In recent decades, scientists have debated whether a seven-million-year-old fossil was bipedal—a trait that would make it the oldest human ancestor. A new analysis by a team of anthropologists offers powerful evidence that Sahelanthropus tchadensis—a species discovered in the early 2000s—was indeed bipedal by uncovering a feature found only in bipedal hominins. Using 3D technology and other methods, the team identified Sahelanthropus’s femoral tubercle, which is the point of attachment for the largest and most powerful ligament in the human body—the iliofemoral ligament—and ...

Every day, millions of people use thermal paper without thinking about it. Receipts, shipping labels, tickets, and medical records all rely on heat‑sensitive coatings to make text appear. More specifically, heat triggers a reaction between a colorless dye and a “developer,” producing dark text where the paper is warmed. Thermal paper is a small object with a large footprint. It is produced at scale, handled daily, and often recycled, which allows its chemicals to spread into water and soil. For decades, the most common developers have been bisphenol A (BPA) and, more recently, bisphenol S (BPS). Both can affect living organisms by disrupting hormone signaling, ...

Angiosperms, also known as flowering plants, represent the most diverse group of seed plants, and their origin and evolution have long been a central question in plant evolutionary biology. Whole-genome duplication (WGD), or polyploidization, is widely recognized as a key driver of the origin and trait evolution of both seed plants and angiosperms. Detecting these ancient WGD events, however, is technically challenging, as their genomic signatures are often obscured by subsequent gene loss, chromosomal rearrangements, and synonymous substitution ...

For the first time, scientists have reconstructed ancient genomes of Human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/B) from archaeological human remains more than two millennia old. The study, led by the University of Vienna and University of Tartu (Estonia) and published in Science Advances, confirms that these viruses have been evolving with and within humans since at least the Iron Age. The findings trace the long history of HHV-6 integration into human chromosomes and suggest that HHV-6A lost this ability early on. HHV-6B infects about 90 percent of children by the age of two and is best known as the cause of roseola infantum – or "sixth disease" – the leading cause ...

New study reveals that bacteria can survive antibiotic treatment through two fundamentally different “shutdown modes,” not just the classic idea of dormancy. The researchers show that some cells enter a regulated, protective growth arrest, a controlled dormant state that shields them from antibiotics, while others survive in a disrupted, dysregulated growth arrest, a malfunctioning state marked by vulnerabilities, especially impaired cell membrane stability. This distinction is important because antibiotic persistence is a major cause of treatment failure ...

Placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) used to be a rare pregnancy condition, but it now affects roughly 14,000 pregnancies annually, posing a major cause of maternal death. Yet why it happens is still not well understood. Placenta accreta occurs when the placenta grows too deeply into the uterine wall, and doesn’t detach after birth, often resulting in life-threatening bleeding and a need for a hysterectomy. The strongest and most common risk factor is a previous cesarean delivery, as scarring from prior cesarean births can change how the placenta attaches in future pregnancies. New research led by UCLA Health suggests that how this scar tissue heals could be the key to better understand ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – January 02, 2026) Scientists and physicians can better assess precision genome editing technology using a new method made public today by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Significant amounts of time and resources spent improving CRISPR gene editing technology focus on identifying small off-target sites that pose a safety risk, which is also technically challenging. St. Jude researchers addressed the problem by creating Circularization for High-throughput Analysis of Nuclease Genome-wide Effects by Sequencing Base Editors (CHANGE-seq-BE), an unbiased, sensitive ...

Reston, VA (January 2, 2026)—New research has been published ahead-of-print by The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM). JNM is published by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine, molecular imaging, and theranostics—precision medicine that allows diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. Summaries of the newly published research ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of children with regular access to care, most received their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine on time, but the proportion not receiving the MMR vaccine by 2 years of age has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Children who did not receive their 2- and 4-month vaccines on time were significantly more likely to not receive any MMR vaccine by 2 years, highlighting opportunities for intervention. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Nina B. Masters, PhD, MPH, email ninam@truveta.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.51814) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this population-based cross-sectional study, household income disparities in preterm birth widened over time. Black race moderated the association between income and preterm birth, underscoring the need to examine the role of racism in preterm birth disparities. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Erika G. Cordova-Ramos, MD, email gabriela.cordovaramos@bmc.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.50664) Editor’s ...

A new University of Toronto-led study has discovered a possible biomarker linked to multiple sclerosis (MS) disease progression that could help identify patients most likely to benefit from new drugs. The findings were published today in Nature Immunology and validated in both mouse models and humans.  “We think we have uncovered a potential biomarker that signals a patient is experiencing so-called ‘compartmentalized inflammation’ in the central nervous system, a phenomenon which is strongly liked ...

In a new study, Christine Agdestein has surveyed several aspects of the postnatal check-up. Agdestein is a specialist in general practice and a general practitioner, and is currently a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The research project is part of her PhD. "An important finding is that the majority are satisfied with the 6-week check-up with their GP. This is an important offer for those who have recently given birth. GPs have an important role in postnatal care," says Christine Agdestein. "Not much research has been done on the postnatal check-up before, and therefore it is extra rewarding that we can ...

Quick clay is actually an old seabed. The clay thus formed under water, but came to the surface when the landscape rose after the last ice age. However, this clay was not so dangerous, because it was full of salt from the sea. Only when the salt in the clay was washed out of fresh water from rain and groundwater did it turn into quick clay. But what exactly makes quick clay so unstable? "We have made very detailed and careful simulations of the friction between clay particles," says researcher and doctor Ge Li at PoreLab and the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Production at the Norwegian University of Science ...

When quantum particles work together, they can produce signals far stronger than any one particle could generate alone. This collective phenomenon, called superradiance, is a powerful example of cooperation at the quantum level. Until now, superradiance was mostly known for making quantum systems lose their energy too quickly, posing challenges for quantum technologies. But a new study published in Nature Physics turns this idea on its head— revealing that collective superradiant effects ...

Cleveland: Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered that bacteria inside cancerous tumors may be key to understanding why immunotherapy works for some patients but not others. Two new studies, published simultaneously in Nature Cancer, reveal that elevated levels of bacteria in the tumor microenvironment suppress immune response, driving resistance to immunotherapy in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. “These studies shift the focus of immunotherapy resistance research beyond tumor genetics ...

The first Editorial of the year at Science always gives the Editor-in-Chief an opportunity to reflect on notable developments for the Science journals. In this Editorial, Holden Thorp focuses on AI, discussing how it “will allow the scientific community to do more if it picks the right ways to use it.” He revisits the journals’ policies and approaches related to AI. The journals do use select AI tools. Over the past year for example, Science has collaborated with DataSeer to evaluate adherence to its policy mandating the sharing of underlying data and code for all published ...

Simultaneous ground- and space-based observations of a newly discovered free-floating planet have enabled direct measurement of its mass and distance from Earth, according to a new study. The findings offer insights into the diverse and dynamic pathways by which planets can be cast adrift into interstellar space. Although studies to date have only revealed a handful of such free-floating planets, detections are expected to increase in the coming years, particularly with the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope campaign that is scheduled for launch in 2027, ...

A newly identified and rare genetic variant slows the growth of mutated blood stem cells, researchers report, and it reduces the risk of leukemia. The findings offer insight into why some people are naturally more resistant to clonal expansion and age-related blood cancers despite acquiring risky mutations. As tissues age, they quietly accumulate many mutations that can drive cancer. In the blood-forming, or hematopoietic, system, such mutations often appear in otherwise healthy individuals as clonal hematopoiesis (CH), a process in which certain blood stem cell (HSC) ...

Pigs across the Pacific can trace their ancestry to Southeast Asian domestic pigs that accompanied early Austronesian-speaking groups as they island-hopped across the region, according to a new genomic study. For thousands of years, humans have moved animals far beyond their natural ranges – sometimes accidentally and sometimes deliberately, but often with profound ecological consequences, especially on islands. Pigs are a striking example; although their home ranges lie mostly west of the Wallace Line, multiple species are now widespread across the islands of Southeast Asia and throughout Oceania. Archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that pigs ...

A new study shows that coral reefs don’t just provide a home for ocean life, they also help set the daily “schedule” for tiny microbes living in the water nearby. Over the course of a single day, the quantity and types of microbes present can shift dramatically. To see this in detail, researchers took frequent water samples and used a mix of genetic and ecological methods and tools, as well as advanced imaging techniques, to track what was happening hour by hour. They found that reefs can shape microbial communities ...

Researchers working on China's fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have experimentally accessed a theorized "density-free regime" for fusion plasmas, achieving stable operation at densities well beyond conventional limits. The results, reported in Science Advances on January 1, provide new insights into overcoming one of the most persistent physical obstacles on the path toward nuclear fusion ignition. The study was co-led by Prof. ZHU Ping from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Associate Prof. YAN Ning from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science ...

About 9,500 years ago, a community of hunter-gatherers in central Africa cremated a small woman on an open pyre at the base of Mount Hora, a prominent natural landmark in northern Malawi, according to a new study coauthored by an international team based in the United States, Africa, and Europe. It is the first time this behavior has been documented in the African hunter-gatherer record.   The study, published in the journal Science Advances, provides the earliest evidence of intentional cremation in Africa and describes ...

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and AlveoliX have developed the first human ‘lung-on-chip’ model using stem cells taken from only one person. These chips simulate breathing motions and lung disease in an individual, holding promise for testing treatments for infections like tuberculosis (TB) and delivering personalised medicine. Air sacs in the lungs called alveoli are the essential site of gas exchange and also an important barrier against inhaled viruses and bacteria that cause respiratory diseases like flu or TB. Researchers have been working to recreate the battle between human cells and bacteria in the ...

How people moved pigs across the Pacific Genomic study reveals the routes taken by people as they island hopped across Indonesia A new study, published today in the journal Science, reveals how millennia of human migration across Pacific islands led to the introduction of invasive pig species all over the Asia-Pacific region. The study was led by Laurent Frantz, Professor of Palaeogenomics at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), David Stanton, from Cardiff University, and Greger Larson, from the University of Oxford. Plants and animals have not always spread ...

The Qinghai-Tibet plateau (QTP) is the largest and highest plateau in the world, and is an important center for biodiversity that houses an array of high-elevation ecosystems. Despite its importance, QTP has faced multiple conservation challenges over the past decades, in particular due to climate changes (e.g. rising temperature, changing precipitation patterns, and an increase in extreme weather) and over exploitation of natural resources by human activities. Despite growing evidence that plant diversity on QTP ...