The arrival of 3I/ATLAS in our solar system spawned multiple proposals for a rendezvous mission to study it up close. As the third interstellar object (ISO) ever detected, the wealth of information direct studies could provide would be groundbreaking in many respects. However, the mission architecture for intercepting an interstellar comet poses numerous significant challenges for mission designers and planners. Chief among them is the technological readiness level (TRL) of the proposed propulsion systems, ranging from conventional rockets to directed-energy propulsion (DEP).

So far, mission proposals have focused on chemical rockets launched from Earth, like NASA's Janus mission and the ESA's Comet Interceptor, or on existing missions like the Juno probe adjusting their trajectories to rendezvous with it. In a recent paper, researchers from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is) propose foregoing a direct transfer mission that would launch from Earth today. Instead, they demonstrate how a mission launching in 2035 could intercept 3I/ATLAS using an indirect Solar Oberth maneuver.

The main challenges for a direct mission to rendezvous with 3I/ATLAS stem from the target object's celestial mechanics, its high heliocentric speed, and the late initial detection. The first issue effectively rules out a rendezvous mission that relies on an onboard propulsion system to match the comet's velocity, thereby enabling a prolonged close-up study of the body. As a result, a flyby mission is the preferred option. However, the second and third considerations rule out a direct mission because the optimal launch date had already passed before it was detected. As Hibberd summarized these for Universe Today via email:

"For the direct mission, the object 3I/ATLAS was detected too late, when it had already travelled inside the orbit of Jupiter, and with a velocity in excess of 60 km/s. It turns out, this was after the optimal launch date for a direct mission to intercept it. One paper found that there would even have been difficulties for a ‘Comet Interceptor’ spacecraft had it been already loitering at the sun/Earth L2 point when 3I/ATLAS was discovered."

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have discovered a way to turn plastic waste into acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, using sunlight. The breakthrough offers a promising new approach to reducing plastic pollution through photocatalysis, while simultaneously creating a useful, value-added chemical product through a process inspired by nature.

When exposed to sunlight, the material drives a series of chemical reactions that transform plastic polymers into acetic acid with high selectivity. The reaction takes place in water, making it particularly relevant for addressing plastic pollution in aquatic environments.

Acetic acid is widely used in food production, chemical manufacturing and energy applications. The study shows it can be produced from common plastic wastes, including PVC, PP, PE and PET, and remains effective across mixed plastic compositions.

This makes the approach well suited to real-world waste streams, offering a promising alternative to plastic incineration, and could support more circular approaches to material use while providing a new strategy for upcycling plastics.

Perseverance has a new skill: It can pinpoint its location without needing help from humans!

The technology is made possible by tapping into a commercial processor originally used to communicate with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Learn more: jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-per…

LEDs no wider than a human hair could soon take on work traditionally handled by lasers, from moving data inside server racks to powering next-generation displays. New research co-authored by UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Roark Chao points to a practical path forward. The study is published in the journal Optics Express.

"We're talking about devices that are literally the size of a hair follicle," said Chao, who studies electrical engineering. "If you can engineer how the light comes out, those microLEDs can start to replace lasers in short-distance data communication."

Infinity invites resistance. Aristotle rejected the existence of the infinite entirely; to him, infinity was simply a limit that could never be reached, not a true mathematical entity. In the early 17th century, Galileo wrote that typical ways of thinking about sets and numbers held no meaning in the realm of the infinite, and that mathematicians would only find paradoxes if they tried to apply their usual tool kit to it. And when, 200 years later, Georg Cantor formalized the idea that infinity comes in many sizes, he was met with anger and fear. His colleagues dismissed his work as that of a madman.

But in time, Cantor’s work on sets and infinity would form the bedrock of modern mathematics. As David Hilbert, another mathematical great, later wrote: “No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created for us.”

So how can infinity have different sizes?

Welcome to Cantor’s paradise.

A study published in Molecular Psychiatry suggests that the biology underlying autism and ADHD does not fit neatly into current diagnostic categories. Although clinicians have long recognized that autism and ADHD frequently occur together, scientists have struggled to pinpoint the shared mechanisms behind that overlap.

Researchers from the Child Mind Institute and collaborating centers found that the intensity of autism symptoms, rather than whether a child carries a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is linked to specific patterns of brain connectivity and gene activity. The results add to a growing shift in psychiatry toward understanding neurodevelopmental conditions along dimensions of traits and biology, rather than as strictly separate disorders.

Symptom severity reveals shared biology
The research team, led by Adriana Di Martino, MD, Founding Director of the Autism Center at the Child Mind Institute and Senior Research Scientist, analyzed resting-state functional MRI scans from 166 verbal children between the ages of 6 and 12 who had been diagnosed with autism or ADHD (without autism). Resting-state imaging allows scientists to measure how different brain regions communicate while a person is not engaged in a specific task, offering insight into underlying network organization.

Children with more pronounced autism symptoms showed stronger connectivity between regions in the frontoparietal (FP) and default-mode (DM) networks. These networks play central roles in executive functioning, attention, and social cognition. In typical development, connectivity between these networks tends to decrease over time as the brain becomes more specialized. The heightened connectivity observed in children with greater symptom severity suggests differences in how these networks mature.

Importantly, this pattern appeared across the full group of children, regardless of whether they were formally diagnosed with ASD or ADHD. The connectivity differences also aligned with maps of gene expression in the brain, particularly genes involved in neural development that have previously been linked to both conditions. This overlap points to biological pathways that may cut across diagnostic labels.

“We see in the clinic that some children with ADHD share symptoms qualitatively similar to those observed in autism, even if they do not fully meet the diagnostic criteria for ASD,” says Dr. Adriana Di Martino. “By focusing on shared brain–gene expression patterns linked to autism symptoms across both ASD and ADHD, we can point towards a shared biological basis of these clinical observations. Our findings provide a more nuanced, dimensional understanding of neurodevelopmental conditions.”

Australian scientists have uncovered strong evidence that chronic insomnia may stem from disruptions in the brain’s internal 24-hour cycle of mental activity. The findings help explain why some people find it so difficult to “switch off” at night, even when they are physically tired.

In a study published in Sleep Medicine, researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) tracked how thinking patterns rise and fall across the day in people with long-term insomnia compared with healthy sleepers. This is the first study to chart daily cognitive rhythms in this way.

Insomnia affects roughly 10% of the population and up to one-third of older adults. Many people with the condition describe their minds as overactive or constantly racing at night.

Although this nighttime mental alertness has often been described as cognitive hyperarousal, its underlying cause has remained uncertain. The researchers set out to test whether difficulty calming the mind at night, a defining feature of insomnia, might be linked to abnormalities in circadian rhythms, the body’s internal timekeeping system.

Scientists at the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have shown for the first time in non-human primates that sound stimulation at 40-Hz can significantly increase β-amyloid levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of aged rhesus monkeys. Notably, this effect lasted for more than five weeks after treatment ended.

The findings, published in PNAS, provide the first experimental evidence in non-human primates that 40-Hz stimulation could serve as a non-invasive physical approach for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study also highlights important differences between primate and rodent models, which are often used in preclinical research.

Led by Dr. Xintian Hu at KIZ, the research team worked with nine elderly rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) between 26 and 31 years old. These monkeys naturally developed widespread amyloid plaques in their brains, closely resembling the Aβ pathology seen in human AD. Because of this similarity, they offer a valuable model for testing potential therapies before moving to human trials.

Webb maps the mysterious upper atmosphere of Uranus 🔵

This first vertical view of its ionosphere reveals auroras shaped by the planet's tilted magnetic field and how Uranus’s atmosphere has continued to cool over the past three decades.

Read more 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…

Scientists at Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan have identified a new and unexpected behavior in cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus). When shown a mirror, these small reef fish did more than appear to recognize their reflections. They also began interacting with the mirror using a piece of food, suggesting a level of cognitive sophistication not typically associated with fish. The findings indicate that cleaner wrasse may be capable of “contingency testing,” a complex mental process most often observed in highly intelligent marine mammals such as dolphins.

The research team was led by Specially Appointed Researcher Shumpei Sogawa and Specially Appointed Professor Masanori Kohda at the Graduate School of Science. In earlier work, the group demonstrated that cleaner wrasse can identify themselves in photographs.

In the current study, the scientists observed new behaviors during a series of mirror test experiments, a widely used method for evaluating self-recognition and animal cognition. Previous research had already shown that cleaner wrasse respond to their reflections in ways consistent with self-recognition.