- Health: A major 6-year trial found that pairing a Mediterranean diet with calorie control, exercise, and weight-loss support slashed type 2 diabetes risk by 31% hsph.harvard.edu. “We’re facing a global epidemic of diabetes… [but] modest, sustained changes in diet and lifestyle could prevent millions of cases worldwide,” said study co-author Frank Hu hsph.harvard.edu. In separate research, Harvard scientists linked low brain lithium levels to Alzheimer’s disease progression – treating mice with an ultra-low dose lithium compound reversed Alzheimer’s pathology and restored memory sciencedaily.com. “I really have not seen anything quite like it in all my years of working on this disease,” said senior author Bruce Yankner, noting lithium’s unusually widespread benefits in the mice 1 .
- Climate: Human-caused climate change supercharged Southern Europe’s summer wildfires, making the extreme fire weather 10× more likely and the blazes 22% more intense than in a preindustrial climate insurancejournal.com. Scientists with World Weather Attribution warn of “a bleak picture for southern Europe’s forests” as warming drives “larger, more severe and more frequent wildfires” despite extensive firefighting efforts insurancejournal.com. 2025 has already been Europe’s worst wildfire season on record, with over a million hectares burned 2 .
- Environment: A new global study reveals that over half of the world’s fish populations that straddle national boundaries will shift across borders by 2050 due to warming oceans news.mongabay.com. Most will move out into the high seas beyond national jurisdictions, where they face greater overfishing risks news.mongabay.com. “It’s an important issue… that should make anyone concerned about fisheries sit up and pay attention,” said UC Santa Cruz biologist Malin Pinsky news.mongabay.com, who noted many tropical nations that did little to cause climate change could lose vital fish stocks. “Climate change is sending a whole bunch of fisheries out into the lion’s den because the high seas [lack] effective management,” Pinsky added 3 .
- Physics: Physicists finally solved a 90-year-old quantum mechanics puzzle – finding an exact quantum theory for a “damped” harmonic oscillator (a vibrating system that gradually loses energy) sciencedaily.com. A University of Vermont team reformulated a 1900 model by Horace Lamb to preserve Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, creating a quantum analog of a plucked guitar string that slowly quiets sciencedaily.com sciencedaily.com. This theoretical breakthrough isn’t just academic: it predicts ways to measure an atom’s position with precision beyond the standard quantum limit, potentially enabling ultra-sensitive quantum sensors 4
Explosive Science Breakthroughs Rock Late August 2025 (Medicine, Climate & Beyond)
Stock Market Today
Seagate (STX) stock jumps nearly 6% as Citi hikes target — what to watch next week
Seagate shares rose 5.9% to $429.32 Friday after Citigroup raised its price target to $480 and reiterated a buy rating. The gain ended a two-day slide but left the stock 6.6% below its Feb. 3 high. CEO Dave Mosley sold 20,000 shares on Feb. 2 under a pre-arranged plan, SEC filings show. U.S. jobs and inflation data next week are seen as key tests for tech stocks.
Cummins (CMI) stock price rebounds after earnings whipsaw as investors eye data-center power demand
Cummins shares jumped 6.8% to $577.73 Friday, recovering from a nearly 9% post-earnings drop the day before. The company reported Q4 revenue up 1% to $8.54 billion, took a $218 million charge tied to its hydrogen business, and guided for 2026 EBITDA of 17–18% of sales. Demand for data center generators offset weakness in North American truck markets. Analyst reaction was mixed; Truist raised its price target.
Corning stock hits first record close since 2000 as jobs, CPI data loom
Corning shares surged 8.3% to $122.16 Friday, their highest close since the dot-com era, after Meta agreed to buy up to $6 billion in fiber-optic cables. The stock is up 40% since late 2025, fueled by strong first-quarter guidance and AI data-center demand. Insiders sold shares following the rally, SEC filings show. Investors await next week’s U.S. jobs and inflation data for rate signals.
Intuit stock rises 2% as ChatGPT apps go live; investors eye jobs data and Feb. 26 earnings
Intuit shares rose 2.04% to $443.77 Friday, still 45% below their July peak. The company said TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp are now available inside ChatGPT for U.S. users. Investors await U.S. jobs and inflation data next week and Intuit’s fiscal Q2 results on Feb. 26.
