Science

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Slow Descent

The Hubble Space Telescope Is Sinking. NASA Is Looking for Ways to Keep It Afloat

With Hubble expected to reenter the atmosphere by 2034 and several malfunctions on board, NASA is asking commercial space companies for proposals on how to extend the telescope’s lifespan.

Ritsuko Kawai

Ice, Ice Maybe

Climate Change Abolishes Ice

Brian Kahn

Brain Drain

Synchron Pauses Trials of Its Brain Implant Due to Performance Issues

Emily Mullin

Health

New mRNA Vaccine Reduces Risk of Melanoma Recurrence by Over 40 Percent

The vaccine is personalized to a patient’s tumor, and results from the Phase 3 trial are yet another example of the promise of mRNA vaccines in treating cancer.

Fernanda González

What to Know About Shamonda Virus Following the First Reported Human Infection

Although the case is considered exceptional, investigators are working to determine how the infection occurred and whether the pathogen played a role in the patient’s death.

Fernanda González

Hugging Face’s New AI Biology Model Lets You Chat With DNA

The new open-source model speaks the language of DNA and can help researchers understand the effects of any changes on gene activity and health.

Emily Mullin

Telehealth Giant Hims Wants to Test Every Dude for Low Testosterone

The company plans to offer testosterone replacement therapy, marking its first foray into prescribing controlled substances.

Kate Knibbs

Environment

The Cybertruck’s Death Is Actually Great News for EVs

Tesla’s biggest failure is the second massive EV to get the axe within the last year, while smaller vehicles are proliferating. It could be a huge benefit for the US battery supply chain.

Brian Kahn

Chernobyl’s Dogs May Be Evolving, but Scientists Don’t Know Why

A new study found evidence of natural selection in the dogs of Chernobyl, but it’s still unclear what drove these genetic differences and what evolutionary advantages they may provide.

Jorge Garay

Chatbots Are Leading Hikers Astray, With Dangerous Consequences

Outsourcing planning to AI can lead people to surrender their own critical thinking, which can have potentially deadly results in places like the backcountry.

Christine Peterson

Heat From Cremations Is Being Used to Warm Homes and Swimming Pools

European countries are leading the way harvesting heat that would otherwise be wasted as green death practices become more common.

Chris Baraniuk

Climate

The Polar Vortex Is About to Make Weather Weird From the UK to the US

These Arctic currents have never broken down so early in the season. Combined with an unprecedented El Niño, the outcomes aren’t easy to predict.

Dennis Mersereau

The American Dream Wasn’t Built for Climate Change

Owning a home is billed as a way to build wealth, but amid climate-related disasters, for many, it's beginning to feel like a trap.

Kate Yoder

Can a Radar-Equipped AC Actually Cut Your Power Bill?

Air conditioners can now follow you from room to room to cut power draw. Saving the planet, however, won’t come from a smarter breeze.

Sophie Charara

AI Emergency Alerts Are Coming. Humans Might Not Be Ready

Human beings struggle with emergency communication. Chatbots can help—if people take them seriously.

Jake Bittle

Energy

Michigan Residents Voted to Get Corporate Money Out of Politics. Now Utilities Are Suing

Amid rising electricity costs, Michiganders decisively voted for a ballot proposition to curtail the ability of utilities to spend on elections—a move utilities say limits their freedom of speech.

Molly Taft

The Iran War’s Impact on Oil Is Hitting Key Senate Races Hard

Democrats are using the high price of diesel, heating oil, and fertilizer to tie Republicans to President Donald Trump’s unpopular, costly war in Iran.

Molly Taft

Anthropic Flags Gas Supply as One of Its Biggest Near-Term Risks

The data center buildout could cause a massive increase in gas prices as companies scramble for limited supplies and infrastructure fails to meet demand.

Molly Taft

Oil Spills Wreak Havoc on the Bottom of the Ocean, Even a Decade Later

While oil is known to float, new research finds that over time it can permeate even extremely deep marine habitats, with animal populations declining by as much as 80 percent.

Bob Berwyn

Space

Here’s What We Know About the X-70 Fractal, NASA’s Experimental New Plane

NASA announced the development of an experimental aircraft designed to explore new flight capabilities, although details about its design and operation remain under wraps.

Jorge Garay

Scientists May Have Discovered a Massive Starless Galaxy

The promising candidate contains roughly 2 billion times the sun’s mass in hydrogen, yet appears to have no stars. Studying it could help answer questions that have vexed astronomers for years.

Jacklin Kwan

NASA’s Swift Observatory Is Falling to Earth. Here’s What to Know About the Impending Impact

The 3,200-pound satellite is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere later this week with a wide reentry zone covering parts of Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, and South America.

Javier Carbajal

Ancient Meteorite Found in the Sahara Holds Secrets About Mars’ Watery Past

The 4.1-billion-year-old meteorite is a “Rosetta Stone for Mars,” preserving clues about how the Martian environment has changed since the solar system formed.

Jorge Garay

Physics and Math

A 55-Year-Old Math Problem Was Solved—This Time by Humans

A group of young mathematicians found the solution to the long unanswered conjecture, first inspired by juggling, through randomness and friendship.

Shalma Wegsman

Particle Physicists Are Getting a First Glimpse Into the ‘Zeptoverse’

An extremely rare matter-decay event opens up new possibilities for researching the physical world on scales 100 billion times smaller than an atom.

Jorge Garay

An AI Breakthrough Has Made Decades of Computer Science Research ‘Irrelevant’

Anthropic and OpenAI say they’ve disproved a key tenet of computer science. Researchers are struggling with the fall but also feel like “overexcited bunnies” as they look at new questions to explore.

Isabella Ward

Scientists Trapped an Antimatter Particle for Months to Study Its Secrets

These elusive and reactive particles have been challenging to hold on to and even more challenging to study, but a new method paves the way for tests on the differences between matter and antimatter.

Jorge Garay

Biotech

A Startup Wants to Fight AI Bioweapons With AI

Radical Numerics has developed a model that it says can identify natural and AI-engineered pathogens without an internet connection.

Emily Mullin

A New Benchmark for De-Aging Comes From Slowly Turning Back Cells’ Clocks

Researchers in Germany gradually reversed human cells’ ages by decades. By doing so, they could track the de-aging process in a way previous rejuvenation experiments could not.

Jorge Garay

These Robotic Arms Are Powered by Algae. Watch How They Move

The key to the movement of these flexible robots is the algae’s photosynthetic capabilities.

Ritsuko Kawai

‘You Don’t Put Your Head in the Sand for 4 Years’: Colossal CEO Ben Lamm on Working With Trump

The company’s cofounder recently convinced the Trump administration to support an initiative to gather DNA samples from endangered species.

Brian Kahn

Psychology and Neuroscience

Are Memories Transferable? Meet the Scientists Replicating an Infamous Study to Find Out

In the 1960’s, an odd experiment showed planarian worms could transfer memories by consuming each other. It was a sensational finding—that is until the worms stopped learning.

Claire L. Evans

The Science Behind the Nobel-Winning Technology That Controls Neurons With Light

Optogenetics revolutionized neuroscience, but its origins come from an entirely brainless organism—an alga.

Fernanda González

Psilocybin Might Make Your Brain Live in the Moment

Psychedelics are often associated with disconnecting from reality, but a recent neuroimaging study found that psilocybin can actually make our brain activity more connected to the world around us.

Jorge Garay

Big Tech Wants to Harvest Your Thoughts

Silicon Valley companies are already working on neurotechnology products that track your brain activity. The next privacy frontier might be the things you only think.

James Crawford