A largely overlooked space between cells in women’s brains — called the extracellular matrix (ECM), which is highly abundant in the hippocampus — may hold the key to understanding memory loss tied to estrogen decline after menopause, reports a new preclinical Northwestern Medicine study. Scientists have traditionally focused on studying brain cells such as neurons and glial cells and have paid much less attention to the space between the cells. This is the first study to examine estrogen loss in the ECM. The findings provide new insight into how estrogen loss may affect the aging female brain and could help explain why women are at higher risk for AD. These findings suggest a possible new treatment approach focused on restoring the brain’s supportive environment — the ECM — to help protect memory and fight this devastating disease.

Scientists from Israel and Germany have completed integration and testing of the first nanosatellite in the CloudCT network, an innovative space mission designed to improve climate predictions through three-dimensional imaging of clouds. The satellite is scheduled for launch from California in June 2026, with ten additional satellites planned for 2027 if the precursor mission succeeds.

Led by Prof. Ilan Koren of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Prof. Yoav Schechner of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and Prof. Klaus Schilling of Zentrum für Telematik, the project introduces a novel cloud observation method inspired by computed tomography (CT) used in medicine. The system combines simultaneous multi-angle satellite imaging, polarization-sensitive cameras, and AI-based analysis to reconstruct the internal structure and microphysical properties of clouds in unprecedented detail.

Researchers say the mission addresses major uncertainties in climate and weather modeling by capturing small cloud formations that are difficult to observe with existing remote-sensing technologies. The miniature precursor satellite weighs about 4 kilograms and must autonomously orient itself toward target clouds with extremely high precision.

The project was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant.

When a front tooth has been root-treated and has lost a large portion of its original structure, restoring it is one of dentistry's more demanding challenges. The traditional approach involves inserting a post down into the root canal, building up a core on top of it, and then placing a crown — a technique that works but requires removing further tooth material, sometimes weakening what little remains and raising the risk of a root fracture that cannot be repaired. A newer, less invasive option called an endocrown skips the post altogether, drawing its hold entirely from the pulp chamber — the hollow space left after root canal treatment — and covering the tooth with a single ceramic restoration.

A large-scale study of human mobility and wildlife movement across the United States suggests that the day-to-day presence of humans – not just how they alter the landscape – is a major ecological force that shapes how animals move through and use their environments, researchers report. Human activity is accelerating global biodiversity loss by transforming climates and rapidly reshaping natural landscapes. Yet beyond these physical alterations of the environment, there is a growing recognition that the direct presence of humans themselves may greatly influence how animals behave, including how they perceive risk, move through their habitats, compete for resources, and interact with other species. Despite this, large-scale comparative research has rarely examined human presence as a distinct and dynamic pressure on wildlife, largely due to the fact that detailed data on where and when people move are difficult to obtain. Most existing studies have focused on local settings or broad proxies of human presence, such as pandemic-related lockdowns, and have concentrated largely on mammals. As a result, relatively little is known about how interacting forms of human activity and presence combine to affect wildlife.

 

To address this gap, Ruth Oliver and colleagues combined data on numbers of mobile devices and vehicles in each U.S. census block as a measure of human presence, along with detailed measures of human landscape modification, with animal tracking data from more than 4,500 birds and mammals representing 37 species. By centering their study on the years 2019 and 2020 and leveraging the unique, temporary decline of human movement in modified landscapes during the COVID-19 pandemic, Oliver et al. were able to disentangle the direct effects of human activity from the broader impacts of landscape change and evaluate how each factor influenced the amount of space animals used. According to the findings, direct human presence influenced the movement patterns or use of the environment of 65% of species examined. Many mammals reduced the amount of territory they used in response to greater human activity, particularly in less-developed habitats where animals may perceive humans as a threat. On the other hand, some species, like gray wolves, expanded their ranges, likely to better avoid people. Adaptable species such as white-tailed deer appeared more comfortable incorporating human-modified environments into their usable habitats. Birds likewise showed highly variable responses, with some species becoming more spatially constrained and others altering their habitat use depending on the surrounding degree of development. In a related Perspective, Lydia Beaudrot discusses the study and its findings in greater detail.