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02/10/2026

Newsletter editor Emma Gometz is back with another newsletter roundup of science news for the week.

Want the latest in science news right in your inbox? Subscribe to Today in Science at sciam.com/newsletters.

Credit: ESA, ElephantVoices, TikToks from LittleWoodenTable, Brie Matthews, Herlordshome

02/10/2026

The earliest days of Christianity are hazy—relatively few written records survive from this era, and religious artifacts are rare archaeological finds. Still, a newly discovered early Christian monastery, dating to just six centuries after the religion got its start, could offer clues to how the faith spread across the world. The site, located on the island of Lismore, may have been established by Saint Mo Luóc in the sixth century C.E. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/archeologists-unearth-a-major-early-christian-monastery-in-scotland/

02/10/2026

The distinct, earthy smell that fills the air after rain following a long dry spell can trigger some serious nostalgia. This scent, petrichor, goes right to our brain’s memory and emotional centers for reasons that may be to do with our very evolution. But as climate change alters Earth’s weather and environment, petrichor is going to transform, too. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-climate-change-is-altering-petrichor-the-glorious-smell-after-it-rains/

01/10/2026

A new NASA directive loosens U.S. regulations for sterilizing spacecraft bound for the Red Planet and calls for modernizing the science of “planetary protection,” rules meant to avoid the contamination of other worlds with microbial life from Earth. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-directive-might-increase-the-odds-of-contaminating-mars/

01/10/2026

When Elon Musk took SpaceX public in June, a big part of its value proposition came from promises of data centers in space. Skeptics were quick to list all of the hurdles. This afternoon Google’s Project Suncatcher is scheduled to launch hardware in pursuit of the same idea: it will send artificial intelligence processors into orbit onboard—of all things—a SpaceX rocket.

The whole effort has less to do with what could be accomplished out in space than with what’s getting harder to achieve down here on Earth. Data centers are projected to use around 3 percent of the world’s electricity by 2030, roughly double their share today. As AI’s appetite for electricity tests the patience of communities being asked to feed it, some of the richest tech companies are racing to source their energy needs from space instead. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/google-tests-plan-for-ai-data-centers-in-space-project-suncatcher/

01/10/2026

The 2026 U.S. midterm elections are just weeks away. Among the highest-profile races is the contest for Michigan’s open Senate seat. With Senator Gary Peters not seeking reelection, the Democratic candidate is Abdul El-Sayed, who holds degrees in both medicine and public health and previously served as the head of Detroit’s public health department.

We asked El-Sayed how his scientific background affects his policy decisions, what the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement has gotten right and wrong and what his vision for Medicare for All is. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/democratic-michigan-senate-hopeful-abdul-el-sayed-explains-how-science-influences-his-politics/

01/10/2026

We’re familiar with elephant trumpet sounds, but much of their vocal communication happens through low-frequency rumbles. In a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers built and trained their own machine-learning model using hundreds of elephant vocalizations, including entire “choruses” of overlapping rumbles, to see if the sounds could reveal what the elephants were doing. The model picked up patterns in the calls and found that, in some social situations, elephants’ rumbles became more similar as they coordinated with one another.

Read Jackie Flynn Mogensen’s story at scientificamerican.com.

Credit: Elephant Voices

30/09/2026

Next-generation weight-loss drugs just hit a new milestone: In a phase 3 clinical trial, retatrutide helped people with type 2 diabetes lose an average of up to 49.6 pounds, or more than 20 percent of body weight—a first for the field—according to the drug’s maker, Eli Lilly.

Importantly, trial participants also saw significant reductions in blood sugar, as well as lower cholesterol and blood pressure—both of which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

“We achieved a new high-water mark for what’s possible in terms of weight loss,” says Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific and product officer at Eli Lilly. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/blockbuster-retatrutide-trial-signals-a-new-high-water-mark-for-weight-loss-drugs/

30/09/2026

We’ve never had an Atlantic hurricane season without a single hurricane through the end of September since reliable records began—until now.

That fact underscores how remarkable this season has been, with an exceptionally strong El Niño—likely to become the biggest in living memory—keeping a lid on tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic while supercharging it in the eastern Pacific (and giving Hawaii one of its busiest seasons on record).

“No hurricanes through September is unprecedented in the modern record, and it’s a little surreal to look at the maps every day this month and see the deep tropics basically shut off,” says meteorologist Michael Lowry. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-the-first-time-no-hurricanes-have-formed-in-the-atlantic-this-season-so-far/

30/09/2026

A new NASA directive seeks to loosen “planetary protection” rules meant to avoid the contamination of other worlds with microbial life from Earth.

The policy shift arrived via a message to NASA personnel. In it, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman writes that procedures for avoiding contamination must “reflect our current scientific knowledge” and argues that this knowledge has shifted since the current rules were established decades ago. The change is meant to “enable NASA to explore faster, increase science output, and prepare for human missions,” the message states, with an emphasis on the space agency’s long-term goal of sending astronauts to Mars. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-directive-might-increase-the-odds-of-contaminating-mars/

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