New Research

Babies might start learning the words for objects at around six to nine months old. In a new study, an A.I. was also able to match some objects to their names after getting trained on video recordings from a headcam worn by a young child.

A.I. Learns Words From a Human Baby's Perspective, Using Headcam Footage

With only limited training, the model could correctly identify certain objects, suggesting some elements of learning language are not innate to humans

An etching of Darwin's study, commissioned a week after he died.

See What Charles Darwin Kept in His 'Insanely Eclectic' Personal Library, Revealed for the First Time

On the English naturalist's 215th birthday, more than 9,000 titles from his expansive collection are now accessible online

In a photo illustration, a hawk moth lands on a flower with an exhaust pipe polluting the interaction.

Air Pollution Makes Flowers Smell Less Appealing to Pollinators, Study Suggests

Nocturnal hawk moths are less likely to visit primroses in air polluted by nitrate radicals, which break down important wild fragrances, researchers find

An artist’s illustration of Glikmanius careforum swimming beneath Troglocladodus trimblei in ancient waters.

Paleontologists Discover Two New Shark Species From Fossils in Mammoth Cave National Park

The "active predators" prowled the oceans more than 325 million years ago, before the time of Pangea

Saturn's moon Mimas has a giant impact crater, named Hershel, that stretches across a third of its surface and makes it resemble the "Death Star" from Star Wars.

An Icy Moon of Saturn May Be Hiding a Vast Ocean Under Its Crust, Surprising Astronomers

Researchers suggest a global ocean lies 15 miles beneath the surface of Saturn's "Death Star" moon, Mimas—a shocking discovery that could redefine what a habitable world looks like

Dry and cracked ground at the La Vinuela reservoir near Málaga, Spain, last year. Reservoirs in the country's Catalonia region have fallen to 16 percent capacity amid years of drought and extreme heat.

Earth Clocks Hottest January on Record, Marking 12 Months Above 1.5 Degree Celsius Warming Threshold

Though the world has not officially breached the Paris Agreement, the historic heat on land and at sea is a "significant milestone"

People march in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2021, after police in Louisville, Kentucky, killed Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, the year before. Tawanna Gordon, Taylor's cousin, leads the march.

After Police Kill Unarmed Black People, Black Americans Lose Sleep, Study Finds

New research draws a link between unequal exposure to police violence and lack of sleep for Black adults

Io, Jupiter's third-largest moon, photographed by NASA's Juno spacecraft.

See Detailed New Images of Io From Another NASA Flyby of the Solar System's Most Volcanic World

The stunning views show lava flows and volcanic plumes, as scientists seek to learn what causes such volatile conditions on the moon of Jupiter

Orange elephant ear sponge, in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ocean Sponge Skeletons Suggest a More Significant History of Global Warming Than Originally Thought

Analysis of the sea creatures’ skeletal chemistry suggests the world’s temperatures have increased by 1.7 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times

An entire neighborhood in Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines, destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. More than 6,500 people died during the storm, which had maximum sustained winds of 195 miles per hour. Winds of those speeds would be above the threshold for a hypothetical Category 6 for tropical cyclones proposed by researchers.

Do We Need a Category 6 Designation for Hurricanes?

Global warming is leading to more intense storms well above the threshold for Category 5 hurricanes, scientists write in a new paper

Common clownfish have three white stripes, which they "count" to identify other members of their species as potential threats, a new study suggests.

Clownfish Can 'Count' Stripes on Other Fish to Identify Intruders, Study Suggests

Notoriously aggressive, common clownfish may be using basic mathematics to determine if another fish is a friend or foe

The newly discovered tree would have supported a wide crown of leaves over a narrow trunk, scientists say.

Rare Fossil Shows Trees Looked Very Different 350 Million Years Ago

The newly discovered specimen looks like something from the imagination of Dr. Seuss, and it sheds light on a little-understood era of prehistory

The 23 pairs of human chromosomes. People who inherit two tall X chromosomes (bottom right) are much more susceptible to autoimmune diseases than people with one X and one short Y chromosome.

Why Do Women Get More Autoimmune Diseases? Study of Mice Hints at Answers

Four in five people with an autoimmune disease are women. New research points to an RNA molecule involved in silencing one of their X chromosomes as a potential culprit

The Hohle Fels baton, made from 15 pieces of ivory unearthed in 2015.

Stone Age People Used This 35,000-Year-Old Woolly Mammoth Tusk Tool to Make Rope, Scientists Say

To test their hypothesis that the perforated object was a tool, researchers used a replica to create a 16-foot-long rope from cattail reeds

Miniature dachshunds have a median lifespan of 14 years, according to the data.

Which Dogs Live the Longest? Scientists Say Small and Long-Nosed Canines Outlive Others

A new study of more than 500,000 dogs in the United Kingdom adds more nuance to our understanding of their life expectancy based on breed, size, face shape and other factors

A sea otter basks in the water with some kelp. Sea otter populations plummeted as they were killed for their pelts in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Hungry Sea Otters Help Prevent Erosion on California's Coast

The marine mammals, which were once hunted nearly to extinction, feed on crabs that would make the land more susceptible to erosion by digging holes in the soil and eating roots

A hermit crab wears the top of a broken bottle as a shell.

Hermit Crabs Are Using Trash as Shells Across the World, Scientists Find

Researchers analyzed photographs of the crustaceans online, identifying nearly 400 examples of artificial shells, which were often plastic bottle caps

When researchers reviewed footage of flying insects, they saw that the bugs tilted their backs toward the source of artificial light.

Why Are Flying Insects 'Attracted' to Lights? Scientists May Finally Have an Answer

Moths and other insects might turn their backs toward the brightest source of light around—which has historically been the sky—to determine which way is up and which is down, according to a new paper

A mother "Dorado" octopus, one of the newly announced species, protects her eggs some 3,000 meters under the ocean's surface.

Biologists Discover Four New Octopus Species in the Deep Ocean Off Costa Rica

One species was found brooding eggs near low-temperature hydrothermal vents, a rare sight that could unlock new information on deep-sea cephalopods

Researchers studied climate fluctuations in Roman Italy between 200 B.C.E. and 600 C.E.

Plagues That Ravaged the Roman Empire Were Linked to Periods of Cold Weather

The changing climate may have had ripple effects that made people more susceptible to disease, new research suggests

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