October 13, 2026 · Science & Research Daily Digest
A digest of science, space, biomedicine, and climate research for October 13, 2026, with summaries, links, and commentary.
I. Space and Deep Space
1. SpaceX CRS-35 launches with the station's final pair of roll-out solar arrays (Space station)
Summary:
NASA release 26-087 says the agency's 35th SpaceX commercial resupply mission lifted off at 6:33 a.m. EDT on October 13 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Dragon is carrying more than 6,300 pounds of supplies, hardware, and science, including the final pair of International Space Station roll-out solar arrays. Astronauts are to install the arrays on spacewalks later this fall, adding power for research, operations, and a controlled deorbit. Dragon is scheduled to dock autonomously at 11 a.m. on October 15 to the space-facing port of Harmony. The cargo also includes hardware to manufacture artificial retinas in microgravity, 3D heart-tissue models for large-scale drug testing, materials for studying how a new glass forms, and brain organoids aimed at treatment targets in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and multiple sclerosis. The spacecraft is to stay until mid-November and splash down off California.
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Commentary:
The flight finishes the station's solar-array augmentation and puts retina, heart-tissue, and brain-organoid experiments into the on-orbit queue.
2. Artemis III finishes booster-segment stacking for the short stack, with all four RS-25 engines on the core (Moon)
Summary:
NASA's October 13 update from Kennedy Space Center says the final solid-rocket-booster motor segments are integrated on the mobile launcher for the short-stack configuration that will be used in a tanking test, and all four RS-25 engines are installed on the core stage. Teams next install the systems tunnel that runs the length of the core and routes pyrotechnic cabling and the single-use quick disconnect used at liftoff. In the coming weeks the core will be mated to the boosters, completing the short stack. Within the coming months NASA will roll that stack from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B for a propellant-loading rehearsal. The Artemis III crew—NASA astronauts Randy Bresnick, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano—will do a launch-day rehearsal and an emergency-exit walkdown. The pad's flame deflector, lightly damaged by the Artemis II launch, is still being refurbished, and ESA and Airbus recently inspected Orion's solar-array wings.
Links:
Commentary:
Booster segments and the four main engines are in place; the short stack still needs the systems tunnel and core mating before a tanking test in the coming months.
3. Student closed-ecosystem experiment SCAMPI rides CRS-35 to the station (Life support)
Summary:
ESA reported on October 13 that the student payload SCAMPI launched to the International Space Station at 12:33 CEST aboard SpaceX CRS-35. Fifty-one university students designed, built, and tested the flight hardware. A consortium led by Politecnico di Torino and École Polytechnique includes The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon, ISAE-SUPAERO, IPSA, and PURPAN in France, plus Utrecht University and TU Delft. The sealed habitat holds shrimp, algae, and microbes and flew as a late-load biological payload; the student team refreshed it at Kennedy Space Center before handover to NASA. An astronaut will install it in the ICE Cubes facility inside Columbus. After the campaign the samples return for genetic and biological comparison with ground controls, to see how a closed aquatic ecosystem functions in microgravity and to inform bioregenerative life support for Moon and Mars missions.
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Commentary:
SCAMPI is a living payload on the same CRS-35 flight; its question is how a sealed ecosystem behaves without gravity, separate from the solar-array hardware.
II. Biomedicine
4. Ligand-directed lipid nanoparticles program CAR natural killer cells inside mice (Immunotherapy)
Summary:
Nature Biotechnology published a paper on October 13 by Yuang Chen, Robert Langer, Daniel G. Anderson, and colleagues. Engineered biparatopic NK-cell ligands on lipid nanoparticles deliver mRNA encoding a chimeric antigen receptor, so NK cells are programmed without being removed from the body. In mice, lead particles transfected up to about 80 percent of targeted NK cells with limited off-target delivery. Systemic CD19-directed CAR mRNA completely depleted circulating B cells in healthy mice, and CD3-directed CAR NK cells eliminated nearly all autoreactive T cells in an autoimmune-hepatitis model. In solid tumors, particles aimed at the inhibitory checkpoint NKG2A improved antitumor activity by relieving Qa-1b-mediated suppression. Particles optimized for human CAR NK cells produced regression in two humanized hematologic malignancy models.
Links:
- Nature Biotechnology — In vivo engineering of CAR natural killer cells
- Phys.org — Nanoparticle injection reprograms NK cells
Commentary:
The roughly 80 percent transfection rate and the tumor regressions are mouse and humanized-model results; this paper does not report human efficacy.
5. FDA grants Fast Track to SAB-142 for new-onset stage 3 type 1 diabetes (Immunity)
Summary:
SAB Biotherapeutics said on October 13 that the U.S. FDA granted Fast Track designation to SAB-142, a fully human anti-thymocyte immunoglobulin, for people with new-onset stage 3 type 1 diabetes. The company is testing it in the registrational Phase 2b SAFEGUARD study in people within 100 days of a stage 3 diagnosis, and it expects enrollment to finish in the fourth quarter of 2026 with topline data in the second half of 2027. An investigator-led Phase 3 study, PRISE-hATG, is designed for stage 3 disease from 100 days to two years after diagnosis. Fast Track is meant to speed development and review for serious conditions with an unmet need. The release does not include new efficacy figures.
Links:
Commentary:
Fast Track marks a review pathway and an unmet-need judgment; the enrollment and readout dates are the company's expectations.
6. Single-molecule imaging shows opioid ligands tuning G-protein domain motions from more than 70 angstroms away (Receptors)
Summary:
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology published an open-access paper on October 13 by Jonathan C. Deutsch, Steven Chu, Brian K. Kobilka, Rabindra V. Shivnaraine, and colleagues. Activation of Gi by the mu-opioid receptor requires the G-alpha helical domain to open and expose the nucleotide site for GDP-GTP exchange. Single-molecule FRET tracked those motions across ligand- and nucleotide-bound states of the receptor-coupled G protein. Ligands differentially modulate the dynamics from a site more than 70 angstroms away, and higher-efficacy agonists speed transitions into an open, low-nucleotide-affinity conformation. The traces also capture transient intermediates during nucleotide exchange. The authors treat allosteric control of the G-protein ensemble inside the formed complex as an additional way opioid efficacy is encoded.
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Commentary:
The 70-angstrom effect is conformational dynamics in a reconstituted complex, still upstream of a safer analgesic.
III. Climate and Environment
7. Australia's bureau puts the weekly relative Niño3.4 index at +2.81°C (El Niño)
Summary:
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology's October 13 southern-hemisphere update reports a relative Niño3.4 value of +2.81°C for the week ending October 11, above its El Niño threshold of +0.80°C. In the bureau's GAMSSA weekly sea-surface series, which starts in 2008, that is the highest value, above +2.78°C for the week ending November 22, 2015. The bureau also says monthly relative Niño3.4 values remain below the long-term record. Models, including the bureau's, forecast the tropical Pacific warmth to peak around November or December and persist into austral autumn 2027, with most indicating a peak monthly value above +3.0°C, higher than the warmest observations since reliable records began in 1950. The 30-day Southern Oscillation Index to October 11 is −20.2, below the El Niño threshold of −7. The Indian Ocean Dipole index is +0.88°C, a fifth consecutive week above +0.4°C, and the bureau still classes the IOD as neutral because an event requires sustained values above the threshold. September 2026 was the warmest September on record from 60°S to 60°N in ERSSTv6, 1.02°C above the 1961–1990 average, and the third-warmest month since 1900 after August 2026 and August 2023. BBC Weather quoted Berkeley Earth's Zeke Hausfather calling the event unprecedented in the historical record and reported sea temperatures above 30°C for the first time in parts of the tropical Pacific. The World Meteorological Organization says there is currently no evidence that climate change is making El Niño stronger or more frequent.
Links:
- Australian Bureau of Meteorology — Southern hemisphere monitoring, issued 13 October 2026
- BBC Weather — Super El Niño sets another sea-temperature record
Commentary:
The checked record is the weekly relative index since 2008; monthly values are still short of the long-term record, and a peak above +3.0°C is a model forecast.
8. An El Niño-like tropical Pacific mean state can last for centuries after net zero (Climate modeling)
Summary:
Communications Earth & Environment published an open-access paper on October 13 by Aditya Sengupta, Andrew D. King, and colleagues, including researchers at the University of Melbourne. Using nine Earth system models in the Zero Emissions Commitment Model Intercomparison Project and millennial net-zero branches of Australia's ACCESS-ESM1-5, they track the tropical Pacific during warming and after emissions stop. Warming shifts the mean state toward El Niño-like conditions, weakening the east-west equatorial temperature gradient. After emissions cease, continued warming of the Southern Ocean and the deep ocean holds that state for centuries and keeps extreme El Niño events more frequent even as atmospheric carbon dioxide declines. Changes in ENSO amplitude are non-monotonic and more model-dependent. In the nine-model set, extreme events rise from 9.82 percent of El Niño events in the pre-industrial control to 21.33 percent under a 1 percent per year CO2 increase, and remain at 20.25 percent after cessation. In ACCESS-ESM1-5 the control rate is 1.73 percent; the 30-year transient window centered on 2060 reaches 34.7 percent, the 2060 net-zero branch falls to 26.3 percent, and the 2045 and 2030 branches are 17.0 percent and 16.4 percent. The authors say earlier net zero limits the size and persistence of the change without restoring pre-industrial conditions.
Links:
- Communications Earth & Environment — Ocean thermal inertia sustains a tropical Pacific mean-state shift
- Phys.org — Reaching net zero sooner could limit a long-lasting El Niño-like shift
Commentary:
The two percentage sets use different models and thresholds; both point to a mean state that does not recover for centuries, while the amplitude change is less robust.
9. Cross-hemisphere overturning can persist for centuries after North Atlantic deep-water formation stops (Ocean circulation)
Summary:
Eos on October 13 summarized a study by Sun and Thompson in AGU Advances. In a National Center for Atmospheric Research CESM2 simulation with carbon dioxide quadrupled, North Atlantic Deep Water formation shuts down while cross-hemispheric overturning transport slows only gradually. An idealized reduced-gravity ocean model gives the same result: the continued overturning is powered by a gradual deepening of density layers, a rearrangement of stratification, rather than a steady balance of sinking and rising water. The authors say the mechanism can sustain the circulation for several centuries until the ocean reaches a new density distribution, and that it may not last beyond that. The models also develop a clockwise Indo-Pacific overturning that could move more heat into deeper layers, reduce nutrients in the upper ocean, and substantially increase ventilation age in the deep Atlantic. The paper's DOI is 10.1029/2026AV002462. The authors say predicting the future of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is beyond this study.
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Commentary:
The simulations keep overturning going for centuries after deep-water formation stops, by rearranging density layers, and that interval is finite and is not a forecast of the real circulation.
10. Six atmospheric rivers opened a Portugal-sized polynya off East Antarctica in August 2024 (Sea ice)
Summary:
Phys.org reported on October 13 a Geophysical Research Letters study led by Jeebanjyoti Swain at Bharathidasan University. In August 2024 a large area of open water surrounded by sea ice appeared in Breid Bay, East Antarctica, in midwinter. Satellite records since 1979 show the region ice-covered at that time of year. Through July and August, six intense atmospheric rivers brought heat waves that raised air temperatures by about 19°C above normal, while thick cloud and snowfall slowed winter cooling. Persistent winds drew warmer water up from below, a marine heat wave that kept the surface from freezing. A brief return of colder winds along the northern edge then formed new ice and enclosed the open water. At its peak on August 4 the polynya covered more than 89,000 square kilometers. The DOI is 10.1029/2026GL122580.
Links:
Commentary:
The opening was in the winter of 2024; what is new today is the reconstruction that atmospheric rivers, cloud, and a marine heat wave acted together.
IV. Basic Research
11. Second-harmonic circular dichroism reads the local Berry curvature in monolayer WSe2 (Quantum materials)
Summary:
Nature Photonics published an open-access paper on October 13 by Nele Tornow, Paul Herrmann, Giancarlo Soavi, and colleagues. Changes in the spin angular momentum of light during high-harmonic generation, measured as nonlinear circular dichroism, are directly proportional to the local Berry curvature at a single optical resonance. The demonstration uses second-harmonic generation in monolayer tungsten diselenide: circularly polarized light breaks time-reversal symmetry and lifts the valley degeneracy, and the resulting dichroism can be controlled by the intensity and helicity of that light. A fit gives a dephasing time T2 of 42 ± 11 femtoseconds and a resonant Berry curvature at ±K of 6.2 ± 1.4 square angstroms, in line with existing tight-binding and density-functional values. The authors describe second-harmonic circular dichroism as an all-optical, ultrafast, non-invasive readout of the local Berry curvature.
Links:
Commentary:
The value 6.2 ± 1.4 square angstroms is a fit at resonance in monolayer WSe2; the advance is a tabletop optical readout of quantum geometry.
12. A reinforcement-learning robot made more than 3,000 decisions in 30 days and found four highly enantioselective reactions (Chemistry)
Summary:
Nature Communications published an open-access paper on October 13 from the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Corresponding author Jarosław M. Granda and colleagues including Patryk Klochowicz trained control policies in a digital twin of asymmetric catalysis, then transferred them to a laboratory robot that scouts conditions, finds chiral products, screens catalysts, and maps substrate scope. In chiral phosphoric acid catalysis, the system made more than 3,000 decisions over 30 days and uncovered four highly enantioselective transformations: one axially chiral molecule and three allene syntheses, including enantioselective functionalization of a pyrrolopyrrole. The work was funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange and the National Science Centre, Poland.
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Commentary:
The 3,000-plus decisions searched a defined chiral-phosphoric-acid space; the robot compresses that search rather than opening an unbounded reaction universe.
Today's Summary
- CRS-35 lifted off at 6:33 a.m. EDT with more than 6,300 pounds of cargo, the station's final roll-out solar arrays, and the SCAMPI closed aquatic ecosystem; Dragon is scheduled to dock on October 15.
- Artemis III has its booster segments and all four RS-25 engines in place for the short stack, with the tanking test and the crew's emergency-exit walkdown still months away.
- In-body CAR NK cells reached about 80 percent transfection in mice, SAB-142 received Fast Track for new-onset stage 3 type 1 diabetes, and a new account of opioid efficacy comes from G-protein motions more than 70 angstroms from the ligand site.
- The weekly relative Niño3.4 index hit +2.81°C, a record in the bureau series since 2008, while monthly values remain below the long-term record; net-zero simulations keep an El Niño-like tropical Pacific mean state in place for centuries.
Daily Framing:
October 13 was an on-orbit resupply and tropical-Pacific commitment day: station cargo and the lunar short stack both moved forward, while El Niño observations and net-zero experiments placed the Pacific shift on century-to-millennium timescales.
This digest is compiled from real-time search results and is for reference only.