Science

​Representative Image of ancient human evolution showing the genetic connections between humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans (AI-generated image) Modern humans already carry small amounts of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA, evidence that our ancestors interbred with other human groups tens of thousands of years ago. Both lineages are known from ancient remains, including fossils from which scientists…

An invasive beetle wiped out black ash trees across parts of North America Researchers have created a living seed bank to protect North America’s endangered black ash trees from extinction after decades of damage from an invasive insect. Led by scientists at Pennsylvania State University, the conservation project has successfully germinated 22,000 black ash seeds…

Deep inside a crystal cooled to nearly -230°C, MIT physicists have caught something rarely seen in quantum materials: two populations of electrons rebuilding themselves into wave-like order after being scattered apart by laser light, and doing so in two completely different ways. Working with erbium tritelluride, a rare-earth material known for hosting a pair of…

forever checmicals(Representative image) Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are often called “forever chemicals” because their ultra-strong carbon–fluorine bonds make them stubbornly resistant to breakdown in the environment. They’re prized in industry for repelling water, oil and heat, but that same durability means they persist in soil, water and living tissue long after use. Now, a…

The Moon has been romanticised for centuries, but few people have ever tried to give someone a piece of it. In 2002, that idea became part of an extraordinary theft at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center, where an intern helped remove a safe containing Apollo lunar samples and other irreplaceable scientific material. The stolen collection included…

Alyssa Yu (Poolesville High School, Poolesville, MD) A 17-year-old student from Maryland has developed a new mathematical framework to predict how multiple infectious diseases interact and spread through connected populations at the same time. Alyssa Yu, a senior at Poolesville High School in Montgomery County, created the computer model to address a major gap in…

Aashritha Penumudi (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA) By combining laboratory biology with machine learning, a 17-year-old student from Virginia has gained new insights into how protein production can go wrong in cancer cells. Aashritha Penumudi, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, studied a…

Nearly 240,000 miles from Earth, Nasa is preparing a new kind of transportation hub where spacecraft could one day arrive, wait, dock and depart without a single runway, road or parking bay. The Gateway space station, planned for lunar orbit as part of the Artemis programme, is expected to host Orion crew capsules, lunar landers…

A pond in southern Arizona can look quiet from a distance. Beneath the surface, though, the balance between species can be very different from what it was a century ago. Among the animals affected is the northern Mexican gartersnake, a wetland-dependent reptile that hunts along streams, ponds and cienegas across parts of the Southwest.Its decline…

Representative Image (Canva) The human brain is one of the first organs to break down after death, making the discovery of preserved brains at archaeological sites particularly puzzling. Yet thousands of ancient human brains have survived long after other soft tissues disappeared, sometimes remaining as the only preserved soft tissue in otherwise skeletonised remains. New…