Humans are creatures of rhythms. As far as we know, humans have always sung and always danced. We can recognise a song by its rhythm alone, regardless of whether it is played fast or slow.

We seem to have an almost effortless capacity to pick up on rhythmic patterns, and we have presumed this ability to require the very large and powerful human brain.

But our new research, published today in the journal Science, shows humans are not alone in mastering rhythm. Even the bumblebee, which has a brain the size of a sesame seed, has an ability to quickly learn abstract rhythms.

A world full of rhythms

Rhythms are everywhere in nature.

We hear them in the songs of birds and frogs and the ultrasonic hunting chirps of bats. And we see them in the flashing displays of fireflies, the rhythmic shakes of a peacock's tail, the waggle dances of honey bees and the courtship dances of fruit flies.

But, up to now, we have assumed these were innate rhythmic patterns: the animals are not learning a rhythm; they are simply rolling out an evolved behavioural program.

Theoretical discovery opens the door to building quantum computers with significantly reduced resources.

Quantum computers of the future may be closer to reality thanks to new research from Caltech and Oratomic, a Caltech-linked start-up company. Theorists and experimentalists teamed up to develop a new approach for reducing the errors that riddle today's rudimentary quantum computers. Whereas these machines were previously thought to require millions of qubits to work properly (qubits being the quantum equivalent to 1's and 0's in classical computers), the new results indicate that a fully realized quantum computer could be built with as few as 10,000 to 20,000 qubits. The need for fewer qubits means that quantum computers could, in theory, be operational by the end of the decade.

The team proposes a new quantum error-correction architecture that is significantly more efficient than previous approaches. Quantum error correction is a process by which extra, redundant qubits are introduced to correct errors, or faults, enabling the ultimate goal in the field: fault-tolerant quantum computing.

The results exploit special properties of quantum computing platforms built out of neutral atoms, which serve as the qubits. Alternative platforms in development include superconducting circuits and trapped ions (ions are charged whereas neutral atoms are not). In a neutral atom system, laser beams known as optical tweezers are used to arrange atoms into qubit arrays.

Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) could shine brightly in the evenings after April 4, but only if it survives a very close encounter with the sun.
A rare "sungrazer" comet is about to pass very close to our star and could become visible in daylight — or it could completely disintegrate before our eyes. Either way, there could be something special to see in the night sky, with a large tail potentially visible late this week.

Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was discovered Jan. 13 by French astronomers at the AMACS1 Observatory in Chile. Although the comet was initially thought to have a nucleus measuring around 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) wide, astronomers later reduced the estimate to under 0.25 miles (0.4 km) based on James Webb Space Telescope observations taken in February.

C/2026 A1 (MAPS) belongs to a special family of comets called Kreutz "sungrazers," so called because they get very close to the sun, lighting up brightly but often breaking into smaller pieces. There are around 3,500 members of the Kreutz family, all of which are thought to be fragments of a single giant comet that got too close to the sun about 1,700 years ago, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com.

Using preliminary data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scientists have discovered over 11,000 new asteroids. The data were confirmed by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC), making this the largest single batch of asteroid discoveries submitted in the past year. The discoveries were made using data from Rubin's early optimization surveys and offer a powerful preview of the observatory's transformative impact on solar system science.

The submission to MPC comprises approximately one million observations, taken over the span of a month and a half, of over 11,000 new asteroids and more than 80,000 already-known asteroids, including some that had previously been observed but were later "lost" because their orbits were too uncertain to predict their future locations. You can interact with all of Rubin's asteroid discoveries in the Rubin Orbitviewer, which uses real data to provide an intuitive way to explore the structure of our cosmic backyard in three dimensions and in real time.

Remains from three Stone Age children in Vietnam may challenge long-standing ideas about the origin of syphilis, scientists say.
Archaeologists in Vietnam have made a discovery that could rewrite scientists' understanding of where syphilis originated.

The team found the Stone Age skeletons of three people who had a debilitating bacterial disease that left marks on their bones and teeth. This disease is in the same family as syphilis, and the discovery of it in prehistoric Vietnam could challenge the idea that syphilis-like diseases originated in the Americas.

In a study published March 13 in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, the researchers documented three cases of congenital treponematosis at two Neolithic sites in Vietnam dating to around 4,100 to 3,300 years ago. Treponemal diseases are a group of infections caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum. These diseases, caused by different subspecies of the bacterium, include syphilis, bejel and yaws.

For decades, researchers believed that of these diseases, only syphilis could be spread through congenital transmission, meaning from parent to child during pregnancy, study first author Melandrie Vlok, a lecturer in anatomy and physiology at the Charles Sturt University, told Live Science in an email. The assumption has been used to back the claim that syphilis originated in the Americas, after previous research found that 5,500-year-old remains of children carried bacteria related to syphilis alongside signs of congenital infection, Vlok said.

But importantly, "none of this DNA is actually syphilis," she noted. This distinction matters as evidence of congenital infection by the bacteria has long been seen as evidence of syphilis itself.

"Our new research flips the script," Nicola Czaplinski, a doctoral candidate in health sciences at the University of Notre Dame Australia, said in an email to Live Science. According to their findings, "congenital transmission isn't unique to syphilis."

Medieval Ibiza was far from a quiet Mediterranean backwater. New DNA evidence shows that the island was part of a dynamic world linking Europe, North Africa and even the Sahel zone, south of Sahara. An international research team led from the Centre for Palaeogenetics (CPG), a joint venture between Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, has revealed that its population was remarkably diverse, connected to Europe, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa through trade, migration, and social networks. The study is published in Nature Communications.
By analysing ancient DNA from 13 individuals buried in a tenth- to twelfth-century Islamic cemetery, the researchers found a wide spectrum of genetic ancestries, ranging from predominantly European to predominantly North African. This reflects varying degrees of mixing following the Muslim conquest of Ibiza in 902 CE. Historical sources describe two major demographic waves shaping the island: an initial settlement linked to the Umayyad expansion, and a later influx connected to the Almoravid conquest in the early twelfth century.

Two individuals carried sub-Saharan African ancestry, one tracing back to present-day Senegambia, the other to southern Chad, providing biological evidence of trans-Saharan military and/or slave networks recorded in medieval Arabic texts.

"These genomes show that people from both western and central Sahel became part of communities in Islamic Iberia," says Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela, researcher at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Stockholm University and lead author of the study. "This is direct genetic evidence of the long-distance networks reaching the Sahel, as described in historical sources."

Using advanced genomic techniques, including genotype imputation and haplotype-based local ancestry analysis, the team estimated that North African gene flow into Ibiza began only two to seven generations earlier. This places the main admixture event in the late ninth century CE.

Earth's magnetic field acts as a vital shield against radiation arriving from space, but it is not constant. A new international study has examined how a reduction of the magnetic field similar to the Laschamps excursion would affect aviation on routes such as Helsinki-Dubai and Helsinki-New York if it occurred today.
The magnetic field protects Earth from harmful cosmic radiation and solar eruptions. However, its strength slowly varies over time. Occasionally, the field can even reverse, meaning the magnetic north and south poles switch places.

"The effects of a weakening and reversal of the magnetic field on the atmosphere and environment can be dramatic, yet still largely unknown. The consequences could be serious for our modern, highly technological society," says Professor Ilya Usoskin from the University of Oulu, who is a principal investigator of the prestigious large-scale ERC-funded GERACLE project. The new study includes researchers from the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory and the Space Physics and Astronomy Research Unit at the University of Oulu.

One of the most recent major variations of the geomagnetic field occurred about 41,000 years ago during the Laschamps excursion, when the magnetic field weakened to about five percent of its current strength and became multipolar in structure. The weakening phase lasted roughly two thousand years, and recovery took about five thousand years.

In the new study, researchers modelled the structure of the magnetic field and cosmic radiation throughout the Laschamps excursion. The modelling was based on the updated OTSO tool, developed by Usoskin's team, and the LSMOD.2 paleomagnetic field model, built by GFZ in Potsdam, which reconstructs the Earth's magnetic field in the past. The CRAC:DOMO model, also developed by the team, was used to calculate how much cosmic radiation affects the atmosphere — in other words, to estimate radiation doses affecting humans and technology.

The results show that cosmic radiation penetrated the atmosphere at record levels. The weakening magnetic field reduced the energy threshold required for cosmic particles to enter the atmosphere from today's 17 gigavolts (GV) to only about 4 GV.

At the same time, regions where cosmic radiation could freely enter, the atmosphere expanded threefold irradiating a major fraction of the Earth's atmosphere. Importantly, the exposure was not evenly distributed. The magnetic field became multipolar and irregular, directing cosmic particles in unexpected ways.

"When the magnetic field becomes multipolar, auroras can also appear in unusual locations around the globe," notes Postdoctoral Researcher Pauli Väisänen.

A team of researchers in China has unveiled an all-weather electrolyte designed to boost the performance of lithium batteries across a wide range of conditions. Scientists based in Shanghai and Tianjin report that batteries built with the new hydrofluorocarbon-based electrolyte delivered more than twice the energy density of conventional designs when tested at room temperature.

Beyond efficiency gains, the team says the chemistry remains stable in extreme environments, with batteries continuing to operate effectively at temperatures as low as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius).

The development points to a potential path for longer-lasting, more resilient batteries suited for EVs and other demanding applications, where both energy density and reliability under stress are critical.

Veteran astronaut Michael Fincke's sudden medical emergency aboard the ISS is a stark reminder that, as NASA pushes toward long-term lunar missions, astronaut health remains one of spaceflight's biggest unknowns.

As NASA prepares to send four astronauts around the moon for the 10-day Artemis II mission, a veteran space flier's unexplained illness in orbit is spotlighting one of the biggest risks of deep-space travel: the need for medical systems in case of emergencies.

NASA astronaut Michael Fincke said a sudden episode aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in January left him unable to speak and forced NASA's first-ever medical evacuation from the orbiting laboratory. Doctors have ruled out a heart attack, Fincke told the Associated Press, but they still don't know what caused the medical issue.

Powerful X-rays from the nearby naked-eye star Gamma Cas mystified astronomers for decades. Now, a new observatory reveals that they come from its white dwarf companion.

Some 550 light-years away, a bright star called Gamma Cassiopeiae is belching out bursts of X-rays. Now, astronomers have discovered that the radiation is actually coming from the star's invisible companion, which lights up in X-rays as it gobbles up material from the star.

Gamma Cassiopeiae (Gamma Cas for short) is visible to the naked eye at 2nd magnitude, making up the center of the Cassiopeia constellation's distinctive "W" in northern skies. It's a variable star that's exhausting its supply of hydrogen, but it hasn't run out just yet. Unlike other stars like it, it emits X-rays.

The star is surrounded by a gaseous disk, and for years, astronomers theorized that the emission was being produced either from the star's magnetic fields interacting with the disk, or perhaps from disk material falling onto an unseen companion star.

Now, in a study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, a team led by Yaël Nazé (University of Liège, Belgium) has observed the system with the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) space telescope. The researchers conclude that the white dwarf companion is the one emitting the X-rays as it consumes material from Gamma Cas. These revelations help astronomers learn more about how these exotic massive stars evolve and interact with each other.