Category: 7. Science

With their striking symmetry and slow, graceful movements, starfish might seem simple at first glance, but beneath the surface, they’re anything but. These marine creatures have evolved remarkable ways to eat, move, reproduce and even survive injury.

Found in oceans around the world – including over 30 species off the UK coast – starfish play a vital role in marine ecosystems. From regenerating lost limbs to digesting prey outside their bodies, here’s a closer look at what makes them so extraordinary.

Starfish facts

A starfish ejects its stomach outside of its mouth to eat

A starfish’s mouth is located on its underside, connecting almost directly to its stomach. To engulf its prey, a starfish ejects its stomach outside of its mouth.

Starfish sex doesn’t involve any physical contact

Like many marine invertebrates, starfish simply deposit their sperm and eggs into the water to be found by a “mate” when the tides and currents move them. It might not be the most romantic encounter, but starfish sex is surprisingly efficient.

They can regrow their arms

Starfish can regrow lost limbs over weeks or months, if they are damaged or severed by predators. Most species require the central body to remain intact in order to regenerate limbs, but a few tropical species can regrow an entirely new body from just one severed limb.

They’re harder to find in winter

While they’re present around the UK coast all year, starfish move down the shore or to more sheltered locations in winter. This allows them to feed with less disturbance from the strong waves and bigger swell that plague the coastlines in winter. They often fall foul of high winds, being washed up on beaches. In 2008, a five-mile stretch of Kent coastline was littered with thousands of common sea stars, Asterias rubens.

Starfish have arms – which are also legs

We might think of starfish as having “arms” or “legs”, starfish limbs are actually studded with hydraulically operated “feet”, with suction cups for feeding and movement.

There are about 1,600 living species of starfish

The Northern Pacific has the greatest variety of starfish, while the UK has more than 30 starfish species.

Some species of starfish can damage coral reefs

Crown-of-thorns starfish and pin cushion seastars (or cushion stars) are both natural inhabitants of coral reefs in the Maldives, but efforts have been made to remove these predatory starfish. They consume coral and can end up eliminating it from an area, sometimes damaging it more than the bleaching of reefs by rising sea temperatures.

Despite their name, starfish are not fish

Starfish are a type of echinoderm. Echinoderms are marine invertebrates that include species such as starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. There are about 7,000 echinoderm species, most of which are filter-feeders, using their limbs to filter food from the water. Most are “radially symmetrical”, with identical parts arranged around a central axis (the body), like the spokes of a bike.  

They can reproduce by splitting themselves in two

Asexual reproduction in starfish is possible through a process called fission, where the starfish splits in two.

There are also known as sea stars

Starfish and sea stars are different names for the same creatures, but the term “sea star” is becoming increasingly used by scientists and experts, because of the confusion around the fact that starfish aren’t actually fish.

Top image: An orange ochre starfish (Pisaster ochraceus) clings to an empty reef amidst a sea of purple sea urchins near Mendocino Headlands State Park in California (credit: Getty Images)

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 disc 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 disc spiral.

“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,” says Francesco Maio, a doctoral researcher at the University of Florence, Italy, and lead author of this study, published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The potential planet-in-the-making was detected around the star HD 135344B, within a disc of gas and dust around it called a protoplanetary disc. The budding planet is estimated to be twice the size of Jupiter and as far from its host star as Neptune is from the Sun. It has been observed shaping its surroundings within the protoplanetary disc as it grows into a fully formed planet.

Protoplanetary discs 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.

In the case of HD 135344B’s disc, 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 VLT. However, none of the previous observations of this system found proof of a planet forming within the disc.

Now, with observations from the new VLT’s 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 disc’s spiral arms, exactly where theory had predicted they might find the planet responsible for carving such a pattern.

“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 disc,” says Maio, who is based at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, a centre of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). “This gives us a much higher level of confidence in the planet’s existence, as we’re observing the planet’s own light.”

A star’s companion is born

A different team of astronomers have also recently used the ERIS instrument to observe another star, V960 Mon, one that is still in the very early stages of its life. In a study published on 18 July in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team report that they have found a companion object to this young star. The exact nature of this object remains a mystery.

The new study, led by Anuroop Dasgupta, a doctoral researcher at ESO and at the Diego Portales University in Chile, follows up observations of V960 Mon made a couple of years ago . Those observations, made with both SPHERE and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array ( ALMA ), revealed that the material orbiting V960 Mon is shaped into a series of intricate spiral arms. They also showed that the material is fragmenting, in a process known as ‘gravitational instability’, when large clumps of the material around a star contract and collapse, each with the potential to form a planet or a larger object.

“That work revealed unstable material but left open the question of what happens next. With ERIS, we set out to find any compact, luminous fragments signalling the presence of a companion in the disc — and we did,” says Dasgupta. The team found a potential companion object very near to one of the spiral arms observed with SPHERE and ALMA. The team say that this object could either be a planet in formation, or a ‘brown dwarf’ — an object bigger than a planet that didn’t gain enough mass to shine as a star.

If confirmed, this companion object may be the first clear detection of a planet or brown dwarf forming by gravitational instability.

More information

This research highlighted in the first part of this release was presented in the paper “Unveiling a protoplanet candidate embedded in the HD 135344B disk with VLT/ERIS” to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics (doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202554472). The second part of the release highlights the study ” VLT/ERIS observations of the V960 Mon system: a dust-embedded substellar object formed by gravitational instability? ” published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ade996).

The team who conducted the first study (on HD 135344B) is composed of F. Maio (University of Firenze, Italy, and INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico Arcetri, Firenze, Italy [OAA]), D. Fedele (OAA), V. Roccatagliata (University of Bologna, Italy [UBologna] and OAA), S. Facchini (University of Milan, Italy [UNIMI]), G. Lodato (UNIMI), S. Desidera (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy [OAP]), A. Garufi (INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, Bologna, Italy [INAP-Bologna], and Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany [MPA]), D. Mesa (OAP), A. Ruzza (UNIMI), C. Toci (European Southern Observatory [ESO], Garching bei Munchen, Germany, and OAA), L. Testi (OAA, and UBologna), A. Zurlo (Diego Portales University [UDP], Santiago, Chile, and Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons [YEMS], Santiago, Chile), and G. Rosotti (UNIMI).

The team behind the second study (on V960 Mon) is primarily composed of members of the Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS), a collaborative research initiative based in Chile. Core YEMS contributors include A. Dasgupta (ESO, Santiago, Chile, UDP, and YEMS), A. Zurlo (UDP and YEMS), P. Weber (University of Santiago [Usach], Chile, and YEMS, and Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Astrophysics and Space Exploration [CIRAS], Santiago, Chile), F. Maio (OAA, and University of Firenze, Italy), Lucas A. Cieza (UDP and YEMS), D. Fedele (OAA), A. Garufi (INAF Bologna and MPA), J. Miley (Usach, YEMS, and CIRAS), P. Pathak (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India), S. Pérez (Usach and YEMS, and CIRAS), and V. Roccatagliata (UBologna and OAA).

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.

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One of the biggest stories in science is quietly playing out in the world of abstract mathematics. Over the course of last year, researchers fulfilled a decades-old dream when they unveiled a proof of the geometric Langlands conjecture — a key piece of a group of interconnected problems called the Langlands programme. The proof — a gargantuan effort — validates the intricate and far-reaching Langlands programme, which is often hailed as the grand unified theory of mathematics but remains largely unproven. Yet the work’s true impact might lie not in what it settles, but in the new avenues of inquiry it reveals.

“It’s a huge triumph. But rather than closing a door, this proof throws open a dozen others,” says David Ben-Zvi at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved with the work.

Proving the geometric Langlands conjecture has long been considered one of the deepest and most enigmatic pursuits in modern mathematics. Ultimately, it took a team of nine mathematicians to crack the problem, in a series of five papers spanning almost 1,000 pages. The group was led by Dennis Gaitsgory at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, and Sam Raskin at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, who completed his PhD with Gaitsgory in 2014.

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The magnitude of their accomplishment was quickly recognized by the mathematical community: in April, Gaitsgory received the US$3-million Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, and Raskin was awarded a New Horizons prize for promising early-career mathematicians. Like many landmark results in mathematics, the proof promises to forge bridges between different areas, allowing the tools of one domain to tackle intractable problems in another. All told, it’s a heady time for researchers in these fields.

“It gives us the strongest evidence yet that something we’ve believed in for decades is true,” says Ben-Zvi. “Now we can finally ask: what does it really mean?”

The hole story

The Langlands programme traces its origins back 60 years, to the work of a young Canadian mathematician named Robert Langlands, who set out his vision in a handwritten letter to the leading mathematician André Weil. Over the decades, the programme attracted increasing attention from mathematicians, who marvelled at how all-encompassing it was. It was that feature that led Edward Frenkel at the University of California, Berkeley, who has made key contributions to the geometric side, to call it the grand unified theory of mathematics.

Langlands’ aim was to connect two very separate major branches of mathematics — number theory (the study of integers) and harmonic analysis (the study of how complicated signals or functions break down into simple waves). A special case of the Langlands programme is the epic proof that Andrew Wiles published, in 1995, of Fermat’s last theorem — that no three positive integers a, b and c satisfy the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ if n is an integer greater than 2.

The geometric Langlands conjecture was first developed in the 1980s by Vladimir Drinfeld, then at the B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Like the original or arithmetic form of the Langlands conjecture, the geometric conjecture also makes a type of connection: it suggests a correspondence between two different sets of mathematical objects. Although the fields linked by the arithmetic form of Langlands are separate mathematical ‘worlds’, the differences between the two sides of the geometric conjecture are not so pronounced. Both concern properties of Riemann surfaces, which are ‘complex manifolds’ — structures with coordinates that are complex numbers (with real and imaginary parts). These manifolds can take the form of spheres, doughnuts or pretzel-like shapes with two or more holes.

Many mathematicians strongly suspect that the ‘closeness’ of the two sides means the proof of the geometric Langlands conjecture could eventually offer some traction for furthering the arithmetic version, in which the relationships are more mysterious. “To truly understand the Langlands correspondence, we have to realize that the ‘two worlds’ in it are not that different — rather, they are two facets of one and the same world,” says Frenkel. “Seeing this unity requires a new vision, a new understanding. We are still far from it in the original formulation. But the fact that, for Riemann surfaces, the two worlds sort of coalesce means that we are getting closer to finding this secret unity underlying the whole programme,” he adds.

One side of the geometric Langlands conjecture concerns a characteristic called a fundamental group. In basic terms, the fundamental group of a Riemann surface describes all the distinct ways in which loops can be tied around it. With a doughnut, for example, a loop can run horizontally around the outer edge or vertically through the hole and around the outside. The geometric Langlands deals with the ‘representation’ of a surface’s fundamental group, which expresses the group’s properties as matrices (grids of numbers).

The other side of the geometric Langlands programme has to do with special kinds of ‘sheaves’. These tools of algebraic geometry are rules that allot ‘vector spaces’ (where vectors — arrows — can be added and multiplied) to points on a manifold in much the same way as a function describing a gravitational field, say, can assign numbers for the strength of the field to points in standard 3D space.

Bridgework in progress

Work on bridging this divide began back in the 1990s. Using earlier work on Kac–Moody algebras, which ‘translate’ between representations and sheaves, Drinfeld and Alexander Beilinson, both now at the University of Chicago, Illinois, described how to build the right kind of sheaves to make the connection. Their paper (see go.nature.com/4ndp5ev), nearly 400 pages long, has never been formally published. Gaitsgory, together with Dima Arinkin at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, made this relationship more precise in 2012; then, working alone, Gaitsgory followed up with a step-by-step outline of how the geometric Langlands might be proved.

“The conjecture as such sounds pretty baroque — and not just to outsiders,” says Ben-Zvi. “I think people are much more excited about the proof of geometric Langlands now than they would have been a decade ago, because we understand better why it’s the right kind of question to ask, and why it might be useful for things in number theory.”

One of the most immediate consequences of the new proof is the boost it provides to research on ‘local’ versions of the different Langlands conjectures, which ‘zoom in’ on particular objects in the ‘global’ settings. In the case of the geometric Langlands programme, for example, the local version is concerned with the properties of objects associated with discs around points on a Riemann surface — rather than the whole manifold, which is the domain of the ‘global’ version.

Peter Scholze, at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, has been instrumental in forging connections between the local and global Langlands programmes. But initially, even he was daunted by the geometric side.

“To tell the truth,” Scholze says, “until around 2014, the geometric Langlands programme looked incomprehensible to me.” That changed when Laurent Fargues at the Institute of Mathematics of Jussieu in Paris proposed a reimagining of the local arithmetic Langlands conjectures in geometrical terms. Working together, Scholze and Fargues spent seven years showing that this strategy could help to make progress on proving a version of the local arithmetic Langlands conjecture concerning the p-adic numbers, which involve the primes and their powers. They connected it to the global geometric version that the team led by Gaitsgory and Raskin later proved.

The papers by Scholze and Fargues built what Scholze describes as a “wormhole” between the two areas, allowing methods and structures from the global geometric Langlands programme to be imported into the local arithmetic context. “So I’m really happy about the proof,” Scholze says. “I think it’s a tremendous achievement and am mining it for parts.”

Quantum connection

According to some researchers, one of the most surprising bridges that the geometric Langlands programme has built is to theoretical physics. Since the 1970s, physicists have explored a quantum analogue of a classical symmetry: that swapping electric and magnetic fields in Maxwell’s equations, which describe how the two fields interact, leaves the equations unchanged. This elegant symmetry underpins a broader idea in quantum field theory, known as S-duality.

In 2007, Edward Witten at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, and Anton Kapustin at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena were able to show that S-duality in certain four-dimensional gauge theories — a class of theories that includes the standard model of particle physics — possesses the same symmetry that appears in the geometric Langlands correspondence. “Seemingly esoteric notions of the geometric Langlands program,” the pair wrote, “arise naturally from the physics.”

Although their theories include hypothetical particles, called superpartners, that have never been observed, their insight suggests that geometric Langlands is not just a rarefied idea in pure mathematics; instead, it can be seen as a shadow of a deep symmetry in quantum physics. “I do think it is fascinating that the Langlands programme has this counterpart in quantum field theory,” says Witten. “And I think this might eventually be important in the mathematical development of the Langlands programme.”

Among the first to take that possibility seriously was Minhyong Kim, director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Edinburgh, UK. “Even simple-sounding problems in number theory — like Fermat’s last theorem — are hard,” he says. One way to make headway is by using ideas from physics, like those in Witten and Kapustin’s work, as a sort of metaphor for number-theoretic problems, such as the arithmetic Langlands conjecture. Kim is working on making these metaphors more rigorous. “I take various constructions in quantum field theory and try to cook up precise number-theoretic analogues,” he says.

Ben-Zvi, together with Yiannis Sakellaridis at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and Akshay Venkatesh at the IAS, is similarly seeking inspiration from theoretical physics, with a sweeping project that seeks to reimagine the whole Langlands programme from the perspective of gauge theory.

Witten and Kapustin studied two gauge theories connected by S-duality, meaning that, although they look very different mathematically, the theories are equivalent descriptions of reality. Building on this, Ben-Zvi and his colleagues are investigating how charged materials behave in each theory, translating their dual descriptions into a network of interlinked mathematical conjectures.

“Their work really stimulated a lot of research, especially in the number-theory world,” says Raskin. “There’s a lot of people who are working in that circle of ideas now.”

One of their most striking results concerns a two-way relationship between quite different mathematical objects called periods and L-functions. (The Riemann hypothesis, considered perhaps the most important unsolved problem in mathematics, is focused on the behaviour of a type of L-function.) Periods are a part of harmonic analysis, whereas L-functions are from the realm of number theory — the two sides of Langlands’ original conjectures. However, through the lens of physics, Ben-Zvi and his colleagues showed that the relationship between periods and L-functions also mirrors that of the geometric programme.

Hunting deeper truth

Many mathematicians are confident that the proof of the geometric conjecture will stand, but it will take years to peer review the papers setting it out, which have all been submitted to journals. Gaitsgory, however, is already pushing forward on several fronts.

For instance, the existing proof addresses the ‘unramified’ case, in which the terrain around points on the Riemann surface is well behaved. Gaitsgory and his collaborators are now hoping to extend their results to the more intricate, ramified case by accounting for more-complex behaviour around points as well as for singularities or ‘punctures’ in the surface.

To that end, they are extending their work to the local geometric Langlands conjecture to understand in more detail what happens around a single point — and collaborating with, among others, Jessica Fintzen at the University of Bonn.

“This result opens the door to a whole new range of investigations — and that’s where our interests start to converge, even though we come from very different worlds,” she says. “Now they’re looking to generalize the proof, and that’s what’s drawing me deeper into the geometric Langlands. Somehow, the proof’s the beginning and not the end.”

Fintzen studies the representations of p-adic groups — groups of matrices where the entries are p-adic numbers. She constructs the matrices explicitly — essentially, deriving a recipe for writing them down — and this seems to be the kind of local information that must be incorporated into the global geometric case to ramify it, Gaitsgory says.

What began as a set of deep conjectures linking abstract branches of mathematics has evolved into a thriving, multidisciplinary effort that stretches from the foundations of number theory to the edges of quantum physics. The Langlands correspondence might not yet be the grand unified theory of mathematics, but the proof of its geometric arm is a nexus of ideas that will probably shape the field for years to come.

“The Langlands correspondence points to much deeper structures in mathematics that we’re only scratching the surface of,” says Frenkel. “We don’t really understand what they are. They’re still behind the curtains.”

This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on July 16, 2025.

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Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• Directed evolution is eerily reminiscent of AI in the way that it generates and evolves molecules until it reaches the best possible solution.

• Researchers have made a new breakthrough in this biotechnology, creating improved proteins for mammalian cells by first evolving the proteins in altered viral cells.

• Future uses of directed evolution include proteins that better tolerate certain medical treatments and even antibodies that are fine-tuned to detect cancer earlier than ever.

It sounds like a cyberpunk vision. Inspired by the generative abilities of AI, directed evolution, a biological system that works much like machine learning, can actually be used to improve proteins and antibodies by automatically evolving them.

PROTEUS (PROTein Evolution Using Selection) is the brainchild of molecular biologist Christopher Denes of the University of Sydney and his research team. Denes, whose work explores the intersection of molecular biology and virology, wanted to create a biotech platform that would make it possible to evolve molecules in mammal cells as opposed to the bacterial cells directed evolution has usually been used on.

By going through millions of potential genetic sequences in order to find the best adaptations for an application, PROTEUS fast-forwards evolution by years and even decades. This could mean the ability to switch genetic diseases off. It could also be applied to nanobodies, which are nano-scale antibody fragments that could be used for diagnostic purposes. Nanobodies are capable of detecting the DNA damage which leads to cancer. Earlier diagnosis often boosts chances of survival.

“PROTEUS can be used to evolve protein activities within the context of a mammalian cell,” Denes said in a study recently published in Nature Communications. “We anticipate that PROTEUS will help the research community generate or optimize diverse biomolecules designed to function in complex mammalian systems.”

What would become the current iteration of this biotechnology began to emerge in the mid-1990s. A team of researchers won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of directed evolution. It involves generating different mutants of a biological entity, such as a cell, and then determining which of these mutants evolve optimal performance. Future rounds use the most effective mutants as a standard for diversification and selection, with more evolved versions selected after each round until they reach the desired result.

Denes and his team wanted to take the glitches out of genetically programming mammalian cells. More complex than the simple bacteria and archaea used for previous experiments in directed evolution, the cells of mammals have additional signaling networks and interactions between proteins, and also undergo more chemical changes after producing proteins.

The problem with evolving proteins directly in mammalian cells is their susceptibility to mutations in their genomes during multiple rounds of evolution. Their solution was to evolve proteins in a viral genome instead, with new cells available for each round.

“[PROTEUS] uses chimeric virus-like vesicles (VLVs) to enable extended mammalian directed evolution campaigns without loss of system integrity,” said Denes. “[It] rapidly generates authentic evolution products with superior functionality, and will have broad utility for evolving proteins designed to function in mammalian cells.”

By using the outer shell of one virus and the genome of another, creating a chimera into which he inserted the protein, Denes was able to prevent the system from glitching. The cells were able to evolve many possible protein solutions simultaneously. There was also an expected Darwinization of these solutions, with those that were less effective going extinct while the most effective continued to evolve and dominate.

This is just the beginning for a range of possibilities. Optimizing proteins in human cells could allow patients to better tolerate and process medical treatments as well as work alongside CRISPR to improve gene editing. While there are still improvements to be made, PROTEUS is a new frontier in evolution that will only keep evolving.

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A marine biologist has shared a glimpse into how epaulette sharks get around – using their pectoral and pelvic fins to walk along the seafloor. 

“And that is why they are called ‘walking sharks’,” says Jacinta Shackleton on Instagram.

Shackleton captured the remarkable video of a juvenile epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) exploring the reef while she was working at Lady Elliot Island eco resort on Australia’s southern Great Barrier Reef.

“The sharks are most active around dawn and dusk as this is when they feed and this one was most likely out looking for food,” says Shackleton who was researching the species as part of her studies with the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

“They have specialised organs called ampullae of lorenzini on their snout which help them pick up any electrical impulses from underneath the sand,” she says. “This one eventually found some worms hiding under the sand!”

“Its fins enable them to ‘walk’ along the seabed, over corals, and even across land,” adds Master Reef Guides when re-sharing the video on Instagram.

“This special superpower allows them to move between rock pools at low tide to feed on trapped small fish and invertebrates, boldly going where no other predator can.”

Image and video credit: Jacinta Shackleton / instagram.com/jacintashackleton

More amazing wildlife stories from around the world

Skygazers have a lot to look forward to over the next month. A couple of dueling meteor showers are gracing the skies later this month, and they will be joined by perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year: the Perseids meteor shower.

Perseids are known for their bright fireballs and plentiful meteors. The show started on July 17, and will run through Aug. 23. 

The reason the Perseids meteor shower is so popular is twofold. First, it takes place in the summer, so going outside and watching it is less uncomfortable than other large meteor showers like Quadrantids, which takes place in wintery January. 

The other reason is that it’s one of the most active meteor showers of the year. During its peak, the meteor shower is known to spit as many as 100 meteors on average, according to the American Meteor Society. These not only include your typical shooting stars, but also a higher chance for fireballs, which are meteors that explode as they enter orbit. Per NASA, fireballs tend to last longer than standard shooting stars and can come in a variety of different colors. 

Perseids come to Earth courtesy of the 109P/Swift-Tuttle comet. Earth’s orbit around the sun brings it through Swift-Tuttle’s tail every year. The comet itself takes 133 years to orbit the sun. Its last perihelion — the point at which it’s the closest to the sun — was in 1992. It won’t be back until the year 2125. Until then, it leaves behind an excellent tail of dust and debris to feed us yearly meteor showers. 

How to watch the Perseids meteor shower

The best time to view the Perseids is during its peak, which occurs on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. During this time, the shower will produce anywhere from 25 to 100 meteors per hour on average. However, since the shower officially lasts for over a month, you have a chance to see a shooting star on any given evening, provided that you’re far enough away from light pollution.

Thus, if you’re planning on watching this year’s Perseids during their peak, you’ll want to get out of the city and suburbs as far as possible. According to Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office, folks in the city might see one or two meteors from the meteor shower per hour, which is pocket change compared to what those outside city limits might see. 

Regardless, once you’ve arrived at wherever you want to watch the meteors, you’ll want to direct your attention to the radiant, or the point at which the meteors will appear to originate. Like all meteors, Perseids are named after the constellation from which they appear. In this case, it’s Perseus.

Per Stellarium’s free sky map, Perseus will rise from the northeastern horizon across the continental US on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. It’ll then rise into the eastern sky, where it’ll remain until after sunrise. So, in short, point yourself due east and you should be OK. Binoculars may help, but we recommend against telescopes since they’ll restrict your view of the sky to a very small portion, which may hinder your meteor-sighting efforts. 

The American Meteor Society also notes that the moon may give viewers some difficulty. Perseids’ peak occurs just three days after August’s full moon, so the moon will still be mostly full. Thus, it is highly probable that light pollution from the moon may reduce the number of visible meteors by a hefty margin, depending on how things go.

An international team of researchers has unveiled a groundbreaking advance: an optical microscope that can image single atoms using visible light, without the need for bulky electron microscopes. By combining a super-fine silver probe with advanced laser and cooling techniques, this innovation delivers one-nanometer resolution, capturing individual atoms with photon-based observation.

Why This Optics Revolution Matters

Traditionally, optical microscopes have been bound by the diffraction limit, unable to resolve details smaller than ~200 nm. That confinement made atomic imaging possible only with electron or tunneling microscopes. Now, the breakthrough method, dubbed ULA‑SNOM (ultra-low amplitude scanning near-field optical microscopy).

How It Works (Without the Jargon)

1. Ultra-Fine Silver Tip
   A silver needle, sharpened by a focused ion beam, hovers just one nanometer above the sample. A low-power red laser produces a microscopic “light pocket,” small enough to interact atom by atom.

2. Cooled to Extreme Conditions
   Operating near absolute zero (8 K) in ultrahigh vacuum, the setup eliminates noise and vibrations, maintaining the precision needed to isolate each atom.

3. Advanced Signal Tools
   Using clever detection techniques, researchers separate genuine atomic signals from background light, finally revealing clear images of single atoms and defects on the surface.

Atomic Vision Confirmed

The team tested their microscope on silicon islands just one atom thick sitting on a silver surface. The results matched the clarity of atomic-scale scanning tunneling microscopes, with true optical contrast at nanometer resolution.

Why You Should Care

• New Window into Material Science: You can now study atomic-level light behavior, aiding in the design of better solar cells, quantum chips, and photonic devices.

• Sharper Chemistry Insights: Researchers can observe how individual atoms respond to light, crucial for breakthroughs in catalysis, sensors, and energy systems.

• Future Labs Won’t Need Electron Microscopes: Optical systems are simpler, safer, and more accessible.

The largest piece of Mars ever discovered on Earth has been sold at a New York auction for $5.3 million (USD).

It was sold on Wednesday 16 July 2025 by Sotheby’s in New York.

The Martian rock was discovered on 16 November 2023 by a meteorite hunter in Niger’s Agadez Region.

Scientists say the rock, named NWA 16788, travelled 140 million miles through space, having been ejected from Mars by a huge asteroid strike on the Red Planet.

It then crashed down in the Sahara Desert, where it was found by a meteorite hunter.

NWA 16788 is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars round on Earth.

It weighs 24.5kg (54lb) and is nearly 38.1cm (15in) long, according to Sotheby’s.

A link to the Solar System’s formation

Meteorites, asteroids and other space rocks are leftover materials from the birth of the Solar System, and so studying them can teach scientists a lot about how the Solar System formed, and what it was like in its infancy.

NWA 16788 was blasted out of Mars by an asteroid slamming into the planet’s surface, and then scorched as it fell through Earth’s atmosphere.

“After making this incredible interplanetary journey, this meteorite then had to contend with Earth’s atmosphere, which protects us from thousands and thousands of micro-meteorites, pieces of decaying satellites and other space trash,” says Cassandra Hatton, Vice Chair, Science and Natural History at Sotheby’s.

“None of those things make it through Earth’s atmosphere because they burn up upon reentry. So this making it through the atmosphere is just another miraculous step in this Martian meteorite’s journey to Earth.

“Approximately 70% of Earth’s surface is covered in water. So we’re incredibly lucky that this landed on dry land instead of the middle of the ocean where we could actually find it.”

Fewer than 400 Martian meteorites have ever been recorded on Earth, and most are about the size of a small pebble, making this a huge discovery.

An underwater videographer has shared the incredible moment a tiny crab hitches a ride on a jellyfish. 

“Who needs a plane or a train when you have a jellyfish to give you a ride?” says Zoe Slack when sharing her footage from a dive trip with Rainbow Fish Divers in Koh Tao, Thailand.

“Nature’s version of Uber,” adds Oceans Nation who re-shared the video clip on Instagram, explaining that this type of relationship is called commensalism, meaning that one of the species benefits from the partnership but there’s no positive or negative impact on the other animal. 

In this instance, they say, “the jellyfish offers transport and protection to the crab, which gets a free ride through the open ocean.”

Video and image credit: Zoe Slack / instagram.com/zoegetswet

More amazing wildlife stories from around the world

New research published in the journal Psychopharmacology shows that psilocybin—the psychedelic compound found in certain “magic” mushrooms—slows reaction time and impairs executive functioning during its acute effects. The study, a systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 experiments, found that people under the influence of psilocybin responded more slowly to cognitive tasks and, to a lesser extent, made more errors, particularly at higher doses.

Psilocybin has gained renewed attention in recent years due to its potential therapeutic effects for depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. While many studies have explored how the drug affects emotions and mood, far less is known about how it influences cognitive functioning—particularly executive functions such as working memory, attention, and self-control.

These abilities are vital to daily functioning and may also be relevant to therapeutic outcomes. For example, executive function deficits are common across many forms of mental illness. Understanding whether psilocybin worsens or improves these abilities is important for assessing both the safety and the therapeutic potential of the compound.

“Cognitive functions are a crucial but underexplored aspect of psychedelic science,” said study co-authors Morten Lietz and Parsa Yousefi, who are both PhD candidates affiliated with the Molecular Psychiatry Lab at the University of Fribourg.

“Researching anything that involves structured tasks—like those requiring participants to sit and concentrate during a psychedelic experience—is inherently challenging. Since some of our future projects aim to assess cognitive functions in psychedelic trials, we wanted to get a comprehensive overview of the existing literature to understand where we can contribute meaningfully to the field.”

The researchers conducted a comprehensive review of existing studies that measured how psilocybin affects executive functions and attention during its acute effects—usually within four hours of administration. They searched several major research databases and selected peer-reviewed studies that tested participants under the influence of psilocybin using standardized cognitive tasks.

In total, the researchers identified 13 studies that met their criteria, which together provided 42 separate comparisons between people who took psilocybin and those who received a placebo. The tasks measured five domains: working memory (such as updating information in mind), conflict monitoring (resolving interference between competing inputs), response inhibition (resisting impulsive actions), cognitive flexibility (shifting strategies), and attention.

The researchers used multilevel meta-analysis techniques to account for differences between studies and to examine moderators like dose, timing, and the type of task. A meta-analysis is a statistical method that combines data from multiple studies to identify overall patterns and effects. They focused on two core performance metrics: reaction time (how fast participants responded) and accuracy (how often they responded correctly).

Across all studies, psilocybin was associated with a large and statistically significant slowing of reaction time during its acute effects. The overall effect size was Hedges’ g = 1.13, meaning participants took noticeably longer to respond to cognitive tasks when on psilocybin compared to placebo.

The impact of psilocybin on accuracy was less clear. On average, accuracy was slightly lower under psilocybin (Hedges’ g = -0.45), but this result was not statistically significant. This suggests that while people under psilocybin take longer to respond, they do not necessarily make many more mistakes—though accuracy was reduced in some individual studies.

Importantly, the researchers found that the type of task influenced the size of the effect. Psilocybin’s impact on reaction time was more pronounced when tasks measured general performance rather than isolating a specific cognitive skill. For instance, tasks that required general attention and motor speed showed stronger effects than those that carefully controlled for these factors. This suggests that much of the impairment may stem from broad effects on attention, motivation, or motor control, rather than specific disruptions to higher-order executive functions.

The researchers noted that traditional lab tasks may not be well suited to measuring cognitive performance during a psychedelic experience. Many of these tests are repetitive and abstract, which may make them feel irrelevant or unengaging to people undergoing a deeply altered state of consciousness.

“In this project, we reviewed all available scientific papers that assessed cognitive functions during the acute effects of psilocybin,” Lietz and Yousefi told PsyPost. “We found that psilocybin tends to impair certain higher-order cognitive functions during that timeframe, largely independent of the dosage. Initially, this raised concerns—but our deeper analysis revealed something interesting: the less precise the cognitive tests were, the stronger the reported impairments.”

“This led us to question whether conventional cognitive tests—designed for sober individuals—are suitable for assessing cognition during altered states of consciousness. For example, participants under the influence of psilocybin may be less inclined to engage with repetitive computer tasks while undergoing what Griffiths et al. (2006) described as one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives.”

“Others may simply find it difficult to focus on identifying the color of a letter while immersed in intense, psilocybin-induced visual distortions,” the researchers explained. “Taken together, our results suggest that in order to understand how psilocybin truly affects cognition, we need new testing approaches—ones that work with the psychedelic experience, rather than against it.”

As with all research, the study has limitations. First, it only examined the short-term effects of psilocybin during the acute phase. There is some evidence that psilocybin may actually improve cognitive functioning in the days or weeks after use, but these long-term effects were not captured in this analysis.

Second, the included studies varied widely in their methods, participant samples, and cognitive tasks, contributing to statistical heterogeneity. Some studies had small sample sizes, and there was evidence of publication bias—meaning that studies showing no effects may have been less likely to be published.

“As a meta-analysis, we relied on data from original studies,” Lietz and Yousefi noted. “If those studies contained biases, our results would be influenced as well. Indeed, our risk-of-bias analysis revealed that some studies had potential limitations—most notably regarding blinding, which is a known challenge in psychedelic research.”

To address these limitations, the authors suggest that future research should explore psilocybin’s effects across longer time frames and use more naturalistic or engaging tasks. They also recommend incorporating tools like eye tracking or experience sampling to gain insight into real-world cognitive changes during and after the psychedelic experience.

“Our next goal is to explore how psychedelics might affect cognition in the long term—and whether they could potentially enhance learning, memory, executive functions, or creativity,” Lietz and Yousefi said.

The research team is pursuing several projects focused on psychedelics and cognition. One study is investigating creative thinking in healthy individuals, while another is exploring the combined use of neurofeedback and psilocybin to enhance cognitive performance. An ongoing study is also examining how LSD affects neuroplasticity and age-related cognitive function in older adults.

“We’re currently recruiting! We’re looking for healthy, German-speaking individuals over the age of 60 living in Switzerland for the LSD study,” the researchers added. “More information is available on our website.”

The study, “Acute effects of psilocybin on attention and executive functioning in healthy volunteers: a systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis,” was authored by P. Yousefi, Morten P. Lietz, F. J. O’Higgins, R. C. A. Rippe, G. Hasler, M. van Elk, and S. Enriquez-Geppert.