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Australia’s highest court ruled against plans to expand the Mount Pleasant coal mine in New South Wales, declaring the initial approval unlawful because planners ignored climate impacts. Retired teachers Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan launched this legal challenge after state planners approved the project in 2022. The court agreed that extending the mine’s life by 22 years and doubling its output conflicted with national emission-cutting efforts. MACH Energy, which runs the mine, appealed to the High Court, but on Wednesday, the court struck down that appeal. Wales stated, "Today the High Court said what we have always known: we cannot dig up coal, ship it overseas, watch it drive climate change, and then pretend the consequences have nothing to do with us." MACH Energy accepted the ruling.

Former UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her work promoting peace and international law. She is also a former judge in South Africa’s High Court and the International Criminal Court. Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on optogenetics, a technique using light to influence neuronal function. Per Svenningsson, chair of the Nobel Committee, noted that this research allows mapping the brain in ways previously impossible. Their findings formed the basis for a new therapy targeting retinitis pigmentosa, a condition causing blindness through the death of photoreceptor cells. In a study involving 10 participants, six showed a clinically meaningful increase in light sensitivity using gene therapy and light-stimulating goggles. While patients could not yet read or recognize faces, several could detect objects or follow lines.

Researchers hailed a new drug called SNT-4728 as encouraging for Parkinson’s disease after it performed well in a small trial. The drug was trialled on 30 people with isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD), a condition where people act out their dreams and is often a precursor to Parkinson’s. A joint Australia-UK trial found that those taking SNT-4728 saw improvements in movement compared to the control group taking a placebo. This change was statistically significant 12 weeks after participants stopped taking the drug. Dr Lynsey Bilsland from Parkinson’s UK said, "These results are encouraging, showing an improvement in movement symptoms in a population who have yet to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s." There are currently no drugs to stop or slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

Doctors in Scotland performed a pioneering testicular tissue transplant on a 19-year-old student who had previously undergone chemotherapy for a blood disorder. The treatment, which involves high-dose chemotherapy, can permanently damage sperm production cells. Three years after his initial bone marrow transplant, tests showed he had no sperm. Doctors announced they transplanted his previously frozen testicular tissue back into his body to see if it would begin producing sperm again. Rod Mitchell, professor of developmental endocrinology at the University of Edinburgh, said, "This is a big step towards helping boys facing treatments that damage their fertility to have children of their own." This is only the second time globally and the first in the UK that such a transplant has been carried out.