Weekly Headlines (Excerpts)

1. UV-C light kills nearly everything—except this unusual organism

Built-in Sun protection might be a blueprint for surviving in space

 27 Jun 2025  By Hannah Richter 

 2. Japan’s new seafloor monitors could reveal how ‘slow slip’ earthquakes turn into big ones

Network could add 20 minutes of tsunami warning at dangerous Nankai Trough

 26 Jun 2025  By Paul Voosen 

3. Hundreds of hidden fossils reveal squids’ evolutionary origins

To uncover a trove of squid beaks, scientists first had to grind the fossils into dust

 26 Jun 2025  By Phie Jacobs 

4. Stone Age farmers’ househ olds passed from mother to daughter

Moms and daughters were at the center of the family in ancient Çatalhöyük, ancient DNA and archaeological evidence suggest

 26 Jun 2025  By Andrew Curry 

5.    Global warming is triggering earthquakes in the Alps

Study provides first solid link between climate change and earthquake hazard

 25 Jun 2025  By Paul Voosen 

6. A mammoth boomerang returns new clues about early human toolmaking

New dates for a throwing weapon found in Poland reveal it as one of the earliest of its kind

 25 Jun 2025  By Nazeefa Ahmed 

7. Tumors may get supercharged by acquiring powerhouses of nerve cells

Scientists spot mitochondria traveling through “bridges” into nearby cancer cells

 25 Jun 2025  By Mitch Leslie 

8. Space telescope spies smallest alien world to be seen directly

NASA’s JWST observatory takes picture of young, Saturn-size world that grew by sweeping up debris

 25 Jun 2025  By Daniel Clery 

9. Africa’s embattled giraffe populations growing after years of decline

Still, several populations should be considered “endangered,” new report finds

 25 Jun 2025  By Maina Waruru 

10. DeepMind’s latest AI tool makes sense of changes in the human genome

By predicting the effects of genetic variants, AlphaGenome could boost synthetic biology and the search for cancer genes

 25 Jun 2025  By Robert F. Service 

11. These squirrels’ scaly tails help them climb slippery trees

The grippy appendages may help engineers design robots that can navigate dense forests

 24 Jun 2025  By Annika Inampudi 

12, How fast were dinosaurs? These mud-covered birds may show us

Researchers used live birds to test a 50-year-old way of estimating dino speeds from fossil footprints

 24 Jun 2025  By Nazeefa Ahmed 

13. A single shot of a flu drug could outperform vaccines—and protect for an entire season

One injection of a long-lasting drug showed up to 76% efficacy in a large trial

24 Jun 2025  By Jon Cohen 

14. Mountain-dwelling animals may have a worse sense of smell

Poor olfaction could be an adaptation to frigid environments

 24 Jun 2025  By Annika Inampudi 

15. Roman gravestones hint that ancient economies still shape the present

A computer analysis of Latin inscriptions argues that economic complexity is “sticky” over time. Historians are skeptical

 24 Jun 2025  By Elise Cutts 

16. What scientists need to know about sharing—and protecting—their published work

With research papers becoming increasingly free to read and use, understanding open-access licenses is key

 23 Jun 2025  By Jeffrey Brainard 

17. Killer whales groom each other—with pieces of kelp

In a newly discovered form of social tool use, orcas scratch each other’s backs with seaweed

 23 Jun 2025  By Annika Inampudi 

18. Rubin observatory unveils first images taken with its giant mirror and camera

Pictures are a prelude to a transformative, all-sky survey set to begin in months

 23 Jun 2025  By Daniel Clery