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More than 1,000 years ago, two babies were tucked away in an abandoned Roman toilet channel. Yet, despite what the location suggests, they were cherished, not discarded.

Nitrogen gas is abundant in Earth's atmosphere, but most living organisms can't readily use it. Only a subset of microbes with enzymes known as nitrogenases can break nitrogen gas apart and convert it into ammonia.

How do students actually use AI learning assistants? A new research paper by IU International University of Applied Sciences provides the first robust answers to this question. For the study "Using AI-based Learning Assistants in Higher Education: A Large-Scale Descriptive Analysis," the research team led by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kristina Schaaff, Dr. Valerie Hekkel and Quintus Stierstorfer analyzed anonymized usage data from approximately 77,000 IU online students who were using the Learning Companion

Since returning to power, President Donald Trump's administration has approved five pesticides considered by many to be PFAS "forever chemicals," a class of toxic substances facing bans and increasing restrictions around the world.

Most sensors are designed to do only one thing: detect what passes through them. But what if a sensor could do more? To create a new generation of technology, researchers have looked to living systems for inspiration. If a sensor could detect molecules, could it also remember previous interactions and selectively respond to them?

The left-right asymmetry of South African butterfly lilies (genus Wachendorfia) has been regarded as a classic evolutionary puzzle for more than a century. Due to the mirror-image arrangement of the floral parts, the plants achieve efficient cross-pollination. The molecular basis of this arrangement has now been uncovered by an international team led by the University of Potsdam.

Using spectral data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), astronomers have gained some of the clearest evidence yet that white dwarf stars are accreting debris from disintegrating exoplanets. Captured while DESI was unable to study its primary targets: distant galaxies, the results provide unprecedented insights into the chemical makeup of rocky exoplanets, revealing compositions remarkably similar to the planets and asteroids of our own inner solar system.

"An island of biodiversity in a sea of monoculture": This is how a recent study characterized the Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Territory (TIPB), located in the northeastern part of Mato Grosso state in Brazil's Central-West region. The study showed that the area's human occupation patterns and vegetation cover have remained largely unchanged for four decades. Meanwhile, the surrounding area has been altered by the expansion of livestock ranching, soybean farming and the construction of major high

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers obtained high-contrast coronagraphic images of the protoplanetary disk around the young, nearby star TW Hydrae. Results of the observational campaign, published July 27 on the preprint server arXiv, shed more light on the nature of this disk.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) and the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, have developed and tested a new class of fluorescent probes that enable scientists to visualize xylem, the specialized tissue responsible for transporting water and minerals through plants. The work, published in Plant and Cell Physiology, introduces a faster, more specific and sensitive staining method than conventional dyes, creating avenues to strengthen research on plan

As parasites become increasingly resistant to existing drugs, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, are working to develop a new generation of treatments for two serious infectious diseases: malaria and babesiosis.

Biodiversity loss has been among the central topics in public, policy and scientific debate for several decades. While its accelerating pace and impacts are well recognized, translating the vast amounts of biodiversity data into reliable indicators that can inform policy remains a challenge, requiring considerable time and technical effort. To help address this, the EU project B-Cubed developed automated and interoperable data pipelines that were tested via case studies. The B-Cubed Legacy Bookl

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is defined as the ability of disease-causing microorganisms to withstand treatments like antibiotics.

Researchers in the lab of Sam Peng, the Pfizer Inc.–Gerald Laubach Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemistry at MIT and a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, have developed a super-resolution imaging technology. It allows scientists to visualize molecular structures with angstrom-level localization precision—three orders of magnitude beyond the nanometer-scale limits of standard fluorescent dyes—while simplifying the imaging process.

The small mountain streams that feed many of the West's rivers may face a much drier future. A new study led by NAU researchers found that groundwater-fed streamflow, known as base flow, has been steadily declining across headwater watersheds in the western United States since 1950 and could decrease by 45% to 65% by the end of this century if current climate trends continue.

A Pizza Hut in southwest Pennsylvania was recently highlighted for preserving its retro 1990s appearance, even as hundreds of other locations have closed across the United States.

Scientists created an AI system that uses facial recognition and real-time touchscreen testing to automate cognitive studies of capuchin monkeys in the wild. The American Journal of Primatology published a proof-of-concept for the novel method—dubbed CapuchinAI—developed by researchers at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Malaria parasites proliferate in an unusual way. Rather than dividing into two daughter cells like human cells, they first amplify their genetic material tenfold, hundredfold or even thousandfold before simultaneously producing a corresponding number of daughter parasites. Until now, the mechanisms controlling these processes were only partly understood.

Approximately 40% of insect species worldwide are thought to be in decline and under threat of extinction. Among the key causes are habitat loss, pollution and climate change. Another threat is artificial light from sources like streetlights and security lamps. In new research published in the journal Biological Conservation, scientists say a simple change in artificial lighting could help reduce this particular threat.

Researchers at Technical University of Darmstadt and the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research have succeeded for the first time in decelerating highly charged ions from the GSI accelerator to low energies and subsequently storing them in a Penning trap. They were also successful in performing the first electron cooling of highly charged ions in such a trap. The results have been published in Physical Review X (PRX).

New York University researchers have pinpointed the molecular players responsible for plants "feeling full" once they've taken up enough nitrogen—a finding that could help scientists develop plants that absorb more nitrogen from the soil and allow farmers to reduce environmentally and economically costly fertilizer applications.

Ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) is a metal oxide that commonly serves as an important metallic conductor, quantum material and industrial electrocatalyst. While there have been debates surrounding the magnetic properties of RuO2, it is generally thought to be nonmagnetic in its bulk form. But now, a new study, published in Science Advances, has found that very thin layers of RuO2 can become magnetic when its lattice is placed under strain.

NYU researchers have made microscopic oil droplets in water do something usually reserved for living cells: change shape in complex, controllable ways and even engulf their surroundings.

Fertilization is often imagined as a frantic race, with millions of sperm competing for a single prize. But new research by a team of evolutionary biologists from Syracuse University, the University of Siena in Italy and the University of Szeged in Hungary reveals a more surprising reality, where success can depend less on competition and more on cooperation.

Freeman Hrabowski Scholar Bianca Jones Marlin studies how caregiving takes shape in the brain and how some biological adaptations are passed to the next generation.

Thick smoke from massive wildfires has been spreading in North America and Europe once again in 2026. The health impacts of breathing this particle-filled air are becoming well known, but wildfires' influence on the weather is less widely recognized.

Strict regulations have prevented continental U.S. beekeepers from participating in the lucrative organic honey market, but new research finds that bees' actual habits make certain rules too extreme. The findings potentially provide evidence for federal agencies to ease restrictions and open organic markets to U.S. producers.

For archaeologists, the Coëby cemetery in Brittany, France, is a gold mine for research. It contains several prehistoric stone monuments and earth mounds. In a new study of two unusually large mounds, scientists may have stumbled upon a rare style of funerary monument.

Ride-hailing has become a routine part of urban life in the United States, but its broader economic impacts have been difficult to measure. As Uber and Lyft expanded across hundreds of cities over the past decade, they promised more flexible work for drivers and convenience for passengers. Questions remained, however, about how these promises translated into measurable changes in local economies.

The ancient Egyptian god of the moon had two very different faces: a crescent-beaked white bird and a silver-coated baboon. Now, researchers think they may have found the common thread connecting them all.

A study published in the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (JSTAT), inspired by the behavior of bacterial colonies observed in previous experiments, uses mathematical models to describe the expansion of competing populations. The aim is to understand which factors determine the success of one population over another.

A brewing "super" El Nino cycle is poised to unleash heat waves, floods and drought worldwide, with the effects amplified by long-term human-caused climate change.

For the first time in more than a century, a total solar eclipse is coming to mainland Spain with an even longer encore next summer.

South Korea registered its highest temperature since records began more than a century ago on Sunday, as authorities warned people to "immediately" stop all outdoor activities in affected areas.

The signals that cells use to switch genes on have remained almost unchanged across 2 billion years of evolution, but the ones used to switch genes off vary dramatically from one branch of life to another, according to a new study from the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Department of State Health Services have reported a likely case of soft tick-borne relapsing fever (STRF) in an Austin-area resident. Now, they highlight the growing risk of exposure to infected ticks in urban and residential settings. The study appeared in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

Xenophagocytosis is a natural immune process that limits interspecies organ generation by eliminating living donor cells, researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, report. By uncovering how embryonic macrophages eliminate living donor cells, the researchers developed strategies to block this response. Using this strategy, they significantly improved donor cell survival and the generation of rat pancreas in mice, bringing us one step closer to producing transplantable human organs in

New research is giving children a voice in understanding how technological interruptions affect parent-child relationships. A paper, "Distracted, Interrupted, or Disrupted: A Pathway Model of Technoference," led by Associate Professor Cara Swit from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury's (UC) School of Health Sciences, explores how technologies such as smartphones can interfere with parent-child interactions.

With no background in coding, Faith Maeba, a psychology major, was reluctant when her mother first suggested she enroll in classes on artificial intelligence.

Koç University researchers have developed a conservation method that combines photogrammetry, digital modeling, 3D printing and embedded sensors to replace missing sections of archaeological amphorae. The customized fills can also monitor environmental and physical changes affecting the artifacts, offering a systematic approach to their conservation and long-term preservation.

Australia had years to prepare for the arrival of bird flu. The deadly, highly transmissible H5N1 strain emerged in late 2020 in Asia before spreading to every other continent except Australia.

Since 2016, an ordinary-looking F-type star called KIC 8462852, nicknamed Tabby's star, has behaved anything but ordinarily. In a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on July 6, researchers revisited this star to find out what is really causing its irregular dimming.

We have known for a while that the Milky Way is full of homeless worlds. Rogue planets, free-floating planets—call them what you like—but they are planets formed in orderly systems around ordinary stars and then thrown out, either by a gravitational shove from a sibling planet or by a star that strayed too close. What has been much less clear is what happens to any moons they were carrying at the time. Eviction is a violent business, and you would expect a moon to be the first thing lost.

IBM and researchers from the University of Chicago announced a demonstration in quantum computing that meets the fundamental criteria for "quantum advantage"—the point where quantum computers can be confirmed to have outperformed classical computers on trusted computations.

Most Americans favor nonviolent measures, such as temporary barricades, over violent measures, like the use of rubber bullets, by border enforcement officers toward undocumented migrants on the southern border, a UCL-led study published in the journal Migration Studies has found.

Ask someone if they'd rather take $5 today or $10 next week and they'll know which option is better.

A team of Brazilian researchers discovered the first direct evidence that goethite—the mineral responsible for the brown color of soils—can withstand extreme pressures and temperatures all the way to the planet's interior inside a diamond just 3 millimeters (0.1 inch) long, within a microscopic impurity. Goethite forms in soil and on the ocean floor from iron-rich minerals in the presence of water. It incorporates some of these water molecules into its mineral structure. The study suggests that

Along the three coasts of the contiguous United States, a silent race unfolds. Fueled by climate change, sea levels rise faster than at any time in recent geologic history. Meanwhile, coastal wetlands cling to a slim lead, lifted on newly accumulated sediments or moving inland as encroaching tides nip at their heels.

An international study led by Curtin University has put to bed a scientific debate dating back 176 years, confirming that two historically significant oyster species from Western Australia and Fiji are distinct species.

In everyday life, the ability to read facial expressions plays a vital role in social communication, as it reveals a speaker's underlying emotions, intentions and psychological state. More importantly, accurately recognizing subtle signs of positive emotions can help build trust, enhance cooperation and strengthen relationships.