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

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

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

Mozambique ‘sky island’ expeditions found 4 new species of chameleon – already at risk from forest loss

Male sylvan chameleon (Nadzikambia goodallae) from Mount Ribáuè, Mozambique. Krystal Tolley, CC BY Krystal Tolley, University of Johannesburg

Tropical rainforests are known for their unique biodiversity, with species found nowhere else on Earth. But nearly 30% of tropical rainforest has been destroyed or has become seriously degraded since 1990. Many of these forests have not been fully explored for their biodiversity. This means that the world may be losing species before they are even discovered by modern science.

In Africa, forest loss is rapid; about 25% of the continent’s tropical forest has been lost since 1990, against a backdrop of incomplete knowledge of where the biodiversity is located.

Greatly lagging in this respect are the “sky islands” of northern Mozambique: isolated granite mountains that rise sharply out of the savanna plains. They were left standing when softer rock around them gradually eroded, and can be as high as 3,000 metres elevation. Because they rise so steeply, the sky islands attract clouds and rainfall, feeding moisture to the tropical rainforests on their slopes within an otherwise arid terrain. Isolation has allowed unique species to evolve on each mountain, such as geckos, rodents, fishes, crabs, frogs, butterflies and bats.

Mount Inago. Krystal Tolley, CC BY

Small patch of remaining pristine rainforest at Mount Inago. Krystal Tolley, CC BY

From 2014 to 2018, a research team led by fellow herpetologist Werner Conradie and myself explored these sky island forests to catalogue the species of reptiles found there. We found that each sky island forest is home to a previously unknown species of chameleon within the genus Nadzikambia (forest-dwelling “sylvan chameleons”).

Unfortunately, these chameleons are already at risk of extinction due to the heavy slash-and-burn clearing of the forests, the only place they can call home.

We’ve described these new species, choosing four names to highlight pioneering women scientists whose work inspired us to strive towards new discoveries, but also to call attention to the losses of their forest habitat.

Hunting for chameleons

Over the course of several years, we explored four of Mozambique’s sky islands – Mount Namuli, Mount Inago, Mount Chiperone and Mount Ribáuè – with the aim of cataloguing all reptiles but also in the hopes of finding new species of chameleons. This was because a species of sylvan chameleon had been discovered on one of these mountains during the 1960s, but they were not known from any other mountains.

However, chameleons can be very difficult to find, given their ability to remain camouflaged against the background coupled with their slow movements. They are more easily spotted at night while they are sleeping, as they stand out against the vegetation when illuminated by a strong beam of light. Sylvan chameleons are even more difficult to spot than others, as they usually perch high in the thick forest canopy – tens of metres up.

The search meant dealing with some tough conditions: a long, arduous trek up the hot, arid slopes to reach the forest high up the mountain. Establishing a remote base camp was essential. All food, clothes and gear had to be packed into the camp, and we didn’t know how long it would take to find any animals.

At each of these mountains, we surveyed every night for chameleons – no trails to follow, no GPS signal to guide us, no cellphone signal to call for help.

Sometimes we were lucky and found chameleons on the first or second night. At other mountains we were not so lucky, with fruitless searches making it necessary to return another year.

Eventually these mountains revealed their secrets and we discovered four new species of sylvan chameleon, one on each of the four mountains.

Slash-and-burn clearing of rainforest at Mount Inago. Krystal Tolley, CC BY

We don’t know how big their populations are, but we assume they are in decline. Most of their habitat has been destroyed by forest clearing to make way for agriculture, with increasingly rapid losses in the last decade. We estimate that in some cases, 80%-90% of their habitat has been destroyed.

When parts of an ecosystem are lost, the whole becomes unstable and is eventually lost.

Choosing names for the new species

To highlight their predicament, we have described and named these chameleons and have forecast that three of these species are at high risk of extinction.

In particular, we highlight Nadzikambia goodallae from Mount Ribáuè. This species has been named in honour of the distinguished scientist Jane Goodall, whose own study species, the chimpanzee, is under similar pressures from loss of its rainforest habitat.

Female sylvan chameleon (Nadzikambia goodallae) from Mount Ribáuè. Krystal Tolley, CC BY

We also honour the renowned discoverer of the structure of DNA, Rosalind Franklin, by naming the species from Mount Namuli as Nadzikambia franklinae. The use of DNA data from these chameleons was essential to confirm them as new species.

Nadzikambia franklinae from Mount Namuli. Werner Conradie, CC BY

We have dubbed the species from Mount Inago as Nadzikambia evanescens, meaning “vanishing” in Latin, acknowledging the state of the forest destruction.

Male sylvan chameleon (Nadzikambia evanescens) from Mount Inago. Krystal Tolley, CC BY

The final species, Nadzikambia nubila, is named for the cloudy aspect of Mount Chiperone. This species has a lower risk of extinction given that the local community view the forest as sacred, and say it should be protected.

Female sylvan chameleon (Nadzikambia nubila) from Mount Chiperone. Krystal Tolley, CC BY

This latter case is significant, as it demonstrates that wholesale destruction of these forests is not an essential trade-off for local people to thrive. If encouraged and supported, community support and buy-in can be a solution to protect biodiversity in these sensitive ecosystems.

Krystal Tolley, Principal Scientist, University of Johannesburg

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

Read More........→April 27, 2026

Johns Hopkins Team Develops Therapeutic, Nasally-Delivered DNA Vaccine for Tuberculosis

Artist’s illustration of tuberculosis bacteria (TB) – credit, US CDC

A research team at Johns Hopkins Medicine is developing a nose-delivered inoculation against tuberculosis, the world’s leading cause of death from infectious disease.

The approach fuses two tuberculosis genes with the goal of directing the immune system to fight drug-tolerant bacterial survivors that can endure antibiotic treatment to spread another day.

The paper on the vaccine was published last week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, where JH Medicine researchers were joined by colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

TB is estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be spread asymptomatically by around 2 billion people. In 2024 , WHO reported that TB was the leading cause of death from a single infectious disease.

In recent years, WHO has called for therapeutic vaccines that can be used alongside drug therapies to shorten TB treatment regimens and improve outcomes, particularly because long multidrug courses are difficult to complete, and drug-resistant TB strains continue to emerge. The vaccine described in the new Johns Hopkins study shows promise for meeting that need.

The new Johns Hopkins vaccine, says study lead author Styliani Karanika, MD, fuses two genes: relMtb and Mip3α, and is given through the nose to take advantage of 3 beneficial biological activities.

“Administered together with first-line TB drug therapy, our intranasal DNA fusion vaccine helped infected mice clear the disease bacteria faster, reduced lung inflammation, and prevented relapse after treatment ended,” says Karanika, a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Center for Tuberculosis Research.

“The vaccine also helped the powerful TB drug combination of bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid work better, suggesting it could be used with treatments against drug-resistant TB to help the body fight the disease, even hard-to-treat cases.”

Dr. Karanika explained that TB bacteria possess a gene—relMtb—that produces a protein called RelMtb—which together help the microbes survive hostile conditions such as antibiotic exposure, low oxygen, and nutrient limitation by entering a drug-tolerant persistent state.

Fusing relMtb with another gene called Mip3α produces a signal that attracts immature human dendritic cells. These cells pick up TB proteins and ‘present’ them to T cells, the immune cells that help coordinate a targeted attack on the TB bacteria.

“Finally, intranasal delivery focuses vaccination on the respiratory mucosa in the lungs where TB infection occurs, helping generate long-lasting localized T-cell immunity in the airways and lungs, along with systemic immune responses,” says Karanika.

By combining these strategies, the investigators aimed to strengthen immune activity directly in the respiratory tract, where transmission most commonly occurs.

In the mouse studies, this approach both improved the quantity and organization of dendritic and T-cells in the lungs, and generated immune responses both locally and systemically. The improved response included to two types of T-cells, CD4 (also known as helper T-cells) and CD8 (also known as killer T-cells).

One study strongpoint was that it included tests on primates: in this case, rhesus macaques. The researchers found that their nose-delivered DNA vaccine prompted measurable TB‑focused immune responses in blood and in the airways similar to what led to lower bacterial counts in the lungs of the mice they studied.

These responses persisted for at least 6 months, suggesting durability for the vaccine’s action.

“These nonhuman primate data are encouraging because they show that the Mip3α/relMtb vaccine can generate durable, antigen-stimulated immune responses in an animal model whose immune system more closely resembles that of humans,” said Dr. Karanika. “That gives us an important translational bridge between the mouse efficacy studies and the additional preclinical work needed before human trials.”

Readers may recoil from the notion of primate testing, but Old World Monkeys are very susceptible to TB, and in fact spread it between themselves just as we do. Research has shown that TB has been spread among humans as far back as 70,000 years, and followed our migration out of Africa and across Asia.The authors say their findings support a broader strategy of targeting surviving TB bacteria with immunotherapy, rather than relying solely on antibiotics to eliminate actively replicating bacteria. Because DNA vaccines are relatively stable and can be manufactured efficiently, they may offer practical advantages if this approach ultimately proves effective in humans. Johns Hopkins Team Develops Therapeutic, Nasally-Delivered DNA Vaccine for Tuberculosis

Read More........→April 15, 2026

Spectacular New Species Found in Cambodia’s Limestone Caves–Asia's 'Little Laboratories'

A new species of pit viper found living in the caves – credit, supplied by Fauna & Flora ©

A breathtaking expedition high among limestone escarpments and deep in the cave systems they contain has revealed several new reptile species, including a dazzling pit viper you have to see to believe.

Exploring over 60 caves across 10 hills in the Battambang province, western Cambodia, the survey uncovered a treasure trove of extraordinary creatures besides, many found nowhere else on Earth.

The survey was led by Fauna & Flora International in collaboration with Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment and field experts. The team identified 6 new geckos, 2 micro-snails, and 2 millipedes in addition to the viper.

They also confirmed the presence of many threatened species in the landscape surrounding the caves—such as the Sunda pangolin, Indochinese silvered langur, long-tailed macaque, and green peafowl, further highlighting the critical need to protect this habitat.

Karst covers 20% of the Earth’s landscape. This soluble bedrock made of limestone has created some of the most spectacular rocky landscapes on Earth—including the upturned egg cartons shapes along the great South China Karst, Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, Tsingy de Bemaraha in Madagascar, The Burren in western Ireland, the world’s largest wellspring in Vrelo Bune, Bosnia, the Cenotes of the Yucatan, in Mexico, and Mammoth Cave in the US.

The susceptibility of karst to erode from rainfall has seen it carved into a million beautiful and dramatic shapes that often play host to microclimates where threatened animals can thrive.

Landscapes along the Li River amid the South China Karst – credit, Sam Beasley via Unsplash

Dr. Lee Grismer, a professor of biology at La Sierra University in the US, was part of the expeditionary team, and spoke to F&F about the importance and uniqueness of the landscape.

“Each one of these isolated karst areas act as their own little laboratory where nature is performing the same experiment over and over and over independently. The results are species that exist nowhere else—not just nowhere else in the world, or that country—but in no other cave.”

The Shiva Gecko – credit, supplied by Fauna & Flora ©

Indeed, caves from easily in karst landscapes, and many of the world’s longest and largest—and least-explored—cave systems are found in East and Southeast Asia.

This is certainly the case in Battambang, where the survey team had first to ascend the steep forested slopes of the karst outcrops before scrambling and squeezing through crevices and crawlspaces to reach the cave systems.

Inside, they documented a rich array of life, both endemic to the caves and others—like a big reticulated python—who were just visiting. While the chatter of the Endangered silvered langur troupe, faded behind them, the team began encountering animal after animal that had never been described by science.

A spectacular new species of pit viper (from the Trimeresurus genus) was collected during the survey and is currently being described. Recognized by their triangular heads, these highly venomous snakes track down their warm-blooded prey using the heat-sensitive pits behind their nostrils.

4 populations of the striped Kamping Poi bent-toed gecko were found and identified as a new species: Cyrtodactylus kampingpoiensis. Despite being described as just one species, it is thought that, due to the geographic isolation of the karst formations, these 4 populations are on separate evolutionary trajectories, and further genetic analyses may reveal whether they are in fact 4 different species instead of 1.

Another new species of gecko was named after the Hindu god of destruction: Shiva.

In a statement, Fauna & Flora International said it is working with local partners to help conserve Cambodia’s karst landscapes, epitomized through the recent release of guidelines for sustainable development and management of cave ecosystems.

The Fauna & Flora International expeditionary team – credit, supplied by Fauna & Flora ©

The guidelines integrate international best practices with Cambodian context, providing practical measures to safeguard bat colonies, preserve rare and endemic cave biodiversity, promote sustainable guano harvesting and ensure responsible tourism development.

“Cambodia’s karst areas are a treasure trove of scientific secrets waiting to be uncovered,” said Sothearen Thi, Karst Biodiversity Coordinator at Fauna & Flora in the statement.“But, without sustainable management, we may never find out what these areas truly hold. Karst landscapes are facing many human-driven challenges, and biologically significant species could go extinct before they have even been discovered. We are working with the Cambodian government and local partners to increase protection of the landscapes, with sustainable management being the number one priority.” Spectacular New Species Found in Cambodia’s Limestone Caves–Asia's 'Little Laboratories'

Read More........→April 11, 2026

24 New Species Including a New Family of Amphipods Identified in Deep Sea Survey

Collage of the 24 new Amphipod species identified in Clarion-Clipperton Zone – credit, National Oceanographic Center, Southampton

A recent international survey of a deep sea zone near Mexico turned up 24 species of shrimp-like animals called amphipods, including a whole new taxonomic family, called Mirabestiidae.

The survey took place in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) between Hawaii and Mexico, where a fractious seabed can range in depth from 10,000 to 20,000 feet.

Over 10,000 species of amphipods have been described by science, yet they’re such a diverse order of animals, an expedition such as this can still scoop out handfuls of new ones—and in all different colors too.

“To find a new superfamily is incredibly exciting, and very rarely happens so this is a discovery we will all remember,” said Dr. Tammy Horton of the UK’s National Oceanographic Center (NOC) in Southampton.

“With more than 90% of species in the CCZ still unnamed, each species described is a vital step towards improving our understanding of this fascinating ecosystem.”

The NOC was joined by partners and aspiring scientists from all across Europe, as well as New Zealand and Canada, for a weeks-long taxonomy workshop organized at the University of Lodz, Poland, led by Dr. Anna Jażdżewska.

Location of the Clarion Clipperton Zone – credit USGS

The expedition and workshop were organized under the International Seabed Authority’s Sustainable Seabed Knowledge Initiative (SSKI) which aims to describe 1,000 new species by the end of the decade in order to possess a better understanding of deep-seabed biodiversity when making decisions about deep-sea mining.

“The team’s findings provide information that is crucial for future conservation and policy decisions, and it highlights how important it is for this work to continue,” Dr. Jażdżewska said in a statement.

Stretching 1.7 million square miles across the eastern Pacific Ocean, the CCZ was discovered by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1954. It’s been an extremely well-surveyed area of the deep seabed, though that in itself isn’t saying much, and indeed 42% of all known deep sea species were first described in the CCZ.

The expedition uncovered a new family, called Mirabestiidae, and even a new superfamily Mirabestioidea, revealing completely new evolutionary branches. Two new genera were also discovered: Mirabestia and Pseudolepechinella.

For readers who lack a mental flowchart of taxonomy hierarchies, one famous family from above sea level is Felidae, containing all cats wild and domestic. Felidae is nested inside of the superorder Feliformia, which in addition to all the cats, contains civets, hyena, mongoose, and the curious fossa of Madagascar.

Two genera nested inside the family Felidae are Panthera, containing the tiger and the lion, and Lynx.

In the CCZ, students and professors alike reveled in pulling up one new species after another, before taking them back to a frigid Poland for analysis.Creatures were named in honor of both Horton and Jażdżewska, the organizers of the expedition and workshop, while others named species after relatives, impressions from the experience, and even a video game character that one of the amphipods resembled. 24 New Species Including a New Family of Amphipods Identified in Deep Sea Survey

Read More........→March 30, 2026

He Made a Battery Pack Using Disposable Vapes to Power His Electric Car (WATCH)

Chris Doel powers electric car with disposable vape batteries – SWNS

A man has powered an electric car using a homemade battery pack built out of discarded vapes, on a quest to show that so many valuable resources are being cast off every day.

Last year, GNN reported that Chris Doel had stripped down the lithium batteries from 500 disposable vapes, power sources he describes as “fully rechargeable”, to create a power-bank big enough to run his home.

Not willing to stop there, the 27-year-old engineer then decided to reuse the battery pack to power a trip in an electric car.

He needed a vehicle with a small battery so bought a 2007 G-Wiz for £800—named the worst car that year by Top Gear—and spent five months working on the project. He finally took it out for a spin last month.

The young man from Warwickshire, England, who calls himself “the engineer equivalent of a mad scientist”, documented the process on his YouTube channel, which has 164,000 subscribers. (Watch his new car video below…)

He went to the local vape shop last May asking if they would donate their “returns” for his house-battery project. He walked away with bags containing 2,000 vapes.

It took him six months during his free time at home, outside Birmingham, to extract the rechargeable lithium batteries from the devices. He then used a 3D printed case to combine 500 cells wired in parallel into groups connected in series to make a massive battery pack.

27-year-old Chris Doel powers EV with disposable vape batteries – SWNS

The completed pack successfully powered his house for eight hours, before finally running out of juice. Immediately, he set his sights on his next project: the car.

“I was speaking with a colleague about how I wanted to power a vehicle, but because EVs have such enormous batteries, I thought it was never going to be possible,” Chris told SWNS news agency.

“My colleague came up with the genius idea of using the G-Wiz. It’s pretty much the only car out there with a 48v battery, (meaning) the power-wall would work with it.

The micro-car only requires a battery with a voltage of 48v—well below Tesla’s 400v. It has a max speed of just 50 mph, yet seats two adults and two small children.

It ran for two hours, covering a distance of 18 miles—entirely powered by vape batteries.

What about the flammability?

Chris bought insurance to cover liability, and was happy to pay around $700 for one year, saying, “Given the fact they’re taking the risk of it being a battery pack literally made of vape cells, it was incredibly cheap in the grand scheme of things.”

He spent five hours a day after work on weekdays, and 12 hours a day on weekends, for five months rewiring the car and sorting out the legal paperwork before he was finally able to take it out for a spin.

Credit: Pablo Merchán Montes for Unsplash+

“I stripped it all back to re-do all the wiring, making sure it was proper sturdy. I made a big enclosure—worst-case scenario—in case it were to go up in flames. I would want it to be at least somewhat contained and not be rattling all over the place.”

Now, Chris has taken the vape batteries out of the car and replaced them with two Tesla battery modules, but runs it with “special software to fool them into thinking they’re installed in a Tesla Model 3.”

Today, the car is his daily transportation.

“As soon as I get an idea in my head, I’m determined to get it done.”

As an environmentalist who is outraged by the “planned obsolescence”of these disposable vapes, he urges everyone to stop buying the wasteful product which ends up in the landfill within days of purchasing.Instead, he urges manufacturers to build rechargeable products with long lives that are recyclable to help create a circular economy. He Made a Battery Pack Using Disposable Vapes to Power His Electric Car (WATCH)

Read More........→March 21, 2026

Rare Species of Pink 'Fairy Club' Fungus Discovered in UK for First Time

A Clavaria calabrica fungus – credit Diana Walker via SWNS

A rare, pale pink, fairy club fungus native to Italy was found during a mushroom survey in England last autumn, the first recording sighting anywhere in Great Britain.

The tennis ball-sized fungus has now been confirmed through DNA testing, as there are other species that look similar to it.

The “exceptional” discovery was made by a group of Naturewatch volunteers from Somer Valley Rediscovered in England’s southwest.

DNA extraction was done in Scotland and then sent to the University of Aberystwyth in Wales for sequencing, making the discovery a truly pan-British effort.

“This discovery further demonstrates that the South West is home to some of the most spectacular and diverse examples of these unique grassland fungi communities anywhere on the planet,” a local enthusiast named Dan Nicholas who led the mushroom survey told England’s Southwest News Service.

“We are truly blessed to have such a colorful spectacle of nature’s calendar right on our doorstep, something we need to cherish and protect at all costs.”

Clavaria calabrica is a small member of an informal group of fungi called fairy clubs, or coral fungi, that was first identified by scientists in Italy in 2017. Clava is the Latin word for “club,” and calabrica refers to the Italian region of Calabria.

It is usually found in grasslands that have been managed gently over time and are rich in wildlife. While the species has previously been recorded in Northern Ireland, this is the first time it has been confirmed in mainland Britain.

The fungus was discovered as part of the Somer Valley Rediscovered project, a partnership made up of local town and parish councils that aims to improve biodiversity whilst better connecting communities to their local green spaces and landscapes.

People across the region are being encouraged to take part in the West of England Wildlife Index, a citizen science program tracking wildlife at 20 sites across West England, contributing to the region’s State of Nature report.

Volunteers are asked to help count bees, butterflies, plants and wetland birds as part of well-established national monitoring programs, with guidance and support from the project’s ecologist.

“Finding a species never before recorded in Great Britain here in the West is something we can all be proud of. This shows again just how rich and unique landscapes across our region can be,” said Helen Godwin, Mayor of the West of England, a combined administrative authority that makes up Somerset but also Bristol and other areas around the River Avon.“The work of the West of England Nature Partnership helps make sure these habitats are understood and protected. I encourage everyone to get involved in the West of England Wildlife Index, helping us record and safeguard the nature that makes our region so special.” Rare Species of Pink 'Fairy Club' Fungus Discovered in UK for First Time

Read More........→March 09, 2026

Scientists Document Over 16,000 Footprints in the World’s Most Extensive Dinosaur Tracksite

The Carreras Pampas trackways – credit, Raúl Esperante

In Bolivia, the largest number of dinosaur footprints ever recorded in a single spot is yielding fascinating insight on how these prehistoric animals moved in a way that bones just can’t.

16,600 footprints, forming dozens of “trackways,” have been so far documented on what would have been the muddy floor of a waterway along what is now the coastline in Bolivia’s Carreras Pampas.

If a skeleton shows what a dinosaur could do, tracks show what they actually did; and while bones may be transported from the location of death through environmental events, a footprint provides perfect evidence of where exactly a dinosaur was at a given time.

These and other aspects of the tracks are why this site in the Torotoro National Park in Bolivia has paleontologists so excited.

The tracks were made by theropods, the bipedal meat-eating dinosaurs that included T. rex. Some were isolated, some moved back and forth, some were made while the animals were swimming or wading, and yet more may show theropods moving in groups.

“Everywhere you look on that rock layer at the site, there are dinosaur tracks,” said study coauthor Dr. Jeremy McLarty, an associate professor of biology and director of the Dinosaur Science Museum and Research Center at Southwestern Adventist University in Texas.

Speaking with CNN, Dr. McLarty said that most of the tracks were traveling north-northwest or southeast, had been made over a short period of time, and may have been part of a long stretch of open country used by these animals in migratory routes to as far south as Argentina.

– credit, Raúl Esperante

The tracks can show so much about the animal that made them. The size of the prints can estimate the size of the theropod, while the space between prints can suggest the speed of their movement. As a trackway turns and bends, researchers can estimate the hip flexibility of the dinosaur, while traces of a tail dragging behind or the individual impression of each toe shows various gaits that might infer an injury, a posture, or the type of terrain that was present when the tracks were made.

Of their age, Dr. McLarty and his team estimate they were made between 100 and 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Several paleontologists spoke with CNN who weren’t involved in the trackway analysis, published in PLOS One, and they expressed their supreme eagerness to learn more about the various theropod species which made the imprints, some of which could have been as short as two-feet tall at the hip, while others might have been three-feet tall.“Tracks don’t move,” McLarty said. “When you visit Carreras Pampas, you know you are standing where a dinosaur walked.” Scientists Document Over 16,000 Footprints in the World’s Most Extensive Dinosaur Tracksite

Read More........→December 11, 2025

Iron-Air Batteries Powered by Rust Could Revolutionize Energy Storage By Using Only Iron, Water, and Air

Iron-air batteries for stable power – Credit: Form Energy

Edited with permission of EarthTalk® and E – The Environmental Magazine, Dear EarthTalk: What’s new regarding more efficient batteries that can help usher in a new age of renewable energy?

Batteries are everywhere—in your phone, your car—even the artificial organs many depend on for life. Fortunately, new innovations have increased the efficiency and sustainability of our ubiquitous batteries.

One of the most novel innovations unveiled recently is the iron-air battery system which usees rust to produce energy in a sustainable way.

The iron-air system from Form Energy is built from safe, low-cost, abundant materials—iron, water, and air—and uses no heavy or rare-earth metals. The company touts that approximately 80% of its components are sourced domestically from within the United States.

As air passes through the cathode (the negatively-charged portion of the battery) and reacts with the liquid, a water-based electrolyte, ions subsequently latch onto the positively-charged iron anode, producing rust. The movement of ions through this rust produces electricity, a process that can be repeated by continually un-rusting the battery after each reaction.

Form energy co-founder and Chief Scientist Yet-Ming Chiang notes the economic viability of iron-air batteries for large-scale usage: “Air is still free and iron is one of the most widely produced, lowest cost materials in the world.”

In Minnesota, a 1.5 megawatt pilot project was shown to be able to power 400 homes for 100 hours. It also successfully completed UL9540A safety testing, demonstrating the highest safety standards with no fire or thermal threats across all scenarios.

Besides iron-air batteries, solid-state batteries are what George Crabtree, director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, believes to be “very likely… the next big thing at the commercial level.”

Solid-state batteries use electrolytes like argyrodite, garnet and perovskite that are more efficient than liquid-electrolytes in nearly all aspects: they’re lighter, take up less space and can hold more energy per unit of mass. These qualities make them effective for electrical vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.

However, researchers like University of Houston professor Yan Yao, who recently developed a glass-like electrolyte, are still looking for materials that fulfill all four factors for viability in the market: low-cost, easy-to-build, having a high degree of mechanical stability, and chemical stability.

With lithium-based batteries being so ubiquitous, some scientists are looking to improve on the existing model rather than supplanting it entirely. Batteries made out of lithium-sulfur, for example, exhibit four times greater energy density than traditional lithium batteries due to their usage of light, active materials.

Ultimately, innovations in batteries are a cornerstone to shaping a more sustainable future, making renewable energy more reliable and energy grids more stable.

EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk. See more at emagazine.com. To donate, visit Earthtalk.org. Send questions to: question@earthtalk.org.

Iron-Air Batteries Powered by Rust Could Revolutionize Energy Storage By Using Only Iron, Water, and Air

Read More........→November 03, 2025

Indian researchers develop diagnostic device to detect early-stage bone cancer

New Delhi, (IANS) In a major scientific breakthrough, researchers from IIT (BHU) in Uttar Pradesh have developed a miniaturised, self-reporting diagnostic device that can detect early-stage bone cancer with high precision.

The first-of-its-kind sensor detects osteopontin (OPN) -- a key biomarker for bone cancer.

The device is reagent-free, portable, and cost-effective and is ideal for rural healthcare, said the research team led by Dr. Pranjal Chandra from the School of Biochemical Engineering.

The device works much like a glucose metre and enables quick, accurate, and on-the-spot detection, even in resource-limited settings.

The device uses a custom sensor surface composed of gold and redox-active nanomaterials, allowing it to function similarly to a glucose meter.

“This technology simplifies cancer detection and empowers primary health centres,” said Prof. Chandra. The findings are published in the prestigious journal Nanoscale (Royal Society of Chemistry, UK).

OPN is a crucial biomarker associated with osteosarcoma -- a highly aggressive form of bone cancer that primarily affects children and adolescents.

While current methods to detect OPN are costly and time-consuming, the new device offers rapid and accurate results with minimal equipment.

It is designed as a reagent-less immunosensor, which enables on-the-spot and affordable testing. It is especially beneficial in rural and resource-constrained areas where early cancer detection is often delayed.

Cancer is a major public health concern in India, with rising incidence rates and significant mortality.

Lauding the innovation, Director Prof. Amit Patra called it “a prime example of technology with a human face”. He said it contributes to precision medicine and national health priorities. He added that the innovation aligns with the government's Make in India and Start-up India initiatives.A patent application has been filed, and efforts are underway to convert the prototype into a smartphone-compatible diagnostic kit for remote healthcare access, the researchers said. Indian researchers develop diagnostic device to detect early-stage bone cancer | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→September 30, 2025

World’s Smallest Snake Rediscovered in Barbados After 20 Years

The Barbados threadsnake (Photo by Connor Blades)

The world’s smallest snake was rediscovered under a rock in central Barbados during an ecological survey in March.

The Barbados threadsnake (Tetracheilostoma carlae) had been lost to science for nearly 20 years—meaning it had not had a sighting verified and documented by a scientist—and was on a global list of 4,800 plant, animal, and fungi species lost to science compiled by Re:wild’s Search for Lost Species.

At the limit of how small a snake can be, the species measures only about 3 to 4 inches long (9 to 10 centimeters) when fully grown. Each confirmed sighting of the species has had several decades between them, leading scientists to believe that the snake has possibly always been rare and difficult to find in the wild.

The Barbados Ministry of the Environment and Beautification had been searching for the threadsnake and several other endemic reptiles for more than a year as part of the Conserving Barbados’ Endemic Reptiles (CBER) project.

“Barbados threadsnakes are blind snakes, so they’re very cryptic,” said Connor Blades, a project officer with the ministry, who helped rediscover the animal and photograph it.

“They’re quite rare also, it seems. There have only been a handful of confirmed sightings since 1889, so there are not many people who have ever seen it, unfortunately.”

The threadsnake closely resembles the Brahminy blind snake, or flowerpot snake, a small invasive snake species that was inadvertently introduced to Barbados in recent decades.

“I began to look over the snake and it was clear to me that I really needed to take it to a microscope to get a proper look at it,” said Blades. “The morphological differences between the threadsnake and blind snake are really difficult to tell by eye, particularly because it was the first threadsnake we had seen, so we weren’t familiar with the species yet.”

Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for Re:wild, supported Blades’ search effort. They began by looking under rocks, one of which caught their attention.

“I was making a joke and in my head I said, ‘I smell a threadsnake,’” said Springer. “I just had a feeling, but I couldn’t be sure because we turned over a lot of rocks before that and we saw nothing.”

Blades loosened the rock from under the tree root and pulled it up. Underneath the rock was an earthworm and a tiny snake. Springer quickly picked up the snake to take a closer look.

“When you are so accustomed to looking for things and you don’t see them, you are shocked when you actually find it,” said Springer. “You can’t believe it. That’s how I felt. You don’t want to get your hopes up too high.”

Blades took the snake to the University of the West Indies and examined it under a microscope before returning the reptile back to the forest in central Barbados. It had all the characteristics of a threadsnake—pale orange dorsal lines running from its head to tail, eyes located on the side of its head, a rostral scale on its nose, and no gland lines on its head.

Forests, like the one in which the threadsnake was rediscovered, only cover a small area of Barbados. They are mostly confined to the undeveloped Scotland District and the network of gullies that radiate through the island.

“It’s an important reservoir for biodiversity on the island,” said Blades. “If the threadsnake population isn’t very dense, I’m worried about their ability to find mates—particularly if their habitat is under threat and being degraded.”“The threadsnake’s rediscovery is also a call to all of us as Barbadians that forests in Barbados are very special and need protection,” said Springer. “Not just for the threadsnake, but for other species as well. For plants, animals and our heritage.” World’s Smallest Snake Rediscovered in Barbados After 20 Years

Read More........→September 12, 2025

Elusive Sailback Shark Rediscovered After 50 Years

Sagumai et al. / Journal of Fish Biology, 2025

Every so often the animal kingdom just throws out a curveball that we’re not prepared for—like in 1970 when fishermen reeled in a freakish-looking shark and then it was never seen again.

Well 50 years later, that shark—so unique that it was declared a new genus—has finally been found again, confirming that the fishermen’s encounter wasn’t just a well-remembered dream.

Meet the sailback houndshark, believed to be endemic to the water’s of Papua New Guinea, and perhaps even to a single stretch of ocean called Astrolabe Bay. A group of fisherfolk reported that 5 of the sharks had been caught while a team of scientists were on the island conducting research for the country’s National Plan of Action on Sharks and Rays.

They had been caught incidentally at the mouth of a river that drains into the Astrolabe Bay, but had been sold as secondary catch since the meat is not prized by locals. Two years later, another was caught that turned out to be the first male sailfin houndshark ever seen.

A male and a female of the species were recently featured in a paper published in the Journal of Fish Biology. A curious predator, they have a large head but small mouth, and true to their name sport an elongated fin reminiscent of a sail on a yacht. Luckily for the shark, it is considered inferior on the market for Asian shark fin.

“Much remains unknown about its biology, ecology and population dynamics,” study corresponding author Jack Sagumai from the WWF Pacific division told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Support is still needed to better understand the life history and ecology of this species.”

Papua New Guinea has several shark species known to inhabit nowhere else in the world’s oceans, so it’s possible the sailfin is one more of these so-called “microendemic” populations. Susceptible to even small changes in ecosystem, it’s likely the shark will require protection, but the first step to knowing how is to know the species, and the first scientific description will go a long way toward achieving that.

The authors write that the animal embodies “a unique evolutionary lineage of triakid sharks” (or houndsharks, containing about 40 species across nine genera) and that uniqueness could make it an important marine biodiversity “icon” for Papua New Guinea.“Monitoring and management options are currently being initiated as a precautionary approach to conserve this unique and rare species of shark,” the authors conclude. Elusive Sailback Shark Rediscovered After 50 Years

Read More........→September 11, 2025

Giant stick insect species discovered in Australia

A large and previously unknown stick insect has been discovered in the misty forests of Far North Queensland — and it might just be Australia's heaviest insect.

The giant stick insect has been named Acrophylla alta, a nod to its high-altitude habitat in the Atherton Tablelands, ABC reported.

James Cook University Adjunct Professor Angus Emmott and south-east Queensland scientist Ross Coupland searched for the stick insect after they received a photograph of what they believed was an unknown species.

Despite its elusive nature, they managed to find a large female at an elevation above 900 metres between Millaa Millaa and Mount Hypipamee in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

"We looked at its eggs after it laid some eggs and we were absolutely certain it was a new species," Mr Emmott said.

Two females have since been found, including one that a friend of Mr Emmott's found in a garden.

"They let it go afterwards, but they weighed it and photographed the weighing of it, and it was 44 grams," he said.

"I'm not sure exactly how to go about [verifying] that. I know the large burrowing cockroach was considered the heaviest insect, but it only gets into the mid-30 grams."Their findings have been published in the journal Zootaxa., Source: Article

Read More........→August 26, 2025

Scientists Define a Color Never Before Seen by Human Eyes, Called 'Olo'–a Blue-Green of Intense Saturation

Photo by Hamish on Unsplash

An experiment in human photoreceptors allowed scientists to recently define a new color, imperceptible by the human eye, that lies along the blue-green spectrum but is different from the two.

The team, who experimented on themselves and others, hope their findings could one day help improve tools for studying color blindness or lead to new technologies for creating colors in digital imagery.

“Theoretically, novel colors are possible through bypassing the constraints set by the cone spectral sensitivities…” the authors write in their abstract. “In practice, we confirm a partial expansion of colorspace toward that theoretical ideal.”

The team from University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington used pioneering laser technology which they called “Oz” to “directly control the human eye’s photoreceptor activity via cell-by-cell light delivery.”

Color is generated in our vision through the transmission of light in cells called photoreceptors. Eye tissue contain a series of cones for this task, and the cones are labeled as L, S, or M cones.

In normal color vision, the authors explain, any light that stimulates an M cone cell must also stimulate its neighboring L and/or S cones because the M cone spectral response function lies between that of the L and S cones.

“However, Oz stimulation can by definition target light to only M cones and not L or S, which in principle would send a color signal to the brain that never occurs in natural vision,” they add.

Described as a kind of blue-green with “unprecedented saturation” the new color, which the researchers named “olo” was confirmed as being beyond the normal blue-green spectrum by each participant who saw it, as they needed to add substantial amounts of white for olo to fit somewhere within that spectrum.

“The Oz system represents a new experimental platform in vision science, aiming to control photo receptor activation with great precision,” the study says.

Although the authors are confidant that olo has never been seen before by humans, the spectrum of blue-green has received international attention before as a field of vision discovery.

A groundbreaking study of the Himba people in Namibia conducted in 2005 and published in journal of the American Psychological Association demonstrated that these traditional landowners seemed to perceive various colors as the same because they used the same word for them. A grouping of colors we in the West would separate into pink, red, and orange, is all serandu to them.

That was only half of the cause for fascination with the study. The other half came from the Himba people’s unbelievable sensitivity to the blue-green spectrum, such that they could reliably pick out the fainest differences in green that Western viewers by comparison missed.

This also corresponded with more words for shades of green which Westerners would never bother specifying, and in fact, the Himba had a harder time pointing out that a blue square was different from green squares when shown a chart, but could reliably select the square of a slightly different shade of green to the rest.But then it got even stranger. Further studies in the following years included genetic testing on the Himba, and it showed they possess an increased number of cone cells in their eyes. This higher density of cones enables them to perceive more shades and nuances of color than the average person, according to the lead author of the genetic research. Scientists Define a Color Never Before Seen by Human Eyes, Called 'Olo'–a Blue-Green of Intense Saturation

Read More........→August 13, 2025

Discovery of Genetically-Varied Worms in Chernobyl Could Help Human Cancer Research

Worms collected in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone – SWNS / New York University

The 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant transformed the surrounding area into the most radioactive landscape on Earth, and now the discovery of a worm that seems to be right at home in the rads is believed to be a boon for human cancer research.

Though humans were evacuated after the meltdown of Reactor 4, many plants and animals continued to live in the region, despite the high levels of radiation that have persisted to our time.

In recent years, researchers have found that some animals living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone are physically and genetically different from their counterparts elsewhere, raising questions about the impact of chronic radiation on DNA.

In particular, a new study led by researchers at New York University finds that exposure to chronic radiation from Chernobyl has not damaged the genomes of microscopic worms living there today, and the team suggests the invertebrates have become exceptionally resilient.

The finding could offer clues as to why humans with a genetic predisposition to cancer develop the disease, while others do not.

“Chernobyl was a tragedy of incomprehensible scale, but we still don’t have a great grasp on the effects of the disaster on local populations,” said Sophia Tintori, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Biology at NYU and the first author of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Did the sudden environmental shift select for species, or even individuals within a species, that are naturally more resistant to ionizing radiation?”

Tintori and her colleagues turned to nematodes, tiny worms with simple genomes and rapid reproduction, which makes them particularly useful for understanding basic biological phenomena.

“These worms live everywhere, and they live quickly, so they go through dozens of generations of evolution while a typical vertebrate is still putting on its shoes,” said Matthew Rockman, a professor of biology at NYU and the study’s senior author.

“I had seen footage of the Exclusion Zone and was surprised by how lush and overgrown it looked—I’d never thought of it as teeming with life,” added Tintori. “If I want to find worms that are particularly tolerant to radiation exposure, this is a landscape that might have already selected for that.”

In collaboration with scientists in Ukraine and U.S. colleagues, including biologist Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, who studies the effects of radiation from the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters, Tintori and Rockman visited the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in 2019 to see if chronic radiation has had a detectable impact on the region’s worms.

With Geiger counters in hand to measure local levels of radiation and personal protective gear to guard against radioactive dust, they gathered worms from samples of soil, rotting fruit, and other organic material.

The ruins of Reactor 4, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. credit Matt Shalvatis – CC BY-4.0. SA

Worms were collected from locations throughout the zone with different amounts of radiation, ranging from low levels on par with New York City (negligibly radioactive) to high-radiation sites on par with outer space (dangerous for humans, but of unclear if it would be dangerous to worms).

After collecting samples in the field, the team brought them to Mousseau’s field lab in a former residential home in Chernobyl, where they separated hundreds of nematodes from the soil or fruit. From there, they headed to a Kyiv hotel where, using travel microscopes, they isolated and established cultures from each worm.

Back in the lab at NYU, the researchers continued studying the worms by freezing them.

“We can cryopreserve worms, and then thaw them for study later. That means that we can stop evolution from happening in the lab, something impossible with most other animal models, and very valuable when we want to compare animals that have experienced different evolutionary histories,” said Rockman.

They focused their analyses on 15 worms of a nematode species called Oscheius tipulae, which has been used in genetic and evolutionary studies. They sequenced the genomes of the 15 O. tipulae worms from Chernobyl and compared them with the genomes of five O. tipulae from other parts of the world.

The researchers were surprised to find that, using several different analyses, they could not detect a signature of radiation damage on the genomes of the worms from Chernobyl.

“This doesn’t mean that Chernobyl is safe—it more likely means that nematodes are really resilient animals and can withstand extreme conditions,” noted Tintori. “We also don’t know how long each of the worms we collected was in the Zone, so we can’t be sure exactly what level of exposure each worm and its ancestors received over the past four decades.”

Wondering whether the lack of genetic signature was because the worms living in Chernobyl are unusually effective at protecting or repairing their DNA, the researchers designed a system to compare how quickly populations of worms grow and used it to measure how sensitive the descendants of each of the 20 genetically distinct worms were to different types of DNA damage.

The surprise in this story is that while the lineages of worms were different from each other in how well they tolerated DNA damage, these differences didn’t correspond to the levels of radiation at each collection site, meaning that unlike the origin stories of several superheroes, radiation exposure doesn’t seem to create super worms just as much as it can’t turn you or I into Spiderman or the Hulk.

Instead, the teams’ findings suggest that worms from Chernobyl are not necessarily more tolerant of radiation and the radioactive landscape has not forced them to evolve.

The results give researchers clues into how DNA repair can vary from individual to individual—and despite the genetic simplicity of O. tipulae, could lead to a better understanding of natural variation in humans.

“Now that we know which strains of O. tipulae are more sensitive or more tolerant to DNA damage, we can use these strains to study why different individuals are more likely than others to suffer the effects of carcinogens,” said Tintori.

How different individuals in a species respond to DNA damage is top of mind for cancer researchers seeking to understand why some humans with a genetic predisposition to cancer develop the disease, while others do not.

“Thinking about how individuals respond differently to DNA-damaging agents in the environment is something that will help us have a clear vision of our own risk factors,” added Tintori. Discovery of Genetically-Varied Worms in Chernobyl Could Help Human Cancer Research

Read More........→August 11, 2025