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Science News Today produces evidence-based reporting on discoveries and developments in biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, health and medicine, Earth sciences, archaeology, and technology. Our reporting draws on peer-reviewed research, original scientific studies, and other reliable scientific sources. Articles published under this byline reflect a collaborative editorial process that may include research, source verification, fact-checking, writing, and editing, rather than the work of a single author. Science News Today takes editorial responsibility for content published under this byline. For more information about our standards and practices, please see our Editorial Policy.

Articles by Science News Today

Curved anthracene derivatives with bulky substituents to undergo efficient, reversible Dewar isomerization upon absorbing visible light. Credit: Chem (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2025.102660

This Liquid Carbon Stores Sunlight and Releases Heat on Demand

Schematic illustration of the QB scheme. The electronic spin of the nitrogen-vacancy center of diamond acts as the QB. Its interactions with the surrounding spin bath of 13C nuclei result in its self-discharging. The hyperfine interactions between the electrons and the 14N can mitigate the self-discharging on one hand and maximize the coherent extractable work of the QB on the other. Credit: Jun-Hong An.

Quantum Batteries Could Hold Energy Without Leaking a Drop

Artistic representation of metasurface quantum graphs. Credit: Joshua Mornhinweg

The Flat Chip That Could Revolutionize Quantum Computing

Illustration of experimental measurement of thermal vibrations in a single atom. Credit: Yichao Zhang et al.

The Hidden Dance of Atoms Reveals Secrets of Future Quantum Devices

This is an example of a debris-covered glacier on Mars. New research into these features suggest that they are purer than once thought, with implications for understanding Mars’ overall water budget and resource utilization on future manned missions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Mars Is Hiding Oceans of Ice Just Beneath Its Dusty Skin

A Hubble Space Telescope image of a pair of galaxies: NGC 6099 (lower left) and NGC 6098 (upper right). The purple blob depicts X-ray emission from a compact star cluster. The X-rays are produced by an intermediate-mass black hole tearing apart a star. Credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CXC, Yi-Chi Chang (National Tsing Hua University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

This Silent Monster Just Glowed Brighter Than a Million Suns

Astronomers at MIT, Columbia University, and elsewhere have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to peer through the dust of nearby galaxies and into the aftermath of a black hole’s stellar feast. Credits: NRAO/AUI/NSF/NASA

The Silent Feasts of Black Holes Finally Seen

Scientist John Sandusky stands in the field of heliostats at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility. John conducted research at night showing that heliostats might be able to detect asteroids. Credit: Craig Fritz

Turning Sunlight Mirrors into Nighttime Asteroid Hunters

This artist's impression shows the planet-forming disk around the star V883 Orionis. In the outermost part of the disk, volatile gases are frozen out as ice, which contains complex organic molecules. An outburst of energy from the star heats the inner disk to a temperature that evaporates the ice and releases the complex molecules, enabling astronomers to detect it. The inset image shows the chemical structure of complex organic molecules detected and presumed in the protoplanetary disk (from left to right): propionitrile (ethyl cyanide), glycolonitrile, alanine, glycine, ethylene glycol, and acetonitrile (methyl cyanide). Credit: ESO / L. Calçada / T. Müller (MPIA/HdA)

The Seeds of Life Are Stirring in a Star Still Being Born

Reference map showing natural features cited, cities, and known routes connecting the Nile River, Foul Bay, Gulf of Suez, Red Sea, and Mediterranean Sea throughout history. Credit: Dobson et al

The Lost Worlds Beneath Our Oceans Were Once Home to Ancient Humans

The redshift distribution for the full sample of 104 quasars (solidblack histogram), with the COSMOS and XMM-LSS subsets shown as bluedashed and red-dotted histograms, respectively. Credit: White et al., 2025.

These Ancient Galaxies Are Hiding Starburst Secrets

Imaging principle of LiTA-HM. Credit: Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adw5275

This New Microscope Lets Us Watch the Brain Think in Real Time

The Arecibo Radio Telescope was one of the first to be used for the search for alien intelligence. Credit : H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF

The Moment We Find Aliens Will Change Everything Forever

JWST's Ultra-Deep Field, showing galaxies and gravitational lenses in a small slice of sky. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The Hidden Black Holes That Built the Universe

Researchers at SLAC's Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument used a laser to superheat a sample of gold. Then, they sent a pulse of ultrabright X-rays from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) through the sample to measure the speed, and thus the temperature, of the atoms vibrating in the sample. Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

This Gold Didn’t Melt Even at 33,000 Degrees and It Changes Everything

A treasure trove of exceptionally preserved early animals from more than half a billion years ago has been discovered in the Grand Canyon, one of the natural world's most iconic sites. The rich fossil discovery – the first such find in the Grand Canyon – includes tiny rock-scraping molluscs, filter-feeding crustaceans, spiky-toothed worms, and even fragments of the food they likely ate. Credit: Mussini et al.

Before Dinosaurs Walked the Earth These Tiny Creatures Ruled the Sea

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Walking with Dinosaurs Discoveries Show Giants Traveling Together 76 Million Years Ago

(a) Superimposed 3D models of MT−0200 and a skull of extant black caiman (Melanosuchus niger UF-Herp-53600). Both models at the same scale, the M. niger model is archived on Morphosource (https://doi.org/10.17602/M2/M359353). Total length estimated for the specimen of M. niger is 4.84 meters and is used here as an analogy to a medium sized Purussaurus (skull or mandible not available) [49]. Scale bar is 50 mm. (b) Detail of the superimposed model, showing the close match between the teeth of UF-Herp-53600 and the tooth marks on MT-0200. Scale bar is 50 mm. (c) Artistic representation of a caimanine alligatorid (Purussaurus neivensis) preying on a large phorusrhacid bird. (d) Artistic representation of a caimanine alligatorid (Purussaurus neivensis) scavenging on a large phorusrhacid bird. Illustrations by Julian Bayona Becerra. Credit: Biology Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0113

The Day the Terror Bird Became Prey

Model of Mirasaura grauvogeli. Credit: Tobias Wilhelm

The Reptile That Wore Feathers Before Birds Took Flight

New research shows how gold clusters mimic the key properties of the most accurate systems currently used in quantum applications, showing promise for a tunable, scalable option for quantum devices. The cluster contains a gold core, on top left, as well as ligands, on the bottom right. Credit: Knappenberger Lab / Penn State

The Surprising Quantum Power Hidden in Tiny Gold Clusters

Schematic representation of the characterization of the atmosphere of the extremely young transiting exoplanet V1298 Tau b. Credit: Jean-Michel Désert/ Saugata Barat/ Kamalika Chakraborty.

This Alien World Is Only 20 Million Years Old and Full of Surprises

Marked with an orange arrow, the blue dot is the the fast X-ray transient EP 250108a, and the supernova that followed it. Using a combination of telescopes, astronomers found fast X-ray transients can result from the 'failed' explosive death of a massive star. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

The Star’s Last Secret Revealed Through Mysterious Cosmic X-Ray Bursts

LST-1, the Large-Sized Telescope prototype at CTAO-North in La Palma, Spain. Credit: Tomohiro Inada

The Gamma-Ray Burst That Lit Up the Cosmos and Changed Everything

Macrophotographs of wild treehoppers exemplifying a small portion of the morphological diversity seen in the Membracidae, photographed at various locations around Costa Rica (A–J and L) and the United Kingdom (K). (A) Polyglypta costata. (B) Poppea capricornis. (C) Antianthe expansa. (D) Cladonota apicalis. (E) Bocydium mae. (F) Enchophyllum sp. (G) Heteronotus trinodosus. (H) Alchisme grossa. (I) Notocera sp. (J) Ennya chrysura. (K) Centrotus cornutus. (L) Membracis mexicana. Credit: England, et al., 10.1073/pnas.2505253122

The Insect That Sees Electricity and Hides in Plain Sight

Columns of foliated rhyolite at Craig Rhos-y-Felin, north Pembrokeshire. Credit: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105303

Stonehenge’s Deepest Secret Was Hidden in a Hand-Sized Boulder

Artist's concept of a Y dwarf. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The Coldest Star That Never Was

Artistic environmental reconstruction of the Montceau-les-Mines Lagerstätte (one of the two sites Palaeocampa is found) with Palaeocampa anthrax. A large Palaeocampa anthrax is depicted at the edge of a shallow inland streambed, shadowed by the lush vegetation and mist of a coal forest, flanked by several euthycarcinoids, Sottyxerxes multiplex, and a pair of freshwater xiphosurans, Alanops magnificus. Credit: Original artwork by Christian McCall

The Fossil That Fooled Science for 150 Years

Credit: Angel Ren, Michigan Medicine

The Silent Killer Inside Your Cells That May Cause Diabetes

Workflow overview, patient characteristics, lead reconstruction, and electrode placement. Credit: npj Parkinson's Disease (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41531-025-00990-5

The Breakthrough That’s Helping Parkinson’s Patients Walk Again

Illustration of what the Mollisonia animal would have looked like at the time it lived, more than 500 million years ago. Credit: Nick Strausfeld

Spiders May Have Evolved Underwater and the Evidence Is in Their Brains