A new ‘agnostic biosignature’ method searches for patterns across exoplanets, suggesting alien life could be detected by how it spreads and reshapes entire planetary systems. Harrison B. Smith & Lana Sinapayen used an agent-based model to show that if life can spread between star systems and affect the observable properties of a planet, then a robust signature of life (with very few false...

New research from Rice University suggests sulfur keeps Mercury’s interior molten at lower temperatures, offering new clues to how the planet’s strange crust and mantle evolved. Yishen Zhang & Rajdeep Dasgupta provide new insights into the role of sulfur in shaping the thermochemical evolution of Mercury and other similarly reduced rocky planetary systems. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins...

New evidence from Germany suggests Neanderthals captured European pond turtles (Emys orbicularis) around 125,000 years ago, likely valuing their shells as tools rather than their modest meat yield. The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) next to the foot of the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). Image credit: Nicole Viehofer / MONREPOS – LEIZA. “In recent years, the diversity...

New research shows that the large-bodied ornithopod dinosaur Muttaburrasaurus langdoni from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia was no ordinary herbivore. With a toothed beak and a brain wired for smell, this species likely combined selective feeding with agile behavior. The findings also hint at life near a vast inland sea, where it may have consumed salty plants — and possibly even small animals...

A newly-identified visual protein lets dragonflies detect deep red and near-infrared light using a mechanism strikingly similar to that in human eyes, an unexpected case of parallel evolution with potential medical applications, according to new research from Osaka Metropolitan University. Asiagomphus melaenops female in Miroku forest, Kasugai, Aichi prefecture, Japan. Image credit: Alpsdake / CC...

Using data from over one billion proton-colliding events collected at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), physicists have measured the mass of the W boson with record accuracy. The value matches the Standard Model’s prediction, giving the researchers confidence that no unexpected force is hiding in the measurement. CMS candidate collision event for a W boson decaying into a muon (red line) and...

In new research, University of Galway’s Dr. Martin David Mulligan and his colleagues followed nearly 800 participants from the Framingham Heart Study for more than a decade and a half, examining whether vitamin D levels measured in their 30s were linked to changes in the brain in later life. They found that individuals with higher circulating levels of vitamin D had lower accumulations of tau —...

Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from 216 canid remains, including 181 from Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe. The oldest data that they recovered are from a 14,200-year-old dog from the Kesslerloch site in Switzerland. Their results suggest that domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) predate farming and share deep ancestry with wolves (Canis lupus) from Eurasia, challenging ideas about...

By tracing magnetic signals preserved in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia, geoscientists have found the oldest direct evidence yet that parts of the planet’s outer shell were shifting across the globe, pushing the origins of plate motion deep into Earth’s early history. Hadean Earth. Image credit: Alec Brenner. “There has been a huge range of ages suggested for timing,” said...

New research from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows that large language models (LLMs) form structured ‘trust’ assessments much like humans do, yet apply them more mechanically and, sometimes, with stronger, more consistent demographic bias. Large language models implement a coherent but rigid and sometimes biased model of interpersonal trust that only partially aligns with human judgment. As...