Future deep space missions will require communication systems with high data rates that are not achievable with current radiofrequency-based systems. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications project is a technical demonstration for establishing optical communications for deep space missions at Mars distances. A new report presents an overview of the system and operational results of the ground laser transmitter from a two-year mission launched together with NASA’s Psyche spacecraft.

Accurately predicting how terrestrial ecosystems will respond to global change is essential for assessing and projecting the land carbon sink, and with it the pace of future climate change. It has become one of the central problems in global change science, yet neither of the field's two main tools can solve this endeavor on its own. Field experiments that deliberately manipulate global change drivers (e.g., CO₂ concentration) supply direct empirical evidence, but cover only a few years and a limited number of experimental sites. Process-based models that simulate how ecosystems work can project across the globe and centuries ahead, but rest on simplified, sometimes competing assumptions that leave their forecasts uncertain. The emerging solution is to couple the two, an approach known as data-model integration, in which experiments test and refine the assumptions inside models, while models in turn guide the design of more informative experiments.

A new study published in Big Earth Data proposes a large language model (LLM)-based multi-agent framework for remote sensing analysis that integrates data resources, analytical tools, and AI-driven reasoning to assist non-expert users in conducting complex remote sensing tasks. Using the ExpertsRS prototype built on AutoGen and DeepSeek-V3, experiments demonstrate that the system can transform ambiguous queries into expert-level analytical workflows and outperform baseline LLM and single-agent approaches in planning efficiency and result accuracy. The Sentinel-2 dataset used in this study is openly available from the European Space Agency at https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-2. The code repository for this work is accessible at https://github.com/zhelunSun/URSA.

Mississippi State scientists are building on two decades of irrigation research to identify production practices that help growers save water while improving crop yields.

Lewis-paired dopants are a promising way to achieve strong, stable doping in organic semiconductors, but their high reactivity makes precise control over doping levels difficult. In a recent study, researchers from Korea tackled this issue by showing that solvent polarity can regulate dopant reactivity during processing. Using this new strategy, they achieved finely tunable, efficient, and stable doping across multiple organic semiconductors, supporting the development of next-generation flexible and sustainable organic electronics.

Ada by Antoine Bello delves into the meaning of creativity in the context of AI through its protagonist Ada, an AI character who writes literary works. In a new article, a researcher from Pusan National University has analyzed the novel to bring out the meaning and forms of creativity by leveraging the perspectives of powerful thinkers, including Walter Benjamin, Henri Bergson, and Jacques Derrida.