July 8, 2026—The spark of curiosity is still alive in kids, Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn says. Plus, sheepdogs inspire a new algorithm and astronomers discover some of the oldest objects in the universe.

—Andrea Gawrylewski
Chief Newsletter Editor

TODAY'S NEWS

A Manhattan skyscraper under construction and showing signs of damage

235 East 42nd Street after reports of falling debris in New York City on Tuesday, July 7, 2026. Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Officials evacuated a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan and the surrounding area yesterday after the building showed signs of potential collapse. It may be caused by overloading the support beams, experts say. | 4 min read
During World War II, mathematicians used statistics to estimate the number of enemy tanks, which proved essential in the decisive move against Nazi Germany. | 4 min read
The Earth is indeed "frame-dragging:" a process in which, as Einstein theorized, a heavy, rotating object—like a black hole or the Earth itself—drags spacetime and anything in its orbit around with it. | 3 min read
Health and Human Services Secretary RFK, Jr. is reportedly preparing to name new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—an independent group that guides recommendations for preventive services such as cancer screenings and helps determine insurance coverage. | 2 min read
A one-ton elephant seal named "Neil" has gone viral for smashing into cars and infrastructure in Tasmania. Biologists explain his behavior. | 3 min read
The Euclid Space Telescope identified a clutch of ancient quasars dating to nearly 13 billion years ago—putting them among the oldest of these objects ever found in the universe. | 3 min read
A controversial geoengineering proposal suggests that brightening clouds off South America could stop El Niño before it even starts, but major technical and ethical questions remain. | 3 min read

The Spark Is Alive

Elizabeth Blackburn is a molecular biologist and biochemist. She is a former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and an emerita faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2009 she shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for uncovering the structure of telomeres, the protective tips at the ends of our chromosomes that help to safeguard DNA, and for helping to discover telomerase, the enzyme that keeps those tips intact. We sat down with Blackburn to discuss the state of American science. Below is an excerpt of that conversation.

Scientific American: How would you describe the current state of American science?

Elizabeth Blackburn: I’d say it’s under siege and under assault. The assault is coming from various factors, and one of them has been the systematic attacks on science and its funding and support from the current administration.

There’s also an attack on the access of people who historically have been underrepresented, and that is really hurting efforts to get the most talent into careers in science. It’s just throwing away something that has historically had substantial effects. It just so saddens me and shocks me that we’re throwing away so many opportunities.

The other really sad thing is the assault on truth that we see in public discourse. This is really an assault on science because what is science about? It’s about getting at verifiable truth.

SA: What gives you optimism right now?

EB: I see young people, especially children, who come to places like the California Academy of Sciences museum in San Francisco, and you just see how their curiosity is so great, and they’re sparked. So I have hope. It’s rather distant because these are young people, but I do have hope that this spark of interest and curiosity, which is what drives fundamental science, is alive and well. The spark has not died in children.

SA: How has your field changed in the past few years?

EB: In my case, molecular biologist Carol Greider of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and I discovered telomerase decades ago, and we discovered it through its enzyme activity. Now, after a lot of biochemical work and big advances in imaging and cryoelectron microscopy, you can actually see what telomerase looks like.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can now look at humans using big, computational approaches, big data. It’s enormously beneficial.

Read the full interview here.

Herding Chaotic Robots

In a small group of four of five sheep, the animals’ individual personalities have more influence on the herd, and it’s difficult to get them all to follow the same command. In the field of robotics, experts call a more chaotic system like this “noisy.” Researchers watched hours of “sheepdog YouTube”—competitions where trained dogs shepherd a small number of unpredictable sheep—and found that sheepdogs waited for all the sheep to face the same direction, then chased them at the same time. When the sheep inevitably broke apart again, the sheepdogs repeated the method, slowly but surely herding them where they needed to go. Through patience and timing, the dog exploits the sheep’s own randomness to maneuver the flock.

Why this matters: Inspired by how sheepdogs herd these chaotic sheep, the researchers devised an “Indecisive Swarm Algorithm” that makes robots act like the sheep so they can be herded. Some robots will continuously switch who they follow (either the researchers’ controller or a neighboring bot). The new algorithm creates robots that are easier to control in noisy conditions. In the future, the researchers say, this algorithm could help to organize other noisy collectives, such as drones, self-driving cars or even AI agents working together.

What the experts say: “We tend to think of noise as a problem that makes systems less predictable, less optimized,” says Raphaël Sarfati, a physicist at Goodfire AI, who was not involved in the work. “[But] we see everywhere that noise, a little bit of noise at least, is really, really good for driving systems toward a better optimum.”

YOUNG AMERICAN SCIENTIST

A portrait photo of Anna Ho smiling and looking off camera

Jeffery DelViscio

In astrophysicist Anna Ho’s lab at Cornell University, her team studies cosmic explosions such as supernovae. She examines the properties of stars during their lives and how these properties influence the ways they die and the so-called corpses they leave behind in the cosmos (typically in the form of black holes or neutron stars). Ho uses earthbound and space-based telescopes to observe stellar explosions as they happen and uses those observations to reconstruct the life of the star. “Right now I would say that my work has raised more questions than it has answered!” Ho says.

Read the rest of this year’s Young American Scientists profiles.

WHAT WE'RE READING

Researchers are trying to gather as many samples of varying human microbiomes from around the world as possible. What they're learning is remarkable. | The New York Times
Rising seas are threatening buried American history. | The Guardian
It's harder than ever to have fun, and it's making us miserable. | Bloomberg

I am with Dr. Blackburn. The curiosity of young children fills me with a sense of hope and, frankly, relief. We are all born as little scientists—the developing brain is a sponge for new information. Some research has even shown that babies have an innate sense of numbers! The trick is to keep nurturing that drive throughout childhood and into adulthood. As long as curiosity lives, we have a chance.

YOUR curiosity is what inspires this newsletter. Reach out to me anytime with comments, observations or questions: newsletters@sciam.com. We'll be back tomorrow.

—Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here.

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NASA's New Horizons just woke up 6 billion miles away | Artemis 2's Jeremy Hansen is stepping down | Former NASA chief questions Artemis moon lander plans

Created for ceo.studentlike.spuniv@blogger.com | Web Version

July 8, 2026

Taking you out of this world, every day

The Launchpad

NASA's New Horizons just woke up 6 billion miles away

Happy Wednesday, space fans

We are halfway there, and what a half a week it has already been. Hot off the presses, NASA's New Horizons space probe has woken up nearly 6 billion miles away from Earth. The probe is now well past Pluto and, after nearly a year of hibernation, it is back online and functioning well. Does it remember us? What's it like 6 billion miles away? We're eager to see what's next with New Horizons.

In bittersweet news, Canada's Jeremy Hansen, an Artemis 2 astronaut who captured the world's attention and hearts during this most recent mission, has announced his retirement as an astronaut. Hansen is stepping down from active astronaut duty, meaning we will not see him on another Artemis mission. But while we will miss him as an active astronaut, we can respect this very personal decision and we're curious what he will get up to next. We also have some cutting words from NASA's former administrator on the agency's moon lander plans, a rare look at Earth's quasi-moon, and a new study has found that the Milky Way galaxy's spiral arms are actually wider than we thought, totally changing our view of our galaxy and its structure!

Check out what's big in space below:

Way past Pluto

The Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen will step back from active astronaut service in September for a new role.

We have mixed feelings

Spaceflight

Former NASA chief questions Artemis moon lander plans

Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine questions the designs for NASA's commercial moon landers for its Artemis program.

He is skeptical

The 1st photo of Earth's 'quasi-moon' Kamo'oalewa

China's Tianwen-2 probe beamed home a photo of its target, asteroid 2016HO3, also known as quasi-moon Kamo'oalewa.

A rare glimpse

Science & Astronomy

Our Milky Way galaxy might be larger than we thought

Astronomers used cosmic explosions to find that we may be wrong about our own galaxy.

We were wrong?

Earth may survive the sun's death after all

When the sun swells into a red giant about 5 billion years from now, Earth may escape being swallowed by the dying star, a new study suggests.

OK, but how?

Today in Space

NASA's Roman Space Telescope prepares for launch

Roman is in Florida, getting ready for its August liftoff.

We're counting down!

Entertainment

'Project Hail Mary' is finally streaming on Prime Video

'Project Hail Mary' blasted off onto Prime Video starting on July 3.

Rewatch time!

Editor's Note

That's it for our space update today!

I understand if you're still bummed about Jeremy Hansen stepping down from active astronaut duty, but don't worry there will be lots more astronaut fun as we gear up for Artemis III, Artemis IV landing on the moon (!!!) and even more moon-tastic missions. Coming up, we are excitedly looking forward to the 50th anniversary of NASA's Viking 1 lander, the first successful Mars lander in history (if you don't count the Soviet Mars lander that lasted mere seconds on the surface before losing communication).

There is some spectacular skywatching on the horizon as well. For those in the NYC-area, this weekend you will have your second (and last) chance to see Manhattanhenge this year. Don't worry, it happens every year so this isn't your last time ever to see the spectacle, but if you're in the area we highly recommend making a pit stop. We are also counting down to a total solar eclipse, and we will get to live vicariously through some Space.com correspondents around the world who will take us along with them to experience totality together. And to stay as in the loop as possible, you can now get Space.com right in the palm of your hand with our new app available now on iOS and Android.

Ad astra, per aspera

Chelsea Gohd

Content Manager, Space.com