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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Explore groundbreaking news and research from PNAS, one of the world's most-cited scientific journals. Discover its sibling journal, @pnasnexus.org, both official journals of the National Academy of Sciences. Visit www.pnas.org for more info.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 16d
In this issue: Speciation and secondary contact in sun skinks, quantification of terrestrial dissolved organic matter in the ocean, and a slick math trick offers a new way to return a rotated object to its original state. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/Xe9q50Xr34i
Pictured is an illustration visualizing vaccines as carefully engineered, modular, and tunable nanostructures. Image credit: Akanksha Mahajan (Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO).
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Mars doesn’t have the tectonics that shaped Earth’s landscapes, but a look at its ancient river systems reveals that 5% of the red planet is covered in large drainage systems, creating a mosaic of possibly habitable environments across the planet’s surface. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/BVA450XyjxI
Distribution of the 16 mapped large drainage systems on Mars.
November 27, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Organic geochemical evidence for life in Archean rocks identified by pyrolysis–GC–MS and supervised machine learning.” Explore the article here: https://ow.ly/6nh350XyiVP

For more trending articles, visit https://ow.ly/HUuh50XyiVQ
The percentage of biogenic (vs. abiogenic) samples classified by random forest Model #2 increases significantly through time for rocks from Archean to Proterozoic to Phanerozoic eons.
November 27, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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Six years of monitoring in a warmed forest showed a decrease in nitrogen emissions due to reduced microbial activity in dry soil. The result was contrary to predictions and challenges ecosystem model assumptions. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/Yf1550Xyjpl
Warmed plot in the study. CREDIT: Kai Huang
November 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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In this issue: Heat-driven decline of Caribbean corals, colonial influence on Amazonian forests, and evidence that repaired DNA leaves lasting scars in chromatin. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/mF1s50Xyi6w
Pictured is Garrisson, an adult male chimpanzee. Brian M. Wood and colleagues studied wild chimpanzees from the Ngogo community in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Image credit: Kevin E. Langergraber
November 26, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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All hail Caenorhabditis elegans, one of the most researched organisms on Earth. Collaborative data sharing in the nematode research community led to four Nobel Prize-winning discoveries about human development and disease. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/uNqU50Xyj4e
Caenorhabditis elegans, imaged with confocal laser scanning microscopy, and modeled by surface rendering software. Stock image.
November 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
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Novel method reveals an easier way to grow immature eggs from #StemCells. In PNAS Journal Club: https://ow.ly/LZAi50XyhLn

#oocyte #InVitroFertilization #ovary #PluripotentStemCells
Close up of an oocyte (egg cell). Image credit: ALAIN GOUGEON / Science Source.
November 26, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Our new paper in PNAS summarises why the push to 'salvage' log dead trees won't reduce the risk of fast wildfires as has been claimed.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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November 24, 2025 at 11:36 PM
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Analysis of over 10,000 necropsies reveals that seabirds face a 90% mortality risk after ingesting 23 pieces of plastic, marine mammals after 29 pieces, and sea turtles after 405 pieces, providing quantitative information on plastic pollution impact. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/GkZZ50XxIBV
A seagull with a plastic bag in its mouth. Stock photo.
November 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Neurodevelopmental disorder–linked Argonaute mutations permit delayed RISC formation and unusual shortening of miRNAs by 3′→5′ trimming.” Explore now: https://ow.ly/hwP450XxHM6

For more trending articles, visit https://ow.ly/q6Cl50XxHGN.
AGO1(ΔF180) retains the ability to form functionally mature RISCs.
November 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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In the latest episode of Science Sessions, Curtis Suttle and Kevin Xu Zhong of University of British Columbia discuss how a previously unidentified virus may be linked to mass die-offs of farmed Pacific oysters. Listen now: https://ow.ly/ZyYw50XxIbI
November 25, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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Medieval agricultural and trade practices in southwestern Germany boosted plant diversity for centuries, with biodiversity peaking around 1000 CE and declining only when human activity contracted during the Black Death. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/Q6ca50XxIvC
Woodcut illustration to Michael Beuther’s Calendarium Historicum, published in Frankfurt by David Zephelius in 1557. Image shows a person pollarding a tree and another person sowing seeds. CREDIT: The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.
November 25, 2025 at 7:01 PM
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Discover one of the top-performing PNAS Nexus articles on Altmetric from the last three months!
“Benefits of clean air for school children's vision health” by Xi Chen, et al. earned an Altmetric score of 660, reflecting high engagement across media.

Read the research: https://ow.ly/3rG050XxFRM
PNAS Nexus – Check out one of the top PNAS Nexus articles on Altmetric! Read the article
November 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM
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A 12,000-year-old clay figurine from an archeological site in northern Israel depicts a woman and a goose in a mythological scene that hints at an animistic belief system. Depictions of human–animal interactions in Paleolithic artwork are rare. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/q06T50Xx2E8
Left: The 12,000-year-old Natufian clay figurine from Nahal Ein Gev II, depicting a woman and a goose. Right: Artistic reconstruction of the figurine. CREDIT: Photo: Laurent Davin, Reconstruction: Laurent Davin and Vic Oh
November 25, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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Read highlights in this week’s issue of PNAS: We explore diverse fossil assemblages from Ordovician marine ecologies, analyze how machine learning links tissue images to chronological age, and examine sustainable multifunctional films. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/HgYX50XwZoG
Pictured is the wing of a dragonfly species called the pied sapphire flutterer (Rhyothemis regia). Image credit: Samuel T. Fabian (University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom).
November 24, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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Analysis finds proposed SMR designs could produce more voluminous, reactive nuclear waste than traditional reactors. Higher neutron leakage may further complicate waste management.

In Mongabay: https://ow.ly/aOJK50Xx1zb

In PNAS: https://ow.ly/JzhH50Xx1mz
Three tall electrical transmission towers partially obscured by thick fog, with power lines fading into the fog.
November 24, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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Marine heatwaves in 2023 and 2024 killed 84% of fire coral colonies around St. John in the US Virgin Islands, causing the collapse of a species that had previously been considered a hardy “winner” that could handle thermal stress. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/XiSh50Xx2t8
Left: Live Millepora colony encrusting a large boulder in Lameshur Bay, St. John, in March 2024. Right: The same Millepora colony, now dead on the same large boulder in Lameshur Bay in March 2025. CREDIT: Peter J. Edmunds
November 24, 2025 at 7:01 PM
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Opinion piece: Catastrophic #wildfires are destabilizing the #InsuranceIndustry, leaving some homeowners in jeopardy. Here’s a path forward: https://ow.ly/8TtU50XwZzK

#BuiltEnvironment #RiskAssessment #ClimateChange #LandManagement
Diagram of the Wildland–Urban Continuum showing forest to urban areas. Left side (lower structure density) highlights wildland fire hazards, ember attack, high structure spacing, limited structure-to-structure spread, and isolated vulnerability. Right side (higher structure density) shows mixed wildland–built hazards, lower spacing, greater spread, and networked vulnerability.
November 24, 2025 at 6:01 PM
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Networks shape modern life—from cities to digital systems. Explore interdisciplinary research revealing how resilience, connectivity, and innovation drive our interconnected world.

Explore the PNAS Nexus Human, Urban, and Technological Networks collection: https://ow.ly/1c0q50XuNTn
Explore the most recent articles from PNAS Nexus on biomechanics, and learn more about publishing your own research on this topic.
November 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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Opinion piece: Here’s how to reduce the chances of gene drives causing collateral damage. In PNAS Front Matter: https://ow.ly/2oEl50XuOGg

#GeneDrive #TargetSpeciesComplex #RiskAssessment #PublicHealth #agriculture #malaria #mosquitoes #vector #AnophelesGambiae
A close up of an Anopheles gambiae mosquito on a person’s finger. Image credit: Science Source/CDC/James Gathany
November 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
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A machine-learning model identifies the biological or non-biological origins of organic carbon samples with over 93% accuracy, even in rocks billions of years old, yielding information about the physiology and evolution of ancient organisms. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/oVmQ50XuPAZ
Comparison of chemical signatures from six different sample types, shown as 3D graphs. Each graph displays the compounds detected, arranged by molecular weight and elution time bins, with peak heights showing relative abundance.
November 22, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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After the Ngogo chimpanzee group killed 21 members of neighboring groups and expanded their territory by 22%, female birth rates more than doubled and infant survival increased sharply—showing clear fitness benefits from intergroup killing. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/TKmf50XuPjY
Jolie, an adult female chimpanzee of the Ngogo community in Kibale National Park, Uganda, with sleeping infant son, Zawinul. CREDIT: Kevin Langergraber
November 22, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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Honoring Robert Haselkorn, a pioneering molecular biologist whose work helped establish the foundations of cyanobacterial genetics and modern microbiology. Explore his PNAS Retrospective: https://ow.ly/EK1S50XuOi4
PNAS – Honoring the life of Robert Haselforn. A pioneer in molecular biology and microbiology
November 21, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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The Amazon Rainforest was shaped by people. Analysis of 262 trees species across 1,521 forest plots reveals that both pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples and European colonists enduringly influenced the forest’s relative abundance of trees. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/VAqY50XuP38
The Ecuadorian Amazon taken from a canopy tower at the top of a Ceiba pentandra tree. CREDIT: Mark Bush
November 21, 2025 at 7:01 PM
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Opinion piece: Removing #DeadTrees will not save us from fast-moving #wildfires. In PNAS Front Matter: https://ow.ly/qvta50XuOrz

#logging #ClimateChange #ForestFire
Pictured is post-disturbance logging that entailed removal of biological legacies and increased fine fuels on the Stanislaus National Forest in California, two years after the 2013 Rim fire, one of the state’s largest fires at the time. Image credit: Doug Bevington (photographer).
November 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
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Neanderthals had ordinary noses, after all. The inner nasal anatomy of a Neanderthal fossil from Italy lacks predicted cold climate adaptations, suggesting the species’ characteristic midface shape is unrelated to breathing in chilly climes. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/cLKW50XuPEG
Frontal view of the Neanderthal cranium from Altamura, southern Italy. CREDIT: K.A.R.S.T. PRIN Project
November 21, 2025 at 2:00 AM