This mosaic of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) merges 330 individual images taken by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard the Swift Observatory. It is the highest-resolution image of the galaxy ever recorded in the ultraviolet. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high. Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)

As beavers have expanded their ranges northward into the Arctic, they’ve changed how surface water flows. Credit: Georgia Hole

How a water-bearing fault gains strength over time. Starting from loose mineral grains separated by open pore space (left), grain contacts first grow as the fault sits locked (center); when fluids are present, a chemical reaction grows new mineral rims that cement neighboring grains together (right). This fluid-driven cementation raises the fault’s cohesion and, counterintuitively, its potential…

Columbine Lake, in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, has captured dust blown north from the American Southwest for thousands of years. Credit: SFC H/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Projection of the number of days of “uncompensable heat stress” during the 4-month period of summer (March to June) and monsoon (July to October). When extreme heat coincides with high levels of humidity, the body struggles to compensate for the heat by natural sweating. When the global mean warming levels exceed 2°C, communities in the Gangetic Plain (Northwestern India) are increasingly…

Ganges River Delta, Bangladesh, India in November 1994. Credit: NASA

Conceptual model showing how fluids released by dehydration reactions in the subducting plate are transported toward and along the megathrust. The framework links deep fluid generation, permeability, fluid pressure, and deformation style to the transition between frictional slip and viscous flow. Credit: Ozawa et al. [2026], Figure 1

Credit: Dan Page, Unsplash

Coastal sand dunes are threatened by urban development and sea level rise. Credit: Kyle Emery

Small bits of plastic float below the ocean surface in this artist’s rendering. Credit: iStock.com/dottedhippo

Intense shaking was felt across much of northern Venezuela as a result of two earthquakes on 24 June, 2026. This USGS map shows shaking intensity, measured on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, for the magnitude 7.5 mainshock. The epicenter of the mainshock is marked with a star. Areas within orange contour lines felt "very strong" to "severe" shaking. Credit: USGS

Have you seen this moon? No, and neither has anyone else. This Voyager 2 image of Neptune’s moon Nereid is the best photo anyone has. Astronomers don’t know exactly how big it is or what its shape is. However, they now have its infrared spectrum. (Hint: There’s water.) Credit: NASA/JPL

Researchers suspect that 1 hectare in smaller forests may hold less carbon than 1 hectare in larger forests because of edge effects—the environmental stress experienced by trees at the boundary between forest and open landscape. Credit: Dietmar Rabich/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The USGS Pager landslide Map for the 24 June 2026 M=7.5 earthquake in Venezuela.

作为台湾岩石圈及隆升实验（SALUTE）南部阵列的一部分，研究人员在台湾中央山脉的泰德伦格雷重要湿地附近部署了一个地震台站，海拔约2122米。像这样的监测站需要徒步2-3天才能到达。图片来源：Kuan-Cheng Peng

A trace metal clean sampling system aboard the RRS _Sir David Attenborough_ samples dissolved and colloidal iron near Antarctica’s Cadman Glacier. Credit: Chengwang Wang

NASA's Perseverance rover captured this image of the surface of Mars during its first drive on 4 March, 2021. Perseverance is searching the planet for signs of ancient microbial life. Credit: NASA/JPL, Public Domain

Turtles’ ability to navigate by sensing geomagnetism is effective, but imperfect, new research suggests. Credit: Melissa Staines

The 24 June 2024 heap leach failure at the Eagle Gold Mine. Image released by the Independent Review Board.

This graphic shows the average temperature anomaly caused by strong geomagnetic storms over North America during the winter season. The anomalies often follow geographic boundaries, for example, the eastern edge of the Rockies, the East Coast, and Hudson Bay. Credit: Joachim Raeder

Iceberg scours show up as trenches in this lidar image taken of a landscape in western New York. Credit: Sean Grasing

Unverified image from the Facebook page of Marina Barlizo Taping showing a valley-blocking landslide triggered by the Mindanao earthquake.

Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has slashed budgets for hundreds of its basic science programs for the remainder of this fiscal year, according to an 18 June memo obtained by Science_._

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An artist’s illustration shows the layers of Earth’s interior, including the thick lower mantle. Credit: iStock.com/johan63

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Most climate models set the concentration of methane for long-term simulations. Example concentrations are shown for two seasons: (a) December, January, and February and (b) June, July, and August. This study instead drives the simulations with regionally varying emissions, which leads to sharper gradients in atmospheric concentrations of methane for (c) December, January, and February, and (d)…

Uranus appears beyond the horizon of its moon Miranda in this illustration. If detectable, high-energy neutral particles produced near Uranus could help scientists decipher the structure and dynamics of the icy planet’s magnetosphere. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Climatic extremes, such as those linked to El Niño and La Niña, can affect the dynamics of groups of capuchin monkeys, new research shows. Credit: The.Rohit/Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0

Map of the Aleutian Arc in Alaska and the Andreanof study area. The lower map shows where ocean-bottom seismometers and land seismic stations recorded sound waves from an active-source seismic experiment conducted aboard the R/V _Marcus G. Langseth_ , allowing the authors to image the deep structure of the arc crust beneath several Aleutian volcanoes. The black lines show the _Langseth_ ship…

Some studies show that particles from tire wear account for nearly half of the microplastics in terrestrial and aquatic systems. A new study examines how this debris affects marine life. Credit: Taylor McBride/Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0