Today's Science Pulse
Hidden Star Clusters Discovered Deep Inside Nearby Galaxies
A UK‑led study using VLA and ALMA data uncovered previously hidden giant star clusters deep within nearby galaxies, describing them as “ring factories.” The findings highlight how young stellar activity shapes galactic evolution across the universe.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Foundation Alloy raises $22M Series A
UNCTAD and Singapore Team Up to Green Global Maritime Transport
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority have signed a partnership to fast‑track the shift toward sustainable, resilient maritime transport. The deal leverages Singapore’s port efficiency and UNCTAD’s development expertise to promote cleaner fuels, digital tools and capacity building for developing nations.
Dayspring Pharma’s CG2001 Foam Hits Primary Endpoint in Phase II AGA Trial of 110 Chinese Men
Dayspring Pharma announced that its CG2001 foam achieved the primary efficacy endpoint in a 30‑week Phase II study of 110 Chinese men with androgenetic alopecia. The combination of 5% minoxidil and 0.075% finasteride delivered roughly 50% greater hair‑growth results versus historic...
EY Survey Flags Climate Change, Data Ethics and Debt Crisis as Top Long‑Term Threats for Insurers
EY’s global insurance risk management survey of 106 carriers across EMEIA, the Americas and Asia‑Pacific identifies climate transition, data ethics and a potential debt crisis as the leading long‑term threats. The study also confirms cyber security remains the top near‑term...
The Immune System Ages Differently in Men and Women
A new Nature Aging study used single‑cell analysis of over 1 million peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 982 donors aged 19 to 97 to map how the immune system ages. The researchers found that women experience more pronounced age‑related changes in...
Dubai Energy Council Pushes Fuel Outlet Expansion as AI Drives Clean Power Strategy
Dubai's Supreme Council of Energy, chaired by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, approved a plan to expand retail fuel outlets while accelerating AI-driven clean‑energy projects, aiming to boost solar capacity to over 36% of the mix by 2030 and...
Leronlimab Shows Early Clinical and Biomarker Activity in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer at AACR 2026
CytoDyn presented early Phase 2 results showing that leronlimab combined with TAS‑102 and bevacizumab markedly reduced circulating tumor DNA in metastatic colorectal cancer patients. CCR5 expression was confirmed in all prescreened tumors, and median ctDNA fell about 70% by week two...
Chinese Researchers Achieve Record‑Breaking Ultra‑Deep Nanohole Waveguides with Femtosecond Laser
A team led by Prof. Jianrong Qiu (Zhejiang University) and Prof. Lijing Zhong (Ningbo University) fabricated nanohole‑clad waveguides with depth‑to‑diameter ratios exceeding 50,000:1 using a femtosecond‑laser process. The breakthrough, reported in Light: Advanced Manufacturing, overcomes long‑standing limits of single‑pulse nanolithography...
Aeluma Shares Jump 8% After NASA Awards Quantum Laser Contract
Aeluma Inc. saw its Nasdaq‑listed shares climb 8.09% to $18.02 after NASA announced a non‑dilutive award to advance the company’s integrated quantum‑dot laser platform. The funding targets data‑center communications and advanced sensing, positioning Aeluma at the forefront of next‑gen high‑performance...
Curiosity Rover Uncovers New Organic Molecules on Mars, Fueling Habitability Debate
NASA's Curiosity rover performed its first chemistry experiment on another world, identifying a nitrogen‑bearing molecule and benzothiophene in Gale crater. The discovery sharpens the case for ancient habitability, even as a proposed 23% budget cut threatens the Mars Sample Return...
We Need More Radioactive Drugs. Can We Make Them From Nuclear Waste?
A new wave of radiopharmaceutical cancer treatments is driving unprecedented demand for radioisotopes, prompting companies to extract them from legacy nuclear waste. Researchers at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory are refining radioactive lead from stored waste, while firms like Belgium’s...
This Vibrating Pillow Makes Nighttime Emergencies Impossible to Sleep Through
Researchers at Nottingham Trent University have unveiled a smart pillow sleeve that vibrates to alert deaf users of fire, burglar and phone call alarms during sleep. The thin textile incorporates four 3.4 mm × 12.7 mm haptic actuators embedded in yarn and links wirelessly...
Some Dogs at Chernobyl Have Turned Blue
Scientists have long studied the stray dogs living around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, noting genetic differences from other Eastern European canines. In fall 2025 viral videos showed several dogs with a vivid blue coat, prompting speculation about radiation‑induced mutation. The...
WEBINAR 4/28: Implications of the War in Iran for Climate Security
The Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program and the AMENA Foundation are hosting a webinar on April 28 to examine how the war between Iran, the United States, and Israel is reshaping climate security across the Middle East and North Africa. The...
Novel Chemical Reactor Boosts Methane Conversion
Researchers at the National University of Singapore unveiled a dual‑temperature chemical reactor that separates methane activation and product formation into hot (≈1,400 °C) and cool (≈400 °C) zones. The design uses an electrically heated molybdenum filament followed by a palladium catalyst, delivering...
River Deltas Sinking Faster Than Sea Level Rise Pose Risk to Millions: Study
A new Nature study using high‑resolution satellite radar maps shows that many of the world’s largest river deltas are sinking faster than global sea‑level rise. Researchers from Virginia Tech examined 40 deltas and found that in 18 of them land...
Syngenta Deploys Tetra OS to Accelerate Scientific Discovery Through Industrial-Scale Data Automation
Syngenta has selected TetraScience’s Tetra OS to automate data handling across its Crop Protection R&D labs. The Tetra Scientific Data Foundry will centralize raw instrument outputs—such as chromatography and mass‑spectrometry—into a single, AI‑ready repository. Tetra’s “Sciborg” scientist‑engineers will be embedded...
Moderna, After Losing US Funding, Rebounds to Start mRNA Bird Flu Vaccine Trial
Moderna has launched a Phase 3 trial of its mRNA‑1018 bird‑flu vaccine, enrolling about 4,000 healthy adults in the United States and the United Kingdom. The study follows the loss of a $766 million U.S. government contract, which had funded earlier development...
MIT Creates AI‑controlled Artificial Muscles Mimicking Human Movement
MIT researchers just replicated human muscles with AI-controlled fibers. Inside each fiber is a sealed tube of electrically charged liquid and a tiny electric pump. When the pump activates, one side contracts while the other relaxes, just as your biceps and triceps...
New Glenn Grounded as BE-3U Thrust Issue Comes Into Focus
Blue Origin has grounded its New Glenn heavy‑lift vehicle after data indicated that one of the two BE‑3U upper‑stage engines failed to produce enough thrust during the second burn. The shortfall prevented the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 7 satellite from reaching its planned...
Astronomers Reveal Spectacular Birthplace of Cosmic Buckyballs
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified a dense, carbon‑rich nebula as the birthplace of interstellar buckyballs (C₆₀ fullerenes). Spectroscopic data reveal strong infrared signatures of the spherical molecules in the nebula surrounding the dying star IRAS 21282+5050. The...
Scientists Burn Homes to Figure Out How to Best Protect Them in Wildfires
The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) in Richburg, South Carolina, has deliberately set fire to 13 replica homes to study how structures behave under extreme wildfire conditions. By equipping the houses with sensors, cameras and varied exterior...
Immunotherapy in Locally Advanced HNSCC: Is There Still Room for New Agents?
In June 2025 the FDA approved MSD’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for resectable locally advanced head‑and‑neck squamous cell carcinoma (LA HNSCC) with PD‑L1 CPS ≥ 1, based on the KEYNOTE‑689 trial. A separate adjuvant nivolumab study (NIVOPOSTOP) showed promising results, though regulatory filing is...
STAT+: Gene Therapy Trial for Deafness Adds Evidence to Drug’s Efficacy
Researchers have reported that a gene‑therapy injection dramatically improved hearing in a Chinese clinical trial, with 90% of participants noting significant gains. The study, published in Nature, includes both children and adults, such as a 32‑year‑old who regained functional hearing....
Understanding Fish and Turbines
Researchers combined real‑world fish trajectory data with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of an underwater turbine’s wake to pinpoint the hydrodynamic cues fish detect. By mapping fish paths onto simulated turbulence structures, they identified zones that fish avoid or tolerate. The...
How Climate Change May Increase Antibiotic Resistance
Two recent studies published in Nature and Nature Microbiology show that climate‑driven heat and drought can boost antibiotic resistance in soil microbes. Artificially warming grassland plots by 3 °C raised the abundance of resistance genes by roughly 25 %. Drier soils concentrate...
Mapping the Hidden Structure of the Universe
University of Virginia astronomers have produced the most detailed three‑dimensional map of the universe’s hidden large‑scale structure, combining gravitational‑lensing data with spectroscopic redshifts to chart over 1.2 billion galaxies. The map reveals a filamentary network of dark‑matter scaffolding, identifies roughly 30 %...
A Powerful New ‘QR Code’ Untangles Math’s Knottiest Knots
Researchers Bar‑Natan and van der Veen have introduced a new two‑variable polynomial invariant that acts like a QR‑code fingerprint for knots. The invariant, derived from a traffic‑model analogy, can be computed rapidly even for knots with hundreds of crossings. It correctly distinguishes...
NASA Targeting September to Launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
NASA announced that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch in early September aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, eight months ahead of the original schedule and under budget. The 2.4‑meter telescope, built at Goddard, will travel to the Sun‑Earth...
NASA’s Shift to CLPS 2.0 Signals Structural Transformation of Lunar Logistics Market
NASA is upgrading its Commercial Lunar Payload Services from a pilot program to a high‑cadence logistics platform dubbed CLPS 2.0. The agency plans 77 lander missions through 2031, backed by a $6 billion budget that pushes average mission cost down to roughly...
Wet AI Using Brain Cells Could Outperform GPUs
Here's our story on The Biological Computing Co. It's an inside look at how it's using human and rat brain cells to help discover new AI processing algorithms that mimic how neurons actually behave and learn. Will the "wet" AI...
Silicon Oxide Memory Advances Toward Industrial Use
Did you see this?👇 Silicon Oxide Memory Breakthrough | Lecture 12: From Lab to Industry #science #graphene #pchardware https://t.co/dIvQsIQm8V https://t.co/hZ0KyzJC7S
Smartwatches Detect Incomplete Recovery Days After Patients Feel Better, Study Finds
A study of 4,795 smartwatch users tracked heart rate and HRV to define "digital recovery" after COVID‑19, influenza and strep infections. While patients reported feeling better within days, moderate‑to‑severe COVID cases required more than 60 additional days for physiological metrics...
PK/PD Crucial for Next-Gen ADC Development
Wonderful tour de force on ADCs by @raffcolo highlighting the importance of PK/PD going forward with new formats https://t.co/nUpBNNoVil
Antimatter: Humanity’s Only Viable Interstellar Fuel
Only antimatter provides the energy we need for interstellar travel This Earth Day, some dream of saving the Earth, while others dream of leaving it. Here's why using antimatter as fuel is humanity's best bet for interstellar travel. https://t.co/ZBs6y8YGTm
Astronomers Find an Exo-Jupiter, and It Seems to Have Clouds
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified a Jupiter‑sized exoplanet, dubbed Mira b, orbiting a Sun‑like star about 300 light‑years from Earth. The planet’s mass is roughly 1.2 times that of Jupiter and it completes an orbit every 5.2 years,...
Sun Accounts for Virtually 100% of Solar System Energy
The Sun rounds up to 100% of energy in our solar system, even if Jupiter and all non-solar mass is burned
Cast SDS-PAGE Gels Using Riboflavin, No TEMED
Here is an alternative way to cast SDS-PAGE gels without needing TEMED, using riboflavin, EDTA, and LED lights. Seems very DIY friendly too.
Synthetic Smart Proteins that Function as Biological Switches
Researchers at Queensland University of Technology have used artificial‑intelligence design to create synthetic proteins that function as programmable biological switches. The engineered proteins combine receptor and reporter domains, enabling them to detect small molecules, peptides or nucleic acids and generate...
Why Launch Assists Often Aren’t Worth the Effort
Common question I've had... this certainly isn't a new idea and there's a good reason it's often considered not worth it. I did a deep dive on launch assists last year - https://t.co/gYQYjqPTvx
Prelude Tx Unveils Early-Stage KAT6A Degrader
Looking through my #aacr26 collection of posters from yesterday. Prelude Tx have a KAT6A degrader (PRT13722) in early development to compete with inhibitors: https://t.co/23zBtCX8Hs
No Evidence of PFAS Leaching From Solar Panels, Study Finds
Researchers from Michigan State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory examined claims that photovoltaic (PV) modules contain leachable PFAS and found no confirmed evidence of such emissions from commercially deployed panels. The analysis shows fluoropolymers—a distinct, low‑bioavailability subset of PFAS—are...
Personalized CRISPR Poised to Become Standard Care
How individualized CRISPR genome editing can go from rare, expensive use to broader accessibility and a standard of care by @UrnovFyodor and Sadik Kassim @Nature https://t.co/ddc5ASPPAK https://t.co/GOFneIyuai
Sex Chromosomes Drive Cancer, Autoimmunity, and Brain Disease
Our X and Y chromosomes play a bigger part in health than acknowledged, including cancer, autoimmunity, and neurologic conditions. A new @nature feature https://t.co/IjVNbXzBPB
The Rise of Autism Becomes Clearer
A new Molecular Psychiatry study of over 6 million U.S. pregnancies links medications that disrupt cholesterol synthesis to a 47% higher autism risk in offspring. About 11% of pregnant women were prescribed at least one of these drugs, and autism prevalence...
New Receptor Enables Bat Alphacoronavirus Entry Into Humans
Discovery of a new receptor by which alphacoronavirus from bats can get into human cells and the potential for transmission https://t.co/LE5sTVyfkS @Nature https://t.co/aszqnDMQqE @NatureNV https://t.co/ejnvrvr6BO
Redefining ‘First‑in‑Class’ Amid Faster Competing Therapies
How do we define “first in class” when there are others further ahead? This example is from Atheron Therapeutics w/ a CCNE1 degrader #aacr26 https://t.co/s22biREUrt
Plants Can ‘Hear’ Rain Coming, Spurring Them Into Action
A MIT‑led study published in Scientific Reports shows rice seeds can detect rain sounds and germinate up to 40% faster. Researchers submerged about 8,000 seeds in water and played recorded rain, finding that underwater vibrations jostle cellular statoliths, accelerating sprouting....
Pace of N.I.H. Funding Slows Further in Trump’s Second Year
NIH research spending has slipped about $1 billion behind historic levels, delaying thousands of projects. Instead of mass grant cancellations, the agency now vets proposals with a computational text‑analysis tool that flags terms like “racism,” “gender” and “vaccination refusal.” From October...
Everyday Infections, Not Vaccines, Are Linked to an Increased Risk of Childhood Stroke
A population‑based study of 571 childhood strokes in Victoria, Australia (2017‑2023) found an incidence of 5.8 per 100,000 children, with a 42% rise over the period. Children who had a documented infection within the prior 60 days were more than...
Tiny Data Center Gas Projects Outpace Morocco’s Emissions
"New gas projects linked to just 11 data center campuses around the US have the potential to create more greenhouse gases than the country of Morocco emitted in 2024." -Wired There's a better way. At Firma Power we're chatting that way...