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.
You may remember, he funded a literal version of a Saturday Night Live sketch. Well, first of all, it turns out shattering world records in sports like swimming is a little more complicated than just adding steroids. But second: The Enhanced Games are a fancy way to sell supplements.
‘This is going to cost lives. Children are going to suffer.’
Sydney-based Vow is the first lab-grown meat manufacturer approved to launch Down Under. Vow, which has sold its meat under the Forged brand in Singapore since last year, offers quail foie gras and pâté, plus a quail-based candle you can dip food into as it melts.
They say they “craft entirely new, never before seen (or eaten) meats,” which is certainly one way to get around how hard it is to make a lab-grown steak.
The Trump administration is apparently trying to shut down the board that investigates chemical explosions in the US. What could go wrong?
Senate Republicans’ version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — similar to the bill the House passed last month — would slash tax incentives for electric vehicles, wind, and solar power.
Industry leaders warn that it could be a killer blow to new energy projects and factories in the US. “This bill will end any hope of onshoring domestic manufacturing,” Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, said in a press statement today.
A 2023 breach of genetic testing company 23andMe that leaked sensitive data for millions of customers already led to a $30 million settlement and, eventually, bankruptcy for the company once valued at $6 billion. Now the UK is layering on a fine of just over $3 million for failing to protect the genetic data of 155,592 UK residents. It comes just days after co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki said she was buying back the company’s assets for $305 million.
It’s been brought to my attention that the Trump Mobile Telehealth Information site seemingly claims contactless blood pressure are things you can get through its third-party Doctegrity services. This is a health tech red flag. While the other metrics mentioned are generally possible through a camera, contactless blood pressure is an emerging technology that hasn’t been widely adopted. Most blood pressure tech still requires calibration with a cuff. I’m more inclined to think this is a marketing copy snafu.
[trumpmobile.com]
Ten more states joined the suit filed today against President Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Congress recently voted to revoke EPA waivers that allow California to set tougher air pollution standards for vehicles than the nation as a whole, in what the plaintiffs allege was an unlawful use of the Congressional Review Act.
This saga has spanned several administrations since President Obama first tried to enact limits on greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. Donald Trump tried to replace those rules with his own, weaker standards, only to be stymied by Joe Biden changing course.
“We are proposing to repeal Obama and Biden rules that have been criticized as regulating coal, oil, and gas out of existence,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced today.
[politico.com]
Climate.gov will soon stop publishing new content after most of the people maintaining the website saw their contacts terminated, the Guardian reports. We don’t know yet if the website will continue to be accessible to the public.
The Trump administration has already faced — and lost — legal battles forcing it to restore other climate and health resources to federal websites. It has also removed climate information from FEMA’s website. The Federal Environmental Web Tracker is documenting these kinds of changes.
SpaceX rival Blue Origin had been planning a launch in “late spring,” following a successful first test in April, but CEO Dave Limp now says the target is August 15th. This time one of the key aims is to land and recover the booster, named “Never Tell Me The Odds” — one of the few points of failure from the first time out.
[x.com]
An update on how the extremely public political breakup is going today, as protestors face off with federal immigration agents in Los Angeles.
While sales of Tesla cars have suffered greatly since Elon Musk extended his arm and wallet to politics globally, his Starlink and Tesla Energy products have continued to do well. There’s lots of EV competition, but zero alternatives for cheap and fast consumer internet that can be quickly deployed in data dead zones, or whole home battery backup systems with a proven track record and terrific user experience. Although the competitors are quickly gearing up to address the latter.
Were you feeling left out by the terrible economics of Musk’s Twitter buyout? Great news! xAI, which now owns Twit — I mean, X — is selling shares. Also, Neuralink, newly freed from those pesky FDA staffers overseeing its applications, raised more money. has raised $650 million. Plus, there will be a public demo in two weeks! You know, if I were a cynical person, I might think Musk was trying to publicly distance himself from his time at DOGE.
The National Science Foundation — which developed tech such as the literal internet — now has a 23-year-old to veto funding to projects he doesn’t understand. That’s DOGE’s Zachary Terrell, who can barely pretend to pay attention in meetings. Anyway, this is who’s deciding which grants go forward — some guy with no experience in anything except getting a company acquired by Coinbase. Scientific experts? Those are a luxury for functioning countries.
It’s one of the world’s most active volcanoes. The eruption closed off the summit to tourists Monday, but reportedly posed no danger to the public, the Associated Press reports.
The worst wildfires in decades are tearing through Saskatchewan, Canada, and at least two people have been killed in blazes in the neighboring province of Manitoba.
Smoke from those fires has triggered air quality warnings in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It’s the kind of climate change-driven disaster that led young people from Minnesota to file suit against the Trump administration last week. Wildfire smoke can be 10 times as toxic as other air pollutants.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is surging ahead in the race to cover the planet with fast, low-latency internet beamed down from space. Xi Jinping and Jeff Bezos are just getting started while Europe, to nobody’s surprise, is mired in bureaucracy and woefully behind despite launching its first internet satellites back in 2019.
Can a move-fast-and-break-things approach create the next-gen rocket?
ICYMI, the livestream of a bald eagle nest in California’s Big Bear Valley is mesmerizing. Eagle-eyed viewers are anxiously waiting for the two twelve-week-old eaglets to fledge the nest, where they’ve been carefully raised by parents Jackie and Shadow since hatching in March.
The nest is perched about 145 feet above Big Bear Lake, so it’s a hair-raising prospect. But just yesterday, Sunny caught some serious air. Will this weekend bring the big day?
That’s what researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are proposing in this paper published in Device. In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, co-author Nanshu Lu says it’s meant to help people in “high-stakes, high-demand” jobs monitor their stress in real-time. The e-tattoo measures brainwaves and eye movements to decode mental workloads to help prevent people in stressful jobs from reaching a breaking point.
Obviously, this is research and not an actual thing yet — but it sure does look cyberpunk.
