Scientists examining lunar soil collected by China’s Chang’e-6 mission have discovered an unexpected form of iron preserved within microscopic impact glass. Tiny particles of iron trapped inside lunar glass may preserve evidence of the Moon’s ancient magnetic history. Scientists studying soil returned by China’s Chang’e-6 mission have identified face-centered cubic γ-Fe, an unusual form of […]
High-Tech Drones Reveal Long-Hidden Aboriginal Rock Art Shelters in Australia
Drone-mounted lasers helped locate three unregistered Aboriginal rock art shelters in Australia, offering communities another way to document and protect their cultural heritage for future generations. In Australia’s Blue Mountains, rugged terrain and dense bushland make searching for Aboriginal cultural sites slow, difficult, and expensive. More than 200 rock shelters containing cultural and archaeological evidence […]
How Archaeologists Risked Their Lives To Save 30,000 Ancient Treasures From ISIS
Syrian archaeologists rescued roughly 30,000 artifacts from a museum threatened by ISIS, highlighting how protecting human history can depend on trust built before a crisis. A narrow, highly vulnerable corridor was the Deir ez-Zor Museum’s only connection to the military airport. Access to the Syrian city was severely restricted, and the Islamic State of Iraq […]
A 4,000-Year-Old DNA Mystery Is Rewriting the Origins of the English Language
Ancient DNA is uncovering forgotten migrations that may have shaped the origins of English, German, and Celtic languages, challenging what researchers thought they knew about Europe’s linguistic history. How can researchers trace a language back thousands of years when no one knows exactly what its earliest speakers sounded like? Although DNA cannot reveal the words […]
Dinosaurs May Have Eaten Far More Fruit Than Scientists Ever Thought
An exceptionally preserved 74-million-year-old forest in New Mexico is revealing unexpected details about ancient plant life. Dinosaurs may have been eating a much wider variety of fruits than scientists once believed. Fossils from a 74-million-year-old forest in New Mexico show that some flowering plants were already producing surprisingly large fruits millions of years before the […]
A New Iron Age? Scientists Uncover a Potential Game Changer for Clean Energy
Scientists are exploring how iron powder could transform renewable energy storage and transportation while giving aging coal power plants a new purpose. Iron powder could help transform old coal power plants into a source of climate-neutral electricity, according to a new study from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Researchers found that this recyclable fuel […]
Is Einstein Wrong? Deep-Sea Neutrinos Put the Laws of Physics to the Test
Scientists are testing whether one of Einstein’s most fundamental principles holds true throughout the Universe. A neutrino telescope deep in the Mediterranean Sea has put one of Einstein’s fundamental principles to a new test. After analyzing 5,828 atmospheric neutrino candidate events, scientists found no evidence that Lorentz invariance, a cornerstone of relativity, had been violated. […]
Scientists Discover a Hidden Weakness in Prostate Cancer That Could Transform Treatment
A newly identified vulnerability in a cancer-driving protein could pave the way for a different approach to treating prostate cancer. Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified a potential way to target a protein that helps drive prostate cancer but has long been considered beyond the reach of drugs. Their experimental compound, PBITE-1, interfered […]
A New Approach Could Eliminate “Zombie” Cancer Cells That Survive Chemotherapy
Some cancer cells survive chemotherapy by blocking their own self-destruct system, but researchers have found a way to switch it back on and kill those cells. Chemotherapy can leave behind cancer cells that have stopped dividing but remain alive and capable of helping a tumor recover. These survivors can draw support from an unexpected source, […]
Hidden Brain Signals Could Predict Alzheimer’s Years Before Symptoms Appear
Subtle differences in brain activity may reveal who is most vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease and who could remain mentally sharp well into old age. Distinct patterns of brain activity may predict Alzheimer’s disease years before memory problems or hallmark brain changes appear. Stanford Medicine researchers have developed a scoring system that identifies people at greater […]