Endangered erect-crested penguins are holding steady on tiny islands while declining on a breeding ground 40 times larger, challenging assumptions about where the species’ best hope for survival lies. An endangered penguin species could receive a less severe global risk rating even as one of its only two breeding populations suffers a steep decline. A […]
A Devastating Disease Is Threatening the World’s Chocolate Supply – but Scientists May Have Found the Answer
A change to just two DNA letters reduced disease in cacao by about 42% under laboratory conditions, suggesting a possible way to protect future chocolate harvests. Black pod disease is estimated to reduce cacao yields by roughly 30% worldwide, threatening the livelihoods of farmers who grow the crop used to make chocolate. Shifting weather patterns […]
Researchers Discover Earth May Have Made Its Own Water 4.5 Billion Years Ago
Laboratory experiments suggest that rocky planets could generate their own water as they form, potentially giving distant worlds an essential ingredient for life. Rocks, hydrogen gas, and intense heat might sound like an unlikely recipe for an ocean. Yet experiments suggest that these ingredients could have produced much of Earth’s water while the planet was […]
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Discovers Something Unexpected Hidden in the Chaos of Space
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has uncovered hidden order in space turbulence, a finding that could help scientists understand magnetic storms on Earth. Smoke rising from an incense stick can begin as a thin, steady stream before curling and spreading unpredictably. The smoke makes turbulence in the air visible. Turbulence also occurs in space, where the […]
NASA’s Voyager 1 Is About to Become the First Spacecraft One Light-Day From Earth
Voyager 1 is nearing a distance from Earth that light takes a full day to cross, while NASA engineers stretch its dwindling power to keep it exploring. NASA’s Voyager 1, humanity’s most distant spacecraft, was about 16 billion miles (25.75 billion kilometers) from Earth when its radio signal disappeared in October. NASA’s Deep Space Network, […]
A Woman Who Lived 30,000 Years Ago Is Changing What We Know About Ice Age Europe
DNA preserved in ancient cave sediments reveals how some Ice Age Europeans endured extreme cold, while genetic evidence from France uncovers unexpected connections across the continent. A woman who lived in southwestern France around 30,000 years ago carried a genetic history that stretched far beyond her corner of Ice Age Europe. Most of her ancestry […]
33 Out of 34 Lupus Patients Shared an Immune Cell Abnormality
New research challenges a longstanding explanation for why the immune system attacks healthy tissues in lupus. Scientists investigating lupus have discovered that errors in immune cells may cause the body to attack some of its own defenses. In a study of 34 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 33 had neutrophils containing widespread abnormalities in […]
Common Nutritional Supplement Shows Surprising Promise Against Psoriasis
A common nutritional supplement has shown unexpected promise in treating psoriasis. A widely available nutritional supplement may help reduce the immune system activity responsible for psoriasis, according to new research from China. Scientists found that pantethine, a derivative of vitamin B5 commonly used to lower cholesterol, can interfere with metabolic processes that drive inflammation. The […]
Trapped in Amber for 99 Million Years, a Lizard’s Tail Reveals an Ancient Survival Secret
A clean break in 99-million-year-old amber offers rare direct evidence that ancient lizards shed their tails using a defensive mechanism still common today. A lizard can escape a predator by leaving its tail behind, sometimes with the detached piece still wriggling as the animal makes its getaway. It’s a remarkable defense, but scientists have struggled […]
120 Million Years Ago, Something Extraordinary Was Happening in Earth’s Oceans
Colombia’s ancient seas supported an extraordinary diversity of top predators, offering clues to how life may undergo major evolutionary changes without a mass extinction. Mass extinctions have reshaped life on Earth, but they may not be the only way ecosystems undergo dramatic evolutionary change. Roughly 120 million years ago, the seas covering what is now […]