Sep 8, 2026 3:12 PM
This week, scientists report the discovery of a microorganism resembling something from sci-fi, levitation tech in the search for dark matter, genetic clues to a medieval mystery, and more.
cellsThis week in stories we're covering at The Debrief... Scientists say they have discovered an organism whose behavior mirrors the reproductive horror depicted in the "Alien" films. Elsewhere, physicists report that a recent levitation experiment could signal a breakthrough in the search for dark matter. Also, new genetic evidence of an ancient killer has surfaced in ancient medieval texts. And finally, a 15,000-year-old cave discovery in Ireland could push back evidence of the first humans on the island by 5,000 years.
Here's a look at all the stories we're tracking right now at The Debrief:
- Biologists Were Wrong About the “American Cheetah” According to New Genetic Findings The extinct American cheetah wasn’t a true cheetah at all, say biologists in new research overturning scientific understanding of the big cat.
- Astronomers Detected Three Mysterious “Glitches” in a Pulsar That Had Gone Silent for Years Astronomers monitoring an unusual young neutron star report a stellar surprise after years of apparent silence.
- 4,000-Year-Old Tomb of Ancient Egyptian ‘Keeper of the Secrets’ Discovered at Saqqara Archaeologists at Saqqara uncover the 4,000-year-old tomb of Sekhentiu-Ptah, an official who guarded ancient royal secrets.
- Hidden in a Museum Collection for More Than a Century, Researchers Have Just Made a Bizarre New Discovery Researchers reveal several new species of a bizarre ocean creature that were uncovered after being hidden for decades in museum collections.
- No Longer Science Fiction, the U.S. Army is Moving a High-Energy Laser Weapon Into Production for the First Time The US Army has authorized its first contract for a directed energy weapons system, designed to take down threats with high-energy lasers.
- What If Consciousness Exists Beyond the Brain? Some Researchers Say This “Hard Problem” Requires a Radical New Approach Consciousness researchers are challenging academics to take a closer look at what philosophers call the “hard problem” of consciousness.
- Inside the Mind of a Billionaire Cheater: “At His Level of Wealth, Societal Ethics No Longer Register” A finance expert and Fortune 500 therapist peer into the potential motivations of billionaire cheater Steve Ballmer and his subordinates.
- What Caused Antarctica to Freeze Millions of Years Ago? New Clues Could Finally Solve This Longstanding Climate Mystery New clues to the formation of our planet’s oldest and largest ice sheet could help resolve a longstanding enigma about the southernmost continent.
- “We’ve Never Seen Anything Quite Like This”: A Strange Ten-Sided “Structure” Has Been Spotted on Saturn’s North Pole NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has glimpsed a ten-sided atmospheric wave at Saturn’s south pole, the first such jet pattern observed there.
- 1,500-Year-Old Structure Yields Previously Hidden Rooms, Ancient Paintings, and a Roman Era Channel to Nowhere Archaeologists have unearthed three previously hidden 1500-year-old rooms, ancient wall paintings, and a Roman-era water channel near Izmir.
- Wild Chimpanzees Keep Hurling Rocks at the Same Trees—Now Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out Why Scientists say chimpanzees repeatedly throwing stones at the same trees might indicate new evidence of previously undocumented "ritual" behavior.
- Did Ancient Campfires “Reprogram” the Human Brain with Flickering Light and Red Wavelengths? A new paper suggests that flickering, mostly red-wavelength firelight from campfires was able to reprogram the human brain for language.
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