#science
- DeepMind Just Gave Away 350,000 Protein Structures for Free
DeepMind and EMBL-EBI opened a public database of AlphaFold-predicted structures covering nearly half the human proteome.
- RoseTTAFold Just Put Protein Folding on Your Gaming PC
The Baker Lab's RoseTTAFold predicts protein structure in minutes on consumer hardware, landing days after DeepMind's AlphaFold2 paper.
- A New Look at M87's Black Hole — Now With Its Jet
The team behind the first black hole photo has published a new image showing M87*'s particle jet alongside its event horizon shadow.
- Where Does Space Actually Begin? Depends Who You Ask
The Kármán line sits at 100 km, but the US has long used 50 miles for astronaut wings — and that gap is suddenly very relevant.
- Four Months In: Perseverance and Ingenuity Are Still Going Strong
A check-in on NASA's Mars 2020 mission as Perseverance eyes its first rock-coring attempt and Ingenuity keeps flying well past its planned lifespan.
- Astronomers Just Named the Largest Comet Ever Found
Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, spotted in archival survey data, dwarfs any comet we've catalogued and is still 29 AU out.
- Two New Woolly Flying Squirrel Species Just Turned Up in the Himalayas
Genetic and morphological work has split the woolly flying squirrel into three species, a reminder of how much biodiversity is still undocumented.
- Hubble Goes Dark: Inside the Payload Computer Failure
Hubble's payload computer stopped responding on June 13, halting science operations while NASA engineers chase down the fault.
- Ingenuity Isn't a Demo Anymore — It's Perseverance's Scout
Mars helicopter Ingenuity's seventh flight marks its shift from tech demo to an operational aerial scout guiding the Perseverance rover's route.
- NASA Is Finally Going Back to Venus
NASA picked two new Discovery Program missions, VERITAS and DAVINCI+, to head to Venus by roughly 2030.
- Perseverance Starts Its First Real Science Campaign on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover has wrapped its post-landing checkout and begun hunting for signs of ancient life on the floor of Jezero Crater.
- A Phase 3 Trial Just Made the Case for MDMA as Medicine
A new Nature Medicine study found MDMA-assisted talk therapy sharply reduced PTSD symptoms, adding momentum toward eventual FDA approval.
- MOXIE Just Made Oxygen on Mars, and That Changes the Math for Human Spaceflight
Perseverance's MOXIE instrument produced usable oxygen from Mars's CO2 atmosphere, a first step toward in-situ resource use on another planet.
- mRNA Isn't Just a COVID Story Anymore
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are already talking up flu, HIV, and cancer vaccines built on the same rapid mRNA platform.
- The FDA and CDC Just Hit Pause on the J&J Vaccine
US health agencies recommend pausing Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine after six rare blood-clot cases surfaced among nearly 7 million doses.
- The Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Also Built the Amazon
A new fossil pollen study argues the Chicxulub impact didn't just end the dinosaurs — it kicked off the transition to today's Amazon rainforest.
- China's Giant Radio Dish Opens Its Doors to the World
FAST, the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, now accepts observation proposals from scientists outside China.
- Perseverance clears the way for Ingenuity's historic Mars flight
Perseverance dropped Ingenuity's protective debris shield this week, the next step toward the first powered flight attempt on another planet.
- Astronomers reveal what a black hole's magnetic field looks like
The Event Horizon Telescope team released a polarized-light image of M87's black hole, showing magnetic field lines at its edge for the first time.
- Asteroid 2001 FO32 Just Made Its Closest Pass of Earth in Centuries
Near-Earth asteroid 2001 FO32 safely passed Earth today at about 2 million km, giving NASA a rare close-up chance to study it with radar and telescopes.
- Starlink's Satellite Swarm Is Giving Astronomers a Headache
SpaceX keeps launching Starlink satellites weekly, and astronomers say the growing swarm is leaving bright trails across their telescope images.
- One Year of Adaptation: What Software and Science Teams Learned
A year after WHO declared a pandemic, reflecting on which remote-work and rapid-research habits in tech and science are likely to outlast the crisis.
- A Year Into mRNA: What the Fastest Vaccine Platform in History Just Taught Us
Real-world data on Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna's mRNA shots is validating a platform that could reshape vaccines for flu, cancer, and rare disease.
- Perseverance Takes Its First Drive on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover rolled about 6.5 meters across Jezero Crater on March 4, and its landing site now bears a new name.
- Why Jezero Crater Is Mars' Most Interesting Address Right Now
A look at why NASA picked Jezero Crater for Perseverance, and what makes its ancient river delta such a promising place to hunt for past life.
- What's Next for the Mars Fleet: Ingenuity's Helicopter Gambit
With three missions now at Mars, focus shifts to Perseverance's plan to deploy the experimental Ingenuity helicopter this spring.
- Perseverance Sends Home Mars's First Color Pictures and the Sound of Wind
Days after landing in Jezero Crater, Perseverance beamed back color images and the first audio recording of Martian wind.
- Perseverance Sticks the Landing on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover touched down in Jezero Crater today, the most precise Mars landing ever attempted.
- Tianwen-1 Slides Into Mars Orbit, and China Joins a Very Short List
China's Tianwen-1 orbiter-lander-rover mission entered Mars orbit on Feb 10, becoming just the sixth successful arrival at the planet.
- UAE's Hope Probe Enters Mars Orbit, Making History for the Arab World
The UAE's Hope orbiter reached Mars orbit today, making the UAE the first Arab nation to reach another planet.