Astronomers 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.
Science
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 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.
AWS, Nvidia and NASA Answered a Boring Question That Decides Quantum’s Future
A joint AWS, Nvidia, Berkeley Lab and NASA study built a model (the communication-to-computation ratio) for when a quantum processor must sit next to a supercomputer versus when the cloud will do. Unsexy, and exactly the discipline the field needed.
The European Space Agency Plugged In Its First Quantum Computer
ESA has installed its first quantum computer, Equal1’s rack-mounted 6-qubit Bell-1, at its Earth-observation centre near Rome, to test hybrid quantum-classical processing of satellite data. Everyone involved is refreshingly honest that the real payoff is years away.
Bezos, Nvidia and AMD Are Betting $2.6 Billion on an AI That Hunts for New Materials
CuspAI raised $450M at a $2.6B valuation, backed by Bezos, Nvidia and AMD, to build a ‘search engine for atoms’ that finds new materials with AI. It is the AI boom funding the search for the materials the AI boom needs.