Saturday, October 24, 2026

Japan's space agency JAXA successfully launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, which aims to land on Mars's moon Phobos and return the first samples from a Martian moon to Earth by 2031.^[1]

Scientists at the University of Bonn transformed blood cells from an 80-year-old into neural stem cells with a molecular age of less than 20, effectively reversing more than 60 years of cellular aging in a laboratory setting.^[2]

Merck and Moderna released Phase 3 trial results showing their personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccine reduced the risk of melanoma returning or death by 42% when combined with immunotherapy, marking the first successful late-stage trial for an individualized cancer vaccine.^[3]

NASA announced the end of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory's science mission after 22 years of studying cosmic explosions, with the spacecraft expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere in the coming weeks after observing more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts during its storied career.^[4]

Scientists at Kobe University discovered that Japan's Kikai caldera, one of Earth's most powerful supervolcanoes, is slowly refilling with fresh magma 7,300 years after producing the largest known volcanic eruption of the Holocene epoch.^[5]

Researchers used ancient proteins preserved in fossils from China to reconstruct the appearance of Denisovans for the first time, revealing that these extinct human relatives had massive brow ridges, sloping foreheads, and broad faces based on analysis of skull fragments from the Xujiayao archaeological site.^[6]

Scientists discovered that some El Niño and La Niña events can be predicted up to 12 months in advance, with the state of the Pacific Ocean at the beginning of a forecast playing a critical role in determining whether long-range climate predictions will be accurate.^[7]

Researchers at Lund University found that an ancient viral pandemic dating back millions of years left DNA in chimpanzee genomes that switches off a gene active in human brains, potentially helping explain how human and chimpanzee brains developed differently despite sharing nearly identical genes.^[8]

Record-breaking summer heat across Europe killed more than 50,000 people in urban areas during June, July, and August, with nearly two-thirds of those deaths directly attributed to human-caused climate change, according to a study published in Nature Health.^[9]

Scientists at the University of Ottawa identified a key protein called SPRIZ that cells use to control the internal architecture of mitochondria, revealing for the first time that the dimensions of these cellular power centers are genetically controlled and adjustable.^[10]