The Laureates of the prestigious 2026 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel are announced today by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and The New York Academy of Sciences.  Each Laureate will receive US$100,000 in prize money. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel are the largest unrestricted prizes available to scientists across Israel aged 42 or younger. Now in their ninth year in Israel, the Blavatnik Awards recognize research with the potential to transform lives, advance scientific understanding, and address global challenges across disciplines. The three Laureates are: Sergey N. Semenov, PhD, a chemist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Uri Ben-David, PhD, a cancer biologist at Tel Aviv University, and Paz Beniamini, PhD, an astrophysicist at the Open University of Israel.

Manganese dioxide can convert amino acids into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) without requiring methane, solving a long-standing puzzle about the origin of this key prebiotic molecule on early Earth, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Although HCN is central to origin-of-life theories, recent evidence suggests early Earth's atmosphere didn’t contain sufficient methane needed for classic HCN-producing reactions. The newly found chemical pathway shows that HCN could instead have been continuously supplied from abundant amino acids.

How does one plan a space mission that involves visiting multiple celestial bodies which are constantly moving? Researchers at Bielefeld University have, for the first time, developed a precise mathematical approach to this problem. The publication in a leading international journal demonstrates that decision-support methods at the interface between economics and mathematics can advance space travel and transport planning – with implications extending far beyond space missions.

JWST Observations: The James Webb Space Telescope analysed the rocky exoplanet LHS 3844 b, revealing a dark, hot surface without an atmosphere.

Surface Composition: The analysis indicates the planet's surface is likely composed of basalt or mantle rock, ruling out a composition similar to Earth's silicate-rich crust.

Geological Activity: The findings suggest that LHS 3844 b may have undergone prolonged geological inactivity, as no signs of volcanic gases were detected.

A team of astronomers led by UNSW Sydney have piloted a new method to find planets – and in the process, found 27 potential new worlds in double star systems.

Hypergravity experiments on fruit flies point to a surprising resilience in how the body responds to high gravitational environments like those experienced by fighter pilots or by astronauts upon reentry to Earth’s atmosphere.

A research team has developed a camera-only visual odometry (VO) system that uses prebuilt colored point cloud maps to deliver more accurate and robust localization with reduced drift in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-challenged environments.