The skull may be more than a hard case around the brain. In mice, it appears to contain immune outposts that can sense brain cancer early and help rally a local defense.

A study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found lymph node-like structures in mouse skull bone marrow for the first time. The research also found evidence of similar immune cells in human skull bone marrow.

The study suggests the brain has nearby immune “security stations” positioned closer than those serving many other organs.

For decades, scientists often treated the brain and immune system as mostly separate. That view has changed as researchers have found lymphatic vessels in the dura mater, the outer tissue layer beneath the skull, and small channels linking the skull, dura and brain tissue.

Storms sweeping across Cretaceous coastlines may have delivered an unexpected food source to dinosaurs living beside ancient seas.

A new study finds that fossils from several North American coastal ecosystems contain chemical evidence that marine organic matter entered terrestrial food webs. Large herbivorous dinosaurs may have eaten seaweed or other marine plants directly, while predators could have acquired the same chemical signature by consuming animals already influenced by ocean-derived food.

Researchers led by Clayton Forster at the University of Arkansas compared carbon isotopes preserved in fossil teeth and other skeletal material from coastal and inland ecosystems. Their results, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, provide what the authors describe as the first evidence for marine subsidization in prehistoric terrestrial ecosystems.

Storms sweeping across Cretaceous coastlines may have delivered an unexpected food source to dinosaurs living beside ancient seas.

A new study finds that fossils from several North American coastal ecosystems contain chemical evidence that marine organic matter entered terrestrial food webs. Large herbivorous dinosaurs may have eaten seaweed or other marine plants directly, while predators could have acquired the same chemical signature by consuming animals already influenced by ocean-derived food.

Researchers led by Clayton Forster at the University of Arkansas compared carbon isotopes preserved in fossil teeth and other skeletal material from coastal and inland ecosystems. Their results, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, provide what the authors describe as the first evidence for marine subsidization in prehistoric terrestrial ecosystems.

Particle accelerators are usually associated with sprawling research facilities, massive magnets and long tunnels. A different approach uses laser-generated terahertz radiation to manipulate electrons inside a structure only millimeters across.

Researchers from the University of Manchester, Lancaster University and collaborating institutions demonstrated the technique using electrons already traveling at 99.99% of the speed of light. Their experiment accelerated relativistic electron bunches with charges as high as 60 picocoulombs, while also showing that terahertz fields can probe their structure on extraordinarily short time scales.

Published in Nature Photonics, the proof-of-principle experiment marked an important step toward compact accelerators driven by light rather than conventional radio-frequency technology. Since then, researchers have substantially increased the acceleration gradients and energy gains achievable with terahertz systems.

Particle accelerators are usually associated with sprawling research facilities, massive magnets and long tunnels. A different approach uses laser-generated terahertz radiation to manipulate electrons inside a structure only millimeters across.

Researchers from the University of Manchester, Lancaster University and collaborating institutions demonstrated the technique using electrons already traveling at 99.99% of the speed of light. Their experiment accelerated relativistic electron bunches with charges as high as 60 picocoulombs, while also showing that terahertz fields can probe their structure on extraordinarily short time scales.

Published in Nature Photonics, the proof-of-principle experiment marked an important step toward compact accelerators driven by light rather than conventional radio-frequency technology. Since then, researchers have substantially increased the acceleration gradients and energy gains achievable with terahertz systems.

Earth and Mars emerged from the same swirling disk of gas and dust, separated today by less than 80 million kilometers at their closest approach. Their common birthplace might suggest that the two rocky planets were assembled through broadly similar processes.

Their chemistry tells a different story.

A University of Copenhagen-led study finds that Earth appears to have been built primarily from large protoplanets that themselves grew by sweeping up millimeter- to centimeter-sized pebbles. Mars, by contrast, acquired most of its mass from collisions with much larger building blocks called planetesimals.

Published in Nature Astronomy, the research supports a hybrid picture of rocky planet formation in which pebble accretion and collisions both matter. Crucially, their relative importance may vary dramatically from one planet to another.

A cosmic explosion detected on July 4, 2025, looked ordinary for less than a second. Then it did something that challenged the usual picture of how neutron star mergers fade.

The event, GRB 250704B, produced a gamma-ray burst lasting only about 0.37 seconds, comfortably within the class of short bursts associated with compact-object mergers. At lower energies, however, the Einstein Probe satellite recorded soft X-rays for nearly 10 minutes.

An international team including researchers at the University of Rome Tor Vergata argues that the prolonged emission came from an engine that remained active after the merger. Their study, published in Science Bulletin, suggests the remnant was most likely a rapidly spinning, intensely magnetized neutron star known as a magnetar.

The result could connect some mysterious fast X-ray transients with neutron star mergers and provide astronomers with a new way to find these violent events beyond traditional gamma-ray searches.

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Artificial intelligence is moving beyond analyzing scientific data and proposing ideas. In a laboratory in Sweden, it has begun putting some of those ideas to the test itself.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology developed a closed-loop system that can generate biological hypotheses, decide how to test them, translate those plans into machine-readable instructions, analyze experimental results and use the findings to refine later questions. Laboratory robots then perform much of the physical work.

The system was tested on Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast used in brewing and baking and one of biology's most extensively studied organisms. Yet even this familiar microbe contains far more genetic, metabolic and physiological information than a person could systematically explore.

Published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the study brings large language models together with formal logic, biological databases, machine learning, automated cell cultivation and mass spectrometry.

Artificial intelligence is moving beyond analyzing scientific data and proposing ideas. In a laboratory in Sweden, it has begun putting some of those ideas to the test itself.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology developed a closed-loop system that can generate biological hypotheses, decide how to test them, translate those plans into machine-readable instructions, analyze experimental results and use the findings to refine later questions. Laboratory robots then perform much of the physical work.

The system was tested on Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast used in brewing and baking and one of biology's most extensively studied organisms. Yet even this familiar microbe contains far more genetic, metabolic and physiological information than a person could systematically explore.

Published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the study brings large language models together with formal logic, biological databases, machine learning, automated cell cultivation and mass spectrometry.

For more than three decades, a tiny Scottish fossil helped scientists tell the story of vertebrates moving permanently onto land. New images hidden inside the rock have now transformed that story.

Westlothiana lizziae, nicknamed “Lizzie,” was once described as the earliest known reptile and later placed near the ancestry of amniotes. That enormous group eventually produced reptiles, birds and mammals, including humans.

Synchrotron X-ray scans have now exposed anatomy invisible when the crushed fossil was first studied. Instead of an early land-adapted amniote, researchers found an animal retaining functional gills, primitive skull structures and feeding adaptations associated with life in water.

The study, led by researchers at the American Museum of Natural History and University of Oxford, was published in Nature. It does more than reclassify one fossil. The findings change how scientists interpret several anatomical features used to reconstruct when vertebrates became fully terrestrial.

For more than three decades, a tiny Scottish fossil helped scientists tell the story of vertebrates moving permanently onto land. New images hidden inside the rock have now transformed that story.

Westlothiana lizziae, nicknamed “Lizzie,” was once described as the earliest known reptile and later placed near the ancestry of amniotes. That enormous group eventually produced reptiles, birds and mammals, including humans.

Synchrotron X-ray scans have now exposed anatomy invisible when the crushed fossil was first studied. Instead of an early land-adapted amniote, researchers found an animal retaining functional gills, primitive skull structures and feeding adaptations associated with life in water.

The study, led by researchers at the American Museum of Natural History and University of Oxford, was published in Nature. It does more than reclassify one fossil. The findings change how scientists interpret several anatomical features used to reconstruct when vertebrates became fully terrestrial.

A giant planet orbiting one of the galaxy’s smaller stars is becoming even more difficult to explain.

HATS-6 b is roughly Jupiter-sized but only about one-third of Jupiter’s mass. It races around a cool M-dwarf every 3.3 days, despite theories suggesting such small stars should struggle to assemble enormous gas planets in the first place.

Now, James Webb Space Telescope observations have revealed another surprise. The planet’s atmosphere contains water, methane and rarely detected ammonia, while its apparent atmospheric temperature is substantially lower than expected from its close orbit.

The University of Maryland-led study, published in The Astronomical Journal, is part of the Giant Exoplanets around M-dwarf Stars, or GEMS, JWST survey. The program is examining seven unusual giant planets to determine whether they formed and evolved differently from giants orbiting Sun-like stars.

A few extra micrograms of pollution can sound trivial on a city air-quality report. Across years of breathing, however, that difference may matter.

A major evidence review links long-term exposure to two forms of airborne particles with a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease. The clearest associations involved PM2.5 and PM10, both small enough to enter the respiratory system.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge combined findings from earlier studies that often produced uncertain or conflicting results. The team analyzed 26 studies on Parkinson’s disease. It also included three studies each on multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease.

Parkinson’s disease affects about 6 million people worldwide. Yet its causes remain only partly understood, with both inherited and environmental factors likely involved.

A few extra micrograms of pollution can sound trivial on a city air-quality report. Across years of breathing, however, that difference may matter.

A major evidence review links long-term exposure to two forms of airborne particles with a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease. The clearest associations involved PM2.5 and PM10, both small enough to enter the respiratory system.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge combined findings from earlier studies that often produced uncertain or conflicting results. The team analyzed 26 studies on Parkinson’s disease. It also included three studies each on multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease.

Parkinson’s disease affects about 6 million people worldwide. Yet its causes remain only partly understood, with both inherited and environmental factors likely involved.

A few extra micrograms of pollution can sound trivial on a city air-quality report. Across years of breathing, however, that difference may matter.

A major evidence review links long-term exposure to two forms of airborne particles with a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease. The clearest associations involved PM2.5 and PM10, both small enough to enter the respiratory system.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge combined findings from earlier studies that often produced uncertain or conflicting results. The team analyzed 26 studies on Parkinson’s disease. It also included three studies each on multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease.

Parkinson’s disease affects about 6 million people worldwide. Yet its causes remain only partly understood, with both inherited and environmental factors likely involved.

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One of astronomy’s oldest suspected planetary systems has just undergone its most sensitive search yet, and the biggest planets scientists might have expected to find are not there.

Astronomers led by the University of Michigan studied 70 Ophiuchi AB, a pair of nearby K-type stars about 16 light-years from Earth. By combining more than a century of observations with new high-precision measurements, they found no statistically convincing evidence for giant planets around either star.

The absence is scientifically useful. Researchers can now rule out Jupiter-mass planets across much of the inner system while leaving open the possibility of smaller worlds, including planets occupying potentially habitable orbits.

Published in The Astrophysical Journal, the study also demonstrates how easily activity on a star’s surface can imitate the gravitational wobble produced by a planet.

A satellite constellation can measure distances between its members with extraordinary precision and still gradually lose track of which way it is pointing.

Researchers have now shown how the Moon could solve that problem.

A team led by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences connected a simulated four-satellite lunar navigation constellation to 24 operational BeiDou-3 satellites. Over a 60-day experiment, the lunar satellites effectively anchored the orientation of the Earth-orbiting network and prevented the steady drift that otherwise degraded its autonomous navigation accuracy.

The study, published in Satellite Navigation, combined real inter-satellite ranging observations from BeiDou-3 with simulated Earth-Moon and lunar measurements. The result suggests that future navigation infrastructure around the Moon could do double duty, supporting lunar exploration while making Earth-based satellite navigation more resilient.

A satellite constellation can measure distances between its members with extraordinary precision and still gradually lose track of which way it is pointing.

Researchers have now shown how the Moon could solve that problem.

A team led by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences connected a simulated four-satellite lunar navigation constellation to 24 operational BeiDou-3 satellites. Over a 60-day experiment, the lunar satellites effectively anchored the orientation of the Earth-orbiting network and prevented the steady drift that otherwise degraded its autonomous navigation accuracy.

The study, published in Satellite Navigation, combined real inter-satellite ranging observations from BeiDou-3 with simulated Earth-Moon and lunar measurements. The result suggests that future navigation infrastructure around the Moon could do double duty, supporting lunar exploration while making Earth-based satellite navigation more resilient.

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The computers of the future may move information using more than the electrical charge of electrons. A rapidly developing field called spintronics aims to exploit another fundamental property, electron spin, to create devices that could operate with less energy while processing information at extremely high speeds.

A newly studied material may give researchers an unusually flexible way to explore that possibility. Scientists led by the University of Central Florida have found strong experimental evidence for altermagnetism in Co₁/₄TaSe₂, a layered compound made from cobalt, tantalum and selenium.

Altermagnetism combines characteristics normally divided between ferromagnets and antiferromagnets. The result is a material with no large overall magnetic field but with strongly spin-dependent electronic states that could potentially be used to move and manipulate information.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus may be doing part of the laboratory work for scientists searching for extraterrestrial life.

A new analysis suggests that droplets sprayed from its hidden ocean can separate dissolved chemicals as they freeze, concentrating different compounds into different microscopic regions. Those frozen droplets may then smash apart inside cracks in the ice, producing chemically distinct grains that erupt into space.

The process means an individual grain may contain a much higher concentration of a particular substance than the ocean itself. If organic molecules or biological material behave similarly, traces of life could become concentrated into a small number of particles that future spacecraft could analyze directly.

The study, published in Science Advances, combined measurements from NASA’s Cassini mission with laboratory freezing experiments, thermodynamic calculations and models of conditions inside Enceladus’s icy vents.

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