A new clinical trial is launching this year to turn back the clock on human cells and tissues ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
April 13, 2026—"Moon joy" has a psychological underpinning. Plus, another person effectively cured of HIV and a new way to recycle nuclear fuel. Let's get into a new week.
—Andrea Gawrylewski
Chief Newsletter Editor
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- NASA’s Artemis II capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, Calif., at 8:07 P.M. EDT on April 10, bringing an end to a historic 10-day trip around the moon and back. | 2 min read
- The triumph of NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in a half-century is a reminder of what the moon really means for Earth—and why we’re going back. | 5 min read
- The experience of spaceflight can induce the "overview effect," the psychological term for feeling such awe at the vastness of the universe that it shifts our perspective. I know I felt hints of it during the Artemis II mission, did you? | 4 min read
- Relive the mission around the moon with these 12 stunning photos. | 3 min read
- Artemis II sparked debate over the costs, climate effects and long‑term value of going back to the moon. Our editors discuss. | 24 min podcast
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One man’s nuclear trash may be another’s nuclear treasure. A Rhode Island company wants to take spent nuclear fuel and give it new life—by extracting useful elements and feeding them back into nuclear reactors. This could produce technologies with significantly less power supply limitations. The Pentagon hopes to use this for vehicle convoys, for instance, which would never have to refuel if they’re running on reprocessed fuel, or drones that could gather intelligence for months on end.
The problem: Unlike countries like France, China and Russia, the U.S. abstains from standard reprocessing of nuclear waste because it produces pure plutonium. Plutonium is a key ingredient in nuclear weapons, and making more of it would fly in the face of our non-proliferation agreement.
How it works: The company, called Project Omega, plans to use a novel waste processing method that would mix molten salt with leftover radioactive waste. The uranium is extracted, and other elements are pulled out in several steps. This process still produces plutonium, but the element remains chemically trapped in a messy soup of other materials—meaning no nukes can be made from the results. “Nuclear is having a moment,” declares Stafford Sheehan, Project Omega’s founder and CEO. Not working out a safe way to recycle it is “a totally missed opportunity.” —Emma Gometz, newsletter editor
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SPONSORED CONTENT BY SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
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A new theory of heart disease
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Chronic inflammation may be the hidden force driving cardiovascular disease, according to new research. Once met with skepticism, this idea is now gaining acceptance and is fueling debate around the FDA's recent approval of an inexpensive drug, colchicine, to treat heart disease. Join our health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman for an engaging conversation on the new theories around heart disease. Moderated by Seth Fletcher, our editorial director.
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You and I go out to eat at a conveyer-belt sushi restaurant. It serves four types of sushi: ahi roll, Boston roll, caterpillar roll and dragon roll. We each have access to our own conveyer belt that the chef loads continuously at random. Every plate has one piece of sushi on it, and each costs the same amount. We agree that I will eat every piece of sushi on my belt until I get two ahi rolls in a row, while you will eat every piece of sushi on your belt until you get an ahi roll followed immediately by a Boston roll. Whose meal do you expect to cost more?
Click here for the solution.
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- The father of an AI journalist starts ignoring doctors' advice for treating his cancer and relying instead on AI. | The New York Times
- How Amazing Stories set the stage for American science fiction writing. | Literary Hub
- The Artemis II astronauts are absolute rock stars. Couldn't agree more. | The Atlantic
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My colleague Allison Parshall wrote in the final hours of the Artemis II mission about the overview effect—that rare feeling of awe in realizing how small we are in the vast expanse of the cosmos. People underwater in the depths of the ocean have had a similar experience. I myself have felt it traveling in the wild expanse of the American West, or staring up at the stars out an aircraft window during a long-haul flight. Have you ever felt the overview effect and in what circumstances? I'd love to hear about it.
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—Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor
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