Scientists

New data indicates the current El Niño is the strongest ever measured, driving a major shift in global weather patterns. Scientists say the event is altering rainfall and temperature patterns across continents, with potential impacts on droughts, floods and harvests worldwide. The finding is drawing wide attention as meteorologists track how the intensified pattern will affect weather in the months ahead.

Scientists are developing new ways to control mosquitoes as warming temperatures lengthen mosquito seasons and expand the range of dangerous diseases. Mosquitoes kill more people than any other animal on earth, and researchers warn that longer warm periods give the insects more time to spread illnesses such as malaria and dengue, prompting renewed focus on innovative control strategies.

In an interview, political scientist Norman Finkelstein responded to Harvard's antisemitism inquiry, which found that Israeli and Jewish students "don't feel wanted at Harvard." The university said it must correct for antisemitism by embracing everyone, and Finkelstein, while voicing support for inclusivity, went on to take issue with the inquiry's framing, drawing attention and debate online.

A UK climate minister has warned that the global food system is vulnerable to El Niño, the periodic warming of Pacific Ocean waters that disrupts weather patterns and can damage harvests. The warning, reported by New Scientist, highlights concerns that extreme weather linked to El Niño could hit crop yields and push up food prices worldwide.

A vast, slow-moving equatorial kelvin wave is heading toward the California coast, prompting warnings that it could strengthen El Niño conditions and raise the risk of extreme weather on the US West Coast. Scientists and commentators are watching the planetary-scale ocean warming pattern closely as concern grows over its potential coastal impacts.

AMD has agreed to acquire World Labs, the spatial AI startup founded by renowned computer scientist Fei-Fei Li, in a deal valued at $8.2 billion. The move signals AMD's push to expand beyond chips into frontier artificial intelligence, and is drawing attention given Li's prominence as a pioneer of modern AI research.

Beam Therapeutics says a scientist took trade secrets and used them to help launch a rival startup in China. The allegation, reported by Bloomberg Law, adds to ongoing tensions between US biotech firms and China over intellectual property. Details of the accused scientist's identity and the specific secrets involved were not disclosed in the available reporting.

MIT Technology Review examines the question of when an achievement can genuinely be credited to artificial intelligence as a scientific discovery rather than to the humans who built and used the system. The piece weighs criteria for attribution as AI systems increasingly generate hypotheses, run experiments and produce results in fields like biology and materials science, prompting debate among researchers over authorship, credit and the definition of discovery itself.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside say one of Saturn's moons may hold clues about whether life exists beyond Earth. The work points to conditions on the moon that scientists consider promising in the search for extraterrestrial life, adding to ongoing interest in icy moons with subsurface oceans as targets for future exploration.

Scientists led by UCLA astrophysicist Alvine Kamaha, through the LUX-ZEPLIN collaboration, are searching for dark matter from a detector operating nearly a mile underground in South Dakota. Roughly 85% of all matter in the universe remains undetected by standard instruments, and the experiment tracks rare particle interactions that could reveal it. The effort is drawing attention online among space and physics enthusiasts.

Researchers and fishermen in the United States are calling on federal agencies to maintain funding for a deep-ocean observation system that tracks conditions far below the surface. The system provides data used for fisheries management, storm forecasting and marine research, and both groups warn that losing it would leave coastal communities and scientists without critical information about changing ocean conditions.

Scientists and news outlets are raising alarms about a slow-moving Kelvin wave — a vast, planetary-scale oceanic phenomenon — that is travelling toward the California coast. Such waves can shift warm water across the Pacific and influence coastal sea levels and weather patterns, prompting concerns about potential impacts on the US West Coast.

Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, is reported to have achieved a significant breakthrough in biology, and CNET asked independent scientists to assess the claim. Researchers weighed in on whether the company's assertions hold up to scrutiny, with the piece examining what the AI firm actually demonstrated and how meaningful the result is for the field. The story reflects growing debate over how much AI labs' scientific claims can be trusted without independent verification.

Researchers in Ukraine are being tracked through the war and armed conflict, documenting how scientists have been displaced, killed, or forced to abandon their work since Russia's full-scale invasion. The effort highlights the war's impact on Ukraine's academic community and research infrastructure, drawing attention to the losses suffered by the country's scientific institutions.

ESA's JUICE mission to Jupiter and its icy moons passed less than 10,000 km overhead at 13:45 CEST during its second Earth gravity assist, with scientists noting ships in the Indian Ocean were directly beneath its path. The spacecraft will return for a final slingshot flyby in 2029 before heading onward to Jupiter.

A claimed scientific breakthrough credited to Anthropic's AI model Claude is facing scrutiny, after a scientist said he had already made the same discovery before the AI. The dispute raises questions over whether the model genuinely produced new biological knowledge or replicated existing, previously published work. The episode is fuelling broader debate about how AI-driven research claims should be verified and credited.

University of Miami researchers are showcasing new imaging technologies that give scientists a clearer picture of how coral reefs are changing over time. The tools allow more detailed monitoring of reef health and decline, and the university's news release highlights how better visual data could support conservation efforts as reefs worldwide face mounting environmental stress.

A new study found that Earth microbes can survive in simulated conditions of the ocean beneath the ice of Enceladus, Saturn's moon. The finding matters for astrobiology, as Enceladus's subsurface ocean is considered one of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth. Scientists say the result suggests similar microorganisms could endure there, informing future missions to the Saturnian system.

New research reported by Science News suggests that magnetic fields may have played a key role in the formation of the solar system, potentially helping to trigger the collapse of the gas cloud that gave rise to the Sun and planets. The finding could reshape how scientists understand the earliest moments of our cosmic neighbourhood.

Researchers report an unexpected result from experiments on primordial matter, the quark-gluon plasma recreated inside a particle collider to mimic conditions just after the Big Bang. Scientific American covered the finding, which is drawing attention among physics enthusiasts and researchers online. Details of what exactly surprised scientists are limited to the article itself, but such deviations can point to gaps in the standard understanding of early-universe matter.

New research reported by ScienceDaily indicates the Earth's crust beneath the Pacific Northwest is being torn apart. The finding points to geological rifting processes underway in the region, with scientists studying what this means for the area's tectonic future. Coverage of the study has drawn broad attention online.

US-based scientists are increasingly exploring opportunities abroad, and European businesses and governments may stand to benefit by attracting this research talent. Fortune reports on the trend, raising the question of whether European industry can successfully recruit American scientists who are reconsidering their futures. The discussion touches on Europe's ability to compete for skilled researchers and the potential economic gains from welcoming them.

Scientists report that conditions on Enceladus, Saturn's icy moon with a subsurface ocean, could support microbial life. The findings strengthen the case that the moon is one of the most promising places in the solar system to search for living organisms beyond Earth. The research is drawing attention among space and astrobiology enthusiasts discussing future exploration missions to Enceladus.

A powerful flood swept through Death Valley National Park, reshaping the landscape. Scientists and observers now note that the natural movement and recovery of sand dunes is gradually erasing the visible traces of the flood, making the scale of the event harder to document over time.