Stay informed about scientific discoveries, research developments and new findings from around the world.
With Donald Trump and Xi Jinping set to discuss AI safety, the growing popularity of Chinese open-weight models highlights the limits of developer-controlled safeguards
Hubble observations of massive stars in metal-poor dwarf galaxies are revealing clues to why the early universe looks so unusual. Researchers found that stellar winds weaken sharply at extremely low metallicities, potentially allowing massive stars to retain more material and evolve in unexpected ways. The team also found large differences in iron abundance, a key ingredient in stellar winds and supernovae.
In July 2025, a large, bright cosmic object visited from beyond our solar system. Only the third interstellar object ever discovered, the comet — named 3I/ATLAS — swooped through the inner solar system for about four months, briefly making it one of the biggest science celebrities in the world.The interstellar object's fame stemmed in large part from controversial (and unsubstantiated) claims that it could be a source of intelligent alien technology, even though 3I/ATLAS behaved like a natural comet. However, according to the astronomers who are studying its mysteries in the data collected by dozens of telescopes and spacecraft, the ancient object may still have lessons to teach us about lif...
Researchers in Japan have switched on "Shunkai," a neutral atom quantum computer that scientists hope to scale into a 10,000-qubit behemoth by March 2031.Shunkai is the first full-stack system of its kind in Japan, meaning it features the software, control and hardware layers needed to read user inputs and return a result — not unlike a conventional PC. In theory, that means it should be easier for researchers to get some meaningful use out of the machine, with the team behind Shunkai planning to open it up to external users over the coming years.In a statement, project lead Kenji Ohmori, a professor of photo-molecular science at the Institute for Molecular Science, said researchers' use of ...
Every step we take begins with a burst of calcium inside our muscle cells, causing them to contract. To prepare for action, the cells keep calcium locked in an internal compartment, the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Studding its membrane are thousands of RyR1 channels—the largest known ion channels—that contain pores that release the calcium. For a muscle to contract properly, RyR1 channels must open synchronously via a mechanism known as "coupled gating." How they accomplish this has been unclear since it was described almost 30 years ago.
When the universe was still in its infancy—only 500 million years after the Big Bang, or about 3% of its current age—some of the universe's earliest stars and galaxies had already formed. Astronomers have long predicted that much of the gas surrounding these young galaxies must have remained relatively pristine, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, the primordial ingredients available in the newborn cosmos.
Treating polluted water flowing into San Francisco Bay to meet regulatory requirements is going to cost ratepayers money. Exactly how much depends, in large part, on whether the region's wastewater treatment plant operators are willing and able to coordinate infrastructure construction and operation to meet these requirements, according to a Stanford University study published in Nature Water.
U.S. artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Wednesday unveiled the first discovery from its molecular biology lab, a previously unknown enzyme system spotted by its Claude model and touted by the company as proof that AI can speed up basic research.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke to the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, about the hack while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New YorkSelcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images Australia’s national health website has been hacked by an OpenAI agent. It was able to access non-public files and is the first publicly revealed case of an AI agent breaching the defences of a government portal. Full details of the hack haven’t yet been revealed. But the essence of the incident, as outlined by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, is that on 18 June, an artificial intelligence agent belonging to OpenAI infiltrated the public-fac...
An ancient wall discovered in central Paris was hailed as a "major breakthrough" on Wednesday, as the archaeological find may have settled a long-standing debate about the location of the city's original settlement.
Successful woodland expansion in Scotland’s Cairngorms revealed in aerial maps Jacqueline Garget Thu, 09/24/2026 - 05:01 A University of Cambridge-led team has used aerial surveys across a huge swathe of the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland to create detailed 3D maps that show the beginnings of large-scale recovery of native woodland.The maps document a success-story for the Cairngorms Connect nature restoration partnership: young trees are spreading naturally into areas where woodlands have been missing for centuries, following a landscape-scale approach to deer management across the partnership’s 60,000 hectares. From a light aircraft flown 600m above the ground, a laser scanning techn...
A University of Cambridge–led team has used aerial surveys across a huge swath of the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland to create detailed 3D maps that show the beginnings of large-scale recovery of native woodland.
A few months ago, researchers from the MIT Senseable City Lab published a study about pollution in New York City featuring some new methods. For instance: With machine learning, they identified the types of vehicles appearing in 331 traffic cameras in the city, and estimated the emissions coming from each automobile. Given enough cameras, these visual artificial intelligence techniques could monitor emissions with an unprecedented combination of precision and scale. For that matter, visual AI today can address all kinds of questions for urban planners. Why exactly is traffic snarling? What are the most dangerous aspects of different intersections? Which parts of plazas or parks attract the m...
A large study tracking more than 95,000 people suggests that how you sleep may be linked to your risk of developing dozens of diseases. People who spent more time in REM sleep had lower risks of 83 conditions, including dementia, heart failure, and Parkinson’s disease, while more deep sleep was associated with lower risks of conditions such as type 2 diabetes and major depression.
For countless people, social media has become a go-to source of advice on how to look, eat and exercise.
Children taking GLP-1 medications (such as Victoza, Saxenda, Trulicity, and Ozempic) for weight loss, prediabetes, or type 2 diabetes may face an overlooked risk: nutritional deficiencies. A new study found that nearly 1 in 6 young patients developed a diagnosed deficiency within a year of starting treatment, with vitamin D deficiency affecting about 12%.
The impact of sustainability messages may depend not only on their content but also on the order in which they are presented. The emotional response created by one message may influence how people interpret the next message about green initiatives.
In most of the nation's 435 congressional districts, the general election is not much of a contest. With the vast majority of U.S. House seats considered safe for one party or the other, the primary usually determines who goes to Congress—and it is the election Americans know the least about. A new book co-authored by a researcher at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania finds that voters are rarely the most important influence on the outcome.
A broken rib from Scotty, the largest known T. rex skeleton, contains an extraordinary fossilized network of blood vessels formed while the dinosaur was healing. Scientists used neutron and X-ray imaging to look inside the 66-million-year-old bone without damaging it, revealing details rarely preserved in fossils.
About 8 million children across East and Southern Africa could face acute hunger by early 2027, a rise of 30%, as one of the strongest El Niño weather events in recent years fuels a growing food crisis, according to a new analysis by Save the Children.
Soils harbor some of the most diverse life on Earth. Soil nematodes play crucial roles in maintaining ecosystem functions. Yet how their diversity changes across large landscapes, and what drives those changes, remains poorly understood.
Businesses hoping AI will solve their supply chain problems risk wasting their investment unless they first fix weaknesses in their data, skills and management, according to new research published in the Benchmarking: An International Journal.
In his recent address to the European Parliament, Prime Minister Mark Carney proposed that Canada join Erasmus+, a European Union program that supports education, training, youth and sports.
The Cascadia subduction zone and northern San Andreas fault may sometimes rupture in rapid succession, according to evidence preserved in 3,100 years of ocean sediments. Researchers identified unusual sediment layers suggesting that earthquakes on the two systems have occurred just minutes to hours apart, including around the massive Cascadia earthquake of 1700. If such synchronization happened again, several major West Coast cities could face emergencies at nearly the same time.