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

The lightcurve of J0722 combining V -band photometry from INASAN Terskol and Kislovodsk telescopes with V -band and unfiltered CV -band measurements collected by VSNET and AAVSO observers (including CV photometry from the two NMW cameras), ASAS-SN g, ATLAS o (orange) and c (cyan), and ZTF g and r data. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2505.20842

The Universe’s Best Kept Secret J0722 Flashes Into Existence

Colliding galaxy clusters PSZ2 G181.06+48.47 (Labeled). Credit: X-ray: NASA / CXC / CfA / Stroe, A. et al.; Optical: PanSTARRS; Radio: ASTRON / LOFAR; Image Processing: NASA / CXC / SAO / N. Wolk

Cosmic Collision Sends Shock Waves Across 11 Million Light-Years

The new study combines ancient DNA analysis with archaeological and linguistic findings. Together, they paint a vivid picture of the pre-colonial societies that once inhabited the country's coastal regions. Illustration by Papua New Guinean artist Arison Kul. Credit: Arison Kul for MPI-EVA

Papua New Guinea’s Ancient DNA Unlocks the Origins of Oceanic Peoples

For this study, writing styles in digitized manuscripts were analyzed using BiNet, a previously developed deep neural network for detection of handwritten ink-trace patterns. By combining writing styles with carbon-14 dates of manuscripts using artificial intelligence, the date-prediction model Enoch is able to produce an accurate date for the manuscript. Credit: Maruf Dhali, University of Groningen

New AI Model Reveals the Dead Sea Scrolls Are Older Than We Thought

An unlucky massive star approaches a supermassive black hole. Credit: University of Hawaiʻi

Dying Stars Unleash the Brightest Explosions in the Universe

Graphical abstract. Credit: Charles University

Ancient Fossil Reveals Hoverflies Were Wasp Impersonators 33 Million Years Ago

The remains of female UPT90 sk 1278. (0.10 m scale). Credit: Museum of London Archaeology in Mant et al. 2025

Beaten and Displayed the Forgotten Execution of a Woman in Early Medieval London

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Eating the Rainbow Could Help You Live Longer and Stay Disease-Free

Credit: Cell Genomics (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2025.100887

Scientists Discover Genetic Switches That Trigger Liver Regeneration

3D render of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system

Gene Editing Surprises Scientists as Blood Stem Cells Show Signs of Aging

Graphical abstract summarizing the researchers' review paper. Credit: Nagpurkar et al. (Neuroscience, 2025).

The Molecules in Your Brain That Could Defeat Depression

Sites of all 43 cancer instances in the Jinling cohort, indicating the number of cases and the percentage of total cases detected by the MCED test for each cancer type. Credit: Nature Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-03735-2

A Blood Test That Sees Cancer Before It Strikes

Ball-and-stick model of the cannabidiol molecule.

Scientists Discover Cannabis Molecules That Annihilate Deadly Fungal Infections

SEM (gray) and EDS mapping (iron (red), selenium (blue), silicon (blue), and nitrogen (yellow)) of poly-SeOxF (a) and poly-MeOxF (b). Credit: Journal of the American Chemical Society (2025). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c01571

New Polymer Technology Brings Precision and Sustainability to Drug Manufacturing

A crystal of carmine seen by transmission electron microscopy, and its crystal structure. Credit: Erik Svensson Grape

Scientists Unlock the Hidden Nanostructure of Carmine Pigment

Synthesis reaction of Calcium superhydride under high pressure reproduced by the machine learning model. Here, the surface of calcium hydride (CaH2) melts to absorb hydrogen molecules, then ordered calcium superhydride (CaH4) is formed after the hydrogen absorption. Credit: R. Sato et al

Machine Learning Cracks the High-Pressure Mystery of Superhydrides

Conceptual illustration of micronozzle acceleration (MNA). A solid hydrogen rod is embedded in an aluminum micronozzle, which channels and focuses plasma flow to optimize proton acceleration. Credit: Masakatsu Murakami

Laser-Powered Breakthrough Creates Mini Accelerator That Fires Protons to Nearly Light Speed

Infrared light passes through the metal lens and is converted into violet light and focused in a focal point due to the material and the special surface structures—enlarged in the magnifying glass. Credit: Ü.Talts / ETH Zurich

This Ultra-Thin Lens Can Make the Invisible Visible

Credit: AI-generated image

Quantum Tango Unveiled How Atoms Dance on Metal

An illustration of Cretaceous Period birds with other dinosaurs from the same time period in the background. A paper in the journal Science documents the earliest-known example of birds nesting in the polar regions. Credit: Gabriel Ugueto

Arctic Birds: 73 Million-Year-Old Nursery Discovered in Alaska

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Solving a 10,000-Year-Old Mystery: Proteins Reveal Why Megafauna Disappeared

Right maxillary teeth of Jinchuanloong niedu (JCMF0132). (a) labial view; (b) lingual view. Credit: Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-03210-5

Ancient Chinese Dragon Reveals Secrets of Middle Jurassic Dinosaurs

Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite image of the Dickson Fjord in East Greenland. Credit: Thomas Monahan.

Earth’s Mystery Pulse Unveiled Deep in Greenland Fjord

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New Study Asks Is Mars Terraforming Even Possible

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), which shows dust from the galaxy's outer ring blocking stellar light from stars within the galaxy. In the central region of the galaxy, the roughly 2,000 globular clusters, or collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity, glow in the near-infrared. The Sombrero Galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. From Earth, we see this galaxy nearly "edge-on," or from the side. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Webb Unveils Sombrero Galaxy’s Violent Past

Artist's conception of a supermassive black hole, billions of times more massive than the sun, like those found at the centers of galaxies. The black hole's rapid spin and powerful magnetic fields can launch enormous jets of plasma into space, a process that could potentially generate the same results as human-made supercolliders. Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University.

Black Holes The Universe’s Ultimate Particle Accelerators

The densest cluster of supermassive black holes identified in the universe. The background image was taken by Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. The red and blue shadows represent the density of the supermassive black holes (quasars) and the surrounding hundreds of young, star-forming galaxies, respectively. The white squares frame the quasars, and the larger squares show close up images. Credit: Subaru Telescope / SDSS, Liang et al

The Cosmic Himalayas: A Galactic Mystery at the Edge of the Universe

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this image of Pluto's surface shrouded in atmospheric haze. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Pluto Breathes and Charon Listens in a Cosmic Dance of Ice and Haze

An SwRI-led study identified particles accelerated to extremely high energies by magnetic reconnection near the Sun. As NASA's Parker Solar Probe (trajectory shown in green) crossed the heliospheric current sheet, it encountered merging magnetic islands (blues) and protons accelerated toward the Sun, establishing reconnection as their source, distinct from unrelated solar processes. Credit: JHUAPL

Parker Solar Probe Uncovers Hidden Source of Sun’s Powerful Energetic Particles

This artistic impression depicts the stage at which WASP-121b accumulated most of its gas, as inferred from the latest results. The illustration suggests that the forming planet had cleared its distant orbit of solid pebbles, which stored water as ice. As a result, the gap prevented additional pebbles from reaching the planet. WASP-121b must have subsequently migrated from the cold, outer regions towards the inner disc, where it now orbits near its star.. Credit: T. Müller (MPIA/HdA - CC BY-SA)

WASP-121b’s Fiery Orbit Reveals Surprising Methane and Secrets of Planet Formation