Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and VLT Interferometer (VLTI) in Chile, astronomers have directly observed two gas giants emerging from the planet-forming disk around a star known as WISPIT 2, offering one of the clearest views yet of how a planetary system may form. The arrangement, marked by gaps and rings in the surrounding material, suggests that still more alien worlds could be assembling...

On its way to Jupiter, ESA’s Juice spacecraft briefly turned its gaze toward a rare interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, capturing valuable data from an object born beyond our Solar System. This image of 3I/ATLAS was captured by the Navigation Camera (NavCam) onboard Juice in November 2025. Image credit: ESA / Juice / NavCam. 3I/ATLAS was first spotted on July 1, 2025, by the NASA-funded ATLAS survey...

Examining 31 ancient societies across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, researchers found that democratic systems were more widespread than once believed — and not determined by population size or geography. The Acropolis at Athens by Leo von Klenze. The word ‘democracy’ was, of course, invented by the Greeks — demokratia meant simply that people (demos) had power (kratos). This definition...

Known from a single skull discovered in South Africa in 1952, Cistecynodon parvus has been shuffled across the evolutionary tree: described at various times as a close relative of advanced cynodonts, a juvenile of another species and even something outside the group altogether. Now, a new study using computed tomography (CT) scans to digitally reconstruct the fossil concludes that this Triassic creature...

In the cold, wave-battered channels off southern Chile, scientists have identified what they say is a new species of the steamer duck genus Tachyeres, a group of notoriously aggressive, often flightless waterfowl found only in South America. Detail of the color pattern of the bill in adult specimens of the Chiloe steamerduck (A) and the Magellanic steamerduck (B). Image credit: Bernabé López-Lanús...

A team of scientists at New York University has created a version of the exotic phase of matter in which particles levitate acoustically and interact by exchanging sound waves. Morrell et al. observed a new type of time crystal — one whose particles levitate on a cushion of sound while interacting with each other by exchanging sound waves. Image credit: David Song / NYU. Time crystals —...

New experiments show that tar made from birch bark — long known as a tool adhesive — can inhibit harmful bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, suggesting Neanderthals may have used it to treat wounds and manage infection during the Ice Age. Neanderthals probably used birch tar for multiple functions, including treating their wounds. Siemssen et al. confirm that birch tar possesses selective...

In a randomized clinical trial of older adults, researchers found that taking multivitamins for two years modestly slowed epigenetic markers of aging — equivalent to roughly four months less biological aging compared with a placebo. Li et al. evaluated the two-year effect of daily multivitamin-multimineral supplements and cocoa extract (500 mg cocoa flavanols per day, including 80 mg epicatechin)...

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...

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...