Colorado River May Have Pooled and Spilled over to Form the Grand Canyon, Solving a Long-Standing Mystery — but Not...
A new study published in Science argues that the Colorado River once pooled in a massive lake in the Bidahochi Basin before spilling over and carving the Grand Canyon about 5.6 million years ago. Researchers used zircon mineral dating and sediment analysis to link lake deposits to the ancient river. The findings fill a five‑million‑year gap in the river’s early migration path. However, some geologists dispute the lake‑spillover interpretation, citing alternative evidence of earlier river flow through the Kaibab Arch.
'We All Screamed when It Happened': Bright-Green Fireball Meteor Caught Exploding over Famous Viking Raid Site in UK
On April 13 a bright emerald‑green fireball exploded over the North Sea, illuminating Lindisfarne (Holy Island), the famed Viking‑raid site off England’s northeast coast. The meteoroid, roughly 12 g and moving at about 20,000 mph, fragmented in the atmosphere, creating a seven‑second display...
Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Information Paradox Could Be Solved — if the Universe Has 7 Dimensions
A new theoretical study published March 19 2026 proposes that black holes never fully evaporate but leave behind ultra‑tiny, stable remnants. The mechanism relies on three hidden spatial dimensions, giving spacetime seven dimensions, whose torsion creates a repulsive force that halts Hawking...
'Human Evolution Didn't Slow Down; We Were Just Missing the Signal': Large DNA Study Reveals Natural Selection Led to More...
Researchers analyzed 16,000 ancient and modern West Eurasian genomes, uncovering nearly 500 gene variants shaped by natural selection over the past 10,000‑15,000 years. The study found increased frequencies of light skin, red hair, and resistance to HIV and leprosy, while...
Artemis II Quiz: Is Your Knowledge of NASA's Historic Moon Mission Out of This World?
NASA’s Artemis II mission marked humanity’s first crewed lunar flyby in over five decades, completing a ten‑day Orion flight that looped around the Moon and returned safely to Earth. The crew of four, including Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, tested critical life‑support, navigation...
New Study Confirms Lobsters Feel Pain, Driving Scientists to Call for a Ban on Boiling Them Alive
A new study published in Scientific Reports shows that Norway lobsters experience pain, as analgesics like aspirin and lidocaine reduced their escape tail‑flip response to electric shocks. Researchers interpret the tail flip as a pain reflex, not merely a stress...
Ancient Process that Created Rare Earth Elements Discovered — and It Could Help Us Locate Desperately Needed Deposits
Scientists have identified that most rare‑earth element (REE) deposits and their host alkaline or carbonatite magmas are situated above ancient subduction zones. By modeling plate‑tectonic history over the past two billion years, the study found 67% of alkaline magma blobs...
73 Moon Landings? NASA's 'Moon Base User's Guide' Reveals the Agency's 'Most Ambitious Space Project' Will Be Fraught with Challenges
NASA released a nine‑page "Moon Base User’s Guide" outlining a plan for 73 lunar landings and a $20 billion permanent base by the early 2030s. The roadmap splits the effort into three phases, beginning with 21 robotic landings by 2029 and...
Triassic Croc Relative From Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Finally Identified After Nearly 80 Years in Museum Basement
A fossil unearthed in 1948 at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, has been re‑examined and named Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa, a short‑snouted crocodylomorph distinct from the previously assumed Hesperosuchus agilis. The specimen, hidden in Yale's Peabody Museum basement for 75 years, features a...
Mini Lake Meets Snowy Rim of Canada's Oldest Ice Mass — Earth From Space
A 2010 NASA EO‑1 satellite image captures Gee Lake, a 3.2 km wide water body, bisecting the snowy rim of the Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island. The glacier, up to 500 m thick, preserves ice dating back 20,000 years, making it Canada’s oldest...
Antiseptic-Tolerant Germs Spread Through the Air in Hospitals, Early Study Hints
A new study in Environmental Science & Technology found that chlorhexidine, a widely used hospital antiseptic, can persist on ICU surfaces for at least 24 hours, creating micro‑environments where bacteria develop tolerance. Researchers swabbed 219 samples in an Illinois ICU...
Homo Erectus' Tools Include Stunning Geodes and Fossils, Possibly as a Way to Connect with the Cosmos, Study Finds
Archaeologists in Israel uncovered ten hand axes dating 500,000–200,000 years ago that were deliberately shaped around fossils, geodes, and natural hollows. The tools, attributed to Homo erectus, represent the largest known cluster of such geode‑bearing artifacts, suggesting intentional selection of...
Sperm Quality Is at Its Peak in the Summer, Study Finds
A study of 15,581 sperm donors in Denmark and Florida found that progressively motile sperm peak in June‑July and dip in December‑January, independent of temperature. The researchers measured semen volume, concentration and motility using computer‑assisted analysis, confirming a seasonal pattern...
Scientists Are Trying to Build a Vaccine that Works Against Almost Any Respiratory Pathogen — Here's How Close They Are.
Scientists at Stanford have engineered an experimental nasal spray that activates the lungs' innate immune system rather than targeting specific antigens. In mouse studies the spray slashed viral loads by roughly 700‑fold and bacterial counts by 200‑fold, while also dampening...
Human Ancestors Butchered and Ate Elephants 1.8 Million Years Ago, Helping to Fuel Their Large Brains
Archaeologists at Olduvai Gorge's EAK site uncovered a 1.8‑million‑year‑old Elephas recki skeleton alongside Oldowan stone tools, providing the earliest direct evidence that hominins butchered elephants. Spatial taphonomy and green‑break bone patterns indicate coordinated human processing rather than scavenger activity. The...
Does the Moon Look the Same From Everywhere on Earth?
The moon’s appearance changes with latitude, so observers in the Southern Hemisphere see a full moon rotated 180 degrees compared with the Northern Hemisphere. Between temperate locations, the moon’s orientation can differ by up to 97 degrees, as illustrated by...
Do the Microbes in Your Gut Influence What Foods You Like?
Scientists have long suspected gut microbes shape eating habits, and recent animal studies provide concrete evidence. In 2022, researchers transplanted microbiomes from wild carnivores, herbivores and omnivores into germ‑free mice, finding that the mice’s food preferences shifted to match their...
Aoshima: Japan's Tiny 'Cat Island' Where Felines Hugely Outnumber Humans
Aoshima, a 0.2‑square‑mile island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, is home to roughly 80 feral cats and just three elderly residents, creating a 27‑to‑1 cat‑to‑human ratio. A 2018 spay‑and‑neuter campaign slashed the cat population by more than half, and no...
Western States Face Above-Normal Wildfire Threats This Summer. New Maps Reveal Which Areas Are Most at Risk.
The National Interagency Coordination Center’s latest wildfire outlook shows an above‑normal fire threat across almost the entire Western United States. Early snowmelt—four to six weeks ahead of historic dates—and a record‑breaking March heat wave have pushed red‑zone risk maps northward...
Science History: Doctor Hypothesizes that 'Transmissible Proteins' Can Cause Disease, Contradicting a 'Central Dogma' Of Molecular Biology — April 9,...
On April 9, 1982, UC‑San Francisco neurologist Stanley Prusiner published a landmark *Science* paper showing that an infectious protein, later named a prion, caused scrapie in sheep. By demonstrating that the agent lacked nucleic acids and could transmit disease through...
'No One Knows What They Are': Researchers Discover New Type of Cell That's Seen only During Pregnancy
Scientists at UCSF have produced a comprehensive single‑cell atlas of the human placenta and uterus, analyzing roughly 1.2 million cells from weeks 5 to 39 of gestation. The study uncovered a previously unknown cell subtype, decidual stromal cell 4 (DSC4), which appears only during...
Keratin May Act as a 'Brake' For Skin Inflammation, Pointing to Potential Treatments
Researchers at the University of Michigan discovered that keratin 16, a structural protein in skin, acts as a molecular brake on inflammation. Mutations or loss of the KRT16 gene caused a surge in type I interferon signaling, leading to severe skin inflammation...
Diagnostic Dilemma: Woman's 'Biologically Implausible' Infection Led Her to Sneeze 'Worms' Out of Her Nose
Doctors in Greece documented a 58‑year‑old outdoor worker who expelled live larvae and a pupa of the sheep bot fly (Oestrus ovis) from her nasal passages. The parasites were surgically removed from her maxillary sinuses, marking a rare instance of...
'In Every Continent Where Humans Are Present, Water Bankruptcy Is Manifesting Itself': Exiled Iranian Scientist Kaveh Madani on Our Desperate...
Iranian scientist Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, received the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize for his pioneering work on sustainable water management. In his recent UN‑backed report, he introduced the term “water bankruptcy,”...
DNA Reveals Ancestry of Man Buried in Stone Age Monument in Spain, but His Religion Remains a Mystery
DNA analysis of two medieval men buried in Spain’s Dolmen de Menga reveals a complex ancestry that blends European, North African and Middle Eastern lineages, with a Y‑chromosome traceable to the Iberian Copper Age. The 10th‑11th‑century individual was over 45...
Physicists Moved Volatile Antimatter by Truck for the First Time Ever — Paving the Way for Groundbreaking New Research
Physicists at CERN successfully transported 92 antiprotons in a portable trap aboard a truck for an 8‑kilometre loop around the Geneva campus, marking the first time antimatter has been moved without annihilation. The experiment proved that the delicate vacuum and...
Deadly, Vivid-Green Mass Sprawls Across South African Reservoir — Earth From Space
A vivid green bloom of toxic algae and invasive aquatic plants now blankets South Africa's Hartbeespoort Dam, a reservoir that has been in a state of hypereutrophication for roughly five decades. Satellite images from Landsat 8 captured the extensive surface mat...
Diabetes Rates Are Lower in High-Altitude Environments — and Scientists May Have Discovered Why
A new mouse study shows that low‑oxygen (hypoxic) conditions cause red blood cells to absorb far more glucose and convert it into a molecule that eases oxygen release, effectively acting as a glucose sink. Mice exposed to 8% oxygen displayed...
Are Allergies Genetic?
Allergies arise from a blend of genetic predisposition and early‑life environmental exposures. Twin studies show identical twins share about 95% similarity in allergy patterns, far exceeding the 37% similarity seen in fraternal twins, underscoring a hereditary component. Mutations in the...
Homo Habilis Is the Earliest Named Human. But Is It Even Human?
Anthropologists have uncovered a more complete Homo habilis skeleton from Kenya, dated to about 2 million years ago, revealing long, ape‑like arms similar to Australopithecus. The find reignites debate over whether H. habilis truly belongs in the Homo genus, given its mix...
Scientists Mapped All the Nerves of the Clitoris for the First Time
Scientists have produced the first three‑dimensional, micron‑scale map of the clitoral nerves using synchrotron X‑ray imaging. The study traced the dorsal nerve of the clitoris from its pelvic origin through a network of branches that extend into the glans, contradicting...
Ancient Children's Teeth Reveal a Syphilis-Like Disease Was Spreading in Vietnam 4,000 Years Ago
Archaeologists uncovered three Neolithic Vietnamese children with dental and skeletal lesions consistent with congenital treponematosis, a disease related to syphilis. The findings, published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, date to 4,100‑3,300 years ago and span two sites, Man Bac and An Son....
Chemists Make Hydrogen From Breadcrumbs in Groundbreaking Reaction that Could Replace some Fossil Fuels
Chemists at the University of Edinburgh have demonstrated a hybrid bio‑catalytic process that turns bread crumbs into hydrogen for hydrogenation reactions. By pairing E. coli that ferment waste‑derived glucose with a palladium catalyst, the team achieved a 94% yield of the...
Earth's Energy Imbalance Is Much More Extreme than Climate Models Show — but Scientists Aren't Sure Why
A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters finds that Earth’s energy imbalance has more than doubled over the past two decades, reaching about 1.8 watts per square meter in 2023—roughly twice what leading climate models predict. Satellite data reveal a...
Chinese Satellite with Robotic 'Octopus Arm' Passes Key Refueling Test in Orbit — Making Longer-Lived Space Assets More Likely
China’s experimental Hukeda‑2 satellite demonstrated a major in‑orbit refueling capability by using its octopus‑like robotic arm to dock with a target port on the same spacecraft. The test, conducted on 24 March, marks the first self‑docking refuel maneuver since the Shijian‑25...
'Not How You Build a Digital Mind': How Reasoning Failures Are Preventing AI Models From Achieving Human-Level Intelligence
A new arXiv study warns that transformer‑based large language models suffer systematic reasoning failures, losing track of critical information during multi‑step tasks. The paper shows that self‑attention and next‑token prediction, while powerful for language generation, do not guarantee logical consistency....
Scientists Cured Type 1 Diabetes in Mice by Creating a Blended Immune System
Scientists have cured type 1 diabetes in mice by creating a blended, or chimeric, immune system that tolerates transplanted insulin‑producing cells without lifelong immunosuppression. The protocol combines donor bone‑marrow stem cells, islet cells, low‑dose radiation, antibodies and the drug baricitinib, allowing...
Native Americans Invented Dice and Games of Chance More than 12,000 Years Ago, Archaeological Study Reveals
Archaeologists have identified Indigenous dice dating to roughly 12,900 years ago, making them the world’s oldest known gambling artifacts and predating Old World examples by about 6,000 years. Researchers catalogued 565 diagnostic and 94 probable dice across 58 sites in the Great...
Artemis II Blasts Off: Humans Are on Their Way Back to the Moon
NASA’s Artemis II launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, sending a four‑person crew on a ten‑day lunar flyby—the first human mission beyond low‑Earth orbit in more than five decades. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialists Christina Koch and...
Extreme Wildfires, Droughts and Storms Could Happen Even Under Moderate Global Warming, Study Finds
A new Nature study finds that climate extremes traditionally linked to high warming could already materialize at the 2 °C (3.6 °F) target. By analyzing each of 50 climate models individually, researchers identified a wide range of outcomes, including a 1‑in‑4 chance...
Scientists Have Discovered an 'Achilles' Heel' In Deadly Superbugs
Scientists have identified pseudaminic acid, a sugar found only on the surface of certain Gram‑negative bacteria, as a vulnerable target. By synthesizing this sugar and creating monoclonal antibodies that bind it, researchers demonstrated in mice that the antibodies flag the...
Endometriosis Messes with the Immune System and Causes 'Ripple Effects Across the Body'
Endometriosis affects roughly 10% of women worldwide and is increasingly recognized as a systemic inflammatory disorder rather than solely a gynecological issue. Research shows chronic immune activation, marked by elevated cytokines such as IL‑6 and IL‑1β, drives lesion persistence and...
What Would Happen to Earth if the Sun Suddenly Vanished?
If the Sun were to vanish, Earth would lose sunlight and the Sun’s gravitational pull after an eight‑minute delay, causing a sudden blackout and sending the planet onto a tangential trajectory through space. Surface temperatures would drop about 36 °F (20 °C)...
Why Does Cannabis Give People 'the Munchies'?
Cannabis triggers intense appetite spikes, known as the munchies, by allowing THC to bind CB1 receptors in the brain’s hunger and reward centers. This binding hijacks the endocannabinoid system, creating prolonged hunger signals that override normal satiety cues. A 2025...
Lençóis Maranhenses: Brazil's Dune-Filled Expanse that Sits at the Intersection of 3 Biomes
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in Maranhão, Brazil, features vast white‑sand dunes interspersed with thousands of temporary freshwater lagoons that appear each wet season. Covering 1,500 km², the park lies at the ecological crossroads of the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado savanna, and...
Synesthesia Isn't Just in Your Mind. The Body Reacts as if the Colors Were Real.
A study published in eLife shows that people with grapheme‑color synesthesia exhibit measurable pupil responses when viewing gray numbers, as if they were seeing actual colors. Researchers tracked 16 synesthetes and two control groups, finding pupils constricted for brighter synesthetic...
Live Science Today: Jaw-Dropping First Glimpse of Sperm Whale Birth and How NASA Is Turning Astronauts Into Test Subjects
Researchers captured the first ever cooperative sperm whale birth, filmed by drones as ten females formed a protective circle to help the newborn calf reach the surface. The footage, recorded in July 2023, reveals unprecedented matriarchal teamwork among non‑primates. Meanwhile,...
18 Million-Year-Old Fossils of Ape Found in Africa, but in an Unexpected Place
Scientists have uncovered 18‑million‑year‑old ape fossils in northern Egypt, naming a new genus and species Masripithecus moghraensis. The fragmentary jaw and teeth place the specimen on the lineage leading to all modern apes, just before the split between great apes...
Live Science Today: Meta and Google Fined for Causing Social Media Addiction and How Dogs Were Our Friends for Millennia
A California court held Meta and Google liable for deliberately engineering addictive social‑media features, awarding the plaintiff $3 million in compensatory damages. The ruling follows a recent New Mexico decision that forced Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect children, signaling...
Roman Mosaic Shows Topless Woman Battling Leopard in Arena, Study Finds
A third‑century mosaic from Reims, France, shows a topless female beast hunter wielding a whip while confronting a leopard, providing the first visual confirmation that Roman women fought beasts in arenas. The original artwork was largely destroyed in World War I;...