Stonehenge had a hard Scottish heart, a new study suggests. The ancient site’s central stone, a large slab known as the Altar Stone, consists of rock transported at least 750 kilometers from northeastern Scotland to southern England, say geoscientist Anthony Clarke of Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and colleagues. An analysis of the age and … Read more

For millennia, humans have seen inexplicable things in the sky. Some have been beautiful, some have been terrifying, and some — like auroras and solar eclipses before they were understood scientifically — have been both. Today’s aircraft, balloons, drones, satellites and more only increase the chances of spotting something confounding overhead. In the United States, … Read more

To expand the periodic table, it might be time to go titanium.  A new study lays the groundwork to expand the periodic table with a search for element 120, to be made by slamming electrically charged titanium atoms, or ions, into a californium target. If produced, the new element would have an atomic nucleus brimming … Read more

On August 8, the Japanese Meteorological Agency issued its first-ever “megaquake alert,” after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked the Miyazaki prefecture in southern Japan earlier that day. The Miyazaki quake injured at least 16 people and generated minor tsunamis up to 50 centimeters tall that reached the country’s coastline about half an hour later. The … Read more

An appetite-stimulating protein can reverse anorexia in mice. Mice with lack of appetite and weight loss — symptoms similar to people with anorexia — that were genetically tweaked to secrete a protein called ACBP ate more food and weighed more than anorexic animals with an ACBP deficit, researchers report August 14 in Science Translational Medicine. … Read more

To leave a lasting trail, meteors need to aim low. A new survey of shooting stars shows that meteors that blaze through 90 kilometers up in the sky leave a persistent afterglow, unlike those that burn up at greater heights. Meteors are normally blink-and-you’ll-miss-it events. A particle of space dust leaves a fiery trail of … Read more

The neutrino “fog” is beginning to materialize. Lightweight subatomic particles called neutrinos have begun elbowing their way into the data of experiments not designed to spot them. Two experiments, built to detect particles of dark matter, have caught initial glimpses of neutrinos born in the sun, physicists report. “That’s a triumph,” says neutrino physicist Kate … Read more

For the second time, the World Health Organization has declared that mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is a global health emergency. In 2022, global spread of the virus, which causes rashes, fevers, muscle aches and other symptoms, led to the first emergency declaration (SN: 7/22/22). That version of the virus, called clade II, is still causing … Read more

As more and more species near extinction, scientists have been collecting samples from animals, plants and other creatures and storing them in biorepositories across the globe (SN: 5/8/19). But climate change, environmental disasters and wars threaten these modern Noah’s arks (SN: 2/28/22). Now, a team of researchers is brainstorming an out-of-this-world solution: building one of … Read more

Any way you slice it, a paper cut is painful.  Magazines, letters and books harbor a devious potential for minor self-induced agony. But other types of paper — like thin tissue paper or the thicker stuff used for postcards — are less likely to offend. Scientists have now explained the physics behind why some paper … Read more