3 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
Skip to main content

Science

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.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
SpaceX reportedly schedules pre-IPO analyst day for April 21st.

That’s according to Reuters sources, but I wonder what it might reveal about Elon Musk’s combination of companies now that papers for a public offering have apparently been filed.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Amazon is looking to acquire Globalstar — which Apple already owns a piece of.

The Financial Times reports that Amazon is in talks with Globalstar about an acquisition to help boost its low Earth orbit satellite business, but Apple’s 20 percent stake in Globalstar is forcing negotiations between the three companies.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
NASA’s Artemis II flight to the Moon is set to launch soon.

You can watch a livestream on NASA’s channel on Twitch or follow along with NASA’s liveblog on its website. The launch is currently expected to happen at 6:35PM ET.

The Artemis Moon base project is legally dubious

Artemis II sets its eyes on an eventual Moon base, but do NASA’s plans violate international law?

Georgina Torbet
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Garmin watches now help with birth control.

Not because they’re so ugly, it’s because Garmin wearables that track skin temperature during sleep — like the Fenix 8 and Forerunner 970 — can now feed that data to the FDA-cleared Natural Cycles birth control app to show the wearer’s daily fertility status.

Time to get busy.
Time to get busy.
Image: Natural Cycles
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
The NASA countdown begins.

Providing all goes to plan, NASA’s Artemis II mission will launch later today and carry astronauts around the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The launch window is targeted for 6:24PM ET, with the onsite countdown officially underway.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Delta signs with Amazon, not Starlink.

Now we know why Delta Airlines has been holding fast to its sluggish in-flight connectivity providers while seemingly everyone else has jumped into Elon Musk’s lap: it was holding out for Amazon Leo. Amazon’s still busy building out its satellite constellation so we’re talking 2028 before Delta can start offering the service on about 500 domestic aircraft.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Trump guts the federal watchdog as Silicon Valley pushes a nuclear revival.

They’re hyping up next-generation reactors as a way to meet data center energy demand. Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has lost more than 400 people, largely those working on safety.

“The regulator is no longer an independent regulator — we do not know whose interests it is serving,” former NRC chair Allison Macfarlane tells ProPublica.

These retractable studded tires might save our roads, ears, and lungs

Putting Nokian’s James Bond tech to the test.

Tim Stevens
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Look up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a demon?

JD Vance is no stranger to, let’s say, unique takes on things. On a recent episode of noted plagiarist Benny Johnson’s podcast, Vance said he wants to get to the bottom of the whole UFO thing, adding, unprompted, “I don’t think they’re aliens, I think they’re demons.”

Bluetti’s Sora 500 solar panel is incredibly powerful for its size

8

Verge Score

Too bad this 500W N-Type panel isn’t bifacial and isn’t (yet) available in the US.

Thomas Ricker
The latest in data centers, AI, and energy The latest in data centers, AI, and energy 
Verge Staff and Justine Calma
These ‘clinically tested’ gummies may or may not help you poop

Who’s to say? Not Grüns’ clinical study.

Victoria Song
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Get ready for “Tech Neck” beauty products.

The phrase is being used to describe the horizontal lines or wrinkles that naturally develop across your neck, and may be exacerbated by constantly looking down at your phone. It sounds like yet another way to sell cosmetic treatments to people by making them feel bad about themselves.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Within the context of no control.

Econ writer Kyla Scanlon notes that a lot of society’s current obsessions — peptide stacks, prediction markets, the manosphere — have all the hallmarks of people coping with feeling out of control. “The reason we can’t solve our problems is not lack of tools or information — it’s that the dominant method (add, optimize, measure) is the wrong method for the problem (figure out what’s poisoning you.)”

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
The senate isn’t feeling Casey Means’ ‘good energy.’

The WSJ reports that Means needs the support of every Republican senator to become surgeon general — and she doesn’t have it. The reasons are plentiful, but if you want a rundown, I detailed how Means expertly uses the wellness grifter playbook to spread hokey ideas and sow distrust in health institutions.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Lake Tahoe has to look for a new power source as data center demand soars.

Facing “unprecedented times” NV Energy has decided to stop selling power to a small power utility serving 49,000 customers in Lake Tahoe, CalMatters reports. Data center requests are driving a tripling of expected peak power demand, according to NV Energy.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
OpenAI reportedly wants to buy fusion energy.

Sam Altman announced that he’s stepping down from the board of nuclear fusion startup Helion Energy. Axios reports that OpenAI is in “in advanced talks” with Helion, even though significant scientific advancements still need to be made for nuclear fusion — long considered the Holy Grail of clean energy — to become a reality.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Amazon’s Starlink competitor is ramping up its satellite launches.

Amazon Leo, the company’s satellite internet initiative, says it’s on track to more than double its annual launch rate with over 20 missions, while shuttling more satellites to space per launch with new heavy-lift rockets. So far, Amazon Leo has deployed more than 200 satellites to its constellation, and its next mission is set for March 29th.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Sam Altman’s AI company is in talks to buy electrity from Sam Altman’s fusion startup.

According to Axios, discussing a potential energy deal between OpenAI and Helion Energy for “a guaranteed portion of Helion’s production, potentially scaling to 50 gigawatts by 2035 (assuming the company can develop a fusion process that generates more energy than it consumes).

Axios also reports Altman has stepped down as Helion’s board chair and recused himself from discussions.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Tera this, tera that.

Elon Musk says he’s planning to open a “Terafab” chip plant in Austin, Texas, jointly run by Tesla and SpaceX, as we approach dire risk levels of “tera” ceasing to have all meaning.

Dkfkhfkwkdnc:

Someone take SI units away from this man

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
“It’s scary and exciting at the same time.”

That seems like a fair reaction to a six-pound chunk of space rock crashing through your roof and landing in your child’s bed. NASA says the meteor that exploded over Houston was roughly one ton, and three-feet across. Something similar happened less than a week ago over Ohio.

The improved battery-powered Starlink Mini is here

8

Verge Score

Quickly untether from an unhinged world.

Thomas Ricker
Much ado about protein

Boy kibble, proteinmaxxing, protein washing. The wellness Wild West’s obsession with one macro is getting out of hand.

Victoria Song
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
The folly of abandoning renewables.

As energy prices soar, Trump’s systematic pivot away from solar and wind in favor of big-beautiful fossil fuels is looking dumber than Brendan Carr. Spain invested heavily in renewables and France went nuclear to reduce its dependence on dinojuice. Both are expected to weather the latest energy crisis better than more oil-dependent neighbors, with Europe as a whole fairing better overall thanks to continued investment in solar panels and wind turbines.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Jeff Bezos wants his orbital data centers.

Blue Origin is seeking permission from the FCC to deploy nearly 52,000 solar-powered satellites into space that will handle artificial-intelligence computing, following similar applications from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and start-up Starcloud. The aim is to bolster terrestrial data centers, but experts are skeptical.

Marc Andreessen is a philosophical zombie

A quasi-scientific polemic

Elizabeth Lopatto
No, ChatGPT did not cure a dog’s cancer

A sick dog, desperate owner, and a bunch of chatbots made for a great story. The actual science was much messier.

Robert Hart
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
“It was just like a BOWM, like that!”

Local news delivers again.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Cuba lost electricity.

The nation suffered a total disconnection today, according to its energy ministry. The country’s energy woes have only intensified with the US’ oil blockade and incursion into Venezuela, which had been a major oil supplier for Cuba.

No, this is not a fly uploaded to a computer

A lot of buzz, but not much evidence.

Robert Hart
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Rescuers couldn’t use a critical tornado-tracking tool last weekend after DHS let a contract lapse.

Search-and-rescue operations lacked access to pinpoint data on where tornadoes touched down, because Kristi Noem’s DHS spending policies are holding up approval of a $200k contract, reports CNN:

As the storms spread, officials from several states started contacting FEMA, asking why they couldn’t access the tornado tracking data… As of earlier this week, the tornado mapping contract still had not been renewed, the two sources said.