Week in Science: Scientists just tore up a major theory in physics

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December 5—This week, scientists find no evidence for "sterile neutrinos," the WHO releases global guidelines for weight-loss drugs, and our staff's favorite fiction and nonfiction books of 2025. All that and more below. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor Tell us what you think about this newsletter! Email newsletters@sciam.com anytime.

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Trump's MRI Is Not Standard 'Preventive' Care, Say Experts "It is certainly not standard medical practice to perform screening MRIs of the heart and abdomen," says one expert Dan Vergano

Scientists Just Tore Up a Major Particle Physics Theory New results from the MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab found no evidence of a hypothetical fourth flavor of neutrino Claire Cameron

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The Scientific American Staff's Favorite Books of 2025 Here are the 67 books Scientific American staffers couldn't put down this year, from fantasy epics to gripping nonfiction Brianne Kane

Could Symbolic AI Unlock Human-Like Intelligence? Combining newer neural networks with older AI systems could be the secret to building an AI to match or surpass human intelligence Nicola Jones, Nature magazine

This Is the Math at the Heart of Reality Mathematics is not only an esoteric vocation but also indispensably alive and deeply human Andrea Gawrylewski

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NASA Recruits Mars Perseverance Rover to Monitor Sun's Activity Mars is passing behind the sun, giving NASA's Perseverance rover a view of the star's far side Claire Cameron

Man Dies of Rabies after Receiving Infected Kidney Transplant A man has passed away after he received a kidney transplant from a person who had died with undiagnosed rabies, according to U.S. public health officials Claire Cameron

Here's How to Get High-Resolution Views of Other Stars A technique called interferometry can greatly magnify tiny objects on the sky, and is powerful enough to reveal the surfaces of nearby stars Phil Plait

Autonomous Deep-Sea Robots to Lead New Search for Missing Flight MH370 Texas-based firm Ocean Infinity will send swarms of autonomous underwater vehicles into the southern Indian Ocean in a high-risk attempt to locate this missing jet Eric Sullivan

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The Her Talking Phone May Have Arrived—She Speaks Chinese The company behind TikTok is rolling out a smartphone AI assistant that behaves less like an app and more like a secretary Deni Ellis Béchard

NASA Faces Its Future at Jared Isaacman's Confirmation Hearing Jared Isaacman—the presumptive next leader of NASA—answered questions about his plans for the future of U.S. space exploration on Wednesday Dan Vergano

WHO Sets GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drug Guidelines New WHO guidance calls for a worldwide obesity treatment "ecosystem" to ensure that GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are used fairly Dan Vergano

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