2+ week, 6+ day ago (447+ words) Unexpected biosignatures found in a startlingly blue volcanic goo beneath the Pacific Ocean may offer clues to life's origins. Exhumed from mud volcanoes near the Mariana Trench, at depths of almost 3,000 meters (9,833 feet), the bizarrely colored sediment samples contain fats from mysterious living organisms. With an extremely high pH of 12 " among the highest recorded in a natural ecosystem " this nutrient-poor ooze would cause severe burns to your skin on contact. Yet researchers have now confirmed that some extremophile microbes live there. "It is simply exciting to obtain insights into such a microbial habitat because we suspect that primordial life could have originated at precisely such sites," says University of Bremen organic geochemist Florence Schubotz. "What is fascinating about these findings is that life under these extreme conditions, such as high pH and low organic carbon concentrations, is even possible." Related:…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (682+ words) Fossilized remnants of ancient carbon from the heart of South Africa's Mpumalanga province have just yielded the earliest chemical evidence yet of life on Earth. According to a new analysis using machine learning, fragmentary traces of carbon from the Josefsdal Chert, dating back 3.33 billion years, are the earliest and most confident detection of biotic chemistry found on Earth to date. Related: 1 Billion-Year-Old Fossil Could Be The Oldest Multicellular Animal on Record "Our results show that ancient life leaves behind more than fossils; it leaves chemical 'echoes'," says mineralogist and astrobiologist Robert Hazen of the Carnegie Institution for Science in the US. "Using machine learning, we can now reliably interpret these echoes for the first time." Time, decay, and geology are not kind to the traces life leaves behind " and the greater the passage of time, the greater the opportunity for…...

4+ hour, 14+ min ago (756+ words) Game hunters have found startlingly 'neon blue' flesh inside of wild pigs in California, triggering advisory statements on potential contamination. "I'm not talking about a little blue," Dan Burton, owner of a wildlife control company, told Salvador Hernandez at The Los Angeles Times. "I'm talking about neon blue, blueberry blue." An investigation by local authorities found the dramatic color change was caused by rodenticide poisoning, prompting them to issue a warning throughout the Monterey County area. Rat poisons containing the chemical compound diphacinone are often sold dyed blue for identification. The compound's use has been highly restricted in California since 2024. Watch the video below for a summary: "Hunters should be aware that the meat of game animals, such as wild pig, deer, bear, and geese, might be contaminated if that game animal has been exposed to rodenticides," says pesticide investigations…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (569+ words) Marine animals inevitably eat what we toss in the ocean, including pervasive plastics " but how much is too much? The bar is low, according to a new study out Monday: less than three sugar cubes' worth could kill birds like Atlantic puffins, for example. That threshold "is much smaller than we expected," said Erin Murphy, ocean plastics researcher at the Ocean Conservancy, the nonprofit behind the study. The paper published by The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences saw researchers analyze necropsies from more than 10,000 animals in a bid to model how different types of plastic can affect marine life, and at what point the dose turns lethal. Related: Mystery of The Ocean's Missing Plastic a Step Closer to Being Solved "The science is clear," Murphy told AFP. "We do need to reduce the amount of plastics we produce....

1+ day, 5+ hour ago (385+ words) This week in science: researchers functionally cure type 1 diabetes in mice; a strange new organism could represent a completely unknown branch of the tree of life; a physicist ponders the damage a tiny black hole would cause shooting through the human body; and much more! The treated mice had their diabetes prevented or reversed, and none of them developed the graft-versus-host disease that often occurs in humans when cells are transplanted between people. Moon rocks collected 50 years ago by the Apollo missions have now been cracked open, revealing unusual, 4.5-billion-year-old sulfur isotopes. "My first thought was, 'Holy shmolies, that can't be right,'" says planetary scientist James Dottin of Brown University in the US. "So we went back to make sure we had done everything properly, and we had. These are just very surprising results." A new stem cell treatment for…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (345+ words) The full Moon that's about to shine on Earth on November 5 will be the biggest and brightest of 2025's three full supermoons. As Earth, Moon, and Sun align to fully illuminate the lunar hemisphere facing our planet, the satellite will be closer to Earth than at any other full phase of the year, giving it a slightly larger-than-usual appearance in the sky. Related: Our Moon Is Drifting Away. Here's What We Can Expect to Happen. If this is your first time hearing about supermoons, you're in for a treat. They're a natural consequence of the Moon's slightly oval orbit around Earth. Because the orbit isn't perfectly round, the Moon is sometimes closer to Earth and sometimes farther away than its average 384,400-kilometer (238,855-mile) distance from Earth. The closest point of its orbit is the lunar perigee, and the farthest is…...

4+ week, 1+ day ago (650+ words) Ice excavated from deep under the surface of Antarctica has just yielded humanity's oldest directly dated samples of glacial ice and air ever found. From beneath hundreds of meters of glacial ice that gradually accumulated over eons at Allan Hills, a team of scientists led by glaciologist Sarah Shackleton of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has retrieved samples that have been buried for some 6 million years. "Ice cores are like time machines that let scientists take a look at what our planet was like in the past," Shackleton says. "The Allan Hills cores help us travel much further back than we imagined possible." Related: Mountain Range Hiding Beneath Antarctica's Ice Frozen in Time, Study Finds Because our planet is so geologically active, finding records of past climate can be challenging. Antarctica is one exception; there, the constant accumulation of ice…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago (538+ words) Streaks that form on the slopes of Mars, also known as recurring slope lineae (RSL), are a common feature on Mars. These dark, seasonal streaks are either the result of briny water patching thawing from seasonal ices or dry sand being displaced. While the exact cause remains unknown, new research continues to reveal clues about this picturesque phenomenon. Case in point, the ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) recently captured images of streaks formed from a dust avalanche on the slopes of Apollinaris Mons the night before Christmas in 2023. The image was acquired by the TGO's Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS), and shows a faint clustering of impact craters and the dark streaks at the bottom of the slope. These streaks were the subject of a paper, "Dust, sand and wind drive slope streaks on Mars," recently published…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago (535+ words) Astronomers revealed Wednesday they have detected a storm on a star other than our Sun for the first time, discovering an explosion so violent it could have stripped away the atmosphere of any planets unlucky enough to be nearby. Solar storms on the Sun sometimes shoot out huge eruptions known as coronal mass ejections, which can disrupt satellites when they arrive at Earth " and create colourful auroras that dance across the sky. In fact, a particularly powerful solar storm caused auroras as far south as the US city of Tennessee on Wednesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Related: The Most Violent Solar Storm Ever Detected Hit Earth in 12350 BCE Auroras were also visible in the skies above New Zealand, AFP images showed, with more expected into Wednesday night. However, observing such a storm on a distant star…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago (364+ words) "Don't kill it, don't squish it, don't cut it up," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller warned residents via NBC as a toxic flatworm spreads across North Texas. While this invasive species has been in the US for years, the state's fatally heavy rains, fueled by climate change, are enabling the hammerhead flatworm (Bipalium kewense) to thrive and spread. This brown and black-striped, flattened land planarian with a distinctive half-moon-shaped head can reach lengths of up to 40 cm (15.7 inches). Like many flatworm species, it can regenerate a whole new worm from slices of itself. Decapitating the worm will only help it multiply. "Tear it in half, now you've got two worms," Miller told NBC's Keenan Willard. Instead, authorities advise not to touch the flatworms with bare hands, but where it's safe, to place the worms in a bag and freeze them…...