Tuebingen, August 13, 2025. The DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden is starting the new application round for the DKMS John Hansen Research Grant: up to four exceptional research projects by young scientists from around the world will be awarded funding of up to €240,000 each over three years. The projects to be funded should focus on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cell therapy for hematological diseases. Applications for the 2026 DKMS John Hansen Research Grant can be submitted until November 20, 2025. 

Researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Staiton have found the first evidence that drought and insect herbivory can create lasting, transgenerational effects in soybeans. The stressors not only affect the parent plants but alter the traits and defenses of their offspring. The research demonstrates some of the positive and negative impacts the stressors have on a plant’s progeny and could be used to develop more resilient crops in the same season.

The team found fossils of Homo that confirm the earliest evidence for the human lineage at 2.8 million years ago as well as evidence of Homo at 2.6 million years ago, solidifying the antiquity of Homo. Unexpectedly, the team also found evidence that Homo overlapped at the site with a different type of hominin, Australopithecus, at 2.6 million years ago.