Weekly Headlines (Excerpts)

1. Mysterious pre-Islamic script from Oman finally deciphered

Cracking the main subtype of the Dhofari script could reveal “an entirely new page of the history of Arabia”

 11 JUL 2025  BY SOUMYA SAGAR

2. China tops the world in artificial intelligence publications, database analysis reveals

The country also leads in patent filings and the number of AI researchers 

11 JUL 2025  BY DENNIS NORMILE

3. Effort to revive New Zealand’s extinct moa stirs controversy

Suggestions that nation’s Indigenous Māori wholeheartedly back project draws criticism  

11 JUL 2025  BY VERONIKA MEDUNA

4. Astronomers race to study interstellar interloper

Phalanx of instruments scrutinize 3I/ATLAS for clues about planet formation elsewhere in the galaxy   11 JUL 2025  BY ADAM MANN

5. U.S. abandons hunt for signal of cosmic inflation

Now-canceled CMB-S4 project would have searched the afterglow of the Big Bang for signs of cosmic exponential growth spurt

10 JUL 2025  BY ADRIAN CHO

6. Genetic testing of critically ill adults can yield surprises—and reveal disparities in treatment of Black patients

Adults in the ICU often don’t know about the genetic diagnoses related to their symptoms, DNA sequencing study shows  

 10 JUL 2025  BY ANNIKA INAMPUDI

7. How hydrogen-leaking ‘fairy circles’ might form

Understanding the origins of mysterious seeps could help prospectors extract natural hydrogen fuel  

 10 JUL 2025  BY HANNAH RICHTER

8. AI challenge to find lost Amazonian civilizations draws critics

Scientists, ethicists, and officials worry the OpenAI-sponsored contest sidesteps archaeological norms  

8 JUL 2025  BY SOFIA MOUTINHO

9. Pterosaur died with belly full of plants—a fossil first

New discovery confirms the long-debated hypothesis that the ancient winged reptiles ate plants

 9 JUL 2025  BY TAYLOR MITCHELL BROWN 

10. Record-setting recovery of ancient protein used to identify extinct rhino relative

Scientists sequence 20-million-year-old enamel protein from teeth fossils preserved in Arctic cold

 9 JUL 2025  BY MICHAEL PRICE  

11. Elephants gesture to signal what they want—just like us

New experiments show elephants use a wide range of movements to express their desires

 8 JUL 2025  BY PHIE JACOBS  

12. Some butterflies adapted to have second ‘heads’ that confuse predators

A new evolutionary analysis of butterflies finds “false heads” arose from the coalescence of multiple traits

 8 JUL 2025  BY ANNIKA INAMPUDI