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Archaeology

An old perfume bottle reveals what some ancient Romans smelled like

Chemical analyses reveal that an unopened flask of perfume from 2,000 years ago contained patchouli, a common ingredient in modern perfumes.

Climate

Wildfire smoke is blanketing the U.S. East Coast. It won’t be the last time

Climate change will continue to exacerbate fire risk across the world’s boreal forests, making events like the dangerous smoke over the U.S. East Coast more common.

Environment

Rising groundwater threatens to spread toxic pollution on U.S. coastlines

Sea level rise is pushing groundwater into shallower layers of earth, threatening to spread hazardous chemicals from contaminated soils.

Environment

Surviving a drought may help forests weather future dry spells

Climate change is making droughts more intense and frequent, but conifer forests have a trick up their sleeve, airplane and satellite data show.

Planetary Science

JWST captured Enceladus’ plume spraying water nearly 10,000 kilometers into space

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals the rate at which Saturn’s moon Enceladus spews water and where that water ends up.

Anthropology

These ancient flutes may have been used to lure falcons

Seven bird-bone flutes unearthed from a site in northern Israel are about 12,000 years old and may have been used as bird calls.

Health & Medicine

Taurine slows aging in mice. Will it ever work for people?

The amino acid taurine — found in meats, produced by the body and common in energy drinks — may have a role in health and aging, a new study suggests.

Animals

RNA editing helps octopuses cope with the cold

California two-spot octopuses tweak the proteins they make, potentially to help maintain brain function when temperatures dip.

Neuroscience

Brain cavities that swell in space may need at least 3 years to recover

MRI scans of astronauts show that duration in space and time between flights affect how much the brain’s fluid-filled cavities expand during missions.

Life

50 years ago, flesh-eating screwworms pushed scientists to mass produce flies

"Fly factories” dreamed up in the early 1970s have helped North and Central America keep screwworms in check for decades.

Astronomy

The Parker Solar Probe may have spotted the origin of high-speed solar winds

Kinks in the magnetic fields near the surface of the sun appear to be the cause of fast-moving flows in the solar wind.

Astronomy

A simulation of a dying star shows how it could create gravitational waves

Massive jets and an expanding cocoon of debris from a collapsing star could be a source of never-before-seen ripples in spacetime.