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Discover Mag
- Some Fig Trees Can Turn CO2 Into Stone — A Hidden Talent That Could Combat Climate Change
Some Fig Trees Can Turn CO2 Into Stone — A Hidden Talent That Could Combat Climate Change
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Discover Mag
- Get Ready for the 2025 Buck Moon — The Farthest Full Moon from the Sun and the First of the Summer
Get Ready for the 2025 Buck Moon — The Farthest Full Moon from the Sun and the First of the Summer
Neanderthals May Have Ran Their Own Fat Factories 125,000 Years Ago
Dinosaur Blood Vessels Discovered Inside 66-Million-Year-Old T. rex Ribs
Cooperation and consolidation: reshaping Europe’s space industry to last

Despite its inclusion in the official French name — le Salon International de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace — the Paris Air Show traditionally has not highlighted space in its panels or exhibitions. The focus of the event has stayed on commercial and military aviation as companies showed off aircraft and announced new orders. This year’s […]
The post Cooperation and consolidation: reshaping Europe’s space industry to last appeared first on SpaceNews.
Climate Change Threatens Global Milk Supply, Even On Cooled Dairy Farms
Comprehensive look at U.S. children’s health finds ‘steady decline’
Why Jolly Ranchers Are Banned in the UK but Not the US
Chinese scientists propose 2033 Neptune orbiter mission

Scientists are proposing China’s first ice giant mission, aiming to launch a radioisotope-powered spacecraft to orbit Neptune and study its enigmatic moon Triton.
The post Chinese scientists propose 2033 Neptune orbiter mission appeared first on SpaceNews.
New ‘telescope-microscope’ detects extremely low levels of light
A new microscope inspired by the design of Keplerian telescopes produces much sharper images from luminescence from biological cells than was possible with previous devices. Dubbed the “QIScope” by its creators, the device’s highly sensitive camera can detect extremely low levels of light and could be used to observe delicate biostructures in greater detail and over longer periods of time without damaging them.
Many organisms naturally produce light via special enzymes in their cells. Although most such bioluminescent creatures are found in the ocean – think of anglerfish and firefly squid – there are also examples of terrestrial bioluminescent organisms, including bacteria and molluscs.
For researchers in life sciences, harnessing this light is an attractive alternative to imaging organisms using fluorescence. This is because it does not rely on strong external illumination, which can damage cells or interfere with the subtle signals they produce. The downside is that bioluminescence is feeble by comparison, so using it produces relatively low-resolution images.
Researchers led by Jian Cui of Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich, Germany, have now used a new detector technology called a quantum image sensor (QIS) to improve the resolution of bioluminescence imaging. By integrating this sensor into an unconventional optical microscope design, they increased the number of photons per pixel without sacrificing spatial resolution or field-of-view (FOV), as previous bioluminescence microscopes did.
“Telescope-within-a-microscope”
To avoid this restriction, which is known as vignetting, Cui explains that the team separated the two lenses and inserted a Keplerian telescope between them. “This ‘telescope-within-a-microscope’ reshapes the output of the objective lens to match the width of the tube lens’ back aperture,” he says.
The resulting “QIScope”, as the researchers call it, substantially reduces the size of the image while still capturing the full FOV. The result: an instrument with a higher signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution, leading to crisper images than was possible before.
“New detector technologies are being developed all the time and some of them are very impressive,” Cui says. “However, we shouldn’t think about simply putting cameras on microscopes – sometimes you need to design the microscope around the properties of the camera. And this is what we have done.”
The researchers, who detail their work in Nature Methods, hope it will spur more interest in bioluminescence as an imaging tool. “There is a lot of untapped potential here and it could have advantages for certain applications such as studying photosensitive samples or low-abundance proteins,” Cui tells Physics World. “It could be used to study a range of biological systems – from single cells to organoids and tissue models. And since it can be used for long periods, it could reveal subtle and long-term changes in cell behaviour, so supporting progress in diverse research areas, including cell biology, disease modelling and drug discovery.”
The post New ‘telescope-microscope’ detects extremely low levels of light appeared first on Physics World.
Trump says it would have been “inappropriate” for Isaacman to lead NASA

President Donald Trump says it would have been “inappropriate” for Jared Isaacman to lead NASA given his ties to Elon Musk and history of political donations.
The post Trump says it would have been “inappropriate” for Isaacman to lead NASA appeared first on SpaceNews.
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Wired
- On Mexico’s Caribbean Coast, There’s Lobster for the Tourists and Microplastics for Everyone Else
On Mexico’s Caribbean Coast, There’s Lobster for the Tourists and Microplastics for Everyone Else
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SpaceNews
- U.S. Air Force halts plan for rocket landing pads on remote Pacific atoll amid environmental backlash
U.S. Air Force halts plan for rocket landing pads on remote Pacific atoll amid environmental backlash

The pads were intended to support the Air Force’s Rocket Cargo program
The post U.S. Air Force halts plan for rocket landing pads on remote Pacific atoll amid environmental backlash appeared first on SpaceNews.
Space Force scraps satellite procurement, shifts to more flexible strategy

The canceled program, known as Protected Tactical Satellite Communication-Resilient (PTS-R), was launched in 2020 to build anti-jam communications satellites
The post Space Force scraps satellite procurement, shifts to more flexible strategy appeared first on SpaceNews.
How the Binding of Two Brain Molecules Creates Memories That Last a Lifetime
Meteorologists Say the National Weather Service Did Its Job in Texas
Rock Library Reveals the Mysteries of the Transantarctic Mountains
Is It Time to Stop Protecting the Grizzly Bear?
"Great" May Be Gone From the Name, But These 10 White Shark Facts Are Pretty Killer
Yellowstone Hot Springs Create Perfect Environment for Ancient Microbes
Could Yellowstone National Park Visitors See New Thermal Feature Again This Summer?
Ancient Scottish Salamander is 14 Million Years Older Than Previously Thought
Boeing lands $2.8 billion deal to build next-gen nuclear communications satellites

The ESS satellites are central to U.S. nuclear command, control and communications
The post Boeing lands $2.8 billion deal to build next-gen nuclear communications satellites appeared first on SpaceNews.
Vampire bats’ mutual grooming helps spread innovative rabies vaccine
Vilnius University physicist creates micrometre-sized model of the Sorbonne Chapel
A physicist from Vilnius University in Lithuania has created a 3D-printed replica of the Sorbonne Chapel so small it fits on a human hair.
Located in Paris’s Latin Quarter, the Chapel of Sainte-Ursule de la Sorbonne is a Roman Catholic chapel and was constructed in the seventeenth century.
To create the structure, Gordon Zyla, who carries out research in light technologies at Vilnius’s Laser Research Centre, used a laser nanofabrication technique known as multiphoton 3D lithography.
“Unlike conventional 3D printing, this approach can solidify a light-sensitive material at virtually any point in space, enabling the fabrication of truly three-dimensional structures,” notes Zyla.
The length of the finished product is approximately 120 micrometres long, being 275 000 times smaller than the original yet still preserving its architectural details.
Late last week, the model was presented as a symbolic gift to Sorbonne University president Nathalie Drach-Temam during a visit to Vilnius.
The post Vilnius University physicist creates micrometre-sized model of the Sorbonne Chapel appeared first on Physics World.
The EU Proposes New Rules to Govern the European Space Race
Electric field treatment restores movement to rats with spinal injuries
Damage to the spinal cord can disrupt communication between the brain and body, with potentially devastating effects. Spinal cord injuries can cause permanent loss of sensory, motor and autonomic functions, or even paralysis, and there’s currently no cure. To address this inadequacy, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the University of Auckland in New Zealand have developed an ultrathin bioelectric implant that improved movement in rats with spinal cord injuries.
The implant works by delivering a low-frequency pulsed electric field (EF) across the injury site – an approach that shows promise in promoting regeneration of axons (nerve fibres) and improving outcomes. Traditional EF treatments, however, rely on metal electrodes that are prone to corrosion. In this latest study, described in Nature Communications, the researchers fabricated stimulation electrodes from sputtered iridium oxide films (SIROF), which exhibit superior durability and stability to their metal counterparts.
The team further enhanced the EF treatment by placing the electrodes directly on the spinal cord to deliver stimulation directly to the injury site. Although this subdural positioning requires more invasive surgery than the epidural placement used previously, it should deliver stronger stimulation while using an order of magnitude less power than epidural electrodes.
“We chose subdural stimulation because it avoids the shunting effect of cerebrospinal fluid, which is highly conductive and can weaken the electric field when electrodes are placed epidurally,” explains co-lead researcher Lukas Matter from Chalmers University of Technology. “Subdural placement puts the electrodes directly on the spinal cord, allowing for stronger and more precise stimulation with lower current.”
Restoring motion and sensation
Matter and collaborators tested the implants in rats with spinal cord injuries, using 200 μm diameter SIROF electrodes placed on either side of the injury site. The animals received 1 h of EF treatment daily for the first 7–11 days, and then on weekdays only for up to 12 weeks.
To compare EF treatment with natural healing (unlike humans, rats can recover after spinal cord injury), the researchers assessed the hind-limb function of both treated and non-treated rats. They found that during the first week, the non-treated group recovered faster than the treated group. From week 4 onwards, however, treated rats showed significantly improved locomotion and coordination compared with non-treated rats, indicating greater recovery of hind-limb function.
The treated rats continued to improve until the end of the study (week 12), while non-treated rats showed no further improvement after week 5. At week 12, all of the treated animals exhibited consistent coordination between front and hind limbs, compared with only 20% of non-treated rats, which struggled to move smoothly.
The team also assessed the recovery of mechanical sensation by touching the animals’ paws with a metal filament. Treated rats withdrew their paws faster than non-treated rats, suggesting a recovery of touch sensitivity – though the researchers note that this may reflect hypersensitivity.
“This indicates that the treatment supported recovery of both movement and sensation,” says co-lead researcher Bruce Harland from the University of Auckland in a press statement. “Just as importantly, our analysis confirmed that the treatment did not cause inflammation or other damage to the spinal cord, demonstrating that it was not only effective but also safe.”
Durable design
To confirm the superior stability of SIROF electrodes, the researchers performed benchtop tests mimicking the in vivo treatment. The SIROF electrodes showed no signs of dysfunction or delamination, while platinum electrodes corroded and failed.
“Platinum electrodes are prone to degradation over time, especially at high charge densities, due to irreversible electrochemical reactions that cause corrosion and delamination, ultimately compromising their long-term stability,” says Matter. “SIROF enables reversible charge injection through surface-bound oxidation states, minimizing the generation of potentially toxic stimulation byproducts and enhancing their stimulation capabilities.”
In contrast with previous studies, the researchers did not see any change in axon density around the lesion site. Matter suggests some possible reasons for this finding: “The 12-week time point may have been too late to capture early signs of regeneration. The injury itself created a large cystic cavity, which may have blocked axon growth. Also, electric field treatment might improve recovery through protective or alternative mechanisms, not necessarily by promoting new axon growth”.
The researchers are now developing an enhanced version of the implant with larger electrodes based on the conductive polymer PEDOT, which enables higher charge densities without compromising biocompatibility. This will allow them to assess a broader range of field strengths and pulse durations in order to determine the optimal treatment conditions. They also plan to test the implant in larger animal models, and hope to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the locomotion improvement using ex vivo models.
As for the possibility of future clinical implementation, senior author Maria Asplund of Chalmers University envisions a temporary, possibly biodegradable, subdural implant that safely delivers low-frequency EF therapy. “This could be implanted early after spinal cord injury to support axon regrowth and reduce the follow-up damage that occurs after the injury itself,” she tells Physics World.
The post Electric field treatment restores movement to rats with spinal injuries appeared first on Physics World.
Mysterious seismic wave speed-up deep within Earth’s mantle explained at last
Scientists in Switzerland and Japan have uncovered what they say is the first direct evidence that materials at the bottom of the Earth’s mantle flow like a massive river. This literally “ground-breaking” finding, made by comparing seismic data with laboratory studies of materials at high pressures and temperatures, could reshape our understanding of the dynamics at play deep within our planet’s interior.
For over half a century, one of the greatest unresolved mysteries in geosciences has been a phenomenon that occurs just above the boundary where the Earth’s solid mantle meets its liquid core, says Motohiko Murakami, a geophysicist at ETH Zurich who led the new research effort. Within this so-called D” layer, the velocity of seismic waves passing through the mantle abruptly increases, and no-one is entirely sure why.
This increase is known as the D” discontinuity, and one possible explanation for it is a change in the material the waves are travelling through. Indeed, in 2004, Murakami and colleagues at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s department of earth and planetary sciences suspected they’d uncovered an explanation along just these lines.
In this earlier study, the researchers showed that perovskite – the main mineral present in the Earth’s lower mantle – transforms into a different substance known as post-perovskite under the extreme pressures and temperatures characteristic of the D” layer. Accordingly, they hypothesized that this phase change could explain the jump in the speed of seismic waves.
Nature, however, had other ideas. “In an experimental study on seismic wave speeds across the post-perovskite phase transition we conducted three years later, such a sharp increase in velocity was not observed, bringing the problem back to square one,” Murakami says.
Post-perovskite crystals line up
Subsequent computer modelling revealed a subtler effect at play. According to these models, the hardness of post-perovskite materials is not fixed. Instead, it depends on the direction of the material’s crystals – and seismic waves through the material will only speed up when all the crystals point in the same direction.
In the new work, which they detail in Communications Earth & Environment, Murakami and colleagues at Tohoku University and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute confirmed this in a laboratory experiment for the first time. They obtained their results by placing crystals of a post-perovskite with the chemical formula MgGeO3 in a special apparatus designed to replicate the extreme pressures (around 1 million atmospheres) and temperatures (around 2500 K) found at the D” depth nearly 3000 km below the Earth’s surface. They then measured the velocity of lab-produced seismic waves sent through this material.
These measurements show that while randomly-oriented crystal samples do not reproduce the shear wave velocity jump at the D” discontinuity, crystals oriented along the (001) slip plane of the material’s lattice do. But what could make these crystals line up?
Evidence of a moving mantle
The answer, Murakami says, lies in slow, convective motions that cause the lower mantle to move at a rate of several centimetres per year. “This convection drives plate tectonics, volcanic activity and earthquakes but its effects have primarily been studied in the shallower region of the mantle,” he explains. “And until now, direct evidence of material movement in the deep mantle, nearly 3000 km beneath the surface, has remained elusive.”
Murakami explains that the post-perovskite mineral is rigid in one direction while being softer in others. “Since it naturally aligns its harder axis with the mantle flow, it effectively creates a structured arrangement at the base of the mantle,” he says.
According to Murakami, the discovery that solid (and not liquid) rock flows at this depth does more than just solve the D” layer mystery. It could also become a critical tool for identifying the locations at which large-scale mantle upwellings, or superplumes, originate. This, in turn, could provide new insights into Earth’s internal dynamics.
Building on these findings, the researchers say they now plan to further investigate the causes of superplume formation. “Superplumes are believed to trigger massive volcanic eruptions at the Earth’s surface, and their activity has shown a striking correlation — occurring just before two major mass extinction events in Earth’s history,” Murakami says.
Being able to understand – and perhaps even predict – future superplume activity could therefore “provide critical insights into the long-term survival of humanity”, he tells Physics World. “Such deep mantle processes may have profound implications for global environmental stability,” he says. “By advancing this research, we aim to uncover the mechanisms driving these extraordinary mantle events and assess their potential impact on Earth’s future.”
The post Mysterious seismic wave speed-up deep within Earth’s mantle explained at last appeared first on Physics World.
Congress passes budget reconciliation bill with $10 billion for NASA

Congress approved a budget reconciliation bill that includes nearly $10 billion for NASA human spaceflight programs and could also lead to the transfer of a space shuttle to Houston.
The post Congress passes budget reconciliation bill with $10 billion for NASA appeared first on SpaceNews.
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Science Magazine
- Journal plagued with problematic papers, likely from paper mills, pauses submissions
Journal plagued with problematic papers, likely from paper mills, pauses submissions
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Science Magazine
- NIH restores grants to South Africa scientists, adds funding option for other halted foreign projects
NIH restores grants to South Africa scientists, adds funding option for other halted foreign projects
China launches first classified Shiyan-28B experimental satellite

China sent a new satellite into orbit for its experimental Shiyan series Thursday with a launch from the country’s southwest.
The post China launches first classified Shiyan-28B experimental satellite appeared first on SpaceNews.
Your Microbiome May Absorb PFAS, Protecting You From The Harms of ‘Forever Chemicals’
3D-Printed Insects Help Scientists Unlock the Secrets of Animal Mimicry
Ancient Humans Carved Up Elephant Meat with Small, Yet Sophisticated Stone Tools
Ancient wooden tools show human ancestors ate their veggies
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Science Magazine
- Genetic evidence that our brains make new neurons in adulthood may close a century-old debate
Genetic evidence that our brains make new neurons in adulthood may close a century-old debate
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Leave Millions Without Health Insurance
The business case for the moon

In this week’s episode of Space Minds we bring you a special panel discussion on the future of commercial lunar exploration which was recorded live during the build-up to a historic moon landing.
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