For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that certain lichen species can survive Mars-like conditions, including exposure to ionizing radiation, while maintaining a metabolically active state.

Published in the journal IMA Fungus, a new study highlights the potential for lichens to survive and function on the Martian surface, challenging previous assumptions about the uninhabitable nature of Mars, and offering insights for astrobiology and space exploration.

Lichens are not a single organism, but a symbiotic association between a fungus and algae and/or cyanobacteria known for their extreme tolerance to harsh environments such as the Earth’s deserts and polar regio...

Could help determine which patients are likely to benefit from new Alzheimer’s drugs. A newly developed blood test for Alzheimer’s disease not only aids in the diagnosis of the neurodegenerative condition but also indicates how far it has progressed, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Lund University in Sweden.

Several blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease are already clinically available, incl...

Dark matter is a confounding concept that teeters on the leading edges of cosmology and physics. We don’t know what it is or how exactly it fits into our understanding of the universe. We only know that its unseen mass is a critical part of the cosmos.

Astronomers know dark matter exists. They can tell by the way galaxies rotate, by exploiting gravitational lensing, and by analyzing fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background. But new research suggests that there might be another way to detect its presence.

The research is “Dark Matter (S)pins the Planet,” and it’s available on the arXiv preprint server. Haihao Shi, from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the lead author. The co-authors are all from Chinese research institutions.

You may have heard of the fantastic-sounding “dark side of the genome.” This poorly studied fraction of DNA, known as heterochromatin, makes up around half of your genetic material, and scientists are now starting to unravel its role in your cells.

For more than 50 years, scientists have puzzled over the genetic material contained in this “dark DNA.” But there’s a growing body of evidence showing that its proper functioning is critical for maintaining cells in a healthy state. Heterochromatin contains tens of thousands of units of dangerous DNA, known as “transposable elements” (or TEs)...