NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, June 26 (game #746)
Looking for a different day? A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day…
Geologists got it wrong: Rivers didn’t need plants to meander
A new Stanford study challenges the decades-old view that the rise of land plants half a billion years ago dramatically changed the shapes of rivers. Rivers generally come in two styles: braided, where multiple channels flow around sandy bars, and meandering, where a single channel cuts S-curves across a landscape. Geologists have long thought that…
The trade in US body parts that’s completely legal
Luke MintzBBC News BBC Harold Dillard was 56 when he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer around his abdomen in November 2009. Within weeks the former car mechanic and handyman – a Texan “Mr Fix It” type who wore a cowboy hat and jeans nearly every day – was in end-of-life hospice care. In his…
Common heart drug taken by millions found useless, possibly risky
Beta blockers—drugs commonly prescribed for a range of cardiac conditions, including heart attacks—provide no clinical benefit for patients who have had an uncomplicated myocardial infarction with preserved heart function. Beta blockers have been the standard treatment for these patients for 40 years. This is a breakthrough discovery from the “REBOOT Trial” with senior investigator Valentin…
County Durham mother’s vaccination plea after ‘terrifying’ measles
Sharon BarbourHealth correspondent, BBC North East and Cumbria Supplied Baby Saskia had the typical measles rash Nowhere in the north-east of England and Cumbria has the childhood measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination rate of 95% needed to achieve the “herd immunity” at which point disease does not spread, latest figures show. Middlesbrough has the…
Baby dies of whooping cough after mother not vaccinated while pregnant
Getty Images A baby whose mother was not vaccinated against whooping cough while pregnant has died after contracting the infection, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said. The death, which occurred between January and June 2025, is the first fatal case of whooping cough in the UK this year. It follows government warnings about…
Scientists uncover hidden shards of Mars’ violent birth, frozen for billions of years
New research published in the journal Science reveals the Red Planet’s mantle preserves a record of its violent beginnings. The inside of Mars isn’t smooth and uniform like familiar textbook illustrations. Instead, new research reveals it’s chunky — more like a Rocky Road brownie than a neat slice of Millionaire’s Shortbread. We often picture rocky…
Astronomers stunned as James Webb finds a planet nursery flooded with carbon dioxide
A study led by Jenny Frediani at Stockholm University has revealed a planet-forming disk with a strikingly unusual chemical composition: an unexpectedly high abundance of carbon dioxide (CO2) in regions where Earth-like planets may one day form. The discovery, made using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), challenges long-standing assumptions about the chemistry of planetary…
NASA’s Webb Telescope just found 300 galaxies that defy explanation
In a new study, scientists at the University of Missouri looked deep into the universe and found something unexpected. Using infrared images taken from NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), they identified 300 objects that were brighter than they should be. “These mysterious objects are candidate galaxies in the early universe, meaning they could…
Tories pledge to get ‘all our oil and gas out of the North Sea’
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said her party will remove all net zero requirements on oil and gas companies drilling in the North Sea if elected. Badenoch is to formally announce the plan to focus solely on “maximising extraction” and to get “all our oil and gas out of the North Sea” in a speech…
Dogs and drones join forest battle against eight-toothed beetle
Esme Stallard and Justin RowlattClimate and science team Sean Gallup/Getty Images It is smaller than your fingernail, but this hairy beetle is one of the biggest single threats to the UK’s forests. The bark beetle has been the scourge of Europe, killing millions of spruce trees, yet the government thought it could halt its spread…
