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Plants naturally produce chemicals called alkaloids to protect themselves from threats such as insects and disease. People have relied on these same compounds for generations, using them in pain relief, medical treatments, and everyday products including caffeine and nicotine. Scientists want to better understand how plants create alkaloids so they…
An international research team has identified a new dinosaur species, Foskeia pelendonum, a tiny plant-eating dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now Vegagete (Burgos, Spain). At just about half a meter long, Foskeia ranks among the smallest known ornithopod dinosaurs. The study, led by Paul-Emile Dieudonné…
A new study from scientists at Yale University and the University of Missouri shows that catalysts made with manganese can efficiently convert carbon dioxide into formate. Manganese is widely available and low cost, making it an attractive alternative to expensive metals. Formate is considered a promising material for storing hydrogen,…
Scientists have produced the most detailed map ever created of dark matter that runs throughout the Universe, revealing how it has influenced the formation of stars, galaxies, and planets. The research, which includes astronomers from Durham University in the UK, provides new insight into how this unseen substance helped draw…
Advances in public health and medicine have helped people live longer than ever before. However, those extra years are often affected by poor health rather than vitality. While aging is unavoidable, it greatly increases the risk of many chronic illnesses, including cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. Understanding why aging so…
A new study examining how memory functions in the brain suggests that different kinds of remembering may rely on the same brain regions. Instead of using separate neural pathways to retrieve different types of information, the brain appears to activate overlapping areas, a finding that could change how memory is…
A new scientific analysis finds that plastic pollution has reached even the most isolated Pacific coastal waters. According to research published January 28, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One, about one-third of fish living near Pacific Island Countries and Territories contain microplastics. The study was led by Jasha Dehm…
What if an injectable protein could one day help repair both “leaky gut” and severe depression? New research from the University of Victoria (UVic), published in the journal Chronic Stress, suggests this idea may not be far-fetched. Scientists found that a glycoprotein known as Reelin could play a key role…
Miracle Mineral Solution, commonly called MMS, has been promoted for years as a supposed cure for serious conditions such as cancer, autism, and COVID-19. Despite these claims, MMS is simply a marketing name for sodium chlorite (NaClO2), a strong disinfectant used in applications like water treatment. When sodium chlorite is…
The global demand for critical metals is rising quickly, prompting many countries to explore the possibility of extracting these valuable resources from the ocean floor. A new international study has revealed that this push toward deep-sea mining may have less overall environmental impact than scientists once feared. At the same…
New research suggests that the Vatican’s recently opened eco-friendly farm reflects a long forgotten chapter in Catholic history. The farm was inaugurated by the first ever Augustinian pope and, according to historian Dr. Krisztina Ilko, mirrors the early values and practices of his religious order. Her work challenges long held…
For decades, scientists believed a major group of ocean bacteria was ideally suited for life in waters with very little food. New research suggests that this assumption may be incomplete. These microbes appear to be far more sensitive to environmental change than previously thought. The bacteria, called SAR11, are the…
An international team led by scientists at Sun Yat-sen University and the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has launched an ambitious experiment known as MACE. The project is designed to look for an extremely rare event in which muonium, a short lived system made of…
The four astronauts assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission have entered a standard two-week quarantine at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The isolation period began Wednesday and is designed to protect the crew’s health as they prepare for their upcoming trip to the International Space Station. The Crew-12 astronauts…
Lava tunnels on nearby planetary bodies are increasingly seen as strong candidates for future base camps. These underground structures can naturally shield astronauts from harmful radiation and frequent meteorite impacts. Despite their promise, reaching and studying these environments is extremely challenging due to rough terrain, limited entry points, and dangerous…
After years of slow progress, researchers may finally be seeing a clear path forward in the quest to build powerful quantum computers. These machines are expected to dramatically shorten the time required for certain calculations, turning problems that would take classical computers thousands of years into tasks that could be…
For scientists who track faint ripples traveling through the cosmos, GW250114 stands out. It is the clearest gravitational wave signal ever recorded from a pair of merging black holes, giving researchers an unusually sharp tool for testing Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, called general relativity. “What’s fantastic is the event…
A large U.S. study involving nearly 2 million older adults found that cerebral amyloid angiopathy, a condition in which amyloid proteins accumulate in brain blood vessels, is linked to a much higher risk of developing dementia within five years. The increased dementia risk was seen in people with cerebral amyloid…
A new study led by a researcher from UCL (University College London) finds that baby and very young sauropods were critical to sustaining predators during the Late Jurassic. Sauropods were long necked, long tailed plant eaters that grew into the largest animals ever to walk on land, yet their earliest…
New research suggests that memory problems in Alzheimer’s disease may be linked to a failure in how the brain replays recent experiences while at rest. The study, conducted in mice by scientists at University College London (UCL), points to a disrupted brain process that normally helps strengthen and preserve memories.…
Americans born in the 1960s and early 1970s are reporting higher levels of loneliness and depression than people from earlier generations. They are also showing declines in memory and physical strength. These patterns are unusual when compared with other wealthy nations. In many peer countries, especially in Nordic Europe, measures…
In the oldest known writing in Marathi, a language spoken by millions in western and central India, a 13th-century religious leader named Cakradhara points to an acacia tree as a symbol of death and rebirth. While his words were meant to convey spiritual meaning, they have taken on new significance…
As artificial intelligence continues to advance and ethical concerns grow alongside it, scientists say the need to understand consciousness has reached a critical point. In a new review published in Frontiers in Science, researchers warn that progress in AI and neurotechnology is moving faster than scientific understanding of consciousness. This…
A newly developed app powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is giving scientists and the public a new way to identify dinosaur footprints left behind millions of years ago, according to a recent study. The technology aims to make sense of fossil tracks that have long challenged researchers. For many years,…
How can information move at incredible speeds, or electricity flow without wasting energy? Answering these questions has pushed scientists and technology companies toward quantum materials, whose behavior is governed by physics at the smallest scales. Building these advanced materials depends on understanding how atoms and electrons behave, an area where…
Researchers have discovered a way to coax the bacteria living in animals’ digestive systems into acting like miniature factories that produce compounds linked to longer life. The findings point to a potential new approach for developing drugs that work by influencing gut microbes rather than directly targeting the body. The…
Researchers studying infectious diseases have discovered Pteropine orthoreovirus (PRV), a bat-borne virus, in stored throat swab samples and virus cultures from five patients in Bangladesh. These individuals were originally suspected of having Nipah virus infection but later tested negative. The finding places PRV among the growing number of animal-to-human viruses…
Statins have dramatically improved cardiovascular health by lowering cholesterol and cutting the risk of heart attacks and strokes for millions of people. Despite these benefits, many patients experience unwanted side effects. These can include muscle pain and weakness, and in rare situations, a dangerous breakdown of muscle tissue that can…
Towering clouds ripple across Jupiter’s surface in dramatic patterns. Like Earth’s clouds, they contain water, but on Jupiter they are far denser and far deeper. These layers are so thick that no spacecraft has been able to directly observe what lies below them. Now, scientists have taken a major step…
Astronomers were surprised to learn in recent years that most Sun-like stars host at least one planet that falls between Earth and Neptune in size and orbits closer than Mercury does in our own solar system — sizes and orbits absent from our solar system. These worlds, known as super-Earths…
