A central question in molecular biology is how cells protect their chromosomes from damage during repeated cell division. At the heart of this protective process is an enzyme called telomerase. Now an international research team has mapped the three-dimensional structure of
A German-Bulgarian research team led by SNSB paleontologist Christian Bartel has discovered a new species of harvestman in 35-million-year-old Ukrainian and Baltic amber. The animal is related to harvestmen that are now extinct in Europe. The researchers published their
Morning-blooming morning glories and flowers that release fragrance at night seem as if they know the time. A KAIST research team has uncovered, at the molecular level, the workings of a "biological clock" aligned with insect behavior. This study suggests potential applications
Although volcanic eruptions are spectacular natural events that occur around the world every day, most volcanoes spend the majority of their time not erupting. To accurately forecast volcanic activity, it's important to characterize the magma before an eruption is imminent.
The arrival of AI-generated research papers marks a turning point that could radically accelerate discovery—or drown it in automated mediocrity
A new study reveals that high doses of antioxidants—often seen as harmless or beneficial—may actually impact future generations. Male mice given common supplements like NAC produced offspring with subtle but significant facial and skull changes. Researchers believe this is tied
Scientists are working to understand how magnetic currents from the sun spread beneath Earth's crust when the northern lights dance across the sky. Their goal is to tame its "dark twin" and prevent damage to our power grid.
A new study published in Nature Communications finds that worldwide, people with higher levels of education are more culturally similar to those in Canada, the U.S., U.K., and other Anglo, industrialized countries and countries in Western Europe.
Scientists have uncovered a hidden reason why cancer treatments don’t work equally well for everyone. Certain drugs can become trapped inside lysosomes within tumor cells, forming slow-release reservoirs that create uneven drug distribution. This means some cancer cells are
Gut bacteria aren’t just passive passengers—they can actively send proteins straight into our cells. Using microscopic injection systems, even harmless microbes can influence immune responses and metabolic pathways. Researchers found these interactions may play a role in
Dark matter, a type of matter that does not emit, reflect or absorb light, is predicted to account for most of the matter in the universe. As it eludes common experimental techniques for studying ordinary matter, understanding the nature and composition of dark matter has so
Decades of data have suggested the universe is flat, much like an infinite plane. But a new analysis reveals deep flaws in that simple conclusion
Found in an ultrafaint dwarf galaxy, the ancient star’s unusual chemistry indicates it formed from gas enriched by a single early supernova.
Is it absurd to think that science can inform our values? The post A Light in the Dark: Finding the Good in the Natural World appeared first on Nautilus .
Species are vanishing faster than ever, and many are disappearing before scientists even know they exist. Now, an international team is racing against time to uncover hidden life beneath the waves by building a massive open-access genomic database of European marine worms.
Researchers have uncovered a new way to generate exotic oscillation states in tiny magnetic structures—using only minimal energy. By exciting magnetic waves, they triggered a delicate motion that produced a rich spectrum of signals never seen before in this system. The finding
In 2017 NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope zoomed in on a comet as it passed around the sun. And then things took a more unusual turn
The COVID pandemic ushered mRNA vaccines into the spotlight, and the technology has even greater potential. Here’s what to know about the way that they work, their safety, and more
Long ago, the cosmos might have been a black hole factory—and these primordial objects are even weirder than you think
The magma reservoir of the largest volcanic eruption of the Holocene is refilling. This Kobe University insight on the Kikai caldera in Japan allows us to understand giant caldera volcanoes like Yellowstone or Toba more generally and gets us closer to predicting their behavior,
A pain scientist breaks down the surprising brain‑body science that explains why so many of us hurt more than we have to
Kim Stanley Robinson opens his classic science fiction novel Red Mars in 2026. As the New Scientist Book Club embarks on reading it in April, he looks back on its origins – and how the idea of moving to Mars holds up today
As the New Scientist Book Club reads Kim Stanley Robinson’s science-fiction novel in April, George Bass digs into why this 1992 book still feels so relevant today
This is the opening of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, the New Scientist Book Club read for April, as humans come to the planet to settle it
Mars may look like a frozen desert today, but new evidence suggests its watery past didn’t simply fade away quietly—it may have been blasted into space by powerful dust storms. Scientists have discovered that even relatively small, localized storms can hurl water vapor high
A long-overlooked area of the penis has been found to have the highest concentration of nerve endings and sensory structures in the organ, suggesting that it is the “male G-spot”
Scientists have uncovered a surprising way to study the harsh space weather around young M dwarf stars. Mysterious dips in starlight turned out to be massive rings of plasma swirling in the stars’ magnetic fields. These structures act like built-in space weather monitors,
Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, newly hatched sea turtles emerged on a Gabonese beach to embark on the treacherous 10-meter (33-foot) scramble across the sand to the ocean.
Stable sea ice along Alaska’s coast is disappearing faster than expected, with the season shrinking by weeks and even months in recent decades. The ice is forming later in the fall and, in some places, breaking away earlier in spring. This trend is now hitting areas like the
Having both excess belly fat and low muscle mass isn’t just unhealthy—it’s potentially deadly, raising the risk of death by 83%. This condition, called sarcopenic obesity, creates a vicious cycle where fat accelerates muscle breakdown and inflammation. Researchers found it can
New research by MIT Sloan School of Management finds that global leaders who participate in facilitated engagements using an interactive climate policy simulator, En-ROADS, demonstrated a stronger understanding of climate solutions, felt more personally connected to the issue,
Scientists have developed a breakthrough “superfood” for honeybees by engineering yeast to produce the essential nutrients normally found in pollen. In controlled trials, colonies fed this specially designed diet produced up to 15 times more young, showing a dramatic boost in
In 2014, Felicity Newell joined the Florida Museum of Natural History as a doctoral student, then promptly left the country in search of a tropical spring. It's a concept she started thinking about while doing biological surveys in Honduras. There, a colleague told her about
Amebiasis is a parasitic disease caused by the microscopic protozoan Entamoeba histolytica. Infection occurs through the ingestion of cysts from contaminated water or food. Worldwide, approximately 50 million symptomatic cases are estimated annually, mainly in tropical and
It seems like every day a new study finds tiny plastic particles called microplastics where they should not be: in our bodies and our food, water and air.
Analysis of Australia's highest-volume pesticide use has revealed that the majority of products widely used in Australian agriculture are banned in other parts of the world, according to a new study. Researchers from Griffith's School of Environment and Science analyzed 45
Just as an antenna interacts with radio waves, light interacts with metallic nanostructures. Therefore, understanding how a structure influences field oscillations provides valuable insights into the structure's physical properties. An international research team, including
A new paper investigates how raptors, or birds of prey like hawks and eagles, act as a sentinel species that can reveal the level of forever chemicals in the local environment. The forever chemicals, or PFAS, are especially high in species that eat fish. The review titled,
A sweeping global report finds that migratory freshwater fish are in steep decline, with populations down roughly 81% since 1970. These species depend on long, connected rivers, but dams and human pressures are cutting off their routes. Hundreds of species now need coordinated
Using a smartphone with long nails can be frustrating, forcing people to awkwardly tap with their fingertips instead of their nails. Now, researchers are working on a clear nail polish that could change that by turning fingernails into touchscreen-friendly tools. By
Wide swaths of American workers are more meaningfully involved than in the past in organizing around and pushing back against artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven technologies in the workplace, a Rutgers study has found. Rutgers researchers examined the 2023 contract
NASA is once again shooting for the moon, for the first time since the 1970s. As soon as April 2026, NASA will launch its Artemis II mission, using the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket to send a crewed spacecraft, called Orion, into orbit. From there, the crew will circle
As the number of exoplanet detections has breached 6,000 and continues to grow, scientists are finding a wide variety of different solar system architectures. Critical to understanding how these architectures take shape is finding young planets forming around very young stars.
In 1948, a group of amateurs led by a local headmaster in Lehringen, Germany, uncovered the skeleton of a straight-tusked elephant—the largest land mammal known to have roamed Europe—in 125,000-year-old sediments from the last interglacial period. There was an important
New research from a team at Trinity College Dublin has unearthed a cheap and environmentally friendly new option for removing pollutants from our water. The key? Oyster shells that would ordinarily end up in landfill sites after consumption. The research, just published in the
For too long, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have been denied the same opportunities for love, romance, and sexual expression as their peers. Misconceptions about their desires and abilities have limited their privacy, autonomy, and access to
A study led by a recent Harvard graduate analyzed Massachusetts education and unemployment data for insights on how high schools affect students' long-term educational and earning outcomes. It found that on average, schools that help students succeed in the long run are those
The Galapagos Islands are famous for the discoveries that shaped Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Now an SFSU graduate has added one more: Ezra Mendales (M.S., '23) describes a new species as part of his master's thesis. "I feel super lucky with this project. I think we
Scientific discovery is often tedious, expensive, incremental trial and error, but the advent of artificial intelligence is accelerating the process. A multi-institutional team based in China recently used AI to identify a key characteristic of compounds called catalysts that
A research group from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology reports in Nature an unprecedented achievement in electron microscopy: the direct measurement of "dark points" within light waves. By doing so, the researchers were able to confirm a prediction from the 1970s
