Higher Body Mass Index in Youth Linked to Altered Brain Connectivity
A magnetoencephalography study of 32 youths aged 8‑19 found that participants with higher body‑mass index (BMI) display distinct neural signatures, including elevated gamma‑band activity and a shallower aperiodic slope indicating reduced inhibitory signaling. Resting‑state analysis also showed weakened low‑frequency (delta, theta) connectivity between the salience network and motivation‑related circuits, alongside stronger high‑frequency links between the default mode and central executive networks. These findings mirror animal research linking high‑fat diets to damage of inhibitory interneurons, suggesting that excess weight may disrupt excitation‑inhibition balance during brain development.
NIR Fluorescence Surgery Enhances Oral Cancer Removal
Near‑infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging is being integrated into oral cancer surgery to highlight malignant tissue that standard visual inspection can miss. A multi‑center trial of 120 patients demonstrated a 30% reduction in positive surgical margins and shaved roughly 12 minutes...
The Space Race to Create Gym Equipment for Future Astronauts
British‑engineered HIFIm (High‑Frequency Impulse for Microgravity) has completed parabolic‑flight trials, demonstrating the ability to deliver a full‑body workout in weightless conditions. The device, built by special‑effects engineers at Pinewood Studios, can generate up to 300 distinct exercises without electrical power...
The Space Race to Create Gym Equipment for Future Astronauts
A British‑engineered exercise kit called HIFIm is being trialled on parabolic flights to simulate weightlessness for future astronauts. The device promises to shrink daily workout time from the current two‑hour regimen on the International Space Station to just 30 minutes,...
New Study Could Improve Testing and Treatment for Rare Brain, Spinal Cord, and Eye Cancers
Researchers at Fudan University identified hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 1 (HAVCR1) as a fluid‑based biomarker that distinguishes primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) and its eye‑only variant, primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL), from non‑cancerous conditions. In a study of 199 lymphoma...
Explainable AI Predicts Pediatric Sepsis Early Using Labs
A new explainable artificial‑intelligence system can flag pediatric sepsis up to 12 hours before clinicians detect it, using only routine laboratory tests. The model, trained on more than 30,000 hospital encounters, achieved an AUROC of 0.92 and demonstrated consistent performance...
SpaceX Launches Its Biggest Starship Mega Rocket yet on Test Flight
SpaceX launched the upgraded Starship V3, its largest and most powerful iteration, from Texas on a test flight carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites. The 407‑foot vehicle features bigger grid fins, a larger fuel transfer line, and enhanced avionics, marking the...
Imaging Ellipsometry Tracks MXene Thin-Film Quality During Fabrication without Damage
A German‑Israeli research team has shown that imaging ellipsometry can non‑destructively monitor MXene thin‑film quality throughout device fabrication. By pairing spectroscopic micro‑ellipsometry for rapid spot checks with imaging spectroscopic ellipsometry for full‑device maps, the method captures thickness, composition and conductivity...
New Indicator for Response to Therapy in Pediatric Cancers Identified
Researchers at the University of Birmingham reported that a high aneuploidy score can predict which children with relapsed solid tumors respond to a combined low‑dose irinotecan and PARP‑inhibitor regimen. The Phase I/II eSMART arm enrolled 70 patients across the UK, France,...
Just Outside Jupiter, One Region May Have Forged Six Meteorite Parent Bodies
A new study from the Max Planck Institute shows that a high‑pressure dust trap just outside Jupiter’s orbit acted as a prolific planetesimal nursery, spawning six distinct groups of carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies over a two‑million‑year interval. Using detailed computer...
Gesture Recognition Using EMGMOAT From Wrist Surface Electromyographic Signals
Researchers introduced EMGMOAT, a mobile convolutional model with attention, for hand‑gesture recognition using wrist‑surface EMG signals. Benchmarks show EMGMOAT outperforms classical classifiers, achieving the highest accuracy among four methods evaluated. A comparative study also found wrist‑collected signals consistently surpass forearm...
Serotonin Proven to Reduce Cognitive Belief Stickiness in OCD
A double‑blind trial showed that a single dose of escitalopram reduces “belief stickiness,” the tendency to cling to outdated mental models, in healthy participants. Using a computer‑based “Seasons” shell‑collecting game, researchers found higher plasma serotonin levels enabled faster updating of...
Psilocybin Resets Brain Pain Networks and Boosts Painkillers
University of Reading researchers found that a single injection of psilocybin eliminates neuropathic pain in mice for up to a month and reconfigures the brain’s pain‑processing networks. The psychedelic’s effect endures long after the compound leaves the system, creating a...
Wildfire Smoke Linked to Rising Pediatric Mental Health Emergencies
A multi‑country analysis published in Nature Mental Health links wildfire‑sourced fine particulate matter to a measurable rise in pediatric mental‑health emergencies. Researchers examined over 3.1 million emergency department visits for youths under 20 in Australia, Brazil and Canada from 2004‑2019, finding...
Quantum Computing Weekly Round-Up: Week Ending May 23, 2026
The week saw a wave of quantum‑computing activity, highlighted by IBM’s partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce to launch a quantum foundry. France and the United States announced sizable funding programs, while Pasqal and Saudi Aramco deployed a 200‑qubit...
'Designer' Superconducting Diamond: Researchers Uncover Path to Multi-Modality Quantum Chips
Researchers from Penn State, the University of Chicago and DOE’s Q‑NEXT have identified the microscopic mechanisms that give rise to superconductivity in boron‑doped diamond. By isolating electronic signatures, they discovered a granular “puddle” network that can be tuned with magnetic...
Enzymes Involved in Cholesterol Transport May Point to New Cancer Therapies
Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys and the University of Illinois Chicago identified phosphatidylinositol 5‑phosphate 4‑kinases (PI5P4Ks) as critical for cholesterol trafficking in TP53‑mutant cancers. In mouse models, deleting PI5P4K α and β prevented tumor formation by causing lysosomal cholesterol mislocalization...
Webb Studies Star Clusters
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a near‑infrared view of a spiral arm in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) as part of a survey of roughly 9,000 star clusters. The study finds that more massive clusters shed their natal gas faster,...
Skape Bio Unlocks Generalizable GPCR Drugs Using AI Protein Design
Skape Bio, founded by former UW protein‑design researcher Chris Norn, has unveiled an AI‑driven platform that creates miniprotein therapeutics for G‑protein‑coupled receptors (GPCRs). A recent Nature paper shows functional miniproteins targeting 11 diverse GPCRs, including agonists validated on three receptors....
Landmark Finding that Showed Brains of Kids with ADHD Mature Later Was Actually a Mirage in the Data, New Research...
Two decades after a landmark 2008 MRI study suggested that children with ADHD experience delayed cortical maturation, new research using the massive ABCD dataset shows the finding was likely a statistical artifact. By accounting for sex‑specific brain development trajectories, the...
Human Gut Organoids with Functional Nerves Developed that Can Be Mass Produced
Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Nantes Université have unveiled a 3D‑printed scaffold system that accelerates the growth of human gut organoids to transplantation maturity in 14 days—half the previous timeline. The confined culture system yields centimeter‑scale intestinal, colon and stomach...
Mercury May Have Gained All of Its Unexpected Water in a Single Day
Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Messenger mission have identified a rapid event that could have deposited meters‑deep ice in Mercury’s permanently shadowed polar craters within a single Mercurian day, roughly 176 Earth days. The ice, discovered in craters that never...
Experimental mRNA Vaccine May Protect Against Multiple Ebola Viruses
Researchers have created an experimental mRNA vaccine that protects rodents from three orthoebolavirus strains, including the Bundibugyo virus driving the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The study shows the vaccine elicits robust antibody responses...
Scientists Get Their Best-Ever Look at Distant Planet’s Surface
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers obtained the clearest view yet of the rocky exoplanet Kua’kua (LHS 3844 b), located 48 light‑years from Earth. Analysis of three secondary eclipses reveals a dark, basalt‑like surface, virtually no atmosphere, and extreme temperature contrast...
Using Pulsars as Ultra-Precise Gravitational Probes to 'Weigh' Neighboring Galaxies
University of Alabama in Huntsville researchers have demonstrated that ultra‑precise pulsar timing can directly measure the tiny gravitational accelerations induced by nearby dwarf galaxies. By expanding their sample from 14 to 54 millisecond pulsars, they detected asymmetries in the Milky...
Using Webb Astronomers Think They Have Detected Daily Weather Changes on Exoplanet
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared spectroscopic data say they have observed daily weather cycles on hot‑Jupiter WASP‑94A b, a gas giant about half Jupiter’s mass that orbits its star every four days. The observations reveal magnesium‑silicate clouds forming...
An Ancient Solar Storm Left Clues in Tree Rings and a Famous Poet's Diary: 'Red Lights in the Northern Sky'
Scientists at Japan’s OIST have identified a “sub‑extreme” solar proton event (SPE) that struck Earth between 1200 and 1201 CE, using carbon‑14 spikes in tree rings and a 1204 diary entry describing a red aurora over Kyoto. The research reveals that...
Seal Pups Were Dying From a 'Corkscrew Killer' On a Canadian Island. It Turned Out to Be Cannibals.
Researchers have finally solved a decades‑old mystery on Sable Island, identifying cannibalistic male gray seals as the source of spiral‑shaped lacerations that killed seal pups. The study, published in Marine Mammal Science, documented direct attacks and analyzed drone footage from...
Zvezda Module on ISS Is Leaking Once Again
The Zvezda service module on the International Space Station has begun leaking air again, losing roughly one pound of atmosphere per day. The leak re‑emerged after recent repairs aimed at sealing stress fractures that appeared earlier this year. NASA confirmed...
X-BATT’s Glassact SiOC Spherical Anode Targets 800 mAh/G and 8,000 Cycles—More than Double Graphite’s Capacity
X‑BATT introduced Glassact, a spherical silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) anode that targets over 800 mAh/g reversible capacity—more than twice that of conventional graphite. The company also claims the material can charge at rates exceeding 8 C while retaining at least 80% of its...
ASCO26: 5 Data Snapshots Ahead of the Year’s Biggest Cancer Drug Meeting
Ahead of the ASCO Annual Meeting, several late‑stage oncology trials were previewed in newly released abstracts. Merck’s antibody‑drug conjugate sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac‑TMT) combined with Keytruda cut disease‑progression risk by 65% and achieved a 70% response rate in first‑line non‑small cell...
Hi-Res Microscopes Give Biologists Petabytes of Data. Scientists Are Creating an AI Assistant to Make Sense of It
University of California, Berkeley researchers have built MOSAIC, a multimodal microscope that integrates twelve imaging techniques into a single platform, generating petabyte‑scale, five‑dimensional (3D + time + color) data sets. The system captures live cellular and organismal dynamics at unprecedented resolution, from single molecules...
Rocket Lab Launches Radar Satellite for Japanese Company Synspective
Rocket Lab successfully lifted off its Electron rocket from New Zealand, delivering the ninth radar satellite for Japan’s Synspective under a 27‑launch contract. The launch marks Rocket Lab’s seventh launch worldwide in 2026, placing it behind SpaceX, China and Russia in...
On‐Surface Synthesis of B3N3‐Substituted Two‐Dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks with Distinct Pore Sizes and Kagome Band Structures
Researchers have achieved on‑surface synthesis of single‑layer, B3N3‑substituted two‑dimensional covalent organic frameworks (COFs) on Ag(111) and Au(111) substrates under ultra‑high vacuum. Multi‑method characterization—including STM, bond‑resolved AFM and photoemission spectroscopy—reveals a non‑planar, chiral lattice with kagome topology. By varying the spacer...
Stressed Crystal Creates Nanoscale Patterns on Chip Materials at Room Temperature
Rice University researchers introduced a room‑temperature method that uses an anisotropic alpha‑molybdenum trioxide crystal to imprint nanoscale ripple patterns onto hard dielectrics such as silica, aluminum oxide and silicon nitride. The electron‑beam‑induced stress buckles the crystal layer while softening the...
Using Brain Waves to Translate Thoughts Into Pictures
Physics students at Stevens Institute of Technology trained machine‑learning models to reconstruct visual categories from EEG brain‑wave recordings, correctly identifying images such as pizza and pandas. The work shows that inexpensive, portable EEG—costing a few hundred to a few thousand...
MIT Celebrates Haystack Observatory’s Return To Operation
MIT’s Haystack Observatory has brought its 37‑meter radio telescope back online after a multi‑year upgrade that began in 2010. On Dec. 8, 2025, the facility used Very Long Baseline Interferometry with the VLBA and Greenland Telescope to capture unprecedented detail of the...
OSE’s Tedopi-Keytruda Combo Clears Phase II Ovarian Cancer Hurdle
French biotech OSE Immunotherapeutics announced positive Phase II data for its cancer vaccine Tedopi combined with Merck's Keytruda in platinum‑sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer. The combination improved median progression‑free survival to 4.1 months versus 2.8 months with best supportive care, cutting the risk of...
Could Sodium Replace Lithium as the Dominant Ingredient in Batteries?
Researchers at the University of Limerick have created a dual‑cation battery that blends sodium and lithium ions. Adding a small amount of lithium salt to a sodium‑dominant electrolyte doubled the half‑cell’s storage capacity and sustained 1,000 charge‑discharge cycles at higher...
Varda CEO Foresees Space-Based Medicine Moving From Research Novelty to Manufacturing Mainstream
Varda Space Industries announced its first public pharma partnership with United Therapeutics, aiming to fly a microgravity‑manufactured drug in 2027 and begin production the following year. CEO Will Bruey framed the deal as proof that space‑based manufacturing is moving from...
NIH Researchers Identify Avenue for Enhanced GLP-1-Induced Weight Loss
NIH scientists have mapped how the GLP‑1 agonist semaglutide triggers intracellular signaling in mouse hindbrain neurons, pinpointing cyclic AMP (cAMP) elevation in the area postrema as a key driver of weight loss. The study revealed that cAMP responses differ across...
Astronomers Discover a Super-Earth Orbiting a Nearby Red Dwarf
Astronomers led by Giuseppe Conzo announced the discovery of Ross 318 b, a temperate super‑Earth orbiting the nearby red dwarf Ross 318, just 28 light‑years from Earth. The planet completes an orbit every 39.63 days at 0.16 AU, with a minimum mass of 6.21 Earth...
ISS National Lab Provides Fresh Lens on Aging and Health, Sparking Space Medicine Programs Nationwide
The International Space Station National Lab is turning its 26‑year microgravity research platform into a catalyst for new health breakthroughs on Earth. At Cedars‑Sinai, stem‑cell‑derived heart cells grown in space are being leveraged for scalable regenerative therapies. The University of...
Hubble Captures Galaxy Cluster MACS J1141.6-1905
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope released a new visible‑and‑infrared image of the galaxy cluster MACS J1141.6-1905, located about 4 billion light‑years away in the constellation Crater. The picture combines data from two Hubble programs that target X‑ray‑bright clusters to study gravitational lensing...
Cognitive Effects Vary by Therapy for Advanced Prostate Cancer
A phase‑2 ARACOG trial presented at ASCO showed that men with advanced prostate cancer receiving darolutamide experienced significantly less cognitive decline over 24 weeks than those on enzalutamide. The study enrolled 111 patients (median age 71) and evaluated five computer‑based neurocognitive tests,...
Tuna Has Overtaken Cod as the UK’s Top-Selling Seafood – Here’s Why
Tuna has overtaken cod as the UK’s top-selling seafood, reflecting a surge in sustainably sourced tuna and a steep decline in cod stocks. In the southwest UK, tuna numbers have risen enough to support a regulated fishery with a 230‑tonne...
Scientists Discover a Strange Hidden State in “Sandwich” Molecules
Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have isolated and fully characterized a doubly ring‑slipped intermediate in the formation of ruthenocene, marking the first crystal‑structure evidence of such a species. The discovery was achieved using single‑crystal X‑ray diffraction,...
NASA’s Moon Base Vision Includes Swarms of Lunar Robots
NASA used the 2026 FIRST Robotics World Championship to unveil its robot‑first strategy for a permanent lunar outpost. The agency outlined a first phase of up to 30 Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) landings by 2027, delivering rovers, hoppers and...
Superconducting Vortices Moonlight as Controllable Qubits, Turning a Disruption Into a Resource
Researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology demonstrated that magnetic vortices in granular‑aluminum superconducting films can be harnessed as controllable qubits. By exploiting the material’s nanoscale island structure, vortices form low‑loss two‑level systems that can be coherently manipulated and read...
Why an Immense Marine Heatwave Off the US West Coast Has Alarmed Scientists
An unprecedented marine heatwave off the U.S. West Coast, now stretching from Hawaii to British Columbia, has persisted since peaking in September 2025 and is projected to expand further. NOAA data shows ocean temperatures surpassing typical peak‑hurricane‑season levels, intensifying drought, wildfires,...