Scientists were stunned when they discovered a fossilized tooth from a capybara that lived in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile almost 9 million years ago.

A new paper by UC Santa Cruz physicist Stefano Profumo applies a common ruler across 12 distinct dark-matter scenarios to evaluate “naturalness,” a measure of how much fine-tuning a theoretical model requires. The study demonstrates that primordial black holes are not inherently more exotic or fine-tuned than particle dark matter, with certain black hole models proving just as natural as leading particle theories.

University of Texas at Dallas researchers have found that, under extreme cold, making ice even colder can weaken its grip on surfaces. The discovery, published online May 29 in the journal Newton, reveals that a material’s thermal properties play a critical role in determining whether ice remains attached to a surface. The finding could guide the design of future deicing systems for aircraft, wind turbines and other applications in extreme cold.

USC Researchers have developed a new, noninvasive way to examine how blood flow and cellular organization align across the layers of the living human brain. Their study, published in Nature Communications, introduces the cerebral blood flow–cell-body staining intensity similarity index, or CCSI. It may help scientists understand how blood vessels, cells, and energy-producing machinery work together to support brain function. The hope is that CCSI may eventually offer insight into early signs of disease and potential treatments. The researchers used arterial spin labeling, or ASL, a noninvasive MRI technique that magnetically labels water in the blood and tracks it into brain tissue. A powerful 7 Tesla MRI scanner measured blood flow throughout the brain at a resolution of one cubic millimeter. The study included 30 healthy adults; 14 returned for a second scan to test the consistency of the measurements. The team divided the cortex into 360 regions and examined blood flow at multiple depths. They compared those patterns with cell-body staining data from BigBrain, a detailed three-dimensional digital reconstruction of a human brain that maps how densely cells are packed throughout the cortex. The resulting CCSI score measured how closely blood flow and cellular density followed the same pattern across cortical depth. Higher scores indicated that cell-dense layers tended to receive more blood flow. Blood flow and cellular organization aligned in most cortical regions, meaning that within a given region, blood flow tended to be highest in the layers with the most cells, although the strength varied across the brain. Alignment was strongest in primary visual and sensorimotor areas, which support vision, movement, and touch. To clarify what CCSI represents biologically, the researchers compared it with maps of mitochondrial activity, cell types, and gene expression. Together, the findings suggest that the alignment of blood flow and cellular structure reflects a coordinated system involving blood vessels, supporting cells, and energy production.

Penn State researchers have developed a state-of-the-art tiny mirror that can potentially slim down and speed up future optical systems used in brain imaging, augmented reality goggles and precision manufacturing.

In March 2026, scientists succeeded in transporting antiprotons by road for the first time in a purpose-built trap loaded on a truck. The BASE collaboration, which realised this experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva under the lead of Professor Dr Stefan Ulmer and Dr Christian Smorra from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), now presents its findings and experiences from this pioneering experiment in the scientific journal Nature. Among other things, they report that it was possible to store antiprotons in a mobile transport vessel for more than a month for the first time ever.

Oxford University researchers have captured the step-by-step assembly of individual virus-like particles, revealing how simple molecular interactions can reliably build these complex biological structures. The results have been published today (16 September) in Nature.

The biopolymer lignin – one of the most important carbon reservoirs in plants and soils – not only decays through fungi or bacteria but can also be chemically attacked by iron linked with reactive oxygen species, without the involvement of microorganisms. When this happens, the lignin is converted into methanol and subsequently into formaldehyde. That is shown by a study conducted at Heidelberg University’s Institute of Earth Sciences. The researchers also proved that this conversion takes place in natural soils – solely through wetting and without adding chemicals. This form of lignin degradation shines a light on a previously overlooked abiotic process that is related to Earth’s carbon cycle and can have implications for trace gas fluxes and atmospheric chemistry.

Reducing excessive boundary-layer mixing helps ocean models recover internal lee waves