AI-driven optimization opens the door to genome-wide transcriptomics in cell-free systems
For years, cell-free systems have been a powerful but limited tool in synthetic biology. They allow researchers to carry out transcription and translation outside a living cell, making them ideal for prototyping genetic circuits, producing difficult proteins, and building biosensors. But there has been a trade-off: the yield of messenger RNA (mRNA) from these systems […]
Astronomers Catch the Glowing Shockwave of a Galaxy on the Move
Astronomers Catch the Glowing Shockwave of a Galaxy on the Move Featured image: [LOFAR radio image overlay showing the bow-and-arrow morphology of RAD-BAARG, with the giant arc-shaped shock front on the western side and the distorted S-shaped jet on the eastern side; credit: Ananda Hota / RAD@home / LOFAR / RAS] Astronomers have discovered a […]
Europe’s Next Security Challenge Is in Orbit
Europe’s Next Security Challenge Is in Orbit Date: 2026-06-28 Featured image: [Artist’s representation of objects in low Earth orbit and geostationary orbit, illustrating the congestion and complexity of the space environment; credit: ESA] Across the European Union, satellite navigation alone underpins more than 10 percent of GDP. In the United Kingdom, space-based activity accounts for […]
SoftBank’s Son questions orbital data center hype as space vs Earth AI infrastructure debate heats up
SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son has publicly questioned Elon Musk’s vision for orbital data centers, arguing that building compute infrastructure in space will neither cut costs meaningfully nor arrive in time for the current AI arms race. Speaking at a SoftBank shareholder meeting on June 23, Son said that power accounts for only about […]
How to Protect Earth from a Deadly Asteroid Impact
How to Protect Earth from a Deadly Asteroid Impact Date: 2026-06-28 Featured image: [Artist’s illustration of a kinetic impactor approaching an asteroid, with the DART spacecraft as reference; credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL] A meteoroid just 1.5 meters wide lit up the skies over Massachusetts in late May 2026, producing a fireball visible in broad daylight […]
LastPass suffers another data breach as third-party OAuth token theft exposes customer records
LastPass has confirmed another data breach, this time through a compromised third-party service provider. Attackers used stolen OAuth tokens from Klue, a market intelligence platform, to access LastPass’s Salesforce environment and extract customer contact information. The breach is the latest in a troubled security history for the password manager, which suffered a major 2022 incident […]