Good morning. It's Wednesday, March 25, and we're covering Major League Baseball's robot umpire debut, a historic trek for a rare substance, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.7 million insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.
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The 2026 Major League Baseball season begins tonight with a special matchup between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants (8:05 pm ET, Netflix). Play continues with 11 games tomorrow and eight Friday. View the full schedule here.
After years of testing in the minor leagues and during spring training, MLB is introducing automated ball-strike challenges, or “robot umps,” to the major leagues. Batters, catchers, and pitchers can now contest ball and strike calls by plate umpires. Reviews will be conducted using a network of cameras positioned around the field perimeter (see how it works). When robot umps were used in the 2025 minor league season, just over 1% of pitches were challenged, with roughly half of those calls overturned.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, who face the Arizona Diamondbacks tomorrow, enter the season with a chance to become the first team to win three straight World Series titles since the Yankees (1998-2000). Explore every team’s 2026 playoff odds here. |
Honk If You Like Antimatter |
Scientists transported 92 antiprotons (w/photos) on a truck for the first time yesterday. The half-hour drive rehearses a process needed to move antimatter on an eight-hour drive from Geneva, Switzerland, to Düsseldorf, Germany.
Antimatter, including antiprotons, is the oppositely charged version of normal matter. It is extremely rare in the universe, and is produced at Geneva’s European Organization for Nuclear Research. (The facility can produce 400 million antiprotons per hour; go inside the factory, w/video.) If antimatter and matter come into contact, they annihilate each other. To avoid that, antiprotons were surrounded by a vacuumed box with magnets cooled to -452 degrees Fahrenheit. The trap allowed antiprotons to be suspended without touching the walls even in the event of an abrupt stop.
Researchers hope to move antimatter from CERN to Heinrich Heine University, which is opening an antimatter center as early as 2029. The move could help scientists continue their research without magnetic interference from CERN’s other projects. Scroll through the world of antimatter. |
Pinot noir grapes used today are genetically identical to those consumed about 600 years ago, according to findings released yesterday. The study sequenced the genomes of 54 grape seeds dating back roughly 4,000 years.
Researchers found a seed indistinguishable from modern pinot noir grape seeds in the toilet of a 15th-century hospital in northern France, around the time Joan of Arc was active during the Hundred Years' War. Researchers could not determine whether the grapes were eaten fresh or used to make wine. However, the study did find evidence of winegrowers using techniques like grafting to clone desirable grape varieties as early as the Iron Age, when the Greeks introduced wine to France.
Pinot noir grapes have earned the nickname "heartbreak grape" because their strong preference for cooler climates and thin skin make them difficult to cultivate. Some winemakers in Burgundy, the home of pinot noir, reported that warmer weather is changing the flavor profiles of their wines.
Listen to "1440 Explores" to learn why humans drink and how alcohol affects us. |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> Soccer fans lodge formal complaint with the European Commission against FIFA over high World Cup ticket prices, accuse international soccer body of holding a monopoly over sales (More) | How ticket prices have surged since 1994 (More) |
> "Bridgerton" confirms Season 5 is now in production, will be the Netflix series' first season centered on a queer love story (More) | "Harry Potter" TV series trailer expected to be released today, slated for 2027 HBO premiere (More) |
> Olympic skier Mikaela Shiffrin wins record-setting ninth World Cup slalom event; she is poised to clinch the overall World Cup title if she finishes top 15 in today's giant slalom event (More) |
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> OpenAI shuts down Sora video platform as part of shift toward building productivity tools, killing $1B licensing deal with Disney (More) | ... and OpenAI raises additional $10B, pushing its record-setting funding round over $120B (More) |
> NASA to build $20B base on moon's surface over the next seven years to support sustained lunar operations, repurposing components from a now-canceled space station originally intended for lunar orbit (More) |
> Snow flies survive in subfreezing temperatures by generating their own body heat like mammals and producing antifreeze proteins like arctic fish (More) |
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Everyone Laughed. You Smiled and Nodded. |
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> US stock markets close down (S&P 500 -0.4%, Dow -0.2%, Nasdaq -0.8%), oil prices rise as investors' optimism around Iran peace talks wanes (More) | European Union and Australia sign sweeping free-trade pact after eight years of negotiations (More) |
> Meta must pay $375M for violating New Mexico law in child exploitation case, jury finds; jury deliberations are underway in a separate Los Angeles case against Meta and Google's YouTube (More) |
> Epic Games lays off over 1,000 employees—roughly 20% of workforce—citing low Fortnite engagement (More) | Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins to deploy $3.5B into AI startups; the firm made early investments in Google and Amazon (More) |
📈 Buy now, pay later: Tomorrow morning's Business & Finance newsletter explores the financing mechanism that's experienced explosive growth over the past five years. Sign up here and join 290,000+ business enthusiasts! |
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> US military plans to send at least 1,000 troops to the Middle East as President Donald Trump claims Iran is eager to move peace talks forward, which Tehran refutes; Trump also claims negotiations are underway (More, w/live updates) |
> Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) appoints energy executive Alan Armstrong to temporarily fill outgoing Sen. Markwayne Mullin's Senate seat following Mullin's confirmation to lead the Department of Homeland Security (More) |
> Afghanistan frees US citizen Dennis Coyle after over one year in detention amid US pressure; no charges were publicly shared (More) |
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In partnership: Americans over 55 are ditching hearing aids for this new device.*
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Historybook: Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered (1655); Journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett dies (1931); Singer Aretha Franklin born (1942); Sir Elton John born (1947); Children's author Beverly Cleary dies (2021).
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