Artist's concept of an astronaut working on Mars. Credit: NASA
Long before a human ever sets foot on the Red Planet, we already know how harsh the environment is. Once a human finally does, the only things protecting them from that environment will be the infrastructure we've built there and the spacesuit that keeps them in a protective bubble. Unfortunately, modern spacesuits aren't built with Martian gravity, which is three-eighths of Earth's, in mind. To prove that point, a team of NASA and industry engineers made a presentation at the 55th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES) showing that the newest generation of spacesuits is simply too heavy to use on Mars.
Cancer cells survive by hiding from the immune system's surveillance. A KAIST research team has developed a new anticancer platform that makes cancer cells send out their own danger signals—prompting immune cells to attack—while simultaneously delivering gene therapy. The approach is expected to offer a new treatment strategy that combines cancer immunotherapy and gene therapy in a single nanoparticle.
One million animals -- including antelopes -- migrate through the South Sudanese site each year, leaving scars visible from the sky.
The United Nations has fast-tracked a vast antelope migration path in South Sudan onto its List of World Heritage in Danger, the young nation's first such listing.
An approximately 1.43-million-year-old hominin footprint from Koobi Fora, Kenya
Kevin G. Hatala
Footprints left by eight ancient hominins 1.43 million years ago beside a Kenyan lake have puzzled researchers because they don’t look quite as expected for species known to have lived there at that time.
Design and implementation of the electro-optic isolator. Credit: Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75451-5
Integrated photonic devices—tiny circuits that use light instead of electrons—are becoming increasingly important for scalable photonics technologies and high-bandwidth communications. They are particularly valuable for managing low-power, light-based data transfer inside data centers, which are needed for artificial intelligence, cloud computing and high-performance signal processing.
SpaceX's Starship launch system rises from its Texas launch pad for a suborbital flight test. Credit: SpaceX via X
SpaceX's Starship super-rocket deployed operational next-generation Starlink satellites for the first time during its 13th flight test, which addressed snags that arose in the previous test.
Jupiter and Saturn are the two largest planets in the Solar System, and both are surrounded by enormous families of moons. Jupiter currently has more than 100 reported moons, while Saturn, which is also encircled by an extensive ring system, has more than 280.
Behavioral scientists from UNSW Sydney and Griffith University have found no evidence that personal climate-friendly choices reduce people's interest in broader action on climate change.
The research, published on July 23, followed nearly 2,800 Australians over four years as part of the National Climate Action Survey. Participants who recycled, used reusable cups and containers, took public transportation, ate greener diets, or cycled to work were no less likely to support wider climate policies and collective action.
Graphical abstract. Credit: The American Journal of Human Genetics (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2026.07.002
For more than a century, scientists have sought to reconstruct human evolution using diverse lines of evidence, including fossils, genetic variation across populations and ancient DNA. Building on these approaches, researchers are increasingly using large population biobanks to investigate how natural selection continues to shape the genomes of living populations.
The research team has improved the electrode design for insect-antenna EAG sensing over several studies. Early metal electrodes supported short-term recording, while grooved gold-plated metal electrodes improved the usable recording duration. In the present study, the team introduced a hydrogel structure that retains moisture around the antenna–conductive gel contact, enabling stable EAG recording for up to 7 hours under tested conditions. Credit: Dr. Daigo Terutsuki from Shinshu University, Japan
Drones are increasingly being used for disaster response, infrastructure inspection and environmental monitoring. However, most drone systems rely primarily on cameras and other visual sensors, which can become ineffective in smoke, dust, darkness or collapsed structures. Odor sensing could provide a valuable complementary capability by enabling drones to detect gas leaks and chemical emissions that cannot be identified through visual sensing alone. Yet a major challenge has limited the practical use of such biohybrid sensors: Excised insect antennae gradually lose signal quality as they dry out, and the electrical interface becomes unstable.
