Astrobiology has long been split into two camps: a search for "biosignatures" and a search for "intelligence." These look for very different things, but they also leave a huge gap in between. It took 3.5 billion years for us to go from the first microbe to a civilization that
The mystery of why some amphibian populations recover following outbreaks of a deadly fungus has been solved in a new study led by University College London (UCL), ZSL and Imperial College London.
Last week, the U.S. software company Turnitin revealed 53.6% of Australian tertiary education submissions run through its system used some form of AI in the period from October 2025–April 2026. The company, whose plagiarism-detection technology is widely used in universities,
Scientists have unveiled a new fabrication technique for the ultra-clean manufacturing of 2D heterostructures—materials just a few atoms thick—that could be used in quantum technology and electronics. Experts from Southampton and Singapore say the method could be used to
Astronomers at Durham University have made a major advance in understanding how galaxies formed and evolved in the early universe. Using powerful new observations, the team discovered the most distant example ever found of a compact, star-forming structure at the heart of a
Lithuania was famously the final pagan state in Europe. While the rest of the continent converted to Christianity, Lithuania remained officially pagan until Catholicism was adopted in AD 1387. Despite this, the extent to which Lithuania's population remained pagan or converted
The record sale of a T. rex skeleton begs the question The post Do Fossils Belong in Mansions or Museums? appeared first on Nautilus .
When most people hear the phrase "ocean acidification," they think of coral reefs, shellfish or declining fisheries. Those concerns are real. But while working on our recent research, I found myself asking a different question: What if ocean acidification is telling us
Man-made substances surround us everywhere in our daily lives. According to the current understanding of the "Planetary Boundaries" framework, the carrying capacity for so-called novel entities—which include chemicals, microplastics, and nanomaterials—is considered to have been
Clinical trial results show an experimental drug lowered tau levels in the brain and slowed some memory loss, but the data came with a surprise twist.
Blue and white stars shine brilliantly against a crimson background of glowing gas in this July 3, 2026, image of stellar nursery LH 95 from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
It has been well-established that the developmental roots of racial prejudices emerge in early childhood, but scientists have a less clear understanding of how various influences affect these attitudes.
Ocean tides push upstream along coastal rivers, in some cases reaching hundreds of kilometers (hundreds of miles) inland. These inland stretches are known as tidal rivers, and they're the scene of complex interactions between the river current and tidal oscillations. When
New research by lunar scientists from Brown University provides critical new insights into the thickness of the moon's regolith, the layer of loose dust and rock that drapes the entire lunar surface.
How do journalists act as watchdogs of science? New qualitative research led by University of Amsterdam media scholar Alice Fleerackers sheds light on the labor-intensive nature of watchdog science journalism, a form of critical journalism that scrutinizes science. It shows
The developing brains of boys and girls light up differently when shown a face The post Can a Preteen’s Reaction to a Face Predict Their Future Social Lives? appeared first on Nautilus .
Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas whose concentration in the atmosphere has risen sharply in recent decades. Wetlands are the largest natural source of methane to the atmosphere, but large uncertainties remain about how much methane comes from wetlands and how these
Agriculture and biodiversity restoration do not have to be at odds. A new study by the WILD research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and UCLouvain, published in the journal Biological Conservation, demonstrates that agriwilding—a form of nature-inclusive
Scientists in China have developed a smart coating that could make it easier to remove tritium (a radioactive form of hydrogen) from nuclear power plant wastewater.
A study of China's participation in United Nations human rights reviews argues that its public statements are more than diplomatic rhetoric. The paper published in the International Journal of Public Law and Policy also suggests that they serve as strategic signals that shape
Within every muscle of every living species with a backbone, a protein called myosin tugs on a partner protein to generate a muscle contraction. This function, discovered in mammals a century ago, has been presumed by scientists to operate the same way among birds, reptiles,
The U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) has completed observations for the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), the most detailed radio survey of the sky ever conducted, providing an unprecedented view of the dynamic radio universe.
Several children who had aggressive recurrent brain tumors remained disease-free years after this treatment, according to an early-stage trial
Cells are crowded, dynamic places where thousands of molecules interact in tight quarters. Until now, scientists lacked a reliable way to see many of these molecular interactions as they happen. Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have now developed a new imaging
Humans have been turning seeds and soil into food for thousands of years.
Scientists have long suspected that this star cluster was a hotspot for a certain kind of black hole. But for decades, they had been unable to spot any
How do black holes at the centers of galaxies form and grow over time? To answer this question, scientists need to detect and study supermassive black holes at great distances that existed much earlier in the universe's history. New research suggests NASA's Nancy Grace Roman
The decades-long switch from human-centered to electronically-based trading has changed the way investors participate in and access financial markets. In a new article, researchers analyze how technology has shaped the retail investment market in the United States. While retail
The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines play a pivotal role in some of the federal government's most consequential drug policy decisions. Two recurring themes have been the balancing—or lack of balancing—between drug weight and the defendant's role in the drug distribution enterprise,
Researchers at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin have developed a new method for trapping and controlling atoms near an ultrathin glass fiber. This has significantly improved the atoms' ability to store quantum information—an important step forward for future quantum technologies.
Today’s T. rex auction could be cause for concern The post How Dinosaur Skeletons Became So Expensive appeared first on Nautilus .
New research involving Queen Mary University of London reveals that amphibians can change what they eat to cope with rising temperatures, but that this natural survival strategy has limits.
In the heart of the Congo Basin's Cuvette Centrale, a large depression that hosts the world's largest tropical wetland complex, lie two vast, shallow blackwater lakes, Lake Tumba and Lake Mai Ndombe. Together, they are roughly the size of 420,000 football fields.
The age-old question asks, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" While philosophers and scientists alike have pondered this question for centuries, the more relevant question for today's recreation and wildlife managers is: Does it
When grizzly bears clamber onto the talus slopes high in Glacier National Park, they're searching for an abundant, fatty meal: army cutworm moths. The inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long) moths hatch on the Great Plains and fly en masse to escape the heat in the stony upper reaches
There's growing interest in alternatives to traditional burials and in making the process more environmentally friendly in many countries. For many people, it's about the environmental impact of the funeral industry globally.
Honey bee larvae lack the sophisticated olfactory capabilities of adult honey bees, a new study finds. Scientists point to this temporary loss of function as a side effect of the nurse bees' heroic level of brood care, calling it a consequence of social evolution. The new
A new tool that allows researchers to create realistic full-body animations of monkeys has provided the first evidence that nonhuman primates experience the "uncanny valley" phenomenon for body avatars, according to a study by Lucas Maximilian Martini at the University Clinic
The heat waves of late May and June killed an estimated 2,700 people in England and Wales, according to a recent analysis—around 550 in May, when west London hit 35.1°C (95°F), and 2,200 in June, as East Anglia reached 37°C (99°F).
Inside the brain and aesthetic experience The post The Nautilus Guide to the Best Books on the Science of Art appeared first on Nautilus .
Smoke from northern Minnesota wildfires may drift over the Great Lakes and Northeast this week, bringing hazardous levels of air pollution to major cities
A U.S.-Russian space crew arrived Tuesday at the International Space Station after launching from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
A record-smashing heat wave was spreading Tuesday from the West toward the East Coast, placing nearly 100 million Americans under heat alerts.
Faster and more effective ways to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most life-threatening pathogens, could be possible thanks to a first-of-its-kind 3D computer model developed by the University of Surrey.
Lab-grown meat, gene editing and extreme fire: researchers' predictions for life in the 2100s
Evidence of the slowing of Charon's spin period (despinning) is recorded in tectonic features on the surface of Pluto's icy moon, according to a modeling study published in Nature Communications. The findings offer insights into the early thermal evolution of Charon and other
Astronomers have made a series of landmark observations of one of the universe's most violent events. Using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) radio telescope, which is operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy
This massive dinosaur skeleton sold for more than $50.1 million on Tuesday
Microorganisms are increasingly being engineered to manufacture valuable compounds ranging from medicines and food ingredients to biofuels and industrial chemicals. However, turning microbes into efficient production platforms requires extensive strain optimization. Finding the
Plants do not wait hours to respond to intense sunlight—they react within minutes. Researchers at Bielefeld University and the Australian National University have discovered a new signaling pathway that enables plants to directly adjust their protein production before genes in
