A major collaboration involving nine labs, led by scientists at Gladstone Institutes, has transferred a particularly useful DNA editing system from E. coli into 14 new species of bacteria, spanning three major branches of the bacterial family tree. Their approach, described in Nature Biotechnology, takes advantage of retrons, an immune system from bacteria that produces DNA that can be repurposed for editing genomes.

The harsh environmental conditions and the vast distance for transportation present significant challenges to ensuring a stable resource supply for human activities on Mars. Utilizing in-situ Martian air as the working medium for energy transfer and material conversion, coupled with advanced thermodynamic cycles and chemical processes, could offer an innovative path to build sustainable energy station on Mars. This perspective highlights the key role of Martian atmosphere in multimodal resource conversion. Researchers propose a design framework for future in-situ Martian energy systems, analyze the implementation pathways and current status of resource conversion, and demonstrate its potential to reduce rocket payload costs through thermodynamic analysis. Finally, they summarize the future challenges and directions in the field of multimodal resource conversion on Mars.

In response to the escalating risks in urban development and governance, the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the School of Government at Nanjing University have formalised a partnership by signing an agreement to establish the Joint Laboratory for AI-Enabled City Development and Safety Governance on 21 April, 2026 on HKU campus. It is the first research platform under the “Nanjing University Hong Kong Advanced Research Institute” set up in October 2025.

The Musketeer Foundation Institute of Data Science at the University of Hong Kong (HKU IDS) hosted the Hong Kong Global AI Governance Conference 2026 (HKGAGC 2026) on 10–11 April at the Rayson Huang Theatre, bringing together 38 leading scholars, policymakers, and industry practitioners to examine emerging challenges in artificial intelligence (AI) governance.

Researchers developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) technique that could help overcome a major bottleneck in the development of large-scale quantum computers. The method enables automated analysis of key measurement data used in semiconductor spin qubits.