For decades, scientists have known that estrogen protects cardiovascular health, but exactly how that protection works—and what happens when it disappears—has remained unclear. New research from University of Texas at Arlington points to the liver and the immune system as critical players.

In October 2025, Integral Consulting conducted a study to determine the effect of an annual firework show in Capitola, California, on the surrounding animal population, observing how the fireworks impacted the feeding patterns of brown bats. The bats were searching for and catching food steadily before the show, but during the fireworks, they were unsuccessful in catching any prey, despite searching. After the show ended, the bats returned quickly to resume hunting but searching and catching were greatly reduced from their pre-show efforts.

Intraoperative changes in visual signals can predict postoperative vision loss in patients undergoing surgery for recurrent craniopharyngiomas. The researchers report that a one-third drop in a key signal serves as an early warning, enabling timely surgical adjustments. This study is among the first to define a tailored threshold for these high-risk, technically challenging tumors, offering a practical step toward safer, more precise neurosurgical care.

In a breakthrough that could transform medical testing, data transmission and future quantum technologies, scientists at the University of Witwatersrand and the University of East Anglia have uncovered a hidden property of light that allows it to twist, spin and behave differently - without mirrors, materials or special lenses.

An international team of researchers, including scientists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, for the first time directly observed how angular momentum is transferred and conserved within a crystal lattice. Using intense terahertz laser pulses, the researchers were able to selectively control these processes, which unveiled a surprising effect: during the angular momentum transfer, the direction of rotation reverses – caused by the rotational symmetry of the material. The results, published in Nature Physics (DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03274-8), provide new insights into the foundation of magnetism and open up possibilities for tailored control of quantum materials.

A new method for measuring incredibly miniscule amounts of energy – less than a trillionth of a billionth of a joule – could give quantum computing and the hunt for dark matter a boost, while paving the way for counting individual photons.

Researchers developed a technique to detect and measure the strength of a phenomenon called Josephson harmonics, which can cause a quantum circuit to perform differently than expected, increasing the error in computations. Their method could be used to design quantum circuits that can compensate for this effect.

Researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics have developed an interface-anchoring strategy for solar thermal storage. By continuously circulating photothermal core-shell phase-change particles, the approach keeps the phase-change front anchored at the irradiated surface and suppresses the thermally resistive liquid layer that limits conventional diffusion-limited systems. Under concentrated solar irradiation, this strategy achieves a solar thermal storage efficiency of 49.7%, a 26-fold improvement over the conventional 1.9%. Published in Science Bulletin, the work opens a viable pathway toward continuous, high-temperature solar thermal energy storage.