Broad Institute

The 2026 Solvay Public Lectures, titled 'Gravitational Waves: From Cosmology to Black Holes', will take place on 25 October in Brussels. The annual conference for the general public will feature a panel with Alessandra Buonanno, director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam. The event continues the Solvay tradition of bringing leading physicists before a broad audience.

Researchers at Michigan Medicine have published new findings on lipodystrophy, a rare disorder in which the body is unable to maintain healthy fat tissue. The work offers fresh insight into how the condition can influence overall health, including metabolic complications often associated with the loss of fat tissue. The findings may help clinicians better understand and manage the disorder's wider effects on patients.

The Hoover Institution has released a new episode of its Nerds of the Roundtable series focused on the 'Distributed Space Age', examining how space activity is shifting from a few state-led programs to a broad network of commercial companies, startups and international actors. The discussion has drawn significant attention from space policy watchers tracking the changing landscape of orbit and exploration.

A clinical trial testing a drug candidate for prion disease has started enrolling participants, according to the Broad Institute. Prion diseases, such as fatal familial insomnia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, are rare, rapidly fatal neurodegenerative conditions with no approved treatment, so the start of a trial is a significant step for affected families and researchers. Details on the drug's mechanism, trial size, and timeline were not provided.

During Supreme Court arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts asked a lawyer what should happen given a climate case's potential consequences for the United States. The exchange came in a closely watched climate lawsuit whose outcome could shape litigation and policy nationwide. Observers flagged Roberts' questioning as a sign of the justices weighing broad institutional and economic effects before deciding the case.

New York University is hosting a public conversation with political scientist Christina Greer on the state of New York politics and American democracy more broadly. Greer, a Fordham professor and frequent media commentator, is known for her analysis of race, elections and urban politics. The event draws attention as national debate over democratic institutions remains intense ahead of the next election cycle.

Health care pricing, long hidden from patients, has moved toward broad disclosure requirements in the United States, and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Leonard Davis Institute are examining what that shift means. The debate now centers on whether patients and buyers are getting so much raw price data that it is hard to use, and how transparency can be turned into real savings.

Harvard University is hosting a discussion examining what role diversity and pluralism should play in higher education. The debate comes amid ongoing scrutiny in the United States over university admissions, campus climate and how institutions balance intellectual variety with representation. Observers are weighing whether universities should prioritise a broad range of viewpoints, demographic diversity, or both, as colleges face political and public pressure over their practices.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics reports that global growth remains solid despite a difficult economic environment. The assessment points to continued expansion worldwide even as economies face headwinds, offering a measured but broadly reassuring view of the international outlook.

Commenters are clashing over whether other countries should act on a social issue inside another sovereign state. One writer calls such expectations 'infantile', arguing the dispute is really about economic redistribution and that cross-border intervention makes no sense. They stress the issue concerns Singapore specifically as an institutional destination, not 'NanYang' broadly, framing it as a question of sovereignty versus outside pressure.

An ICC judge, identified as Kimberly Prost, has discussed in an interview with NPR what U.S. sanctions imposed under the Trump administration mean for her personally and for international courts more broadly. The sanctions target officials of the International Criminal Court, raising concerns about their effect on judicial independence and international justice work.

Researchers at the University of Auckland, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the University of Maryland report demonstrating an octave-spanning chip-scale microcomb, with the work published in Nature. The device packs broad-spectrum frequency comb generation onto a compact photonic chip, a step relevant to precision timing, telecommunications and quantum technologies. Coverage so far comes mainly from specialist outlets focused on photonics and quantum computing.

KAIST has announced a 'Physical AI' platform strategy that moves beyond humanoid robots, laying out an approach to embedding artificial intelligence in physical systems more broadly. Details of the announcement remain limited, but the framing suggests the institute wants to position itself in the fast-growing field of AI integrated with real-world robotics and hardware, an area currently dominated by humanoid-focused projects.

World Bank President Ajay Banga said the institution is in talks with dozens of countries about crisis aid, as reported by Reuters and Thai PBS World. The discussions point to a broad wave of requests for financial support from governments under economic strain. The exact countries involved and the scale of potential assistance have not been detailed.

Investor attention is on the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF, known by the ticker BOTZ, which tracks companies working in robotics and AI. The fund is a popular way for retail and institutional investors to gain broad exposure to automation and artificial intelligence stocks, and its price and holdings are being watched closely as interest in the AI sector remains high.

CFTC data shows leveraged funds reduced their Bitcoin futures short positions by 5,300 BTC-equivalent in the week to September 29. However, long positions also shrank during the same period, and total open interest across Bitcoin futures contracts fell 13.3%. Analysts are weighing whether the reduction in shorts signals bullish sentiment among leveraged traders or simply a broad pullback from futures markets, with falling open interest suggesting overall deleveraging rather than a clear directional bet.

A survey by asset manager Robeco has found that 82% of institutional investors expect climate risks to affect asset prices over the next decade. The findings suggest climate change is now widely viewed as a material financial factor, shaping how investors assess valuations, portfolio risk and long-term returns across markets.

Scientists at the Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences are highlighting what observations of gas falling into a dead star reveal about the universe. Such accretion events around stellar remnants like white dwarfs or neutron stars help researchers test physics under extreme gravity and better understand how matter behaves in space.