| 14 September 2026 | | Today’s What We’re Enjoying features a review from News from Science General Assignment Reporter Phie Jacobs. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including a very, very, very ancient asteroid. | |
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| Drug Development | Science Translational Medicine | | The next generation of antivenoms is almost here |  | | The venom from this king cobra and three other cobra species can be thwarted with a cocktail of just five nanobodies. Kartik Sunagar | Snakebites kill hundreds of thousands of people every year, yet the best treatments available—antivenoms—have barely changed in more than a century. There are lots of potential innovations being studied , but one has just passed important tests in animal models: a cocktail of ‘nanobodies’ that thwarts Indian cobra venoms.
Nanobodies are inspired by the antibodies of llamas and their kin. Instead of a giant, y-shaped protein, a nanobody is essentially a piece of one of the y’s tips. Because they’re smaller and lack the species-specific trunk of traditional antibodies, nanobodies are easier to produce in bulk and less likely to cause adverse reactions. Last year, researchers demonstrated that a cocktail of these bitty antibodies could offer protection against a diverse array of snakes . But for the new study, the team zeroed in on one group in particular: cobras in India, a country that bears the greatest burden of snakebite death in the world and where the current antivenom all too often falls short.
Small doses of a mixture of just five nanobodies saved mice from lethal doses of venom from India’s deadliest cobra species, even when administered to the animals half an hour after the toxins. “ Mice that were paralyzed or had typical neurotoxic symptoms would revert to a completely asymptomatic state ,” explained coauthor Kartik Sunagar in a statement.
The next step, of course, is to test these nanobodies in people—first for safety in clinically relevant doses, and then for how well they work. So, they aren’t going to be given to snakebite patients this year. But what’s especially exciting about the work is that it demonstrates that “very small amounts of carefully selected and engineered antibodies” can work, according to Sunagar, and the approach could be applied regionally to quickly develop much more effective antivenoms for the hardest hit parts of the world. | | |
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| Astronomy | Science | | A truly ancient asteroid | In 2018, a Japanese spacecraft called Hayabusa2 arrived at a 1-kilometer-long spinning asteroid called Ryugu. Two years later, when the craft returned to Earth, it brought back samples. Now, those samples have revealed that the asteroid is far more ancient than researchers realized.
Ryugu, like 75% of known asteroids, is carbonaceous (rich in organic carbon). It also contains bits of magnetite and sulfide, which formed as rocks and liquid water reacted over extended periods of time. The asteroid is not one solid block, but a cluster of rocky bits from older parent bodies that were fractured during impacts. Those parents themselves were made from tiny crystals of silicate dust that show up as glass within the asteroid.
Researchers analyzed the ages of different kinds of minerals in the asteroid samples, then determined what temperature changes and reactions Ryugu must have gone through to generate those minerals. The results revealed that the minerals formed around 4.56 billion years ago—only 2 million years after the formation of the Solar System. Asteroids like Ryugu can therefore provide important clues about the Solar System’s temperature and composition in some of its earliest days. | | |
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 | | | 2027 Warren Aleprt Foundation Prize Call for Nominations | | The prize recognizes scientists whose achievements have led to, or hold promise for, the prevention, cure, or treatment of human disorders. | |
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 | | | Kobuk the Destroyer | | Alex Davies |
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| | Kobuk the grizzly is very good at destroying things—and that’s actually wonderful. His penchant for ripping open ‘bear-proof’ contraptions has helped improve a variety of products, from coolers to trash cans. In Kobuk the Destroyer, Alex Davies “makes a compelling case that test engineering—unglamorous, and largely invisible—is among the most consequential contributions to public safety and consumer trust that modern society has produced,” writes reviewer Margaret Linak. The book is among those chosen as a part of Science ’s annual collection of books to read in autumn. “From fictional protagonists disoriented by shifting circumstances to real-life clinicians, scientists, and engineers who have been forced to rethink basic assumptions about their work, the books in this year’s fall roundup challenge readers to consider the power of perspective in shaping our understanding of the world around us,” explains Books Editor Valerie Thompson. | | Read the full collection of reviews | |
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 | | | M. S. Swaminathan: The Man Who Fed India | | Priyambada Jayakumar |
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| | What will your legacy be? This year, Science’s annual Books Podcast series focused on biographies. The fourth book reviewed by Angela Saini is M. S. Swaminathan: The Man Who Fed India by historian Priyambada Jayakumar. Saini discussed with Jayakumar a common challenge in writing biographies of truly famous people: As Books Editor Valerie Thompson put it in a blog post about the series , “How do you say something new about someone whose accomplishments are well-known and mythical in proportion?” | | Listen to the Podcast | |
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 | | | Rabid | | Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy |
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| | Throughout history, few diseases have inspired as much terror as rabies. Today, the virus is famously known as the affliction that transformed Old Yeller and Cujo from beloved family dogs to slavering beasts. But as Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy explain in Rabid, the disease’s cultural impacts can be traced back to ancient times, where mentions of it can be found in Mesopotamian legal codes, early medical treatises, and passages describing the animalistic rage of Achilles in Homer’s Iliad . The book continues to trace rabies through time, exploring both the virus’ biology and the many ways humans have understood—and attempted to conquer—this most diabolical of diseases. I was particularly intrigued by the idea that rabies may have helped inspire folkloric figures like the vampire and werewolf and thoroughly enjoyed learning about how Louis Pasteur eventually developed the first rabies vaccine. Overall, Rabid was a fascinating, endlessly entertaining, and delightfully gruesome read. | | —Phie Jacobs, General Assignment Reporter, News from Science | | Read the NPR review | |
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| Be sure to check out all the reviews in our Books et al. section. |
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| ‘Chilling’ warning or overreaction? | | Anthropic caused a stir last week when they released a report about a “range of potentially concerning activity” where scientists used the AI Claude to plan experiments involving viruses and toxins. While one expert called the report’s cases “chilling examples of state-sponsored biological weapons developers tapping into the rapidly advancing capabilities,” another said they were “just basic research.” | | Anthropic Report | Read more at ScienceInsider | |
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| Not so anonymous surveys | | When researchers analyzed 327 publicly available replication packages for studies involving human subjects, a jarring 14% contained at least one instance of data directly identifying a subject—their name, address, phone number, or an internet address for a computer they used to take an online survey. Others included other personal details, and even admissions of crimes or misconduct. “We need to fix this,” said one journal editor. | | EconStor Discussion Paper | Read more at ScienceInsider | |
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| Facts and feelings | | To truly make an impact in scientific outreach, you need facts and feelings, according to new research on climate communication; facts alone aren’t motivating enough to spur people to action. “The emotions you feel when you watch a nature documentary, see the Northern Lights or witness the birth of a new animal imbue these events with meaning,” said one psychologist. “They may also drive you to look better after our environment—by volunteering your time, donating or voting for climate-friendly parties.” | | Journal of Environmental Psychology Paper | Read more at Nature | |
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| Under this [U.S.] administration, most researchers have come to expect censorship as an unavoidable part of their scholarship pursuits. This normalization also means that censorship is … ubiquitous, and yet often invisible.
—Sylvia Chou, 27 UNIHTED | | The Scholarly Kitchen | 8 September 2026 | ALICE MEADOWS | |
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| Last but not least | | I don’t buy into astrology, but I can’t help but wonder: What do all the people who worry when Mercury is in retrograde think about the fact that the planet is shrinking? |  | Christie Wilcox, Editor, ScienceAdviser
With contributions from Hannah Richter
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