NewsEarthMore details about the Myanmar earthquake are emergingQuicksand-like physics exacerbated the earthquakes destruction The powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake that rocked Myanmar and Thailand on March 28 toppled buildings, such as this one in Mandalay.STR/AFP via Getty ImagesBy Carolyn Gramling8 seconds agoAs rescue and recovery efforts continue to ramp-up in earthquake-ravaged Myanmar, new details about how the geologic setting amplified the disaster are beginning to emerge.The March 28 magnitude 7.7 earthquake that rocked through Southeast Asia collapsed buildings, dams and bridges, and killed at least 2,700 people. The rupture occurred along several hundred kilometers of a roughly 1,400-kilometer-long fault known as the Sagaing Fault. The epicenter of the event was just 10 kilometers beneath Earths surface and occurred near the Myanmar city of Mandalay.Sign up for our newsletterWe summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

For the first time, high-resolution time-lapse videos of tiny bits of living plants show how they assemble their protective cell walls, researchers report March 21 in Science Advances. The image sequences provide new insights into how this cell structure forms, which could lead to innovations in plant-derived products such as renewable biofuels.Cell walls are made mostly of cellulose, a chain of sugar molecules. Cellulose is the most abundant organic [compound] on the planet, says bioengineer Shishir Chundawat of Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J. But we still dont know how its synthesized.Scientists want to understand how cellulose is made not only because its useful for many human-made materials including paper and cloth, but also so it can be more efficiently broken down into products like biofuels, says Rutgers plant biologist Eric Lam.Fibers of cellulose (illustrated in brown), which clumped together after short pieces were pumped out by plant cell enzymes (green), overlap to form a mesh over a round cell before morphing into a rigid, typically rectangular, cell wall. Ehsan Faridi/Inmywork Studio/Chundawat, Lee and Lam LabsLam, Chundawat and their colleagues took cells from the plant Arabidopsis thaliana and stripped away their walls. Because certain environmental conditions can harm cells, the team used a special microscope that minimized cells exposure to light, created a cooling system that kept cells at a balmy 18 Celsius and made a glowing molecular probe that stuck to fresh cellulose without interfering with wall-building. Fourteen wall-less cells were imaged every six minutes for about 24 hours as they regenerated their protective barriers. Some of the process was so speedy that additional cells were imaged at 20-second intervals for one to two hours.Fourteen cells from the Arabidopsis thaliana plant were imaged every six minutes for about 24 hours as they regenerated their cell walls. The glow shows cellulose, chains of sugar molecules, which is the cell walls primary component.The researchers identified four stages of cell wall development. First, enzymes in the cells outer layer pump out short pieces of cellulose that swim around on the cells surface, Lam says. Next, those fragments start to collide and attach to one another. Then, as the cellulose fibers continue to thicken and elongate, they also link up with perpendicular fibers to form a mesh. Finally, that mesh of cellulose keeps rearranging itself and compacting until it becomes a rigid, stable cell wall.Details about these steps, particularly the first that shows cellulose isnt produced as long strings, have remained a mystery since cell walls were first viewed through a microscope more than 300 years ago, says Rutgers biophysicist Sang-Hyuk Lee. The new study is a big step forward in terms of understanding the fundamentals of plant biology.

NewsParticle PhysicsPhysicists have confirmed a new mismatch between matter and antimatterCharge-parity violation occurs in a class of particles called baryons Two protons (indicated with ps) collide at the LHCb experiment, producing a lambda-b baryon comprised of three quarks dubbed up (u), down (d) and bottom (b) that decays into various other particles (colored lines).LHCb collaboration/arXiv.org 2025By Emily Conover13 seconds agoTheres a newfound mismatch between matter and antimatter. And that could bring physicists one step closer to understanding how everything in the universe came to be.For the most part, particles and their oppositely charged antiparticles are like perfect mirror images of one another. But some particles disobey this symmetry, a phenomenon known ascharge-parity, or CP, violation. Now, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva have spotted CP violation in a class of particles called baryons, where its never been confirmed before.Sign up for our newsletterWe summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

NewsHealth & MedicineA new antifungal drug works in a surprising wayMandimycin soaks up molecules that all forms of life share, yet appears to target only fungi Fungi, like this colony growing in a lab dish, are notoriously hard to treat. A newly discovered compound made by bacteria kills even fungi that are resistant to other antifungal drugs. The compound may one day become a drug if scientists can figure out why it doesn't also kill human cells and bacteria.TopMicrobialStock/iStock/Getty Images PlusBy Tina Hesman Saey25 seconds agoA newly discovered bacterial weapon against fungi can kill even drug-resistant strains, raising hopes for a new antifungal drug.Fungal infections have been spreading rapidly and widely in recent years, fueled in part by climate change. Some fungi, including Candida auris, have developed resistance to some highly effective antifungal drugs which have been in use for decades. So scientists have been searching for new drugs to keep fungi in check.Researchers in China may have found a new type of antifungal called mandimycin, the team reports March 19 in Nature. Mandimycin killed fungal infections in mice more effectively than amphotericin B and several other commonly used antifungal drugs. It even worked against resistant C. auris strains.Sign up for our newsletterWe summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

Skip to contentNewsArchaeologyNeandertal-like tools found in China present a mysteryA type of tool pioneered by European Neandertals may have traveled a continent away Multipurpose stone tools such as this one, found at a 60,000- to 50,000-year-old Chinese site, closely resemble implements made by European and western Asian Neandertals.Hao LiBy Bruce Bower1 hour agoStone tools traditionally attributed to European and western Asian Neandertals have turned up nearly a continent away in southern China.Artifacts unearthed at a river valley site called Longtan include distinctive stone cutting and scraping implements and the rocks from which these items were struck. Until now, such items have been linked only to geographically distant Neandertals, says a team led by archaeologists Qi-Jun Ruan and Hao Li of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing.Sign up for our newsletterWe summarize science breakthroughs every Thursday.

Skip to contentNewsClimateSplitting seawater offers a path to sustainable cement productionThe technique could convert cement manufacture from carbon superemitter to carbon sequesterer Cement production (shown) accounts for a fourth of the worlds carbon emissions. But a new technique using seawater splitting might make its production carbon-negative.bfk92/E+/Getty Images PlusBy Carolyn Gramling1 hour agoA new cement-making process could shift production from being a carbon source to a carbon sink, creating a carbon-negative version of the building material, researchers report March 18 in Advanced Sustainable Systems. This process might also be adaptable to producing a variety of carbon-stashing products such as paint, plaster and concrete.Cement production is a huge contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions, responsible for about 8 percent of total CO2 emissions, making it the fourth-largest emitter in the world. Much of that carbon comes from mining for the raw materials for concrete in mountains, riverbeds and the ocean floor.Sign up for our newsletterA summary of major breakthroughs delivered every Thursday.

NewsAstronomyA nebulas X-ray glow may come from a destroyed giant planetX-ray emission could offer a way to explore the cataclysmic final chapters of planets In the Helix Nebula, X-rays (blue in this composite false-color image) from a white dwarf at the center (not visible) heat a surrounding envelope of dust and gas (yellow). JPL-Caltech/NASABy Robin George Andrews36 seconds agoThe decades-long mystery of a never-ending explosion of X-rays around the remains of a dead star may have finally been solved. The radiation probably originates from the scorching-hot wreckage left behind by a giant planets annihilation.This discovery stems from four decades of X-ray observations of the Helix Nebula, located 650 light-years from Earth. The stream of X-ray radiation remained effectively constant over at least 20 years, researchers report in the January Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The best explanation, the scientists say, is that the ruins of a Jupiter-sized world continuously fall onto the nebulas white dwarf star, getting frazzled and glowing in X-rays.

Skip to contentNewsArtificial IntelligenceAI is helping scientists decode previously inscrutable proteinsThe tools could help uncover better cancer treatments, illuminate rare diseases and more New AI tools to detect and describe previously undiscovered proteins have the potential to improve disease treatments and boost our basic biological knowledge.Annekatrine Kirketerp-MlleBy Lauren Leffer37 seconds agoGenerative artificial intelligence has entered a new frontier of fundamental biology: helping scientists to better understand proteins, the workhorses of living cells.Scientists have developed two new AI tools to decipher proteins often missed by existing detection methods, researchers report March 31 in Nature Machine Intelligence. Uncovering these unknown proteins in all types of biological samples could be key to creating better cancer treatments, improving doctors understanding of diseases, and discovering mechanisms behind unexplained animal abilities.

Letters to the EditorReaders talk science dioramas, an underwater volcano eruption, a zero-less number systemBy Science News Staff39 seconds agoOn displayMuseum experts are exploring how to bring the science dioramas of yore into the 21st century, while ensuring scientific accuracy and acknowledging past biases, freelance writer Amber Dance reported in The diorama dilemma.Reader Gary Hoyle reminisced about his time working as an exhibits artist and curator of natural history at the Maine State Museum. Hoyle recounted working with esteemed diorama painter Fred Scherer and learning about another renowned diorama artist, James Perry Wilson.

Science News has been covering nuclear physics since our earliest incarnation, starting with scientists effort to decode the secrets of the atom. In the 1930s, readers learned about the discovery of the positron and scientists first splitting of a uranium atom. The first sustained nuclear reaction followed soon after, in a repurposed squash court at the University of Chicago in 1942.By then, what had once been a pursuit of basic knowledge had become a desperate wartime race to develop a nuclear weapon. The United States won that race. In 1945, U.S. forces dropped two atomic bombs on Japan that destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hastening the end of World War II.

NewsEarth3 things to know about the deadly Myanmar earthquakeThe Sagaing Fault region has a long history of devastating earthquakes A magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck March 28 in neighboring Myanmar turned this building in Bangkok, Thailand, into a mountain of collapsed concrete and twisted rubble, and a gargantuan task for rescue workers.Anusak Laowilas/NurPhoto/AP PhotoBy Carolyn Gramling35 minutes agoA powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked central Myanmar on March 28 at about 12:50 p.m. local time, leaving at least 144 people confirmed dead so far and triggering widespread damage across both Myanmar and Thailand. Buildings collapsed, roads broke and at least one dam and a bridge crumbled. A magnitude 6.4 aftershock followed just 10 minutes later.With both countries declared disaster areas, international aid workers are scrambling to prepare supplies and assess the death toll and damages. Marie Manrique, Myanmar program coordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told reporters March 28 that the organization is particularly concerned about damages to public infrastructure, including large-scale dams.Volunteers look for survivors on March 28 in a damaged building in Myanmars capital city, Naypyidaw, about 245 kilometers from the quakes origin in Mandalay.Aung Shine Oo/AP PhotoAn earthquakes devastation is the result not only of its magnitude, but also its location and depth: Shallow quakes, even if theyre less powerful, can cause intense shaking at the ground surface, posing threats to infrastructure in populated areas. This quake had a trifecta of dangers: It was powerful; shallow, with the epicenter at just 10 kilometers depth; and in a heavily populated region with vulnerable buildings and other structures.Here are three things to know about how and why this earthquake occurred.

NewsGeneticsWoolly mice were just a start. De-extinction still faces many hurdlesSuccess with mice does not guarantee success with elephants Cute, yes. But is this woolly mouse really a step toward bringing woolly mammoths back?Colossal BioscienceBy Jason Bittel9 seconds agoScientists working to unlock the secrets of de-extinction recently announced what they say is a turning point for the movement: the creation of transgenic mice with long, luxurious golden locks of tufted fur inspired by the coats of woolly mammoths.Theyre called Colossal woolly mice. And yes, they are cute to boot.Transgenic mice those that have had their genomes altered through genetic engineering are not new. But whats novel is the ability to engineer eight edits across seven genes and to do so simultaneously in one animal. The researchers also note that across three experiments, each of which used different combinations of edits, the method worked with high efficiency, resulting in living animals that presented the traits they were bred for.

SpaceStar Warsholds clues to making speedier spacecraft in the real worldEngineers are exploring propulsion methods that could enable longer-distance travel Perhaps someday spacecraft will be able to take humans beyond the solar system.GLENN HARVEYBy Aaron Tremper1 hour agoPilots in Star Wars enter a dimension, hyperspace, to travel between distant worlds. To merge onto this cosmic highway, ships are equipped with special engines called hyperdrives. With the push of a lever, the spacecraft zooms faster than the speed of light, traversing between star systems in just hours or days. Han Solo and his sidekick Chewbacca make the jump to hyperspace look easy (at least when the Millennium Falcon is in working order).But Star Wars breaks the laws of physics to achieve such a feat. Off-screen, the technology to reach another star system doesnt yet exist. However, emerging propulsion methods could brighten the future of interstellar travel.

NewsQuantum PhysicsPhysicists are mostly unconvinced by Microsofts new topological quantum chipThe evidence for Majorana qubits didnt win over many skeptics at the Global Physics Summit Microsofts topological quantum chip, the Majorana 1 (pictured), could be a boon to quantum computing, but some physicists are skeptical that the chip does whats claimed.MicrosoftBy Emily Conover8 seconds agoANAHEIM, CALIF. At the worlds largest gathering of physicists, a talk about Microsofts claimed new type of quantum computing chip was perhaps the main attraction.Microsofts February announcement of a chip containing the first topological quantum bits, or qubits, has ignited heated blowback in the physics community. The discovery was announced by press release, without publicly shared data backing it up. Aconcurrent paper inNaturefell short of demonstrating a topological qubit. Microsoft researcher Chetan Nayak, a coauthor on that paper, promisedto provide solid evidence during his March 18 talkat the American Physical Societys Global Physics Summit.

NewsMicrobesElite athletes poop may hold clues to boosting metabolismMice given fecal transplants from elite cyclists and soccer players had increased energy stores Cyclists sprint to the finish line at the European Championship 2024. Fecal transplants from a group of elite athletes boosted levels of a particular energy-storing molecule in mice.DIRK WAEM/BELGA MAG/AFP/Getty ImagesBy Alex Viveros50 minutes agoOne of the keys to performing like an elite athlete or at least having the metabolism of one may be pooping like one. Transplanting feces from certain top-level cyclists and soccer players into mice boosted levels of a molecule that fuels intense workouts, researchers report March 27 in Cell Reports.Our gut microbiota the collection of bacteria and other microorganisms living in our digestive tract play a crucial role in helping us digest food. When digestion goes terribly awry, a refresh of these gut bacteria may provide relief. Fecal microbiota transplants, in which a donors poop is transplanted into another persons gut, have been used to treat inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions.

When the countdown hit zero on September 23, 1992, the desert surface puffed up into the air, as if a giant balloon had inflated it from below.It wasnt a balloon. Scientists had exploded a nuclear device hundreds of meters below the Nevada desert, equivalent to thousands of tons of TNT. The ensuing fireball reached pressures and temperatures well beyond those in Earths core. Within milliseconds of the detonation, shock waves rammed outward. The rock melted, vaporized and fractured, leaving behind a cavity oozing with liquid radioactive rock that puddled on the cavitys floor.As the temperature and pressure abated, rocks collapsed into the cavity. The desert surface slumped, forming a subsidence crater about 3 meters deep and wider than the length of a football field. Unknown to the scientists working on this test, named Divider, it would be the end of the line. Soon after, the United States halted nuclear testing.Beginning with the first explosive test, known as Trinity, in 1945, more than 2,000 atomic blasts have rattled the globe. Today, that nuclear din has been largely silenced, thanks to the norms set by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, or CTBT, negotiated in the mid-1990s.Only one nation North Korea has conducted a nuclear test this century. But researchers and policy makers are increasingly grappling with the possibility that the fragile quiet will soon be shattered.Some in the United States have called for resuming testing, including a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump. Officials in the previous Trump administration considered testing, according to a 2020 Washington Post article. And there may be temptation in coming years. The United States is in the midst of a sweeping, decades-long overhaul of its aging nuclear arsenal. Tests could confirm that old weapons still work, check that updated weapons perform as expected or help develop new types of weapons.Meanwhile, the two major nuclear powers, the United States and Russia, remain ready to obliterate one another at a moments notice. If tensions escalate, a test could serve as a signal of willingness to use the weapons.Testing has tremendous symbolic importance, says Frank von Hippel, a physicist at Princeton University. During the Cold War, when we were shooting these things off all the time, it was like war drums: We have nuclear weapons and they work. Better watch out. The cessation of testing, he says, was an acknowledgment that these [weapons] are so unusable that we dont even test them.Many scientists maintain that tests are unnecessary. What weve been saying consistently now for decades is theres no scientific reason that we need to test, says Jill Hruby, who was the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, during the Biden administration.Thats because the Nevada site, where nuclear explosions once thundered regularly, hasnt been mothballed entirely. There, in an underground lab, scientists are performing nuclear experiments that are subcritical, meaning they dont kick off the self-sustaining chains of reactions that define a nuclear blast.Workers prepare the diagnostics rack to monitor the underground explosion for the last U.S. nuclear test, called Divider, in the Nevada desert in 1992.Courtesy of Los Alamos National LaboratoryMany scientists argue that subcritical experiments, coupled with computer simulations using the most powerful supercomputers on the planet, provide all the information needed to assess and modernize the weapons. Subcritical experiments, some argue, are even superior to traditional testing for investigating some lingering scientific puzzles about the weapons, such as how they age.Others think that subcritical experiments and simulations, no matter how sophisticated, cant replace the real thing indefinitely. But so far, the experiments and detailed assessments of the stockpile have backed up the capabilities of the nuclear arsenal. And those experiments avoid the big drawbacks of tests.Sponsor MessageA single United States test could trigger a global chain reaction, says geologist Sulgiye Park of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit advocacy group. Other nuclear powers would likely follow by setting off their own test blasts. Countries without nuclear weapons might be spurred to develop and test them. One test could kick off a free-for-all.Its like striking a match in a roomful of dynamite, Park says.The rising nuclear threatThe logic behind nuclear weapons involves mental gymnastics. The weapons can annihilate entire cities with one strike, yet their existence is touted as a force for peace. The thinking is that nuclear weapons act as a deterrent other countries will resist using a nuclear weapon, or making any major attack, in fear of retaliation. The idea is so embedded in U.S. military circles that a type of intercontinental ballistic missile developed during the Cold War was dubbed Peacekeeper.Since the end of testing, the world seems to have taken a slow, calming exhale. Global nuclear weapons tallies shrunk from more than 70,000 in the mid-1980s to just over 12,000 today. That pullback was due to a series of treaties between the United States and Russia (previously the Soviet Union). Nuclear weapons largely fell from the forefront of public consciousness.Since the first nuclear weapons test in 1945, there have been more than 2,000 tests. In the 1960s, countries began performing tests underground over fears of radioactive fallout. In the 1990s, nuclear testing largely ended with the arrival of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. The only country to test nuclear weapons in the 21st century is North Korea. Its last known test was in 2017.But now theres been a sharp inhale. The last remaining arms-control treaty between the United States and Russia, New START, is set to expire in 2026, giving the countries free rein on numbers of deployed weapons. Russia already suspended its participation in New START in 2023 and revoked its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty to mirror the United States and a handful of other countries that signed but never ratified the treaty. (The holdouts prevented the treaty from officially coming into force, but nations have abided by it anyway.)Nuclear threats by Russia have been a regular occurrence during the ongoing war in Ukraine. And China, with the third-largest stockpile, is rapidly expanding its cache, highlighting a potential future in which there are three main nuclear powers, not just two.There is this increasing perception that this is a uniquely dangerous moment. Were in this regime where all the controls are coming off and things are very unstable, says Daniel Holz, a physicist at the University of Chicago and chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit that aims to raise awareness of the peril of nuclear weapons and other threats. In January, the group set its metaphorical Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to midnight the closest it has ever been.Some see the ability to test as a necessity for a world in which nuclear weapons are a rising threat. We are seeing an environment in which the autocrats are increasingly relying on nuclear weapons to threaten and coerce their adversaries, says Robert Peters, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. If youre in an acute crisis or conflict in which your adversary is threatening to employ nuclear weapons, you dont want to limit the options of the president to get you out of that crisis. Testing, and the signal it sends to an adversary, he argues, should be such an option.Peters advocates for shortening the time window for test preparations currently estimated at two or three years to three to six months. The Heritage Foundations Project 2025 calls for immediate test readiness.The United States regularly considers the possibility of testing nuclear weapons. Its a question that actually gets asked every year, says Thom Mason, director of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Los Alamos is one of the three U.S. nuclear weapons labs, alongside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. Each year, the directors of the three labs coordinate detailed assessments of the stockpiles status, including whether tests are needed.Up until this point, the answer has been no, Mason says. But if scientific concerns arose that couldnt be resolved otherwise or if weapons began unexpectedly deteriorating, that assessment could change.If a test were deemed necessary, exactly how long it would take to prepare would depend on the reasons for it. If youre trying to answer a scientific question, then you probably need lots of instrumentation and that could take time, Mason says. If youre just trying to send a signal, then maybe you dont need as much of that; youre just trying to make the ground shake.Studying nuclear weapons without testingThe area of the Nevada desert encompassing the test site is speckled with otherworldly Joshua trees and the saucer-shaped craters of past tests. In addition to 828 underground tests, 100atmospheric tests were performed there, part of whats now known as the Nevada National Security Sites. Carved out of Western Shoshone lands, it sits 120 kilometers from Las Vegas. Radioactive fallout from atmospheric tests, which ceased in 1962, reached nearby Indian reservations and other communities a matter that is still the subject of litigation.By moving tests underground, officials aimed to contain the nuclear fallout and limit its impact on human health. Before an underground test, workers outfitted a nuclear device with scientific instruments and lowered it into a hole drilled a few hundred meters into the earth. The hole was then filled with sand, gravel and other materials.As personnel watched a video feed from the safety of a bunker, the device was detonated. You see the ground pop, and you see the dust come up and then slowly settle back down. And then eventually you see the subsidence crater form. It just falls in on itself, says Marvin Adams, a nuclear engineer who was deputy administrator for NNSAs Defense Programs during the Biden administration. There was always a betting pool on how long that would take before the crater formed. And it could be seconds, or it could be days.Kilometers worth of cables fed information from the equipment to trailers where data were recorded. Meanwhile, stations monitored seismic signals and radioactivity. Later, another hole would be drilled down into the cavity and rock samples taken to determine the explosions yield.Today, such scenes have gone the way of the 90s hairstyles worn in photos of underground test preparation. Theyve been replaced by subcritical experiments, which use chemical explosives to implode or shock plutonium, the fuel at the heart of U.S. weapons, in a facility called the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation, PULSE.The experiments mimic what goes on in a real weapon but with one big difference. Weapons are supercritical: The plutonium is compressed enough to sustain chains of nuclear fission reactions, the splitting of atomic nuclei. The chain reactions occur because fission spits out neutrons that, in a supercritical configuration, can initiate further fissions, which release more neutrons, and so on. A subcritical experiment doesnt smoosh the plutonium enough to beget those fissions upon fissions that lead to a nuclear explosion.The PULSE facility consists of 2.3 kilometers of tunnels nearly 300 meters below the surface. There, a machine called Cygnus takes X-ray images of the roiling plutonium when its blasted with chemical explosives in subcritical experiments. X-rays pass through the plutonium and are detected on the other side. Just as a dentist uses an X-ray machine to see inside your mouth, the X-rays illuminate whats happening inside the experiment.Glimpses of such experiments are rare. A video of a 2012 subcritical experimentshows a dimly lit close-up of the confinement vessel that encloses the experiment over audio of a countdown and a piercing beeping noise, irritating enough that it must be signifying something important is about to happen. When the countdown ends, theres a bang, and the beeping stops. Thats it. Its a far cry from the mushroom clouds of yesteryear.This video shows a 2012 subcritical experiment at the PULSE facility in Nevada.The experiments are a component of the U.S.stockpile stewardship program, which ensures the weapons status via a variety of assessments, experiments and computer simulations. PULSE is now being expanded to beef up its capabilities. A new machine called Scorpius is planned to begin operating in 2033. It will feature a 125-meter-long particle accelerator that will blast electrons into a target to generate X-rays that are more intense and energetic than Cygnus, which will allow scientists to take images later in the implosion. Whats more, Scorpius will produce four snapshots at different times, revealing how the plutonium changes throughout the experiment.And the upcoming ZEUS, the Z-Pinched Experimental Underground System, will blast subcritical experiments with neutrons and measure the release of gamma rays, a type of high-energy radiation. ZEUS will be the first experiment of its kind to study plutonium.Subcritical experiments help validate computer simulations of nuclear weapons. Those simulations then inform the maintenance and development of the real thing. The El Capitan computer, installed for this purpose at Lawrence Livermore in 2024, is the fastest supercomputer ever reported.That synergy between powerful computing and advanced experiments is necessary to grapple with the full complexity of modern nuclear weapons, in which materials are subject to some of the most extreme conditions known on Earth and evolve dramatically over mere instants.To maximize the energy released, modern weapons dont stop with fission. They employ a complex interplay between fission and fusion, the merging of atomic nuclei. First, explosives implode the plutonium, which is contained in a hollow sphere called a pit. This allows fission reactions to proliferate. The extreme temperatures and pressures generated by fission kick off fusion reactions in hydrogen contained inside the pit, blasting out neutrons that initiate additional fission. X-rays released by that first stage compress a second stage, generating additional fission and fusion reactions that likewise feed off one another. These principles have produced weapons 1,000 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.To mesh simulations and experiments, scientists must understand their measurements in detail and carefully quantify the uncertainties involved. This kind of deep understanding wasnt as necessary, or even possible, in the days of explosive nuclear weapons test, says geophysicist Raymond Jeanloz of the University of California, Berkeley. Its actually very hard to use nuclear explosion testing to falsify hypotheses. Theyre designed mostly to reassure everyone that, after you put everything together and do it, that it works.Laboratory experiments can be done repeatedly, with parameters slightly changed. They can be designed to fail, helping delineate the border between success and failure. Nuclear explosive tests, because they were expensive, laborious one-offs, were designed to succeed.Stockpile stewardship has allowed scientists to learn the ins and outs of the physics behind the weapons. We pay attention to every last detail, Hruby says. Through the science program, we now better understand nuclear weapons than we ever understood them before.For example, Jeanloz says, in the era of testing, a quantity called the energy balance wasnt fully understood. It describes how much energy gets transferred from the primary to the secondary component in a weapon. In the past, that lack of understanding could be swept aside, because a test could confirm that the weapons worked. But with subcritical experiments and simulations, fudge factors must be eliminated to be certain a weapon will function. Quantifying that energy balance and determining the uncertainty was a victory of stockpile stewardship.This type of work, Jeanloz says, brought the heart and soul, the guts of the scientific process into the [nuclear] enterprise.Is there a need to test nuclear weapons?Subcritical experiments are focused in particular on the quandary over how plutonium ages. Since 1989, the United States hasnt fabricated significant numbers of plutonium pits. That means the pits in the U.S. arsenal are decades old, raising questions about whether weapons will still work.An aging pit, some scientists worry, might cause the multistep process in a nuclear warhead to fizzle. For example, if the implosion in the first stage doesnt proceed properly, the second stage might not go off at all.Craters mark where nuclear devices were detonated underground at the Nevada National Security Sites.Karen Kasmauski/Corbis Documentary/Getty Images PlusPlutonium ages not only from the outside in akin to rusting iron but also from the inside out, says Siegfried Hecker, who was director of Los Alamos from 1986 to 1997. Its constantly bombarding itself by radioactive decay. And that destroys the metallic lattice, the crystal structure of plutonium.The decay leaves behind a helium nucleus, which over time may result in tiny bubbles of helium throughout the lattice of plutonium atoms. Each decay also produces a uranium atom that zings through the material and beats the daylights out of the lattice, Hecker says. We dont quite know how much the damage is and how that damaged material will behave under the shock and temperature conditions of a nuclear weapon. Thats the tricky part.One way to circumvent this issue is to produce new pits. A major effort under way will ramp up production. In 2024, the NNSA diamond stamped the first of these pits, meaning that the pit was certified for use in a weapon. The aim is for the United States to make 80 pits per year by 2030. But questions remain about new plutonium pits as well, Hecker says, as they rely on an updated manufacturing process.Hecker, whose tenure at Los Alamos straddled the testing and post-testing eras, thinks nuclear tests could help answer some of those questions. Those people who say, There is no scientific or technical reason to test. We can do it all with computers, I disagree strongly.But, he says, the benefits of performing a test would be outweighed by the big drawback: Other countries would likely return to testing. And those countries would have more to learn than the United States. China, for instance, has performed only 45 tests, while the United States has performed over 1,000. We have to find other ways that we can reassure ourselves, Hecker says.Other experts similarly thread the needle. Nuclear tests of the past produced plenty of surprises, such as yields that were higher or lower than predicted, physicist Michael Frankel, an independent scientific consultant, and colleagues argued in a 2021 report. While the researchers advise against resuming testing in the current situation, they expect that stockpile stewardship will not be sufficient indefinitely. Too many things have gone too wrong too often to trust Lucy with the football one more time, Frankel and colleagues wrote, referring to Charles Schulzs comic strip Peanuts. If we rely too much on computer simulations to conclude an untested nuclear weapon will work, we might find ourselves like Charlie Brown flat on our backs.But other scientists have full faith in subcritical experiments and stockpile stewardship. We have always found that there are better ways to answer these questions than to return to nuclear explosive testing, Adams says.What counts as a nuclear weapons test?For many scientists, subcritical experiments are preferable, especially given the political ramifications of full-fledged tests. But the line between a nuclear test prohibited by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and an experiment that is allowed is not always clear.The CTBT is a zero yield treaty; experiments can release no energy beyond that produced by the chemical explosives. But, Adams says, theres no such thing as zero yield. Even in an idle, isolated hunk of plutonium, some nuclear fission happens spontaneously. Thats a nonzero but tiny nuclear yield. Its a ridiculous term, he says. I hate it. I wish no one had ever said it.The United States has taken zero yield to mean that self-sustaining chain reactions are prohibited. U.S. government reports claim that Russia has performed nuclear experiments that surpass this definition of the zero yield benchmark and raise concerns about Chinas adherence to the standard. The confusion has caused finger-pointing and increased tensions.But countries might honestly disagree on the definition of a nuclear test, Adams says. For example, a country might allow hydronuclear experiments, which are supercritical but the amount of fission energy released is dwarfed by the energy from the chemical explosive. Such experiments would violate U.S. standards, but perhaps not those of Russia or another country.Even if everyone could agree on a definition, monitoring would be challenging. The CTBT provides for seismic and other monitoring, but detecting very-low-yield tests would demand new inspection techniques, such as measuring the radiation emanating from a confinement vessel used in an experiment.Underground tests are not risk-freeTests that clearly break the rules, however, can be swiftly detected. The CTBT monitoring system can spot underground explosions as small as 0.1 kilotons, less than a hundredth that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That includes the most recent nuclear explosive test, performed by North Korea in 2017.Despite being invisible, underground nuclear explosive tests have an impact. While an underground test is generally much safer than an open-air nuclear test, its not not risky, Park says.Underground nuclear tests can accidentally release radioactive fallout, as in the 1970 Baneberry test (shown) in Nevada.Courtesy of the National Nuclear Security AdministrationThe containment provided by an underground test isnt assured. In the 1970 Baneberry test in Nevada, a misunderstanding of the sites geology led to a radioactive plume escaping in a blowout that exposed workers on the site.While U.S. scientists learned from that mistake and havent had such a major containment failure since, the incident suggests that performing an underground test in a rushed manner could increase the risks for an accident, Park says.Hecker is not too concerned about that possibility. For the most part, I have good confidence that we could do underground nuclear testing without a significant insult to the environment, he says. Its not an automatic given. Obviously theres radioactive debris that stays down there. But I think enough work has been done to understand the geology that we dont think there will be a major environmental problem.While the United States knows its test sites well and has practice with underground testing, other countries might not be as knowledgeable, Hruby says. So if the United States starts testing and others follow, the chance of a non-containment, a leak of some kind, certainly goes up. A U.S. test, she says, is a very bad idea.Even if the initial containment is successful, radioactive materials could travel via groundwater. Although tests are designed to avoid groundwater, scientists have detected traces of plutonium in groundwater from the Nevada site. The plutonium traveled a little more than a kilometer in 30 years. To a lot of people, thats not very far, Park says. But from a geology time scale, thats really fast. Although not at a level where it would cause health effects, the plutonium had been expected to stay put.The craters left in the Nevada desert are a mark of each tests impact on structures deep below the surface. There was a time when detonating either above ground or underground in the desert seemed like well, thats just wasteland, Jeanloz says. Many would view it very differently now, and say, No, these are very fragile ecosystems, so perturbing the water table, putting radioactive debris, has serious consequences. The weight of public opinion is another hurdle. In the days of nuclear testing, protests at the site were a regular occurrence. That opposition persisted to the very end. On the day of the Divider test in 1992, four protesters made it to within about six kilometers of ground zero before being arrested.The disarmament movement continues despite the lack of testing. At a recent meeting of nuclear experts, the Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Arlington, Va., a few protesters gathered outside in the January cold, demanding that the United States and Russia swear off nuclear weapons for good. But that option was not on the meetings agenda. During a break between sessions, the song that played presumably unintentionally was Never Gonna Give You Up.

NewsGeneticsWhat 23andMes bankruptcy means for your genetic dataWe have still not figured out policies that are protective for people Millions of people have used DNA testing kits from 23andMe to trace family ties and to learn more about health conditions they may be susceptible to. The company filed for bankruptcy leaving customers wondering what to do about genetic data.ERIC BARADAT/AFP/Getty ImagesBy Tina Hesman Saey2 hours agoA genetic data giant is falling, and its unclear what will happen to millions of peoples most intimate personal information in the aftermath.On March 23, DNA testing company 23andMe announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a move intended to facilitate its sale along with the genetic data of over 15 million customers worldwide. A bankruptcy court hearing is set to begin March 26.The San Franciscobased company has been reeling since a 2023 data breach exposed ancestry information and, in some cases, health data of about 7 million users. Bankruptcy documents made public by 404 Media show that more than 50 class-action lawsuits followed.

NewsSpaceJWST spots the earliest sign yet of a distant galaxy reshaping its cosmic environsThe marker is an unexpected bubble that could signal cosmic reionization earlier than thought The extremely distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1 is the small red dot in the center of this image from the James Webb Space Telescope. New observations show the galaxy is emitting a surprising amount of ultraviolet light, indicating it is radically reshaping the cosmic landscape around it.JWST/ESA, NASA, STScI, CSA, JADES Collaboration, Brant Robertson/UC Santa Cruz, Ben Johnson/CfA, Sandro Tacchella/U. of Cambridge, Phill Cargile/CfA, J. Witstok, P. Jakobsen, A. Pagan/STScI, M. Zamani/JWST/ESA)By Lisa Grossman19 seconds agoThe James Webb Space Telescope has caught a distant galaxy blowing an unexpected bubble in the gas around it, just 330 million years after the Big Bang.The galaxy, dubbed JADES-GS-z13-1, marks the earliest sign yet spotted of the era of cosmic reionization, a transformative period in the universes history when the first stars and galaxies began to reshape their environment, astronomers report in the March 27 Nature.It definitely puts a pin in the map of the first point where [reionization] very likely has already started, says astrophysicist Joris Witstok at the University of Copenhagen. No one had predicted that it would be this early in the universes history.

NewsHealth & MedicineSurgeons transplanted a pigs liver into a humanThe gene-edited organ was hooked up inside the body of a brain-dead recipient This genetically modified miniature pig served as a liver donor for a brain-dead human recipient.K-S Taoet al./Nature 2025By Meghan Rosen17 seconds agoSurgeons have now published the first report ofa gene-edited pig liver transplantedinto a person.The liver, which came from a genetically modified pig, appeared to stay active, producing bile and liver proteins inside the brain-dead transplant recipient, researchers reported March 26 inNature. Such a transplant could one day buy time for people waiting on the liver transplant list. Doctors could potentially use the pig liver as bridge until a human liver is available or the patients liver has recovered, Lin Wang, a surgeon at Xijing hospital in Xi-an, China, said in a March 25 press briefing. It is our dream to achieve this, he said. Earlier this year his team also performeda different pig-to-human liver transplant, though the results from that surgery have not yet been published.

NewsAnimalsYou might be reading your dogs moods wrongContext may lead people to misread canine emotions, a small study suggests Human perception of canine emotions is strongly influenced by the overall context, not just body language such as wagging tails or licking lips, a study shows. The finding suggests that people may misinterpret how a dog is feeling. Daniel Garrido/Moment/Getty Images PlusBy Gennaro Tomma36 seconds agoMany dog owners can tell how their precious pooch is feeling, watching it wag its tail or raise its ears at least, they think they can.But peoples perception of canine emotions may be strongly influenced by environmental context around the dog, researchers report March 10 in Anthrozos.Animal welfare scientist Holly Molinaro filmed her father interacting with his dog, Oliver, a 14-year-old pointer-beagle mix, in a variety of situations. She filmed the dog in positive ones, such as being played with or praised, and negative ones, such as being around a cat or reprimanded.

In honor of April Fools Day, I offer the puzzling case of the Lesser Fool.In a fictional town, there lived an odd wanderer. People would present him with two amounts of money or goods and ask which is greater. Even though they offered to give him whichever amount he chose, the Fool would always select the smaller one.People came from afar just to test him. Whatever the currency, whatever the quantities, whatever convoluted form the question took, he picked the amount worth less and then strolled away cheerfully.The following are some of the questions the Lesser Fool was asked. Can you get them right?Which is greater, asked a business tycoon, twelve thousand and twelve dollars, or eleven thousand eleven hundred and eleven dollars?Which is greater, asked a grandmother, holding up a pie sliced finely enough to feed all of her grandchildren, 19/200 of this pie, or 29/300 of it?Which is worth more, asked a bank teller, 1 kilogram of quarters, or 25 kilograms of pennies?Which is greater, asked a clockmaker, a penny for every second in a month, or a penny for every hour in a century? (The Fool answered with mental math alone.)Which is greater, asked an engineer, the tenth root of $10, or the cube root of $2? (The Fool used pencil and paper for this one.)Consider these two envelopes, said a lawyer. The first contains $10 plus half of whats in the second. The second contains $20 minus half of whats in the first. Which envelope contains more money?Ive got an exciting but volatile fund, said a hedge fund manager. In our first year, we gained 90 percent. In our second year, we lost 50 percent. Would you rather have the amount we originally invested, or our current value?BONUS: One day, a child approached the Fool. To answer so reliably, you must know which amount is larger. So why do you always take the smaller? the child asked. And if youre called the Lesser Fool, whos the Greater Fool? The Fool only smiled. Can you answer the childs questions?Looking for answers? Go to sciencenews.org/puzzle-answers. Well publish science-themed crosswords and math puzzles on alternating months. Wed love to hear your thoughts. Email us at puzzles@sciencenews.org.

NewsAnimalsIs that shark ticking? In a first, a shark is recorded making noiseWhen handled, a small crustacean-munching shark from New Zealand clacked its teeth together This small shark, called a rig or smoothhound, could be the first shark documented to make deliberate sounds.Paul Caiger/University of AucklandBy Susan Milius41 seconds agoSharks may not be the sharp-toothed silent type after all.The clicking of flattened teeth, discovered by accident, could be the first documented case of deliberate sound production in sharks, evolutionary biologist Carolin Nieder, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, and colleagues propose March 26 in Royal Society Open Science.Humankind has been slow in picking up on sound communication among fishes, and many of their squeaks and rumbles have come to the attention of science in captive animals. For the many bony fishes, its no longer a surprise to detect various chirps, hums or growls. Yet the evolutionary sister-branch, sharks and rays, built with cartilage, have been slower to get recognized for sounding off. They have remarkable senses, such as detecting slight electric fields. In 1971, however, clicking was reported among cownose rays, and has since turned up in other rays.

NewsPlantsA nearly century-old dead date palm tree helped solve an ancestry mysteryThe iconic Cape Verde date palm comes from cultivated trees gone feral New data for a long-running debate on the origins of Cape Verdes treasured date palms raise questions about tweaking their scientific name.William J. Baker/Plants, People, Planet 2025By Susan Milius5 seconds agoWhat the island nation of Cape Verde cherishes as its own distinctive kind of date palm is getting an ancestry reveal.The Cape Verde date palm (Phoenix atlantica), native to the island nation its nicknamed for, is one of three trees there that dont grow in the wild anywhere else. The islands, scattered off western Africas big bulge, have six known species of native trees all together.Now a new DNA and seed-shape analysis adds weight to the idea that the remote palms arent desert-island wildlings at all. Researchers analyzed DNA from various Cape Verde date palms including a precious bit of the original 1934 specimen that a roving French botanist used to define the species.

NewsAnimalsA tardigrade protein helped reduce radiation damage in miceHumans undergoing similar radiation for cancer treatment often suffer painful side effects A protein unique to tardigrades (one shown here under a microscope) can help reduce DNA damage caused by radiation in mice.Videologia/iStock/Getty Images PlusBy Rohini Subrahmanyam40 seconds agoA protein found in tardigrades tiny animals less than a millimeter long can protect mice from radiation damage.Most cancer patients undergo radiation therapy as part of their treatment, often leading to devastatingly painful side effects. But there may be hope for mitigating some of that damage. Mice with cells engineered to produce a protective protein unique to tardigrades experienced reduced radiation damage, researchers report February 26 in Nature Biomedical Engineering.Radiation attacks the DNA of tumor cells, preventing tumor growth and eventually killing it. But it also damages the DNA of healthy tissue near the tumors, destroying those cells, too. People undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer can develop damaged throats or mouths, making eating and drinking extremely painful. Prostate cancer patients may experience rectal bleeding.

ReviewsHealth & MedicineTuberculosis could be eradicated. So why isnt it?John Greens new book unravels how social injustice sustains the disease Henry Reider, a survivor of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, makes videos to fight stigma surrounding the disease in Lakka, Sierra Leone. His story and those of others like him are the subject of John Greens new book. Henry ReiderBy Andrea Tamayo29 seconds agoEverything Is TuberculosisJohn GreenCrash Course Books, $28A few years ago, renowned author John Green met a boy named Henry at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. Henry was small and, at first glance, looked about 9 years old to Green. Everyone at the hospital seemed to know and love him, making Green believe he was the child of a health care worker. That is until staff revealed that Henry was a patient with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and that he was 17.

NewsAgricultureHow silicon turns tomato plants into mean, green, pest-killing machinesThe plants ooze a larval toffee that essentially starves tomato pinworm larvae The South American tomato pinworm (Tuta absoluta) is damaging tomato plants on four continents. Adding silicon nanoparticles might be a solution to combat the pests.Costas Metaxakis/AFP via Getty ImagesBy Sarah Schwartz1 hour agoSilicon powers more than electronics: In tomato plants, it fuels a complex defense system that could help farmers use fewer pesticides.Tomato plants on four continents are currently under attack from the South American tomato pinworm (Tuta absoluta), which destroys billions of dollars of crops each year. The impact can be particularly devastating for small-scale farmers in Africa, where the pest has invaded over the last decade, says chemical ecologist Baldwyn Torto of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya. These pinworms, also known as tomato leaf miners, have become resistant to heavily used chemical pesticides, says ICIPE molecular biologist Fathiya Khamis so new solutions are urgently needed.

ClimateBuying carbon credits to fight climate change? Heres what to knowProblems of additionality and leakage mean you might not be making the contribution you think More than 2 billion carbon credits have been sold on the voluntary carbon market. Critics question whether all of those credits have conferred true emissions savings.Illustration by Alex WilliamsonBy Alka Tripathy-Lang1 hour agoTaylor Swift may not be the first person who comes to mind when you think about climate change. But more than once, the singer has found herself in the middle of a media storm over her carbon dioxide emissions. Swift regularly hops aboard her private jet, as she did in 2024 to get from a concert in Tokyo to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas the next day. A spokesperson said that Swift purchases more than enough carbon credits to offset her jet-setting. But fans and haters alike want to know: Is it enough?If you travel by plane, even in less-glamorous economy, youve probably faced a similar question. Airlines often offer passengers the option to pay a few extra dollars to offset their share of the flights emissions. Its considered the climate-friendly thing to do. By purchasing carbon credits, youre paying someone somewhere to take some actionprobably saving an existing forest or perhaps planting treesthat reduces total global emissions enough to cover your contribution. You can take off without a guilty conscience. Supposedly.

NewsHealth & MedicineAvoidable deaths increased in the U.S. as they dropped elsewhereCompared with European Union countries and others, the United States is an outlier While avoidable deaths in the United States rose, on average, from 2009 to 2019, they trended down for European Union countries and others.David Sacks/Getty ImagesBy Aimee Cunningham1 hour agoIn the United States, the number of deaths that didnt have to happen has risen over time.From 2009 to 2019, the average rate of avoidable deaths rose by 33 per 100,000 people across the country, researchers report March 24 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Meanwhile, other countries trended down: Members of the European Union experienced an average decrease of 24 per 100,000 over the same time period. And countries that are part of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development which come from North America, South America, Europe and Asia reported an average decrease of 19 per 100,000.

The Deep End PodcastHealth & MedicineA deep brain stimulation volunteer discusses life after depression Jon Nelson is living what he calls his bonus life after recovering from severe depression.Aidan KahnBy Laura Sanders1 hour agoIn this bonus episode of The Deep End, listen to an interview with Jon Nelson. Hell share how hes doing these days, now that his depression is gone. Youll hear about the work still ahead of him, which may be lifelong. And youll hear about his plans for the future.TranscriptLaura Sanders: This podcast deals with mental illness, depression and suicide. Please listen with care.Hi listeners, were dropping into your feeds this week with a special bonus episode of The Deep End. Over the last six episodes, youve heard about some of the hardest parts of Jon Nelsons life. And some of the best parts too. Hes struggled through severe depression. He volunteered for an experimental treatment that involved brain implants, and now hes relearning how to live. For this bonus episode, were going to check in with Jon and see how hes doing these days. Youll hear more from him about what it was like to go through severe depression, and what its like now that hes out from under it, now that hes living what he calls his bonus life. Welcome to The Deep End. Im Laura Sanders.

One mans trash is a common coots treasure, at least when it comes to plastic.In Amsterdam, the birds have been constructing nests out of plastic food wrappers, masks and other waste for at least 30 years, researchers report in the February Ecology. The revelation shows not only how much plastic now litters the environment but also the power of using human-made products to learn about the natural world.Its ironic to think that many of these plastic single-use items have just been used for minutes by people, yet these coots have used them for decades, says Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a biologist at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, Netherlands.Hiemstra has been studying nesting materials used by city birds for years. Hes documented coots adding face masks to their nests during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic a building material that coots and other birds still use and found rebellious magpies and crows that built their homes out of antibird spikes. Many birds these days use human trash as nest-building material, Hiemstra says.In Amsterdam, common coots like this one build their nests out of plastic waste and other human-made materials.Auke-Florian HiemstraIn 2021, Hiemstra and colleagues excavated a common coot (Fulica atra) nest built on a wooden beam poking out of Rokin canal in Amsterdam. The nest had multiple layers of plastic waste, especially food packages. By analyzing the expiration dates on the coots collection, Hiemstra used the plastic the way an archaeologist would use fossils, to build a history of the nest layer by layer.Coots typically build their nests out of plant material that quickly decays, so the birds cant reuse nests year after year. With the incorporation of plastics, however, the nests become much more stable, so the coots can return to old nests and build upon their solid foundations.Expiration dates on wrappers helped researchers date nest layers and uncover how long the birds have been using plastic to build their nests. Auke-Florian HiemstraIn total, Hiemstras team found 15 nests that had plastic dating to multiple years, indicating the birds had been reusing them.Using expiration dates to understand nest history can be imprecise. Since plastic lasts so long, old pieces of it can find their way into recent nest layers. For instance, Hiemstra found a bag of paprika chips from a 1970s brand toward the top of one nest. But when packages with similar expirations are bunched together, Hiemstra says, it builds confidence that that part of the nest was constructed around that time.Sponsor MessageIn the deepest part of the Rokin nest, he found several wrappers dating to the early 1990s, including a Mars Bar wrapper promoting the 1994 FIFA World Cup.Weirdly enough, the wrapper is in pristine condition, as if it were littered yesterday, Hiemstra says. Yet you know it is 30 years old. It really shows plastic is here to stay.