The agency is apparently now targeting March 6 to 11 ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
February 4, 2026—Strange geologic phenomena, why 52 cards is the perfect amount for poker, and NASA delays the moon mission launch. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | - NASA quietly pushed the launch date of the Artemis II moon mission into March, after a dress rehearsal Monday went awry. | 2 min read
- Scientists discovered a brain network that may cause Parkinson's. | 4 min read
- Some people experience an inability to burp. An expert who treats this little-known disorder explains why. | 18 min listen
- Scientists have found "strange quarks" that might be direct descendants of sets of virtual particles that spontaneously arose out of nothing from the quantum vacuum. | 4 min read
- The sun is in the middle of a particularly strong solar storm. The expelled plasma should pass Earth sometime on Thursday, which might produce spectacular auroras. | 1 min read
- Lung cancer cells in mice hijack the brain to trick the immune system into deactivating, a new study finds. | 3 min read
- Researchers mimicked the air-trapping tricks of diving bell spiders to create aluminum that stays afloat—even when punctured. | 3 min read
| | - As Arctic air plunged into sunny Florida this past weekend, it made for a mesmerizing sight in a satellite video: parallel lines of clouds colloquially called "cloud streets" streamed from the land over the ocean.
| | Zabargad Island in the Red Sea is part of a geological curiosity where bits of continental crust are found surrounded by oceanic crust in places where the Earth is rifting apart. Reinhard Dirscherl/Ullstein Bild via Getty Images | | Around the world, scraps of continental crust have been found in the middle of oceans, sometimes hundreds of miles from the nearest continent. For decades, scientists have been befuddled by these geologic orphans. Geologists used high-resolution, three-dimensional computer models and found that the crust scraps trace back to the early chaotic days when ancient supercontinents were breaking up.How it works: Millions of years after the supercontinent Pangea formed, it started breaking up as tectonic plates moved. The continents sheared and twisted unevenly, and at places where the continent split at oblique angles, local forces squeezed together thin ribbons of crust and popped them up like geological icebergs, isolating and slicing them off. These chunks of continental crust rode along these fault lines and drifted into new ocean basins.What the experts say: Classic plate tectonic theory assumed that continents broke apart cleanly, but "maybe the breakup is not always so clean," says Susanne Buiter, a geophysicist at GFZ Helmholtz Center for Geosciences in Germany, who was not involved in the study. | | | | |
A computer scientist figured out that 52 is, practically, the best number of cards in a deck to play a game of poker. In a preprint paper, Christopher Williamson examined how the game of poker changes as the number of cards per suit increases or decreases. He found deviating from 52 (with one unusual exception) results in the math of the whole game being thrown out of whack.
How it works: In community-style poker, players create "hands" out of two private cards they hold, and five communal cards in front of all the players. During a "showdown" players reveal their cards, and the highest-ranking hand wins. The ranking of each hand (one pair, two pair, flush, straight, etc.) depends on how likely they are to appear in the deck. However, if a 52-card deck is shortened or lengthened, the probability that a player will play a particular hand at the showdown changes independently of its overall likelihood to appear in the deck. That means that players may not be motivated to play high-ranking hands, but then if they don't play them, the showdown probabilities change again.
What the pros say: Nikita Luther, a top professional poker player, finds the result fascinating. "It's so complex, the way the variables interact with each other," she says. Luther says she hasn't deeply explored poker variants beyond Texas Hold'em; even there, "I could spend the rest of my life just trying to understand this game." —Emma Gometz, newsletter editor | | - Crazy idea: Next time you have a few minutes to kill, put down your phone and daydream. | The Washington Post
- Scientists sent an instrument into the depths of a glacier to see underneath. | The New York Times
- The largest tributary of the Colorado River flows "uphill" for more than 100 miles. Geologists now know why. | Live Science
| | Frequent readers of Today in Science will know that I often describe looking out into deep space as getting a snapshot from "back in time." But here on Earth, geologists who study strange phenomena like orphan continental crust or water flowing uphill have the clues from now and some glimpses into the past (i.e. ice cores, tree rings, the fossil record) to help figure out what happened millions, or even billions, of years ago. Science follows the evidence, but time sets the terms. | | Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with me. Send any thoughts or feedback to: newsletters@sciam.com. Until tomorrow. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | | |
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