Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Russia ordered the closure of Germany's consulate in St. Petersburg by September 18, in retaliation for Berlin shuttering Russian diplomatic facilities after accusing Moscow of an attempted drone attack at Leipzig Airport.^[1]

MIT engineers have developed injectable "mini livers" composed of liver cells, hydrogel spheres, and supportive cells that can create pockets of functioning tissue to help support people with failing livers as an alternative to transplants.^[2]

East Antarctica gained 695 billion tons of ice between 2021 and 2023, the largest gain recorded by GRACE satellites, after warming in the tropical Pacific altered atmospheric circulation and funneled moisture toward the continent, though researchers say the reversal is only temporary.^[3]

A small clinical trial found that 16 people with multiple sclerosis or other autoimmune conditions improved after receiving a treatment that uses a modified virus to engineer disease-fighting CAR T cells inside their bodies, rather than requiring external manufacturing.^[4]

Ohio State University researchers have identified a potential weakness in glioblastoma brain tumors, finding that blocking a protein called SET can prevent tumor formation in preclinical models and make cancer cells more vulnerable to radiation.^[5]

By analyzing minerals from a 2.3-kilometer-deep borehole in central Sweden, researchers have traced episodic bursts of methane-producing microbial life linked to major geological events that shaped Scandinavia over hundreds of millions of years.^[6]

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown 1666 manuscript describing a four-lens terrestrial telescope attributed to Galileo, including component-level details and diagrams that could trace the instrument's development to the astronomer.^[7]

Advanced optical imaging techniques have revealed previously inaccessible information about the metabolic activity of individual immune cells in blood samples, potentially advancing how researchers study immune responses.^[8]

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell 28 percent to 77 vessels last week amid ongoing US-Iran tensions, though a US official says the waterway remains fully open and under US Navy control.^[9]