CNN – Offbeat

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A leopard-spotted rock that could prove whether life ever existed beyond Earth is sitting in a tube on Mars. NASA’s Perseverance rover grabbed up the sample, called Sapphire Canyon, from rocky outcrops on the edges of the Neretva Vallis, a valley sculpted by rivers that once flowed into an

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — The Iran war was supposed to be a short, sharp strike that brought down the regime within a few weeks. Instead, the US finds itself enmeshed in a conflict that’s upending the world’s energy system. As oil and gas prices soar, there have been noticeable shifts toward clean energy,

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — A new genetic analysis has revealed potential clues to the longevity secrets of a giant tortoise named Jonathan, the world’s oldest land animal. Researchers say the findings could eventually inform treatments aimed at slowing age-related cellular decline in humans. Believed to be 194 years old, Jonathan is an Aldabra

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — AI executives are betting big on biology. They say their large language models that have already dramatically changed the fields of coding and software development and mathematics can upend biological research in the same way. But one company’s attempt to do so has already set off a wave of

By Jack Guy (CNN) — Forensic examination of human remains found around the funerary complexes of Ancient Egyptian kings has uncovered evidence that they belonged to servants who were sacrificed when the monarchs died, according to a new study. The remains of these servants, or retainers, were first excavated from the funerary complexes at Abydos,

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — An uninhabited volcanic island in the Southern Ocean used to be home to the largest penguin colony in the world — but not anymore. Scientists have discovered the staggering loss of more than half a million chinstrap penguins from the isolated outcrop. Chinstrap penguins, named for the narrow band

By Issy Ronald, Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in chemistry for designing revolutionary experiments that replicated chemical asymmetry, a feat only previously seen in nature. Their work has solved one of the field’s enduring mysteries and advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing, the award committee said

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — The croc family tree may be getting a new branch. Analyzing fossilized remains discovered in the same bedrock that built the Great Sphinx, paleontologists newly identified a crocodilian species that once roamed a shallow sea in what’s now Egypt about 45 million years ago. The Mokattam Formation in northern

By Issy Ronald, Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — The 2026 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to Francis Halzen, a pioneering Belgian astrophysicist whose work developing a massive observatory in Antarctica to detect “ghostly” cosmic particles laid the foundations for an “entirely new type of astronomy.” These tiny, high-energy particles from space, known as

By Laura Paddison, CNN and Masoud Popalzai (CNN) — Shazia knows what life will be like in a major city that’s run out of water because she’s already living that reality — and it’s unbearable. The 34-year-old lives in the Khair Khana neighborhood of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul with her three children and her husband, who

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — In a cosmic first, scientists say they have detected a planet that may have formed from the burned remains of its dead host star. The planet is likely a gas giant orbiting a white dwarf called HS 0209+0832 located about 270 light-years from Earth, according to the authors of

By Issy Ronald, Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — The 2026 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to three scientists – Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel – for their work developing a technique to decode the inner workings of the brain. This method – known as optogenetics – acts as a

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — US consumers are likely to face steeper prices for their morning latte, thanks to the near-record strong super El Niño still strengthening in the Pacific Ocean. El Niño is expected to combine with preexisting supply chain pressures around the world to increase prices on tropical products such as coffee,

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — As rural communities across the United States wage intensifying battles to keep AI-computing data centers out of their backyards, some tech giants are mulling methods that could sidestep such local resentment — by sending the facilities to space. There are no guarantees the technology will work, nor is it

By Jack Guy, CNN (CNN) — The organizers of a highly regarded scientific photography contest are reviewing this year’s winning entry following criticism over the use of AI. Nikon has announced that it’s “carefully re-reviewing the information” provided by Ning Xu, whose short video of intricate cell movement won the annual Small World In Motion

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A celebrated space telescope is rapidly dipping from its once-stable orbit and falling to Earth just shy of the 22nd anniversary of its launch. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will soon have to cease its science observations after a daring rescue mission’s attempt to boost its orbit failed over

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — The most powerful rocket ever made, SpaceX’s Starship, reached orbit for the first time on Monday, deploying operational Starlink satellites in an unprecedented step forward. The mission marked the beginning of a new era — and possibly the beginning of the end of another. As Starship flights ramp up,