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
WHO Issues New Guidance for Simpler Tuberculosis Tests
The World Health Organization announced new policy guidance aimed at simplifying tuberculosis detection tests, signaling a major push for more accessible diagnostics. While the guidance outlines a framework for low‑cost, point‑of‑care testing, specific technical details were not disclosed in the available sources.
Sperm Loses Its Sense of Direction in Space
Researchers at Adelaide University simulated microgravity using a 3‑D clinostat and found that sperm from mice, rats and humans lose their directional ability in a maze mimicking the female reproductive tract. Under zero‑gravity conditions, successful navigation dropped sharply and fertilization...
IBM Quantum Processor Successfully Simulates Magnetic Material Dynamics
Researchers from the DOE Quantum Science Center and IBM used IBM's 50‑qubit Heron quantum processor to simulate the magnetic crystal KCuF₃. The quantum‑derived dynamical structure factors matched neutron‑scattering measurements from Oak Ridge and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, proving quantitative accuracy....
Mayo Clinic Study Uses Wearables and Machine Learning to Predict COPD Rehab Participation
Mayo Clinic researchers published a study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Digital Health showing that wearable‑derived sleep metrics can forecast patient participation in remote COPD pulmonary rehabilitation. Participants wore wrist activity monitors for a week before a 12‑week home‑based program, generating...
Cleveland Clinic and IBM Implement Quantum Workflow for Protein Simulation
Cleveland Clinic and IBM have demonstrated the first quantum‑centric supercomputing workflow that simulates a protein’s electronic structure. The team modeled the 303‑atom miniprotein Trp‑cage on an IBM Quantum Heron r2 processor linked to classical high‑performance computing. By using wave‑function‑based embedding to split...
Poop Pills and Gut Microbes: Wildlife Microbiome Studies Aid Conservation
Scientists are expanding microbiome research from humans to wildlife, revealing that human activities such as climate change and proximity to people alter gut microbes across species. Studies on captive Tasmanian devils, koalas, meerkats, and cheetahs show that reduced microbial diversity...
Stroke Survivors’ Brains Rejuvenate to Compensate for Injury
A global ENIGMA study of over 500 chronic stroke survivors used deep‑learning MRI analysis to estimate regional brain‑predicted age differences (brain‑PAD). The damaged hemisphere showed accelerated aging, while the opposite, undamaged side—especially the frontoparietal network—exhibited a younger structural profile. This...
High‑Dose Psilocybin Outperforms Nicotine Patches Sixfold
One large psilocybin dose beat nicotine patches by 6x odds for smoking cessation. 82 otherwise-healthy cigarette smokers, 42 received a single high-dose 30mg/70kg psilocybin session, and 40 initiated an 8- to 10-week course of nicotine patch treatment. At 6 months; participants were 6x...
Observing Ice Giant Atmospheres
The James Webb Space Telescope spent 17 uninterrupted hours imaging Uranus in the near‑infrared, revealing detailed structure of its ionosphere and auroral regions. Temperature measurements show a peak between 3,000 and 4,000 km altitude, while ion densities reach a maximum near...
Kodiak’s Phase 3 Eye Drug Success; Innate Discontinues Anti-CD20 Program
Kodiak Sciences announced that its experimental eye drug Zenkuda (tarcocimab tedromer) achieved positive topline results in the GLow2 Phase 3 trial for diabetic retinopathy, outperforming sham treatment. The study met its primary endpoint, delivering a statistically significant gain in visual acuity...
Glass Threads Spun From a Volcano’s Bubbly Magma
A new interdisciplinary study explains how Pele’s hair, the ultra‑thin volcanic glass strands named after the Hawaiian fire goddess, forms when bubbly magma is stretched by high‑velocity gas jets. Researchers observed strands up to two feet long that can be...
Ten Johns Hopkins Researchers Named American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows
Ten Johns Hopkins University researchers have been elected to the 2025 class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows, joining 449 distinguished scholars across 24 scientific disciplines. The fellows—spanning physics, biological sciences, medical sciences, and engineering—will be...
Researchers Gene-Edit the Bitterness Out of Grapefruit
Researchers at Israel's Volcani Center used CRISPR/Cas9 to inactivate the 1,2RhaT gene in Citrus paradisi, effectively halting production of bitter compounds such as naringin, neohesperidin, and poncirin in leaf tissue. The gene edit eliminates the bitter taste pathway, and the...
GomSpace Joins Danish LUNA Consortium to Advance Nanosatellite Antenna Performance
Denmark’s LUNA consortium—Aalborg University, Pri‑Dana Elektronik and GomSpace—has launched a three‑year effort to create low‑loss, multiband nanosatellite antennas with mechanical beam steering. Backed by Innovation Fund Denmark, the project receives roughly $3 million in funding, with GomSpace contributing about $1.1 million. The...
The Latest on Ketone Supplementation
A recent Belgian study published in the Journal of Physiology examined exogenous ketone supplementation around training. Researchers found that consuming ketones during exercise did not improve performance metrics. However, taking ketone esters after a workout appeared to accelerate metabolic recovery...
OrbitsIQ Global and Wrocław Tech Validate E-SSA Waveform for Space-Based IoT
OrbitsIQ Global announced the validation of its Enhanced Spread Spectrum Aloha (E‑SSA) waveform, co‑developed with Wrocław Tech and backed by ESA. The new protocol lets up to 500 devices share a single 4 MHz channel, processing roughly 30,000 frames per second...
Glyphosate Could Be Boosting Spread of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria
Researchers in Buenos Aires discovered that multidrug‑resistant bacteria from Argentine hospitals are also highly resistant to glyphosate, a widely used herbicide. Comparative testing showed similar resistance in environmental strains from the glyphosate‑free Paraná Delta, suggesting a genetic link via efflux‑pump...
AI Scientist Writes, Experiments, Publishes Papers Autonomously
As a medical school professor, I've spent decades writing papers and reviewing studies. Now AI can do it all -- start to finish. Researchers from Sakana AI, Oxford, and UBC just published in Nature: "The AI Scientist" -- a system that...
PharmaShots CXO Talks | Women’s History Month Special: A Conversation with Dr. Emanuela Offidani of Tris Pharma
Dr. Emanuela Offidani, Tris Pharma’s Medical Director of Digital Health Strategy, highlighted that ADHD is increasingly recognized as a lifelong condition that often goes undiagnosed in women because symptoms are less overt. She explained that Tris Pharma’s proprietary LiquiXR delivery...
Eggs as Cheap, Scalable Factories for New Medicines
I have a story today about the quest to turn eggs into low-cost factories for medicines. Gift link: https://nyti.ms/4bzSabB
Starburst Winds Drain Supernova Energy Quickly
XRISM’s Resolve spectrometer has measured the hot core of starburst galaxy M82, revealing gas at ~20 million K and a velocity dispersion of about 595 km s⁻¹. These conditions correspond to a mass outflow of roughly seven solar masses per year and an energy...
Study Finds Midlife Women Face Unprecedented Stress Levels, Threatening Health of Millions
A joint study by the American Psychological Association, Harvard Health Publishing and the National Institute on Aging released data showing an unprecedented stress surge among women aged 35‑54. The findings link chronic pressure to fatigue, anxiety, sleep problems and heightened...
NASA Releases Catalog of 45 Potentially Habitable Rocky Exoplanets
NASA announced a new catalogue of 45 rocky exoplanets that lie within their stars' habitable zones. Compiled by Professor Lisa Kaltenegger's team, the list is intended to focus upcoming observations with JWST and the Roman Space Telescope on the most...
Corcept Therapeutics Shares Surge 20% on FDA Approval of Lifyorli
Corcept Therapeutics saw its shares climb almost 20% after the U.S. FDA approved its lead drug Lifyorli in combination with nab‑paclitaxel for platinum‑resistant ovarian, fallopian tube and primary peritoneal cancer. The approval, based on a 381‑patient trial, validates the company's...
Broad Collaboration Produces High-Resolution Atlas of Developing Human Brain
Johns Hopkins scientists have assembled the most detailed cellular atlas of the human neocortex, merging data from nearly 200 studies and over 30 million cells. The open‑access web portal makes the high‑resolution map available to researchers worldwide, facilitating exploration of gene‑expression...
TRIBE V2 Predicts Brain Responses to Any Stimulus
Today we're introducing TRIBE v2 (Trimodal Brain Encoder), a foundation model trained to predict how the human brain responds to almost any sight or sound. Building on our Algonauts 2025 award-winning architecture, TRIBE v2 draws on 500+ hours of fMRI recordings...
Obesity Prevention Offers Far Greater Cancer Protection Than Expected
"A much stronger cancer-preventive potential of obesity prevention and control than previously established" https://t.co/QatHKVMbfz @JAMAOnc https://t.co/OQ62MunGTu
Are We Ready to Mine the Moon?
Interlune, a lunar‑resource startup, announced that its first customers are ready to purchase helium‑3 extracted from the Moon. Helium‑3 is touted as a fuel for next‑generation nuclear fusion reactors that produce no long‑lived radioactive waste. The company highlights the technical...
APOE4 Linked to Meningeal Lymphatic Dysfunction, In
1 of 4 people have an APOE4 allele, a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. New evidence this is linked to abnormal meningeal lymphatic function, brain inflammation, and important sex-differences @NeuroCellPress https://t.co/mUUqLedS9V https://t.co/FADCoemvum
Parental Age Rarely Harms Offspring Fitness in Wild Reptiles
Parental age effects on offspring fitness in a wild population of a short-lived reptile G "adds to the growing literature suggesting that negative effects of parental age on offspring fitness may not be as prevalent as once thought, particularly in wild...
CCEM Lands $15.5 M CFI Grant to Boost Canada’s Nano‑characterisation Platform
The Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy (CCEM) has been awarded a $15.5 million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. The funding will expand national nano‑characterisation capabilities, linking atomic‑scale insights to Canada’s critical‑minerals strategy, semiconductor supply chain and electronic‑waste recycling efforts.
Soyuz‑5 Launch Delayed to March 29, Flight Early April
The rollout of the first Soyuz-5 rocket to launch pad Site 45 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, was postponed from today to March 29, in turn, pushing its inaugural flight to April 2, at the earliest, according to Kazakh media. Context: https://t.co/DBcHRiQe36 https://t.co/S8p6AAE3IL
Allogene's Interim Data Hints at Off‑Shelf CAR‑T Breakthrough
This week's Biotech Scorecard: Allogene $ALLO: A preview of its April interim analysis. Very interesting (to me, at least) There just might be a path forward for off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy in B-cell lymphoma. Frontline consolidation. Read all about it: https://t.co/tcPFelUH3C
The Sea Monster Goes ‘Bloop’—Or Does It?
In 1997 NOAA’s hydrophone network captured an ultra‑low‑frequency, extremely loud underwater sound dubbed the “Bloop,” heard across sensors spaced over 3,000 miles. Initial speculation ranged from a giant sea creature to shifting ice, but acoustic analysis later matched the signature...
Gene Therapy Turns Aging Into Editable Code
Gene therapy isn't just targeting diseases anymore—it's targeting aging itself. The hallmarks of aging are becoming editable code. Longevity Escape Velocity isn't a fantasy. It's an engineering problem. And we're solving it.
Harvard's Light Chip Enables Sorting Mirror-Image Molecules
Harvard’s twistable light chip could give drug developers a new tool for sorting mirror-image molecules https://t.co/WkjjD38exo https://t.co/5kr4d9f6sa
Sourdough Bread Benefits May Come From Specific Fiber
Scientists at Vrije Universiteit Brussel discovered that the acidic environment of sourdough activates wheat enzymes, breaking down arabinoxylan fibers. The conversion turns water‑extractable arabinoxylans into water‑unextractable forms, altering dough texture and digestibility. Specific bacteria, such as Lactococcus lactis and Limosilactobacillus...
Code Ran Fine, but Biology Flagged Label Error
I almost sent a figure with wrong cluster labels to my collaborators. The R code ran perfectly. No errors, no warnings. I caught it because cluster 2 showed upregulated genes in RNAseq but reduced chromatin accessibility in ATACseq. Biologically, that's backwards....
Precigen Posts 149% Revenue Surge, Forecasts $18M Q1 as Papzimius Gains Momentum
Precigen (PGEN) reported fiscal Q4 2025 revenue of $9.7 million, up 149% year‑over‑year, and projected first‑quarter 2026 sales to exceed $18 million. The surge stems from the rapid commercial rollout of its FDA‑approved gene‑therapy Papzimius and broader payer coverage across the United...
How to Turn a Chicken Egg Into a Drug Factory
Biotech start‑up Neion Bio is pioneering a method to turn chicken embryos into miniature drug factories. Scientists micro‑inject genetic constructs into three‑day‑old embryos, reprogramming the developing bird to synthesize pharmaceutical compounds within the egg. The approach promises faster, cheaper production...