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Scientists revive ancient 24,000-year-old ‘zombie worm’ from Arctic ice — then it reproduced

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:42:08 -0400

Scientists have successfully revived a 24,000-year-old microscopic organism from Siberian permafrost, offering new insight into how life can endure extreme conditions over vast stretches of time.

According to a study published in the journal Current Biology, researchers identified the organism as a rotifer — a tiny, multicellular animal often found in freshwater environments and known for its unusual durability.

The specimen had been frozen deep within Siberian permafrost since the Late Pleistocene, a period that ended roughly 11,700 years ago. Scientists say the surrounding ice-rich soil, known as the Yedoma formation, helped preserve the organism in a stable, frozen state for tens of thousands of years.

After carefully thawing the rotifer under controlled laboratory conditions, researchers observed that it resumed normal biological functions. The organism not only became active again but was also able to reproduce asexually, suggesting that its cellular structures remained intact despite the passage of millennia.

STUDY FINDS EVIDENCE OF MICROPLASTICS IN BRAINS AND OTHER ORGANS

"Our report is the hardest proof as of today that multicellular animals could withstand tens of thousands of years in cryptobiosis, the state of almost completely arrested metabolism," lead researcher Stas Malavin said in an interview with the Indian Defence Review.

The process that allowed the rotifer to survive is known as cryptobiosis, a biological state in which metabolic activity slows to nearly zero. This enables certain organisms to withstand extreme environments, including freezing temperatures, dehydration and lack of oxygen.

While scientists have previously revived organisms from ice, those examples have typically involved single-celled life forms or simpler structures. The successful revival of a multicellular organism marks a significant step forward, as more complex bodies present greater challenges when it comes to surviving freezing and thawing without damage.

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Ancient microbes, including viruses, have also been preserved in permafrost and are typically easier to revive because of their simpler structure. In some experiments, scientists have reactivated viruses that remained capable of infecting host cells after thawing, though none have been linked to human illness.

Researchers say the findings underscore a separate concern: as rising global temperatures accelerate permafrost thaw, long-dormant microbes could be released outside controlled lab conditions, prompting new questions about potential environmental and health risks.

Rotifers, though microscopic, possess specialized systems such as digestive tracts and rudimentary nervous structures, making their long-term survival in a frozen state particularly notable.

Researchers say the findings could have broader implications for science, including studies on how cells resist damage from ice crystals and radiation over time. The discovery may also inform fields such as biotechnology and astrobiology, where scientists explore how life might persist in extreme or extraterrestrial environments.

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Despite the breakthrough, experts caution that the findings do not suggest that larger organisms — such as mammals — could be revived after similar periods of freezing. The complexity of higher life forms makes them far more vulnerable to cellular damage during freezing and thawing processes.

Still, the study expands current understanding of the limits of life on Earth and raises new questions about how long organisms can remain viable under the right conditions, potentially reshaping scientific thinking about survival in extreme environments.

'Gigantic' ancient octopus used jaws to crush prey and hunted alongside the dinosaurs 100M years ago: study

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:28:28 -0400

Octopuses’ earliest relatives that lived 100 million years ago may have been "gigantic" predators that hunted alongside dinosaurs, according to new research.

Although scientists previously believed that the earliest finned octopuses lived around 15 million years ago, researchers with Hokkaido University found fossilized jaws inside Late Cretaceous rock samples, according to a study published in the journal Science Thursday.

Because octopuses are soft-bodied animals, they don’t fossilize well except for the jaw bones, making their evolutionary history difficult to trace, the researchers explained in a news release.

The researchers used high-resolution grinding tomography and an artificial intelligence model to find the fossils, which were located in rock samples that had been preserved in seafloor sediments found in Japan and Vancouver Island from 100 to 72 million years ago.

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The Late Cretaceous was the final epoch of the Mesozoic Era, which was dominated by the dinosaurs, including tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops.

The fossils belonged to a group of extinct finned octopuses known as Cirrata that researchers believed crushed their prey with powerful jaws.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH CHILLING 16TH CENTURY GALLOWS WHERE REBELS WERE HANGED AND DISPLAYED

"Our findings suggest that the earliest octopuses were gigantic predators that occupied the top of the marine food chain in the Cretaceous," Professor Yasuhiro Iba of Hokkaido University said.

"Based on exceptionally well-preserved fossil jaws, we show that these animals reached total lengths of up to nearly 20 meters, which may have surpassed the size of large marine reptiles of the same age."

Iba added that the most surprising finding was the "extent of wear on the jaws," which showed extensive chipping, scratching and cracking.

"In well-grown specimens, up to 10% of the jaw tip relative to the total jaw length had been worn away, which is larger than that seen in modern cephalopods that feed on hard-shelled prey," he explained. "This indicates repeated, forceful interactions with their prey, revealing an unexpectedly aggressive feeding strategy."

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These findings change the way scientists view predators during the Late Cretaceous period, which they previously believed was dominated by vertebrate predators, with invertebrates at the bottom of the food chain.

"This study provides the first direct evidence that invertebrates could evolve into giant, intelligent apex predators in ecosystems that have been dominated by vertebrates for about 400 million years," Iba added.

"Our findings show that powerful jaws and the loss of superficial skeletons, common characteristics of octopuses and marine vertebrates, were essential to becoming huge, intelligent marine predators."

Scientists uncover identity of mysterious 'golden orb' discovered miles underwater in 2023

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:43:48 -0400

A strange "golden orb" pulled from more than 2 miles beneath the Gulf of Alaska, once rumored to be everything from an alien egg to an unknown species, has finally been identified after a yearslong scientific investigation.

Researchers with NOAA and the Smithsonian announced the unusual object, first discovered in 2023 during a deep-sea expedition, is a remnant from a rarely seen giant deep-sea anemone called Relicanthus daphneae, specifically part of the organism that anchored it to the ocean floor.

The discovery was made using a remotely operated vehicle exploring about 3,250 meters (over 2 miles) deep, where it encountered an odd golden structure attached to a rock.

The strange, mound-shaped mass with a small opening stunned scientists, who admitted at the time they had no idea what they were looking at.

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"Was it an egg case? A dead sponge? Had something crawled into it … or out of it?" scientists asked.

The unusual find quickly captured public attention, fueling speculation online and within the scientific community. But determining its identity turned out to be anything but simple.

Dr. Allen Collins, a zoologist and director of NOAA Fisheries, said scientists needed to go beyond their routine processes and enlist the expertise of multiple people to solve it.

SHOCKING DISCOVERY IN FLORIDA WAREHOUSE LEAVES OFFICIALS SEARCHING FOR WHAT WENT WRONG

"This was a complex mystery that required morphological, genetic, deep-sea and bioinformatics expertise to solve," Collins said.

Scientists initially struggled because the object lacked recognizable animal features. But closer analysis revealed it was made of fibrous layers packed with stinging cells, pointing to a connection with cnidarians, the group that includes corals and anemones.

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Capt. William Mowitt, acting director of NOAA Ocean Exploration, said the "golden orb" was just one of many "captivating mysteries" hidden in the deep ocean.

"This is why we keep exploring — to unlock the secrets of the deep and better understand how the ocean and its resources can drive economic growth, strengthen our national security and sustain our planet," Mowitt said.

NASA shuts off Voyager 1 instrument to save power 15B miles from Earth

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:11:26 -0400

NASA shut down one of Voyager 1’s science instruments to conserve dwindling power and keep the nearly 49-year-old spacecraft operating as it continues its journey through interstellar space more than 15 billion miles from Earth.

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent commands Friday to turn off Voyager 1’s Low-Energy Charged Particles (LECP) experiment, a long-running instrument that has operated almost continuously since the spacecraft launched in 1977.

The move comes as the nuclear-powered probe loses about 4 watts of power each year, and mission managers work to stretch its remaining lifespan.

"While shutting down a science instrument is not anybody’s preference, it is the best option available," Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at JPL, said in a statement. "Voyager 1 still has two remaining operating science instruments — one that listens to plasma waves and one that measures magnetic fields. They are still working great, sending back data from a region of space no other human-made craft has ever explored."

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The shutdown underscores the increasingly delicate balancing act facing the Voyager team as both spacecraft age far beyond their original mission plans.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. After nearly five decades in space, engineers have had to steadily power down heaters and instruments while making sure the spacecraft do not get so cold that key systems, including fuel lines, are put at risk.

"The team remains focused on keeping both Voyagers going for as long as possible," Badaruddin added.

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The pressure to act intensified after Voyager 1 experienced an unexpected drop in power during a routine roll maneuver Feb. 27, according to NASA.

Engineers feared that any further decline could trigger the spacecraft’s undervoltage fault protection system, which is designed to automatically shut down components to protect the probe. Recovering from such a fault can be lengthy and carries added risk, prompting the team to move before the spacecraft did it on its own.

The two Voyager probes remain the only spacecraft far enough from Earth to collect data on "detecting pressure fronts and regions of varying particle density in the space beyond our heliosphere," according to NASA.

IS THIS SPACE CAPSULE HOW WE WILL LIVE AND WORK IN ORBIT IN THE FUTURE?

"Engineers are confident that shutting down the LECP will give Voyager 1 about a year of breathing room," a NASA press release said. "They are using the time to finalize a more ambitious energy-saving fix for both Voyagers they call 'the Big Bang,' which is designed to further extend Voyager operations."

"The idea is to swap out a group of powered devices all at once — hence the nickname — turning some things off and replacing them with lower-power alternatives to keep the spacecraft warm enough to continue gathering science data," the release continued.

The decision to turn off LECP was not made suddenly. NASA said mission science and engineering teams had years ago agreed on the order in which spacecraft systems would be shut down as available power declined. Of the 10 original instrument sets carried by the twin probes, seven have now been switched off. Voyager 2’s LECP instrument was shut down in March 2025.

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Because Voyager 1 is now more than 15 billion miles from Earth, commands take roughly 23 hours to arrive. The shutdown sequence itself takes more than three hours to complete. One part of the LECP system — a small motor that rotates the sensor so it can scan in all directions — will remain powered because it uses only about half a watt. Engineers hope that could leave open the possibility of restarting the instrument in the future if more power becomes available.

NASA's Artemis follow-up mission 'right around the corner' after successful lunar flight

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:02:39 -0400

The world may still be captivated by the breathtaking views, record-setting distance and emotional homecoming of Artemis II, but for NASA, the next chapter is already in motion.

Entry flight director Rick Henfling alluded to Artemis III being in the space agency’s sights after the Artemis II crew safely splashed down in the Pacific on Saturday.

"The next mission’s right around the corner," Henfling said.

In the next high-stakes mission set to launch next year, Artemis III astronauts will remain in Earth’s orbit and practice docking their Orion capsule with a commercial lunar lander, a critical step before any return to the moon.

ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUTS SPLASHDOWN AFTER FIRST MOON MISSION IN MORE THAN 50 YEARS

Elon Musk’s Starship and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Moon landers are both competing to prove their company’s lander will be ready first.

The billionaires are also vying for the opportunity to carry Artemis IV astronauts during the first planned moon landing of the program in 2028.

ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUTS SHOW OFF APOLLO 18 FLAG FROM SPACE

NASA has already positioned key hardware for the docking test at Kennedy Space Center, while SpaceX prepares another Starship test flight and Blue Origin pushes toward its own lunar landing demonstration later this year.

The long-term goal is far bigger than a single landing. NASA and its partners are targeting the moon’s south pole, believed to have vast reserves of ice that could provide water and fuel for a future base — a project expected to cost $20 billion to $30 billion.

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NASA is expected to announce the Artemis III crew soon. The mission is designed to mirror Apollo-era testing, reducing risk before sending astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Artemis II astronauts splash down after first moon mission in more than 50 years

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:10:04 -0400

The four Artemis II astronauts splashed down off the coast of San Diego Friday evening following a 10-day mission that marked the first manned moon mission in more than 50 years at 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time.

The crew launched from the Kennedy Space Center April 1 and traveled around the moon, 252,000 miles from Earth, flying farther from Earth than any previous mission.

After NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman landed on the USS John P. Murtha ahead of the splashdown, he shared a massage for those helping with the recovery of the astronauts.

"I have no doubt that you're all going to execute this flawlessly as we get these astronauts who will just complete an absolute historic mission, traveling further into space than any humans have gone before," he said.

ARTEMIS II NEARS END OF HISTORIC MISSION WITH SPLASHDOWN OFF CALIFORNIA COAST

"For the first time, we've gone into the lunar environment in more than half a century," he added. "We are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon again."

Isaacman added that once Artemis III launches in 2028 for the first moon landing in decades, NASA plans to stay and build a moon base.

ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUTS SHOW OFF APOLLO 18 FLAG FROM SPACE

After being helped out of the Orion crew module, the four astronauts — Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen were taken aboard the USS John P. Murtha for medical evaluation after the mission.

The Orion spacecraft reentered the Earth’s atmosphere Friday at around 25,000 mph, slowing to about 20 mph using an 11-parachute sequence before landing in the ocean about 60 miles off the coast at 5:07 p.m. local time.

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During its reentry, the temperatures outside the spacecraft got as high as 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Astronauts last went to the moon in December 1972 for the Apollo 17 mission, three years after humans first landed on the moon in the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

Nutella capitalizes on greatest free advertising moment in history on NASA Moon mission

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:55:16 -0400

Nutella is capitalizing on what internet users are calling the greatest free advertising moment in history.

A tub of the beloved chocolate-hazelnut spread has achieved liftoff — not just into space, but straight into viral fame.

The scene unfolded aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission, where a tub of Nutella casually floated out of the spacecraft’s kitchen like it had a call time and a lighting crew. In zero gravity, the jar drifted, turned, and practically posed — label-forward, perfectly framed — delivering a product shot so pristine it looked storyboarded.

Within hours, the clip rocketed across social media, with users marveling at what many say no marketing team on Earth could ever replicate.

ASTRONAUT VICTOR GLOVER PRAISED FOR SAYING MOON MISSION IS 'HUMAN HISTORY,' NOT 'BLACK HISTORY'

"The greatest free advert in history," one user joked.

"Nutella may have just got the greatest ad… ALL FOR FREE!" another account quipped.

Another commented: "Nutella just got the most bada-- free ad in maybe human history."

TRUMP HYPES MOON MISSION AS ARTEMIS II PREPARES TO LIFT OFF UNDER PRESSURE FROM PAST FAILURES

The clip caught the attention of Nutella’s marketing team. The brand shared video of the delicious advertising accident, writing: "Honored to have traveled further than any spread in history. Taking spreading smiles to new heights." It included spaceship and heart emojis in the post that’s been viewed nearly 200,000 times as of Monday evening.

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center got in on the fun, writing in a post on X: "Enjoying sweet treats while our Artemis crew takes sweet photos of the Moon!"

Michael Lindsey, the president and chief business officer of Nutella's parent company, Ferrero North America, told Fox News Digital the company is "over the moon that the world's best space explorers chose the world's best spread."

The jar of chocolate comfort’s primetime showcase happened about four minutes before the Artemis II crew made history Monday, surpassing Apollo 13’s 1970 distance record of 248,655 miles from Earth.

ARTEMIS II CREW DESCRIBES LIFE ABOARD ORION SPACECRAFT ON HISTORIC JOURNEY TO THE MOON AND BACK

The Artemis II crew safely regained contact with mission control after a planned 40-minute communications blackout as their Orion spacecraft passed behind the Moon’s far side on Monday.

During the blackout, the astronauts became the most isolated humans in history, while also making their closest approach to the Moon at roughly 4,057 miles above its surface.

After reestablishing contact around 7:25 p.m. ET, the mission continued with another historic moment: astronauts observed a rare solar eclipse from near the Moon, capturing images of the Sun’s corona and multiple planets during the flyby.

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It will now take four days for the crew to return home to Earth. The capsule will aim for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on April 10, nine days after its Florida launch.

The crew is made up of four astronauts: Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.

Artemis astronauts enter eerie 40-minute communication blackout on Moon’s far side

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:13:02 -0400

The Artemis II crew officially entered a nerve-wracking communications blackout Monday evening as the spacecraft slipped behind the Moon’s far side.

NASA said the signal loss should last roughly 40 minutes, which began at roughly 6:44 p.m. ET.

During this unprecedented moment, the crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — became the most isolated humans in deep space history.

The blackout occurred after the spacecraft lost line of sight to Earth, with the Moon blocking satellite communications entirely.

ARTEMIS II VS. APOLLO: WHY THIS MISSION LOOPS THE MOON BUT DOESN'T LAND

Contact is expected to return around 7:25 p.m. ET, when Earth reemerges on the other side of the Moon’s horizon in a moment known as "Earthrise."

Ground control has emphasized that NASA does not anticipate any specific dangers during the mission but is prepared for potential contingencies.

For example, the astronauts recently practiced performing essential tasks, such as drinking protein shakes or administering medication, while wearing their bulky orange launch and entry suits in case they must remain in the gear for an extended period.

NASA CHIEF VOWS FOUR MOON MISSIONS BEFORE TRUMP'S TERM ENDS IN AMBITIOUS 2028 TIMELINE

NASA also noted that if the spacecraft were punctured, Orion is equipped to continuously pump oxygen to maintain cabin pressure, giving the crew ample time to safely put on their pressurized suits.

The Artemis II crew will also reach several major milestones during the blackout, including becoming the first humans to witness never-before-seen views of the Moon’s far side.

At 7:05 p.m. ET, the spacecraft is expected to reach its farthest point from Earth at 252,760 miles, marking another key milestone and surpassing the Apollo 13 record by roughly 4,105 miles.

ASTRONAUT VICTOR GLOVER PRAISED FOR SAYING MOON MISSION IS 'HUMAN HISTORY,' NOT 'BLACK HISTORY'

At their nearest point, roughly 4,070 miles from the lunar surface, the Moon is expected to appear about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length, according to NASA.

While ground control and the science evaluation room will not be able to interact with the astronauts during this specific period, the crew will continue to execute their lunar targeting plan and conduct science observations throughout the blackout.

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The astronauts are expected to track historic Apollo sites, scout future landing zones and photograph rare views of nearby planets, including Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn, while also observing a solar eclipse from Orion’s unique vantage point.

Earlier in the afternoon, the crew broke a record for distance traveled from Earth set by Apollo 13 in 1970, NASA announced.

NASA chief Jared Isaacman says Artemis II would not be possible 'if it wasn't for President Trump'

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 13:19:18 -0400

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the success of the historic Artemis II mission currently underway would not be possible "if it wasn't for President Trump," as the Orion spacecraft is set to pass beyond the far side of the moon in the next 24 hours.

Isaacman detailed the mission’s progress, how technology has assisted in the success of Artemis II so far, and the role that President Donald Trump has played in the Artemis program during an interview with Fox News Digital.

"I want to be incredibly clear, we would not be at this moment right now with Artemis II if it wasn't for President Trump," Isaacman told Fox. "And we certainly would not have an achievable path now to get back to the lunar surface and build that enduring presence."

"On my first day on the job during President Trump's second term, he gave us a national space policy, a mandate to go to the moon with frequency, build the moon base, and do the other things like nuclear power and propulsion so someday American astronauts can plant the Stars and Stripes on Mars," Isaacman added.

ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUTS FACE TOILET TROUBLE AS THEY HEAD TOWARD THE MOON

The Artemis II mission successfully launched off Cape Canaveral, Florida, last week, a mission that will send humans the farthest distance from the Earth in history.

The goal of the launch is to circle the moon and return to Earth, landing in San Diego some time this week.

"In the next 24 hours or so, they're gonna pass behind the far side of the moon, these four astronauts will have traveled farther away from Earth than any humans ever before, about 250,000 miles away," Isaasman explained. "We are putting the spacecraft through all its paces, testing out its various systems, including manual controls."

TRUMP HYPES MOON MISSION AS ARTEMIS II PREPARES TO LIFT OFF UNDER PRESSURE FROM PAST FAILURES

Isaacman said the spacecraft is "performing better than we would have expected" before launch, and that the astronauts will soon begin their journey back to Earth once they have passed over the far side of the moon.

The NASA administrator compared Artemis II to the success of the Apollo programs that saw mankind land on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, and noted the vast improvement in technological capabilities that NASA has access to today.

"It is not even a close comparison," Isaacman said. "The operator consoles or flight controllers have multiple screens, lots of computing power that's available to them right now. I mean there is certainly an army here supporting NASA, or an army at NASA that's supporting this mission, but not the hundreds of thousands of people that you would have had during the Apollo era that had to bubble into that enormous endeavor."

SENATE CONFIRMS JARED ISAACMAN AS NASA CHIEF MONTHS AFTER TRUMP-MUSK RIFT THAT MAY HAVE PULLED HIS NOMINATION

"That's why when we pick up where Apollo 17 left off with this mission," Isaacman added, "it is not to return to the moon to plant the flag and leave the footprints, but to build an enduring presence, to build a moon base where we will turn the south pole of the moon into a scientific and technological proving ground for the capabilities we will need to master."

"Someday we can send astronauts to Mars and they can come back home to tell us about it."

The 43-year-old billionaire was sworn in as NASA administrator last December. A longtime space enthusiast, Isaacman previously commanded the first-ever commercial spacewalk in September 2024.

When asked about what this mission means to him personally, Isaacman told Fox News Digital he credited the NASA workforce and the team behind him for the success the space agency has seen on this mission and those yet to come.

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While Isaacman was quick to credit the team, he also said sights need to be set on the Artemis III mission, which is set for mid-2027 to test docking capabilities for what will ultimately be an attempt to return humanity to the surface of the moon in 2028.

"For everybody else, we got to start working on Artemis III," Isaacman explained. "You go back to the Apollo era, Apollo 10, as those astronauts were orbiting in lunar orbit, just miles above the surface, two months later, Apollo 11 launched where Neil and Buzz walked on the moon. That means we have to be able to do multiple world-changing missions in near parallel."

Astronauts arrive at ISS for 8-month mission after medical emergency forced early evacuation

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 17:27:14 -0500

Four new astronauts arrived at the International Space Station Saturday, bringing the lab back up to full capacity after several of their colleagues were forced to leave early last month due to a medical issue.

The U.S., French and Russian astronauts and cosmonaut launched from Cape Canaveral in a SpaceX rocket Friday for the approximately 34-hour journey.

"That was quite the ride," NASA Commander Jessica Meir said immediately after the launch, according to BBC News. "We have left the Earth, but the Earth has not left us."

The launch had previously been delayed twice due to weather concerns.

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Joining Meir for the next eight to nine months on the Space Station are NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev.

Meir, a marine biologist, and Fedyaev, a former military pilot, have both been to the ISS previously. Meir was also part of the first all-female spacewalk in 2019.

Adenot is a military helicopter pilot, and Hathaway is a captain in the U.S. Navy.

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Adenot is only the second French woman in space.

"The spacecraft will take about 34 hours to autonomously dock with the space station’s Harmony module at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, while traveling 17,000 mph in Earth orbit," NASA said after Friday’s launch.

"What an absolutely wonderful start to the day," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said following the launch. "This mission has shown in many ways what it means to be mission-focused at NASA."

"In the last couple of weeks, we brought Crew-11 home early, we pulled forward Crew-12 to the launch date today, all while simultaneously making preparations for the Artemis 2 mission, which its next window will open up in early March," he added.

"The flight is the 12th crew rotation with SpaceX to the orbiting laboratory as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Crew-12 will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare humans for future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as benefit people on Earth," according to NASA.

NASA said the capsule's hatch opened at 4:14 p.m. CT after it docked at the space station.

"We are so excited to be here and get to work," Meir said after the crew arrived on Saturday.

Adenot added, "The first time we looked at the Earth was mindblowing. … We saw no lines, no borders."

Before Saturday’s crew arrived, just one American and two Russians remained at the space station, keeping it running.

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January’s medical evacuation was the first in 65 years after NASA said a crew member experienced a serious health issue. The space agency has not revealed the nature of the medical condition or the name of the astronaut, citing medical privacy.

The astronaut with the medical emergency and the three other crew members who had launched with them returned to Earth more than a month early after the decision was made to bring them home.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Researchers pinpoint source of black hole's 3,000-light-year-long jet stream using enhanced telescope network

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 05:00:42 -0500

Scientists have traced a 3,000-light-year-long cosmic jet streaming out from the first black hole ever imaged to its likely source point with the help of "significantly enhanced coverage" from the global Event Horizon Telescope, a new study published this week revealed.

The findings, published in the journal "Astronomy & Astrophysics" on Wednesday, could help pinpoint exactly from where and how black holes launch vast cosmic jets that travel at nearly the speed of light.

M87 is a supermassive black hole located in the Messier 87 Galaxy around 55 million light years from Earth, and is 6.5 billion times larger than the sun.

The first image of M87 was released to the public in 2019, after the data was collected by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2017.

DISCOVER THE UNIVERSE'S OLDEST BLACK HOLES, DEFYING THE MYSTERIES OF SPACE

Not only is the black hole supermassive, "it's also active," Dr. Padi Boyd of NASA explained in a video about the discovery of the black hole. "Just a few percent are active at any given time. Are they turning on and then turning off? That's an idea… We know there's very high magnetic fields that you launch a jet. And so this image is observational evidence that what we've been seeing for a while is actually being launched by a jet connected to that supermassive black hole at the center of M87."

M87 both sucks in surrounding gas and dust and spews out powerful jets of charged particles from its poles that form the jet stream, according to Scientific American and Space.com.

'SMOKING GUN EVIDENCE': WHAT A 'MONSTER' BLACK HOLE WAS DISCOVERED DOING THAT CONCERNED SCIENTISTS

"This study represents an early step toward connecting theoretical ideas about jet launching with direct observations," Saurabh, team leader of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, said in a statement, according to Space.com.

He added, "Identifying where the jet may originate and how it connects to the black hole's shadow adds a key piece to the puzzle and points toward a better understanding of how the central engine operates."

The Event Horizon Telescope involves a global network of eight radio observatories that can detect radio waves from astronomical objects like galaxies and black holes that converge to create an Earth-sized telescope.

Event Horizon refers to the boundary of a black hole beyond which light can’t escape, according to the National Science Foundation.

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The findings came after studying data from the Event Horizon Telescope from 2021, but the authors of the study added, "Although this result is robust under the assumptions and tests performed, definitive confirmation and more precise constraints will require future EHT observations with higher sensitivity and improved intermediate-baseline coverage via additional stations and expanded frequency range."

Dinosaur fossils unearthed during parking lot construction at national park

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 07:54:23 -0500

A routine parking lot project at Dinosaur National Monument has unearthed dinosaur fossils at the site for the first time in more than a century.

Workers uncovered the fossils near the Quarry Exhibit Hall after removing asphalt in mid-September, exposing dinosaur-bearing sandstone, the National Park Service said. Park staff identified the remains on Sept. 16 and immediately halted construction to allow paleontologists to assess the find.

The fossils are believed to belong to a large, long-necked dinosaur called the Diplodocus. The species is commonly found in the area’s historic bonebed.

Park officials said staff members, a Utah Conservation Corps crew, volunteers and construction workers helped excavate the remains.

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Between mid-September and mid-October, crews removed roughly 3,000 pounds of fossils and surrounding rock. The material is now being cleaned and studied at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, where visitors can watch the preparation process in the museum’s fossil lab.

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The site had not been excavated since 1924, when fossil removal efforts ended after a series of early 20th-century digs led by the Carnegie Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the University of Utah. Dinosaur National Monument was established in 1915.

Some of the newly uncovered fossils are already on display at the Quarry Exhibit Hall, often called the "Wall of Bones," as well as at the Utah Field House museum. The exhibit hall is the park’s most popular attraction and sits atop the original Carnegie quarry, where visitors can view about 1,500 dinosaur fossils still embedded in rock.

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Following the excavation, crews completed the parking lot and road improvement project, which included new concrete and asphalt work and accessibility upgrades around the exhibit hall.

Virginia Tech study shows dogs can detect invasive lanternfly

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 23:05:06 -0400

Researchers at Virginia Tech say man’s best friend may also be one of nature’s best defenses against an invasive pest. For the first time, a study shows that pet dogs could help stop the rapid spread of the spotted lanternfly.

Spotted lanternflies feed on different plants and excrete a sugary substance called honeydew, which promotes mold growth. They are considered so destructive that some states have launched campaigns urging residents to stomp them on sight. Experts say the real solution is to wipe out their egg masses, but those can be hard to find because they often resemble dried mud and can blend in with their surroundings.

That's where the dogs can come in to help with their strong sense of smell.

"Dogs have one dominant sense. It's their nose. We use our eyes. Dogs use their nose like their eyes," said study participant, Katie Thomas.

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Thomas and her nine-year-old pitbull mix, Finch, participated in the study, hoping to put their years of recreational scent work to good use. They went through indoor and outdoor tests, sniffing out egg masses, and receiving an award when Finch was right on the money.

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"To be able to do things that we already do, that we are having a lot of fun with… Train our dogs to sniff stuff, being able to apply that to something like a real problem that affects our community is really fulfilling," said Thomas.

The spotted lanternfly is native to Asia and was first detected in the United States in Pennsylvania over ten years ago. Since then, it has spread to 19 states, according to the USDA.

"They are everywhere, and we need to search out the eggs. The problem is it’s too late once we have the lanternfly," said study participant, Carolyn Shelburne.

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Carolyn and her 9-year-old border collie, Hermes, was one of the first five K9 and handler teams to pass their field tests. Ultimately, 182 volunteer teams across the U.S. took part in the study.

For indoor tests, dogs identified the lanternfly scent correctly more than 80% of the time. For more real-world outdoor tests, dogs identified the scent correctly more than 60% of the time. That’s still better than most human searches.

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"Hopefully, more people will see that you can train any dog to do this, and it gives you something fun to do with your dog," said Shelburne.

Researchers are hoping this is just the beginning for dogs to protect local environments. Even in areas where spotted laternflies aren't a problem, dogs could be trained to sniff out other invasive species.

Harvard physicist says massive interstellar object could be alien probe on 'reconnaissance mission'

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 15:49:08 -0400

Astronomers recently discovered a rare interstellar object passing through our solar system, and a Harvard physicist is sounding the alarm that its strange characteristics might indicate it’s more than just a typical comet.

"Maybe the trajectory was designed," Dr. Avi Loeb, science professor at Harvard University, told Fox News Digital. "If it had an objective to sort of to be on a reconnaissance mission, to either send mini probes to those planets or monitor them… It seems quite anomalous."

The object — dubbed 3I/ATLAS — was first detected in early July by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope located in Chile. The discovery marked only the third time an interstellar object has been observed entering our solar system, according to NASA.

Although NASA has classified the object as a comet, Loeb noted that an image of the cosmic visitor indicated an unexpected glow appearing in front of the object, rather than trailing behind it — something he described as "quite surprising."

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"Usually with comets you have a tail, a cometary tail, where dust and gas are shining, reflecting sunlight, and that's the signature of a comet," Loeb told Fox News Digital. "Here, you see a glow in front of it, not behind it."

Measuring about 20 kilometers across, making it larger than Manhattan, 3I/ATLAS is also unusually bright for its distance. However, according to Loeb, its most unusual characteristic is its trajectory.

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"If you imagine objects entering the solar system from random directions, just one in 500 of them would be aligned so well with the orbits of the planets," he said.

The interstellar object, which comes from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is also expected to pass near to Mars, Venus and Jupiter — something that is also highly improbable to happen at random, according to Loeb.

"It also comes close to each of them, with a probability of one in 20,000," he said.

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The 3I/ATLAS object will reach its closest point to our sun — about 130 million miles away — on October 30, according to NASA.

"If it turns out to be technological, it would obviously have a big impact on the future of humanity," Loeb said. "We have to decide how to respond to that."

In January, seven years after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk launched a Tesla Roadster into orbit, astronomers from the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts confused it with an asteroid.

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A spokesperson for NASA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Astronauts splash down in Pacific after completing ISS mission that relieved stranded crew members

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 21:37:45 -0400

Four crew members who flew to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this year to relieve two astronauts who were left stranded by a beleaguered space capsule returned to Earth on Saturday.

NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, splashed down in the Pacific off the coast of Southern California on Saturday morning at 11:33 a.m. ET in a SpaceX capsule.

It was the first Pacific splashdown for NASA in 50 years, and the third for SpaceX with people on board.

NASA astronauts last splashed down in the Pacific in 1975, during the Apollo-Soyuz mission, the first crewed international space mission that involved Americans and Soviets.

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The crew launched in March, replacing Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were left stuck at the space station for nine months on what was meant to be a week-long mission after the Boeing Starliner they arrived in suffered thruster problems and helium leaks.

NASA concluded returning them to Earth in the capsule was too risky, so the Starliner flew back crewless, and Wilmore and Williams came home in a SpaceX capsule in March after their replacements arrived.

Wilmore announced his retirement after 25 years with NASA this week.

"We want this mission, our mission, to be a reminder of what people can do when we work together, when we explore together," McClain said before leaving the space station on Friday, mentioning "some tumultuous times on Earth."

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She said she was looking forward to "doing nothing for a couple of days" once back home, and her crewmates were excited about hot showers and burgers.

Earlier this year, SpaceX decided to switch their splashdowns from Florida to California to reduce the risk of debris falling on populated areas.

After exiting the spacecraft, the crew received medical checks before being flown via helicopter to meet up with a NASA aircraft bound for Houston.

"Overall, the mission went great, glad to have the crew back," Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a press conference after splashdown. "SpaceX did a great job of recovering the crew again on the West Coast."

Dina Contella, deputy manager for NASA's International Space Station program, added that she was "pretty happy to see the Crew 10 team back on Earth. They looked great, and they are doing great."

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She noted the crew had orbited the Earth 2,368 times and traveled more than 63 million miles during their 146 days at the space station.

New study reveals leprosy existed in the Americas before European explorers arrived

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:30:02 -0400

Scientists say a species of bacteria rewrites the history of when an infectious and potentially deadly disease first arrived in the Americas. And it was long before the arrival of European explorers.

Researchers from the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, with help from a U.S. university, recently announced in a news release that a second species of bacteria is also responsible for the disease known as leprosy, or Hansen's disease, in the Americas.

In years past, many believed that the bacterium known as Mycobacterium leprae caused leprosy and that it was only spread in America by early European explorers and settlers.

However, the revelation of a second bacterium puts that theory of blaming the settlers on its head, as an existing strain was already on the continents calling the New World home.

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The bacterium Mycobacterium lepromatosis existed and infected humans for 1,000 years prior to Europeans arriving, researchers say.

Dr. Maria Lopopolo, the first author of the study and researcher at the Laboratory of Microbial Paleogenomics at the Institut Pasteur, said it changes everything about leprosy in the Americas.

"This discovery transforms our understanding of the history of leprosy in America. It shows that a form of the disease was already endemic among Indigenous populations well before the Europeans arrived," she said in the release.

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The study — led by scientists from the Laboratory of Microbial Paleogenomics at the Institut Pasteur, alongside the French National Center for Scientific Research, and the University of Colorado in the U.S. — began after Mycobacterium lepromatosis was found in a Mexican patient in 2008, and red squirrels in the British Isles in 2016.

Using advanced genetic techniques to reconstruct the genomes of Mycobacterium lepromatosis from ancient individuals from Argentina and Canada, scientists found that the two strains from the different regions were genetically close in the Mycobacterium genome family tree, meaning that the bacteria spread rapidly throughout the continent.

The release stated that the results confirmed that Mycobacterium lepromatosis had already spread throughout North and South America.

Researchers worked in collaboration with indigenous communities, various international institutions and archaeologists, according to the release, and were able to study over 800 DNA samples from ancient human remains and recent medical cases showing signs of leprosy.

Nicolás Rascovan, the lead author of the study at the Institut Pasteur, said that the research proves that human history can be changed.

"We are just beginning to uncover the diversity and global movements of this recently identified pathogen," he said. "This study allows us to hypothesize that there might be unknown animal reservoirs."

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says leprosy can affect the nerves, skin and eyes of patients, and is treated with antibiotics. Up to 225 people in the U.S., and 250,000 around the world, contract Hansen's disease, according to the CDC.

Researchers develop face 'e-tattoo' to track mental workload in high-stress jobs

Sat, 31 May 2025 17:15:23 -0400

Scientists say that they have formulated a way to help people in stressful and demanding work environments track their brainwaves and brain usage — an electronic tattoo device, or "e-tattoo," on the person's face.

In a study posted in the science journal Device, the team of researchers wrote that they found e-tattoos to be a more cost-effective and simpler way to track one’s mental workload.

Dr. Nanshu Lu, the senior author of the research from the University of Texas at Austin, wrote that mental workload is a critical factor in human-in-the-loop systems, directly influencing cognitive performance and decision-making.

Lu told Fox News Digital in an email that this device was motivated by high-demand, high-stake jobs such as pilots, air traffic controllers, doctors and emergency dispatchers.

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Lu also said ER doctors and robot/drone operators can also leverage this technology for training and performance enhancements.

One of the goals of this study was to find a way to measure cognitive fatigue in high leverage and mentally straining careers.

The e-tattoo is temporarily attached to the subject's forehead, and is smaller than current devices in use today.

According to the study, the device works by using electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrooculogram (EOG) to measure both brain waves and eye movements.

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While most EEG and EOG machines are bulky and expensive, the e-tattoo offers a compact and cost-effective solution.

Lu wrote that in this study, "we propose a wireless forehead EEG and EOG sensor designed to be as thin and conformable to the skin as a temporary tattoo sticker, which is referred to as a forehead e-tattoo."

Lu also added that "human mental workload is a crucial factor in the fields of human-machine interaction and ergonomics due to its direct impact on human cognitive performance."

The way the study was conducted was with six participants being shown a screen on which 20 letters flashed up, one at a time, at various locations.

Participants were asked to click a mouse if either the letter itself, or its location, matched one shown a given number of letters.

Each participant carried out the task multiple times, corresponding to four levels of difficulty.

The team found that as the tasks became harder, the different types of brainwaves detected showed shifts in activity that corresponded to a higher mental workload response.

The device consists of a battery pack and reusable chips with a disposable sensor.

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Lu said that the device is currently a lab prototype.

"Before it can be ready for commercialization, it will need more development, such as real-time, on-tattoo mental workload decoding and validation on more people and in more realistic environments," she said. "The prototype currently costs $200."

Potential discovery of new dwarf planet adds wrinkle to Planet Nine theory

Sat, 31 May 2025 05:00:32 -0400

A team of scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study School of Natural Sciences in Princeton, New Jersey, might have found a new dwarf planet, potentially leading to more evidence of a theoretical super-planet.

The scientists announced in a news release that they have found a trans-Neptune Object(TNO), code-named 2017OF201, located past the icy and desolate region of the Kuplier Belt.

The TNO, which are described as minor planets that orbit the sun at a greater distance than Neptune, were found on the edge of our solar system.

While there are plenty of other TNOs in the solar system, what makes 2017OF201 special is its large size and extreme orbit.

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One of the team leads, Sihao Cheng, along with Jiaxuan Li and Eritas Yang from Princeton University, made the discovery.

The team used advanced computational methods to identify the object’s distinctive trajectory pattern in the sky.

"The object’s aphelion — the farthest point on the orbit from the Sun — is more than 1600 times that of the Earth’s orbit," Cheng said in the release. "Meanwhile, its perihelion — the closest point on its orbit to the Sun — is 44.5 times that of the Earth’s orbit, similar to Pluto's orbit."

2017OF201 takes about 25,000 years to orbit the sun, making Yang suggest that "It must have experienced close encounters with a giant planet, causing it to be ejected to a wide orbit."

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Cheng also added that there may have been more than one step in its migration.

"It’s possible that this object was first ejected to the Oort cloud, the most distant region in our solar system, which is home to many comets, and then sent back," Cheng said.

This discovery has significant implications for the current understanding of the layout of our outer solar system.

According to NASA, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown in January 2016 announced research that provided evidence for a planet about 1.5 times the size of Earth in the outer solar system.

However, the existence of Planet X or Planet Nine is strictly theoretical as neither astronomer has actually observed such a planet.

The theory puts the planet at around the same size as Neptune, far past Pluto somewhere near the Kuiper Belt, where 2017OF201 was located.

If it exists, it is theorized to have a mass of up to 10 times as much as Earth’s with a distance of up to 30 times further than Neptune to the Sun.

It would take between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around the Sun.

However, the area beyond the Kuiper Belt, where the object is located, had previously been thought to be essentially empty, but the team’s discovery suggests that this is not so.

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Cheng said in the release that 2017OF201 only has about 1% of its orbit visible to us.

"Even though advances in telescopes have enabled us to explore distant parts of the universe, there is still a great deal to discover about our own solar system," Cheng said.

NASA mentioned that if Planet Nine exists, it could help explain the unique orbits of some smaller objects in the distant Kuiper Belt.

As of now, Planet Nine remains all but a theory, but the existence of this far-off world rests on gravitational patterns in the outer solar system.

Earth's oceans are growing darker, threatening marine life worldwide: study

Thu, 29 May 2025 17:41:34 -0400

Oceans around the globe have become darker over the last two decades, leaving researchers fearful for their marine inhabitants, according to a new study.

Professor Thomas Davies of the University of Plymouth said in a study published in the Global Change Biology journal there is growing concern for the marine ecosystem.

Satellite data from NASA's Ocean Color Web data portal showed 21% of the planet’s oceans had darkened between 2003 and 2022.

According to Davies, the majority of marine life lives in the photic zones of the ocean, which is where sufficient light penetrates to stimulate photobiological processes.

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The photic zone, which is 200 meters deep, is where global nutrients and carbon budgets sustain the planetary fish markets.

This is the area where light reaches marine life that lives closer to the surface of the ocean.

These ocean inhabitants rely on both the moonlight and sunlight for hunting, mating, reproduction and other important milestones.

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The upper level of the ocean is where microscopic organisms and different types of plankton live.

With the oceans beginning to darken, it will cause creatures that rely on light to begin moving closer to the surface, potentially creating a cramped living space.

Using satellite data and an algorithm-derived measure of the attenuation of light in seawater, Davis was able to measure how deep each photic zone was around the world.

Among the darker oceans, 9% of their photic zones were 50 meters more shallow, and 3% of the oceans' photic zones were 100 meters more shallow.

The reasoning behind the darkening of oceans far offshore is less clear.

Global warming and changes in ocean currents are thought to be involved in this phenomenon, according to the study.

Despite an overall darkening, about 10% of oceans, or 37 million square kilometers, have become lighter over the past 20 years, the study found.

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It also found that most coastal areas have seen an increase in light. However, the study found that this does not translate into a net reduction in photic zone depth near shorelines.

Davies predicts the implications of ocean darkening could be severe for marine food webs, global fisheries and carbon and nutrient budgets.

Scientists predict underwater volcano eruption 300 miles off Oregon

Tue, 20 May 2025 20:58:01 -0400

An underwater volcano off the Oregon coast could erupt late this year, scientists say.

The volcano, known as Axial Seamount, is more than 4,900 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean and 300 miles off the Oregon coast, but it is showing signs it will soon erupt for the first time since 2015.

The volcano is formed by a hot spot, an area in the Earth’s mantle where hot plumes of molten material rise upward into the crust, the University of Washington's College of the Environment said in an April blog post. As the crust moves over the top of the mantle, the hot spot stays put, which results in long chains of volcanoes over time.

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"Over two-thirds of the Earth’s surface was formed by volcanic eruptions at these mid-ocean ridges," said Maya Tolstoy, a marine geophysicist and dean of the university's College of the Environment. "Axial Seamount is a direct result of these fundamental processes that continue to shape our planet today."

The eruption doesn't pose a danger, scientists said.

"Axial Seamount is much too deep and far from shore for people on land to even notice when it erupts. An eruption at Axial Seamount also has nothing to do with seismic activity on land, so Pacific Northwesterners don’t need to worry about this event triggering a major earthquake or tsunami," the blog post states.

The first sign of an eruption at the volcano will be a sharp increase in the number of earthquakes around it, the post states.

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"The volcano has already surpassed the inflation we observed in 2015, but the earthquake activity is still quite low," said Deborah Kelley, a professor at the UW School of Oceanography and director of the Regional Cabled Array. "We’re seeing 200 to 300 earthquakes per day, with some spikes around 1,000 per day due to the tides. If what we learned in 2015 is correct, I would expect to see more than 2,000 per day for a few months before the eruption."

The quakes will be caused by magma moving toward the surface, the post states.

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"That period lasts about an hour, and then the magma reaches the surface," said William Wilcock, a professor at the UW School of Oceanography. "Lava flows spread across the caldera, and lava-filled fissures open up to the north or the south, reaching as far as 40 kilometers (about 25 miles).

"The seismic activity dies down pretty quickly over the next few days, but the eruption will continue slowly for about a month."

Soviet-Era spacecraft crashes back to Earth after 53 years

Sat, 10 May 2025 10:44:26 -0400

A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.

The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.

It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system’s hottest planet.

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The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.

Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.

Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity’s tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander — an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across — was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms).

After following the spacecraft’s downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down.

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Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition after so long in space.

As of Saturday morning, the U.S. Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit.

The U.S. Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart — and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers — was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials.

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It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris.

Google working to decode dolphin communication using AI

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 16:55:02 -0400

Cracking the dolphin code.

Dolphins are one of the smartest animals on Earth and have been revered for thousands of years for their intelligence, emotions and social interaction with humans.

Now Google is using artificial intelligence (AI) to try and understand how they communicate with one another – with the hope that one day humans could use the technology to chat with the friendly finned mammals.

Google has teamed up with researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Wild Dolphin Project (WDP), a Florida-based non-profit which has been studying and recording dolphin sounds for 40 years, to build the new AI model called DolphinGemma.

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For decades, WDP has correlated sound types with behavioral contexts. For instance, signature whistles have been used by mothers and calves to reunite, while burst pulse "squawks" are often observed during dolphin fights, researchers said, according to a Google blog on the project.

Click "buzzes" are often used during courtship or chasing sharks.

Now, using the vast data gathered by WDP, Google has built DolphinGemma, building upon Google’s own AI lightweight open model, known as Gemma.

DolphinGemma has been trained to analyze the vast library of recordings to detect patterns, structures, and even potential "meanings" behind the dolphin communications or vocalizations.

Over time, DolphinGemma will try to organize the dolphin sounds into categories — almost like words, sentences, or expressions in human language.

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"By identifying recurring sound patterns, clusters and reliable sequences, the model can help researchers uncover hidden structures and potential meanings within the dolphins' natural communication — a task previously requiring immense human effort," a post on Google about the project reads.

"Eventually, these patterns, augmented with synthetic sounds created by the researchers to refer to objects with which the dolphins like to play, may establish a shared vocabulary with the dolphins for interactive communication."

DolphinGemma uses Google’s Pixel phone technology, specifically the audio recording technology used in Pixel devices, to make clean, high-quality sound recordings of dolphin vocalizations.

The Pixel phone technology can separate out dolphin clicks and whistles from background noise like waves, boat engines, or underwater static. That clean audio is critical for AI models like DolphinGemma, because messy, noisy data would confuse the AI, researchers said.

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Google says it plans to release DolphinGemma as an open model this summer, allowing researchers around the world to use and adapt it.

Although it’s trained on Atlantic spotted dolphins, the model could also help study other species like bottlenose or spinner dolphins with some fine-tuning, researchers said.

"By providing tools like DolphinGemma, we hope to give researchers worldwide the tools to mine their own acoustic datasets, accelerate the search for patterns and collectively deepen our understanding of these intelligent marine mammals," the blog post reads.

Wolf made famous in 'Game of Thrones' brought back from 12,500-year extinction, US company claims

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 12:23:58 -0400

A Dallas-based company claims to have brought back wolves that last roamed the Earth more than 12,500 years ago and became widely known due to the hit HBO series "Game of Thrones."

Colossal Biosciences says it rebirthed three dire wolves using genome-editing and cloning technologies in what it says is now the world’s first successful "de-extincted animal," although one expert believes the company merely genetically modified a wolf as opposed to bringing the apex predator back from extinction.

Dire wolves roamed the American midcontinent during the Ice Age and the oldest confirmed dire wolf fossil is 250,000 years old from Black Hills, South Dakota, according to Colossal Biosciences. In Game of Thrones, the wolves are bigger and smarter than normal wolves and fiercely loyal to their Starks, the most important noble family in the series.

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The three litters of Colossal’s dire wolves include two adolescent males called Romulus and Remus, and one female puppy named Khaleesi.

The scientists took blood cells from a living gray wolf and used "CRISPR" technology, short for "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats," to genetically modify them in 20 different sites, according typo Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief scientist. These changes gave the pups traits like larger bodies and longer, fuller, light-colored fur, traits believed to have helped dire wolves survive cold climates during the Ice Age.

The 20 genome edits were made to replicate the dire wolf’s ancient DNA, with 15 of those edits matching genes found in actual dire wolves.

The ancient DNA was extracted from two dire wolf fossils: a tooth from Sheridan Pit, Ohio, that is around 13,000 years old, and an inner ear bone from American Falls, Idaho, around 72,000 years old.

They transferred the genetic material to an egg cell from a domestic dog. When ready, the embryos were transferred to surrogates, also domestic dogs, and 62 days later the genetically engineered pups were born.

Ben Lamm, CEO of Colossal Biosciences, said that it was a massive milestone and the first of many upcoming examples demonstrating that the company’s end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works.

"It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’" Lamm said. "Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation."

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Colossal has previously announced similar projects to genetically alter cells from living species to create animals resembling extinct wooly mammoths, dodos and others.

During this week’s announcement, the company announced it had birthed two litters of cloned red wolves, the most critically endangered wolf in the world, using a new approach to non-invasive blood cloning.

The birth of red wolves, the company said, provides evidence it can conserve animals through de-extinction technology.

Lamm said the team met with officials from the Interior Department in late March about the project, while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum praised the work on X on Monday as a "thrilling new era of scientific wonder" even as outside scientists said there are limitations to restoring the past.

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Corey Bradshaw, a professor of global ecology at Flinders University in Australia, poured cold water on the claims that the company had brought the dire wolf back from extinction.

"So yes, they have slightly genetically modified wolves, maybe, and that's probably the best that you're going to get," Bradshaw said. "And those slight modifications seem to have been derived from retrieved dire wolf material. Does that make it a dire wolf? No. Does it make a slightly modified gray wolf? Yes. And that's probably about it."

Colossal Biosciences said the wolves are now thriving in a 2,000-acre secure expansive ecological preserve in Texas that is certified by the American Humane Society and registered with USDA. Long term, Colossal plans to restore the species in secure and expansive ecological preserves, potentially on indigenous land.

'Well-preserved' baby mammoth dating back to Ice Age dissected by scientists: photos

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 21:46:04 -0400

Warning: This article contains graphic pictures. Reader discretion is advised.

Stunning pictures show a female baby mammoth, dating back over 130,000 years, recently being dissected by Russian scientists.

The mammoth, which has been nicknamed "Yana," was dissected at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, on March 27. The baby mammoth had been preserved in permafrost until she was dug up in the cold Russian province of Yakutia last year.

Pictures of the necropsy show a team of scientists huddled around the 397-pound animal, which closely resembles a modern baby elephant. The creature's mouth was open, and her trunk was curled as scientists opened up her skin.

Scientists initially believed that Yana lived 50,000 years ago, but that estimate was updated to over 130,000 years after scientists analyzed the permafrost layer where she was found.

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Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory, told Reuters last year that the mammoth was just over a year old when she died. The corpse was already partially eaten by predators when she was discovered.

"As a rule, the part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds," Cherpasov told Reuters.

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"Here, for example, even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well-preserved."

Though the discovery of a well-preserved mammoth is exceedingly rare, it is not unheard of for other mammoth remains to be discovered. In June 2024, a fisherman found a mammoth bone on the banks of the Raba River in Książnice, near Gdów, Poland.

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In August of the same year, a fossil collector discovered a portion of a Columbian mammoth tusk in an embankment in Madison County, Mississippi.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Spectacular blue spiral light brightens up night sky, likely from Space X rocket

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 11:54:45 -0400

A mysterious spiraling blue light illuminated the night skies over Europe on Monday.

The cosmic whirlpool was captured in stunning video and appears to have been created by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster falling back toward Earth, according to experts.

Time-lapse video taken from Croatia at around 4 p.m. EST, or 9 p.m. local time, shows the glowing light spinning across the sky in what many social media commentators likened to a spiral galaxy. The full video at normal speed lasts for about six minutes.

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The Met Office in the U.K. said it had received many reports of an "illuminated swirl in the sky" and said it was likely caused by the Space X rocket which launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida at around 1:50 p.m. EST as part of the government’s classified NROL-69 mission. The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX was launching a payload on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the government's intelligence and surveillance agency.

"This is likely to be caused by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched earlier today," the Met Office wrote on X. "The rocket's frozen exhaust plume appears to be spinning in the atmosphere and reflecting the sunlight, causing it to appear as a spiral in the sky."

The glowing light is an example of what some people call a "SpaceX spiral," according to Space.com.

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SpaceX spirals develop after the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket separates from its first-stage booster. As the upper stage continues towards space, the lower stage falls, spiraling back to Earth, dumping what remains of its fuel.

The fuel then freezes instantly due to its high altitude and light then reflects on it, creating the strange-looking glow in the sky, per the outlet.

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Fox News Digital reached out to SpaceX for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Monday’s cosmic display came just days after a SpaceX team working with NASA returned two stranded astronauts from space.