Sunday Special: The first look at a living colossal squid

Turns out regular Rubik’s cubes aren’t hard enough to keep physicists engaged, so they tapped quantum physics to give themselves a bigger challenge. Meanwhile, a living colossal squid just made its on-camera debut.

P.S. The Sunday Special is designed to help you discover the most important scientific and technological breakthroughs outside of AI. Our regular AI and Tech updates will resume as usual on Monday.

SCIENCE SUNDAY

The most interesting scientific discoveries and breakthroughs this week

Life Lighthouse: In what’s being dubbed a "revolutionary moment", scientists claim to have spotted the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life. They found high concentrations of dimethyl sulfide — a compound only produced by living organisms on Earth — on planet K2-18b, located 120 light-years away. While it’s too early to call it “aliens”, it’s the first time humanity has seen potential biosignatures on a habitable planet.

Meet Squidward: After nearly a century of scientific pursuit, researchers have finally captured the first-ever video of a living colossal squid out and about in its natural deep-sea habitat. The baby squid — only about a foot long — was spotted by a submersible during an Antarctic expedition. Beyond the wow-factor, rare finds like this mark a major win for deep-sea exploration. Catch the groundbreaking footage here.

Cube Conundrum: Physicists have upped the ante on the Rubik’s cube. They’ve created a simplified 2x2 grid version of a Rubik's cube that allows infinite possible states through quantum superposition — where pieces can simultaneously exist in moved and unmoved positions. Tests showed solvers using a mix of quantum and classical moves outperformed those using any one of the two methods.

Screen Saver: A new study has posed a challenge to concerns around "digital dementia", finding that older adults who regularly use technology may actually experience slower cognitive decline. Researchers discovered that consistent use of smartphones, computers, and the internet led to a reduced risk of cognitive impairment in people over 50, even after controlling for variables like education, income, and health.

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NEW TECH

Our favorite new tech gadgets this week

1. Chigee AIO-6: A smart dash display for motorcycles, packed with dashcam, tire sensors, and blind spot alerts. It also supports 4G tracking, live video, and offers real-time bike data.

2. Espresso Pro:  A 4K portable display for people on the go. It has a 15" 4K touchscreen with over 1B colors, pen support, built-in speakers, and a magnetic stand.

3. Cradlewise Crib: A convertible smart bassinet plugged with a built-in baby monitor that senses early wake-up indicators, including movements, the opening of eyes, and sounds. It even got a shoutout from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

4. reMarkable PaperPro: A digital notebook that feels like paper, so you can take notes, review documents, and maintain a digital workflow without any distractions.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in tech on socials this week

⌨️ Worklife Warden: A “Severance”-inspired keyboard, deliberately lacking the ‘Escape’ and ‘Control’ keys — is reportedly about to hit the market. It mimics the dystopian Data General terminal from Apple TV's hit show about office workers who can't escape their jobs.

🚀 Minute Mission: Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin launched an all-female crew aboard the New Shepard rocket, and the 12-minute excursion has split the internet. One thing is clear, though — private, commercial space tourism is closer than ever.

💥 Space Smackdown: A video of an asteroid crashing into Jupiter resurfaced on Reddit this week. While it looks like a tiny speck on the gas giant, a collision like this would have likely wiped Earth out.

⁉️ Conspiracy Chaos: US official Michael Kratsios made headlines with statements about America possessing technology that can "manipulate time and space". Although the context appears to be more metaphorical than literal, it’s got social media chirping about a secret time machine.

🩺 Quick Fix: A Reddit user had been suffering from jaw clicking — a symptom of Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) disorder — for years. After the best medical advice failed, he turned to ChatGPT, which nailed the fix in under a minute.

ONLY GOOD NEWS

A healthy dose of optimism to kickstart your week

Hepatic Helper: The FDA just greenlit a groundbreaking clinical trial to test genetically modified pig livers as treatment for liver failure. Unlike previous xenotransplantation efforts, researchers won't implant the organs but instead connect them externally to filter patients' blood, sort of like kidney dialysis. If successful, it could offer new hope for the 35,000 Americans hospitalized with liver failure annually, currently facing mortality rates as high as 50%.

Future Fangs: Your grandkids may possibly never know the horror of a dental implant. Scientists have successfully grown a tooth under lab conditions using cell communication techniques to mimic natural development — a major leap in regenerative dentistry. Unlike implants, these bio-teeth could potentially grow right into your jaw, offering stronger, rejection-free replacements. With human trials still years away, this possibly offers an alternative to the invasive surgery required for current dental implants.

Spill Sucker: The next time an oil tanker leaks thousands of tons of crude oil into the ocean, the cleanup crew might as well make a one-stop shop at the local swamp. Chinese researchers have engineered a material from sphagnum moss that can efficiently clean up oil spills while repelling water. The low-cost, eco-friendly material is simple to produce, outperforms traditional bio-based clean-up tools in efficiency, and retains 90% of its absorbing power after multiple uses.

Brain Blast: Scientists just mapped the wiring diagram of a brain region no larger than a grain of sand, capturing 200,000 cells in the most detailed neural map ever created. The project reveals surprising patterns in the cellular activity of the brain, potentially helping scientists find medications to effectively treat psychological disorders without causing harmful side effects.

SUNDAY SCIENCE TRIVIA

And here’s the result from last week’s trivia: More than 55% of you got it right!

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