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Science news this week: Solar revelations as irradiated Comet 3I/ATLAS rapidly brightens, a tiny tyrannosaur prompts T. rex rethink, and the unexpected perks of cussing out your chatbot
Nov. 1, 2025: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.
In this week's science news, we covered news of our sun and the comet rapidly brightening near it, Nanotyrannus being its own species, whether Neanderthals ate their greens, how being rude to AI makes it more accurate, and mRNA research in crisis.
(Image credit: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet (left), Anthony Hutchings (right))
The hottest science news this week has revolved around the sun, with the arrival of some dazzling new studies concerning our star and the fascinating interstellar comet currently passing close to it.
To get us started, scientists have discovered a clue as to why the sun is so much hotter at its outer surface than inside its core. A new study revealed that magnetic waves — theorized since the 1940s yet only detected now — carry energy from the sun's inner furnace to its outer corona.
Solar magnetic fields are powerful things, occasionally kinking, twisting and breaking to launch enormous flares alongside torrents of charged particles that can cause powerful geomagnetic storms on Earth. Another new study this week revealed just how catastrophic the most extreme of these superstorms can be, with the inevitable next one having the potential to wipe out all of our satellites.
An analysis of two "Dueling Dinosaurs" has revealed that Nanotyrannus is its own species after all.
(Image credit: Anthony Hutchings)
A remarkable fossil find has thrown lit dino-mite into a controversy about whether a mini-tyrannosaur was a young Tyrannosaurus rex or its own unique species. The debate has roared on for nearly four decades, but a fossil known as the "Dueling Dinosaurs" may have finally offered a conclusive answer. Unearthed in 2006, the fossils show a Triceratops who appears to be locked in battle with a fierce tyrannosaur.
Now, a jaw-dropping analysis of the "Dueling Dinosaurs" has revealed that the tyrannosaur likely wasn't a juvenile T. rex, as many experts had assumed, but a fully grown adult of a previously debated species called Nanotyrannus lancensis.
Following the find, paleontologists now largely accept that Nanotyrannus is its own species. But to confuse matters further, a separate team has also named a different new species in the genus — Nanotyrannus lethaeus. So does this mean the dust has finally settled? Or do paleontologists have a new bone to fight over?
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Neanderthals ate a lot of meat. But did they finish their veggies?
(Image credit: Aleksei Gorodenkov via Alamy)
Picture a Neanderthal at dinner and your mind's eye will likely conjure an image of one gnawing upon an enormous, prehistoric drumstick. But did our extinct cousins really only chow down on meat? Or did they eat their greens too?
Being generally rude to chatbots seems to slightly boost their accuracy. So should we?
(Image credit: Malte Mueller/Getty Images)
Hate AI? You might be the best at getting it to work for you, according to a new study that found chatbots give more accurate answers when you're being mean to them. The difference in accuracy is fairly small, however, with a 4% improvement between prompts classed as very polite to those that are very rude.
The researchers nonetheless caution against this approach, as there's a chance that being truculent and ill-mannered to the bots could spill over to your behavior with fellow humans. If that's not a convincing enough reason on its own, consider the (almost impossibly small) chance that the bots could gain sentience — can you be sure they'll have forgotten what you said?
mRNA research has the potential to offer revolutionary treatments for a number of diseases. The U.S. Government is turning its back on it.
(Image credit: Adrián Astorgano)
The introduction of mRNA-based vaccines for COVID-19 was a key achievement during the previous Trump administration, swiftly curtailing the pandemic in the mere months the vaccines took to go from conceptualization to mass production.
Yet now the second Trump government appears bent upon undoing its previous work through funding freezes, mass layoffs and the scrapping of research projects into mRNA research.
As the U.S. government continues to divest from the technology, scientists are worried that the revolutionary treatments it offers for cancer, immune deficiencies and genetic disorders could be left behind. Live Science reported on mRNA research's uncertain future in the U.S. in this fascinating Science Spotlight.
Something for the weekend
If you're looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best polls, interviews and opinion pieces published this week.
Planetary nebulas such as this one form when stars like our sun reach the end of their lifetimes, expanding into red giants and shedding their outer layers to form shrouds of superheated dust. The cosmic spider's legs shimmer with molecular hydrogen, and the fragmenting gas outflows from the dying star give the cosmic limbs a distinctly hairy appearance.
Ben Turner is a U.K. based writer and editor at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.
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