In September 2025, NASA announced that its Perseverance rover had discovered a potential biosignature, which is a substance or structure that might have a biological origin. A new paper, published in Science Advances, unambiguously confirms the detection of organic carbon, the
Scientists from the University of Manchester have shown how a plasma-based approach, using nonthermal plasma—an electrically energized gas often described as the fourth state of matter—can prevent catalyst deactivation in a key hydrogen production reaction, maintaining stable
A new method for recognizing and targeting DNA that dramatically expands the range of genetic sequences scientists can identify has been developed by experts at the University of Portsmouth. Published this week in Nature Communications, the research opens new possibilities for
A global analysis of fish biodiversity using environmental DNA (eDNA) reveals how human activity and climate influence biodiversity patterns in river ecosystems. An international research team led by the University of Zurich, Eawag and Yunnan University has found that in warmer
Theoretical reconstructions hint at versatile approaches to prehistoric flight The post Everyone’s Been Drawing Pterosaur Wings Wrong appeared first on Nautilus .
Researchers at the University of East Anglia have helped uncover a hidden ally in the fight against one of agriculture's greatest threats—salty soil. Led by Chinese collaborator Dr. Yanfen Zheng, the team's new study shows how naturally occurring soil bacteria can dramatically
A University of Iowa-led physics team has detailed the extreme expansion of a magnetic cloud that originated from a huge, gaseous explosion on the sun. In a new study, the researchers describe the inflated magnetic cloud as recorded by spacecraft in separate, fortuitous
Researchers at Tohoku University have uncovered the long-standing mystery behind the synthesis of Janus two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, paving the way for more precise manufacturing of materials used in future electronics and clean energy technologies.
Europe struggled to cope with a record-breaking heat wave on Wednesday, with at least 94 million people expected to experience temperatures above 35C, most of them in France and Spain.
Since the 1980s, researchers have sought to use laser light to control chemical reactions relevant to photochemistry, catalysis and light-responsive materials. But this technique, known as coherent control, has a blind spot: There has been no way to directly see the molecules
Genome editing lets scientists rewrite DNA, the instruction manual inside every living cell, with a precision that was unthinkable a generation ago. Technologies such as CRISPR have made this almost routine, and its uses now reach far beyond medicine, from engineering hardier
There is a special gallery inside the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi where visitors slow down, lower their voices and often fall silent. In front of them, carefully lit and disarmingly small, lies the skeleton of Lucy, the 3.2 million-year-old hominin.
How the proteins in our bodies bind together to form protein complexes plays a critical role in numerous cell functions—staving off diseases, for instance, or transporting ions across cell membranes. A better understanding of how they bind could lead to new medicines and
A research group led by Associate Professor Yoshihiro Nakata from the Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering at the University of Electro-Communications, Japan, in collaboration with researchers from Doshisha University and Otemon Gakuin University, has developed an
In this photo from June 21, 2026, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrives at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard NASA's Pegasus barge. After offloading and transportation to the spaceport's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Roman will undergo
No. But in the midst of intense heat waves it may be necessary to save lives. The post Can We Air-Condition Our Way Out of Climate Change? appeared first on Nautilus .
Researchers have identified a severe outbreak of a rare contagious cancer in soft-shell clams in Washington state's Puget Sound and found evidence that the disease was recently introduced to the Pacific Northwest from Atlantic Coast populations.
In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have mapped key steps in the assembly of the mitochondrial ribosome, offering new clues to how defects in this process can lead to disease.
In a recent viewpoint published in Nature Climate Change, six researchers from South America, Asia and Africa examine how glacier retreat in the Andes, Himalayas and other high-altitude regions is reshaping the cultural and spiritual life of different glacial communities.
Oysters filter seawater for food. In the process, they concentrate a wide variety of microorganisms from their environment—including bacteria and viruses—into a tiny space.
A study examining Fair Workweek laws across five major U.S. jurisdictions finds that labor regulations have made work schedules more predictable for service-sector workers, without triggering wage cuts or benefit reductions. Published in Science Advances, the research titled
NASA's Perseverance rover appears as a green speck on the Martian surface on June 13, 2026, a day before the robotic explorer marked a distance milestone, having traveled a full marathon (26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometers) on the Red Planet. Perseverance reached that distance
Canada's new artificial intelligence strategy, AI for All, presents an ambitious vision for the country's future. Artificial intelligence, the federal government argues, can boost productivity, strengthen competitiveness and create opportunity across the economy.
Historic wooden structures across Svalbard are crumbling under the combined weight of climate change and human activity. Longer, warmer, and wetter seasons fuel wood-decaying fungi, while tourism adds physical wear to sites never built to last. The ArcticAlpineDecay project has
Individualistic pronouns have grown more common in pop songs over the past half century The post “Me, Myself, and I”: The Increasing Narcissism of Western Music appeared first on Nautilus .
Sugars are not just a source of energy—they also play a crucial role in how cells communicate, how proteins interact and how materials behave in medicine and industry. But studying these processes is challenging because sugar molecules are structurally complex and difficult to
Puerto Rican icon Bad Bunny, a superstar rapper, has recently risen to global prominence, as demonstrated by the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show.
In a laboratory in Broomfield, Colorado, 98 atoms are suspended in midair, held in place by electric fields and cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero.
Over the past decade, Professor L. Mahadevan's Soft Math Lab at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has helped establish how the ancient Japanese paper arts of folding or cutting can be used to inversely design structures that transform
A 100-year-old equation and a fiber-optic cable off the coast of Svalbard led researchers to discover they could detect swimming whales—even if they were completely silent. The discovery broadens the tools biologists could someday use to detect and monitor these marine giants.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can identify landslides and other geological changes that threaten electricity transmission towers, potentially helping operators intervene before infrastructure fails, according to research in the International Journal of Power and Energy Conversion.
More than 20% of the workload on the world's 500 fastest supercomputers is spent simulating how atoms and molecules move—with applications ranging from material design to identifying drug interactions to understanding protein folding.
In the post-COVID-19 era, worker unionization campaigns have increasingly been organized by groups who feel stung by virtue signaling from corporations espousing progressive values, especially those pertaining to LGBTQIA+ issues.
As the United States approaches its 250th birthday celebrations on July 4, Washington, DC's monuments, statues and fountains are being prepared to put on a show.
For the first time, scientists have shown that ancient human DNA can survive for thousands of years on cave walls, opening new ways to study prehistoric human activity. This interdisciplinary study was conducted within the framework of the First Art project, which is led by
We have developed genetic technologies that could wipe out entire species of pests that are harmful to us. Columnist Michael Le Page says the flesh-eating screwworm is the most likely first target
Florida International University scientists have, for the first time, detected a toxic tire-derived chemical in Florida waterways and developed a new testing method that makes it easier to find and monitor the pollutant at extremely low levels. The study focuses on 6PPD-quinone
Over five decades, popular songs in the U.S. and Germany have become more self-focused—as indicated by the use of pronouns such as "I," "me" and "mine"—while no such trend was seen for the most popular songs in Japan and Hong Kong. Marius Golubickis of United Arab Emirates
Sicilian populations have been genetically diverse for many centuries, and they have remained that way even through major regime changes and religious transitions, according to a study published in PLOS One by Aurore Monnereau of the University of York, U.K., and colleagues.
Data spanning nearly half a century shows that endangered southern resident killer whales are spending less time in inland waters, whereas their larger cousins, Bigg's killer whales, are increasingly present in Puget Sound.
In a new perspective paper, Qin Huang of Arizona State University and colleagues propose that the worst damage from extreme weather events could be prevented through Weather Jiu-Jitsu, a theory-based approach to "nudge" weather systems away from harmful trajectories. The paper
A bolt may ignite seeming genius, but is more likely to deliver agony The post The Unlucky Ones: What It Feels Like to Get Struck By Lightning appeared first on Nautilus .
The organic molecules could come from life or from ordinary chemistry — only samples returned to Earth can settle it.
Climate and ocean models use a series of equations to represent complex natural processes. However, the equations used in these models are often derived from limited observations and a series of assumptions.
In the Pilbara of Western Australia, some of Earth's oldest rocks lie beneath the sky, as they have for billions of years. They are dark, weathered volcanic rocks, close to 3.5 billion years old, cut by veins and stewed by deep time.
60 million stars never looked so good The post See the Milky Way’s Galactic Bulge, Captured in Unprecedented Detail appeared first on Nautilus .
If, in space, no one can hear you scream, it seems that you can actually hear the sound of a crash when two black holes collide. Using the loudest gravitational wave ever heard, two Australian scientists and colleagues have been the first to witness the previously elusive
On Earth, garnet is best known as the fiery red January birthstone—popular in jewelry since the Bronze Age and valued highly by ancient Egyptians.
One of the world's most significant collections of plant specimens is under threat from the ongoing war in Ukraine, prompting an international call for urgent digitization and global collaboration to preserve an irreplaceable scientific resource.
Scientists have extracted and analyzed the first-ever ancient proteins from the fossils of Homo naledi, revealing a potential all-female burial site. The study, published in the journal Cell, raises the possibility that South Africa's famous Rising Star Cave system could
