The global push for solar energy could come with a hidden biodiversity cost, a study of more than 2300 Chinese counties reports. According to the findings in Science, stronger policies promoting solar development were associated with a decline in bird diversity, largely because ecologically diverse croplands and grasslands were converted to developed land. Learn more: scim.ag/4xPblpM

Seasonally driven mosquito feeding patterns, along with drought conditions, may have been behind Brazil’s first yellow fever epidemic in a century, according to a new @ScienceAdvances study. scim.ag/4xu6Ssv

For decades, string theory promised a “theory of everything” that described all particles and forces as tiny vibrating strings. Physicists hoped it could also solve one of the field’s deepest problems: reconciling quantum mechanics with gravity. But as string theory grew increasingly elaborate—and experimentally unreachable—many physicists lost hope. Now, some researchers are revisiting the theory from first principles. Learn more: scim.ag/4qrSQFL