Read the latest science news and recent scientific discoveries on Live Science, where we've been reporting on groundbreaking advances for over 20 years. Our expert editors, writers and contributors are ready to guide you through today's most important breakthroughs in science with expert analysis, in-depth explainers and interesting articles, covering everything from space, technology, health, animals, planet Earth, and much more.
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Colorful wildflowers bloom across Chile's Atacama Desert in wake of 'super' El NiñoChile's Atacama Desert is full of brilliant wildflower blooms thanks to this year's super El Niño.
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Animals may have evolved 200 million years earlier than previously thought, new study suggestsAfter using a technique called molecular clock analysis, researchers have proposed that the origin of animals could be 200 million years earlier than thought.
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The ancestors of today's Indigenous people arrived in the Americas during the coldest part of the last ice age, study suggestsThe first people in the Americas arrived no earlier than 21,000 years ago, but 'there are huge gaps in our genetic dataset,' a new study reports.
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'A kind of Rosetta Stone': AI decodes 217-year-old secret letter ordered by NapoleonGPT-6 Astra has been used to solve a centuries-old cipher used to convey strategic military information between Napoleon's troops.
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'It's a portrait of their actual ancestor': Facial reconstruction of Indigenous man who lived in Ecuador 3,000 years ago shared with his descendantsYou can now see a facial reconstruction — and the particular hairstyle — of a man who lived more than 3,000 years ago in what is now Ecuador.
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Your voice may reveal how fast you're aging, new AI 'speech clock' suggestsA new machine-learning "speech clock" estimates a person's chronological age from their speech, drawing links between older-sounding speech and cognitive decline.
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Physicists unveil the most accurate atomic clock ever — and it could literally redefine the secondPhysicists have used radioactive lutetium to create what they say is the most accurate atomic clock ever, keeping time perfectly up to 19 decimal places.
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Watch the world's smallest crocodiles snatch bats in their hidden underground lair — a behavior never seen beforeVIDEO Live Science can exclusively reveal a video of Gabon's mysterious cave-dwelling dwarf crocodiles snatching bats in a never-before-seen hunting behavior, ahead of the series premiere of "Africa: Earth's Wild Home."
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'This is what happened with Claude and me': AI's failed attempt to crack the Riemann hypothesis led mathematician to a breakthroughAn attempt by Anthropic's Claude failed to prove the Riemann hypothesis, but it did produce something genuinely useful: inspiration.
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CHIME telescope unlocks new way to study the universe's baffling expansionAfter seven years of work, Canada's CHIME telescope has a measurement of dark energy from 2019. More detailed studies are planned to expand the research.
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Powerful 'Kelvin wave' triggered by super El Niño threatens to raise sea levels off the California coast for monthsA disturbance characterized by above-normal sea levels is spreading up the Pacific coast of Central and North America, and it could make the damage from predicted storms this winter much worse.
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Astronomers discover 'backward' planet orbiting its star in the wrong directionA newly discovered exoplanet orbits its star backward, and it's a mystery why. The system and others like it could shed light on how some complex planetary systems form.
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Regular exercise reshapes the immune system at a cellular level, study suggestsRegular exercise makes our immune cells more vigilant, potentially contributing to better long-term health, a new study finds.
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Now is the best time to see Saturn all year — yes, even with the naked eyeSaturn will put on a show this week as it enters opposition and its famous rings return to looking their best.
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'We're rapidly running out of time': 7 of Earth's 9 life support systems already breached, and the situation is getting worse, report warnsOur planet has had its annual health check, and the prognosis is pretty grim. Despite breached planetary boundaries, however, scientists argue that Earth can still have a safe and sustainable future.
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Remarkably preserved feathered dinosaur discovered in China reveals new secrets of flying-predator evolutionA newly discovered feathered dinosaur named Norellraptor barsboldi had sharply curved teeth and claws, as well as four wings, and it adds evidence to the idea that flight evolved several times in different dinosaur groups.
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Africa's oldest known defensive wall outside Egypt discovered, and it's 4,000 years oldAn elaborate 4,000-year-old defensive wall was discovered in Morocco, and it once protected a thriving farming hub, archaeologists say.
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The super El Niño could cause torrential rainstorms. Americans may need to stock up on food to prepare, experts say.Analysis A U.K. government minister has urged people in Britain to stock up on essentials to prepare for storms magnified by the record-breaking El Niño. Should Americans heed the same advice?
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Newly discovered iron minerals might hold primordial water from when Earth formedResearchers may have found a missing link in how Earth's mantle gets wet: newly discovered iron minerals that can store water at the extremely high temperatures and pressures present near our planet's core.
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