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The U.S. is leaving behind a wide swath of low-performing math students. Scientists dish on the reasons behind the disheartening trend-->

BIRD FLU: In cats, bird flu tends to be swift and lethal. According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, 126 domestic cats in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu since 2022. Around half of those cases were recorded this year, and many were exposed through food or milk. “We see continued reports of cats with bird flu infection from across the country, and it’s kept increasing in the past months,” said Suresh Kuchipudi, professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.

NEW POST: Top five hurdles faced by early-career researchers An overview of the biggest challenges facing young researchers in the new Trump reality, along with expert tips and solutions for putting your best foot forward.

As the death toll rose past 2,000, some volunteers complained of being blocked by Myanmar’s military from reaching a rebel stronghold that was badly hit.

Researchers in Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada who receive US funding have been asked to declare their institution’s links to China and whether their projects comply with US government ideology. Associations representing universities in these regions say this threatens academic freedom and undermines scientific advancement. The 36-point survey also asks researchers whether their institutions work with communist, socialist or any parties that espouse anti-American beliefs. Projects get higher points if they don’t contribute to DEI, climate and ‘gender ideology’, or their organisation doesn’t work with communist, socialist or parties that espouse anti-American beliefs. Chad Gaffield, chief executive of the U15-Group of Canadian Research Universities in Ottawa, says that while the questionnaire asks some familiar and appropriate questions about accountability, transparency and security, other points “politicize the research enterprise”. Read the full story here-->

The antiaging movement has raced ahead amid fierce debates; critics of a grandfather of the field, Leonard Guarente, include former protégés and rivals.

Inside Trump and DOGE’s chaotic effort to release billions of gallons of California’s water - one of the more interesting scientific policy stories to emerge since the inauguration. Let's take a deeper look: Representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency repeatedly pressured the head of a United States water management agency to open a major California pump system, intending to release a huge amount of water toward LA — even though the water would have never made there. The account comes from six people with knowledge of the events that took place as President Donald Trump falsely claimed the LA fires were a result of the state’s water policies, and demanded more water be sent south. A power outage — and the fact that at least one of the DOGE representatives was not yet an employee of the federal government and therefore was not allowed near the pump controls — ultimately threw a wrench in the plan to engage the pumps in late January. This bizarre story highlights how science will be one of the major battlegrounds in America over the next four years, an a peek into the inner workings of the chaotic second Trump administration. Full story here:

The US government has begun slashing US$400 million in research grants at Columbia University over pro-Palestinian campus protests.

Since the 1970s, the ratio of authors to publications and the ratio of countries to publications has sharply surged in all scientific fields. On PubMed, the average study eclipsed six authors per article by 2020. During this same period, single and paired author studies have experienced a steady decline. In 2020, nearly two-thirds of studies had five authors or more, and studies of eleven authors or more eclipsed 10% in 2018 despite accounting for just 2% of articles in 2000. The most critical scientific issues facing our world today—pandemics, the climate crisis, antibacterial resistance, energy security, and more—require large teams to solve. While the individual scientist needs to be deep and narrow, research as a whole has become broader. How did international collaboration become such a well-traveled path? What are its advantages and disadvantages? And how can scientists approach such collaborations? In this field guide, we will explore the answers to all these questions-->

Beijing began imposing tariffs on Monday on many farm products from the United States, for which China is the largest overseas market. It is the latest escalation of a trade fight between the world’s two largest economies.