NuseReal

Science News: June 2026

Parasite affecting 1 in 3 people — Toxoplasma gondii — is a serious risk to human health, scientists warn: can lead to serious eye problems and even vision loss (LINK) — 26 June 2026

— In a new viewpoint paper, researchers argue that toxoplasmosis meets the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for classification as a neglected tropical disease (NTD). This recognition would unlock more funding and health initiatives. Humans can pick up the infection by eating undercooked meat that's been contaminated with the parasite, or by somehow ingesting parasitic eggs from cat feces (perhaps in a litter tray, or the wider environment). It can also be passed to unborn children by newly infected mothers via the placenta. As well as serious health problems, this can cause miscarriages.

U.S. Supreme Court deals a serious blow to the Make America Healthy Again movement by restricting Americans' ability to sue pesticide makers over alleged health harms stemming from their products. (LINK) — 25 June 2026

Smarter waste sorting with AI from WasteFlow by EPFL students, Lausanne: "Our system can currently identify 66 different categories of waste, with accuracy rates reaching 98% for some plastics including PET, HDPE and LDPE," says co-founder Théophile Agresti. The company estimates that facilities using its technology could recycle around 6% more material, thus reducing the amount of waste that ends up being incinerated (LINK) — 25 June 2026

— In 2023, EPFL students Valentin Ibars, Théophile Agresti and Theo Vitupier came up with the idea for WasteFlow. Since then, they have graduated from EPFL and have grown the business into a company employing 13 people. The trio joined Blaze, the School's program for student entrepreneurs, which provided structure and a supportive environment. The founders connected with experienced mentors, whose guidance saved them valuable time. The same year, WasteFlow secured a CHF 30,000 Ignition Grant from EPFL and additional support from the Foundation for Innovation and Technology (FIT).

— A BRIDGE Proof of Concept grant from the Swiss government's Innosuisse program and a collaboration with EPFL's Computer Vision Laboratory (CVLab) helped the team move beyond the lab and test the technology in real sorting facilities. They also benefited from EPFL's internship program for master's students and recent graduates: one intern spent six months developing tools to analyze sorting-facility performance and optimize recycling processes. Further internships, funded by WasteFlow and carried out with CVLab, gave students valuable industry experience while bringing additional expertise into the company.

WHO announces 2 trials of experimental drugs in Ebola outbreak (LINK) — 24 June 2026

Indigenous cultural practices are a climate solution, Conservation International report finds (LINK) — 24 June 2026

Ebola cases in Congo reach highest first-month total of any outbreak, WHO says (LINK) — 23 June 2026

Chinese supercomputer displaces US machines as world's fastest for first time since 2017 (LINK) — 23 June 2026

Horses originated in America and reached Europe through China, fossil DNA reveals: believed to be restricted to northeastern China, genomic analysis shows the Dalian horse's range extended to southern Siberia and Yakutia (LINK) — 20 June 2026

Some 75 medics infected with Ebola as DRC outbreak spreads 'fast' (LINK) — 19 June 2026

— Aid cuts and poor sanitation are deepening fears that Ebola is spreading through displacement camps. Seventeen medics have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the death toll surpasses 200.

UN agencies IAEA and WFP launch $1 million project to contain screwworm outbreak in Central America, Mexico amd US (sending beef prices there to near record highs) (LINK) — 19 June 2026

— The outbreak could be tackled through the release of flies treated with radiation to make them unable to reproduce, the agencies said. The sterile flies then mate with wild flies, reducing the population over time. Emergency response efforts could require up to 600 million sterile flies a week, they said. The only operational facility located in Panama now produces about 100 ?million. They said planned capacity in Metapa de Dominguez, Mexico, and Mission, Texas, could add up to 400 million sterile flies a week in coming years.

Solar power generates more energy than coal in the US for the first time ever (LINK) — 19 June 2026

China helped solar power hit record expansion levels by adding more than the rest of the world combined in 2025 — (LINK)

Lebanese turtle conservationist Mona Khalil killed by Israeli strike — wounded two weeks ago in her house on Mansouri beach, near the southern city of Tyre (LINK) — 19 June 2026

Unusual strategy helps some tropical butterflies live 25 times longer than their relatives: species have adapted to feed on pollen — even as adults — which could provide the insects with more energy. Pollen also contains lipids, which help with energy storage but also boost immunity (LINK) — 19 June 2026

Swiss government wants to strengthen medicine supply: plans to make it easier to import and manufacture medicines. Online sales of over-the-counter medicines are also set to become easier (LINK) — 19 June 2026

The Shroud of Turin: What the latest scientific evidence finally proves about "Jesus' burial cloth": five independent scientific clocks have completely shattered the medieval forgery narrative (LINK) — 19 June 2026

— The Queen Zone: The famous 1989 Nature study concluded with 95% confidence that the Shroud was a medieval fake dating to 1260 to 1390 AD. However, the raw data kept by the British Museum was hidden for decades until a legal request forced its release in 2017. A groundbreaking 2019 study published in Archaeometry analyzed this raw data and found it completely lacked statistical homogeneity. The single sample tested came from a heavily contaminated corner that had been invisibly repaired by medieval nuns. In fact, chemist Raymond Rogers proved this corner contains medieval dye and starch, whereas the main body of the Shroud does not. The Shroud's molecular decay perfectly matches that of a historical linen sample from the siege of Masada, dating to 55 to 74 AD. The reddish stains on the cloth are not artistic paint, but real human group AB blood. Furthermore, the blood soaked into the linen before the body image was formed, proving the cloth wrapped a real corpse.

Study: top 10% of consumers cost Earth $5.7 trillion in annual damage: 60 per cent live in the US and the European Union (EU), while only about two per cent are in India (LINK) — 18 June 2026

— The top 10% of American consumers face annual bills ranging from $19k to $63k per person, while India's top 10% face significantly lower costs between $410 and $1.4k, reflecting consumption inequality.

US: Key FDA committee unanimously recommends its first vaccine since 2023: Moderna's mRNA influenza vaccine, mFlusiva, for adults 50 and over (LINK) — 18 June 2026

Bird flu kills more than 75% of baby elephant seals, some 13,000, on remote Australian islands, study finds: "These observations of H5 bird flu at Heard Island and McDonald Island are the first detection in an Australian external territory and show the continued eastward movement of the virus." (LINK) — 17 June 2026

'Scientists were dead right': Al Gore says on 20th anniversary of 'An Inconvenient Truth' (LINK) — 17 June 2026

— In a review of key claims by the documentary, ABC News found that the majority of the scientific observations made in "An Inconvenient Truth" have come to fruition or are on track to in the years to come.

AI reveals 30,000 plant species face extinction, but digitisation and mathematical models can significantly help speed up the naming of new species and extinction assessments — Kew's State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2026 report (LINK) — 16 June 2026

— Eurekalert: 29,748 species of plants and 411 species of fungi are now threatened with extinction3, yet only a fraction of known species have been assessed (18% of plants and 0.6% of fungi). Fewer than 1,000 plant species have been formally declared extinct; many more are likely to have disappeared. Consequently, the true scale of extinctions has likely been underestimated. The challenge is compounded by the fact that over 100,000 plant species and more than 2 million fungal species are unknown to science (less than 10% of fungal life has been described to date), many of which could become extinct before being named and understood. The report comes as Kew completes a groundbreaking project, funded principally by the UK government through Defra, digitising all 7.4 million herbarium and fungarium specimens in its collections.

— In Costa Rica, researchers increased the country's known fungal diversity by nearly 20% by combining published records with digitised collections, providing new insights into how climate influences fungal distribution and establishing critical baselines for future research.

Researchers calculate incidence of sunlight in Switzerland: even the shadow cast by every single tree is recorded in a new map (LINK) — 16 June 2026

— swissinfo: The map depicts solar radiation across the whole of Switzerland with a resolution of ten metres. The data is available for every hour and every day over a full annual cycle. Around a third of precipitation in Switzerland falls as snow. The new data therefore helps with flood warnings and planning for hydropower.

Eastern Congo reports 782 Ebola cases and 181 deaths, authorities say, but may be higher: contact tracing coverage rate is at 56%, a sharp decrease from last week (LINK) — 14 June 2026

— Fifty-six people have recovered, and the current fatality rate of the outbreak is 23%. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, as well as Ituri, and have spread across the border to Uganda.

'This might be the point of no return': Experts on the current US measles outbreak (LINK) — 13 June 2026

Scientists concerned latest gene editing of human embryos could "open floodgates" (LINK) — 13 June 2026

Ebola spreads into new areas of DR Congo, including a crowded displacement camp: cases are being identified in new health zones on a near-daily basis (LINK) — 12 June 2026

'Lost Atlantis' finally found after 8,500 years: dating back to the Stone Age, it was found under the waters of Denmark's Bay of Aarhus (LINK) — 12 June 2026

El Niño now under way, threatens weather extremes, US scientists say: BBC: the three strongest events since 1950 have been in 1982/83, 1997/98 and 2015/16 (LINK) — 11 June 2026

Ebola cases in DRC surpass 600 as officials report struggles with community outreach: Health officials are following 5,681 contacts, but only 56% have been reached (LINK) — 10 June 2026

Scientists may have severely miscalculated how many humans are on Earth: we might be vastly underrepresenting rural areas (LINK) — 10 June 2026

An unexpected breakthrough: a high school student's AI uncovers 1.5 million previously invisible cosmic phenomena (LINK) — 9 June 2026

Sea ice loss in the Arctic has triggered a critical tipping point that's destroying the food chain (LINK) — 8 June 2026

— Researchers say the Arctic Ocean crossed a biological tipping point in 2009, when nitrate levels in the water suddenly started dropping due to a drastic reduction in sea ice extent.

Scientists from ETH Zurich injected magnetically controlled 'repair' microrobots into the injured spinal cords of fish and mice: they showed improved movement and normalized exploratory behaviour within just a few days: "after 28 days, the animals' nerve cells had reconnected" (LINK) — 7 June 2026

WEF on World Ocean Day: Why ocean health is key to global prosperity (LINK) — 7 June 2026

UN: Humanity's future depends on protecting the rapidly changing ocean (LINK) — 7 June 2026

Ebola outbreak live updates: DRC cases pass 450 and 82 deaths, Uganda confirmed three additional cases on Friday, putting its total at 19 confirmed cases and two deaths (LINK) — 7 June 2026

— Proposals to establish a 50-bed quarantine facility for U.S. citizens affected by the outbreak in DRC have provoked a public backlash in Kenya, although the country's president, William Ruto, said the plan was safe. Two people were reportedly killed last week amid a protest close to the Laikipia Air Base, where the facility is due to be placed. Kenya's high court temporarily blocked the quarantine facility, citing public health concerns.

WHO launches $518 million plan to curb Africa Ebola outbreak: donors pledge over $300 million so far (LINK) — 5 June 2026

Ebola outbreak in Central Africa could reach 20,000 cases without strong public health measures — US CDC (LINK) — 5 June 2026

Popular Arizona fishing lake forced to close after all its fish die (LINK) — 7 June 2026

Coming El Niño will be the strongest ever recorded, new forecast predicts: sea surface temperatures in a key region of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean will climb 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) above average by December of this year, with some scenarios showing they could go above 7.2 F (4 C): significantly stronger than the previous joint record holders of 2015 to 2016 and 1997 to 1998 (LINK) — 5 June 2026

US study finds working from home significantly increases isolation and worsens mental well-being, particularly for individuals living alone (LINK) — 5 June 2026

Mangrove forests, which store up to five times more carbon dioxide than land-based forests, are healing after decades of human destruction (LINK) — 5 June 2026

— From the 1980s to 2010, over 12,000 sq km of mangroves were cleared or destroyed across Asia, Africa and the Americas — an area the size of Jamaica. However, a new study shows a real reversal of that trend, particularly over the last decade. The total net losses — the forest lost and not replaced — since the 1980s have now been reduced to around 849 sq km.

'An equal and habitable world is possible': World Inequality Lab (WIL) academics, including Thomas Piketty, set out sweeping vision for planetary survival in Global Justice Report (LINK) — 4 June 2026

— Report offers a set of policy proposals, including hefty wealth taxes on billionaires, sharp reductions in working hours, a change in diets and a shift of investment from materially intense sectors, such as industry and mining, to education and health. If these and other measures are taken, the report says, the incomes of 89% of the world's population would double by 2100 and global heating would be kept below 2C above the preindustrial average.

Human embryo genes precisely edited for first time: targeted genes linked to heart disease and hemoglobin production (LINK) — 4 June 2026

Costa Rica paid landowners to restore forests and biodiversity — bioacoustics indicate that it worked (LINK) — 4 June 2026

Antibiotics use in livestock could rise by a third in next 15 years, FAO report warns: governments urged to act to prevent potentially disastrous impacts on human resistance to medicines (LINK) — 3 June 2026

— Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) already costs an estimated €11bn (£9.5bn) a year within Europe alone and is predicted to cost $1tn globally by 2050. AMR is forecast to kill tens of millions of people unless there is concerted action.

WHO says suspected Ebola cases drop to 116 after hundreds ruled out (LINK) — 2 June 2026

El Niño confirmed, set to fuel more extreme weather, says WMO: urged all countries on Tuesday to bolster early warning systems (LINK) — 2 June 2026

— According to WMO there is an 80 per cent chance that El Niño conditions will emerge between June and August and a 90 per cent probability of this happening thereafter. WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo: "The footprint of an El Niño travels far beyond its origins in the Pacific Ocean, impacting agriculture, energy supplies, trade, water resources, supply chains, and livelihoods across entire regions."

The UK government has set a target of an 87% cut in carbon emissions by 2042 despite pressure on energy supplies from global conflicts (LINK) — 2 June 2026

— The U.K. has a legally binding target, set in 2008, of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Painful side effect of statins explained after decades of mystery: tiny calcium gate inside muscle cells that statins may force open. The resulting calcium leak can damage muscle tissue (LINK) — 2 June 2026

Ebola outbreak spreading in Africa is 'likely far worse' than official figures suggest: IRC: only about 20% of contacts are currently being traced (LINK) — 1 June 2026