Headlines

Scientists finally explain Earth’s strangest fossils

The Ediacara Biota are some of the strangest fossils ever found—soft-bodied organisms preserved in remarkable detail where preservation shouldn’t be possible. Scientists now think their survival in sandstone came from unusual ancient seawater chemistry that created clay

A century-old Stonehenge mystery may finally be solved

Scientists have found compelling new evidence that humans, not glaciers, brought Stonehenge’s bluestones to the site. Using advanced mineral analysis, researchers searched nearby river sediments for signs glaciers once passed through the area—and found none. That missing

These common food preservatives may be linked to cancer

A large French study tracking more than 100,000 people over a decade has found that higher consumption of certain food preservatives—commonly found in processed foods and drinks—is linked to a modestly higher cancer risk. While many preservatives showed no association, several

The type of carbs you eat may affect dementia risk

Carbohydrates don’t just fuel the body—they may also influence how the brain ages. A large long-term study found that diets high in fast-acting carbs that rapidly raise blood sugar were linked to a higher risk of dementia. People who ate more low-glycemic foods like fruit,

A brief history of sugar

A few thousand years ago, sugar was unknown in the western world. Sugarcane, a tall grass first domesticated in New Guinea around 6000BC, was initially chewed for its sweet juice rather than crystallized. By around 500BC, methods to boil sugarcane juice into crystals were first

A hidden magnetic order could unlock superconductivity

Physicists have discovered that hidden magnetic order plays a key role in the pseudogap, a puzzling state of matter that appears just before certain materials become superconductors. Using an ultra-cold quantum simulator, the team found that even when magnetism seems disrupted,

The many faces of monster galaxies

Some galaxies in the early universe were absolute powerhouses, churning out stars at rates that would dwarf the Milky Way's modest stellar production. These "monster galaxies," buried deep in dust between 10 and 12 billion years ago, are thought to be the ancestors of today's

Using AI to keep CRISPR technology in-check

Last year, a ten-month-old baby in the US was the first person in the world to have their rare genetic disease effectively cured through the use of CRISPR gene editing technology. But the rollout of CRISPR across a wide range of genetic conditions has been hampered by its