The ingredients of life can also form without anything living. That makes finding them in space a puzzle: what would reveal their origin? Researchers in Japan are exploring a subtle molecular clue, using electricity and artificial intelligence to help read it.

A forested mountain stream can be far from busy roads and still receive plastic pollution from the air. A study in western North Carolina found that Hurricane Helene sharply increased the microplastics deposited at three monitoring sites.

Something unusual is happening in the Mediterranean Sea, and it goes far beyond the changes scientists have been tracking at the surface. New research reveals a shift unfolding across the basin at surprising depths, raising fresh questions about what it could mean for the sea’s future.