SpaceX launches 4 astronauts on a fast track to the International Space Station

Four astronauts rocketed into orbit Thursday on a space station mission that will stretch until spring, among them a Canadian whose wife will give birth while he’s away.

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Kan. officer stabs suspect allegedly reaching for his gun during altercation

As Kansas City, Kansas officers wrestled with the man, he grabbed at an officer’s gun on his belt; the officer then stabbed the man multiple times, police said

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Following ancient rain toward life-related chemistry clues on Mars

The Mars we know today is a cold, dry world of dust and rocks. However, around 3.8–3.6 billion years ago, it may have looked very different. Geological and mineral evidence suggests that, in its distant past, the planet experienced periods warm and wet enough for water to exist on its surface, potentially forming rivers, lakes and even an ocean in the northern hemisphere.

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A cleaner X-ray view of our galactic center’s hot mess

The center of the Milky Way galaxy is a chaotic place. In addition to the 4-million-solar-mass black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the region is full of gas, dust, strong magnetic fields and stars in various stages of life—from birth to death.

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Exploring the shapes of exotic nuclei

In the conventional diagram of an atom, the center depicts a nucleus—a spherical cluster of protons and neutrons. But that sphere is a simplification: nuclei can deform into exotic shapes that appear more like a pear, football or Frisbee. Understanding why and when nuclei distort is crucial for predicting and modeling how they will behave.

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Md. police chief killed in head-on crash

George William Bacorn Jr., 62, who had served as Denton police chief for 36 years, was killed when a box truck crossed over the center line and struck his vehicle head-on

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Citizen science project recruits volunteers to search for undiscovered black holes

Cosmic detectives are being called on for an interstellar mission to hunt down thousands of invisible black holes lurking in our own backyard. Space scientists from the University of Southampton need amateur astronomers to search for signs that might locate them.

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Letting light wander through milk—a surprising approach to better imaging

Light scattered in tissue usually ceases to be a useful source of information. But what if, instead of forcing it to travel along a single path, we allowed it to wander a little differently each time? Scientists from ICTER tested this seemingly risky idea and showed that a series of measurements that differ from one another can produce a clearer image than a single frame.

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Calif. governor vetoes bill to bar former ICE officers from LE jobs in state

Gov. Gavin Newsom stated that it would be “a mistake” to discourage qualified people from working in the federal government and that police hiring practices already weed out candidates with a history of misconduct

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New parallel gate entangles diamond qubits 10 times faster at room temperature

Quantum technologies rely on qubits, units of information that can exist in combinations of the states 0 and 1 instead of being limited to one or the other like conventional bits. Qubits can become entangled, which means their states become linked in ways that cannot be explained by considering each qubit separately.

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Why do pickles glow? Researcher investigates explosive answer

If you mount a pickle on two metal forks and plug it into a socket, one end will light up in a brilliant orange glow. It’s a classic K–12 science demonstration, but the exact physics behind the illumination has long remained a mystery.

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Ind. sheriff moves to fire SWAT corporal, former sheriff’s son over alleged inappropriate comments

The Allen County Sheriff’s corporal is accused of encouraging SWAT team members to sign up for a more dangerous shift to “get into a shooting” and “get some time off”

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90-plus-day spaceflights linked to higher rates of hip fractures in astronauts

New research has found that the rate of hip fractures among astronauts after spaceflights lasting more than 90 days was higher than after shorter spaceflights or among people who were not astronauts. The findings of the study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, underscore the need for expanded assessment of astronauts’ long-term skeletal health.

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Catch a rare lunar occultation of Jupiter plus Saturn at opposition in early October

It’s a busy skywatching month ahead. The first full week of October sees two top-notch skywatching events, with Saturn reaching opposition and the moon occulting Jupiter for North America on Oct. 6.

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Tenn. police swap ‘use of force’ for ‘response to resistance’ in official terminology

A Metro Nashville Police official stated that during lawful uses of force, officers are “reacting to the level of resistance with which they are confronted” and that the move reflects national trends

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