Determining whether one variable truly causes another – rather than merely correlating with it – usually requires deliberate intervention experiments, which are often impossible in climate systems, neural circuits, or economies. Reporting in The Innovation, researchers led by Professors Wei Lin, Luonan Chen, and Kazuyuki Aihara introduce a theoretical framework called interventional dynamical causality (IntDC) together with a computational criterion, interventional embedding entropy (IEE). Built on delay-embedding state-space reconstruction, IEE quantifies the strength of intervention-level causal effects using observational time-series data alone – no manipulation of the system required. The method accurately removed confounding effects in benchmark simulations and successfully reconstructed the neural connectome of Caenorhabditis elegans, COVID-19 transmission networks in Japan, and circadian gene regulatory networks.

What does it mean to be alive? How could life adapt to places beyond Earth? Could intelligence and consciousness exist in ways we have not yet imagined?

The SETI Institute welcomes three international artists to its Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program: Amy Karle (USA), Dorotea Dolinšek (Slovenia), and Johannes Heldén (Sweden). These artists work in bioart, biotechnology, experimental poetry, and interactive media. Through collaborations with SETI Institute scientists, they will bring fresh creative perspectives to fundamental questions about life, intelligence and consciousness.

Each artist brings a unique approach to their work. Karle joins the Speculative Life: BioArt Residency. Dolinšek receives the new Catalyst Award for Transdisciplinary Research. Heldén joins the Cosmic Consciousness Literary Residency.

“Scientists and artists often ask the same fundamental questions, but approach them in very different ways,” said Dr. Bettina Forget, Director of the SETI Institute’s Artist-in-Residence program. “These three artists challenge us to think differently about what life might look like, how we might adapt to other worlds, and what intelligence and consciousness could mean beyond our own human experience. That’s what makes these collaborations so exciting.”

Scientists at the University of New Mexico have played a key role in identifying a rare, 4.1-billion-year-old Martian meteorite that provides new evidence that the Red Planet may have once had a wetter, Earth-like environment. The discovery, titled “A Martian meteorite that formed ≳4.1 billion years ago samples Mars' early crust and mantle” and published today in the Journal Science, provides an unprecedented look at Mars’ earliest geological history that could help guide future exploration of the planet.

SPOKANE, Wash. — When asteroids travel too close to white dwarfs, the dense remnants of stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel, powerful gravitational forces can tear them apart. However, new research from Planetary Science Institute (PSI) suggests that these asteroids don't immediately break into dust. Instead, most of the mass initially remains in larger fragments, revealing a previously overlooked step in how debris forms around dying stars.

Metallic materials used in extremely cold environments must maintain high strength, ductility and fracture toughness to support applications in aerospace, clean energy, superconducting systems and deep-space exploration. However, traditional alloys often suffer performance degradation at ultralow temperatures because of the long-standing trade-off among strength, ductility and toughness. Although metals may become stronger at lower temperatures, they can also become more brittle and prone to fracture. The sinking of the Titanic is a well-known historical event associated with low-temperature brittle failure. This vulnerability, known as “cold brittleness”, remains a bottleneck in the development of deep-sea and deep-space exploration technologies.

Why did volcanic activity continue on the Moon long after its formation? Part of the answer may lie deep beneath the lunar surface, where tidal forces could have generated concentrated regions of internal heating.

Virtual worlds are rapidly moving beyond gaming and entertainment into factories, hospitals and training environments. Yet one major challenge remains: ensuring that what happens in a virtual environment accurately reflects what is happening in the real world.

To address this challenge, the European research initiative VICTOR-XR, launched under Horizon Europe’s Cluster 4 – Digital, Industry and Space, within the HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-14 topic, brings together 16 partners from seven countries to develop a new generation of intelligent, human-centric Extended Reality (XR) technologies.

Over the next three years, VICTOR-XR will create technologies that continuously synchronise physical environments with their virtual counterparts using Digital Twins, multimodal sensing, and AI-powered cognitive assistants. By combining vision, speech, gaze tracking, biosignals and haptic feedback, the project aims to deliver immersive experiences that are more realistic, more responsive and ultimately more trustworthy.