Plants & Animals News

October 5, 2026

Top Headlines

Scientists Reveal What Seven Days of Fasting Does to the Human Body

Oct. 5, 2026 Scientists found that prolonged fasting triggers major changes throughout the body, but many of the most interesting effects only appeared after about three days without food. The results suggest fasting may influence health in ways that go beyond ...

Scientists Discover a Human Brain Gene That Can Jump Through DNA

Oct. 5, 2026 Scientists have discovered a human gene with a remarkable double life: it appears to play an important role in brain cells while still retaining the ability to jump around the genome. Called BC200, the gene evolved millions of years ago from a ...

The “Glue” Holding Your Cells Together Has a Surprising Second Job

Oct. 4, 2026 Scientists have discovered that E-cadherin, a protein best known as the “glue” holding cells and tissues together, has a surprising second job: helping epithelial cells swallow nearby dead cells. Using live zebrafish and mouse embryos, ...

A Forgotten 30-year Forest Experiment Just Delivered a Huge Surprise

Oct. 4, 2026 A 30-year forestry experiment in Australia found that heavily thinned mountain ash forests grew unusually large trees while recovering enough carbon to match or exceed untouched areas. The results suggest carefully managed thinning could support ...

Leucine Does More Than Build Muscle. It Powers Up Your Cells

Oct. 3, 2026 The essential amino acid leucine can boost cellular energy production by protecting key proteins on mitochondria from being destroyed. The discovery reveals a new connection between nutrition and metabolism that could eventually lead to new ...

New “Plant Armor” More Than Triples Strawberry Yields

Oct. 1, 2026 A new protective fabric boosted strawberry yields by as much as 3.56 times while blocking insects and still allowing sunlight, rain, and airflow to reach the plants. Originally inspired by research on military clothing, Plant Armor could also help ...

Mulberry May Reshape Gut Bacteria and Influence Metabolism

Sep. 30, 2026 Mulberry compounds may reshape the gut microbiome in ways that support intestinal health and metabolism, with some combinations showing especially strong effects in animal studies. However, the results vary depending on the plant part and processing ...

Scientists Expected These Galápagos Sea Turtles to Wander. They Stayed Put

Sep. 28, 2026 Yellow-morph green sea turtles in the Galápagos surprised scientists by staying remarkably close to home instead of making the long journeys typically associated with sea turtles. Satellite tracking showed that none left the marine reserve during ...

Scientists Find New Virus Behind Mysterious Tick Illness

Sep. 28, 2026 Scientists have discovered a new tick-borne virus in China that causes flu-like illness and may account for previously unexplained cases of fever, fatigue, digestive problems, and low platelet counts. Most patients with ALTNV alone recovered, but ...

New Soil Test Could Reveal How Soil Microbes Help Feed Plants

Sep. 27, 2026 Scientists have streamlined a method for measuring DNA-bound phosphorus in soil, making it cheaper and easier while preserving its accuracy. The technique could reveal how soil microbes help recycle phosphorus and ultimately support more sustainable ...

1.7-billion-year-old Fossils Reveal a Crucial Clue to the Rise of Complex Life

Sep. 27, 2026 Scientists studying ancient Australian rocks uncovered more than 12,000 fossils from some of the oldest known eukaryotes on Earth. These early complex cells lived in settings ranging from coastal ...

Scientists Say House Cats Could Help Unlock Better Cancer Treatments for Humans

Sep. 26, 2026 Scientists have mapped the genetics of cat cancer on an unprecedented scale and found surprising similarities with tumors in humans. The findings could help bring precision cancer treatments to cats ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:59am EDT

97-Million-Year-Old Fossils Reveal the Earliest Known Animal “GPS”

Oct. 2, 2026 Mysterious 97-million-year-old magnetic fossils may be the oldest evidence of an animal using Earth’s magnetic field like a built-in GPS. Their sophisticated magnetic structure could have helped an ...

One Tiny Chemical Difference Between RNA and DNA May Help Explain How Life Began

Oct. 1, 2026 Scientists may have found a clue to one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the origin of life: how fragile RNA molecules could gather and survive ...

This Giant Stick Insect Fooled Scientists for Decades

Oct. 1, 2026 Scientists have identified two new species of large Australian stick insects, including one that lays extraordinary “lidded” eggs never before recorded in the group. The discovery also revealed ...

Bats May Have First Evolved in Europe 65 Million Years Ago

Sep. 30, 2026 A huge genomic and fossil study suggests bats first evolved in Europe around 65 to 60 million years ago before spreading across the globe. The findings also indicate that flight and echolocation ...

Sharks Can Hear Nearly 250 Feet Away and Pinpoint the Source

Sep. 29, 2026 Wild blacktip sharks can detect low-frequency sounds from nearly 250 feet away, according to experiments conducted off the Florida coast. The sharks not only heard the sounds but sharply changed ...

This 245-Million-Year-Old Fossil Still Has Its Stomach and Intestines

Sep. 29, 2026 A 245-million-year-old marine reptile fossil preserves an astonishing amount of detail, including its stomach, liver, and intestines. The discovery reveals that Austronaga minuta was highly adapted ...

The Ice Blasting from Saturn's Moon Enceladus Is Stranger Than Scientists Realized

Sep. 29, 2026 Enceladus may naturally separate and concentrate chemicals from its hidden ocean as droplets slowly freeze and shatter on their way into space. The ...

Scientists Were Wrong About This Strange Mammal for Nearly 40 Years

Sep. 28, 2026 A beautifully preserved fossil from Mongolia’s Gobi Desert has solved a mystery that puzzled paleontologists for nearly 40 years. Tamirkhan balcarceli shows that zhelestids were not early relatives ...

The Secret to Growing Food on Mars Could Be Fungi

Sep. 25, 2026 Scientists think beneficial fungi could help transform nutrient-poor lunar and Martian regolith into a material capable of supporting crops. By helping plants access nutrients and withstand harsh ...

Don’t Toss Cannabis Leaves: They May Contain Rare Compounds With Medical Potential

Sep. 25, 2026 Scientists discovered rare flavoalkaloids in Cannabis leaves for the first time, along with dozens of other phenolic compounds that had never been ...

Scientists Discovered Two Bizarre New Sea Spiders That Are “nightmare Fuel”

Sep. 25, 2026 Scientists discovered two strange new sea spider species in the Salish Sea, including a hairy-legged, red-eyed species that can groom itself with comb-like appendages. Another is frequently covered ...

Humpback Whale Mother May Have Mourned Her Dead Calf for Days

Sep. 22, 2026 Researchers observed a humpback whale mother staying beside her presumed stillborn calf for hours and possibly days off Australia’s Gold Coast. She maintained eye contact and remained close to the ...

A 66-Million-Year-Old Tooth Reveals T. Rex Was Nearly as Warm as a Human

Sep. 20, 2026 Chemical clues preserved inside fossilized T. rex teeth reveal that the dinosaur maintained a body temperature of about 97 degrees Fahrenheit, almost identical to humans. The finding provides direct ...

This Deep-Sea Enzyme Survives Heat That Destroys Most Proteins

Sep. 19, 2026 A deep-sea microbe uses an exceptionally heat-resistant enzyme to turn atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia at temperatures that would destroy most proteins. Its unusual structure and a newly observed ...

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 ...

Scientists Discover the First Diplodocus Ever Found Outside North America

Sep. 18, 2026 A 150-million-year-old dinosaur fossil from Spain has been identified as the first confirmed Diplodocus ever found outside North America. The giant sauropod measured about 25 meters long and was ...

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 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 ...

“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 ...

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 ...

A Broken Rib from the World’s Largest T. Rex Hid a 66-Million-Year-Old Secret

Sep. 23, 2026 A broken rib from Scotty, the largest known T. rex skeleton, contains an extraordinary fossilized network of blood vessels formed while the dinosaur was healing. Scientists used neutron and X-ray ...

Life Uses 4 DNA Letters. Scientists Just Made 8 Work

Sep. 5, 2026 Researchers at UC San Diego have demonstrated that a key cellular enzyme can accurately read an eight-letter genetic alphabet, doubling the four letters used by all known life on Earth. Detailed ...

Scientists Discover a Bizarre “devil Flower” Hidden in Thailand

Sep. 3, 2026 Scientists have discovered a strange black “devil flower” in Thailand that lives mostly underground, steals nutrients from fungi, and looks strikingly unlike a typical plant. The newly named ...

Extreme Drought Now Covers 44% of Puerto Rico

Sep. 4, 2026 Puerto Rico’s normally rainy season has instead brought a severe and fast-growing drought. By August 25, three-quarters of the territory was in at least moderate drought, with extreme drought ...

Scientists Discover Why Snake Embryos Twist Into Spirals

Sep. 1, 2026 Snake embryos begin life curled into a distinctive right-handed spiral, and scientists may finally know why. Their bodies grow faster than their guts, creating a tether that forces the lengthening ...

The Secret to Longer Life May Be Hidden in Bat DNA

Sep. 11, 2026 Long-lived bats appear to combine powerful immune defenses with unusual strategies for eliminating damaged cells, potentially helping them avoid cancer and disease for decades. Researchers hope these ...

324-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals How Insects Conquered Land

Aug. 27, 2026 Ancient fossils suggest insects conquered land through a long amphibious phase rather than making an abrupt jump from water to dry ground. A newly identified 324-million-year-old species still ...

Scientists Gave Worms Magnetic Bacteria. They Lived 43% Longer

Sep. 24, 2026 A magnet-producing bacterium extended the average lifespan of C. elegans worms by more than 43% while helping protect their neurological and intestinal health. Researchers traced much of the effect ...

NASA-Backed Scientists Turn Plastic Waste Into Edible Cookies

Sep. 13, 2026 Scientists have engineered yeast to turn PET plastic and agricultural waste into ingredients for protein-rich, 3D-printed cookies called µBites. Developed partly for NASA’s Deep Space Food ...

Bird Flu Is Spreading. Your Backyard Feeder Could Make It Worse

Aug. 24, 2026 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 ...