NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day Features NGC 1566 Spanish Dancer Galaxy

• Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis discovered that cells can sense far beyond the surfaces they touch through a process called "depth mechano-sensing," with clusters of normal epithelial cells detecting layers as far as 100 microns away by tugging on surrounding collagen fibers. • Individual cancer cells can probe about 10 microns ahead, while normal cell clusters working together can sense 10 times farther, helping cells decide where to migrate and providing new insights into cancer cell behavior. • The findings, published in PNAS, could reveal new targets to prevent cancer from spreading and advance understanding of how cancer cells move through the body.

• A new study published in the journal Science documents that climate change is making fish smaller, posing significant threats to global food security and fishery productivity. • The research warns that the shift toward smaller fish species could worsen fishery losses by as much as 50%, impacting both commercial fishing industries and food availability worldwide. • The findings highlight the cascading ecological effects of climate change on marine ecosystems and underscore the urgency of addressing global warming to protect food systems.

• Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute developed TLPath, a new computational tool that infers telomere length—repeating DNA sections at chromosome ends that shorten with age—by detecting structural changes in cells captured in routine biopsy images. • The model successfully predicted telomere length more accurately than using patient age alone and could identify telomere length differences between individuals of the same chronological age, potentially transforming large-scale aging research. • Published in Cell Reports Methods, the findings enable researchers to measure an important aging metric quickly and cheaply without costly traditional tests, opening new opportunities to study telomere biology and human aging.

• A UC Riverside-led study analyzing thousands of samples from unrelated studies found that no places in the ocean remain completely untouched by human chemical impacts. • Researchers combined consistent, high-resolution mass spectrometry methods across multiple laboratories with computational tools to create a unified dataset revealing the extent of human chemical alterations to marine environments. • The study reveals significant data gaps, with heavy concentration in North America and Europe while the Southern Hemisphere and regions like Southeast Asia, India, and Australia remain largely understudied, limiting full understanding of global ocean impacts.

• Researchers from Skoltech have successfully used gene editing to double the number of grains produced per wheat spike, a breakthrough that could significantly increase crop yields. • The advancement addresses global food security concerns by enhancing wheat productivity through targeted genetic modifications. • This development represents a major step forward in agricultural biotechnology and sustainable food production methods.

• New York University Abu Dhabi team discovered clues of subsurface water on Mars in Gale Crater using NASA's Curiosity rover data, indicating habitability lasted longer than previously thought. • Ancient sand dunes hardened into rock billions of years ago after interacting with groundwater, confirmed by comparing Martian formations to UAE desert analogs. • Led by Dimitra Atri, the study published in Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets highlights underground sites as prime locations for past life evidence.

• Houston Methodist scientists identified TDP43 protein as a critical regulator of DNA mismatch repair, connecting it to ALS, frontotemporal dementia, and cancer risks. • Lead investigator Muralidhar L. Hegde, Ph.D., stated 'DNA repair is one of the most fundamental processes in biology' and TDP43's role has major implications for these diseases. • The peer-reviewed study, published in Nucleic Acids Research on March 15, 2026, was funded by NIH's NINDS and National Institute on Aging.

• Researchers created pure hexagonal diamond (lonsdaleite) by compressing organized graphite at 20 gigapascals and 1,300-1,900°C for 10 hours, confirmed via structural analyses and simulations. • The material, rarer than cubic diamond, was identified in Arizona's Barringer Crater meteorite and offers superior hardness for tools and electronics. • Study provides definitive evidence of hexagonal diamond's existence, countering past skepticism about meteorite samples.

• Researchers at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston broke the longstanding record for high-temperature superconductivity, reaching a transition temperature of 151 Kelvin under ambient pressure. • The breakthrough by physicists Ching-Wu Chu and Liangzi Deng, published March 9 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, enables potential advances in efficient energy generation, transmission, and storage. • This record surpasses all prior ambient-pressure superconductors since 1911, bringing room-temperature superconductivity—a century-old holy grail—closer by narrowing the gap to about 140 degrees Celsius.

• The United States recorded its second-warmest winter on record from December 2025 to February 2026, despite frigid conditions in the East, according to federal data reported by AP News on March 9. • New attribution research links a warmer climate to larger hail, with extra atmospheric heat turning thunderstorms into producers of dangerous softball-sized hailstones. • This extreme weather pattern underscores accelerating climate impacts, challenging public perceptions amid regional cold snaps.

• The El Niño weather pattern is likely to develop this summer and persist through 2026, elevating global temperatures and disrupting regional weather worldwide. • Scientists indicate this event could exacerbate warming trends, following a new study addressing whether global warming is accelerating. • The pattern matters for US agriculture, water resources, and extreme weather risks, with potential for hotter summers across the nation.