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Today:
Memory Loss in Alzheimer's Linked to Problems With The Brain's 'Replay Mode'
NEWS | 15 February 2026
To consolidate memories, our brains replay them during periods of rest as a kind of 'replay mode'. A new mouse study suggests that disruptions to this process could contribute to the memory loss that accompanies Alzheimer's disease. The place cells also became less stable over time, with the cell-to-location mapping becoming messed up. Alzheimer's disease is a complex condition with multiple risk factors. In this case, that might be drugs that help to sharpen replay activity in the hippocampus's place cells.

Top Stories:
Spaceflight Can Alter The Position of The Human Brain, Study Finds
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Going to space is harsh on the human body, and as a new study from our research team finds, the brain shifts upward and backward and deforms inside the skull after spaceflight. As NASA plans longer space missions and space travel expands beyond professional astronauts, these findings will become more relevant. Why it mattersOn Earth, gravity constantly pulls fluids in your body and your brain toward the center of the Earth. Structures on the two sides of the brain moved toward the midline, which means they moved in the opposite direction for each brain hemisphere. Knowing how the brain moves in spaceflight and subsequently recovers allows researchers to understand the effects of microgravity on human physiology.

World:
There's One Simple Method to Lower Alcohol Intake, And It Works
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Scientists have discovered an effective method for getting people to drink less alcohol, research suggests. By highlighting the increased risk of cancer that comes with imbibing, and pairing that with counting each and every drink, it's possible to reduce alcohol intake. It was also the only combination where people actually did significantly reduce their alcohol consumption over the six weeks. "We found that pairing information about alcohol and cancer with a particular practical action – counting their drinks – resulted in drinkers reducing the amount of alcohol they consumed." In this particular study, the participants were chosen to be "broadly demographically representative of the Australian drinking public."

Current Events:
Valentine's Day: Exchanging Saliva May Help You Fall in Love
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Kissing a romantic partner is a nice way to share an intimate moment – not to mention a hearty dose of saliva and tens of millions of oral microbes. What happens when humans swallow their partners' microbes after kissing them? "Unlike other forms of physical contact, deep kissing involves saliva mixing and direct tongue-to-tongue contact, effectively inoculating partners with each other's oral microbes," Kort writes. Besides billions of microbes, saliva also contains hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which could impact the other person. While that exchange has benefits, it could also spread disease, which is probably why open-mouthed kissing is typically reserved for trusted romantic partners.

News Flash:
This Week in Science: Mars Molecules, a Cholesterol-Cutting Compound, And More!
NEWS | 15 February 2026
This week in science: Mysterious molecules on Mars are tricky to explain without life; a compound that cuts cholesterol as a daily oral pill; an experimental new treatment for sleep apnea has a 93 percent success rate; and much more! It's not that the brain stops trying to consolidate memories; the process itself has gone wrong," says neuroscientist Caswell Barry. Mars Organics Are Hard to Explain Without Life, NASA-Led Study FindsA NASA-led analysis of organic molecules found on Mars has concluded that they can't yet be explained by known, non-biological processes. Even when combined, these processes were unable to approach the inferred original abundance of the molecules. 93% Success Rate Shown in Experimental Sleep Apnea ProcedureAn experimental new treatment for sleep apnea, involving a small implantable electrode, has shown a 93 percent success rate in human trials.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 15 February 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:
10,000-Year-Old Symbols And Art Found in Egyptian Rock Formation
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Archaeologists have discovered a 10,000-year-old site with rock art in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, the country's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said Thursday. The previously unknown site located at the Umm Irak Plateau has a 100-metre-long rock formation whose diverse carvings trace the evolution of human artistic expression from prehistoric times to the Islamic era. The natural rock shelter's ceiling features numerous drawings in red pigment of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and the Nabataean language. Inside, animal droppings, stone partitions, and hearth remains confirm that the shelter was used as a refuge for a long time. Related: World's Oldest Rock Art Discovered in Indonesian CaveHe described the discovery as a "significant addition to the map of Egyptian antiquities".

Breaking:
Jupiter Is Not The Size And Shape We've Long Thought It Was
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Okay, not physically, but our measurements of Jupiter just got more precise, and it turns out there's slightly less of the giant than we thought. That makes it 4 kilometers narrower each side at the equator, and 12 kilometers 'flatter' at each pole, than previous measurements suggested. Astronomers only had six of these RO measurements to work with – until now. This gave scientists the opportunity for regular RO measurements, boosted with new data-processing techniques. Related: Jupiter Was Twice Its Current Ginormous Size, Scientists DiscoverPowerful winds are also known to whip around the gas giant, and previous estimates of Jupiter's size had to ignore their influence.

Trending:
One in Three Dementia Cases Is Linked to Disease Outside The Brain
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Some forms of dementia may not be confined to the central nervous system; they may not even begin in the brain. A systematic review of more than 200 studies has now found that as many as a third of all dementia cases are tied to diseases outside the brain. There's a chance that some peripheral diseases are actually playing a role in cognitive decline. The top five peripheral diseases that most strongly correlated with increased dementia risk were gum disease, chronic liver diseases, hearing loss, vision loss, and type 2 diabetes. Slightly weaker correlations were observed for osteoarthritis, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, like multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease.

This Just In:
Scientists Caught Sperm Ignoring a Major Physical Law
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Human sperm can swim through surprisingly viscous fluids with ease – and they seemingly defy Newton's third law of motion to do so. Newton's third law can be summed up as "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". In the simplest example, two equal-sized marbles colliding as they roll along the ground will transfer their force and rebound based on this law. So-called non-reciprocal interactions show up in unruly systems made up of flocking birds, particles in fluid – and swimming sperm. Highly viscous fluids would typically dissipate a flagellum's energy, preventing a sperm or single-celled algae from moving much at all.

Today:
Scientists Grew Mini Human Spinal Cords, Then Made Them Repair After Injury
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Scientists have taken a major step toward treating spinal cord injuries that cause paralysis. In lab dishes, researchers at Northwestern University grew tiny organoids of the human spinal cord. Spinal cord injuries often lead to paralysis because damaged nerve cells in the central nervous system regenerate poorly. In previous work, Stupp and his team developed a material called IKVAV-PA that they used to reverse paralysis in mice with severe spinal cord injury. Using induced pluripotent stem cells from an adult donor, they grew 3-millimeter-wide spinal cord organoids and cultured them for several months.

Top Stories:
WATCH: Crew-12 Is Set For Launch to ISS After NASA Medical Evacuation
NEWS | 15 February 2026
NASA is set to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station on Friday, replacing a crew that was evacuated early due to a medical issue. If Friday morning's launch goes as planned, the astronauts should arrive at the orbiting ISS by approximately 3:15 pm on Saturday. Once the astronauts finally arrive, they will be one of the last crews to live aboard the football field-sized space station. However, the space station has not entirely avoided the tensions back on Earth. Russian space agency Roscosmos merely said he had been transferred to a different job.

World:
Discovery of an 'Inside Out' Solar System Puzzles Astronomers
NEWS | 15 February 2026
In our Solar System, the four planets closest to the Sun are small and rocky, while the four farther out are gas giants. Scientists had thought this planetary order – rocky first, then gaseous – was consistent across the universe. "That makes this an inside-out system, with a planet order of rocky-gaseous-gaseous-and then rocky again," explained Thomas Wilson, the lead author of a new study describing the discovery in the journal Science. Puzzled by the weird LHS 1903 planetary system, the team of astronomers tried to figure out what could have happened. After ruling out several possibilities, they came up with a scenario: what if the planets formed one at a time?

Current Events:
Ozempic-Style Patches Promise Easy Weight Loss, But Do They Work?
NEWS | 15 February 2026
Promotions of these Ozempic-style, weight-loss patches are popping up online, promising dramatic results with little evidence to back their claims. Ozempic-style patches are also known as GLP-1 patches. Instead, the Ozempic-style patches contain a mixture of herbal extracts, including berberine, green tea (Camellia sinensis), the tropical fruit Garcinia cambogia, and bitter orange (Citrus x aurantium L.). There are no Ozempic-style patches on the register. In a nutshellWhile the idea of Ozempic-style weight-loss patches might seem appealing, they do not work, and their safety is far from guaranteed.

News Flash:
A Giant Star Vanished, And Scientists Think a Black Hole Is to Blame
NEWS | 15 February 2026
One of the brightest stars in the Andromeda galaxy quietly collapsed into a black hole without any of the fanfare of a spectacular supernova. This can send a giant shock tearing outward through the star, triggering a supernova explosion that sends the star's outer material flying, while the core transforms into either a neutron star or a black hole. Instead of ripping the star apart, the explosion fizzles out, and the material ends up falling back onto the newly formed black hole. If the culprit was just dust, infrared brightness would not have dropped, since infrared light can penetrate dust clouds. Related: NASA Captured The 'Sound' From A Black Hole, And It's Super EerieThe resulting object, the researchers calculated, is likely to be a black hole with about five times the mass of the Sun – an event horizon about 30 kilometers (18 miles) across.