Two research teams published findings saying we’re closer than anyone expected. One estimate puts the current largest quantum machine at more than halfway to the size needed to crack the encryption that secures basically everything online.

“Just around the corner” is relative. But this moved from “eventual theoretical problem” to “timeline question” faster than most people were tracking.

What happens to all the data that’s been harvested now, to be decrypted later? That’s the uncomfortable part of this.

Oregon State. Captured the actual chemical interactions driving Alzheimer’s — copper ions triggering harmful protein behavior — as they happened.

Not a model. Not a simulation. Actual observation of the process.

Seeing something clearly is not the same as being able to stop it. But you can’t target what you can’t see. This is the kind of finding that makes treatment research more precise.

Scam compounds — large, often fortified facilities where trafficked workers are forced to run online fraud operations — have proliferated across Southeast Asia since the COVID-19 pandemic. What began as a regional criminal phenomenon has grown into a global industry, with victims from dozens of countries funneled into compounds primarily in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.

The business model is specific: criminal organizations traffic workers under false pretenses (job offers, romantic contacts), confiscate their documents, and force them to run cryptocurrency fraud, romance scams, and investment schemes targeting victims in wealthy countries. Workers who don’t meet quotas face abuse. Workers who try to leave face worse.

Reports say SpaceX is quietly positioning for what could be the largest IPO ever. No timeline confirmed. But the groundwork is being laid.

SpaceX is profitable. Has government contracts. Dominates commercial launch. Has Starlink. And has never needed public capital — which means when it does list, it’s doing so from a position of strength rather than necessity.

The valuation conversation when this actually happens is going to be something.

Astrocytes — cells that were thought to just support neurons — apparently play a key role in controlling appetite. They’re the ones sending the “stop eating” signal.

The same cells also turned up recently in research on fear memory and chronic pain. Astrocytes are having a moment. Turns out “support cells” were doing a lot more than supporting.

Permafrost thaws → ancient organic material decomposes → carbon that’s been frozen since before agriculture releases into the atmosphere. And it’s reshaping rivers in the process.

The feedback loop problem: warming causes thaw, thaw releases carbon, carbon causes more warming. The concern has always been that this becomes self-sustaining at some point regardless of what humans do.

New study says it’s already further along than thought.

The Artemis II crew is returning to Earth after completing humanity’s first crewed journey to the vicinity of the Moon since 1972. The mission sent four astronauts on a lunar flyby — no landing, but a free-return trajectory that took them closer to the Moon than any human has been in over fifty years.

The crew has been reflecting publicly on the experience. The descriptions follow a familiar pattern from Apollo-era astronauts: the scale of the Moon at close range, the sight of Earth as a small object in a very large emptiness, the particular silence of deep space. There is a reason people keep describing it the same way. It tends to affect people similarly.

The Boys Season 5 dropped April 8 on Amazon Prime Video, and if you know the show, you know it will not be easing anyone into anything.

The series has spent four seasons escalating its satirical portrait of corporate power, media manipulation, and the myth of heroism. Season 5, the confirmed final season, has no reason to pull punches. If anything, the endgame framing gives the writers license to go further than ever.

Jasveen Sangha was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for distributing the ketamine that killed actor Matthew Perry in 2023. Additional individuals connected to the supply network — including medical professionals — were also charged and sentenced as part of the same investigation.

Perry died in October 2023 from acute ketamine effects. He had been receiving legitimate ketamine treatments for depression but had also been obtaining the drug through illegal channels at doses far exceeding therapeutic levels.

Pope Leo XIV weighed in on the Iran conflict this week, specifically targeting Trump’s statement that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran didn’t accept a deal. The Pope called the remark “truly unacceptable” and implored world leaders to find a peaceful path out of the conflict.

It is unusual for a sitting Pope to directly name and rebuke an American president over wartime rhetoric. Leo XIV has moved faster and more directly on geopolitical matters than his predecessor, and this week’s statement was notably unhedged — no diplomatic both-sidesing, no call for “all parties” to show restraint. The criticism went in one direction.