Wicked Stepmother No Longer, a Female Pharaoh Gets a Reputational Makeover

A reassessment of damaged 3,500-year-old statuary adds to evidence that Queen Hatshepsut wasn’t the villain that scholars long took her to be.

By Franz Lidz

A Conversation With

A ‘Hail Mary’ for Earth, Built on Solid Science

Andy Weir discusses his science-fueled novel “Project Hail Mary,” which has been adapted into a film that opens in theaters on Friday.

By Katrina Miller

‘A Mass Disaster Nonstop’: Inside the Turmoil at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s C.D.C.

Forty-three current and former C.D.C. employees on the changes they say are replacing science with ideology — and making Americans more vulnerable.

By Jeneen Interlandi

German Mathematician Wins Abel Prize for Number Theory Work

Gerd Faltings proved a conjecture that had been unsolved for six decades, using connections between numbers and geometry.

By Kenneth Chang

Trilobites

‘The Last of Us’ on Eight Legs

A newly discovered species of spider in the Ecuadorean Amazon mimics a pathogen, known as a zombie fungus, to protect itself.

By Alexa Robles-Gil

Exploding Comet Is Spotted by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope

In a stroke of luck, astronomers saw the comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) break into four or five fragments in November after it passed close to the sun.

By Robin George Andrews

Trilobites

Why Some Birds Seem to Be Developing a Cigarette Habit

Research from Poland adds to evidence from Latin American countries that compounds in used cigarette butts ward off parasites in bird nests.

By Lesley Evans Ogden

The Weather Is Getting Wilder, and Some See a Dire Signal in the Data

Several of the Earth’s systems are changing faster than predicted as global temperatures rise, scientists say.

By David Gelles

Across the West, Record Heat Is Colliding With a Snow Drought

Snowpack, a crucial water source for the region, was already scarce after a mild winter. Now, intense heat could make matters worse.

By Mira Rojanasakul, Scott Dance and Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

How a Melting Glacier Could Affect Tens of Millions Around the Globe

A collapse of the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica would sharply accelerate sea-level rise in coastal cities.

By Mira Rojanasakul

After Cosmic Crisp, Scientists Unveil an Apple for the Climate Change Era

Agronomists at Washington State University are unveiling a new apple, the Sunflare, which they say tastes as good as their Cosmic Crisp but can withstand unpredictable weather.

By Anna Griffin and Grant Hindsley

Tango Therapy: How the Dance of Passion Is Helping Parkinson’s Patients

Once a week, patients in an Argentine hospital with Parkinson’s disease use the movements of tango to help address issues of balance, stiffness and coordination.

By Magalí Druscovich and Pam Belluck

Global Health

Diabetes, Overlooked and Unchecked, Poses New Risks in Africa

As deaths from diabetes start to rival those from infectious threats like malaria, a new form of the condition linked to malnutrition is surfacing in patients who can afford neither screening nor care.

By Stephanie Nolen and Arlette Bashizi

How New Mexico Became an Obamacare Success Story

Affordable Care Act enrollment has dropped across the United States since the enhanced federal subsidies expired. But New Mexico has record numbers of people signing up.

By Reed Abelson

The New Drug War

No Pills or Needles, Just Paper: How Deadly Drugs Are Changing

Lab-made drugs soaked into the pages of letters, books and even legal documents are being smuggled behind bars, killing inmates and frustrating investigators.

By Azam Ahmed, Matt Richtel and Meridith Kohut