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<p>The best blood test for herpes is only available at a single lab. What would it take for that to change?</p>

<p>These eye-catching insects offer a prime opportunity for scientists to dig deep into invasion ecology and evolutionary biology</p>

<p>When asteroids slam into Earth, they can create hydrothermal vent systems</p>

‘Odd’ Gulf of Mexico earthquake rattles Florida and Cuba This earthquake may be among the biggest in the Gulf of Mexico’s history By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, with "reports of shaking across Southwestern Florida," according to a social media post from the National Weather Service’s (NWS’s) Miami office. The quake occurred 104 kilometers (about 65 miles) northwest of Mantua, Cuba, says Robert Garcia, a warning coordination meteorologist at the NWS Miami office. It occurred at about 2 P.M. EDT and at a depth of 26 kilometers (around 16 miles) below the surface. “We have not heard any reports of damage in South Florida,” Garcia says. There is no threat of a tsunami from the earthquake at this time. Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist at an NBC affiliate station in Tampa, Fla., posted on Bluesky that the earthquake was among the biggest in the Gulf of Mexico’s history. A 1959 earthquake of around magnitude 6.4 that struck near Veracruz, Mexico, is likely the “strongest known” earthquake ever recorded in the Gulf, Berardelli wrote. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. This earthquake is “odd” because it occurred in the interior of a tectonic plate, not along the edge—which is rare but not unheard of, says Wendy Bohon, an independent earthquake geologist. “This quake is in a somewhat unusual spot, and it’s pretty large,” she says, adding that no earthquakes beyond magnitude 5.0 have been recorded within 250 kilometers of this quake. Much like the “Ring of Fire” in the Pacific, the Caribbean has its own smaller “ring” of earthquake activity, adds Susan Hough, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. That boundary generated the 2010 earthquake in …

The Philippines earthquake is massive, but it could’ve been bigger—here’s why The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit the Philippines happened at a subduction zone. Such places are capable of producing the largest earthquakes possible By Andrea Thompson edited by Claire Cameron A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck offshore of Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, at 7:37 A.M. local time is the largest earthquake to hit anywhere in the world so far this year, according to U.S. Geological Survey records. But the temblor, which has killed at least 35 individuals and injured scores of people, was actually on the smaller side for the type of fault it occurred at, seismologist Lucy Jones says. An earthquake’s size is determined by the area of the fault rupture—the larger the area, the larger the quake. The highest magnitudes only happen at plate boundaries, Jones says, “because that’s the only place you have a big enough fault.” For context, there is around one earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or higher somewhere in the world and some dozen in the range of magnitude 7.0 to 7.9 each year on average; this year there have been six of the latter so far. Subduction zones—places where one plate is diving below another—are where the very largest quakes occur because the fault dips down at a shallow angle, creating a larger area of slip, Jones explains. In comparison, though the strike-slip faults of California can produce a magnitude 8.0 or higher earthquake, the faults there go straight down and quickly hit hotter rocks below, halting the movement and constraining the quake. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Some subduction zones, such as one off Chile, can create the largest earthquakes ever measured because they have younger rocks that dip at a par…

This Prada-designed onesie will help keep NASA’s Artemis astronauts cool on the moon On Sunday Axiom Space and Prada unveiled the cooling inner garment that NASA’s Artemis astronauts will wear under their space suits on the moon NASA’s Artemis astronauts will bring high fashion to the high frontier on future missions by wearing a Prada-designed inner layer beneath their space suits when they walk on the moon’s surface. Called the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG), this futuristic onesie is riddled with tubing that can circulate cold water around the astronauts’ bodies, ensuring they won’t overheat while they gad about on the moon. And of course, it also features the signature red stripe of Prada’s activewear line on one sleeve. The Italian fashion house has been working for years with Axiom Space, a private company commissioned by NASA to make new space suits for its astronauts to wear during upcoming Artemis missions. The cooling onesie, which was unveiled at a press event on Sunday, will be worn under the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) space suit, which is also designed in collaboration with Prada. The AxEMU is the first major upgrade to NASA’s space suits in more than 20 years. Currently, the space agency relies on a similar design to the space suits worn during the Apollo era. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. “When we unveiled the AxEMU, we announced that the collaboration between Prada and Axiom Space would continue beyond that first milestone,” said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s group chief marketing officer and head of sustainability, in a statement. “Today, we are proud to present a new achievement born from the unique combination of Axiom Space’s pioneering expertise and Prada’s know-how in design, patternmaking, and advan…

Increase in wildfire-driven ozone linked to premature deaths across the U.S. Smog from wildfires is getting worse across much of the U.S., according to a NASA-funded study By Jeanna Bryner edited by Clara Moskowitz Smog linked to wildfires is getting worse across much of the U.S., playing a role in more than 300 additional premature deaths every year since 2013, researchers say. The main ingredient in smog is ozone, which is a gas molecule made of three oxygen atoms that, depending on where it forms, can be either helpful or harmful. In the layer of the upper atmosphere called the stratosphere, the gas creates a protective layer that shields Earthlings from harmful ultraviolet rays. But ozone is dangerous when inhaled. So on the ground, the gas can lead to respiratory issues , particularly in people with asthma or other breathing conditions. This ground-level ozone can form when carbon monoxide gas emitted by wildfires chemically reacts with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight. Wildfires have been on the rise because of climate change , according to NASA. To get a full picture of the effect of this recent increase in wildfire frequency and intensity, a team of researchers fed surface ozone levels and premature death data into a deep-learning model. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The new analysis, funded by NASA, showed that, between 2003 and 2015, ground-level ozone decreased, likely resulting from tightened controls on ozone-forming chemicals released by human activity, such as car tailpipe emissions, the scientists said. Those gains were reversed between 2015 and 2024, when, the model showed, ozone levels increased, particularly in the Midwest and parts of the western U.S. By looking at different scenarios in their model, the researchers…

Why drugs like Ozempic might reduce cancer risk A new wave of research links GLP-1 drugs to reduced cancer spread and better survival, and the mechanism may go beyond just weight loss By Lori Youmshajekian edited by Lauren J. Young & Tanya Lewis CHICAGO—At the world’s largest oncology conference, Ozempic, a diabetes drug, found its way to the center of the conversation. As thousands of attendees bounced between presentations at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, some of the biggest buzz focused on the connection between taking Ozempic and similar glucagonlike peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and having a decreased risk of several types of cancer. GLP-1 drugs, originally designed to treat type 2 diabetes, have become blockbuster treatments for weight loss and metabolic conditions such as heart , liver and kidney disease . Now researchers are investigating whether certain cancers, such as breast cancer, could be added to that list. At the conference, scientists announced their findings that people taking GLP-1 drugs were less likely to be diagnosed with certain cancers, have them spread or die from them when compared with nonusers and those on other diabetes medications. Even though the findings are largely based on observational studies, they reinforce animal research that shows GLP-1 drugs do more than just shed pounds and improve metabolic health. The drugs may also dial down the inflammation that can drive cancer development—and might even act directly on tumors. Obesity has long been identified as a risk factor for at least 13 types of cancer. Excess weight promotes chronic inflammation, raises insulin levels in the blood and increases estrogen circulating in the body—all potential drivers of cancer development. Whether GLP-1 treatments reduce cancer risk by reversing these pathways through weight loss, or through some other mechanism entirely, remains an open question. Several lines of research presented at ASCO offer evidence o…

World Cup kicks off amid outbreak tracking as Mars mission ends and AI fights heat up World Cup crowds spark outbreak tracking as AI tensions rise and ancient Rome’s roads get a stunning reboot By Rachel Feltman , Lauren J. Young , Andrea Gawrylewski , Fonda Mwangi & Alex Sugiura Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners and Happy Pride! For Scientific American ’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. You’re listening to our weekly science news roundup. The World Cup kicks off in just a few days. Now, I love “the beautiful game” as much as the next guy, but I will say this international spectacle is already messing with my commute. Which I don’t appreciate. My concerns about overcrowded public transit are small potatoes compared to what public health experts have to worry about in the wake of such a large event. New York City’s health commissioner recently told NPR that the city has been running simulations to prepare for mass casualty events and disease outbreaks. And some of the World Cup locations in the U.S. are also dialing up their use of wastewater surveillance to catch any pathogens. Here to tell us more about that is Lauren Young, associate editor for health and medicine at Scientific American . Thanks for being here, Lauren. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. More than five million people from around the world are going to be traveling to North America for the World Cup this week. Sixteen different cities are gonna be hosting the games. But as people come, public health experts are gonna be on pretty high alert for any potential outbreaks of infectious diseases, and the way they’re doing that is using this forecasting system through wastewater detection. Wastewater is, like, a super helpful forecast tool, if you will, to pick up things like gen…

In a new study, an AI tool identified images of seahorse, shark fin and sea cucumber samples in luggage By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Clara Moskowitz Scientists hoping to stop the illicit trade of marine wildlife have a new tool to spot seahorses, shark fins and sea cucumbers hidden in luggage. The tool, which uses artificial intelligence, could be deployed at airports to bolster wildlife enforcement efforts, the researchers say. Wildlife trafficking is a major industry: around the world, some $20 billion in plant and animal products are sold illegally every year, according to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). That includes marine species—such as sea cucumbers , seahorses and shark fins, which are illegally harvested and sold for possible medicinal uses or as food. Many of these wildlife products pass through airports and often go undetected , environmental advocates say. In the new study , which was published on Sunday in the journal Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability, researchers trained an AI algorithm on hundreds of three-dimensional x-ray images—the kind of imaging already used in airports—of 68 dried shark fin, seahorse and sea cucumber samples. Across hundreds of images, the algorithm correctly identified these samples 92 percent of the time, with a false positive rate of about 13 percent. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. “Never in my career would I think AI would be such an important part of my research,” says Vanessa Pirotta, lead author of the study and a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Australia. X-ray imaging “enables us to look in and around luggage and mail items—this means we can use this tech to understand how people may change their trafficking efforts over time,” she says. The algorithm, sh…

How math can help you decide what to order for dinner An experiment with 2,520 participants backs Richard Feynman’s answer to every diner’s dilemma: do I want to try something new? In a scene that could have easily featured in an episode of the US television sitcom The Big Bang Theory , the late US physicist Richard Feynman once turned a visit to a Thai restaurant he often dined at into a mathematical riddle: how adventurous should we be in trying new dishes? Feynman promptly solved this on a sheet of paper. Now, behavioural scientists have revisited Feynman’s solution — some of which had been obscured by his inscrutable handwriting — and found that his was indeed the optimal strategy. Feynman’s dilemma is one that will be familiar to any restaurant-goer. Do we keep ordering the best dish we’ve had so far, or do we explore the menu in the hope of finding something better? A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 1 June probes this question, and includes experimental findings that participants adopt meal-choosing strategies that closely approximate Feynman’s mathematical solution. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Behavioural scientist Shoham Choshen-Hillel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says that the authors wrote a “super creative article.” “The restaurant example stands in for decisions in many settings,” she adds. Real-life examples include choosing a home to buy, deciding whom to partner up with and selecting a parking spot. The story begins with a regular visit by Feynman , a Nobel prizewinning physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and his friend Ralph Leighton, to a Thai restaurant in nearby Glendale in the late 1970s. (Leighton helped Feynman to write his popular 1985 memoir S…

NASA’s X-59 plane goes supersonic for the first time This experimental plane, which reached supersonic speeds yesterday, is designed to travel faster than the speed of sound without creating bothersome sonic booms By Meghan Bartels edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier NASA’s experimental X-59 plane is one step closer to making faster-than-sound flight quiet after the aircraft flew supersonic for the first time on June 5, reaching a peak speed of 713 miles per hour—about equivalent to Mach 1.1—and an altitude of 43,400 feet. “ Flying at supersonic speeds is a major milestone for the X-59 team,” said Cathy Bahm, project manager for the program at NASA, in a statement in late May, before the flight . “Completing the first mission-conditions flight is especially meaningful—it’s the moment where we begin validating the aircraft in the environment it was designed for.” The flight lasted 81 minutes and was based at Edwards Air Force Base; NASA pilot Jim Less flew the milestone sortie. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. “Supersonic” is a slippery term, given that the speed of sound depends on the temperature and pressure of the local atmosphere. Mach 1 represents the local speed of sound, above which movement is considered supersonic; Mach 5 marks the transition to even faster “hypersonic” speeds. When objects travel faster than the speed of sound, the pressure waves they produce are funneled to their rear and produce a cone; if the object is flying low enough for this cone to hit Earth, the result is a loud noise called a sonic boom . These booms—as well as a massive price tag—prompted the 2003 retirement of the only supersonic passenger plane, the Concorde, which ferried passengers starting in 1976. The plane reached cruise speeds of 1,350 mph and could fly from N…

How prediction markets could forecast the future of science Online prediction markets are taking bets on everything from climate change to quantum computing. But researchers question their accuracy Prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi have soared in popularity over the past few months. From bets on disease outbreaks to wagers about artificial intelligence, many of their markets relate to science and research. So how do Polymarket’s prediction powers compare to the opinions of subject-matter experts? In prediction markets, users bet on a future event by buying and selling shares in favour of various outcomes. The price of each share is determined neither by expert opinions nor by the ‘house’ setting odds. Rather, prices are based on demand, reflecting the market’s collective belief in the probability of the outcome. But as well as providing a gambling platform, prediction markets offer a test of the concept of the wisdom of crowds — the long-held idea that collective predictions by large groups of people tend to be better than forecasts by subject specialists. According to Polymarket’s website, prediction markets can often determine outcomes more accurately than experts or polls because “economic incentives ensure market prices adjust to reflect true odds as more knowledgeable participants join.” If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Research has found that prediction markets sometimes outperform other forecasting methods in political elections, but some researchers remain unconvinced that they can rival the work of expert scientists. Prediction markets are “potentially helpful forecasting supplements” when it comes to science, says Richard Borghesi, who researches finance and prediction markets at the University of South Florida in Tampa. The …

Aquanauts experience awe-inspiring ‘underview effect’ Like astronauts’ “overview effect,” a dramatic feeling of awe takes hold on extended seafloor stays By Susan Cosier edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Mark Patterson was living underwater for a week inside the Hydrolab, a white, cylindrical research station at the bottom of the ocean in the eastern Caribbean. It was 1984, and he was on his first of what would become many missions involving saturation diving: descending to the seafloor and spending multiple days there, leaving the lab during the day to explore the underwater world as an aquanaut. After acclimating to the depths, he couldn’t ascend even if he wanted to. To avoid dire health consequences, he would have to spend 24 hours for every 100 feet of depth slowly decompressing when the mission ended. Patterson wanted to dive at night. He put on his gear, opened the hatches and swam out into the sea, a 300-foot-long cord tethering him to the lab. When the cord pulled taut, he sat down on the sandy ocean floor. The lab glowed like a jewel in the distance, and around him bioluminescent plankton shone like stars. “That’s when I felt, ‘Wow, this is the coolest thing maybe I’m ever going to do: live underwater,’” says Patterson, a marine biologist at Northeastern University who has spent a total of 89 days under the sea. Patterson experienced what scientists have called the “underview effect,” an intense sensation of awe that strengthens aquanauts’ perception of human connectedness to the world. The experience’s name references the so-called overview effect astronauts describe feeling when looking at Earth from orbit. Patterson was one of the 14 aquanauts who discussed their experiences of awe for a study in Environment and Behavior . If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our…

Anthropic warns AI could soon start improving itself. Critics aren’t convinced The maker of Claude wants AI labs, including itself, to prepare for a coordinated slowdown if models begin building their own successors By Chris Stokel-Walker edited by Eric Sullivan The companies at the frontier of artificial intelligence should be ready to slow down, one of the fastest-moving among them says. Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot , has claimed AI systems may be on the cusp of what it calls recursive self-improvement—the point at which they can design and build their own successors with little human input . The company said this could increase the risk of humans losing control of the technology. “We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development to enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up with the advance of the technology,” Anthropic said in a June 4 blog post entitled “When AI Builds Itself.” If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The proposal highlights a tough problem in AI governance . A slowdown would need rival companies and governments in several countries to accept the same limits at the same time, with no treaty obliging them and competition only intensifying. That makes the warning technically important and politically fraught: Anthropic has called for the brakes in a race in which it remains a front-runner. The speed at which the technology is developing could have “huge implications” for society, the blog post stated. The company pointed to its own operation as a warning sign. Anthropic said Claude now writes more than 80 percent of the code merged into its systems, up from low single digits before the company released Claude Code in early 2025. And Anthropic…

<p>NASA ordered its astronauts to take refuge inside a docked SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and prepare for potential evacuation of the International Space Station, but the crew returned to normal operations shortly afterwards</p>

Report: FDA just launched a study on the abortion pill The FDA’s ongoing review of mifepristone could skip over established science, health experts warn By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Clara Moskowitz The Trump administration is officially conducting an investigation into the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone, the Wall Street Journal reports . Health experts worry that the process may be politically motivated rather than based on science. Mifepristone has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 2000 and is widely considered by health professionals to be safe and effective . Last year Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced plans to review mifepristone’s safety, citing concerns over a pandemic-era policy that has allowed the medication to be prescribed via telehealth. After months with no apparent movement on the review, the Trump administration faced criticism from antiabortion advocates, who urged the administration to pick up the pace. Now the FDA appears to be accelerating that process. “The evidence has never been in question,” says Ushma Upadhyay, a professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied the safety of online abortion services. “Mifepristone, when delivered via telehealth, is as safe and effective as in-person care. It is well supported by research and can be a lifeline to many who need this care but can’t get it at a clinic or office.” If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. “If done with integrity, the FDA’s review should confirm its safety and preserve people’s access to this essential care,” she adds. Other experts point to the Trump administration’s track record of skipping ahead o…

How breast cancer screening can predict heart disease risk AI analysis of mammograms could provide a “bonus finding” for heart disease By Lauren J. Young edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Mammograms, which are key to detecting breast cancer , could be paired with artificial intelligence to predict heart disease risk, too. Researchers have developed an AI model that scans mammograms to quantify bright streaks of calcium buildup, a marker of stiffened breast artery tissues. The severity of these so-called breast arterial calcifications (BAC) can help to predict associated heart disease risk, researchers report in the European Heart Journal . The model “can be run on every single mammogram without any additional work,” says study co-author Hari Trivedi, an Emory University radiologist—and more than 40 million mammograms are conducted in the U.S. every year. Breast cancer can leave behind tiny calcium deposits as cells rapidly die. On a mammogram, these appear as small clusters—an early sign of abnormal growth and tumors. Breast arterial calcifications look strikingly different, often showing up as two bright “railroad-track” stripes zigzagging through the breast tissue, Trivedi says. BAC itself doesn’t harm breast tissue or increase the risk of breast cancer, he says. But it could signify that calcification is developing elsewhere in the body—and that’s an indicator of potential heart disease because stiffening vessels mean poorer circulation. Other research groups have investigated using mammograms to assess heart disease risk, and some radiologists look out for BAC during screenings, but Trivedi says his team’s model offers the first way to measure and track the amount of BAC and tie that amount to higher disease risk. (Other AI-powered BAC-detection tools exist, including one cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but quantifying the specific amount makes it possible to further predict risk level, he adds.) If you're enjoying this article, consider s…

Giant black holes may be the universe’s best planet makers Planets might exist in the least likely place you’d imagine—around the outskirts of supermassive black holes Stay connected to The Universe: Get email alerts for this weekly column by Phil Plait With about 6,300 exoplanets discovered so far and more than 10,000 candidates awaiting confirmation , it’s easy to forget the ones that started it all: the very first exoplanets discovered and announced in 1992 . These worlds were not orbiting stars like the sun. Instead they circled a pulsar, the dead remains of an exploded star. This is one of the last places in the universe astronomers expected to find planets—a pulsar is the remnant from a supernova, after all—and it’s still unclear how these worlds formed. Clearly nature excels at making planets, even under extremely hostile conditions. Just how “hostile” those conditions can be, however, no one knows yet. Planets like those in our solar system form from whirling disks of gas and dust around baby stars, but disks are common around another kind of astrophysical object, too: black holes. Could planets be born there as well or at least emigrate from elsewhere and survive in their new neighborhood? The answer, astonishingly, is “maybe,” though it depends on what kind of black hole we’re talking about. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. For stellar-mass black holes—which, like pulsars, are forged in the collapsing core of an exploding massive star—there are some caveats. For example, when a massive star goes supernova, a majority of its matter is flung out into space. If enough matter is lost, the star’s gravity will be sufficiently weakened so that it can’t hold on to any extant planets, and they, too, will be lost to space. If any planets do survive t…

Inside the multiyear effort to rename PCOS A physician involved in the long push to change the name PCOS to PMOS takes us behind the scenes of this subtle yet consequential change By Rachel Feltman , Sushmita Pathak & Alex Sugiura Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American ’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. As you may recall from one of our recent news roundup episodes , the condition long known as polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, is in the process of getting an official rebrand. The new name—polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS—was crafted with the intention of minimizing misconceptions about the disease and increasing the accuracy of diagnoses. But while changing one letter in an acronym might seem like a small shift, this new name is the result of years of international collaboration between clinicians, patients and even marketing consultants. Today’s guest, Anuja Dokras, was one of the leaders of this 14-year effort . She’s the director of the recently renamed Penn PMOS Center at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia. She’s also the Founder’s Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Pennsylvania. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Feltman: Thank you so much for coming on to talk with us today. Feltman: In reading about this name change, I was really impressed at what a huge, multiyear, you know, international effort it was. I would love to start with just sort of, when this began. When did you and your colleagues start to talk about this being an issue that needed to be addressed? Dokras: Yeah. So this began in 2012. We had a meeting at the NIH, the National Institutes of Health. It was a multidisciplinary meeting on PCOS, as it was called then. We had made a significant amount of research progress…

Trump invokes Defense Production Act to keep U.S. coal plants running Coal is the most significant fossil fuel contributor to climate change At a White House briefing on Thursday, President Donald Trump invoked a national defense law to steer nearly $700 million to support coal power plants and exports. Trump aims to use the 1950 Defense Production Act to refurbish 13 coal plants , build two new ones and establish a West Coast coal export facility in the U.S.—even as many coal plants around the country are retiring and the fossil fuel is in long-term decline. “We’re into energy that really works,” Trump said at the briefing, claiming that coal firms would pay an additional $1.7 billion to support the new construction. The administration is also angling for existing coal plants in four states to remain operational past their retirement dates. Coal and oil are already heavily subsidized , but the administration says that by reversing coal’s steady decline, it will create 14,000 new jobs. On Thursday the Environmental Protection Agency also announced it would reverse a 2014 regional haze ruling that was due to close a coal power plant in Wyoming. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. In 2025 Trump declared a National Energy Emergency aimed at bulwarking the coal industry. At the same time, the president has broadly opposed solar and wind power during his administration. Nevertheless, U.S. coal use has been in sharp retreat for almost two decades, accounting for only 8 percent of primary energy consumption nationwide in 2024, according to the Congressional Research Service . Its use is expected to decline further because of increased renewables and natural gas. Wind and solar produced a record 17 percent of U.S. energy in 2025 and are less expensive than fossi…

Remote work is making Americans lonelier and sadder, new study suggests Remote and hybrid work can have benefits, but a study involving more than 588,000 people suggest they may take a serious mental toll By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron When the pandemic hit, just like so many Americans, researcher Emma Harrington started working remotely . What shocked her most in those early days of COVID was how productive she was. Then a Ph.D. student at Harvard University, she found that she could still focus on her work despite being at home. But it wasn’t all positive: the “social ramifications” took a toll, particularly during periods when she lived alone. “I struggled with having just whole days where I couldn’t be sure that I would see people, even in brief ways,” she recalls. It turns out that Harrington isn’t alone— new research by her and her colleagues suggests that the long-term shift to remote or hybrid work after the pandemic may have had an adverse effect on workers’ mental health. The study was published today in Science . Importantly, the research compared workers’ mental health and alone time before and after the peak years of the pandemic in a bid to capture the effect of remote work outside of 2020 and 2021, when COVID was most acute and people were forced to isolate. Certainly, many workplaces have remained entirely remote or have a hybrid in-office policy. For example, a 2023 poll from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that as many as one in five people said they worked remotely. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Harrington, now an assistant professor at the University of Virginia, and her co-authors analyzed the results of five surveys that were completed between 2011 and 2024 and included a total of 588,322 American…

Bumblebees use tools to solve complex problems—despite not being trained to do so Bumblebees appear to be capable of coming up with creative solutions to new problems to get a sugary reward—and their strategies include cheating Contrary to their name, bumblebees are no bumbling oafs. A new study published in Science on Thursday found that these bees utilized tools to solve complex problems to win a sugary treat, even if they had never been trained to use the tools in any context. In fact, some of the bees even cheated—skipping the problem altogether—to reap the reward, the researchers found. This isn’t the first time bumblebees have been seen to use tools to get what they want. A 2016 study, for example, found that such bees could learn to pull a string to receive a reward —and that untrained bees could learn this trick from their more educated peers. Still, it adds to the evidence that creative problem-solving and tool use aren’t just the domain of larger-brained animals, such as birds and apes. Bumblebees’ brains are relatively primitive—they have around one million neurons, compared with the 86 billion or so in human brains—yet the new experiment indicates that complex problem-solving doesn’t necessarily require complex gray matter. “The number of neurons is not correlating with cognitive abilities,” says Olli Loukola, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Turku in Finland and a co-author of the new study. “It might be that animals with bigger bodies require bigger brains, or it could be that animals that need more long-term memory require bigger brains, whereas bees are living in rapidly changing environments.” If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. In a series of experiments, bumblebees were divided into groups and put through a series of tests, …

The oldest hominin footprints ever found are at risk of destruction, researchers warn A new investigation alleges that official organizations in Tanzania have imperiled the country's artifacts and remains at four critical human heritage sites they were supposed to protect By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner The oldest-known hominin footprints are in danger of being destroyed by state-backed tourism and other economic activity, a new investigation claims . The Laetoli site contains 3.66-million-year-old fossil footprints made by Australopithecus afarensis, the same species as the early human ancestor known as “Lucy.” Laetoli is one of several archaeological sites that are under threat in Tanzania, according to the new report, which was published today in the journal Antiquity . The paper’s co-authors Elgidius Ichumbaki and Peter Schmidt argue that Tanzanian state groups charged with safeguarding Laetoli and three other sites that are critical to human history have dismissed the concerns of conservationists and local communities in the interests of tourism. The Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, which has overall responsibility for the nation’s heritage sites, did not respond to a request for comment. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The three other sites are ruins at Kilwa Kisiwani, an island and UNESCO World Heritage Site; rock art at Kondoa, also an UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Dodoma region of Tanzania; and the Kaiija shrine and early Iron Age metal works in Katuruka, west of Lake Victoria. Ichumbaki, a former student of Schmidt’s and now an associate professor at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, points to a 2008 shift in government priorities to try to monetize these heritage sites by bringing in more tour…

A flesh-eating New World screwworm was just found in a Texas cow—here’s what to know This marks the first case of the New World screwworm in U.S. livestock since the parasite was eliminated in the country in the 1960s The first case of the New World screwworm in a U.S. cow in about 60 years has been detected, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed yesterday . It is the first instance of the agricultural pest in cattle since it was eliminated in the U.S. in 1966. Screwworms are parasitic flies that lays their eggs in open wounds or cuts or in the eyes, ears, mouth, nose or genitals of warm-blooded animals—including humans. The maggots hatch and burrow through the skin, causing painful, foul-smelling wounds. Livestock in the southern U.S. and Mexico suffered devastating screwworm outbreaks in the first half of the 20th century. But the parasite was eliminated in those nations thanks to a wildly successful effort called the sterile insect technique, which involved the release of sterile flies in Panama that caused the fly population to collapse. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Yet the New World screwworm remained endemic to the Caribbean and South America, where, in 2005, it was estimated to cause annual economic losses of around $6.1 billion in today’s dollars. And in recent years the fly has been spreading northward through Central America. Experts had been warning that it was only a matter of time before it arrived in the U.S. The new infection was detected in a three-week-old calf in Zavala County, Texas; it was found in the calf’s umbilical area, according to the USDA. “Protecting our livestock industry is a national security issue of the utmost importance, and USDA is wasting no time in taking action,” said Dudley Hoskins, the agency’s und…