Astronomers observed what appears to be a new kind of supernova, born from a doomed pairing between a massive star and a black hole. The two objects, each roughly ten times the mass of our sun, formed a binary system about 700 million light-years from Earth. As the black hole’s gravity pulled them closer, it siphoned off stellar material and distorted the star’s shape before triggering a catastrophic explosion. The event, detailed this week in The Astrophysical Journal by researchers at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Institute for AI and Fundamental Interactions at MIT, was first flagged by an AI system trained to spot unusual cosmic blasts in real time. The alert allowed scientists to capture the explosion from its earliest moments using both ground and space telescopes.
True Spies
Gray Suit & The Ghost
Would you share a desk with the enemy?
In 2001, Eric O’Neill was given a career-defining assignment: go undercover to expose Robert Hanssen, a mole who had spent more than two decades feeding Moscow secrets. His betrayals had blown agents’ covers, sabotaged operations, and carried classified files out of FBI headquarters.
To colleagues, Hanssen was an unremarkable man in a dark suit. To O’Neill, he was the target. The brief was clear: share an office, earn his trust, and gather the evidence to bring him down. Each exchange risked suspicion. Each day, a step closer to the takedown. And when the Bureau made its move, O’Neill would be there to see it happen.
What came of his mission? Join Eric O’Neill in this week’s podcast selection, Gray Suit & the Ghost, to spy from the inside and find out!
New mission location activated. Come test your skills.
After you complete your debrief you will receive 10 short missions to play on the streets of Covent Garden — time to put what you've learned into action.
Could a single microbe rewrite a marine food chain?
A team of US marine biologists has identified Vibrio pectenicida as the cause of sea star wasting syndrome, the largest marine epidemic recorded. Since 2013, the disease has killed more than 5 billion starfish along North America’s Pacific coast, causing lesions and rapid decay across over 20 species. Sunflower sea star populations have fallen by more than 90%.
The loss has fueled a 10,000% surge in sea urchins along California’s North Coast between 2014 and 2023, which in turn has destroyed about 96% of local kelp forests—ecosystems that shelter marine life, store carbon, and filter seawater. Researchers from Cornell University, the University of Washington, and Oregon State University confirmed the culprit by exposing lab-raised sunflower sea stars to the disease under controlled conditions.
Articles
Soviet Spies In Dublin
How did Ireland become a hub for Soviet spycraft?
In the 1970s, KGB operations stretched from undersea arms drops for the Official IRA to surveillance of US submarines off the Irish coast. One mission, Operation Splash, saw Soviet operatives deposit rifles, pistols, and ammunition on the seabed for later retrieval. Carefully packaged to conceal any links to Moscow.
The Kremlin secured its presence in 1973 with the opening of an embassy in Dublin. From a five-acre base on Orwell Road, Soviet officers worked under the watch of Ireland’s J2 military intelligence, the CIA, and MI6. Yet Ireland's mix of geopolitical location, open access, and talkative pubs offered plenty of opportunities for intelligence gathering. In 1983, Dublin expelled three suspected KGB officers accused of targeting NATO secrets and transmitting information to Soviet submarines! Discover the full story in this SPYSCAPE article.
Leverage CIA and MI6 expertise to develop your team.
Looking for a smarter way to bring your team together?
Your team will uncover their hidden strengths through interactive challenges and authentic personal profiles that celebrate what each team-member has to offer.
At Portugal’s Joanina Library, over 60,000 rare books are guarded from an unusual threat: hungry insects. Six-foot-thick stone walls keep out the weather, and staff dust constantly, but for centuries, the main method of pest control has come from small colonies of bats.
By day, the European free-tailed bats and soprano pipistrelles roost behind two-story bookshelves as visitors admire ornate ceilings and carved wood. At night, they swoop through the darkened hall, catching beetles and moths before the insects can chew through paper and binding glue. The practice dates back to at least the late 1700s, when records show the library buying large leather sheets, still used today, to shield desks from guano.
