SAN ANTONIO — August 5, 2026 — A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) provides evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising to Pluto’s surface through cracks in the northern edge of the Sputnik Planitia, part of the massive heart-shaped glacier on the dwarf planet’s surface. This is the first evidence of liquid recently flowing on Pluto. The study is based on data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft and is led by SwRI Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission.

For the first time, researchers have discovered a new species of extinct amphibian from Ice Age Los Angeles at La Brea Tar Pits: a spadefoot toad which they have named Spea labreae. Only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian from North America has ever been found (a tree frog from Florida). While the toad may be much smaller than the mammoths and saber-toothed cats that made the Tar Pits famous, this discovery has a big impact on our understanding of the climate at the end of the last ice age. Described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, S. labreae spotlights the ongoing daily discoveries at the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research at La Brea Tar Pits as the iconic museum begins a historic transformation.

More than a year after the historic Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires, residents still face urgent environmental questions: Is my soil contaminated? Are the beaches safe? What should I do if contamination is found?

As the climate warms, rice farmers may face a difficult balance. Higher temperatures can make nitrogen more available to crops, but they can also increase nitrogen losses to the atmosphere. A new study shows that flooded rice soils may partly compensate by redirecting nitrogen into more stable forms protected within soil aggregates and mineral particles.

A new study from the University of Kansas complicates the picture of primates living in North America some 55 million years ago during the Eocene, a warm period that allowed mammals to diversify quickly.