Using spectral data from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas, astronomers have traced gas from the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, only the third object of its kind ever observed, out to more than 85,000 km from its nucleus. The data suggest the gas flows at about half the speed typical of solar system comets, and the spectrum shows unusually strong signals of iron and nickel. The spatial distribution...

A new analysis of orbital and lander data from Mars suggests the exposed north-polar water ice contains less than 3% dust, far below earlier estimates of up to 25%. Map of the six north polar locations analyzed by P. Mohan & A.R. Khuller, where water ice is exposed at the Martian surface. Image credit: P. Mohan & A.R. Khuller, doi: 10.1038/s44453-026-00054-9. Planetary scientists learn about...

Roughly 18,000 years ago, in what is now northern Ukraine, artists carved small female figurines from mammoth ivory and covered them with zigzags and meanders. New research suggests those designs were not purely invented, they appear to echo the natural patterns inside the tusk. Mizyn figurines. Image credit: Radchenko et al., doi: 10.1038/s40494-026-02988-5. “The study of Upper Paleolithic figurines...

The oldest undisputed animal fossils, from the Ediacaran biota, are about 574 million years old, but chemical traces left by sponges, known as lipid biomarkers, hint that animals were around before 635 million years ago. Virginia Tech paleontologist Orin Lole Durbin and colleagues have turned to molecular clocks, which use genetic differences between living species to estimate when lineages split,...

New research led by the University of Chicago found that nations with more domestic cats tended to report higher levels of happiness, while greater exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, a neuroparasite associated with cats, was linked to lower scores. The study authors caution that the findings show associations, not cause and effect. Borráz-León et al. found that national happiness was positively associated...

In ferromagnets, like a refrigerator magnet, atomic spins line up in the same direction. In antiferromagnets, neighboring spins point in opposite directions and cancel each other out. Now physicists reports experimental evidence for a material that blends features of both: a cobalt-intercalated tantalum diselenide (Co1/4TaSe2) that appears to be an altermagnet. Establishment of altermagnetic crystal...

Glucosamine, a widely used over-the-counter supplement for joint pain, may worsen outcomes in people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, according to new research by neuroscientists from the University of Florida. Spatial multiomics analysis reveals hyperglycosylation in human Alzheimer’s brains. Image credit: Hawkinson et al., doi: 10.1038/s42255-026-01538-4. “In the United States,...

Bats make up more than one fifth of all living mammal species, yet where and when they first took to the air has been debated for decades. An analysis of 103 bat genomes points to the European continent as the birthplace of the only mammals capable of powered flight, overturning earlier theories that favored Africa, Asia or North America. The findings come from the Bat1K consortium, an international...

Zircon crystals and impact-altered minerals show that a massive asteroid slammed into what is now the Pilbara region of Western Australia about 3 billion years ago. The North Pole Dome crater: (A) simplified map of the East Pilbara Terrane (EPT, Western Australia), showing Paleoarchean granite domes (pink) and greenstone belts (greens and blues); the North Pole Dome (NPD) lies near the terrane center;...

In ferromagnets, like a refrigerator magnet, atomic spins line up in the same direction. In antiferromagnets, neighboring spins point in opposite directions and cancel each other out. Now physicists reports experimental evidence for a material that blends features of both: a cobalt-intercalated tantalum diselenide (Co1/4TaSe2) that appears to be an altermagnet. Establishment of altermagnetic crystal...