Stay informed about scientific discoveries, research developments and new findings from around the world.
OpenAI’s claimed proof of the Navier-Stokes problem is a mathematical tour de force, but any real-world applications may be years away—if they ever arrive at all
Research from Queen Mary University of London explores how combining learner autonomy with student-led inquiry can create a more engaging and collaborative experience for international students learning academic English.
Magnetic reconnection is a process that occurs when the magnetic fields of a conductive plasma quickly rearrange and release massive amounts of stored magnetic energy. It is widely thought to be the underlying mechanism behind cosmic events such as solar flares and substorms in Earth's magnetosphere.
Each summer, researchers from Hokkaido University returned to the Qaanaaq Ice Cap in northwestern Greenland to measure changes in the ice surface using aluminum poles drilled into the ice. Their 13-year record shows how the ice cap changed from 2012 to 2025.
CRISPR may be a powerful technology for gene editing, but the system existed in bacteria long before scientists began using it. For billions of years, CRISPR has acted as a natural immune system in bacteria and other microbes, helping defend them against invading viruses. But now, two new studies, published in Science, describe a similar RNA-guided system that originated in the viruses themselves and appears to be a precursor to CRISPR.
Tariffs are usually debated as trade policy. But a study from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business treats them as something else: a mechanism for redistributing wealth.
Korean researchers have developed a method to strengthen biodegradable plastics using hemp hurd, an agricultural byproduct. The approach is expected to be applicable to other large-volume agricultural residues, including soybean stalks and rice straw.
Have you ever stopped and listened to the background sounds in a room you are in? The hum of the ventilation? The buzz of electricity? While most of the time we are barely aware of these sounds, Arthur Jinyue Guo, a researcher at the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Rhythm, Time and Motion, has revealed that they nevertheless affect our behavior.
For 27 years, the Southwest has been gripped by a historic drought. Scientists think it might be here to stay.
Warming temperatures are fueling more extreme weather-related events — catastrophic floods, severe hurricanes and cyclones, and wildfires exacerbated by drought. But the tools used by local communities, emergency and public safety agencies, and insurance and risk markets have not kept pace with the up-to-date data and modeling for accurately predicting how these events will evolve.Addressing that shortcoming was one of five research areas selected for MIT’s 2022 Climate Grand Challenges, an ambitious effort to accelerate science-based solutions to climate problems. The area, titled “Preparing for a New World of Weather and Climate Extremes,” focuses on tools to help evaluate a location’s vul...
Arts & Culture Why John Coltrane still matters John Coltrane.Photo illustration by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff Christina Pazzanese Harvard Staff Writer September 18, 2026 long read Jazz experts, scholars detail how iconic saxophonist, who would have turned 100 this year, reshaped most American musical genre Nearly 60 years after his last recording, trailblazing jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s legacy remains as vital as ever. Coltrane, who died of liver cancer at 40 in 1967, is widely credited with reshaping jazz in the late 1950s and early ’60s. The Pulitzer Prize board awarded him a posthumous special career citation in 2007. Fans will celebrate his 100th birthday on Sept. 23. Coltrane play...
The humble coffee filter has the relatively simple job of letting the coffee through and leaving the grounds behind. But researchers from the ARC Center of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation (COE-CSI) are exploring whether a filter operating on the molecular scale can do something much more difficult: separate the caffeine from the coffee itself.
Though the spiral galaxy in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret. This galaxy is NGC 4698, and it lies about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It's one of more than a thousand galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, the nearest large cluster of galaxies bound together by gravity.
As it marks its 10-year anniversary, MIT Reads is being reimagined for the age of artificial intelligence. Recognizing the need to foster social connection and a sense of our shared humanity, the popular MIT Libraries’ program will turn its focus to fiction and memoir, and to the particular power of stories to help us understand ourselves and our place in the world. “At MIT, we spend a great deal of time on imagining and building for the future. Reading fiction prompts us to think about how what we build might change us,” says MIT Libraries Director Chris Bourg. “Reading together also gives us the increasingly rare opportunity for both individual reflection and shared connection.” MIT Reads ...
Legislation that affects or discriminates against transgender and gender-diverse individuals can cause more psychological distress than personal experiences of discrimination, according to new Virginia Commonwealth University research published in the journal American Psychologist. The study also found that individuals with those identities experienced psychological distress from anti-transgender laws even if they lived in a state with legislation that is friendly toward transgender and gender-diverse individuals.
Molecular gases are a new form of artificial quantum matter. However, when these molecules collide, they are often lost extremely rapidly. Researchers from Radboud University and Columbia University have been able to suppress this collisional loss, paving the way for strongly interacting quantum matter. This new artificial quantum matter allows researchers to study quantum behavior relevant to electrons in real materials. Their results are published in Science.
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most pressing global health and development challenges of our time. Bacteria and other pathogens are rapidly developing resistance to existing treatments, making infections harder to treat. Without new approaches, minor inconveniences today, such as routine surgeries or even a paper cut, could become life-threatening tomorrow. Now, an international group of scientists reports the discovery of aminovaleramididine synthetase (AvaS), the first identified pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme responsible for producing a chemical modification linked to how bacteria respond to metabolic stress. This discovery sheds new light on how bacteria use RNA modif...
When a multimillion-dollar masterpiece vanishes from a museum, the public calls for tougher criminal penalties and better-funded police task forces. But research from Wake Forest University suggests that some of these intuitive solutions can backfire, resulting in more art crime, not less.
During routine beach litter surveys on the subtropical island of Okinawa, Japan, researchers came across small, brightly colored specks in the pale coral rubble. Back at the lab, spectroscopic and microscopic analyses revealed that these specks are, in fact, melted polymers from common household plastics that have seeped inseparably into the skeletal pores of the dead coral pieces.
The idea of weapons in space, once a plot of science fiction, became a reality Monday (Sept. 14), when U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealed at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference in Maryland that the United States had deployed "on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action."Experts are worried that with this new announcement, outer space may become the next frontier for an arms race. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, signed by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, dictated that no weapons should be placed in orbit. But the treaty had no enforcement mechanism, meaning the U.S.' announcement may not result in any international sanctions, ...
When the solar system first took up the task of building solid bodies—such as planets, moons and protoplanets—it basically had a choice between two ingredients: heat-forged chondrules, which were millimeter-sized bits of rock, and matrix, a fine-grained, cold dust loaded with water ice and organic molecules. And from the get-go, the solar system chose fire.
Humans are social animals, but we have a diversity of societies, each with its own customs, behaviors and expectations. It's obvious that those can affect how we respond to someone—favoring the comfort of familiar behaviors, for example—and people often try to account for that in themselves and others. But sometimes the effect is more subtle.
Julian De Freitas. Photo by Grace DuVal Science & Tech Chatbot attachment issues When AI companions get a personality update, some users respond with grief, study finds Sy Boles Harvard Staff Writer September 18, 2026 4 min read Mourning the loss of somebody you care about is common after a breakup, divorce, or death. But in an era of growing reliance on AI for companionship, loss comes in a new form: the model update. In a paper in Nature Human Behavior, Julian De Freitas, associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, found that some people who engaged with social robots reported feeling closer to those companions than to most people, and experienced their loss ...
Lynette Roth. Photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer Arts & Culture What ‘good luck’ means to a coal miner Anna Lamb Harvard Staff Writer September 18, 2026 6 min read Berlin artist explores labor, pride, and unsung heroes of Germany’s ‘economic miracle’ in Harvard exhibit Following the economic and political fallout from World War II, Germany underwent what scholars call the “wirtschaftswunder” or “economic miracle” during which industry boomed and rapid reconstruction led to increased prosperity. But who was responsible for creating the miracle, and what happened when they were no longer needed? That’s what Kurdistan-born artist and Berliner Pinar Öğrenci asks in her work ...