A trip to Mars may be more feasible than previously thought, suggests a new study led by Northwestern Medicine, UT Southwestern and UT Houston that tracked the heart function of 13 astronauts during roughly six-month missions aboard the International Space Station.

Skeletal muscles grow and regenerate as individual precursor cells – called myoblasts – fuse into long fibers from which mature muscle fibers develop. How they coordinate this process and form functional muscles is not yet fully understood. A research team at the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM) has now shown that mechanical stress influences the fusion of muscle cells. The results, published in Nature Communications, reveal an interaction between the organization of muscle cells, the surrounding intercellular space, mechanical stress, and muscle growth.

A PhD student at the University of Sydney has produced the first comprehensive classification system and map of Martian soils, creating a new framework that could help scientists compare landscapes across the Red Planet and identify promising locations for future exploration, habitation and food production.  

A new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) provides the most comprehensive observational analysis yet of the towering ice cliffs that fringe Earth's ice sheets, giving scientists new evidence to evaluate a long-debated process that could influence future sea level rise. Improving these projections is increasingly important as rising seas threaten coastal communities and infrastructure worldwide.

On 15 October 2026, 250 scientists and representatives from leading research institutions around the world celebrated the inauguration of the Large-Sized Telescope (LST) sub-array at the CTAO-North site at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Spain. The completion of the four telescopes marks a significant milestone for the global astrophysics community and represents a crucial step toward the full scientific operation of what will be the world's most powerful observatory for gamma-ray astronomy, the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO).

A new research paper was published in Volume 18 of Aging on Sept. 16, 2026, titled “Control theory of aging and longevity for gerotherapeutic drug discovery: state space, vector fields, modalities, safety, and the minimum safe cost of functional restoration.”

University of Warwick astronomers have shown that white dwarf stars can glow in a remarkable range of colours, including the first star ever found that would appear green to the human eye.