Good morning. It's Tuesday, Sept. 29, and welcome to this week's Science & Technology newsletter. First time reading? Sign up here or forward to share with friends.
This Thursday marks the first anniversary of the loss of Jane Goodall, who passed away in her sleep while on a speaking tour in the US. To honor her and her work, we're starting this week's newsletter with a look at her life and global impact.
We're also breaking down radio signals from a distant planetary system, how gravity affects the human genome, the world's largest flower, and so much more.
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—Marco Daniel Machado, 1440 Science & Technology Section Editor
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Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was a primatologist and environmental activist, best known for her fieldwork with chimpanzees in Tanzania. By observing that chimps made and used tools, had personalities, developed social bonds, and exhibited other characteristics long considered exclusive to humans, Goodall reshaped the view that humanity was unique within the animal kingdom. Over more than six decades, Goodall increasingly championed wildlife protection, habitat restoration, animal welfare, and community-led, global conservation.
> Watch footage from Goodall's first expedition, including chimps using tools.
> Goodall's activism was aided by her storytelling ability, which she credited to her Welsh heritage.
Born in London in 1934, Goodall became interested in Africa and in living with animals after reading about Tarzan and Dr. Dolittle as a child. At 26, she was sent by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey to study primates in their natural habitats. Her groundbreaking work earned her international recognition and contributed to her doctorate from Cambridge, despite not having a bachelor's degree.
> Unable to attend college, Goodall turned to waitressing and secretarial duties to help her reach Africa.
> The three women tasked by Leakey to study primates were known as the Trimates.
> Goodall's ideal reading experience involves rereading a classic, high fantasy novel.
In 1986, Goodall shifted her focus from research to activism and policy, expanding the scope of the Jane Goodall Institute—founded in 1977—into a worldwide conservation organization. Since 1991, its Roots & Shoots program has empowered youth to enact positive change in their communities, while Goodall continued to travel nearly 300 days a year advocating for ecological stewardship. She died at 91, nine months after she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
> Despite criticism, Goodall repeatedly met with oil executives and other targets of animal welfare activists in the hope of sparking change.
> Roots & Shoots, which Goodall wanted to be her legacy, started after a dozen kids gathered at her porch.
Discover more:
> While recognized for her work with chimps, they were not Goodall's favorite animal.
> The story of the plush monkey Goodall carried with her starts with a blind magician.
> Watch Goodall's inspiring final message to the world.
Keep learning by exploring all our findings on Jane Goodall here. |
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1440 brings you the knowledge and context behind the week's stories:
OpenAI was hacked by an Anthropic tool within 72 hours, after ethical hackers were given access to the software to pursue a bug bounty. (More)
> What does it mean for someone to be an ethical hacker?
> Explore a list of bug bounty programs on the HackerOne cybersecurity platform, which paid out $81M to ethical hackers in 2025.
Astronomers detected radio signals from an exoplanet about 63 light-years away, but don't worry: They likely came from auroras, not aliens. (More)
> Besides radio waves, auroras have been reported to make crackling, popping, and rustling sounds.
> How does analyzing an exoplanet's atmosphere help find extraterrestrial life?
El Niño exceeded the highest daily sea surface temperature in a key Pacific region over 150 years of available records, months before its expected peak. (More)
> El Niño intensity is most accurately predicted by conditions in the "Niño 3.4" area.
> Current meteorological conditions are more extreme than the 1877 super El Niño that contributed to over 50 million deaths.
An AI hallucination almost triggered US military action against a Chinese ship in the Middle East this past spring. (More)
> Where do AI hallucinations come from?
> AI hallucinations may be made worse by a built-in feature of large language models called temperature. |
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Like all great researchers, we love spending time learning about the latest breakthroughs across science and technology. Here's what we found this week.
The human genome is minimally impacted by brief periods of microgravity.
New York University | James Devitt. To learn how gravity affects human cells, researchers built a microgravity simulator to replicate conditions in outer space and analyzed the cells' gene expression after 24 hours of exposure to the simulator. They observed that cell nuclei increased in volume in the absence of gravity, but that the cells' genomes maintained physiological organization and motility. (More)
> Microgravity studies can be conducted on Earth with random-positioning machines.
> Microgravity is known to contribute to loss of muscle mass and bone density.
Earth's magnetic field may affect cellular performance, energy, and lifespan.
University of Nottingham | Charlotte Wall. Fruit flies carrying a defect in a gene linked to inherited early-onset Parkinson's disease in humans lived 20% longer when shielded from Earth's magnetic field, while healthy flies showed improved movement. Researchers found identical changes in the magnetic environment produced different outcomes based on the health of an organism's mitochondria. (More)
> Organisms have been known to sense Earth's magnetic field for over 60 years.
> Where does Earth's magnetic field come from?
A quantum computer simulates the production of particles from pure energy.
Duke University | Andrew Tie. Quarks are bound together so strongly that the energy put into separating them turns into two new quarks before the originals can be isolated. This string-breaking effect was emulated using a chain of 13 trapped ions manipulated with lasers, highlighting the potential of quantum computers to investigate the formation of matter in conditions shortly after the Big Bang. (More)
> Learn how quantum computers work with this video explainer from 1440.
> Once called "aces," quarks were named after a line in a James Joyce novel.
Switching to silicon-based solar cells can cut satellite power costs by up to 90%.
University of Surrey | Staff. When scaled to match cells built from gallium, indium, and germanium, which have been the standard for spacecraft solar cells since 1977, silicon cells were also found to be several times cheaper in terms of beginning-of-life performance. However, triple-junction cells are about 2.6 times as resistant to radiation as silicon cells and retain their performance for longer. (More)
> Solar cells use antireflective coatings and rough surfaces to maximize absorption.
> Some spacecraft and landers have instead been powered by nuclear batteries. |
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