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Federal health officials on Monday laid out a proposal to spur development of customized treatments for patients with hard-to-treat diseases, including for rare genetic conditions that the pharmaceutical industry has long considered unprofitable.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this panorama of boxwork formations—the low ridges seen here with hollows in between them—using its Mastcam on Sept. 26, 2025, the 4,671st Martian day (sol) of the mission. These boxwork formations were created billions of years ago when water leaked through rock cracks. Minerals carried into the cracks later hardened; after eons of windblown sand eroding away the softer rock, the hardened ridges were left exposed.

Six planets are linking up in the sky at the end of February, and most will be visible to the naked eye.

LEDs no wider than a human hair could soon take on work traditionally handled by lasers, from moving data inside server racks to powering next-generation displays. New research co-authored by UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Roark Chao points to a practical path forward. The study is published in the journal Optics Express.

Southwest Research Institute was part of an international team that demonstrated how complex organic molecules (COMs), key chemical precursors to life, could have been incorporated into Jupiter's Galilean moons during their formation. The team's findings have resulted in complementary studies published in The Planetary Science Journal and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, offering new insights into the potential for life in the Jovian system.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are tiny biological bubbles that carry nucleic acids and proteins between cells, playing an essential role in tissue repair, neuroprotection and immune health. By isolating the surface proteins of these bubbles, researchers can understand more about their biology and build tools to transform extracellular vesicles into next-generation drugs for cancer, neurological conditions and other diseases.

Creating a drug that might help treat or cure a health condition in humans is a long, complex process. After developing a candidate drug that shows potential—a process that, in and of itself, can take decades—scientists often spend years testing the safety of new medications in cells, animals and then in humans.

Plant owners with a so-called green thumb often seem to have a more finely tuned sense of what their plants need than the rest of us. A new "smart lighting" system for indoor vertical farms grants this ability on a facility-wide scale, responsively meeting plants' needs while reducing energy inefficiencies, clearing a path for indoor farms as an energy-efficient food security strategy.

A research team at King's College London has isolated a new form of aluminum—a highly abundant metal, that could provide a far cheaper and more sustainable alternative to commonly used rare earth metals. Dr. Clare Bakewell, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, and her lab developed highly reactive aluminum molecules able to break apart tough chemical bonds. Published in Nature Communications, their work has also unlocked molecular structures that have never been observed before, which creates the potential for new kinds of reactive behavior.

New research from UCLA Health suggests that certain inhalers used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are not only less harmful to the environment but can also lead to slightly better patient outcomes. Inhalers are essential therapies for COPD and other lung conditions, but many commonly used devices rely on propellants that are potent greenhouse gases.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have discovered a way to turn plastic waste into acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, using sunlight. The breakthrough offers a promising new approach to reducing plastic pollution through photocatalysis, while simultaneously creating a useful, value-added chemical product through a process inspired by nature.

A new study has shed light on why patients with certain rare immune disorders develop severe, food-triggered allergic reactions while others with similar diagnoses do not. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, could help guide future treatments for life-threatening food allergies, including peanut allergy.

For many animals, siblings are a key component of their social environment during early life. Previous research has shown that the early social environment is important, but it has not yet been clear whether the number of siblings or the nature of their interactions is the decisive factor. "The early social environment is often treated as a single, uniform factor," says Bruno Camargo dos Santos, behavioral ecologist of Wageningen University & Research and lead author of a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We wanted to experimentally disentangle what exactly makes the difference."

The neuropeptide oxytocin is a special messenger substance that nerve cells use to communicate with each other. It is acting as both a neurotransmitter and a hormone and is best known for promoting social behavior. However, it remains largely unclear exactly which brain structures and cell types oxytocin affects during social behavior.

Scientists have observed a new microscopic mechanism enabling precise control of the magneto-optical properties of excitons in alloys of two-dimensional semiconductors. This discovery opens up tangible prospects for technological applications in devices exploiting valleytronics. The research findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Natural muscle fibers are made up of spring-like proteins that can contract and stretch without losing their original form, dissipate mechanical energy as heat and maintain incredible tensile strength for all sorts of physical functions. Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have replicated these proteins using synthetic biology approaches to create a new category of biomaterials for use in medicine, textiles and agriculture.

A new study finds that Black young adults who experience high levels of online racism are also more likely to use digital mental health tools—regardless of whether they have clinically significant levels of anxiety or depression. The paper is published in the journal JMIR Formative Research.

With the current U.S. federal administration abandoning its leadership role in the fight against climate change, international efforts by governments to mitigate global warming appear to have stalled, at least for now. But according to Adelina Barbalau, an expert on climate finance in the Alberta School of Business, hope may lie elsewhere—in the global marketplace and the opportunities for multinational companies to pick up the slack.

An archaeological study reveals how ancient hunter-gatherer groups lived—and survived—more than a thousand years ago in the transition zone between the Pampas and Patagonia in Argentina. The research, carried out by Martínez and colleagues, focuses on the Zoko Andi 1 site (ZA1), located on the lower basin of the Colorado River, a key location for understanding the daily life of these early settlers in the south. The work is published in the journal Latin American Antiquity.

A multidisciplinary team have built hydrogels built entirely from synthetic peptides so their properties can be precisely tailored through chemical design. By harnessing the power of collagen-inspired peptides and light-triggered chemistry, a University of Ottawa research team has engineered a customizable material with the potential to be a gamechanger for soft tissue repair, whether it's closing a surgical incision or sealing a traumatic wound.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), in collaboration with international partners, have shown that ocean temperature patterns help limit the global spread of droughts. Published in Communications Earth & Environment, the study analyzed climate data from 1901–2020 and found that synchronized droughts affected between 1.8% and 6.5% of global land, far lower than earlier claims that one-sixth of the planet could dry out at once.

New observations of Ganymede reveal a striking similarity between the auroras on the largest moon in the solar system and those on Earth. The international team of astrophysicists, led by researchers from the University of Liège, has produced new results indicating that, despite different conditions, the fundamental physical processes that generate auroras are common to different celestial bodies, and not just planets.

NLP offers powerful opportunities to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—including SDG2 (Zero Hunger). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, mounting climate change impacts, and other crises in the 2020s, global food security has suffered and progress towards meeting SDG2 has lagged. Urgent action, backed by evidence-based policymaking, is needed to reverse this trend.

At Rice University, a research lab's signature keepsake has helped perfect a method for growing patterned diamond surfaces that could help decrease operating temperatures in electronics by 23 degrees Celsius. The paper is published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

Scientists have developed an adaptable materials platform that can safely and efficiently deliver a wide range of genetic medicines, an advance that could accelerate the development of next-generation vaccines, cancer treatments, and gene-silencing drugs. Experts from the University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy have created a new drug delivery platform that uses modular building blocks that self-assemble with ribonucleic acid- RNA to form nanoscale delivery particles. The research has been published in Advanced Materials.

A technology has been developed that uses robots rather than humans to evaluate the performance of newly developed catalysts. By operating 45 times faster than manual work while also improving precision, it is expected to significantly shorten catalyst development timelines. A research team led by Dr. Ji Chan Park of the Clean Fuel Research Laboratory at the Korea Institute of Energy Research has developed a system that fully automates complex and repetitive catalyst performance evaluation experiments.

Researchers at the University of Oulu, Finland, have developed new high-performance bio-based resins that can replace conventional oil-based materials in composite products—without compromising strength, cost, or industrial scalability. As composite materials continue to play a critical role in renewable energy, transportation, marine industries and construction, biobased resins may become a driver of sustainable industrial production.

A new study analyzing global Google Trends data from January 2004 to August 2025 finds that online search interest in "crisis hotline" has increased sharply in recent years and tends to rise in the same months as searches about "suicide." The findings highlight how digital help-seeking signals may provide timely insight into population distress and demand for crisis resources. The study is published in the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.

Egg yolk may appear runny and uniform, but on the nanoscale, it is one of the most crowded biological fluids in nature. Packed with proteins and fats, it serves as a dense storage reservoir for a developing embryo. Yet the tiny particles responsible for transporting these nutrients—low-density lipoproteins (LDLs)—must remain mobile enough to reach their destinations. How they navigate this complex "nanoscale traffic jam" has long puzzled scientists.

Light powers everything from communications to sensing, yet even tiny imperfections can scatter it and weaken signals. To address this, a team led by the University of Bath—working with the University of Cambridge and international partners—has developed a new structure that keeps light flowing smoothly even through bends, twists or damage, with the potential to operate over unprecedented distances.

Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have discovered that two osteoporosis drugs (etidronate and tiludronate) may combat diseases caused by iron accumulation in the body. In tests conducted on human cells, the drugs bound to excess iron, reduced oxidative stress, and prevented cell damage. The study is published in the journal BioMetals.

Drugs made of mRNA have the potential to transform medicine—if only they could get into cells in one piece. Now, University of Connecticut researchers have shown that packaging mRNA like a virus could smuggle it into cells safely, opening up a new way to deliver mRNA into cells to treat diseases such as cancer. Their research is published in the journal ACS Nano.

Scientists have found that a special component in some people's blood provides them with natural protection against malaria. A recent study has demonstrated that a genetic variant named rs112233623-T reduces the activity of CCND3, a gene that normally helps control how red blood cells divide and grow. This change prompts the body to make fewer but larger-than-normal red blood cells and also leads to higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside the cells. Together, these factors create a hostile environment for the malaria parasite to thrive and replicate.

Sometimes, transporting electrons from one cell to another is a team effort. In electroactive bacteria, that team is a group of proteins that shepherds electrons forward, passing them along like a relay baton, so they can penetrate the thick cell envelope comprising multiple layers of membranes that otherwise are not electroconductive. But how these proteins collaborate to achieve this has not been clear.

Researchers from several partner institutions of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) have collaborated with international colleagues to develop a new approach for visualizing subtle tissue changes in the pancreas in type 2 diabetes. The results provide new insights into the development of type 2 diabetes. The study has now been published in Nature Communications.

Whether in our bodies or in fuel cells, phosphoric acid plays an important role in many chemical processes because it is exceptionally good at transporting charges. Researchers from the Department of Molecular Physics at the Fritz Haber Institute gained new molecular insights into this remarkable property of the small molecule. Their results are published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry A.

For the first time, a much younger version of the sun has been caught red-handed blowing bubbles in the galaxy by astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The bubble—called an "astrosphere"—completely surrounds the juvenile star. Winds from the star's surface are blowing up the bubble and filling it with hot gas as it expands into much cooler galactic gas and dust surrounding the star. The sun has a similar bubble around it, which scientists call the heliosphere, created by the solar wind. It extends far beyond the planets in our solar system and protects Earth from damaging particles from interstellar space.

A 13-year study led by the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz reveals why a deadly parasitic infection targeted for elimination in China persisted in some areas even after decades of control. The research, which used artificial intelligence (AI) and classic "shoe-leather" investigations, investigated some of the last pockets of disease in the country. The study is published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

A research team led by Professor Taesung Kim from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University has developed a technology that precisely controls the internal structure of semiconductors using heat, much like stamping out "bungeoppang" (fish-shaped pastry) in a mold. The team report that this approach improves the performance of next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) hardware. With this technology, complex AI computations can be processed more quickly using significantly less electricity than before. The findings are published in the journal ACS Nano.

Every day in health clinics across the country, bilingual employees step into exam rooms to help patients and providers understand one another. They translate symptoms, questions, fears and instructions—often without any formal training. These moments can shape the outcome of a visit, yet the nation's interpreter shortage shows no sign of slowing.

Reducing social contact is widely understood to slow disease spread, but because there is no personal health benefit gained from self-isolating, this would seem to require some concern for others. But how much do you have to care about others before you would choose to self-isolate when sick? Even people who are only barely altruistic still choose to self-isolate when infected, suggesting it may be a natural survival strategy, finds a new University of Warwick-led study.

Researchers at Stanford University, in collaboration with scientists at the German Cancer Institute, have shown for the first time that shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging can be used to visualize injectable filler materials during injection laryngoplasty, a common procedure used to treat vocal fold paralysis and other forms of glottic insufficiency. The findings, published in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, of this novel visualization technique could pave the way for precision-guided techniques in laryngeal surgery.

Using machine learning, an electronic nose can "smell" early signs of ovarian cancer in the blood. The method is precise and, according to the LiU researchers behind the study, it could eventually be used to find many different cancers. The study is published in Advanced Intelligent Systems.

Large language models (LLMs) are dealing with an increasing amount of morally sensitive information as people turn to them for medical advice, companionship and therapy. However, they are not exactly known for possessing a moral compass.

AI users and developers can now measure the amount of electricity various AI models consume to complete tasks with an open-source software and online leaderboard developed at the University of Michigan. Companies can download the software to evaluate private models run on private hardware. And while the software can't evaluate the energy costs of queries run on proprietary AI models at private data centers, it has allowed University of Michigan engineers to measure the power used by open-weight AI models in which the parameters under the hood are publicly available.

As marijuana legalization expands across the U.S., it is outpacing research on the impact of cannabis use behind the wheel. Researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) recently spent two years collecting real-world driving data from cannabis users to help fill in the gaps.

Superhydrophobic surfaces—those famously "never-wet" materials that make water bead up and roll away—have a stubborn weakness: hot water. Once temperatures climb above roughly 40 degrees Celsius, many superhydrophobic coatings abruptly lose their magic. Instead of skittering off, hot droplets start sticking, soaking into the surface texture and leaving behind wet patches and residue.

In everyday life, designing spaces that both let air flow and absorb sound can be a tricky balancing act. Usually, materials that allow air to pass through—like vents—also let sound escape, making it hard to reduce noise effectively. Conversely, sound-absorbing materials like foam often block airflow, limiting their use in ventilated areas.

New software, developed by the University of Sheffield spin-out AENi aims to transform how the world's essential net-zero infrastructure is planned. The new digital platform will help the organizations shaping the world's critical net-zero infrastructure to de-risk projects and accelerate delivery.

Hydrogen fuel is a promising alternative to fossil fuels that only emits water vapor when used and could thus help to lower greenhouse gas emissions on Earth. In the future, it could potentially be used to fuel heavy-duty transport vehicles, such as trucks, trains, and ships, as well as industrial heating and decentralized power generation systems.

A paper written by University of Florida Computer & Information Science & Engineering, or CISE, Professor Sumit Kumar Jha, Ph.D., contains so many science fiction terms, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a Hollywood script: Nullspace steering. Red teaming. Jailbreaking the matrix. But Jha's work is decidedly focused on real life, most notably strengthening the security measures built into AI tools to ensure they are safe for all to use.

Online chat service Discord has announced it will begin testing age verification for some users, joining a growing list of platforms trying to work out who is actually behind the screen.

Globally, nearly 7,000 coal mines, more than 2,400 coal-fired power plants and hundreds of coal rail networks, trucks and port terminals all make up the world's coal industry. When coal is phased out and green energy phased in, these coal assets can either be abandoned or turned into something that is useful for communities.

Eyes are said to be the mirror of the soul. Eyes and gaze direction guide attention, evoke emotions and activate the brain's social perception mechanisms. Researchers at Tampere University and the University of Bremen conducted a study examining how people perceive the minds of humanoid robots. Mind perception refers to the way humans detect and infer that other people, beings or even objects possess consciousness, emotions and cognitive states.

When you turn on a faucet, charge an electric vehicle or use products made with clean hydrogen, you may not realize that membranes—ultrathin films perforated with pores too small to see—make these modern processes possible. They purify water, recover valuable minerals and help power emerging clean-energy technologies. But despite their enormous importance, researchers still don't fully understand how water and ions move through these films at the molecular level.

Just like each person has unique fingerprints, every CMOS chip has a distinctive "fingerprint" caused by tiny, random manufacturing variations. Engineers can leverage this unforgeable ID for authentication, to safeguard a device from attackers trying to steal private data.

Origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, has received considerable attention in engineering. By applying paper-folding principles, researchers have created compact structures that are flexible, lightweight, and reconfigurable across aerospace, medicine, and robotics.

A team of EPFL researchers has developed an AI algorithm that can model complex dynamical processes while taking into account the laws of physics—using Newton's third law. Their research is published in the journal Nature Communications.