An Invasive Mosquito Is Spreading With Alarming Speed, Threatening Africa’s Cities www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/u...

An Invasive Mosquito Is Spreading With Alarming Speed, Threatening Africa’s Cities

The malaria-carrying mosquito is resistant to all insecticides. Scientists are scrambling to find ways to blunt the risk.

nytimes.com

The origin, history, and resistance architecture of an invasive urban malaria mosquito in Africa www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The origin, history, and resistance architecture of an invasive urban malaria mosquito in Africa

The invasive urban malaria vector Anopheles stephensi threatens 126 million city dwellers in Africa. Controlling An. stephensi requires greater understanding of its origin, invasion dynamics, and inse...

science.org

60,000+ comments on OMB’s proposal to politicize grants. The lesson: speak up. It makes a difference & it’s not over yet. 🎁 wapo.st/44YL4t1

Ebola may have been spreading for months in the DRC before anyone recognized it. A new reconstruction suggests the outbreak was already widespread in the gold-mining town of Mongbwalu by January. It wasn’t officially declared until 15 May. Why did no-one raise the alarm? My story for @science.org 🧪

EXCLUSIVE: Congo’s Ebola epidemic started at least 4 months before it was detected

A remote mining town gripped by fear saw hundreds of suspected cases before the government declared an outbreak, report says

science.org

New paper out today @science.org ! 🐟🧬🧪🦑 #aDNA #genomics #fisheries www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Bastiaan Star and I discuss applications of marine archaeogenomics for fisheries conservation & restoration in light of recent advances in the field

Beyond the scales: Marine archaeogenomics for the conservation and restoration of fisheries

Protection and restoration of marine environments are essential for food security and climate change mitigation. Yet historical and archaeological research have shown that conservation and management ...

science.org

Wolves have made a spectacular comeback in Europe. But attacks on livestock and humans have caused a heated debate about the limits of coexistence. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4a9BfLS

Research on the fossil record of mammals in Mexico suggests that the geographic region acted as a biodiversity “holding pen” for 10 million years. Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/4xhNmQ9

Senate finalizes funding patch that would block Trump’s grant overhaul

Senate finalizes funding patch that would block Trump’s grant overhaul

Language is included to delay the president’s move to put political appointees in charge of grant approval.

dlvr.it

nice piece at @pbs.org Nature by @wcs.org colleague Justine Alexander, about snow leopard conservation in Mongolia: www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/...

Last weekend, the largest Natural History Museum in South China opened - the Shenzhen Natural History Museum! Let me take you on a brief tour 🧵

Anthropic AI research fund offers $5m - $30m for social science research on themes of AI impact on workers; transition initiatives; income support; building worker stakes; and wider evidence on public investments. Total fund of $200m available www.anthropic.com/news/economi...

Supporting ambitious external research through the Anthropic Economic Futures Research Fund

We’re committing $200 million to the Anthropic Economic Futures Research Fund to support ambitious external research.

anthropic.com

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 1,500 people in just over two months, and it is spreading much faster than previous outbreaks, the nation’s health ministry reported on Thursday.

Ebola Outbreak Is Now the Second-Deadliest Ever, and in Record Time

The disease has killed more than 1,500 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in just over two months, causing deaths faster than officials have ever recorded.

nyti.ms

🚨 New today in Nature 🦟 After decades of debate, we show that climate change has probably made malaria worse in sub-Saharan Africa, causing about 1 extra case per 1,000 children. But: malaria eradication efforts have pulled the other direction 200 times harder. 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Classified as critically endangered, a rare palm tree has been reconfirmed in Madagascar after a century without documented wild populations. While protected areas harbor the remaining 28 known trees, researchers warn that nearby forest loss and slash-and-burn farming threaten the species.

Rare palm tree rediscovered in Madagascar after nearly 100 years

Researchers have tracked down 28 individuals of a palm tree species last recorded in Madagascar nearly 100 years ago. Nearly every tree of the species, Ravenea latisecta, was found within four…

mongabay.cc

Column: In the #Florida Keys, effluent injected into shallow wells is bubbling back up in a marine sanctuary. The DEP has failed to do anything about it. My latest for the @floridaphoenix.com features shout-outs to Batman, Jimmy Buffett and the Prince of Darkness. floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/30/s...

Sweet samples shows sour truth: Sewage injected beneath Florida Key is bubbling back up • Florida Phoenix

There’s an old saying, one that’s often brought up when Florida men fire off their guns to celebrate New Year’s: What goes up must come down. Look out for those falling bullets, boys! But when it come...

floridaphoenix.com

Ebola outbreak in DRC is now the second largest ever, according to Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya. Over 3,400 cases have been confirmed, and deaths rose by nearly 50% over the past week. More than 80% of new cases are still coming outside of known contact lists, the spread is out of control.

Invasive species’ environmental impacts are more severe in the Global South | Science www.science.org/eprint/XENDJ...

Invasive species’ environmental impacts are more severe in the Global South

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a major threat to biodiversity, yet their impact distribution remains poorly understood. Global biodiversity assessments suggest the highest impacts in wealthy countri...

science.org

Once upon a time, industry was powered by rivers. Once upon a time, industry was powered by coal. Things change. www.ctinsider.com/columnist/ar...

A vast antelope migration path in South Sudan is fast-tracked onto the UN list of World Heritage in Danger. One million animals -- including antelopes and gazelles -- migrate through the vast wilderness located between the White Nile and the Ethiopian border every year u.afp.com/SrbW

"Record-Low Danube Water Levels Leave Boats Beached, Reveal Decades-Old Shipwrecks" www.insurancejournal.com/news/interna... Danube River hits lowest level in 30 years edition.cnn.com/2026/07/27/w...

Record-Low Danube Water Levels Leave Boats Beached, Reveal Decades-Old Shipwrecks

Dozens of boats in a marina in Serbia's northern city of Novi Sad floated in a green slurry — all that remained after the waters of the Danube receded by

insurancejournal.com

🧪 🪲 🌋 🌡️ When are things too hot to handle? Our new paper on insect thermal tolerance across elevation in @pnas.org nas.org suggest perhaps not too far in the future. @gdfcf.bsky.social sky.social @alexandreloureiro.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧵

The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard has become a key outpost for Arctic science. But geopolitical tensions are complicating research efforts. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3RiuWPK

New study in @science.org: "Invasive species’ environmental impacts are more severe in the Global South" by Petr Pyšek @ibotcz.bsky.social and international colleagues reveals that invasive species have far greater impacts in the Global South than previously thought. www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Invasive species’ environmental impacts are more severe in the Global South

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a major threat to biodiversity, yet their impact distribution remains poorly understood. Global biodiversity assessments suggest the highest impacts in wealthy countri...

science.org

“Seven days after the girl’s medical team infused trillions of viruses carrying the recipe for the base editor into her spinal fluid, she died of a severe immune reaction linked to the therapy…” This, in @science.org, is an important and tragic story. (It’s also an incredibly well reported one.) 🧪

Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public

Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals

science.org

A new analysis in Science of more than 116,000 bird songs has revealed that the astonishing variety of passerine birdsong is built from just eight basic acoustic motifs, like trills, whistles, and harmonic notes. https://scim.ag/4ft2KBF

The global biogeography of passerine songs

Although bird songs are classic models for understanding the evolution of vocal communication, their global diversity has long made the development of a unifying framework challenging. By analyzing th...

scim.ag

Here's my attempt to write a non-histrionic story about the new White House Office of Science and Technology Policy report, and what it does and doesn't say, and what remains unclear (a lot): www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

White House Seeks to Steer Research Funding Outside Academia

In its new strategy for science and research, the administration stopped short of jettisoning higher ed’s role in America’s scientific enterprise. What it all means remains to be seen.

insidehighered.com

White House science policy captured headlines this week, with the announcement of awards for its flagship AI program, Congressional hearings, and a Vannevar Bush-esque report "Science: A New Golden Age." We fashioned the news into one big story—incl. key updates at NSF. Reported w/ Kaia Glickman:

White House rolls out AI funding — and signals a new era for US science

Chief US science adviser calls for a shakeup in funding while handing out grants to accelerate research with AI.

nature.com

Burmese pythons — destructive invasive snakes with few natural predators in Florida — have developed a new foothold outside the Everglades.

Burmese pythons have new foothold outside Everglades. Who won 2025 hunt?

Burmese pythons — destructive invasive snakes with few natural predators in Florida — have developed a new foothold outside the Everglades.

bit.ly

Lake Mead and Lake Powell have fallen to their lowest combined levels on record, a grim milestone in the Colorado River's deepening crisis www.latimes.com/environment/...

'A five-alarm fire': Western reservoirs that supply California fall to record low levels

The Colorado River's largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, have declined to the lowest combined levels on record. Researchers say this underscores the urgent need to cut water use.

latimes.com

What's the best way to lead a paper discussion so it doesn't die in silence? My answer, after years of getting it wrong: start with a summary, plan the discussion's life cycle, and make disagreement earn its place. New in BioScience. doi.org/10.1093/bios...

Three rules for leading a paper discussion

Silence is the sound of a seminar no one is steering, and for my first years as a professor, I was the one who should have been steering it. The course was

doi.org