Rey Juan Carlos University

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi for the development of molecular structures with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. These structures, called metal-organic frameworks, can be used to extract water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases, or catalyze chemical reactions.

Climate change has made the hot, dry and windy weather conditions that spread fires across the Iberian Peninsula 40 times more frequent and 30% more intense than in the pre-industrial climate, according to a rapid study by World Weather Attribution. The ten-day heatwave was also 200 times more likely and 3°C hotter due to climate change. The study, which analysed weather observations rather than climate models, warns that fires in Europe are overwhelming firefighting resources and highlights the importance of controlling vegetation in affected areas.

In Spain, immigrant employees earn 29% less than other workers, according to a study published in Nature. This gap is comparable to that observed in Canada, but greater than that of other European countries in the study, such as Germany, Norway and France (19-20%), and much higher than the gap observed in the United States (10%) and Sweden (7%). ‘The segregation of immigrant workers into lower-paid jobs accounts for approximately three-quarters of the overall wage differences between immigrants and natives,’ the study states.

An international study, published in Science, has found that only 24% of the current glacier mass would be maintained if the world were to warm to 2.7°C, the trajectory set by current climate policies. In contrast, limiting warming to 1.5°C - the Paris Agreement target - would preserve 54% of the glacier mass. 

One of the problems with prostate cancer screening is that it results in a high rate of false positives, that is, erroneous diagnoses in people without the disease. A study in the UK has applied a genetic test to more than 6,000 people aged between 55 and 69, analysing 130 variants related to this tumour, which allows a ‘risk score’ to be calculated. According to the results, which are published in the journal NEJM, the test detected the disease more likely in people with higher values than traditional screening.

As announced, the new US president, Donald Trump, has signed on his first day in office an executive order for the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. This is the second time Trump has withdrawn his country from the signatory states of the most important climate change agreement, as he did in 2020.

A study led by CNIO and CNIC researchers has identified a new mechanism in mice by which brown fat can be activated and consume energy to be released as heat. The process depends on a protein called MCJ which, according to the researchers, is “a promising target for treating obesity”. The results are published in the journal Nature Communications. 

Next Monday sees the start of COP29 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a summit marked by Donald Trump's victory as president of the United States on Tuesday. His denial of climate change and his commitment to fossil fuels during his previous term in office will weigh down a meeting from which no major agreements are expected and from which experts are calling for greater ambition. 

Prostate cancer screening tests using PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) are associated with overdiagnosis, which calls into question their use. A clinical trial in men aged 50-60 years published in the journal NEJM has studied the possibility of adding an MRI test in those with an elevated PSA level and dispensing with biopsy if imaging finds no suspicious lesions. The results indicate that the procedure avoids more than half of clinically irrelevant cancer diagnoses that would not need treatment and only slightly increases the risk of failing to identify those that may become incurable. The authors recommend, on the basis of the study, to review the recommendations for such screening.

With summer, the presence of these gelatinous creatures on the Spanish coasts bothers swimmers, who can suffer injuries if they come in contact with them. Are there more jellyfish than before? Which ones are the most dangerous? What should I do if one stings me? How can I avoid it? In this guide, we answer the main questions on jellyfish so you know how to act.