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Scientists infected a 'vagina on a chip' with gonorrhea — then cured it with a new antibiotic found by AI
To sift through 6 million molecules in pursuit of new gonorrhea treatments, researchers trained AI to select the best drug candidate and then tested it in a "vagina on a chip."
CSUF Report Finds Family Businesses Drive Jobs and Revenue in Fullerton
The city of Fullerton is home to a vibrant entrepreneurial community, with family-owned businesses serving as a cornerstone of the local economy. The family business sector in Fullerton is the subject of a new report researched and published by Tim Schultz, the head of Cal State Fullerton’s Center for Family Business. Chethan Srikant, associate professor […]
Can We Engineer Being on the Same Wavelength with Others? Research Offers a Cautious “Yes”
Analysis shows science can help us become synchronized over time—and feel more connected to others in the process
New study suggests health damage from exposure to Ohio toxic train spill
Research finds immune systems still ‘responding to toxic chemical exposures’ related to East Palestine derailment
Why Pollinators Matter for Human Health | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
New research shows that wild insect pollinators play a critical role in nutrition and livelihoods.
Braille is literacy: Rice researchers are reshaping the science of reading
As schools across the country increasingly embrace evidence-based approaches to reading instruction through the science of reading, two Rice researchers are leading an effort to ensure students who learn through braille are not left out of the research shaping literacy education.
Should “Success” in Science Be Measured Differently?
Publication volumes are one of the main ways that success is measured for researchers today. From mentorship to real-world impact, scientists argue that “publish or perish” pressures overlook many of the contributions that drive discovery forward.
Strength Training Could Be One of the Best Things You Do for Your Brain
A growing body of research suggests strength training can help preserve cognition and improve brain health as you age. Experts explain the best way to work strength training into your routine.
Gambling disorder diagnoses spike after states legalized sports betting
Researchers analyzed millions of electronic health records and found a major difference between states that greenlit sports gambling and those that didn’t.
Gambling disorder diagnoses spike after states legalized sports betting
Researchers analyzed millions of electronic health records and found a major difference between states that greenlit sports gambling and those that didn’t.
Scientists find evidence of vast hidden magma systems inside Mars
Researchers from the University of Oxford have uncovered evidence that Mars once hosted enormous, Earth-like magmatic systems deep beneath its surface—despite the planet lacking the plate tectonics long ...
Opinion | Don't apply politics to scientific research
Under recently proposed rules, federal grants could be terminated midstream for reasons having little to do with science or merit.
Professor Willow’s Birthday Research
Starts Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 10:00 AM Local Time Ends Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 8:00 PM Local Time Wish Professor Willow a very happy birthday with Professor Willow’s assistant Pikachu! This adorable Pikachu makes their Pokémon GO debut as part of the Willow’s Birthday Research event along with GO Snapshots, raids and more […]
Ozone Ascent: Mega Rayquaza Timed Research
From Saturday, July 25, at 10:00 a.m. to Sunday, July 26, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. local time free Timed Research will be available to all Trainers that rewards a Meteorite that enables you to Mega Evolve Rayquaza! Complete the research tasks to earn a Meteorite, an encounter with Rayquaza, and more. Unlike other Mega-Evolving Pokémon, […]
AI Assistant Tool QED Scores bioRxiv Preprint Quality
QED, an AI assistant tool, evaluates the originality and validity of bioRxiv preprints, assigning them QED Scores. Researchers report that its rankings often align with expert opinion.
Proposed Changes to Grant Rules Threaten the Future of Research: Scientists Must Act Now!
The Trump administration is seeking to politicize US federal science funding, but collective action can stop this grantpocalypse from happening.
AI designs the ideal burger for taste, health, and planet
Stanford researchers developed an AI tool that creates novel burger recipes optimized for individual preferences. The implications for science go well beyond food.
UT Health San Antonio researcher receives $400,000 Komen grant to study therapeutic yoga for breast cancer survivors
UT Health San Antonio researcher receives $400,000 Komen grant to study therapeutic yoga for breast cancer survivors
Serious statin side effects on muscles are extremely rare, new research confirms
Scientists created a new tool to help doctors predict a patient’s risk of severe muscle problems from taking a statin.
Neuroimaging utilization in emergency departments has increased year-over-year for a decade
Researchers believe their new data could be used to better inform staffing coverage in modern radiology departments.
UT Health San Antonio researcher receives $400,000 Komen grant to study therapeutic yoga for breast cancer survivors
Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, MPH, to work with Hispanics in South Texas Contact: Steven Lee, (210) 450-3823, lees22@uthscsa.edu Content provided by Cliff Despres SAN ANTONIO, June 25, 2026 – Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, MPH, a cancer researcher at UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of The University of Texas at San Antonio, is […]
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Climate Attribution Conference Explores Science, Law and Accountability
Speakers explored how climate attribution research is shaping lawsuits, policy and public health.
Check politics at the door? Not at many workplaces, researcher says
When people think of workplace segregation, they usually think of race or gender. Yet Americans are also sorted at work by something employers rarely measure: how they vote.
Microsoft Discovery Aims To Advance The Era Of Agentic Science
The cloud-based agentic AI platform aims to help human researchers overcome resource constraints and complex data challenges to accelerate science at scale.
Life Aboard the Langseth: A Q&A With Chief Science Officer Cody Bahlau
On Columbia’s global research vessel, the R/V Marcus G. Langseth, Bahlau serves as the key link between scientists, crewmembers and operations on shore.
Misericordia University Students Earn Top Honors at Pennsylvania Academy of Science's 101st Annual Meeting
Misericordia University students earned multiple prestigious awards while showcasing undergraduate research at the 101st Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science (PAS), held this year on the Misericordia University campus—the first time the statewide scientific organization has hosted its annual conference at the university.
Short-form science: University of Washington researchers launch PaperTok to combat AI slop
A University of Washington team is helping scientists tell their own stories with a free tool that converts dense, jargon-heavy publications into short, accessible videos.
York, Community Unite for Hands-On Environmental Science Journey
A group of students, faculty, and Southeast Queens residents recently traveled from the York College campus to the waterfront campus of Kingsborough Community College (KCC) in the Manhattan Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn to set sail in the Research Vessel CUNY1 on Jamaica Bay, and to explore a part of the Hudson Raritan Estuary system.
Scientists measure hidden quantum forces that could power a new generation of pharmaceutical drugs
Researchers invent a laser technique that reveals the hidden forces shaping proteins, advancing a future of precision medicine engineered with quantum precision.
Erickson Recognized at ADDAPT Golf for Business Invitational
LIMEP and Stony Brook University’s Office for Research and Innovation took part in the ADDAPT Golf for Business Invitational and Legislative Breakfast June 15.
Scientists Analyzed the Bones of ‘Skeleton Lake.’ What They Found Made No Sense.
Roopkund Lake sits in a frozen pocket of the Himalayas where hundreds of people died across a millennium. So why did researchers find bones from the island of Crete there?
Ohio State–led team secures NSF award to advance to next phase of the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory program
The Ohio State University is strengthening its growing prominence in quantum science, technology, and education with a $4 million, two‑year Phase II design award from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance a national effort focused on next‑generation quantum sensing.The funding is helping to bring together top researchers and ...
Keith Flaherty: Translating Science into Medicine
Keith Flaherty: Translating Science into Medicine / American Association for Cancer Research, cancer, Keith Flaherty, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Living with a cat: the mental health impact scientists are only now discovering - Futura-Sciences
A Surprising Connection Between Cats and Schizophrenia? An Australian study has revealed an unexpected link between cat ownership and the risk of developing schizophrenia. Researchers analyzed 17 studies conducted over 44 years, spanning 11 different countries. Their conclusion? Living with a cat could actually double your risk of developing schizophrenia-related...
Regenerative Agriculture and Population Health
Regenerative agriculture can enhance food quality and reduce harmful exposures through improved soil biology, biodiversity, and ecosystem health, yielding downstream benefits for agriculture, food systems, and human health. It may improve profitability through greater land resilience and lower input costs and may deliver benefits to farms, farmers, communities, and the broader environment. More research is warranted to understand the full range of potential health benefits of regenerative agriculture.
Scientists discover how a single cell builds a brain with 170 billion cells
How does a single cell build a brain with billions of precisely organized neurons? Researchers suggest that brain cells use their lineage—their cellular family tree—as a kind of positional map. Cells that come from the same ancestor stay near one another, helping the brain organize itself without relying solely on chemical signals.
FDA-approved drug may finally help immunotherapy defeat rare liver cancer
Researchers found that a rare liver cancer evades immunotherapy by luring immune T cells away from the tumor and trapping them in nearby fibrous tissue. An FDA-approved drug called AMD3100 freed those T cells to attack the cancer, significantly improving the effectiveness of immunotherapy in tumor samples.
Revisiting the Politics of Indigeneity in Latin America
CDDRL Research-in-Brief [4-minute read]
How should European scientists respond to the US AI kill switch?
Earlier in June, Europe’s worst fears of technological dependence were confirmed when the White House ordered the AI firm Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using its leading models. This kill-switch moment crystalised anxieties in Brussels that the continent, lagging the US on the creation of leading-edge AI models, is now a technological of vassal of Washington. The shock has specific implications for European scientists and universities. Some governments are now worried that with AI being integrated into labs, Donald Trump now has his finger hovering over an off switch for European science. “Having restrictions on this tool, it can have an impact on our own research,” said France’s research minister, Philippe Baptiste, at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 18.Baptiste, himself a former academic, said that colleagues in mathematics had recently warned him they were now cut off from leading-edge US models, risking their work. “This model is not available anymore now because of the US restriction, and for the first time this had an impact on mathematics,” a field where large language models (LLMs) are making a significant contribution, said Baptiste. So, should European scientists avoid relying on US models in the future? Or would this be a self-harming overreaction? And how is AI being used in science, anyway? What happened?On June 12, it emerged that Washington, citing cybersecurity concerns, had ordered Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using two models: Claude Mythos 5, and Claude Fable 5, a version of Mythos but with guardrails to prevent abuse. Anthropic said Washington’s concerns were overblown. But forced to follow the order, yet with no way to check who was using the models, the company suddenly shut down access for everyone, US citizens included. There’s still no agreement on how to restore broad access. But last week, Bloomberg reported that select US companies, and the US government, still had access to Mythos despite the ban, but the EU’s cybersecurity agency Enisa had been shut out. Class division of researchersIn the longer term, access outside the US should be restored, said Marcel Salathé, co-director of the AI centre at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), because a permanent restriction would be financially ruinous to US AI firms. “Even Trump will eventually budge to economic pressure,” he said.However, US AI firms might end up operating rather like banks, doing due diligence on users of their leading-edge AI models, he went on.European scientists are unlikely to fall foul of such checks, he said. But having a Chinese postgraduate in their lab, or doing a type of research the US disapproved of, could potentially result in access being denied. “It will create a sort of class division of researchers,” he said. More than frontier modelsHowever, successfully deploying AI in science is about far more than just having access to leading LLMs such as Mythos.Instead, many science-specific tools, most famously Alphafold, which predicts protein folding structures, require “far less” computing power to train than frontier models, well within the capabilities of European supercomputers, according to a recent analysis by the Arq Foundation, a Brussel-based AI think tank. Instead, tools such as Alphafold are possible because certain fields, like protein folding, weather prediction or astronomy, have large, clean, standardised datasets that can be used to train predictive models. Rather than compute, “data is the central constraint for AI for science,” the report says. For example, a less powerful physics model trained on CERN’s data “will be more valuable than the best model without certain data,” said Bengüsu Özcan, author of the report. European advantage?Europe could therefore steal a march by using its scientific data and infrastructure to create models US digital giants cannot. “They might actually match or go even beyond what these big [US] companies are doing,” said Özcan.Indeed, some European start-ups hope to create automated testing labs to create the kind of standardised data that could speed up the discovery of new materials. Materials scientists say there’s currently too little data to train models. AI scientistsHowever, even if the bottleneck for AI in science is often data, rather than compute, being at the mercy of the US for LLM access could still become a problem for European scientists. A new class of “AI scientists” based on leading LLMs is also emerging, Özcan’s report says.Unlike domain-specific tools like Alphafold, these try to automate day-to-day scientific work, by providing an overarching tool that coordinates specific models to synthesise existing literature, generate hypotheses or run analysis of data. The problem for Europe, however, is that these tools are sometimes based on US leading models. Google Deepmind’s AI Co-Scientist, for example, is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. Systematic failureThese scientific automation tools are still in their early stages, and still exhibit “systematic failures on scientific tasks,” Özcan’s report says. One of the problems is that the messy, day-to-day process of scientific discovery is largely not documented, meaning LLMs don’t have a good source of data to learn how scientists actually work. Meanwhile, some tasks, such as literature synthesis, don’t typically require access to leading edge models.However, the performance of AI scientific assistants could improve as companies such as Google pour resources into developing them. Rely on US“Unfortunately, for scientific assistants, there is not much we can do right now except rely on US frontier AI,” said Antoine Bosselut, a natural language processing expert based at EPFL. Chinese-built open models, which can run on local computers, lessening the risk of a shutdown, are touted as one alternative to US dependence. There’s also Mistral, once seen as Europe’s main AI hope, but the Paris-based company has seen its recent models fall behind in performance. But the Chinese alternatives are generally not as capable as US frontier AI models, said Bosselut, unless paired with fiddly, custom tools that allows them to act as independent agents. “Most scientists do not have the time,” he said. Don’t jump ship yetAlthough the kill switch moment is seen a warning shot for European scientists, it doesn’t mean labs should abandon US AI tools immediately. “I do not think the right response is simply to abandon US-based models and systems under the banner of sovereignty or independence,” said Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the Cesaer university association. “That would be an overreaction.”Related articlesEuropean sovereignty in AI requires ‘ugly trade-offs,’ say experts Robotic lab start-up makes case for €500M EU-funded materials testing facilityAI in science: is it useful? Instead, European researchers need to ask themselves whether they’re becoming dependent on technology that could be turned off in Washington, said Özcan. “They might not see this today, but they should really start asking this question,” she said. European researchers need a plan B, said Salathé. “I would recommend to every researcher, very proactively explore alternatives.”Own toolsIn addition, Björnmalm and others want European research institutions to develop their own scientific AI tools.Instead of signing AI deals with US digital giants, European universities should be using this money to create their own models, which may end up being superior for research, said Sabine Leonelli, an expert on the use of AI in science at the Technical University of Munich. “Universities in Europe seem to be happy to sign commercial contracts with US companies on the assumption [their AI tools] are better,” she said. But US frontier LLMs are typically opaque, and have been developed without independent scientific input, she said. “This is not good enough for science.”Last year, Swiss researchers released Apertus, an LLM designed to be completely transparent, from its development methods to its training data. The idea is that this makes scientific tools built on top of the model far more reproducible than with closed, commercial alternatives.“Europe needs more of this: serious capacity-building that gives researchers, universities and companies credible options,” said Björnmalm.
Around the MHS
This edition of news from around the Military Health System for the week of June 22-26, 2026, includes a vital partnership between Offutt Air Force Base and the American Red Cross, new Uniformed Services University research on stress fractures, and Naval Medical Research Unit EURAFCENT participates in a multinational readiness exercise.
Moderna Science Day Highlights Expanding Potential of mRNA Platform
Provides broad overview of Company's research and early development programs expected to continue to fuel future growth Highlights validation of T-cell engager modality with mRNA-2808 in multiple myeloma, supporting rapid advancement of second T-cell ...
Fermented Food: Does Eating Kimchi or Sauerkraut Have Health Benefits?
Researchers are starting to understand how foods like kimchi, yogurt and sauerkraut affect our health.
UT San Antonio College of Sciences invests in new multidisciplinary research through inaugural Seed Grant Initiative
Three research projects were selected to receive up to $50,000 in seed funding.
Women in Science: Dr Jennifer D’Souza - TIB-Blog
The blog series “Women in Science” introduces women from TIB who share insights into their careers and personal experiences in science. Dr Jennifer D’Souza studied Natural Language Processing at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA, and is now an AI/NLP research group lead at TIB. In this interview, she shares what she finds most rewarding about a career in science, the lessons she has learned along the way, and her hopes for the next generation of women scientists.
The Painting That Is Still on Trial in South Korea: How the unending Korean War became a permanent excuse to criminalise expression
By Boram Jang, East Asia Researcher at Amnesty International In a Seoul courtroom in March this year, a prosecutor read out charges against Jeon Seung-il, a former art student, from an indictment first written in 1989. The language had not changed, nor had the charges. Thirty-seven years later, only the young defendant had grown old. In 1989, he was 23 years old in a South Korea still shaped by decades […]
Latest COVID booster may offer bonus health benefit, study suggests
The latest COVID-19 vaccine (2024-2025) has been linked to fewer serious heart-related events among U.S. veterans. New research confirmed a small reduction in COVID-related cardiovascular events, or COVID-19-associated MACE, due to the vaccine.
In 3-game healthcare series, underdog large-language models sweep specialized AI powerhouses
Pitting three multipurpose LLMs against two healthcare-specific AI tools, researchers have discovered the consumer-level AI can beat its purpose-built counterparts in healthcare scenarios—and soundly, at that.
“Absolutely huge” 400-year-old black coral stuns scientists in New Zealand
A giant black coral estimated to be 300–400 years old has been discovered deep in Fiordland, New Zealand, astonishing researchers with its enormous size—about 4 meters tall and 4.5 meters wide. Scientists say it may be one of the largest black corals ever recorded in New Zealand waters and an important stronghold for the slow-growing species.
New study reveals gaps in how mental health is measured in European Region
A new WHO/Europe study found wide variation in how research measures mental health in the WHO European Region, underlining the urgent need for standard monitoring.
5th European Conference on Xylella fastidiosa: science drives progress towards sustainable management
The 5th European Conference on Xylella fastidiosa concluded today in Mola di Bari, Italy, confirming that research on one of the world's most damaging plant pathogens has reached a new level of maturity.
Student From Des Plaines Wins National Science Foundation Award
Elmhurst University biochemistry major Hannah Cardenas, of Des Plaines, recently received a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF REU) award to participate in a 10-week summer research internship at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Where you live can affect how you feel
Jun Wu is expanding her pioneering research into environmental influences on mental health and well-being
Think 8 Hours of Sleep Is the Best for Your Cognitive Health? A New Study Suggests Otherwise
Research reveals a hidden genetic link that dictates exactly how your nighttime routine impacts your brain.
Scientists seek clues to longevity from three Brazilian sisters over 100
What is the secret to a long life? Three Brazilian sisters with a combined age of 316, who were named by Guinness this month as the oldest living trio of siblings in the world, may help researchers find out.
Houston Methodist receives $110M donation, largest in health system’s history
The donation, made by The Brockman Medical Research Foundation, is the largest in the hospital system's history.
“Cats go wild for this mysterious sound”—why experts say it works every time - Futura-Sciences
The Secret Behind the Slow Blink Cats are famous for their independent streak, but behind that mysterious gaze is a much more complex reality. Our feline friends are constantly seeking ways to communicate with us, but we humans aren’t always the best at picking up their signals. Scientific research has...
This health data provider could benefit as AI reshapes drug research
Harvey Stober, senior equity analyst and correspondent at CNBC, explains why this healthcare company could benefit from artificial intelligence reshaping the drug industry thanks to its treasure trove of data.
QED Science Launches AI Infrastructure for Scientific Validation
Recognizes The 1% After Blind Evaluation of 57,455 Scientific PreprintsTEL AVIV, Israel, June 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QED Science, a science validity engine and modern infrastructure for researchers, funders, institutions and life science organizations today launched The 1%, the top 574 life science preprints. The company anonymously scored 57,455 bioRxiv preprints submitted between May 2025 and April 2026 for originality and validity. The ranking is powered by QED Score, QED Science’s vali
New Office at SBU Links Climate, Community and Health
Stony Brook's new Office of Health Equity and Climate Medicine Research brings together groups to better understand how the environment shapes health outcomes.
'Fingerprints' of black hole's event horizon detected for first time
Scientists have detected the "fingerprints" of a black hole's event horizon -- the boundary from which nothing can escape -- for the first time, according to research published on Wednesday. The scien...
Boffin claims Microsoft's supposed quantum leap does not compute due to 'basic Python errors'
Nature paper argues researchers cherry-picked data. Redmond insists its work is sound
Microsoft's claims over its quantum chip questioned in Nature article
The tech giant has consistently stood by its Majorana chip research despite scepticism from some experts in the field.
Scientists catch classical space-time crystals moving like Majorana quasiparticles
A research team from Hiroshima University, the University of Colorado, and other collaborators have demonstrated that space-time crystals—exotic structures that, under external drive, loop endlessly through ...
This is the real reason your cat purrs—and it’s not what you think - Futura-Sciences
The Genetic Mystery Behind the Purr If you thought your cat’s purr was just an automatic sound of happiness—like you sighing with satisfaction after a good meal—science begs to differ. Researchers from Kyoto University’s Wildlife Research Center in Japan have identified, for the first time, genetic underpinnings to this ancient...
Health professor to research AI’s impact on hiring people with disabilities
Erblin Shehu, who specializes in healthcare management, will join a major project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Scientists discover ancient brain cells that help block distractions
Scientists have discovered a tiny group of neurons in an ancient brain region that acts like a built-in focus filter, helping the brain ignore distractions and zero in on what matters most. When researchers temporarily switched off these neurons in mice, the animals became unusually distractible—similar to what is seen in ADHD—but regained normal focus as soon as the neurons were reactivated.
Why South Africa’s leopards shrank to half their normal size
A hidden population of South African leopards has revealed a remarkable evolutionary story. Researchers analyzing entire leopard genomes discovered that the Cape Floristic Region’s leopards are not only much smaller than most African leopards, but also genetically distinct after being isolated for roughly 20,000 years. Surprisingly, despite their small population, they have retained much of their genetic diversity.
Scientists discover hidden “footprints of death” that may help viruses spread
Scientists have uncovered a surprising new twist in what happens when cells die. As dying cells break apart, they leave behind tiny “footprints of death” packed with newly discovered particles that help guide the immune system to clean up the remains. But researchers found that influenza viruses can exploit this process, hiding inside these microscopic packages and potentially using them to spread to nearby cells.
Science in Seconds: Improving GLP-1
A UConn Health researcher explains how her lab is focusing on how GLP-1 medications affect the brain and how they can be improved for the future
UConn Business Researchers Discover Voluntary Corporate Climate Goals Are Viewed Favorably by Investors
'For company decisionmakers, there is clearly no argument for not considering it'
A staunch voice in support of science
Jeff Coller, a pioneering RNA biologist, has spent the past year vehemently advocating for the lifesaving promise of research in the face of federal cuts
Penn LDI and Monogram Health Announce Second Research Partnership
The University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and Monogram Health have launched a second research initiative, backed by a $600,000 gift, to improve care for patients…
FSU Health creates grant program for projects on healthcare challenges
Florida State University is giving its researchers and local clinical providers financial support to work on addressing healthcare challenges.
New Orleans hospital destroyed by Katrina to be reborn as a science hub
While other universities scale back research amid federal funding uncertainty, Tulane University will lead a sweeping redevelopment of the vacant Charity Hospital.
Reproductive Health and Constitutionalism in Latin America: A Research Agenda
--Verónica Undurraga, Professor at the Faculty of Law, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez [Editor’s Note: This is one of our ICONnect columns. For more inf
Could mountains be key to unlocking hydrogen’s potential?
Researchers assessed likelihood gas was produced during creation of Alps, Pyrenees and Baetic mountains
Science Decoupling Hurts Human Progress
Science magazine has reported that in May, several members of the U.S. Congress introduced the Securing Innovation and Research from Adversaries (SIRA) Act, a bill that would prohibit U.S. researchers from using federal funds to collaborate with 'blacklisted' Chinese entities. These include Chinese institutions and individuals. Joint research projects, co-authored papers, data sharing, personnel exchanges, and even the co-supervision of students would all be prohibited.
Early humans were bringing fire into caves 1.8 million years ago
A new study suggests early humans were using fire in South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave as far back as 1.79 million years ago. Researchers found burned bones deep inside the cave, where natural wildfires could not have reached, indicating that fire was likely carried in and maintained by human ancestors. The discovery pushes back the timeline for fire use and reveals surprisingly sophisticated behavior long before humans could create fire on demand.
A review argues the family dog may become science’s unlikely ally against autism
This peer-reviewed Perspective synthesizes a decade of research on a surprising candidate for autism science: the laboratory Beagle. Drawing together scattered studies, the review authors argue that dogs carrying engineered changes in the Shank3 gene reproduce core human features of autism spectrum disorder, including social withdrawal, altered sensory responses, and reduced attention to the eyes of a face. The synthesis assembles, for the first time in one place, the parallels between mutant dogs and autistic people, alongside early signals that oxytocin, a psychedelic, and a third compound may soften these traits. The authors frame the dog as a complementary, ethically governed model, not a replacement for existing ones.
Flagship Pioneering and Lean Business Services Company Announce Collaboration to Advance Healthcare Innovation and AI-Enabled Biomedical Research in Saudi Arabia
/PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Pioneering, the scientific innovation company behind Moderna, Generate Biomedicines, and more than 100 other life sciences ventures,...
Project ASCENT at ILL selected for EU funding under "Choose Europe for Science"
The Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) will lead the ASCENT project, funded at 1.4 M€ by the European Commission as part of the initiative "Choose Europe for Science 2025". The goal is to train the next generation of researchers and sustain Europe’s leadership in neutron science. ASCENT is one of 16 projects (three of them in France) funded under the pilot call of a programme that aims to enhance the attractiveness of research careers in Europe and address the challenge of scientific talent retention. It is also the only project led by a large-scale infrastructure.
Advancing pediatric health care with AI
A new national hub in D.C. is turning pediatric AI research into clinical workflows.
Arkansas Allocates $5M for New U of A Food Science Center
A new food science research facility at the University of Arkansas is moving forward after the Arkansas Legislative Council approved a $5 m
How a new White House proposal could fundamentally change American science
Join us for a discussion on the potential impacts of a Trump admin plan to overhaul how federal research grants are awarded and administered.
Something in space may be changing alien signals before they can reach Earth. Scientists have a solution.
New research suggests that alien radio signals may be transformed by plasma from their home stars — and scientists on Earth could be overlooking prime evidence of alien intelligence.
Vanderbilt Health lands three of 35 Susan G. Komen research grants
Komen is the largest nonprofit funder of breast cancer research outside of the U.S. government, having invested more than $1.1 billion in research since its founding.
MIP participates in online lecture on the ICTY for Munich students of international law and politics
On 22 June, the Mechanism Information Programme for Affected Communities (MIP) participated online in a session titled “The ICTY: Structures, Legal Significance and Political and Societal Perspectives in the Region and Serbia,” organised by Universität der Bundeswehr München as part of its Academic and Research Trip to Belgrade. The event took place at the Goethe‑Institute Belgrade and was attended by 20 master’s students and four faculty members from the graduate specialisation programme International Law and Politics.
Former NOAA Employees Revive Climate Web Site
The database of federal global warming research recreates a website that was closed amid the administration’s broad retreat from climate science.
Behind this “ordinary snake,” scientists stunned by a hidden new species - Futura-Sciences
A Mysterious Snake Revealed Researchers from the Chengdu Institute of Biology, partnering with the Giant Panda National Park, have officially described a new species of tree viper: Trimeresurus lii, affectionately dubbed the Huaxi green viper. The discovery was made in early 2025 and published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and...
Cited 23 June: Project Cosmos launch | Science ‘under attack’ at Bonn | Emissions inequality
Carbon Brief explains how it built a major new database of climate science research and unveils a new ranking of the 500 most highly cited publications, authors and institutions in climate science.
Books for Better Health: Can Parent Beliefs About Reading Affect Health Outcomes?
A new research study looking at shifts in parental beliefs about books, reading frequency, and health outcomes was launched at a free Scholastic book at Yale
Appendix B: Classifying European political parties
Classifying parties as populist Although experts generally agree that populist political leaders or parties display high levels of anti-elitism, definitions of populism vary. We use three measures to classify parties as populist: anti-elite ratings from the 2024 Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES), the 2023 Populism and Political Parties Expert Survey (POPPA) and the 2023 PopuList. […]
Acadia Science Fellows to study and map coastal erosion
WINTER HARBOR — Two scientists have been awarded fellowships to conduct research in Acadia National Park, both focused on coastal erosion.
Emory Healthcare Named Founding Partner and Official Healthcare Provider of the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center
Emory Healthcare becomes a Founding Partner of the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center, bringing nationally recognized research, innovation, and sports medicine to the new home for soccer in America.
People-Powered Research With a Twist
Verify the work of an algorithm to unlock the secrets of spiral galaxies! Anyone with a smartphone or laptop can do this project.
Dogs or cats: which is actually smarter, according to science - Futura-Sciences
It is one of the oldest arguments between pet owners, and it usually generates more heat than light. So what happens when you ask science instead of your group chat? The honest answer is that “smarter” is a slippery word, but researchers do have one hard number that tilts the...
Outrage rescued an important ocean research program
Senators saved a network of ocean sensors but other cutting-edge efforts are running out of funding.