A century after their discovery, cosmic rays—particles of extreme energy originating from the far reaches of the universe—remain a mystery to scientists. The DAMPE (Dark Matter Particle Explorer) space telescope is tackling this phenomenon, particularly investigating the role that dark matter may play in their formation. This international mission, which includes the University of Geneva (UNIGE), has made a major breakthrough by highlighting a universal feature of these particles. The results are published in the journal Nature.

30 April 2026 / Kiel / Mindelo. Tomorrow, fourteen Master’s students in the West African Master’s programme ‘Climate Change and Marine Sciences’ will begin their two-week training and research voyage aboard the research vessel POLARSTERN. Travelling from Mindelo in Cabo Verde to Bremerhaven, Germany, they will carry out physical, biogeochemical and biological measurements together with ten experienced scientists. This is the fourth time that the Floating University is taking place under the leadership of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. This initiative significantly contributes to the goals of the UN Decade of Ocean Science and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) as part of the WASCAL programme (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use).

University of Arizona researchers launched drones equipped with ground-penetrating radar over debris-covered glaciers in Alaska and Wyoming that resemble buried ice deposits found on Mars. The team successfully mapped the thickness of rocky debris covering the ice, showing that drone-based radar could one day help scientists locate and access subsurface ice on Mars.

A new study from UMD chemical physicists could lead to more stable quantum memory, safer fuel storage and an improved ability to measure comet temperatures in outer space. 

In cases involving serious criminal offenses, the police are permitted to conduct acoustic surveillance of telephones, private premises, or vehicles to record conversations of suspected offenders or to analyze chat communications. When criminal groups communicate in languages other than German, language mediators or so-called intercept interpreters-translators (IITs) are tasked with rendering the content into German. Their role extends beyond mere linguistic transfer to include the communication of additional information relevant to the investigation. The results of their work also serve as evidence in court proceedings. To ensure effective crime prevention and prosecution, the police, the prosecuting attorneys, and courts depend on precise intercept interpreting and translation. This is the very topic of the new research project on "Qualified language mediation for efficient forensic communication surveillance", QSEK for short, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space with around EUR 880,000 through its Validation of the Technological and Social Innovation Potential of Scientific Research (VIP+) program.

Astronomers now estimate there is at least one planet for every star in our galaxy. These worlds, called exoplanets, are planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. But new research from McMaster University reveals a surprising twist: the most common planets in our galaxy don’t exist around the most common stars.