Sloths are the slowest mammals on the planet, but living in dense jungles has made them notoriously difficult to study. For the first time, scientists have now sequenced and analyzed the two-toed sloth genome and revealed the genetics behind its extremely slow metabolism.
Humans are the only species known to use fully symbolic language: a system capable of expressing abstract ideas, imaginary worlds and endless combinations of meaning. But how did we get there?
Picture sea ice in your mind. You probably imagine brilliant white, snow-covered floes floating on the surface of the ocean, home to penguins in the south of the globe or polar bears in the north.
The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has participated in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports on Sala Keimada, one of the rock art sanctuaries in Cueva Palomera, the main cave of the Ojo Guareña Karst Complex
Chimpanzees are the only great apes, apart from humans, that have adapted to living on savannas as well as in forests. However, it is not yet well understood how the harsh ecological conditions of the savanna—compared with those of the forest—affect the foods chimpanzees eat
When consumers pay down debt, many choose to put funds toward their oldest loans first—even when doing so may not make the most financial sense, according to recent research by Alicia M. Johnson, assistant professor of marketing at the Isenberg School of Management.
Ground squirrel droppings, preserved for millennia in the Yukon's deep permafrost, have yielded an enormous amount of environmental DNA from dozens of species of plants, insects, microbes and large mammals, offering detailed genetic information about an environment that no
It's surprising how easy it is to see a koala every day in Australia's major cities. The cute, gray marsupial can be found on T-shirts, hanging off people's bags and pencils, and decorating any decent souvenir shop. But seeing a real koala in the wild has become increasingly
DNA evidence points to environmental upheaval as a cause of their Late Pleistocene decline The post Koalas Were in Trouble Before Humans Arrived in Australia appeared first on Nautilus .
DNA preserved in ancient scat reveals what Yukon ground squirrels ate and what animals shared their world.
Young people with the most connections to other suspected offenders of any age are almost five times more likely to carry knives than the average youth suspect, according to a new analysis of more than 200,000 U.K. police records. This top 5% of "super-connected" children aged
A new trick for Fido—finding spotted lanternfly eggs The post Dogs Could Be Humanity’s Best Friend in the Fight Against This Invasive Species appeared first on Nautilus .
Teachers were more likely to accept an overly harsh grade given to a student by AI than when the unduly low grade was handed out by a human. As AI is increasingly integrated into decision-making, concerns about AI errors are often countered by assurances that humans will
Rhodoliths may look like small rocks on the seafloor, but they are actually living algae that create habitats for marine life and contribute to long-term carbon storage. A new study found that the deeper, low-light waters off Japan's Tanegashima Island harbor a surprisingly
A drug once dismissed as ineffective suddenly worked—when scientists tested it under more realistic conditions that mimic the human body. In this surprising new discovery, Northwestern University scientists uncovered a hidden rule of drug behavior. A medicine's effectiveness
Mature and old-growth forests are vital for biodiversity, carbon storage, cultural traditions and economic activity. But in Alaska and British Columbia, these rich resources have not been reliably mapped, leaving much unknown about what land is protected. Now, University of
Weight lifting and other forms of resistance training can increase bone density, lower diabetes risk and boost mental health
Astronomers have identified a possible new example of one of the universe's strangest galaxy types: galaxies that appear to contain little or no dark matter. The newly studied pair, FCC 224 and FCC 240, on the outskirts of the Fornax Cluster, share several unusual traits with
For decades, the short-eared dog (Atelocynus microtis) has been considered one of the least-known carnivores in Latin America, and potentially one of the least-known canids in the world. Because of its highly secretive nature, acute hearing, and strong sense of smell, this
During courtship, male scissor-tailed nightjars crack their wings together to make a sharp snapping sound. It's the result of colliding arm bones.
Hints of high-pressure chemistry within a rare meteorite suggest this fallen space rock comes from a planet gone wrong in the solar system’s early history
Quantum memories, systems that store and retrieve information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, can outperform classical storage systems on some existing tasks. Yet these promising memories could also complete operations that are very difficult or impossible for classical
Unfortunately, there's more bad news to report on the clear skies front. A new paper, available on the arXiv preprint server from researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center, reports that 73.3% of images the agency's new SPHEREx space telescope collected between May and
At a Maryland vineyard, Debi Persing guided her Boston terrier, Xephyr, slowly down a row of grapevines. Vineyard workers and scientists had already identified several invasive spotted lanternfly egg masses hidden among the vines. They believed they had found them all. Then
The best blood test for herpes is only available at a single lab. What would it take for that to change?
These eye-catching insects offer a prime opportunity for scientists to dig deep into invasion ecology and evolutionary biology
Drill cores at the impact site of the Chicxulub asteroid show evidence that, alongside widespread destruction, the collision created a vast underground ecosystem filled with hot water that sheltered microbial life
Brown dwarfs are somewhere between the size of a planet and a star, so how could we have potentially mistaken two of them for distant galaxies? Columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein argues that solving this cosmic mix-up is particularly possible now, as galaxy research has never
The way that Earth's first animals reproduced held back life's diversity for millions of years, until stress and competition led to the development of sexual reproduction, which in turn accelerated the pace of evolution.
Too often, policy recommendations in climate-related research are either an afterthought or stray too far into advocacy, a new analysis has found. Researchers led by the University of Cambridge conducted a systematic review of more than 3,000 scientific papers focused on
A team led by Raju Tomer, professor of biological sciences at Columbia University, has created a new design for microscopes and microscope lenses that could push 3D tissue imaging beyond state-of-the-art systems while drastically cutting costs and complexity. Details of the
When asteroids slam into Earth, they can create hydrothermal vent systems
Authorities evacuated hundreds of people from their seaside homes in New Zealand's capital Tuesday as 11-meter (36-foot) waves lashed the coast.
The number of conflicts between states continued to increase sharply in 2025 and has now reached the highest level since World War II. At the same time, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) at Uppsala University registered a record total number of armed conflicts.
A genomic study has reshaped our understanding of the evolutionary history of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), revealing the iconic Australian marsupial experienced a severe population decline around 100,000 years ago, before the arrival of humans on the continent.
The June 2026 National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) report reveals a large increase in job-seeking among people with disabilities, signaling that more individuals are entering the labor force as economic pressure intensifies. This finding aligns with last month's
When baseball fans watch a batter strike out with runners in scoring position, the reaction is often immediate: Shorten the swing. Put the ball in play. Stop swinging for the fences, they lament.
Deep beneath the icy waters surrounding Antarctica, a small marine organism may hold clues to a future cancer treatment. Researchers from USF recently returned from a six-week expedition in one of the most remote environments on Earth to study a species of ascidian, or sea
Exciting new research at Tohoku University's Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR) explains how to transform decades of scattered literature data into computable design rules for catalysts. By using human intelligence, regression models, and AI agents,
Astronomers have spent years searching for a possible hidden giant planet far beyond Neptune. Unusual orbits among distant Kuiper Belt objects have fueled the Planet Nine theory, but recent discoveries are challenging the idea by showing more stable motion than expected. If
A national report co-authored by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa sociologist has found that while the humanities and social sciences continue to produce rigorous and valuable scholarship, some disciplines are experiencing instances where scholarly standards have been
Protected bike lanes increase Citi Bike ridership in New York City, but painted bike lanes and sharrows do not show a statistically significant causal effect on ridership after accounting for confounding factors, according to a new study from researchers at NYU's Tandon School
New research from the University of Victoria (UVic) has found that some kelp forests around Vancouver Island were disappearing far earlier than scientists previously thought, highlighting that climate change has been altering ecosystems long before most people were aware
Since NASA's Artemis II crew members safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10 after their record-setting mission around the moon, science teams have been busy collecting more data and combing through observations collected on the test flight. Results from these
Teams working on NASA's INCUS (Investigation of Convective Updrafts) mission, the first space-based survey of the dynamics of tropical convective storms, have completed assembly and tested two of the mission's small satellites, or SmallSats. Testing continues on the third
Water pollution caused by pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other organic contaminants is an increasing global issue, especially in regions with limited wastewater treatment infrastructure. A new doctoral thesis from Umea University in Sweden offers an innovative and sustainable
On a blazing hot day in South Africa, female southern pied babblers can't think straight. The medium-sized black-and-white birds are trying to get at tasty mealworms behind a see-through barrier. On cooler days, the birds can quickly figure out that all they have to do is go
NASA says a long-running air leak aboard the ISS recently worsened, leading engineers to investigate new suspected crack locations and consider a riskier repair strategy. Astronauts were temporarily moved into a safe haven as a precaution before the repair was postponed for
Asteroids and planetesimals regularly bombarded Earth between about 4.6 billion and 3.5 billion years ago, during the Hadean and Archean eons. Because few rocks today are more than 4 billion years old, our understanding of the planet's environment during that time is limited.
Colors brighten our lives and help define countless items we use daily—from the vibrant clothes we wear to decorative paper and packaging materials. What adds different colors to these things? Dyes, which bind themselves to the structure of the material they are coloring. For
