Top Science News

Aug. 29, 2026 — Dogs and humans may have more in common when it comes to aging than scientists realized. Researchers with the Dog Aging Project found that patterns of small molecules in dogs’ blood were linked to longer or shorter lifespans in remarkably similar ways to those seen in people. These metabolic “fingerprints” could offer clues about the biological processes that drive aging, including ...

Aug. 29, 2026 — People with chronic insomnia who used melatonin long term had a roughly 90% higher risk of developing heart failure over five years, according to a large preliminary study. The findings do not prove melatonin causes heart problems, but they raise new questions about the safety of taking the popular sleep supplement for extended ...

Aug. 28, 2026 — Frequent micro-awakenings during sleep were linked to higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s in healthy middle-aged adults who had no symptoms. The discovery raises the possibility that subtle changes during sleep could offer an early warning signal years before memory problems ...

Aug. 28, 2026 — NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will combine Hubble-like detail with a field of view 100 times larger, giving astronomers a sweeping new way to explore the cosmos. Its observations could uncover hidden planets, map billions of cosmic objects, and help scientists unravel the mysteries of dark matter and dark ...

Aug. 27, 2026 — Researchers used AI to search through more than 100 million possible settings for 3D-printing a high-performance NASA alloy. After only 40 experiments, the system identified six successful configurations, including one that worked at a record-low 500 watts. That could allow GRCop-42, currently difficult and expensive to print, to be made with much ...

Aug. 27, 2026 — Scientists have found a surprising way to potentially switch on an unusual form of magnetism in ruthenium dioxide, a material that normally appears nonmagnetic. When the material was made into an ultrathin film only a few atomic layers thick and placed under strain, its electrons developed patterns consistent with altermagnetism, a recently ...

Aug. 26, 2026 — NASA has successfully tested a system that allows satellites to navigate without GPS by using other spacecraft and debris as landmarks in orbit. In just three days, FALCON also improved the known orbits of more than 200 space objects completely ...

Aug. 29, 2026 — Researchers have discovered a way to turn notoriously difficult-to-recycle PVC plastic into a key ingredient used in high-performance lubricants such as engine oil. The technique could give mountains of plastic waste a valuable second life while making lubricant production more ...

Aug. 29, 2026 — Researchers have discovered that Western Australia’s iron-rich rocks can naturally generate hydrogen and that the process may be boosted to produce much larger amounts. If it can be scaled up, the vast formations beneath the Pilbara could become a major new source of low-emission energy for Australia and potentially the ...

Aug. 28, 2026 — More than 1,000 volunteers buried cotton underwear across Switzerland to help scientists measure how active different soils are. The faster the fabric disappeared, the more biological activity was taking place underground. Gardens showed the fastest decomposition, while lawns had the least, revealing how strongly land management can shape soil ...

Aug. 27, 2026 — Beneath the rocky slopes of Mount Timpanogos lies far more ice than anyone walking across the surface might suspect. Researchers used gravity measurements to map the buried glacier in 3D and found it is about 83% ice, with enough frozen water to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools. Their findings suggest rock glaciers form as falling debris buries persistent snow and preserves it for thousands of ...

Aug. 28, 2026 — A popular vanilla flavoring in e-cigarettes may interfere with some of the earliest steps of human development. In lab experiments, vanillin caused embryonic stem cells to lose their ability to develop normally and pushed them toward forming only certain types of ...

Aug. 27, 2026 — Ultra-processed foods make up a huge share of the American diet, and new research suggests they may carry another serious health risk for men. In a nationally representative study of more than 17,000 U.S. men, those who ate more ultra-processed foods, including soft drinks, packaged snacks, cereals, and processed meats, had roughly 24% to 31% higher risks of prostate cancer after accounting for ...

Aug. 27, 2026 — The belief that huge doses of vitamin C can ward off colds was popularized more than 50 years ago by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling. Since then, larger studies have found that vitamin C does not prevent most people from catching a cold, although regularly taking it may make severe symptoms slightly shorter or ...

Aug. 27, 2026 — Scientists created smart nanoparticles that can both illuminate hidden glioblastoma cells during surgery and destroy microscopic cancer left behind afterward. In mice, the treatment prevented recurrence and led to 100% survival at 60 days, though it has not yet been tested in ...

Aug. 23, 2026 — Researchers have uncovered a possible reason why the Alzheimer’s risk gene APOE4 can disrupt the brain long before memory problems begin. In mice, APOE4 increased a protein called Nell2, shrinking neurons and making memory circuits unusually active. That early hyperactivity predicted worse memory later in life. Reducing Nell2 in adult mice ...

Aug. 23, 2026 — Older adults with mild cognitive impairment and sleep problems who took at least 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily scored more than 13% higher on a cognitive test than those taking none. The preliminary findings suggest vitamin D could be worth studying as a potentially modifiable factor during an early window of cognitive ...

Aug. 22, 2026 — Mice that developed compulsive drinking after alcohol abstinence showed more than double the activity in a brain region associated with stress and addiction. Because the signal appeared before they drank again, researchers think it could eventually help predict who is most at risk of ...

Aug. 26, 2026 — Britain’s postwar sugar rationing created a rare natural experiment that let researchers examine how early sugar exposure might affect health decades later. People who experienced more rationing during their first 1,000 days had lower rates of several cancers and showed signs of slower biological aging. They were also still eating less sugar and maintaining healthier diets around age ...

Aug. 25, 2026 — People who reach 110 and beyond appear to have unusually large numbers of rare immune cells capable of killing abnormal cells. These CD4 cytotoxic T cells became more common with age and often expanded into large groups of nearly identical cells, suggesting the immune system was repeatedly responding to persistent ...

Aug. 23, 2026 — Gut bacteria can transform nitrate and plant-based iron from vegetables and other foods into protective molecules that may benefit the heart and metabolism. In experimental models, higher levels of these compounds were linked to lower blood pressure, better blood sugar control, healthier blood vessels, and less liver ...

Aug. 23, 2026 — A decades-old compound may point to a new way of treating obesity by making the body burn more energy rather than simply reducing appetite. In mice, TOFA increased energy use by as much as 18%, reduced body fat without significant muscle loss, and improved blood sugar, triglycerides, and fatty liver disease. It also produced stronger results when combined with GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, ...

Aug. 23, 2026 — Scientists have developed an ultrathin coating that could dramatically improve how efficiently heat is transferred during condensation. By turning tiny polymer structures once considered “defects” into places where water droplets can form, then helping those droplets detach quickly, the new surface keeps exposing fresh areas for condensation. In tests on copper tubes, it transferred heat up ...

Aug. 22, 2026 — Freezing the liquid core of an optical fiber produced an extreme environment where light and sound interact more than 1,000 times more strongly than in ordinary fibers. Researchers used the effect to create optoacoustic memory, potentially paving the way for lower-energy photonic computers and advanced quantum ...

Aug. 21, 2026 — Scientists watched a light-triggered hidden state form inside a material in only 30 femtoseconds, revealing a step that had never been seen before. The material first entered a fleeting electronic state in which its bonds reorganized in a repeating pattern, followed by tiny atomic shifts. This ultrafast pathway could offer a new way to control electronic properties with light and help inspire ...

Aug. 11, 2026 — NASA is assembling the foundations of a future Moon Base through a wave of robotic missions and powerful new commercial landers. More than 20 landings are planned through 2029, testing everything from precision landings and lunar communications to rovers, power systems, and technology that can survive the Moon’s extreme conditions. Upcoming missions could also make history by exploring the ...

Aug. 10, 2026 — NASA engineers have found a clever way to squeeze more life out of Voyager 2, nearly half a century after it left Earth. In an operation nicknamed the “Big Bang,” the team simultaneously shut down certain power-hungry hardware and switched to lower-power alternatives while keeping the spacecraft warm enough to ...

Aug. 7, 2026 — A ten-month Antarctic experiment found that astronauts may struggle not only with loneliness but also with spending too much time around the same people. Frequent contact was linked to greater tension and mistrust, while the crew increasingly divided into cultural and language-based ...

July 31, 2026 — Scientists have built the first all-optical photonic time crystal, allowing them to reshape the behavior of terahertz light at extraordinary speeds. The breakthrough could open the door to ultrafast computing, smarter communication systems, advanced imaging, and a new generation of highly tunable ...

Aug. 24, 2026 — Researchers have created a tiny chip that produces a stable “rainbow” of light capable of generating multiple high-frequency signals at once, potentially boosting the speed and capacity of future 6G networks. Its extreme precision could also make it valuable for quantum timing, navigation, radar, and even space-based ...

Aug. 17, 2026 — Caltech scientists have created ultra-low-loss optical pathways on silicon chips that approach the efficiency of fiber optics and dramatically outperform existing technology at visible wavelengths. The breakthrough could unlock more powerful lasers, miniature atomic sensors and clocks, quantum systems, and more energy-efficient data ...

Aug. 17, 2026 — Researchers combined synthetic DNA with a semiconductor to create an ultra-low-power memory device capable of storing and processing information in the same place. The bio-hybrid technology could eventually help make AI systems and next-generation computers far more energy ...

Aug. 16, 2026 — Scientists have discovered that tiny, sharply curved wrinkles in graphene can dramatically alter its electrical behavior, creating surprisingly strong charge separation. The finding suggests future electronics could be tuned by reshaping materials at the atomic scale instead of changing what they’re made ...

Aug. 19, 2026 — Silver nanoparticles can precisely slice DNA and create longer “sticky ends,” helping genetic fragments join up to five times more efficiently than conventional methods. The breakthrough could eventually simplify the construction of large DNA sequences for gene therapies, cancer vaccines, engineered drugs, and advanced ...

Aug. 6, 2026 — A landmark study of nearly 4,000 babies found that acetaminophen and ibuprofen were equally safe during infancy. Neither medicine was linked to eczema or bronchiolitis, and no serious side effects were caused by the drugs. Researchers will continue following the children through age six to study possible long-term ...

Aug. 6, 2026 — Glyphosate was long thought to be safe for honeybees because they lack the enzyme the chemical targets in weeds. However, researchers found that exposed bees foraged 13 percent less after only three days and showed changes in brain chemicals linked to behavior. Across a whole hive, that decline could reduce honey production, weaken pollination, and threaten long-term ...

Aug. 25, 2026 — A huge section of Greenland’s Petermann Glacier has snapped off, forming an ice island about the size of Manhattan. Satellites watched cracks spread rapidly before the 76-square-kilometer slab finally broke free on August 4. It is the glacier’s biggest calving event since 2012, and scientists say two even larger pieces could eventually follow. The rare Arctic iceberg will now be tracked as it ...

Aug. 20, 2026 — The “Asian Water Tower” is losing roughly 24.2 billion tonnes of groundwater every year, with some of the worst declines hitting densely populated farming regions. Glacier melt may temporarily soften the crisis around the 2060s, but without changes in water use, researchers expect depletion to accelerate ...

Aug. 18, 2026 — A newly discovered Arctic process can dramatically boost the number of particles that help form clouds. Near melting sea ice, sunlight reacts with chemicals released by the ocean, algae, and ice, causing cloud-seeding particles to multiply by as much as 50 times in a day. Because the active ice-edge region is growing as sea ice retreats, the ...

Aug. 15, 2026 — Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be leaving a measurable imprint inside the human body. Researchers analyzing more than two decades of U.S. health data found that blood bicarbonate levels have climbed about 7% since 1999, while calcium and phosphorus have declined—changes that closely track increasing atmospheric ...

Aug. 12, 2026 — Ancient remains from Vietnam suggest diseases like yaws may have been passed from mother to child thousands of years ago, a form of transmission often assumed to indicate syphilis. The discovery could overturn how scientists interpret ancient infections and complicate the long-running mystery of syphilis’s ...

July 22, 2026 — Ancient fern savannahs may have transformed parts of Europe into a wildfire-prone inferno during the end-Triassic mass extinction. New fossil evidence suggests the ferns repeatedly regrew after fires, creating fresh fuel that helped prolong the ...

July 12, 2026 — Why do beaches today have seashells from clams and snails instead of brachiopods? A new study suggests the answer lies in Earth's greatest mass extinction, when warming oceans and falling oxygen levels wiped out animals that couldn't adapt. Species with body plans and metabolisms better suited to the changing conditions survived and went on to dominate the seas, offering a glimpse of how modern ...

June 18, 2026 — Plague was already a deadly killer 5,500 years ago, long before cities, farming, or the rat-infested conditions usually linked to historic outbreaks. By analyzing ancient DNA from hunter-gatherer cemeteries in Siberia, researchers discovered early plague strains in nearly 40% of the individuals studied and found evidence of rapid family-based outbreaks that wiped out many children and young ...

Aug. 12, 2026 — Ordinary WiFi networks could quietly become powerful surveillance tools, allowing people to be identified without cameras, special sensors, or even carrying a connected device. Researchers showed that unencrypted signals routinely exchanged between WiFi devices and routers can be used to create radio-based images of people and recognize them within seconds. In tests involving 197 participants, ...

July 25, 2026 — Recycling, greener diets, and other personal climate choices do not seem to distract people from supporting major environmental reforms. A four-year study of nearly 2,800 Australians found that these habits neither increased nor reduced later political ...

July 20, 2026 — Oxygen is disappearing from oceans, lakes, rivers, and coastal waters at an alarming rate, threatening aquatic life and weakening the natural processes that help regulate Earth’s climate. Scientists warn that this widespread deoxygenation is closely connected to other major planetary threats, including warming, pollution, biodiversity loss, and ocean ...

Jan. 5, 2026 — Nearly all women in STEM graduate programs report feeling like impostors, despite strong evidence of success. This mindset leads many to dismiss their achievements as luck and fear being “found out.” Research links impostorism to worse mental health, higher burnout, and increased thoughts of dropping out. Supportive environments and shifting beliefs about intelligence may help break the ...

Dec. 13, 2025 — Researchers discovered that children who went back to school during COVID experienced far fewer mental health diagnoses than those who stayed remote. Anxiety, depression, and ADHD all declined as in-person learning resumed. Healthcare spending tied to these conditions also dropped. Girls showed the largest improvements, highlighting the importance of school-based structure and ...

Dec. 10, 2025 — Researchers discovered that unusually high temperatures can hinder early childhood development. Children living in hotter conditions were less likely to reach key learning milestones, especially in reading and basic math skills. Those facing economic hardship or limited resources were hit the hardest. The study underscores how climate change may shape children’s learning long before they reach ...

Nov. 29, 2025 — Millions face Medicare decisions each year, but many don’t take advantage of tools that can save them money and stress. Insurance marketing often overshadows unbiased options like SHIP, leaving people unaware of better choices. Comparing real costs—not just premiums—can prevent unpleasant surprises, especially when provider networks or drug rules change. New assistance programs for ...

July 24, 2026 — Ozempic, Wegovy, and similar drugs may deliver excellent health value, but covering them for millions of eligible patients could overwhelm insurance budgets. Researchers say better long-term support is needed and warn that low-cost compounded versions may carry serious safety ...

June 21, 2026 — Researchers found that a Chinese sodium-ion battery performs far better than expected, with production quality and design features comparable to Tesla’s batteries. If engineers can improve cold-weather charging and energy density, sodium could become a cheaper and more abundant alternative to lithium for EVs and large-scale energy ...

June 20, 2026 — The global cobalt supply chain is more interconnected—and more vulnerable—than previously thought, with disruptions capable of triggering far-reaching cascades across multiple countries and industries. Researchers warn that protecting battery supply chains will require system-wide coordination because critical bottlenecks can turn local shocks into global ...

June 18, 2026 — The race to build data centers in space is gaining momentum as AI drives unprecedented demand for computing power. Orbital facilities could tap into abundant solar energy and avoid many of the environmental challenges faced on Earth. Yet space remains a harsh and expensive place to operate, with major hurdles including cooling, maintenance, radiation exposure, and orbital ...