US: Cornell Berry Breeding and Extension Expand Opportunities for NY Growers
Cornell University’s Berry Breeding Program and Cooperative Extension evaluated 18,480 berry seedlings over three years, selecting 120 advanced genotypes for further testing. Two primocane red‑raspberry cultivars, ‘Crimson Beauty’ and ‘Crimson Blush’, were released and licensed to nurseries for 2025 planting, extending the harvest window into November. On‑farm trials at three New York farms are now assessing commercial performance, giving growers data‑driven options for protected‑production systems. The initiative aims to boost New York’s berry competitiveness against California and Florida producers.
All the Fancy Measuring Devices Used in Science Rely on Two Stone-Age Techniques
The article explains that every sophisticated scientific measuring instrument ultimately relies on two primitive techniques: counting and comparing. These methods trace back to Stone‑Age tools such as tally sticks and balance scales. Modern devices—from blood pressure cuffs to spectrophotometers—encode these...
Teledyne CCD370 Sensors Launch on SMILE Mission
Teledyne Space Imaging has launched two CCD370 imaging sensors aboard ESA’s SMILE mission, which lifted off on a Vega‑C rocket from French Guiana on 19 May 2026. The sensors sit at the core of the Soft X‑ray Imager, capturing photons...
Canceling Quantum Noise
A Max Planck Institute team has built an effective negative‑mass oscillator that injects an anti‑noise optical signal to cancel quantum back‑action noise in precision measurements. Laboratory tests show up to a 77% reduction in quantum noise at the resonant frequency of...
Ancient Chemistry Trick Unlocks New Type of Glass that Traps CO2 and Hydrogen
Scientists have borrowed an ancient glassmaking trick—adding small amounts of sodium or lithium—to lower the softening temperature of metal‑organic framework (MOF) glasses such as ZIF‑62. The additives integrate into the glass network, weakening bonds and allowing the material to flow...
Fusion Energy Poised for Simpler U.S. Review
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is ending the public comment period on a proposed rule that treats fusion energy separately from traditional nuclear fission, with a final regulation slated for this fall. Regulators deem fusion’s risk profile akin to medical...
A New Era of Exploring the Universe in Radio
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory unveiled the first light from a prototype of the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA), capturing radio emissions from the Sun, a supernova remnant, and a distant supermassive black hole. The ngVLA, if fully funded,...
Chinese and Dutch Scientists Turn Corn to Sustainable Plastic, Inspired by Spider Silk
Scientists from China and the Netherlands have developed a corn‑protein biopolymer, dubbed “plantymer,” using a spider‑silk‑inspired processing technique. The material, derived from the protein zein, achieves silk‑like rigidity and effective moisture and oxygen barriers while degrading up to 80 % within...
The Problem at the Heart of Drug Discovery: Lexogen & Ochre Bio on the Power of AI on Human Data
Lexogen, an RNA transcriptomics and NGS service provider, teamed up with Ochre Bio, a biotech developing AI‑driven RNA therapies for chronic liver disease. The partnership leverages Lexogen’s high‑throughput sequencing to generate human‑first data that trains Ochre’s predictive models. Together they...
Liquid Biopsy Differentiation of Pancreatic Cancer From Non‐Cancerous Pancreatic Disease Using Dielectrophoresis‐Recovered Nanoparticles Carrying Cell‐Free DNA and Protein Biomarkers (Small...
Researchers led by Stuart D. Ibsen have unveiled a microfluidic chip that uses dielectrophoretic forces to pull extracellular‑vesicle nanoparticles out of undiluted plasma. The captured vesicles carry cell‑free DNA and protein biomarkers that together distinguish pancreatic cancer from non‑cancerous pancreatic...
External Stimuli‐Activable Single‐Atom Nanozymes for Bioapplications
The review outlines how single‑atom nanozymes (SANs) can be engineered to respond to external stimuli such as light, ultrasound, and magnetic fields. It details electronic‑structure tuning and synthesis routes that amplify catalytic activity and enable on‑demand activation. Case studies demonstrate...
Recent Advances in Lithium Metal Anodes with Liquid Electrolytes: Interfacial Interaction‐Driven Assembly for Dendrite Suppression and Long‐Term Stability (Small 29/2026)
Researchers Yongmin Ko, Jinhan Cho and colleagues reported a new interfacial interaction‑driven assembly method that modifies both the lithium‑metal electrode and its separator. The approach creates a homogenized Li‑ion flux, enabling uniform lithium plating and eliminating dendrite formation. Laboratory tests...
Hydroxide‐Based Catalysts for Alcohol Electrooxidation: From Fundamentals Understanding to Catalyst Design Strategies
The review consolidates fundamental concepts of alcohol electrooxidation and outlines how layered hydroxide electrocatalysts can be engineered for superior performance. It details direct and indirect oxidation pathways, active‑site formation, and product distribution across diverse substrates. Emphasis is placed on the...
Merck Reports the P-III (TroFuse-005) Trial Data on Sacituzumab Tirumotecan for Advanced or Recurrent Endometrial Cancer
Merck disclosed Phase III TroFuse‑005 data for sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac‑TMT) in 776 patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma or carcinosarcoma who had prior platinum‑based chemotherapy and PD‑1/PD‑L1 immunotherapy. The trial met its primary overall‑survival and progression‑free‑survival endpoints and also achieved...
How Life and Intelligent Life Emerged on Earth
Researchers continue to debate how non‑living chemistry gave rise to the first self‑replicating systems and, billions of years later, to intelligent life. The article reviews leading origin‑of‑life models—information‑first (RNA world), metabolism‑first, and compartment‑first—alongside proposed settings such as hydrothermal vents, warm...
Why Does Motor Neurone Disease Take so Long to Diagnose? And Can It Be Treated?
Rugby league star Jai Arrow’s recent motor neurone disease (MND) diagnosis has spotlighted a condition that affects fewer than 1,000 Australians annually. MND progressively destroys motor neurons, leading to loss of speech, movement, breathing and, ultimately, death within two to...
Vitrafy Life Sciences Reports Strong US Army Platelet Preservation Results
Vitrafy Life Sciences announced that its Phase II in‑vitro study with the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research validated a no‑wash 3 % DMSO cryopreservation protocol, delivering a 94% mean post‑thaw platelet recovery. The protocol also outperformed wash‑based and trehalose approaches on...
'Climate Experts' Were Wrong. Can We Get a Refund?
The United Nations’ climate‑change panel has quietly removed the most extreme warming scenarios from its latest assessment, acknowledging that earlier projections overstated near‑term temperature spikes. The revision follows criticism that dire forecasts have fueled costly policy overreactions and eroded public...
Elite Immune Cells Lead the Fight Against Multiple Myeloma
Researchers at Osaka University discovered that only a tiny fraction of CD8 T cells—about 2.3% of clones—undergo massive clonal expansion when exposed to the bispecific T‑cell engager elranatamab in a multiple myeloma model. Using single‑cell RNA sequencing, they tracked these elite...
Stress Impairs Your Brain’s Ability to Link Memories — Dampening Insight
A new study in Science Advances shows that acute stress impairs the brain’s ability to integrate past and new information, a process essential for insight. Researchers used brain imaging and a two‑day memory task, exposing half of 121 participants to...
AI Designs Miniprotein Switches for GPCR Targeting
A University of Washington and Skape Bio team used AI‑driven de novo protein design to create miniproteins under 100 amino acids that can precisely activate or inhibit G protein‑coupled receptors (GPCRs). The designs achieve nanomolar affinity, high potency, and state‑specific selectivity,...
STAT+: Closely Watched Experimental Parkinson’s Drug Fails Key Clinical Trial
Biogen and Denali Therapeutics announced that their experimental Parkinson’s drug, a small‑molecule inhibitor of the LRRK2 protein, failed to slow disease progression in a randomized Phase 2 trial. The study enrolled 648 adults who received either the LRRK2 pill or...
NASA's AWE Instrument Completes Mission to Study Earth's Effect on Space Weather
NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) completed its 30‑month mission on the International Space Station on May 21, 2026, after surpassing its two‑year design life. The instrument captured over 80 million infrared images of atmospheric gravity waves generated by severe weather such as...
Molecular Pathways Behind Inflammation in Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease Mapped
Cedars‑Sinai researchers have mapped two molecular pathways that drive inflammation in alcohol‑associated liver disease (ALD). One study links the transcription factor FOXM1 to a gene network that promotes liver scarring, and suppressing FOXM1 reversed fibrosis in mouse models. A second...
Melanoma Skin Cancer Cases in UK Hit Record Level, Analysis Finds
Melanoma diagnoses in the United Kingdom surged to 20,980 in 2022, the highest count ever recorded. Cancer Research UK projects annual cases could climb to about 26,500 by 2040, driven by an ageing population and sustained UV exposure. The rise...
Gaze Into the Crystal Ball Nebula and See the Light Emitted by a Dying Star 1,500 Years Ago
The 8.1‑meter Gemini North telescope captured a high‑resolution image of NGC 1514, nicknamed the Crystal Ball Nebula, revealing its irregular gas shells and a central binary star system. Located about 1,500 light‑years away, the nebula shows light that left the dying...
Particle-by-Particle Tracking Reveals Uneven Nanoparticle Drug Release
Researchers at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona used dSTORM microscopy to track drug release from individual PLGA nanoparticles over 30 days, uncovering highly heterogeneous release profiles. Some particles discharged their cargo within hours, others retained it until polymer...
NASA to Showcase Mission to Boost Swift Spacecraft’s Orbit
NASA will showcase a June 2026 mission to boost the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory using Katalyst’s LINK robotic servicing spacecraft. The LINK vehicle will be encapsulated in Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL launch vehicle and released from the L‑1011...
GLP-1s May Help Prevent Metastatic Progression of Cancer
A retrospective analysis presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting found that patients with stage I‑III cancers who were prescribed GLP‑1 receptor agonists experienced markedly lower rates of metastatic progression than comparable patients on DPP‑4 inhibitors. Using the TriNetX database, researchers matched...
Extreme Lunar Conditions Need an Extreme Test Rig
NASA’s Glenn Research Center has unveiled the Lunar Environment Test Rig (LESTR), a vacuum chamber that reproduces lunar‑night temperatures from 40 K to 125 K (‑233 °C to ‑148 °C). The rig uses a dry cryocooler, eliminating the need for liquid nitrogen, helium, or...
STAT+: Merck-Kelun Lung Cancer Drug Cut Risk of Tumor Progression by 65%, ASCO Abstract Shows
Merck and China‑based Kelun‑Biotech announced that their antibody‑drug conjugate sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac‑TMT) reduced the risk of tumor progression by 65% in a Phase 3 trial of untreated advanced non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study, conducted in China, also showed an...
There's a New T. Rex From the Dinosaur Age — and It Ruled the Seas with a Skull-Crushing Bite
Scientists have identified a new mosasaur species, Tylosaurus rex, that lived about 80 million years ago in the Western Interior Seaway. Measuring up to 43 feet (13 m), it dwarfs its close relative T. proriger and sports serrated teeth and a crushing bite. The...
800-Year-Old 'Hugging Skeletons' Are Genetically Confirmed as Poland's only Medieval Same-Sex Double Burial
Archaeologists uncovered two 800‑year‑old skeletons in an embrace at Opole’s 13th‑century cathedral. DNA analysis confirmed both were women and not closely related, marking the first genetically verified same‑sex double burial in medieval Poland. The burial positions indicate they were interred...
A New AI Tool Spots Hidden Signs of Adult ADHD Months Before a Formal Diagnosis
Swedish researchers have built a transformer‑based AI that scans routine electronic health records to flag adult attention‑deficit hyperactivity disorder up to six months before a formal diagnosis. In validation on 800 patients, the model achieved 80% sensitivity and 77% specificity,...
After Two Centuries of Mystery, This Is How Tobacco Plants Make Nicotine
Researchers from the University of York and an international team have finally decoded the long‑standing puzzle of how tobacco plants synthesize nicotine, publishing their findings in Nature Communications. The study reveals that a glucose molecule attaches to one of nicotine’s...
Watch Rocket Lab Launch Private Japanese Earth-Observing Satellite Early on May 22
Rocket Lab will lift off a Synspective synthetic‑aperture radar (SAR) satellite from New Zealand on May 22, 2026, in the “Viva La Strix” mission. The 18‑meter Electron rocket will place the Strix payload into a 355‑mile low‑Earth orbit, adding to Japan’s growing SAR constellation....
BBC Inside Science
The BBC Inside Science episode examines the emerging 2026 El Niño, expected to peak from October through early 2027, and its likely global weather impacts. It highlights the discovery of deep‑sea Ediacaran fossils in Canada’s Mackenzie Mountains, suggesting early complex life...
A Strong El Niño Could Be Coming. Countries Are Already Preparing.
A potentially record‑strong El Niño is forming as global temperatures hit historic highs. The climate cycle, which recurs every three to seven years, can bring extreme rainfall to the Americas and severe drought to South and Southeast Asia, southern Africa and...
New Eye Drop Formulation Shows Promise for Dry Eye Disease
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Okayama University have created a water‑soluble rexinoid eye‑drop, NEt‑3IB, that boosts resident macrophage function and mitigates dry‑eye pathology in mouse models. The formulation significantly lowered ocular inflammation, preserved corneal barrier integrity and goblet...
JWST Maps the Weather on a Hot Gas Giant 700 Light-Years Away
Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope’s limb‑resolved spectroscopy to split the transit of hot gas giant WASP‑94A b into separate morning‑ and evening‑limb spectra. The morning limb is shrouded in high‑altitude aerosols, while the evening limb shows clear water‑vapor signatures,...
Vitamin B12 Analog Targets Deadly Brain Cancer Cells
Researchers at Nitric Oxide Services and Cleveland Clinic have demonstrated that nitrosylcobalamin, a nitric‑oxide‑releasing vitamin B12 analog, can penetrate the blood‑brain barrier and preferentially accumulate in glioblastoma tissue in rat models. Pharmacokinetic data show sustained tumor nitrate levels for at...
Wild Animal Consumption on the Rise in Central Africa, Study Finds
A new Nature study led by CIFOR‑ICRAF analyzed over 12,000 households in six Central African countries and found wild‑meat consumption has risen roughly 50 % since 2000, climbing from about 730,000 tons to 1.1 million tons annually. The surge is driven mainly by expanding...
Hantavirus Found in Shocking Number of Pacific Northwest Rodents
Researchers in Washington State and Idaho found that about 10% of 189 rodents sampled carried the Sin Nombre hantavirus, with nearly 30% showing past infection. The study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, highlights a higher prevalence of the deadly virus in...
I Study the Universe. Everything Scientists Know About Dark Energy—And the End of the World—Could Be Wrong.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) released its 2025 data set, indicating that dark energy may vary over time rather than remain a constant Λ. When combined with cosmic microwave background and supernova measurements, the results intensify long‑standing tensions such...
New Artificial Intelligence Model Maps How Genes Work Together Inside Cells
Scientists at Icahn School of Medicine have unveiled a Gene Set Foundation Model (GSFM), an AI system that learns how genes group and function across thousands of cellular contexts. Trained on millions of curated gene sets, the model predicts gene‑gene...
'I Have No Doubt that Life Is Out There': Why Radio Astronomers Are Convinced Alien Contact Is only a Matter...
Radio astronomer Emma Chapman argues that intelligent extraterrestrial life is a certainty, not a possibility, and that contact will inevitably come via radio signals. She cites the 1974 Arecibo Message—sent toward the Hercules cluster and now over 50 light‑years away—as...
Bacteria Found in Artisan Cheeses May Ease Disease
Researchers at the University of Reading mapped the bacterial communities in three British artisan cheeses, revealing that the microbes responsible for flavor also have probiotic potential. The study tracked bacterial populations from early maturation to full ripeness, identifying strains such...
Below-Normal Atlantic Hurricane Season Forecast: NOAA
NOAA’s seasonal outlook predicts a below‑normal Atlantic hurricane campaign, assigning a 55% chance of below‑normal activity and a 10% chance of an above‑normal season. The agency expects 8–14 named storms, of which three to six could become hurricanes and one...
New Computational Tool Uses Plain Language for Genetic Diagnosis
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital introduced MARRVEL‑MCP, an AI‑driven interface that lets users ask plain‑language questions about genetic variants. The tool couples large language models such as ChatGPT with a curated suite of biomedical databases,...
Quantum Supremacy Just Ran Into an Unexpected Rival: An Ordinary Laptop Armed with New Math
Physicists at the Simons Foundation’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics and Boston University used a standard laptop and new tensor‑network algorithms to simulate the dynamics of hundreds of interacting qubits, a problem previously touted as achievable only with a quantum...