Earth Gets a Mini-Moon

▲▲▲ Earth just got a cosmic companion! NASA scientists have confirmed that our planet now has a second “moon”, a tiny celestial object that will orbit alongside us until 2083.

Unlike the Moon we all know and love, this new visitor is a mini-moon, small in size but fascinating in how it temporarily joins our planet on its journey around the Sun. These mini-moons, also called temporarily captured objects, are rare cosmic hitchhikers. They are asteroids or space rocks that wander into Earth’s gravitational field and become trapped for years or decades. This particular mini-moon will orbit Earth in a temporary dance, giving astronomers a unique chance to observe its motion, composition, and behavior up close. This discovery also sparks the imagination: for decades, Earth will host a celestial companion we didn’t even know we had. It’s a reminder that even in our familiar night sky, surprises await.

AI Reads Your Mind

▲▲▲ Proof scientists can now read your mind: AI turns people's thoughts into images with 80% accuracy. Artificial intelligence can create images based on text prompts, but researchers from Osaka University have unveiled a gallery of pictures the technology produces by reading brain activity. The new AI bot can read minds and then draw them using Dall-E 2 and Stable Diffusion. The sketches are up to 80 per cent accurate. It uses fMRI scans to 'see' what a subject is thinking or visualizing.

▲▲▲ Tech that aims to read your mind and probe your memories is already here. In recent years, neuro-technologies have moved from research labs to real-world use. Schools use some devices to monitor the brain activity of children, police use them for investigations, and employers use them to keep workers productive. These technologies hold the promise of giving us all-new insight into our own minds. But brain data is precious, and letting it fall into the wrong hands could be dangerous. Brain data includes EEG, fNIRS, fMRI, EMG, and other modalities. Advances in AI now allow us to decode brain activity, and miniaturized electrodes can be embedded in earbuds and headphones. Once you wear a device, your brain data may be shared with the manufacturer or platform provider.

Hidden Life Inside Humans

▲▲▲ Inside the human body is a discovery that could rewrite biology. Stanford scientists have identified a new, mysterious RNA-based form of life living inside humans, called “obelisks”. Their origin and purpose remain unknown. Obelisks do not fit into any category of life we’ve studied before. They are made of RNA, the molecule that carries genetic information, but they don’t behave like traditional viruses. Instead, they exist in a shadowy middle ground, replicating, surviving, and spreading inside us without being clearly linked to disease or health.

So far, researchers have found obelisks in the mouths and guts of thousands of people worldwide. Their strange, rod-like genetic structure is unlike anything seen before. Some scientists suggest they represent a new branch of life undetected for millennia, while others propose they may influence body functions in unknown ways. This discovery challenges one of biology’s biggest assumptions: that we already know the major players in human health. If obelisks affect immunity, metabolism, or disease, they could transform diagnosis and treatment worldwide.