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Latest story• Jan 12, 2026

Metal compounds identified as potential new antibiotics, thanks to robots doing 'click chemistry'

Researchers used robots to create over 600 metal-based compounds in just one week, discovering that an iridium complex shows promising antibiotic properties against drug-resistant bacteria. The automated "click chemistry" approach identified compounds 50-100 times more effective against bacteria than toxic to human cells, offering a new direction for antibiotic development.

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Space Exploration Speaks to the Core of Who We Are

Space exploration profoundly impacts daily life through satellite technology that guides farming, city planning, and navigation while pumping hundreds of billions into global economies. Rather than being purely military-driven,...

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Astronaut Brains Change Shape in Space

New research analyzing MRI scans of 26 astronauts reveals that human brains physically shift backward and upward during spaceflight, with areas controlling movement and balance most affected. These changes temporarily impaired...

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Hubble Captures Pair of Herbig-Haro (HH) Objects Seemingly Setting Cosmic Clouds on Fire

Hubble captured pink and green Herbig-Haro objects created by plasma jets from a massive protostar moving over 1,000 km/s. These jets represent the fastest stellar outflow observed, helping scientists understand massive star...

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The oxygen you breathe depends on a tiny ocean ingredient

Microscopic ocean algae called phytoplankton produce much of the oxygen we breathe through photosynthesis, but this process depends on iron dust that settles into seawater from deserts and glaciers. New Rutgers University...

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Cells Use ‘Bioelectricity’ To Coordinate and Make Group Decisions

Recent research shows that cells throughout the body use electrical signals called "bioelectricity" to communicate and make decisions, not just brain cells. This discovery fundamentally changes our understanding of cellular...

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How Brain Waves Shape Your Sense of Self

Swedish researchers found that faster alpha brain waves in the parietal cortex help people better distinguish their body from external objects. This discovery could improve prosthetics and virtual reality while helping understand...

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NASA decides to bring Crew-11 home early after astronaut health scare

A mystery medical condition aboard the International Space Station has triggered the first medical evacuation in the orbital outpost's 25-year crewed history. NASA is bringing the four-person Crew-11 team back to Earth early...

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Meta signs deals with three nuclear companies for 6-plus GW of power

Meta signed nuclear power deals with three companies to supply over 6 gigawatts for its data centers due to growing AI energy demands. While Vistra's 2.1 gigawatts is immediately available, Oklo and TerraPower's small reactors...

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Why doesn't stomach acid burn through our stomachs?

The human stomach produces highly corrosive acid to break down food and kill harmful bacteria, yet doesn't burn itself because specialized cells create a thick, alkaline mucus barrier that continuously protects the stomach...

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I met a lot of weird robots at CES — here are the most memorable

CES 2025 showcased numerous quirky robots that demonstrated both impressive capabilities and amusing limitations, from Boston Dynamics' production-ready Atlas to various specialty bots on the showroom floor. Notable displays...

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China's 'artificial sun' reactor shatters major fusion limit — a step closer to near-limitless clean energy

China's EAST reactor achieved stable plasma at 1.3-1.65 times the normal density limit, reaching a theoretical "density-free regime." This breakthrough advances fusion development, though practical fusion power remains decades...

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Oddball 'platypus galaxies' spotted by James Webb telescope may challenge our understanding of galaxy formation

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered nine mysterious "platypus galaxies" that defy classification, appearing small and compact but lacking the typical features of known galaxy types like active supermassive black holes...

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This new imaging technology breaks the rules of optics

University of Connecticut researchers developed MASI, a lens-free imaging system that uses computational algorithms to reconstruct images from multiple sensors. This approach achieves sub-micron resolution across wide areas,...

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Why 2026 Is a Mathematically Special Number

While 2026 may seem mathematically unremarkable compared to 2025's perfect square status, the number possesses surprising mathematical properties that make it special. The year 2026 appears in over 200 mathematical sequences,...

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Astronomers find a ghost galaxy made of dark matter

Hubble Space Telescope astronomers discovered Cloud-9, the first confirmed "ghost galaxy" made entirely of gas and dark matter but containing no stars, representing a failed galaxy from the Universe's early formation stages. This...

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A new theory of gravity could explain cosmic acceleration without dark energy

Scientists from the University of Bremen and Transylvanian University propose that cosmic acceleration might be explained without mysterious dark energy through "Finsler gravity," an extension of Einstein's general relativity....

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Astronomers watch a star being torn to pieces by a supermassive black hole

Astronomers discovered AT2024wpp, an extraordinarily powerful tidal disruption event where a supermassive black hole tore apart a massive star through "spaghettification," releasing energy equivalent to 400 billion times the...

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Scientists Discover Brain Circuit That Acts Like a ‘Brake’ on Motivation

Researchers studying macaque monkeys identified a brain circuit between the ventral striatum and ventral pallidum that acts as a "motivation brake" when facing unpleasant tasks. When scientists suppressed this circuit using...

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When We Learned Our Universe Is Speeding Up

Nearly three decades ago, two scientific teams studying distant supernovae made a shocking discovery that revolutionized cosmology when they found these stellar explosions appeared dimmer than expected, indicating the universe's...

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Scientists get a look at the innermost region of a white dwarf for the first time

NASA's IXPE telescope used X-ray polarization to study white dwarf EX Hydrae, revealing a 2,000-mile-high gas column and confirming X-rays reflect off the surface before scattering.

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10 quintillion hydrogen bombs every second: Webb detects massive galactic eruption

Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope discovered the largest stream of super-heated gas ever observed in the universe, erupting from galaxy VV 340a and stretching over 19 trillion miles on each side. The massive...

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A double cosmic explosion could be the first known ‘superkilonova’

Astronomers detected gravitational waves from merging neutron stars 1.8 billion light-years away, but one neutron star appeared unusually lightweight, defying physics predictions. Follow-up observations revealed red light that...

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Using AI, Mathematicians Find Hidden Glitches in Fluid Equations

Mathematicians using AI have discovered hidden mathematical inconsistencies in the 200-year-old Navier-Stokes equations that describe fluid behavior. These flaws could impact fluid modeling in weather forecasting and engineering...

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