Ask a child to draw some poo, and the shape will invariably be the same: a coil, broad at the base and pointy at the top, similar to a spiral swirl of soft-serve ice cream. In fact, the often-used poo emoji has this exact shape, as do most actual mounds of feces found in
An interstellar comet that blazed past the sun last year could be nearly three times older than our solar system and is unlike anything ever seen before in our cosmic backyard, astronomers said Monday.
Destructive fishing practices and inadequate management allowed industrial fisheries operating in the waters of Saint Pierre and Miquelon to dump about 80,000 metric tons of fish back into the ocean from 1950 to 2022, with authorities failing to track the wasteful practice.
The number of people exposed to dangerous heat stress worldwide has risen sharply over the past half-century, propelled by climate change, according to a study released Monday as Europe sweltered through a punishing heat wave.
The Caspian Sea, the largest inland body of water on Earth, is shrinking. Not fluctuating, not entering another natural cycle, but shrinking.
"What goes on in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica—it has global implications," Geology tauira Natalie-Jane Reid says. Reid is one of two Otago Ph.D. candidates who contributed to an Antarctic sediment core workshop at the Otago Repository for Core Analysis (ORCA) held
An international team of researchers has discovered a remarkable new spider species in the rainforest of North Queensland that spins an ingenious and powerful spring-actuated snare to catch a single species of ant—one ant at a time—in what they describe as "the ultimate
Researchers at the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), a partner in the ANIPH project, published a study that helps predict how quickly biodegradable bioplastics break down in the environment.
How large, fully folded proteins can pass through cell membranes without destroying them has long been one of the open questions in cell biology. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), Leonid Sazanov and Ziyu Zhao at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
Detached tissues from the sea cucumber's tube feet and feeding tentacles survived for more than three years, a find that could shape the study of aging.
The evidence is mounting: this interstellar visitor is even older and weirder than anyone thought
The main reason for sealing wine bottles with a cork is to protect the liquid from oxygen. However, it is not an impermeable barrier, and a small amount of air leaks in, which is not always entirely bad news. The gas helps the wine mature and develop a more complex flavor.
The European Commission has presented a new legislative package. It is intended to reform key provisions that have hitherto governed the approval of pesticides. The "Food and Feed Safety simplification package" is part of a comprehensive strategy through which the Commission
Two people were the first to receive the therapy for a condition that damages the spinal cord and optic nerve
Astronomers have discovered a "remarkable" bow-and-arrow-shaped radio galaxy with an enormous arc-like structure extending nearly 1.8 million light-years across. The newly identified system, detailed in a new paper published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Can newly identified antiviral compounds help stop some of the most dangerous mosquito-borne viruses that attack the brain? A research team led by scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has generated a new class
Our body contains an intricate system of tiny vessels through which blood, water and other molecules flow. When the size of the pipes shrinks to the nanoscale, where only a few molecules can fit side by side, the classical laws of physics governing the behavior of water are
Thirteen people died by drowning in searing temperatures in France over the weekend, with the heat wave set to intensify from Monday across much of Europe, forcing warnings and special measures.
Many animal species that live in groups are known to adjust their behavior to strengthen their social bonds or increase their coordination with others around them. For instance, humans and some other animals exhibit vocal plasticity, meaning they tend to modify the sounds they
When a fire broke out a few miles from his Altadena, California, home the evening of Jan. 7, 2025, Matt Blea and his family needed to make a crucial decision: Should they stay home, or evacuate?
Trees planted to protect farmland from wind may not be the biodiversity boost many assume. In Japan’s wetland farming landscapes, shelterbelts benefited some birds but sharply reduced grassland and wetland species that need open space. Researchers found grassland bird abundance
An international team of scientists led by Dr. Graciela Delvene of the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (CSIC) has uncovered the oldest known evidence of maternal care in shellfish, revealing that some freshwater species were protecting and incubating their young more
A Hiroshima University-led study conducted with Rakuten Securities finds that practical digital skills, positive financial attitudes and self-protection are more consistently associated with lower old-age anxiety than traditional financial knowledge alone.
Vast permafrost beneath the upper slopes of Peru’s tallest volcano could become a regional water source as glaciers in the Andes retreat.
A colossal ancient collision may have left some of the Moon’s deepest secrets surprisingly close to future Artemis landing sites. By recreating the impact that formed the giant South Pole-Aitken basin—the Moon’s largest and oldest crater—scientists found that a low-angle strike
A clinical trial is exploring whether high doses of vitamin B3 could give patients with glioblastoma a better chance against the aggressive brain cancer. Scientists found that niacin may help revive immune cells that tumors shut down, allowing them to attack cancer more
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has reached a key early milestone in developing radiofrequency control systems for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC)—a next-generation research facility that will collide electrons with ions to reveal how the
Mars researchers are wrestling with the potential costs of a flashy new NASA mission to the Red Planet
On a remote beach near Esperance, Western Australia, two sick seabirds have brought the bird flu crisis to Australia.
Spoorti Gandhadmath carefully placed 3.5-inch (8.9-centimeter) pots on a shelf in a growth chamber. Within seven days of sowing, newly sprouted leaves had fully emerged from each of the carefully selected seeds, representing diverse cotton genotypes.
Two complementary studies, appearing in HortScience, from Rutgers University are advancing the potential of amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) as a valuable leafy green by combining detailed morphological characterization with evaluations of horticultural performance and nutritional
Knowing what kind of tick bit you and where you got it can help inform next steps
The next generation of AI models are meant to be trained by people paid to have conversations with them, but several of these workers have admitted to New Scientist that they simply get chatbots to do it instead. This "AI inbreeding" may reduce the power and usefulness of
Scientists discovered that Heliconius butterflies have evolved an extraordinary lifespan, living several times longer than closely related species. Even more surprising, some show little sign of physical decline as they age. Their unusual pollen-feeding lifestyle may play a
What’s going on with the Ebola outbreak, how the World Cup is dealing with rising temperatures, and how becoming a father can change your brain
France banned alcohol in red-alert areas Sunday, Spain and Germany canceled or postponed sports events, and Britain warned of "tropical nights" as Europe sweltered through a heat wave threatening to break June temperature records.
Tiny algae-based robots guided by magnets could improve bladder cancer treatment by boosting delivery of chemotherapy drugs into tumors, researchers say.
Two dangerous viruses are back in the spotlight, reminding health officials how quickly infectious diseases can become serious threats. Hantavirus, often linked to rodents, can cause severe heart and lung complications and has no specific treatment or vaccine, while certain
Tyrannosaurus rex may have been a much slower grower than scientists realized. A new study of 17 tyrannosaur fossils found that the giant predator likely took about 40 years to reach its full size of roughly eight tons, extending previous estimates by 15 years.
Viruses play a major role in the functioning of ecosystems. They profoundly influence the dynamics of microbial communities, the flow of matter and global biogeochemical cycles. Yet despite their abundance and ecological importance, many of them have long remained invisible to
Not all fats affect your body the same way. Researchers found that palmitic acid, a saturated fat common in many foods, may contribute to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes by triggering inflammation, toxic fat buildup, and cellular stress. In contrast, oleic acid—the
El Niño, characterized by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific, made its return in June 2026. Observations of sea surface height from the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite that month indicated that the 2026 event was continuing to
Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have examined a fundamental property of quantum mechanics in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In an article published in the journal Physical Review Letters, they show that this theory does not
You come home after a stressful day and reach out to your cat for a bit of comfort. It hisses. Maybe takes a swipe. Or simply flicks its tail and saunters off without so much as a meow. A dog, by contrast, greets you as though they've just won the lottery.
A remarkable quality of bioengineering is that scientists can take biological processes honed by millions of years of evolution and use them to efficiently create drugs, chemicals and other products to improve our lives. Now Tufts researchers have found new ways to expand the
Microorganisms from our planet could survive on celestial bodies where water is present, such as Mars. That is the conclusion of Ph.D. candidate Tommaso Zaccaria after experiments with simulated space conditions. Our immune system reacts less effectively to pathogens that have
Materials engineers have developed the ability to manipulate structure and matter at the nanoscale for solid-state alloys called intermetallics, making it possible to alter their properties for improved performance.
The implementation of reflective white roofs and new urban parks can significantly reduce temperatures in cities and decrease population vulnerability to heat waves, although these measures are not sufficient to counteract the projected increase of more than 6°C (11°F) by 2100,
A team at the University of Basel, Switzerland, has developed a versatile nanorobot with propulsion and payload modules. The two reusable modules autonomously self-assemble and could be used in medicine or industry.
Researchers from the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit at the University of Dundee, together with collaborators from ETH Zürich, the Malopolska Center of Biotechnology and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, report a new link between protein quality
