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.
The White House said 60 million of the tax-advantaged accounts for kids were created automatically in October.
Data centers are demanding more energy, and the Trump administration is making sure fossil fuels meet the moment.
The Martian Moons eXploration mission is scheduled to launch at 2:41PM ET and, if successful, should return to Earth in 2031 carrying samples from Phobos. It’ll study both Phobos and Deimos on its journey to shed some light on how they came to exist, and hopefully provide new insights into both Mars and Earth.
Elon Musk is pushing SpaceX’s Starlink to become a major competitor to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. But becoming a fourth major carrier in the United States has a long, messy, and expensive history.
It’s okay to marvel at the stunt — it’s pure spectacle.
$330 million is going towards expanding manufacturing plans next year that aim to produce up to 150 rocket upper stages. Blue Origin is also requesting to increase launches from 12 to 50 per year, and plans to “support multiple flights per week by the end of the decade.” That involves building additional New Glenn launch pads at Cape Canaveral, alongside restoring the one that blew up in May.
Google’s worldwide phone-powered earthquake alert system now covers even more of the planet. After launching in California in 2021 and eventually expanding to 98 countries and regions including Greece and New Zealand, the system is now available in over 200 regions with Panama, Guatemala, and more joining the list.
The funding is part of a $15 million initiative led by the Simons Foundation, with Anthropic also contributing. It follows months of upheaval in the field as AI companies race to solve longstanding problems and comes just over a week after OpenAI dumped hundreds of preprints on the research community.
A Ukranian official tells Axios that Starshield — SpaceX’s government-focused internet service that runs on Starlink satellites — has been “restored to full capacity.” Sudden restrictions on Ukraine’s Starshield services disrupted the military’s drone operations, officials said on Wednesday.
Here’s a tidbit in SpaceXSI’s announcement post for Grok Voice 3.0 today:
Starlink call centers use Grok Voice to answer 20,000 customer calls every day across multiple languages. Roughly 70% are resolved with no human in the loop, and one in four sales calls ends in a purchase before the caller hangs up. A single agent built on Grok Voice 3.0 verifies customers, troubleshoots hardware, issues credits, and ships replacement equipment.
The company’s unsecured debt due in 2032 is now trading below 80 cents on the dollar, Bloomberg reports. “Yikes” is right, Elon — if CoreWeave crumbles, other debt-laden neoclouds might be in trouble, too.
CoreWeave is in many ways the poster child of the current AI buildout, which may have disastrous consequences if things don’t go as planned.
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:
In return for feeding a ‘digital twin’ my metabolic data, it predicts how I’ll react to certain foods — and one day, maybe medicines.
It took nearly a decade for Tesla’s next-gen sports car to arrive, but it’s finally here. The timing couldn’t be worse.
The Samsung Health app has made Sleep Coaching reports more detailed, and now only requires three days of data within the past two weeks to initiate the feature, instead of seven days within a month. Additional Health app updates include expanded Running Coach programs, and new nutrition managmenet features for meal-logging and diet score assessments.
Despite not deploying any new space-internet satellites since early July because of issues at launch partners, Amazon says it’s on track “to launch initial service in 2026” with its existing 396 Leo satellites, having already missed its revised “mid-2026” target. “We’re still doing work to raise them into final position, and then you know there’s a lot of work on the ground to do,” says Amazon VP Chris Weber.
Early adopters should temper expectations, however, until the Leo constellation gets closer to its goal of 3,232 satellites.
As reported by Reuters, Trump bought up to $1.6 million in Nvidia stock and sold up to $1 million in August. Trump also disclosed an investment of as much as $5 million in SpaceX debt, according to CNBC.
On Thursday, Trump presented Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with the National Medal of Science.
So says The Washington Post. I’ve been writing about gray-market peptides in Optimizer, but this is a follow-up to July’s FDA hearings about whether compounding pharmacies should be allowed to sell unapproved peptides. It’s unclear which ones, and the timing could change, but the Post says this might give the administration a “political upside.”
[The Washington Post]
The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act would require data centers to report their electricity use, and allow utilities to charge them more for transmission costs. The bill aims to speed the construction of new infrastructure needed to meet soaring electricity demand, but won’t come up for a Senate vote until after midterm elections.
The airline said it will install Starlink across its entire mainland fleet of 1,300-plus aircraft, up from a previous commitment of 500 planes. Installations will begin in early 2027 and use Starlink’s Performance Aero Terminal, which can deliver speeds of up to 1 gigabits per second. Meanwhile, SpaceX founder Elon Musk is predicting Delta Air Lines’ CEO will lose his job over his decision to go with Amazon’s Leo satellite internet.
NASA shared these images from the Curiosity rover as the Sun rose over the Martian cliffs, bathing them in soft, diffuse light. The color is more subdued than the bright rust red we’re used to. There’s an eerie beauty to the hazy landscape.
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:
Researchers found that BPC-157 users tend to wait two months before disclosing usage to doctors — if they disclose at all.
Delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats have changed how diners eat and how restaurants operate. AI could force a new kind of reckoning for the industry.
Mitsui Fudosan is planning the data center, which will consist of more than 10 shipping containers with servers, in the Suma Belt Conveyor in Kobe, Japan, Nikkei Asia reports. The company is also apparently planning more underground data centers.
AI is junk food for the mind: easy, tempting and ultimately very bad for you.
