Retroviruses are viruses that have evolved the ability to write their genetic code into a cell's own DNA. The most ancient known lineage of retroviruses, foamy viruses, emerged around 450 million years ago, before animal life moved onto land or even the evolution of trees.
Meet the miniscule protist harboring jaw-dropping evolutionary secrets The post “Living Fossil” Discovered by Accident Could Reshape Tree of Life appeared first on Nautilus .
Most people can recall a favorite class or teacher who left an indelible mark on their lives. While subject matter plays a role, the deeper connection often stems from how that teacher made students feel.
Richard Weissbourd and Kiran Bhai are part of the leadership team at Making Caring Common, a Harvard Ed School initiative focused on making moral and social development a priority in child-raising. In this article, they answer this question:
During the first COVID-19 lockdown, we were both mothers trying to stay sane. Our chats often revolved around diapers, feeding, sleep deprivation and motherhood chaos. Between laughter and exhaustion, cloth diapers kept coming up in conversation.
Potential treatments for one of the world's most dangerous hospital superbugs have been found in a surprising location—hospital toilets.
Scientists identify a new call issued by the King of the Jungle The post Lions Have Been Keeping One of Their Roars Secret appeared first on Nautilus .
Violence against women remains one of the world's most persistent and under-addressed human rights crises, with very little progress in two decades, according to a landmark report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners.
A new study has found African lions produce not one, but two distinct types of roars—a discovery set to transform wildlife monitoring and conservation efforts.
A machine learning analysis of wild lion audio reveals they have two roar types, not one. This insight might help detect where lions are declining.
Life can put strain on any couple's relationship. But mindfulness could help keep it strong, according to a recent study from the University of Georgia published in Child & Family Social Work.
Loggerhead turtles are able to sense Earth's magnetic field in two ways, but it wasn't clear which sense the animals use to detect the magnetic field when navigating using the magnetic map they are born with. Now researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Dunkleosteus was even weirder than we thought The post This Ancient Sea Monster Had a Killer Bite and No Teeth appeared first on Nautilus .
Making new friends has its challenges, even for birds. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati found that monk parakeets introduced to new birds will "test the waters" with potential friends to avoid increasingly dangerous close encounters that could lead to injury. They
When ultraviolet light hits ice—whether in Earth's polar regions or on distant planets—it triggers a cascade of chemical reactions that have puzzled scientists for decades.
The European Space Agency's Euclid mission—designed to map the geometry of the dark universe with unprecedented precision—continues to deliver its first scientific insights. The Euclid Consortium has published a fresh set of seven scientific papers based on data from the Euclid
Imagine trying to predict wind patterns as air flows across a landscape. It's a straightforward task over a flat plain—but becomes more complex when the terrain shifts to jagged mountain ranges. Here, wind does not simply sweep over peaks; it is deflected, slowed, and forced
Only two weeks after fertilization, the first sign of the formation of the three axes of the human body (head/tail, ventral/dorsal, and right/left) begins to appear. At this stage, known as gastrulation, a flat and featureless sheet of cells folds into a living blueprint for
Personalized learning is a very effective teaching method, but its potential is limited due to resource constraints. In a small, in-person class, instructors can walk around, engage with students individually, adjust lessons and adapt their teaching to match each learner's
A new study challenges the idea that language stems from a single evolutionary root. Instead, it proposes that our ability to communicate evolved through the interaction of biology and culture, and involves multiple capacities, each with different evolutionary histories. The
An international study, involving researchers from the University of Tartu Institute of Chemistry, was recently published in Chemical Society Reviews. It provides the most comprehensive theoretical description to date of electrocatalysis and how its current limitations can be
Bioelectronics, such as implantable health monitors or devices that stimulate brain cells, are not as soft as the surrounding tissues due to their metal electronic circuits. A team of scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, led by associate professor
After fertilization, embryos race through rapid cell divisions before slowing down to build specialized cells that will carry out distinct functions in the developing body—but the signals that trigger this shift have remained a mystery.
A recent study led by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the nonprofit Aerospace Corporation shows how high-resolution maps of ground-level ammonia plumes can be generated with airborne sensors, highlighting a way to better track the gas.
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, occur worldwide in many varieties, including in single-cell form and in chains called filaments. While these tiny life forms can strongly influence many ecosystems, the details of their behavior have mostly been studied in
An environmental chemistry laboratory at Duke University has solved a longstanding mystery of the origin of high levels of PFAS—so-called "forever chemicals"—contaminating water sources in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.
For decades, pharmaceutical companies have been using bacteria found in soil and water to chemically convert steroids into effective treatments for human diseases. One example is cortisol, which is used to treat asthma and skin rashes. But how bacteria convert steroids is not
Cornell researchers have discovered a previously unknown way plants regulate water that is so fundamental it may change plant biology textbooks—and open the door to breeding more drought-tolerant crops.
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), working with Florida International University's (FIU) Global Forensic and Justice Center, have demonstrated a new method for detecting trace levels of fentanyl using a silicon nanowire (SiNW) array that concentrates
These plants showed “extraordinary durability” and may pave the way for extraterrestrial agriculture The post Moss Might Survive Nearly Two Decades in Space appeared first on Nautilus .
The countries participating in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), currently taking place in Brazil, must cancel fossil fuel concessions in order to keep the Paris Agreement alive. This is the main message of a paper published in the journal Nature and signed by experts
While you might assume the Nullarbor Plain is a vast expanse with not much to see, a recent discovery has stunned scientists.
A team of researchers has confirmed stars ring loud and clear in a "key" that will harmonize well with the science goals and capabilities of NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
The inside of giant planets can reach pressures more than one million times the Earth's atmosphere. As a result of that intense pressure, materials can adopt unexpected structures and properties. Understanding matter in this regime requires experiments that push the limits of
Humans bring gender biases to their interactions with Artificial Intelligence (AI), according to new research from Trinity College Dublin and Ludwig-Maximilians Universität (LMU) Munich.
The Mars-size object that smashed into our planet and made the moon came from the inner solar system The post Earth’s Nastiest Neighbor Was Closer Than We Thought appeared first on Nautilus .
Why do no two human faces look quite the same? Although we all follow the same biological blueprint, our features—the curve of a lip, the angle of a nose, the breadth of a jaw—diverge in endlessly subtle ways.
Exposure to housing hardship before the age of 5 may influence "housing insecurity" in early adulthood, according to Rutgers-led research.
The discovery that a toxin made by bacteria found in dirty water might help trigger ulcerative colitis could lead to new treatments for this form of IBD
Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas' Center for Advanced Pain Studies (CAPS) and their colleagues have made a fundamental discovery about a key mechanism that enables nervous system connections to strengthen.
About 4.5 billion years ago, the most momentous event in the history of Earth occurred: a huge celestial body called Theia collided with the young Earth. How the collision unfolded and what exactly happened afterward has not been conclusively clarified. What is certain,
A mysterious swarm of earthquakes that occurred near the Greek island of Santorini in early 2025 was caused by rebounding sheets of magma slicing through Earth's crust, according to a new study by an international team involving a UCL (University College London) researcher.
Researchers in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School have opened a new window into understanding the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
New work pinpoints origins for the planet Theia, whose ancient collision with Earth likely produced the moon
People with Gulf War Illness found relief from migraines after a month on a low-glutamate diet, hinting at a new way to ease symptoms.
Anyone walking through the Tarumã neighborhood in Curitiba (the capital of the state of Paraná, Brazil) today may find it difficult to imagine the area as it was in the past. Between the buildings, racetrack, and the city's largest shopping mall, streams, open fields, and
Researchers from McMaster University and the University of Pittsburgh have created the first functionally complete logic gate—a NAND gate (short for "NOT AND")—in a soft material using only beams of visible light. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, marks a
In most narratives, the story of evolution is the story of organisms emerging from the ocean and eventually populating the land. But for some species, that evolution also involved a return trip. Dozens of major mammal and reptile groups ultimately made their way back to the
Although present in very small amounts, selenium (Se)-based compounds play important roles in protecting the body from oxidative stress, regulating thyroid hormones, strengthening the immune system, and even detoxifying heavy metals. As we begin to understand more about the
In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers have demonstrated that quantum light, particularly bright squeezed vacuum (BSV), can drive strong-field photoemission at metal needle tips.
