Science News Roundup: Webb telescope captures tantalizing evidence for mysterious 'dark stars'; Russian scientists warn of powerful solar flare activity on Monday and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Webb telescope captures tantalizing evidence for mysterious 'dark stars'

Scientists for the past 15 years have been looking for evidence of a type of star only hypothesized but never observed - one powered not by the fusion of atoms like the sun and other ordinary stars but by mysterious stuff called dark matter. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope's ability to peer back to the dawn of the universe, the first good candidates to be "dark stars" have been identified.

Russian scientists warn of powerful solar flare activity on Monday

Powerful solar flare activity is forecast for Monday which may interfere with short-wave communications, Russian scientists said after three flares were observed on the sun on Sunday. The Fedorov Institute of Applied Geophysics in Moscow said class X flares were possible, including proton flares, and short-wave radio conditions were expected to deteriorate.

Gene tech spares male chicks from cull by preventing them from hatching

Every year, egg farmers kill 7 billion day-old male chicks because they cannot grow up to lay eggs and are the wrong breed for meat. A laboratory in Israel has a solution: what if the male eggs don't hatch? All the chicks are female at Yuval Cinnamon's laboratory in central Israel, where new technology offers an answer to what he calls "the most devastating animal welfare issue worldwide - the culling and sorting of day-old male chicks".

(With inputs from agencies.)