A report that analyzed 15,000 studies conducted in the last 50 years presents a stark view

The newly dated Yarrabubba crater is found in Western Australia

The fossilized hominid skull illuminates the earliest-known Australopithecus species

Powerful ocean waves partially triggered this rapid retreat

Tectonic activity may be shifting very slowly away from the San Andreas Fault

Misconduct allegations over an earlier report on one of the bones hang over the findings.

The ancient leaves were arranged in spiral patterns uncommon in modern land plants

The year marked the end of the world’s hottest decade in 140 years

Last year, record-breaking heat waves struck around the world

Fossils and DNA point to mixing and mingling among Homo groups across vast areas

The finding confirms that gases are orbiting the Milky Way’s gravitational behemoth

The fynbos shrubland weaponizes its very thin roots in the race to suck up nutrients

A massive line of vegetation in the Sahel may intensify the West African monsoon, simulations show

Africa and Asia have seen releases of the heat-trapping gas surge

Some facilities could have decades of eDNA data stored away on paper filters

A majority of patients with the condition had microbes churning out ethanol, researchers find

A new study finds that quantum signals could travel over interstellar distances

Findings on the Spanish coast of Mallorca hint at how oceans could respond to climate change

A roughly 10,000-year-old bone found in southern Alaska is among the Americas’ oldest dog fossils

Something abruptly tossed star-making gas from this galaxy or stopped it from falling in

Lightning rips nitrogen in the air apart, allowing it to react with oxygen and other elements.

The now-extinct animals were still considerably larger than their modern kin

DNA analysis shows it emerged 7,100 years ago and was less virulent than the Black Death strain

Archaeological evidence suggests a sixth century epidemic didn’t radically change European history

Thwaites Glacier is losing ice more quickly than at any other time in the last 5,500 years

Just 21 of more than 400 teeth had fractures, suggesting early primates had soft-food diets

Medieval texts and modern techniques helped unveil the blue watercolor’s identity

Features of a fossil from what’s now Libya tie the animal closely to its extant American kin

The trees' knotty bark and ability to die in segments house and feed forest species

Parts of the Earth’s crust may have started sliding around about 3.8 billion years ago

New results hint that the proteins can reduce hospitalizations or need for ventilation

Physicists detected a subtle effect in antihydrogen known as the Lamb shift

Newly discovered mechanisms that drive metastasis could be thwarted by existing drugs

Scientists linked the seismic recordings with a NASA orbiter’s data on surface faults

Blazes are pumping record amounts of CO₂ into the air, which could make the problem worse

The region is warming nearly four times as fast as the rest of Earth

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to collect material from the space rock

Bits of rock may point to the oldest known midair asteroid disintegration

Understanding the tiny organisms' behavior could help with climate change predictions

Reports of blood clots in people who received the shot had raised concerns

Lettuce, chili pepper and radish plants grew in mixtures of faux asteroid dirt and peat moss

Our galaxy spans 1.9 million light-years, a new study finds

The planet appears to orbit a massive star circling a dead star in the Whirlpool galaxy

Discovered in Gaia data, Antlia 2 could be the star system scientists have been looking for

The galaxy’s black hole is growing, and the galaxy is also growing new stars — for now

A recent stellar flash may have signaled the birth of a highly magnetic, spinning stellar corpse

A new clock comparison is the most precise yet, accurate to within a quadrillionth of a percent

The same physics could give rise to auroras on Jupiter and Saturn

Blazes dumped a vast amount of CO₂ into the air and triggered faraway algae blooms in the ocean

Climate-influenced temperatures raised the wildfire risk by 30 percent

An extra digit, a pseudothumb, may help the primates grip objects

The engineered stands could help design more sturdy materials

1.78-billion-year-old microfossils reveal sunlight-harnessing structures that give off oxygen

The birds seem to pick up on and share negative emotions, but not positive ones.

Future models of the galaxy's evolution will have to account for why the bar developed so late

Results could pave the way for a rare natural blue pigment to color food, clothes and more

The world’s largest animal goes from nighttime to daytime crooning before heading south

A disordered design keeps the whole material from collapsing under heavy loads

Five millennia of climate shifts impacting the ice is recorded in peat from an Arctic island

Differences in how social insect groups perform may be, in part, chalked up to leadership

The giant animals evolved different strategies for cooling their blood and avoiding heatstroke

Neonicotinoid insecticides have previously been implicated in declining bee populations

Researchers put more than 200 birds through a gauntlet of brainteasers

Creatures that look like snakes appear to have glands near their teeth that secrete venom

The surprising discovery is puzzling astronomers

The fur of Australia’s iconic oddity fluoresces under ultraviolet light

Immune cells in the skull may sense and influence brain inflammation

People with Lou Gehrig's disease appear to have a dearth of the microbes

Astronaut brains need time to recover before they can adapt to microgravity again

Restoring a communication link between the brain and spine enables more control over movement

The automated device pairing brain activity and dosing kept two macaques sedated for 125 minutes

Weaker connections between certain parts of the organ predicted harder times during COVID

A small study finds rapid brain maturation in pandemic kids

Bees and moths appear strongly attracted to the markings on the arachnids

Airborne remote sensing spots the Golden State’s biggest emitters of the gas from the sky

The proposed geologic epoch denotes when humans began profoundly changing the planet

In the Apennines region, spikes in natural CO₂ emissions coincide with the biggest tremors

The 1,300-year-old game piece resembles a rook, or castle

The effects lasted at least a year after treatment stopped, a small study finds

The relationship between size and number also shows up in everything from ecosystems to language

Damage can boost the plant’s chemical defenses — and its appeal to cats

Detected by gravitational lensing, the interstellar wanderer may be a hefty neutron star instead

A hypothetical fifth force that morphs based on its environs didn’t turn up

Long-lasting PFAS compounds could end up in plants that are later eaten by people

A new technique could one day help turn plastic waste into valuable raw materials

Antibodies in the birds reveal when certain viral pathogens are being transmitted locally

Asteroid crater on the Yucatán peninsula reveals surprising new geologic details

It was likely buried around 9,000 years ago with a child who held significant social status

The prototype could give rise to a new generation of faster, more energy-efficient electronics

Abandoned agricultural lands can recover by nearly 80 percent on average in just 20 years

The world’s farmland is projected to grow by 3.4 million square kilometers by 2050

The matriarchs extend their lives by blocking a part of a molecular pathway linked to aging

Livelier flies could land on more food, leaving Campylobacter behind in their tiny footsteps

Longer growing seasons mean more soil moisture is lost through evapotranspiration, a study says

Melting ice sheets are slowing Earth's rotation speed, complicating global timekeeping

Tree ring–based climate reconstructions examine dry spells going back over a millennium

July’s floods were a rare event, but such events will become more likely with additional warming

Since the 1990s, wind speeds have picked up, making surface waters swirl faster

A mid-1990s change in pole movement coincided with increased glacial melting

It could be harder to prep for some droughts, floods and other extreme weather in the future