A dinosaur fossil that sat unnoticed in a museum collection for nearly a century has turned out to belong to a previously unknown predator with enormous curved claws. The animal, roughly the size of a large tiger, lived in what is now Britain about 120 million years ago. The discovery was made by a research [...]

(D-Keine/E+/Getty Images) Not as bad as we feared.ScienceAlert stories are written, fact-checked, and edited by humans, never generated by AI. Don't miss a story, subscribe here.

The newly discovered coral lives in strange conditions that seem inhospitable to life. (ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute/Breedy et al., ZooKeys, 2026) Magic in the twilight zone.ScienceAlert stories are written, fact-checked, and edited by humans, never generated by AI. Don't miss a story, subscribe here.

"Necklaces" of ultracold atoms have provided new evidence to support a nearly 100-year-old quantum theory.In 1931, physicists were trying to use quantum mechanics to explain why some materials are magnetic. Then, a young physicist named Hans Bethe looked at a single row of electrons. Each electron's spin can point up or down. Bethe worked out the math for how such a row behaves and found that if a few spins in the row flip, they can stick together and travel down the row as a single unit.Decades later, physicists found that Bethe's method also works for larger particles moving along a line, such as atoms. If those particles attract each other, the math predicts they will bind into clusters called Bethe strings.Now, physicists have found evidence of these clusters in a line of ultracold atoms. The findings were published Aug. 29 in the journal Nature Communications.The discovery may not create new gadgets, but it addresses a fundamental mystery in physics. Everything around us, from magnets to phone chips, consists of countless interacting particles. This makes their behavior difficult to predict. Ultracold atoms serve as a clear and adjustable way to study these complex systems.A "necklace" of atomsResearchers have spotted small Bethe strings before, in magnetic crystals and superconducting quantum circuits ‪— but those experiments captured strings one at a time. Theory predicts that crowds of strings, in many sizes, can change how an entire system behaves, and studying that idea requires making many strings at once. That has been hard to do with atoms. Atoms that attract each other usually collapse into a clump. But this time, the team appears to have made many strings of different sizes at once, including some with more than six atoms.To make the "necklace" the researchers had to create a Bose-Einstein condensate, a special phase of matter. (Image credit: blackdovfx via Getty Images)It's tricky to get atoms to attract each other. In three dimensions, a gas made of attracting atoms tends to collapse as the atoms clump together and form molecules. That process releases energy that kicks atoms out of the experiment, so the gas quickly collapses and disappears. But when they're in a single line, the atoms behave differently."They are really a bit like pearls on a string, right? Like on a necklace, they cannot go past," study co-author Hanns-Christoph Nägerl, an experimental physicist at the University of Innsbruck, told Live Science. "In 3D, everything would collapse. But in 1D, it does not collapse."To build their "necklaces," the team started with tens of thousands of cesium atoms cooled into a Bose-Einstein condensate ‪— a state of matter in which atoms chilled to near absolute zero share a single quantum state. Laser beams then divided the condensate into thousands of thin tubes, each of which held up to a few dozen atoms in a line.At first, the atoms repelled each other. The researchers used a magnetic field to gradually turn that repulsion down to zero, and then turned it into attraction.The team couldn't see the strings directly. Instead, they let the atoms go and measured how fast the cloud spread. When the atoms could expand only along their tubes, any strings stayed intact. When the atoms were freed in all three dimensions, the strings broke apart and released their binding energy as motion. The researchers found that the 3D clouds spread with about three times as much energy as the one-dimensional ones did.From that difference, the team estimated how tightly the atoms had been bound. The answer pointed to strings of at least six atoms. The measurements also closely matched predictions from a theory called generalized hydrodynamics, which describes a gas like this one as a fluid made of many kinds of particles, including strings of different sizes. It also tracks how each kind flows over time rather than following every atom.Nägerl was careful not to call this proof. "That some theory fits to your data is not a proof that something exists," he said; it's just more evidence to support it.A short-lived stateThe strings likely don't survive long. Up close, the atoms still feel the three-dimensional world, and the strings eventually decay into ordinary cesium molecules. In the coldest runs, the team lost about 40% of the atoms."Transiently you create these Bethe string states," Nägerl said. "But I don't think they are long-lived."Related storiesScientists discover new, 3rd form of magnetism that may be the 'missing link' in the quest for superconductivity Physicists give weird new phase of matter an extra dimension Physicists create new state of matter from quantum soup of magnetically weird particles He has an idea for future experiments. Physicists recently learned to shield ultracold molecules with microwaves, which keeps the molecules from colliding at close range. Strings made from shielded molecules might last long enough to be studied directly. But Nägerl stressed that the idea is untested. "I've had nobody do a theory check on my claims now, but I think intuitively this should work," he said.Another option is quantum gas microscopy, which images atoms one at a time and could offer more direct evidence of individual strings.For Nägerl, Bethe strings are one step in understanding how quantum systems with many particles behave and settle down over time. His long-term goal is an experiment in which physicists control both how every particle moves and how its spin flips, letting them assemble model materials piece by piece, "like a LEGO type," he said. His team has begun the next step: using lasers to control the spins of the atoms in its one-dimensional gas. He described Bethe strings as "a little diversion." But because the strings form whenever the atoms attract, they can't be ignored.

Archaeologists digging at a 13,800-year-old site in interior Alaska have unearthed thousands of artifacts and fossils, including what may be the bones of the earliest domesticated dogs in the Americas, the earliest needles and dwellings in the Western Hemisphere, and stone tools that reveal cultural connections across the Bering Land Bridge.At a site called Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ (which means "They Were There" in the Alaska Native Athabascan language), about 34 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Fairbanks, archaeologists have excavated an encampment that some of the first people to settle in North America used off and on for a millennium. Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ is located in eastern Beringia, the geographical region that connected northeast Asia and northwest North America during the last ice age. The most recent archaeological and genetic studies suggest that the ancestors of today's Indigenous Americans entered the continent around 21,000 years ago. But since Beringian sites are often the remains of small seasonal hunting camps and are scattered across a large geographic area, much is still unknown about the earliest people who called the Western Hemisphere home."I expected we'd find hunting tools and knapping [stone tool making] debris surrounding a hearth or two, but I had no idea that we'd stumble into a base camp with tens of thousands of artifacts," study first author Kelly Graf, an archaeologist at the University of Kansas, told Live Science in an email. "It was a total surprise!"In a study published Wednesday (Oct. 14) in the journal Science Advances, Graf and co-authors detailed their discoveries at Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ, focusing on the earliest occupation, which occurred around 13,800 years ago, as evidence of people "settling in" to their new territory.The researchers found a hearth, a small pit, and a dirt stain where a wooden post had once stood, likely the remains of a lean-to or early tent house. Additionally, the archaeologists unearthed stone tools, bone needles and a pendant made from an antler. Nearby, they found an earth oven, which was full of charcoal and animal bones and was likely used to slow-cook meat for a large family group."The complex feature at Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ represents the earliest potential case of a habitation structure in North America," the researchers wrote in the study. "Early Alaskans knew their surroundings well."Cross-cultural linksThe archaeologists were also surprised by the stone tools recovered at Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ because they are distinctively shaped and unique to central Alaska. Known as diamond-shaped hafted bifaces, the tools were crafted from rhyolite and basalt and are similar to those typically found much farther west in Beringia, in modern-day northern Siberia. Additionally, obsidian artifacts discovered at Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ reveal that people brought the volcanic rock to the site from a geological source hundreds of miles to the northwest.Bones from more than a dozen wolf-like animals suggest a further connection to Asia, according to the researchers. An analysis of the jaw of one of the animals showed that it was not from a dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) or from a Pleistocene Beringian or gray wolf (Canis lupus sp.) but rather a population of wolf-like animals unique to central Alaska. Current genetic evidence suggests that early domesticated dogs in North America came from Siberian wolves. The timing and geographical location of Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ provides circumstantial evidence that the people may have been dog owners."Like humans, potentially, the canids of Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ and other early Alaskan sites were recent immigrants from Asian Beringia," the researchers wrote.Although Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ reveals a relationship with sites in Asia, there is also evidence of connections with early American sites south of the Canadian ice sheets, according to the study. One clue to these connections is the presence of bone artifacts in a sewing kit. The archaeologists found eight bone needle fragments at Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ. Previously, the only recovered eyed needles had come from Paleoindian sites in temperate North America. Therefore, the needles from Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ are the oldest needles ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere, and they reveal connections with sites farther south, according to the study.Another clue is the pendant, which was crafted from antler. The pendant had a hole drilled at one end and was fashioned into a point at the other end. This piece of ancient jewelry is similar to personal adornment items found farther south in North America."The co-occurrence of these cultural features at the single site of Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ is truly notable," the researchers wrote, and they "highlight the strong cultural connection between early Beringians and Americans." It is still unclear whether the people at Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ were traveling to make these connections. "It would be hard to pin down whether or not they were moving back and forth during a lifetime, but at least we can say there is a connection," Graf said.Archaeologists recovered bison bone and a hearth, among other things, at the Beringian site. (Image credit: Kelly Graf)Further work in Beringia is neededFuture excavations in Beringia could help archaeologists learn more about the earliest people in the Americas, according to Graf. "Alaska is a big place and so remote, so there are really just a few small areas that have been intensively investigated," she said.Spencer Pelton, an archaeologist at the University of Wyoming who was not involved in the research, wrote in an accompanying perspective published in the journal Science Advances that early Indigenous sites in Beringia are key to understanding the peopling of the Americas.RELATED STORIESInuit figurine: A 700-year-old Indigenous carving of a European made a century before Columbus'It could have been a very different history': Researchers are finally starting to pin down how many Indigenous people were living in the Americas when Columbus arrivedAncient Indigenous people in New Mexico lived through extreme climate change 23,000 years ago, study suggests"Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ is remarkable because it is the oldest site in the Americas containing a large and rich assemblage of features, artifacts, and faunal refuse indicative of prolonged residential occupation, providing an unprecedented glimpse into the lives of North America's first residents," Pelton wrote.Graf is already planning future archaeological excavations in the area. "We're hoping to bring some younger Alaska Native folks out with us in the coming summers," she said, as incorporating local knowledge is important to the project. "Two of our co-authors are elders from Alaska Native corporations nearest to the site," she said. Elders named the Shégˊ Xdaltthˊíˊ site and have visited it to discuss where to excavate and what the archaeologists might find.There is much left to learn about what was happening in Beringia 14,000 years ago, the researchers wrote, particularly since there are currently only two archaeological sites — including the 24,000-year-old Bluefish Caves site in the Yukon — that suggest humans were settling in Beringia considerably earlier.How much do you know about the first people to reach the Americas? Find out with our First Americans quiz!