One of the oldest unsolved riddles in planetary science concerns the origin of the moon. Over a century ago, George Darwin proposed that tidal and centrifugal forces on a rapidly rotating proto-Earth caused the moon to be spun off into an Earth orbit.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife re-released a wolf into Grand County this week after it had traveled into New Mexico, according to a news release.
Just 20 days earlier, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig had exploded, killing 11 people and igniting one of the worst environmental disasters in modern history. A pelican and a Northern gannet were the first two birds plucked by wildlife rescuers from the oily waters near the
SpaceX has authorized an insider share sale that values Elon Musk's rocket and satellite maker at about $800 billion, according to a company message seen by Bloomberg on Dec. 12.
Between 128,000 and 186,000 years ago, when ice covered the Sierra Nevada, a lake 100 miles long and 600 feet deep sat in eastern California in what is now the Mojave Desert.
Almost a half-mile below the surface of Monterey Bay, California, scientists have recorded rare footage of a seven-arm octopus— only the fourth time the same research team has spotted the species in about four decades.
A highly pathogenic avian influenza was found in a herd of dairy cattle in Wisconsin, the latest in an ongoing outbreak of the disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
A swarm of at least six earthquakes reaching up to magnitude 2.9 rattled San Ramon near San Francisco, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.
What could force a supermassive black hole (SMBH) out of its host galaxy? They can have hundreds of millions, even billions of solar masses. What's powerful enough to dislodge one of these behemoths?
New research shows that your brain’s “true age” can shift dramatically depending on how you live, with optimism, restorative sleep, stress management, and strong social support acting like powerful anti-aging tools. Using advanced MRI-based brain-age estimates, scientists found
This week’s science roundup covers 2025’s near-record heat, a new mpox strain and fresh clues about why hobbits vanished 50,000 years ago.
Natural killer cells act as the immune system’s rapid-response team, but the stress of anxiety and insomnia may be quietly thinning their ranks. A study of young women in Saudi Arabia found that both conditions were linked to significantly fewer NK cells—especially the
During early development, tissues and organs begin to bloom through the shifting, splitting, and growing of many thousands of cells.
Hot Jupiters were once cosmic oddities, but unraveling how they moved so close to their stars has remained a stubborn mystery. Scientists have long debated whether these giants were violently flung inward or peacefully drifted through their birth disks. A new approach from
Researchers in Sweden have unveiled a way to create high-performance electronic electrodes using nothing more than visible light and specially designed water-soluble monomers. This gentle, chemical-free approach lets conductive plastics form directly on surfaces ranging from
Scientists have discovered that key compounds from cannabis—CBD and THC—show surprisingly strong effects against ovarian cancer cells. Used together, they slow cell growth, reduce colony formation, and may even block the cancer’s ability to spread. Even more promising, the
Back pain is wrapped in persistent myths, but many are far from the truth. From misconceptions about heavy lifting and bed rest to confusion over posture, exercise, and surgery, Dr. Meghan Murphy breaks down what really causes pain and what actually helps. Her insights reveal
SereNeuro Therapeutics revealed promising results for SN101, a first-in-class iPSC-derived therapy designed to treat chronic osteoarthritis pain while protecting joint tissue. Instead of blocking pain pathways, SN101 uses lab-grown nociceptors that act like sponges, soaking up
Researchers discovered that tanning beds cause widespread, mutation-laden DNA damage across almost all skin, explaining the sharply increased melanoma risk. Single-cell genomic analysis revealed dangerous mutations even in sun-protected regions. Survivors’ stories underscore
A paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, reports that Italian bears living in areas with many villages evolved and became smaller and less aggressive.
The study reveals how Balanophora plants function despite abandoning photosynthesis and, in some species, sexual reproduction. Their plastid genomes shrank dramatically in a shared ancestor, yet the plastids remain vital. Asexual reproduction appears to have evolved repeatedly,
Scientists are uncovering a new possibility behind long COVID’s stubborn symptoms: hidden infections that awaken or emerge alongside SARS-CoV-2. Evidence is mounting that viruses like Epstein-Barr and even latent tuberculosis may flare up when COVID disrupts the immune system,
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are irregular dwarf galaxies and satellites of the Milky Way. The LMC is about 163,000 light-years away and the SMC is about 206,000 light-years away, and their close proximity makes them excellent laboratories for the study of galaxies in
As far as nicknames go, the moniker "Mad Madge" would not suggest that Margaret Cavendish enjoyed the full respect of her peers.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and KTH have developed a computational method that can reveal how cells change and specialize in the body. The study, which has been published in the journal PNAS, can provide important knowledge about why this process sometimes goes wrong
A never-before-seen image of individual oxygen atoms dissolved in water has been captured.
A research team has investigated long-term X-ray variability in the neutron star NGC 7793 P13, an object thought to be driven by supercritical accretion, where an extraordinary amount of gas falls onto the object and emits intense X-rays. The team found a relation between the
Rocky planets like our Earth may be far more common than previously thought, according to new research published in the journal Science Advances. It suggests that when our solar system formed, a nearby supernova (the massive explosion of a star near the end of its life) bathed
A team of researchers led by the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), in collaboration with colleagues from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the University of Bristol, and Nanjing University, has identified the primary
Tropical storms such as typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones are Earth's most powerful weather systems. Born over warm oceans, they travel thousands of kilometers to land, traversing waters now polluted with plastics, from coastal runoff to the vast oceanic garbage patches.
Glacial earthquakes are a special type of earthquake generated in cold, icy regions. First discovered in the Northern Hemisphere more than 20 years ago, these quakes occur when huge chunks of ice fall from glaciers into the sea.
Scientists found that certain molecules made by gut bacteria travel to the liver and help control how the body uses energy. These molecules change depending on diet, genetics, and shifts in the microbiome. Some even improved insulin response in liver cells when tested in the
An international team of scientists have identified nine new species of butterflies using a combination of geographical, morphological and molecular analysis.
The cells of all animals—including humans—are characterized by their ability to adhere particularly well to surfaces in their environment. This mechanically stable adhesion enables the development of complex tissues and organs and is made possible by certain cell surface
A series of century-scale droughts may have quietly reshaped one of the world’s earliest urban civilizations. New climate reconstructions show that the Indus Valley Civilization endured repeated long dry periods that gradually pushed its people toward the Indus River as
Liquids and solutions are complex environments—think, for example, of sugar dissolving in water, where each sugar molecule becomes surrounded by a restless crowd of water molecules. Inside living cells, the picture is even more complex: tiny liquid droplets carry proteins or
Male bonobos have an impressive ability to detect when females are most fertile, even though the usual visual cues are unreliable. Researchers tracking wild bonobos in the Congo discovered that males skillfully interpret a mix of swelling timing and a female’s reproductive
Senescent “zombie” cells are linked to aging and multiple diseases, but spotting them in living tissue has been notoriously difficult. Researchers at Mayo Clinic have now taken an inventive leap by using aptamers—tiny, shape-shifting DNA molecules—to selectively tag these
For much of my career, I have been fascinated by the ways in which materials behave when we reduce their dimensions to the nanoscale. Over and over, I've learned that when we shrink a material down to just a few nanometers in thickness, the familiar textbook rules of physics
In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers have achieved the first experimental observation of a fragile-to-strong transition in deeply supercooled water, resolving a scientific puzzle that has persisted for nearly three decades.
Scientists have found a way to turn carbon dioxide and methane, the two most notorious greenhouse gases, into useful chemicals without any expensive catalysts, using only light.
Forskolin, a plant-derived compound, shows surprising potential against one of the most aggressive forms of leukemia. Researchers discovered that it not only stops cancer cells from growing but also makes them far more vulnerable to chemotherapy by preventing them from pumping
Researchers used a deep learning AI model to uncover the first imaging-based biomarker of chronic stress by measuring adrenal gland volume on routine CT scans. This new metric, the Adrenal Volume Index, correlates strongly with cortisol levels, allostatic load, perceived