Science & Discovery News Today — September 17, 2026
NASA’s New Horizons spots signs of liquid nitrogen flowing on Pluto and more — today's news signal.
The natural world is full of mysteries waiting to be unraveled, and today's discoveries are a testament to the power of scientific inquiry. In our solar system, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has made a groundbreaking observation on Pluto, detecting signs of liquid nitrogen flowing on the dwarf planet's surface. This finding has significant implications for our understanding of Pluto's geology and climate. Meanwhile, on Earth, researchers have been studying the complex relationships between forest structure, topography, and plant diversity in Southern Apennine old-growth forests, revealing that the former plays a more crucial role in shaping the latter.
From the natural world to the realm of human history and health, today's news also brings us stories of discovery and insight. Historians have rediscovered lost pages from a Catholic manuscript that had been hidden away for centuries, shedding new light on the past. In the field of public health, scientists are working to understand how bird flu is affecting marine mammals, such as sea lions and dolphins, in Australia. Advances in virology have also led to a new method for studying how virus particles assemble themselves, which could have significant implications for the development of antiviral therapies. Finally, breakthroughs in materials science have enabled the creation of ultrathin membranes that can reveal the nano-infrared properties of biomolecules in water, opening up new possibilities for biomedical research.
Today's signal:
• NASA’s New Horizons spots signs of liquid nitrogen flowing on Pluto (sciencedaily.com)
• Forest structure matters more than topography in shaping plant diversity in Southern Apennine old-growth forests (phys.org)
• Henry VIII's dissolution enforcer stashed Catholic manuscript—its lost pages have just been rediscovered (phys.org)
• Bird flu has claimed its first Australian sea lion and dolphin. How does the virus get into these animals? (phys.org)
• New method reveals how virus particles can build themselves, molecule by molecule (phys.org)
• Ultrathin membranes unlock nano-infrared views of biomolecules in water (phys.org)