Thursday, April 2, 2026

NASA's Artemis II mission successfully launched on April 1, sending four astronauts on the first crewed voyage around the Moon since 1972; the Orion spacecraft's solar arrays have deployed and the crew is en route to lunar orbit on their 10-day journey.^[1]

Australian scientists from CSIRO, RMIT University, and the University of Melbourne have developed the world's first proof-of-concept quantum battery, which charges faster as it gets larger—the opposite of conventional batteries—and could eventually enable ultra-fast charging of electric vehicles and devices.^[2]

Researchers at Cornell University have created the smallest neural implant capable of wirelessly transmitting brain activity data; the device is about 300 microns long, can rest on a grain of salt, and successfully transmitted data from a living animal for over a year.^[3]

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and the Korean Dinosaur Research Center discovered Doolysaurus, a new baby dinosaur species in South Korea—the first found there in 15 years and the first with skull fragments; the turkey-sized juvenile may have been covered in fuzzy filaments.^[4]

Researchers at Northumbria University used the James Webb Space Telescope to solve a decades-long mystery about why Saturn appears to spin at different speeds depending on how it's measured; the findings reveal complex patterns of heat and charged particles in Saturn's aurora that drive the apparent variability.^[5]

Hungary is holding parliamentary elections on April 12, with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán facing his toughest challenge since 2010 from rival Peter Magyar's Tisza Party; the outcome will affect Hungary's political direction and its stance between the EU and Russia.^[6]

President Trump stated the U.S. would withdraw from Iran within two to three weeks, with the White House planning an address to the nation; the conflict has disrupted 20% of the world's fuel supply through the Strait of Hormuz.^[7]

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the UK will host a virtual meeting of 35 nations to discuss diplomatic measures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while emphasizing Britain would take only defensive action and would not be drawn into the Iran conflict.^[8]

A large-scale reproducibility assessment of 110 articles published in leading economics and political science journals found that more than 85% were computationally reproducible, offering hope for improving the credibility of social science research.^[9]