March 26, 2014: A Ringed Centaur
In June 2013 a coordinated occultation campaign across South America captured the centaur Chariklo passing in front of star UCAC4 248‑108672, revealing two brief dimming events that indicated the presence of rings. The finding, published in *Nature* and announced on March 26 2014, marked the first confirmed rings around an asteroid‑like body. Subsequent occultations through 2020 refined Chariklo’s dimensions and confirmed the rings’ remarkable stability despite frequent planetary encounters. In 2022 the James Webb Space Telescope detected water‑ice within the rings, and a second centaur, Chiron, has since been found to host a similar feature.
Newfound Giant Virus Holds Clues to How Complex Life Evolved
Researchers have identified a new giant DNA virus, ushikuvirus, isolated from a freshwater pond near Tokyo. The virus infects the amoeba Vermamoeba vermiformis and carries a full complement of eukaryote‑like histone genes. Unlike its relative medusavirus, ushikuvirus destroys the host...
Decoding the Phosphorus Puzzle: How Microplastics and Hydrochar Transform Nutrient Dynamics in Rice Paddies
Researchers at Nanjing University found that adding manure‑derived hydrochar or thermoplastic polyurethane microplastics to rice‑paddy soils significantly boosts labile phosphorus—by 21.1% and 14.2% respectively. Hydrochar supplies readily degradable carbon, spurring fast‑growing copiotrophic bacteria that rapidly solubilize phosphorus. In contrast, the...
IBM Quantum Computer Accurately Simulates Real Magnetic Materials
IBM announced that its 127‑qubit quantum processor successfully simulated the magnetic properties of real‑world materials, achieving 99% fidelity compared with laboratory measurements. The experiment reproduced the behavior of iron oxide at room temperature, a benchmark previously out of reach for...
Agrivoltaics for Turnips
Researchers at the University of Western Ontario tested 13 photovoltaic modules, including semi‑transparent cadmium telluride (CdTe) and low‑transparency crystalline silicon (c‑Si), in field‑scale agrivoltaic trials with turnips. The 60 % transparent CdTe panel delivered the highest fresh root weight (176.5 g) and...
Vagus Nerve Stimulation Shows Promise as a Way to Counter Alzheimer’s Disease- and Age-Related Memory Loss
Researchers are investigating vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) as a way to preserve the health of the locus coeruleus, a tiny brainstem region where tau protein first accumulates and predicts Alzheimer’s disease. The locus coeruleus produces norepinephrine, essential for sleep, attention,...
Under the Leadership of Prime Minister, India Will Achieve Global Leadership in 6G: Scindia
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told Parliament that India is accelerating toward global 6G leadership under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The newly operational Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) will mobilise roughly $6 billion in funding through 2028, including a $1.7 billion central budget...
Lawmakers Question NASA’s Shifting Vision for CLDs
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman unveiled a new plan to transition from the International Space Station to Commercial LEO Destinations (CLDs) by adding a core module that can power and support up to two commercial segments before detaching. Lawmakers on the...
Agnikul Tests New Agnite Rocket Engine, Claims It Can Be 3D Printed in Just 7 Days
Agnikul Cosmos successfully hot‑fired its Agnite booster engine, a one‑metre, single‑piece Inconel rocket engine printed in just seven days. The monolithic design eliminates welding, machining and assembly, cutting manufacturing cost to roughly one‑tenth of conventional methods. The engine uses electric‑motor‑driven...
Study Explores Broccoli Powder Supplementation in Exercise
A recent Lithuanian Sports University study examined short‑term broccoli powder supplementation in 17 healthy men performing an incremental bike‑ergometer test. Participants consumed 10 g of broccoli powder (0.5 % mustard seed) for 14 days, which significantly increased urinary sulforaphane, confirming absorption. However,...
Vitamins B3 Plus B6 May Boost Muscle Repair After High Intensity Exercise: Nestlé Study
A Nestlé‑backed randomized trial gave healthy men 714 mg nicotinamide and 19 mg pyridoxine daily for nine days after intense eccentric exercise. The B‑vitamin combo boosted muscle stem cell numbers by 29% and accelerated differentiation markers—MyoD+ cells rose 67%, myogenin+ cells 34%,...
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Reports P-III (VISIONARY) Trial Data on Voyxact for IgA Nephropathy (IgAN)
Otsuka Pharmaceutical presented Phase III VISIONARY trial data for Voyxact (sibeprenlimab‑szsi) in IgA nephropathy patients at risk of progression. At 48 weeks, 82.5% of patients receiving 400 mg subcutaneous Voyxact achieved negative microscopic hematuria versus 52.6% on placebo, with median time to...
Pusa Institute Makes Its Debut in QS World Rankings, Showcasing India’s Agricultural Research Excellence
The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), known as Pusa Institute, has entered the QS World University Rankings for the first time in the Agriculture & Forestry category, landing in the 151‑200 band alongside BHU, IIT‑Kharagpur and Delhi University. IARI earned...
Watch ESA Astronaut Sławosz’s Talk at CERN
On 12 March, ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański‑Wiśniewski delivered a talk at CERN about his 26 June‑14 July 2025 stay aboard the International Space Station. He detailed the Ignis mission, a Polish‑led scientific program conducted with ESA, and explained how a CERN‑developed space‑radiation monitor was installed...
Long-Standing Volcanic Eruption Theory Might Be Backward
A new study of 86,000‑year‑old rocks from Japan’s Aso volcano suggests eruptions may be triggered when gas bubbles dissolve back into magma, not when they burst outward. By analyzing apatite crystals that record volatile content, researchers found evidence that bubbles...
Deepfake X-Rays Are so Real Even Doctors Can’t Tell the Difference
A study published in Radiology reveals that both radiologists and leading multimodal large language models struggle to differentiate AI‑generated deepfake X‑rays from authentic scans. When unaware of synthetic images, radiologists detected only 41% of fakes; awareness boosted accuracy to 75%....
England Sewage Spills Nearly Halved in 2025 Due Mostly to Drier Weather
England's sewage spills fell nearly 50% in 2025, driven largely by an unusually dry summer. The Environment Agency reported 14,700 dry spills in 2024, highlighting ongoing illegal discharges. Water companies cite a tripling of investment, with Ofwat approving about £104 bn...
England Sewage Spills Nearly Halved in 2025 Due Mostly to Drier Weather
England's raw sewage releases fell 48% in 2025, dropping to 1.9 million hours from 3.6 million the previous year. The Environment Agency attributes most of the improvement to a 24% decline in rainfall rather than infrastructure upgrades. Water companies are investing heavily,...
Multi-Year Project Aims To Identify Water Supply Vulnerabilities At National Parks
The National Park Service has partnered with Colorado State University to launch a multi‑year assessment that maps water‑supply vulnerabilities across western parks. Early findings highlight aging pipelines at Big Bend, a $208 million waterline overhaul at Grand Canyon, and projected 30% aquifer...
Depression Is Linked to a Genuine Pessimistic Bias Rather than a Realistic View of the World
A new study in Behaviour Research and Therapy shows that individuals with elevated depressive symptoms consistently predict fewer positive life events than actually occur, confirming a genuine pessimistic bias rather than realistic optimism. Researchers tracked 372 adults over three months,...
Don't Want to Miss the Bloom? This L.A. Scientist Created a Poppy Forecast
Los Angeles biologist Steve Klosterman has launched an AI‑driven wildflower forecast for the Antelope Valley, using deep‑learning on satellite imagery and weather data to predict poppy and goldfield blooms up to five days ahead. The model scans 10‑meter squares, correlating...
In Atoms, Electrons Arrange Themselves in Quantum Levels Known by Which Name?
Slate’s daily science quiz asks readers to name the quantum levels where electrons arrange themselves, a fundamental concept in atomic physics. The question highlights the term “electron shells” or “energy levels,” though the article itself is locked behind a Slate...
Returning Ospreys Avoid Last Season's Love Drama
Returning ospreys CJ7 and male 022 have reunited at Careys Secret Garden, avoiding the love‑triangle that disrupted their nest last year. The pair, the first to breed on England’s south coast in 180 years, raised four chicks in 2024 and...
Modern Agriculture Is Collapsing Under Climate Change. Indigenous Farming Has Answers.
A new study by Charles Darwin University reviewed 49 articles on Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) and highlighted the environmental and non‑market benefits of traditional farming, such as the “three sisters” intercropping system. The research found a stark gap...
AI May Have Just Revealed The Rules Of An Ancient Roman Board Game
Scientists used an AI‑driven system called Ludii to decode the rules of a limestone slab from the Roman town of Coriovallum, now Heerlen, Netherlands. By simulating thousands of possible rule sets, the AI identified the artifact as a blocking‑style board...
Temperature Gets a New Definition Using a Quantum Device
Physicists have demonstrated a quantum temperature sensor that uses oversized rubidium atoms, offering a direct, calibration‑free definition of the kelvin. Traditional sensors depend on a chain of calibrated devices, each traced back to national institutes like NIST, introducing cumulative uncertainties....
The Sky Today on Thursday, March 26: The Moon Occults Kappa Gem
The Moon will occult the 3.6‑magnitude star Kappa Geminorum on the night of March 26, visible across much of the United States, especially the Midwest, at 11:09 PM CDT (02:09 UTC). The event coincides with Jupiter passing 4° north of the Moon, creating...
CRAFT Method Gives 3D Printed Thermoplastics Spatial Control over Crystallinity
Researchers from Sandia, UT Austin, Oregon State, Arizona State, Lawrence Livermore and Savannah River labs unveiled a lithographic 3D‑printing technique, dubbed CRAFT, that uses 365 nm light to regulate crystallinity in poly(cyclooctene) at the voxel level. By varying LED intensity from...
Anthrax‑causing Bacteria Have Dwelled in Soil for Centuries, Cycling Through People, Animals and Earth
Anthrax‑causing Bacillus anthracis spores linger in alkaline, calcium‑rich soils for decades, forming microbial communities around plant roots. Herbivores such as cattle ingest or wound‑expose themselves to these spores, die rapidly, and return the bacteria to the earth, completing a natural...
Abnormal Behaviors in Lab Monkeys May Reflect a Lifetime of Stressful Experiences
Abnormal repetitive behaviors (ARBs) such as pacing, rocking, and hair plucking have long plagued primate laboratories, often dismissed as short‑term reactions to a single experiment or temporary social disruption. The recent Biology Letters paper overturns that view by tracing these...
A Machine Learning Model May Enable Liver Cancer Risk Prediction with Routine Clinical Information
Researchers developed a random‑forest machine learning model that predicts hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk using only routine clinical data—demographics, electronic health records, and standard blood tests. In a UK Biobank cohort the model achieved an AUROC of 0.88, and external validation...
Replacing TV Time with Reading or Desk Work May Lower Dementia Risk
A 19‑year Swedish cohort study of 20,811 adults aged 35‑64 found that mentally passive sedentary activities, such as TV watching, increase dementia risk, while mentally active sitting—reading or desk work—significantly lowers it. Substituting equal amounts of passive with active sedentary...
What Is the Difference Between a Radio Telescope and a Radio Observatory?
The article clarifies that a radio telescope is the antenna‑based instrument that captures cosmic radio emissions, while a radio observatory is the broader facility housing one or more telescopes along with control, data processing, and research infrastructure. It highlights examples...
Birutė Galdikas, Primatologist Who Spent a Lifetime Studying & Defending Orangutans, Has Died at 79
Birutė Galdikas, a pioneering primatologist, died at 79 after five decades of field work on Borneo’s orangutans. She established one of the longest‑running wild‑mammal studies in 1971, documenting solitary behavior, slow reproduction, and the species’ vulnerability. Galdikas founded Orangutan Foundation...
Study Reveals Early Developmental Gaps in Twins Compared to Siblings
A new longitudinal study of 851 families shows twins fall behind their singleton siblings in language, cognition, and social‑emotional development from ages two to four. The early gaps largely persist through age seven, except that twins surpass singletons in verbal...
Space Is Becoming A New Frontier To Advance Human Health
The University of Pittsburgh launched the Trivedi Institute for Space and Global Biomedicine to harness spaceflight for health research. NASA and other agencies have invested billions in precision‑health studies that examine how microgravity and radiation affect the human body. Findings...
Cryoablation Outshines Radiation Therapy, Surgery for Treating Certain Lung Cancers
New research published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology shows percutaneous cryoablation delivers high local control for medically inoperable stage IA non‑small cell lung cancer, especially tumors under 2 cm. In a single‑center analysis of 176 patients, one‑year and three‑year...
NASA Awards Intuitive Machines a $180.4 Million CLPS Contract
NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines a $180.4 million contract under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program for its fifth task order, dubbed IM‑5. The mission will deploy a larger Nova‑D lunar lander to the South‑Pole ridge Mons Malapert, delivering seven science...
Fusion Power Plant Possible by 2045 with Massive Effort, Says Science Academy
Germany’s National Academy of Science and Engineering (Acatech) says the country could have a commercial fusion power plant by 2045 if it dramatically accelerates the program. Achieving this would demand massive investment—tens of billions of dollars—expanded training, industrial‑scale component manufacturing,...
Daily Briefing: Earliest Known Dog Genome Pushes Genetic Record Back 5,000 Years
Researchers have recovered the earliest known dog genomes, dated 14,000‑16,000 years ago, extending the canine domestication record by more than 5,000 years and revealing a pan‑Eurasian dog population exchanged among hunter‑gatherers. A new brain‑connectivity atlas, built from scans of 3,600...
Breakthrough Listen: Humanity’s Most Ambitious Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million, ten‑year SETI program announced in July 2015 by Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking, has deployed a global network of radio and optical telescopes to scan one million nearby stars, the Galactic plane and 100 galaxies for artificial signals. The...
How the Amygdala Decides Between Freezing and Fleeing
Tulane neuroscientists identified two central amygdala neuron types—CRF and SOM—that act as a neural switch between high‑intensity escape (jumping) and low‑intensity freezing or darting during fear extinction. Using optogenetic manipulation in mice, inhibiting CRF neurons reduced panic‑like jumps, while activating...
Women Experience Greater Jealousy when Their Romantic Rivals Have Highly Feminine Faces
A new study in Scientific Reports shows heterosexual women report higher jealousy when imagining rivals with highly feminine faces flirting with their partners. The effect persisted using natural, unedited photographs of 50 white women, measured by both objective facial landmarks...
The Head Transplant Doctor Will See You Now
Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, famed for his controversial head‑transplant ambitions, claims a $100 million operation would require an 80‑person surgical team and could eventually give patients a new body. He cites early animal work—rat nerve‑fusion with polyethylene glycol, monkey and dog head...
FY 2025 GDUFA Science and Research Report
The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research released its FY 2025 GDUFA Science & Research Report, detailing more than 50 funded projects across eight priority scientific initiatives. The program targets bioequivalence, manufacturing standards, and advanced analytical methods to streamline abbreviated...
This Cutting-Edge Treatment Hit the Rewind Button On Aging, Scientists Say
Researchers at Longeveron reported that a single infusion of laromestrocel, a mesenchymal stem‑cell therapy derived from donors aged 14‑18, significantly boosted mobility in frail seniors. In a double‑blind trial of about 150 participants aged 70‑85, the highest dose (200 million cells)...