Science News and Headlines
Science News and Headlines
A multi‑institution team used the Northwestern Experimental Underground Site (NEXUS) at Fermilab, 350 feet below ground, to record charge noise across a four‑qubit superconducting chip, marking the first multi‑qubit measurement of this kind. By alternating a lead shield around the dilution refrigerator, researchers observed a reduction in charge bursts but found the decrease smaller than expected, hinting at additional, unidentified gamma‑ray sources. The experiment demonstrates that superconducting qubits can function as ultra‑sensitive radiation sensors, potentially even detecting dark‑matter interactions. These insights also pinpoint error sources that must be mitigated for fault‑tolerant quantum computers.
Researchers at MIT, MITRE, Sandia and the University of Arizona have unveiled a photonic chip that uses upward‑curving “ski‑jump” structures to broadcast thousands of individually controllable laser beams into free space. The device leverages a bimaterial strain technique—silicon nitride and...
A new composite image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) merges ESA’s Euclid infrared observations with NASA’s Hubble optical data. The nebula, located 4,400 light‑years away in Draco, displays unprecedented detail of its layered shells, jets, and dust structures. This...
Stasis research, building on therapeutic hypothermia and animal hibernation, aims to place astronauts in a torpor‑like state for long‑duration spaceflight. NASA’s NIAC program funded SpaceWorks Enterprises, whose 2016 Torpor Inducing Transfer Habitat study suggested a torpor‑based Mars transit could reduce...
Siemens announced a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Energy to support the Genesis Mission, a federal effort to modernize America’s scientific infrastructure with AI‑driven computing and interoperable digital systems. The partnership leverages Siemens’ expertise in industrial AI,...
A new study proposes detecting supermassive black hole binaries by spotting quasiperiodic flashes of background starlight caused by gravitational microlensing when the two black holes align. Simulations indicate that about 50 nearby galaxies could exhibit such brightening events on orbital...
The LHC Physics Center at Fermilab celebrated the 15th anniversary of its CMS Data Analysis School, now in its 34th session. Held in January 2026, the intensive week hosted 48 graduate and undergraduate students alongside 48 facilitators and 11 lecturers....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved leucovorin, a synthetic vitamin B9, solely for cerebral folate deficiency, a rare genetic disorder. Earlier this year, President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. promoted the drug as an autism cure, prompting a surge in...
Airbus and Spanish HAPS specialist B2Space have signed a strategic partnership to develop end‑to‑end stratospheric missions. B2Space will design, launch and operate high‑altitude balloon platforms, while Airbus will provide payloads, sensors and data‑management capabilities. The collaboration targets applications such as...
IQM Quantum Computers has installed its fourth 20‑qubit superconducting system, named Aalto Q20, at Aalto University in Finland. The on‑premises machine follows IQM’s full‑stack model, giving researchers direct control over data and hardware. Aalto University is linking the quantum processor...
The FDA has granted approval for leucovorin, a folinic‑acid formulation, to treat a rare metabolic disorder despite the absence of new clinical trial data. The decision leans on decades of off‑label use and historical safety records rather than prospective studies....
Physicist Astrid Eichhorn leads the asymptotic safety program, proposing that quantum‑gravity interactions become scale‑invariant at the Planck scale, yielding a fractal‑like space‑time. Her work shows that a fixed point persists even when all known matter fields are included, allowing the...
Life Biosciences has secured FDA IND approval for ER-100, the first partial epigenetic reprogramming therapy to enter human trials. The gene‑therapy delivers OCT‑4, SOX‑2 and KLF‑4 to retinal ganglion cells via a single intravitreal injection, aiming to reset age‑related epigenetic...
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have demonstrated an electrochemical process that uses tartaric acid, a wine‑making by‑product, to separate cobalt and nickel from lithium‑ion battery leachates. By applying sequential voltages, the method achieves over 99% cobalt purity and 96.5% nickel...
Researchers at the University of Cambridge demonstrated that electrons can traverse a polymer‑non‑fullerene interface in just 18 femtoseconds, matching the period of a single molecular vibration. By deliberately engineering a weakly coupled junction, they showed that specific high‑frequency vibrational modes...
The University of Cambridge will host the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre, featuring a 2560‑qubit quantum computer—the most powerful in the UK. The deal, the university's largest corporate research partnership, links Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory with US‑based IonQ and includes three years...
Researchers at ETH Zurich have introduced a boron‑based ligation strategy that overcomes the concentration barrier in chemical protein synthesis. By masking potassium acyltrifluoroborates (KATs) with chiral zwitterionic complexes, the team achieved efficient peptide coupling at micromolar levels, far lower than...
California startup Crop Diagnostix has launched an RNA‑sequencing based early‑warning system that reads plant gene expression to flag nutrient, water, pathogen and disease stress weeks before visual symptoms appear. Leveraging a proprietary biomarker library and AI models trained on thousands...
A study by LMU and the Max Planck Institute shows that moons orbiting free‑floating planets can retain liquid oceans for up to 4.3 billion years thanks to dense hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating. The research demonstrates that collision‑induced absorption in high‑pressure...
On March 16, 1926 Robert Goddard launched the world’s first liquid‑fuel rocket, lifting 12.5 meters before crashing after 2.5 seconds. Despite early successes and funding from the Guggenheim family and the Smithsonian, Goddard’s distrust of collaboration kept his work isolated. The...
Urbain Le Verrier, born March 11, 1811, was a French astronomer who mathematically identified the cause of Uranus’s orbital irregularities. By applying Newtonian mechanics, he predicted the position of an unseen planet, later confirmed as Neptune in September 1846. His calculations, sent to Johann Galle, led...
Researchers introduced a thin indium tin oxide (ITO) interlayer at the back contact of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) solar cells to tackle interdiffusion and absorber defects. The ITO acts as a diffusion barrier during early selenization, then self‑sacrifices to release Sn and...
Leaving a plastic water bottle in a hot car triggers polymer chain expansion, causing the container to soften and release chemicals such as DEHP, BDCM, and chloroform into the water. A Water Filter Guru study measured these leachates at up...
CERN has upgraded its crystal‑shadowing system in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) by installing a refined array of three bent silicon crystals. The technique, first demonstrated in 2021, deflects halo particles away from the electrostatic septum, cutting beam losses by...
NASA announced that the Advanced X‑Ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS) has been disqualified from the Astrophysics Probe Explorer competition after failing to meet the program’s cost and schedule thresholds. The decision follows a series of internal disruptions at NASA, including a...
Photon Bridge of Eindhoven announced a strategic partnership with the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (CPFC) to use CPFC’s InP laser foundry for its heterogeneous photonics platform. The collaboration validates the manufacturability of multi‑wavelength external laser sources, targeting 8, 16 and...
Scientists have found that people with Parkinson’s disease experience reduced enjoyment of pleasant odors such as lemon, indicating the world literally smells different for them. Loss of olfactory function affects 75‑90% of patients and often precedes motor symptoms by years,...
An international team led by the Turku Bioscience Centre discovered that applying sound‑wave vibration to vocal‑fold cancer cells restores cellular movement and markedly reduces tumor aggressiveness. The mechanical stimulation lowered levels of the oncogenic protein YAP, both in cultured cells...
Researchers from Shenzhen International Quantum Academy and Spain's CSIC have built a superconducting‑qubit quantum battery that charges faster than a comparable classical device under equal energy constraints. The experiment, published in Physical Review Letters, demonstrates a quantum charging advantage using...
Astronomers have identified a new superluminous supernova, SN 2024afav, whose light curve exhibits a series of periodic, “chirping” brightness bumps. Detailed analysis shows the timing of these bumps fits a model where a highly magnetized neutron star, or magnetar, is surrounded...
The Amazon molly, an all‑female fish that reproduces via sperm‑triggered parthenogenesis, has persisted for at least 100,000 years—far beyond the 10,000‑year limit predicted by Muller’s ratchet. A new Nature study used long‑read sequencing to compare its genome with those of...
Telesat announced new Canadian landing‑station sites in Estevan and Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, and Papineauville, Quebec, expanding its ground footprint ahead of Lightspeed pathfinder launches in December. The company aims to operate 24 landing stations worldwide by the start of global services...
Capricor Therapeutics announced that the FDA has scheduled an August 22 decision on its investigational Duchenne muscular dystrophy cell therapy, deramiocel, after lifting a prior complete response letter. The biotech resubmitted an enhanced package that includes robust Phase III HOPE‑3 data showing...
On 7 March 2026 CERN declared stable beams for the Large Hadron Collider, marking the start of its final data‑taking run before the High‑Luminosity upgrade. The nine‑month campaign, compressed into a July‑June window, will sequentially increase beam intensity from four to...
The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Reactor Innovation Center have launched the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a two‑pathway program designed to fast‑track advanced nuclear technologies. Building on the Reactor Pilot and Fuel Line Pilot programs, the initiative offers...
Researchers have identified the erectile‑dysfunction drug sildenafil as a potential therapy for Leigh syndrome, a fatal mitochondrial disorder affecting roughly one in 40,000 births. In cell models, the compound corrected mitochondrial membrane potential and normalized gene expression, while treated mice...
Researchers have developed a free‑standing sodium‑ion battery anode that combines bismuth nanoparticles, MoS₂ nanospheres, and a carbon nanofiber matrix with a thin carbon coating. The Bi@MoS₂@C composite delivers a reversible capacity of about 275 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.5 A g⁻¹ and retains 96 % of...
Shanghai‑based BlueStar Optical Domain announced a Series C round of roughly 500 million yuan ($72 million). The capital will fund a production‑line upgrade aimed at delivering 1,000 laser communication terminals annually by mid‑2026. The move positions BlueStar as a mass‑production supplier for China’s...
Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a DNA‑based barcoding assay that measures, in living mice, which lipid nanoparticles successfully deliver gene‑editing cargo to target cellular compartments. The technique identified that many particles are degraded in lysosomes, while a newly...
Researchers at Southwest Research Institute and NCAR unveiled PINNBARDS, a physics‑informed neural network that reconstructs the Sun’s deep‑layer magnetic activity from Solar Dynamics Observatory data. By mathematically inverting surface magnetic patterns, the tool can identify emerging flare‑producing regions weeks before...
A new Swedish study of nearly 15,000 adults linked a single course of antibiotics to lasting reductions in gut microbial diversity, with effects persisting up to eight years. Clindamycin was the most disruptive, eliminating an average of 47 bacterial species...
IdeaSquare at CERN has launched ‘The Forge,’ a new prototyping workshop designed for rapid iteration and collaborative building. The space merges the former 3D Printer Studio with two containers, offering a large central worktable, modular peg wall, 3D printers and...
Researchers at POST, Griffith and King Khalid Universities unveiled a graphene‑based nanofiltration membrane that uses sunlight to pull lithium ions from magnesium‑rich brines. The hybrid membrane, combining edge‑functionalized graphene nanoribbons with photothermally reduced graphene oxide, delivers a lithium flux of...
Adisyn demonstrated that graphene‑enhanced composite materials can cut radar reflection by up to 20 dB in lab tests, and the team is targeting a 30 dB reduction that would shrink a drone’s radar cross‑section by a factor of 1,000. The proof‑of‑concept was...
Researchers used Monte Carlo simulations with a simplified cluster model to map short‑range order (SRO) in cation‑disordered rocksalt (DRX) cathodes. They discovered that the probability of forming Li₄ tetrahedral clusters is governed primarily by nearest‑neighbor pairwise SRO, and that this SRO...
Researchers have engineered arrays of Janus micropillars—hydrophilic tops paired with hydrophobic sidewalls—to reveal a novel drop‑charging mechanism. When a water droplet slides across these structures, it leaves microscopic satellite droplets that evaporate within a second, creating charge separation within the...
Researchers have created silver‑enhanced g‑C3N4/Ag Janus microrobots that move upward against gravity when illuminated, a behavior termed negative photogravitaxis. The silver coating improves charge carrier separation, suppressing recombination and boosting photocatalytic activity. This three‑dimensional propulsion increases mass transfer, enabling the...
Researchers have introduced an additive‑free, edge‑functionalized graphene (EFG) dough synthesized directly from graphite via selective oxidation and physical exfoliation. The resulting few‑layer nanoplatelets retain defect‑free basal planes, exhibit carboxylate and phenolic edge groups, and achieve a high conductivity of 900 S cm⁻¹....
The paper investigates how sapphire substrate reconstruction during metal‑organic CVD at 1 000 °C alters the structural, electronic, and photonic behavior of monolayer MoS₂. Elevated temperature induces step‑bunching on the sapphire surface, creating local charge‑doping variations and strain that broaden Raman peaks...
GELITA and Black Drop have signed an R&D agreement to develop methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) bioinks for 3D bioprinting applications. The partnership will leverage GELITA’s ultra‑low endotoxin gelatin (MEDELLAPRO) and Black Drop’s custom bioprinting platforms to create clinically usable, scalable bioinks....
