diff --git a/graphblas/tests/test_dtype.py b/graphblas/tests/test_dtype.py
index e2478fe7b..ecbca707f 100644
--- a/graphblas/tests/test_dtype.py
+++ b/graphblas/tests/test_dtype.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import graphblas as gb
 from graphblas import core, dtypes
 from graphblas.core import lib
+from graphblas.core.utils import _NP2
 from graphblas.dtypes import lookup_dtype
 
 suitesparse = gb.backend == "suitesparse"
@@ -228,6 +229,9 @@ def test_dtype_to_from_string():
             # See NEP 55 about StringDtype "T". Notably, this doesn't work:
             # >>> np.dtype(np.dtype("T").str)
             continue
+        if _NP2 and c == "a":
+            # Data type alias 'a' was deprecated in NumPy 2.0. Use the 'S' alias instead.
+            continue
         try:
             dtype = np.dtype(c)
             types.append(dtype)
diff --git a/scripts/check_versions.sh b/scripts/check_versions.sh
index cd3451905..5aa88e045 100755
--- a/scripts/check_versions.sh
+++ b/scripts/check_versions.sh
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ conda search 'flake8-bugbear[channel=conda-forge]>=24.12.12'
 conda search 'flake8-simplify[channel=conda-forge]>=0.21.0'
 conda search 'numpy[channel=conda-forge]>=2.2.3'
 conda search 'pandas[channel=conda-forge]>=2.2.3'
-conda search 'scipy[channel=conda-forge]>=1.15.1'
+conda search 'scipy[channel=conda-forge]>=1.15.2'
 conda search 'networkx[channel=conda-forge]>=3.4.2'
 conda search 'awkward[channel=conda-forge]>=2.7.4'
 conda search 'sparse[channel=conda-forge]>=0.15.5'