Forty light-years away, seven Earth-sized planets orbit around a dim red dwarf star in one of the most tightly packed planetary systems ever discovered. The TRAPPIST-1 system has captivated astronomers since 2017, with three of its planets orbiting in the habitable zone where
The ecology of the North Atlantic is constantly changing. Sometimes it changes abruptly. Extreme events are one driver of such sudden changes. A team of researchers has discovered that a single, large-scale heat wave has affected ecosystems and trophic interactions in the
A new study presents a zero-shot learning (ZSL) framework for maize cob phenotyping, enabling the extraction of geometric traits and estimation of yields in both laboratory and field settings without the need for model retraining.
Western cultural stories tend to emphasize perseverance. But science shows that knowing when to quit has a place in our success too.
Where do the well-known cannabis compounds THC, CBD and CBC come from? Researchers at Wageningen University & Research have experimentally demonstrated for the first time how cannabis acquired the ability to produce these cannabinoids. In the process, they also developed
Parts of it are basically taking a nap The post Here’s What Happens to Your Brain When Your Mind Goes Blank appeared first on Nautilus .
These birds’ drilling approach is more like extreme tennis playing than weight lifting
The “Seven Sisters” of the Pleiades are part of a much larger complex that can help reveal our galaxy’s deep history
When quantum particles work together, they can produce signals far stronger than any one particle could generate alone. This collective phenomenon, called superradiance, is a powerful example of cooperation at the quantum level. Until now, superradiance was mostly known for
The New Scientist Book Club has just finished our December read, Iain M. Banks's sci-fi novel The Player of Games - and most of us were fans of this big-thinking Culture tale
The author of the award-winning science fiction novel Annie Bot, the January read for the New Scientist Book Club, on how she created her startling protagonist
In this extract from the award-winning science fiction novel Annie Bot, the January read for the New Scientist Book Club, we are introduced to Sierra Greer's protagonist, a sex robot called Annie
A woman's body has been found to consist of varying proportions of male and female cells because of an extremely rare form of chimerism
Scientists are uncovering new clues that a cosmic explosion may have rocked Earth at the end of the last ice age. At major Clovis-era sites, researchers found shocked quartz—evidence of intense heat and pressure consistent with a comet airburst rather than volcanism or human
Moss may look insignificant, but it can carry a hidden forensic fingerprint. Because different moss species thrive in very specific micro-environments, tiny fragments can reveal exactly where a person has been. Researchers reviewing 150 years of cases found moss has helped
A new study suggests the vagus nerve may be one of the heart’s most important defenders against aging. Researchers found that keeping this nerve connected to the heart helps protect heart cells and maintain strong pumping ability. Even partial restoration of the nerve was
Astronomers tracking a nearby star system thought they had spotted an exoplanet reflecting light from its star. Then it vanished. Even stranger, another bright object appeared nearby. After studying years of Hubble Space Telescope data, scientists realized they were not seeing
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck northern Chile in July 2024—and it wasn’t supposed to be that strong. Unlike Chile’s infamous shallow “megathrust” quakes, this one ruptured deep inside the Earth, where shaking is usually weaker at the surface. Researchers discovered
Being active boosts your daily calorie burn more than previously thought. Researchers found that increased physical activity raises total energy use without triggering the body to conserve energy elsewhere. Basic functions keep running at full speed, even as movement increases.
Researchers have confirmed the mass of a free-floating planet thanks to a lucky convergence of ground- and space-based telescopes
Chess960 involves shuffling the pieces at the back of the board, and an analysis suggests doing so can increase the complexity of the game to favour white, black or neither player
Researchers working on China's fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have experimentally accessed a theorized "density-free regime" for fusion plasmas, achieving stable operation at densities well beyond conventional limits.
A new study, published in the journal Science, reveals how millennia of human migration across Pacific islands led to the introduction of invasive pig species all over the Asia-Pacific region.
About 9,500 years ago, a community of hunter-gatherers in central Africa cremated a small woman on an open pyre at the base of Mount Hora, a prominent natural landmark in northern Malawi, according to a new study coauthored by an international team based in the United States,
Astronomers just measured the mass of a free-floating planet without a star for the first time
Astronomers from the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) in India and elsewhere have conducted a long-term photometric and spectroscopic study of a young stellar object known as V1180 Cassiopeiae. Results of the study, published December 23 on the
Coral reefs are often described as biodiversity hotspots, but new research shows they also act as powerful regulators of the microscopic life in the surrounding ocean.
Dark matter is an elusive type of matter that does not emit, absorb or reflect light, interacting very weakly with ordinary matter. These characteristics make it impossible to detect using conventional technologies used by physicists to study matter particles.
Hypervelocity stars have, since the 1920s, been an important tool that allows astronomers to study the properties of the Milky Way galaxy, such as its gravitational potential and the distribution of matter. Now astronomers from China have made a large-volume search for
Scientists studying Alzheimer’s in African Americans have uncovered a striking genetic clue that may cut across racial lines. In brain tissue from more than 200 donors, the gene ADAMTS2 was significantly more active in people with Alzheimer’s than in those without it. Even more
Experimental particle physicists working at the MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory have found evidence against the existence of a "sterile" type of neutrino hypothesized to be responsible for previous experiments' anomalous results, as detailed in
A newly discovered exoplanet is rewriting the rules of what planets can be. Orbiting a city-sized neutron star, this Jupiter-mass world has a bizarre carbon-rich atmosphere filled with soot clouds and possibly diamonds at its core. Its extreme gravity stretches it into a lemon
Most abstainers continue to drink less after the month is up The post Dry January: What Happens to Your Body When You Skip Alcohol for a Month appeared first on Nautilus .