Using the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) on the Gemini South telescope at the International Gemini Observatory, astronomers have directly measured the atmospheric composition of WASP-189b and found it echoes the elemental makeup of its host star, offering the clearest evidence yet that planets inherit their chemical identities from the disks that formed them. An artist’s impression...

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe shows that protons and heavy ions react differently to solar magnetic reconnection events, suggesting a more intricate mechanism behind space weather. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into explosive kinetic energy, powering...

Excavations at the archaeological site of Didé West 1 in eastern Senegal have uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved iron-smelting workshop dated between the 4th century BCE and the 4th century CE, representing nearly eight centuries of activity. A pile of tuyères at the site of Didé West 1 in Senegal. Image credit: Anne Mayor. In Europe, the Iron Age is generally dated from around 800 BCE...

Paleontologists at Harvard University have described a large predatory arthropod from the Middle Cambrian of Utah featuring massive three-segmented chelicerae. Named Megachelicerax cousteaui, this soft-bodied animal represents the earliest known member of the chelicerates, pushing back the origins of spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders by 20 million years. The surprisingly complex...

Researchers who analyzed dozens of spontaneous performances by a captive male chimpanzee named Ayumu say the animal’s steady rhythms and expressive ‘play face’ hint at how early humans may have transformed vocal emotion into instrumental sound. Ayumu the chimpanzee spontaneously produced long, multicomponent instrumental displays by drumming, dragging, and throwing self-detached objects. Transition...

By probing supercooled water with ultrafast lasers before it crystallizes, physicists at Stockholm University observed telltale signs of a long-theorized transition between two liquid states, including surging heat capacity and critical fluctuations. You et al. studied supercooled water at timescales before ice formation by heating high- and low-density amorphous ices using infrared ultrafast laser...

New research suggests that vitamin D supplements can reshape how the immune system responds to gut bacteria in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, potentially nudging the body toward a more protective, less inflammatory state. The findings offer early clues toward therapies that restore immune tolerance rather than simply suppress symptoms. Gubatan et al. demonstrate that vitamin D promotes...

Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from 216 canid remains, including 181 from Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe. The oldest data that they recovered are from a 14,200-year-old dog from the Kesslerloch site in Switzerland. Their results suggest that domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) predate farming and share deep ancestry with wolves (Canis lupus) from Eurasia, challenging ideas about...

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...

Both the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) are believed to have become extinct on the Australian mainland about 3,000 years ago. However, until now there were only 23 known rock art depictions of the Tasmanian devil and about 150 Tasmanian tiger paintings and petroglyphs, mostly at rock art sites in northern Australia. Scientists have now uncovered...