Weekly Headlines (Excerpts)

1. New hepatitis B drug could help ‘functionally cure’ some patients

Scientists welcome GSK announcement that two trials succeeded—even though data are still lacking

 9 JAN 20.26 BY JON COHEN 

2. World’s oldest whale harpoons discovered in Brazil

Far from the icy Arctic, ancient South Americans hunted whales using whalebone tools

 9 JAN 2026 BY ANDREW CURRY 

3. How some people get drunk from their own gut bacteria

Largest study so far of people with the rare “autobrewery syndrome” points to more culprit microbes

 8 JAN 2026 BY JENNIE ERIN SMITH 

4. Alzheimer’s drug developers accuse clinical trial sites of faking data

T3D Therapeutics alleges that contract researchers delivered “medically impossible” results on its candidate drug

 7 JAN 2026 BY CHARLES PILLER 

5. Fossils point to common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals

Bones from a Moroccan quarry belonged to a hominin that lived when the human lineage was splitting

 7 JAN 2026 BY BRIDGET ALEX 

6. Why a fatal ‘black fungus’ struck India during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mucormycosis may be triggered by low levels of albumin, the most common blood protein

 7 JAN 2026 BY KAI KUPFERSCHMIDT 

7. NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is dead

Congress backs Trump administration’s efforts to kill project that would ferry martian rocks to Earth

 6 JAN 2026 BY PAUL VOOSEN 

8. Exclusive: Have scientists found Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA?

Inside the decadeslong quest to reveal the genes of a genius—and revolutionize art authentication

 6 JAN 2026 BY RICHARD STONE 

9. Against all odds, a curious sea creature survived the dino-killing asteroid

Coil-shelled mollusks called ammonites staved off extinction for thousands of years

 6 JAN 2026 BY TAYLOR MITCHELL BROWN 

10. Jellyfish sleep a lot like us—and for the same reasons

Study adds to evidence that sleep likely evolved among ancient animals as a means of repairing neurons

 6 JAN 2026 BY JACK TAMISIEA 

11. Deep-sea earthquakes fuel huge plankton blooms in Antarctica

Hydrothermal vents spurred by seismic activity feed vital nutrients to Antarctic microbes

 5 JAN 2026 BY TAYLOR MITCHELL BROWN