Science: A plan to cover a budget shortfall for the ITER fusion reactor project in France appears to have fallen apart just two weeks before the end-of-year budget deadline, writes Daniel Clery for Science. The plan was for the European Union to use €1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) in unused 2010 budget funds to fill a gap in 201213 caused by the project’s ballooning costs. ITER is a global project supported by seven partners: the EU, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the US. Now the European Commission, the EU’s executive agency, must go back to the drawing board.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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