Weekly Headlines (Excerpts)

1. Mosquito-borne viral disease sweeping Indian Ocean islands

Safety issues with the only available vaccine complicates response to chikungunya

 9 MAY 2025  BY MEREDITH WADMAN 

2. Ancient mariners used this boat to crisscross Mesopotamian canals

Sediments deposited long ago reveal the vessel’s age

 9 MAY 2025  BY ELISE CUTTS 

3. Neanderthals made mysterious horse-hunting spears, new dates reveal

Ancient amino acids suggest German weapons are some 100,000 years younger than once thought

 9 MAY 2025  BY ANDREW CURRY 

4. Watch cuttlefish communicate—with enthusiastic gestures

By moving their arms, these smart cephalopods seem to send signals via visual cues and pressure waves

 9 MAY 2025    BY CHRISTIE WILCOX

5. Chimpanzee drumming may give clues to the roots of rhythm

Behavior is more complex than scientists realized, could reveal origins of musicality

9 MAY 2025     BY RODRIGO PÉREZ ORTEGA

6. Herring had a spawning ‘culture.’ Overfishing obliterated it

Younger generations lost their way after older fish were killed

 8 MAY 2025  BY ERIK STOKSTAD 

7. Claim of alien life on distant world meets swift scientific pushback

“The simplest explanation is just that it’s kind of a boring planet like Neptune or Uranus”

 8 MAY 2025  BY SHARMILA KUTHUNUR 

8. AI predicted the next pope. Did it get it right?

Researchers use algorithms to study political factions within the Catholic Church

 8 MAY 2025  BY SARA REARDON 

9. Bronze Age leprosy hitched rides along ancient copper and pottery trade route

4000-year-old scarred jaws in Oman hub mark oldest cases outside South Asia

 8 MAY 2025  BY CHRISTA LESTÉ-LASSERRE 

10. Ambitious project to revive Louisiana coastline runs aground

Politics and environmental concerns imperil plans to divert the Mississippi River to build new land

 7 MAY 2025  BY WARREN CORNWALL 

11. Dangerous fungal spores can surf the stratosphere—and survive

Airborne device captures hitchhiking species from all over the world floating many kilometers above Earth’s surface

 7 MAY 2025  BY ELISE CUTTS 

12. Scientists ‘blow up’ brains 16 times their size to map neurons with superfine detail

Method—which uses a light microscope—offers a powerful, cost-effective alternative to electron microscopy

 7 MAY 2025  BY RODRIGO PÉREZ ORTEGA 

13. Meet a worm that can stretch like an accordion

Found off the coast of a Spanish estuary, worm can contract its body to one-fifth its original length

 6 MAY 2025 BY RODRIGO PÉREZ ORTEGA 

14. Psychoactive drugs found in mysterious temple may have helped ancient Peruvians cement power

2500-year-old hallucinogenic rituals may have allowed Chavín de Huántar elites to gain prestige and influence

 5 MAY 2025  BY LIZZIE WADE