How Light, Air, and Time Shape the Future of Two-Dimensional Materials

Over the past two decades, materials science has been quietly transforming the technological foundations of everyday life. While consumers notice faster phones and more capable computers, the deeper story unfolds at the scale of atoms. Scientists are learning how to isolate and control materials that are only a few atoms thick, revealing forms of matter whose behavior differs profoundly from their bulk counterparts. These so-called two-dimensional materials promise a new generation of electronics, sensors, and photonic devices. At the same time, they challenge long held assumptions about stability, reliability, and control at the smallest scales. Researchers such as Prof. Abdullah Alrasheed of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology are helping to expand our knowledge and push the boundaries of what is possible in this sphere.

What if the most honest way to speak about God today is to begin by admitting that the old images no longer work? For centuries, many believers pictured God as a supreme being who rules the universe from beyond it, guarantees meaning, and stands as the ultimate explanation for everything that exists. Yet modern history, philosophical critique, and even theology itself have steadily eroded this picture. The result is not simply atheism in the popular sense, but a profound theological crisis.

In rivers and lakes across North America, fish carry secrets invisible to the naked eye, secrets that researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Eastern Ecological Science Center are determined to help uncover. With a passion for aquatic health and an interest in viral sleuthing, these researchers, including Dr. Clayton Raines, a fish biologist, have conducted groundbreaking research that is reshaping our understanding of fish disease. From uncovering a new virus in alewives to decoding the mystery behind the blotchy skin of black basses, this work not only expands the frontiers of fish virology but also reveals the hidden complexities of ecosystems. Here, we explore Raines’ and colleagues’ fascinating findings and their implications for fish management, conservation, and the health of freshwater species.

When disaster strikes, the images that dominate news coverage are almost always human centered. We see flooded neighborhoods, collapsed buildings, families waiting in shelters, and exhausted first responders. Yet woven into nearly every one of those scenes is another presence, often trembling at the end of a leash or peering out from a carrier. Companion animals are not an afterthought in modern life. They are family members, sources of emotional stability, and in some cases essential partners such as service dogs. As natural and human-made disasters grow in frequency and severity, the question of how to protect people inevitably includes the question of how to protect their animals.

When a peripheral nerve is badly damaged due to injury, the consequences can be life-changing. Hands that no longer feel heat or cold, muscles that will not respond to the brain’s commands, and pain that lingers for years are all common outcomes. Surgeons can sometimes stitch nerves back together, but when there is a section of nerve missing entirely, repair becomes far more complex. For decades, researchers have been trying to build better bridges for injured nerve axons to cross. A new interdisciplinary research effort led by Dr. Jeddah Marie Vasquez and Dr. Vijay Kumar Kuna of Research Institutes of Sweden, and their collaborators from Umeå University (Associate Professor Paul Kingham) and University College London (Professor James Phillips), bring together polymer chemistry, materials science, and cell biology to rethink what such a bridge could be made of – and how it might one day be tailored to individual patients.

Four years after the first lockdowns and daily case counts faded from headlines, COVID 19 continues to shape lives in quieter but deeply disruptive ways. For millions of people around the world, the virus did not simply end with a negative test. Instead, it left behind a complex and often invisible condition known as long COVID. This lingering illness challenges how medicine understands recovery, chronic disease, and the long reach of viral infections. In a comprehensive review, Dr. Huda Makhluf of the National University in San Diego, and her colleagues, synthesize what scientists currently know about long COVID and what remains frustratingly uncertain.

Ulcerative colitis, often called UC, is a chronic inflammatory disease of the large intestine that is becoming more common across the world, including among teenagers and young adults. For many patients it begins with subtle warning signs such as abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, fatigue, or traces of blood in the stool. Over time these symptoms can escalate into painful and frightening flare-ups that disrupt education, careers, family life, and emotional well-being. Although modern medicine has become remarkably effective at calming these acute disease episodes, UC remains stubbornly persistent. In most patients the disease returns after periods of apparent recovery, sometimes without any obvious external trigger.

On any given day in the United States, millions of financial decisions are made quietly behind desks and computer screens. A loan officer reviews an application from a small construction company. An algorithm evaluates a mortgage request from a young family. A bank executive signs off on a merger that will reshape the local banking landscape. Each decision may seem technical or routine. Yet together they shape who gets to buy a home, who gets to expand a business, and which communities flourish.

When we imagine research linked to space travel, we often picture rockets, astronauts, and the silence of orbit. Yet some of the most important insights into life beyond Earth happen far from space, in quiet rooms where people lie still for weeks at a time. These are bed rest studies, a unique research model that simulates the effects of microgravity on the human body by asking participants to remain lying down for long periods. While these studies are designed to explore muscles, bones, and metabolism, they also create an unusual social world. What happens to human relationships when movement is restricted, routines are stripped away, and the experience of time changes?

For many couples struggling to conceive, a male infertility diagnosis can feel like a closed door. Roughly half of all infertility cases worldwide stem from male factors, and among these, one of the most frustrating conditions is non-obstructive azoospermia (or NOA for short), a complete absence of sperm caused not by a physical blockage but by a failure of sperm production itself. Until recently, most men with NOA were offered a potentially painful and uncertain procedure called testicular sperm extraction (or TESE). In this surgery, doctors search directly within the testis for a few viable sperm cells that can be used for in vitro fertilization. When successful, the results can be life-changing. When unsuccessful, it is physically invasive, emotionally draining, and often repeated several times in vain.