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A modern-day view of Stirling Castle, the Scottish stronghold where the skeleton was found in 1997

A Medieval Man’s Injuries Reminded One Archaeologist of Modern-Day Car Crash Victims. They Turned Out to Be the Work of an English Trebuchet

A skeleton unearthed in Scotland likely belongs to a soldier struck by a high-speed projectile during Edward I’s 1304 siege of Stirling Castle. The man suffered more than 160 fractures

Illustration of a black hole star, an enormous black hole surrounded by dense hydrogen gas

Astronomers Peered at the Early Universe and May Have Discovered a New Kind of Celestial Object: Black Hole Stars

Since the James Webb Space Telescope started collecting data in 2022, it has found puzzling objects dubbed little red dots. A new study suggests they might be giant black holes with some characteristics of stars

Redback spiders live throughout Australia.

Here’s Why These Male Spiders Sacrifice Themselves by Somersaulting Into Females’ Fangs While Mating

A new study suggest that even strange, complex animal behaviors can have a relatively simple genetic basis

A blue whale has been gathering food deep within the water column and reaches the surface with its throat pleats still distended, forming an enormous pouch. Within a few moments the whale will right itself up, expell the water, swallow the food, take several breaths and dive again.

The Global Web of Subsea Cables That Connects the World Can Now Detect Whales—Even When They’re Silent

A diving whale revealed how existing technology makes it possible to monitor cetaceans swimming quietly across the seabed

The belly is one of the most ticklish body parts across analyzed cultures.

From Armpits to Feet, Our Ticklish Hot Spots Are Surprisingly Universal. The Finding Offers Clues About the Sensation’s Evolutionary Origins

A new study probes the basics of gargalesis, a poorly understood type of tickling caused by firm, repetitive touches that typically elicits laughter and squirming

A new study, which has not been peer reviewed, suggests Denisovans might have towered over their ancient hominin peers.

Thousands of Years Ago, Denisovans Might Have Been Huge, Especially Compared to Their Archaic Human Neighbors

New research offers rare insight into our extinct cousins who lived in Asia and who may have towered over petite “Homo erectus”

Mountain lions change how deer behave, potentially preventing deadly deer-vehicle accidents.

Pumas Might Be Making Your Drive Home Safer. When the Predators Are Around, Deer Tend to Avoid Roads, Preventing Some Collisions

In Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, the wild cats’ presence corresponded with a 67 percent drop in the likelihood of a deer-vehicle crash and a 76 percent overall decline in the number of wrecks during a five-year period, according to a new study

Some modern humans might be taller and more muscular because of a Neanderthal-derived gene variant that affects the growth hormone pathway.

Got a Brawny Build? You Might Be Able to Thank Your Neanderthal Ancestors, According to a New Study

New research hints that some living people inherited a gene variant from Neanderthals that has made them slightly taller and more muscular than their peers

The mushroom Psilocybe pelliculosa is one of several species that produce psilocybin, a natural compound with hallucinogenic properties.

Could Psilocybin Help Treat Anorexia? A Small Clinical Trial Suggests the Psychedelic May Make Patients More Open to Recovery

The drug, paired with intensive psychological support, may loosen the rigid patterns of thought associated with the eating disorder, scientists say—but they caution that it is not a magic cure

A saber-toothed cat skull found at the La Brea Tar Pits

Spinal Deformities in Saber-Toothed Cat Fossils Reveal How the Now-Extinct Felines May Have Spent Their Final Days

Researchers studied saber-toothed cat vertebrae found in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. They identified a surprisingly high number of deformations, including signs of spinal nerve tumors, hinting at a dwindling population suffering the consequences of inbreeding

The glassy sphere of hiroshimaite created in the atomic blast that contained a previously unknown metal alloy. 

The Hiroshima Atomic Bombing Birthed a Strange, Never-Before-Seen Material, According to a New Study

The devastating blast vaporized buildings, metal, glass, soil and water. When the substances cooled and condensed, the process created spherical glassy grains—and some of them seem to contain a previously unknown metal alloy

Previous research hinted at ghost ancestry in our DNA, but the new work helps pinpoint the timeline of when the ancient relatives' genetic material entered our genomes.

Traces of Two Extinct ‘Ghost’ Ancestors Were Found Hiding in Modern Human DNA, Hinting at Our Extremely Complex Family Tree

Researchers used a new method to investigate past interbreeding with Homo sapiens that doesn’t require ancient DNA. The technique identified areas of living humans’ genomes that came from unknown hominins, including one from a 1.8-million-year-old lineage

The small blue, shown here, has lost about 40 percent of its habitat in the United Kingdom over the last 150 years.

Butterflies Around the World Are Moving to New Habitats, Largely Because of Climate Change, a Study Suggests

Researchers examined data on 1,758 butterfly species—about ten percent of all those known—from 105 countries and estimated that about one in ten global species has shifted its distribution range

Researchers involved in the study collect samples at Blood Falls.

Why Does Antarctica’s Blood Falls Spew Ruby Red Water? Microbes Offer New Clues About the Geologic Feature’s Ancient Origins

The falls contain saltwater rich with iron, which oxidizes and turns red when exposed to air. A new study provides further evidence that the brine probably comes from ocean water trapped when flood waters retreated millions of years ago

Sperm whales seem to communicate differently in the presence of underwater shipping sounds.

Sperm Whales Seem to Change Their Calls When Ships Are Near, Highlighting the Implications of Underwater Noise Pollution

Several of the huge cetaceans living in the eastern Caribbean Sea shortened the intervals between their clicks and used one click pattern more than another when vessels were around, according to a new study

A 2022 image of Neptune, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera

Neptune May Have Once Witnessed a Lunar Massacre That Turned Its Original Moons ‘Inside Out’

A new study identifies an unexpected mineral in two of the planet’s inner moons, pointing to a destructive past in which a large object got pulled into the system and obliterated the former, larger satellites

A digital illustration of typical prokaryotes—cells that do not contain a nucleus. Bacteria and archaea are the two kinds of prokaryotes on Earth, and their ancestors were the first organisms to evolve.

A New Study Points to Two Origins of Life on Earth by Tracing Early Chemical Reactions in Single-Celled Organisms

The work challenges the assumption that all life descended from one free-living cell. Instead, it suggests that two microbial lineages, the bacteria and archaea, evolved independently from a primordial, nonliving ancestor

Researchers tested the superworms' skeleton-cleaning abilities by letting them loose on a variety of animal skeletons, including those of a rook, an alligator gar, a Eurasian eagle owl, a gray wolf and a wild cat.

Flesh-Eating ‘Superworms’ Could Become a New Skeleton-Cleaning Crew for Museum and Research Specimens

A new study hints that the critters would be a good alternative to traditional methods used to remove flesh from bones, including dermestid beetles, chemical treatments and boiling, which can cause damage or be time-consuming

An artistic rendering of a tidal disruption event, when a black hole rips apart and devours a star that got too close. These events help scientists find black holes, which don't emit light.

In a First, Astronomers May Have Spotted a Supermassive Black Hole That Wandered to the Edge of Its Galaxy

These giant celestial objects have mostly been identified at the centers of galaxies, where they’re known to reside. But a recently discovered one—found because of the light emitted while it snacked on a star—appears to be more than 30,000 light-years from its host galaxy’s heart

South America was home to the marsupial sabertooth, illustrated on the left, while North America was home to the smilodon, on the right. The species competed with each other after the Panamanian land bridge connected North and South America.

Ancient North American Mammals May Have Gathered in Mexico and Diversified Before Moving to South America, Priming Them to Thrive There

An analysis of fossils from the country hints that animals from the north stayed in a “holding pen” between seven million and ten million years ago. The timeline might help explain why so many South American mammals have North American ancestry, but not vice versa

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