Something’s up with raccoons. Scientists have recently reported that those living in US cities have evolved much shorter snouts than their rural counterparts, a sure sign that urban “trash pandas” have self-domesticated in response to human presence.

Biologists from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock studied thousands of images of North American raccoons (Procyon lotor) captured in the US between 2000 and 2024. Using computer software, they analyzed the skull and snout size of the animals, comparing those living in cities to those in rural settings. 

“I wanted to know if living in a city environment would kickstart domestication processes in animals that are currently not domesticated,” Dr Raffaela Lesch, lead study author and an assistant professor of biology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said in a statement. “Would raccoons be on the pathway to domestication just by hanging out in close proximity to humans?”

Their work revealed that the urban-dwelling raccoons had a 3.56 percent reduction in snout length, suggesting they were experiencing a phenomenon known as domestication syndrome.

Domestication syndrome is a collection of traits that emerge when animals adapt to living closely with humans. Decreased aggression is a prime feature, but it also includes attributes like floppier ears, more varied fur patterns, smaller teeth, smaller brains, and shorter muzzles.

The most obvious example can be seen in the differences between domestic dogs and their wild canine cousins, like wolves and foxes, but domestication syndrome is also evident in cats, horses, cattle, pigs, and other animals that have a tight relationship with humans.

#PPOD: The Eye of the Crater 👁️

A vast cavity on the Red Planet looks back at ESA TGO with an icy stare. The crater is located in Utopia Planitia, the largest known impact basin in the Solar System, with a diameter of roughly 3,300 km, or twice the size of Earth’s Sahara Desert from north to south.

This remnant of an ancient impact is just one of the many scars asteroids have inflicted upon the Red Planet. Water, volcanoes, and impacts from asteroids shaped the Martian surface in the ancient past. Mars is currently a cold, dry desert.

This view from CaSSIS shows a crater approximately eight kilometres in diameter with material ejected in a manner that scientists believe suggests the presence of water ice. When the asteroid hit this region of Mars, the water ice melted, and a mix of liquid water and dust rock was propelled from the top layers.

The smooth appearance of the crater is consistent with other features in the region, which have evidence of a water-ice history. Zooming into the crater, it is possible to see streaks on the walls of the crater, showing evidence of landslides, and ripples sculpted by the wind.

Credit: ESA/ TGO/CaSSIS

Protecting astronauts and their equipment once they leave Earth’s magnetic cocoon is one of the central challenges of sustained lunar and Martian exploration.

The lunar surface in particular is an unforgiving place: without an atmosphere or magnetosphere, it is continuously bombarded by powerful solar and cosmic radiation, and endures some of the most intense temperature swings in the Solar System—from blistering highs of about 121 °C in sunlight to frigid lows near –146 °C in darkness.

In permanently shadowed polar regions, temperatures can plummet to around –240 °C. On top of that, a steady rain of micrometeorites erodes and sandblasts the surface. Any long-term human presence must therefore find shelter from radiation, thermal stress, and hypervelocity dust impacts rather than try to withstand them directly on the surface.

Ancient volcanic activity on the Moon and Mars has left behind lava tubes that are now seen as promising locations for future base camps, offering natural protection beneath the surface. Skylights, collapsed sections of tube ceilings, and long sinuous rilles identified in orbital imagery hint at extensive subsurface voids, but images alone cannot reveal which tubes are intact or suitable for habitats, making direct robotic exploration essential despite the harsh conditions and restricted access.

For many years, scientists studying evolution have believed that most genetic changes influencing how genes and proteins evolve are essentially neutral. These mutations were thought to be neither harmful nor helpful, allowing them to pass through natural selection without much notice.

A new study from the University of Michigan challenges this long-held view.

As species evolve, mutations arise and sometimes become fixed, meaning every member of a population eventually carries the same change. The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution argues that most fixed mutations fall into this neutral category. Harmful mutations are expected to be removed by natural selection, and beneficial ones are considered so uncommon that neutral changes should dominate, explains evolutionary biologist Jianzhi Zhang.

Zhang and his team set out to test this assumption. Their analysis revealed that beneficial mutations appear far more often than the Neutral Theory allows. At the same time, the actual rate at which mutations become fixed is much too low to match the high number of advantageous changes the researchers documented.

Environmental Shifts and the Fate of Mutations
To explain the mismatch in their results, the researchers propose that a mutation that helps an organism in one setting can become harmful when conditions shift. Because environments often change, these useful mutations may disappear before they have time to become fixed in a population. The work, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, appears in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

“We’re saying that the outcome was neutral, but the process was not neutral,” said Zhang, U-M professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. “Our model suggests that natural populations are not truly adapted to their environments because environments change very quickly, and populations are always chasing the environment.”

Zhang says their new theory, called Adaptive Tracking with Antagonistic Pleiotropy, tells us something about how well all living things are adapted to their environments.

“I think this has broad implications. For example, humans. Our environment has changed so much, and our genes may not be the best for today’s environment because we went through a lot of other different environments. Some mutations may be beneficial in our old environments, but are mismatched to today,” Zhang said. 

“At any time when you observe a natural population, depending on when the last time the environment had a big change, the population may be very poorly adapted or it may be relatively well adapted. But we’re probably never going to see any population that is fully adapted to its environment, because a full adaptation would take longer than almost any natural environment can remain constant.”

The benefits of quitting are significant, especially in the first decade, but some excess risk remains for decades. Cutting back helps far less than quitting fully.

Low-Intensity Smoking Still Raises Major Cardiovascular Risks
An extensive review of nearly two dozen long-term studies shows that people who smoke only a small number of cigarettes still face a much higher likelihood of heart disease and early death compared to those who have never smoked. This elevated risk persists long after quitting. Michael Blaha of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, USA, and his colleagues published these results today (November 18th) in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.

Scientists have long known that smoking contributes to cardiovascular disease, but the connection between the number of cigarettes someone smokes and their specific level of risk has been less clear, particularly for people who smoke lightly. As smoking habits shift and more individuals consume fewer cigarettes than in the past, gaining a clearer understanding of their long-term heart risks and the benefits of quitting remains essential, even for those who do not come close to a pack a day.

Large Multi-Study Analysis Tracks Smoking’s Long-Term Impact
Blaha’s research team examined health data from more than 300,000 participants across 22 longitudinal studies (which follow people over extended periods) for as long as 19.9 years. During that time, the studies recorded over 125,000 deaths and 54,000 cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure.

Their analysis found that smoking as few as two to five cigarettes per day was linked to a 50 percent higher risk of heart failure and a 60 percent higher risk of death from any cause compared with never smoking. The chance of experiencing a cardiovascular event decreased most noticeably in the first 10 years after quitting and continued to decline the longer someone remained smoke-free. Even so, former smokers still showed higher risks than people who never smoked, sometimes lasting up to 30 years after quitting.

Ready to shift your world view? 🌎🌍🌏

👉🏽Explore our planet as you never have before: hubs.li/Q03TS82l0

• A major new three-paper Series in The Lancet shows that ultra-processed foods are pushing aside fresh, minimally processed meals worldwide. The evidence links rising UPF consumption to poorer diet quality and higher risks of chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other long-term illnesses.

• The authors stress that while more research will deepen our understanding, the science already shows enough harm to justify immediate public health action. They argue that waiting for perfect evidence would only allow UPFs to become even more entrenched in global diets.

• The Series emphasizes that improving diets cannot depend on individual willpower alone. Meaningful change requires coordinated policies that limit UPF production, marketing, and availability, while also reducing excess fat, sugar, and salt in the food supply and expanding access to healthy, affordable options.

• The authors describe UPFs as the result of a food system built around corporate profit rather than nutrition or sustainability. They warn that only a united global effort can counter the powerful political strategies used by UPF companies, which remain the biggest obstacle to effective policy reform and healthier diets worldwide.

Global Surge of Ultra-Processed Foods Sparks Urgent Health Warning
The growing presence of UPFs in diets around the world is creating a serious health challenge that, according to a new three paper Series published in The Lancet and written by 43 international specialists, requires coordinated policy efforts and strong advocacy. The Series describes how UPF manufacturers work to boost consumption and block policies designed to protect public health. It also presents a plan for moving toward effective government regulation, greater community engagement, and wider access to healthier and more affordable foods.

Professor Carlos Monteiro, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, explains, “The growing consumption of ultra-processed foods is reshaping diets worldwide, displacing fresh and minimally processed foods and meals. This change in what people eat is fueled by powerful global corporations who generate huge profits by prioritizing ultra-processed products, supported by extensive marketing and political lobbying to stop effective public health policies to support healthy eating.”

Saturn’s rings have disappeared! (Kind of.)

Due to their tilt from the perspective of Earth, the planet's rings have appeared to vanish. But don’t worry – as Saturn continues to rotate, the rings will become visible again. 🪐

The team demonstrated that this magnetic component significantly contributes to the Faraday Effect, even accounting for up to 70% of the rotation in the infrared range. By proving that light can magnetically torque materials, the findings open unexpected pathways for advanced optical and magnetic technologies.

After more than a decade of design, construction, and international collaboration, JUNO has become the world's first next-generation, large-scale, high-precision neutrino detector to begin operation.

Early data show that the detector's key performance indicators fully meet or surpass design expectations, confirming that JUNO is ready to deliver frontier measurements in neutrino physics.

A detailed paper describing the detector performance has been submitted to Chinese Physics C and was posted on the arXiv preprint server. At a press conference, Prof. Wen Liangjian, physics analysis coordinator of the JUNO Collaboration, presented the experiment's first physics results.

Using data collected between August 26 and November 2, 2025—just 59 days of effective data after the start of operation—JUNO has already measured the so-called solar neutrino oscillation parameters, known as θ12 and Δm221, with a factor of 1.6 better precision than all previous experiments combined.

These parameters, originally determined using solar neutrinos, can also be precisely measured by reactor antineutrinos. Earlier results from the two approaches showed a mild 1.5-sigma discrepancy, sometimes called the solar neutrino tension, hinting at possible new physics.

The new JUNO measurement confirmed this difference, which can be proved or disproved by the JUNO experiment only using both solar and reactor neutrinos.

"Achieving such precision within only two months of operation shows that JUNO is performing exactly as designed," said Yifang Wang, JUNO project manager and spokesperson.

"With this level of accuracy, JUNO will soon determine the neutrino mass ordering, test the three-flavor oscillation framework, and search for new physics beyond it."

JUNO is a major international collaboration led by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The project involves more than 700 scientists from 74 institutions across 17 countries and regions.

Check out our GITAI robot in action, autonomously assembling a 5-meter tower for future lunar and Martian habitats!

Building the future, one block at a time. 🏗️ 🌕 Open positions ➡ grnh.se/g9o3tnbr8us

“First light” for NASA’s ESCAPADE mission! 🚀 📸

These images, taken on Nov. 21, 2025, are ESCAPADE’s “first light,” or first images taken from space. Just about a week after launch, one of the two Mars-bound spacecraft took these images as part of the commissioning process, which checks that all the spacecraft’s instruments are functioning as expected.

The images, captured by the spacecraft's onboard VISIONS cameras, were taken about 550,062 miles (885,240 kilometers) from Earth. The view looks along the spacecraft's solar panel and out into space.

The left-side image shows the view from the visible-light sensor, while the right-side image was taken with the infrared sensor, showing which parts of the array are warmer and cooler. At Mars, the visible-light camera will attempt to capture Mars’ auroras, whereas the infrared sensor will capture the changing temperatures on the Martian surface as the Sun rises and sets.

Learn more: go.nasa.gov/4oeAlSc