I recently did a quarterly planning session with some of the MacSparky Labs members. I do that every quarter and find it really rewarding. It gives us a bit of a personal accountability circle. During the session, I started talking about the importance of quarterly review.

Now I know, reading this, you’re thinking that the new year is just around the corner. If you’re going to start thinking about planning and priorities, that seems like the ideal time to do it.

But think back to whatever you did this past January. Is it still on your mind? It likely isn’t, because January is a very poor boss of October.

I’m a big fan of quarterly planning. I think, as humans, we respond much better to a three-month plan than a year-long plan. It gives you a sense of renewal every three months, along with real, actionable feedback loops. Quarterly reviews give you a scheduled chance to make adjustments.

I’ve been working a lot lately on my health, but that isn’t a thing you can fix with one January resolution. In Q1, I was more focused on better eating habits and losing weight. In Q4, I’m thinking a lot more about how to gain more muscle and become more fit. Revisiting it quarterly lets me change the area of focus.

Annual planning gives your goals a lot of hiding places to disappear. Ninety days is much more concrete. You can pick a few things where you can actually move the needle and make progress.

I’ve got a lot more thoughts on this that I cover in the Productivity Field Guide, but here we are at the beginning of Q4. My advice to you is to start now. Don’t wait until January 1 to try to get serious about what’s important to you.

Figure out a few things today that you can do in the next 90 days and get to work.

The post Why Quarterly Reviews Matter More Than Annual Goals appeared first on MacSparky.

Future Vision

Letter from the Dean

Welcome to another academic year, filled with excitement for our scientific research program and fraught with the perils of an unpredictable funding landscape.

We are lucky at the School of Science to have partners who see the long-term vision that brought us—and the world— major scientific discoveries. We honored one such visionary, Marilyn Simons, with the school’s inaugural 1932 Award. Together with her husband, the late Jim Simons ’58, the Simons Foundation has helped us in innumerable ways.

Read more from Dean Nergis Mavalvala

The Latest

Myriam Heiman heads The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

Jesse Thaler leads the Laboratory for Nuclear Science

The Greatest

Marilyn Simons receives School of Science’s 1932 Award

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals creates fund honoring co-founder Phil Sharp

In the News

Astronomers find space sugar

Soft Serve with Scientists

Baby black holes

The post Science@MIT appeared first on MIT School of Science.

On May 11, 2026, the School of Science hosted the inaugural 1932 Award Dinner to honor Marilyn Simons and the late Jim Simons as philanthropists and as trusted partners of fundamental scientific researchers at MIT. The 1932 Award recognizes philanthropy that ignites new pathways of curiosity throughout the School of Science and celebrates its impact on basic science. Faculty, students, and friends of MIT gathered to commend Jim and Marilyn Simons and the Simons Foundation as visionary partners of the School of Science, who have advanced discovery across mathematics, neuroscience, and the physical sciences for three decades.

The Simons’s generosity reflects a deep and enduring partnership grounded in curiosity, collaboration, and a shared commitment to advancing fundamental science for the benefit of humanity. By recognizing their achievements with the 1932 Award, Dean Nergis Mavalvala and the School of Science community expressed gratitude to exceptional generosity that drives forward the scientific enterprise.

The post Marilyn Simons receives School of Science’s 1932 Award appeared first on MIT School of Science.

This week in stories we’re covering at The Debrief… Scientists say they have discovered an organism whose behavior mirrors the reproductive horror depicted in the “Alien” films. Elsewhere, physicists report that a recent levitation experiment could signal a breakthrough in the search for dark matter. Also, new genetic evidence of an ancient killer has surfaced in ancient medieval texts. And finally, a 15,000-year-old cave discovery in Ireland could push back evidence of the first humans on the island by 5,000 years.

Here’s a look at all the stories we’re tracking right now at The Debrief: 

• Biologists Were Wrong About the “American Cheetah” According to New Genetic Findings
  The extinct American cheetah wasn’t a true cheetah at all, say biologists in new research overturning scientific understanding of the big cat.
• Astronomers Detected Three Mysterious “Glitches” in a Pulsar That Had Gone Silent for Years
  Astronomers monitoring an unusual young neutron star report a stellar surprise after years of apparent silence.
• 4,000-Year-Old Tomb of Ancient Egyptian ‘Keeper of the Secrets’ Discovered at Saqqara
  Archaeologists at Saqqara uncover the 4,000-year-old tomb of Sekhentiu-Ptah, an official who guarded ancient royal secrets.
• Hidden in a Museum Collection for More Than a Century, Researchers Have Just Made a Bizarre New Discovery
  Researchers reveal several new species of a bizarre ocean creature that were uncovered after being hidden for decades in museum collections.
• No Longer Science Fiction, the U.S. Army is Moving a High-Energy Laser Weapon Into Production for the First Time
  The US Army has authorized its first contract for a directed energy weapons system, designed to take down threats with high-energy lasers.
• What If Consciousness Exists Beyond the Brain? Some Researchers Say This “Hard Problem” Requires a Radical New Approach
  Consciousness researchers are challenging academics to take a closer look at what philosophers call the “hard problem” of consciousness.
• Inside the Mind of a Billionaire Cheater: “At His Level of Wealth, Societal Ethics No Longer Register”
  A finance expert and Fortune 500 therapist peer into the potential motivations of billionaire cheater Steve Ballmer and his subordinates.
• What Caused Antarctica to Freeze Millions of Years Ago? New Clues Could Finally Solve This Longstanding Climate Mystery
  New clues to the formation of our planet’s oldest and largest ice sheet could help resolve a longstanding enigma about the southernmost continent.
• “We’ve Never Seen Anything Quite Like This”: A Strange Ten-Sided “Structure” Has Been Spotted on Saturn’s North Pole
  NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has glimpsed a ten-sided atmospheric wave at Saturn’s south pole, the first such jet pattern observed there.
• 1,500-Year-Old Structure Yields Previously Hidden Rooms, Ancient Paintings, and a Roman Era Channel to Nowhere
  Archaeologists have unearthed three previously hidden 1500-year-old rooms, ancient wall paintings, and a Roman-era water channel near Izmir.
• Wild Chimpanzees Keep Hurling Rocks at the Same Trees—Now Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out Why
  Scientists say chimpanzees repeatedly throwing stones at the same trees might indicate new evidence of previously undocumented “ritual” behavior.
• Did Ancient Campfires “Reprogram” the Human Brain with Flickering Light and Red Wavelengths?
  A new paper suggests that flickering, mostly red-wavelength firelight from campfires was able to reprogram the human brain for language.

This week in stories we’re tracking here at The Debrief: NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope was launched on Sunday, and experts think this could be one of its most important discoveries in the years ahead. Meanwhile, scientists have discovered a magnetic “clock” in ancient pottery that could help museums distinguish real artifacts from modern fakes. And elsewhere, scientists say it might be possible that aliens are lurking in the acidic clouds of Venus.

Ready to get caught up on more of the latest science news? Here’s a look at other stories we’re covering right now at The Debrief…

This week in stories we’re tracking at The Debrief… Commercial space company Rocket Lab just unveiled GHOST, a game-changing new launch capability that could enable payloads to be carried to orbit from virtually anywhere on Earth. Meanwhile, in a stunning event that unfolded in Greenland, European satellites managed to capture the dramatic moment an “ice island” the size of Manhattan was formed. Elsewhere, archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious inscription that could link recent excavations to a “lost city” known only from ancient Egyptian texts. Finally, in a Debrief exclusive, an Afghan woman provides personal on-the-ground commentary about life in Afghanistan in a poignant reflection written on the day of her country’s independence.

Meanwhile, here’s a look at other stories we’re covering right now at The Debrief:

• Scientists Just Found a New Way to Investigate How Extinct Giants Ended Up in Australia’s Underwater Caves
• Immune Cells Revealed to Have a Unique Sense of Touch in New Research That Could Rewrite How We Understand Autoimmune Problems
• Scientists Grew Human Brain Organoids for Years and Discovered They Keep Track of Time
• British Security Coordination and the Limits of Allied Persuasion: How Foreign Partners Can Shape Strategy Through Clandestine Action
• MIT Team Reverse-Engineers a Curious 2000-Year-Old Roman Technology to Create Modern Material That Heals Its Own Cracks
• Lost for 1800 Years, a Mysterious Altar Linked to an Ancient Roman Cult Resurfaces as Drought Drains Europe’s Rivers
• A New Discovery at Göbekli Tepe Could Reshape Our Understanding of One of the Ancient World’s Most Perplexing Sites
• The Massive Asteroid Apophis Will Pass Closer to Earth Than Some Satellites in 2029—Planetary Defense Researchers are Getting Ready
• Scientists Used Lasers and Citizen Scientists to Find a “Lost World” of Giant Trees
• Bumblebees Are Turning Up Dead on Sidewalks This Summer, and Heat Isn’t the Only Culprit
• Your Brain Has an Air Traffic Controller—Here’s How It Keeps Information Moving
• James Webb Space Telescope Discovery Reveals Hidden Stars Massively Expanding Early Galaxies
• Experiments Show Color-Enriched White Light Can Affect Whether a Room Feels Hot or Cold

This week in stories we’re covering at The Debrief: Scientists have a new plan that could help them detect alien life that may be too exotic to be spotted otherwise. Elsewhere, these new transparent OLED glasses use “gamma wave entrainment” to supercharge brain connectivity, and in Bulgaria, a mile-long ancient Roman megastructure has surfaced from beneath one of Europe’s most famous waterways.

Finally, here’s a look at all the top stories we’re covering right now at The Debrief:

This week in stories we’re covering at The Debrief… Recent NASA satellite imagery has revealed something odd about the color of Antarctica’s Danger Islands—and what that means for one of Earth’s most fragile ecosystems. Elsewhere, a 5,000-year-old Egyptian tomb discovery has revealed “sophisticated” knowledge that challenges past thinking on the origins of the pyramids. And lastly, scientists were recently very surprised when they learned what left these 1.4-million-year-old fossilized footprints on an ancient lakeshore.

Here are the top stories we’re covering right now:

This week in stories we’re tracking at The Debrief… in a New York laboratory, an “impossible” synthetic motion breakthrough is opening new paths toward faster-than-light speed research for extreme physics applications. Elsewhere, a new study suggests war elephants helped determine Hannibal’s route across the Alps—and survived it better than soldiers. Finally, archaeologists are investigating an unusual underwater discovery deep within Germany’s Lake Constance.

In addition to these trending stories, here’s a look at other stories we’re covering right now at The Debrief:

• “It Was a Mix of Excitement and Disbelief”: When Scientists Sent Deep-Sea Rovers to Confirm a 1960s Theory, They Made a Surprising Discovery
  Deep-sea images captured off the coast of Benin, where 1960s scientists suspected a dead coral reef existed, reveal a shocking discovery.
• Astronomers May Have Been Looking for Alien Megastructures Around the Wrong Stars
  A new study suggests astronomers may have been looking for alien structures known as Dyson spheres in the wrong places.
• “Forever Chemical” Breakthrough Rapidly Degrades Synthetic Substances Linked to Cancer and Other Health Problems
  The problem of PFAS, a group of potentially cancer-causing “forever chemicals,” may finally have a solution from German scientists.
• A New Solution to the Dinosaur-Killer Meteorite Mystery Creates Fresh Questions
  A new analysis of debris from a 66-million-year-old meteorite that scientists call the dinosaur-killer has revealed another origin mystery.
• Citizen Scientists Helped Reveal How Fatherhood Evolved in Spider Relatives
  A new study reveals harvestmen, or daddy longlegs, account for more than half of all paternal care cases documented among arthropods.
• NASA’s Psyche Mission Captures Crescents and Surface Details During Recent Martian Flyby
  New imagery released by NASA has revealed a growing “crescent” and surface details on Mars obtained by the agency’s Psyche spacecraft.
• China Clears Brain-Computer Interfaces for Commercial Use: Is It Time for a Global Coalition?
  Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) could fundamentally reshape what it means to be human. Is the formation of a global BCI coalition needed?
• Scientists May Have Finally Solved Earth’s Greatest Extinction Mystery
  A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that differences in physiology, metabolism, and oxygen use helped determine which marine animals survived the Great Dying catastrophe.
• “A Major Milestone in the Search for Life on Other Planets”: First Ever Detection of an Atmosphere Around an Earth-Like, Habitable Zone Rocky Exoplanet
  In a major boost to the search for life, Harvard astronomers have detected an atmosphere around a habitable-zone, Earth-like rocky exoplanet.
• “This Upper Limit is an Illusion”: NASA Study Warns There May Be “No Limit” to How Solar Storms Impact Earth 
  Our modern society depends heavily on communications and power networks that are highly susceptible to interference from solar storms.
• Astronomers Uncovered a Hidden Bubble Inside the Orion Nebula
  A key component of the Orion Nebula had evaded detection by astronomers until now, according to newly published research.
• Deep Beneath the Atlantic, an Eerie “Lost City” is Feeding Legions of Lifeforms That Thrive Where Sunlight Never Reaches
  Earth’s hidden plumbing system may be feeding one of its strangest ecosystems: the Lost City hydrothermal field in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Can You See It? This Stealth Drone Deploys a Human Perception “Hack” to Become Nearly Invisible to the Eye
  The “Phantom Twist” drone disappears from view in a major new robotics advancement, offering a close-to-invisible aerial platform.
• No Sample-Return Required? Scientists Demonstrate Extraterrestrial Biosignature Detection Method Using the Mars Rover’s Existing Instruments
  A new mineral-based biosignature detection method could identify signs of life on Mars using the Perseverance Rover’s existing tools.

This week in science and technology news we’re covering at The Debrief: For decades, physicists have argued about Richard Feynman’s Sprinkler Problem, involving the question of how a reverse sprinkler would operate. Now we may finally know the answer… elsewhere, new studies reveal how breathwork may trigger psychedelic-like states, emotional breakthroughs, and psychological insights without drugs. Meanwhile, a stone sphere unearthed at an archaeological site in Azerbaijan is reportedly unlike anything previously documented in the South Caucasus.

Also, in an exclusive feature, University of Toronto bioethicist KM Bowman, Ph.D., writes for The Debrief about his firsthand experience with uncontacted indigenous tribes: “Through the haze stood a man. Barely clothed, carrying what appeared to be a weapon of some form, he remained motionless for only a few seconds before silently disappearing back into the forest.” In his essay, Bowman shares his experience and asks whether governments can protect “the uncontacted.”

Finally, here’s a look at more stories The Debrief is tracking right now…

This week in stories we’re covering at The Debrief… Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft just completed its flyby of the mysterious asteroid Torifune over the weekend, in a celestial rendezvous that nearly coincided with the Chinese Tianwen-2 mission’s successful capturing of new images of Earth’s “quasi-moon”. Equally intriguing are the unusual “polygon” structures NASA’s Curiosity rover just spotted and photographed on the Martian surface; what are they, and what caused them? And finally, bringing things back down to Earth a bit, scientists have revealed new details about an odd “reversal” that occurred deep within the Earth’s molten core, and what new findings suggest that could mean.

In addition to these stories, here’s a look at more of the stories we’re following right now at The Debrief…

• Archaeologists Opened a Chinese Lord’s 2,600-Year-Old Tomb—and Discovered Dozens of “Deactivated” Metallic Artifacts
  Why were dozens of bronze artifacts discovered within an ancient Chinese tomb “deactivated” at the time of their placement?
• How Jellyfish Can ‘Miraculously’ Heal Without Scars Has Long Remained a Mystery—Scientists Now Know Their Secret
  Jellyfish can close a wound in real time, without stitches, scabs, or scars. Now scientists have unlocked the secrets of how they do it.
• The Brain’s Language System Is Far More Expansive Than Scientists Thought, New Study Finds
  New evidence suggests the brain’s language network is far more widespread than previously thought.
• Surprising Evidence of a ‘Lost’ Ancient City is Emerging from Beneath the Sands of Egypt’s Western Desert
  Archaeologists have found the remains of an ancient ‘lost’ city in Egypt’s western desert, Ministry of Antiquity officials have revealed.
• How Did a Crab Become Trapped in a Bottle with an Opening Too Small to Enter? Once-Baffled Scientists Say They’ve Solved the Mystery
  An oceanic mystery has unfolded with the discovery of a crab in a plastic bottle with an opening too small for the crustacean to fit through.
• A.I. Just Mapped a ‘Hidden’ Structure Inside One of the Most Complex Problems in Physics
  A single machine learning model just turned one of condensed matter physics’ most persistent problems into a navigable map.
• Hidden for More Than 1,000 Years, a Lost Maya City Has Been Uncovered Deep in the Mexican Jungle
  An international team of archaeologists reports the discovery of a previously unknown Maya city hidden beneath a millennium of jungle growth.
• Look: NASA Celebrates “America 250” This Independence Day With a Patriotic View of the Cosmos
  With the arrival of America’s 250th birthday this Independence Day weekend, NASA is marking the occasion with a patriotic-themed perspective on the cosmos.
• These Microbes Could Allow Plants to Grow in Impossibly Salty Soil
  Salty soil, one of the greatest threats to agriculture, may have a new cure in the form of soil bacteria that allows plants to thrive.
• A ‘Second Breakfast’ for Real-Life Hobbits? New Evidence Calls into Question Past Presumptions About Homo Floresiensis
  Homo floresiensis, a tiny ancient hominin, often compared to the hobbits of the Lord of the Rings, engaged in a sort of second breakfast.
• “We’ve Replicated in Chemistry What Only Used to be Possible in Biology”: Scientists Have Created the First Fully Synthetic Cell
  Researchers have developed the first entirely artificial cell, made completely from non-living chemical components.
• Hawking Radiation Breakthrough: These Black Hole Emissions Could Reveal Quantum Gravity
  New experiments are bringing into focus the mechanism behind Hawking radiation, demonstrating black holes are not strictly a one-way street.
• The Unconscious Brain May Be More Capable Than Scientists Realized
  While a patient is fully anesthetized and unresponsive, neurons in the hippocampus continue to process language, distinguish different types of words, and generate neural activity consistent with predicting upcoming words.
• America at 250: From the Battle for Independence, to the Fight Over Artificial Intelligence
  As America celebrates its 250th birthday, we look at technological revolutions that have shaped the country—and the AI revolution now poised to redefine its future.
• This Intriguing Exoplanet is Just 25 Light-Years from Earth—Is Its Too Dangerous to Be Home to Life?
  Researchers have discovered a potentially habitable exoplanet just 25 light-years from Earth—but is its precarious location on the cosmic shore too dangerous for extraterrestrial life?

This week in stories we’re covering at The Debrief, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World has been rediscovered and is now rising from its ancient resting place in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile on Mars, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) just spotted something in a hilly area of the Red Planet that you have to see; fortunately, the space agency has unveiled it all in stunning new images. And finally, this unusual object should have been “impossible” to create using Iron Age tools… so how did its ancient crafters make it?

Ready to dive deeper? Here’s a look at several of the top stories we’re covering right now at The Debrief…

Researchers at Binghamton University have applied a 70-year-old theory of information to the viral word game Wordle, revealing how a carefully chosen first guess can dramatically improve a player’s chances of solving the puzzle.

The post Scientists Use Math to Solve Viral Word Game ‘Wordle’ with 99% Success Rate appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Earth Oddities • Strange Weather Phenomena • Desert Ecosystems • Go back to Strange Sounds Death Valley is experiencing a rare superbloom, a spectacular desert event in which vast numbers of wildflowers suddenly bloom across the valley floor after rare rainfall. This is the best flowering desert phenomenon in the driest place in North America […]

The post Death Valley Superbloom Explained: Why the Desert Suddenly Explodes With Wildflowers appeared first on Strange Sounds.

Earth Oddities • Strange Weather Phenomena • Global Dust Transport • Go back to Strange Sounds A massive Saharan dust plume has drifted across parts of Europe, hazing alpine views and coloring sunsets across the continent. But the most surprising part of the story is how the dust gets into the sky in the first […]

The post Saharan Dust Cloud Over Europe: How Desert Thunderstorms Launch Millions of Tons of Dust Into the Atmosphere appeared first on Strange Sounds.

Volcano Hazards • Lahars • Rain + Ash = Mudflow • Go back to Strange Sounds Heavy rain on Mount Merapi triggered a “cold lava” flood — a lahar — surging downriver, killing people and dragging vehicles. When intense rainfall hits ash-covered slopes, loose volcanic debris turns into a fast-moving slurry that can carry boulders, […]

The post Mount Merapi “Cold Lava” Flood: What a Lahar Is and Why Rain Makes Volcano Slopes Deadly (Mar 2026) appeared first on Strange Sounds.

Earth Systems • Extreme Rainfall • Landslides & Mudflows • Go back to Strange Sounds Parts of Minas Gerais, Brazil, reportedly received about 21 inches (533 mm) of rain in roughly six hours. Landslides and flooding followed, with at least 64 reported deaths and thousands displaced. This deep dive explains why intense rainfall can trigger […]

The post Brazil Landslides After 21 Inches of Rain in 6 Hours: Minas Gerais Disaster Explained (Feb 2026) appeared first on Strange Sounds.

Go back to Strange Sounds · Discover more in the Newsletter Archive From sinkholes swallowing roads to the disappearance of the Aral Sea, volcanic unrest across the Ring of Fire, and light measured in billionths of a second — reality is not static. It is constantly shifting. A vehicle sinks into a sudden roadway collapse […]

The post Earth Systems Update: Sinkhole Collapse, Aral Sea Warning & Ring of Fire Activity (Feb 2026) appeared first on Strange Sounds.