Today's Science Pulse
UK-led study reveals hidden massive star clusters deep inside nearby galaxies
Astronomers using the VLA and ALMA uncovered previously unseen giant star clusters, described as "ring factories," embedded within nearby galaxies. A complementary analysis of roughly 18,000 star‑forming regions showed that the energetic activity of young stars plays a decisive role in shaping galaxy evolution.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Foundation Alloy raises $22M Series A
Underestimated Coastal Water Heights Putting Millions More at Risk: Study
A new Nature study finds that roughly 90 % of existing sea‑level impact assessments underestimate baseline coastal water heights by about one foot, especially in the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and other Global South regions. This mis‑measurement could increase projected inundated land by up to 37 % and expose an additional 77 million to 132 million people to flood risk if seas rise a meter by century’s end. The error stems from a methodological blind spot between satellite‑derived sea levels and land‑based elevation models. Researchers warn that current planning and financing strategies may be built on an incomplete picture of coastal vulnerability.
China Passes Law Accelerating Environmental Ambitions, Defying Expectations
Meanwhile, shockingly, the other major global power is doing the very opposite within its own borders... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-13/china-s-new-law-signals-xi-won-t-curb-environmental-ambitions
Tiny NASA Spacecraft Delivers Exoplanet Mission’s First Images
NASA’s 6U CubeSat, part of the SPARCS exoplanet mission, has returned its first images of a distant planetary system. Launched in early 2025, the spacecraft captured ultraviolet and visible light data of the star Proxima Centauri and its orbiting exoplanet,...
Ultragenyx’s Gene Therapy Hits Key Endpoint in Phase 3 Trial for Blood Ammonia Disease
Ultragenyx announced that its investigational gene therapy for ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency met a primary endpoint in a Phase 3 trial involving 37 patients. The study demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in blood ammonia levels, the key marker of disease...
The Neuroscience of Focus: How to Make Smarter Decisions?
Recent neuroscience research reveals that sustained focus, not just raw intelligence, is a critical driver of better decision‑making. When attention remains steady, the brain’s prefrontal circuits can weigh options more clearly and project outcomes farther into the future. Studies show...
Single-Celled Organism with No Brain Is Capable of Pavlovian Learning
Researchers have demonstrated that the unicellular ciliate Stentor coeruleus can perform Pavlovian learning, specifically habituation, despite lacking a brain or neurons. The organism reduced its response to a repeated, harmless stimulus, mirroring the simplest form of learning observed in animals...
How Colorectal Cancer Treatment Is Evolving in 2026
Colorectal cancer remains a major global health burden, with over 1.9 million new cases and 900,000 deaths in 2022, placing it high on biotech priorities. Treatment has shifted from surgery‑centric approaches to a blend of refined chemotherapy backbones and biomarker‑driven targeted...
UK Billionaire Backs Construction of World’s Largest All-Lens Telescope
British billionaire Alex Gerko is financing MOTHRA, a distributed‑aperture telescope built from 1,140 high‑end Canon telephoto lenses that together provide a 4.7 meter effective aperture. The array is being assembled at the Obstech‑El Sauce Observatory in Chile, with construction started in...
W a Croatian Lab Peptide Saved My Shoulder, My Father's Hip, and My Friend's Fingers
The post examines BPC‑157, a synthetic peptide derived from human gastric juice, highlighting personal anecdotes of accelerated healing for shoulder, ankle, hip and frost‑bitten fingers. It outlines the compound’s 30‑year research history, including early Croatian clinical trials that demonstrated safety...
TACC: Designing Protein Building Blocks for Advanced Materials
University of Delaware researchers, using TACC’s Stampede3 supercomputer, have computationally designed peptide fragments called bundlemers that self‑assemble into ordered structures under extreme pH conditions. Molecular simulations on Stampede3 revealed how precise surface charge patterns stabilize the barrel‑shaped four‑peptide units, enabling...
Medieval Farms Were a Boon for Biodiversity, Research Finds
A new study of the Lake Constance region shows that medieval farms created a mosaic of fields, pastures, and forests that drove a steady rise in plant diversity from 500 AD to around 1000 AD. The research, based on fossil pollen, archaeological...
Coming at 3 P.m.: I Talk Live to Jim Haslam, Who Has Investigated Covid's Origins for Years, About Ralph Baric,...
Alex Berenson announces a live interview at 3 p.m. ET with Jim Haslam, a longtime investigator of COVID‑19 origins. Haslam will discuss his new theory involving virologist Ralph Baric, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the Rocky Mountain National Laboratory. The session follows Berenson’s recent exposé on...
Inside MSC Cruises’ Partnership with ORCA to Strengthen Marine Research
MSC Cruises is launching its inaugural Alaska season in summer 2026 with a science‑led partnership with marine‑conservation group ORCA. A dedicated Marine Mammal Observer will be stationed on the upgraded MSC Poesia to identify whales in real time, guide navigation,...
March 13, 1989: Quebec Goes Dark
In March 1989 a series of intense solar flares—including an X4.5 on March 10 and an M7.3 on March 12—produced coronal mass ejections that struck Earth on March 13, triggering a massive geomagnetic storm. The storm drove aurorae visible as far south as...
NASA Begins Building Nuclear-Powered Dragonfly Drone for 2028 Launch to Saturn Moon Titan
NASA’s Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has started building and testing the Dragonfly rotorcraft, a nuclear‑powered drone destined for a 2028 launch to Saturn’s moon Titan. The car‑sized craft will use a radioisotope power system, marking a shift from solar‑driven...
Growing Crystals Tiny and Large
Researchers at Rice University confirmed that Thomas Edison’s 1879 carbon‑filament bulb unintentionally produced graphene when a 110 V current was applied for 20 seconds. Building on James Tour’s Flash Joule Heating method, they replicated the process, showing a cheap, rapid route...
Institut Quantique Joins Qblox Excellence Center Program to Advance Distributed Quantum Computing
The Institut quantique at Université de Sherbrooke has become a Qblox Excellence Center, integrating Qblox’s modular control electronics into its Quantum FabLab. The partnership targets distributed heterogeneous quantum computing, aiming to build scalable, fault‑tolerant architectures across superconducting, spin and hybrid...
Parkinson’s Research Reaches “Pivotal” Stage, but Barriers Remain
Parkinson’s research has entered a pivotal phase, driven by deeper disease insights and advanced models such as patient‑derived iPSCs. Despite a pipeline of potential disease‑modifying therapies, funding shortfalls and outdated trial endpoints continue to impede progress. Parkinson’s UK’s Virtual Biotech...
Gold Nanoclusters Could Help in Identifying Diseases
Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä used GPU‑accelerated simulations on the LUMI supercomputer to explore how chiral gold nanoclusters bind small chiral biomolecules. Nearly 100 cluster‑biomolecule pairings and 300 simulation runs revealed that only specific combinations trigger a measurable change...
CBD and CBG Reverse Fatty Liver in Mice
I teach medical students that fatty liver disease (MASLD) affects 1 in 3 adults and has limited approved drug treatments. That may be changing. Hebrew University researchers found CBD and CBG -- two non-psychoactive cannabis compounds -- reversed fatty liver in mice...
Chirality: The Key Hidden Ingredient for Life
Life's Hidden Ingredient 💥 See full video here: https://t.co/VXWXNHRiyO #science #abiogenesis chirality - Also called: dissymmetry. the configuration or handedness (left or right) of an asymmetric, optically active chemical compound https://t.co/zi6zYW7RtE
New Research Reveals How Semiconductor Electrodes Can Achieve Green Hydrogen Production
University of Jyväskylä researchers used a new constant inner potential density functional theory to model semiconductor electrochemistry, revealing that lowering the electrode potential creates polarons on TiO₂ surfaces that activate the hydrogen evolution reaction. State‑of‑the‑art Raman, electron resonance and photoelectron...
Biologists Wielding AI Will Outpace Those Who Don’t
1/ AI won't replace you. But a biologist using AI will. Especially in bioinformatics, where the questions never stop coming. https://t.co/ckfZWjnei3
AGI's Impact Will Outpace Industrial Revolution Tenfold—Act Now
Demis Hassabis told world leaders: AGI will be 10x the impact of the industrial revolution at 10x the speed. There's no way around it besides taking action now.
Argonne-Led AI ‘Adviser’ Accelerates Robotic Design of Advanced Electronic Materials
Argonne National Laboratory’s team unveiled an AI “adviser” that monitors and optimizes machine‑learning algorithms during autonomous experiments, dramatically speeding the discovery of mixed ion‑electron conducting polymers. Integrated with the Polybot robotic lab, the adviser reduced the experimental space from over...
Why We Fail to Notice Climate Change
Lake Champlain in northern Vermont, once frozen almost every winter, now freezes only sporadically, reflecting the region’s rapid warming. A July 2025 study in *Nature Human Behaviour* found that presenting climate data as binary (freeze vs. no‑freeze) makes people perceive change...
Comprehensive Digital Materials Ecosystem Streamlines Material Design
Researchers at Tohoku University have introduced a digital materials ecosystem that integrates databases, AI models, and closed-loop experimental workflows to accelerate material discovery. The platform automates candidate screening, prediction, and experimental planning, enabling rapid iteration across domains such as solid‑state...
How Invisible Electric Fields Drive Device Luminescence
Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University employed electroluminescence‑detected magnetic resonance (ELDMR) to directly observe fleeting electron‑hole pairs inside operating polymer light‑emitting electrochemical cells (LECs). Their measurements showed that mobile‑ion migration continuously reshapes the internal electric field, and that a lower, more...
Immutep Investors Spooked by LAG-3 Failure in Lung Cancer
Australian biotech Immutep saw its ASX shares tumble more than 88% after the independent data monitoring committee recommended halting its pivotal phase‑3 TACTI‑004 trial of the LAG‑3 inhibitor eftilagimod alfa (efti) in first‑line non‑small cell lung cancer. The trial, which...
How Orbital Overlap Dictates Molecular Conductance
Researchers at National Taiwan University introduced single‑atom bismuth and lead layers on gold electrodes to isolate the electronic contribution of the metal‑molecule interface. By measuring the interfacial hopping integral, they linked orbital overlap and molecular tilt directly to single‑molecule conductance....
Increased Spacing Between Solar Module Rows Boosts Agrivoltaics Viability
U.S. researchers at Colorado University introduced an economic framework that evaluates how wider spacing between solar photovoltaic (PV) rows can make agrivoltaic systems viable for large‑scale, mechanized farming. Simulations on a 160‑acre Colorado site across potatoes, onions, sugar beets and...
Out of the Blue? How the Colour of Light Could Be Used to Treat Mental Illness
Researchers at St Olavs Hospital in Trondheim equipped one half of a psychiatric intensive‑care ward with blue‑depleted evening lighting while the other half kept standard lighting. In a randomized trial of 476 short‑stay patients, the circadian‑adapted ward showed greater clinical improvement...
China Ends Month-Long Launch Hiatus with Separate Guowang and Shiyan-30 Satellite Missions
China resumed orbital launches after a month‑long pause, lifting off a Long March 8A carrying the 20th batch of Guowang internet satellites and a Long March 2D launching the Shiyan‑30 technology demonstrators. The Guowang batch adds to a constellation targeting 13,000 satellites,...
This Little-Known Bioactive Helps Protect Against Dementia, Study Shows
A recent Neuroscience Insights review highlights citicoline, a CDP‑choline derivative, as a potent neuroprotective agent. Clinical data show consistent improvements in memory, concentration, and visual‑motor coordination for patients with mild cognitive impairment, especially of vascular origin. The bioactive also benefits...
3D Printable Nanotube Composite Shields Electronics In Extreme Environments
Researchers have created an ultrathin, stretchable, 3D‑printable composite that combines single‑walled carbon nanotubes and boron nitride nanotubes to simultaneously block electromagnetic interference and absorb neutron radiation. The hybrid films achieve over 50 dB EMI shielding at micrometer thicknesses, while a 2:8...
Raccoons Will Solve Puzzles Just for Fun
Researchers published in *Animal Behaviour* found that captive raccoons will continue to manipulate a multi‑access puzzle box even after receiving a food reward, demonstrating intrinsic motivation they label “information foraging.” The study presented clear marshmallow treats but observed the animals...
Investigating the Early Stages of Age-Related Cataract Formation
Researchers used genetic code expansion to insert the oxidation product 5‑hydroxytryptophan into a critical tryptophan site of human γS‑crystallin, creating a controlled model of early cataract chemistry. The modified protein showed reduced thermal stability and a heightened tendency to aggregate,...
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[Obituary] Nicholas White
Professor Sir Nicholas White, a pioneering pharmacologist and tropical‑medicine clinician, led the development and global adoption of artemisinin‑based combination therapies (ACTs) that transformed malaria treatment. His early trials in the 1990s demonstrated ACTs’ safety and efficacy, prompting a WHO guideline...
![[Editorial] Back to Basics in Sickle Cell Disease](https://hixhlmpcokxhartfkpyi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/thumbnails/dfcc380d39fb22be7b9843b54e9e0246.webp)
[Editorial] Back to Basics in Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle cell disease affects roughly 8 million people worldwide, with deaths climbing 18.4% between 2000 and 2023. The burden falls hardest on sub‑Saharan Africa, where three‑quarters of infants are born with the condition and child mortality exceeds one in 20. Although...
In an Average Decline of Function, Some Old People Exhibit Improved Function
A longitudinal study of U.S. adults aged 65 and older found that 45.15% improved either cognitive performance or walking speed over a 12‑year span. Researchers used a measure capable of detecting upward trajectories, contrary to typical aging metrics that only...
PsiQuantum and National Cancer Center Japan Partner on Quantum Computing
PsiQuantum has signed a research agreement with Japan's National Cancer Center to explore utility‑scale quantum computing for oncology drug discovery. The partnership will focus on developing fault‑tolerant quantum algorithms and clinically relevant applications using PsiQuantum's Construct platform. It also brings...
Torrential Rains Trigger Deadly Ethiopia Landslide, 65 Dead
A landslide in Ethiopia’s southern Gamo region after days of torrential rain led to the deaths of at least 65 people, according to a government agency https://t.co/XLqySClq1s
Pilatus Biosciences Doses First Patient in PLT012 Antibody Trial
Pilatus Biosciences has begun dosing the first patient in a Phase I, open‑label trial of PLT012, its first‑in‑class anti‑CD36 monoclonal antibody, at Next Oncology in Houston. The FDA recently issued IND clearance along with orphan‑drug status for hepatocellular carcinoma and fast‑track...
The Extreme Male Brain Theory of Autism Applies More Strongly to Females
A meta‑analysis of 34 studies involving 1.23 million participants found that autistic females exhibit markedly larger deviations in empathy and systemizing scores compared with neurotypical females than the analogous gaps observed in males. The empathy deficit in autistic women was three‑to‑five...
If the Giant Sequoia Is Dying Out, Why Are There Tens of Thousands of Seedlings and Saplings?
A 2021 high‑intensity fire razed 300 acres of the Redwood Mountain Grove, sparking a massive natural regeneration of giant sequoia seedlings—estimated at 4,000 to 20,000 per acre. Scientists and park managers disagree on whether to let this surge mature naturally...
1,900-Year-Old Double Scythian Burial in Ukraine Contains Toxic Red Mineral
Archaeologists have identified cinnabar, a mercury‑sulfide pigment, in a 1,900‑year‑old double burial of two Scythian women at the Chervony Mayak site in southern Ukraine. The red mineral, known for its vivid vermilion hue, may have been applied for ritual coloration,...
Abbott Reports Positive FreeDM2 Study Results for CGM
Abbott announced that its FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring system outperformed traditional finger‑stick testing in the FreeDM2 randomised trial involving 303 UK patients with type 2 diabetes on basal insulin. After four months, CGM users achieved a larger reduction in HbA1c...
The Kardashev Blind Spot
The Kardashev Scale ranks civilizations by energy use but neglects the material foundations required to capture that energy. The article introduces the “Mineral Imperative,” arguing that mineral availability sets the true limits on technological progress and on ambitious energy‑transition scenarios....
Water Sources May Affect Parkinson's Disease Risk: What to Know
A new population‑based case‑control study of 12,370 Parkinson’s patients and over 1.2 million controls links groundwater characteristics to disease risk. Participants drinking from carbonate aquifers faced a 24% higher odds of Parkinson’s, while older, Pleistocene‑aged water lowered risk by about 6.5%...
Research Identifies Simple Way To Preserve Memory As You Age
A recent study in Heliyon found that digital puzzle games significantly improve memory and concentration in adults aged 60 and older, narrowing the gap with 20‑year‑olds who do not play such games. Participants who engaged with puzzle‑type games outperformed peers...