Making Magic with Material Science and Mentorship - UC San Diego Today

Mitochondria are the tiny powerpacks that supply most of the energy our cells need. Their ability to generate this energy relies on a distinctive architecture: two membranes, one tucked inside the other, separated by a narrow gap called the intermembrane space (IMS). This tiny space helps sustain the chemistry of energy production, making its organization critical to how these cellular powerpacks function. Now, a new study led by a University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine investigator reports a potentially transformative discovery: the volume of the IMS is genetically controlled and adjustable. By controlling where this space expands or narrows within each mitochondrion, cells can actively shape the internal architecture of their powerpacks and tune how they function.

Pandemics can arise wherever animal or human populations are sufficiently large, and they are not confined to the modern age. Johan Jakobsson, Professor of Molecular Neurogenetics at Lund University, believes that the findings from the new study are highly relevant: they show that a virus can cause a DNA sequence to change across an entire population. "The virus we investigated specifically affected chimpanzees. Yet humans and chimpanzees have largely the same genetic makeup. That is why it is important to understand the differences in how genes are regulated. Our findings suggest that one gene, LINC00662, plays a significant role in early human brain development," says Johan Jakobsson.

Graphical summary of the project's key results. Credit: Fernández B., Bustos M., Vera T., Palacios M., Hill D. & Astudillo D. Pollution from human-generated waste in marine ecosystems has reached critical levels, with cigarette butts (CBs) among the most persistent and harmful pollutants. Globally, an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded annually, making them the most common type of litter on beaches over the past three decades.

Every egg cell and sperm cell depends on meiosis, a tightly choreographed process in which chromosomes find their partners, exchange genetic material, and then divide. When meiosis goes awry in humans, the consequences can include infertility, miscarriage, and birth defects. A new study from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, published in Science Advances, shows that the molecular machinery guiding this process is more widely shared across animals than expected, and more flexible. The surprise was that familiar-looking parts were not always doing the same jobs, revealing an unexpected flexibility in how meiosis works across evolution.

Over 40 people attended the County of Brant and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Hamilton Centre club’s Astronomy: The Sky Tonight event on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026.

The Perseverance rover's first selfie, snapped with the WATSON camera on its robotic arm, on April 6, 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill) When we look up at Mars, many millions of miles away, it's inspiring to think that someone may be looking back at us – not any heat-ray-equipped aliens, thankfully, but one of humanity's greatest accomplishments: NASA's Perseverance rover. In July of 2020, the affectionately nicknamed Percy left Earth forever in a bright flash of hope during some of modern history's darkest days. It, and we, have come a long way since then. Earth (our "pale blue dot") playing peek-a-boo behind Mars' moon Phobos, as observed by Perseverance on July 2, 2026. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI)In fact, Perseverance has recently achieved something completely unique: it has traveled farther across the surface of another world than any previous entity. As its interplanetary odometer ticked off 45.22 kilometers (28.10 miles) on October 11, it graciously surpassed the record set by its older sibling Opportunity, which traversed 45.16 kilometers of dusty, red, rocky Martian expanse from 2004 to 2018. Perseverance is a product of its predecessors.