Solar system simulations starting from varied initial conditions suggest that Earth-like planets can emerge naturally from planet formation. Computer simulations of planetary systems can now begin from thousands of different starting conditions, allowing researchers to explore how worlds might emerge without assuming the final outcome. Over the past three decades, these models have advanced from [...]

A new image of the Helix Nebula reveals how dying stars return material to the galaxy. The Helix Nebula offers a rare look at what happens after a dying star releases its outer layers into space. New observations show fragments of that material colliding with surrounding gas, breaking apart, and beginning their return to the [...]

Researchers developed a model showing how lava-covered planets close to their stars can hold onto their atmospheres, which could help guide the search for life beyond our solar system. Some planets orbit so close to their stars that intense radiation should strip away their atmospheres. Yet several of these scorching, lava-covered worlds still retain thick [...]

Australian researchers have identified a promising new approach that could help stop one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer from spreading. Triple-negative breast cancer becomes especially dangerous once tumor cells escape the breast and establish themselves elsewhere in the body. Australian researchers have now identified a molecular weakness that could eventually help determine [...]

One sleepless night can blur the brain, but just 20 minutes of exercise or a well-timed nap may help new memories survive for days. In a McGill University-led study, participants who exercised for 20 minutes or slept for 90 minutes after prolonged wakefulness performed about 22 percent better on a delayed memory test than those [...]

Smokers who want to quit are most likely to succeed when they use nicotine e-cigarettes, according to a new Cochrane review. For someone trying to leave cigarettes behind, the method they choose can make a measurable difference. An updated Cochrane review finds that nicotine e-cigarettes help more people stop smoking than several widely used approaches, [...]

Princeton’s PACMAN AI can control fusion plasma in milliseconds and predict dangerous instabilities before they start. In some fusion energy systems, particles can reach temperatures hotter than the center of the Sun. The challenge is keeping that extreme plasma under control, because disturbances can develop within just a few thousandths of a second, much faster [...]

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is back to studying the universe, even as the aging spacecraft continues to lose altitude and a planned mission to raise its orbit has been scaled back. Two of Swift’s three science instruments are operating again after months of conservation measures designed to reduce atmospheric drag and keep the observatory [...]

MIT researchers have engineered bacteria to behave like transistors, making it possible to build living “circuit boards” that can be printed onto growth material in a Petri dish. In conventional electronics, transistors act as switches that control whether electrical current flows. In the biological system developed at MIT, engineered bacteria perform a similar role by [...]

A major trial found that implantable cardioverter-defibrillators may benefit some patients younger than 70 with mild-to-moderate heart dysfunction and cardiac scarring. A more than decade-long randomized trial suggests that implantable cardioverter-defibrillators may benefit some patients who have heart scarring and only mild-to-moderate loss of heart function, a group that currently falls outside standard treatment guidelines. [...]

Cluster headache causes extreme pain, but its origins remain unclear. New research links the disorder to genetics, inflammation, and tobacco smoke exposure. Unlike an ordinary headache, a cluster attack typically erupts without warning and causes excruciating pain around one eye. Episodes can last from 15 minutes to three hours and often return at similar times [...]

Depression in later life may be an early warning from the brain, appearing years before Alzheimer’s begins to affect memory and thinking A new study in JNeurosci found that faster accumulation of tau, a protein closely tied to Alzheimer’s, was associated with worsening depressive symptoms in older adults who remained cognitively healthy. Teodora Markova of [...]

A new theoretical approach helps connect quantum physics with classical thermodynamics by clarifying what counts as heat and useful work in tiny quantum machines. When a machine is reduced to a single atom and particles of light, even basic concepts such as heat and useful work become difficult to define. This problem sits at the [...]

Physicists around the world remain deeply divided on key mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to quantum gravity. The standard cosmological model failed to gain majority support, and no leading theory dominated the survey results. The largest survey ever conducted among physicists worldwide reveals surprisingly little agreement on some of the field’s biggest mysteries, [...]

An analysis of 75 meteorite falls identified seven distinct processes that occur as space rocks melt, break apart, and slow down before reaching the ground. A space rock entering Earth’s atmosphere does far more than simply “burn up.” By examining 75 meteorite falls recorded in videos and photographs, researchers identified seven distinct stages that shape [...]

The Galápagos snapdragon, once close to disappearing, is showing encouraging signs of recovery through a long-term partnership between the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galápagos National Park Directorate. For decades, the Galápagos snapdragon was known from little more than a specimen pressed into an herbarium collection. It had been gathered near Caleta Tagus in 1962, [...]

A bacterial molecule called gladiolin can disarm invasive Candida albicans and strengthen the effects of a major antifungal drug. Candida albicans usually lives harmlessly in the human body, but under the wrong conditions it can transform into an invasive form capable of damaging tissue and causing life-threatening infection. Researchers from Monash University and the University [...]

Bats’ remarkable ability to withstand decades of strenuous flight while keeping infections, inflammation, and cancer in check may offer new clues to healthier human aging Bats are unusually long-lived for animals of their size. Small mammals generally burn energy quickly and die relatively young, yet some bats survive for several decades. Brandt’s myotis, Myotis brandtii, [...]

A hidden molecular defect in inflammatory bowel disease may help explain why flare-ups can return even when patients appear well. Even when inflammatory bowel disease appears under control, intestinal cells may remain primed to die. In a WEHI-led study, researchers found this hidden molecular defect in patients with few or no symptoms, and higher levels [...]

Blood pressure drugs can prevent heart attacks and strokes, but their protection may fade when too many doses are missed. New research presented at ESC Congress 2026 provides some of the clearest evidence yet that consistently taking antihypertensive medication is essential to receiving its cardiovascular benefits. The analysis used randomized trial data to separate the [...]