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A new study of bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo) in Florida is challenging a previous explanation for how males and females develop their distinctively different head shapes. Researchers from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and collaborating institutions found that the sharks’ shovel shaped heads…
Aging often makes itself visible in familiar ways, from gray hair and wrinkles to lapses in memory. That has fueled a longstanding scientific question: Could some of those changes eventually be slowed, prevented, or even reversed? Research involving a group of scientists from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Stanford University, Shanghai Jiao…
Puerto Rico typically enters its wet season in May, but 2026 has unfolded very differently. By late August, rainfall had remained scarce across much of the U.S. territory, allowing drought conditions to spread rapidly. The lack of rain has contributed to water shortages and rationing in some communities, prompting Puerto…
MIT researchers have engineered bacteria to work like transistors, creating living “circuit boards” that can be printed onto growth material inside a Petri dish. In conventional electronics, transistors act as switches that control whether electrical current can pass through a circuit. In the MIT system, engineered bacterial cells perform a…
A new study suggests that deliberately changing the rhythm of your breathing can influence how you make decisions by altering activity in both the heart and brain. Researchers from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE) and Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin found that longer exhalations increased heart rate variability…
Summer is the busiest time of year for iceberg activity in Greenland’s glacier-fed fjords, and 2026 delivered a particularly dramatic example. In August, a huge iceberg broke away from Petermann Glacier on Greenland’s northwest coast. About the size of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, it marked the largest…
Astronomers have identified a little-studied population of faint remnant radio galaxies that appear to fade quickly after their central supermassive black holes stop producing powerful radio jets. The findings provide a closer look at what happens during the final stages of a radio galaxy’s evolution. Researchers from the University of…
At first glance, stromatolites and their close relatives, microbial mats, can look like little more than dark, ancient rocks. In reality, they are densely packed, layered communities built by microbes. Billions of years ago, before animals and plants existed, stromatolites helped release some of the earliest oxygen into Earth’s atmosphere.…
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a striking new feature in Saturn’s atmosphere: a huge, evolving 10-sided wave circling the planet’s south pole. It is the first time scientists have observed a large, regularly shaped jet pattern in Saturn’s southern hemisphere. The structure has some similarities to Saturn’s famous hexagon…
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have identified an unusual magnetic response that overturns a long-standing assumption about the Hall effect, a foundational principle used to study how materials behave electrically and magnetically. The findings, published in Nature Materials, expand scientists’ understanding of the Hall effect and could eventually support simpler and…
Scientists have long been intrigued by a question surrounding bats: how can these flying mammals carry viruses capable of causing severe disease while rarely becoming seriously ill themselves? Researchers at Tulane University, working with collaborators at Stanford University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may now have identified…
Aging happens at different speeds from one person to another, but it eventually affects everyone. New research from Stanford Medicine, conducted in mice and human cells, points to a particular failure in the immune system that may help explain why. The researchers found that tissue-resident macrophages, a type of immune…
The universe is producing fewer stellar “babies.” Over the past 4.5 billion years, the rate at which new stars form has fallen to less than half its previous level. Yet the supply of one of the most important types of “fuel” for star formation has changed surprisingly little. That finding…
September brings a busy lineup for skywatchers, including a dazzling Venus, a Harvest Moon near Saturn and Neptune, the seasonal equinox, and opportunities to use the Moon as a guide to some recognizable stars and Milky Way features. September Skywatching Highlights Sept. 14-20: Follow the Moon to Antares and the…
When John Glenn orbited Earth in 1962, he commented on a striking green valley northwest of El Paso, Texas, surrounded by an otherwise dry landscape. That contrast is largely the result of human-made lakes along the Rio Grande, which have made farming possible in the arid region. Irrigation supports crops…
ADHD affects millions of people and can make everyday tasks involving focus, impulse control, and sustained attention more difficult. At the same time, traits associated with ADHD are also found among highly successful artists and innovators, including Justin Timberlake and Simone Biles. New research from Constructor University neuroscientist Dr. Radwa…
Spending long periods sitting without getting up may carry greater health risks than simply accumulating a high amount of sedentary time over the course of a day. A new study found that every additional hour of prolonged, uninterrupted sedentary behavior was associated with a 9% higher risk of dying from…
Takotsubo syndrome is a sudden heart condition that most often affects postmenopausal women and can be triggered by intense emotional or physical stress. It accounts for about 2 percent of patients initially thought to be having a heart attack – and up to one in ten women with acute coronary…
Reaching another star within a practical amount of time will require something far more capable than chemical rockets. One of the leading ideas is a solar sail, a large reflective structure that can be pushed by light. If extremely powerful lasers are aimed at such a sail, they could accelerate…
Persistent financial hardship may speed up age-related cognitive decline, according to new research led by University College London (UCL). Published in Innovation in Aging, the study analyzed information from 2,759 people in the UK who completed questionnaires across much of their lives through the MRC National Survey of Health and…
A new study suggests that brain imaging could reveal changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease more than seven years earlier than researchers previously believed. The work was led by scientists in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo and was published in Nature Neuroscience. The study suggests that the…
A newly analyzed fossil predator from what is now England and Wales has been identified as the largest scorpion known to science. Researchers from The University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum reached the conclusion after revisiting fossils that had remained in museum collections for more than 150 years.…
Researchers at Flinders University have found new evidence that coffee and tea may have different relationships with bone health in older women. Published in Nutrients, the study tracked nearly 10,000 women aged 65 and older for 10 years. The researchers examined whether regular coffee and tea consumption was associated with…
Physicists have spent decades organizing the growing collection of subatomic particles, yet some discoveries continue to resist easy classification. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility have now identified evidence for two unexpected structures that may help clarify part of this increasingly complicated particle landscape.…
The Sun does far more than provide Earth with light and heat. Two recent NASA-funded studies suggest that events from the Sun’s distant past may have influenced Earth’s climate in unexpected ways, from helping drive ancient temperature shifts to keeping the young planet warm enough for liquid water and possibly…
Where a person lives during early adulthood may influence their heart health decades later. A recent study found that people exposed to more unfavorable neighborhood social conditions when they were young adults had a greater likelihood of developing coronary artery calcification by midlife. Coronary artery calcification is an important marker…
Obesity may leave a long-lasting biological imprint on the immune system, potentially keeping some health risks elevated for years after weight loss. A 10-year study published in EMBO Reports suggests that people who have lived with obesity can retain a molecular “memory” of that state in important immune cells. The…
Simple practices such as mindfulness, gratitude journaling, and optimism training may improve several markers of cardiovascular health within a matter of weeks. A recent study found that these positive psychology interventions were consistently associated with improvements in blood pressure, inflammation, and other heart disease risk factors. Because some of the…
An international research team led by scientists in Canada has uncovered a likely explanation for one of the more unusual features of snake development: why embryos curl into tight spirals before hatching. This coiling behavior appears to help snakes accommodate the exceptionally long bodies that distinguish them from every other…
People who reach their 90s without dementia might appear to have escaped much of the danger of cognitive decline. Until recently, however, scientists had relatively little evidence showing what happens to dementia risk at such advanced ages. That gap is becoming increasingly important as lifespans rise around the world. By…