Earliest use of psychoactive and medicinal plant 'harmal' identified in Iron Age Arabia A new study uses metabolic profiling to uncover ancient knowledge systems behind therapeutic and psychoactive plant use in ancient Arabia.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/05/2505

Assembly instructions for enzymes In biology, enzymes have evolved over millions of years to drive chemical reactions. Scientists have now derived universal rules to enable the de novo design of optimal enzymes. As an example, they considered the enzymatic reaction of breaking a dimer into two monomer molecules. Considering the geometry of such an enzyme-substrate-complex, they identified three golden rules that should be considered to build a functional enzyme.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/05/2505

Different phases of evolution during ice age Cold-adapted animals started to evolve 2.6 million years ago when the permanent ice at the poles became more prevalent. There followed a time when the continental ice sheets expanded and contracted and around 700,000 years ago the cold periods doubled in length. This is when many of the current cold-adapted species, as well as extinct ones like mammoths, evolved.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/05/2505

New study reveals how competition between algae is transforming the Gulf of Maine New research shows how rapidly proliferating turf algae are waging 'chemical warfare' to inhibit the recovery of kelp forests along Maine's warming coast.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/05/2505

The scent of death? Worms experience altered fertility and lifespan when exposed to dead counterparts Research reveals that for C. elegans worms, the presence of dead members of their species has profound behavioral and physiological effects, leading them to more quickly reproduce and shortening their lifespans.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/05/2505