SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " alien " 279 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
“Us versus them”: How political propaganda polarises beliefs without providing any news
Political polarisation is often attributed to misinformation, echo chambers, or biased news. But new experimental evidence suggests that merely making a social conflict salient – without providing any information at all – is enough to sharply increase disagreement on both factual and normative questions. This column discusses how politicians and media can ‘artificially’ amplify societal tensions by strategically choosing which conflicts to highlight, and why this mechanism is harder to counter than standard misinformation.
Scientists stunned as JWST finds ice clouds on a giant alien planet
Scientists have discovered unexpected water-ice clouds on a distant, Jupiter-like exoplanet, challenging current atmospheric models. By directly imaging Epsilon Indi Ab with the James Webb Space Telescope, they found less ammonia than expected—likely hidden by thick, patchy clouds. The finding reveals new layers of complexity in giant planets and shows how much we still have to learn.
When the CEO Becomes the Brand
Research suggests that Elon Musk’s political stance appears to have reshaped how different groups perceive Tesla. Overall sales trends hint at trouble. The company’s growth stalled in 2024, and deliveries fell 8.5% in 2025. But those headline numbers hide what is happening beneath the surface. When the data is broken down by political orientation and by changes in views of Musk, a more complicated pattern emerges. Among right-leaning respondents and those whose opinion of Musk has improved, Tesla’s brand appeal is significantly higher and willingness to pay exceeds that for many competing brands, including Ford, Chevrolet, and Rivian. Among left-leaning consumers and those whose view of Musk has worsened, the opposite is true: Preference and willingness to pay for Tesla drop sharply. The outcome is not a uniform decline but a polarization of demand. Some consumers appear to feel alienated, while others feel more aligned with the brand. This raises an important strategic question of whether companies can influence purchasing decisions across these divided segments by strengthening the underlying value proposition.
Planets need more water for life than scientists thought
A new study explores how much surface water a planet needs to support life.
This Alien Solar System Doesn’t Follow the Rules – and Scientists Are Intrigued
The LHS 1903 system defies expectations with a rocky outer planet, prompting new ideas about how planets form and evolve.
Aliens exist! Steven Spielberg shows off 'Disclosure Day' extraterrestrials at CinemaCon
Steven Spielberg showed off the first glimpses of aliens from his new UFO thriller 'Disclosure Day' at CinemaCon on Wednesday during Universal Pictures' panel.
Scientists think alien life might be hiding in patterns
A new study proposes detecting life in space by spotting patterns across many planets instead of focusing on one at a time. If life spreads and changes planetary environments, it could leave behind statistical clues linking planets together. These patterns may reveal life even when traditional biosignatures are unclear or misleading. The method could help scientists prioritize which planets are most likely to host life.
Alienware’s new gaming monitor offers a 240Hz QD-OLED panel for just $350
OLEDs for everybody.
Alienware AW2726DM launches at $350 with 1440p 240Hz QD-OLED panel, but only 200 nits
Alienware AW2726DM is a $350 1440p 240Hz QD-OLED monitor with 3-year burn-in warranty Alienware is preparing a lower-cost QD-OLED gaming monitor, the
CVS Health Corporation (CVS): Legal Clarity and Core Strengths Support the Bull Case
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is one of the undervalued large cap stocks to buy. On March 25, UBS analyst Kevin Caliendo reiterated a Buy rating and $97 price target on CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS). Caliendo said that CVS’s proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over insulin pricing could lift a major cloud that […]
Gen Z's political alienation drives rise in extremism
Gen Z’s pandemic scars, social-media isolation and disordered home life have eroded trust in the American social contract, increasing disaffection and political extremism.
No Man's Sky Xeno Arena Update Channels Pokémon, Lets You Raise, Train and Battle the Alien Creatures Found Across the Universe
No Man’s Sky’s latest update, Xeno Arena, is doing its best Pokémon impression by letting you raise, train and battle the alien creatures found across the universe. Here's everything you need to know.
As Trump orders UFO data released, a question hangs: If aliens exist, what would they think of us?
It came from outer space?
Fallout 76 | Fallout 76: Rip Daring vs Aliens C.A.M.P. Showdown
Submit a Rip Daring–inspired or Alien–inspired C.A.M.P. or Shelter for a chance at Atoms and an exclusive C.A.M.P. title. Submissions run April 2–April 27 at 12PM ET.
Alien Messages May Have Reached Earth – Why Haven’t Scientists Found Them?
Detecting extraterrestrial signals may require searching farther and longer than previously expected.
JD Vance warns that extraterrestrials are demons: 'I'm going to get to the bottom of this'
JD Vance does not believe that 'celestial beings' who 'fly around and do things to people' are aliens. 'I think they're demons,' the vice president said on a recent podcast appearance, vowing to 'get to the bottom of this.'
Tech: The scrambled data center politics
One thing is clear: data centers are an increasingly salient political issue heading into the midterm elections.
Invincible Vs reveals Conquest as the final character of the base roster, Universa and The Immortal as DLC
We previously heard that Invincible Vs will feature a base roster made up of 18 characters. Allen the Alien, Anissa, Atom Eve, Battle Beast, Bulletproof, Cecil Stedman, Dupli-Kate, Ella Mental, Invincible, Lucan, Monster Girl, Omni-Man, Powerplex, Rex Splode, Robot, Titan ...
Josh Duhamel Say Actors Talk Politics and Alienate Their Fans
Josh Duhamel will not talk about politics in interviews because he does not want to alienate his fanbase.
PS5 FPS Alien Deathstorm Is Not to Be Confused with Ridley Scott Movie, Despite Its Dev
We were confused, too
Alien Deathstorm: Sci-fi Survival and Action Combine for a New First-Person Horror Hybrid
New from Rebellion (Atomfall, Sniper Elite) is Alien Deathstorm, an atmospheric first-person horror hybrid, coming to Xbox and Xbox Game Pass.
Your Thymus and Your Healthspan
Our thymus gland plays a central role in the development or our immune system, specifically for supporting T cell development (how these cells got their name, maturation and differentiation in the thymus) and discriminating between self and foreign, non-self antigen proteins with production of dendritic cells. As we age, our thymus gland shrinks—the process known as involution—with progressive change from spongy to fatty tissue, with loss of functionality. But this process, with respect to timeline and extent, markedly varies from one person to the next. And to make things even more complicated, our thymus gland anatomy and precise location in the chest also is highly variable. So the famous Frank Netter diagrams from the 1960s (such as at left below) don’t capture the remarkable heterogeneity that a random set of 12 chest CT scans (below at right). What I consider as 2 landmark papers in Nature this week (here and here) used AI to quantify health of the thymus in 2 large cohorts, and then correlate the metric to a broad array of health outcomes. In this edition of Ground Truths, I’m going to cover three questions: (1) How was thymus health determined by AI?; (2) How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? and (3) Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? Subscribe 1. How was thymus health determined by AI? This was accomplished by extensive work developing and validating an AI pipeline for 2 stages, the first for localization and segmentation of the thymus bed, and the second to quantify a digital marker, termed the thymic health score. There’s a lot to this algorithmic development, so I won’t go into all the details, but just provide a rudimentary outline of what was done. The 1st stage used supervised learning with 2 radiologists reviewing 2,461 chest CT scans. That work trained a 3D U-Net model to automatically identify the thymic bed’s 3D cropped region using center of mass coordinates, which reached 99.8% accuracy. The 2nd stage used a foundation model that was pre-trained with SwAV (which stands for Swapping Assignment between multiple Views), a self-supervised model, that generated a high-dimensional thymus representation of 4,096 features. That compares to the radiology reductionist and subjective scoring of 0 to 3 where 0 means the thymus is fully degenerated and fatty, and 3 is considered dense, intact glandular soft tissue. Notably, the self-supervised learning (SSL) performance was superior to supervised (AUC ~0.75 vs 0.55, respectively) reflecting the shallowness of the 0-3 classifier vs SSL’s holistic, self-taught AI. The thymic health score ranged from 0 to 100, with the highest number indexed to fully preserved thymic health. The algorithmic work extended to explainability with both Shapely value distribution, meaning the model was holistic not relying on any “magic” pixel, and occlusion sensitivity, demonstrating the model’s performance was not affected by ribs, sternum, lung tissue, but rather focused on the thymic bed directly. Below are a few saliency maps from the occlusion sensitivity that indicate the thymic bed focus, not affected by neighboring structures, using the jet color scale. Now the AI was ready for processing ~25,000 CT scans, each over 30 MB files, from the 2 large participant cohorts to provide a thymic health score, it did so in less than 14 hours, which is less than 2 seconds per scan! Share 2. How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? The two cohorts were the National Lung Screening Trial, NLST (N=25,031) and the Framingham Heart Study, FHS (N=2,581) each with baseline demographics and long term follow up of >12 years for health outcomes. From the NSLT, you can see below that increased age and body-mass index were correlated to reduced thymic health. And, overall, men had reduced thymic health scores compared with women. There are a lot of graphs in the paper for outcomes, for both the NLST and FHS cohorts. To simplify the major outcomes, below is a composite Figure with striking reduction of all-cause mortality and for the different causes of death. The results were consistent between the 2 cohorts. For example, the cardiovascular mortality hazard ratio average was 0.57 in NLST and 0.38 in FHS (weighted to be 0.53 for the aggregate). The reduction of mortality also extended to digestive diseases and pulmonary disease (data not shown below). Lung cancer incidence was reduced by 36% for high vs low thymic health (Figure below, with a panel -incidence and b panel-mortality, adjusted for age, sex, BMI, smoking status). Notably, there was a smoker’s paradox: lower incidence and improved survival for lung cancer in smokers who had a high thymus health score. Smoking was associated with lower thymic scores whereas alcohol was not. Higher thymic health was linked to higher HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides, lower fasting blood glucose, and lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Inflammation biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were elevated in the people with lower thymic health scores. In their second paper, the same team looked at the relationship between thymic score and outcomes for 3,476 patients receiving cancer immunotherapy. The non-small cell lung cancer progression-free survival was reduced in patients with low thymic health score. A parallel relationship for survival was seen for other types of cancer including melanoma, breast, and kidney with a 44% lower risk among high thymic scores (Figure). A similar pattern was seen with different immune checkpoint inhibitors. The thymus health score outperformed programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1)and tumor mutation burden (TMB) assay of the tumor and was an independent prognostic marker of progression-free survival. In this dataset, a direct connect with thymus score and adaptive immune function was noted with a correlation before cancer treatment for both T-cell diversity and thymus T-cell production (a metric known as T cell receptor excision circles). Thymus Removal Study There is a highly relevant citation about thymus function before moving onto ways to rejuvenate it. In 2023, a very important study of thymus removal during cardiothoracic surgery was published, with 1146 patients undergoing thymus removal vs 1146 matched controls (mean age 55 years). The adverse outcomes for thymus removal were striking, with a 2.9 higher risk of all-cause mortality and doubling of cancer incidence, 1.5 fold increase in cancer mortality, and 1.5-fold increase in autoimmune diseases. The immune function showed marked compromise after thymus removal, as reflected by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (Figure below) Share Ground Truths 3. Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? In recent months we’ve learned a lot about the process of thymus involution and the pathways by which this may be modulated. Thymus involution is primarily due to loss to thymus epithelial cells (TECs) and there are 2 subtypes with different functions: the cortical, responsible for positive selection of T cells, and the medullary, for negative selection. When adipose tissue infiltrates the thymus, thymic adipocytes are pro-inflammatory, knocking out T-cell output. Likewise, systemic inflammation, or “inflammaging,” from smoking, obesity, and chronic stress promote thymic adipocytes. Now, from preclinical studies, we know about key pathways that account for these processes. Historically, back in 2014, FOXN1 was recognized as a single master transcription factor essential for TEC function, with studies in mice with forced FOXN1 upregulation leading to thymus regeneration. That laid the foundation for potential regrowth of quiescent thymus cells. It took awhile to find pathways to accomplish this goal and to even refute its role as the master regulator. The Liver-Thymus Axis Feng Zhang and his team recently showed that injection of an mRNA vaccine to the liver encoding DLL1, IL-7 and FLT3-L in combination, factors known to support thymopoiesis (Figure), successfully enhanced immune function in aged mice. However, the effect was transient. The FGF21 Story Two reports in 2025 addressed the thymus gland’s production of FGF21, a growth factor (fibroblast growth factor 21) and its control of thymus involution. This growth factor is also produced by the liver, but it doesn’t have impact on the thymus in aged rodent models. In contrast, The liver’s hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) has been shown to reverse senescent TEC structural changes. Growth hormone stimulates production of insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the liver and the thymus. Two small studies in human participants (TRIIM, for Thymus Regeneration, Immunorestoration, and Insulin Mitigation) of 6 and 50 people, respectively, treated with combined human growth hormone, metformin and DHEA, suggested the potential of slowing epigenetic aging and improving thymus mass and function. But the combination of drugs, small sample, and lack of controls make conclusions murky. Increased thymus FGF21 led to increased CD8 T cells in old mice and extended healthspan and improved physical performance. Building on the previous FOXN1 data, ablation of β-klotho, the obligatory co-receptor for FOXN1, accelerated thymic aging. The benefit to FGF21 was confirmed in a companion paper using an FGF21 knock-in mouse model showing thymus enlargement and increased TECs throughout the lifespan. (schematic Figure below). The accompanying editorial for these 2 papers speculated: “The proposed link between age-associated thymus involution and organismal aging is intriguing, and suggests we might seek to achieve systemic rejuvenation by counteracting thymic involution.” Other Factors Lessons from the Axolotl (Mexican Salamander) In an elegant set of experiments of the axolotl (Figure), known for its complete thymus regeneration after total surgical removal, mediators were identified. Surprisingly FOXN1 was dispensable. But midkine, a growth factor, appeared to be the driver, the initiator of thymus cell growth, survival, and repair. Other components that contributed were Postn+ (periostin-expressing mesenchymal niches) and Ccl19, a chemokine protein from the bloodstream. RANK and RANKL RANK (receptor activator of nuclear factor κB its ligand (RANKL) have been considered key regulators of medullary TECs. In a study of both aged mice and human thymus cell cultures, their key role was confirmed, with multiple benefits of resorting TEC function, recruitment of progenitor cells, and T cell development. Subscribe Summing Up This body of work strongly supports the health of the thymus gland as a critical regulator of human healthspan, not just a correlate or link. The new landmark studies are reinforced by the regenerative biology experimental models that have shown, via an array of mediators, that healthspan of aged mice is at least in part dependent on thymus gland function and its critical role for maintaining adaptive immunity. It sure seems that we’d be better off having an immune reservoir of naive T cells instead of a profile in older adults of exhausted, low quality, memory T cells, with a senescent phenotype. It is striking that we ignored the importance of the thymus gland for many decades. A wake-up call was the results of the thymectomy matched control study reviewed here, with the opposite of high thymic health score improved health outcomes. The convergence of AI and healthspan here is notable. The exceptional and laborious work for developing and validating (no less explaining) the AI to quantify thymus health set the foundation for probing the connect the major health outcomes in two cohorts with extensive follow-up. We’ve never had a way to meaningfully quantify the thymus gland before, so this represents important leverage of supervised, self-supervised, and transformer models. The study wouldn’t have been possible without AI. And it begs the question as to whether there are ways we can maintain our thymus at a high health score. But it’s not so simple to rejuvenate our thymus. There are multiple risks including the induction of autoimmunity, increasing the risk of cancer, and inducing a pro-inflammatory state. For example, factors that increase TEC proliferation could compromise the medulllary negative selection process and leak out auto-reactive (self-attacking) T cells. Thymic cells could be induced to proliferate, but we know, for example, that growth hormone and IGF-1 are associated with an increase risk of cancer. If thymus rejuvenation doesn’t clear out the accumulated senescent cells in older adults, then inflammation within the gland could block the production of TECs. Keeping these risks in mind, we now have identified many ways to keep our thymus healthy as we age that undoubtedly will be tested in clinical trials going forward. Ultimately, the benefit-to-risk tradeoffs will be defined. In the meantime, we have desperately needed an immunome. As I’ve stressed in multiple prior Ground Truths, we have no test in the clinic to assess a patient’s immune status! It was very encouraging for me to get an email from Hugo Aerts, the senior author of the landmark papers in the days after they were published: “I also wanted to say that your Substack on “Why We Need an Immunome” was inspiring for this work. We found it a very compelling perspective and greatly enjoyed reading it.” Just having an assessment of a person’s immune status via a chest CT scan, with millions of these performed per year, might help in guiding the right immunotherapy for cancer (e.g. more intensive, combinations for those with low thymic health scores) and help define people who are increased risk for age-related diseases of cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative. The main theme of Super Agers is that we now have many layers of data (genetics, proteins, biomarkers, organ clocks that can be integrated via multimodal AI) for us to define a person’s specific risk decades before one of these age-related diseases leads to symptoms, enabling prevention. From the new studies this week, we can add thymus health score as yet another way to understand a person’s risk, a window into their adaptive immune system and healthspan. And perhaps someday we will be able to safely rejuvenate the thymus, or maintain its health through one’s life, and use the thymus health score to monitor. NB: I wrote this post (No A.I.) A Quick Poll Loading... ********************************************************************* Thanks to Ground Truths subscribers (now > 200,000) from every US state and 212 countries. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. Please join! If you found this interesting PLEASE share it! Share Ground Truths Paid subscriptions are voluntary and all proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. They do allow for posting comments and questions, which I do my best to respond to. Please don’t hesitate to post comments and give me feedback. Let me know topics that you would like to see covered. Leave a comment Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. It enabled us to accept and support 47 summer interns in 2025! We aim to accept even more of the several thousand who will apply for summer 2026.
The real science (and the fun fiction) behind Project Hail Mary
The author of the novel Project Hail Mary breaks down aliens, anxiety and the process of bringing his story to the screen
Alien Life Could Look Nothing Like What We Expect. Here's How Microbes Beyond Earth Might Live Without Liquid Water
Like the lead character of “Project Hail Mary,” some scientists are proposing ways that life might exist beyond a star’s “habitable zone,” often considered the gold standard of potential livability
The 45 planets most likely to host alien life, according to astronomers
'Project Hail Mary' may be fiction, but this list could still come in handy.
The best places to look for alien life: Scientists identify 45 Earth-like worlds to explore for a 'Project Hail Mary'
If we're to find extraterrestrial life in the universe, astronomers have pinpointed the best places to look for it. They have identified just under 50 rocky worlds most likely to be habitable out of the ...
GOP governors, AGs back Trump SAVE Act push, warn system gives ‘undue influence’ to states with illegal aliens
Republican governors and attorneys general back citizenship verification through the SAVE America Act for federal elections, arguing gaps in voter registration create unfair influence.
Political analyst Professor Stephen Maynard Caliendo on Illinois Primary results
Scientists revive activity in frozen mouse brains for the first time
‘Cryosleep’ remains the preserve of science fiction, but researchers are getting closer to restoring brain function after deep freezing
Five Science Fiction Movies to Stream Now
In this month’s picks, there are time-looping teenagers, a dermatologist’s nightmare and a story from the alien’s perspective.
One possible recipe for life on Titan is a bust
An experiment mimicking conditions on the Saturn moon suggests that cell-like bubbles don’t form in methane lakes, puncturing hopes for alien life.
Invincible VS adds Allen the Alien; PS5 and Xbox Series open beta test set for April 9 to 11
Allen the Alien will be one of 18 playable characters available at launch in three-versus-three tag fighting game Invincible VS, publisher Skybound Games and developer Quarter Up announced. An open…
Neil deGrasse Tyson weighs in on aliens, "space jellyfish," movie science and Pluto
Kalshi and Polymarket are skirting laws on sports betting, states say
Online prediction markets allow users to put money on the outcome of almost anything — this weekend’s NBA game between the Warriors and the Thunder, the next supreme leader of Iran, whether the government will confirm the existence of aliens. But those markets have no state oversight and operate even in states that ban gambling. […]
Would aliens do physics, or is science a human invention?
Shaped by a different biology or culture, other intelligent civilisations – if they’re out there – might understand the universe in a completely different way than we do. Physicist Daniel Whiteson explores what that could tell us about physics and ourselves
The Guardian view on Trump’s war on science: Europe should pick up talent fleeing the US
Editorial: The president’s cuts have defunded and alienated thousands of American scientists. Europe can benefit, if it makes the right offer
If we made contact with aliens, what would happen? UFO defence expert reveals how prepared we really are | BBC Sky at Night Magazine
What would happen if we made contact with aliens? An ex-defence and UFO expert reveals just how prepared Earth really is.
On Trump, Obama, Aliens and Washington’s Latest Bombshell
Plus, a pardoned crypto king visits Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s advisers are struggling to get him to focus on the economy.
Trump says Obama disclosed classified information with alien comments
"He gave classified information, he's not supposed to be doing that," Trump told reporters Feb. 19 in discussing Obama's comments on aliens.
Trump calls Obama's alien comments a 'big mistake' after alleging classified information podcast revelation
Trump accused Obama of revealing classified information about aliens, calling it a "big mistake" during Air Force One interview with Fox News reporter.
Thousands of Alien Species Could Invade the Arctic, Scientists Warn
More than 2,500 alien plant species could find suitable conditions in the Arctic, especially in northern Norway and Svalbard.
Obama calls out Trump’s ‘rogue behavior,’ admits aliens are real?
yes, this interview was about aliens but it was also about accountability. About governing in reality, not ideology. About understanding that voters can care about human dignity and public order at…
Aliens are ‘real,’ Obama says, as Washington shrugs
The former president appeared to confirm decades-old conspiracy theories. Lawmakers say Barack Obama is simply saying what many Americans already believe.
NASA's Viking Mission May Have Found Alien Life In 1976 And Accidentally Killed It
A new paper suggests that BARSOOM may have been alive on the planet, and was killed in the Viking experiments.
Voters are worried about the cost of housing. But Donald Trump wants home prices to keep climbing
Many Republicans worry Trump's housing stance will alienate younger voters who helpe him return to the White House.
'They've probably been untouched for 49 million years': The New Mexico cave expanding our search for alien life
In one of the most baffling discoveries of the last decade, scientists have found a clue in a cave to how life might survive in deep space without light.
Book Review: “Do Aliens Speak Physics?” asks whether science is truly universal or shaped by the limits of human experience
Andy Warner and Daniel Whiteson have created a witty, illustrated inquiry into what the search …
Democrats have continuously sided with criminal illegal aliens, political strategist says
Legal and political strategist Katie Zacharia discusses President Donald Trump’s reaction to the CBP-involved Minneapolis shooting and his push to end sanctuary city policies on ‘Fox News @ Night.’
Trump Warns There's 'No Going Back' on Greenland
The President also risked further alienating European allies by lashing out at the United Kingdom.
PC hardware is entering a golden age of design and engineering, while Windows — with its newfound AI obsession — has never felt worse. Something must change.
Microsoft's cramming of AI into every corner of Windows is alienating lifelong users and creating unnecessary frustration. Too bad it's happening as PC hardware is hitting its stride.
Your Meta Quest headset just got a huge entertainment upgrade – Disney+ arrives with Dolby Vision and Atmos support
There's a whole world of Star Wars, Marvel and Alien now in VR
Trump admin warns of 'widescale doxxing' of ICE if House Dem's new bill passes
Trump administration fires back at Bronx congressman's QR code plan for ICE agents, calling it a 'doxxing campaign' to protect 'criminal illegal aliens.'
Scientists study 100 possible alien radio signals from collapsed Arecibo Observatory, ending groundbreaking 21-year search
A crowd-sourced search for alien intelligence called SETI@Home is in its final stages, analyzing 100 'signals of interest' with the world's largest radio telescope.
Rubio says US does not know whereabouts of 137 Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act
The Trump administration does not know the whereabouts of 137 Venezuelans it unlawfully deported last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, adding that attempting to offer them due process would impact US foreign policy interests in the country.
The 15 best games to play on the Nintendo Switch in 2026
From the greatest cartoon racing game in history to a remastered version of an Alien-inspired sci-fi shooter, here are the Switch’s must-play games
Advanced alien civilizations could be communicating 'like fireflies' in plain sight, researchers suggest
A new paper posits that advanced alien civilizations may communicate through subtle flashes, like fireflies do on Earth. The thought experiment suggests that we need to avoid human biases in our search for extraterrestrial life.
Dell brings back XPS laptops, expands gaming PCs, reveals massive monitors at CES
Dell revives XPS laptops at CES 2026, expands Alienware, and debuts a 52-inch 6K UltraSharp monitor for pros and gamers—see what’s new.
Alienware teases new super-slim and entry-level gaming laptops at CES 2026
Alienware plans to launch both a new ultra-slim laptop and an entry-level laptop later in 2026.
The politics of asylum: How local exposure reshaped UK voting
The UK has seen a sharp rise in asylum applications since the Covid-19 pandemic. This column examines how exposure to asylum seekers affects voter behaviour. The authors find that increases in dispersed asylum seekers – who are provided with accommodation but cannot choose their destination – lead to a sizeable rightward shift in local election outcomes. While migration has become more salient for both of the UK’s main political parties, only Conservative MPs appear to effectively channel local discontent, helping explain why these rightward electoral shifts occur despite little observable change in public attitudes.
Scientists Announce Results After Scanning 3I/ATLAS for Alien Signals
Alien technology or a natural comet?
UNA announces National Girls and Women in Sports Day Clinic for January 31 - University of North Alabama Athletics
FLORENCE, Ala. (December 30, 2025) – For a second straight year, the University of North Alabama Department of Athletics will host a free youth clinic to celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Saturday, January 31 from 10 a.m. to noon at the UNA Rec Center.
From Dinosaurs to alien jaws: Clemson researchers separate science from fiction
January 2 is National Science Fiction Day. We help reveal which sci-fi ideas are pure myth and which are grounded in real science. January 2 is National Science Fiction Day. We help reveal which sci-fi ideas are pure myth and which are grounded in real science.
How has our unalienable right to a healthy planet become political?
Human life is intimately connected with the rest of nature.
Dell confirms Ryzen 7 9850X3D update for Alienware Area-51 PC set to launch in February 2026
Dell Alienware PC gets confirmation on AMD unannounced CPU option Dell has published a press release confirming an AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU option for its
Most experts now believe aliens exist. Here’s what convinced them | BBC Science Focus Magazine
The research is mounting up that we might not be alone in this big wide world. So what's the likelihood that aliens are out there?
Best space photos of 2025
An alien comet, a Martian volcano, a man’s fall from the sun and a groundbreaking telescope’s first images: Here are the most jaw-dropping space photos of 2025.
Trump Now Shares One More Thing in Common With History’s Worst Dictators
This sort of behavior is alien to a republic and a democracy. It is common, however, in dictatorships.
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is rapidly moving away from us. Can we 'intercept' it before it leaves us forever?
3I/ATLAS has passed its closest point to Earth, meaning we will soon lose sight of it for good. Some scientists want to send a spacecraft to chase down the alien comet — or the next interstellar object.
Why Astronomers Are Excited About Comet 3I/Atlas’ Close Approach
Comet 3I/Atlas is just the third known object to visit us from outside our solar system. So yes... we'll be talking about aliens.
Steven Spielberg finally reveals 1st trailer for new UFO film 'Disclosure Day', and now we're terrified
Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor star in Universal Pictures' eerie alien invasion project coming next summer.
The Worst Thing About the RAM Shortage That Nobody’s Talking About
No matter what, consumers are going to lose.
Scientists have been studying the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e. Could it harbor alien life? : Short Wave
Want to be a top notch candidate for hosting alien life? Then there's a few key requirements you should be aware of: Ideally, you're a large object like a moon or a planet; scientists suspect you also have an atmosphere and water; plus, you should orbit your star from a nice mid-range distance — in the "Goldilocks Zone" of habitability. Until recently, you would be competing against TRAPPIST-1 e. It's a planet outside of our solar system. TRAPPIST-1 e is also only 40 light years away, rocky and the same size as Earth, which prompted researchers to investigate whether it also has an atmosphere — and the potential for alien life. A team of researchers has been investigating TRAPPIST-1 e to learn more about its potential. Their answers, recently published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, say a lot not just about this exoplanet, but about how scientists should refocus their hunt for alien life.Interested in more space science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Five of the best science fiction books of 2025
An eco-masterpiece, icy intrigue, cyberpunkish cyborgs, memory-eating aliens and super-fast travel sends the world spinning out of control
Life On Arsenic? Why Some Science Just Won’t Die - And Why It Matters For Real Discovery
Remember when a small bacterium from California’s Mono Lake was supposed to rewrite the very definition of life? Headlines screamed: NASA finds “alien” life on Earth! The organism reportedly swapped out precious phosphorus - one of life’s six essential building blocks - for arsenic, the toxic villain in murder mysteries.
JWST Spots Signs of Exomoon Birth in Alien Planet’s Disk
Scientists found evidence of a distant planet’s moon system forming
The Best Cyber Monday Gaming Laptop and Desktop Deals That Were Worth Waiting For
Cyber Monday November 2025 deals on gaming laptops and desktops are go! Save on big-ticket items like hundreds off an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop or an Alienware Area-51 desktop.