Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes — have identified the likely starting point of a massive cosmic jet in the heart of Messier 87. This Webb/NIRCam image shows a cosmic jet in Messier 87. Image credit: Jan Röder / Maciek Wielgus / Joseph B. Jensen / Gagandeep S. Anand / R. Brent Tully. Messier 87 is a giant elliptical...

A new analysis of archival data from the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) on board NASA’s Galileo spacecraft has revealed the first evidence of ammonia-bearing compounds on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, offering new clues about its subsurface ocean and recent geological activity. In this composite image, red pixels mark locations on Europa’s surface where ammonia-bearing compounds were...

Technological innovations in Africa and Western Europe in the later part of the Middle Pleistocene signal the behavioral complexity of hominin populations. Yet, at the same time, it has long been believed that hominin technologies in Eastern Asia lack signs of innovation and sophistication. Archaeologists have now uncovered evidence of technological innovations at the site of Xigou in China’s Henan...

In two separate studies, paleontologists in Australia and China examined the fossilized remains of enigmatic Devonian lungfish with cutting-edge imaging, revealing overlooked anatomical details and deepening our understanding of early vertebrate evolution. Their results appear in the Canadian Journal of Zoology and the journal Current Biology. Paleolophus yunnanensis, a species of lungfish that swam...

Ornithologists with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have stitched together the most complete avian evolutionary tree ever, unveiling surprising relationships and offering bird lovers the illustrated Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer to trace lineages and evolutionary milestones. European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster). Image credit: Rashuli / CC BY 2.0. Understanding avian phylogeny is a fundamental...

By using gold nanospheres engineered to capture light across the solar spectrum, researchers at Korea University took a step toward lowering barriers to more efficient and cost-effective renewable energy harvesting. Hun Rho et al. introduce plasmonic colloidal supraballs — solution-processable assemblies of gold nanospheres — as a robust and versatile platform for broadband solar energy...

Wild blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) are North American perennial plants rich in polyphenols, including flavonoids, beneficial to human health. A new paper published in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition provides a summary of the evidence and perspectives presented at an expert symposium that focused on wild blueberries and cardiometabolic health. Vaccinium angustifolium....

The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is a cold-adapted herbivore that went extinct around 14,000 years ago, but little is known about their population decline prior to extinction. In new research, scientists from the Centre for Palaeogenetics and Stockholm University generated a high-coverage genome from one of the last known woolly rhinoceros remains, which was recovered from the stomach...

Two immense, ultrahot rock structures located at the base of Earth’s mantle, around 2,900 km beneath Africa and the Pacific, have been shaping Earth’s magnetic field for millions of years, according to a new study led by University of Liverpool’s Professor Andy Biggin. Two enormous blobs of solid, superheated material located at the base of Earth’s mantle affect the underlying liquid outer...

New research led by McGill University scientists suggests human sleep patterns (chronotypes) fall along a broader biological spectrum — with each subtype tied to unique health and behavioral traits — challenging the simple ‘early bird/night owl’ divide. Zhou et al. identify a total of five distinct biological subtypes, each associated with different patterns of behavior and health....