Science
NASA’s Simulated Mars Crew Marks One Year Inside Habitat
The four crew members in NASA’s simulated Mars mission have spent the past year living and working in isolation in a confined habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Normally forbidden emissions from graphene could expose quantum fluctuations in incoming light
Voltage fluctuations, light fluctuations, temperature fluctuations—any fluctuations are troublesome and thus undesirable. They don't just cause discomfort; in engineering and medi…
Scientists redetermine a key strontium frequency with 50 times better precision for quantum technologies
The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has remeasured a key transition frequency of the strontium (Sr) atom for the first time in 88 years, since 1938, usin…
Euclid discovers its first new comet 810 million miles from Earth
The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has discovered its first previously unknown comet in images taken between Sept. 16 and 24, 2026.
Oldest animals on Earth found to share a common wormlike ancestor
New research from the University of St Andrews has shed light on the evolution of an important yet thus far poorly understood group of marine invertebrate animals—brachiopods. The…
Instrumentation
To measure airflow and sound, research teams at the NASA Glenn Research Center use special instrumentation like particle image velocimetry, hot wire anemometry, Raman spectroscopy…
Ancient technique can improve the bland taste of beans
Faba beans are rich in protein and can easily be grown in Denmark—yet they are more often used as animal feed than as food for people. One of the main reasons is that their flavor…
Giving AI a 'crystal clear' view of the materials world by mapping geometry to text
In principle, artificial intelligence could make finding the right material for an application as simple as ordering dinner: Scientists would tell a large language model what they…
Martian Dawn
NASA’s Curiosity captures the dawn on Mars – as well as elongated ridges formed by wind erosion, or yardangs – in this close-up from a panorama released on Oct. 6, 2026. This is t…
'24/7 unmanned synthesis platform' uses robots and light to produce drug candidates
Even when AI designs molecules with potential as medicines, drug development can be delayed if the process of producing them is slow. KAIST researchers have developed an "unmanned…
Researchers use artificial intelligence to design potential antiviral compounds
Viral infections can be difficult to treat because viruses evolve rapidly, allowing them to develop resistance to drugs designed to attack viral proteins directly.
X-rays reveal surprisingly long-lived spin waves in copper oxide
Today's computer technology, based on silicon chips, is slowly reaching its physical limits. Components cannot be miniaturized indefinitely, and clock speeds cannot be increased i…
How plants unwittingly help fungal pathogens
Infecting a maize plant is no simple task for a fungal pathogen such as Ustilago maydis. A group of researchers led by Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has now uncovered…
'They're kind of goth': NASA spacecraft gives mysterious brown dwarfs a close-up
Using NASA’s SPHEREx spacecraft, astronomers have studied a horde of mysterious "failed stars," or brown dwarfs, not-so-stellar loners that wander the darkness of space alone.
A new way to make iridium catalysts for hydrogen production last longer
There are many ways to produce hydrogen, but not all of them are environmentally friendly. Water electrolysis is a promising method that uses electricity to split water into hydro…
Frozen in action: Visualizing how a cancer drug scaffold is built
A joint research group led by Ryo Tanifuji and Hiroki Oguri from the University of Tokyo and Yoshikazu Tanaka from Tohoku University has visualized SacC, an enzyme that plays a ke…
Rolling without wheels: How dwarf reedsnakes coordinate their bodies for high-speed escapes
Small snakes called dwarf reedsnakes can escape danger by rolling rapidly along the ground. Researchers investigated how they perform this unusual form of locomotion using multi-a…
Algae fossils from Cambrian explosion hint at sophisticated reproductive system
The Cambrian explosion was a major diversification of animal life that unfolded early in the Cambrian period, which began around 538.8 million years ago. During this interval, mar…
Epigenetic markers linked to psychotherapy response in OCD
OCD is a mental health disorder characterized by unwanted, recurring thoughts and repetitive behaviors that can severely interfere with everyday life. Exposure-based psychotherapy…
Ancient Hox code reveals the developmental roots of vertebrate hind fins and limbs
Paired appendages—the pectoral and pelvic fins of fishes and the forelimbs and hindlimbs of tetrapods—were a major innovation in vertebrate evolution. Their emergence greatly expa…
Elephant Island is an icy sight from orbit | Space photo of the day for Oct. 19, 2026
The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite mission captured a close-up of West Antarctica from its perch high above Earth.
What evolved first—our brain or gut?
What if the brain evolved to serve the gut? Scientists at Flinders University are challenging a cornerstone of biology, arguing that the gut's nervous system may be the body's ori…
How bacteria survive in a world full of killer bacteriophages
Humans throughout history have invented a variety of ways to fight back against troublesome bacteria. But bacteria live in a dangerous world too. The human body and other bacteria…
Enigmatic Mercury will remain a puzzle until someone sends a lander
Mercury remains one of our solar system's most elusive and difficult planets to study. It's easier to send probes to the icy moons of Saturn or Jupiter, or even to Pluto, than to …