Science News: Recent scientific discoveries and expert analysis

By heating and cooling a quantum material called 1T-TaS₂, researchers were able to control its conductive properties, showing that this type of material could speed up electronic processing one thousand fold.

Astronomers claim to have found new evidence supporting a controversial observation that our galaxy is residing in an unusually sparse region in space. If it's correct, it could rewrite cosmology.

The nearly 5,000-year-old remains of a "sacrificial ass" and three other donkeys from a faraway land have been discovered under a Bronze Age house in Israel.

Dam construction since 1835 has caused Earth's poles to "wander" away from the planet's rotational axis because of the massive weight of water reservoirs.

Weight loss is known to improve health in obesity. A new study provides clues to how: by rejuvenating fat tissue and changing fat cells' metabolism.

Taking the diabetes drug metformin before pregnancy may reduce the risk of debilitating morning sickness by 70%, early data hint. But a clinical trial is still needed to confirm this finding.

A new artificial intelligence (AI) model called Centaur can predict and simulate human thought and behavior better than any past models, opening the door for cutting-edge research applications.

A child with a rare genetic disease that affects mitochondria is the first person to receive a new experimental treatment for the potentially life-threatening condition.

Specialized cells in the intestinal lining of Burmese pythons allows them to completely absorb the skeletons of their prey.

Located billions of light-years away, the "Cosmic Owl" is a pair of colliding ring galaxies spotted by the JWST. It's also an "exceptional natural laboratory" for studying how galaxies evolve.

Chimpanzees are running around with grass in their ears and butts at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia. This is the second time a bizarre fad-like behavior has gripped the sanctuary's chimps, but wearing the grass accessories in their butts is a new twist.

More than 100 people have died in devastating flash floods in Kerr County, Texas. But what caused this extreme weather, and will events like this get more common?

French and Egyptian researchers are making a "digital twin" of the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt after lifting its ancient submerged blocks out of the Mediterranean Sea.

Glacial melt could increase volcanic activity in North America, New Zealand and Russia, spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Roughly 4,000-year-old bones from Chile contain genetic evidence of leprosy, suggesting that a rare form of the bacteria that causes the disease may have been circulating in the Americas and long before the Europeans arrived.

A cache of Triassic fossils in Arizona has revealed Eotephradactylus mcintireae, or "ash-winged dawn goddess," the oldest pterosaur ever discovered in North America.

Differences in the gravitational pull between the Earth and the Moon will make July 9, July 22 and August 5 unusually short.

New, gelatin-based material could let robots feel everything from a light poke to a deep cut.

July's full "Buck Moon" will be at its fullest on Thursday, July 10, and will be best seen at moonrise. It is the farthest full moon from the sun all year and one of the lowest in the sky.

This unprecedented view of the Bullet Cluster provided by the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals how the dark matter is distributed.