Biochemistry Research News

December 30, 2025

Top Headlines

A Rare Cancer-fighting Plant Compound Has Finally Been Decoded

Dec. 27, 2025 UBC Okanagan researchers have uncovered how plants create mitraphylline, a rare natural compound linked to anti-cancer effects. By identifying two key enzymes that shape and twist molecules into their final form, the team solved a puzzle that had ...

We Are Living in a Golden Age of Species Discovery

Dec. 24, 2025 The search for life on Earth is speeding up, not slowing down. Scientists are now identifying more than 16,000 new species each year, revealing far more biodiversity than expected across animals, plants, fungi, and beyond. Many species remain ...

This Fish-inspired Filter Removes over 99% of Microplastics

Dec. 22, 2025 Washing machines release massive amounts of microplastics into the environment, mostly from worn clothing fibers. Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed a new, fish-inspired filter that removes over 99% of these particles without ...

Scientists Found Climate Change Hidden in Old Military Air Samples

Dec. 21, 2025 Old military air samples turned out to be a treasure trove of biological DNA, allowing scientists to track moss spores over 35 years. The results show mosses now release spores up to a month earlier than in the 1990s. Even more surprising, the ...

A New Way to Prevent Gum Disease Without Wiping Out Good Bacteria

Dec. 16, 2025 Scientists are uncovering a surprising way to influence bacteria—not by killing them, but by changing how they communicate. Researchers studying oral bacteria found that disrupting chemical signals used in bacterial “conversations” can shift ...

A Grad Student’s Wild Idea Triggers a Major Aging Breakthrough

Dec. 14, 2025 Senescent “zombie” cells are linked to aging and multiple diseases, but spotting them in living tissue has been notoriously difficult. Researchers at Mayo Clinic have now taken an inventive leap by using aptamers—tiny, shape-shifting DNA ...

Natural Compound Supercharges Treatment for Aggressive Leukemia

Dec. 14, 2025 Forskolin, a plant-derived compound, shows surprising potential against one of the most aggressive forms of leukemia. Researchers discovered that it not only stops cancer cells from growing but also makes them far more vulnerable to chemotherapy by ...

New Ghost Marsupial Related to the Kangaroo Found in Australia

Dec. 13, 2025 Researchers analyzing ancient fossils from caves across Western Australia have uncovered a completely new species of bettong along with two new woylie subspecies—remarkable finds made bittersweet by signs that some may already be ...

Scientists Find Hidden Rainfall Pattern That Could Reshape Farming

Dec. 12, 2025 New research shows that crops are far more vulnerable when too much rainfall originates from land rather than the ocean. Land-sourced moisture leads to weaker, less reliable rainfall, heightening drought risk. The U.S. Midwest and East Africa are ...

A Silent Ocean Pandemic Is Wiping Out Sea Urchins Worldwide

Dec. 12, 2025 A sudden, unexplained mass die-off is decimating sea urchins around the world, including catastrophic losses in the Canary Islands. Key reef-grazing species are reaching historic lows, and their ability to reproduce has nearly halted in some ...

New Fossils in Qatar Reveal a Tiny Sea Cow Hidden for 21 Million Years

Dec. 12, 2025 Fossils from Qatar have revealed a small, newly identified sea cow species that lived in the Arabian Gulf more than 20 million years ago. The site contains the densest known collection of fossil sea cow bones, showing that these animals once thrived ...

The Deep Ocean Is Fixing Carbon in Ways No One Expected

Dec. 10, 2025 Researchers have uncovered surprising evidence that the deep ocean’s carbon-fixing engine works very differently than long assumed. While ammonia-oxidizing archaea were thought to dominate carbon fixation in the sunless depths, experiments show ...

Latest Headlines

updated 2:06pm EST

Earth’s Worst Extinction Was Followed by a Shockingly Fast Ocean Comeback

Dec. 30, 2025 A spectacular fossil trove on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen shows that marine life made a stunning comeback after Earth’s greatest extinction. Tens of thousands of fossils reveal fully aquatic ...

Ancient Wolves Could Only Have Reached This Island by Boat

Dec. 29, 2025 Scientists have uncovered ancient wolf remains on a small Baltic island where wolves could only have been brought by humans. These animals weren’t dogs, but true wolves that ate the same marine ...

Back from the Dead: “Extinct” Fish Rediscovered in a Remote Bolivian Pond After 20 Years

Dec. 25, 2025 A tiny fish long feared lost has resurfaced in Bolivia, offering a rare conservation success story amid widespread habitat destruction. Moema ...

Scientists Say Evolution Works Differently Than We Thought

Dec. 25, 2025 A major evolutionary theory says most genetic changes don’t really matter, but new evidence suggests that’s not true. Researchers found that helpful mutations happen surprisingly often. The twist ...

Why Evolution Rewarded Ants That Sacrificed Protection

Dec. 22, 2025 Some ants thrive by choosing numbers over strength. Instead of heavily protecting each worker, they invest fewer resources in individual armor and produce far more ants. Larger colonies then ...

This “mushroom” Is Not a Fungus, It’s a Bizarre Plant That Breaks All the Rules

Dec. 20, 2025 Balanophora is a plant that abandoned photosynthesis long ago and now lives entirely as a parasite on tree roots, hidden in dark forest undergrowth. ...

Ancient Oceans Were Ruled by Super Predators Unlike Anything Today

Dec. 19, 2025 Long before whales and sharks, enormous marine reptiles dominated the oceans with unmatched power. Scientists have reconstructed a 130-million-year-old marine ecosystem from Colombia and found ...

Your Body Feels Cold in Two Different Ways

Dec. 18, 2025 Researchers have uncovered that the body uses different molecular systems to sense cold in the skin versus internal organs. This explains why surface chills feel very different from cold experienced ...

A Flesh-Eating Fly Once Eradicated Is Moving Back Toward the U.S.

Dec. 18, 2025 California researchers are preparing for the possible return of the New World screwworm, a parasitic fly that feeds on living flesh and once devastated U.S. livestock. By monitoring traps and ...

Living Cells May Generate Electricity from Motion

Dec. 16, 2025 Cells may generate their own electrical signals through microscopic membrane motions. Researchers show that active molecular processes can create voltage spikes similar to those used by neurons. ...

Researchers Find How Plants Survive Without Sunlight or Sex

Dec. 14, 2025 The study reveals how Balanophora plants function despite abandoning photosynthesis and, in some species, sexual reproduction. Their plastid genomes shrank dramatically in a shared ancestor, yet the ...

Male Bonobos Use Hidden Clues to Boost Mating Success

Dec. 14, 2025 Male bonobos have an impressive ability to detect when females are most fertile, even though the usual visual cues are unreliable. Researchers tracking wild bonobos in the Congo discovered that males ...

Gut Molecule Shows Remarkable Anti-Diabetes Power

Dec. 8, 2025 Researchers revealed that the microbial metabolite TMA can directly block the immune protein IRAK4, reducing inflammation and improving insulin sensitivity. The molecule counteracts damage caused by ...

This Rare Bone Finally Settles the Nanotyrannus Mystery

Dec. 9, 2025 Scientists have confirmed that Nanotyrannus was a mature species, not a young T. rex. A microscopic look at its hyoid bone provided the key evidence, matching growth signals seen in known T. rex ...

Scientists Capture Most Detailed Look Inside DNA Droplets

Dec. 8, 2025 High-resolution imaging has revealed the internal layout of chromatin condensates, showing how DNA fibers fold and interact within these droplet-like structures. The findings connect molecular ...

Scientists Capture Flu Viruses Surfing Into Human Cells in Real Time

Dec. 4, 2025 Scientists have captured a never-before-seen, high-resolution look at influenza’s stealthy invasion of human cells, revealing that the cells aren’t just helpless victims. Using a groundbreaking ...

Earth’s Early Oceans Hid the Secret Rise of Complex Life

Dec. 6, 2025 Scientists have discovered that complex life began evolving much earlier than traditional models suggested. Using an expanded molecular clock approach, the team showed that crucial cellular features ...

Human Brains Light Up for Chimp Voices in a Way No One Expected

Dec. 10, 2025 Humans don’t just recognize each other’s voices—our brains also light up for the calls of chimpanzees, hinting at ancient communication roots shared with our closest primate relatives. ...

Doomed Ants Send a Final Scent to Save Their Colony

Dec. 3, 2025 Ant pupae that are fatally sick don’t hide their condition; instead, they release a special scent that warns the rest of the colony. This signal prompts worker ants to open the pupae’s cocoons ...

Early Earth’s Sky May Have Created the First Ingredients for Life

Dec. 3, 2025 Researchers recreated conditions from billions of years ago and found that Earth’s young atmosphere could make key molecules linked to life. These sulfur-rich compounds, including certain amino ...

A Tiny Ocean Worm Just Revealed a Big Secret About How Eyes Evolve

Dec. 2, 2025 Scientists found that adult bristleworm eyes grow continuously thanks to a rim of neural stem cells similar to those in vertebrate eyes. This growth is surprisingly regulated by environmental light ...

Bird Flu’s Surprising Heat Tolerance Has Scientists Worried

Nov. 28, 2025 Researchers discovered why bird flu can survive temperatures that stop human flu in its tracks. A key gene, PB1, gives avian viruses the ability to replicate even at fever-level heat. Mice ...

Fossil Brain Scans Show Pterosaurs Evolved Flight in a Flash

Dec. 9, 2025 Ancient pterosaurs may have taken to the skies far earlier and more explosively than birds, evolving flight at their very origin despite having relatively small brains. Using advanced CT imaging, ...

Tiny Yellowstone Quakes Ignite a Surge of Hidden Life Underground

Nov. 25, 2025 Researchers studying Yellowstone’s depths discovered that small earthquakes can recharge underground microbial life. The quakes exposed new rock and fluids, creating bursts of chemical energy that ...

Why Consciousness Exists at All

Dec. 15, 2025 Consciousness evolved in stages, starting with basic survival responses like pain and alarm, then expanding into focused awareness and self-reflection. These layers help organisms avoid danger, learn ...

New Research Uncovers a Surprisingly Cheap Way to Farm Kelp Offshore

Dec. 11, 2025 A new economic modeling tool is helping Maine kelp farmers identify cost-saving strategies with remarkable precision. By analyzing farm design, weather, vessel types, and processing methods, it ...

Scientists Discover Hidden Wolf DNA in Most Dogs

Nov. 29, 2025 Researchers studying thousands of canine genomes discovered that wolf DNA is still present in most dog breeds. This ancient genetic influence shows up in traits like body size, behavior, and ...

Scientists Reveal a Hidden Alarm System Inside Your Cells

Nov. 25, 2025 Ribosomes don’t just make proteins—they can sense when something’s wrong. When they collide, they send out stress signals that activate a molecule called ZAK. Researchers uncovered how ZAK ...

This Tiny Plant Survived the Vacuum of Space and Still Grows

Nov. 24, 2025 Moss spores survived an extended stay on the outside of the ISS and remained capable of germinating once back on Earth. Their resilience to vacuum, extreme temperatures, and UV radiation surprised ...

How Parakeets Make New Friends in a Surprisingly Human Way

Nov. 23, 2025 Monk parakeets ease into new friendships, slowly approaching strangers to avoid aggressive encounters. Researchers watched how birds shared space, groomed each other, and escalated to deeper social ...