In a dry riverbed in Brazil, in a dense forest near the Amazon, a team of paleontologists found a fossilized jawbone from an ancient animal. Over the course of their fieldwork, they found eight similar bones, each around six inches long—but no other bones that they could confidently use to complete a skeleton for one of these mystery animals. [...]

Scientists have analyzed more than 40 years of astronomical data to uncover evidence that the sun's internal structure subtly changes from one solar cycle minimum to the next. Publishing their findings in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers from the University of Birmingham and Yale University reveal that even small differences in solar magnetic activity produce detectable changes inside the sun. [...]

For decades, scientists have relied on a chemical fingerprint inside water molecules to determine where plants get their moisture. The method shaped our understanding of drought resilience, groundwater use, and ecosystem survival. But there was a problem. The fingerprints didn't always match. [...]

In most plants and animals, including humans, mitochondria are inherited exclusively, or nearly exclusively, from the mother. By contrast, paternal transmission is observed only occasionally, and the mechanisms behind this phenomenon have remained largely unknown. In a study published in Nature Plants, researchers established a genetic screening system in tobacco plants that allowed them to detect paternal mitochondrial inheritance. [...]

Crystalline nanomaterials are valuable because their highly ordered structures give them useful properties for technologies such as data storage and optical devices. But forming nanoparticles from those orderly crystals is difficult because, instead of snapping into place, the particles often get stuck in arrangements that never become the intended crystal. [...]

When a new species is discovered, it's tempting to imagine an adventure novel, said Chan Kin Onn of Michigan State University. "Most people have this image of an intrepid explorer braving an isolated mountain or some other remote place, and stumbling across a creature that no one has ever seen before," Chan said. Sure, that still happens occasionally. "But most of the time it's far less glamorous," he added. [...]

For years, the Prairie Pothole Region has bothered me in a very specific way. On a map, it looks like a normal landscape: fields, gentle slopes, small streams. But hydrologically, it behaves like something else entirely. The surface is peppered with countless depressions—wetlands and "potholes"—that can store water for days, months, or even years. Most of the time, rainfall and snowmelt do not move cleanly downhill into channels. They disappear into storage. Then, sometimes, they don't. [...]

How much carbon dioxide do parks and individual trees in cities absorb, and how much do they release? To answer this question, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a high-resolution CO₂ biogenic flux model. Their findings show that, on average, around 2% of Munich's annual urban emissions are compensated by vegetation. Urban trees have the greatest impact, whereas grassy areas are often net sources of CO₂. [...]

After more than a decade of research, scientists have discovered the natural mechanism behind a novel form of cell death called ferroptosis. The work, described in the current issue of Cell, points toward an entirely new strategy for treating many types of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. [...]

Understanding how cells are organized and how their molecular components interact in a coordinated and cooperative manner is a central goal of modern life sciences. To answer these questions, researchers need to observe many structures inside the same cell at once and map how they are arranged and interact. This requires "multiplexed super-resolution microscopy"—an advanced imaging approach that reveals cellular details far beyond the limits of conventional light microscopes. [...]

A new catalyst strategy developed at Institute of Science Tokyo uses BaSi2 as a support for nickel and cobalt to decompose ammonia at lower temperatures. By forming unique ternary transition metal–nitrogen–barium intermediates that facilitate nitrogen coupling, the system lowers the energy barrier for ammonia decomposition. This enables nickel- and cobalt-based catalysts to achieve high hydrogen-production activity at reduced temperatures, matching the performance of ruthenium while relying on Earth-abundant metals for cleaner hydrogen generation. [...]

Intrinsically disordered proteins lack a fixed structure, which is why they have been considered "undruggable" targets for drug development for years. However, these proteins play a key role in numerous diseases—ranging from various types of cancer to neurodegenerative disorders—long limiting the therapeutic options available to treat them. [...]

A University of Queensland study has shown that a deadly scorpion's venom carries an extra biochemical sting that could be used to guide future medical treatments and tests. The paper is published in the journal Biochimie. [...]

Private companies are no longer peripheral participants in U.S. space activities. They provide key services, including launching and deploying satellites, transporting cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, and even sending landers to the moon. [...]

Indigenous people who were the first to inhabit the area now known as Michigan—before the Europeans arrived—may have cultivated maize (corn) more prominently than previously assumed for such a northern population. Researchers from the University of New Hampshire found that using modern global satellite data in a novel way helped them connect archaeological features—like ancient burial mounds—to environmental data of lake temperatures and gain new insights into past human–environment relationships. [...]