Science News

'Secret' underground energy could heat every home in capital cityImage source, Getty Images Image caption, There could be an untapped resource under everyone's feet in Wales' capital that could lead to cheaper heating bills ByDani Thomas BBC Wales Published 5 November 2025 270 Comments Updated 5 hours ago On an unassuming street in Cardiff, engineering geologist Ashley Patton is lifting the lid on what looks like an ordinary drain cover. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5q9e1e4zpo I expect @Ken Fabian will be interested in this.

In this video, Dumb Rabbit — your slightly over-caffeinated cosmic tour guide — takes you through 10 terrifying phenomena of the universe that are as beautiful as they are deadly. From the Great Nothing (Boötes Void) to the Sun’s deadly tantrums, you’ll never look at the night sky the same way again. link deleted What’s the scariest thing in the universe? A black hole? A dying star? Or the fact that 95% of reality is invisible? 😨 In this video, Dumb Rabbit — your slightly over-caffeinated cosmic tour guide — takes you through 10 terrifying phenomena of the universe that are as beautiful as they are deadly. From the Great Nothing (Boötes Void) to the Sun’s deadly tantrums,…

This popped up in my feed yesterday. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-life-impact-discovery-links-microbial.html With the paper here. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63603-y

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/thalamic-nuclei-observed-driving-conscious-perception/ar-AA1Cx8yH?ocid=socialshare From the article: "Beijing Normal University-led researchers have identified specific high-order thalamic nuclei that drive human conscious perception by activating the prefrontal cortex. Their findings enhance understanding of how the brain forms conscious experience, offering new empirical support for theories that assign a central role to thalamic structures rather than cortical areas alone." This finding appears to abut nicely to my thoughts on the central role of the thalamus in the emergence of our sense of self.

Well, this kind of scrambles the definition of a 'species'. Smithsonian MagazineThese Ant Queens Seem to Defy Biology: They Lay Eggs That...Iberian harvester ant queens produce offspring of their own species and of the builder harvester ant, seemingly by cloning males

If life existed on Mars (past or present), what are the odds that it is fairly commonplace among the cosmos? If true, it seems virtually impossible to me that there aren't advanced civilizations out there somewhere, especially since there are parts of the universe far older than ours. https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/incredibly-exciting-nasa-claims-its-found-the-clearest-sign-yet-of-past-life-on-mars

Well, it's not new but recently discovered. A friend called me and told me a few weeks ago and wanted to share. All that's needed now is to submit a name to the IAU. Like all of Uranus' other moons it will be named after a character from William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nasas-webb-telescope-moon-uranus

WIREDThe Kryptos Key Is Going Up for SaleJim Sanborn is auctioning off the elusive solution to K4, the outdoor sculpture that sits at CIA headquarters. But isn’t the value decreased every time someone new learns the secret? Besides isn’t it cheating and defying the original purpose?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/more-than-a-simple-relay-station-thalamus-may-guide-timing-of-brain-development-and-plasticity/ar-AA1KfkSf?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=9c3891007f444aea94c6a49cfb2b23b0&ei=11 Yet more support for the central role of the thalamus in cognitive outcomes. From the article: "Our data indicate that the thalamus likely plays a more active role in determining when cortical regions are plastic, and therefore when they exhibit both adaptability and vulnerability to our environments." Interestingly, Sydnor and her colleagues observed that the maturation of structural connections between the human thalamus and cortex followed a sens…

Here is a fun little study providing evidence for a friendly association between ocelot and opossum. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70322 Also a NY Times article (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/science/ocelots-opossums-friends-video.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE8.rKzr.EcZZx85fiDvm&smid=url-share I think there is a continuing trend in research to be less restrictive in assumptions about the range and capabilities of animal behaviour, which in the past frequently has led to dismissal of unexplained observations.

The article claims that China has installed enough alternative energy generation for carbon dioxide emissions to be falling and will continue to do so. BBC NewsChina's emissions may be falling - here's what you should...Experts are divided if the drop over really means China has reached the peak of its emissions.

Vibroacoustics sites are reporting a University of Turin study that plant increase pollen production in response to the buszzing of bees. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francesca-Barbero-2 https://www.hfsp.org/node/74710

Aging is generally associated with an increase in chronic inflammation. There are multiple hypothesis why that might be the case, including cellular senescence causing issues that the immune system tries to clear up to issues with the immune system itself. These chronic inflammations are associated with a wide range of issues, including dementia. This study is interesting as it provides some preliminary information challenging the notion by looking at inflammation markers across populations with different levels of industrialization. And found that in non-industrialized populations, inflammation is associated with infections, but not with aging, compared to industrialized…

It appears that Ash trees are evolving resistance to the dieback that has swept Europe. BBC NewsShoots of hope for Britain's cherished ash treesScientific evidence suggests ash trees are ‘fighting back’ against a deadly disease.

Weizmann Institute damaged by Iranian missiles. AP NewsIranian missile strikes Israel's 'crown jewel of science'For years, Israel has assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists, hoping to choke progress on Iran’s nuclear program by striking at the brains behind it.Many of those labs focus on the life sciences, whose projects are especially sensitive to physical damage, Fleishman said. The labs were studying areas like tissue generation, developmental biology or cancer, with much of their work now halted or severely set back by the damage. “This was the life’s work of many people,” he said, noting that years’ or even decades’ worth of research was destroyed. For Schuldiner, …

Jayant Narlikar was one of the co founders of the Steady State alternative to the big bang theory of cosmology. Although currently out of fashion, the big ban v steady state saga is reminiscent of the wave v particular theories of light which also see sawed back and fore in popularity. BBC NewsJayant Narlikar: Remembering the Indian scientist who cha...Jayant Narlikar who died at age 86, was dedicated to science education and shaped a generation of Indian researchers.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/james-webb-space-telescope-reveals-that-most-galaxies-rotate-clockwise-180986224/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=92132029

Another one, with is expectations and hurdles. ---> https://sodiumbatteryhub.com/2025/05/07/aeson-power-presents-sodium-battery-innovation-at-ees-europe-2025/

Ran across this article today. Haven't read a copy of the actual paper yet but supposedly promising and re-normalizable. https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/new-theory-of-gravity-brings-long-sought-theory-of-everything-a-crucial-step-closer And the paper https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6633/adc82e Keeping my fingers crossed ... Keeping my

On April 15, the National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ) in Boulder, Colorado, claimed, in the journal Metrologia, to have developed the world's most accurate timepiece, to less than 1 sec/100 million years. Here is the article Accuracy evaluation of primary frequency standard NIST-F4 - IOPscience that details the NIST-F4's workings. This would mean that having synchronized your watch with a T-Rex 100 000 000 years ago, it would be currently off by less than a second. I'm not sure how 'ground-breaking' this is, as I'm not aware of the accuracy of current atomic clocks, and most of us are fairly ignorant of such things. Perhaps @swansont can elaborat…

If you want to read the study it is here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59285-1 If you cannot here is a summary: "Biotic resistance predictably shifts microbial invasion regimes" by Ye, Shalev, and Ratzke (2025) explores how established microbial communities influence the success of invading microbes. The authors demonstrate that "biotic resistance"—interactions among resident microbes—can suppress or even entirely block the spread of invaders, regardless of environmental suitability. Through experiments and simulations, they identify three distinct invasion regimes: consistent, pulsed, and pinned. They also develop a simple, parameter-free model that can ac…

Interesting project although the journalists seem to have moved Weymouth some 300 miles west. Also someone seems to have moved the quote function in the input editor as I can't find it anymore I also wonder if there are enough coconut trees in the world to make this a viable large scale project. Sorry I can't post a longer summary , without the quotes. BBC NewsCould taking carbon out of the sea cool down the planet?A pilot project will test whether it is a useful way of fighting climate change.

Scientists discover the world’s largest coral — so big it can be seen from space | CNN This is cool, but the following video in the story made me, a retired SCUBA instructor, cringe. SCUBA divers / marine biologists, do you see what is wrong with this picture? https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/loops/stellar/prod/video-world-s-largest-coral-4.mp4?c=original

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08800-x As the title of the study suggests, researchers found evidence that shingles vaccine might delay or prevent dementia. It is based on prior work which have found that herpesviruses might be implicated in certain forms of dementia. The study also found evidence that beyond the virus there might be some modulation of the immune response that could contribute to dementia protection.