Global Pulse

分类： science

  • New wild cat species discovered – with only one known living member

    New wild cat species discovered – with only one known living member

    For decades, a diminutive spotted feline native to Bolivia’s dense forests has managed to slip through the cracks of scientific classification, confused with its close tiger cat relatives that share nearly identical markings. Now, cutting-edge genetic analysis has finally revealed what makes this tiny cat one-of-a-kind: it is an entirely new species, marking one of the most exciting mammalian discoveries in recent years and highlighting how much of Earth’s biodiversity remains undocumented.

    The newly identified species, formally named *Leopardus tilcayo* and nicknamed the Tilcaya cat, is roughly the same size as an average domestic house cat. Its discovery traces back to a single 10-year-old individual named Tigrino, who currently resides as the only confirmed living member of the species at a Bolivian wildlife rescue sanctuary. Tigrino first came to the attention of scientists after a local resident found him as a kitten, mistakenly assuming he was a domestic cat. As he matured, his unusual behavior and distinct physical traits caught the eye of Bolivian researcher Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz from Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, who launched an investigation into his origins.

    Intrigued by unconfirmed reports of similar unusual small cats in Bolivia’s Yungas forest region, Nogales-Ascarrunz partnered with an international team of geneticists and wildlife researchers to analyze DNA samples collected from both living tiger cats and preserved museum specimens. The results of the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal *Current Biology*, upended long-held assumptions about the tiger cat group: instead of just three recognized species, the research confirms there are actually five distinct species, with the Tilcaya cat being the latest addition.

    Eduardo Eizirik, a conservation geneticist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and co-author of the study, explained that the species went undetected for so long due to a severe lack of research and documentation. “There’s so few records or pictures, no individual in a museum, so it was hiding because nobody was looking,” Eizirik noted. Nogales-Ascarrunz emphasized that the discovery shatters the common misconception that new large mammal species can only be found in remote, extreme environments like deep-sea trenches or isolated volcanic islands. “It’s amazing that there are still new species waiting to be discovered: we don’t have to go to a volcano, an island, or deep into the sea,” she said.

    The ramifications of this discovery extend far beyond adding a new name to biological textbooks. Previously, the entire Felidae family – which encompasses all living wild and domestic cat species, from tiny house cats to massive Siberian tigers – was recognized to include just 41 species. This discovery, paired with the reclassification of tiger cats, pushes the total number of recognized feline species to between 44 and 45. Andrew Kitchener, a mammal expert at National Museums Scotland who was not involved in the research, described South America’s small tiger cats as a longstanding “taxonomic nightmare” due to their near-identical appearances and sparse museum collections. He noted that genetic research is only now untangling this confusion, revealing hidden diversity that had evaded even expert eyes.

    Most importantly, the discovery carries critical implications for wildlife conservation. Tiger cat species across Central and South America are already classified as vulnerable to extinction, facing existential threats from widespread deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and illegal hunting. Until a species is formally identified and its range documented, conservationists cannot implement targeted protection strategies to save it from disappearing. “These are animals similar in size to a domestic cat, so you might think we would know them all by now, but this discovery shows how much biodiversity is still to be uncovered in some of the less-studied regions of the world,” said co-researcher Caroline Sartor of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford. “It’s impossible to protect a species if we don’t know what it is or where it lives,” she added.

    While only one confirmed individual of *Leopardus tilcayo* is known to science today, researchers are confident that other members of the species survive in the undisturbed dense forests of Bolivia, waiting to be documented. Scientists hope the high-profile discovery will draw much-needed public and funding attention to the conservation of small wild cats in the Americas, a group that has long been overshadowed by larger, more charismatic big cat species like lions, tigers, and leopards.

  • Watch: Can humpback whales experience grief?

    Watch: Can humpback whales experience grief?

    For decades, behavioral scientists have debated whether non-human animals are capable of experiencing complex, human-like emotions such as grief. Now, newly uncovered rare footage collected by marine researchers off Australia’s Gold Coast has added fresh fuel to this long-running conversation, offering compelling visual evidence that humpback whale mothers may mourn the loss of their calves.

    The never-before-seen footage, collected during a recent marine research expedition, captured a humpback whale mother remaining closely alongside her deceased calf for an extended period. Rather than abandoning the body and continuing her migration as is typical for the species after a calf’s death, the mother was observed staying within meters of the calf’s body, slow swimming and repeatedly nudging the calf, behaviors researchers interpret as potential signs of mourning.

    Humpback whales are known for their high levels of social organization, complex communication systems, and large brain structures that support advanced cognitive function, traits that have led many biologists to hypothesize that they possess a capacity for deep emotional experience. Prior anecdotal observations across multiple whale species have recorded similar lingering behavior around dead offspring, but this new, high-quality footage from the Gold Coast offers one of the clearest recorded examples of this behavior to date.

    Marine biologists studying the footage note that while definitive proof of grief remains impossible to confirm without direct access to the animal’s internal experience, the consistent pattern of the mother’s abnormal behavior following her calf’s death strongly suggests an emotional response. This discovery not only deepens scientific understanding of cetacean cognition but also raises new questions about animal consciousness and the ethical responsibilities humans have to protect whale populations around the world.

  • Drug use may have begun 25,000 years ago in Indonesia, research finds

    Drug use may have begun 25,000 years ago in Indonesia, research finds

    A groundbreaking archaeological study has upended long-held scientific assumptions about the origins of human psychoactive substance use, uncovering evidence that ancient foraging communities in what is now Indonesia were consuming mind-altering betel nuts more than 25,000 years ago – making this the earliest documented case of drug use anywhere on Earth.

    Led by a team of researchers from Australia’s Griffith University, the new study published in the journal *Science Advances* centers on a rare set of human skeletal remains recovered from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Two sets of forager remains were analyzed: one dated to between 25,000 and 16,000 years before present, and a second more recent specimen dating to between 7,600 and 6,300 years ago. What caught the researchers’ immediate attention was a highly unusual pattern of dental wear on both sets of remains: deep, distinct rounded grooves carved across the surfaces of the teeth.

    After ruling out other common causes of dental wear, the research team linked this unique marking to the repeated practice of sucking whole betel nuts. Betel nuts, the seeds of the *Areca catechu* palm, produce well-documented psychoactive effects when consumed: users experience a mild euphoria and increased sensory alertness. Today, the substance ranks as the world’s fourth most widely used psychoactive drug, trailing only alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine in global popularity, though it remains little-known in most Western societies. Roughly 10 percent of the global population currently chews betel nut-based quid, a preparation of processed nut mixed with slaked lime and other additives that is particularly widespread across South and Southeast Asia.

    Prior to this discovery, the dominant scientific consensus held that regular human drug use only emerged after the rise of agriculture, with the earliest confirmed use dating to roughly 13,000 years ago in the form of fermented alcoholic drinks. That narrative has now been called into question by the new findings. Study lead Professor Adam Brumm argues that the old framework fails to account for the deep pre-agricultural roots of psychoactive substance use.

    To confirm their hypothesis about the dental wear pattern, the research team conducted controlled laboratory experiments. They soaked whole, unprocessed betel nuts in artificial saliva to replicate the conditions of prolonged sucking, and found that the practice releases enough of the nut’s active psychoactive compounds to produce measurable changes in brain function. While the mild effects of sucking whole betel nuts would likely have been less intense than the modern experience of chewing prepared betel quid, the team notes that the regular habit still carried significant health risks, including the potential to cause severe chronic gum disease.

    This discovery reshapes our understanding of early human cultural practices. The research team concludes that the modern tradition of betel nut chewing can trace its origins directly back to these ancient foraging communities, indicating that many common modern drug-use behaviors have much deeper evolutionary and cultural roots than previously assumed.

  • Watch: Archeologists discover ancient tomb in Peru

    Watch: Archeologists discover ancient tomb in Peru

    A remarkable archaeological breakthrough has been announced in Peru, where research teams have unearthed a nearly undisturbed ancient burial site linked to the pre-Incan Chimu civilization, one of the most influential pre-Columbian cultures to emerge along South America’s Pacific coast. The discovery, which was captured on video for documentation and public sharing, offers an unprecedented window into the funerary traditions, social structures, and cultural practices of a society that dominated much of northern Peru for centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire. Unlike many ancient tombs in the region, which have been targeted by looters or damaged by centuries of natural erosion, this site was found in an exceptional state of preservation. Archaeologists note that the intact condition of the burial chamber means that artifacts, human remains, and contextual materials that reveal critical details about Chimu life are still in their original positions. This preservation avoids the common problem of looting that has destroyed countless archaeological sites across Peru, allowing researchers to conduct a full, systematic excavation that is expected to yield new insights into Chimu political organization, religious beliefs, and daily life. Initial assessments suggest the tomb may belong to a high-ranking member of Chimu society, given the care taken in its construction and sealing. The excavation team has already begun careful documentation of the site, with plans to remove artifacts and remains for further laboratory analysis in the coming months before putting key findings on public display to expand public understanding of Peru’s rich pre-Columbian heritage. The Chimu civilization, centered on its capital city of Chan Chan near modern-day Trujillo, flourished from around 900 CE until the Inca conquest in the 15th century, and this new find is already being hailed as one of the most significant Chimu archaeological discoveries of the past decade.

  • Scientists studying cockroach milk and nose-blowing win Ig Nobel prizes for quirky science

    Scientists studying cockroach milk and nose-blowing win Ig Nobel prizes for quirky science

    For 35 years, the Ig Nobel Prizes — the beloved satirical awards that celebrate delightfully odd, creative scientific work — have called the United States their home. This year, however, a shift driven by global travel and visa barriers brought the iconic ceremony to European soil for the first time, with the 2024 event kicking off last Thursday in Zurich, Switzerland.

    Hosted by *Annals of Improbable Research*, the digital magazine that founded the awards, the location change came after organizers cited growing concerns that international attendees would face barriers securing U.S. travel visas, making attendance risky and unfeasible for many guests. “During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country,” Marc Abrahams, the ceremony’s long-time master of ceremonies and editor of *Annals of Improbable Research*, told the Associated Press in a March interview.

    The tradition of celebrating unconventional scientific ingenuity remained fully intact at the new Zurich venue, where ten research teams took home the prize, each receiving a custom-designed trophy blending the shape of a mushroom and a human foot. This year’s honorees spanned wildly unexpected areas of inquiry: a team of researchers from the University of Oxford and Florida Institute of Technology reconstructed the evolutionary history of kissing, while another project explored the physics of nose-blowing, honoring the late Dr. Tokuji Unno for his work. Other winning projects include an analysis of cockroach milk’s properties, and a massive global experiment that saw 1,000 pairs of underwear buried across more than 25 countries to study how soil organisms drive decomposition.

    True to long-standing ceremony tradition, the event opened with audience members folding paper airplanes and throwing them toward the stage — a whimsical ritual that has become a hallmark of the Ig Nobel experience. Looking ahead, organizers have mapped out a rotating future for the awards: future ceremonies will alternate between Zurich and other European cities, with the 2027 event already scheduled to take place in Antwerp, Belgium. While the awards spent decades hosted at top U.S. academic institutions including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University, there are no immediate plans to return the ceremony to U.S. soil.

    Notably, the satirical Ig Nobel Prizes are entirely independent of the prestigious Nobel Prizes, which are scheduled to have their annual winner announcements in early October. This year’s coverage is a contribution from the Associated Press, with science and health reporting supported by the AP Fund for Journalism and private philanthropic foundations, with AP maintaining full editorial control over all content.

  • A pair of spacecraft draw closer to Mercury after nearly decade-long voyage

    A pair of spacecraft draw closer to Mercury after nearly decade-long voyage

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — After nearly 10 years traversing more than 6 billion miles of interplanetary space, a joint European-Japanese mission to Mercury hit a major milestone Thursday: two integrated science probes separated from their shared cruise carrier, moving into the final phase of their journey to the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet.

    The separation procedure, executed according to pre-planned timelines, left flight controllers at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) German operations center waiting two tense hours for radio confirmation of the successful maneuver, given the 124-million-mile (200-million-kilometer) communication delay between Earth and the spacecraft. The entire critical operation was streamed live to the public from the control room, drawing viewers across the globe eager to follow the historic planetary mission.

    “This is a brilliant moment,” said Geraint Jones, the mission’s lead project scientist, following confirmation of the separation.

    Known collectively as BepiColombo, the conjoined probe stack is on track to enter gravitational orbit around Mercury in December 2025, with the two individual craft set to split apart shortly after orbit insertion to begin their coordinated science campaign. As of Thursday’s separation, the mission still had 2 million miles (3.3 million kilometers) remaining before it reaches its target destination, with one final planetary flyby of Mercury scheduled for January 2025 — a maneuver that already delivered unprecedented, high-resolution images of the planet’s cratered surface and ancient volcanic plains during earlier passes.

    First launched in 2018 from Earth, the BepiColombo mission honors Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, the Italian mathematician who made key contributions to NASA’s 1970s Mariner 10 mission, humanity’s first flyby mission to Mercury. To date, only one other spacecraft has ever orbited Mercury: NASA’s Messenger probe, which ended its mission in 2015 after four years of study. Even so, the small planet — barely larger than Earth’s Moon — remains one of the most poorly understood bodies in the inner solar system.

    “How tiny Mercury is and still it holds some of the biggest mysteries of our solar system,” mission manager Santa Martinez noted earlier this week, ahead of the separation maneuver. Jones echoed that sentiment, adding, “There’s a huge amount still left to be learned.”

    BepiColombo’s winding 6-billion-mile journey was designed to gradually slow the craft enough to be captured by Mercury’s gravity, requiring nine gravitational flybys of inner solar system planets to shed velocity. Once science operations begin next spring, the ESA-led Mercury Orbiter and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter will operate from separate, distinct altitudes to map the planet’s surface, probe its unusually dense iron core, map its global magnetic field, and investigate unusual geologic features including shallow depressions researchers suspect form when solar radiation vaporizes volatile minerals directly from surface rocks.

    Mercury is a world of extraordinary extremes: surface temperatures at the equator can climb above 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius), while permanently shadowed craters at the poles remain perpetually frigid and hold deposits of water ice. The harsh, radiation-heavy environment required specialized engineering to protect the craft’s sensitive instruments. Ignacio Tanco, ESA’s chief of mission operations, compared the thermal conditions the probes will endure to working with a searing hot pizza oven constantly positioned directly behind the spacecraft.

    The $2 billion mission is primarily funded and led by ESA, with JAXA contributing the magnetospheric orbiter and supporting operations. Science data collection and analysis is set to begin in full by spring 2026, with researchers expecting to resolve long-standing questions about Mercury’s formation, internal structure, and unusual surface features.

    This reporting, from The Associated Press, is supported by the AP Fund for Journalism and private philanthropic foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Japanese scientist Shirakawa, co-winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry, dies at 90

    Japanese scientist Shirakawa, co-winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry, dies at 90

    Hideki Shirakawa, the groundbreaking Japanese chemist who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his transformative work on conductive polymers, has passed away at the age of 90.

    Shirakawa’s collaborative research with two American scientists, Alan Heeger and Alan MacDiarmid, upended long-held assumptions about the properties of plastic, proving that this ubiquitous material could carry electrical current just as metals do. This counterintuitive discovery unlocked a vast new range of applications across modern electronics, laying the foundation for technologies that shape daily life around the globe today.

    The University of Tsukuba, the Japanese research institution where Shirakawa built his career as a professor and researcher after joining its faculty in 1979, confirmed his death on August 24. The university did not release any details about the specific cause of death. Japan’s leading daily newspaper, Yomiuri, reported that Shirakawa died at a medical facility in Yokohama, a major port city located just west of Tokyo.

    Born in Tokyo in 1936, Shirakawa built his academic foundation early, earning his doctoral degree in engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1966. A decade later, he took a research position at the University of Pennsylvania, where he began his landmark partnership with MacDiarmid and Heeger that would redefine materials science.

    Prior to their work, conventional scientific wisdom held that all plastics were natural insulators, incapable of conducting electricity. The trio’s breakthrough defied this common understanding, clearing a path for the development of low-cost conductive materials that outperform traditional metals in key areas: they are far lighter, far more flexible, and adaptable to a wide range of commercial and industrial uses. Today, these materials power critical modern technologies from photovoltaic solar cells to the touchscreens of smartphones and mobile devices, touching millions of lives worldwide.

  • Watch: Astronauts set out on rare all-female spacewalk

    Watch: Astronauts set out on rare all-female spacewalk

    In a moment that marks another significant step forward for gender representation in space exploration, a duo of female astronauts has pulled off a rare all-female extravehicular activity (EVA), more commonly known as a spacewalk, outside the International Space Station (ISS). This achievement stands as only the sixth time in humanity’s history of space travel that an entire spacewalk has been carried out by an all-women team.

  • Nasa launches powerful new space telescope to explore mysteries of the Universe

    Nasa launches powerful new space telescope to explore mysteries of the Universe

    On a historic Sunday morning at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s revolutionary next-generation astronomical observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, marking the start of a mission poised to transform humanity’s understanding of the cosmos. Roughly 30 minutes after liftoff, the telescope separated cleanly from the launch vehicle and began its 100-day cruise toward its permanent observing position, a gravitationally stable orbital vantage point located approximately one million miles from Earth — the same halo orbit occupied by the 2021-launched James Webb Space Telescope.
    Named for NASA’s pioneering first chief astronomer and the agency’s earliest female executive, Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018), the observatory honors a trailblazer widely known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her critical work securing congressional approval for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope in the 1960s. Roman herself later highlighted the discovery of dark energy as Hubble’s most compelling finding, making the new next-generation telescope a fitting continuation of her legacy.
    Boasting cutting-edge optical technology, the Roman Telescope features a panoramic field of view at least 100 times wider than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has operated in low Earth orbit roughly 300 miles above Earth’s surface since 1990. Even compared to James Webb, Roman offers far broader cosmic coverage, enabling it to capture sweeping, high-resolution surveys of the sky that were impossible with earlier observatories. The mission has a planned five-year primary science operation period, with provisions to extend operations to a full decade.
    NASA officials outlined the telescope’s ambitious science objectives, which range from solving one of physics’ greatest puzzles — the nature of dark energy and dark matter — to discovering and characterizing thousands of new exoplanets orbiting stars outside our solar system. Scientists estimate that invisible dark matter and dark energy together make up roughly 95% of the total mass-energy of the universe: dark matter acts as an invisible gravitational glue holding galaxies together, while dark energy is the poorly understood repulsive force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Beyond cosmology, Roman will map billions of galaxies across cosmic time, study the growth and behavior of supermassive black holes, and even conduct observations of objects within our own solar system.
    One of the mission’s most anticipated contributions is advancing the search for habitable worlds beyond our solar system. “One of our main goals at NASA is answering the question: are we alone in the universe?” Nicky Fox, a NASA administrator, told reporters at a post-launch news conference Sunday. “With Roman, we are going to make this giant leap forward… that is going to allow us to look at these distant, distant worlds and start to really resolve the atmosphere around them to let us know: could they be habitable?” Fox added that the mission is expected to discover tens of thousands, and potentially as many as 100,000, new exoplanets, drastically expanding the current catalog of known worlds outside our solar system.
    Marking the milestone, former U.S. President Donald Trump joined the mission’s post-launch news conference via phone call to congratulate the team of scientists and engineers behind the decades-long project. “You’re the hottest in space, and we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So let’s keep it all going. You’re a big part of it,” Trump told the assembled team.
    NASA officials say that once Roman reaches its orbital vantage point and completes initial on-orbit instrument calibration, it will begin delivering its first full science data, opening an unprecedented new window into the origins and evolution of the universe. “Roman is going to change the way we look at the universe,” Fox emphasized, echoing the widespread expectation that the mission will deliver paradigm-shifting discoveries that reshape modern astronomy.

  • NASA launches Roman telescope on cosmic mapping mission

    NASA launches Roman telescope on cosmic mapping mission

    In a landmark moment for space exploration, NASA launched its next-generation flagship observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, on Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Lifting off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at 7:26 a.m. local time (1126 GMT), the 12-meter-tall telescope begins a multi-year mission to construct the most comprehensive map of the cosmos ever created and tackle long-standing unsolved questions in fundamental physics.

    The $4 billion project, more than a decade in development, honors Nancy Grace Roman, a pioneering American astronomer widely known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her foundational work on NASA’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope. Speaking at a pre-launch ceremony at NASA’s Houston headquarters Friday, former President Donald Trump emphasized the telescope’s transformative potential, noting it will open new windows into understanding the universe’s deepest secrets.

    Unlike existing space observatories, Roman boasts a revolutionary field of view more than 100 times larger than Hubble’s, and far wider than that of the James Webb Space Telescope. Positioned at a vantage point 1.5 million kilometers from Earth — a journey that will take roughly 100 days to complete — the telescope will work in tandem with other leading observatories, including Webb, to advance multiple branches of astronomical research.

    Among its core science goals, Roman is tasked with discovering thousands of exoplanets outside our solar system and cataloging tens of thousands of supernovae, the violent death throes of massive stars. “It will be the biggest catalog of astronomical objects anybody’s ever produced, and it will help us understand how common solar systems like our own are,” Dave Content, Roman’s technical manager, told Agence France-Presse.

    The mission’s highest-profile objective is unpacking the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two invisible phenomena that together account for roughly 95 percent of the entire universe. While dark matter is hypothesized to act as an invisible gravitational glue holding galaxies together, dark energy is the repulsive force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Equipped with advanced infrared capabilities, Roman can detect light that originated from celestial objects billions of years ago, effectively allowing astronomers to peer back into the universe’s earliest history and trace the evolution of these mysterious forces.

    Roman’s data will also complement ongoing work by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile and the European Space Agency’s Euclid probe, and scientists say the mission could upend long-held models of cosmic evolution. Senior project scientist Julie McEnery noted that recent astronomical observations have cast doubt on the standard cosmological model that underpins modern understanding of the universe’s early expansion. “Recent observations hint that our standard model of the universe is incorrect,” she told reporters Saturday ahead of launch. “Roman will definitively say, ‘Yeah, the model works, or it doesn’t.’ And if it doesn’t, it’s going to provide us with the precision and quality of data that will allow us to start to distinguish between those options.”

    All data collected by Roman will be made publicly available to scientists and casual enthusiasts worldwide, though the scale of data collection presents unique logistical challenges. The telescope will generate roughly 1.3 terabytes of new data every day, a volume too large for most personal computing devices to store or process. For McEnery, however, the massive dataset is part of the mission’s greatest promise. “I very much hope, and in fact expect, that the most exciting science from Roman will be a surprise, something we couldn’t predict, and that will set the stage for the next deeper set of questions for future missions to address,” she said.