Frontiers | Science news

Health

Published on 30 Oct 2025

Scientists on ‘urgent’ quest to explain consciousness as AI gathers pace

As AI—and the ethical debate surrounding it—accelerates, scientists argue that understanding consciousness is now more urgent than ever.

Health

Published on 23 Oct 2025

Drug which stops tumors' blood supply could help kids with bone cancer live longer

Children with multi-metastatic Ewing’s sarcoma face very poor survival rates — now an early trial of pazopanib shows promise for helping them live longer, healthier lives

Health

Published on 21 Oct 2025

This is how happy we need to be to have lower chronic disease mortality risk

Researchers used data from 123 countries to identify a ‘happiness threshold’ beyond which nations’ non-communicable disease mortality rate decreases, making happiness a public health resource

Health

Published on 07 Oct 2025

AI and omics unlock personalized drugs and RNA therapies for heart disease

Reducing industrial animal use can help to shrink our carbon footprint and boost health—but doing so means we need nutritious meat alternatives that are also tasty and affordable.

Image credit: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Mond-vergleich.svg

Neuroscience

Published on 20 Oct 2025

Do animals fall for optical illusions? What fish and birds can teach us about perception

Dr Maria Santacà describes how not only how fish and birds perceive their worlds, but also how ecological pressures shape the evolution of perception.

Neuroscience

Published on 07 Oct 2025

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Scientists find that words you’ve been told to recall are better remembered than words with negative emotional connotations — but surprisingly, sleeping doesn’t help.

Neuroscience

Published on 03 Sep 2025

Happy music could help you recover from motion sickness

Listening to joyful music helped study participants with motion sickness recover better than other participants — while sad music helped less than doing nothing.

Vantage point of the Murin-an garden in Kyoto the researchers used for the experiment in summer. Credit: Ueya Kato Zoen.

Neuroscience

Published on 15 May 2025

Seeing well-designed gardens could relax us almost immediately because we look at them differently

In well-designed gardens, our gaze shifts quicker and more often. Researchers believe this could be key to understanding the relaxing effects gardens can have on viewers.

Environment

Published on 22 Aug 2025

Wildfires can raise local death rate by 67%, shows study on 2023 Hawaiʻi fires

Scientists studying the devastating Lāhainā, Maui fires of August 2023 found that deaths were two-thirds higher than expected that month — and 367% higher during the most intense week of the blaze.

Environment

Published on 24 Jun 2025

Wildlife forensic scientists develop new tool to detect elephant ivory disguised as legal mammoth ivory

Stable isotope analysis can tell apart ivory from mammoths dug up from the permafrost and modern elephants, closing a loophole for selling elephant ivory

Environment

Published on 17 Jun 2025

Yes, in my back yard: people who live near large-scale solar projects are happy to have more built nearby

Scientists studying the impact of solar power on local neighborhoods find that most people living close to large-scale solar plants wouldn’t mind if a new plant was built nearby.

Environment

Published on 09 Jun 2025

Protected Antarctic oceanic life threatened by ships anchoring, first underwater videos show

First video footage shows impacts of anchor and chain damage caused by cruise, research, fishing, and private vessels on Antarctic sea floor and animals, highlighting critically understudied conservation issue.

Psychology

Published on 13 Aug 2025

Now you see me, now you don’t: how subtle ‘sponsored content’ on social media tricks us into viewing ads

Scientists find that people mostly avoid social media ads when they see them, but many ads blend in seamlessly.

Psychology

Published on 24 Jul 2025

Students more likely to pass oral exams at noon — and that might apply to job interviews, too

Physiological rhythms could explain why Italian university students were more likely to fail exams early or late in the day.

A group of students sit together at a table.

Psychology

Published on 07 May 2025

Humans prefer to put more effort into empathizing with groups than with individuals

Study participants asked to choose whether to empathize with or describe people preferred to empathize with groups, despite finding it difficult and distressing.

Psychology

Published on 28 Mar 2025

Those constantly distracted by their phone will just find other ways to procrastinate if it isn’t nearby

A researcher put physical distance between people and their phones and found that our devices may not be the cause of our distraction – it’s what we do with them.

Concept design for a rectangular space telescope, modeled after the Diffractive Interfero Coronagraph Exoplanet Resolver (DICER), a notional infrared space observatory, and the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: Leaf Swordy/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Space sciences and astronomy

Published on 01 Sep 2025

Circle versus rectangle: finding ‘Earth 2.0’ may be easier using a new telescope shape

Guest editorial by Prof Heidi Newberg, an astrophysicist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and author of a new Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences article

Space sciences and astronomy

Published on 25 Feb 2025

Laser-powered device tested on Earth could help us detect microbial fossils on Mars

Scientists successfully identify microbe fossils in terrestrial rocks like those found on Mars, opening up the possibility of searching for fossils on the Red Planet.

Space sciences and astronomy

Published on 06 Feb 2025

Efforts to find alien life could be boosted by simple test that gets microbes moving

Scientists explored microbial movement as a possible biosignature to detect life on Mars and beyond, cheaper and faster than ever before.

Space sciences and astronomy

Published on 03 Feb 2025

Can ocean-floor mining oversights help us regulate space debris and mining on the Moon?

Space belongs to no-one, yet many nations and private entities now plan to lay their claim on its resources. In a recent Frontiers in Space Technologies article, Nishith Mishra, Martina Elia Vitoloni and Dr Joseph Pelton shared their thoughts about how plans to exploit the ocean floors could impact the way resources from space are used and managed.

Frontiers | Science news

Science news

Orcas seen killing young great white sharks by flipping them upside-down

Underwater robot ‘Lassie’ discovers remarkable icefish nests during search for Shackleton’s lost ship off Antarctica

Do animals fall for optical illusions? What fish and birds can teach us about perception

Drug which stops tumors' blood supply could help kids with bone cancer live longer

Latest posts

Landscapes that remember: clues show Indigenous Peoples have thrived in the southwestern Amazon for more than 1,000 years

Orcas seen killing young great white sharks by flipping them upside-down

Scientists on ‘urgent’ quest to explain consciousness as AI gathers pace

Janna Wale - Bridging worlds: Indigenous leadership in climate change

Global Science Networks Unite to Accelerate Evidence-Based Action on Health and Climate

Underwater robot ‘Lassie’ discovers remarkable icefish nests during search for Shackleton’s lost ship off Antarctica

Categories

Health

Scientists on ‘urgent’ quest to explain consciousness as AI gathers pace

Drug which stops tumors' blood supply could help kids with bone cancer live longer

This is how happy we need to be to have lower chronic disease mortality risk

AI and omics unlock personalized drugs and RNA therapies for heart disease

Neuroscience

Do animals fall for optical illusions? What fish and birds can teach us about perception

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Happy music could help you recover from motion sickness

Seeing well-designed gardens could relax us almost immediately because we look at them differently

Environment

Wildfires can raise local death rate by 67%, shows study on 2023 Hawaiʻi fires

Wildlife forensic scientists develop new tool to detect elephant ivory disguised as legal mammoth ivory

Yes, in my back yard: people who live near large-scale solar projects are happy to have more built nearby

Protected Antarctic oceanic life threatened by ships anchoring, first underwater videos show

Psychology

Now you see me, now you don’t: how subtle ‘sponsored content’ on social media tricks us into viewing ads

Students more likely to pass oral exams at noon — and that might apply to job interviews, too

Humans prefer to put more effort into empathizing with groups than with individuals

Those constantly distracted by their phone will just find other ways to procrastinate if it isn’t nearby

Space sciences and astronomy

Circle versus rectangle: finding ‘Earth 2.0’ may be easier using a new telescope shape

Laser-powered device tested on Earth could help us detect microbial fossils on Mars

Efforts to find alien life could be boosted by simple test that gets microbes moving

Can ocean-floor mining oversights help us regulate space debris and mining on the Moon?

Frontiers | Science news

Orcas seen killing young great white sharks by flipping them upside-down

Underwater robot ‘Lassie’ discovers remarkable icefish nests during search for Shackleton’s lost ship off Antarctica

Do animals fall for optical illusions? What fish and birds can teach us about perception

Drug which stops tumors' blood supply could help kids with bone cancer live longer

Latest posts

Landscapes that remember: clues show Indigenous Peoples have thrived in the southwestern Amazon for more than 1,000 years

Orcas seen killing young great white sharks by flipping them upside-down

Scientists on ‘urgent’ quest to explain consciousness as AI gathers pace

Janna Wale - Bridging worlds: Indigenous leadership in climate change

Global Science Networks Unite to Accelerate Evidence-Based Action on Health and Climate

Underwater robot ‘Lassie’ discovers remarkable icefish nests during search for Shackleton’s lost ship off Antarctica

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Health

Scientists on ‘urgent’ quest to explain consciousness as AI gathers pace

Drug which stops tumors' blood supply could help kids with bone cancer live longer

This is how happy we need to be to have lower chronic disease mortality risk

AI and omics unlock personalized drugs and RNA therapies for heart disease

Neuroscience

Do animals fall for optical illusions? What fish and birds can teach us about perception

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Happy music could help you recover from motion sickness

Seeing well-designed gardens could relax us almost immediately because we look at them differently

Environment

Wildfires can raise local death rate by 67%, shows study on 2023 Hawaiʻi fires

Wildlife forensic scientists develop new tool to detect elephant ivory disguised as legal mammoth ivory

Yes, in my back yard: people who live near large-scale solar projects are happy to have more built nearby

Protected Antarctic oceanic life threatened by ships anchoring, first underwater videos show

Psychology

Now you see me, now you don’t: how subtle ‘sponsored content’ on social media tricks us into viewing ads

Students more likely to pass oral exams at noon — and that might apply to job interviews, too

Humans prefer to put more effort into empathizing with groups than with individuals

Those constantly distracted by their phone will just find other ways to procrastinate if it isn’t nearby

Space sciences and astronomy

Circle versus rectangle: finding ‘Earth 2.0’ may be easier using a new telescope shape

Laser-powered device tested on Earth could help us detect microbial fossils on Mars

Efforts to find alien life could be boosted by simple test that gets microbes moving

Can ocean-floor mining oversights help us regulate space debris and mining on the Moon?