Science Daily

• Indonesia’s most dangerous fires are burning underground

  Indonesia’s dangerous peat fires are surging early in the 2026 fire season as a strengthening El Niño and severe drought dry out wetlands that can burn underground for months. These slow smoldering fires are especially destructive because they release far more fine particles and several pollutants than typical tropical forest fires, while thick smoke can make them difficult for satellites to detect.

• Giant Greenland iceberg slams into Joe Island and survives

  A giant iceberg measuring more than 76 square kilometers broke from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier in August 2026, marking the Arctic’s largest glacier calving event since 2020. The berg later slammed into Joe Island but survived without breaking apart, and satellites are now tracking it as it drifts through Nares Strait.

• Life uses 4 DNA letters. Scientists just made 8 work

  Researchers at UC San Diego have demonstrated that a key cellular enzyme can accurately read an eight-letter genetic alphabet, doubling the four letters used by all known life on Earth. Detailed imaging revealed that RNA polymerase handles synthetic DNA letters in surprisingly similar ways to natural ones. The finding brings scientists closer to building expanded genetic systems that could perform entirely new biological functions.

• 80,000-year-old “arrowheads” rewrite human history

  Archaeologists have identified tiny 80,000-year-old projectile points in Uzbekistan that may have been used like arrowheads. Their size, design, and impact damage closely resemble weapons found much later at a Homo sapiens site in France. The discovery suggests sophisticated projectile technology may have appeared in Central Asia long before modern humans became firmly established in Europe, potentially rewriting a major chapter of human migration.

• Scientists discover a bizarre “devil flower” hidden in Thailand

  Scientists have discovered a strange black “devil flower” in Thailand that lives mostly underground, steals nutrients from fungi, and looks strikingly unlike a typical plant. The newly named Thismia daemona is known from fewer than 50 individuals and may already be critically endangered.