The Aztec — or Mexica — people oversaw an extensive economic network that involved trade with communities outside of the Mexica Empire, even rivals. By examining more than 700 artifacts from the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan in the largest study of its kind to date, archaeologists writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences highlight the extent of this trade and the influence it had on life and politics in Tenochtitlan, the Mexica Empire’s capital.“This kind of compositiona ...read more

Call it a follow-up question to a beyond-the-grave debate: Albert Einstein theorized that black holes can only grow. Stephen Hawking postulated that they can decay. After a group of scientists published a paper supporting Team Hawking, inquiring minds wanted to know how long before the Universe itself completely fades away.The answer, according to an article in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, is a “1” followed by 78 zeroes and the word “years.” That is much faster tha ...read more

Is there anything more spectacular than a towering lava fountain? Think about what it is: glowing red molten rock being shot into the sky, potentially hundreds or thousands of feet. As ubiquitous and dramatic as lava fountains might be, they are also not well understood to the point where we’re not even sure where they fit in the types of volcanic eruptions.Lava Fountains at Volcanoes"Pele's hair" on a black reflective surface. This curious form of volcanic glass forms when liquid lava is thro ...read more

Ancient snail shells helped archeologists re-evaluate the age of the oldest known wooden weapons collection: a site in Lower Saxony, Germany, famous for its arsenal of hunting equipment, including nine spears, one lance, and six double-pointed sticks. Researchers now say the weapons date back closer to 200,000 years, rather than the 300,000 years to 400,000 years of earlier estimates, according to an article in Science Advances.Neanderthal and Early Man AncestorsThis has important implications t ...read more

The title for World’s Oldest Dog goes to Bluey, the Australian cattle dog, who reportedly lived to the grand old age of 29. However, the average life expectancy for most canines is a relatively meagre 10 to 13 years. So, why is it that the lifespan of a dog is so much lower than that of species like the rhino, which can live up to 50 years?The lifespans of mammals vary dramatically, from species of shrew that don’t make it to their first birthday to the bowhead whale, which celebrates two ce ...read more

Time works differently on the moon – a dilemma that can throw up a few challenges when it comes to timekeeping on the planet’s only natural satellite. It is a problem Congress is seeking to address with the introduction of the Celestial Time Standardization Act (H.R. 2313).Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan of Virginia introduced the bill last year and recently passed the committee stage, receiving unanimous approval from the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology committee in April 2025. If ...read more

From Spanish and Swahili to Finnish and Filipino, over 7,000 languages are spoken across the world today. Humans are unique in that we are the only species known to use language. However, new research suggests we might not be as unusual in this capacity as previously thought.A paper published in Science Advances describes chimpanzees’ ability to create new meanings by combining calls – a technique not so different from how we combine words to produce sentences. This discovery could have majo ...read more

The largest known flood in geological time took anywhere from 2 years to 16 years to fill up the Mediterranean Sea. While it didn’t fill up the area fast, the water was powerful and hit some areas at speeds of 67 miles per hour — unleashing a wall of destruction that dug out canyons, shaped future islands and wiped out more than 95 percent of known marine species at the time.“What makes this event extraordinary is it is the largest flood that we know that ever happened in Earth’s history ...read more

The crisis of fentanyl and other opioids is far from over in the U.S., and a new study stresses that point, finding that the illicit use of these substances is much more prevalent than prior studies suggest. Published today in JAMA Health Forum, the research reveals that 7.5 percent of adults in the U.S. had used illicitly manufactured fentanyl at some point between June 2023 and June 2024 — a percentage that is more than 20 times higher than past reported rates. According to the study authors ...read more

Vultures are often seen as unsightly outcasts in the animal kingdom, yet their dirty work is needed to keep ecosystems healthy. New research has shown that without these underappreciated scavengers, diseases would run rampant throughout the natural world.A study recently published in Ecology and Evolution explains how declining vulture populations could have a devastating impact on the environment. Vultures have already begun to vanish across Europe, Asia, and Africa; now, concerns are also risi ...read more