News
- Physics
A massive clump of dark matter may lurk in the Milky Way
Pulsating remnants of stars hint at a clump of invisible matter thought to be about 10 million times the sun’s mass.
- Anthropology
Whaling may have started 1,500 years earlier than already known
Specialized whale-bone harpoons from southern Brazil dating back 5,000 years suggest that Indigenous groups in the area were whalers.
- Genetics
AI tool AlphaGenome predicts how one typo can change a genetic story
The tool helps scientists understand how single-letter mutations and distant DNA regions influence gene activity, shaping health and disease risk.
- Health & Medicine
The brain’s response to a heart attack may worsen recovery
In mice, blocking heart-to-brain signals improved healing after a heart attack, hinting at new targets for cardiac therapy.
- Animals
Spider silk-making organs evolved due to a 400-million-year-old genetic oops
An ancient ancestor of spiders and relatives doubled its genome about 400 million years ago, setting the stage for the evolution of spinnerets.
- Archaeology
This ancient stick may be the world’s oldest handheld wooden tool
These 430,000-year-old wooden tools from Greece are a rare find and provide a glimpse at the technical know-how of our early human ancestors.
- Animals
Some vaccines are making progress in protecting vulnerable species
Vaccines can be a crucial conservation tool. But getting shots to wildlife, and developing them in the first place, is tough.
- Animals
How Greenland sharks defy aging
When it comes to bucking the biological ails of aging, humans could learn something from Greenland sharks.
- Health & Medicine
It masquerades as malignant. But this bone-covered tumor is benign
Scientists have described a novel, yet benign bone-covered growth's characteristics for doctors, so patients don't receive unnecessary chemotherapy.
- Space
Seismometers can track falling space junk
As the threat of falling spacecraft increases, using earthquake sensors to detect the effects of their sonic booms could better map trajectories.
- Neuroscience
A spot in the base of the brain has a love of language
Brain scans show a spot in the cerebellum attuned specifically to words, expanding on studies that point to the region's importance for language.
- Cosmology
A massive cosmic ring may challenge a key assumption about the universe
At 3.3 billion light-years across, the ring may challenge the “cosmological principle” that the universe looks uniform at sufficiently large scales.
