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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Artificial Intelligence
Welcome to the weird world of AI agent teams
AI agents are starting to work in teams, but without careful organization, groups of bots can easily fall into chaos.
- Animals
Female giant rainforest mantises grow up to strike harder than males
Scientists tracked mantis strike force from youth to adulthood, showing females eventually hit far harder than males. Why is a mystery.
- Climate
City skylines influence cloud formation above them
Satellite data show that U.S. cities have more nighttime cloud cover than nearby countryside, and building height and density help explain why.
- Tech
Robots with fingernails can grasp thin edges
A robotic hand with fingernail-like tips lets robots peel fruit, open lids and pick up thin, flat objects with more precise, human-like dexterity.
- Animals
Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration
Suitable milkweed habitat in Mexico may shift south, fracturing existing migration routes and possibly pushing some butterflies to stay put.
- Artificial Intelligence
Have we entered a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery?
Some say we’ve entered a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery. But human insight and creativity still can’t be automated.
- Anthropology
This hand stencil in Indonesia is now the oldest known rock art
The work suggests early Homo sapiens developed enduring artistic practices as they moved through the islands of Southeast Asia.
- Tech
This detached hand robot has a thing for skittering on its fingertips
The robot can bend, grasp and carry in ways humans can’t, which could help it navigate spaces too confined for human arms.
- Animals
This tool-using cow defies expectations for bovine braininess
Veronika the cow uses a brush as a tool to scratch herself, revealing rare problem-solving skills and expanding what we know of tool use in animals.
- Animals
Among chimpanzees, thrill-seeking peaks in toddlerhood
In humans, teens do the most dangerous things. In chimpanzees, that honor goes to toddlers. The difference may lie in caregiver supervision.
- Animals
In a first, orcas and dolphins seen possibly hunting together
New footage shows orcas and dolphins coordinating hunts, hinting at interspecies teamwork to track and catch salmon off British Columbia.
- Paleontology
These fossil finds shed new light on the past in 2025
The year's top paleontological wonders ranged from a 540-million-year-old penis worm to a decades-old rodent impression.
