Science News

Exercise and healthy blood sugar levels in midlife may help slow cognitive decline decades later. Physical activity appeared especially beneficial for Mexican American adults, suggesting that some brain-protective factors may differ across populations.

Physicists may have uncovered a hidden feature inside protons that helps preserve one of matter’s most fundamental properties. RHIC collision data suggest baryon number is carried not simply by three quarks, but by a Y-shaped junction of the gluons connecting them. The finding challenges a decades-old textbook picture and could deepen our understanding of why protons—and ultimately matter itself—remain stable.

As we age, the body appears to sacrifice walking efficiency in exchange for stability. Older adults stiffen the ankle more with each step, which may help prevent falls but also forces the muscles to work harder while producing less forward motion. This leads to shorter strides, slower walking, and faster fatigue. Exercises targeting balance, coordination, and lower-leg strength could help preserve mobility.

Scientists have discovered a new extinct amphibian species hiding in the fossil collections of Los Angeles’ La Brea Tar Pits. Named Spea labreae, the Ice Age spadefoot toad is an exceptionally rare find—only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian has ever been identified in North America. Its bones had been sitting in collections since the 1950s before a researcher noticed features that set it apart from known species.

Astronomers have witnessed a black hole violently shredding a massive star, creating one of the most energetic stellar explosions ever observed. The event, nicknamed “the Whippet,” briefly released about 400 billion times the Sun’s energy and sent a shock wave racing outward at one-fifth the speed of light. Months later, scientists spotted unexpectedly fast-moving helium, suggesting that some structure may have survived the destruction.

COVID-19 can reactivate dormant viruses hiding in the body, including Epstein-Barr, cytomegalovirus, and several herpes viruses. One poorly understood viral family was strongly associated with long COVID and lasting disability, offering a potentially important clue to why some patients struggle to recover.

Fossils collected in Osaka more than 30 years ago have revealed a surprise hiding in plain sight: four previously unrecognized bones from a giant Cretaceous mosasaur. Among them is the first confirmed premaxilla—the frontmost bone of the upper jaw—ever identified in a Japanese mosasaur fossil. Even more intriguing, parts of the skull show unusual anatomical features that don’t match known mosasaurs, raising the possibility that the remains belong to an entirely new species.

A widely available food-preservation chemical is emerging as a disturbing factor in rising UK suicide deaths, particularly among younger people and men. Researchers say the scale may be underestimated and are calling for urgent restrictions on access and harmful online information.

Scientists have long thought an unusual genetic system helped ants, bees, and wasps evolve their extraordinary social colonies. A massive new analysis suggests that genetics alone can’t explain it—and the real secret may lie in other traits unique to these insects.

Scientists have uncovered why two seemingly opposite ways of targeting the same brain receptor can both promote weight loss. In mice, activating the GIP receptor in the brainstem reduced appetite, while blocking it in the hypothalamus removed a kind of “brake” on fullness signals. The discovery helps explain why very different obesity drugs can achieve similar results and suggests that carefully combining GIP-targeting treatments with GLP-1 drugs like those related to Wegovy and Ozempic could pr

Scientists have discovered that the aging human brain may be far less isolated from the rest of the body than once believed. Stanford researchers found that large numbers of immune cells from the blood begin entering the brain as early as middle age, where they can transform into microglia, the brain’s specialized immune cells. The finding overturns a long-standing assumption that these cells remain largely separate from the body’s immune system throughout life.

Nuclear reactors may go dark, but their fuel continues producing a faint antineutrino “glow” long after shutdown. Researchers have now detected that residual signal for the first time, finding it closely matched predictions of radioactive decay inside the reactor and nearby spent-fuel pools. The breakthrough suggests antineutrino detectors could eventually monitor reactors even when they are offline.

A surprising stress-related signal may help the brain repair itself after injury. Researchers found that myelin-producing precursor cells rapidly release the stress hormone CRH near damaged brain tissue, helping control how those cells mature and rebuild protective nerve insulation. The same system also influences brain development and the thickness of myelin later in life. The findings could offer new clues about how early-life stress contributes to psychiatric disorders.

Women who used estrogen-only hormone therapy later in life were less likely to develop dementia and showed fewer signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brains, according to a large study of more than 21,000 participants. Hormone therapy use was linked to 39% lower odds of a dementia diagnosis and 35% lower odds of Alzheimer’s-related brain changes at autopsy, including amyloid plaques and tau tangles. Biomarker tests also suggested less amyloid buildup among hormone therapy users.

JWST has uncovered surprising clues that Neptune’s strange inner moons may be the wreckage of an ancient cosmic catastrophe. Researchers detected clay-like minerals on Larissa, Galatea, and Neptune’s rings that form in the presence of liquid water—yet the moons themselves show no obvious water ice. The material likely came from deep inside much larger icy moons that were shattered when Triton was captured by Neptune, destroying much of the planet’s original satellite system.

Astronomers have released more than three million new spectra in a sweeping expansion that, for the first time, brings SDSS-V optical observations to the Southern Hemisphere. The data reveal everything from rare stars and glowing nebulae to hundreds of thousands of X-ray sources and supermassive black holes changing over time.

Researchers have found a clever new way to map a part of Earth’s upper atmosphere that is notoriously difficult to observe. Using orbital data from roughly 1,200 Starlink satellites, they reconstructed changes in atmospheric density about 500 kilometers above Earth. The approach could sharpen satellite tracking and help reduce the growing risk of collisions in increasingly crowded orbits.

Scientists have pinpointed a brain network—and its distinctive electrical rhythm—that appears to drive the benefits of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease. The discovery could lead to more precise, personalized stimulation settings and better results for patients.

Ancient remains from Vietnam suggest diseases like yaws may have been passed from mother to child thousands of years ago, a form of transmission often assumed to indicate syphilis. The discovery could overturn how scientists interpret ancient infections and complicate the long-running mystery of syphilis’s origins.

The adult brain may be far better at repairing itself than scientists once believed. In mice, researchers discovered a special group of support cells called astrocytes that respond to damaged brain tissue by rebuilding lost cellular networks. Rather than simply moving into the injured area, these cells perform a remarkable maneuver: they create new nuclei and send them traveling through long cellular extensions to repopulate damaged regions.

Keratin extracted from sheep’s wool helped damaged bone regenerate in animals, producing tissue that was more organized and structurally similar to healthy bone than tissue grown with conventional collagen scaffolds. The discovery could turn an abundant agricultural byproduct into a promising new material for regenerative medicine.

James Webb has captured a striking new infrared view of NGC 2392, the Lion Nebula, revealing the dramatic aftermath of a dying Sun-like star. At its center, a scorching white dwarf is blasting radiation into surrounding gas and dust, carving out the nebula’s lion-like face while illuminating a sprawling “mane” of surviving dusty clumps.

Physicists have found a new way to peer inside one of matter’s most elusive quantum states: the Wigner crystal, where electrons stop behaving like independent particles and organize into a crystal-like pattern. By shining light on an atomically thin material cooled close to absolute zero, researchers uncovered optical signals that reveal not just where the electrons are, but how they move together.

MIT neuroscientists have found striking evidence that language and logical reasoning are powered by separate systems in the brain. Even people with severe language impairments caused by stroke were able to solve challenging logic puzzles as well as people without those impairments, while brain scans showed that language-processing regions stayed largely quiet during reasoning tasks.

Scientists have created an unusually corrosion-resistant stainless steel that could replace costly titanium components used to produce green hydrogen. The breakthrough could reduce structural material costs by roughly 40 times and make seawater-based hydrogen production far more economical.

Some black holes roaming the Universe today may actually be older than the Big Bang. A new cosmic “bounce” model suggests the Universe expanded from an earlier contracting phase, allowing ancient black holes to survive the transition as cosmic fossils. These relics could potentially explain dark matter and why surprisingly massive objects appeared so early in cosmic history.

Silver nanocatalysts have been found to switch where they perform their most important reactions depending on whether a solid oxide cell is making electricity or hydrogen. The discovery could enable smarter catalyst designs that boost clean power generation while making green hydrogen more energy-efficient.

A 240-million-year-old reptile discovered in Brazil is revealing what evolution looked like just before the rise of dinosaurs and crocodiles. The small predator had unusually positioned legs that may have allowed it to move more efficiently than many earlier reptiles. Its close relatives were previously known mostly from other continents, suggesting these ancient animals spread much farther across the Triassic world than scientists realized.

The rise of the potato in the Andes appears to have left a lasting mark on human DNA. Indigenous Peruvians carry exceptionally high numbers of a starch-digestion gene, likely because people with more copies gained an evolutionary advantage once potatoes became a staple food. The change began thousands of years before European contact, providing unusually strong evidence that diet can shape human evolution.

A total solar eclipse will plunge parts of Europe into darkness on August 12, 2026, with Spain offering some of the best views. ESA will livestream the spectacle from the Javalambre Observatory, combining telescope feeds, drone footage, and expert commentary. At 20:31 CEST, the observatory will experience 1 minute and 21 seconds of totality, revealing the Sun’s normally hidden outer atmosphere.

Dogs have been shaping—and being shaped by—humans for about 15,000 years, evolving from early partners of hunter-gatherers into an astonishing range of specialized companions. Across the globe, they adapted alongside people to wildly different environments and needs, from powerful Arctic sled dogs and agile rainforest hunters to high-altitude dogs with genetic traits for surviving thin air. Some were even bred for wool, while others played important spiritual or ceremonial roles.

Cassini data has revealed a surprising twist in Saturn’s magnetic shield: the planet’s rapid rotation appears to drag a key opening in its magnetosphere far toward the afternoon side instead of keeping it near noon, as happens on Earth. The finding confirms that giant planets like Saturn operate under a fundamentally different magnetic regime, where fast spin and charged material from moons such as Enceladus can overpower the Sun’s influence.

More than 60,000 years ago, humans in southern Africa were engraving ostrich eggshells with intricate geometric patterns that appear far more organized than previously realized. Researchers found recurring grids, parallel lines, right angles, and repeated shapes, suggesting the designs followed deliberate rules rather than being improvised. The engravers may even have planned entire patterns in their minds before carving them.

Deep underground, bacteria may be capable of doing something remarkable: trapping toxic uranium before it spreads. When researchers fed microbes in uranium-contaminated mine water with glycerol, about 95% of the dissolved uranium disappeared within 130 days. The bacteria helped convert it into an unusually stable uranium compound that had rarely been observed before.

Chemists have developed a catalyst that breaks a long-standing rule governing which molecules receive electrons during chemical reactions. By releasing electrons directly into solution, the technique could unlock reactions—and potentially useful new molecules—that were previously out of reach.

Dinosaurs conquered the land at enormous sizes, but strangely, they almost never evolved into truly tiny animals. New research suggests that physiology alone can’t explain this missing miniature end of the dinosaur spectrum—and that early mammals may have been partly responsible. While dinosaurs kept mammals from becoming large, small mammals may have returned the favor by occupying ecological niches that could otherwise have supported mouse-sized dinosaurs.

Stress may literally scramble the brain’s internal GPS. Researchers found that cortisol, a hormone released during stress, made people significantly worse at navigating a virtual environment and disrupted the precise activity of grid cells, specialized brain cells that help us understand where we are in space. When landmarks were missing, this navigation system nearly stopped functioning, while another brain region appeared to step in and compensate.

CT scans of the world’s rarest dodo skulls suggest the extinct bird may have had a stronger sense of smell, a highly sensitive beak, and a lifestyle that extended into dawn and dusk. The discoveries are helping overturn centuries-old myths and reveal a far more complex animal than the famously “dumb” dodo of popular imagination.

A rare meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey roof contains evidence of ancient salty fluids, organic compounds, and amino acids from a primitive asteroid. Its pristine chemistry could offer new clues about how space rocks helped supply early Earth with some of the ingredients needed for life.

Scientists have created the first quantum material that can sort and transport different quantum states of light at room temperature, potentially removing the need for bulky, ultra-cold refrigeration systems. Built from a gold film carved with hundreds of microscopic structures, the ultrathin “metacrystal” acts like a filter that directs different kinds of quantum light along separate paths while preserving the information they carry.

Scientists have discovered incredibly tiny plasma whirlpools swirling across the Sun’s surface, some just 20 kilometers wide. These previously invisible vortices may twist magnetic fields and help build up the energy released in small solar eruptions called nanoflares. They may also help magnetic fields spread through the Sun’s atmosphere far faster than current models can explain.

Scientists have generated quantum entanglement directly from sunlight, potentially offering a lower-energy alternative to the lasers normally used in quantum technology. Their outdoor experiment produced entangled photons with about 94% similarity to an ideal state. The result could pave the way for simpler quantum satellites, secure communications, and more energy-efficient quantum computing.

Teens who start using cannabis may experience slower growth in memory, attention, language, and processing speed. Their abilities often developed normally at first, then began leveling off while nonusers continued improving. THC appeared to be the most likely driver, especially for worsening memory.

Blocking the glycine transporter SLC6A20 restored important brain signaling and improved social, communication, and repetitive behaviors in autism-related mouse models. The treatment also worked in human brain organoids and showed lasting effects in adult mice, suggesting the brain may remain more treatable later in life than previously thought.

A ten-month Antarctic experiment found that astronauts may struggle not only with loneliness but also with spending too much time around the same people. Frequent contact was linked to greater tension and mistrust, while the crew increasingly divided into cultural and language-based groups.

Earth’s molten iron core unexpectedly reversed direction beneath the Pacific, revealing a dramatic change in the hidden engine that creates our planet’s magnetic field. Satellite data suggest the surge is already weakening, raising the possibility that the deep-Earth upheaval is part of a mysterious natural cycle.

A new wearable patch may help people reach REM sleep faster and remain there longer without medication or surgery. In a study of 28 participants, the device shortened the time to REM by 43 minutes and extended it by about 16 minutes. Researchers also observed signs of improved stress regulation and changes in brain circuits tied to emotion.

Metal-rich asteroids could one day become hardware stores for Mars, supplying the materials needed to build and repair a growing colony. A new analysis shows that carefully selected asteroids may be reachable with current spacecraft technology. Some could even provide the ingredients for making rocket fuel in space, dramatically reducing the burden of hauling supplies from Earth.

More than 5,000 years after his death, Ötzi the Iceman is still hosting a remarkable mix of ancient and modern microorganisms. Researchers separated microbes that lived in his body during his lifetime from those that arrived after his death, uncovering traces of his original gut bacteria and cold-loving yeasts that may have survived alongside him in the glacier for millennia.

Several enormous Megalodon vertebrae thought to have been destroyed in 1989 were found sitting unnoticed on a museum shelf. Their analysis strengthens evidence that the giant shark could exceed 24 meters (79 feet) in length and live for nearly a century. Researchers also estimate that its newborns may have measured an astonishing 3.6 meters (12 feet).