Global dementia cases, driven mainly by population growth and enhanced life expectancy, are skyrocketing at the moment. Experts anticipate that by 2050, 153 million people could be living with the disease – triple the number today.
Meanwhile, progress towards a cure has been sluggish. The brain is immensely complex, and our understanding of how dementia is caused and eliminated changes all the time. Even developing drugs capable of crossing over the blood-brain remains a challenge.
The Nobel prize in chemistry 2026 has been awarded to two scientists for discoveries that showed how chemical reactions can produce an overwhelming excess of one of two mirror image forms of a molecule. Henri B Kagan at Paris-Sud University in France and Kensō Soai at Tokyo University of Science in Japan have been awarded the prize “for the discovery of nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis”. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners in Stockholm, Sweden, on Wednesday. They will each receive an equal share of a prize of 12m Swedish kronor (about £900,000). Many molecules, including amino acids that form the building blocks of proteins, can exist in two forms that contain the same atoms, but are mirror images of one another, much like a person’s left and right hands. This property is known as chirality. However, the chemistry underpinning life is surprisingly “homochiral”, or same-handed. Proteins are built almost exclusively from L-amino acids, while the sugars that form the backbone of DNA and RNA have the opposite D- configuration.
image: Conceptual overview of how RED-ONION, a next-generation data transfer infrastructure, can be used to accelerate AI for Science
Tokyo & Osaka, August 21, 2026 — The University of Osaka, D3 Center (*1), SANKEN (*2), and NEC Corporation (*3, NEC), have jointly developed RED-ONION (Research EnhanceD Osaka university Next-generation Infrastructure for Open research and innovatioN), a next-generation data transfer infrastructure designed to securely and rapidly transfer large volumes of research data—including sensitive data related to genomics and healthcare, as well as the results of its analysis and processing—in both directions between the D3 Center and SANKEN on the
New simulations suggest that the perplexing Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC) repeatedly emerges in the Red Planet's skies thanks to a never-before-seen meteorological process.
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard a threshold question in Suncor Energy (U. S. A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County: whether cities and counties can sue oil companies for climate damages under state law, or whether federal law bars those suits before they begin. Dozens of similar cases are pending in state courts, seeking billions from energy companies for harms caused by global climate change. While the Suncor complaint itself is vague on how to determine the precise economic damages caused by the defendants, subsequent litigation has relied more and more on event attribution that apportions the increased likelihood of a natural disaster, and its proportional economic harms, to the effects of global warming and even to specific emitters. In May of this year, the Breakthrough Institute filed an amicus brief in Suncor, petitioning the Court to reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that localities and other private parties could sue emitters under state tort law. Then in July, the National Academies of Sciences released a report summarizing the state of the climate impacts attribution literature.
Earth's center of mass does not stay perfectly still. As water, ice, and air move around the planet with the seasons, they redistribute enough weight to push the center of mass back and forth by fractions of an inch relative to Earth's geometric center.
NASA scientists carefully track this subtle motion because Earth's center of mass serves as an essential reference point for satellite navigation and measurements of surface elevation.
This is what the 2026 Nobel prize for chemistry is all about
The Nobel prize in chemistry 2026 has been awarded to two scientists, Henri B Kagan at Paris-Sud University in France and Kensō Soai at Tokyo University of Science in Japan. Their discoveries showed how chemical reactions can produce an overwhelming excess of one of two mirror image forms of a molecule. Science journalist Linda Geddes tells Madeleine Finlay how this has become an important tool in drug development, allowing a greater understanding of how medicines work in the body
A study extends an earlier success in one patient to more people with inherited blindness
After receiving optogenetic therapy, participants in a new study wore custom goggles to help them detect and locate objects like a notebook.
When people think about what ChatGPT or other large language models are doing behind the scenes, it’s common to reach for the language of computing. You might assume there is a database, or a logical series of steps being executed, in order to provide a response to your query.
Picturing AI responses as akin to your computer pulling up a file is a sensible line of thinking. But it’s incorrect. Understanding the central influence of cognitive science in AI’s evolution helps explain why.
ScienceNASA has released a striking image of dawn on the Martian surface taken by its Curiosity rover, showing sunlight bathing jagged crags formed billions of years ago as the car-sized vehicle continues to explore Earth's planetary neighbour. Curiosity landed in 2012 in Gale Crater near the Martian equatorThomson Reuters · Posted: Oct 07, 2026 3:25 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 7Listen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. A view of the Martian surface taken by NASA's Curiosity rover on Aug. 11. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Reuters)NASA has released a striking image of dawn on the Martian surface taken by its Curiosity rover, showing sunlight bathing jagged crags formed billions of years ago as the car-sized vehicle continues to explore Earth's planetary neighbour. Curiosity landed in 2012 in Gale Crater near the Martian equator, and since 2014 has been climbing Mount Sharp, a five-kilometre-tall mountain rising from the crater floor.
Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:For nearly 40 years, scientists have debated whether some aspects of consciousness are non-computational, and therefore, quantum in nature. While regarded as controversial and fringe for decades, evidence hasn’t entirely refuted the theory, and its core ideas are generating more and more attention. Recent studies have provided compelling evidence that quantum processes, with microtubules in neurons serving as a substrate, play a role in human consciousness. The rise of consciousness in humans and all living beings is arguably the greatest wonder of the natural world—and it’s also one of its biggest mysteries. Over millennia, theologians, natural philosophers, and neuroscientists have put forward their own ideas about how this phenomenon arises within our minds, and by the tail end of the 20th century, one of these new theories raised more than a few eyebrows. This interest was warranted for a couple of reasons. First, the person proposing the idea was Roger Penrose, English mathematician and Nobel Laureate. And the second? Well, it involved the most devilishly complex of all scientific fields: Quantum theory.
6 min readOct 7, 2026--Press enter or click to view image in full size(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson is widely regarded as one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century, having transformed a small, Holocaust-depleted sect into a global powerhouse of Jewish outreach of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Throughout his leadership from Brooklyn, New York City, the Rebbe spoke intensely about the imminent arrival of the messianic era, urging his followers to prepare for it through acts of goodness and Jewish observance. During the latter decades of his life, a fervent belief arose among many of his followers that he was in fact the Jewish Messiah. Since the Messiah is believed to reconstruct the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and live in Israel, his followers built in 1986 a house for him in Kfar Chabad Israel which is an exact replica of his apartment at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The Israeli replica was constructed to precisely mirror the layout of the original, including a highly detailed reproduction of the Rebbe’s private office, complete with identical furniture, bookcases, and religious texts.
Expanding understanding of flying rivers and discussing how this knowledge can contribute to water security, decision-making and the valuation of Amazon ecosystem services was the focus of the Internal Seminar “Flying Rivers, Water Security and Economic Valuation of Amazon Ecosystem Services,” held on October 7 at the headquarters of the Permanent Secretariat of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (PS/ACTO) in Brasília.
The event brought together experts in climate, hydrology, ecology and economics, representatives of ACTO Member Countries and partner institutions to discuss the state of knowledge on Amazonian moisture flows, the territories that depend on them and the economic value of the hydroclimatic services provided by the forest. Monitoring, governance, financing and opportunities for regional cooperation were also central to the discussions.
A broken test tube is an unsettling image: shattered glass, spilled liquid, a dangerous bacterium suddenly outside its container. But in a laboratory designed to handle infectious organisms, that should not be where the protection ends. The death of a worker at Russia's Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute has prompted speculation about a laboratory accident involving the bacterium that causes plague. Some reports describe a broken test tube. Russian authorities described her illness as pneumonia of unknown cause and denied a connection to pathogens handled at work. On 6 October, they reported that no plague cases had been detected among her contacts, Reuters reported. Neither plague as the cause of death nor the alleged laboratory accident has been independently established in the publicly available evidence. The concern reflects how quickly pneumonic plague can become life-threatening if untreated. "It is such a rapid and fatal infection that can kill within 24 hours," Brendan Wren, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, tells ScienceAlert. The World Health Organization says early antibiotics can be effective.
