This tiny laser could transform how we see and sense the world

Laser technology plays a vital role in modern life, supporting everything from precise scientific measurements to advanced communication systems. It underpins technologies such as self-driving vehicles, high-speed fiber optic networks, and even tools that detect gases in the atmosphere. A research team led by Associate Professor Johann Riemensberger from the…

These 80-year-olds have the memory of 50-year-olds. Scientists finally know why

SuperAgers are people over 80 whose memory performs as well as someone 30 years younger, showing that exceptional cognitive health can last a lifetime. They tend to be highly social, maintaining strong relationships and active lifestyles, and their brains appear to resist the buildup of Alzheimer’s-related plaques and tangles that…

A hidden gene could triple wheat yields

Researchers at the University of Maryland have identified the gene responsible for a rare type of wheat that forms three ovaries in each flower instead of just one. Because each ovary can grow into a grain, this finding could help boost the amount of wheat produced per acre. The study…

Breakthrough cancer therapy stops tumor growth without harming healthy cells

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute and Vividion Therapeutics have discovered chemical compounds that can precisely prevent the cancer-driving gene RAS from connecting with a key pathway responsible for tumor growth. The potential treatment is now moving into its first human clinical trial. If proven safe and effective, it could…

How cutting lipids could starve breast cancer

Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) have discovered that triple-negative breast cancer relies heavily on lipids for growth. These fatty acids, a defining feature of obesity, appear to drive tumor development. The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute and conducted using preclinical mouse…

Even “diet” soda may be quietly damaging your liver, scientists warn

A large-scale investigation has found that people who regularly consume both sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and low- or no-sugar-sweetened beverages (LNSSBs) face a significantly greater likelihood of developing metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).1 Presented at UEG Week 2025, the research followed 123,788 adults from the UK Biobank who had no…

Einstein’s overlooked idea could explain how the Universe really began

How did the universe come into existence, and what early processes shaped everything that followed? A new study published in Physical Review Research takes aim at this fundamental question. Scientists from Spain and Italy have introduced a model that reimagines what happened moments after the universe was born. Their approach…

Something mysterious is lighting up the Milky Way. Could it be dark matter?

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University may have uncovered a promising clue in the long-running effort to confirm the existence of dark matter. For years, astronomers have puzzled over a faint, widespread glow of gamma rays near the Milky Way’s center. The source of this mysterious light has remained uncertain, leaving…

Surgery beats Ozempic for long-term health, Cleveland Clinic finds

A major study from Cleveland Clinic found that people with both obesity and type 2 diabetes who had weight-loss surgery lived longer and experienced fewer serious health issues than those who used GLP-1 receptor agonist medications alone. These drugs, which mimic a natural hormone that helps regulate blood sugar and…

Stanford scientists grow thousands of mini human brains using common food additive

For nearly ten years, the Stanford Brain Organogenesis Program has been redefining how scientists study the human brain. Instead of relying on intact brain tissue from humans or animals, researchers in the program grow three-dimensional brain-like structures in the lab using stem cells. These tiny models, called human neural organoids…

Scientists just debunked the calcium and dementia myth

New findings from Edith Cowan University (ECU), Curtin University, and the University of Western Australia show no evidence that taking calcium alone increases the risk of developing dementia over time. The results help ease earlier fears that calcium supplements might have harmful effects on the brain health of older women.…

Scientists finally read the hidden DNA code that shapes disease

For centuries, scientists have noticed that certain illnesses seem to pass from one generation to the next, a connection first noted by Hippocrates, who observed that some diseases “ran in families.” Over time, researchers have steadily advanced their ability to uncover the biological roots of these inherited patterns within the…

Scientists 3D-print materials that stop vibrations cold

Scientific breakthroughs rarely happen all at once. More often, they evolve slowly, as researchers and engineers build on years of steady progress until the extraordinary eventually becomes routine. Now, scientists may be reaching a turning point in that gradual journey. Researchers from the University of Michigan and the Air Force…

Can Ozempic help you cut back on alcohol? Researchers think so

Growing research suggests that medications commonly prescribed for diabetes and weight loss (including the well-known Ozempic and Wegovy) might also help people drink less alcohol. A new study from the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, published this month in Scientific Reports, found that GLP-1 agonists appear to slow how…

This common liver supplement could boost cancer treatment success

Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that harnesses the body’s own immune defenses to attack tumors. It has shown remarkable success against cancers of the lung, kidney, and bladder but has not worked as well for liver cancer. That gap is troubling because liver cancer cases have nearly tripled over the…

MIT finds traces of a lost world deep within planet Earth

Researchers from MIT and collaborating institutions have uncovered exceptionally rare traces of “proto Earth,” the ancient precursor to our planet that existed about 4.5 billion years ago. This primitive world took shape before a massive collision forever changed its chemistry and gave rise to the Earth we inhabit today. The…

Cheaper than lithium, just as powerful — Sodium batteries are finally catching up

All-solid-state batteries offer a safer and more powerful way to run electric vehicles, power electronics, and store renewable energy from the grid. However, their key ingredient, lithium, is both costly and scarce, and mining it often causes serious environmental harm. Sodium presents a much cheaper and more abundant alternative, and…

Saturn's moon Titan just broke one of chemistry’s oldest rules

Scientists from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and NASA have made a surprising discovery that challenges one of chemistry’s fundamental principles, while also offering new insight into Saturn’s mysterious moon Titan. In Titan’s intensely cold environment, substances that normally cannot mix are able to combine. This finding expands our…

Rogue black hole shocks astronomers with record radio blast

For the first time, scientists have observed a tidal disruption event (TDE) — a phenomenon in which a black hole rips apart a passing star — taking place outside the central region of a galaxy. This unusual discovery revealed powerful and rapidly changing radio waves, showing that supermassive black holes…

From poison to power: How lead exposure helped shape human intelligence

What made the modern human brain so different from that of our extinct relatives, such as Neanderthals? Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, along with an international team, have discovered that ancient hominids, including early humans and great apes, came into contact with lead far…

Asteroid Ryugu’s hidden waters could explain how Earth got its oceans

A group of scientists, including researchers from the University of Tokyo, has found evidence that liquid water once moved through the asteroid that eventually gave rise to the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. Remarkably, this activity took place more than a billion years after the asteroid first formed. The discovery, which relies…

A giant asteroid hit Earth, but its crater is missing

“These glasses are unique to Australia and have recorded an ancient impact event we did not even know about,” Professor Jourdan said. in a crater but in tiny glass fragments found only in Australia. The discovery focuses on rare natural glass called tektites, which form when a meteorite hits Earth…

Scientists just found real teeth growing on a fish’s head

When it comes to teeth, most vertebrates share the same basic blueprint. Regardless of their size, shape, or sharpness, teeth typically have the same genetic roots, similar physical makeup, and, almost always, a place in the jaw. That assumption, however, may no longer hold true. Scientists studying the spotted ratfish,…

Forged in fire: The 900°C heat that built Earth’s stable continents

For billions of years, Earth’s continents have remained remarkably steady, providing the groundwork for mountains, ecosystems, and human civilization. Yet the reason behind their long-term stability has puzzled scientists for more than a century. Now, researchers from Penn State and Columbia University have uncovered strong evidence explaining how the continents…

Quantum crystals could spark the next tech revolution

Picture a future where factories can create materials and chemical compounds more quickly, at lower cost, and with fewer production steps. Imagine your laptop processing complex data in seconds or a supercomputer learning and adapting as efficiently as the human brain. These possibilities depend on one fundamental factor: how electrons…

Tiny brain nanotubes found by Johns Hopkins may spread Alzheimer’s

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report that they have identified how mammalian brains build intricate networks of tiny tubes that move toxins in and out of brain cells, much like pneumatic tubes send items through systems in factories and stores. Their experiments, which used genetically modified mice and advanced imaging…

Who or what dug Mars’ mysterious gullies? The answer is explosive

Could Mars have once supported life? Scientists still don’t have proof. Yet some of the planet’s strange surface features might seem to hint at it. Earth scientist Dr. Lonneke Roelofs of Utrecht University set out to study the origin of mysterious gullies carved into Martian dunes. In her laboratory experiments,…

They found the switch that makes the body attack cancer

In a series of experiments using mouse models of breast, pancreatic, and muscle cancers, scientists at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital uncovered new evidence that strengthening the body’s natural immune defenses can both prevent cancer from returning and improve survival rates. The research, published recently in Nature Immunology and funded…

This tiny worm uses static electricity to hunt flying insects

A minuscule parasitic worm capable of springing into the air up to 25 times its own body length can latch onto flying insects with the help of static electricity, according to new research. The findings, published in PNAS, focus on the nematode Steinernema carpocapsae and come from a collaboration between…

This type of meat supercharges muscle growth after workouts

A new study examined how muscles respond to weight training when people eat different types of pork afterward. Researchers compared high-fat and lean ground pork burgers that contained the same amount of protein to see how each affected short-term muscle growth. The results surprised the team and added to growing…