Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected doubly deuterated water (D2O), or ‘heavy water,’ in the protoplanetary disk around V883 Orionis, a protostar located 1,300 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. This detection reveals that some of the water found in comets — and maybe even Earth — is older than the disk’s star itself,...

On some of the dune fields on Mars, parallel channels, called linear dune gullies, are found. Contrary to their name these gullies are often highly sinuous. In the past, it was believed that these features were formed by debris flow processes driven by liquid water. However, new evidence from satellite images shows that they are active in local spring by a process driven by carbon dioxide ice. The...

The transport of Rapa Nui’s (Easter Island) monumental moai statues has been debated for over a century. Based on a systematic analysis of 962 moai, with a focus on 62 road statues, combined with 3D modeling and field experiments, Binghamton University Professor Carl Lipo and University of Arizona’s Dr. Terry Hunt demonstrated that small groups of the ancient people of Rapa Nui likely used rope...

Paleontologists have unearthed a new assemblage of Triassic fossils at the Quebrada Santo Domingo site of the Northern Precordillera Basin in northwestern Argentina. Their discoveries include a nearly complete skeleton of a previously unknown sauropodomorph dinosaur species as well as several cynodonts, rhynchosaurs, and aetosaurs. Huayracursor jaguensis. Image credit: Jorge Blanco. The newly-discovered...

Scientists have resurrected ancient microbes from permafrost cores of Late-Pleistocene age (up to 40,000 years old) collected from four locations within the Permafrost Research Tunnel near Fairbanks, Alaska. They’ve found that the microbes in thawing subsurface permafrost exhibit a slow ‘reawakening’ at first, but within six months the microbial community undergoes dramatic changes. Abundance...

Scientists have demonstrated that supercompressed water transforms into ice VI at room temperature through multiple freezing-melting pathways, which occur via a previously unknown form of metastable ice, named ice XXI. A small crystal of ice XXI formed through nucleation and slow melting process. Image credit: Lee et al., doi: 10.1038/s41563-025-02364-x. Water, composed of only two elements, forms...

Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) seed extract as well as its main bioactive ingredient, 1,8-cineole, have the potential to act as a beneficial antiviral agent by enhancing the production of antiviral proteins called type I interferons, according to new research. Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) seeds. Image credit: Karyna Panchenko. Plant-based treatments have traditionally been used to treat a wide...

A small, isolated population of common hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) was present in the Upper Rhine Graben in southwestern Germany during the middle Weichselian, a period spanning from 47,000 until 31,000 years ago, according to new research. Radiocarbon dating reveals the mid-Weichselian presence of common hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) in the Upper Rhine Graben in Germany. Image credit: Gemini...

The newly-discovered mineral, named ferric hydroxysulfate, provides clues about the environment and history of the Red Planet, including the possibility of former lava, ash or hydrothermal activity. Spectrally distinct units at the Juventae Plateau, Mars. Image credit: Bishop et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-61801-2. The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument aboard...

Scientists have demonstrated that supercompressed water transforms into ice VI at room temperature through multiple freezing-melting pathways, which occur via a previously unknown form of metastable ice, named ice XXI. A small crystal of ice XXI formed through nucleation and slow melting process. Image credit: Lee et al., doi: 10.1038/s41563-025-02364-x. Water, composed of only two elements, forms...