Climate signals shifted from extremes to lasting vulnerability

Climate science dominated the week, linking a record El Niño with weakening Arctic ice and possible faster Thwaites retreat. Other observations showed that climate effects can also be abrupt or locally counterintuitive, from Australia’s desert bloom to rising methane uptake in some forest soils.

Outside climate, research redrew scales of human history and future capability, from Indigenous population loss to a possible oldest shipwreck and AI-designed carbon chemistry routes. Biology and neuroscience also gained new resolution by tracing embryonic cell lineages and detecting language processing under anesthesia.