Smoke Shrouds Northern Thailand

Scientists have mapped how Earth’s deepest mantle is being deformed—and the results point to long-lost tectonic plates buried thousands of kilometers underground. Using a massive global dataset of seismic waves, they found that most deformation happens in regions where these ancient slabs are thought to reside. The findings confirm long-standing theories but, for the first time, show the pattern on a global scale. It’s a major step toward understanding how the planet’s interior slowly churns ove

A bizarre crocodile relative from the age of dinosaurs is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about ancient reptiles. This poodle-sized creature, called Sonselasuchus cedrus, appears to have started life walking on all fours before shifting to a two-legged stance as it matured—an unusual transformation rarely seen in the fossil record.

A remarkably preserved, mummified reptile from 289 million years ago is rewriting what we know about how animals first breathed on land. This tiny creature, Captorhinus aguti, reveals the earliest known version of the rib-powered breathing system used by modern reptiles, birds, and mammals — a crucial innovation that helped vertebrates thrive outside water.

Modern medicine has played a significant role in improving the length and quality of our lives. While many treatments may seem like miracles, they are the result of a lengthy, rigorous research process. Drug discovery is a particularly time-consuming and costly activity that is fraught with complex challenges and labor-intensive bouts of trial and error.