More than a century after Ernest Rutherford discovered the positively charged particle at the heart of every atom, physicists are still struggling to fully understand the proton.

High school physics teachers describe them as featureless balls with one unit each of positive electric charge — the perfect foils for the negatively charged electrons that buzz around them. College students learn that the ball is actually a bundle of three elementary particles called quarks. But decades of research have revealed a deeper truth, one that’s too bizarre to fully capture with words or images.

“This is the most complicated thing that you could possibly imagine,” said Mike Williams, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “In fact, you can’t even imagine how complicated it is.”

Galápagos penguins are all about working smarter, not harder. For generations, they've taught their young to watch pelicans diving for food, so they can sweep in at the last second for an easy meal.

With our "Eyes on the Solar System" site, you can track the location of the planets and moons—and over 160 NASA spacecraft—in real time, using actual NASA data, right from your desktop or phone. eyes.nasa.gov

Try "Eyes on Asteroids" and "Eyes on the Earth," too
eyes.nasa.gov/apps/asteroids…
eyes.nasa.gov/apps/earth/

The average adult human body contains 206 bones—the hardened mixtures of calcium, minerals, and collagen that provide the biological scaffolding that walks us through our day. While we may not think of them much, bones are incredibly resilient. But if they do break, they have this nifty trick of regrowing themselves.

Teeth, however, are not bones. Although they’re made of some of the same stuff and are the hardest material in the human body (thanks to its protective layer of enamel), they lack the crucial ability to heal and regrow themselves. But that may not always be the case. Japanese researchers are moving forward with an experimental drug that promises to regrow human teeth. Human trials began in September 2024.

Rogue planets — worlds that drift through space alone without a star — largely remain a mystery to scientists. Now, astronomers have for the first time confirmed the existence of one of these starless worlds by pinpointing its distance and mass — a rogue planet roughly the size of Saturn nearly 10,000 light-years from Earth.

Scientists working with China’s fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have reached a long-predicted state known as the “density-free regime,” where fusion plasma remains stable at densities far higher than traditional limits. The achievement marks a significant step toward solving one of fusion energy’s most persistent physical challenges. The findings were published in Science Advances on January 1.

A New High-Density Operating Strategy
The research was co-led by Prof. Ping Zhu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Associate Prof. Ning Yan of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Using a newly developed high-density operating approach on EAST, the team showed that plasma density can be pushed well beyond long-accepted empirical limits without triggering the violent instabilities that typically shut down tokamak experiments.

Nadir ISS views of bright purple lightning flashing through clouds. Overhead observation of storms this large is best done from orbit, where we keep watch for rare spites and blue jets visible from above!

Researchers at Stanford Medicine report that blocking a protein linked to aging can restore cartilage that naturally wears away in the knees of older mice. In the study, the injectable treatment not only rebuilt cartilage but also stopped arthritis from developing after knee injuries similar to ACL tears, which are common among athletes and active adults. A pill-based version of the same therapy is already being tested in clinical trials aimed at treating muscle weakness associated with aging.

Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally.

Together, these findings point to the possibility that cartilage lost through aging or arthritis could one day be restored using a localized injection or an oral medication, potentially eliminating the need for knee or hip replacement surgery.

People and institutions are grappling with the consequences of AI-written text. Teachers want to know whether students’ work reflects their own understanding; consumers want to know whether an advertisement was written by a human or a machine.

Writing rules to govern the use of AI-generated content is relatively easy. Enforcing them depends on something much harder: reliably detecting whether a piece of text was generated by artificial intelligence.

Some studies have investigated whether humans can detect AI-generated text. For example, people who themselves use AI writing tools heavily have been shown to accurately detect AI-written text. A panel of human evaluators can even outperform automated tools in a controlled setting. However, such expertise is not widespread, and individual judgment can be inconsistent. Institutions that need consistency at a large scale therefore turn to automated AI text detectors.

Researchers from the Synaptic Physiology laboratory at the Institute for Neurosciences (IN), led by Juan Lerma, have identified a small but influential group of neurons in the amygdala that strongly affect emotional behavior. The Institute for Neurosciences (IN) is jointly run by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche. Their findings show that disrupted activity in these neurons can contribute to anxiety, depression, and altered social behavior.

The study, published in iScience, demonstrates that correcting the balance of neuronal excitability within a specific part of the amygdala is sufficient to reverse these behavioral changes in mice. This result highlights how precise changes in brain activity can have wide effects on emotional regulation.

Every organ in the human body is built around networks of microscopic fibers that quietly guide how tissues work. In muscles, these fibers channel physical force. In the intestines, they support movement through the digestive system. In the brain, fiber pathways carry signals that allow different regions to communicate and support thinking and memory. Together, these tiny structures help organs function properly and maintain their shape.

Damage to these fiber networks plays a role in nearly every disease. In the brain, this damage shows up as disrupted connections between neurons, a defining feature of all neurological disorders.

Even though these fibers are central to health and disease, studying them has been difficult. Their small size and complex orientations inside tissues have made them hard to visualize using existing imaging tools.

A Simple Way to Reveal Invisible Microstructure
A research team led by Marios Georgiadis, PhD, instructor of neuroimaging, has now developed a straightforward and affordable technique that brings these hidden fiber structures into view with remarkable precision.

The discovery of Gravitational Waves (GWs) in 2015 confirmed a prediction made by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity and led to a revolution in astronomy. These waves are produced when massive, compact objects (such as black holes and neutron stars) merge, creating ripples in spacetime that can be detected millions of light-years away. A decade later, researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have proposed how GWs could be used to investigate an enduring cosmological mystery - the existence of Dark Matter.

The research comes from UvA's Institute of Physics(IoP) and the Gravitation & Astroparticle Physics Amsterdam (GRAPPA). Their research, which is detailed in a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, introduces an improved way to model how Dark Matter is affected by GWs caused by black hole mergers. By analyzing GWs with next-generation instruments, scientists will be able to discern the presence of this mysterious mass, assuming (of course) that it exists.

The research was led by Rodrigo Vicente, Theophanes K. Karydas, and Gianfranco Bertone from the UvA-IoP and the GRAPPA centre of excellence for Gravitation and Astroparticle Physics Amsterdam. As they describe, their work focused on how black hole binaries or other compact objects (i.e., neutron stars) co-orbit with each other and spiral inward to become much more massive black holes - known as Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs).

🔵 Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA #Webb Space Telescope have found a new moon orbiting Uranus!

🔗esa.int/ESA_Multimedia…

#PPOD: Curiosity Sends Holiday Postcard from #Mars 🌄

Team members working with NASA’s MarsCuriosity created this “postcard” by commanding the rover to take images at two times of day on Nov. 18, 2025, spanning the 4,722nd and 4,723rd Martian days, or sols, of the mission.

The panoramas were captured at 4:15 p.m. on Sol 4,722 and 8:20 a.m. on Sol 4,723 (both at local Mars time), then merged together. Color was later added for an artistic interpretation of the scene, with blue representing the morning panorama and yellow representing the afternoon one. The resulting “postcard” is similar to ones the rover took in June 2023 and November 2021. Adding color to these kinds of merged images helps different details stand out in the landscape.

Credit: NASA NASAJPL Caltech

A few years ago, asteroid mining was all the rage. With the commercial space sector rapidly growing, the dream of commercializing space seemed almost imminent.

Basically, the notion of having platforms and spacecraft that could rendezvous and mine Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), then return them to space-based foundries, was right up there with sending commercial crews to Mars.

After a great deal of speculation and ventures going under, these plans were placed on the back burner until the technology matured and other milestones could be accomplished first.

Related: Are Asteroids Really Worth a Fortune? Here's What We Know.

Nevertheless, the dream of asteroid mining and the "post-scarcity" future it would bring remains. In addition to the need for more infrastructure and technical development, further research is needed to determine the chemical composition of small asteroids.

In a recent study, a team led by researchers from the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) analyzed samples of C-type (carbon-rich) asteroids, which account for 75% of known asteroids. Their findings demonstrate that these asteroids could be a crucial source of raw materials, presenting opportunities for future resource exploitation.

The ancient evolution of fish mouths could help solve a modern source of plastic pollution.

Inspired by these natural filtration systems, scientists in Germany have invented a way to remove 99 percent of plastic particles from water. It's based on how some fish filter-feed to eat microscopic prey.

The research team has already filed a patent in Germany, and in the future, they hope their creation will help curb a ubiquitous form of plastic pollution that many are unaware of.

Every time a load of laundry is done, millions of microplastics are washed from the fibers of our clothes into local waterways.

By some estimates, up to 90 percent of plastic in 'sewage sludge' comes from washing machines. This material is then often used in agriculture as soil or fertilizer, possibly exposing those who eat the resulting crops to these pollutants.

At this stage, it is unclear what microplastics are doing to human health when they invade our bones and organs, but some toxicologists are concerned by their initial findings among animals.

Figuring out a way to capture plastic pollutants before they leave our washing machines is challenging work. Current filtration systems available on the market can easily become clogged.

Researchers at the University of Bonn and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology turned to nature for inspiration. They decided to make a water filtration system that mimics the mouths of some fish, like mackerel, sardines, and anchovies.

These ocean creatures swim through the water with their mouths open to feed on tiny plankton. Over millions of years, they have evolved comb-like structures inside their mouths that capture microscopic prey.

2026 is shaping up to be a spectacular year for lunar exploration, with a growing fleet of commercial missions set to attempt to land on Earth's celestial neighbor.

It will be a huge year for the moon overall. NASA plans to send humans back to the vicinity of the moon with the Artemis 2 mission no earlier than February, while China, in the second half of the year, aims to land at the lunar south pole and seek out water ice with its robotic Chang'e 7 spacecraft. But it's not only national agencies targeting Earth's companion, as commercial companies are also taking aim with a series of robotic landers at what could be the start of a sustained, more market-driven lunar presence for humanity.

Hubble found Cloud Nine! ☁️

This is a "failed galaxy": a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud considered a remnant of early galaxy formation.

Nicknamed “Cloud-9,” this is the first confirmed detection of such an object in the universe: go.nasa.gov/4svSJtm