Sunday Special: The "clearest sign of life" on Mars

Welcome back, Superhuman. The scientific community is abuzz this week after NASA’s Perseverance rover transmitted images of what could be the closest we've come to finding signs of ancient life on Mars. Meanwhile, Australia has green-lit a vaccine that could potentially offer a new lifeline to the country’s endangered koala population.

SCIENCE SUNDAY

The most interesting scientific discoveries and breakthroughs this week

1. NASA claims to have found "clearest sign of (ancient) life" on Mars: NASA's Perseverance rover has sent back pictures of a rock sample that contains potential 'biosignatures' — possible traces of ancient microbial life from billions of years ago. NASA claims that the sample, which contains distinctive spots that typically form when microbes consume organic matter as fuel, is the closest we've come to possibly finding signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. However, multiple non-biological explanations are still on the table. Here are the iconic photos that have the scientific community excited.

2. DNA tape can store every song ever recorded: Cassettes may be coming back (with a twist). Scientists have printed synthetic DNA molecules onto plastic tape, combining the information storage capabilities of DNA with a "cassette tape" inspired design. They claim the modified tape can hold about 36 petabytes of data — enough to store every single song ever recorded. Although a significant step towards long-term data storage, you can’t pop the tape into your old Walkman just yet, as "the formats are incompatible."

3. New study finally proves Stephen Hawking’s black hole theorem: Scientists have captured gravitational wave signals from two black holes that collided 1.3B light-years away, finally providing observational proof of Hawking's 1971 black hole area theorem — the idea that black holes can only grow, never shrink. With scientists now able to catch roughly one black hole merger every three days, the breakthrough potentially turns collisions into precision laboratories for testing the fundamental laws of physics.

4. Medical breakthrough could help scientists fix bone fractures on the spot: Scientists claim to have created a device that can 3D-print bone grafts directly onto fractures during surgery. The tool uses a special filament made from natural bone and biocompatible plastic that melts at just 140°F — cool enough to avoid tissue damage but hot enough to conform to bone breaks. This could potentially slash surgery times, eliminating weeks of prep work currently needed to custom-make bone implants.

PRESENTED BY ROCKET

Build powerful apps with a single prompt

Rocket is a full-stack vibe solutioning tool that turns your ideas into deployable web and mobile apps in minutes. Start with a natural language prompt or a Figma design and get a complete, production-ready app.

Unlike tools that stop at screens, Rocket delivers end-to-end product flow so you can focus on strategy and growth. Start building with 1M free tokens at no cost.

Key Highlights

• Smart templates and AI-assisted flows for rapid iteration.

• Integrates with GitHub, Supabase, Netlify, Stripe, OpenAI, and more.

• Clean, merge-ready code with full ownership.

See Rocket in action.

NEW TECH

Our favorite new tech gadgets this week

1. ZeroWheel: A motorized fitness wheel that covers everything from ab training to cardio. It adjusts to your effort, supporting beginners with assisted rolls or challenging athletes with added resistance.

2. Circular Ring 2: One of the world’s most advanced health-tracking, subscription-free smart rings. It tracks heart rhythm, HRV, SpO2, and 140+ biometrics with AI-driven insights and has a 7-day battery life.

3. SterilPure Ultrasonic Dishwasher: A portable ultrasonic dishwasher that turns any sink into a high-powered cleaning station. Using active oxygen cleaning and 37,000Hz vibrations, it can break down grease easily and sanitize dishes.

4. Enroad Nomadix Pro: A smart roof box for vehicle storage. It’s designed for tool-free installation and features a full-width tail light, a fingerprint lock, and a solar-powered battery for on-the-go charging.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in tech on socials this week

🛸 Strange Happenings: A newly released video by the US government has got social media talking. It appears to show a UFO-like object absorbing a missile shot by the US Hellfire, and instead of breaking apart, continues on its trajectory.

⚡️Flash Speeds: In 2011, MIT built a camera that could record at a trillion frames per second — fast enough to capture the motion of light itself. A video, showing the camera in action, has resurfaced and gone viral on Reddit.

🪜 Tripping Up: Why do we trip on some stairs and not on others? The answer to this relatively simple question has got Redditors talking.

🕰️ Back in the Day: A resurfaced photo shows the FBI’s fingerprint database in 1942. "No wonder they couldn’t solve any murders back then,” one Reddit user joked.

📸 Picture Perfect: Astronomer Bray Falls claims to have snapped a picture of a fireball meteorite next to a lunar eclipse, in what Redditors have dubbed a "once in a lifetime shot."

SPONSORED BY PACASO

You Won’t Find This Stock on CNBC

That’s by design. But the people who know? They’re buying stock in Pacaso. In fact, 10,000+ have already invested.

That includes some of the same big investors who backed companies like Uber and eBay before they IPO’d.

Join them by investing in Pacaso before this opportunity ends on 9/18.*

ONLY GOOD NEWS

A healthy dose of optimism to kickstart your week

Koala Cure: Australia has green-lit the world's first chlamydia vaccine for koalas after a decade-long battle to save the iconic marsupials from a devastating STD epidemic that's infecting up to 70% of some wild populations. The single-dose vaccine reportedly cuts disease mortality by at least 65% and prevents the painful infections that cause blindness, infertility, and death. Set to roll out as early as January 2026, the vaccine potentially offers a lifeline to a species facing extinction within a generation in some Australian states.

Spot Check: Scientists claim to have developed a non-invasive hair-based test that could potentially help us catch ALS early. Using just a single strand of hair, the test can distinguish ALS patients from healthy individuals by detecting significant disruptions in copper metabolism. This breakthrough offers the potential for earlier diagnosis—crucial for improving patient outcomes and quality of life—and could also speed up drug development for a disease urgently in need of better treatment options.

Precision Strike: Scientists claim to have developed a custom CRISPR gene-editing tool that successfully treats a rare childhood disease called MSMDS, which causes strokes, torn arteries, and death in young patients. The breakthrough therapy corrects a single genetic error while avoiding other unwanted DNA changes, reportedly extending survival fourfold in mouse models. With clinical trials already in the works, the precision approach could potentially help us treat other vascular diseases as well.

SUNDAY SCIENCE TRIVIA

The last uncontacted tribe on Earth

Don’t Cheat: You can watch rare footage of the tribe here or read more on the strange phenomenon here.

Your opinion matters!

You’re the reason our team spends hundreds of hours every week researching and writing this email. Please let us know what you thought of today’s email to help us create better emails for you.

Until next time,

Zain and the Superhuman AI team

*Disclaimer: This is a paid advertisement for Pacaso's Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving the ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the Nasdaq is subject to approvals.