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Top Science News

August 28, 2026

Scientists have created light-activated drugs that helped blind mice perceive light again and restored visually guided behavior without gene therapy, implants, or specialized lighting. Even more intriguingly, two of the most promising compounds ...
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 ...
Some chimpanzees in West Africa repeatedly throw rocks at particular trees, creating piles of stones that can remain in use for more than a decade. Researchers think this unusual behavior may be ...
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 ...
A 20-year study of 400,000 students found that children who attended public school pre-K earned better grades and test scores through high school than those in other childcare settings. ...
Every one of 212 plant-based meat alternatives and drinks tested in the UK contained at least one naturally occurring fungal toxin, though concentrations remained below recommended EU guideline ...
Scientists tracking thousands of animals found that our physical presence can reshape where wildlife moves and lives, sometimes as strongly as roads, cities, and other human development. Because different species reacted in very different ways, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Astronomers have captured their clearest image yet of Betelgeuse’s long-suspected companion, potentially ending a search that lasted about 100 years. The surprisingly massive hidden star could help ...
Ancient teeth and human DNA are revealing a surprising history of insect eating. Modern humans in northern Eurasia appear to have eaten insects only occasionally, while Neanderthals may have consumed them much more regularly. Populations near the ...

Latest Top Headlines

updated 10:23am EDT

Health News

August 28, 2026

A low-carb diet may raise LDL cholesterol much more sharply in people who are genetically predisposed to high cholesterol, particularly when they consume lots of saturated fat. The findings could help explain why people following seemingly similar ...
Older adults who received the Shingrix shingles vaccine were 24% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over four years in a study of more than 500,000 people. Researchers estimate the difference could amount to roughly one dementia case ...
A major study found that adults with depression show disrupted production of new neurons in the hippocampus, potentially weakening the brain’s ability to separate new experiences from painful memories. The researchers also identified broad ...
Common medications may reshape the gut microbiome long after the last dose is taken. In a study of more than 2,500 people, researchers found lasting microbial changes linked not only to antibiotics, but also to antidepressants, beta-blockers, ...
Backyard bird feeders could become unexpected hotspots for H5N1 as Australia’s bird flu outbreak spreads, bringing species together in ways that rarely occur naturally. Experts say stopping feeding is safest, while smaller amounts of food, no ...
Both too little and too much sleep may be linked to faster aging throughout the body. Researchers analyzing 23 biological aging clocks found the lowest aging levels among people sleeping about 6.4 to 7.8 hours per day. Short or long sleep was also ...
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 ...
Researchers have used AI to uncover the DNA signature of a key genetic “switch” involved in turning genes on. After analyzing about 500,000 DNA sequences, the model identified the initiator in roughly 60% of human genes. The breakthrough could ...
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 ...
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 ...
People who speak several languages may have brains that age more slowly, with four-language speakers showing brains that appeared about 13 years younger than those of monolinguals. Starting earlier and becoming highly fluent were also linked to a ...
A simple yeast-based food supplement may help restore the immune system’s ability to fight cancer, according to new research in mice. Scientists found that yeast beta-glucan reprogrammed early immune cells in the bone marrow, leading to stronger, ...

Latest Health Headlines

updated 10:23am EDT

Physical/Tech News

August 28, 2026

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope has been cleared for final launch preparations ahead of a targeted August 30 liftoff aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. The powerful new observatory will probe cosmic expansion, the history of the universe, and distant ...
A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 stage crashed into the Moon on Aug. 5, leaving behind a newly formed crater about 60 feet wide. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured detailed images showing bright and dark streaks of debris blasted across the ...
Researchers have built microscopic, light-driven robots that can rapidly navigate through liquid, collect bacteria, and deposit them in chosen locations. These tiny “cleaners” could open new possibilities for manipulating cells and microbes with ...
An eight-year Finnish study found that children who spent more time on screens tended to show better cognitive processing as teenagers, challenging common assumptions about screen use. Researchers ...
Researchers have found a clever new way to map a part of Earth’s upper atmosphere that is notoriously difficult to observe. Using orbital data from roughly 1,200 Starlink satellites, they ...
Scientists have created an unusually corrosion-resistant stainless steel that could replace costly titanium components used to produce green hydrogen. The breakthrough could reduce structural material costs by roughly 40 times and make ...
Scientists have created the first quantum material that can sort and transport different quantum states of light at room temperature, potentially removing the need for bulky, ultra-cold refrigeration ...
Scientists have generated quantum entanglement directly from sunlight, potentially offering a lower-energy alternative to the lasers normally used in quantum technology. Their outdoor experiment produced entangled photons with about 94% similarity ...
Metal-rich asteroids could one day become hardware stores for Mars, supplying the materials needed to build and repair a growing colony. A new analysis shows that carefully selected asteroids may be reachable with current spacecraft technology. Some ...
A new hollow nanoreactor mimics living cells to make hydrogen peroxide more efficiently using visible light. Its light-trapping cavity and proton-shuttling shell could open new possibilities for cleaner chemical manufacturing and artificial ...
A mathematician working at Anthropic says he used the AI model Claude Fable 5 to uncover a remarkably simple counterexample to the Jacobian conjecture, a famous problem that has resisted ...
A person’s sleeping brain may reveal warning signs of dementia long before memory problems begin. Researchers used machine learning to analyze EEG recordings from about 7,000 adults and found that an older-than-expected “brain age” was tied to ...

Latest Physical/Tech Headlines

updated 10:23am EDT

Environment News

August 28, 2026

Honeybee queens exposed to pesticides can shift some of the contamination into their eggs, revealing a previously unknown survival strategy. The process may protect the queen while putting developing offspring, and potentially the entire colony, at ...
A colossal cliff system created as the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart may have exposed the heart of the Grand Canyon nearly a billion years before the Colorado River carved it. The ancient landscape could also help explain why enormous sections ...
Nature invented biodegradable plastic long before humans did—and animals may have been feeding on it for hundreds of millions of years. Researchers discovered that dozens of animal species possess ...
Deep underground, bacteria may be capable of doing something remarkable: trapping toxic uranium before it spreads. When researchers fed microbes in uranium-contaminated mine water with glycerol, about 95% of the dissolved uranium disappeared within ...
Animal bones preserved in South Australia’s underwater caves reveal distinctive clues shaped by darkness, algae, bacteria, and other environmental conditions. The findings give scientists a powerful new way to reconstruct how ancient megafauna ...
Thawing Arctic permafrost is releasing ancient carbon into the ocean, raising fears that microbes could turn it into greenhouse gases and accelerate climate change. But sediment cores collected near ...
Coastal communities are facing a hidden threat that is making rising seas far more dangerous: the land beneath them is sinking. New research shows that people in densely populated coastal regions experience an average relative sea-level rise of ...
Global warming appears to have shifted into a faster gear. After removing the effects of El Niño, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycles, researchers found that the planet has warmed at roughly 0.35°C per decade over the past ten years, compared ...
Scientists discovered unusually high water-vapor supersaturation inside deep tropical clouds, creating conditions in which tiny aerosol particles could intensify storm updrafts. The finding suggests earlier studies may have missed the effect because ...
A new chemical process can transform three of the most common plastics into high-purity hydrogen without sorting them first. The technique operates at much lower temperatures than traditional ...
Bumblebees naturally have short lives, but extreme heat and human activity are making survival harder. Pesticides can poison bees or destroy the flowers they depend on, while habitat loss leaves them with fewer safe places to live and feed. ...
Giant sequoias are built to withstand ordinary fires, but recent extreme wildfires killed thousands of trees that had survived for centuries or even millennia. A new analysis of about 26,400 sequoias found that trees in areas treated with prescribed ...

Latest Environment Headlines

updated 10:23am EDT

Society/Education News

August 28, 2026

Astronomers may have been listening for alien civilizations in only a small slice of the radio spectrum while overlooking a largely unexplored range of higher frequencies. Using archived data from the ALMA telescope in Chile, researchers conducted ...
The Backrooms began as a single eerie image of empty yellow rooms, but internet users transformed it into a vast fictional world that feels disturbingly real. Through videos, games, maps, survival ...
Sweden could become an important source of rare earth elements needed for magnets and green technologies. Instead of extracting one target metal, researchers are cataloging everything contained in Swedish mineral deposits. They will then develop ...
Scientists have uncovered new evidence that fireworks can pollute both the air and water in ways that extend beyond the visible smoke. The findings show that leftover debris, fine particles, and airborne chemicals may affect ecosystems and increase ...
Scientists are raising concerns that we may be overlooking evidence of extraterrestrial life even when it is present. Hidden biosignatures, limitations in detection technology, and assumptions about what life should look like can all create ...
Despite centuries of study, scientists are still finding new details and even overlooked structures within the human body. As researchers explore anatomical differences between individuals, it’s becoming clear that the body is far more ...
One of the most celebrated claims about Yellowstone’s wolves is facing a major challenge. Scientists say the study behind the famous trophic cascade story relied on flawed methods that overstated the ecological impact of wolf recovery. Their ...
A new international study finds that middle-aged Americans are lonelier, more depressed, and experiencing worse memory and health than earlier generations. Researchers say growing financial strain, weaker social supports, and chronic stress may ...
For nearly 700 years, Indigenous hunters repeatedly used a bison kill site in central Montana—then suddenly stopped, even though bison were still abundant. Researchers uncovered evidence that ...
Scientists have successfully tested an AI-designed universal coronavirus vaccine in humans for the first time, finding it to be safe and well tolerated. The vaccine generated immune responses against multiple coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, ...
Using cannabis edibles and alcohol together may make drivers far more impaired than either substance alone, according to new research from Johns Hopkins. Even more concerning, common field sobriety tests often failed to detect the cannabis-related ...
Scientists have created a global “treasure map” for rare earth elements by uncovering where the strange volcanic rocks that contain them are most likely to form. By combining thousands of rock ...

Latest Society/Education Headlines

updated 10:23am EDT