Researchers have developed two compounds that can kill malaria-causing parasites within mosquitoes, an approach they hope could help reduce transmission of the disease. The team showed that these compounds can be embedded into the plastics used to make bed nets, providing an alternative to insecticide-based malaria-control measures, which are losing efficacy in the face of increased resistance.

Research article: Probst et al.

The sunlight-powered device that can harvest drinkable water from desert air, and evidence that the world’s richest people are disproportionately responsible for climate impacts.

Research Highlight: Atacama sunshine helps to pull water from thin air

Research Highlight: The world’s richest people have an outsized role in climate extremes

Researchers have found specific genetic mutations that can lead to pregnancy loss. It’s known that errors, such as the duplication of chromosomes, can lead to nonviable pregnancies but less has been known about non-chromosomal genetic errors. The new work identifies DNA sequence changes that can lead to a non-viable pregnancy. This may offer clinicians the ability to screen embryos for these changes to help avoid pregnancy loss.

Research article: Arnadottir et al.

Bespoke CRISPR-based therapy treats baby boy with devastating genetic disease, and the ‘anti-spice’ compounds that can lower chillies’ heat.

Nature: World’s first personalized CRISPR therapy given to baby with genetic disease

New Scientist: Chemists discover 'anti-spice' that could make chilli peppers less hot

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Researchers have developed a portable antimatter containment device and tested it by putting it in a truck and driving it around CERN. Their system could represent a big step forward in efforts to take particles made at CERN’s ‘antimatter factory’ and transport them to other labs, something currently impossible due to antimatter being destroyed upon contact with matter. The team showed the feasibility of their approach by using the system to safely transport particles of matter and are now looking to adapt it to ferry antimatter particles.

Research article: Leonhardt et al.

How a tradition of female diving on a South Korean island might have shaped the genomes of the island’s population, and a poison-dart frog that curiously seems to be monogamous.

Research Highlight: How Korea’s female divers have adapted to cold plunges

Research Highlight: A ‘hidden gem’ of the Amazon is a frog with odd habits

Physicists have tackled a longstanding problem in physics — understanding how two black holes gravitationally interact as they fly past each other — which could help with future detections of the gravitational waves that would be created by these events. Rather than repeatedly running expensive computer simulations to approximate the answer to this problem, a team of theorists have come up with a mathematical formula to describe a black hole fly-by, which can be run in a matter of seconds. Their results could be used to identify the tell-tale signatures of these events when they actually occur.

Research article: Driesse et al.

How physicists turned lead into gold, for a microsecond and at tremendous cost, and the genetics of the skunk cabbage’s foul odour.

Nature: Physicists turn lead into gold — for a fraction of a second

Video: Scientists turn lead into gold

Nature: How skunk cabbages and other smelly plants brew their foul odour

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In this Podcast Extra, we examine recent developments US National Science Foundation, which has seen significant numbers of research grants terminated. In addition, there have been freezes on funding for new grants and any additional money to existing ones. We also discuss US President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, which calls for disproportionately large cuts to federal science funding.

News: Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones

News: Trump proposes unprecedented budget cuts to US science

News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

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