26 May 2026

Today’s Visualized examines a trove of fossils that paints a new picture of early animal evolution. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including the many ways stress can mess with your memory.

Geology | Science

Earthquakes weaken rocks up to 100 km away

Erosion rates decrease with distance from an active fault. Kuhasubpasin et al./Science (2026)

When an earthquake strikes, there’s no question the rocks surrounding the fault are weakened; the shaking earth can create steep slopes, pulverize boulders, and literally tear the land apart, allowing the elements to break down rocks much faster. However, get more than a short distance away, and there’s often little noticeable damage. In fact, it’s been mostly taken for granted that quakes don’t affect erosion beyond about 1 km. Now, a team of researchers has cast doubt on that dogma, showing that the reach of active fault zones is 15 to 100 times farther.

The team mapped erosion to a global map of active faults, factoring in the kind of fault, climate, and geology to determine how shaking affects erosion rates. For most faults, rocks were much weaker within 15 km, with some weakening reaching as far as 100 km. Detailed analyses of particular areas suggested that even at great distances, subtle shaking causes rocks to rub against one another, reducing their integrity.

“Their results indicate that earthquake damage goes well beyond pulverization in the fault zone,” Science Senior Editor Angela Hessler explained in her summary of the work. “Ground shaking likely shatters mineral contacts and opens fracture networks over tens of kilometers, reducing rock strength on a large scale.”

Read the paper

Neuroscience | Science Advances

How stress can mess with making connections

Studies have found that although stress can speed the formation of long-term memories from emotional short-term ones—a process called memory consolidation—it restricts the mind from retrieving those memories. And that’s not all. According to experiments in 121 healthy adults, stress also impairs the ability to draw connections between related memories, preventing a person from reaching important conclusions via integration and inference.

In the new study, participants stressed by a mock job interview were less able to remember which images were previously paired with a given third image, which brain scans linked to decreased activity in the hippocampus. “To actually see what’s going awry is really compelling,” neuroscientist Brice Kuhl told Nature.

Let’s say a person walks their neighborhood every day. On Monday, they chat with a fellow down the block who’s enamored with his new, stylish leather gloves. Just before getting home, they speak with their next door neighbor, who tells them about threatening messages they’ve been receiving. The next day, they hear screaming inside their neighbor’s house, and when they enter, they come across a grizzly scene. Under extreme stress, they may struggle to remember key details of their last conversation with the victim (reduced memory retrieval), even though the horrifying details of that moment—including a pair of bloodied gloves—may feel burned into their memory (enhanced by memory consolidation). Still, according to the new work, they could fail to recognize the gloves as belonging to the fellow they chatted with the day before—and, therefore, neglect to tell the police about a potential suspect.

“Our findings suggest that under stress, the brain prioritizes the distinct representation of individual episodes over the formation of connected knowledge structures,” the team explained in the paper. Given the ubiquity of stressful events in everyday life, “such deficits in memory integration and inference have relevant implications across many domains,” they concluded.

Read the paper

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Visualized

Ediacaran fossils from the Blueflower Formation, including tubelike Sekwitubulus (A–C and white arrows), disc-like Aspidella (D), Mawsonites (E) and other as-of-yet undescribed fauna. Evans et al./Science Advances (2026)

High in the mountains of Canada’s Northwest Territories might seem like an odd place for marine life. More than 500 million years ago, however, this area was home to some seriously strange sea creatures. Now, fossils unearthed from the remote region are reshaping scientists’ understanding of early animal evolution.

After a long journey, first by car and then by helicopter, paleontologists collected a treasure trove of more than 100 fossils—many preserved as imprints on rock slabs—from the Mackenzie Mountains in the northern reaches of the Canadian Rockies. The specimens, recovered from the Blueflower Formation and presented last week in Science Advances, provide a unique glimpse into life during the Ediacaran Period , which preceded the rapid burst of diversification known as the Cambrian Explosion. Scientists recently uncovered evidence that this evolutionary eruption actually began earlier than previously thought, with many key animal groups first evolving during the end of the Ediacaran.

Scientists typically divide the Ediacaran fossil record into three chapters. The Avalon assemblage, which spanned from 575 to 559 million years ago, was characterized by simple, bizarre-looking organisms that thrived in the deep ocean. The Nama assemblage began about 550 million years ago and included some of the earliest animals with shell-like parts. And the White Sea assemblage, sandwiched between these two, featured some of the Ediacaran’s most varied life forms.

Until now, fossils from this middle chapter had only been found in Europe, Asia, and Australia. But the specimens described in the new study, with their frondlike shapes and segmented bodies, provide the first clear evidence of White Sea animals in North America. Compared to organisms from earlier in the Ediacaran, these critters also have a bit more in common with modern life forms. “For 3 billion years, life on Earth was dominated by microbes ,” study lead author Scott Evans said in a statement. “Then, all the sudden, we get these strange-looking marine animals big enough to see and capable of behaviors we would find familiar today.”

artist's reconstruction of the life found in fossils

An artist’s reconstruction of a hypothetical deep-water press based on fossils from the Blueflower Formation. Alex Boersma

One tube-shaped creature called Funisia was among the first complex creatures to reproduce sexually, which it may have done by releasing sperm and eggs into the water column—just like modern coral. The mouthless Dickinsonia, which bore a striking resemblance to a bathmat, moved around the seafloor, vacuuming up bacteria and algae directly into its belly. And Kimberella, widely interpreted as an early relative of mollusks, scraped the sea floor with its muscular foot.

But discovering White Sea fossils in Canada wasn’t the only surprise. Some of the fossils are estimated to be older than those previously documented for the assemblage—pushing back the origins of animal movement and sexual reproduction by 5 to 10 million years. That finding “extends early animals deeper in time” paleontologist Mary Droser, who wasn’t involved in the new study, told Scientific American. It also blurs the boundary between the Avalon and White Sea assemblages, which have traditionally been thought of as distinct chapters.

These organisms also lived in deeper-water environments than previously recognized for the White Sea assemblage, supporting the idea that early animals may have originated in the deep sea before expanding into shallower waters over time.

Read the paper

Et Cetera

Stupid hot

The hotter it gets, the harder it is to think—even for bird brains. A growing number of studies have noted cognitive deficits and behavioral abnormalities that occur when temps rise. “Changes in air temperature will affect brain temperature,” explained one researcher, and that “might affect sensing, memory and learning.”

Read more at Knowable Magazine

Squeezing out every drop

Sponges can absorb lots of water and then release it with a simple squeeze. A new loofahlike material can do the same with water vapor in the air, allowing people to harvest water with a mere 1/1000 the energy of traditional methods.

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Paper | Read more at C&EN

Pollutes like a glove

Ironically, gloves worn to prevent contamination during sample collection can shed a surprising number of microparticles, resulting in falsely high readings of microplastics. “I remember taking a gloved finger, pressing it against the substrate then looking at it with our instrument and being absolutely shocked to find the ginormous number of particles released,” one researcher said. When their team re-collected atmospheric samples without wearing gloves, they counted an average of 2000 particles per mm² fewer microplastics.

Analytical Methods Paper | Read more at Chemistry World

The critical question is not whether AI can “do” science but whether science—as a social, evolutionary system that generates trustworthy knowledge—survives the way AI does it.

EDITORIAL | 21 May 2026 | Julio M. Ottino and Brian Uzzi

Last but not least

Today I learned that Stephen Hawking’s dad “worried about the way Stephen is turning out,” believing he had “little initiative” and didn’t study enough. It just goes to show that you can’t let anyone’s opinion of you dictate who you become.

Christie Wilcox, Editor, ScienceAdviser

With contributions from Phie Jacobs

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