Science: latest posts

The University of Birmingham developed the tests. They look for signs of several cancers in a blood sample and suggest where in the body the cancer comes from.

Patients aged 45 and over who visit a GP with abdominal symptoms can take part. The practices belong to the National Health Service (NHS) in England.

The trial will measure how well the tests support the judgment of GPs. The results will help decide whether to roll the tests out nationally. Reports described it as a world first, and noted that cancer mortality in Britain is among the highest of OECD countries per person.Share

Projects worth R188 million have been approved so far. South African National Parks (SANParks) set aside R100 million for the repairs. National government allocated R218 million, and an insurance settlement added R150 million.

About 90,000 guests visited the park in February 2026. That was 7,000 fewer than in February 2025. The park had 1.87 million visitors in the 12 months through March 2025.Share

The authors argue that these carbonates are an overlooked carbon sink. They also suggest the carbonates could be a route for carbon to move into the deep Earth. The work links seabed earthquakes to the way carbon is locked away on the ocean floor. The carbon sink claim is the authors' own view, and it has not been independently checked.Share

The model counts water for making hydrogen, treating supplies and cooling equipment. It puts use at 35 to 170 litres per kilogram of hydrogen, against the industry claim of about nine litres. The authors say desalination would release salty, chemical-laden wastewater that could harm marine life, and that old groundwater could run out. They write about Morocco, Algeria and Egypt, which want to supply Europe. This is a modelling study, so its results depend on its assumptions.Share

The researchers suggest that losing these Bglap3 neurons with age may contribute to the decline in spatial memory. The work is peer-reviewed. It gives scientists a specific cell type to study further. The findings come from mice, and the link to memory decline is a suggestion, not proof. The work is far from applying to people.Share

The team, including Logan, Jon and Kendra, annotated more than 70,000 birdsong syllables from public recordings. Both birds and humans kept pitch changes small between neighbouring syllables and used regular rhythms. Birds that learn their songs did not differ clearly from those that do not. The authors say they need more studies to explain the patterns. Their idea is that breathing and vocal muscles may shape them.Share

The pair used deep learning to find halicin in 2020, from a model trained on 2,500 molecules. It killed drug-resistant bacteria in tests. In 2023 they found abaucin, which targets one species, A. baumannii. Barzilay says drug discovery is still at an early stage and AI can automate only parts of the process. MIT, the winners' own institution, announced the award.Share

The team recorded 51 mounting attempts, 34 of which involved penetration. The donkey often initiated contact, and the pair showed affection afterwards. The authors suggest that sex may help maintain their bond. A primatologist, writing about the study, notes that same-sex behaviour has been reported in more than 1,500 animal species. The researchers watched the pair closely for only four days, so they cannot say how long the relationship lasted.Share

The flints sat in 40 boxes in Turin for over a century. Using faded labels and the notes of the Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, the team linked the objects to Heliopolis. Many cores but few blades suggest one area was a workshop that made more blades than its own knappers needed. The authors present this in their own article on a new study, so it is not a peer-reviewed text, and it rests on century-old excavation records.Share

The die-offs are linked to the pilchard herpesvirus. The government has temporarily restricted commercial fishing catches. The groups want a full suspension until a new biomass survey ends and an updated catch limit is announced.

Neville Van Rooy, spokesperson for The Green Connection, said nobody yet knows how bad the damage is. He said the scale must be checked and made public. He warned that continued fishing could harm the fish population more.

WWF South Africa wants a total ban on sardine fishing. The department said there was not enough evidence to justify a complete ban. Fishers and conservationists say the government lets fishing go on despite doubt about the outbreak's effect on stocks.

Fishing communities said falling sardine numbers could threaten livelihoods and food security.Share

Moya briefed the media on progress to fix the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Plant. The City of Tshwane failed to chlorinate water from the plant. Over 800 cases of gastrointestinal illness were reported in the area last month.

The E. coli was found in water discharged while workers cleaned the clear water sump. The city will repeat disinfection until the contamination is gone.

Moya said videos are circulating, including some by councillors, that show water coming out of reservoirs. She said residents must not use the water even where it looks clean.Share

Professor Marie-Eve Aubin-Tam led the work, and PhD candidate Fan Jiang was first author. In light, the algae make sugars through photosynthesis and raise the pH in the hydrogel. The two layers swell by different amounts, so the strip bends. In the dark the pH falls, and the strip starts to bend the other way within 10 seconds. The strip is about 2 cm long and 1 mm thick. Aubin-Tam calls it a proof-of-concept, and the team had no specific application in mind.Share

Department spokesperson Wisane Mavasa said the heatwave is pushing up demand across Gauteng. She said leaking municipal pipes and high use per person add to the problem. The department said Gauteng uses about 250 litres per person a day, against an international average of 173 litres.

The department put non-revenue water at an estimated 47% and physical water losses at about 27%. It said the South African Weather Service forecasts a high likelihood of a strong El Niño in the 2026/27 summer. The department said El Niño could cut dam inflows, raise evaporation and increase demand.

The department said it cannot give Rand Water more than the volume already allocated to it from the Integrated Vaal River System. Mavasa said the department will cut the water that farms, industries and other users, including water boards, may draw where this is needed. She urged residents to follow municipal water restrictions and make saving water a daily habit.Share

The authors say benchmarks that combine variant types, such as canonical splice and 5' UTR variants, inflate the scores of these models. They propose a stratified benchmark that separates the types, and they use it to identify the most robust models. The study is peer-reviewed. Only a short summary was available, so the methods and results are not described here.Share

The atlas also lists the DNA sequence variants that drive these changes. The researchers aim to explain how the human skeleton evolved, including the adaptations for walking upright. The work is peer-reviewed. The details given here come from a summary of the study, not the full paper, so the findings and methods need checking against the paper itself.Share

The study is peer-reviewed and appears in the journal Nature. The team found almost no stone tools around ancient lakes, which led to the idea that water alone did not decide where people lived. This may matter for how researchers read dispersal routes, including those out of Africa. The survey was a single 35-day transect in 2023, so the conclusion rests on missing evidence plus modelling.Share

The team, led by Paul Burke of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, used CT scans to re-examine a skull first described in 1927. They found differences from Tomistoma, including raised rims around the eye sockets. Zanaty says the work may help explain how gavials once lived across the globe, while only two endangered species survive. This account is a first-person piece by the researchers, not the peer-reviewed paper.Share

Morero spoke at a media briefing at the Crown Gardens reservoirs on Monday. He said the loss of water has crippled supply while reservoirs run low. Outages continue in parts of the city.

The city's pipe network is 12,600km long. Johannesburg Water replaced 84km of pipe in the last financial year. Morero said the scale of the problem is enormous.

He said steps in the Johannesburg Water turnaround strategy could cut losses by at least 10% in the short term. He said this would come at a massive cost.

Morero also said the city's high consumption exceeded the allocation from Rand Water, and the city is battling to meet demand. He said Johannesburg Water officials are working around the clock to restore supply.Share

The team found an electron-transfer effect in which only redox probes at the cell-electrode interface produce measurable current. They used it to build an electrochemical sensor. On 55 patient samples, the sensor showed 96% specificity and 87% sensitivity. The sample is small, and the figures are early and not independently validated. The work does not say whether the test will be available in South Africa.Share

The peer-reviewed work offers a possible biological explanation for lung problems that affect many children with Down syndrome. The summary we read gives no sample sizes or methods. The findings may come from lab or animal models, so they need further testing before anyone can say how they apply to patients.Share

The researchers found that blocking GLS1 protected male mice against this heart enlargement. Heart enlargement is a common and serious complication of chronic kidney disease, so the enzyme may be a possible drug target. The work is peer-reviewed but early and preclinical. It used male mice only, and it has not been tested in people.Share

The authors say the compound also extends lifespan in mice with progeria, a model of premature ageing. The study is peer-reviewed, but only the abstract was available for this post. The work used cells and mice, so its relevance to people is unknown. The findings are early and far from any use in humans.Share

Professor Benedetto Marelli of MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering led the work. The needles lightly penetrate fish skin, stay attached and then decompose. Today's most effective method uses metal needles, and workers must sedate and inject fish one by one. The team calls its approach "potentially better", but the evidence comes from lab work, and it has not been tested on farms.Share

In the study, 76 university students tried to memorise photos of models in underwear, then said which photos they had seen. Half received a weak current for ten minutes and half received a placebo. In the stimulated group, recognition of upright women improved and the gap between images of men and women disappeared. The authors say it was a single lab session with students, and they measured only immediate effects, not attitudes or behaviour.Share

The structure has many layers and houses bacteria that make energy from chemicals, not sunlight. The findings suggest the animal may host these bacteria inside a dedicated part of its cells. The work is peer-reviewed and appears in Nature Communications. Only the opening of the abstract was available, so the sample size and methods are not known.Share

Professor Giovanni Traverso, a mechanical engineer at MIT and a gastroenterologist, led the work. A textured coating helps the robot grip the intestinal lining, and it can carry tools for imaging, biopsies, removing small polyps and delivering drugs. The team wants an easier and faster option than double balloon enteroscopy, which they call slow and laborious. The text shown does not report results in patients, so the clinical benefit is not yet shown.Share

Professor Li-Huei Tsai and Leyla Akay, a former graduate student, led the study in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell. When the team restored Wnt signalling, myelination recovered in human cell cultures and in mice modelling Alzheimer's. They did this by inhibiting a protein called GSK3b. The work used cell cultures and mice only, so it has not been tested in people.Share

The team used a tool called PEtracer, which makes small DNA changes that pass to daughter cells, so scientists can work backward to find each cell's ancestors. They combined these trees with data on gene activity and cell position. The researchers say the map could help explain birth defects and cancer, and guide stem cell research. The work was done in mice, so any link to human health is still indirect.Share

The Phase 1/2a study, called BLUESTAR, reports the drug's safety and how well it worked in heavily pretreated patients. These patients had ovarian, endometrial or breast cancer, or cholangiocarcinoma. It is an early look at a drug that could matter for gynaecological and breast cancers. It is an early-phase trial with small samples, and the drug is not yet proven in larger studies. AstraZeneca, the drug's developer, ran the trial.Share

The authors report regulatory sites on the viral RNA that appear to control how the virus copies itself and makes proteins. They suggest these sites could become targets for antiviral drugs. This is early work: the antiviral potential is speculative, and no drug has been tested against these sites.Share