Sunday Special: Scientists are alarmed by a Russian lab death

Welcome back, Superhuman. A mysterious death at a Russian laboratory has revived fears of the plague, a disease that once wiped out millions across Europe. Authorities insist there's no epidemic risk, but the extraordinary containment measures have scientists asking questions. Meanwhile, scientists have found that a 194-year-old tortoise might hold some surprising clues to human longevity.

1. Suspected plague death in Russia sparks fear in experts globally: Earlier this week, a technician at Siberia’s Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute died from unexplained pneumonia, prompting a hospital lockdown for over 200 people. Early reports suggested the outbreak of pneumonic plague (the disease’s most contagious form), but Russian officials insist there is no epidemic risk. However, experts remain uneasy over the lack of clarity around the cause of death and the sweeping containment measures. Read some of scientists’ biggest concerns here.

2. The world’s oldest land animal may hold clues to longer life: Scientists have found that Jonathan, an Aldabra giant tortoise estimated to be 194 years old, carries unusual genetic traits tied to DNA repair, tumor suppression, mitochondrial health, and the removal of ageing cells. Parts of his epigenome also resemble those of a five-year-old tortoise. Since similar patterns show up in exceptionally long-lived people, the findings could help researchers understand what keeps human cells healthier for longer.

3. Scientists find extinct, long-nosed crocodilian inside the Sphinx’s ancient rocks: A 45M-year-old crocodilian fossil found in the same limestone used to build Egypt’s Great Sphinx has turned out to be an entirely new genus. First described in 1927, the skull was misclassified for decades until researchers used 3D X-ray scans to reexamine it. Named Herugavialis, it belongs to the gavial family of long-snouted fish-eaters; however, the fossil is missing its nose. See what the strange species probably looked like here.

4. The world’s first nuclear clocks have started ticking: Teams in Vienna and Beijing have independently built the first working nuclear clocks, a long-awaited leap in timekeeping. Instead of tracking electrons like today’s atomic clocks, these devices use lasers to track energy shifts inside the tiny nucleus of thorium-229 atoms. They don’t beat the best atomic clocks yet, but their smaller, potentially sturdier designs could eventually improve GPS, telecommunications, data synchronization, and precision measurements.

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2. Moonwalkers Dusk: AI-powered robotic walking shoes that let you move at running speeds. They strap over your shoes and add power to each step based on how you move.

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🏎️ Formula Slow: A strange software glitch suddenly hit nearly half the F1 grid during a race weekend, leading to 10 F1 vehicles looking completely ridiculous on the track, in a video that’s making waves on Reddit. (43K likes)

🧪 Chemical Chaos: You really don't want to find yourself anywhere near this cloud. Footage of an anhydrous ammonia leak shows just how terrifying an industrial chemical release can look, even before you understand what's in the air.

🦩 Color Upgrade: Baby flamingos look nothing like the birds they grow into. They owe their iconic pink color to a surprisingly specific part of their diet.

👀 Eerie Prediction: A classic novel published 300 years ago imagined a technology that could spit out new ideas by mechanically combining language and rearranging words. Now, people are thinking that the machine sounds awfully familiar.

🚘 Light Talk: Chinese electric cars have found a new way to communicate. Their headlights can now project actual messages onto the road, turning a routine drive into something straight out of a sci-fi movie. (2.2M views)

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Seeing is Believing: An experimental treatment is helping some blind people detect objects again. Scientists used gene therapy to make surviving retinal cells sensitive to amber light, pairing it with goggles that turn what a camera sees into light pulses those cells can read. In a study of people with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition that destroys the eye’s light-sensing cells, 7 of 10 participants saw improved light sensitivity — an early step toward restoring independence for people with inherited blindness.

Bone Fix: Osteoarthritis affects about one in five US adults, and until now, we don’t have a drug that can reverse it. Now, Stanford researchers have found a way to regrow worn knee cartilage in mice. By blocking 15-PGDH, a protein that roughly doubles with age, they made aging cartilage thicker and helped prevent arthritis after ACL-like injuries. If it holds up in human trials, a pill or injection could help people avoid knee and hip replacements.

Fat Killshot: Regular weight loss tends to shrink fat cells, but they still stick around. Now, an experimental drug called CBL-514 takes a different approach by triggering fat cells to self-destruct. In two small trials, people who got injections in their lower abdomen lost about 12% of their visceral fat, the dangerous kind that wraps around internal organs, in four weeks. Since visceral fat is linked to diabetes and heart problems, eliminating it could offer real health benefits.

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Until next time,

Zain, Faiq, and the Superhuman AI team