Scientific Frontline: 2025

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

UCLA team discovers how to target ‘undruggable’ protein that fuels aggressive leukemia

B-lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of blood cancer.
Image Credit: Courtesy of the Rao Laboratory.

Researchers at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a small molecule that can inhibit a cancer-driving protein long considered impossible to target with drugs — a discovery that could open the door to a new class of treatments for leukemia and other hard-to-treat cancers.

The compound, called I3IN-002, disrupts the ability of a protein known as IGF2BP3 to bind and stabilize cancer-promoting RNAs, a mechanism that fuels aggressive forms of acute leukemia. The study published in the journal Haematologica, found the molecule not only slowed leukemic cell growth but also triggered cancer cell death and reduced the population of leukemia-initiating cells that sustain the disease.

“This project has been more than a decade in the making,” said Dr. Dinesh Rao, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and senior author of the study. “We discovered IGF2BP3 years ago as an important driver in acute leukemias, and for a long time there were no tools to target it. To finally show that we can inhibit this protein and disrupt its function in cancer cells is incredibly exciting.”

Photo Credit: Nick Page

In a pilot study, researchers from North Carolina State University have found a novel kirkovirus that may be associated with colitis – and potentially small colon impactions – in horses. The study could offer a route to new therapies for horses with colitis symptoms from unknown causes.

“Horses are uniquely susceptible to colitis, and the structure of their gastrointestinal tracts amplify the negative effects,” says Lilly Haywood, Ph.D. student in NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “Horses have very large colons and cecums to facilitate water absorption, so when these structures become inflamed the horses dehydrate quickly. And their large intestines contain a lot of bacteria, so inflammation can lead to those bacteria entering the bloodstream and causing sepsis.” Haywood is first author of the study.

“The other issue when dealing with colitis in horses is that in more than 50% of cases we are unable to find the cause,” says Breanna Sheahan, assistant professor of equine medicine at NC State and corresponding author of the study. “We suspected there might be another viral cause for some of these cases, so we started looking for one.”

Mo'orea, French Polynesia, is surrounded by a diverse and vibrant coral reef ecosystem.
Photo Credit: Christian John

A massive, multi-year scientific expedition led by researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara and collaborating institutions, including the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa, determined that land use on tropical islands can shape water quality in lagoons and that rainfall can be an important mediator for connections between land and lagoon waters. These findings provide vital information for ecosystem stewards facing global reef decline. Their findings were published recently in Limnology and Oceanography.

“This study is pretty groundbreaking in terms of its scale,” said Christian John, lead author of the study and postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “We looked at algal tissue nutrients, water chemistry, and microbial communities at almost 200 sites around the island of Mo‘orea, French Polynesia, and we repeated this sampling over multiple years.”

“The links between land and sea are dynamic and complex, so it’s a topic that has remained elusive to science,” said Mary Donovan, co-author and faculty at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “It took a dream team to pierce through that complexity. We brought together a group of interdisciplinary thinkers, from students to senior investigators, across at least five major institutions to tackle this immense challenge.”

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

McGill University researchers have identified a brain function that helps explain why childhood stress raises metabolic health risks for some women later in life.

A new study found that variations in the brain’s insulin receptor network affect how women respond to early-life adversity. This effect has a lesser impact in men, suggesting there is a sex-specific process at play.

The findings, published in Communications Biology (Nature Portfolio), point to the brain’s insulin receptor network as a promising avenue for earlier detection and future prevention strategies for metabolic syndrome, a major driver of cardiovascular disease that affects about one in five Canadian adults.

“We know that women who face childhood adversity are at higher risk for metabolic disease, and this study helps identify who is most susceptible,” said senior author Dr. Patricia Pelufo Silveira, professor of psychiatry at McGill and researcher at the Douglas Research Centre.

WHOI Geochemist Andy Heard uses precise measurements of isotope ratios in sedimentary rocks to learn about the history of oxygen in Earth’s ocean.
Photo Credit: Daniel Hentz, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

For roughly two billion years of Earth’s early history, the atmosphere contained no oxygen, the essential ingredient required for complex life. Oxygen began building up during the period known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), but when and how it first entered the oceans has remained uncertain.

A new study published in Nature Communications shows that oxygen was absorbed from the atmosphere into the shallow oceans within just a few million years—a geological blink of an eye. Led by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the work provides new insight into one of the most important environmental shifts in Earth’s history.

“At that point in Earth’s history, nearly all life was in the oceans. For complex life to develop, organisms first had to learn not only to use oxygen, but simply to tolerate it,” said Andy Heard, lead author of the study and assistant scientist at WHOI. “Understanding when oxygen first accumulated in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans is essential to tracing the evolution of life. And because ocean oxygenation appears to have followed atmospheric oxygen surprisingly quickly, it suggests that if we detect oxygen in the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet, there’s a strong chance its oceans also contain oxygen.”

Many protected areas are located in sodium-deficient landscapes. Animals travel long distances in search of salt.
Photo Credit: Ray Rui

In some regions in Africa, large herbivores struggle to get enough sodium. As many of the continent’s protected areas are in regions where salt levels are low, this scarcity may also affect conservation efforts, according to UZH researchers.

Herbivores require a steady intake of sodium to keep their metabolism running smoothly. This is why farm animals have long been given salt or mineral licks. Animals in the wild, however, need to get their salt from sources in their habitats. In some areas, plants and other natural sources of salt provide sufficient sodium, while in others, sodium levels are scarce. These differences can influence where certain species settle or how far they will migrate to find natural salt licks.

A new study conducted in collaboration with the University of Zurich now shows that in many places the largest herbivores in the wild – elephants, giraffes and rhinos – have limited access to sodium. The researchers combined high-resolution maps of plant sodium with data on the animals’ population density and with results of fecal analyses. Since sodium deficiency is directly detectable in the feces, they were able to draw conclusions about the species’ actual sodium intake.

A new nuclear forensics technique enabled the rapid analysis of nuclear materials for most of the elements in the periodic table. The tool could one day help nuclear nonproliferation efforts around the globe.
Illustration Credit: generated by OpenAI’s DALL·E

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have, for the first time, used a breakthrough technique with a goal of better identifying the origin of nuclear materials — a tool that could someday help efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear material around the globe.

Using a commercially developed benchtop instrument, called a Laser Ablation Laser Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (LALI-TOF MS), researchers were able to characterize mock nuclear fuel pellets that incorporate specific elemental and isotopic fingerprints. The first laser “blows off” (ablates) a few molecules of material from the sample’s surface, while the second ionizes the neutral particles to turn them into charged ions, which are then separated by their unique mass.

New research from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Asst. Prof. Tian Zhong could make it possible for quantum computers to connect at distances up to 1,243 miles, shattering previous records.
Photo Credit: Jason Smith

A new nanofabrication approach could increase the range of quantum networks from a few kilometers to a potential 2,000 km, bringing quantum internet closer than ever

Quantum computers are powerful, lightning-fast and notoriously difficult to connect to one another over long distances.

Previously, the maximum distance two quantum computers could connect through a fiber cable was a few kilometers. This means that, even if such cable were run between them, quantum computers in downtown Chicago’s Willis Tower and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) on the South Side would be too far apart to communicate with each other.

Andrei Chagin, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.
Photo Credit: Magnus Gotander

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg can now demonstrate previously unexplained processes behind growth therapy. It involves hormonal mechanisms at the cellular level, with focus on a sensitive balance between stem cells and growth hormone.

When children grow in length, it occurs from growth plates, a cartilage structure at both ends of the long bones found in the arms and legs. The growth plates contain special stem cells that continuously produce new cartilage cells, which are converted into bone tissue.

In the case of growth disorders in children, with a height significantly below the average for their age and sex, injections of growth hormone are the most common treatment. In the development of growth hormone therapy, the University of Gothenburg has played a historically important role

Previous research has shown that growth hormones act directly on the growth plate. However, it has been unclear which cells are targeted by growth hormones and how.

A bag of platelets being prepared for freezing.
Photo Credit: Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

Research has proven frozen blood platelets are safe and effective to use on critically injured patients – a breakthrough dramatically extending their shelf life for transfusions from one week to two years.

The results of the decade-long University of Queensland and Australian Red Cross Lifeblood research collaboration will have positive implications for the international management of blood supplies and could save lives in remote areas and war zones.

In a clinical trial with cardiac surgery patients, Director of UQ’s Greater Brisbane Clinical School Professor Michael Reade used platelets that had been frozen at -80 degrees Celsius and found they were only slightly less effective than liquid platelets and still stopped blood loss.

Archaeologists use lasers to locate ancient settlements and artefacts on Greek Islands

The small island of Palatia off Naxos has been investigated by the researchers.
Photo Credit: The Small Cycladic Islands Project

The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece. Made up of more than 200 islands, the Cyclades attract millions of tourists each year for holidays on islands like Mykonos and Santorini. But recent studies have revealed that before the luxury villas took over the islands, the Cyclades have been home to humans in not only ancient Greece, but in prehistoric times as well.

As part of several international teams, archaeologist Evan Levine from the University of Copenhagen is using groundbreaking technological methods such as LIDAR and magnetometry to shed new light on the archaeology of the Cycladic islands.

In a new study, MIT researchers and their collaborators identified a practical, powerful predictor that could help clinicians spot high-risk lymphoma patients early and tailor treatments to improve survival.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

Aggressive T-cell lymphoma is a rare and devastating form of blood cancer with a very low five-year survival rate. Patients often relapse after receiving initial therapy, making it especially challenging for clinicians to keep this destructive disease in check.

In a new study, researchers from MIT, in collaboration with researchers involved in the PETAL consortium at Massachusetts General Hospital, identified a practical and powerful prognostic marker that could help clinicians identify high-risk patients early, and potentially tailor treatment strategies to improve survival.

The team found that, when patients relapse within 12 months of initial therapy, their chances of survival decline dramatically. For these patients, targeted therapies might improve their chances for survival, compared to traditional chemotherapy, the researchers say.

Aggressor bacteria such as Acinetobacter baylyi (green) can rarely kill Pseudomonas aeruginosa (live cells in black, dying cells in cyan).
Image Credit: Alejandro Tejada-Arranz, Biozentrum, University of Basel

Some bacteria use a kind of molecular “speargun” to eliminate their rivals, injecting them with a lethal cocktail. Researchers at the University of Basel have now discovered that certain bacteria can protect themselves against these toxic attacks. But this defense comes with a surprising downside: it makes them more vulnerable to antibiotics.

Countless bacterial species share cramped environments where competition for space and resources is fierce. Some rely on a molecular speargun to outcompete their opponents. One of them is Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It is widespread in nature but also notorious as a difficult-to-treat hospital pathogen.

Pseudomonas can live peacefully in coexistence with other microbes. But when attacked by bacteria from a different species, it rapidly assembles its own nano-speargun – the so-called type VI secretion system (T6SS) – to inject its aggressor with a toxic cocktail.

How can Pseudomonas strike back when it has already been hit by a deadly cocktail itself? The answer has now been uncovered by Professor Marek Basler’s team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and published in Nature Communications.

Plastic items, such as this part of a swimming float (blue), are often seen at ocean shorelines. These products eventually break down into microplastics, which permeate the oceans and add to the distribution of carbon along with organic matter.
Photo Credit: Luis Medina.

A study by researchers in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) shows that when microplastics are accidentally collected and measured with natural ocean organic particles, the carbon released by plastics during combustion appears as if it came from natural organic matter, which distorts scientists’ understanding of the ocean’s carbon cycle.

The carbon cycle in our oceans is critical to the balance of life in ocean waters and for reducing carbon in the atmosphere, a significant process to curbing climate change or global warming.

Microplastics are everywhere in the oceans. These small plastic fragments come from the breakdown of larger plastic items polluting the seas. Once they reach the sea through rivers, wastewater or runoff, they spread through coastal and open-ocean waters.

Photo Credit: Marat Gilyadzinov

Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) have discovered that jellyfish can be used as a food stabiliser. In the future, the slimy creatures may become an important ingredient in a more sustainable food production system.

Food stabiliser.

The word might not sound particularly appetizing, but without food stabilizers, much of the food we eat would be impossible to make. It would not be able to retain its consistency or form but would split or spread out.

Nature itself has created many stabilizers to maintain the structure of organisms, and over time, we humans have learned to use them in our food.

The most well-known example in the home kitchen is egg yolk, which allows mayonnaise to bind together. In the industrial food sector, stabilizers are even more crucial. Here, ingredients such as starch, pectin, gelatine, and algal stabilizers are used to achieve the right consistency in everything from ketchup to chocolate milk.

Photo Credit: Marita Kavelashvili

Carbon removal projects could prove vital in offsetting methane emissions – the second largest contributor to global warming.

Nature-based schemes that aim to remove CO2 through methods such as afforestation and reforestation are criticized for being temporary – the carbon removed is often re-released once projects end – as well as fraught with risk.

But climate change researchers have shown they can play an important role in neutralizing the environmental impact of methane.

Methane and carbon dioxide behave differently over time: methane warms the planet much more rapidly than carbon dioxide, causing more damage in the short to medium term, but methane has little long-term impact on global temperatures as it dissipates over time.

Molecular Biology: In-Depth Description

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI Generated

Molecular biology is the branch of biology that studies the molecular basis of biological activity. It focuses on the chemical and physical structure of biological macromolecules—specifically nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and proteins—and how these molecules interact to regulate cell function, replication, and expression of genetic information. The primary goal of this field is to understand the intricate molecular machinery within a cell that governs life itself, from the synthesis of proteins to the regulation of gene expression.

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline

Microtechnology is the specific branch of engineering and science that deals with the design, fabrication, and integration of functional structures and devices with dimensions on the order of the micrometer (μm), typically ranging from 1 to 100 micrometers.

Situated on the dimensional scale between macro-engineering and nanotechnology, the primary goal of microtechnology is the miniaturization of physical systems to enhance performance, reduce power consumption, and enable mass production of complex devices at a low cost. It fundamentally underpins the modern ability to integrate sensing, processing, and actuating functions into single, microscopic chips.

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline

In the modern digital ecosystem, the email inbox and basic cloud web interfaces remain surprisingly inefficient for managing complex file transfers. Whether you are a web developer deploying code, a video editor moving terabytes of raw footage, or a business owner archiving sensitive documents, the "file transfer" bottleneck is a persistent reality. Traditional FTP clients often feel like relics from the Windows 95 era—clunky, utilitarian, and disconnected from modern cloud workflows.

This is the gap FTPie aims to bridge. It positions itself not just as an FTP client, but as a unified "file logistics" hub that treats a Google Drive folder, an Amazon S3 bucket, and a legacy SFTP server with the same modern, drag-and-drop respect. This review examines the technology, features, and overall value of FTPie v2025.12.1, specifically highlighting its newly introduced Backup and Favorites capabilities.

Illustration Credit: Scientific Frontline

The End of the Passive Era

The year 2025 marks a definitive inflection point in the history of neuroscience and geriatric medicine. For decades, the field of dementia care was characterized by a certain fatalism—a paradigm of "diagnose and manage" where the clinician’s role was largely to document decline and support the family. That era has officially closed. We have entered the age of precision intervention, defined by the ability to detect neurodegenerative pathology in blood plasma decades before symptoms arise, the availability of disease-modifying immunotherapies that clear toxic proteins from the brain, and a nuanced biological understanding that has shattered the monolithic concept of "senility" into a spectrum of distinct, treatable molecular events.

Our Scientific Frontline report provides an exhaustive analysis of the dementia landscape as it stands in late 2025. It synthesizes data from the latest clinical trials, including the landmark approval of subcutaneous maintenance dosing for anti-amyloid therapies, and examines the emerging economic reality where the global cost of dementia is projected to triple by mid-century. We explore the biological underpinnings of conditions ranging from classic Alzheimer’s Disease to the newly characterized Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy (LATE), and we evaluate the transformative potential of 14 modifiable risk factors that could prevent nearly half of all cases.

Microscope-captured images of a mammary gland of a pig show the presence of influenza receptors. In the image on the left, receptors for avian influenza A are colored orange. In the image on the right, receptors for the type of influenza A that typically infects mammals are purple.
Image Credit: Dr. Tyler Harm/Iowa State University

An ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza has affected more than 184 million domestic poultry since 2022 and, since making the leap to dairy cattle in spring 2024, more than 1,000 milking cow herds.

A new study led by Iowa State University researchers shows that the mammary glands of several other production animals – including pigs, sheep, goats, beef cattle and alpacas – are biologically suitable to harbor avian influenza, due to high levels of sialic acids.

“The main thing we wanted to understand in this study is whether there is potential for transmission among these other domestic mammals and humans, and it looks like there is,” said Rahul Nelli, the study’s lead author and a research assistant professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine.

Photo Credit: Christin Hume

Researchers from King’s College London and Yakult Science for Health have conducted a comprehensive review of existing research exploring how probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic supplements may influence skin health and disease.

The review mapped 516 studies from around the world examining the relationship between these supplements and various aspects of skin health, from general skin condition to the management of diseases such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and acne.

Our diet can influence skin health through its impact on the gut microbiome — the community of microorganisms living in our digestive tract. The concept of a gut–skin axis was first proposed nearly a century ago but has gained renewed attention in recent years, as growing evidence suggests that changes in gut microbes can affect skin condition and ageing. Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics are thought to promote skin health by modifying the gut microbiome, which may in turn improve skin function and resilience.

Recording of brain activity using EEG.
Photo Credit: © LMU / Johanna Weber

First and foremost, we breathe to absorb oxygen – but this vital rhythm could also have other functions. Over the past few years, a range of studies have shown that respiration influences neural processes, including the processing of stimuli and memory processes. LMU researchers led by Dr. Thomas Schreiner, leader of an Emmy Noether junior research group at the Department of Psychology, in collaboration with colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and the University of Oxford, have analyzed how respiration influences the retrieval of previously learned materials and recorded what happens in the brain during this process.

For the experiment, 18 participants learned to associate 120 images with certain words. The participants were then asked to recall these associations and then asked to recall them again after a two-hour afternoon nap. While this was happening, the researchers recorded their breathing as well as their brain activity via EEG.

Where the elements come from?

The chlorine and potassium needed to support planet formation and sustain life come from exploding stars.
Image Credit: JAXA

"Why are we here?" This is humanity's most fundamental and persistent question. Tracing the origins of the elements is a direct attempt to answer this at its deepest level. We know many elements are created inside stars and supernovae, which then cast them out into the universe, yet the origins of some key elements have remained a mystery.

Chlorine and potassium, both odd-Z elements -- possessing an odd number of protons -- are essential to life and planet formation. According to current theoretical models, stars produce only about one-tenth of the amount of these elements observed in the universe, a discrepancy that has long puzzled astrophysicists.

Vidhika Damani and assistant professor Laure Kayser inspect a sample of the reversible conductive hydrogel they developed for bioelectronics applications.
Photo Credit: Evan Krape

What if a doctor could inject an electricity-conducting liquid into the body, let it temporarily solidify to record nerve signals or jump-start healing, and then return it to liquid form for easy removal?

That vision is edging closer to reality. University of Delaware researchers have developed a reversible conductive hydrogel, a material that can alternate between liquid and gel states. The hydrogel is designed to serve as an interface between conventional electronics and the body’s tissues, offering promise for both injectable implants and wearable devices.

The research team, led by Laure Kayser, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at UD’s College of Engineering, describes the new material in Nature Communications.

Artist’s interpretation of an ancient total solar eclipse. This illustration is based on artistic imagination and does not represent the exact appearance of the eclipse recorded in 709 BCE.
Image Credit: Kano Okada, Nagoya University
Based on an image by Phil Hart / NASA

Humanity’s earliest datable record for a total solar eclipse allows scientists to derive accurate measurements of Earth’s ancient rotation speed and provides independent validation of solar cycle reconstruction in the 8th century BCE.

An international team of researchers has used knowledge of historical geography to reexamine the earliest datable total solar eclipse record known to the scientific community, enabling accurate measurements of Earth’s variable rotation speed from 709 BCE. The researchers calculated how the Sun would have appeared from Qufu, the ancient Chinese capital of the Lu Duchy, during the total solar eclipse. Using this information, they analyzed the ancient description of what has been considered the solar corona—the dim outer atmosphere of the Sun visible to the naked eye only during total eclipses—and found that its morphology supports recent solar cycle reconstructions for the 8th century BCE.

Their findings, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, provide reliable new data about Earth’s rotation speed during this period and suggest the Sun was becoming more active after a long quiet period, independently confirming what other scientists have found using radiocarbon analysis.

Rose Hill, Ph.D., second from left,studies sensory nerves within the kidneys at OHSU. Her new study identified a protein that acts as a pressure sensor in the kidneys, which helps the body control fluids and blood pressure. With her are lab team members: Taylor Krilanovich, Lily Schainker and Janelle Doyle.
Photo Credit: OHSU/Christine Torres Hicks

A new study has identified a critical “pressure sensor” inside the kidney that helps the body control blood pressure and fluid levels. The finding helps explain how the kidneys sense changes in blood volume — something scientists for decades have known occurs but didn’t have a mechanistic explanation.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and collaborating institutions discovered that a protein called PIEZO2 acts as a mechanical sensor in the kidney. When blood volume changes, this protein helps trigger the release of renin, a hormone that starts a chain reaction known as the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, or RAAS. The system is one of the body’s main tools for keeping blood pressure stable and making sure the body has the right balance of salt and water.

SwRI scientists compared space weather impacts of a fast solar wind structure (first panel) driving an intense solar storm at Earth in 2019 (second panel) with conditions observed at Uranus by Voyager 2 in 1986 (third panel) to potentially solve a 39-year-old mystery about the extreme radiation belts found. The "chorus wave" is a type of electromagnetic emission that may accelerate electrons and could have resulted from the solar storm.
Image Credit: Southwest Research Institute

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists believe they may have resolved a 39-year-old mystery about the radiation belts around Uranus.

In 1986, when Voyager 2 made the first and only flyby of Uranus, it measured a surprisingly strong electron radiation belt at significantly higher levels than anticipated. Based on extrapolations from other planetary systems, Uranus’ electron radiation belt was off the charts. Since then, scientists have wondered how the Uranian system could support such an intense trapped electron radiation belt, at a planet unlike anything else in the solar system.

In front of the nuclear reactor at TU Wien
Photo Credit: © TU Wien

The copper isotope Cu-64 plays an important role in medicine: it is used in imaging processes and also shows potential for cancer therapy. However, it does not occur naturally and must be produced artificially — a complex and costly process. Until now, Cu-64 has been generated by bombarding nickel atoms with protons. When a nickel nucleus absorbs a proton, it is transformed into copper. At TU Wien, however, a different pathway has now been demonstrated: Cu-63 can be converted into Cu-64 by neutron irradiation in a research reactor. This works thanks to a special trick — so-called “recoil chemistry.”

A small marine bristle worm. The group from the University of Gothenburg has been working with this species. It is one of the few species that is slightly more common in this area. The animal is about 1-2 mm long.
Photo Credit: Natural History Museum, London & Göteborgs Universitet

There is a high demand globally for critical metals, and many countries want to try extracting these sought-after metals from the seabed. An international study, which has discovered large numbers of new species at a depth of 4,000 meters, shows that such mining has less of a negative impact than expected. However, species diversity declined by a third in the tracks of the mining machine.

In a major research project, marine biologists from several countries have attempted to map life in one of the least explored places on Earth: the deep-sea floor of the Pacific Ocean.

NBCn1 (purple) sits in the cell membrane and brings two sodium ions (2Na⁺) and one carbonate ion (CO₃²⁻) into the cell, raising its internal pH. This helps breast cancer cells stay alkaline and survive in low-oxygen, acidic tumor environments.
Illustration Credit: Courtesy of UCLA/Health

UCLA scientists have characterized the structure and function of a key survival protein in breast cancer cells that helps explain how these tumors resist environmental stress and thrive in acidic, low-oxygen environments that would normally be toxic to healthy cells.

Breast cancer cells rely on a transporter protein called NBCn1 to bring alkali ions into the cell and maintain a favorable internal pH. Using advanced cryo-electron microscopy combined with computational modeling, the researchers showed that NBCn1 moves two sodium ions and one carbonate ion through an efficient “elevator-like” motion that minimizes energy use. This allows NBCn1 to achieve a high transport rate of approximately 15,000 ions per second, helping tumor cells maintain an internal pH that promotes survival, division and resistance to acidic stress.

Ice grains, illuminated by a green sheet of laser light, are suspended in the plasma discharge (purple). Insets show individual ice grains imaged with 20x magnification.
Image Credit: Bellan Plasma Group/Caltech

When a gas is highly energized, its electrons get torn from the parent atoms, resulting in a plasma—the oft-forgotten fourth state of matter (along with solid, liquid, and gas). When we think of plasmas, we normally think of extremely hot phenomena such as the Sun, lightning, or maybe arc welding, but there are situations in which icy cold particles are associated with plasmas. Images of distant molecular clouds from the James Webb Space Telescope feature such hot–cold interactions, with frozen dust illuminated by pockets of shocked gas and newborn stars.

Now a team of Caltech researchers has managed to recreate such an icy plasma system in the lab. They created a plasma in which electrons and positively charged ions exist between ultracold electrodes within a mostly neutral gas environment, injected water vapor, and then watched as tiny ice grains spontaneously formed. They studied the behavior of the grains using a camera with a long-distance microscope lens. The team was surprised to find that extremely "fluffy" grains developed under these conditions and grew into fractal shapes—branching, irregular structures that are self-similar at various scales. And that structure leads to some unexpected physics.

The stars (or rather galaxies) of the show.
A montage of eight time-delay gravitational lens systems. There’s an entire galaxy at the center of each image, and the bright points in rings around them are gravitationally lensed images of quasars behind the galaxy. These images are false-color and are composites of data from different telescopes and instruments.
Image Credit: ©2025 TDCOSMO Collaboration et al.
(CC BY-ND 4.0)

There is an important and unresolved tension in cosmology regarding the rate at which the universe is expanding, and resolving this could reveal new physics. Astronomers constantly seek new ways to measure this expansion in case there may be unknown errors in data from conventional markers such as supernovae. Recently, researchers including those from the University of Tokyo measured the expansion of the universe using novel techniques and new data from the latest telescopes. Their method exploits the way light from extremely distant objects takes multiple pathways to get to us. Differences in these pathways help improve models on what happens at the largest cosmological scales, including expansion.

New marine sponges provide clues about animal evolution

Paco Cárdenas and Julio A. Díaz have described new sponges found off the coast of Spain. The researchers discovered that the sponges produce a substance of potential interest for drug development.
Photo Credit: Mikael Wallerstedt

A completely new order of marine sponges has been found by researchers at the Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University. The sponge order, named Vilesida, produces substances that could be used in drug development. The same substances support the hypothesis that sponges – and therefore animals – emerged 100 million years earlier than previously thought.

Sponges are among the most challenging animals in the tree of life to identify and classify. For this reason, many sponges lack a formal name, which is unusual in other animal groups. While the discovery by scientists of new species of marine invertebrates is an everyday occurrence, it is far less common to identify entirely new genera or families. The discovery of a completely new order is rare: only twelve new animal orders have been described in the last five years.

Qingyuan County forest research site
Photo Credit: Kai Huang/UCR

Scientists have long warned that rising global temperatures would force forest soils to leak more nitrogen gas into the air, further increasing both pollution and warming while robbing trees of an essential growth factor. But a new study challenges these assumptions.

After six years of UC Riverside-led research in a temperate Chinese forest, researchers have found that warming may be reducing nitrogen emissions, at least in places where rainfall is scarce.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the result of UCR’s collaboration with a large team of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers stationed in China’s Shenyang City. These researchers maintained the infrastructure used to take more than 200,000 gas measurements from forest soil over six years.

Co-first authors Erin Doherty (left) and Jason Nomburg (right)
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Innovative Genomics Institute

Viruses and their hosts — whether bacteria, animals, or humans — are locked in a constant evolutionary arms race. Cells evolve defenses against viral infection, viruses evolve ways around those defenses, and the cycle continues.

One important weapon that cells use in the fight against viruses is a set of tiny molecular “alarm signals” made of nucleotides: the same chemical building blocks that make up DNA and RNA. When a virus infects a cell, these nucleotide messengers activate powerful immune defenses. To survive, viruses must find ways to shut these signals down. In a new study published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, IGI researchers reveal that viruses have evolved a surprisingly large and diverse set of enzymes specifically designed to destroy these immune alarm signals, helping them hide from or disable the host’s antiviral defenses.

Quantum-Geodesics
Large masses – such as a galaxy – curve space-time. Objects move along a geodesic. If we take into account that space-time itself has quantum properties, deviations arise (dashed line vs. solid line).
Image Credit: © TU Wien

A team at TU Wien combines quantum physics and general relativity theory – and discovers striking deviations from previous results.

It is something like the “Holy Grail” of physics: unifying particle physics and gravitation. The world of tiny particles is described extremely well by quantum theory, while the world of gravitation is captured by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But combining the two has not yet worked – the two leading theories of theoretical physics still do not quite fit together.

There are many ideas for such a unification – with names like string theory, loop quantum gravity, canonical quantum gravity or asymptotically safe gravity. Each of them has its strengths and weaknesses. What has been missing so far, however, are observable predictions for measurable quantities and experimental data that could reveal which of these theories describes nature best. A new study from TU Wien may now have brought us a small step closer to this ambitious goal.

Photo Credit: Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition

The contraceptive pill has been hailed as one of the most revolutionary health technologies of the 20th century – a tool that gave women control over their fertility and paved the way for education and careers. But a new study suggests that this freedom may have come at a hidden cost: impaired mental health.

Access to the contraceptive pill during adolescence is associated with an increased risk of depression later in life. Women who are genetically predisposed to mental illness are particularly at risk of suffering from this side effect.

This is shown by a new study from the University of Copenhagen, which builds on previous research from the same university – and demonstrated links between hormonal contraceptives and mental health problems.

‘We know that the contraceptive pill has had enormous societal consequences and positively affected women’s careers. But we have overlooked the fact that it can also have a negative impact on mental health – and that has implications for how we understand its overall effect,’ says the researcher behind the study, Franziska Valder, assistant professor at the Department of Economics and CEBI.

When participants heard chimpanzee vocalisations, this response was clearly distinct from that triggered by bonobos or macaques.
Image Credit: © L. Ceravolo

The brain doesn’t just recognize the human voice. A study by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) shows that certain areas of our auditory cortex respond specifically to the vocalizations of chimpanzees, our closest cousins both phylogenetically and acoustically. This finding, published in the journal eLife, suggests the existence of subregions in the human brain that are particularly sensitive to the vocalizations of certain primates. It opens a new window on the origin of voice recognition, which could have implications for language development.

Our voice is a fundamental sign of social communication. In humans, a large part of the auditory cortex is dedicated to its analysis. But do these skills have older roots? To find out, scientists from the UNIGE’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences adopted an approach based on the evolution of species. By comparing the neural processing of vocalizations emitted by species close to humans, such as chimpanzees, bonobos and macaques, it is possible to observe what our brain shares, or does not share, with that of other primates and thus to investigate the emergence of the neural bases of vocal communication, long before the appearance of language.

Findings suggest red planet was warmer, wetter millions of years ago

Purdue University research into scattered kaolinite rocks on Mars’ surface shows the dry, dusty planet could have featured a rain-heavy climate billions of years ago.
Photo Credit: NASA

Rocks that stood out as light-colored dots on the reddish-orange surface of Mars now are the latest evidence that areas of the small planet may have once supported wet oases with humid climates and heavy rainfall comparable to tropical climates on Earth.

The rocks discovered by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover are white, aluminum-rich kaolinite clay, which forms on Earth after rocks and sediment are leached of all other minerals by millions of years of a wet, rainy climate.

These findings were published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Communications Earth & Environment by lead author Adrian Broz, a Purdue University postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Briony Horgan, a long-term planner on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission and professor of planetary science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in Purdue’s College of Science.

Alyson Santoro Associate Professor Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Alyson Santoro's research focuses on microbes involved in nutrient cycling in the ocean, especially of the element nitrogen. This research combines laboratory experiments with field observations, and to date has used genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and stable isotope geochemistry as tools to uncover the activity of microbes in the mesopelagic ocean.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of California, Santa Barbara

In a step toward better understanding how the ocean sequesters carbon, new findings from UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators challenge the current view of how carbon dioxide is “fixed” in the sunless ocean depths. UCSB microbial oceanographer Alyson Santoro and colleagues, publishing in the journal Nature Geoscience, present results that help to reconcile discrepancies in accounting for nitrogen supply and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) fixation at depth.

“Something that we’ve been trying to get a better handle on is how much of the carbon in the ocean is getting fixed,” Santoro said. “The numbers work out now, which is great.”

Photo Credit: Lilian Dibbern

New research has found that the levels of toxic industrial chemicals, which were banned over 40 years ago, are rising in otters in Wales.

The Cardiff University Otter Project, in collaboration with Natural Resources Wales analyzed liver samples from Eurasian otters (Lutralutra) collected across Wales between 2010 and 2019. The team found Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in every otter they tested. Of the otters sampled, 16% exceeded a toxic threshold, which is known to impair reproduction.

PCBs were once widely used in electrical equipment, paints, and plastics due to their stability and heat resistance. Although banned in the 1980s, their environmental persistence means they continue to accumulate in wildlife and can be found in high concentrations in top predators.

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated

Microbiology is the scientific study of microorganisms, a diverse group of microscopic life forms that include bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, prions, protozoa, and algae. Collectively, these organisms function as the invisible backbone of the biosphere, influencing every ecosystem on Earth. The primary goal of this field is to understand the structure, function, genetics, and ecology of these entities, as well as their complex interactions with humans, other organisms, and the environment.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has created a new space science laboratory, the Nebular Origins of the Universe Research (NOUR) Laboratory. Led by SwRI Senior Research Scientist Dr. Danna Qasim, the NOUR laboratory aims to bridge pre-planetary and planetary science to create a better understanding of the origins of our universe.
Photo Credit: Southwest Research Institute

The laboratory will trace the chemical origins of planetary systems. Qasim aims to establish a robust astrochemistry program within SwRI’s Space Science Division, connecting early cosmic chemistry to planetary evolution. The SwRI lab will give particular focus on the chemistry of interstellar clouds, vast regions of ice, gas and dust between stars representing a largely unexplored area of astrochemistry.

“We are examining the chemistry of ice, gas and dust that have existed since before our solar system formed, connecting the dots to determine how materials in those clouds ultimately evolve into planets,” Qasim said. “By simulating the physico-chemical conditions of these pre-planetary environments, we can fill key data gaps, providing insights that future NASA missions need to accomplish their goals.”

Lower jaw of a polar bear
The polar bear has a second molar that is only slightly larger than the first. Although the polar bear is a carnivore, it is descended from the omnivorous brown bear.
Photo Credit: © Katja Henßel, SNSB

Mammalian teeth show an astonishing diversity that has developed over 225 million years. One approach to describing the development of mammalian teeth is the so-called “Inhibitory Cascade Model”, short ICM. The ICM describes the growth pattern of molars in the lower jaw. According to the model, the following applies to many mammals: The front molars in the lower jaw influence the growth of all the teeth behind them.

Certain molecules inhibit or activate tooth growth in the animal's dentition according to the same pattern. Which molars become small or large depends on the size of the first molar, which depends on the animal's diet. In carnivorous mammals, the first molar is usually larger than the third. In herbivores, it is the other way around: the first molar is small, while the third is large.

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated

Medical Science is the comprehensive discipline responsible for the maintenance of health and the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. It encompasses a vast spectrum of knowledge, ranging from the molecular interactions of genetics and biochemistry to the complex physiological systems of the human body. The primary goal of medical science is to understand the etiology (cause) and pathogenesis (development) of illnesses to develop effective therapeutic interventions and public health strategies.

Spin-wave spectrum of CoFe₂O₄ measured on the MAPS spectrometer (left) and the corresponding spin-wave calculation (right). The large ~60 meV splitting between the two magnon branches originates from the strong imbalance of molecular fields on the A and B cation sites, as illustrated in the inset crystal structure.
Image Credit: KyotoU / Yusuke Nambu

Magnetostriction and spin dynamics are fundamental properties of magnetic materials. Despite having been studied for decades, finding a decisive link between the two in bulk single crystals had remained elusive. That is until a research team from several institutions, including Kyoto University, sought to examine these properties in the compound CoFe2O4, a spinel oxide (chemical formula AB2O4) widely used in numerous medical and industrial applications.

Spin dynamics describe how the tiny magnetic moments of atoms in a magnetic material interact and change orientation with time, while magnetostriction describes how a material changes shape or dimensions in response to a change in magnetization. These properties are central to the operation of sensors and actuators that employ magnetoelastic materials that change their magnetization under mechanical stress.

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Monday, December 8, 2025

Saturday, December 6, 2025

Friday, December 5, 2025

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Monday, December 1, 2025

Featured Article

Top Viewed Articles