Today's Science Pulse
Twisting 2D hBN layers unlocks unprecedented control of quantum light
Researchers demonstrated that rotating ultra‑thin hexagonal boron nitride sheets can reversibly shift the color and wavelength of embedded quantum emitters far beyond what traditional solid‑state hosts allow. By picking up, stacking, and twisting the layers, they achieved spectral tuning orders of magnitude larger, a breakthrough reported in Science Advances.
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 in evaluable subjects. The regimen was well tolerated, with no dose‑limiting toxicities, allowing dose escalation to 700 mg. These findings suggest the CCR5‑targeted antibody may enhance the efficacy of standard chemotherapy backbones in heavily pretreated disease.
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...
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
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...
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.
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
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,...
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
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
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...
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
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
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...
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
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...
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...
PFAS Exposure Linked to Higher Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer Risk, Especially in Older Adults
A new study using eight NHANES cycles (2003‑2018) links higher serum perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) exposure to increased odds of non‑melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), especially in adults aged 60 and older. Participants in the middle PFDA tertile showed a 73% higher...
Longevity Linked to Ion Transport, Not Cell Division Genes
Why some species age slower than others remains a mystery. This is an impressive analysis of genes linked to longevity evolution in mammals. Genes associated with cell division & DNA repair show negative correlations with lifespan evolution, while positively correlated genes are...
Breast Cancer Type Study 'Critically Under-Funded'
Lobular breast cancer, which makes up about 15% of UK cases, remains under‑studied and often goes undetected because it rarely forms a palpable lump. The Lobular Moon Shot Project is urging the government to fund a £20 million (≈$25 million) research programme...
Understanding Broad Aging Slowdown vs Targeted Rejuvenation
The 2 Longevity Fields... New post on a topic of great importance. Long, but something I feel strongly about. Broadly Slowing Aging vs. Divide-and-Conquer Rejuvenation: How to tell the difference and why acknowledging both matters (link in next post) https://t.co/khHlClSAWo
SmallSat Europe Speaker Focus: Alexander Greenberg, Loft Orbital
In January 2026, France’s space agency CNES awarded a €50 million (~$54 million) contract to Loft Orbital to build DESIR, the nation’s first sovereign SAR demonstrator, making the San Francisco startup the prime contractor for a defense reconnaissance asset. Loft’s business model flips...
The META-AF Trial
Researchers launched the META‑AF trial to evaluate metformin as an adjunct to catheter ablation in atrial fibrillation patients. The study randomizes roughly 500 participants to receive metformin or placebo beginning two weeks before ablation, with follow‑up through 12 months. Primary...
Astronomers Complete 3‑D Map of 47 Million Galaxies, Challenging Dark‑Energy Theory
On April 14, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) team announced the completion of the largest high‑resolution three‑dimensional map of the universe, cataloguing over 47 million galaxies and quasars. The unprecedented dataset shows early signs that dark energy’s influence could be...
Northwestern Longevity Clinic Launches Gait‑Based ‘Circuit Breaker’ Study to Gauge Biological Age
Northwestern University's Longevity Clinic has begun the ‘Circuit Breaker’ study, employing gait analysis to estimate participants’ biological age. The initiative seeks to compare age metrics across U.S. and Japanese cohorts while focusing on historically underserved groups.