Science news this week: A key Atlantic current nears collapse, the world’s biggest iceberg shatters, and mouse brains rewrite neuroscience

The watery part of the world dominated our science news coverage this week, beginning with the alarming prediction that a key Atlantic current, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which includes the Gulf Stream, could begin its irreversible collapse in decades.

That’s according to a new landmark study, which combined the predictions of 25 climate models to arrive at an “optimistic” prediction (under a moderate emissions scenario) that the current will begin to shut down due to climate change sometime in the 2060s. Given the current’s vital role in regulating global climates, scientists have described the study as a “serious climate wake-up call.”