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VISTA Focuses on Inner Regions of Magellanic Clouds

This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope shows the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: ESO / Cioni et al.

Astronomers using ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) have observed the densest, most crowded regions at the centers of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, our Milky Way Galaxy’s closest dwarf companions, offering an unprecedented look at areas that have long resisted detailed study.

The post VISTA Focuses on Inner Regions of Magellanic Clouds appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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New Study Explains Why Venus Has No Moon

NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft captured this view of Venus in February 1974. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Dr. Stephen Kane from the University of California, Riverside and colleagues offer a tidy explanation for one of the Solar System’s enduring puzzles: why Venus, so similar to Earth in size and mass, has no moon at all.

The post New Study Explains Why Venus Has No Moon appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Scientists Discover Soil Bacteria Enzyme that Breaks Down Both Plastic and Antibiotics

SEM images of LCAP films incubated undisturbed for more than a year in pristine forest soil. The arrow in panel (d) points at an object inside of such a cavity that might represent a (damaged) microbial cell; however, these were found very rarely; empty cavities were more representative (a-c). Image credit: Lerner et al., doi: 10.1093/ismejo/wrag203.

Biologists studying how bacteria break down a new generation of plant-based bioplastics -- long-chain aliphatic polyesters -- have discovered an enzyme that can dismantle both plastic and antibiotics.

The post Scientists Discover Soil Bacteria Enzyme that Breaks Down Both Plastic and Antibiotics appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Some of Smallest Bee Species See Best, New Study Finds

The blue-banded bee Amegilla murrayensis. Image credit: Callin Switzer.

According to a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, some of the smallest bees studied have photoreceptors as sharp as those of much larger honeybee drones.

The post Some of Smallest Bee Species See Best, New Study Finds appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Study: Night Owls Face Higher Mental Health Risks Tied to Work-Life Balance

Weekend recovery sleep doesn’t prevent weight gain or reduce insulin sensitivity. Image credit: Wok & Apix.

In a study of 2,266 workers in Finland, evening-type people, or night owls, were up to three times more likely to be treated for depression or anxiety than morning types, with poor work-life balance identified as a key contributing factor.

The post Study: Night Owls Face Higher Mental Health Risks Tied to Work-Life Balance appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Dodo Had Surprisingly Keen Sense of Smell and Owl-Like Vision, New Study Reveals

The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) by Frederick William Frohawk, 1905.

New research led by University of Lethbridge scientists offers the most detailed look yet at how the dodo (Raphus cucullatus) -- the flightless bird driven to extinction by the 1600s -- actually perceived its world, suggesting the ‘stupid bird’ had a far more complex sensory life than its reputation implies.

The post Dodo Had Surprisingly Keen Sense of Smell and Owl-Like Vision, New Study Reveals appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Scientists Add Unlikely New Member to World’s Carnivorous Plants

Morphology of Saxifraga candelabrum. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-75288-y.

More than 150 years after Charles Darwin first wondered whether certain sticky-leaved Saxifraga plants might be secretly carnivorous, Kunming Institute of Botany researcher Tao Deng and colleagues say they have finally confirmed it.

The post Scientists Add Unlikely New Member to World’s Carnivorous Plants appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Moving Cat Indoors is Easier than Owners Expect: Study

The owner experiences of transitioning cats indoors suggest that, for most owners and cats, a transition to indoor cat management is manageable and worthwhile. Image credit: Natali Anderson.

Moving a free-roaming cat indoors for good is a decision many owners approach with dread: guilt over confining a former outdoor explorer, worry about litter boxes and scratched furniture, and doubts about whether the cat will ever adjust.

The post Moving Cat Indoors is Easier than Owners Expect: Study appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Scientists Propose New Strategy in Fight against High Blood Pressure

Potassium-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, legumes and dairy. Image credit: Jasmine Lin.

In a perspective paper published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a team of researchers and health experts calls for a ‘paradigm shift’ in how public health agencies address hypertension.

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Decades of Financial Hardship Linked to Faster Brain Aging

Long-term financial stress accelerates age-related cognitive decline. Image credit: Thomas Breher.

A large British study spanning more than 70 years has found that people who experience chronic money struggles over their working lives show measurable declines in memory and processing speed by their 50s, along with signs of accelerated brain shrinkage decades later.

The post Decades of Financial Hardship Linked to Faster Brain Aging appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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New Study Finds Eating Breakfast Boosts Diet Quality in Teens Who Usually Skip It

Teenagers who regularly skipped breakfast improved the quality of their diets when they began eating a morning meal. Image credit: Pexels.

Adding breakfast back into the daily routine of teens around age 18 who habitually skip the meal can meaningfully improve their nutrition, with the biggest gains seen among those given protein-rich morning meals, according to a six-month clinical trial.

The post New Study Finds Eating Breakfast Boosts Diet Quality in Teens Who Usually Skip It appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Planetary-Mass Exomoon Found Circling Brown Dwarf

This illustration shows the stellar system CD-35 2722, with the newly found exomoon at the center; the star has about half the mass of our Sun, and it is orbited by a brown dwarf, the reddish-brown object seen here in the foreground (right). Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered a gas giant around a brown dwarf in the stellar system CD-35 2722.

The post Planetary-Mass Exomoon Found Circling Brown Dwarf appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Juno’s Microwave Vision Peers beneath Surface of Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io

The north polar region of Io was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on December 30, 2023. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt.

New data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft show temperatures spike more than 20 degrees Celsius just a few meters under Io’s surface, providing the first look at what’s happening below the crust of the Solar System’s most volcanic world.

The post Juno’s Microwave Vision Peers beneath Surface of Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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385-Million-Year-Old Amber Found in China

The Middle Devonian Hujiersite amber. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh1266.

Paleontologists in China have discovered what they say is the earliest confirmed pieces of amber ever found, a fossilized resin roughly 385 million years old (Middle Devonian epoch) that predates the previous record-holder by about 65 million years.

The post 385-Million-Year-Old Amber Found in China appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Astronomers Detect Sugar in Interstellar Space for First Time

This composite image of the Milky Way’s central region shows the location of the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027. Image credit: Ashley Barnes / Izaskun Jiménez-Serra / Juan García de la Concepción.

Using the Yebes 40-m and IRAM 30-m radio telescopes, astronomers have discovered erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar commonly found in raspberries and sunless tanning cosmetics, in the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027.

The post Astronomers Detect Sugar in Interstellar Space for First Time appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Bumblebees Display Emotion-Like Reactions to Sweet and Bitter Tastes

Gibbons et al. showed that bumblebees are capable of modifying their response to noxious stimuli in order to get a higher sugar reward. Image credit: Ralphs Fotos.

Slow-motion video reveals that buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) respond to sweet and bitter tastes with distinct, context-dependent behaviors resembling mammalian expressions of pleasure and disgust, adding fresh evidence to the debate over insect consciousness.

The post Bumblebees Display Emotion-Like Reactions to Sweet and Bitter Tastes appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Consciousness is Not Exclusive to Earth’s Biology, Philosophers Argue

Levin et al suggest that we could have more in common with our extraterrestrial neighbors than initially thought. Image credit: Fernando Ribas.

University of California, Riverside’s Professor Eric Schwitzgebel and University of Lisbon postdoctoral researcher Jeremy Pober argue that consciousness is substrate flexible, meaning it can arise not just in the biological tissue we find on Earth, but potentially in radically different physical materials found elsewhere in the cosmos.

The post Consciousness is Not Exclusive to Earth’s Biology, Philosophers Argue appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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New Species of Walking Shark Discovered off Papua New Guinea

Hemiscyllium dudgeonae, male paratype, Nubwageta, Milne Bay province, Papua New Guinea. Image credit: M.V. Erdmann.

Marine biologists have identified a new species of the shark genus Hemiscyllium in the waters of eastern Papua New Guinea, expanding a remarkable group of reef-dwelling sharks known for using their four fins to ‘walk’ across the seafloor.

The post New Species of Walking Shark Discovered off Papua New Guinea appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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Entomologists Reconstruct Evolutionary History of Millipedes

To date, 14,232 millipede species have been described, with at least as many still awaiting discovery. Image credit: Vasquez-Valverde et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.05.035.

Two elusive groups of millipedes, Siphoniulida and Siphonocryptida, were the last missing pieces in the evolutionary history of Earth’s oldest land animals, according to a team of entomologists led by Virginia Tech.

The post Entomologists Reconstruct Evolutionary History of Millipedes appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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New Species of Ancient Bear-Dog Identified in Spain

Paludocyon moyasolai. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra.

Paleontologists have identified a previously unknown species of amphicyonid -- the extinct family of carnivorous mammals popularly known as bear-dogs -- from two specimens unearthed at a rich fossil site in the Vallès-Penedès Basin near Barcelona, Spain.

The post New Species of Ancient Bear-Dog Identified in Spain appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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