, there has never been a large-scale search for their kind. To remedy that, a team studied potential CMEs occurring since 1990—a set of more than 46,000 quakes . They then whittled their sample down to around 11,000 potential events based on their ratios of Sn waves, which propagate better in the mantle, to Lg waves, which propagate better in the crust. Further study revealed that 459 were new CME detections.

In general, CMEs were common along a path from the Alps to the Himalayas; along the Caspian Sea; along the Bering Strait; and even in areas of the U.S. like Alaska and Wyoming. The researchers think the varied locations mean that CMEs have more causes than previously realized. “Although CMEs are rare, they are distributed broadly across the continents with distinctive regional gaps and clusters, indicating diverse mechanisms and tectonic implications,” explained the researchers.

Read the paper

Genetics | News from Science

Greece’s most isolated DNA tells a deep story

The Mani Peninsula, off the southern coast of Greece, is home to a group of genetically isolated people called Deep Maniots. Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou

An isolated peninsula on the southern coast of Greece, dotted with mountains and collections of stone houses, has captured the attention of historians and scientists for centuries. The people who live on the Mani Peninsula’s southernmost tip, called Deep Maniots, are known for cultural isolation.

Whether Deep Maniots are also genetically isolated, as many local people believe, was a mystery—until now. Researchers studied the genetic makeup of Maniots living at the tip of the peninsula and found that the group forms a so-called genetic island.

One of the authors, Thanasis Kofinakos, is himself Deep Maniot. He grew up hearing about Deep Maniots’ ancient origins and claims of Medieval nobility, part of the traditional oral storytelling of the region. To test whether these spoken histories were true, Kofinakos and his colleagues set out to learn where Deep Maniots come from and what their genetics reveal about their history and societal evolution.

They analyzed paternal and maternal lineages to compare Deep Maniot genomes with more than one million modern genomes and thousands of ancient genomes. The researchers found very few matches to other populations in paternal DNA, supporting the popular conception that the group is genetically unique within Greece, and traced lineages as far back as the Bronze Age.

Read the full story

Medicine | Science Translational Medicine

Punching influenza in the nose

Every year, seasonal flu outbreaks kill hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, despite the availability of vaccines. One problem is that vaccines have to be made months ahead of time, forcing scientists to guess which strains will spread. Some antibodies can block many different flu strains, including ones with pandemic potential, if they can reach the virus early enough. A new study asks whether delivering these antibodies straight to the nose, using a nasal spray, could be an effective way to protect people .

Researchers studied CR9114, an antibody that can recognize many strains of influenza, including both influenza A and B, and zoonotic strains. When administered as a nasal spray in mice, nonhuman primates, and people, the treatment was safe and well-tolerated; it also resulted in much higher antibody levels in the nose than from injected treatments, despite using smaller doses. Because the effect wears off quickly, using the spray twice a day helped keep those levels high enough for potential protection.

Of course, what really matters is that the antibodies do their job once they’re in nasal passages. Sure enough, in monkeys directly exposed to influenza, the nasal spray significantly reduced viral levels in the upper respiratory tract. And in early trials involving healthy volunteers, nasal mucus samples collected 6 and 12 hours after the application of the nasal spray still neutralized influenza viruses.

Although larger trials will be needed to confirm how well the approach works in people, if effective, such sprays could become a powerful weapon against seasonal flu outbreaks or future pandemics: They use low doses, can be distributed quickly, and are self-administered. “These results demonstrate the feasibility of our ongoing efforts to stop viruses at the portal of entry rather than through the traditional route of intravenous or intramuscular delivery,” said co-author Clarissa Koch in a statement.

Read the paper

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The Life Academic

Elite U.S. universities maintain grip on research dollars

Jeffrey Mervis, Senior Correspondent, News from Science

Every major U.S. university works hard to attract more federal research grants. But a new report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) shows how hard it is for an institution to crack the top 10—and how little those rankings have changed in the last decade.

Johns Hopkins University stood at the top in every year of the period (2014-2023) that NSF analyzed. Only two institutions in the top 10 in 2023—the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-B) and Columbia University—weren’t there in 2014 as well: CU-B was 11th and Columbia was 14th. Similarly, only two universities in the top 10 back in 2014—Harvard and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)—failed to maintain that elite status in 2023, with UCLA dropping from 8th to 12th and Harvard falling from 10th to 20th.

There was also little reshuffling within that top tier over the decade. For example, Columbia was the only new face in the top 7 in 2023 compared with 2014, and the University of Pennsylvania was the only top-7 institution in 2014 to lose that status in 2023, slipping from 5th to 8th place.

At the same time, the NSF data offer aspiring universities a sliver of hope that it’s possible to move up the ranks. In 2023 the top 10 universities received 20.1% of all federal research expenditures, down from 22.7% in 2014.

graph of top uni research dollars over time

Higher education institutions receiving the largest amounts of federal obligations for science and engineering in FY 2023 and their positions in annual rankings FYs 2014–23. Sources: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions; the Federal Science and Engineering Support module of the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development

Read the report

Et Cetera

On their own again

More than a decade ago, the historic Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which has trained generations of biologists in its celebrated summer programs, partnered with the University of Chicago to overcome a financial crisis. Now, as money woes hit the university, the oldest private marine laboratory in the United States is striking out again on its own. “The university has been extraordinarily helpful, and we owe them a debt of gratitude,” said the laboratory’s director. “Now is the right time to go back to the history of the MBL, which is to be an independent organization.”

Read more at ScienceInsider

Feral frontlines

In the war zone in Ukraine, dogs that used to be gentle pets have become more like their wild kin, including mid-length snouts, pointier ears, and darker coloration. “War acts as a powerful filter, favoring traits that improve survival under extreme conditions,” one researcher noted. “What surprised us most was how quickly these changes appeared. The war had been ongoing for a relatively short time, yet the differences between frontline dogs and other populations were already very pronounced.”

Evolutionary Applications Paper | Read more at The New York Times

Spongy inside Io

If you think a single volcanic eruption is a disaster, imagine five volcanoes going off at the same time. That’s what happened on Jupiter’s moon Io. “There’s so much magma that we can’t quite wrap our minds around it,” said one researcher. The coordinated eruption suggests the volcanoes are connected underground. “This is actually like early Earth when it was much hotter and more active, so Io can tell us a lot about our past,” the scientist added.

JGR Planets Paper | Read more at New Scientist

87%

The percentage of prominent universities that have at least partially rolled back faculty diversity pledges after the Trump administration’s attacks on DEI efforts

When asked by The Washington Post whether they are still committed to DEI programs, only 12 of the 184 institutions said yes.

The Washington Post

Last but not least

There seems to be a psychological toll to going “deep undercover” for too long. So perhaps it makes sense that, for nonhuman animals like these beetles, there’s an evolutionary one.

Christie Wilcox, Editor, ScienceAdviser

With contributions from Hannah Richter, Perri Thaler, and Ana Georgescu

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