SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " mystery " 482 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Scientists make breakthrough in solving mystery of volcanic lightning
Research shows fine carbon coating on silica in updraught causes electrical charge – and spectacular display
2026 NFL mock draft: Giants bypass wide receiver in Round 1, but two still taken in top 10
Mystery is what defines the 2026 NFL Draft with little certainty at the top.
Ramstein Students Become Environmental Detectives for a Day
Ramstein, Germany– Seventh and eighth graders at Ramstein Middle School recently solved an environmental mystery with the help of local experts. Scienti...
Scientists Finally Crack Decades-Old Mystery of “Breathing” Lasers
A new model reveals that two very different laser pulse behaviors are fundamentally connected.
The mystery of the universe's missing exploding stars
According to scientists, red supergiant stars should produce more supernovas. But astronomers just aren’t spotting them. Here's how they plan to crack the case.
4 April thrillers and mysteries blend levity and suspense
From a steamy thriller to a humorous mystery, these new books will keep you on edge.
Mystery of NJ neighborhood with ‘crazy high percentage’ of people with cancer — including 28 on one street
4.5mm iPhone Ultra/Fold cases and "final design" renders leak; big MagSafe mystery
Leaked iPhone Ultra/Fold cases confirm a wider book-style foldable design for Apple’s 2026 flagship. However, the leaked images suggest a conflict between the device's ultra-thin 4.5mm chassis and MagSafe compatibility, as dummy units lack magnets while cases include them. Known iPhone Ultra/Fold features include a 7.8-inch display, A20 Pro chip, and a late 2026 release date.
The Barents Sea is receiving more and more warm water, and scientists believe they have finally found the reason that had eluded them for 40 years
Scientists solve a 40-year Arctic mystery. Discover how a subtle shift in weather "rhythm" is pumping warm Atlantic water into the North.
How an unsolved medical mystery became a life-saving breakthrough
Inside the deadly disease confounding medicine, researchers piecing together clues and the breakthrough that meant survival for thousands of patients.
String of missing or dead scientists 'too coincidental' not to be major concern, congressman says -- as 11th mystery emerges
Scientists May Have Finally Solved the Mystery of Christopher Columbus’ Origins
Christopher Columbus purposely kept his ancestry a mystery during his life. But unfortunately for him, some researchers might have solved it.
Mystery clouds deaths, disappearances of scientists with UFO research ties: timeline
Karoline Leavitt says the Trump administration will likely investigate a string of mysterious deaths and disappearances of high-level scientists.
Scientists discover hidden ocean methane source that could worsen global warming
Scientists have discovered that methane in the open ocean is produced by microbes under nutrient-poor conditions, solving a long-standing mystery. As warming oceans reduce nutrient mixing, these methane-producing microbes may thrive. This could lead to increased methane emissions from the sea. The result is a potential feedback loop that could intensify climate change.
New discovery solves mystery of the location of Shakespeare's London house
A newly discovered 17th-century map sheds light on William Shakespeare's life in London | Talk 1370
Scientists solve 100-year-old mystery behind rubber that powers modern life
Every time you drive, board a plane or water your lawn, you're relying on a material that has quietly powered modern life for nearly a century—reinforced rubber. It's in car and aircraft tires, industrial ...
Scientists just solved a 160-million-year fossil mystery “I’ve never seen anything like it”
A rare fossil discovery is shedding light on the “missing years” of early sponge evolution. Scientists found a 550-million-year-old sponge that likely lacked hard skeletal parts, explaining why earlier fossils are so scarce. This supports the idea that the earliest sponges were soft-bodied and rarely preserved. The finding changes how researchers hunt for the origins of animal life.
Scientists finally know where the Colorado River’s missing water is going
For years, water managers have been puzzled as the Colorado River kept delivering less water than expected—even when snowpack levels looked promising. New research reveals the missing piece: spring rain, or rather, the lack of it. Warmer, drier springs mean plants are soaking up more snowmelt before it can reach rivers, fueled by sunny skies that boost growth and evaporation. In fact, this shift explains nearly 70% of the shortfall, tying the mystery directly to the long-running Millennium drought.
International Collaboration Helps Pinpoint Universe’s Expansion Rate
The universe is expanding, but the exact speed at which it’s doing so – a figure known as the “Hubble constant” – remains a mystery. Now, an international collaboration of astronomers has developed a framework that incorporates a range of methods into one analysis, to produce a more precise measurement.
Mystery item spotted in 2,000-year-old Egyptian child mummy
Critical information about this unknown boy was destroyed during World War II.
Mystery Tarkov-Marathon Extraction Blend, ‘Fragmentary Order,’ Raises Questions
Fragmentary Order, already being called “Starkov” by many, debuted a seven-minute cinematic trailer yesterday, dropping from new studio Rant Gaming and publisher Cor3,
Scientists Finally Crack the Mystery of Water’s Strangest Behavior After Decades of Research
A hidden transition between two forms of liquid water may explain its most puzzling properties.
Scientists Finally Crack the 100-Million-Year Evolutionary Mystery of Squid and Cuttlefish
Genomic analysis reveals squid and cuttlefish evolved in deep oceans, survived mass extinction in refuges, and later rapidly diversified, following a “long fuse” evolutionary pattern.
How aggressive breast cancer turns off the immune system
Researchers are launching a new project to crack the mystery of aggressive breast cancer, where predicting disease progression remains a major hurdle. By studying how tumors interact with and suppress the immune system, scientists aim to identify new biomarkers that reveal how the cancer evolves. Using real patient samples, the team hopes to turn earlier discoveries into practical clinical tools. The goal: more precise, personalized treatments that can outsmart even the most dangerous tumors.
“AI polls” are fake polls
A few weeks after Donald Trump’s second presidential win, I took the train up from London (where I was living at the time) to Oxford to attend a conference on polls and forecasts of the 2024 election. Most of the attendees were pollsters or academics, but I also watched presentations from Aaru and Electric Twin, two companies that do what is interchangeably called synthetic sampling, silicon sampling, or synthetic audiences. Stripped of startup jargon, that means they use large language models (LLMs) to simulate responses to public opinion polls by having AI agents take on the role of survey respondents. I had already heard of Aaru thanks to some articles with eye-catching headlines like “No people, no problem: AI chatbots predict elections better than humans” in the months leading up to Election Day. The founders were making some big, some might even say far-fetched claims, such as: “within two years, we will simulate the entire globe — from the way crops are grown in Ukraine to how that impacts production of oil in Iraq, trade through the strait of Malacca, and elections for the mayor of Baltimore.” When Semafor asked Aaru’s cofounders — Cameron Fink and Ned Koh — about my boss, they said “we respect all those who came before us.” Nate (as he so often does) shared his thoughts on Twitter: Fink and Koh were relatively good-natured about this back-and-forth when we spoke at Oxford. They even offered to mail me one of the t-shirts featuring Nate’s quote they apparently had made. I never took them up on the offer, which I now somewhat regret. These synthetic sampling companies fell off my radar for a while, but they do still exist. In fact, Aaru recently received a $1 billion valuation. Is what they’re doing anywhere close to the most important frontier in AI development? Not by a longshot, especially when Anthropic just developed a model so adept at exploiting software vulnerabilities that it’s only being released to 40 companies. Still, silicon sampling is increasingly finding its way into public polling. Axios reported in March that “a majority of people trust their own doctors and nurses” based on findings from Aaru — without mentioning that the “people” in that sentence were actually LLMs. Around the same time, the Public Sentiment Institute “boosted” their online sample of 373 real survey respondents with 114 AI agents.1 (Spoiler alert: even the co-founder of Electric Twin doesn’t think that’s a particularly defensible approach.) Polling companies like Qualtrics and Ipsos are also developing synthetic data panels. So, what should we make of these … “polls”? Let’s get one thing out of the way: whatever they are, they’re not polls in the way that term is usually defined. Subscribe You can’t replace polls with AI On one hand, using LLMs to essentially make up fake survey respondents sort of sounds like the dumbest idea ever, one that will at best imperfectly replicate real polls while introducing all sorts of biases. On the other hand, with LLMs improving at a remarkable, perhaps even alarming rate, maybe that means I’m a dinosaur at the ripe old age of 24 because I still want to rely on polls that talk to actual people. I’m not going to argue that synthetic samples are completely useless. In fact, as I’ll return to later, there is evidence that some techniques can replicate topline survey results quickly and cheaply. But the marketing from certain companies can be slightly optimistic. “No traditional poll will exist by the time the next general election occurs,” said Fink in 2024. We’re just 206 days away from the midterms, and based on the fact that I still have to collect a bunch of polls every day, I’d say he should have run that prediction by a sample of AI agents before the interview.2 To see why synthetic samples can’t replace polls, here’s a quick primer on how they work. The simplest version of these models involves taking a LLM (like ChatGPT or Claude), giving it a demographic profile (e.g., a white, college-educated woman who lives in Utah and makes $70k a year), and then asking it to respond to a survey question. You repeat that process a few thousand times using different demographic profiles and end up with a sample of synthetic survey responses. The actual models used by private companies are more sophisticated than this, usually because they incorporate more hypothesized demographic characteristics for each agent and provide them with extra information. Aaru, for example, feeds agents a diet of news and information they’d be likely to consume, while Electric Twin incorporates their customers’ proprietary data about the audience they’re trying to replicate. The way Ben Warner, the co-founder of Electric Twin, explained it to me was “we have a large amount of data on […] for instance, 5,000 people. Can we make an accurate prediction of how they would respond to another question?” Still, it should be obvious why synthetic samples can’t replace polls. Polling is fundamentally a data collection process. We might use surveys to make predictions by feeding them into election forecasts, but the main purpose of a poll isn’t prediction, it’s gathering new data about what people think and how they feel. Silicon sampling, on the other hand, produces no new data. It’s simply a model: you input LLM training data, demographic prompts, and a bunch of other information, and it spits out a prediction for what a poll would say. We love models here, but models aren’t polls. That difference is an important philosophical sticking point for most pollsters I talk to. “I think politics should stay away from [synthetic sampling], because we’re trying to […] represent the voice of the people,” said Natalie Jackson, a vice president at GQR Insights. Democratic pollster John Hagner told me: “I think I’m just incredibly skeptical of this idea. I don’t think it’s research. At that point, you’re asking the machine to tell you what you already believe.” Hagner has seen some presentations of early synthetic sampling experiments, but so far, “if it’s being used in a campaign, people are keeping it incredibly quiet.”3 But Eli, I hear you saying, aren’t polls themselves increasingly governed by modeling decisions? Indeed they are: pollsters’ choices on which sampling method to use, how to define their likely voter models, and how to weight their samples can and do lead to dramatic differences in the results they publish. Aaru even referenced these limitations in the methodology statement included with that maternal mortality “poll” — although I’m using the term “methodology statement” loosely here, because it doesn’t really explain how the model works at all. We can ignore the (frankly preposterous) implication that synthetic sampling isn’t subject to a separate set of biases. The important point is that there’s still a meaningful difference between using weighting and other statistical techniques on actual polling data and using a model to predict what a poll would say. The latter is far closer to election forecasts or techniques like MRP — potentially useful models, but not a replacement for polls.4 To be fair, other synthetic sampling companies are perfectly happy with the distinction between polls and models. Warner compared polling and synthetic sampling to different tools in a toolbox. “The mistake I think we make is we think that these new tools should either work in exactly the same way or somehow replace these old tools,” he said. “Rather than thinking of it as, okay, so we’ve always had the hammer, we’ve always had the screwdriver, now we’ve got a saw. But don’t use a saw to try [to] do the job of a hammer.” A quick comment from Nate Eli didn’t ask me for a comment — rather rude of him, don’t you think? But since I’m editing this story, I figured I’d add a few quick thoughts rather than putting words in his mouth. Beyond the frequently misleading marketing, what bothers me about the AI “poll” hype is that as AI tools make statistical inference cheaper and/or better (note that these are not synonyms) that actually increases the comparative value of collecting original data. You might be able to train a model to make a reasonable estimate of what some hard-to-reach poll respondent would say — say, a young Black man who voted for Trump. (Such a person checks a number of boxes for a voter who is usually hard to reach in surveys.) Indeed, this is closely related to what models like the Silver Bulletin forecast already do. They essentially smooth out the kinks in noisy survey data by making inferences based on past voting patterns or national polls or surveys of other states. But you don’t actually know what these voters think unless you’re reaching them directly. If there’s a shift in opinion among this subgroup, you’re not going to detect it. So if I were running a campaign, I’d invest more in going the extra mile to find a representative sample of those voters. And then I’d hire some smart quants — or Claude? — to figure out the implications for campaign strategy based on proprietary data that my competitors didn’t have access to. -Nate Silver Are these models any good? If synthetic surveys are just a new type of model, the next obvious question is whether the models are at least accurate. The answer very much depends on who you ask. On one end of the spectrum, you have the maximalist argument that synthetic sampling is more accurate than actual polls. “It’s an incredibly challenging problem to go to someone and say ‘hey, we’re going to be more accurate at predicting human behavior than you, even when you talk to your customers directly’,” Koh recently told CNBC. In his view, synthetic sampling isn’t a saw to polling’s hammer, it’s “magic.” There’s certainly evidence that synthetic samples can replicate certain survey toplines. But if Aaru does have any examples of their approach outperforming the polls, they’re keeping those to themselves.5 Aaru’s 2024 election model, for example, had Kamala Harris leading in Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on November 4th. And although they’ve since taken down their forecast page, they gave Harris a 50.5 percent chance of winning the race on November 2nd.6 After the election, Fink told Semafor he was happy enough with those results because they were “within margin of error,” a term that is completely meaningless when applied to a “sample” of AI agents. And of course, Aaru says their models have improved since 2024, so supposedly now they’d be more accurate than the polls? Still, their stronger argument is on cost: “We are significantly faster and cheaper than traditional polling, and still more accurate,” said Fink. The first two claims are undeniably true, but the third brings us to the opposite end of the spectrum. Both Jackson and Hagner are skeptical that these models are reliable for anything beyond replicating common survey toplines. “I just […] don’t think the machines are what we want when we’re looking for nuanced views. My example on this is people in Arizona and Nevada in 2024 who voted for Trump and voted for expanding abortion in their states on ballot initiatives,” said Jackson. Hagner identified another issue. Maybe the synthetic respondents, like sycophantic LLMs, are inhuman in one important way: they’re too nice. “The reports that have come through at the meetings that I’ve been at are that the early experiments on this, they cannot get respondents to be as racist or sexist or, frankly, as negative as human respondents,” he said. Academic research mostly agrees on this point. While there are some papers that show promising results when using LLMs to replicate polling data, most show that LLMs suffer from various quirks like producing too few “don’t know” responses and can seriously overpredict the favorability of politicians like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. They also seem to struggle with too little variation between demographic subgroups, so the difference in predicted opinion between Democrats and Republicans, for example, is too small. When I asked Warner about these studies, his response to these papers was that just because academics can’t get synthetic sampling to work doesn’t mean that the technique doesn’t work in general. “Actually, the argument is, okay, yours does not [work]. That does not mean […] for this complex set of machinery, which uses a lot of investment, a lot of time, a lot of money, you can’t get it to work.” Cards on the table, I’m somewhat sympathetic to this argument because academics aren’t exactly great at making election forecasts. Usually, the people with skin in the game are the most accurate. Warner’s argument is that the approach Electric Twin takes — which includes, for example, making multiple predictions for each synthetic respondent using different models and prompts and subsequently averaging those to get a final prediction in a sort of ensemble forecast — produces better results than the simpler academic models. Warner shared a comparison between his method and the method from a recent academic paper with me, and Electric Twin was indeed able to get more accurate replication. But even still, he acknowledged that synthetic sampling “is not a crystal ball.” “If you asked me, do I think using other data sources will be more accurate than asking somebody who they will vote for, I would probably say no. But if you asked me ‘would your system be useful for our turnout modeling today?’ I would say yes.” For better or worse, it looks like the method is already getting more popular in the market research world. Most of the clients Aaru touts these days are businesses like EY and McDonald’s. And AI will probably begin to pop up in other parts of the political polling process. Pollsters are already using it to code open-ended survey responses, and some firms, like YouGov, are testing using LLMs to ask survey respondents questions. More worryingly, one danger to actual polls is that AI agents can be used to infiltrate online surveys. Most online polls use various checks to prevent that from happening, but there’s conflicting evidence on how effective those filters are and how prevalent AI agents currently are in online panels. If those agents ever become impossible to detect, it might spell the end of online polling, but the solution isn’t to replace all of your respondents with ChatGPT. Silver Bulletin is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe 1 That particular poll obviously doesn’t meet Silver Bulletin standards for aggregation. But we exclude all Public Sentiment Institute polls from our averages because we classify them as an amateur polling firm. 2 You could argue that Fink meant the next presidential election, but (a) I’m also confident we’ll still have real polls in 2028 and (b) in that case he should have asked an LLM to define “general election.” 3 Quick caveat: that’s reporting from a Democratic pollster. It’s possible that Republicans are more willing to use AI in political campaigns. 4 Indeed, Silver Bulletin does not include “polls” produced by MRP in our forecasts or averages, and we think it’s extremely misleading when their practitioners describe them in a way that suggests original data had been collected among a large number of states or Congressional districts. 5 A recent report from Aaru and EY did show two examples of a synthetic estimate being closer than a survey to a real-world benchmark — but I’d take those findings with a grain of salt because the report reads more like an ad and didn’t involve any sort of prediction being made ahead of time. 6 For comparison, our odds for Harris on the same day were 48.2 percent.
A 67-year-old “crazy” theory about vitamin B1 has finally been proven
Scientists have achieved the unthinkable by stabilizing a highly reactive molecule in water, confirming a decades-old theory about vitamin B1’s role in the body. The breakthrough not only solves a scientific mystery but could revolutionize greener chemical manufacturing.
Crime Scene Entertainment launches new interactive experience
Crime Scene Entertainment has launched a brand-new interactive experience, the Case File: Open Detective’s Office, offering a flexible, self-guided alternative to full-length immersive murder mystery events.
James Webb telescope spots 'stingray' galaxy system that could solve the mystery of 'little red dots'
A study of the fascinating galaxy system nicknamed "The Stingray" suggests that mysterious little red dots could be a phase in the evolution of galaxies powered by actively feeding black holes, rather than a distinct class of objects.
MAGA Is Winning Its War Against U.S. Science
Source: NBER With all the other terrible news right now, you may not have noticed that Donald Trump is in the process of killing American science. OK, that’s an exaggeration — but not that much of an exaggeration. The Trump administration’s latest budget proposal calls for a gigantic increase in military spending combined with severe cuts to social programs. But as the chart above shows, it also calls for debilitating reductions in research funding. Furthermore, Trump appointees have already been strangling science by sharply reducing the rate at which research grants are approved. Here, for example, is the number of new grants approved by the National Science Foundation: Source: Nature Large numbers of existing grants have also been frozen or terminated, especially in the study of infectious diseases. Add to this a sharp drop in visas issued to foreign students, who often play a direct role in research and who help support academic departments that do research: Put all of this together, and much U.S. scientific research is set to come to a screeching halt — not a few years from now, but over the course of the next year or two. This new assault on U.S. science is taking place at a time when the role of American science in the world has already been greatly eroded. The chart below, based on research recently reported by the National Bureau of Economic Research, measures national strength in science by the share of publications in highly ranked journals. In the 1990s the United States had more such publications than the rest of the world combined. Since then we’ve dropped into third place — well behind China and slightly below the European Union. And this was before the Trump administration’s attack on science had time to take its full effect. Source Some erosion in U.S. scientific preeminence was inevitable given China’s growing sophistication and wealth. But we’ve also fallen behind Europe, even though everyone says that Europe is lagging economically and technologically. Claims about Europe’s underperformance are, in fact, dubious if one looks hard at the data. But it’s still striking to see America lagging. What’s going on? There are presumably multiple factors behind America’s scientific lag. But even before Trump II the growing hostility of the U.S. right to science surely had some negative effect. And since the rise of MAGA G.O.P. attitudes toward science in general have become overwhelmingly hostile. This is true even for the Republican rank and file: And while I haven’t been able to find good survey data, it’s obvious that the anti-science turn has been even more pronounced — and began earlier — among the Republican political elite. Chris Mooney published The Republican War on Science in 2005, and even then was describing a longstanding trend. Why have Republicans turned so anti-science? Part of the answer is that they believe that scientists don’t support them. And they’re right! A study of who scientists give money to shows that only a small percentage gave money to Republicans even 20 years ago, and that almost none of them donate to Republicans now: Social scientists have always been strongly pro-Democratic, while there used to be a significant number of physical, “hard” scientists supporting the GOP. But these days physicists are almost as uniformly Democratic, or at least non-Republican, as sociologists. Why are there almost no Republican scientists? It’s not a mystery. GOP political orthodoxy includes positions that are at odds with the scientific consensus on multiple issues, ranging from the validity of the theory of evolution, to the reality of climate change, to the efficacy and safety of vaccines. In each case the scientific consensus is solidly grounded in evidence. But even before the rise of MAGA the U.S. right was increasingly hostile to evidence-based policymaking — especially, of course, where the evidence is unfavorable to fossil fuel interests or quack medicine, both financial mainstays of right-wing politics. So scientists don’t support Republicans, and the feeling is mutual. Today’s Republican Party doesn’t like science or scientists. It doesn’t like having its preconceived views challenged by appeals to evidence. It knows that very few scientists are on its side electorally. In general, it sees scientific research as a threat to its grasp on political power. Add in MAGA’s combination of rabid anti-intellectualism and allergy to any hint of criticism, and one has the makings of a drastic anti-science turn in policy. “Ignorance is strength” might was well be an official MAGA motto. And as I said, we aren’t talking about something that will happen over the course of multiple years: The U.S. scientific enterprise is threatened with severe damage, even collapse, over just the next year. There are many reasons to find this prospect horrifying: Think of all the beneficial advances, affecting almost every part of life, that won’t happen because U.S. science — still crucial to the world — has been eviscerated. But think, also, of America’s international standing. Can a nation that has forfeited its role as a leader, or even a contender, in global science, still be a Great Power? No. MUSICAL CODA
Scientists solve 30-year mystery of a hidden nutrient that protects the brain and fights cancer
Scientists have finally uncovered the missing link in how our bodies absorb queuosine, a rare micronutrient crucial for brain health, memory, stress response, and cancer defense. For decades, researchers suspected a transporter had to exist, but it remained elusive—until now. By identifying the gene SLC35F2 as the gateway into cells, this breakthrough opens new possibilities for therapies and highlights how diet and gut microbes profoundly shape human health.
“Why water is special” mystery finally solved.
POSTECH and Stockholm University observe water’s liquid-liquid critical point, published in Science, following the team’s 2017 and 2020 papers in the same journal. Ten years of persistent research leads to a discovery that could rewrite textbooks
The GOTY Of 2026 Could Be A Fishing Game
The Arctic Eggs creators’ About Fishing is an ambitious and alluring mystery, bound to reel in even the most uncurious
Scientists found a protein that drives brain aging — and how to stop it
Scientists have uncovered a powerful new clue in the mystery of brain aging: a single protein called FTL1. In aging mice, higher levels of this protein weakened connections between brain cells and led to memory decline. But when researchers reduced FTL1, something remarkable happened — the brain began to recover, rebuilding lost connections and restoring memory performance.
Scientists Finally Crack Decades-Old Mystery Behind Statins’ Painful Side Effects
A hidden effect of statins on muscle cells may explain why some patients cannot tolerate them.
Physicists just solved a strange fusion mystery that stumped experts
Fusion scientists have solved a long-standing mystery inside tokamaks, the donut-shaped machines designed to harness fusion energy. For years, experiments showed that escaping plasma particles hit one side of the exhaust system far more than the other, but simulations couldn’t explain why. Now, researchers have discovered that the rotation of the plasma itself plays a crucial role—working together with sideways particle drift to create the imbalance.
The RF Mount Mystery: Canon finally addresses why we haven't seen full-frame glass from Sigma and Tamron. The answer might surprise you.
Why is Sigma only making APS-C lenses for Canon? A recent interview with Canon's Go Tokura flips the script on the third-party lens debate. The ball is in Sigma’s court.
How squid survived Earth’s biggest extinction and took over the oceans
Scientists have finally cracked a long-standing mystery about squid and cuttlefish evolution by analyzing newly sequenced genomes alongside global datasets. The research reveals that these bizarre, intelligent creatures likely originated deep in the ocean over 100 million years ago, surviving mass extinction events by retreating into oxygen-rich deep-sea refuges. For millions of years, their evolution barely changed—until a dramatic post-extinction boom sparked rapid diversification as they moved into new shallow-water habitats.
Pokemon Pokopia gets first Mystery Gift code distribution
Pokemon Pokopia has just released its first code that can be used in a Mystery Gift distribution with a Chansey plant.
London’s underground is a breeding ground for crime, mystery, death
“London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth” is about mystery, secrecy behind a young London teen’s death.
Mystery Of Odd Flashes In Pre-Satellite Sky Gets Odder, With Similar Puzzle Found At Separate Observatory In Hamburg
Looking at images of the sky taken before the first satellite was launched, one team believes they may have found objects floating above the Earth. Another study, based on a separate observatory in Hamburg, has now found a similar phenomenon.
2 Seattle authors shine in April’s best paperback releases
From Moira Macdonald's debut novel to the first book in a cozy sci-fi mystery series from Olivia Waite, there's plenty of new paperbacks to add to your TBR list.
Scientists solve 40-year-old biological mystery behind sleeping sickness
To survive in the human bloodstream, the African trypanosome parasite wears a "cloak" made of proteins known as a variant surface glycoprotein (VSG). The study, published in Nature Microbiology, identifies ...
Scientists Solve Decades-Long Mystery About Why Saturn Appears To Change Its Spin
Researchers at Northumbria University have used the most powerful space telescope ever built to answer one of the longest-standing puzzles in planetary science – why does Saturn appear to spin at a...
How Value-Based Strategy Solves A Persistent Business Mystery
Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee’s value-based guide provides better simpler strategy and exceptional performance
Scientists solved the mystery of missing ocean plastic—and the answer is alarming
Scientists have discovered that the ocean’s “missing” plastic hasn’t vanished—it has broken down into trillions of invisible nanoplastics now spread through water, air, and living organisms. These tiny particles may be everywhere, including inside our bodies, raising serious concerns about their impact.
Cajun murder mystery film reflects life experiences of Shreveport native, Lafayette producer
The movie reflects the life experiences of the writers.
Life with TSW: 'Our skin is falling off and no-one can tell us why '
Posts with #TSW have had over a billion views on TikTok, sparking research into this mystery skin condition.
Mystery medical episode that left astronaut unable to speak shows one of NASA's biggest risks as moon missions ramp up
Veteran astronaut Michael Fincke's sudden medical emergency aboard the ISS is a stark reminder that, as NASA pushes toward long-term lunar missions, astronaut health remains one of spaceflight's biggest unknowns.
Student discovers new Galápagos bird, solving a decades-old mystery
As far as herons go, this colorful bird is rather petite.
How magnetic is the moon? A new study cracks the long-standing mystery
Researchers believe rock samples taken from the Apollo missions gave scientists a misleading impression
'Mystery Science Theater' Set to Make Comeback After Fans Raise Over $5 Million to Fund New Episodes
RiffTrax and Shout! Studios announced a Kickstarter campaign to create new episodes of 'Mystery Science Theater 3000.' 'MST3K' has existed in different iterations from 1988 to the present day.
Earth’s Strangest Magnetic Era: Scientists Decode the Ediacaran Mystery
Ancient rocks reveal that Earth’s magnetic field during the Ediacaran may not have been chaotic after all.
Supercomputers just solved a 50-year-old mystery about giant stars
Astronomers have finally cracked a decades-old mystery about red giant stars—how material from their deep interiors makes its way to the surface. Using cutting-edge supercomputer simulations, researchers discovered that stellar rotation plays a powerful role in mixing elements across a previously unexplained barrier inside the star.
Long Lost 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' Episode Finally Found
Thanks to a garage sale, the 'Star Force' episode from the earliest days of 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' is online for all to see.
Scientists twisted a mysterious superconductor and got a shocking result
A decades-old superconducting mystery just took a surprising turn. Strontium ruthenate, a material that conducts electricity with zero resistance at low temperatures, has long puzzled scientists with hints of an exotic, complex superconducting state. But by carefully twisting and distorting ultra-thin crystals, researchers found something unexpected: the material barely reacted at all. This challenges years of assumptions and suggests its behavior may be far simpler—or far stranger—than previously thought.
Particle Breakthrough: South Dakota scientists help unlock new neutrino mystery
Scientists at South Dakota Mines help achieve the first-ever measurement of a rare neutrino interaction, advancing physics and supporting future research at SURF.
Scientists Make a Major Breakthrough in Solving a Hair-Raising Mystery About Static Electricity
The findings can help explain the physics behind phenomena like volcanic lightning
Scientists recreated a dinosaur nest to solve a 70-million-year-old mystery
Scientists recreated a life-size oviraptor nest to understand how these dinosaurs hatched their eggs. Their experiments showed the parent likely couldn’t heat all the eggs directly, meaning sunlight played a key role. This uneven heating could cause eggs in the same nest to hatch at different times. The results suggest oviraptors used a hybrid incubation method unlike modern birds.
'Mystery Science Theater 3000' Revival Raises Nearly $2.7 Million
RiffTrax and Shout! Studios' "Mystery Science Theater 3000" revival Kickstarter campaign has closed with some big numbers.
The Mystery of Intense Magnetism on The Moon Is Finally Solved
A 3.5-billion-year-old anomaly.
Scientists Solve a 70-Year Mystery Behind the Universe’s Strange Magnetic Fields
Researchers have identified a potential mechanism that explains how turbulent plasma can produce the vast, ordered magnetic fields observed across the universe Cosmic magnetic fields are everywhere, but their origin has remained one of plasma astrophysics’ most persistent mysteries. Planets, star
Scientists discover giant swirling plumes hidden deep inside Greenland’s ice sheet
Scientists may have finally solved the mystery of strange plume-like structures hidden deep inside the Greenland ice sheet. New research suggests they form through thermal convection—slow, swirling motions driven by temperature differences inside the ice. This means the deep ice could be far softer than scientists once believed. Understanding this hidden movement could improve predictions about how Greenland’s ice sheet behaves in a warming world.
Hegseth’s Claim About Killing a Would-Be Assassin Creates a Mystery
The defense secretary said the leader of an Iranian unit that had planned to assassinate President Trump had been killed. But U.S. officials privately acknowledge the story is not that simple.
Apple is Up to Something Secret in New York
Apple's retail store at the Grand Central Terminal in New York is temporarily closed, but the reason why remains a mystery. As seen in photos shared by Parker Ortolani, Apple's space on the Main Concourse's East Balcony is covered up with temporary walls and curtains. There is also temporary lighting and audio equipment set up, and a video shared on social media appears to show that Apple is or was recording some sort of production.
1,900-year-old double Scythian burial in Ukraine contains toxic red mineral
A double burial in Ukraine of two women from the Late Scythian culture contains a toxic red mineral, but exactly why it was used remains a mystery.
Scientists crack a 20-year nuclear mystery behind the creation of gold
Gold and other heavy elements are born in some of the universe’s most violent events—but scientists still struggle to understand the nuclear steps that create them. Now, nuclear physicists have uncovered three key discoveries about how unstable atomic nuclei decay during the rapid neutron-capture process, the chain reaction responsible for forging elements like gold and platinum.
75-Million-Year-Old Mystery: Scientists Uncover Tyrannosaurs’ Dark Secret
3D analysis of bite marks on a tyrannosaur foot bone shows that smaller tyrannosaurs scavenged carcasses, likely consuming the final remains after most flesh was gone.
A “ghost” great white shark just reignited a Mediterranean mystery
A rare encounter with a juvenile great white shark caught by fishermen in April 2023 has reignited scientific interest in the mysterious population of these apex predators in the Mediterranean Sea. By reviewing records spanning more than 160 years, researchers found that great whites still appear sporadically in Spanish Mediterranean waters, suggesting the population—though elusive and declining—has not vanished. The discovery of a young shark raises an intriguing possibility: these legendary predators may still be reproducing in the region.
A “Win-Win” For Cats And Humans Alike: Giant New Study Busts Open The Mystery Of Feline Cancer
Unfortunately, your cat will still hate going to the vet.
New book finds light in ‘Darkness’ of eco-terror, ski-town politics and 90s newspaper intrigue
“We Bring you an Hour of Darkness” by Michael Bourne is a fun, fast-paced thriller for fans of the mystery genre, especially readers who enjoy ski-town tales of enviro-terror, corporate corruption, shady land deals and...
Business receives mystery shipment containing 600 tubs of French onion dip
A business owner is trying to figure out why her company received 600 tubs of French onion dip.
Business receives mystery shipment containing 600 tubs of French onion dip
A business owner is trying to figure out why her company received 600 tubs of French onion dip.
Business receives mystery shipment containing 600 tubs of French onion dip
A business owner is trying to figure out why her company received 600 tubs of French onion dip.
This 2-pound dinosaur is rewriting what scientists know about evolution
A nearly complete dinosaur skeleton discovered in Patagonia is helping scientists crack the mystery of alvarezsaurs, a bizarre group of bird-like dinosaurs. The fossil of Alnashetri cerropoliciensis reveals that these animals became tiny before developing their later specialized features, such as stubby arms and ant-eating adaptations. Weighing under two pounds, the dinosaur is one of the smallest known from South America.
The Mystery Black Sensor Pogačar Wore at Strade Bianche Might Not Be What You Think It Is
Pogačar kicked up a storm of speculation about the bicep sensor he wore at Strade Bianche. We found out what it actually is.
Messi has long steered clear of politics. Does his visit to Trump's White House mark a change?
Although Messi was silent throughout, his appearance seemed to speak volumes for a player whose politics have largely been shrouded in mystery.
Scientists are trying to solve the mystery of whether global warming is speeding up. A new study says it has the answer
Is the world getting hotter, faster? It’s a big question which has been puzzling and dividing scientists for years. A new paper says it has the answer, and it’s not good news.
Earth’s Geological Record Is Missing 1 Billion Years. Scientists May Have Just Found Where They Went.
There's a billion-year gap in Earth's geological history. A new study seeks to explain the mystery.
OpenAI ad hoax mystery takes a new twist
There's a mystery marketer playing 4D chess on social media, and they made another unexpected move this week.
Nothing just revealed Phone (4a)’s colors, but Phone (4a) Pro remains a mystery [Gallery]
Ahead of its full launch later this week, Nothing just showed off the new colors of its Phone (4a) series...
Women’s heart health, Artemis update, female reindeer antlers mystery
What a worrying forecast says about women’s heart health, what’s happening with NASA’s Artemis II moon mission and why female reindeer have antlers
Women’s heart health, Artemis update, female reindeer antlers mystery
What a worrying forecast says about women’s heart health, what’s happening with NASA’s Artemis II moon mission and why female reindeer have antlers
Horse whinnies are weirder than they sound
Scientists may have finally solved this biological mystery—thanks to some horse larynges.
‘Untamed’ Season 2 Details: Who’s Joining Eric Bana for New Mystery?
Mystery thriller moves to Hawai'i for Season 2.
Apollo rocks reveal the Moon had brief bursts of super-strong magnetism
Scientists at the University of Oxford have finally settled a decades-long mystery about the Moon’s magnetic field — and it turns out both sides were right. By reanalyzing Apollo mission rocks, they discovered that the Moon did occasionally generate an incredibly powerful magnetic field, even stronger than Earth’s — but only for fleeting bursts lasting thousands of years or less. Most of the time, the Moon’s magnetic field was weak.
Chris Bosh says he's 'lucky to be alive' after mystery health scare
How One Gene Affects Alzheimer’s Risk | Science Friday
An estimated 500,000 people are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the United States each year, but the causes and mechanisms of the condition remain a neurological mystery. A rece...
Scientists finally solve the mystery of the horse whinny
Horses have a vocal trick no one fully understood until now. Scientists have discovered that when a horse whinnies, it produces two completely different sounds at the same time. One is a deep tone created by vibrating the vocal folds, similar to how humans sing. The other is a high-pitched whistle generated inside the larynx, something never before confirmed in a large mammal. This rare ability, known as biphonation, likely helps horses send multiple emotional signals in a single call.
Scientists Tracked Particles Floating Through the Air—And Solved a 100-Year-Old Mystery
Accurately modeling irregularly-shaped particles isn’t easy, but a new study found a way to improve a century-old idea.
Scientists Tracked Particles Floating Through the Air—And Solved a 100-Year-Old Mystery
Accurately modeling irregularly-shaped particles isn’t easy, but a new study found a way to improve a century-old idea.
'Freak of Nature': Scientists Think Greenland's Ice Is Churning Like Molten Rock
A decade-old mystery solved.
Mystery Science Theater 3000′s Mike Nelson on His Return to the Satellite of Love
Mike Nelson is returning to Mystery Science Theater's Satellite of Love for new episodes after a 27 year absence.
What makes ice slippery? Scientists may have finally figured it out
The reason we slip and slide on ice—a phenomenon central to figure skating, curling and other Winter Olympic events—is a centuries-old physics mystery that may have finally been cracked
A Mystery Phone, Found in the Desert, Slowly Reveals Its Secrets
The Samsung phone had been lost for a decade. Then Katie Elkin found it.
The Mystery of Clouds and a Supercomputer in the Political Crosshairs
Plus, a looming uranium shortage and the price tag for Detroit’s EV reversal.
Psychedelics for depression, dart frog poison and why do we have chins?
Madeleine Finlay sits down with science editor Ian Sample and science correspondent Nicola Davis to discuss three eye-catching stories, including the impact of a powerful psychedelic on depression, answers on the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and an explanation to the mystery of why humans have chins
Daniel Miller
Daniel Miller is a reporter at POLITICO covering the intersection of entertainment, media, sports, technology and politics.Part of POLITICO’s California team since 2026, he examines how Hollywood and Southern California function as engines of political power. Daniel also covers the rainmakers, dealmakers and cultural figures who shape policy debates, elections and public life far beyond the state’s borders.Daniel previously spent 13 years at the Los Angeles Times, most recently as an enterprise reporter in the newspaper’s Metro department, where he worked on investigations and features. He wrote about allegations of sexual misconduct at L.A.’s Magic Castle, chronicled the cratering ventures of a celebrity vegan chef and detailed themystery of a missing million-dollar pocket watch once owned by J.P. Morgan. In 2019, he wrote, reported and hosted "Larger Than Life," an award-winning podcast about the life of an enigmatic L.A. street racer.He previously covered the business of entertainment for The Times, examining the fraught political ties between the Walt Disney Co. and the city of Anaheim, probing the world of second-tier talent agents operating on Hollywood’s fringes and uncovering allegations involving several #MeToo figures.Daniel was named Journalist of the Year at the 2015 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and, a year later, received the L.A. Press Club’s Entertainment Journalist of the Year award. He was also a finalist for the 2016 Loeb Awards for "Selling Stardom," a series on unscrupulous Hollywood operators. His narrative reporting has been honored by organizations including the Society for Features Journalism, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Motor Press Guild.Daniel began his career reporting in Southern California, writing for the Ventura County Star, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Hollywood Reporter. He attended Beverly Hills High School and UCLA. He lives in Los Angeles.
What’s Causing Antarctica’s Strange “Gravity Hole”? Scientists Finally Solve the Mystery
A mysterious dip in Earth’s gravity beneath Antarctica traces back to slow-moving rocks deep underground.
Mystery seed deliveries prompt warning from agriculture officials: ‘This is serious business’
The mysterious packages, first seen in 2020, have resurfaced in Texas, Ohio, and New Mexico, posing potential risks of invasive species.
March 2026: Science history from 50, 100 and 150 years ago
A Greenland mystery; booming dunes