May 1, 2026—Likely the largest Viking coin hoard in history discovered, the science of elephant whiskers, and AI companies are barreling toward a compute crunch. Friday, here we go.

—Andrea Gawrylewski
Chief Newsletter Editor

TOP NEWS

A hand holds 6 silver coins, each with a distinctive design

Innlandet County Authority

Two metal detectorists in Norway discovered a spectacular hoard of more than 3,000 silver Viking coins that archeologists say is likely the largest in history. | 2 min read
At a kind of shadow climate summit this week, representatives of more than 50 nations gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, to discuss phasing out fossil fuels. | 4 min read
The Kardashev scale is a gauge of a civilization’s growth. But it may not be the best way to judge the progress of humanity. | 6 min read
A structure inside the microbial cells in cows' guts called the “hydrogenobody” may play a key role in why their burps are so high in methane. | 2 min read
Scientists are baffled at the discovery of a large "red monster" galaxy heavily loaded with dust which appears to have formed less than half a billion years after the big bang. | 4 min read
It's happening! Spring bird migrations are peaking in the northern hemisphere. Senior editor and birder Kate Wong tells you how to make the most of this splendid season. | 6 min read

Join in: Are you a birder and spring migration is your Super Bowl? What species are you most hoping to spot this year? What have you already seen? Share your birding hopes and dreams by joining our online discussion here.

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THE FINAL WORD

A GIF of an interview with J. Craig Venter

Video: Jeff DelViscio/Scientific American; Photo: David S. Holloway/Getty Image

Genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter died this week. We spoke to him less than a month ago in what was likely his last interview. He said: "If you want immortality, do something meaningful while you're alive." Watch the full conversation here.

TOP STORY

AI Compute Crunch

The demand for AI is growing faster than companies can build data centers and power them. These limits are starting to show up in the products people use: in the last couple of months, Claude users noticed they’re hitting usage limits faster than they should be; and just this week OpenAI began shutting down Sora, its video-generation platform, as more than four million developers per week are now using OpenAI's coding tool Codex.

Why this matters: If AI becomes the central tool for coding, science, learning, medicine, customer service, defense planning and office work, then access to computing power translates directly to economic success. A whitepaper published last year by Anthropic estimated that the U.S. AI sector will need at least 50 gigawatts of electric capacity by 2028 to maintain global AI leadership—roughly the output of 50 large nuclear reactors. But a so-called compute crunch may have already begun.

What the experts say: This is truly the case of the digital world meeting the physical world, AI policy expert Lennart Heim told Scientific American. From gas turbine manufacturers to memory chips to adequate clean-room space, the supply chain for AI is already strained, and building data centers is incredibly costly, he says. “The future will continue to be somewhat compute-constrained, and eventually market mechanisms solve it: you raise the price.”

A zookeeper holds an apple in front of an elephant's trunk while he feels its whiskers.

Zookeeper feeling an elephant's whiskers. Heidelberg Zoo & Alejandro Posada, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

Elephant Whiskers

Elephant trunks are covered in more than 1,000 whiskers, which they use to feel the world around them. But these whiskers, a recent study showed, are structurally different than whiskers on cats, rats, and other whiskered animals. Elephant whiskers are more porous and stiff toward the base of the whisker, and flexible and dense towards the tip. Scientists say this helps them sense objects in their own unique way.

How it works: The structure magnifies the feeling of objects the whisker touches by slightly increasing its vibrational frequency and lowering its overall mass. A softer tip also means the whiskers are less likely to be damaged or broken, which is important because elephants can't regrow them. Overall, the distribution of stiff to soft on the whisker makes it more durable and sensitive as the elephant sways and grabs stuff with its trunk.

What the experts say: Understanding the elephant whisker structure helps us better understand how the animals perceive their surroundings. “Nearly every mammal—not just elephants—has whiskers whose size, shape and material properties are almost certainly adapted to the way that species uses touch in its environment,” explains Mitra Hartmann, a biomedical and mechanical engineer at Northwestern University, who was not involved in the study. —Emma Gometz, newsletter editor

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

A ring-shaped nebula with a rust-colored out later and a bright yellow center containing a shape that resembles and upside down question mark.

NASA/ESA/CSA/Western University/J. Cami

The nebula called Tc 1 is about 10,000 light-years away from Earth, in the Ara constellation. A new image of the object from the James Webb Space Telescope uses its Mid-Infrared Instrument and combines nine filters spanning wavelengths from 5.6 to 25.5 microns, well beyond what the human eye can detect. The image reveals hot gas, which is depicted in blue, surrounded by relatively cooler gas, which is depicted in red. In the center is a white dwarf, the dense, compact core of a dying star. The image also captures an odd structure at the white dwarf's core that resembles an upside down question mark. The origin of this structure is still a mystery, according to the astronomers. Read more about this object here.

PLAY NOW

First question of today's science quiz: The MMR vaccine inoculates people to measles, mumps and what other disease?

How well did you keep up with science news this week? Put yourself to the test with today's science quiz. Also, check out today's Spellements puzzle. If you spot any missing science terms from the puzzle, email them to games@sciam.com.