Today's Science Pulse
UK-led study reveals hidden massive star clusters deep within nearby galaxies
Astronomers using the VLA and ALMA uncovered previously unseen giant star clusters embedded deep inside nearby galaxies. The findings show that young stellar activity drives the evolution of these galaxies, reshaping their interstellar environments. Multiple observations confirm the clusters act as hidden “ring factories” of star formation.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Foundation Alloy raises $22M Series A
Renesas Rad-Hard ICs Aboard NASA’s Artemis II
Renesas Electronics’ radiation‑hardened integrated circuits are aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission, which launched on April 1 from Kennedy Space Center. The Intersil‑branded rad‑hard ICs are embedded in Orion’s avionics and the Space Launch System, managing power distribution, signal integrity and onboard computing in the harsh deep‑space environment. Their inclusion underscores Renesas’ six‑decade legacy of supplying space‑qualified semiconductors for critical missions. The mission will test crew performance and spacecraft systems, paving the way for future lunar landings.
Chinese Universities Lead Global Rankings as US Funding Slashed
My students had no clue that 8 of the top 10 global research institutions are Chinese universities. And only one is in the USA (Harvard in 2nd place). I'm wondering how many normal Americans know this...or even care? But it's...
Artemis II Crew Enters Lunar Sphere of Influence, First Since Apollo 17
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen entered the moon’s sphere of influence at 12:41 a.m. ET Monday, the first crewed crossing since Apollo 17. The move confirms Orion’s trajectory and sets the stage for the...
Brown Fat Protein SLIT3 Unlocked as Key to Metabolism, Weight‑Loss Potential
Researchers published in Nature Communications have identified a dual‑fragment protein system, SLIT3‑N and SLIT3‑C, that constructs the vascular and neural scaffolding essential for brown adipose tissue to burn calories. The discovery, based on analysis of more than 1,500 human samples,...
EU‑Funded PsyPal Project Starts Psychedelic Trials for Palliative Care Distress
The European Union‑funded PsyPal project kicked off its first psychedelic‑assisted therapy trials for psychological distress in palliative care on 13 April 2026 in Brussels. The launch, hosted by the Directorate‑General for Health and Food Safety, signals a coordinated effort to...
New Diagnostic Platform Measures Biological Age with Year‑Level Precision
A molecular diagnostic platform unveiled in 2026 can quantify an individual’s biological age to within a year, offering clinicians a concrete metric to tailor preventive interventions. Backed by NIH funding and epigenetic‑clock research, the tool promises to shift how doctors...
Self‑Administered Peptide Clinics Surge After Huberman Podcast, Raising Safety Concerns
After a 2024 appearance on Andrew Huberman’s podcast, Dr. Koniver’s peptide‑focused clinic added 800 new patients in a month, now serving about 1,000 and maintaining a 6,000‑person waitlist. Memberships cost $15,000 a year, generating tens of millions in revenue, while...
NASA Mission Control Thrilled by Meteor Flashes, Coronal Views
Watching NASA Mission Control be giddy from the descriptions of meteor impact flashes and coronal structure makes me giddy.
Falcon 9 Streaks over Venice Beach During Evening Walk
falcon 9 over Venice beach this afternoon during an evening dog walk Launched from vandenberg space force base. Gorgeous 🚀🚀🚀 https://t.co/DZF9rrc20C
Is the Galápagos Damselfish Extinct?
The Galápagos damselfish (Azurina eupalama) has not been recorded since 1983, leading researchers to deem it likely extinct. A study by Jack Stein Grove and Benjamin Victor compiled historical records and decades of failed surveys, linking the disappearance to the...
Moon‑
In a frame moving with the center of the Moon, the little loop goes away and is replaced by a hyperbola. Cyan dot is the sphere of the moon to scale, dashed line is the lunar sphere of influence....
Artemis 2’s Flight Path Overlaid on Moon’s Orbit
Here's the Artemis 2 trajectory in a geocentric inertial frame projected onto the equatorial plane. The cyan track shows the motion of the moon during the mission. https://t.co/deCYMUyDal
£10.4m UK Project Will Grow Next-Gen Materials
The UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has awarded £10.4 million to a five‑year EXPRESS programme led by the Universities of Warwick and Southampton. The project will develop electrochemical electrodeposition techniques, guided by bespoke precursor chemistry, to grow high‑quality transition...
Are These Insects Polymer‑Preserved Fossils?
What's the odds that these were just normal sized insects that died in a swellable polymer? Like expansion microscopy but for fossils.
Artemis Crew Witness Meteor Impacts During Lunar Eclipse
Man the Artemis stream today What an incredible thing to experience live Coolest part was the crew seeing surface flashes during the solar eclipse Basically the sun was blocked out, so they could see meteorites hitting the moon every few mins Just wow https://t.co/VLikKVEFiy
Unlocking 29.76% Efficiency for Perovskite Tandems
A Chinese research team introduced a colloidal chemistry approach that synchronises the crystallisation of wide‑bandgap and narrow‑bandgap subcells in all‑perovskite tandem solar cells, achieving a record 29.76% power conversion efficiency (PCE). The strategy employs graded carboxylate modulators—tartrate for the WBG...
Addressing Climate Health, Vaccines, and Antivaccine Threats at Darwin Day
I look forward to giving talks and lectures this coming weekend @uiowa for their Darwin Day celebrations, speaking on climate health, global vaccines, and the dangers of rising antivaccine activism https://t.co/qjv3pnN3oB https://t.co/ISy1vMm9hG
Personality Can Be Modified at Any Age, Study Shows
People can change their personality at any stage of life https://t.co/0hNq74DUVo More: Personality intervention affects emotional stability and extraversion similarly in older and younger adults https://t.co/vt9JUlCwWk https://t.co/OtRqeIqfvr
Tiny Laser Array Could Offer Faster, Greener Indoor Wireless
British researchers have built a sub‑millimetre chip that integrates a 5 × 5 infrared VCSEL array with custom beam‑shaping optics, creating a compact optical wireless transmitter. Individual lasers deliver 13‑19 Gbps, and together they achieve a record‑breaking 362.7 Gbps over a two‑metre free‑space link....
Emotional Artemis II Crew Names Moon Crater 'Carroll' After Nasa Commander's Late Wife - Video
NASA’s Artemis II crew, on the brink of a historic lunar flyby, asked mission control to name an unnamed lunar crater after commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen relayed the request, describing the feature as a bright...
NASA’s Artemis II Crew Experience Total Solar Eclipse From Space
NASA’s Artemis II crew experienced a total solar eclipse from orbit around the Moon, with the Orion capsule witnessing 57 minutes of totality—the longest ever recorded from a spacecraft. The event unfolded after six hours of lunar observations and included views...
China Taps Rocket, Satellite Startups to Catch up to SpaceX
China is mobilizing private rocket and satellite startups to accelerate its space ambitions and challenge SpaceX’s dominance. State‑owned China Satellite Communications Group plans a 50,000‑satellite low‑Earth‑orbit constellation, while a new $2.9 billion government fund supports over 600 domestic space firms. The...
Scientists Spot 45 New Earth‑Like Exoplanets in Habitable Zones
A team headed by Lisa Kaltenegger at the Carl Sagan Institute announced the discovery of 45 Earth‑size planets in habitable zones, using data from ESA’s Gaia mission and NASA’s Exoplanet Archive. The find triples the number of prime candidates for...
ACSM Updates Strength‑Training Guidelines, Prioritizing Consistency Over Complexity
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) unveiled its first major resistance‑training guideline update in 17 years, stressing that regular, sustainable workouts beat complex periodization. Drawing on 137 systematic reviews and over 30,000 participants, the recommendations aim to lower barriers...
Study Shows 88% Accuracy for OTC Medication Abortion Kit Self‑Assessment
A new JAMA Internal Medicine study reports that 88% of participants accurately judged their eligibility for an over‑the‑counter medication abortion kit, suggesting self‑assessment could be safe. The findings arrive amid state bans and a lack of FDA applications, intensifying calls...
CEA-Leti and Fraunhofer IPMS Validate Wafer Exchange for Ferroelectric Memory Materials
CEA‑Leti and Fraunhofer IPMS have successfully demonstrated a wafer‑exchange pilot line for hafnium‑zirconium‑oxide ferroelectric stacks, proving that complex material stacks can be processed across multiple advanced fabs without contamination. The program used 300 mm CMOS cleanrooms, standardized VPD‑ICP‑MS and TXRF checks,...
Polish Researchers Trap Infrared Light in 40‑nm Layer, 1,000× Thinner Than Hair
A team from the University of Warsaw and partner Polish institutes demonstrated a sub‑wavelength grating that traps infrared light in a 40‑nanometre film—over 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. The MoSe₂‑based structure amplifies third‑harmonic generation by more than 1,500...
Breath Volatilome as a Non-Invasive Reflection of Gut Microbiota-Driven Health and Disease
Researchers have combined metagenomics, volatile organic compound metabolomics, and machine learning to map the relationship between gut microbiota and the human breath volatilome. Using a custom breath‑collection platform in gnotobiotic mice, they demonstrated that specific VOC patterns can predict the...
Convergent Coexpression Reveals Shared Biological Mechanisms Underlying Common and Rare Variant Risk in Six Neuropsychiatric Disorders
The authors applied convergent co‑expression analysis to post‑mortem brain transcriptomes, integrating GWAS and rare‑variant burden data across Alzheimer’s, autism, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia. By meta‑analyzing co‑expression Z‑scores, they identified genes whose expression patterns align with both common and...
Artemis II Races to Set New Distance Record
NASA’s Artemis II crew performed a six‑hour lunar fly‑around, becoming the most distant humans ever, surpassing Apollo 13’s 400,171 km record by more than 6,600 km. The mission used a free‑return trajectory that loops around the moon and brings the Orion capsule back to...
Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions with Anion-Bridged Secondary Solvation Sheaths for Highly Efficient Zinc Metal Batteries
Researchers have introduced an anion‑bridged secondary solvation sheath in aqueous electrolytes, reshaping Zn2+ coordination and suppressing water‑induced side reactions. The engineered electrolyte delivers near‑unity Coulombic efficiency (>99.5%), supports current densities up to 5 mA cm⁻², and enables over 1,000 stable charge‑discharge cycles...
Neural Circuits Encode Prior Knowledge of Temporal Statistics
Researchers demonstrated that cerebellar Purkinje cells learn and encode the temporal statistics of probabilistic stimuli, shaping predictive eyeblink responses in mice. By varying interval distributions—from single to wide and bimodal—the study showed systematic changes in blink onset, amplitude, and velocity...
Sympathetic NPY Signaling at the Crossroads of Neuro-Tumoral Metabolism
Recent research highlights that peripheral sympathetic neurons co‑release norepinephrine and neuropeptide Y (NPY), with NPY uniquely sustaining energy expenditure and cellular proliferation outside the brain. In contrast to its central functions, peripheral NPY acts as a metabolic accelerator, promoting growth signals...
Polyunsaturated Lipids Kill Senescent Cells by Ferroptosis
Researchers led by Zhang published in Cell Press Blue identified two polyunsaturated lipids that selectively trigger ferroptosis in senescent cells. The study demonstrates that senescent cells are uniquely vulnerable to iron‑dependent lipid peroxidation, and that these lipids can clear them...
Towards Scalable Biomarker Discovery in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Triangulating Genomic and Phenotypic Evidence From a Health System Biobank
Researchers leveraged a large health‑system biobank to combine genomic polygenic risk scores with electronic health‑record phenotypes, creating a scalable pipeline for PTSD biomarker discovery. The analysis identified immune‑related and metabolic signatures that correlate with PTSD risk, and highlighted sex‑specific genetic...
Vitamin C Slows Primate Aging by Targeting Iron-Driven Lipid Peroxidation
Researchers led by Liu et al. identified a conserved iron‑driven lipid peroxidation pathway that accelerates aging in primates, mediated by the enzyme ACSL4. The study demonstrates that vitamin C directly binds and inhibits ACSL4, curbing ferroptotic damage and extending healthspan...
Characterization of the Chromosome 7 Locus Associated with Suicidal Behavior
Researchers have pinpointed a chromosome 7 locus that shows a genome‑wide significant association with suicidal behavior. The discovery stems from a large meta‑analysis of suicide‑attempt GWAS, combined with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping and single‑cell transcriptomic profiling of brain...
Fat Bursts T Cells to Drive Joint Inflammation
Researchers led by Weyand et al. discovered that the fatty‑acid‑rich synovial environment of rheumatoid arthritis drives CD4⁺ T cells to store lipid droplets, which precipitate gasdermin‑D‑mediated pyroptosis. The exhausted T cells undergo mitochondrial and ER stress, migrate lipid droplets to...
An Opinionated Take on NEJM Highlights for Q1 of 2026
The first quarter of 2026 NEJM featured several disruptive studies, including a Canadian‑Australian dialysis trial where fish‑oil supplementation halved myocardial infarctions and cut strokes by two‑thirds. Merck’s oral PCSK9 inhibitor enlicitide achieved a 57% LDL reduction, positioning it for a...
3D‑Printed Spanlastics Directly Target Tumors, Cut Side Effects
3D-printed spanlastics, microscopic carriers for cancer drugs, show potential to target tumors directly and reduce side effects by concentrating therapy at the tumor site rather than throughout the body. nanotechnology
3D-Printed 'Spanlastics' Could Change How Cancer Drugs Reach Tumors
University of Mississippi researchers unveiled a FRESH 3D‑printing technique that fabricates hydrogel‑based spanlastic nanocarriers, 200–300 nm in size, loaded with anticancer drugs such as doxorubicin. The printed implants can be placed directly onto tumor sites, delivering high‑dose therapy locally while shielding...
Scientists Discover Hidden Brain Switch that Tells You to Stop Eating
Scientists from the University of Concepción and the University of Maryland identified a previously unknown appetite‑regulating circuit in the hypothalamus. The study, published in PNAS on April 6, 2026, shows that tanycytes release lactate, which activates astrocytic HCAR1 receptors, prompting glutamate release...
Ediacaran Fossils From China Rewrite Timeline of Animal Evolution
Scientists have uncovered more than 700 Ediacaran fossils from the Jiangchuan Biota in Yunnan, China, dated between 554 and 539 million years ago. The assemblage includes the oldest known deuterostome relatives, early ambulacrarians, and possible chordate precursors, indicating that complex...
Artemis II Finds Joy on Moon’s Far Side
The Artemis II team is out of contact with Earth on the other side of the moon. Making them the happiest humans in the universe.
Artemis II Reaches Closest Lunar Approach, Sets Human Distance Record
#Artemis II just got as close to the moon's surface as it will, and carried its humans farther away from Earth than anyone has ever been. https://t.co/fQcg72jSkH
Satellite Deployers to Be Used on JAXA Small Satellite Mission by Exolaunch
JAXA has chosen Exolaunch to provide its EXOpod NOVA deployers for the Kakushin Rising small‑satellite mission, slated for launch no earlier than April 23, 2026 on a Rocket Lab Electron from New Zealand. The mission will release eight university‑ and industry‑built spacecraft into a...
Integrity Exits Moon's Gravity, Heading Back Earth
Integrity has now passed lunar closest approach and is climbing uphill in the lunar gravity field. In about 18 hours it will leave the lunar gravitational sphere of influence and start falling back towards Earth.
Zhejiang University Unveils Jet‑Powered Humanoid Robots
Jet-Propelled Humanoids? Zhejiang University Pushes #Robot Flight Forward by @XRoboHub #Robotics #EmergingTech #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/xw9XhYVEpw
Microplastics in Human Bile Drive Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Senescence
Researchers have identified microplastics in the bile of all 14 patients studied, revealing six polymer types dominated by PET and polyethylene. Patients with gallstones carried significantly higher microplastic loads, suggesting bile stasis may promote retention. Laboratory exposure of cholangiocytes to...
SpaceX Raptor Engine Test Seems to Have an Explosion
SpaceX performed a static‑fire test of its next‑generation Raptor methane engine at the McGregor, Texas test site, and a bright fireball suggested an explosion during the run. The incident was captured on video and appears to be an engine failure,...