Category: 7. Science

Paleontologists have identified an unusual new genus and species of early-diverging plesiosauroid plesiosaur from a nearly complete skeleton found in the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden, Germany.

The newly-identified species, Plesionectes longicollum, lived in the Early Jurassic seas around 183 million years ago.

The marine reptile was roughly 3.2 m in length with a 1.25-m long neck and 81-cm long tail.

Its skeleton with remnants of fossilized soft tissue was originally excavated in 1978 from a quarry in the Posidonia Shale, Holzmaden, Germany, but its unique anatomical features have only now been fully recognized through comprehensive scientific analysis.

“This specimen has been in collections for decades, but previous studies never fully explored its distinctive anatomy,” said Dr. Sven Sachs, a paleontologist at the Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld.

“Our detailed examination revealed an unusual combination of skeletal features that clearly distinguish it from all previously known plesiosaurs.”

Skeleton of Plesionectes longicollum. Scale bar – 30 cm. Image credit: S. Sachs & D. Madzia, doi: 10.7717/peerj.19665.

Plesionectes longicollum is particularly significant as it represents the oldest known plesiosaur from the Holzmaden area.

“This discovery adds another piece to the puzzle of marine ecosystem evolution during a critical time in Earth’s history,” said Dr. Daniel Madzia, a paleontologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

“The early Toarcian period when this animal lived was marked by significant environmental changes, including a major oceanic anoxic event that affected marine life worldwide.”

The discovery demonstrates that the Posidonia Shale — already famous for its exceptionally preserved fossils — contained even greater marine reptile diversity than previously recognized.

“The Posidonia Shale at Holzmaden has previously yielded five other plesiosaur species, including representatives from all three major plesiosaur lineages,” the authors said.

“This new addition further cements the formation’s status as one of the world’s most important windows into Jurassic marine life.”

The findings appear online in the journal PeerJ.

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S. Sachs & D. Madzia. 2025. An unusual early-diverging plesiosauroid from the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden, Germany. PeerJ 13: e19665; doi: 10.7717/peerj.19665

The Lunar Trailblazer mission to the moon officially ended on July 31, but it wasn’t a complete journey. NASA today that its teams lost contact with the satellite shortly after its launch several months prior.

The NASA satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines, which took off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on February 26 at 7:16PM ET. The Lunar Trailblazer successfully separated from the rocket as planned about 48 minutes after launch. Operators in Pasadena, CA established communication with the satellite at 8:13PM ET, but two-way communication was lost the next day and the team was unable to recover the connection. From the limited data ground teams received before the satellite went dark, the craft’s solar arrays were not correctly positioned toward the sun, which caused its batteries to drain.

“While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the Moon,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator at NASA Headquarters’ Science Mission Directorate. “Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end.”

The Lunar Trailblazer mission was one of planned for travel to the moon during 2025. Its goal was to create high-resolution maps of any water on the moon’s surface, as well as assessing how much water was present, in what forms and how it may have changed over time. Fingers crossed the remaining missions have better success.

Seconds after the Big Bang, the newborn universe gave rise to the first elements—ionized forms of hydrogen and helium. These particles combined, forging helium hydride—the first ever molecule. It would take another several hundred million years for the first stars to be born, and scientists have long puzzled over the exact nature of the chemical processes that led to their formation.

To try and tease apart the stellar origin story, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany recreated helium hydride in the lab. They found that it likely played a much larger role in star birth than they had previously thought, helping primordial gas clouds shed enough heat to collapse into stars.

In the study, the researchers recreated collisions between helium hydride and deuterium in what they believe to be a first-of-its-kind experiment, according to a press release. Their findings, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on July 24, indicate that the rate of the reaction remains constant as the temperature drops, contradicting earlier work.

“Previous theories predicted a significant decrease in the reaction probability at low temperatures, but we were unable to verify this in either the experiment or new theoretical calculations by our colleagues,” Holger Kreckel, who is a researcher at Max Planck and the lead author on the study, said in a statement.

“The reactions of [helium hydride] with neutral hydrogen and deuterium therefore appear to have been far more important for chemistry in the early universe than previously assumed,” he added.

Two helium hydride reactions produce molecular hydrogen, and likely aided star formation in the early universe. In the first—replicated in the study—deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen that contains a neutron in addition to a proton, collides with helium hydride to yield hydrogen deuteride, a form of molecular hydrogen composed of a hydrogen atom and a deuterium atom. The other reaction occurs when helium hydride collides with a neutral hydrogen atom, producing neutral molecular hydrogen. Both forms of molecular hydrogen act as coolants, helping nebulae lose heat, condense, and ultimately collapse into stars.

The researchers used Max Planck’s Cryogenic Storage Ring to carry out their experiment. This low-temperature reaction chamber allows scientists to study molecular and atomic reactions in space-like conditions. The team stored helium hydride ions inside the chamber for up to a minute at roughly -450 degrees Fahrenheit (-267 degrees Celsius), then superimposed them with a beam of neutral deuterium atoms. To observe how the collision rate varies with collision energy—directly related to temperature—they adjusted the relative speeds of the two particle beams.

Scientists previously believed rate of reactions would slow down as temperature dropped, but the results of this experiment suggest otherwise. The researchers found that the rate remained almost constant despite decreasing temperatures. This surprising result suggests that helium hydride remains chemically active even in cold conditions, a finding that the scientists argue in their paper should prompt a reevaluation of helium chemistry in the early universe.

Conceptual analysis has, in the past decades, established that evolution by natural selection (ENS) can occur without reproduction (1–6). This theoretical advancement has significant imports for research on the origins of life that have yet to be explored.

In this paper, we introduce and defend a niche construction-based account of evolution by natural selection without reproduction (ENSwR, pronounced like “answer”), which leads to three insights regarding Darwinian evolution at the origins of life.

First, we show through ENSwR the plausibility of Darwinian evolution in the prebiotic world; second, ENSwR provides a novel explanatory framework that supports origins of life theories in which autocatalytic sets of chemical reactions play a central role; third, we argue that inorganic catalytic molecules (rather than autocatalytic sets (7–9)) are relevant units of selection to understand the origins of life prior to reproduction and replication. This third argument is especially important for the field, as it helps bridge the gap between chemical and biological evolution (10).

A niche construction-based perspective on chemical evolution before replication and reproduction, biorxiv.org

Astrobiology, genomics, nanotechnology,

We present the first astrophysical detection of methanol (CH₃OH) in the torsional band near 25 um.

Using high resolution mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, we identified over seventy gas-phase CH₃OH absorption lines between 20 and 28 um towards the massive protostar NGC 7538 IRS 1 with SOFIA/EXES.

We derive a temperature of 180 K and a total column density of 2 x 10^17 cm^-2, comparable to sub-mm measurements. Complementary analysis of acetylene (C₂H₂) absorption lines is also included.

Both CH₃OH and C₂H₂ reveal an unresolved second velocity component. These MIR absorption lines likely probe the molecular material in two edge-on disks, supporting the scenario that NGC 7538 IRS 1 consists of multiple protostars.

We provide an updated line list for the torsional band of CH₃OH, which was generated from lab work and model calculations. This discovery and the updated line list will enable the search for CH₃OH in JWST/MIRI spectra.

Sarah L. Nickerson, Naseem Rangwala, Keeyoon Sung, Xinchuan Huang, Edward J. Montiel, Curtis DeWitt, Valentin J. M. Le Gouellec, Sean W. J. Colgan, Jason Dittmann, Jose Pablo Fonfría, Graham M. Harper, Kathleen E. Kraemer, Jialu Li, Conor A. Nixon, Maisie Frances Rashman, Clara Sousa-Silva, Alexander G. G. M. Tielens, William D. Vacca

Comments: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL); 21 pages, 6 Figures
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Cite as: arXiv:2508.00059 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2508.00059v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.00059
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Submission history
From: Sarah Nickerson
[v1] Thu, 31 Jul 2025 18:00:02 UTC (362 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00059
Astrobiology, astrochemistry,

Orca moms teach their young how to pretend-drown each other, first-of-its-kind footage shows. The brutal training session teaches orcas the skills needed to kill the largest animal that has ever lived.

In the video, a young orca (Orcinus orca) pretends to be prey, letting the rest of the pod surround it and submerge its blowhole to prevent it from breathing. Members of the pod practice holding the young orca’s head under the water for a while before releasing it.

However, traditional atmospheric retrieval frameworks are too computationally intensive to explore the high-dimensional parameter spaces such missions will generate.

Here, we present a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D CNN), trained on over one million synthetic, noise-injected spectra simulating Archean, Proterozoic, and Modern Earth analogs, as observed by LUVOIR-B (0.2-2.0 μm) and HabEx/SS (0.2-1.8 μm).

Our model simultaneously infers six molecular abundances (including biosignatures O₂ and O₃ ) along with radius, gravity, surface pressure, and temperature. Inference on unseen test data is performed via Monte Carlo Dropout, enabling uncertainty estimation across thousands of realizations within seconds.

The network performs best where spectral features are prominent, accurately recovering CH₄ and CO₂ in Archean atmospheres and O₂ and O₃ in Modern cases, while avoiding false positives and outputting near-zero abundances in scenarios of true absence such as Archean O₂ and O₃ . Interpretation via Integrated Gradients confirms that the model bases its predictions on physically meaningful features, including the Fraunhofer A band for O₂, and the Hartley-Huggins band for O₃ .

Credibility curve analysis indicates that O₃ remains retrievable across a wide range of stellar types and distances, while O₂ is detectable out to 12 pc around FG stars. These results elevate the CNN from proof of concept to a mission-ready retrieval engine, capable of processing direct-imaging spectra with HWO on an operational cadence.

Sarah G. A. Barbosa, Raissa Estrela, Paulo C. F. da Silva Filho, Daniel B. de Freitas

Comments: 19 pages, 9 figures, submitted to MNRAS
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2508.00076 [astro-ph.EP](or arXiv:2508.00076v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.00076
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Submission history
From: Sarah Barbosa
[v1] Thu, 31 Jul 2025 18:10:12 UTC (4,445 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00076
Astrobiology, exoplanet,

A study from Northwestern University, Michigan, in the United States has revealed the scale, complexity and industrialisation of organised scientific fraud, exposing a coordinated global network that has sought to undermine the integrity of academic publishing.

The research team combined case study analysis with large-scale data mining of scientific publications to identify what they described as an expanding ecosystem of so-called ‘paper mills’, intermediary brokers and compromised journals.

These networks have exploited weaknesses in peer review and bypassed quality assurance protocols, allowing falsified research to proliferate at a rate that has now outpaced the growth of legitimate science.

“Science must police itself better in order to preserve its integrity,” said Professor Luís A. N. Amaral, senior author of the study, who is the Erastus Otis Haven Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University.

“If we do not create awareness around this problem, worse and worse behaviour will become normalised. At some point, it will be too late, and scientific literature will become completely poisoned.

“Some people worry that talking about this issue is attacking science. But I strongly believe we are defending science from bad actors,” he added.

To document the scale of the problem, the team examined retraction notices, peer review metadata, reports of image duplication and journal indexing data across platforms including Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, MEDLINE and OpenAlex. Supplementary sources included Retraction Watch and PubPeer. The researchers found patterns of fraudulent collaboration that spanned the entire publishing process.

Amaral explained that these groups operate: “essentially as criminal organisations, acting together to fake the process of science”. He estimated that the trade in authorship, data manipulation and fabricated citations involves financial transactions worth millions of dollars. Paper mills were found to mass-produce manuscripts containing plagiarised text, fabricated results and spurious claims, which are then sold to individuals seeking academic credentials.

“More and more scientists are being caught up in paper mills,” Amaral said.

“Not only can they buy papers, but they can buy citations. Then, they can appear like well-reputed scientists when they have barely conducted their own research at all.”

The lead author is Dr Reese Richardson, a postdoctoral fellow in Amaral’s laboratory added that some paper mills use tiered pricing structures, charging higher fees for first-author status. He also described journals that had implemented sham peer review processes to fast-track fraudulent submissions.

The researchers described a range of operating methods:

Research groups have collaborated across multiple journals to generate large volumes of fraudulent publications.

Brokers have acted as intermediaries between authors, ghostwriters and complicit editors.

Bad actors have targeted vulnerable subfields with limited peer scrutiny.

Journals have evaded delisting by exploiting weaknesses in indexing protocols.

In one striking case, the former journal HIV Nursing, previously operated by a UK-based nursing association, was co-opted after its domain registration lapsed. An unrelated entity assumed its identity and used its website to publish thousands of unrelated papers, all of which remained indexed in Scopus.

To quantify the influence of such practices, the team developed a screening tool for inconsistencies in instrument descriptions in materials science and engineering papers. One such paper – identified as anomalous using this method – was later accepted by the journal PLOS ONE.

Amaral and Richardson have urged the scientific community to implement systemic reforms to counter what they have described as a pervasive and accelerating threat. Their recommendations include tighter editorial controls, improved detection of fabricated content, revision of incentives within academic publishing and a renewed commitment to scientific accountability.

“If we’re not prepared to deal with the fraud that’s already occurring, then we’re certainly not prepared to deal with what generative artificial intelligence can do to scientific literature.

“We have no clue what’s going to end up in the literature, what’s going to be regarded as scientific fact and what’s going to be used to train future AI models, which then will be used to write more papers,” said Richardson.

“This study is probably the most depressing project I’ve been involved with in my entire life,” Amaral said.

“Since I was a kid, I was excited about science. It’s distressing to see others engage in fraud and in misleading others. But if you believe that science is useful and important for humanity, then you have to fight for it,” he concluded.

The findings have been accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences during the week commencing 4 August 2025.

For further reading please visit: 10.1073/pnas.2420092122