Saturday, February 28, 2026

Oxford researchers analyzing Apollo moon rocks resolved a decades-long debate about lunar magnetism, finding the Moon experienced brief bursts of strong magnetic fields—sometimes exceeding Earth's—lasting only thousands of years, not the 500 million years previously assumed from biased sampling.^[1]

A new study published in Science found that China's 10-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River has halted 70 years of biodiversity decline, with fish biomass increasing 209 percent and species richness rising 13 percent in the first five years of the ban.^[2]

A Penn State study found that key protein building blocks could survive up to 50 million years preserved in Martian ice under cosmic radiation, suggesting future missions should drill into clean, buried ice rather than surface rocks when searching for signs of ancient life.^[3]

ESA's Swarm satellites revealed that the South Atlantic Anomaly—a vast weak spot in Earth's magnetic field—has grown by nearly half the size of continental Europe since 2014, with a region southwest of Africa weakening even faster in recent years.^[4]

Oregon Health & Science University researchers identified a precise molecular 'hot spot' on brain NMDA receptors attacked in anti-NMDAR encephalitis—the rare autoimmune disorder known as 'brain on fire'—offering a new target for developing more precise treatments.^[5]

A new study found that DNA analysis of cryptic species—organisms that appear identical but are genetically distinct—suggests there may be twice as many vertebrate species on Earth as currently documented.^[6]

Genetic analysis confirmed that Ireland's endangered Old Irish Goat is directly descended from goats that lived in Ireland 3,000 years ago during the Bronze Age, making the breed a living link to the island's ancient agricultural past.^[7]

Actor Jim Carrey received an honorary César Award at France's 51st César Awards ceremony in Paris, delivering his entire acceptance speech in French and tracing his ancestry to a great-great-great-grandfather who emigrated from Saint-Malo to Canada 300 years ago.^[8]

NASA's Artemis II rocket and Orion spacecraft returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center after a successful wet dress rehearsal, with technicians now troubleshooting a helium flow issue before the historic crewed lunar flyby mission.^[9]