Science & Space

kyoto researchers turn 1200 starlink satellites into an upper atmosphere imaging array Roughly 99 percent of the gas in Earth's upper atmosphere carries no electrical charge — and that neutral majority happens to be the portion our instruments have the hardest time detecting. The remaining fraction, the ionosphere's ionized gas, is comparatively simple to track: charged particles disturb the passage of radio waves and leave behind a signature that can genuinely be measured.

Kyoto researchers turn 1,200 Starlink satellites into an upper-atmosphere imaging array

esa will livestream the aug 12 total solar eclipse from a spanish mountaintop totality runs just 81 seconds On Aug. 12, 2026, the strip of ground where the Moon covers the Sun completely barely grazes Europe. Greenland, Iceland, a sliver of northeastern Portugal, and then Spain — that's the list. The rest of the continent is left with a partial eclipse, and that is a wholly different thing to witness.

ESA will livestream the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse from a Spanish mountaintop — totality runs just 81 seconds

voyager 2 gets a power reprieve nasas big bang buys the probe another year Since the Nixon years, Voyager 2 has shed roughly 4 watts of usable power annually — and that slow bleed was on track to claim yet another one of its science instruments before 2026 ended.

Voyager 2 Gets a Power Reprieve: NASA’s “Big Bang” Buys the Probe Another Year

no needle required oral glp 1 pill trims up to 12 of body weight in 36 weeks A pill you can swallow with breakfast — or without it — that takes twelve percent of your body weight off over 36 weeks. That is the number coming out of a randomized phase II trial of aleniglipron published in Nature Medicine, and the fact that it is a pill matters every bit as much as the percentage.

No needle required: oral GLP-1 pill trims up to 12% of body weight in 36 weeks

washu fuel cell breakthrough targets data centers that keep draining the grid Start with 9%, not with catalyst chemistry. That is the share of annual U.S. electricity generation the Electric Power Research Institute estimates data centers could be consuming by 2030, against 4% of total electricity demand in 2023. Everything else here is an answer to that gap.

WashU fuel cell breakthrough targets data centers that keep draining the grid

a hair thin gold crystal could lift quantum tech out of the deep freeze Almost every quantum material physicists have turned up so far arrives with a caveat roughly the size of a refrigerator: it performs, but only within a hair of absolute zero.

A hair-thin gold crystal could lift quantum tech out of the deep freeze

an ai wrote 300 virus genomes from scratch sixteen actually came alive Three hundred synthetic genomes were loaded into E. coli. Sixteen emerged as functioning viruses.

An AI Wrote 300 Virus Genomes From Scratch. Sixteen Actually Came Alive

astronomers finally resolve the suns miniature plasma whirlpools each barely 20 kilometers wide Twenty kilometers across. That was the threshold scientists needed to reach on the solar surface before they could spot what they were hunting for, and it happens to sit right at the ceiling of what the biggest solar telescope on the planet can manage.

Astronomers finally resolve the sun’s miniature plasma whirlpools, each barely 20 kilometers wide

nasas perseverance is about to out drive every rover that ever reached mars Roughly nine out of every ten meters NASA's Perseverance rover has covered on Mars were driven without a single instruction from Earth about where to go. For its predecessor Curiosity, that figure sits at around 10 percent.

NASA’s Perseverance is about to out-drive every rover that ever reached Mars

deepminds hurricane model outran the forecasters and even its builders cant explain why Five days out from landfall, an AI model put 80 percent confidence on Hurricane Melissa striking Jamaica as a Category 5. Not Haiti. Not a weakened system. Jamaica, at the very top of the scale.

DeepMind’s hurricane model outran the forecasters — and even its builders can’t explain why