The astronauts set to become the first lunar visitors in more than half a century arrived at their launch site Friday, joining the towering rocket that stands poised to blast off next week and send them around the moon.
A fossil ape discovered in northern Egypt is reshaping the story of human evolution. The species, Masripithecus, lived about 17 to 18 million years ago and may sit very close to the ancestor of all modern apes. This finding challenges the long-standing focus on East Africa.
Today's nearly $70 billion U.S. biofuels economy is powered by two technology toolboxes. Biochemical technologies—used to produce around 17 billion gallons of ethanol annually—leverage microorganisms to convert plant biomass sugars into alcohols, other biofuels, or chemicals.
A massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar in March 2025, but what makes this event extraordinary is what happened next. For the first time, a nearby CCTV camera captured the fault rupture in real time, giving scientists a rare, direct look at how the Earth moves during
The transition from water to land is a question that still intrigues scientists. Those ancient organisms would have needed to adapt to several new challenges to life out of water. So, how did they do it?
Odin was a kelpie. Attentive and protective, with a happy smile and an endless hope for food, he succumbed to a terminal disease late last year. At his death, a deep sense of grief ripped through the household of one of us (Andrew): While Odin was not human, he was an
Clathrate hydrates are crystalline structures formed at the bottom of seafloors, created by water molecules trapping methane, carbon dioxide or other molecules. While these materials are underutilized in technology, a University of Oklahoma researcher is helping scientists
Argonne and Northwestern University scientists teamed up to understand how light interacts with metallic nanoframes, with implications for biosensing, quantum information science and beyond.
Ancestor of humans and other great apes turns up in Egypt The post New Ape Fossil Could Shift Our Evolutionary Origins Northward appeared first on Nautilus .
Museum collections have underpinned scientific research for centuries. But physical specimens in boxes and drawers don't easily lend themselves to the research techniques of the new millennium. "How can we apply these techniques to natural history collections, especially when
Nature and nurture colliding The post The Science Behind Being One of a Kind appeared first on Nautilus .
Understanding gene expression within the body has been a boon for 21st century biology and therapeutics, but most discoveries that use these technologies only focus on one organ or one small area of tissue. At the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
During their 10-day mission, the four-person crew will swing around the far side of the moon—and potentially travel farther from Earth than anyone in history
It's fairly common for members of the public to ask bug experts if ticks that hitchhike into a house on people or dogs can actually survive indoors for any length of time. A new study provides the first scientific evidence that the answer is yes, showing that two species of
It is not unusual for laboratory monkeys to engage in abnormal repetitive behaviors (ARBs), such as pacing and hair-plucking. Conventional thinking is that these actions are linked to recent stresses or current housing conditions. But a new study published in the journal
A new twist on the placebo effect The post When Fake Supplements Work appeared first on Nautilus .
Can light behave like a whirlwind? It turns out it can—and such "optical tornadoes" have now been created in an extremely small structure by scientists from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, the Military University of Technology, and the Institut Pascal CNRS
Researchers at the University of Seville's Food Color and Quality Laboratory have studied the effects of different cooking methods used for tomatoes and carrots (in the oven, microwave or air fryer, among others) on the amount of carotenoids that are potentially available for
It’s very much a family affair The post Rare Sperm Whale Birth Caught on Video appeared first on Nautilus .
For many people, "protein" is the key element of a food order. However, beyond the preferred choice of meats or plant-based alternatives, proteins encompass a large class of complex biomolecules whose chemical structure is encoded in our genes. Proteins have critical functions
A new study finds that commercial satellite imagery data often outperforms public data sets when identifying surface water, but that public data sets may be better at detecting water hidden by forest cover. Satellite imagery is a powerful tool for mapping surface water, from
The astronaut who prompted NASA's first medical evacuation earlier this year said Friday that doctors still don't know why he suddenly fell sick at the International Space Station.
Researchers at Northumbria University have used the most powerful space telescope ever built to answer one of the longest-standing puzzles in planetary science—why does Saturn appear to spin at a different speed depending on how you measure it? The findings, published in the
For decades, the college athlete's world has been split between the classroom and the playing field––and now there's a third role: chief marketing officer. Name, image and likeness policies provide athletes income through endorsements and sponsorships, and while NIL doesn't
Researchers at the Würzburg site of the Cluster of Excellence ctd.qmat have succeeded in transferring the topological quantum Hall and spin Hall effects to a hybrid light-matter system by harnessing targeted material design. The team led by Professor Sebastian Klembt generated
Social media have become an integral part of everyday life for most people. Many of us follow companies on social media and react to images and campaigns that resonate with us.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) has long been seen as a reliable engine of economic growth, bringing jobs, productivity gains and new technologies into host economies. But new research suggests the reality is far more complex, and far less predictable.
Understanding what triggers large volcanic eruptions is crucial for hazard assessment, but the exact mechanism driving these eruptions is still poorly understood. The prevailing theory is that volatile exsolution—gas coming out of magma—is a main driver of eruptions,
An international research team led by the University of Vienna has produced, for the first time, high-resolution global maps of invasion risk for thousands of alien plant species under current conditions and future climate and land use scenarios. Their results show that global
As bubbles rippled across the frigid Finnish lake, diver Daan Jacobs emerged from a hole carved out of the thick, crackling ice.
Three scientists share their bold vision for turning stories into testable experiments The post How Science Fiction Can Save Us appeared first on Nautilus .
Limbless tree snakes can lift most of their body into the air without toppling. They manage this by focusing all their bending forces at their base.
Peri-urban agriculture in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) is in a critical situation after decades of decline. A new study conducted by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) highlights the dramatic
Archaeologists working in Egypt's Nile Delta may have discovered a tomb or temple dating back around 2,600 years while testing a new technology designed to locate structures buried deep beneath the surface. The team was studying the Buto (Tell el-Fara'in) site, the ruins of an
Proteins are far more than nutrients we track on a food label. Present in every cell of our bodies, they work like nature's molecular machines. They walk, stretch, bend, and flex to do their jobs, pumping blood, fighting disease, building tissue, and many other jobs too small
Hundreds of millions of people live close enough to data centres used to power AI to feel warmer average temperatures in their local area
A multi-institutional team of scientists, co-led by Northwestern University, has taken a crucial step toward implantable "living pharmacies"—tiny devices containing engineered cells that continuously produce medicines inside the body. In a new study published in Device, the
Personality tests are widely used in workplaces to shape recruitment, leadership training and team building. But what if artificial intelligence could make them faster, smarter and more accurate? New research from the University of East London (UEL) suggests that machine
A luminous swirl set against the deep black of space, the barred spiral galaxy IC 486 glows with a soft, ethereal light in this new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Month image. IC 486 lies right on the edge of the constellation Gemini (the Twins), about 380
How do cells ensure that the "blueprints" of genetic information-RNA are accurate and intact before they are exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm for protein production? A study led by Professor Yongsheng Shi's team at the University of California, Irvine, published in
Since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, Iran has retaliated by targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, effectively shutting down the narrow channel of water.
Around the world, volcanologists are following the path of magma as it travels between connected volcanoes, in an effort that could lead to improved eruption forecasts. The post When Coupled Volcanoes Talk, These Researchers Listen first appeared on Quanta Magazine
With petrol and diesel prices soaring, we're hearing more reports of alleged fuel thefts from petrol stations, farms, trucks and even parked cars. The Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association's chief executive officer, Rowan Lee, told AAP this week that fuel
A research team led by Professor Jaehoon Kim at Sungkyunkwan University and Dr. Dong Ki Lee at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a highly efficient catalytic process that electrochemically converts lignin, a key component of woody biomass, into
Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle continues to amaze us with its long journey across northern Australia. This cyclone began life near the Solomon Islands on March 16, when moist air rose rapidly and created a low-pressure zone.
AI agents are starting to work in teams, but without careful organization, groups of bots can easily fall into chaos.
There’s a glaring hole in the president’s new science and tech council
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
