Science

Geology, paleontology, physics, space and the natural world

In Science, ECOnews reports on new discoveries in geology, paleontology, physics, space, health and the natural world. We explain the latest studies from universities and labs worldwide in plain language.

Laguna Colorada in Bolivia seen from the International Space Station, with red-orange water and white mineral deposits

Laguna Colorada looks blue and brown in a new ESA satellite image, and a 2026 study found the red Bolivian lake carries 3,157 milligrams of lithium per liter where James’s flamingos breed

By ECONEWS

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October 8, 2026 at 6:31 PM

A slate arrowhead estimated at 5,000 to 6,000 years old with reindeer on the ice patch behind it in Norway

Archaeologists pulled 48 prehistoric arrows from melting ice in Norway’s Jotunheimen mountains this year, and the oldest, tipped with slate, may be up to 6,000 years old as the most ancient ice finally disappears

By ECONEWS

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October 8, 2026 at 3:02 PM

The Hwangja Hwatong, a corroded bronze hand cannon, photographed against a dark blue background

Soldiers sweeping for land mines in South Korea found the country’s oldest gunpowder weapon

By ECONEWS

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October 8, 2026 at 8:47 AM

A lifelike model of a Neanderthal child with long brown hair at the Natural History Museum Vienna

Max Planck scientists read DNA from 27 late Neanderthals in Belgium and France and found no sign of recent Homo sapiens ancestry, even though both lived in Europe at the same time

By ECONEWS

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October 7, 2026 at 12:28 PM

Green moss carpets covering the rocky tundra of Ardley Island, Antarctica, with snow patches on the hills

Scientists cut the ultraviolet light reaching moss and lichen on Antarctica’s Ardley Island by 20%, and the Antarctic tundra took up about half as much carbon, an unwelcome twist in the healing of the ozone layer

By ECONEWS

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October 6, 2026 at 8:47 AM

A streaked brown shorebird standing on dry grass

Only about one in three Arctic tundra shorebirds come back to the same breeding area each year, against two in three elsewhere, and at the tundra’s northern edge it falls to one in ten, a Max Planck study found

By Adrian Villellas

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October 5, 2026 at 6:27 PM

Okanagan Lake with a rounded hill on the far shore under a clear sky

Someone paid C$200 at a yard sale in southern Ontario for E.J. Hughes’ Okanagan Lake, and the painting sold for C$402,500 at auction in 2007, months after the reclusive British Columbia painter died

By Adrian Villellas

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October 5, 2026 at 12:31 PM

A white mug filled with black coffee on a wooden table

A study of nearly 1 million UK adults found that people who like their tea or coffee very hot had about three times the risk of one type of esophageal cancer, and the researchers’ advice is simply to let it cool

By ECONEWS

—

October 5, 2026 at 10:13 AM

A diver hangs a branch of coral on an underwater coral tree nursery

A Florida father and daughter started growing staghorn coral for a 4-H project around 2000, and after a 2023 heatwave killed 98% to 100% of wild staghorn and elkhorn in the Keys, the nurseries that grew out of it are banking the survivors’ genes

By Adrian Villellas

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October 4, 2026 at 6:27 PM

Detail of a Paracas ceremonial mantle with rows of embroidered figures

Archaeologists measured 200 obsidian points from Paracas sites in southern Peru and found every complete one was a spearthrower dart, and through four violent centuries nobody there seems to have bothered with the bow

By Adrian Villellas

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October 4, 2026 at 2:58 PM

Engineers at UC Riverside simulated 2,000 floating ice floes and found that constant collisions between neighbors explain why Arctic sea ice spreads more slowly than the wind alone would push it

By ECONEWS

—

October 4, 2026 at 6:52 AM

Illustration of a Diplodocus in a Jurassic landscape

Paleontologists in Spain identified 14 tail bones from Teruel as Diplodocus, the first scientifically documented find of the famous dinosaur outside North America, though some experts want more proof

By ECONEWS

—

October 3, 2026 at 12:33 PM

Illustration of a plesiosaur in shallow water

A geologist studying drill cores from under the North Sea found Jurassic fossil vomit packed with shells and squid-like remains, and he believes long-necked plesiosaurs brought it up in river deltas

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 3, 2026 at 10:14 AM

Woman listening to music with headphones

Researchers in China stressed 120 young adults and found relaxing music helped their heart rate and mood recover faster than water sounds, while listening beforehand did not blunt the stress

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 3, 2026 at 6:27 AM

Researcher with a miniature horse outdoors

A UC Davis study found just three minutes with miniature horses and donkeys left 61 teenagers calmer and less lonely, and those who saw an animal choose to walk away felt the biggest drop in sadness

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 2, 2026 at 5:03 PM

Elderly man walking through a green orchard

A Finnish study that followed 2,690 men for decades found 42% of those with good cardiovascular health in their early 40s lived to 90, versus 7% of those with the poorest, and they were less frail

By ECONEWS

—

October 2, 2026 at 2:58 PM

Grayscale mosaic of a long wrinkle ridge crossing cratered volcanic plains on Mercury

Scientists found fewer wrinkles on Mercury’s roughest ground, and now put its lost radius at 7.2 miles

By ECONEWS

—

October 2, 2026 at 11:37 AM

Saildrone 1092, a crewless sailboat, heading south from Storm Bay off Tasmania

In the Southern Ocean, four 23-foot crewless sailboats will measure CO2 where ships rarely go in winter

By Javier Niño

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October 2, 2026 at 9:29 AM

Rendering of the neurons in the central nervous system of a male fruit fly, from the brain to the nerve cord

Janelia scientists spent 18 years mapping every neuron in a male fruit fly, 166,700 cells and 125 million connections, and days after the map came out programmers had it playing Doom

By Javier Niño

—

October 1, 2026 at 3:48 PM

Purple deep-sea octopus on the seafloor off Trinidad and Tobago

Scientists on Trinidad and Tobago’s first locally led deep-sea expedition followed 219 bubble streams to 25 cold seeps and found at least 20 possible new species, including an octopus first seen in 2014

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 1, 2026 at 6:29 AM

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Science

Laguna Colorada looks blue and brown in a new ESA satellite image, and a 2026 study found the red Bolivian lake carries 3,157 milligrams of lithium per liter where James’s flamingos breed

Archaeologists pulled 48 prehistoric arrows from melting ice in Norway’s Jotunheimen mountains this year, and the oldest, tipped with slate, may be up to 6,000 years old as the most ancient ice finally disappears

Soldiers sweeping for land mines in South Korea found the country’s oldest gunpowder weapon

Max Planck scientists read DNA from 27 late Neanderthals in Belgium and France and found no sign of recent Homo sapiens ancestry, even though both lived in Europe at the same time

Scientists cut the ultraviolet light reaching moss and lichen on Antarctica’s Ardley Island by 20%, and the Antarctic tundra took up about half as much carbon, an unwelcome twist in the healing of the ozone layer

Only about one in three Arctic tundra shorebirds come back to the same breeding area each year, against two in three elsewhere, and at the tundra’s northern edge it falls to one in ten, a Max Planck study found

Someone paid C$200 at a yard sale in southern Ontario for E.J. Hughes’ Okanagan Lake, and the painting sold for C$402,500 at auction in 2007, months after the reclusive British Columbia painter died

A study of nearly 1 million UK adults found that people who like their tea or coffee very hot had about three times the risk of one type of esophageal cancer, and the researchers’ advice is simply to let it cool

A Florida father and daughter started growing staghorn coral for a 4-H project around 2000, and after a 2023 heatwave killed 98% to 100% of wild staghorn and elkhorn in the Keys, the nurseries that grew out of it are banking the survivors’ genes

Archaeologists measured 200 obsidian points from Paracas sites in southern Peru and found every complete one was a spearthrower dart, and through four violent centuries nobody there seems to have bothered with the bow

Engineers at UC Riverside simulated 2,000 floating ice floes and found that constant collisions between neighbors explain why Arctic sea ice spreads more slowly than the wind alone would push it

Paleontologists in Spain identified 14 tail bones from Teruel as Diplodocus, the first scientifically documented find of the famous dinosaur outside North America, though some experts want more proof

A geologist studying drill cores from under the North Sea found Jurassic fossil vomit packed with shells and squid-like remains, and he believes long-necked plesiosaurs brought it up in river deltas

Researchers in China stressed 120 young adults and found relaxing music helped their heart rate and mood recover faster than water sounds, while listening beforehand did not blunt the stress

A UC Davis study found just three minutes with miniature horses and donkeys left 61 teenagers calmer and less lonely, and those who saw an animal choose to walk away felt the biggest drop in sadness

A Finnish study that followed 2,690 men for decades found 42% of those with good cardiovascular health in their early 40s lived to 90, versus 7% of those with the poorest, and they were less frail

Scientists found fewer wrinkles on Mercury’s roughest ground, and now put its lost radius at 7.2 miles

In the Southern Ocean, four 23-foot crewless sailboats will measure CO2 where ships rarely go in winter

Janelia scientists spent 18 years mapping every neuron in a male fruit fly, 166,700 cells and 125 million connections, and days after the map came out programmers had it playing Doom

Scientists on Trinidad and Tobago’s first locally led deep-sea expedition followed 219 bubble streams to 25 cold seeps and found at least 20 possible new species, including an octopus first seen in 2014

In Romania’s Brașov County, brown bears number about 1,329 by a national genetic estimate, the highest density of any county, and one bear relocated from Poiana Brașov was back within 3 days

More than 40 Magellanic penguins born in captivity arrived by court order from Mar del Plata at a river island in Argentina’s Río Negro province, and at first they had not explored even a third of their new home

In Japan, researchers led by Tohoku University used an inexpensive blue pigment to turn carbon dioxide into methane with 79.5% Faradaic efficiency, and methane selectivity stayed above 60% for about 80 hours

At 8.2 feet on Oct. 13, the Lake Constance water level in Konstanz, Germany, fell below a 1947 record for the date, and it now sits 10 inches under last winter’s low

A simulated AMOC collapse in an unreviewed preprint cut wheat, corn and rice harvests in Germany and Ukraine by roughly 16 to 19 percent, and cereal prices could climb up to 40 percent in the worst case

A landslide in Alaska’s Tracy Arm fjord sent a tsunami 1,578 feet up the opposite wall, and a Science study found small tremors striking every 30 to 60 seconds in the hours before the collapse

A company won a mining license for a magnesium deposit it estimates at more than 50 million metric tons near Rășinari, in Romania’s Sibiu County, and the EU gets 97 percent of its magnesium from China

Leap seconds will end on May 20, 2027, under a rule the General Conference on Weights and Measures adopted in Versailles, France, and a new study finds Earth’s solid surface turning slightly rounder as polar ground rises

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