Sunday Special: Honda launches a surprise rocket

Welcome back, Superhuman. SpaceX’s rearview mirror is starting to get a little crowded. As the company’s Starship exploded this week ahead of a test launch, a surprise competitor from Japan just pulled off a feat no one saw coming. Meanwhile, scientists have teamed up with scorpions to land a blow in the fight against breast cancer.

P.S. The Sunday Special is designed to help you discover the most important scientific and technological breakthroughs outside of AI. Our regular AI and Tech updates will resume as usual on Monday.

SCIENCE SUNDAY

The most interesting scientific discoveries and breakthroughs this week

Race to Space: Honda just shook up the commercial space race with a successful test of its own reusable rocket. Using a 21-foot booster, the experimental rocket flew for just under a minute and touched down within 15 inches of its target during a test flight in Hokkaido, Japan. While smaller than SpaceX's Falcon 9, Honda’s entry into the space wars represents a global push into commercial spaceflight — a sector that’s growing more crowded by the day. In case you missed it, you can catch the landing here.

Shot Protection: The FDA has green-lit the first HIV prevention shot, marking a potential breakthrough in the decades-long fight against the virus. Gilead's lenacapavir injection showed over 99.9% effectiveness in preventing HIV transmission in clinical trials involving more than 4,000 participants — essentially functioning like a powerful vaccine. Although there are some concerns around the hefty price tag, it’s an important step in potentially controlling the spread of new HIV infections globally.

Demolition Job: Spanish researchers have found that when marine worms made the jump to terrestrial life 200M years ago, they didn't gradually evolve as initially thought. In fact, they shattered their genome and rebuilt it from scratch in what scientists are calling an "unprecedented" genetic leap. This discovery could potentially challenge Darwin’s theory of gradual evolution, and is more in line with the controversial idea of "punctuated equilibrium," where species make sudden evolutionary leaps instead of slow changes.

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NEW TECH

Our favorite new tech gadgets this week

1. Samsung Premier 5: A triple-laser projector that doubles as an interactive touchscreen to let you interact directly with games, apps, and videos on any surface.

2. Fellow Espresso Series 1: A home espresso machine that packs a triple-heater system for exact temps, and pressure profiling that’ll help you customize your shots.

3. Nuwa Pen: A smart pen that uses a triple-camera and AI to digitize your writing on any paper in real time, and even transcribe and organize your notes — no screen needed.

4. Swippit Instant Power System: A charging hub that can power up to 5 phone batteries in one go. It can swap your dying battery with a new one in 2 seconds flat.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in tech on socials this week

🚀 Blast From The Past: A photo of core rope memory, used in the guidance computer for the Apollo 11 missions in 1969, just went viral on social media. It packed about 72 KB of code in hand-woven wires that supposedly took months to weave.

❄️ Wonder Water: Supercooled water is water that stays in liquid form even at temperatures far below the freezing point. A video explaining how it works just blew up on Reddit.

💥 Blast Off: In another setback to Elon Musk’s ambitions to colonize Mars, SpaceX's Starship 36 blew up during a routine test at the company's Texas facility. Here’s a video.

🎮️ Console Clue: Sony's new CEO just dropped the first official hints about the PlayStation 6, confirming the next-gen console is "top of mind" and in early development.

👀 Sneak Peek: Steven Spielberg famously used a mechanical shark for his cult-classic thriller ‘Jaws’. A photo giving a peek into what looks like some smart engineering just blew up on Reddit.

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ONLY GOOD NEWS

A healthy dose of optimism to kickstart your week

Sting Operation: Brazilian scientists seem to have found an unlikely ally in the fight against breast cancer. They’ve discovered that venom from an Amazon scorpion contains a compound called BamazScplp1 that induces uncontrolled cell death in cancer cells when tested in lab conditions. Since breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in women, natural compounds like this could potentially offer new treatment options with fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy.

War Games: An ex-Harvard professor has built an AI tool called North Star that simulates world leaders to predict and potentially prevent wars before they start. The "peace tech" software tests different scenarios — like economic sanctions or military actions — to forecast outcomes. He believes the tool could give leaders months instead of days to respond to crises, citing how it might have helped JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis by providing six months of simulation time rather than 13 days of real-world pressure.

Limb Logic: Scientists studying limb regeneration in axolotls (a kind of salamander) claim to have made a breakthrough that could push us closer to regrowth in human body parts. They’ve identified a molecule called retinoic acid in the salamander, the breakdown of which regulates regenerative cells. Humans also produce retinoic acid naturally, but our bodies form scars. Understanding how axolotls coordinate limb regeneration could potentially lead to therapies to help humans regrow body parts someday.

Family Reunion: Nothing like putting a face to the name. For over a decade, scientists had known about the Denisovans — an extinct human subspecies — but never really knew what they looked like. Now, Chinese researchers have identified the large "dragon man" skull from China as belonging to a Denisovan, using proteins and mitochondrial DNA preserved in dental specimens. If the evidence holds up, we may finally be able to recreate what our ancient, mysterious relatives used to look like.

SUNDAY SCIENCE TRIVIA

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Zain and the Superhuman AI team