Method

• MIT researchers reported a new lithium extraction approach that could make it cheaper and more energy-efficient to recover battery-grade lithium from hard rock deposits. • The method uses a liquid solution inspired by a bathroom renovation product, works at room temperature, can be reused, and may cut costs by about half compared with current techniques. • The advance matters because lithium supply is a key bottleneck for batteries and the energy transition, and the team says the leftover waste could be repurposed into useful materials.

• METR released a new application of its time-horizon methodology to offensive cybersecurity, based on a study with 10 professional security experts. • The research evaluates AI capabilities in security tasks, accelerating evaluations every 5.7 months on 2024+ trendlines. • Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.3 Codex exceed benchmarks, solving tasks taking humans ~3 hours.

• Researchers from Binghamton University and University of Virginia developed a machine-learning system that analyzed over 55 million scientific papers and patents to identify truly disruptive research that changes the direction of science. • The new metric, published in Science Advances, measures "disruptiveness" — the degree to which a paper pulls a field away from its earlier path — and successfully identifies major simultaneous discoveries often overlooked by traditional citation-based measures. • The study addresses a critical gap in how science evaluates impact, recognizing that scientific progress occurs through abrupt changes rather than incremental steps, helping identify overlooked breakthrough moments in research history.

• Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York, along with colleagues at the University of Virginia, published a study in Science Advances mapping innovation landscapes to identify disruptive studies and patents that challenge existing scientific paradigms. • The method, developed by Sadamori Kojaku and colleagues, helps pinpoint discoveries that reshape the course of science, such as the theory of evolution, atomic splitting, and antibiotic development. • The robust measure of disruptiveness provides a systematic way to identify simultaneous breakthroughs across scientific fields and could accelerate recognition of transformative research.

• 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.