French scientists have discovered a blood type so rare that just one living person on Earth is known to have it. This is a medical discovery that seems like something out of science fiction. This 48th recognized blood group system, called “Gwada negative,” was found in a 68-year-old lady from Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean island, ...
People thought for a long time that cancer was a disease that only older people got, mostly in their later years. But something troubling is happening: more adults under 50 are being diagnosed with cancer than ever before. Researchers are scrambling for answers as the number of early-onset cases of breast, colorectal, kidney, and uterine ...
A young star is surrounded by a swirling disk of gas and dust in the depths of the cosmos. This disk is full of alcohol. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found methanol, an important organic molecule, in the protoplanetary disk of a star called HD 100453. This star is 330 light-years ...
As Earth enters an age of rapid ecological change, a quiet revolution is taking place in freezers chilled to -80°C. Scientists around the world are building a “Microbial Noah’s Ark”—a global effort to preserve the planet’s microbial diversity before it’s lost to industrialization, climate shifts, and modern living. The Microbiota Vault Initiative, modeled in part ...
Picture a time when you can figure out what’s wrong with you just by breathing into a small device. You could find out about your health in minutes without having to draw blood or take invasive tests. All you had to do was exhale. The Airborne Biomarker Localization Engine (ABLE) is a new device that ...
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) took the first pictures of Japan’s doomed Resilience moon lander. The pictures show a grim scene: broken pieces of the lander spread out across the moon’s surface. The spacecraft, made by the Tokyo-based company ispace, was supposed to make a historic soft landing on June 5, but it didn’t and ...
A remarkable discovery from mid-Cretaceous amber has pushed back the evolutionary timeline of one of nature’s most bizarre parasitic relationships: the infamous “zombie-ant” fungi. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have identified fossilized fungi infecting insects in 99-million-year-old amber, offering the oldest direct evidence of entomopathogenic fungi manipulating their hosts. Fossilized Mind Control The ...
The dinosaurs died when a huge asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago. It caused firestorms, tsunamis, and a devastating “nuclear winter.” But, despite all chances, a population of little lizards barely bigger than a human finger lived near ground zero. These tough animals, called night lizards (family Xantusiidae), not only survived the disaster but ...
Historians have thought for hundreds of years that ancient societies were mostly patriarchal, with men holding power and passing it down through their families. But a groundbreaking DNA study has turned that idea on its head. It shows that women ruled a Neolithic community in eastern China 4,500 years ago. Genetic testing on skeletons found ...
A strange creature that has the ability to unleash a scent reminiscent of hot buttered popcorn in a cinema in Hawaii can be found on top of the trees in Southeast Asia which are rainforests. Binturongs are often mistaken for bear cats, but they neither belong to a species called ‘bear’ or ‘cat’, however, do ...
