The Dodo Wasn’t Stupid. We Were
A new CT study of rare dodo skulls finds owl-like night vision and a sharp sense of smell. The ‘stupid bird’ label was always a slander.
Science
Scientists Found a Stretchy New Beetle and Named the Whole Genus After One Piece’s Luffy
A rove beetle with absurdly elongated mouthparts got a new genus named Luffy, after the rubber pirate from One Piece. The meme has a serious point.
The Sun Has an Off Switch, and It Just Handed Us a Seven-Year Weather Warning
University of Warwick physicists found a ‘switch-off’ moment in the Sun that forecasts the next solar cycle’s strength six to seven years early.
Astronomers Just Found a Black Hole Hiding in Plain Sight for 23 Years
Hubble and Webb pinned down Omega Centauri’s first stellar-mass black hole using two decades of patient, publicly funded data.
The Mysterious ‘Hum’ That’s Tormented People for 50 Years May Be Coming From Inside Their Own Heads
A Norwegian study of 28 people who hear the mysterious global ‘Hum’ concludes it is most likely a form of low-frequency tinnitus, generated inside the auditory system rather than out in the world. Not 5G, not sonar, and regrettably not aliens.
A Bacterium From a Frog’s Gut Wiped Out Cancer in Mice With a Single Dose. Yes, Really
Japanese researchers found a bacterium in frog and newt guts, Ewingella americana, that completely eliminated colorectal tumours in mice with a single dose and a 100% response rate, outperforming standard therapies. A striking result, with the giant caveat that it is still mice.
A Comet Older Than the Sun Is Passing Through Our Solar System, and It’s Not From Around Here
3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever found, and new readings of its carbon chemistry suggest it is older than the Sun, forged in an ancient star system before Earth existed. No, it is probably not aliens. It is better than that.
Your Diet Soda Is Rearranging Your Gut. Scientists Tested 39 Sweeteners to Prove It
A Cambridge study tested 39 sweeteners against 25 gut bacteria and found about three-quarters altered how at least one species grew, with one sweetener-plus-medication combo hitting beneficial microbes hard. Lab work, not a verdict, but the ‘does nothing’ assumption is dead.
They Opened a 1,600-Year-Old Mummy and Found Homer’s Iliad Stuffed in the Wrappings
At Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, archaeologists found a papyrus of Homer’s Iliad deliberately placed on a 1,600-year-old mummy’s abdomen during embalming: the first known case of a literary text built into the mummification ritual.
Astronomers Just Found Air Around Another World in the One Place That Matters
LHS 1140 b, 48 light-years away, is the first rocky planet in a star’s habitable zone with a confirmed atmosphere, caught by watching helium leak from its upper layers. Not life, but the closest the search has come to a real target.