Phys.org

Seven billion light-years from Earth, there is an unexpected cluster of galaxies. It has two regions in the process of colliding with each other with a combined mass of more than two quadrillion solar masses. Given its mass, the distant cluster has been nicknamed El Gordo, the Fat One. What makes it unusual is that it's extraordinarily large for that period of the universe. How did such a large supercluster form so early?

A protein complex known as DREAM that normally puts the brakes on genes may also be crucial for reproduction in plants, according to new research published in Science Advances.

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1827, located roughly 37 million light-years away in the constellation Columba, the Dove. Hubble captured the image as part of a survey looking at 260 satellite galaxies around 22 Milky Way–like host galaxies within a radius of about 32 million light-years from Earth. Hubble has already observed 111 of these satellite galaxies. The remaining galaxies will take an additional 149 Hubble orbits, one orbit for each galaxy, to observe.

The writer Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term "tipping points" to refer to the moment when a trend or social behavior crosses a threshold and rapidly spreads everywhere. In physics, tipping points occur when systems—say, Earth's climate—reach an unstable point and topple over into a sea of change that is sometimes irreversible. Examples include global warming or the melting of polar ice caps.

Changes in our genes affect health risks from heart disease to cancer, but how those genes are turned on and off is just as crucial to health. What's more, almost all genes occur as two copies—one from each parent—that aren't necessarily turned on and off in sync. When that differential gene regulation goes awry, it can cause serious health problems.

Wetland reclamation has long been regarded as a strategy to meet growing food demand, given the favorable soil and water conditions of wetlands. However, the trade-off between potentially greater crop production and the ecological cost of lost wetlands—especially involving flood regulation—has not been well understood.

A research team has found that molten rock can carry more oxygen than its chemical composition would seem to allow. Their study is published in National Science Review.

Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering mustard plant used worldwide as the primary genetic model in plant biology, was long believed incapable of forming relationships with underground fungal networks. New research published in Current Biology led by professor Katie Field demonstrates for the first time that it can establish a fully functional, resource-sharing partnership with an ancient soil fungus known as a Mucoromycotina fine root endophyte (MFRE).

Wind does more than sway trees. It also plays an important role in determining an ecosystem's water-use efficiency—defined as the amount of carbon an ecosystem absorbs per unit of water lost. Water-use efficiency is an important measure of how ecosystems balance growth and water availability.

A phenomenon rarer than a solar eclipse and more powerful than any single storm system is unfolding this fall, and NASA is tracking it closely.

If you need to participate in video meetings for work, you've probably experienced more than one disruption, whether it's kids darting around or home renovation noise.

Proteases are naturally occurring enzymes that break down proteins into peptides and even single amino acids. They are useful in medicine and industrial processes, where they clean tissue, digest waste and help in the manufacture of everyday products. Now scientists have used artificial intelligence to design new versions from scratch.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a "flying" car, equipped with thrusters, during a livestreamed event at his SpaceX rocket company's facility on Thursday.

Wastewater reclamation is increasingly regarded as an alternative water source to mitigate water scarcity in China. However, expanding wastewater treatment capacity alone may not be enough to ease this scarcity, since wastewater supply, treatment facilities and reuse demand are not always geographically aligned.

Penicillin has cured syphilis cases since 1943, but symptoms of the sexually transmitted infection, known as "the great imitator," mimic many other diseases and can come and go without treatment while the infection keeps causing harm. If it remains undetected, it can spread to partners and to babies during pregnancy, causing lifelong effects.

The year 2026 has been an expensive one for social media platforms. Since March, YouTube and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, have settled or paid out in multiple lawsuits totaling more than $17 billion for allegedly acting negligently, deliberately designing their platforms to hook kids and misleading the public about safety and privacy. If these suits are any indication of how states and the public are starting to view social media platforms, more may follow.

To build faster and more energy-efficient computers, researchers need to understand nanoscale magnetic materials. But looking inside these tiny magnets is surprisingly difficult: Modern microscopes only measure the magnetic field outside the material, not the magnetic pattern inside. Because many different internal patterns can produce the exact same field, working backwards has long been a challenge.

A study led by the Centre for Global Wood Security formally defines the concept of global wood security and identifies the 20 greatest challenges to wood security in the 21st century.

As an embryo develops from a small cluster of stem cells, those once "blank slate" cells begin to take on more specialized roles like brain, liver or muscle cells and organize themselves into three-dimensional structures such as tissues and organs.

Young people who experience bullying because of their weight feel that their schools do not take the problem seriously enough. In some cases, they change their own behavior to avoid harassment, according to a new study from Lund University.