A Treatment for Pre-Eclampsia May Be on the Horizon
Researchers have unveiled a blood‑filtering therapy that shows promise in treating pre‑eclampsia, a life‑threatening pregnancy complication. Early‑stage trials reported significant reductions in maternal blood pressure and improved organ function without harming the fetus. The approach works by extracorporeally removing circulating anti‑angiogenic factors that drive the disease. If larger studies confirm these findings, the therapy could become the first pharmacologic option beyond early delivery.
Self-Powered Fibers Can Spot Oil Contamination and Heat Buildup Within Milliseconds
Researchers at National Taiwan University unveiled a self‑powered fiber sensor that instantly detects oil contamination and rising temperatures. The fiber generates distinct electrical signals when contacting water versus oil and intensifies output as it heats, changing color from blue to...
The Creepiest Ocean Discoveries: Pyramids, Monster Squid, and a Deafening ‘Bloop’
Recent oceanic revelations underscore how little of the seafloor—under 30%—has been charted, keeping the deep blue a frontier of mystery. In 2019, NOAA and Japanese fishermen captured rare footage of giant squids, confirming the existence of these elusive giants. The...
Podcast with Lionel Martellini, Founding Director of the EDHEC Quantum Institute
Yuval Boger interviews Lionel Martellini, a finance professor turned astrophysicist and founding director of the EDHEC Quantum Institute. The institute, the first of its kind inside a business school, aims to make future executives quantum‑aware rather than train engineers. Martellini...
ULA Launches 29 Amazon Leo Satellites on Atlas 5 Rocket From Cape Canaveral
United Launch Alliance successfully lifted off an Atlas V 551 rocket from Cape Canaveral, deploying 29 Amazon Leo broadband satellites. The launch, designated Leo Atlas 6, set a new pad turnaround record of just 23 days and 19 hours, the...
Pencil Beam Laser Could Help Researchers Design Brain-Targeted Therapies
MIT researchers have demonstrated that laser light can self‑organize into a tightly focused "pencil beam," enabling a new bioimaging modality that is both faster and high‑resolution. In proof‑of‑concept experiments the team captured three‑dimensional images of the human blood‑brain barrier 25...
We’re Still Recovering From Losing the Woolly Mammoth
A new PNAS study shows that the mass loss of megafauna 10,000‑12,000 years ago reshaped modern food webs, especially across the Americas. Researchers examined predator‑prey networks at 389 sites, covering over 440 mammal species in tropical and subtropical regions of...
This Volcanologist Peers Into ‘Crystal Balls’ to Forecast Eruptions
Teresa Ubide, a volcanologist at the University of Queensland, uses laser‑ablation mass spectrometry to read microscopic growth rings in clinopyroxene crystals, treating them as “volcanic crystal balls” that record magma chemistry before eruptions. Her 2024 Nature Geoscience paper shows that...
Firefly Aerospace to Receive Space Pioneer Award at the National Space Society’s ISDC Conference
Firefly Aerospace will receive the National Space Society’s Space Pioneer Award at the 44th International Space Development Conference in June 2026, recognizing its Blue Ghost Mission 1. The mission marked the first commercial soft landing on the Moon and operated...
A Regulatory Loophole Could Delay Ozone Recovery by Years
MIT researchers have quantified a loophole in the 1987 Montreal Protocol that permits ozone‑depleting chemicals to be used as feedstocks for plastics and non‑stick products. New data show feedstock leakage is about 3.6%, far higher than the 0.5% originally assumed....
AI Learning Model Predicted Cognitive Status in Patients With MS
A multimodal artificial‑intelligence model achieved 90% validation accuracy in forecasting cognitive decline among multiple sclerosis patients. The study followed 224 MS patients for a median of 3.4 years, finding that 12% experienced worsening neurocognitive status. Explainable AI pinpointed brain regions...
Jackie and Shadow’s Chicks Getting New Feathers
Jackie and Shadow, the internet‑famous bald eagle pair in Southern California, have 19‑day‑old chicks that are now sprouting their first juvenile pin feathers. The eaglets have also displayed their first "tucking" behavior, a key step toward self‑regulating warmth. A recent...
Better Volcano Eruption Predictions on Earth—And Venus—Thanks to Mauna Loa Study
A University of Pittsburgh team combined public and private satellite imagery with machine‑learning algorithms to map the 2022 Mauna Loa lava flow in real time and to identify a thermal signal a month before the eruption. The approach also generated estimates...
Next-Gen Semiconductors that Share Life's Handedness Just Got More Practical
University at Buffalo researchers have created a hybrid chiral semiconductor by chemically linking a chiral perovskite with the organic dopant F4TCNQ. The resulting material absorbs visible light while preserving the ability to differentiate left‑ and right‑circularly polarized light. The study,...
Thanks to GLP-1s, Obesity Experts Are Trying to Understand ‘Food Noise’
New GLP-1 obesity drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have been found to silence the internal “food noise” that drives constant thoughts about eating. Patients describe a dramatic reduction in cravings and mental chatter about food after starting...
Autism Genetics Linked to Reduced Brain Cell Fiber Density
Researchers analyzed brain imaging and genetic data from over 30,000 UK Biobank adults and nearly 5,000 ABCD children, finding that higher polygenic scores for autism consistently correlate with lower neurite density across the cortex and major white‑matter tracts. The association...
The POWER Interview: Solving the Problem of Fuel for Nuclear Reactors
Molten Salt Solutions, a New Mexico startup led by Dr. John Elling, is developing a continuous solvent‑exchange process to produce isotopically enriched lithium‑6 at industrial scale. The technology promises 100‑fold cost and capital efficiency improvements over legacy methods, and the...
Primary Care-Focused QI Effort Didn’t Improve Secondary CV Prevention: QUEL
The QUEL randomized cluster trial evaluated a 12‑month data‑driven quality‑improvement program across 51 Australian primary‑care practices caring for 7,864 patients with coronary heart disease. The intervention, which included benchmarking, monthly reporting and improvement planning, failed to lower unplanned cardiovascular hospitalizations...
Randomized Radical Reaction Leads to Selective Cyclizations
A new “radical sampling” strategy reported in JACS (2026) enables selective formation of six‑membered nitrogen heterocycles such as piperidines and morpholines from simple aldehyde and amine precursors. The method uses a light‑activated catalyst to generate radicals that compete between rapid...
Video: Electrical Control of a Metal-Mediated DNA Memory
Researchers at New York University and Arizona State have demonstrated the first DNA‑based transistor by swapping mercury ions for silver in a single DNA strand using pH‑triggered chemistry. The metal‑mediated DNA was wired to molecular leads and a microchip, allowing...
Potential Signs of Life on Distant Planets Sound Exciting, but Confirmation Can Take Years
Astronomers have cataloged more than 350 distinct molecules in interstellar space, using radio and infrared telescopes to capture each compound’s spectral fingerprint. While many of these molecules are precursors to biomolecules, confirming their presence—especially on distant planets—requires multiple, strong spectral...
El Niño Conditions Could Arrive as Early as May, Says WMO
The World Meteorological Organization’s latest Global Seasonal Update says El Niño could begin as early as May 2026, with a formal declaration possible by July. Climate models from multiple agencies now converge on a high‑confidence outlook, though the spring predictability barrier...
Morphing Metal-Organic Material Harvests Water From Thin Air
Researchers at the University of Sherbrooke have created a metal‑organic material that opens nanoscopic cavities when exposed to ultraviolet light, allowing it to capture water from the air. The photochemical reaction expands the crystal lattice by about 3 %, creating paired...
SmallSat Europe Speaker Focus: Jean-François Morizur, Cailabs
The satellite industry has built only about 10% of the optical ground infrastructure it needs, leaving a gap of 200‑500 stations worldwide. Cailabs, founded by quantum‑optics expert Jean‑François Morizur, offers the TILBA‑OGS L10 optical ground station that delivers bidirectional speeds...
Exercise, Ibuprofen Reduce Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment
A phase‑2 randomized trial of 86 chemotherapy patients found that a six‑week home‑based exercise program markedly improved cognitive performance, cutting Trail Making Test times by over 21 seconds compared with placebo. Low‑dose ibuprofen (200 mg twice daily) also yielded modest gains,...
Why Are Great Whites Sharks Overheating?
A new study in Science reveals that mesothermic fishes such as great white sharks produce internal heat, putting them at risk of overheating as ocean temperatures rise. The research, led by Trinity College Dublin and the University of Pretoria, shows...
Perseverance, Curiosity Panoramas Capture Two Sides of Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover unveiled a 360-degree panorama of Jezero Crater’s rim, while Curiosity delivered a new wide-angle view of layered sediment in Gale Crater. Both images were captured with upgraded mast cameras, providing unprecedented resolution and color fidelity. The dual...
Is It OK to Keep a Trophy Crappie? Here’s What the Fisheries Biologists Say
Anglers wondering whether to keep trophy‑size crappie receive conflicting advice from biologists in Texas and Wisconsin. In Texas, fast‑growing crappie reach legal size within a year and typically die by age five, so a two‑pound fish is near the end...
A Brain Implant for Depression Is About to Be Tested in Humans
Motif Neurotech received FDA approval to begin a first‑in‑human study of its blueberry‑sized brain implant designed to treat severe depression. The device sits just above the dura and delivers wireless electrical stimulation to the central executive network, aiming to restore...
Achieving Excellent Electrochemical Stability of Li‐rich Mn‐Based Cathode by One‐Step Decanoic Acid Treatment Under Ambient Atmosphere
Researchers introduced a one‑step decanoic acid (DA) treatment performed in ambient air to modify the surface of Li‑rich Mn‑based cathodes (LLMO). The DA coating creates a thin, stable cathode‑electrolyte interphase and introduces surface oxygen vacancies that suppress side reactions and...
Acupuncture May Improve Pain, Reduce Opioid Use After THA
A triple‑blind randomized trial of 484 total hip arthroplasty patients found intraoperative acupuncture lowered pain scores and opioid consumption on postoperative days 0 and 1. In the acupuncture arm, 14% of patients required no opioids during their hospital stay versus...
Atomic Step–Terrace Ordering Enables Unprecedentedly Low Pop‐in Stress Scatter in GaN (0001)
Researchers used catalyst‑referred etching (CARE) to create GaN (0001) surfaces with atomically flat step‑terrace topography. Nanoindentation on these surfaces produced pop‑in events at the theoretical strength of 16.15 GPa with an unprecedented stress scatter of only 2.3%. By contrast, conventional as‑received...
Engineering of Multiple Heterointerfaces in N, S‐Codoped Hollow Cu/Cu2S/C Nanoboxes for Superior Electromagnetic Attenuation
Researchers have engineered N,S‑codoped hollow Cu/Cu2S/C nanoboxes (H‑Cu/Cu2S@NSC) using Cu2O templates, creating a structure that combines interior cavities, multiple heterointerfaces, and heteroatom‑doped carbon shells. The synergistic effect of the hollow architecture and Cu/Cu2S, Cu/C, and Cu2S/C interfaces dramatically improves electromagnetic...
Video Shows NASA Astronaut Struggling to Walk After Journey Around the Moon
NASA astronaut Christina Koch posted a video a week after the Artemis 2 lunar flyby showing her stumbling on a tandem walk with her eyes closed. The clip highlights the vestibular disorientation astronauts experience when returning to Earth’s gravity after prolonged...
Boric Acid‐Coordinated Electrooxidation of Glycerol to Hydroxypyruvic Acid and Coupling With Hydroxylamine Reduction to Serine
Researchers introduced a boric‑acid coordination method that selectively oxidizes glycerol on β‑Ni(OH)₂ to hydroxypyruvic acid (HPA) with 47.5% Faradaic efficiency. The protected glycerol molecule leaves one –OH group free for oxidation, improving selectivity versus conventional electro‑oxidation that over‑cleaves C‑C bonds....
Bifunctional Molecular Bridge with Tunable Dielectric Constant for Air‐Processed Perovskite Solar Cells
Researchers introduced bifunctional molecular bridges—ethanolamine sulfate (EAS) and ethanolamine phosphate (EAP)—to simultaneously passivate defects and provide dielectric screening at the SnO2/perovskite interface of air‑processed perovskite solar cells. The dual‑function strategy regulates crystallization, reduces residual stress, and improves carrier dynamics, delivering...
A Bifunctional Ferroelectric Catalyst Enabling Simultaneous Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation and Two‐Electron Oxygen Reduction
Researchers have created a bifunctional ferroelectric catalyst, Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 (BSTO), that can be applied to both the photoanode and cathode of a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell. When coated on α‑Fe2O3, TiO2 or BiVO4 photoanodes, BSTO’s ferroelectric polarization adjusts band bending, markedly improving...
Defect‐Rich RuCu Multilayered Nanosheets for Effective Alkaline Hydrogen Electrocatalysis
Researchers have created defect‑rich RuCu multilayered nanosheets (RuCu MNSs) that serve as highly active, durable catalysts for alkaline hydrogen oxidation (HOR) and hydrogen evolution (HER). The RuCu MNSs/C catalyst delivers a mass activity of 4.91 A mg⁻¹ at 50 mV vs RHE, far...
Allo-HCT Achieves Durable Remission in Complex Multiple Myeloma Case
A recent eJHaem case report details an allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (allo‑HCT) that achieved durable remission in a patient with highly refractory multiple myeloma (MM) complicated by therapy‑related myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia (MDS/AML). The transplant used umbilical cord...
Controlled Triazine‐Based Covalent Functionalization of Black Phosphorus for Degradable Hybrid Materials
Researchers have introduced a scalable triazine‑based covalent functionalization method for black phosphorus (BP) nanosheets, achieving controlled P‑N surface chemistry with higher grafting density using a phase‑transfer catalyst. Optimized mechanochemical production and exfoliation generate high‑quality BP sheets, which are functionalized via...
A Robust Senescence Response Helps Wounds Heal
Scientists compared wound healing in young (2‑month) and old (24‑month) mice and found that a rapid, temporary surge of senescent cells in the young animals accelerates closure. The younger mice displayed sharp up‑regulation of senescence markers p16, p21 and SA‑β‑gal,...
Puratos Makes Progress on Cultured Cocoa Product
Puratos announced it will commercialize the world’s first chocolate ingredient made with cultured cocoa, targeting U.S. professional customers by the end of 2026. The product is being co‑developed with California Cultured through Puratos’ food‑tech arm Sparkalis, leveraging early‑stage investment in...
Artemis II Was a Rousing Success, So What's Next for NASA?
Artemis II’s six‑hour launch attracted 18 million viewers, marking NASA’s first crewed Moon‑orbit flight in five decades. In early 2026 the agency reshuffled its schedule to accelerate launches, positioning Artemis III as an orbital lander‑test mission for 2027 and pushing the crewed Moon...
Violet Light Filtering IOL Shows Tolerance to Induced Astigmatism
Johnson & Johnson’s Tecnis Odyssey violet‑light‑filtering intraocular lens demonstrated strong tolerance to induced astigmatism in a prospective study of 30 cataract patients. More than 96 % of participants achieved spectacle independence, and over 90 % reached 20/40 vision or better with up...
Coral Reefs on a Remote Archipelago Shrugged Off a Massive Heatwave
In early 2025 a severe marine heatwave devastated reefs worldwide, yet the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago off Western Australia remained largely unaffected despite enduring 22 °C‑weeks of heat stress. Researchers from the University of Western Australia documented near‑100 % survival at 16 °C‑weeks and...
Veradermics Soars on Positive Data for Baldness Treatment
Veradermics announced that its experimental oral minoxidil pill, VDPHL01, achieved the primary endpoint in a Phase 3 trial, delivering a 30‑33 hair‑per‑cm² increase over six months versus placebo. The drug was well tolerated, with side‑effect rates matching placebo and no cardiac...
A Minute with Jacopo Bernardini
Jacopo Bernardini, a mechanical engineer in Fermilab’s Applied Physics and Superconducting Technology Directorate, was promoted to level‑3 manager for the 650‑MHz cryomodule system within the PIP‑II accelerator upgrade. He oversees delivery of 13 low‑beta and high‑beta cryomodules and serves as...
Kalpakkam PFBR Criticality Marks New Phase in India’s Nuclear Programme: Minister Jitendra Singh
India achieved first criticality of its indigenously designed 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam on April 6, 2026, marking a milestone in the country’s three‑stage nuclear programme. The reactor, built by BHAVINI and using uranium‑plutonium mixed‑oxide fuel, can generate...
Pam Marrone Targets Resistant Weeds with Cocktails of Microbial Metabolites as Bioherbicide Space Heats Up
Invasive Species Corporation (ISC), led by Pam Marrone, is developing bioherbicides that combine multiple microbial metabolites to tackle glyphosate‑resistant weeds. The company has advanced two lead candidates from greenhouse tests to extensive field trials across the Midwest and Southeast in...
Unraveling the Mass Mystery of Orion’s Young Stars
A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has mapped the masses of more than 200 young stars in the Orion Nebula, revealing a mass distribution far broader than traditional models predict. The survey identified a surplus...