Promoting pyroptosis-an inflammatory form of programmed cell death-has become a promising treatment strategy for cancer. In research published in The FASEB Journal, investigators purified a long-chain sugar molecule, or exopolysaccharide, from deep-sea bacteria and demonstrated that it triggers pyroptosis to inhibit tumor growth.
The compound, called EPS3.9, consists of mannose and glucose and is produced by the Spongiibacter nanhainus CSC3.9 bacterial strain and other members of the genus Spongiibacter. Mechanistic analyses showed that EPS3.9 can directly target 5 membrane phospholipid molecules and exert tumor toxicity by stimulating pyroptosis in human leukemia cells. EPS3.9 also had significant anti-tumor effects in the mice with liver cancer and activated anti-tumor immune responses.
Our work not only provides a theoretical basis for developing more carbohydrate-based drugs but also highlights the importance of exploring marine microbial resources.”
Chaomin Sun, PhD, corresponding author of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Source:
Journal reference:
Liu, G., et al. (2025) A Novel Exopolysaccharide, Highly Prevalent in Marine Spongiibacter, Triggers Pyroptosis to Exhibit Potent Anticancer Effects. The FASEB Journal. doi.org/10.1096/fj.202500412R.
Robots that Grow by Consuming Other Robots – YouTube
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Scientists have created a prototype robot that can grow, heal and improve itself by integrating material from its environment or by “consuming” other robots. It’s a big step forward in developing robot autonomy, the researchers say.
The researchers coined the term “robot metabolism” to describe the process that enables machinery to absorb and reuse parts from its surroundings. The scientists published their work July 16 in the journal Science Advances.
“True autonomy means robots must not only think for themselves but also physically sustain themselves,” study lead author Philippe Martin Wyder, professor of engineering at Columbia University, said in a statement.
“Just as biological life absorbs and integrates resources, these robots grow, adapt, and repair using materials from their environment or from other robots.”
The robots are made from “truss links” — six-sided elongated rods with magnetic connectors that can contract and expand with other modules.
These modules can be assembled and disassembled as well. The magnets enable the robots to form increasingly complex structures in what their makers hope can be a “self-sustaining machine ecology.”
Related: Watch humanlike robot with bionic muscles dangle as it twitches, shrugs and clenches its fists in creepy video
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There are two rules for robot metabolism, the scientists said in the study. First, a robot must grow completely on its own, or be assisted by other robots with similar components. Second, the only external provisions granted to the truss links are materials and energy. Truss links use a mix of automated and controlled behaviors. Shape-shifting, cannibalizing robots
‘Bad sci-fi scenarios’
In a controlled environment, scientists laid truss links across an environment to observe how the robot connects with other modules.
The researchers noted how the truss links first assembled themselves in 2D shapes but later integrated new parts to become a 3D tetrahedron that could navigate the uneven testing ground. The robot did this by integrating an additional link to use as a walking stick, the researchers said in the study.
“Robot minds have moved forward by leaps and bounds in the past decade through machine learning, but robot bodies are still monolithic, unadaptive, and unrecyclable. Biological bodies, in contrast, are all about adaptation — lifeforms can grow, heal and adapt,” study co-lead author Hod Lipson, chair of the department of mechanical engineering at Columbia University, said in the statement.
“In large part, this ability stems from the modular nature of biology that can use and reuse modules (amino acids) from other lifeforms,” Lispon added. “Ultimately, we’ll have to get robots to do the same — to learn to use and reuse parts from other robots.”
The researchers said they envisioned a future in which machines can maintain themselves, without the assistance of humans. By being able to grow and adapt to different tasks and environments, these robots could play important roles in.disaster recovery and space exploration, for example.
“The image of self-reproducing robots conjures some bad sci-fi scenarios,” Lipson said. “But the reality is that as we hand off more and more of our lives to robots, from driverless cars to automated manufacturing, and even defense and space exploration. Who is going to take care of these robots? We can’t rely on humans to maintain these machines. Robots must ultimately learn to take care of themselves.”
The document features an interview with Scott D. Mittl, VP of Sales at INSACO, highlighting the company’s expertise in machining components for aerospace and defense applications. INSACO specializes in creating parts with extremely tight tolerances from hard materials that can withstand harsh environments, making them ideal for space exploration technologies.
One of the key projects discussed is the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA), which utilizes advanced technologies such as laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to analyze Martian materials. MOMA’s construction required materials that could endure extreme heat and perform laser pulses to identify organic compounds, even in the presence of reactive perchlorates found on Mars. The machining process for MOMA involved ultra-precise techniques to ensure durability and consistent performance in the challenging Martian environment.
Mittl also elaborates on INSACO’s innovative approach to component assembly, which now includes internally threading parts. This method improves the structural integrity of components under extreme temperatures and chemical exposure, reducing the risk of failure compared to traditional joining methods like welding or painting. This advancement allows for more compact and integrated designs, essential for applications in aerospace, medical, and industrial fields.
The interview further highlights INSACO’s extensive experience in working with various aerospace and defense companies over the past sixty years. They have contributed to projects involving sapphire tubes for the International Space Station (ISS) and sapphire substrates for detectors in the Near Infrared Camera (NICMOS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Mittl emphasizes that INSACO’s capabilities are driven by collaboration with engineers and designers, allowing for tailored solutions that meet specific project requirements.
Overall, the document showcases INSACO’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of technology through innovative machining techniques and materials, enabling the development of components that support advanced applications in space exploration and beyond. The company’s consultative approach ensures that they can meet the ambitious needs of their partners, fostering creativity and innovation in engineering design.
Black holes played a critical role in the formation of the early universe. However, astronomers have been debating for a long time just how critical, as the information we had about early black holes, which exist at high red-shifts, was relatively limited. A new paper from a group of researchers led by Sophia Geris at the University of Cambridge combined several spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to add some context to the formation of black holes early in the universe, and found that there are plenty of smaller ones lurking around, and lending credence to the idea that black holes of all sizes contributed to the formation of our modern universe.
JWST has been operating for a few years now, and has had several data releases for its various instruments. The one used for the analysis in the paper as the third data release from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), which included 4000 additional, never before seen spectra with 2375 objects in its dataset having defined redshifts, meaning scientists know how far away they are in space and time.
This particular study looked at 600 galaxies that were very far away, and removed the ones with known Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), which are active black holes eating gas and dust at the center of galaxies. Most of the known AGNs were very bright, and since the intent of this paper was to find faint AGNs that would otherwise be overlooked in a traditional survey, they needed to be removed. After the known bright ones were removed, they stacked a series of images captured using different spectra to enhance the brightness of any faint AGNs still in the dataset. The authors also grouped the galaxies together by certain criteria, such as how bright the galaxies themselves were or how many stars they had.
Fraser explains how black holes can shine, despite being “black”.
After they had stacked the spectra together and got a series of AGNs that were now bright enough to be noticeable, they looked for a particular type of light called broad Hα. That light specifically indicates a black hole is actively eating material, though it could also be from other sources like supernovae or winds blowing out of the target galaxy.
Eliminating those possibilities left the dataset with a series of faint AGNs at the center of many galaxies at high red-shift that were otherwise thought not to have any active black holes at all. Importantly, many of these black holes are much smaller than those traditionally thought of when considering black holes in the early universe. They were only around 1,000,000 times the mass of our Sun, and much less active than previously found AGNs at the same red-shift.
That also helped explain a previous puzzle in the sizing of black holes in the early universe. Many of the larger AGNs found in previous studies had seemed to be to big for their galaxies, while the black holes found in this study fit the more generally accepted size parameters for the galaxies they inhabited. This could indicate that, instead of a “black-hole first” view of galaxy evolution, these smaller black holes indicate there could be many galaxies where the galaxy itself forms before the black hole at its center gets large enough to be noticeable with astronomical observations.
Fraser discusses how quickly black holes can form
Either way, studies like this are exactly what JWST was designed for – searching back to the early universe for pathways of galaxy creation and searching out the massive structure that defined much of how the universe evolved. It’s also just getting started, with many more data releases upcoming, some of which will undoubtedly shed more light on this early population of low-mass black holes, now that they have been definitively proved for the first time.
Learn More:
S. Geris et al – JADES reveals a large population of low mass black holes at high redshift
UT – How Did Black Holes Grow So Quickly? The Jets
UT – Early Black Holes Were Bigger Than We Thought
UT – Webb Could Detect if Supermassive Black Holes Formed Directly
View larger. | The image to the left, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows a possible newborn planet (circled) around the young star HD 135344B, located around 440 light-years away. The image to the right is a combination of previous observations, which did not find this sign of a planetary companion. Image via ESO/ F. Maio et al./ T. Stolker et al./ ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ N. van der Marel et al.
ESO published this original story on July 21, 2025. Edits by EarthSky
Newborn planet spotted sculpting a spiral around its star
Astronomers may have caught a still-forming planet in action, carving out an intricate pattern in the gas and dust that surrounds its young host star. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they observed a planetary disk with prominent spiral arms, finding clear signs of a planet nestled in its inner regions. This is the first time astronomers have detected a planet candidate embedded inside a spiral disk.
Francesco Maio, a doctoral researcher at the University of Florence, Italy, and lead author of this study, said:
We will never witness the formation of Earth, but here, around a young star 440 light-years away, we may be watching a planet come into existence in real time.
The peer-reviewed journal Astronomy & Astrophysics published the study on July 21, 2025.
This video zooms into the young star HD 135344B, which has been found to have a potential newborn planet in its orbit. Video via ESO/ L. Calçada/ N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)/ VMC Survey/ Digitized Sky Survey 2/ ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ N. van der Marel et al./ T. Stolker et al./ F. Maio et al.
A planet in the making
The potential planet in the making was detected around the star HD 135344B, within a disk of gas and dust called a protoplanetary disk. The budding planet is estimated to be twice the size of Jupiter and as far from its host star as Neptune is from our sun. It has been observed shaping its surroundings within the protoplanetary disk as it grows into a fully formed planet.
Protoplanetary disks have been observed around other young stars, and they often display intricate patterns, such as rings, gaps or spirals. Astronomers have long predicted that these structures are caused by baby planets, which sweep up material as they orbit around their parent star. But, until now, they had not caught one of these planetary sculptors in the act.
View larger. | This image shows the dusty disk around the young star HD 135344B. It’s a combination of data taken with 2 different facilities: the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument of ESO’s Very Large Telescope in red, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in orange and blue. These images were released in 2016 and 2015 respectively, and didn’t show evidence for a planet in this disk, which the new study has now revealed. Image via ESO/ T. Stolker et al./ ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ N. van der Marel et al.
Newborn planet hiding all along?
In the case of HD 135344B’s disk, swirling spiral arms had previously been detected by another team of astronomers using SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch), an instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. However, none of the previous observations of this system found proof of a planet forming within the disk.
Now, with observations from the Very Large Telescope’s new Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) instrument, the researchers say they may have found their prime suspect. The team spotted the planet candidate right at the base of one of the disk’s spiral arms, exactly where theory had predicted they might find the planet responsible for carving such a pattern.
Maio explained:
What makes this detection potentially a turning point is that, unlike many previous observations, we are able to directly detect the signal of the protoplanet, which is still highly embedded in the disk. This gives us a much higher level of confidence in the planet’s existence, as we’re observing the planet’s own light.
Bottom line: New observations have revealed what appears to be a newborn planet 440 light-years away, sculpting intricate spiral arms in the disk of gas and dust around its young parent star.
Via ESO
Source: Unveiling a protoplanet candidate embedded in the HD 135344B disk with VLT/ERIS
Read more: Witnessing a solar system’s dawn, for the 1st time
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This is an AI generated image. Used for representation purpose only.
Since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians, people across the world have gazed up in awe at Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars blazing in the night sky. Now astronomers have discovered that this red supergiant, known to many as the hunter’s shoulder in the Orion constellation, is being orbited by a much smaller companion star, a study said on Monday. It is not the first time Betelgeuse has surprised stargazers. Seemingly out of nowhere, the giant star dramatically dimmed for five months between 2019 and 2020, leading some scientists to suggest it could soon die in an epic supernova explosion.Further observations revealed that this event — known as the “Great Dimming” — was actually caused by material ejected from the surface that cooled part of the star, creating a dust cloud that blocked its light. But scientists could still not explain why Betelgeuse’s brightness changes regularly, both on a 400-day cycle and another that lasts nearly six years.In a paper titled “A Buddy for Betelgeuse” published in December, some researchers theorised that the longer variation could be caused by a hidden small star orbiting the behemoth.Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii have now discovered this elusive companion, according to a new study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.– Little buddy –This companion has a mass around 1.5 times greater than our Sun, the research estimated. That means it is dwarfed by Betelgeuse, which is 1,000 times bigger than the Sun.The companion star is around four times the distance from Betelgeuse as the Earth is from the Sun, which is quite close for a stellar companion.The discovery is the first time such a close companion star has been detected orbiting a supergiant, according to a statement from the US research centre NOIRLab, which operates the Gemini Observatory. Betelgeuse is more than 10,000 times brighter than the Sun, its blinding light making spotting anything nearby difficult.Steve Howell, a NASA scientist who led the research team, said previous “papers that predicted Betelgeuse’s companion believed that no one would likely ever be able to image it”.However the Gemini North telescope was able to spot the much smaller, dimmer star using a technique called speckle imaging.This involves assembling many images taken with short exposure times to overcome the distortions that Earth’s atmosphere causes ground-bound telescopes.According to Greek myth, the giant hunter Orion claimed he would kill all the world’s beasts, so Earth goddess Gaia sent a scorpion to kill him. God king Zeus then turned both Orion and the scorpion — Scorpius — into constellations.Earlier, ancient Egyptians included Betelgeuse in the constellation Osiris, their god of the dead.Even earlier, research has suggested that Indigenous Australians included Betelgeuse in their own constellations — and had noticed the star’s varying brightness.
Artist’s impression of the long-period radio transient CHIME J1634+44, which has properties so strange it’s been described as a “unicorn” object. Image via NSF/ AUI/ NSF NRAO/ P.Vosteen.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory published this original post on July 17, 2025. Edits by EarthSky.
Spinning ‘unicorn’ long-period radio transient defies astrophysics
Using some of the world’s most advanced radio telescopes, astronomers have discovered a bizarre, theory-defying object. Named CHIME J1634+44, it’s what scientists call a long-period radio transient: a source of radio emissions that repeat at long intervals, from minutes to hours. And, strangely, the signals from this long-period radio transient are speeding up. That’s a phenomenon never seen before in this class of astronomical objects.
Plus, the radio waves from CHIME J1634+44 are 100% circularly polarized, meaning they twist in a perfect spiral as they travel. That makes this object one of the most polarized long-period radio transients ever discovered. CHIME J1634+44’s unique properties challenge the current scientific understanding of how these objects work, and raise new questions about what they can teach us about the universe.
A cosmic ‘unicorn’
In light of this object’s strange properties, study lead Fengqiu Adam Dong said:
You could call CHIME J1634+44 a ‘unicorn’, even among other long-period radio transients.
Despite hundreds of detections across multiple observatories, the timing of the repeating radio bursts from CHIME J1634+44 is unclear. Dong said:
The bursts seem to repeat either every 14 minutes, or 841 seconds. But there is a distinct secondary period of 4206 seconds, or 70 minutes, which is exactly five times longer. We think both are real, and this is likely a system with something orbiting a neutron star.
Is this long-period radio transient 1 object or 2?
Normally, objects like neutron stars or white dwarfs slow down over time because they lose energy, so their spin period (time to complete a rotation) gets longer. But for CHIME J1634+44, the spin period is actually getting shorter, meaning its rotation is speeding up.
The only way to make the timing of the bursts fit together is to assume this speeding up is real. But, the researchers say, that’s unlikely if this is a lone star. Therefore, they believe that CHIME J1634+44 might actually be two stars orbiting each other very closely.
If the orbit of this binary system is shrinking – perhaps because they are losing energy by emitting gravitational waves or interacting with each other – it could make it look like the spin period is getting shorter. This kind of shrinking orbit has been seen in other close pairs of white dwarfs.
So is CHIME J1634+44 a pair of white dwarfs, or even a pair of neutron stars? If so, it’s acting unlike any of these objects we’ve studied before. The radio bursts from CHIME J1634+44 are 100% circularly polarized, meaning the radio waves twist in a perfect spiral as they travel. This is extremely rare, and no known white dwarf or neutron star has ever been seen to do this for every burst. The way these radio waves are being produced appears to be different from what we’ve seen in any other known object.
Dong said:
The discovery of CHIME J1634+44 expands the known population of long-period radio transients and challenges existing models of neutron stars and white dwarfs, suggesting there may be many more such objects awaiting discovery.
A collaborative success
The unparalleled collection of telescopes used in this research allowed scientists to detect and study the object’s unusual signals in detail.
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment’s (CHIME) wide field of view and daily sky scans detected the transient’s periodic bursts and monitored its spin evolution.
The National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (VLA), supported by realfast (a system for real-time fast transient searches), provided high-frequency follow-up observations to mitigate interstellar medium distortions and refine localization.
The National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) contributed sensitive, high-resolution timing data to analyze polarization and spin-up behavior, enhancing precision for gravitational wave studies.
NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory searched for X-ray counterparts, and its multi-wavelength capabilities allowed the researchers to probe for high-energy signals that complemented radio observations.
Bottom line: Astronomers have discovered a long-period radio transient with bizarre, theory-defying properties. It’s incredibly polarized, and its spin appears to be speeding up.
Via NRAO
Read more: Unusual star pulsing in X-ray and radio baffles scientists
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The Juno spacecraft was launched towards Jupiter in August of 2011 as part of the New Frontiers series of spacecraft, on what would originally have been a 7-year mission, including a nearly 5 year cruise to the planet. After a mission extension, it’s currently orbiting Jupiter, allowing for many more years of scientific data to be gathered using its instruments. One of these instruments is the JunoCam (JCM), a visible light camera and telescope. Unfortunately the harsh radiation environment around Jupiter had led many to believe that this camera would fail before long. Now it seems that NASA engineers have successfully tested a fix.
Location of the Juno spacecraft’s science instruments.
Although the radiation damage to JCM was obvious a few dozen orbits in – and well past its original mission’s 34 orbits – the big question was exactly was being damaged by the radiation, and whether something could be done to circumvent or fix it. The good news was that the image sensor itself was fine, but one of the voltage regulators in JCM’s power supply was having a bad time. This led the engineers to try annealing the affected part by cranking up one of the JCM’s heaters to a balmy 25°C, well above what it normally is kept at.
This desperate step seemed to work, with massively improved image quality on the following orbits, but soon the images began to degrade again. Before an approach to Jupiter’s moon Io, the engineers thus tried it again but this time cranked the JCM’s heater up to eleven and crossed their fingers. Surprisingly this fixed the issue over the course of a week, until the JCM seems as good as new. Now the engineers are trying their luck with Juno‘s other instruments as well, with it potentially providing a blueprint for extending the life of spacecraft in general.
SYDNEY, July 23 (Xinhua) — Australian scientists have found that concrete color significantly influences which marine organisms make their homes in urban seawalls.
Researchers installed red, yellow, green, and grey panels on Sydney Harbor seawalls in Australia’s state of New South Wales, finding that colored concrete, unlike standard grey, mimics natural shoreline hues and better supports marine life, said a release from Sydney-based Macquarie University published on Science Media Exchange on Wednesday.
Over a year, researchers tracked how different marine species colonized each color and found red panels attracted distinct marine communities, including more green algae and barnacles than other colors.
“Many marine animals respond to light and color when choosing a place to settle,” said the study’s senior author Laura Ryan from Macquarie University’s School of Natural Sciences.
Even when overgrown, panel color continued to shape marine communities, according to the study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
Macquarie University and Sydney Institute of Marine Science researchers proposed colored concrete as a low-cost and scalable solution for restoring marine ecosystems in concrete-dominated urbanized coastlines. ■
While global warming is shrinking the world’s ice, three glaciers in one of the remotest regions of the world are gaining ice. An astronaut captured them from the International Space Station (ISS), merging into one massive ice mass in the Karakoram mountain range. The Lolofond glacier, the Teram Shehr glacier, and the Siachen glacier are the three glaciers seen merging in the photo and together create the Karakoram anomaly. These glaciers are growing bigger, even though the rising temperatures in the world are threatening glaciers in Antarctica and the Arctic. Scientists have been baffled by the phenomenon for years and have racked their brains, trying to figure out what’s going on with them. The Siachen Glacier in the eastern Karakoram is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world’s non-polar areas. It is located 18,875 ft above sea level and is 76 kilometres long and 3.5 kilometres wide at its broadest point. It has undergone some rapid changes which scientists have failed to explain. Also Read: Chernobyl disaster site has nothing growing, except this organism that is thriving on radiation
What is leading to the Karakoram glaciers growing?
The Karakoram range stands on the borders of India, Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan. Scientists have tried to explain the unusual growth in these glaciers with various theories; however, none of them have been confirmed. Some experts believe the local weather is making them grow. Others think the dust and dirt embedded in the glaciers’ moraines protect the ice from the global high temperatures. The photo captured from space shows these moraines, the parallel layers formed from rock and dust trapped between glaciers as they merge. The point where the Teram Shehr and a smaller unnamed tributary glacier meet the Siachen glacier shows the moraines most clearly. Also Read: Scientists are freezing human poop to prevent major disaster 100 years from now
Siachen Glacier, a point of conflict and natural wonder
The Siachen glacier is a natural wonder. It is extremely cold and replete with harsh weather. It is Earth’s highest battleground as India and Pakistan have troops stationed near the glacier despite the harsh weather. The extreme living conditions at the glacier have also led to several people losing their lives. The region witnesses very low temperatures, strong winds, and heavy snowfall. In winters, blizzards can continue for weeks here, with temperatures plummeting to -50°C. It is a source of freshwater for several people living near the region. Climate change is causing the glacier to melt. However, the Karakoram anomaly shows that some glaciers are becoming stable and even seeing growth. This could be because of the Western Disturbances that bring snowfall in winter, according to a study. However, a sureshot answer remains elusive.
