Decoding the Metabolic Roots of Bipolar Disorder
A new study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging shows that metabolic dysfunction—particularly insulin resistance and leptin dysregulation—is linked to reduced gray‑matter volume and cognitive deficits in bipolar disorder but not in major depressive disorder. Researchers evaluated 81 bipolar and 78 depressive inpatients, integrating blood biomarkers, MRI scans, and neurocognitive testing. The data reveal a disease‑specific pathway where metabolic abnormalities exacerbate brain structural loss and persistent cognitive impairment in bipolar patients, correlating with higher episode counts. The authors propose that insulin‑sensitizing agents or GLP‑1 agonists could mitigate these deficits.
Behavioral Science Suggests that Responding Well to Education and Opportunity May Itself Be a Partly Inherited Trait — Not Just...
A new Lund University study of 880 German twins finds that the relationship between IQ at age 23 and socioeconomic status at age 27 is largely genetic. The analysis attributes 69‑98% of that link to inherited factors, while IQ itself...
Jay Bhattacharya Called Test-Negative Study Design ‘Crap.’ Here’s How We Know Whether Vaccines Measured With It Are Effective
Jay Bhattacharya, acting CDC director, denounced the test‑negative design as “crap” during a Senate hearing. The method, a case‑control variant used for influenza and COVID‑19 vaccine effectiveness, compares vaccination rates among patients who test positive versus negative for the pathogen....
Testing for ‘Bad Cholesterol’ Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
The 2026 American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology guidelines recognized apolipoprotein B (apoB) as a more precise marker of atherogenic particles than traditional LDL‑C, but they stopped short of replacing LDL testing. A JAMA modeling study of about 250,000...
Florida Beach Nourishment May Threaten Local Shark Populations ... And Us
Florida Atlantic University researchers found that beach‑nourishment projects in Palm Beach generate massive turbidity plumes, stretching nearly 10 miles offshore and persisting for weeks. Analysis of 10,000 aerial photos shows these murky conditions coincide with the winter migration of blacktip...
Unplanned Cesarean Delivery Increases Peritraumatic Stress Risk
A recent study presented at the ACOG Annual Meeting found that unscheduled cesarean deliveries raise the risk of acute peritraumatic stress more than fourfold compared with vaginal births. In a cohort of 1,146 patients, 26.6% of those undergoing an unscheduled...
Castomize Rethinks the Orthopedic Cast as a Breathable ‘4D-Printed’ Lattice Shell
Castomize, a Singapore‑based med‑tech startup, has introduced a 4D‑printed orthopedic cast that softens with heat, conforms to a patient’s limb, and hardens as it cools. The lattice shell is breathable, waterproof and can be reshaped for swelling, eliminating the need...
Cowboy Space, Darkhive Detail Their Series B Rounds
Cowboy Space Corp., founded by Robinhood co‑founder Baiju Bhatt, closed a $275 million Series B that values the company at about $2 billion. The round, led by Index Ventures, will fund its first power‑beaming satellite and an AI‑focused data‑center module in partnership with...
How the Brain Dampens Losses to Support Mental Toughness
A new Journal of Neuroscience study reveals that psychologically resilient people tend to downplay minor losses rather than overvalue rewards. Using functional MRI, researchers observed that participants who discounted small losses showed heightened prefrontal activity when confronting those losses and...
Dame Bridget Ogilvie Obituary
Dame Bridget Ogilvie, the Australian‑born parasitologist who led the Wellcome Trust from 1991‑1998, died at 88. She transformed the charity’s modest £12 m grant budget into a £200 m portfolio and built an endowment of roughly £13‑15 bn (about $17.5 bn). Her decisive investment...
Our New Initiative to Apply Quantum Science and AI to the Life Sciences
Google Quantum AI and Google.org have launched REPLIQA, a research program that merges quantum science with artificial intelligence to tackle life‑science challenges. The initiative includes a $10 million grant to support projects at Harvard, MIT, UCSD, UCSB and the University of...
Marker of Biological Aging Tied to some Depression Symptoms
A new study links the biological age of monocytes, a type of white blood cell, to specific non‑somatic depression symptoms such as anhedonia and hopelessness. Researchers analyzed blood samples from 440 women, half of whom were living with HIV, using...
A New Hantavirus Vaccine Is in the Works
Moderna announced that it is co‑developing an mRNA‑based hantavirus vaccine with Korea University’s Vaccine Innovation Center, a partnership that began in 2023. The effort follows a deadly outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship that killed three passengers and highlighted the...
As Coal Rebounds, More Toxic Mercury Is in the Air
Coal‑fired power plants in the United States saw a 9% rise in mercury emissions in 2025, topping 4,800 pounds and ending a multi‑year decline. The increase coincides with a surge in electricity demand and a suite of Trump administration actions that...
Creotech Plans $118 Million Capital Raise, Investment in New Satellite Factory
Polish space‑tech firm Creotech Instruments announced a $118 million capital raise to fund a new satellite factory slated for completion by 2029. The investment will enable the company to quadruple its output to roughly 40 satellites a year, addressing a current...
SOSV Deep Tech Live – The Atomic Architect: Rick Gottscho on Plasma’s Role in Semiconductor Fabrication & Physical AI Infrastructure
The SOSV Deep Tech Live event on June 2 will feature Rick Gottscho, former CTO of Lam Research, discussing how plasma technology is reshaping semiconductor fabrication as Moore's Law stalls. Gottscho will explore the physics behind plasma processing, its impact on...
These Solar Modules Mimic Tile, Other Building Material
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems has unveiled a light‑sensitive film that can be laser‑etched onto photovoltaic modules, allowing them to mimic tiles, masonry or other building materials. The photonic film creates angle‑stable colors through micro‑structures, similar to Morpho butterfly...
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This High Schooler Developed an A.I. Tool to Diagnose Autism and ADHD Using the Retina
Seventeen‑year‑old Edward Kang won second place at the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search with RetinaMind, an AI system that analyzes retinal images to diagnose autism spectrum disorder and ADHD with about 89% accuracy. The tool uses ensemble learning and Grad‑CAM...
Where Did the Laws of Physics Come From? I Think I've Found the Answer
Cosmologist João Magueijo has unveiled a bold new framework that argues the laws of physics were not fixed at the universe’s birth but fluctuated wildly during its earliest moments before stabilizing into the constants we observe today. The proposal challenges...
The Testosterone Myth? Large Analysis Finds No Link Between the “Macho” Hormone and Risk-Taking
A meta‑analysis of 52 studies involving 17,340 participants found virtually no overall link between testosterone levels and risk‑taking. The only exception was a modest positive association in studies that used lottery‑based economic tasks; all other behavioral measures showed no effect....
Pets Slow Age-Related Cognitive Decline – May Reduce Dementia Risk
A new study of nearly 1,400 older adults found that pet owners retain cognitive abilities better than non‑owners, with the advantage growing the longer the animal is kept. About half of the participants owned a pet, and one‑third had owned...
Viral Rainbow Clouds Stun Indonesia: Here’s What They Really Are
A series of vivid, rainbow‑colored clouds captured over Jonggol, Indonesia, went viral after viewers assumed the footage was AI‑generated. Scientists identified the spectacle as cloud iridescence, a diffraction effect that occurs when sunlight passes through thin, uniform droplets in high‑altitude...
GE HealthCare Showcases AI-Powered MRI Technologies
At the ISMRM 2026 meeting, GE HealthCare announced a suite of AI‑powered MRI innovations designed to speed scans, improve image quality and support collaborative research. The rollout includes the SIGNA One workflow platform, Sonic DL deep‑learning acceleration pending FDA clearance,...
Black Holes Don't Live Forever, but They Might Live Long Enough to Look Like White Holes
A new arXiv paper revisits black‑hole evaporation and derives a robust lower bound on a black hole's lifetime, showing it scales as M⁴/ħ³⁄². The authors identify three evaporation phases—standard Hawking radiation, a transition stage, and an entanglement‑dominated stage that requires...
Some South American Rodent-Borne Viruses May Spread as Climate Warms
Researchers using climate models predict that warming temperatures and altered rainfall will push several South American rodent species into new habitats, expanding the geographic risk of deadly arenaviruses such as Guanarito, Junin and Machupo. Simulations incorporating habitat suitability, population density...
An Ancient Hibernation Switch Lives in Your DNA—And Scientists Are Tapping Into Its Power
Scientists have identified ancient cis‑regulatory DNA switches that enable hibernating mammals to shut down and restart metabolism safely, and they found the same genetic circuitry embedded in the human genome. The finding comes from two new studies published in Science...
New Home for Novo's Parkinson's Cell Therapy; GSK's Deal to Sell Drug in China
Novo Nordisk has transferred its early‑stage Parkinson's disease cell therapy to a specialized biotech partner, allowing the pharma giant to offload development risk while retaining royalty rights. GSK secured a distribution agreement to launch its flagship drug in China, opening...
RegVelo AI Model Predicts Cell Fate, Tackles Developmental Disorders and Cancer
Researchers at the Stowers Institute unveiled RegVelo, an AI framework that fuses RNA‑velocity dynamics with gene‑regulatory network inference to map cell‑state transitions over time. In zebrafish neural‑crest development the model pinpointed tfec as an early pigment‑cell driver and discovered a...
No Link Between PCOS and Higher Rate of Abnormal Cysts: Study
A new JAMA Internal Medicine study of 1,235 Finnish women found that polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) does not increase the prevalence of abnormal, non‑cancerous ovarian cysts compared with women without the condition. While PCOS patients were 12‑times more likely to...
DR Multiplies Risks for Glaucoma, Ocular Hypertension
A new retrospective analysis of 5.7 million U.S. patients shows diabetic retinopathy (DR) dramatically increases the risk of glaucoma and ocular hypertension. In type 1 diabetes, DR raises glaucoma risk by roughly 5‑fold and ocular hypertension risk by nearly 5‑fold; in type 2...
Inhibrx Says Combo Therapy Shrank More Tumors than Merck's Keytruda Alone
San Diego‑based biotech Inhibrx reported that its experimental antibody INBRX‑106, when paired with Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda, produced a higher rate of tumor shrinkage than Keytruda alone in patients with metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The early‑stage study enrolled...
Singapore Researchers Outline Advances Shaping Biofabrication and Biomanufacturing
Singapore’s leading universities and research institutes have published a comprehensive review that maps the nation’s recent breakthroughs in biofabrication and biomanufacturing, spanning waste‑derived biomaterials, electrospinning, 3D bioprinting, metal additive manufacturing, and cultivated food. The authors argue that the historic divide...
Internal Nanobodies Tackle Cystic Fibrosis
Researchers have engineered a cell‑penetrating nanobody that enters airway cells and stabilizes the misfolded CFTR protein responsible for cystic fibrosis. By fusing the nanobody to a ten‑arginine peptide, the hybrid molecule crosses the cell membrane and restores up to 90%...
'Elegant Triangle' Experiment Suggests Quantum Internet May Be Closer than We Think
An international team led by Dr. Nicolas Gisin demonstrated genuine quantum network non‑locality using a three‑node “elegant triangle” setup, where each node received particles from two independent sources and performed fixed measurements. The experiment produced correlations that cannot be explained...
Ocrevus Slows Disability Progression in Advanced PPMS, Trial Finds
A Phase 3 ORATORIO‑HAND trial involving more than 1,000 adults with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) showed that Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) significantly slows disability progression. Over a median follow‑up of nearly three years, the drug reduced the risk of confirmed disability...
How Unknowable Math Can Help Hide Secrets
Graduate researcher Rahul Ilango has linked Gödel‑style unknowability to cryptography by inventing a new class of non‑interactive zero‑knowledge proofs called “effective zero knowledge.” The construction sidesteps the 1994 Goldreich‑Oren impossibility result by basing secrecy on statements that are provably too...
ScotWind Developers Fund Study to Find Out More About Minke Whale Activity
ScotWind developers have financed a two‑year passive acoustic monitoring study to map minke whale activity in Scotland’s Southern Trench Marine Protected Area. Led by the Scottish Association for Marine Science, the project has installed broadband recorders at three sites to...
New Photoacoustic Imaging Helps Robotic Surgeons Avoid Hidden Anatomical Hazards
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have integrated photoacoustic (PA) imaging into robot‑assisted laparoscopic surgery, creating real‑time 3‑D maps of hidden blood vessels and nerves. The PA probe, introduced through a standard laparoscopic port, overlays depth‑coded images onto the endoscopic video,...
China Space Station: Docking of New Supply Ship
China’s Tianzhou‑10 cargo spacecraft successfully docked with the Tiangong space station on May 11, after Tianzhou‑9 departed. The uncrewed vehicle delivered nearly 6.2 tons of supplies, including food, water, 700 kg of propellant, a new space treadmill, and three upgraded extravehicular activity...
Starship V3 Booster Roars to Life in Major SpaceX Test
SpaceX performed a full‑duration static fire of the Starship V3 Super Heavy booster, igniting all 33 Raptor engines on its Texas launch pad. The test, lasting about six seconds, demonstrated the integrated propulsion system’s performance and confirmed that the vehicle’s...
Did Time Move Slower Right After the Big Bang?
The article explains that we cannot directly measure time dilation right after the Big Bang because there is no external “cosmic clock” to compare against. In the early universe, matter was packed at densities surpassing even neutron stars, which would...
Study: New Orleans Sea Level Rise Is at 'Point of No Return'
A new study in Nature Sustainability warns that New Orleans has reached a "point of no return" as sea‑level rise and rapid wetland loss threaten to engulf the city within generations. The research projects a 3‑to‑7 meter rise in southern Louisiana’s...
US Government Spends Hundreds of Millions on Biotech Pilot Plants as National Security Priority
The U.S. government is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into BioMADE, a public‑private consortium aimed at scaling bio‑manufacturing for food, defense and industrial applications. Since its 2021 launch, BioMADE has secured $87 million from the Department of Defense (DoD), $450 million...
Decarbonizing Desert Greenhouses with Direct Air Capture
A research team has demonstrated a pilot greenhouse in the Sahara that integrates a direct‑air‑capture (DAC) unit to harvest ambient CO₂ and feed it to crops. The system, powered primarily by solar panels, captures roughly 2 tons of CO₂ per hectare...
Ocrelizumab Preserves Ambulation, Hand Function in MS
A six‑year analysis of the ENSEMBLE trial shows that early‑stage relapsing‑remitting multiple sclerosis patients treated with ocrelizumab largely maintained functional ability. 86.1% preserved normal ambulation and 93% kept normal hand dexterity throughout the study, while 34% of those with baseline...
Braveheart Bio's Hengrui-Licensed Cardiac Drug Scores Second Clinical Win
Braveheart Bio announced that its heart‑muscle therapy, licensed from China’s Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, achieved its primary endpoint in a mid‑stage (Phase 2) trial for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. The study reported an 8% absolute improvement in left‑ventricular ejection fraction...
JWST Discovers a Galaxy that Doesn’t Spin in the Early Universe
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope examined three distant galaxies from roughly 1.8 billion years after the Big Bang. While one galaxy rotated normally and another appeared chaotic, the third—XMM‑VID1‑2075—was unexpectedly static, showing no measurable spin despite its massive size...
Sun Unleashes Colossal Solar Flare and Coronal Mass Ejection, Raising the Chances of Northern Lights This Week
On May 10, the Sun emitted an M5.7 solar flare from sunspot AR 4436, launching a coronal mass ejection (CME) that is projected to graze Earth early next week. NOAA and the U.K. Met Office estimate the CME could trigger a...