Science news today spans the extremes of risk, from microbes to magma to rockets. South African researchers led in part by infectious disease specialist Lucille Blumberg traced a mysterious illness cluster aboard a Dutch cruise ship to hantavirus, underscoring how outbreak detection now depends on fast, cross-border scientific coordination. In Hawaii, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake near the Big Island was felt across the island chain, while the USGS moved quickly to assess whether the jolt could alter activity at Kilauea, where forecasters are already watching for a possible eruption window in the coming days. Off Earth, SpaceX’s latest Starship test reached its planned splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean before ending in a deliberately fiery destruction sequence, another reminder that progress in spaceflight often comes wrapped in spectacle. And in Chile, the hazards of volcanic landscapes turned tragic when a climber died after a 2,000-foot fall during a birthday ascent.