Star Labs

Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the National University of Singapore have jointly launched a new laboratory focused on advancing synthetic biology. The initiative, announced with the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board, aims to strengthen research capacity in engineering biological systems, a field with growing applications in medicine, manufacturing and sustainable materials, and reinforce Singapore's position in biotechnology.

German reality TV personality Anna Heiser, known from 'Bauer sucht Frau', went through days of serious worry about her child after a medical test result. It has now emerged that the alarm was the result of a laboratory error, and the all-clear has been given. German media are covering her relief and the anxious period the family endured.

Nuclear chemist Julia Even of the University of Groningen is working to understand how the heaviest chemical elements are formed in space. By collecting missing experimental data in the lab, she aims to better understand the extreme cosmic processes, such as neutron star mergers, that forge these heavy elements, which cannot be fully explained with current measurements.