‘Little Red Dots’ Remain a Cosmic Mystery—and New Research Reveals They May Be Keeping a Very Big Secret
Little red dots have perplexed researchers since their discovery—and now we may be closer than ever to unraveling their mystery.
Science
Yellowstone Has a 150-Year-Old Sonic Mystery—and Scientists Still Aren’t Sure What Causes It
Visitors to Yellowstone National Park have long reported unusual sounds that seem to center on the famous park’s largest lakes.
Scientists Create Material That Can Shapeshift and Expand 80,000% Using Only Light
Scientists created a hydrogel that expands 80,000% in 40 seconds and can be reshaped, erased and reprogrammed using only light.
Unraveling Why Glow-in-the-Dark Pigments Favored by Modern Artists and Designers Don’t Last
New experiments help explain why glow-in-the-dark pigments favored by artists and fashion designers lose their vibrance too quickly.
Scientists Just Found a New Way to Investigate How Extinct Giants Ended Up in Australia’s Underwater Caves
A recent analysis of bones found in two separate underwater cave systems in South Australia has provided researchers with a new framework for investigating how animal remains, including those of extinct megafauna, came to rest in these submerged environments.
Scientists Used Lasers and Citizen Scientists to Find a “Lost World” of Giant Trees
After ten years of fieldwork in Taiwan's remote mountain regions, researchers have identified an 84.1-meter (276-foot) Taiwania fir, now recognized as the tallest tree documented in East Asia.
Bumblebees Are Turning Up Dead on Sidewalks This Summer, and Heat Isn’t the Only Culprit
This summer, people across the UK may be noticing dead bumblebees on pavements. This pattern results from a combination of naturally short life cycles, elevated temperatures, and long-term changes in land use.
Experiments Show Color-Enriched White Light Can Affect Whether a Room Feels Hot or Cold
New experiments show that enriched white light containing invisible blue or red wavelengths can affect indoor temperature perception.
The Death of a Supercontinent May Have Formed the Grand Canyon Close to a Billion Years Earlier than Once Thought, New Study Reveals
The Grand Canyon, one of America’s most famous landmarks, may have been exposed when an ancient supercontinent cracked apart.
Major Study Finds Hidden Order in the Psychedelic Brain That Challenges What We Thought About Psilocybin
Psilocybin may not simply cause brain chaos. Scientists discovered hidden order that changes with a person's experience and context.
Scientists Just Analyzed More Than 100 UAP Videos Released by the Pentagon’s ‘PURSUE’ Program—This is What They Learned
An analysis of 112 Pentagon UAP videos reveals a new problem for scientists working to discern whether they display anomalous capabilities.
New Radar Scans Reveal Mysterious “Subsurface Anomalies” Beneath Controversial “Noah’s Ark” Site
New scans may offer clues to what lies beneath Turkey’s famous Durupınar site, which has long been associated with “Noah’s Ark" claims.
How a Mother’s Age Influences Her Offspring Remains a Genetic Mystery—These Tiny Aquatic Animals May Have Answers
Tiny aquatic animals are offering scientists a look at how information about maternal age is carried from one generation to its offspring.
3.5-Billion-Year-Old Organic Chert Reveals One of Earth’s “Earliest Known Occurrences of Biologically Generated Organic Matter”
Scientists studying ancient chert have found 3.5-billion-year-old signs of life on Earth, making it some of the oldest evidence ever found.
Scientists Spot Dolphins Using Shells as Tools to Catch Fish, Further Challenging a Longtime Marker of Culture
Scientists observing dolphins in Australia just made a remarkable discovery: these lively aquatic mammals use tools to help them capture fish.
A Neanderthal Gene May Be Making Some Modern Humans Bigger and More Muscular
Physically larger humans today may owe their large muscle mass to an inherited Neanderthal growth hormone receptor.
Solving This London Mystery Led to the Discovery of a New Species Almost 6,000 Miles Away
A misidentified frog species that was well known across Ecuador and Colombia remained unrecognized by science for decades—until now.
Inspired by Coral, These Scientists Are Regrowing Bone Under Some of the Most Challenging Conditions
Medical scientists in China have developed a new method for regrowing bone after Steroid-Induced Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head.
Secret Self-Healing Powers of the Brain Revealed in Landmark Study, Upending Past Thinking on Adult Brain’s Regenerative Abilities
Scientists reveal the adult brain possesses self-healing powers far greater than previously assumed, according to new research.
Hidden Charcoal Inside a Famous French Cave Just Rewrote the Timeline of Its Ice Age Paintings
A recent study has identified charcoal in the cave paintings at France’s Font-de-Gaume, overturning the long-held assumption that these paintings lacked the carbon needed for radiocarbon dating.
“Magic-Angle” Graphene Uses Faint Light to Transform an Insulator Into a Metal, Revealing a New Way to Make the Unseen Visible
“Magic-Angle” Graphene turns from an insulator into a metal under faint light, paving the way for ultra-sensitive radiation sensors.
Did Sugar Help Build the Human Brain? New Research Challenges the Meat-Driven Evolution Theory
New research suggests sugars and carbohydrate-rich foods may have helped fuel the dramatic growth of the human brain over 4 million years.
“One Origin of the Genetic Code, but Two Origins of Life”: Scientists Reveal the Ancient Evolutionary Split That Gave Rise to All Life on Earth
An international research team has uncovered how LUCA, the last ancestor of all life on Earth, split into the first two branches.
The “Einstein Tile” That Broke Math Is Now Twisting Light Into Pinwheels
The single tile that solved a 50-year geometry problem turns out to scatter light no ordinary crystal can match. It’s the first physics ever wrung out of the famous "einstein tile."
Scientists Discover Evidence of a Mysterious ‘Ghost’ Human Ancestor Hidden in Our DNA
Scientists uncover evidence of a mysterious ghost human lineage hidden in modern DNA, reshaping humanity's evolutionary story.
New Experiments Reveal Whether Ultracold Neutrons Magically Switch Between our Universe and a Mirror Universe
After months of experiments hunting for a mirror universe with 25 billion ultracold neutrons, scientists have finally revealed the results.
Britain’s Power Grid Has a Blind Spot for Extreme Solar Storms, New Research Reveals
In May 2024, the strongest geomagnetic storm in two decades exposed important gaps in how the UK monitors and prepares its power grid, satellites, and aviation for future extreme space weather.
The World War II Atomic Blast Over Hiroshima Created a Previously Unidentified Multicomponent Metallic Alloy
The extreme energy, temperature, and pressure conditions during the World War II atomic bombing of Hiroshima created an all-new metal alloy.
The Brain Has a Flexible Sense of Time That Can Split Across Regions, New Research Reveals
When the brain tracks time, it must decide whether its regions should rely on a shared timing signal or maintain separate representations.
Satellite Images Revealed Something Unusual About the Color of These Antarctic Islands—Here’s the Odd Reason Behind Their Appearance
Satellite imagery reveals why the Danger Islands have an odd pink-orange color, and what that means for this fragile ecosystem.
5,000-Year-Old Blue Pigment Reveals Evidence of Ancient Egyptian Nanotechnology—Now It’s Finding New Life in Biomedical Imaging
5000-year-old nanotechnology from the ancient world known as "Egyptian blue" is offering innovative modern uses in biomedical imaging.
Backyard Mosquito Sprays May Be Helping These Blood-Sucking Parasites Evolve, Making Them Resistant to Insecticide
Recent research suggests localized mosquito-control practices may create conditions that favor the evolution of insecticide resistance.
The 5,700-Year-Old Psychedelic Drug Mescaline Finally Got a Modern Brain Scan, And The Results Were Unexpected
The first proper brain scan of mescaline found the drug ignoring the regions where psychedelic research has spent a decade, and settling on the one structure no one really expected.
New Gravity Theory Suggests How Cosmic Order Emerges Despite Rising Entropy
A recent study offers a mathematical explanation for how cosmic structures form while still obeying the second law of thermodynamics.
New Research Reveals How Traveling Brain Waves Allow Us to Predict, Reconstruct, and Perceive the World
New research suggests traveling brain waves in the visual cortex help humans predict, reconstruct, and perceive the physical world.
‘Mechanical’ Properties of This Predatory Sea Worm’s Jaws Could Inspire a New Class of ‘Bio-Metal’ Material
A predatory sea worm known as Perinereis cultrifera possesses jaws that do not fit neatly into either biological or metallic categories.
Researchers Have Created a 3D Thermal Cloak That Renders Objects Invisible to Heat
A three-dimensional thermal cloak can conceal objects from heat, paving the way toward new military stealth technologies.
A New Solution to the Dinosaur-Killer Meteorite Mystery Creates Fresh Questions
A new analysis of debris from a 66-million-year-old meteorite that scientists call the dinosaur-killer has revealed another origin mystery.
Citizen Scientists Helped Reveal How Fatherhood Evolved in Spider Relatives
A new study reveals harvestmen, or daddy longlegs, account for more than half of all paternal care cases documented among arthropods.
NASA’s Psyche Mission Captures Crescents and Surface Details During Recent Martian Flyby
New imagery released by NASA has revealed a growing “crescent” and surface details on Mars obtained by the agency’s Psyche spacecraft.
Scientists May Have Finally Solved Earth’s Greatest Extinction Mystery
A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that differences in physiology, metabolism, and oxygen use helped determine which marine animals survived the Great Dying catastrophe.
“A Major Milestone in the Search for Life on Other Planets”: First Ever Detection of an Atmosphere Around an Earth-Like, Habitable Zone Rocky Exoplanet
In a major boost to the search for life, Harvard astronomers have detected an atmosphere around a habitable-zone, Earth-like rocky exoplanet.
Astronomers Uncovered a Hidden Bubble Inside the Orion Nebula
A key component of the Orion Nebula had evaded detection by astronomers until now, according to newly published research.
Deep Beneath the Atlantic, an Eerie “Lost City” is Feeding Legions of Lifeforms That Thrive Where Sunlight Never Reaches
Earth’s hidden plumbing system may be feeding one of its strangest ecosystems: the Lost City hydrothermal field in the Atlantic Ocean.
An ‘Asteroid’ Tracked Since 1998 Made an Unexplained Orbital Shift—Now Astronomers Say It’s Something Far More Mysterious
Astronomers say an asteroid recently failed to appear where it was predicted to be, revealing a "dark" twist after decades of observations.
Scientists May Have Finally Solved One of Human Evolution’s Biggest Mysteries: When Our Ancestors Grew Larger
Scientists may have solved when human body size took its biggest leap, revealing a more complex path through evolution.
Scientists Find Intense Breathwork Can Trigger Psychedelic-Like States and Lasting Psychological Changes
Breathwork may trigger psychedelic-like states, emotional breakthroughs, and psychological insights without drugs, new study finds.
Modern Neuroscience Is Starting to Look Surprisingly Similar to Freud’s Theory of the Mind
A new study finds surprising parallels between Freud’s theories of the mind and modern neuroscience, suggesting the brain may work as a prediction machine.
AI Identifies the Most Effective Ways to Measure Water’s Hidden Structure
Researchers at the University of Osaka developed a neural network to test 16 different 'structural descriptors,' which are mathematical tools for measuring how ordered or disordered water molecules are at the microscopic scale.
These Unusual Step-Like Structures on Hillsides Baffled Darwin 150 Years Ago—Now Scientists Finally Know Their Origins
An unusual phenomenon that has been recognized around the world for more than a century has finally been resolved: what are the origins of the distinctive, stair-like ridges that form on steep hillsides?