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Research roundup: 6 cool science stories we almost missed
DOI: Physics of Fluids, 2026. 10.1103/tnxb-ckr5 (About DOIs). Tracking Roman shipwreck repairs Credit: Adriboats © L. Damelet, CNRS/CCJ Credit: Adriboats © L. Damelet, CNRS/CCJ Back in 2016, archaeologists discovered a shipwreck from the Roman Republic, the Ilovik–Paržine 1. The wreck has been the subject of much study of the actual ship, enabling scientists to determine
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Scorpions go terminator mode and reinforce their weapons with metal
One idea the team floats is that zinc and manganese are limited resources, so scorpions can only reinforce the most critical parts of the stingers instead of spreading the metals across their entire exoskeleton. Going deeper into the reasons behind what appears to be a design flaw in an otherwise neatly built stinger is one
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Researchers try to cut the genetic code from 20 to 19 amino acids
That said, the results also show the limits of working with current AI models, largely because, unlike a human, they can’t really explain the process by which they’re making decisions. For example, some of the models made very different suggestions from each other, which the researchers say implies that they are exploring different regions of
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Professional school grads from diverse classes get higher salaries
Even before the Trump administration went to war against DEI and attempts to address historical discrimination, diversity efforts in the US were controversial. A pivotal moment came in 2023, when the Supreme Court ruled that race-based affirmative action programs violated the Constitution. The decision partly rested on universities’ inability to clearly measure the benefits of
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Electrical current might be the key to a better cup of coffee
University of Oregon chemist Christopher Hendon loves his coffee—so much so that studying all the factors that go into creating the perfect cuppa constitutes a significant area of research for him. His latest project: discovering a novel means of measuring the flavor profile of coffee simply by sending an electrical current through a sample beverage.
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Put it in pencil: NASA’s Artemis III mission will launch no earlier than late 2027
Now, it’s looking more like late 2027, at the earliest, for Artemis III. “I’ve received responses from both vendors, both SpaceX and Blue Origin, to meet our needs for a late 2027 rendezvous, docking, and test of the interoperability of both landers in advance of a landing attempt in 2028,” Isaacman said Monday. Both companies
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New robotic control software avoids jamming their joints
Switching from one smartphone to another is mostly a smooth procedure. You log into your accounts and your apps, preferences, and contacts should sync to the new hardware. But in the world of robotics, swapping an old robotic arm for a newer model has meant setting everything up from scratch. To fix that, a team
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Artemis II broke Fred Haise’s distance record, but he is happy to pass it on
The bottom line: Astronauts likely won’t exceed Artemis II’s distance from Earth on most lunar landing missions, but it’s conceivable that on some occasions, circumstances will align to propel a crew a little beyond the 252,756-mile mark. The sure bet will come when someone finally takes aim at Mars. “Big disappointment” Haise, the only Apollo
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This is who’s developing Golden Dome’s orbital interceptors—if they’re ever built
The US Space Force released a list Friday of a dozen companies working on Space-Based Interceptors for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome initiative, a multilayer defense system to shield US territory from drones and ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile attacks. The roster of Golden Dome Space-Based Interceptor (SBI) contractors, some of which were previously reported, includes
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Carbon nanotube wiring gets closer to competing with copper
Shortly after their discovery, carbon nanotubes seemed to be a material wonder. There were metallic and semiconducting forms; they were tiny and incredibly light; and they could only be broken by tearing apart chemical bonds. The ideas for using them seemed endless. But then the reality of working with them set in. It was hard
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