Science
Why Montana Firefighters Are Intentionally Burning Areas Around Two Wildfires
About a month ago, two wildfires ignited a day apart in southwest Montana. The Bobcat Lakes Fire started July 31 near Wise River, followed by the Sand Creek Fire on Aug. 1 near Wi…
Larger catalyst batches could make carbon recycling cheaper and easier to scale
Turning carbon dioxide into industrial chemicals used in everything from synthetic fuels to plastics and pharmaceuticals is costly. But new research shows it does not have to be.
Tests reveal how thermoplastic composites lose strength at elevated temperatures
Researchers from Skoltech together with colleagues from Xi'an Jiaotong University and the Blagonravov Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences, have …
Warmer waters, pest species and habitat loss major threats to small, rare freshwater fish
One of Australia's most comprehensive assessments of endemic, rare or threatened freshwater fish has found numerous species are at severe risk of extinction because of multiple th…
Nonprofit wants to launch 80,000-year mission to Alpha Centauri in 2029 (video)
The Fermi Explorer Mission plans to launch a small, cheap probe to Alpha Centauri in the next few years, to inspire further exploration and help humanity contemplate its place in …
In tune with nature: Human speech follows a rhythm that is also found in the animal kingdom
The temporal structure of speech rhythms resembles that of the communication signals of numerous animal species. This is shown by a study conducted by a research team from the Lei…
Martian astronomy: Percy sees a 'Phobos eclipse' from Mars
What's so special about spotting Phobos crossing in front of the sun? Sure. It's just another image of Phobos crossing the disk of the sun, as seen from the surface of Mars. Like …
Hidden protein recycling hubs discovered inside human sperm cells
Researchers at VIB, VUB and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (UK) have discovered a hidden feature of human sperm cells. Using advanced imaging technol…
What’s Up: September 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA
Brilliant Venus and a Harvest Moon Use the Moon to find Antares and the Teapot, spot brilliant Venus, welcome the equinox, and see the Harvest Moon near Saturn and Neptune. Skywat…
The 12 best sci-fi movies of the 2000s
A decade of returning franchises and wonderfully new beginnings.
First measurement of low-energy solar neutrinos scattering off electrons
Every second, tens of billions of neutrinos produced by nuclear fusion in the sun pass through every square centimeter of Earth—and through our bodies—almost without interacting. …
MeerKAT directly detects faint hydrogen signal from the distant universe
Astronomers from the University of Manchester and the University of the Western Cape have directly detected an extremely faint radio signal from hydrogen gas billions of light-yea…
Diatom sequencing project finds striking genetic differences among microscopic algae
An international team of more than 100 scientists has taken a major step toward unlocking the secrets of some of Earth's tiniest but most important organisms.
New AI approaches to help understand complex biological data
Researchers at Cardiff University have presented two studies at the 2026 International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2026) that address fundamental challenges in modern AI:…
New AI model maps the ion binding sites that control how proteins work
Researchers at Constructor University and Constructor Labs have developed BiteNetI, a deep-learning model that locates the binding sites of 14 biologically important ion types dir…
Historic Engines Take Their Place on Artemis III
On Aug. 24, technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida began installing the four RS‑25 engines in the core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that w…
Forest floor to treetops, cameras reveal Congo Basin's hidden wildlife
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) tropical forests stretch across an extraordinary landscape of rivers, wetlands, savannas and towering trees. But in a forest this vast, bi…
On this day in space! Sept. 1, 1979: NASA's Pioneer 11 probe becomes 1st spacecraft to visit Saturn
On Sept. 1, 1979, NASA's robotic space probe Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to fly by Saturn. Here's why it mattered.
AI tool detects unusual satellite behavior to improve space safety
A new AI model can monitor satellites and spot anomalies in their behavior, reducing the risk of in-orbit collisions, according to new research published in the journal Expert Sys…
Ten-channel photonic interface links neutral-atom qubits in parallel
A research group in Japan has demonstrated a world-record 10-channel multiplexed quantum photonic interface based on an integrated waveguide array, a key technology for optically …
Why do black hole flares die out? It may be down to how stars spin
Some stars encounter supermassive black holes and live to tell the tale. New research shows why the flares these encounters cause dim over repeated episodes.
Anti-influenza therapies that target the host
A drug that targets the host rather than the virus could get around the problem of antiviral resistance. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die of seasonal influenza caus…
Experiment sees surprising result in search for dark matter
For the better part of a century, people have been trying to understand dark matter. This invisible substance makes up roughly 85% of the mass in the universe but has never been d…
NASA's Roman Space Telescope is just one of a few missions named after real-life women
NASA's Roman space telescope, which launched on Aug. 30, is part of a small set of missions named after female historical figures.