A daily read for all who love science, discovery, and insight ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
September 30, 2025—A male birth control on the way? Also, an ambitious new space mission to search for alien life, and surprising 12,000-year-old rock art. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Composite drone photograph showing a panel of rock art at Jebel Misma, featuring 19 life-sized camels and 3 equids. Earlier depictions are traced in white and later ones in blue. A human outline is at left for scale. Sahout Rock Art and Archaeology Project | | - Archeologists discovered 130 life-sized animal images emblazoned on rock walls in northern Arabia, alongside other artifacts like stone tools and arrowheads. The discoveries are at least 12,000 years old, from a time when experts had assumed the region was inhabitable. | 4 min read
- China announced that it would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 7% to 10% from peak levels by 2035. Their plan could dictate the global emissions trajectory. | 4 min read
- Scientists found a new gecko species in the deserts of southern Africa, thanks to their loud, barking mating calls (definitely click through to listen to those cute barks). | 3 min read
- The frequency of landslides is increasing as the climate warms. And yet, many places, including mountainous regions in the U.S., are not prepared. | 15 min read
| | An animated rendering of several engineering architecture concepts for NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Labs | | How it will work: HabWorlds, as the mission is nicknamed, will aim its sights on exo-Earths within about 100 light-years of our solar system. One primary task will be to find a few dozen planets worthy of further study. The chief problem is that sunlike stars can be some 10 billion times brighter than any accompanying small rocky planets, blinding any view of them. To see such worlds, the telescope will use a starlight-blocking instrument called a coronagraph mated to a very large segmented mirror, all kept at picometer-scale stability. The observatory will then study the composition of a planet's atmosphere revealed by infrared and ultraviolet light, looking for the spectral signatures of molecules that, on our own planet, are intimately associated with life— gases like oxygen, ozone and methane. The challenges: Besides the difficulties of finding and selecting target planets and glimpsing them against the overpowering glare of their stars, mission planners will also have to attract interest and investment from other parts of astronomy less focused on searches for alien life. That's a prerequisite for any large mission meant to serve the broader astronomical community for decades on end. In the end, whether HabWorlds ever comes to fruition is largely a matter of money. Proposed cuts to NASA's budget would end dozens of space missions and make it very difficult (if not impossible) to launch new ones. | | | A Male Birth Control Pill | After decades of research, a hormone-free male birth-control pill, called YCT-529, has finally been tested in humans. The pill blocks a vitamin A metabolite from binding to its receptor in the testes, which blocks the sperm-making process. The early phase 1 clinical trial of the pill included 16 healthy men ages 32 to 59, all of whom had undergone a vasectomy (a surgery done to prevent the release of sperm) to avoid the risk of permanently affecting fertility. The men were placed into separate groups based on different dosages they received. Across all dosages, there were no serious adverse side effects noted by the researchers, and the drug didn't rapidly break down in the body, which means that, if proven effective, the pill could be taken once daily. Why it matters: There are several forms of female birth control that exist, including pills, implants, injections and devices. But males only have two: condoms and vasectomies. Stephanie Page, an endocrinologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine has found from her fieldwork that "men are very eager to have more reproductive agency and to participate in contraception," she says, and all these contraceptives in the pipeline could elevate individuals' and couples' decision-making about sex and reproduction. What the experts say: The results are exciting and important, says Page, who wasn't involved in the study—however, she points out that this study was just one small trial. "I think it would be overstating the data to say they know much about side effects yet," she says. "Every medication on the market has side effects." —Andrea Tamayo, Newsletter Writer
| | | | |
- Unscramble this image of our cover from November 1951. The assembled illustration features a 60-milion-year-old insect trapped in amber, which scientists compared to its modern cousins.
| | The archeologists who discovered the remarkable animal carvings in northern Arabia hypothesize that the symbols were perhaps meant to guide hunter-gatherers to water sources that were concealed behind boulders or rock faces. I hope that you think of this newsletter as its own kind of rock carving—meant to point you toward the hidden springs of knowledge that sustain us. | | Please send any ideas, comments or feedback on this newsletter to: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor
| | | | |
Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. | | | | |
