Science

The classic narrative of Neanderthal extinction goes like this: as modern humans expanded across Europe, small, isolated Neanderthal populations suffered from inbreeding and progressive genetic deterioration until they simply faded away. A study published June 24 in Nature by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology turns that story on its head, at […]

The hottest structural materials we have, nickel-based superalloys used in jet engines, melt around 1,500 °C. For applications operating above 2,000 °C, designers have had to choose between brittle ceramics and intermetallics on one hand, or refractory metals that oxidize and weaken rapidly on the other. A paper published June 24 in Nature from Xi’an […]

Attention is generally thought of as a function of the prefrontal cortex, the most recently evolved region of the mammalian brain. But a study published in Nature Communications by researchers at Johns Hopkins University identifies a group of neurons in the brainstem, one of the oldest parts of the vertebrate brain, that plays a critical […]

On June 23, 2026, France recorded its hottest day since 1947. Temperatures exceeded 44 °C (111 °F) in parts of the country. By 11:45 pm on June 22, the Golfech nuclear reactor in southern France had already shut down. A second reactor at Nogent-sur-Seine was ramping down. Across the English Channel, five gas plants in […]

A platform designed to accelerate clinical research has become a tool for producing what some epidemiologists call an alarming volume of misleading studies. An investigation published June 24 in Science by Frederik Joelving of Retraction Watch documents how medical students and resident physicians are using TriNetX, a platform providing anonymized electronic health records from over […]

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest family of drug targets in the human genome, roughly one-third of all approved drugs work through them. But GPCRs do not signal through G proteins alone. When a receptor is activated, it is phosphorylated by GRK kinases, which recruits β-arrestin proteins. These β-arrestins then desensitize the receptor (physically blocking […]

Sudden cardiac death claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year, often striking without warning in people who felt reasonably healthy. The standard screening tool, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), identifies only a small fraction of those at risk. Most people who die suddenly have normal LVEF. A study published June 24 in Nature by […]

On July 1, 2025, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Chile spotted something unusual, an object on a trajectory that could only have originated outside the Solar System. Designated 3I/ATLAS, it was the third confirmed interstellar object ever detected, following 1I/’Oumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019). With an orbital eccentricity of 6.14, more […]

In June 2026, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced what may be the most ambitious single bet in the history of neuroscience. Its Janelia Research Campus near Washington, D.C., is committing approximately $1 billion over the next decade to a single, unified goal: build the first mechanistic account of how a vertebrate brain generates behavior. […]

Every year, roughly 12 million people worldwide survive a stroke. Of those, only about 35% make a full recovery or live with only minor impairments, according to a 2020 review in Medicina. Nearly 100 million people globally live with the aftermath of a stroke, deficits in motor function, speech, cognition, or sensation that can persist […]