Science News and Headlines
Science News and Headlines
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 and operated on the ISS. The presentation highlighted the practical integration of particle‑physics technology into orbital research. A recording of the session is now available online for the broader scientific community.
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...
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'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'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,...
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...
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,...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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 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 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...
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...
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...
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, 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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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,...
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, 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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)...
Mayo Clinic interventional cardiologists and radiologists have repurposed Terumo's WEB SLS II intrasaccular flow disruptor—originally approved for intracranial bifurcation aneurysms—to treat saccular coronary aneurysms. The first case involved a 74‑year‑old patient undergoing aortic valve replacement and bypass surgery, where the device achieved...
Regenerative medicine promises to shift healthcare from a reactive model to proactive disease modification by targeting early biological drivers of chronic degeneration. Cell‑based therapies such as mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) can modulate inflammation, immune signaling, and tissue repair, showing benefits...
UCSF researchers have mapped a gut‑brain signaling cascade that explains why parasitic worm infections cause loss of appetite. They discovered that tuft cells detect parasite‑derived succinate and release acetylcholine, which prompts nearby enterochromaffin cells to secrete serotonin. The serotonin then...
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a plan to build a public supercomputer dedicated to climate modeling, aiming to improve forecasts and early warnings for extreme weather. The initiative will partner with Barcelona’s Supercomputing Center to standardize Mexico’s weather data, leveraging...
Researchers at Princeton unveiled two low‑impact lithium extraction techniques that could dramatically accelerate supply growth. The porous‑string method uses capillary‑wicking cotton fibers to concentrate lithium chloride up to 6% in a process up to twenty times faster than conventional evaporation,...
Researchers at the University of Guelph announced that their sugar‑based vaccine candidate against Campylobacter jejuni demonstrated safety and immunogenicity in a small Phase 1 human trial. Participants experienced only mild side effects, and the formulation generated measurable antibody responses even at...
A recent Australian study uncovered a two‑phase relationship between integrated visual‑field loss and low‑light difficulties in glaucoma patients. Below an IVF total‑deviation of –6.3 dB (or sensitivity‑based IVF of 21.7 dB), LLQ scores drop sharply, indicating functional impairment. Inferior field defects were...
A bold hypothesis called quantum immortality suggests consciousness persists by jumping to parallel universes after death. The idea derives from the many‑worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which posits that each quantum observation creates branching universes. Critics such as Dartmouth philosopher...
New research of 1,493 breast‑cancer survivors aged 65 and older shows that more than 60 % of those who received chemotherapy report moderate to severe neuropathy five years after treatment, compared with 36 % of non‑chemo patients. The risk is driven largely...
Work on a sewer line southeast of Amsterdam was halted after crews uncovered a timber slab over 10 feet long, likely belonging to a Viking‑era ship from the 9th century. The find could become Wijk bij Duurstede’s first archaeological ship‑timber discovery, linking...
NASA’s GRACE twin‑satellite mission, operating from 2002 to 2017, produced a high‑resolution gravity map of Earth that reveals subtle variations in the planet’s pull. The visualization shows a relatively weak gravity zone off India’s coast and a stronger field over...
Silent Waves introduced Zephyr, a traveling‑wave parametric amplifier that integrates the microwave pump coupler onto the chip, eliminating bulky external directional couplers in dilution refrigerators. The design targets the spatial constraints of scaling quantum processors, enabling higher multiplexing—potentially up to...
Atom Computing and Cisco have signed an MOU to explore integrating neutral‑atom quantum processors into distributed quantum architectures. The partnership will combine Cisco’s quantum networking protocols and a network‑aware compiler with Atom’s 1,000‑qubit neutral‑atom platform, aiming to create a fault‑tolerant,...
Voyager 2’s 1989 flyby captured the closest-ever images of Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, passing within roughly 25,000 miles (40 km). The high‑resolution shot shows dozens of dark plumes up to 100 miles (160 km) long erupting from several‑mile‑wide vents, while a wider view taken from...
