Top Science News

Jan. 19, 2026 — Cannabis-based medicines have been widely promoted as a potential answer for people living with chronic nerve pain—but a major new review finds the evidence just isn’t there yet. After analyzing more than 20 clinical trials involving over 2,100 adults, researchers found no strong proof that cannabis products outperform placebos in relieving neuropathic pain. Even when small improvements were ...

Jan. 18, 2026 — While social media continues to circulate claims linking acetaminophen to autism in children, medical experts say those fears distract from a far more serious and proven danger: overdose. Acetaminophen, found in Tylenol and many cold and flu remedies, is one of the leading causes of emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and acute liver failure in the United ...

Jan. 18, 2026 — When scientists sent bacteria-infecting viruses to the International Space Station, the microbes did not behave the same way they do on Earth. In microgravity, infections still occurred, but both viruses and bacteria evolved differently over time. Genetic changes emerged that altered how viruses attach to bacteria and how bacteria defend themselves. The findings could help improve phage therapies ...

Jan. 19, 2026 — Physicists have unveiled a new way to simulate a mysterious form of dark matter that can collide with itself but not with normal matter. This self-interacting dark matter may trigger a dramatic collapse inside dark matter halos, heating and densifying their cores in surprising ways. Until now, this crucial middle ground of behavior was nearly impossible to model accurately. The new code makes ...

Jan. 15, 2026 — Foams were once thought to behave like glass, with bubbles frozen in place at the microscopic level. But new simulations reveal that foam bubbles are always shifting, even while the foam keeps its overall shape. Remarkably, this restless motion follows the same math used to train artificial intelligence. The finding hints that learning-like behavior may be a fundamental principle shared by ...

Jan. 13, 2026 — A generative AI system can now analyze blood cells with greater accuracy and confidence than human experts, detecting subtle signs of diseases like leukemia. It not only spots rare abnormalities but also recognizes its own uncertainty, making it a powerful support tool for ...

Jan. 12, 2026 — Florida State University scientists have engineered a new crystal that forces atomic magnets to swirl into complex, repeating patterns. The effect comes from mixing two nearly identical compounds whose mismatched structures create magnetic tension at the atomic level. These swirling “skyrmion-like” textures are prized for their low-energy behavior and stability. The discovery could help drive ...

Jan. 15, 2026 — New research shows tropical forests can recover twice as fast after deforestation when their soils contain enough nitrogen. Scientists followed forest regrowth across Central America for decades and found that nitrogen plays a decisive role in how quickly trees return. Faster regrowth also means more carbon captured from the atmosphere. The study points to smarter reforestation strategies that ...

Jan. 15, 2026 — In the rapidly disappearing Atlantic Forest, mosquitoes are adapting to a human-dominated landscape. Scientists found that many species now prefer feeding on people rather than the forest’s diverse wildlife. This behavior dramatically raises the risk of spreading dangerous viruses such as dengue and Zika. The findings reveal how deforestation can quietly reshape disease ...

Jan. 14, 2026 — Scientists have identified a newly recognized threat lurking beneath the ocean’s surface: sudden episodes of underwater darkness that can last days or even months. Caused by storms, sediment runoff, algae blooms, and murky water, these “marine darkwaves” dramatically reduce light reaching the seafloor, putting kelp forests, seagrass, and other light-dependent life at ...

Jan. 13, 2026 — Honey bees can normally keep their hives perfectly climate-controlled, but extreme heat can overwhelm their defenses. During a scorching Arizona summer, researchers found that high temperatures caused damaging temperature fluctuations inside hives, leading to population declines. Smaller colonies were hit hardest, experiencing the most severe swings. As global temperatures rise, heat waves could ...

Jan. 18, 2026 — Scientists have discovered that breast cancer can quietly throw the brain’s internal clock off balance—almost immediately after cancer begins. In mice, tumors flattened the natural daily rhythm of stress hormones, disrupting the brain-body feedback loop that regulates stress, sleep, and immunity. Remarkably, when researchers restored the correct day-night rhythm in specific brain neurons, ...

Jan. 18, 2026 — Researchers have identified OTULIN, an immune-regulating enzyme, as a key trigger of tau buildup in the brain. When OTULIN was disabled, tau vanished from neurons and brain cells remained healthy. The findings challenge long-held assumptions about tau’s necessity and highlight a promising new path for fighting Alzheimer’s and brain aging. Scientists now believe OTULIN may act as a master ...

Jan. 18, 2026 — A long-running Swedish study has followed adults for nearly five decades, uncovering when physical decline truly begins. Fitness and strength start slipping around age 35, then worsen gradually with age. The encouraging twist: adults who began exercising later still improved their physical capacity by up to 10 percent. It’s a powerful reminder that staying active matters, even if you start ...

Jan. 15, 2026 — Tryptophan does far more than help us sleep—it fuels brain chemistry, energy production, and mood-regulating neurotransmitters. But as the brain ages or develops neurological disease, this delicate system goes awry, pushing tryptophan toward harmful byproducts linked to memory loss, mood changes, and sleep ...

Jan. 15, 2026 — Spikes in blood sugar after eating may be more dangerous for the brain than previously thought. In a massive genetic study, people with higher post-meal blood sugar had a much greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The effect couldn’t be explained by visible brain damage, suggesting hidden biological pathways may be involved. Researchers say managing blood sugar after meals could become a key ...

Jan. 12, 2026 — Researchers have discovered a brain activity pattern that can predict which people with mild cognitive impairment are likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Using a noninvasive brain scanning technique and a custom analysis tool, they detected subtle changes in electrical signals tied to memory processing years before diagnosis. The findings point to a new way of spotting Alzheimer’s ...

Jan. 8, 2026 — A large review of studies suggests that exercise can ease depression about as effectively as psychological therapy. Compared with antidepressants, exercise showed similar benefits, though the evidence was less certain. Researchers found that light to moderate activity over multiple sessions worked best, with few side effects. While it’s not a cure-all, exercise may be a powerful and accessible ...

Jan. 16, 2026 — A new study warns that a widely used eye ointment can damage a popular glaucoma implant. Researchers found that oil-based ointments can be absorbed into the implant’s material, causing it to swell and sometimes break. Patient cases showed damage only when the implant directly contacted the ointment, a result confirmed in lab experiments. The findings raise concerns about standard post-surgery ...

Jan. 12, 2026 — Most U.S. adults have risk factors tied to a little-known condition called CKM syndrome, which connects heart disease, kidney problems, diabetes, and obesity into one powerful health threat. When these issues overlap, the danger rises far more than when they occur alone. Despite low awareness, people are eager to learn how CKM is diagnosed and treated. Experts say understanding how these systems ...

Jan. 12, 2026 — Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are changing how Americans spend money on food. A large Cornell study found households cut grocery spending by over 5% within six months, with even bigger drops at fast-food restaurants. Snack foods and sweets saw the steepest declines, while only a few categories like yogurt and fruit rose slightly. The effects linger for at least a year among continued ...

Jan. 11, 2026 — Roasted coffee may do more than wake you up—it could help control blood sugar. Researchers discovered several new coffee compounds that inhibit α-glucosidase, a key enzyme linked to type 2 diabetes. Some of these molecules were even more potent than a common anti-diabetic drug. The study also introduced a faster, greener way to uncover health-boosting compounds in complex ...

Jan. 18, 2026 — Solid-state batteries could store more energy and charge faster than today’s batteries, but they tend to crack and fail over time. Stanford researchers found that a nanoscale silver treatment can greatly strengthen the battery’s ceramic core. The silver helps seal tiny flaws and prevents lithium from causing further damage. This simple approach could help unlock next-generation ...

Jan. 17, 2026 — Engineers have created a device that generates incredibly tiny, earthquake-like vibrations on a microchip—and it could transform future electronics. Using a new kind of “phonon laser,” the team can produce ultra-fast surface waves that already play a hidden role in smartphones, GPS systems, and wireless tech. Unlike today’s bulky setups, ...

Jan. 9, 2026 — Scientists in South Korea have discovered a way to make all-solid-state batteries safer and more powerful using inexpensive materials. Instead of adding costly metals, they redesigned the battery’s internal structure to help lithium ions move faster. This simple structural tweak boosted performance by up to four times. The work points to cheaper, safer batteries for phones, electric vehicles, ...

Jan. 6, 2026 — A distant pulsar’s radio signal flickers as it passes through space, much like stars twinkle in Earth’s atmosphere. By monitoring this effect for 10 months, researchers watched the pattern slowly evolve as gas, Earth, and the pulsar all moved. Those changes create minuscule delays in the signal, but measuring them helps keep pulsars incredibly precise. The findings also aid SETI scientists in ...

Jan. 2, 2026 — A physicist has proposed a bold experiment that could allow gravitational waves to be manipulated using laser light. By transferring minute amounts of energy between light and gravity, the interaction would leave behind faint but detectable fingerprints. The setup resembles advanced gravitational-wave detectors like LIGO, but pushes them further ...

Dec. 31, 2025 — As we age, our immune system quietly loses its edge, and scientists have uncovered a surprising reason why. A protein called platelet factor 4 naturally declines over time, allowing blood stem cells to multiply too freely and drift toward unhealthy, mutation-prone behavior linked to cancer, inflammation, and heart disease. Researchers found that restoring this protein in older mice — and even ...

Dec. 25, 2025 — Scientists are digging into the hidden makeup of carbon-rich asteroids to see whether they could one day fuel space exploration—or even be mined for valuable resources. By analyzing rare meteorites that naturally fall to Earth, researchers have uncovered clues about the chemistry, history, and potential usefulness of these ancient space rocks. ...

Jan. 16, 2026 — Humans pay enormous attention to lips during conversation, and robots have struggled badly to keep up. A new robot developed at Columbia Engineering learned realistic lip movements by watching its own reflection and studying human videos online. This allowed it to speak and sing with synchronized facial motion, without being explicitly programmed. Researchers believe this breakthrough could help ...

Jan. 15, 2026 — A new OLED design can stretch dramatically while staying bright, solving a problem that has long limited flexible displays. The breakthrough comes from pairing a highly efficient light-emitting material with tough, transparent MXene-based electrodes. Tests showed the display kept most of its brightness even after repeated stretching. The technology could power future wearable screens and on-skin ...

Jan. 11, 2026 — Scientists have unveiled a new way to capture ultra-sharp optical images without lenses or painstaking alignment. The approach uses multiple sensors to collect raw light patterns independently, then synchronizes them later using computation. This sidesteps long-standing physical limits that have held optical imaging back for decades. The result is wide-field, sub-micron resolution from distances ...

Jan. 9, 2026 — Stanford researchers have developed an AI that can predict future disease risk using data from just one night of sleep. The system analyzes detailed physiological signals, looking for hidden patterns across the brain, heart, and breathing. It successfully forecast risks for conditions like cancer, dementia, and heart disease. The results suggest sleep contains early health warnings doctors have ...

Jan. 9, 2026 — Coral reefs appear to run a daily timetable for microscopic life in nearby waters. Scientists found that microbial populations above reefs rise and fall over the course of a single day, shaped by feeding, predation, and coral-driven processes. Some microbes peak during daylight, while others surge at night. These rhythms offer new clues about how reefs influence their surrounding ...

Jan. 8, 2026 — DNA doesn’t just sit still inside our cells — it folds, loops, and rearranges in ways that shape how genes behave. Researchers have now mapped this hidden architecture in unprecedented detail, showing how genome structure changes from cell to cell and over time. These insights reveal why many disease-linked mutations outside genes can still cause harm. The findings could speed up the ...

Jan. 7, 2026 — Scientists have created a new way to watch plants breathe—live and in high definition—while tracking exactly how much carbon and water they exchange with the air. The breakthrough could help unlock crops that grow smarter, stronger, and more ...

Jan. 19, 2026 — Plastic-coated fertilizers used on farms are emerging as a major but hidden source of ocean microplastics. A new study found that only a tiny fraction reaches beaches through rivers, while direct drainage from fields to the sea sends far more plastic back onto shore. Once there, waves and tides briefly trap the particles on beaches before many vanish again. This helps explain why so much plastic ...

Jan. 17, 2026 — Tiny plastic particles drifting through the oceans may be quietly weakening one of Earth’s most powerful climate defenses. New research suggests microplastics are disrupting marine life that helps oceans absorb carbon dioxide, while also releasing greenhouse gases as they break down. By interfering with plankton, microbes, and natural carbon cycles, these pollutants reduce the ocean’s ability ...

Jan. 14, 2026 — For thousands of years, wildfires on Alaska’s North Slope were rare. That changed sharply in the 20th century, when warming temperatures dried soils and fueled the spread of shrubs, setting the stage for intense fires. Peat cores and satellite data reveal that fire activity since the 1950s has reached record levels. The findings suggest the Arctic is entering a new, more dangerous fire ...

Jan. 14, 2026 — Earth’s oceans reached their highest heat levels on record in 2025, absorbing vast amounts of excess energy from the atmosphere. This steady buildup has accelerated since the 1990s and is now driving stronger storms, heavier rainfall, and rising sea levels. While surface temperatures fluctuate year to year, the ocean’s long-term warming trend shows no sign of ...

Dec. 15, 2025 — Around 1,000 years ago, a major climate shift reshaped rainfall across the South Pacific, making western islands like Samoa and Tonga drier while eastern islands such as Tahiti became increasingly wet. New evidence from plant waxes preserved in island sediments shows this change coincided with the final major wave of Polynesian expansion eastward. ...

Dec. 12, 2025 — Fossils from Qatar have revealed a small, newly identified sea cow species that lived in the Arabian Gulf more than 20 million years ago. The site contains the densest known collection of fossil sea cow bones, showing that these animals once thrived in rich seagrass meadows. Their ecological role mirrors that of modern dugongs, which still reshape the Gulf’s seafloor as they graze. The findings ...

Nov. 16, 2025 — Researchers found that ancient hominids—including early humans—were exposed to lead throughout childhood, leaving chemical traces in fossil teeth. Experiments suggest this exposure may have driven genetic changes that strengthened language-related brain functions in modern ...

Nov. 13, 2025 — Researchers discovered that living horsetails act like natural distillation towers, producing bizarre oxygen isotope signatures more extreme than anything previously recorded on Earth—sometimes resembling meteorite water. By tracing these isotopic shifts from the plant base to its tip, scientists unlocked a new way to decode ancient humidity and climate, using both modern plants and fossilized ...

Jan. 4, 2026 — Researchers compared a traditional Chinese medicine, Yueju Pill, with a standard antidepressant and found both reduced depression symptoms. However, only Yueju Pill increased a brain-supporting protein associated with mood improvement. Brain imaging showed that unique network patterns—especially in visual regions—could predict who benefited most from Yueju Pill. This opens the door to more ...

Jan. 4, 2026 — UK experts are warning that access to new weight-loss drugs could depend more on wealth than medical need. Strict NHS criteria mean only a limited number of patients will receive Mounjaro, while many others must pay privately. Researchers say this risks worsening existing health inequalities, especially for groups whose conditions are often missed or under-diagnosed. They are calling for fairer, ...

Dec. 24, 2025 — What we put on our plates may matter more for the climate than we realize. Researchers found that most people, especially in wealthy countries, are exceeding a “food emissions budget” needed to keep global warming below 2°C. Beef alone accounts for nearly half of food-related emissions in Canada. Small changes—less waste, smaller portions, and fewer steaks—could add up to a big climate ...

Nov. 29, 2025 — Millions face Medicare decisions each year, but many don’t take advantage of tools that can save them money and stress. Insurance marketing often overshadows unbiased options like SHIP, leaving people unaware of better choices. Comparing real costs—not just premiums—can prevent unpleasant surprises, especially when provider networks or drug rules change. New assistance programs for ...

Sep. 16, 2025 — Preschoolers with ADHD are often given medication right after diagnosis, against medical guidelines that recommend starting with behavioral therapy. Limited access to therapy and physician pressures drive early prescribing, despite risks and reduced effectiveness in young ...

Aug. 26, 2025 — Australian teachers are in crisis, with 9 in 10 experiencing severe stress and nearly 70% saying their workload is unmanageable. A major UNSW Sydney study found teachers suffer depression, anxiety, and stress at rates three to four times higher than the national average, largely driven by excessive administrative tasks. These mental health struggles are pushing many to consider leaving the ...

June 3, 2025 — The effects of artificial intelligence on adolescents are nuanced and complex, according to a new report that calls on developers to prioritize features that protect young people from exploitation, manipulation and the erosion of real-world ...

Dec. 28, 2025 — Researchers found that U.S. metal mines already contain large amounts of critical minerals that are mostly going unused. Recovering even a small fraction of these byproducts could sharply reduce dependence on imports for materials essential to clean energy and advanced technology. In many cases, the value of these recovered minerals could exceed the value of the mines’ primary products. The ...

Nov. 24, 2025 — Europe is investing in a coordinated effort to develop high-power optical vortex technologies and train new specialists in the field. The HiPOVor network unites academia and industry to advance applications ranging from material processing to environmentally friendly photonic ...

Nov. 21, 2025 — Scientists have directly measured the minuscule electron sharing that makes precious-metal catalysts so effective. Their new technique, IET, reveals how molecules bind and react on metal surfaces with unprecedented clarity. The insights promise faster discovery of advanced catalysts for energy, chemicals, and ...

Aug. 21, 2025 — Industrial forests, packed with evenly spaced trees, face nearly 50% higher odds of megafires than public lands. A lidar-powered study of California’s Sierra Nevada reveals how dense plantations feed fire severity, but also shows that proactive thinning could prevent forests from collapsing into shrubland ...