Science is often a game of patience. Some discoveries appear in an instant, while others take decades—or even centuries—to reveal themselves. The latest breakthrough falls into the latter category: researchers in Australia have identified a brand-new type of cell that…
If you ever find yourself lost in the African savanna, parched and desperate for water, there’s one unlikely guide who could save your life: an elephant. These massive, wrinkled giants are not just strong and social—they also happen to be…
Imagine stepping outside on a clear afternoon and, along with the Sun, seeing a brand-new “star” blazing brightly enough to rival the Moon. That scene may sound like something from science fiction, but astronomers believe it could actually happen in…
Most people imagine the North Pole as a frozen crown sitting at the very top of Earth—a lonely point where the world’s axis pierces through the Arctic. That image isn’t wrong, but it’s incomplete. In fact, Earth has two different…
When you hear the word demon, your mind probably jumps to images of horns, fire, and the underworld. But the one scientists recently stumbled upon is nothing like that. Instead, it’s a ghostly little ripple inside a crystal—completely harmless, yet…
Most of us have experienced it before: a strange gut feeling that something is about to happen. Maybe you sense your phone will buzz seconds before it does, or you get an uneasy feeling about a trip that later goes…
When two black holes crash into each other, the result is already the stuff of cosmic drama. But for the first time, scientists have not only detected the merger—they’ve heard the “kick” that sent the new black hole flying across…
When most people think of ice, it feels like one of the simplest, most ordinary things in nature. It’s the stuff that makes sidewalks dangerously slick in winter, keeps our summer drinks cold, and towers in the form of glaciers…
For decades, scientists have looked at Europa—one of Jupiter’s many moons—as one of the best places to search for life beyond Earth. At first glance, it doesn’t look very inviting. Its surface is a wasteland of cracked ice, battered by…
Asteroids are usually pictured as dry, lifeless rocks drifting through space. Ryugu, a half-mile-wide asteroid near Earth, certainly looks that way today. But new research suggests it may have once held liquid water, flowing through its rocky body billions of…
