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.
Relativity Space will launch NASA’s Aeolus payload, which will gather data on the Martian atmosphere.
Other countries have been doing it right for over 20 years. It’s about time we caught up.
John Jumper, who has worked as a researcher at Google DeepMind since 2017, announced his departure from the company on X. In 2024, Jumper and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing an open-source AI model that predicts protein structures.
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:
During the VivaTech 2026 conference in Paris, Samsung announced a new feature for its mobile devices created through a collaboration with the pet health management platform, Lifet. You’ll be able to snap a photo of your dog or cat which will be analyzed by AI to alert you to conditions like periodontal disease and obesity.
The Justice Department argues that xAI’s Mississippi data center should be allowed to pollute the air because it’s “critical” for military operations, which honestly explains a lot.
Nicholi:
How are we going to keep losing the war against Iran without Grok?
Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.
The Justice Department is trying to intervene and dismiss a case from the NAACP alleging xAI’s use of gas turbines in Mississippi are illegally polluting the air. Preventing xAI from using them would endanger national security, DOJ argues, because “Grok provides critical support for the Department of War’s military operations.”
The controversial birth control app is rolling out “Sleep Insights,” allowing users to view key metrics — including sleep duration, efficiency, and timing — alongside their daily fertility status. It requires either an Oura Ring or Natural Cycles Band wearable, and over time, can show how hormonal changes and menstrual phases can impact sleep patterns.
While SpaceX plans satellite-based AI servers, Bloomberg reports it ran into trouble trying to develop and run Grok AI in Memphis, citing unnamed sources. They claim that deals renting capacity to Anthropic ($15 billion annually) and Google ($920 million per month) happened following hardware variation and lag issues:
Elon Musk’s company had planned to train its most cutting-edge AI models on a massive amount of computing power by using a cluster of three data center campuses. However, the firm encountered latency issues when connecting Colossus 1 with two other sites located more than 10 miles away, the people said, compounded by aging network infrastructure.
Oura says New Yorkers’ hearts were palpitating on Wednesday night during Game 4. Turns out, baseline heart rates increased by 3.7 beats on average at the final buzzer. Heart rates were also elevated for the entirety of the game, and nobody seemed to get a peaceful night of sleep. Guessing we’re in for more of the same on Saturday.
As reported by CNBC, the New York Times, and others, trading commenced at a price 11 percent above the $135 IPO price, but lower than the $175 shown in some earlier indications. It’s already spiked as high as $167, before falling back to $155. As long as the share price remains above $138, that is enough to make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
It also gives SpaceX a market cap of over $2 trillion, making it currently the 6th most valuable public company in the US.
A sun exposure-tracking pendant, in case they’re running low on tech-induced anxiety.
Digi Dave:
Hey babe, wake up, a new device that creates crippling anxiety about your health just dropped!
Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.
That price puts SpaceX at a market valuation of around $1.77 trillion ahead of its record-breaking stock market debut on Friday. CNBC reports that SpaceX may allocate 20 percent of shares to retail investors, down from the previous expectation of 30 percent.
It’s a similar idea as L’Oréal’s My Skin Track UV sensor, but the $299 (discounted to $199 at launch) Gem smart jewelry wearable from The90 is a more stylish alternative. Its sensors measure UVA and UVB exposure throughout the day and based on your skin profile it will tell you how much sun is safe to get and when to reapply sunscreen through an app.
Is a $200 portable coffee machine what Thoreau meant by living deliberately?
That’s according to data from energy think tank Ember, which says solar supplied a record 12.8 percent of US electricity in May 2026, compared to 12.2 percent for coal. That’s the fourth-lowest monthly share ever for the fossil fuel, despite the Trump administration’s efforts to boost coal industries.
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:
No telling if that Starlink Mini dish on the right includes an integrated battery, per rumors, but both terminals look thinner than current models. Elon Musk revealed them yesterday without any specs, pricing, or dates.
Instead of paying hundreds up front, new customers in “select markets” will have to rent their Starlink hardware for $10 per month on top of the monthly fee. It only applies to Residential plans currently, and renters can’t pause the service, but can buy their kit later by ”creating a support ticket,“ according to a support page. The move comes after Starlink recently raised prices on its monthly plans.
After the successful Artemis II test in April, NASA’s next crew will head to low-Earth orbit to “demonstrate critical systems needed for future lunar landings,” albeit without any Prada pajamas.
The four astronauts selected are Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio, Randy Bresnik, and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano from the ESA.
Update: Added the names of the selected astronauts.
The non-profit service that millions of people relied on during the wildfires in Los Angeles last year will now track flooding nationwide. Users can get information on river gauges, precipitation data, and active warnings, and during life-threatening events, Watch Duty’s live reporting team will report back on hazards like dam/levee failures and downed bridges. Flood and wildfire tracking is available for free and with no ads.
After Jeff Bezos’s New Glenn rocket failed to put BlueBird 7 into orbit, AST SpaceMobile will use Elon Musk’s trusty Falcon 9 to help build out AST’s space-based cellular broadband network useable by everyday smartphones. The delivery of those giant BlueBird 8, 9, and 10 satellites — which feature the largest commercial communications arrays ever deployed in low Earth orbit — is currently scheduled for Wednesday, June 17th.
“What we’re showing here is kind of a draft version of the version one of the SpaceX AI satellite,” said Elon Musk at the reveal on Monday. “It’s actually much simpler than a Starlink satellite.” The release of renders and specs for the space-based AI1 data center is very much timed to lend credence to the SpaceX IPO, which is set to begin trading on Friday.
While the Verge Motorcycles spinoff Donut Lab has spent the last few months claiming to have solved solid-state batteries, science YouTuber Ziroth says he’s determined that the battery the company is testing is actually a lithium-ion battery cell.
Among the evidence, as run down by Electrek, is the expansion pattern shown during VTT’s third-party testing, Donut Lab’s “production vehicle” claims that didn’t add up, and a questionable history for CT Coatings, the battery tech’s apparent supplier.
NASA’ trailer for its Artemis III mission is sick as hell. How could anyone not be hyped for this crew?
Jeff Bezos’ Leo service had an FCC deadline of July 30th to launch half of its planned 3,232-satellite constellation. To date it’s only launched 331. The waiver comes with conditions meant to incentivize Amazon to move quickly, which would be a lot easier if Bezos’ semi-reusable New Glenn rocket hadn’t exploded and destroyed its only launchpad.
Per a regulatory filing, Google will pay SpaceX $920 million per month from October 2026 through June 2029, as reported by TechCrunch.
In a statement to TechCrunch, Google says that it’s a “short-term” agreement to help meet “surging customer demand for our agent platform, Gemini Enterprise, which has been even higher than we expected.”
Anthropic’s deal with SpaceX was announced in May.
There are over 330 Leo satellites already in orbit, but the 36 planned for the next Arianespace mission is still smaller than the 48 satellites Amazon was planning to launch on a Blue Origin rocket that exploded during testing last week. This batch of satellites will launch from a spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on June 17th.
The GLP-1 tech boom is coming.
