- Cosmic glutton: Astronomers observed a distant black hole growing at one of the fastest rates ever recorded, gorging on matter 2.4× faster than thought possible nasa.gov nasa.gov. “It was a bit shocking to see this black hole growing by leaps and bounds,” said lead researcher Luca Ighina nasa.gov.
- Star eats planet: NASA’s Hubble Telescope caught a white dwarf star shredding a Pluto-sized object, finding the debris was 64% water ice – an “exo-Pluto” rich in volatiles science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. “We did not expect to find water or other icy content… This is surprising for astronomers,” said astrophysicist Snehalata Sahu science.nasa.gov.
- Hawking proved right: LIGO scientists detected the clearest gravitational waves yet, confirming Stephen Hawking’s Black Hole Area Theorem with 99.999% confidence ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu. “We can hear it loud and clear, and that lets us test the fundamental laws of physics,” said Caltech’s Katerina Chatziioannou ligo.caltech.edu.
- Teen-friendly ChatGPT: OpenAI launched a teen-safe ChatGPT with parental controls amid safety scrutiny phelpscountyfocus.com phelpscountyfocus.com. Under-18 users get an age-appropriate model that blocks adult content and alerts parents in crises. “The way ChatGPT responds to a 15-year-old should look different than to an adult,” the company noted phelpscountyfocus.com.
- Aspirin vs. cancer: A major clinical trial found that daily low-dose aspirin halved colon cancer recurrence in patients with certain gene mutations foxnews.com. “Low-dose aspirin significantly reduces recurrence in colorectal cancer patients with [PI3K] pathway alterations,” said Dr. Anna Martling, noting it could prevent thousands of relapses each year foxnews.com foxnews.com.
- Weight-loss pill success: An oral GLP-1 drug (orforglipron) helped people with obesity lose up to 12.4% of body weight in 72 weeks (versus 2.1% on placebo) news.weill.cornell.edu. Investigators say this pill could match injectable drugs like Ozempic, offering a more accessible option. “Orforglipron could offer an important new option… especially [for] those reluctant to use injections,” said Dr. Louis Aronne news.weill.cornell.edu.
- Wildfire smoke warning: A landmark study projects that worsening wildfire smoke could cause >70,000 extra U.S. deaths per year by 2050 under high warming news.stonybrook.edu. That’s a 73% increase in smoke-related mortality. “Our paper puts some numbers on what [this] change… means for health outcomes… our understanding of who is vulnerable… is much broader than we thought,” said co-author Marshall Burke news.stonybrook.edu.
- Water cycle havoc: The UN’s weather agency reported that climate change is upending the global water cycle, driving extreme droughts and floods aljazeera.com. Two-thirds of major river basins now suffer “too much or too little water” aljazeera.com. “The world’s water resources are under growing pressure and… hazards are having an increasing impact,” warned WMO chief Celeste Saulo aljazeera.com.
- Amber time capsule: Scientists discovered 112-million-year-old insects in amber in Ecuador – the first such find in South America timesleaderonline.com. Encased beetles, ants, flies and wasps offer a rare glimpse of the Early Cretaceous Amazon when flowering plants were emerging. “Amber pieces are little windows into the past,” said paleo-entomologist Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente, calling the find key to understanding ancient plant-insect evolution timesleaderonline.com.
Space & Astronomy
Record-Breaking Black Hole Growth
Astronomers have identified a “black hole on overdrive” in the early universe, feeding faster than theory predicted. The supermassive black hole — about a billion solar masses and observed 12.8 billion light-years away — is devouring matter at 2.4 times the Eddington limit (the usual maximum rate) nasa.gov nasa.gov. This quasar’s extreme X-ray output makes it the brightest black hole of the universe’s first billion years nasa.gov. Its existence helps explain how giant black holes grew so quickly after the Big Bang. The lead researcher, Luca Ighina of the Center for Astrophysics, was astonished by the find. “It was a bit shocking to see this black hole growing by leaps and bounds,” Ighina said nasa.gov, noting that such rapid growth challenges conventional models. This runaway black hole hints that some early black holes either formed with enormous seed masses or had special conditions allowing hyper-fast accretion.
Dying Star Devours a ‘Pluto’
In a dramatic glimpse of a solar system’s fate, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope observed a white dwarf star cannibalizing a planet-like body. The burned-out star (about half the Sun’s mass, ~260 light-years away) is pulling in fragments of an icy dwarf planet from its distant orbit. By using Hubble’s ultraviolet spectrograph, scientists detected an unexpected trove of volatile elements – carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and lots of oxygen – in the star’s atmosphere science.nasa.gov. The composition indicates the infalling debris was 64% water ice science.nasa.gov, pointing to a destroyed object akin to Pluto or a large comet. “We were surprised… We did not expect to find water or other icy content,” said Dr. Snehalata Sahu of the University of Warwick, who analyzed the Hubble data science.nasa.gov. The finding suggests that even billions of years after formation, a star can drag in and consume remote icy worlds. As Sahu noted, it’s a startling discovery for astronomers and offers a preview of our own Sun’s distant future – when it becomes a white dwarf and may similarly disrupt Kuiper Belt objects science.nasa.gov. The team also found the highest-ever nitrogen levels from such an event, hinting that part of the fragmented world was rich in nitrogen ices (like Pluto’s surface) science.nasa.gov. This stellar “snack” provides a unique window into the makeup of primordial Kuiper Belt-like bodies and the long-term evolution of planetary systems.
Health & Medicine
Aspirin Halves Cancer Recurrence
A cheap, common pill has shown remarkable power against cancer. In a randomized Phase III trial across Scandinavia, colon cancer patients who took daily low-dose aspirin had a 55% lower risk of their cancer returning compared to those on placebo foxnews.com. The benefit applied to patients whose tumors carried certain PIK3CA gene mutations (found in roughly one-third of colorectal cancers) foxnews.com. The trial, called ALASCCA, provides the first high-quality evidence in humans that aspirin’s anti-inflammatory effects can directly improve cancer outcomes – confirming tantalizing hints from past observational studies foxnews.com. “The ALASCCA trial shows for the first time in a randomized setting that low-dose aspirin significantly reduces recurrence in colorectal cancer patients with [specific] pathway alterations,” said Dr. Anna Martling of Karolinska Institutet, the study’s lead author foxnews.com. If widely implemented, this simple regimen could prevent thousands of recurrences and save lives each year foxnews.com, Martling noted, especially since aspirin is inexpensive and globally available foxnews.com. Oncologists caution that aspirin can carry risks (bleeding, ulcers), so genetic testing for the tumor mutation and medical guidance will be important before patients begin post-surgery aspirin therapy foxnews.com. Nonetheless, experts are hailing this as a milestone in “precision chemoprevention,” using a targeted approach (here, a gene marker) to repurpose a household drug for cancer control.
Breakthrough Oral Weight-Loss Drug
A new pill may soon expand the arsenal against obesity. Researchers announced that an oral GLP-1 agonist drug called orforglipron caused significant weight loss in a large international trial news.weill.cornell.edu. In the 72-week Phase 3 study (ATTAIN-1) of 3,127 adults with obesity or overweight, participants on the highest dose pill lost 12.4% of their body weight on average, versus only ~2% for those on placebo news.weill.cornell.edu. Even the low dose yielded nearly 8% weight loss. Importantly, the pill also improved key health markers like blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar control news.weill.cornell.edu. Orforglipron mimics the hormone GLP-1, curbing appetite and digestion similar to injectable drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro). While injectables have shown slightly greater weight reduction in trials, an oral option could be far more accessible. “The findings suggest that orforglipron could offer an important new option for people with obesity, especially those reluctant to use injections or who lack cold storage for injectable meds,” said obesity specialist Dr. Louis Aronne of Weill Cornell Medicine, a lead investigator news.weill.cornell.edu. He noted that pills are easier to distribute and scale globally, a significant advantage as demand for obesity treatments soars news.weill.cornell.edu. Side effects were similar to other GLP-1 drugs (mostly mild nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea) news.weill.cornell.edu. Experts believe this development marks “another milestone in developing effective treatments for obesity” news.weill.cornell.edu – one that could bring the benefits of GLP-1 therapy to a broader population. Pharma company Eli Lilly, which manufactures orforglipron, plans to seek regulatory approval, and analysts predict this could become the first blockbuster weight-loss pill in an era of injectable anti-obesity shots.
Climate & Environment
Wildfire Smoke’s Deadly Toll Rises
As climate change drives bigger, more frequent wildfires, the long-term health fallout is coming into sobering focus. A new study in Nature led by U.S. scientists warns that wildfire smoke could trigger tens of thousands of additional deaths annually in coming decades news.stonybrook.edu. Using data and machine learning, the team projected that by 2050, under a high-emissions climate scenario, smoke exposure will increase 2–3× nationwide – causing about 71,000 extra deaths per year in the U.S. (a 73% jump from recent averages) news.stonybrook.edu. Fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) in wildfire smoke is especially toxic, and even low levels of chronic exposure raised mortality rates in the study news.stonybrook.edu. “The link between wildfire smoke exposure and mortality burden can be very high, and we are seeing a clear increase in wildfire smoke nationwide, including long-range transport…,” said lead author Dr. Minghao Qiu of Stony Brook University news.stonybrook.edu. The analysis suggests that wildfire smoke could become the country’s deadliest and costliest climate impact, exceeding other climate-related damages news.stonybrook.edu. “Our paper puts some numbers on what that change in exposure means for health outcomes, both now and in the future as the climate warms,” co-author Marshall Burke of Stanford noted, adding that vulnerability is broader than previously thought (affecting pregnant women, children, asthmatics, cancer patients and more) news.stonybrook.edu. The researchers urge aggressive wildfire management and emissions cuts to mitigate this looming public health crisis. The findings arrive as North America endures record wildfire seasons, sending smoke that shrouded cities in unhealthy haze this year – a preview of an increasingly smoky future if warming trends continue unchecked.
Global Water Cycle in Chaos
A new UN report paints an alarming picture of how climate change is disrupting Earth’s water systems. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its annual State of Global Water Resources assessment, finding that 2024 marked the sixth straight year of an imbalanced global water cycle aljazeera.com. “The world’s water resources are under growing pressure and, at the same time, more extreme water-related hazards are having an increasing impact on lives and livelihoods,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo in the report foreword aljazeera.com. According to the data, roughly two-thirds of major river basins worldwide now experience either severe drought or extreme flooding – an unprecedented level of volatility aljazeera.com. For example, in the past year parts of South America (including the Amazon) and Africa saw persistent record drought, while large areas of Europe and Asia were hit by devastating floods aljazeera.com. The report attributes the chaos to a warming climate: hotter air holds more moisture, leading to deeper droughts in some regions and more intense rainfall in others aljazeera.com. “It’s more erratic… either too much or too little [water] on average,” explained Dr. Stefan Uhlenbrook, WMO’s Director of Hydrology, noting that even scientists are finding it “increasingly difficult to predict” water availability now aljazeera.com. The report also flagged rapidly melting glaciers (adding 1.2 mm to sea level in just one year) and declining water quality in major lakes aljazeera.com. The WMO calls for urgent investment in water monitoring and climate adaptation. As WMO’s analysis underscores, what we once knew as the stable global water cycle is becoming unrecognizable – a development with profound implications for agriculture, infrastructure, and billions of people’s access to fresh water.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI Debuts Teen-Safe ChatGPT
Facing growing concern over AI chatbots and kids, OpenAI has rolled out new measures to make ChatGPT safer for teenagers. The company announced on Sept. 18 that it is launching a teen-targeted version of ChatGPT with stricter content rules and parental oversight features phelpscountyfocus.com. Under this system, any user detected to be under 18 (the minimum age is 13) will automatically be routed to a filtered ChatGPT experience with “age-appropriate policies” – for example, graphic sexual content is blocked, and if a teen user shows “acute distress” (e.g. signs of self-harm), the system may involve law enforcement for safety phelpscountyfocus.com phelpscountyfocus.com. “The way ChatGPT responds to a 15-year-old should look different than the way it responds to an adult,” OpenAI explained, emphasizing their commitment to teen well-being phelpscountyfocus.com. In tandem, parental controls will roll out by end of September, letting parents link their account to their teen’s, view chat history, disable certain features, and even set “blackout hours” when the AI cannot be used phelpscountyfocus.com. The move comes as regulators scrutinize the mental health impacts of AI on youth – the U.S. FTC recently opened an inquiry into OpenAI over data and safety practices phelpscountyfocus.com. There’s also a high-profile lawsuit blaming ChatGPT for influencing a teen’s suicide. By adding these guardrails, OpenAI is effectively age-gating its AI and giving parents more control. Advocates welcomed the changes as a step in the right direction, though some remain concerned about how the system will verify ages and handle nuanced situations. OpenAI says if there’s uncertainty about a user’s age, it will err on the side of treating them as a minor by default openai.com openai.com. This development signals the growing pressure on AI firms to adapt their products for child safety, balancing innovation with responsible design.
Physics
Hawking’s Black Hole Theory Validated
A spectacular gravitational-wave observation has allowed physicists to confirm a key prediction about black holes – one made by Stephen Hawking over 50 years ago – with unmatched certainty. In January 2025, the LIGO observatory detected GW250114, a merger of two black holes ~1.3 billion light-years away, and it turned out to be the cleanest signal LIGO has ever recorded trincoll.edu ligo.caltech.edu. Thanks to a decade of detector upgrades, scientists could discern subtle details of the merger’s gravitational wave “ringdown” – akin to hearing not just a cosmic bell, but its faint overtones ligo.caltech.edu. The result: Hawking’s Black Hole Area Theorem (which says the total event horizon area can never decrease in a merger) was verified with 99.999% confidence ligo.caltech.edu. In the observation, two initial black holes (combined area ~240,000 km²) merged into one larger black hole (~400,000 km²), and true to Hawking’s law, the total area increased ligo.caltech.edu. Previously, the best test of this theorem had only ~95% confidence ligo.caltech.edu. “We can hear it loud and clear, and that lets us test the fundamental laws of physics,” said Dr. Katerina Chatziioannou, a Caltech physicist on the LIGO team ligo.caltech.edu. Indeed, the exquisite data permitted two distinct gravitational wave modes (frequencies) from the ringing black hole to be identified for the first time, lining up perfectly with predictions from general relativity ligo.caltech.edu. Legendary physicist Kip Thorne noted the poignancy of this achievement, coming too late for Hawking to witness. “If Hawking were alive, he would have reveled in seeing the area of the merged black holes increase,” Thorne said, reflecting on how this experimental proof cements Hawking’s legacy ligo.caltech.edu. Beyond the theorem, LIGO’s “black-hole whisper” detection opens a new window into fundamental physics. Each new, high-fidelity gravitational wave lets researchers probe phenomena like quantum effects at a black hole’s horizon and the true nature of gravity under extreme conditions ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu. With over 200 mergers already detected in LIGO’s latest run ligo.caltech.edu, we are entering an era where precise gravitational-wave astronomy is driving forward our understanding of the cosmos’s deepest laws.
Biology & Paleontology
Amazon’s Cretaceous Amber Treasure
In a discovery offering a vivid snapshot of the age of dinosaurs, scientists have unearthed hundreds of fossilized insects and plants preserved in amber in South America timesleaderonline.com timesleaderonline.com. The amber, found in a sandstone quarry in northern Ecuador, dates back 112 million years to the mid-Cretaceous period timesleaderonline.com. This is the first major amber fossil find ever reported from the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana (almost all prior amber fossils >100 Myr were from the Northern Hemisphere) timesleaderonline.com. Inside these golden time capsules, researchers identified beetles, flies, ants, wasps, and diverse pollen and leaf fragments timesleaderonline.com timesleaderonline.com. “Amber pieces are little windows into the past,” said Dr. Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente of Oxford University Museum of Natural History timesleaderonline.com. “This discovery will help us understand the evolving interactions between flowering plants and insects” during a critical chapter of evolution timesleaderonline.com timesleaderonline.com. Indeed, in the Early Cretaceous when this amber formed, flowering plants (angiosperms) were just beginning to spread and diversify, transforming Earth’s ecosystems. The insects trapped in the resin – including some of the earliest ants and pollinating beetles – likely fed on or pollinated those primitive flowers, giving new insight into how the remarkably successful plant-insect partnership first took root timesleaderonline.com. The amber’s plant DNA reveals an Amazon rainforest of a very different flavor: instead of today’s orchids and broadleaf trees, that forest had conifers like Monkey Puzzle trees and ferns now long vanished from the region timesleaderonline.com timesleaderonline.com. The find came after a decade-long search by geologist Carlos Jaramillo and colleagues, who tracked down rumors of amber in the area timesleaderonline.com. Now, paleontologists will painstakingly examine this amber trove to catalog new species and behaviors. David Grimaldi, an expert not involved with the study, noted that amber typically preserves tiny organisms and moments you never see in regular fossils – “little moments of ecology” frozen in time timesleaderonline.com timesleaderonline.com. From ancient mating dances of insects to bits of dinosaur-era pollen, the Amazon amber is a scientific gold mine that will shed light on how tropical life on Earth evolved – and how today’s Amazon may respond as it faces profound environmental change.
Sources: NASA nasa.gov nasa.gov science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society/NASA science.nasa.gov; Fox News foxnews.com foxnews.com; NASA/Weill Cornell Medicine news.weill.cornell.edu news.weill.cornell.edu; Nature/Stony Brook Univ. news.stonybrook.edu news.stonybrook.edu; WMO/Al Jazeera aljazeera.com aljazeera.com; HealthDay/CBS News phelpscountyfocus.com phelpscountyfocus.com; LIGO/Caltech ligo.caltech.edu ligo.caltech.edu; Associated Press timesleaderonline.com timesleaderonline.com.
