Catfish Are Spreading Cancer to Each Other Like a Parasite, Scientists Find
Scientists have identified only the fourth known transmissible cancer in history, and the first ever found in a fish. Researchers discovered a melanoma spreading between catfish in a Vermont lake, where tumor cells pass directly from one fish to another. The rare finding adds to a very short list of cancers known to transmit between individual animals.
Rare Deep-Sea Squid Filmed Carrying Thousands of Eggs Off Chile’s Coast
Scientists exploring the deep seafloor off Chile have captured rare footage of a mysterious creature gliding across the ocean bottom. What makes the sighting especially remarkable is that the animal appears to be carrying something, and researchers note it will continue holding onto it for months. The footage has been described as extraordinary and highly unusual for deep-sea observation.
Saturn’s Titan Is Bigger Than a Planet — And Stranger Than You Think
A Moon That Defies the Rules When most people picture a moon, they imagine something like our own — a barren, cratered rock hanging silently in the sky. Saturn’s moon Titan is nothing like that. A moon in our solar system is wider than a…
This Tapeworm Hacks Ants’ Biology to Live Longer Than Their Own Queen
A Parasite With an Unlikely Gift A tapeworm fundamentally changes the lives of ants: workers of the species Temnothorax nylanderi infected with the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis live several times longer than their uninfected nestmates. We’re not talking about a modest bump in lifespan — infected…
A 220-Million-Year-Old Sea Dragon Was Hiding in a Japanese Museum Rock for Decades
The Discovery Hidden in Plain Sight It sat in a Japanese museum for decades — labeled, catalogued, and completely misunderstood. A block of muddy sandstone at the Nariwa Museum of Art in Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture, had long been identified as a fossil of Monotis,…
Ancient Snake Fossil Rewrites the Story of How Serpents Conquered the Earth
A Tiny Skull With a Massive Story to Tell Most snake fossils are two-dimensional — sandwiched within rocks, the pressure of millions of years flattens them like a pancake. That’s what makes a discovery published this week in the journal Nature so extraordinary. In 2020,…
Scientists Find That Humble Moss Fires Electrical Signals Like a Brain
The Moss Beneath Your Feet May Be Running Its Own Network It grows on rocks, creeps across sidewalk cracks, and carpets the forest floor. Most of us barely notice it. But according to a striking new study, that fuzzy green moss is doing something far…
A Drone Stumbled Upon One of Earth’s Rarest Fish Leading a Mysterious Ocean Parade
A drone has captured rare footage of the bizarre-looking wedgefish swimming through Shark Bay, offering a remarkable glimpse of one of the planet’s most unusual and seldom-seen creatures. Wildlife videographer Jake Mason filmed the animal as part of a group passing through the area. The wedgefish is considered among the rarest animals in the world.
Purdue Engineers Create Metal Alloy Ten Times Stronger Than Steel Without the Brittleness
Scientists have developed a new metal alloy that could transform engineering and construction. The cobalt aluminum nanolaminate material is up to 10 times stronger than structural steel, and remarkably, it achieves this without becoming brittle. Materials typically grow more fragile as they get stronger, but this alloy breaks that longstanding tradeoff, potentially opening the door to lighter, tougher structures across multiple industries.
The Ocean Is Running Out of Breath and the Consequences Could Be Irreversible
Human activity is stripping oxygen from the world’s oceans at an alarming rate, posing a serious threat to marine ecosystems and global stability. Declining oxygen levels can suffocate sea life, disrupt food chains, and trigger broader environmental consequences. Scientists are urging policymakers and the public to treat ocean deoxygenation as the urgent crisis it has become.
