NASA's New Horizons spacecraft wakes from its longest hibernation in good health

Following its longest hibernation period ever of nearly a year, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has emerged in good health and is ready to begin transmitting science data gathered in the distant Kuiper Belt far beyond Pluto.

Island life changed how Brazil's Noronha skink reproduces, but the lizard's strategy might be failing

by Henrique B. Braz, Selma Maria Almeida-Santos, Serena Najara Migliore, The Conversation

Visitors to the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, located about 340 miles (545 kilometers) off the coast of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, soon notice a small lizard. Seemingly ubiquitous, it roams among rocks, trails and urbanized areas, approaching people and stealing food in plain sight when it can, and rarely flees.

Measuring iron in motion at Earth-core conditions

It was a journey to the center of the Earth, if only for the briefest of moments. But rather than tunneling thousands of miles from Earth's surface, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and several universities used the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to recreate the extreme temperature and pressure conditions of Earth's inner core. This enabled the first-ever simultaneous measurement of iron's dynamic strength at relevant temperatures and pressures.

Baseline tool could separate alien life signals from geology on ocean worlds

When it comes to the search for life elsewhere in the universe, methane and other chemical compounds are seen as signs of biology because they are often produced by living microbes. However, scientists can be misled because certain geological processes can produce chemical signatures identical to those of living organisms.

Much of Earth's 'space dust' may come from unidentified near-Earth asteroids

Like a shelf in an old house, the Earth collects a lot of dust from its surroundings. This "space dust" is mostly made up of micrometeorites that survive atmospheric entry and provides researchers with a cheap and easy way to obtain samples to study our cosmic neighbors. However, it can be difficult to determine which objects certain samples originated from if their parent bodies aren't already in available catalogs. A recent study, published in Science Advances, describes a new subset of space dust with such mysterious origins and how researchers are tracking down potential sources.

Simple cell migration mechanism may explain how hair follicles organize before birth

In mammals, hair follicles emerge during embryonic development, forming geometric patterns that vary from one species to another. But how is the position of each hair determined? A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has shown that a simple mechanism based on the movement of cells in response to chemical signals can reproduce the formation of hair follicles in two mammalian species.

From mother to offspring: Young birds show how 'forever chemicals' accumulate

New research has found young birds living near contaminated industrial and military sites in suburban Melbourne carry especially high concentrations of PFAS, so-called "forever chemicals."

Storms impact the architecture of webs and the survival of spiders

In the dense forests of the Ecuadorian Andes, the survival of a spider relies not only on its ability to prey on insects but also on its capacity to resist a threat coming from the skies. A new study revealed that the heavy rainfall that hits the region acts as an "ecological filter," bombarding spider webs and, in the process, determining which species and silk architectures are able to master each environment.

Artefacts hint at cultural exchange between Neanderthals and humans | New Scientist

About 59,000 years ago, Homo sapiens moved into a coastal cave in Turkey that was previously home to Neanderthals. Yet the tools and trinkets found in the cave remained remarkably consistent, hinting that these ancient hominin species had a shared material culture.

Can the biggest problems in AI be solved by philosophy? | New Scientist

Some of the biggest challenges in artificial intelligence are being worked on not by computer scientists head down in code but by philosophers lured from academia into jobs at AI firms. The philosophers are tasked with making the next generation of models more capable and reliable, but they also shed light on the mystery of consciousness and whether intelligence can be replicated in software alone.