The returning crew included NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Their SpaceX Dragon capsule touched down at 12:41 a.m. PST, after which recovery teams aboard SpaceX vessels quickly secured the spacecraft and assisted the astronauts.

Science Success and International Collaboration

“I couldn’t be prouder of our astronauts and the teams on the ground at NASA, SpaceX, and across our international partnerships,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Their professionalism and focus kept the mission on track, even with an adjusted timeline. Crew-11 completed more than 140 science experiments that advance human exploration. Missions like Crew-11 demonstrate the capability inherent in America’s space program — our ability to bring astronauts home as needed, launch new crews quickly, and continue pushing forward on human spaceflight as we prepare for our historic Artemis II mission, from low Earth orbit to the Moon and ultimately Mars.”

Over the course of the mission, the crew devoted hundreds of hours to scientific research, station maintenance, and testing new technologies. They also marked a historic milestone on Nov. 2, 2025, celebrating 25 years of uninterrupted human presence aboard the orbiting laboratory. Research conducted on the space station continues to expand scientific understanding while supporting future missions beyond Earth orbit.

Early Return Due to Medical Concern

Crew-11 returned to Earth about one month earlier than planned after teams identified a medical concern involving one crew member. NASA confirmed the individual remains stable but did not release further details to protect medical privacy.

Ahead of the return, NASA arranged for all four astronauts to be transported to a local hospital following splashdown. This allowed the crew to receive additional medical evaluation using Earth-based resources. After a planned overnight stay, the astronauts will travel to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they will begin standard postflight evaluations and physical reconditioning.

Mission Timeline and Time in Orbit

The Crew-11 mission began on Aug.1, 2025, with a launch at 11:43 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Approximately 15 hours later, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space Station at 1:27 a.m. CDT on Aug. 2.

During their 167 days in space, the crew completed more than 2,670 orbits of Earth and traveled nearly 71 million miles. The mission marked the fourth spaceflight for Mike Fincke and the second for Kimiya Yui, while Zena Cardman and Oleg Platonov flew their first missions. Fincke has now accumulated 549 total days in space, placing him fourth among NASA astronauts for cumulative time spent in orbit.

Commercial Crew Program and Future Missions

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program continues to provide consistent access to space by partnering with private U.S. companies, including SpaceX. These collaborations allow astronauts to travel to and from the International Space Station while maximizing the station’s role as a hub for research and technology development.

The successful return of Crew-11 highlights the program’s ability to support complex missions, respond to unexpected challenges, and keep human spaceflight moving forward as NASA prepares for future exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Scientists led by the University of Leeds launched the largest and longest experiment ever designed to examine how nutrients shape forest regrowth. The work focused on tropical areas previously cleared for activities such as logging and agriculture.

Tracking Forest Regrowth Over Decades

The researchers selected 76 forest plots across Central America and monitored them for as long as 20 years. Each site differed in age and size, allowing the team to follow how trees grew and died as forests recovered over time.

To test the role of nutrients, the plots received different treatments. Some were given nitrogen fertilizer, others phosphorus fertilizer, some received both nutrients, and some were left untreated. This approach allowed the scientists to directly compare how forests responded under different soil conditions.

Nitrogen Emerges as a Key Driver

The results showed that soil nutrients strongly influence how quickly tropical forests regrow. During the first 10 years of recovery, forests with adequate nitrogen rebounded at about twice the rate of those lacking it. Phosphorus alone did not produce the same effect.

The study included researchers from the University of Glasgow, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Yale University, Princeton University, Cornell University, the National University of Singapore, and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. The findings were published on January 13 in the journal Nature Communications.

Implications for Climate and Reforestation

Lead author Wenguang Tang, who carried out the research while completing his PHD at the University of Leeds, said: “Our study is exciting because it suggests there are ways we can boost the capture and storage of greenhouse gases through reforestation by managing the nutrients available to trees.”

Although nitrogen fertilizer was used in the experiment, the researchers do not recommend fertilizing forests. Widespread fertilizer use could lead to harmful side effects, including emissions of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Instead, the team suggests practical alternatives. Forest managers could plant trees from the legume (bean) family, which naturally add nitrogen to the soil. Another option is restoring forests in areas that already have sufficient nitrogen due to the effects of air pollution.

Why Faster Regrowth Matters for the Climate

Tropical forests are among the world’s most important carbon sinks. They help slow climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees, a process known as carbon sequestration.

The researchers estimate that if nitrogen shortages affect young tropical forests worldwide, about 0.69 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide may be failing to be stored each year. That amount is roughly equal to two years of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in the U.K.

Policy Relevance After COP 30

The study is released just weeks after the close of COP 30 in Brazil, where the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) fund was announced. The initiative aims to help tropical forest countries protect existing forests and restore those that have been damaged.

Principal investigator Dr. Sarah Batterman, an Associate Professor in Leeds’ School of Geography, said: “Our experimental findings have implications for how we understand and manage tropical forests for natural climate solutions.

“Avoiding deforestation of mature tropical forests should always be prioritized, but our findings about nutrient impacts on carbon sequestration is important as policymakers evaluate where and how to restore forests to maximize carbon sequestration.”

The research, recently published in Nature, introduces a redesigned OLED that combines a flexible phosphorescent polymer layer with transparent electrodes made from MXene nanomaterial. This approach allows the display to stretch up to 1.6 times its original length while retaining most of its brightness.

“This study addresses a longstanding challenge in flexible OLED technology, namely, the durability of its luminescence after repeated mechanical flexion,” said Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering. “While the advances creating flexible light-emitting diodes have been substantial, progress has leveled off in the last decade due to limitations introduced by the transparent conductor layer, limiting their stretchability.”

Why OLEDs Lose Performance When Bent

OLEDs generate light through a process known as electroluminescence. When electricity flows through the device, positive and negative charges move between electrodes and pass through an organic polymer layer. When these charges meet, they release light and form a particle called an exciton before settling into a stable electrical state. Adjusting the chemical composition of the organic layer determines the color of the emitted light.

Flexible OLEDs are made by depositing these layers onto bendable plastic substrates, allowing them to function while folded, bent, or rolled. The technology was first developed in the 1990s and became widely visible in the 2010s when Samsung incorporated flexible displays into shatter-resistant devices and curved-edge phones. Over time, however, it became clear that repeated bending caused OLED brightness and flexibility to decline due to gradual damage in the electrodes and organic materials.

“Imparting conducting materials with flexibility usually involves incorporating an insulating but stretchable polymer that hinders charge transport and, as a result, reduces light emission,” said Danzhen Zhang, PhD, a co-author and postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University, who conducted early work on transparent conductive MXene films as a PhD student in Gogotsi’s lab at Drexel. “In addition, the material most commonly used in electrodes can become brittle and more likely to break the longer the OLED is flexed and stretched. This issue was addressed by using MXene-contact stretchable electrodes, which feature high mechanical robustness and tunable work function, ensuring efficient hole or electron injection.”

A New Light-Emitting Layer

To overcome these challenges, the researchers redesigned the light-emitting portion of the OLED. Their solution uses a specialized organic layer that increases how often electrical charges combine to form excitons, leading to stronger light output.

This material, called an exciplex-assisted phosphorescent (ExciPh) layer, is naturally stretchable and engineered to adjust the energy levels of moving charges. By making it easier for charges to meet and form excitons, the layer boosts light production, similar to slowing a spinning ride so more people can step on safely.

More than 57% of excitons created in the ExciPh layer are converted into light. In comparison, the polymer-based emissive layers commonly used in today’s OLEDs achieve only a 12-22% conversation efficiency rate.

To further improve flexibility, the team incorporated a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer matrix into the ExciPh layer. They also focused on improving how electrical charges move through the device by redesigning the electrodes.

MXene Electrodes Boost Durability and Brightness

The new electrodes combine MXene, a highly conductive two-dimensional nanomaterial developed by Drexel researchers in 2011, with silver nanowires. Together, these materials form a conductive network that helps electrical charges reach the light-emitting polymer layer more efficiently before forming excitons.

This structure improves charge injection and allows the OLED to maintain its brightness even while being bent and stretched.

“Owing to their exceptional conductivity and layered form, MXenes provide an exceptional electrode material for flexible OLEDs,” Gogotsi said. “We have demonstrated the performance of flexible, transparent MXene electrodes in multiple applications; thus, including them in efforts to improve OLED technology is a natural step for our research.”

Testing OLEDs Under Repeated Strain

Using these combined improvements, the researchers produced flexible green OLED displays, including one shaped like a heart and another showing numerical digits. They measured the charge-to-exciton conversion rate — a measure of the OLEDs’ ability to efficiently produce light — along with performance during repeated stretching.

To demonstrate broader potential, researchers at Seoul National University also built a full-color, fully stretchable OLED display using four dopant materials within the ExciPh layer. In addition, they created fully stretchable passive-matrix OLEDs that showcase a simple, low-power design suitable for wearable electronics.

Compared with previous designs, the new OLEDs showed higher brightness and better energy efficiency. When stretched to 60% of their maximum strain, performance dropped by only 10.6%. After 100 cycles of repeated stretching at 2% strain, the displays retained 83% of their light output, indicating significantly improved durability.

Toward Wearable and Deformable Displays

“We anticipate the success of this approach to designing flexible, high-efficiency optoelectronic devices will enable the next generation of wearable and deformable displays,” said Teng Zhang, PhD, a co-author and former post-doctoral researcher in Gogotsi’s lab. “This technology will play an important role in real-time health care monitoring and wearable communications technology.

Future work may involve testing alternative flexible substrates, fine-tuning organic layers to produce different colors and brightness levels, and simplifying the manufacturing process to support large-scale production of stretchable OLED devices.

Statins are commonly prescribed to lower LDL cholesterol, what many people know as bad cholesterol. High LDL levels are linked to clogged arteries, heart attacks, and strokes. People with type 2 diabetes already face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, but doctors have not always agreed on whether statins are necessary for those whose short-term heart risk appears minimal. The new findings suggest that statins may offer protective effects for a much wider group of diabetes patients than previously believed. The study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The research team, led by scientists from the University of Hong Kong, examined health records from the IQVIA Medical Research Data (IMRD)-UK database. Their goal was to assess both the effectiveness and safety of starting statin therapy for primary prevention. Primary prevention refers to preventing a first heart attack or stroke before any such event has occurred.

The study focused on adults in the United Kingdom with type 2 diabetes between the ages of 25 and 84. Participants were followed for as long as 10 years. At the start of the study, none of the individuals had serious heart disease or significant liver problems, allowing researchers to more clearly assess the effects of statins without interference from existing severe conditions.

Statins Reduced Death and Heart Events at Every Risk Level

Researchers compared people who began taking statins with those who did not, grouping them based on their predicted 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease. This risk estimate is commonly used in clinical practice to guide treatment decisions.

Across all risk categories, statin use was linked to lower rates of death from any cause and fewer major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. Even participants classified as low risk experienced measurable benefits, which directly challenges the assumption that statins only help people already at high risk of heart disease.

Safety Findings and What They Mean for Patients

In terms of safety, the researchers observed a very small increase in myopathy in one risk group. Myopathy refers to muscle-related side effects, which can include weakness or soreness and are a known but uncommon concern with statin use. No increase in liver-related problems was found, addressing another common worry among patients and clinicians.

Based on these results, the authors concluded that doctors should carefully consider the advantages of statin therapy for all adults with type 2 diabetes, even when a person’s short-term predicted risk of cardiovascular disease is low. The findings suggest that relying solely on short-term risk estimates may cause some patients to miss out on treatments that could help them live longer and avoid serious heart complications.

This approach works well when explaining how electricity flows through metals. Physicists often describe electric current as electrons speeding through a material, pushed or redirected by electromagnetic forces as they move.

Why the Particle Picture Usually Works

Many modern theories also rely on this particle-based view, including the idea of topological states of matter. These states are so important that their discovery was recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016. Despite their advanced mathematics, these theories still assume electrons behave like particles with defined motion.

However, researchers have found that this picture does not apply to every material (see publication below). In some cases, electrons no longer behave like individual particles with a clear position or a single, well-defined velocity.

Topology Without Particles

Scientists at TU Wien have now demonstrated that even when the particle picture fails, materials can still display topological properties. Until now, these properties were thought to depend on particle-like behavior.

This finding reveals something unexpected. Topological states are not limited to systems where electrons act like particles. Instead, these states turn out to be far more universal, bringing together ideas that once seemed incompatible.

When the Particle Picture No Longer Makes Sense

“The classical picture of electrons as small particles that suffer collisions as they flow through a material as an electric current is surprisingly robust,” says Prof. Silke Bühler-Paschen from the Institute of Solid State Physics at TU Wien. “With certain refinements, it works even in complex materials where electrons interact strongly with one another.”

There are, however, extreme cases where this description breaks down entirely. In these situations, the charge carriers lose their particle-like nature. This behavior appears in a compound made of cerium, ruthenium and tin (CeRu₄Sn₆), which researchers at TU Wien studied at extremely low temperatures.

“Near absolute zero, it exhibits a specific type of quantum-critical behavior,” says Diana Kirschbaum, first author of the current publication. “The material fluctuates between two different states, as if it cannot decide which one it wants to adopt. In this fluctuating regime, the quasiparticle picture is thought to lose its meaning.”

Topology Explained With Rolls and Donuts

At the same time, theoretical work suggested that this same material should host topological states. “The term topology comes from mathematics, where it is used to distinguish certain geometric structures,” explains Silke Bühler-Paschen.

“For example, an apple is topologically equivalent to a bread roll, because the roll can be continuously deformed into the shape of an apple. A roll is topologically different from a donut, however, because the donut has a hole that cannot be created by continuous deformation.”

Physicists use similar ideas to describe states of matter. Properties such as particle energy, velocity, and even the orientation of spin relative to motion can follow strict geometric patterns. These patterns are remarkably stable. Minor imperfections in a material do not erase them, just as small changes in shape cannot transform a donut into an apple.

This stability makes topological effects especially appealing for technologies like quantum data storage, advanced sensors, and methods of guiding electric currents without using magnetic fields.

A Theory That Should Not Have Worked

Although topology may sound abstract, past theories still depended on the assumption that particles have well-defined motion. “These theories assume that one is describing something with well-defined velocities and energies,” explains Diana Kirschbaum.

“But such well-defined velocities and energies do not seem to exist in our material, because it exhibits a form of quantum-critical behavior that is considered to be incompatible with a particle picture. Nevertheless, simple theoretical approaches that ignore these non-particle-like properties had previously predicted that the material should show topological characteristics.”

This created a puzzling contradiction between theory and physical behavior.

Curiosity Leads to a Breakthrough

Because of this conflict, Bühler-Paschen’s team was initially reluctant to pursue the theoretical prediction further. Over time, curiosity won out, and Diana Kirschbaum began looking for experimental signs of topology.

At temperatures less than one degree above absolute zero, she observed a clear signal. The material displayed a spontaneous (anomalous) Hall effect, a phenomenon normally caused when charge carriers are deflected by a magnetic field.

In this case, however, the deflection appeared without any external magnetic field at all. Instead, it arose from the material’s topological properties. Even more striking, the charge carriers behaved as if they were particles, despite strong evidence that the particle picture should not apply.

“This was the key insight that allowed us to demonstrate beyond doubt that the prevailing view must be revised,” says Silke Bühler-Paschen.

“And there is more,” adds Diana Kirschbaum. “The topological effect is strongest precisely where the material exhibits the largest fluctuations. When these fluctuations are suppressed by pressure or magnetic fields, the topological properties disappear.”

A Broader View of Topological Matter

“This was a huge surprise,” says Silke Bühler-Paschen. “It shows that topological states should be defined in generalized terms.”

The researchers describe the newly identified phase as an emergent topological semimetal. They worked with collaborators at Rice University in Texas, where Lei Chen (co-first author of the publication), part of Prof. Qimiao Si’s research group, developed a theoretical model that successfully links quantum criticality with topology.

“In fact, it turns out that a particle picture is not required to generate topological properties,” says Bühler-Paschen. “The concept can indeed be generalized — the topological distinctions then emerge in a more abstract, mathematical way. And more than that: our experiments suggest that topological properties can even arise because particle-like states are absent.”

New Paths to Discover Quantum Materials

The discovery also has practical importance. It suggests a new way to search for topological materials by focusing on systems that exhibit quantum-critical behavior.

“We now know that it is worthwhile — perhaps even particularly worthwhile — to search for topological properties in quantum-critical materials,” Bühler-Paschen says. “Because quantum-critical behavior occurs in many classes of materials and can be reliably identified, this connection may allow many new ’emergent’ topological materials to be discovered.”

For years, studies have shown that conditions such as hyperglycemia, diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus, and insulin resistance are linked to poorer brain health. These metabolic problems have been associated with higher chances of cognitive decline and various forms of dementia. However, exactly how blood sugar disruptions contribute to these brain changes has remained unclear.

Large Genetic Study Using UK Biobank Data

To explore this connection, researchers examined genetic and health information from more than 350,000 UK Biobank participants between the ages of 40 and 69. The analysis focused on key indicators of how the body manages sugar, including fasting glucose levels, insulin levels, and blood sugar measured two hours after eating.

The team used Mendelian randomization, a genetic method that helps researchers assess whether certain biological traits are likely to play a direct role in disease risk. This approach allowed them to test whether different measures of blood sugar regulation could be linked to the development of dementia.

Post-Meal Blood Sugar Linked to Alzheimer’s Risk

The analysis showed that individuals with higher blood sugar levels after meals had a 69% higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This specific pattern of elevated glucose, known as (postprandial hyperglycemia), stood out as a key factor.

Importantly, the increased risk was not explained by overall brain shrinkage or damage to white matter. This suggests that elevated after-meal blood sugar may affect the brain through more subtle biological processes that are not yet fully understood.

Implications for Prevention and Future Research

Dr. Andrew Mason, lead author said: “This finding could help shape future prevention strategies, highlighting the importance of managing blood sugar not just overall, but specifically after meals.”

Dr. Vicky Garfield, senior author commented: “We first need to replicate these results in other populations and ancestries to confirm the link and better understand the underlying biology. If validated, the study could pave the way for new approaches to reduce dementia risk in people with diabetes.”