A recent coronal mass ejection is expected to disrupt Earth’s magnetic field once again Friday night, potentially bringing the northern lights to more than a dozen states in the northern U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Earth’s magnetic field will likely be disrupted by a recent coronal mass ejection, forecaster said.
APA/AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
NOAA forecast a Kp index of five on a scale of nine, suggesting the northern lights have a minimal chance of being seen as far south as Iowa, with a higher chance of seeing aurora borealis in states along the Canadian border.
Periods of minor geomagnetic storms are expected late Friday and early Saturday because of “influences” from a coronal mass ejection emitted from the sun on Aug. 5, according to NOAA.
Calmer auroral activity is forecast for Saturday and Sunday night with a maximum Kp index of about four and just over three expected, respectively, according to NOAA’s three-day outlook.
Where Will The Northern Lights Be Visible?
Northern Canada and Alaska will have the highest likelihood of viewing the phenomenon, once the sun sets in the state. A lesser chance is forecast for parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. (See map below.)
Friday night’s view line.
NOAA
What’s The Best Way To See The Northern Lights?
NOAA suggests traveling to a north-facing, high vantage point away from light pollution sometime between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time, when the lights are most active.
What’s The Best Way To Photograph The Northern Lights?
If using a regular camera, photography experts told National Geographic it’s best to use a wide-angle lens, an aperture or F-stop of four or less and a focus set to the furthest possible setting. With a smartphone, NOAA recommends enabling night mode and disabling flash, while also using a tripod to stabilize the image.
Key Background
More people in the U.S. have been exposed to northern lights displays in the last year as activity peaked on the sun’s surface. This peak, a “solar maximum,” occurs throughout the sun’s 11-year cycle alongside a “solar minimum” and indicates an increase in solar events like coronal mass ejections and solar flares. The swirling, colorful lights of the aurora borealis are created from electrons of these events colliding with molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing them to become “excited” before releasing energy in the form of light.
Further Reading
ForbesNorthern Lights Displays Hit A 500-Year Peak In 2024—Here’s Where You Could Catch Aurora Borealis In 2025By Ty Roush
Researchers at the University of Wien (TU Wien) in collaboration with those at ETH Zurich have unlocked quantum states in glass spheres, sized smaller than a grain of sand, without having to resort to ultra-low temperatures.
This record-breaking achievement has pushed the boundaries of quantum physics, making it easier to study quantum properties in ways that were considered impossible before.
Quantum physics is a relatively newer field of science that attempts to explain the world around us through the study of matter and energy at atomic and submatomic scales.
While we are still beginning to scratch surface of this field, applications in areas such as sensing, computation, simulation as well as cryptography are already being developed.
As the field expands, researchers are also keen to know the limits of quantum physics. So far, studies have focused on understanding properties such as entanglement or superposition at subatomic levels.
However, researchers at ETH Zurich and TU Wein wondered if objects larger than atoms and molecules also displayed quantum properties.
Oscillations in quantum states
In the everyday world, we look at oscillations as big movements. For instance, the pendulum of a clock can oscillate at various angles and varying speeds. But as we zoom into microscopic levels, oscillations take a different form. Microscopic particles wobble at all times.
“This oscillation depends on the energy and on how the particle is influenced by its environment and its temperature,” explained Carlos Gonzalez-Ballestero from the Institute of Theoretical Physics at TU Wien, who led the work.
“In the quantum world, however, things are different: if you look at oscillations with very low energy, you find that there are very specific’ oscillation quanta’”.
The minimum vibration amplitude is known as the ground state, with excited states existing sequentially with an increase in vibration and energy levels. While there are no intermediate states, a particle can exist in a combination of different vibration states.
To identify the quantum states of a particle, scientists need to isolate it from perturbations arising from its surroundings. This is why quantum experiments are carried out at extremely low temperatures close to absolute zero.
Quantum state at room temperature
The research collaboration worked on a technique to a nanoparticle to its quantum state even when it was not near an ultracooled state. The nanoparticle used in the experiments was not perfectly round but slightly elliptical.
“When you hold such a particle in an electromagnetic field, it starts to rotate around an equilibrium orientation, much like the needle of a compass,” added Gonzalez-Ballestero in a press release.
Graphic representation of the system of lasers and mirrors used by scientists in their experiments. Image credit: Lorenzo Dania (ETHZ)
To study the quantum properties of this vibration, the research team used lasers and mirror systems that could perform the dual role of supplying or even extracting energy from it.
“By adjusting the mirrors in a suitable way, you can ensure that energy is extracted with a high probability and only added with a low probability. The energy of the rotational movement thus decreases until we approach the quantum ground state,’ Gonzalez-Ballestero further explained.
The researchers succeeded in bringing the nanoparticle’s rotation to a state resembling the ground state. Interestingly, this was achieved when the particle was several hundred degrees hot, instead of being ultracooled.
“You have to consider different degrees of freedom separately,” said Gonzalez-Ballestero, explaining their achievement. “This allows the energy of the rotational movement to be reduced very effectively without having to reduce the internal thermal energy of the nanoparticle at the same time. Amazingly, the rotation can freeze, so to speak, even though the particle itself has a very high temperature.”
The achievement allows particles to be studied in significantly ‘purer’ quantum states without requiring ultracold temperatures.
The research findings were published in the journal Nature Physics.
Scientists have found new evidence that a massive comet trail may have caused climate upheaval on Earth more than 12,000 years ago.
Tiny particles detected in ocean sediment cores suggest that dust from a large, disintegrating comet entered Earth’s atmosphere around the beginning of the Younger Dryas event, a period of abrupt cooling that caused temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere to plummet by up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) within about a year. The researchers shared their findings Aug. 6 in the journal PLOS One.
“The amount of comet dust in the atmosphere was enough to cause a short-term ‘impact winter,’” which led to an extended period of cooling, study co-author Vladimir Tselmovich, an Earth scientist at Borok Geophysical Observatory in Russia, said in a statement.
After 7,000 years of gradual warming, Earth experienced a period of rapid cooling about 12,900 years ago. Dubbed the Younger Dryas, after the wildflowers of the Dryas genus that flourished in colder temperatures, this chillier era lasted about 1,200 years before warming resumed.
Competing hypotheses describe what kicked off the Younger Dryas. Most scientists think cold freshwater lakes poured into oceans as Earth’s glaciers melted, and this weakened large-scale ocean currents that brought warm water northward from the tropics. Others have proposed that impacts from a disintegrating comet filled the atmosphere with dust and destabilized the planet’s ice sheets, triggering long-term cooling.
However, no one has found evidence of an impact crater dated to the start of the Younger Dryas that could have triggered such an event. What’s more, some scientists claim that some of the supposed evidence for the hypothesis — such as “black mats” that contain metals common to asteroids from around the start of the Younger Dryas — could instead be explained by more mundane processes.
Related: The Gulf Stream stopped pumping nutrients during the last ice age — and the same could be happening now
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In the new study, researchers studied ocean sediment cores from Baffin Bay, between Greenland and Canada, to search for evidence of a possible impact. The team found tiny metallic particles that could have come from comet dust, along with even smaller particles with high levels of platinum and iridium, elements that are common in comets and meteorites.
They also found microscopic spherical particles that most likely formed on Earth but may contain small amounts of material from a comet or asteroid. All of these appeared around the time the Younger Dryas began.
The new study doesn’t directly confirm the impact hypothesis. Instead, the particles act as indirect evidence of an impact or “airburst,” which occurs when a meteor explodes inside a planet’s atmosphere before hitting the ground.
These impacts might have come from a large, disintegrating comet that later gave rise to Comet Encke and the Taurid Complex, the source of the annual Taurid meteor shower, the researchers wrote in the study.
However, more research is needed to confirm this proposal. The team plans to test other ocean cores for similar particles to confirm whether the Younger Dryas began shortly after those particles appear in the geological record.
Shrinking glaciers present some of the most visible signs of ongoing anthropogenic climate change. Their melting also alters landscapes, increases local geohazards, and affects regional freshwater availability and global sea level rise.
Worldwide observations show that global glacier decline through the early 21st century has been historically unprecedented. Modeling research suggests that 16 kilograms of glacier ice melt for every kilogram of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted, and other studies indicate that every centimeter of sea level rise exposes an additional 2–3 million people to annual flooding.
Science has benefited from a diverse set of spaceborne missions and strategies for estimating glacier mass changes at regional to global scales.
For more than 130 years, the World Glacier Monitoring Service and its predecessor organizations have coordinated international glacier monitoring. This effort started with the worldwide collection, analysis, and distribution of in situ observations [World Glacier Monitoring Service, 2023]. In the 20th century, remote sensing data from airborne and spaceborne sensors began complementing field observations.
Over the past 2 decades, science has benefited from a diverse set of spaceborne missions and strategies for estimating glacier mass changes at regional to global scales (see Figure 2 of Berthier et al. [2023]). However, this research is challenged by its dependence on the open accessibility of observations from scientific satellite missions. The continuation and accessibility of several satellite missions are now at risk, presenting potential major gaps in our ability to observe glaciers from space.
We discuss here the history, strengths, and limitations of several strategies for tracking changes in glaciers and how combining studies from the multiple approaches available—as exemplified by a recent large-scale effort within the research community—improves the accuracy of analyses of glacial mass changes. We also outline actions required to secure the future of long-term glacier monitoring.
The Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise
Glaciological observations from in situ measurements of ablation and accumulation, generally carried out with ablation stakes and in snow pits, represent the backbone of glacier mass balance monitoring. For more than 30 years, glaciologists have undertaken this work at 60 reference glaciers worldwide, with some observations extending back to the early 20th century.
Researchers conduct glaciological fieldwork, using ablation stakes and other tools, on Findelengletscher in Zermatt, Switzerland, in October 2024. Credit: Andreas Linsbauer, University of Zurich
These observations provide good estimates of the interannual variability of glacier mass balance and have been vital for process understanding, model calibration, and long-term monitoring. However, because of the limited spatial coverage of in situ observations, the long-term trends they indicate may not accurately represent mass change across entire glacial regions, and some largely glacierized regions are critically undersampled.
Airborne geodetic surveys provide wider views of individual glaciers compared with point measurements on the ground, and comparing ice elevation changes in airborne data allows researchers to identify and quantify biases in field observations at the glacier scale [Zemp et al., 2013]. Meanwhile, geodetic surveys from spaceborne sensors enable many opportunities to assess glacier elevation and mass changes at regional to global scales.
The Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (GlaMBIE), launched in 2022, combined observations from in situ and remote sensing approaches, compiling 233 regional glacier mass change estimates from about 450 data contributors organized in 35 research teams.
The results of the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise show that since 2000, glaciers have lost between 2% and 39% of their mass depending on the region and about 5% globally.
The results of this community effort, published in February 2025, show that since 2000, glaciers have lost between 2% and 39% of their mass depending on the region and about 5% globally [The GlaMBIE Team, 2025]. These cumulative losses amount to 273 gigatons of water annually and contribute 0.75 millimeter to mean global sea level rise each year. Compared with recent estimates for the ice sheets [Otosaka et al., 2023], glacier mass loss is about 18% larger than the loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet and more than twice the loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
GlaMBIE provided the first comprehensive assessment of glacier mass change measurements from heterogeneous in situ and spaceborne observations and a new observational baseline for global glacier change and impact assessments [Berthier et al., 2023]. It also revealed opportunities and challenges ahead for monitoring glaciers from space.
Strategies for Glacier Monitoring from Space
GlaMBIE used a variety of technologies and approaches for studying glaciers from space. Many rely on repeated mapping of surface elevations to create digital elevation models (DEMs) and determine glacier elevation changes. This method provides multiannual views of glacier volume changes but requires assumptions about the density of snow, firn, and ice to convert volume changes to mass changes, which adds uncertainty because conversion factors can vary substantially.
Optical stereophotogrammetry applied to spaceborne imagery allows assessment of glacier elevation changes across scales. Analysis of imagery from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on board Terra from 2000 to 2019 yielded elevation changes at 100-meter horizontal resolution for almost all of Earth’s glaciers [Hugonnet et al., 2021]. At the regional scale, finer spatial resolution is possible with the ongoing French Satellite pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT) mission series and with satellites like GeoEye, Pléiades, and WorldView.
The Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (GlaMBIE) used data from a fleet of satellites that monitor glaciers worldwide using optical, radar, laser, and gravity measurements. Clockwise from left in this image are illustrations of Terra, CryoSat, ICESat-2, and the twin GRACE spacecraft above a map of elevation change for the Vatnajökull ice cap in Iceland. Credit: ESA/NASA/Planetary Visions
Two spaceborne missions applying synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry have been used to assess glacier elevation changes. In February 2000, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) produced a near-global DEM at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. The second mission, TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement (TanDEM-X), has operated since 2010, providing worldwide DEMs at a pixel spacing of 12 meters.
Data from both missions can be used to assess glacier elevation changes in many regions [Braun et al., 2019], capitalizing on the high spatial resolution and the ability of radar signals to penetrate clouds. However, measurements using C- and X-band radar—as both SRTM and TanDEM-X have—are subject to uncertainties because of topographic complexity in high mountain terrain and because the radar signals can penetrate into snow and firn.
Laser and radar altimetry allow us to determine glacier elevation changes along ground tracks or swaths, which can be aggregated to produce regional estimates. Laser altimetry has been carried out by NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellites (ICESat and ICESat-2) and the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) on board the International Space Station (ISS) [Menounos et al., 2024; Treichler et al., 2019].
Spaceborne gravimetry offers an alternative to elevation-focused methods, allowing scientists to estimate mass changes by measuring changes in Earth’s gravitational field.
Spaceborne radar altimetry has a long tradition of measuring ocean and land surfaces, but these missions’ large detection footprints and the challenges of mountainous terrain hampered the use of early missions (e.g., ERS, Envisat) for glacier applications. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) CryoSat-2, which launched in 2010, offered improved coverage of the polar regions, denser ground coverage, a sharper footprint, and other enhanced capabilities that opened its use for monitoring global glacier elevation changes [Jakob and Gourmelen, 2023].
Both laser altimetry and radar altimetry provide elevation change time series at monthly or quarterly resolution for regions with large ice caps and ice fields (e.g., Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, Svalbard, and the periphery of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets). However, assessing mountain regions with smaller glaciers (e.g., Scandinavia, central Europe, Caucasus, and New Zealand) remains challenging because of the complex terrain and limited spatial coverage.
Spaceborne gravimetry offers an alternative to elevation-focused methods, allowing scientists to estimate mass changes across the ocean and in water and ice reservoirs by measuring changes in Earth’s gravitational field. Two missions, the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and the NASA/GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences GRACE Follow-on mission (GRACE-FO), have provided such measurements almost continuously since 2002.
Gravimetry offers more direct estimates of glacier mass change than other methods [Wouters et al., 2019]. However, the data must be corrected to account for effects of atmospheric drag and oceanic variability, glacial isostatic adjustment, nonglacier hydrological features, and other factors [Berthier et al., 2023].
Estimates from the GRACE and GRACE-FO missions are most relevant for regions with large areas of glacier coverage (>15,000 square kilometers) because of the relatively coarse resolution (a few hundred kilometers) of the gravity data and because of issues such as poor signal-to-noise ratios in regions with small glacier areas and related small mass changes.
Securing Glacier Monitoring over the Long Term
The work of GlaMBIE to combine observations from the diverse approaches above points to several interconnected requirements and challenges for improving the comprehensiveness of global glacier change assessments and securing the future of long-term glacier monitoring.
First, we must extend the existing network of in situ glaciological observations to fill major data gaps. Such gaps remain in many regions, including Central Asia, Karakoram, Kunlun, and the Central Andes, where glaciers are vital for freshwater availability, as well as in the polar regions, where glaciers are key contributors to sea level rise. These networks also need to be updated to provide real-time monitoring, which will improve understanding of glacier processes and help calibrate and validate remote sensing data and numerical modeling.
A sequence of aerial photographs taken in 1980 from about 11,000-meter altitude of Grey Glacier in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field (top) was used to generate a 3D model of the glacier (bottom). Credit: 3D reconstruction by Livia Piermattei and Camilo Rada using images from the Servicio Aerofotogramétrico de la Fuerza Aérea de Chile (SAF)
Second, we must continue unlocking historical archives of airborne and spaceborne missions to expand the spatiotemporal coverage of the observations used in glacier mass change assessments. Data from declassified spy satellites, such as CORONA and Hexagon, have provided stereo observing capabilities at horizontal resolutions of a few meters and offer potential to assess glacier elevation changes back to the 1960s and 1970s. Aerial photography has provided unique opportunities to reconstruct glacier changes since the early 20th century, such as in Svalbard, Greenland, and Antarctica. Beyond individual and institutional studies, we need open access to entire national archives of historical images to safeguard records of past glacier changes on a global scale.
We must ensure the continuation of space-based glacier monitoring with open-access and high-resolution sensors.
Third, we must ensure the continuation of space-based glacier monitoring with open-access and high-resolution sensors, following the examples of the Sentinel missions, SPOT 5, and Pléiades. For optical sensors, there is an urgent need for new missions collecting open-access, high-resolution stereo imagery. The French space agency’s forthcoming CO3D (Constellation Optique en 3D) mission, scheduled for launch in 2025, will help meet this need if its data are openly available. But with the anticipated decommissioning of ASTER [Berthier et al., 2024] and the suspended production of new ArcticDEM and REMA (Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica) products from WorldView satellite data as a result of recent U.S. funding cuts, additional replacement missions are needed to observe elevation changes over individual glaciers.
For radar imaging and altimetry, the SAR mission TanDEM-X and the radar altimeter CryoSat-2 are still operating with expected mission extensions into the late 2020s, and ESA’s SAR-equipped Harmony mission is expected to launch in 2029. With the planned launch of the Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter (CRISTAL) in 2027, ESA aims to establish a long-term, cryosphere-specific monitoring program.
The challenge with CRISTAL will be to ensure that its sensor and mission specifications are tailored for application over glaciers—a difficult task because of glaciers’ relatively small sizes, steep slopes, and distribution in mountain terrain. In the event of a gap between the end of CryoSat-2 and the start of CRISTAL, a bridging airborne campaign, similar to NASA’s Operation IceBridge between ICESat and ICESat-2, will be needed.
Grosser Aletschgletscher in Switzerland, seen in October 2015. Credit: Jürg Alean, SwissEduc, Glaciers online
For laser altimetry, we may face gaps in observations as well, as no follow-on is planned for the current ICESat-2 and GEDI science missions. ICESat-2, which measures Earth’s glacier topography and provides validation and coregistration points for other altimetry missions, is projected to run until the early to mid-2030s, but continuing missions must be initiated now. Future missions should combine high accuracy with full coverage over individual glaciers. Proposed concepts with swath lidar, such as EDGE (Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer) and CASALS (Concurrent Artificially-Intelligent Spectrometry and Adaptive Lidar System), could be game changers for repeated mapping because they would provide full coverage of glacier topography. Advancing Surface Topography and Vegetation (STV) as a targeted observable for NASA missions, as recommended by the National Academies’ 2017–2027 Decadal Survey, could extend such observations beyond the current science missions.
For gravimetry, we also face a potential gap in observations, depending on when GRACE-FO is decommissioned and when approved follow-up missions—GRACE-C and NGGM (Next Generation Gravity Mission)—launch. Regardless of launch dates, the usefulness of future missions for monitoring glacier mass changes across regions will strongly depend on the spatial resolution of their data and on the ability to separate glacier and nonglacier signals. Cofounded gravity missions such as the Mass-Change and Geosciences International Constellation (MAGIC), a planned joint NASA-ESA project with four satellites operating in pairs, could significantly improve the spatial and temporal resolution of the gravity data and their utility for glacier monitoring.
Bringing It All Together
Glaciers worldwide are diminishing at alarming rates, affecting everything from geohazards to freshwater supplies to sea level rise.
Glaciers worldwide are diminishing with global warming, and they’re doing so at alarming rates, affecting everything from geohazards to freshwater supplies to sea level rise. Understanding as well as possible the details of glacier change from place to place and how these changes may affect different communities requires combining careful observations from a variety of field, airborne, and—increasingly—spaceborne approaches.
In light of major existing and impending observational gaps, the scientific community along with government bodies and others should work together to expand access to relevant historical data and extend present-day monitoring capabilities. Most important, space agencies and their sponsor nations must work rapidly to replace and improve upon current satellite missions to ensure long-term glacier monitoring from space. Given the climate crisis, we also call for open scientific access to data from commercial and defense missions to fill gaps and complement civil missions.
As the work of GlaMBIE reiterated, the more complete the datasets we have, the better positioned we will be to comprehend and quantify glacier changes and related downstream impacts.
Acknowledgments
We thank Etienne Berthier, Dana Floricioiu, and Noel Gourmelen for their contributions to this article and all coauthors and data contributors of GlaMBIE for constructive and fruitful discussions during the project, which built the foundation to condense the information presented here. This article was enabled by support from ESA projects GlaMBIE (4000138018/22/I-DT) and The Circle (4000145640/24/NL/SC), with additional contributions from the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS).
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Author Information
Michael Zemp ([email protected]), University of Zurich, Switzerland; Livia Jakob, Earthwave Ltd., Edinburgh, U.K.; Fanny Brun, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France; Tyler Sutterley, University of Washington, Seattle; and Brian Menounos, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada
Citation: Zemp, M., L. Jakob, F. Brun, T. Sutterley, and B. Menounos (2025), Glacier monitoring from space is crucial, and at risk, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250290. Published on [DAY MONTH] 2025.
In medicine and biotechnology, the ability to evolve proteins with new or improved functions is crucial, but current methods are often slow and laborious. Now, Scripps Research scientists have developed a synthetic biology platform that accelerates evolution itself-enabling researchers to evolve proteins with useful, new properties thousands of times faster than nature. The system, named T7-ORACLE, was described in Science on August 7, 2025, and represents a breakthrough in how researchers can engineer therapeutic proteins for cancer, neurodegeneration and essentially any other disease area.
This is like giving evolution a fast-forward button. You can now evolve proteins continuously and precisely inside cells without damaging the cell’s genome or requiring labor-intensive steps.”
Pete Schultz, co-senior author, the President and CEO of Scripps Research, where he also holds the L.S. “Sam” Skaggs Presidential Chair
Directed evolution is a laboratory process that involves introducing mutations and selecting variants with improved function over multiple cycles. It’s used to tailor proteins with desired properties, such as highly selective, high-affinity antibodies, enzymes with new specificities or catalytic properties, or to investigate the emergence of resistance mutations in drug targets. However, traditional methods often require repeated rounds of DNA manipulation and testing with each round taking a week or more. Systems for continuous evolution-where proteins evolve inside living cells without manual intervention-aim to streamline this process by enabling simultaneous mutation and selection with each round of cell division (roughly 20 minutes for bacteria). But existing approaches have been limited by technical complexity or modest mutation rates.
T7-ORACLE circumvents these bottlenecks by engineering E. coli bacteria-a standard model organism in molecular biology-to host a second, artificial DNA replication system derived from bacteriophage T7, a virus that infects bacteria and has been widely studied for its simple, efficient replication system. T7-ORACLE enables continuous hypermutation and accelerated evolution of biomacromolecules, and is designed to be broadly applicable to many protein targets and biological challenges. Conceptually, T7-ORACLE builds on and extends efforts on existing orthogonal replication systems-meaning they operate separately from the cell’s own machinery-such as OrthoRep in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast) and EcORep in E. coli. In comparison to these systems, T7-ORACLE benefits from the combination of high mutagenesis, fast growth, high transformation efficiency, and the ease with which both the E. coli host and the circular replicon plasmid can be integrated into standard molecular biology workflows.
The T-7 ORACLE orthogonal system targets only plasmid DNA (small, circular pieces of genetic material), leaving the cell’s host genome untouched. By engineering T7 DNA polymerase (a viral enzyme that replicates DNA) to be error-prone, the researchers introduced mutations into target genes at a rate 100,000 times higher than normal without damaging the host cells.
“This system represents a major advance in continuous evolution,” says co-senior author Christian Diercks, an assistant professor of chemistry at Scripps Research. “Instead of one round of evolution per week, you get a round each time the cell divides-so it really accelerates the process.”
To demonstrate the power of T7-ORACLE, the research team inserted a common antibiotic resistance gene, TEM-1 β-lactamase, into the system and exposed the E. coli cells to escalating doses of various antibiotics. In less than a week, the system evolved versions of the enzyme that could resist antibiotic levels up to 5,000 times higher than the original. This proof-of-concept demonstrated not only T7-ORACLE’s speed and precision, but also its real-world relevance by replicating how resistance develops in response to antibiotics.
“The surprising part was how closely the mutations we saw matched real-world resistance mutations found in clinical settings,” notes Diercks. “In some cases, we saw new combinations that worked even better than those you would see in a clinic.”
But Diercks emphasizes that the study isn’t focused on antibiotic resistance per se.
“This isn’t a paper about TEM-1 β-lactamase,” he explains. “That gene was just a well-characterized benchmark to show how the system works. What matters is that we can now evolve virtually any protein, like cancer drug targets and therapeutic enzymes, in days instead of months.”
The broader potential of T7-ORACLE lies in its adaptability as a platform for protein engineering. Although the system is built into E. coli, the bacterium serves primarily as a vessel for continuous evolution. Scientists can insert genes from humans, viruses or other sources into plasmids, which are then introduced into E. coli cells. T7-ORACLE mutates these genes, generating variant proteins that can be screened or selected for improved function. Because E. coli is easy to grow and widely used in labs, it provides a convenient, scalable system for evolving virtually any protein of interest.
This could help scientists more rapidly evolve antibodies to target specific cancers, evolve more effective therapeutic enzymes, and design proteases that target proteins involved in cancer and neurodegenerative disease.
“What’s exciting is that it’s not limited to one disease or one kind of protein,” says Diercks. “Because the system is customizable, you can drop in any gene and evolve it toward whatever function you need.”
Moreover, T7-ORACLE works with standard E. coli cultures and widely used lab workflows, avoiding the complex protocols required by other continuous evolution systems.
“The main thing that sets this apart is how easy it is to implement,” adds Diercks. “There’s no specialized equipment or expertise required. If you already work with E. coli, you can probably use this system with minimal adjustments.”
T7-ORACLE reflects Schultz’s broader goal: to rebuild key biological processes-such as DNA replication, RNA transcription and protein translation-so they function independently of the host cell. This separation allows scientists to reprogram these processes without disrupting normal cellular activity. By decoupling fundamental processes from the genome, tools like T7-ORACLE help advance synthetic biology.
“In the future, we’re interested in using this system to evolve polymerases that can replicate entirely unnatural nucleic acids: synthetic molecules that resemble DNA and RNA but with novel chemical properties,” says Diercks. “That would open up possibilities in synthetic genomics that we’re just beginning to explore.”
Currently, the research team is focused on evolving human-derived enzymes for therapeutic use, and on tailoring proteases to recognize specific cancer-related protein sequences.
“The T7-ORACLE approach merges the best of both worlds,” says Schultz. “We can now combine rational protein design with continuous evolution to discover functional molecules more efficiently than ever.”
Source:
Scripps Research Institute
Journal reference:
Diercks, C. S., et al. (2025) An orthogonal T7 replisome for continuous hypermutation and accelerated evolution in E. coli. Science. doi.org/10.1126/science.adp9583.
Scientists have found the earliest black hole in the universe that existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. The discovery was revealed in a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The ancient black hole was spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope in the distant galaxy CAPERS-LRD-z9, shrouded by gas. It is around 13.3 billion years old, when the universe was just three per cent of its current age. CAPERS-LRD-z9 is one of the “little red dot” galaxies that Webb captured in the first year of its launch. They looked very different from the galaxies Hubble was used to seeing. Steven Finkelstein, co-author of the new study and director of the Cosmic Frontier Center at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement, “The discovery of Little Red Dots was a major surprise from early JWST data, as they looked nothing like galaxies seen with the Hubble Space Telescope.”
Galaxies born right after Big Bang
These galaxies appeared as scarlet pinpricks in Webb’s vision and had never been detected by any telescope before it. Their discovery changed the beliefs scientists had about the universe. NASA stated that if these shining objects were galaxies, then it would imply that some of them had grown really big, really fast and did not fit into the current theories. Finkelstein and his team compiled data on these little red dot galaxies and published their findings in January. It included all of them that existed in the first 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. They wrote that these galaxies likely had supermassive black holes that were still growing. He then collaborated with a team led by Anthony Taylor, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cosmic Frontier Center.
They checked the spectroscopy data from Webb’s CAPERS (CANDELS-Area Prism Epoch of Reionization Survey) program. They noticed a distinct spectroscopic signature that is produced when black holes interact with gas clouds. As the gas rapidly swirls around and falls into a black hole, light from gas that is moving away from us stretches into redder wavelengths, while the one moving towards us has bluer wavelengths. Taylor says, “There aren’t many other things that create this signature.” This one turned out to be the earliest such example.
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Black holes and brightness from galaxies
Their findings further cement the belief that supermassive black holes are the likely source of the brightness emitted by these galaxies. “We’ve seen these clouds in other galaxies,” Taylor said. “When we compared this object to those other sources, it was a dead ringer.” The oldest black hole discovered at the centre of this galaxy is up to 300 million times more massive than the Sun. “Finding a black hole of this size that existed so early on in the universe adds to growing evidence that early black holes grew much faster than we thought possible,” Finkelstein said.
Cicadas in southern India have been found to start their dawn chorus with remarkable accuracy, timing their song to a precise level of light during the pre-dawn hours.
Researchers discovered that the insects begin singing when the sun is exactly 3.8 degrees below the horizon – a moment known as civil twilight.
Recording cicada songs
The study, published in the journal Physical Review E, involved several weeks of field recordings from two sites near Bengaluru (formally Bangalore), the capital of India’s southern Karnataka state.
Site one was a shrubland area with scattered grasses and site two was a bamboo forest. The researchers focused their study on choruses produced by the species Platypleura capitata.
Using specialised tools, the team were able to reveal just how closely cicada singing is linked to light changes.
“We’ve long known that animals respond to sunrise and seasonal light changes,” says co-author professor Raymond Goldstein from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “But this is the first time we’ve been able to quantify how precisely cicadas tune in to a very specific light intensity – and it’s astonishing.”
The researchers found that the insects’ loud chorus takes just 60 seconds to reach full volume each morning. The midpoint of that build-up happens at almost the same solar angle every day, regardless of when sunrise occurs. On the ground, the light at that moment varies by about 25%, underscoring the insects’ precision.
This is the first time we’ve been able to quantify how precisely cicadas tune in to a very specific light intensity – and it’s astonishing.
To understand more about this phenomenon, the team created a mathematical model inspired by magnetic materials, where tiny units align with both an external field and each other. In the cicadas’ case, individuals appear to base their decision to sing on both the light level and the sound of nearby insects.
“This kind of collective decision-making shows how local interactions between individuals can produce surprisingly coordinated group behaviour,” says co-author professor Nir Gov from the Weizmann Institute.
The recordings were made by Bengaluru-based engineer Rakesh Khanna, who studies cicadas as a personal passion. Khanna worked with Goldstein and Dr Adriana Pesci at Cambridge to turn his observations into a formal analysis.
“Rakesh’s observations have paved the way to a quantitative understanding of this fascinating type of collective behaviour,” says Goldstein. “There’s still much to learn, but this study offers key insights into how groups make decisions based on shared environmental cues.”
Top image: sunrise over Indian landscape (not the study site). Credit: Getty
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The resources tucked away in asteroids promise to provide the building blocks of humanity’s expansion into space. However, accessing those resources can prove tricky. There’s the engineering challenge of landing a spacecraft on one of the low-gravity targets and essentially dismantling it while still remaining attached to it. But there’s also a challenge in finding ones that make economic sense to do that to, both in terms of the amount of material they contain as well as the ease of getting to them from Earth. A much easier solution might be right under our noses, according to a new paper from Jayanth Chennamangalam and his co-authors – mine the remnants of asteroids that hit the Moon.
Asteroids hitting the Moon is a relatively common occurrence, given the number of craters visible on its surface. According to the paper, larger craters (i.e. those 1km or more in diameter) can hold a significant amount of the material left over from the asteroid that caused them. Simulations back this up, showing that if the asteroid is going slowly enough, at around 12 km/s, a significant fraction of it survives the impact and is scattered around the crater. In some cases its disbursed amongst the breccia on the crater surface, but in some case its concentrated in the middle as a solid chunk of valuable material.
To estimate the number of craters that might have valuable resources hiding in them, the authors modified an equation used to estimate the number of ore-bearing asteroids that was originally developed by one of their own (Martin Elvis of Harvard). In the original equation, Dr. Elvis defined 5 terms that, when multiplied together, gave the total number of near-Earth asteroids that could be economically mined for resources.
Fraser discusses the crazy idea of intentionally hitting the Moon with an asteroid.
First is the likelihood that the asteroid is of a type that actually contains the valuable material. For platinum group metals (PGMs), that would be an M-type asteroid – typically considered to be about 4% of the total asteroid population, whereas for water it could be a C-type, which is slightly more common at 10%. A second factor is what percentage of those asteroids are rich enough to hold a significant amount of material – which the paper estimated at 50% for the M-types and 31% for the C-types.
In Dr. Elvis’ original formula, the next factor is the probability that the asteroid is accessible in space, given the delta-v required to reach it. However, the new paper modifies this factor, since every crater on the Moon is accessible with about the same amount of delta-v. The new factor represents the probability that the asteroid survives impact with the Moon, which is calculated at about 25% for the M-types and a lower 8.3% for C-types, given that the water that hold C-types together might be lost from the impact of heating.
Another factor, near and dear to any engineer’s heart, is the likelihood that the engineering challenges of recovering the material are achievable. Every engineer will be glad to hear that, in both papers, this factor is treated as 100% – the astrophysicists and planetary scientists obviously have faith that engineers can overcome the difficulty of mining both on asteroids and on the Moon.
Fraser discusses the Lunar south pole – home to many craters in its own right – and one of the places astronauts might first land.
The last factor is again different between the original and the new paper, but serves similar purposes. In the original, it was meant to estimate the total number of asteroids that were large enough to be profitable to mine, while in the new one it represents the number of craters large enough to have a significant amount of recoverable material in it. Again, for water-bearing C-types, only smaller crater sizes were considered as they are known to create smaller craters.
With these estimates of factors, the new paper calculates that there are orders of magnitude more ore-bearing craters on the Moon than there are recoverable near-Earth asteroids with significant amounts of mineable material. So, it sounds like it might be better to focus on lunar mining than on asteroid mining.
However, there are some caveats – obviously any engineer will tell you that economically recovering material from 100% of craters is not feasible, so the assumption of a 100% success rate isn’t feasible. Considerations like impact dispersal and the speed with which the asteroid hits the lunar surface also have major effects on the economic viability of how easy it is to recover those materials. And there’s the consideration of lunar gravity – while it is a boost to making the engineering efforts of recovery easier, it serves as a hindrance when trying to get the mined material back into space.
Ultimately, the suggestion of the paper is to put a remote-sensing satellite in orbit with a high resolution camera and see if some of the assumptions about the availability of material in craters is true. If it is, and if there’s enough economic demand for that material, mining the Moon rather than asteroids first begins to become an even more exciting proposition.
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🔬 Researchers at USC discovered neglectons, a new type of particle, which could revolutionize quantum computing.
💡 Neglectons improve error correction by working with Ising anyons, enabling universal quantum computing through braiding.
🧩 The new non-semisimple mathematical framework retains components previously dismissed as “mathematical garbage.”
🏗️ Experimentalists now face the challenge of integrating neglectons into quantum setups to build universal quantum computers.
The quest for a universal quantum computer, capable of solving complex problems far beyond the reach of today’s supercomputers, has taken a significant leap forward. Researchers at the University of Southern California have discovered a new type of particle, previously dismissed as mathematical garbage, that could revolutionize quantum computing. These particles, called “neglectons,” may address the long-standing challenge of error correction in quantum systems, making large-scale deployment more feasible. This breakthrough comes as scientists strive to harness the power of quantum bits, or qubits, which hold the potential to transform industries from cryptography to drug discovery.
The Promise and Challenge of Quantum Computing
Quantum computing has long promised to revolutionize the way we process information. By leveraging the unique properties of quantum mechanics, these computers can perform calculations at speeds that make today’s fastest supercomputers seem sluggish. The fundamental unit of information in a quantum computer is the qubit, which differs from classical bits by occupying multiple positions simultaneously. This capability allows qubits to store and process exponentially more information.
Despite this potential, quantum computers face significant hurdles. They are famously fragile, and their performance can be easily disrupted by environmental factors. This fragility leads to errors in computations, which accumulate rapidly, undermining reliability. As a result, researchers have been working on developing robust error correction strategies. Among these, topological quantum computing stands out as a promising approach by encoding information into the geometric properties of exotic particles.
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Topological Quantum Computing and Anyons
Topological quantum computing aims to secure quantum information by utilizing particles known as anyons. These particles are predicted to exist in two-dimensional spaces and are more resistant to environmental noise and interference than traditional qubits. Ising anyons, in particular, have been pivotal in the development of quantum systems. However, they alone cannot support a general-purpose quantum computer.
Professor Aaron Lauda from USC explains that the computations with Ising anyons rely on “braiding,” a process of physically moving anyons around each other to execute quantum logic operations. Unfortunately, this braiding only supports a limited set of operations, known as Clifford gates, which do not provide the full computational power required for universal quantum computing. To address this limitation, Lauda’s team turned to a new mathematical framework.
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Introducing Neglectons: A New Hope for Quantum Computing
In their pursuit of universal quantum computing, Lauda and his colleagues embraced non-semisimple topological quantum field theories (TQFTs). This mathematical approach revealed components that had been disregarded in conventional frameworks due to having a “quantum trace zero.” These components, which the researchers named “neglectons,” play a crucial role in achieving universal computing.
Surprisingly, only a single neglecton is needed. It remains stationary while Ising anyons are braided around it, enabling a broader range of operations. The non-semisimple framework, however, introduces irregularities that can disrupt quantum mechanics’ probability. Despite these challenges, Lauda’s team devised a quantum encoding to isolate these irregularities from computations, akin to designing a quantum computer in a building with unstable rooms but conducting operations in structurally sound areas.
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The Road Ahead: From Theory to Practice
With the mathematical groundwork laid, the onus now falls on experimentalists to incorporate neglectons into quantum setups and work toward building a universal quantum computer. This endeavor holds immense potential for various fields, from cryptography to drug discovery, promising to solve problems once deemed insurmountable.
The findings of this groundbreaking research have been published in Nature Communications, garnering attention from the scientific community. As the journey toward universal quantum computing continues, the discovery of neglectons represents a significant step forward. It challenges researchers to rethink conventional frameworks and embrace novel approaches to overcome the limitations of current quantum systems.
As researchers continue to explore the potential of neglectons in quantum computing, the question remains: How soon will these theoretical advancements translate into practical applications that reshape industries and redefine our technological landscape?
This article is based on verified sources and supported by editorial technologies.
Low Earth orbit, or “LEO,” is convenient, but it’s getting crowded with over 9,000 metric tons of space junk, which raises the risk of a devastating collision that could kill everyone on board an orbital craft.
The moon is close but has no breathable air, hardly any atmosphere to protect against deadly space radiation, and nights there can last up to two Earth weeks.
Mars has a thicker atmosphere than the moon, but it also lacks breathable air and has toxic dirt and harmful dust storms.
“The single thing that differentiates the Earth from every other place in the solar system is that there is free oxygen in the atmosphere,” said Mike Shara, astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History.
“So we can go take a nice breath, and if you were to do that on essentially any other planet, you would die, almost instantly,” he said.
There may be other planets outside our solar system more similar to Earth, but they’re just too far away for current technology.
“We’re talking decades or at least a decade to get to the outer solar system. And 1,000, 2,000, or 10,000 years to get to the nearest star. Not practical,” Shara told BI.
