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Drug development is among the slowest, most failure-prone processes in modern science, with about 90% of drug candidates never reaching the market. Today, artificial intelligence methods have accelerated the first step—plucking promising molecules out of endless possibilities—but countless challenges remain. A successful drug must be not only safe and effective but also able to bypass the body's defenses and reach the right target.

Scuba diving is often presented as a success story for marine ecotourism.

Earlier toilet training and new recycling technologies are among expert-backed solutions to reduce the environmental impact of disposable diapers and other hygiene products, according to a new study led by UCL researchers.

Fusion at high temperatures powers the sun and, if harnessed, could provide a potential source of energy here on Earth. But controlling fusion reactions has other benefits. The process also generates subatomic particles called neutrons that are used in a range of applications spanning medicine, research and national security.

Astronomers searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence may have been missing alien signals in part of the radio spectrum that has not recently been explored.

A startling new study of a little-known, unpublished short story by Alan Turing challenges our understanding of the man who played a key role in cracking the Nazis' Enigma code, developed the theoretical underpinnings of the first computers and laid the groundwork for the development of artificial intelligence.

Chiral molecules can exist in left- and right-handed forms. Although these mirror-image forms may look almost identical, they can behave very differently in chemical reactions, biological systems and advanced materials. Preparing one mirror-image form in high purity is therefore an important goal in chemistry.

In May 2026, OpenAI released a new math result that sent shock waves throughout the world of mathematical research. A major unsolved problem called the "unit distance conjecture" had just been resolved by generative AI.

For more than 20 years, about 4,000 autonomous profiling floats have been drifting through the ocean. They form part of the international Argo program (Argo—global array of profiling floats). At regular intervals, they descend to a depth of 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) and, as they rise, measure parameters such as temperature, salinity and pressure. Once they reach the sea surface again, they transmit these data via satellite to the Argo network, which is available to researchers worldwide. Hardly

Snakes are everywhere in our legends and mythology. Yet for most of us, our blood runs cold whenever we encounter these strangely undulating, scaly tubes of muscle slithering through the leaf litter.

Crop production faces threats from plant pathogens. Traditional disease-resistance breeding relies heavily on natural plant resistance genes that encode immune receptors adapted to particular pathogens. However, rapidly evolving pathogens frequently overcome these natural defenses, and the limited diversity of naturally occurring immune receptors makes it difficult to develop crops with durable resistance.

In mammals, males are usually stronger and more competitive than females. Males also show greater inequality in reproductive success—the number of offspring they produce—than females. In spotted hyenas, the opposite is true: Reproductive inequality is greater among females than males. The reason? Female spotted hyenas pass on their social rank and the associated privileges, such as priority access to food, to their offspring, whereas males do not.

New research from the University of St Andrews and Université de Neuchâtel has uncovered the mechanism that allows sperm whales to sleep in a unique vertical position just under the ocean surface.

Plant diversity has long been regarded as key to stable and resilient ecosystems. However, until now, little has been understood about why it has different effects in agricultural areas than in grasslands or forests. An international research group, in which the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB) played a leading role, has now investigated this question for the first time on a global scale.

Researchers at the University of Cologne have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that links two fundamental processes in mitochondria. The team, led by Julia Racho and Dylan Stobbe under the supervision of Professor Dr. Jan Riemer from the Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Cologne, demonstrated that the oxidative folding of proteins—that is, the process by which proteins acquire their functional three-dimensional structure and additional stabilizing disulfide bonds—is closely

It's been four years since the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion.

Leiden environmental researchers have mapped the environmental footprint of different diets and revealed which population groups have the greatest impact through their food choices. Their findings show where efforts to make the food system more sustainable could make the greatest difference.

The number of chicks in the Coulman Island emperor penguin colony decreased by about 69% in 2025 compared with 2024, according to research published in Communications Earth & Environment. The authors suggest that a large iceberg, which grounded off the island between July 2025 and January 2026, likely restricted the colony's access to important foraging areas, demonstrating that individual iceberg movements may affect breeding success even when overall sea ice conditions appear favorable.

Puerto Ricans share deep skepticism toward elected officials and a widespread sense of limited self-governance, according to a new study from the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras.

Anyone who has spent time on a college campus lately has probably heard laments from faculty about their students' reading habits, or rather, nonreading habits. Such complaints are more than unfounded nostalgia for a bygone age.

The European Union adopted new legislation on plants obtained through certain new genomic techniques in June 2026. The new framework will apply after a two-year transition period. It distinguishes between two categories. Plants in Category 1 (NGT-1) have a limited number and type of genetic changes that could also occur naturally or through conventional breeding. Under the new legislation, they will largely be regulated like conventionally bred plants. Category 2 plants with more extensive or co

Sustainable business practices are often seen as a luxury that only rich countries can afford. And these days, some of the biggest economies, including the U.S., are backtracking on those commitments.

A new study led by Japanese researchers from Tohoku University and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) reveals that some of the minerals most essential for green technologies may have a significant negative impact on biodiversity. Using remote sensing and machine learning, the scientists produced an unprecedented global map of mined commodities.

Animals and electronic devices aren't the only things with memory. Materials can retain memories of past deformations in their microscopic structure. A common example is a crease in a sheet of paper that has been folded then unfolded. Understanding this type of memory could benefit the design of materials that respond to changes in their environment in predictable ways.

Efficient heat management in solids is key to advancing the next generation of electronics. However, wave-like heat movement—known as phonon focusing—had been observed only at extremely low, or cryogenic, temperatures, limiting its study and practical use.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in classroom practice in Hong Kong, following the Education Bureau's release of the Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools and its commitment to supporting innovative technology in schools.

A new collaborative research project between Murdoch University and Walailak University (WU) aims to restore seagrass meadows in Thailand using 3D-printed pods made from bioplastics.

Researchers at the University of Würzburg have succeeded in detecting exceptionally robust electrical transport in a topological insulator. This could lead to new metrological applications. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

From the moment they enter the world, human babies depend on others in a way that is unmatched across most species.

Today, people speak or sign around 7,500 languages. Yet this figure provides only a snapshot of a constantly changing history. How many languages existed before written records? Did agriculture reduce linguistic diversity by allowing expanding farming populations to replace smaller hunter-gatherer groups? Or did population growth initially create more opportunities for new languages to emerge?

Luggage-clad residents and tourists fled a French peninsula by boat, and the smell of smoke drifted into parts of Madrid on Friday as wildfires swept through parts of Western Europe, triggering states of emergency and calls for EU help.

A major new digital mapping project could help safeguard some of the world's most important and well-known heritage sites from rising seas, flooding and coastal erosion. Researchers led by scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA), Durham University and the University of Cape Town have created the Global Coastal Heritage (Glo-CoH) dataset, the first comprehensive digital map of UNESCO World Heritage sites located along coastlines less than 20 meters (66 feet) above sea level.

Venus is an inhospitable place, with temperatures soaring to several hundred degrees Celsius (hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit) and no oceans like those on Earth. Planetary scientists long believed Venus was geologically dormant. However, recent research indicates that Venus remains geologically "alive" and even hosts active volcanoes.

If the Colorado River Basin is the lifeblood of the American Southwest, keeping the region's agricultural, ecological and economic systems thriving, Colorado's West Slope River basins could be considered the heart. Together, they contribute about 70% of the water delivered to Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the nation.

African gray foam-nest treefrogs (Chiromantis xerampelina) are common across the savannas and dry forests of southeastern Africa. Despite their unremarkable outward appearance, these small animals display some of the most intriguing reproductive behaviors known to science. Most notably, the females are highly polyandrous, constructing elaborate foam nests and mating with many different male partners in a breeding season.

Nearly a decade after the #MeToo movement reshaped public conversations about sexual harassment, a new study from the Newcomb Institute at Tulane University finds that Americans are reporting experiences of sexual harassment at far higher rates than they did before the movement.

Exceptional points, or EPs for short, are among the phenomena of modern physics. These are special points or locations at which the properties of matter, space or time change. In a new theoretical study, researchers from the Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems (PhoQS) at Paderborn University, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Arizona, have shown that exceptional points in nonlinear systems follow a universal geometric order—something that was previously unclear. Their f

Millions of people living on tropical islands could face a future of increasingly dangerous heat as climate change drives longer and more intense periods of humid conditions. While rising temperatures are often discussed as the main consequence of climate change, humidity plays a crucial role in determining how much heat the human body can tolerate. When the air is already full of moisture, sweat evaporates less effectively, making it harder for people to cool down.

Warm weather often means more time outside with your pets, but higher temperatures also increase the risk of heat stress, which occurs when an animal's body cannot properly cool itself, causing its core temperature to rise.

Every year, thousands of tourists pile into game drive vehicles or don their hiking gear and cross South Africa's nature reserves. Binoculars and cameras at the ready, each hopes for a special encounter with Africa's wildlife—as small as dwarf mongooses, as mighty as elephants or as elegant as giraffes.

The worlds of the solar system are exciting and, so far, mostly pristine places for planetary scientists to study. As space missions continue to travel to Mars, Europa, asteroids and other worlds, questions arise about keeping them safe for continued exploration and observation.

What if the Higgs boson found in 2012 is not alone but is the only sibling we have encountered so far? Scientists at CERN discovered the particle that year, and it was a major discovery because it explained how other particles acquire mass. For a long time, scientists thought this was the final piece of the puzzle.

A new study reveals that human activities have fundamentally reshaped biodiversity patterns on islands across the globe, with important implications for how scientists understand ecology, evolution and conservation.

Scientists at the University of Lincoln have discovered a promising new way to help protect crops from one of climate change's growing threats to global food production—increasing soil salinity.

Every year, billions of migratory birds connect the world's continents, oceans and ecosystems as they undertake epic journeys between their foraging habitats and breeding grounds.

Human sacrifice was deeply ingrained in Inca civilization. Children and young people were selected for sacrifice to appease the gods and sacred mountain spirits. Being chosen was considered a great honor for both the victims and their families. Now, research into the remains of three individuals sacrificed as part of an ancient Inca ritual is revealing new insights into how they died.

Past studies have shown that cannabis use during adolescence is associated with a variety of negative impacts—including emotional distress, adverse academic outcomes, and brain development and functioning—that can persist into adulthood. Though there has been an overall decrease in cannabis use among Minnesota adolescents over the past decade, prior studies have been limited in their ability to examine the nuances in this trend—particularly differences in use among social groups.

A moth caterpillar identified by the agribusiness sector as one of the most destructive pests of soybean, cotton and corn crops may harbor fungi and bacteria in its gut that can degrade expanded polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam. In an article published in the journal BMC Microbiology, researchers from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil presented the results of a study investigating the gut microbiota of Helicoverpa armigera and its

Subseasonal forecasting, or the ability to predict weather trends two weeks to two months in advance, is a capability highly sought after in various economic sectors, including energy, water management and agriculture. Reliable forecasts on this scale have thus far been largely out of reach, but researchers at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) are leveraging AI to see whether it can help them grasp this elusive capability.

A heat wave lasting four months, followed by water shortages and crop failures. This is England in the 13th century, not the 21st. What is often called the Medieval Warm Period saw elevated temperatures in many parts of the world between the 10th and 13th centuries.