Science today spans loss, risk and adaptation. NASA has formally ended the MAVEN mission after six months of silence, closing a chapter on a spacecraft that spent more than a decade studying Mars and relaying data from rovers on the surface. Back on Earth, science intersects more uneasily with security and policy: two researchers at a U.S. government lab are accused of bringing deactivated mpox samples into the country without permits and then misleading investigators, a case that underscores how tightly biological materials are regulated even when no public exposure is alleged. And in Japan, climate change is reshaping tradition as organisers of the ancient Soma Nomaoi samurai horse festival shift the event to spring to protect riders and horses from intensifying summer heat. Together, the stories show science not just as discovery, but as stewardship—of missions, materials and cultural resilience in a warming world.