April 25, 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.

A newly discovered altar buried near the center of the ancient Maya city of Tikal is providing fresh insight into the 1,600-year-old tensions between Tikal and the central Mexican capital of Teotihuacan. Just steps from the center of Tikal, a 2,400-year-old Maya city in present-day Guatemala, a team of international researchers, including scholars from Brown [...]

Hiding in plain sight.

Images of Mars never cease to amaze. This latest image of NASA’s Curiosity Rover captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the rover as a dark speck and the end of a long trail of tracks. It was rattling along at a speed of 0.16 km/h across the Gediz Vallis Channel and was headed towards a region that could have been formed by water billions of years ago. The weather on Mars won’t allow the tracks to persist though so they are likely to last for only a few months.

"It reveals that we may be able to take action."