Julia Rock-Torcivia

Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NASA are reportedly imposing new limitations on international scientific collaborations. NIH is allegedly directing grantees to ask permission for any co-authorship with a scholar affiliated with a foreign institution, while NASA has reportedly told some grantees that papers co-authored with researchers in China may violate…

Nature issued new guidelines expanding the types of research and research fields that can use the Registered Report format.  Registered Reports are a format for empirical articles in which the hypotheses, methods and planned analyses undergo peer review before the research is conducted. Previously, Nature only considered these reports for confirmatory research in cognitive neuroscience…

Atomis, a Japanese startup advised by 2025 Nobel laureate Susumu Kitagawa, is bringing Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) to applications such as CO2 capture, refrigerant recycling and next-generation deodorization and coatings. One tool they are using to accomplish this is an AI-powered simulation platform from Matlantis.  MOFs have struggled to move beyond the lab due to…

During the 2018 to 2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the U.S. was the largest single-country donor to the response, investing over $516 million in various mitigation measures. Similarly, in the 2014 to 2015 outbreak in West Africa, the U.S. government allocated approximately $2.4 billion to the response.  So far,…

PacBio’s HiFi Solves Sub-fertility Consortium published a preprint of its first major study. The study focused on couples with unexplained subfertility or recurrent pregnancy loss after standard clinical evaluation had ruled out known causes. Subfertility affects approximately one in six couples globally. Genetic evaluation often remains fragmented, requiring multiple sequential tests over months to years…

Federal funding cuts are affecting scientists across the country. In academia, cuts are causing budget reductions, termination of ongoing research and disruption to the talent pipeline.  Universities are facing a 15% cap on facilities and administrative cost reimbursements. Usually, the government reimburses universities for about 60% of these indirect costs. Now, universities like UConn expect…

AI can help scientists accelerate their research, run powerful simulations and gather insights from vast amounts of data. However, these tools may not be up to the caliber needed for scientific papers. Recent studies have found thousands of papers featuring fake citations and other errors, likely from the use of AI. One study found that…

An outbreak of Andes virus (ANDV), a strain of hantavirus, on a cruise ship has made a diagnostic test more urgent than ever. The incubation period for ANDV ranges from four to 42 days, with symptoms becoming life-threatening in 24 to 48 hours, making early detection essential. ANDV is also the only known strain of…

According to measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations averaged approximately 431 parts per million (ppm) last month, a record high.  In 1958, when continuous monitoring began, levels were below 320 ppm. Before the Industrial Revolution, levels were approximately 280 ppm or less.  NOAA data…

A new study published in Nature Climate Change concluded that atmospheric microplastics may significantly contribute to global warming. The study showed that microplastics’ warming effect equates to about 16.2% of that of black carbon, or soot.  In hotspots such as the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, the warming effect of microplastics can exceed that of local…

Elsevier has joined a class-action lawsuit against Meta, alleging that the company’s Llama language model was trained on datasets containing unauthorized copies of academic papers and literary works.  Elsevier claims that Meta used illicit repositories like Sci-Hub and LibGen to source the copyrighted text. The eventual ruling of this case could establish a critical legal…

SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, made up of SpaceX’s Super Heavy Version 3 (V3) booster and Starship, completed its launch rehearsal today in preparation for liftoff as soon as May 19. At nearly 150 meters tall, the Starship V3 is the tallest rocket ever assembled. It is designed to haul up to 150 metric tons of cargo…

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an AI agent, LLMB, designed to accelerate the development-validation cycle of lithium metal batteries (LMBs). They published their work in ACS Central Science, and the agent is available in a GitHub repository. LLMB integrates a large language model for hierarchical text mining with…

A recent outbreak of the Andes (ANDV) strain of the hantavirus aboard a cruise ship has increased public interest in efforts towards a vaccine. However, a publicly available vaccine is likely still several years away. ANDV causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), which has a 30% to 50% fatality rate. Some research also indicated that the…

The speed of AI innovation is outpacing the evolution of regulatory frameworks like the FDA and EMA.  “By the time we create the law, the technology has already surpassed us along the way. And it’s getting faster and faster,” said Thomas Carganico, vice president of Marketing Strategy at PQE Group, a global consulting firm specializing…

Today, more than 33,000 tracked objects circle Earth at about 28,000 km/h. These are just the objects that can be seen. At that speed, even a paint flake can cause damage, as seen on the International Space Station. When smaller fragments are included in the count, it rises to tens or hundreds of millions of…

A paper published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology identified 23 fungal strains isolated from NASA spacecraft assembly cleanrooms capable of surviving ultraviolet radiation exposure.  Using experimental simulation facilities, the researchers conducted a comprehensive assessment of microbial survivability and morphology on the most resilient spacecraft-associated microorganisms.  Simulating Mars and sterilization protocols The researchers used a Mars…

In 2025, the Trump administration canceled funding for a pilot project studying the hantavirus, which has been confirmed to be behind an ongoing outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship.  The project aimed to better understand how hantavirus passes from rodents to humans. It was being conducted through the West African Center for Emerging Infectious…

Astronomers are improving the resolution of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) space observatory using a non-redundant Aperture Masking Interferometer. They published their findings in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. The JWST features a non-redundant Aperture Masking Interferometer (AMI) within its Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS). This provides magnitudes more precise than…

Journalist Evan Ratliff established a startup called HurumoAI run almost entirely by AI agents. Ratliff started it as an experiment to evaluate the capabilities and limitations of agentic AI and documented the experience on his podcast, Shell Game. Ratliff served as the CEO alongside an AI agent co-CEO called Kyle. AI agents also filled the…

Researchers have developed molecular quantum nanosensors (MoQNs) designed to operate in the cytoplasm and nuclei of living cancer cells to map radical-generation processes and thermal dynamics that are linked to cancer-associated cellular physiology.  The sensors use molecular-level uniformity to achieve a threefold enhancement in spectral resolution and superior thermometric specificity. The platform enables absolute temperature…

Scientists from the Robotic Materials Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany published a paper in Science Advances last week describing biohybrid microrobots that can deliver cancer treatments directly to tumor sites.  Medical microrobots have potential for targeted therapeutic delivery. However, current systems achieve only physical targeting, and once at the…

NASA’s X-59 aircraft, part of the Quesst mission, can reach supersonic speeds without causing a sonic boom. Development of the aircraft began in 2018, starting with risk reduction studies. The aircraft was built by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, and completed its first flight on Oct. 28., 2025.  The X-59 achieves its quiet…

Traditionally, discussions about experimental reproducibility have focused on statistics, sample sizes and publication bias. However, procedural quality and training also play an important role in reducing variability.  JoVE, a video platform for scientific content, is aiming to improve the reproducibility of research by providing detailed visual demonstrations of experimental procedures. This is important in research…

A team of researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is using microbes to turn single-use plastics into biodegradable plastics and bioproducts, including biodegradable jet fuel, nylon and chemicals used in chemotherapy and child myopia treatments. They published their findings in Trends in Biotechnology.  Common recycling practices can only use a fraction of plastic waste in…