Science

Science

The UK Government has announced more than £14 million in new funding to accelerate the commercial use of quantum technology across healthcare, defence, transport and energy, in a move it says will help power Britain's next industrial revolution. The investment, unveiled on Friday at the National Quantum Technologies Showcase in London, marks a major milestone in the country's National Quantum Technologies Programme - part of its wider plan to translate cutting-edge science into real-world applications that drive economic growth.

The agency is once again calling on citizen innovators to help design the future, this time through a new HeroX challenge to develop better wheels and more robust tires for lunar rovers. The competition, called the Rock and Roll with NASA Challenge, offers $155,000 in prizes for top designs that can handle the punishing surface of the moon. As with previous NASA and HeroX challenges, everyone from amateur inventors working out of their garages to teams of students or professional companies are welcome to participate.

On the same day, Biohub said it wouldpartner with EvolutionaryScaleto leverage AI to "dramatically accelerate scientific progress toward understanding and addressing human disease." "When we started, our goal was to help scientists cure or prevent all diseases this century," Zuckerberg said in a press release. "With advances in AI, we now believe this may be possible much sooner. Accelerating science is the most positive impact we think we can make. So we're going all in on AI-powered biology for our next chapter."

For the past decade, Dr. Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg have focused part of their philanthropy on a lofty goal to cure, prevent or manage all disease if not in their lifetime, then in their children's. But during that time, they also funded underprivileged schools, immigration reform and efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion. Now, the billionaire couple is shifting the bulk of their philanthropic resources to Biohub, the pair's science organization, and focusing on using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery.

In early July, astronomers spotted a mysterious object, later dubbed 3I/ATLAS after it was confirmed to be the third-ever interstellar visitor cruising through our solar system. Last week, the object, which is now generally believed to be a comet, reached its closest point to the Sun, or its perihelion, brightening up at an unexpected rate and turning " distinctly bluer." And it may be getting a major boost that's unaccounted for by the Sun's gravitational pull as well.

The clutch of remora fish are holding on tight, but collectively release their grip just as the humpback whale they are riding breaches the surface of the ocean. Moments later, everyone is back on board, as the whale re-enters the water, all hurtling together off the coast of south-east Queensland. This rare footage of suckerfish was captured by marine scientist Dr Olaf Meynecke from Griffith University using camera tags attached to humpback whales. The remora are able to sense the change in speed and water depth, he said. It was amazing to see how fast and nimble they were during several different rides with the whales.

For me, there is no pressure. Even if I don't win it, I still know that I drove a really good season and I can happily say that to try and replicate the season that I have done, most people on the grid would find that very tough. So, you just need to be realistic with the chances we have had throughout the season and to still be talking about being in this fight is already remarkable in the first place.

"Scientia potestas est Knowledge is power!" That phrase was coined by English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon at the end of the 16th century, when England was one of the world's leading empires, both in terms of science and power politics. It was Bacon's aim to point out to his contemporaries that knowledge is of strategic use a motto that's still valid today.

The number of Chinese scientists taking on leadership roles in international science projects is growing rapidly. They now lead more than half of all research projects with the United Kingdom, and are expected to lead an equal number of projects with Europe and with the United States in the next couple of years, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last week. Hongjun Xiang, a physicist at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, says the projections are consistent with what he has observed in the country, particularly in fields such as physics and engineering. But China needs to strengthen its leadership capabilities in disruptive basic research, "as Nobel-level original breakthroughs remain rare", he adds.

The Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft is suspected to have been struck by a small piece of orbital debris, and assessment of the impact and associated risks is currently under way,

Gidziela, A. et al. A meta-analysis of genetic effects associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and co-occurring conditions. Nat. Hum. Behav. 7, 642656 (2023). PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Buescher, A. V. S., Cidav, Z., Knapp, M. & Mandell, D. S. Costs of autism spectrum disorders in the United Kingdom and the United States. JAMA Pediatr. 168, 721728 (2014). PubMed Google Scholar

I was a third-year medical student at Northwestern on my ICU rotation the first time I saw a dopamine drip. The patient was pale and motionless, his blood pressure dropping by the minute despite large volumes of IV fluids. My senior resident said to the bedside nurse, "Let's start a dopamine drip at five micrograms per kilogram per minute." I stood at the foot of the bed, watching the monitor as the patient's heart rate and pressure began to climb.

Magnetorheological (MR) materials, a class of smart materials that can reversibly change rheological and mechanical properties under magnetic fields15,16,17, are composed of soft magnetic particles within a fluid or elastomeric carrier18,19. Under external magnetic fields, the magnetized particles attract each other through dipole-dipole interaction to form fibre-like structures-known as the MR effect-that increase the viscosity and stiffness of the MR materials20,21. Among these materials, anisotropic MR elastomers with predefined fibre-like soft magnetic structures exhibit directional responses, including sheer stiffening22 and rotational actuation23, to magnetic fields.

Historically, ER sheets have been considered the predominant site of secretome mRNA translation, largely owing to their enrichment in membrane-bound polysomes5. Yet, recent reconstructions from diverse mammalian cell types reveal that ribosomes, including polysome-associated and monosome-bound forms, are distributed across nearly all ER morphologies, encompassing sheets, tubules and tubule-tubule junctions6. Notably, a substantial subset of ER-bound ribosomes corresponds to non-translating subunits, particularly the 60S7,8, suggesting that ribosome association is not synonymous with active elongation and may reflect regulatory or pre-initiation states.

Taking place at Centre Concord, the show is meant not just for collectors of glittery, hard things, but for anybody curious about the way the planet's put together. "Step inside and explore a dazzling world of minerals, gems, fossils, meteorites, crystals, beads, jewelry and slabs from expert vendors and collectors," the organizers write. "Discover Earth's hidden beauty up close through live lapidary demonstrations, educational displays and interactive exhibits that bring geology to life."

GRBs are extremely energetic explosions that rank among the most powerful astrophysical events in the universe, so luminous they can be seen from billions of light-years away. They're most commonly caused by either a merging pair of neutron stars or a very massive star ending its life in a supernova called a collapsar; in both of these classical cases, the resulting stellar cataclysm can spit out a giant, tightly focused jet of radiation and particles.

The Mycological Society of San Francisco Fungus Fair includes the latest collection of expertly identified fungi collected in various locations in the Bay Area. These annual collections constitute a 50-year record of the early winter fungal diversity in our area. This historical information may become an important contribution to science as climate change affects our local ecosystems. In the San Francisco Bay Area, when the first rains tease up the chanterelles and porcini, fungus lovers head to the Fungus Fair.

The footage shows astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station - the PRC's low earth orbit research platform, first launched in 2021 - roasting half a dozen wings in a small oven onboard the craft. Both drums and flats are loaded onto a tray, which locks the floating bits of meat up in a cage-like apparatus so they don't drift off.

In August 2025, Glasgow's Skyrora became the first British manufacturer licensed to conduct vertical launches from the United Kingdom. This licence will allow the company to launch its suborbital Skylark L rocket from the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands, which previously received the necessary approvals from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). This marks a major milestone for the UK, which has finally gained sovereign launch capabilities.

Stemaide's goal is to bring science and technology skills to all young Africans. Started in 2022 in Ghana, it has developed a science kit that will work in areas without the internet. Prince Boateng Asare, CEO of Stemaide, says the firm wants to prepare young Africans for the jobs of the future. This is the second in a six-part series on technology in Africa. More on Technology in Africa

Biologists long have been fascinated by the ability of salamanders to regrow entire limbs. Now Harvard researchers have solved part of the mystery of how they accomplish this feat - by activating stem cells throughout the body, not just at the injury site. In a new paper published in the journal Cell, researchers documented how this bodywide response in axolotl salamanders is triggered by the sympathetic nervous system, or the "fight or flight" network.

Crop prices correlate with an 11-year solar period, and a meteor detonates over Ireland, in this week's pick from the Nature archive. 100 years ago doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03455-0 This article features text from Nature's archive. By its historical nature, the archive includes some images, articles and language that by twenty-first-century standards are offensive and harmful. Find out more.

Scientists have documented the most energetic flare ever observed emanating from a supermassive black hole, a cataclysmic event that briefly shone with the light of 10 trillion suns. The new findings were published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Astronomy, with astronomer Matthew Graham of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) leading the study.

As our world becomes increasingly clogged with human noise, we must listen to what animals are saying to us. Even the smallest creature, you'll find when you take time to listen, is a somebody with something to say. Key questions include: What are animals saying, how much are we missing, and how can we be better listeners? Nonhuman animals of all varieties must live and thrive in an increasingly human-dominated world.

For the best moon gazing, head to one of America's top Dark Sky parks, protected areas with exceptionally low light pollution, where the night sky is the perfect backdrop for a star show. From the Appalachian Mountains to wide Texas plains, these top Dark Sky sanctuaries offer some of the clearest views in the country, according to research shared with Travel + Leisure from Inghams Walking, a travel company specializing in outdoor adventures.