These images show the power of the Category 5 storm ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
October 28, 2025—Hurricane Melissa got scary, fast. Plus, our first 3D view of human embryo implantation, and luxury cat poo coffee. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | -
This month prominent peer-reviewed journals published two papers that link apparent flashes of light seen by a telescope 70 years ago to potential artificial objects in space. But UFOs are just one explanation for weirdness seen in old telescope data. | 7 min read
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A "warm" version of cosmic inflation is consistent with known physics, astrophysicists find, as opposed to the earlier hypothesis of a cold void that only later reheated. | 6 min read | | Melissa's central eye, which looks like a textbook eye for a strong hurricane. CIRA/NOAA | | Hurricane Melissa quickly ramped up. As of this morning, its sustained winds reached 185 mph. As a reminder, the cutoff for a storm to be classified as a Category 5 hurricane is 159-mph winds. One of my colleagues noted in an editorial meeting yesterday that it might be time to create a Category 6 for hurricanes. Melissa grew from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in a process known as rapid intensification, which occurs when a storm's winds jump by at least 35 mph in 24 hours. Melissa's winds increased by twice that amount during its first period of rapid intensification. The pressure: On top of its terrifying windspeed, Melissa is registering at 892 millibars in atmospheric pressure. Average sea-level pressure is 1,013.25 millibars. The pressure difference between the storm's center and the surrounding atmosphere drives the wind speed (air moves into areas of low pressure). A lower pressure at the storm's center indicates a greater difference, which leads to higher wind speeds and a stronger storm. A pressure of 980 mb or lower is the classification for a hurricane, with the strongest hurricanes having pressures below 900 mb. The record-holder for lowest pressure is Hurricane Wilma in 2005, which had the lowest pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin at 882 mb. What this means: Melissa made landfall on Jamaica earlier this afternoon, and it will almost certainly be the worst storm to ever hit the Caribbean island, surpassing the damage from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Melissa is far stronger than Gilbert, hitting from a direction that could expose more coastline to surge; it's also slower moving, meaning Jamaica will be subjected to its onslaught—especially torrential rains—for longer. What the experts say: I asked Andrea Thompson, our senior desk editor for Earth and environment, what her sources are saying about Hurricane Melissa. She says meteorologists are all a bit agog at how intense this storm is. "In my conversations, we were all struggling to comprehend what we've seen in the last few days," she told me. "You know the theory of how hurricanes work and what can happen in ideal conditions, but you never really expect to see those things come about in the real world." Click here to see images and videos of this storm. | | For the first time, scientists can watch an embryo implant in 3D. Researchers constructed a uterine-like structure out of gel and collagen (a protein found in the uterine lining) and introduced human and mouse embryos to them. They recorded the implantation using advanced 3D microscopes and observed how the embryos pulled themselves through the uterine-like structure. Human embryos created a network of tiny pulling forces that rippled through the womb before burrowing into surrounding tissue by creating traction points that tug on the lining. Meanwhile, the mouse embryos spread out across the surface and pulled themselves in, mainly along two or three lines. Why this matters: Implantation is the biggest roadblock in human reproduction, says Samuel Ojosnegros, a bioengineer at the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology and a co-author of the new study in Science Advances. The images will allow scientists to develop treatments specifically targeting implantation, he says. What the experts say: "This study sets the stage to explore the dynamics of implantation in unprecedented detail," says Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz, a developmental biologist at the California Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the new study. Future research, she notes, is still needed to compare how embryos behave across different "uteruslike" platforms to see whether developmental trajectories differ. —Andrea Tamayo, Newsletter Writer | | Embryo compacting and invading the uterine tissue. Sarah Moreira Castro | | | | |
- Try to unscramble this image of our cover from June 1952. Once assembled, the photo shows a diffraction grating that splits the light coming from a candle in front of it. On the surface of the grating to the left and right are the spectral images of the candle flame. The grating was made in the Department of Physics of the Johns Hopkins University.
| | Hurricanes are nature's power in full expression—wind, lightning and sea surging in unison. They redraw coastlines, humble infrastructure, and test every illusion of control we humans hold. In their wake, we're reminded just how small we are against the vast machinery of the planet. | | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | | |
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