The latest Science headlines, aggregated and deduped from public feeds across the web. See the sources.
For a century, amateur telescope makers have gathered at the Stellafane convention to celebrate their craft. Will the event last another 100 years?
Raw, grilled, roasted, stuffed—there are many ways to enjoy bell peppers, also called capsicums, sweet peppers or paprika. Bell peppers originated in Central and South America and belong to the nightshade family along with tomatoes and eggplants.
Stainless steel is widely used for its corrosion resistance, but it is not invincible. In environments containing chloride ions, such as seawater, pitting corrosion can occur. These pits often start at tiny particles called inclusions embedded in the steel.
To get the science right, classical archaeologists, who excavate the world of the ancient Mediterranean, consulted on the show, which also stars Hugh Laurie.
Understanding instabilities and turbulence in plasmas is one of the key challenges across a wide range of plasma research fields, including nuclear fusion, astrophysics and laser-plasma physics. In plasmas, slight disturbances can grow due to instabilities, and energy is transferred between structures of various sizes due to turbulence. These phenomena give rise to structures ranging from very small to large, which significantly influence the overall motion and energy flow of the plasma.
A small device that gently stimulates nerves through the ear could offer a new way to tackle stubborn high blood pressure. In a clinical trial of 63 patients already taking medication, the treatment proved safe, easy to use at home, and well tolerated. Although it did not significantly outperform a placebo overall, patients with more severe hypertension showed promising reductions in blood pressure.
A groundbreaking study challenges 70 years of assumptions about how human language works. By analyzing billions of word uses, scientists discovered that meaning is organized around power, danger, and order rather than emotion alone. Even more surprisingly, human language shows a powerful hidden preference for safety, suggesting that our words may reflect ancient survival instincts.
Many topics in astronomy and astrophysics are esoteric. There's not much of a relationship between something like the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way and the life of a regular person going about their business. But the sun is different. Its presence in our lives is inescapable. Its behavior, especially its flaring, has an impact.
Ice sheet expansion may have started 2,000 years ago, but we canceled that Ars Technica A New Ice Age Was Beginning. Then Humans Started Burning Fossil Fuels WIRED Climate Change Stopped the Next Ice Age Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The failed ice age: Arctic ice was expanding for centuries before global warming stopped it University of Colorado Boulder We are in a new ice age: here’s why global warming has halted it We are in a new ice age: here’s why global warming has halted it la Repubbl
Administrator Jared Isaacman said that the space agency was exploring ways to keep Artemis III on target without compromising safety.
Tiny samples from asteroid Bennu are rewriting scientists' understanding of how our Solar System formed. New evidence suggests that Bennu was born where material from the inner and outer Solar System mixed, with Jupiter playing a surprising role in shaping its formation.
The positron is the antimatter counterpart of the electron, identical in mass but carrying an equal and opposite electric charge. Like the electron, it also behaves like a tiny bar magnet, and according to a key prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics, its magnetic moment should be exactly equal and opposite to the electron's.
Scientists have proposed a way to detect “mirror life,” a hypothetical form of life that could pose serious risks to humans, animals, and ecosystems if artificially created. Using special fluorescent molecules and a type of polarized light also used in 3D movie technology, researchers believe they could distinguish ordinary organisms from their mirror-image counterparts.
Miniature Ball Lightning Created in a Lab Could Help Solve a Centuries-Old Mystery ScienceAlert
Current HIV medicines are effective at suppressing the virus in the blood. However, HIV can remain "asleep" or dormant inside certain immune cells and in the brain. These hidden pockets of virus, called HIV reservoirs, are the main reason HIV cannot be cured with today's treatments.
Beyond melanoma, scientists are studying cancer vaccines for glioblastoma, pancreatic cancer and more.
The Sun’s seemingly peaceful regions are hiding a surprisingly complex magnetic world. Using a balloon-borne telescope high above Earth, scientists discovered delicate, thread-like magnetic structures woven through the solar atmosphere, apparently shaped by twisting motions on the Sun’s surface. They also mapped magnetic fields inside towering jets of solar material, revealing how those fields change with height.
Ancient DNA shows Ice Age Europeans stayed connected across long distances Archaeology News Online Magazine Paleolithic human DNA reveals east-west connections across Ice Age Europe Phys.org DNA from French cave suggests Ice Age Europeans were well traveled Courthouse News Ice Age Europeans Were More Connected Than We Thought Nautilus Ancient human DNA reveals hidden connections across Ice Age Europe EurekAlert!
New data have prompted questions about changes in teens’ sexual orientations. But researchers disagree on how much the numbers can really tell us.
Metallic materials used in extremely cold environments must maintain high strength, ductility and fracture toughness to support applications in aerospace, clean energy, superconducting systems and deep-space exploration. However, traditional alloys often suffer performance degradation at ultralow temperatures because of the long-standing trade-off between strength, ductility and toughness. Although metals may become stronger at lower temperatures, they can also become more brittle and prone to f
Tiny snakes in Southeast Asia have mastered an extraordinary escape technique: rolling across the ground at speeds up to four times faster than ordinary slithering. Scientists discovered that dwarf reedsnakes accomplish this feat through precisely coordinated body movements that allow their bodies to rotate while their heads remain remarkably stable.
The discovery may hint at the roots of human norms around fairness and friendship.
A major study has uncovered hidden warning signs of inflammatory bowel disease in the blood up to 10 years before diagnosis. Researchers discovered distinct antibody patterns that could help predict who would later develop Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, even distinguishing people at risk of more complicated disease.
What seabirds eat might seem like a good starting point for identifying species that tend to accumulate plastic in their digestive systems. Yet a recent global analysis suggests that mapping the evolutionary relatives of birds could offer better clues than their diets or feeding methods alone.
Scientists have discovered that switching off a protein called Mitch makes human cells burn more fat and prevents new fat cells from developing. The breakthrough builds on experiments in mice that showed remarkable resistance to obesity and improved muscular endurance, raising hopes for a new approach to weight-loss treatment.
In places like South Asia, Africa and parts of the Americas, monsoon rains supply water for drinking, crops and hydropower for billions of people. Understanding the patterns that monsoons tend to follow can help people plan for drought risks affecting agriculture, reservoirs and hydropower across distant regions.
SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from California as Falcon 9 cadence slows (photos) Space SpaceX launches Starlink 15-15 mission following a trio of scrubs Spaceflight Now SpaceX helps California tie rocket launch record. Next one coming up Ventura County Star Vandenberg Supports 71st Launch of 2026 Vandenberg Space Force Base (.mil) Falcon 9 Cadence Slows as B1063 Flies 15-15 KeepTrack
Eland protein found in 60,000-year-old ochre layer offers clues to early human practices in South Africa Archaeology News Online Magazine Antelope collagen found in 60,000-year-old ochre offers clues to early human practices Phys.org Rare Antelope Proteins Linked to 60,000-Year-Old Ochre Point to Hidden Aspects of Early Human Behavior Discover Magazine
Relatively simple changes to the way traditional brick kilns operate in Bangladesh can reduce pollution, save fuel and improve the quality of bricks they produce.
NASA lays out plan for Artemis 3 moon-lander test flight — but when will it launch? Space ‘The most complicated launch campaign ever’: NASA lays out mad dash to test lunar landers CNN NASA’s Artemis III Mission to Test Future Moon Lander Operations NASA (.gov) NASA adopting Apollo’s urgency to build a moon base and land astronauts within two years AP News NASA Is Still Aiming for the Next Moon Landing in 2028 The New York Times
The fossilized skull of a new species of mysterious meat-eating dinosaur from the Isle of Wight has been rediscovered in the collections of the Natural History Museum after over 100 years in storage.
A 150-million-year-old fossil discovered in China reveals a bizarre early bird with sharp teeth, a dinosaur-like claw, and a body built for life on the ground rather than flight. Scientists believe it represents the earliest known example of flight loss in birds, overturning assumptions about how these animals evolved.
NASA is moving fast on its plans to build a moon base and return astronauts to the lunar surface in as little as two years.
‘The most complicated launch campaign ever’: NASA lays out mad dash to test lunar landers CNN The goal is to have 'long-duration stays' on the moon: NASA administrator Fox News NASA advisers raise new concerns about Artemis lunar landing plans SpaceNews When will SpaceX and Blue Origin fly to the moon? NASA reveals lunar lander timelines (and an Artemis III update) Space Live: NASA gives update on Artemis III mission NewsNation
This summer’s heat was the continent’s deadliest by far this century, according to new peer-reviewed estimates.
Punching a virtual response box or swinging a virtual lightsaber can dramatically improve learning on certain tasks, according to new research from Florida Atlantic University's College of Engineering and Computer Science, which challenges long-standing assumptions about how people learn.
Scientists discovered that the thick, sticky fluid surrounding glioblastoma tumors can make brain cancer cells smaller, more flexible, and better at invading surrounding tissue. Even more troubling, some of these changes persist after the cells leave the thick fluid, revealing a previously overlooked mechanism that could help this deadly cancer spread.
NASA's Freeze-Resistant Moon Battery Could Eventually Reach EVs Crude Oil Prices Today | OilPrice.com Cold-resistant lunar batteries: the key to NASA’s Artemis program Noticias Ambientales
Emergency crews scrambled on Saturday to restore power to tens of thousands of homes in Taiwan after Typhoon Champi's fierce winds battered the island, with the storm moving toward China and Japan.
Early Predatory Dinosaurs Survived Shift in Their Ecosystem, Fossil Fragment Suggests Sci.News
Tiny Genetic Tweak From An Ancient Virus Might've Prevented Chimpanzees From Developing Brains Like Ours ScienceAlert Why did humans’ brains surpass chimps’? A tiny foe might help explain it Science News An ancient virus in chimpanzee DNA switches off a gene that is active in humans Phys.org The Human Brain Owes Its Existence to a Prehistoric Pandemic Psychology Today Ancient Virus Switched Off a Chimp Brain Gene Humans Still Use Around Prague
Halley's Comet dazzles from afar in spectacular astrophoto of Orionid meteor shower Space See the dust and ice particles from Halley’s Comet tonight ABC7 WWSB Orionid meteor shower to light up October skies with fiery cosmic display FOX Weather Orionid meteor shower peaks tonight — Here's how to see it WBAL-TV Early birds will have the best chance to see the Orionid meteor shower CNN
The Malik Lab thrives on competition. But for HHMI investigator Harmit Malik and his team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, it's the genomes—not the people—that are in conflict. The lab studies rapid evolution—the genetic changes that happen in a species over a few generations rather than thousands of years. These fast changes are often fueled by genetic conflicts—competitions between different entities trying to maximize their success at the expense of another.
Deep beneath Japan’s Kikai caldera, a massive magma reservoir is refilling 7,300 years after one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in Earth's recent geological history. Scientists used underwater seismic surveys to reveal a vast store of magma that appears to have accumulated since the ancient catastrophe. The discovery could help explain how supervolcanoes like Yellowstone and Toba rebuild their magma supplies.
Pollution from human-generated waste in marine ecosystems has reached critical levels, with cigarette butts (CBs) among the most persistent and harmful pollutants. Globally, an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded annually, making them the most common type of litter on beaches over the past three decades.
This Is What Our Mysterious Denisovan Cousins Probably Looked Like Gizmodo The proteome of Middle Pleistocene Xujiayao and common Denisovan morphology Nature The Face Of Denisovans Revealed After Re-Analysis Of 199,000-Year Old Hominin Fossils IFLScience We Now Know What Denisovans Looked Like Nautilus Good to see you after all this time. Scientists finally put a face to Denisovans South China Morning Post
Researchers have uncovered a surprising reason dental implant infections often resist antibiotics: the implants themselves can contribute to the problem. Bacteria corrode titanium implants, releasing microscopic particles that hijack immune cells, trigger destructive inflammation, and accelerate jawbone loss.
Mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs set the stage for the giant fungus D. rex CNN Scientists Discover “D-Rex,” a Giant Fungus Unlike Anything Seen Before SciTechDaily Experts discover ancient, “extreme” species in Chinese forest – and name it 'D-rex' BBC Wildlife Magazine In China, scientists found a nearly 5-pound fungus so unique it required a new family Yahoo Giant Fungus Discovered in Yunnan Reveals New Fungal Family Chinese Academy of Sciences
Researchers at the University of Helsinki wanted to understand which is the dominant factor for species occurrence and abundance: the climate or habitat-related variables, such as their natural state and the share of land shaped by human activity. Solutions to mitigate biodiversity loss depend on the answer to this question.
A newly FDA-cleared PTSD treatment uses personalized brain mapping and magnetic stimulation to target abnormal brain activity, with a clinical trial reporting a 52% reduction in symptoms and 68% remission. Researchers believe the technology could transform PTSD care and pave the way for more precise treatments for other mental health conditions.
“It stood 3m tall and was armed with some of the deadliest weaponry of any prehistoric animal.” 10 biggest prehistoric birds that ever lived BBC Wildlife Magazine
South Africa endured its worst year of load shedding (scheduled power cuts by the country's utility, Eskom) in 2023. The power went off on 335 of the year's 365 days, often several times a day. Since then, the country has gone more than a year and a half without these planned power cuts.
MIT engineers have built a paper-thin swimming robot powered by living muscle cells that respond to flashes of light, allowing it to swim and steer through water. The breakthrough could pave the way for tiny, self-healing biological robots capable of exploring fragile environments that ordinary machines cannot safely navigate.
Private Griffin moon lander gets put to the test photo of the day for Oct. 23, 2026 Space How Voyager Chose Griffin-1’s Lunar Landing Site Voyager Technologies Griffin-1 lunar lander passes critical tests ahead of Moon flight — Space.com UA.NEWS At least 1 lunar landing company may get off a moonshot this year Orlando Sentinel
Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) have developed a new way to make glowing biological reporters more accurate, allowing scientists to track gene activity in living plants over days, weeks and potentially even months and years. The approach could help researchers study how plants respond to disease, pests and environmental stress, while opening the door to similar applications in animal and human disease models.
Researchers have solved a long-standing challenge in understanding how tiny defects in materials like diamond and silicon carbide behave when exposed to light. Their new computational method revealed a surprisingly important energy-loss mechanism in silicon carbide that scientists had previously underestimated. The finding helps explain a mystery that has puzzled researchers for years and could improve the design of quantum computers and sensors.
It's 7 metres long, can weigh almost a tonne and can live for 400 years or more – meaning some around today were born in 1626... BBC Wildlife Magazine
A seven-year study found that people with Parkinson’s disease who were more physically active experienced slower declines in memory, thinking, and movement abilities. Those exercising more than eight hours per week showed almost no average cognitive decline, suggesting that staying active may offer important benefits as the disease progresses.
When heavy rain hits a city, knowing where water will accumulate is only part of the picture. Who lives in the affected buildings? How might flooding disrupt their lives? And where could additional support make the greatest difference?
Drop in for free science talks at these Seattle bars, pubs The Seattle Times
Switzerland’s glaciers are disappearing at an alarming rate, losing more than 5% of their ice volume in 2026 alone. Some of the country’s most famous glaciers experienced their worst melting on record, while several smaller glaciers vanished completely. Nearly 20% of Switzerland’s glacier ice has disappeared in just five years, driven by unusually snowless winters and extreme summer heat.
Researchers at AIST have directly observed magnetic flux quanta generated in a superconductor by photon absorption and demonstrated a new principle of photon detection that identifies the number of photons based on the number of these flux quanta.
The US west has lost nearly 300 glaciers since the 1960s. Climate crisis is drastically shrinking what’s left The Guardian
Masculinity content promises young men self-optimization and success, but often delivers health harms, risk-taking, unattainable standards, gender stereotypes and misogyny. The latter is the strongest predictor of violent extremism.
A tiny region deep within the brain has surprised scientists by revealing a remarkably sophisticated communication system. Previously thought to broadcast the same chemical signal throughout the brain, this region actually sends targeted messages that help control learning, attention, and behavior, according to new research in mice.
A Tiny Chemical Tweak From 4 Billion Years Ago May Be the Reason We Exist Today Yahoo
The new RFD4-Proteina unified generative model for protein design—created by the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) in collaboration with NVIDIA—uses advanced AI to generate entirely new protein sequences and structures, achieving computational design success rates five to 10 times higher than previous models and generating candidates five to 10 times faster.
Musk disputes NASA safety panel's lunar launch estimates The Register Latest estimate for Starship launches required to support a Moon landing? 22. Ars Technica The Starship moon landing number NASA and Elon Musk can’t agree on Teslarati Starship V3 Orbital Refueling: 5 Details That Matter BASENOR Musk Says 6-8 Flights, NASA Panel Says 22 KeepTrack
Researchers at AIST have demonstrated the synthesis of nanoporous carbonaceous materials and carbonaceous materials with layered nanostructures through a simple process involving the chemical modification of common sugars such as sucrose and fructose.
Forty years after the Chornobyl disaster, tiny radioactive particles still linger in the soil, carrying a dangerous legacy. Using powerful X-rays, scientists discovered that some of these particles have remained surprisingly stable, trapping radioactive substances inside instead of releasing them into the environment.
Underwater robot stumbles across thousands of sharks all packed together and asleep on the seabed – stunning scientists BBC Wildlife Magazine
Consumers routinely ignore information when making purchases. They overlook the tax attached to a price, skim past ingredient lists and often fail to process exact numbers with any precision.
A massive analysis of 2,884 exploding stars has uncovered new evidence that dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the universe’s expansion, may change over time. The findings challenge a cornerstone of modern cosmology and could reshape our understanding of how the universe works.
'Stupendously large black holes' aren't a major component of dark matter, study finds Space
Establishing a long-term presence on the moon will require solving challenges that are easy to overlook on Earth. Lunar temperatures, for instance, can vary from hundreds of degrees below zero to boiling, making effective insulation essential for lunar habitats.
Cambridge researchers have created a groundbreaking $10 optical sensor that delivers the precision of laboratory equipment in a device small enough for wearable technology. It identified foods, plastics, and medicines with 100% accuracy in tests and demonstrated the ability to monitor blood glucose, alcohol, and other health markers without invasive procedures.
Rocket Report: SpaceX says no thanks to military launches; Spanish rocket nearly ready Ars Technica
A review by Tohoku University researchers identifies key molecular features that could guide the development of more effective materials for removing PFAS from water. The study is published in the journal ACS Materials Au.
In 1953, two physicists showed that an electron beam skimming past a grating emits light whose color depends only on the electron's speed and the grating's spacing. Known as Smith-Purcell radiation, this phenomenon has become a useful tool for building compact, tunable light sources and tracking particle beams without touching them.
Everyone Has A Romantic Side, And Yours Is Hiding In These 15 Flower Choices BuzzFeed
Researchers have uncovered a hidden immune defense capable of attacking small cell lung cancer, an extremely aggressive disease that often escapes conventional treatments. The specialized immune cells can recognize and destroy cancer cells even when tumors have disguised themselves from the immune system.
As politics in America become more polarized and each voting cycle seems more fraught than the last, a common narrative in the media is that each election is unique and increasingly unpredictable. But new research shows that congressional elections follow strong statistical patterns, even when individual races produce surprises.
Space debris: Are we on track for true sustainability? (op-ed) Space A $200K prelaunch bond for satellites could prevent a space junk disaster in orbit, scientists say Space Deposit System and Space Trucks Target Space Debris Reduction 조선일보 How engineers are testing spacecraft designed to refuel and clean up orbit Aerospace Testing International A mission to control space debris and capturing the launch of a new telescope Central Florida Public Media
Many of the most potent antibiotics originate from bacteria. A large proportion belong to a class of compounds known as nonribosomal peptides (NRP). They are produced by large bacterial enzyme machineries—the nonribosomal peptide synthetases, or NRPS for short. These function like molecular assembly lines: Similar to the stations in a car factory, where new parts are added to the car at each step, several specialized modules string together amino acid by amino acid to build a peptide.
Unlocking the secrets of the ‘Dragon Man’ skull – and what it reveals about human evolution The Conversation
How can the identity of pluripotent stem cells be determined more reliably during their differentiation? Researchers from the IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine and Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf have systematically validated marker genes for this purpose and developed a web-based application for the automated classification of early cell fates. The study has been published in Stem Cell Reports.
The ‘Exotic Physics’ Behind a Mysterious 1,000-Mile Cloud on Mars WIRED
What if we could predict early in drug development which antibiotics bacteria are most likely to become resistant to? In a review published in Nature Reviews Microbiology, researchers from the HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged (HUN-REN BRC Szeged) and the Hungarian Centre of Excellence for Molecular Medicine (HCEMM) in Szeged propose a five-step decision-making framework that could help identify resistance risks early, refine promising drug candidates and prevent costly failures.
Scientists discover new squid-like species in Wyoming that lived 160 million years ago New York Post 'Big Chunky' fossil reveals bizarre new squid-like species that lived 160 million years ago FOX Weather Scientists Find ‘Chunkiest’ Sea Creature in Landlocked State The Daily Beast Scientists discover a bizarre Jurassic “squid” unlike anything ever seen Science Daily The fattest “squid” in history is found in Wyoming: it lived 160 million years ago and its fossil spent decades forgotten in a draw
Whenever anything is written about the Denisovans, the word "mysterious" is almost guaranteed to appear. That is because we just don't know a lot about this extinct human group that may have lived in East Asia from at least 300,000 to 45,000 years ago and was closely related to the Neanderthals. The main reason for that is a sparse fossil record.
Voyager 1 Is About To Reach 1 Light-Day From Earth. What Do We Know About What's Out There? IFLScience In space, 'We've gone from exploration to exploitation,' says original Voyager team member The Register Voyager 1 will be one light-day from Earth on 18 November — and that changes everything WION Tracking Voyager 1: Real-Time Location and Its True Distance From the Sun cristinaiglesias.com Space We’ve Gone Exploration: Voyager scientist warns of shift JournalArta
Two black holes can collide and merge into one. But could the opposite happen: could a single black hole split into two smaller ones? That question is explored in a new theoretical study: "When Black Holes Admit Pair-of-pants Topologies," published in the journal Physical Review D.
Potatoes could hold the key to making better gluten-free plant-based meat, according to a new study.
Scientists probe link between early brain development and conditions such as autism Financial Times
Humans and chimpanzees share almost all their genes. Despite this, our brains have developed in different ways. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that a viral pandemic dating back several million years is likely to be part of the explanation.
More than 30,000 years ago, people associated with one of Europe's major Paleolithic cultures (the Gravettian) were more interconnected than previously thought. An international research team led by the University of Vienna has uncovered new genetic evidence of long-distance connections between these populations. Published in Science Advances, the study combines genomic data from rare human remains with human DNA preserved in cave sediments.
Chinese astronomers find real 3-body system. It is not what Liu Cixin thinks South China Morning Post
Research shows that crises do more than cause financial market volatility and falling share prices—they lead to markets becoming far more interconnected.
The Orion Nebula is a large star-forming region visible to the naked eye. Some of the young stars in the nebula are surrounded by disks of gas and dust in which planets form. Radiation from the massive central star, 1 Ori C1 (Theta-1 Orionis C1), gradually strips material from these disks, giving them shapes that resemble tadpoles.
Current-Driven Molecular Machine with Rotation-Enhanced Conductance Nature Unidirectional rotation in a molecular motor driven by angular-momentum transfer via helical orbitals Nature Archimedes' screw made from a single molecule Nanowerk
Mitochondria are the tiny powerpacks that supply most of the energy our cells need. Their ability to generate this energy relies on a distinctive architecture: two membranes, one tucked inside the other, separated by a narrow gap called the intermembrane space (IMS). This tiny space helps sustain the chemistry of energy production, making its organization critical to how these cellular powerpacks function.
Horse-Sized Saber-Tooth Lived Millions of Years Past Its Deadline Yahoo
When DNA is damaged, cellular processes respond and repair the DNA. Inhibiting DNA damage repair can be therapeutically beneficial in cancers with genetic vulnerabilities related to DNA damage response. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have uncovered a mechanism behind how this process works, which may have implications for cancer treatment. The results were published today in Molecular Cell.
Scientists Just Cracked a Quantum Mystery That's Puzzled Physicists For Decades ScienceAlert
Venture capital firms can help young businesses expand internationally by providing funding as well as market knowledge, expertise and access to professional networks, according to a research literature review published in the International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development.
Every egg cell and sperm cell depends on meiosis, a tightly choreographed process in which chromosomes find their partners, exchange genetic material and then divide. When meiosis goes awry in humans, the consequences can include infertility, miscarriage and birth defects.
Climate change is increasing flood risk across the U.K. As floods become more frequent and intense, communities are increasingly encouraged to become resilient and "live with water." Yet in some flood-prone areas, residents are rejecting these calls, concerned that resilience is less about helping communities and more about transferring responsibility from institutions to citizens.
Scientists have identified the conditions that make it possible to predict some El Niño and La Niña events up to a year in advance, potentially giving communities and decision-makers significantly more time to prepare for weather extremes.
Astronomers identified an exceptionally tiny core that may represent an early stage in the formation of a massive star. Located in an infrared-dark area called Dragon Cloud, the core is nicknamed the "dragon egg." The paper, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 5.
A few short years ago, asking AI to add two four-digit numbers together for a third-grade math assignment would have been a bad idea. Over half the time, the answer would be wrong, studies have shown. Long division or a "leaky tank" problem, an algebra class staple? Forget about it.
Open ecosystems—nonforested landscapes such as grasslands, shrublands and savannas—can store vast amounts of carbon while supporting water supply, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Yet the potential of open ecosystems to serve as natural climate solutions remains ignored by policies that privilege forests. So reports a team of researchers in a policy brief published today in PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET.
New Northwestern University research aims to shed light on what drives inequalities among men in the aftermath of megadisasters. In such situations, men are often depicted as heroic leaders, and this study finds that many of them experience improved mental and physical health while assisting with recovery efforts. However, for some men, the boost is short-lived once recovery activities are completed, leading to emotional lows and potentially increasing the risk of suicide.
A new study led by University of Hawai'i (UH) at Mānoa researchers reveals how extreme ocean warming disrupts whale metabolism, nutrition and reproductive success and what the developing 2026–2027 El Niño could mean next. As climate change drives increasingly intense marine heat waves, scientists are uncovering how these extreme warming events disrupt the biology of humpback whales.
On a Monday night in September 1964, television viewers watched a little girl counting petals on a flower. Her voice gave way to a man counting down, and then a nuclear blast filled the screen.
Protected areas have been set up to shield deep-sea life from the impacts of seabed mining in the Pacific Ocean. However, new research led by scientists at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and published in Nature Ecology & Evolution highlights an opportunity to make these protections even more effective.
Researchers at Umea university thought gold particles would make electronic components emit more light. Instead, they discovered an unexpected effect that could be important for the future of organic electronics.
Molecular machines are regarded as the next step in miniaturization. Their models can be found in living cells, where molecular motors convert energy and generate movement. Scientists have been working for decades to artificially replicate such systems. The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for this research.
Researchers have created a material that manufactures the proteins responsible for cell movement, without needing intact living cells. By embedding cell-free gene expression into a thin sheet of protein filaments, they were able to make the material wrinkle, rise into blister-like shapes and break into bundles that flow around one another.
Fabian Coscia and his team have published in Nature Methods an open-source workflow that makes Deep Visual Proteomics easier to use, adapt and scale. OpenDVP enables scientists to spatially map thousands of proteins inside cells and their cellular environments, while preserving their tissue context.
More than 50,000 heat-related deaths are estimated to have occurred in urban areas across Europe during summer 2026, with around two-thirds attributed to human-induced climate change, according to new research led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Imperial College London.
In the Northern Hemisphere, days are getting shorter and temperatures are dropping—autumn has arrived. A common sign that winter is coming is trees losing their leaves. But did you know that autumn also sparks changes in animals' sexual behavior—including ours?
In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from The University of Manchester and Lancaster University have isolated and characterized uranocenium, the positively charged form of a landmark uranium compound called uranocene. The work shows that this long-sought molecule is stable, and that it behaves in a way that challenges how chemists usually think about bonding in heavy elements.
A powerful typhoon pounded Taiwan on Friday as authorities warned of "destructive winds" and urged locals to shelter from the storm.
Why are some people more drawn to new and exciting experiences than others? This phenomenon is usually explained by the fact that so-called "sensation seekers" experience stimuli less intensely than other people and therefore need intense experiences to feel alive. However, the uncertainty of the experiences also plays a role, such as the thrill of not knowing what will happen.
Do cosmic radiation doses near the moon differ significantly from those received by astronauts in low Earth orbit? Experimental lithium fluoride detectors, installed aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis I mission, have now made it possible to obtain preliminary estimates.
Human cells contain billions of molecules. To prevent complete chaos, these molecules and the reactions between them are organized within structures known as organelles. One of the cell's most important organelles is the endoplasmic reticulum, a dynamic network that extends throughout the cell and plays an essential role in cell growth. Using a method they developed themselves, an international team of molecular biologists and bioinformaticians has tackled the challenge of determining precisely
With a successful Mars gravity assist in its rearview mirror, NASA's Psyche spacecraft has fired up its thrusters and is accelerating toward the metal-rich asteroid of the same name. During the first leg of its journey, following an October 2023 launch, the mission used its electric propulsion system intermittently to maneuver into the right position to harness Mars' gravity for a propellant-saving speed boost and a slight trajectory change.
The Kronshtadskiy subglacial lake near East Antarctica's Amery Ice Shelf was hidden beneath Antarctica's ice, but its drainage left a mark visible from space as a broad depression that deepened by more than 6 meters (20 feet) at its center.
Common ways of reporting perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—the man-made, so-called forever chemicals that pose environmental and health threats—could underestimate the concentration of PFAS in U.S. drinking water by as much as half, according to a study being published Oct. 23 in Cell Reports Sustainability.
A sweeping barred spiral galaxy marks the spot in this image, but the real treasure is the gravitational lens in the lower-right corner, where a distant background galaxy is being magnified and distorted by the gravity of a closer galaxy.
After earning bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees in bioengineering with a focus on molecular biology, Will White, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Computer Science at Tufts, was pretty certain his future research would involve things like DNA and proteins. What he didn't know was that alpacas would also be part of the equation.
Glass can keep a drink safely contained, protect a smartphone screen, or serve as a foundation for electronic components. But when it comes to controlling heat, this familiar material still holds some scientific mysteries. Now, researchers have identified a key factor governing how efficiently heat travels through silicate glass, offering a new guideline for designing glass materials for next-generation electronic devices.
Arriving on the Caribbean island of Dominica for the first time "feels a little bit like stepping into Jurassic Park," said Giovanni Petri, a professor in the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University London.
The common myna is sometimes referred to as "Australia's most hated bird." Originally from South and Central Asia, the introduced species from the starling family is abundant, raucous and bold.
Quantum systems can occupy superpositions, quantum states that combine different possibilities. For instance, a microwave field can be prepared in a superposition of an empty state and a state that contains microwave light.
Public health researchers have long examined how societal forces can shape health outcomes. Decades after redlining was outlawed, for example, researchers continue to document its lasting effects on life expectancy, chronic disease and access to health care resources in many communities.
El Niño is part of a natural climate pattern that occurs roughly every two to seven years, bringing warmer-than-normal water to parts of the equatorial Pacific. The most recent very strong El Niño events, in 1997–98 and 2015–16, upended weather patterns. Impacts spanned the planet, from fires in Indonesia and the Amazon to crop failures due to drought in southern Africa to heavy rain and coastal flooding in Southern California. The current El Niño rivals these past heavyweights.
Human cells hold about two meters (6.6 feet) of DNA, folded and compacted to fit inside a nucleus. That packing is essential for life, but it creates a problem for scientists. Some of the genes that control a cell's identity are buried so deep in tightly packed DNA that gene-targeting tools such as CRISPR activation, or CRISPRa, struggle to reach them.
Young people are facing a future that feels increasingly uncertain. Although every generation experiences turbulence while navigating adolescence, the pressures experienced by Gen Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—are different and seem more pervasive.
Led by Dr. Rui Gomes Coelho, assistant professor of historical archaeology, the research reveals ordinary people's attitudes toward hospitality and solidarity in 20th-century Europe.
A joint research team from KAIST and the APEC Climate Center has found that the East Asian summer front has migrated north over the past half century, with the shift exceeding 200 km (124 miles) in late summer. This raises the risk that the Korean Peninsula will experience heavy rain and heat stress at the same time. The findings suggest that summer disaster planning should address flood prevention and heat-illness management together, through late September.
Modern agriculture's selective breeding of crops for particular requirements may now be a roadblock to further gains, prompting a trio of senior University of Queensland plant scientists to call for a new way forward.
A large-scale survey has found cats fed vegan diets had lower rates of obesity and related health problems than those fed conventional meat-based diets.
Alexander the Great, king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, reportedly bathed in saffron to heal his battle wounds. Doctors once prescribed this rare plant as a treatment for the bubonic plague. Cleopatra even used it as a fragrance to entice potential suitors. And now, this tiny flower associated with the Middle East could have a new use: providing Colorado farmers with supplemental income in the drought-stricken American West.
It is tough to watch a dog deal with issues associated with aging. A senior dog that gets lost at home or starts showing more anxiety may be exhibiting signs of dementia. But by the time these signs show up, the decline may have been underway for years.
A media "glass ceiling" exists in news stories on artificial intelligence (AI) published in Spanish media in recent years: men are the main subjects in 41% of news reports, compared to just 5% featuring women. This is one of the findings of the report "InfoIA: Analysis of Information on Artificial Intelligence Published in Digital Media," conducted by the University Institute of Gender Studies at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M).
Give AI agents political positions, ask them to defend their views and persuade one another, and let them decide which contacts to keep. This recent experiment, published in Nature Communications, found that over repeated exchanges, something familiar emerged: opposing camps that increasingly prefer their own company.
Red crown rot, a fungal disease of soybean, is not new to the Midwest. First reported in Illinois in 2018, the disease is now surging across the state and the region. Boris Camiletti, a plant pathologist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is leading the effort to understand and combat the scourge, along with the Crop Protection Network, the Illinois Soybean Association, the United Soybean Board and researchers in surrounding states.
Glaciers ending in lakes, oceans or ice shelves make up 3.2% of the world's glaciers, but lost 134 billion metric tons (148 billion tons) of ice each year between 2000 and 2019, accounting for more than half of all glacier ice loss, a new study shows.
In the deepest region of the Earth's mantle, just above the core, much of the material consists of crystals of magnesium oxide. In larger rocky exoplanets called super-Earths, the higher pressures in the lower mantle may drive magnesium oxide to transform into a new high-pressure crystal structure or a metallic, electrically conductive liquid that generates a magnetic field. And in gas giants, magnesium oxide could exist in the cores themselves.
Most shops and schools were shut across Taiwan on Friday as Typhoon Champi neared the island, forcing hundreds of people to leave their homes ahead of the powerful storm.
Blistering record heat in Europe this summer helped kill more than 50,000 people, with nearly two-thirds of that death toll blamed on human-caused climate change, a new study found.
What would it take to watch an electron move through a material? Researchers would need to see individual atoms and capture an electron's motion at incredibly short timescales. A Technion-led team has brought those two capabilities together in a scanning tunneling microscope, using carefully shaped laser pulses to control the direction of electron flow while preserving nanoscale spatial resolution.
New research reveals that faster growth rates in Honeycrisp apples increase both the incidence and severity of the "bitter pit" disorder, which is responsible for large-scale fruit yield losses and avoidable economic impacts for apple producers and storers.
Identifying individual animals in the wild has long meant tagging, branding or clipping. For amphibians, the standard approach has often been toe-clipping, a procedure that can affect survival, physiology and behavior. A new study suggests that, for at least one species of treefrog, nature has already provided a more humane solution: the eyes.
A mother bat has one crucial challenge: find her own babies among hundreds of other bats in the colony. Making sure she cares for and nurses only her own offspring is important to ensuring their survival. Among Japanese house bats, mothers keep track of their pups using the babies' isolation calls.
Have you ever left a polling place feeling that your mark on the ballot didn't quite say what you wanted it to? Perhaps you liked two candidates but had to drop one, or backed the one who might actually win over the one you preferred.
About six years ago, hearing researcher Dr. Kelly Miles had a stroke just a week after having a baby.
International pressure intended to encourage democratic reform can sometimes strengthen the very governments it seeks to hold to account, according to new research from The University of Manchester.
A technique for detecting potentially harmful metals in regenerated cellulose food packaging is discussed in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. The new tool can be used for safety assessments of materials increasingly used as alternatives to conventional plastics.
Private companies are getting better at launching more mass into space with larger rockets. But there is still a major constraint on the size of objects we can get into orbit—fairing size. This places physical constraints on the overall shape of what we can launch and severely limits the sizes of, say, a communications array or a power satellite. But a new paper from researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Beijing Institute of Technology offers a solution—a self
If you wanted a Nobel Prize, you would do well to study neutrinos. To date, the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded five times to research related to neutrino detection and discovery. This year, Francis Halzen earned the Nobel "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin."
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are loop-shaped molecules that can influence gene regulation through interactions with microRNAs (miRNAs). This matters because circRNAs can exist as different full-length isoforms, and their back-splice junction (BSJ) connects the two ends of the RNA. Treating a circular RNA like a linear transcript can therefore overlook sequence information near this junction.
Previous accounts of the scientific relationship between communist China and the Soviet Union have depicted it as one of subordination, with the Russians exporting knowledge to the Chinese or scavenging from their bodies of knowledge. A new article in Isis, however, posits that the relationship between Chinese and Soviet scientists was instead one of mutual exchange. In "Brief Encounter: Acupuncture, Pavlov, and Scientific Exchange Between China and the Soviet Union, 1949-1961," authors Liang Wa
Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a versatile chemical feedstock whose industrial production relies predominantly on an energy-intensive process with a substantial environmental footprint. One alternative is to produce it using a catalyst activated by light. In an international research project involving the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, researchers have now developed a synthesis strategy that allows them to precisely control the spatial arrangement of ions in a carbon nitride. The
New research suggests that replacing polyethylene (PE) packaging with paper, glass, aluminum or steel often does not reduce environmental impacts across a product's life cycle.
Rising temperatures and increasing drought are shortening crop-growing seasons in many parts of the world. Now scientists in Sweden report new advances toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis, work that could eventually contribute to efforts to adapt crops for climate change.
A new design methodology for school playgrounds is demonstrating how children can still enjoy their playtime while being protected from the harmful effects of the sun.
Researchers have observed a molecule in the first instants after it has absorbed light and tracked the coordinated motion of electrons and nuclei with a temporal resolution of three femtoseconds. This is the result achieved by an international research group led by the Politecnico di Milano, which has developed a new apparatus for studying ultrafast photochemical processes.
From photos and videos to documents, vast amounts of data are stored on hard drives in large data centers. These devices use tiny magnetic regions whose orientation determines the information stored. But how could data be stored even faster in the future? One possible approach involves ultrashort laser pulses, which can alter the magnetic order of materials in an extremely short time.
When a major company's CEO goes through a messy divorce or is arrested for drunk driving, investors often get nervous, worried that the executive's personal struggles will dent their returns. But most people hardly notice when a chief marketing officer has similar personal problems.
What, exactly, is a plant made of? Scientists have a good understanding of the essential nutrients plants need to grow. But what plants need and what they contain are not necessarily the same.
A University of Cambridge–led analysis of maps made from satellite imagery covering over three decades and seven presidents shows how the winner of Brazil's national elections since 1990 directly affected the preservation of its globally vital ecosystems.
A joint research team fabricated a two-dimensional structure that exhibits properties of both the honeycomb and Kagome lattices using organic molecules. They discovered that edge states specific to topological materials (states that exist only at the edges and are distinct from those in the interior) appear in this structure. The team included researchers from NIMS, Toyota Kosen (National Institute of Technology, Toyota College), Saga University, Nara Women's University, Kiel University (Germany