Stay informed about scientific discoveries, research developments and new findings from around the world.
The new push loosens U.S. regulations for sterilizing spacecraft bound for the Red Planet and calls for modernizing the science of “planetary protection”
Maralmaa Chinzorig (top left) talking with a healthcare worker. Assina Kahamba (bottom left) with a group principals. Photos courtesy of Maralmaa Chinzorig and Assina Kahamba Nation & World Taking vital training home With help from the i-Lab, two students tackle improving education in the DRC, healthcare in rural Mongolia Jacob Sweet Harvard Staff Writer September 30, 2026 6 min read Assina Kahamba and Maralmaa Chinzorig both arrived at Harvard for graduate school with the goal of getting the necessary training to help their communities with big problems. For Kahamba, it was strengthening teacher education in Democratic Republic of the Congo. For Chinzorig, it was improving medical care in r...
El Niño has stymied storm formation even more than forecasters expected
A powerful "Kelvin wave," triggered by this year's super El Niño, is creeping up the Pacific coast of Central and North America and will soon reach California's shores, where it could raise sea levels by up to 1 foot (30 centimeters) for months, researchers warn.Kelvin waves are a well-known, planetary-scale ocean phenomenon, but this particular forecast has experts worried because it will likely amplify the damage from severe storms, storm surges, flooding and coastal erosion that the record-shattering El Niño is expected to bring this winter.In general, a Kelvin wave is a swell wave that spans thousands of miles and balances Earth's rotation, David Webb, a physical oceanographer at the Nat...
Researchers have discovered an exoplanet that travels around its small, red star backward, much like a rubber duck spinning against the current in a whirlpool. The discovery could give insight about how exoplanets form around the most common types of stars in our galaxy.It's a mystery why the alien world, called GJ 3090 b, orbits its star backward (also called a retrograde orbit). Stars and planets usually form from the same rotating disk of gas and dust, called a protoplanetary disk. Newly formed celestial objects normally rotate in the same direction as the protoplanetary disk, because changing the rotational direction requires a lot of energy applied in the right way.Astronomers have disc...
Scientists graded every river and stream in the contiguous United States, flagging specific repairs each one needs to support aquatic life.
The satellite, Smile, is a joint European and Chinese mission to study space weather and geomagnetic storms above Earth
Google.org announced on Sept. 15 that the MIT Transit Lab is a recipient of $2.1 million in funding — one of only 15 projects selected in the worldwide Google.org Impact Challenge: AI for Government Innovation. The funding from Google’s philanthropic arm will support NGOs, social enterprises, and academic institutions as they integrate artificial intelligence-powered solutions across topics like health, resilience, and economy.The Transit Lab’s winning project, the Public Transit Intelligence Hub (PTIQ), aims to unify public transportation agencies’ real-time monitoring, operations control, and passenger communication systems into a single centralized AI-orchestrated platform that will allow...
TOPIC:Knowledge sharing Young scientists win their way to CERN, DESY and the University of Bonn The three laboratories welcomed the high-school students who won this year’s edition of Beamline for Schools Written by: Nicoletta Barzaghini — 30 September, 2026 From 11 to 25 August, a bit earlier as usual due to Long Shutdown 3 (LS3), CERN, DESY (the German electron synchrotron facility in Hamburg) and ELSA (the electron accelerator at the University of Bonn) welcomed the winners of the 2026 Beamline for Schools (BL4S) competition. Member of the Turkish team “PionIST 3”, Ceren Akgün, explaining the experiment at CERN during the VIP Sponsor’s Day 2026. (Image: CERN) Launched in 2014 to mark CERN...
TOPIC:At CERN “La nuit est belle !” 2026 From 9 to 11 October, CERN will participate in the sixth edition of “La nuit est belle !” by switching off lights across its sites — 30 September, 2026 Starting on the evening of Friday, 9 October, CERN will participate in the sixth edition of “La nuit est belle !”. Thanks to this initiative, turning off or dimming street lighting in the middle of the night has become common practice across the Geneva canton. For this edition, “La nuit est belle !” invites the public to explore the night through the theme of water. Rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands and landscapes shaped by water all serve as starting points for discovering the natural, cultural and sen...
A new AI system that excels at challenging games with hidden information could someday help human decision-makers select ideal strategies to outfox opponents in complicated situations like military maneuvers.Using advances in machine-learning, researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, and Stanford University developed an AI that defeated top-ranked human players of the board wargame Stratego by a large margin — something no AI system had been able to achieve. Stratego, a two-player game of imperfect information, in which the opponent’s piece identities remain hidden, is often used as a benchmark to test the strategic thinking abilities of powerful AI models.To bu...
Saphier’s nomination now heads to the full Senate for a vote
It's well-known that regular exercise comes with health benefits, but exactly how those benefits manifest at the cellular level isn't clear. Now, researchers have identified a series of changes in metabolism and the immune system that differentiate regular exercisers from people with sedentary lifestyles. The findings, published Sept. 18 in the journal Science Advances, point to potential pathways for managing chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, the scientists say.The team of researchers analyzed data from the Chinese Immune Multi-omics Atlas (CIMA), which includes data from 400 adults who gave blood samples and answered an in-depth questionnaire about their lifesty...
TOPIC:Knowledge sharing 2 – 12 October | CERN will be at the “Fête de la science” 2026 CERN is organising a wide range of activities across the Pays de Gex as part of the collaborative science programme led by Addictlab — 30 September, 2026 From 2 to 12 October, explore the theme “saveurs, savantes” at the Fête de la Science across France, including in the Pays de Gex. To mark the occasion, CERN is taking part in the collaborative science trail coordinated and led by Addictlab, offering a range of events and activities. This collaborative science trail spans the entire Pays de Gex region, involving local authorities, organisations, businesses and researchers. Many activities and sessions are...
TOPIC:At CERN Photo exhibition | The impact of CERN technologies: from fundamental research to our everyday lives An exhibition on the Esplanade des Particules showcases in images some of the practical applications of CERN technologies and the expertise of CERN scientists and engineers — 30 September, 2026 The exhibition on the Esplanade des Particules. (Image: CERN) CERN’s fundamental research and unique environment are fertile ground for innovations in particle accelerators, detectors and computing that can benefit society as a whole, sometimes in surprising ways. This photo exhibition presents a selection of the practical applications of CERN technologies and the expertise of CERN scienti...
Scientists testing potential treatments for sleep apnea made an unexpected discovery. How quickly people react may depend on whether they’re breathing in or out.
Just days after a Fields Medalist predicted that an AI would solve the puzzle, Anthropic succeeded
A review of more than 265,000 people found that cannabis use was associated with higher rates of both committing violence and becoming a victim of it. The researchers say the link is significant but does not prove cannabis itself is the cause.
Astronomers have found strong evidence that some mysterious, minutes-long X-ray flashes are produced when two neutron stars collide and create a magnetar. One record-setting event glowed in X-rays for nearly 10 minutes, potentially opening a new way to find these extreme cosmic mergers.
Marine heatwaves may be only the most intense part of much longer warming events, with elevated temperatures sometimes lingering for months. Researchers found that conventional measurements underestimate total heat exposure by more than 150% on average, potentially overlooking a major source of stress on marine ecosystems.
New research suggests that poultry litter-based soil amendments and weather conditions, particularly extreme weather events, may influence how long bacteria survive in agricultural soils used to grow sweet onions. The findings could help inform food safety risk management for produce growers.
Researchers have used some of the most detailed simulations yet of the early universe to investigate how the first stars and galaxies formed. Led by researchers at the University of Bath in the U.K., alongside collaborators at the University of Chicago in the U.S. and the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris in France, the MEGATRON project uses advanced simulations to explore how the first stars and galaxies lit up the previously dark cosmos and enriched it with the chemical elements that would later become the building blocks of everything around us.
Mulberry compounds may reshape the gut microbiome in ways that support intestinal health and metabolism, with some combinations showing especially strong effects in animal studies. However, the results vary depending on the plant part and processing method, and the benefits have yet to be confirmed in humans.
Boats passing over smooth water form a pair of diffusion wakes behind them veering off at a certain angle. Turbulence occurs along the line directly behind the boat, but the two diffusion waves are at a theoretical angle of 19.5° from the same line, for deep, ideally smooth water.