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July 22, 2025—We're covering progress toward a new male birth control pill, a rare rebuke by some NASA folks and gorillas foraging for truffles.
—Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Photo composite of human egg (oocyte) and sperm (spermatozoon), colored scanning electron micrograph (SEM). Dennis Kunkel Microscopy/Science Source | | - The first hormone-free male birth control pill has been shown to be safe in humans, getting a step closer to increasing male contraceptive options. | 4 min read
- More than 280 past and present NASA employees, including at least four astronauts, have signed a declaration of opposition to White House cuts to the agency's budget and staff. | 3 min read
- Optimists have similar patterns of brain activation when they think about the future—but pessimists are all different from one another, a brain scan study suggests. | 4 min read
- How logical are you? Test your skills with these problems from the new International Logic Olympiad. | 4 min read
| | Mehau Kulyk/Science Photo Library/Getty Images | | Observations of four groups of gorillas over nearly a decade in the Republic of Congo have revealed that the primates scratch at soil to forage for truffles, not for insects, as many had previously assumed. The research team collected some of the small, round objects unearthed by the gorillas and identified them as Elaphomyces labyrinthinus, a truffle species similar to the kind humans eat. And gorilla groups might have different dietary preferences, says Gaston Abea, a Wildlife Conservation Society research assistant in Congo's Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, and his colleagues. When one individual switched from a gorilla group that rarely foraged to one that did so frequently, she doubled the amount of time she spent eating truffles. Why this is interesting: In the past, many primatologists have written off gorillas' culture and feeding habits as less interesting or less worthy of study than those of chimpanzees and orangutans, their great ape cousins. The new work suggests that gorillas' diets and habits are more diverse than experts previously thought.
What the experts say: It remains unclear why gorillas crave the delicious, hard-to-find underground snacks. The truffles could have antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, per some research, says biological anthropologist Stacy Rosenbaum. So "an intriguing, if speculative, possibility is that they might have medicinal benefits" [for the gorillas], she adds. —Andrea Tamayo, newsletter writer | | | Could Bird Flu Spread among Humans? | Last year, the H5N1 avian influenza, aka bird flu, shocked scientists by starting to infect cattle. This odd leap, following well-documented, deadly infections in waterfowl, farm chickens and marine mammals, has increased researchers' focus on "particular mutations and adaptations that might hint that a certain strain of H5N1 could start spreading from person to person," rather than from poultry or cattle to humans, reports freelance science journalist Stephanie Pappas. Researchers are starting to see "sprinklings" of mutations in the cattle strain of the virus that help it better interact with proteins inside the cells of mammals. How it works: As the virus continues to spread in crowded cattle populations and other mammals, researchers' concerns grow about more animal-human spillovers that theoretically could lead to infections spreading within a household. Another scenario involves potential reassortment of genetic segments snagged by avian influenza from other flu viruses that make bird flu "more adept at infecting people," Pappas writes.
What the experts say: Vaccines to protect humans from H5N1 influenza virus are already approved, based on older strains. They probably would protect people against severe disease, and they could be improved upon. An easier, preventative course would involve better "farm hygiene," such as reducing the density of animals in farm operations, says Daniel Perez, a poultry medicine professor who studies viral spillovers to humans.
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- An attorney and neuroscience scholar based in Hawaii is suing OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in federal court, for allegedly no longer adhering to and consistently implementing safety standards. The company, writes Tamlyn Hunt, has abandoned guardrails to prevent the release of AI models that could attempt to swing elections and generate propaganda campaigns. | 5 min read
| | If you've ever had the opportunity to meet or interact with a NASA astronaut, you probably have found, as I have, that they are among the most genial, stable, thoughtful, bright people you'll ever encounter. When even one of them speaks publicly, about anything, I find them well-worth listening to. | | We always like to hear from you too. Please send your thoughts, queries and any intriguing astronaut stories to us at: newsletters@sciam.com.
—Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | | |
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