Finding planets used to be a painstaking business. Astronomers would fix their gaze on a handful of carefully chosen stars, watch and wait, and hope to catch the faint dip in starlight that signals a world passing in front of its host. It worked. It worked brilliantly. But it also meant we were fishing with a very small net in a very big ocean. [...]

A new study reveals how a remarkable group of plants on the Galápagos Islands developed their diverse leaf shapes—offering unique insight into evolution at the genetic level. A large international team of researchers has studied evolution in the plant group Scalesia, also known as the Galápagos giant daisies. The research was recently published in Nature Communications. [...]

MIT researchers discovered a paradoxical phenomenon in optical physics that could enable a new bioimaging method that's faster and higher-resolution than existing technology. They discovered that, under the right conditions, a chaotic mess of laser light can spontaneously self-organize into a highly focused "pencil beam." [...]

The Fe Kα line, or iron Kα line, is often used in astronomical research to understand the physical composition of astronomical objects. This line is produced when a K-shell electron of an iron ion in the photosphere—the gas on the stellar surface—is ejected by an external process, and has been detected in X-ray spectra of solar and stellar flares. Yet the dominant mechanism behind this ionization process has remained an open question for many years. [...]

In a comprehensive analysis of state and local sanctuary and anti-sanctuary policies, researchers have mapped the rapidly evolving legal immigration landscape in the US from 2000 to 2021. The dataset sheds light on trends in immigration legislation including "punitive" preemption, state government tendencies to enact laws that are ideologically opposed to the current federal administration, and conservative states using preemption to control liberal localities. [...]

Biodegradable plastics hold potential for reducing marine plastic pollution, but degrade too quickly, limiting their practical use. Researchers from Gunma University now show that crab shell by-products can reduce the breakdown rate of biodegradable plastics in seawater by altering the microbial communities that colonize their surfaces, known as the plastisphere. These findings could help design plastics that stay durable during use and then degrade at an appropriate time once in the ocean. [...]

Until a few years ago, no one had heard of bixonimania. Then, in 2024, a group of scientists posted findings online announcing the condition, which they claimed affected the eyes after computer use. However, the scientists had made it up—not just the work, but the authors' names, affiliations, locations and funding, which was the University of Fellowship of the Ring and the Galactic Triad. [...]

Using artificial intelligence, engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new way to watch the inner workings of living cells in real time. The process both captures images that are twice as sharp as conventional microscopes and is fast enough to play as smooth video. [...]

Human languages are known to have grown and changed considerably over the course of history, often reflecting technological, cultural, and societal shifts. Studying the evolution of languages can thus offer valuable insight into how human societies and cultures have transformed over time. [...]

For the first time, researchers have mapped how the boundaries of magnetic nanostructures behave on extremely short timescales. The work of physicist Johan Mentink of Radboud University shows that these boundaries are much more stable than previously thought. This insight will aid the development of future ultra-fast and compact data storage. [...]

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed college writing. As paper drafts are increasingly co-written with AI, professors are left wondering not whether students are using AI, but how. A 2025 AI in Education trend report found that 90% of college students use AI in their coursework, with nearly half using it during the drafting process. As AI becomes embedded in everyday writing, traditional tools like Grammarly or Turnitin for evaluating student learning fall short. If AI is to be expected in most student writing, then merely detecting its presence isn't enough. [...]

A detector buried deep in Antarctic ice has captured the first experimental evidence of a predicted but never-before-seen phenomenon: radio pulses generated when high-energy cosmic rays slam into the ice sheet and trigger particle cascades inside it. Through results published in Physical Review Letters, astronomers of the Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) Collaboration have validated a key technique, which they hope will eventually allow them to detect some of the rarest and most energetic particles in the universe. [...]

The internet and social media platforms have given rise to a rising wave of misinformation, with many users now posting fake news, AI-generated photos or videos and other types of misleading content online. Over the past few years, this rise in misinformation has become a heated topic of debate, with some studies suggesting that it could influence voters during political elections. [...]

When Rachel Carson wrote the environmental classic "Silent Spring" in 1962, she warned that unchecked human impacts might create a silent future. [...]

Researchers from Brown University and their collaborators have developed a new way to measure the properties of cells—an important development, they say, because accurate measurements of changes in cell elasticity can be used to better understand diseases, diagnose patient symptoms and provide more accurate prognoses. [...]