ScienceDaily

More than 150 years after Darwin’s finches helped reshape biology, Galápagos plants are exposing another evolutionary surprise. Giant daisies repeatedly developed similar heat-tolerant leaf shapes, but each lineage used a different combination of genes. Researchers also found major genetic differences among isolated populations, suggesting new species may be forming right now.

Christof Koch is taking on one of science’s deepest mysteries: how the brain creates conscious experience, or whether it creates it at all. He argues that materialism has yet to solve this “hard problem” and will explore puzzling phenomena such as near-death experiences and terminal lucidity. His work points toward the possibility that consciousness may be woven into reality itself.

A compound in rice bran may help calm an overactive gut by reducing the calcium signals that cause intestinal muscles to contract. Ferulic acid suppressed contractions triggered by several chemical messengers in laboratory experiments. The discovery could eventually support new dietary approaches for diarrhea-related digestive disorders, although it may make constipation worse.

A fossil overlooked for nearly 80 years has revealed a previously unknown crocodile relative that lived 210 million years ago in what is now New Mexico. Named Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa, the jackal-sized predator had a reinforced skull, powerful jaw muscles, and a short snout built for tackling larger prey.

As Mohenjo-daro prospered, the gap between its richest and poorest households actually shrank. Its shared infrastructure, fair trade systems, and lack of powerful royal elites suggest that equality may have helped fuel the ancient city’s success.

Ultrafast X-rays revealed how a molecule converts absorbed light into motion in just trillionths of a second. Individual atoms recorded different stages of the process, opening a powerful new window into light-driven chemistry.

Songbirds appear to have evolved through rare explosions of change separated by long periods of slower development. Many of those bursts lined up with major climate shifts, suggesting that environmental upheaval can reshape life in powerful ways.

Astronomers may have been listening for alien civilizations in only a small slice of the radio spectrum while overlooking a largely unexplored range of higher frequencies. Using archived data from the ALMA telescope in Chile, researchers conducted the observatory’s first SETI survey, searching for narrow signals that could indicate advanced technology. No possible alien transmissions were found, …

Taking a daily multivitamin may help older adults preserve the strength and stamina needed for everyday activities. After three years, users reported better functional health than those taking a placebo, although the preliminary findings still require peer review.

A new cooking method could make French fries crispier in less time while significantly limiting how much oil they absorb. Researchers propose combining microwave heating, which keeps oil out, with conventional frying, which provides the crunch consumers expect.

Sleeping well during a heatwave starts with stopping the home from overheating. Close blinds against strong sunlight, ventilate when the air outside becomes cooler, and avoid using heat-producing appliances during the hottest hours. Moving to a cooler room, choosing light bedding and using fans or ice packs safely can also make hot nights more manageable.

A liquid brushed onto cavities in seconds may spare many young children from pain, infection, and surgery. A major U.S. trial found that silver diamine fluoride stopped decay in more than half of treated baby teeth. The treatment requires no drilling, shots, or sedation, although it does permanently darken the decayed area.

Signals traveling from the gut to the brain may help turn meals into lasting memories. Rats showed stronger memory activity after consuming nutritious foods, but not after drinking sweet liquids with little or no nutritional value. Blocking the vagus nerve erased this effect and made it harder for the animals to remember where food had been located. Over time, diets high in fat and sugar also wea…

Deep beneath submarine volcanoes, Earth may be running a natural “gold kitchen.” By analyzing volcanic glass from the Kermadec island arc north of New Zealand, researchers found that water-rich mantle repeatedly melts beneath subduction zones, gradually concentrating gold in rising magma. The process works because intense melting breaks down sulfur-rich minerals that normally trap gold, releasing…

Europa’s hidden ocean has made the icy moon one of the solar system’s most promising places to search for habitable conditions. Scientists have hoped that water from this deep ocean might rise through cracks and form shallow reservoirs that future spacecraft could more easily study. New simulations suggest that journey is unlikely because turbulent water would rapidly lose heat, form ice crystals…