== not likely to be available in my life-time, but…
Bacterial duo eliminates tumors without immune system help in new cancer therapy

A research team has developed an immune-independent bacterial cancer therapy using a novel microbial consortium called AUN.

A seed-inspired monocopter idea takes flight

Researchers embraced autorotation and leveraged aerodynamic efficiency over brute-force thrust and demonstrated a minimalist yet highly efficient design: a 32-gram, lightweight monocopter that can hover with full automatic control for 26 minutes, far surpassing typical drones in its class.

== more potatoes and genetics
Decoding sweet potato DNA: New research reveals surprising ancestry

The sweet potato feeds millions worldwide. But this humble root vegetable has guarded its genetic secrets for decades.

How a rare cycad’s wax crystals conjure blue without pigment

The endangered South African cycad Encephalartos horridus may resemble a relic from the Jurassic age, but the species itself evolved long after dinosaurs disappeared. Still, it carries a biochemical legacy inherited from its distant ancestors.

California Successfully Tests ‘Virtual Power Plant’, Drawing Power From Batteries in 100,000 Homes

The purpose of the test — the largest ever in the state, which has by far the most home battery capacity in the US — was to see just how much power is really there for the utility to tap, and to ensure it could be switched on without causing a crash.

== have used Dijkstra’s algorithm to solve a coding problem or two, paywall?
New Method Is the Fastest Way To Find the Best Routes

A canonical problem in computer science is to find the shortest route to every point in a network. A new approach beats the classic algorithm taught in textbooks.

Single pollen parents in flowering plants may be more common than previously thought

While all seeds produced within a fruit have the same maternal genome, the paternal genomes of seeds can come from the pollen of one or more paternal parents.

Cosmic Horseshoe galaxy harbors what may be the most massive black hole ever detected

It exists in one of the most massive galaxies ever observed—the Cosmic Horseshoe—which is so big it distorts spacetime and warps the passing light of a background galaxy into a giant horseshoe-shaped Einstein ring.

Self-cleaning glass uses electric field to remove dust particles

What if windows could clean themselves at the flick of a switch? We’re not quite there yet, but we are getting closer.

Nature’s hardest teeth: Chitons offer blueprint for advanced dental and industrial materials

Chiton teeth, which consist of both magnetite nanorods and organic material, are not only harder and stiffer than human tooth enamel, but also harder than high-carbon steels, stainless steel, and even zirconium oxide and aluminum oxide—advanced engineered ceramics made at high temperatures.

Flowering time and pollinator visits together shape which plants thrive each season

A new paper indicates that pollination can have a dramatic effect on how plants grow and change.

Study sheds light on murmuration mysteries

They twist and turn across the sky in dense, whirling formations—murmurations of birds that seem to move as one, captivating watchers and puzzling scientists for decades.

== very similar to article below
Meet the universe’s earliest confirmed black hole

Astronomers have identified the most distant black hole ever confirmed. It and the galaxy it calls home, CAPERS-LRD-z9, are present 500 million years after the Big Bang.

First gene-edited islet transplant in a human passes functional trial

Early-onset type 1 diabetes remains linked to reduced quality of life, serious cardiovascular risk, and shortened lifespan.

A low-cost catalytic cycle could advance the separation, storage and transportation of hydrogen

Despite its potential for various real-world applications, hydrogen is often expensive to produce, store and safely transport to desired locations. Moreover, before it can be used, it typically needs to be purified.

China Solves ‘Tunnel Boom’ Problem With Maglev Trains

Soundproofing buffers at tunnel mouths to be rolled out on China’s latest magnetic levitation train prototype.

The ‘frying pan of Spain’ shows how cities can deal with extreme heat

Seville has adopted several water-based solutions to reducing urban temperatures.

GPT-5 is here and it’s free for everyone

With GPT-5, the company is touting across-the-board enhancements, claiming the model is its best yet when it comes to coding, writing, safety, accuracy and more.

What’s slimy, green and flourishing thanks to climate change?

Researchers dig deep to find answers in sediment cores from Canadian lakes

Mer Bleue Bog ‘filled with bombs’ according to new drone scans

DND knows where bombs were dropped in the Mer Bleue Bog — but not how many

Scientists finally know where potatoes come from

New research traces the genetic ancestry of the popular root vegetable to a brief plant romance millions of years ago.

All humans emit subtle light until they die, study suggests

It’s called ultraweak photon emission (UPE) and is a natural product of your metabolism.

NASA explains how it keeps the Curiosity rover running, 13 years later

The agency details the changes it’s had to implement to keep the rover operational.

The Canadian drone industry is spinning up — with lessons from Ukraine

Canada has started to get serious about developing its drone warfare capabilities.

Gorillas seek out old female friends even after years apart

The relationships built up between female mountain gorillas are more important than previously understood.

OpenAI’s first new open-weight LLMs in six years are here

For the first time since GPT-2 in 2019, OpenAI is releasing new open-weight large language models. It’s sharing the weights — that is, the numerical values the models learned to assign to inputs during their training — not models that include the underlying code and data the company used to train them.

Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record

Often dubbed the world’s largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef is a 2,300km (1,429-mile) expanse of tropical corals that houses a stunning array of biodiversity.

Midwestern butterfly count: Big data yields bad news and clues

Butterflies are the most commonly counted insects and the butterfly is a likely poster species for how other insects and animals crucial to ecosystems are faring.

Static electricity sense could be factor in evolution of extreme body shapes of treehoppers

Treehopper insects are known for their astonishing morphological diversity—there’s more than 3,000 species of treehoppers and they significantly vary in shape with features such as horns, spines, balls and tridents.

Theories on dark matter’s origins point to ‘mirror world’ and universe’s edge

What remains unknown are the origins of dark matter, and hence, what are its particle properties? Those weighty questions primarily fall to theoretical physicists.

== paywall?
Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface

Strong new evidence suggests that primordial material from the planet’s center is somehow making its way out. Continent-size entities anchored to the core-mantle boundary might be involved.

== yjc
Engineer Restores Pay Phones For Free Public Use

With just an internet connection, these phones can make calls anywhere in the U.S. or Canada — no coins required.

World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns

Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet.

After a decade of death, Canadian scientists say they’ve found the sea star killer

It’s in the same bacterial family that causes cholera in humans.

Fossil discovered over 100 years ago in Fernie, B.C., identified as new species

The Fernatator prenticei, a marine reptile, dates back about 190M years

New drug helps immune system target liver cancer by blocking fat metabolism

Liver cancer cells thrive on fat, posing a serious risk of cancer diagnosis for millions of people living with fatty liver disease.

Shroud of Turin image matches low-relief statue—not human body, 3D modeling study finds

The Shroud of Turin is a famous artifact with obscure origins. How and when it was made has long been the subject of debate among many scientists, historians and religious leaders, alike.

Study revises ’living fossil’ fish anatomy, reshaping view of vertebrate skull evolution

The coelacanth is known as a “living fossil” because its anatomy has changed little in the last 65 million years.

‘Whale poop loop’ keeps ocean and humans alive and well

Whales of all shapes and sizes play a significant role in the health of marine ecosystems. About 50% of the air humans breathe is produced by the ocean, thanks to phytoplankton and whale waste.

The brain fires up immune cells when sick people are nearby

When people viewed virtual avatars with coughs or rashes, their brains triggered an immune response.

Mission begins to save snails threatened by own beauty

Endangered Polymita tree snails, which are disappearing from their native forest habitats in Eastern Cuba, have vibrant, colourful and extravagantly patterned shells.

N6 (Hexanitrogen) Synthesized for the First Time - Twice As Energy Dense As TNT

Of course, turning a high-energy explosive made on a milligram scale in a lab is still a long way from becoming a useful, controllable propellant. This is no small feat that remains unsolved.

== yjc
Melting glaciers threaten to wipe out European villages - is the steep cost to protect them worth it?

The village’s 300 residents had been evacuated days earlier, after geologists warned that the mountain was increasingly unstable. But they lost their homes, their church, their hotels and their farms.

== yjc
The mystery of Winston Churchill’s dead platypus was unsolved - until now

In 1943, a camouflaged ship set off from Australia to England carrying top secret cargo - a single young platypus.

Satellites, Drones, and AI: the New ‘High-Tech Quest to Fight Wildfires’

More than 100 new wildfire-related technologies have launched in the U.S. and around the world since 2023.

NASA’s latest mission to the ISS features a bacterial experiment

What they bring back may help us get to the bottom of public health problems on Earth, like antibiotic resistance and infectious disease spread.

Early universe’s ‘little red dots’ may be black hole stars

Puzzling objects spotted by NASA’s JWST telescope may be entirely new class of celestial entity.

Melanoma ‘cellular compass’ discovery could help curb metastasis

Researchers have discovered a protein which is critical for steering melanoma cancer cells as they spread throughout the body. The malignant cells become dependent on this protein to migrate, pointing to new strategies for impeding metastasis.

Global study identifies upswing in photosynthesis driven by land, offset by oceans

Photosynthetic organisms—also known as primary producers—form the base of the food chain, making most life on Earth possible.

New AI tool illuminates ‘dark side’ of the human genome

Proteins sustain life as we know it, serving many important structural and functional roles throughout the body. But these large molecules have cast a long shadow over a smaller subclass of proteins called microproteins.

Researchers Map Where Solar Energy Delivers the Biggest Climate Payoff

The study found that the climate benefits of solar power differ markedly throughout U.S. regions, pinpointing where clean energy investments return the greatest climate dividends.

Aurora announces nighttime driverless operations and Arizona expansion

Aurora’s SAE L4 autonomous driving system can detect objects in the dark more than 450 meters away.