2025 saw advances in stem cell biology, neurobiology, and cellular immunology research. Image credit:© iStock.com, jamesbenet As 2025 comes to a close, the editors at The Scientist asked researchers to reflect on the biggest breakthroughs in cell biology this year. They named advances in everything from embryo models for developmental biology research to converting peripheral cells in the brain into microglia for future therapeutic applications. Read on to see what other discoveries they called the most exciting of 2025. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Stem Cell Models and Bioinformatics Tools Ophir Klein…

Margaret Atwood has said the plot of her book The Handmaid’s Tale, which tells a story of an authoritarian regime under which women are forced to reproduce, has become “more and more plausible” in recent years. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Atwood said she believed the plot was “bonkers” when she first developed the concept for the novel because the US was the “democratic ideal” at the time. “It was the land of freedom … and people in Europe just didn’t believe that it could ever go like that,” she said.

Promoter Eddie Hearn predicts that Anthony Joshua will be “dissecting” Jake Paul in their fight on December 19th at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. Hearn Predicts Total Breakdown The way Matchroom promoter Hearn talks, former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) is going to reduce Paul to nine base elements to the human body in their eight-round headliner on Netflix. Disney Star to Giant Slayer? Hearn had a wild, crazy look in his eyes as he spoke about what Joshua would do to Paul on December 19th. He absolutely needs AJ to win, but also looks like pure gold in its natural, native form in this fight.

The actor Sydney Sweeney has said she should have addressed the controversy surrounding her American Eagle jeans advert, which was accused by critics of flirting with eugenics, saying not doing so “widened the divide” between people. Sweeney, who made her name in HBO’s Euphoria and has since become a leading Hollywood star, told People magazine she regretted staying silent during the row, in which Donald Trump at one point intervened.

Saturday Night Live returns with C-Span coverage of the embattled US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost), taking questions from the press. After chugging a Monster energy drink and unilaterally declaring war on Venezuela, Hegseth challenges reporters to “pretend I’m a random fishing boat and fire away!” He denies ordering a fatal second strike on survivors of an alleged drug smuggling boat while letting slip how much he’s craving alcohol: “If I had a drink for every Venezuelan we’ve killed, I’d really like that number of drinks.” After a brief appearance by disgraced former congressman turned partisan “reporter” …

Boxing fans love dream matchups — especially when they involve two icons who defined their eras. “Sugar” Ray Leonard dazzled audiences in the 1980s with speed, heart, and fan-friendly wars. Floyd “Money” Mayweather ruled the modern age with defensive mastery and an undefeated record. But who was truly greater? Let’s break down their résumés — amateur pedigree, professional achievements, and quality of opposition — before arriving at the final verdict. Amateur Background Sugar Ray Leonard 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist (on arguably the greatest U.S. Olympic team ever) 1975 Pan American Games Champion…

Richardson Hitchins has reportedly declined a fight against 140-lb contender Jamaine Ortiz for the January 31, 2026, ‘The Ring 6’ event on DAZN. Hitchins Says No to Ortiz Jamaine (20-2-1, 10 KOs) joins a growing list of top-level fighters that Hitchins (20-0, 8 KOs) has turned down for a fight. It’s no surprise he doesn’t want to fight Ortiz, as he’s a great talent who gave Teofimo Lopez and Vasily Lomachenko huge problems in their fights. Boxing insider, Dan, broke the news on X of Hitchins turning down a fight against Jamaine Ortiz.

One morning last month, Seymour Hersh set off to buy a newspaper. The reporter walked for 30 minutes, covered six blocks of his neighbourhood, Georgetown in Washington DC, and didn’t see a single sign of life. No newsstands on street corners selling the glossies and the dailies. No self-service kiosk where you can slide in a dollar and pull out a paper. “Finally, I found a drugstore that had two copies of the New York Times in the back,” Hersh recalls. He bought one for himself. He can’t help but wonder whether anybody bought the second.

US lawmakers have removed provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026 that would have ensured military members’ right to repair their own equipment. The final language of the NDAA was shared by the House Armed Services Committee on Sunday, after weeks of delays pushed the annual funding bill to the end of the year. Among a host of other language changes made as part of reconciling different versions of the legislation drafted by the Senate and the House of Representatives, two provisions focused on the right to repair—Section 836 of the Senate bill and Section 863 of the House bill—have both been removed.

Pick of the weekThe Rest Is History: Beatles Special The popular show’s two-part special on the Fab Four has, bizarrely, prompted its Beatles sceptic co-host Dominic Sandbrook to refuse to appear. But his mega-starry replacement is Conan O’Brien, in for an engaging chat with Tom Holland through the career of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Their USP? Says Holland: “We’re a history podcast rather than a music podcast so we need to make the case that the Beatles are significant historically.” Alexi DugginsWidely available The Guilty Feminist: Road to Gilead…

Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson will hold their kickoff press conference this week on Wednesday, December 10th, in New York City to discuss their fight next month. MSG Announcement? Fans Only Ask One Question Earlier today, it was revealed that the January 31st Ring 6 event will be staged at Madison Square Garden in New York. That made East Coast fans happy, as many of them will be looking to attend the live show. What the average fan is really interested in is how much the Lopez-Stevenson event will cost on DAZN PPV on January 31st, 2026.

The opening sequence of Bring It On is – in a word – unapologetic. A dozen cheerleaders scream “I’m sexy, I’m cute, I’m popular to boot” in unison – and I have yet to meet anyone (and I have tried) who has the willpower to look away. It’s certainly not an exaggeration to say I wanted to be one of them – that is, one of the Toros, Rancho Carne high school’s premier cheer squad. But, as a six-year-old watching in north London, I was a world away from the cornucopia of herkies, suggestive dance moves and hair flips of competitive cheerleading in San Diego.

Google announced on Monday that it’s introducing a shoppable discovery feed in Doppl, its experimental app that uses AI to visualize how different outfits might look on you. The tech giant says the idea behind the new feed is to display recommendations so users can discover and virtually try on new items. Nearly everything in the feed is shoppable, with direct links to merchants. The discovery feed features AI-generated videos of real products and suggests outfits based on your personalized style. Google determines your style by analyzing the preferences you share with Doppl and the items you interact with.

SoftBank Group and Nvidia are in talks to lead an investment of over $1 billion at a $14 billion valuation in Skild AI, a software company building a foundational robotics model, Reuters reported. The nearly three-year-old startup was last valued at $4.7 billion in May when it raised $500 million in a round led by SoftBank along with the participation of LG Technology Ventures, Samsung, Nvidia, and others, according to PitchBook data. Skild didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. SoftBank and Nvidia declined to comment. Unlike other heavily funded startups, Skild AI is not building proprietary hardware.

The actor Judi Dench has spoken about her worsening eyesight and increasing memory problems, saying she struggles to recall immediate appointments – but is still able to remember reams of Shakespeare. “I can’t remember what I’m doing tomorrow, I swear to you,” she told the Radio Times; her assistants then confirmed that she does sometimes require such help. Dench added that her age-related macular degeneration now means that, even up close, faces are “in a fog”. “It’s a crusher,” she added, saying that she can no longer watch television. “I miss seeing Clive Myrie doing Mastermind,” she said, “but I can hear the questions.”

Ryan Garcia says Terence Crawford turned his back on the WBC once he got his money for the Canelo Alvarez fight. He notes that before he was blessed with a big payday for the Canelo fight, he wasn’t talking this way. What Garcia is talking about is Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) refusing to pay the WBC the $300,000 sanctioning fee for the enormous $50 million purse. That move cost him his WBC belt, as they chose to strip him of the title when he decided not to pay. They weren’t going just to let him have it because he’s popular.

A stalkerware maker who was banned from the surveillance industry after a data breach that exposed the personal information of its customers, as well as the people they were spying on, will not be able to go back to selling the invasive software, according the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The FTC denied a request to cancel that ban made by Scott Zuckerman, the founder of consumer spyware company Support King and its subsidiaries SpyFone and OneClickMonitor.  On Monday, the FTC announced the denial in a press release after Zuckerman petitioned…

Jimmy Kimmel has signed a one-year extension with Disney’s ABC Network and will continue to host Jimmy Kimmel Live! through at least 2027, the Guardian has confirmed. Bloomberg first reported the news on Monday, noting that Kimmel and Disney struck a new one year extension. His current contract had been set to expire in May 2026. Kimmel and Disney agreed on the extension several months ago but delayed announcing their plans out of respect for fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert, according to Bloomberg. This summer, CBS announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had been cancelled and would end in May 2026.

As if the Analogue 3D wasn’t nostalgic enough, the 4K N64 emulator will soon be available in a handful of transparent “Funtastic” limited editions going on sale on December 10th at 8AM Pacific/11AM Eastern. The vibrant transparent models will be available “in highly limited quantities,” and they’ll cost more than the standard model at $299. The limited editions are inspired by the Funtastic series of N64s from the early 2000s, which Analogue says it spent over a year “perfectly color matching.” According to Analogue, these transparent hues are “identical to the originals.” They even have the same names: fire, watermelon, grape, ice, jungle, clear, and smoke.

Six months ago, Waymo disclosed it was providing 250,000 robotaxi rides a week across its service areas, an ever-growing list that includes Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Alphabet-owned self-driving company has been coy ever since, simply stating it is providing many hundreds of thousands of weekly rides. Now, we have a firmer grasp on those weekly ride numbers, thanks to a leaked letter from Tiger Global Management to it investors that was…

Advanced Nvidia AI chips may be headed to China after all. The Department of Commerce is planning to allow Nvidia to ship H200 chips to China, according to Semafor, which cited sources. These chips are much more advanced than the H20 chips Nvidia developed specifically for the Chinese market, but the company would only be able to send H200s that are roughly 18 months old, Semafor reported.

Joshua Aaron, the developer of the ICEBlock app, is suing Attorney General Pam Bondi, US Homeland Security Secretary Kirsti Noem, acting director of ICE Todd Lyons, White House “Border Czar” Tom Homan, and other federal officials over the Trump administration’s “unlawful threats” made against Aaron and its actions to pressure Apple to pull the app from the App Store, which it did. “We promised you we would fight back. Well, today’s the day we make good on the promise,” according to a post from ICEBlock’s official account on Bluesky. Aaron, Apple, and the Department of Homeland Security, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from…

The chances of Terence Crawford defending his remaining three super middleweight titles against a non-Canelo Alvarez opponent are considered slim by fans. The Four Young Killers at 168 The 38-year-old Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) has these four top contenders bearing down on him like a pack of hungry wolves: Christian Mbilli Osleys Iglesias Lester Martinez Hamzah Sheeraz With the WBC stripping Crawford of his title last week for his failure to pay the reduced $300,000, Mbilli and Sheeraz will likely fight for the belt. So, he may not have to worry about them going after him.

50-41 50 Black Bag Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller sends two married agents – Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender – after a mole, who might turn out to be one of them. Read the full review. 49 On Becoming a Guinea Fowl Unconventional … On Becoming A Guinea Fowl. Photograph: Courtesy: Cannes film festival Zambian-Welsh film-maker Rungano Nyoni’s unconventional, and blackly comic, family drama is an inventive and playful surprise. Read the full review. 48 Train Dreams Joel Edgerton is superb in Clint Bentley’s Malickian story of trees, grief and railroads.

The former chief engineer of Lucid Motors, Eric Bach, has sued the company for wrongful termination, discrimination, and retaliation, and claims one of the automaker’s top HR executives referred to him as a “German Nazi.” The federal lawsuit, filed Monday in the Northern District of California, claims Bach was stripped of his responsibilities overseeing the powertrain division in early 2025 as a result of an HR investigation into the company’s workplace culture. Bach claims to have been targeted because of his German heritage. Bach first learned about the disparaging comment in mid-2025 — months after the investigation into workplace culture was launched and after losing some responsibilities at the company, according to the complaint.