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Chinese astronomers report the detection of a peculiar optical transient event that occurred in the center of a dwarf galaxy. The newly discovered event, designated AT2019ijn, is a fast-rising, slow-decaying blue optical transient with exceptionally bright radio emission. The finding was detailed in a paper published July 6 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Modern research on secondary metabolites from microbes, plants and marine organisms has revealed a remarkable diversity of chemical structures and bioactivities with broad applications in biotechnology, agriculture and medicine. Most natural products are composed of primary biogenic elements such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen.

If you look up invasive species in a textbook, there's a good chance you'll find a picture of a brown tree snake. Native to Australia and the South Pacific, the brown tree snake arrived on Guam sometime after World War II, possibly by stowing away aboard cargo planes.

Historians and archaeologists know that maize was a central food source and cultural symbol across the ancient Maya world, but much of what is known has come from studies focused on large Maya cities and elite burials.

Ecologists have long understood that biodiversity is paramount to ecosystem stability. Until now, however, most ecological research has focused on a single layer of ecological life at a time—for example, plant or animal communities. In reality, ecological systems have multiple layers that interact continuously. Plants are eaten by herbivores, herbivores are eaten by predators, and fluctuations at one trophic level, or an organism's specific position in the food chain, can ripple through the enti

Jessica Metcalf's work stinks. Literally. But the Colorado State University professor's research may be key to protecting livestock and wildlife from a flesh-eating parasite.

Researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) are playing a key role in the summer exhibition wONDERLAND at the Yper Museum. Thanks to interdisciplinary research on more than 1,000 excavated skeletons, they have succeeded in giving the anonymous medieval city dweller a face and a voice once again after centuries.

The rapid growth of sustainable finance in recent years has fueled interest in green investment, ranging from green bonds and environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds to energy-efficient cryptocurrencies. While these assets are often grouped under the broader umbrella of green finance, their interaction during periods of market stress remains largely unexplored.

When violence takes place during street protests, how do corporate leaders respond? According to new research by Forrest Briscoe, professor of organizational behavior at the ILR School, the answer depends on other community characteristics that people can use to help interpret the reasons for that violence. In particular, Briscoe focused on whether the community has a long history of protests turning violent regardless of the issue being protested—and, separately, whether the community has a his

A careful statistical comparison of observations recorded by NASA's Juno mission and the Planetary Science Institute's Io Input Output observatory (IoIO) shows that IoIO observations reliably predict the density of Jupiter's plasma disk, an important part of Jupiter's magnetosphere, according to a new Geophysical Research Letters paper co-authored by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Jeff Morgenthaler. Jian-Zhao Wang of the University of Colorado Boulder is the paper's lead author.

A scientific team led by Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, has identified the origin of a mysterious excess of low-energy gamma rays emitted by the nucleus zinc-70. They found that the excess is caused by magnetic transitions within the nucleus. The study, "Magnetic Character of the Low-Energy Enhancement in 70Zn," published in Nature, sheds light on a long-standing puzzle in nuclear physics and has far-reaching implications for astrophysics.

Photonic microchips can process data at extremely high speeds and are embedded in a wide variety of today's technologies. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) and Harvard University have now succeeded in developing three functional components for such chips that are up to 500 times smaller than conventional designs. The researchers used inverse design, a computer algorithm, to achieve this. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Birdsong carries meaning across open space, helping birds attract mates, defend territory and communicate with rivals. While there has been much research into the use of birdsong across species, researchers have lacked a single global framework that explains birdsong complexity and how it differs from place to place. But now, in a study recently published in Science, a group of researchers in France have analyzed more than 116,000 bird songs from 3,160 passerine species around the world, allowin

Photographs can reveal things that are otherwise impossible for the naked eye to see, be they distant galaxies or microscopic cells. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a practical and versatile imaging technique that makes another usually invisible phenomenon visible: surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), light waves that travel along metal surfaces.

Museums, libraries, archives and heritage organizations face a difficult problem: Many of the objects they preserve are made from materials that naturally deteriorate.

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the University of New South Wales have answered a question that has been around for decades: whether ions of the metal ytterbium can enter certain long-lived, nearly stable states and, if so, for how long. The measured long-lived states may find applications in quantum computers and atomic clocks.

Europe's wildfire crisis forced more than 80,000 people to flee for safety Friday, as vacationers boarded boats to escape fires on a French peninsula and Spanish officials ordered mass evacuations in towns near Madrid.

As the climate becomes increasingly variable and extreme events become more frequent, accelerating the use of innovations that can strengthen agricultural resilience has become a priority for agrifood systems. Science has made progress in developing solutions with the potential to help farmers address these challenges. However, ensuring that knowledge about these innovations reaches more farmers and is understood, adapted and scaled remains one of the major challenges in research for development

A new review led by the University of East London (UEL) has uncovered a major blind spot in air pollution research. Despite domestic gardens covering vast areas of Britain's towns and cities, researchers found no direct evidence showing whether they reduce pollution levels or improve the air people breathe at home. There is a huge gap in understanding the role of domestic gardens in air quality.

Imagine searching for a gemstone in a dark cave: You use a flashlight, looking for a rainbow-colored glint in the darkness. Now, imagine 10 other people in the cave with you, using different-colored flashlights at the same time. Suddenly, you can no longer tell which light is coming from your gemstone, which light is from another flashlight or which light is coming from a reflection off another unknown object. That is what echolocation with multiple, overlapping frequencies would be like. But no

Nitrate contamination of drinking water poses a major health concern, particularly in agricultural communities where fertilizers, livestock manure and septic systems can leach nitrates into groundwater. Many rural households rely on private water wells, which may not be routinely tested, leading some to consume contaminated water without realizing it.

Anticancer prodrugs have attracted significant attention from the medical and scientific communities in recent years because of their potential to improve treatment precision while reducing side effects. These drugs are engineered to remain inactive until they are activated at specific sites or under particular physiological conditions within the body, at which point they release their therapeutic effect.

For more than a century, scientists have sought to reconstruct human evolution using diverse lines of evidence, including fossils, genetic variation across populations and ancient DNA. Building on these approaches, researchers are increasingly using large population biobanks to investigate how natural selection continues to shape the genomes of living populations.

One of Europe's highest distinctions in condensed matter physics has been awarded for a discovery that is reshaping our understanding of magnetism: The 2026 Europhysics Prize of the European Physical Society (EPS) Condensed Matter Division goes to Professor Jairo Sinova of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Dr. Libor Šmejkal and Professor Tomas Jungwirth for their discovery of altermagnetism—a previously unknown fundamental class of magnetism.

A learner stands in a room with a bottle, a cup and a book. The task is to figure out, step by step, where each object belongs in the room. Under the table? Or perhaps on the chair? A humanoid robot gives the instructions—but in Swahili, a language the learner does not know. To solve the puzzle, the learner must gradually decipher what the robot is saying.

The most severe droughts in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean arose when multiple natural climate cycles coincided, according to a new study from Stockholm University published in Science Advances. The findings shed new light on the climate conditions surrounding the Late Bronze Age collapse and may help improve understanding of future drought risks in a warming world.

Haonan Chen, a CSU associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his team have published research that could improve the accuracy of precipitation forecasts up to two weeks in advance.

Europa, one of Jupiter's icy moons, has long fascinated scientists because of what may lie beneath its frozen shell: a global ocean of liquid water. That hidden ocean has made Europa one of the most compelling places in the solar system to study the conditions that might support life. But new research led by Rutgers scientist Lujendra Ojha suggests one of the most promising shortcuts to Europa's ocean may be far more complicated than previously thought.

The promise of quantum computing is to solve complex problems faster and more energy-efficiently than today's supercomputers—from optimizing logistics to simulating molecules. This goal is coming within reach as the number of qubits—the computational units of quantum computing—increases.

La Trobe University scientists have uncovered the critical role fatty cell structures play in our body's early detection and defense against viruses. Published in Nature Communications, the discovery could open the door to a new type of antiviral strategy that harnesses the body's innate defense mechanisms rather than targeting individual viruses.

Ancient samples from the moon's far side are helping scientists uncover how asteroid impacts shaped the early solar system. The findings challenge decades of thinking about when those impacts occurred and offer new insights into the conditions that influenced Earth's evolution.

The pearly razorfish (Xyrichtys novacula) is a small marine animal that lives in sandy coastal waters and feeds on creatures like shrimp. Known locally in Spain's Balearic Islands as raors, it is a popular dish in many homes and restaurants across the region.

A study carried out on smallholder farms in northern Peru shows that Blanco de Piura, a native fine-flavor cacao variety, can achieve productivity levels comparable to those of commercial varieties widely grown across Latin America. The research, led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the University of Göttingen in collaboration with Cooperativa Agraria Norandino, shows that Blanco de Piura—renowned for its exceptional flavor and aroma—can produce an average of 1,200 to 1,5

New World screwworm, a concerning pest that mainly affects livestock and wildlife, was detected in South Texas in June 2026. It has since expanded northward in Texas, and there was one case in New Mexico as of July 23, 2026.

Punch, a plush-clutching Japanese baby monkey that has become a global online sensation, will celebrate his first birthday on Sunday as his zoo is flooded with fan letters from around the world.

Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi have discovered that the malaria parasite relies on a specific type of fat to survive and multiply within the human host, uncovering a previously unknown vulnerability that could help guide future treatments.

Drones are increasingly being used for disaster response, infrastructure inspection and environmental monitoring. However, most drone systems rely primarily on cameras and other visual sensors, which can become ineffective in smoke, dust, darkness or collapsed structures. Odor sensing could provide a valuable complementary capability by enabling drones to detect gas leaks and chemical emissions that cannot be identified through visual sensing alone. Yet a major challenge has limited the practica

Evolution is all about trade-offs. Traits that may be beneficial in one situation may backfire in another. Over millions of years, species can become specialized for one way of living rather than being equally good at everything. This explains why mammal teeth look the way they do today.

UK astronomers are a step closer to playing a leading role in NASA's search for alien life in the coming decades as they continue developing one of the core instruments of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The exciting mission—the U.S. space agency's next flagship space telescope after the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope—is expected to launch in the 2040s.

Wildfires are becoming a feature of the UK's hotter, drier climate. In July 2026, major fires swept through parts of the UK in a matter of days—notably setting Arthur's Seat, the extinct volcano in the center of Edinburgh, alight. The Scottish Greens labeled wildfires a "national emergency" after that fire.

Researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, found a way to optimize how cells bind to small packages they release called extracellular vesicles. By coating the vesicles with metal ions, they made cells and their corresponding vesicles stick together more strongly than they would naturally. This reduced the time needed for cells to capture their own vesicles, even in mixtures containing billions of other vesicles.

Imagine you're driving down a winding road when you spot an injured possum. Your instincts might tell you to hit the brakes, check what's wrong and bundle it into your car. Research shows many of us want to help wild animals in distress. This may be out of empathy, obligation or simply wanting to do the right thing.

When scientists want to create a protein that can potentially treat disease, one approach is to begin with a different protein and evolve it in the lab, selecting over many generations for versions with a new, desired function.

If you've been anywhere near the internet in recent days, you will likely have seen the viral footage of "Jimothy": an unusually round raccoon in Seattle that hops and skips along in a video filmed by local resident Kiana Hall.

All four main LHC experiments have found new signs that oxygen and neon collisions may create the extreme state of matter that existed during the first microseconds after the Big Bang.

Many people are familiar with fossilized wood as a decorative item from a museum shop. However, the fact that it can preserve the geological history of entire regions spanning millions of years is a new discovery. A research team led by geologist Dr. Steffen Trümper from the University of Münster has now demonstrated for the first time that fossilized wood is a natural archive from which the geological history of an entire region over hundreds of millions of years can be deduced.

As the planet warms, countries around the world are racing to meet their net-zero targets set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Birds can inhabit various environments with different climates and temperatures, ranging from cold polar regions to scorching hot deserts. To survive and thrive in these very different environments, they need to effectively regulate their body temperature.

Rejection can sometimes be so intense it feels like physical pain—a punch in the gut or a heart that aches. It often involves feeling left out and unwanted. And it can make us question our self-worth.

A research team led by SKKU professor Hosung Seo of the Department of Quantum Information Engineering and the SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology, working with the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Washington, has identified—for the first time—an atomic defect structure in the zinc oxide (ZnO) semiconductor with outstanding properties for use as a "spin qubit," a core building block of future quantum computers, quantum communications and quantum sensors.