Science News

Electrons zipping through transistors, powering the screens on our smartphones. Light zooming from distant stars to Earth, moving faster than anything else in the universe. Protons enabling MRI machines to analyze people...

Ultrafast X-rays revealed how a molecule converts absorbed light into motion in just trillionths of a second. Individual atoms recorded different stages of the process, opening a powerful new window into light-driven che...

Musical improvisation suppresses self-critical prefrontal regions in adults and activates intrinsic reward structures in children, demonstrating that generative creativity is an innate brain mechanism.

Songbirds appear to have evolved through rare explosions of change separated by long periods of slower development. Many of those bursts lined up with major climate shifts, suggesting that environmental upheaval can resh...

A new study presents a mathematical framework showing that organisms shift abruptly from reactive to memory-based strategies only when energy resources exceed a critical threshold, with memory offering peak utility under...

The m6A reader protein IGF2BP3 stabilizes TRNAU1AP mRNA to drive protective selenoprotein synthesis, revealing a novel targeted drug vulnerability in glioblastoma.

A new lidar survey of dense Amazonian rainforest has revealed hundreds of earthworks made by a mysterious civilization two millennia ago.

Taking a daily multivitamin may help older adults preserve the strength and stamina needed for everyday activities. After three years, users reported better functional health than those taking a placebo, although the pre...

Mechanical strain is one of the most common tools used to tailor the properties of materials. In piezoelectric materials, stretching or compressing a crystal generates an electrical polarization. In piezomagnetic materia...

A Long March 3B rocket was struck by lightning in front of a packed crowd, around 30 seconds after lifting off from a Chinese spaceport. Despite this, the spacecraft survived its ascent and successfully deployed its payl...

Too hot? Head to the Concordia research station in Antarctica, where "astronauts of ice" just experienced near-record-breaking cold.

Researchers discovered a metabolic paradox during REM sleep: while brain blood volume and fuel supply increase, internal neuronal ATP levels decline.

A stunningly intact marine reptile named Austronaga minuta that lived around 245 million years ago may have looked like a miniature version of more famous later ocean predators, like plesiosaurs

A century-old mystery about the night sky's famous "shoulder star" may finally be solved, as astronomers capture the sharpest image yet of a small star tucked close beside the dying Betelgeuse.

Photoreceptors perform their own internal waste recycling using lysosomal pathways regulated by the PIKfyve enzyme.

There was unusual consensus amongst New Scientist Book Club members about our read for July, with readers falling over themselves to praise this big-concept slice of science fiction

Measures like bans on advertising junk food to children are essential for instilling healthy eating at a young age, but we shouldn't let adults off the hook when it comes to improving our diets

An Australian reader with an abundance of flies in their locality tries to answer a question that has intrigued many of our readers

One correspondent with a particularly intelligent dog begs to differ with this question, while another looks to deepen the mystery

From tides to eclipses, the slow departure of our moon will affect life on Earth, say our correspondents

Feedback is delighted by a deep dive into why people sometimes wear "artificially elongated fingernails". But does it do more than just scratch the surface?

This week's cartoon from Twisteddoodles