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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…
Picture a glowing cloud that looks like a neon sign, but instead of water droplets it holds vast numbers of microscopic dust particles suspended in space. This unusual mixture is known as dusty plasma, a rare state of matter that exists both in outer space and inside laboratory experiments. In…
Hydrogen is widely seen as a key energy source for the future, which makes it critical to understand how water is split during electrolysis. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge have taken a closer look…
Lowering sodium levels in packaged and prepared foods could lead to major improvements in heart health and prevent large numbers of heart attacks, strokes, and premature deaths in France and the United Kingdom. That is the conclusion of two new studies published in Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart…
The team behind NASA’s six-wheeled Mars explorer tested a vision-enabled artificial intelligence system to map a safe route across the Martian surface without relying on human route planners. NASA’s Perseverance rover has now completed the first drives on another planet that were planned by artificial intelligence. The milestone demonstration took…
Termites are among the most dominant animals on the planet, forming enormous colonies that can contain millions of individuals. Their highly organized societies raise an obvious question: how did insects with such advanced social systems evolve from solitary ancestors that closely resembled modern cockroaches? New research from the University of…
A recently uncovered archaeological site in central China is changing how scientists understand early hominin behavior in East Asia. The discoveries suggest these ancient populations were far more capable and adaptable than previously assumed. An international research team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out excavations at Xigou…
Night owls may face higher risks to their heart, especially later in life, with women appearing particularly affected. Adults in midlife and older age who tend to be most active in the evening, especially women, showed poorer overall heart health than those without a strong preference for mornings or evenings,…
A decades-long study tracking people from young adulthood has uncovered an early and unexpected shift in heart disease risk. Men reached a 5% risk of cardiovascular disease roughly seven years earlier than women, revealing a clear and early gap in heart health. Coronary heart disease accounted for most of this…
Researchers at Griffith University report encouraging progress toward treating sepsis after a Phase II clinical trial in China produced positive results. The study suggests a new drug candidate may reduce the severity of sepsis, a condition that affects millions of hospitalized patients worldwide each year. The experimental treatment, known as…
