Science

An ocean world that's teeming with microbes — and who knows what other kinds of life — is currently the best explanation for some chemical signatures that the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted in the atmosphere of a distant planet.

That's according to Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, who called his team's new findings "astounding."

"These are the first hints we are seeing of an alien world that is possibly inhabited," he told reporters in a press briefing. "This is a revolutionary moment."

Astronomers have discovered a major sign of life — and “the first hints… of an alien world” on a distant planet orbiting outside the solar system, according to a new report.

The scientists believe the exoplanet, K2-18b, is a “Hycean planet” — meaning it’s home to an abundance of a life-signifying molecules including one that is only produced on Earth by living organisms such as marine algae, according to a new report.

Harvard University scientists are facing the prospect of laying off staff, euthanizing research animals and bringing yearslong science projects to a halt as a freeze on federal funds looms.

On Monday, after the university rejected government demands to change how it runs and admits students, the Trump administration said it would stop $2.26 billion in funds previously awarded to the school as part of an investigation into how the university dealt with antisemitism.

The Energy Department announced Friday that it is wiping an estimated $405 million from grant funding for colleges and universities, as the Trump administration continues its sweeping overhaul of the United States’ scientific research apparatus.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confronting his first disease outbreak as Health and Human Services secretary. His response to the spread of measles in and beyond Texas has managed to alarm serious scientists while also drawing criticism from his Make America Healthy Again movement.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a stop in Texas on Sunday and visited the family of a 6-year-old girl who died of the measles virus in February.

Kennedy confirmed the visit to Texas in a post on X in which he encouraged people to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine amid rising measles cases.

An endorsement of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has provoked an angry outcry from anti-vaccine activists.

Dire wolves went extinct around 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Weighing around 150 pounds, they were about twice the size of today's gray wolves. Dire wolves roamed both North and South America, preying on ancient horses, camels, sloths, and bison.

Scientists are playing God once again, and although they may have recently achieved something admittedly cool, it’s all but doomed to backfire in the worst possible ways.

Biotech company Colossal Biosciences announced Monday that they have revived an extinct dire wolf species using “meticulously reconstructed” DNA from fossils that date back to 11,500 and 72,000 years. The company is calling the two wolves, aptly named Remus and Romulus in a nod to the myth of ancient Rome’s origins, the world’s first “de-extinct animals.”