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November 25, 2025—Signs of a tough, incoming flu season in the U.S., an enigmatic group of fossil organisms and a long-dormant volcano erupts. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | An artistic reconstruction of Spongiophyton during the Early Devonian in the Paraná Basin. | | - An enigmatic, widespread group of fossil organisms, called Spongiophyton, has finally been identified as a lichen. The finding is changing the story of how plants took root on land. | 3 min read
- A person in Washington state has died of avian influenza, the first such U.S. death from bird flu since January. The individual was infected with a different strain than the one circulating since late 2021. | 3 min read
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| | | Strange Volcanic Eruption | A volcano called Hayli Gubbi erupted Sunday in the East African Rift Zone, spewing a column of abrasive ash particles nine miles into the sky and marking the first-known major eruption of this crustal vent in more than 12,000 years. As a "shield volcano," like Hawaii's Mauna Loa, Hayli Gubbi's latest behavior is surprising scientists. Most such volcanoes typically ooze lava rather than expelling giant columns of ash, reports freelance science journalist Stephanie Pappas. Why this matters: The eruption, which occurred in an arid and rural region in northeast Ethiopia, could provide clues to undetected eruptions in the intervening years. Satellite images suggest that earlier unrecorded eruptions have occurred at Hayli Gubbi, says earth scientist Juliet Biggs, of the University of Bristol. What the experts say: At the rift zone, an area of intense geological activity, the African and Arabian plates are moving apart at a rate of 0.4 to 0.6 inches annually, says Arianna Soldati, a volcanologist at North Carolina State University. This separation thins Earth's crust, allowing hot rocks to rise up from the mantle and melt to form magma near the surface. "So long as there are still the conditions for magma to form, a volcano can still have an eruption even if it hasn't had one in 1,000 years, 10,000 years," Soldati says. | | U.S. flu rates currently are low, but public health experts are bracing for a brutal season following unexpectedly early upticks in severe cases in Japan and the U.K., as well as rising case numbers in other European countries. Additional warning signs include a record 2025 flu season in Australia, where about 11 percent more cases have been reported than in 2024 (see graphic below).
How it works: Influenza A and B are the two virus subtypes that primarily infect humans, with two A strains reported last year—H1N1 and H3N2, followed by B viruses later on, reports Scientific American editor Lauren J. Young. In the U.S., more than half of a small number of recently collected and analyzed samples of influenza A H3N2 strains was found to belong to a so-called K subclade, the new variant causing flu surges in many countries. What the experts say: Current flu vaccines protect against multiple influenza A and B strains, but not the K variant, as the vaccine was developed before the new form emerged. Nonetheless, experts encourage people to get vaccinated because any reduction in the risk of severe flu is better than none. "People who are vaccinated are going to do better," says physician Robert Hopkins, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Shaun Truelove, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, adds: "Influenza is no joke. Right now it's time for everybody to get vaccinated." | | | | |
- Solve this jigsaw puzzle of our October 1930 issue's cover image. The image was captioned, "Work Has Begun on the World's Largest Telescope." The issue also includes an essay "My Experience in Amateur Telescope Making," by Clyde W. Tombaugh, the U.S. astronomer who several months earlier that year had discovered Pluto. Take a tour of our cover-art puzzles to date.
| | Several airline flights were canceled this week as a result of the Hayli Gubbi eruption's ash plume spreading east into the subtropical jet stream. It reportedly reached Delhi and was headed toward China. The tiny ash particles can reduce stratospheric visibility and damage aircraft, with pulverized rock potentially sandblasting windscreens and melting engines, causing them to seize. This air-travel interruption is not expected to approach the degree of disruption caused by the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruptions in Iceland. That series of events, between March and June of that year, affected air travel across Europe, resulting in "the worst air-travel disruption since World War II," according to the BBC.
| | We always like to hear from you. Please send thoughts, queries and other feedback to us at: newsletters@sciam.com. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor
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