Jul 21, 2026 2:53 PM
This week in stories we're tracking at The Debrief, we look at an "impossible" physics breakthrough, the mystery of Hannibal's elephants, and more.
(Image Credit: ESA/Hubble).This week in stories we're tracking at The Debrief... in a New York laboratory, an "impossible" synthetic motion breakthrough is opening new paths toward faster-than-light speed research for extreme physics applications. Elsewhere, a new study suggests war elephants helped determine Hannibal's route across the Alps—and survived it better than soldiers. Finally, archaeologists are investigating an unusual underwater discovery deep within Germany’s Lake Constance.
In addition to these trending stories, here's a look at other stories we're covering right now at The Debrief:
- “It Was a Mix of Excitement and Disbelief”: When Scientists Sent Deep-Sea Rovers to Confirm a 1960s Theory, They Made a Surprising Discovery Deep-sea images captured off the coast of Benin, where 1960s scientists suspected a dead coral reef existed, reveal a shocking discovery.
- Astronomers May Have Been Looking for Alien Megastructures Around the Wrong Stars A new study suggests astronomers may have been looking for alien structures known as Dyson spheres in the wrong places.
- “Forever Chemical” Breakthrough Rapidly Degrades Synthetic Substances Linked to Cancer and Other Health Problems The problem of PFAS, a group of potentially cancer-causing “forever chemicals,” may finally have a solution from German scientists.
- A New Solution to the Dinosaur-Killer Meteorite Mystery Creates Fresh Questions A new analysis of debris from a 66-million-year-old meteorite that scientists call the dinosaur-killer has revealed another origin mystery.
- Citizen Scientists Helped Reveal How Fatherhood Evolved in Spider Relatives A new study reveals harvestmen, or daddy longlegs, account for more than half of all paternal care cases documented among arthropods.
- NASA’s Psyche Mission Captures Crescents and Surface Details During Recent Martian Flyby New imagery released by NASA has revealed a growing “crescent” and surface details on Mars obtained by the agency’s Psyche spacecraft.
- China Clears Brain-Computer Interfaces for Commercial Use: Is It Time for a Global Coalition? Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) could fundamentally reshape what it means to be human. Is the formation of a global BCI coalition needed?
- Scientists May Have Finally Solved Earth’s Greatest Extinction Mystery A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that differences in physiology, metabolism, and oxygen use helped determine which marine animals survived the Great Dying catastrophe.
- “A Major Milestone in the Search for Life on Other Planets”: First Ever Detection of an Atmosphere Around an Earth-Like, Habitable Zone Rocky Exoplanet In a major boost to the search for life, Harvard astronomers have detected an atmosphere around a habitable-zone, Earth-like rocky exoplanet.
- “This Upper Limit is an Illusion”: NASA Study Warns There May Be “No Limit” to How Solar Storms Impact Earth Our modern society depends heavily on communications and power networks that are highly susceptible to interference from solar storms.
- Astronomers Uncovered a Hidden Bubble Inside the Orion Nebula A key component of the Orion Nebula had evaded detection by astronomers until now, according to newly published research.
- Deep Beneath the Atlantic, an Eerie “Lost City” is Feeding Legions of Lifeforms That Thrive Where Sunlight Never Reaches Earth’s hidden plumbing system may be feeding one of its strangest ecosystems: the Lost City hydrothermal field in the Atlantic Ocean.
- Can You See It? This Stealth Drone Deploys a Human Perception “Hack” to Become Nearly Invisible to the Eye The “Phantom Twist” drone disappears from view in a major new robotics advancement, offering a close-to-invisible aerial platform.
- No Sample-Return Required? Scientists Demonstrate Extraterrestrial Biosignature Detection Method Using the Mars Rover’s Existing Instruments A new mineral-based biosignature detection method could identify signs of life on Mars using the Perseverance Rover's existing tools.
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