How sea-ice microbes survive the Southern Ocean’s harsh winter has implications for climate change

A study reveals that during winter, the sea ice around Antarctica harbors a reservoir of microbes, most of which have one thing in common—the ability to produce and break down a compound known to protect organisms in extreme environments.

Perfectly preserved pterosaur wing rewrites the fossil rulebook

The fossilized wing phalanx of a prehistoric pterosaur, found in northeastern Brazil, was remarkably preserved in three dimensions, even retaining chemical traces hinting at its diet.

World’s highest-consuming 10% cause up to $5.7 trillion a year in environmental damage, study finds

The environmental damage caused by the world’s highest-consuming 10% of people is worth $1.7 trillion to $5.7 trillion a year. At the central and upper estimates, this is several times more than the international community has committed to spend on climate action and biodiversity conservation combined.

Famous ‘Pink Planet’ harbors a salty surprise

For more than a decade, the ancient, rosy-hazed world kept astronomers guessing. One of the coldest known planetary-mass companions ever directly imaged, the elusive object is too faint for astronomers to dissect its light from Earth. But new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal an atmosphere filled with exotic chemistry.

Hidden electric space waves are quietly cleaning Earth’s ‘killer’ electrons

High above our heads, a silent battle is unfolding within Earth’s magnetic shield. For decades, scientists have tracked “killer electrons”—ultrafast particles capable of piercing satellite armor and endangering astronauts as they zip through the Van Allen radiation belts. While we knew these dangerous particles eventually leak out of the belts and into the atmosphere, the primary mechanism “cleaning” the highest-energy electrons has remained a persistent mystery of space weather.

Ripple-like rings of the ‘Bullseye galaxy’ could be explained by dark matter

In 1941, astronomers discovered a galaxy appearing to be surrounded by a luminous ring, for reasons they couldn’t explain. Named the Cartwheel galaxy, this pioneer has since been followed by numerous discoveries of ringed galaxies in the decades since, most often with one ring and some with two or three.

Fossilized babies of ancient crocodile-like predators uproot understanding of how animals adapted to the land

Life on our planet began in the water. Eventually, one branch of the fish family tree developed legs and came up on land. These early four-legged animals, the tetrapods, were the forebears of today’s mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

== update
After Senate vote, Trump admin backs off plans to kill ocean monitoring

It’s unclear whether the system is currently intact.

These researchers used math to crack Wordle

The research team applied Shannon entropy—a mathematical measure of uncertainty—to determine which guesses provide the most information. Rather than focusing solely on guessing the most likely answer from the get-go, the method prioritizes guessing words that provide as much information as possible to reduce the pool of possible words.

Goats listen to human voices to find hidden food treats

Goats appear to have a rare ability not shared by many in the animal kingdom, and that is being able to follow the direction of a human voice to locate hidden objects. While dogs have been shown to do this, even our closest primate cousins, like chimpanzees, have struggled with the task in previous experiments.

Ancient amber fossil captures mites marching in line

Many animals exhibit fascinating collective behaviors, which allow them to move, search for food, reproduce and avoid threats more effectively than they would alone. One of these behaviors is queuing migration, which essentially entails traveling as a group in an organized line or procession.

== yjc^2
Leave it to the beavers: How the industrious mammals are helping to stop a London tube station from flooding

Since being relocated to west London, the beaver colony appears to have stopped flooding in an urban area

== yjc
Ancient ‘Robin Hood’ tree is dead, experts say

The ancient oak is estimated to have lived in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire for up to 1,200 years, and is considered one of Britain’s biggest oak trees.

When glaciers vanish, so does the hidden life they support

We often hear about glacier melting and predictions of what climate change could do. But very little is mentioned about the effects on ecosystems or the animals that call them home.

‘Geriatric’ butterfly species lives nearly three times as long as their relatives

Found throughout the tropical rainforests of South and Central America, butterflies of the Heliconius tribe are among the longest-lived species ever recorded and could provide a new model for studying the biology of longevity.

Could Earth have sent life to Jupiter’s moon Europa?

The possibility of panspermia, bringing simple life to Earth from elsewhere in the universe, has been discussed for decades. Dust, meteoroids, asteroids and comets might all have contained life forms as they crashed into Earth.

An intranasal flu vaccine approved two decades ago may have underappreciated immune benefits

For decades, influenza vaccines have been judged largely by the antibodies they generate in the bloodstream, a measure that has remained the gold standard since the first flu immunizations were administered in the 1940s.

This high-fat eating plan may offer a powerful way to shield the aging brain

The gut and brain are in constant conversation through a powerful biochemical signaling pathway. This two-way connection allows them to exchange signals that influence everything from digestion to emotional health, and studies suggest even the fate of neurodegenerative diseases.

A solar storm was seen speeding up instead of slowing down, and scientists think they know why

A gigantic solar eruption in November 2021 defied expectations. Two spacecraft—Solar Orbiter at 0.85 AU and Wind at 0.98 AU—watched the same coronal mass ejection (CME) as it zoomed through the solar wind. Normally, a CME plowing into slower wind should slow down, like a boat hitting chop, but this one sped up. It was a genuine space weather mystery.

Rare 500-year-old freeze-dried potatoes unearthed at Inca coastal site

Archaeologists digging at an Inca site on the arid coast of southern Peru have unearthed two rare, roughly 500-year-old freeze-dried potatoes. The potatoes are among the only ones found in more than a century and would have been transported across the empire from the freezing peaks of the Andes.

World-first burn treatment helps Western student recover from injuries suffered in frat house fire

Doctors at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) say a Western University student injured in a London fraternity house fire has become the first burn patient in the world to receive an experimental treatment that could transform care for severe burn victims.

Collapsing stars could spawn mini-universes, offering new path to gravastars

While the formation of a black hole appears plausible, black holes themselves continue to pose major challenges for science. How can 10 billion solar masses concentrate at a single tiny point? How can spacetime be curved infinitely at that point, the singularity?

The Webb telescope has captured its first ‘bulge fossil fragment’

New research shows that Terzan 5 contains four separate generations of stars, confirming it as the prototype of a “bulge fossil fragment”

== yjc
The US government’s Anthropic models ban was never about an AI jailbreak

The U.S. government’s enforcement letter to Anthropic, which effectively forced the company to pull its latest AI models offline just before the weekend, should be a wake-up call for any U.S. tech company — AI lab or otherwise.

Venus’ Strange Rotation Was Likely Triggered By a High Velocity Moon-Sized Impactor

Venus’ bizarre and extraordinarily slow retrograde rotation on its axis has long puzzled planetary scientists.

A Chinese rocket breaks apart dangerously close to the Starlink constellation

The upper stage from a commercial Chinese rocket that launched last week has broken apart in space, spreading debris in a heavily trafficked part of low-Earth orbit home to the International Space Station and a significant portion of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network.

In good news for coral reefs, scientists identify where the toughest ones are

Coral reefs are economic engines, and some can resist climate shocks more than others, study says,

== yjc
Why is football called ‘soccer’ in the US and Canada?’

Football is life for millions of fans around the world, but in two of the co-host nations of the 2026 World Cup, they tend to call it by a different name. In the US and Canada, it’s known as soccer. But why? And does that word annoy other football-loving nations?

Why drinking alcohol makes you reach for chips and nachos

Have you ever wondered why savory foods like chips, nachos and salted nuts go so well with a beer or glass of wine? And why sometimes you feel an insatiable appetite for junk food while drinking?

Meltwater is causing Antarctic glaciers to flow faster toward the ocean

In a new study, researchers have directly confirmed for the first time that water from melting snow and ice, or meltwater, found at the surface of a glacier can drain to its base, causing glaciers in Antarctica to speed up and move toward the ocean.

Scientist creates ‘mini-universe’ to measure time without a clock

Some theories of physics, such as the Wheeler–DeWitt equation, suggest that, at its deepest level, the universe has no built-in time but exists as a single, unchanging quantum state in which particles exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties. It treats the universe as a whole with no external clock, and any sense of time must emerge from internal relationships between parts.

Nuclear clocks tick for the first time

Atomic clocks are the most accurate clocks available to date, measuring time by registering the frequencies emitted as electrons jump between atomic levels. Since these frequencies are extraordinarily stable, they are also highly predictable, allowing observers to track how much time has passed simply by counting the number of oscillations.

A higher-dose flu shot could spare millions of older adults a hospital stay

Influenza is a seasonal condition that causes coughing, sneezing, mild fever and aches in most cases. However, it can sometimes take a serious turn, leading to hospitalization, especially for young children, adults over 65 and pregnant people.

Slime molds make decisions using internal fluid flows

Despite lacking brains or nervous systems, slime molds are capable of making surprisingly sophisticated decisions: navigating mazes, finding food and even remembering where they found it last time. How they manage to do all this without any neural architecture has long puzzled researchers.

Could an ancient plant compound hold the key to metabolic harmony?

For centuries, the secrets of traditional medicine were locked away, and only recently have they come to light. Imagine an ordinary yellow plant extract, widely used in Chinese medicine, exerting effects not only on blood glucose and lipid metabolism but also at the body’s core: the gastrointestinal tract.

World’s first crewed solid-state flight electrifies aviation’s future

Electric aviation has always been held back by the same physics problem. Conventional lithium-ion batteries, the chemistry behind most electric cars, use a liquid electrolyte to move charge between electrodes. That liquid architecture stores too little energy per kilogram to make commercially useful flights realistic.