Jan 7th, 2026 - Replenishing mitochondria significantly reduces chronic nerve pain, research shows For millions living with nerve pain, even a light touch can feel unbearable. Scientists have long suspected that damaged nerve cells falter because their energy factories known as mitochondria don't function properly. Now research published in Nature  suggests a way forward: supplying healthy mitochondria to struggling nerve cells.   Using human tissue and mouse models, researchers at Duke University School of Medicine found ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 2026 - Science The Giant, Voracious Sea Lions That Humans Cannot Stop Killing the protected animals may be the only way to stop them from eating too many of the Pacific Northwest's endangered salmon. Francois Le Diascorn / Gamma-Rapho / Getty Save Listen − 1.0x + 0:00 11:41 Of all the schemes that humans have devised to keep sea lions from gorging on the salmon of the Columbia River basin, none has worked for long. Local officials and researchers have chased sea lions with boats and peppered them with rubber bullets; they've detonated noisy explosives. They've outfitted the docks where the ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Greenland sharks may look like they're staring through fog, but new evidence suggests they can keep functional vision for centuries. The research identifies a DNA repair process that protects the retina over extreme lifespans and tunes the eye to very low light. The study was led by Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk of UC Irvine and co-authored by University of Basel researchers Walter Salzburger and Lily G. Fogg. According to the study, sharks that can live for about 400 years show no clear signs of retinal degeneration and appear adapted to the Arctic's dim waters. Evidence ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 2026 - The world has not yet fully explored the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), and yet another major technological wave is already forming on the horizon: quantum computing. While the transition from acknowledged potential to established, practical application of new quantum technologies remains underway, stakeholders in the real estate industry may soon see growing demand for specialized facilities designed to support quantum research, development and operations. So, what is quantum computing? At the risk of oversimplifying, quantum technology allows a computer to consider and solve ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - Robots smaller than a grain of salt? It sounds like science fiction, but researchers have developed autonomous microrobots  that can move through liquids, sense their environment and operate independently using only light as a power source. The microrobots, developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, measure roughly 200 by 300 by 50 micrometers. Yet they can detect temperature changes, follow programmed paths and function independently for months at a time. Their work was reported this week in two scientific journals, Science Robotics and ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - Traces of toxic plant compounds have been found on a handful of 60,000-year-old African arrowheads, providing the oldest chemical evidence that Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers used poison to bring down prey. The finding, published on 7 January in Science Advances 1 , adds to the growing picture of how intelligent and technologically advanced people were in this era. Making poisoned arrows is about as hard as following a "complex cooking recipe", says study co-author Marlize Lombard, an archaeologist at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. "You have to add to it the danger of the ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - 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. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Astronomers have spotted an unexpectedly hot galaxy cluster in the early universe that's challenging theories of galactic evolution. The scorching cluster existed just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang , blazing far earlier and hotter than current ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . T hree millennia ago, the Greek bard Homer spun an epic yarn that became "the original action film." The Iliad recounted the Trojan War, a key event in Greek mythology—some readers took this tale literally, and by the 19th century, a growing number of amateur archaeologists became determined to hunt down real-life Troy. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. These dogged fans included the German businessman Heinrich Schliemann, born on this day in 1822. At the time, the remnants of Troy were suspected to lie in a region called the ... [Read More]