Today’s Big Story

Extraterrestrial Life

Webb telescope detects a possible signature of life on a distant world

When things on this planet seem so messy, why not look elsewhere? I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that there’s life elsewhere in this great big universe of ours. And on Wednesday, a report was published that analyzed observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. It found a distant planet’s atmosphere had signs of molecules that on Earth are associated only with biological activity—a possible signal of life on what is suspected to be a watery world.

Pretty cool, right? Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy would agree. His team is the one behind the peer-reviewed report. “These are the first hints we are seeing of an alien world that is possibly inhabited,” he told reporters in a press briefing. “This is a revolutionary moment.”

NPR says it’s also a harbinger of future claims about possible signs of life beyond our solar system that should become increasingly common, as scientists take advantage of the James Webb Space Telescope’s unprecedented ability to probe distinct galaxies. How? Well, it’s so powerful that it can analyze the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere from the light that passes through from the small red Sun it orbits.

The planet, known as K2-18b, is two and a half times the size of Earth and is seven hundred trillion miles away from us. Earlier observations suggested that its atmosphere is consistent with the presence of a global ocean. The molecule purportedly detected is dimethyl sulfide (DMS). On Earth it is produced by the decay of marine phytoplankton and other microbes, and it has no other known source. The astronomers want to observe the planet further to strengthen the evidence that the molecule is present.

Professor Madhusudhan acknowledges that there is still a scientific mountain to climb if he is to answer one of the biggest questions in science. But he believes he and his team are on the right track. “Decades from now, we may look back at this point in time and recognize it was when the living universe came within reach,” he said. “This could be the tipping point, where suddenly the fundamental question of whether we're alone in the universe is one we're capable of answering.”

Trump vs. Harvard Gets Uglier

White House threatens university with foreign student ban and revoking tax-exempt status

Shortly after Harvard formally refused the White House’s demands for broad oversight of its admissions, hiring and culture over campus antisemitism concerns, the government announced a $2.26 billion freeze of Harvard’s grants and contracts. The university’s president called Trump’s actions “assertions of power, unmoored from the law.” And now President Donald Trump is turning up the heat by asking the IRS’s top attorney to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status, the Washington Post reports. It’s being seen by observers as a “significant escalation of the president’s feud with Ivy League institutions and other nonprofit groups his administration views as ‘woke’.”

Of course, tax-exempt status is available to charitable, religious and educational organizations, as well as social welfare groups. But the organizations must adhere to tax laws that prohibit them from engaging in certain political activity. There is no proof that Harvard has violated any of those guardrails, experts say. But that’s not all.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the Ivy League institution of “threatening national security” and “bending the knee to antisemitism” and threatened to strip Harvard of its ability to enroll international students if it doesn’t turn over records on international students’ “illegal and violent activities,” the agency said Wednesday. According to the BBC, international students make up more than 27% of Harvard's enrollment this year.

People Are Panic Buying Cars

Supplies are dwindling as people race to buy everything but Teslas

Are the tariffs coming? Are they not coming? We don’t really know yet. Which is why so many American consumers are panic buying—and it’s not just phones and electronics. According to research from Cox Automotive, the supply of new and used vehicles is starting to dwindle as consumers rush to secure a car before the price tag skyrockets.

The analysis shows that the supply of new vehicles on the market, calculated by using an estimated daily sales rate, crashed from 91 days in March to just 70 days this month. The supply of used vehicles was already lower than usual, with just 43 days worth available, but that has dipped to 39 days since the tariffs took effect. That aligns with Cox’s sales data, which shows that new vehicle purchases are 22% higher than the usual pace for this time of year, and total sales are up nearly 10% on a year-to-date basis. Used vehicle sales are just a little behind, still up 7% this year compared to 2024.

This development comes after we’ve seen dealers hiding overflow inventory in parking garages and private lots and that automakers have so many vehicles at factory storage areas that production has been cut or even periodically idled. While Trump backtracked on some of his tariffs, the ones on vehicles remain in place, and similar penalties will be applied to imported car parts starting in May. Experts believe this will ultimately end up harming the administration’s plan to ramp up American production since many of the parts and materials needed to make vehicles still come to the country from over a foreign border.

‘Fresh’ Shrimp Isn’t That Fresh

There’s a better way to buy shrimp

Everyone likes shrimp, right? Steamed in a cocktail, stir-fried, grilled or battered, it’s a great protein. But it’s also somewhat paradoxical. The Takeout calls it the “Schrödinger's cat of food”, if you will. Cooking it can be simultaneously easy and difficult, and prep times can be both short and long. To make matters worse, fresh grocery store shrimp might not be fresh at all. The trick to handling these contradictions is to, well, know the tricks.

And the biggest trick is that “fresh” shrimp behind the glass at the supermarket isn’t exactly fresh. Culinary experts are quick to point out that it’s typically previously frozen and thawed for display. This would mean that the only difference between the displayed shrimp and the bagged ones in the freezer is that the first group has already been thawed.

So if you’re going buy frozen, buying in bulk is always a smart move. Chowhound says that if you’re looking for the best frozen items to stock up on at Costco, Kirkland Signature farm-raised raw shrimp is sold tail-off, already peeled, deveined, and should have a place in your cart. They also recommend Kirkland’s wild raw Argentine red shrimp for it’s succulent, lobster-like taste.

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