The images of the major forest fires in Spain and France, with the fire clouds near Bordeaux, have shocked many people. There have been numerous reports of the formation of a pyrocumulonimbus cloud – a fire-driven thundercloud – and the possible transport of smoke particles to Central Europe. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) have now demonstrated that smoke particles from the severe forest fires in southern Europe were indeed transported to Germany at various altitudes: During the nights from Tuesday to Thursday (28 to 30 July 2026), they observed smoke layers over Leipzig at an altitude of 10–11 kilometres from midnight onwards – an unusually high altitude for European fires. The origin of the air masses could be traced using backward trajectories: the air masses over Leipzig had been over the fire area near Bordeaux around 15 hours earlier. For the researchers, the lidar measurements provide strong evidence that the forest fires near Bordeaux did indeed result in high-reaching pyroconvection and the transport of smoke particles as far as the upper troposphere.

Up-to-date background information on the topic of ‘Forest fire aerosols in Europe: dispersion, climate and health’ is now also provided in a dossier by the Science Media Center Germany (SMC), to which five researchers from TROPOS and the Leibniz Science Campus ‘Smoke and Bioaerosols in a Changing Climate‘ (LSC BioSmoke) have contributed.

A research team led by Dr. Young Kim, Principal Researcher at the Heat Pump Research Center of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM; President Seok-Hyun Ryu), has developed a chemical adsorption heat pump system incorporating an electrochemical compressor, in collaboration with Professor Minseong Kim and Professor Dongkyu Kim of Chung-Ang University.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is investing in high-impact research, scholarship and creative activity through the inaugural awards of its Ascent Program for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Designed to support transformative projects with disciplinary and institutional impact, the new internal funding initiative provides awards of up to $50,000 for up to three years. Awards in the first round span the disciplines of music, architecture, art history, archaeology and film.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — American researchers and engineers first split the atom for usable electricity in Idaho. They built the reactor prototype of the nation’s first nuclear submarine there. They raised more than 50 one-of-a-kind reactors on an 890-square-mile stretch of Idaho desert.

Before their first semester at Rice University begins, 38 incoming students are already getting a taste of what it means to be a Rice student: tackling demanding STEM courses, learning how to study collaboratively, meeting faculty and building a community they can rely on when classes begin in the fall. They are part of the Rice Emerging Scholars Program, or RESP, an intensive residential program designed to prepare first-year students for the pace, depth and rigor of STEM education at Rice.

HHMI Investigator Flaminia Catteruccia is betting that the key to beating malaria lies not in killing mosquitoes, but in defeating the parasite inside them.

Researchers at U of U Health are working with pregnant patients to test non-pharmaceutical treatments for depression and anxiety. Clinical trials give people more options, grant new hope for mental health conditions, and improve health care for the future.