Top science news headlines for the week 23

Monday, Jun 01
Astronomy
1372

A giant star may have destroyed itself in one of the universe's rarest explosions

Archaeology
653

Thirty years at El Mirón cave uncover 40,000 years of Iberian prehistory

Ecology
11

Researchers use phylogenomics to identify cyanobacteria in Shenandoah River

Environment
61

Why dirty farm plastic matters: Cleaner mulch film could cut landfill waste and fossil fuel use

Archaeology
81

First deliberately injured Langobard woman in skeletal record reshapes view of male-only violence

Economics & Business
20

Young and unemployed? Remote work, not AI, may be the problem, study finds

Nanomaterials
123

Nanoengineered materials can store and release hydrogen at room temperature

Tuesday, Jun 02
Bio & Medicine
571

Biohybrid microrobots repair spinal cord by combining stem cells with magnetoelectric nanoparticles

Optics & Photonics
3598

Cutting a photon in two creates an infinite swarm of particles

Mathematics
351

Mathematicians say 'don't believe hype' on AI capabilities

Mathematics
78

How a Richard Feynman formula could explain your dining habits in a new city

Earth Sciences
317

Plate tectonics shaped the Cradle of Civilization by merging two ancient rivers, study suggests

Archaeology
48

Britain's oldest cave art may have been rediscovered in Bacon Hole cave

Plants & Animals
51

Bird masturbation appears natural across 120 species, challenging long-held veterinary advice

Wednesday, Jun 03
Plants & Animals
490

How honeybees really crown their queens

Space Exploration
70

Solar sails edge closer to reality, but interstellar travel is another story

Evolution
2540

World's largest scorpion revealed by 415-million-year-old fossils

Planetary Sciences
26

Mars mission ends: NASA declares Maven dead after six months of silence

Social Sciences
11

How to encourage a child to try new, scary things (without traumatizing them in the process)

Evolution
253

Extraordinary fossils solve a 500-million-year mystery: Bryozoans were there at the dawn of animal life

Earth Sciences
92

Warming unlocks ancient carbon in Tibetan permafrost, triggering climate tipping point

Thursday, Jun 04
Plants & Animals
203

Bumble bees show spontaneous problem-solving, challenging big-brain assumptions

Bio & Medicine
10

Detection at the nanoscale: A phosphate-detecting electrochemical sensor

Plants & Animals
31

Why jellyfish can't rise to the surface

General Physics
134

Quantum shell structure reveals new rule for proton-neutron pairing inside nuclei

Plants & Animals
34

Bison restoration efforts and grazing rights hinge on one question: Are bison wildlife?

Astrobiology
37

Atmosphere survival model refines search for habitable planets

General Physics
64

Measuring gravitational waves in a humming universe with a coordinate-free approach

Friday, Jun 05
Plants & Animals
688

'The Heaven Sword' crowned as East Asia's tallest tree after a nearly decade-long search

Social Sciences
567

Remote work is taking its toll on the mental health of American workers, researchers find

Plants & Animals
797

Deep-sea supergiant isopods last years without food by using a two-part survival system

Plants & Animals
43

Why do rival plants coexist? The secret is in the soil beneath the oaks

Political science
14

From exporting spyware to surveilling activists—how democracies became the new digital authoritarians

Environment
65

Billions face growing water risk as sediment fills reservoirs faster than expected worldwide

Astrobiology
62

Could it be aliens? From Cheyava Falls on Mars to exoplanet K2‑18b—here's what scientists really think

Saturday, Jun 06
Social Sciences
30

Q&A: Why are white-Black marriage rates so low?

Social Sciences
1077

Birth rates are declining in most of the world—here's why it really matters

Other
43

Saturday Citations: Greenland sharks; quantum weirdness; people are mostly pretty chill

Quantum Physics
190

Predictive surrogates could cut quantum computing measurement overhead by more than 99.97%

Plants & Animals
429

Medieval pandemic left a hidden legacy in Europe's oldest trees

Quantum Physics
55

Scientists identify the origin of noise in spin qubit quantum processors

Plants & Animals
19

Ever seen a cave cricket? Australia now has three new species of these spindly, spider-like creatures

Sunday, Jun 07
Archaeology
111

Wonderwerk Cave bones reveal possible fire use by human ancestors 1.79 million years ago

Earth Sciences
1272

Atlantic 'cold blob' caused by weakening ocean current system that's likely nearing a tipping point, reanalysis finds

General Physics
103

Quantum circuits help AI overcome memory limitations with minimal new parameters

Evolution
76

Epigenetic changes can be inherited without changing DNA in animals

Molecular & Computational biology
97

First nonrepeating biological clock discovered in C. elegans guides growth

Ecology
33

How gene swapping helped build the planet's decomposers

Planetary Sciences
28

A faster way to forecast alien weather