Earth & Environment
Setting California's Forests on Fire Could Cut Wildfire Smoke by a Tenth
For a century, the strategy was simple. See a fire, put it out. It worked, in a way, right up until it didn't.
Jun 12, 2026
Health
US Mesothelioma Death Counts Rose From 1990 to 2023 Even as Age-Standardised Rates Fell
An analysis found that US mesothelioma deaths increased in absolute number from 1990 to 2023 while age-standardised mortality declined, largely reflecting population growth and ageing.
Jun 12, 2026
Brain & Behavior
A Bird's Warning Song Rewires Its Chicks' Brains Before They Even Hatch
Inside the egg, the chick can see nothing. It is folded tight against the shell, blind and deaf for most of its development, sealed off from the desert glare and the colony's racket.
Jun 12, 2026
Life
Physicists Build a Workaround for the Flocks of Birds That Break Newton's Third Law
A starling in a murmuration watches the birds ahead of it and the birds beside it.
Jun 12, 2026
Health
Large Meta-Analysis Links Socioeconomic Disadvantage With Faster Epigenetic Ageing
A meta-analysis of 140 studies found modest associations between socioeconomic disadvantage and newer epigenetic ageing measures. The observational evidence does not establish causation.
Jun 12, 2026
Brain & Behavior
Removing Protective Neural Nets Changed Social Behaviour in Two Mouse Models
Experiments in mice linked perineuronal nets in the deep cerebellar nuclei with social behaviour. It is not yet known whether the mechanism operates in humans.
Jun 12, 2026
Physics
A Cloud of Cold Atoms Just Told Time Without a Clock
Strip away every clock in the universe. No ticking, no pendulums, no caesium atoms counting out the second.
Jun 12, 2026
Physics
The Year Astronomers Thought Dark Energy Might Disappear
For a few uneasy months, the universe seemed to be slowing down. Late in 2025, a team of astronomers announced that the cosmic acceleration discovered nearly…
Jun 12, 2026
Physics
A Big Bang Inside a Dying Star Could Stop Black Holes from Ever Forming
The most extreme objects in the universe might not exist. Black holes, those monsters of collapsed matter that anchor whole galaxies and bend light around…
Jun 11, 2026
Life
Researchers Estimate a Deep-Sea Zone May Contain More Than 10 Million Whale Remains
Researchers documented whale remains in narrow survey strips of the Diamantina Zone and extrapolated a possible total above 10 million. The estimate carries substantial uncertainty.
Jun 10, 2026
Life
The Kids Are All Right: Zoo Ponies Stay Calm Under Petting Yet Bolt at an Excavator
The children kept coming, small hands reaching over the fence to pat a pony's neck while it pulled hay from a rack and chewed, unbothered.
Jun 10, 2026
Brain & Behavior
To Find New Physics, an AI First Has to Forget the Old Physics It Learned
Teach a machine everything we know about the universe, and you might expect it to spot the cracks in that knowledge faster.
Jun 10, 2026
Technology
An Unmanned Rooftop Machine Runs All Day on Sunlight and Air
On a partly cloudy morning in Osaka, on the rooftop of a university building, a squat box of titanium and plastic membranes began quietly turning carbon dioxide into liquid fuel.
Jun 10, 2026
Brain & Behavior
Almost Everyone Drifts Counterclockwise When They Walk, and Nobody Knows Why
Thirty-two times out of thirty-three, the crowd turned the same way. Left. Always left, looping counterclockwise around the enclosure like water circling a drain, and the researchers watching the overhead footage hadn't gone looking for any of it.
Jun 10, 2026