A high school teacher and amateur fossil hunter from Colorado recently discovered a 23-foot-long trackway left behind by a Tyrannosaurus rex as it hulked its way across the forested landscape of modern-day North Dakota some 66.5 million years ago. The trackway consists of four three-toed footprints—two left and two right footprints—each around three feet long and spaced 13 feet apart, including one footprint that appears to contain an impression of a claw. Based on the stride length and size of the footprints, researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science—who led the dig the high school teacher was volunteering on—estimate the T. rex was walking approximately 3.5 to 4.5 miles per hour. The researchers believe the discovery could reveal new insights into how T. rex moved, how their feet were structured, and even what their skin was like.

The collection of footprints represent the first adult T. rex trackway known to science. Prior to the present study, only two individual adult T. rex footprints had ever been discovered, one in New Mexico and the other in Montana. The authors of the present study are convinced the newly uncovered tracks belong to a T. rex based on the size, shape, and location of the footprints, which were found in an area where numerous T. rex bones have been uncovered.

The trackway was encased in 66- to 68-million-year-old layers of rock collectively known as the Hell Creek Formation. The formation—which spans eastern Montana, the Dakotas, and Wyoming—has revealed several significant T. rex finds over the years, including Sue, the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton ever discovered (now housed at Chicago’s Field Museum), and “Teen Rex,” a juvenile T. rex discovered by a group of children in 2022. Other Hell Creek Formation finds include Gus, the T. rex fossil that sold for a record $50.1 million in July 2026, and Stan, another T. rex skeleton which sold for $31.8 million in 2020 and now resides at the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E.

Brazilian creative studio Seneda & Arbucio and Danish type foundry PlayType have teamed up to create a font that prevents automated webpage crawlers from taking content without permission to train AI models. Called ShieldFont, the new protocol works by swapping out roughly half of all “content words”—nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs—in a webpage’s source code with random, nonsensical words. When AI crawlers scrape the page’s text, the content appears incoherent and low-quality, resulting in more than 90% of the content being rejected by AI models’ quality filters. Clever code ensures the text displayed to humans is left alone.

ShieldFont represents the latest attempt by various designers and developers to create a font that fools AI and ensures content can’t be used to train large language models without permission. Digital font foundry Mixfont has released two “anti-AI” fonts in recent years. The first, called Ghost Font, uses thousands of tiny dots moving in opposite directions to make text appear as faint letters. The second, called Decoy Font, features foregrounded text with clear outlines layered over blurred background text that humans can still read.

Both Decoy Font and Ghost Font rely on optical illusions to outsmart AI crawlers. The illusion used for Decoy Font is a modern version of hybrid imaging, which went viral in 2007 when MIT researchers released a portrait that showed both Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein, depending on the distance of the viewer.

A new study by researchers at Griffith University in Australia documents the earliest-known evidence of habitual drug use in humans: distinctive grooves in the teeth of two ice age hunter-gathers who sucked on betel nuts likely to soothe the pain of toothaches. Along with the grooves, the researchers found traces of arecoline—the psychoactive compound in betel nuts—in both individuals’ dental tissue, suggesting they likely sucked on betel nuts almost continuously throughout their lives. The habit also caused significant damage and dental disease, potentially increasing the individuals’ dependence on the nuts’ numbing properties.

The skeletons were found on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, with the older of the pair living sometime between 25,000 to 16,000 years ago. The age of the skeletons suggests sucking on betel nuts could be the world’s earliest-known addictive behavior, and pushes back the timeline for the history of human drug use by around 12,000 years. Prior to the present study, a common theory held that widespread psychoactive drug use emerged only after the spread of agriculture during the Neolithic period, with the earliest-known evidence being traces of barely beer brewed in Israel around 13,000 years ago.

The researchers say the distinctive grooves found in the individuals’ teeth establish a new bioarchaeological marker—physical signs on human remains that reveal information about a person’s life—for sucking on betel nuts. Other known examples include common markers like dental cavities and broken bones, and less common markers like the bony growths inside the ear canals of people repeatedly exposed to and submerged under cold water, better known as “surfer’s ear.”

Dubai is building a colossal $35 billion expansion of its Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC), constructing what experts describe as the most ambitious transportation infrastructure project on Earth. The 27-square-mile behemoth—bigger than the island of Manhattan (23 square miles)—will be the world’s largest airport when completed, featuring five runways, 400+ airplane gates, and some 31 miles of driverless subterranean rail. The first major phase is scheduled to finish in 2032.

When the expansion is complete (no official date has been set), the airport will have capacity to process 260 million passengers each year, more than twice the capacity of the current record holder, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which welcomed 106 million passengers in 2025. It’s also more than double that of Dubai International Airport, the world’s second busiest airport and the city’s current main hub, which processed 95 million passengers last year. Beyond people, the new DWC will have the capacity to process 12 million tonnes of cargo each year, more than twice that of Hong Kong International Airport, the current cargo leader at 5 million tonnes annually.

Dubai is located within an eight-hour flight of about two-thirds of the world’s population, and experts say the city’s economic success in recent decades is inextricably tied to the success of its airports, particularly Dubai International Airport and the countless hotels, tourist attractions, and retail operations it’s helped create. The aviation industry is linked to one out of every five jobs in Dubai and contributed more than a quarter (27%) of the city’s GDP in 2023, a share that’s expected to rise to nearly a third (32%) by 2030.

China’s power grid rejected 360 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity from solar and wind in the first half of 2026, enough to power Mexico or the U.K. for a year. The new report by Global Energy Monitor and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air suggests China’s curtailments—i.e., the preemptive rejection of power when the grid is at capacity—rose 49% from the same period last year, wasting just over a quarter of all the solar and wind energy the country produced from January to June.

The report found supply contracts that guarantee coal plants a share of demand are at the root of the problem. Despite government policies reducing the hours coal plants can run, coal-powered generation rose 3.4% year-over-year in the first half of 2026, reversing declines made in 2025. Another issue is China’s transmission infrastructure. The country has built its largest solar and wind installations in the deserts and grasslands of its north and west, and hasn’t built lines quickly enough to bring that electricity to the power-hungry industrial cities of the east.

China isn’t the only country dealing with wasted clean energy due to transmission issues. Australia, Japan, and India, three of the world’s largest solar producers, each curtailed large amounts of electricity this year as the countries’ clean energy build-outs outpace the expansion of power lines meant to carry the electricity. Experts say one way to help solve curtailments is through a massive scale-up of battery storage technology, which can smooth fluctuations, make clean energy available when needed, and help secure power grids.

A new study by an international team of researchers identified 1,260 common genetic variants associated with one or more of the “Big Five” personality traits—extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience—including 824 variants that hadn’t been previously linked to any trait. The newly identified associations represent a 3x to 43x increase from the most recent findings for each trait. The study included survey responses and DNA samples from more than 1 million people across 46 study cohorts, producing what the team says is by far the largest analysis of its kind.

Scientists have long known that genetics influences personality traits, at least to some degree. However, prior to the present study, the specific genetic pathways that nudge a person in one direction or another weren’t clear. The study also found that while individual genetic links to personality are small—accounting for only between 5% to 16% of personality differences—they're less likely to be skewed by factors like shared family background than comparable genetic links to education or income. Still, the researchers say the study doesn't mean an individual’s personality can be discerned by looking at their genetic profile; rather, it suggests genetics can help discern patterns in personality across whole populations.

Interestingly, the researchers also found specific genetic variations were associated with different health and life outcomes. For example, people with variants linked to extroversion were more likely to be infected with COVID early in the pandemic, while those with variants linked to agreeableness were less likely to get in trouble at school. People with genes linked to conscientiousness also had less substance use and more frequently played sports. Individuals with genetic profiles linked to a greater openness to new experience tended to live in cities, while those with greater neuroticism gravitated toward suburbs.

In 2023, authorities on New Zealand’s North Island began what would turn out to be a three-year saga tracking and capturing a notorious gray tabby nicknamed Nine Lives. The feral cat was known for devouring wildlife and devastating conservation efforts, including preying on New Zealand's most endangered mainland duck, the pāteke. Authorities trapped and “humanely shot” Nine Lives in July, ending his yearslong devastation of pāteke (conservationists suspect Nine Lives killed up to three-quarters of the pāteke they reintroduced into the wild in recent years) kiwi chicks, geckos, and other native wildlife.

New Zealand is home to an estimated 2.5 million feral cats, many of which descended from North African hunting cats, meaning their instinct to stalk and kill prey remains deeply ingrained. Beyond pāteke, which used to number in the hundreds of thousands but now total only around 2,000 birds, the cats are also threatening scores of other wildlife, including stilts, black-fronted terns, kākāpō, kea, skinks, native bats, and New Zealand dotterels. The cats’ devastating predation led the New Zealand government to add feral cats to its Predator Free 2050 hitlist, alongside ferrets, rats, weasels, and possums.

While we often think of cats as pets, in the wild, they’re very much an apex predator. Research shows free-roaming cats around the world consume more than 2,000 different species, including approximately 9% of all known birds, 6% of all known mammals, and 4% of all known reptiles. Other work suggests feral cats have contributed to the extinction of at least 63 different species throughout history, representing one-quarter of all known bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions.

A new analysis by Chris Macdonald, a behavioral scientist at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and director of the Better Protein Institute (BPI), ranked 20 popular protein sources based on their impact on people and the planet, finding tofu is the world’s best protein, followed by chia seeds, beans, and quinoa. Beef, lamb, and cheese ranked at the bottom. Macdonald says the ranking isn’t meant to claim people should eat exclusively tofu; rather, it’s intended to help people better understand the health and environmental impact of their food choices.

Macdonald’s BPI score ranges from 0 to 40 points based on the two broad categories mentioned above: people and the planet. The people score evaluates the food’s nutritional composition, whether it’s a complete protein (i.e., whether it contains all nine amino acids humans need to survive), and how accessible and affordable the food is. The planet score considers the greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and land and water use associated with producing 100 grams of protein from the food source. The analysis found tofu—which is a complete protein—reigned supreme, achieving a BPI score of 36 points, while cheddar cheese ranked last, with a score of just 13 points (see a chart with the full ranking).

Experts argue calling any source of protein the outright “best” is an oversimplification, as a person’s age (e.g., babies do better living in food systems that offer large amounts of animal proteins) and location impact what’s actually “best” for them. Still, the analysis adds to the body of evidence suggesting plant-based diets are beneficial for health and the environment. Research shows adults living in countries that consume more plant-based proteins have longer life expectancies, and people who follow plant-based diets have substantially lower risk for certain cancers, including pancreatic cancer. Beyond human health, plant-based proteins require less water to produce and have lower greenhouse gas emissions than animal sources. Research also shows global beef production is responsible for 40% of agriculture-linked deforestation, by far the most of any commodity.

The Anythink Nature Library, the nation’s first public library dedicated to learning about the natural world, opened last month in Thorton, Colorado, blending traditional library services with immersive experiences designed to inspire curiosity about nature and a sense of stewardship of the environment. Inside, visitors can explore the 33,000-square-foot library’s nature lab, immersive sensory spaces, and open-air garden. Outside, they can stomp around the water flow and mud pit (the library also has a clean-up room with sinks and towels), relax at the café, or walk the quarter-mile trail loop winding through part of the 15-acre campus.

The library is designed around the principles of the Environmental Kinship Model, which encourages children to learn about, in, with, and for nature. One of the library’s core focuses is removing barriers to the outdoors, offering an inventory of 650 outdoors-related items people can borrow, like binoculars and snowshoes. The infusion of nature throughout the facility is also meant to encourage hands-on play for kids, building their connection with nature through positive experiences with natural environments.

Research shows American childhood has moved indoors over the past two decades, with U.S. kids now spending an average of just 4-7 minutes per day engaging in structured outdoor play versus roughly 7.5 hours in front of electronic media. While there is no optimal amount of time children need to spend outdoors, experts say school-aged kids who average at least a few hours of outdoor play each day reap various physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits.

Researchers at the University of Bradford in England recently presented what they believe to be the first confirmed victim of the devastating medieval war catapult known as the trebuchet. The team documented 167 fractures across the shattered skeleton of a man who died while defending Stirling Castle in Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence more than 700 years ago. The fractures included distinct zigzag patterns similar to those of modern car crash victims and unlike anything the researchers had seen in medieval remains.

After analyzing the fractures and comparing them to other types of trauma, the team believes the man was struck from behind by a large object moving at a high speed that pinned him to the ground and killed him instantly. The researchers argue only one thing can explain such a high-speed, high-force impact during medieval times: projectiles launched by trebuchets. Radiocarbon dating of the bones—one of nine skeletons unearthed at Stirling Castle in 1997—indicates the man died during the Wars of Scottish Independence between 1296 and 1357, suggesting he could have been killed during Edward I’s 1304 siege of the castle, when the English king unveiled the War Wolf, the largest wooden trebuchet ever built.

At the time of the siege, Stirling Castle was the last remaining stronghold of the Scottish independence movement. Edward, determined to finally pummel the Scots into submission, assembled 13 catapults and trebuchets outside the walls to hurl stones and fire at the castle day and night. The Scots held out for three months before Edward unveiled the War Wolf, prompting Sir William Oliphant, the governor of Stirling Castle, to surrender in an attempt to save the castle and his remaining men. Edward, apparently unmoved, still launched a 300-pound stone at the castle, tearing through its walls and ending the fight for Scottish independence. That “peace” lasted until King Robert the Bruce’s victory over English forces at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, which paved the way for England’s official recognition of Scottish sovereignty in 1328. However, that peace was also short-lived, and it wasn’t until 1603 that England and Scotland were united under one crown.

A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford in the U.K. documents 427 cases of monkeys and apes playing with, grooming, holding, carrying, and even adopting other species. The cases involved 88 primate species and 127 partner species, of which 55 were non-primates. The authors say the interactions, which were pulled from previous studies, media reports, and a survey of primatologists spanning the 1970s to 2025, don’t amount to pet-keeping as humans know it, but could represent the evolutionary building blocks from which human-animal companionship eventually emerged.

Scientists have long considered humans unique when it comes to forming close social relationships with other species, and while instances of different animal species hanging out together isn’t a new phenomenon, previous research suggested the partnerships form mostly for practical reasons, like improving predator detection or increasing foraging opportunities. The present study instead documented instances of primates grooming dogs, gently stroking squirrels, and playing with pigs for no apparent benefit, hinting at a sense of social curiosity similar to that of humans. That said, not all partnerships in the study ended well, with 13 cases tipping into rough handling by the primate and killing the partner animal.

Cross-species friendships are one of several social instincts and activities that monkeys share with humans, including using different facial expressions to communicate and even tickling one another. Other research has found kissing likely evolved in a common human ancestor some 21 million years ago, suggesting smooches are another ancient trait common to large apes and humans that has persisted through the course of evolution.

Film industry data analyst Stephen Follows recently analyzed the 100 top-grossing films of each year from 2000 to 2025 (2,600 films in total), finding 70% had at least one so-called “nepo baby” as part of the core creative team (i.e., the director, credited writers, and top three billed actors). Of the 6,921 people included in the analysis, about a quarter had a family member already in the TV or film industry before they joined (28% of top-billed actors, 26% of directors, and 18% of writers). Follows recently presented the data at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.

Follows found that while family ties indeed help people break into the industry, they’re not a guarantee of long-term success. While connected directors tend to get their first film made at a younger age (median age of 33 against 35 for everyone else), reach the 100 top-grossing films faster (median of 8 years from first feature against 10 years for everyone else), and get more second chances (72% go on to make a second feature compared to 66% of all other directors), the films they make also tend to bring in less money (median adjusted domestic gross of $84 million compared to $87 million for everyone else) and have similar IMDb ratings (average of 6.5 for both connected and non-connected directors). According to Follows, rather than certain success, family connections in Hollywood “get you a modest start earlier, keep you in the game longer, and buy you another roll of the dice when a film disappoints.”

Hollywood’s “nepo baby” conversation has picked up steam in recent years, particularly after New York magazine dubbed 2022 the “Year of the Nepo Baby” in a collection of widely read articles. That said, nepotism in Hollywood is far from new. As Follows outlines in his analysis, Universal founder Carl Laemmle reportedly had some 70 relatives on his company’s payroll, while the Barrymore acting dynasty started decades before the emergence of talkies (another famous dynasty, the Fondas, began during Hollywood’s Golden Age). Today, Hollywood today is grappling with the reality of another class of nepo babies beyond creatives: studio heads.

Kelp forests are disappearing at twice the rate of coral reefs and four times faster than tropical rainforests, underscoring a growing crisis that experts say is escalating quickly while still flying under the radar. Research shows the vast decline—roughly half of the world’s kelp forests have been lost or significantly degraded in the past 50 years—is driven by a devastating combination of warming oceans, water pollution, bottom trawling, and exploding populations of kelp-devouring urchin. To counter the decline, scientists around the world are now taking decisive action, including breeding new kelp varieties, eradicating urchin populations, and embarking on vast restoration projects.

Kelp forests are the world’s largest marine biome. They cover more than a third of all coastlines and span an area up to five times larger than coral reefs. Kelp forests are also considered biodiversity hotspots, providing the foundational habitat and primary food sources for thousands of marine species. Kelps are also one of the fastest growing plants on the planet, uptaking carbon at a rate on par with tropical rainforests. While much of the carbon kelp sequesters ends up being released back into the marine environment as leaf litter, research has shown that kelp forests help sequester 31 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Beyond marine life, kelp forests are also a boon for humans. Research suggests they contribute around $500 billion in economic benefits each year by sustaining coastal fisheries, cycling nutrients in water, and protecting coastlines from storms and sea level rise. Kelps are also used to fertilize soil and produce soda ash for manufacturing, and can be found in a variety of food products, pharmaceuticals, and biomedical products.

A new study by researchers at the conservation nonprofit Conservation Science Partners found the presence of mountain lions is associated with a 67% reduction in the likelihood of deer-vehicle collisions and an estimated 76% decline in the overall number of such collisions. The authors say their work suggests increased road safety can be viewed as another highly valuable ecosystem service provided by mountain lions’ predation, along with well-established benefits like population control, food stabilization, and biodiversity maintenance.

The researchers found that when mountain lions—a.k.a. pumas, cougars, or panthers—were present on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, deer ventured deeper into the woods, avoiding “habitat edges” like roads and the outskirts of towns and thereby reducing deer-vehicle collisions. The authors believe deer’s behavioral shift around mountain lions makes sense given the way the cats hunt. As “ambush predators,” mountain lions prefer fragmented habitats, like low-density housing developments or roads cutting through forests, since the settings allow them to conceal themselves and attack deer foraging at the edge of forests. Deer were also less active at night when mountain lions were around, reducing their presence at a time of day when deer-vehicle collisions often happen. That shift also made sense to the researchers, since mountain lions primarily hunt at night.

Previous research has uncovered another effective strategy for reducing deer-vehicle collisions: ending the biannual “spring forward, fall back” by maintaining daylight savings year-round. A 2022 study found the switch from daylight savings each year is linked to a 16% increase in deer-vehicle collisions in the week after clocks are changed. The researchers estimated maintaining daylight savings year-round would prevent 33 human deaths, 2,054 human injuries, and 36,550 deer deaths each year, while also saving around $1.2 billion in vehicle collision costs.

New data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s annual survey of youth tobacco use shows 1.4% of American high school and middle school students reported smoking cigarettes in 2025, marking a new all-time low. The figure represents a remarkable decrease from 1997, when a record-high 36% of U.S. high schoolers reported currently smoking cigarettes and 70% reported having tried smoking at least once.

Experts say the decades-long reduction in smoking among young Americans is indeed a cause for celebration, particularly because smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and worldwide. At the same time, the reduction in smoking has been tied to the rise of alternative tobacco products like e-cigarettes, better known as “vapes,” and nicotine pouches. Nonetheless, the 2025 survey found 5.2% of students reported currently vaping, down from 9.4% in 2022, while the share using nicotine pouches has remained relatively low and stable (1.7% reported using pouches in 2025, up from 1.1% in 2022).

While the numbers are difficult to compare directly, experts say global surveys suggest youth tobacco use is far lower in the U.S. than in comparable nations. The success is largely owed to a strong combination of public health policy and messaging, including the 2019 decision by the FDA to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21. In April 2026, a study published by researchers at UC San Diego found local bans on flavored tobacco products are also an effective strategy to reduce vaping among young people.

Researchers at UC Berkeley developed a new technique to scan and compare human DNA, uncovering traces of two ancient hominin species hiding alongside the DNA of Neanderthals and Denisovans in the modern human genome. The researchers found one of these “ghost ancestors” interbred with Homo sapiens more than 50,000 years ago, contributing genes that today represent about 1% of the genomes of all modern humans. The other unidentified ancestor descended from a 1.8 million-year-old lineage and contributed genetic material indirectly via Denisovans—another one of our extinct relatives—more than 200,000 years ago.

H. sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans all descended from a common ancestor in Africa, and all three hominin species once inhabited the Earth at the same time. Ancestors of modern humans diverged from the common lineage around 550,000 to 765,000 years ago, and when modern humans first migrated out of Africa some 50,000 years ago, they interbred with the two much older hominin lineages, (i.e., Neanderthals and Denisovans). Earlier work already suggested modern human genomes include genetic material beyond those two relatives, but the present study goes further by pinpointing where the contributions lie in our DNA and when their genetic material entered our own.

Most living people of non-African ancestry inherited between 1% to 2% of their DNA from Neanderthals, while people from Asia and Oceania harbor roughly 0.1% to 6% Denisovan ancestry. Individuals from Asia and Oceania are the only populations alive today that are known to have substantial Denisovan DNA. A new study published to the bioRxiv preprint server suggests Denisovans may have towered over the other hominin species they lived alongside, potentially standing a foot taller and weighing 60 pounds heavier than Homo erectus. As a reminder, preprint studies are published prior to peer review.

Researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden surveyed people from Chinese, Dutch, and Greek cultural backgrounds about their experiences with tickling, finding ticklishness is a distinct body sensation that appears to be consistent across cultures. The survey found 98.4% of respondents reported having experienced tickling in their life, while 95.8% reported experience tickling someone else. People across all three cultures also reported being ticklish in the same spots, with the armpits, soles of feet, belly, and sides of the torso consistently emerging as the most ticklish regions. Taken together, the researchers believe the findings suggest tickling is a widespread human behavior.

Science has long-recognized two primary types of tickling: knismesis, a feather-light touch sensation that usually doesn’t produce laughter, and gargalesis, the strong laughter-inducing tickling caused by firm, repetitive touching. Most research to date has focused on knismesis due to its similarities to itchiness, which is a symptom of several medical conditions. Gargalesis, on the other hand, has remained largely unstudied, and experts say the present work could help lay the groundwork for systematic research into the poorly understood sensation.

Research into tickling has led to various theories about why it evolved. Some work suggests it’s simply a reflex response with no true function, while other studies argue it’s a social phenomenon that helps us bond. Another theory is that tickling may teach us to protect our most vulnerable body parts or reflexively move away from potentially harmful touching. Research also shows many primates, including chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans, tickle each other, suggesting tickling could be an evolutionarily ancient behavior.

A new study by researchers at the University of Florence in Italy suggests the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945 created a previously unknown metallic alloy made of iron, chromium, nickel, manganese, molybdenum, silicon, and aluminum. Typically, such a mixture of elements would stabilize into a simple crystal structure with fewer ingredients, however, the newly discovered alloy retained a complex structural composition that scientists haven’t seen before. The researchers discovered the multicomponent alloy inside a sample of hiroshimaite, the microscopic glassy particles formed during the bombing that eventually settled into every corner of the city.

When the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima, it created a devastating fireball reaching temperatures beyond 12,600 degrees Fahrenheit (7,000 degrees Celsius), instantly vaporizing buildings, metal, glass, soil, and water into a cloud of plasma. As the material cooled and condensed, it created tiny grains of hiroshimaite that spread across the city. However, since all of this happened nearly instantaneously, the vaporized metals didn’t have time to stabilize as they typically would, resulting in the never-before-seen alloy. Experts say the discovery opens new research directions and deepens our understanding of how materials form and behave.

This isn’t the first time scientists have discovered a new material in the aftermath of a nuclear blast. A May 2026 study by the same senior author of the present study identified a new silicon-rich glass containing rare forms of metals born after the world’s first nuclear test: the Manhattan Project’s Trinity test in New Mexico in July 1945. That material—dubbed trinitite—and the newly discovered alloy from Hiroshima, suggests nuclear explosions can forge entirely new types of chemical compounds with complex structures and unique compositions.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft recently came out of a nearly yearlong hibernation, waking up in “good health” as it touches the outer edge of our solar system some 5.9 billion miles from Earth. NASA routinely puts the probe into resource-saving hibernation mode during long cruise periods, when the spacecraft has little to do other than passively collect data as it travels between the solar system’s most remote objects. Now that it’s awake, New Horizons will begin transmitting the data collected during its 321-day rest—the probe’s longest-ever hibernation period—back to Earth via radio signals that take nearly nine hours to reach the planet.

New Horizons was the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close, conducting a detailed flyby of the dwarf planet and its moons in 2015, nine years after launch. Four years later, the probe reached its second major target: a snowman-shaped rock named Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored in our solar system. The data New Horizons is collecting now is the first of its kind, helping scientists understand what happens at the boundary between the Sun’s region of influence and interstellar space, called the “termination shock.” Its current mission is set to conclude in 2029, however, the mission may be extended if the spacecraft is healthy and still able to collect valuable data. The probe’s current trajectory will eventually take it outside the heliosphere (the boundary where influences outside our solar system are stronger than those of our Sun) and into interstellar space.

New Horizons follows in the footsteps of NASA’s twin Voyager probes, the only spacecraft to venture outside of the heliosphere. Launched in 1977, the spacecraft are known for the “Golden Records” attached to their bodies, which contain sounds and images portraying life on Earth. In May 2025, NASA engineers successfully revived a set of thrusters on Voyager 1, overcoming a distance of some 15 billion miles to unlock a crucial backup propulsion system ahead of a blackout period that could have doomed the 50-year-old spacecraft.

A new study by researchers at the University of Vermont documents what appears to be the first transmissible cancer ever observed in fish, identifying a type of contagious skin cancer among nearly a third of brown bullhead catfish in Lake Memphremagog, a 30-mile-long waterway straddling the border of Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec. The cancer, a type of melanoma, manifests as ink-black tumors on the fins, gills, lips, and eyes of the fish. Genetic analysis revealed the cancer cells are near-identical clones of one another, suggesting they descended from an ancestral cancer cell that emerged in a single, long-dead “patient zero” years ago. It also appears to be the first transmissible cancer observed in fresh water, which surprised scientists since cells typically require salty fluid to survive.

Cancers are almost always caused by mutations in the host’s own cells. However, transmissible cancers represent a rare exception in which living tumor cells can escape one host organism and take root in another. Prior to the present study, only three groups of species were known to have transmissible cancers: dogs, Tasmanian devils, and mollusks. The authors of the present study aren’t certain how the catfish are spreading the cancer to one another, but they suspect it happens during spawning season, when adult bullheads crowd tightly in shallow waters.

Some research suggests that transmissible cancers are a new species in their own right, while other work has gone so far as to argue that entire animal species might have begun life as cancer cells millions of years ago. While the skin cancer affecting catfish is just now being extensively studied, it may actually be more than a century old: In 1858, famed naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote about seeing “inky-black” lesions on brown bullheads while visiting the Assabet River in Massachusetts.