Building on their groundbreaking 2018 research into how some of the body’s cells, such as neurons and cardiac tissue, communicate via ions that flow through cellular channels, chemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst demonstrated a “leakiness” to a particularly mysterious type of channel, known as a “big potassium,” or BK channel. This leakiness is key to further study the body’s electrical infrastructure, which, when it goes haywire, can result in maladies like epilepsy and hypertension.

A team from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, uses a multi-model approach to improve climate modeling. Isotope analysis allows researchers to track the global water cycle and identify changes in atmospheric dynamics in a warming climate. Their simulation data, identification of parameter sensitivity, and discovery of ongoing challenges in understanding the behavior of atmospheric water vapor provide a baseline for better general climate models in the future.

Researchers have developed a Unity-based Virtual Reality (VR) system for the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment. This system enables immersive visualization of complex detector geometry and events information, thereby refining simulations and enhancing physics analysis.

Across the world, significant tree planting campaigns are underway. However, Professor Subke believes the recent findings show that using forests and deposition of carbon to deep soils may not be as safe a long‑term option as previously hoped.

For the first time, an international team led by Smithsonian researchers estimated the extent of coral bleaching worldwide during a global marine heatwave, finding that half of the world’s reefs experienced significant damage between 2014 and 2017. Another heatwave began in 2023 and is ongoing.

The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists today announced the Finalists for the 2026 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom. The Awards recognise scientific advances by UK researchers across Life Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Physical Sciences & Engineering. Now in its ninth year, each Blavatnik Awards Laureate will receive an unrestricted £100,000 (US$135,000) prize, while the remaining six Finalists will be awarded £30,000 (US$40,400) each. 

This year’s Finalists include:

 

Chemical Sciences Finalists

Michael J. Booth, PhD – University College London (UCL)

Mathew H. Horrocks, PhD – The University of Edinburgh

Maxie M. Roessler, DPhil – Imperial College London

 

Life Sciences Finalists

Nicholas R. Casewell, PhD – Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Thi Hoang Duong (Kelly) Nguyen, PhD – MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Pontus Skoglund, PhD – The Francis Crick Institute

 

Physical Sciences & Engineering Finalists

Radha Boya, PhD – The University of Manchester

Paola Pinilla, PhD – University College London (UCL)

Iestyn Woolway, PhD – Bangor University

 

Researchers have demonstrated, for the first time, that transfer learning can significantly enhance material Z-class identification in muon tomography, even in scenarios with limited or completely unlabeled data. Led by Professor Liangwen Chen, the team developed lightweight neural network models that achieve over 96% overall accuracy—and nearly 99% accuracy for high-Z materials—when detecting shielded objects, paving the way for practical applications of transfer learning in nuclear security and inspection technologies.