A jump to the champions league: CERN-linked Centre of Excellence gives Estonia a fresh boost

Estonian Research Council

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3D cut of the LHC dipole (Image: CERN)

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Credit: Dominguez, Daniel: CERN

Estonian research organisations aim to establish a new Centre of Excellence for Science and Deep Tech in Estonia, developed in close partnership with the Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP) and CERN.

The initiative is prepared under the European Commission’s Teaming for Excellence programme (TERA-Science) and seeks to strengthen Estonia’s scientific excellence, train new generations of scientists and engineers, and translate frontier technologies into industrial value.

The initiative is led by Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) together with the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (KBFI) and the University of Tartu (UT), with HIP and CERN as international partners. The proposed programme has a total budget of €24 million, with an evaluation outcome expected this summer.

Growing scientists and engineers

“If Estonia wants to remain competitive in science and industry, we must invest above all in people,” said TalTech Professor Tauno Otto. “It is like Olympic sport — before major victories, you need a strong training base where scientists and engineers can develop at world-class level, right here in Estonia.”

The project will enable young researchers to learn and work at a top level while maintaining long-term bonds to Europe’s largest science projects, including CERN’s particle accelerators. That will create a critical mass of top-level scientists in Estonia capable of leading both research and technology development in the years ahead.

For example, a doctoral student could carry out research in Estonia while benefiting from CERN expertise and access to cutting-edge infrastructure. That experience makes it more likely they will stay in Estonia rather than seek opportunities abroad.

Areas for the new centre

“Breakthroughs happen when fundamental research is pursued with an eye on real-world applications,” said Martti Raidal, professor at TalTech and KBFI.

Highly precise instruments developed in particle physics could evolve into smart manufacturing equipment useful to Estonian industry, he noted.

A step-change for Estonian science

“Estonia has made a remarkable leap in science and technology in recent years, crowned by becoming a full member of CERN,” said Veronika Zadin, Professor of Materials Technology at the University of Tartu. “Our scientists, engineers and companies have demonstrated world-class capability. The next step is to translate CERN-developed technologies into solutions for challenges in energy, medicine and industry.”

Technologies used in high-voltage systems for particle accelerators, for example, can help build more reliable power grids.

Economic impact and promise

Beyond scientific returns, the project aims to deliver economic gains. Plans include clear pathways for CERN-originated technologies to reach Estonian companies: industrial doctorates, technology transfer, licensing and the birth of deep-tech start-ups. The initiative is expected to help grow high-tech industry and attract more private investment to Estonia.

In the long run, the project could help shift Estonia from a supplier of subcontracted work to a knowledge-based economy where science generates products, companies and sustainable economic growth.

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Method of Research

Survey

 

From sea to soil: Molecular changes suggest how algae evolved into plants

Early marine algae adapted their light-harvesting systems for weak blue-green light, suggesting how photosynthesis evolved

Osaka Metropolitan University

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Primitive green algae in aquatic environments use a distinct light-harvesting complex called Lhcp, which differs from the LHCII found in land plants, suggesting an evolutionary transition that occurred in photosynthetic systems as plants moved from water to land.

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Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University

Before plants evolved, vegetative life consisted of primitive green algae living in the sea. Like plants, these algae survived by performing photosynthesis, turning sunlight into energy. However, little light reaches the ocean where algae live; therefore, they evolved specialized organs to grab what little is available.

Among these tiny ocean algae are prasinophytes, which are among the earliest photosynthetic life forms on Earth. Like all photosynthetic organisms, they rely on a pigment–protein complex called LHC to capture sunlight. How efficiently LHC performs photosynthesis in different environments depends on the pigments bound to it.

A research team including Associate Professor Ritsuko Fujii of the Graduate School of Science at Osaka Metropolitan University used cryo-electron microscopy to look at the three-dimensional structure and function of Lhcp, a unique prasinophyte LHC, from the microscopic alga Ostreococcus tauri. The team compared their results to LHCII, which is found in terrestrial plants.

They found that the basic design of the protein scaffold was similar, but there were structural differences in pigment binding and protein loops that affect how Lhcp absorbs light and transfers energy. Unlike the plant’s light-harvesting complex, Lhcp’s trimer architecture is stabilized by both pigment–pigment and pigment–protein interactions, especially involving a unique carotenoid arranged at the interface between subunits.

“The carotenoid stabilizes the structure and improves the efficiency of light adsorption of blue-green light, which is abundant in the deep-sea environment,” Professor Fujii explained.

Their results showed that Lhcp includes structures unique to the algae despite sharing some structural and functional features with LHCII. These similarities and differences may be key changes that enabled plants to leave the oceans and colonize the land.

“Understanding this molecular foundation can be used to uncover why, when, and how land plants selected LHCII over Lhcp during their evolutionary process,” Professor Fujii added. “This may be key to understanding this important evolution event.”

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About OMU

Established in Osaka as one of the largest public universities in Japan, Osaka Metropolitan University is committed to shaping the future of society through the “Convergence of Knowledge” and the promotion of world-class research. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ and follow us on social media: X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

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Journal

Communications Biology

DOI

10.1038/s42003-025-08977-x 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Distinctive and functional pigment arrangements in Lhcp, a prasinophyte-specific photosynthetic light-harvesting complex

Consent on trial: How Pakistan’s courts are failing rape survivors

As 2026 dawns, women in Pakistan are left grappling with a stark reality: rape and marital rape continue to be misinterpreted by judges in the country’s highest courts.

Zofeen T. Ebrahim 

Published January 10, 2026 

DAWN


Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Supreme Court (SC) set aside a rape conviction, changing it to fornication (consensual sex out of marriage), reducing a 20-year sentence to five years and slashing the fine from Rs500,000 to Rs10,000, sparking fresh calls for better protections for Pakistani women.

“Such judgments do not give confidence to women to come out and report sexual violence perpetrated on them,” said Ayesha Farooq, chairperson of the government-notified Committee of the Anti-Rape Investigation and Trial Act, formed in 2021.

Despite protective legislation, 70 per cent of gender-based violence (GBV) incidents go unreported. Of those reported, the national conviction rate stands at just 5pc, with some categories as low as 0.5pc and domestic violence convictions at 1.3pc.

Senator Sherry Rehman highlighted the stark figures: in 2024, Islamabad recorded just seven convictions out of 176 reported rape cases. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported one conviction from 258 cases, Sindh reported no convictions despite 243 cases, and Balochistan recorded 21 rape cases with no convictions.
Legal precedent or social regression?

Nida Aly, Executive Director AGHS Legal Aid Cell, said, “I have never felt so disappointed in our judiciary. Judges have failed as a gender-competent forum and lost credibility.”

The SC case involved a survivor who, in 2015, was raped at gunpoint while relieving herself in the woods. She reported the incident seven months later; DNA tests confirmed the accused as the father of her child. The trial court convicted him, and the Lahore High Court (LHC) upheld the verdict. Yet at the SC, two of three judges reclassified the act as fornication, citing the complainant’s silence, lack of resistance, and absence of physical marks. Section 496-B of the Penal Code prescribes five years of imprisonment and a Rs10,000 fine for fornication.

This reasoning drew sharp criticism from the National Commission on the Status of Women, which said consent cannot be inferred from silence, delayed reporting, or lack of resistance, and urged courts to recognise the realities of trauma, fear, coercion, and power imbalances in sexual violence cases.

Ironically, after the recasting of the case, the woman was exempted from punishment.

She was reminded of another case of rape in 2024, where a woman accused her brother’s friend of rape.

“The same judge converted the conviction of rape into fornication along with arguments like “the woman showed no resistance; there were no marks of violence” and there was a two-day delay in reporting to the police.

Justice Ayesha Malik’s dissenting note arguing there was no “standardised” rulebook response by the victim emphasised consent.

Jamshed M. Kazi, UN women country representative, said such cases resonate far beyond the courtroom. “The language used and the conclusions reached shape not only legal precedent but also social attitudes, survivor confidence, and public trust in justice.”

He added, “For survivors of sexual violence, judgements can leave lasting marks on the lives of women and girls, affecting how their experiences are believed and remembered, and may discourage reporting, reinforcing silence, fear, or self-doubt among survivors.”

Another case saw the LHC dismiss rape complaints against a husband because he was still legally married, even though he raped the woman at gunpoint. The judge, while maintaining the conduct of the man to be “immoral” and “inappropriate under religious or social norms”, said it was not a crime since the marriage continued to exist legally at the time of the incident.

“The judge focused on the validity of the marriage and completely disregarded the woman’s claim of non-consent and being subjected to forced sex at gunpoint,” pointed out Aly.
Marriage, consent and the law — A dangerous grey area

While there is no explicit provision criminalising marital rape, the Protection of Women (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, 2006 removed marriage as a defence to rape. When the definition of rape was substantially revised under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2021, no marital exemption was reintroduced.

Between 1979 and 2006, Maliha Zia, Director, Gender, Inclusion & Development at the Karachi-based Legal Aid Society, explained, marriage operated as a defence to rape because the law defined rape as sexual intercourse by a man with a woman “who is not his wife” under specified circumstances. The deliberate removal of the words “not his wife” in 2006 therefore eliminated marriage as a defence, a position that has remained unchanged since.

“The 2006 Protection of Women Act was an important step; it corrected major injustices by separating rape from zina (unlawful sexual intercourse – including adultery and fornication),” said Dr Sharmila Faruqui, a member of the National Assembly. “But it stopped short of clearly saying that lack of consent within marriage is also rape and that silence has allowed old assumptions to survive.”

Faruqui stressed the need for judicial sensitisation, particularly at senior levels, but noted that judges are ultimately bound by the law. “When the law is unclear, even well-intentioned interpretations can go wrong,” she said. She called for legislative clarity — through a penal code amendment or another carefully considered route — emphasising that consent, grounded in dignity and equality, must remain central regardless of marital status. “Marriage was never meant to be a license for violence.”

This was endorsed by Zia, who has been among the trainers of judges who hear GBV cases. “Much work needs to be done to constantly sensitise the justice sector on women’s experiences and the trauma they go through due to sexual violence. “Many work on the assumption that the woman is most likely lying, especially if she didn’t fight or run or report straight away,” she added.

To its credit, Pakistan, under the anti-rape act of 2021 special courts were notified to look into GBV cases. To date there are 174 such courts. Unfortunately, these courts are not exclusively handling GBV cases, said Zia.

But even with this limitation, rape case convictions in Sindh rose to 17pc in 2025, from 5pc in 2020, when such courts did not exist. “Imagine how much better it could be!” According to her, in districts where there is a high caseload of GBV, courts should be exclusive, not necessarily more.

Header image: A woman carries a sign and chants slogans during a rally to mark International Women’s Day in Lahore, Pakistan March 8, 2019. Reuters/Mohsin Raza/File Photo

Note: This article was originally published in Inter Press Service and has been reproduced here with permission.


Zofeen T. Ebrahim is an independent journalist based in Karachi.
She tweets at @zofeen28.

Decades-old mystery in particle physics solved

Groundbreaking Discovery by TUM Researchers at CERN Reveals Formation of Deuterons

Technical University of Munich (TUM)

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The result: The protons and neutrons necessary for the formation of deuterons are released during the decay of very short-lived, highly energetic particle states (so-called resonances) and then bind together. The same holds true for their antimatter counterparts. The findings were published in the renowned journal Nature.

In proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, temperatures arise that are more than 100,000 times hotter than the center of the Sun. Until now, it had been entirely unclear how fragile particles such as deuterons and antideuterons could survive under these conditions. In such an environment, light atomic nuclei like the deuteron – consisting of just one proton and one neutron – should in fact disintegrate immediately, since the binding force that holds them together is comparatively weak. Yet such nuclei had repeatedly been observed. It is now clear: about 90 percent of the observed (anti)deuterons are produced through this mechanism.

Better understanding of the universe

TUM particle physicist Prof. Laura Fabbietti, a researcher in the ORIGINS Cluster of Excellence and SFB1258, emphasizes: “Our result is an important step toward a better understanding of the ‘strong interaction’ – that fundamental force that binds protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus. The measurements clearly show: light nuclei do not form in the hot initial stage of the collision, but later, when the conditions have become somewhat cooler and calmer.”

Dr. Maximilian Mahlein, a researcher at Fabbietti’s Chair for Dense and Strange Hadronic Matter at the TUM School of Natural Sciences, explains: “Our discovery is significant not only for fundamental nuclear physics research. Light atomic nuclei also form in the cosmos – for example in interactions of cosmic rays. They could even provide clues about the still-mysterious dark matter. With our new findings, models of how these particles are formed can be improved and cosmic data interpreted more reliably.”

Further information:

CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) is the world’s largest research center for particle physics. It is located on the border between Switzerland and France near Geneva. Its centerpiece is the LHC, a 27-kilometer-long underground ring accelerator. In it, protons collide at nearly the speed of light. These collisions recreate conditions similar to those that existed just after the Big Bang – temperatures and energies that do not occur anywhere in everyday life. Researchers can thus investigate how matter is structured at its most fundamental level and which natural laws apply there.

Among the experiments at the LHC, ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is specifically designed to study the properties of the so-called strong interaction – the force that holds protons and neutrons together in atomic nuclei. ALICE acts like a giant camera, capable of precisely tracking and reconstructing up to 2000 particles created in each collision. The aim is to reconstruct the conditions of the universe’s earliest fractions of a second – and thereby better understand how a soup of quarks and gluons first gave rise to stable atomic nuclei and ultimately to matter.

The ORIGINS Cluster of Excellence investigates the formation and evolution of the universe and its structures – from galaxies, stars, and planets to the very building blocks of life. ORIGINS traces the path from the smallest particles in the early universe to the emergence of biological systems. Examples include the search for conditions that could enable extraterrestrial life and a deeper understanding of dark matter. In May 2025, the second funding phase of the cluster, jointly proposed by TUM and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), was approved as part of the highly competitive Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.

The Collaborative Research Center “Neutrinos and Dark Matter in Astro- and Particle Physics” (SFB 1258) focuses on fundamental physics, where the weak interaction, one of the four fundamental forces of nature, is central. The third funding period of the SFB1258 started in January 2025.

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Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-09775-5 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Observation of deuteron and antideuteron formation from resonance-decay nucleons

Article Publication Date

11-Dec-2025