Science

WASHINGTON — Relativity Space plans to launch a Mars orbiter in 2028 as part of a new initiative to privately develop planetary missions. The company announced June 17 its Interplanetary Sciences Program, which it described in a statement as “an initiative to enable radically more science per dollar by building the next generation of interplanetary

Stroke can cause lasting damage, but quickly cooling down the body could mitigate these effects BSIP SA/Alamy A combination of two drugs used to treat hay fever and psychosis cooled down the core body temperature of mice and monkeys, reducing brain damage after a stroke. These medications have also undergone preliminary testing in people, and

Scottish quantum start-up Quantcore wins IOP qBIG prize – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

PITTSBURGH — Astrobotic showed off the lunar lander it plans to launch later this year that will be the vanguard of NASA’s new lunar base ambitions. At a June 15 event at its headquarters, the company revealed its Griffin-1 lander. The company is completing final work on the lander before shipping it to the Jet

Neuroscientist Emily Rogalski is uncovering the secrets of superagers Craig Boylan As you age, your memory will likely decline. Your ability to recall where you parked the car or the name of your first teacher will be less sharp in your 80s than in your 50s, if you’re in the majority of people. But a

Easy-to-use calculation tool estimates out-of-field neutron dose during proton therapy – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

TAMPA, Fla. — Israel’s Gilat Satellite Networks plans to expand its defense capabilities by acquiring most of Comtech’s space-related communications business, six years after the U.S. company’s own takeover bid collapsed. Gilat said June 15 it had agreed to buy Comtech’s satellite ground infrastructure solutions, troposcatter systems that connect users beyond line of sight, engineering

Tiny droplets hiding in plain sight in our cells could explain how life got started Sam Falconer In every cell of your body, there are mysterious speckles. You need a microscope to see them, but if you peer closely, you will see lots of tiny dots: some sitting still, some moving around as if swept

Asymmetric weather pattern reveals exoplanet’s true atmosphere – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — U.S. production of solid rocket motors is rising, but not fast enough to meet the Pentagon’s missile-defense program demands, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The report says solid rocket motors remain a bottleneck across the U.S. missile industrial base, even as the Pentagon prepares for

The Advantage2 quantum processing unit D-Wave A quantum computer is successfully mining cryptocurrency in the first experiment of its kind, while also using a lot less energy, researchers have claimed. Cryptocurrencies overlap with quantum computing in two notable ways. The first is that a powerful-enough quantum computer could break the encryption algorithms that currently keep

Novel gravitational-wave model sheds light on dark matter – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

HOUSTON — NASA has provided more details about the revised approaches that Blue Origin and SpaceX are taking to accelerate work on Artemis lunar landers. At a June 9 event at the Johnson Space Center, NASA announced the crew of the Artemis 3 mission, a test flight in low Earth orbit in which an Orion

Should drones be allowed to kill autonomously? Shutterstock/Thongsuk7824 For years, we have had unconfirmed reports and rumours that AI-controlled weapons have killed soldiers on the battlefield without a human in the loop. Now, we know it has happened. As we report here, the use of autonomous killers in a test exercise marks a watershed in

Stunning Moon sculpture unveiled at Royal Observatory Greenwich – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — SpaceX shares rose on the first day of trading as the company went public in a milestone event for both the company and the broader space industry. SpaceX sold nearly 555.6 million shares at $135 per share in an initial public offering June 12, raising $75 billion before expenses for the company. SpaceX

Fewer young people are coupling up Jan de Wild / Alamy The relationship recession, particularly among young adults, may be bigger than we thought. We knew that not as many members of Gen Z are in a steady relationship than millennials were at their age, but past studies typically didn’t account for partners who lived

Quiz of the week: the last major galactic merger of the Milky Way created what feature? – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here