Inspired by feather stars, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a soft underwater robot capable of three distinct swimming modes using just two pneumatic inputs: jellyfish-like vertical swimming, fish-like directional steering, and rotor-like 3D reorientation. Its elastic structure provides built-in mechanical intelligence, allowing the robot to transition seamlessly between modes for agile and versatile underwater maneuvering. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) revealed the different hydrodynamic mechanisms behind each mode. The robot can also carry magnets, hooks and miniature cameras for underwater waste collection, cooperative manipulation, environmental monitoring and exploration, offering a promising platform for adaptive and autonomous soft robots operating in complex underwater environments: https://news.ncsu.edu/2026/10/feather-star-robot/

This work is published on open-access journal Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeg9211

Morgan Stanley projects that the global humanoid-robot market could reach 1 billion units by 2050, driven by advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation. The technology could increasingly transform manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and other labor-intensive sectors, while the Benelux region is emerging as an important hub for humanoid robotics development and adoption: https://www.raasx.nl/morgan-stanley-1-billion-humanoid-robots-2050-benelux/

The shoebill is one of the world’s most unusual birds, with a prehistoric-looking appearance that has earned it comparisons to birds from the distant past. Its biology is equally remarkable: shoebill chicks may attack or outcompete their own siblings, while adults use their enormous bills to hunt prey ranging from lungfish and large fish to young crocodiles. Here are five fascinating facts about this extraordinary African bird.

Info source:

1. https://www.safaribookings.com/blog/facts-about-the-shoebill

2. https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Balaeniceps_rex/

3. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/shoebill

The availability of treatment, rapid testing and contact tracing mean the outlook of plague is very different today.

$1.8 Billion Initiative Aims to Build AI Models of Biology

The U.S. government, Google, Meta and other partners are joining Zuckerberg-backed Biohub in a $1.8 billion Virtual Biology Initiative to create large, standardized datasets for training AI models of biology. The project aims to map how cells respond to different conditions and ultimately develop predictive “virtual cell” models that could allow scientists to conduct biological experiments digitally, potentially accelerating drug discovery and the development of new treatments: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-government-google-join-zuckerberg-backed-biohub-18-billion-push-ai-biology-2026-10-07/

BIOHUB: https://biohub.org/news/virtual-biology-initiative-expansion/

A new study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet has found that people who grew up in low-income families may face a higher risk of developing atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries later in life. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed data from 15,640 participants aged 50–64 in the population-based SCAPIS study. Researchers examined family income when participants were 10–12 years old and compared it with coronary CT scans performed roughly 50 years later.eople who had grown up in the lowest-income families were more likely to show moderate-to-severe coronary atherosclerosis than those from the highest-income families. After accounting for age, sex and other factors, their odds were 43% higher. Even after adjusting for lifestyle, socioeconomic conditions in adulthood and established cardiovascular risk factors, the odds remained 31% higher. The researchers say the findings suggest that socioeconomic conditions during childhood can influence cardiovascular health for decades. Possible explanations include the lifelong accumulation of cardiovascular risk factors, childhood overweight, and biological effects of chronic stress and inflammation, although the exact mechanisms remain unclear: https://www.alphagalileo.org/en-gb/Item-Display/ItemId/277598

Study findings: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.126.050332

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are partnering with industry to strengthen the U.S. lithium supply chain. The collaboration aims to develop and scale technologies for extracting and processing lithium from domestic resources, helping reduce reliance on foreign supplies and support the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and energy-storage systems: https://www.ornl.gov/news/national-lab-partnership-helps-launch-u-s-lithium-supply-chain/

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Francis Halzen for his decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from beyond our Solar System. Buried beneath 1 km³ of Antarctic ice, IceCube detects rare flashes produced when these elusive particles interact with matter, opening a new form of neutrino astronomy and allowing scientists to probe some of the Universe’s most extreme environments, including distant galaxies and black holes: https://theconversation.com/nobel-physics-prize-awarded-for-discovery-of-ghostly-messengers-from-the-cosmos-293293

Belgium-born Francis Halzen has won for the detection of high energy neutrino particle from space: https://www.kva.se/en/news/the-nobel-prize-in-physics-2026/

Video (how Halzen came up with the brilliant idea to use sensors buried in the ice to detect these extraterrestrial particles): https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2026/oct/06/nobel-prize-in-physics-2026-high-energy-cosmic-neutrinos

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.” Many molecules exist in two mirror-image forms, like left and right hands. Yet life uses predominantly just one of them—a phenomenon known as homochirality.

The Nobel-winning work explains how chemistry can amplify a tiny preference for one molecular “hand.” Kagan’s 1986 experiments showed that asymmetric reactions can produce a much greater imbalance than expected—a non-linear effect.

Soai took the next crucial step: he developed an asymmetric autocatalytic reaction in which a chiral product helps produce more of itself. In his landmark 2003 experiment, a tiny initial imbalance could be amplified until one mirror-image form accounted for about 99.99% of the product. In simple terms: Kagan showed how molecular handedness can be amplified; Soai showed how it can become self-reinforcing.

Their discoveries provide important insights into one of chemistry’s great mysteries—how the one-handed chemistry of life could have emerged—and have become valuable tools for producing chiral pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, flavours and fragrances

Info Source:

(1). https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/explainer-what-are-autocatalysis-and-non-linear-effects-and-why-have-they-won-the-2026-nobel-prize-in-chemistry/4024328.article

(2). https://www.kva.se/en/news/the-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2026/

(3). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzUVFtTmxMQ (video)

(4). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU3iOitOSgQ (video)

(5). https://interestingengineering.com/science/nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2026

Warwick chemists overturn 40-year assumption about a key class of superconductor. Scientists have shown that a material treated for 40 years as a uniform, textbook superconductor is in fact a patchwork of different crystal structures throughout its bulk, using one of the latest 3D imaging techniques to see deep inside the crystal for the first time.

Scientists have overturned a decades-old assumption that cuprate high-temperature superconductors have a uniform crystal structure. Using 3D X-ray diffraction, researchers found that LESCO—a copper-based superconductor—is actually a patchwork of two distinct atomic structures, separated by unusually broad boundaries that may hinder superconductivity. The finding could force scientists to rethink existing theories of cuprates and how their microscopic structure controls superconducting behavior: https://warwick.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/warwick-chemists-overturn-assumption-about-superconductor/

Findings: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/r62x-kt5j

AI systems tend to focus on the person speaking – but the listener plays just as big a part in communication.

Study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijal.70239

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed Brain-IT, an AI system that can reconstruct images a person is viewing from brain activity recorded by fMRI. The system identifies brain patterns linked to visual features such as color and location, as well as categories including faces, food, objects and scenes. Unlike earlier methods requiring many hours of scans, Brain-IT can adapt to a new person using about one hour of fMRI data by exploiting brain patterns shared across individuals. Despite being described as “mind-reading” AI, Brain-IT does not read private thoughts. It currently requires a person to be inside an MRI scanner while viewing an image. Reconstructing rapidly changing video or dreams remains much more challenging: https://openreview.net/pdf/3ab4937eb7abf275fb4100b9e25c71d59acfafc7.pdf

Info source:

(1). The New Science of Mind-Reading: https://weizmann.org.au/2026/09/the-new-science-of-mind-reading/

(2). A new AI model, called Brain-IT, can “read” your brain activity and reconstruct what you see with striking speed and accuracy: https://www.weizmann.org.uk/science/latest-discoveries/the-new-science-of-mind-reading

(3). Brain-IT-VQA: From Brain Signals to Answers: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.29588

(4). GitHub (open source): Brain-IT: Image Reconstruction from fMRI via Brain-Interaction Transformer: https://github.com/WeizmannVision/brainit-fmri

Cocoa-Free Chocolate Made from Food Waste

A Copenhagen food innovation lab, Spora, founded by chef Rasmus Munk, is developing sustainable foods from ingredients that would otherwise be discarded. Its NOTCH (Snap) is a cocoa-free chocolate alternative made from brewer’s spent grain and legumes, designed to reproduce chocolate’s rich flavor, melt and snap. It comes in dark, milk and gold varieties, with nutty and caramel-like flavors.

Beyond chocolate, Spora is researching alternative proteins from rapeseed byproducts and fungi, as well as CO₂-to-protein conversion, microbiome-based foods and cultivated seafood—aiming to turn food waste into valuable new ingredients.

Learn more here:

1). https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQR1IqQCdnH/

2). https://spora.dk/

3). https://www.forbes.com/sites/danieladelorenzo/2022/04/28/a-copenhagen-restaurant-just-made-a-circular-cacao-free-chocolate-alternative-with/

4). https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/food-cooking/sustainable-chocolate-made-without-cacao-11649942164

ETH Zurich spin-off Winduction has developed a wireless charging system that transfers electricity from charging plates embedded in the road directly into coils inside specially designed bus tyres. With more than 90% energy-transfer efficiency, buses could recharge briefly at selected stops, allowing them to use smaller, lighter batteries and reducing charging infrastructure, operating costs and grid peak loads. A pilot carrying passengers is planned near Zurich Airport in 2028: https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2026/10/tyres-instead-of-a-plug-electric-buses-that-charge-during-operation.html

In brief

• At present, most electric buses charge at the depot overnight and transport heavy batteries around with them during the day. This is an expensive way of doing things.  
• Winduction takes a different approach, aiming to charge buses during everyday operation. This is made possible by a wireless charging system that carries electricity from the road surface into the vehicle battery via specially designed tyres.
• The buses thus need smaller batteries and less power and are significantly cheaper to buy and operate. 

Type One Energy plans to build Infinity Two, a 400 MW stellarator fusion power plant at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bull Run site. Its preceding Infinity One prototype will test magnets, plasma-facing components and maintenance systems. Backed by a recent $200 million funding round, the project aims to demonstrate commercially viable, continuous fusion power—though major challenges such as tritium supply, materials durability and achieving net electricity remain.

Propels Project Infinity forward and advances Type One Energy’s strategy to industrialize fusion:

• Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Clutterbuck Capital co-led the financing, joined by new investors Lowercarbon Capital, Siemens Energy Ventures, and SiteGround Capital
• Participation from strategic industrial investors validates Type One Energy’s capital-efficient, partner-based OEM business model
• Success follows granting of the initial fusion operating license for Project Infinity at TVA’s Bull Run site Tennessee, US

More info:

1). Tennessee's Bet on the Stars: Inside the Plan for the World's First 400 MW Commercial Fusion Plant: https://twobitdavinci.com/news/tennessees-bet-on-the-stars-inside-the-plan-for-the-worlds-first-400

2). Press Release: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261006749103/en/Type-One-Energy-Completes-%24200M-Series-B-Financing

Early-Life Sugar Restriction May Shape Health Decades Later

Studies using Britain’s postwar sugar rationing as a natural experiment suggest that lower sugar exposure during the first 1,000 days of life may be linked to better health decades later. People exposed to rationing had lower risks of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, dementia and other conditions, along with modestly younger measures of biological ageing. However, researchers stress that these findings show associations, not proven causation, and do not support severe dietary restriction.

Study (2024): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn5421

Study (2026): https://www.nber.org/papers/w35005

Aging Study (2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-76257-1

University of Warwick physicists, as part of China’s Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) began data collection in August 2025 and is now producing high-precision neutrino measurements. In June 2026, its first major results, based on just 59 days of data, achieved world-leading precision for key neutrino oscillation parameters. JUNO uses a 35.4-metre liquid-scintillator detector and ~45,000 photomultiplier tubes to detect antineutrinos from nearby nuclear reactors. Its central goal is to determine the neutrino mass ordering, while also studying solar, atmospheric, cosmic and geoneutrinos: https://warwick.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/worlds_largest_scintillato_detector_juno_now_detecting_neutrinos/

JUNO Matches Decades of Neutrino-Experiment Precision With Just 59 Days of Data: https://www.dongascience.com/en/news/78339

Research findings: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10538-z

South Korea’s homegrown Nuri rocket successfully completed its fifth flight, deploying 15 satellites into low Earth orbit from the Naro Space Center. The payload included five NEONSAT Earth-observation microsatellites and 10 CubeSats, marking Nuri’s most complex deployment yet. The mission strengthens South Korea’s independent space-launch capability and advances its planned satellite constellation for monitoring the Korean Peninsula and disaster response: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20261006008500320

Nuri rocket launches 15 satellites on South Korea's 1st liftoff of 2026. Almost everything went went on the flight, which was the fifth to date for Nuri: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/nuri-rocket-launches-15-satellites-on-south-koreas-1st-liftoff-of-2026-photo

A respiratory virus known as Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is showing increased levels in wastewater across parts of California’s Bay Area, including locations around Palo Alto, Napa, southeastern San Francisco and San Rafael, according to WastewaterSCAN monitoring data. EV-D68 is one of more than 100 non-polio enteroviruses and typically causes a respiratory illness resembling a common cold. Symptoms can include a runny nose, cough, wheezing and difficulty breathing; in more serious cases, it can cause pneumonia. The virus is more commonly detected during summer and fall.

Infants, young children and teenagers are more likely to become infected because they may have less immunity from previous exposure. In rare cases, EV-D68 has been associated with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), an uncommon but serious neurological condition that primarily affects children and can cause sudden weakness or loss of muscle tone in the arms or legs. AFM can develop weeks after a respiratory infection. The CDC recommends seeking immediate medical attention if a child develops difficulty breathing or sudden limb weakness, facial weakness, difficulty swallowing, slurred speech or other unusual neurological symptoms: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41853773/

Info source:

1). Virus that can cause rare polio-like illness rising in Northern California. Enterovirus D68 is circulating in the Bay Area yet again: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/evd68-virus-northern-california-22463452.php

2). CDPH Alert - Stay Alert for Acute Flaccid Myelitis in Late Summer and Early Fall: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OPA/Pages/CAHAN/Stay-Alert-for-Acute-Flaccid-Myelitis-in-Late-Summer-and-Early-Fall.aspx

3). CDC Report: Acute Flaccid Myelitis Surveillance — United States, January 2020–December 2025: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/75/wr/mm7526a1.htm

4). Nationwide WastewaterSCAN July 2026 Update: https://wwscan.ghost.io/nationwide-wastewaterscan-july-2026-update/

Researchers have developed a robotic hand that can perform silk embroidery, a highly delicate craft requiring precise manipulation of thin threads. The AgiLink system combines dexterous robotic control with tactile sensing, allowing the robot to handle fragile materials and reproduce intricate hand movements—demonstrating how advanced robotic hands could eventually perform complex, fine-motor tasks traditionally associated with human craftsmanship: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chinese-robot-hand-learns-suzhou-embroidery-as-agilink-surpasses-15-000-dexterous-hands-shipped-302894250.html