Far smaller and closer to the Sun than it should be, Mercury has long baffled astronomers because it defies much of what we know about planet formation. A new space mission arriving in 2026 might solve the mystery. At a cursory glance, Mercury might well be the Solar System's dullest planet. Its barren surface has few notable features, there is no evidence of water in its past and the planet's wispy atmosphere is tenuous at best. The likelihood of life being found amidst its scotched craters is non-existent. Yet, look closer and Mercury is a fascinating, improbable world that is shrouded in mystery. Planetary scientists remain flummoxed by the very existence of the closest planet to our Sun. This peculiar planet is tiny, 20 times less massive than Earth and barely wider than Australia. Yet Mercury is the second densest planet in our Solar System after Earth due to a large, metallic core that accounts for the majority of its mass. read more
For a certain class of book-reading American " the type with a taste for deeply reported stories about left-behind parts of the country " [Beth Macy], the woman running for [the Appalachia-based 6th Congressional District of Virginia], is something of a household name. An award-winning reporter for the Roanoke Times for 25 years, she's the author of five nonfiction books, including three of particular note: Factory Man, her critically acclaimed 2014 debut about globalization's ravaging of Virginia's furniture industry; Dopesick, a 2018 tome on America's opioid crisis that turned into a Hulu series; and the recently released Paper Girl, a memoir about her own hardscrabble childhood and the plight of her fading Ohio hometown. read more
Male Gen Z voters are breaking with President Donald Trump and the Republican party at large, recent polls show, less than a year after this same cohort defied convention and made a surprise shift right, helping Trump win the 2024 election. Taken with wider polling suggesting Democrats will lead in the midterms, the findings on young men spell serious trouble for the Republican Party in 2026. President Trump's approval rating stands at 32 percent among 18-to-29-year-olds, and young men preferred Democratic control of Congress by a 12 percent margin, according to the recently released Harvard Youth Poll, which was conducted last month. read more
Donald Trump has said a deal to end the war in Ukraine is "closer than ever" but has admitted that "thorny" questions over the future of the eastern Donbas region have yet to be resolved, after a two-hour meeting on Sunday with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida. read more
Many consumers feel pride in avoiding the glazed pastries in the supermarket and instead opting for "all natural" granola that comes packed with extra protein. Same goes for low-fat yogurts "made with real fruit," "organic" plant-based milks and bottled "superfood" smoothies. Buyer beware: Healthy grocery buzzwords like those often cover up an unhealthy amount of sugar. Added sugars are difficult to quickly spot because many companies use clever marketing to distract consumers, said Nicole Avena, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical School and Princeton University who has studied added sugars. Avena said while some health-forward brands know people are starting to become aware of the hazards of added sugars, "a lot of the bigger brands don't worry so much about people's health." Here's how to spot hidden sugars and what to do about it. read more
But will it have a moan-free poof?