Researchers file First Amendment challenge to NIH grant screening | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…

“We’re actually deeply concerned here because we don’t really know why these things are communicating this way." science.org/content/article/…

Department of Energy bets on ‘open’ AI models for science | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…

“Chilling” warning or overreaction? AI bioweapons report divides experts | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…

How an AI math breakthrough ignited a controversy | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…

Outrage greets NIH pact that could funnel biodefense research funds to Pentagon | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…

All or almost all galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their heart, astronomers suspect. But when galaxies merge, do their black holes do the same? Simulations suggest the answer is not always: Sometimes, one of the two escapes the gravitational clutches of the merged galaxy, wandering the cosmos as an exile. Now, a research team has found long-sought evidence of a supermassive black hole with very few stars around it that appears to have slipped the leash after a galactic mashup. Learn more: scim.ag/4hAIUal

Within 2 weeks in September 2017, a pair of hurricanes blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. The storms spelled disaster for the island’s human and nonhuman residents alike, including small lizards known as silver key anoles. But some of the islands’ anoles endured the storms better than others—and now scientists have uncovered a possible reason why in their genes. Learn more: scim.ag/4vRsAFG

About 14,700 years ago, a large cat hobbled through what is now the heart of Los Angeles, toward the panicked cries of a camel trapped in tar. But as the fearsome feline approached the hapless herbivore, it, too, became ensnared in the pit of burbling oil—condemning itself to a similar fate. Why were these saber-toothed felines drawn to the pits? One reason, researchers now suggest, is that picking off trapped prey may have been the cats’ only reliable way to hunt: Many had hampered mobility, a side effect of heritable deformities and rare nerve tumors brought on by generations of inbreeding. This research provides one of the first direct indicators of how North America’s megafauna suffered the consequences of population decline through the end of the last ice age. Learn more: scim.ag/4x3PTgs

Peptide enthusiasts—including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—might soon be able to buy the controversial products more easily from regulated sources. scim.ag/4fkMeVN

独家披露：一名女孩在中国基因编辑试验中死亡，此事从未对外公开 | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…

“We expect doctors to disclose, we expect politicians to disclose, and of course scientists and researchers too. Why not philosophers?” | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…

About a decade ago, a baker in a small mountainous village in southern Austria noticed his cow doing something unusual. When Veronika had an itch, she would grab a stick in her mouth and use it to scratch her body. Over the years, the brown bovid’s technique improved. She could pick up objects as large as a broom or rake and move them around with her prehensile tongue, changing their length and orientation to ensure the best possible scratch. The behavior isn’t just a clever trick: It’s the first documented case of tool use in cattle, scientists report. And, it turns out, one of Veronika’s skills has only been seen in humans and chimpanzees. Learn more: scim.ag/3LHywjF

The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard has become a key outpost for Arctic science. But geopolitical tensions are complicating research efforts. #LongReads scim.ag/3QT8Gvu

Major Ukraine research center damaged in Russian strikes | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…

It’s just a microscopic water droplet surrounded by a fatty membrane and stuffed with chemicals and snippets of DNA encoding a mere 36 genes. But it’s also arguably the closest researchers have come to building a living cell from scratch. Learn more: scim.ag/4eS5JmR

The new president of @theNASciences, @NeilShubin, sat down with ScienceInsider to discuss the current political landscape, the state of U.S. science, and the challenges facing NASEM. scim.ag/4gQk85E

Neanderthals survived for hundreds of thousands of years in Eurasia, enduring ice ages and eking out a hardscrabble living hunting woolly mammoths and rhinoceroses and harvesting edible grasses, tubers, and legumes. Why they ultimately perished has long been a mystery. New research appears to strike out a leading hypothesis: that they succumbed to harmful mutations brought on by inbreeding within tiny, isolated populations. Analyzing 27 high-quality Neanderthal genomes from Western Europe, researchers find that at the tail end of their existence approximately 45,000 years ago, our close evolutionary cousins were genetically healthy and appear to have lived in large, well-connected groups. Learn more: scim.ag/3SJsUsb @NewsfromScience

The NIH expects to make up for a grantmaking lag and spend its full budget by 30 September. But because it plans to fund many multiyear grants up front as a lump sum, the agency will likely award fewer new grants and competitive renewals. scim.ag/3QLuVng

After the tumultuous Fable 5 takedown, scientists fear #AI safety rules could reshape open research. scim.ag/4vpeV9l