Popular Mechanics featured UCLA archaeologist Jo Ann Van Tilburg in an article about her team’s latest breakthrough in the search for answers about the famed statues on the island of Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island. For over three decades, Van Tilburg and members of the Rapanui community have studied the stone heads, recently proposing that the statues were placed to aid in agricultural food production. New soil testing, in collaboration with the University of the South in Tennessee, supports this conclusion. See more about UCLA in today’s NPR, Earth.com and other outlets.

More highlights from UCLA in the News: Feb. 25, 2026 

Hubble captures comet’s unexpected spin reversal | Earth.com

Archival images from the Hubble Space Telescope, taken in late 2017, captured the comet again after it had slipped from view earlier that year. Analyzing those frames, David Jewitt at the University of California, Los Angeles, measured a new rotation period that no longer fit the steady slowdown seen in spring. The December signal revealed a faster spin in the opposite direction, implying the nucleus had passed through zero rotation during the months it went unobserved. 

Chemists believed they knew phosphorus — until it played a new trick | Scienmag

In a groundbreaking breakthrough that challenges long-standing conventions in catalysis, UCLA organic chemists have unveiled an innovative approach to catalyze chemical reactions traditionally reliant on scarce precious metals. This pioneering research reveals that abundant and inexpensive phosphorus, specifically in the form of phosphines, can mimic the catalytic prowess of precious transition metals such as platinum and palladium. (UCLA’s Abigail Doyle, Flora Fan and Alexander Maertens were cited.)

What are the misconceptions and stigma behind Tourette's? | LAist’s “AirTalk”

“Coprolalia is not uncommon in individuals with Tourette’s. About 10 to 15 percent do have coprolalia. It’s a teachable moment. Kids and adults with Tourette’s and with coprolalia suffer through these incidents every day,” said UCLA’s John Piacentini (approx. 6:15 mark).

Never again means now | Jewish Journal

(Commentary written by UCLA’s Robert Kaplan) “Recent warnings about the fragility of American democracy have moved from the margins to the mainstream. Editorial boards, constitutional scholars and former public officials have urged vigilance in protecting elections, judicial independence and the rule of law. Such concerns are not partisan reflexes. History shows that stable democracies can weaken gradually, often under legal and procedural cover.”

When a horse whinnies, there's more than meets the ear | NPR

"What I really liked in this paper is that they used a very comprehensive experimental approach that combined different techniques and that all converge [on] the same results," says Mathilde Massenet, a bioacoustician at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has worked with Briefer in the past but didn't participate in the new research.  

Your wearable data may actually be making your sleep worse | New York Post

And wearable health trackers have made people more aware, and sometimes more anxious, about the length and quality of their rest. “People are simply becoming more attentive because they can now track their sleep,” Dr. Alon Avidan, director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center, said.