Science and technology are in the spotlight today for reasons both troubling and hopeful. In India, the CBI has arrested a Pune chemistry professor, P.V. Kulkarni, accusing him of masterminding the alleged leak of the NEET-UG 2026 exam paper, a scandal serious enough to force cancellation of the test and a national re-run next month. The darker side of AI is also on display in Brazil, where a pensioner was reportedly defrauded of £7,500 by scammers using synthetic images and videos to pose as singer James Blunt in a fake online romance. Elsewhere, the Maldives is grappling with the aftermath of its deadliest diving accident, as authorities continue searching for four missing Italian divers after suspending a perilous recovery operation near an underwater cave. Against that backdrop, there was at least one brighter note: Ozelle’s EHBT-50 Mini Lab won a Gold German Innovation Award, underscoring how scientific progress can still inspire amid the day’s unsettling headlines.