Know What's Happening in Science
Know What's Happening in Science
High‑altitude hypoxia curbs blood‑sugar spikes in mice
A mouse study found that low‑oxygen (hypoxic) conditions cause red blood cells to absorb far more glucose and convert it into a molecule that eases oxygen release, acting as a glucose sink. Mice exposed to 8% oxygen showed markedly smaller blood‑sugar spikes after glucose injections, and the effect persisted after they returned to normal air.
A University of Pennsylvania study published in Nature shows that gut bacteria from aged mice can impair memory in young mice, effectively accelerating brain aging. The researchers identified the bacterium *Parabacteroides goldsteinii* as the key agent, linking it to inflammation that disrupts vagus‑nerve signaling. Administering antibiotics or stimulating the vagus nerve restored cognitive performance, while germ‑free older mice retained good memory. The work adds a mechanistic layer to the microbiota‑gut‑brain axis but remains limited to animal models.
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS surprised astronomers with a nickel‑rich gas plume, unusually low water content, and a light curve that brightened far faster than typical comets. The object delayed forming a coma and tail, then exhibited a mysterious outward acceleration as...
UK researchers have launched a proton‑beam trial to treat mesothelioma, an aggressive asbestos‑related cancer with no cure. The therapy delivers high‑dose radiation precisely, aiming to lift two‑year survival from roughly 30% to 50%. About 50 patients have been enrolled so...
Recent studies reveal that baroreceptor signals linking blood pressure to the brain also modulate pain perception. Higher arterial pressure activates baroreflex pathways that dampen acute pain, while chronic pain conditions appear to exhaust this protective mechanism. Experiments using artificial baroreflex...
A multi‑institution team used the Northwestern Experimental Underground Site (NEXUS) at Fermilab, 350 feet below ground, to record charge noise across a four‑qubit superconducting chip, marking the first multi‑qubit measurement of this kind. By alternating a lead shield around the dilution...
Anyone who's had a baby knows what meconium is. Hard to forget. It's this thick, black, tar-like substance your baby poops out for the first 1-2 days. Really hard to wash off too because it sticks to their skin. Meconium is...
For 12,000 years, humanity has produced meat the same way: grow crops, feed animals, convert plants into protein. From a biomanufacturing perspective, it is one of the most complex and least optimized production systems on the planet. What happens when we start...
Researchers at MIT, MITRE, Sandia and the University of Arizona have unveiled a photonic chip that uses upward‑curving “ski‑jump” structures to broadcast thousands of individually controllable laser beams into free space. The device leverages a bimaterial strain technique—silicon nitride and...
A new composite image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) merges ESA’s Euclid infrared observations with NASA’s Hubble optical data. The nebula, located 4,400 light‑years away in Draco, displays unprecedented detail of its layered shells, jets, and dust structures. This...
Stasis research, building on therapeutic hypothermia and animal hibernation, aims to place astronauts in a torpor‑like state for long‑duration spaceflight. NASA’s NIAC program funded SpaceWorks Enterprises, whose 2016 Torpor Inducing Transfer Habitat study suggested a torpor‑based Mars transit could reduce...
Macrohard or Digital Optimus is a joint xAI-Tesla project, coming as part of Tesla’s investment agreement with xAI. Grok is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past...
Siemens announced a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Energy to support the Genesis Mission, a federal effort to modernize America’s scientific infrastructure with AI‑driven computing and interoperable digital systems. The partnership leverages Siemens’ expertise in industrial AI,...
A new study proposes detecting supermassive black hole binaries by spotting quasiperiodic flashes of background starlight caused by gravitational microlensing when the two black holes align. Simulations indicate that about 50 nearby galaxies could exhibit such brightening events on orbital...
I came across this @life magazine back-issue. Hundreds of thousands came to nasakennedy to watch the launch live, with hundreds of millions (like me) tuned in on TV. Makes me wonder where the naysayers think the gigantic Saturn V rockets...
Herbal terpenoids activate autophagy and mitophagy through modulation of bioenergetics and protect from metabolic stress, sarcopenia and epigenetic aging https://t.co/gtpKOmoxDS
The article surveys seven early‑stage programmes tackling KRAS, each proposing a distinct therapeutic angle. While many firms still chase the classic model of deeper, longer, or more selective pathway blockade, these initiatives span elegant biochemical tricks to counterintuitive concepts that...
NASA’s next X-ray mission, AXIS, has been killed Did you think that the cuts to NASA made in 2025 had all been reversed, and everything is now fine? Think again. NASA's AXIS mission, on account of that 2025 bloodbath, is now dead. https://t.co/gdFHBnGzRJ
The high temperatures will cut into California’s snowpack, raising the risk that drought will return. https://t.co/LrGHsOjx8l
The LHC Physics Center at Fermilab celebrated the 15th anniversary of its CMS Data Analysis School, now in its 34th session. Held in January 2026, the intensive week hosted 48 graduate and undergraduate students alongside 48 facilitators and 11 lecturers....
Gut microbes signal the brain influencing age-associated memory and cognitive function in the experimental model @arcinstitute @Nature https://t.co/elSw3RXbI9 https://t.co/6fRfCk4Z9n
More agroinfiltration tests. Black sharpie stripe indicates injecred bloom. Right lobe is positive control. Should turn red in the next 72hrs. https://t.co/2lRTbwAjhq
Engineers are using the Directional Wave Basin to simulate hurricane storm surge on scaled‑down structures, providing controlled, repeatable data. A recent test compared two identical one‑third‑scale houses, differing only by a one‑foot elevation increase, under identical surge conditions. The elevated...
If all of life is just ribosomes making more ribosomes, then maybe ageing is just old ribosomes getting tired and pausing, causing me to get tired and pause more often.
The KRAS niche has been a deluge of new selective and pan/multi inhibitors. Now there are combos to watch out for – we may be making progress. Here are insights on 7 of them: https://t.co/F9HmM8A4ud https://t.co/IqWw6n2m3k
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved leucovorin, a synthetic vitamin B9, solely for cerebral folate deficiency, a rare genetic disorder. Earlier this year, President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. promoted the drug as an autism cure, prompting a surge in...
Another potential GLP-1 drug benefit seen in people with diabetes and brain metastases for improved survival; a retrospective study that needs further assessment but intriguing https://t.co/nZm3xEYQMH https://t.co/V76S7o1MJb
The blood neuromarkers p-tau181 and p-tau217 that can predict and diagnose Alzheimer's disease are also abnormal in certain types of amyloidosis, indicating both some non-specificity and potential help in diagnosis of these conditions https://t.co/jodvMY6TNK
Airbus and Spanish HAPS specialist B2Space have signed a strategic partnership to develop end‑to‑end stratospheric missions. B2Space will design, launch and operate high‑altitude balloon platforms, while Airbus will provide payloads, sensors and data‑management capabilities. The collaboration targets applications such as...
A causal link between severe Covid or flu and lung cancer risk by impairing immunity and promoting inflammation, as shown in multiple murine models https://t.co/NvE6uIYFZh
IQM Quantum Computers has installed its fourth 20‑qubit superconducting system, named Aalto Q20, at Aalto University in Finland. The on‑premises machine follows IQM’s full‑stack model, giving researchers direct control over data and hardware. Aalto University is linking the quantum processor...
In this episode, host Ashley Vance talks with Nabiha Saklayen, co‑founder and CEO of Celino, about induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their rapid evolution from a Nobel‑winning discovery to emerging therapies. They discuss how iPSCs can be reprogrammed from...
The FDA has granted approval for leucovorin, a folinic‑acid formulation, to treat a rare metabolic disorder despite the absence of new clinical trial data. The decision leans on decades of off‑label use and historical safety records rather than prospective studies....
Physicist Astrid Eichhorn leads the asymptotic safety program, proposing that quantum‑gravity interactions become scale‑invariant at the Planck scale, yielding a fractal‑like space‑time. Her work shows that a fixed point persists even when all known matter fields are included, allowing the...
Life Biosciences has secured FDA IND approval for ER-100, the first partial epigenetic reprogramming therapy to enter human trials. The gene‑therapy delivers OCT‑4, SOX‑2 and KLF‑4 to retinal ganglion cells via a single intravitreal injection, aiming to reset age‑related epigenetic...
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have demonstrated an electrochemical process that uses tartaric acid, a wine‑making by‑product, to separate cobalt and nickel from lithium‑ion battery leachates. By applying sequential voltages, the method achieves over 99% cobalt purity and 96.5% nickel...
The latest U.S. winter showed a stark east‑west temperature split, with the Northeast experiencing colder‑than‑average conditions while the Southwest recorded its hottest winter on record, surpassing the previous high by 2.5 °F. A map of state‑by‑state anomalies highlighted more hot‑than‑cold deviations...
Start-up is building the first data centre to use human brain cells | New Scientist https://t.co/pyhHbfJ2nl
Researchers at the University of Cambridge demonstrated that electrons can traverse a polymer‑non‑fullerene interface in just 18 femtoseconds, matching the period of a single molecular vibration. By deliberately engineering a weakly coupled junction, they showed that specific high‑frequency vibrational modes...
The University of Cambridge will host the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre, featuring a 2560‑qubit quantum computer—the most powerful in the UK. The deal, the university's largest corporate research partnership, links Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory with US‑based IonQ and includes three years...
Nice to see empirical study of how our most impressive breakthrough in AI for biology is impacting science. Point 1 is important for those who dream that AGI or ASI will just solve all of science by thinking. They won't....
Researchers at ETH Zurich have introduced a boron‑based ligation strategy that overcomes the concentration barrier in chemical protein synthesis. By masking potassium acyltrifluoroborates (KATs) with chiral zwitterionic complexes, the team achieved efficient peptide coupling at micromolar levels, far lower than...
Certainly not the most important issue with the current situation in the Middle East, but there is a new Iran shaped hole in our surface weather observation network. In this example, measurements of surface pressure fed into operational weather forecasts on...
California startup Crop Diagnostix has launched an RNA‑sequencing based early‑warning system that reads plant gene expression to flag nutrient, water, pathogen and disease stress weeks before visual symptoms appear. Leveraging a proprietary biomarker library and AI models trained on thousands...
A study by LMU and the Max Planck Institute shows that moons orbiting free‑floating planets can retain liquid oceans for up to 4.3 billion years thanks to dense hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating. The research demonstrates that collision‑induced absorption in high‑pressure...
On March 16, 1926 Robert Goddard launched the world’s first liquid‑fuel rocket, lifting 12.5 meters before crashing after 2.5 seconds. Despite early successes and funding from the Guggenheim family and the Smithsonian, Goddard’s distrust of collaboration kept his work isolated. The...
Urbain Le Verrier, born March 11, 1811, was a French astronomer who mathematically identified the cause of Uranus’s orbital irregularities. By applying Newtonian mechanics, he predicted the position of an unseen planet, later confirmed as Neptune in September 1846. His calculations, sent to Johann Galle, led...
Researchers introduced a thin indium tin oxide (ITO) interlayer at the back contact of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) solar cells to tackle interdiffusion and absorber defects. The ITO acts as a diffusion barrier during early selenization, then self‑sacrifices to release Sn and...
Leaving a plastic water bottle in a hot car triggers polymer chain expansion, causing the container to soften and release chemicals such as DEHP, BDCM, and chloroform into the water. A Water Filter Guru study measured these leachates at up...
In this episode, host Peter Johnson interviews Dr. Clarence Swanton, Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, about groundbreaking research showing that early‑season weed pressure can reduce crop yield before the crop even emerges. Swanton explains that weeds reflect red...
CERN has upgraded its crystal‑shadowing system in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) by installing a refined array of three bent silicon crystals. The technique, first demonstrated in 2021, deflects halo particles away from the electrostatic septum, cutting beam losses by...
