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Today:
Jurassic Park Was Right: Mosquitoes Really Can Carry Libraries of Animal DNA
NEWS | 07 January 2026
From missing dinosaur feathers to fictitious pack-hunting behaviors, many details of the Jurassic Park movie franchise belong firmly in fantasy. Yet, incredibly, the films' central premise may be more realistic than expected: Mosquito meals really can provide a thorough ecological snapshot of the area they buzz about, new research from the University of Florida finds. "They say Jurassic Park inspired a new generation of paleontologists, but it inspired me to study mosquitoes," says entomologist Lawrence Reeves. The team identified the DNA of 86 different animals, representing around 80 percent of the vertebrate species that the caught mosquitoes were known to feed upon. Analyzing DNA contained in mosquito blood meals captures a broad range of species, whereas most animal detection methods are sensitive to only a narrow range of animals.

Top Stories:
We Emit a Visible Light That Vanishes When We Die, Surprising Study Says
NEWS | 07 January 2026
Life truly is radiant, according to an experiment conducted by researchers from the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada. It's hard not to associate scientific investigations into biological electromagnetic emissions with debunked and paranormal claims of auras and discharges surrounding living organisms. A variety of biological processes clearly generate bright displays of light in the form of chemiluminescence. The researchers found they could capture individual photons in the visible band of light popping out of the mouse cells before and after death. A process carried out on thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) and dwarf umbrella tree (Heptapleurum arboricola) leaves revealed similarly bold results.

World:
Tropical Spiders Make Fearsome 'Puppets' of Themselves For Protection
NEWS | 07 January 2026
The orb weavers, Cyclosa longicauda, also added an average of five protruding 'legs' to the blob of their puppet's 'body'. "Of the spiders we photographed, we found both males and females to be occupying stabilimentum-adorned webs," the researchers write in their paper. Helicopter damselflies specialize in preying on web-building spiders, like the little orb weavers. This predatory flyer is known to avoid larger spider species, so Olah and team suspect giant spider puppeteering may have evolved to deter the damselflies. Future studies comparing the survival rates of spiders with and without their doppelgängers are required to confirm this.

Current Events:
Jellyfish Snooze Like We Do, And It Could Explain The Origins of Sleep
NEWS | 07 January 2026
What's more, if their external environment caused increased neuronal DNA damage, both Cnidaria slept more. When treated with melatonin, the animals slept more, and DNA damage was subsequently reduced. "Sleep deprivation, ultraviolet radiation, and mutagens increased neuronal DNA damage and sleep pressure," the team writes in their paper. So even simple neural systems require rest to reduce the inevitable DNA damage that accompanies wakefulness. "These results suggest that DNA damage and cellular stress in simple nerve nets may have driven the evolution of sleep."

News Flash:
Mysterious 'Cloud-9' May Be The Dark-Matter Bones of a Failed Galaxy
NEWS | 07 January 2026
It's been named Cloud-9, and it's a mysterious object about 14.3 million light-years away, near the spiral galaxy M94, which appears to be completely devoid of stars. Instead, it seems to consist mostly of dark matter wrapped in a cloud of hydrogen gas, lingering in space like a specter. "This cloud is a window into the dark Universe," says astronomer Andrew Fox of the Space Telescope Science Institute. While we don't know for sure how galaxies form, that dark matter halo is thought to be crucial. The amount of dark matter required to keep it contained and balanced would be about 5 billion solar masses, the researchers determined.

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SPONSORED | 07 January 2026
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Latest:
2026 May Be The Year Coral Reefs Around The World Finally Collapse
NEWS | 07 January 2026
Tropical coral reefs cover less than 1% of the seafloor, yet support 25% of all marine species. We have only just emerged from a devastating El Niño (the warm phase) that helped push 84% of the world's coral reefs into "bleaching-level" heat stress. This next phase could trigger widespread coral reef collapse. But at a local level, many warm-water coral reefs are clearly set to fare badly. What coral collapse looks likeWhen a reef passes that tipping point, the transformation can be stark.

Breaking:
Common Sign of Heart Attack in Marathon Runners Is No Need For Concern
NEWS | 07 January 2026
The strongest reassurance comes from a new ten-year study of 152 recreational marathon runners, published in the journal JAMA Cardiology. After long-distance endurance exercise, troponin often rises even when there is no sign of blocked arteries, a heart attack, or lasting heart damage. Over a decade of marathon running, heart structure and pumping ability remained within normal ranges. The marathon runner's heart is strong, but it still needs careful assessment. The marathon runner's heart is resilient – but it still deserves respect and careful monitoring.

Trending:
Millions of Your Mother's Cells Persist Inside You, And Now We Know How
NEWS | 07 January 2026
A small number of maternal immune cells that cross the placenta during pregnancy actively train the fetus's immune system to tolerate the mother's cells for their entire life. A small subset of the maternal immune cells, with properties similar to bone marrow myeloid cells and dendritic cells, persisted long after birth. They were also strongly associated with both immune activity and the expansion of regulatory T cells – the cells that tell the immune system that everything is copacetic. The regulatory T cells disappeared, and the immune tolerance of maternal cells disappeared. The implication is that lifelong tolerance to maternal microchimeric cells is probably dependent on just a tiny subset of maternal cells.

This Just In:
An Ingredient in Toothpaste Makes Orange Juice Taste Vile. Here's How.
NEWS | 07 January 2026
And how are the taste receptors that are all over the surface of your tongue supposed to work? And in sweet or bitter taste receptor cells, the cell membranes also contain a special molecule called a G protein-coupled receptor, or GPCR. Others detect bitter tastes, tuning in to the large number of compounds in nature that are poisonous. Similarly, the hydrogen cations in your favorite sour candy slip through other special openings in your sour receptor's membrane and send a "sour" signal to your brain. But there's another type of fat in your mouth that the detergent in toothpaste disrupts – the lipids in the cell membranes of your taste receptors.

Today:
Helping Others May Be an Easy Way to Keep Your Brain Young, Study Finds
NEWS | 07 January 2026
A new study links another factor to the speed at which our brains age: how much we help others. Scores on cognitive brain tests were mapped against helping behavior – whether volunteering with an organization or simply giving friends, relatives, and neighbors a hand as needed. "It was a pleasant surprise to find that it provides cognitive benefits comparable to formal volunteering." Around two to four hours per week spent helping others seems to be the sweet spot for optimizing its cognitive benefits. The researchers also found that when helping behaviors stopped, this was associated with lower cognitive scores and faster cognitive decline.

Top Stories:
Impossibly Hot Object Discovered 1.4 Billion Years After The Big Bang
NEWS | 07 January 2026
A 'shadow' cast on the faint, leftover glow of the Big Bang has revealed a giant object in the early Universe that defies our predictions of how the Universe should evolve. It's a galaxy cluster named SPT2349-56. Spotted a mere 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, the gas within it is far, far hotter than it should be. The gravitational heating of a galaxy cluster ought to be a slow process that takes billions of years to reach the temperature regime of SPT2349-56. frameborder="0″ allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>A galaxy cluster is a pocket of space where gravity intensifies as the galaxies pull each other closer together.

World:
'Junk' DNA Could Hide Switches That Allow Alzheimer's to Take Hold
NEWS | 07 January 2026
'Switches' in our DNA that affect gene activity in cells could be crucial to understanding and possibly treating Alzheimer's disease, with researchers identifying more than 150 control signals in specialized brain cells called astrocytes. Enhancers are located in the non-coding or so-called junk section of our DNA: there are no actual genes here, but there are lots of biological dials and levers that control genes. And strikingly, a large fraction of these functional enhancers controlled genes implicated in Alzheimer's disease." That's what this gives us – a deeper view into the circuitry of gene control in astrocytes," says Voineagu. Alzheimer's is incredibly complex, and astrocytes that go haywire – and the genes that regulate them – are just part of a much bigger picture.

Current Events:
Silencing Bacterial 'Chatter' in Your Mouth May Help Prevent Tooth Decay
NEWS | 07 January 2026
A team from the University of Minnesota in the US has demonstrated how these signals operate and can be interrupted in the mouth, based on an analysis of lab-grown bacterial communities that form human dental plaque. The researchers looked at N-Acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs), molecules used by some bacteria in the mouth for quorum sensing. Crucially, this blocking process promoted the growth of healthier bacteria, rather than bacteria that contribute to dental plaque. While bacteria in oxygen-poor (anaerobic) environments don't produce AHL signals themselves, the researchers found, they can still sense signals from elsewhere. "Understanding how bacterial communities communicate and organize themselves may ultimately give us new tools to prevent periodontal disease – not by waging war on all oral bacteria, but by strategically maintaining a healthy microbial balance," says Elias.

News Flash:
Origins of Dental Braces Aren't as Ancient as We Once Thought
NEWS | 07 January 2026
Ancient Egyptians and Etruscans pioneered orthodontics, using delicate gold wires and catgut to straighten teeth. Braces work by applying continuous pressure over long periods, requiring metal that's strong and springy. Malocclusion – the crowding and misalignment of teeth that's so common now – was extremely rare in the past. Those without access to modern dental tools resorted to wooden "swelling wedges" to create space between overcrowded teeth. The image of ancient people sporting gold and catgut braces is certainly appealing and dramatic, but it doesn't match the evidence.