Science News and Headlines
Science News and Headlines
New research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution reconstructs the first comprehensive evolutionary tree of squids, showing they first appeared around 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous. The study suggests squids survived the K‑Pg mass‑extinction by retreating to deep‑sea refuges, where diversification proceeded slowly. After surface ecosystems recovered, a rapid burst of speciation occurred, creating the diverse array of modern squids. The phylogeny also pinpoints genetic innovations such as dynamic camouflage, bioluminescence, and heightened intelligence.
Researchers at Stanford and Stony Brook unveiled a platinum‑molybdenum cluster catalyst embedded in a zirconium‑based MOF that converts CO₂ to methanol at 180 °C, far below the 250 °C typical of industrial processes. The uniform single‑atom Pt sites deliver higher per‑pass yields...
C-SPAN is providing free, all‑day coverage of NASA’s Artemis II launch from April 1 through April 5, offering TV, web, YouTube, radio and mobile streams. The mission will send four astronauts—including the first woman, the first person of color, and the first non‑U.S....
Researchers have documented 14 newly identified rock paintings of the extinct thylacine and two of the Tasmanian devil in north‑west Arnhem Land, adding to a growing catalog of Indigenous depictions. The artworks span a remarkable time range, with the oldest...
Scientists have long identified autism risk genes mainly in European‑ancestry cohorts, leaving gaps for other populations. The GALA Consortium sequenced over 15,000 Latin American individuals, including 4,700 with autism, and found 35 genome‑wide significant risk genes. These genes show substantial...
A new multinational study shows that even a few scattered native trees on farmland dramatically increase bird diversity in forest fragments. Researchers compared forest islands surrounded by farms with those surrounded by reservoirs and found the former hosted up to...
University at Buffalo researchers discovered that impairment of the ceramide transfer protein (CERT) blocks ER‑to‑Golgi ceramide transport, causing ceramide buildup in the endoplasmic reticulum and triggering ER stress that drives replicative senescence. Pharmacological inhibition of CERT reproduced the senescent phenotype...
Varda Space Industries launched its sixth re‑entry capsule, W‑6, aboard SpaceX’s Transporter‑16 rideshare from Vandenberg on March 30. The mission carries U.S. defense‑funded experiments, notably Rhea Space Activity’s autonomous navigation system that uses onboard cameras and the AutoNav algorithm to determine...
At the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) meeting in Denver, Takeda, Alumis, Priovant and Incyte each unveiled late‑stage dermatology data, ranging from novel biologics to targeted small molecules. Sanofi and Biogen also presented, highlighting mixed results in eczema and lupus...
Virunga National Park reported the birth of a second set of mountain gorilla twins this year, a male‑female pair in the Baraka family now two weeks old. The twins follow a January twin birth in the Bageni family, marking the...
The Microbiota Vault Initiative (MVI), launched in 2023 at the University of Zurich, aims to preserve global microbial diversity by storing fecal, fermented‑food, soil, water and air samples. Its pilot phase collected 1,200 stool and 190 fermented‑food specimens from seven...
A longitudinal study of over 4,300 depressed Chinese seniors compared with 43,000 non‑depressed peers found depression dramatically increases dementia risk. Depressed participants were almost five times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and 1.9 times more likely to develop vascular...
Researchers from Hebrew University and the National University of Singapore have identified a two‑pronged immune evasion mechanism employed by enteropathogenic E. coli. The bacterial effector NleD not only cleaves key signaling molecules but also binds and blocks a cellular regulator,...
Researchers at Austria’s TU Graz have devised a method to stitch wood veneers together using a triangular‑tip needle and nylon yarn on standard industrial sewing machines. The stitched laminates can be up to 20 mm thick and exhibit four times the peel‑load...
NASA plans to launch the crewed Artemis 2 mission from Kennedy Space Center between April 1 and April 6, 2026. Cell‑phone data shows the previous Artemis 1 launch attracted 150,000‑200,000 visitors, and tourism officials expect a comparable crowd. Overnight guests typically spend about $350...
A new Ecology Letters study tracked 26 ringed seals and 39 polar bears in eastern Hudson Bay. Using satellite data, researchers found seals willingly entered high‑risk polar‑bear zones when fish diversity was high, making longer dives despite danger. Over 70,000...
The new moon marks the moment when the Moon sits directly between Earth and the Sun, leaving its sunlit side turned away from our planet. Because the Moon is tidally locked, the same hemisphere always faces Earth, so no illuminated...
Northwestern Medicine researchers discovered that ambient light critically influences how mice perceive and remember threats. By exposing mice to a danger stimulus and later altering lighting conditions, they showed that normal lighting drives avoidance of the threat zone, while mice...
Researchers at the University of Connecticut examined over 1,300 U.S. bronchiectasis patients to determine whether chronic sinus disease increases the risk of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. The analysis showed that patients with concurrent sinusitis were significantly more likely to have sputum...
At the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS‑15) in Brazil, delegates formally recognized marine flyways—global routes used by more than 150 migratory seabird species—as a new conservation framework. BirdLife International’s research identified six major...
Researchers at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have discovered a previously undescribed Treponema species strongly associated with noma, a fatal disease affecting impoverished children. Using metagenomic sequencing and machine learning on saliva samples, they identified the bacterium early in disease...
Italy confirmed the continent's first human H9N2 bird‑flu infection on 25 March, involving a boy with pre‑existing health issues who contracted the virus while traveling in Africa. The patient remains in isolation but shows only mild symptoms and has not required...
A recent European dermatology study of 73 skin‑biopsy samples shows that pairing traditional dermatopathology with PCR‑based molecular testing markedly improves the ability to distinguish eczema from psoriasis. While pathology alone achieved 76.9% accuracy, the integrated method resolved ambiguous cases and...
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center used the sea slug Aplysia to investigate how timing between learning events affects memory formation. By applying a neurotransmitter to neurons twice, they found that a 24‑hour interval between exposures triggered...
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis examined how single versus repeated alcohol exposures affect gene‑regulatory mechanisms in mouse brains. They found that brief exposure altered epigenetic markers in select regions, while prolonged exposure produced changes across all examined areas,...
Launch on Demand, a Florida‑based firm, is preparing a $600 million rocket launch complex in Pedernales, Dominican Republic. The site’s equatorial location promises more efficient heavy‑lift launches for U.S. satellites, while also serving as a geopolitical counterweight to China’s expanding space...
A phase‑2b trial of inhaled mebufotenin (GH001) in 81 adults with treatment‑resistant depression showed rapid symptom relief, with 57.5% of the active‑treatment group achieving remission by day 8 versus none on placebo. The mean MADRS score fell by 15.2 points compared...
Researchers reported that administering the metabolic hormone FGF21 boosts SIRT1 expression, which in turn activates the PINK1‑Parkin mitophagy pathway and reduces cellular senescence in intervertebral disc cells. In a rat model of puncture‑induced disc degeneration, FGF21 treatment partially restored nucleus...
A multinational research team has reconstructed the sounds of Jurassic insects by studying fossilized stridulatory organs preserved in chitin. Analyzing 20 Ensifera specimens from Inner Mongolia, they modeled wing vibrations to infer acoustic signals. The ancient crickets produced calls ranging...
The SURViV randomized trial compared transcatheter mitral valve‑in‑valve (ViV) with redo surgical replacement in 150 patients with failed bioprosthetic mitral valves, many of whom had rheumatic disease. At one year, ViV showed a markedly lower all‑cause mortality (5.3% vs 20.8%)...
Chinese commercial launch firm CAS Space successfully lifted its new Kinetica‑2 rocket into orbit on March 30, delivering a prototype cargo spacecraft and two other payloads. The 53‑meter vehicle can carry up to 12 tonnes to low‑Earth orbit and features a modular...
A retrospective cohort of 1,034 ICU patients across four Tennessee hospitals found that MRSA PCR nasal swab testing remains highly accurate after mupirocin decolonization. The negative predictive value was 98.8% before treatment and 99.1% when the test was performed within...
Japan Engine Corp (J‑ENG) has begun hydrogen co‑firing in all cylinders of its 6UEC35LSGH low‑speed two‑stroke engine, the world’s first full‑scale hydrogen engine slated for a 17,500‑DWT merchant vessel. The engine achieved over 95% hydrogen co‑firing at 100% load, confirming...
On March 30, 2026 SpaceX’s Transporter‑16 rideshare launched 119 payloads, including seven satellites from Swedish‑based AAC Clyde Space. The flight introduced the first two VIREON‑1 and VIREON‑2 Earth‑observation cubesats, delivering 1.5‑meter multispectral imagery for agriculture and forestry. AAC also flew...
Physicists are grappling with the paradoxes of quantum mechanics in an expanding de Sitter universe, where the lack of a fixed boundary prevents conventional measurements. Recent theoretical work suggests that photons could acquire an effective mass in this exponentially expanding space,...
Scientists at NIST demonstrated quantum position verification, using entangled photons to prove a prover’s physical location over a 200‑meter baseline. The protocol involves two verifier stations sending random numbers and entangled particles to the prover, whose measurement results are compared...
GlycanAge is translating two decades of glycan research into clinical tools that measure inflammaging, the chronic low‑grade inflammation linked to age‑related disease. By profiling complex sugar structures on proteins, the company offers a long‑term biomarker that differs from short‑term markers...
The SMART‑DECISION trial showed that stopping beta‑blockers one year after a myocardial infarction is non‑inferior to continuing them in stable, low‑risk patients without heart failure or reduced ejection fraction. Among 2,540 participants followed for a median of 3.1 years, the...
Herbicide resistance is driving a search for new weed‑control tools, and Quercus Biosolutions is pioneering AI‑designed mini proteins that act like chemicals while offering biological benefits. Using protein‑structure prediction technology from drug discovery, the startup creates proteins that can enter...
On March 30, 2026, WISeSat.Space, the satellite arm of WISeKey International, placed its 21st picosatellite into low‑Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare. The satellite extends the company’s secure IoT constellation, which embeds WISeKey’s proprietary Root‑of‑Trust cryptography to protect data...
Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico exposed male rats to glyphosate at the EPA’s accepted daily limit of 2 mg per kilogram for 16 weeks. The rats developed heightened anxiety, avoiding open spaces, novel objects, and neutral sounds, while responding...
An Australian scientific review concluded that vaping likely increases the risk of lung and oral cancer, marking the most definitive link to date. The analysis relied on short‑term laboratory and human exposure studies because long‑term cohort data are unavailable. While...
York Space Systems announced that NASA and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory have extended the Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT) mission through 2027 after the BARD mission met all primary objectives. The PExT payload, hosted on a York S-CLASS bus, demonstrated...
Kardigan reported that its experimental hypertension drug tonlamarsen achieved a 67% average reduction in the angiotensinogen biomarker after five monthly doses, confirming target engagement. However, the Phase 2 trial showed no statistically significant difference in office systolic blood pressure between the...
The FDA approved a high‑dose formulation of Biogen’s SMA drug Spinraza, cutting the loading phase from four to two injections and adding a four‑month maintenance schedule. The new regimen, backed by the DEVOTE study, showed significant motor‑skill gains versus sham...
Scientists at the University of Konstanz have shown that Amontons' first law of friction breaks down for magnetic materials, where friction does not scale linearly with load. By arranging a two‑dimensional array of freely rotating magnets above a second magnetic...
A Finnish Scientific Diving Academy class recently sent divers beneath a frozen Finnish lake, where participants like Dutch biodiversity adviser Daan Jacobs spent 45 minutes at eight metres depth. The program, now running twice a year, aims to expand the...
Scientists at Manchester University have identified a recessive RNU2‑2‑related neurodevelopmental disorder as one of the most common genetic causes of childhood epilepsy. The condition, which manifests with seizures and severe delays in speech and walking before age one, has been...
