Weekly Headlines (excerpts)

1. Does this wolf want to play—or attack? Take a close look at its face

Study identifies subtle facial cues that help keep harmony within the pack

BY SIERRA BOUCHÉR 5 JUL 2024 

2. U.K. publishes first guidelines for human embryo models grown from stem cells

New code of practice aims to provide clarity about the ethical and legal boundaries of a rapidly developing research field

BY ALEX EPSHTEIN 5 JUL 2024 

3. A pill to treat sickle cell disease? Compound that activates fetal gene raises new hope

Drug strategy, shown to produce hemoglobin in lab animals, could rival costly, risky gene therapies

BY ROBERT F. SERVICE 4 JUL 2024 

4. How does a migraine aura trigger a headache?

Mouse study reveals how fluid flow through the brain relays pain signals to key nerves

BY RODRIGO PÉREZ ORTEGA 4 JUL 2024 

5. First long-term cancer study in Asian Americans set to launch this year

Researchers aim to recruit 50,000 participants to clarify how cancer affects different Asian American groups

BY VIVIAN LA 3 JUL 2024 

6. The ultimate blood substitute? The U.S. military is betting $46 million on it

ErythroMer, designed to be stored for years and work on any blood type, could provide a critical alternative when real blood is unavailable

 BY ANDREW ZALESKI 3 JUL 2024 

7. Mysterious Denisovans may have overlapped with modern humans on Tibetan Plateau

Bones found near 40,000-year-old rib on the Tibetan Plateau suggest our close cousins hunted goats, yaks, and birds

BY MICHAEL PRICE 3 JUL 2024 

8. Dreamlike pig-hunting scene is the world’s oldest figurative art

50,000 years ago, artists painted animal-human hybrids on the hunt on an Indonesian cave wall

BY ANDREW CURRY 3 JUL 2024 

9. Giant international fusion project is in big trouble

ITER operations delayed to 2034, with energy-producing reactions expected 5 years later

BY DANIEL CLERY 3 JUL 2024 

10. First birds molted their feathers much like modern ones, fossils show

Finding bolsters notion that early birds were decent flyers

BY JACK TAMISIEA  2 JUL. 2024 

11. Is ‘cow flu’ here to stay? Three months after it emerged, fears are growing

Feeble U.S. government response and limited cooperation from the dairy industry have complicated elimination

BY JON COHEN 2 JUL 2024 

12. Ants may be the only animal that performs surgical amputations

Surprising tactic may be way to prevent entire colony from being infected by bacteria

BY HUMBERTO BASILIO 2 JUL 2024 

13. Chinese AI stirs panic at European geoscience society

Geology chatbot prompts complaint, firing of top European geoscientist

BY PAUL VOOSEN 2 JUL 2024 

14. Why do eggs in ovaries last for decades? Long-lived proteins may be key

If human ovarian proteins show the same staying power, it would be "mind blowing," experts say

BY MITCH LESLIE 1 JUL 2024 

15. Does wildlife rehabilitation really work?

Dearth of rigorous data means most rehabbers don’t know what happens to animals they’ve released back into the wild

BY SOFIA QUAGLIA 1 JUL 2024 

16. Sorcery in Australian cave may be oldest known culturally transmitted ritual

“Revolutionary” find suggests ancient stick ceremony persisted among Aboriginal people from the last ice age to colonial times

BY KERMIT PATTISON 1 JUL 2024