New images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveal two young stars surrounded by planet-forming disks, Tau 042021 (left) and Oph 163131 (right), offering a rare edge-on glimpse into how worlds like our own may take shape. These composite images show protoplanetary disks Tau 042021 (left) and Oph 163131 (right). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Hubble / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO...

The Jovian system has four large moons, including the largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede, whereas the Saturnian system is dominated by one giant moon. New simulations suggest Jupiter’s powerful magnetism carved a gap in its early disk, helping capture and preserve major moons like Io and Ganymede, while Saturn’s weaker field left its system sparsely populated. Jupiter (lower left) has...

New evidence from Germany suggests Neanderthals captured European pond turtles (Emys orbicularis) around 125,000 years ago, likely valuing their shells as tools rather than their modest meat yield. The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) next to the foot of the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). Image credit: Nicole Viehofer / MONREPOS – LEIZA. “In recent years, the diversity...

Paleontologists have examined 289-million-year-old specimens of the early reptile Captorhinus aguti that preserve a covering of three-dimensional skin, a complete shoulder girdle and ribcage with cartilages, and — most astonishingly — protein remnants that predate the previous oldest-known example by nearly 100 million years. Captorhinus aguti. Image credit: Michael DeBraga. The move...

A protist species called Stentor coeruleus appears to navigate by sensing physical shapes — a discovery that suggests even the simplest life forms can exploit geometry to survive. Stentor coeruleus. Image credit: Laboratory of Physical Ethology, Hokkaido University. Just one mm long, Stentor coeruleus is a species of protist in the family Stentoridae. “Stentor coeruleus exhibits complex behavior...

New computational simulations suggest ice-giant planets like Uranus and Neptune harbor a quasi-one-dimensional superionic state of carbon hydride that could reshape how scientists understand planetary interiors. Illustration of the predicted hexagonal carbon hydride compound under Neptune-like interior conditions. In this structure, carbon forms the outer spiral chains (yellow) and hydrogen forms...

In new research, University of Galway’s Dr. Martin David Mulligan and his colleagues followed nearly 800 participants from the Framingham Heart Study for more than a decade and a half, examining whether vitamin D levels measured in their 30s were linked to changes in the brain in later life. They found that individuals with higher circulating levels of vitamin D had lower accumulations of tau —...

Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from 216 canid remains, including 181 from Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe. The oldest data that they recovered are from a 14,200-year-old dog from the Kesslerloch site in Switzerland. Their results suggest that domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) predate farming and share deep ancestry with wolves (Canis lupus) from Eurasia, challenging ideas about...

By tracing magnetic signals preserved in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia, geoscientists have found the oldest direct evidence yet that parts of the planet’s outer shell were shifting across the globe, pushing the origins of plate motion deep into Earth’s early history. Hadean Earth. Image credit: Alec Brenner. “There has been a huge range of ages suggested for timing,” said...

New evidence from Germany suggests Neanderthals captured European pond turtles (Emys orbicularis) around 125,000 years ago, likely valuing their shells as tools rather than their modest meat yield. The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) next to the foot of the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). Image credit: Nicole Viehofer / MONREPOS – LEIZA. “In recent years, the diversity...