Lead Story
Nepal's wild tiger population climbs to a record 429, nearly quadrupling since 2010
Nepal's Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Environment announced on July 29, Global Tiger Day, that the country's national tiger census now counts 429 wild tigers, up from 355 in the 2022 survey and nearly four times the 121 recorded in 2010. The count, conducted between December 2025 and July 2026 by Nepal's national park and forestry departments with support from NTNC, WWF Nepal and ZSL Nepal, puts Nepal ahead of Indonesia in the global tiger rankings, behind only India and Russia. Chitwan National Park held the largest population at 145, followed by Bardiya, Parsa, Banke and Shuklaphanta. Nepal is now among a small handful of countries that have not just halted the decline of wild tigers but decisively reversed it within a decade and a half, though conservationists cautioned the country's forests have an estimated carrying capacity of around 400 tigers, meaning further habitat expansion will be needed to sustain the gains.
Read more →Lead Story
Nepal's wild tiger population climbs to a record 429, nearly quadrupling since 2010
Nepal's Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Environment announced on July 29, Global Tiger Day, that the country's national tiger census now counts 429 wild tigers, up from 355 in the 2022 survey and nearly four times the 121 recorded in 2010. The count, conducted between December 2025 and July 2026 by Nepal's national park and forestry departments with support from NTNC, WWF Nepal and ZSL Nepal, puts Nepal ahead of Indonesia in the global tiger rankings, behind only India and Russia. Chitwan National Park held the largest population at 145, followed by Bardiya, Parsa, Banke and Shuklaphanta. Nepal is now among a small handful of countries that have not just halted the decline of wild tigers but decisively reversed it within a decade and a half, though conservationists cautioned the country's forests have an estimated carrying capacity of around 400 tigers, meaning further habitat expansion will be needed to sustain the gains.
New nanoscale alloy is up to 10 times stronger than steel while staying bendable
Materials scientists at Purdue University have developed a cobalt-aluminum nanolaminate that breaks the usual tradeoff between strength and flexibility in metals, achieving a yield strength of roughly 6 gigapascals, six to ten times that of high-strength structural steel, while still sustaining 15% plastic deformation under room-temperature compression. Bulk cobalt-aluminum compounds are prized for their strength but have historically been too brittle to be useful; the Purdue team overcame this by deliberately engineering imperfections into the material's structure at the nanoscale, published July 29. The researchers say the resulting alloy could enable tougher turbine blades and higher-performance engines, letting components spin faster and withstand greater centrifugal force without failing.
Read more →New nanoscale alloy is up to 10 times stronger than steel while staying bendable
Materials scientists at Purdue University have developed a cobalt-aluminum nanolaminate that breaks the usual tradeoff between strength and flexibility in metals, achieving a yield strength of roughly 6 gigapascals, six to ten times that of high-strength structural steel, while still sustaining 15% plastic deformation under room-temperature compression. Bulk cobalt-aluminum compounds are prized for their strength but have historically been too brittle to be useful; the Purdue team overcame this by deliberately engineering imperfections into the material's structure at the nanoscale, published July 29. The researchers say the resulting alloy could enable tougher turbine blades and higher-performance engines, letting components spin faster and withstand greater centrifugal force without failing.
FDA approves once-weekly contraceptive patch, expanding birth control options
The FDA approved Gwyn Lo, a once-weekly contraceptive patch combining ethinyl estradiol and norelgestromin, on July 28. The approval gives women a lower-maintenance alternative to daily birth control pills, requiring just one patch change per week instead of a daily pill, which health advocates say could improve adherence and access for patients who struggle with daily dosing schedules. The approval was one of several the agency issued in late July, alongside treatments for ADHD, wet age-related macular degeneration and previously treated lung cancer, as part of a broader wave of new drug clearances.
Read more →FDA approves once-weekly contraceptive patch, expanding birth control options
The FDA approved Gwyn Lo, a once-weekly contraceptive patch combining ethinyl estradiol and norelgestromin, on July 28. The approval gives women a lower-maintenance alternative to daily birth control pills, requiring just one patch change per week instead of a daily pill, which health advocates say could improve adherence and access for patients who struggle with daily dosing schedules. The approval was one of several the agency issued in late July, alongside treatments for ADHD, wet age-related macular degeneration and previously treated lung cancer, as part of a broader wave of new drug clearances.
New chemical process turns mixed plastic waste directly into clean hydrogen fuel
Engineers at UCLA and Ewha Womans University in South Korea have demonstrated a process called alkaline thermal treatment that converts mixed PET, polyethylene and polypropylene waste, without any sorting by plastic type, into hydrogen gas exceeding 90% purity. The reaction runs at temperatures 300 to 400 degrees Celsius lower than conventional steam gasification and locks the carbon released during the process away as a solid mineral rather than releasing it as carbon dioxide. The advance, detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, addresses a major recycling bottleneck: because most recycling requires labor-intensive sorting by plastic type, only about 9% of discarded plastic is actually recycled today, while nearly 80% ends up in landfills. Researchers say further work is needed to optimize the process and confirm its economics before it can scale up.
Read more →New chemical process turns mixed plastic waste directly into clean hydrogen fuel
Engineers at UCLA and Ewha Womans University in South Korea have demonstrated a process called alkaline thermal treatment that converts mixed PET, polyethylene and polypropylene waste, without any sorting by plastic type, into hydrogen gas exceeding 90% purity. The reaction runs at temperatures 300 to 400 degrees Celsius lower than conventional steam gasification and locks the carbon released during the process away as a solid mineral rather than releasing it as carbon dioxide. The advance, detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, addresses a major recycling bottleneck: because most recycling requires labor-intensive sorting by plastic type, only about 9% of discarded plastic is actually recycled today, while nearly 80% ends up in landfills. Researchers say further work is needed to optimize the process and confirm its economics before it can scale up.
Three-year trial finds daily multivitamin helps older adults stay stronger and more independent
Findings presented July 25-28 at NUTRITION 2026, the American Society for Nutrition's annual meeting, showed that older adults who took a daily multivitamin for three years reported significantly better functional health than those given a placebo. The analysis drew on more than 16,000 participants aged 60 and over in the COSMOS trial, and found the multivitamin group better preserved the strength, stamina and cognitive sharpness needed for everyday tasks like walking, climbing stairs, dressing and household chores. The results are preliminary and have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and researchers stressed that supplements should complement, not replace, a balanced diet and regular activity, but the study adds to evidence that a low-cost daily multivitamin could help many older adults stay independent for longer.
Read more →Three-year trial finds daily multivitamin helps older adults stay stronger and more independent
Findings presented July 25-28 at NUTRITION 2026, the American Society for Nutrition's annual meeting, showed that older adults who took a daily multivitamin for three years reported significantly better functional health than those given a placebo. The analysis drew on more than 16,000 participants aged 60 and over in the COSMOS trial, and found the multivitamin group better preserved the strength, stamina and cognitive sharpness needed for everyday tasks like walking, climbing stairs, dressing and household chores. The results are preliminary and have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and researchers stressed that supplements should complement, not replace, a balanced diet and regular activity, but the study adds to evidence that a low-cost daily multivitamin could help many older adults stay independent for longer.