Latest news
'Gossiping neighbors': Plants didn't evolve to be kind to each other, study finds
Rather than helping each other out when they're attacked, plants may have to eavesdrop on each other to know when to launch their own defenses.
'Vestigial' human ear-wiggling muscle actually flexes when we're straining to hear
A mechanism that activates specific muscles in our ears is a leftover from our evolutionary past, back when our ancestors depended more on their hearing for survival.
Upheaval Dome: Utah's 'belly button' that has divided scientists since its discovery
Upheaval Dome is a giant rock formation in southeastern Utah with two potential origin stories, although most scientists think it was created by an ancient meteor strike.
How accurate are Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day forecasts?
The rodent has been predicting the start of spring since 1887. But how good is Phil at his prognostications?
Could we travel to parallel universes?
Let's explore the possibility of traveling to universes beyond our own — if they so exist, that is.
'Breakthrough' stem-cell patches stabilized woman's heart as she awaited transplant
A woman with heart failure was kept alive long enough to receive a heart transplant, in part thanks to newly developed stem-cell-derived heart tissue grafts.
Newly discovered near-Earth asteroid isn't an asteroid at all — it's Elon Musk's trashed Tesla
Astronomers have retracted the discovery of a new asteroid after realizing the object was the remains of Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster and its driver "Starman," which were launched into space in 2018.
Are Atlantic Ocean currents weakening? A new study finds no, but other experts aren't so sure.
A new study suggests the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has not weakened since the 1960s — but there's no doubt the circulation will slow in the future, experts say.
A cosmic 'CT scan' shows the universe is far more complex than expected
"This process is like a cosmic CT scan, where we can look through different slices of cosmic history and track how matter clumped together at different epochs."
What is alkaptonuria? The rare disease that turns your pee black
Alkaptonuria is an unusual disorder caused by a defect in protein metabolism.
Supermassive black holes in 'little red dot' galaxies are 1,000 times larger than they should be, and astronomers don't know why
"Our measurements imply that the supermassive black hole mass is 10% of the stellar mass in the galaxies we studied."
'City-killer' asteroid has a 1-in-83 chance of smashing into Earth in 2032, NASA says
A space rock dubbed 2024 YR4 has a 1.2% chance of smashing into our planet, scientists estimate.
Massive tuberculosis outbreak sickens dozens in Kansas
An ongoing tuberculosis outbreak in two Kansas counties has sickened dozens since January 2024.
1,600-year-old Roman padlock with spring mechanism discovered in Germany — and it's tiny
A miniature gold lock dated to the third to fourth centuries was found by a metal detectorist in Germany.
Alibaba claims its AI model trounces DeepSeek and OpenAI competitors
Chinese cloud giant Alibaba says that its Qwen2.5-Max artificial intelligence model outperformed its rivals at OpenAI, Meta and DeepSeek.
Ocean warming 4 times faster than in 1980s — and likely to accelerate in coming decades
Ocean warming has more than quadrupled in recent decades and is likely to accelerate even faster if humanity fails to address climate change, scientists find.
Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space using 1st-of-its-kind 'artificial photosynthesis'
Astronauts on board China's "heavenly palace" space station have demonstrated a new way of making rocket fuel products and breathable oxygen by mimicking a chemical reaction in plants. The technology could be utilized in China's planned moon base.
