News from Science

A lack of federal funds may have forced an Oregon university to drop the idea of converting its national primate center into a science-free refuge. Learn more: scim.ag/4fzMdgz

Since 2019, gray whales have been washing ashore in Washington in unusually high numbers as they migrate from Mexico, where they overwinter and give birth, some 8000 kilometers to their Arctic feeding grounds. The death toll slowed for several years. But in the past 2 years it has surged again toward record levels up and down the North American coast while overall populations have fallen to less than half their peak. Scientists are now predicting a sustained decline. The likely cause: a region warming four times faster than the global average. Learn more: scim.ag/4poR1cc

Aquarium hijinks provide the strongest evidence yet that sharks love to play. Learn more on #SharkAwarenessDay: scim.ag/3XPOZVj

Northern spotted owls were spared from logging. Now, scientists are making a last stand to save them from a new threat. #LongReads scim.ag/44TJl89

Observational studies suggested the meningitis vaccine could prevent gonorrhea, but a new randomized trial shows no benefit. Learn more: scim.ag/3QHZQks

Octopuses are among the strangest creatures on Earth—right down to their molecules. A new study has found that octopuses of a certain lineage have a mutation not seen in any other organism that makes their cellular machinery extremely accurate at creating proteins. As a result, their proteins are less likely to form toxic clumps. Learn more: scim.ag/4wxHUb9

A spectacular claim about the structure of the universe may be rapidly unraveling. Recently, a pair of cosmologists reported that, on the largest scales, the distribution of the galaxies is stringier than standard theory assumes. However, another cosmologist posted a preprint that suggests the tantalizing signal is an artifact produced by mixing different measures of cosmic distance. Learn more: scim.ag/4yb2ekh

An artificial intelligence system that can construct new languages is fueling debate over the role of human creativity in language construction—and whether #AI can replicate that imaginative leap. Learn more: scim.ag/4fwMRLH

It was a warm October day in 1587 when Grand Duke Francesco de Medici succumbed to fever. At the time, doctors suspected malaria, but it didn’t take long for many to speculate that he had instead been poisoned by his envious younger brother, Ferdinando. New evidence points the finger squarely at the original culprit, resolving the mystery for good. Learn more: scim.ag/3TdOCEY

The Spanish National Research Council, established under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, has published the stories of some 500 researchers and support staff purged after the civil war. Learn more: scim.ag/3SS90eN

Physicists say they have successfully demonstrated via high-resolution simulations that a DNA molecule can in principle behave like an Archimedes screw in nanoscale. Learn more: scim.ag/3TerI0d

The publisher Springer Nature has reversed the more than decade-old retraction of two papers by legendary physicist and Nobel laureate Max Planck, saying the initial action was based on human error. Learn more: scim.ag/4b2vobJ

Three approaches—including one that exploits Earth’s radiation belts—could help enforce a ban on orbital nuclear weapons. Learn more: scim.ag/4wyuTyg

Researchers found that popular large language models often produce stigmatizing statements when provided with information about a person’s health. The findings add to growing evidence that #AI models can help perpetuate—rather than eliminate—harmful stereotypes. Learn more: scim.ag/44ihrT6

Some kinds of static electricity are easy to understand. Rub a balloon against your hair, and negative charges will accumulate on the rubber because it has a greater affinity for holding charges. Your hair, now positively charged, will be attracted to the balloon. And because like charges repel, strands of your hair will splay out from each other. But identical materials with identical affinities can also exchange charges, seemingly without rhyme or reason. Particles in volcanic ash plumes somehow build up enough charge to trigger lightning; dust in grain silos can spark and explode. Researchers say they have finally found the culprit: trace amounts of surface contamination by carbon-bearing molecules from the air. Learn more: scim.ag/4vspIQj

“It’s extraordinary the effort people went to, to obtain these prestigious objects that didn’t have anything to do with food or subsistence.” Learn more: scim.ag/4oHxQK2

Hummingbird feeders are a beloved pastime for millions of backyard birders and a convenient dining spot for the birds. But for the Anna’s hummingbird, a common species in the western United States, feeders have become a major evolutionary force.⁠ ⁠ According to research published last year, artificial feeders have allowed the birds to expand their range out of Southern California up to the state’s northern end.⁠ ⁠ They have also driven a transformation of the birds themselves. Over just a few generations, their beaks have dramatically changed in size and shape.⁠ ⁠ Learn more: scim.ag/45BSZ0W #ScienceMagArchives

“This study places what may be the final nail in the coffin for the prevailing view that more oxygen made ancient insects bigger.” Learn more: scim.ag/4ezGd5S

The arrival of H5N1 in Australia has triggered an ambitious vaccination program. scim.ag/4vQwmzX

For decades, elementary students learned the same tale of the Solar System: first come rocky terrestrial planets such as Earth, followed by gas giants such as Jupiter and ice giants such as Neptune, with lovable Pluto bringing up the rear. Then 20 years ago, planetary scientists downgraded Pluto to a “dwarf planet.” Now, a growing number of theories say it’s time to revisit our idea of Neptune and Uranus, too—for the so-called ice giants likely contain very little ice. Learn more: scim.ag/4f43oWb