Desk

Science

What governments would rather keep in a drawer.

Crew Dragon Freedom hits the Pacific under its parachutes, bringing four astronauts home.

Space

Four astronauts splashed down off California.

SpaceX brought Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, and Andrey Fedyaev home on Thursday after eight months. They had gone up in February to replace a crew sent home when a NASA astronaut fell ill.

The Rocket News · Los Angeles · October 9, 2026

Maryland

Maryland now flags a heart warning on a mammogram.

As of Oct. 1, mammography centers in the state must tell a patient if the scan shows breast arterial calcification, a finding linked to a higher risk of heart disease. The Washington Post said other states may follow.

The Supreme Court on Monday heard Boulder’s suit to make Exxon and Suncor help pay for climate damage. It did not rule.

The Court

The Supreme Court heard Boulder’s climate suit and did not decide it.

The city and county want Exxon and Suncor to help pay for climate damage. Justice Alito, who owns oil stock, sat out. With eight justices, a tie would leave Boulder’s case alive.

Wildfire smoke over Lower Manhattan. Researchers say that haze is also lifting ground-level ozone.

Science

Wildfire smoke is lifting ground-level ozone, researchers say.

The particulates were already a known danger. The New York Times reported Sunday that ozone is rising with the smoke, and that millions of Americans have been in its path.

California

A Kelvin wave is lifting the water on the California coast.

It is not a tsunami. The pulse, tied to El Niño, raises sea level by inches and makes high tides more dangerous when a storm arrives.

Regulators approved a construction permit for a 300-megawatt reactor at Clinch River in Oak Ridge.

Science

Tennessee got the permit for a small reactor.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cleared TVA to build a 300-megawatt reactor at Clinch River, in Oak Ridge. The review took 14 months. An operating license is still required.

A second federal judge struck down New York's law that would have made oil companies pay $75 billion.

Science

A second judge hit New York's climate bill.

The 2024 law would have made oil companies pay $75 billion over 25 years. Judge Brenda Sannes threw it out on Sept. 1. Friday's Times said another judge has now struck it down.

In 2025 more than 100 U.S. dams were removed, reconnecting about 4,900 miles of river. Federal grants have since stalled.

Science

The Times sent readers back to the rivers.

Thursday’s briefing paired the press-pass fight with the undamming of American rivers. In 2025, more than 100 dams came out in 30 states. The federal money has since stalled.

A study reported Thursday places the origin of bats in Europe, 65 million years ago.

Science

The first bats were European.

A study reported Thursday puts the origin at 65 million years ago, in Europe, not in Asia, Africa, or the Americas.

A report out today says governments will miss the pledge to protect 30 percent of land and sea.

Science

Governments will miss the 30-by-30 target.

Campaign for Nature, out today: land and sea protection falls short of the 2030 pledge.

The Water

Nature: the worst El Niño on the books is brewing.

Southern Africa to the Amazon. Polo ate 110 mph of that heat overnight. The window is closing.

The Water

El Niño hit a record. A September nor’easter is next.

Pacific surface temperature, Saturday, highest on the books. The Post: major U.S. winter impacts. East Coast rain this week.

A studio view of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, gold bay and solar arrays, in color. No figures in the frame.

The Sky

Roman has fuel for 22 years. NASA budgeted ten.

First burn: 40 pounds, not 441. Extra load at launch. L2 in December. Dunn: exquisite planning.

A glass office tower at dusk, a few floors lit, the rest dark. No figures in the frame.

Proof

Claude wrote Fermat in Lean. Eleven days. Thirteen million lines.

Mathematicians had budgeted five years. 29,500 intermediate theorems, checked.

Video · AI news

The Moon

NASA and IBM put a Moon model on Hugging Face.

Two million tiles. Craters 19 percent better. Ice in the dark, 22 percent tighter.

Video · IBM Research

Humanoid robots in Delta Robots livery holding Democratism flags outside a Warsaw ministry. No people in the frame. Photograph, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026.

Machines

Anthropic built a model of what A.I. does to the American paycheck. You can push the sliders.

Nibble, or upend. The lab behind Claude put the argument in public. Labor is already a number.

Video · KPIX / CBS News Bay Area

Machines

Thirty robots marched on Warsaw. They asked Poland to regulate A.I.

Humanoids and quadrupeds outside the digital ministry. “Don’t wait, regulate.” The minister came outside.

Video · KPIX / CBS News Bay Area

A night sky over water, a pale object caught in a grainy frame.

Machines

The stock market is closed for Labor Day. The models are not on holiday.

NYSE and Nasdaq dark Monday. Banks and the mail too. Grocery is open. The Science desk files what still computes.

Video · FOX 10 Phoenix

Machines

Musk puts a taxi on the street with no steering wheel

The bet is that New Yorkers will sit in a car that cannot be grabbed back.

Video · YouTube

Night view of a pentagon-shaped government building under floodlights, a pale light in the overcast sky.

National security

The Pentagon starts unsealing the U.A.P. drawer

One hundred sixty-two files — blurry photographs, old cables, an Apollo still — and a presidential dare: decide for yourselves.

Video · CBS News