Welcome to In the Spotlight, where each month we shine a light on something exciting, timely, or simply fascinating from the world of science.

This month, we’re focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), a topic that continues to capture attention everywhere. Here, you’ll find the latest research news, insights, and discoveries shaping how AI is being developed and used across the world.

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 29-Dec-2025 12:11 ET (29-Dec-2025 17:11 GMT/UTC)

29-Jul-2025

With no need for sleep or food, AI-built ‘scientists’ get the job done quickly

Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco and Stanford University have developed an AI-driven Virtual Lab through which a team of AI agents, each equipped with varied scientific expertise, can tackle sophisticated and open-ended scientific problems by formulating, refining, and carrying out a complex research strategy — these agents can even conduct virtual experiments, producing results that can be validated in real-life laboratories.

Journal

Nature

29-Jul-2025

Designing drones that can fly in air ducts

Inria Nancy-Grand Est
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research published in npj Robotics addresses the challenge of flying small quadrotors in air ducts as small as 35 cm (14 inches). This research, led by a team of researchers from Inria, CNRS, Université de Lorraine, and Aix-Marseille Université, opens a new way of accessing and inspecting highly-confined environments.

Journal

npj Robotics

Funder

Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRIA), CNRS, Université de Lorraine

29-Jul-2025

Researchers advocate for separate roles between AI and humans

Radiological Society of North America
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Renowned physician-scientist Eric J. Topol, M.D., and Harvard artificial intelligence (AI) expert Pranav Rajpurkar, Ph.D., advocate for a clear separation of the roles between AI systems and radiologists in an editorial published today.

Journal

Radiology

29-Jul-2025

AI catches one-third of interval breast cancers missed at screening

Radiological Society of North America
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An AI algorithm for breast cancer screening has potential to enhance the performance of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), reducing interval cancers by up to one-third, according to a new study.

Journal

Radiology

29-Jul-2025

Research improves accuracy of climate models – particularly for extreme events

North Carolina State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have devised a new machine learning method to improve large-scale climate model projections and demonstrated that the new tool makes the models more accurate at both the global and regional level. This advance should provide policymakers with improved climate projections that can be used to inform policy and planning decisions.

Journal

Scientific Data

Funder

U.S. National Science Foundation

29-Jul-2025

How to survive the explosion of AI slop

PNAS Nexus
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a Perspective, Hany Farid highlights the risk of manipulated and fraudulent images and videos, known as deepfakes, and explores interventions that could mitigate the harms deepfakes can cause.

Journal

PNAS Nexus

29-Jul-2025

How tiny fossils are leading to smarter robots

North Carolina State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A technique used to help autonomous robots sort tiny marine fossils could pave the way for a host of additional applications.

Journal

Marine Micropaleontology

Funder

U.S. National Science Foundation