Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a giant planet outside our solar system, called an exoplanet, hiding within one of the most intensely studied planetary systems in the Milky Way galaxy.

Nanocrystals are so useful that they formed the basis of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But despite their usefulness, scientists have so far been able to make these microscopic crystals from only a limited palette of materials. A group of chemists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory has announced a way to make nanocrystals from a useful class of materials known as metal nitrides—a previously impossible task.

Listening to the "ringing" produced by black holes after they collide and merge could allow scientists to test Einstein's theory of general relativity under the most extreme conditions in the universe while unlocking the secrets of these mysterious objects.

Researchers have shown that it's possible to take clear, high-resolution X-ray images using very little radiation. With more development, the new approach could eventually make medical X-ray diagnostics less risky and more accessible.

Heavy precipitation becomes more intense with every degree Earth warms. This affects flooding. Using hourly data from 384 rivers in the Alps, researchers from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF modeled how flooding will change by the end of the century. Their projections are significantly bleaker than earlier ones. The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

Quantum technologies promise revolutionary advances in computing, sensing and information processing. However, controlling individual quantum bits (qubits) at the atomic scale remains a major challenge because conventional approaches rely on magnetic fields, which are difficult to confine to a single molecule.

A team of researchers from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has discovered a completely new genus and species of subterranean freshwater snail in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. The species, Cyllena hermes, is a small, unpigmented, eyeless aquatic snail fully adapted to life underground.

Theoretical physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a new method of ordering Feynman integrals. This critical step in making theoretical predictions for high-energy precision measurements has posed a major computational bottleneck until now.

A research team led by the University of Osaka, working with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), RIKEN and the Institute of Science Tokyo, has uncovered a fundamental mechanism behind superionic conduction, in which ions move rapidly through a solid while its crystalline framework remains intact.

A truly useful quantum computer must be able to run any algorithm, with the same versatility an ordinary laptop offers. Physicists have now shown a new way to give a quantum computer exactly that flexibility, harnessing the capabilities of exotic quantum particles called non-Abelian anyons.

Quantum technologies, which leverage the principles of quantum mechanics, have been found to outperform their classical counterparts on specific tasks. Among other things, past studies have highlighted the potential of quantum systems that can enable long-distance communication, using photons (i.e., particles of light) to carry quantum information.

Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a serious threat to global food safety. As a toxic and carcinogenic heavy metal, cadmium can accumulate in agricultural soils through industrialization and urbanization before entering the human food chain. Rice is especially vulnerable because it absorbs more cadmium than other major cereal crops, making it one of the largest dietary sources of cadmium exposure for nearly half the world's population.

Approximately 90% of the U.S. population relies on public water systems. A significant portion of the water supplying those systems comes from forested lands, which means policies affecting forests also affect water access.

Another last-resort antibiotic has fallen victim to the rapid evolution of drug-resistant superbugs. The powerful antibiotic combination ceftazidime-avibactam (CZA), widely used to treat severe hospital-acquired infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa—particularly in critically ill and immunocompromised patients—can no longer eliminate some of these infections.

Today, oceans host a large variety of fast, resilient marine predators, including tunas, mackerels and various other fish species. Many of these fish belong to a lineage known as Scombridae, whose members are characterized by fins supported by thin, bony structures known as rays.

The vast majority of carbon emissions caused by "mega-events" such as World Cups and global concert tours come from audience travel, according to University of Cambridge researchers. In a new study, researchers estimate that expanding to 48 teams for this year's World Cup increased emissions by well over half a million metric tons to some 4.23 million metric tons of carbon for the whole tournament, 82% of which comes from traveling fans, with around 3 million metric tons from flying alone.

The "red tide" algal blooms that are becoming more frequent along the Pacific coast produce one of the most potent neurotoxins known: saxitoxin, or STX. The toxin accumulates in shellfish and causes paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) when consumed.

When the Marshall Fire tore through suburban Colorado in late 2021, residents had only hours to decide where to go. Some fled to nearby towns. Others stayed farther away for weeks or months. Now, a recent study published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications suggests those decisions were shaped not only by distance or danger but also by something more human: the pull of familiar communities and social ties.

Fabrics are made by repeatedly intertwining yarns into characteristic patterns. Many of their properties, such as stretchiness, arise not only from the material itself but also from how the yarns are arranged and entangled. Such properties illustrate how topology—the underlying patterns of connectivity and entanglement within a structure—can shape a material's overall behavior. Understanding these relationships could help researchers design materials with tailored properties through the design of their topology.

As homelessness increases around the world, more unhoused people are turning to parks and other urban green spaces to seek shelter. However, these places are also home to animals that live in and around urban areas.