Science News Today

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

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The Placenta May Hold the Secret to the Evolution of the Human Brain

Credit: Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.033

Octopus Arms Can Taste Rotten Food and Bad Eggs Through Their Suckers

Graphical abstract Credit: Cell Host & Microbe (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2025.05.025

Scientists Capture How Human Embryos Fight Off Bacteria Before Birth

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New Global Study Reveals Mosquitoes Change Their Diet Based on Environment

Butterflyfish such as the "Latticed butterflyfish" (Chaetodon rafflesii) count among the reef fish perceived as beautiful in the study. This photo was taken in a reef in Indonesia. Credit: Sonia Bejarano, Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT)

The Most Beautiful Fish in the World Are Found Where Reefs Are Best Protected

A method for producing MSCs has opened up new possibilities in veterinary regenerative medicine. Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University

Scientists Turn Dog Urine into Powerful Healing Stem Cells

Unlike mammals, birds often feed on sour fruits. A new study shows how this tolerance developed. Credit: Gabriel Weijie Low

The Surprising Secret Behind Birds’ Love for Sour Fruit

Male sea spider carrying egg cases preserved in osmium tetroxide. Credit: Shana K. Goffredi

Deep Sea Spiders Discovered Farming Methane-Eating Bacteria for Food

Ritual bathing in the Fountain House. Credit: D. Porotsky; courtesy the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem in Tsfania-Zias 2025

Ancient Temple Unearthed in Israel Reveals Secret Rituals of Purification

Artist's impression of Planet Nine as an ice giant eclipsing the central Milky Way, with a star-like Sun in the distance. Neptune's orbit is shown as a small ellipse around the Sun. Credit: Nagual Design

Astronomers May Have Just Caught a Glimpse of Planet Nine—By Feeling Its Heat

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The First Stars Are Speaking Through Radio Waves Across Time

In a new study, scientists from the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the University of Padova analyzed data from nearly 300 mountain weather stations. Credit: UNIL

Intense Summer Downpours Could Double in the Alps as Climate Warms

Annual mean maps of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Total Cloud Cover (top) and the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Shortwave Cloud Radiative Effect (bottom) for the 2001–2024 period. Credit: Geophysical Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2025GL114882

Clouds Are Vanishing—And Earth Is Heating Faster Than Expected, Warn Scientists

A volunteer with Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup removes a plastic bag from Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Val Vega for Ocean Conservancy

Plastic Bag Bans Are Working—But the Ocean Is Still Drowning in Plastic

Marine snow—a mixture of dead plankton, waste, mucus, and other organic material slowly sinking from the ocean’s surface—is an important, but poorly understood, part of the ocean carbon cycle. Credit: Colleen Durkin

New Research Unveils Ocean’s Secret Carbon Gatekeepers

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The Ocean Is Changing Color—and It’s Telling Us Something Deep

Peruvian gas workers discovered the mummy of a boy believed to be over 1,000 years old while installing pipes in Lima.

1,000-Year-Old Mummy Unearthed Beneath Lima Street

Examples of anthropogenically modified faunal specimens and bone tools. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07612-9

Denisovans Lived in the Himalayas for Over 150,000 Years

A skull found in Harbin, China, in 1933 has been found to contain both Denisovan DNA and Denisovan protein.

What Did the Mysterious Denisovans Look Like? A 146,000-Year-Old Skull May Finally Answer That

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How Changing Climates Helped Pterosaurs Take Flight and Rule the Skies

Illustration of the experimental setup. Credit: Optica (2025). DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.565224

New Optical Device from Intersecting Fibers Could Transform Photonics

An illustration of how quantum error correction problems can be mapped onto an Ising spin-glass model. (a) The original syndrome measurement circuit. (b) The detector error graph with circuit-level noise. (c) The corresponding Ising spin-glass model. Credit: Hanyan Cao and Dongyang Feng.

Scientists Solve Longstanding Quantum Error Problem Unlocking New Path to Practical Quantum Computers

The proposed five-dimensional Langevin approach predicts released energy in asymmetric fission with remarkable precision and accuracy, which is based on the role of shell effects and multichance fission. Credit: Institute of Science Tokyo

A New 5D Model Cracks the Mystery of Mercury’s Bizarre Nuclear Fission

Dark matter map for a patch of sky based on gravitational lensing analysis of a Kilo-Degree Survey. Credit: Kilo-Degree Survey Collaboration

The Telescope That Will Redefine Our Universe Is Almost Ready

This illustration shows a Hycean planet orbiting a dim red dwarf. New research shows how tidal heating can affect the habitable zones of these hypothetical planets. Credit: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI) / N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)

Tidal Forces Could Make Ocean Worlds More Habitable Than We Thought

Credit: Michael S. Helfenbein with AI-generated images

Astronomers Discover the Fiery Origins of Double Hot Jupiters

The schematic artistic view of the Cosmic Owl, consisting of twin collisional ring galaxies with binary AGN. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2506.10058

Astronomers Discover “Cosmic Owl” Galaxy Merger with Twin Rings and Bright Eyes

Dark photons gain mass from a field called the dark Higgs (red) when it settles in the circular valley of its potential energy function, typically shaped like a wine bottle. If dark photons are produced very early in the universe at high density, they become trapped in long configurations called cosmic strings that lie at the center of this potential. If production occurs later, at lower densities, the dark photons remain as wavelike excitations (black) in the valley and can serve as a viable dark matter candidate. Credit: David Cyncynates and Zach Weiner.

Dark Photons Make a Comeback in the Search for Dark Matter

This image shows the new filament, which connects four galaxy clusters: two on one end, two on the other. These clusters are visible as bright spots at the bottom and top of the filament (four white dots encircled by color). A mottled band of purple stretches between these bright dots, standing out brightly against the black surrounding sky; this is the filament of X-ray-emitting hot gas that had not been seen before, and contains a chunk of 'missing' matter. The purple band comprises data from Suzaku. The astronomers were able to identify and remove any possible 'contaminating' sources of X-rays from the filament using XMM-Newton, leaving behind a pure thread of 'missing' matter. These sources can be seen here as bright dots studded through—and removed from—the filament's emission. Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton and ISAS/JAXA

Astronomers Discover Hidden Bridge of Hot Gas Linking Galaxy Clusters

Knee braces, water therapy, and exercise are the most beneficial non-drug therapies, per meta-analysis of more than 100 clinical trials involving nearly 10,000 people.

Simple Therapies Like Braces and Water Exercise Beat High-Tech Treatments for Knee Pain