NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is Unveiling the Secrets of the ‘Cosmic Web,’ Offering New Clues to Galactic Evolution
James Webb Space Telescope data has allowed researchers to map the cosmic web in the greatest detail ever achieved.
Ryan Whalen
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
59,000-Year-Old Evidence of Stone Drilling Technology Reveals the Ancient Dentistry of Neanderthals
Neanderthals practiced a surprisingly advanced form of dentistry, detecting tooth decay and removing it with stone drills.
Clues to the Origin of Falling Space Objects “Previously Hidden in the Data” Are Being Revealed with Help from AI
Hidden insights into the fall of meteors, long unrecognized in observational data, are being revealed by Lowell Observatory researchers.
Did Dante’s ‘Inferno’ Predict Impact Physics Hundreds of Years Before Its Invention?
Dante Alighieri’s Inferno turns out to be an excellent model of impact physics, with Satan taking the role of an extinction-causing asteroid.
146,000-Year-Old Tool Discovery Reveals Unexpected Adaptations to Harsh Ice Age Life
Ice Age tools dating back 146,000 years, discovered in an ancient Chinese cave, reveal surprising human adaptations to a harsh environment.
These ‘Three Horsemen’ of Antarctic Instability Could Transform the Oceans into a Driver of Climate Change by 2030
Antarctica has been affected by a "perfect storm" of major events that could finally trigger widespread melting on the icy continent.
This Violent Volcanic Eruption May Have Revealed a Hidden “Emergency Brake” for Climate Change
A massive underwater volcanic eruption in the South Pacific is offering new hope for an “emergency brake” on climate change.
Violent Space Weather Can Send Orbital Space Junk Careening Toward Earth, Endangering Launch Missions
Volatile solar activity increases the amount of space debris falling to Earth, creating challenging-to-predict hazards for space launches.
Does Time Exist in Two States at Once? Optical Ion Clocks Could Reveal the Quantum Nature of Time, New Research Says
The strange quantum nature of time moves one step closer to being untangled, thanks to new research on optical ion clocks.
Fusion Breakthrough? Magnetizing Plasmas with High-Powered Lasers Paves the Way Toward “Direct Drive” Fusion
New fusion research reveals how plasma can spontaneously generate its magnetic field, in a fundamental breakthrough.
6,000-Year-Old Prehistoric Mining Camp Discovered Amid Burned Rocks and Children’s Bones
Ancient people in the eastern Pyrenees spent more time at high altitudes than archaeologists previously expected, according to new research.
Genetic Research Reframes Archaeological Understanding of How the Germanic People Arose 1500-Years-Ago in the Roman Collapse
European genetic research offers surprising insights into who lived along the Roman frontier as the empire fell and Germanic peoples arose.
Volcanic Apocalypse? New Research Pushes Back on the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis
New research challenging the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis argues volcanic activity likely caused the final cold spell of the last ice age.
Scientists Unlock Elusive Quantum Effect Long Considered Theoretical in Breakthrough Experiment
A once-theoretical quantum interaction has been achieved in a breakthrough laboratory experiment by University of Oxford researchers.
Clean Energy Breakthrough: Scientists Have Discovered “Something Interesting and Unknown” in This Novel Material
A clean energy breakthrough has been made by UK researchers, who discovered new “in-between states” as precursors break down when heated.
2000-Year-Old Amazonian “Dark Earth” Causes Mysterious Plant Growth at Accelerated Levels, Baffling Researchers
Unusual patches of black Amazonian soil rich in nutrients known as "dark earth," which rapidly accelerates plant growth, remain one of the region's greatest mysteries.
Universal Patterns Emerge in Human Languages, Revealing “Four Surprising Laws” Behind Their Evolution
Human languages as disparate as English, Japanese, and Russian follow remarkably similar evolutionary paths, according to a new AI study.
“It’s a Mystery”: This Strange Superconductor Exhibits Odd Behavior Under Extreme Conditions
The strange superconductor UTe2 exhibits “reentry superconductivity,” in which it gains, loses, and regains superconductivity.
The Secret of the ‘Fe Kα Line,’ a Crucial Tool for Exploring Black Holes, Has Finally Been Revealed
An X-ray emission known as the Fe Kα line, or iron Ka line, is one of astronomy’s most essential data sources on objects such as black holes.
2,000-Year-Old Roman Shipwreck Reveals Ancient Shipbuilding Secrets
The secrets of waterproofing ancient Roman ships to withstand long and harsh sea voyages have finally been revealed.
Scientists Are Decoding These Towering Solar Structures That Can Disrupt Earth’s Technology
Solar prominences are massive chunks of plasma floating above the Sun’s surface, which can cause dangerous solar eruptions.
Colossal Octopus Fossils Suggest a 60-Foot “Kraken” Once Ruled the Oceans
Giant 19-meter-long kraken-like octopuses may have been the apex predators in the Late Cretaceous-era oceans, according to new research.
Strange Water on 3I/ATLAS Hints at the Alien Conditions of Its Birth in a Frigid, Low-Radiation Region
New research reveals that the mysterious interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS comes from a very cold alien environment, new research reveals.
Astronomers Just Used ‘Galactic Archaeology’ to Map the Milky Way’s Star-Forming Disc, Ushering a “New Era of Discovery”
The Milky Way galaxy’s fuzzy star-forming edge has finally been mapped, as researchers identify the major region of stellar birth.
Scientists Reveal Organic Matter “Preserved on Mars for 3.5 Billion Years” in First-of-Its-Kind Study
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has found chemicals linked to the rise of life on Earth, in a first-of-its-kind experiment on the Red Planet.
Surprising 100,000-Year-Old Neanderthal DNA Discovery Rewrites the Species’ History in Central Europe
Understanding of Neanderthal prehistory in Europe is changing rapidly, thanks to several sets of remains discovered in Poland’s Stajnia Cave.
Just Two Centuries From Now, This Newly Discovered Exoplanet System Will look Vastly Different—Here’s Why
The dynamic exoplanet system TOI-201 is changing so rapidly that astronomers say it may look extremely different to us in two centuries.
5-Million-Year-Old Mystery of the Colorado River’s Disappearance Has Finally Been Solved
Over 5 million years ago, the Colorado River disappeared from the geological record, but now geologists have finally solved the mystery.
6,000 Cubic Kilometers of Magma Hiding Beneath Tuscany Revealed with New Ambient Noise Tomography Technique
Beneath Tuscany lies 6,000 cubic kilometers of hot magma, according to new European research using a remote-sensing technique.
10,000 Years of Human Evolution Reveals Natural Selection is Accelerating, Recent Human Genome Study Reveals
The human genome of West Eurasia has been far more affected by natural selection in the last 10,000 years than previously suspected.
Clean Energy Breakthrough: Bottled Lightning Produces Methanol in New “Bubble Reactor”
Lightning in a bottle, in a literal sense, may be the key to new, clean energy by reducing carbon emissions in methanol production.
Starquakes Reveal Several Billion-Year-Old “Fossil Fields” of Ancient Stellar Magnetism
Starquake data is revealing ancient “fossil fields” responsible for stellar magnetism from birth through a star's final end.
8,000-Year-Old Discoveries at Turkey’s Enigmatic Çatalhöyük Site Reveal “More than Just Blood Relations” Driving Ancient Kinship
Investigating questions of kinship, archaeologists discovered that treating non-blood relatives as family goes back to the ancient past.
A Geometric Riddle Has Perplexed Mathematicians for More Than a Century—These Researchers Just Solved It
One of differential geometry’s most challenging problems has finally been solved after 150 years, with a closed surface Bonnet pair.
800 Years Ago, Ancient Japanese Astronomers Recorded a Massive Solar Storm—and Modern Space Weather Technology Just Confirmed It
Ancient Japanese writings are guiding cutting-edge technology as researchers investigate medieval solar storms.
Earth’s ‘Missing’ Lead Has Puzzled Scientists for Decades—New Research Could Finally Solve This Ancient Chemical Mystery
A massive amount of lead missing from the Earth’s crust may be hidden by the planet’s mantle's immense crushing power.
A Never-Before-Seen Radio Telescope Detection of Twin Particle Jets Reveals a Titanic Collision in the Making
Two large particle jets in the core of a distant galaxy likely represent two black holes in their final phase before merging.
Elusive Dark Matter Might Consist of More Than One Kind of Particle, Controversial New Theory Argues
The search for dark matter may be more complex than assumed, as contradictory clues may point to two forms of the theoretical substance.
New “Smart” Cancer Treatment Mitigates Harmful Side Effects, Marking “An Important Step Forward in the Evolution of Medicine”
A new synthetic DNA-powered “smart” cancer treatment allows drugs to carefully target harmful cancer cells without damaging healthy tissue.
“One of the Most Titanic Blasts in the Cosmos”: Gravitational Waves Support a “Forbidden Range” of Stellar Obliteration
Gravitational waves reveal an explosive “forbidden range” of stellar destruction so powerful that not even a black hole can emerge.
Review: In an Age of Disinformation, “Saucers, Spooks and Kooks” is the Real Disclosure Film
If you’re tired of never-ending promises of UFO disclosure, have I got a movie for you.
James Webb Space Telescope Spots Huge Black Holes Where They Shouldn’t Be, Adding to the Mystery of “Little Red Dots”
James Webb Space Telescope observations have revealed unexpectedly overmassive supermassive black holes at the hearts of a pair of galaxies.
Lord of the Half-Rings: The White Dwarfs ‘Gandalf’ and ‘Moon-Sized’ Represent a New Class of Stellar Objects
Gandalf and Moon-Sized are a new class of stellar remnants characterized by five strange parameters, making them unique from other objects.
Clocking Quantum Instability: A New Process Could Open Pathways to Reliable Quantum Computing
In the quest to move quantum computing into practical use, researchers have developed a new understanding of qubit lifespans.
NASA’s Artemis II Mission is Gearing Up for Today’s Launch: Here’s How You Can Watch
Four astronauts will become the first Americans to journey around the Moon since 1972 with today's historic Artemis II launch. Here's how you can tune in.
“First Plasma” Achieved in the Race for a Propulsion System that Could Cut the Travel Time to Mars in Half
“First plasma” has been achieved by the Sunbird exhaust test system, marking a major step toward a direct fusion drive spacecraft.
2,600-Year-Old Shipwreck Reveals an Unexpected Discovery, Challenging Past Ideas on the Tools of Ancient Warfare
Raw chunks of iron and other artifacts recovered from an ancient shipwreck are challenging archaeologists’ understanding of trade and war in the Middle East 2,600 years ago.
Scientists Observe Mysterious Light Wave Vortices Moving Faster Than Light
Dark spots within lightwaves break the speed of light in new research confirming a half-century-old prediction.
Prehistoric Skeletal Discovery is Challenging Past Assumptions on an Ancient “Syphilis-Like” Disease
Scientists are reconsidering an ancient disease and challenging some of the basic assumptions archaeologists use to study past infections.
A Mysterious Gravitational Wave Signal Could Represent the First Known Detection of a Primordial Black Hole, Study Suggests
New research says that theoretical primordial black holes formed in the first moments after the Big Bang may be responsible for dark matter.