Billions in rare earth elements may be hiding in America’s coal ash

Scientists are looking to diatoms, sea sponges, and plants for a cleaner way to recover rare earth elements and other valuable minerals hidden inside coal ash, red mud, and mine tailings. The bio-inspired approach could turn massive industrial waste piles into useful materials while reducing energy use, harsh chemicals, and reliance on new mining.

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NASA’s Moon orbiter finds a 728-foot crater that wasn’t there before

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed a 728-foot-wide crater that formed on the Moon in 2024, making it the largest newly formed crater ever identified in the solar system. The impact disturbed the surface for miles around it, creating a surprisingly large cold zone and showing how dramatically a single collision can reshape the lunar landscape.

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Textbooks may have misdrawn this basic brain structure for 100 years

Scientists discovered that brain-cell axons may not be smooth tubes as textbooks have shown for more than a century, but instead naturally resemble strings of tiny pearls. Those pearl-like structures can change with neural activity and may help control how quickly electrical signals travel through the brain.

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Hidden “immune organ” in the skull may help fight brain cancer

Scientists discovered a hidden “immune organ” inside the skull that acts as a rapid first responder against brain cancer in mice. Strengthening this local immune defense improved tumor rejection and survival, raising the possibility of new treatments that target the skull directly.

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Scientists recreated what mice saw from brain activity alone

Scientists reconstructed videos from the brain activity of mice, producing 10-second clips based only on signals from neurons in the visual cortex. The breakthrough could help reveal how the brain reshapes what we see before it becomes our perception of reality.

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Tiny cell “antennas” may help explain why some babies are born with heart defects

A newly discovered communication system in the microscopic “antennae” of cells may help explain how some congenital heart defects develop. When genetic mutations disrupt this system, the effects may extend beyond the heart to organs including the brain, kidneys, and skeleton.

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Plague was killing entire families thousands of years before the Black Death

Ancient DNA reveals that plague was already killing hunter-gatherers in Siberia 5,500 years ago, long before cities and flea-driven epidemics. The prehistoric strains may have been especially dangerous because they carried a genetic factor capable of provoking severe immune reactions.

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Scientists find how “zombie” cells fuel inflammation as we age

Scientists discovered that aging cells can use malfunctioning mitochondria to unlock inflammatory genes and keep the immune system stuck in a prolonged state of alert. Blocking one part of this process reduced inflammation and improved healthy aging in mice, suggesting a promising new strategy for fighting age-related decline.

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CERN finds gluons behaving strangely deep inside atomic nuclei

Physicists at CERN have found a new way to peer deep inside atomic nuclei and distinguish between two competing explanations for how gluons behave. Using the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, researchers measured particle production at unprecedented spatial resolution, revealing structures as small as about one-quarter the size of a proton. At the smallest scales, they saw a surprising drop in J/ψ production that conventional “nuclear shadowing” struggles to explain.

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Mercury’s surface reveals a surprisingly fiery past

Scientists have discovered that Mercury’s surface contains far less silicon dioxide than previously thought, pointing to an unexpectedly hot volcanic past. The finding suggests ancient lava may have originated from deeper, more extensively melted parts of the planet’s mantle.

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66-million-year-old feather in dinosaur poop may reveal why birds survived the asteroid

A feather discovered inside 66-million-year-old fossilized dinosaur poop may help explain why modern birds survived the asteroid catastrophe. The extinct bird it came from had more primitive insulating feathers, suggesting superior plumage may have helped the ancestors of living birds endure the deadly impact winter.

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Raindrops can damage paint with microscopic “lightning”

Scientists discovered that charged water droplets can damage protective coatings by releasing tiny electrical discharges when they hit a surface. The hidden effect could help explain weathering and lead to tougher coatings for cars, bridges, buildings, and more.

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Astronomers detect ancient hydrogen signal that could help map the Universe

Astronomers have detected an exceptionally faint hydrogen radio signal from billions of light-years away using South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope. Instead of finding galaxies one at a time, the technique measures their combined hydrogen glow across enormous stretches of space. The successful detection shows that astronomers may soon be able to create much larger 3D maps of the Universe.

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