Story archive
Browse SciQuest reporting and explainers in reverse chronological order, with the newest evidence-led stories first.
news Biology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Fossil description plus bone chemistry
Two 237-million-year-old skeletons from China may show the first fully marine amphibian. What the fossils and strontium test show, and the caveat that remains.
news Astronomy Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Single galaxy
JWST spots a barred spiral galaxy seen 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang, with a bar nearly as long as the Milky Way's. Peer reviewed, but still a candidate.
news Biology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Behavioural laboratory study
Portia jumping spiders meet behavioural tests for sleep, with a REM-like stage that is harder to wake from and rebounds after disruption. No brain data yet.
news Earth Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Rock-record dating study
River rocks date North China's end-Permian carbon upheaval to 252.1–252.0 Ma, in step with the marine die-off, but each age has a 220,000-year uncertainty.
news Biology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Laboratory cultures and genome analysis
Two newly cultured Heimdallarchaeia, the closest known archaeal relatives of eukaryotes, lack internal membranes. What that means for how complex cells began.
news Chemistry Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Laboratory measurement on a metal surface
A carbon nanoribbon built only from five- and seven-membered rings conducts like a metal, a Nature study reports, though only in short pieces grown on silver.
news Astronomy Evidence status: Official announcement · Preprint
Rubin Observatory's first dwarf-planet candidate, 2026 ED138, orbits beyond Pluto about 47 au out. Its 612 to 1,530 km size rests on an unmeasured albedo.
news Astronomy Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Laboratory analysis of one meteorite
Teghaza 001, an 800 g Sahara meteorite, formed at least 4.1 billion years ago and samples Mars's early crust and a primordial mantle source, Science reports.
news Biology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Computational model of four connectomes
Simulations of four fly connectomes converge on a three-neuron loop as the walking rhythm generator. Two predictions held in flies; its cells are untested.
