Science X

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain During the Last Glacial Maximum, tropical regions with lush vegetation would have looked completely different. The last Ice Age reached its peak about 20,000–21,000 years ago, and massive ice sheets covered parts of North America, Europe and Asia. Still, understanding how the global climate changed far from the ice sheets is a challenge for paleoclimatology.

Credit: Lokesh Loki from Pexels Have you ever noticed how babies get hooked the moment someone makes eye contact with them? That eye contact is not only cute; it may also send a powerful message to a baby. For years, scientists have been investigating whether social messages like eye contact and baby talk do more than engage babies. They may help synchronize babies' brains with adult brain waves. But the biggest question remained: Does it actually help babies learn?

The pathway from maternal vitamin D—obtained through sunlight, diet, and supplements—to the placenta and the developing fetus. It highlights the placenta as the bridge between mother and baby and illustrates how vitamin D may support early airway formation, immune development, and placental function during the first trimester.

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Ever wonder who you mimic in a line of people heading for an exit? In an emergency, do you trail the person right ahead, or do you watch what everyone else does? It's a question with surprising implications for how we understand human behavior under pressure.

Scanning electromicrograph of an HIV-infected T cell. Credit: NIAID Researchers used to think that HIV and its relatives were pretty recent things, maybe only a few hundred years old. But a growing body of evidence now suggests their history is far more ancient, with viruses closely related to HIV circulating in primates for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, and the very roots of their family tree perhaps stretching back millions of years.

Credit: https://museum.industry411.com/engaging-older-adults-successful-museum-programs-that-combat-social-isolation-and-ageism/ We often hear that a curious mind is a sharp mind, particularly as we age. According to scientists, persistent learners are often open to taking on new challenges and trying new activities. The idea is that engaging with new experiences can help ward off dementia. But is that really the case?

Longer daily bouts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, such as a brisk walk, were associated with lower future risk of dementia, depression and anxiety. Credit: Pexels. Exercise is well known for keeping the brain healthy, but does how we move matter as much as how much we move?

A side-by-side panel showing various stone flakes and tools excavated from Le Moustier SU B4 and Pech IV Layer 3A, highlighting their remarkably similar morphologies despite differences in raw material quality and reduction intensity between the sites. Credit: Peiqi Zhang et al, The adaptive nature of Neanderthal discoidal technology: raw material constraints and technological variation during the late Mousterian of southwestern France, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2026).

Japanese macaques had the most obvious response, as they became much less active and moved higher into branches. Credit: Pexels Imagine a bright, sunny day suddenly turning dark as a solar eclipse sweeps across the sky. Even though humans have watched and recorded eclipses for thousands of years and now understand the science behind them, experiencing a spell of darkness during the day can still evoke awe and surprise.

This diagram is like a flip-book of an ancient jellyfish cousin growing up! It shows the complete life story of Octapyrgites elongatus, from its earliest, simple egg stages (inferred) through its developing embryo phases with increasing numbers of mouth-parts, all the way to a tiny, newly hatched 'baby' with its distinctive ringed body. Credit: Jiaxin Peng et al, Embryogenesis of the early Cambrian medusozoan (Cnidaria) Octapyrgites elongatus, Palaeontology (2026).