A new study has unexpectedly discovered that a common parasite of modern oysters actually started infecting bivalves hundreds of millions of years before the dinosaurs went extinct.

The research, published in iScience, used high-resolution 3D scans to look inside 480-million-year-old shells from a Moroccan site known for its exceptionally well-preserved sea life. The scans revealed a series of distinctive patterns etched both on the surface of the fossils and hidden inside them.

“The marks weren’t random scratches,” said Karma Nanglu, a UC Riverside paleobiologist who led the research. “We saw seven or eight of these perfect question mark shapes on each shell fossil. That’s a pattern.”

In this adapted excerpt from “How to Change a Memory,” author and neuroscientist Steve Ramirez recounts the events that led him and his colleagues to discover memories could be artificially controlled in rodents by zapping their brains with lasers.

New research reveals that Earth’s so-called “Boring Billion” was a time of dramatic change beneath the surface.

A large-scale analysis of more than 130,000 adults with chronic insomnia found that long-term melatonin use—defined as one year or more—was associated with a striking increase in heart failure, hospitalization, and mortality risk.

Hackers exploit legitimate RMM tools to hijack trucking networks and steal real cargo shipments, Proofpoint warns.

A specialized shark-hunting pod of orcas in the Gulf of California has been caught on camera expertly targeting young great white sharks—flipping them upside-down to eat the energy-rich liver.

The pod, known as Moctezuma’s pod, could be taking advantage of warming waters altering shark nursery areas to hunt juveniles, which lack the experience to flee as older sharks do. These observations suggest that orcas may hunt white sharks more often than we realized. However, a broader survey collecting more data is needed to draw strong conclusions.

“I believe that orcas that eat elasmobranchs—sharks and rays—could eat a great white shark, if they wanted to, anywhere they went looking for one,” said marine biologist Erick Higuera Rivas, project director at Conexiones Terramar and Pelagic Life and lead author of the article in Frontiers in Marine Science.

Digital methods for note taking are everywhere, but are they as valuable as old fashioned handwriting skills?