February 26, 2026 4 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Head-to-head trial pitting Eli Lilly’s oral GLP-1 against oral semaglutide underscores efficacy of weight-loss pills A new trial found that Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 pill resulted in greater reductions in blood sugar levels and weight than oral semaglutide did, but fewer people stayed on it…
Model of a Neanderthal man at the Natural History Museum in London Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images When our species and Neanderthals interbred, it may have been mostly female Homo sapiens and male Neanderthals that mated. That’s the conclusion of a study of the genetic traces left in both populations by the intermixing. It isn’t clear…
To eat a sugar-filled diet, birds had to evolve some sweet genetic tricks. Birds that feed on nectar and fruits have important variants in genes that control metabolism, fat processing and even blood pressure. Findings published February 26 in Science show how different lineages of birds converged on similar genetic workarounds to let them live…
February 26, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Neandertal and human interbreeding tended to follow a specific pattern Interbreeding between Neandertals and ancient anatomically modern humans primarily occurred between male Neandertals and female humans, a new study suggests By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron A Neandertal man at a human…
UK lawmakers are proposing to restrict children’s use of social media George Chan/Getty Images A proposed new law banning children in the UK from using social media and virtual private networks (VPNs) would frustrate adults and erode their privacy, as they will have to verify their age to use a host of everyday sites and…
Mosquitoes have been biting people for more than a million years and probably much longer. An analysis of 38 modern mosquitoes’ DNA suggests an ancestral mosquito species developed a preference for feeding on early humans between 2.9 and 1.6 million years ago, researchers write February 26 in Scientific Reports. The team studied 11 mosquito species…
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal on the planet, killing hundreds of thousands of people every year by transmitting malaria, dengue fever and a host of other deadly diseases. Understanding how the insects first got the taste for human blood has long intrigued scientists and could help us better fight the spread of mosquito-borne disease. Now…
Geothermal power plant at United Downs in Cornwall, UK Thomas Frost Photography/Geothermal Engineering Limited The UK’s electricity grid has started getting its first geothermal power amid a worldwide resurgence of interest in geothermal, thanks to improving well technologies and rising power demand from data centres. The United Downs plant in Cornwall will generate 3 megawatts…
February 26, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Rubin Observatory has started paging astronomers 800,000 times a night Asteroids, exploding stars, and feasting black holes swarm in the first-ever batch of nightly alerts from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile By Meghan Bartels edited by Lee Billings NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin…
Every few years, the planets appear in a line Getty Images Nearly all of the planets in the solar system are about to march through the night sky in a single-file line. This planetary alignment, sometimes called a planet parade, will include all of the solar system’s planets except Mars, as it is currently on…
