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E11EVEN Expands Its Signature Entertainment Experience Across Miami, Toronto, and New York During this Summer's Fútbol Tournament
/PRNewswire/ -- Globally recognized for redefining nightlife through its one-of-a-kind 24/7 ultraclub format, E11EVEN Miami will expand its cultural footprint...
Neural representation of action symbols in primate frontal cortex
Nature - A drawing-like task designed to study compositional generalization identifies a specific neural population in the ventral premotor cortex in primates that encodes action symbols.
Scientists solve 200-year-old puzzle of how tobacco plants make nicotine
Scientists have uncovered how tobacco plants naturally make nicotine, solving a mystery that has puzzled researchers for nearly two centuries. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, could ...
Scientists were wrong about this “rule-breaking” particle
Scientists spent decades chasing signs of a mysterious new force hidden inside the muon, one of nature’s strangest particles. But after years of supercomputer calculations, researchers discovered the apparent anomaly was likely a calculation error — and the Standard Model still reigns supreme.
Baking soda & vinegar volcanoes with Mad Science of Austin & SA
Modeling context-dependent RNA splicing by deep learning
Nature Computational Science - A framework called HELIX provides a strategy for predicting full-length transcript isoform usage across diverse biological contexts by integrating sequence features...
Photoinduced radical emission from flexible organic crystals
Light: Science & Applications - Photoinduced radical doping strategy enables blue luminescence and elastic bending (>180°) in organic crystals. Confined oxygen radicals and dynamic...
The Nature of Political Art - College of the Atlantic
MuMultimedia artist N.B. Aldrich discusses the intersection of art and politics.
MoMI announces the 2026 season of 'Open Worlds: Science' Programs
With themes ranging from walking for brain health, infinity day, NYC wildlife, and more May–October 2026 Astoria, New York, May 18, 2026 — The wildlife of New York City, walking and brain health, the nature of infinity, and alien encounters are some of the subjects explored in the second season of Open Worlds: Science, science-focused programs presented as part of Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI)’s free Open Worlds initiative. Running through October, Open Worlds: Science features scientist-led talks, screenings, and hands-on activities that all relate to science and the moving image to help illuminate and excite visitors of all ages about the ways science affects daily life.
New MatterChat Model Helps AI to ‘See’ the Language of Science
From writing emails to generating computer code, much of the artificial intelligence prevalent in our daily lives has succeeded by mastering one domain: text. However, this leaves a major blind spot in the physical sciences, where models depend on the high-resolution, three-dimensional data of the physical world, like the intricate lattice of atoms in a crystal. Delivering on the promise of using AI for science requires teaching these data-driven text models to seamlessly “talk to” physics-based models. Now, a new AI framework from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), called MatterChat, solves this problem by creating a specialized “bridge.” It connects the conversational power of a Large Language Model (LLM) with a physics-based AI that models “interatomic potentials”: the complex physical forces between atoms. The resulting system already significantly outperforms general-purpose AI tools like GPT-4 at predicting material properties, and the team hopes it can accelerate scientific discovery by serving as a robust research partner that provides grounded insights and generates step-by-step instructions for synthesizing novel materials. A paper describing this work was recently published in Nature Machine Intelligence. “Traditional simulations can provide the physical rigor required for materials science, yet their computational cost remains prohibitive for high-throughput screening. Conversely, while LLMs excel at rapid knowledge synthesis, they inherently lack the ‘structural vision’ to interpret materials directly from their underlying atomic coordinates,” said Yingheng Tang, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Applied Math and Computational Research Division (AMCR) and lead author on the paper. “MatterChat was built to solve this dilemma, empowering LLMs with a structural ‘vision’ that allows researchers to leverage their full potential for solving complex, real-world materials challenges.” Empowering language models to solve complex challenges in materials science To build MatterChat, the Berkeley Lab team drew inspiration from technologies like Vision Question Answering (VQA) and Text-to-Image (T2I) generation. In these tasks, AI must translate high-level text concepts into visual images, or vice versa. Doing so requires developers to build tools that “bridge” two fundamentally different forms of data. The researchers adapted this concept to the physical sciences. With MatterChat, they created a “bridge model” that successfully connects an LLM’s general knowledge with the deep understanding of the atomic-scale world encoded in scientific interatomic potentials. Until now, researchers using LLMs to solve materials problems usually had to feed them raw data files as if they were just strings of text. It’s like asking an AI to understand a complex 3D engine based only on a parts list: the LLM can read the names, but it can’t “see” how the atoms fit together in space. MatterChat solves this by training a specialized AI bridge model, pre-trained on millions of crystal structures and an LLM, to align the LLM’s representation of the world with the interatomic potential’s representation of the world. The bridge model can translate physical insights into a format the LLM can actually understand. By giving the LLM these “scientific eyes”— a scientific “inductive bias” in the terminology of AI — the Berkeley Lab team has transformed it into a robust research tool capable of providing grounded scientific insights into complex materials challenges, such as predicting thermal stability or analyzing electronic band gaps. “We think of atoms as living in a physical space, but from a machine learning perspective, they are just vectors living in some very non-trivially structured manifold in a high-dimensional Euclidean space; and, of course, the same is true for the sentences and paragraphs that we use to express our ideas about those atoms,” said co-author Michael Mahoney, Berkeley Lab’s Scientific Data Division (SDD) AI Initiative Research Lead. “The bridge model basically gets those two structures to ‘talk with’ each other.” As a proof-of-concept of this general approach, the team trained their bridge model on a dataset curated by pairing nearly 143,000 stable atomic structures from the Materials Project with their corresponding physical properties. This training data was automatically assembled using the Materials Project’s API and deliberately enriched with properties fundamental to microelectronics design — like formation energy and bandgap — allowing MatterChat to learn the complex patterns connecting a material’s atomic blueprint to its functional performance. To validate their model, the researchers benchmarked MatterChat against a suite of other AI systems, from general-purpose LLMs to other specialized scientific AI methods. The results show that MatterChat consistently outperformed its competitors across a range of tasks. The model was more accurate in classifying material types and demonstrated superior precision in predicting numerical properties. For example, it excelled at predicting a material’s bandgap, a property critical for designing new electronics from high-capacity energy storage to next-generation computer chips. “Our design is significantly more efficient because we don’t have to build a massive AI model from the ground up,” said co-author Zhi (Jackie) Yao, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s AMCR. “Instead, we take two powerful, pre-trained models — a structural encoder for materials physics and an open-source LLM — and use them off-the-shelf. The only component we actually train is the lightweight ‘bridge model’ that translates between them. It’s the difference between building an entire car factory and simply designing a smart adapter that connects a world-class engine to a world-class navigation system. This approach is not only computationally efficient, but also makes the system modular, so we can easily upgrade components or adapt the bridge for other scientific domains in the future.” Crucially, this modular design highlights exactly how institutions like Berkeley Lab and the Department of Energy are carving out a highly valuable niche in the booming AI landscape. Rather than competing with Silicon Valley tech giants to build ever-larger language models from scratch, the lab is focusing on the specialized connective tissue that makes commercial AI useful for hardcore science. Because the bridge model approach underlying MatterChat is forward-compatible, it is perfectly positioned to leverage these parallel tracks of innovation. As Mahoney pointed out, “We expect that industry will continue to develop improved LLMs, and we expect domain scientists and facilities will continue to generate new data. An important part of scientific machine learning is not simply to solve problems on today’s data, but instead to develop general methods that will be forward-compatible with orders of magnitude more data, whether from scientific domains or from LLMs.” According to Yao, the MatterChat project, which was initially developed and enhanced with funding from a Berkeley Lab Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) Program, will now expand its capabilities. In a collaboration with Fermilab, MatterChat is already contributing to a U.S. Department of Energy Genesis Mission project — called Accelerating eXtreme Environment Specs-to-Silicon (AXESS) — that aims to speed up the development of next-generation, high-speed, radiation-hardened detectors for challenging particle physics experiments by using advanced 3D integrated circuits (chiplets) and AI-driven data analysis. In addition to the LDRD support, the team also credits supercomputing resources at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), located at Berkeley Lab, with MatterChat’s success. “We are incredibly grateful to NERSC; this research simply would not have happened without access to the Perlmutter supercomputer through their AI for Science program,” said Tang. Wenbin Xu, a NERSC postdoctoral fellow at the time, was also a major co-author of the work, as was Benjamin Erichson, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s SDD, highlighting the benefits of AMCR-SDD collaboration on AI for science. ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
Scientists discovered nature’s own “brakes” deep beneath the Pacific Ocean that may have prevented massive megaquakes
For decades, a strange patch of the Pacific Ocean has quietly puzzled earthquake scientists around the world. Deep beneath the seafloor, near the coast of Ecuador, a massive underwater fault has been producing almost identical earthquakes every five to six years.
Integrated sensing networks for One Health monitoring
Nature Sensors - This Perspective outlines an integrated sensing framework for One Health, linking human, animal and environmental monitoring through connected sensors and AI-driven data fusion to...
Phonon-polaritonic skyrmions: transition from bubble- to Néel-type
Light: Science & Applications - We demonstrate wavelength-tunable surface phonon-polariton skyrmions on silicon carbide membranes. Leveraging strong material dispersion, we experimentally...
Decoding chirality at the nanoscale with momentum-space polarimetry
Light: Science & Applications - Schematic illustration of Fourier-domain Mueller matrix polarimetry probing light-matter interactions in gammadion nanostructures, and enabling extraction of...
Spaceborne snapshot compressive hyperspectral imaging
Light: Science & Applications - We propose and complete the world’s first computational imaging-enabled compact spaceborne snapshot compressive hyperspectral payload, named...
Nature is good for business – and we now have numbers to show it
A New Zealand-focused analysis finds businesses in areas with healthier ecosystems tend to generate higher sales and profits, revealing an overlooked green benefit.
Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon26) Media Tips 2: Technosignatures, Life in Space, Existential Questions, Robot Explorers
The 2026 Astrobiology Science Conference hosted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) will convene next week
God, The Science, The Evidence: The Dawn of a Revolution
In effect, therefore, this book is a call for a return to the medieval vision of a rational God who created rational creatures equipped to discover the verities of nature. In other words…
Researchers built a switch 1,000 times faster than today's AI chips, and it barely generates any heat
The research, which was published in Science earlier this week, builds on another study published in Nature in January 2025. It demonstrates a new way to flip...
Bishop Museum of Science and Nature welcomes manatees | FOX 13 Tampa Bay
In Bradenton, the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature has welcomed two baby manatees to continue their rehab. FOX 13's Kimberly Kuizon introduces us to Sorbet and Juneau.
Dazzling photographs show nature in a new way
Photographer Jon McCormack explores patterns found in the natural world.
Grand jury indicts 2 petition circulators in 2024 signature-forgery case
A statewide grand jury has indicted two petition circulators on allegations that they forged signatures while gathering support for a proposed constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot. According to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, the circulators — Cherell Long of Nevada and Martin Arellano of Texas — were working for a Colorado Springs–based canvassing firm […]
Canada’s Carney travels to Alberta as separatists face legal setback
Trip comes as court rules separatists did not follow proper procedure in collecting referendum signatures.
Scientists Discover Signs Africa May Be Splitting Apart Beneath Zambia
Unusual helium signatures detected in Zambian hot springs may signal that a hidden tectonic rift is actively developing beneath southwestern Africa.
California bill pushing to keep games playable after server shutdowns passes key hurdle, paving way for full assembly vote
A Stop Killing Games-backed California bill pushing to keep games playable after server shutdowns has passed an appropriations committee vote.
Sustainable science mapping: benchmarking green AI against transformers for cross-disciplinary abstract classification using arXiv
Scientific Reports - Sustainable science mapping: benchmarking green AI against transformers for cross-disciplinary abstract classification using arXiv
Climate change and social health
Nature Human Behaviour - Climate change and social health are deeply interconnected: climate impacts erode social conditions, while social disconnection weakens collective climate action....
‘There’s science happening all around us’
MARSHALL — As another school year approaching the end, more than 900 area students and participants went on a field trip and made memories at the 2026 Science and Nature Conference on Tuesday at Southwest Minnesota State University, hosted by the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative (SWWC). This was the SWWC’s 32nd annual Science and […]
WV-based business reaches millions of new customers overseas with Coupang
J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works produces salt from ancient underground reservoir J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works, a 14-employee family business in Malden, West Virginia that produces signature culinary salts, is expanding internationally for the first time by selling its products in Asia through Coupang, a U.S.-based technology company and international retailer. Nancy Bruns, a descendant of the original family […]
Wellcome and Nature launch $1m global mental health science prize
Prize to highlight work with the potential to change people’s lives, to have an impact on policy and strengthen practice globally
World’s largest global prize for mental health science launches
A new scientific prize, the Wellcome Prize for Mental Health Science with Nature, will celebrate breakthrough interventions for depression, anxiety and psychosis.
Diamondbacks’ comeback turns to heartbreak as Paul Sewald falters late
ARLINGTON — Arizona Diamondbacks fans were left stunned Wednesday night as what looked like a signature comeback victory unraveled into one of the club’s most painful losses of the season. May 13, 2026; Arlington, Texas, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher Paul Sewald (38) pitches against the Texas Rangers during the ninth inning at Globe Life Field.
The political polarization of health outcomes in the USA
Nature Human Behaviour - Using individual-level medical data and death records, this study finds that conservatives in the USA experienced worse health and higher mortality than liberals during the...
Time matters: circadian genetics and the molecular logic of human health and disease
Nature Reviews Genetics - The circadian clock controls transcriptional and signalling networks across tissues to maintain homeostasis, with pathological consequences to its disruption. Kuo et al....
IUCN signs One Health Partnership MOU in Viet Nam with Nature for Health commitment
On April 24, 2026, IUCN and UNDP staff attended the One Health Partnership (OHP) MOU signing ceremony and the review of the OHP 2026-2030 Master Plan. IUCN and UNDP representatives signed the MOU with 57 other signatories. In Viet Nam, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment’s International Cooperation Department (ICD) serves as OHP Secretariat.
Advancing an integrated sustainability agenda to unlock business value
"Our social, nature and climate teams meet regularly and collaborate, but there is no cross-cutting strategy yet and we do not easily have insight into potential trade-offs and co-benefits between the three agendas. We are keen to learn and co-design how we can better work on the intersections between the agendas to make them more
Angel Reese showered with boos after giving ‘too small’ gesture
Angel Reese is with the Atlanta Dream after starting her career with the Chicago Sky. The Dream traded to acquire Reese in what was the signature move of the WNBA offseason. Reese made her debut with the Dream on Saturday in a 91-90 win over the Minnesota Lynx. Although the Dream came out with the…
Network topology of the gut microbiome associates with metabolic health in obesity
Nature Communications - Here, the authors show that microbiome network topology associates with metabolic health across obesity phenotypes, with reduced connectivity in metabolically unhealthy...
Validity of 330 signatures could determine future of trans sports initiative
The signature gathering practices of the campaign behind the anti-transgender sports initiative are being cast into doubt, potentially derailing a referendum set to appear on the November ballot. Evidence submitted over several hours to the Secretary of State’s Office Tuesday suggested a pattern of negligence within the campaign behind the citizen’s initiative, with signature collectors […]
Bronx Zoo’s Brew at the Zoo Returns June 12 with Live Music, More Beverages, and New Entertainment
The Bronx Zoo’s signature summer celebration returns with 60+ pouring stations, 20+ food trucks, musical entertainment, and games throughout the night. New features for 2026 include live music, an immersive glow party, chalk alley, and more. (Photo Credit: Terria Clay © WCS) BRONX, N.Y.
Bid to ban utility, state contractor giving plans to submit petitions
Michiganders for Money Out of Politics needs 356,958 valid petition signatures from Michigan voters to qualify for the Nov. 3 ballot
'The name was inaccurate': PCOS gets a new name after years-long effort
Polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, has just been given a new name that experts say better reflects the nature of the condition.
From Lab Bench to Lens: Using Film to Tell Science Stories
Sarah Goodwin, director of the Science Communication Lab, dives into how video storytelling can showcase the collaborative, curious nature of scientific discovery.
First Signatures of a Future Tectonic Split Are Bubbling Up In Zambia
The world has not stopped changing.
Transforming artificial intelligence into artificial wisdom
Nature Mental Health - In this Perspective, the authors discuss reframing digital mental health tools by transforming artificial intelligence into artificial wisdom.
How to vibe code in science: early adopters share their tips
Nature - Using AI coding tools can speed up your work, but there are plenty of pitfalls.
Talking quantum with a 9-year-old
Nature Reviews Physics - Katia Moskvitch shares her experience of launching a quantum computing podcast with her child.
Scientists discover hidden chemical signature that could reveal alien life
Scientists may have found a powerful new way to hunt for alien life — not by searching for specific molecules, but by looking for hidden patterns in how those molecules are organized. Researchers discovered that living systems leave behind a kind of chemical “fingerprint” in the statistical distribution of amino acids and fatty acids, one that consistently differs from nonliving chemistry.
Luigi Mangione, Copycat Crimes, and the Rise of Political Violence
Experts weigh in on the complex nature of copycat crimes and why political violence is on the rise
Peter’s Power Hour: The professional sports schedule is too complicated
Sports are my world. They shape my perspective, and perhaps more importantly, how I view the passage of time. When the football season kicks off, I am conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs to expect to see leaves falling through a crisp breeze as nature’s colors turn duller. When basketball and hockey start a few months later,...
GDP alone cannot measure human progress and well-being
Nature Health - Gross domestic product remains the dominant metric of progress, but new measures such as healthy lifetime income offer policymakers a clearer and more relevant view of well-being.
Smart, hybrid, integrated, and engineered geothermal (SHIEG) systems
npj Thermal Science and Engineering - Geothermal sources can supply clean, sustainable, baseload thermal or electrical energy to fulfill societal demands in diverse climates via various...
FBI investigating recent deaths and disappearances of multiple US scientists
The scientists supposedly all had access to sensitive government research, and the nature of their work has led to speculation that their cases might all be connected.
Imagination blooms at the Oatland Island Fairy and Gnome Festival
Families dressed as fairies and gnomes explored nature, mined gems, built fairy villages, and let imagination run wild at Oatland Island.
19 breathtaking images from the Milky Way Photographer of the Year 2026 awards
'Milky Way photography goes beyond capturing the stars. It becomes a way to explore remote environments, challenge physical limits, and reconnect with both nature and history.'
This discovery shatters everything we thought we knew about Leonardo da Vinci - Futura-Sciences
Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance genius and his lasting legacy Leonardo da Vinci, one of the brightest minds of the Renaissance, left an indelible mark on both art and science. His famously meticulous observations of nature were long considered unshakeable truths; his notebooks brim with observations that have inspired generations. Among...
Colorado governor signs $47 billion budget in which ‘nobody won’
Gov. Jared Polis on Friday officially signed a $46.87 billion spending plan for the Colorado state government in the next fiscal year. His signature is the culmination of months of work by legislators, who resorted to cuts, transfers and other mechanisms to balance the 2026-27 budget amid a deficit of more than $1 billion. That […]
David Attenborough’s 4 Longevity Habits At Age 100 For A Healthy Life
The acclaimed nature documentary filmmaker has adopted lifestyle habits that can boost health and longevity.
Peoria entertainment company hopes to offer signature cocktails at shows
“We'd like to do some cocktails because that would be really fun to have signature cocktails for each show.\
Quantum topology emerges at near field
Light: Science & Applications - Near-field nanophotonics platform with spin-orbital coupling enables single-photon skyrmions with robust topological structures for high-dimensional quantum...
Nature’s giant vacuum cleaner: Scientists reveal how the Sun is secretly cleaning Earth’s space junk
Science News: As Earth’s orbit becomes increasingly crowded with decommissioned satellites and fragments from the 1960s, however, researchers have identified a natu.
Science diplomacy lessons from a North Korean volcano
Mount Paektu, a mythic, active volcano on the border between North Korea and China, is almost the epitome of a scientific challenge that crosses political lines. In 946 CE, it erupted in one of the five biggest volcanic events of the past 10,000 years, kicking up huge quantities of ash and sending destructive mud flows down river channels for hundreds of kilometres. Should this happen again, the entire region, including easternmost Russia, South Korea and even Japan could be hit. “It’s definitely got the potential to be big,” said James Hammond, a professor of geophysics at Birkbeck, University of London. An eruption on the scale of 946 would have “huge regional impact.” For the past 15 years, Hammond has helped lead a groundbreaking collaboration with North Korean scientists to study the volcano, navigating scientific sanctions, tough export controls on scientific equipment and a long, pandemic-enforced exodus from the country. Although he seems more at home on far-flung research expeditions – before speaking to Science|Business, Hammond was camping out on a Greenland ice sheet – he has also advised the European Commission on its changing science diplomacy strategy. His long experience with North Korea has made Hammond sceptical of blanket bans on science collaboration, no matter the country.This is a live question in Europe, where in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, institutional ties with Russian universities were almost entirely severed, although some scientists fear this could undermine our understanding of climate change’s impact on the Arctic. Here, Hammond tells the story of the Mount Paektu mission and the policy lessons he takes from it. Ominous rumblingsThe genesis of Hammond’s collaboration came in 2002, when Mount Paektu began to rumble ominously. Earthquake activity picked up and the volcano began to emit unusual gases. North Korean scientists took notice. “People felt we need to know more about this volcano,” said Hammond. In 2011, North Korean vulcanologists put out a request for international expertise to help them learn more. At the time, Hammond and his collaborator, Clive Oppenheimer, were working on a vulcanology project in another sanctioned country, Eritrea, and so decided to answer the call. Within a month, they had flown into Pyongyang. “It was pretty incredible,” recalls Hammond (left). “We were made to feel like honoured guests, and invited to official celebrations.” The scientific opportunity was huge. Paektu is unusually positioned, a thousand kilometres from where tectonic plates rub against each other in the Pacific. “It was an incredibly interesting volcano, but not much research had been done, at least not in the international community,” he said. “There was so much we felt we could do. And we had these partners that were super keen to engage.”The mission received an unusual visitor in the form of volcano-obsessed filmmaker Werner Herzog, who accompanied Hammond and Oppenheimer while directing his 2016 film Into the Inferno about volcanos across the world. Four days into the trip, the German director delivered a long speech about reunification to his North Korean hosts, recalls Hammond. “He got to the heart of the Koreans and how they felt, and how they thought, in a way that I'm not sure I ever will,” he said. UN sanctionsHowever, Hammond realised he’d been “naïve” about how difficult it would be to collaborate with North Korea, which was sanctioned far more heavily than Eritrea. “We didn’t fully appreciate the all-encompassing nature of restrictions,” he said. In 2016, as tensions escalated over Pyongyang’s nuclear tests, a United Nations resolution banned all joint scientific work with North Korea. However, the UN sanctions did allow countries to request carve outs, and the UK successfully requested an exemption for Hammond’s work. Related articlesEU pushes for joint science diplomacy, but care needed to avoid gridlock, experts sayRussia severs its last ties with German scienceAnchor Greenlanders in Arctic climate research, experts tell EU ahead of policy updateExport controls have also delayed Hammond’s work. In one case, it took 18 months to get approval from the UK government to take seismometers, which measure earthquakes, to North Korea. “It was frustrating,” he said. “But they didn’t just say no.” However, one instrument, called an induction coil, used to measure how the earth conducts electricity, was blocked entirely because it can in theory be used to detect submarines. Karaoke bondingSince the collaboration started in 2011, Hammond has visited the country around 15 times, although the pandemic closed off North Korea for more than five years. A trip last November was Hammond’s first since the outbreak. Despite this lengthy interlude, Hammond has deep bonds in the country. The North Korean scientists Hammond works with are somewhat isolated, as they struggle to access the latest research papers and travel to international conferences. That said, they are “excellent geophysicists” and are “very well trained in the field,” he said. Over karaoke and chats about their families, “we’ve made friendships, for sure,” he said. The authorities have to sign-off things like the placement of seismometers, for example, but Hammond said these requests have been approved. “Everything that we've asked for within a scientific context has been delivered.”Scientific backchannels? These kind of personal links between scientists across political lines are one purported benefit of science diplomacy. During the Cold War, some historians argue, scientific contact between the US and Soviet Union laid a groundwork of trust for other cooperation, such as on arms control. Hammond agrees that backchannel contacts to North Korean geophysicists are hardly likely to defuse a military crisis on the Korean peninsula, but the simple fact of the scientific collaboration makes contacts between diplomats that little bit easier. “It creates opportunities to understand each other a little bit better,” he said. “When maybe you have those more difficult discussions as diplomats, it's coming from a slightly better place.” Cutting tiesDrawing lessons from the Mount Paektu mission for today’s links with Russian science isn’t simple. The analogy is far from exact, Hammond said, “because one is essentially a Cold War, versus a pretty hot war in the case of Russia.” But Hammond’s broader argument is that the challenges we face, such as climate change, pandemics, biodiversity loss, pollution and so on, have globalised in an unprecedented way, making blanket shutdowns in collaboration with any country unwise.He’s somewhat critical of the UN scientific sanctions imposed on North Korea in 2016, even though they did allow for exceptions. “I think a blanket halt to some of these things, when we face big global challenges [. . .] that’s quite a risky thing to do,” he said.Institutional endorsement?European academics are still by and large free to work individually with Russian counterparts. However, official, institutional partnerships have largely ended. Shortly following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian university rectors wrote a public letter endorsing the war, meaning European universities fear official collaboration could also be seen as a kind of endorsement. Hammond acknowledges there is a risk of legitimising regimes, and state-controlled universities, through scientific cooperation. “That’s the trade off you have to make,” he said. Strategic projectsWith Russia, instead of giving a green light to restart all Arctic science, a middle ground might be firing up a few carefully selected “strategic” projects, said Hammond. After all, European countries are still collaborating with Russia on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, an experimental nuclear fusion plant in the south of France. However, even if Europe did try to revive Arctic science with Russia, there’s no guarantee Russian scientists would play ball. A series of high-profile arrests of physicists in Russia accused of sharing their findings with the outside world has made collaboration fraught. Even before the invasion of 2022, “the Russian regime made it increasingly difficult, and this sort of discouraged people,” Dag Rune Olsen, rector of the Arctic University of Norway, told Science|Business last year.
Environmental and lifestyle drivers of early-onset cancer
Nature Health - Early-onset cancer of many body sites and organ systems is increasing worldwide; this Review outlines the potential causes.
Scientists accidentally discover DNA that breaks the rules of life
A routine experiment with a new single-cell DNA sequencing method turned into a surprising scientific twist when researchers stumbled upon a bizarre genetic code in a microscopic pond organism. Instead of following the near-universal “rules” of life, this newly identified protist rewrites how genes signal their end. This unexpected discovery challenges long-held assumptions about how genetic translation works and hints that nature may be far more flexible—and mysterious—than scientists realized.
FBI raids business of powerful Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas
The offices of state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a Democrat, as well as a cannabis dispensary she co-owns were raided. The exact nature and targets of the probe remain unclear.
Strong month of sports propels ESPN studio shows to record viewership for April
ESPN’s signature sports studio shows continued their upward trend of viewership in April with overall and individual show increases as well as several records.
Hearing next week on trans ballot signatures
An attorney for Protect Girls Sports in Maine said in legal documents that the group “expended considerable time and resources to ensure that sufficient numbers of valid signatures were gathered.”
Cincinnati Parks's free summer concerts at the Riverfront
This summer, the riverfront will host more than 40 live music events, which are free to the public.
Thymus renaissance poised to boost health and longevity
Nature Biotechnology - Evidence linking thymic function with health and longevity is piling up, and a cluster of biotechnology companies is trying to regenerate the thymus directly or recapitulate...
Translating biodiversity into chemical diversity
Nature Computational Science - DeepSeMS, a transformer-based generative framework, translates biodiversity into chemical diversity by predicting microbial secondary metabolite structures directly...
Orchestra Iowa closes its season with a heavy hitter
Discover how Orchestra Iowa brings Gustav Mahler’s powerful “Symphony No. 6” to life, highlighting the signature Mahler hammer and the work’s intense emotional journey, for two performances May 16-17.
4D mammo may be up to four times more accurate than 3D
The 4D system harnesses X-ray diffraction to measure molecular-level signatures of disease; these tissue “fingerprints” could help providers diagnose breast cancer in its earliest stages.
Direct air capture has substantial health and climate opportunity costs
Communications Sustainability - Renewable energy remains more cost effective for climate and health outcomes than direct air capture except under highly optimistic technology improvements,...
Understanding environmental exposures in early life for lifelong health
Nature Health - Understanding early-life environmental exposures is crucial for protecting lifelong health and should be prioritized in developing exposomics studies and infrastructures worldwide.
In-person requirements for abortion medication headed to Kim Reynolds
A bill awaiting Gov. Kim Reynolds' signature says Iowans would have to see a doctor in person to receive abortion medications such as mifepristone.
Inside the complex, secretive business of buying ube, the internet’s new favorite food
A global hunt for ube, whose signature violet hue has taken over social media, is upending a precarious supply chain in Asia.
Las Vegas Science & Technology Festival marks 15th year with giant free expo
The Las Vegas Science & Technology Festival marked the end of its 15th year Saturday with its signature event, the Giant Science & Technology Expo, a free, full
ENTERTAINMENT: Artosphere Festival celebrates art, nature of the region; other Walton Arts Center events set for May
Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center’s Artosphere: Arkansas’ Arts + Nature Festival continues through May 19, featuring a mix of free and low-cost events, performances and workshops throughout Northwest Arkansas celebrating art, music and nature while spotlighting artists and performers from around the region.
US lawmakers vote to cut science spending—but reject Trump’s sweeping reductions
A draft bill would preserve NASA’s overall funding but downsize the National Science Foundation’s budget by 20 percent.
MOMENT OF SCIENCE: Science behind lightning
From tingling skin to hair standing on end, Mother Nature gives us a warning that lightning is imminent.
Allied health services availability and human milk nutrition among preterm infants
Pediatric Research - Allied health services availability and human milk nutrition among preterm infants
Key US science panels are being axed - and others are becoming less open - College of Arts and Sciences
A Nature analysis shows that the Trump administration has terminated more than 100 advisory committees to science agencies — and reduced the transparency and independence of those that remain. … “I would hope that in the future, in this administration … Read more
Despite Trump’s push, most Americans still oppose his ballroom, poll finds
The president’s planned 250-foot arch and a Treasury department plan to put Trump’s signature on paper money are also unpopular ideas.
At UCLA’s botanical garden, science blooms for young students
Living classroom field trips are helping K-12 students connect with nature, science and a university campus experience.
Beyond medication: factors contributing to uncontrolled hypertension from the 2023 Indonesian health survey
Hypertension Research - Beyond medication: factors contributing to uncontrolled hypertension from the 2023 Indonesian health survey
Longtime Lake Erie Nature & Science Center executive director resigns
Lake Erie Nature & Science Center Executive Director Catherine Timko is leaving the center May 21 to accept a position as president and CEO of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition in Akron.
Science Films Can Inspire Mindful Observation That Grounds Audiences in Local Nature
Surveys show science films help audiences comprehend new concepts through visual narratives. During Climate Week NYC 2025 last September, more than 100 people gathered on Governors Island for a screening of OBSERVER, a documentary film from the Science Communication Lab. The New York Climate Exchange, Stony Brook University and Science Communication Lab/Wonder Collaborative partnered to
Northwood University Celebrates 2026 Class of Outstanding Business Leaders
Gala honors achievement, raises scholarship funds, and inspires students to pursue lives of meaning, leadership, and earned success Northwood University celebrated five honorees whose vision and leadership have transformed industries and communities on Saturday, April 18, during the 46th Outstanding Business Leader Awards Gala at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The gala brought together honorees, alumni, students, donors, and university leaders for a signature event rooted in Northwood’s mission to develop free-enterprise leaders who drive global economic and social progress. This year’s honorees represented an array of industries, including entertainment, entrepreneurship, construction, manufacturing, motorsports, and automotive retail. “Outstanding Business Leader Awards is one of the most meaningful traditions at Northwood University,” said Dr. Kent MacDonald. “It gives our students the opportunity to learn directly from leaders who have built exceptional careers through vision, perseverance, personal responsibility, and service to others. What makes these honorees special is that their impact reaches far beyond business success. They create jobs, strengthen communities, open doors for others, and lead with purpose. They remind our students that free enterprise, when guided by character and integrity, can be a powerful force for good.” Since 1981, the Outstanding Business Leader Awards have recognized exceptional business leadership while supporting student opportunity through the Outstanding Business Leader Endowed Scholarship Fund. Prior to the gala, honorees met with Northwood students during a roundtable conversation designed to give students direct access to first-hand mentorship and career insight. The student-centered experience continued that evening, as each honoree was formally introduced by a Northwood student selected through a competitive process that drew more than 50 applicants this year. The experience reflects Northwood’s emphasis on learning through experience and providing students with meaningful opportunities to build confidence, connections, and professional momentum before graduation. The following honorees and presenters were featured at this year’s Outstanding Business Leader Awards Gala: Paul A. Glantz, chairman and CEO, EH Real Estate LLC; chairman emeritus, Emagine Entertainment Inc., was introduced by Kennedy Williams, a marketing communications and automotive aftermarket management student from Farmington Hills, Michigan. They are pictured with Gala Emcee Steve Madincea (far left) and Northwood University President Kent MacDonald. Jennifer Tenaglia Panning ’92, president, Artisan Tile Inc., was introduced by Karley Baker, a finance and marketing student from Washington Township who is enrolled in Northwood’s four-year bachelor/MBA track. Danny Sullivan, 1985 Indianapolis 500 champion, 1988 IndyCar World champion, and 1994 Rolex 24 at Daytona champion, was introduced by Max Hart, an automotive marketing and management student from Cheboygan, Michigan. Reagan Cordes, a sales management student from Davison, Michigan, is pictured introducing Linzie Venegas, chief operating officer of Ideal Group, who was unable to attend the gala. Larry Zinn, executive general manager of Warren Henry Auto Group and a 2008 Northwood alumnus, was honored to accept the Outstanding Business Leader Award on behalf of his father, Warren Henry Zinn ‘77, who was unable to attend Saturday’s gala. Larry Zinn was introduced by Bella Smylie, a data analytics student from Clare, Michigan. “This gala is about more than recognizing business excellence; it’s also about investing in students and reinforcing the relationships that make Northwood special,” said Advancement Vice President Murray Kyte. “We celebrate leaders whose lives reflect The Northwood Idea while raising scholarship funds to invest in students whose ambition, character, and entrepreneurial spirit reflect the values Northwood seeks to advance.” “During my time at Northwood, I’ve been fortunate to experience things I never could have imagined,” said Baker, who added she was honored to form a meaningful connection with her Outstanding Business Leader honoree. “…Northwood builds a network that stretches far beyond these walls, one shaped by shared values, a belief in free enterprise, and a conviction that business, done right, can change lives.” To learn more about this year’s honorees and gala sponsors, visit the Outstanding Business Leaders Awards webpage at www.northwood.edu/advancement/signature-events/outstanding-business-leader-awards/. Share this page
Heard on Campus: Tanya Berger-Wolf on AI for nature
Tanya Berger-Wolf, professor of computer science engineering; of electrical and computer engineering; and of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State University, gave a lecture titled “AI for Nature: From Science to Action" as part of the Distinguished Lectures in Life Sciences series presented by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The variety of exhibits inside these walls are enough to fill a couple of days for the curious minds, but certainly a terrific way to spend a day.
Motorola has a 200MP camera-packing Moto G87 and a glorious new Signature color in the pipeline
You can check out Motorola's next impressive mid-ranger and a bonkers addition to the Signature color palette in newly leaked pictures.
Motorola Signature design highlight: Striking the perfect balance between form and function
This phone may look quite familiar, but it also proves that boring can be beautiful when executed this well.
Neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation outcomes according to social determinants of health
Journal of Perinatology - Neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation outcomes according to social determinants of health
While we argue, schizophrenia advances
Nature Mental Health - In this World View, Constanza Morén, a biomedical researcher and daughter of a man with schizophrenia, calls for humility and collaboration to bridge the divide between...
Energy system science must look beyond net zero
Nature Reviews Clean Technology - Energy system models are used to inform decisions about the clean energy transition. Extending the foresight horizons of these models beyond net-zero target dates...
Best Online Tirzepatide Programs (2026): Where To Buy Tirzepatide
Editor's Note: We worked with testers, whose identities we have verified, to test the products and services mentioned in this story. Due to the private nature of individual health concerns, we have chosen to change their names to Forbes Health tester, etc., when we refer to them in this story. S
Spanberger marks first 100 days with focus on healthcare, housing and energy affordability
Gov. Abigail Spanberger celebrated her first 100 days in office Monday in Richmond by touting her administration’s progress on healthcare, housing, and energy affordability measures. She had less to say, however, about the delayed state budget, which lawmakers haven’t finalized but must send to her desk for signature in the coming weeks.
Priority research questions in global peatland science
Communications Earth & Environment - Global research prioritization for peatland science engaged 467 participants from 54 countries, identifying 50 priority research questions across carbon...