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May 14, 2025—Artificial naps, potentially abandoned Mars rocks and a link between string theory and black hole mergers. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | An illustration of two black holes about to merge and emitting copious gravitational waves. Chris Henze/NASA/SPL/Getty Images | | An illustration of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on the surface of the Red Planet. Perseverance is gathering samples for return to Earth in the 2030s, but proposed budget cuts could delay or doom that homecoming. Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images | | Many planetary scientists are shocked that proposed cuts to NASA could mean researchers never get to study a wide range of rocks and soils methodically collected by Perseverance Mars rover in the past four years. Generations in the making, the Mars Sample Return mission now is targeted for elimination by the Trump administration. A White House budget office said the mission goals can be achieved by human missions, a proposal that experts called both dubious and far more expensive, write veteran space-industry reporter Leonard David and Scientific American senior editor Lee Billings. What the experts say: "Let's get real. My reaction to the 'astronauts will do sample return' is: When?! It's nonsense on several levels. I know of no credible 'humans to Mars' scenario that is earlier than 2039 or 2040," says planetary scientist Scott Hubbard. Why this matters: Beyond ceding U.S. preeminence in space exploration and science, stranding the U.S. samples could yield to China any claim to being first in a Mars sample-return mission. It announced a "grab" endeavor that would snatch rocks near a landing site around 2030. "Random rocks" would not answer questions about the age of the Martian surface, potential biosignatures and Mars' ancient atmosphere, says Casey Dreier of the nonprofit Planetary Society. | | The memory and perception boosts conferred by "power naps" can be achieved by electrically zapping an awake monkey in a way that mimics the voltage fluctuations observed in brain activity during sleep, a series of experiments suggests. Monkeys were stimulated with a low-frequency electrical signal mimicking sleep's "delta" brain waves, which are involved in memory maintenance. Subsequently, despite not napping, the monkeys performed better on a task that involved evaluating image orientations, writes freelance science journalist Simon Makin. Why this is cool: In one of the team's earlier experiments, neuronal activity in three brain regions in monkeys that slept between the visual cognition test sessions was oddly less synchronized than the same activity in monkeys that only rested between sessions. "Sleep is a synchronizing phenomenon in which neurons go up and down together, but the level of synchrony after sleep is reduced compared with before," says Valentin Dragoi, one of the study's authors. It is possible that independently firing neurons may drive performance improvements, a surprising finding. What the experts say: The findings in primates strongly suggest that stimulating "artificial naps" in humans could work to boost our cognitive performance, says neuroscientist Sara Mednick. | | - A political scientist's research on democratic backsliding worldwide leads him to conclude that the U.S. is in a transition phase between democracy and autocracy (government by one person), writes Scientific American senior opinion editor Dan Vergano. Per Daniel Stockemer's six-step theory of incremental autocratization, the U.S. is on the brink of the fourth step—dismantling checks and balances on executive power.| 4 min read
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- Your gut microbes might encourage criminal behavior. | MIT Technology Review
- Here is everything that has changed since congestion pricing started in New York. | New York Times
- What Tom Holland's historic lip-sync showcase taught us about stormwater management. | Medium
- Three things we learned about Sam Altman by scoping his kitchen. | Financial Times
| | In the years leading up to COVID, I took a deep reporting dive into the dank world of sewers, culverts and wastewater transport. So it was a fine, redemptive day when I came across comical and informative social media posts by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, which penned the above Tom Holland lip-sync essay. The district is so hip that it's on numerous platforms, including YouTube and Mastodon. I've seen its funniest stuff on BlueSky and X. | | Please send any comments, questions or cool stormwater or sewer experiences to: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow! —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | | |
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