Top News

December 17, 2025

Top Headlines

He Ate a Hamburger and Died Hours Later. Doctors Found a Shocking Cause

Dec. 17, 2025 A rare tick-borne allergy linked to red meat has now been confirmed as deadly for the first time. A healthy New Jersey man collapsed and died hours after eating beef, with later testing revealing a severe allergic reaction tied to alpha-gal, a sugar ...

A New Test Could Reveal Alzheimer’s Before Symptoms Appear

Dec. 17, 2025 Scientists at Northern Arizona University are developing a promising new way to detect Alzheimer’s disease earlier than ever before—by tracking how the brain uses sugar. Using tiny particles in the blood called microvesicles, researchers may ...

A Hidden Star Found Where Dust Shouldn’t Exist

Dec. 17, 2025 A mysterious cloud of ultra-hot dust around Kappa Tucanae A may finally have an explanation: a hidden companion star. The star’s extreme orbit carries it straight through the dust zone, strongly suggesting it plays a key role in keeping the dust ...

A Simple Turn Reveals a 1,500-year-old Secret on Roman Glass

Dec. 16, 2025 A museum visit sparked a revelation when a Roman glass cup was turned around and its overlooked markings came into focus. These symbols, once dismissed as decoration, appear to be workshop identifiers used by teams of skilled artisans. The findings ...

Physicists Found a Way to See Heat in Empty Space

Dec. 16, 2025 Physicists have found a clever way to detect the elusive Unruh effect without extreme accelerations. By using atoms that emit light cooperatively between mirrors, acceleration subtly shifts when a powerful light burst appears. That early flash acts ...

Anxiety and Insomnia Linked to Sharp Drops in Key Immune Cells

Dec. 15, 2025 Natural killer cells act as the immune system’s rapid-response team, but the stress of anxiety and insomnia may be quietly thinning their ranks. A study of young women in Saudi Arabia found that both conditions were linked to significantly fewer ...

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 plastids remain vital. Asexual reproduction ...

Harvard Gut Discovery Could Change How We Treat Obesity and Diabetes

Dec. 14, 2025 Scientists found that certain molecules made by gut bacteria travel to the liver and help control how the body uses energy. These molecules change depending on diet, genetics, and shifts in the microbiome. Some even improved insulin response in ...

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 skillfully interpret a mix of swelling timing and ...

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 ...

Webb Finds a Hidden Atmosphere on a Molten Super-Earth

Dec. 14, 2025 Webb’s latest observations reveal a hellish world cloaked in an unexpected atmosphere: TOI-561 b, an ultra-hot rocky planet racing around its star in under 11 hours. Despite being blasted by intense radiation that should strip it bare, the planet ...

Kids’ Anxiety and Depression Dropped Fast After COVID School Reopenings

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 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:31am EST

A Loud Minority Makes the Internet Look Far More Toxic Than It Is

Dec. 17, 2025 People think online platforms are overflowing with toxic and misleading content, but the reality is far calmer. A small group of highly active users creates most of the harm, while the majority ...

Scientists Reveal Why Some Brains Stop Growing Too Soon

Dec. 17, 2025 Researchers used miniature human brains grown in the lab to uncover why certain genetic mutations lead to abnormally small brains. Changes in actin disrupted the orientation of early brain cell ...

Scientists Reveal a 1.5-Million-Year-Old Human Face

Dec. 17, 2025 Scientists have digitally reconstructed the face of a 1.5-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil from Ethiopia, uncovering an unexpectedly primitive appearance. While its braincase fits with classic ...

This 8,000-Year-Old Art Shows Math Before Numbers Existed

Dec. 16, 2025 Over 8,000 years ago, early farming communities in northern Mesopotamia were already thinking mathematically—long before numbers were written down. By closely studying Halafian pottery, researchers ...

Ramanujan’s 100-Year-Old Pi Formula Is Still Revealing the Universe

Dec. 16, 2025 Ramanujan’s elegant formulas for calculating pi, developed more than a century ago, have unexpectedly resurfaced at the heart of modern physics. Researchers at IISc discovered that the same ...

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. ...

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 ...

This Rare Earthquake Did Everything Scientists Hoped to See

Dec. 16, 2025 A rare, ultra-long earthquake in Myanmar revealed that mature faults can deliver their full force directly to the surface. The discovery could mean stronger shaking near faults like California’s ...

A Hidden Climate Shift May Have Sparked Epic Pacific Voyages 1,000 Years Ago

Dec. 15, 2025 Around 1,000 years ago, a major climate shift reshaped rainfall across the South Pacific, making western islands like Samoa and Tonga drier while ...

Giant Sea Monsters Lived in Rivers at the End of the Dinosaur Age

Dec. 15, 2025 Giant mosasaurs, once thought to be strictly ocean-dwelling predators, may have spent their final chapter prowling freshwater rivers alongside dinosaurs and crocodiles. A massive tooth found in North ...

AI Learns to Decode the Diseases Written in Your DNA

Dec. 16, 2025 A newly developed AI can predict which diseases specific genetic mutations are likely to cause, not just whether they are harmful. The breakthrough could speed up diagnoses and open new paths for ...

AI Found a Way to Stop a Virus Before It Enters Cells

Dec. 15, 2025 Researchers discovered a hidden molecular “switch” that herpes viruses rely on to invade cells. By combining AI, simulations, and lab experiments, they identified and altered a single amino acid ...

New Orbital Clue Reveals How Hot Jupiters Really Formed

Dec. 15, 2025 Hot Jupiters were once cosmic oddities, but unraveling how they moved so close to their stars has remained a stubborn mystery. Scientists have long debated whether these giants were violently flung ...

Light-Printed Electrodes Turn Skin and Clothing Into Sensors

Dec. 15, 2025 Researchers in Sweden have unveiled a way to create high-performance electronic electrodes using nothing more than visible light and specially designed water-soluble monomers. This gentle, ...

Cannabis Compounds Show Unexpected Power Against Ovarian Cancer

Dec. 15, 2025 Scientists have discovered that key compounds from cannabis—CBD and THC—show surprisingly strong effects against ovarian cancer cells. Used together, they slow cell growth, reduce colony ...

Indoor Tanning Triples Melanoma Risk and Seeds Broad DNA Mutations

Dec. 15, 2025 Researchers discovered that tanning beds cause widespread, mutation-laden DNA damage across almost all skin, explaining the sharply increased melanoma risk. Single-cell genomic analysis revealed ...

Stem Cell Pain Sponge Soaks Up Osteoarthritis Joint Pain and Protects Cartilage

Dec. 15, 2025 SereNeuro Therapeutics revealed promising results for SN101, a first-in-class iPSC-derived therapy designed to treat chronic osteoarthritis pain while protecting joint tissue. Instead of blocking ...

A Clear New Material Could Make Windows Super Efficient

Dec. 13, 2025 MOCHI uses microscopic, air-filled channels to stop heat in its tracks while remaining nearly crystal clear. If scaled up, it could transform windows into powerful energy savers and solar ...

Astronomers Watched a Sleeping Neutron Star Roar Back to Life

Dec. 14, 2025 Astronomers tracked a decade of dramatic changes in P13, a neutron star undergoing supercritical accretion. Its X-ray luminosity rose and fell by factors of hundreds while its rotation rate ...

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 ...

Stressed Rats Keep Returning to Cannabis and Scientists Know Why

Dec. 11, 2025 Rats with naturally high stress levels were far more likely to self-administer cannabis when given access. Behavioral testing showed that baseline stress hormones were the strongest predictor of ...

Even Moderate Drinking Carries a Bigger Cancer Risk Than You Think

Dec. 11, 2025 Researchers found that both how often and how much someone drinks significantly shape their cancer risk, even at moderate levels. Vulnerability varies across groups, with genetics, socioeconomic ...

Scientists Find the Missing Links Between Genes and Disease

Dec. 16, 2025 A new genetic mapping strategy reveals how entire networks of genes work together to cause disease, filling in the missing links left by traditional genetic studies. The technique could transform how ...

Researchers Identify Viral Suspects That Could Be Fueling Long COVID

Dec. 14, 2025 Scientists are uncovering a new possibility behind long COVID’s stubborn symptoms: hidden infections that awaken or emerge alongside SARS-CoV-2. Evidence is mounting that viruses like Epstein-Barr ...

Ozempic May Offer a Surprising Bonus Benefit for Brain Health

Dec. 13, 2025 A new analysis suggests that people with type 2 diabetes who use GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Trulicity or Victoza may be less likely to develop epilepsy than those taking DPP-4 inhibitors. ...

Tea May Strengthen Bones in Older Women While Heavy Coffee Weakens Them

Dec. 13, 2025 A decade-long study of older women found that tea drinkers had slightly stronger bones, while moderate coffee drinking caused no harm. Heavy coffee intake—over five cups a day—was linked to lower ...

AI Finds a Surprising Monkeypox Weak Spot That Could Rewrite Vaccines

Dec. 12, 2025 Researchers used AI to pinpoint a little-known monkeypox protein that provokes strong protective antibodies. When the team tested this protein as a vaccine ingredient in mice, it produced a potent ...

New Discovery Offers Real Hope for Rare Genetic Disease

Dec. 12, 2025 Scientists discovered that certain gene changes allow cells to function even when frataxin, the protein lost in Friedreich’s ataxia, is missing. Experiments in worms, human cells, and mice revealed ...

Ghost Particles Slip Through Earth and Spark a Hidden Atomic Reaction

Dec. 12, 2025 Scientists have managed to observe solar neutrinos carrying out a rare atomic transformation deep underground, converting carbon-13 into nitrogen-13 inside the SNO+ detector. By tracking two faint ...

Scientists Find Dark Chocolate Ingredient That Slows Aging

Dec. 12, 2025 Scientists have uncovered a surprising link between dark chocolate and slower aging. A natural cocoa compound called theobromine was found in higher levels among people who appeared biologically ...