Science
X-ray free-electron laser sets new record for shortest high-energy pulses
Researchers at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have measured the shortest high-energy X-ray pulses e…
NASA JPL Looks to Next 90 Years of Innovation, Exploration
Interstellar probes. Lunar drones. Helicopters on Mars. When a group of Caltech graduate students and enthusiasts began conducting rocket-propulsion tests in Pasadena’s Arroyo Sec…
NASA's CASALS instrument bridges gaps in 3D maps of Earth's surface
A team of researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed a new instrument designed to eliminate blind spots between lines of lidar data on Earth's surface.…
Butterfly navigation tests reveal that migrating species may rely on different natural compasses
Researchers at Keele University have discovered that migratory butterflies may use different navigation systems to find their way during migrations, highlighting the importance of…
Do people become less creative as they get older? Research makes surprising discovery
Study pitting preschoolers against adults mostly in their 20s finds fear of failure and anxiety hamper the grownupsAsk a five-year-old to paint a picture and they will almost inst…
Scientists discover migration-mediated mechanism enabling bacteria-virus coexistence
Bacteria and the viruses that infect them—known as phages—coexist in soils, oceans and living organisms. Scientists have long thought this coexistence reflects a microscopic versi…
Keeping to warm climates may have helped crocodiles outlast the dinosaurs
Keeping to warm climates throughout their 250-million-year history may have helped crocodiles and their relatives survive the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, finds a new study…
Electronic nose puts police detection dogs to the test
A pilot study tested an electronic nose, called NOS.E, alongside human-remains detection dogs to see whether it could detect buried remains and help confirm dogs' signals.
Chromosome anchors form hollow shells before cell division, imaging reveals
Whenever a cell divides, it has to split its chromosomes perfectly between two daughter cells, and even a single mistake can be disastrous. Now, researchers from Japan have found …
'Silent' vultures turn out to use a wide range of sounds to communicate
Vultures were long thought to make few and fairly simple sounds. Yet no one had investigated in detail how the birds use sound to communicate. For his master's thesis in Jorg Mass…
Sci-fi legend Alan Dean Foster on his new futuristic adventure 'Lost On Paradise': 'It's paradise until you get there, and then maybe you mess it up' (interview)
'Maybe Paradise isn’t always Paradise.'
Ultrafast light can control ferromagnetism without relying on heating
Despite being known for more mundane uses such as sticking notes to refrigerators or keeping bags shut, magnetization is one of the most fundamental and useful properties of a mat…
Hubble observations challenge supernova winds' role in cosmic reionization
An international team of researchers, including members from the University of Michigan, has revealed surprising results that could rewrite our understanding of a key transition i…
Burnham approves Jackdaw – and Labour’s unity on climate action is imperilled with the stroke of a pen | Zoe Williams
This foolish decision undermines hopes that this government will take the necessary steps the climate crisis demands When the news broke that the UK government had approved the Ja…
Poor ocean conditions leave murrelet chicks exposed to nest predators for longer
Less favorable ocean conditions mean marbled murrelet chicks take longer to leave the nest, making them more vulnerable to predation, according to a new study of the Pacific North…
Two-in-one tool tracks viral RNA inside live infected cells in real time
Viruses are sneaky intruders, hijacking the internal machinery of host cells and replicating out of sight. Understanding these dynamics is the first step to developing effective a…
Africa's bats could survive climate change—if they can find somewhere to live
Climate change and changes in the way land is used are the two biggest threats to wildlife because they change the environment in which animals survive and thrive. Knowing how spe…
Reindeer grazing changes plant roots in pine forests
Reindeer grazing changes the vegetation of northern pine forests below ground as well as above it. In a recent study in Finland, trees and understory vegetation in grazed forests …
Reexamined Viking 2 signal reveals possible marsquake from region active decades later
Earthquakes and the seismic waves they generate provide some of the best clues to Earth's interior. To extend that success to other worlds, scientists placed seismometers on the A…
NASA to Conduct NCAA Flyover, Engage Fans at University of Alabama
As part of the agency’s Inspiration Tour, NASA will conduct a flyover at the University of Alabama vs. Texas A&M football game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Saturday, Oct. 24. NASA A…
Migratory birds spread avian influenza to Greenland's polar bears
Migrating birds that breed in the Arctic are spreading avian influenza to polar bears in eastern Greenland, according to a new study that found evidence of infections in bear bloo…
Light-based method could offer first way to detect hypothetical 'mirror life'
Scientists have proposed what they believe is the first method for detecting "mirror life"—a hypothetical form of life made from molecular building blocks that are the mirror imag…
South Korea guides crowd-pulling shark out of canal
A shark that has become a viral sensation in South Korea was coaxed out of a canal in which it was stuck, authorities said on Wednesday, as falling temperatures raised concerns fo…
Tracks Along the Longest Drive on Another World
Written by Vandi Verma, Chief Engineer for Robotic Operations at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Oct. 12, 2026 Since the last blog update, Perseverance has achieved a major miles…