Overview

• The probability of a Milky Way–Andromeda merger within the next ten billion years is now estimated at about 50 percent with refined Hubble and Gaia measurements coupled with satellite galaxy gravitation
• Ancient DNA from 21 individuals on Colombia’s Bogotá Altiplano has revealed a previously unknown basal hunter-gatherer culture that existed for millennia before disappearing roughly two millennia ago
• Shotgun sequencing of airborne environmental DNA in Dublin uncovered traces of human, pathogen and drug-related genetic material including signals from opium poppy and Cannabis genera
• Field observations in German orchards documented nematode worms forming self-supporting towers on rotting fruit to facilitate dispersal via passing animals
• Separate paleontological and archaeological studies identified Onychodus mikijuk, a new 370-million-year-old fish species from Devonian fossils in Nunavut, and described an Iron Age kohl recipe based on manganese and graphite in Northwestern Iran