Science
July 2026
Every article published in July 2026. 860 articles · Back to full archive
Science
A neutron star can pack more mass than our entire Sun into a sphere only about 20 kilometres across — roughly the size of a city — and a teaspoon of its material would weigh about a billion tonnes on Earth, more than every human being alive combined.
Space Travel
About 50 kilometres above Venus’ surface, the crushing heat and pressure below give way to temperatures and air pressure surprisingly close to Earth’s, a region NASA has described as the most Earth-surface-like environment in the solar system — at least by those measures, more forgiving than the surface of Mars.
Mind & Meaning
Thought of the day by Stoic Philosopher Marcus Aurelius "I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others."
Science
Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in August 2012, yet it remains inside the gravitational reach of our Sun — true departure from the solar system, via the Oort Cloud, won't happen for 30,000 years
Science
Proxima Centauri b is our closest known habitable-zone exoplanet, just over four light-years away, and it may be warm enough for liquid water if it has kept an atmosphere. But that “if” is enormous: its red-dwarf star blasts it with extreme radiation strong enough, in some models, to strip an Earth-like atmosphere away.
Mind & Meaning
A 14-year-old who applied to NASA, was rejected, and ended up cleaning a space toilet on work experience in Leicester now leads Mars exploration studies at the European Space Agency
Science
In a 3.5-billion-year-old clay-rich rock from Gale Crater, NASA’s Curiosity rover identified 21 carbon-based molecules — including a nitrogen-bearing ring structure linked to the chemistry that can precede RNA and DNA — showing that ancient Martian sediments can preserve surprisingly complex organic chemistry for billions of years.
Space Travel
Within hours of reaching microgravity, astronauts’ body fluids shift toward the head, dulling smell and taste — one reason NASA monitors daily nutrition so closely as crews fight the muscle loss space exercise alone cannot fully prevent
Mind & Meaning
A University of Tokyo study found that students who wrote schedules on paper recalled them better than those who used a tablet or phone — suggesting old-fashioned lists may give the brain stronger memory cues
Mind & Meaning
For centuries, Korean women used rice water as a beauty ritual — modern cosmetic research now suggests fermented rice extracts can deliver antioxidants, B vitamins, and compounds that help fade hyperpigmentation
Culture
One of the oldest known written 'recipes' in the world is a nearly 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet describing how to brew beer — and it makes a case that fermentation, more than roasting or baking, may have been humanity's first laboratory science
Psychology
There is a small window in a boy's life, between the ages of four and six, when he is strikingly emotionally perceptive and openly expressive — and a researcher who followed six boys through those years watched something quietly close inside them, one stage at a time
Human Behaviour
An Aboriginal Australian people of northern Queensland speak a language with no words for left or right — only for north, south, east, and west — so instead of asking you to move your left foot, they will ask you to move your east foot, and can point due north almost without thinking
Human Behaviour
A Japanese soldier named Hiroo Onoda continued fighting the Second World War in the Philippine jungle until 1974 because no one had reached him with orders to stop — when his former commanding officer finally flew in to relieve him personally, Onoda was 52 years old and had been at war for nearly 30 years
Human Behaviour