News without the noise
Science news: discoveries, health, climate and space, from the journals and the labs, explained plainly.
742 articles · page 14 of 16 · The Science front page
The American Geophysical Union and American Meteorological Society have published the first paper in the US Climate Collection, an effort to compile peer-reviewed research to replace the work that would have gone into the next US National Climate Assessment, which was terminated last year by the Trump administration.
The developing El Niño climate phenomenon has become the strongest on record, with daily sea surface temperatures in a key region of the central-eastern Pacific reaching 3.05°C above average on 19 September, surpassing the previous record of 3.02°C set during the very strong El Niño of 2015. Scientists monitoring the Pacific warn that longer-term measures have not yet hit record levels but are likely to do so, with the peak not expected until later this year.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has declared the agency will only pursue international partnerships that offer clear benefits, as the race to the Moon enters a new phase focused on exploiting water ice and other resources near the lunar south pole. Speaking to military leaders and defense contractors near Washington, Isaacman said the 21st-century Moon race is no longer just about national prestige but about strategic control of valuable extraterrestrial real estate.
New research warns that even if the world achieves the implicit goal of the 2015 Paris agreement—cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero—the tropics will be among the last regions to feel the benefits, underscoring how climate change disproportionately affects the world’s poorest people.
NASA's Perseverance rover has discovered igneous rock in the Margin Unit of Jezero Crater, a finding that upends expectations of sedimentary deposits and reveals a complex history of water activity on early Mars, according to a study published in Communications Earth & Environment.
Australian researchers have identified two new species of large stick insects in far north Queensland, a discovery they say highlights how much remains unknown about insect diversity. The species, named Anchiale robusta and Anchiale mabiensis, were previously misidentified and are described in a study published in Austral Entomology.
NASA has added $946 million to SpaceX's commercial crew contract, funding three additional Crew Dragon flights to the International Space Station (ISS) while the future of crewed access to low Earth orbit remains uncertain.
Recent attacks by rabid beavers in Maryland and the exposure of hundreds of people to rabid goats at a North Carolina petting zoo have sparked public concern about rabies in the United States, leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue a health advisory in early September. However, experts say it remains unclear whether there has been an actual increase in cases of the fatal disease.
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed that the two narrow rings encircling Chariklo — a small, dark body barely 250 kilometres across orbiting between Saturn and Uranus — have changed significantly in the past decade, with one ring thickening and the other all but disappearing.
Learning a second language may be one of the most effective ways to maintain cognitive health as we age, according to research cited in a recent article that highlights the complex mental demands of language acquisition.
A new species of cat has been identified in the Bolivian Yungas region, marking the first discovery of a feline species in more than 100 years. The cat, named Leopardus tilcayo, was documented by a research team led by National Geographic Explorer Paola Nogales Ascarrunz, according to a Reuters report published by Al Jazeera.
Italian launch services provider Avio has reported a surge in customers seeking launch opportunities after SpaceX stopped accepting new orders for commercial Falcon 9 flights, according to the company's CEO.
NASA has awarded SpaceX three additional crew rotation missions to the International Space Station — Crew-15, Crew-16 and Crew-17 — through a $946 million contract modification. The award, announced Thursday, extends SpaceX's role as the primary U.S. crew transportation provider under the agency's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract through 2030, bringing the total contract value with the company to $5.92 billion.
Scientists have confirmed a new species of wild cat in Bolivia through DNA studies, identifying the small spotted feline as distinct from related species. Only one living member is known, residing in a wildlife sanctuary. The discovery highlights how much remains unknown about elusive mammals in South America.
NASA is preparing to order two additional crewed missions from Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and invest in fixing its thruster issues, as well as supporting certification on a new launch vehicle, multiple sources told Ars Technica. The moves come after SpaceX informed NASA it intends to retire the Crew Dragon vehicle by 2030, leaving the U.S. without an operational crew spacecraft for routine astronaut missions to low-Earth orbit.
A community gathering in Ireland last fall turned into a public health incident when 48 children developed aggressive skin and soft-tissue infections linked to a bouncy castle contaminated with a hypervirulent, multidrug-resistant strain of MRSA, according to an investigation published this week in the journal Eurosurveillance.
Researchers have used mass spectrometry-based proteomics to analyze the composition of glues and adhesives in ancient Egyptian artifacts without damaging the objects, revealing unexpected plant-derived proteins, according to a new study in Science Advances.
NASA has reaffirmed its commitment to sharing all scientific data, Moon rock samples, and discoveries from the Artemis program with the global research community, a principle now upheld by all 71 signatory countries of the Artemis Accords. The agency recently concluded a two-part virtual workshop series focused on putting that open-science pledge into practice.
United Launch Alliance, the joint rocket venture owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is facing growing financial difficulties that could finally compel its owners to sell the company, according to industry analysts, as nearly every other US rocket company has embraced reusability and diversification strategies.
The European Space Agency is moving 'full steam ahead' with its Envision mission to Venus after NASA determined it would be unable to fulfill its commitment to provide a US-built radar instrument, the mission's project scientist has confirmed. The orbiter, set to launch on an Ariane 6 rocket, will map the planet's surface at 10 times higher resolution than the last NASA radar mission to Venus in the 1990s, giving scientists an unprecedented view of the world hidden beneath thick clouds of sulfuric acid.
Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the United States Space Academy, NASA has convened the first meeting of the Presidential Commission on the academy and issued a Request for Information to governors interested in hosting the institution.
The commander and pilot of NASA's Artemis II mission, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, have been named the first astronauts to join the space agency's emeritus program five months after splashing down from the Moon. The new status allows them to continue supporting Johnson Space Center in Houston while pursuing outside opportunities.
Elon Musk's The Boring Company has closed a $3 billion Series D round at a $23 billion valuation, led by the United Arab Emirates, while French startup The Exploration Company this week announced a $450 million Series C – the largest ever for a European space company. The dual fundraises highlight a widening gap in scale between US and European private infrastructure ventures, though both signal strong investor appetite for long-shot transport and space projects.
NASA has awarded a Launch Services (NLS) II contract to Relativity Space Inc., adding the company's Terran R launch service to its roster of available vehicles for future agency missions. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which runs through December 2032, now includes Terran R alongside other providers.
NASA's Curiosity rover has now spent 5,000 Martian days (sols) on Mars, a milestone the mission marked during its ongoing traverse through the foothills of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. The achievement underscores the longevity of a rover originally designed for a two-year primary mission.
European space startup The Exploration Company (TEC) has raised $450 million in what it calls the largest-ever Series C round by a European space company, betting that a growing queue of orbital payloads and sovereignty concerns will create demand for a non-SpaceX alternative.
Stoke Space announced Tuesday a $1 billion Series E funding round, co-led by Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital, bringing its total capital raised to $2.3 billion. The company also revealed plans for a larger Block 2 version of its Nova rocket capable of lifting 15 metric tons to low-Earth orbit in a fully reusable configuration, as it targets its first orbital launch next year.
The UK government has corralled £7.8 billion of cross-departmental spending into a new space strategy intended to boost economic growth and national security through to 2030, covering orbital collision warnings, low Earth orbit communications, military intelligence, launch capabilities, and space science.
Stoke Space Technologies has completed the initial closing of a $1 billion Series E funding round to develop fully reusable rockets, challenging SpaceX’s dominance in low-cost launch. The company plans to use the capital to scale production, increase flight frequency, and fund a second-generation vehicle capable of carrying 15 metric tons to low-Earth orbit by 2029.
German launch startup Isar Aerospace has successfully placed its Spectrum rocket into low-Earth orbit, becoming the first company in Europe to launch a fully commercial orbital vehicle. The milestone flight, which lifted off Saturday evening from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway, deployed payloads and marked a dramatic turnaround from a failed test launch in March.
New research led by USDA scientists has found that levels of omega-3 fatty acids in farmed salmon have dropped considerably, potentially making official dietary advice—including the agency's own recommendation to eat at least eight ounces of fish per week—outdated and insufficient.
Germany's Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket into orbit from the Andoya spaceport in Norway on Saturday, becoming the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit from continental Europe and bolstering Europe's drive to secure independent access to space.
The BepiColombo spacecraft has separated from its Mercury Transfer Module, beginning its final glide into orbit around Mercury after nearly eight years in space. Controllers confirmed the successful jettison on September 3, with the spacecraft now relying on its own solar panels for power ahead of orbit insertion scheduled for November 21.
The European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission has cleared a major milestone this week, entering the final stretch of an eight-year interplanetary voyage to Mercury. The nearly $2 billion robotic science mission, launched in 2018, is now travelling at the correct speed for Mercury's gravity to capture it into orbit later this year, ending a long spiral toward the Sun.
The coroner of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has confirmed that a six-week-old baby girl died from measles in August, directly countering recent statements by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that questioned the number of measles deaths in the United States.
In a breakthrough blending history and genetics, scientists have extracted and sequenced sheeppox virus DNA preserved in the animal skins used to make medieval parchment, allowing them to reconstruct how the deadly pathogen evolved over millennia, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.
Researchers announced Friday the completion of a map of every neuron in the brain of a male fruit fly, providing a new tool for neurobiology and refining techniques that could eventually be applied to more complex nervous systems, including vertebrates.
NASA's Earth Observatory has released a satellite image showing three tropical cyclones—Lowell, Karina, and Marie—simultaneously churning in the Pacific Ocean, west of Central America, as observed on September 1, 2026.
A pig kidney transplanted into a US man has functioned for a record 271 days before failing, his doctors at Mass General Brigham have announced. The organ was removed and, after a short period of dialysis, a human donor kidney became available, allowing the patient to receive a conventional transplant.
An outbreak of diarrhea affecting more than 150 non-human primates at a research center has yielded a treasure trove of immunological data, advancing efforts to develop a vaccine against the Shigella bacteria, according to a study published in Science Translational Medicine.
The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes have been announced, recognizing scientific achievements ranging from the design of a splash-free urinal to the use of mosquito proboscises for "necroprinting" tiny nozzles, along with studies on the decomposition rates of buried cotton underwear and the aerodynamics of a healthy nose-blow.
NASA has decided to use a simplified spacesuit variant — the 'Sortie Suit' — for its first crewed lunar surface missions, aiming to accelerate the Artemis program's timeline for landing astronauts at the Moon's south pole as early as 2028. The decision, made at the direction of Artemis Program Manager Jeremy Parsons during an internal meeting this week, involves working with contractor Axiom Space to develop the new suit.
A NASA sounding rocket that flew five detectors through a high-altitude radio-disrupting cloud has provided the first simultaneous multi-point view inside these mysterious layers, known as sporadic E. The findings, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, reveal unexpected complexity in the metallic veils that form from vaporized meteor dust and can interfere with GPS, air traffic control, and long-distance radio communications.
Toyohiro Akiyama, the first Japanese citizen to travel to space and the first journalist to file reports from orbit, has died at age 84 from lower gastrointestinal bleeding, according to Japanese news agencies.
Global heating is now on track to hit at least 1.8°C even under the most optimistic scenario, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme, confirming that the world will overshoot the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C goal in the next few years.
NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract to develop the Mars Telecommunications Network, a next-generation communications system designed to provide high-bandwidth, reliable data relay and navigation services for current and future Mars missions. The firm-fixed-price contract, valued at up to $700 million, requires delivery of a telecommunications orbiter by December 31, 2028, with the network expected to be operational at Mars by 2030.
A nonprofit organization, the Fermi Explorer Mission, has announced plans to launch a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri by the end of 2029, using a novel trajectory discovered by an AI system developed by Physical Superintelligence (PSI), a new AI physics research lab that launched today with $58 million in funding. The mission aims to complete the journey within 80,000 years at a cost of just $15 million.
The European Space Agency's Cluster mission is drawing to a close as the final two satellites of the quartet, Samba and Tango, are set to reenter Earth's atmosphere. Samba reentered on August 31, losing contact at 21:26 UTC and destroying itself at 21:39:38 UTC. Tango is expected to follow tonight at 21:30:31 UTC, ending a mission that began in 2000 and was originally designed for two years.