Lead Story
FDA approves first-ever drug to directly target Alexander disease
The FDA has approved zilganersen (brand name Zanvastro), developed by Ionis Pharmaceuticals, as the first treatment aimed directly at Alexander disease, a rare and severe genetic brain disorder affecting fewer than one in a million people, with the approval covering both children and adults. The antisense drug, given as a spinal injection every 12 weeks, lowers production of the GFAP protein that builds up toxically in brain cells and drives the disease; in the pivotal trial, treated patients aged five and older showed significantly stabilised walking speed compared with untreated patients. Coverage of the approval spread widely in the week of October 12 as Ionis prepared its US launch.
Read more →Lead Story
FDA approves first-ever drug to directly target Alexander disease
The FDA has approved zilganersen (brand name Zanvastro), developed by Ionis Pharmaceuticals, as the first treatment aimed directly at Alexander disease, a rare and severe genetic brain disorder affecting fewer than one in a million people, with the approval covering both children and adults. The antisense drug, given as a spinal injection every 12 weeks, lowers production of the GFAP protein that builds up toxically in brain cells and drives the disease; in the pivotal trial, treated patients aged five and older showed significantly stabilised walking speed compared with untreated patients. Coverage of the approval spread widely in the week of October 12 as Ionis prepared its US launch.
Vienna physicists unveil first self-stabilising nuclear clock, a leap for ultra-precise timekeeping
Researchers at TU Wien in Vienna published a paper in Nature on October 7 describing the first self-stabilising nuclear clock, which uses a laser-driven thorium-229 crystal to correct drift in its own laser rather than relying on a separate atomic clock for calibration, running autonomously for more than 24 hours in tests. The device reaches a precision of roughly one second of error in 30 million years, not yet matching the best optical atomic clocks but opening a more compact approach to ultra-precise timekeeping that could sharpen GPS, fundamental-physics tests and future definitions of time. A rival team at Tsinghua University in Beijing published a related nuclear-clock advance the same day.
Read more →Vienna physicists unveil first self-stabilising nuclear clock, a leap for ultra-precise timekeeping
Researchers at TU Wien in Vienna published a paper in Nature on October 7 describing the first self-stabilising nuclear clock, which uses a laser-driven thorium-229 crystal to correct drift in its own laser rather than relying on a separate atomic clock for calibration, running autonomously for more than 24 hours in tests. The device reaches a precision of roughly one second of error in 30 million years, not yet matching the best optical atomic clocks but opening a more compact approach to ultra-precise timekeeping that could sharpen GPS, fundamental-physics tests and future definitions of time. A rival team at Tsinghua University in Beijing published a related nuclear-clock advance the same day.
Australia's rooftop solar sets new national record as spring sunshine floods the grid
Rooftop solar output on Australia's National Electricity Market hit an all-time high of 17,488 megawatts at midday on October 11, beating the previous record of 16,993 MW set less than a month earlier, with Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales each setting their own regional peaks within the same week. The surge briefly required grid operators to curtail roughly 82 gigawatt-hours of solar output on October 11 alone, among the highest single-day curtailment totals recorded since 2018, underscoring both the pace of rooftop solar adoption and the scale of the grid upgrades still needed to put all of it to use.
Read more →Australia's rooftop solar sets new national record as spring sunshine floods the grid
Rooftop solar output on Australia's National Electricity Market hit an all-time high of 17,488 megawatts at midday on October 11, beating the previous record of 16,993 MW set less than a month earlier, with Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales each setting their own regional peaks within the same week. The surge briefly required grid operators to curtail roughly 82 gigawatt-hours of solar output on October 11 alone, among the highest single-day curtailment totals recorded since 2018, underscoring both the pace of rooftop solar adoption and the scale of the grid upgrades still needed to put all of it to use.
Indonesia relocates eight orangutans to protected forest as Borneo wildfire rescues near 50
Indonesian conservation authorities and the rescue group YIARI moved eight endangered orangutans, including three mothers with young and two adolescent males, to the protected Batu Nyambu forest in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, between October 9 and 11, after wildfires damaged parts of their habitat on Borneo. Officials say 46 orangutans have been rescued from fire-affected areas since August in West Kalimantan alone, during what Reuters describes as Indonesia's most intense wildfire season in 11 years, with El Nino worsening conditions the government expects to persist into November.
Read more →Indonesia relocates eight orangutans to protected forest as Borneo wildfire rescues near 50
Indonesian conservation authorities and the rescue group YIARI moved eight endangered orangutans, including three mothers with young and two adolescent males, to the protected Batu Nyambu forest in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, between October 9 and 11, after wildfires damaged parts of their habitat on Borneo. Officials say 46 orangutans have been rescued from fire-affected areas since August in West Kalimantan alone, during what Reuters describes as Indonesia's most intense wildfire season in 11 years, with El Nino worsening conditions the government expects to persist into November.
Oregon State chemists design metal-free crystal that splits water into hydrogen using sunlight
Engineers at Oregon State University, led by Kyriakos Stylianou, reported a new sulfur-based crystal called BVR-19 that uses sunlight to split water and produce hydrogen without relying on platinum or other expensive metal catalysts; light breaks a sulfur-sulfur bond in the material, and the resulting reactive sulfur species drive hydrogen production rather than any metal centre. A zinc-based variant, BVR-19-Zn, produced 938 micromoles of hydrogen per hour per gram of catalyst in lab tests, and the material forms in water at room temperature. The work remains at the laboratory stage, but the team says the design rules it reveals could help make green hydrogen production cheaper.
Read more →Oregon State chemists design metal-free crystal that splits water into hydrogen using sunlight
Engineers at Oregon State University, led by Kyriakos Stylianou, reported a new sulfur-based crystal called BVR-19 that uses sunlight to split water and produce hydrogen without relying on platinum or other expensive metal catalysts; light breaks a sulfur-sulfur bond in the material, and the resulting reactive sulfur species drive hydrogen production rather than any metal centre. A zinc-based variant, BVR-19-Zn, produced 938 micromoles of hydrogen per hour per gram of catalyst in lab tests, and the material forms in water at room temperature. The work remains at the laboratory stage, but the team says the design rules it reveals could help make green hydrogen production cheaper.