Uranus And Neptune May Not Be 'Ice Giants' After All, Study Suggests <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/UranusIceGiantVsRockGiant.jpg" alt="Cutaway illustration comparing the interiors of two ice giant planets, showing layered blue outer shells and contrasting cores, with one planet featuring a smaller dark core and the other a larger rocky core against a space background."/>Decades of assumptions could be wrong.

ScienceAlert

Uranus And Neptune May Not Be &#039;Ice Giants&#039; After All, Study Suggests

Although they are technically gas giants, Uranus and Neptune are referred to as "ice giants" due to their composition.

Earth Estimated to Lose 3,000 Glaciers a Year at 'Peak Extinction' <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/peak_glacier_extinction_header.jpg" alt="glacier at sunset"/>That's not even a worst-case scenario.

ScienceAlert

Earth Estimated to Lose 3,000 Glaciers a Year at &#039;Peak Extinction&#039;

Thousands of glaciers will vanish each year in the coming decades, leaving only a fraction standing by the end of the century unless global warmin...

Psilocybin Breaks Depressive Cycles by Rewiring The Brain, Study Suggests <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/AbstractBranchesOfDifferentColorsSwirlingAtConnection.jpg" alt="Psilocybin Breaks Depressive Cycles by Rewiring The Brain, Study Suggests"/>It's not just a hallucinogen.

ScienceAlert

Psilocybin Breaks Depressive Cycles by Rewiring The Brain, Study Suggests

Scientists have used a specially engineered virus to help track the brain changes caused by psilocybin in mice, revealing how the drug could be bre...

DNA Study Reveals Carrier of World's Earliest-Known Plague <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/mouflon-sheep.jpg" alt="DNA Study Reveals Carrier of World's Earliest-Known Plague"/>A significant clue.

ScienceAlert

DNA Study Reveals Carrier of World&#039;s Earliest-Known Plague

A plague that swept through Eurasia for 2,000 years – millennia before the Black Death of the Middle Ages – has only ever been detected in huma...

Parcopresis Restricts Where People Can Poop. Here's Why It's a Problem. <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/toilet_door_header.jpg" alt="gender sign on a toilet door"/>Germans have a word for this kind of thing.

ScienceAlert

Parcopresis Restricts Where People Can Poop. Here&#039;s Why It&#039;s a Problem.

Poop anxiety, bashful bowels, shy bowel syndrome: they&#039;re all terms for what&#039;s medically known as parcopresis or difficulty pooping when ...

JWST Catches Record-Breaking Planet Sprouting Two Enormous Tails <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/IM_01-Illust-WASP_121b-4K-scaled-1.jpg" alt="illustration of exoplanet WASP-121b, or Tylos, with its double helium tail spanning nearly 60 percent of its orbit around its parent star."/>Tylos is one weird world.

ScienceAlert

JWST Catches Record-Breaking Planet Sprouting Two Enormous Tails

About 880 light-years from Earth, a hot mess of an exoplanet is slowly spilling its atmosphere into space, creating two enormous tails of helium th...

Expert Explains How to Prepare For Wave of UK 'Super Flu' <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/superflu_UK_header.jpg" alt="H3N1 virus particles"/>It's not unprecedented.

ScienceAlert

Expert Explains How to Prepare For Wave of UK &#039;Super Flu&#039;

The NHS is facing severe pressure this winter as flu cases surge earlier than usual, with some calling it "super flu".

Poor Sleep Can Trigger a Vicious Cycle Your Brain Can't Break, Experts Warn <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/WomanWithInsomniaInBlueLight.jpg" alt="Woman awake in bed, with a clock showing 3 am in the backgound"/>It’s important to get help.

ScienceAlert

Poor Sleep Can Trigger a Vicious Cycle Your Brain Can&#039;t Break, Experts Warn

Imagine you got a rough night of sleep.

Our Brains Can Still Outsmart AI Using One Clever Trick <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/brain_beats_AI_header.jpg" alt="human brain pink background"/>Take note, ChatGPT.

ScienceAlert

Our Brains Can Still Outsmart AI Using One Clever Trick

Despite the rapid advances in artificial intelligence in recent years, the humble human brain still has the edge over computers in its ability to t...

Viking-Age Grave Reveals a Burial Unlike Anything Seen Before <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/viking-shells.jpg" alt="Viking-Age Grave Reveals a Burial Unlike Anything Seen Before"/>Why was she buried this way?

ScienceAlert

Viking-Age Grave Reveals a Burial Unlike Anything Seen Before

The discovery of a Viking-age burial in Trøndelag, Norway, has presented archaeologists with a historical mystery.

Scientists Analyzed The Obituaries of 38 Million Americans. Here's What They Found. <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/TreeGrowingInto1800sGravestone.jpg" alt="Scientists Analyzed The Obituaries of 38 Million Americans. Here's What They Found."/>The values that shape our lives.

ScienceAlert

Scientists Analyzed The Obituaries of 38 Million Americans. Here&#039;s What They Found.

Obituaries preserve what families most want remembered about the people they cherish most.

Meet The Latest Deep-Sea Horror: Meat-Eating 'Death-Ball' Sponges <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/1-Carnivorous-Tree-Sponge-The-Nippon-Foundation-Nekton-Ocean-Census_Schmidt-Ocean-Institute-%C2%A9-2025.jpg"/>SpongeBall DeathPants.

ScienceAlert

Meet The Latest Deep-Sea Horror: Meat-Eating &#039;Death-Ball&#039; Sponges

Sponges are some of the simplest and least dangerous animals on Earth, but a new species seems to be shooting for a cooler reputation.

This Insanely Long Ribbon Worm Turns Out to Be The Oldest on Record <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/RibbonWorm.jpg" alt="This Insanely Long Ribbon Worm Turns Out to Be The Oldest on Record"/>Incredible!

ScienceAlert

This Insanely Long Ribbon Worm Turns Out to Be The Oldest on Record

Biologist Jon Allen is the proud owner of the world&#039;s oldest ribbon worm on record.

Short Videos Could Have an Insidious Effect on Children's Brains <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/short_videos_children_header.jpg" alt="girl lying down, looking at a phone"/>Attention hijacked.

ScienceAlert

Short Videos Could Have an Insidious Effect on Children&#039;s Brains

Online short-form video has shifted from a light distraction to a constant backdrop in many children&#039;s lives.

This Week in Science: Cats Meow More at Men, Depression Relief, And More! <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/TWIS-Cat.jpg"/>Our weekly science news roundup.

ScienceAlert

This Week in Science: Cats Meow More at Men, Depression Relief, And More!

This week in science: sleep found to be a key factor in life expectancy; cats meow twice as much at men as at women; a quick-acting relief for depr...

A Hidden Brain State Before Sleep May Be The Key to Human Genius <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/Face-Sleeping-Surrounded-by-Color.jpg" alt="An abstract human face with eyes closed, morphed with bright colors"/>A creative sweet spot.

ScienceAlert

A Hidden Brain State Before Sleep May Be The Key to Human Genius

The Beatles&#039; song Yesterday was written in what psychologists refer to as the "hypnagogic state".

Dick Van Dyke Credits His Longevity to One Habit, And It's Backed by Science <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/51st-Annual-Daytime-Emmys-Awards-Dick-Van-Dyke.jpg" alt="close up high contrast image of Dick Van Dyke smiling at the 51st annual Daytime Emmys Awards"/>He turns 100 on December 13.

ScienceAlert

Dick Van Dyke Credits His Longevity to One Habit, And It&#039;s Backed by Science

Dick Van Dyke, the legendary American actor and comedian who starred in classics such as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, turns 100 on Dec...

2025's Best Meteor Shower Is About to Light Up The Sky – Here's Your Guide <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/Geminids-Meteors-Over-Kitt-Peak-National-Observatory.jpg" alt="A bright meteor shower above an observatory, image of the Geminids taken in 2023"/>May you gaze into clear skies.

ScienceAlert

2025&#039;s Best Meteor Shower Is About to Light Up The Sky - Here&#039;s Your Guide

December has arrived, and with it the year&#039;s peak meteor season for the northern hemisphere.

Scientists Explain Why You Wake Up Minutes Before Your Alarm <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/Brain-with-clock-on-background-split-into-night-sky-and-day-sky.jpg" alt="Brain with clock on background split into night sky and day sky"/>It might seem strange, but you didn't wake up by chance.

ScienceAlert

Scientists Explain Why You Wake Up Minutes Before Your Alarm

You&#039;ve probably experienced it – your alarm is set for 6:30am, yet somehow your eyes snap open a few minutes before it goes off.

Microplastics Can Spread Dangerous Pathogens, Scientists Warn <img width="1200" height="675" src="https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2025/12/PlasticTube.jpg" alt="Microplastics in a test tube"/>It's not always just plastic.

ScienceAlert

Microplastics Can Spread Dangerous Pathogens, Scientists Warn

Scientists are hard at work trying to assess the scale of our microplastic pollution problem and the likely health impacts.