Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 21 July 2026 · From issue 09

In lab tests, a low-polarity liquid made clay let fluid through far faster than expected.

Peihao Ouyang, Shijin Feng et al., Fluid polarity shifts initiate and amplify preferential flow in clay-rich media, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Also in issue 09 15 papers

In mice, restoring a thymus hormone calmed inflamed immune cells and improved cancer treatment in old age.
Nature Communications
In monkeys, opening the brain's shield on one side made the opposite side work harder for oxygen.
Science Advances
In a model, healthier diets by 2050 would cut global farm value by 1.6 trillion dollars.
Nature
A DNA study found 11 gene locations linked to borderline personality disorder.
Nature Genetics
Body size, diet, and brain size predict extinction risk in large tropical mammals across scales.
Science Advances
In mouse embryos, distinct heart regions stretch in separate patterns as a simple tube becomes a curved chamber.
eLife
Children's science biographies often teach that talent and interest are fixed, not built through effort.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Pregnancy problems like preeclampsia and gestational diabetes raise poor leg and arm blood flow risk decades later.
PLOS Medicine
In space telescope data, five massive stars show clear wind gas speeding away.
The Astrophysical Journal
In lab experiments, scientists captured a never-before-seen reactive gold-nitrogen chemical and watched it react in many ways.
Nature Chemistry
Squeezing matter under huge pressure while keeping it cold reveals mostly unexplored physics.
Physical Review Letters
In trees, some wood building genes stayed the same for 300 million years, others changed.
Nature Communications
No path exists to make all ammonia production pollution-free by 2050, a new model shows.
Nature Communications
New computer models predict which heart channel gene changes cause dangerous rhythm problems.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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