Science

Science

Researchers have discovered the naturally mummified and skeletal remains of 61 cheetahs, which were hidden deep inside caves in northern Saudi Arabia for hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of years. The find indicates that these big cats roamed the Arabian Peninsula for millennia before they disappeared from the landscape between 49 and 188 years agoevidence that bolsters an effort to rewild the region with modern-day cheetahs, according to Ahmed Boug, general director of the National Center for Wildlife in Riyadh.

Campaigners have accused BP of having an insidious influence over the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) in the UK through its relationship with the Science Museum. Documents obtained under freedom of information legislation show how the company funded a research project that led to the creation of the Science Museum Group academy its teacher and educator training programme which BP sponsors and which has run more than 500 courses, for more than 5,000 teachers.

DNA variants near a gene called MSRB3 - which is important for hearing in humans - could determine whether a dog's ears are pendulous like a basset hound's or stubby like a rottweiler's. Researchers analysed the genomes of thousands of canines and found that small, single-letter changes to DNA in a region of the genome near MSRB3 could boost the gene's activity. The boost can increase the rate at which ear cells proliferate, resulting in longer ears.

Critical Metals ( NASDAQ:CRML ) shares rocketed 32.6% higher yesterday after the company announced the first assay results from its 2025 drilling program at the Tanbreez rare-earth project in southern Greenland. The results confirmed additional high-grade intersections across the Fjord Deposit and Upper Fjord areas, building on prior drilling success. The stock has now surged approximately 158% year-to-date in 2026 as investors bet on the project's advancement toward a pilot plant launch targeted for May.

Amazon's data centers will reportedly utilize copper from a mine in Arizona that's leaching metal from ores using microorganisms, the Wall Street Journal reports. Amazon Web Services will be the first customer for Nuton Technologies, which developed the "bioleaching" technology. AWS will also be providing "cloud-based data and analytics support," helping to optimize Nuton's mining process. Nuton's bioleaching method uses naturally-occurring microorganisms to extract copper from low-grade ore that would otherwise be too expensive to mine,

An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA's first medical evacuation. SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station. Their first stop was a hospital for an overnight stay.

A researchers' propensity for risky projects is passed down to their doctoral students - and stays with trainees after they leave the laboratory, according to an analysis of thousands of current and former PhD students and their mentors.

What we learned was something that hadn't been reported before," Mendales said.

If there's one date sky-gazers have marked in their diaries for 2026, it's the 12 August total solar eclipse. Set to be the year's most-watched celestial event, it takes place when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, temporarily plunging the summer sky into darkness over Balearic beach clubs, Spanish city streets and Icelandic music festivals. So far, so dramatic, right? Just wait until you discover what it means for your star sign.

My father was a petroleum geologist. A lot of my childhood, he was gone, away on oil rigs in the Powder River Basin and remote parts of Wyoming, living in man camps long before cellphones. We had to wait days to talk to him. When he went into the nearest town to shower, he'd find a payphone and call us. I was always breathless with news.

It looked like the silvery blade of a knife. Peering through his goggles, diver Ted Judah had laid eyes on a deep-sea creature rarely encountered by humans. He and wife Linda were diving off McAbee Beach in Monterey County in late December when, near the surface, he spotted the undulating thing. It was some kind of ribbon fish, he wrote in a post on the Facebook group Monterey County Dive Reports. Kevin Lewand solved the mystery.

Signs of ageing accelerated when fish were exposed to the chemicals, according to the study, which could have implications for other organisms. Chemical safety regulations tend to focus on short-term exposure to high doses of pesticides and other chemicals, but the study focused on long-term exposure. Low doses of pesticides are widespread in the environment, so their effects should be studied and understood, the authors said.

Our sus­pi­cions have lit­tle to do with biol­o­gy, but rather, a cer­tain zesti­ness of expres­sion, an overem­phat­ic beak, a droll gleam in the eye. The Audubon Society's new­ly redesigned web­site abounds with trea­sure for those in either camp: Free high res down­loads of all 435 plates. Mp3s of each specimen's call. And vin­tage com­men­tary that effec­tive­ly splits the dif­fer­ence between sci­ence and the unin­ten­tion­al­ly humor­ous locu­tions of anoth­er age.

What is the most middle name in the United States? Erin Davis grew curious enough to find the answers in data. For females, the most middle names are Rae, Marie, and Mae. For males, the most middle names are Lee, Kumar, and Ray. The answers are straightforward, but finding the answers was more roundabout, because you can't just dig into the annual baby names dataset from the Social Security Administration. Instead, Davis used voter registration data, which comes with its own challenges.

The PSLV - aka the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle - is an expendable medium launch rocket that India devised and has flown since 1993. ISRO has launched 64 of the rockets and chalked up 58 successes. This mission, PSLV-C62 / EOS-N1, employed the PSLV-DL variant of the rocket, which uses a pair of external boosters. Other PSLV variants use four or six external boosters. The mission was a commercial affair, with 15 payloads aboard.

Supermassive black holes are mysterious bodies. Scientists aren't entirely sure how these beating hearts at the centers of most large galaxies formed. That includes Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. Now a new preprint study is shedding light on Sagittarius A* by studying what happens as material falls toward the black hole.

Eukaryotes drastically differ from archaea and bacteria (collectively, prokaryotes) by the complex organization of eukaryotic cells. The signature features of this organizational complexity include the eponymous nucleus, the endomembrane system, the elaborate cytoskeleton and the energy-converting mitochondrion, which evolved from an alphaproteobacterial endosymbiont9. Thus, the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) probably already possessed mitochondria along with the other signatures of the eukaryotic cellular organization.

the automation of heavy machinery enabled plants to operate continuously, increasing productivity and revenue. The downside was that any small hiccup was acutely felt, cascading through the production line. At first, it was assumed that inadequate lubrication of factory equipment was causing parts to seize up or break apart. And so, the Lubrication and Wear Group of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, along with the Iron

Join Chabot astronomers for a live watch party of the magnificent Total Lunar Eclipse from Chabot's Observation Deck. Bring your friends & family and a lawn chair to enjoy Eclipse-themed crafts and demonstrations, then get bundled up with a cup of hot cocoa to watch this stunning celestial show. During the peak of the Eclipse, The Moon will become totally engulfed in Earth's dark

In 2018, Sharples and his research lab, now at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, were the first to show that exercise could change how our muscle-building genes work over the long term. The genes themselves don't change, but repeated periods of exertion turns certain genes on, spurring cells to build muscle mass more quickly than before. These epigenetic changes have a lasting effect: Your muscles remember these periods of strength and respond favorably in the future.

Since Ureña also made a brief stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, appearing in just two games after being granted his release from the Blue Jays, he's in line to receive a World Series ring later this year. He was guaranteed to take home a championship ring with two of his former teams - Toronto and Los Angeles - squaring off in the Fall Classic.

Ammonia might be the world's most under appreciated chemical. Without it, crops would go unfertilized and billions of people would starve. Humans started making ammonia in large amounts just over a century ago, and since then the process used to make it, known as Haber-Bosch, hasn't changed much. A new startup, Ammobia, says that it has tweaked the Haber-Bosch process to lower the cost by up to 40%.

For nearly 100 years, the United States has been the world's leader in a wide variety of scientific fields. No other country has: invested as much in fundamental scientific research, has made more scientific breakthroughs and scientific advances, has attracted more scientific researchers to move there to conduct their research, or has conducted more projects and been home to more scientists that have won Nobel Prizes.

Planet Labs ( ) has been on a tear, soaring 388% in 2025 and up another 96% since reporting earnings one month ago. The stock is up an incredible 811% from its 52-week low of $2.79 per share. While it has been winning significant government contracts, such as yesterday's announcement that it won a nine-figure contract from the Swedish government, which drove the stock 12% higher, PL is unprofitable and likely won't be for some time.