After 15 years, four geologists have brought one of the most unusual research projects at the University of Gothenburg to a close. In a scientific article, they analyse 141 feature films featuring geologists.

“On the silver screen, being a geologist is a risky job; a third of them die before the film ends,” says Erik Sturkell, geologist and research leader.

A storyteller with a passion for popular education. Head of one of Linköping University’s strongest research environments. And a physician. Markus Heilig, professor of psychiatry, researches the biology of the brain in addiction, and always considers the whole person.

In May 2026, Tabitha Awuor Amollo is spending some weeks as a guest scientist at HZB, analysing perovskite thin films at BESSY II. The Kenyan physicist from Egerton University, Nairobi, was recently recognised for her achievements in research and teaching. For the development of a solar-powered refrigeration system for use in rural health centres, she  has been awarded the 2026 Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD)-Elsevier Foundation Award. An interview on exceptional projects and daily struggles of a scientist. Questions were asked by Antonia Rötger.

University of Tennessee, Knoxville researchers Dustin Gilbert and Anne Murray teamed up to investigate bee magnetism after learning honeybees can sense Earth’s geomagnetic field. With Laura Russo, they tested 120+ bee species over six years and found nearly 90% are magnetic, expanding knowledge far beyond earlier limited studies.

The U.S. space agency used a device developed by a startup supported by FAPESP to monitor the sleep patterns, physical activity, and interactions of astronauts on the Artemis 2 mission.

What if scientists could watch a dozen proteins at work inside a cell at the same time? A new AI@HHMI project combines AI-driven protein design with bright dyes to build probes that could make that possible.

A new study published in Big Earth Data develops a stochastic random forest (RF) classifier to predict extreme wind-gust (WG) occurrences along the western Mediterranean coast by integrating instantaneous and trailing 24-hour meteorological variables across multiple height levels, enabling the model to capture both short-term evolution and immediate atmospheric forcing. It demonstrates strong forecasting performance with high precision, low false-alarm rates, and reliable uncertainty estimation, while identifying barometric-pressure tendencies and humidity as key predictors, highlighting the framework’s potential for early-warning systems, climate resilience, and disaster-risk management. UERRA reanalysis data can be downloaded from the Copernicus Climate Data Store platform: https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/. Supplementary materials supporting the findings of this study are openly accessible at the public GitHub repository: https://github.com/AI4OCEANS/.

After over seven years of research and development, the student-run AggieSat Laboratory has sent the AggieSat 6 satellite into Earth’s orbit from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard the Minotaur IV. 

Ahead of World IBD Day on 19 May, footage from the EU-funded Algae4IBD shows how project is uncovering anti-inflammatory and gut-supporting compounds from microalgae and seaweeds, developing them into food prototypes for IBD patients and beyond. 

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have developed a new, non-toxic method for protecting wood that could eventually replace conventional pressure-treated timber. The method is based on lignin – a natural substance found in wood – and is designed to avoid the environmentally harmful chemicals that are currently used to extend the lifespan of wood products. The researchers aim to have the technology ready for market use before 2030.