The SETI Institute announced today two recipients for the 2025 Drake Award: Dr. David Deamer (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Dr. John Baross (University of Washington, Seattle). Deamer and Baross are known for their pioneering work in astrobiology, focused on understanding the origins of life. However, each approaches the question from a different perspective. Deamer, a biomolecular engineer who focuses on membranes and RNA formation in shallow water environments, is recognized for advancing new theories on the origins and processes of life in the Universe. Baross, a microbiologist, focuses on hydrothermal vents and deep-sea chemistry as the cradle of life and has pioneered research on extremophiles to decipher life’s origins on Earth and beyond.

MIT oceanographers discovered big fish like tuna and swordfish get a large fraction of their food from the ocean’s twilight zone — a cold, dark layer about half a mile below the surface.

In Physics of Fluids, researchers present gum tragacanth as a plant-based alternative to gelatin for creating edible films. The team developed films containing different concentrations of gelatin and gum tragacanth and monitored their survivability in water and saline solutions. They found the optimal combination of gum tragacanth and gelatin for maintaining the gelatin’s gel-like behavior was a 3-to-1 ratio of the two, respectively. However, gum tragacanth’s inclusion leads to a more porous film, making it prone to penetration by water or saline solutions. Though gum tragacanth cannot replace gelatin completely just yet, even a partial replacement is a step forward.