\nLive Science roundup<\/p>\n
Here’s a roundup of some of the stories Live Science published today and last night:<\/p>\n
2025-11-21T12:13:00.157Z \n Elon Musk celebrating the launch of the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on May 30, 2020. (Image credit: Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Who can outthink da Vinci and Newton? Outfight Mike Tyson? Outball LeBron? Who can create the universe with more speed and efficiency than God<\/a>?<\/p>\n That’s right, it’s the handsomest, funniest, coolest, richest man on the planet Elon Musk<\/a>. At least according to his artificial intelligence<\/a> chatbot, Grok.<\/p>\n The soon-to-be trillionaire’s Large Language Model has been posting up a storm on X<\/a> over the past week, responding to user queries with a raft of claims touting Musk’s enviable infallibility, genius and athletic prowess.<\/p>\n The bot’s fawning responses were quickly deleted from X as Musk posted Thursday (Nov. 20) afternoon that Grok had been manipulated “by adversarial prompting into saying absurdly positive things about me.” He then referred to himself with a slur and a smiley-face emoji, the Washington Post reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Grok’s absurd sycophancy has caused a lot of amusement online, it also serves as a healthy reminder that there is no such thing as an unbiased AI tool, an expert told the Post.<\/p>\n And if you want a deeper read on the dangers of using chatbots as your sole sources of information, urine luck<\/a>, Live Science has<\/a> you<\/a> covered<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-21T12:11:30.509Z \n (Image credit: NASA \/ Tomomichi Fujita)<\/p>\n Good morning, science fans. We’re back to wrap up an incredibly busy week in science: We’ve had NASA’s release<\/a> of its comet 3I\/ATLAS images<\/a>, the U.S. being months away from losing its measles elimination status<\/a>, chaos at the CDC<\/a>, three more stranded astronauts<\/a>, domesticated raccoons<\/a>, and Starlink satellites shooting mysterious signals out into space<\/a>. And that’s to name just a handful.<\/p>\n So what more could I possibly offer you? How about this moss-read study about the hardy plant not only surviving but thriving in the cold vacuum of space for nine entire months?<\/p>\n Fastened inside a special exposure capsule on the International Space Station<\/a>, the moss species Physcomitrium patens showed limited negative effects from space’s cold vacuum, its microgravity and temperature fluctuations, Live Science contributor Mason Wakley<\/a> writes.<\/p>\n All of these traits could offer biological stepping stones for building ecosystems beyond our planet, the researchers said.<\/p>\n Check out the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ben Turner<\/p>\n Acting Trending News Editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T23:26:21.075Z \n James Webb captured a photo in infrared of coiled shells of dust around a pair of Wolf-Rayet stars known as Apep. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Science: Yinuo Han (Caltech), Ryan White (Macquarie University); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))<\/p>\n Did someone leave their cosmic stand mixer running? No \u2014 it’s just the James Webb Space Telescope<\/a> (JWST) uncovering another wonder of the universe. In this new image, the world’s premier infrared observatory reveals more than 700 years of violent stellar history playing out before our eyes. At the center, a bright dot contains a pair of stars that are collectively known as Apep (a name for the Egyptian god of chaos, also called Apophis<\/a>). Every 190 years, the two stars whip past each other, spilling twin arms of dust into space at thousands of miles per second.<\/p>\n JWST’s observations show this has happened at least four times in the recent past, with four pairs of increasingly large spiral arms appearing in the new image (the outermost arms are barely visible at the edge of the frame).<\/p>\n Now, here\u2019s the twist: Webb’s observations, combined with data from the Very Large Telescope in Chile, confirmed that there is a third star in Apep, and it’s punching holes through the intricate dust patterns drawn by its siblings. The cavities left by that third star can be spotted by tracing a giant V, starting at the center of the image and spreading upward at about 10 and 2 o’clock.<\/p>\n For more about this beautifully violent star system, including a new 3D visualization, stop by NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n And with that, the North American contingent is signing out for the night. Check back early tomorrow for the biggest stories in science.<\/p>\n Brandon Specktor<\/p>\n Space and Physics Editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T20:38:33.980Z \n Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has overseen major changes at the HHS and its divisions, including the CDC. (Image credit: Heather Diehl via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Health editor Nicoletta<\/a> here with more news on the declining state of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/p>\n During a webinar<\/a> held Wednesday (Nov. 19), three former CDC leaders described the chaos that was unfolding at the agency after President Trump took office. The trio \u2014 Dr. Debra Houry, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis and Dr. Daniel Jernigan \u2014 jointly decided to resign in August<\/a> after CDC director Susan Monarez was fired by the White House. Each said that they’d seen disturbing changes at the agency following the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. Taken together, these changes signal a rejection of the scientific process and an embrace of ideology as the basis for health-policy decisions, the trio said.<\/p>\n “I don’t know if CDC will survive, to be quite frank, with what they’re doing,” Houry said.<\/p>\n These testimonials weren’t surprising to me. Nonetheless, it is disturbing and saddening to hear about how these public health leaders have been undermined \u2014 these are individuals who have dedicated their lives to serving others, and to protecting the public’s wellbeing using the best information they can gather. The rejection of their expertise not only hurts them as individuals; it could hobble public health on a national and international scale.<\/p>\n You can read my full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nicoletta Lanese<\/p>\n Health Channel Editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T20:35:56.038Z \n Recent changes to the CDC website appear to align with anti-vaccine rhetoric. (Image credit: Shutterstock)<\/p>\n From Ben<\/a>: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has adopted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine views on its website, according to news reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n The health agency’s website was altered on Wednesday (Nov. 19) evening to state that: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”<\/p>\n Suffice to say there are no scientifically proven links<\/a> between autism and vaccines, but that hasn’t stopped the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary from pushing these debunked claims<\/a>. Now it appears CDC communications are following suit.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T19:37:55.777Z Exciting news dropped yesterday that the Pfizer mRNA flu vaccine is more effective than traditional flu vaccines<\/a>, which are grown in hen’s eggs.<\/p>\n Egg-based flu vaccines have many shortcomings. Producing the vaccine in eggs is slow and takes a lot of eggs, making it challenging to scale up production in the context of a pandemic flu. That’s why vaccine manufacturers now try to match the flu strain in their shots to those circulating in the Southern Hemisphere months ahead of time.<\/p>\n But as we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccine production can be ramped up very, very quickly.<\/p>\n “An issue with eggs in vaccine production is that the virus can adapt to the eggs, and the mutations involved in that reduce the match to the target strain and reduce the efficacy,” Bill Hanage<\/a>, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told CIDRAP News<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the more than 18,000 healthy participants of the trial, the Pfizer shot prevented 60% to 67% of infections \u2014 higher than the 44% to 54% prevented by the traditional flu shot. On the flipside, the mRNA vaccines also had more side effects, such as flulike symptoms and arm swelling.<\/p>\n Whether this vaccine will ever see the light of day in the U.S. is a big open question. Health secretary RFK Jr. is notoriously hostile to vaccines<\/a>. And the Trump administration pulled the plug on government-funded mRNA vaccine research<\/a> in August.<\/p>\n So will the current administration’s Food and Drug Administration approve an mRNA vaccine based on safety and efficacy data that would have been more than convincing in the past?<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T19:13:04.864Z \n Pollution hangs in the air over Fuyang, China. A new review argues that the pollution and overcrowding of city living is harming our evolutionary fitness. (Image credit: SOPA Images\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Polluted, overcrowded cities are hurting humanity’s evolutionary fitness, or our ability to survive and reproduce, a new review argues<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new report presents a hypothesis that argues humans evolved over millions of years to live in nature, but have rapidly moved into cities since industrialization in the 1800s. The authors claim that this current “environmental mismatch” of city living leads to higher infertility rates and lower sperm counts, fuels autoimmune diseases and allergies, reduces our strength and endurance, and leads to slower cognitive development and faster cognitive decline. (For what it’s worth, you can find data<\/a> to support<\/a> or refute<\/a> their hypothesis, depending on where and how you look.)<\/p>\n The authors use their findings to argue we all need to foster connections to nature. I don’t disagree, exactly, but it also seems like a classic case of natural selection at work. Living in cities has numerous benefits<\/a>, which is why over time, more and more of the world’s population is migrating into them<\/a>.<\/p>\n So even if we’re maladapted to city living now, it’s possible that eventually, we’ll gain adaptations that help us thrive in urban environments.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T17:42:54.357Z \n Scientists in China came up with an insulin-cream that can be absorbed through the skin to lower blood sugar. They tested it on (presumably adorable) minipigs. (Image credit: Design Pics Editorial\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Tia<\/a> here with an update about a new insulin delivery system.<\/p>\n Anyone with diabetes knows that taking insulin is a real pain in the subcutaneous tissue. Getting insulin into the body requires injecting it into the fatty layer beneath the skin,either via a needle or an infusion site that stays in your body for a few days. And maintaining “tight” blood sugar control requires many shots a day.<\/p>\n But a team of researchers in China has demonstrated a skin cream that can get insulin into the body without puncturing skin<\/a>. The trick is attaching insulin to a positively-charged polymer, so that it can diffuse through the layers of skin. It’s still early days, and the team has so far tested it only in diabetic minipigs and mice. But the skin cream rapidly lowered blood sugar levels to nondiabetic levels in those animals.<\/p>\n The skin cream accumulated in fat and liver tissue for hours, keeping blood sugar levels in the normal range for a while. Subcutaneous injections of insulin, meanwhile, were rapidly cleared from the blood stream.<\/p>\n That could be an issue in type 1 diabetes<\/a>, where hypoglycemia, or dangerously low blood sugar, is always a concern, as the amount of insulin the body needs is always changing. A skin cream that takes hours to clear from the body could mean a person has to eat constantly for hours after, say, going on a jog and starting to run low.<\/p>\n It’s also not clear how much skin cream would constitute a “therapeutic dose.” Minipigs are, as their name suggests, relatively petite. For their porcine subjects, the researchers applied the insulin cream on a patch of belly about 62 square inches (400 square centimeters) in area. So how much cream would be needed to lower the blood sugar of a 200-pound (90 kilogram) man?<\/p>\n I also wonder how this could affect the skin, or the fatty tissue beneath, over the long-term. Insulin fuels fat growth, so injecting the drug over time can cause lipohypertrophy<\/a>, in which fatty lumps that reduce insulin absorption accumulate under the skin. But these lumps and bumps are tiny and focused around the injection sites, so the issue can be headed off by “rotating” the injection sites to different places on the body. Would the skin cream also cause unusual fat growth that would be harder to work around?<\/p>\n Tia Ghose<\/p>\n Editor-in-Chief (Premium)<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T17:37:18.835Z Okay that\u2019s it for me today in sunny England (it\u2019s dark and below freezing). Keep checking back for more coverage from my U.S. colleagues.<\/p>\n I\u2019d sign off with another comet joke, but it would probably go over your head.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T17:26:36.643Z \n A collection of comet 3I\/ATLAS images released by NASA. (Image credit: NASA\/Goddard\/LASP\/CU Boulder\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona\/Southwest Research Institute\/Lowell Observatory\/Qicheng Zhang\/ASU\/MSSS)<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry for the uninspired headline, but I really am running on empty with comet puns by now.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the opposite situation for Patrick<\/a> and comet news, however, as he\u2019s written up a new gallery of NASA\u2019s released 3I\/ATLAS images with all the context and analysis you could care for.<\/p>\n Check it out here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T16:15:54.033Z Here’s a roundup of some of the stories Live Science published today and last night (that we haven’t already mentioned):<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T15:35:32.832Z \n (Image credit: Shutterstock)<\/p>\n Live Science is hardly the first site you visit for stock market tips, but it\u2019s difficult to go anywhere these days without hearing loose talk about a potential AI bubble.<\/p>\n For the time being, market jitters over an imminent pop appear to have been shrugged off by Nvidia\u2019s strong quarterly results, the Financial Times reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n But what happens to science if ballooning investment into Large Language Models goes bust? The knock-on effects for funding and jobs could be bad, but not without their silver linings, this Nature article outlines<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T15:15:56.280Z \n The Viking Age woman was discovered with two large scallop shells on her mouth.\u00a0 (Image credit: Ellen Grav\/NTNU University Museum; CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n Kristina<\/a> here from the archaeology channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n It seems like ancient people are always “baffling” archaeologists \u2014 but this Viking<\/a> burial is truly unique. After a metal detectorist found a ninth-century brooch on a Norwegian farm, archaeologists dug up the skeleton of a woman whose face was covered with two giant scallop shells.<\/p>\n Check out our story<\/a> to find out what the shells could mean.<\/p>\n Kristina Killgrove<\/p>\n Staff Writer<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T15:07:18.957Z \n (Image credit: Shutterstock)<\/p>\n As China\u2019s stranded astronauts<\/a> continue to trend big this week, we\u2019re left wondering if now might be the time to take stock of humanity\u2019s growing space litter.<\/p>\n Earth orbits are becoming increasingly cluttered with junk, to the point where they could soon become unusable. So just how bad is the problem? And what can be done to fix it? Live Science contributor and former NASA engineer Damien Pine<\/a> dug into the issue off the back of a European Space Agency report back in April.<\/p>\n You can read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T15:05:44.184Z Cloudflare has finally discovered what caused the massive crash in its services that took out large chunks of the web on Tuesday (Nov. 18).<\/p>\n And it turns out the answer lies within, Ars Technica reports<\/a>. Within the company\u2019s database, an error output into a feature file caused said file to double in size, the effects of which propagated through the network to cause a widespread crash.<\/p>\n The rest is internet history. And while Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince can’t guarantee that there won\u2019t be another crash, he says that the outage will push the company to build more resilient systems.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T14:49:38.685Z \n T. oblongifolia growing in Death Valley, California. (Image credit: Karine Prado)<\/p>\n Scientists have finally discovered how a strange desert plant can thrive in the harsh temperatures of California\u2019s Death Valley \u2014 by rearranging its cells to better photosynthesize in the heat, Live Science contributor Sarah Wild<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n The plant is called Tidestromia oblongifolia, and the secrets of how it shuffles around its photosynthetic mechanisms could help scientists to make crops more heat-tolerant in our warming world.<\/p>\n You can check out the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T14:22:54.126Z A GIF of comet 3I\/ATLAS images taken by the PUNCH mission between Sept. 28 and Oct. 10. (Image credit: NASA\/Southwest Research Institute)<\/p>\n As I promised earlier, here\u2019s Patrick<\/a>\u2019s writeup of NASA\u2019s news conference on comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n It was a dramatic stream, with NASA scientists coming down hard on the claims swirling around the web about the comet\u2019s alleged connection to aliens. But it wasn\u2019t just about extraterrestrial rumors, lifted from the torrent of speculation were some genuinely spine-tingling observations about the 7 billion-year-old cosmic interloper.<\/p>\n You can read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T13:52:00.064Z \n (Image credit: TUMEGGY\/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)<\/p>\n On this day in 1943, two bacteriologists published a paper that confirmed a key tenet of Darwin\u2019s theory of evolution, as Tia <\/a>writes.<\/p>\n Their observations, which showed that bacterial mutations occurred spontaneously rather than emerging from selective pressures (as opposed to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck\u2019s rival theory of evolution proposed) cemented Darwin\u2019s hypothesis and would later win the pair a Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n But more recent observations show that the ways some bacterial mutations occur are far from completely random, complicating the initial picture presented by the duo.<\/p>\n You can read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T13:21:10.742Z \n (Image credit: JOHANNES EISELE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Time for the best kind of trash talk now, as a new study reveals that city raccoons are well on their way to domestication, Live Science contributor Skyler Ware<\/a> writes.<\/p>\n Using photos uploaded to the citizen science platform iNaturalist, researchers found that raccoons in urban environments had shorter snouts than their rural counterparts, a key indicator of their growing adaptation to coexistence with humanity \u2014 think of them as nature\u2019s garbage collectors.<\/p>\n So would you adopt a trash panda and raise it as your furry child? I think you\u2019d need at least five, to keep each other in check.<\/p>\n Oh and please don’t read this and start feeding wild raccoons, some of them do carry rabies.<\/p>\n You can read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T12:36:00.849Z \n (Image credit: Christian Ziegler\/LuiKotale Bonobo Project)<\/p>\n Sophie<\/a> here, fresh from reporting my most gruesome story to date. My past life as a chimp researcher means I have a pretty strong stomach for the realities of life in wild great ape populations. But I admit that this story detailing how five female bonobos brutally maimed a male<\/a> to the point that researchers initially struggled to identify him made me feel queasy.<\/p>\n Sonya Pashchevskaya<\/a>, who observed the attack, recounted the event in so much detail to me that I felt transported to the scene. She described how around 60 bonobos sat dumbfounded, silently bearing witness to the most severe attack ever reported from wild bonobos, with the overwhelming stench of blood in the air. “They’re supposed to be walking around foraging and they’re all sitting there. Babies aren’t playing, no one is eating. Everybody’s just silent for two hours,” she recalled.<\/p>\n The obvious question, then, is “what did the male do to deserve this level of violence?” No members of the research team saw the beginning of the attack, but Pashchevskaya said the most likely explanation is that the male tried to harm one of the females’ infants.<\/p>\n Infanticide, where males kill unrelated babies to up their chances of fathering offspring of their own, is common in primate societies but is absent in bonobo populations. When you know this is the risk male bonobos take when trying to harm a female infant, no wonder.<\/p>\n Sophie Berdugo<\/p>\n Staff Writer<\/p>\n 2025-11-20T11:31:47.836Z \n Comet 3I\/ATLAS as snapped by astrophotographer Satoru Murata. (Image credit: Satoru Murata)<\/p>\n Good morning, science fans, and what a day for comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/a> news it was yesterday. I won\u2019t run back over the torrent information our space and physics editor Brandon<\/a> provided from the briefing last night, especially when you can simply scroll down to see it and Patrick<\/a> has a story on the way.<\/p>\n What I can do is point you in the direction of the treasure trove of images<\/a> released on NASA\u2019s website. Yes, they\u2019re all blurry blobs, but as the comet approaches its closest point to Earth on Dec.19, we can expect much more impressive images from Earth telescopes, like this one here<\/a>.<\/p>\n And you can be sure the new images won\u2019t stop coming until a while after the comet\u2019s perigee \u2014 the comet is set to zip out into deep space and never return to our solar system after its visit, meaning astronomers are racing to make every observation they can of it until then.<\/p>\n Ben Turner<\/p>\n Acting Trending News Editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T23:44:23.445Z The Canada crew is signing off for the night, but we’ll be back tomorrow, likely with more stunning comet 3I\/ATLAS images.<\/p>\n Brandon Specktor<\/p>\n Space and physics editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T21:35:16.416Z The press conference has ended, but the work of deciphering and analyzing NASA’s long-awaited images<\/a> of 3I\/ATLAS has just begun. <\/p>\n We were expecting a few images from Mars; we received more than a dozen observations, taken by eight different missions over the course of three months.<\/p>\n It’s a treasure trove of data.<\/p>\n 3I\/ATLAS spotted by the Psyche spacecraft from about 33 million miles away (Image credit: NASA \/ Psyche)<\/p>\n The NASA panelists likened the new observations to fans at a baseball game, each holding a camera and photographing the action from a different angle. Only by comparing and contrasting all these views will our most complete understanding of 3I\/ATLAS emerge.<\/p>\n And the game’s not done yet. As the comet approaches its closest point to Earth (on Dec. 19), many more telescopes will take a bite at the cosmic apple. It won’t just be NASA and the world’s biggest observatories watching, but amateur astronomers, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stay tuned to Live Science for more 3I\/ATLAS news over the coming month \u2014 and keep your eyes on the skies.<\/p>\n \u2014 Brandon Specktor<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T21:08:32.406Z The question and answer portion of the event ended with a question from… Live Science!<\/p>\n I asked the panel about the “circumstancial evidence” that 3I\/ATLAS is much older than our solar system. Tom Statler answered:<\/p>\n “It takes the sun 240 million years to orbit around the center of the galaxy, and we’re doing that with a neighborhood of stars,” Statler said. “The relative motions between stars in our solar neighborhood is… about 25,000 miles an hour.”<\/p>\n 3I\/ATLAS, meanwhile, is coming through the solar system three times faster than the stars in our neighborhood move on average.<\/p>\n “This tells us it’s coming from a different population than what we have around us,” Statler added, which hints that 3I\/ATLAS likely had to travel a long, long way to get here.<\/p>\n Unfortuantely, it will be very hard to constrain the exact age of the comet until we find more like it.<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T20:52:36.145Z Some highlights from the question and answer portion of the NASA conference:<\/p>\n Hubble observations suggest the comet measures between 1,400 feet to 3.5 miles in diameterJWST observations<\/a> revealed a high CO2 content, which could indicate 3I\/ATLAS formed from a region of carbon dioxide ice that\u2019s very different from our solar systemThere\u2019s “circumstantial evidence,” based on its velocity, that 3I\/ATLAS is very old, and may be significantly older than our sunThese images have barely been processed, and are observations that \u201cthe science community will be digging into for years,\u201d said Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASAJets of gas erupting from the comet show that it was very active near perihelion \u2014 but doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it exploded<\/a>, as some researchers have speculated. But \u201cwe can\u2019t tell for sure,\u201d Statler noted.The non-gravitational acceleration of the comet is “very on par” with other comets we’ve seen, and is caused by jets of gas erupting from within<\/p>\n Here’s another one of the new images, taken from Mars with the HiRISE camera:<\/p>\n \n 3I\/ATLAS seen by HiRISE in orbit around Mars (Image credit: NASE \/ HiRISE)<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T20:26:10.319Z The conference is ongoing, but NASA has already updated its 3I\/ATLAS image page<\/a> with more than a DOZEN new observations from its fleet of machines.<\/p>\n These include images from the SOHO and PUNCH spacecraft watching the sun, the Perseverance Mars rover, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and MAVEN orbiters at Mars, and the Lucy, Psyche, and STEREO missions.<\/p>\n Here is one of the new images, captured by PUNCH:<\/p>\n (Image credit: NASA \/ PUNCH)<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T20:10:49.775Z To start the conference<\/a>, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya tackled rumors about 3I\/ATLAS’ origins<\/a> right away, noting that all evidence points to the object being a natural comet from another star system. <\/p>\n He said he welcomes the international attention that’s been given to the comet, and hopes everyone remains interested in what it has to teach us.<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T20:00:21.135Z NASA Shares Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS Images – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n NASA’s live stream, sharing the first new images of comet 3I\/ATLAS since August, is about to begin. Watch it live along with us here.<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T19:36:38.002Z We’re now less than 30 minutes away from NASA’s 3I\/ATLAS image reveal conference.<\/p>\n If you aren’t able to watch the event live (right here)<\/a>, you can still view the images after. NASA will post them all to this page<\/a>, which catalogs every 3I\/ATLAS image the agency has shared since the comet’s discovery in July.<\/p>\n The last image NASA shared before the shutdown was this view from the SPHEREx infrared telescope, taken between Aug. 7 to Aug. 15. You can see 3I\/ATLAS brightening in the center of the frame.<\/p>\n 3I\/ATLAS seen by NASA’s SPHEREx telescope from Aug. 7 to Aug. 15 (Image credit: NASA)<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T18:59:57.819Z \n A view of comet 3I\/ATLAS taken by the National Science Foundation’s Gemini Observatory (Image credit: International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/Shadow the Scientist)<\/p>\n Greetings, science fans. Live Science space and physics editor Brandon Specktor<\/a> here to take you through NASA’s impending news conference, where agency officials will share the latest images of interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/a>.<\/p>\n The event is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. EST, and you can watch it live right here<\/a>, as well as on NASA’s official website and YouTube page. This will be the first official NASA communication about the much-publicized comet since the U.S. government shutdown temporarily muted the agency more than a month ago.<\/p>\n What are we hoping to see? For starters, NASA’s closest-ever observations of the interstellar interloper. Snapped by the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) during the comet’s closest flyby of the Red Planet in early October, the images will show 3I\/ATLAS from just 19 million miles away \u2014 close to ten times closer than the comet will ever get to Earth. <\/p>\n (We’ve already gotten a sneak peek of this view<\/a> from the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which clearly shows the comet’s cloudy coma glowing around its bright nucleus.)<\/p>\n A GIF of the comet 3I\/ATLAS moving across the night sky as it zoomed past Mars, taken by ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter. (Image credit: ESA\/TGO\/CaSSIS)<\/p>\n NASA also plans to share observations of the comet from other ongoing missions, though the agency has not yet specified which ones. We do know from previous reporting<\/a> that two NASA sun-watching missions \u2014 the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona Heliosphere (PUNCH) as well as the NASA\/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) \u2014 had eyes on the comet during its close approach to the sun in late October, so those are both possibilities.<\/p>\n Stay tuned for more.<\/p>\n Brandon Specktor<\/p>\n Space and Physics Editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T17:12:00.412Z We’re signing off from the U.K. side now, but stay tuned for some very exciting comet updates when the NASA images drop later today.<\/p>\n And before I go, why not a comet joke:<\/p>\n Why does a shooting star taste better than a comet?<\/p>\n It’s a little meteor.<\/p>\n Ben Turner<\/p>\n Trending News Editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T17:08:14.395Z \n An artist’s illustration of the measles virus. (Image credit: koto_feja via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Editors Nicoletta<\/a> and Hannah<\/a> here with a duo of stories to catch you up on the state of measles in the United States. (Spoiler: The situation is growing increasingly dire.)<\/p>\n In a news analysis from Live Science contributor Stephanie Pappas<\/a>, experts explain why America could lose its “measles elimination status” within months. The country eliminated measles back in 2000, meaning the disease was no longer circulating at a sustained level as it does in endemic<\/a> countries. But to keep that status, a region must not have any ongoing measles transmission lasting over a year. West Texas experienced a major measles outbreak this year that began in January and seeded additional outbreaks in other states, where transmission is still ongoing. If we hit January 2026 and those outbreaks haven’t been subdued, measles will once again be considered endemic to the U.S.<\/p>\n In an opinion piece, epidemiologist Elizabeth Jacobs<\/a> and virologist James Alwine<\/a> argue that the measles outbreaks in Canada and the U.S. are a bellwether of the erosion of public health, and that these countries are failing their citizens. “Kennedy must be removed from office,” they write, referencing the U.S. health secretary RFK Jr. “There can be no improvements in public health or vaccination rates as long as he continues his destructive reign.”<\/p>\n To learn more, read Stephanie’s story here<\/a> and the op-ed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nicoletta Lanese<\/p>\n Health Editor Hannah Osborne<\/p>\n Planet Earth and Animals Editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T16:11:03.796Z \n Comet 3I\/ATLAS photographed from Manciano, Italy on Nov. 19. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi\/Virtual Telescope Project)<\/p>\n Want a fresh peak at the most famous comet in the world right now, but can\u2019t wait for NASA\u2019s 3 p.m. EST stream? We\u2019ve got you covered.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a new image taken by astronomer Gianluca Masi<\/a>, an astronomer and founder of The Virtual Telescope Project<\/a>. The image was captured by Masi in Manciano, Italy, and shows the comet\u2019s coma, its tail and anti-tail.<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T14:39:56.995Z \n Yoshua Bengio at the All In event in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. (Image credit: Graham Hughes\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Scientists like to be cited \u2014 being referenced in future research articles is a key indicator of their work\u2019s impact on future discoveries.<\/p>\n So machine-learning trailblazer Yoshua Bengio<\/a> could be pleased to have made a major record this week, becoming the first person to be cited more than a million times on Google Scholar for his contributions to artificial intelligence research, Scientific American reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Bengio has far more on his mind than academic achievement. What keeps him up at night is curtailing the dangerous uses of AI made possible by his own research.<\/p>\n You can read the interview<\/a> I had with him last year for more.<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T13:32:19.861Z \n An illustration of two black holes merging into one. New research explains how a “forbidden” black hole was created through one of the most peculiar mergers yet detected. (Image credit: Pitris via Getty Images)<\/p>\n In 2023, scientists detected a gravitational wave signal they thought was impossible<\/a> \u2014 a sequence of space-time ripple coming from two black holes deemed too massive to form by the direct collapse of stars.<\/p>\n And yet form, and later merge, these black holes did. Now, by teasing apart the signals and simulating how the space-time singularities came to be, physicists may finally have an answer for how the black holes managed it. The solution just happens to test Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity at its most extreme limits.<\/p>\n Read the full story by Live Science contributor Andrey Feldman<\/a> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T12:49:23.350Z Here’s a roundup of some of the stories Live Science published today and last night:<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T12:43:47.066Z \n (Image credit: Andreas Last via Getty Images)<\/p>\n If comet 3I\/ATLAS really is revealed to be an alien probe, I may be kissing my credibility as a comet journalist goodbye. But did you know that the practice of kissing far predates humans?<\/p>\n By pairing a Bayesian model with observations of various modern-day primates pressing lips, scientists have estimated that kissing first evolved in the common ancestor of large apes sometime between 21.5 million and 16.9 million years ago.<\/p>\n With all that said, it\u2019s far from clear how much our human ancestors smooched across the centuries \u2014 even in modern humans only about half of cultures engage in it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Check out the full story by Live Science contributor Clarissa Brincat<\/a> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-19T12:32:44.333Z Good morning, science boys and girls. We\u2019re back with yet another day of science news as NASA prepares to release some of the best-quality images yet of comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/a>.<\/p>\n The comet has been capturing an enormous amount of attention recently. Some of it is likely unearned (you know it\u2019s almost definitely not aliens<\/a>, right?) and some definitely a big deal (the more than 7 billion-year-old space snowball is a fascinating window across cosmic time and space<\/a>).<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be covering the event live as it happens, so if we\u2019re wrong and little green men really are hopping around on it, we\u2019ll be the first to tell you.<\/p>\n Ben Turner<\/p>\n Acting Trending News Editor<\/p>\n 2025-11-18T23:43:57.429Z The U.S. team is off for the night. Check in early U.K. time for the latest science news.<\/p>\n 2025-11-18T22:55:15.395Z Geologists using an AI model say they have found chemical traces of life in 3.3-billion-year-old rocks<\/a> from around the world.<\/p>\n That isn’t quite the oldest evidence of life. There are stromatolites<\/a>, or microbial mats, found in Australia that date to 3.48 billion years ago. Other traces of ancient life have been more controversial: In 2017, scientists argued that chemical traces in 3.95-billion-year-old rocks from Labrador, Canada<\/a> may constitute Earth’s earliest evidence of life.<\/p>\n But many very ancient samples are hotly contested<\/a>, in part because what’s left behind is not the organism itself, but the chemical equivalent of a “life was here” sign. But because the biological molecules themselves break down over billions of years, these signatures of life are open to interpretation.<\/p>\n In the new study, the AI model looked at more than 400 samples of ancient rocks and sediments, modern-day plants and animals and ancient meteorites to pinpoint a “signature of life” that is left behind in rocks even after the most obvious biomolecules break down.<\/p>\n The team says they can distinguish rocks that once harbored life from those that did not with greater than 90% accuracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2025-11-18T21:48:04.921Z \n The Trump administration has cut funding for hundreds of clinical trials. A big chunk of that funding had been for mRNA vaccine research. (Image credit: libre de droit via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Tia<\/a> here with an update on the state of clinical trials in the U.S.: Funding cuts by the Trump administration have halted 383 clinical trials, or about 1 in 30 funded by the National Institutes of Health, a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine<\/a> has found.<\/p>\n Most of the terminated trials were in early phases, according to a summary of the new study in American Journal of Managed Care<\/a>. But that still resulted in 74,000 enrolled patients being removed from trials.<\/p>\n The biggest funding cuts came from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), due in large part to $500 million in mRNA vaccine research<\/a> being halted in August.<\/p>\n That won’t be a surprise to those who have followed public health news. Vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now heads the Department of Health and Human Services, and has taken several steps<\/a> to discredit<\/a> and hamper vaccine <\/a>uptake and development.<\/p>\n While the administration has said only mRNA vaccines are in the crosshairs and that other uses of mRNA technology are unaffected by the funding cuts, “the industry doesn’t trust that,” Jeff Coller<\/a>, the Bloomberg distinguished professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University, told health editor Nicoletta Lanese<\/a> in an interview in August.<\/p>\n That’s a real pity, because mRNA technology has enormous potential, from attacking hard-to-treat, deadly cancers to curing genetic diseases<\/a>, Nicoletta reported in October.<\/p>\n Tia Ghose<\/p>\n Editor-in-Chief (Premium)<\/p>\n 2025-11-18T18:11:22.682Z It\u2019s goodbye from the Live Science staff on the U.K. side. We\u2019ll leave you in the ever-capable hands of our U.S. colleagues for more posts, commentary and breaking news updates.<\/p>\n 2025-11-18T17:11:06.721Z
\nIt’s official: Elon Musk is the world’s greatest human, his chatbot Grok says.<\/p>\n![\"SpaceX](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/iDKkf4rnBkykNzDYRAus2e.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe moss goss<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GHmVxrPP5tUMUwyj4y43LC.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TDL6D6zAT3NQxfDveP5Z8U.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nJWST finds a surprise in the heart of chaos<\/p>\n![\"image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/aUsUaUZpdw9JSUhrSjhpwd.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Brandon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Rrinoj9SZ99o7ue3nbRyL7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFormer CDC officials report turmoil at leading health agency<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/iChNpjoRRWBecSxxXBaf6M.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"headshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763676494_296_cy3EaoYNYuMmyAABkL6RyN.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nCDC website adopts anti-vaccine views<\/p>\n![\"CDC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SgVtPmf7tcUUX9jaeJFne9.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nmRNA flu shot delivers the goods <\/p>\n
\nCities reducing our evolutionary fitness?<\/p>\n![\"drone](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763729958_439_toPoZMYgSqCnoXSeJ5ErZf.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nNeedle-free insulin?<\/p>\n![\"pink](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rt5xkTRhjyXE44nZT6afyA.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Tia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/NiKGXW38DbfSzfj2cEGT5X.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nSigning off<\/p>\n
\nComet 3I\/ATLAS images <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/T9NxYaj8w8SfBtaoUQL9E9.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nLive Science roundup<\/p>\n
\nScience and the AI bubble<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/pcWUrssxPhQqtQiWANwNgG.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nBaffling Viking burial<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763729964_248_mFQ5MbNLWEPnQzhQs8aSz3.png\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"author](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/JVCr5iFZX7hZheLfYAL3bD.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nHouston, do we have a junk problem?<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/K6b7VvXYjcFZAHdBjEfh4i.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nCloudflare crash revealed <\/p>\n
\nThe plant that shuffles around its insides to survive the desert heat <\/p>\n![\"T.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/C8Sh2GcXAjxr5H5hAsvwug.png\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nCare to comet?<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fVBS9hEok6PELoQEUH7Ka.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\nScience history: The day bacterial evolution was shown to be random <\/p>\n![\"an](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ffx9TD2tNXLCbwsvVCjm3j.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nOne man’s trash panda is another’s little treasure<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/HWXbmgem8T8PgPaCYHwQeC.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\n‘Hippie apes’ go ape <\/p>\n![\"Wild](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FM6VbDb7fCwjtrecvoA9gP.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763729975_499_WEutDZpQMrJzfku8aiewTh.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nEasy comet, easy go<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/6iuqZ9YBGW2ozYBkMWHFFU.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nThat’s all for tonight<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nA treasure trove of images<\/p>\n![\"3I\/ATLAS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763729978_486_VvzRwtZRMfwDPuySQMXps3.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\nA comet “three times faster” than the sun?<\/p>\n
\nA comet we’ll “be digging into for years”<\/p>\n![\"3I\/ATLAS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/P65uYXxDwAkcW4TuSizqzC.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe images are in!<\/p>\n![\"3I\/ATLAS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jg6psFCfZ4JuaVbbCNAvEh.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\nNASA: “3I\/ATLAS is a comet.”<\/p>\n
\nWatch now: 3I\/ATLAS image reveal<\/p>\n
\n![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763469381_763_maxresdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWhere to find the new NASA images<\/p>\n![\"3I\/ATLAS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/w5DSqqg9FsqsAQuyzVpVoP.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\nCountdown to NASA’s 3I\/ATLAS image reveal<\/p>\n![\"an](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/xkmAJAaj24k73omqaCPNuR.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763676518_96_N265D77HemanLkjbbPd7vQ.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nSigning off from the U.K.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nAmerica is on the brink of losing its measles elimination status<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/UXq3LAf77NmErbitS7R6DL.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"hannah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/PRdNayA6u3CRaWy5ULdNAg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nComet 3I\/ATLAS sneak-peek<\/p>\n![\"Comet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/PFjBTuEtCzjsoZhuUWugMF.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\n‘Godfather of AI’ breaks citation record<\/p>\n![\"Yoshua](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/v7As2ASMGd3jdmrwFuXP5b.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nRelativity at its breaking point<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/YvpARud8MenapMaZu8teqE.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nLive Science roundup<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019d like to kiss you monkey man<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763676529_151_94atsUpAJkycjGKs6WsEbk.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\nNASA comet 3I\/ATLAS announcement today<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nSee you later<\/p>\n
\n3.3 billion-year-old traces of life<\/p>\n
\nNIH terminates funding for hundreds of trials<\/p>\n![\"Medical](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sq8XMBn9Z5WanXbEh7iCgV.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nGoodnight from across the pond<\/p>\n
\nThe Crying of Launch Complex 39<\/p>\n