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August 15, 2025—The discovery of Neptune, rabbits are growing horns, and social media is driving the creation of a new slang. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Eastern cottontail rabbit. Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images | | -
Rabbits in northern Colorado have been spotted with bizarre, grisly horns on their face. This is what's causing it. | 2 min read - Algorithmic social media is driving the creation of new slang at a breakneck pace. Linguist Adam Aleksic, also known as the Etymology Nerd, explains how. | 9 min read
- Biotech Colossal Biosciences boldly announced that it had replicated dire wolves, drawing criticism from many scientists. But the billion-dollar firm won't back down. | 10 min read
- We sit down with Sam Kean, author of the new book Dinner with King Tut, and discuss how archeologists are bringing the ancient world to life. | 15 min listen
| | The planet Neptune, as seen by NASA's Voyager 2 probe during a flyby in August of 1989. NASA/JPL | | Planet Discoveries
Until 1781, Saturn was the farthest known planet in the solar system. That changed when German-British astronomer William Herschel spotted what he thought was a comet drifting through the constellation Taurus. Two years of orbital calculations revealed it was actually a giant planet—Uranus—circling far beyond Saturn. The chance discovery expanded the boundaries of our solar system for the first time in recorded history.
After Uranus: In the decades that followed, Uranus proved to be a troublemaker, drifting from its predicted path, sometimes "pulling ahead" of the calculated location, sometimes lagging behind. Astronomers suspected an unseen planet's gravity was pulling Uranus. Working with nothing more than telescopes and star charts, in 1846, French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier calculated where the hidden world should be, and Johann Gottfried Galle at the Berlin Observatory found it—Neptune—within a single degree of the predicted spot.
Beyond: Since then, our view of the universe has exploded outward, writes astronomer and columnist Phil Plait. We've found countless worlds beyond Neptune, including Pluto, and thousands of Neptune-like exoplanets orbiting other stars. Voyager 2 flew past the distant giant, revealing stormy blue clouds and a retinue of strange moons. Today, powerful space and ground-based telescopes continue to probe Neptune's mysteries, while its discovery stands as a milestone. | | | | |
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Put your science knowledge to the test with this week's science quiz. Plus, here is today's Spellements puzzle and a killer hard version of Sudoku. Remember, if you spot any words missing from Spellements, send them in! games@newsletters.com. This week, Mark D. found tuatara, which is a species of reptile in New Zealand. | | MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK | | -
The Math Trick Hidden in Your Credit Card Number | 5 min read
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How the New Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in China Could Reach the U.S. | 3 min read
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Deep-Sea Desalination Pulls Fresh Water from the Depths | 4 min read
| | - We're in the age of the mega astronomical observatory (think: James Webb, Vera C. Rubin Observatory), but we shouldn't forget that smaller telescopes and even amateur efforts can make dazzling and important cosmic discoveries, writes Paul M. Sutter, a cosmologist at Johns Hopkins University. "Smaller projects can be riskier. They can take more chances," he says. "Ironically, small telescopes and projects can find the things that the giant instruments can't. There can be a lot of small surveys for the cost of a single giant campaign, and with many smaller projects, scientists don't have to spend their time trying to get a small slice of the observing pie." | 4 min read
| | Every Friday in summer we're recommending a great, freshly-published science read. Tell us what you're reading, or if you try any of our recommendations! | | Strata: Stories from Deep Time By Laura Poppick. Norton, July 2025.
 The deep history of Earth can be overwhelming: the sheer scale of billions of years, with only the opaque names of eras and epochs to navigate by. In Strata, geologist-turned-science-journalist Laura Poppick pushes past this screen by highlighting four pivotal phenomena: air, ice, mud and heat. Each force completely reshaped Earth during a key period of the past—and changed life on the planet as well, allowing different varieties of plants and animals to thrive as circumstances shifted. Throughout the book, she shows what scientists know about our planet's deep history and introduces researchers who are working in the field and in the lab to dig through the layers, or strata, of rock and continue fleshing out the story they tell. She takes the reader a step further, right to those rocks, sharing her own experiences in the field, from dinosaur digs to Ireland's emerald-green coast. It's an emotional, humane book that explores geology in a new way. —Meghan Bartels, senior news reporter | | The night sky is a big place. Even the powerful new Vera C. Rubin Observatory will take three days, snapping continuously, to image just the Southern Hemisphere. So Paul M. Sutter is right: we need as many eyes on the sky as possible. Small telescopes and amateur astronomers play a big role. Just recently, amateur astronomers helped discover a gas cloud near Andromeda galaxy, spotted a once-in-a-decade supernova, and helped pinpoint an interstellar comet. Science is for anyone with innate curiosity and the drive to know. | | Thank you for reading Today in Science this week. Have a great weekend and send feedback to: newsletters@sciam.com. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor
With contributions by Andrea Tamayo
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