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New Research

Left: Experimental setup of some chickpeas growing in artificial lunar dirt. Right: A chickpea root covered in the simulated moon soil, which is sharp and glass-like. 

Hummus Made From Moon-Grown Chickpeas Might Be on the Menu for Future Lunar Residents

Researchers successfully grew and harvested chickpeas in simulated moon dirt—with a little help from worm poop and a beneficial fungus. However, they’re still testing whether the legumes are safe to eat

Lava, seen as darker brown rocks, from Methana's most recent eruption flows through ancient limestone into the sea.

This Greek Volcano Seemed Quiet for 100,000 Years. Then It Erupted Again. Should Scientists Take a Second Look at ‘Extinct’ Volcanoes?

By reconstructing a 700,000-year history of Methana volcano, geologists found a prehistoric phase when it appeared inactive on the surface, despite magma building up below ground

A tooth from the Jerash mass grave site

New Research

Dead Bodies Filled a Mass Grave When the First Plague Pandemic Struck This Early Medieval City. New Research Explores the Identity of the Victims

Researchers analyzed isotopes and DNA in the teeth of remains found in a mass grave from the Plague of Justinian, which swept through the Byzantine Empire

Study author Gregory Bonito collects truffles in Australia. 

Australia Has a Surprisingly Successful Truffle Industry. This New Study Could Explain Why

Researchers examined hundreds of soil samples to uncover why the expensive fungi are thriving in the country

The man in his 30s was found just outside Pompeii's gates.

New Research

This Man Fled Pompeii as Mount Vesuvius Erupted. Archaeologists Found Him 2,000 Years Later, Holding a Bowl to Protect His Head and a Lamp to Light His Way

Recent excavations revealed two skeletons just outside the ancient city’s walls. Researchers also created an A.I.-generated reconstruction of one of the victim’s harrowing final moments

African fattail scorpion (Androctonus amoreuxi)

Scorpions Are So Metal—Literally. New Images Reveal Patterns in How Their Weaponry Is Fortified With Iron, Zinc and Manganese

Scientists knew the stingers and pincers of these arachnids generally contained metals, but a new Smithsonian-led study maps out how these components are distributed

Undetectable infrasound might explain why some people report paranormal experiences, a new study suggests.

Worried Your House Is Haunted? The Spooky Sensation Might Arise From a Surprisingly Simple Source

Infrasound—noise below the range of typical human hearing—from power, heating and mechanical systems within buildings can make people feel irritated and induce a stress response, according to a new study

After researchers aboard the Okeanos Explorer ship couldn't figure out the orb's identity, they sent it to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History for a more thorough investigation.

Cool Finds

Scientists Found This Mysterious Golden Orb on the Seafloor Nearly Three Years Ago. Now, They Finally Know What It Is

After a long, winding road of tests, researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and other institutions determined that the strange blob once attached a large sea anemone to a rock

Scientists now think humans settled South America in three waves.

A New Big Database of DNA From Indigenous Americans Shakes Up Scientists’ Theories About Human Settlement of South America

Genomic data provides evidence for a previously unknown wave of migration, with Indigenous groups living in central and southern Mexico spreading into South America and the Caribbean starting around 1,300 years ago

Comet 3I/ATLAS has much more "heavy" water than comets that formed in the solar system, according to a new study.

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Came From an Extremely Cold, Lonely Region of the Milky Way Galaxy, New Research Suggests

Astronomers analyzed the vapors coming off the comet when it neared the sun and found it had a lot of “heavy” water. That hints it grew up in a frigid planetary system, possibly before its home star formed

Illustration of the giant ancient octopus

Cool Finds

This Bone-Crunching Octopus Was Nearly the Size of a Semitruck and May Have Feasted on Giant Reptiles 100 Million Years Ago

The massive invertebrates may have been top predators, according to an analysis of their fossilized jaws. The work suggests that ancient oceans weren’t completely ruled by spine-bearing creatures, as previously thought

New research indicates that Neanderthals had the genetic hardware for language.

Did Neanderthals Have Language? New Research Suggests They Had the Genetic Hardware for It, Like Humans

Specific genomic regions that seem to play a role in human language development evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago, before humans and Neanderthals diverged from a common ancestor, a new study finds

The new Smart Cinema theater collects biometric data to track in-the-moment reactions to on-screen action.

Why Do We Love Movies? This New ‘Smart’ Movie Theater Tracks Viewers’ Brain Waves and Heart Rates to Find Out

Researchers at the University of Bristol are studying the appeal of the cinema-watching experience by turning one theater into a biometric laboratory

The researchers studied a wetland shaped by Eurasian beavers in Switzerland.

Beavers Are Ecosystem Engineers—and They Might Be Helpful Allies in the Fight Against Human-Caused Climate Change

New research suggests that wetlands created by the industrious rodents are carbon sinks, meaning they store a lot of heat-trapping carbon dioxide—the human-produced gas largely responsible for today’s global warming

Neanderthals survived from roughly 400,000 to 40,000 years ago, when they mysteriously disappeared.

What Killed the Neanderthals? New Research Suggests a Lack of Genetic Diversity May Be Partially to Blame

When the climate cooled, the population of Neanderthals shrank. Most that lived between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago were descended from the same lineage and had very similar DNA

After drilling a rock sample from a spot on Mars nicknamed “Mary Anning,” NASA’s Curiosity rover took this selfie on October 25, 2020. Now, that sample has revealed organic molecules that have never been seen on the red planet before.

A Mars Rover Found Building Blocks of Life Never Seen on the Red Planet Before, Boosting the Case for Ancient Habitability

The organic molecules discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover could have been formed by life, but they could have also come from geologic processes or meteorites

The papyrus fragment with a passage from Homer's Iliad

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth a Papyrus Fragment From the ‘Iliad’ Tucked Inside the Wrappings of a 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

The excerpt from Homer’s epic poem features his catalog of ships, a famous passage listing the Greek forces that sailed to Troy. It may be the first Greek literary text found in the context of mummification

In experiments, juvenile Atlantic salmon that were exposed to cocaine’s primary metabolite swam more and dispersed farther than their sober peers.

Cocaine Pollution Seems to Make Salmon Swim Farther Than Usual. Scientists Don’t Know the Long-Term Consequences

The illegal drug’s main byproduct, benzoylecgonine, caused more robust effects than cocaine itself. Wastewater treatment plants often don’t fully process such metabolites, so they are frequently found in bodies of water at higher concentrations than their parent drugs

A female lynx named Ulcera carries a rabbit to a water trough and dunks it on July 16, 2024. This incident was one of eight that researchers recorded among lynxes in central Spain.

Camera Traps Reveal Iberian Lynxes Soaking Their Prey, a First-Ever Discovery Among Carnivores

Scientists speculate that the wild cats are trying to improve hydration or ease their cubs’ transition to solid food. The finding points to resilience in one of the world’s most endangered felines

Natural selection has been playing a bigger role in changing modern human DNA than previously thought, according to a new study.

Humans Are Still Evolving. Natural Selection Has Favored Genes Linked to Red Hair and Less Male-Pattern Baldness, a Study Suggests

A massive study of ancient and modern DNA from thousands of West Eurasian people has identified nearly 500 genetic variants that evolution has selected for or against in recent history

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