Weekly Headlines (Excerpts)

1. Saber-toothed kitten frozen in Siberian ice reveals new details about species

Ice mummy preserves extinct cat from claws to paws

BY KERMIT PATTISON 15 NOV 2024 

2. The first people on Tasmania brought fire and forever changed the land

Study of charcoal and pollen could give Aboriginal advocates of traditional burns “more voice at the table”

BY WARREN CORNWALL 15 NOV 2024

3. With first mechanical qubit, quantum computing goes steampunk

Sapphire crystal’s vibrations used to make two-ways-at-once quantum bit

BY ADRIAN CHO 14 NOV 2024 

4. Meet Evo, the DNA-trained AI that creates genomes from scratch

ChatGPT-like model learns on its own to devise new proteins and genetic sequences

BY MITCH LESLIE 14 NOV 2024 

5. A breakthrough cancer immunotherapy is now taking aim at autoimmune disease

CAR-T therapy is generating excitement for lupus, scleroderma, and other conditions as clinical trials expand

BY JENNIFER COUZIN-FRANKEL 14 NOV 2024 

6. Open-access journal elife will lose its ‘impact factor’ over controversial publishing model

Web of Science index decides to strip key metric because elife’s unusual peer review doesn’t meet its criteria

BY JEFFREY BRAINARD 13 NOV 2024 

7. First known double gravitational lens could shed light on universe’s expansion

Zigzagging light bent by perfectly aligned galaxies could improve estimates of Hubble constant

BY DANIEL CLERY 13 NOV 2024 

8. A glowing, deep-diving sea slug mystified scientists. Now, it has a name

“Deep deceiver” adds a new branch to the nudibranch family tree

BY ERIK STOKSTAD 12 NOV 2024 

9. Google DeepMind releases code behind its most advanced protein prediction program

Six months after backlash, AI company fulfills pledge to make AlphaFold3’s full computer model available for noncommercial use

BY CATHERINE OFFORD 11 NOV 2024