Up to two metres long and twisted into a perfect spiral: The narwhal’s tusk is one of the most unusual structures in the animal kingdom. An international research team, including scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, has now for the first time deciphered how this helix is organised inside the tooth – with a surprising twist. At the nanometre scale, the building blocks of the spiral rotate not just one way, but in two opposite directions.

A study of 653 Ugandan common bean farmers finds that belonging to a digital market-linkage network significantly increases farmers' ability to act collectively, especially in group marketing, but this boost in "collective agency" is not shared equally between men and women. 

Across both networked and non-networked farmer groups, men consistently reported greater confidence in taking on leadership roles and higher rates of collective marketing than women; network membership did not close this gap and, on some measures, appeared to widen it. 

While network membership improved collective agency overall and was positively associated with women's agency, these gains were insufficient to eliminate underlying gender inequalities in leadership and participation. 

The researchers conclude that market-access programs alone cannot deliver gender equality in agriculture, a finding that lands directly in 2026, the UN-designated International Year of the Woman Farmer, which is calling for this kind of deliberate, gender-transformative action. 

A new electrolyte paired with a redesigned electrode architecture triples the brightness of electrochemiluminescent devices, turning a once-dim technology into a viable platform for skin-worn health monitors, underwater displays and other soft electronics.

A research paper by scientists from Imperial College London introduced a bionic multichannel whisker system, as an additional sensing modality for endoluminal interventions.

The new research paper, published on Aug. 05 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, provided proof‑of‑concept validation for a compact sensor add‑on that can discriminate surface texture, reconstruct local geometry, and estimate radial contact forces–three tactile primitives that are difficult to access through vision alone.

A new AI framework developed at Tel-Hai University can detect pain in horses from video while explaining its decisions in ways veterinarians can verify, marking a breakthrough in explainable AI with implications for animal and human healthcare.

A Kyushu University‑led team has provided direct evidence for the electric field long suspected to drive fast chemistry at water surfaces. By trapping water and air inside a carbon nanotube and imaging the interface in 3D, they resolved its shape at the nanoscale. The researchers then deduced forces exceeding classical predictions, consistent with a powerful electric field. This methodology could guide rational design of nanoporous materials for clean energy.