Hello Nature Readers, would you like to receive this report in your inbox for free every day? Register here.

Goats’ predilection for head-butting could cause brain damage. The researchers allowed three young goats (Capra hircus) to head-butt freely over the course of six months, scanning their brains at the beginning and end of that period. The trio did not appear to have suffered serious brain damage at the time, but there were signs of mild injury, which the team suggests could worsen as the animals’ lives progressed. The findings raise the possibility of using goats as a model to study the link between head trauma and neurodegeneration in people.

Science | 5 minutes of reading

Reference: bioRxiv preprint (not peer-reviewed)

Two US National Institutes of Health (NIH) virologists, Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, face charges related to the alleged smuggling of non-infectious monkeypox virus and other biological samples into the United States. The DNA samples the two were carrying do not require an import permit but must be declared to federal officials, a step the complaint says Munster and Kwe did not complete. Both scientists have pleaded not guilty. The case is the latest in a series of prosecutions of researchers for smuggling biological samples since early 2025, for which some US lawmakers are seeking to impose stiff sentences.

Nature | 6 minutes of reading

The mysterious disease that has been affecting brown catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus) in a lake on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border has been identified as a type of transmissible cancer—only the fourth example of tumor cells that can be transmitted from one animal to another. Surveys have suggested that the disease, a type of melanoma that manifests as inky-black skin lesions, affects about a third of the lake’s catfish population. But it appears in both young and old people, suggesting it may not cause quick death.

Nature | 5 minutes of reading

Reference: Nature paper

Features and opinion

The campaign to eradicate polio is, on the face of it, a huge success: it has reduced cases of the disease by 99.98% since it began almost 40 years ago. But the virus is persistent and total eradication goals have been repeatedly missed in the last decade. Some researchers doubt that polio can be eradicated in Pakistan and Afghanistan (the disease’s two remaining strongholds) without a change in strategy, particularly amid unprecedented funding shortfalls. Some think that focusing on ending conflict in these countries could allow vaccinators to reach currently inaccessible areas. Others suggest moving away from the goal of eradication and moving toward one of global control of the disease.

Nature | 11 minute read

Recently, we asked what scientific tasks you would never abandon in favor of artificial intelligence tools, and Report readers responded. From the joy of cleaning up messy data to thinking while they write, they share some of the tasks they’d rather keep to themselves.

Nature | 6 minutes of reading

In his new book Your data will be used against youLegal scholar Andrew Guthrie Ferguson explores how our casual interactions with technology can backfire in court. “What makes the book particularly effective is that it avoids the lazy binaries between good and evil that often plague discussions about technology and privacy,” writes reviewer JB Branch of the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. “However, many readers are likely to finish the book wondering, ‘What can I do to protect myself?’ now?’”

Science and Technology Issues | 10 minutes of reading

Unless you’ve been trapped in Aeaea and turned into a pig, you’ve probably heard of the unlikely (to me) blockbuster that is Christopher Nolan’s film. The Odyssey. To commemorate the occasion, The Paris Review offers readers free access to two excerpts from wonderful recent translations of Homer’s epic by Emily Wilson and Daniel Mendelsohn.

Let me know about any long trips you are planning, as well as any comments about this newsletter, at briefing@nature.com.

Thanks for reading,

Flora Graham, Editor-in-Chief, Nature Briefing

With contributions from Jacob Smith

• Nature Briefing: Careers: ideas, advice and award-winning journalism to help you optimize your working life

• Nature Briefing: Microbiology (the most abundant living entities on our planet (microorganisms) and the role they play in health, the environment and food systems

• Nature Briefing: Anthropocene: climate change, biodiversity, sustainability and geoengineering

• Nature Briefing: AI and robotics: 100% human-written, of course

• Nature Briefing: Cancer: A weekly newsletter written with cancer researchers in mind.

• Nature Briefing: Translational Research: covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharmaceuticals.