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New Research

Brooding octopuses at a previously unexplored site in the Pacific Ocean, off the western coast of Costa Rica

Scientists Find Rare Deep-Sea Octopus Nurseries

The team captured footage of the eight-armed creatures brooding their eggs in groups near Costa Rica

A researcher holding human embryonic stem cell cultures in 2004. In the new research, scientists use human stem cells to make models similar to human embryos. The models cannot develop into fetuses.

Researchers Create Model Human Embryos Using Stem Cells

The teams hope to learn more about the first few weeks of human development and provide insights into treatments for infertility and diseases

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory first detected evidence of neutrinos originating from outside the Milky Way a decade ago.

Scientists Find Ghostly Neutrino Particles From the Milky Way

It’s no surprise that neutrinos come from within our galaxy, but the tiny, chargeless particles are very hard to detect

Women in foraging societies may have been just as skillful hunters as men were, but researchers have historically dismissed their hunting contributions.

Early Women Were Hunters, Not Just Gatherers, Study Suggests

Regardless of maternal status, women hunted in almost 80 percent of recent and present-day foraging societies in a new study

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, one of the radio telescopes used to detect the pulses from pulsars in the new research. The telescope started to fall apart in 2020 and was decommisioned.

Gravitational Waves Create a Constant ‘Hum’ Across the Universe

Breakthrough research suggests the continuous ripples in spacetime could be caused by pairs of supermassive black holes, spiraling toward collisions

Scientists observed two separate groups of orangutans making biphonations, or two sounds at once.

Orangutans Can Beatbox, Just Like Humans

The primates can simultaneously make sounds with their mouth and throat, a finding that may shed light on the evolution of human speech

Researchers think that this pendant could be the oldest known depiction of a penis—and early evidence of humans' ability to think symbolically.

New Research

Is This the Earliest Known Phallic Art?

Researchers think the 42,000-year-old artifact was carved from graphite to resemble a penis

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan during a 2020 space walk at the International Space Station. Researchers theorize that the weightlessness astronauts experience on the ISS contributes to immune system dysfunction.

Why Astronauts Have Weaker Immune Systems in Space

Gene activity in white blood cells decreased once astronauts got to space—and it didn’t rebound until they returned, a new study finds

A photo of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption taken on December 24, 2021, before the biggest eruption on January 15, 2022. Tsunamis caused by the eruption killed at six people in Tonga and Peru and displaced more than 1,500 people on Tongan islands.

Tonga Volcano Sparked the Most Intense Lightning Storm Ever Recorded

Last year’s eruption produced a raging storm at unprecedented altitudes, with 2,600 lightning flashes per minute at its peak

A coral reef in Honolulu, Hawaii. Half of global coral coverage has disappeared since the 1950s.

Coral Reefs Host a Vast Diversity of Microbes

A two-year expedition at sea uncovered more than half a million varieties of microbial life in Pacific reef-dwelling organisms

The three-inch-long pottery shard contains only parts of a passage from Virgil's Georgics.

Cool Finds

Virgil Quotation Found Etched on 1,800-Year-Old Roman Jar

Researchers say the ancient inscription is the first of its kind ever discovered

The white spots on the edges of a monarch butterfly's wings might give it an advantage while migrating, according to new research.

Monarch Butterflies’ Signature White Spots May Help Them Fly

These long-distance migrants could get a boost from their striking coloration, which may reduce drag by heating and cooling air unevenly

A boy looks at a water pump on a street in New York City. Between 1993 and 2010, researchers estimate that humans have pumped over two trillion tons of water out of the ground.

Humans Have Shifted Earth’s Axis by Pumping Lots of Groundwater

Removing water from the ground has led to sea-level rise and caused Earth’s axis to shift by about 2.6 feet between 1993 and 2010, per a new study

One of the mysterious boats painted in an Australian cave several hundred years ago

New Research

New Study Identifies Mysterious Boats Painted in Australian Cave

Researchers say the rock art may be a record of “fighting craft” from present-day Indonesia

An illustration of a predator decapitating Tanystropheus hydroides

These Long-Necked Marine Reptiles Were Decapitated

Tanystropheus fossils reveal how predators may have snapped the creatures’ necks with a powerful, swift bite from above

Blacktip reef sharks are one of five common species of reef sharks that are disappearing.

Reef Sharks Are Disappearing Around the World

A massive new study found a staggering decline of these top predators, which help balance vulnerable coral reef ecosystems and their food chains

Enceladus spews material from its ocean into space, which spacecraft from Earth can study to learn more about what lies below.

Scientists Find Phosphorus—a Key Element for Life—on a Saturn Moon

This is the last of six essential elements for life to be detected on Enceladus, giving the strongest indication yet that its ocean is habitable

Researcher Laurent Davin plays a replica of one of the 12,000-year-old bird bone flutes recently discovered in northern Israel.

Cool Finds

These 12,000-Year-Old Flutes Mimic the Sound of Prehistoric Birds

The remnants of seven small bird bone instruments were discovered in northern Israel

The new research sequenced the genomes of more than 230 primate species, 58 percent of which are threatened with extinction.

What the Largest-Ever Study of Primate DNA Reveals About Ourselves

The findings cover not only conservation and primate evolution, but also human health and diseases

Researchers take sediment samples in the excacation pit in the Tam Pà Ling cave in Laos, where two newly uncovered human bones—part of a skull and a shin bone—were found.

Archaeologists Uncover Earliest Evidence of Modern Humans in Southeast Asia

The fossils from a cave in Laos, which date to between 68,000 and 86,000 years ago, challenge several ideas about early human migration

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