Weekly Headlines (Excerpts)

1. How will we know if AI is smart enough to do science?

New tests gauge whether large language models can use their deep troves of knowledge to actually make discoveries

 27 Feb 2026 By Celina Zhao 

2. ‘Truly spectacular’ drug for sleeping sickness simplifies treatment, raising hopes for eradication

European regulators greenlight new one-dose compound that could help African countries get rid of an ancient burden

 27 Feb 2026 By Gretchen Vogel 

3. Treating fetuses with stem cells proves safe in milestone spina bifida trial

The study is now scaling up to do more in utero procedures and evaluate effects on disability as children grow

 26 Feb 2026 By Catherine Offord 

4. Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text

Discovery sheds new light on how famed astronomer came to lead a scientific revolution

 26 Feb 2026 By Joshua Sokol 

5. Head of Haiti’s new research agency determined to ‘keep a candle burning for science’

Environmental engineer Evens Emmanuel is trying to rebuild a shattered academic system

 26 Feb 2026 By Richard Stone 

6. In a first, researchers film treetops glowing during thunderstorms

Glimmer sparked by electrical fields detected in nature for the first time

 26 Feb 2026 By Hannah Richter 

7. Moon’s ancient magnetic field may have flickered on and off

Billions of years ago, melting rocks deep inside the Moon could have led to bursts of surprisingly strong magnetism

 25 Feb 2026 By Perri Thaler 

8. Birds are vanishing from tropical forests. Is another ‘silent spring’ coming?

As mysterious bird declines crop up in the Amazon and beyond, scientists suspect climate change may be to blame

 25 Feb 2026 By Warren Cornwall 

9. Could dewdrops explain why plants are flowering earlier?

Water droplets set off a chemical cascade that tells a plant it’s time to blossom, new study finds

 24 Feb 2026 By Rachel Nuwer 

10. Ancient artifacts hint at earliest protowriting

Geometric shapes on 40,000-year-old bone and ivory suggest early European Homo sapiens long possessed cognitive tools for language

 23 Feb 2026 By Taylor Mitchell Brown 

11. Hubble spotted a ‘dark galaxy’ that’s at least 99.9% dark matter

Search through space telescope’s archival images reveals unusually dim galaxy

 23 Feb 2026 By Daniel Clery 

12. Ancient rocks point to an early start for the Great Unconformity—the biggest gap in Earth’s rock record

Two-billion-year-old rocks in China suggest mountain building from Earth’s first supercontinent led to a planetwide burst of erosion

 23 Feb 2026 By James Dinneen 

13. Whoa! When horses whinny, they whistle and sing at the same time

New anatomical research reveals the one trick all ponies know

 23 Feb 2026 By Christa Lesté-Lasserre