NuseReal science news: June 2026

June 2026

Coral reefs presumed dead have been found teeming with life (LINK) — 31 July 2026

— The newly documented coral community lies off the coast of Benin, a narrow West African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, sandwiched between Togo and Nigeria. Mesophotic coral gardens are different from those closer to the surface, and this one is made up primarily of soft, fern-like octocorals. The researchers documented at least six different octocoral forms, along with two kinds of black coral – long-lived animals that can create complex underwater habitats. Eight species of fish were recorded sheltering and feeding among the corals.

USA Today: Former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci praised as 'hero' by public health experts after Senate hearing on COVID-19 (LINK) — 31 July 2026

Estonia is leading the world on sustainability: an analysis of 177 countries' green credentials put the US in 19th place and the UK in 3rd: Luxembourg 2nd, Switzerland below 10th, according to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) (LINK) — 29 July 2026

— Bangladesh, India, Laos and Vietnam rounded out the bottom of the list, while China occupied 129th place thanks to its continued reliance on coal for over half its energy requirements.

AI is revealing the hidden intelligence of plants and fungi (LINK) — 29 July 2026

— Plants and fungi sense, decide, and respond through growth, electrical activity, and chemical signaling. Machine learning tools are enabling researchers to study the slow, distributed, high-dimensional processes in plants and fungi — electrophysiological signals, fungal trade networks, chemical communication — that unfold on timescales and spatial scales that are otherwise difficult for us to perceive.

U.S.: Cyclospora outbreak may have peaked in Michigan after lettuce recall in main-hit state: nationwide, there are more than 18,000 confirmed or suspected cases (LINK) — 29 July 2026

— In nine states, most of the illnesses have been traced to shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from Taylor Farms de Mexico.

Rats, mice, and birds excluded from U.S. Federal Animal Welfare Act (LINK) — 29 July 2026

— Psychology Today: "We know from detailed scientific research that they have highly evolved cognitive and emotional capacities, they experience empathy, and rats laugh and like to be tickled. We know that tickling laboratory rats is good for science. What more do we need to show that these are sentient beings with rich and deep emotional lives?"

WHOOP data reveals the science behind Tadej Pogacar's Tour de France dominance: resting heart rate: 42bpm against the 59bpm age-matched member average in 6 of UAE team, and 26 minutes more sleep per night (ground news LINK) — 29 July 2026

Dino World: 10 common myths about dinosaurs that paleontologists have debunked: e.g. the Brontosaurus was a real dinosaur (LINK) — 29 July 2026

— The Brontosaurus never actually existed, and was in fact an incorrectly identified dinosaur created by putting the body of an Apatosaurus together with the head of a Camarasaurus. The mix-up happened during the late 1800s in what became known as the "Bone Wars," a fierce rivalry between competing paleontologists who rushed fossil findings into print without careful verification. More recent research has revived "Brontosaurus" as a potentially valid genus based on new skeletal analysis, though its standing remains debated. Researchers have identified more than 700 species of extinct dinosaurs, but that's probably just a fraction.

Dinosaurs were roasted to death by asteroid dust cloud (LINK limited) — 28 July 2026

Scientists have discovered the oldest age humans can live to even if we beat the aging process: 146-194 years (LINK) — 28 July 2026

— For now, the oldest verified person in recorded history remains France's Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years and 164 days.

Updating Darwin: biologists are returning to discredited Lamarck theory to explain anomalies in evolution (ground news LINK) — 28 July 2026

Industrial poultry farming leads to 100-fold increase in food-poisoning bacteria, study finds (ground news LINK) — 27 July 2026

More workers strike as Ebola cases in Congo near 3,000, including over 1,300 deaths (LINK) — 25 July 2026

Contagious cancer found in North American catfish (LINK limited) — 25 July 2026

Scientists in California and S. Korea turn plastic waste into clean hydrogen fuel (LINK) — 24 July 2026

— SciTechDaily: Currently only 9% of plastic waste is recycled, while 79% goes to landfills and 12% is burned, releasing carbon dioxide. The new method operates at substantially lower temperatures than conventional gasification and stores the carbon as a solid mineral instead of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In a single reactor, the new process treated mixed polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP) without requiring the plastics to be sorted first. The resulting hydrogen exceeded 90% purity.

Current Affairs: free-market fundamentalism has been empirically discredited: frees download (LINK) — 24 July 2026

100-tonne buoy earns world-first wave energy certification (LINK) — 21 July 2026

Scientists may have finally solved the mystery of how and why Hannibal took war elephants across the Alps: it made sense in terms of energy expenditure (LINK) — 21 July 2026

— More than 2,200 years ago Hannibal launched one of recorded history's most daring military campaigns, leading roughly 46,000 soldiers and 37 war elephants across the towering Alps between modern-day France and Italy to invade the Roman Republic. Why [did] the legendary Carthaginian general burden his army with 37 war elephants, each weighing roughly three tons, while attempting one of the most difficult mountain crossings in military history across the notoriously difficult Col de la Traversette?

How sugar substitutes impact brain and body aging: frequent consumption of zero-calorie sweeteners may be associated with metabolic disruption, changes in gut microbiome diversity and faster brain aging (LINK) — 21 July 2026

'Totally DISCREDITED!' Trump orders probe of National Academy of Sciences over 'bogus' climate guidance (LINK) — 20 July 2026

— "Of course, the Academy has been run by Radical Left Dumocrats who, it turns out, published fraudulent, biased, and misleading Manuals on Climate Change."

Gizmodo: Earth's oceans are rapidly losing oxygen. It could destabilize the planet, says 30 June paper in Limnology and Oceanography (LINK) — 20 July 2026

— Globally, the ocean has lost roughly 2% of its dissolved oxygen since the 1950s, and scientists expect it to lose another 1% to 7% by the end of the century.

The secret language of dolphins decoded by researchers revealing complex linguistic structures that challenge our understanding of animal communication (LINK) — 20 July 2026

— One of the most fascinating discoveries in dolphin communication research is the existence of signature whistles. Each dolphin creates its distinctive signature whistle by about one year of age and uses it throughout its lifetime. The development of CHAT (Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry): this underwater computer interface allows humans to produce dolphin-like sounds and potentially establish two-way communication. The CHAT system includes a set of artificial whistles assigned to specific objects like "sargassum" (a type of seaweed) or activities like "play". In a landmark moment, a wild dolphin appeared to mimic the artificial whistle for "sargassum" after researchers used it—potentially the first documented case of interspecies communication using a mutually created, artificial language element.

Team creates better way to teach robots to walk on tricky terrain: Georgia Tech student: "our very efficient training recipe here can actually work for all kinds of terrain and environments" (LINK) — 20 July 2026

American Heart Association reveals the optimal daily cups of coffee for your health: it depends (LINK) — 20 July 2026

Gray whales are dying in the Pacific: reduced food is the likely cause (LINK) — 21 July 2026

Scientists identify the rare meteorite that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago: likely an exceptionally rare CO chondrite from a distant region of the solar system (LINK) — 19 July 2026

— Its unusual chemistry suggests that planet-cooling dust and debris, rather than sulfur inside the asteroid, may have delivered the deadliest blow.

Super El Niño keeps getting even more likely, and it could bring a humanitarian crisis (LINK) — 17 July 2026

— Dynamical models now assign a 90% chance of the 2026-2027 El Niño being an all-time record event, sending temperatures in the Pacific Ocean up to around 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. "A very strong El Niño would substantially shift the odds of damaging weather in many parts of the world, particularly in the Global South — with severe impact on livelihoods."

AI made up a science term — now it's in dozens of papers: a scanning mistake and a translation error created scientific nonsense that AI models learned to repeat: "vegetative electron microscopy": has now appeared in at least 22 different papers. Some have been corrected or retracted. Even El País, one of Spain's leading newspapers, quoted it in a story in 2023 (LINK) — 17 July 2026

Atmosphere found for first time on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star: researchers say that their discovery provides the strongest evidence yet that worlds with conditions similar to Earth could exist beyond our solar system (LINK) — 17 July 2026

— BBC: The planet, called LHS 1140 b, is 48 light-years from Earth orbiting a red star much smaller and cooler than our Sun. More than 6,000 worlds have been discovered orbiting distant stars.

Global Autonomous Vehicle Industry Report: growth of 20.2% by 2023 expected. Emerging industry trend: software-defined vehicles (SDVs), e.g. Hyundai Motor Group's "Pleos" (LINK) — 17 July 2026

DW: Fact check: Claims linking statins to dementia are false (LINK) — 16 July 2026

US-Russian crew arrives at the International Space Station for 8-month mission (LINK) — 14 July 2026

U.S. marine biologist and conservationist Kent Carpenter, 73, shot dead in the Philippines on 12 July: he had planned to retire in September (LINK) — 14 July 2026

Martha Ann Lillard, the last U.S. polio patient who used an iron lung to survive, has died at age 78, after the machine started to break down and they couldn't find anyone to repair it (LINK) — 10 July 2026

EatingWell: we asked 3 dietitians what you should never order at McDonald's — they all said the same thing: skip the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese: 740 calories before adding any sides (LINK) — 10 July 2026

U.S.: Michigan hits nearly 1,000 cases of diarrhoea-causing parasite, as more people are infected across several states (LINK) — 9 July 2026

Cancer cases expected to soar worldwide, WHO report finds: will touch 92% of people globally (LINK) — 8 July 2026

— One person in five will develop cancer, according to WHO estimates, and the disease will touch 92% of people, either through their own diagnosis or that of a close family member. There are an estimated 20.6m cases, and 10m deaths, from cancer every year. Figures are projected to rise to nearly 35m cases by 2050. In richer countries, 85% of those diagnosed with breast or childhood cancers will survive at least five years but the figure drops to less than 30% in poorer countries. In low- and lower-middle income countries, between 9% and 54% of the WHO's top-20 priority cancer drugs are available, compared with between 68% and 94% in high-income countries, the report found. In 23 countries there are no radiation facilities.

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Science News 2026