Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected hydrogen cyanide (nitrogen-bearing organic molecule commonly seen in comets) as well as unusually high levels of methanol (organic molecule tied to prebiotic chemistry) in the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. An artist’s impression of 3I/ATLAS is shown as it passes near the Sun, illuminating one side of the comet;...

New measurements show that the DART impact in 2022 not only shortened the orbit of the moonlet Dimorphos around its parent asteroid, Didymos, but also subtly shifted the entire binary system’s path around the Sun. This artist’s illustration shows the ejection of a cloud of debris after NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser. When NASA’s...

An international team of archaeologists has examined a total of 85 pottery sherds with substantial amounts of foodcrusts from 13 archaeological sites across Northern and Eastern Europe i dating from the 6th to the 3rd millennium BCE, of which 58 have allowed for identification of plant tissues, such as wild grasses and legumes, fruits, and the roots, tubers, leaves and stems of herbaceous plants....

Fossils from the Chinle Formation of Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, the United States, reveal that Sonselasuchus cedrus, a species of shuvosaurid that lived about 215 million years ago (Triassic period), likely began life walking on four legs before shifting to a bipedal stance as it matured. An artist’s reconstruction of Sonselasuchus cedrus in its environment in what is now Petrified...

An antbird long thought to be a single widespread species across the Amazon rainforest is, in fact, several different ones. Among them are two newly-described species — Cercomacra mura and Cercomacra raucisona — that inhabit separate regions of southern Amazonia. The discovery emerged from a comprehensive analysis of museum specimens and vocal recordings of birds in the gray antbird (Cercomacra...

Astrophysicists from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago have developed an innovative method to measure the Hubble constant — the rate at which the Universe is expanding — using the subtle background hum of gravitational waves. As gravitational-wave detectors become more sensitive in the coming years, this approach could reshape our understanding of cosmic history...

Adding one avocado and a cup of mango each day improves vascular health indices and reduces key cardiometabolic risk factors in people with elevated blood sugar, suggesting a simple dietary shift could strengthen heart health long before diabetes develops. In adults with prediabetes, daily inclusion of avocado and mango increases fruit consumption, diversifies nutrient composition, and improves vascular...

Prehistoric humans and Neanderthals didn’t just interbreed, they did so with a consistent sex bias, as male Neanderthals and female modern humans mated more often, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania. This ancient pattern could explain why Neanderthal DNA is nearly absent from the human X chromosome and reveal that social behavior, not just biology, influenced our genetic...

New orbital data reveal that the most recently active volcanic systems on Mars weren’t simple one-off blasts into space; instead, long-lived magmatic plumbing beneath Pavonis Mons, one of the Red Planet’s largest volcanoes, reshaped lava flows over time, with distinct eruptive phases and evolving chemical signatures, offering fresh insights into the planet’s inner dynamics and how rocky planets...

A 7.2-million-year-old thigh bone unearthed at the fossil site of Azmaka in southern Bulgaria displays a mosaic of features suggesting a unique combination of locomotor capabilities, including aspects of terrestrial quadrupedalism and bipedalism, according to a research team led by Professor Madelaine Böhme from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of...