Feb 17, 2026 3:40 PM
Updated Feb 17, 2026 3:41 PM
This week, the discovery of "hidden" human senses, an ancient Egyptian artifact discovery that challenges existing timelines, and a Webb Telescope discovery are all in the news.
Credit: Nemes Laszlo/Science Photo LibraryThis week in stories we're covering at The Debrief... neuroscientists taking an updated look at how the brain processes sensory information now say humans could have as many as 33 senses. Meanwhile, archaeologists have recently identified a "mechanically sophisticated" ancient Egyptian artifact that predates the earliest Pharaohs. And in space news, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected the first-ever spectral signature of hydrogen sulfide around a massive gas giant planet... The Debrief's Christopher Plain reports on the discovery and why it has astronomers buzzing.
And as always, here's a look at the rest of our recent reporting from over the last several days:
- Saturn’s Largest Moon May Be the Remnant of an Ancient Impact, New Research Reveals Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may have been born of the collision of two smaller moons, according to new research.
- “Let Me Clarify”: Former President Obama Issues Statement After “Alien” Remarks Go Viral Comments by former President Barack Obama sparked debate online this Valentine’s Day weekend, after a podcast appearance where he said extraterrestrials were real.
- How Words Shape Consciousness: New Research Reveals the Deep Link Between Language and Awareness Recent research from the University of Liège is offering new insight into that question, suggesting a deeper relationship between language and awareness than previously understood.
- Bottling the Sun: How Researchers Created Organic Solar Storage Molecules More Efficient than Lithium-Ion Batteries Researchers have managed to bottle the Sun, advancing renewable energy goals by enabling the storage of solar power in a novel format.
- Scientists Successfully Use String Theory to Challenge More Than a Century of Assumptions About Living Systems Scientists successfully borrow concepts from string theory to explain the network architecture of branching biological systems like neurons
- AI Is Rewriting Human History—But New Study Finds It’s Stuck Decades in the Past Study finds AI is misrepresenting human History, generating Neanderthals based on outdated science, bias, and myths.
- Recurring Drought Forced Ancient Bison Hunters to Abandon a 1,100-Year-Old Montana Hunting Ground While bison still lived in the grasslands and the vegetation patterns remained unchanged, hunters stopped visiting the Bergstrom site, which had been used on and off for generations.
- “This Was Not an Ordinary Gamma-Ray Burst”: Astronomers Have Witnessed An Extreme Cosmic Explosion Unlike Anything Ever Seen China’s Einstein Probe has detected an event suspected to be the first recorded instance of a black hole devouring a white dwarf.
- Neuralink Reaches 21 Patients as Elon Musk Continues Push for High-Volume Brain Chip Production Neuralink has enrolled 21 patients in human trials of its brain-computer interface, ‘The Link,’ enabling users to control devices with their minds.
- Did Princeton Scientists Just Break the Stock Market? Brain-Inspired Photonic Technology Can Literally Make Trades at the Speed of Light Researchers from Princeton University have successfully demonstrated a photonic neuromorphic computing architecture capable of performing high-frequency trading tasks at the speed of light, offering a theoretical competitive advantage in the stock market.
- Astronomers Have Discovered an “Inside-Out” Planetary System That’s Breaking All the Rules An inside-out planetary system around the star LHS 1903 is turning everything that astronomers know about planet formation upside down.
- Did Life Begin as Slime? Scientists Propose Novel ‘Gel-First’ Origin of Life Theory Scientists propose a Gel-First theory suggesting life began in sticky prebiotic gels, not a primordial soup.
- This Remote Greek Peninsula May Preserve a Living Link to the Ancient World A remote peninsula in southern Greece may hold a living genetic link to the ancient Mediterranean world.
- Danish Cemetery Study Challenges Assumptions About Leprosy Stigma in the Middle Ages Medieval Christian burials in Denmark were likely more influenced by money than supposed outward markers of sin, according to new research.
Comments
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy