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Today:
How the brain learns to read is an evolutionary mystery—a new study offers clues
NEWS | 29 August 2026
In my study, I investigated the relationship between individuals’ reading skills and their fine-grained brain structure. The most important of these tests for my study was an adaptive reading test in which participants pronounced written words aloud. In fact, problems with perceiving the sound structure of language are commonly cited as an underlying factor in developmental dyslexia. A possible explanation is that it helps us identify written words in a way similar way to how we recognise a face. These bundles might develop when sound, meaning and visual word form are connected during literacy training and general language exposure.

Top Stories:
How will NASA’s Roman Space Telescope see exoplanets?
NEWS | 29 August 2026
When you’re looking for exoplanets, stars are irritating. On August 30, 2026, NASA is set to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman for short). It’s actually similar to the Hubble Space Telescope, with the same size mirror (a key consideration for just how powerful a telescope can be). Roman’s CGI is equipped with a low-resolution spectroscopic capability, enough to identify some of what’s floating around in the alien air. It’s a deliberate pathfinder for that audacious task, however, which NASA is planning to tackle in decades to come with yet another next-generation space telescope, the Habitable Worlds Observatory.

World:
What Nepal's floods reveal about “cascading hazards”
NEWS | 29 August 2026
Early evidence suggests this was not an ordinary rain-driven flash flood, but what disaster science describes as a “cascading event”. The key question is how that avalanche produced such a huge volume of fast-moving water and debris. The Nepal flood may have involved several links in a cascading chain. Cascading hazards are different from “compound hazards”, where multiple hazards combine or occur together without one necessarily triggering another. But cascading hazards do not fit into conventional categories.

Current Events:
Meta to pay $18 billion and make sweeping app changes to settle social media harms lawsuit
NEWS | 29 August 2026
By providing your email address, you also consent to having the email address shared with third parties for those purposes. On Wednesday Meta agreed to pay almost $18 billion and implement a host of new safety features for children to settle a long-running lawsuit, filed by dozens of states, that alleged the company’s products harm children. “It’s a very creative settlement.”Alongside the financial penalty, the agreement requires Meta to implement new safety features across its platforms. A social media research foundation will also be set up to study teenagers’ well-being online. For example, there is evidence that young people who use social media apps in moderation have higher scores on overall well-being than non-users.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 29 August 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

News Flash:
How changes to Endangered Species Act regulations could hurt wildlife
NEWS | 29 August 2026
Since 1973 the Endangered Species Act, or ESA, has helped protect species at risk of extinction throughout the United States. She’s here to talk us through some of the revisions to the Endangered Species Act and what they could mean. Barre: Yeah, so the Endangered Species Act is there to protect endangered and threatened species and the habitats that they rely on. Barre: The Endangered Species Act was put in place in 1973, so it’s been in place for decades to protect those endangered and threatened species. Endangered species listings, protections, critical habitat designations—some of these important things under the Endangered Species Act that give those endangered and threatened species extra care and conservation effort are not a priority right now.

Latest:
U.S. approves breakthrough pancreatic cancer drug, heralding a new era for an intractable disease
NEWS | 29 August 2026
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just approved a new breakthrough drug for pancreatic cancer that significantly extends the lives of people with the disease—considered one of the most intractable and difficult to treat forms of cancer. The FDA approval makes the medication available to people with metastatic pancreatic cancer who have already been through chemotherapy. In many cases of pancreatic cancer, mutations to the RAS protein leaves the gene stuck in the "on" position, telling cancer cells to keep growing. "We can now envisage a future with no chemotherapy needed for pancreatic cancer patients. Some patients who got the drug lived for years—something very few people with late-stage pancreatic cancer do.

Breaking:
Tropical Storm Dolly forms in the Atlantic
NEWS | 29 August 2026
On Tuesday the legendary and beloved music icon Dolly Parton passed away. On Thursday a tropical disturbance managed to overcome headwinds to become a tropical storm. And the next name on the list of Atlantic storms was, you guessed it, Dolly. The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to November 30, but late August through September is a peak time for storm formation. Though Dolly Parton had an enormous effect on people around the world, with efforts that included promoting childhood literacy and funding one of the COVID vaccines, Dolly the storm is expected to have little impact.

Trending:
Climate change is supercharging El Niños, coral records show
NEWS | 29 August 2026
We’re in the midst of a blockbuster El Niño that could be become the strongest in living memory. It and other very strong, recent El Niños are much stronger than those in the past as the result of human-caused climate change, a new study in Science shows. Climate models have given mixed signals about whether El Niño events could become stronger with climate change. Physical evidence from fossilized corals in the western and central Pacific have bolstered the argument that climate change is strengthening El Niño. In a strong El Niño year, they can reach more than two degrees C above normal.

This Just In:
Is there a ‘window of opportunity’ to prevent Alzheimer’s in women?
NEWS | 29 August 2026
In one of the studies, which was published on Wednesday in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, researchers analyzed more than 180,000 postmenopausal women in the U.K. It found that the earlier menopause set in, the more likely it was that women would experience cognitive decline later in life. Earlier menopause was also associated with earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Like the Alzheimer’s & Dementia study, these results were strongest among women who had experienced surgical menopause. Taken together, the results support the idea that preventing Alzheimer’s may start long before advanced age—offering a “window of opportunity” to intervene, Minihane says.

Today:
Is the keto diet better than the Mediterranean? New clinical trial reveals health benefits
NEWS | 29 August 2026
In the trial, researchers put three popular weight-loss regimes—a low-fat, plant-focused diet, the Mediterranean diet and the ketogenic, or keto, diet—to the test. The Mediterranean diet has long been lauded by nutritionists for its health benefits and is high in healthy fats, plants and whole grains. The keto diet is rather different: it is typically high in fat and very low in carbohydrates, with a little protein thrown in for good measure. The latter was a critical metric, Klein says: liver fat can have serious complications, including inflammation and cancer. Half of the participants on the keto diet also saw remission of their prediabetes.

Top Stories:
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will rewrite how we study the universe
NEWS | 29 August 2026
The agency recently selected 118 programs to use its shiny new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch on August 30, in novel and exciting ways. Discovered by JWST in 2022, LRDs are strange, compact objects seen in the early universe that could be exotic black hole stars. This simulated imagery highlights some of what NASA’s Roman Space Telescope could see in in one its deep-space surveys. Using Roman, Gilbert and her team will map half a billion stars in the two galaxies. There is much more to come as Roman gets up to speed and begins its unique study of the cosmos.

World:
Controversial Alzheimer’s surgery is said to reverse symptoms. Here’s what scientists say
NEWS | 29 August 2026
Mechanistic explanations for why the surgery might work remain hard to square with how quickly some individuals seem to improve, clinicians say. He trained as a reconstructive microsurgeon, and is more at home with reconnecting severed vessels than with troubleshooting brain drainage. In 2012, they described an array of fluid-filled channels, distinct from true lymphatic vessels, that run alongside blood vessels and move fluid through brain tissue to flush out waste. Another thing that is giving scientists pause is the speed with which symptoms begin to shift after the surgery. Some surgeons aim to identify still-functioning lymphatic vessels or nodes and connect them to nearby veins to augment drainage.

Current Events:
Why glacial collapse likely caused the Nepal disaster—and why climate change will make these events more likely
NEWS | 29 August 2026
But already, attention is turning to what could possibly have caused this catastrophe and why there was no warning. Nepali officials have said the floods were likely unleashed by a glacial collapse, which is when a large piece of ice, rock and debris suddenly detaches from a glacier on a mountain. The glacier was likely a cirque glacier, the officials said, which is a glacier that has formed in a depression or basin high in the mountains. A glacial collapse is similar to an avalanche—but instead of snow descending from a mountain slope, falling ice gathers energy and debris into a fast-flowing, destructive mixture. “It’s difficult to conclusively link a single event directly to climate change,” Cook said in her earlier interview with SciAm.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 29 August 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