Science news

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10249-5

Publisher Correction: Psychedelics elicit their effects by 5-HT2A receptor-mediated G_i signalling

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00497-w

Smartphones are a double-edged tool in classrooms

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00297-2

Practical physics classes were competing with the allure of sports in the 1800s, and top tips for the best-smelling garden, in this week’s peek at the Nature archives.

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00495-y

Statistical approximation is not general intelligence

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00498-9

The funding system needs fixing — but it’s not a ‘waste of time and money’

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00496-x

What’s behind ‘teensplaining’? Scientists should study this adolescent behaviour

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00469-0

Around the world, governments are demanding that research funding follow broader political priorities. They should be careful what they wish for.

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00349-7

Study could help reveal why some mental health disorders vary between men and women — but it's not clear whether the differences are due to sex or gender.

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00474-3

To ensure that AI advances benefit everyone, scientific institutions must prioritize collaborative, mission-driven structures instead of chasing top talent with astronomical compensation.

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00439-6

A European project calls for help to verify whether carbon quantum dots are really able to sense chemicals in cells.

For decades, depictions of Triceratops and its kin have been driven by bone alone. Now, paleontologists in Japan have mapped the soft-tissue anatomy of these horned dinosaurs, revealing unexpected structures that may explain how they regulated temperature and breathed.

The post Triceratops’ Oversized Nasal Cavities Played Roles Far Beyond Smell, Paleontologists Find appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Scientists have isolated a new strain of the Psychrobacter cryohalolentis species from 5,000-year-old ice from Scarisoara Ice Cave in Romania.

The post Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Strain Found Preserved in 5,000-Year-Old Cave Ice appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

In a new study, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems aimed to characterize the geometry, porosity, and stiffness of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) whiskers.

The post Remarkable Sense of Touch in Elephant’s Trunk Isn’t Just about Muscles or Nerves: Study appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists have unearthed fossilized bones of one of the smallest sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil, offering fresh insights into early dinosaur development and physiology.

The post Small Triassic Dinosaur from Brazil Sheds New Light on Sauropodomorph Growth Strategies appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A new study by scientists from the University of Bergen, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Oxford suggests that strange plume-like structures hidden deep within the Greenland Ice Sheet are caused by thermal convection.

The post Researchers Solve Mystery of Swirling, Plume-Like Structures Deep Inside Greenland’s Ice Sheet appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have for the first time identified hydrogen sulfide gas in the atmospheres of three gas-giant exoplanets orbiting HR 8799, a 30-million-year-old star located in the constellation of Pegasus.

The post Webb Detects Hydrogen Sulfide Gas on Three Super-Jupiters appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New research by geoscientists from the University of Florida and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris traces the origins of the Antarctic gravity hole (or the Antarctic Geoid Low) to slow, subterranean rock flows over tens of millions of years.

The post Geoscientists Pinpoint Ancient Forces behind Antarctica’s Gravity Hole appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

The Chandra team has released a striking new composite image of the Cocoon Nebula, a reflection and emission nebula in the constellation of Cygnus.

The post Chandra Spots Cluster of Newborn Stars in Cocoon Nebula appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Between 73,000 and 20,000 years ago (Late Pleistocene), the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited by cave lions (Panthera spelaea), according to a new genetic and proteomic analysis of fossilized felid remains previously attributed to tigers (Panthera tigris).

The post Japanese Archipelago Was Once a Refuge for Cave Lions appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Using archival data from NASA’s NEOWISE mission along with data from other space and ground-based observatories, astronomers identified the clearest observational record yet of a massive star fading and vanishing into a black hole -- an event once theorized but rarely seen.

The post Supergiant Star Collapsed into Stellar-Mass Black Hole in Andromeda Galaxy appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New measurements could help predict pollinators’ ability to withstand climate change

Two intellectual property lawyers on why questions of AI inventorship and profit remain wide open

Researchers identify a complex that hands mimivirus control of protein synthesis in infected amoebae

Inoculating soil with pink microbes could help reduce the use of toxic insecticides.

Health department declines to renew Lindsey Criswell, head of arthritis institute, to another 5-year term

Last year’s mass firings of “probationary” federal workers sent researchers’ lives into turmoil

Agency’s attempt to overturn 2009 “endangerment finding” appears headed for Supreme Court

Failed supernova candidate points to a stealthy pathway of stellar collapse

Some RNA molecules can create their own mirror images, suggesting similar molecules could have sparked life

Students seeking graduate research scholarships speculate that biology is being disfavored

A technology that uses a coiled wire to electrify aerosols has boosted snowfall amid a drought in the western US, according to the company developing it, but the results haven't convinced other scientists

An ultrastable laser could enable extremely precise timing and navigation on the moon, and the cold, dark craters near the lunar poles would be the ideal location for it

The evolution of human hands is one of the most important – and overlooked – stories of our origin. Now, new fossil evidence is revealing their pivotal role

A giant virus encodes part of the protein-making toolkit of cells that gives it greater control over its amoeba host, raising questions about how it evolved and how such beings relate to living organisms

Hearing a sound while working on a complex puzzle, and then hearing it again during sleep, helped lucid dreamers better tackle the problem the next day

A mathematical equivalent of a microscope with variable resolution has shed light on why some atoms are exceptionally stable, a riddle that has persisted in nuclear physics for decades

The psychedelic DMT has been linked to improved mental health outcomes before, but now, scientists have shown it reduces depression symptoms more than a placebo when given alongside therapeutic support

The big bang wasn’t the start of everything, but it has been impossible to see what came before. Now a new kind of cosmology is lifting the veil on the beginning of time

Biologists have debated the reason why Homo sapiens evolved a prominent lower jaw, but this unique feature may actually be a by-product of other traits shaped by natural selection

We are used to heat flowing from hot objects to cool ones, and never the other way round, but now researchers have found it is possible to pull off this trick in the strange realm of quantum mechanics

Refugees from Ukraine who suffer from potential war trauma are less likely to work than their compatriots who do not. This is the result of a study published as an RFBerlin discussion paper.

Northern Japan, especially the island of Hokkaido, is home to some of the snowiest cities in the world. Sapporo, the island's largest city and host of an annual snow festival, typically sees more than 140 days of snowfall, with nearly six meters (20 feet) accumulating on average each year. The ski resorts surrounding the city delight in the relatively dry, powdery "sea-effect" snow that often falls when frigid air from Siberia flows across the relatively warm waters of the Sea of Japan.

Imagine someone has chronic pain. One doctor focuses on the body part that hurts and keeps trying to fix that single symptom. Another uses a more comprehensive brain-body approach and tries to understand what's keeping the nervous system stuck in alarm mode—perhaps stress, fear of symptoms or learned triggers. Because they're looking at the problem differently, they'll resort to completely different treatments.

The value of wetlands on the landscape cannot be overstated—they store and filter water, provide wildlife habitat, cool the atmosphere and sequester carbon. Yet, in the farmland area of Canada's Prairies, wetlands are being drained to increase crop production and expand urban development.

It's long been assumed the Jomon people, who had inhabited the Japanese archipelago since around 16,000 years ago, had multiple lineages resulting from different migration routes. But new genetic evidence, including mitochondrial DNA from 13 newly sequenced Jomon skeletons, suggests that an initial migration of a single lineage later split, giving rise to regional diversity. The findings are published in the journal Anthropological Science.

What does it mean to love your job? The language of love has become increasingly common in contemporary discussions of work. People say they want to love their jobs, organizations promise roles candidates will love, and recruitment ads frame employment as an emotional commitment rather than an economic transaction.

Frank Cuozzo and Michelle Sauther first traveled to South Africa in 2012 to search for some of the most unusual primates on Earth—bushbabies. These animals are nocturnal and small, often around the size of a housecat. Bushbabies have big ears, round eyes and get their names from the eerie, wailing noises they make at night.

Thousands of people were killed by Iranian security forces in days of protests in January 2026. Meanwhile, in the same month, the killing of two protesters in Minneapolis shone a light on the use of fatal force by American law enforcement—a phenomenon that in 2025 saw the deaths of more than 1,300 people in the U.S., according to data tracking such incidents.

The role of soil and forests in greenhouse gas sequestration has been studied for a long time. However, forests are also home to invisible organisms that may affect the climate. "Soil, water and peatlands have been studied in the Biogeochemistry Research Group at the University of Eastern Finland since the mid-1980s, led by Professor Emeritus Pertti Martikainen. When Martikainen retired in 2016, Professor of Microbial Biogeochemistry Jukka Pumpanen took over as the group's leader," says Academy Research Fellow Henri Siljanen from the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

Most Hawaiʻi residents believe sea level rise is already affecting the state, expect major impacts within their lifetimes, and support significant changes to how and where development occurs. At the same time, many remain uncertain about how large-scale adaptation should be financed.

Quasicrystals are orderly structures that never repeat. Scientists just showed they can exist in space and time.

The complex biology of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, has researchers wondering how its absence helps snakes last a long time with no food, if at all.

In The Story of Stories, technologist Kevin Ashton explores how storytelling has evolved and why stories matter.

Subtle shifts in how users described symptoms to AI chatbots led to dramatically different, sometimes dangerous medical advice.

New plankton arrived just a few millennia — maybe even decades — after the Chicxulub asteroid, forcing a rethink of evolution's catastrophe response speed.

In Cape Verde, conservation has boosted the sea turtle population 100-fold — but the male-female balance is way off.

Solve the crossword from our March 2026 issue, in which we work on our code-switching.

A rocky exoplanet in the LHS 1903 system defies planet formation models, hinting that gravitational upheaval reshaped the red dwarf’s four worlds.

A lung cancer trial bolsters a long-held idea that treatment timing matters, showing a simple shift could help immunotherapy work better and extend lives.

A student created a low-cost baby carrier that filters sunlight to safely treat jaundice where electricity and equipment are scarce.