The boss of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the public body which spends 8bn of taxpayer money each year on research and innovation in the UK, has warned the organisation faces "hard decisions" on funding future projects. In an open letter, Ian Chapman said the government had told it to "focus and do fewer things better", which "will result in negative outcomes for some".
Aspiring Starlink competitor Logos Space Services has secured FCC clearance to launch more than 4,000 broadband satellites into low Earth orbit by 2035, as reported by . Under FCC regulations, the company must deploy half of the approved amount within the next seven years. The company is headed by its founder, Milo Medin, a former project manager at NASA as well as a former vice president of wireless services at Google.
Her team's analysis of the residue samples contained beeswax, plant oils, animal fats, bitumen, and resins from coniferous trees such as pines and larches, as well as vanilla-scented coumarin (found in cinnamon and pea plants) and benzoic acid (common in fragrant resins and gums derived from trees and shrubs). The resulting fragrance combined a "strong pine-like woody scent of the confers," per Huber, mixed in with "a sweeter undertone of the beeswax" and "the strong smoky scent of the bitumen."
Analogue quantum simulations are a useful tool for investigating these systems, particularly in regimes in which the applicability of numerical techniques is limited. For different simulator platforms, figures of merit include the electron bandwidth and interaction strength, temperature and the number of simulated lattice sites. Their use is further underscored by the ability to realize distinct lattice geometries, on-site degrees of freedom and by the physical observables that are accessible to experimental measurement.
In fact, Stawicki was on a mission to save the lives of around 1,000 zebrafish ( Danio rerio) in her laboratory. Similarities between lines of hair cells on the fish's flanks and those in the mammalian inner ear enable her to use them as a model to study hearing problems in humans caused by some antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs. A sensor had picked up that the lab's heating system had been knocked out by a power fault.
For years, scientists have viewed cancer as a localized glitch in which cells refuse to stop dividing. But a new study suggests that, in certain organs, tumors actively communicate with the brain to trick it into protecting them. Scientists have long known that nerves grow into some tumors and that tumors containing lots of nerves usually lead to a worse prognosis.
These scraps of continental crust are found in the middle of oceans, sometimes hundreds of miles from the nearest continent. Scientists have been mystified for decades by how they came to be there; the fragments were even used as an argument against plate tectonics, says Joao Duarte, a geologist at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. But a recent study in Nature Geoscience suggests that these misplaced fragments fit just fine within our understanding of plate tectonics and actually
Watching the Winter Olympics is an adrenaline rush as athletes fly down snow-covered ski slopes, luge tracks and over the ice at breakneck speeds and with grace. When the first Olympic Winter Games were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924, all 16 events took place outdoors. The athletes relied on natural snow for ski runs and freezing temperatures for ice rinks.
It might sound like an exaggeration, but it's not: beer played an indirect but crucial role in the birth of modern surgery. Not because it held the key to cures, nor because anyone drank it in an operating room, but because it was one of the first products in which science observed something previously invisible. That something germs would forever change how we understand fermentation, food and also human infections.
Growing up outside Manchester, I spent countless summer holidays at my grandparents' farm in the Yorkshire Dales. My grandfather would step outside each morning, scan the sky, and announce with absolute certainty what the weather would do that day. No smartphone apps, no weather channel, just decades of observation. I used to think it was nonsense. How could watching birds or looking at clouds possibly compete with satellite technology? But here's the thing: he was almost always right.
Exposure to cytosolic DNA triggers innate immune responses through cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) synthase (cGAS)1,2,3. After binding to DNA, cGAS produces cGAMP as a second messenger that binds to stimulator of interferon genes (STING), a signalling adaptor protein anchored to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)3,4,5. STING then traffics from the ER through the Golgi to perinuclear vesicle clusters, which leads to activation of the kinases TBK1 and IKK and subsequent induction of interferons and other cytokines6,7,8,9.
Each time we've looked at the Universe in a fundamentally new way, we didn't just see more of what we already knew what was out there. In addition, those novel capabilities allowed the Universe to surprise us, breaking records, revolutionizing our view of what was out there, and teaching us information that we never could have learned without collecting that key data.
Attia had been prominently showcased as one of three members of Eight Sleep's scientific advisory board, a post he had held since May 14, 2024. His photo no longer appears as part of the panel on the company homepage. Company officials and Attia did not respond to requests for comment. It's not clear exactly when his name and photo were removed, but the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows they were there as recently as January 22.
The scrape of a fork against a plate. The crunch of someone biting into an apple during a meeting. That wet, rhythmic sound of chewing with an open mouth. If reading these descriptions made you physically uncomfortable or even angry, you're not alone. And here's what might surprise you: that visceral reaction to everyday sounds could be a sign of a broader sensory sensitivity that shapes how you experience the entire world around you.
By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Pierre-Louis: It's so magnificent you can taste it. If you are someone's annoying brother, you've probably summoned a burp and unleashed it on your sibling's face at least once. But Paras Dhama can't relate to any of that. Paras Dhama: Because [Laughs] I can't burp. And for as long as I can remember, I could never burp.
Heat shields are crucial: when spacecraft reenter Earth's atmosphere, they heat up, burning through the sky like a shooting star. Without a protective layer, any living thing inside a returning spacecraft would be exposed to temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the sun, or 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). In Orion's case, the heat shield is made of Avcoatthe same material that protected the Apollo capsules, with a key structural difference.
In the US, nearly half of adults are single. A quarter of men suffer from loneliness. Rates of depression are on the rise. And one in four Gen Z adults-the so-called kinkiest generation, according to one study -have never had partnered sex. In an age of endless connection, where hooking up happens with the ease of a swipe and nontraditional relationship structures like polyamory are celebrated, why are people seemingly so disconnected and alone?
Veteran NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned from his 220-day mission on board the International Space Station in April 2025, the day of his 70th birthday, making him the oldest active astronaut on the space agency's roster. During his seven-month stint on board the aging orbital outpost, his fourth trip to space, Pettit took the time to photograph some dazzling views of the Earth below.
Even in England, where the recent developments of paleontological botany have opened up new lines of research among the plants of the coal measures, the zeal of the followers of Scott and F. W. Oliver has led to the commercial exploitation of a coal mine in Lancashire where fine specimens of Lyginodendron, the Cycadofilicales, and the fossil seeds of the earlier tree ferns are to be found in abundance.
The record-breaking Falcons Flight roller coaster starts out slow, but don't be fooled. Seconds into the ride at the new Six Flags Qiddiya City in Saudi Arabia, passengers are jolted into a high-speed journey that ascends mountainsides, passes through dark tunnels, and then does it all over again. The ride reaches a height of nearly 640 feet, lasts for nearly 3.5 minutes, and travels more than 2.6 miles.
It was a bonnie morning 410 million years ago in what are now the Rhynie chert fossil beds in Scotland. The mists had begun to lift and swirl over the landscape, where hot springs burbled, lichen papered over rocks, and worms slithered as only worms can. Here, almost all life stayed close to the ground. The second-tallest organism at the time, a plant called , grew to a few centimeters at most.
