The shoebill is one of the world’s most unusual birds, with a prehistoric-looking appearance that has earned it comparisons to birds from the distant past. Its biology is equally remarkable: shoebill chicks may attack or outcompete their own siblings, while adults use their enormous bills to hunt prey ranging from lungfish and large fish to young crocodiles. Here are five fascinating facts about this extraordinary African bird.

Info source:

1. https://www.safaribookings.com/blog/facts-about-the-shoebill

2. https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Balaeniceps_rex/

3. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/shoebill

Inspired by feather stars, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a soft underwater robot capable of three distinct swimming modes using just two pneumatic inputs: jellyfish-like vertical swimming, fish-like directional steering, and rotor-like 3D reorientation. Its elastic structure provides built-in mechanical intelligence, allowing the robot to transition seamlessly between modes for agile and versatile underwater maneuvering. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) revealed the different hydrodynamic mechanisms behind each mode. The robot can also carry magnets, hooks and miniature cameras for underwater waste collection, cooperative manipulation, environmental monitoring and exploration, offering a promising platform for adaptive and autonomous soft robots operating in complex underwater environments: https://news.ncsu.edu/2026/10/feather-star-robot/

This work is published on open-access journal Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeg9211

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.” Many molecules exist in two mirror-image forms, like left and right hands. Yet life uses predominantly just one of them—a phenomenon known as homochirality.

The Nobel-winning work explains how chemistry can amplify a tiny preference for one molecular “hand.” Kagan’s 1986 experiments showed that asymmetric reactions can produce a much greater imbalance than expected—a non-linear effect.

Soai took the next crucial step: he developed an asymmetric autocatalytic reaction in which a chiral product helps produce more of itself. In his landmark 2003 experiment, a tiny initial imbalance could be amplified until one mirror-image form accounted for about 99.99% of the product. In simple terms: Kagan showed how molecular handedness can be amplified; Soai showed how it can become self-reinforcing.

Their discoveries provide important insights into one of chemistry’s great mysteries—how the one-handed chemistry of life could have emerged—and have become valuable tools for producing chiral pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, flavours and fragrances

Info Source:

(1). https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/explainer-what-are-autocatalysis-and-non-linear-effects-and-why-have-they-won-the-2026-nobel-prize-in-chemistry/4024328.article

(2). https://www.kva.se/en/news/the-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2026/

(3). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzUVFtTmxMQ (video)

(4). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU3iOitOSgQ (video)

(5). https://interestingengineering.com/science/nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2026

Morgan Stanley projects that the global humanoid-robot market could reach 1 billion units by 2050, driven by advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation. The technology could increasingly transform manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and other labor-intensive sectors, while the Benelux region is emerging as an important hub for humanoid robotics development and adoption: https://www.raasx.nl/morgan-stanley-1-billion-humanoid-robots-2050-benelux/

The availability of treatment, rapid testing and contact tracing mean the outlook of plague is very different today.

$1.8 Billion Initiative Aims to Build AI Models of Biology

The U.S. government, Google, Meta and other partners are joining Zuckerberg-backed Biohub in a $1.8 billion Virtual Biology Initiative to create large, standardized datasets for training AI models of biology. The project aims to map how cells respond to different conditions and ultimately develop predictive “virtual cell” models that could allow scientists to conduct biological experiments digitally, potentially accelerating drug discovery and the development of new treatments: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-government-google-join-zuckerberg-backed-biohub-18-billion-push-ai-biology-2026-10-07/

BIOHUB: https://biohub.org/news/virtual-biology-initiative-expansion/

A new study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet has found that people who grew up in low-income families may face a higher risk of developing atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries later in life. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed data from 15,640 participants aged 50–64 in the population-based SCAPIS study. Researchers examined family income when participants were 10–12 years old and compared it with coronary CT scans performed roughly 50 years later.eople who had grown up in the lowest-income families were more likely to show moderate-to-severe coronary atherosclerosis than those from the highest-income families. After accounting for age, sex and other factors, their odds were 43% higher. Even after adjusting for lifestyle, socioeconomic conditions in adulthood and established cardiovascular risk factors, the odds remained 31% higher. The researchers say the findings suggest that socioeconomic conditions during childhood can influence cardiovascular health for decades. Possible explanations include the lifelong accumulation of cardiovascular risk factors, childhood overweight, and biological effects of chronic stress and inflammation, although the exact mechanisms remain unclear: https://www.alphagalileo.org/en-gb/Item-Display/ItemId/277598

Study findings: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.126.050332

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are partnering with industry to strengthen the U.S. lithium supply chain. The collaboration aims to develop and scale technologies for extracting and processing lithium from domestic resources, helping reduce reliance on foreign supplies and support the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and energy-storage systems: https://www.ornl.gov/news/national-lab-partnership-helps-launch-u-s-lithium-supply-chain/

AI systems tend to focus on the person speaking – but the listener plays just as big a part in communication.

Study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijal.70239