Category Archives: Science and Health

Scientists Reconstruct Face of Early Human Who Lived 16,000 Years Ago

Reconstructed face of a prehistoric human. Credit: Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and ArchaeologyScientists have reconstructed the face of a prehistoric human who lived about 16,000 years ago, using a well-preserved skull found in a cave in southern China. The project gives a rare glimpse into what people in the region may have looked like in the past.
The discovery was made at Yahuai Cave, located on a hill in Bolang Village, Longan County, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Key to understanding early human life
Archaeologists excavated the site between 2015 and 2018 and uncovered what experts say is the only complete human skull from that time ever found in the region.

“The study of the skull fossil from the Yahuai Cave site is helpful in developing our understanding of the physical characteristics of early humans in south China, and is of great importance to questions such as how the prehistoric humans there migrated and spread,” said Xie Guangmao, a researcher with the Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology.

Xie said the fossil holds significant value. It allows researchers to study burial customs and track how people moved and interacted across the region during the late Stone Age.
China-UK team uses 3D technology
A research team from China and the United Kingdom collaborated to reconstruct the face in 2023. The team included experts from Guangxi Normal University, Beijing Normal University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the U.K.
The group used 3D modeling software to rebuild the face and examine the skull’s shape. According to their study, the ancient skull was larger than modern female skulls but smaller than male skulls.

Its features included a high forehead, soft facial lines, narrow eyes, a flat nose, and full lips. Researchers say the shape closely matches a modern female skull, though with some differences.
The findings were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Experts believe this research could help future studies about how early humans looked and how facial features gradually changed in East Asia.
A crossroads of human movement
Guangxi, located between East and Southeast Asia, has long been a key region for human movement. Scientists say the skull from Yahuai Cave could help answer questions about early migration and cultural exchange in the area.
This is not the first digital facial reconstruction in China. In a similar project last year, researchers in northeast China recreated the face of a man from the Hongshan culture, dating back more than 5,000 years.
Images released by the Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology show the final reconstructed face and the step-by-step process used to rebuild it.

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AI Tool Launched to Connect Scientists with 250 Million Research Articles

Reading Time: 2 minutesIn a significant step forward for open science, DeSci Labs has unveiled an AI-driven article matcher on its DeSci Publish platform, designed to assist scientists in navigating a vast repository of over 250 million articles. Launched by the Switzerland-based start-up, this innovative tool aims to streamline the research process for both authors and readers, fostering deeper connections within the global scientific community.The article matcher, powered by artificial intelligence, draws from the extensive Open Alex database to deliver highly relevant research matches. For authors, it offers a practical solution to refine their publication strategies. By identifying closely related studies, researchers can gain a clearer understanding of existing literature, pinpoint journals that have recently published similar work, and even discover potential peer reviewers for their submissions. This functionality promises to save time and enhance the precision of the publishing process.For readers, the tool provides an equally compelling benefit. Each time a paper is viewed on DeSci Publish, the matcher displays five closely related articles published within the past five years. Remarkably, this feature extends to older works as well, such as studies from the 1960s, enabling users to trace the evolution of a topic from foundational classics to cutting-edge advancements. This “time jump” capability enriches the reading experience, offering a seamless way to explore scientific progress across decades.Professor Philipp Koellinger, CEO and co-founder of DeSci Labs, highlighted the tool’s unique value. “DeSci Publish’s new AI article matcher opens up a new way to discover the scientific literature. Existing search engines require you to know what you’re looking for, like a paper title, but they do not show you closely related work. But what if you just want to browse and learn more about a topic? For that, you would typically look at the references of a paper you found interesting,” he explained. “However, that only reveals related publications that the authors were aware of when they wrote the paper. Our AI article matcher fills a gap by immediately showing you five closely related papers published in the past five years. You can just click on them and keep reading and discovering.”Founded in July 2021, DeSci Labs emerged with a mission to tackle the replication crisis in science by rethinking the fundamentals of scientific publishing. The organisation seeks to make research more accessible, innovative, and reliable through improved incentives, workflows, and infrastructure. DeSci Publish, its flagship platform, offers open-access publishing where research is not only shared but also validated and curated. The AI article matcher complements this vision by providing users with matching articles, novelty scores, and other AI-driven analytics.The tool’s launch has been met with enthusiasm from the scientific community, particularly for its potential to bridge gaps in research discovery.  Key features of the AI article matcher include: Comprehensive coverage. It scans over 250 million articles, ensuring a broad and diverse pool of research.Author support. Researchers can refine publication strategies and identify reviewers with ease.Reader enrichment. The ability to connect classic studies with recent papers enhances contextual understanding.Accessibility. The tool is free to use, aligning with DeSci Labs’ commitment to open science.DeSci Labs’ broader mission underscores the importance of this development. By providing technology that simplifies the packaging and sharing of research, the organisation aims to elevate the quality of scientific practice. The AI matcher is a testament to its goal of fostering a fairer, more transparent research ecosystem where the best practices are recognised and rewarded.

Scientists Pioneer New Way To Transform Toxic “Forever Chemicals” Into Valuable Material

Over the last few years, there have been increasingly worrying reports about the toxic impacts so called “forever” chemicals are having on our health and the wider environment. It’s hard stuff to swallow, but now there is a little glimmer of light in this worrying story. Researchers have developed a solution that removes these substances from water and then transforms it into valuable graphene.“Forever chemicals” are the common name for per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), which are a group of synthetic compounds that are found in many common household items. Ever since the 1950s, these compounds have been celebrated for their water and stain-resistant properties. As such, they have been used as coatings in countless objects, including pots and pans, clothing, adhesives, food packaging, cooking surfaces, furniture, electrical wiring and even firefighting foams. They are also found in supposedly biodegradable objects, such as paper straws.PFAS have earned their common name from their long-lasting presence in the environment and the bodies of organisms that consume them – essentially, PFAS don’t naturally break down, which means they can linger for centuries after their use. Increasingly, scientists are becoming aware of the dangers these forever chemicals pose to human bodies as they have been linked to various adverse health outcomes, including cancer and immune system disruptions.As you can imagine, the growing awareness of these issues is prompting a greater need to deal with them, but traditional methods of PFAs disposal are costly and energy-intensive. They also usually create secondary pollutants as byproducts. However, researchers at Rice University, Houston, Texas, have developed a new method that overcomes these issues.“Our method doesn’t just destroy these hazardous chemicals; it turns waste into something of value,” James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering explained in a statement.“By upcycling the spent carbon into graphene, we’ve created a process that’s not only environmentally beneficial but also economically viable, helping to offset the costs of remediation.”Tour, graduate student Phelecia Scotland, and colleagues used flash joule heating (FJH) in their innovative approach. They combined granular activated carbon (GAC) saturated with PFAS and mineralizing agents, such as sodium and calcium salts, which they then zapped with a high voltage to produce temperatures of over 3,000 degrees Celsius (5432 Fahrenheit) in less than a second. The intense heat breaks down the stable carbon-fluorine bonds in the forever chemicals, converting them into inert and nontoxic fluoride salts. At the same time, the GAC is upcycled into graphene, a highly valued material used in electronics and construction.According to the researchers, their technique yielded more than 96 percent defluorination efficiency and 99.98 percent removal of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), one of the most common PFAS pollutants.Importantly, tests confirmed that the process produced undetectable amounts of volatile organic fluorides, which are the common harmful byproducts created in traditional PFAS treatments. The reaction also seems to eliminate the secondary wastes associated with traditional disposal methods such as incineration or adding spent carbon to landfills.“This dual-purpose approach is a game changer,” Scotland added. “It transforms waste into a resource while providing a scalable, cost-effective solution to an urgent environmental issue.”The new approach could have significant implications for dealing with toxic forever chemicals, extending beyond the treatment of PFOA and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid – the two most studied PFAS. The technique even works on the most difficult PFAS types – Teflon R. The high temperatures produced by the method could degrade a wide range of these chemicals, offering new solutions to water treatment and waste disposal.In addition, the FJH approach can also be tailored to produce other valuable materials, such as carbon nanotubes and nanodiamonds, adding to its versatility and economic strength.“With its promise of zero net cost, scalability and environmental benefits, our method represents a step forward in the fight against forever chemicals,” Scotland explained. “As concerns over PFAS contamination continue to grow, this breakthrough offers hope for safeguarding water quality and protecting public health worldwide.”The paper is published in Nature Water.

Siemens to acquire Dotmatics in $5.1 billion deal in Life Science portfolio push

Siemens AG said on Wednesday it will acquire U.S.-based Dotmatics for $5.1 billion from private equity firm Insight Partners to strengthen its Life Sciences portfolio. Financing for the deal would be primarily carried by share sales of listed companies, including healthcare subsidiary Siemens Healthineers, its finance chief Ralf Thomas said in a statement.Life Sciences presents a software market opportunity and could expand Siemens’ industrial software total addressable market by $11 billion, the statement added.Last week, the German company closed its second biggest acquisition of engineering software firm Altair for $10.6 billion after selling a $1.5 billion stake in Siemens Healthineers.”By acquiring Dotmatics, we’re strategically strengthening our position in Life Sciences and creating a world-leading AI-powered PLM software portfolio as part of Siemens Xcelerator,” CEO Roland Busch said. Siemens said it expects substantial revenue synergies for medium-term revenue of around $100 million per year, accelerating to over $500 million per year in the long term.Boston, Massachusetts-based Dotmatics is an R&D scientific software company, which is expected to generate more than $300 million in revenue in 2025, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of above 40 per cent.

Scientists Just Found a Hidden Battery Life Killer and the Fix Is Shockingly Simple

Credit: AI-generated illustration/ZME Science.

At first, the battery in your phone or electric car works just fine. It charges, discharges, and recharges with smooth regularity. But after months or years, the battery weakens. The charge doesn’t last. The range shortens. Scientists have long blamed this aging on stress from high voltages, particularly during charging.

Now, a team of scientists in South Korea has identified a silent saboteur within these batteries — and they’ve found a surprisingly simple way to stop it.

Why You Shouldn’t Let Your Phone Discharge to 0%

For years, researchers believed that the surface of a battery’s cathode — a material that stores and releases lithium ions — only degraded at high voltages. During charging, the cathode loses lithium and becomes unstable, leading to a structural collapse and the release of oxygen. This process transforms the material from its original layered structure into a more disordered, rocksalt-like phase. It’s like a brick wall morphing into a pile of gravel.

Credit: POSTECH.

This degradation hinders the flow of lithium ions, gradually choking off the battery’s performance.

But the new study, led by Jihyun Hong at POSTECH and Jongsoon Kim at Sungkyunkwan University, reveals that this structural collapse can also occur in reverse — during discharging, and even when voltages stay below 3.0 volts.

Using a combination of advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, and computer simulations, the researchers studied commercial layered cathode materials like NMC622 and NMC811 (NMC stands for nickel-manganese-cobalt), which are commonly used in electric vehicles. They cycled these materials in half- and full-cell configurations while varying the discharge cut-off voltage — the lowest voltage the battery is allowed to reach before charging again.

Surprisingly, the lower the discharge voltage, the faster the battery degraded. And the damage was most severe at the surface of the cathode particles.

“Lowering the discharge cut-off voltage resulted in more severe capacity loss although the capacity accessible . . . is negligibly low,” the researchers note.

From bench to bread: how science can enhance your hobbies

When Chantle Swichkow hops on a Zoom call, it’s unclear whether she’s logging in from the laboratory or her home. She is in her kitchen, but there are clear markings of a scientist at work. A microscope is on the counter to her left, atop a stack of thick textbooks. A large whiteboard dominates the background, documenting more than a dozen fermentation projects alongside their status and potential next steps. “I also have a whole little set-up over here with some sauces and some vinegars,” she says, motioning off camera. Her at-home experiments run the gamut of fermentation consumables. She bakes bread, crafts kombucha and concocts kimchi. She has also dabbled in making miso from a type of tortilla chip, and in creating her own peach rings from fermented fruits.Like many people, Swichkow’s passion for home-based fermentation experiments started during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, she was doing her PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), studying the genetics of metabolic diseases in mice.“I was so used to getting up every day and going and doing experiments in the lab. When the world shut down, it was like, I don’t know what to do with myself,” says Swichkow, who describes herself as a fermented-food scientist in her profile on the networking site LinkedIn. “I ended up throwing all of my experimental angst into a sourdough starter that my husband had given me,” she says.She became so intrigued by the genetic variation in yeast that her postdoctoral studies at UCLA, which ended last December, focused on the genetic architecture of yeast–bacteria interactions in fermented environments. She would conduct research in the lab, but also use her expertise — and sometimes the yeast — to conduct her own experiments at home as part of a hobby that continued beyond the lockdowns.“One of my favourite projects now is my own personal sourdough starter that I call the Frankenstarter,” she says. “I brought a handful or so of different sourdoughs that I collected, some from a bakery, some from industrial contexts, into my postdoc lab, but I had some left over, and I ended up just combining them all together.” (Swichkow notes that she wouldn’t usually eat the experiments that come out of the lab.)Chantelle Swichkow has experimented with making miso with Takis, a type of tortilla chip.Credit: Chantle SwichkowBringing work home is not always about making delicious food, nor is it possible for all scientific disciplines. Virologists can’t bring their specimens back in their briefcases, and chemists can’t play around with hazardous chemicals at home. But for scientists in certain fields, there are ways for scientific knowledge to influence — and enhance — hobbies.Carrying over to the kitchenIn labs, researchers follow the scientific method: questioning the world, making hypotheses and testing them accordingly. Swichkow applies a similar framework in the kitchen.“It’s about knowing what the question is,” she explains. “Sometimes it’s ‘can I make vinegar from this leftover bottle of wine?’ and if I do, ‘what will it taste like?’”Yvonne Henskens, a biochemist who specializes in haemostasis at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, also sees overlap between her lab work and at-home cooking projects. She follows project-management processes with her home ‘experiments’ producing sourdough, cheese and yogurt. Her lab focus is on developing blood tests. But she says that the project-management process is identical. “So I say, on this day I have to do this. On this day, I have to do that. And then I have a checklist.”These lab and home checklists can resemble each other, because both processes involve exploration, documentation and testing. In the first step, she brainstorms new reagents (or ingredients, if she’s cooking), followed by a literature review. In the lab that means researching the history of the tests or the reagents, and in the kitchen it means reading recipes. Then she tests the variables, such as time or temperature. Finally, it’s presentation time, either in the clinic or at the dinner table.Swichkow describes a similar process. “I label things in the same way I would label cultures in the lab,” she explains. “I even got myself a whole set of laboratory tape and pens because I really just like that process,” she says. “I keep meticulous notes because, for me, it’s about reproducibility.”But flexibility is also key. According to Henskens, a protocol is important but, in some circumstances, it can be amended. “I want people to understand what they are doing, follow the protocol, but also divert if it’s needed,” she says. In certain situations, such as encountering a strange result, the lab technician might decide to run an extra control, to calibrate an instrument or to use extra reagents, she adds.“It’s the same with recipes,” she says. “You really have to taste and then have the capability of changing it.” Take lemon juice or red peppers, which will never taste the same each time. “Knowledge of ingredients and their variation, their properties in different cooking techniques makes it possible to deviate from recipes.”An alternative outlet for scienceJacob Brejcha also credits his cooking skills to science. Transitioning from a bachelor’s degree in chemistry to a master’s in chemical engineering in 2021 meant the time he spent in the lab shrunk. But he channelled his passion for hands-on experimentation into cooking, finding an outlet for skills such as patience and precision, which he’d honed as an undergraduate at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.“A lot of those reactions take a long time, so if you mess something up, you’re probably not going to finish your lab work,” says Brejcha, who now works as a licensing associate at Purdue Research Foundation, a non-profit institute that promotes entrepreneurship and helps researchers to secure patents. “Sometimes these baking projects take multiple hours, so it’s important to really be a stickler for getting the measurements right.” Other aspects of the scientific method also creep into his cooking — isolating variables and taking stock of what went wrong to improve the next meal.A scientific background doesn’t just enhance hobbies in the home — gardens are also a place in which expertise can shine. Conservation biologist Shaun McCoshum at engineering and surveying firm Westwood Professional Services in Odessa, Texas, has been applying a conservation-science approach to gardening.“Conservation is trying to rebalance nature and let things be messy in a way to support wildlife and help these natural systems continue, and clean up the messes that we’ve made, either from invasive species, pollution or overall habitat destruction,” he explains.In his garden, he tries to find ways for native species, such as toads, to thrive. And like Brejcha, he uses the scientific method. “I’ve got gradients of sandy soils in different pockets, but they all have the same Sun exposure, and they all have the same kind of vegetation cover,” he explains. “I’m trying to control as many variables as possible to see which soils are going to support which species.”Shaun McCoshum collected and weighed monarch butterflies before releasing them as part of his at-home scientific approach to gardening.Credit: Shaun McCoshumScientific knowledge and skills can also enhance other hobbies that take place outside the home. Rosalie Phillips, a mechanical engineer at medical-equipment company Agiliti in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, spends most of her days prototyping health tools, a role that requires both a computer and physical engineering work. But over the past few years, she has been leaning into hands-on projects outside work, exploring the world of glass neon. It’s meant to be a creative outlet, but she is applying what she’s learnt throughout her education and career.“One of the biggest things that I take from my day-to-day is the practical spatial understanding,” she explains. The complex glass tubing that holds the neon in place often needs to be delicately and deliberately shaped. “You can rarely bend them in precise order,” says Phillips. “You have to plan five steps ahead to make sure that nothing conflicts with itself.”Similarly, she says, engineers learn to be meticulous with their projects because if they mess something up, they have to spend several hours getting back to the point at which they can try again. “The desire to make sure you’re measuring everything and setting everything up so that when you do it, you’re setting yourself up for success, is definitely learned from mechanical engineering,” she says.

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Scientists’ warning after making disturbing discovery at the deepest point of the Mediterranean Sea

Scientists have issued a dark warning after making a disturbing discovery in the depths of the ocean.An international team of researchers headed down to the deepest point of the Mediterranean Sea, known as the Calypso Deep, around 3.2 miles below the surface.As shared by the University of Barcelona, a whopping 167 objects were found at the bottom of the Calypso Deep, mainly made up of plastics, glass, metal and paper.Published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, the findings make up one of the highest concentrations of marine litter ever detected at such great depths.The scientists used the Limiting Factor, a high-tech manned submarine, to reach the bottom and to take images that prove litter can reach even the deepest and most remote points of the Mediterranean, making for a stark wake up call over the environment.A ‘litter hotspot’ over the floor of the Calypso Deep (Marine Pollution Bulletin)According to the report, 148 of the items are marine debris while the rest is thought to be of human origin.“We have also found evidence of the boats’ dumping of bags full of rubbish, as revealed by the pile-up of different types of waste followed by an almost rectilinear furrow,” said Miquel Canals, professor at the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics and director of the UB Chair on Sustainable Blue Economy.He then went on to warn: “Unfortunately, as far as the Mediterranean is concerned, it would not be wrong to say that ‘not a single inch of it is clean’.”READ MORE:DEEP SEA SCIENTISTS MAKE HUGE DISCOVERY AT BOTTOM OF PACIFICDIVERS SHOCKED AFTER HEARING INSANE SOUND AT BOTTOM OF SEAAccessing the deepest of sea basins like the Calypso Deep is a ‘huge challenge’ and therefore means it is extremely difficult for litter like this to be cleared up.So, the focus is on the need to implement ‘global policy actions to reduce ocean waste’ as well as to encourage changes in ‘consumption habits and waste reduction’.The Mediterranean is particularly affected by this environmental problem, with a previous study finding the Strait of Messina to have the highest known density of marine litter in the world.Items found by the sub (Marine Pollution Bulletin)The experts therefore hope their research will ‘shake up global efforts’.“And in particular in the Mediterranean, to mitigate waste dumping, especially plastics, in the natural environment and ultimately in the sea,” Canals added.Unlike the likes of beaches or the popular coastlines, the professor says that the ‘ocean floor is still largely unknown to society as a whole’ and this makes it ‘difficult to raise social and political awareness about the conservation of these spaces’.“It is necessary to make a joint effort between scientists, communicators, journalists, the media, influencers and other people with social impact. The problem is there, and it has an enormous scope, even if it is not directly visible. We should not forget about it,” Canals warned.

Scientists plan an even bigger atom smasher for physics research

GENEVA — Top minds at the world’s largest atom smasher have released a blueprint for a much bigger successor that could vastly improve research into the remaining enigmas of physics.
The plans for the Future Circular Collider — a nearly 91-kilometer (56.5-mile) loop along the French-Swiss border and below Lake Geneva — published late Monday put the finishing details on a project roughly a decade in the making at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
The FCC would carry out high-precision experiments in the mid-2040s to study “known physics” in greater detail, then enter a second phase — planned for 2070 — that would conduct high-energy collisions of protons and heavy ions that would “open the door to the unknown,” said Giorgio Chiarelli, a research director at Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics.
“History of physics tells that when there is more data, the human ingenuity is able to extract more information than originally expected,” Chiarelli, who was not involved in the plans, said in an e-mail.
For roughly a decade, top minds at CERN have been making plans for a successor to the Large Hadron Collider, a network of magnets that accelerate particles through a 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground tunnel and slam them together at velocities approaching the speed of light.
The blueprint lays out the proposed path, environmental impact, scientific ambitions and project cost. Independent experts will take a look before CERN’s two dozen member countries — all European except for Israel — decide in 2028 whether to go forward, starting in the mid-2040s at a cost of some 14 billion Swiss francs (about $16 billion).
CERN officials tout the promise of scientific discoveries that could drive innovation in fields like cryogenics, superconducting magnets and vacuum technologies that could benefit humankind.
Outside experts point to the promise of learning more about the Higgs boson, the elusive particle that has been controversially dubbed “the God particle,” which helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang.
Work at the Large Hadron Collider confirmed in 2013 the existence of the Higgs boson, the central piece in a puzzle known as the standard model that helps explains some fundamental forces in the universe.
CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti said the future collider “could become the most extraordinary instrument ever built by humanity to study the constituents and the laws of nature at the most fundamental levels in two ways,” by improving study of the Higgs boson and paving the way to “explore the energy frontier,” and by looking for new physics that explain the structure and evolution of the universe.
One unknown is whether the Trump administration, which has been cutting foreign aid and spending in academia and research, will continue to support CERN a year after the Biden administration pledged U.S. support for the study and collaboration on the FCC’s construction and “physics exploitation” if it’s approved.
The United States is home to 2,000 users of CERN, making them the single largest national contingent among the 17,000 people working there, including outside experts abroad and staff on site, Gianotti said.
While an observer state and not a member, the U.S. doesn’t pay into the CERN regular budget but has contributed to specific projects. Most of the CERN regular budget comes from Europe.
Costas Fountas, the CERN Council president, said he had spoken with some U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Energy staff who relayed the message that so far “they’re ‘under the radar of the cuts of the Trump administration’. That’s their words.”
CERN scientists, engineers and partners behind the plans considered at least 100 scenarios for the new collider before coming up with the proposed 91-kilometer circumference at an average depth of 200 meters (656 feet). The tunnel would be about 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter, CERN said.

Unusual mars rock ‘like nothing else seen’ baffles scientists

NASA’s Perseverance rover has captured images of a highly unusual rock – one that seems highly out of place in comparison to the surrounding Martin dust.The rock consists of hundreds of tiny brown blobs, spherical in nature, and has left the team behind the missions both confused and intrigued by its origin.The planet has a rich volcanic history, dating back over 4.5 billion years. It was once covered with thousands of volcanoes which saw ‘super eruptions’, which NASA says is the most powerful type of volcanic blast there is.Images of ‘Araneiforms’ were recently published by the space agency, which are dark cracks in the soil unlike anything on Earth.However, despite these recent advancements in martian discovery, scientists are unable to fully explain what caused the strange texture of the rock discovered this month, saying that they are unsure what ‘quirk of geology’’ could’ve led to such unique formations. One theory is that they could be ‘frothy lava’ that rapidly cooled, put forward by Dr Matthew Chojnacki, a planetary geologist at the Planetary Science Institute.‘But it’s hard to tell without chemistry or mineralogy, especially given it’s a float rock (a piece of rock that is not part of the bedrock),’ he told MailOnline. Another planetary geologist, Dr Joel Davis, hypothesises that they could’ve been formed by water circulating through the ground billions of years ago.Speaking to MailOnline, he said that ‘This was potentially when conditions were too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface’.The rock itself is made up of spherical pebbles (known as spherules), ranging from 0.01mm-4mm in diameter. Most of these spherules are fully globular, but some are more angular in nature. Some also have mysterious tiny holes in them.The discovery comes after several other spherical objects were found on the surface of the red planet over the past twenty years.The Opportunity Rover spotted ‘Martian Blueberries’ near the equator in 2004, which were identified as small and marble-like meteorite remnants.The Curiosity rover spotted more spherules in the rocks of Yellowknife Bay in Gale crater 8 years later.

1,900+ Scientists Write Letter In ‘SOS’ Over Trump’s Attacks On Science

“Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine warned Americans of ‘real danger in this moment’””More than 1,900 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine signed an open letter warning Americans about the “danger” of the Trump administration’s attacks on science.

The letter comes amid the administration’s relentless assault on US scientific institutions which has included threats to private universities, federal grant cancelations and ideological funding reviews, mass government layoffs, resignations and censorship.

“We see real danger in this moment,” the letter states. “We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.”

The National Academies of Sciences was established by an act of Congress in 1863, during Abraham Lincoln’s administration.”

Jessica Glenza reports for the Guardian March 31, 2025.