Today's Science Pulse
UK-led study reveals hidden massive star clusters deep inside nearby galaxies
Astronomers using the VLA and ALMA uncovered previously unseen giant star clusters, described as "ring factories," embedded within nearby galaxies. A complementary analysis of roughly 18,000 star‑forming regions showed that the energetic activity of young stars plays a decisive role in shaping galaxy evolution.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Foundation Alloy raises $22M Series A
Green Insect Turns a Puzzling Shade of Hot Pink
In March, a research team on Panama’s Barro Colorado Island documented an adult female katydid (*Arota festae*) that began life with a vivid hot‑pink exoskeleton before fading to the typical green leaf mimicry. Over a 30‑day observation period, the insect’s coloration transitioned from bright pink to pastel pink by day four and became indistinguishable from its green conspecifics by day eleven. This is the first recorded instance of a full‑stage color shift in an adult katydid, a phenomenon previously assumed to be limited to rare genetic mutants. The study appears in the journal *Ecology*.
The Biological Roots Behind the Chills You Get From Music and Art
A new genome‑wide analysis of over 15,000 Dutch participants shows that the tendency to experience aesthetic chills—goosebumps and shivers triggered by music, visual art, or poetry—has a measurable genetic component. The researchers estimate that family relatedness accounts for up to...
Genetic Study Finds Links Between Height and Risk of Cardiovascular and Reproductive Conditions in East Asian People
A large‑scale GWAS of over 120,000 Han Taiwanese participants identified 293 genetic variants linked to height and five linked to familial short stature. The study found that greater genetically‑predicted height raises the risk of atrial fibrillation and endometriosis in East...
Hawaii Endures Its Heaviest Flooding in Two Decades as Rainfall Intensifies
State officials confirm that Hawaii is experiencing its worst flooding in 20 years, with unprecedented rainfall totals and rising river levels. Emergency shelters have opened as communities brace for continued downpours.
Russia Launches First Rocket From Repaired Baikonur Launch Pad
Russia successfully launched a Soyuz‑2.1a rocket carrying the Progress MS‑33 cargo spacecraft from a repaired launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 22, 2026. The launch restores the only Baikonur pad capable of handling Soyuz crew and cargo missions after it was...
March 22, 1997: Comet Hale-Bopp Peaks
Comet Hale‑Bopp, discovered in July 1995 by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, reached its brightest point on March 22, 1997 with a magnitude of –0.8. The comet remained visible to the naked eye for 18 months, shattering the previous record...
Could Ozempic Help People Whose Cancer Has Spread to the Brain?
A large retrospective analysis of over 19,000 patients with cancer, type 2 diabetes and brain metastases found that those prescribed GLP‑1 receptor agonists such as Ozempic or Wegovy experienced a 37% reduction in three‑year mortality compared with matched controls. The survival...
Weather Gets a Passing Grade
The blog notes that while this week’s weather isn’t perfect, it’s tolerable, contrasting record-breaking March heat in Arizona and California with daily snow in Alaska. It then delivers a detailed Hudson Valley forecast, highlighting wind, sun, and intermittent rain through...
Vitamin D Boosts Runners' Immune Health in Winter
Vitamin D for immune support in runners ☀️ This new study investigated the effects of vitamin D supplementation (2000 IU/day) across autumn and winter (8-weeks) in runners and non-runners 🔍 45 participants were recruited and split into 4 groups… 1️⃣ Supplemented runners 2️⃣...
Lab-Grown Brain Models Reveal Unique Electrical Patterns in Different Types of Autism
Researchers created patient‑derived brain organoids from urine cells and recorded their electrical activity, revealing distinct electrophysiological signatures for neurotypical controls, syndromic autism, and idiopathic autism. Organoids from syndromic cases showed hyper‑activity, while the idiopathic sample displayed reduced firing rates. Principal...
A Secret Weapon to Fight Carbon Emissions Was Just Discovered: Beavers
A Swiss study found that beaver‑engineered wetlands can sequester 108‑146 tons of carbon each year, turning a former floodplain into a net carbon sink. The carbon storage equals the emissions of roughly 832‑1,129 barrels of oil and could offset 1.2‑1.8% of...
What if the Next Great Astronomer Isn't Human? How AI Is Revolutionizing Our Study of the Cosmos
AI framework MadEvolve combines large language models with evolutionary programming to auto‑optimize cosmology code. The system has already uncovered 1,300 anomalous objects in archival Hubble data and set new performance records in reconstructing the universe’s initial conditions. By restricting LLM...
Sahara’s “Mountain of Hell” Hides Giant Marine Fossils
During the winter of 1902, H.J.L. Beadnell was a geologist working for the Geological Survey of Egypt. He was doing the unglamorous work of surveying the topography of the Sahara Desert. One day he was far from civilization. He was two hundred miles southwest of...
Fatigue May Signal Intrinsic Capacity in Seniors
The Impact of Fatigue on Health, Function, and Survival Between Ages 70 and 100 "Our findings highlight the clinical importance of recognizing fatigue by health care professionals throughout the entire aging life span and raise the possibility that fatigue may serve...
New Study Reveals One Overlooked Nutrient That Supports Aging Well
A two‑decade study of nearly 90,000 adults found that regular consumption of flavonoid‑rich foods—such as berries, apples, citrus, black tea and moderate red wine—significantly lowers age‑related frailty, physical decline, and mental health issues. Women with the highest intake saw up...
The Deep Cave Bacteria Defying Modern Medicine
Scientists exploring the isolated Lechuguilla Cave discovered microbial communities that are resistant to virtually all natural antibiotics, despite being sealed off for millions of years. Genomic analysis of a *Paenibacillus* strain revealed dozens of known resistance genes and five entirely...
Electronic Skin Gives Robots Real‑Time Touch Sensitivity
Electronic skin is starting to change how machines interact with the physical world. This material combines dense fibers with integrated sensors that can detect pressure, touch, deformation, and subtle changes in contact in real time. For humanoid robots, especially hands, this is...
Airborne Virus Alert: Buildings Central to Pandemic
6 years ago, ringing the alarm bell that this virus was spread through the air, which means buildings were central to the fight. (I originally wrote this in Jan 2020, but NYT rejected it. Took me 6 weeks to convince them…)...
Severe COVID‑19 Pneumonia May Reprogram the Lung for Future Cancer
A new Cell paper demonstrates that severe SARS‑CoV‑2 or influenza pneumonia can reprogram the lung microenvironment, fostering accelerated lung cancer development. The authors attribute this effect to persistent immune activation and epigenetic alterations driven by the viral spike protein, which...
Multiple Drugs Fail to Extend UM-HET3 Mouse Lifespan
Astaxanthin, meclizine, mitoglitazone, pioglitazone, alpha-ketoglutarate, mifepristone, methotrexate, and atorvastatin-telmisartan do not increase lifespan in UM-HET3 mice https://t.co/k0vERH4LSg
Routine Clinical Aging Clocks Show Limited Trustworthiness
Are Aging Clocks Based on Routine Clinical Indicators Trustworthy and Applicable? A Systematic Review and Critical Appraisal https://t.co/JU53JV0gnv
Why Do Animals Have Different Pupil Shapes?
Animal pupils exhibit a remarkable variety of shapes that reflect ecological needs. Vertical slits in ambush predators sharpen vertical edges, enhancing stereoscopic depth perception, while horizontal bars in grazing prey expand the panoramic field of view along the ground. Larger...
Low‑cost Patent‑free Vaccines Challenge Big Pharma, Expose Uninformed Freedom Rhetoric
But…I develop low-cost often patent free vaccines that bypass big pharma and provide access to people who can’t afford them. In the past people who espoused freedom were learned and read books. Now they’re just lazy mindless dummies who think...
Progress MS-33 Antenna Failure Forces Manual TORU Docking
One of the rendezvous antennas aboard Progress MS-33 failed to deploy, likely prompting the use of the TORU manual-control by the ISS crew to guide the cargo ship to docking... https://t.co/snqlHtWeDl
Bio.3DGREEN Project: Creating a New Way to Produce Bio-Based Components Using Graphene Foam
The EU‑funded Bio.3DGREEN project, launched in May 2025, will run for 42 months and unites 14 partners from nine European nations. It aims to create bio‑based components using vegetable‑oil‑derived graphene foam that mimics natural sponge‑like structures. By combining biomimetic engineering...
Soyuz Launches Progress MS‑33 Cargo to the ISS
A Soyuz rocket lifts off from Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan, carrying the Progress MS-33 cargo ship to the International Space Station. Mission details, updates: https://t.co/U0Mzlpkmer https://t.co/VKOSMpjPHC
Mendelian Randomization Fails When Premises Are Flawed
When sophisticated models meet questionable premises Mendelian randomization is a powerful tool—but not when you’re asking genes to answer the wrong question https://t.co/LATYa4xWcz https://t.co/rWhB5oJvgi
The Sky Today on Sunday, March 22: Asteroid Iris Passes a Double Star
Asteroid 7 Iris is transiting the constellation Sextans on March 22, 2026, passing 2.6° north of the 4th‑magnitude Alpha Sextantis and within a quarter‑degree of a faint double star pair. The asteroid’s current magnitude of 9.4 makes it dimmer than the doublet...
Soyuz‑Progress Launch Set From Restored Site 31
A Soyuz rocket with a Progress cargo ship is ready to lift off from the newly restored launch pad at Site 31 in one hour: https://t.co/U0Mzlpkmer https://t.co/rFVE71MWiO
Central England Temps Now >2°C Above Preindustrial Levels
The Central England temperature record represents the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence. Recent temperatures there are over 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, and over 2 degrees above preindustrial values. Chart: UK Met Office. https://t.co/JOyw9ZYjGS
Untitled
The Astronomy Picture of the Day highlights two galaxies in the Eridanus constellation: the face‑on barred spiral NGC 1300 and the nearby elliptical NGC 1297. Both lie roughly 70 million light‑years away in the Eridanus Galaxy Cluster and span about 100 000 light‑years across....
Stanford Robot Handles Fragile Items Using Minimalist Control
Stanford’s Minimalist Control Lets #Robots Handle Fragile Objects Without Sensors by @lukas_m_ziegler #Robotics #Engineering #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/L4Jb9a6A9a
NASA's Zero‑Gravity Arms Master Delicate and Heavy Gripping
NASA’s Zero-Gravity #Robotic Arms Master Delicate, Heavy, and Irregular Grips by @tweetciiiim #Tech #TechForGood #EmergingTech https://t.co/MkbKbo4c5d
A Coding Implementation for Building and Analyzing Crystal Structures Using Pymatgen for Symmetry Analysis, Phase Diagrams, Surface Generation, and Materials...
The tutorial demonstrates how the open‑source pymatgen library can be used to construct, manipulate, and analyze crystal structures such as silicon, NaCl, and LiFePO₄‑like materials. It walks through lattice inspection, symmetry detection, coordination environment analysis, oxidation‑state decoration, supercell creation, surface...
Expectancy Effects Vary: Present in TAD, Not PAT
I can’t let this point go w’out comment. @psybalazs is first author on work that showed expectancy effects between PAT and a TAD are not uniform. They were operative for the TAD but not PAT. Why isn’t that cited?! https://t.co/kb9wrkAmVb
Scientists' Risk Fuels Life‑Saving Medicines, Not COI Fear
Scientists who stick their necks out and make medicines are my heroes There’s too much concern about COI for seasoned scientists with exemplary records Without commercial activity, we’d have zero medicines and ER-100 would still be in mice, not FDA cleared for...
Total Thoracoscopic Vs. Small-Incision Surgery: Rib Fracture Study
A new comparative clinical study evaluated total thoracoscopic surgery against thoracoscopy‑assisted small‑incision surgery for multiple rib fractures. The total thoracoscopic approach yielded significantly lower intra‑operative blood loss, reduced postoperative pain, and shorter hospital stays, although it required slightly longer operative...
Aging Is Information Loss in Self‑Organizing Biology
Strong work👏 This is less Watson and Crick, and more Turing and Wiener, where biological form and function emerge from information processing #Burr If biology is information processing, then aging can be understood as information loss #shannon
Blinding Doesn't Affect Psychedelic Trial Outcomes, Study Finds
It follows that if TADs are biased by expectancy, Open Label trials will show better outcomes than blinded. Further, if expectancy is not a strong driver of response to psychedelics, then blinding shouldn’t matter as much. This is what they...
How Flatulence in Space Impacts Mission Design
Flatulence continues in orbit, but microgravity changes how the gas spreads and is perceived inside a sealed cabin. Astronauts manage digestive gas through diet design, air‑circulation engineering, and medical monitoring rather than fearing explosions. The issue is fundamentally one of...
Stanford's Tiny Robot May Spark Robotics Revolution
Stanford’s Tiny #Robot Could Be the Apple II Moment for #Robotics by @IlirAliu_ #Engineering #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/fVTmZwHad6
Assessing Lunar Resource Availability for Mass Driver Construction
In relation to the mass driver idea on the moon, for anyone that has a deep understanding of materials needed for such a satellite, can most of it be sourced from the lunar surface? Interesting to know what percentage can...
How Space Affects the Human Immune System
Spaceflight does not simply weaken immunity; it creates a dysregulated immune environment where protective functions decline while inflammatory signals rise. Microgravity, heightened radiation, sleep disruption, and nutritional limits each perturb immune cell signaling, leading to reduced T‑cell and NK‑cell activity...
How Magnetism and the Hippocampus Shape Identity
Place, personhood, and the hippocampus – the fascinating science of magnetism, autonoeic consciousness, and what makes us who we are https://t.co/fwAO3bAAtu
Elon Musk Dreams of Epic Lunar Mass Driver
“I just want to live long enough to see the mass driver on the moon. Because that’s going to be incredibly epic.” — @ElonMusk tonight https://t.co/gnYf3oEXdP
UK Study Reveals No Additional Advantage of Surfactant Therapy in Severe Bronchiolitis Cases in Infants
UK researchers completed the largest randomized trial evaluating exogenous surfactant in infants with severe bronchiolitis requiring mechanical ventilation. The Bronchiolitis Endotracheal Surfactant Study (BESS) enrolled 232 infants across 15 pediatric centers and found that surfactant administration did not shorten ventilation...
Life Forms Can Catch Rides to Other Planets on Asteroid Debris
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University demonstrated that the extremophile bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans can survive pressures up to 1.4 gigapascals and 60 % of tests at 2.4 gigapascals, mimicking the forces of an asteroid impact and ejection from Mars. The experiment used a gas‑gun...
TUMCREATE to Develop Open-Source RISC-V Processor with Integrated Post-Quantum Security
TUMCREATE, the research arm of Technical University of Munich, will lead the QUASAR‑CREATE program to build an open‑source 64‑bit RISC‑V processor with built‑in post‑quantum cryptographic (PQC) accelerators. The processor will be fabricated on GlobalFoundries’ 180‑nm node in Singapore and feature...
Psychedelic Drug MDMA Could Help Treat PTSD—But There's a Reason It's Not Widely Available
Australia became the first nation to reclassify MDMA from a prohibited to a controlled substance, permitting its use in PTSD treatment under strict conditions. The 2026 guidelines limit MDMA‑assisted psychotherapy to adults who have not responded to first‑line therapies, require...
SpaceX and Tesla Launch TERAFAB: Terawatt‑scale Compute
Formal announcement of the TERAFAB project, which will be done jointly by @SpaceX and @Tesla, tonight around 8pm CT. Livestream on 𝕏. The goal is to produce over a TERAWATT of compute per year (logic, memory & packaging) with ~80% for...