A two-year study across 18 Tennessee middle schools tested Khan Academy's AI tutor, Khanmigo, during math remedial sessions. Students who used the AI tutor experienced a slight improvement in math achievement, roughly equivalent to traditional practice, but engagement levels were low, with many students rarely interacting with the AI. The findings suggest that increasing student engagement with AI tutoring tools is crucial for realizing their full potential.
Physicist Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for founding the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and for discovering high-energy neutrinos originating from deep space. IceCube, built below the Antarctic ice, detects rare interactions between neutrinos and atoms, capturing particles emitted by cosmic events like supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. Halzen noted the project succeeded within two years of operation, despite initial skepticism from the physics community.
Scientists have documented a large ice-free opening, known as a polynya, forming in the Antarctic sea ice during winter near the Maud Rise region of the Weddell Sea. Such a large-scale winter polynya in this area has not been observed at this scale since the 1970s, according to researchers tracking satellite and ocean data.
A scientific study reported by Nature finds the Solar System could become unstable and effectively 'die' far sooner than previous estimates suggested, revising timescales downward by roughly a billion times. The findings stem from new calculations about the long-term dynamical stability of planetary orbits.
Physicists with the STAR Collaboration, publishing in Science, report new experimental evidence that a quantity called baryon number—assigned to protons and neutrons—resides not in their constituent quarks but in gluon structures known as baryon junctions. Protons and neutrons are baryons made of three quarks, and the finding bears on how this conserved quantity is physically carried within these particles.
Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for leading development of IceCube, the cubic-kilometre neutrino detector at the South Pole. The observatory achieved a landmark result in 2017 by tracing a high-energy neutrino back to a blazar, marking the first confirmed source identification of its kind and advancing 'multi-messenger' astronomy, which combines neutrinos, cosmic rays, light and gravitational waves to study cosmic events.
The publisher issued an author correction to a research paper on anodic palladium membrane hydrogen extraction enhancing thermochemical dehydrogenation. No substantive details of the correction's content were provided in the available text, which consisted only of a generic browser-compatibility notice from the website.
Researchers at the University of Oxford launched a project in 2022 to explore how academic teams can produce timely scientific insights in partnership with various stakeholders. Their experiments aim to demonstrate more agile and transparent research practices suited for urgent decision-making contexts. These efforts follow the successful COVID-19 response, which showcased rapid scientific collaboration and innovation.
Recent data indicates an unusually high rate of positive influenza tests in regions like the UK and US West Coast, suggesting an early start to this year's flu season. The dominant strain is H1N1, with signs of a new mutation raising concerns among scientists. Experts caution that while the trend is notable, it does not yet predict the severity of the season.
Researchers have mounted a radiometer on a hot-air balloon to collect atmospheric data at various altitudes. The experiment aims to improve understanding of thermal radiation in the atmosphere. The balloon's flight provided valuable readings that could enhance climate models.
Researchers have identified that extrachromosomal circular DNA (ecDNA), which frequently appears in genetically unstable tumors, plays a role in cancer genome evolution. A study published in Nature by Billing et al. highlights how this form of DNA contributes to tumor adaptability. Understanding ecDNA's function could open new avenues for targeted cancer therapies.
Researchers have successfully grafted human-derived brain organoids into the brains of mice lacking a cortex, aiming to overcome limitations of traditional organoid models. This approach could enable more advanced studies of human brain development and disease within a living organism. The study was published in Nature by Kaganovsky et al. in 2026.
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