Sunday Special: SpaceX gets some competition

The space race is heating up. SpaceX’s lead in reusable rocket technology may be waning as a bold new challenger rises out of China. Meanwhile, a solar storm could bring about a rare natural phenomenon to your night sky tonight.

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

Rocket Rush: Chinese startup Space Epoch just took on SpaceX by successfully testing their reusable Yanxingzhe-1 rocket booster, soft-landing it in the ocean. Even though the rocket did eventually sink, the test showed the booster's ability to perform variable thrust, shutdown, restart, and hover maneuvers — crucial steps toward fully reusable spaceflight. Space Epoch plans to reach orbit later this year, joining a growing field of Chinese private space companies competing with SpaceX's pioneering reusable rocket technology.

Blood Hack: In what’s being hailed as a “literal miracle,” Japanese scientists kicked off clinical trials for a kind of artificial blood that’s compatible with all blood types. The team made the product by encapsulating hemoglobin from expired donor blood in lipid shells. Free of blood type markers, these "hemoglobin vesicles" are universally compatible. If it scales, the innovation could potentially redefine worldwide transfusion medicine and save millions of lives in regions with severe blood shortages.

Bounce Not Bang: A group of scientists has proposed a radical alternative to the Big Bang theory — suggesting our universe emerged from a massive black hole in another "parent" universe. The model shows that instead of starting with a mysterious singularity, the universe may have begun when collapsing matter reached extreme density and then bounced outward. This could potentially offer a new explanation for cosmic inflation and dark energy without the complex concepts of exotic physics or additional dimensions.

Scrap Power: Engineers at MIT have found a way to turn your empty Coke can into clean car fuel. They’ve developed a groundbreaking method to crank out hydrogen fuel using just seawater and aluminum. This novel process emits nearly 90% less carbon dioxide than conventional fossil-fuel methods, making it comparable to other green hydrogen technologies. The team has already successfully gotten the technology to work with a water bottle-sized reactor that powered an electric bike for several hours.

PRESENTED BY IBM

Study: CEOs Must Shift Focus to Grow

Groundbreaking AI proofs-of-concept grab headlines, but may fail to deliver meaningful results.

A new IBM study reveals that while 68% of CEOs surveyed acknowledge AI’s transformative impact, only 25% of AI initiatives have met expected ROI. To turn the tide, CEOs can adopt five critical mindshifts to help turn turbulence into opportunity and drive sustainable growth.

Explore findings

NEW TECH

Our favorite new tech gadgets this week

1. Ultrahuman Home: A silent sensor that tracks your space for air quality, light, noise, humidity, and temperature. Then, it gives your room a real-time health score. You can sign up for early access here.

2. Effidry S3: A portable clothes dryer that claims to be the world’s fastest, completing cycles in 9 minutes flat. It’s packed with 7 versatile modes, including Baby Care, Silk, and UV.

3. Vital+ SaunaPod: A portable steam sauna for both indoor and outdoor use. It heats up fast, sets up in minutes, and features a 2000W steam chamber.

4. LG OLED T: LG just launched the OLED T, the world’s first transparent 4K TV. It uses a Zero Connect Box for wireless setups and leverages AI for enhanced image clarity.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in tech on socials this week

🕵️ Digital Dystopia: A phone smuggled out of North Korea has set the internet ablaze, revealing the digital surveillance citizens face. For example, it automatically snaps screenshots every 5 minutes and stores them in a hidden folder that only government officials can access. Watch it here.

🧑‍⚕️ Cyber Surgery: A video going viral on Reddit shows a surgeon performing a transcontinental remote prostate surgery. He guided robotic arms in Beijing while sitting at a console in Rome — more than 5,000 miles away.

⚡️ Beam Beast: A YouTuber built an insanely powerful handheld laser that can burn through wood, melt metals like zinc and titanium, and alter synthetic diamonds. “So you shouldn’t point that at airplanes then?” one commenter jokingly asked.

👁️ Eye Battle: Slowed-down footage pits the reaction time of a camera against that of the human eye when both are suddenly hit with over 12,000 lumens of bright light. You can watch here to see which one is faster.

📱 Digital Detox: A new study has found that blocking mobile internet access on smartphones for just 2 weeks significantly improves mental health, subjective well-being, and attention spans.

PRESENTED BY SECTION SCHOOL

Will AI take your job? Scott Galloway has answers – Free Event June 12

On June 12, Scott Galloway and Microsoft’s Chief Scientist, Jaime Teevan, are going to discuss the question on everyone’s minds: What does AI mean for the future of our careers?

They’ll address questions like:

• Are most of us going to lose our jobs to AI?

• How will AI challenge and change the nature of knowledge work?

• What will the role of humans be in 10-20 years?

• How do we avoid cognitively atrophying when we’re not doing the work ourselves?

There’s no charge to attend, but registration is required. Join us on June 12 from 12 - 1pm ET for this insight-filled event.

ONLY GOOD NEWS

A healthy dose of optimism to kickstart your week

Look Up: A geomagnetic storm may create a rare opportunity to see the Northern Lights across much of the US tonight — potentially visible as far south as Alabama to Northern California. Experts recommend finding dark locations away from city lights with unobstructed northern views between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. for the best view. With minimal moonlight to interfere, it’s the perfect chance to catch one of nature's most spectacular light shows. You can track the arrival of the auroras here.

Pain Break: The latest weapon against chronic pain isn't a pill — it’s a video game. Scientists have developed an interactive game that trains people to alter their brain waves as a treatment for nerve pain. Using an EEG headset to track brain activity in real-time, users learn to regulate abnormal brainwave patterns associated with chronic pain. This drug-free approach could revolutionize at-home pain management for people seeking alternatives to medication or with limited access to traditional treatments.

Liver Defense: UK scientists claim to have developed two promising drugs that can potentially stop and even reverse deadly liver fibrosis. They discovered that blocking HDAC6 — an enzyme that helps activate scar-tissue-producing cells in the liver — significantly reduces inflammation and cellular stress responses that drive fibrosis. If successful, this targeted approach could transform treatment for people affected by a silent condition that typically shows symptoms only after significant damage has occurred.

Ocean Oracle: Japanese scientists have created a plastic that completely dissolves in seawater within hours, leaving behind zero microplastic residue. This new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but still breaks down into components that natural bacteria can process when exposed to salt. With plastic pollution predicted to triple by 2040, the breakthrough potentially offers a solution to combat the 23-37 million metric tonnes of waste that would pollute our oceans and harm wildlife.

SUNDAY SCIENCE TRIVIA

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Until next time,

Zain and the Superhuman AI team