Science News
Adult acne is real, but there are ways to treat it. Here's what to know
As a teenager, Gillian Maegan Montalbo's pimples weren't too bad—just a few bumps on her forehead and nose.
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Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.
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Scientists may have found a shortcut to fusion energy
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory may have found a dramatically more efficient route to fusion energy by reversing the traditional approach: heating plasma first, then increasing its density. Their calculations could help future reactors reach self-sustaining fusion with far less energy while avoiding hidden problems that make ignition harder.
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Loneliness may steal nearly 6 years of good health
A large study suggests loneliness and social isolation can cost people years of healthy life, especially when it comes to mental health. Men experiencing both lost about 5.8 years free from depression and anxiety, while women lost roughly 3.7 years.
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MIT astronomers catch a star in a feast that could last billions of years
Astronomers have discovered a bizarre star system about 300 light-years from Earth where a small star is slowly devouring a nearby brown dwarf, an object too massive to be a planet but too small to be a true star. Unlike stars that rapidly swallow their companions, this one is gradually stealing material in a process that could continue for billions of years.
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Bowel cancer “melted away” after immunotherapy, then stayed away
A short course of immunotherapy before surgery may offer remarkably durable protection for some patients with stage two or three bowel cancer. In the NEOPRISM-CRC trial, 32 patients with a specific genetic form of bowel cancer received pembrolizumab for up to nine weeks before surgery instead of the usual post-surgery chemotherapy. After nearly three years of follow-up, none of the patients had experienced a cancer recurrence, including those who still had small traces of disease after treatment.
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Nearly 300,000 at risk from Himalayan floods, as flood zone building accelerates
Nearly 300,000 people may live in areas at risk of flooding in the Nepalese, Indian and Chinese areas of the Himalayas. The results, from a study published in Scientific Reports, also indicate that the total area covered by buildings within potential flood zones increased by approximately 45% between 2016 and 2023.
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New stability rules distinguish quantum phases of matter that an older method wrongly groups together
Most of us recognize basic phases of matter and their properties: solids maintain their shape, liquids flow freely with constant volume, and gases expand to fill their container. Quantum phases, on the other hand, are much harder to categorize, overturning traditional notions of what a phase even is and forcing physicists to rethink their definitions.
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Preschool boys favor bigger groups while adults' choices hint at political attitudes
Two cartoon characters appear on a screen. One belongs to a group of three, and the other to a group of two. Which character would you rather play with?
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Against the odds: Why some ecosystems thrive
From coral reefs in Papua New Guinea to chimpanzees in West Africa, grizzly bears in Canada and albatross colonies off Tasmania, some ecosystems are thriving despite climate change, habitat loss and other environmental pressures.
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Powerful waves lash California coast as storm threatens more damage
Powerful waves thrashed communities along California's southern coast Friday, damaging homes and sending water cascading through streets as residents braced for more potential damage wrought by Tropical Storm Rachel.
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Tsunami alert after major earthquake rocks Panama
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake jolted Panama on Friday, setting off panic in the capital city and warnings of dangerous tsunami waves.
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Isaias downgraded to post-tropical cyclone after landfall in Florida
Isaias weakened from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone early Saturday after it made landfall in northwestern Florida, where it lashed the U.S. Gulf Coast with heavy rain and strong winds, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
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Why some young ants start hunting and caring for others early
Some insects, including honeybees and ants, live in highly organized colonies where individuals take on specific roles. In many ant societies, young adult workers typically care for developing young inside the nest before beginning to forage, or search for food, outside it. Some ant species, however, start hunting for food as soon as they reach adulthood, without undergoing a transition period.
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New catalyst enables lower-temperature methane conversion with sustained performance
Oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) is a chemical reaction that directly converts methane and oxygen, the main components of natural gas, into higher-value hydrocarbons such as ethane and ethylene. However, the reaction presents a fundamental selectivity challenge.
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Wildfire smoke shuts schools in Amazon's biggest city
The largest city in the Brazilian Amazon, Manaus, closed public schools on Friday as smoke from hundreds of wildfires blanketed the metropolis amid an intensifying El Niño event.
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Photojournalist Steve Winter on his iconic Hollywood puma image, the illegal tiger trade and having a black panther knock on his door
For decades, photojournalist Steve Winter has traveled across the world capturing incredible images of big cats as part of his work for National Geographic. Yet he didn't photograph an animal professionally until he was 34. "If anybody had said, 'You're going to work with big cats for 25 years of your career,' I would have said 'No, I don't know anything about big cats,'" he told Live Science. "But I learned from scientists and local people," he added. "That was very, very important — that's what, to me, was the biggest change in my life."Together with his wife, author and environmental journalist Sharon Guynup, Winter has helped change laws around big cats in the U.S.; revealed the horrors ...
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This beer-making waste may offer a new stream for cleaner water
The research offers yet another way the brewery industry might repurpose its myriad by-products
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Hybrid quantum computer observes foundational quantum effect in a new setting
Physicists in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford have used a hybrid quantum computer, made up of qubits and quantum oscillators, to observe the Aharonov–Bohm effect in a quantum simulation. The effect is a quantum phenomenon in which a particle can acquire a measurable phase by traveling around a magnetic flux, even though it never passes through a region where a magnetic field is present.
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Why taking a break from exercise might not mean you need to start from scratch
Why taking a break from exercise doesn't may not mean you need to start from scratch
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Does written language speed up or slow down cultural change?
The written word is one of humanity's most important information technologies. Without it, mathematical and scientific discoveries would be lost to history. But it can also lock ideas in place long after they've stopped making sense. So does writing speed up cultural change or slow it down?Russell Gray, a professor in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, heads a research project investigating how writing affects the way languages change. His team uses methods borrowed from evolutionary biology to trace languages through family trees — similar to the way biologists trace species. Language is one element of cu...