🔎

Science News

Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.

What is the closest any object has gotten to the sun?
Science News

What is the closest any object has gotten to the sun?

When you think of objects close to the sun, Mercury, the solar system's innermost planet, probably comes to mind. But has any other object — natural or artificial — gotten closer to our star? And what's the closest an object has gotten to the sun while still escaping?Many objects have reached much closer than Mercury, including asteroids, comets and spacecraft, experts told Live Science.At its closest point to the sun, called perihelion, Mercury comes within 29 million miles (47 million kilometers) of our star, according to NASA. But several known asteroids come even closer. Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at Carnegie Science, an independent research institute in Washington, D.C., said such as...

📅 2026-09-27 09:00:00    •    Live Science
These medieval graves looked like family burials. DNA told a different story
Science News

These medieval graves looked like family burials. DNA told a different story

Ancient DNA shows that adults and children buried together in medieval Sweden were often not members of the same immediate family, suggesting that burial choices reflected more than biological kinship. The research also revealed early gender-based burial customs and uncovered the remarkable story of a young woman who may have completed a pilgrimage across Europe.

📅 2026-09-27 02:49:07    •    ScienceDaily
Scientists say house cats could help unlock better cancer treatments for humans
Science News

Scientists say house cats could help unlock better cancer treatments for humans

Scientists have mapped the genetics of cat cancer on an unprecedented scale and found surprising similarities with tumors in humans. The findings could help bring precision cancer treatments to cats while also revealing new clues about how human cancers develop and respond to drugs.

📅 2026-09-27 02:01:42    •    ScienceDaily
Why AI has trouble predicting the fury of hurricane intensity
Science News

Why AI has trouble predicting the fury of hurricane intensity

Artificial intelligence has revolutionized weather forecasting in just a few years, with global AI weather models now able to produce forecasts that rival some of the world's best physics-based prediction systems.

📅 2026-09-27 00:30:01    •    Phys.org
Looking for #womenshealth information on Instagram? 4 out of 10 posts are ads
Science News

Looking for #womenshealth information on Instagram? 4 out of 10 posts are ads

A woman in her 40s scrolls through Instagram. Between photos of friends, recipes and vacation photos, she comes across a video about perimenopause. The woman on screen explains that perimenopause is to blame for feeling tired, having trouble remembering things, struggling to sleep or gaining weight.

📅 2026-09-26 21:00:07    •    Phys.org
Black hole jets reach far beyond galaxies' visible edges, potentially deciding their fate
Science News

Black hole jets reach far beyond galaxies' visible edges, potentially deciding their fate

Galaxies are enormous and hold hundreds of billions of stars. These stars form from cold, dense gas. Every large galaxy, including the Milky Way, is wrapped in a huge envelope of gas called the circumgalactic medium, or CGM. This reservoir of raw material stretches 10–20 times the size of the visible portion of the galaxy.

📅 2026-09-26 21:00:01    •    Phys.org
Why earwigs infected by parasitic worms head towards water
Science News

Why earwigs infected by parasitic worms head towards water

Earwigs, small, elongated insects with distinctive pincers at the rear of their abdomens, have little reason to enter open water. While many earwig species are attracted to damp environments, they typically avoid open water. Yet past studies have found that European earwigs infected with a parasitic roundworm called Mermis nigrescens tend to head toward open water. The molecular and biological reasons for this unusual behavior have not been fully uncovered.

📅 2026-09-26 20:00:02    •    Phys.org
Pumpkin-derived enzyme weakens peanut proteins' binding to allergy antibodies in lab tests
Science News

Pumpkin-derived enzyme weakens peanut proteins' binding to allergy antibodies in lab tests

Peanut allergy is one of the most serious food allergies and can lead to sudden, life-threatening reactions. Researchers from Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, in collaboration with Wroclaw Medical University, investigated whether a natural enzyme obtained from figleaf gourd (Cucurbita ficifolia) could reduce recognition of peanut proteins by antibodies involved in allergic reactions.

📅 2026-09-26 19:00:01    •    Phys.org
Engineers teach spacecraft to 'dream' their way to the space station
Science News

Engineers teach spacecraft to 'dream' their way to the space station

Docking with the ISS may seem simple. However, actually doing so shows how difficult orbital mechanics can be. It's like traveling down a highway at 28,000 km/hr (17,000 mph) and parallel parking in an open garage on a multibillion-dollar laboratory traveling at the same speed. If you try to accelerate forward, you actually drift up, and there's no air friction to naturally slow you down. Oh, and if you hit the lab, everyone aboard both your craft and the station dies, and the resulting debris field could wipe out dozens of satellites and even harm people on the ground. No pressure, obviously.

📅 2026-09-26 18:00:01    •    Phys.org
Sparse layers of 10-nanometer silver particles boost CO production from CO₂
Science News

Sparse layers of 10-nanometer silver particles boost CO production from CO₂

Electrolysis can reduce CO2 to CO, a raw material for chemical products such as fuels. Within the GreenQUEST project, an international team led by HZB chemist Prashanth Menezes has systematically investigated catalyst layers made of silver nanoparticles, varying both particle size and density.

📅 2026-09-26 17:00:01    •    Phys.org
A real-time look inside spacecraft heat shields during extreme heat conditions
Science News

A real-time look inside spacecraft heat shields during extreme heat conditions

When a spacecraft reenters Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic velocities, its protective heat shield faces extreme conditions, including temperatures beyond 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius). To survive, the shield relies on specialized materials that absorb heat as they degrade in a controlled process called ablation, sacrificing the shield's outer layers to protect the vehicle and crew within.

📅 2026-09-26 16:00:01    •    Phys.org
A major risk of breast cancer screening may have been overestimated for decades
Science News

A major risk of breast cancer screening may have been overestimated for decades

A new analysis suggests mammograms may lead to far less breast cancer overdiagnosis than some earlier studies indicated. Researchers reexamined all eight major randomized screening trials and accounted for differences in follow-up time, screening frequency, and screening after trials ended. Their results were consistent with an overdiagnosis rate below 5%, rather than estimates approaching 30% to 50%.

📅 2026-09-26 15:25:30    •    ScienceDaily
Crop protection: A new method for understanding insect sexual communication
Science News

Crop protection: A new method for understanding insect sexual communication

A team of INRAE scientists, in collaboration with Université Côte d'Azur and Nanjing Agricultural University in China, has used an innovative AI-based method to identify the sex pheromone of the lily moth1 and the olfactory receptors associated with it. The insect pest, whose caterpillars feed on these plants, is found in Asia and Oceania. This approach to identifying previously unknown molecules opens up new possibilities for identifying pheromones in other species. These molecules play a key role in certain biocontrol strategies currently used to protect crops, particularly in France. The results were obtained as part of the EXPLOR'AE program and published in BMC Biology.

📅 2026-09-26 15:00:01    •    Phys.org
That fresh cleaning smell could be filling your home with nanoparticles
Science News

That fresh cleaning smell could be filling your home with nanoparticles

Researchers found that scented cleaners can react with ozone indoors to create billions or trillions of invisible nanoparticles that can penetrate deep into the lungs. The pollution forms within minutes and, in some cases, may produce an inhaled particle dose comparable to or greater than standing near heavy traffic.

📅 2026-09-26 14:49:45    •    ScienceDaily
Scientists may have misread a 2-billion-year-old clue about Earth
Science News

Scientists may have misread a 2-billion-year-old clue about Earth

Scientists have found that a famous 2-billion-year-old chemical signature, once thought to record a massive global change in Earth’s carbon cycle, may instead have been produced by local magma, hydrocarbons, and methane-eating microbes. The discovery raises new questions about what was really happening as oxygen transformed the young planet.

📅 2026-09-26 14:38:02    •    ScienceDaily
Scientists burned their own scrolls to unlock a 2,000-year-old mystery
Science News

Scientists burned their own scrolls to unlock a 2,000-year-old mystery

Scientists discovered that tiny amounts of lead in ancient ink can make writing inside burned papyrus scrolls stand out dramatically in X-ray scans. The technique could help unlock lost Greek and Roman texts preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago.

📅 2026-09-26 14:04:56    •    ScienceDaily
Quantum computer simulates matter “popping into existence”
Science News

Quantum computer simulates matter “popping into existence”

Scientists recreated a particle-forming process linked to the extreme physics of the early universe using a 13-ion quantum simulator. The breakthrough suggests quantum computers could eventually help researchers investigate how matter formed and evolved after the Big Bang.

📅 2026-09-26 13:47:38    •    ScienceDaily