Around 100 trillion insects fly in the skies above the USA on a summer's day, according to estimates by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the USA. Using weather radar, they have for the first time estimated the number of flying insects above the contiguous US.

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a debilitating, chronic syndrome that causes sudden, severe, electric shock-like pain in the face. While TN isn’t life-threatening, it can severely alter quality of life and disrupt everyday activities, such as talking, chewing and smiling by triggering intense bouts of pain. The condition occurs when a blood vessel puts pressure on the trigeminal nerve near the brainstem, which provides sensation to the face and head.

Several types of treatments, surgically and through medications, can help manage symptoms, but it is typically a long-term condition. Many patients do not see results with medications alone and require some sort of surgical treatment.

University Hospitals is the first health system in the world to offer a new type of minimally-invasive treatment with the OneRF® Trigeminal Nerve Ablation System. The two initial patients, successfully treated this month, reported pain relief from the procedure without complications.

University of Vermont scientists developed a first-of-its-kind study that tracks thousands of generations of digital organisms replaying evolution hundreds of times. Their results were surprising. In some cases, changing the environment helped populations find higher fitness peaks; in others, it hindered them. This gives a bird’s-eye view of how evolution played out across many different environments—something that would be impossible to test in the lab. The biggest takeaway is that starting point really matters. A population’s history shapes how high it can climb and how hard the path is to get there, which means one population may not represents an entire species.

EPFL researchers have successfully engineered cells of the immune system to more effectively recognize cancer cells. The work, covered in two papers, turns the previously lab-based method into a full-blown immunotherapy strategy.

DAEJEON, SOUTH KOREA – A joint research team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Unmanned Exploration Laboratory (UEL) has developed a transformative wheel capable of navigating the Moon’s most extreme terrains, including steep lunar pits and lava tubes.DAEJEON, SOUTH KOREA – A joint research team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Unmanned Exploration Laboratory (UEL) has developed a transformative wheel capable of navigating the Moon’s most extreme terrains, including steep lunar pits and lava tubes.