DNA

A Hamas militant involved in the kidnapping of an Israeli woman, captured on footage screaming as she was taken, has been killed in an airstrike. The report comes amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, with Israeli forces continuing targeted strikes against militants implicated in the October 7 attacks and the taking of hostages.

Researchers, including Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics, report that theoretical physics methods have helped reveal how extra-chromosomal DNA behaves inside tumour cells. These circular DNA fragments, separate from chromosomes, are known to drive cancer growth and drug resistance. Applying physics-based modelling to their molecular mechanisms offers new insight that could inform future cancer research and treatment strategies.

An Italian court has convicted three Egyptian security officials in absentia of kidnapping Giulio Regeni, the Cambridge doctoral student tortured and killed in Egypt in 2016. The verdict is the first judicial outcome in a case that strained relations between Italy and Egypt for years and has drawn attention from human rights groups and Italian media.

Three Egyptian security officials have been convicted in connection with the kidnapping of Giulio Regeni, the Italian student who was found dead near Cairo in 2016. The verdict, reported by the New York Times, marks a rare holding of Egyptian officials accountable in a case that has strained relations between Italy and Egypt for years.

Improved DNA detection methods are said to be creating a harder scientific question rather than simply solving existing ones. The claim, reported by European Scientist, suggests that as technology identifies smaller traces of genetic material, researchers face new challenges interpreting what those findings mean. Details of the specific methods or questions involved were not provided.

Mongabay has published an interview with Katie Heineman of the Frozen Zoo, the biobank that stores genetic samples from endangered and extinct wildlife species. Heineman discusses how preserved DNA and cell lines can support conservation research, breeding programmes and the long-term survival of threatened animals as habitats and populations decline worldwide.

Nepal has filed a $20 million claim under the UN loss-and-damage fund for flooding, but analysis shows this covers only about 0.7% of the country's actual flood-related costs. The gap highlights how international climate finance falls far short of the real damage developing countries face, raising questions about the fund's scale and adequacy as more nations submit claims.

A Nature study reports that the p53 protein, best known as a tumour suppressor, prevents chromothripsis — the shattering of chromosomes — by keeping transcription and DNA replication in balance. When p53 is missing or inactive, these processes collide, causing catastrophic genome damage that can drive cancer development. The finding links a classic cancer gene to a new mechanism of genome protection, and researchers say it may refine how tumour evolution and genome instability are understood.