Scientific American

Acclaimed British actor Patrick Stewart, who died on Wednesday at age 86, is best known for his portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, part of the iconic sci-fi franchise that inspired generations of scientists and science-fiction fans. We’re revisiting Scientific American's coverage of the science behind Star Trek. These stories explore everything from new physics inspired by Star Trek’s warp drive to its record of inspiring future scientific advancements: The final frontier: The science of Star Trek: https://lnkd.in/eWrJz-a5 The science sticklers who kept Star Trek in line: https://lnkd.in/eCKXFUw5 How good is Star Trek's record at predicting the future of tech? https://lnkd.in/e_yQPmS2 Star Trek’s warp drive leads to new physics: https://lnkd.in/ejzYVZnf Cover credit: NASA; Digital art by Les Bossinas (Cortez III Service Corp)

Although gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have much in common with various science-fiction superweapons, they are entirely natural eruptions and by far the most extreme phenomena in the universe. Supernovae, the deaths of the most massive stars, are terrifically energetic. But they’re like firecrackers compared with GRBs. These horrifying yet beguiling events might just hold some secrets to understanding the universe. Certain GRBs produce some of the heaviest elements in the periodic table, including gold. And their extreme, alien physics may help scientists elucidate how the first generation of stars and the first galaxies came to be. Astronomers are puzzled about how GRBs work. In the decades since the objects were first discovered, scientists knitted together a picture that they thought handily explained them. But in the past few years the yarn has begun unwinding. Despite detecting around one of these blasts a day, scientists are scrambling for answers. If they can’t find a way to make sense of these detonations, they may discover that GRBs are exposing deeper flaws in our understanding of the universe than we realized. https://lnkd.in/gpZnvUDe Illustrations by Nicolò Canova.

Bats are not the world’s most beloved creatures. Mostly night animals, they’ve become a symbol of Halloween—associated with vampires, death and general ghoulishness. Sure, a few bat species do, in fact, feed on animal blood. Some bats have a face only a biologist could love. And yes, bats can be reservoirs of disease. But in their more than 50 million years on Earth, these maligned creatures have developed some admirable qualities, too. In honor of spooky season, here are seven bat facts you may not know. https://lnkd.in/ef9gcmBG

In today's abbreviated edition of the Today in Science newsletter, we go down the rabbit hole on why scientists are coming around to the idea of the multiverse being real.

A person has contracted and died from the Shamonda virus, a disease-causing microbe that had been thought to only infect animals, for the first time. The incident, while unlikely to herald a more widespread outbreak, is a potent reminder of the potential for pathogens to jump from animals to humans—with deadly consequences. The potential for a wider outbreak is low, but experts are still investigating how the virus leaped from animals to humans in the first place. https://lnkd.in/e8SWaNtn

Congratulations to Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake—there may be a new sibling to welcome into the dwarf planet family. On Tuesday astronomers at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory announced the discovery of a new dwarf planet candidate in a distant part of the solar system beyond Neptune’s orbit. The new object doesn’t have an official name yet and is instead going by its provisional designation—2026 ED138. https://lnkd.in/ed6peATq

The Department of Health and Human Services announced a loosening of restrictions on six unproven peptides on Wednesday. These substances have long been touted by biohackers as a means to hack people’s bodies and brains for the better, but they often have had scant scientific evidence behind them. Under the new policy, compounded combinations of these unproven peptides can now be dispensed by certain pharmacies. https://lnkd.in/eHkwukX8

American football can be brutal. Scientists have long known that the hits, tackles and other collisions that are central to the sport come with health risks, but what these impacts do to the brain has been less clear. What we do know is that many footballers have died with brains that have shown evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease associated with symptoms such as mood swings and dementia. But because a diagnosis requires that investigators look for damage in a person’s brain after they die, it’s unclear just how common CTE is among current or former athletes. But now, in a new study, an analysis of medical records from thousands of deceased former NFL players—including hundreds who donated their brains to science—estimates that about 75 percent of these players likely died with CTE. https://lnkd.in/eSpC4D_D

Meeting global climate goals will probably require pulling billions of metric tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere annually by mid-century, according to the United Nations. Land-based facilities that do it with fans, heat and chemicals have removed only a few thousand tons of CO₂, at high cost. The ocean already absorbs nearly a third of humanity’s emissions, making it an enticing place to try to remove more. But seawater is always moving, and marine carbon removal companies cannot simply meter what they claim to remove. For many of the companies, the business model depends on selling carbon credits, each meant to represent one metric ton of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere. When the removal cannot be measured directly, the credibility of each credit rests on the model used to calculate it. https://lnkd.in/e9EbUEt3

Using a proprietary internal large language model (LLM), OpenAI just released a result mathematicians have been chasing for decades: a formal proof validating the “quantum chromodynamics” that underpin physicists’ best, most successful description of the universe. The new proof also scoops the work of two human mathematicians, one of whom just happens to be employed by OpenAI’s rival Anthropic. The duo—Anthropic’s Levent Alpöge and Ethan Sussman, a mathematician at Northwestern University—had publicly disclosed their progress on their own independent proof in the weeks leading up to OpenAI’s historic announcement. https://lnkd.in/eDmpvK-7