Weekly Headlines (excerpts)

1. A scientist asked to join the U.K. House of Lords—and got in

“I got one of those lovely phone calls,” evidence communication researcher Alexandra Freeman says about her surprise appointment

BY CATHLEEN O’GRADY  10 MAY 2024

2. NSF halts South Pole megaproject to probe infant cosmos’ growth spurt

Citing aging infrastructure at Antarctic base, agency declines to advance plan to build microwave telescope array

BY ADRIAN CHO  9 MAY 2024 

3. Elephants know their audience. Watch them greet one another in the wild

Decoding the gestures the animals use when interacting with one another could help researchers better understand elephant communication

BY MADELINE REINSEL 9 MAY 2024 

4. New U.S. AI network aims to make supercomputers available to more researchers

Pilot grants will help scientists train software to tackle societal problems

BY JEFFREY MERVIS 8 MAY 2024 

5. Global effort aims to protect health and safety of human ‘guinea pigs’ in drug trials

Healthy volunteers—who usually join studies for money—deserve special attention, researchers say

BY MARTIN ENSERINK 8 MAY 2024 

6. Brazil’s plan to lure 1000 expat scientists back home faces criticism

Money for new repatriation program would be better spent supporting researchers who stayed in Brazil, critics say

BY RODRIGO DE OLIVEIRA ANDRADE 8 MAY 2024 

7. Meet the smallest animal known to spread seeds with its poop

The rough woodlouse is the smallest known animal to disperse seeds by eating and excreting them

BY GENNARO TOMMA 8 MAY 2024 

8. Powerful new AI software maps virtually any protein interaction in minutes

Predicting how proteins bind to other molecules could revolutionize biochemistry, drug discovery

BY ROBERT F. SERVICE 8 MAY 2024 

9. ‘Unqualified failure’ in polio vaccine policy left thousands of kids paralyzed

Well-intentioned decision to switch oral polio vaccines in 2016 backfired, new draft report says

BY LESLIE ROBERTS 7 MAY 2024 

10. Parasites in these 200 old cans of salmon may spell good news for marine food webs

Researchers dissected a surprising data source and found a sign of ecosystem health

BY ASHLEY STIMPSON 7 MAY 2024 

11. White House overhauls rules for risky pathogen studies

New policies for gain-of-function and “dual-use” research will cover broader swath of experiments

BY JOCELYN KAISER 7 MAY 2024 

12. Could a newly discovered sperm whale ‘alphabet’ be deciphered by humans?

Discovery of potentially complex communication could reveal way to interpret what these marine mammals are saying—but not everyone is convinced

BY WARREN CORNWALL  7 MAY 2024 

13. To combat cow flu outbreak, scientists plan to infect cattle with influenza in high-security labs

Novel effort comes as study finds key receptor for avian flu virus in udders

BY KAI KUPFERSCHMIDT 7 MAY 2024 

14. Australia bets big on dark horse quantum computing technology

In AU$940 million deal, PsiQuantum will build “utility scale” facility to harness photons

BY ADRIAN CHO 6 MAY 2024 

15. New animal dads often kill their stepchildren. These parrots adopt them instead

Green-rumped parrotlet stepfathers still get their DNA into the gene pool when they spare their adoptive chicks’ lives

BY VIRGINIA MORELL 6 MAY 2024 

16. Hellish Venus may have lost its water quickly

Newly identified water-loss mechanism means planet may have had an ocean more recently

BY JONATHAN O’CALLAGHAN 6 MAY 2024 

17. In medieval England, leprosy bounced between humans and squirrels

First reconstruction of leprotic bacterial genome from ancient animal remains sheds new light on its ecology

BY SEAN CUMMINGS 3 MAY 2024