The Earth is dragging spacetime around its orbit

Einstein predicted the effect of large bodies influencing spacetime ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

July 8, 2026—The spark of curiosity is still alive in kids, Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn says. Plus, sheepdogs inspire a new algorithm and astronomers discover some of the oldest objects in the universe.  —Andrea Gawrylewski Chief Newsletter Editor​ TODAY'S NEWS 235 East 42nd Street after reports of falling debris in New York City on Tuesday, July 7, 2026. Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images Officials evacuated a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan and the surrounding area yesterday after the building showed signs of potential collapse. It may be caused by overloading the support beams, experts say. | 4 min read During World War II, mathematicians used statistics to estimate the number of enemy tanks, which proved essential in the decisive move against Nazi Germany​. | 4 min read The Earth is indeed "frame-dragging:" a process in which, as Einstein theorized, a heavy, rotating object—like a black hole or the Earth itself—drags spacetime and anything in its orbit around with it. | 3 min read  Health and Human Services Secretary RFK, Jr. is reportedly preparing to name new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—an independent group that guides recommendations for preventive services such as cancer screenings and helps determine insurance coverage. | 2 min read A one-ton elephant seal named "Neil" has gone viral for smashing into cars and infrastructure in Tasmania. Biologists explain his behavior. | 3 min read The Euclid Space Telescope identified a clutch of ancient quasars dating to nearly 13 billion years ago—putting them among the oldest of these objects ever found in the universe. | 3 min read A controversial geoengineering proposal suggests that brightening clouds off South America could stop El Niño before it even starts, but major technical and ethical questions remain. | 3 min read TOP STORIES Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images The Spark Is Alive Elizabeth Blackburn is a molecular biologist and biochemist. She is a former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and an emerita faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2009 she shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for uncovering the structure of telomeres, the protective tips at the ends of our chromosomes that help to safeguard DNA, and for helping to discover telomerase, the enzyme that keeps those tips intact. We sat down with Blackburn to discuss the state of American science. Below is an excerpt of that conversation. Scientific American: How would you describe the current state of American science? Elizabeth Blackburn: I’d say it’s under siege and under assault. The assault is coming from various factors, and one of them has been the systematic attacks on science and its funding and support from the current administration. There’s also an attack on the access of people who historically have been underrepresented, and that is really hurting efforts to get the most talent into careers in science. It’s just throwing away something that has historically had substantial effects. It just so saddens me and shocks me that we’re throwing away so many opportunities. The other really sad thing is the assault on truth that we see in public discourse. This is really an assault on science because what is science about? It’s about getting at verifiable truth. SA: What gives you optimism right now? EB: I see young people, especially children, who come to places like the California Academy of Sciences museum in San Francisco, and you just see how their curiosity is so great, and they’re sparked. So I have hope. It’s rather distant because these are young people, but I do have hope that this spark of interest and curiosity, which is what drives fundamental science, is alive and well. The spark has not died in children. SA: How has your field changed in the past few years? EB: In my case, molecular biologist Carol Greider of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and I discovered telomerase decades ago, and we discovered it through its enzyme activity. Now, after a lot of biochemical work and big advances in imaging and cryoelectron microscopy, you can actually see what telomerase looks like. On the other end of the spectrum, you can now look at humans using big, computational approaches, big data. It’s enormously beneficial. Read the full interview here. ​ Herding Chaotic Robots In a small group of four of five sheep, the animals’ individual personalities have more influence on the herd, and it’s difficult to get them all to follow the same command. In the field of robotics, experts call a more chaotic system like this “noisy.” Researchers watched hours of “sheepdog YouTube”—competitions where trained dogs shepherd a small number of unpredictable sheep—and found that sheepdogs waited for all the sheep to face the same direction, then chased them at the same time. When the sheep inevitably broke apart again, the sheepdogs repeated the method, slowly but surely herding them where they needed to go. Through patience and timing, the dog exploits the sheep’s own randomness to maneuver the flock.​ ​ Why this matters: Inspired by how sheepdogs herd these chaotic sheep, the researchers devised an “Indecisive Swarm Algorithm” that makes robots act like the sheep so they can be herded. Some robots will continuously switch who they follow (either the researchers’ controller or a neighboring bot). The new algorithm creates robots that are easier to control in noisy conditions. In the future, the researchers say, this algorithm could help to organize other noisy collectives, such as drones, self-driving cars or even AI agents working together. What the experts say: “We tend to think of noise as a problem that makes systems less predictable, less optimized,” says Raphaël Sarfati, a physicist at Goodfire AI, who was not involved in the work. “[But] we see everywhere that noise, a little bit of noise at least, is really, really good for driving systems toward a better optimum.” ​ YOUNG AMERICAN SCIENTIST Jeffery DelViscio In astrophysicist Anna Ho’s lab at Cornell University, her team studies cosmic explosions such as supernovae. She examines the properties of stars during their lives and how these properties influence the ways they die and the so-called corpses they leave behind in the cosmos (typically in the form of black holes or neutron stars). Ho uses earthbound and space-based telescopes to observe stellar explosions as they happen and uses those observations to reconstruct the life of the star. “Right now I would say that my work has raised more questions than it has answered!” Ho says. Read the rest of this year’s Young American Scientists profiles.​

WHAT WE'RE READING Researchers are trying to gather as many samples of varying human microbiomes from around the world as possible. What they're learning is remarkable. | The New York Times Rising seas are threatening buried American history. | The Guardian It's harder than ever to have fun, and it's making us miserable. | Bloomberg I am with Dr. Blackburn. The curiosity of young children fills me with a sense of hope and, frankly, relief. We are all born as little scientists—the developing brain is a sponge for new information. Some research has even shown that babies have an innate sense of numbers! The trick is to keep nurturing that drive throughout childhood and into adulthood. As long as curiosity lives, we have a chance.   YOUR curiosity is what inspires this newsletter. Reach out to me anytime with comments, observations or questions: newsletters@sciam.com. We'll be back tomorrow.    —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

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