How a persistent chemical enters our surface waters

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are not called “forever chemicals” for nothing. These fluorine-containing organic molecules are difficult to break down and are likely to remain in the environment for decades or even centuries, where they can accumulate in humans and animals and may have harmful effects on health. This is a compelling reason to take precautionary measures. 

The PFAS class of substances comprises thousands of chemical compounds. Not all of them have been thoroughly studied. The release, spread, accumulation, and effects of numerous PFAS are the subject of ongoing research. Among other things, researchers are focusing on TFA, short for trifluoroacetic acid. The smallest molecule in the PFAS family is formed as a degradation product of various other substances, such as many fluorinated refrigerants and propellants. Once formed, TFA is hardly degraded in the environment. “TFA formed in the atmosphere quickly enters precipitation, and from there it travels into surface waters and then into groundwater,” says Empa researcher Stefan Reimann from the Air Pollutants / Environmental Technology laboratory. 

Earliest, hottest galaxy cluster gas on record could change our cosmological models

Artist’s impression of a forming galaxy cluster in the early universe: radio jets from active galaxies are embedded in a hot intracluster atmosphere (red), illustrating a large thermal reservoir of gas in the nascent cluster.
Image Credit: Lingxiao Yuan

The scorching cloud of gas threaded between clusters of galaxies is five times hotter than current models predict, highlighting gaps in our models of galaxy cluster formation.

An international team of astronomers led by Canadian researchers has found something the universe wasn’t supposed to have: a galaxy cluster blazing with hot gas just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, far earlier and hotter than theory predicts.  

The result, published in Nature, could upend current models of galaxy cluster formation, which predict such temperatures will occur only in more mature, stable galaxy clusters later in the universe’s life.  

“We didn’t expect to see such a hot cluster atmosphere so early in cosmic history,” said lead author Dazhi Zhou, a PhD candidate in the UBC department of physics and astronomy. “In fact, at first, I was skeptical about the signal as it was too strong to be real. But after months of verification, we’ve confirmed this gas is at least five times hotter than predicted, and even hotter and more energetic than what we find in many present-day clusters.”  

Meditation doesn’t rest the brain, it reshapes it

A Buddhist monk from the Thai forest tradition in a magnetoencephalography (MEG) facility. This image was created using a generative artificial intelligence program for illustrative purposes.
Image Credit: AI prompt by Karim Jerbi

To decode the subtle mechanisms of the meditative state, the researchers worked with 12 monks of the Thai Forest Tradition at Santacittarama monastery outside Rome, who between them had practiced an average of more than 15,000 hours of meditation each. 

At the MEG lab in Chieti-Pescara, in Abruzzo, the monks' brains were scanned while they meditated. Two techniques of meditation were studied: 

Samatha, a focused attention technique that concentrates on a specific object (such as breathing) to stabilize the mind and achieve a deep state of calm; and 

Vipassana, an open-monitoring technique that involves observing the present moment (sensations, thoughts, emotions) without selection or judgment to understand the nature of the mind. 

“With Samatha, you narrow your field of attention, somewhat like narrowing the beam of a flashlight; with Vipassana, on the contrary, you widen the beam,” said Jerbi, one of the study's co-authors. 

“Both practices actively engage attentional mechanisms," he said. "While Vipassana is more challenging for beginners, in mindfulness programs the two techniques are often practiced in alternation."  

Ancient Antarctica reveals a ’one–two punch’ behind ice sheet collapse

An image of Antarctica as seen from space.
Image Credit: NASA.

When we think of global warming, what first comes to mind is the air: crushing heatwaves that are felt rather than seen, except through the haziness of humid air. But when it comes to melting ice sheets, rising ocean temperatures may play more of a role — with the worst effects experienced on the other side of the globe.

While Binghamton University Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Molly Patterson is the first author, the 43 co-authors include several Binghamton alumni, such as Christiana Rosenberg, MS ’20; Harold Jones ’18; and William Arnuk, PhD ’24. The study’s results directly address one of the main goals of the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 374: to identify the sensitivity of the Antarctic ice sheet to Earth’s orbital configuration under a variety of climate boundary conditions. Because of this, all shipboard science team members are included as co-authors because of their contributions to the data sets used in the article, Patterson explained.

Cleaning Up the Final Frontier: Embry‑Riddle Researchers Develop Net Mechanism to Catch Space Debris

Embry‑Riddle’s Dr. Morad Nazari, graduate student Sahasra Boyapati and Dr. Daewon Kim (from right to left) display prototype components of their space debris removal system.
Photo Credit: Embry‑Riddle/Daryl LaBello

With damaging strikes by accumulating space debris a serious threat to space missions and exploration, Embry‑Riddle researchers are developing a mechanism that can snag the debris with nets and tow it toward Earth’s atmosphere to burn up on reentry.

“What's most exciting about this project is that it offers a practical and elegant way to clean up space,” said Dr. Daewon Kim, professor of Aerospace Engineering. “It's a simple idea powered by advanced engineering, turning the vision of catching and removing space junk into something real and achievable.”

International research breakthrough for remote Alzheimer’s testing

Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of Exeter

A groundbreaking international study has demonstrated that Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers can be accurately detected using simple finger-prick blood samples that can be collected at home and mailed to laboratories without refrigeration or prior processing. 

The research, led by US institute Banner Health working with the University of Exeter Medical School and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), published today in Nature Medicine. It represents the first large-scale validation of this accessible testing approach that removes geographic barriers and opens brain disease research to global populations without requiring specialized healthcare infrastructure. 

The DROP-AD project, conducted across seven European medical centers including the University of Gothenburg and University of Exeter, successfully tested 337 participants and proved that finger-prick blood collection can accurately measure key markers of Alzheimer’s pathology and brain damage. This breakthrough enables worldwide research participation by eliminating the logistical constraints that have historically limited biomarker studies to well-resourced medical facilities. 

Researchers Develop Guidelines for Diagnosing, Monitoring Canine Cognitive Decline

Chimmi (04/09/2010 - 02/23/2025)
Photo Credit: Heidi-Ann Fourkiller

An international working group of canine cognition experts has released a set of guidelines for veterinarians to use in diagnosing and monitoring canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CCDS), or canine dementia. The guidelines offer a standard definition of the condition as well as practical diagnostic criteria and are meant to aid both clinicians and researchers in helping senior dogs with cognitive issues.

“We are seeing CCDS diagnoses with increasing frequency, but there isn’t a standardized method for the diagnosis,” says Natasha Olby, Dr. Kady M. Gjessing and Rahna M. Davidson Distinguished Chair in Gerontology at North Carolina State University. “We wanted to propose that standardized method as a starting point that can be built upon over time.” Olby is the leader of the working group and corresponding author of the work.

When ovarian cancer alters the abdominal cavity

Metastases from ovarian cancer in the abdominal cavity: Cancer cells alter the tissue of the omentum in such a way that it supports their spread.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

Ovarian cancer often forms secondary tumors, especially in a certain tissue in the abdominal cavity known as the omentum. Researchers from the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel have investigated what happens when the cancer “hijacks” this organ. It is hoped their findings will lead to more successful treatments. 

Ovarian cancer often goes undetected for a long time. In seven out of 10 patients, the tumor has already formed secondary tumors in the abdominal cavity at the time of diagnosis. These metastases are particularly common in a tissue called the omentum, also known as the peritoneal apron. This organ is located in front of the intestine, performs protective and immune functions, and harbors fat cells. 

“In advanced ovarian cancer, the question arises as to whether, in addition to the visible tumors and metastases, the omentum should also be completely removed as a preventive measure in order to reduce the recurrence of tumors,” explains Dr. Francis Jacob from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and the University Hospital Basel. 

New research may help scientists predict when a humid heat wave will break

Caption:MIT scientists have identified a key atmospheric condition that determines how hot and humid midlatitude regions like the Midwest can become — and how intense related storms may be.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

A long stretch of humid heat followed by intense thunderstorms is a weather pattern historically seen mostly in and around the tropics. But climate change is making humid heat waves and extreme storms more common in traditionally temperate midlatitude regions such as the midwestern U.S., which has seen episodes of unusually high heat and humidity in recent summers.

Now, MIT scientists have identified a key condition in the atmosphere that determines how hot and humid a midlatitude region can get, and how intense related storms can become. The results may help climate scientists gauge a region’s risk for humid heat waves and extreme storms as the world continues to warm.

In a study appearing this week in the journal Science Advances, the MIT team reports that a region’s maximum humid heat and storm intensity are limited by the strength of an “atmospheric inversion”— a weather condition in which a layer of warm air settles over cooler air.

Synchronising ultrashort X-ray pulses

At the ATHOS beamline of SwissFEL, PSI researchers demonstrated a technique known as mode-locking, which allows fully coherent, ultrashort X-ray pulses to be produced. In the photo, several undulator modules are visible (blue); between each pair are magnetic chicanes used to delay the electrons.
Photo Credit: © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Markus Fischer

Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have, for the first time, demonstrated a technique that synchronises ultrashort X-ray pulses at the X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL. This achievement opens new possibilities for observing ultrafast atomic and molecular processes with attosecond precision.

Scrutinising fast atomic and molecular processes in action requires bright and short X-ray pulses – a task in which free-electron lasers such as SwissFEL excel. However, within these X-ray pulses the light is internally disordered: its temporal structure is randomly distributed and varies from shot to shot. This limits the accuracy of certain experiments.

To tame this inherent randomness, a team of PSI researchers has succeeded in implementing a technique known as mode-locking to generate trains of pulses that are coherent in time. “We can now obtain fully ordered pulses in time and frequency in a very controlled manner,” says accelerator physicist Eduard Prat, who led the study, published in Physical Review Letters. Selected by the journal as Editor’s Suggestion, the study, funded by the EU/ERC project “HERO”, represents a significant step towards the generation of tailored attosecond X-ray pulses and a range of new experiments that are only possible with precisely timed, synchronized light pulses.