Tree shade is one of the fastest ways to make heat more bearable. It cuts direct sunlight, protects people walking or working outdoors, and remains essential for Heat Action Plans. A new study, published in Nature Communications by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), adds a sharper planning question: if greening is so important, why does the same strategy cool some urban areas more reliably than others?

Scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and Helmholtz Munich have developed RegVelo, a new AI framework that predicts how cells acquire their identities and identifies the genetic regulators guiding those changes. Published in Cell, the study used zebrafish neural crest development to show RegVelo can uncover early drivers of cell fate, including regulators of pigment cell formation, and then support those predictions experimentally. The researchers also applied the framework across multiple biological systems, suggesting its value extends beyond neural crest cells as a broadly useful tool for studying how cells change over time. The team says the new model could pave the way for future cell therapy treatments.

Researchers at Technische Universität Berlin have discovered that teaching Large Language Models (LLMs) to mimic human intuition and reasoning significantly improves their ability to provide accurate medical care-seeking advice.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgeries are abdominal or pelvic surgeries that use a small camera inserted through a small incision, and photoacoustic imaging directs lasers deep into the tissue, which absorbs the light and produces sound waves. These sound waves can be picked up by ultrasensitive microphones and used to pinpoint subsurface structures like blood vessels and nerve bundles. Kai Zhang will present his work integrating photoacoustic imaging into robot-assisted surgeries as part of the 190th ASA Meeting.