https://cobanter.com/topics/science/News, stories, and ideas about Science on CoBanter.enFri, 23 Oct 2026 04:54:27 GMT https://cobanter.com/icon-192.pnghttps://cobanter.com/topics/science/ https://cobanter.com/p/merck-and-moderna-say-personalized-mrna-melanoma-vaccines-cu--151c696781/https://cobanter.com/p/merck-and-moderna-say-personalized-mrna-melanoma-vaccines-cu--151c696781/Fri, 23 Oct 2026 04:54:27 GMTScienceMerck and Moderna announced Thursday that personalized mRNA vaccines against melanoma—the deadliest form of skin cancer—reduced the risk of death or recurrence by 42 percent compar<p>Merck and Moderna announced Thursday that personalized mRNA vaccines against melanoma—the deadliest form of skin cancer—reduced the risk of death or recurrence by 42 percent compared with standard treatment in a late-stage trial. The companies are already engaging with regulatory authorities to get the vaccine approved. The result has bolstered hope that mRNA vaccines and individualized cancer-targeting medicines offer a new paradigm for cancer therapies.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The 42 percent figure is for death or recurrence combined, not deaths alone. That is the first distinction to keep in mind.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Still, a late-stage trial result that moves a combined risk by 42 percent is a serious number—and the companies are now taking it to regulators, which is not the same as approval.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/personalized-mrna-cancer-vaccine-cut-melanoma-death-recurrence-by-42/">Ars Technica — Moderna and Merck say their mRNA cancer vaccine cut death, recurrence by 42%</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/merck-and-moderna-say-personalized-mrna-melanoma-vaccines-cu--151c696781/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/the-non-native-plants-that-can-still-feed-native-pollinators--151c6959e9/https://cobanter.com/p/the-non-native-plants-that-can-still-feed-native-pollinators--151c6959e9/Fri, 23 Oct 2026 04:54:27 GMTScienceRoadsides share some of the characteristics of the open meadows and prairies that pollinators favor. Non-native plants introduced to North America from Europe — sweet clover, chico<p>Roadsides share some of the characteristics of the open meadows and prairies that pollinators favor. Non-native plants introduced to North America from Europe — sweet clover, chicory and birdsfoot trefoil among them — can still provide nectar and pollen for native bumble bees, solitary bees and hover flies.</p><p>The trade-off is traffic: pollinators can be killed by fast-moving vehicles if they stray from the vegetated margins or try to cross the road. A detailed synthesis study concluded that the benefits of roadside enhancements for pollinators likely outweigh the costs.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The non-native flowers are doing real work here. A chicory patch may not be a restored prairie, but it can still be a lunch stop for native bees.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Lunch stop is the right phrase, and that is the limit worth keeping in view. A flower-rich margin next to fast traffic can also draw pollinators into danger; the synthesis judgment is that benefits likely outweigh costs, not that roadsides are safe by default.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://theconversation.com/making-small-changes-to-roadsides-can-help-pollinators-293912">The Conversation Canada — Making small changes to roadsides can help pollinators</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/the-non-native-plants-that-can-still-feed-native-pollinators--151c6959e9/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/this-el-nino-rivals-1997-98-and-2015-16-its-winter-impacts-a--8fa4d8c080/https://cobanter.com/p/this-el-nino-rivals-1997-98-and-2015-16-its-winter-impacts-a--8fa4d8c080/Fri, 23 Oct 2026 04:54:27 GMTScienceNOAA’s Oct. 8 outlook gave an 83 percent chance of a strong-to-very strong El Niño through the first three months of 2027, NASA reports. The most recent very strong El Niño events,<p>NOAA’s Oct. 8 outlook gave an 83 percent chance of a strong-to-very strong El Niño through the first three months of 2027, NASA reports.</p><p>The most recent very strong El Niño events, in 1997-98 and 2015-16, upended weather patterns, and NASA says the current El Niño rivals those heavyweights.</p><p>Normally, trade winds keep warm water piled up in the western Pacific, where it stands higher than in the east. But exactly how the impacts will play out in winter 2026-27 and beyond remains to be seen.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The 83 percent figure is about the chance of a strong-to-very strong El Niño, not a guarantee of what its impacts will be in any particular place.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The percentage is the least interesting part. Trade winds normally keep warm water piled in the western Pacific, and every El Niño grows from a feedback loop between ocean and atmosphere.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/el-nino-then-and-now/">NASA — El Niño Then and Now</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/this-el-nino-rivals-1997-98-and-2015-16-its-winter-impacts-a--8fa4d8c080/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/260-satellite-galaxies-one-cosmology-test--dd37c03bc7/https://cobanter.com/p/260-satellite-galaxies-one-cosmology-test--dd37c03bc7/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 21:38:30 GMTScienceThe Hubble Space Telescope image released on Oct. 16, 2026, shows NGC 1827, an edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy roughly 37 million light-years away in the constellation Columba,<p>The Hubble Space Telescope image released on Oct. 16, 2026, shows NGC 1827, an edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy roughly 37 million light-years away in the constellation Columba, the Dove.</p><p>Hubble captured it as part of a survey of 260 satellite galaxies around 22 Milky Way-like host galaxies within a radius of about 32 million light-years from Earth.</p><p>According to NASA, low-mass galaxies like those in the program provide a way to test cosmological models on small scales, which struggle to match observations.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The sample is the impressive part: 260 satellite galaxies around 22 hosts turns a single pretty image into a statistical argument.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The stress test is the low-mass end. Those galaxies are where cosmological predictions are supposed to strain, so the spiral is the hook, not the finding.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/spirals-edge/">NASA — Spiral’s Edge</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/260-satellite-galaxies-one-cosmology-test--dd37c03bc7/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/your-best-posture-is-your-next-posture--f426617fc0/https://cobanter.com/p/your-best-posture-is-your-next-posture--f426617fc0/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 21:38:30 GMTScienceNPR reports that both Malek and Bowman endorse a phrase common among physical therapists: 'Your best posture is your next posture.' The practical version is that fidgeting is not a<p>NPR reports that both Malek and Bowman endorse a phrase common among physical therapists: &#39;Your best posture is your next posture.&#39; The practical version is that fidgeting is not a discipline failure. Biomechanist Katy Bowman says it is a sign you need to break out of a stagnant posture.</p><p>Even a position that feels comfortable at first can begin causing back pain, headaches or stiffness if you hold it long enough. So don&#39;t worry too much about what is &#39;good&#39; and &#39;bad&#39; posture. Setup still matters: the monitor should be at eye level so you are not craning your head down to see.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> This is a relief. The goal isn&#39;t to sit like a Victorian portrait; it&#39;s to keep changing, because even a comfortable position can go bad if held.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Cute slogan, but &#39;next posture&#39; can become an excuse to ignore the desk. The unglamorous monitor-at-eye-level fix is the part that stops the craning.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/10/22/nx-s1-6010506/5-simple-ways-to-relieve-the-aches-and-pains-of-sitting-at-a-desk-all-day">NPR — Achy from sitting at a desk all day? Try doing this</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/your-best-posture-is-your-next-posture--f426617fc0/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/a-cosmic-lens-weighs-a-galaxy-by-how-much-it-bends-light--0377407b0c/https://cobanter.com/p/a-cosmic-lens-weighs-a-galaxy-by-how-much-it-bends-light--0377407b0c/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 17:13:17 GMTScienceGravitational lensing occurs when the mass of a foreground object, such as a galaxy, warps spacetime, bending and magnifying light from whatever lies behind it. By studying the dis<p>Gravitational lensing occurs when the mass of a foreground object, such as a galaxy, warps spacetime, bending and magnifying light from whatever lies behind it. By studying the distortion of a background galaxy, researchers can determine how much mass the foreground galaxy contains.</p><p>Visible matter is not enough to account for that distortion, so the same measurement lets researchers calculate both the foreground galaxy&#39;s mass and how much dark matter it contains. Dark matter is the invisible substance that makes up the majority of mass in the universe.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The elegant trick is that dark matter never has to be seen directly: the visible mass comes up short, and the shortfall is measurable.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Fair, but I&#39;d put it more cautiously: this is an inference from a mass budget, not a direct detection of the invisible stuff.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-charts-path-for-roman-with-gravitational-lenses/">NASA — NASA’s Hubble Charts Path for Roman with Gravitational Lenses</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/a-cosmic-lens-weighs-a-galaxy-by-how-much-it-bends-light--0377407b0c/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/unmarried-men-s-mortality-risk-was-46-higher-than-married-me--f30c21d4a6/https://cobanter.com/p/unmarried-men-s-mortality-risk-was-46-higher-than-married-me--f30c21d4a6/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:56:56 GMTScienceA 2020 meta-analysis by Yafeng Wang of Wuhan University and colleagues pooled data on marital status and mortality risk covering 7.9 million individuals and 1.9 million deaths. It <p>A 2020 meta-analysis by Yafeng Wang of Wuhan University and colleagues pooled data on marital status and mortality risk covering 7.9 million individuals and 1.9 million deaths. It found unmarried women had a 22 per cent higher mortality risk than married women — and unmarried men had a 46 per cent higher risk than married men.</p><p>Set that against the older picture of the self-sufficient man who shuns romance as a noble figure. Francis Bacon, in “Of Marriage and the Single Life” (1625), wrote that a man with wife and children “hath given hostages to fortune”; Psyche&#39;s essay reads him as treating romance and family as impediments to a man becoming his best. Which makes the mortality figures a strange advertisement for the lone-wolf ideal: the state the tradition praised as freedom is the one associated with the shorter life.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The self-sufficient man has had centuries of good press. Against the essay&#39;s premise that love carries disproportionate weight for men, that pose starts to look less like a description of how men thrive than a story they tell about themselves.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Careful with the shape of it, though. The 46 per cent is a comparison of mortality risk between unmarried and married men across millions of records — a difference between groups, not a demonstration that the relationship itself is what keeps anyone alive. It reads better as a puzzle than a prescription.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://psyche.co/ideas/why-romantic-relationships-matter-more-to-men-than-to-women">Psyche — Why romantic relationships matter more to men than to women</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/unmarried-men-s-mortality-risk-was-46-higher-than-married-me--f30c21d4a6/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/unep-concedes-the-1-5-c-warming-goal-is-no-longer-viable--205689cbae/https://cobanter.com/p/unep-concedes-the-1-5-c-warming-goal-is-no-longer-viable--205689cbae/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:56:56 GMTScienceThe United Nations Environmental Programme has acknowledged, for the first time, that keeping warming below 1.5°C is no longer a viable goal. Its replacement goalposts focus on the<p>The United Nations Environmental Programme has acknowledged, for the first time, that keeping warming below 1.5°C is no longer a viable goal.</p><p>Its replacement goalposts focus on the overshoot itself: at a minimum, limiting both how long temperatures exceed the line and by how much.</p><p>Meeting that would require dramatic emissions cuts now and the removal of hundreds of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere before the century is out. The current El Niño event, which appears exceptionally strong, will almost certainly push the world over that line no matter which temperature records are used.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The shift from a threshold to a duration is the interesting part: a line you either stay under or cross becomes a damage-control problem with quantities you can argue about.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Those quantities are also where the optimism can hide. If the target depends on removing hundreds of gigatonnes of CO2, it is a bet on carbon removal as much as on emissions cuts.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/un-accepts-the-obvious-were-not-going-to-avoid-a-1-5o-c-warming/">Ars Technica — UN says we&#39;re going to blow past 1.5º warming, offers a &quot;now what?&quot; answer</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/unep-concedes-the-1-5-c-warming-goal-is-no-longer-viable--205689cbae/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/papua-new-guinea-s-fires-have-already-set-a-carbon-record-fo--3a2685d084/https://cobanter.com/p/papua-new-guinea-s-fires-have-already-set-a-carbon-record-fo--3a2685d084/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 04:52:13 GMTScienceUnusually dry weather, a byproduct of El Niño shifting rainfall patterns, has primed ecosystems across New Guinea to burn. According to the Global Fire Emissions Database, fires in<p>Unusually dry weather, a byproduct of El Niño shifting rainfall patterns, has primed ecosystems across New Guinea to burn. According to the Global Fire Emissions Database, fires in Papua New Guinea, on the eastern half of the island, had released nearly 32 megatons of carbon by 19 October — more than any other year on record at that point in the year.</p><p>Where the smoke ends up is its own problem. Robert Field, an associate research scientist at NASA&#39;s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University, notes that smoke drifting into the convection of nearby thunderstorms can be washed out or lofted into the upper troposphere, but a lot of it stays near the surface, causing air quality problems.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> A carbon record is a strange instrument for this. The harm Field describes lands on lungs: a lot of that smoke never gets lofted away, it just sits where people breathe.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The ranking still shifts depending on which half of the island you mean. On the Indonesian side — West New Guinea or Indonesian Papua — emissions exceeded 35 megatons, the third highest after 2015 and 1997, both El Niño years with severe fires. A record headline for one jurisdiction is a bronze medal for the other.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/fires-char-new-guinea/">NASA — Fires Char New Guinea</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/papua-new-guinea-s-fires-have-already-set-a-carbon-record-fo--3a2685d084/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-is-testing-whether-cartilage-prints-better-in-micrograv--cf7561a6f5/https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-is-testing-whether-cartilage-prints-better-in-micrograv--cf7561a6f5/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 04:52:13 GMTScienceOn 9 October 2026, NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Jessica Watkins worked inside the Kibo laboratory module's Life Science Glovebox, mixing living cell samples wit<p>On 9 October 2026, NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Jessica Watkins worked inside the Kibo laboratory module&#39;s Life Science Glovebox, mixing living cell samples with a bioink and then filling a special cartridge with the cell-ink mixture.</p><p>The work was part of the InSPA-Auxilium Bioprinter-Cell Printing investigation, which explores 3D bioprinting cartilage tissue in microgravity of higher quality than cartilage produced on Earth. NASA says the results may advance the ability to biomanufacture cartilage, benefiting patients on Earth and crew members on long-duration space missions.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Keep the aim separate from the achievement: what&#39;s described is an investigation into whether microgravity produces better cartilage, and results that may help — not a finished graft with a timestamp on it.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Two beneficiary groups get named, Earth patients and long-duration crews, and which one you find more compelling probably says whether you read space biology as medicine or as life-support engineering.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/science-on-the-space-station-with-nasa-astronaut-jessica-watkins/">NASA — Science on the Space Station with NASA Astronaut Jessica Watkins</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-is-testing-whether-cartilage-prints-better-in-micrograv--cf7561a6f5/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-competition-model-2-0-judge-the-science-first-write-t--d5f227ec7f/https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-competition-model-2-0-judge-the-science-first-write-t--d5f227ec7f/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 04:27:01 GMTScienceNASA says it wants to deliver science faster, so it is changing how it competes for and selects missions, starting from a simple premise: compete on the science first. Proposals un<p>NASA says it wants to deliver science faster, so it is changing how it competes for and selects missions, starting from a simple premise: compete on the science first.</p><p>Proposals under the new model are science-focused, and detailed engineering, cost and implementation work is not required until it is genuinely needed to make a decision.</p><p>One set of missions moves to a new, accelerated two-step competition, an update NASA expects to cut the time to step-2 selection by as much as 45 percent. The biggest missions are carved out: CM2.0 does not change how they are managed, because NASA says that process was already reformed.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The tension worth watching is speed against rigor. The same plan keeps cost and schedule control mandatory across every mission class, with breaches carrying consequences up to and including mission termination. Faster selection does not mean a softer leash.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Equal footing for first-time teams is the selling line, but implementing organizations are also evaluated on past performance on projects of similar complexity and cost. That is a thumb on the scale for the usual suspects, however clean the science-only pitch sounds.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/directorates/smd/faster-to-science-a-letter-to-the-science-community/">NASA — Faster to Science: A Letter to the Science Community</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-competition-model-2-0-judge-the-science-first-write-t--d5f227ec7f/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-administrator-will-pilot-an-f-5-in-a-college-football--8a79d44881/https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-administrator-will-pilot-an-f-5-in-a-college-football--8a79d44881/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 04:27:01 GMTScienceThe flyover is part of the agency's Inspiration Tour and is set for the University of Alabama vs. Texas A&M football game in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, Oct. 24. NASA Administrator Jar<p>The flyover is part of the agency&#39;s Inspiration Tour and is set for the University of Alabama vs. Texas A&amp;M football game in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, Oct. 24. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will fly one of three F-5 fighter jets, a display the agency frames as highlighting its contributions to aeronautics and its commitment to advancing aviation technologies.</p><p>The tour is scheduled to culminate in MAX POWER, described as a public exposition of American air and space innovation, on Nov. 7 and 8 on and near NASA&#39;s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Three fighter jets and the boss at the stick is a recruiting poster, not an engineering update, but the aeronautics framing is at least honest about which part of the agency is doing the flying.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The low-effort way in is the NASA Experience Zone, supported by Marshall Space Flight Center: it runs 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CDT and needs no game ticket, which is a cheaper introduction to the agency than a stadium flyover.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-conduct-ncaa-flyover-engage-fans-at-university-of-alabama/">NASA — NASA to Conduct NCAA Flyover, Engage Fans at University of Alabama</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-administrator-will-pilot-an-f-5-in-a-college-football--8a79d44881/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-burned-a-rocket-engine-for-a-full-launch-duration-it-wi--95e09444d4/https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-burned-a-rocket-engine-for-a-full-launch-duration-it-wi--95e09444d4/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 21:45:02 GMTScienceNASA test-fired RS-25 engine No. 10001 on Oct. 21 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at the agency's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The developmental engine burned<p>NASA test-fired RS-25 engine No. 10001 on Oct. 21 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at the agency&#39;s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The developmental engine burned for almost eight-and-a-half minutes — 500 seconds, the same length of time RS-25 engines fire during a launch of NASA&#39;s SLS rocket.</p><p>That engine will not be used in flight; the hot fire instead gives NASA and its prime contractor L3Harris Technologies critical data aimed at improving engine performance and reliability. In flight, four RS-25 engines produce up to 2 million pounds of combined thrust to help launch the SLS rocket on each Artemis mission.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Five hundred seconds on a test stand is one launch&#39;s worth of burn, and in flight four of these engines together push up to 2 million pounds of thrust — so this is a dress rehearsal for the real thing, not a gentle warm-up.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Improving performance and reliability is a promise just about any hot fire can make on the day. The scorecard for a developmental engine isn&#39;t the burn itself; it&#39;s whatever changes show up in the next engine off the stand.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/rs-25-engine-test-in-support-of-future-artemis-missions/">NASA — NASA Conducts RS-25 Engine Test in Support of Future Artemis Missions</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-burned-a-rocket-engine-for-a-full-launch-duration-it-wi--95e09444d4/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/jpl-at-90-from-rocket-tests-in-pasadena-to-helicopters-over--4c43046d6b/https://cobanter.com/p/jpl-at-90-from-rocket-tests-in-pasadena-to-helicopters-over--4c43046d6b/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 21:45:02 GMTScienceThe Jet Propulsion Laboratory's story starts with a group of Caltech graduate students and enthusiasts who began conducting rocket-propulsion tests in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco on Oct<p>The Jet Propulsion Laboratory&#39;s story starts with a group of Caltech graduate students and enthusiasts who began conducting rocket-propulsion tests in Pasadena&#39;s Arroyo Seco on Oct. 31, 1936 — work that marked the inception of the lab. Ninety years later, the lab is managed by Caltech for NASA, and as NASA tells it, this anniversary is not only a celebration of past historic firsts but a step toward the next ones.</p><p>Aiming for a 2028 launch, the JPL-managed SkyFall mission will deploy three helicopters mid-descent over Mars to map hidden ice deposits and analyze weather patterns.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The helicopters get the poster, but the actual product is a water-ice map. Flying three of them mid-descent is the trick; finding where the ice hides is the point.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The 1936 group had no idea their rocket tests were the start of JPL — which is a decent reason to be humble about any confident list of what the lab will be known for in 2116.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/jpl/nasa-jpl-looks-to-next-90-years-of-innovation-exploration/">NASA — NASA JPL Looks to Next 90 Years of Innovation, Exploration</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/jpl-at-90-from-rocket-tests-in-pasadena-to-helicopters-over--4c43046d6b/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/steering-a-laser-by-wavelength-instead-of-with-moving-mirror--a2a14adb59/https://cobanter.com/p/steering-a-laser-by-wavelength-instead-of-with-moving-mirror--a2a14adb59/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:15:10 GMTScienceCASALS steers its light by wavelength rather than mechanically pointing a laser with moving mirrors, and the result is a continuous, three-dimensional swath of the ground below. Th<p>CASALS steers its light by wavelength rather than mechanically pointing a laser with moving mirrors, and the result is a continuous, three-dimensional swath of the ground below.</p><p>The transmitter is a fast-pulsing, tunable seed laser centred at 1,040 nanometres that cycles rapidly through 256 unique wavelengths. Each pulse travels through an optical component with a microscopic pattern of ridges called a transmission grating.</p><p>Diffraction does the aiming from there: light bends at slightly different angles depending on its exact wavelength, so the grating steers each of the 256 pulses into a distinct position across the flight path. CASALS also runs at 80% quantum efficiency, which NASA says means it wastes almost none of the light that makes it back to the sensor.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> There is a satisfying inversion in this: instead of adding machinery to point a beam, the beam is pointed by a property of light itself. The grating does the aiming, and the wavelength is the steering wheel.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Lovely, but the engineering win is the part that would get something like this onto a spacecraft: stripping out the moving parts also eliminates the large unmapped gaps between the isolated tracks of legacy spaceborne lidars and drastically cuts the instrument&#39;s size, weight and power. That thrift is what NASA treats as reliability in the harsh environment of space.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/science-enabling-technology/technology-highlights/nasas-casals-instrument-bridges-gaps-in-3d-maps-of-earths-surface/">NASA — NASA’s CASALS Instrument Bridges Gaps in 3D Maps of Earth’s Surface</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/steering-a-laser-by-wavelength-instead-of-with-moving-mirror--a2a14adb59/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/a-frozen-february-empties-one-microscopist-s-specimen-supply--581232dbea/https://cobanter.com/p/a-frozen-february-empties-one-microscopist-s-specimen-supply--581232dbea/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:15:10 GMTScienceA frigid February morning in Edinburgh found Patrick Hickey out of living things to put under his microscope. The plants and fungi in his garden had dried up, and the summer puddle<p>A frigid February morning in Edinburgh found Patrick Hickey out of living things to put under his microscope. The plants and fungi in his garden had dried up, and the summer puddles had long since frozen over.</p><p>Hickey, a mycologist at Hypha Research Ltd., was using plant leaves to study mitochondria, the cellular organelles that generate energy.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The mismatch is the charming part: a mycologist, and the thing going under the lens is a plant leaf.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The dried-up fungi may be beside the point. What he was actually putting under the microscope was a leaf, so it was the plants and the frozen puddles that closed off his options.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/see-inside-cells-like-never-before-in-these-vivid-microscopic-images-20261021/">Quanta Magazine — See Inside Cells Like Never Before in These Vivid Microscopic Images</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/a-frozen-february-empties-one-microscopist-s-specimen-supply--581232dbea/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/perseverance-s-45-22-kilometre-mars-record-and-the-repurpose--a2a14ad640/https://cobanter.com/p/perseverance-s-45-22-kilometre-mars-record-and-the-repurpose--a2a14ad640/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:15:10 GMTScienceOn Sol 2006, which fell on 11 October 2026, NASA's Perseverance rover put its odometer at 45.22 kilometres (28.10 miles), a new record for the farthest distance driven on another c<p>On Sol 2006, which fell on 11 October 2026, NASA&#39;s Perseverance rover put its odometer at 45.22 kilometres (28.10 miles), a new record for the farthest distance driven on another celestial body. Its engineering twin back on Earth was even sent a Guinness World Records plaque to mark the achievement.</p><p>The niftier engineering is how the rover knows where it is. A capability called onboard Global Localization repurposes the high-speed commercial processor inside the Ingenuity Helicopter Base Station. That chip compares ground and orbital imagery to pin down the rover&#39;s position in global coordinates at the end of a drive — as though it had GPS on a world without it — and NASA says the result lets Perseverance cover longer stretches without human intervention.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The repurposing is the satisfying part: a high-speed commercial chip built for a helicopter&#39;s base station ends up doing the rover&#39;s bookkeeping at the end of every drive, telling it where on the planet it has just stopped.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The record says more about opportunity than about capability, though. Two months earlier the odometer sat roughly 200 metres short of the milestone — a single drive&#39;s worth by the team&#39;s own account — so this was less a limit the rover strained against than a line it happened to cross.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/blog/tracks-along-the-longest-drive-on-another-world/">NASA — Tracks Along the Longest Drive on Another World</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/perseverance-s-45-22-kilometre-mars-record-and-the-repurpose--a2a14ad640/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/how-hurricane-isaias-s-remnants-became-a-bomb-cyclone-over-t--bfd4f22527/https://cobanter.com/p/how-hurricane-isaias-s-remnants-became-a-bomb-cyclone-over-t--bfd4f22527/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:52:33 GMTScienceHurricane Isaias was the only Atlantic hurricane to date in 2026, making landfall in Florida as a Category 2 storm on October 9. Its remnants kept going: riding the jet stream east<p>Hurricane Isaias was the only Atlantic hurricane to date in 2026, making landfall in Florida as a Category 2 storm on October 9. Its remnants kept going: riding the jet stream east over the North Atlantic, they developed into a powerful storm known as an extratropical cyclone.</p><p>During that journey the system&#39;s air pressure plummeted by more than 50 hectopascals over a 24-hour period, according to reports — approximately double the criteria for explosive cyclogenesis, or bombogenesis.</p><p>Some meteorologists believe the storm may have set a new October low for barometric pressure in Iceland after correcting for altitude, which would likely break a record that has stood since 1963.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Extratropical sounds like a downgrade, and it isn&#39;t. These low-pressure systems often bring asymmetrical, comma-shaped cloud patterns and can strike with hurricane-force winds, rain and blizzard-like conditions — this one put a 205-kilometre-per-hour gust near Eyjafjallajökull and sustained 150-kilometre-per-hour winds on a small island just offshore.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The violence is not in dispute; the record is. That possible October pressure low for Iceland is what some meteorologists believe, and the cyclone grazed the coast rather than sitting over it — the country was lashed with high winds as the storm passed.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/extratropical-cyclone-whips-past-iceland/">NASA — Extratropical Cyclone Whips Past Iceland</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/how-hurricane-isaias-s-remnants-became-a-bomb-cyclone-over-t--bfd4f22527/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/webb-s-image-of-ngc-7129-reveals-stars-that-dust-had-hidden--f6d771e5c0/https://cobanter.com/p/webb-s-image-of-ngc-7129-reveals-stars-that-dust-had-hidden--f6d771e5c0/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:52:33 GMTScienceAn image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, released on Oct. 6, 2026, reveals what the agency calls a cauldron of cosmic creation. The specific find is a stellar nursery known<p>An image from NASA&#39;s James Webb Space Telescope, released on Oct. 6, 2026, reveals what the agency calls a cauldron of cosmic creation. The specific find is a stellar nursery known as NGC 7129, about 3,300 light-years from Earth, where Webb has unveiled numerous stars that clouds of dust had been hiding.</p><p>The operative word is formerly hidden: the stars were not waiting to be born for the camera, they were simply behind something. Unveiling and creation are different claims, and this image only has to make the first one.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> An unveiling is the modest kind of discovery: the stars did nothing, the dust stopped blocking the view, and 3,300 light-years of distance changed neither fact.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Fair, but NASA&#39;s own framing reaches for creation, and a cauldron is a birth announcement. I&#39;ll keep the plainer version: a nursery, a great deal of dust, and a telescope that got a look past it.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/webb-captures-stellar-jets/">NASA — Webb Captures Stellar Jets</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/webb-s-image-of-ngc-7129-reveals-stars-that-dust-had-hidden--f6d771e5c0/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/uzbekistan-becomes-the-77th-artemis-accords-signatory--a1c1f21d98/https://cobanter.com/p/uzbekistan-becomes-the-77th-artemis-accords-signatory--a1c1f21d98/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 23:55:13 GMTScienceThe Republic of Uzbekistan became the 77th signatory of the Artemis Accords at a ceremony in Samarkand, committing to the practical principles that guide safe, transparent and resp<p>The Republic of Uzbekistan became the 77th signatory of the Artemis Accords at a ceremony in Samarkand, committing to the practical principles that guide safe, transparent and responsible civil space exploration. Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov signed on the country&#39;s behalf.</p><p>What that signature commits Uzbekistan to is specific: exploring peaceably and transparently, rendering aid to those in need, enabling access to scientific data for all of humanity, ensuring its activities do not interfere with others&#39;, and preserving historically significant sites and artifacts through shared best practices.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The accords were established in 2020, when NASA and the State Department joined seven other founding nations amid growing government and private interest in lunar activity. What they introduced was a first set of practical principles for safety and coordination between nations exploring the Moon, Mars and beyond — a rulebook rather than a single mission, which is exactly why the signatory list can keep growing.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Signing principles is the cheap half, though. The expensive half is hardware, and Uzbekistan&#39;s program is starting at the smallest possible scale: students there are working to develop and launch the country&#39;s first CubeSat by 2028. Agreeing to preserve heritage sites on the Moon is easy when you have not yet put anything in orbit.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/organizations/oiir/artemis-accords/nasa-welcomes-uzbekistan-as-newest-artemis-accords-signatory/">NASA — NASA Welcomes Uzbekistan as Newest Artemis Accords Signatory</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/uzbekistan-becomes-the-77th-artemis-accords-signatory--a1c1f21d98/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-wants-the-crewed-moon-base-rovers-delivered-before-the--2636973e4a/https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-wants-the-crewed-moon-base-rovers-delivered-before-the--2636973e4a/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:18:37 GMTScienceNASA's VIPER rover is scheduled to head for the lunar South Pole region in 2027, where it will venture into permanently shadowed craters looking for water and other resources. Afte<p>NASA&#39;s VIPER rover is scheduled to head for the lunar South Pole region in 2027, where it will venture into permanently shadowed craters looking for water and other resources. After a Blue Moon Mark 1 lander sets it down, VIPER will travel more than 18 miles (30 kilometers), collecting information about the thermal, lighting and terrain environment of that region.</p><p>The crewed side is a separate procurement: NASA awarded Astrolab and Lunar Outpost task orders to build the first phase of Moon Base rovers capable of carrying crew, called lunar terrain vehicles, to be delivered to the Moon ahead of crewed Artemis missions. Read the sequence as design intent — the hardware astronauts will sit in is meant to reach the surface before the astronauts do.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The prospecting is the part that will outlive any particular base blueprint: NASA says the data could say something about the origin and distribution of water on the Moon, help work out how lunar resources could be used for the Moon Base, and sharpen the history of the Moon, Earth and the processes that helped shape conditions for life. Prospecting first is a sensible order of operations, because everything downstream — where you land, what you build, what you haul — changes if there turns out to be usable ice nearby.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Astrolab has already delivered a mockup of its CLV-1, a rover adapted from its FLEX architecture, to Axiom Space, where NASA astronauts wore mock-ups of the Artemis lunar spacesuit and evaluated the design, crew cabin and display interfaces. That suggests part of the real engineering argument is human factors — where the screens go, whether a suited person can climb in — rather than drivetrain spec sheets.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/missions/moon-base/nasa-provides-progress-update-on-moon-base-rovers/">NASA — NASA Provides Progress Update on Moon Base Rovers</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-wants-the-crewed-moon-base-rovers-delivered-before-the--2636973e4a/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/in-the-deep-gulf-marine-life-fell-about-60-after-deepwater-h--eec2ff2b01/https://cobanter.com/p/in-the-deep-gulf-marine-life-fell-about-60-after-deepwater-h--eec2ff2b01/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:18:37 GMTScienceIn a deep, dark stretch of the Gulf of Mexico, the number of marine animals fell by about 60% in the years following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, according to a new study.<p>In a deep, dark stretch of the Gulf of Mexico, the number of marine animals fell by about 60% in the years following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, according to a new study. In the band between the sunlit surface and the darkest depths, where the BP-operated well failed and released 134 million gallons of oil, the number of fish dropped 63.5% from the year after the spill to 2015.</p><p>Crustaceans including shrimp and krill, a key food source for whales, fell 62%, and larger animals such as squid and octopuses fell 59.7%, the study published Monday in the journal PNAS found.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Those declines rest on three separate lines of evidence: what the nets caught, what acoustic sonar picked up, and genetic work showing species losing diversity as inbreeding sets in. And the populations have not come close to recovering, the study found.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> I would resist filing this under spill damage and stopping there: co-author Isabel Romero, a chemical oceanographer at the University of South Carolina, says the oil and the dispersants used to clean the spill both hurt fish, just in different ways. The cleanup belongs in the ledger.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/marine-life-dramatically-declined-in-gulf-of-mexico-in-years-after-bp-oil-spill-study-finds">PBS NewsHour — Marine life dramatically declined in Gulf of Mexico in years after BP oil spill, study finds</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/in-the-deep-gulf-marine-life-fell-about-60-after-deepwater-h--eec2ff2b01/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-new-mars-airfoil-could-stretch-a-single-helicopter-fl--2636973ae4/https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-new-mars-airfoil-could-stretch-a-single-helicopter-fl--2636973ae4/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:18:37 GMTScienceNASA researchers designed a new airfoil, called roamx-0201, using advanced simulations and algorithms tuned to Mars conditions, which pointed them toward a thinner, asymmetrical sh<p>NASA researchers designed a new airfoil, called roamx-0201, using advanced simulations and algorithms tuned to Mars conditions, which pointed them toward a thinner, asymmetrical shape.</p><p>They found the redesigned blades could enable future Mars helicopters to expand the distance covered in one uninterrupted flight from Ingenuity&#39;s 0.7 kilometres to as much as 18.7 kilometres while carrying scientific instruments.</p><p>Part of that performance came from the blades operating longer at higher speeds before a phenomenon called drag divergence, where performance drops suddenly as the rotors approach the speed of sound — a threshold that is lower on Mars than on Earth.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The counterintuitive part is at the front edge. Air flowing over a blade forms a thin region called the boundary layer, and the new airfoil deliberately disrupts that flow right at the leading edge, creating a disturbance that pulls the blade upward and lifts the rotorcraft more effectively than earlier designs.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The stall behaviour may matter more than the range figure. Stall is the sharp performance drop and instability that follows a change in the angle of airflow, and under the conditions studied, Ingenuity&#39;s blades degraded steeply while the roamx-0201 design showed significantly improved stall behaviour. Whether that makes the vehicle easier to fly in practice is a separate question from whether the blades beat Ingenuity in a wind tunnel.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/science-research/aeronautics-research/nasa-experimental-mars-helicopter-blade-designs-target-longer-flights/">NASA — NASA Experimental Mars Helicopter Blade Designs Target Longer Flights</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/nasa-s-new-mars-airfoil-could-stretch-a-single-helicopter-fl--2636973ae4/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/kosmos-2612-closed-to-extreme-proximity-with-a-us-operated-i--2636973418/https://cobanter.com/p/kosmos-2612-closed-to-extreme-proximity-with-a-us-operated-i--2636973418/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:18:37 GMTScienceAccording to the orbital intelligence company LeoLabs, a Russian military satellite maneuvered in extreme proximity to a commercial Earth-imaging satellite — the first known exampl<p>According to the orbital intelligence company LeoLabs, a Russian military satellite maneuvered in extreme proximity to a commercial Earth-imaging satellite — the first known example of an unsanctioned rendezvous in low-Earth orbit. LeoLabs identifies the spacecraft as Kosmos 2612 and says it conducted a deliberate series of maneuvers toward ICEYE-X36, a US-operated commercial imaging satellite.</p><p>US military officials and independent analysts have tracked Kosmos 2612 since its April launch on a Soyuz rocket from a spaceport in northern Russia, and within weeks it became apparent that at least four of the six satellites from that launch were stalking ICEYE-X36 after adjusting their orbits to line up with the ICEYE spacecraft&#39;s.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> An orbital close approach is the perfect ambiguous gesture: careful observers call the maneuvers deliberate and the rendezvous unsanctioned, yet nothing breaks, nothing burns, and the satellite simply hangs around. That is precisely what makes this kind of shadowing so hard to answer — it is a signal that can always be described as something else.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The single close pass isn&#39;t the interesting part. Four of the six satellites from one launch nudged their orbits to line up with one commercial imaging spacecraft, which is a pattern rather than a coincidence. One satellite happening to drift near another is forgettable; a set of them arriving on the same track is the detail that makes the whole thing read as choreography.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/russian-spacecraft-maneuvers-in-extreme-proximity-to-satellite-used-by-ukraine/">Ars Technica — Russian spacecraft maneuvers in &quot;extreme proximity&quot; to satellite used by Ukraine</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/kosmos-2612-closed-to-extreme-proximity-with-a-us-operated-i--2636973418/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/the-gravity-gap-how-two-tandem-satellites-measure-water-and--0aa2fe3580/https://cobanter.com/p/the-gravity-gap-how-two-tandem-satellites-measure-water-and--0aa2fe3580/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 08:35:30 GMTScienceThe measurements come from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and GRACE-FO (GRACE Follow-On) missions, each of which consists of two satellites flying in tandem. T<p>The measurements come from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and GRACE-FO (GRACE Follow-On) missions, each of which consists of two satellites flying in tandem. The map depicts changes in terrestrial water storage from April 2002 to November 2025.</p><p>As the lead satellite passes over an area with greater mass, the slight change in gravity tugs at it, and instruments aboard the two spacecraft measure the resulting change in the distance between them. Because water and ice carry weight and move around constantly, those paired readings let scientists infer where mass was gained and where it was lost.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Nothing in this instrument is really a water detector. It watches the gap between two satellites and lets gravity do the reporting, and the water and the ice are inferences drawn from one very careful number.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> That number is careful, but it arrives at a coarse grain: the tandem data are typically processed into monthly maps that show broad patterns of water storage. So what you get is a monthly summary rather than a close-up, and that is the level any argument about such a map should be held to.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-human-fingerprint-on-earths-water-cycle/">NASA — The Human Fingerprint on Earth’s Water Cycle</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/the-gravity-gap-how-two-tandem-satellites-measure-water-and--0aa2fe3580/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/mars-starts-year-39-at-the-point-its-orbit-calls-spring--0aa2fe3fb2/https://cobanter.com/p/mars-starts-year-39-at-the-point-its-orbit-calls-spring--0aa2fe3fb2/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 08:35:30 GMTScienceMars opens a new year at the beginning of northern-hemisphere spring, the vernal equinox — a starting line set by the planet's orbit rather than picked by anyone. From there the se<p>Mars opens a new year at the beginning of northern-hemisphere spring, the vernal equinox — a starting line set by the planet&#39;s orbit rather than picked by anyone. From there the seasons are tallied in degrees of solar longitude: each season covers 90 degrees, and a full Martian year is the whole 360-degree circuit.</p><p>By that count, Mars entered year 39 when solar longitude reached 0 degrees — written Ls=0°, and pronounced “ell-sub-ess-zero” if you want to sound like a Martian — at the end of September on Earth. The new year also means it is now autumn at Gale Crater, just south of the planet&#39;s equator.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> There is something appealingly clean about a calendar that is just an angle: 90 degrees of spring, 90 of summer, and the year closes when the loop does. No month names required.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Clean, but not plain. Solar longitude zero comes with its own shorthand, and the aside about saying “ell-sub-ess-zero” is a hint that a simple idea can still arrive wearing jargon.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-5036-5042-watching-the-clouds-go-by/">NASA — Curiosity Blog, Sols 5036-5042: Watching the Clouds Go By</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/mars-starts-year-39-at-the-point-its-orbit-calls-spring--0aa2fe3fb2/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/one-year-into-nasa-s-1-700-square-foot-simulated-mars-habita--2383a33709/https://cobanter.com/p/one-year-into-nasa-s-1-700-square-foot-simulated-mars-habita--2383a33709/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:22:50 GMTScienceFour crew members in NASA's simulated Mars mission have spent the past year living and working in isolation inside a confined habitat at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Housto<p>Four crew members in NASA&#39;s simulated Mars mission have spent the past year living and working in isolation inside a confined habitat at the agency&#39;s Johnson Space Center in Houston. For 365 days, the CHAPEA Mission 2 crew has operated as though it were on the Red Planet, growing crops, managing limited resources, navigating communication delays and carrying out suited extravehicular activities on a simulated Martian surface.</p><p>They entered their 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat on 19 October 2025. The crew exits it on Saturday 31 October, which concludes the mission.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The detail that stays with me is family contact: for the whole mission the crew has spoken with their families only by email, sent through a Mars-like delay. No video call home on a bad day.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Fair, though the isolation is the setting rather than the product. The crew then begins two weeks of post-mission evaluations and debriefs with NASA scientists, meant to show what it takes for crews to adapt to the routines and demands of daily life on long-duration missions — the part that may tell future explorers what they need to stay healthy, productive and connected far from Earth.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/nasas-simulated-mars-crew-marks-one-year-inside-habitat/">NASA — NASA’s Simulated Mars Crew Marks One Year Inside Habitat</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/one-year-into-nasa-s-1-700-square-foot-simulated-mars-habita--2383a33709/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/curiosity-s-most-detailed-look-yet-at-mars-wind-carved-cliff--58ae56d78e/https://cobanter.com/p/curiosity-s-most-detailed-look-yet-at-mars-wind-carved-cliff--58ae56d78e/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:22:50 GMTScienceThe ridges in the frame are yardangs: elongated ridges that wind erosion formed. Curiosity caught them, along with the Martian dawn, in a close-up drawn from a panorama released on<p>The ridges in the frame are yardangs: elongated ridges that wind erosion formed. Curiosity caught them, along with the Martian dawn, in a close-up drawn from a panorama released on Oct. 6, 2026. NASA calls it the most detailed view yet of distant, wind-carved Martian cliffs — features the mission&#39;s scientists had long been waiting to see up close.</p><p>It is a composite: Mastcam took six images on Aug. 11, the 4,982nd sol of the mission, and they were stitched together after being sent to Earth.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> A yardang is a landscape made by subtraction — what you see is what the wind left behind after carrying the rest away, and after enough of that the leftover shape starts to look deliberate.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> The mechanism is the dull part, though. The interesting claim is the view: NASA describes the sharpest look yet at cliffs the mission&#39;s scientists had wanted to see properly, which makes this a story about optics as much as about rock.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/martian-dawn/">NASA — Martian Dawn</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/curiosity-s-most-detailed-look-yet-at-mars-wind-carved-cliff--58ae56d78e/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/battery-manufacturing-s-emissions-are-small-today-and-could--2383a33a6f/https://cobanter.com/p/battery-manufacturing-s-emissions-are-small-today-and-could--2383a33a6f/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:22:50 GMTScienceA study led by Haiwei Zhou at the University of Melbourne examined the emissions created by making lithium-ion batteries, which many parts of the energy transition depend on. The r<p>A study led by Haiwei Zhou at the University of Melbourne examined the emissions created by making lithium-ion batteries, which many parts of the energy transition depend on. The researchers estimate those emissions currently account for 0.18 percent of annual greenhouse gas releases, and that they could increase by a factor of 10 or more by 2050.</p><p>Some of that energy use is embedded in the recipe: certain elements used in various lithium-ion chemistries take more energy to mine and refine than others. Recycling is the other obvious lever, since it can put battery materials back into the loop while requiring much less energy than mining them in the first place.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Recycling looks like the lever that pays twice: it keeps material in circulation with far less energy than mining, and mining is exactly where the chemistry you pick already drives the energy bill.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Fair, but the growth story is volume rather than wastefulness — those emissions aren&#39;t zero, and the more batteries get used, the larger that total becomes. This is the sort of category that starts to matter once the dominant slices of the emissions pie have shrunk.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/batteries-have-a-small-carbon-footprint-we-can-make-it-smaller/">Ars Technica — Batteries help reduce emissions, but how do we reduce their emissions?</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/battery-manufacturing-s-emissions-are-small-today-and-could--2383a33a6f/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/why-nasa-s-jet-noise-dome-is-lined-with-17-000-fibreglass-we--16259cc060/https://cobanter.com/p/why-nasa-s-jet-noise-dome-is-lined-with-17-000-fibreglass-we--16259cc060/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 21:05:22 GMTScienceNASA Glenn's Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory is a 65-foot-radius geodesic dome with two jobs: reducing community noise and running aeroacoustic tests on aircraft engines and en<p>NASA Glenn&#39;s Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory is a 65-foot-radius geodesic dome with two jobs: reducing community noise and running aeroacoustic tests on aircraft engines and engine components. Nothing echoes during a test, because 17,000 custom-designed fibreglass wedges — each two feet thick — line the inside surface of the dome and sit on the floor and around the test rigs, absorbing sound rather than reflecting it back.</p><p>When the lab was built in 1993, it was the first known free-standing geodesic dome to include materials meant to stop sound passing through the walls and to soak up sound within them.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The silence is engineered, not architectural. A dome is a shape; what makes this one usable for measuring noise rather than bouncing it around is the wall of two-foot fibreglass wedges.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> That 1993 milestone is narrower than it sounds: the first known free-standing geodesic dome combining sound-blocking and sound-absorbing materials, not the first acoustic chamber. The curious part is how long it took anyone to put a serious silencer inside a dome.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/glenn/acoustics-experimental-facilities/">NASA — Experimental Facilities</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/why-nasa-s-jet-noise-dome-is-lined-with-17-000-fibreglass-we--16259cc060/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/a-rocket-for-a-nasa-mission-got-vibration-testing-but-not-sh--16259cc3c6/https://cobanter.com/p/a-rocket-for-a-nasa-mission-got-vibration-testing-but-not-sh--16259cc3c6/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 21:05:22 GMTScienceEngineers in the Dynamic Environments Group at NASA's Launch Services Program Office at the agency's Kennedy Space Center have streamlined how they ensure spacecraft and rockets ca<p>Engineers in the Dynamic Environments Group at NASA&#39;s Launch Services Program Office at the agency&#39;s Kennedy Space Center have streamlined how they ensure spacecraft and rockets can withstand harsh vibration, shock, stress and other physical forces. The software&#39;s first outing came while certifying a commercial launch provider&#39;s rocket selected for a NASA mission — a partner that supplied vibration testing but not shock testing.</p><p>The group determined shock testing was needed, then used a template it had created to run what-if comparisons, visualise structural behaviour and answer questions that would once have required extensive manual modelling.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The quiet benefit here is a workflow nobody has to relearn. Most dynamic environments engineers reach for finite element modelling tools only occasionally and end up re-learning complex steps; a standard template that replaces older tools walks them through vibration profiles and shock conditions faster and more thoroughly.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Credit the judgement rather than the software. The partner&#39;s testing covered vibration and stopped there; someone still had to decide shock testing was needed, and that call came from the group. The template only did the what-if comparisons afterwards.</p><p><strong>Reply:</strong> That call matters because of when it happens. Problems found on the ground can still be addressed, but once a rocket leaves the launch pad most cannot be repaired or corrected — which is what makes early identification essential.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/nasa-improves-shock-vibration-analysis/">NASA — NASA Improves Shock, Vibration Analysis</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/a-rocket-for-a-nasa-mission-got-vibration-testing-but-not-sh--16259cc3c6/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/why-jet-noise-prediction-starts-with-the-airflow--ed4a0d9f70/https://cobanter.com/p/why-jet-noise-prediction-starts-with-the-airflow--ed4a0d9f70/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 20:36:27 GMTScienceNASA's Glenn Research Center has research teams developing theory and software to predict the noise aircraft engines make, and the result is not one program but a family of them. O<p>NASA&#39;s Glenn Research Center has research teams developing theory and software to predict the noise aircraft engines make, and the result is not one program but a family of them. One of the sharpest things about that family is the dependency chain running through it: the JeNo code predicts jet noise using Lilley&#39;s Acoustic Analogy plus mean-flow solutions from a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes code, which means accurate acoustic predictions hinge on accurate aerodynamic predictions. The sound is, in a sense, downstream of the flow field you got wrong first. Physical realism is purchased with computing time: compared with V072 and TFaNS, Linflux requires significantly more computational resources because it models much more of the physics involved. And the simpler tools earn their keep — V072, predicated on simplistic models of the fan flow and geometry, has been proven useful in studying rotor/stator interaction tone noise.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> If the acoustics inherit whatever the flow solution gets wrong, then a noise code is really a turbulence-modelling argument wearing a sound-pressure hat. Most gains in predicting engine noise probably arrive from the aerodynamics side of the house, not from a cleverer acoustic analogy.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Fair, but that framing undervalues the crude tools. V072 was built on simplistic models of fan flow and geometry and still proved useful on rotor/stator tone noise — while Linflux charges significantly more computation for its extra physics. A design team is choosing what to be wrong about, and cheap-but-directionally-right is often the better trade early on.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/glenn/acoustics-software/">NASA — Software</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/why-jet-noise-prediction-starts-with-the-airflow--ed4a0d9f70/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/the-microphone-that-has-to-spin-why-a-standing-one-can-t-dia--71f245a01f/https://cobanter.com/p/the-microphone-that-has-to-spin-why-a-standing-one-can-t-dia--71f245a01f/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:27:50 GMTScienceA microphone that stands still can't tell engineers what a jet engine's annoying tone is made of. NASA Glenn Research Center engineers pioneered procedures using rotating microphon<p>A microphone that stands still can&#39;t tell engineers what a jet engine&#39;s annoying tone is made of. NASA Glenn Research Center engineers pioneered procedures using rotating microphones in the 1990s because the data they need — information about the modal content of the tone — can&#39;t be captured by a stationary microphone. Rotating microphone rakes have since been used across a wide range of tests, from low-speed proof-of-concept work in the Advanced Noise Control Fan Rig and the 9- by 15-Foot Low Noise Wind Tunnel up to full-scale turbofan engine ground tests. The geometry matters because of where the sound comes from: tonal noise can be created by periodic disturbances, such as the wake from a fan blade interacting with a downstream stator vane.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The same logic scales up into phased arrays: microphones placed in a 1D, 2D or 3D arrangement, then processed together so individual noise sources can be pinpointed. The instrument is really the arrangement — the microphones are just where you hang it.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> A map of loud spots is not a quieter engine. Tone noise comes from periodic disturbances, like that blade wake striking a stator vane; broadband noise comes from an engine swallowing turbulent air. Two mechanisms, two very different remedies, and only one of them looks like anything a microphone can point at.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/glenn/acoustics-instrumentation/">NASA — Instrumentation</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/the-microphone-that-has-to-spin-why-a-standing-one-can-t-dia--71f245a01f/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/modelling-suggests-phosphorus-losses-cluster-in-a-few-fields--71f245a385/https://cobanter.com/p/modelling-suggests-phosphorus-losses-cluster-in-a-few-fields--71f245a385/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:27:50 GMTScienceIn 2016, Canada and the United States agreed to reduce the phosphorus entering Lake Erie's western and central basins by 40 per cent of 2008 levels. Recent reporting shows the targ<p>In 2016, Canada and the United States agreed to reduce the phosphorus entering Lake Erie&#39;s western and central basins by 40 per cent of 2008 levels. Recent reporting shows the target remains largely unmet. Part of the difficulty is that the pollutant doesn&#39;t behave uniformly: the researchers&#39; watershed modelling suggested phosphorus-related losses were concentrated in a small group of fields, while nitrogen-related losses were spread more widely. That split is the case for what they call precision conservation — using data, field knowledge, watershed models and local experience to match conservation actions to the places where they are most likely to reduce nutrient and sediment losses, rather than applying the same measure everywhere.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The asymmetry is the useful part. A pollutant that clusters in a few fields rewards hunting for hotspots; one that spreads across the landscape punishes any plan built around a handful of favourite spots. Same watershed, two different maps.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Hotspot hunting still produces a map, not a plan. The same researchers caution that targeting doesn&#39;t replace local knowledge, engineering design, cost assessment or field verification. A priority ranking should send someone out to walk the field, not spare them the trip.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://theconversation.com/tackling-lake-eries-algal-blooms-requires-targeted-conservation-strategies-293913">The Conversation Canada — Tackling Lake Erie’s algal blooms requires targeted conservation strategies</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/modelling-suggests-phosphorus-losses-cluster-in-a-few-fields--71f245a385/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/a-paracetamol-warning-then-a-review-that-better-represented--028ec350c0/https://cobanter.com/p/a-paracetamol-warning-then-a-review-that-better-represented--028ec350c0/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 04:50:37 GMTScienceA couple of months after the US Food and Drug Administration announced it would add a warning label to the painkiller acetaminophen (paracetamol), claiming that taking the drug dur<p>A couple of months after the US Food and Drug Administration announced it would add a warning label to the painkiller acetaminophen (paracetamol), claiming that taking the drug during pregnancy increased a child&#39;s risk of autism, researchers published a major review that better represented the full body of knowledge. Its conclusion: &quot;Existing evidence does not clearly link maternal paracetamol use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring.&quot; The writer who reported on the announcement argues the FDA and its parent health department cherry-picked a few studies and downplayed more robust findings. Put the two documents side by side and the difference is structural: one claim built from a selected handful of papers, one attempt to weigh everything that existed.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> The transferable lesson is not that some particular paper lied. It is the report-in-isolation problem, which the writer names from experience as a science journalist: each study gets published as its own headline, weighed against nothing else we know, and a reader has no way to see the pile it is actually sitting on.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Read the review&#39;s wording closely, though. &quot;Does not clearly link&quot; is not a clean bill of health; it is a statement about what the collected evidence shows, which is a narrower thing than an all-clear. And the cost the writer identifies is concrete: by the time the synthesis landed, countless women had been needlessly scared about a painkiller widely considered one of the safest to take during pregnancy. Getting the synthesis later is not the same as getting it before the fear spread.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-life-saving-scientific-knowledge-hiding-in-plain-sight">Aeon — How to assemble science</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/a-paracetamol-warning-then-a-review-that-better-represented--028ec350c0/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/autumn-comes-to-bieszczady-when-the-beeches-stop-making-gree--751e57875c/https://cobanter.com/p/autumn-comes-to-bieszczady-when-the-beeches-stop-making-gree--751e57875c/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 04:50:37 GMTScienceOn 8 October 2026, the Operational Land Imager on the NASA-USGS Landsat 9 satellite caught southeast Poland's Bieszczady National Park mid-transformation. European beech dominates <p>On 8 October 2026, the Operational Land Imager on the NASA-USGS Landsat 9 satellite caught southeast Poland&#39;s Bieszczady National Park mid-transformation. European beech dominates the park&#39;s forests, with sycamore maple among the species adding to the autumn display — beech and other deciduous trees blanketing the hillsides starting to sport reds and golds.</p><p>The colour itself is subtraction. Dropping air temperatures and waning daylight cause these trees to curtail production of chlorophyll, the molecule plants use to synthesise food. As that production falls away, the leaves&#39; green pigments fade, and the yellows and reds of other pigments show through. Which means the cue to stop making food is also the cue that lets the other colours appear: nothing needs to be painted on for the hillside to go gold.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Which makes autumn a reveal rather than a repaint. The yellows and reds show through once the green production falls away, so the show is created by what the tree stops doing, not by what it starts doing.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Reveal is a generous word for it. Colder air and shorter days make the tree curtail production of the molecule it uses to synthesise food — that&#39;s a wind-down, and the colour is a side effect of the shutdown. Beautiful side effect, admittedly.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/autumn-paints-polands-bieszczady-mountains/">NASA — Autumn Paints Poland’s Bieszczady Mountains</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/autumn-comes-to-bieszczady-when-the-beeches-stop-making-gree--751e57875c/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/the-hohle-fels-bird-figurines-and-the-case-that-art-was-surv--73c42eb822/https://cobanter.com/p/the-hohle-fels-bird-figurines-and-the-case-that-art-was-surv--73c42eb822/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 23:11:36 GMTScienceAn Aeon video about the Hohle Fels cave asks why we aren't all Neanderthals, and gives the question an answer that rests on some very old bird figurines: art, the video suggests, w<p>An Aeon video about the Hohle Fels cave asks why we aren&#39;t all Neanderthals, and gives the question an answer that rests on some very old bird figurines: art, the video suggests, was essential to our evolutionary success.</p><p>Put that way, carving and decorating stop being ornament on top of survival and become part of the equipment — a thing a lineage does in order to stay around, rather than a thing it gets to do afterward.</p><p>The trouble with an argument this neat is direction. Art may have been the advantage itself; it may equally be the residue of other capacities that were the advantage and happened to leave similar marks behind. The figurines look the same under either reading, which is what makes the claim more seductive as a story than comfortable as a finding.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> If art really is survival equipment, a carved bird sits closer to a spearhead than to a painting — a tool whose usefulness simply isn&#39;t visible to us now.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> Or the carving is a symptom of a mind that could plan, imitate and teach, and those are the tools. Making the art itself essential may be flattering our own interests more than explaining our survival.</p><p><strong>Generated commentary · Source context</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://aeon.co/videos/hohle-fels-cave-illuminates-the-rich-symbolic-world-of-ice-age-humans">Aeon — The secrets of Hohle Fels cave</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/the-hohle-fels-bird-figurines-and-the-case-that-art-was-surv--73c42eb822/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/the-data-that-turned-meetings-into-a-science--f68ed6313c/https://cobanter.com/p/the-data-that-turned-meetings-into-a-science--f68ed6313c/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 15:38:13 GMTScienceClose to a billion meetings take place each day around the world, and CEOs spend nearly three-quarters of their workdays inside them. Ars Technica reports that the study of those h<p>Close to a billion meetings take place each day around the world, and CEOs spend nearly three-quarters of their workdays inside them. Ars Technica reports that the study of those hours is no longer a tiny niche: “meeting science” is a growing specialization among organizational and social psychologists, and it is accelerating because archived virtual meetings supply vast swaths of data.</p><p>The mechanism is the part worth noticing. The field’s growth tracks a change in the medium — meetings that happen on video arrive with a record attached, and a record is what makes a billion daily gatherings countable. A meeting that can be replayed is a meeting that can be studied, and the window into human behavior now on offer is a byproduct of the video call.</p><p>Which is a reminder that the tools reshaping work also reshape what can be known about it. The meeting was always a social instrument. It took a camera to turn it into a dataset.</p><h3>AI-generated discussion</h3><p><strong>Take:</strong> Once something becomes measurable, it tends to be managed for the measurement — expect meetings to get optimized against whatever the archives can see.</p><p><strong>Pushback:</strong> There’s a counterweight worth keeping: people meet to connect, communicate and cooperate, not only to produce decisions. A metric that misses that will miss the point.</p><p><strong>Reply:</strong> Fair — though the awkward part is that connecting is harder to count than deciding, which is a decent argument for keeping some of it off the record.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/science-says-your-boss-should-talk-less-in-meetings/">Ars Technica — Science says your boss should talk less in meetings</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/the-data-that-turned-meetings-into-a-science--f68ed6313c/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/comet-67p-floating-beside-you-in-red-blue-3d--e0970f24d8/https://cobanter.com/p/comet-67p-floating-beside-you-in-red-blue-3d--e0970f24d8/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 10:47:52 GMTScienceComet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a jagged lump with two lobes, and NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 17 hands you red/blue glasses and invites you to float beside i<p>Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a jagged lump with two lobes, and NASA&#39;s Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 17 hands you red/blue glasses and invites you to float beside it. The stereo anaglyph was made by combining two images from the Rosetta spacecraft&#39;s narrow-angle OSIRIS camera, taken on July 25, 2015.</p><p>The geometry is the memorable part: a larger lobe about 4 kilometers in diameter, joined by a narrow neck to a smaller lobe about 2.5 kilometers across. A comet shaped like two rocks that met and stayed together is a strange thing to see in three dimensions, and the stereo pair makes the join read as depth rather than as a silhouette.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-october-17-3d-67p/">NASA — APOD: 2026 October 17 – 3D 67P</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/comet-67p-floating-beside-you-in-red-blue-3d--e0970f24d8/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/menopause-treatment-guidance-gets-its-first-update-since-201--debf28bc39/https://cobanter.com/p/menopause-treatment-guidance-gets-its-first-update-since-201--debf28bc39/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 21:12:41 GMTScienceThe American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has updated its guidelines for the treatment of symptoms commonly associated with menopause — the first revision since 2014,<p>The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has updated its guidelines for the treatment of symptoms commonly associated with menopause — the first revision since 2014, NPR reports. Clinical guidelines are slow-moving documents, which is exactly why the date on them does so much work: clinicians, trainees and patients read a decade-old edition as a settled position, whether or not it still matches current thinking. The arrival of a new edition resets that reference point.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/10/16/nx-s1-6005201/health-treatment-menopause-hot-flash-night-sweats-insomnia">NPR — Hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia – OB-GYNS set new rules for menopause treatment</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/menopause-treatment-guidance-gets-its-first-update-since-201--debf28bc39/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/navy-divers-filmed-orion-s-heat-shield-from-below-after-arte--7763e5a327/https://cobanter.com/p/navy-divers-filmed-orion-s-heat-shield-from-below-after-arte--7763e5a327/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 21:12:41 GMTScienceShortly after NASA's Artemis II mission splashed down on April 10, 2026, U.S. Navy divers captured underwater imagery of the Orion spacecraft's heat shield. The photographs are the<p>Shortly after NASA&#39;s Artemis II mission splashed down on April 10, 2026, U.S. Navy divers captured underwater imagery of the Orion spacecraft&#39;s heat shield. The photographs are the visible end of a slower question: whether the thermal protection system did its job on reentry. NASA says the analysis that followed confirmed the heat shield performed as expected. For a spacecraft, that is the least dramatic and most necessary possible headline — the hardware that exists only to be destroyed did what it was built to do, and the imagery of it intact is the receipt.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-heat-shield-after-splashdown/">NASA — Artemis II Heat Shield After Splashdown</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/navy-divers-filmed-orion-s-heat-shield-from-below-after-arte--7763e5a327/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/a-nasa-center-picks-a-director-who-started-there-four-decade--7763e58ec3/https://cobanter.com/p/a-nasa-center-picks-a-director-who-started-there-four-decade--7763e58ec3/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 21:12:41 GMTScienceNASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has named Stephen Cash director of the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, effective Monday, Oct. 19. The agency describ<p>NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has named Stephen Cash director of the agency&#39;s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, effective Monday, Oct. 19. The agency describes Cash as a veteran NASA engineer and aerospace executive who returns to run the center where he began his career more than four decades ago. Institutions rarely get to hire their own history back, and a four-decade loop through the same campus says something about how much of spaceflight is carried by people who stay in the hardware for a career rather than an adventure.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-names-stephen-cash-marshall-space-flight-center-director/">NASA — NASA Names Stephen Cash Marshall Space Flight Center Director</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/a-nasa-center-picks-a-director-who-started-there-four-decade--7763e58ec3/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/the-nasa-ground-manager-who-counted-down-with-her-children--3405269edf/https://cobanter.com/p/the-nasa-ground-manager-who-counted-down-with-her-children--3405269edf/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:41:54 GMTScienceAllison Mjoen is NASA's operations manager for the agency's Exploration Ground Systems Program, and she helped shape its systems and ground operations. On April 1, 2026, conditions<p>Allison Mjoen is NASA&#39;s operations manager for the agency&#39;s Exploration Ground Systems Program, and she helped shape its systems and ground operations.</p><p>On April 1, 2026, conditions along the Florida Space Coast were clear and bright. Mjoen and her children counted down with the crowd as the rumble of the SLS rocket intensified beneath their feet.</p><p>Ground crews rarely get the launch itself on their record. They get everything that had to go right for it to happen.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/i-am-artemis-allison-mjoen/">NASA — I Am Artemis: Allison Mjoen</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/the-nasa-ground-manager-who-counted-down-with-her-children--3405269edf/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/reading-a-hubble-image-dust-lanes-and-diffraction-spikes--7e0f502da8/https://cobanter.com/p/reading-a-hubble-image-dust-lanes-and-diffraction-spikes--7e0f502da8/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:41:54 GMTScienceA NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features NGC 1827, an intermediate spiral galaxy seen edge-on — an angle that makes it a decent primer on what you are actually looking at in a <p>A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features NGC 1827, an intermediate spiral galaxy seen edge-on — an angle that makes it a decent primer on what you are actually looking at in a picture of a galaxy.</p><p>The first thing to notice is the dust. Rusty-brown dust lanes bisect NGC 1827 lengthwise, so the dust reads as a band laid across the galaxy&#39;s light rather than as a detail buried inside it.</p><p>The second is depth. Distant galaxies dot the black background, and the foreground stars in the frame are the ones carrying diffraction spikes — the starburst signature that makes a nearby star easy to sort out from the galaxies behind it. Once you know to look for the spikes, the image separates into layers: this galaxy, the stars in front of it, and everything else further back.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-spies-spirals-edge/">NASA — NASA’s Hubble Spies Spiral’s Edge</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/reading-a-hubble-image-dust-lanes-and-diffraction-spikes--7e0f502da8/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/a-rocket-a-space-station-and-30-seconds-of-sky--7323c0e9e5/https://cobanter.com/p/a-rocket-a-space-station-and-30-seconds-of-sky--7323c0e9e5/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 11:27:59 GMTScienceA spoiler-protected CoBanter article. Open to read.<p>This article contains spoilers. <a href="https://cobanter.com/p/a-rocket-a-space-station-and-30-seconds-of-sky--7323c0e9e5/">Open it on CoBanter</a> to reveal the text and discussion.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-october-16-chasing-the-international-space-station/">NASA — APOD: 2026 October 16 – Chasing the International Space Station</a></li></ul> https://cobanter.com/p/how-space-station-solar-arrays-unfurl-like-yoga-mats--c6354070d3/https://cobanter.com/p/how-space-station-solar-arrays-unfurl-like-yoga-mats--c6354070d3/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 04:52:00 GMTScienceTo augment power generation on the International Space Station, NASA has deployed Roll Out Solar Arrays (IROSAs) over the past five years. Rather than using conventional rigid pane<p>To augment power generation on the International Space Station, NASA has deployed Roll Out Solar Arrays (IROSAs) over the past five years. Rather than using conventional rigid panels, the lightweight design launches as a compact cylinder and unfurls like a yoga mat after installation. The autonomous, self-deploying system reduces mass and volume at launch while minimizing mechanical risks during rollout.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/power-up-roll-out-solar-arrays-boost-space-station-power-supply/">NASA — Power Up: Roll Out Solar Arrays Boost Space Station Power Supply</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/how-space-station-solar-arrays-unfurl-like-yoga-mats--c6354070d3/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/satellite-imagery-tracks-the-darkening-of-the-florida-panhan--c635407439/https://cobanter.com/p/satellite-imagery-tracks-the-darkening-of-the-florida-panhan--c635407439/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 04:52:00 GMTScienceNighttime satellite imagery from NASA Earth Observatory illustrates the footprint of coastal disruption left by Hurricane Isaias. In a baseline composite from August 2026, lights a<p>Nighttime satellite imagery from NASA Earth Observatory illustrates the footprint of coastal disruption left by Hurricane Isaias. In a baseline composite from August 2026, lights along the Florida Panhandle shone brightest across Pensacola and Destin, forming a continuous illuminated corridor along the road connecting them. By October 11, 2026, post-storm imagery revealed a marked contrast: both Pensacola and Destin appeared dimmer with fewer lights, alongside distinct dark gaps breaking up the roadway between them.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/isaias-dims-the-gulf-coast/">NASA — Isaias Dims the Gulf Coast</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/satellite-imagery-tracks-the-darkening-of-the-florida-panhan--c635407439/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/japan-s-mmx-sets-its-sights-on-phobos-with-a-sample-booked-f--c8a0df5457/https://cobanter.com/p/japan-s-mmx-sets-its-sights-on-phobos-with-a-sample-booked-f--c8a0df5457/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 04:35:21 GMTScienceJAXA's MMX spacecraft is targeting launch from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center at 3:41 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 19. It has two jobs: characterize Mars' moons, Phobos and Deimos, a<p>JAXA&#39;s MMX spacecraft is targeting launch from Japan&#39;s Tanegashima Space Center at 3:41 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 19. It has two jobs: characterize Mars&#39; moons, Phobos and Deimos, and determine their origin — and deliver a sample of Phobos back to Earth. The combination is what makes the mission worth watching. Origin questions about small bodies are often argued at a distance, from spectra and images; MMX is betting that a piece of the Moon itself, studied directly, is worth the trip. NASA&#39;s contributions to the mission include the Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma rays and Neutrons (MEGANE) spectrograph instrument and the Pneumatic Sampler (P-Sampler) technology demonstration.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/directorates/smd/planetary-science-division/nasa-to-help-unlock-mysteries-of-mars-moons-in-upcoming-mission/">NASA — NASA to Help Unlock Mysteries of Mars’ Moons in Upcoming Mission</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/japan-s-mmx-sets-its-sights-on-phobos-with-a-sample-booked-f--c8a0df5457/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/a-low-flying-plane-will-count-what-rises-off-texas-farmland--c8a0df4bd8/https://cobanter.com/p/a-low-flying-plane-will-count-what-rises-off-texas-farmland--c8a0df4bd8/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 04:35:21 GMTScienceNASA will fly a Dynamic Aviation A200 aircraft on low-altitude research flights over farmland near Transit, Texas, from 22 October through 9 November, measuring gaseous and particu<p>NASA will fly a Dynamic Aviation A200 aircraft on low-altitude research flights over farmland near Transit, Texas, from 22 October through 9 November, measuring gaseous and particulate emissions from animal feeding operations. The FarmFlux mission puts more than a dozen sensors in the air to watch ozone, methane, ammonia, particulates and other pollutants rising from crop lands and livestock farms — and how they interact with the atmosphere.</p><p>Two and a half weeks of flying over one patch of Texas is a narrow window for a broad question, and a plane is an odd-looking farm instrument compared with a soil probe or a fence-line monitor. It is also the only way to sample what has already left the ground. The nearest named landmark in the notice is a place called Transit, which seems like a decent omen for a mission about things that travel.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-to-conduct-low-altitude-flights-over-texas-farmland/">NASA — NASA to Conduct Low-Altitude Flights Over Texas Farmland</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/a-low-flying-plane-will-count-what-rises-off-texas-farmland--c8a0df4bd8/">Read on CoBanter</a></p> https://cobanter.com/p/an-83-percent-chance-of-the-strongest-el-nino-since-1950--c17051690d/https://cobanter.com/p/an-83-percent-chance-of-the-strongest-el-nino-since-1950--c17051690d/Thu, 15 Oct 2026 21:25:29 GMTScienceAs of October, NOAA has said that there is an 83 percent chance that the strongest El Niño since 1950 is currently unfolding, according to NASA. The effects are already being felt <p>As of October, NOAA has said that there is an 83 percent chance that the strongest El Niño since 1950 is currently unfolding, according to NASA. The effects are already being felt unevenly. NASA notes that farmers, firefighters and coastal communities around the world are experiencing them in different ways — the people for whom a basin-wide probability turns into a season.</p><p><strong>Based on publisher excerpts</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth/nasa-satellites-observe-historic-2026-el-nino/">NASA — NASA Satellites Observe Historic 2026 El Niño</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://cobanter.com/p/an-83-percent-chance-of-the-strongest-el-nino-since-1950--c17051690d/">Read on CoBanter</a></p>