By Ellyn Lapointe Published May 31, 2025 | Comments (0) | Researchers recovered this face-shaped rock from the San Lázaro rock-shelter in central Spain in 2022 © Álvarez-Alonso et al While digging inside a cave in the Spanish city of Segovia, archaeologists uncovered an unusual rock. The hand-sized stone naturally resembled an elongated face, and featured a spot of red pigment made from ochre right on the tip of what may be considered its nose.  “We were all thinking the same thing and looking at each other because of its shape: we were all thinking, ‘This looks like a face,’” David Álvarez Alonso, an archaeologist at Complutense University in Madrid who was part of the dig, told The Guardian. Álvarez Alonso and his colleagues spent the next three years studying this bizarre rock. The researchers posit that 43,000 years ago, a Neanderthal dipped their finger in ochre and pressed it onto the stone’s central ridge—leaving behind what is now considered to be the world’s oldest complete human fingerprint. It’s an intriguing finding that could have significant implications, but some experts would like to see more evidence to support this hypothesis.  The team published its findings in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences on Saturday, May 24. In the paper, the archaeologists state that the “strategic position” of the dot suggests it is evidence of Neanderthals’ “symbolic behavior.” In other words, it’s a piece of art that “could represent one of the earliest human face symbolizations in prehistory.” “The fact that the [rock] was selected because of its appearance and then marked with ochre shows that there was a human mind capable of symbolizing, imagining, idealizing and projecting his or her thoughts on an object,” the researchers write.  Whether Neanderthals were capable of making art is a subject of ongoing debate, co-author María de Andrés-Herrero, a professor of prehistory at Complutense University, told the BBC. But over the past decade, a growing body of evidence has led many experts to believe that artistic expression emerged earlier in human evolution than previously thought.  The authors of this new study think their stone adds to this evidence. To reach this conclusion, they first needed more data to support the idea that this ancient artist had actually experienced pareidolia: seeing a face in an inanimate object. To that end, they generated a 3D model of the stone’s surface and measured the distances between its features, finding that the red dot—or nose—was placed such that it accurately resembled an actual nose on a human face.  Then, the researchers enlisted the help of geologists to characterize the red dot, confirming that it was made with ochre. Forensic police experts then used multispectral analysis—a technique that can reveal details invisible to the naked eye—to confirm that the red dot had been applied with a fingertip. Their analysis uncovered a fingerprint that could have belonged to an adult male Neanderthal inside the dot.  “Once we had that and all the other pieces, context and information, we advanced the theory that this could be a pareidolia, which then led to a human intervention in the form of the red dot,” Álvarez Alonso told The Guardian. “Without that red dot, you can’t make any claims about the object.” But Gilliane Monnier, a professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota who studies Neanderthal behavior, is not totally convinced by the researchers’ findings. “The fact that there are these natural depressions—and that we can measure the distance between them and argue that it’s a face—that’s all well and good,” Monnier, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Gizmodo. “But that doesn’t give us any indication that the Neanderthals who [occupied this cave] saw a face in that [rock].”  What’s more, she is skeptical of the researchers’ claim that the red dot was actually made with a human fingertip. It’s possible, she said, that the coloring and fingerprint-like ridges formed naturally. “I would be interested in seeing an explanation by a geologist—someone trained in geology—saying the likelihood of this forming by natural, geological or geomicrobial processes is a very low likelihood,” Monnier said.  The researchers, too, acknowledge that “it is unlikely that all doubts surrounding this hypothesis can be fully dispelled,” and state that the pareidolia hypothesis should not be seen as a definitive claim, but rather a possible explanation for this object based on the evidence. So it’s hard to say whether this study clarifies or complicates our understanding of how the human mind evolved the ability to create art. The face-shaped rock is an intriguing piece of the puzzle, but more research is needed to figure out where it fits. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Margherita Bassi Published May 28, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published May 27, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published May 25, 2025 By Natalia Mesa Published May 13, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published May 8, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published April 23, 2025

From August 23rd - September 14th, 2023 (Kodiak, Alaska to Seward, Alaska), NOAA Ocean Exploration conducted Seascape Alaska 5: Gulf of Alaska Remotely Operated Vehicle Exploration and Mapping (EX2306), a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and mapping expedition to the Gulf of Alaska on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Operations during this 23-day expedition included the completion of 19 successful remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives, which were conducted in water depths ranging from 253.1 m to 4261.5 m for approximately 87 hours of bottom time and resulted in the collection of 383 samples. EX2306 also collected more than 28,000 sq. km of seafloor bathymetry and associated water column data using an EM 304 multibeam sonar. These images were captured on dives that were included in the source data for the How Little We’ve Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor paper. They are good general reference imagery for the type of deep ocean observations captured by ROVs.(Image Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration)NewsletterSign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsKey Takeaways on Deep Ocean Exploration: We have visually explored less than 0.001 percent of the deep sea floor. To put that in perspective, 66 percent of the planet is deep ocean, and 99.999 percent of that ocean is unknown to us.Like ecosystems on land, the sea has a complex food web. Most of life in the sea depends on detritus, mostly phytoplankton, falling down from the surface, something called “marine snow.”Organisms that live in shallow water absorb carbon dioxide and take that with them when they sink to the bottom, often to be buried in deep-sea sediment. This is known as a carbon sink. It’s important to know the rates at which this happens, because this partially offsets the carbon we’re adding to the atmosphere. It’s been said many times that we know more about the moon than our own ocean. But is it really true that we’ve explored only a tiny portion of the sea?Katy Croff Bell wondered about this, too. Bell is an oceanographer and the founder of the Ocean Discovery League. She knew that Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and others have been operating deep-sea submersibles like Alvin for decades, and there are facilities in 20 or so places around the world doing deep-sea research. But how much of the sea floor have these projects actually explored visually, not just mapped or sampled?Mapping the Deep OceanBell started looking up dive data and doing some math. “I stayed up way too late and came up with a very, very tiny number,” she recalls. She didn’t believe her own results and got everyone she could think of to double-check her math. But the results held. Over the next four years, she and her team compiled a database of dives from organizations and individuals around the world, and the data support her initial estimate. The number is indeed tiny. It turns out that we have visually explored less than 0.001 percent of the deep sea floor. To put that in perspective, 66 percent of the planet is deep ocean, and 99.999 percent of that ocean is unknown to us. Bell and her team published their findings in May 2025 in the journal Science Advances.Why Deep Sea Exploration MattersFrom July 14 - July 25, 2023, NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners conducted the third in a series of Seascape Alaska expeditions on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Over the course of 12 days at sea, the team conducted 6 full remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives, mapped nearly 16,000 square kilometers (6,180 square miles), and collected a variety of biological and geological samples. When combined with numerous biological and geological observations, data from the Seascape Alaska 3: Aleutians Remotely Operated Vehicle Exploration and Mapping expedition will help to establish a baseline assessment of the ocean environment, increase understanding of marine life and habitats to inform management decisions, and increase public awareness of ocean issues. These images were captured on dives that were included in the source data for the How Little We’ve Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor paper. They are good general reference imagery for the type of deep ocean observations captured by ROVs. (Image Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration)About 26 percent of the ocean has been mapped with multi-beam sonar, explains Bell, and that gives us an idea of the shape of the ocean floor. But that’s like looking at a topographical map of an area you’re planning to hike. You know where the hills and valleys are, but you have no idea what kind of plants and animals you’re likely to encounter. If you want to understand the deep ocean, you need to get down there and see what kind of rocks and sediment are there, learn about the corals and sponges and other animals living there, she says. Samples of ocean life are helpful, but they do not give anything like a full picture of the life-forms in the deep sea, and more importantly, they tell you little about the complex ecosystems they’re a part of. But when you put mapping and sampling together with visual data, plus data about temperature, depths, and salinity, Bell says, you start to build a picture of what a given ocean habitat is like, and eventually, the role of that habitat in the global ocean system.The Deep-Sea "Snow" That Provides LifeFrom August 23rd - September 14th, 2023 (Kodiak, Alaska to Seward, Alaska), NOAA Ocean Exploration conducted Seascape Alaska 5: Gulf of Alaska Remotely Operated Vehicle Exploration and Mapping (EX2306), a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and mapping expedition to the Gulf of Alaska on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Operations during this 23-day expedition included the completion of 19 successful remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives, which were conducted in water depths ranging from 253.1 m to 4261.5 m for approximately 87 hours of bottom time and resulted in the collection of 383 samples. EX2306 also collected more than 28,000 sq. km of seafloor bathymetry and associated water column data using an EM 304 multibeam sonar. These images were captured on dives that were included in the source data for the How Little We’ve Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor paper. They are good general reference imagery for the type of deep ocean observations captured by ROVs. (Image Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration)Like ecosystems on land, the sea has a complex food web. Most of life in the sea depends on detritus, mostly phytoplankton, falling down from the surface, something called “marine snow,” explains James Douglass, an ecologist at Florida Gulf Coast University who studies life on the sea bed. This snow of nutrients is eaten by what are called suspension feeders, including filter feeders, such as sponges and corals, which have tentacles or basket-like appendages to trap the snow. Then other organisms, such as crabs and worms, feed on these creatures. The crabs and worms, in turn, are eaten by fish. Deposit feeders, such as the sea pig, a type of sea cucumber that “trundles across the bottom eating mud all day,” add to the already huge variety of life, Douglass says. The types of organisms you have in the deep sea depend on how deep it is, whether the sea floor is rocky or muddy, how quickly currents bring food, and whether there are underwater hot springs or cold seeps, or other sources of extra energy, says Douglass. So yes, it’s a complicated world down there, and there’s an awful lot we don’t yet know.Deep-Sea Ecosystems and Climate Change From July 14 - July 25, 2023, NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners conducted the third in a series of Seascape Alaska expeditions on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Over the course of 12 days at sea, the team conducted 6 full remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives, mapped nearly 16,000 square kilometers (6,180 square miles), and collected a variety of biological and geological samples. When combined with numerous biological and geological observations, data from the Seascape Alaska 3: Aleutians Remotely Operated Vehicle Exploration and Mapping expedition will help to establish a baseline assessment of the ocean environment, increase understanding of marine life and habitats to inform management decisions, and increase public awareness of ocean issues. These images were captured on dives that were included in the source data for the How Little We’ve Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor paper. They are good general reference imagery for the type of deep ocean observations captured by ROVs. (Image Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration)Learning about ocean ecosystems is extremely valuable as basic science. But it has a more urgent purpose as well. Though we often think of the land and the sea as two completely separate places, they are intertwined in many significant ways. The ocean has absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat and 30 percent of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humans, says Bell. “But we don’t really have a good understanding of how this is going to impact deep-sea ecosystems, and those ecosystems play a vital role in the process of carbon sequestration,” she says.When it comes to climate change, the deep sea has a lot to teach us. In parts of the deep sea, Douglass explains, nothing disturbs the layers of sediment that are deposited slowly over the course of thousands, even millions of years. Geologists can interpret the layers and study the fossils preserved in them to get an understanding of what the conditions of the planet were like in the distant past, similar to the way climatologists study Antarctic ice cores. “We've learned things about how the ocean ecosystem changes when climate changes. We've learned that some worrying things can happen under certain climate conditions in the deep ocean,” Douglass says. “For example, the ocean can become less oxygenated, which would be a catastrophic threat to deep-sea life.”The Deep Ocean and Climate RegulationAnd, of course, there’s carbon dioxide. “The deep sea is not just a passive record of what happened to the climate; it’s involved in regulating climate,” Douglass says. Organisms that live in shallow water absorb carbon dioxide and take that with them when they sink to the bottom, often to be buried in deep-sea sediment. This is known as a carbon sink. Douglass says it’s very important to know the rates at which this happens, because this partially offsets the carbon we’re adding to the atmosphere. “Deep-sea carbon storage is a huge element in our understanding of the planet's ability to regulate climate,” he adds.If we are to truly understand the way the entire planet works, we need to understand the deep sea and its complex ecosystems as well as life on land and in the shallows. And to do that, Bell says, we need to get down there and look.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Science Advances. How little we’ve seen: A visual coverage estimate of the deep seafloorAvery Hurt is a freelance science journalist. In addition to writing for Discover, she writes regularly for a variety of outlets, both print and online, including National Geographic, Science News Explores, Medscape, and WebMD. She’s the author of Bullet With Your Name on It: What You Will Probably Die From and What You Can Do About It, Clerisy Press 2007, as well as several books for young readers. Avery got her start in journalism while attending university, writing for the school newspaper and editing the student non-fiction magazine. Though she writes about all areas of science, she is particularly interested in neuroscience, the science of consciousness, and AI–interests she developed while earning a degree in philosophy.1 free article leftWant More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/monthSubscribeAlready a subscriber?Register or Log In1 free articleSubscribeWant more?Keep reading for as low as $1.99!SubscribeAlready a subscriber?Register or Log In

While Europe races to phase out fossil fuels and electrify everything from cars to heating systems, it’s turning a blind eye to a reliable and proven source of clean energy lying right beneath our feet.  Geothermal energy offers exactly what the continent needs most: clean, local, always-on power. Yet, it only accounted for 0.2% of power generation on the continent in 2024. Something needs to change. The recent blackout in Spain, triggered by a failure in the high-voltage grid, serves as a warning shot. While solar and wind are vital pillars of decarbonisation, they’re variable by nature. Without steady, around-the-clock sources of electricity, Europe risks swapping one form of energy insecurity for another. A much bigger wake-up call came in 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For years, European governments had built an energy system dependent on imports of natural gas. When that stack of cards shattered, it triggered an energy crisis that exposed the vulnerable underbelly of Europe’s power system.  The answer to these problems lies, in part, a few kilometres underground. According to the International Energy Agency, geothermal energy has the potential to power the planet 150 times over. But it’s not just about electricity — geothermal can also deliver clean, reliable heat. That makes it especially valuable in Europe, where millions of homes already rely on radiators and district heating systems, many of them still powered by natural gas. Geothermal plants also come with a smaller footprint. They require far less land than an equivalent solar farm or wind park. What’s more, the materials and infrastructure needed to build them — like drilling rigs and turbines — can be largely sourced locally. That’s a sharp contrast to solar panels and batteries, most of which are imported from China.   Geothermal energy is not theoretical. It doesn’t require scientific breakthroughs. We’ve been drilling wells and extracting energy from the Earth for centuries. The know-how exists, and so does the workforce. Decades of oil and gas exploration have built a deep bench of geologists, drillers, reservoir engineers, and project managers. Instead of letting this expertise fade, we can redeploy it to build geothermal plants. The infrastructure, such as drilling rigs, can also be repurposed for a cleaner cause. Geothermal could be the ultimate redemption arc for oil and gas. Sure, drilling deep isn’t cheap — yet. But a new crop of startups is rewriting the playbook. Armed with everything from plasma pulse drills to giant radiators, these companies could finally crack the cost barrier — and make geothermal available pretty much anywhere. Just as SpaceX disrupted a sclerotic rocket industry with its cheap launches, these startups are poised to succeed where the geothermal industry has failed.  All that’s missing is investment. While billions are being funnelled into high-risk technologies like fusion or nuclear fission reactors, funding for geothermal tech is minuscule in comparison, especially in Europe. Yet, unlike those technologies, geothermal is ready right now.   If Europe wants to achieve climate neutrality and energy sovereignty, it must stop ignoring geothermal. We need bold investment, regulatory reform, and a clear signal to industry: don’t let geothermal become a forgotten renewable. Grid failures, missed climate targets, deeper energy dependence — these are the risks Europe faces. It’s time to start drilling, before it’s too late.  Want to discover the next big thing in tech? Then take a trip to TNW Conference, where thousands of founders, investors, and corporate innovators will share their ideas. The event takes place on June 19–20 in Amsterdam and tickets are on sale now. Use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the checkout to get 30% off. Story by Siôn Geschwindt Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehic (show all) Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehicles, he's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. He has five years of journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. When he's not writing, you can probably find Siôn out hiking, surfing, playing the drums or catering to his moderate caffeine addiction. You can contact him at: sion.geschwindt [at] protonmail [dot] com Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

While the base game of Monster Hunter Wilds allows you to customize your hunter, Palico, and Seikret, the game’s first Title Update also added customization for Alma. Your handler can now try on some new outfits and even swap between pairs of glasses. Unfortunately, there isn’t much explanation about how to attain these new styles, and her glasses are locked behind an optional quest that’s easy to get lost in.Suggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher Share SubtitlesOffEnglishNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go HigherScreenshot: Capcom / Samuel Moreno / KotakuThere are currently three alternate outfit choices in addition to Alma’s default look. However, you can only permanently unlock Alma’s other outfits by downloading them from your platform’s store. Naturally, you can grab these from the store before jumping in for a session, but there is also a method to do it in-game as well. Simply head to a Support Deck Palico at one of the base camps or in the Grand Hub. Then, go into the Add-Ons section and keep an eye out for these options:Scrivener’s Coat: Alma’s outfit from the game’s prologue. Can be downloaded for freeNew World Commission Outfit:Gives Alma the default handler look from Monster Hunter World. This will cost you $5.99Spring Blossom Kimono: A special themed outfit Alma can freely wear during the Festival of Accord: Blossomdance event. It can also be permanently unlocked by purchasing it for $5.99Once you’ve downloaded either one, head into any tent. Scroll over to the right to access the Appearance Menu, select Change Appearance, and then select Change Alma’s Outfit. You’ll be taken to a new menu where you can choose between her default and newly downloaded outfits.Screenshot: Capcom / Samuel Moreno / KotakuAlma doesn’t have as many customization options as everyone else, but she can change out her glasses. The only catch is that you need to unlock them through a new optional quest first. Talking to Alma in the new update will start a dialogue where she exclaims that her new glasses are gone. She deduces that they might have gotten lost in the Scarlet Forest, which starts off the Apple of Her Eye side quest.Your first destination is the Wudwud Hideout in the Scarlet Forest. Head over there and talk to Thunk, a Wudwud standing near the hideout’s entrance. They’ll tell you that any lost items can usually be found down the river. A marker will appear on your map, although it might be hard to see if you’re like me and leave your map cluttered. The quickest way there is to travel to the Scarlet Forest Base Camp in Area One and then take a quick Seikret ride north.It won’t take long before you come across a marked Wudwud, who will then point you further down the river. After a quick walk, you’ll find one of his adorable fellows wearing Alma’s glasses upside-down. This new little guy will immediately run off toward the Wudwud hideout. Return there and talk to Thunk again; he’ll tell you that your best option is to ask the others when they’re having festivities. They won’t be holding their festivities until the nighttime during a season of plenty. Taking a Rest to adjust the season and time is the quickest way to set this up.Head up to the top of the hideout when the conditions are met. Talk to all the Wudwuds to receive some items, open up some trade routes, and get information on Ayejack, the one who has the glasses. Their hints will piece together that he’s asleep below. Without a quest marker to assist, this is where things get a little confusing.To find the sleeping Ayejack, you’ll have to jump back down to the main level of the Wudwud hideout. The hanging pouches made up of leaves and vines are what serve as their beds. Ayejack can be found across from the item trading Musharpeye, inside a pouch that’s close to the giant tree. A quest marker will finally pop up once you’ve gotten close to him.Unfortunately, finding and waking him up is only the penultimate part of this quest. He’ll only give up the glasses if you give him some Eastern Honey in return. These are the best ways to gather it if you need any:From capturing VigorwaspsOccasional rewards for Event QuestsRare drop from gathering HoneyTrade with Ren, located at Sild - The Keeper’s Vigil in WyveriaTrade with Gawdygog, located at the Wudwud Hideout in the Scarlet ForestTalk to him when you have some to complete the trade. The quest ends with Alma happy to have her new red spectacles and more than willing to wear them. The next time you visit a tent to change her outfit, there will be an option to change the glasses to these red ones or a bonus set of square ones.Additionally, you can also craft these two new glasses as High Rank armor for your hunter. You can find them under Strategist Spectacles and Square Glasses. They’re pretty useful for gathering with fully leveled Geologist and Botanist skills.If it’s anything like previous entries, Monster Hunter Wilds is sure to add plenty of cosmetic DLC. We’ll likely see new outfits for Alma as well, but I probably wouldn’t bet on many more freebies..

This Deposit of ‘Weird’ Cretaceous Amber Could Reveal Hints to Long-Forgotten Tsunamis in Japan A new study highlights the potential of amber fossils to capture evidence of powerful, prehistoric ocean waves A tsunami might have occured some 115 million years ago, near where deposits of Cretaceous amber were found in Japan. Wikimedia Commons under CC0 1.0 Scientists in Japan have uncovered amber deposits that may hold elusive evidence of tsunamis that occurred between 114 million and 116 million years ago. Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports last week. The researchers stumbled upon the amber—fossilized tree resin—by chance while collecting rocks from a sand mine in Hokkaido, an island in northern Japan. The deposit would have been on the seafloor when it was formed during the Cretaceous period. “We found a weird form of amber,” says lead author Aya Kubota, a geologist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan, to Katherine Kornei at Science News. The scientists analyzed the resin with a technique called fluorescence imaging, in which they snapped photos of the remains under ultraviolet light. This helped them see how the amber was separated by layers of dark sediment, creating shapes known as “flame structures.” The unusual pattern arises when soft amber deforms before completely hardening. “Generally, they will form when a denser layer gets deposited on top of a softer layer,” says Carrie Garrison-Laney, a geologist at Washington Sea Grant who was not involved in the study, to Science News. The researchers suggest this is evidence that the resin rapidly traveled from land while it was still malleable and solidified underwater. A tsunami could be what swept the trees from land to the ocean so quickly, the study authors write. If true, this could offer scientists a potential new technique for finding prehistoric tsunamis. “Identifying tsunamis is generally challenging,” Kubota explains to Live Science’s Olivia Ferrari in an email. Tsunami deposits are easily eroded by the environment, and they can also be hard to distinguish from deposits caused by other storms. But in this case, “by combining detailed field observations with the internal structures of amber, we were able to conclude that the most plausible cause was tsunamis.” Cretaceous amber deposits (a, b, d, e) and fossilized driftwood (c) examined in the study Kubota, Aya et al., Scientific Reports, 2025, under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Other evidence also bolsters the researchers’ conclusion: A massive, nearby landslide offers a sign that an earthquake may have occurred around the same time the amber formed, and displaced mud and tree trunks were found in the same sediments—all signs of a violent tsunami. The trunks didn’t show any signs of erosion by shallow water-dwelling marine creatures, suggesting they were carried quickly out to sea. The vegetation found in the fossil deposit suggests multiple tsunamis occurred within the span of two million years, reports Hannah Richter for Science. But Garrison-Laney tells Science News that more evidence is needed to prove the amber is linked to a tsunami. She’s not sure the Cretaceous tree resin would have stayed soft once it hit the cold ocean water. “That seems like a stretch to me,” she tells the publication, adding that research on more of the area’s amber deposit will be needed to confirm the findings. With further study, scientists could use amber-rich sediments as a way to identify tsunamis throughout history. “Resin offers a rare, time-sensitive snapshot of depositional processes,” Kubota tells Live Science. Previously, scientists have found tiny crustaceans, prehistoric mollusks and even hell ants encased in the orangey resin, a window into worlds past. Now, “the emerging concept of ‘amber sedimentology’ holds exciting potential to provide unique insights into sedimentological processes,” Kubota adds to Live Science. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. More about: Fossils Japan New Research Oceans Tsunami

Trace amounts of precious metals found in volcanic rock appear to come from the Earth's inner core. Credit: Deposit Photos Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Contrary to conspiracy theories, the Earth’s core isn’t hollow. The dense, hot ball instead contains a stew of precious metals including platinum, ruthenium, and pretty much all of the planet’s gold. As lucrative as that sounds, there’s essentially no way humanity will ever access this natural treasure chest buried beneath more than 1,850  feet of solid rock. But according to recent discoveries made at volcanoes in Hawai’i, trace amounts of some of those coveted metals are seeping up from the planet’s deepest reaches. “When the first results came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold,” Nils Messling, a geochemist at Göttingen University, said in a statement. “Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into Earth’s mantle above.” Messling and collaborators explained their findings in a study published on May 21 in the journal Nature. The team recently detected trace amounts of the precious metal ruthenium while analyzing volcanic rock samples collected across the islands of Hawai’i. More specifically, they noted the unexpected presence of the ruthenium isotope, ¹⁰⁰Ru. “Unexpected” is the key word there. While ¹⁰⁰Ru does exist in Earth’s mantle, it’s slightly more abundant inside of the core—alongside 99.999 percent of the planet’s gold and other precious metals. That’s because during the planet’s formation about 4.5 billion years ago, some of the ruthenium that is locked inside Earth’s core originated from a different source than the small amount found in the mantle today. The discrepancies between these two forms of ruthenium is so slight that the equipment used by geologists to study these isotopes hasn’t been able to tell the two apart. However, researchers at Göttingen University in The Netherlands recently developed new isotopic analysis methods that allowed them to do just that. In differentiating between these two types of the same isotope, the team discovered that some of Hawai’i’s volcanic basalts contain an unusually high ¹⁰⁰Ru signal meaning it must have originated from near the core-mantle-boundary.   The ramifications are significant: Earth’s core, once thought inaccessible, is ejected at least small amounts up towards the surface during volcanic eruptions. “We can now also prove that huge volumes of super-heated mantle material—several hundreds of quadrillion metric tons of rock—originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to Earth’s surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii,” added study co-author Matthias Wilbold. The question now isn’t if this unexpected process happens—it’s a question of if and when it’s happened in the past. “Our findings open up an entirely new perspective on the evolution of the inner dynamics of our home planet,” added Messling.

May 19, 20253 min readHuge Reservoirs of Clean Hydrogen Could Power Earth for 170,000 YearsRecent breakthroughs suggest that hydrogen reservoirs are buried in countless regions of the world, including at least 30 U.S. statesBy Sascha Pare & LiveScience Finding reservoirs of hydrogen in Earth's crust could help accelerate the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Simon Dux/Alamy Stock PhotoRecent breakthroughs suggest that hydrogen reservoirs are buried in countless regions of the world, including at least 30 U.S. states.Finding such reservoirs could help accelerate a global energy transition, but until now, geologists only had a piecemeal understanding of how large hydrogen accumulations form — and where to find them."The game of the moment is to find where it has been released, accumulated and preserved," Chris Ballentine, a professor and chair of geochemistry at the University of Oxford and lead author of a new review article on hydrogen production in Earth's crust, told Live Science in an email.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Ballentine's new paper starts to answer those questions. According to the authors, Earth's crust has produced enough hydrogen over the past 1 billion years to meet our current energy needs for 170,000 years. What's still unclear is how much of that hydrogen could be accessed and profitably extracted.In the new review, published Tuesday (May 13) in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, the researchers draw up an "ingredient" list of geological conditions that stimulate the creation and build-up of natural hydrogen gas belowground, which should make it easier to hunt for reservoirs."The specific conditions for hydrogen gas accumulation and production are what a number of exploration companies (e.g. Koloma, funded by a consortium led by Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy fund, Hy-Terra funded by Fortescue, and Snowfox, funded by BP [British Petroleum] and RioTinto) are looking at carefully and this will vary for different geological environments," Ballentine said.Natural hydrogen reservoirs require three key elements to form: a source of hydrogen, reservoir rocks and natural seals that trap the gas underground. There are a dozen natural processes that can create hydrogen, the simplest being a chemical reaction that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen — and any type of rock that hosts at least one of these processes is a potential hydrogen source, Ballentine said."One place that is attracting a lot of interest is in Kansas where a feature called the mid continental rift, formed about 1 billion years ago, created a huge accumulation of rocks (mainly basalts) that can react with water to form hydrogen," he said. "The search is on here for geological structures that may have trapped and accumulated the hydrogen generated."Based on knowledge of how other gases are released from rocks underground, the review's authors suggest that tectonic stress and high heat flow may release hydrogen deep inside Earth's crust. "This helps to bring the hydrogen to the near surface where it might accumulate and form a commercial resource," Ballentine said.Within the crust, a wide range of common geological contexts could prove promising for exploration companies, the review found, ranging from ophiolite complexes to large igneous provinces and Archaean greenstone belts.An ophiolitic landscape in Italy's Sondrio province. The rocks are rich in iron, which gives them a reddish-brown color.Michele D'Amico supersky77/Getty ImagesOphiolites are chunks of Earth's crust and upper mantle that once sat beneath the ocean, but were later thrust onto land. In 2024, researchers discovered a massive hydrogen reservoir within an ophiolite complex in Albania. Igneous rocks are those solidified from magma or lava, and Archaean greenstone belts are up to 4 billion-year-old formations that are characterized by green minerals, such as chlorite and actinolite.The conditions discussed in the review are the "first principles" for hydrogen exploration, study co-author Jon Gluyas, a professor of geoenergy, carbon capture and storage at Durham University in the U.K., said in a statement. The research outlines the key ingredients that companies should consider when developing their exploration strategies, including processes through which hydrogen might migrate or be destroyed underground."We know for example that underground microbes readily feast on hydrogen," co-author Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a professor of Earth sciences at the University of Toronto, said in the statement. So environments where bacteria could come in contact with hydrogen-producing rocks may not be great places to look for reservoirs, Sherwood Lollar said.Hydrogen is used to make key industrial chemicals such as methanol and ammonia, which is a component in most fertilizers. The gas could also aid the transition away from fossil fuels, as hydrogen can power both cars and power plants.But hydrogen today is produced from hydrocarbons, meaning manufacture of the gas comes with huge carbon emissions. "Clean" hydrogen from underground reservoirs has a much smaller carbon footprint, because it occurs naturally.Earth's crust produces "plenty of hydrogen," Ballentine said, and it is now a question of following the ingredient list to find it.Copyright 2025 LiveScience, a Future company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

OpinionMay 14, 20255 min readFederal Budget Cuts Would Sabotage NASA’s Plans to Find Alien LifeNASA’s astrobiology ambitions are at risk of collapsing under the White House’s proposed budget. But your voice can make a differenceBy Michael L. Wong An artist’s illustration of a potentially habitable exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star. NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterWe’ve never been so close to discovering life beyond Earth. Our generation could be the one that finds it—provided two essential ingredients exist. First, that there’s life out there. Second, that we’re willing to look.Alien life’s existence is outside our control, but the universe seems to encourage our attention. Many people rest their optimism about alien life on the remarkable fact that our cosmos is brimming with planetary possibilities. To date, we’ve discovered nearly 6,000 exoplanets, most of them around only the nearest of the Milky Way’s hundreds of billions of stars. That means all our astonishingly successful planet-hunting surveys have studied just a mere teardrop of a vast cosmic sea—and implies there are at least as many planets as stars in our galaxy alone, plus some 1025 worlds in the rest of the observable universe. Chances are we’re not alone—so long as the probability that planets spring forth life is not astronomically miniscule.Discovering alien life, on the other hand, rests squarely on us. For the first time in human history, we can meaningfully answer once-timeless questions. Countless generations before us could only ask “Are we alone?” as passive stargazers. Today our rockets reliably reach otherworldly destinations, our robotic emissaries yield transformative knowledge about our planetary neighbors, and our telescopes gaze ever farther into the heavens, revealing the subtle beauty of the cosmos.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.NASA has led the way on this work, but it now faces an existential threat in the form of short-sighted budget cuts proposed by the White House. If passed into law by Congress, these cuts would axe critical space missions, gut NASA’s workforce, and abandon one of the most captivating quests in all of science. Additional sweeping cuts planned for the National Science Foundation would be similarly ruinous for ground-based astronomy and a host of other endeavors that support NASA’s work at the high frontier.Led by NASA, for more than a half-century the U.S. has been building toward a golden age of astrobiology, a field of research the space agency helped invent. The groundwork was laid on Mars, beginning with the Viking missions of the 1970s and continuing into today, where the agency has “followed the water” to dried-up lakebeds. In 2014 NASA’s Curiosity rover uncovered clues pointing to an ancient, life-friendly Mars, and more recently NASA’s Perseverance rover has been caching promising rock samples for return to Earth. Researchers eagerly await their arrival, because if Mars ever did harbor life, then some of Perseverance’s specimens may well contain some sort of Martian fossils.Besides our own familiar Earth, Mars isn’t the only promising incubator of life around the sun. In the outer solar system, NASA’s Galileo probe and Cassini orbiter lifted the icy veils of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, respectively. Beneath thick shells of ice, both moons harbor global subsurface oceans, which could be teeming with bacterial or even macroscopic denizens. NASA’s Clipper spacecraft launched in 2024 and is hurtling toward Europa, where it will make close flybys of the moon to assess its habitability. The agency has developed concepts for follow-on missions to land on both worlds and taste the chilly chemistry there for the telltale signs of life.Every organism on Earth requires liquid water, but perhaps that’s not a strict requirement elsewhere. Astrobiologists speculate about “weird life” in Venus’s sulfuric acid clouds and in the liquid hydrocarbon seas of Saturn’s frigid moon Titan. NASA plans to visit each of these worlds with state-of-the-art spacecraft—two to Venus and one to Titan—in the 2030s.And then there’s the great expanse of exoplanets. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has furnished unprecedented data about exoplanet atmospheres, most of them hot and puffy—the easiest to observe. But the most alluring exoplanets for astrobiologists—those the size and temperature of Earth—are just beyond our sight. Currently, teams of scientists are conceptualizing NASA’s next great eye in space, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, whose mission is as its name suggests: to image and examine dozens of notionally Earth-like planets for the global exhalations of alien biospheres.Taken together, these recent developments mean we could be at the doorstep of the next Copernican revolution, the next paradigm shift, the next epoch of human discovery.But the president’s recently proposed budget for the 2026 federal fiscal year strikes NASA’s Science Mission Directorate with a devastating 47 percent cut. Many of the boldest, most transformative space missions will be on the chopping block if the proposal passes. It specifically defunds the Mars Sample Return project, a cancellation that would squander billions of dollars and decades of investment. It also cancels the upcoming missions to Venus, which would investigate how the only other Earth-sized planet in our solar system turned out so drastically different from our own. And it scraps the launch of the already-built Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a project which among other things is a proving ground for imaging technologies essential to future exoplanet investigations; the loss of Roman would render prospects for the Habitable Worlds Observatory perilously dim. Also at grave risk are funding sources for brilliant early-career scientists working to make astrobiology’s future as bright as can be.NASA simply cannot continue its trend of breakthrough discoveries on only half its present budget. As talent departs the U.S. and organizational memory fades, brain drain will doom its global leadership in space science in what experts have called an “extinction-level event.”And because there is no profit-driven incentive for discovering life on a distant world, corporate entities cannot and will not fill NASA’s void. SpaceX is great at building rockets, not robotic geologists on wheels. Commercial rocket companies hone their success by reliably building the same product over and over again, but most every NASA exploration mission must do something new.A mentor of mine once described astrobiology as “a gateway drug to science.” Astrobiology invites anyone—regardless of age or background—to cultivate curiosity, creativity, humility and patience. It motivates collaboration across fields and across borders. Even if we never discover life beyond Earth, astrobiology would still offer humanity a profound gift, allowing us to marvel as never before at our existence on this lonely and precious blue-green dot.So, we must choose to do astrobiology. That means you, dear reader, have the power to influence this field’s fate. Whether through contacting elected officials, informing your friends and family about NASA’s precarious position, or simply sharing your love for space exploration, your actions can make a difference in humanity’s search for life in the universe.In the best of times, we have only a few opportunities per generation to launch revolutionary space missions, let alone ones that could forever change our sense of place in the cosmos—and perhaps even our destiny. Now we have just a fleeting moment to prevent a multigenerational disaster. If we fail, we’ll lose the future of astrobiology and all the insight it could bring.Worst of all, we wouldn’t even know what we’d be missing.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are solely their own and not those of any organization they are affiliated with or necessarily those of Scientific American.

Geologists turned to tiny bubbles to investigate the dynamics driving magma flow beneath Hawaii’s volcanoes as the country’s islands drift northwest on a tectonic plate. They found that, as the islands slip away from the hotspot that fuels Kiluaea on the “Big Island, magma flow not only slows, but shifts deeper underground," according to a report in the journal Science Advances.“This challenges the old idea that eruptions are fueled by magma stored in the Earth’s crust and suggests a new possibility that magma is stored and matures in the Earth’s mantle, and eruptions are fueled from this deep mantle reservoir,” Esteban Gazel, a Cornell University scientist and author of the paper, said in a press release.Understanding Volcano EruptionsTo reach this conclusion, scientists employed a technique that will help increase understanding of what causes eruptions and help them predict those events more accurately. They focused on tiny gas bubbles that become trapped inside crystals within magma — a phenomenon called “fluid inclusion.” Calculating the pressure and depth at which those bubbles are captured gives scientists more precise information about magma’s activity.“The technology allows us to measure pressure from depths with an uncertainty as small as just hundreds of meters, which is very, very precise for depths that are tens of kilometers below the surface,” Gazel said in the release. “Before this, measuring magma storage was much more difficult, with uncertainties that could span kilometers.”Read More: 5 of the Most Explosive Volcanic EruptionsLooking at Different Volcano Life StagesThe scientists applied the method to samples from three Hawaiian volcanoes that are at different stages of their “lives.” Kilauea’s magma was stored at relatively shallow depths of about a mile, as predicted. They found two magma storage areas beneath Haleakala — a shallow one just over a mile down, and a deeper one at 12 to 16 miles in the Earth’s mantle. Diamond Head on the island of O’ahu, showed magma storage around 13 to 18 miles deep, all within the Earth’s mantle.“Knowing these depths precisely matters, because to understand the drivers of eruptions, one of the most important constraints is where magma is stored,” Gazel said in the release. “That is fundamental for physical models that will explain eruptive processes and is required for volcanic risk assessment.”Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Science Advances. Crustal to mantle melt storage during the evolution of Hawaiian volcanoesBefore joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Fine soil particles once encased in ice were discovered in a cave about 20,000 years after the frozen sheet melted. This sediment is significant both for what it tells us about the past and what it could forecast for the future, according to an article in the journal Nature Geoscience.The sediment found in an Alaskan cave was likely once part of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which melted at the end of the last Ice Age. Most of that ice — along with the sediment contained within it — ended up in the oceans. Finding traces of it on land is extremely rare.“This is the first evidence of land-based meltwater events from this ice-sheet,” Paul Wilcox, a geologist at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and an author of the paper, said in a press release. “In a way, the cave acted as a kind of time capsule that preserved the sediments for thousands of years.”Preserving Ice Age LifeTwo aspects of the sediment help tell the story of Ice Age life. First, scientists detected plant pollen within the particles. That provides indirect evidence of biological refuges — even during peak ice coverage “[…] in which plants could survive even under extreme climatic conditions,” Daniela Festi, a pollen researcher with GeoSphere Austria and an author of the paper, said in a press release.The sediment also contained quartz — convenient because the presence of that mineral makes determining the particles’ age possible using a method that can detect when it was last exposed to sunlight. But more importantly, it also shows that the sediment must have been transported quite a distance before being deposited, since the cave is in a limestone region, where quartz would generally be scarce or non-existent.Glacial Meltwater and Climate ChangesDating the sediment allows scientists to look to the past to forecast the future. Although the Cordilleran Ice Sheet almost certainly melted due to a change in the Earth’s position relative to the sun, that alone doesn’t account for the ice’s backward retreat from western North America. Other forces must have contributed.Data from the last Ice Age show signs that glacial meltwater repeatedly pulsed into the North Atlantic. That cycle likely further disrupted the region’s heat and contributed to further warming.“This supports the hypothesis that climate changes in the Northeast Pacific were a prerequisite for the shifts observed in the North Atlantic,” Wilcox said in the release.Understanding how these events happened over space and time could inform us about the future. Continued warming could lead to similar increased freshwater flowing into the oceans. That, in turn, could disrupt circulation systems that impact temperature.The researchers plan to investigate additional Alaskan caves and compare the sediment archives to each other. That could provide a more detailed picture of the past ice sheet’s melting dynamics — and perhaps provide a glimpse into how a similar event could affect climate in the future.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.