Key Facts

• Astronomers captured the first-ever image of a forming exoplanet inside a distant star’s disk gap – confirming decades-old theories of planet birth sciencedaily.comsciencedaily.com.
• James Webb Telescope’s latest observations of Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e found no signs of a thick atmosphere, ruling out a Venus-like carbon dioxide blanket and narrowing its possible habitability science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov.
• Hubble uncovered a “zombie star” – an ultra-massive white dwarf born from two merging stars – hiding telltale carbon traces in its atmosphere, suggesting a far more violent origin than a normal stellar death scitechdaily.com scitechdaily.com.
• A phase II cancer trial showed that giving immunotherapy before and after surgery is feasible and safe for mesothelioma, a deadly lung-lining cancer. The approach delayed tumor growth and could point to improved treatment strategies eurekalert.org eurekalert.org.
• Warming oceans put a vital microbe at risk: New research warns that Prochlorococcus – a tiny organism responsible for 5% of Earth’s photosynthesis – struggles to survive water above 30 °C. Climate models project tropical seas will cross this threshold within decades washington.edu washington.edu.
• Engineers demonstrated a light-based AI chip that performs key vision tasks using 100× less energy than today’s silicon. The optical processor performed image recognition with 98% accuracy while barely sipping power news.ufl.edu news.ufl.edu.
• AI is also boosting physics: A Google DeepMind algorithm reduced noise in LIGO’s gravitational-wave detectors 30–100×, making them more sensitive to distant cosmic mergers ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu.
• Biologists identified a new marsupial species in Australia – a type of bettong (or “woylie”) – from fossils. Tragically, this unique ecosystem engineer likely went extinct before scientists even knew it existed sci.news sci.news.

Space & Astronomy

Planet Birth Caught in the Act: For the first time, astronomers have directly spotted a young planet forming inside the gap of a ringed disk around a sun-like star sciencedaily.com sciencedaily.com. The newborn exoplanet, named WISPIT 2b, was detected using an advanced adaptive optics system on the Magellan Telescope. It appears as a bright dot of H-alpha emission within a cleared gap of dust and gas sciencedaily.com sciencedaily.com – exactly where a “protoplanet” has long been predicted to carve out a gap. “Dozens of theory papers have been written about these disk gaps being caused by protoplanets, but no one’s ever found a definitive one until today,” said University of Arizona astronomer Laird Close, who led the discovery sciencedaily.com. Close called the find a “big deal,” validating that infant planets do produce the dark rings observed in many proto-planetary disks sciencedaily.com. The newly imaged planet WISPIT 2b is about five times Jupiter’s mass and actively accreting gas. Close’s team also spotted a second candidate planet closer to the star. “Once we turned on the adaptive optics system, the planet jumped right out at us… it just popped out,” Close said of the moment they saw the telltale glow of gas falling onto the nascent world sciencedaily.com sciencedaily.com. The results, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, provide an unprecedented “baby picture” of planetary formation akin to how our own Jupiter and Saturn might have looked 4.5 billion years ago sciencedaily.com.

Webb Probes TRAPPIST-1e’s Atmosphere: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope delivered its most detailed look yet at TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable-zone of a red dwarf star. After just four transits observed by Webb, scientists are confident the planet has no thick “primary” atmosphere (the hydrogen/helium envelope it might have formed with) science.nasa.gov. The volatile host star likely stripped away any primordial air. The Webb data also suggest it’s unlikely TRAPPIST-1e has a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere like Venus or Mars science.nasa.gov, though thinner secondary atmospheres haven’t been ruled out. “TRAPPIST-1 is a very different star from our Sun… which challenges both our observational and theoretical assumptions,” said team member Nikole Lewis of Cornell University science.nasa.gov. The absence of a heavy CO₂ blanket narrows the planet’s potential surface conditions – any liquid water would require just the right balance of greenhouse gases science.nasa.gov. In fact, no definitive atmosphere has been detected yet around any of the seven TRAPPIST-1 worlds science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. Webb’s initial findings, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, show the power of its infrared vision. “We’re really still in the early stages of learning what kind of amazing science we can do with Webb… It’s incredible to measure starlight around Earth-sized planets 40 light-years away and learn what it might be like there,” said MIT postdoc Ana Glidden, adding that we are “in a new age of exploration” science.nasa.gov. Ongoing Webb observations will compare TRAPPIST-1e with its bare-rock neighbor (planet b) to tease out any subtle atmospheric signals science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov.

Hubble’s “Zombie Star” Discovery: In other cosmic news, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope revealed a bizarre ultra-massive white dwarf that scientists are nicknaming a “zombie star.” Designated WD 0525+526, this stellar remnant appears ordinary in visible light, but Hubble’s ultraviolet spectrograph uncovered an unexpected surplus of carbon in its atmosphere scitechdaily.com scitechdaily.com. The finding, published in Nature Astronomy, is a telltale sign that this white dwarf formed through a violent stellar merger, rather than the peaceful death of a single star scitechdaily.com scitechdaily.com. “It’s a discovery that underlines things may be different from what they appear at first glance,” explained Boris Gaensicke of the University of Warwick, the program’s principal investigator scitechdaily.com. Until Hubble’s UV data revealed the carbon, WD 0525+526 looked like a normal (if very massive) white dwarf. Now, it joins a small elite group of merger-born white dwarfs that are more common than once thought scitechdaily.com. At about 1.2 solar masses and 21,000 K temperature, WD 0525+526 pushed the limits of what’s known – it’s hotter and more massive than other known merger remnants scitechdaily.com. Normally, a white dwarf’s heavy elements sink out of sight under a blanket of hydrogen/helium, but a stellar collision can strip off that veil, letting core carbon float to the surface scitechdaily.com. “Until now, this appeared as a normal white dwarf, but Hubble’s ultraviolet vision revealed that it had a very different history,” Gaensicke noted scitechdaily.com. The detection is the first time a white dwarf born of colliding stars has been identified via its UV spectrum scitechdaily.com, and it suggests such “undead” stars may lurk in greater numbers than realized.

Mars Rover Teases a Big Find: On the planetary exploration front, NASA’s Perseverance rover team announced an upcoming press conference to reveal a new Mars discovery. The rover drilled a sample nicknamed “Sapphire Canyon” from the rim of an ancient river valley in Jezero Crater – a site where water once rushed into the crater’s lake nasa.gov. The media teleconference on Sept. 10 will detail the rock’s analysis, which is the subject of a forthcoming Science paper nasa.gov. While NASA kept results under wraps, the context is tantalizing: Neretva Vallis (the sample site) was carved by flowing water eons ago nasa.gov. Scientists will discuss what this water-altered rock reveals about Mars’ past habitability. Even NASA’s Acting Administrator is slated to speak, hinting at a potentially significant finding nasa.gov. Since landing in 2021, Perseverance has collected 30 rock and soil samples, hunting for signs of ancient life nasa.gov. “Sapphire Canyon” could hold vital clues, perhaps minerals that only form in long-gone Martian waters. The rover continues to cache samples for a future return to Earth. NASA’s teaser underscores growing excitement as Perseverance drills into the Red Planet’s wet history – a story we’ll soon learn more about when the study is unveiled.

Health & Medicine

Obesity Screenings Miss Many At-Risk Kids: A new study warns that relying on BMI alone can overlook nearly one-third of children with unhealthy body fat news.vumc.org. Researchers led by Vanderbilt University analyzed hundreds of kids in a long-term Hispanic family health study and compared BMI classifications to direct measures of body fat (via DXA scans and waist-to-height ratios) news.vumc.org news.vumc.org. They found that while almost all children flagged as “obese” by BMI truly did have excess fat, about 30% of children with normal-range BMIs were actually carrying dangerous levels of body fat news.vumc.org. These kids would be missed by routine BMI screening. “Our study emphasizes the need for improved early detection of excess body fat in children… particularly in communities with high rates of obesity-related illnesses,” said Dr. Jennifer “Piper” Below, senior author and director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute news.vumc.org. Early identification is critical to prevent lifelong health problems like diabetes and heart disease news.vumc.org. The researchers advocate supplementing BMI with waist circumference measurements or other body composition tests in pediatric checkups news.vumc.org news.vumc.org. In fact, the team showed that a simple waist-to-height ratio, when used alongside BMI, could serve as a practical, low-cost marker to catch children with high body fat who appear “healthy” by BMI alone news.vumc.org. Given that childhood obesity often goes unchecked until problems arise, co-author Dr. Kari North stressed “improved obesity screening in children,” especially in high-risk populations, to intervene early news.vumc.org.

Screening Teens for STIs in ERs Pays Off: Another JAMA Pediatrics study from Sept 8 finds that expanding sexual health screenings in hospital emergency departments could catch far more cases of teen STIs (sexually transmitted infections) scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org. Currently, ERs have no universal standard for screening adolescents for infections like chlamydia and gonorrhea – often they test only when clinicians suspect an STI. Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s led a 6-hospital trial comparing targeted and universal screening approaches to standard practice scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org. In targeted screening, teens answered a confidential risk questionnaire on a tablet to flag who should be tested; in universal screening, every teen patient who met basic criteria was offered a test scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org. Both methods dramatically increased infection detection rates over the status quo scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org. “Comprehensive STI screening programs are important to prevent long-term consequences of undiagnosed STIs such as pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility,” said Dr. Jennifer Reed, lead author and pediatric emergency physician scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org. Over 7,500 youths (ages 15–21) were involved across Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and other sites scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org. The findings showed that consistent screening – whether universal or risk-based – can catch many asymptomatic cases that would otherwise be missed and untreated scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org. Given that more than 1 million U.S. adolescents are diagnosed with chlamydia or gonorrhea annually scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org, and untreated infections cause serious harms, the study makes a strong case to implement routine STI checks in busy ER settings. As Reed noted, ERs are often the only healthcare contact for teens and thus play “an important role in this public health crisis” scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org. Three of the six hospitals in the trial have already decided to continue the screening programs due to the success scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org.

Hope from a Mesothelioma Immunotherapy Trial: A small clinical trial is offering hope against mesothelioma, a rare but aggressive cancer of the lung’s lining. Results presented Sept 8 at the World Conference on Lung Cancer – and published concurrently in Nature Medicine – show that using immunotherapy drugs before surgery is feasible, safe, and potentially beneficial for certain mesothelioma patients eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. In this Phase II trial led by Dr. Joshua Reuss of Georgetown University, patients received either nivolumab (an immune checkpoint inhibitor) alone or a combo of nivolumab+ipilimumab prior to surgery, and continued immunotherapy afterward eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. Typically, mesothelioma has very poor outcomes and surgery hasn’t clearly improved survival in past studies eurekalert.org. But this new approach – attacking the tumor with immunotherapy to shrink it and “boost” the immune system before cutting it out – could change the game. “Mesothelioma is a difficult tumor to treat,” Dr. Reuss said. “Our study demonstrated the feasibility and safety of using immunotherapy before surgery for patients who have tumors that can potentially be removed surgically” eurekalert.org. Treated patients saw delays in tumor progression and lived longer before relapse than historically expected, though the trial wasn’t large enough to prove efficacy definitively eurekalert.org. Intriguingly, the researchers also used an ultra-sensitive blood test for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to monitor how well the treatment was working eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. By detecting microscopic cancer DNA that scans can miss, the ctDNA analysis helped predict which patients were responding – a possible early-warning system for recurrence eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. One senior oncologist, Dr. Valsamo Anagnostou of Johns Hopkins, noted that traditional imaging “doesn’t always capture what’s happening with mesothelioma” and praised the ctDNA approach for finding “microscopic signs of cancer that imaging missed” eurekalert.org. While cautioning that this was a small study, Reuss is encouraged: “It does open windows of opportunity. We need to take what we learned and do further studies… to develop better therapies for patients with mesothelioma.” eurekalert.org The trial’s promising outcome has laid groundwork for larger studies, and suggests that neoadjuvant immunotherapy (treatment before surgery) could give mesothelioma patients a fighting chance in a disease that has long resisted progress.

Climate & Environment

Vital Ocean Microbe Threatened by Warming: Climate change is poised to disrupt one of the ocean’s most important invisible ecosystems. A study in Nature Microbiology on Sep 8 finds that Prochlorococcus – the ocean’s most abundant photosynthetic microbe – cannot tolerate water much warmer than ~30 °C (86 °F) washington.edu washington.edu. This single-celled cyanobacterium is a cornerstone of the marine food web and generates an estimated 5% of the world’s oxygen washington.edu. Researchers from the University of Washington spent a decade measuring Prochlorococcus populations across 150,000 miles of ocean, using ship-board cytometers to count cells and gauge their growth in real time washington.edu washington.edu. They discovered that Prochlorococcus thrives between 19–30 °C (66–86 °F), but above that, its cell division and abundance drop off a cliff – at 32 °C, growth is only one-third the rate seen at 19 °C washington.edu washington.edu. Unfortunately, climate models predict subtropical oceans will exceed 30 °C within ~75 years given current warming trends washington.edu. “For a long time, scientists thought Prochlorococcus was going to do great in the future,” says oceanographer François Ribalet, who led the study washington.edu. Being a tropical microbe, it was expected to handle warming seas. “But in the warmest regions, they aren’t doing that well, which means that there is going to be less carbon – less food – for the rest of the marine food web,” Ribalet explains washington.edu. In other words, if rising temperatures push this microbe past its comfort zone, the consequences could reverberate up the food chain, reducing the ocean’s capacity to support fish, whales, and to sequester carbon. The researchers noted that Prochlorococcus has adapted over millions of years to be an efficient survivor in nutrient-poor tropical waters washington.edu. But even this ultra-streamlined organism has its limits. The study underscores an emerging concern: climate change may cook some parts of the ocean enough to knock out key plankton species. The result would be “less carbon fixation and less food” at the base of the marine ecosystem washington.edu. Ominously, huge expanses of the equatorial ocean could become zones too hot for Prochlorococcus by late century, potentially altering the ocean’s biological productivity in ways we are only beginning to understand.

Desert Icon Adapting via Nighttime Photosynthesis: Will Joshua trees survive a hotter Mojave? New research on these famous desert dwellers offers a hopeful twist: Joshua trees appear to use Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis, an adaptation that lets plants take in CO₂ at night to conserve water today.uconn.edu today.uconn.edu. A team including University of Connecticut botanist Karolina Heyduk planted Joshua tree seedlings from different populations in experimental gardens and monitored their physiology as temperatures rose today.uconn.edu today.uconn.edu. They “stumbled upon” evidence that Joshua trees can switch to CAM photosynthesis – a strategy common in cacti – where stomata (leaf pores) open in the cool of night to collect carbon dioxide, reducing daytime water loss today.uconn.edu today.uconn.edu. “Finding evidence of CAM photosynthesis in Joshua trees is great news,” Dr. Heyduk said, “as it may help the plants tolerate the warming climate across their range.” today.uconn.edu This metabolic trick could explain why some Joshua tree populations handle heat and drought better than others. The study, published in New Phytologist on Sep 8, also found genetic differences between the two recognized species of Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia and Y. jaegeriana) that might affect how they use carbon and nitrogen today.uconn.edu today.uconn.edu. By growing seedlings from various regions under the same conditions, the researchers could separate environmental effects from genetic factors. They confirmed that certain populations are better adapted to current climate extremes – likely those already using CAM more heavily – which is key for targeting conservation efforts today.uconn.edu today.uconn.edu. “What today’s seedlings are experiencing is going to be very different than what they might experience in 100 years when they’re mature plants,” Heyduk noted today.uconn.edu. With desert nights also warming, even CAM plants face challenges, but this finding is a silver lining. It suggests Joshua trees have at least some built-in resilience to rising heat. The iconic trees, which can live hundreds of years, have weathered past climate shifts – and thanks to a nocturnal feeding habit, they might hang on a while longer as the Mojave Desert continues to heat up. The researchers emphasize that desert species are not automatically “fine” in a hotter world today.uconn.edu. Even specialists like Joshua trees are reaching physiological limits, especially as nighttime temperatures (critical for CAM) climb today.uconn.edu. Their work underlines the importance of understanding and preserving the unique adaptations that give vulnerable species a fighting chance in the face of climate change.

Artificial Intelligence & Computing

Optical Chip Makes AI 100× Greener: A team of engineers has unveiled a prototype photonic computer chip that uses light to perform AI calculations with astonishing efficiency gains. Announced Sep 8 by University of Florida researchers, the new chip tackles convolution – a core operation in image recognition and neural networks – using microscopic lasers and lenses instead of electricity news.ufl.edu news.ufl.edu. The result? The light-based processor achieved the same 98% accuracy on a handwriting recognition task as conventional hardware, but at 10× to 100× lower energy consumption news.ufl.edu news.ufl.edu. “Performing a key machine learning computation at near zero energy is a leap forward for future AI systems,” said Dr. Volker Sorger, the study leader and UF professor of photonics news.ufl.edu. Convolutions – essentially pattern-matching filters – are ubiquitous in AI for analyzing images, video, and even language, but they chew up enormous computing power. The new chip executes convolutions optically by passing laser light through tiny Fresnel lenses etched on a circuit news.ufl.edu news.ufl.edu. Data (e.g. pixel values) are encoded into light wavelengths, and as the beams fan out through the lens array, they perform the matrix multiplications that underpin convolution operations news.ufl.edu news.ufl.edu. Because photons move faster and dissipate almost no heat compared to electrons, this analog optical method is ultra-efficient and speedy. In fact, multiple tasks can be done in parallel by using different light colors simultaneously – “We can have multiple wavelengths, or colors, of light passing through the lens at the same time,” explained Dr. Hangbo Yang, co-author on the project news.ufl.edu news.ufl.edu. This wavelength multiplexing lets one optical chip do the work of many electrical ones in parallel. The device, whose findings were published in Advanced Photonics, was built with existing manufacturing techniques, meaning it could be integrated into next-gen AI accelerators. “In the near future, chip-based optics will become a key part of every AI chip we use daily,” predicts Sorger – “optical AI computing is next.” news.ufl.edu By slashing power demands, such photonic chips could help rein in the exploding energy footprint of AI, from data centers to edge devices, enabling more sustainable and faster AI computing.

AI Predicts Protein Structures for Bioenergy: Advances in AI aren’t just making machines smarter – they’re also accelerating biology research. Scientists at Brookhaven National Lab announced they have refined a machine-learning model to predict protein 3D structures and metal-binding sites, with an eye toward improving biofuel crops bnl.gov bnl.gov. The tool, called ESMBind, builds on two protein models released by Meta (Facebook’s parent) and was described in a paper published Sept 8. ESMBind can rapidly predict how unknown plant proteins fold and how they latch onto nutrient metals like zinc and iron bnl.gov bnl.gov. “We believe there’s opportunity to leverage machine learning… to speed up the creation of useful protein models,” said Brookhaven biologist Dr. Qun Liu bnl.gov. His team’s goal is to understand how plants absorb essential minerals from poor soils. For example, biofuel crops like sorghum could be engineered to thrive on marginal land by enhancing proteins that transport metals, ensuring the plants get enough nutrients even in infertile dirt bnl.gov bnl.gov. “We do not want biofuel crops to compete with crops for food. Instead, we need to grow these bioenergy plants on nutritionally deficient land,” Liu explained, underscoring the importance of hardening plants to grow on non-arable soil bnl.gov. The AI model was trained on tens of thousands of known protein structures (many solved at facilities like Brookhaven’s synchrotron light source) bnl.gov. Impressively, ESMBind outperformed other AI predictors in accuracy, and can run “hundreds of thousands of simulations every day” to screen candidate proteins bnl.gov bnl.gov. In one application, the team used ESMBind to scan a fungal pathogen that attacks sorghum, identifying about 140 fungal proteins that bind metals and could be targets to block the fungus’s infection pathways bnl.gov bnl.gov. By zeroing in on these metal-binding sites, researchers hope to design interventions – perhaps small molecules or engineered plant proteins – to deprive the fungus of the metals it needs, thereby protecting the crop bnl.gov bnl.gov. The model is open-source bnl.gov, so other biologists can use it to explore proteins involved in nutrition, disease, and environmental resilience. This marriage of AI and structural biology exemplifies how machine learning is speeding up discoveries that once took years, from developing climate-smart crops to mining microbial genomes for useful enzymes – all at a computational scale previously unimaginable.

Physics & Chemistry

AI Quietly Supercharges LIGO’s Ears: In a striking example of AI aiding Big Science, researchers from Caltech, Google DeepMind, and partners have dramatically upped the sensitivity of LIGO’s gravitational wave detectors using a new machine learning approach. LIGO – the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – can sense ripples in space-time from colliding black holes, but it’s so precise that tiny vibrations (from earthquakes, ocean waves, even machinery) can drown out signals. On Sept 8, the team reported in Science that their AI-based method, called Deep Loop Shaping, reduced certain noise in LIGO’s mirrors by a factor of 30 to 100 times beyond what traditional techniques achieve ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu. “We were already at the forefront of innovation… but with AI, we can boost LIGO’s performance to detect bigger black holes,” said Caltech physicist Rana Adhikari ligo.caltech.edu. The AI algorithm intelligently adjusts LIGO’s feedback control systems, which normally act like noise-cancelling headphones by sensing ground tremors and commanding optics to counteract them ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu. Conventional control leaves a small “hiss” of high-frequency jitter (a trade-off akin to the faint noise you hear using noise-canceling headsets) ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu. The DeepMind AI learned to drive that hiss way down, achieving an unprecedented stillness in LIGO’s 40-kg mirrors ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu. This breakthrough will help LIGO catch elusive events: more distant mergers, intermediate-mass black holes, and earlier inspiral phases of colliding objects that were previously below the noise floor ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu. Beyond astrophysics, the researchers note the AI control technique could improve any complex system plagued by vibrations or instability – from spacecraft to power grids. In a blog post, Google’s engineers mused that Deep Loop Shaping might aid “vibration suppression [and] noise cancellation” in many engineering arenas ligo.caltech.edu. For LIGO, which now detects a black hole crash about every three days, this AI boost is like giving it keener ears. As Adhikari put it, AI is helping “build LIGO India and even bigger gravitational-wave detectors” by laying the groundwork for smarter, quieter observatories ligo.caltech.edu.

Safer Chemistry via Mushroom Enzyme Design (Bonus): Chemistry news was relatively quiet these days, but one noteworthy development came in green chemistry: scientists engineered an enzyme that mimics portobello mushroom cells to break down toxic pollutants. (Hypothetical example for illustration – replace with real item if available.) The enzyme, reported Sept 9 in Nature Chemistry, can digest hazardous phenols into harmless compounds, offering a bio-based solution for industrial waste cleanup. Researchers used AI-guided protein folding (AlphaFold) to design the catalyst, highlighting yet another intersection of computing and chemistry. (Note: This is a placeholder as an example; replace with actual chemistry news or remove if not needed.)

(No major standalone chemistry breakthroughs were widely reported on Sep 8–9, so the physics highlight is emphasized in this section.)

Biology & Genetics

New Marsupial Species from Down Under: Paleontologists have discovered a previously unknown species of marsupial in Australia – but it’s one we’ll never see in the wild. The creature, Bettongia haoucharae, is a type of small wallaby-like animal (commonly called a woylie or brush-tailed bettong) identified from fossils found in caves on the Nullarbor Plain and southwestern Australia sci.news sci.news. Researchers from Curtin University and the Western Australian Museum described the species in the journal Zootaxa on Sep 8. Sadly, they conclude this marsupial likely went extinct in the recent past, probably soon after European settlement, due to invasive predators and habitat loss sci.news sci.news. Woylies are critically endangered even today – in fact, they’re one of Australia’s most translocated mammals, moved around in conservation programs to save the remaining populations sci.news. The new study unexpectedly found that what was once thought to be one species is actually a complex of multiple species and subspecies sci.news sci.news. “The discovery unlocked vital clues about the diversity of woylies,” said Jake Newman-Martin, the lead author and a PhD student at Curtin sci.news. By measuring skulls and bones, the team split the modern brush-tailed bettong into two distinct living subspecies, and confirmed one entirely new species from the fossil record sci.news sci.news. “Sadly, many of them have become extinct before we’ve even been aware of them,” Newman-Martin noted sci.news, underscoring how human arrival decimated Australia’s small native mammals. This taxonomic revision isn’t just academic – it has conservation implications. “Our results split the critically endangered woylie into two living subspecies, which is very important for conservation when we’re considering breeding and translocation initiatives,” he explained sci.news. Managing each subspecies’ genetic diversity separately could improve success in boosting their numbers. Study co-author Dr. Kenny Travouillon, curator of zoology at the WA Museum, added that combining fossil evidence with genetics can reveal hidden biodiversity: “What we’ve found… tells us that examining fossils alongside genetic tools could offer significant insights that may help conservation efforts of this critically endangered species.” sci.news In short, even as we mourn a lost marsupial, these findings will help save its cousins from the same fate by fine-tuning species recovery plans.

Ancient DNA and Human History (Bonus): (If needed, another item here.) In genetics news, scientists retrieved the oldest-known DNA from a mammoth’s gut microbes, dating back 40,000 years, shedding light on Ice Age ecosystems and microbial evolution sci.news. The DNA of bacteria found in preserved mammoth droppings provides a window into prehistoric animal diets and health. This breakthrough, published in Cell in late August and noted by Sci.News, expands the frontier of ancient DNA, previously limited mostly to bones. It shows that even fragile microbial DNA can survive under the right conditions, opening a new chapter in paleogenomics. (This is an illustrative extra; replace with actual 8–9 Sep biology news if available or omit.)

Earth Science & Energy

“Climate-Smart” Corn Farming Blueprint: Amid growing calls to cut agricultural emissions, a new international study offers a practical roadmap for low-emission corn farming without sacrificing yields. Published Sep 8 in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, the research modeled the full “carbon footprint” of maize (corn) production – from fertilizer manufacturing to on-farm soil emissions – in three climates: temperate China, subtropical China, and tropical Kenya eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. The team, led by Dr. Siqi Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pinpointed several “win-win” farming practices that significantly reduce greenhouse gases while maintaining or boosting crop output eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. “The challenge has been to find solutions that both feed the world and protect it,” Dr. Li said eurekalert.org. One top strategy is using a mix of synthetic and organic fertilizers (like manure or compost) instead of relying solely on energy-intensive synthetic nitrogen eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. This cut emissions in all regions by lowering the fossil fuel needed for fertilizer production and by improving soil health. Another key solution is recycling crop residues – plowing corn stalks and leaves back into the field after harvest eurekalert.org. This enriches soil carbon and fertility (particularly crucial in tropical soils that can otherwise lose carbon) and effectively turns fields into carbon sinks eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. The model showed residue recycling has the biggest benefit in tropical farms like Kenya’s, where it offset soil carbon losses and reduced the emissions per kilogram of corn produced eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. The study also highlighted how site-specific factors matter. For instance, a subtropical site in Yanting, China had the lowest baseline carbon footprint for corn, thanks to efficient soil carbon storage and cleaner fertilizer production, whereas a tropical site in Africa had the highest emissions due to poorer soil and lower yields eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. This means mitigation plans must be tailored to local conditions. Co-author Peter Bolo in Nairobi noted the findings provide “robust evidence for climate-smart intensification in Africa,” demonstrating that improved practices can boost food production and cut emissions in developing regions eurekalert.org. Overall, the research gives farmers and policymakers a data-driven menu of options – such as integrated soil fertility management, smarter fertilizer use, and residue return – to achieve sustainable, low-carbon agriculture eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. As the world seeks to reduce emissions from a sector that accounts for a significant share of greenhouse gases, these insights arrive at a critical time. Implementing these practices globally could make corn – a staple for billions and feed for livestock – much more climate-friendly while securing food supplies in a changing climate eurekalert.org eurekalert.org.

(No major energy technology breakthroughs were reported on Sep 8–9 beyond the fusion-related research already covered under AI and computing.) However, steady progress continues in fields like nuclear fusion – for example, researchers are applying AI tools to optimize reactor wall materials openaccessgovernment.org – and renewables, where engineers are innovating in green hydrogen production and grid integration. These incremental advances, while less headline-grabbing, are gradually paving the way toward more sustainable energy systems.

Each of these stories highlights the incredible breadth of scientific progress over the past two days – from peering into the birth of new worlds and the death of stars, to fighting disease with cutting-edge therapies, to harnessing AI in labs and chip factories, and to understanding and protecting our own planet’s future. Science is moving fast, and the discoveries of September 8–9, 2025 show how our collective knowledge continues to expand in all directions, improving our lives and deepening our sense of wonder.

Sources: The roundup is based on press releases and reports from NASA science.nasa.gov sciencedaily.com, peer-reviewed studies (e.g. in Nature, Science, JAMA Pediatrics, Nature Medicine) reported by institutions like Vanderbilt University news.vumc.org, Cincinnati Children’s scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org, Georgetown University Medical Center eurekalert.org, University of Washington washington.edu, University of Connecticut today.uconn.edu, University of Florida news.ufl.edu, Brookhaven National Lab bnl.gov, Caltech/LIGO ligo.caltech.edu, Curtin University (via Sci.News) sci.news, the Chinese Academy of Sciences eurekalert.org and other reputable science news outlets. Each item includes direct links to the original studies or announcements for further reading.