New observations of 21 extreme debris disks suggest the dust comes from violent impacts between planet-building bodies, and could even flag star systems in the midst of a planetary shake-up. The types of collisions within young stellar systems known as extreme debris disks are relevant to scientists’ understanding of our own Solar System, which is thought to have undergone similar impact events...

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...

Dongoconodon platycauda, a small eutriconodontan mammal that lived alongside dinosaurs in what is now northeastern China paddled through the water with webbed, platypus-like hands and feet, and replaced its teeth multiple times. An artist’s reconstruction of Dongoconodon platycauda. Image credit: Shi Yukun. Dongoconodon platycauda roamed our planet during the Early Cretaceous epoch, some 120 million...

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...

Physicists from the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have found evidence of the Higgs boson decaying into a ‘virtual’ photon and a real photon, which in turn produces a pair of leptons. This pathway, known as H→γ*γ→llγ, occurs in just one in about 10,000 Higgs decays, making it one of the particle’s most elusive behaviors. Event display of a candidate Higgs...

A small new study by Emory University scientists suggests that people with mild cognitive impairment and disturbed sleep — two hallmarks of early dementia — who take high daily doses of vitamin D may perform better on a standard cognitive test. Higher daily vitamin D intake may impact cognition in persons with sleep disturbance and mild cognitive impairment. Vitamin D, an essential nutrient,...

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;...

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...