A private US lander has captured eerie high-definition images of a lunar sunset, which NASA hopes will help unravel the mystery of a strange haze first observed on the Moon in the 1960s. Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, which published the pictures on Tuesday, became the first private company to land a robotic spacecraft upright on the…
Newfound Exoplanets around Barnard’s Star Resolve Long-Standing Astronomical Quest Four small, newly discovered worlds are less than six light-years away from Earth, and their discovery reinforces a cautionary tale from planet hunting’s prehistory By Tom Metcalfe edited by Lee Billings An artist’s impression of four small, likely rocky exoplanets orbiting Barnard’s Star, a red dwarf…
When Catalonian Maria Branyas died in August 2024 at the grand old age of 117 years and 168 days, she was officially the world’s oldest living person. To determine how Maria managed to collect so many birthdays, a team led by researchers from the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Spain conducted a comprehensive analysis…
For the first time, scientists can see not just the light and dark of our infant universe, but also how that primordial gas was moving. An international collaboration of researchers has produced the most detailed images yet of what our cosmos looked like a mere 380,000 years after the Big Bang – equivalent to baby…
New Drugs, and Diets, Soothe Inflammatory Bowel Disease Several medications now calm painful inflammation in the intestines. Diets free of ultraprocessed foods also help By Lydia Denworth edited by Josh Fischman I recently met a 26-year-old chef named Caroline Horvatits whose story is simultaneously distressing and hopeful. About a decade ago, during high school, Caroline…
Meltwater runs off the Bråsvellbreen Glacier in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images Unprecedented levels of ocean heat, ice melt and sea level rise are among the many key measures of climate change setting alarming records in recent years, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) State of the Global Climate…
A 30,000-year-old vulture feather represents a “two-for-the-price-of one” discovery: the fossil itself, and the first evidence that volcanic ash can preserve such soft tissues in exquisite detail. The feather itself is not a new find; a Roman landowner in 1889 came across evidence of entire bird preserved as a three-dimensional impression. Its details included eye…
What if you could listen to music or a podcast without headphones or earbuds and without disturbing anyone around you? Or have a private conversation in public without other people hearing you? Our newly published research introduces a way to create audible enclaves – localized pockets of sound that are isolated from their surroundings. In…
For the first time, scientists have developed a drug that fully reproduces the effects of physical rehabilitation in stroke recovery—at least in mice. This discovery, made by UCLA Health researchers, could eventually transform how we treat the leading cause of adult disability worldwide. The promising findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, identified a compound…
A Neurodivergent Journey, Armored Dinosaurs and the Dark Sector In the April issue of SciAm, follow a man’s journey to a diagnosis, learn about exciting new schizophrenia treatments, and more By Jeanna Bryner Scientific American, April 2025 When I first came across the term “neurodivergent,” after it was coined about 25 years ago by activist…