A public-private partnership in the Mountain West announced new results today that mark steady progress toward the Department of Energy's goal of fault-tolerant quantum computing, systems large and reliable enough to solve complex problems.

Astronomers have revealed new details about how young stars shape their galactic surroundings in a new study. Researchers analyzed about 18,000 star-forming regions in nearby spiral galaxies using data from powerful instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, whose observations were made as part of the PHANGS survey—a collaboration aimed at better understanding galactic evolution.

Instead of going to stores to compare products, Americans have increasingly turned to watching online video reviews. As far back as a decade ago, 55% of Americans reported they'd watched online reviews of products, according to Pew Research. As of late 2024, Pew found 62% were relying on the video platform TikTok to view product reviews or recommendations.

Scientists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) usually capture what happens when atomic nuclei smash into one another at nearly the speed of light. But even when the nuclei don't collide, interesting things can happen. In a new paper just published in Physical Review Letters, members of RHIC's STAR collaboration describe a new way to use near-miss collisions at RHIC to study what's going on inside the nucleus. The approach advances the reach of RHIC, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, into the next frontier in nuclear physics—a journey into the inner workings of the building blocks of matter.

At an international heritage symposium in Japan, I heard a word that stayed with me: "contaminated." The discussion concerned whether Indigenous peoples needed to be named explicitly in a new World Heritage framework. One argument was that Indigenous cultures had changed through contact, survival and adaptation, and therefore no longer required distinct recognition. I found that deeply troubling.

Traditionally farmed landscapes can help produce food while also protecting nature and keeping cultural traditions alive. A research team led by the University of Göttingen recently examined Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) as defined and recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The researchers found that these landscapes can offer practical lessons for sustainable land use worldwide—but only if strategies are adapted to local people, environments and farming traditions. The results are published in Ecology & Society.

River experts say new satellite technology holds the promise of protecting water quality around the world.

Rainfall history is just as critical to predicting air pollution as where the air came from, a team led by University of Michigan Engineering researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Appalachian Mountain Club and Plymouth State University, has discovered. The findings give meteorologists a physical benchmark to improve simulations that predict changes in pollution levels over complex terrain. They also show how air pollution can be deposited in sensitive mountain environments, with downstream effects for waterways fed from the mountains.

Researchers have developed a simpler, more cost-effective method to measure a biologically important form of phosphorus in soils, providing new insights into nutrient cycling that could help improve sustainable agricultural management.

Heidelberg University researchers have deciphered the inscription on an ancient curse tablet, which was once used to invoke deities and demons in order to harm an enemy. The "magical" artifact from the Roman province of Lower Germania was discovered during excavations carried out in the Dutch municipality of Heerlen. The lead tablet, which dates to the 2nd century A.D., is distinctive in that it contains not a Latin but an ancient Greek text in the Egyptian style, as Dr. Rodney Ast, academic director at the Institute for Papyrology, explains.

Emergency department use rose significantly during and after the 2015–16 Aliso Canyon gas blowout, according to a new paper from the UCLA Aliso Canyon Disaster Health Research Study. Data showed that people living downwind of the blowout had 26 more emergency department visits per 1,000 residents from before to during the disaster, compared with the same time frame in a demographically similar comparison community. That surge remained similarly high a year later.

A study led by researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the UB reveals that reducing single-use plastic is essential for protecting coastal ecosystems. Floating litter has also invaded Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States and one of the most important in the world.

The Hong Kong SAR imports more than 90% of its food, and it can be very difficult, when food safety incidents occur, to trace the source across a complex supply chain. Prof. Leng Mingming, dean of the Faculty of Business and chair professor of operations and risk management at Lingnan University, has published a new study proposing the introduction of a unified product tracing system across the food supply chain.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence from one of Earth's most extreme ancient warming events, revealing how the climate may recover long after human-driven CO2 emissions cease.

Florida State University researchers have identified key differences in the root causes of long-term sea-surface temperature changes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a finding that could help guide future research on ocean variability. The study by Assistant Professor of meteorology Michael Diamond and FSU meteorology graduate alumnus Anthony Freveletti found that long-term temperature changes in the Pacific Ocean are driven primarily by internal ocean variability, while those in the Atlantic are largely the result of human emissions.

In recent years, Hong Kong has experienced repeated episodes of intense rainfall that have significantly affected social operations, including the "once-in-a-century" rainstorm in September 2023, exceptionally heavy rain in May 2024, and a series of Black Rainstorm events in early August 2025. These extreme weather events have not only disrupted residents' daily travel and public infrastructure but also highlighted the challenges faced by high-density coastal cities in coping with extreme weather.

From sea lettuce adorning tidal pools and bull kelp left in windrows at the high tide line to towering underwater forests of giant kelp providing refuge and food for countless species, British Columbia's seaweeds are both prominently visible along shorelines and hidden from sight in the deep.

Whether it's to the moon or Mars, a NASA mission requires some essential preparations: designing and developing the spacecraft, astronaut training and safety checks, clear goals, and strategies and procedures for maintaining communication between crews on Earth and in space.

There is a more than 60% chance that a "super" El Niño will develop by the end of this year.

Europe's first and only TES spectrometer at a synchrotron source is now in operation at BESSY II, developed within a collaboration between the HZB, the MPI-CEC (Mühlheim-an-der-Ruhr, Germany) and the NIST (Boulder, Colorado, U.S.). The photon detection efficiency of the new instrument exceeds that of wavelength-dispersive X-ray emission spectrometers by a factor of 100 to 1,000. It will be used to investigate the electronic properties of atomically thin layers, nanostructures and highly diluted atomic and molecular samples. The team is looking forward to receiving exciting research proposals from the user community.

Dr. Shing-Chi Leung, assistant professor of physics at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, has published the article "Primordial Black Hole Triggered Type Ia Supernovae II: Comparison with Supernova Remnants and Galactic Chemical Evolution" in The Astrophysical Journal. The paper was co-authored by SUNY Poly student Seth Walther, a senior majoring in electrical and computer engineering and applied mathematics with a minor in physics; Alexander Kusenko (UCLA); Ken'ichi Nomoto (Kavli IPMU, recipient of the 2026 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2026 Gruber Cosmology Prize); and Tomoharu Suzuki (Chubu University).

New research from the University of St. Andrews is calling on employers to rethink flexible-working policies, warning that current approaches fail to reflect increasingly blurred boundaries between work and personal life.

Why settle for a trial-and-error approach, reviewing an almost endless number of combinations, when you can systematically narrow the list to something more manageable using established data and knowledge?

Methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, and lakes and wetlands are among its largest natural sources. In many lakes, methane can be seen bubbling up from the bottom and escaping directly into the atmosphere.

Every day, millions of people play Wordle, the popular New York Times game that challenges users to guess a secret five-letter word. Using information theory, a team of researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has developed a method to solve the game with a 99% success rate.

The solar atmosphere is a turbulent and magnetized environment, with the release of magnetic energy readily manifesting as emission across the electromagnetic spectrum. Solar radio emission dominates the radio sky, with the brightest solar radio bursts generated via the plasma emission process. The emission has a complex frequency-time structure with many features that are yet to be understood.

Scientists have become more visible in climate debates, engaging in public communication, policy advice, open letters, political demonstrations and even civil disobedience. Scientists who speak out on climate change have different effects depending on the context, according to research led by Lancaster University. A major review led by Dr. Samuel Finnerty finds no consistent evidence that such advocacy either strengthens or undermines scientific credibility, public trust or support for climate action.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express has captured part of Mars's Mamers Valles, a fascinating valley system speckled with brief, tornado-like whirlwinds known as dust devils.

Children are innately curious, and throughout any given day they come up with all manner of questions: Why don't fish have hair? Why do flowers wilt so quickly? Their need to understand the world—and develop their language skills and ideas—makes them tireless conversationalists.

Arctic fjords are among the most efficient natural systems for absorbing and storing carbon long term. However, as the Arctic is warming about four times faster than the global average, fjord ecosystems are changing rapidly. Against this backdrop, understanding the biological processes that regulate carbon storage is becoming increasingly important. Yet the microbial mechanisms that control whether carbon is stored in sediments or returned to the environment are still not fully understood.

Big cats have a big impact. A long-term study showed that when mountain lions began regular visits to a small suburban preserve about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of San Francisco, they changed the behavior of many other animals.

Whales and dolphins inhabit some of the largest and seemingly most pristine environments on Earth, from tropical coastlines to Antarctic waters. Yet even they cannot escape PFAS—persistent "forever chemicals" that leak from our homes, factories and waterways into the sea.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is developing electronics and flight software for the NASA/U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat 10 satellite, which is set to launch in 2031 to collect new and improved Earth observation data. The mission continues NASA's and USGS's partnership on the ongoing Landsat program, which has launched nine satellites since 1972 and provided more than 10 million images of Earth's surface.

Scientists have discovered that the southern Andes Mountains don't rise slowly and steadily as previously thought. Instead, the range builds itself in short, powerful "pulses" every few million years.

Goats appear to have a rare ability not shared by many in the animal kingdom, and that is being able to follow the direction of a human voice to locate hidden objects. While dogs have been shown to do this, even our closest primate cousins, like chimpanzees, have struggled with the task in previous experiments.

An international team of scientists has identified a completely new type of rock from the red planet and, for the first time, discovered the mineral garnet in a Martian sample. The breakthrough offers a rare glimpse into Mars' ancient past and could help researchers piece together the planet's 4.5-billion-year geological history. The discovery was made by an international research team including James Darling, professor of Earth and planetary science, from the University of Portsmouth's School of the Environment and Life Sciences.

Physicists have long been drawn to the nonlinear Hall effect: a subtle variant of the classical Hall effect, in which an electric voltage appears perpendicular to a current flowing through a material. Unlike its classical counterpart, the nonlinear version can arise even without breaking time-reversal symmetry, and its magnitude is tied to deep geometric properties of electron wave functions. So far, however, the behavior of the effect when a magnetic field is applied has remained poorly understood.

An international research collaboration between the University of Vienna and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States has used machine learning to re-examine one of the most debated signals in astrophysics. The so-called Galactic Center Excess (GCE), a faint, roughly spherical glow of gamma rays at the center of the Milky Way, has fascinated physicists for more than a decade. The new results suggest that an explanation in terms of dark matter cannot currently be ruled out. The results have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

A new study led by Marco Fumasoni, principal investigator at Fundação GIMM, shows that evolution can substantially reduce cell size without significantly compromising cells' ability to grow. The work, carried out in yeast in collaboration with researchers at Cornell University, is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Climate change could push UK rivers to dangerous extremes and bring more frequent rapid swings between wet and dry conditions—a phenomenon known as hydroclimatic whiplash—according to research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). Researchers analyzed almost 700 river catchments across the UK to project how river flows may change at 2° C and 4° C of global warming. The results reveal stark regional contrasts and growing challenges for communities and water managers trying to plan for flood and drought risk, particularly in areas that will increasingly experience both.

One well-done gas giant, coming right up! That's the latest from researchers analyzing NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observations of HD 80606 b, an exoplanet four times the mass of Jupiter with an extremely elliptical orbit that sweeps close by its sun-like star. The research team is presenting its study and preliminary findings Tuesday at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS248) in Pasadena, California.

Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have uncovered a mechanism that helps plants continue photosynthesizing under extreme heat and dry air conditions—a finding that could improve how scientists predict the effects of climate change on crops and ecosystems. The study is the first to successfully separate the effects of heat and air dryness on photosynthesis across different carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, which could have significant practical implications for agriculture by helping improve crop management strategies and strengthen food security.

Could the secret to preventing dangerous falls be surprisingly simple? For older adults, these unexpected tumbles are a leading cause of injury, affecting roughly 1 in 4 people 65 and older each year. What if the key isn't complex technology or intensive therapy, but something as straightforward as a shared connection? Forget holding hands—new research reveals a surprising twist in how two people can become a dynamic duo against sudden loss of balance.

A team of scientists has used NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar and the U.S. National Science Foundation Green Bank Telescope (NSF GBT) to carry out the most extensive radar study to date of Europa, the ocean world orbiting Jupiter. By repeatedly "pinging" Europa with 3.5-centimeter (1.4-inch) radio waves between 2011 and 2024, the team measured how the moon reflects radar signals and confirmed that its icy surface scatters radio energy in an unusually strong and complex way not seen on rocky worlds.

For years, pest control professionals throughout the Northeast have reported a troubling pattern. In some neighborhoods, rodents seemed increasingly difficult to eliminate, even when standard control methods were used. Now researchers at Rutgers University believe they may know one reason why.

An international study of infant remains from 50,000–75,000 years ago has provided new evidence about the developmental trajectory of our evolutionary "cousins," Neanderthals.

New research led by a scientist at IPAC—a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech—studying the hot Jupiter CoRoT-2 b has settled on one of the three leading hypotheses explaining why its atmosphere has a hot spot in the opposite direction from that seen on all other exoplanets of this type.

Career interest tests can be very helpful for teenagers and young adults deciding which career to pursue. New research from Michigan State University challenges the assumption that vocational interests are only relevant for early career decision-making; rather, they remain relevant into adulthood.

UK newspapers responded to a major climate ruling by the world's top court by claiming "lawfare" and linking the decision to the U.K.'s proposed handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a new review of global media coverage has found. The review is titled Frames in Newspaper Coverage of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and Their Impact Potential.

Many animals exhibit fascinating collective behaviors, which allow them to move, search for food, reproduce and avoid threats more effectively than they would alone. One of these behaviors is queuing migration, which essentially entails traveling as a group in an organized line or procession.