Critically-Endangered Red Ruffed Lemur Triplets Born at Wild Georgia Theme Park

Red Ruffed Lemur Triplets – credit, Wild Adventure Theme Park

A Critically-Endangered lemur couple has welcomed triplets into their lives at a zoo and theme park in Valdosta, Georgia.

It’s the third year in a row the resident female has given birth at Wild Adventures Theme Park, showing how productive captive breeding programs can be, and how much hope one should have about the future of this beautiful species.

The red-ruffed lemur is many things, all of them interesting or beautiful. At 9.5 pounds, it’s one of the largest extant lemurs, while this heft also makes it the world’s largest pollinator.

It’s fuzzy nose is just perfect for snagging a flower’s pollen and sharing it with another as the animal feeds on fruit and nectar. They’re also one of the most fecund of lemurs, capable of giving birth to litters of 6 at a time, and are the world’s only diurnal primate to stow their infants in nests while going out to forage.

Most cling to their mama as she clambers about.

On April 25th, Taylor, Red, and Marjorie came into the world at Wild Adventures Theme Park, lending their spirits to the 590 or so red ruffed lemurs that live in captivity worldwide.

Their parents, Val and Doug, have welcomed a litter of babies every year since 2023. Taylor, Red, and Marjorie are getting along very well with their siblings Swiper, Raven, Beans, and Dennis.

The species is listed by the IUCN as Critically-Endangered, with some 10,000 remaining in the very northern tip of Madagascar in forests that are rapidly disappearing. Successful breeding between pairs like Val and Doug at Wild Adventures help ensure that if those forests can be saved, there will likely always be lemurs around to inhabit them.“Very soon guests will be able to see Taylor, Red, and Marjorie, alongside their parents in their habitat located near the Giraffe Overlook,” said Asher Raymond, a spokesman for the park. Critically-Endangered Red Ruffed Lemur Triplets Born at Wild Georgia Theme Park

Read More........→June 16, 2026

New Solar Method Turns Ocean Into Drinking Water, While Extracting Valuable Lithium Without Waste

Vials of (left to right) seawater, salt water, nickel sulfate, copper chloride wastewater, and desalinated water with recovered salts – Credit: University of Rochester / J. Adam Fenster

A new energy-efficient desalination system produces fresh water without chemical additives and transforms leftover salts into useful materials.

Communities from California to the Middle East currently rely on desalination plants to convert ocean water to fresh water. But, common desalination techniques—such as reverse osmosis and thermal distillation—are energy-intensive, require chemical water treatment, and leave behind a concentrated saltwater byproduct called brine, which wreaks havoc on sea life if it’s deposited back into the ocean by raising the salt content and lowering oxygen levels.

Now, a novel approach developed at the University of Rochester offers a way to overcome these drawbacks. Their new solar-thermal desalination process does not leave behind brine and requires no chemical additives to pre-treat the water, according to the paper published in Light: Science & Applications.

The technology uses solar panels made of black metal etched with femtosecond lasers to make the surface super light-absorbing and super-wicking, extremely attractive to water.

The panels have a laser-treated active region that pulls a thin layer of water across the surface, absorbs nearly all solar radiation, distills the water, and deposits the leftover salts and minerals into the panel’s untreated sides, leaving the active region unclogged for continuous desalination.

A team led by senior scientist Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics at the university, says other researchers have developed solar-thermal desalination techniques that only work well in lab experiments—using simulated seawater made of only water and sodium chloride. The real ocean is much more complex, and these systems tend to encounter problems when used in the field.

Unlike sodium chloride, many other components in seawater, such as magnesium- and calcium-based materials, crystallize in a crusty and non-porous fashion on the solar panel’s surface—and water can’t seep through anymore. This is the same phenomenon as your shower head clogging over time, except that seawater contains hundreds of times more salts than your tap water.

The ‘coffee ring effect’ makes it self-cleaning

To keep their solar panel surface from gumming up, Guo’s team etched the black metal’s grooves so the various salts and minerals in ocean water would simply slough off. They also leveraged a physical phenomenon java-lovers have encountered for centuries: the coffee ring effect.

“If you drop coffee on a surface, eventually the water evaporates, and there’s a ring left at the outer edge that is the concentrated coffee particles,” says Prof. Guo. “We use that same principle to advance the salts to the passive region.”

Testing their solar-thermal desalination technique using samples of water from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, Guo and his team were able to make the surface self-cleaning.

Old and new desalination systems – Credit University of Rochester / J. Adam Fenster

It extracted freshwater and directed the remaining salts to where they could be collected without reducing the panel’s efficiency.

Turning waste into resources – like lithium

Another distinct advantage is that instead of leaving behind brine that must be disposed of or processed, it extracts nearly 100 percent of the salts in solid form. This could not only produce an abundant supply of table salt, but it could also be used to extract more precious minerals, including lithium, which helps power electric vehicles and electronics.

“Mining lithium from the earth has proven to be very taxing from an energy and environmental standpoint, so pulling lithium directly from saltwater could be a very important future route,” says Guo.

In a related paper in the Journal of Materials Chemistry, Guo and his colleagues showed how they can use the same super-wicking solar panels to separate lithium from the rest of other salts in desalination.

Embedding nanoparticles made of hydrogen titanate in the tiny grooves of the black metal surface isolates the lithium from other salts and minerals.

Using water samples from Great Salt Lake, the researchers extracted about 50 percent of the lithium from the salts left behind by the desalination process.

Guo sees the technology as inherently scalable, capable of improving global access to drinking water while building a more sustainable supply of precious minerals.“Mining lithium from the earth has proven to be very taxing from an energy and environmental standpoint, so pulling lithium directly from saltwater could be a very important future route.” New Solar Method Turns Ocean Into Drinking Water, While Extracting Valuable Lithium Without Waste:

(The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Worldwide Universities Network.)

Read More........→June 14, 2026

How waves, ponds and green algae are accelerating sea ice melt in Antarctica

Luke Bennetts, The University of Melbourne; Bonnie Light, University of Washington; Petteri Uotila, University of Helsinki; Philip Reid, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Rob Massom, Australian Antarctic Division

Picture sea ice in your mind. You probably imagine brilliant white, snow-covered floes floating on the surface of the ocean, home to penguins in the south of the globe or polar bears in the north.

But our new research shows Antarctic sea ice can turn into rafts of rotting floes (the free-floating pieces of ice) or an icy green slush when it interacts with waves in the stormiest ocean on the planet.

We now know the wave-driven processes that cause the surface of the sea ice to melt are a “missing link” in understanding what’s driving the increasing Antarctic sea ice melt each summer.

These processes can dramatically increase the rate the ice melts, with major implications for the global climate and Antarctic marine ecosystems.

Our planetary heartbeat

Each year, the sea ice that hugs the coast of Antarctica expands from 3 million square kilometres in summer to 19 million square kilometres in winter, stretching far north into the Southern Ocean. As the sun rises and the temperatures increase, it retreats again.

This remarkable seasonal change is like a heartbeat within our planet’s climate system, moderating global temperatures, driving ocean circulation and forming a unique habitat for a plethora of living organisms, all adapted to its seasonal rhythms.

The annual summer sea ice melt is particularly remarkable because it occurs over only three months. But even the most sophisticated climate models underestimate the rapid rate of sea ice retreat each summer.

 

A NASA image from space shows sea ice at its maximum in Antarctica. NASA, CC BY

How do waves melt sea ice?

Until now, the waves travelling from the ice-free ocean into the area covered in sea ice had only been studied for their role in breaking up ice floes. We knew these smaller floes were prone to melting around their sides and bottoms as the ocean was heated by the sun as summer progressed.

But this is not the full story.

We now know waves also flood over ice floes, washing away the bright snow cover that shields the underlying ice from sunlight and creating ponds of seawater on the floe surfaces.

Due to their reduced brightness, the snow-free ice and these “wave ponds” absorb substantially more solar heat than snow-covered ice, and this melts the ice from the top down. Moreover, the snow-free ice and wave ponds are oases in which algae thrive, turning the ice and ponds green and absorbing even more heat from the sun.

The waves also pulverise the floes into small fragments and slush. Under the right conditions, the combination of wave flooding, algal greening and pulverisation turns the sea ice cover into a slushy mixture, resembling a green soup.

We estimate that flooding, ponding and pulverisation can increase summer-time ice thinning by over 4 centimetres per day. Algal greening can add an additional 1 centimetre of thinning per day. These are extraordinary accelerators of ice melt, considering that most Antarctic sea ice is less than 1 metre thick at the end of winter.

Waves are also generated deep within the Antarctic sea-ice region by winds blowing over large openings in the ice cover. In this way, wave melt processes eat away at the ice cover from within, as well as from the edge throughout summer.

 

In this picture of sea ice you can see the effects of wave pulverisation and algae, which darkens the ice. Robert Massom, CC BY-ND

Feedbacks could trigger further melt

Our ice melt estimates are significant, yet they are likely underestimates. They do not account for amplifications to melting caused by so-called “positive feedbacks”.

For example, the ice darkening caused by waves removing the snow, ponding and pulverisation substantially increases the amount of sunlight absorbed by the ice. This causes additional surface and interior melting, which further reduces the ice brightness. And this causes more vertical melting, and so on, in an amplifying cycle.

We propose that this positive feedback is strengthened by algal greening that further darkens the ice, leading to further absorption of sunlight and melting.

Exactly how much these feedbacks would cause further ice melt is tricky to quantify, so we have left this as an exciting future research challenge.

Ponds at both poles

The Antarctic “wave ponds” we have observed are the seawater equivalent of “melt ponds”. These form extensively across Arctic sea ice in summer from pooling snow meltwater.

These freshwater melt ponds have been intensively studied and integrated into climate models, because of their important role in the rapid decline in the coverage and thickness of Arctic sea ice over recent decades.

Unlike melt ponds, seawater wave ponds occur year-round. Although they only occur in regions where sea ice interacts with ocean waves, this encompasses a large proportion of Antarctic sea ice over the course of a year.

The future of Antarctic sea ice

The effects of wave melt, greening and associated feedbacks are likely to intensify on sea ice around Antarctica over coming decades. Climate change is predicted to increase wind speeds and wave heights across the polar Southern Ocean.

This disruption of the annual sea ice cycle and further sea ice loss has serious consequences for global climate and marine ecosystems.

We need further observations using autonomous camera systems on icebreakers and modelling research to better understand these wave processes and their overall influence on Antarctica’s sea ice cycle.

These advances are vital to understanding the causes of recent dramatic sea-ice losses around Antarctica, and promise vital insights about the future of the icy south and our Earth system.

Luke Bennetts, Professor of Applied Mathematics, The University of Melbourne; Bonnie Light, Physicist, University of Washington; Petteri Uotila, Professor, University of Helsinki; Philip Reid, Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Rob Massom, Leader, Sea Ice Section, Antarctic Climate Program, Australian Antarctic Division

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→June 12, 2026

Staggering Results Show HIV-Transmission Reduced 100% with Twice-Yearly Lenacapavir Injection

A 2-stage trial testing a new and acclaimed HIV-prevention drug has shown almost unthinkable results of no new infections among a sample size of 3,200 participants.

Called PURPOSE 1, the aim of the first trial was testing a subcutaneous injection of the drug Lenacapavir given twice a year to people in a high-HIV-incidence country, which in this case was Uganda or South Africa.

The results were nothing short of extraordinary—100% efficacy, not a single young woman contracted HIV.

This was followed up by PURPOSE 2, which expanded the geographical area significantly to more countries on more continents, and expanded the pool of individuals from beyond just young women to men—and to those of all ages. 5,000 participants took part.

The result was the same: 99.9% reduction in infection rates.

Both were considered phase 3 clinical trials, and were conducted in a randomized, double-blinded protocol, but were not tested against a placebo. Instead, the Lenacapavir injections were compared to the current standard of HIV prevention—a pill called Truvada or Descovy taken daily.

These both were also found to prevent HIV transmission by 99.9% during development, but must be taken every day to achieve this level of protection. As anyone who’s tried to stick to a once-a-day pill regime long-term will agree, it’s not an easy thing to maintain month after month.

By contrast, the twice-yearly injections are much easier to adhere to, and they also come with the added benefit of removing the social stigma of being seen taking a daily pill and therefore at risk of HIV transmission. This can be particularly alleviating in high-HIV-prevalent countries where male homosexuality is illegal, such as Uganda.

Indeed the superiority of a twice-yearly injection was so clear that both PURPOSE trials were halted early over ethical reasons. A 52-week follow-up screened for HIV developments.

Lenacapavir was named by Science Magazine as the Breakthrough of the Year in 2024, and was approved by the FDA for use in humans under the brand name Yeztugo.

It works to break down the HIVs capsid shell by binding to an “highly conserved” protein on the exterior. That means that no matter how many times or into what form the virus mutates, the exterior shell protein remains—presenting the perfect target for the drug.

In layman’s terms, the drug then works through the protein to disrupt the capsid shell, which the virus ‘takes down’ and ‘builds up’ several times during its lifecycle with perfect geometric precision. The disruption prevents the virus from completing its life cycle.

Initial R&D, regulation compliance, and proof of efficacy and safety requirements mean that producing Lenacapavir has cost its developer, Gilead Sciences, an undisclosed total cost that would be reasonable to estimate at well over a billion dollars based on normal pharma development costs.Gilead has nevertheless committed to providing the drug at cost in certain low-income regions and has licensed generic manufacturers to produce it for approximately $40 per year in 120 low and middle-income countries starting in 2027 Staggering Results Show HIV-Transmission Reduced 100% with Twice-Yearly Lenacapavir Injection

Read More........→June 11, 2026

World’s first AI‑designed vaccine explained

Neil Mabbott, University of Edinburgh

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed what they describe as a fundamentally new type of vaccine using artificial intelligence (AI). The vaccine’s key component was designed entirely by AI and has now been tested in people for the first time.

The goal is ambitious: a single vaccine that works not just against all known human coronavirus variants, but against related bat viruses that could jump from animals to humans and cause future pandemics.

Traditional vaccines train our immune system to recognise one specific virus. The problem is that viruses mutate. When they change enough, the vaccine stops working, which is why we need a new flu shot every year and why COVID vaccines have been updated repeatedly since 2021.

AI offers a way around this. By analysing genetic data from thousands of related viruses, it can identify the parts that stay the same across different strains and that are unlikely to change over time. Target those stable features, and you have a vaccine that should work against the whole family, not just the strain you started with.

This is exactly what the Cambridge team did. They used AI to scan viruses from the sarbecovirus family, which includes the viruses that cause both SARS and COVID, as well as a range of animal coronaviruses – looking for shared features that evolution has left largely untouched. Those features became the basis of the vaccine.

DNA vaccines

While many people are familiar with the mRNA shots used during the pandemic, this new vaccine uses DNA. DNA vaccines are generally more stable than mRNA vaccines, making them easier to store and transport. A significant advantage in lower-income countries where “cold-chain” infrastructure is limited.

They can also be administered without needles. A high-pressure stream of liquid delivers the vaccine through the skin, making administration less painful and easier to scale up during an outbreak.

DNA and RNA viruses explained.

Could it protect against future pandemics?

These practical advantages matter most if the vaccine itself can do something no existing jab can: protect against viruses we haven’t encountered yet.

Broad-spectrum vaccines could change the way the world responds to emerging infectious diseases. By offering much wider protection than traditional vaccines, they could provide rapid immunity against new and emerging viral threats. This would equip public health officials with tools to stop future outbreaks in their tracks before they have a chance to turn into global pandemics.

They could also transform our approach to more familiar diseases. Influenza is a prime target because it exists in many different strains and evolves so rapidly. Scientists have to predict which strains will dominate each flu season, and they guess wrong, vaccine effectiveness can suffer. A universal flu vaccine that targets features shared across multiple strains could eventually end the annual race to keep up with the virus.

And the Ebola virus shows why this matters right now. The recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda is driven by the Bundibugyo strain, which bypasses existing vaccines. While researchers rush to create a new vaccine specifically for this strain, local communities remain at high risk. A broad-spectrum vaccine designed to cover an entire virus family could transform that picture.

What the trial found

This is the first human trial of an AI-designed vaccine. The results showed that this DNA vaccine was able to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies that can recognise different types of sarbecoviruses. The technology was found to be safe and well tolerated.

This is an exciting advance because it demonstrates how AI has the potential to design variant-proof vaccines against future pandemic threats. The needle-free delivery system could also make the vaccine easier to administer and distribute worldwide.

However, there is more work to do. Although the results in this study are encouraging, the immune responses following vaccination were modest. It was also uncertain how long the protection lasts and whether further boosters will be required. Larger trials are also needed to determine whether the vaccine can prevent or reduce virus infections in the real world.

A universal vaccine remains a few years away. And any new vaccine must still pass larger trials to prove it is safe, effective and provides lasting protection. But this study shows the goal is getting closer – and AI may help us get there faster.

Neil Mabbott, Personal Chair of Immunopathology, University of Edinburgh

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→June 11, 2026

Papua New Guinea Sets Up Protected Ocean the Size of UK–Over 77,000 Square Miles

Acropora latistella (Table coral) in the Coral Triangle – credit, Nhobgood Nick Hobgood CC 3.0. SA

In the legendary Coral Triangle, where the Pacific and Indian Oceans meet, 200,000 square kilometers of tropical seas will be off limits to fishing thanks to bold conservation action by Papua New Guinea.

The newly-designated Western Manus Marine Protected Area (MPA) will form part of the newly established Melanesian Ocean Corridor of Reserves, a network of national and jointly managed protected areas spanning Fiji, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea.

Revealed at the inaugural Melanesian Ocean Summit in Port Moresby in mid-May, the Western Manus ocean region in PNG’s territorial waters is characterized by undersea mountains and volcanoes, ridgelines, and canyons, harboring remarkable biodiversity.

Scientists have called it a “marine highway” connecting shallow corals with deep water zones bursting with pelagic life: orcas that migrate there seasonally, the giant deep-sea fish known as a yokozuna slickhead, Cuvier’s beaked whale, and over a hundred species of coral.

“Papua New Guinea is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet,” said Jelta Wong, minister of the country’s National Fisheries Authority. “Establishing the Western Manus Marine Protected Area will allow us to preserve and protect our ecological legacy and, at the same time, ensure that our ocean continues to provide people with what we need – food and a source of income.”

Located in the north of PNG’s territorial waters, the 77,000 square-mile reserve covers seas which account for 10% of the country’s tuna fisheries, and about 6.7% of all fishing output. However, as Oceanographic Magazine writes, previous research has found that once MPAs have been established, catch rates tend to increase in boundary areas—the result of a spillover effect from a robust and unharmed natural environment.

The decision comes as part of PNG’s commitment to conserve 30% of its territorial waters.

The Western Manus area was included in the survey itinerary of the National Geographic Pristine Sea’s expedition, which sought to document the biodiversity of the Coral Triangle over 2 years.

What they found was one of the world’s healthiest and most diverse coral ecosystems, but with warning signs that not all might be well. Shark populations were low—a clear hint at overfishing for other predatory fish like tuna.

The 200,000 square kilometers that encompass the MPA weren’t selected at random. Instead, key mobile species were tracked to get a sense of the movements of animals between the deep sea and the coral reefs. Grey reef sharks obliged the surveyors, while seabirds capable of foraging 200 miles a day were also consulted.

“Our ancestors have always lived in harmony with the sea, but today, we are writing a new chapter for our children,” stated Powes Parkop, governor of the National Capital District, who grew up in Manus Province.

“To see the waters of Western Manus recognized as the largest marine protected area in Papua New Guinea fills my heart with a profound sense of… pride. We aren’t just protecting fish or coral; we are safeguarding our identity. Papua New Guinea Sets Up Protected Ocean the Size of UK–Over 77,000 Square Miles

Read More........→June 10, 2026

All-Electric Truck Completes Milestone Canberra-to-Sydney Haul, Cutting 84% in Fuel Costs

The New Energy Transport electric truck – credit, released by NET

A green-geared milestone was just set in Australia as a company saw its all-electric haul truck go from the capital of Canberra to Sydney on a single charge.

Carrying tons of toilet paper, the final mile deliveries were made with electric vehicles too, keeping emissions down, and suppliers and demanders clear of the suffocating prices of diesel.

Built by New Energy Transport (NET) the Windrose semi-trailer truck has a range of 416 miles at 49 combined tons, and boasts 1,400 horsepower.

Reporting on the maiden voyage, Australian Truck Radio wrote that the Windrose delivered an 84% reduction in fuel costs while proving that intercity routes can be greened up with a little forward planning thanks to a fast charging time of just 1 hour.

It also made the 186-mile trip 25 minutes faster because of the vehicle’s speedy acceleration during the inclined sections of the route.

It’s the second demonstration of the Windrose’s capabilities, as back in November it set a world record for the longest single-charge long haul delivery—a trip to your grocery store short of 300 miles.

“This delivery ushers in a new era for Australian road freight where electric heavy trucks are not just cheaper and faster, they unshackle Australia from volatile global oil markets, dramatically strengthening our supply chain resilience,” said Daniel Bleakley, Co-CEO, New Energy Transport.

Collecting the thoughts and comments on the achievement, Australian Truck Radio quoted John Grimes, CEO at Smart Energy Council, as saying that every liter of diesel the nation saves on highways by electrifying trucks “is one we keep for farmers.”

“Australia runs on road freight so if diesel stops, we stop and starve. Electrifying trucking strengthens our energy security, and we’re ready—we already build electric trucks and charging infrastructure, and can power it all with sun and wind.”NET envisions completing its pilot haul fleet of Windroses by mid-2026. All-Electric Truck Completes Milestone Canberra-to-Sydney Haul, Cutting 84% in Fuel Costs

Read More........→June 05, 2026

3 Teens Win Global Earth Prize for Inventing Tamarind Powder That Easily Removes Microplastics

The winners with their Plas-Stick invention, Avyana Mehta, Ariana Agarwal, Vivaan Chhawchharia, and their teacher Minal Jain – credit, the Earth Prize, released

In mid-May, GNN reported that 3 teens from India had won a major continental science prize for their brilliant use of an ingredient in Indian cuisine as the basis for a microplastic filter.

Now, from Geneva comes the announcement that 16-year-olds Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal, and Avyana Mehta, have claimed the Global Earth Prize in addition to the Asian one, as voted by 23,000 experts from dozens of countries around the world.

“Being named the Global Winners of The Earth Prize is incredibly special for all of us, especially as the first team from India to receive this recognition,” the trio said in a statement.

“What started as an idea between students has now been recognised among thousands of projects from around the world, which feels both surreal and deeply motivating.

Their grand prize-winning invention is called Plas-Stick, and used powdered tamarind seed as the base for an all-natural microplastic clumping agent. After a short agitation period, the clumped microplastic-tamarind mass can be removed with nothing more than a magnet.

Notably, Plas-Stick is the first-ever Global Winner of The Earth Prize from India.

Designed for use in shared water containers, the biodegradable powder binds invisible plastic particles into visible clumps that can then be easily removed with a handheld magnet, offering a simple and low-cost alternative to complex filtration systems.

The idea was sparked by the team’s studies in environmental science and a visit to a rural community, where they observed how drinking water is often stored in shared containers without access to advanced filtration systems.

Globally, over 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water infrastructure, increasing reliance on stored water that may contain microplastics. Microplastics may be the most significant environmental and human health contaminant on Earth. Particles ranging in size from the 1/1 to 1/1,000th the width of human hair have been found virtually everywhere anyone has thought to look for them, including on the summit of Everest and the bottom of the Marianna Trench.

They have been recorded in worryingly high quantities in every human organ and tissue, including the brain and even placenta. Though the full gamut of toxic damage related to microplastic exposure isn’t fully known, what’s certain is that they act as strong endocrine disrupters.

Determined to create a solution that is both effective and accessible, Chhawchharia, Agarwal, and Mehta developed a system that requires no electricity or complex infrastructure. It in fact requires only a crop that’s already used widely in South Asian cuisine, which is both cultivated and thrives in the wild.

“Plas-Stick was designed to be simple, affordable and accessible, and this support allows us to take it beyond pilot schools and scale it to many more communities that need it most!”

Now following their Global Winner recognition, the team plans to scale the solution through decentralised production hubs and expand to rural communities across India, making safer drinking water more accessible across rural Indian communities and beyond.The Earth Prize is run by The Earth Foundation, a non-profit based in Geneva, Switzerland, founded during the School Strike for Climate in 2019. At a time when climate anxiety affects a majority of young people—59% reporting they are very or extremely worried about the environment—the Prize provides a pathway from concern to action, equipping students with the tools to develop tangible, real-world solutions. 3 Teens Win Global Earth Prize for Inventing Tamarind Powder That Easily Removes Microplastics

Read More........→June 05, 2026

UN report warns AI could soon use 3% of world’s electricity and more water than we need to drink

Amanda Turnbull-McRae, University of Waikato

One argument often used to quell concerns about the rising energy and resource demand of data centres is that artificial intelligence (AI) models will need less in the future as they improve and become more efficient.

But this seemingly logical thinking is a trap, according to a new United Nations report that quantifies the environmental costs of AI.

The report estimates that by 2030, AI’s energy use could double to consume 3% of the world’s electricity, produce emissions to equal the UK and deplete more water for cooling than the annual drinking water need of the global population.

It also anticipates the use of AI will follow an economic principle known as the “Jevons paradox”, which predicts that when technological improvements increase the efficiency of a resource, it leads to a rise, rather than a fall, in the total consumption of that resource.

The paradox is named after economist William Stanley Jevons who observed this effect with the use of coal in 19th-century England. Efficiency gains did not reduce overall consumption. Instead, the lower costs resulted in expanded use and higher overall demand.

As AI models become cheaper and more attractive, the report expects this to encourage new uses and higher volumes of use, eroding and possibly erasing any savings from efficiency advances.

To avoid falling into this trap, it lays out a roadmap for responsible AI use based on guiding principles of transparency, efficiency by design, equity and justice, lifecycle responsibility, global cooperation and sustainable use.

The scale of the problem

Last year, data centres already consumed as much electricity as Saudi Arabia, which ranks as the world’s 11th largest electricity consumer.

If electricity use doubles as projected by 2030, the associated carbon footprint would require 6.7 billion trees grown over ten years to offset this demand.

Data centres would also require 9.3 trillion litres of water and land nearly ten times the size of Mexico City.

Beyond resource use, the report also underscores the structural inequity at the heart of the AI boom, with only 32 nations hosting AI-specific cloud infrastructure and 90% of that capacity located in the US and China.

It warns of a widening digital divide between nations that build and control AI systems and those that consume them, with the latter often bearing a disproportionate environmental burden caused by mineral extraction and e-waste.

Responsible AI use

Two main forces shape AI’s operational footprint: how much we use it and how we use it.

This involves all tasks AI models perform, from text and code generation to image and video. Each of these tasks requires different levels of computational effort.

The model choice also matters as each AI system performs these task with distinct energy and environmental costs.

The report argues responsible AI requires full value-chain governance, from mineral sourcing to recycling and safe disposal.

It calls for a twinning of capability and environmental stewardship – thinking about both what AI can do for us and the protection of the natural environment.

This would mean making environmental disclosures a routine part of AI development, at both the model and task level, and incorporating projected AI demand in climate and energy planning.

Responsible AI is crucial as countries are promoting and adopting AI across government and the public sector.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the government has launched a national AI strategy and a public service AI framework.

While the framework was informed by the OECD’s values-based AI principles, including inclusive and sustainable development, there is no requirement for environmental disclosures and no regulator compiling energy use or emissions.

Likewise in Australia, improving public services is part of the national AI plan. For example, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia has created Bowerbird, a machine learning-enabled mass audio and video transcription engine, to document material. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs has developed a proof-of-concept tool to see whether AI can help speed up the processing of claims.

Both countries take a deliberate “light touch” and principles-based regulatory approach to AI. But this approach risks overlooking the growing environmental cost of AI that can’t be solved by improving it.

The natural environment is foundational to the economy, culture and wellbeing. It should be at the centre of our thinking. It’s time to rethink the AI innovation playbook and shift focus toward a sustainable tech future.

Amanda Turnbull-McRae, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→June 05, 2026

Scientist Discovers New Species of Wildflower That Only Grows in New Jersey

New Jersey’s own Triantha novacaesariensis – Credit: Yianni Laskaris for Temple University (supplied)

A researcher discovered a ‘rare’ wildflower that only grows in New Jersey—after studying a plant that everyone assumed to belong to another species.

In the Pine Barrens region of southern New Jersey, Temple University researcher Sasha Eisenman helped identify the long mistaken plant as unique to the state—a discovery that could help protect it for years to come.

In research published in Phytotaxa, Eisenman confirmed the plant is distinct from its closest known relatives, and formally named it Triantha × novacaesariensis—a Latinization of New Jersey.

“It’s very special, very rare (and) only exists in this one place in the entire world,” said Mr. Eisenman, an associate professor in horticulture.

That place is part of what makes the finding so compelling.

Stretching across nearly a million acres in southern New Jersey, the Pine Barrens National Reserve is one of the region’s most ecologically distinctive landscapes, home to rare habitats and plant life. Eisenman said the discovery is especially striking because the northeastern United States has been studied so extensively.

“To really identify something as new and unique is pretty rare these days,” he said.

For years, the plant, which features clusters of thin, strap-like leaves and white 6-petaled flowers that rise above the surrounding grasses, had been identified as Triantha racemosa, a species typically found much farther south or suspected to be a hybrid of Triantha racemosa and Triantha glutinosa.

Temple University horticulture professor Sasha Eisenman -Photo by Ryan Brandenberg (supplied)

To reach that conclusion, Eisenman combined genetics, fieldwork, and historical plant records, and studied plant samples preserved for long-term study, from across the US and Canada. He then compared them with field samples from New Jersey and related populations in Maine; New York; New Brunswick, New Jersey; Alabama; Georgia and Florida.

The study found that all three New Jersey plants carry a unique genetic signature and have distinct physical traits that set them apart from each other. The two previously known plants are also geographically isolated from the newly named wildflower.

“There’s genetic differences, there’s structural and morphological differences, and there’s also isolation,” Eisenman told Temple News.

That isolation is central to the story. According to the research, the nearest known populations of T. glutinosa and T. racemosa are hundreds of miles away. Eisenman said the evidence suggests the New Jersey plants likely originated long ago when the two species intermingled but have persisted on their own for thousands of years.

“It’s been a stable population or group of populations for a long time,” he said. “It’s not just a chance accident.”

The finding also carries real conservation value. Because the plant is now officially identified, researchers and land managers have a clearer basis for recognizing its significance and planning for its care.

“It’s really important to have a name on a plant in order for it to be conserved and protected,” Eisenman said. “Until it’s been identified as unique and named with a unique identification, it doesn’t have as much opportunity for protection and stewardship.”

The project began more than a decade ago and drew on support from a wide network of researchers, herbarium curators, and conservation partners across the U.S. and Canada.

For Eisenman, who studies naturally occurring and cultivated plants, the discovery reflects both a longstanding interest in plants and a broader commitment to sustainability.

The next step is for New Jersey to figure out how best to protect it.“For a rare plant tucked into one of New Jersey’s most distinctive natural landscapes, being formally recognized and given a name could make all the difference,” he concluded. Scientist Discovers New Species of Wildflower That Only Grows in New Jersey

Read More........→June 04, 2026

70% Drop in Levels of Forever Chemicals Observed in Seabird Eggs Tracks Regulatory Success

Northern gannets on Bonaventure Island – credit, CC 3.0. BY-SA Bodoklecksel

Content of several “forever chemicals” in seabird eggs were found to have sharply decreased over the last 55 years by a team of scientists.

While first rising exponentially from during the 1960s, the chemicals, classed as PFAS, peaked in the 1990s before decreasing in line with regulatory oversight by North American governments.

PFAS are a class of chemicals that form water, stain, and heat-resistant coatings in multiple products which substantially contaminate environments around the world, and are linked to multiple detrimental health outcomes.

A study published in the journal Applied Toxicology that looked at PFAS concentrations in the eggs of northern gannets on Bonaventure Island found that the content of some of the most commonly used PFAS has fallen 70% and sometimes more.

These include perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which fell 74% and 40% respectively. Concentrations of perfluorohexanesulfonic acid, (PFHxS) another of these chemicals, was also 70% lower from baseline.

“We see this incredible rise to a peak where concentrations seem to be higher than toxicological threshold for those birds, then it really decreases in a nice way,” Raphael Lavoie, a co-author and ecotoxicologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, told the Guardian. “The regulations are having a good effect.”

The seabird subjects and the long study period were notable strengths. The 55 years of data spans the rise in PFAS production, and the eventual decline as the environmental groups and regulators caught on to the toxicity in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Bonaventure Island is the world’s largest northern gannet breeding colony. These pescatarian birds are directly exposed to PFAS contamination due to the island’s position near the St. Lawrence Seaway, which, being connected to the Great Lakes manufacturing centers north and south of the border, was exposed to substantial amounts of PFAS during the 20th century.

The PFAS got into the fish which got into the gannets and then into their eggs. Tom Perkins for the Guardian wrote that in the late 90s, the chemical corporation M3 dramatically scaled back its production of commercial PFAS in the face of regulatory scrutiny. In 2015, the chemical sector struck an agreement with the EPA to phase out production of PFOA and PFOS, while 6 years earlier at the United Nations’ Stockholm Convention, several of the chemicals tested for in the study were subjected to elimination.

This included PFOA and PFHxS, while PFOS was restricted in everything but firefighting foam.

The study is a comprehensive demonstration of how these regulations are working to reduce the toxic load presented by PFAS in the environment. PFAS are referred to shorthanded as “forever chemicals,” however, and so the authors stress the need for continual environmental and regulatory vigilance, since any similar chemicals entering the environment today will remain, presumably forever. 70% Drop in Levels of Forever Chemicals Observed in Seabird Eggs Tracks Regulatory Success

Read More........→June 01, 2026

What ‘biodegradable’ packaging really means – and 3 key questions to ask about it

John Cameron / Unsplash Martin Zaki, Deakin University and Alessandra Sutti, Deakin University

“Biodegradable” has become one of the most reassuring words in modern packaging. It appears on coffee cups, shopping bags and food containers, implying a promise: this product is better for the environment because nature will eventually take care of it.

However, biodegradability is not a simple yes-or-no property. It exists in shades, which we can measure.

Biodegradation is a complex process. Microbes and molecules present in an environment such as soil attack a material and digest it, much like what happens to food in our gut.

A material is typically defined as biodegradable if it is digested “well” by the environment in which it is placed. The more mass the material loses during digestion, and the more carbon dioxide it produces, the more biodegradable it is.

Different environments digest materials in different ways. Temperature, sunlight, oxygen, moisture and microbial diversity all influence how quickly materials degrade.

Even the most rigorous testing cannot fully capture the complexity of the real world – but it can help guide our choices.

Biodegradability is relative

In the lab we can simulate environments such as landfill, home compost bins and industrial compost facilities. If we understand in which settings a material breaks down better, we can tell the consumer how to best dispose of it and prevent pollution and other issues.

A material that decomposes quickly in an industrial composting facility may persist for years in the ocean or landfill.

Industrial composting systems maintain elevated temperatures, controlled aeration and consistent moisture. Hot, moist and oxygen-rich conditions generally aid biodegradation but they are not easy to come by in a backyard compost bin.

Home compost systems are typically cooler and more variable. The result: a material certified for industrial composting may not break down effectively at home.

Take polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable material generally considered to be a greener alternative to common plastics (like PET). PLA can biodegrade effectively in an industrial composting system. With temperatures above 60°C and controlled moisture, oxygen and microbial activity, microbes can convert PLA into carbon dioxide, water and biomass in just a few days.

Outside these conditions, the story changes. If PLA ends up in landfill, decomposition can be slow because oxygen is limited. In rivers or marine environments, it may persist for years and act as a raft for “alien” species. In your compost bin or worm farm it might disappear in a few months.

Time for standards

There are many ways to measure biodegradability. One common series of tests, OECD 301 assesses “ready biodegradability” in different environments as a material’s ability to biodegrade around 60% within 28 days under controlled conditions.

Industrially compostable materials are tested under very specific conditions. Standards such as EN 13432, used in Europe, assess whether packaging can successfully break down in industrial composting facilities.

To meet the standard, at least 90% of the material must biodegrade into carbon dioxide, water and biomass within six months. These tests typically involve elevated temperatures, controlled aeration, and moisture.

Most biodegradable plastic materials do not disappear cleanly. Instead, they fragment into progressively smaller particles before fully breaking down. During this period, the fragments will continue interacting with organisms and ecosystems.

Compost bins too can get indigestion

Biodegradability standards are helpful for consumers and waste regulators. Nevertheless, they are limited. They often do not test how much of any given material a specific disposal system can sustain at any one time.

This is an important parameter to take into account. Take food waste. When large quantities of food lie in landfill without oxygen, they generate methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide over short timescales.

Other biodegradable materials are no different and can throw out the balance of an ecosystem such as your compost bin, if added in excessive quantities.

Introducing certain materials to a compost bin might also cause certain microbes to thrive and others to suffer, sometimes with unintended consequences, such as making your compost bin smell bad.

In the future, biodegradability tests will likely be paired with ecotoxicity assessments, to help us understand whether a material breaks down safely and without generating harmful byproducts or microbial imbalances.

What can we do?

Few of us have an industrial composting facility nearby to take care of biodegradable materials. Industrially compostable products such as coffee cups often end up sent to landfill alongside conventional waste.

This does not mean individuals are powerless or that biodegradable materials are inherently bad.

You can start by checking local council guidance and choosing products certified for the systems available in your area, or your compost bin.

Ask yourself:

• is this product home compostable or only industrially compostable?

• is there infrastructure locally that can process it?

• has it been independently certified?

As for industrially compostable coffee cups, check that you can return cups to participating cafes. They should not be placed in standard recycling bins or food and organics bins as they are considered contaminants. If unsure, place them in a bin destined for landfill.

Ultimately, the most sustainable option remains a reusable washable cup.

These may seem like small actions but they help push packaging design and waste systems toward greater transparency and accountability.

Moving beyond simple labels

As consumers, we want to make educated choices about their purchases and how they can be disposed of.

For now, we have simple labels. In the future, we will hopefully have more complete information about how materials degrade in industrial composting facilities, home compost bins, soil, freshwater, sea water and landfill sites.

Biodegradable materials offer clear advantages over highly persistent materials, but the term “biodegradable” should not be mistaken for environmentally harmless.

Let’s just remember that a biodegradable material released in the wrong place, at the wrong scale, or under the wrong conditions may behave not very differently from a non-biodegradable material.

Understanding the shades of biodegradability moves the conversation beyond simplistic labels. Nature can break many things down, eventually. The more important question is whether it can do so without getting indigestion.

Martin Zaki, Associate Research Fellow in Biomaterials, Deakin University and Alessandra Sutti, Associate Professor, Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→May 29, 2026

Sampling DNA in Seawater Can Reveal the Health of Dolphin Populations, in First for Conservation

SWNS

DNA floating in seawater is now enough to let scientists monitor the health of America’s dolphin populations.

Sampling DNA in seawater can show the local presence (or absence) of a species, but until now could give little information about those measures of biodiversity that are the most useful in conservation.

But, scientists in the US have now shown that mitochondrial DNA in water sampled near schools of dolphins contains enough information to measure their local effective population size—and monitor the health of these populations.

 

DNA is everywhere in the world’s oceans—not only inside cells from skin, scales, mucous, and feces, but also floating freely. Sequencing such ‘environmental DNA’ (eDNA) from open water has long been used as a cost-effective way of gauging the number and identity of species in a region, especially when they are rare and elusive or living at great depths.

But species richness is only the most basic biodiversity measure. Until now, eDNA-based methods could only give limited insight into the variables that are most relevant for conservation: the number of individuals, the evenness of the abundances of co-occurring species, or their within-species genetic diversity.

But that may be about to change, shows a new groundbreaking study in Frontiers in Marine Science.

“Here we show that repeated eDNA sampling can be used to estimate the genetic diversity of dolphins that occur in large schools and have very large populations,” said corresponding author Dr Frederick Archer from the NOAA/NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California.

“This is important because genetic diversity, its outcome measure, can be used as a measure of population size and how ready a population is to react to changes in its environment.”

Around Santa Catalina Island, located 47 km off Long Beach, California, the researchers followed 15 schools of dolphins with small boats in 2021. They focused on the four most common species locally: long-beaked common dolphins, short-beaked common dolphins, common bottlenose dolphins, and Risso’s dolphins.

Whenever they encountered a school, the researchers collected two-liter samples of seawater from the surface to compare the mitochondrial eDNA with that in public databases.

The scientists found 836 mitochondrial sequence variants in 126 water samples, of which 76% were from cetaceans and 60% from toothed whales. Overall, 29% were from the species of the school, which had been visually identified.

Long-beaked common dolphins had the greatest genetic diversity, followed by short-beaked common dolphins, while Risso’s and bottlenose dolphins proved much less diverse around Santa Catalina.

“Our study demonstrates the utility [of eDNA surveys] for efficiently assessing and comparing genetic diversity in social odontocetes,” concluded the authors.

Theory holds water

The authors are eager to put their methods to good use in conservation, now that they have been proven to work.

“It would be good to start eDNA monitoring programs as soon as possible that were not possible before. For example, we will be able to see how species composition in very small areas change over the course of a year – including rarer species that we don’t often detect on visual surveys,” said Archer.

“This can give us a lot of information on habitat use and will also allow us to potentially observe how environmental changes and anthropogenic effects such as pollution or underwater sound affect species distributions.” Sampling DNA in Seawater Can Reveal the Health of Dolphin Populations, in First for Conservation

Read More........→May 28, 2026

Climate change‑related heat increases the risk of premature birth in 13 countries – new study

Dominic Royé, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC); Ana M Vicedo-Cabrera, University of Bern; Aurelio Tobias, Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua (IDAEA - CSIC); Carmen Íñiguez, Universitat de València, and Coral Salvador, University of Bern

Picture a sweltering summer’s day. Now imagine enduring the heat while eight months pregnant. Uncomfortable, to say the absolute least.

But in pregnancy, heat is more than just a nuisance, as for many women it can trigger early labour. A premature baby – meaning one born before 37 weeks of gestation – faces a significantly higher risk of mortality, as well as health complications that can affect them for the rest of their lives.

Decades of research has documented the link between exposure to heat and preterm births. However, most studies have been limited to a single city or country, using different methods that yielded results which were difficult to compare.

So how many premature births are actually caused by heat in different parts of the world? Are all pregnant women equally vulnerable? Our new study, published in Environment International, provides the most comprehensive answers to these questions to date.

13 countries, 36 million births

We analysed 36.6 million births that took place during the summer in 250 towns and cities, across 13 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Estonia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Paraguay, Spain, Switzerland and the United States) between 1979 and 2019. This is the most extensive multi-site analysis conducted on this topic to date.

To estimate the relationship between temperature and the risk of preterm birth, we used cutting edge statistical models that allowed us to see the delayed and non-linear effects of heat exposure in the days leading up to delivery.

The findings are clear: the risk of preterm birth increases linearly as temperatures rise. On days of moderate heat, this risk increases by 2.8%. On days of extreme heat, the increase reaches 3.8%.

855 extra premature births per million

Translating these risks into specific figures provides a clearer picture of the scale of the problem. We estimate that 1.41% of all premature births occurring during the summer are attributable to heat. In absolute terms, this equates to 855 extra premature births per million births.

The magnitude is comparable to that of other well-established factors. For example, it far exceeds the contribution of maternal smoking in low and middle-income countries, and is on a par with that of malaria. And heat is already a major environmental risk factor for reproductive health.

The differences between countries are also revealing. Paraguay has the highest rate, with 1,347 preterm births per million, while Switzerland has the lowest, with 628. Spain falls in the upper-middle range, with 1,080 per million. This variability suggests that climate, the level of socio-economic development, and each country’s capacity to adapt significantly influence the vulnerability of pregnant women.

Not all pregnancies have the same risk

One of our study’s most significant findings suggests that heat may not affect all women equally. Young single mothers with lower levels of education who are in a vulnerable socio-economic situation may be at greater risk of heat-induced preterm birth.

Female foetuses also appear to be more susceptible than male foetuses. However, most of these subgroup analyses were not statistically significant, so further research is needed to confirm them.

There are specific mechanisms behind these differences. People who are economically disadvantaged are more likely to live in particularly hot areas due to the urban heat island effect. They are also more likely to work outdoors, and to lack access to air conditioning or other means of protection against the heat. Social inequality and climate inequality overlap, and the most vulnerable pregnant women pay the highest price.

Heat also speeds up births at term

Perhaps the most surprising finding of our research is that the effect of heat is not limited to preterm births. We have also observed a significant increase in the risk of delivery in pregnancies that would be considered clinically normal, between weeks 37 and 42. Specifically, extreme heat increases the risk of delivery in weeks 37-38 by 3.66%, and in pregnancies of 39 weeks or more by 2.97%.

This means that heat can act as a trigger for labour in foetuses that, under other circumstances, would have continued to develop normally. The most sensitive gestational window is from week 31 to week 40, spanning late preterm and early term births.

Root causes

There are many biological mechanisms at play here. Heat can raise body temperature and trigger uterine contractions. The dehydration caused by heat also disrupts the electrolyte balance and reduces blood flow to the placenta. Furthermore, heat triggers inflammatory processes and oxidative stress, which can compromise foetal development and accelerate cervical ripening.

Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable because their bodies generate more heat than usual due to foetal growth, while also having a reduced ability to dissipate that heat because of weight gain.

Global warming

These findings are particularly worrying in light of climate change. Over the coming decades, heatwaves will become more frequent, more intense, and will last longer. If we fail to act, the burden of preterm births attributable to high temperatures will only increase, undermining decades of progress in neonatal and child health.

A proper response requires action on several fronts. In the clinical setting, health systems must incorporate heat as a risk factor in antenatal care, particularly for socially vulnerable women. In the urban sphere, it is urgent to develop adaptation strategies – green spaces, climate shelters, early warning systems – that protect pregnant women during episodes of extreme heat. And at the policy level, these findings must be translated into ambitious emissions reduction targets.

Extreme heat is no longer just a matter of comfort. It is a question of public health, social equity and climate justice. And pregnant women are on the front line.

Dominic Royé, Investigador Ramon y Cajal, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC); Ana M Vicedo-Cabrera, Head Climate Change & Health research group, University of Bern; Aurelio Tobias, Associate professor, Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua (IDAEA - CSIC); Carmen Íñiguez, Profesora en el Departamento de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, Universitat de València, and Coral Salvador, Senior Research Assistant, University of Bern

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→May 27, 2026

First video of immune cells eating live skin cancer in real time

Macrophages (green) engulfing melanoma cells (purple). Keith et al. / Garvan Institute, CC BY-SA Yuki Keith, Garvan Institute and Tri Phan, Garvan Institute

For the past 15 years or so, a class of drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors have been used to treat melanoma – the most dangerous kind of skin cancer.

For many patients, they produce remarkable results. For others, they do nothing.

We still don’t really know why. But in new research published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, we observed immune cells called macrophages attacking melanoma cells in real time – which may offer clues about how we can make those therapies work for all patients, not just some.

Tumours, hot and cold

One of us (Yuki) treated patients with melanoma in Japan as a dermatologist. The other (Tri Phan) runs a lab at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, where his team specialises in observing the cells of the immune system in real time.

When Yuki wanted to understand why immune checkpoint inhibitors were failing for many patients, she joined Tri Phan’s lab to continue her research.

The treatment fails in what oncologists call “cold” tumours, where the cancer’s environment actively prevents a kind of immune cell called a T cell attacking it. One of our lab’s aims is trying to work out how to make the tumours “hot”, allowing T cells to penetrate and destroy the cancer cells.

Our new findings suggest a different kind of immune cell, called macrophages, may hold the key.

Macrophages (green) engulfing melanoma cells (purple). Yuki Keith, CC BY

The housekeepers we’ve been ignoring

In 1908, Russian zoologist Ilya Mechnikov was awarded a Nobel Prize for the discovery of phagocytosis (“cell eating”) in the immune system, which is carried out by cells he called macrophages (from the Greek for “big eaters”).

These cells engulf and clear away the debris caused by tissue damage and cell death. They are often regarded as the body’s silent, no-fuss housekeepers.

However, their role in cancer has often been overlooked. Unlike other immune cells that move through the blood and patrol the whole body, macrophages are “tissue-resident” and stay in one place.

A microscopic view of a melanoma tumour growing in the skin shows CD169 macrophages in green and yellow forming a biological boundary wall around the tumour. Keith et al. / Garvan Institute, CC BY

Earlier studies of the role of macrophages in cancer assumed these housekeepers were all the same. But when we looked closely in the skin, it became clear that there were many different kinds of macrophages living in different layers.

One particular kind of macrophages (recognised by a protein called CD169) lives in a deeper part of the skin, called the hypodermis.

We found that these macrophages arranged themselves around the edges of a melanoma tumour, as if they were trying to wall it off. When we depleted the macrophages, the melanomas grew bigger, suggesting they were constraining the growth of the tumours.

Watching cancer cells being eaten alive

To understand what these CD169-positive macrophages were actually doing, we used an advanced imaging technique called intravital two-photon microscopy. This allows us to watch biological processes unfold in living tissue in real time.

What we saw was surprising: the macrophages were “nibbling” and actively engulfing live melanoma cells. While we had seen macrophages eat dead cells in our lab before, we had never seen them eat a live melanoma cell in a model organism.

What was even more surprising was that this immune attack was happening without the need for T cells, or antibodies made by another kind of immune cell called B cells – the immune players most commonly credited with fighting cancer.

We also confirmed this is not something that just happens in the lab. Our colleagues at the Melanoma Institute Australia analysed samples from human melanoma patients and found similar populations of CD169-expressing macrophages on the edges of the tumour, suggesting they may play a similar protective role there.

Calling in the cavalry – implications for therapies

Macrophages don’t just clear away debris. They can also alert the immune system to danger. After they have digested the debris, they can display it like a biological “red flag” to direct T cells to find and kill the cancer cells.

What makes a macrophage decide whether to silently dispose of debris without alerting the immune system, or wave the red flags to activate the immune system, is still unclear. Because the CD169-expressing macrophages are strategically positioned around the tumours, we suspect they may hold the key.

Macrophages are widespread in most solid tumours – including glioblastoma, breast cancer and many others. This is an army already in place waiting to be mobilised.

Our next step is to understand precisely how these macrophages eat live cancer cells and how they can communicate the danger to T cells, so we can harness this population with new treatments.

Yuki Keith, Postdoctoral Researcher, Immunology, Garvan Institute and Tri Phan, Program Director – Precision Immunology / Laboratory Head, Garvan Institute

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→May 27, 2026