A healthy, green lawn can be the envy of any neighborhood, but how does someone cultivate a yard like that? Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Science Amber Churchill has been getting her hands dirty and digging into the science behind it.

How do you power a spacecraft traveling 880 million miles from Earth?

Cameras have long been regarded as tools for capturing what the human eye can see. But that assumption may soon be challenged.

“If we change the way we capture data, the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) expands dramatically,” says Associate Professor Hiroyuki Kubo of the Graduate School of Informatics. Dr. Kubo is developing methods to visualize what is normally invisible—such as blood vessels beneath the skin or vehicles hidden in fog—using not specialized equipment, but systems built with ordinary projectors and cameras. His approach could significantly accelerate advances in AI. Beyond imaging, Dr. Kubo is also exploring new possibilities in AI-assisted coloring. By designing systems in which humans and AI collaborate to efficiently color large volumes of animation cels, his research aims to enhance productivity in anime production.

We spoke with Dr. Kubo about his work and his vision for the future as he continues to push the boundaries of what cameras—and AI—can do.

MendelR is a fully automated R package specifically developed for Mendelian randomization (MR) studies, designed to address the technical challenges of causal inference in biomedical research. As a powerful causal inference method, Mendelian randomization can effectively reduce confounding bias in observational studies. However, its complex data processing workflow, diverse analytical approaches, and stringent hypothesis-testing requirements often deter researchers. MendelR integrates the latest eQTL and pQTL databases, along with multi-omics resources, to provide a one-stop solution covering data acquisition, preprocessing, and instrumental variable selection, through to various MR analysis methods, thereby significantly lowering the technical barriers to research. This toolkit supports not only standard two-sample MR analysis but also encompasses advanced applications, including mediation analysis, multivariate MR, drug target analysis, and multi-omics integration. It also incorporates rigorous sensitivity analyses and multiple-testing correction mechanisms to ensure the reliability of research findings. With its user-friendly interface, fully automated workflow, and diverse visualization features, MendelR offers an efficient and accurate MR analysis platform for researchers at all levels, from beginners to seasoned professionals, thereby advancing the in-depth development of causal relationship research in the biomedical field.

SPADE combines SingHealth’s clinical and pathology expertise with Duke-NUS’ biomedical, computational and data science capabilities to deepen the understanding of disease and accelerate the development of precision diagnostics and treatments

As a first industry collaboration under SPADE, NCCS signed a Research Collaboration Agreement with 10x Genomics to strengthen spatial biology capabilities in the AMC

The University of Rhode Island has made one of the world’s oldest and continuous beach survey efforts available online via Rhode Island Beach Dynamics Over Decades, a new public website. Since 1962, about four dozen students and several scientists have monitored the shorelines of eight Rhode Island beaches, collecting measurements and images that reveal short- and long-term changes and the impact of severe storms.

— The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Professor of Astronomy Alexandra Pope is the ‘Science Team Lead’ for NASA’s recently announced new space telescope, PRIMA (Probe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics). PRIMA, whose concept development was led by Jason Glenn, professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia, will be probing currently unobserved parts of the universe’s infrared spectrum, and is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (managed for NASA by Caltech).

Brussels, 24 September 2026 – As part of the 10th anniversary of World Cancer Research Day (WCRD), leading cancer researchers, patient advocates, policymakers and international stakeholders gathered yesterday at EORTC Headquarters in Brussels to underscore the vital role of cancer research in improving and saving live.