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Rare rocks buried deep in central Australia have revealed how a valuable niobium deposit formed during the breakup of an ancient supercontinent. More than 800 million years ago, tectonic rifting opened pathways that allowed metal-rich magma to rise . ...

Europa's subsurface ocean might be getting fed after all. Scientists found that salty, nutrient-rich surface ice can become heavy enough to break free and sink through Europa's icy shell, delivering essential ingredients to the ocean below. The ...

A new study suggests humans belong in an elite "league of monogamy," ranking closer to beavers and meerkats than to chimpanzees. By comparing full and half siblings across species and human cultures, researchers found that long-term pair bonding is . ...

The microbes living in sourdough starters don't just appear by chance--they're shaped by what bakers feed them. New research shows that while the same hardy yeast tends to dominate sourdough starters regardless of flour type, the bacteria tell a more ...

New experiments reveal that protein precursors can form naturally in deep space under extreme cold and radiation. Scientists found that simple amino acids bond into peptides on interstellar dust, long before stars and planets exist. This challenges . ...

Epaulette sharks can reproduce without any measurable increase in energy use, stunning researchers who expected egg-laying to be costly. Scientists tracked metabolism, blood, and hormone levels through the entire reproductive cycle and found ...

A new building material developed by engineers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute could change how the world builds. Made using an enzyme that turns carbon dioxide into solid minerals, the material cures in hours and locks away carbon instead of ...

Mountain regions around the world are heating up faster than the lands below them, triggering dramatic shifts in snow, rain, and water supply that could affect over a billion people. A major global review finds that rising temperatures are turning .. ...

Long before humans became master hunters, our ancestors were already thriving by making the most of what nature left behind. New research suggests that scavenging animal carcasses wasn't a desperate last resort, but a smart, reliable survival ...

Sensitive hearing may have evolved in mammal ancestors far earlier than scientists once believed. By modeling how sound moved through the skull of Thrinaxodon, a 250-million-year-old mammal predecessor, researchers found it likely used an early ...