A 40-million-year-old ant hidden in Goethe’s amber still has stories to tell
More than 200 years after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s death, his curiosity about nature is still leading to new discoveries.
Scientists in Germany have now...
For the first time, scientists detect molecule critical to life in interstellar space
The chemical is known as thiepine, or 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C₆H₆S), a ring-shaped sulfur-bearing hydrocarbon produced in biochemical reactions.
When examining the molecular cloud G+0.693–0.027, a star-forming...
How ancient microbial fossils reveal the earliest story of life on Earth
More than 3.5 billion years ago, Earth looked nothing like it does today.
The air contained no oxygen, the oceans were acidic and filled with...
Why the carbon in your body and the oxygen you breathe came from ancient...
Where did the carbon in our bodies and the oxygen we breathe come from?
Astronomers have been asking this question for decades, and a new...
Ancient life leaves wrinkled traces in an unexpected place
Sometimes big discoveries begin with a moment of surprise. For Dr. Rowan Martindale, a paleoecologist and geobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin,...
Scientists find a hidden “aging clock” in human sperm—and it may affect the next...
Scientists have discovered a previously hidden biological “aging clock” in human sperm, revealing a new way that a father’s age might influence the health...
Enceladus plumes may hold a clear clue to ocean habitability
How can scientists estimate the pH level of Enceladus’ subsurface ocean without landing on its surface?
This is what a recently submitted study hopes to...
Why some people can stay sharp at 80
Scientists have long wondered why some people stay mentally sharp well into their 80s or beyond, while others develop Alzheimer’s disease and other memory...
How a 400-year-old shark keeps its vision sharp for life
In a quiet office at the University of California, Irvine, Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk watches a grainy video on her computer.
A massive Greenland shark drifts slowly...
How gut microbes may have helped shape the human brain
Why do humans have such large and powerful brains compared with other primates?
A new study suggests part of the answer may lie not in...