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<![CDATA[ Latest from Live Science ]]>
https://www.livescience.com
- Wed, 10 Dec 2025 11:45:23 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Stunningly preserved Roman-era mosaic in UK depicts Trojan War stories — but not the ones told by Homer ]]>
+ A Roman mosaic recently discovered in Britain depicts a long-lost version of the Trojan War story that differs from the most famous telling of the saga.
The artifact, known as the Ketton Mosaic, shows a key conflict during the Trojan War. But it is not based on Homer's"Iliad," the most enduring version of the tale, researchers reported in a new study. Instead, it was inspired by a more obscure tragedy by the Athenian playwright Aeschylus. Called "Phrygians," it was written in the early fifth century B.C. and survives today only in fragments and analyses discussed in other ancient works.
"This is an exciting piece of research, untangling the ways in which the stories of the Greek heroes Achilles and Hector were transmitted not just through texts but through a repertoire of images created by artists working in all sorts of materials, from pottery and silverware to paintings and mosaics," Hella Eckhardt, an archaeologist at the University of Reading who was not involved in the study, said in a statement.
Measuring 33 feet by 17 feet (10 by 5.3 meters), the mosaic likely covered part of the floor of a triclinium, or dining room, in a large villa. The mosaic was in use by the fourth century A.D., but preliminary work suggests the villa may have been occupied even earlier.
In Homer's telling of the Trojan War, the Greeks spend 10 years fighting against the city of Troy, in what is now modern-day Turkey. According to the myth, Paris, a son of Troy's King Priam, abducted the beautiful queen Helen of Sparta, and the Greeks were fighting to get her back.
The mosaic shows three scenes from the conflict between the Greek hero Achilles and the Trojan prince Hector. In the first panel, the two duel after Hector kills Patroclus, a close companion and possible lover of Achilles. In the second, Achilles drags Hector's dead body behind his chariot. And in the third, Achilles ransoms Hector's body to his father, Priam, for his weight in gold.
Initially, researchers thought the mosaic depicted scenes as described in Homer's epic, the "Iliad." But upon closer examination, study first authorJane Masseglia, a historian at the University of Leicester, found that some of the details in the mosaic were inconsistent with Homer's version. In the new study, published Dec. 3 in the journal Britannia, Masseglia and her colleagues argue that the differences instead point to "Phrygians" as the inspiration for the imagery.
For example, in the "Iliad," Achilles explicitly says he will not accept gold as ransom for Hector's body. And in the mosaic, Achilles drags Hector's body around Patroclus' tomb, while in the "Iliad," he drags it around the walls of Troy. Fragments of "Phrygians" and of ancient scholars' analyses of the text, however, describe both events as they're depicted in the Ketton Mosaic. "Phrygians" is the only known retelling of the Trojan War to describe events this way.
The art style offered further clues about the mosaic's inspiration. "In the Ketton Mosaic, not only have we got scenes telling the Aeschylus version of the story, but the top panel is actually based on a design used on a Greek pot that dates from the time of Aeschylus, 800 years before the mosaic was laid," Masseglia said in the statement.
Other parts of the mosaic also had designs from more ancient times, she noted.
"I found other parts of the mosaic were based on designs that we can see in much older silverware, coins and pottery, from Greece, Turkey, and Gaul," Masseglia said.
The findings suggest close cultural relationships between Romans in Britain and the rest of the classical world, the authors wrote in the study.
"Romano-British craftspeople weren't isolated from the rest of the ancient world, but were part of this wider network of trades passing their pattern catalogues down the generations," Masseglia added. "At Ketton, we've got Roman British craftsmanship but a Mediterranean heritage of design."
Roman Britain quiz: What do you know about the Empire's conquest of the British Isles?
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+ https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/stunningly-preserved-roman-era-mosaic-in-uk-depicts-trojan-war-stories-but-not-the-ones-told-by-homer
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+ Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:05:23 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Mysterious X-ray signal from deep space may be the scream of a star ripped apart by two black holes ]]>
+ About 3 billion years ago, a hapless star got caught in a twisted tug-of-war between two gigantic black holes — and now, we are seeing the faint screams of X-rays emanating from this violent event. If confirmed, it could be the most distant episode of two black holes attacking a star ever seen.
An international team of astronomers reported their decades-long observation of the faintest known variable X-ray flare in a paper accepted for publication in the journal The Innovation in November.
The X-ray source, named XID 925, was first spotted in 1999 within the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Deep Field South survey, the deepest and most complete X-ray survey ever taken. Since then, astronomers have kept a close eye on it, watching as what was initially a bright pinprick of radiation fell dimmer and dimmer, reaching just a paltry one-fortieth of its initially observed peak.
Making stellar spaghetti
A bright surge in X-rays followed by a long span of dimming is exactly what astronomers expect from violent encounters called tidal disruption events (TDEs), which happen when a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole. Before the star is swallowed by the monster's event horizon (the point of no return), the black hole's enormous gravity rips the star to shreds — a process cutely dubbed "spaghettification," as if the star were being pulled into a thin strand of pasta.
The stellar material then settles into a thin, rapidly rotating disk just outside the black hole. The energy released by this process makes the gas so hot that it emits X-ray radiation that's visible even from the other side of the universe. Then, the material funnels its way to the gaping maw of the black hole itself, and the disk loses brightness.
XID 925 was already remarkable, as it was one of the most distant and faintest known TDEs ever recorded. But in 1999, it all went haywire.
Between January and March of that year, XID 925 rapidly and unexpectedly brightened by a factor of 27. Then, the X-ray brightness collapsed just as quickly as it appeared, and XID 925 continued to fade from the scene.
A back-to-back black hole attack
Now, the astronomers behind the new study believe there is another culprit behind this strange brightening. This is no simple case of a TDE around a single supermassive black hole. This is a case of a TDE around two supermassive black holes.
They argue that the unlucky star was caught in the gravitational embrace of a central gigantic black hole and another, smaller (but still large in its own right) companion black hole. The larger black hole tore apart the star and transformed it into an accretion disk. But then, the second black hole swung close to the disk, or even plowed right through it, and this disruption led to a furious burst of energies, the scientists explained.
Like a hapless car crashing into the scene of an accident, the event made a messy situation even messier — in this case, by triggering the release of even more X-rays. Once the smaller black hole moved on, the system returned to normal.
While the astronomers cautioned that this story doesn't perfectly explain all of the data, they argued that it's the most compelling scenario given what we know. If it is true, it would be the most distant known binary black hole tidal disruption event, giving us a crucial and exciting window into the complex relationships between stars and black holes in the hearts of young galaxies.
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+ https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/mysterious-x-ray-signal-from-deep-space-may-be-the-scream-of-a-star-ripped-apart-by-two-black-holes
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+ Wed, 10 Dec 2025 21:09:28 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Amazon rainforest is transitioning to a 'hypertropical' climate — and trees won't survive that for long ]]>
+ The Amazon rainforest is inching toward a "hypertropical" climate regime that has not existed on Earth for at least 10 million years, new research suggests.
Scientists predict this regime will cause more frequent and extreme droughts, which could lead to mass tree dieoffs. By 2100, hot droughts could bake the Amazon for 150 days of the year, extending even into the wet season, according to a study published Wednesday (Dec. 10) in the journal Nature.
"When these hot droughts occur, that's the climate that we associate with a hypertropical forest, because it's beyond the boundary of what we consider to be tropical forest now," study lead author Jeff Chambers, a professor of geography at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.
Scientists think a hypertropical climate last existed between 40 million and 10 million years ago, during the Eocene and Miocene periods. The average global temperature during the middle Eocene was 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius) — 25 F (14 C) warmer than the average today — and previous research suggests forests near the equator had fewer mangroves and evergreen trees.
Currently, the Amazon rainforest experiences hot drought conditions a few days or weeks of the year. But due to climate change, the region's dry season — which typically lasts from July to September — is getting longer, and the annual proportion of hotter-than-normal days is increasing.
Chambers and his colleagues analyzed 30 years of temperature, humidity, soil moisture and sunlight intensity data from a patch of forest north of Manaus, a city in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. The researchers also examined information from sensors that measured water and sap flow inside tree trunks at this site, which helped them understand how the trees coped with drought conditions.
During droughts, trees struggled to access water and stopped absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), the researchers found. That's because evaporation rates surged during droughts, reducing soil moisture. Trees responded by closing the pores on their leaves that control water and gas exchange with the atmosphere, so they preserved water. But this simultaneously blocked CO2 absorption, which in plants is necessary for tissue growth and repair.
As a result, when drought conditions were extreme, a proportion of the trees died from CO2 starvation. And when soil moisture dropped below a threshold of 33% — meaning only one-third of the soil's pores were filled with water — trees also developed bubbles in their sap that were akin to clots in human blood vessels, preventing normal circulation inside the plants' fluid-filled xylem.
"If there are enough embolisms, the tree just dies," Chambers said. The soil moisture threshold leading to this collapse was remarkably consistent across two El Niño years in 2015 and 2023, and it matched thresholds measured at another study site in the Amazon. "That was really surprising to everyone," he said.
Slow-growing trees like the Shihuahuaco (Dipteryx micrantha) are more resistant to drought conditions than fast-growing trees. (Image credit: Angela Ponce for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Annual tree mortality in the Amazon rainforest is currently just above 1%, but it could rise to 1.55% by 2100, the researchers found. This may seem insignificant, but it makes a huge difference on the scale of the entire rainforest, Chambers said.
Fast-growing trees were more vulnerable to hot droughts than their slow-growing counterparts, because they needed abundant water and CO2 to sustain this growth. This suggests slow-growing trees, such as the yellow ipê (Handroanthus chrysanthus) and the Shihuahuaco (Dipteryx micrantha), will eventually dominate the Amazon as temperatures rise — if these trees can cope with increasing water stress and the rate of temperature change, that is.
The results indicate that rainforests in other parts of the world, such as western Africa and Southeast Asia, may also be transitioning to a hypertropical climate regime. This shift has dramatic implications for Earth's carbon cycle, because rainforests absorb huge amounts of CO2 that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere.
The predictions of what could happen to the Amazon by 2100 assume negligible reductions in CO2 emissions, so "it's up to us to what extent we're actually going to create this hypertropical climate," Chambers said. "If we're just going to emit greenhouse gases as much as we want, without any control, then we're going to create this hypertropical climate sooner."
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+ https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/plants/amazon-rainforest-is-transitioning-to-a-hypertropical-climate-and-trees-wont-survive-that-for-long
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+ Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:26:29 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Scientists create new solid-state sodium-ion battery — they say it'll make EVs cheaper and safer ]]>
+ A breakthrough battery technology could vastly improve the safety of batteries used for electric vehicles (EVs) and could enhance the stability of energy grids, scientists say.
Researchers made the breakthrough while developing solid-state sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries, which could one day supplement and replace the lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries used in many everyday devices today.
The new batteries promise greater safety and lower cost, provided researchers can crack the problem of producing them at scale and in such a way that they have long lifecycles. The researchers published their findings in two studies; the first was released May 19 in the journal Advanced Materials and the second Aug. 15 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
Li-ion batteries, the dominant battery technology found in products ranging from the phones in your hand to electric cars, can suffer from a process known as "thermal runaway." This occurs when a battery experiences a short circuit or physical damage, which sparks a self-sustaining chain reaction that greatly increases heat inside the cells.
Commercial Li-ion batteries also typically contain organic liquid electrolytes, which are an essential component for energy density, as well as efficient charging and discharging. These liquid electrolytes are highly flammable and can lead to batteries catching fire or even exploding when damaged.
Na-ion batteries could be a safer alternative because they contain more stable cathode materials and sodium ions have less electrochemical potential than lithium ions, making them less prone to thermal runaway.
The downside is that Na-ion batteries have a relatively low energy density compared to Li-ion batteries, meaning that they last less time between charges. In addition, Na-ion batteries may presently degrade faster, resulting in a lower overall lifespan. Both of these factors have historically held Na-ion batteries back from becoming mainstream.
But as outlined in the new research, scientists produced a solid material containing sulfur and chlorine that assists conductivity in a similar manner to liquid electrolytes while providing far superior stability. The new battery exhibited a Coulombic efficiency of 99.26% after 600 charging cycles at 0.1C (a 10-hour discharge), nearing the 99% or more that lithium batteries achieve.
Challenging lithium dominance
"We replaced the liquid electrolyte in the battery into a solid-state electrolyte — it’s non-flammable," Yang Zhao, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Western University, said in a video uploaded to YouTube.
The team also used the Canadian Light Source, Canada's national synchrotron facility, to examine the movement of ions inside their solid electrolyte, which confirmed their results.
"These X-ray tools allow us to see the local chemical environment, ion pathways, and bonding structures in ways that regular lab instruments can’t," Zhao said in a further statement. "They’re absolutely essential for developing solid-state battery materials."
The new battery technology could help lead to the widespread use of Na-ion batteries, particularly for critical workloads currently filled by more volatile Li-ion batteries, the researchers said. Next, they will have to demonstrate their approach provides the right balance between safety and energy density, as well as a manufacturing method that can be scaled to meet the immense demand for batteries seen around the world.
Despite accounting for around 70% of the world’s rechargeable batteries, Li-ion batteries are primarily used in just a handful of critical applications.
For example, recent International Energy Agency (IEA) data found that the energy sector accounts for over 90% of Li-ion demand.
Currently, battery energy storage systems (BESS) at a national level are under increased scrutiny, particularly after repeated fires at California BESS sites, and require the construction of fire suppression systems. Na-ion could help ease these concerns and speed up the deployment of BESS, which stores the intermittent supply of renewable energy to be delivered later on demand.
Because sodium is plentiful compared with lithium, the mass production of Na-ion batteries could greatly reduce the overall cost of the battery supply chain.
Na-ion batteries also come with the added benefit of being easier to recycle than Li-ion batteries, as covered in a 2023 study, because they contain fewer hazardous materials and no heavy metals.
A number of well-known car brands are already working on Na-ion batteries. In April, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), announced that it is mass-producing Na-ion batteries using its new "Naxtra" battery platform. The product is expected to be used in cars from 2026. Chinese auto giant BYD is also developing Na-ion batteries for grid-scale storage purposes.
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+ https://www.livescience.com/technology/electric-vehicles/new-battery-breakthrough-could-make-electric-cars-and-grid-scale-storage-far-safer
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+ Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:00:00 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ 'It is the most exciting discovery in my 40-year career': Archaeologists uncover evidence that Neanderthals made fire 400,000 years ago in England ]]>
+ Neanderthals were the world's first innovators of fire technology, tiny specks of evidence in England suggest. Flecks of pyrite found at a more than 400,000-year-old archaeological site in Suffolk, in eastern England, push back archaeologists' evidence for controlled fire-making and suggest that key human brain developments began far earlier than previously thought.
"We're a species who've used fire to really shape the world around us," study co-author Rob Davis, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the British Museum, said in a news conference on Tuesday (Dec. 9). "The ability to make fire would have been critically important" in human evolution, Davis said, "accelerating evolutionary trends" such as developing larger brains, maintaining larger social groups, and increasing language skills.
Since 2013, Davis and colleagues have been excavating an archaeological site in England called Barnham, which yielded stone tools, burnt sediment and charcoal from 400,000 years ago. In a study published Wednesday (Dec. 10) in the journal Nature, the researchers revealed that the site contained the world's earliest direct evidence of fire-making — and that this fire technology was likely pioneered by Neanderthals.
A big turning point
Barnham was first recognized as a Paleolithic human site in the early 1900s due to the presence of stone tools. But recent excavations uncovered evidence of ancient human groups occupying the area more than 415,000 years ago, when Barnham was a small, seasonal watering hole in a woodland depression.
In one corner of the site, archaeologists found a concentration of heat-shattered hand axes as well as a zone of reddened clay. Through a series of scientific analyses, the researchers discovered that the reddened clay had been subjected to repeated, localized burning, which suggested the area may have been an ancient hearth.
"The big turning point came with the discovery of iron pyrite," study co-author Nick Ashton, curator of Paleolithic collections at the British Museum, said in the news conference.
Pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is a naturally occurring mineral that can produce sparks when struck against flint. While pyrite is found in many locations around the world, it is extremely rare in the Barnham area, meaning someone specifically brought pyrite to the site, probably with the aim of making fire, the researchers said in the study.
Discovery of the first fragment of iron pyrite in 2017 at Barnham, Suffolk, U.K. (Image credit: Jordan Mansfield/Pathways to Ancient Britain Project)
Humans' use of fire
Because of the importance of controlled fire, paleoanthropologists have long debated the timing of this invention.
"There are so many obvious advantages to fire, from cooking to protection from predators to its technological use in creating new types of artifacts to its ability to bring people together," April Nowell, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria in Canada who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email. "We only have to think of our own childhoods gathering around a campfire to understand its emotional resonance."
Researchers believe that early humans first used wildfires for cooking food. This was a crucial step in human evolution because cooking widened the range of food available and made it more digestible, which in turn provided more nutrients needed to grow a larger brain, Davis said.
But there is limited evidence for deliberate early fire technology, and that evidence is often ambiguous, the researchers noted in the study.
For example, scientists unearthed reddened sediment at Koobi Fora in Kenya that dated to about 1.5 million years ago. Researchers suggested it could hint at early fire use because the key hominin at the site — Homo erectus — had a fairly large brain. And at twosites in Israel dated to about 800,000 years ago, burnt animal bones and stone tools suggest possible control of fire by the human ancestors who lived there.
Fire technology then exploded around 400,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found evidence of burning at cave sites in France, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and the U.K., and then more widespread use of fire in Europe, Africa and the Levant (the region around the east Mediterranean) by 200,000 years ago.
But these previous examples do not show the same kind of conclusive geochemical evidence of fire making that was found at Barnham, Ashton argued. He called the team's careful analysis of the Barnham sediment and identification of pyrite "the most exciting discovery in my 40-year career."
Researchers excavate at the site of Barnham in the U.K. (Image credit: Jordan Mansfield/Pathways to Ancient Britain Project)
Neanderthals are "fully human"
However, any bones at Barnham have since disintegrated, so the "smoking gun" of butchered and burned animal bones that could prove the site was used for cooking has not been found.
This also means there are no skeletal remains of the fire producers themselves at Barnham — but study co-author Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the National History Museum in London, has a guess about their identity.
"We assume that the fires at Barnham were being made by early Neanderthals," Stringer said in the news conference, based on a nearby site called Swanscombe, where Neanderthal skull bones were discovered that dated to the same time period as Barnham.
While experts have known for about a decade that some Neanderthals could make fire, that evidence goes back only 50,000 years. The Barnham finds push that date 350,000 years further back, suggesting Neanderthals were much smarter than most people give them credit for.
Neanderthals "are fully human," Stringer said. "They have complex behavior, they're adapting to new environments, and their brains are as large as ours. They're very evolved humans."
Nowell said that the study's results add fuel to a larger debate about Neanderthals' control of fire and their social and cultural use of it.
"There is a lot of discussion right now about whether all Neanderthals made fire or if it is only some Neanderthals at some times and places that made fire," Nowell said. The new study "is another important data point in our understanding of Neanderthal pyrotechnical capabilities with all that implies cognitively, socially and technologically."
Who made fire first?
If the researchers are correct that Neanderthals made fire from flint and pyrite more than 400,000 years ago in England, this raises additional questions, Nowell said.
"Despite its obvious advantages, questions remain about the nature of early fire use: When did fire use become a regular part of the human behavioral repertoire? Were early humans dependent on the opportunistic use of wildfires and lightning strikes? Was fire rediscovered multiple times?" Nowell said.
The ancestors of Homo sapienswere living in Africa 400,000 years ago and not likely interacting with early Neanderthals half a world away.
"We don't know if Homo sapiens at that date had the ability to make fire," Stringer said, because to date there is no clear evidence for control of fire any earlier than Barnham.
This means that Neanderthals may have invented ways to make and control fire somewhere in continental Europe, which then enabled our human cousins to move further north into England, heating and lighting their way with fire.
"It's plausible that fire became more controlled in Europe and spread to Africa," Ashton said. "We have to keep an open mind."
Neanderthal quiz: How much do you know about our closest relatives?
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+ https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/human-evolution/it-is-the-most-exciting-discovery-in-my-40-year-career-archaeologists-uncover-evidence-that-neanderthals-made-fire-400-000-years-ago-in-england
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+ <![CDATA[ Russia's Bezymianny volcano blew itself apart 69 years ago. It's now almost completely regrown. ]]>A restless Russian volcano sent an ash cloud 32,800 ft feet (10 kilometers) into the air in late November in an eruption that may bring the mountain closer to its original height.
The Bezymianny volcano is a dramatic, cone-shaped stratovolcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. It blew itself apart in 1956, but a 2020 study found that it has nearly grown back — and eruptions like the one that created an ash plume on Nov. 26 are the reason. That study found that the mountain should achieve its pre-collapse height between the years 2030 and 2035.
Seven decades ago, Bezymianny towered at least 10,213 feet (3,113 meters) above sea level. Then, on March 30, 1956, a massive eruption blew out the slope of the volcano, collapsing the summit and turning the cone-shaped mountain into a horseshoe-shaped stone amphitheater.
Almost immediately, though, the mountain started to reform, starting as a lava dome perched in the midst of this amphitheater. Over the years, the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in Kamchatka, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has monitored the mountain's growth with fieldwork, web cameras and observation flights. A series of photographs taken from flights between 1949 and 2017 shows that the volcano has nearly reached its previous height, the researchers reports in 2020. Between 1956 and 2017, the researchers found, the mountain added 932,307.2 cubic feet (26,400 cubic meters) of rock per day, on average, the researchers found.
"The most surprising thing was the fast growth of the new volcanic edifice," study co-authors Alexander Belousov and Marina Belousova, both volcanologists at the Institute of Volcanology, told Live Science in an email.
The lava dome began growing shortly after the eruption, pictured here in 1988. (Image credit: Photo by Alexander Belousov, 1988 (Institute of Volcanology, Kamchatka, Russia Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0).)
The volcano now produces a couple of explosive eruptions a year, on average. The late-November event featured not only a billowing ash cloud, but also hot avalanches of gas and rock known as pyroclastic flows, Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program reported Dec. 2.
As the volcano reaches its original height, the stability of its slopes is an important question, Belousov and Belousova told Live Science.
"It is known that similar edifices located inside horseshoe-shaped craters can experience one more large scale collapse and, as a result, a large scale explosive eruption," they said.
Bezymianny (pictured here in 2017) is expected to reach its pre-1956 eruption height in the next five to 10 years. (Image credit: Alexandr Piragis/Getty Images)
The flyover images reviewed in 2020 showed that the volcano not only sends out explosive clouds of ash and gas, but that it grows by what scientists called effusive eruptions: non-explosive flows of lava. The first of these was visible in 1977. Over time, this lava has become less rich in the mineral silica and less viscous, or goopy. Layers of this effusive lava have built up to turn Bezymianny back into a cone-shaped stratovolcano.
Researchers are still monitoring the mountain from the ground as well as by satellite, Belousov and Belousova said. Though each volcano has its own trajectory, there are many volcanoes around the world that have experienced collapse and regrowth, such as Mount St. Helens in the U.S.
"The collected dataset is very important because the obtained knowledge allows volcanologists all over the world to make long-term forecasts of the behavior of different volcanoes which experienced large-scale collapses in their history," the researchers said.
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- <![CDATA[ Historic search for 'huge missing piece' of the universe turns up negative — but reveals new secrets of particle physics ]]>
- A record-breaking investigation, using a particle detector a mile underground in South Dakota, may have revealed new insights about dark matter, the mysterious substance believed to make up most of the matter in the universe.
Using the largest dataset of its kind, the experiment — called LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) — constrained the potential properties of one of the leading candidates for dark matter with unprecedented sensitivity. The research did not uncover any evidence of the mysterious substance, but will help future studies avoid false detections and better hone in on this poorly understood piece of the universe.
"This quest is to try to solve this huge problem, this huge missing piece that we have in terms of understanding our universe," Rick Gaitskell, head of the particle astrophysics group at Brown University and part of the LZ research team, told Live Science.
The results, released Monday (Dec. 8), have been submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters and are available as a preprint via arXiv. The results were also presented at a scientific talk at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, where LZ's detector is hosted.
WIMPs vs. neutrinos
The team had two goals for the new study: to elucidate the properties of a low-mass "flavor" of proposed dark-matter particles called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), and to see if the detector could view solar neutrinos — nearly mass-less subatomic particles produced by nuclear reactions inside the sun. The team suspected that the detection signature of these particles could be similar to that predicted by certain models of dark matter, but needed to spot the solar neutrinos to know for sure.
The LUX-ZEPLIN main detector in a surface lab before installation underground. (Image credit: Matthew Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Facility)
Before the experiment, which took 417 days to perform between March 2023 and April 2025, the detector's sensitivity was upgraded to search for rare interactions with fundamental particles. A cylindrical chamber filled with liquid xenon was the theater for action. Researchers could watch for either WIMPs or neutrinos colliding with the xenon, either of which produces flashes of photons, along with positively charged electrons.
The experiment pushed forward the science for both the WIMP and neutrino questions. For the neutrinos, researchers improved their confidence that a type of solar neutrino, known as boron-8, is actually interacting with the xenon. This knowledge will help future studies avoid false detections of dark matter.
Physics discoveries typically must reach a confidence level called "5 sigma" to be considered valid. The new work achieved 4.5 sigma — a considerable improvement over sub-3-sigma results reported in two detectors last year. And that was especially notable given that boron-8 detections happen only about once a month in the detector, even when monitoring 10 tons of xenon, Gaitskell said.
As for the dark matter question, however, the researchers didn't find anything definitive for the low-mass types of WIMPs they were seeking. Scientists would have known it if they saw it, the team said; if a WIMPhits the heart of a xenon molecule, the energy of the collision creates a distinctive signature, as best as models predict.
"If you take a nucleus, it is possible for dark matter to come in and actually simultaneously scatter from the entire nucleus and cause it to recoil," Gaitskell explained. "It's known as a coherent scatter. It has a particular signature in the xenon. So it's those coherent, nuclear recoils that we're looking for."
The team did not detect this signature in their experiment.
Doubling the run
Another, longer run will begin in 2028, when the detector is expected to collect results for a record-breaking 1,000 days. Longer runs give researchers a better chance of catching rare events.
The detector will hunt not only for more solar neutrino or WIMP interactions but also other physics that may fall outside the Standard Model of particle physics said to describe most of the environment around us.
Gaitskell emphasized that the role of science is to keep pushing forward even when "negative" results arise.
"One thing I've learned is, don't ever assume that nature does things in the way that you think it should, exactly," said Gaitskell, who has been studying dark matter for more than four decades.
"There are plenty of elegant [solutions] that you would say, 'That's so beautiful. It has to be true.' And we tested them … and it turned out, nature ignored it and nature did not want to go down that particular route."
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+ <![CDATA[ Historic search for 'huge missing piece' of the universe reveals new secrets of particle physics ]]>
+ A record-breaking investigation, using a particle detector a mile underground in South Dakota, may have revealed new insights about dark matter, the mysterious substance believed to make up most of the matter in the universe.
Using the largest dataset of its kind, the experiment — called LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) — constrained the potential properties of one of the leading candidates for dark matter with unprecedented sensitivity. The research did not uncover any evidence of the mysterious substance, but will help future studies avoid false detections and better hone in on this poorly understood piece of the universe.
"This quest is to try to solve this huge problem, this huge missing piece that we have in terms of understanding our universe," Rick Gaitskell, head of the particle astrophysics group at Brown University and part of the LZ research team, told Live Science.
The results, released Monday (Dec. 8), have been submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters and are available as a preprint via arXiv. The results were also presented at a scientific talk at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, where LZ's detector is hosted.
WIMPs vs. neutrinos
The team had two goals for the new study: to elucidate the properties of a low-mass "flavor" of proposed dark-matter particles called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), and to see if the detector could view solar neutrinos — nearly mass-less subatomic particles produced by nuclear reactions inside the sun. The team suspected that the detection signature of these particles could be similar to that predicted by certain models of dark matter, but needed to spot the solar neutrinos to know for sure.
The LUX-ZEPLIN main detector in a surface lab before installation underground. (Image credit: Matthew Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Facility)
Before the experiment, which took 417 days to perform between March 2023 and April 2025, the detector's sensitivity was upgraded to search for rare interactions with fundamental particles. A cylindrical chamber filled with liquid xenon was the theater for action. Researchers could watch for either WIMPs or neutrinos colliding with the xenon, either of which produces flashes of photons, along with positively charged electrons.
The experiment pushed forward the science for both the WIMP and neutrino questions. For the neutrinos, researchers improved their confidence that a type of solar neutrino, known as boron-8, is actually interacting with the xenon. This knowledge will help future studies avoid false detections of dark matter.
Physics discoveries typically must reach a confidence level called "5 sigma" to be considered valid. The new work achieved 4.5 sigma — a considerable improvement over sub-3-sigma results reported in two detectors last year. And that was especially notable given that boron-8 detections happen only about once a month in the detector, even when monitoring 10 tons of xenon, Gaitskell said.
As for the dark matter question, however, the researchers didn't find anything definitive for the low-mass types of WIMPs they were seeking. Scientists would have known it if they saw it, the team said; if a WIMPhits the heart of a xenon molecule, the energy of the collision creates a distinctive signature, as best as models predict.
"If you take a nucleus, it is possible for dark matter to come in and actually simultaneously scatter from the entire nucleus and cause it to recoil," Gaitskell explained. "It's known as a coherent scatter. It has a particular signature in the xenon. So it's those coherent, nuclear recoils that we're looking for."
The team did not detect this signature in their experiment.
Doubling the run
The experiment continues now, with a longer run ongoing until 2028. By then, the detector will have collected a record-breaking 1,000 days of data. Longer runs give researchers a better chance of catching rare events.
The detector will hunt not only for more solar neutrino or WIMP interactions but also other physics that may fall outside the Standard Model of particle physics said to describe most of the environment around us.
Gaitskell emphasized that the role of science is to keep pushing forward even when "negative" results arise.
"One thing I've learned is, don't ever assume that nature does things in the way that you think it should, exactly," said Gaitskell, who has been studying dark matter for more than four decades.
"There are plenty of elegant [solutions] that you would say, 'That's so beautiful. It has to be true.' And we tested them … and it turned out, nature ignored it and nature did not want to go down that particular route."
Editor's note: This article was updated on Dec. 10 at 5 p.m. ET with a correction. The detector's next run won't begin in 2028, but rather end then, after a cumulative 1,000 days of data have been collected.
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https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/particle-physics/historic-search-for-huge-missing-piece-of-the-universe-turns-up-negative-but-reveals-new-secrets-of-particle-physics
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<![CDATA[ Today's biggest science news: James Webb sees earliest supernova | Monogamy 'league table' | Comet 3I/ATLAS X-ray ]]>
- Here's the biggest science news you need to know.
The remotely operated camera filmed its own demise inside the Halema'uma'u crater on Saturday (Dec. 6) as a wall of volcanic debris approached and knocked it offline.
Kilauea volcano is one of the world's most active volcanoes and has erupted almost continuously on Hawaii's Big Island for more than 30 years.
The latest activity marked the 38th episode of the Kilauea summit's eruption cycle, which began on Dec. 23, 2024. We've seen plenty of lava fountains before, but the USGS's cameras are rarely this close to the action.
'Hobbit' extinction
A reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. (Image credit: Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post. via Getty Images)
A drought may have doomed the small ancient human species Homo floresiensis, nicknamed "the hobbit," Live Science contributor Owen Jarus reports.
New research suggests that declining rainfall could have reduced the population of Stegodon (extinct elephant relatives) that H. floresiensis relied on for food, and, in turn, forced the Hobbit to compete with modern humans (us).
H. floresiensis lived in Indonesia from at least 100,000 years ago until about 50,000 years ago. Researchers still have a lot to learn about these enigmatic ancient humans, the remains of which have only ever been found in one cave, and it remains uncertain whether they interacted with us.
Species typically go extinct for multiple reasons. In the case of H. floresiensis, a volcanic eruption may have also been a significant factor in their demise.
A natural disaster evacuation point in Japan. (Image credit: HABesen via Getty Images)
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake has hit off the northeastern coast of Japan's main island, Honshu. The earthquake struck at 11:15 p.m. local time (9:15 a.m. EST).
The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued tsunami warnings in three regions: the central part of the Pacific Coast of Hokkaido region, the Pacific Coast of Aomori Prefecture and Iwate Prefecture. The expected maximum tsunami height is between 3.2 and 9.8 feet (1 and 3 meters).
The earthquake was most intense in Hachinohe City where there was a seismic intensity of 6+ — such intensity means it is "impossible to remain standing or to move without crawling," according to the Japan Meteorological Agency's explanation of seismic intensity.
Tsunami Info Stmt: M7.6 Hokkaido, Japan Region 0615PST Dec 8: Tsunami NOT expected; CA,OR,WA,BC,and AKDecember 8, 2025
The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center tweeted at 9:32 a.m. EST that a tsunami was not expected in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia or Alaska.
Rare sacrificial complex found in Russia
Researchers have reported the discovery of a "sacrificial complex" in Russia. (Image credit: Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences)
Russian archaeologists recently discovered a collection of hundreds of horse bridle bits and bronze beads near the burial mounds of high-status nomads from the fourth century B.C.
While the artifacts themselves are not exactly surprising — after all, these nomadic peoples relied on horses for travel — their collection as a kind of "sacrifice" is unusual.
To learn more about this discovery, which oddly included a gold plaque depicting a tiger, check out my coverage here.
Look out for Northern Lights
Geomagnetic storms can result in visible auroras, like those pictured here over Cypress Island in the U.S. (Image credit: Joel Askey / 500px via Getty Images)
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch for tomorrow (Dec. 9), with the potential for visible auroras over many U.S. states from the lower Midwest to Oregon.
The aurora forecast comes as multiple blasts of plasma, or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), hurtle toward Earth from the sun. CMEs have the potential to clash with Earth's magnetic field and trigger geomagnetic storms.
Tomorrow's strong geomagnetic storm forecast is associated with the eruption of a solar flare on Saturday. The resulting CME is predicted to arrive at midday tomorrow.
The Space Weather Prediction Center noted that the CME could also have limited, minor effects on technological infrastructure, but this can usually be mitigated.
And tonight…
Parts of the Northern Hemisphere could see some auroras on Monday, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com.
The Space Weather Prediction Center has forecast a less intense G1 geomagnetic storm as a result of a separate CME that left the sun on Dec. 4, while the U.K.'s Met Office has the more intense G3 watch in place for tonight and tomorrow.
Our sun is very active at the moment. The Space Weather Prediction Center recorded another powerful solar flare earlier today. The X1.1-level flare triggered high-frequency radio disruptions over parts of Australia and southern Asia, according to NOAA.
Tsunami hits Japan
Japan issued a tsunami warning earlier today. (Image credit: GREG BAKER / AFP via Getty Images)
A tsunami has hit Japan following a magnitude 7.6 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Honshu, the country's main island, earlier today.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has recorded tsunami waves hitting Japan's eastern coastline. The precise height of the waves is unclear at this time, but most are in the 3-foot-tall (1 meter) or less category.
There are no reported deaths at this time, although there are some reports of injuries.
Japan downgrades tsunami warning
Japan has downgraded its tsunami warning to a tsunami advisory. The initial warning meant that the authorities expected a maximum tsunami height of between 3.3 feet and 9.8 feet (1 and 3 m).
However, an "advisory" level means that the expected maximum height has been reduced to 3.3 feet, in keeping with the wave heights recorded thus far.
Earthquake injuries and damage
The Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, addressed the media following a major earthquake off the country's main island earlier today. (Image credit: JIJI PRESS / AFP via Getty Images)
There have been some reports of injuries and damage in Japan as a result of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck off Japan's main island earlier today. However, these initial reports are limited.
Sky News reported that several people have been injured in coastal communities, but that it was unclear how many.
A hotel employee in Hachinohe City told the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, of multiple injuries. In this case, everyone involved was conscious.
Japan's Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, told reporters on Tuesday morning local time that seven injuries had been reported, according to Reuters. The government has set up a task force in response to the earthquake.
Nuclear power plants appear to be working normally, according to NHK.
This is a developing story and we expect more details to emerge over the next 24 hours.
U.K. sign off
I'm signing off on the U.K. side, but as always, there's more to come from my U.S. colleagues.
You blockhead!
The "cube" shaped skull shown on the left, along with 3D scans (middle and right). (Image credit: INAH; Technical Archive of the Physical Anthropology Section of CINAH Tamaulipas)
In Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strip, Lucy often calls Charlie Brown a "blockhead." Archaeologists in Mexico recently discovered another kind of blockhead — a man whose skull had been shaped as an infant into something resembling a cube.
While head-shaping (also called cranial vault modification) is a practice that people around the world and through time have done to their kids, this particular shape was a surprise to researchers, who'd never seen it in that area of Mexico before.
For more information on the skull and the man it belonged to over a millennium ago, check out my coverage here.
Dark matter hunt fails — and scientists are excited
A simulation of the cosmic web. Scientists think some of these filaments are held together by dark matter. (Image credit: ESA)
A Herculean effort to search for dark matter has found no evidence for the elusive substance. That's the takeaway from a gigantic particle detector located a mile underground in South Dakota.
The 417-day-long experiment, known as LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), looked at the light signatures released as particles collide with xenon atoms in a giant vat, which is placed deep underground so that most particles from space cannot muddy the results.
Dark matter, which emits no light yet exerts gravitational force, is thought to make up most of the universe. And the new findings tightly constrain the properties of one the leading candidates for dark matter.
You can read all about why scientists are actually happy about these negative results in contributor Elizabeth Howell's story here.
Watch 3 astronauts return from the ISS
Jonny Kim of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy of Roscosmos bidding adieu to Earthbound people at the Cosmonaut Hotel ahead of their launch on April 8, 2025 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. They are returning to Earth today after eight months in space. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Three astronauts — NASA's Jonny Kim and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky — will be making the long journey home tonight. The trio has orbited Earth together 3,920 times, traveling a mind-boggling 104 million miles (167 million kilometers) since they launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in April, according to NASA.
The trio is scheduled to leave the ISS via a Soyuz spacecraft today at 8:41 p.m. EST (0141 GMT on Dec. 9) and will land in Kazakhstan near the city of Dzhezkazgan, Live Science's sister site Space.com is reporting.
The journey is scheduled to last around 3.5-hours — a speedy trip when you consider that it takes about 6 hours to fly between New York and San Francisco on a commercial plane.
Can waste cooking oil be used as an ultra-sticky glue? (Image credit: Getty Images (background) / Mahadas et al. (inset))
What should you do with the leftover cooking oil in your pot after dinner? Pour it down the drain and feed the growing fatberg under your town? Or maybe do what a team of chemists just did, and use it to make a super-sticky adhesive polymer with unbelievable strength.
As described in a recent study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the researchers devised a way to break down waste oil molecules, then recombine them in a variety of ways. One recombination resulted in a super-adhesive polyester plastic.
When the team used this polyester to glue two metal plates together, they found it could hold up hundreds of pounds of weight, and even tow a car. Read all about the amazing discovery in contributor Mason Wakley's new story on Live Science.
See you later
The U.S. is signing off for the night, but check back here tomorrow for the latest science news from our U.K. team.
Japan earthquake update
Good morning, science fans. Patrick here to kick off the day's science news blog coverage.
I want to begin with an update on Japan, which was rocked by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Honshu, the country's main island, yesterday.
More than 30 people were injured in the earthquake, Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK reports. However, there haven't been any reports of major damage, according to Reuters.
Japanese authorities issued a tsunami warning immediately following the quake. The initial warning meant that the authorities expected a maximum tsunami height of between 3.3 and 9.8 feet (1 and 3 meters). However, this was subsequently downgraded to an advisory before being lifted altogether.
Officials issued a tsunami warning immediately after the earthquake, which has since been lifted. (Image credit: Bedirhan Demirel/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Megaquake advisory
A collapsed bookshelf at a high school library in Aomori Prefecture, following the major earthquake off northeastern Japan yesterday. (Image credit: JIJI Press / AFP via Getty Images)
Japan is now on "mega-quake" alert for a week, with the Japan Meteorological Agency warning that a magnitude 8 or higher earthquake could strike over the next few days.
The northeastern region of Japan was hit by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake in 2011, the deadliest in its history, just two days after it experienced an earthquake in the magnitude 7 range.
The government, therefore, issues a mega-quake warning whenever the region is hit by a significant earthquake, according to Reuters.
However, earthquakes are notoriously unpredictable.
A Christmas star
Skywatchers have many theories about the "Star of Bethlehem." (Image credit: Getty Images)
Jupiter is shining bright in the night sky this winter, with Live Science contributor Jamie Carter drawing comparisons between it and the "Star of Bethlehem."
Does this biblical star have any astronomical origins? Find out more by reading Carter's full story here.
Auroras incoming
The northern lights can produce dazzling night sky displays, like the one pictured here over Wisconsin on Nov. 11. (Image credit: Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has a strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch in place for today (Dec. 9), with the potential for visible auroras over many U.S. states from the lower Midwest to Oregon.
The geomagnetic storm is associated with the eruption of a solar flare on the sun, which is thought to have sent a blast of plasma (coronal mass ejection, or CME) toward Earth.
Space weather forecasters have been expecting the CME to clash with Earth's magnetic field and trigger the geomagnetic storm, along with the potentially visible auroras.
The CME could also have limited, minor effects on technological infrastructure, but this can usually be mitigated, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
Kick me with your best shot
A Chinese robotics company has released a promotional video of a humanoid robot kicking its CEO boss to the floor.
In the video, EngineAI's Zhao Tongyang gears up to take a strike from the T800 robot. The robot misses its first kick, but connects cleanly with the second, knocking the CEO off his feet.
75kg class head-on brawl! EngineAI T800 kicks the boss: Is this kick personal?#EngineAI #robotics #newtechnology #newproduct pic.twitter.com/UCRrP0qBazDecember 6, 2025
EngineAI said that the purpose of the simulated fight was to counter claims that its latest model was a CGI creation, CNN reports.
While the T800 appears to have a decent kick, it doesn't go unnoticed that Tongyang was standing still, waiting patiently for his robot to strike.
With that in mind, don't expect to see robots beating UFC fighters anytime soon.
Another climate milestone
Global warming is fuelling wildfires and having a variety of other adverse environmental impacts. (Image credit: LBochev via Getty Images)
As of November, this year is tied with 2023 for annual global surface temperature, but the temperature is slightly cooler than it was in 2024, the warmest year on record.
The latest data suggests that next month we'll be able to say that the last three years were the warmest on record — an ominous consequence of global warming.
Researchers measure global temperature rise above the estimated average temperature between 1850 and 1900, known as pre-industrial levels.
World leaders promised to limit this warming to preferably below 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) and well below 3.6 F (2 C) in the 2015 Paris Agreement, adopted at the United Nations' COP21 climate conference. Unfortunately, they're failing.
The latest Copernicus data reveals that 2025 was another hot year for annual global surface air temperature. (Image credit: C3S/ECMWF)
"For November, global temperatures were 1.54 C above pre-industrial levels, and the three-year average for 2023–2025 is on track to exceed 1.5 C for the first time," Samantha Burgess, the strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which implements the Copernicus program, said in a statement.
"These milestones are not abstract — they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change and the only way to mitigate future rising temperatures is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Burgess added.
It's worth remembering that last month, climate deliberations at the COP30 conference in Brazil ended in an underwhelming compromise. The final text of the COP30 agreement didn't contain any clear mention of fossil fuels, which are the primary source of increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Comet 3I/ATLAS gets an X-ray
An X-ray image of comet 3I/ATLAS reveals a faint emission structure stretching about 250,000 (400,000 kilometers) around the comet. (Image credit: JAXA)
Comet 3I/ATLAS has been viewed through an X-ray space telescope for the first time, revealing an X-ray glow stretching about 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) around the interstellar visitor.
This is the first time researchers have been able to detect X-rays emanating from an interstellar comet.
The comet was observed as part of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Researchers across the globe are scrambling to learn all they can about comet 3I/ATLAS before this rare interstellar visitor exits our solar system next year.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope got a great view of comet 3I/ATLAS on Nov. 30. (Image credit: NASA / Hubble)
XRISM observed comet 3I/ATLAS between Nov. 26 and Nov. 28, just as the comet moved far enough away from the sun to be visible to the telescope’s instruments.
"Comets are enveloped by clouds of gas produced as sunlight heats and vaporizes their icy surfaces," XRISM representatives wrote in a statement. "When this gas interacts with the energetic stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun — the solar wind — a process called charge-exchange reaction occurs, producing characteristic X-ray emission."
The researchers described the glow in the X-ray image as a "faint emission structure" and said it was potentially the result of a diffuse cloud of gas.
However, the researchers also noted that instrumental effects such as vignetting or detector noise can create similar structures in images, so they'll have to do follow-up analysis to confirm whether the extensive emission structure belongs to the comet.
"Moving forward, the XRISM team will continue refining its data processing and analysis to further reveal the activity of this interstellar comet and the nature of its interaction with the solar wind," the representatives wrote.
Over and out
I'm signing off now with the rest of the U.K. team. As always, keep checking back for more science news from my U.S. colleagues. Patrick out.
More parents refusing the vitamin K shot for their babies
Newborns in the U.S. are recommended to get a shot of vitamin K at birth to prevent a dangerous vitamin deficiency. (Image credit: Image taken by Mayte Torres via Getty Images)
New research in JAMA finds that more parents are opting out of giving their babies a recommended vitamin K shot at birth. And that puts babies at risk, experts say.
"We know unequivocally that infants that don't receive vitamin K are at significantly higher risk of getting serious bleeding," the lead study author told Scientific American.
All newborns are recommended to receive an injection of vitamin K, a nutrient that helps the body form blood clots. Older children and adults get vitamin K from their diets and their gut microbiomes, but babies are born with very little.
The nutrient doesn't easily pass through the placenta and babies' microbiomes are too immature to make it; breast milk also contains relatively little vitamin K, and regardless, vitamin K given to babies by mouth isn't absorbed well. That means babies are vulnerable to vitamin K deficiency, which can lead to dangerous bleeding, and in turn, permanent brain damage or death.
The one-time vitamin K shot protects babies from this deficiency extremely effectively and safely. Since universal administration of the vitamin was started in 1961, the U.S. has "nearly eliminated" vitamin K deficiency bleeding. But now, our numbers are slipping.
The JAMA analysis found that, between 2017 and 2024, the rate of vitamin K shot refusal has risen nearly 80%, with the proportion of newborns not given the shot rising from 2.92% to 5.18%.
Anecdotally, I've seen my share of breathless, online influencers spreading misinformation about vitamin K shots. Their efforts are closely tied to — if not indistinguishable from — the anti-vaccine movement, despite vitamin K shots not being vaccines. Often, the influencers promote unproven alternatives to the shot, which they personally happen to sell.
But to put it plainly: when vitamin K administration goes down, the rate of babies dying goes up. The new JAMA study calls attention to that disturbing trend. You can learn more about the vitamin K shot from the American Academy of Pediatrics and their informational site, Healthy Children.
'Gold hydrogen' sufficient to power human civilization for 170,000 years
Hydrogen could lurk in massive quantities in areas throughout the U.S., research is revealing. (Image credit: Marilyn Perkins)
Staff writer Sascha Pare has a fascinating feature on the hunt for "gold hydrogen," or hydrogen that's naturally found in large quantities separate from natural gas.
Hydrogen could power a green economy, but the naturally occurring stuff has historically been found with natural gas, which produce greenhouse gases when burned. But a 2016 find in Mali changed our understanding of how much hydrogen is lurking in Earth's crust, and where it's likely to be found.
Ubiquitous cold virus may raise risk of bladder cancer
An illustration of the BK virus, which may be little known to the general public, but which researchers think may raise the risk of bladder cancer. (Image credit: KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
Cancer isn't infectious — but we now know that several types of infections do raise the risk of cancer down the line. Among the well-known microbes known to fuel cancer are HPV, the primary cause of cervical cancer; hepatitis B, which causes liver cancer; and Helicobacter pylori, which raises stomach cancer risk.
Live Science contributor Jennifer Zieba has a fascinating new piece on another cancer which may be fueled, at least in part, by past infection.
Although most of us have never heard about the virus, it is a common infection that tons of us get as kids. To learn more about the virus, and how researchers think it may raise cancer risk, read the full story here.
RFK's FDA takes aim at RSV preventative treatments
RSV is notorious for causing serious infections in young children. Antibody treatments can help ward off severe disease. (Image credit: CDC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has informed pharma executives that it will be reevaluating already-approved treatments designed to protect infants from RSV, according to exclusive reporting from Reuters.
RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is an infection that spreads seasonally and is particularly dangerous to young children, standing as the most common cause of hospitalization in infants. Annually, 100 to 300 children under 5 die from the infection in the U.S. To drive that number down, in recent years, scientists have invented, tested and earned FDA approval for antibody-based drugs that protect infants during RSV season. These treatments have been thoroughly researched in large clinical trials and shown to be both safe and effective at lowering the risk of serious RSV that requires a doctor's appointment, ER visit or hospitalization.
The treatments are recommended to all infants under 8 months old in their first RSV season, excluding babies whose mothers got an RSV vaccine before birth. (The vaccine prompts the mother to make antibodies that get passed to the baby.) Additionally, select kids with health conditions are recommended another dose during their second RSV season.
The antibody shots are sometimes lumped into conversations and controversy surrounding vaccines, despite not being vaccines themselves. They supply the body with ready-made antibodies; they do not teach the immune system to make its own, as a vaccine would.
The FDA has informed makers of the antibody drugs that it will be asking further safety questions about the treatments, and for now, it's unclear if that reevaluation might lead to changes in the drugs' availability or approval status.
What we do know is that the pattern is reminiscent of a move made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, in which the agency overturned established guidance about the hepatitis B vaccine with no data suggesting they should make the change — and ample data suggesting they should not. Such moves align with the stance of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who posits that the risks of many pharmaceutical products have not been properly studied and casts doubt on established science.
An illustration of multiple drones, sample collectors and rovers on Mars. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech)
Our top priority when humans reach Mars should be to hunt for past or present life on the Red Planet, a new report from leading U.S. scientists argues.
The report, released by the National Academy of Sciences today (Dec. 9), lays out a road map of scientific priorities for the (hopefully) coming crewed mission to Mars.
If we do make it to the Red Planet in the next decade, we should also look for evidence of CO2 and water cycles, investigate the geological history of Mars, and study the physiological and psychological effects of both spaceflight and the Martian environment on potential astronauts living there, the report says.
Lower down on the list, scientists say we should explore Mars searching for resources we could exploit for future colonies, analyze the effects of the Martian environment on DNA and its replication, and characterize microbial communities that may be brought along for the ride through the solar system. As part of the new road map, they also lay out which types of measurements and instrumentation may be required to address each of those priorities.
It's a big and somewhat daunting list, but it's hard to imagine investing the staggering amount of money and technological innovation required to reach the Martian surface if we're not going to learn as much as we can from the process.
Catch you on the flip side!
The U.S. West Coast team is heading out for the evening, but we'll leave you with this tuff question, courtesy of sciencefun.org:
What did the limestone say to the geologist?
Don't take me for granite!
Aurora no-show
The northern lights can produce dazzling night sky displays, like the one pictured here over Wisconsin on Nov. 11. (Image credit: Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Good morning, science fans! Patrick here to launch another day of our science news blog coverage.
Yesterday's northern lights forecast turned out to be a bit of a let-down for skywatchers.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center had issued a strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch for Tuesday, which had the potential to produce visible auroras over many U.S. states from the lower Midwest to Oregon.
However, this storm was expected to be triggered by a blast of plasma from the sun (coronal mass ejection, or CME), which didn't arrive as forecast.
Live Science's sister site Space.com reports that the CME only brushed Earth or missed us altogether.
Space weather forecasters are still seeing moderate to high solar activity, but for now, aurora activity is likely to be limited.
Supernova surprise
This two-part illustration reveals what supernova GRB 250314A might have looked like as it was exploding and how it appeared when JWST observed it three months later. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI))
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has identified the earliest supernova on record, according to a statement released by the space agency yesterday.
The ancient and distant supernova exploded when the universe was in its infancy at just 730 million years old. For context, the universe is thought to be around 13.8 billion years old.
JWST turned its attention to the supernova in July after an international group of telescopes detected a rare gamma-ray burst (bright flash of light) in March, according to the statement.
"Only Webb could directly show that this light is from a supernova — a collapsing massive star," Andrew Levan, an astronomer at Radboud University in the Netherlands and the University of Warwick in the U.K., said in the statement.
"This observation also demonstrates that we can use Webb to find individual stars when the universe was only 5% of its current age," Levan added.
Surprisingly, the supernova looked very similar to modern supernovae that have occurred much closer to Earth. Researchers will need to collect more data to explore why this might be the case.
The James Webb Space Telescope's view of supernova GRB 250314A, highlighted in a box. (Image credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Andrew Levan (Radboud University); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)) ]]>
+ Here's the biggest science news you need to know.
The remotely operated camera filmed its own demise inside the Halema'uma'u crater on Saturday (Dec. 6) as a wall of volcanic debris approached and knocked it offline.
Kilauea volcano is one of the world's most active volcanoes and has erupted almost continuously on Hawaii's Big Island for more than 30 years.
The latest activity marked the 38th episode of the Kilauea summit's eruption cycle, which began on Dec. 23, 2024. We've seen plenty of lava fountains before, but the USGS's cameras are rarely this close to the action.
'Hobbit' extinction
A reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. (Image credit: Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post. via Getty Images)
A drought may have doomed the small ancient human species Homo floresiensis, nicknamed "the hobbit," Live Science contributor Owen Jarus reports.
New research suggests that declining rainfall could have reduced the population of Stegodon (extinct elephant relatives) that H. floresiensis relied on for food, and, in turn, forced the Hobbit to compete with modern humans (us).
H. floresiensis lived in Indonesia from at least 100,000 years ago until about 50,000 years ago. Researchers still have a lot to learn about these enigmatic ancient humans, the remains of which have only ever been found in one cave, and it remains uncertain whether they interacted with us.
Species typically go extinct for multiple reasons. In the case of H. floresiensis, a volcanic eruption may have also been a significant factor in their demise.
A natural disaster evacuation point in Japan. (Image credit: HABesen via Getty Images)
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake has hit off the northeastern coast of Japan's main island, Honshu. The earthquake struck at 11:15 p.m. local time (9:15 a.m. EST).
The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued tsunami warnings in three regions: the central part of the Pacific Coast of Hokkaido region, the Pacific Coast of Aomori Prefecture and Iwate Prefecture. The expected maximum tsunami height is between 3.2 and 9.8 feet (1 and 3 meters).
The earthquake was most intense in Hachinohe City where there was a seismic intensity of 6+ — such intensity means it is "impossible to remain standing or to move without crawling," according to the Japan Meteorological Agency's explanation of seismic intensity.
Tsunami Info Stmt: M7.6 Hokkaido, Japan Region 0615PST Dec 8: Tsunami NOT expected; CA,OR,WA,BC,and AKDecember 8, 2025
The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center tweeted at 9:32 a.m. EST that a tsunami was not expected in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia or Alaska.
Rare sacrificial complex found in Russia
Researchers have reported the discovery of a "sacrificial complex" in Russia. (Image credit: Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences)
Russian archaeologists recently discovered a collection of hundreds of horse bridle bits and bronze beads near the burial mounds of high-status nomads from the fourth century B.C.
While the artifacts themselves are not exactly surprising — after all, these nomadic peoples relied on horses for travel — their collection as a kind of "sacrifice" is unusual.
To learn more about this discovery, which oddly included a gold plaque depicting a tiger, check out my coverage here.
Look out for Northern Lights
Geomagnetic storms can result in visible auroras, like those pictured here over Cypress Island in the U.S. (Image credit: Joel Askey / 500px via Getty Images)
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch for tomorrow (Dec. 9), with the potential for visible auroras over many U.S. states from the lower Midwest to Oregon.
The aurora forecast comes as multiple blasts of plasma, or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), hurtle toward Earth from the sun. CMEs have the potential to clash with Earth's magnetic field and trigger geomagnetic storms.
Tomorrow's strong geomagnetic storm forecast is associated with the eruption of a solar flare on Saturday. The resulting CME is predicted to arrive at midday tomorrow.
The Space Weather Prediction Center noted that the CME could also have limited, minor effects on technological infrastructure, but this can usually be mitigated.
And tonight…
Parts of the Northern Hemisphere could see some auroras on Monday, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com.
The Space Weather Prediction Center has forecast a less intense G1 geomagnetic storm as a result of a separate CME that left the sun on Dec. 4, while the U.K.'s Met Office has the more intense G3 watch in place for tonight and tomorrow.
Our sun is very active at the moment. The Space Weather Prediction Center recorded another powerful solar flare earlier today. The X1.1-level flare triggered high-frequency radio disruptions over parts of Australia and southern Asia, according to NOAA.
Tsunami hits Japan
Japan issued a tsunami warning earlier today. (Image credit: GREG BAKER / AFP via Getty Images)
A tsunami has hit Japan following a magnitude 7.6 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Honshu, the country's main island, earlier today.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has recorded tsunami waves hitting Japan's eastern coastline. The precise height of the waves is unclear at this time, but most are in the 3-foot-tall (1 meter) or less category.
There are no reported deaths at this time, although there are some reports of injuries.
Japan downgrades tsunami warning
Japan has downgraded its tsunami warning to a tsunami advisory. The initial warning meant that the authorities expected a maximum tsunami height of between 3.3 feet and 9.8 feet (1 and 3 m).
However, an "advisory" level means that the expected maximum height has been reduced to 3.3 feet, in keeping with the wave heights recorded thus far.
Earthquake injuries and damage
The Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, addressed the media following a major earthquake off the country's main island earlier today. (Image credit: JIJI PRESS / AFP via Getty Images)
There have been some reports of injuries and damage in Japan as a result of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck off Japan's main island earlier today. However, these initial reports are limited.
Sky News reported that several people have been injured in coastal communities, but that it was unclear how many.
A hotel employee in Hachinohe City told the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, of multiple injuries. In this case, everyone involved was conscious.
Japan's Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, told reporters on Tuesday morning local time that seven injuries had been reported, according to Reuters. The government has set up a task force in response to the earthquake.
Nuclear power plants appear to be working normally, according to NHK.
This is a developing story and we expect more details to emerge over the next 24 hours.
U.K. sign off
I'm signing off on the U.K. side, but as always, there's more to come from my U.S. colleagues.
You blockhead!
The "cube" shaped skull shown on the left, along with 3D scans (middle and right). (Image credit: INAH; Technical Archive of the Physical Anthropology Section of CINAH Tamaulipas)
In Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strip, Lucy often calls Charlie Brown a "blockhead." Archaeologists in Mexico recently discovered another kind of blockhead — a man whose skull had been shaped as an infant into something resembling a cube.
While head-shaping (also called cranial vault modification) is a practice that people around the world and through time have done to their kids, this particular shape was a surprise to researchers, who'd never seen it in that area of Mexico before.
For more information on the skull and the man it belonged to over a millennium ago, check out my coverage here.
Dark matter hunt fails — and scientists are excited
A simulation of the cosmic web. Scientists think some of these filaments are held together by dark matter. (Image credit: ESA)
A Herculean effort to search for dark matter has found no evidence for the elusive substance. That's the takeaway from a gigantic particle detector located a mile underground in South Dakota.
The 417-day-long experiment, known as LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), looked at the light signatures released as particles collide with xenon atoms in a giant vat, which is placed deep underground so that most particles from space cannot muddy the results.
Dark matter, which emits no light yet exerts gravitational force, is thought to make up most of the universe. And the new findings tightly constrain the properties of one the leading candidates for dark matter.
You can read all about why scientists are actually happy about these negative results in contributor Elizabeth Howell's story here.
Watch 3 astronauts return from the ISS
Jonny Kim of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy of Roscosmos bidding adieu to Earthbound people at the Cosmonaut Hotel ahead of their launch on April 8, 2025 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. They are returning to Earth today after eight months in space. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Three astronauts — NASA's Jonny Kim and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky — will be making the long journey home tonight. The trio has orbited Earth together 3,920 times, traveling a mind-boggling 104 million miles (167 million kilometers) since they launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in April, according to NASA.
The trio is scheduled to leave the ISS via a Soyuz spacecraft today at 8:41 p.m. EST (0141 GMT on Dec. 9) and will land in Kazakhstan near the city of Dzhezkazgan, Live Science's sister site Space.com is reporting.
The journey is scheduled to last around 3.5-hours — a speedy trip when you consider that it takes about 6 hours to fly between New York and San Francisco on a commercial plane.
Can waste cooking oil be used as an ultra-sticky glue? (Image credit: Getty Images (background) / Mahadas et al. (inset))
What should you do with the leftover cooking oil in your pot after dinner? Pour it down the drain and feed the growing fatberg under your town? Or maybe do what a team of chemists just did, and use it to make a super-sticky adhesive polymer with unbelievable strength.
As described in a recent study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the researchers devised a way to break down waste oil molecules, then recombine them in a variety of ways. One recombination resulted in a super-adhesive polyester plastic.
When the team used this polyester to glue two metal plates together, they found it could hold up hundreds of pounds of weight, and even tow a car. Read all about the amazing discovery in contributor Mason Wakley's new story on Live Science.
See you later
The U.S. is signing off for the night, but check back here tomorrow for the latest science news from our U.K. team.
Japan earthquake update
Good morning, science fans. Patrick here to kick off the day's science news blog coverage.
I want to begin with an update on Japan, which was rocked by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Honshu, the country's main island, yesterday.
More than 30 people were injured in the earthquake, Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK reports. However, there haven't been any reports of major damage, according to Reuters.
Japanese authorities issued a tsunami warning immediately following the quake. The initial warning meant that the authorities expected a maximum tsunami height of between 3.3 and 9.8 feet (1 and 3 meters). However, this was subsequently downgraded to an advisory before being lifted altogether.
Officials issued a tsunami warning immediately after the earthquake, which has since been lifted. (Image credit: Bedirhan Demirel/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Megaquake advisory
A collapsed bookshelf at a high school library in Aomori Prefecture, following the major earthquake off northeastern Japan yesterday. (Image credit: JIJI Press / AFP via Getty Images)
Japan is now on "mega-quake" alert for a week, with the Japan Meteorological Agency warning that a magnitude 8 or higher earthquake could strike over the next few days.
The northeastern region of Japan was hit by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake in 2011, the deadliest in its history, just two days after it experienced an earthquake in the magnitude 7 range.
The government, therefore, issues a mega-quake warning whenever the region is hit by a significant earthquake, according to Reuters.
However, earthquakes are notoriously unpredictable.
A Christmas star
Skywatchers have many theories about the "Star of Bethlehem." (Image credit: Getty Images)
Jupiter is shining bright in the night sky this winter, with Live Science contributor Jamie Carter drawing comparisons between it and the "Star of Bethlehem."
Does this biblical star have any astronomical origins? Find out more by reading Carter's full story here.
Auroras incoming
The northern lights can produce dazzling night sky displays, like the one pictured here over Wisconsin on Nov. 11. (Image credit: Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has a strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch in place for today (Dec. 9), with the potential for visible auroras over many U.S. states from the lower Midwest to Oregon.
The geomagnetic storm is associated with the eruption of a solar flare on the sun, which is thought to have sent a blast of plasma (coronal mass ejection, or CME) toward Earth.
Space weather forecasters have been expecting the CME to clash with Earth's magnetic field and trigger the geomagnetic storm, along with the potentially visible auroras.
The CME could also have limited, minor effects on technological infrastructure, but this can usually be mitigated, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
Kick me with your best shot
A Chinese robotics company has released a promotional video of a humanoid robot kicking its CEO boss to the floor.
In the video, EngineAI's Zhao Tongyang gears up to take a strike from the T800 robot. The robot misses its first kick, but connects cleanly with the second, knocking the CEO off his feet.
75kg class head-on brawl! EngineAI T800 kicks the boss: Is this kick personal?#EngineAI #robotics #newtechnology #newproduct pic.twitter.com/UCRrP0qBazDecember 6, 2025
EngineAI said that the purpose of the simulated fight was to counter claims that its latest model was a CGI creation, CNN reports.
While the T800 appears to have a decent kick, it doesn't go unnoticed that Tongyang was standing still, waiting patiently for his robot to strike.
With that in mind, don't expect to see robots beating UFC fighters anytime soon.
Another climate milestone
Global warming is fuelling wildfires and having a variety of other adverse environmental impacts. (Image credit: LBochev via Getty Images)
As of November, this year is tied with 2023 for annual global surface temperature, but the temperature is slightly cooler than it was in 2024, the warmest year on record.
The latest data suggests that next month we'll be able to say that the last three years were the warmest on record — an ominous consequence of global warming.
Researchers measure global temperature rise above the estimated average temperature between 1850 and 1900, known as pre-industrial levels.
World leaders promised to limit this warming to preferably below 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) and well below 3.6 F (2 C) in the 2015 Paris Agreement, adopted at the United Nations' COP21 climate conference. Unfortunately, they're failing.
The latest Copernicus data reveals that 2025 was another hot year for annual global surface air temperature. (Image credit: C3S/ECMWF)
"For November, global temperatures were 1.54 C above pre-industrial levels, and the three-year average for 2023–2025 is on track to exceed 1.5 C for the first time," Samantha Burgess, the strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which implements the Copernicus program, said in a statement.
"These milestones are not abstract — they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change and the only way to mitigate future rising temperatures is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Burgess added.
It's worth remembering that last month, climate deliberations at the COP30 conference in Brazil ended in an underwhelming compromise. The final text of the COP30 agreement didn't contain any clear mention of fossil fuels, which are the primary source of increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Comet 3I/ATLAS gets an X-ray
An X-ray image of comet 3I/ATLAS reveals a faint emission structure stretching about 250,000 (400,000 kilometers) around the comet. (Image credit: JAXA)
Comet 3I/ATLAS has been viewed through an X-ray space telescope for the first time, revealing an X-ray glow stretching about 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) around the interstellar visitor.
This is the first time researchers have been able to detect X-rays emanating from an interstellar comet.
The comet was observed as part of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Researchers across the globe are scrambling to learn all they can about comet 3I/ATLAS before this rare interstellar visitor exits our solar system next year.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope got a great view of comet 3I/ATLAS on Nov. 30. (Image credit: NASA / Hubble)
XRISM observed comet 3I/ATLAS between Nov. 26 and Nov. 28, just as the comet moved far enough away from the sun to be visible to the telescope’s instruments.
"Comets are enveloped by clouds of gas produced as sunlight heats and vaporizes their icy surfaces," XRISM representatives wrote in a statement. "When this gas interacts with the energetic stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun — the solar wind — a process called charge-exchange reaction occurs, producing characteristic X-ray emission."
The researchers described the glow in the X-ray image as a "faint emission structure" and said it was potentially the result of a diffuse cloud of gas.
However, the researchers also noted that instrumental effects such as vignetting or detector noise can create similar structures in images, so they'll have to do follow-up analysis to confirm whether the extensive emission structure belongs to the comet.
"Moving forward, the XRISM team will continue refining its data processing and analysis to further reveal the activity of this interstellar comet and the nature of its interaction with the solar wind," the representatives wrote.
Over and out
I'm signing off now with the rest of the U.K. team. As always, keep checking back for more science news from my U.S. colleagues. Patrick out.
More parents refusing the vitamin K shot for their babies
Newborns in the U.S. are recommended to get a shot of vitamin K at birth to prevent a dangerous vitamin deficiency. (Image credit: Image taken by Mayte Torres via Getty Images)
New research in JAMA finds that more parents are opting out of giving their babies a recommended vitamin K shot at birth. And that puts babies at risk, experts say.
"We know unequivocally that infants that don't receive vitamin K are at significantly higher risk of getting serious bleeding," the lead study author told Scientific American.
All newborns are recommended to receive an injection of vitamin K, a nutrient that helps the body form blood clots. Older children and adults get vitamin K from their diets and their gut microbiomes, but babies are born with very little.
The nutrient doesn't easily pass through the placenta and babies' microbiomes are too immature to make it; breast milk also contains relatively little vitamin K, and regardless, vitamin K given to babies by mouth isn't absorbed well. That means babies are vulnerable to vitamin K deficiency, which can lead to dangerous bleeding, and in turn, permanent brain damage or death.
The one-time vitamin K shot protects babies from this deficiency extremely effectively and safely. Since universal administration of the vitamin was started in 1961, the U.S. has "nearly eliminated" vitamin K deficiency bleeding. But now, our numbers are slipping.
The JAMA analysis found that, between 2017 and 2024, the rate of vitamin K shot refusal has risen nearly 80%, with the proportion of newborns not given the shot rising from 2.92% to 5.18%.
Anecdotally, I've seen my share of breathless, online influencers spreading misinformation about vitamin K shots. Their efforts are closely tied to — if not indistinguishable from — the anti-vaccine movement, despite vitamin K shots not being vaccines. Often, the influencers promote unproven alternatives to the shot, which they personally happen to sell.
But to put it plainly: when vitamin K administration goes down, the rate of babies dying goes up. The new JAMA study calls attention to that disturbing trend. You can learn more about the vitamin K shot from the American Academy of Pediatrics and their informational site, Healthy Children.
'Gold hydrogen' sufficient to power human civilization for 170,000 years
Hydrogen could lurk in massive quantities in areas throughout the U.S., research is revealing. (Image credit: Marilyn Perkins)
Staff writer Sascha Pare has a fascinating feature on the hunt for "gold hydrogen," or hydrogen that's naturally found in large quantities separate from natural gas.
Hydrogen could power a green economy, but the naturally occurring stuff has historically been found with natural gas, which produce greenhouse gases when burned. But a 2016 find in Mali changed our understanding of how much hydrogen is lurking in Earth's crust, and where it's likely to be found.
Ubiquitous cold virus may raise risk of bladder cancer
An illustration of the BK virus, which may be little known to the general public, but which researchers think may raise the risk of bladder cancer. (Image credit: KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
Cancer isn't infectious — but we now know that several types of infections do raise the risk of cancer down the line. Among the well-known microbes known to fuel cancer are HPV, the primary cause of cervical cancer; hepatitis B, which causes liver cancer; and Helicobacter pylori, which raises stomach cancer risk.
Live Science contributor Jennifer Zieba has a fascinating new piece on another cancer which may be fueled, at least in part, by past infection.
Although most of us have never heard about the virus, it is a common infection that tons of us get as kids. To learn more about the virus, and how researchers think it may raise cancer risk, read the full story here.
RFK's FDA takes aim at RSV preventative treatments
RSV is notorious for causing serious infections in young children. Antibody treatments can help ward off severe disease. (Image credit: CDC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has informed pharma executives that it will be reevaluating already-approved treatments designed to protect infants from RSV, according to exclusive reporting from Reuters.
RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is an infection that spreads seasonally and is particularly dangerous to young children, standing as the most common cause of hospitalization in infants. Annually, 100 to 300 children under 5 die from the infection in the U.S. To drive that number down, in recent years, scientists have invented, tested and earned FDA approval for antibody-based drugs that protect infants during RSV season. These treatments have been thoroughly researched in large clinical trials and shown to be both safe and effective at lowering the risk of serious RSV that requires a doctor's appointment, ER visit or hospitalization.
The treatments are recommended to all infants under 8 months old in their first RSV season, excluding babies whose mothers got an RSV vaccine before birth. (The vaccine prompts the mother to make antibodies that get passed to the baby.) Additionally, select kids with health conditions are recommended another dose during their second RSV season.
The antibody shots are sometimes lumped into conversations and controversy surrounding vaccines, despite not being vaccines themselves. They supply the body with ready-made antibodies; they do not teach the immune system to make its own, as a vaccine would.
The FDA has informed makers of the antibody drugs that it will be asking further safety questions about the treatments, and for now, it's unclear if that reevaluation might lead to changes in the drugs' availability or approval status.
What we do know is that the pattern is reminiscent of a move made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, in which the agency overturned established guidance about the hepatitis B vaccine with no data suggesting they should make the change — and ample data suggesting they should not. Such moves align with the stance of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who posits that the risks of many pharmaceutical products have not been properly studied and casts doubt on established science.
An illustration of multiple drones, sample collectors and rovers on Mars. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech)
Our top priority when humans reach Mars should be to hunt for past or present life on the Red Planet, a new report from leading U.S. scientists argues.
The report, released by the National Academy of Sciences today (Dec. 9), lays out a road map of scientific priorities for the (hopefully) coming crewed mission to Mars.
If we do make it to the Red Planet in the next decade, we should also look for evidence of CO2 and water cycles, investigate the geological history of Mars, and study the physiological and psychological effects of both spaceflight and the Martian environment on potential astronauts living there, the report says.
Lower down on the list, scientists say we should explore Mars searching for resources we could exploit for future colonies, analyze the effects of the Martian environment on DNA and its replication, and characterize microbial communities that may be brought along for the ride through the solar system. As part of the new road map, they also lay out which types of measurements and instrumentation may be required to address each of those priorities.
It's a big and somewhat daunting list, but it's hard to imagine investing the staggering amount of money and technological innovation required to reach the Martian surface if we're not going to learn as much as we can from the process.
Catch you on the flip side!
The U.S. West Coast team is heading out for the evening, but we'll leave you with this tuff question, courtesy of sciencefun.org:
What did the limestone say to the geologist?
Don't take me for granite!
Aurora no-show
The northern lights can produce dazzling night sky displays, like the one pictured here over Wisconsin on Nov. 11. (Image credit: Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Good morning, science fans! Patrick here to launch another day of our science news blog coverage.
Yesterday's northern lights forecast turned out to be a bit of a let-down for skywatchers.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center had issued a strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch for Tuesday, which had the potential to produce visible auroras over many U.S. states from the lower Midwest to Oregon.
However, this storm was expected to be triggered by a blast of plasma from the sun (coronal mass ejection, or CME), which didn't arrive as forecast.
Live Science's sister site Space.com reports that the CME only brushed Earth or missed us altogether.
Space weather forecasters are still seeing moderate to high solar activity, but for now, aurora activity is likely to be limited.
Supernova surprise
This two-part illustration reveals what supernova GRB 250314A might have looked like as it was exploding and how it appeared when JWST observed it three months later. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI))
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has identified the earliest supernova on record, according to a statement released by the space agency yesterday.
The ancient and distant supernova exploded when the universe was in its infancy at just 730 million years old. For context, the universe is thought to be around 13.8 billion years old.
JWST turned its attention to the supernova in July after an international group of telescopes detected a rare gamma-ray burst (bright flash of light) in March, according to the statement.
"Only Webb could directly show that this light is from a supernova — a collapsing massive star," Andrew Levan, an astronomer at Radboud University in the Netherlands and the University of Warwick in the U.K., said in the statement.
"This observation also demonstrates that we can use Webb to find individual stars when the universe was only 5% of its current age," Levan added.
Surprisingly, the supernova looked very similar to modern supernovae that have occurred much closer to Earth. Researchers will need to collect more data to explore why this might be the case.
The James Webb Space Telescope's view of supernova GRB 250314A, highlighted in a box. (Image credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Andrew Levan (Radboud University); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))
Live Science news roundup
Here are some of the best Live Science stories from yesterday that we didn't cover on the blog:
The volcanic eruption of Bezymianny on March 30, 1956. (Image credit: Photo by I. V. Yerov, 1956 (courtesy of G.S. Gorshkov, published in Green and Short, 1971, Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0).)
Bezymianny volcano blew itself apart in 1956. Now, thanks to frequent eruptions, it's almost completely regrown, Live Science contributor Stephanie Pappas reports.
Bezymianny is an active cone-shaped volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. Last month, the volcano ejected a massive ash cloud that rose 32,800 feet (10 kilometers) into the air.
Researchers say that eruptions like this spurred the volcano to reform, and draw closer to its pre-1950s height of at least 10,213 feet (3,113 meters). The volcano is currently 9,455 feet (2,882 m), according to the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program.
Hadrian's Wall served as the Roman Empire's northern frontier for around 300 years. (Image credit: by Marc Guitard via Getty Images)
Hadrian's Wall in northern England marked the border of the Roman Empire for nearly 300 years. But far from a "Game of Thrones"-style wall, where isolated (and cold) soldiers pee off the end of the world, experts told Live Science the Roman frontier was actually a diverse region of danger, boredom and even opportunity. (It was definitely cold though.)
To find out more about life on the edge of the Roman world, read the full story here.
Monogamy 'league table'
Meerkats and humans are similarly monogamous, according to a new study. (Image credit: Martin Harvey via Getty Images)
What do humans, meerkats and beavers have in common? We all tend to be relatively monogamous.
Mark Dyble, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, has unveiled a monogamy "league table" after investigating the varying levels of exclusive mating in different animals.
Humans came out with a monogamy rate of 66%, which was closer to that of meerkats (60%) and beavers (73%) than most of our primate cousins, according to the researcher's findings, published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Chimpanzees are one of our closest living relatives, yet the study highlighted that they have a more polygynandrous approach to mating. Males and females mate with multiple different partners, giving them a monogamy rate of 4%.
California deermice topped the table with a monogamy rate of 100%. This species pairs for life as part of its mating strategy. Scotland’s Soay sheep, on the other hand, were at the bottom of the table. Ewes (females) of this breed mate with several rams (males), resulting in a monogamy rate of 0.6%.
"There is a premier league of monogamy, in which humans sit comfortably, while the vast majority of other mammals take a far more promiscuous approach to mating," Dyble said in a statement.
Dyble used a computer model to calculate the scores, based on sibling data from genetic studies and known reproductive strategies. It's worth noting that a higher or lower monogamy rate doesn't mean that a species is any more or less successful. The score is merely an indicator of reproduction habits.
Of course, humans are a varied bunch, and we're well known for having a variety of different mating norms.
Neanderthal Prometheus
An artist's impression of a Neanderthal making sparks from pyrite and flint. (Image credit: Craig Williams/The Trustees of the British Museum)
Researchers in England have discovered the earliest and clearest evidence of purposeful fire-making in the world, settling — for now — a long-running debate about human control of fire. And it turns out that it was Neanderthals, not humans, who invented the technology.
Archaeologists identified a series of tiny pyrite chips as the "smoking gun" of fire control at Barnham, an ancient pond site in Suffolk that was occupied more than 400,000 years ago. Neanderthals likely imported the pyrite from elsewhere in England to strike against flint, making sparks.
Read my coverage of the new study to find out why archaeologist Nick Ashton called it "the most exciting discovery in my 40-year career."
The next naked-eye supernova?
The star system GK Persei, home of an infamous nova explosion, seen by the Chandra X-ray telescope. (Image credit: NASA Goddard)
Astronomers have taken a fresh look at an infamous star system veering toward catastrophe — and found the best evidence yet that it's due for a historic supernova explosion.
The binary star system V Saggitae, located 10,000 light-years from Earth, contains a white dwarf (the smoldering core of a dead star) and a larger, still-burning companion star whipping around one another every 12 hours. The dwarf star regularly rips material off its companion, triggering frequent X-ray flashes as thermonuclear reactions erupt on the white dwarf's surface.
The new research, based on 120 days of observations, confirms that a double-whammy light show is currently in production at V Saggitae. First, we'll see a nova: a bright explosion unleashed after the white dwarf has consumed too much of its companion, and violently ejects that excess matter into space. Then, once the two stars finally collide, the main event: A supernova explosion so bright "it'll be visible from Earth even in the daytime," study co-author Pablo Rodríguez-Gil told Live Science.
European Union members have agreed on new emissions targets. (Image credit: ImageBROKER/Sunny Celeste via Getty Images)
The European Union has agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040, Reuters reports.
The new, legally binding climate target aims to cut emissions from European industries by 85%. The remaining 5% will come from the purchase of foreign carbon credits. Essentially, Europe will pay developing countries to cut emissions on its behalf.
The European Parliament and E.U. country negotiators agreed on the climate deal in the early hours of this morning (Dec. 10).
The target is among the most ambitious in the world, though still not as strong as what the E.U.'s climate science advisors recommended. It's also meant to help ensure that Europe reaches its 2050 net-zero emissions pledge, according to Reuters.
The E.U. wants to become the "first climate-neutral continent," where the amount of greenhouse gas it emits into the atmosphere is offset by the amount it removes, for example, through natural and artificial carbon sinks.
The U.K. side is closing up shop for the day. But keep checking back for more science news today from my U.S. colleagues.
Here's a joke from Reader's Digest. It explains why outer space is full of space cadets.
Why couldn't the star stay focused?
He kept spacing out.
Rare side effect of COVID vaccines unraveled
In very rare cases, mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can trigger a side effect that inflames the heart. (Image credit: Olga Pankova via Getty Images)
Myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle — is a rare side effect of COVID-19 vaccines, specifically those made using mRNA technology. A new study may have pinpointed how this side effect occurs and how to potentially stop it in its tracks, STAT reported.
"I want to emphasize this is very, very rare. This study is purely to understand why," the senior study author told STAT. As mRNA medicines, especially vaccines, face scrutiny and funding cuts from the U.S. federal government, researchers must carefully navigate how to study and call attention to aspects of the technology that still need improvement without putting fuel on the fire of anti-mRNA conspiracy theories.
The new study uncovered two immune signaling proteins, called cytokines, that appear in higher quantities in the blood of vaccine recipients with myocarditis than in those who didn't experience the side effect. The heart-damaging effects of these cytokines — CXCL10 and interferon-gamma — can be blocked with antibodies and with an anti-inflammatory compound found in soybeans, the study authors found in lab-dish experiments and in mice with myocarditis.
Notably, the myocarditis side effect is most often seen in teen boys and young men. The soybean compound, which is chemically similar to estrogen, lends credence to the idea that the female sex hormone might protect against the effect, Scientific American reported.
More work is needed to translate these findings into humans and to fully understand why mRNA vaccines, specifically, sometimes trigger this chain reaction. Read more in STAT, SciAm, or in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
When did complex life evolve?
A 3D illustration of a eukaryotic cell. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Complex life may have evolved more than 1 billion years earlier than previously thought, a new Nature study suggests.
Previously, scientists thought that the first eukaryotes, or cells that include a nucleus, cell membrane and organelles, first emerged around 2 billion years ago. The new study looked at the genomes of a wide range of organisms from across the tree of life. They used gene duplication events, in which sections of DNA are doubled, to calibrate a molecular clock.
Their estimates suggest that the first cells with nuclei emerged 2.9 billion years ago — roughly a billion years before the organisms that would give rise to mitochondria were assimilated by eukaryotes. Scientists believe that our mitochondria — cellular powerhouses that are responsible for "breathing" oxygen — evolved from primitive bacteria and were absorbed via endosymbiosis.
"The process of cumulative complexification took place over a much longer time period than previously thought," study co-author Gergely Szöllősi, Head of the Model-Based Evolutionary Genomics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), said in a statement.
Intriguingly, the rise in mitochondria corresponds to a rise in atmospheric oxygen, during what's known as the "Great Oxidation Event." The findings suggest ancient life forms were accomplishing complex cellular functions in oceans devoid of oxygen, according to the statement. It's also more evidence that life shapes the geochemistry of the planet.
Meanwhile, primitive life has been here almost since the beginning. The planet is around 4.5 billion years old, and the last universal common ancestor of all living organisms, known as LUCA, emerged 4.2 billion years ago. And LUCA wasn't alone; there were other viruses and bacteria filling its primeval ecosystem, genetic traces suggest. That means life likely emerged even earlier than LUCA, but just didn't pass on its genes to any creatures living today.
Spaghetti for two
Black holes routinely "spaghettify" stars that orbit too closely. Sometimes, more than once. (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab)
In 1999, astronomers saw a deep space object go haywire. Watching with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the team saw a well-known X-ray source called XID 925 suddenly brighten by nearly 30-fold, then start to fade again.
Scientists have struggled to explain the event for decades, but now — according to research accepted for publication in the journal The Innovation — there's a solution that fits the data nicely: A hapless star was shredded into stellar spaghetti by not one, but two black holes in the same region of space.
Sperm donor gives 200 children rare cancer mutation
An illustration of sperm. (Image credit: LYagovy/Getty Images)
A sperm donor from Denmark who fathered around 200 children passed on a rare cancer-causing mutation to many of them. Some of the children conceived with his sperm have already died.
The disturbing case of "donor 7069" was made by the EBU Investigative Journalism Network, a consortium of journalists from across Europe who do cross-border investigations.
The man, known as "Kjeld," began donating sperm as a student and continued to do so for 17 years. He carries a mutation in a gene known as TP53, which codes for the tumor suppressor protein p53. This protein works by enabling DNA repair and by preventing uncontrolled cell division, Ars Technica reported. People inherit one copy of TP53 from each parent, but inheriting a dysfunctional copy leads to Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which comes with a 90% chance of developing cancer by age 60. (As an aside, elephants, which very rarely get cancer, inherit 20 copies of TP53 from each parent.)
The man's sperm passed all the initial screenings, and rare mutations such as this are not typically screened for when it comes to sperm donation.
Many European countries have caps on how many children can be conceived from a single sperm donor, but this man's sperm was sold across 14 countries to 67 clinics, which meant those limits often didn't apply. In Denmark alone, "Kjeld" fathered at least 49 children up until 2013, despite a non-binding cap of 25 children being in place at the time, according to the EBU story.
The doctors who revealed the case are currently trying to track down all the children conceived with Kjeld's sperm and to inform them of the greater cancer risk.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
The U.S. West Coast is heading out for some holiday festivities, but the Live Science crew will be back first thing U.K. time with fresh science news.
We'll leave you with this joke from U.K. kid's site Beano.
What do you call a fish with no eyes?
Fsh!
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- <![CDATA[ When an AI algorithm is labeled 'female,' people are more likely to exploit it ]]>
- People are more likely to exploit female AI partners than male ones — showing that gender-based discrimination has an impact beyond human interactions.
A recent study, published Nov. 2 in the journal iScience, examined how people varied in their willingness to cooperate when human or AI partners were given female, nonbinary, male, and no gender labels.
Researchers asked participants to play a well-known thought experiment called the “Prisoner’s Dilemma,” a game in which two players either choose to cooperate with each other or work independently. If they cooperate, both get the best outcome.
But if one chooses to cooperate and the other does not, the player who did not cooperate scores better, offering an incentive for one to “exploit” the other. If they both choose not to cooperate, both players score low.
People were about 10% more likely to exploit an AI partner than a human one, the study showed. It also revealed that participants were more likely to cooperate with female, nonbinary and no-gender partners than male partners because they expected the other player to cooperate as well.
People were less likely to cooperate with male partners because they didn’t trust them to choose cooperation, the study found — especially female participants, who were more likely to cooperate with other "female" agents than male-identified agents, an effect known as "homophily."
"Observed biases in human interactions with AI agents are likely to impact their design, for example, to maximize people’s engagement and build trust in their interactions with automated systems," the researchers said in the study. "Designers of these systems need to be aware of unwelcome biases in human interactions and actively work toward mitigating them in the design of interactive AI agents."
The risks of anthropomorphizing AI agents
When participants didn’t cooperate, it was for one of two reasons. First, they expected the other player not to cooperate and didn’t want a lower score. The second possibility is that they thought the other person would cooperate and so going solo would reduce their risk of a lower score — at the cost of the other player. The researchers defined this second option as exploitation.
Participants were more likely to "exploit" their partners when they had female, nonbinary, or no-gender labels than male ones. If their partner was AI, the likelihood of exploitation increased. Men were more likely to exploit their partners and were more likely to cooperate with human partners than AI. Women were more likely to cooperate than men, and did not discriminate between a human or AI partner.
The study did not have enough participants identifying as any gender other than female or male to draw conclusions about how other genders interact with gendered human and AI partners.
According to the study, more and more AI tools are being anthropomorphized (given human-like characteristics such as genders and names) to encourage people to trust and engage with them.
Anthropomorphizing AI without considering how gender-based discrimination affects people’s interactions could, however, reinforce existing biases, making discrimination worse.
While many of today’s AI systems are online chatbots, in the near future, people could be routinely sharing the road with self-driving cars or having AI manage their work schedules. This means we may have to cooperate with AI in the same way that we are currently expected to cooperate with other humans, making awareness of AI gender bias even more critical.
"While displaying discriminatory attitudes toward gendered AI agents may not represent a major ethical challenge in and of itself, it could foster harmful habits and exacerbate existing gender-based discrimination within our societies," the researchers added.
"By understanding the underlying patterns of bias and user perceptions, designers can work toward creating effective, trustworthy AI systems capable of meeting their users’ needs while promoting and preserving positive societal values such as fairness and justice."
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- https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/when-an-ai-algorithm-is-labeled-female-people-are-more-likely-to-exploit-it
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- <![CDATA[ Diagnostic dilemma: A woman got a rare parasitic lung infection after eating raw frogs ]]>
- The patient: A 32-year-old woman in Shanghai
The symptoms: The woman went to the hospital with a persistent cough accompanied by occasional bloody phlegm, which she would cough up two to three times per day. She said the coughing began four months prior to her hospital visit. And about a month before the coughing started, she had a fever that lasted several weeks and reached up to 100.8 degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 degrees Celsius).
What happened next: Doctors at the hospital diagnosed the woman with a rare respiratory illness called eosinophilic pneumonia, an infection in which white blood cells accumulate in the lungs and cause inflammation. If left untreated, the infection can damage the lungs, and in somecases, it can be fatal.
The patient's doctors gave her steroids to reduce the inflammation in her lung tissue. However, her cough persisted even after two months of this treatment. A CT scan of her lungs revealed recurring lesions, or tissue injuries, and she was then sent to a different hospital for further examination.
The diagnosis: When doctors at the second hospital reviewed the woman's medical history, they noted that her diet often included raw seafood, and she also reported "a preference for raw frogs and bullfrogs," the physicians wrote in a report describing her case. The team conducted a blood test to see if her blood contained antibodies to any parasites, and they found antibodies for the larvae of Spirometra mansoni, a type of tapeworm.
The larvae, or spargana, of S. mansoni cause a parasitic infection called sparganosis. This infection is most common in eastern Asia, and people often acquire the parasites by eating raw or undercooked snakes or frogs that are infected with the larvae, evidence suggests. After S. mansoni larvae are swallowed, they migrate into various body tissues and organs. In the woman's case, they accumulated in her lungs — a very rare destination for the parasite.
When the patient provided doctors with a frog from her region of Shanghai, they dissected it and found that it was carrying S. mansoni.
Because the woman's symptoms and the results of her CT scans closely resembled signs of eosinophilic pneumonia, the physicians who examined her during her first hospital visit misdiagnosed her, according to the report.
The treatment: Doctors treated the woman with praziquantel tablets, a drug that works against various types of parasitic worms. After the woman had taken the tablets for five days, her coughing subsided.
CT scans performed 20 days after her admission to the second hospital showed that the shadowy areas previously seen in her lungs — a sign of infection or physical trauma — were shrinking. At a follow-up visit one month later, her coughing was completely gone. However, the patient's blood tests showed that she was still producing antibodies against the parasite, hinting that the infection persisted.
Doctors prescribed another five-day course of praziquantel and conducted a follow-up examination five months after that. Traces of antibodies remained in the patient's blood, but only in extremely low quantities. Her white blood cell count was normal, and the doctors determined that no further treatment was required.
What makes the case unique: Sparganosis infections typically appear in tissues located just under the skin, near the surface of the body. They rarely migrate to the internal organs. This is the first case to be documented in Shanghai of sparganosis in the lungs, the case report authors wrote.
Eating raw animal flesh is a long-standing cultural tradition in parts of Asia, and sometimes, small animals may be consumed while they are still alive. Living frogs are occasionally eaten as a folklore remedy for a variety of ailments; an 82-year-old woman in Hangzhou was hospitalized with a parasitic infection after she swallowed eight small, live frogs in an attempt to relieve her chronic back pain.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.
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- https://www.livescience.com/health/viruses-infections-disease/diagnostic-dilemma-a-woman-got-a-rare-parasitic-lung-infection-after-eating-raw-frogs
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- <![CDATA[ James Webb telescope spots strange 'super-puff' planet frantically chasing its own atmosphere through space ]]>
- A "super-puff" exoplanet is leaking a lot of helium into space, new observations show — and may be in the process of losing a lot of its atmosphere.
A large plume of helium gas was spotted evaporating from the giant planet, known as WASP-107b, according to research based on observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The results, published Monday (Dec. 1) in the journal Nature Astronomy, show that the gas spanned an area nearly five times the diameter of the planet and that the gas was visible speeding far ahead of the planet along WASP-107b's orbital path.
The research represents the first time JWST has "captured helium escape from this planet," lead author Vigneshwaran Krishnamurthy, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University's Trottier Space Institute in Montreal, said in a statement.
The discovery could help researchers better understand how exoplanet atmospheres behave, especially in extreme star systems like WASP-107, where WASP-107b resides, the team said.
Planet puff-ball
WASP-107b was discovered in 2017 near a star about 210 light-years from Earth. (For comparison, the closest planets to us are about 4 light-years away.) WASP-107b is almost the same size as Jupiter, at 94% of the gas giant's diameter, but its mass is just 12% that of Jupiter. This extremely low density and large size place WASP-107b in the "super-puff" category of exoplanets.
Aside from its unusual density, WASP-107b is in an interesting spot: It is seven times closer to its star than Mercury is to the sun. In Earth's neighborhood, by contrast, rocky planets are closer to the sun and gas giants like Jupiter are farther away. That means scientists must come up with models to explain that difference.
They think WASP-107b, like Jupiter and Saturn, formed much farther from its star but something in the system — possibly another planet — forced WASP-107b to migrate closer to its star over time.
"WASP-107c, much farther out than WASP-107b, could have played a role in this migration," study co-author Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb, an exoplanet researcher now at the University of Chicago who completed her Ph.D. at the University of Montreal in 2024, said in the statement.
Another illustration of WASP-107b whipping past its star. (Image credit: Angel P. Geego)
Once the planet got close enough to its star, the extreme heat of its new orbit began gutting the exoplanet's gassy atmosphere, the researchers explained. The new JWST observations confirmed the extent of the damage: The powerful telescope spotted the helium cloud of the exoplanet's atmosphere passing in front of the system's parent star about 1.5 hours before WASP-107b itself.
The researchers spotted several elements in WASP-107b's atmosphere that reveal more clues about the planet's complicated history. For example, there was more oxygen in the planet's atmosphere than would be predicted if it had formed close to its star, which provides more evidence that its migration was relatively recent.
JWST also found water in the planet's atmosphere — confirming previous observations from the Hubble Space Telescope — alongside traces of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and ammonia. But methane, which was predicted to be part of the planet's atmosphere due to its chemistry, was curiously absent.
Because JWST's instruments are sensitive enough to detect methane from afar, the researchers suggest other gases poor in methane must have instead been drawn up from deep in the planet's atmosphere due to "vigorous vertical mixing" driven by the heat of the star, Piaulet-Ghorayeb added.
While planets like Earth also have some atmospheric loss, it is not this extreme. Studying worlds like WASP-107b could help us understand how atmospheric escape works on planets like Venus, which lost water over the eons, the research team said in a statement from the University of Geneva.
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- https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/james-webb-telescope-spots-strange-super-puff-planet-frantically-chasing-its-own-atmosphere-through-space
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- <![CDATA[ Anacondas became massive 12 million years ago — and it worked so well, they haven't changed size since ]]>
- Anacondas have been giant for millions of years, a new study finds.
The enormous snakes' average body size has remained constant since they first appeared in the fossil record about 12.4 million years ago, during the Middle Miocene (16 million to 11.6 million years ago), researchers revealed in a new study published Monday (Dec. 1) in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
During the Middle and Upper Miocene (12.4 million to 5.3 million years ago), warm temperatures, expansive wetlands and abundant food enabled many animal species to grow much larger than their modern relatives. But few of these giant animals have survived to the present day.
"Other species like giant crocodiles and giant turtles have gone extinct since the Miocene, probably due to cooling global temperatures and shrinking habitats," study co-authorAndrés Alfonso-Rojas, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Cambridge, said in a statement. "But the giant anacondas have survived — they are super-resilient."
Anacondas make up a group of constricting snakes that today includes the heaviest snake species in the world. Modern anacondas average 13 to 16 feet (4 to 5 meters) in length, though the largest can reach up to 23 feet (7 m). Scientists weren't sure whether anacondas had been even larger during the Miocene, or whether they had been the same size and retained their massive size into the present day.
To estimate how big ancient anacondas might have been, Alfonso-Rojas and his colleagues measured 183 fossilized anaconda vertebrae from at least 32 individual snakes collected in Venezuela. They also used a technique called ancestral state reconstruction to predict the body lengths of ancient anacondas from characteristics of related snakes.
Researchers measured fossilized anaconda vertebrae to determine the ancient snakes' body lengths. (Image credit: Jorge Carrillo-Briceño)
Based on these calculations, the team found that anacondas averaged about 17 feet (5.2 m) long when they first appeared during the Miocene 12 million years ago — roughly the same length as modern anacondas.
"This is a surprising result because we expected to find the ancient anacondas were seven or eight meters [23 to 26 feet] long," Alfonso-Rojas said in the statement. "But we don't have any evidence of a larger snake from the Miocene when global temperatures were warmer."
It's still unclear why anacondas have not become smaller over time.
Although warm weather and abundant wetlands may have enabled anacondas to reach their giant size early in their evolutionary history, cooler temperatures and shrinking ranges haven't forced the snakes to get smaller to adapt. That could suggest that these weren't the primary factors keeping the snakes large in the intervening millennia, the researchers wrote in the study.
Predator-prey interactions likely didn't play a major role in maintaining the snakes' body size, either, the researchers said. A lack of competition for food could have helped the snakes grow large in the first place. But they didn't get smaller as other predators moved into South America during the Pliocene (5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago) and the Pleistocene (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), suggesting that food availability isn't a big factor in anacondas' giant size.
Snake quiz: How much do you know about the slithering reptiles?
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- https://www.livescience.com/animals/snakes/anacondas-became-massive-12-million-years-ago-and-it-worked-so-well-they-havent-changed-size-since
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- <![CDATA[ Law of 'maximal randomness' explains how broken objects shatter in the most annoying way possible ]]>
- A dropped vase, a crushed sugar cube and an exploding bubble all have something in common: They break apart in similar ways, a new mathematical equation reveals.
A French scientist recently discovered the mathematical equation, which describes the size distribution of fragments that form when something shatters. The equation applies to a variety of materials, including solids, liquids and gas bubbles, according to a new study, published Nov. 26 in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Though cracks spread through an object in often unpredictable ways, research has shown that the size distribution of the resulting fragments seems to be consistent, no matter what they're made of — you can always expect a certain ratio of larger fragments to smaller ones. Scientists suspected that this consistency pointed to something universal about the process of fragmenting.
Rather than focusing on how fragments form,Emmanuel Villermaux, a physicist at Aix-Marseille University in France, studied the fragments themselves. In the new study, Villermaux argued that fragmenting objects follow the principle of "maximal randomness." This principle suggests that the most likely fragmentation pattern is the messiest one — the one that maximizes entropy, or disorder.
But that randomness has to obey certain limits. To account for this, Villermaux introduced aconservation law that he and his colleagues discovered in 2015. This law adds physical constraints on the density of fragments in space when an object shatters.
By combining the two principles, Villermaux derived a mathematical equation that describes the pattern of fragment sizes from a shattered object. He then validated the equation by comparing the equation's predictions to years' worth of fragmentation data collected on various objects, including glass, spaghetti, liquid droplets, gas bubbles, plastic fragments in the ocean, and even flakes from early stone tools. All matched the predicted size distribution.
Villermaux also tested the equation by dropping heavy objects onto sugar cubes and observing how they fragmented. "That was a summer project with my daughters," Villermaux told New Scientist. "I did this a long time ago when my children were still young and then came back to the data, because they were illustrating my point well."
However, the newly discovered law doesn't always apply: It doesn't apply in situations with no randomness, such as a smooth stream of liquid breaking into droplets of equal size; and it doesn't cover conditions where the fragments interact with each other, such as in certainplastics.
Ferenc Kun, a physicist at the University of Debrecen in Hungary, told New Scientist that understanding fragmentation could help scientists determine how energy is spent on shattering ore in industrial mining or how to prepare for rockfalls.
Future work could involve determining the smallest possible size a fragment could have, Villermaux told New Scientist.
It's also possible that the shapes of different fragments could follow a similar relationship, Kun wrote in an accompanyingviewpoint article.
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- https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/mathematics/law-of-maximal-randomness-explains-how-broken-objects-shatter-in-the-most-annoying-way-possible
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