Uranus and Neptune are often described as near-twins, but a new study suggests their chemistry, and possibly their histories, may differ more than expected. The materials making up Neptune and Uranus likely came from different regions in the protoplanetary disk around the young Sun. Image credit: SwRI. “Uranus and Neptune may resemble twins today, but their chemistry is telling us that they are...

Uranus and Neptune are often described as near-twins, but a new study suggests their chemistry, and possibly their histories, may differ more than expected. The materials making up Neptune and Uranus likely came from different regions in the protoplanetary disk around the young Sun. Image credit: SwRI. “Uranus and Neptune may resemble twins today, but their chemistry is telling us that they are...

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...

A fossil theropod vertebra about the length of a thumb, found in the Algarve region in southern Portugal, may be the oldest dinosaur remains ever discovered on the Iberian Peninsula. An artist’s impression of Sarcosaurus. Image credit: TotalDino / CC BY 4.0. “This is the first Triassic dinosaur remains from the Iberian Peninsula, and the oldest dinosaur currently known from this region,” said...

Honeybees pack tens of thousands of nestmates into a small space, a setup that should invite disease. New research led by the University of Sydney suggests part of their protection is a map of antimicrobial chemistry laid out across the hive. Fernandes et al. investigated how chemical defenses contribute to colony-level immunity using the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) as a model system. Image...

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...

Fucoidans — compounds found in the cell walls of brown seaweed — could one day help treat diseases driven by oxidative stress, though the substances are far from the pharmacy shelf. Fucoidans are structurally diverse, fucose-rich, sulfated polysaccharides derived mainly from brown seaweeds. Image credit: Ronile. Fucoidans are sulfated sugar-like molecules that seaweeds such as kelp and...

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;...

The ‘love hormone’ oxytocin may rise and fall in tandem in cats and the people who live with them, according to a new study published in the journal iScience. Higher cat oxytocin linked to lower owner cortisol and negative mood. Image credit: Takagi et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117934. “I think many cat owners are familiar with the sense of comfort and peace they feel when their cat climbs...