Researchers at UC Davis have been awarded a $3 million National Science Foundation grant to develop new technologies and workforce training programs to grow plants in low-resource environments both on Earth and in space. 

A research team has successfully developed a novel platform for reconfigurable nonlinear optics based on ion-doped ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals (FNLCs). This allows for precise control over the phase, polarization, and amplitude of light waves through space-varying Pancharatnam-Berry phases, opening new possibilities for advanced optical processing and quantum information technologies.

A pioneering international project led by prominent female scientists, involving research staff from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and promoted by the Spanish Space Agency (AEE), has just completed its parabolic flight campaign in Bordeaux (France). Its main objective is to study and counteract the adverse effects of microgravity on the human body, a key challenge for future exploration of the Moon and Mars.

The Rosalind Franklin mission’s chance of finding evidence of past life on Mars has been boosted by two studies that show that the rover won’t have to travel far to find materials potentially laden with organic molecules. Instead, natural processes could bring those materials to the rover, as revealed in two separate presentations at the EPSC–DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki this week.

What happens when you hurl molecules faster than sound through a vacuum chamber nearly as cold as space itself? At the University of Missouri, researchers are finding out — and discovering new ways to detect molecules under extreme conditions.

Interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS that have been captured in planet-forming discs around young stars could become the seeds of giant planets, bypassing a hurdle that theoretical models have previously been unable to explain. Interstellar objects are asteroid- and comet-like bodies that have been ejected from their home system and now wander through interstellar space, occasionally encountering other star systems. Since 2017 astronomers have detected three interstellar objects passing through our Solar System: 1I/’Oumuamua, 2I/Borisov and most recently 3I/ATLAS, discovered in summer 2025. However, interstellar objects may be more influential than they at first appear to be, says Professor Susanne Pfalzner of Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, who presents her new findings on the subject at this week’s EPSC-DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki.