— 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.
— 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.
— 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.
— In nine states, most of the illnesses have been traced to shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from Taylor Farms de Mexico.
— 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?"
— 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.
— For now, the oldest verified person in recorded history remains France's Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years and 164 days.
— 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.
— 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?
— "Of course, the Academy has been run by Radical Left Dumocrats who, it turns out, published fraudulent, biased, and misleading Manuals on Climate Change."
— 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.
— 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.
— Its unusual chemistry suggests that planet-cooling dust and debris, rather than sulfur inside the asteroid, may have delivered the deadliest blow.
— 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."
— 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.
— 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.