ALT Goosebumps triggered by music are known as frisson, a powerful emotional and physical reaction to sound. Certain melodies, harmonies, or sudden musical changes can activate the brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine and creating chills, tingling, and goosebumps.

ALT The Trump administration fired its climate researchers — but the scientists refused to let public climate data vanish. Meet the woman behind this work. In 2025, the federal government terminated operations of NOAA's Climate. gov, laying off its staff and making decades of climate data, maps, and reports difficult for the public to find. Rather than letting 15 years of vital research fade into obscurity, former program director Rebecca Lindsey, along with her sister Mary Lindsey and colleague Anna Eshelman, decided to take matters into their own hands. The trio rallied the scientific community and successfully launched Climate. us on June 23, 2026 — a nonpartisan, nonprofit website dedicated to keeping complex climate information accessible to educators, farmers, and everyday citizens.

ALT The idea is surprisingly simple: instead of hiding your face, distort it just enough that a facial-recognition system struggles to understand what it is seeing. Dutch designer Jip van Leeuwenstein created the transparent mask as part of a project called “Surveillance Exclusion” while studying at the Utrecht School of the Arts. The design uses a clear, curved and ribbed surface that bends light passing through it. Facial-recognition systems typically detect landmarks such as the eyes, nose, mouth and jaw, then convert their spatial relationships into a mathematical representation that can be compared with stored faces. The mask changes how those landmarks appear to a camera. Humans can still see much of the wearer’s face and expressions, but the altered geometry can make automated detection and identification more difficult.

ALT A staggering 1.1 billion tons of ice has just been discovered hiding in Utah’s mountains While traditional glaciers across the globe are rapidly shrinking due to rising temperatures, Utah’s 836 documented rock glaciers are quietly preserving immense reserves of frozen water. These unique formations look like ordinary, rocky mountain slopes on the surface, but underneath, a dense mix of ice and rock slowly creeps downhill — with many ice formations stretching more than 120 feet deep. Because their thick blanket of rocky debris scatters conventional radar signals, scientists from the University of Utah used highly sensitive gravity measurements to peer inside the Timpanogos Rock Glacier. By measuring the minute gravitational differences caused by low-density ice compared to the heavy surrounding bedrock, researchers reconstructed the glacier’s interior in 3D, revealing that its core is up to 83% pure ice.

ALT Children raised with religion have a significantly harder time distinguishing what can actually happen in the world, research shows. According to a study, published in Cognitive Science by researchers at Boston University, a child's religious upbringing plays a critical role in shaping their fundamental skill to tell what can and cannot happen. In tests of five- and six-year-olds, researchers compared how kids from secular and religious backgrounds evaluated different types of narratives. While every child correctly identified protagonists in realistic stories as real, their reactions diverged dramatically when introduced to fantastical tales. Secular children easily identified fantastical, magic-based stories as fictional, whereas children with religious exposure — either through church attendance, parochial school, or both — struggled to differentiate the impossible elements from reality.

ALT A spike in flesh-eating bacteria has claimed 10 lives in the U.S, prompting dire warnings from health officials. The naturally occurring bacterium Vibrio vulnificus, commonly known as "flesh-eating bacteria," has officially claimed ten lives across Florida and Louisiana so far this year. According to state health departments, Louisiana has reported six fatalities, while Florida has confirmed four. This microscopic threat thrives in warm, brackish coastal waters and is typically contracted when open wounds are exposed to seawater or when individuals consume raw or undercooked seafood, particularly oysters. While healthy individuals may suffer only mild symptoms, the infection can trigger necrotizing fasciitis — a rapid tissue-destroying illness — and enters the bloodstream with a devastating 50 percent mortality rate if not treated immediately.

ALT A major study has revealed that the human brain is actually two separate organs fused together. For centuries, science has treated the human brain as a single, unified organ that grows from a single pool of early cells. However, researchers at Stanford Medicine have completely upended this textbook definition. Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, their study shows that what we call the brain is actually two ancient, independent nervous systems assembled side by side over evolutionary history. By analyzing mouse embryos, the team discovered that the forebrain and midbrain—which govern reasoning, language, and consciousness—develop from an entirely different set of progenitor cells than the hindbrain, which controls vital autonomic functions like heartbeat, breathing, and swallowing. This biological separation explains why scientists have struggled for decades to grow specific types of brainstem cells in laboratories, as they were trying to coerce forebrain cells.

ALT Tomatoes and avocados make a powerful nutrient combination. Tomatoes provide lycopene, an antioxidant carotenoid that helps protect cells from oxidative damage and may support heart health. The healthy fats in avocado can improve lycopene absorption, helping the body use more of it from the same meal. Source: The Ohio State University, Journal of Nutrition.

ALT The FDA has greenlit a first-of-its-kind molecule that helps human immune cells target and destroy cancer cells naturally. In a significant leap forward for cancer immunotherapy, the FDA has cleared a clinical trial for GTB-5550, an investigational drug designed to mobilize the body's innate immune system against blood cancer. Developed by GT Biopharma, this innovative therapy utilizes a proprietary platform known as TriKE (Tri-specific Killer Engager). Unlike traditional treatments, this single molecule performs three critical tasks simultaneously: it anchors to a specific protein on the cancer cell, binds to an activating receptor on the patient's natural killer (NK) cells to form an immunological bridge, and delivers a vital immune-signaling protein that forces those killer cells to multiply and sustain their attack.

ALT The connection between the mouth and the brain is becoming an increasingly important area of Alzheimer’s research. A major suspect is Porphyromonas gingivalis, a bacterium strongly associated with chronic gum disease. Researchers have detected this bacterium and some of its toxic enzymes, called gingipains, in brain tissue from people with Alzheimer’s. Scientists think chronic periodontal infection could influence the brain in several ways. Bacteria or their components may enter the bloodstream through inflamed gums, while persistent inflammation elsewhere in the body may also contribute to inflammation in the brain. Laboratory and animal studies suggest P. gingivalis can trigger neuroinflammation and processes involving amyloid-beta and tau—the two proteins most strongly associated with Alzheimer’s pathology.