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Beyond the habitable zone: Exoplanet atmospheres are next clue to finding life on planets orbiting distant stars

When astronomers search for planets that could host liquid water on their surface, they start by looking at a star's habitable zone. Water is a key ingredient for life, and on a planet too close to its star, water on its surface may "boil"; too far, and it could freeze. This zone marks the region in between.

Cells 'pull the emergency brake' when oxygen runs low, research reveals

When human cells lack oxygen, they must react. Without oxygen, the metabolism can hardly generate energy, and many vital processes begin to falter. A research team from Bielefeld University, together with international partners, has discovered how cells can save energy in this situation: they deliberately slow down the so-called secretory pathway—the transport route through which cells release substances such as proteins to the outside or forward them to other cellular compartments.

Scientists observe metabolic activity of individual lipid droplets in real time

A research team has developed a fluorescent probe that allows scientists to visualize how individual lipid droplets break down inside living cells in real time. The probe changes its fluorescence properties depending on the chemical composition of each droplet, which allows researchers to observe not only their location within cells, but also their metabolic activity during lipid breakdown.

Physicists demonstrate the constancy of the speed of light with unprecedented accuracy

In 1887, one of the most important experiments in the history of physics took place. American scientists Michelson and Morley failed to measure the speed of Earth by comparing the speed of light in the direction of Earth's motion with that perpendicular to it. That arguably most important zero measurement in the history of science led Einstein to postulate that the speed of light is constant and consequently to formulate his theory of special relativity.

Lost signal: How solar activity silenced Earth's radiation

Researchers from HSE University and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences analyzed seven years of data from the ERG (Arase) satellite and, for the first time, provided a detailed description of a new type of radio emission from near-Earth space—the hectometric continuum, first discovered in 2017.

Key driver of extreme winds on Venus identified

Imagine the catastrophic winds of a category 5 hurricane. Now, imagine even faster winds of more than 100 meters per second, encircling the planet and whipping clouds across the sky, with no end in sight. This scenario would be astonishing on Earth, but it's business as usual on Venus, where the atmosphere at cloud level rotates about 60 times faster than the planet itself—a phenomenon known as superrotation. In contrast, Earth's cloud-level atmosphere rotates at about the same speed as the planet's surface.

Lung Cancer Screening Saves Lives, but Could Save So Many More

Lung cancer has remained the leading cause of cancer death among men in the US since the early 1950s, among women in the US since 1987, and worldwide for several decades. Lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) significantly reduced lung cancer mortality in 2 large-scale randomized clinical trials and is currently recommended in the US for an estimated 13 million high-risk adults, offering a tremendous opportunity to reduce mortality from the deadliest cancer. Yet, implementation of lung cancer screening has been challenging, and more than 80% of adults eligible for screening do not get screened. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that current eligibility criteria for screening inadequately identify high-risk populations and exclude approximately 50% of adults diagnosed with lung cancer.

Winter-active spiders use unique antifreeze proteins to survive the cold

Spiders of the Clubiona genus, which are among the most important natural enemies of pests found in orchards, are active during the winter. New research in The FEBS Journal reveals the characteristics of antifreeze proteins that these spiders produce that bind to ice crystals and prevent their growth at sub-zero temperatures, which helps the animals avoid freezing.

People in isolated cities in Africa suffer more violence against civilians, study reveals

Cities are often seen as hotspots of violence, with the assumption that larger cities are inherently more violent than smaller ones. This "universal law" of urban scaling has long shaped scientific thinking. But new research led by Complexity Science Hub (CSH) researcher Rafael Prieto-Curiel challenges this assumption. Published in Nature Communications, the study shows that it is not simply city size, but a city's level of isolation, that plays a crucial role in determining violence in Africa.

Digital tools for analyzing nondiffeomorphic shapes

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 46, November 2025. SignificanceA key limitation to using geometric morphometrics is the lack of high-fidelity tools. The most powerful methods in geometric morphometrics require that the meshes are similar, but not all geometric data satisfy this requirement. The Euler …

Quantification of redox thermodynamics shifts within coacervates

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 46, November 2025. SignificanceThe earliest enzymes are thought to have formed through the assembly of macromolecules into disordered, secondary phases known as coacervates. While these phases are believed to have played a role in early catalysis, the underlying mechanisms …

A cascade of structural rearrangements positions peptide release factor 2 for polypeptide hydrolysis on the ribosome

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 46, November 2025. SignificancePeptide release factor 2 (RF2) plays a crucial role in releasing the nascent polypeptide from the ribosome in several pathways, from the canonical termination of protein synthesis to the rescue of stalled ribosomes on aberrant messenger RNAs. …

Hydrodynamic flutter and free-surface breakup of a retracting elastic sheet

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 46, November 2025. SignificanceWe discuss the tension-induced dynamics of an elastic sheet coupled with an interfacial flow. Flutter at the free end of the retracting sheet is initiated by shear-driven instability on the air–water interface, leading to uniformly spaced …

The function of Mak16 in ribosome biogenesis depends on its [4Fe-4S] cluster

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 46, November 2025. SignificanceThis study identifies an iron–sulfur (Fe/S) cluster in the 60S ribosomal assembly factor Mak16 as essential for maintaining complex stability with its interacting partner Rpf1, which is crucial for the maturation of 25S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) …

Detection of anyon braiding through pump–probe spectroscopy

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 46, November 2025. SignificanceQuantum spin liquids are a new phase of matter, quite distinct from magnets and superconductors, featuring local magnetic moments that interact strongly, yet do not show any long-range magnetic order down to the lowest temperatures. They do, …