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September 17, 2026

Top Headlines

Scientists Discover a Mysterious New Frog Hiding in the Amazon

Sep. 17, 2026 Scientists discovered a new frog species in the flooded forests of the western Amazon, distinguishing it from nearly identical relatives through DNA and its unique call. Adenomera varcena highlights how much Amazonian biodiversity remains hidden ...

Astronomers Just Found the Youngest Known Planet Ever

Sep. 17, 2026 Astronomers have confirmed a Jupiter-size planet less than a million years old, making Elias 2-24 b the youngest known planet and giving scientists a rare look at a world still being born. Its surprisingly rapid formation challenges leading theories ...

JWST’s Mysterious Little Red Dots May Be Black Holes Growing at Incredible Speeds

Sep. 17, 2026 New supercomputer simulations suggest JWST’s puzzling Little Red Dots are rapidly growing black holes from the early Universe. Extreme radiation may have helped create unusually massive black hole ...

Textbooks May Have Misdrawn This Basic Brain Structure for 100 Years

Sep. 17, 2026 Scientists discovered that brain-cell axons may not be smooth tubes as textbooks have shown for more than a century, but instead naturally resemble strings of tiny pearls. Those pearl-like structures can change with neural activity and may help ...

New Mesothelioma Drug Turns Cancer’s Own Defenses Against It

Sep. 17, 2026 Scientists are testing a counterintuitive way to fight mesothelioma, an aggressive asbestos-linked cancer with few effective treatments. A new experimental mesothelioma drug kills cancer cells by disabling PRX3, an antioxidant defense that tumors ...

NASA’s New Horizons Spots Signs of Liquid Nitrogen Flowing on Pluto

Sep. 17, 2026 Scientists have found the first evidence that liquid may have flowed across Pluto’s surface in the recent past. Dark features on the enormous Sputnik Planitia glacier appear consistent with liquid nitrogen rising through cracks from deep beneath ...

Hidden “Immune Organ” in the Skull May Help Fight Brain Cancer

Sep. 16, 2026 Scientists discovered a hidden “immune organ” inside the skull that acts as a rapid first responder against brain cancer in mice. Strengthening this local immune defense improved tumor rejection and survival, raising the possibility of new ...

Scientists Turn Seawater Into Fresh Water Without Harmful Brine

Sep. 16, 2026 Scientists have developed a solar-powered desalination system that turns seawater into fresh water while removing nearly all of the leftover salt as a solid instead of producing harmful brine. The self-cleaning technology could also recover valuable ...

Scientists Find an Immune “False Alarm” That May Drive Rapid Aging

Sep. 16, 2026 Scientists have discovered that some severe genetic disorders linked to rapid aging may be driven not just by damaged DNA, but by the body’s overreaction to that damage. When broken DNA fragments leak into the wrong part of a cell, an immune ...

A 240-million-year-old Fossil Just Changed the Dinosaur Timeline

Sep. 16, 2026 A newly identified 240-million-year-old animal from Tanzania is forcing scientists to rethink the early dinosaur timeline. Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda belongs to a group previously known only from South America, linking fossil deposits on the two ...

Scientists Recreated What Mice Saw from Brain Activity Alone

Sep. 16, 2026 Scientists reconstructed videos from the brain activity of mice, producing 10-second clips based only on signals from neurons in the visual cortex. The breakthrough could help reveal how the brain reshapes what we see before it becomes our ...

Venus May Have Swallowed Its Own Moon

Sep. 16, 2026 Venus may have once had a moon, but new research suggests the planet’s incredibly slow rotation could have doomed it. Computer simulations showed that instead of gradually drifting away like Earth’s moon, a Venusian moon would likely spiral ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:44am EDT

Scientists “truly Astonished” by Discovery That Challenges Earth’s Origin Story

Sep. 16, 2026 A new study suggests Earth formed almost entirely from material in the inner Solar System, challenging the idea that water-rich material from beyond ...

James Webb Reveals Chariklo’s Mysterious Rings Are Changing Faster Than Expected

Sep. 15, 2026 The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed surprising changes in the rings around Chariklo, a small object orbiting between Saturn and Uranus. Over ...

Smelling Chocolate Helped Men Complete More Reps Without Feeling More Tired

Sep. 15, 2026 Simply smelling chocolate helped men complete more leg extension repetitions without making the workout feel harder, with dark chocolate producing the strongest effect. The researchers think familiar ...

This Australian Cave Hid 25,000 Years of Ritual Secrets

Sep. 15, 2026 Microscopic plant remains are revealing how GunaiKurnai ancestors used Cloggs Cave for ritual practices over thousands of years. People deliberately gathered whole grasses, carried them into the dark ...

Scientists Discover a Major Brain Shift Between Ages 50 and 75

Sep. 15, 2026 Scientists have uncovered sweeping changes in how the human brain controls and organizes its genome beginning in midlife, offering new clues to why aging sharply increases the risk of Alzheimer’s ...

UV Light Reveals Possible Camouflage on a 125-Million-Year-Old Crocodile

Sep. 15, 2026 A 125-million-year-old crocodile fossil has revealed preserved skin, possible sensory organs, sophisticated respiratory structures, and an unexpected pattern on its tail. Ultraviolet light exposed ...

The Shape Behind the Einstein Problem Just Revealed Strange New Physics

Sep. 15, 2026 A mathematical shape famous for covering a surface without ever repeating has revealed an unexpected ability to twist light into unusual chiral patterns. The discovery could lead to new ways of ...

Supermassive Black Hole Winds Are 100 Times More Powerful Than Scientists Thought

Sep. 15, 2026 Astronomers have discovered that winds from a supermassive black hole are about 100 times more powerful than previously thought. XRISM observations ...

Nearly 10,000 Patients Reveal What Works Best for Knee Arthritis Pain Relief

Sep. 14, 2026 A major analysis of 139 clinical trials involving nearly 10,000 people suggests that some of the simplest treatments may work best for knee ...

Tiny Cell “antennas” May Help Explain Why Some Babies Are Born With Heart Defects

Sep. 14, 2026 A newly discovered communication system in the microscopic “antennae” of cells may help explain how some congenital heart defects develop. When ...

Scientists Find the Whole Grain “sweet Spot” for Better Heart Health

Sep. 16, 2026 Eating four to six servings of whole grains a day may deliver meaningful benefits for heart health, according to a large review of 87 clinical trials. Researchers found improvements in body weight, ...

Irrigation’s Climate Benefit Could Equal 363 Years of Its Own Emissions

Sep. 16, 2026 U.S. irrigation produces some greenhouse gas emissions, but new research suggests it prevents vastly more by allowing farmers to grow more food on less land. Without irrigation, replacing lost crop ...

66-Million-Year-Old Feather in Dinosaur Poop May Reveal Why Birds Survived the Asteroid

Sep. 11, 2026 A feather discovered inside 66-million-year-old fossilized dinosaur poop may help explain why modern birds survived the asteroid catastrophe. The extinct bird it came from had more primitive ...

Scientists Just Made Quantum Computer Operations 1,000 Times Faster

Sep. 11, 2026 Researchers have found a way to perform certain quantum operations more than 1,000 times faster, cutting thousands of repeated control cycles down to just one. The advance could reduce errors and ...

Your Next Prescription Could Be Treating a Side Effect from the Last One

Sep. 11, 2026 A major Ontario study found 24 common medication chains in which one drug’s side effects can be mistaken for a new medical problem, leading to another prescription. Researchers say closer ...

Study of 1.9 Million People Finds a Striking Link Between ADHD and Gut Problems

Sep. 11, 2026 Researchers analyzing data from more than 1.9 million people found that ADHD is associated with substantially higher rates of digestive problems. People with ADHD had nearly double the odds of ...

Too Much Light at Night May Quietly Reshape Your Heart

Sep. 11, 2026 Nighttime light exposure was linked to thicker, stiffer heart chambers and early signs of reduced heart function in a study of more than 11,000 people. The findings suggest that keeping bedrooms ...

Scientists Finally See DNA “zip” Itself Together for the First Time

Sep. 9, 2026 Scientists have directly observed how two negatively charged DNA molecules can pair up despite normally repelling each other. Positively charged metal ions appear to bridge the gap, helping matching ...

Scientists Create Brilliant White Material Without a Drop of White Pigment

Sep. 10, 2026 Researchers have created a foam-based material that produces intense whiteness and water repellency without titanium dioxide pigments or PFAS chemicals. Inspired by natural structures in snow, ...

Ancient Teeth Reveal Humans Were Getting High 25,000 Years Ago

Sep. 10, 2026 Ancient human remains from Sulawesi suggest people were habitually using the psychoactive betel nut as far back as 25,000 years ago. Researchers found both unusual tooth wear and traces of arecoline, ...

The Moon May Have Formed Intact Just Hours After a Giant Collision

Sep. 9, 2026 Scientists have discovered that the Moon-forming collision may have depended heavily on how hot and physically strong early Earth and Theia were. New simulations found that some impacts create the ...

UCLA Scientists Turn Cord Blood Into Powerful Cancer-Fighting T Cells

Sep. 10, 2026 UCLA researchers developed ready-made cancer-fighting T cells from cord blood stem cells that can attack solid tumors through two separate detection systems. In mice, a single dose controlled cancer ...

Devil’s Arrows: Ancient Builders Hauled 55,000-Pound Stones 11 Miles for Britain’s Tallest Stone Row

Sep. 9, 2026 Britain’s towering Devil’s Arrows were built from 25-tonne stones hauled at least 18 kilometers from Brimham Rocks around 4,000 years ago. The discovery reveals an astonishing feat of prehistoric ...

Chinese Scientists Find a Hidden Atomic Structure That Unlocks Methane

Sep. 9, 2026 Scientists found that a tiny atomic structure that forms on nickel oxide during methane conversion is more effective than the metallic nickel long believed to drive the reaction. The discovery ...

“Parachute Science” Is Failing the Tropics, Home to More Than 80% of Insect Species

Sep. 9, 2026 Insects quietly hold much of the natural world together, yet conservation efforts are overlooking the tropical regions where more than 80 percent of insect species live. Monash University researchers ...

Ozempic and Wegovy Linked to Nearly 40% Fewer Asthma Attacks

Sep. 9, 2026 Semaglutide, the drug found in Ozempic and Wegovy, was linked to nearly 40% fewer asthma attacks in a large real-world study. It was also associated with about 20% fewer COPD flare-ups. Researchers ...

The American “cheetah” Wasn’t a Cheetah at All

Sep. 8, 2026 The extinct “American cheetah” was not really a cheetah at all, but a puma relative with an unexpectedly flexible lifestyle. Fossils from the Yukon suggest northern populations survived partly by ...

Ozempic and Wegovy May Raise Hair Loss Risk in Some Men

Sep. 12, 2026 GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound may increase hair-loss risk by 7% in men who are already genetically susceptible to male-pattern baldness. The findings suggest thinning hair may not ...

Indonesia’s Most Dangerous Fires Are Burning Underground

Sep. 6, 2026 Indonesia’s dangerous peat fires are surging early in the 2026 fire season as a strengthening El Niño and severe drought dry out wetlands that can burn underground for months. These slow ...

Scientists Reveal the Hidden Instructions That Build the Human Brain

Sep. 4, 2026 UCLA researchers have discovered two powerful influences that help guide how the human brain forms before birth. Radial glia, stem cells responsible for producing much of the cerebral cortex, change ...