A biodegradable wash may help remove surface pesticide residues and keep fruit fresh longer, though more testing is needed before real-world use. Many shoppers follow the same pattern after buying produce: they bring fruits and vegetables home, wash them, dry them, and hope they stay good long enough to eat. Fresh produce, however, can deteriorate [...]

Antarctic guides walked away from their dream jobs after tourism’s environmental damage became impossible to ignore. “You’d see massive glacier calvings, and you’d just want to cry. But all the guests would be cheering. And you’d be like … ‘Can you not put two and two together?’” Those are the words of a former Antarctic [...]

Weather extremes may be contributing to an unusually quiet summer for Britain’s ecologically important social wasps. A summer picnic often feels complete only when a wasp arrives to investigate the food. Common social wasps are familiar warm-weather visitors, whether they are circling outdoor meals or building an unwanted nest in the loft. Summer 2026, however, [...]

A native Australian millet may carry the genetic fingerprints of thousands of years of Aboriginal harvesting, storage, and plant management. Seen from the air, Channel Country resembles a vibrant and vast tapestry, with a network of waterways crisscrossing the land. Spread across more than 280,000 square kilometers in outback Australia, it is one of the [...]

Whale sharks use a wider range of feeding strategies and depths than surface observations previously revealed. A whale shark can vanish beneath the surface in seconds, leaving researchers with little idea of what the world’s largest fish does once it disappears from view. Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are among the ocean’s most recognizable animals, inspiring [...]

An AI-assisted counterexample disproves the Jacobian conjecture above two dimensions while leaving its original two-dimensional form open. A formula short enough to fit inside a single post on X has sent a surge of excitement through the mathematical community, just as millions of people were settling down after the FIFA World Cup Final. Levent Alpöge, [...]

Biological defenses make losing weight and keeping it off unusually difficult. Better treatments, healthier environments, and sustainable habits may support long-term health more effectively than willpower alone. For years, weight loss has been framed as a simple test of discipline: consume fewer calories and exercise more. Modern research, however, shows that body weight is regulated [...]

Cylinder seals were far more than ancient signatures. They fused art, power, and belief into objects that revealed exactly who their owners were. The earliest form of the signature came from ancient Iraq in the form of cylinder seals. Mesopotamians, the ancient inhabitants of the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, are credited for [...]

Tutankhamun’s 1925 examination left behind evidence that official accounts largely omitted. A closer look at the records reveals a troubling gap between scientific history and what actually happened. November 2025 marks 100 years since archaeologists first examined Tutankhamun’s mummified remains. What followed wasn’t scientific triumph—it was destruction. Using hot knives and brute force, Howard Carter’s [...]

A dog’s nose is a gateway to a richer world, and scent-filled walks, games, and food hunts can transform boredom and stress into excitement, focus, and discovery. While we are captivated by a vivid sunset and breathtaking views, dogs have their noses to the ground, reading the odor stories left behind by other dogs and [...]

Struggling to sleep in the heat? The good news is that a handful of easy cooling tricks can help your body stay comfortable and make hot nights far more bearable. When temperatures rise, sleep often suffers. Hot nights can make it harder to fall asleep, increase waking during the night, and leave people feeling less [...]

Homo erectus may have left a detectable genetic trace in living humans through ancient interbreeding with Denisovans. For much of the 20th century, human evolution was often pictured as a branching tree. One trunk split into separate limbs, and each ancient human relative, or hominin, occupied its own tidy branch. That was the version many [...]

The story of Earth’s first animals may need rewriting after ancient fossils revealed an earlier start to complex life. From butterflies to blue whales, corals, and worms, Earth is home to an incredible diversity of animals. How all of these animals evolved from earlier, simpler ancestors is one of the most exciting stories in the [...]

A deep ocean whale graveyard is revealing new clues about whale evolution and the ecosystems that form around their remains. When a whale dies, its body can become the beginning of an entire deep ocean ecosystem. For a time, the carcass may drift at the surface, drawing sharks and other predators. Eventually, after weathering and [...]

Falling birth rates reveal a deeper social problem: many people who want children feel blocked by economic, housing, gender, and climate pressures. Birth rates have been falling around the world since the height of the baby boom that followed the Second World War. In many places, including Australia, they are now below replacement level. In [...]

Collagen supplements may help with some skin, joint, and muscle outcomes, but current evidence is uneven and still limited. Collagen supplements have become some of the wellness industry’s most popular products, with claims that they can support smoother skin, healthier joints, and more. But do they actually work? A large new evidence review, which combined [...]

Researchers found that an Alzheimer’s-related biomarker may influence how hormone therapy affects dementia risk. Hormone therapy is commonly used to ease menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes and night sweats. Whether it affects the risk of dementia has remained a long-running question. A new study offers another clue. It suggests that an Alzheimer’s biomarker could help [...]

Vitamin B12 is needed in only trace amounts, yet its absence can have far-reaching effects. Two micrograms is an almost unimaginably small amount. It weighs less than a tiny fragment of a grain of table salt. Yet adults need only around this amount of vitamin B12 each day, depending on the guideline used, to support [...]

The hunt for Planet Nine continues as new discoveries make the Solar System’s biggest mystery even harder to solve. Is there a massive undiscovered planet on the outer reaches of the Solar System? The idea has been around since before the discovery of Pluto in the 1930s. Labeled as planet X, prominent astronomers had put [...]

Ancient Australian fossils indicate that the earliest eukaryotes depended on oxygen, providing new evidence that oxygen helped enable the evolution of complex life. Stored in an open-air warehouse in tropical Darwin, Australia, are dozens of trays containing cylindrical cores of rock. They are from drill holes bored hundreds of meters below the surface by mineral [...]