Featuring the latest in daily science news, Verge Science is all you need to keep track of what’s going on in health, the environment, and your whole world. Through our articles, we keep a close eye on the overlap between science and technology news — so you’re more informed.
A new campaign to promote American-grown cotton to consumers sounds nice — but is far more complicated than the administration is making it sound.
The GLP-1 tech boom is coming.
Jeff Bezos’ Leo service had an FCC deadline of July 30th to launch half of its planned 3,232-satellite constellation. To date it’s only launched 331. The waiver comes with conditions meant to incentivize Amazon to move quickly, which would be a lot easier if Bezos’ semi-reusable New Glenn rocket hadn’t exploded and destroyed its only launchpad.
Per a regulatory filing, Google will pay SpaceX $920 million per month from October 2026 through June 2029, as reported by TechCrunch.
In a statement to TechCrunch, Google says that it’s a “short-term” agreement to help meet “surging customer demand for our agent platform, Gemini Enterprise, which has been even higher than we expected.”
Anthropic’s deal with SpaceX was announced in May.
There are over 330 Leo satellites already in orbit, but the 36 planned for the next Arianespace mission is still smaller than the 48 satellites Amazon was planning to launch on a Blue Origin rocket that exploded during testing last week. This batch of satellites will launch from a spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on June 17th.
Peloton has acquired Skōp, a Pilates-focused startup that builds real-time form-tracking technology. That suggests there might be new Peloton hardware on the horizon, as the company tries to recover from its post-covid slump. In a statement, Peloton CEO Peter Stern said:
“Form is everything in Pilates, so we are taking a purposeful approach to ensure we develop the most effective, safest, and fun experiences possible—ones people will keep doing for life.”
The S&P just found the backbone that Nasdaq discarded on the street alongside the rest of New York City’s trash. While others are bending the rules to accommodate SpaceX and other gargantuan IPOs, the S&P is standing firm. “No changes will be made” to accommodate these mega offerings.
[S&P Dow Jones]
First off, it announced today that it plans to acquire Nutrisense — a CGM startup that targets nondiabetics. Stelo, its over-the-counter CGM, is also getting an FDA-cleared redesign that includes “pattern recognition, proactive AI coaching, and personalized weekly and daily summaries.” Hopefully, these moves help ease the data fatigue I experienced in my yearlong experiment with CGMs as a nondiabetic.
Elon destroyed Twitter, but somehow still won as he prepares to take SpaceX public in what could be the biggest IPO ever.
NASA hasn’t heard from MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) since December 6th. A review board concluded that the spacecraft was in an unrecoverable state after emerging from the far side of Mars because it was rotating at an “unusually high rate,” which drained the batteries, cutting off power to MAVEN’s communications systems.
Grimes County, Texas, awarded the company a property tax exemption for its planned $55 billion Terafab semiconductor plant. Local residents seem to feel the same way about the project as many do about data centers, and this tax break won’t help. As local landowner Rhonda Nesloney put it in court:
“Elon was on the news bragging he’s about to be a trillionaire . . . and you want to consider giving him a tax abatement.”
CNBC reports details from a new filing ahead of SpaceX’s IPO on June 12th and notes a mention that xAI, which merged with SpaceX earlier this year, bought $269 million worth of Tesla megapack batteries in April.
At the $135 per share price tag, SpaceX would be valued at $1.77 trillion, which assumes the EchoStar spectrum and Cursor transactions close. The valuation would make SpaceX the seventh-biggest company in the U.S. by market cap, and put it above Tesla, which is valued at about $1.6 trillion.
The Trump administration might not want trans kids to exist, but they’re living their lives anyway.
The BodyFit, available starting today, is a more affordable alternative to Withings’s $600 “longevity station” BodyScan 2 or the original BodyScan, which got a tariff price hike to $499.95 last year. Withings claims the BodyFit can deliver a “DEXA-level” “full-spectrum, 6-zone body composition scan in just 10 seconds.”
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That’s Dave Limp, Blue Origin CEO, commenting on New Glenn’s return to service after last week’s spectacular explosion that seriously damaged LC-36 — the rocket’s only launchpad. If the timeline holds it would be on the optimistic side of estimates and good news for NASA and Amazon who need the partially reusable, heavy-lift launch vehicle operational to meet their respective targets of returning to the Moon and competing with Starlink.
The biggest public offering ever is financial nihilism’s final form.
Copilot Health, first announced in March, is now open to Microsoft 365 subscribers. Microsoft says they can use it to find doctors and get insights on data from connected medical records, wearables, and other apps like Apple Health, similar to health AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
[Microsoft Copilot Blog]
Biohackers say drugs can help you be your best self. It’s hard to spot when they’re not telling the whole truth.
Blue Origin has warned that “debris from our recent hotfire anomaly may wash ashore in the coming days/weeks,” and says that people shouldn’t touch or approach it “for your safety.” If you do encounter any wreckage, you can report the location here:
Call: 1-321-222-4355
Email: MissionRecovery@blueorigin.com
Recently grounded after issues with its third mission, the New Glenn rocket intended to launch the NG-4 mission has suffered an “anomaly,” exploding at Cape Canaveral during a hotfire test just after 9PM ET.
Blue Origin said, “All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.”
Well, I was too busy putting the finishing touches on my feature about the Enhanced Games to notice that the company is now offering a $10 million prize for sprinters who can break Usain Bolt’s 100m record of 9.58 seconds at the Enhanced Games 2027. Oh boy. Here we go.
On the ground at the invite-only ‘Steroid Olympics’ in Vegas, where the athletes are the experiment.
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
The environmental activist and former legal clerk who’s life was made into a movie in 2000 is also logging local complaints about data center projects in their communities. Brockovich writes:
“The RACE to build AI infrastructures is unfolding town by town across America. In some places, data centers are welcomed. In others, they are delayed, contested or abandoned altogether. This MAP captures the real-world footprint of that race — revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty.
[Brockovich Data Center Reporting]
Spicy chatbot startup Joi AI says it’s hiring 10 “masturbation consultants” to test new “daily audio-guided sessions” with an AI-generated voice. If you fancy trying your hand, you’ve until the end of the week.
Own a fancy telescope but can’t escape light pollution to make the most of it? There are businesses popping up like Starfront Observatories in Rockwood, Texas, that allow you to rent a spot and remotely snap some starry shots over a high-speed data connection.
The latest update on an overheating tank filled with an estimated 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate is that firefighters were still trying to determine if some pressure had been released, after discovering a crack that could lessen the risk of a BLEVE, or Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion.
ABC 7 reports that more than 50,000 people in Orange County have had to leave their homes since the leak was discovered at the GKN Aerospace facility on Thursday.
Update (11:48AM ET): The Orange County Fire Authority says that it now believes the threat of a BLEVE is “off the table,” with pressure and temperature in the tank dropping.
The agency is looking to partner with filmmakers, musicians, writers, poets, and artists to help tell the story behind programs such as the Artemis Moon missions and the Space Reactor-1 Freedom mission to Mars. But get your proposals in ASAP, the window closes on Tuesday, June 30th.
The crisis at an aerospace plant has entered its second day. The tank is on the brink of catastrophic failure, and a state of emergency has been declared. Additional shelters have been opened for the roughly 50,000 people under evacuation. For up-to-date reporting, head to The New York Times, NPR, or CNN.
After a scrubbed launch on Thursday, SpaceX’s first V3 Starship left Pad 2 at Starbase on Friday evening.
SpaceX is now preparing to go public, and a lot of its big promises hinge on the development of vehicles like the next-generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicle launched today. The booster will not attempt a return this time, while the Flight 12 Starship is attempting to deploy 20 Starlink simulators and two “modified” Starlink satellites.
After being pushed back an hour, we were a few minutes away from the scheduled 7:30PM ET opening of a 90-minute window for the 12th Starship flight test, before it was scrubbed about ten minutes later, saying they will try again tomorrow.
This is the first test flight since SpaceX and its most significant risk factor filed for a massive IPO yesterday, the first attempt for new “next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles,” and the first launch scheduled from a new Pad 2 at the Starbase in Boca Chica, TX.
