Winter sea ice cover in the Arctic was the lowest it’s ever been at its annual peak on March 22, 2025. At 5.53 million square miles (14.33 million square kilometers), the maximum extent fell below the prior low of 5.56 million square miles (14.41 million square kilometers) in 2017. Globally, ice cover reached a record low in mid-February. 

To make sense of the new administration's recent tariff announcements and policy changes, Robert Johnson, the Brian and Jeannelle Brady Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame, explains how tariffs affect global economies and what this means for U.S. engagement in global trade.

A clinical team from the Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine at the LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), in collaboration with Queen Mary Hospital, has spearheaded the use of CAR-T cell therapy for blood cancers. The researchers recently treated the first myeloma patient with this therapy (patient case details in Appendix A), resulting in a very good response without severe complications. The expansion of this innovative treatment to myeloma patients offers new hope for those who have not responded to traditional treatment, marking a significant milestone in advancing healthcare in Hong Kong. Importantly, the treatment for these patients represents the first time advanced CAR-T cellular therapy manufactured in the mainland has been used in Hong Kong, opening new possibilities for the use of novel advanced cellular therapies from the mainland in Hong Kong and potentially benefitting a broader range of patients in the future.

“Creating a clean energy source is the dream we are all striving for,” says Texas A&M engineer Dr. T.S. Satish Bukkapatnam who is on a team of researchers tapped by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to improve the components for nuclear fusion. The process for precision polishing the tiny ablator capsule — a spherical shell just around two millimeters in diameter — creates an ultra-smooth surface. The team devised an innovative system utilizing sensors to collect data during the polishing process, and AI to detect defects in real time. Practically speaking, we could be a decade or more away from being able to use nuclear fusion as source of sustainable energy. As the project continues, this research team will examine different sources of anomalies, as well as ways to produce high-quality fuel shells more efficiently.

By combining robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI), Maryland Engineering researchers and students are building solutions that can help save lives, protect property, and safeguard the environment. One such system, RoboScout, Maryland’s entry in a competition run by the defense agency DARPA, would rapidly survey and assess injuries at sites of disasters or violence. The information RoboScout is designed to collect could help first responders prioritize medical care, a process called triage. The ambitious project, while in its early stages, is an innovative step toward autonomous systems to help as many people as possible survive such events.

Imagine diagnosing diseases with just a screenshot from your smartphone. Learn how Georgia State University Regents’ Professor of Physics Unil Perera is pioneering the future of personalized medicine.