Science news this week: A breakthrough cure for Huntington’s disease and a fast-growing black hole that breaks physics This week’s science news has been dominated by medical marvels, with the announcement of a breakthrough gene therapy that has treated Huntington’s disease for the first time. Huntington’s disease is relatively rare, affecting 1 in 10,000 to […]

Scientists asked ChatGPT to solve a math problem from more than 2,000 years ago — how it answered it surprised them The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Socrates challenging a student with the “doubling the square” problem in about 385 B.C.E. When asked to double the area of a square, the student doubled the length […]

It’s official: Humans have found 6,000 planets beyond our solar system The age of exoplanets began in 1992, when astronomers detected a pair of planets orbiting a pulsar. Then, in 1995, astronomers discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a main sequence star. As NASA‘s Kepler and TESS missions got going, the number of confirmed exoplanets continued […]

Why does medicine taste bad? ​​For something curative and healing, most medicines have a surprisingly noxious taste. From bitter-tasting syrups to the persistent metallic aftertaste of certain tablets, why do many of our best treatments taste so bad — and how much does this actually matter? The majority of modern drugs were developed from or […]

Hurricane Humberto and Potential Tropical Storm Imelda Complicate Forecasts Meteorologists are carefully watching a volatile tropical cyclone situation in the Atlantic Ocean in the coming days that will determine whether the Carolinas will face potentially serious flooding early next week. The uncertain hurricane forecast hinges on a storm system that is currently located over Cuba […]

Is acetaminophen safe in pregnancy? Here’s what the science says. No, according to the WHO, ACOG and AAP. No studies have shown that acetaminophen causes neurodevelopmental issues. While health experts advocate limiting acetaminophen use in pregnancy to only when necessary, some of the most reassuring data comes from a 2022 study in the journal The […]

NIH Funds New Autism Studies on Genes and Environment as Trump Focuses on Tylenol September 26, 2025 4 min read NIH Funds New Autism Studies on Genes and Environment as Trump Focuses on Tylenol The National Institutes of Health is investing $50 million into research on genetic and environmental factors underlying autism—news that was eclipsed […]

Pasteurization destroys H5N1 bird flu in milk Pasteurization completely inactivates the H5N1 bird flu virus in milk — even if viral proteins linger. Drinking properly pasteurized milk contaminated with avian influenza remnants won’t increase vulnerability to the infection, researchers report in September 26 in Science Advances. Heat treatment completely neutralized the highly pathogenic avian influenza […]

In a first, Huntington’s disease is slowed by an experimental treatment Even hearing the phrase “Huntington’s disease” will make a room suddenly somber. So the joy that accompanied a recent announcement of results of an experimental gene therapy for the deadly diseases signaled an unfamiliar sense of hope. In a small clinical trial, brain injections […]

Repeating cosmic explosion leaves scientists ‘baffled’ Astronomers are scratching their heads after detecting a bizarre, long-lasting cosmic explosion unlike anything previously observed. The explosion was a series of repeated outbursts of high-energy radiation, known as a gamma-ray burst. These bursts, the most powerful known explosions in the universe, typically only last for milliseconds to minutes, […]