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Virgin Hyperloop First Human Ride On New High-Speed Train

Pizza Delivered to Space Station

How SpaceX became NASA's go-to ride into orbit

study finds extinction that wiped out 90% of species driven by volcanic eruptions that plunged Earth into a freezing winter

Why some people are superspreaders

More water on moon than expected

Timekeeping theory combines quantum clocks and Einstein's relativity

Vegans are more likely to suffer broken bones

From Stinky Cheese To Cat Pee, Author Takes A 'Nose Dive' Into The Science Of Smell


London to New York in 90 minutes

Study could lead to LLMs that are better at complex reasoning

Researchers developed a way to make large language models more adaptable to challenging tasks like strategic planning or process optimization.

New postdoctoral fellowship program to accelerate innovation in health care

Launched with a gift from the Biswas Family Foundation, the Biswas Postdoctoral Fellowship Program will support postdocs in health and life sciences.

Study shows how a common fertilizer ingredient benefits plants

The findings could enable new ways to increase plants’ resilience to UV stress and enhance seedling growth.

Robotic probe quickly measures key properties of new materials

Developed to analyze new semiconductors, the system could streamline the development of more powerful solar panels.

Scientists’ top 10 bee-magnet blooms—turn any lawn into a pollinator paradise

Danish and Welsh botanists sifted through 400 studies, field-tested seed mixes, and uncovered a lineup of native and exotic blooms that both thrill human eyes and lure bees and hoverflies in droves, offering ready-made recipes for transforming lawns, parks, and patios into vibrant pollinator hotspots.

How a lost gene gave the sea spider its bizarre, leggy body

Scientists have decoded the sea spider’s genome for the first time, revealing how its strangely shaped body—with organs in its legs and barely any abdomen—may be tied to a missing gene. The detailed DNA map shows this ancient creature evolved differently from its spider and scorpion cousins, lacking genome duplications seen in those species. With new gene activity data, researchers now have a powerful tool to explore how sea spiders grow, regenerate, and evolved into some of the oddest arthropods on Earth.

New research shows Monday stress is etched into your biology

Feeling jittery as the week kicks off isn’t just a mood—it leaves a biochemical footprint. Researchers tracked thousands of older adults and found those who dread Mondays carry elevated cortisol in their hair for months, a stress echo that may help explain the well-known Monday heart-attack spike. Even retirees aren’t spared, hinting that society’s calendar, not the workplace alone, wires Monday anxiety deep into the HPA axis and, ultimately, cardiovascular risk.

From air to stone: The fig trees fighting climate change

Kenyan fig trees can literally turn parts of themselves to stone, using microbes to convert internal crystals into limestone-like deposits that lock away carbon, sweeten surrounding soils, and still yield fruit—hinting at a delicious new weapon in the climate-change arsenal.

Cough medicine turned brain protector? Ambroxol may slow Parkinson’s dementia

Ambroxol, long used for coughs in Europe, stabilized symptoms and brain-damage markers in Parkinson’s dementia patients over 12 months, whereas placebo patients worsened. Those with high-risk genes even saw cognitive gains, hinting at real disease-modifying power.

Multisensory VR forest reboots your brain and lifts mood—study confirms

Immersing stressed volunteers in a 360° virtual Douglas-fir forest complete with sights, sounds and scents boosted their mood, sharpened short-term memory and deepened their feeling of nature-connectedness—especially when all three senses were engaged. Researchers suggest such multisensory VR “forest baths” could brighten clinics, waiting rooms and dense city spaces, offering a potent mental refresh where real greenery is scarce.

Pregnancy’s 100-million-year secret: Inside the placenta’s evolutionary power play

A group of scientists studying pregnancy across six different mammals—from humans to marsupials—uncovered how certain cells at the mother-baby boundary have been working together for over 100 million years. By mapping gene activity in these cells, they found that pregnancy isn’t just a battle between mother and fetus, but often a carefully coordinated partnership. These ancient cell interactions, including hormone production and nutrient sharing, evolved to support longer, more complex pregnancies and may help explain why human pregnancy works the way it does today.

Defying physics: This rare crystal cools itself using pure magnetism

Deep in Chile’s Atacama Desert, scientists studied a green crystal called atacamite—and discovered it can cool itself dramatically when placed in a magnetic field. Unlike a regular fridge, this effect doesn’t rely on gases or compressors. Instead, it’s tied to the crystal’s unusual inner structure, where tiny magnetic forces get tangled in a kind of “frustration.” When those tangled forces are disrupted by magnetism, the crystal suddenly drops in temperature. It’s a strange, natural trick that could someday help us build greener, more efficient ways to cool things.

Frozen light switches: How Arctic microbes could revolutionize neuroscience

In the frozen reaches of the planet—glaciers, mountaintops, and icy groundwater—scientists have uncovered strange light-sensitive molecules in tiny microbes. These “cryorhodopsins” can respond to light in ways that might let researchers turn brain cells on and off like switches. Some even glow blue, a rare and useful trait for medical applications. These molecules may help the microbes sense dangerous UV light in extreme environments, and scientists believe they could one day power new brain tech, like light-based hearing aids or next-level neuroscience tools—all thanks to proteins that thrive in the cold and shimmer under light.

Scientists discovered how a scent can change your mind

Mice taught to link smells with tastes, and later fear, revealed how the amygdala teams up with cortical regions to let the brain draw powerful indirect connections. Disabling this circuit erased the links, hinting that similar pathways in humans could underlie disorders like PTSD and psychosis, and might be tuned with future brain-modulation therapies.

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