Researchers from Princeton engineering drove a moble lab across the country and found that emissions of methane and nitrous oxide, powerful greenhouse gases, are twice as high as national estimates. 

Combing through 20 years of images from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, scientists have tracked 1039 tornado-like whirlwinds to reveal how dust is lifted into the air and swept around Mars’s surface.

Published today in Science Advances, their findings – including that the strongest winds on Mars blow much faster than we thought – give us a much clearer picture of the Red Planet’s weather and climate.

And with these ‘dust devils’ collected into a single public catalogue, this research is just the beginning. Besides pure science, it will be useful for planning future missions, for example incorporating provisions for the irksome dust that settles on the solar panels of our robotic rovers.

Three of America’s most promising young scientists were awarded top honors tonight at the 2025 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, one of the country’s most significant prizes for early-career researchers. Presented by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences, the awards recognize exceptional scientific achievement and innovation by U.S.-based researchers aged 42 and younger.

The winners of the 2025 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists are:

Life Sciences Laureate: Philip J. Kranzusch, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School (Microbiology) - Recognized for discovering that human innate immunity evolved from ancient pathways in bacteria, explaining the molecular basis for how human cells defend against infections and cancer.

 

Chemical Sciences Laureate: Frank Leibfarth, PhD, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Polymer Chemistry) - Recognized for pioneering approaches to upcycle plastic waste and remove toxic ‘forever chemicals’ from water by developing reactions and catalysts that selectively control the structure and function of polymers.

 

Physical Sciences & Engineering Laureate: Elaina J. Sutley, PhD, University of Kansas (Civil Engineering) - Recognized for comprehensive, systematic computer modeling and engineering to address disaster mitigation and recovery, informing building codes and disaster readiness policies across the country.

Tiny ocean organisms living in oxygen-poor waters turn nutrients into nitrous oxide—a greenhouse gas far more powerful than carbon dioxide—via complex chemical pathways.

Penn’s Xin Sun and collaborators identified the how and why behind these chemical reactions, showing that microbial competition, not just chemistry, determines how much N₂O is produced.

Their findings pave the way for more reliable climate models, making global greenhouse gas estimates more effective, predictable, and easier to understand in response to natural and man-made climate change.