Satellite navigation can fail not only during dramatic space weather events, but also when the ionosphere develops sharp regional structures that standard correction models fail to resolve.

It may be possible to extract critical raw materials like lithium from brines (mineral-rich solutions) in salt lakes and geothermal systems without causing large-scale environmental damage. In the BRIDGE initiative, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Germany’s Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources are investigating relevant deposits in the Atacama Desert with Chilean partners. The initiative’s objective is to analyze the resource potential of the deposits and develop strategies for environmentally friendly extraction. 

The symptom profiles of different neurodegenerative diseases often overlap, and diagnosing age-related cognitive symptoms is complex. A patient may have multiple overlapping disease processes in the brain at the same time. Now, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed an AI model showing that it is possible to detect several neurodegenerative diseases from a single blood sample. The study is published in Nature Medicine.

Why are some people unable to hear from birth, even though their inner ear appears intact? One possible cause lies in the so-called OTOF gene. It plays a central role in transmitting sound signals from the hair cells to the auditory nerve. Without this function, acoustic information does not reach the brain. Researchers from the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, the University Medical Center Göttingen, and the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences have now, for the first time, generated marmosets in which this gene has been knocked out precisely. The animals are healthy and develop normally, but are deaf from birth. This provides the first primate model that realistically replicates key characteristics of human deafness.

Creatinine is a widely used marker of kidney function, but testing it still often depends on bulky instruments or methods prone to interference. 

The Robert A. Winn Excellence in Clinical Trials Award Program (Winn Awards) is pleased to announce that AstraZeneca has joined as a funding partner. AstraZeneca will support five medical students in the 2026 Winn Clinical Investigator Pathway Program (Winn CIPP), a six-week immersive summer program that prepares future physicians and clinical researchers to expand access to clinical trials and engage medically underrepresented communities. This partnership strengthens the Winn Awards’ mission of Better Science For All by providing opportunities for medical students from all backgrounds to explore community-engaged clinical research opportunities.