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Today:
What’s the longest total solar eclipse?
NEWS | 20 July 2026
A total solar eclipse, as seen from Oregon in August 2017. Humans are cursed to become inured to anything that persists long enough, and even the staggering beauty of a total solar eclipse may begin to fade after, say, an hour. But in 2045 a total eclipse will play out over Arches National Park in Utah; a canny observer (and photographer!) Malaysian photographer Teoh Hui Chieh created a stunning time-lapse video of an Australian annular solar eclipse transpiring at sunrise in 2013. Sadly, neither location will host a total eclipse in the next decade, though.

Top Stories:
Mathematicians still don’t know the fastest way to multiply numbers
NEWS | 20 July 2026
To understand the nature of that bottleneck, observe how the grade-school algorithm handles growth. The workload scales with the square of the number of digits (n2, where n is the number of digits in the numbers being multiplied). Luckily, we know a way to multiply two-digit numbers with only three single-digit multiplications each! Because of its extra overhead (the additions, managing the repeated splitting and recombining of numbers, and so on) its advantages over the grade-school algorithm don’t kick in until numbers grow relatively big. Just as Karatsuba’s algorithm only outperforms the grade-school approach when numbers get reasonably large, the Harvey-van der Hoeven algorithm doesn’t pull ahead until the numbers become truly galactic.

World:
The Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers are about to peak
NEWS | 20 July 2026
Not one but two meteor showers are set to peak, one after the other, from July 28 to July 31. First up are the Southern Delta Aquariids. But scientists don’t know which space rock the Southern Delta Aquariids originate from, unlike most showers. The Southern Delta Aquariids get their name from the constellation Aquarius, from which they seem to appear in the sky. The Southern Delta Aquariids are best viewed in the Southern Hemisphere or along southern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

Current Events:
Ancient Egyptian princesses were ‘powerful’ weapon users, new analysis suggests
NEWS | 20 July 2026
By providing your email address, you also consent to having the email address shared with third parties for those purposes. But a new archeological analysis suggests some royal women in ancient Egypt such as Princess Ita may have been more skilled with weaponry than historians once believed. When Princess Ita’s final resting place was first excavated by French archeologist Jacques de Morgan in the late 1800s, Ita was somewhat of an afterthought, Hashesh says. In Princess Ita’s case, her muscle attachments “strongly reflect the habitual gripping of weapons like daggers or maces,” Hashesh says. Future work might compare these princesses remains with those of nonelites who lived in the same region and during the same period to make sure that the princesses’ skeletal features were unique to them, he suggested.

News Flash:
FDA approves cholesterol pill more powerful than statins
NEWS | 20 July 2026
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new cholesterol-busting drug that appears to reduce harmful cholesterol far below levels than can be achieved using statins. Most adults have levels of LDL above 100, but the new pill can lower levels to 50 or even lower, clinical trials show. The approval comes after the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology released new cholesterol guidelines in March. Currently, U.S. adults are recommended to be screened for cholesterol levels at least once every five years. Overwhelming evidence suggests that too much LDL cholesterol raises the risk of heart attack or stroke.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 20 July 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Latest:
Cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce supplied to Taco Bell
NEWS | 20 July 2026
U.S. officials have traced an explosive-diarrhea-causing parasite outbreak in five states to shredded lettuce served at this popular fast-food chainI agree my information will be processed in accordance with the Scientific American and Springer Nature Limited Privacy Policy . An outbreak of an explosive-diarrhea-causing parasite has been linked to shredded iceberg lettuce served at the popular Tex-Mex chain Taco Bell in five states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced. The investigation traced the outbreak back to a shredded lettuce supplier in Mexico. Currently, the CDC is working with the supplier to figure out if the affected lettuce was sent to places beyond Taco Bell. “Do not eat shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia,” the CDC said in its announcement.

Breaking:
Permanent daylight savings is bad for Americans’ health—here’s what science says could be better
NEWS | 20 July 2026
Permanent daylight savings is bad for Americans’ health—here’s what science says could be betterIn the U.S., the first Sunday in November brings temporary joy—an extra hour of sleep—followed by months of what can feel like unending darkness. Some health experts argue we should scrap daylight saving time in favor of permanent standard time. Yet just this week, the House of Representatives passed a bill which, if it makes it through the Senate, would make daylight saving time permanent. Daylight saving adds to social jet lag because it shifts the social clock an hour ahead of the sun. “You are trying to follow a clock that’s incompatible or inconsistent with the solar clock locally,” he says.

Trending:
Accidental mix-ups of sounds reveal how the brain produces speech
NEWS | 20 July 2026
These accidental mix-ups of sounds, known as spoonerisms, are among the most well-known speech errors. In my new book, “Beyond Words: How We Learn, Use, and Lose Language,” I explore what speech errors reveal about the mind. A spoonerism is the accidental swapping of speech sounds, whereas a Freudian slip is traditionally thought to reveal an unintended idea or unconscious thought. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud argued that speech errors could reveal hidden wishes or unconscious thoughts. Speech errors follow remarkably similar patterns across languages, so the phenomenon isn’t unique to English.

This Just In:
U.S. approval of giant ‘space mirror’ satellite alarms astronomers
NEWS | 20 July 2026
Reflect Orbital’s Eärendil-1, a test satellite equipped with a large deployable mirror to demonstrate the company’s “sunlight on demand” business plan, could launch before the end of 2026. Reflect Orbital’s sunny proposition is to provide “sunlight on demand” for solar power plants, emergency search and rescue operations, and round-the-clock construction projects. I’m really worried about the future of astronomy.”Lawler and many other scientists are concerned about Reflect Orbital and Eärendil-1 for a few reasons. Some astronomers say Reflect Orbital’s light pollution would qualify as such. “At Reflect Orbital, we recognize that responsible deployment at scale requires clear rules.

Today:
ChatGPT just proved another 50-year-old math conjecture
NEWS | 20 July 2026
What’s the secret to prompting an AI to solve math problems that have left humans stumped? OpenAI just used its new large language model GPT-5.6 Sol to solve a math problem that humans have struggled with for more than a half-century. The company timed the proof of the “cycle double cover conjecture” to the model’s full public release last Friday. The proof, like other notable AI achievements in math, required surprisingly little in the way of new ideas. It reveals some of the quirky tricks that engineers have discovered for coaxing chatbots to grapple with math.

Top Stories:
Mathematicians are closing in on the hidden order inside chaos
NEWS | 20 July 2026
Bradač’s proof concerns off-diagonal Ramsey numbers, which allow for large differences between the size of a clique and the size of an independent set. One wall is the lower bound, and the other is the upper bound. He first stitches together a much larger graph than he ultimately needs—one carefully chosen for its geometric and algebraic structure. Bradač “zooms in” on the larger graph, randomly selecting a subgraph of the size he needs. More importantly, his estimate comes astonishingly close to the best upper bound known—a ceiling that has stood, largely unchanged, since the 1930s.

World:
How to avoid getting cyclosporiasis—and why washing lettuce may not be enough
NEWS | 20 July 2026
An expert explains how to try and stay safeHow to avoid getting cyclosporiasis—and why washing lettuce may not be enoughI agree my information will be processed in accordance with the Scientific American and Springer Nature Limited Privacy Policy . By providing your email address, you also consent to having the email address shared with third parties for those purposes. As cases of an explosive diarrhea-causing parasite continue to rise across the U.S., lettuce-based salads may be off the table until the source is found. Washing produce, on its own, “will not get rid of this as a foolproof method,” she adds. “The only way to truly kill this parasite from food is to cook it at 158 degrees Fahrenheit,” she says.

Current Events:
SpaceX’s latest Starship launch attempt ends in a scrub
NEWS | 20 July 2026
SpaceX’s first attempt to launch the company’s Starship megarocket on the vehicle’s 13th flight test ended before it could properly begin, aborting just before liftoffThe first launch attempt for SpaceX’s 13th flight of its Starship megarocket has ended before it truly began. “No Starship launch today. This flight was meant to follow much the same profile as its predecessor, Flight 12, sending Starship into space but not into orbit. (Flight 12 also started with an initial scrub.) This flight’s Starship itself is also a “V3” and features a host of design improvements over its two previous iterations; Flight 12 was the first test flight of Starship V3.

News Flash:
Watch SpaceX’s Starship Flight 13 launch tonight
NEWS | 20 July 2026
SpaceX is gearing up to launch its Starship megarocket. But as with its last test flight, Starship will not enter Earth orbit; nor will SpaceX try to catch the vehicle’s Super Heavy V3 first stage. The system, in short, is SpaceX’s all-in bet for continuing its global dominance of space launch and satellite communications. SpaceX will have a 90-minute window in which to launch Starship, with a livestream of the rocket beginning some 30 minutes before liftoff on X and SpaceX’s website. Once in space, Starship will attempt to deploy its batch of 20 Starlink satellites.