Life

Health, science, climate, and society-focused reporting.

Briefing: Male fish lose their learning edge in drug-polluted waters, research reveals

Strategic angle: A common antidepressant detected in rivers and streams worldwide is disrupting how fish learn, with significant implications for aquatic ecosystems.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

Life

Briefing: Omics consortium established to supercharge climate-adapted wheat breeding

Strategic angle: Adelaide University leads an international consortium to enhance wheat performance through spatial omics technologies.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: Moog Technology Successfully Steers Artemis II Launch

Strategic angle: Moog Inc. plays a crucial role in the successful launch of Artemis II with its precision motion and fluid control systems.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: Wildfires accelerate winter snowmelt in Oregon's western Cascades, study finds

Strategic angle: New research indicates that forest fires in the Pacific Northwest are impacting snowmelt and water resources.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: Carmel Ortiz on the evolving landscape of satellite communications

Strategic angle: In this week’s episode of Space Minds, host Mike Gruss interviews Carmel Ortiz, senior vice president of medium-Earth-orbit constellation programs at SES.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: AI turns electron microscopy into materials insights in minutes

Strategic angle: An autonomous artificial intelligence system accelerates the analysis of electron microscopy images, transforming weeks of work into mere minutes.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: New disk-shaped catalyst turns carbon dioxide into methanol at lower temperatures

Strategic angle: Researchers have developed innovative catalysts that enable the conversion of CO2 into methanol at room temperature, challenging previous assumptions.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: Bigger storms, more often: New study projects likely future rainfall impacts on NZ

Strategic angle: A new study reveals that New Zealand is likely to experience increased rainfall and more frequent storms in the future.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: Governments, beware: Why it's so hard to invest in risk prevention

Strategic angle: Governments cutting hundreds of millions of euros in pandemic funding, just a few years after a pandemic.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

Life

Moon rocket and weather are on NASA's side for the first astronaut launch in decades

After weeks of fuel leaks and other issues, NASA faced a trouble-free countdown Tuesday on the eve of astronauts' first trip to the moon in more than half a century.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

Life

Briefing: How noise limits today's quantum circuits

Strategic angle: Exploring the challenges of maintaining coherence in quantum computing.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: Protostars 'sneeze' and produce rings of gas and magnetic flux as they grow

Strategic angle: Researchers have uncovered new insights into the early development of baby stars.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: Novel approach to quantum error correction portends a scalable future for quantum computing

Strategic angle: A University of Sydney quantum physicist has developed a new approach to quantum error correction that could significantly reduce the number of physical qubits required to build large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

Life

Briefing: Europe to negotiate with NASA on lunar missions: ESA

Strategic angle: The European Space Agency will negotiate future participation in NASA missions after the US space agency revamped its lunar program.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: New miniature marsupial frog found in Peru carries eggs in a back pouch

Strategic angle: Scientists have discovered a new species of miniature marsupial frog in the Peruvian Amazon that carries its young in a natural pouch on its back.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

Life

Briefing: AI uptake across Italian firms remains patchy, study suggests, despite generative AI buzz

Strategic angle: Research indicates uneven adoption of AI among Italian businesses, highlighting a divide in technology integration.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

Life

Briefing: How a seabird native to Hawaii has adapted to life in Honolulu's concrete jungle

Strategic angle: Kaʻiulani Murphy is quick to spot white terns flapping their wings when she's guiding Polynesian voyaging canoes across the Pacific.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

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Briefing: Earthquake off Indonesia topples buildings, kills 1 person and sets off small tsunami

Strategic angle: An undersea magnitude -7.4 earthquake caused destruction and a small tsunami in northern Indonesia.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

Life

Briefing: Native Americans were making dice, gambling, exploring probability millennia before their Old World counterparts

Strategic angle: A new study reveals that the earliest known dice were crafted by Native American hunter-gatherers over 12,000 years ago.

Editorial Staff Apr 2

Life

Briefing: Réunion Island Lava Reaches the Sea

Strategic angle: The February 2026 eruption at Piton de la Fournaise has lasted longer and produced a larger volume of lava than recent eruptions from this frequently active volcano.

Editorial Staff Apr 2