Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually lead to us.
It's a well-established fact that forests and water are deeply connected. For decades, paired-watershed experiments—a scientific method for evaluating land-use impacts on water quantity or quality—have shown that when we lose forests, the total amount of water flowing through
A research team has, for the first time in the world, elucidated the microscopic mechanism by which quantum order is lost and collapses in "open quantum environments" existing in nature. Since perfectly isolated quantum systems cannot exist in reality, this study is expected to
The butternut tree, a close relative of black walnut prized for its pale wood and wildlife value, is on the brink of disappearing from North American forests. A new study from Virginia Tech offers hope that the species could regain its foothold with help from modern data
New research from Michigan State University challenges the popular assumption that narcissists gradually damage their relationships over time.
When paper dries and is subsequently rewetted, its properties change permanently. This phenomenon is known as hornification. New research now shows that the process is more complex than previously assumed, and that temperature, humidity, and fiber type all play decisive roles.
Iridium is a key component in many electrochemical technologies used for chemical transformations. These include producing hydrogen fuel from water, manufacturing chlorine from seawater for use as a disinfectant and extracting metals from their ores. Yet scientists still know
As four astronauts whiz toward a flyby of the moon, looking out for them are mission control experts using cutting-edge technology and lessons learned from the Apollo program 50 years ago.
The White House budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing
It's easy to take our eyes for granted. But our recent research shows they took an incredible evolutionary journey to reach their current familiar form.
The third day of the Artemis II mission was relatively quiet, as four astronauts trek out to fly around the moon
They're sipping smoothies, snapping phone pics, dealing with crashed email and fixing broken toilets: astronauts, they're just like us.
Many people think that occasional binge drinking is harmless if they otherwise drink in moderation, but new research suggests that assumption may be dangerously wrong. A large U.S. study found that people with metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), a
Warming across the U.S. is far more uneven than it looks at first glance. While only about half of states show rising average temperatures, most are heating up in specific ways—like hotter highs or warmer lows. These hidden shifts vary by region, with the West seeing more
NASA is joining international partners to hunt for ice on the moon in support of future human exploration. The agency is providing a water-detecting instrument, the Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), to the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace
You can track the start of spring and the phases of the moon—or you can turn to a formula by mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss
Astrocytes, once thought to be mere brain “support cells,” are now revealed to be key players in fear memory. Researchers found they actively help form, recall, and weaken fear responses by interacting with neurons in real time. Changing astrocyte activity directly altered how
The Artemis 2 astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the moon on Saturday as they sped toward a planned lunar flyby, with NASA releasing initial images of Earth taken from inside the Orion spacecraft.
Artemis 2 astronaut Jeremy Hansen felt like he was "falling out of the sky" as his spacecraft followed its complex flight path to the moon, the Canadian said in a Saturday video call.
The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet's brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.
When tourists travel to Seattle, it's common to take in the Space Needle and the downtown skyline from Puget Sound.
A new breakthrough is transforming MXenes—ultra-thin, high-tech materials—into something far more powerful and precise. Researchers have developed a cleaner, more controlled way to build these materials using molten salts and iodine, eliminating the messy chemical processes
Dying stars may be wiping out nearby giant planets as they expand into red giants. Astronomers found that these close-in planets become increasingly rare around more evolved stars, suggesting many have already been swallowed. The likely cause is a gravitational tug that drags
A group of undergraduate students stumbled into a cosmic time capsule—one of the oldest stars ever discovered—while combing through massive astronomy datasets. What began as a class project quickly turned into a breakthrough when they spotted an extraordinarily “pristine” star
A new pill called baxdrostat is showing strong results in lowering dangerously high blood pressure in people who don’t respond to standard treatments. In a large global trial, patients saw their blood pressure drop by nearly 10 mmHg, a meaningful reduction that can
Asteroid impacts may have helped kick-start life on Earth by creating hot, chemical-rich environments ideal for early biology. These impact-generated hydrothermal systems could have lasted thousands of years—long enough for life’s building blocks to form. Scientists now think
Saturn’s magnetic field isn’t the smooth, symmetrical shield scientists see around Earth. Instead, it’s noticeably skewed, and researchers now think they understand why. By analyzing years of data from the Cassini spacecraft, scientists found that a key region where solar
What’s going on here? The post Cosmic Mysteries Swirl Around “Forbidden Planet” appeared first on Nautilus .
Humans haven’t taken photos of Earth from this distance in half a century The post The Best Photos of the Artemis II Mission (So Far) appeared first on Nautilus .
Friday is the Artemis II mission’s third official day as it makes a 10-day journey around the moon and back
The menu for NASA’s moon mission has 189 unique items on it and mirrors that of the International Space Station
An interview with Anthropic’s chatbot about sycophantic AI and how to guard against it The post I Asked Claude Why It Won’t Stop Flattering Me appeared first on Nautilus .
For over half a century, people in Central Africa have told tales of the fish seen climbing waterfalls, but these claims have never been officially confirmed. Now, these fish have finally been caught on camera, studied more closely, and described in a study published in
The new test opens opportunities for circadian medicine The post Your Biological Clock Can be Measured With a Hair Sample appeared first on Nautilus .
Researchers Soma Chiyoda, Ko Mochizuki, and Atsushi Kawakita from the University of Tokyo have discovered that nocturnal hawkmoths are the main pollinators of Jasminanthes mucronata, a plant species native to Japan that produces black nectar. This is the first time that a
Imagine a dump truck dropping 13 tons of dirt into the waters of Brush Creek, a waterway that feeds northwest Arkansas' primary drinking water source, Beaver Lake. That's how much soil and sediment researchers measured going into the stream as runoff due to a single large storm
Detecting a single particle of light is hard; detecting a single microwave photon is even harder. Microwave photons, the tiny packets of electromagnetic radiation used in current technologies like Wi-Fi and radar, carry far less energy than visible light. They are about 100,000
Biographer Richard Holmes reveals how Tennyson predated Darwin and speaks to us today The post A Poet of Science Who Shook Faith in God appeared first on Nautilus .
A team led by principal investigators Bobo Dang and Ting Zhou at Westlake University/Westlake Laboratory have developed a high-throughput platform for engineering fast-acting covalent protein therapeutics. Their study, titled "A high-throughput selection system for fast-acting
