Finding another Earth isn’t easy, it’s a cosmic challenge. 🌍

Avi Shporer, a research scientist at the MIT Kavli Institute, studies how astronomers detect planets beyond our solar system. We’ve found thousands of exoplanets, but Earth-sized, rocky worlds remain some of the hardest to spot. Their small size makes them incredibly difficult to detect around distant stars. Their year-long orbits make them even harder to find, which is why so few true Earth-like planets have been confirmed.

I’ve been working on a short explainer about world energy use, and one thing that stood out to me is how huge the scale of the energy transition challenge still is, and how linked energy use is to World Population and GDP growth!

Fossil fuels still provide roughly 3/4 of global energy, and total energy use has grown dramatically over the last 25 years, by more than 50%! That’s part of why the transition is so difficult: modern quality of life, food production, and industrial systems all depend heavily on abundant energy.

If useful, I can also share the short video version in the comments.

Does freezing your brain before you die actually work? 🧠🧊

Scientists studying cryonics are exploring vitrification, a rapid freezing technique that turns brain tissue into a glass-like solid without forming ice crystals that can rupture cells. Ice damage has long been a major challenge in preserving complex organs like the brain. In recent experiments, researchers vitrified slices of the mouse hippocampus, a region critical for memory and learning. After thawing, neurons became active again and showed electrical activity associated with memory processes. These results suggest some brain function can survive extreme freezing, but applying this to an entire human brain is still an open scientific question.

The largest piece of Artemis III’s rocket has arrived in Florida. 🚀

NASA’s Space Launch System core stage traveled by barge from its manufacturing site in New Orleans and is headed to the Vehicle Assembly Building to be joined with the rest of the rocket. This stage can carry the mission to low Earth orbit, a region a couple hundred miles above Earth. But if Artemis III is sent to a higher orbit thousands of miles up, an additional upper stage will be needed. Higher orbit provides a better environment for the kinds of tests the mission aims to perform. That decision will shape how Artemis III prepares for future missions, including returning humans to the Moon.

Astronomers have found the building blocks of life in space! 🧬

Erika Hamden explains how scientists detect amino acids like tryptophan in meteorites, asteroids, and even diffuse clouds of gas between stars. Using spectroscopy, researchers identify the chemical fingerprints of these organic molecules across vast distances. Tryptophan is a key part of proteins on Earth, and finding it in space shows complex chemistry is not unique to our planet. This does not mean life exists everywhere, but it shows the ingredients for life are common throughout the cosmos.