The south pole of the sun has never been seen before ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/PHI Team, J. Hirzberger (MPS) We have seen the sun’s south pole for the first time, courtesy of the pioneering Solar Orbiter spacecraft. These images and other measurements should help us refine forecasts of the sun’s activity. Taking a picture of…
Sea cucumbers are the ocean’s janitors, cleaning the seabed and recycling nutrients back into the water. But this humble marine invertebrate could also hold the key to stopping the spread of cancer. A sugar compound found in sea cucumbers can effectively block Sulf-2, an enzyme that plays a major role in cancer growth, according to…
Researchers identify “meal memory” neurons in laboratory rats that could explain why forgetting lunch leads to overeating. Scientists have discovered a specific group of brain cells that create memories of meals, encoding not just what food was eaten but when it was eaten. The findings, published today in Nature Communications, could explain why people with…
Star TOI-6894 is just like many in our galaxy, a small red dwarf, and only ~20% of the mass of our Sun. Like many small stars, it is not expected to provide suitable conditions for the formation and hosting of a large planet. However, as published today in Nature Astronomy, an international team of astronomers…
Gwndaf Hughes Science videographer Never before seen pictures of the Sun’s south pole The first ever video and images of the Sun’s south pole have been sent back to Earth by the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The new images will enable scientists to learn how the Sun cycles between periods of raging storms…
A blazar may have blasted dark matter at Earth M. Weiss/CfA/NASA An extremely high-energy particle that was spotted tearing through Earth has left scientists flummoxed ever since it was discovered. While many researchers believe the particle was an unusual neutrino, some are now suggesting it may be something even wilder: a particle of dark matter…
How can the strange properties of quantum particles be exploited to perform extremely accurate measurements? This question is at the heart of the research field of quantum metrology. One example is the atomic clock, which uses the quantum properties of atoms to measure time much more accurately than would be possible with conventional clocks. However,…
CT scan of the front of a skate, showing the hard, tooth-like denticles (orange) on its skin Yara Haridy Teeth first evolved as sensory organs, not for chewing, according to a new analysis of animal fossils. The first tooth-like structures seem to have been sensitive nodules on the skin of early fish that could detect…
An artist’s impression of a Dyson sphere Aicrovision/Shutterstock If advanced alien civilisations are building vast satellite swarms designed to harvest a star’s energy, we should be able to see them – so why haven’t we? One answer might be that these structures, known as Dyson spheres, will likely destroy themselves before we can spot one,…
One of the modified grey wolves created by Colossal Colossal Biosciences The dire wolf is “the world’s first successfully de-extincted animal”, Colossal Biosciences claimed on 7 April. And many people seemed to believe it. New Scientist was one of the few media outlets to reject the claim, pointing out that the animals created by Colossal…
