Colourful Vincent Van Gogh-style artworks generated by a conventional diffusion model (left in each set of three) and an optical image generator (right) Shiqi Chen et al. 2025 An AI image generator that uses light to produce images, rather than conventional computing hardware, could consume hundreds of times less energy. When an artificial intelligence model…
Ohn Bavaro Fine Art/Science Photo Library Today we are alone. But just a few hundred thousand years ago, our ancestors shared the world with at least five other ancient human species, including diminutive hobbits and burly Neanderthals. It may now be time to add to that list. As we report in “An incredible Denisovan skull…
Our degree of contentment changes with age Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images We used to get especially dissatisfied with life during middle age, creating an “unhappiness hump” nestled between the more contented periods of youth and older age – but that’s no longer the case. This proverbial hump has now disappeared, not because people are…
Artist’s illustration of the ancient reptile Kostensuchus atrox Gabriel Diaz Yanten, CC-BY 4.0 An ancient crocodile relative that lived around 70 million years ago was probably such a formidable predator that it could have eaten medium-sized dinosaurs for breakfast. “Its large teeth had serrated edges like steak knives, which is a strong signal that this…
August 27, 2025 2 min read These Stunning Images Show Every Nerve in a Mouse This new “connectome” could bring researchers one step closer to understanding how nerves connect to organs throughout the body By Nora Bradford edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier The mouse vagus nerve (white) branches into the stomach and small intestine. “High-Speed…
A life reconstruction of Spicomellus afer, an ankylosaur fossil discovered in Morocco Matthew Dempsey A dinosaur fossil found in Morocco may be the most bizarrely and elaborately armoured vertebrate that has ever walked the planet. The first fossil of Spicomellus afer was discovered in Morocco and reported in 2021. It was only a rib fragment…
A sugar present on virus envelopes might become the target of new antiviral treatments for a range of viruses, researchers report August 27 in Science Advances. This treatment, shown to shut down infections of Ebola, Nipah, SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in mice, could potentially be the first line of defense against future pandemics, the scientists say. “This…
In 1970, a woman in Mexico might have expected to have seven children, on average. By 2014, that figure had fallen to around two. As of 2023, it was just 1.6. That means that the population is no longer making enough babies to maintain itself. Mexico is not alone: countries around the world are witnessing…
These succulent plants glow after being infused with phosphor particles that absorb and slowly release light Liu et al., Matter There are the bad product ideas that just make you sigh, and then there are the ones you absolutely loathe. For me, glowing plants created by pumping leaves full of phosphorescent chemicals fall firmly in…
Like wine and cheese, chocolate has terroir, a sense of the place it was grown. Each bonbon or bar may carry unique flavors shaped by the soil, rainfall and temperature of the farm. But much of that flavor variation comes from wild microbes that spontaneously ferment cocoa beans after harvest, says David Gopaulchan, a plant…
