Museum specimens are helping scientists trace a deadly fungus linked to mysterious frog disappearances in Brazil nearly half a century ago. Frog species that escaped a wave of population declines in Brazil carried widespread infections with a deadly fungus. Yet museum specimens from the species that suffered the steepest losses showed no detectable infection. These […]
Scientists Solve a 30-Year Biological Mystery and the Discovery Could Change How We Treat Inflammation
Scientists have solved a decades-old biological mystery, revealing an unexpected dual role for a key inflammatory signaling pathway. Scientists have uncovered a surprising function of a molecule that controls inflammation: It not only recruits immune cells to fight infections but also helps protect healthy tissue from damage. The discovery, published October 7 in Nature, solves […]
Scientists Discover Exercise Changes the Body in Ways We Never Fully Understood
Salk Institute researchers have created a molecular map of how healthy mice respond to exercise, offering clues that could help improve performance and reduce injury risk. Exercise can help the body resist disease and dysfunction and recover from illness. Studies have also linked it to more than 30 percent lower mortality from all causes, cardiovascular […]
Scientists Unlock the Secret of One of the World’s Smallest Flowering Plants
Tiny aquatic plants are attracting scientific attention for their untapped potential as future food sources, including for space missions. Some of the world’s smallest flowering plants have found a way to fit the basic architecture of much larger species into a body just a few millimeters (about 0.1 inch) across. Researchers at the University of […]
Antarctica’s Sea Ice Has Gone From Record Highs to Near-Record Lows
Antarctica’s sea ice has plunged from record highs to its third-lowest winter peak, revealing a dramatic reversal in the frozen continent’s recent history. Antarctic sea ice reached one of its lowest winter peaks ever recorded in 2026, continuing a striking shift in ice coverage around the frozen continent. Its annual maximum was the third lowest […]
The Amazon Is Burning Again, and NASA Warns the Worst Is Yet To Come
A dangerous El Niño-driven wildfire cascade has reached the Amazon, and NASA scientists warn that the worst may still be ahead as hidden fires spread beneath the rainforest canopy. El Niño is fueling a chain reaction of wildfires across the tropics, with fires first emerging in equatorial Asia before spreading to the central and eastern […]
Researchers Discover What Reading for Pleasure May Be Doing to Your Brain
Reading for pleasure may offer surprising benefits for the brain, with research linking the habit to better mental health, stronger cognitive abilities, and a lower risk of dementia. Reading for pleasure may do far more than provide entertainment. A scientific review published in Psychological Medicine links the habit to better mental health, stronger cognitive abilities, […]
Scientists Restore Memory in Mice With Alzheimer’s by Boosting a Single Brain Protein
Boosting a protein restored brain rhythms and improved memory in mice with Alzheimer’s-like disease, pointing to a potential treatment strategy focused on how brain cells coordinate. The brain relies on rapid electrical rhythms called gamma oscillations when focusing on a task, learning a skill, or retrieving a memory. These rhythms cycle 30 to 90 times […]
Reddit Users Are Experimenting With an Unapproved Weight-Loss Drug. AI Found Something Surprising
An AI analysis of nearly 150,000 Reddit posts and comments offers the first systematic look at symptoms people attribute to gray-market retatrutide, showing how social media could guide drug safety research. People are buying unapproved versions of retatrutide, a next-generation GLP-1 weight-loss drug, and sharing their experiences on Reddit before the drug has received approval […]
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Unveils a Spectacular New View of Mars at Dawn
Curiosity’s latest panorama sharpens the view of a Martian rock layer that looks out of place and may have formed from ancient volcanic ash. A band of wind-carved cliffs stretches roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) across the northwestern reaches of Mount Sharp on Mars, and NASA’s Curiosity rover is climbing toward it. A newly released […]