Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have identified a brain circuit in the caudal granular insular cortex that appears to control whether pain becomes chronic; in animal studies, silencing this circuit both prevented chronic pain from developing and eliminated it when already present.^[1]

NASA marked the Hubble Space Telescope's 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region about 5,000 light-years from Earth that the telescope first captured in 1997, allowing astronomers to observe changes over nearly three decades.^[2]

Scientists have completed the largest high-resolution 3D map of the universe ever created, using data from over 47 million galaxies and quasars collected by the DESI collaboration; the map could provide new insights into dark energy and hints that it may behave in unexpected ways.^[3]

SpaceX is set to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket today for the first time in 18 months, carrying the ViaSat-3 F3 communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center after weather delayed an earlier attempt.^[4]

Researchers have directly visualized for the first time how particles pair up in a system that mimics superconductors, observing an unexpected synchronized "dance-like" pattern between paired atoms that suggests gaps in the classic theory of superconductivity.^[5]

SpaceX completed its 50th launch of 2026 on Sunday, sending 25 Starlink internet satellites to orbit from California aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, putting the company on pace for roughly 160 orbital missions this year.^[6]

Iran's army says the country remains in a "war situation" as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict with the United States continue, with the Strait of Hormuz remaining a central sticking point in negotiations between Tehran and Washington.^[7]

Norway-based researchers believe they may have observed a long-sought "triplet superconductor"—a material that can transmit both electricity and electron spin with zero resistance, which could significantly stabilize quantum computers while reducing their energy use.^[8]

Britain and France signed a new three-year agreement worth up to €766 million to reduce migrant crossings in the English Channel, with France pledging to increase coastal law enforcement to nearly 1,400 officers by 2029.^[9]

The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI reports that scientific publications mentioning artificial intelligence grew almost 30-fold from 2010 to 2025, with 6% to 9% of natural science papers now referencing AI, though human scientists still significantly outperform AI agents on complex research tasks.^[10]