Shengxi Huang, associate professor in Rice University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was elected this month as a fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, in recognition of her contributions to the field and service to its scientific community.

Published in Chemical Science, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have designed and synthesized new multi-functional compounds that change structure under UV light. Depending on the light conditions,  the molecules reversibly switch between two stable forms through a ring-opening and ring-closing reaction.  These molecular switches have a range of desirable properties, for example glowing with fluorescence after their structure changes, making it easy to see which state the molecule is in.

How cells respond to the leukemia drug 6-thioguanine still holds surprises: A new study, led jointly by researchers from CeMM and the University of Oxford identifies NUDT5 as an unexpected regulator of drug sensitivity and reveals that its role has nothing to do with its enzymatic activity. Published in Nature Communications (DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-74489-9), the findings combine targeted protein degradation, medicinal chemistry and genetic experiments to uncover a previously hidden layer of thiopurine biology and further challenge traditional views of how enzymes function in cells.

Discovery was hidden in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archival data. Astronomers used stream as a tool for mapping dark matter in a low-mass galaxy. Team expects future telescopes will find many more stellar streams, expanding the ability to probe dark matter across the universe.

For the first time, researchers have discovered a globular cluster stellar stream in a galaxy beyond the Milky Way – specifically in an ultra-diffuse galaxy. The discovery opens up new possibilities for studying dark matter, one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in modern astrophysics. The finding was made by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and has just been published in Nature.

Astronomers have discovered a “black hole star,” an extremely bright red spot in the early universe that appears to be a new type of astrophysical object. It resembles an enormous star, but its energy production is closer to what a black hole might generate.

Published (DOI: 10.1016/j.esen.2026.100077) online on May 26, 2026, in eScience Energy, the article presents nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) as an integrated experimental framework for understanding how liquid electrolytes organize, move, and become heterogeneous before interfacial chemistry begins.

New research finds that men who consume higher amounts of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have significantly greater risks of prostate cancer. Analyzing nationally representative data from 17,024 U.S. men, researchers found a 29% higher risk among those in the three highest UPF-consumption groups and a 30% higher risk among those in the two highest groups. After adjusting for key factors, elevated risk remained significant, ranging from 24% to 31%.