Welcome to Science News Daily, where we bring you the latest breakthroughs from the frontiers of science. I'm your host, and today we're covering some truly remarkable discoveries—from ancient mammoth RNA to light behaving in ways that challenge centuries of physics. Let's dive in.

We start with what might be one of the most extraordinary paleontological discoveries of the year. For the first time ever, researchers at Stockholm University have successfully isolated and sequenced RNA molecules from woolly mammoths that lived during the Ice Age—40,000 years ago. This isn't just old DNA; this is RNA, the molecule that shows real-time gene activity. Found preserved in permafrost mammoth tissue, this discovery offers scientists an unprecedented window into which genes were actively working in these ancient creatures tens of millennia ago. It's like finding a snapshot of life at the molecular level, frozen in time, revealing genetic secrets we never thought we could access.

Now, let's talk about light. For 180 years, scientists have operated under a fundamental assumption about how light interacts with matter—and new research just proved that assumption wrong. The prevailing belief has been that the magnetic component of light plays a negligible role compared to the electric component. But researchers have now demonstrated that the magnetic part of light actively shapes how light interacts with matter, contributing significantly to something called the Faraday Effect. In the infrared range, this magnetic component can account for up to 70% of the rotation effect. The team proved that light can actually magnetically torque materials—a finding that could reshape our understanding of optics and open new technological possibilities.

Shifting to health news, researchers from the Institut Pasteur and Inserm have uncovered concerning findings about dietary emulsifiers—those common food additives that keep ingredients mixed together in processed foods. Through mouse studies, they've shown that when mothers consume these emulsifiers during pregnancy, it can negatively affect the gut microbiota of their offspring. These disruptions to the microbiome are believed to significantly increase the risk of inflammation and obesity later in life. It's another reminder of how what we eat doesn't just affect us—it can have lasting impacts on future generations.

In pain management research, scientists at the NYU Pain Research Center have made a breakthrough that could revolutionize how we treat pain. They've identified the specific receptor within prostaglandins—those hormone-like compounds targeted by drugs like ibuprofen—that triggers pain but not inflammation. This is huge because current pain medications like NSAIDs reduce pain by blocking prostaglandins, but they also interfere with beneficial inflammation that's necessary for healing. This new finding, published in Nature, suggests we could develop treatments that stop pain without stopping the healing process. It's pain relief without the trade-off.

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have dominated health headlines, but many users struggle with side effects like nausea. Now scientists are uncovering exactly how these medications work on different brain regions that control hunger, nausea, pleasure-based eating, and even thirst. By mapping these pathways, researchers hope to create next-generation treatments that keep the weight loss benefits while reducing unwanted side effects. It's precision medicine at work—understanding the mechanism to improve the outcome.

In neuroscience, researchers have achieved something remarkable using Japan's Fugaku supercomputer. They've created one of the most detailed virtual mouse cortex simulations ever, combining massive biological datasets with extraordinary computational power. This digital brain behaves like a living system, complete with millions of neurons and tens of billions of synapses. Scientists can now watch diseases like Alzheimer's or epilepsy unfold step by step in this virtual environment, tracking how damage spreads across neural circuits without requiring countless experiments on real tissue. It's a new frontier for studying brain function.

Looking back even further in time, researchers have discovered chemical traces of life in rocks older than 3.3 billion years. By combining advanced chemical methods with artificial intelligence, they detected faint molecular patterns left behind long after the original biomolecules disappeared. They validated their method by analyzing ancient seaweed fossils from Canada's Yukon Territory, offering us a rare glimpse into Earth's earliest biology—life from a time when our planet was almost unrecognizably different.

And here's a fun fact that might change how you think about kissing: research shows that this intimate behavior likely began about 20 million years ago with our ape ancestors. By tracing kissing across the primate family tree, scientists found evidence that great apes, early human relatives, and even Neanderthals likely engaged in kissing millions of years ago. It turns out kissing is far older—and far more cross-species—than most people imagine.

We also have important health warnings today. A major new series in The Lancet shows that ultra-processed foods are fueling a global health crisis, pushing aside fresh, minimally processed meals worldwide and linking to higher risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. Meanwhile, another study found that even light smoking—just two to five cigarettes a day—dramatically boosts heart failure risk by up to 50 percent. The benefits of quitting are significant, especially in the first decade, but cutting back helps far less than quitting completely.

In space exploration news, Zap Energy's FuZE-3 fusion device has reached giga-pascal-level plasma pressures, marking significant progress toward fusion energy conditions once thought achievable only with massive, expensive systems. And on Mars, new evidence from NYU Abu Dhabi researchers suggests water once flowed beneath Martian sand dunes far longer than previously thought, meaning the Red Planet may have had conditions capable of supporting life for an extended period.

Finally, in Antarctica, underwater robots have discovered thousands of organized icefish nests beneath the ice—a hidden world exposed when the massive A68 iceberg calved from the Larsen C Ice Shelf. The nests stretch across the seafloor like a vast underwater city, highlighting Antarctica's surprising biodiversity.

That's all for today's Science News Daily. From ancient RNA to future fusion energy, from the depths of Antarctica to the possibility of life on Mars, science continues to surprise and inspire us. Join us tomorrow for more discoveries from the cutting edge of research. Until then, stay curious.