North Korea’s nuclear tests have turned this mountain into an earthquake hot spot
Seismic activity has increased markedly at Mount Mantap, also known as Mantapsan, since the last test blast there in 2017
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Research, space, physics, biology, discoveriesNorth Korean nuclear test sets off years of earthquakes
Seismic activity around the Punggye-ri test site has increased since a large nuclear explosion in 2017
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Are bots changing how people talk? Language in the age of AI
A Facebook post about your trip to Peru. An Amazon review of a new toaster oven. An email to the super about the inflatable reindeer blocking the hallway. You phrase and rephrase things all day without thinking that anyone—or anything—is putting…
New immigration enforcement policy raises safety concerns for domestic violence survivors
After a six-week delay, Immigration Minister Tony Burke has announced changes to the migration system. Amid all the analysis and discussion it triggered, there was nothing to indicate an understanding that these changes need to have a safety net…
Astronomy's decades-long quest to understand cosmic topology
If some aspects of cosmic topology turn out to be true, the idea that starships might voyage across the cosmos for hundreds of thousands of light-years without ever returning to the same neck of spacetime could be problematic.
Canadian courts take police misconduct seriously, but researchers say sentencing alone can't fix a broken system
A study published in Police Quarterly explores how Canadian courts respond when police officers break the law. The research, co-led by Brock University Assistant Professor of Political Science Danielle McNabb and University of Guelph Associate…
Physicists are scrambling to make sense of possible dark matter signal
Following the possible recent detection of a dark matter particle, researchers have already come up with a veritable cornucopia of possible models for what sort of particle it might have been
Facing the megadrought: Researchers study underground ice reservoirs in the American West
Mount Timpanogos, towering 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) above Utah Valley, is more than an iconic view and beloved hiking destination. Snowmelt from mountains like these provides about 95% of Utah's water supply. Hotter, drier conditions have led to…
Humans or AI? Who or what can scam you more effectively?
A text from your neighborhood gardening club friend Ben offering a deal on seeds might seem too specific to be a scam. But that kind of personalization is exactly what can make phishing messages convincing.
Experts offer advice in an era shaped by artificial intelligence, social media, misinformation
Brian Druker, M.D., has pretty much done it all as a pioneer in precision medicine. He developed a drug that turned chronic myeloid leukemia from a death sentence into a manageable condition; his discovery spurred the development of numerous…
Fishapod fossil shows early elbows came in a variety of forms
The fish that preceded the first four-legged land animals came in a wider variety of forms than we had thought, and fossils show that one had an elbow joint that moved in an oddly restrictive way
This dolphin terrifies fish until they puke—and then it eats their upchuck
Don’t have the energy to catch your own meal? This dolphin has a gross solution
How much longer will the sun shine?
Our sun is on a long, strange trip to its eventual demise. Here are the key stops along the way
How heat makes it harder for students to learn
As temperatures rise, the evidence is clear that heat is eroding students’ ability to learn
Why Bangladesh’s measles outbreak is a cautionary tale for the U.S.
As Bangladesh faces a deadly measles outbreak, experts assess what it would take for the U.S. to reach similar levels
Our brain evolved from two primitive nervous systems that merged
A 9.5-day-old mouse embryo. The front of the brain is blue and the back of the brain is red, which extends into the spinal cord Loh Laboratory/Stanford Medicine Our brain may be a hybrid of two ancient nervous systems that were packaged together…
Early heat waves hit wheat yields hardest but boost resilience to subsequent heat waves
New research published in the Journal of Experimental Botany reveals that wheat crops are more sensitive to grain yield losses from heat waves that occur before reaching their flowering stage than those occurring later. However, exposure to heat…
A galaxy spinning out of sync
Image: Though the spiral galaxy in this new image by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret. This galaxy is NGC 4698, and it lies about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It’s one of over…
Earth from Space: Laguna Colorada
Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, acquired on 25 August 2026, shows an area of the Andean Altiplano in southern Bolivia near the border with Chile.
Could expanding the U.S. nuclear arsenal make Americans less safe?
A new report from the Brookings Institution presents evidence that increasing the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal could make nuclear crises more likely. This raises an important challenge to arguments that the U.S. must consider increasing its…
Baby orangutans in India expose 'frightening' scale of trafficking
Five baby orangutans abandoned in an Indian forest have exposed a "massive" exotic wildlife trade, with traffickers smuggling increasingly rare species into the country, experts say.
Bolivia's tilcayo tiger cat becomes first new wildcat species in 100 years
Scientists have discovered a new species of wild cat for the first time in more than a century, a Bolivian researcher told AFP on Thursday.
APOD: 2026 September 18 – Messier 33: The Triangulum Galaxy
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 September 18 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating…
Indonesia is moving its capital. Will a forest pay the price?
Filmmaker and journalist Leah Varjacques takes listeners inside an Indonesian forest that’s quickly changing as the country attempts to move its capital city
Grass and clover can provide more than animal feed
Growing leys—grass and clover—is nothing new in Swedish agriculture. But in the arable farming regions dominated by cereal production, leys are less common. One reason is that there needs to be a market for what is harvested.
In hottest summer on record, 2 in 3 Americans say climate change is increasing heat-related illnesses
Nearly two-thirds of the American public say climate change is increasing the risk of respiratory diseases and heat- and insect-related illnesses, according to a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of…