Sunday Special: The first new cat species in a century

Welcome back, Superhuman. It’s been more than 100 years since scientists formally added a new living species to the feline family. That streak appears to have ended this week, when researchers identified what looks like a miniature leopard in the cloud forests of Bolivia. In other news, scientists have discovered a major flaw in our understanding of the T. rex.

1. First new species of cat in over a century pops up in Bolivia: Deep in Bolivia's cloud forests lives the tilcayo, a wildcat smaller than a housecat but covered in leopard-like spots. Genetic testing has confirmed that it's a distinct species that split from its closest relative roughly 1.4M years ago, making it the first new cat species in over a century. The news has blown up on social media, renewing interest in a species that has evaded scientists for too long. You can see the “adorable” new species here. (44M views)

2. We may have gotten one major detail about the T. rex horribly wrong: A new geochemistry technique applied to the dinosaur’s fossilized teeth has pinned its body temperature at about 97 degrees, remarkably close to a human’s. This means that contrary to popular belief, the T. rex was warm-blooded rather than reptilian, possibly enabling it to lead a more active lifestyle and have a wider livable range, since it wouldn't have needed the sun to regulate its own heat.

3. Scientists engineer mice with part human brains: A Stanford team has transplanted human brain organoids into mice engineered to lack their own cortex, creating animals whose brains hold millions of living human neurons. Despite that, the mice behave and think like typical mice on every test run so far. The approach is already helping scientists study conditions like frontotemporal dementia, but its creators are now pushing for stronger ethical oversight before this research goes further in other animals.

4. The US just confirmed that it has weapons in orbit for the first time: In a surprising admission, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink has said that the US has deployed space-based weapons capable of defending American military assets in space. It's the first public acknowledgment of this kind after years of quiet preparation against similar moves by Russia and China. As satellites become critical infrastructure for everything from GPS to communications, outer space could possibly open up a new military front.

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2. Persona AI Band: An AI-powered wristband that can make calls, book appointments, and send messages for you.

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🚀 Skip The Stairs: Most university open days offer the usual campus tours, brochures, and presentations. The open day at China’s Zhejiang University was no different, until a professor strapped on a jetpack and blasted off into the sky (57k likes).

💸 $10K Tap: Creator Veritasium and tech YouTuber MKBHD may have just exposed a loophole hiding inside Apple Pay’s transit mode. A resurfaced video shows $10,000 leaving a locked iPhone without Face ID, a passcode, or even touching the screen, and Apple users are concerned.

🔬 Skin Scan: A viral new YC startup wants to turn your phone into a mini skincare lab. Its clip-on camera tracks oil, redness, texture, and pigmentation to surface emerging breakouts before they’re obvious to the eye (3.3M views).

🐟 Something’s Fishy: You’ll never see this camera coming. China just unveiled autonomous robotic fish that can swim and maneuver beneath the surface of the ocean while monitoring underwater environments.

🎮 Unlikely Alliance: A PlayStation 5 is about as far removed from 1949 television technology as you can get. So naturally, someone connected the two just to see what would happen, in a post that’s going massively viral on Reddit.

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Warm Words: In a clip that’s been viewed more than 16 million times, a trial participant with severe speech loss used Neuralink’s N1 implant to convert his thoughts into audible words, telling his wife “I love you” for the first time in years. The company’s VOICE system decodes neural activity associated with speaking and can reportedly recreate elements of a user’s pre-illness voice. The technology remains investigational, however, and has not received regulatory approval. See the wife’s wholesome reaction here.

Old Tools: Researchers led by CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna have identified a gene-editing system called VIPR that's over 4 billion years old, used by viruses to disable rival viruses competing for the same host cell. VIPR proteins are smaller than CRISPR's and may target a wider range of genetic sequences, which could make them easier to deliver into cells for real treatments. This potentially simplifies delivery and opening more of the genome to editing, though practical applications remain unproven.

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Until next time,

Zain, Faiq, and the Superhuman AI team