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Science News

Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.

Ancient copper mine hints that Iberia played an important role in Bronze Age trade networks
Science News

Ancient copper mine hints that Iberia played an important role in Bronze Age trade networks

Copper is essential for making bronze, which shaped tools, weapons and ornaments across Bronze Age Europe. While many Bronze Age mines have been identified throughout Europe, researchers are still trying to pin down which of them were most active at different times and how far their copper traveled. New research, published in the journal Antiquity, suggests that a series of mines in modern-day Spain and Portugal may have been an important source of copper in the Late Bronze Age, with some of that copper ending up as far away as Scandinavia.

📅 2026-10-30 17:40:06    •    Phys.org
Neuroscientists reveal method to train people to have lucid dreams — and it involves virtual reality and meditation
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Neuroscientists reveal method to train people to have lucid dreams — and it involves virtual reality and meditation

Lucid dreaming — in which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming and can sometimes influence the dream's trajectory — is a skill that can be honed, a new study finds. And the researchers found that doing this is surprisingly easy, after training participants to do exactly that using virtual reality (VR) twice a week for just one month.The study's results could have practical benefits, said Daniel Morris, a cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University who studies dreams and was not involved with the work. "Lucid dreaming can benefit people with nightmares by allowing them to transform their nightmares into positive dreams and feel greater agency in their dreams," Morris told Live ...

📅 2026-10-30 17:30:00    •    Live Science
A gamma-ray powerhouse's smoking gun? Gas trail points to microquasar jets
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A gamma-ray powerhouse's smoking gun? Gas trail points to microquasar jets

In 2016, a binary star system emitting unusually strong gamma rays was discovered in our galactic neighborhood. Now, astronomers have found the smoking gun, or rather, a smoking trail of cool molecular gas that suggests jets emanating from a microquasar—one of the few known outside the Milky Way—are responsible.

📅 2026-10-30 17:20:18    •    Phys.org
The bonus that makes employees more committed
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The bonus that makes employees more committed

Offer your employees money to quit and the ones who say no will work harder as a result. Researchers at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and McMaster University set out to test whether pay-to-quit programs work as intended. Their results confirmed they do and revealed a benefit that nobody anticipated.

📅 2026-10-30 17:20:12    •    Phys.org
Different transcription systems shape chromatin behavior in distinct nuclear regions
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Different transcription systems shape chromatin behavior in distinct nuclear regions

Inside the cell nucleus, DNA is wrapped around histone proteins to form nucleosomes, which are further organized into chromatin. Chromatin has traditionally been divided into transcriptionally active euchromatin and relatively inactive heterochromatin. However, chromatin is not a fixed structure. Nucleosomes continuously move within the nucleus, and this motion is closely related to the physical organization and function of the genome.

📅 2026-10-30 17:00:11    •    Phys.org
Companies' progress on climate reporting gets lost in the average
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Companies' progress on climate reporting gets lost in the average

Companies are increasingly expected to explain the climate risks and how they are responding. CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, is a nonprofit that collects and scores corporate environmental disclosures, including emissions data, climate risks and governance practices. How has CDP's average score changed year by year, and does that trend capture the progress of companies that have disclosed consistently for many years?

📅 2026-10-30 17:00:08    •    Phys.org
Pulling the strings: How stem cells in the developing fruit fly brain organize their DNA from outside the nucleus
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Pulling the strings: How stem cells in the developing fruit fly brain organize their DNA from outside the nucleus

Cells are very particular about the proper locations of their contents. For example, DNA is packaged in the nucleus in a highly specific way, but researchers are still trying to understand how this happens. For stem cells in the brain of a larval fruit fly—a model organism used to study processes such as early development—the DNA is organized so that the center of each strand, called the centromere, is at the top of the nucleus.

📅 2026-10-30 16:40:05    •    Phys.org
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune could destroy each other sooner than we thought, simulations hint
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Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune could destroy each other sooner than we thought, simulations hint

When the sun inevitably dies, not even the outer solar system will be safe from the resulting chaos, new research hints.Scientists have long thought the outer solar system ‪—‬ which comprises the four giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — would mostly retain its present-day appearance for hundreds of billions of years to come. But a new study suggests that the outer giants may develop weirdly shaped orbits as the sun runs out of fuel, causing the planets to cross paths and destroy themselves through collisions within three billion years of the sun's transformation into a red giant. The findings, published Sept. 21 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could change our understan...

📅 2026-10-30 16:10:14    •    Live Science
'It isn't under control at all': Live Science readers respond to whether AI is making them lazy
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'It isn't under control at all': Live Science readers respond to whether AI is making them lazy

While people use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help with tasks like learning new skills or answering questions, a new study suggests that these benefits may come with a downside. The findings, presented at the 2026 Conference on Language Modeling in San Francisco earlier this month, revealed that people who used AI assistance for reading comprehension or math problems were more likely to struggle or give up when the AI assistance was removed. The results suggest that relying too much on AI could lower people's motivations to overcome challenging situations. In the wake of this study, Live Science recently polled its readers on whether they felt AI was making them less motivated after...

📅 2026-10-30 15:46:06    •    Live Science
Nearly 30% of US adults admit to lying about or exaggerating their symptoms to get antibiotics from doctors, survey finds
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Nearly 30% of US adults admit to lying about or exaggerating their symptoms to get antibiotics from doctors, survey finds

Nearly 30% of U.S. adults have lied to doctors in an effort to obtain antibiotics, either by exaggerating their actual symptoms or by fabricating symptoms, the results of a new national survey suggest. Additionally, in a second survey, about one-quarter of children's caregivers reported lying about their kids' symptoms to get antibiotics on their behalf."As clinicians, we know that patients lie to us sometimes," Dr. Jeffrey Linder, a general internist and primary care clinician-investigator at Northwestern Medicine, wrote in a commentary about the survey findings. However, the results are still important because the inappropriate use of antibiotics can contribute to the mounting problem of a...

📅 2026-10-30 15:00:00    •    Live Science
Rusty crust made Mars warm and wet
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Rusty crust made Mars warm and wet

It's unclear how and why Mars once became warm enough to allow water to flow on its surface, but a new idea suggests it comes down to rust below the surface

📅 2026-10-30 15:00:00    •    New Scientist
How did the biggest crypto heist in history just happen?
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How did the biggest crypto heist in history just happen?

Binance is the biggest cryptocurrency exchangeZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been hit with the biggest ever cryptocurrency heist, in which billions of dollars of reserves were drained in just 20 minutes. From 8:05pm on 29 October, $6.36 billion in cryptocurrencies were shifted from wallets in a coordinated attack believed to have originated from a North Korean-linked hacking unit called TraderTraitor. This group was also behind a $1.5 billion hack of the Bybit crypto exchange in February 2025. The US Treasury has previously said that such stolen funds are used to finance North Korea’s nuclear missile programme. Advertisement if( window?.a...

📅 2026-10-30 12:40:12    •    New Scientist
Type 2 diabetes breakthrough as 54% achieve remission in just 6 months
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Type 2 diabetes breakthrough as 54% achieve remission in just 6 months

A promising new study suggests that more than half of younger adults with type 2 diabetes could achieve remission in just six months through a combination of a low-calorie diet and structured exercise. Researchers found that 54% of participants under age 45 who followed an intensive diet and exercise program achieved remission, compared with just 4% receiving usual care.

📅 2026-10-30 12:12:46    •    ScienceDaily