Webb data upends theory on Neptune moon's origin

Two new AI agents, Google Co-Scientist and FutureHouse Robin, are emerging as virtual collaborators for researchers, helping accelerate scientific work by generating and refining hypotheses while scientists provide feedback and steer the process. In testing, Co-Scientist identified drug combinations for leukemia treatment, while Robin automated literature searches and experiment planning for a research team that discovered a promising treatment for macular degeneration. Meanwhile, researchers from New Zealand and the United States have identified a critical flaw in a climate mitigation strategy known as enhanced alkalinity, which involves spreading crushed silicate rocks on land or in water to help oceans absorb carbon dioxide. The team found that as minerals dissolve and travel from soil to sea, they often become trapped in secondary minerals like clay, removing the alkalinity needed to store carbon and undermining the method's effectiveness. Additionally, astronomers using data from the James Webb Space Telescope have challenged the long-held assumption that Neptune's moon Nereid was captured from the Kuiper Belt. The new data reveals Nereid's chemical makeup features crystalline water ice and a spectral signature unlike any known Kuiper Belt object, and modeling suggests Neptune's capture of its moon Triton may have caused gravitational chaos that "kicked" Nereid into its unusual orbit.