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5 February 2026 |
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Today’s Deep Dive delves into the tricky science of extraterrestrial human reproduction. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including how quickly ocean life rebounded after the dinosaur-killing asteroid and evidence that Earth was possibly habitable long before anyone thought. |
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Archaeology | Science Advances |
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How did Pleistocene humans brave the cold? |
Late last month, a fierce winter storm battered large swathes of North America with freezing temperatures and deep drifts of snow, prompting many people to bundle themselves in coats, hats, scarves, and mittens. Humans in North America also faced extreme cold more than 10,000 years ago, during a particularly frigid period of the Late Pleistocene—and survived without the protection of modern clothing.
Because textiles and other objects made from perishable materials tend to degrade over time, they rarely show up in the archaeological record. Now, scientists have identified many such objects from two Pleistocene cave sites in Oregon. The items, which were analyzed using radiocarbon dating, include an abundance of bone needles, fragments of braided fiber cordage, components of what appear to be wooden snare traps, and—most notably—the oldest known physical remains of sewn animal hide. One of these latter pieces, the team reports, may have belonged to a piece of clothing or footwear, potentially the only item of clothing ever recovered from the Pleistocene.
The findings highlight the “resilience and ingenuity” of people during that epoch, the study authors wrote, offering “critical lessons about the value of ecological knowledge for human survival and responses to climate challenges today.” |
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Paleontology | News from Science |
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An explosion of life post-asteroid |
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Microscopic marine organisms called forams began to proliferate relatively rapidly after the dino-killing asteroid struck Earth. Chris Lowrey |
When an asteroid slammed into Earth some 66 million years ago, it was an apocalyptic event, wiping out about 75% of the species living on the planet, including all non-avian dinosaurs. The common wisdom is that this extinction event hit pause on species diversification for a long, long time. But a study published last month in Geology suggests that, at least for microscopic marine organisms called foraminifera (forams for short),
that evolutionary slowdown was surprisingly short-lived.
Some 90% of planktic foram species were wiped out in the wake of the impact. An influential study from 1995 suggested that new species of forams only began to emerge some 30,000 years later. But the new study, tied to a redating of sediments that is based on the steady, predictable accumulation of space dust, suggests the forams’ bounce-back happened as early as 2000 years after the impact. “It’s pretty exciting to think about,” said geologist Brian Huber. “
It shows life rebounded much faster than expected.”
Did other, more complex organisms also rebound more quickly than people have generally thought? That remains to be seen, but the new findings might prompt scientists to rethink their assumptions, noted micropaleontologist Vicente Gilabert Pérez: “Evolutionary processes can, under certain circumstances, respond very rapidly to environmental change, especially under extreme conditions.” |
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GEology | Nature |
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The even earlier Earth |
The oldest known fossil comes from a cluster of cyanobacteria living 3.5 billion years ago. New research suggests Earth’s surface might have been habitable even earlier than that.
Four billion years ago, Earth lacked plate tectonics, giving the planet a “stagnant lid” that prevented rocks from pushing up from the deep to create continents. But when a team analyzed zircon minerals—tiny grains that provide the only direct records of Earth’s first 500 million years—in ancient rocks from Western Australia, they found all the signs their samples came from continental crust. That was curious, given that rocks from South Africa dated to the same Hadean time period seem to look like they came from the mantle.
The researchers hypothesized that the differing rocks indicate Earth’s surface was not as uniformly stagnant as thought. That’s because, if the crust was able to move and sink down into the mantle in a primitive form of plate tectonics, it could carry water into the inner earth. That water, in turn, would have helped form granites, which are buoyant rocks that rose up to form the continents.
“We propose that there was about 800 million years of Earth history where the surface was habitable, but we don’t have fossil evidence and don’t know when life first emerged on Earth,” said first author John Valley in a statement. |
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The latest advances in cancer immunotherapy will be presented at AACR IO |
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This must-attend event will feature cutting-edge research across the spectrum of basic, translational, and clinical science in immunology, inflammation, and cancer immunotherapies, presented by leading experts from both academia and industry. |
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Deep Dive |
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Let’s keep those space suits on, please. RDNE Stock project via PEXELS |
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Humans just aren’t ready to make babies in space |
In 1983, as astronaut Sally Ride was preparing to become the first American woman in space, engineers at NASA famously asked her whether 100 tampons would be sufficient for her week-long mission. “No,” she replied, “that would not be the correct number.”
Thankfully, the scientists responsible for sending people into space today are slightly more knowledgeable about reproductive biology. At the very least, they (hopefully) no longer view women as “temperamental psychophysiologic” humans incapable of operating complicated machinery, as the authors of a 1964 report published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
feared. Worries about the gravity of space causing retrograde menstruation have also been assuaged, although many astronauts who menstruate
choose to suppress their periods on long missions for the sake of comfort and convenience.
As humanity inches ever closer to an era of routine commercial space travel, however, scientists must grapple with other questions about reproductive health beyond Earth. With humans now spending longer amounts of time in space, the idea of conceiving and giving birth in space—one day even on other planets—no longer seems like something out of the realm of science fiction. In a new review paper published in Reproductive Biomedicine Online, experts from a variety of disciplines highlight how little we actually know about the risks associated with making babies in space, which they noted is “
an inherently hostile environment for terrestrial biology to thrive.”
There are no industry-wide standards, the team explains, for managing the risks of accidental pregnancy during space travel or the potential impacts of radiation
and microgravity on fertility. While studies in animals have found evidence that short-term radiation exposure adversely disrupts the menstrual cycle and increases the risk of cancers, data from women who flew on NASA’s Space Shuttle missions didn’t indicate any impact on subsequent pregnancy rates and complications. There has been very little research, however, into the impacts of longer space missions on fertility in both male and female astronauts. Future studies in this area will also require comprehensive, widely accepted ethical guidelines, which currently don’t exist.
“Although we do not advocate reproduction in space at present, it is essential to prepare for fertility risks as renewed interest in lunar missions and Mars exploration grows,” lead author Giles Palmer, a clinical embryologist, told Gizmodo. “Reproduction in space remains a distant prospect, but proactive planning is needed to address the biological, ethical, and health hazards that may arise.”
With this prospect in mind, the review authors recommend the creation of an international framework for the study of reproductive health in space—one that includes ethical guidelines for commercial space companies—and a joint ethics review board. They also urge the adoption of precautionary policies, such as the prohibition of childbirth in space, and highlight the need for extensive ground-based research.
“As human presence in space expands, reproductive health can no longer remain a policy blind spot,” senior author Fathi Karouia, a research scientist at NASA, said in a statement. International collaboration, he argues, is necessary to protect astronauts “and ultimately safeguard humanity as we move toward a sustained presence beyond Earth.” |
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NIH drops rule for basic brain studies |
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About a decade ago, basic behavioral and cognitive researchers were up in arms
about a National Institutes of Health requirement that they register their studies of people in Clinicaltrials.gov, even though they weren't testing treatments, but instead exploring questions such as how a normal brain processes images. Imposing clinical trial registration meant new, unnecessary paperwork and could stifle research and confuse the public, thousands of scientists
warned. The NIH kept
putting off enforcing the rule, and last week dropped it—a rare instance of a Trump administration move that has pleased scientists. But one ethicist said: “This is not the right solution.” |
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NIH Notice | Read more at
Nature and
THE TRANSMITTER |
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A quizzable AI |
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The AI OpenScholar can answer questions about diverse research subjects better than human experts, according to new research. Though, some researchers suggest caution about interpreting the findings. “We have a hard time figuring out how to define ‘better’ because there’s such variance across individuals within a discipline about what is the best citation to support an argument,” noted one data scientist. |
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Nature Paper | Read more at
News from Science |
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The toll of smoky air |
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From 2006 to 2020, wildfire smoke contributed to an average of more than 24,000 deaths per year in the United States, a new analysis concluded. “Our message is: Wildfire smoke is very dangerous. It is an increasing threat to human health,” said one of the study’s authors. |
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Science Advances Paper | Read more at
STAT |
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It’s only a matter of time before someone does an experiment seeing whether we can tell the difference between Moltbook conversations and human-only conversations, although I’m not sure what you could conclude if you weren’t able to tell the difference—either that AIs were having intelligent conversations, or that humans were not showing any signs of intelligence?
—Andrew Rogoyski, University of Surrey |
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New Scientist | 4 February 2026 | Matthew Sparkes |
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Elon Musk called a new social network for AI agents “the very early stages of the singularity,” but experts aren’t impressed. |
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