Science

LIGO’s latest catalog doubles the haul of gravitational-wave detections, revealing new black hole patterns

The GWTC-4.0 catalog adds 128 new merger candidates from LIGO’s latest run, bringing the total to 218 and sharpening clues about black holes and cosmic expansion.

#gravitationalwaves, #ligo, #blackholes, #astronomy, #cosmology

Study: Warming Mars Could Trigger Decades of Cloud-Driven Swings and Shifting Polar Ice

New Mars climate simulations find that modest artificial warming could spike water vapor, cool some regions, and rearrange polar ice for decades.

#mars, #terraforming, #climate, #aerosols, #planetaryscience

Iranian researchers use AI to design kidney-targeted viral shells for gene therapy

A preprint describes AAVGen, an AI system that generates adeno-associated virus capsids predicted to better target kidneys—so far only in silico.

#genetherapy, #ai, #kidney, #aav

Massive Mouse Cell Atlas Finds Aging Follows Coordinated Patterns Across Organs

A 7-million-cell atlas across 21 mouse organs suggests aging is a synchronized, body-wide shift in cell types and DNA regulation—not random decay.

#aging, #genomics, #mice, #immunology, #epigenetics

NASA Delays First Artemis Moon Landing to 2028, Turns Artemis III Into Earth-Orbit Test

NASA will push its first Artemis lunar landing to 2028, repurposing Artemis III into a 2027 Earth-orbit dress rehearsal amid safety, budget and China pressure.

#nasa, #artemis, #moon, #spaceflight, #spacex

Rubin Observatory’s real-time sky alerts debut with 800,000 notifications in a night

Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s first large-scale public test sent 800,000 rapid alerts, previewing a system built for millions nightly in LSST.

#astronomy, #rubinobservatory, #lsst, #space, #datastreams

Warming Seafloors Are Quietly Draining Fish From Northern Seas, Major Study Finds

A 28-year analysis links seabed warming to steep fish biomass declines—and warns heatwave-driven booms can mislead fisheries quotas.

#climatechange, #fisheries, #oceanwarming, #marineheatwaves, #biodiversity

New ‘Spiny Dragon’ Fossil Preserves Dinosaur Skin Cells, Redrawing a Familiar Herbivore

A newly named iguanodontian from China preserves skin and hollow spikes in rare detail—down to cell-like structures—challenging views of dinosaur coverings.

#dinosaurs, #paleontology, #fossils, #china, #evolution

Engineered CRISPR plasmid spreads through bacteria to erase antibiotic resistance — with an added off switch

UC San Diego scientists report a self-propagating CRISPR plasmid that moves through bacterial communities, deletes a resistance gene and can be reversed.

#crispr, #antibioticresistance, #microbiology, #biofilms, #genedrive

Scientists Warn El Niño Could Return in 2026, Putting 2027 Heat Records at Risk

Forecasters see roughly even odds of an El Niño in late 2026. Scientists say that could make 2027 a contender to surpass 2024 as hottest year.

#elnino, #climatechange, #globalwarming, #oceanheat, #heatwaves

Hubble pins down the size of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, bolstering natural-origin case

New Hubble analysis extracts the first solid measurement of an interstellar comet’s ядро: a ~2.6-km, elongated nucleus behaving like ordinary comets.

#astronomy, #hubble, #comets, #interstellar

CERN study finds early-universe quark-gluon plasma leaves a liquidlike wake

Using 2018 LHC lead-ion data, CMS reports clearest evidence yet that quark-gluon plasma behaves like a liquid, complete with wakes.

#cern, #lhc, #particlephysics, #quarkgluonplasma, #cosmology

U.N. weather agency warns January 2026 was a ‘month of extremes’ as heat, floods and cold hit worldwide

WMO says January 2026 brought global weather extremes—from Mozambique floods to Chile fires and Australia heat—against record warmth.

#climatechange, #extremeweather, #wmo, #flooding, #heatwave

Study Warns Ultra-High-Frequency Gravitational Waves May Be Too Faint to Hear

A new arXiv analysis finds cosmological bounds leave few viable sources of megahertz–gigahertz gravitational waves, tightening targets for would-be detectors.

#gravitationalwaves, #cosmology, #earlyuniverse, #physics, #detectors

Kepler Data Reveal a One-Transit Candidate: An Earth-Size Planet on a Near-Earth-Year Orbit

A single dip in Kepler’s K2 data points to an Earth-size planet candidate with a ~355-day orbit around a bright nearby orange dwarf—if it transits again.

#exoplanets, #nasa, #kepler, #astronomy, #jameswebb