In July 2024, NASA’s Perseverance rover got here throughout a peculiar rocky outcrop on Mars coated in unusual spots. On Earth, these marks are nearly all the time produced by microbial life.
Certain, these specks usually are not definitive proof of alien life. However they’re the very best trace but that life might not be a one-off occasion within the cosmos.
However the one approach to know for certain is to carry a pattern of that rock dwelling to check.
Now, simply over a 12 months and a half later, the venture to take action is on life help, with zero funding flowing in 2026 and little backing left in Congress. In consequence, these oh-so-promising rocks could also be caught on the market perpetually.
This additionally implies that, within the race to search out proof of alien life, America has successfully ceded its pole place to its best geopolitical rival: China. The superpower is transferring full steam forward with its personal model of the mission to carry the rock samples dwelling. It’s leaner than America and Europe’s mission, and the rock samples it is going to snatch from Mars will possible not be as prime quality. However that received’t be the headline folks bear in mind—the one within the scientific journals and the historical past books.
Practically a dozen venture insiders and scientists in each the US and China shared with me the story of how America blew its lead within the new house race. It’s full of untamed desires and promising discoveries—in addition to mismanagement, eye-watering prices, and, finally, anger and disappointment. Learn the complete story.
—Robin George Andrews
This text can be a part of the Large Story collection: MIT Expertise Overview’s most necessary, bold reporting. The tales within the collection take a deep have a look at the applied sciences which can be coming subsequent and what they are going to imply for us and the world we stay in. Try the remainder of them right here.
This firm claims a battery breakthrough. Now they should show it.
When an organization claims to have created what’s basically the holy grail of batteries, there are sure to be some questions.
Curiosity has been swirling since Donut Lab, a Finnish firm, introduced final month that it had a brand new solid-state battery know-how, one which was prepared for large-scale manufacturing. The corporate mentioned its batteries can cost super-fast and have a excessive power density that will translate to ultra-long-range EVs. What’s extra, it claimed the cells can function safely within the excessive warmth and chilly, include “inexperienced and plentiful supplies,” and would value lower than lithium-ion batteries do as we speak.
