Feb 3, 2026 3:37 PM
This week in stories we're tracking at The Debrief, consciousness mysteries, a Brazilian UFO controversy, the rediscovery of an ancient star map, and more are covered.
(Image Credit: Pixabay)This week in stories we're tracking at The Debrief... scientists warn that solving the mystery of consciousness could reshape our existence, as Tim McMillan details. Meanwhile, reporters Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal report from Washington on a controversial UAP incident from Brazil that recently made its way to Capitol Hill. And finally, scientists have bombarded an ancient document with X-rays to reveal a "lost" portion of a 2000-year-old star map.
Here's a look at all the recent stories we're covering at The Debrief:
- Did NASA Just Find ET’s Home? Scientists Detect an Earth-like Planet Orbiting a Sun-like Star NASA has announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star that shares several other similarities with Earth
- NASA’s Artemis II Mission Will Soon Carry Humans Deeper into Space Than Ever Before—Here Are Five Things You Need to Know For the first time in more than half a century, NASA will soon be sending an intrepid crew of astronauts toward the Moon with the launch of the Artemis II mission.
- Zapotec Death Owl Sculpture Reveals Ancient Mesoamerican Beliefs in Immaculately Preserved Tomb An exceptionally well-preserved Zapotec Tomb dating to around 600 CE, recently uncovered in Mexico, vastly expands archaeologists' knowledge.
- Pentagon Expands Base Commanders’ Authority to Counter Rising Drone Threats Following Inspector General Warning Pentagon expands commander authority at U.S. bases as new guidance responds to rising domestic drone threats nationwide.
- “There Could be a Mushroom Out There Causing Fairytale-Like Visions”: People Eating These Mushrooms Claim to Have the Same Hallucinations Science is searching for the chemical compound in these Chinese mushrooms that can cause identical hallucinations of little people everywhere
- Clinicians Push Back on Common Myths About Dissociation A new clinical handbook, Working with Dissociation in Clinical Practice, by Helena Crockford, Melanie Goodwin, and Paul Langthorne, explains that dissociation is more than a brief loss of focus or a rare mental health condition.
- Einstein’s Speed of Light Rule Just Faced Its Toughest Test—and Prevailed Once Again Scientists pushed photons across the universe to test the speed of light—and found Einstein’s cosmic speed limit still holds firm.
- Scientists Deploy “Bat Accelerator Machine” to Unlock the Secret to How Bats Navigate in the Dark In a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists from the University of Bristol reframe the concept of echolocation.
- Could Cannabis Beverages Help Reduce Alchohol Consumption? New Survey Findings Say Its Possible A recent survey found that cannabis-infused beverages may fit into a similar social context as alcohol, with participants reporting lower alcohol consumption after they began using cannabis drinks.
- This New Optical Crystal Could Power Next-Generation Quantum and Semiconductor Tools Chinese researchers have developed a new type of optical crystal that could help address several major supply chain bottlenecks.
- Scientists Create ‘Unsinkable’ Metal Tubes that Still Float After Severe Damage and Submersion A video shows unsinkable metal tubes retaining their buoyancy even after they are damaged or fully submerged for an extended period of time.
- Taylor Swift’s ‘Swiftynomics’ Reveals How Women Wield the Power to Reshape the Economy ‘Swiftynomics’ reveals how Taylor Swift is not only a powerhouse in the music industry, but she has also been a driver behind economic shifts.
- “The Distinction Didn’t Exist”: Memory Types Don’t Operate as Neuroscientists Have Long Assumed New UK research challenges some scientists' fundamental assumptions about how memory works, relying on the entire brain.
- NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Observes Something Unexpected at the Edge of Cosmic Dawn The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the earliest galaxy ever recorded, only 280 million years after the Big Bang.
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