New forecasting tool improves accuracy of epidemic peak and hospital demand predictions
During an epidemic, some of the most critical questions for healthcare decision-makers are the hardest ones to answer: When will the epidemic peak, how many people will need treatment at once and how long will that peak level of demand for care last? Timely answers can help hospital administrators, community leaders and clinics decide how to deploy staff and other resources most effectively. Unfortunately, man … ⌘ Read more

‘Destructive’ swans in the crosshairs as California allows hunting
Hunters will soon be allowed to kill mute swans as part of an effort to cull the “destructive, non-native” species statewide, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. ⌘ Read more

Virtual reality can help people understand and care about distant communities
For many of us, climate change feels like a distant threat—damage that will happen in the future somewhere far away to people we know little about. A new Stanford University-led study reveals how virtual reality can close that distance, enabling users to explore faraway places, develop a sense of attachment to those places, and care more about how a warming world is wreaking havoc on people’s lives. ⌘ Read more

A food tax shift could save lives—without a price hike in the average shopping basket
More expensive steak, cheaper tomatoes, but the same total cost for the average basket of groceries at the supermarket. A comprehensive study, led by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has analyzed the potential effects of a food tax shift—where VAT is removed from healthy foods and levies are introduced on foods that have a negative impact on the climate. ⌘ Read more

Gene variant that protects against norovirus spread with arrival of agriculture, prehistoric DNA reveals
The arrival of agriculture coincided with a sharp rise in a gene variant that protected against the virus that causes winter vomiting, researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Linköping University report after analyzing DNA from over 4,300 prehistoric individuals and cultivating “mini guts.” ⌘ Read more

1 in 3 US nonprofits that serve communities lost government funding in early 2025
About one-third of U.S. nonprofit service providers experienced a disruption in their government funding in the first half of 2025. ⌘ Read more

Africa’s air links are poor: Can the G20 push for more direct flights to improve tourism and trade?
In Africa, less than one in five continental airline routes are direct. Air connections are decided by factors like trade levels, diplomatic relations, and whether there’s enough demand to make a route financially worthwhile. Because there are so few direct connections in Africa, getting from one country to another often requires travelers to fly to Europe or the Middle East and transit there. This increases … ⌘ Read more

Bending biogenic crystals naturally without external forces
From creating flexible gadgets to better medicines, the art of bending crystals is reshaping technology and health, and at the University of Houston a crystals expert makes it look almost like a magic trick. ⌘ Read more

Climate change is turning global wildfires into monsters
Predicting bushfires is difficult at the best of times. But as climate change wreaks havoc with our world’s weather systems it’s getting harder and more important to get right. ⌘ Read more

Mursa’s mass grave reveals diverse origins of Roman soldiers
Archaeologists in Croatia have discovered a rare mass grave inside ancient water wells at Mursa (modern-day Osijek), revealing the bodies to be soldiers of diverse backgrounds who may have fought in the Battle of Mursa around 260 CE. The multidisciplinary investigation, published in PLOS ONE, provides new insight into how the Roman Empire recruited armies from ethnically diverse backgrounds. ⌘ Read more

Geochemical research could help identify microbial activity in Earth’s rock record and perhaps in Martian sediments
Because oxygen-bearing sulfate minerals trap and preserve signals from Earth’s atmosphere, scientists closely study how they form. Sulfates are stable over billions of years, so their oxygen isotopes are seen as a time capsule, reflecting atmospheric conditions while they were evolving on early Earth—and possibly on its planetary neighbor Mars. ⌘ Read more

Hunters or collectors? New evidence challenges claim Australia’s First Peoples sent large animals extinct
Tens of thousands of years ago, Australia was still home to enigmatic megafauna—large land animals such as giant marsupial wombats, flightless birds, and short-faced giant kangaroos known as sthenurines. ⌘ Read more

How plant-fungi friendships may change in the face of warming soil and rising CO₂ levels
Just as the human body contains a multitude of symbiotic microbial companions, most plant species also live alongside microbial friends. Among these companions are mycorrhizal fungi, which help plants gather water and nutrients—particularly nitrogen—from the soil. In exchange, plants provide mycorrhizal fungi with an average of 3% to 13% of the carbon they pull from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and so … ⌘ Read more

Research shows that land can’t buy security for young Kenyans
An anthropologist from The University of Manchester has uncovered the hidden struggles of young men on the edges of Nairobi, who inherit land but lack the means to turn it into the financial security they desperately need. ⌘ Read more

Scientists release new survey of the biggest objects in the universe
Scientists have released a new study on the arXiv preprint server that catalogs the universe by mapping huge clusters of galaxies. ⌘ Read more

Fiji’s coral reefs show remarkable recovery after Category 5 cyclone
A new study led by WCS, University of the South Pacific, and partners has found that coral reefs in Fiji showed remarkable resilience after being battered by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016. Despite losing more than half of their hard coral cover on average, reefs rebounded within four years, reassembling to nearly their pre-cyclone condition. ⌘ Read more

Who goes to the ballet? Education and social connections matter more than income, study finds
Why do some people regularly attend the opera, visit art galleries, or go to classical music concerts—while others rarely, if ever, do? ⌘ Read more

Exploring how dark matter alters electron-capture supernovae and the birth of neutron stars
Electron-capture supernovae (ECSNe) are stellar explosions that occur in stars with initial masses around 8–10 times that of the sun. These stars develop oxygen-neon-magnesium cores, which become unstable when electrons are captured by neon and magnesium nuclei. ⌘ Read more

Artificial insemination raises hopes for world’s rarest big cat
The world-first insemination of an Amur leopard in France has lifted hopes of animal lovers for the survival of Earth’s rarest big cat. ⌘ Read more

How spacefaring nations could avoid conflict on the moon
In the 1960s, Frank Sinatra’s song “Fly Me to the Moon” became closely associated with the Apollo missions. The optimistic track was recorded in 1964, when US success against the Soviet Union in the moon race was not assured. ⌘ Read more

China’s rising meat demand drives Brazilian soybean farming and resource use
Behind a steak served in China, there is often a soybean cultivation in Brazil. A new study, published in Nature Food, presents a snapshot of an increasingly interconnected and fragile food system. ⌘ Read more

Rethinking polygamy—research upends conventional thinking about the advantages of monogamous marriage
In July 2025, Uganda’s courts swiftly dismissed a petition challenging the legality of polygamy, citing the protection of religious and cultural freedom. For most social scientists and policymakers who have long declared polygamy a “harmful cultural practice,” the decision was a frustrating but predictable setback in efforts to build healthier and more equal societies. ⌘ Read more

Seismic anisotropy offers insight into viscous BLOBs at base of Earth’s mantle
In some parts of Earth’s interior, seismic waves travel at different speeds depending on the direction in which they are moving through the layers of rock in Earth’s interior. This property is known as seismic anisotropy, and it can offer important information about how the silicate rock of the mantle—particularly at the mantle’s lowermost depths—deforms. In contrast, areas through which seismic waves travel at the … ⌘ Read more

Offline interactions predict voting patterns better than online networks, finds study
According to a new study, offline social networks, revealed by co-location data, predict U.S. voting patterns more accurately than online social connections or residential sorting. Michele Tizzoni and colleagues analyzed large-scale data on co-location patterns from Meta’s Data for Good program, which collates anonymized data collected from people who enabled location services on the Facebook smartphone a … ⌘ Read more

Study finds Airbnb safety reviews can turn off some but the increased transparency can mitigate that
A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Marketing Science sheds light on how online safety-related reviews from Airbnb guests influence booking decisions and how the platform itself balances consumer welfare against its own financial incentives. ⌘ Read more

Gunboat diplomacy: How classic naval coercion has evolved into hybrid warfare on the water
Over the summer, the United States deployed warships to the Caribbean—ostensibly to menace drug traffickers but also as a none-too-subtle warning to Venezuela. Earlier in the year, a U.S. Navy destroyer bobbed along waters close to Iran for similar reasons. And in the Taiwan Straits and Pacific, China and the U.S. frequently show off their respective maritime military might. ⌘ Read more

Why is Halloween starting so much earlier each year? A business professor explains
Halloween is a fun, scary time for children and adults alike—but why does the holiday seem to start so much earlier every year? Decades ago, when I was young, Halloween was a much smaller affair, and people didn’t start preparing until mid-October. Today, in my neighborhood near where I grew up in Massachusetts, Halloween decorations start appearing in the middle of summer. ⌘ Read more

A seed bank in England marks 25 years of preserving the world’s plant diversity
Deep underground beneath the Sussex countryside in southern England, millions of seeds are kept frozen in a vault built to withstand fire, flooding, and any other disaster. ⌘ Read more

How a human ‘jumping gene’ targets structured DNA to reshape the genome
Long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1 or L1) is the only active, self-copying genetic element in the human genome—comprising about 17% of the genome. It is commonly called a “jumping gene” or “retrotransposon” because it can “retrotranspose” (move) from one genomic location to another. ⌘ Read more

Distant galaxy A1689-zD1 found to have unusually low dust-to-gas ratio
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has carried out comprehensive multiwavelength observations of a distant massive galaxy known as A1689-zD1. ⌘ Read more

Hybrid metasurface modulates light at low voltages for energy-efficient optics
Metasurfaces are two-dimensional (2D), nanoengineered surfaces that interact strongly with electromagnetic waves and can control light with remarkable precision. These ultra-thin layers can be used to develop a wide range of advanced technologies, including optical photonic, sensing and communication systems. ⌘ Read more

Invisible poison: Airborne mercury from gold mining is contaminating African food crops, study warns
In a recent study published in the journal Biogeosciences, scientists have confirmed that mercury pollution from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is contaminating food crops not through the soil, as previously believed, but directly from the air. Driven by the surging price of gold, which has increased by more than tenfold since 2000, the rapid expansion of unregulated mining in thes … ⌘ Read more

Marriage is hard, but it’s even harder when you immigrate together
Canadian immigration policy has long emphasized family reunification. In fact, most of Canada’s 200,000 yearly newcomers migrate as a couple or a family unit. ⌘ Read more

Does individual climate action distract from the big picture? New research has answers
New research suggests that trying to change people’s climate habits won’t hurt support for big picture solutions. ⌘ Read more

Study highlights supply and demand gaps in after-school programs
After-school programs are in high demand among families, but mismatches in cost, location and program type can prevent students from accessing the opportunities they need most, according to a new USC study. ⌘ Read more

How a genetic split helped plants conquer polluted soils
Phytochelatin synthases (PCSs) produce phytochelatins—tiny, cysteine-rich peptides that bind and neutralize toxic metal ions such as cadmium and arsenic. These molecules act as the plant’s natural detox system, sequestering harmful elements into vacuoles to prevent cellular damage. ⌘ Read more

Researchers’ autonomous system makes it easier to transport cargo on the moon
Autonomy algorithms developed by researchers at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) could one day make cargo transport on the moon safer and more efficient for astronauts. ⌘ Read more

Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang dies at 103
Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang, one of the most influential scientists in modern physics, died in Beijing on Saturday. He was 103. ⌘ Read more

Epigenetic changes help cells adapt to low oxygen levels, study reveals
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered how cells can adjust their gene activity to survive when oxygen runs low. The study, published in Nature Cell Biology, reveals that cells use a previously unknown mechanism to control which proteins are produced—and how quickly. ⌘ Read more

Southern Ocean’s low-salinity Antarctic waters continue absorbing CO₂ despite climate model predictions
Climate models suggest that climate change could reduce the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). However, observational data actually shows that this ability has seen no significant decline in recent decades. ⌘ Read more

Follow-up observations by Webb confirm GRB 250702B is most energetic cosmic explosion ever recorded
Considering the immense size of the universe, it’s no surprise that space still holds plenty of secrets for us. Recently, astronomers believe they stumbled upon a kind of cosmic blast never seen before, and it’s challenging what we thought we knew about how stars die. ⌘ Read more

Exploring the power of plants to make drugs out of sunlight
Plants are consummate chemists, using the sun’s energy and carbon dioxide from the air, to conjure a dazzling array of complex natural products in ways that cannot be replicated synthetically in the lab. ⌘ Read more

‘Less and less sea ice’: Brazil woman sails solo through Arctic
Brazilian navigator Tamara Klink told AFP she encountered “very little” sea ice on her solo sail through the Northwest Passage—a rare feat that would have been impossible without an icebreaker ship three decades ago. ⌘ Read more

Nearly 900 mn poor people exposed to climate shocks, UN warns
Nearly 80% of the world’s poorest, or about 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate hazards exacerbated by global warming, bearing a “double and deeply unequal burden,” the United Nations warned Friday. ⌘ Read more

Surprising bacteria discovery links Hawaiʻi’s groundwater to the ocean
A new species of bacteria has been discovered off the coast of Oʻahu, shedding light on how unseen microbial life connects Hawaiʻi’s land and sea ecosystems. ⌘ Read more

How a pit-shaping module sustains xylem hydraulics and rice grain yield
Xylem vessel pits are tiny openings on the cell wall of water-conducting cells—with pit geometry influencing crop yield through its effect on plant hydraulics and nitrogen transport. ⌘ Read more

Time crystals could power future quantum computers
A glittering hunk of crystal gets its iridescence from a highly regular atomic structure. Frank Wilczek, the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics, proposed quantum systems––like groups of particles––could construct themselves in the same way, but in time instead of space. He dubbed such systems time crystals, defining them by their lowest possible energy state, which perpetually repeats movements without external energy input. Time crystals were experimentall … ⌘ Read more

Maya salt-making compound found preserved underwater in Belize
In a recent study by Dr. Heather McKillop and Dr. E. Cory Sills, a complete Late Classic Maya residential compound discovered preserved in mangrove peat below the sea floor of the Punta Ycacos Lagoon was analyzed. The work is published in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica. ⌘ Read more

Engineers solve the sticky-cell problem in bioreactors and other industries
To help mitigate climate change, companies are using bioreactors to grow algae and other microorganisms that are hundreds of times more efficient at absorbing CO2 than trees. Meanwhile, in the pharmaceutical industry, cell culture is used to manufacture biologic drugs and other advanced treatments, including lifesaving gene and cell therapies. ⌘ Read more

Sniffer dogs tested in real-world scenarios reveal need for wider access to explosives
Dogs aren’t just our best friends, they’re also key allies in the fight against terrorism. Thousands of teams of explosive detection dogs and their handlers work 24/7 at airports, transit systems, cargo facilities, and public events around the globe to keep us safe. But canine detection is an art as well as a science: success depends not only on the skill of both dog and human, but also on their bond, and may vary … ⌘ Read more