Long Read
Deskilling the body
We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending - by Melanie Challenger Read on Aeon
Tonight’s picture · NASA Image of the Day
Transporter-18 SmallSats Encapsulation
Three NASA-supported small spacecraft, shown along with many commercial payloads, before being encapsulated in a SpaceX Falcon 9. The rocket launched the payloads into low-Earth orbit at 11:32 a.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, as part of the company’s…
Tonight’s sky over Amman
Moon
Waxing crescent10% lit · sets 19:28Sun
Sunset 18:06 · fully dark from 19:27
Planets to see
- Saturn bright, in the south-east, partway up (40°) at 21:00
Space station
No evening passes this week; at the moment it's only visible before dawn (next: Wed 14 Oct, 05:01).
Meteors
- Orionids active; peaks 21 October: up to about 20 an hour at its peak from a dark site.
Coming up
- Sun 18 Oct First quarter moon.
Times are local to Amman. Away from city lights you’ll see much more.
Tonight’s picks
From the Journals
Neighborhood disadvantages and longitudinal progression of multimorbidity among adult survivors of childhood cancer: a single-center St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study in the U.S.
SDOH are associated with CHC severity progression among childhood cancer survivors, supporting multilevel social risk assessment in survivorship care and further evaluation of neighborhood-informed risk stratification.
Space & Stars
A Red Dwarf is Taking its Time Eating a Brown Dwarf
Astronomers detected an unusual triangular light curve about 300 light years away. They were searching for Black Widow Binaries, where a dense neutron star eats its companion. But they found something different: an M dwarf slowly eating its binary companion…
Space & Stars
NASA JPL testing readies Voyager technologies lander for moon mission
A commercial lander that will be at the forefront of NASA's efforts to establish a moon base, humanity's first lunar outpost, has passed a series of critical tests at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The tests simulated the…
ESA's Hera Mission Targets Binary Asteroid Pair in November
In just one more month, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission will make history. Moving at 12 kilometers per second versus Earth, the mission is about to rendezvous with the binary Dimorphos-Didymos asteroid pair. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test…
Mars moon lander set to launch on 19 October
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is set to launch into space on a H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center at 04:41 JST on 20 October 2026 (20:41 BST / 21:41 CEST on 19 October 2026). MMX will be the first mission to collect a sample from Mars’s…
Medicine
Acetaminophen effects on developing brain organoids; and more
Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 12 October.
Early axial spondyloarthritis diagnosis linked to lower long-term spinal damage
Early axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), with a duration of no more than two years of axial symptoms, is associated with lower long-term spinal structural damage, according to a study published online Sept. 18 in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
Yes, obesity is a problem – but a greater one is the food industry and its greed | Letters
Ultra-processed foods are displacing traditional diets, warns Prof Kent Buse. Plus letters from Hugo Harper, Dr Pawan Randev and Patricia Hampton Your editorial on cancers in under-50s (8 October) rightly names food among the culprits. But the confrontation…
Authors respond with ‘a bit like a threat’ after journal reveals postdoc’s identity
In March, Thomas Harvey sat in on a talk at the American Physical Society’s summit in Denver on a new model of the universe that claimed to eliminate the need for dark matter and dark energy. William George, a fluid dynamicist who spent his career studying…
Mum told to 'prepare for worst' urges others to get respiratory illness vaccine
Jo Goldsmith said the RSV vaccine was not available when she was pregnant, but that she would have had it.
From the Journals
Characterizing the onset and progression of cancer cachexia using routine clinical data
In 52,236 patients with cancer, cachectic weight loss episodes were linked to lower survival rates, occurred at times of disease progression, and carried a consistent serological signature across routine laboratory markers. Specific tumor genotypes, including…
Generalisability of an adult-trained AI model to paediatric coeliac disease diagnosis: a multicentre external validation study
Our AI model, trained on adult biopsies, generalises to paediatric coeliac disease diagnosis across centres and scanner platforms. Well calibrated probability outputs provide clinically interpretable measures of diagnostic confidence and could support safe…
Adverse Health Outcomes of Psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, Ibogaine, and 5-MeO-DMT
This cross-sectional study describes health outcomes attributed to recent use of psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), ibogaine, and 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) in a nationally representative survey of US adults.
Physics
Quantum Probability Requires Probability
Author(s): John B. DeBrota A new analysis reveals that all major derivations of the Born rule depend on a probabilistic assumption. [Physics 19, 133] Published Tue Oct 13, 2026
Why supporting international colleagues is everyone’s responsibility
International researchers can face many challenges when trying to settle in another country
Gravity and quantum information linked through a derivation of Einstein's equations
Recent research shows that gravity and quantum information are deeply connected and that the shape of spacetime can be traced back to the way information is stored in quantum fields.
Technology
Apple unveils new smart home devices that showcase upgraded Siri AI
New products from Apple include the HomeView, an iPad-like device that acts as a hub for other smart home gadgets Apple on Tuesday began showing off a new round of smart home products, including an iPad-like device dubbed the HomeView, meant to hang on walls…
Bumble bought for $1.3bn in 'bet on the future of humanity'
The dating app which recently ditched its "women-first" chat rule has been bought by an investment firm.
First Utility-Scale Enhanced Geothermal Plant Goes Live
This article was originally published by Canary Media. The geothermal startup Fervo Energy is now selling power to the grid from its Cape Station project in Utah—marking the first time a utility-scale, next-generation geothermal facility has achieved such a…
Long Read
The Embryos That Don’t Come From Eggs and Sperm
Human embryo models mimic the earliest development stages; they could offer a glimpse of the first weeks of pregnancy — a mysterious period for which natural embryos are seldom available — and potentially shed light on miscarriage, congenital anomalies, and…
NASA’s TEMPO satellite enables better monitoring of bad air days
From 22,000 miles above, the new instrument lets researchers and regulators track airborne health threats in near real time, on a continental scale
Across the Sciences
They war-gamed dimming the Sun. It went even worse than you think.
Solar geoengineering simulation shows what happens when geopolitics takes over.
Trill seekers: can scientists use AI and tutors to help birds remember lost songs?
When populations fall, fledglings can struggle to learn the right notes to attract mates. But research on how birds communicate offers hope for species’ survival Listening to birdsong is one of life’s great joys, but when researchers heard a particular tune…
For women academics, feeling devalued can be a fatal career blow
Thousands shared their stories for a new study of faculty attrition
Nature
Governors allied with Flávio Bolsonaro set to lead majority of Brazilian Amazon states
Seven of Brazil’s nine Amazonian states are set to be governed by politicians aligned with far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, Lucas Berti reported for Mongabay Brasil. On Oct. 25, Brazil will have an electoral face-off between the top two candidates for…
Indonesia wildfire fuelled by El Niño razes almost 300 homes
Hundreds of people displaced in Bangka Belitung with conditions described as worst in a decade with wildlife also badly hit A forest fire on Indonesia’s Sumatra island fuelled by El Niño has razed nearly 300 homes, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate, an…
Owls ringed to measure benefits of wildlife farming
A barn owl and 15 chicks are ringed to see if conservation-focused farming is working.
Tennis
Boulter beaten by Shnaider in Wuhan
British number one Katie Boulter loses to Diana Shnaider in the Wuhan Open first round.
Zverev celebrates becoming year-end No 1 with Bublik win in Shanghai
Alexander Zverev celebrated becoming the year-end No 1 with a 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 7-6 (7-1) victory over Alexander Bublik to reach the quarter-finals at the Shanghai Masters.
Alex de Minaur Marks ‘Best Day’ Since Injury Woe With Dominant Win At Shanghai Masters
Alex de Minaur says he is getting better every day after moving into the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters with a victory that has also moved him above Novak Djokovic in the ATP Race to Turin. The ninth seed roared his way to a 6-3, 6-4 win over US Open…