https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Weizmann Institute of Science The rainforests of northern Australia are home to extraordinary ant colonies. Instead of dwelling in underground burrows, these ants inhabit canopies of trees, dozens of meters above the ground, inside hollow spheres they construct from tree leaves. During the building process, the ants link their bodies together to form living tools, eventually weaving the leaves into nests using silk threads produced by their larvae—hence their name: weaver ants. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-high-weaver-ants-leaf-zippers.html Plants & Animals Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:40:01 EDT news694080722 While humans often struggle to find a partner who is both physically attractive and a reliable co-parent, yeast may already have cracked the formula for the perfect match. When choosing mates, these single-celled organisms tend to pick partners that may increase the chances of their offspring's success, according to a new study by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science, published in Cell Reports. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mass-event-lab-reveals-yeast.html Evolution Sun, 29 Mar 2026 16:00:01 EDT news693501970 The genomes of phages—viruses that infect bacteria—are largely composed of "dark matter": genes that encode proteins whose functions remain unknown. Less than four years ago, a team led by Prof. Rotem Sorek at the Weizmann Institute of Science identified a new type of protein within this viral dark matter and dubbed it a "sponge." Viral sponge proteins are porous and specialize in trapping molecules within deep pockets—much like a sponge that absorbs water. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-reveals-phage-proteins-bacterial-immune.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:30:03 EDT news692896801 A key question in any discussion about climate is "How much rain fell?" But perhaps there is an even more important one. Like any household budget, the global water economy is based on "income," that is, water entering the system as precipitation, and "expenditure"—water leaving the system through various forms of evaporation. On land, water evaporates mainly through vegetation, in a process known as evapo-transpiration. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-drought-metric-age-climate.html Earth Sciences Mon, 23 Feb 2026 13:40:05 EST news691068241 The circumstances surrounding a study on a deadly virus could hardly have been more dramatic. One of its first authors was forced to flee his homeland when it became a war zone. More than 2,000 kilometers away, the laboratory of a team leader was destroyed by a ballistic missile. Despite these setbacks, after nearly a decade of work in Ethiopia and Israel, the team has brought its findings to publication. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-gut-microbes-bolster-immunity-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:00:04 EST news690134247 For over 50 years, we thought we knew the size and shape of Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet. Now, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have revised that knowledge using new data and technology. In a new study published today in Nature Astronomy, Weizmann scientists, who led an international team from Italy, the US, France and Switzerland, provide the most precise determination yet of Jupiter's size and shape. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-jupiter-slimmer-profile-giant-planet.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:58:28 EST news689252221 What determines how long we live—and to what extent is our lifespan shaped by our genes? Surprisingly, for decades, scientists believed that the heritability of human lifespan was relatively low compared to other human traits, standing at just 20–25%; some recent large-scale studies even placed it below 10%. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-rethinking-longevity-genes-account-human.html Gerontology & Geriatrics Sun, 01 Feb 2026 09:10:02 EST news688925273 Alaska's glaciers are melting at an accelerating pace, losing roughly 60 billion tons of ice each year. About 4,000 kilometers to the south, in California and Nevada, records for heat and dryness are being shattered, creating favorable conditions for wildfire events. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-north-pacific-winter-storm-tracks.html Earth Sciences Wed, 07 Jan 2026 14:20:01 EST news687017816 In the future, quantum computers are anticipated to solve problems once thought unsolvable, from predicting the course of chemical reactions to producing highly reliable weather forecasts. For now, however, they remain extremely sensitive to environmental disturbances and prone to information loss. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-evidence-particle-previous-quantum-states.html Condensed Matter Wed, 07 Jan 2026 13:11:27 EST news687013861 One of the most challenging moments in cancer treatment comes when a therapy stops working. In many metastatic cancers, drugs that are initially effective lose their potency over time, as malignant cells acquire mutations that enable them to survive and spread. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-cancer-resistance-mutations-immunotherapies.html Oncology & Cancer Mon, 29 Dec 2025 07:37:23 EST news686216199 Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, our skin tissue—and in fact many types of epithelial tissue that lines and covers the body's organs—can respond to death and destruction with a burst of regeneration. This phenomenon, known as compensatory proliferation, was first described in the 1970s in fly larvae, which regrew fully functional wings after their epithelial tissue had been severely damaged by high-dose radiation. Since then, this surprising ability has been documented in many species, including humans, yet its molecular basis has remained unclear. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-resurrected-tissue-mechanism-enables-regeneration.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 24 Dec 2025 13:30:02 EST news685804829 Disruptions to our circadian clocks—the internal molecular timekeepers "ticking" in nearly every cell of our body throughout the day—can lead to a wide range of health problems, from sleep disturbances to diabetes and cancer. But there has been no certainty about the identity of the body's substances that can "shift" these clocks forward or backward and, when altered, potentially cause such disruptions. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-sex-hormones-reset-body-clocks.html Endocrinology & Metabolism Mon, 22 Dec 2025 15:05:30 EST news685638301 In 2020, as scientists around the world were racing to understand COVID-19, Prof. Roy Bar-Ziv and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science started developing a DNA chip that could not only quickly show how our immune system responds to this coronavirus but open new possibilities for swiftly responding to future viral outbreaks. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-biochip-built-pandemic-dozens-viral.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 11 Dec 2025 14:25:30 EST news684685502 "Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative," wrote H. G. Wells. This principle—that survival requires change—was mastered billions of years ago by single-celled organisms living in extreme heat. Over the past few decades, studies of these organisms' adaptive mechanisms have yielded revolutionary technologies—from rapid DNA replication (PCR) and the production of heat-resistant proteins to the generation of fuels and chemicals. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-volcanic-crater-lab-extremophiles-lesson.html Evolution Sat, 29 Nov 2025 10:00:01 EST news683286896 Immunotherapy, which harnesses our body's own immune system to fight cancer, has revolutionized modern oncology. Yet despite its success with several cancers, many patients still fail to respond to therapy or experience relapse later on. Scientists have long sought ways to pinpoint how cancer shuts down the immune response, and to flip the switch back on right at that site. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-tumor-shield-sword-scientists-macrophages.html Oncology & Cancer Wed, 19 Nov 2025 13:02:05 EST news682779722 We've gone to the bottom of the ocean to study how its chemistry shapes our planet's climate, even chasing lava-spewing underwater volcanoes to do it. But it turns out we may have missed something far closer to home: the water beneath our feet. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-coastal-groundwater-rivals-rivers-volcanoes.html Earth Sciences Wed, 05 Nov 2025 12:02:04 EST news681566521 Wolves roaming the Mongolian steppes cover more than 7,000 kilometers a year. The Arctic tern flies from pole to pole in its annual migration. Compared to these long-distance travelers of land, sea and sky, humans might seem like the ultimate couch potatoes. But a new study from the Weizmann Institute of Science shows otherwise. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-humanity-wildlife-recedes-extent-human.html Plants & Animals Mon, 27 Oct 2025 13:24:04 EDT news680790241 Some 40 kilometers east of the Tanzanian coast in East Africa lies Latham Island, a rocky, utterly isolated and uninhabited piece of land about the size of seven soccer fields. It was on this unlikely patch of ground that Weizmann Institute of Science researchers recorded—for the first time ever—the neural activity of mammals in the wild. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-brains-reveal-global-neural-compass.html Plants & Animals Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:01:05 EDT news679852861 The relationships we form as adults often echo those we had with our parents. According to attachment theory—one of the most influential frameworks in contemporary psychology—this is no coincidence: The attachment between an infant and a primary caregiver shapes the baby's future social ties. Yet little is known about the biological mechanisms underlying childhood attachment, mainly because it is so difficult to study the young brain in natural conditions. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-brain-parental.html Neuroscience Wed, 17 Sep 2025 13:05:05 EDT news677333101 Despite swimming in different worlds, fish and humans are biologically much closer than one might think. Capitalizing on this kinship, researchers have now used zebrafish embryos to come up with a promising new therapy for kaposiform lymphangiomatosis (KLA)—a rare, life-threatening genetic disorder of the lymphatic system. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-fishing-drug-rare-disease.html Medications Tue, 02 Sep 2025 09:36:45 EDT news676024598 More than 2,800 years ago, residents of Iron-age Jerusalem faced climate change, marked by years of drought and sudden flash floods. The ruling establishment of Judah, probably led by King Jehoash or his successor Amaziah, came up with a large-scale engineering solution for the unpredictable weather conditions and water shortage: fortifying the city's primary water source, the Gihon Spring, and redirecting its waters into an artificial reservoir, the Siloam Pool, which also served for catching rainwater. The reservoir was created by the construction of the monumental Siloam Dam. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-radiocarbon-dating-jerusalem-siloam-built.html Archaeology Thu, 28 Aug 2025 11:35:03 EDT news675599701 Nearly a third of cancer-related deaths are caused by cachexia, a currently incurable metabolic syndrome that involves substantial weight loss, including depletion of muscle mass and body fat. Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that one of the reasons for this loss is disrupted communication between the brain and the liver. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-blocking-brain-liver-communication-deadly.html Oncology & Cancer Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:09:03 EDT news673787341 A desert region in northern Mexico sparked the imagination of Prof. Joel Stavans, a physicist who studies the physics of biological processes and is particularly interested in natural bacterial communities. He learned about a unique aquatic environment in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin—whose name means "four marshes" in Spanish—located in the Mexican state of Coahuila. This area is home to an extraordinary diversity of life forms, including rare microbial communities that thrive in extreme conditions similar to those that existed on Earth during the Precambrian era, some 700 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-bacterial-communities-kaleidoscopic-patterns-synchronized.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 30 Jul 2025 10:40:04 EDT news673090801 Just as people from different countries speak different languages, AI models also create various internal "languages"—a unique set of tokens understood only by each model. Until recently, there was no way for models developed by different companies to communicate directly, collaborate or combine their strengths to improve performance. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-07-faster-smarter-algorithms-ai.html Machine learning & AI Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:11:59 EDT news671890314 Before an important meeting or when a big decision needs to be made, we often mentally run through various scenarios before settling on the best course of action. But when it comes to our health—be it choosing a treatment for an ailment or even selecting a dietary regimen—it is a lot harder to predict how each choice will affect our bodies and whether it will suit us personally. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-07-ai-powered-digital-twin-personal.html Health Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:40:01 EDT news671799979 For nearly a century, scientists around the world have been searching for dark matter—an invisible substance believed to make up about 80% of the universe's mass and needed to explain a variety of physical phenomena. Numerous methods have been used in attempts to detect dark matter, from trying to produce it in particle accelerators to searching for cosmic radiation that it might emit in space. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-dark-side-scientists-nuclear-clock.html General Physics Mon, 14 Jul 2025 11:40:06 EDT news671711308 Unlike the brain and spinal cord, peripheral nerve cells, whose long extensions reach the skin and internal organs, are capable of regenerating after injury. This is why injuries to the central nervous system are considered irreversible, while damage to peripheral nerves can, in some cases, heal, even if it takes months or years. Despite decades of research, the mechanisms behind peripheral nerve regeneration remain only partially understood. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-07-peripheral-nerve-regeneration-driven-hundreds.html Neuroscience Wed, 09 Jul 2025 12:57:46 EDT news671284662 What if a blood test could reveal the pace of our aging—and the diseases that may lie ahead? The labs of Profs. Liran Shlush and Amos Tanay at the Weizmann Institute of Science have been conducting in-depth studies into the biology of blood to better understand the aging process and why some people become more susceptible to disease over the years. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-potential-bone-marrow-sampling-blood.html Oncology & Cancer Fri, 27 Jun 2025 11:19:04 EDT news670241941 Popular belief holds that our senses gather information only about the external world, but many of our sensory systems also monitor our internal environment, enabling the body to regulate its own functions. In a new study published in Cell Metabolism, researchers from Prof. Elazar Zelzer's lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science reveal that our nerve cells detect mechanical stimuli, such as pressure and tension, in an unexpected location: the body's fat tissue. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-nerve-cells-fat-tissue-pressure.html Overweight & Obesity Tue, 03 Jun 2025 13:40:01 EDT news668176731 If we have an allergy to peanuts, strawberries or dairy, we are quick to blame our immune systems. But when we enjoy a diverse diet without any adverse reaction, we generally don't realize that this is also the immune system's doing. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-food-friend-foe-cellular-network.html Immunology Thu, 29 May 2025 15:50:01 EDT news667752014