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748 articles · page 6 of 16 · The Science front page
A tiny region deep within the brainstem, the locus coeruleus, communicates through several distinct pathways rather than broadcasting a single chemical signal across the brain, according to new research in mice published in Nature. The findings suggest the norepinephrine system operates like a targeted postal network, with different groups of neurons governing learning, attention, and engagement with the environment.
A new FDA-cleared treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using personalized magnetic brain stimulation has reported a 68% remission rate in a clinical trial, offering a drug-free alternative for the approximately 6% of Americans who will experience PTSD in their lifetime.
SpaceX has told the US Space Force it will not accept three military launch contracts it was offered, while a NASA safety panel has warned that Starship's lunar landing may require up to 22 refueling missions. Separately, Spain's PLD Space says its Miura 5 small-lift rocket is nearing final integration, targeting a first flight before mid-2027.
The Ebola outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread further across Africa than any previous outbreak, with cases now confirmed in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has warned, calling it a growing continental crisis.
Astronomers from Cornell and the University of Bristol, using the James Webb Space Telescope, have found that WASP-17 b, a puffed-up 'hot Jupiter' about 1,300 light years away, is the first exoplanet shown to be noticeably lopsided. The evening edge of its atmosphere expands to 1.8 times the size of its morning edge, the result of a 650 kelvin temperature difference between the two sides, according to a new paper in Nature Astronomy.
Health officials face a busy day as Ebola's spread in Africa prompts international travel restrictions, while major advances in cancer care and a record heat-related death toll in Europe also command attention.
Open enrollment for 2027 Affordable Care Act coverage begins November 1 in most states, bringing significant changes for consumers and agents. The Trump administration has introduced stricter identity verification requirements for enrollees using brokers in the federal marketplace and imposed a moratorium on new agents, prompting legal challenges and warnings of significant consumer hurdles.
At least five people have died and around 850,000 people in eastern Spain were placed under a temporary lockdown on Monday after Storm Adam caused severe flooding in Valencia and Alicante. Across Europe, the UK has been hit by its first named winter storm, Storm Austen, with a second, Storm Boelo, expected this weekend, while Super Typhoon Champi is approaching Taiwan, China and Japan.
A novel genomic test could help doctors identify which men with high-risk prostate cancer need more aggressive treatment and which could safely avoid it, according to new research led by University College London that will be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2026 in Madrid.
A Sydney woman who spent nine years believing she had multiple sclerosis has been cleared of the disease after treatment for vertigo, the same week actor Christina Applegate revealed she was also misdiagnosed, prompting fresh attention on how often MS is confused with other conditions.
India will cut the price of 137 cancer drugs from next month after the Supreme Court condemned hospital and pharmacy mark-ups on life-saving medicines as "carnage" and "extortion". The decision follows a legal campaign by Sarojam Radhakrishnan, a retired bank clerk from Kerala who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and died in September 2022 before her case concluded.
A First Nations ranger group has called for the decomposing whale carcass wedged between rocks in a Sydney bay to be towed out to sea and allowed to break down in the ocean, after it closed two of the city's most popular beaches.
Filmmakers for Blue Planet III have captured the dramatic moment an octopus narrowly escaped death after venturing from her normal underwater home. The sequence is one of many highlights in the latest installment of the nature documentary series narrated by Sir David Attenborough, who continues to produce films into his 101st year.
A heartbreaking update has emerged in the fight of a New South Wales teenager battling a rare and aggressive brain cancer, reporting that he is now unable to walk or talk. The teen has traveled to the United States for experimental treatment, with millions following his journey online.
The New South Wales government has established the Great Koala National Park, the state's second-largest national park, following a marathon parliamentary debate and more than a decade of campaigning. The 478,000-hectare reserve on the Mid North Coast aims to protect koala habitat and over 100 species of flora and fauna.
A secretive native bird not seen in the Wellington region for about 70 years has been spotted at Lake Kōhangaterā in East Harbour Regional Park. The Mātātā, or fernbird, classified as regionally threatened and vulnerable, was discovered during a baseline survey, marking a significant sign for local biodiversity and the success of ongoing conservation efforts.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge and start-up GlitterinTech have developed an optical sensor costing about $10 that they say delivers laboratory-level precision in a device small enough for wearable health monitors, with early tests showing accurate, noninvasive blood glucose tracking.
Four decades after the Chernobyl disaster, scientists examining microscopic radioactive particles still scattered in the surrounding soil have found that some have preserved much of their original crystal structure. The finding, from a team led by Leibniz University Hannover and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, suggests at least some of the reactor debris is more chemically stable than previously believed, though researchers stress it does not mean the contamination is becoming safe.
Flu cases on the American west coast are rising months earlier than normal, driven by a mutation of the H1N1 strain, according to data from state health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health experts recommend early vaccination as the 2026-27 flu season accelerates.
For years, NASA has declined to publicly specify how many times SpaceX's Starship would need to launch and refuel in orbit to support a Moon landing. Now, according to a report from Ars Technica, the internal estimate has settled at 22 launches, the highest figure to emerge publicly.
New peer-reviewed research published in the journal Nature Health estimates that this summer's record heat killed more than 50,000 people in European cities, and finds that almost two-thirds of those deaths were caused by the extra warmth produced by human-caused climate change.
Physicists have found evidence of a hidden rivalry between two quantum states inside copper-oxide superconductors, a discovery that could help explain how these ceramics carry electricity with no resistance at comparatively warm temperatures. The finding, from a team led by Canada's National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS), was published alongside a complementary European study in Nature Physics, and neither settles the puzzle on its own, but together they sharpen the picture of a phenomenon physicists have chased for decades.
Moderna and Merck have released detailed results from their phase 3 trial of a personalised mRNA melanoma vaccine, showing it cut the risk of recurrence or death by 42 per cent when given alongside the immunotherapy Keytruda. Oncologists described the data as a major advancement, even as investors sold off Moderna shares, which fell as much as 25 per cent after partial results leaked on social media before the official release.
At MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Professor Erin Kara is advancing the technique of X-ray reverberation mapping to study supermassive black holes. By measuring the echoes produced when X-rays from a black hole’s corona bounce off the surrounding accretion disk, her team is reconstructing the environment immediately outside the event horizon and learning how black holes grow.
More than 9,000 homes in Cornwall and Devon are without power and a red warning is in force across Guernsey and Jersey as Storm Austen, the first named storm of the season, brings winds of up to 80mph and heavy rain to the UK and Ireland on Friday.
A new report from the Care Quality Commission reveals that children in England are bearing the brunt of some of the sharpest rises in NHS waiting times on record. More than 80,000 children have been waiting over a year for community health services, nearly 11 times the number of adults, as demand soars and staff numbers fall.
New research suggests that regular exercise can slow ovarian aging, and a drug that mimics its effects may extend reproductive lifespan. Scientists at Guangzhou Medical University found that female mice that exercised on a treadmill had more ovarian follicles and a lower loss of dormant eggs, while injections of the experimental drug AdipoRon allowed treated mice to produce offspring up to three months longer than untreated mice. Correlational evidence from two large human studies also linked higher physical activity levels to later menopause.
Artificial intelligence software is set to be deployed across the NHS in England to help radiologists identify prostate cancer on MRI scans, after the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) backed five tools in draft guidance for a two-year trial. The move is designed to ease pressure on stretched radiology teams as demand for prostate scans rises.
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Yale University have for the first time precisely quantified the Kondo effect, a longstanding puzzle in quantum physics, using fundamental physics calculations alone. The work, published in Science, is described as a significant step toward predicting the properties of complex materials purely through computation.
The federal government has formally submitted a final bid to the European Space Agency (ESA) to send Australian of the Year and astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg to the International Space Station in 2028. Science Minister Tim Ayres confirmed the bid on Friday and revealed that over $6 million in private and philanthropic pledges had been secured, with the industry-led 'flyKatherine' campaign raising a reported $25 million to help fund the multimillion-dollar mission.
The World Health Organization has warned that the Ebola outbreak in Africa is becoming increasingly complex, with cases now confirmed in three countries across East and West Africa. Nigeria reported its first case of the Bundibugyo strain on Tuesday, becoming the fourth African country affected since the outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May, where it has killed more than 4,000 people. Health authorities are investigating whether the Nigerian patient, the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat, may have encountered Kenya's first patient at a Ugandan airport, as questions emerge over her travel history.
A strange radio signal from the outskirts of the Milky Way has astronomers puzzled: the object, designated VT J1906+0849, has been brightening and fading over decades, with its radio spectrum shifting in ways that do not match any known celestial phenomenon. The source, located at least 49,000 light-years from Earth beyond the Norma-Cygnus spiral arm, was first noticed as a bright radio transient in 2017 data from the Very Large Array Sky Survey, but subsequent analysis of older observations revealed it had been active since at least 2005, with no trace in 1996. The findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal.
The remains of Derwent, a Derbyshire village deliberately flooded in the 1940s to create Ladybower Reservoir, have re-emerged as drought pushed the reservoir's capacity below a third, exposing stone foundations and historic structures for the first time in decades.
The government of Guinea-Bissau has formally rejected a controversial clinical trial funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that would have tested whether the standard hepatitis B vaccine at birth has harmful nonspecific effects on newborns. Researcher Christine Stabell Benn of the Bandim Health Project confirmed to Ars Technica that the Council of Ministers 'formally reaffirmed its non-acceptance of the study on 16 October', and lead researcher Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer said on LinkedIn that it is 'now clear' the study 'will not move forward in Guinea-Bissau'. The rejection follows an international outcry over the ethics of denying some newborns a globally recommended, decades-old vaccine.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has denied a request from California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington to validate a rapid, high-volume test for measles, citing other competing priorities, according to a letter sent to CDC director Erica Schwartz by the West Coast Health Alliance.
A new statistical analysis of about 100,000 quasars has found a correlation between dust obscuration and the speed of supermassive black holes, providing evidence for a population of recoiling black holes that have been kicked from their galactic centres after a merger. The findings, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, support theoretical predictions that uneven gravitational waves can drive the remnant of a black hole merger into a pendulum-like oscillation, leaving a trace in the light from surrounding gas and dust.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a detailed image of a gravitational lens, part of a preparatory campaign to guide the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s study of dark matter. The lens, formed by a foreground elliptical galaxy 4.5 billion light-years away, magnifies a background galaxy nearly twice as far, appearing as an arc-counterarc pair that will help astronomers calibrate dark matter analyses for Roman’s broader surveys.
About 251 million years ago, volcanic eruptions triggered the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, known as the 'Great Dying,' which wiped out more than 90% of ocean species and 70% of land-dwelling ones. But some plants survived, and their resilience may hold lessons for today's climate crisis, researchers say.
Heavy rain described as "biblical" caused flash flooding across Shetland on Thursday, forcing businesses in Lerwick to close and triggering a landslide that blocked a road on the west side of the island, ahead of yellow wind warnings for Storm Boelo this weekend.
A rare severe storm swept across Phoenix and other parts of Arizona, pelting neighbourhoods with damaging hail as intense downpours covered streets in ice, smashed car windscreens and shattered windows, with the National Weather Service issuing multiple warnings and tornado watches as the system moved through the region.
The US Space Force is confronting a looming launch crisis as SpaceX phases out its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket in favor of the larger Starship, leaving military satellite programmes without guaranteed access to orbit and exposing the Pentagon's heavy reliance on Elon Musk's company.
The speed at which a child’s brain matures can forecast whether they will develop depression or anxiety as a teenager up to four years before symptoms emerge, according to research published in Nature. Analysing nearly 30,000 brain scans, scientists at the University of Iowa and Mass General Brigham found that children with a thicker cortex in sensory regions at age nine were significantly more likely to experience anxiety and depression by age 13.
Abu Dhabi is pushing into preventive medicine, signing a distribution deal with Eli Lilly for GLP-1 drugs while launching research projects with wearable makers Whoop and Oura, the emirate’s Department of Health announced this week at the Future Health Summit.
A preliminary analysis of more than 130,000 adults with insomnia has found that those prescribed melatonin for more than a year had an 89 percent higher risk of heart failure and were about twice as likely to die from any cause over a five-year period compared to non-users. The findings, presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions in November 2025, have not yet been peer-reviewed, but they have already prompted a formal safety signal from Saudi Arabia's drug regulator.
Researchers at the University of Oxford have directly observed virus-like particles assembling one molecule at a time, uncovering the simple physical rules that allow complex biological structures to form reliably. The findings, published in Nature, could lead to new antiviral drugs, improved vaccines, and a deeper understanding of how life builds itself from basic components.
A possible tornado tore through the central Arizona community of Heber-Overgaard overnight Wednesday, toppling trees onto homes, shattering windows and causing minor injuries, as severe thunderstorms brought golf ball-sized hail and damaging winds across the region, the National Weather Service and local officials reported.
A third storm in less than a week is bearing down on Scotland as the Met Office issues two new yellow wind warnings that cover much of the country. The warnings come as engineers work around the clock to restore power to the 15,000 homes still disconnected after Storm Boelo, which brought gusts of up to 85mph and left one person dead.
France was preparing on Thursday for Storm Austen, a newly named system moving in from the Atlantic, even as the south dealt with the aftermath of Storm Adam, whose flooding has killed at least four people and driven dozens of residents into emergency shelters.