Jan 1st, 2026 - Oldest known cremation in Africa poses 9, -old mystery about Stone Age Near the equator, the Sun hurries below the horizon in a matter of minutes. Darkness seeps from the surrounding forest. Nearly 10,000 years ago, at the base of a mountain in Africa, people's shadows stretch up the wall of a natural overhang of stone. They're lit by a ferocious fire that's been burning for hours, visible even to people miles away. The wind carries the smell of burning. This fire will linger in community memory for generations − and in the archaeological record for far longer. We are a team of ... [Read More]

Dec 31st, 2025 - Reading time 3 minutes Roughly 1,000 light-years away from Earth, a gigantic disk of gas and dust is swirling around a young star and giving rise to new planets. Not only is it the largest planet-forming disk astronomers have ever found, its behavior is different than any seen before. The disk spans nearly 400 billion miles (640 billion kilometers)—that's about 40 times wider than our entire solar system. While it was first identified in 2016, astronomers have now used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to capture the first image of this planetary nursery in visible light. The new images ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - It's quick and easy to access Live Science Plus, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a confirmation and sign you up for our daily newsletter, keeping you up to date with the latest science news. Previous research on the effect of wolves on the food web has been criticized, raising questions about the predator's role in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Over the last three decades, Yellowstone National Park has undergone an ecological cascade. As elk ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - Starlight and stardust are not enough to drive the powerful winds of giant stars, transporting the building blocks of life through our galaxy. That's the conclusion of a new study published in . The team, from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, focused on the star R Doradus. Its result overturns a long-held idea about how the atoms needed for life spread. "We thought we had a good idea of how the process worked. It turns out we were wrong. For us as scientists, that's the most exciting result", says Theo Khouri, astronomer at Chalmers and joint leader of the study. R Doradus is a red ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - Reading time 10 minutes There were many impressive moments in spaceflight this year, but if the industry had a slogan, it would be "onwards and upwards." So, as 2025 comes to an end, it's time to shift our focus toward the launches and mission milestones on deck for 2026. Over the next year, space agencies and companies will push the limits of exploration further than ever before. Planned missions include the first launch of the most powerful rocket ever built, a lunar landing, and a crewed flight around the Moon—and that's just the beginning. Without further ado, here are the 11 most ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - It's a big universe out there—13.8 billion years old, full of hundreds of billions of star-and-planet-packed galaxies and, out past the limits of our sight, perhaps infinite in all directions. But as vast and inscrutable as the cosmos may seem, we're poised for 2026 to be a banner year in bettering our understanding of how it works and our place within it while setting new milestones in spaceflight. The most obviously exciting space event for the coming year is the launch of NASA's mission, which could occur as early as February. Taking four astronauts on a 10-day voyage around the ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - The bison , also known as the American Buffalo, returns to its home ground in Illinois' Kane County after over 200 years. In December, the conservation efforts finally bore fruit as bison — the largest land mammal in America — entered the 38 acres of prairie restored by the Kane County Forest Preserve District, as reported by the Barington Hill Observer . The reemergence of the mammals after over 2 centuries was a remarkable feat achieved by the conservationists, who waited for hours in the snow to watch the animals step on the prairie. Jay Young, co-executive director of the ... [Read More]

Dec 29th, 2025 - The site is located near to where pilgrims once entered the Temple Mount Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,000‑year‑old Jewish ritual bath beneath the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem that bears ash and destruction debris from the Roman conquest of the city in 70 C.E., officials said. The find, announced Monday by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, lies just west of where pilgrims once entered the Temple Mount, offering a rare physical link to everyday life in late Second Temple Jerusalem. The mikveh, hewn into the bedrock, measures ... [Read More]