An immigration judge has found the U.S. government’s initial deportation case against Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born Harvard scientist held in ICE detention, to be legally deficient, her attorney said, raising questions about whether the case can move forward.

The preliminary immigration hearing, held in Jena, Louisiana, included three trial attorneys and a deputy chief counsel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Petrova’s attorney Greg Romanovsky described their presence as unusual for an early-stage proceeding.

Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life. A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms. This is the second, and more promising, time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet's atmosphere by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). But the team and independent astronomers stress that more data is needed to confirm these results.

An ocean world that's teeming with microbes — and who knows what other kinds of life — is currently the best explanation for some chemical signatures that the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted in the atmosphere of a distant planet.

That's according to Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, who called his team's new findings "astounding."

"These are the first hints we are seeing of an alien world that is possibly inhabited," he told reporters in a press briefing. "This is a revolutionary moment."

Astronomers have discovered a major sign of life — and “the first hints… of an alien world” on a distant planet orbiting outside the solar system, according to a new report.

The scientists believe the exoplanet, K2-18b, is a “Hycean planet” — meaning it’s home to an abundance of a life-signifying molecules including one that is only produced on Earth by living organisms such as marine algae, according to a new report.

Harvard University scientists are facing the prospect of laying off staff, euthanizing research animals and bringing yearslong science projects to a halt as a freeze on federal funds looms.

On Monday, after the university rejected government demands to change how it runs and admits students, the Trump administration said it would stop $2.26 billion in funds previously awarded to the school as part of an investigation into how the university dealt with antisemitism.

The Energy Department announced Friday that it is wiping an estimated $405 million from grant funding for colleges and universities, as the Trump administration continues its sweeping overhaul of the United States’ scientific research apparatus.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confronting his first disease outbreak as Health and Human Services secretary. His response to the spread of measles in and beyond Texas has managed to alarm serious scientists while also drawing criticism from his Make America Healthy Again movement.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a stop in Texas on Sunday and visited the family of a 6-year-old girl who died of the measles virus in February.

Kennedy confirmed the visit to Texas in a post on X in which he encouraged people to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine amid rising measles cases.