Last of its kind dodo relative spotted in a remote Samoan rainforest
The manumea, a critically endangered ground pigeon and one of the closest living dodo relatives, has been spotted multiple times in a remote Samoan rainforest.
Space
First-ever 'superkilonova' double star explosion puzzles astronomers
A double explosion, in which a dying star split, then recombined, may be a long-hypothesized but never-before-seen "superkilonova."
The 9 best things to see in the night sky with binoculars from November 2025 to January to 2026
Discover the highlights of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter night sky with our guide to the top celestial sights to enjoy through binoculars between November 2025 and January 2026.
NASA spacecraft takes milestone 100,000th image of Mars (photo)
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft has just taken its milestone 100,000th photo of the Red Planet using its high-definition camera. It reveals a dark region of moving sand dunes.
Glittering new James Webb telescope image shows an 'intricate web of chaos' — Space photo of the week
This mash-up of data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals two galaxies mid-collision, with their spiral arms overlapping and bending toward their neighbors' cores.
Planet Earth
Earth's seasons vary wildly, even at the same latitude, new research finds
Earth's seasons look very different at locations not far from each other, 20 years' worth of satellite data reveals.
Rare dusting of snow covers one of the driest place on Earth and shuts down massive radio telescope
Earth from space A satellite photo from July shows intricate snowy stripes painted across the Atacama Desert in Chile. The icy weather temporarily put the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory into "survival mode."
Undersea lava rubble acts as a 'sponge' for carbon dioxide, study finds
Lava rubble at the bottom of the sea is acting like a giant "sponge" for carbon dioxide, ancient cores reveal.
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Ancient burrowing bees made their nests in the tooth cavities and vertebrae of dead rodents, scientists discover
Scientists made a unique discovery in a cave on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola: dozens of fossilized bee nests inside rodent bones that were deposited by owls thousands of years ago.
Deep snow blanket transforms Yellowstone Lake into a giant white void
Earth from space A 2022 astronaut photo shows a thick blanket of snow covering Yellowstone Lake, transforming the frozen body of water into a featureless white void. But below the ice lie some of Earth's hottest hydrothermal vents.
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archaeology
'Biological time capsules': How DNA from cave dirt is revealing clues about early humans and Neanderthals
DNA from soil could soon reveal who lived in ice age caves, research shows.
18,000 years ago, ice age humans built dwellings out of mammoth bones in Ukraine
Some people in Ukraine weathered the harshest moments of the last ice age by creating shelters made partly of mammoth bones and tusks.
'A huge surprise': 1,500-year-old church found next to Zoroastrianism place of worship in Iraq
A 2,000-year-old palace in the Republic of Georgia and a 1,500-year-old church in Iraq suggest Zoroastrians coexisted with people of other religions.
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Science history: Anthropologist sees the face of the 'Taung Child' — and proves that Africa was the cradle of humanity — Dec. 23, 1924
Over a century ago, anthropologist Raymond Dart chipped an ancient skull out of some rock from an ancient quarry — and revealed the face of an ancient human relative.
LATEST ARTICLES
Animals
Cats meow more at men to get their attention, study suggests
A small study reveals that cats greet male owners more vocally than female ones. But the findings could be a result of cultural norms among the participants, rather than a universal cat behavior, scientists say.
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Pumas in Patagonia started feasting on penguins — but now they're behaving strangely, a new study finds
Pumas in Patagonia, Argentina are eating penguins in a national park — and it's changing how the big cats are interacting with each other.
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Polar bears in southern Greenland are 'using jumping genes to rapidly rewrite their own DNA' to survive melting sea ice
Warming temperatures appear to be driving genetic mutations in some polar bears to help them survive the shifting climatic conditions.
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Scientists finally sequence the vampire squid's huge genome, revealing secrets of the 'living fossil'
The genetic link between squids and octopuses may just be found in the vampire squid genome.
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Can a turtle tuck its head all the way inside its shell?
Turtle shells evolved over the course of 300 million years, but self-defense wasn't the initial driver, researchers think.
Cassius the giant crocodile died from sepsis after 40-year-old dormant infection burst from 'abscess,' necropsy reveals
Cassius was an 18-foot-long saltwater crocodile living in captivity in Marineland Crocodile Park in Australia. He died last year at the age of about 120, and we finally know why.
Health & Human Behavior
New tests could nearly halve the rate of late-stage cancers, some scientists say — is that true?
Blood tests that look for over a dozen cancers are being developed. But how soon will they help patients?
Tiny implant 'speaks' to the brain with LED light
By directly communicating with the brain, a new wireless device could someday help restore lost senses or manage pain without medications, its developers say.
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The self-gifter's Christmas: Treat yourself to gear you'll actually want this Christmas
Buying guides Don't let anyone else choose your next telescope, camera or binoculars — these are important pieces of equipment that you should buy for yourself
What's the fastest a human can grow?
Humans grow tall in spurts, but what's our fastest period of growth?
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Life's Little Mysteries
Science questions, answered
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Space photo of the week
Extraordinary images of our sublime universe
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Diagnostic dilemma
Unusual case reports from the medical literature
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Incredible places
A window onto extraordinary landscapes on Earth
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Astonishing artifacts
A glimpse into how people lived in the past
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Earth from space
Incredible images of our planet from above
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Technology
'It won’t be so much a ghost town as a zombie apocalypse': How AI might forever change how we use the internet
AI slop, chatbots and agentic AI are changing the internet, and could transform it beyond recognition, experts say.
Physics, Math & Chemistry
AI is solving 'impossible' math problems. Can it best the world's top mathematicians?
AI is making gains in solving pure math problems. Can it crack the hardest problems in mathematics?
Quizzes & Games
Archaeology Fragments Quiz: Can you work out what these mysterious artifacts are?
Break out your best magnifying glass to solve these visual archaeology puzzles.
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