A study in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry found that mixing processed sewage effluent from NASA's BLiSS system with simulated lunar and Martian regolith released key plant nutrients and physically weathered the sharp mineral particles - preliminary steps toward extraterrestrial crop growth.

When standard AI benchmarks became too easy, nearly 1,000 researchers built Humanity's Last Exam: 2,500 questions from expert-level fields where any question AI could answer was eliminated. GPT-4o scored 2.7%; the best current models reach around 40-50%.

UC Santa Barbara researchers used first-principles simulations to identify the CN center - a carbon-nitrogen defect in silicon - as a structurally stable, hydrogen-free qubit that emits light in the telecom band, making it compatible with existing optical fiber infrastructure and chip manufacturing.

University of Florida paleontologists trained AI image classifiers on thousands of shark tooth photographs from six Neogene species, finding that accuracy plateaued above 90 percent at around 250 specimens per species - far fewer than expected and enough to make AI classification practical for fossil collections.

Japanese researchers at Shinshu University and Kaneka Corporation overexpressed a single enzyme in a modified bacterium to produce a lactate-enriched biodegradable polyester reaching 68 g/L titer - a record for this material - with strength and flexibility comparable to conventional polyethylene.

MIT researchers built 3D vascular networks from Rett syndrome patient stem cells and found that two different MECP2 mutations both led to overexpression of miRNA-126-3p, causing blood vessel leakiness. Blocking the microRNA with an antisense molecule partially restored barrier function.

A team from JAX, the Broad Institute, and Yale used massively parallel reporter assays to test 220,000+ DNA variants across five cell types simultaneously, identifying 13,000 that regulate gene expression - and finding that 11 percent behave differently when combined with nearby variants.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory researcher Benjamin Cowley compressed a large AI model trained on macaque visual cortex data to 1/1000th its size. The tiny model remained accurate and became interpretable - revealing neurons that specialize in detecting specific visual features like dots and edges.

A JAMA Surgery study found that opening a trauma center in a Chicago neighborhood with high rates of violent injury and limited trauma access was associated with significantly reduced firearm mortality in the surrounding service area, supporting geography-conscious trauma system planning.

A global study published in JAMA found marked variation in radiation doses delivered during coronary artery disease diagnostic imaging, identifying training gaps, equipment disparities, and protocol differences as key drivers - with low-income countries and CT angiography patients most affected.

As climate change drives more frequent and severe heat waves, pregnant individuals face increasing health risks from ambient heat. A JAMA review summarizes current evidence on maternal heat exposure risks and evidence-based management strategies.

A study of donated brain tissue from five groups - including superagers with exceptional memory and Alzheimer's patients - found neurogenesis rates varied dramatically. Superagers showed the most robust new neuron growth; Alzheimer's patients showed negligible new growth.

A mouse study from Mount Sinai and Weill Cornell found that dendritic cells in young skin are inherently more reactive to allergens than adult counterparts. The work identifies a developmental window that may explain why eczema - affecting one in four children - so often begins in early life.

By compressing a large AI vision model to 1/1000th its original size, researchers found the compact version still predicted macaque visual cortex responses with high accuracy - and became interpretable enough to reveal how individual neurons encode edges, colors, and object features.

Caltech researchers used cryo-EM to show that three unrelated bacteriophage proteins independently evolved to disable MurJ - the same bacterial flippase - by locking it in the same structural position. The finding points to a druggable target in the bacterial cell wall pathway.

A survey of 800+ Pacific coral samples identified 645 microbial species - 99% previously unknown - with biosynthetic potential exceeding the entire open ocean microbiome. Half of all coral populations have vanished since the 1950s, taking these compounds with them.

Charles Manski receives the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics for developing partial identification methods that replace false certainty with honest uncertainty ranges in policy analysis.

Walter Koroshetz, MD, who directed the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and led the US BRAIN Initiative, has joined the Dana Foundation as senior advisor to guide science funding and support for early-career neuroscience scholars, effective March 1, 2026.

An editorial perspective published in Oncotarget reviews the current state of CAR-T cell therapy, highlighting clinical successes in blood cancers, the persistent challenge of solid tumors, and next-generation CAR designs including dual-targeting and switchable systems intended to address antigen escape and toxicity.

A UCSF survey of nearly 150 clinicians and informatics leaders across US health systems found that only 44% ask patients whether they can use digital health tools, with just one-third of safety-net institutions doing so, while nearly half of those who do screen patients lack the resources to help them access the tools.

Analysis of 740 endometrial polyp cases found a 4% malignancy rate and a 2% premalignancy rate, with malignant polyps strongly associated with advanced age and malignant background endometrium. Neither polyp size nor recurrence was a reliable predictor of cancer risk.

Gibson Oncology has entered Phase 2 clinical trials for LMP744, a small molecule that inhibits topoisomerase 1 and reduces cMYC overexpression, targeting first-time recurrent glioblastoma patients after Phase 1 results showed tumor reduction in 5% and disease stabilization in 35% of heavily pretreated cancer patients.

Researchers at Nagoya University developed an iron-based photocatalyst that reduces costly chiral ligand use by two-thirds compared to their previous design, enabling asymmetric synthesis under blue LED illumination and completing the total synthesis of the natural compound heitziamide A without ruthenium or iridium.

A Norwegian study of 470 adults who attributed chronic, persistent symptoms to tick bites found no objective laboratory evidence of ongoing tick-borne infection, though participants reported severe fatigue, mental health problems, and significantly reduced work capacity. The study also estimated that 0.12% of Norwegian adults make this attribution.

University of Birmingham computer scientists have developed SynapTrack, a blockchain money laundering detection system that demonstrated 98% accuracy tracing funds from the 2025 Bybit hack, addressing the 40% false positive rate that burdens conventional anti-money laundering systems.