Category: 7. Science

There could be potentially hundreds of Earth-like planets close to the solar system, according to a new study that has found them to be common around the most typical kind of star.

Red dwarf stars — low-mas stars about a tenth to a fifth the mass of the sun — make up about 80% of the stars in the Milky Way, according to the European Southern Observatory. It’s also thought that 20 out of the 30 stars near Earth are red dwarfs, including the closest star, Proxima Centauri, which was recently discovered to have potentially two planets in orbit.

Now, results from a new project called CARMENES have led to the identification of four new exoplanets — and a powerful new insight into where more are likely to be found.

ForbesA Nearby Planet Could Be Earth 2.0 Or An ‘Evil Twin,’ Say ScientistsBy Jamie Carter

Four New Exoplanets

An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than the sun. Using an instrument called CARMENES at the Calar Alto Observatory near Almería, Spain, astronomers studied 15 red dwarf stars and discovered four new planets. Three of the planets were Earth-sized, while one was 14 times larger.

Extrapolating that data in a new paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics shows that stars with less than 16% of the star’s mass have, on average, about two planets that are less than three times the mass of Earth.

ForbesInside The Webb Telescope’s Search For Planets Around Alpha CentauriBy Jamie Carter

‘Quite Remarkable’ Findings

The discovery is limited to small planets — large planets appear to be rare around red dwarfs. “It is quite remarkable how often small planets occur around very low-mass stars,” said lead author Dr Adrian Kaminski from the Königstuhl Observatory at the Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University, Germany. “This suggests that low-mass stars tend to form smaller planets in close orbits.”

ForbesA Nearby Planet Could Be Earth 2.0 Or An ‘Evil Twin,’ Say ScientistsBy Jamie Carter

Red Dwarves And ‘Earth 2.0’

Of the 5,000 exoplanets discovered so far, none is a twin of Earth in terms of the type of star it orbits or its mass, radius and surface temperature. However, aside from orbiting a red dwarf star, the three small planets discovered using CARMENES do meet other criteria.

“Small, rocky planets in the so-called habitable zone – the area around a star where water could exist in liquid form – are potential candidates for habitable worlds,” said Prof. Dr Andreas Quirrenbach, director of the Königstuhl Observatory. He added that since they’re common and long-lived, red dwarf stars could provide stable environments for the development of life.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

Earth is a special planet. Day and darkness are created by the rotation of the Earth. Scientists have discovered something unexpected, though! Scientists say that because the Earth is currently turning more quickly than usual, days are getting shorter by a few milliseconds. These losses might not seem like much, but they have a big impact on the world’s timekeeping systems.

Why are earth days getting shorter?
Atomic clocks typically incorporate leap seconds to adjust for the Earth’s decreasing rotation. But as the Earth’s rotational cycle continues to accelerate, researchers predict that we might have to eliminate a leap second for the first time by 2029. This knowledge could play a significant role in bringing man-made timekeeping systems into line with the planet’s functions. This demonstrates how the Earth’s subtle dynamism can affect time.

To create what we refer to as a day, the Earth rotates on its axis roughly every 86,400 seconds. That duration is by no means entirely consistent. Numerous natural phenomena, like as changes in the Earth’s geophysics or the gravitational pull of the moon and Sun, influence the Earth’s spin and cause minute fluctuations in time.

Both historically and currently, the Earth’s rotation is progressively slowing down. The Times of india story claims that the Earth rotated so quickly during the dinosaur era that a day only lasted roughly twenty-three hours. A day was still roughly half a second shorter than it is now, although it had grown slightly longer by the Bronze Age! Theoretically, it will take another 200 million years for the Earth to attain 25-hour days, according to scientists.

What change is happening to Earth’s rotation speed?
Scientists have been astounded by the phenomena of Earth rotating faster since 2020. According to the international Earth Rotation and Reference Systems service (IERS) in Washington, D.C., this acceleration has been consistent, making days only a few milliseconds shorter.  In the event that this happens, experts have predicted that, for the first time in history, we may need to eliminate a leap second from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by 2029.

What’s a leap second?
When the Earth’s erratic rotation changes, atomic clocks occasionally employ a leap second, which is a one-second alteration. Leap seconds are used to compensate for the discrepancy between atomic time and Earth’s spin. Leap seconds have only ever been introduced to account for the Earth’s rotation slowing down. We could be able to eliminate a leap second from atomic time for the first time in history if we keep spinning faster and faster. At that point, our clocks would also be able to keep up with the actual rotation of the Earth.

Which specific dates in July and august will be most affected?
This trend of shorter days is expected to last until at least 2025, according to timeanddate.com. Additionally, scientists have determined three dates on which the Earth will rotate rapidly: 22 July 2025; 5 august 2025; 9 July 2025.  Additionally, according to USA Today, on august 5th, a day might be up to 1.51 milliseconds shorter than a 24-hour period.  Although this change may not be noticeable to humans, it is very important from a scientific standpoint, and reliable timekeeping methods are required.

In a dramatic turn of events, a space capsule carrying the ashes of over 160 people and a batch of cannabis seeds met a tragic end after plummeting into the Pacific Ocean during its return to Earth.

Launched on June 23 by The Exploration Company (TEC), a German aerospace startup, the Nyx capsule was on a mission dubbed “Mission Possible.” The flight marked a significant moment for many families who had partnered with Celestis — a Texas-based space burial firm — to send their loved ones’ remains on a symbolic journey beyond Earth.

Initially, all seemed to go well. The capsule completed two full orbits around the planet, offering a brief but poetic voyage through space. But just minutes before it was expected to splash down, communication with Nyx was suddenly lost.

Charles M. Chafer, co-founder and CEO of Celestis, confirmed the heartbreaking outcome on the company’s website:

“An anomaly occurred, and the vehicle was lost shortly after re-entry… The Nyx capsule impacted the Pacific Ocean and dispersed its contents at sea.”

The loss means the capsules carrying the cremated remains — and the experimental cannabis seeds from citizen science initiative Martian Grow — are unrecoverable.

TEC echoed the disappointment in a statement posted on LinkedIn, noting the capsule had launched successfully, stabilized post-separation, and even re-established communication after the expected blackout during re-entry. Still, contact was abruptly severed in the final moments before splashdown.

“To all our clients who entrusted us with their payloads, we offer our deepest apologies,” TEC wrote.

For Celestis, this was a first-of-its-kind mission — a return flight. Previous missions had taken ashes to space or deep space, but Nyx was designed to bring the capsule back to Earth. The endeavor carried both technical ambition and deep emotional significance.

Chafer acknowledged the weight of the loss:

“While there were many successful milestones — launch, orbit, and controlled reentry — this was our first attempt to return. No technical achievement can substitute the personal meaning this service holds.”

Despite the setback, both TEC and Celestis remain determined. TEC said it is already analyzing the anomaly to prepare for future missions, emphasizing that such risks are part of pushing boundaries in space innovation.

As for the families involved, Celestis is offering support and next steps, encouraging them to take solace in the knowledge that their loved ones became part of an extraordinary, if bittersweet, voyage — circling the Earth before coming to rest in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, much like a traditional sea scattering.

“We remain committed to serving with transparency, compassion, and care,” Chafer affirmed.

THE famously desolate Mars landscape could be scattered with trees to the untrained eye, according to a recently shared Nasa image.

However, the US space agency was quick to explain otherwise.

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“Are these trees growing on Mars? No,” Nasa said, as it re-shared the image first snapped in 2008.

“Groups of dark brown streaks have been photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost.“

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which had been in space just two years before taking the shot, was able to capture dark sand on the interior of Martian sand dunes – giving the illusion of trees.

These tree-like dark streaks of sand are located near Mars’ North Pole – which are usually covered in a layer of carbon dioxide ice in the winter.

The dark sand had become more visible during the Martian spring, when the Sun melted the lighter carbon dioxide ice on the surface of the sand.

“When occurring near the top of a dune, dark sand may cascade down the dune leaving dark surface streaks – streaks that might appear at first to be trees standing in front of the lighter regions but cast no shadows,” explained Nasa.

“Objects about 25cm across are resolved on this image spanning about one kilometer.

“Close ups of some parts of this image show billowing plumes indicating that the sand slides were occurring even while the image was being taken.“

But they’re not the only bizarre-looking specimens located in Mars’ faraway sands.

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A buried face

What looks like a grisly, sun-scorched human face has also been discovered half-buried on Mars by Nasa’s Perseverance rover.

The image, taken by the rover in September, appears to show a sandy face with a large brow bone, nostrils and a sloping mouth on the left side.

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South Pole ‘angel’

On the opposite side of the planet to Mars’ mysterious ‘trees’, lies an ‘angel’ in the Martian regolith.

Snapped by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express, this image of the Red Planet’s South Pole seems to show an angel and a heart together. 

ESA described it as an “angelic figure” in a December 2020 image release – although its caused by the same melting of ice that prompted tree-like illusions in the North Pole sand.

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Martian bone

In 2014, Nasa’s Curiosity rover sent a photo back to Earth with what looked like a femur bone from a human thigh in the sand.

Of course, it was just a strangely shaped rock – and not quite proof of aliens.

Scientists at the time said the unusual shape was most likely the product of erosion by wind or water.

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Deep pit

This deep and oddly circular pit on Mars could lead to an extensive network of underground tunnels that may be harbouring alien life, according to Nasa.

Scientists captured the image of the hole from orbit at the Martian South Pole in 2017.

While Nasa doesn’t have any definitive answers on this odd round pit, the circular formation is likely a collapse pit or an impact crater. 

Astronomers have become rather notorious for creating tortured names, whether they’re mistreating acronyms for telescopes (SPECULOOS is apparently the Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars).

Or finding whimsical monikers for types of objects (green peas, blueberries, beans and chillies are all types of galaxy).

Such names are fun, but occasionally they’re useful: an eccentric name can help draw attention to objects that can often otherwise be overlooked.

In that spirit, there’s an interesting research paper that peers at a Hot DOG – a Hot, Dust-Obscured Galaxy – one of several identified a decade or so ago in data from the WISE telescope.

WISE was a NASA infrared space telescope that operated from 2009 until 2024.

The object in question, with the distinctly unmemorable name of W2246-0526, was the most luminous in the whole survey.

It was easily detected by WISE, even though its redshift of z=4.6 means that we see it as it was when the Universe was a tenth of its present age.

Its brightness seems to be due to a disc of material falling towards the galaxy’s central black hole.

However, in a Hot DOG, what we’d normally see as a quasar in visible light is hidden under a thick blanket of dust.

This dust heats up and shines like a glowing poker fresh from the fire in the infrared.

Snapshot of history

The impact of the rapidly accreting black hole is seen throughout the galaxy which hosts it.

Previous observations have spotted material expelled from the centre at speeds in excess of 10,000km/second and signs of shocks are seen throughout the galaxy.

As such turbulent conditions might be common in the early Universe, the brightness of W2246-0526 offers observers a rare chance to study what galaxies back then looked like.

The paper presents data from ALMA – an array of telescopes sensitive to sub-millimetre radiation, located high in the Atacama desert of northern Chile – to study the gas in the system.

In particular, they looked at common carbon monoxide. ALMA’s world-beating capabilities and the unique properties of the source mean that the spectrum reveals highly excited gas.

Even just a quick look at the data, which shows the most excited carbon monoxide spectrum seen anywhere, confirms that this is an unusual system.

What lurks in the Hot DOG?

Modelling suggests that this particular Hot DOG is stuffed full of gas.

Only models that have a high density of gas at a high temperature can explain the observations.

The total molecular gas mass seems to be about 100 billion solar masses – a surprising amount so early in the history of the cosmos.

In fact, the proportion of gas in the form of carbon monoxide is comparable to what we see in the Milky Way today, a sign that this system has grown rapidly despite its early age. 

Results such as these illustrate how odd these (presumably short-lived) phases of a galaxy’s life with a rapidly growing obscured black hole must be.

Further observations from future telescopes will let astronomers peer closer in and see what’s happening much nearer to the black hole.

When they do, they might echo the title of this paper: hot diggity dog!

Chris Lintott was reading Hot Diggity Dog: A Complete Analysis of the Extreme Molecular Gas and Dust Properties at kpc scales in the Hyper-luminous Hot, Dust-obscured Galaxy W2246-0526 by Kevin C Harrington et al. Read it online at: arxiv.org/abs/2504.17639.

This article appeared in the July 2025 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.

UV-C Light Kills Nearly Everything – Except This Unusual Organism

“Earth’s ozone layer blocks the Sun’s shortest wave radiation, called UV-C, which is so damaging to cells in high doses that it’s a go-to sterilizer in hospitals,” writes Slashdot reader sciencehabit.  “UV-C is such a killer, in fact, that scientists have questioned whether life can survive on worlds that lack an ozone layer, such as Mars or distant exoplanets.

“But research published this month in Astrobiology suggests one hardy lichen, a hybrid organism made of algae and fungi, may have cracked the UV-C code with a built-in sunscreen, despite never experiencing these rays in its long evolutionary history.”

Science magazine explains:When scientists brought a sample of the species, the common desert dweller Clavascidium lacinulatum, back to the lab, graduate student Tejinder Singh put the lichen through the wringer. First, Singh dehydrated the lichen, to make sure it couldn’t grow back in real time and mask any UV damage. Then he placed the lichen a few centimeters under a UV lamp and blasted it with radiation. The lichen seemed just fine.

So Singh purchased the most powerful UV-C lamp he could find online, capable of sending out 20 times more radiation than the amount expected on Mars. When he tested the lamp on the most radiation-resistant life form on Earth, the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, it died in less than a minute. After 3 months—likely the highest amount of UV-C radiation ever tested on an organism—Singh pulled the sample so he could finish his master’s thesis in time. About half of the lichen’s algal cells had survived. Then, when the team ground up and cultured part of the surviving lichen, about half of its algal cells sprouted new, green colonies after 2 weeks, showing it maintained the ability to reproduce.

The species may provide a blueprint for surviving on Mars or exoplanets, which don’t have an ozone layer to protect them.

UK Scientists Plan to Construct Synthetic Human Genetic Material From Scratch

“Researchers are embarking on an ambitious project to construct human genetic material from scratch,” reports the Guardian, “to learn more about how DNA works and pave the way for the next generation of medical therapies.”

Scientists on the Synthetic Human Genome (SynHG) project will spend the next five years developing the tools and knowhow to build long sections of human genetic code in the lab. These will be inserted into living cells to understand how the code operates.  

Armed with the insights, scientists hope to devise radical new therapies for the treatment of diseases. Among the possibilities are living cells that are resistant to immune attack or particular viruses, which could be transplanted into patients with autoimmune diseases or with liver damage from chronic viral infections. “The information gained from synthesising human genomes may be directly useful in generating treatments for almost any disease,” said Prof Jason Chin, who is leading the project at the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge…

For the SynHG project, researchers will start by making sections of a human chromosome and testing them in human skin cells. The project involves teams from the universities of Cambridge, Kent, Manchester, Oxford and Imperial College London…   Embedded in the project is a parallel research effort into the social and ethical issues that arise from making genomes in the laboratory, led by Prof Joy Zhang at the University of Kent. “We’re a little way off having anything tangible that can be used as a therapy, but this is the time to start the discussion on what we want to see and what we don’t want to see,” said Dr Julian Sale, a group leader at the LMB.

Earth is Trapping Much More Heat Than Climate Models Forecast

What happens if you track how much heat enters Earth’s atmosphere and how much heat leaves?

You discover that Earth’s energy budget “is now well and truly out of balance,” three climate researchers write at The Conversation:Our recent research found this imbalance has more than doubled over the last 20 years. Other researchers have come to the same conclusions. This imbalance is now substantially more than climate models have suggested…  These findings suggest climate change might well accelerate in the coming years…  

[T]he burning of coal, oil and gas has now added more than two trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. These trap more and more heat, preventing it from leaving.  Some of this extra heat is warming the land or melting sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. But this is a tiny fraction. Fully 90% has gone into the oceans due to their huge heat capacity…

The doubling of the energy imbalance has come as a shock, because the sophisticated climate models we use largely didn’t predict such a large and rapid change. Typically, the models forecast less than half of the change we’re seeing in the real world.  We don’t yet have a full explanation. But new research suggests changes in clouds is a big factor.   Clouds have a cooling effect overall. But the area covered by highly reflective white clouds has shrunk, while the area of jumbled, less reflective clouds has grown.

While we don’t know why the cloud are changing, it “might be part of a trend caused by global warming itself, that is, a positive feedback on climate change. These findings suggest recent extremely hot years are not one-offs but may reflect a strengthening of warming over the coming decade or longer….”

“We’ve known the solution for a long time: stop the routine burning of fossil fuels and phase out human activities causing emissions such as deforestation.”

New Evidence That Some Supernovae May Be a ‘Double Detonation’

New evidence from a 300-year-old supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud suggests that some Type Ia supernovae may result from a “double detonation” — where a helium shell ignites first, triggering a second core explosion in a white dwarf before it reaches critical mass. “While the physics of the process itself are interesting, the key question this raises is whether type Ia supernovae really are all equally bright,” writes Ars Technica’s John Timmer. “If they can detonate with substantially less mass than is needed for direct ignition of the core, then it’s possible that some of them could be considerably less bright.” However, the research team notes that additional factors — such as the influence of binary systems or secondary detonations — could further complicate the picture. Ars Technica reports:

“The detonations in the carbon-oxygen core and the helium-rich shell result in qualitatively different yield products,” the researchers behind the new work write in a paper describing it. In the paper, they focus on calcium, which there are two ways of producing. One is from the outer shell of helium, via fusion before the detonation dilutes the material. A second batch of calcium is produced through the fusion of the core material as it’s ejected in the supernova, which prevents further fusion events from converting it to even heavier elements. (Material deeper in the core does end up getting fused into heavier material.) Because it’s produced by both of the detonations, models predict that the expanding sphere of debris will contain two different shells of calcium, with some space in between them. To find evidence for these shells, the researchers checked an older supernova remnant, which allows enough time for the movement of material to separate the shells by enough distance that they can be resolved from Earth.

They focused their observations on a supernova remnant named SNR 0509-67.5, located in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. SNR 0509-67.5 is estimated to be a bit over 300 years old, meaning material has had enough time to move a significant distance away from the site of the explosion. Imaging using a spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope allowed them to resolve what, in effect, was a spherical sulfur sandwich, with the role of the bread played by calcium. In other words, if you were to travel away from the site of the explosion, you would first hit a layer of ionized calcium, followed by ionized sulfur, and then run into a second layer of ionized calcium. This is exactly what computer models that simulate double detonations predict. So, the researchers suggest it is strong support for that hypothesis. The researchers say that the details suggest that SNR 0509-67.5 was a white dwarf with roughly the same mass as the Sun when it exploded, and that its explosion was likely triggered by the detonation of a helium shell with only three percent of the Sun’s mass.

A New ‘Interstellar Visitor’ Has Entered the Solar System

Astronomers have detected a mysterious “interstellar object,” dubbed A11pl3Z, speeding through the solar system at 152,000 mph. If confirmed, it would be just the third known interstellar visitor, following ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. The visiting space object will pass near Mars and the Sun later this year before leaving the solar system forever. Live Science reports:

The newly discovered object, currently dubbed A11pl3Z, was first spotted in data collected between June 25 and June 29 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), which automatically scans the night sky using telescopes in Hawaii and South Africa. The mystery object was confirmed by both NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies and the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center on Tuesday (July 1), according to EarthSky.org.

A11pl3Z is most likely a large asteroid, or maybe a comet, potentially spanning up to 12 miles (20 kilometers). It is traveling toward the inner solar system at around 152,000 mph (245,000 km/h) and is approaching us from the part of the night sky where the bar of the Milky Way is located. Based on A11pl3Z’s speed and trajectory, experts think it originated from beyond the sun’s gravitational influence and has enough momentum to shoot straight through our cosmic neighborhood without slowing down. However, more observations are needed to tell for sure.

Recent Droughts Are ‘Slow-Moving Global Catastrophe’ – UN Report

From Somalia to mainland Europe, the past two years have seen some of the most ravaging droughts in recorded history, made worse by climate change, according to a UN-backed report. Describing drought as a “silent killer” which “creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in slow motion” the report said it had exacerbated issues like poverty and ecosystem collapse.

The report highlighted impacts in Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Southeast Asia, including an estimated 4.4 million people in Somalia facing crisis-level food insecurity at the beginning of this year. It recommends governments prepare for a “new normal” with measures including stronger early warning systems.

Air Pollution Linked To Lung Cancer-Driving DNA Mutations, Study Finds

Air pollution has been linked to a swathe of lung cancer-driving DNA mutations, in a study of people diagnosed with the disease despite never having smoked tobacco. From a report:

The findings from an investigation into cancer patients around the world helps explain why those who have never smoked make up a rising proportion of people developing the cancer, a trend the researchers called an “urgent and growing global problem.”

Prof Ludmil Alexandrov, a senior author on the study at the University of California in San Diego, said researchers had observed the “problematic trend” but had not understood the cause. “Our research shows that air pollution is strongly associated with the same types of DNA mutations we typically associate with smoking,” he said.

The scientists analyzed the entire genetic code of lung tumors removed from 871 never-smokers in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia as part of the Sherlock-Lung study. They found that the higher the levels of air pollution in a region, the more cancer-driving and cancer-promoting mutations were present in residents’ tumors. Fine-particulate air pollution was in particular linked to mutations in the TP53 gene. These have previously been associated with tobacco smoking.

Even low levels of air pollution may quietly scar your heart, MRI study finds

Breathing polluted air—even at levels considered “safe”—may quietly damage your heart. A new study using advanced MRI scans found that people exposed to more air pollution showed early signs of scarring in their heart muscle, which can lead to heart failure over time. This damage showed up in both healthy individuals and people with heart conditions, and was especially noticeable in women, smokers, and those with high blood pressure.

When rain forests died, the planet caught fire: New clues from Earth’s greatest extinction

When Siberian volcanoes kicked off the Great Dying, the real climate villain turned out to be the rainforests themselves: once they collapsed, Earth’s biggest carbon sponge vanished, CO₂ rocketed, and a five-million-year heatwave followed. Fossils from China and clever climate models now link that botanical wipe-out to runaway warming, hinting that losing today’s tropical forests could lock us in a furnace we can’t easily cool.

Sweet-smelling molecule halts therapy-resistant pancreatic cancer

A compound best known for giving almonds and apricots their aroma may be the key to defeating hard-to-kill cancer cells. Japanese researchers found that benzaldehyde can stop the shape-shifting ability of aggressive cancer cells, which lets them dodge treatments and spread. By targeting a specific protein interaction essential for cancer survival—without harming normal cells—benzaldehyde and its derivatives could form the basis of powerful new therapies, especially when combined with existing radiation or targeted treatments.

Why anger cools after 50: Surprising findings from a new menopause study

Anger isn’t just a fleeting emotion—it plays a deeper role in women’s mental and physical health during midlife. A groundbreaking study tracking over 500 women aged 35 to 55 reveals that anger traits like outbursts and hostility tend to diminish with age and menopause progression. This shift could signal enhanced emotional regulation during and after the reproductive transition. Surprisingly, the only form of anger that remained steady was suppressed anger.

Deafness reversed: Single injection brings hearing back within weeks

A cutting-edge gene therapy has significantly restored hearing in children and adults with congenital deafness, showing dramatic results just one month after a single injection. Researchers used a virus to deliver a healthy copy of the OTOF gene into the inner ear, improving auditory function across all ten participants in the study. The therapy worked best in young children but still benefited adults, with one 7-year-old girl regaining almost full hearing. Even more exciting: this is just the start, as scientists now aim to target other genes that cause more common forms of deafness.

The fatal mutation that lets cancer outsmart the human immune system

Scientists at UC Davis discovered a small genetic difference that could explain why humans are more prone to certain cancers than our primate cousins. The change affects a protein used by immune cells to kill tumors—except in humans, it’s vulnerable to being shut down by an enzyme that tumors release. This flaw may be one reason treatments like CAR-T don’t work as well on solid tumors. The surprising twist? That mutation might have helped our brains grow larger over time. Now, researchers are exploring ways to block the enzyme and give our immune system its power back.

Is cheese secretly fueling your nightmares? Science weighs in

If you find eating some foods makes you sleep badly, you’re not alone — and there may be a physical cause for your bad dreams. Scientists investigating links between diet, sleep problems, and cultural beliefs about diet and sleep have found that healthier evening eating habits lead to better sleep and better recall of dreams, while the consumption of dairy products is associated with nightmares. This is thought to be because lactose intolerance causes overnight digestive upsets which then affect people’s dreams.

Scientists have found that eating too much dairy could ruin your sleep. Researchers questioned more than 1,000 students about the quality of their sleep, their eating habits, and any perceived link between the two, and found a strong association between nightmares and lactose intolerance — potentially because gas or stomach pain during the night affects people’s dreams.

Banned in Europe, sprayed in America: The fungicide threatening our pollinators

Macquarie University researchers reveal that chlorothalonil, still commonly sprayed on American and Australian produce, cripples insect fertility by more than a third at residue levels typically found on food. The unexpectedly sharp drop in fruit-fly egg production suggests cascading damage to pollinator populations vital for crops and ecosystems. Although the fungicide is outlawed in the EU, Australian growers often apply it preventively, underscoring regulatory blind spots. Scientists urge scaled-back spraying and sustainable alternatives to stop a hidden contributor to global insect decline.

New Orleans is sinking—and so are its $15 billion flood defenses

Parts of New Orleans and its surrounding wetlands are gradually sinking, and while most of the city remains stable, a new study from Tulane University researchers suggests that sections of the region’s $15 billion post-Katrina flood protection system may need regular upgrades to outpace long-term land subsidence.

The study, published in Science Advances, used satellite radar data to track subtle shifts in ground elevation across Greater New Orleans between 2002 and 2020. The study found that some neighborhoods, wetlands and even sections of floodwalls are sinking by more than an inch per year — with some areas experiencing up to 47 millimeters (nearly 2 inches) of elevation loss annually.

A giant pulse beneath Africa could split the continent — and form an ocean

Beneath the Afar region in Ethiopia, scientists have discovered pulsing waves of molten rock rising from deep within the Earth — a geological heartbeat that could eventually split Africa in two. These rhythmic surges of mantle material are helping to stretch and thin the continent’s crust, setting the stage for a new ocean to form in millions of years. The pulses aren’t random: they follow patterns shaped by the tectonic plates above, behaving differently depending on how thick the plates are and how fast they’re spreading.

Ancient DNA reveals leprosy hit the Americas long before colonization

Leprosy’s tale stretches from 5,000-year-old skeletons in Eurasia to a startling 4,000-year-old case in Chile, revealing that the rare strain Mycobacterium lepromatosis haunted the Americas millennia before Europeans arrived. Armed with cutting-edge ancient-DNA sleuthing, scientists have pieced together remarkably well-preserved genomes that challenge the idea of leprosy as purely a colonial import and hint that the disease may have homegrown American roots awaiting confirmation by future finds.

Scientists reveal your morning coffee flips an ancient longevity switch

A new study from the Cellular Ageing and Senescence laboratory at Queen Mary University of London’s Cenfre for Molecular Cell Biology, reveals how caffeine — the world’s most popular neuroactive compound — might do more than just wake you up. The study in the journal Microbial Cell shows how caffeine could play a role in slowing down the ageing process at a cellular level.

Caffeine has long been linked to potential health benefits, including reduced risk of age-related diseases. But how it works inside our cells, and what exactly are its connections with nutrient and stress responsive gene and protein networks has remained a mystery — until now.

From cursed tomb fungus to cancer cure: Aspergillus flavus yields potent new drug

In a remarkable twist of science, researchers have transformed a fungus long associated with death into a potential weapon against cancer. Found in tombs like that of King Tut, Aspergillus flavus was once feared for its deadly spores. Now, scientists at Penn and several partner institutions have extracted a new class of molecules from it—called asperigimycins—that show powerful effects against leukemia cells. These compounds, part of a rare group known as fungal RiPPs, were bioengineered for potency and appear to disrupt cancer cell division with high specificity.

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A team of researchers at Aalto University in Finland has developed an ultra-thin material that can dynamically switch between intense cooling and rapid heating—without drawing attention from thermal imaging systems. The innovation, inspired by the changing brightness of cumulus clouds, could offer a passive and energy-free way to regulate heat across buildings, vehicles, and even stealth technologies.

At the heart of the breakthrough is a nanoscale metasurface—just hundreds of nanometres thick—that appears bright white in one state and deep grey in another. In its white phase, the surface strongly reflects sunlight, helping cool objects beneath it, yet it emits almost no thermal radiation detectable by infrared cameras. When switched to grey, the surface absorbs sunlight more efficiently than typical matte black coatings, warming rapidly, but still avoids emitting infrared signals that would betray its temperature.

According to the press release, this dual behavior is made possible by a network of metallic nanostructures engineered to manipulate light in complex ways. By using polarizonic reflection, the white state bounces sunlight away through multiple scattering. In contrast, the grey mode traps light, converts it into heat, but keeps that heat hidden from thermal surveillance by maintaining low emissivity in the 8–13 micron infrared range.

The coating offers a significant advantage over traditional thermal paints. Conventional white coatings like titanium dioxide can reflect sunlight but glow brightly in thermal imaging, while black coatings absorb sunlight and radiate heat, making them highly visible to infrared systems. This new metasurface sidesteps both limitations.

The material’s low profile makes it ideal for integration into architectural surfaces, wearable textiles, or even stealth coating for UAVs —anywhere where heat management or thermal camouflage is critical. Importantly, the surface operates passively, without requiring external energy inputs.

Future versions may include layers that allow the shift between modes to be triggered electrically or by environmental changes. With durability testing underway, the researchers hope the material can withstand real-world conditions.

The study appeared in Advanced Materials in June 2025.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has made another remarkable
discovery, identifying a massive planet with temperatures
potentially suitable for sustaining life, Azernews
reports, citing foreign media.

Astronomers have found evidence of a planet orbiting the young
red dwarf star known as “TWA 7” or “CE Antilae,” located
approximately 34 light-years away. This planet, named “TWA 7b,” is
estimated to have a mass about 100 times that of Earth.

Preliminary analysis by NASA suggests that TWA 7b is a young,
cold planet with an approximate temperature of 48 degrees Celsius,
conditions that could support life. However, some areas on the
planet may reach temperatures as high as 70 degrees Celsius.

An international team of astronomers observed a faint infrared
source within a debris disk surrounding the star, located roughly
50 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Using James Webb’s
mid-infrared instrument, they employed a high-contrast imaging
technique that blocks out the star’s bright light to reveal nearby
faint objects—allowing for direct detection of planets that would
otherwise be lost in the star’s glare.

If confirmed, this would mark the first instance where a space
telescope has directly imaged a planet beyond relying on
gravitational lensing. This technique, based on Albert Einstein’s
general theory of relativity, enhances the telescope’s ability to
detect exoplanets.

NASA notes that the planet’s position aligns with predictions,
and the infrared emission is believed to originate from three dust
rings encircling TWA 7b. This discovery highlights James Webb’s
unprecedented capability to study low-mass planets around nearby
stars, expanding our understanding of planetary systems beyond our
own.