Mice on 'godforsaken' frozen volcanoes eat toxic plants to survive conditions 'not remotely compatible with long-term human survival' Researchers risked their lives to study Andean leaf-eared mice on the inhospitable peaks of the Puna de Atacama volcanoes in Chile. land-mammals

55 minutes ago

Sacrificed Inca children died very differently than we thought, study finds -- A new look at three children who died in the Inca human sacrifice ceremony known as Capacocha reveals their last few months and moments. -- Tom Metcalfe

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NASA shares image of impossible-looking crystal growing on the space station. What is happening? -- Astronauts grew a scroll-like crystal aboard the ISS, and its strange shape reveals what happens to ordinary salts once gravity stops running the show. -- Olivia Maule

1 hour ago

Greenland meltwater will drive a 'strong weakening, but not a shutdown' of key Atlantic currents, study finds -- New modeling suggests meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet has a big weakening influence on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, but the runoff likely won't cause a complete and irreversible collapse. -- Sascha Pare

3 hours ago

Startup's 'oscillator-based' AI technology could be 1,000 times more energy efficient than conventional computing -- Engineers say an AI image generator built on a new type of physical computing could use far less power than existing stable diffusion-based methods. -- Adam Shepherd

1 day ago

The bacteria behind gum disease may also harm your heart valves, early research suggests -- A bacterium linked to gum disease may contribute to heart valve disease by setting off inflammation that can lead to calcium buildup. -- Isha Ishtiaq

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Mysterious 'little red dots' at the beginning time may finally have an explanation -- Astronomers may have found an unexpected origin for the mysterious "little red dots" that appear to be so common in James Webb Space Telescope surveys of the early universe. -- Ivan Farkas

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British vial of smallpox scabs triggered the devastating 1789 outbreak among Indigenous Australians, study finds -- It's long been debated what started the devastating 1789 smallpox outbreak among Indigenous Australians. Now, a new modeling study has the likely answer. -- Tom Metcalfe

2 days ago

'It's absolutely exciting!': Astronomers discover atmosphere around an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone for first time -- Astronomers have detected helium escaping from the super-Earth LHS 1140 b, providing the strongest evidence yet that a rocky planet in another star's habitable zone has retained an atmosphere for billions of years. -- Olivia Maule

2 days ago

Decorated wild-boar tusk found in Russia may have been medieval warrior's good-luck charm -- A 12th-century wild-boar tusk found in Russia may be a warrior's amulet. -- Margherita Bassi

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Cells from your mother likely infiltrated your brain in the womb, and they could survive for decades, study reveals -- Maternal cells that infiltrate children's brains during pregnancy take on different jobs in the brain and may persist into old age. -- Clarissa Brincat

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'Fireball' meteorite that smashed into New Jersey home contains ingredients of life from ancient proto-planet -- Amino acids and other "pre-biotic" molecules were spotted in a meteorite that crashed into a New Jersey home in 2024. -- Elizabeth Howell

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Ancient Egyptian golden tongues, sugar found in space, and an ancient impact crater 'geoguessed' by amateur astronomer - Science news this week - July 18, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend - By - Ben Turner - Published - 18 July 26

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'RNA can do things which we have never seen before': New study challenges assumptions about what RNA was up to at the dawn of life -- RNA can fold into more complex configurations than scientists thought, raising questions about how important these 3D structures were when life on Earth began. -- Kamal Nahas

2 days ago

'These are striking forecasts': Super El Ni o keeps getting even more likely, and it could bring a humanitarian crisis -- Forecasts point to the ongoing El Ni o rapidly strengthening to a likely all-time record in the coming months, fueling temperature rises and extreme weather. -- Patrick Pester

2 days ago

'Explosive diarrhea' parasite infections in 5 states linked to Taco Bell lettuce; other cases still under investigation -- Lettuce served at Taco Bell has been identified as a source of Cyclospora infections affecting people across five states. -- Nicoletta Lanese

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'Shared cosmic experience': 90% of the world's population may see 'once-in-a-millennium' asteroid fly by Earth in 2029 -- Researchers predict that up to 7.6 billion people will be able to see the potentially hazardous asteroid Apophis fly past Earth on April 13, 2029. The skyscraper-size space rock will come closer than some satellites, making it clearly visible to the naked eye. -- Harry Baker

2 days ago

Did ancient Egyptian princesses use weapons? Controversial study claims they hunted or trained with the military, but not all experts agree. -- Nearly 4,000-year-old skeletal remains show that several royal women repeatedly used their upper-body muscles. Researchers link those changes to archery and weapon training, but outside experts urge caution. -- Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

2 days ago

Ancient chariot emerges among remains of mysterious society that burned down its own buildings and then disappeared -- An ancient bronze chariot recently discovered in Spain was used by a culture that mysteriously disappeared from the archaeological record. -- Margherita Bassi

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Nobel Prize-winning physicist and team use Claude AI to solve decades-old math puzzle -- A decade after uncovering a mysterious mathematical relationship in the physics of "jamming," Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi and collaborator Francesco Zamponi have finally cracked the case - not with a radical new theory, but with the help of the generative AI Claude. -- Benjamin Skuse

2 days ago