Science News and Headlines
Science News and Headlines
Jersey has launched an online map that allows residents to report Asian hornet sightings and nest locations. The platform includes a form, photo upload, and a live view of existing reports, helping the Biosecurity team verify and act quickly. Last year the island recorded 4,000 hornet reports, underscoring the growing threat since the species arrived in 2016. Officials say the tool will streamline nest destruction and protect native pollinators.
Gossamer Bio announced a near‑half workforce reduction after its Phase 3 seralutinib trial failed to meet statistical significance in pulmonary arterial hypertension. The company will lay off 77 employees, about 48 % of staff, aiming to preserve cash while its future path...
Researchers in Victoria, Australia installed a two‑tennis‑court‑sized floating wetland platform at the Westernport Water treatment lagoon. Over two years the plant‑covered platform lowered nitrogen concentrations by 12% and reduced total greenhouse‑gas emissions by 22%, with methane dropping after just four...
German mathematician Gerd Faltings has been awarded the 2026 Abel Prize for his landmark proof of the Mordell conjecture, now known as Faltings’ theorem. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced the honor, which carries a cash award of...
Arctic permafrost thaw is accelerating the degradation of cultural sites, exemplified by South Aulatsivik 6 in Canada’s Nain archipelago. Researchers led by Rachel Labrie employed ground‑penetrating radar to identify the most vulnerable areas, offering a rapid, non‑invasive method for prioritizing excavations....
Eli Lilly’s investigational injectable retatrutide achieved a 1.9‑point HbA1c reduction versus 0.8 points for placebo after 40 weeks, while participants on the highest dose shed 15.3% of body weight compared with 2.6% on placebo. The weight loss was still progressing at...
The European Commission must decide by the end of July whether to bring municipal waste incineration into the EU Emissions Trading System. Emissions from waste‑to‑energy plants have roughly doubled since 1990, releasing tens of millions of tonnes of CO₂ each...
Scientists have isolated a gut‑bacterial metabolite, pTOS, that spikes in Burmese python blood after feeding and dramatically reduces appetite in obese mice. When administered to mice, pTOS caused a 9% body‑weight loss over 28 days without affecting energy expenditure. The...
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Tongji University discovered that early weaning reshapes the gut microbiome, triggering epigenetic changes in intestinal stem cells that enhance immune defenses. The study, published in Nature Microbiology, shows loss of DNA methylation at...
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime stunt spotlighted Puerto Rico’s fragile, climate‑stressed power grid, showing how pop culture can convey climate urgency without a lecture. The performance reached over 100 million U.S. viewers, turning a visual spectacle into a de‑facto climate message....
The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider used advanced machine‑learning algorithms to probe supersymmetric particles in two new Run 2 analyses. One search focused on disappearing‑track signatures from chargino decays, while the other targeted low‑momentum leptons from neutralino cascades. Neither...
Researchers at City University of Hong Kong have created a thermochromic bifacial photovoltaic (TC‑BiPV) glazing system that combines a hydrogel‑based thermochromic layer with bifacial solar cells. The hydrogel switches from transparent to translucent as temperature rises, reflecting light toward the...
A new Nature Medicine study shows that prediabetes can remit without any weight loss, challenging the long‑standing emphasis on shedding pounds to prevent diabetes. About 25% of participants in lifestyle programs normalized blood glucose despite stable weight, achieving protection comparable...
Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) affects millions, yet treatment relies on regimens without a gold‑standard test to confirm cure. Current diagnostics—tuberculin skin test and interferon‑gamma release assay— suffer false results and cannot differentiate active disease, leaving clinicians unable to monitor drug...
A large pragmatic trial involving 1,565 overweight or obese youths with bipolar spectrum disorders found that adding metformin to a brief lifestyle program significantly blunted weight gain associated with second‑generation antipsychotics. Over six months, the metformin group’s BMI rose only...
New Zealand’s Defence Science and Technology agency and the Royal Navy teamed with Dawn Aerospace to conduct the DARTE radar‑tracking experiment, using the Aurora suborbital spaceplane off the Canterbury coast. The trial demonstrated that the frigate HMNZS Te Kaha’s surveillance radar can...
Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers propose using fiber‑optic cables as seismic sensors to detect moonquakes. The concept adapts telecom‑grade fiber, which can register minute strain changes, for deployment on the lunar surface. By embedding the cables in future lunar infrastructure,...
The Molecular Psychiatry review maps autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from childhood through old age, highlighting that symptom expression and functional challenges evolve across life stages. While pediatric ASD research dominates, the article underscores a stark evidence gap for adults and...
A recent preclinical study demonstrates that cannabidiol (CBD) directly engages the TrkB neurotrophin receptor through its PTB‑binding domain, recruiting the adaptor protein FRS2 to trigger robust downstream signaling. This activation attenuates amyloid‑β deposition, tau hyperphosphorylation, and neuroinflammation in transgenic Alzheimer’s...
RNA epigenetics has expanded to over 170 chemically modified nucleotides that shape gene expression at transcriptional and post‑transcriptional levels. The review highlights m6A as the most studied mark, detailing its writer‑METTL3/14 complex, erasers FTO/ALKBH5, and diverse readers that control RNA...
Nature has issued an editorial expression of concern for the 2004 study linking FADD to innate antiviral immunity after detecting overlapping microscopy images across multiple figures. The flagged panels include Figure 1g, Figure 4a, Figure 4g, and supplemental Figures S1a and S2a, suggesting possible...
Researchers at UC San Diego have engineered a minimally evolved adenine base editor (ME‑ABE) that dramatically cuts bystander DNA edits while preserving the high on‑target efficiency of newer ABE8 variants. By reverting five specific mutations in the older ABE7.10 scaffold,...
A research partnership between Hong Kong’s Space Robotics and Energy Centre and Southeast University is accelerating autonomous space‑robotics, AI‑enabled navigation, and deep‑space energy management. The collaboration, supported by HKUST labs, targets rugged robotic platforms, precision manipulation, and modular power systems...
A new study in Conservation Letters finds that the 23 biodiversity targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework could reverse insect declines if met, but current metrics lack insect‑specific sensitivity. Researchers highlight that only dragonflies and damselflies have been fully assessed...
India is harnessing space and digital technologies to boost agricultural productivity and disaster resilience. ISRO and the Department of Space have launched satellite‑based programs such as FASAL, NADAMS, CHAMAN and SUFALAM that deliver real‑time crop health, yield forecasts and drought...
On March 18, 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performed humanity’s first extravehicular activity, stepping outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft for roughly ten minutes. The EVA quickly turned hazardous as his suit swelled, causing glove and boot failures and forcing him to...
Researchers tested birch tar extracted using Neanderthal methods and found it inhibits Staphylococcus aureus, confirming its antiseptic potential. The study shows Neanderthals could have used birch tar for wound care as early as 200,000 years ago. Modern Indigenous practices align...
CrossSense Ltd’s AI‑powered smart glasses, featuring the Wispy conversational assistant, have won the £1 million Longitude prize for dementia technology. The glasses combine a camera, microphone and speakers to deliver real‑time verbal cues and floating text that help wearers complete daily...
Pasqal and Kipu Quantum have experimentally realized Analog Counterdiabatic Quantum Computing (ACQC) on neutral‑atom platforms, scaling the protocol to 100 qubits to solve the Maximum Independent Set (MIS) problem. By analytically deriving counterdiabatic corrections for Rabi frequency, detuning and phase,...
A prospective trial of 911 asymptomatic patients undergoing low‑dose chest CT showed that AI‑assisted nodule detection modestly increased interpretation time by about 15 seconds but significantly boosted the identification of Lung‑RADS‑positive nodules. Radiologists using the AI tool reported roughly double...
NASA's Perseverance rover has identified tiny corundum crystals—ruby or sapphire‑like gems—inside a Martian pebble named Hampden River. The rover’s SuperCam instrument used dual‑laser spectroscopy and luminescence imaging to match the spectral signature of the grains to laboratory ruby standards. This...
Researchers at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) have launched a formal‑methods program to make quantum computers trustworthy. Their Laboratory on Formal Methods for Quantum Computing has introduced Concurrent Dynamic Quantum Logic (CDQL), a framework that can model...
Astronomy magazine does not list Messier 110 because the original Messier catalogue, compiled by Charles Messier, stops at 103 objects. Although Messier observed the Andromeda satellite galaxy, he never assigned it a Messier number, and it was only added by amateur Kenneth Glyn Jones...
A new study using NASA's ShadowCam on the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter finds that water ice in most of the moon’s permanently shadowed craters is limited to less than 20‑30 percent by weight, and many regions may have none at...
Repeated head impacts in contact sports have been linked to lasting damage of the blood‑brain barrier (BBB), a finding that may underlie chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Researchers scanned 47 retired athletes using an MRI contrast agent that only enters brain...
NASA’s Perseverance rover used its ground‑penetrating radar to probe deeper than before in Jezero Crater. The instrument identified buried river‑carved slopes and a delta more than 35 meters below the surface. Analysis of the radar echoes indicates these features formed around...
A 1.8‑meter, 7‑ton space rock streaked across the sky near Cleveland this week, dazzling observers from Wisconsin to Maryland before disintegrating after a 55‑kilometer atmospheric passage. The American Meteor Society notes that such fireballs—meteors brighter than Venus—are far from rare,...
Researchers tracking 333,000 U.S. veterans with type 2 diabetes found that stopping GLP‑1 drugs sharply increases heart attack and stroke risk. A six‑month interruption raised cardiovascular events, and a two‑year gap elevated risk by up to 22 percent. Continuous use cut risk...
Researchers at UBC’s Scholes Lab have identified 6PPD‑quinone, a tire‑wear byproduct, as a lethal contaminant for coho salmon in Pacific Northwest streams. Through the interdisciplinary STREAM project they are modeling which waterways, especially those near highways and First Nations reserves,...
TerraPower Isotopes is committing $450 million to build a cGMP‑compliant actinium‑225 manufacturing plant in Philadelphia, a move that will expand production capacity roughly twenty‑fold. The 250,000‑square‑foot facility, slated to begin output in 2029, will create 225 full‑time jobs and benefits from...
New AI‑driven analyses of thousands of CT scans reveal that thymus health strongly correlates with longevity, cardiovascular disease risk, and lung cancer incidence. The studies show individuals with a robust, non‑involuted thymus live longer and experience fewer major health events....
Astronomers led by Jackson Taylor have applied novel timing techniques to search for co‑orbital “exotrojans” in nine black‑widow pulsar binaries, including an optical‑to‑radio comparison for PSR J1641+8049 and a 15‑year NANOGrav radio‑pulse analysis of eight others. The study found no definitive...
Scientists have discovered that a thin carbon‑rich film on silica surfaces governs how identical insulating particles exchange static charge. Using acoustic levitation, they showed that heating or plasma treatment removes this layer, flipping the charge polarity between a silica sphere...
Azalea Therapeutics, a spinout from Jennifer Doudna’s lab, reported in Nature that its in vivo CAR‑T approach can generate functional CAR‑T cells directly within mice and eradicate both solid and hematologic tumors. The technique uses infused gene‑editing particles that precisely...
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that Kanzi, a language‑trained bonobo, can identify and track pretend objects in controlled tea‑party experiments. Across three tests, Kanzi correctly pointed to the location of imaginary juice and grapes and chose real juice over...
Protagonist Therapeutics received FDA approval for icotrokinra, marketed as Icotyde, becoming the first oral IL‑23 receptor blocker for plaque psoriasis. The clearance arrived ahead of schedule, unlocking a $50 million milestone from Johnson & Johnson and setting up royalty terms of 6‑10% on...
Landsat 8 captured a clear image of Mayon Volcano on Feb 26 2026, showing an active lava flow with an infrared heat signature. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported volcanic earthquakes, rockfalls, and pyroclastic flows that day. NASA satellites tracked sizable...
UniQure’s experimental gene‑therapy for Huntington’s disease, which previously reported a 75% slowdown in disease progression, has received a third consecutive rejection from the FDA. The trial’s lead investigator, Ed Wild of University College London, praised the early data but warned...
Basecamp Research, an AI‑focused biotech startup backed by Microsoft and Nvidia, announced a trillion‑gene sequencing initiative. The company aims to collect genetic sequences for over a trillion proteins within the next two years. Leveraging high‑performance cloud computing and advanced generative‑AI...
The Astronomy Picture of the Day highlights NGC 1566, nicknamed the Spanish Dancer Galaxy, a grand‑design spiral located roughly 40 million light‑years away in Dorado. The galaxy’s face‑on orientation showcases bright blue star clusters, red emission nebulae, and dark dust lanes along...
