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| | 7 April 2025 | | Today’s The Life Academic takes a look at the winners of this year’s Breakthrough Prizes. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including a heart monitor inspired by a sea creature and a way to help decide how to save insects. | |
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| Chemical Biology | Science | | New method lets scientists ‘cut and paste’ inside proteins | Thanks to advances in gene editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9, it has become easier than ever for scientists to cut apart stretches of DNA and RNA and put them back together. But proteins, which fold up into large, complicated structures, are notoriously hard to manipulate. Modifying the middle of a protein is particularly difficult, often requiring a tricky process of unfolding and refolding.
To overcome this problem, the authors of a new study took inspiration from a process called transposition, in which chunks of DNA “jump” from one location to another within the genome. To apply this concept to proteins, scientists used specialized protein segments called split inteins, which remove themselves from a larger protein and seamlessly stitch together the segments that flank it. By tweaking this natural splicing process, the team was able to efficiently “cut and paste” inside complex proteins without needing to unravel them.
Using this approach, researchers were able to modify folded proteins in vitro and even managed to demonstrate reactions in living cells—greatly expanding the number of proteins that can be engineered for use in research and drug development. | | |
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| Bioinspired Engineering | Science Advances | | A gold star for heart monitoring |  | | A new heart monitor mimics sea stars’ shape to more accurately collect data while a person moves. Courtesy of Zheng Yan | Wearable health monitors have become very popular, and for good reason: Real-time monitoring data can improve diagnoses and generally help people live healthier lives. But most wearables struggle to collect that data seamlessly, as they fail to maintain the close body contact they need as a person moves. A new device takes inspiration from the sea to solve that issue.
Instead of a familiar bar or circle, this latest device takes the shape of a sea star. The five-arm design minimizes strain on the device when parts of it move, which in turn reduces mechanical interference with the measurements being taken, the researchers found. Having several arms also allows the device to collect more than one kind of data—in this case, readings on the heart’s electrical (electrocardiogram) and mechanical (seismocardiogram and gyrocardiogram) activity.
These data can then be wirelessly transmitted to an app that uses AI to process the information. Together, the wearable and app were able to diagnose heart disease with more than 90% accuracy when tested on 18 people with a known diagnosis. “This bioinspired approach establishes a solid foundation for next-generation soft bioelectronic systems capable of capturing high-fidelity biosignals, even under dynamic bodily conditions,” the team writes. | | |
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| Ecology | Science | | How to really figure out we’re facing an ‘insectageddon’ | There’s no doubt that recent declines in insect populations—like the dramatic drop in U.S. butterflies—are extremely concerning. However, only about 1% of the million or so insect species have been properly assessed; data are needed on the other 99% to determine if an “ insectageddon” is actually imminent—intel that would be difficult and time-consuming to collect. Now, a team of researchers has proposed a framework for determining the best steps to take now to avoid the worst possible future for the planet’s bugs.
“With a million described species, it would take too long to figure out what works best for each,” said co-lead author Charlotte Outhwaite in a statement. “Instead, we want to find large-scale actions that benefit the most insects. For this, we need to use all the available information we have.” That information includes time series, spatial comparisons, consulting experts, and running experiments—all of which can be combined to model how insect populations react to changes in their environment. The team’s review in Science suggests combining all this to create “threat response models” that scientists can use to more accurately forecast the future of the planet’s insects and how best to conserve them.
“The challenge is like a giant jigsaw puzzle where there are thousands of missing pieces,” said co-lead author Rob Cooke, “but we do not have decades to wait to fill these gaps and then act.” | | |
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 | | | AI gets a mind of its own | | If today's AI is a parrot, mimicking data, tomorrow’s artificial general intelligence (AGI) could be a crow, reasoning from minimal clues. Researchers are challenging the AI paradigm and striving to create autonomous AGI agents with independent minds. | |
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| | | The Life Academic |  | | The Breakthrough Prizes science-inspired trophy. The Breakthrough Prizes | | ‘Oscars of Science’ honors more than 13,000 scientists with physics prize | The field of particle physics isn’t often associated with glitz and glamour. But this past Saturday, spokespersons from four experimental collaborations at the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator—hit the red carpet in Los Angeles for a celebrity-studded gala awards ceremony. They were there on behalf of scientists from 71 countries to accept this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
The Breakthrough Prizes, popularly known as the “Oscars of Science,” and first awarded in 2012, are funded by some of Silicon Valley’s most famous entrepreneurs. Recipients of “main stage” prizes honoring outstanding contributions in life sciences, physics, and mathematics each receive a whopping $3 million—more than twice the cash value of the Nobel Prize. In previous years, these awards have celebrated pioneering work on everything from gene-editing technology and dark energy to plant science and maps of the early universe.
This year , three Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences were awarded to eight researchers. The first went to five scientists who discovered and characterized glucagon-like peptide 1, which has ushered in a new era of medicine for diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic diseases. The recipients of the second prize transformed the understanding and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) by revealing the role of B cells as the primary driver of nerve damage and identifying infection with the Epstein-Barr virus as a leading risk factor for developing the disease. The final prize went to molecular biologist and organic chemist David R. Liu for the development of base editing and prime editing—two powerful and widely used gene-editing technologies.
The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics honored mathematician Dennis Gaitsgory for his contributions to the geometric Langlands program, which helped solve a key part of a sweeping paradigm sometimes referred to as math’s “Rosetta Stone.” The Special Breakthrough Prize in Physics, meanwhile, went to theoretical physicist Gerard ’t Hooft, whose revolutionary insights helped turn the Standard Model of particle physics into a workable theory.
Speaking of particles, the evening’s biggest prize—at least in terms of number of recipients—was the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which was awarded to an impressive group of 13,508 scientists for four massive experiments devoted to understanding the fundamental building blocks of the universe. “We’re very happy. This is not an everyday occurrence for us,” Marco van Leeuwen, an experimental particle physics researcher at Nikhef in the Netherlands and spokesperson for the ALICE experiment, tells Science Adviser. “We think it’s important to understand nature and push the boundaries of our understanding, and it is a great honor to have our work recognized by the Breakthrough Prize.” Van Leeuwen, who found out about the win in July of last year, accepted the award along with Andreas Hoecker (spokesperson for ATLAS), Patricia McBride (spokesperson for CMS), and Vincenzo Vagnoni (spokesperson for LHCb).
ATLAS and CMS are both general-purpose experiments, which together were responsible for the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson particle; they continue to elucidate the mechanism by which the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles. The ALICE experiment, van Leeuwen explains, smashes together heavy lead ions at temperatures 100,000 times hotter than the core of the Sun. These collisions “melt” the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei, freeing super-tiny particles called quarks from their bonds with the gluons sticking them together to create quark-gluon plasma. This strange “soup,” van Leeuwen notes, is “the hottest and densest matter that we can produce in the laboratory” and mimics what was present just microseconds after the Big Bang. Studying how this matter behaves gives scientists a glimpse into the early universe. The LHCb experiment, meanwhile, studies the slight differences between matter and antimatter using a type of particle known as the “beauty quark.”
Van Leeuwen says he is glad to see the prize awarded to an entire program rather than a single person or discovery. “These collaborations are worldwide,” he explains, noting that the list of prize recipients includes the people currently working on the four experimental collaborations as well as all the other researchers—including graduate students—who have contributed over the past several years. The prize money will be used by the collaborations to offer grants for doctoral students from member institutes to spend research time at CERN, giving the students experience working at the forefront of science and new expertise to bring back to their home countries and regions.
Of course, the Breakthrough Prizes aren’t just about recognizing researchers for their scientific pursuits—the awards ceremony also gives them an opportunity to show off their fashion sense. Deciding what to wear may be a bit easier for folks wearing suits, but the black-tie dress code does leave room for accessories: in van Leeuwen’s case, a handsome set of cufflinks featuring Einstein’s most famous equation, E=MC². | | read more about This year’s winners |
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| Ask and ye shall receive | | Last Friday, the Trump administration asked a U.S. federal judge to make her 5 March preliminary injunction permanent, thus blocking the proposed 15% cap on indirect costs for NIH grants—and the judge obliged. Though a seemingly strange move, the decision allows the administration to begin its appeal post haste. | | Read more at ScienceInsider’s Trump Tracker | |
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| Measles like it’s 1999 | | The U.S. declared measles eliminated in 2000. But the drop in vaccination rates in recent years has led to notable outbreaks, including the ongoing one in Texas. Now, many fear having a vaccine skeptic helming the Department of Health and Human Services will only make matters worse. “We have really opened the door for this virus to come back,” one former CDC director said. | | Read more at The New York Times | |
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| I just had a thought | | Scientists have finally shown that a deep part of the brain called the thalamus activates when we recognize specific thoughts. The study demonstrating this is “one of the most elaborate and extensive investigations of the role of the thalamus in consciousness,” one expert said. | | Science Paper | Read more at Nature | |
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| Success isn’t just about innovation, it’s about protecting human autonomy before profit-driven interests take over.
—Safaa Osman Abuzaid Osman, University of Technology Malaysia | | NEXTGEN VOICES | 3 April 2025 | Wang et al. | | Young scientists answer this prompt: If you gave a keynote speech at a meeting similar to the Asilomar conference today, what would you identify as the biggest risk posed by research in your field, and what action would you suggest to address it? | |
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| | Brought to you by NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award | |
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Welcome to "Hawaii Science Journal". Here you'll find the latest stories from science, technology, medicine, and the environment.