Sep 15th, 2025 - We have wondered aloud in the past what would happen if the Gulf Stream collapses in 2025, and later in the year, we are now asking what would happen if the Gulf of Panama fails. The health and well-being of our world's gulfs and its bodies of water are crucially important to the survival of the world's species, and if the Gulf of Panama fails, there could be incredibly dangerous ramifications. Scientists are wondering what will come next, and just how impactful this failure may be. Below, we explore the reports of the Gulf of Panama's unusual behavior that scientists did not expect, what ... [Read More]

Sep 15th, 2025 - By University of Tokyo Share Researchers have found that nearly three-quarters of the population carry newly identified genetic elements called Inocles, which may influence oral health, immunity, and cancer risk. Researchers at the University of Tokyo and collaborators have uncovered a surprising discovery within the human mouth: Inocles, massive DNA elements that until now had gone unnoticed. These structures appear to be essential for helping bacteria adjust to the ever-changing oral environment. The findings shed new light on how bacteria establish themselves and survive in the mouth, ... [Read More]

Sep 15th, 2025 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . Ripe apples drop about my head . . . The nectarine and curious peach Into my hands themselves do reach. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. —Andrew Marvell, "The Garden" W hen you bite into an apple, a pear, or a peach, you bite into the result of thousands of years of interactions between these fruits and primates. When you let a fig squish in your mouth, you are savoring an even more ancient story. These moments of pleasure are reenactments of a kind of jungle theater that has played out again and again for tens of millions of ... [Read More]

Sep 15th, 2025 - Changes in rock formations from before and after the mass extinction event 66 million years ago may reflect how dinosaurs acted as ecosystem engineers, shaping vegetation and even the meandering of rivers The impact dinosaurs had on Earth was so big that their extinction seems to have caused dramatic and wide-ranging changes to the planet's landscapes, such as shifting rivers. There is a marked difference between some rock formations in North America before and after the dinosaurs died out in the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event some 66 million years ago, after the ... [Read More]

Sep 15th, 2025 - By Europlanet Share Deflecting an asteroid isn't just a matter of smashing into it with a spacecraft. If the strike happens in the wrong place, it could nudge the space rock into a tiny gravitational "keyhole," a hidden gateway that steers it back onto a collision course with Earth. Building on lessons from NASA 's DART mission, researchers are now creating detailed maps of asteroid surfaces to find the safest spots for impact. By aiming precisely, they hope to ensure humanity can push dangerous asteroids away without accidentally setting up a future catastrophe. Smashing Asteroids With ... [Read More]

Sep 15th, 2025 - Sharks have survived for hundreds of millions of years. They outlived the dinosaurs, Ice Ages, and major climate shifts. Yet today, they are disappearing rapidly – not because of nature, but because of us. Since the 1970s, their global numbers have fallen by more than 70 percent. The causes are not mysterious: overfishing, finning, bycatch, and growing demand for shark meat. The International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) now lists nearly 40 percent of shark species as threatened. Laws and trade bans set rules, but sellers still put sharks on the market. Shark meat trade ... [Read More]

Sep 14th, 2025 - By Share Matter can exist in different forms, or phases, such as liquid water or solid ice. These phases are usually understood under equilibrium conditions, where everything remains stable over time. However, nature also permits much stranger possibilities: phases that appear only when a system is pushed out of equilibrium. A new study published in Nature demonstrates that quantum computers provide a powerful new tool for investigating these unusual states of matter. In contrast to ordinary phases, non-equilibrium quantum phases are defined by how they change and evolve over time, a type of ... [Read More]

Sep 14th, 2025 - A team in central China has done something simple and bold, they directly dated dinosaur eggs instead of the rocks around them. The eggshell calcite from the Qinglongshan site yielded an age of 85.91 ± 1.74 million years. This matters because it turns eggs from interesting fossils into reliable timestamps for life on land during the Late Cretaceous, a time of shifting climates and ecosystems. Dinosaur eggshells dated The fossils come from Qinglongshan in the Yunyang Basin of Hubei Province, where thousands of intact eggs rest in stacked layers with little distortion.  "We show ... [Read More]