There is a rock on Mars that has been crushed, cataloged, and examined more times than nearly any other sample in the annals of planetary science. Researchers continue to revisit it. That conveys a message. Drilled from an old mudstone bed inside Gale Crater, the sample, known as “Cumberland,” has quietly emerged as one of the most closely examined samples of material ever gathered outside of Earth. It also revealed something unexpected in early 2025: the longest chain organic molecules ever found on the Red Planet. Decane, undecane, and dodecane are hydrocarbons composed only of carbon and hydrogen. These kinds…
It begins to feel less like a museum and more like a prospectus in the…
Spotlight
The King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh doesn’t seem like the birthplace of international tech regulations. Footsteps are absorbed by the thick carpets. Besides the translation headsets are half-finished coffee cups. Attendees lean forward and pay close attention as presenters go over a topic that was previously thought to be solely Californian: the proper conduct of artificial intelligence. Silicon Valley is not the source of this conversation. In collaboration with the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority has started to develop an ethics charter that goes beyond governing AI in the…
On a Monday morning in early March 2026, the leadership team of the Chalhoub Group personally visited the Dubai Mall lobby to see how the employees who had consented to come in were doing. In Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, store attendance was made “voluntary”—a term that conveys a sense of the mood. The shops in Bahrain were just shut down. The vice president of communications for Chalhoub, which runs 900 stores in the area for companies ranging from Versace to Sephora, sent a cautious and measured message: employees who felt at ease came in. The others…
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