Category: 7. Science

The textbook picture of planet formation – serene, flat discs of cosmic dust – has just received a significant cosmic twist.

New observations by the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) are set to reshape this long-held view of planet formation.

The research found compelling evidence that many protoplanetary discs, the very birthplaces of planets, are in fact subtly warped.

These slight bends and twists in the disc plane, often just a few degrees, bear a striking resemblance to the subtle tilts observed among the planets in our own Solar System.

This discovery suggests the initial conditions for planetary systems might be far less orderly than previously thought, with profound implications for how planets grow and settle into their final orbits.

Challenging current theories of planet formation

Dr Andrew Winter, the lead author of the study from Queen Mary University of London, where he is a Royal Society University Research Fellow in astronomy, explained: “Our results suggest that protoplanetary discs are slightly warped. This would be a significant change in how we understand these objects and has numerous consequences for planet formation.

“Particularly interesting is that the couple of degrees of warping is similar to the differences in inclination between our own Solar System planets.”

Dr Myriam Benisty, director of the Planet and Star Formation Department at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, added: “ALMA has revealed large-scale structures in the planet-forming discs that were completely unexpected.

“The warp-like structures challenge the idea of orderly planet formation and pose a fascinating challenge for the future.”

Uncovering warped discs with Doppler shifts

To uncover these subtle twists, the team meticulously analysed Doppler shifts – tiny changes in the radio waves emitted by carbon monoxide (CO) molecules swirling within the discs. These shifts act like a cosmic speedometer, revealing the gas’s exact motion.

As part of a major ALMA programme called exoALMA, researchers used this flagship observatory to map the gas’s velocity across each disc in unprecedented detail.

By carefully modelling these intricate patterns, they were able to detect when different regions of a disc were slightly tilted, therefore revealing the warps.

“These modest misalignments may be a common outcome of star and planet formation,” Dr Winter commented, noting the intriguing parallel with our own Solar System.

Why are planetary discs warped?

The research not only provides a fresh perspective on the mechanics of planet formation but also raises new questions about why these discs are warped – a mystery the team was eager to unravel.

The findings show that these subtle disc warps, often tilting by as little as half a degree to two degrees, can naturally explain many of the prominent large-scale patterns observed in the gas’s motion across the discs.

They even suggest these warps could be responsible for creating intriguing spiral patterns and slight temperature variations within these cosmic nurseries.

New avenues for our future understanding of planetary formation

If these warps are a key driver of how gas moves within the disc, it profoundly changes our understanding of critical processes, such as turbulence and material exchange – ultimately dictating how planets form and settle into their final orbits.

Moreover, the nature of these warps appears to be connected to how much material the young star is actively drawing in towards its centre. This suggests a dynamic connection between the disc’s innermost regions, where the star is fed, and its outer, planet-forming areas.

This discovery offers a thrilling glimpse into the complex and often surprising realities of planet formation, fundamentally changing our cosmic blueprint and opening new avenues for understanding the diverse worlds beyond the Sun.

From September to December 2024, a team of 60 scientists joined drill crews on the Chikyu, the world’s largest scientific drilling ship. The project, called IODP Expedition 405, drilled into the fault zone off Japan where the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake began.

The mission reached the “décollement,” the base of the fault that broke in 2011. Sediment and rock cores were collected to study how such destructive quakes and tsunamis are set off.

Tōhoku earthquake killed more than 18,000 people

The March 11, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake was magnitude 9.1. It created a tsunami, killed more than 18,000 people, and damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant. Losses were estimated at $235 billion. Scientists later found that the biggest slip happened close to the sea floor, not deep underground, which forced huge amounts of water upward and caused the tsunami.

Also Read: Scientifically Speaking: Fake scientific research on the rise, says study

During Expedition 405, the Chikyu drilled more than 800 meters below the sea floor into the same fault. A long-term observatory was placed inside the fault to record temperature and fluid pressure. Cores were brought up every few hours, giving researchers evidence of past quakes, tsunamis and landslides. Some layers contained clay minerals that make shallow slip easier.

The samples also revealed layers of chert, marking where ocean sediments meet the crust. Each core was scanned, tested and stored for future study.

About the project

The project returned to the same site first drilled soon after the 2011 quake, offering a rare chance to see how the fault has changed over the last decade. Data from the new observatory will help scientists build models of how earthquakes start and develop.

Researchers say the results apply beyond Japan. Other subduction zones, including those in Chile, Alaska and Indonesia, also pose risks near populated coastlines. If shallow slip can occur in those regions, hazard planning must adjust.

The goal of Expedition 405 is to better understand why the 2011 quake happened and to improve global readiness for the next major earthquake and tsunami.

Dinosaurs have long fascinated us for their size, diversity, and survival stories. Yet, their bones still reveal mysteries about their struggles. Recently, fossils discovered in Brazil added a surprising chapter.

A set of sauropod remains from the Cretaceous period showed evidence of a fatal disease. These findings suggest that even giants of the past were not safe from infection.

Discovery in Brazil

The bones were found in Ibirá, São Paulo. Researchers supported by FAPESP identified signs of osteomyelitis, an inflammatory bone disease caused by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, or protozoa.

Six individuals dating back about 80 million years displayed clear evidence of the illness. None of the bones showed healing, meaning the animals likely died while still infected. The findings appear in The Anatomical Record.

Many dinosaurs carried disease

“There have been few findings of infectious diseases in sauropods, the first having been published recently,” said Tito Aureliano, first author of the study and a researcher at the Regional University of Cariri (URCA).

“The bones we analyzed are very close to each other in time and from the same paleontological site, which suggests that the region provided conditions for pathogens to infect many individuals during that period.”

One fossil had infection limited to the marrow, while others showed damage spreading outward. These lesions had a porous, spongy texture, marking them distinct from cancers such as osteosarcoma.

The pattern suggested vascularization, meaning blood vessels fed the infected regions. Unlike bite marks from predators, which sometimes show signs of bone regeneration, these did not heal.

Bone remodeling patterns

The study emphasized how osteomyelitis can alter bone tissue through reactive bone growth. This process, called periosteal reaction, occurs when inflammation stimulates new bone to form on the outer surface.

In the Ibirá fossils, three different patterns appeared: small circular protrusions, fingerprint-like ellipsoid marks, and enlarged protrusions with greater height and area. These variations revealed a mosaic of infection-driven remodeling, showing how the disease progressed differently within each individual.

Dinosaurs died with active disease

Despite varied manifestations, none of the fossils displayed healing tissues. The absence of repair, combined with a lack of structures usually seen in chronic cases such as sequestra or cloacae, suggests that the disease advanced quickly.

Infections were still active when the animals died, hinting that their health had been severely compromised.

Microscopes confirm patterns

Researchers at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) examined the fossils with electron and stereomicroscopes, uncovering three unique patterns of osteomyelitis.

Some bones carried small circular bumps, others bore fingerprint-like protrusions, while a third type displayed wide circular marks.

“These lesions could connect with muscles and skin and become exposed, oozing blood or pus,” explained Aureliano.

Cause of illness unknown

The exact bones studied were hard to identify, though at least one rib and several limb bones were recognized. Both large and small sauropods were affected.

The cause of the infections remains unknown. A 2021 study at the same site documented another case of osteomyelitis, linked to blood parasites in Ibirania parva.

Environment spread disease in dinosaurs

The site, called the São José do Rio Preto Formation, had an arid climate with shallow rivers and stagnant pools. Dinosaurs and other animals often became trapped and perished, leaving fossils behind.

“This environment probably favored pathogens, which may have been transmitted by mosquitoes or by the water itself that was ingested by the fauna, which included dinosaurs, turtles, and animals similar to today’s crocodiles,” said Aureliano.

These results expand our view of prehistoric disease. They also show how infection interacted with bone remodeling, helping paleontologists distinguish osteomyelitis from other conditions.

Studying such ancient illnesses offers a window into dinosaur biology and survival. It highlights that even dominant creatures of their time lived under the constant threat of diseases that left their mark in bone, shaping their history and ultimate fate forever.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Science and Technology of Parasitic Hymenoptera (INCT Hympar) in the Brazilian Southeast Region.

The study is published in the journal The Anatomical Record.

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New data on baryon acoustic oscillations strengthen the case for a local cosmic void. The finding offers a possible solution to the Hubble tension.

When we look at the night sky, it can appear as though our cosmic surroundings are filled with countless stars, planets, and galaxies. However, researchers have long proposed that our local region of the universe may contain far fewer galaxies than expected.

Evidence increasingly points to the possibility that we inhabit a vast cosmic void, with a matter density around 20% lower than the cosmic average.

Not every physicist is convinced that this is the case. But our recent paper analyzing distorted sounds from the early universe, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, strongly backs up the idea.

The Hubble tension problem

Cosmology is currently in a crisis known as the Hubble tension: the local universe appears to be expanding about 10% faster than expected. The expected rate is derived by taking precise observations of the infant universe and projecting them forward using the standard cosmological framework, known as Lambda-Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM).

We can examine the early universe with exceptional detail through the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the relic radiation dating back to when the universe was about 1,100 times smaller than today. Sound waves that traveled through the hot plasma of the early universe left behind alternating regions of higher and lower density, and thus variations in temperature.

By analyzing fluctuations in the CMB on a range of scales, scientists can effectively “listen” to the echoes of these primordial sound waves, which resonate most strongly at certain characteristic scales.

Baryon acoustic oscillations as a standard ruler

These patterns are preserved in the CMB and are known as baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs). Because they seeded the formation of galaxies and large-scale structures, the same patterns can also be detected in the present-day distribution of galaxies.

By studying how galaxies cluster at different redshifts (which correspond to distance), researchers can trace these oscillations. One particularly distinctive clustering feature, called the “angular BAO scale,” serves as a key marker.

This feature provides what cosmologists call a “standard ruler,” a known size that allows them to determine distances across the universe. By measuring how large this scale appears in the sky at a given redshift, scientists can calculate both the distance to those galaxies and the rate of cosmic expansion.

Testing the void hypothesis

Using these measurements, cosmologists can determine expansion rates with trigonometry and redshift data. If the BAO feature appears larger at a certain distance, it implies that the local universe is expanding more quickly.

My colleagues and I previously argued that the Hubble tension might be due to our location within a large void. That’s because the sparse amount of matter in the void would be gravitationally attracted to the more dense matter outside it, continuously flowing out of the void.

In previous research, we showed that this flow would make it look like the local universe is expanding about 10% faster than expected. That would solve the Hubble tension.

But we wanted more evidence. And we know a local void would slightly distort the relation between the BAO angular scale and the redshift due to the faster-moving matter in the void and its gravitational effect on light from outside.

So in our new paper, Vasileios Kalaitzidis and I set out to test the predictions of the void model using BAO measurements collected over the last 20 years. We compared our results to models without a void under the same background expansion history.

In the void model, the BAO ruler should look larger on the sky at any given redshift. And this excess should become even larger at low redshift (close distance), in line with the Hubble tension.

Strong evidence for a local void

The observations confirm this prediction. Our results suggest that a universe with a local void is about one hundred million times more likely than a cosmos without one, when using BAO measurements and assuming the universe expanded according to the standard model of cosmology informed by the CMB.

Our research shows that the ΛCDM model without any local void is in “3.8 sigma tension” with the BAO observations. This means the likelihood of a universe without a void fitting these data is equivalent to a fair coin landing heads 13 times in a row. By contrast, the chance of the BAO data looking the way they do in void models is equivalent to a fair coin landing heads just twice in a row. In short, these models fit the data quite well.

In the future, it will be crucial to obtain more accurate BAO measurements at low redshift, where the BAO standard ruler looks larger on the sky – even more so if we are in a void.

The average expansion rate so far follows directly from the age of the universe, which we can estimate from the ages of old stars in the Milky Way. A local void would not affect the age of the universe, but some proposals do affect it. These and other probes will shed more light on the Hubble crisis in cosmology.

Reference: “Testing the local void hypothesis using baryon acoustic oscillation measurements over the last 20 yr” by Indranil Banik and Vasileios Kalaitzidis, 13 May 2025, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf781

Adapted from an article originally published in The Conversation.

Indranil Banik receives funding from the Royal Society as part of a University Research Fellowship managed by his boss Harry Desmond. The second author on the paper was Vasileios Kalaitzidis, who received an undergraduate summer project grant from the Royal Astronomical Society to undertake the analysis described here.

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Just like Earth, Mars has quakes. As you might have guessed, these are known as marsquakes.

And data from a now-defunct NASA robot on Mars has revealed that quakes on Mars are being altered in strange ways as they pass beneath the surface of the planet.

Scientists believe they’ve worked out what it is, and the answer is revealing more about the bombardment of ancient Mars during the Solar System’s chaotic infancy.

Ancient Mars, chaotic Solar System

Shortly after its formation, our Solar System was a dangerous place.

The early planets and moons were bombarded with spacerocks that littered the Solar System, and Mars was no exception.

Today, strange alterations in marsquakes are caused by something beneath the surface of the Red Planet, and scientists say it could be fragments from the aftermath of massive impacts 4.5 billion years ago.

The discovery is based on data captured by NASA’s now-retired InSight lander, which studied seismic quakes on the planet.

It captured the data used in this discovery before its mission ended in 2022.

Scientists say ancient impacts on Mars released enough energy to melt continent-size regions of the planet’s early crust and mantle into magma oceans.

This action also pushed fragments of the spacerock impacts into the Red Planet’s interior.

There’s no way to tell exactly what hit Mars during those early days of the Solar System.

But what scientists can say, is that the remains of the impacts are lumps of spacerock as large as 4km (2.5 miles) across, and they’re scattered throughout Mars’s mantle.

This is a sort of historical record that can only be found on worlds like Mars, which has no tectonic plates, meaning its interior hasn’t been churned up the way Earth’s has.

The finding was reported on 28 August 2025 in a study published in the journal Science.

Peering beneath Mars’s surface

“We’ve never seen the inside of a planet in such fine detail and clarity before,” says the paper’s lead author, Constantinos Charalambous of Imperial College London in the UK.

“What we’re seeing is a mantle studded with ancient fragments. Their survival to this day tells us Mars’s mantle has evolved sluggishly over billions of years.

“On Earth, features like these may well have been largely erased.”

Key to these findings is data from the InSight mission, which operated on the surface of Mars and was managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

InSight placed the first seismometer on Mars’s surface in 2018 and recorded 1,319 marsquakes before the end of its mission in 2022.

Marsquakes produce seismic waves that pass through material beneath the planet’s surface, and InSight was able to detect these waves and provide data on Mars’s interior.

It’s given scientists vital info on the size, depth and composition of Mars’ crust, mantle and core.

“We knew Mars was a time capsule bearing records of its early formation, but we didn’t anticipate just how clearly we’d be able to see with InSight,” says Tom Pike of Imperial College London, coauthor of the paper.

Marsquakes

There are two types of quakes that occur on Earth, which also occur on Mars.

These are quakes caused by rocks cracking under heat and pressure, and those caused by meteoroid impacts.

Meteoroid impacts on Mars produce high-frequency seismic waves that vibrate from the planet’s crust deep into the mantle.

Mars’s mantle can be as much as 1,550km (960 miles) thick and is made of solid rock.

It can reach temperatures as high as 1,500°C (2,732°F).

This latest study looks at eight marsquakes that were altered significantly as they travelled deep into Mars’s mantle.

“When we first saw this in our quake data, we thought the slowdowns were happening in the Martian crust,” says Pike.

“But then we noticed that the farther seismic waves travel through the mantle, the more these high-frequency signals were being delayed.”

Using computer simulations, the team saw that the slowing down and scrambling occurred as the waves passed through small regions in Mars’s mantel.

These regions seem to be lumps of material, different in composition to the rest of the mantle.

But how did they get there?

A view into ancient Mars

The team inferred the lumps are probably the remnants of giant asteroids or other spacerocks that hit Mars during the early days of the Solar Sstem.

These impacts generated oceans of magma as they pushed deep into the surface in both large shards and smaller fragments, like shattered glass.

This theory fits with the idea that the early Solar System was bombarded by asteroids and other planetary bodies.

Without the interior churning that occurs on Earth, Mars’s interior is less changed than other planets.

“[This tells us] Mars hasn’t undergone the vigorous churning that would have smoothed out these lumps,” says Charalambous.

What’s more, discoveries like these on Mars could indicate what’s going on beneath other rocky planets that lack plate tectonics, such as Venus and Mercury.

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A team of researchers at the University of Cologne’s Center for Biochemistry, together with the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in Rome, Italy, have discovered a fundamental biological mechanism that directly connects the immune sensor protein STING to inflammatory cell death. The study “STING induces ZBP1-mediated necroptosis independently of TNFR1/FADD”, now published in Nature, shows for the first time that activation of STING is a genetic and biochemical requirement for triggering programmed cell death, a process that, when uncontrolled, drives chronic inflammation.

The research was led by Dr Gianmaria Liccardi, junior group leader at the Institute of Biochemistry I, affiliated with the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC) and the CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research. His team, including first author of the study Konstantinos Kelepouras, discovered that STING activates another protein, ZBP1, which then drives a type of programmed cell death known as necroptosis. This finding not only clarifies a long-standing question in cell biology of how necroptosis is activated, but also links programmed cell death to the origins of severe inflammatory diseases.

Importantly, the team showed that this mechanism underlies STING-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI), a devastating genetic disorder that affects children and currently has no cure. In collaboration with the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, the researchers analyzed samples from SAVI patients and found clear evidence that programmed cell death is abnormally activated. In a preclinical mouse model of SAVI, blocking necroptosis machinery alleviated disease symptoms, reduced disease severity, and significantly extended survival.

“Our work demonstrates that STING is not just a regulator of immune signaling, but a direct driver of inflammatory cell death,” says Dr Liccardi. “This means that targeting programmed cell death could open an entirely new therapeutic avenue for SAVI and potentially many other STING-related inflammatory diseases.”

The broader implications go well beyond SAVI. Since the STING pathway is activated in multiple autoinflammatory and autoimmune conditions, therapies that inhibit programmed cell death — and necroptosis in particular — could benefit a wide spectrum of otherwise intractable diseases: The findings pave the way for the development of drugs that block programmed cell death, offering hope not only for children with SAVI but also for patients suffering from a wide range of currently incurable STING-related autoinflammatory syndromes.

The study was led by Dr Gianmaria Liccardi and conducted with contributions from several experts and groups working on cell death and inflammation within the research environment of the University of Cologne, including members of the team of Professor Dr. Henning Walczak at the Center for Biochemistry. The work also benefited from the partnership with the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in Italy.  Dr. Liccardi conceived the study, coordinated its execution, and initiated the collaboration with the clinical partners. “This achievement highlights what young investigators can accomplish when supported by an outstanding research environment and when basic discoveries are directly connected to patient care,” he adds. “I would like to thank my team and especially Konstantinos Kelepouras for the great effort. This breakthrough was made possible by the unique research environment at the University of Cologne, which brings together internationally recognized expertise in cell death and inflammation. The combination of collaborative excellence, high-quality science, and cutting-edge infrastructure provided by the University created the ideal conditions for this discovery.“

This preclinical study must be followed by further studies before drugs can be developed to treat patients with SAVI or other STING-associated diseases.

Reference: Kelepouras K, Saggau J, Bonasera D, et al. STING induces ZBP1-mediated necroptosis independently of TNFR1 and FADD. Nature. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09536-4

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Water-rich sub-Neptunes may offer key clues to where life could exist beyond Earth.

For astrobiologists, the hunt for life outside our solar system begins with the same question you would ask in a desert: where is the water? Among the planets discovered so far, a very common type appears to have interiors rich in water. These worlds are known as “sub-Neptunes” because their size and mass fall between Earth and Neptune.

Most sub-Neptunes circle their stars at distances much smaller than Earth’s orbit around the Sun, which leaves their surfaces too hot for liquid water or for life to endure. Instead, they likely host thick steam atmospheres above layers of an unusual state of water that behaves like neither a gas nor a liquid. The idea of these “steam worlds” was introduced 20 years ago, and interest in their detailed composition and how they change over time has been growing ever since.

Now, astrobiologists and astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have developed a more precise way to model these steam worlds to help better understand their composition, and ultimately, how they formed in the first place. “When we understand how the most commonly observed planets in the universe form, we can shift our focus to less common exoplanets that could actually be habitable,” said Artem Aguichine, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Cruz who led the development of the new model.

The work is explained in a paper published on July 24 in The Astrophysical Journal and is co-authored by Professor Natalie Batalha, head of UC Santa Cruz’s astrobiology initiative, along with Professor Jonathan Fortney, chair of the university’s Astronomy and Astrophysics Department.

More than icy moons

For the first time in history, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) confirmed the presence of steam on a handful of sub-Neptunes. Astronomers expect JWST to observe dozens more, which is why such models are critical to connect what we see from the exoplanet’s surface to what is inside of them.

The models historically used to characterize sub-Neptunes were developed to study the icy moons in our solar system, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Aguichine says sophisticated models can help interpret what space telescopes like JWST reveal about sub-Neptunes.

Animation of a steam world’s evolution from formation to very old age (100 million years to 20 billion years). The interior is initially hot, and cools over time. How fast the planet cools is determined by a complex interplay between the interior and the atmosphere. Credit: Astrobiology at UC Santa Cruz

Icy moons are small, condensed bodies with layered structures: icy crusts over liquid water oceans. Sub-Neptunes are much different. They are vastly more massive—10 to 100 times as much—and, again, they orbit much closer to their stars. So they don’t have icy crusts and liquid oceans like Europa or Enceladus. Instead, they develop thick steam atmospheres and layers of “supercritical water.”

This exotic, supercritical phase of water has been recreated and studied in laboratories on Earth, exhibiting behavior that is far more complex than simple liquid water or ice—thus, making it difficult to model accurately. Some models even suggest that, under extreme pressure and temperature conditions inside sub-Neptunes, water may even transform into “superionic ice,” a phase in which water molecules reorganize so hydrogen ions move freely through an oxygen lattice.

Neptune, and potentially sub-Neptunes as well. So, to model sub-Neptunes, researchers need to understand how water behaves as pure steam, as supercritical fluid, and in extreme states like superionic ice. This team’s model accounts for the experimental data on the physics of water under extreme conditions and advances the theoretical modeling that’s required.

“The interiors of planets are natural ‘laboratories’ for studying conditions that are difficult to reproduce in a university laboratory on Earth. What we learn could have unforeseen applications we haven’t even considered. The water worlds are especially exotic in this sense,” Batalha explained. “In the future, we may find that a subset of these water worlds represent new niches for life in the galaxy.”

By modeling the distribution of water in these common exoplanets, scientists can trace how water—one of the universe’s most abundant molecules—moves during the formation of planetary systems. Indeed, Aguichine said water has a range of fascinating properties:

• It is both a chemical acid and base, participating in chemical balance
• It is good at dissolving salts, sugars, and amino acids
• It creates hydrogen bonds – giving water a higher viscosity, a higher boiling point, a greater capacity to store heat, and more.

“Life can be understood as complexity,” Aguichine said, “and water has a wide range of properties that enables this complexity.”

Looking back and forward

He also stressed that their modeling focuses not on static snapshots of sub-Neptunes, but accounts for their evolution over millions and billions of years. Because planetary properties change significantly over time, modeling that evolution is essential for accurate predictions, he said.

The modelling will soon be put to the test by continued observations with JWST, and also with future missions such as the European Space Agency’s upcoming launch of the PLAnetary Transit and Oscillation (PLATO) of stars telescope, a mission designed to find Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of their host star.

“PLATO will be able to tell us how accurate our models are, and in what direction we need to refine them,” Aguichine said. “So really, our models are currently making these predictions for the telescopes, while helping shape the next steps in the search for life beyond Earth.”

Reference: “Evolution of Steam Worlds: Energetic Aspects” by Artyom Aguichine, Natalie Batalha, Jonathan J. Fortney, Nadine Nettelmann, James E. Owen and Eliza M.-R. Kempton, 24 July 2025, The Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/add935

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Parasitic wasps aren’t winning beauty contests anytime soon. They’re not colorful like butterflies or flashy like fireflies. They’re about the size of a grain of rice – or smaller – and they spend much of their lives inside plant lumps called galls. But these tiny insects just gave scientists a big surprise.

Two previously unknown species of parasitic wasps were discovered living in North America. They didn’t evolve here. They hitched a ride – and no one really noticed until now.

The secret lives of gall wasps

Across North America, oak trees host a strange cast of insect tenants. One of the oddest is the oak gall wasp. These wasps lay their eggs in oak trees, which causes the trees to form protective structures called galls.

These galls come in wild shapes and sizes – some look like fuzzy balls, others like spiky marbles or tiny apples. Inside the galls, young oak gall wasps grow. But they’re not alone.

Parasitic wasps come along and lay their own eggs inside the galls. Their larvae then feed on the oak gall wasp larvae, killing them in the process. It’s not pretty, but it’s part of how nature works. And it turns out, this hidden world is far more complicated than anyone thought.

Genetics uncover hidden invaders

Recently, scientists found something strange. On both the East and West Coasts of North America, they were collecting parasitic wasps from oak galls.

But some of the wasps didn’t look quite right. To get answers, researchers turned to genetics. They looked at a gene often used to identify insect species – kind of like scanning a barcode at the grocery store.

The results were unexpected. The wasps matched a European species called Bootanomyia dorsalis. But not just one version. The West Coast wasps were genetically similar to those from Spain, Hungary, and Iran. The East Coast wasps were closer to those from Portugal, Italy, and Iran.

The two groups were different enough that scientists now believe they’re actually two separate species. And both of them somehow made it to North America.

Wasps hitch rides across seas

On the West Coast, these wasps were found from Oregon to British Columbia. All the samples were genetically identical, which means the introduction was small – probably just a few insects. But they managed to spread.

On the East Coast, the wasps had a little more genetic variety. That could mean they arrived more than once or came from a larger group.

How did they get here in the first place? One theory is that they came along with oak trees brought over from Europe.

English oak has been planted in North America since the 1600s, and Turkey oak is a popular ornamental tree. Both are found in areas where the wasps were discovered. Or maybe they simply flew in.

“Adult parasitic wasps can live for 27 days, so they could have hitchhiked on a plane,” said Kirsten Prior, an associate professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University.

Tiny wasps, big ecological risks

These tiny newcomers might not seem like a big deal, but they could have real effects on native insects.

“We did find that they can parasitize multiple oak gall wasp species and that they can spread,” Prior said. “They could be affecting populations of native oak gall wasp species or other native parasites of oak gall wasps.”

Parasitic wasps are important for ecosystems. They help control insect populations – including pests that damage crops and forests.

But when new species show up, they can disrupt delicate ecological balances. The discovery of these two wasps shows just how much there is still to learn.

“Parasitic wasps are likely the most diverse group of animals on the planet and are extremely important in ecological systems, acting as biological control agents to keep insects in check,” Prior said.

Ambitious project uncovers invaders

Graduate students have been traveling across North America, collecting oak galls and sequencing the DNA of the insects inside. It’s the most ambitious study of its kind.

“We are interested in how oak gall characteristics act as defenses against parasites and affect the evolutionary trajectories of both oak gall wasps and the parasites they host,” said Prior. “The scale of this study will make it the most extensive cophylogenetic study of its kind.”

And the discoveries keep coming. Over the past few years, her lab has collected about 25 oak gall wasp species and reared tens of thousands of parasitic wasps. That work uncovered over 100 species – and two of them had never been recorded in North America before.

Backyard science fuels discovery

You don’t need a PhD to help. Many discoveries come from everyday people exploring their own backyards.

Projects like Gall Week on iNaturalist encourage people to collect galls and share their findings. Even students at Binghamton University have gotten involved through events like Ecoblitz.

“Only when we have a large, concerted effort to search for biodiversity can we uncover surprises – like new or introduced species,” Prior said.

In a time when biodiversity is under pressure from global change, every small discovery helps paint a bigger picture. And sometimes the most important stories come from the smallest creatures.

This finding came out of a larger project funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Researchers from Binghamton University, the University of Iowa, Wayne State University, and Gallformers.org are working together to better understand oak gall wasps and the parasites that live with them.

The full study was published in the journal Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

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Posts about research on Bluesky receive substantially more attention than similar posts on X, formerly called Twitter, according to the first large-scale analysis of science content on Bluesky¹. The results suggest that Bluesky users engage with posts more than do users of X.

Bluesky has more than 38 million users and shares many features with X, which fell out of favour with some scientists when it was bought by entrepreneur Elon Musk in October 2022. A survey of Nature readers earlier this year suggested that many prefer Bluesky over X to discuss and disseminate their work.

A team of researchers from the United Kingdom and China analysed 2.6 million Bluesky posts published from January 2023 to July 2025. Together, these referenced 532,000 academic articles. The results were posted in preprint on arXiv last month and have not been peer reviewed.

‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky

They found that almost half of the posts about science on Bluesky garnered at least ten likes and that one-third were reposted ten or more times. Previous research on X has shown that the proportion of science posts receiving at least ten likes varied between 4% and 7.5%, and that the proportion receiving ten or more reposts ranged from 1.4% to 4.4%². Interactions on Bluesky were an order of magnitude higher than on X, the researchers said. Quotes — whereby users share posts and add their own text — and replies were nearly two orders of magnitude greater on Bluesky than on X, they said.

The team also reported that nearly half of Bluesky posts summarized academic articles and that only 6.3% simply mentioned the article name and journal. By contrast, 92% of original X posts about life and earth sciences and 17% of those in engineering and physical sciences referred to little more than the study title, according to a 2018 study in the Journal of Infometrics³. This suggests that research content on Bluesky is more original, says Er-Te Zheng, the study’s first author and a PhD student at the University of Sheffield, UK. “While X has primarily served as a dissemination tool, Bluesky may support a more interpretive, reflective mode of science communication.”