AI tools can provide close to precise survival estimates of patients with prostate cancer, according to scientists

As climate change accelerates the spread of plant diseases worldwide, researchers at the College of Design and Engineering (CDE) at the National University of Singapore have developed a precision-targeted spray that could help crops defend themselves. The new system, called SENDS (short for stomata-targeting engineered nanoparticles), uses microscopic zinc-based particles designed to stick to stomata, the tiny pores on leaves where plants exchange gases and where bacteria often enter to cause infection.

Developed by a team led by Assistant Professor Tedrick Lew from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at CDE, the particles carry natural antibacterial compounds and release them only where they are needed. In lab tests, plants treated with the spray were 20 times more resistant to infection than those treated with non-targeted formulations. The spray also remained effective even after rainfall and did not interfere with the plant’s natural functions such as photosynthesis.

The study was published in Nature Communications.

Starting June 1, 2025, Dr. Jonas Ohland, laser physicist at GSI/FAIR, will lead the young investigator group ALADIN (Adaptive Laser Architecture Development and INtegration). For this purpose, he will receive funding of 2.8 million euros over five years from the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space as part of the “Fusionstalente” (fusion talents) program. The ALADIN project lays the foundation for the realization of stable, efficient lasers for inertial confinement fusion.

Global warming is continuously advancing. How quickly this will happen can now be predicted more accurately than ever before, thanks to a method developed by climate researcher Gottfried Kirchengast and his team at the University of Graz. For the first time, this method enables reliable monitoring of the Paris climate goals and shows that temperatures are rising faster than expected in the latest IPCC report. Based on this, the researchers propose a four-classes assessment scale to quantitatively gauge to what degree the Paris climate goals are being met or missed. "This creates a completely new compliance assessment basis for the political and legal implementation of the agreement", says Kirchengast.

Flooding in coastal communities is happening far more often than previously thought, according to a new study from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study also found major flaws with the widely used approach of using marine water level data to capture instances of flooding.