Synthetic Cell Achieves Life Cycle; First Organs Printed in Space

Synthetic cell built from scratch grows, divides, and passes on DNA. Dubbed SpudCell, the synthetic cell assembled from non-living molecules completes the entire cell cycle, representing a major milestone in understanding the minimal requirements for life and opening pathways for programmable biomanufacturing. 1

First living kidney and liver tissues 3D printed aboard the ISS. Auxilium Biotechnologies' AMP-1 platform produced functional organ tissues and nerve implants under microgravity, promising autonomous organoid research and reducing reliance on animal testing. 2

Dinosaur-killing asteroid identified as a rare CO chondrite meteorite. Nickel isotope analysis of 66-million-year-old debris reveals the impactor lacked sulfur, shifting blame for the extinction to the fine dust that blocked sunlight and cooled the planet. 3

Brain protein Arc ferries toxic Tau between neurons in Alzheimer's. The study in Cell identifies Arc as a delivery vehicle for toxic Tau, revealing a mechanism that could be blocked to stop the spread of Alzheimer's disease through the brain. 4

Blocking the EP2 receptor reverses organ aging and cognitive decline in mice. Stanford researchers discovered that disabling the EP2 receptor on tissue-resident macrophages preserves youthfulness in the brain, heart, liver, and other organs, revealing a central coordinator of aging. 5

Skyroot's Vikram-1 becomes India's first private rocket to reach orbit. Mission Aagaman successfully placed six payloads into low Earth orbit, making India the third country to achieve orbital launch via a private company. 6

First experimental evidence reveals an 80-atom boron buckyball molecule. Brown University chemists created the boron cousin of the carbon Buckminsterfullerene, potentially launching a new era of nanoscale engineering. 7

New entropy measure extends black hole thermodynamics to dynamic systems. Physicists at Penn State replaced event horizons with dynamical horizons in Physical Review Letters, allowing Hawking's laws to apply to evolving, non-static black holes. 8

Caltech cools radioactive radium molecules to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. The method, published in Science, creates ultrasensitive molecular antennas to study matter-antimatter asymmetry and search for new fundamental particles. 9

Physicists measure negative time in a quantum photon-atom experiment. University of Toronto researchers measured a negative weak value for the excitation time of atoms, now peer-reviewed and published in Physical Review Letters. 10

Fossils reveal a lost order of Australian marsupials that survived for 35 million years. The newly identified 'Keeunamorphia' represents a previously unknown branch of the marsupial family tree, rewriting the early evolution of Australia's unique mammals. 11

Gene therapy restores retinal function in mice with complete night blindness. The preclinical study in Gene Therapy shows that gene augmentation can correct defective photoreceptor signaling, offering a blueprint for human congenital stationary night blindness therapies. 12

Dark matter resonance may be naturally tuned by a hidden fifth dimension. A University of Sheffield model in Physical Review D proposes that the geometry of an extra dimension aligns dark matter and dark photon masses without artificial fine-tuning. 13

Webb telescope finds complex dust in a primitive low-metal dwarf galaxy. Observations of Sextans A challenge models of early universe dust formation by revealing silicon carbide and iron production in stars with very few heavy elements. 14