Discovery & Innovation
Browse the latest discovery & innovation stories curated by Brightside Report from trusted sources.
NASA Navigation Experiment Shows Promise for Planetary Landings.
Successfully demonstrated technology designed to help spacecraft autonomously navigate to safe landing sites on the Moon and on other planets. An Alta...
NASAVenomous Indonesian primate feared extinct still clings on – but threats persist.
A small, venomous primate that scientists thought had gone extinct still survives on Indonesia’s Bangka Island, and to the communities there was never...
MongabayNewborn survival improves when families receive financial support.
Rx Kids, a program that provides unconditional cash transfers for pregnant people and infants, reduced neonatal mortality in Flint, Michigan.
Science NewsRegina Barzilay and Jim Collins win Pritzker Prize for AI and Science Research Excellence for work in AI-enabled antibiotic discovery.
The MIT professors collaborated to identify the first AI-discovered antibiotic, a scientific breakthrough that is widely recognized as a milestone in ...
MIT NewsHow citizen scientists are mapping Pune’s trees, with hopes of a greener future.
PUNE, India — On a quiet Saturday morning, away from the usual urban rush of Pune, citizens gather at the Madhavrao Scindia Garden along the banks of ...
MongabayTwo in Three Cars Sold in China Last Month Were Electric.
Plug-in cars, including both plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles, accounted for two in three new passenger vehicles sold in China in September...
Carbon BriefThis Rosy Stone Spotted in the Sahara Turned Out to Be a 4.1-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite From Mars, One of the Oldest Ever Found.
Martian samples this old are extremely rare and offer clues about the Red Planet's youth. This meteorite further hints that our celestial neighbor was...
NASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryMagnetic sensors track muscle movement, for better prosthetic limb control.
Researchers hope to use these sensors to help people with amputation achieve more natural movements with their prosthetic limbs.
MIT NewsHow Berkeley researchers decoded the loopy physics of hula hooping.
When UC Berkeley professor Oliver O’Reilly and his collaborators used a novel method to understand which motions are crucial for hula hooping, their r...
Berkeley NewsBerkeley’s new electronic nose recognizes food odors and signs of spoilage.
UC Berkeley scientists develop electronic nose that detects spoiled food and allergens more accurately than humans.
UC Berkeley NewsFive new mussel species reveal how much biodiversity US rivers still conceal.
For 20 years, researchers snorkeled through rivers across the southern U.S., feeling along muddy bottoms for mussels. Many of the shells they pulled u...
MongabayNASA’s SR-1 Freedom Advances with Progress on Nuclear Power Module.
Destined for Mars and beyond, NASA’s Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom will be humanity’s first fission-powered spacecraft to travel outside Earth’s orbi...
NASATracks Along the Longest Drive on Another World.
Written by Vandi Verma, Chief Engineer for Robotic Operations at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Oct. 12, 2026 Since the last blog update, Perseveran...
NASAElectric stoves could help people with asthma breathe easier.
Switching to an electric stove from a lung-irritating gas one may improve asthma symptoms. But if you’re stuck with gas, reducing exposure may help.
Science NewsCalifornia’s investment in early education brought dramatic improvement in learning, study finds.
Gains by students who went through the state’s prekindergarten programs in the 2010s were still evident in third and fourth grades, says a new study f...
Berkeley NewsJapan Successfully Launches Mission to Bring Home the First-Ever Martian Moon Samples.
In a stellar step forward for planetary science, Japan successfully launched a spacecraft on October 19th, headed for the mysterious moons of Mars. Th...
WiredNASA’s CASALS Instrument Bridges Gaps in 3D Maps of Earth’s Surface.
From orbit, today’s space-based laser instruments measure Earth’s forests and terrain one narrow line at a time. Between those lines are enormous gaps...
NASAMIT student team CERBERUZ wins NASA LunaRecycle Centennial Challenge, turning lunar trash into tools.
The team took first prize in both the Prototype and Digital Twin tracks for its lunar waste recycling system.
MIT NewsScientists Discover a Simple, Low-Energy Way to Recycle Acrylic Glass into Brand-New Material.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have found a practical new method that breaks down acrylic glass—known by the brand name Plexiglas—almost entirely into its ...
ETH ZurichAI can give you your voice back.
People who have lost the ability to talk are finding new voices with technology. This technological feat is changing what it means to lose a voice.
Science NewsKlamath River Salmon Comeback Surprises Scientists After Record Dam Removal.
The Klamath River salmon comeback shows Chinook salmon reclaiming 88% of historic habitat within two years of the world's largest dam removal.
Scientific ReportsSilicon spin qubits reach 99.99% fidelity bringing larger quantum processors into reach.
A five-qubit silicon experiment tackles microwave interference, helping quantum processors work accurately in parallel.
NatureScientists Are Teaching Birds to Sing Lost Songs.
When bird populations decline, fledglings may struggle to learn the songs they need to attract mates. But new research suggests it is possible to teac...
The Guardian‘Having poetry in a public space transports us, even if we don’t understand it’.
Forty years after poems first appeared on London’s Underground, the project continues to shape the daily journeys of millions.
Positive NewsOrigami-based construction method yields lightweight, load-bearing structures on architectural scales.
The modular approach could be used to erect emergency shelters or fabricate aerospace components more quickly and with less material than some techniq...
MIT NewsGoogly-eyed buoys and kites help keep seabirds out of fishing nets, study finds.
Off the coast of Cornwall in southwest England, a pole rises from a buoy with a pair of big eyes on top. The head spins, creating what researchers cal...
MongabayDeforestation in Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado savanna at lowest rate ever recorded.
As Brazilians head to the polls to vote in a runoff election, Amazon deforestation is also on the ballot. New data from Brazil’s National Institute fo...
MongabayMIT spinout makes surgical stitching more like applying a sticky note.
SanaHeal has developed a biologically compatible adhesive that sticks to wet tissues to simplify a variety of surgeries.
MIT NewsSimple ‘Soil Steaming’ Found as Effective Replacement for Chemicals in Organic Strawberry Farming.
A mere puff of steam could be the ticket to much larger and reliable strawberry yields in California, the LA Times reported. University of California ...
Los Angeles TimesAmazon deforestation falls 42% to a record low.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to the lowest level on record. Data released today by Brazil’s national space research institute, INP...
MongabayNew, cold-resistant, metal alloys tolerate extreme temperatures up to −253°C.
Crystal twins and structural changes helped two experimental alloys resist cracking at 20 kelvin, suggesting a new design strategy.
NatureScientists Develop a Seaweed Coating to Extend the Freshness of Fruit.
A new seaweed coating keeps strawberries fresher than a fridge, offering a lower-carbon way to cut food waste and reduce reliance on refrigeration.
UBC NewsResearchers improve weather forecasts looking two to six weeks out.
A new machine-learning approach broke records for weather forecasting for an important time frame in emergency planning.
MIT News‘Patrick’ sea star went viral, but Argentine deep-sea canyon held 57 new species.
A sea cucumber with two horn-like appendages sits on the mud in the deep South Atlantic Ocean. Scientists named it Loki, after the horned Norse tricks...
MongabayScientists use AI and nanotechnology to detect signs of life in space.
Single-molecule electrical measurements capture selected features of meteorite and desert extracts, with further validation needed.
Nature CommunicationsNASA discovers a once-in-a-century impact blasted a 728-foot crater into the Moon.
A rare lunar impact blasted a 728-foot crater into the Moon and disturbed terrain more than 120 kilometers from the collision.
NASA