Wednesday, September 2, 2026
ArchiveDark Matter Finally Detected?
A lone signal in a South Dakota mine doesn't match any known particle. Hossenfelder walks through exactly what LUX-ZEPLIN measured, what it could be, and why physicists are losing sleep.
Iran
Most Americans hear about Iran through briefings and strike maps. Callaghan just walked through Tehran with a camera and let people talk. The gap between the country you've imagined and this one is enormous.
Mammalian genes can combine to make previously unknown mRNAs and proteins
'Nobody knows these exist. Medicine doesn't know they exist.' Harvard found that genes on separate chromosomes can fuse into chimeric mRNAs encoding novel proteins — potentially expanding the known proteome by orders of magnitude.
In a Big Win, Google Won’t Have to Break Up Its Ad Tech Business, Court Rules
Years of antitrust litigation, and the DOJ's bid to break up Google's ad empire just failed. The judge ordered changes but kept the company whole. What that means for the web's economic plumbing is still unclear — and that ambiguity is the point.
WWII Sugar Rationing Linked to Lower Dementia and Cancer Risk in Later Life
Britain rationed sugar from 1940 to 1953. Scientists tracked babies born during and just after. Seven decades later, the rationing cohort shows significantly lower rates of dementia and cancer. History ran the experiment we never could.