Science
Plantwatch: Cities make a surprising refuge for threatened UK wildflowers
Nooks and crannies in urban areas provide a welcome alternative to intensive farming and other rural pressuresWildflowers are having a rough time in the countryside, mostly from t…
APOD: 2026 August 19 – The Case of the Mysterious Maybe Meteor
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 19 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the c…
Carbon pollution has fuelled ‘massive expansion’ of marine heatwaves in Europe, study finds
Hottest periods this year in most sea regions would have been ‘virtually impossible’ in a preindustrial climateCarbon pollution has fuelled a “massive expansion” of marine heatwav…
The moment SpaceX Starship spotted off Christmas Island landed in Indian Ocean – video
Footage streamed by SpaceX shows the moment Elon Musk’s 52-metre Starship Flight 13 landed in the Indian Ocean west of Australia. The rocket landed in the ocean on 24 July. Nearly…
Laser stability method advances precision control of electrons with light
Researchers at the University of Oldenburg's Institute of Physics are working on techniques for precision control of electric fields of light, which allow the dynamics of individu…
Biological sex is neither binary nor a spectrum—a biologist explains how it's multidimensional
Many people recognize that gender—how a person identifies, presents themselves and is perceived—has nuances. Some people identify and present as women, others as men, and still ot…
Touchdown! Private Chinese rocket aces landing on 2nd-ever flight
The Beijing-based company LandSpace landed its Zhuque-3 rocket this evening (Aug. 18), notching a huge milestone for commercial Chinese spaceflight.
‘Prepare early’: bushfire authorities sound alarm for NT, NSW and Queensland
Effects of global heating in NT worsened by ‘dangerous and fire-promoting buffel grass’, expert saysGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFire authorities hav…
Trump administration moves to open untouched national forests to logging
The end of "roadless rule" protections would open millions of acres of pristine forests to commercial use. Supporters say it will lead to better managed forests.
Some bacteria build internal 'power cables' to extend respiration beyond the cell membrane
All living cells need energy, and most generate it through respiration, a series of chemical reactions normally confined to the cell membrane. Because this machinery takes up spac…
New set of international rules needed to protect health of fishing stocks, study shows
The global community should work to establish an array of new international legal rules to protect the health of fish stocks, new research says. Rather than one set of laws coveri…
Krypton gas emerges as a new ingredient for quantum computing
To commercialize quantum computing, manufacturers need high-quality superconducting materials for microchips, but they also require a reliable, sustainable nanofabrication process…
Largest catalog yet of how human cells read DNA shows how chemical marks alter genetic instructions
Every cell in the body contains essentially the same DNA, yet a brain cell behaves differently from a muscle cell or an immune cell. The difference lies largely in how each cell r…
Shrews may grow bigger snouts in winter to cope with cold air, scientists say
Study of long-clawed shrew skulls from Japan shows that while skulls get smaller in winter, snouts elongateHumans turn to heated blankets and fluffy socks to cope with winter, but…
Mars attacks: How much dust from the red planet is safe to breathe?
NASA has released a report recommending an initial health standard for the Martian dust that astronauts could inhale during future missions. Although sending people to Mars is sti…
El Paso Officials Seek Answers Following Emissions at Marathon Refinery
EL PASO, Texas—Gilbert Morales struggled to compose himself before addressing the El Paso City Council on Tuesday morning. Morales fought back tears as he recounted how his wife d…
Dying radio galaxies suggest a shorter, more dynamic afterlife for black hole jets
Astronomers have uncovered a previously underexplored population of faint, rapidly fading remnant radio galaxies, offering new insights into what happens after supermassive black …
Rethinking how we name and classify our human ancestors following recent evolutionary discoveries
Recent advances in our understanding of human evolution challenge the way we currently name and classify our ancestors, according to new research from Monash University. The study…
New photonic crystal method improves single-photon sources for quantum networks
Quantum communication promises many advantages over today's standard technologies, including absolutely secure transmission of large amounts of data. However, it requires single p…
NASA's LRO images Falcon 9 crater on moon, learns new details
Between Aug. 11–12, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured a series of images of a new crater on the moon. The crater formed Aug. 5, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage…
Harvard to pay $53m over theft and sale of human remains from medical school
Cedric Lodge, 58, sentenced in December to eight years in prison for stealing and selling body parts in national schemeHarvard University has agreed to pay a $53m settlement to re…
Existing drug could treat invasive canine oral tumors
A benign but invasive canine oral cancer is often mistaken for a similar malignant one, leading to misdiagnoses in close to a third of cases. But a new diagnostic tool can now dis…
Hurricane Lala Pummels Hawaii—Despite Never Making Landfall
Despite never making landfall, Hurricane Lala left a path of destruction across Hawaii over the weekend. Strong winds, torrential rain and mudslides damaged or swept away more tha…
How can AI help identify pain when animals can't tell us they're suffering?
A new AI framework, known as SHIC-XE, has been developed to detect signs of pain in horses from video analysis while providing stable, anatomically consistent explanations for its…