Wednesday, August 5, 2026

SpaceX released its first-ever quarterly earnings report as a public company, reporting $7.8 billion in revenue (up 92% year-over-year) and a narrower net loss of $541 million, with all three business segments—Space, Connectivity, and AI—beating Wall Street forecasts.^[1]

Scientists discovered the earliest known evidence of structures that evolved into spider fangs in a 518-million-year-old sea creature fossil called Urokodia, found at China's Chengjiang fossil site, with preserved soft tissues helping explain how spider and scorpion ancestors became predators.^[2]

A major review of more than 350 studies published in Cell Press Blue found that restricting protein intake may improve metabolism, reduce inflammation and cellular damage, and extend lifespan, with researchers noting that specific amino acids like methionine, isoleucine, and valine play especially important roles in aging pathways.^[3]

Myanmar's detained former leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, 81, met with an International Committee of the Red Cross representative in her first public contact with a foreign official since the 2021 military coup, with the ICRC confirming the visit included a private conversation.^[4]

SpaceX launched 24 Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, marking the company's 90th Falcon 9 flight of 2026 and the 70th dedicated to building out the Starlink constellation.^[5]

A study from Nature Communications found that floods and tropical cyclones could affect millions of mobile network base stations worldwide and cause billions of dollars in damage, highlighting growing climate risks to telecommunications infrastructure.^[6]

Researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology developed an electrocatalytic method that can purify wastewater by converting organic pollutants into recoverable polymers, using iodine-mediated processes that avoid traditional oxidants.^[7]

NASA's WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft will chase the Moon's shadow during the August 12 total solar eclipse, which will sweep over Greenland, Iceland, and Spain, as NASA-funded teams investigate the Sun's corona and how temporary darkness affects Earth's atmosphere.^[8]

Wildfires in the northwestern U.S. city of Spokane forced the evacuation of 65,000 people, with three separate fires burning hundreds of structures as firefighters worked to contain the flames amid drought and intense heat conditions.^[9]