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The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, with Expedition 73 NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov, and Alexey Zubritsky aboard, Dec. 9, 2025.NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returned to Earth on Tu...
A decade-long investigation into puzzling neutrino behavior has now ruled out one of the most widely discussed explanations: the sterile neutrino....
Using cutting-edge algorithms and exascale supercomputers, researchers have created the most realistic simulations yet of matter flowing into black holes. Building on decades of research, a group of computational astrophysicists has reached an important breakthrough: they have created the most de...
More research is needed before scientists can determine whether the recently observed methane signatures point to the presence of an atmosphere or are simply the result of contamination from the host star. Of the seven Earth-sized planets circling the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, one world stands o...
The recent deaths of two white dwarf stars are challenging our understanding of both novae and the powerful physics underlying star death. According to astronomer John Monnier, the initial analysis of these often dramatic novae offers an “extraordinary leap forward” for the field. “The fact that we ...
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High-resolution imaging has revealed the internal layout of chromatin condensates, showing how DNA fibers fold and interact within these droplet-like structures. The findings connect molecular architecture to the broader behaviors of these droplets in cells....
A newly analyzed set of climate data points to a major volcanic eruption that may have played a key role in the Black Death’s arrival. Cooling and crop failures across Europe pushed Italian states to bring in grain from the Black Sea. Those shipments may have carried plague-infected fleas. The study...
For more than a decade, cosmology has been stuck with a puzzling contradiction. Two of the most trusted ways of measuring the universe’s expansion give two different answers. One set of measurements, based on nearby stars and exploding supernovas, says the universe is expanding at about 73 km/s/Mpc....
As far as kitchen staples, you don’t really get much better than olive oil. It can do it all—jazz up a salad, sauté vegetables, add a nice crisp to some noodles, and more. Humans have been using olive oil for about 8,000 years, so archeologists often report olive oil residue on excavated pottery. Ho...
A new radiocarbon study has clarified the timing of the colossal Thera eruption, placing it before Egypt’s New Kingdom. Researchers analyzed artifacts tied to Pharaoh Ahmose, gaining rare access to museum materials. Their results favor a younger chronology for early 18th Dynasty Egypt. The revised t...
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For the first time, researchers have observed live and in high resolution how influenza viruses infect living cells. Fever, aching limbs, and a runny nose—as winter returns, so too does the flu. The disease is triggered by influenza viruses, which enter our body through droplets and then infect cell...
Researchers from the University of Vienna have observed what happens when ultra-thin materials melt in unprecedented detail. Their findings not only contradict existing beliefs about the process but could also help advance our understanding of phase transitions in materials. In everyday materials (l...
Scientists have discovered that complex life began evolving much earlier than traditional models suggested. Using an expanded molecular clock approach, the team showed that crucial cellular features emerged in ancient anoxic oceans long before oxygen became a major part of Earth’s atmosphere. Their ...
Fans of horror stories and video games are bound to know American writer, H. P. Lovecraft, as his name is pretty much on everything these days: Lovecraftian-this, Lovecraftian-that. A central theme in his works is that learning the truth about the world can drive you mad. But it’s not just knowledge...
What can mapped drainage systems on Mars teach scientists about the red planet's watery past? This is what a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hopes to address as a team of scientists from the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) conducted a first-tim...
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Many people experience social awkwardness from time to time, but for some, it happens much more often. They accidentally say the wrong thing, miss social cues, or are simply overly shy at parties, in meetings, or around people in general. It can make you wonder how social awkwardness still exists as...
3 min readPreparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s broadcast of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse has won an Emmy Award for Excellence in Production Technology. At the 76th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards on Dec. 4, in New York City, the Academy of Televi...
More than a hundred years ago, long before anyone imagined supercomputers or black hole simulations, legendary Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan wrote down a set of formulas to calculate the digits of π (pi). These equations, just 17 short expressions, were mysterious even to mathematicians o...
Student teams competed in the 2025 Invention Challenge at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Dec. 5. The event pits middle and high school teams against each other as they try to get handmade devices to accomplish a task.NASA/JPL-Caltech The 2025 Invention Challenge at JPL called on teams to build ...
Regular consumption of polyphenol-rich foods like tea, coffee, berries, nuts, and whole grains may significantly support long-term heart health. A decade-long study of more than 3,100 adults found that those who consistently ate polyphenol-packed diets had healthier blood pressure and cholesterol le...
