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New Research

Cooper's hawks are skilled hunters that feast on small and medium-sized birds.

A Young Cooper’s Hawk Learned to Use a Crosswalk Signal to Launch Surprise Attacks on Other Birds

Researcher Vladimir Dinets watched the bird repeatedly sneak behind a row of cars to ambush its unsuspecting prey

Researchers have used genomic sequencing to trace what they’re calling the “longest migration out of Africa.”

New Research

Scientists Use DNA to Trace Early Humans’ Footsteps From Asia to South America

Over thousands of years, humans from Eurasia trekked more than 12,400 miles to eventually reach the southernmost tip of South America, a new genetic investigation suggests

In recent years, Barbie dolls have become more likely to have flat feet, new research finds.

Barbie’s Feet Have Become Less Arched Over Time, According to a New Study by Podiatrists

By the 2020s, only 40 percent of Barbie dolls were designed with permanently arched feet for wearing high heels

A tsunami might have occured some 115 million years ago, near where deposits of Cretaceous amber were found in Japan.

This Deposit of ‘Weird’ Cretaceous Amber Could Reveal Hints to Long-Forgotten Tsunamis in Japan

A new study highlights the potential of amber fossils to capture evidence of powerful, prehistoric ocean waves

Clownfish seem to become shorter during heat waves, according to the new study.

Clownfish Shrink Down Their Bodies to Survive Ocean Heat Waves, New Study Suggests

The adaptation appears to help the fish cope with high temperatures, since individuals and breeding pairs that shrank improved their survival odds

Trail cameras recorded nocturnal subalpine woolly rats roaming around in search of plants to eat.

See the First Photos and Videos of the Rare Subalpine Woolly Rat, a Massive but Elusive Rodent in New Guinea’s Mountains

Working with local Indigenous people, biologist František Vejmělka spent six months surveying the creatures that live on Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea

The newly described octopus, Opisthoteuthis carnarvonensis, has red tentacles.

A New, Shape-Shifting ‘Flapjack’ Octopus Has Been Discovered in the Deep Sea Off the Coast of Australia

The tiny Carnarvon flapjack octopus is the latest of ten species described by Australian scientists after a 2022 research trip

Humpback whales have poorer eyesight than previously thought, according to a new study.

Humpback Whales Can’t See as Well as Scientists Thought, and It Might Explain Why They Keep Getting Tangled in Fishing Gear

Despite having big eyes, the whales can’t make out details of objects more than a few body lengths away, according to a new study

An ancient star map (not the document analyzed in the new research) unearthed in Dunhuang, China, in the seventh century C.E.

New Research

These Scientists Say They’ve Identified the Oldest Known Star Chart in the World

A new preprint suggests that an ancient Chinese star catalog dates to 355 B.C.E. But other researchers aren’t convinced, arguing that the original coordinates are misaligned by one degree

New research suggests using a thin, sharp knife and cutting slowly could help prevent crying while cutting onions.

What’s the Best Way to Cut Onions Without Crying? New Research Suggests That Thin, Sharp Blades Are Key to Minimizing Tears

For a new study, physicists visualized and quantified the tear-producing droplets that get expelled from onions when they’re cut

Scientists raced to develop a specialized treatment for KJ Muldoon. 

In a Remarkable First, a Baby With a Rare Disease Receives Personalized Gene Therapy

Researchers say the CRISPR-based technique used could eventually be employed to treat more people with rare genetic diseases

Amateur fossil hunters discovered a trackway left by a creature that might have looked like the one in this illustration. The finding raises new questions about the evolution of the earliest reptiles.

Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution

A new study suggests two fossil trackways found in Australia were made by an early amniote, a group that today includes reptiles, birds and mammals

The Schöningen spears on display in Germany

New Research

Nimble-Minded Neanderthals May Have Used These Wooden Spears to Hunt 200,000 Years Ago

New research shows that the weapons found in Germany are much younger than previously thought, suggesting they were made by skilled Neanderthal craftspeople

The Chicago Archaeopteryx, seen under UV light, shows soft tissues alongside the skeleton.

The Famous, Feathered Dinosaur Archaeopteryx Could Fly, Suggests New Study of a ‘Beautifully Preserved’ Fossil

The Chicago Archaeopteryx features more soft tissue and delicate skeletal details than any known fossil of its kind, and paleontologists discovered it has a set of feathers key to flight in modern birds

Houston is the fastest-sinking of the 28 most populated U.S. cities, according to a new study that examined the urban areas through satellite observations. The Texas city got most of its water from the ground in the 1950s to ’70s, which led to subsidence.

The Land Beneath the Biggest U.S. Cities Is Sinking, Finds New Analysis of Satellite Data

Largely due to groundwater pumping and shifting of land after the last ice age, major urban areas are subsiding, which could destabilize buildings or worsen flooding

These observations of Jupiter’s auroras (shown on the left of the above image) were captured with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera on December 25, 2023.

Check Out Jupiter’s Stunning Auroras, Which Are Hundreds of Times Brighter Than Earth’s, in the James Webb Telescope’s Latest Images

The infrared views, captured in 2023, shed light on the giant planet’s atmosphere and magnetosphere—but they also reveal something unexpected

An artistic rendering of the stone chamber where the tubes were discovered

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Say They’ve Discovered a Hidden Chamber Where Elites Used Hallucinogens 2,500 Years Ago

Unearthed in Peru, the small underground room may have been used for rituals involving psychoactive drugs. New research suggests these “exclusive” events were reserved for the elite

A shaft of golden light from the cave’s mouth provides warmth as the expedition’s scientists enjoy lunch 80 feet below the opening of Natural Trap Cave.

Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

A Trove of Ice Age Fossils Buried in a Wyoming Cave Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Prehistoric Animals

At a site known as Natural Trap Cave, a team of scientists are rappelling down to uncover the secrets of what the Earth was like during the Pleistocene

Argentine black and white tegus (Salvator merianae) were brought to the United States in the 1990s by exotic pet traders. They've since proliferated in the wild and been deemed an invasive species.

Mysterious Fossil Found in Museum Storage Turned Out to Be a New, Extinct Lizard Species

Today, tegus are considered invasive creatures in Florida, but a new paper suggests they’ve lived in the southeastern United States at least once before—millions of years ago

A new study finds chimpanzees drum against tree roots with rhythm, suggesting they share an evolutionary trait with humans passed down by a last common ancestor.

Researchers Discover That Chimps Drum Rhythmically, Suggesting Human Musicality Originated in Our Last Common Ancestor

Not only do chimpanzees maintain a rhythm while drumming on tree roots, but two subspecies use distinct tempos and techniques, according to a new study

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