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DNA traces in the Shroud of Turin reveal a remarkable mixture of human lineages, microbes, plants, animals, and coral accumulated through centuries of handling and travel. The findings do not prove its age or authenticity, but they expose a hidden biological history preserved in the famous cloth.

Coastal communities are facing a hidden threat that is making rising seas far more dangerous: the land beneath them is sinking. New research shows that people in densely populated coastal regions experience an average relative sea-level rise of about 6 millimeters per year, nearly three times the global coastal average. Groundwater pumping, oil and gas extraction, heavy urban development, sediment compaction, and natural geological processes are all contributing to the problem.

Mathematicians have shown that no electoral system can perfectly balance local representation, proportional national results, and a fixed-size parliament once enough parties compete. A newly proposed voting method could soften these unavoidable trade-offs and produce outcomes that are much closer to fair.

As Mohenjo-daro prospered, the gap between its richest and poorest households actually shrank. Its shared infrastructure, fair trade systems, and lack of powerful royal elites suggest that equality may have helped fuel the ancient city’s success.

Astronomers may have been listening for alien civilizations in only a small slice of the radio spectrum while overlooking a largely unexplored range of higher frequencies. Using archived data from the ALMA telescope in Chile, researchers conducted the observatory’s first SETI survey, searching for narrow signals that could indicate advanced technology. No possible alien transmissions were found, but the study revealed that even a handful of telescope observations may quietly include millions of stars.

A new analysis has precisely dated paintings in France’s Font-de-Gaume cave for the first time. Scientists discovered charcoal inside black pigments once thought to contain only minerals, allowing them to use radiocarbon dating. The results show that a bison was painted about 13,000 years ago, while sections of a mask-like figure were added during several widely separated periods.

Early humans in England crafted a rare piece of elephant bone into a reusable hammer for sharpening stone tools nearly 500,000 years ago. The extraordinary find reveals that ancient toolmakers were resourceful, skilled, and capable of surprisingly advanced planning.

The Backrooms began as a single eerie image of empty yellow rooms, but internet users transformed it into a vast fictional world that feels disturbingly real. Through videos, games, maps, survival guides and social media stories, audiences do more than watch the horror unfold. They help build and explore it. Researchers suggest this popularity reflects a new kind of digital tourism, where people emotionally enter imaginary places filled with mystery, nostalgia and unease.

Recycling, greener diets, and other personal climate choices do not seem to distract people from supporting major environmental reforms. A four-year study of nearly 2,800 Australians found that these habits neither increased nor reduced later political engagement.

Ozempic, Wegovy, and similar drugs may deliver excellent health value, but covering them for millions of eligible patients could overwhelm insurance budgets. Researchers say better long-term support is needed and warn that low-cost compounded versions may carry serious safety risks.

Sweden could become an important source of rare earth elements needed for magnets and green technologies. Instead of extracting one target metal, researchers are cataloging everything contained in Swedish mineral deposits. They will then develop magnets using those naturally available combinations, potentially reducing pollution, waste, and reliance on China.

Ancient DNA from China’s vast 4,000-year-old Shimao settlement is revealing how one of East Asia’s earliest complex societies was organized. Researchers found that its people were largely descended from local Yellow River farming communities, but also had genetic ties to distant southern and steppe populations, pointing to extensive prehistoric contact.

Oxygen is disappearing from oceans, lakes, rivers, and coastal waters at an alarming rate, threatening aquatic life and weakening the natural processes that help regulate Earth’s climate. Scientists warn that this widespread deoxygenation is closely connected to other major planetary threats, including warming, pollution, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification.

A powerful new AI tool has uncovered what could be one of the biggest integrity problems in modern science. After analyzing 2.6 million cancer research papers published between 1999 and 2024, researchers identified more than 250,000 studies with writing patterns resembling papers suspected of being produced by fraudulent "paper mills."

A 1,600-year-old mummy discovered in Egypt has revealed something archaeologists had never seen before: a fragment of Homer’s Iliad used during embalming. The papyrus was identified as part of the famous "Catalogue of Ships," one of the best-known sections of the ancient epic. Researchers say it is the first archaeological evidence of a Greek literary text being intentionally incorporated into the mummification process, adding a fascinating new chapter to the history of both literature and ancient burial customs.

Chimpanzees showed a remarkable attraction to crystals, choosing them over ordinary stones and studying them with intense curiosity. The results suggest that the same unusual features may have fascinated early humans long before crystals had any practical use.

Nearly 800,000 years ago, early humans living beside a lake in what is now Israel may have chosen the location for one surprisingly practical reason: firewood. Researchers discovered that these ancient people regularly gathered driftwood washed up along the shoreline, giving them an easy, reliable fuel source for cooking fish, processing large animals, making tools, and organizing daily life around hearths.

A new book claims AI has been built on a flawed assumption dating back to Alan Turing's famous 1950 paper. Peter J. Denning argues that the most important parts of human intelligence, including common sense, intuition, culture, and practical know-how, cannot be encoded into computers. He believes this makes true human-level AI impossible, regardless of how large language models become.

Citizen scientists have helped researchers solve a long-standing mystery about how parental care evolved in harvestmen. Using photos and observations from iNaturalist, scientists more than doubled the known cases of egg-guarding behavior and discovered that maternal and paternal care followed different evolutionary paths. The project, completed in just days with help from public data, shows how citizen science is transforming biological research on a global scale.

DNA from a 5,000-year-old French megalithic tomb reveals that the people buried before and after a population collapse were genetically unrelated, pointing to a major migration after a devastating crisis. The shift coincided with new social traditions and the disappearance of the communities that built Europe's giant stone monuments.

Claims that Neanderthal men "preferred" Homo sapiens women may make for catchy headlines, but the underlying research does not actually show prehistoric romance. The genetic evidence only points to an uneven pattern of DNA inheritance, which could have been shaped by biology, migration, or social organization. Archaeological evidence suggests Neanderthal groups may have followed traditions where women moved between communities, opening the door to far more complicated explanations than simple attraction.

Scientists discovered ancient wolves on a tiny Baltic island where they could only have been brought by humans, suggesting an unexpectedly close relationship between people and wolves thousands of years ago. Evidence indicates the wolves were fed, possibly cared for, and may even have been managed or selectively bred long before modern ideas of domestication.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular red, white, and blue view of one of the Milky Way's oldest star clusters to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary. Hidden within the ancient cluster are clues to how exploding stars helped transform the young universe into one capable of forming planets and, eventually, life.

Hubble has captured a spectacular view of LH 95, where about 2,500 young stars are still on their journey to becoming full-fledged stars. Scientists discovered these growing stars can keep pulling in gas and dust for millions of years, extending an important stage of stellar development. The region also contains multiple generations of stars living side by side, offering fresh clues about how star formation unfolds over time.

Celebrating the United States' 250th anniversary, NASA released a stunning Hubble portrait of Messier 3, an ancient globular cluster with more than 500,000 stars. The remarkable cluster is helping scientists unravel the Milky Way's past thanks to its rare stars and possible origins in a long ago cosmic merger.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence that fireworks can pollute both the air and water in ways that extend beyond the visible smoke. The findings show that leftover debris, fine particles, and airborne chemicals may affect ecosystems and increase people's exposure to air pollution during major celebrations.

A massive national study found that nearly half of Americans with kidney failure who are referred for a transplant never even begin the evaluation process, and only 19% make it onto the transplant waitlist. Researchers discovered that factors such as where a person lives, whether they are married, their income level, language, age, and even which transplant center they use can dramatically affect their chances of moving forward.

Scientists are raising concerns that we may be overlooking evidence of extraterrestrial life even when it is present. Hidden biosignatures, limitations in detection technology, and assumptions about what life should look like can all create dangerous false negatives. The researchers say future missions should focus not only on finding life, but also on understanding how signs of life could be missed.

What if consciousness isn’t limited to brains like ours? Philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober argue that consciousness could arise in many different forms of life, even in beings built from radically different materials than those found on Earth. Drawing on the vastness of the universe and the likely existence of countless alien civilizations, they suggest it would be surprisingly Earth-centric to assume that only Earth-like biology can support conscious experience.

A new study suggests early humans were using fire in South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave as far back as 1.79 million years ago. Researchers found burned bones deep inside the cave, where natural wildfires could not have reached, indicating that fire was likely carried in and maintained by human ancestors. The discovery pushes back the timeline for fire use and reveals surprisingly sophisticated behavior long before humans could create fire on demand.

Researchers found that a Chinese sodium-ion battery performs far better than expected, with production quality and design features comparable to Tesla’s batteries. If engineers can improve cold-weather charging and energy density, sodium could become a cheaper and more abundant alternative to lithium for EVs and large-scale energy storage.

Despite centuries of study, scientists are still finding new details and even overlooked structures within the human body. As researchers explore anatomical differences between individuals, it’s becoming clear that the body is far more complex—and less fully understood—than textbooks suggest.

The global cobalt supply chain is more interconnected—and more vulnerable—than previously thought, with disruptions capable of triggering far-reaching cascades across multiple countries and industries. Researchers warn that protecting battery supply chains will require system-wide coordination because critical bottlenecks can turn local shocks into global problems.

The race to build data centers in space is gaining momentum as AI drives unprecedented demand for computing power. Orbital facilities could tap into abundant solar energy and avoid many of the environmental challenges faced on Earth. Yet space remains a harsh and expensive place to operate, with major hurdles including cooling, maintenance, radiation exposure, and orbital debris.

Plague was already a deadly killer 5,500 years ago, long before cities, farming, or the rat-infested conditions usually linked to historic outbreaks. By analyzing ancient DNA from hunter-gatherer cemeteries in Siberia, researchers discovered early plague strains in nearly 40% of the individuals studied and found evidence of rapid family-based outbreaks that wiped out many children and young teenagers.

Humans evolved to pay close attention to danger, but today that instinct is being overwhelmed by an endless supply of bad news from around the world. Researchers say the answer isn’t to stop following current events—it’s to build healthier habits around how, when, and where we get our news.

One of the most celebrated claims about Yellowstone’s wolves is facing a major challenge. Scientists say the study behind the famous trophic cascade story relied on flawed methods that overstated the ecological impact of wolf recovery. Their reanalysis found no evidence for a dramatic, park-wide surge in willow growth. Instead, the effects appear smaller and vary from place to place.

A new international study finds that middle-aged Americans are lonelier, more depressed, and experiencing worse memory and health than earlier generations. Researchers say growing financial strain, weaker social supports, and chronic stress may explain why the U.S. is falling behind other wealthy nations.

A child psychologist says grandparents are more important than ever as youth mental health challenges continue to rise. He argues that children need supportive relationships, meaningful conversations, and a sense of purpose—not just pressure to achieve. Grandparents can help by listening, encouraging, and creating positive experiences that strengthen emotional resilience.

A new experimental vaccine developed by Scripps Research could offer a powerful new way to prevent fentanyl overdoses by stopping the drug before it reaches the brain. Rather than targeting only fentanyl itself, the vaccine trains the immune system to recognize a broad range of fentanyl-related designer drugs, including some of the most dangerous variants.

Researchers in South Korea have recreated the legendary “sea silk” once prized by emperors, using fibers from a clam cultivated in Korean coastal waters. They discovered that its famous golden shine comes from tiny protein structures that reflect light rather than from pigments or dyes. Because the color is built into the fiber’s structure, it can remain vibrant for centuries.

A tiny set of ancient genetic “switches” may have played a surprisingly large role in making human language possible. Researchers found that these DNA regions, which act like volume controls for genes involved in brain development, have an outsized influence on language ability despite making up less than 0.1% of the genome.

For nearly 700 years, Indigenous hunters repeatedly used a bison kill site in central Montana—then suddenly stopped, even though bison were still abundant. Researchers uncovered evidence that recurring, decades-long droughts likely made the site less practical by reducing access to the water needed to process large numbers of animals. At the same time, hunting groups were shifting toward larger, more coordinated operations that required dependable resources and specialized locations.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Stonehenge’s six-ton Altar Stone was deliberately transported hundreds of kilometers from Scotland by ancient people. The feat would have required extraordinary planning, teamwork, and determination, revealing a surprisingly sophisticated level of organization thousands of years ago.

A surprising study suggests that chemicals introduced to protect the ozone layer may have unintentionally created a growing global pollution problem. Researchers found that refrigerants and certain anesthetic gases have generated more than 335,000 tonnes of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a highly persistent "forever chemical," that has been deposited across Earth's surface since 2000. The pollutant is now showing up everywhere from rainwater to remote Arctic ice, and scientists expect levels to keep rising.

Ancient grooves on human teeth, once hailed as evidence of tooth-picking, may simply be the result of natural wear, according to a new study of wild primates. The research also revealed that a common modern dental defect appears to be uniquely human, hinting that today's lifestyles may be reshaping our teeth in unexpected ways.

Researchers have solved a decades-old mystery by showing that a cache of 43 helmets found off the Spanish coast is medieval, not Roman. The remarkable discovery exposes a thriving weapons trade network that connected Mediterranean powers during a time of piracy, warfare, and growing demand for military equipment.

Scientists have successfully tested an AI-designed universal coronavirus vaccine in humans for the first time, finding it to be safe and well tolerated. The vaccine generated immune responses against multiple coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, SARS, and related bat viruses with pandemic potential. By targeting features shared across an entire virus family, it aims to provide protection even as viruses evolve.

New studies suggest consciousness can't be judged solely by behavior, whether it's a chatbot discussing philosophy or a bee searching for nectar. Researchers are increasingly focusing on the internal mechanisms of brains and computers, concluding that today's AI is likely not conscious while leaving open the possibility for both conscious insects and future machines.

An ancient mountain cave in the Pyrenees may have served as one of the earliest high-altitude mining camps ever discovered, with evidence of repeated visits spanning thousands of years. The find becomes even more intriguing with the discovery of a child’s remains and clues that deeper excavations could uncover prehistoric burials.

New DNA evidence shows that Europe’s hunter-gatherers and early farmers interacted far more closely than previously thought, with women likely playing a crucial role in spreading farming across northwestern Europe. Centuries later, the arrival of Bell Beaker migrants triggered another sweeping population transformation that extended all the way to Britain.

Using cannabis edibles and alcohol together may make drivers far more impaired than either substance alone, according to new research from Johns Hopkins. Even more concerning, common field sobriety tests often failed to detect the cannabis-related impairment.

Scientists have created a global “treasure map” for rare earth elements by uncovering where the strange volcanic rocks that contain them are most likely to form. By combining thousands of rock samples with seismic images of Earth’s deep interior, the team discovered that these metal-rich rocks tend to appear along the ancient, thick roots of continents. These unusual rocks, once seen as geological oddities, are now incredibly important because they hold many of the materials used in smartphones, electric vehicles, and wind turbines.

Generative AI is transforming the workplace faster than ever, but new research from the University of Vaasa suggests the biggest threat may not be AI itself — it’s falling behind in learning how to use it. Researcher Zhe Zhu found that employees who see tools like ChatGPT and Gemini as helpful collaborators rather than job-stealing rivals tend to be more engaged, adaptable, and optimistic about their careers.

Scientists have uncovered the oldest known hand-held wooden tools ever used by humans — and they’re an astonishing 430,000 years old. Buried for hundreds of thousands of years at an ancient lakeside site in Greece, the carefully carved wooden objects reveal that early humans were far more skilled and resourceful than once believed.

Scientists in Germany have demonstrated a startling new form of surveillance: identifying people using nothing more than ordinary WiFi signals. By analyzing how radio waves bounce around a room, researchers can effectively “see” and recognize individuals — even if they are not carrying a device and even if their phone is turned off.

Researchers have discovered how to fine-tune a futuristic type of porous glass that can trap gases like CO2 and hydrogen. Inspired by centuries-old glassmaking techniques, the team added sodium and lithium compounds to make the material easier to process and shape. The breakthrough could accelerate the development of high-performance materials for clean energy, gas storage, and advanced manufacturing.

Many people avoid learning a new language because they remember stressful grammar lessons or fear making mistakes. But language experts say communication, culture, and connection matter far more than perfection. Modern apps, entertainment, travel, and online communities have made learning easier, more social, and surprisingly fun.

Scientists in Canada have discovered that ancient underground rocks are naturally producing hydrogen gas — and lots of it. Measurements from mine boreholes in Ontario show the gas can flow continuously for years, offering a potential new source of clean energy called “white hydrogen.” Researchers say this hidden resource could help power industries and remote communities while cutting carbon emissions and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

Scientists have identified the oldest known human remains in Northern Britain as a young girl who lived around 11,000 years ago. Found in a Cumbrian cave and nicknamed the “Ossick Lass,” she was likely between 2.5 and 3.5 years old when she died. Nearby jewelry and evidence of multiple burials suggest the cave held deep spiritual importance for some of Britain’s earliest hunter-gatherers. The discovery is shedding new light on life — and death — just after the Ice Age.