Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 7 August 2026 · From issue 18

A new three-part system sorts how animals and insect colonies evolved from smaller cooperating parts.

Stephan Lohmar, Julius Rombach et al., A unifying framework for the evolution of metazoa and social insects, two major evolutionary transitions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Also in issue 18 15 papers

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In lab tests, a new coating pushed solar cell efficiency to 27.59 percent.
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Joining social media before grade 9 lowered later test scores in Italian, English and math.
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Popular AI chatbots often gave risky responses to simulated users with mental health struggles.
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A new blood test tracks physical changes in immune cells linked to clogged arteries.
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In distant galaxy cores, radio light and gamma ray light rise together, hinting at a shared source.
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Word prediction models explain first-glance reading trouble but not why people reread confusing sentences.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Bengalese finch songs have word-like chunks that follow the same pattern as human language.
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Fruit and honey sugars, not just meat, may have fueled brain growth in early human ancestors.
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A new tool predicts flood clusters across many river sites for the next 1 to 10 years.
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A quantum system's lowest energy state can look just as scrambled as boiling hot matter.
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Dining out cut social isolation by 47.3% compared to staying in home neighborhoods.
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