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Study: Severe and Persistent River Droughts Led to Collapse of Indus Valley Civilization

An artist’s reconstruction of the gateway and drain at the ancient city of Harappa. Image credit: Chris Sloan.
Dec 2, 2025 by News Staff

Severe and persistent river droughts, each lasting longer than 85 years, affected the Indus basin between 4,400 and 3,400 years ago, according to new research. The findings may help explain why this ancient civilization slowly declined, and highlights how environmental factors could shape ancient societies. An artist’s reconstruction of the gateway and drain at the ancient city of Harappa. Image credit: Chris Sloan. The Indus Valley Civilization...

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Life reconstruction of another Mamenchisaurus species, Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum. Image credit: Júlia d’Oliveira.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Mamenchisaurid Dinosaur

Dec 1, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of the sauropod dinosaur genus Mamenchisaurus has been discovered in China dating back to the Late Jurassic epoch. Life reconstruction of...

An artist’s impression of the exoplanet WASP-107b. Image credit: University of Geneva / NCCR PlanetS / Thibaut Roger.

Webb Detects Giant Clouds of Helium Leaking from WASP-107b

Dec 1, 2025 by News Staff

Using high-precision spectroscopic observations from the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space...

A gigantic 8 m long mega-predatory shark stalks an unwary long-necked plesiosaur in the seas off Australia 115 million years ago. Image credit: Polyanna von Knorring, Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Earliest Known Giant Mackerel Sharks Lived 115 Million Years Ago in Australian Waters

Dec 1, 2025 by News Staff

The Lamniformes are an order of sharks commonly known as mackerel sharks. It includes some of the most familiar species of sharks, such as the great white...

Detection of electric discharges in dust devils by the SuperCam instrument on board NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. Image credit: Nicolas Sarter.

Perseverance Detects Triboelectric Discharges during Martian Dust Devils and Storms

Dec 1, 2025 by News Staff

Using data captured by the SuperCam microphone aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover over two Martian years, planetrary scientists have detected 55 triboelectric...

This Hubble image shows the active spiral galaxy NGC 1792. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker / F. Belfiore / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.

Hubble Space Telescope Captures New Image of NGC 1792

Dec 1, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

NGC 1792 is a stormy and highly active spiral galaxy located in the southern constellation of Columba. This Hubble image shows the active spiral galaxy...

The genomes of ancient cats from archaeological sites across Europe and Anatolia (circles in the map) revealed that domestic cats were introduced to Europe from North Africa starting at 2,000 years ago, several millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe; African wildcats in Sardinia originate from a distinct wildcat population in Northwest Africa. Image credit: De Martino et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adt2642.

Domestic Cats Were Introduced to Europe around 2,000 Years Ago, Probably from North Africa: Study

Nov 28, 2025 by News Staff

The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica). Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful...

Australopithecus deyiremeda and Australopithecus afarensis. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Two Australopithecus Species Co-Existed in Ethiopia 3.4 Million Years Ago

Nov 28, 2025 by News Staff

In 2009, paleoanthropologists found eight bones from the foot of an ancient human ancestor in 3.4-million-year-old sediments at the paleontological site...

The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis sp.) is one of the most enigmatic animals of the deep sea. Image credit: Steven Haddock / MBARI.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Vampire Squid

Nov 28, 2025 by Natali Anderson

The genome of the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis sp.) is one of the largest animal genomes, exceeding 10 billion base pairs. The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis...

This image, captured by the Gemini South telescope, shows the planetary nebula NGC 6302. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. Miller & M. Rodriguez, International Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Gemini South Telescope Focuses on Butterfly Nebula

Nov 28, 2025 by News Staff

To celebrate 25 years since the completion of the International Gemini Observatory, students in Chile voted for the Gemini South telescope to image the...

Reconstruction of a Late Triassic landscape, approximately 215 million years ago; a lagerpetid, a close relative of pterosaurs, is perched on a rock, observing pterosaurs flying overhead. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes.

New Study Reveals How Pterosaurs Evolved Flight-Ready Brain

Nov 28, 2025 by News Staff

In new research, an international team of researchers used high-resolution 3D imaging techniques, including microCT scanning, to reconstruct brain shapes...

Aerial view of the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite in Colorado, the United States. Image credit: USDA Forest Service.

150-Million-Year-Old Footprints of Limping Sauropod Dinosaur Found in Colorado

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have analyzed an exceptionally long sauropod trackway at the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite in Colorado, the United States. Their results...

German Shepherd puppy. Image credit: Marilyn Peddle / CC BY 2.0.

Almost Two-Thirds of Breed Dogs Have Wolf Ancestry, Study Shows

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

Although dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and wolves (Canis lupus) can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, hybridization between the two is far more...

Physcomitrium patens spores survive simulated space conditions with high resilience. Image credit: Maeng et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113827.

Moss Can Survive Long-Term Exposure to Elements of Space, New Experiments Show

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Japan has tested protenemata (juvenile moss), brood cells (specialized stem cells that emerge under stress conditions) and sporophytes...

Maldarelli & Güntürkün show that there is growing evidence that (i) birds have sensory and self-awareness, and (ii) they also have the neural architecture that may be necessary for this. Image credit: Kutte.

Birds May Possess Fundamental Forms of Conscious Perception: Study

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

In their new paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Ruhr University Bochum researchers Gianmarco Maldarelli and Onur Güntürkün...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Ancient Humans Introduced Wolves to Remote Baltic Sea Island 5,000 Years Ago

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

Wolves, the wild ancestor of dogs, are the only large carnivores that have undergone domestication by humans. Yet, it remains unclear if this process took...

An artist’s impression of Quaoar and its two rings. Quaoar’s moon Weywot is shown on the left. Image credit: ESA / Sci.News.

Trans-Neptunian Object Quaoar Has Two Moons, New Study Suggests

Nov 24, 2025 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered moon has an estimated diameter of 38 km (23.6 miles) and a V magnitude of 28, likely making it the faintest satellite ever found around...

Scholars argue that consciousness is a fundamental quality of the Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL-Caltech / STScI / Sci-News.com.

There Are Three Types of Phenomenal Consciousness, Researchers Say

Nov 24, 2025 by News Staff

Our conscious experience makes up our lives, often through positive pleasure: I feel the warm Sun on my skin, I hear the singing of birds, I enjoy the...

Traveling through our Solar System at a staggering 209,000 km (130,000 miles) per hour, 3I/ATLAS was made visible by using a series of colorized stacked images from September 11-25, 2025, using the Heliocentric Imager-1 instrument, a visible-light imager on NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Lowell Observatory / Qicheng Zhang.

Three Heliophysics Spacecraft Observe Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Nov 24, 2025 by News Staff

NASA’s STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory), the NASA/ESA SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), and NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify...

The illustration shows a cutaway revealing the interior of early Earth with a hot, melted layer above the boundary between the core and mantle. Image credit: Yoshinori Miyazaki / Rutgers University.

Geoscientists Find Explanation for Mysterious Structures within Earth’s Mantle

Nov 24, 2025 by News Staff

For decades, scientists have been baffled by two enormous structures buried deep inside Earth. These anomalies may retain geochemical signatures distinct...

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