Health & Science

• Wednesday, September 2nd 2026 - 06:48 UTC

  Norway prepares to open The Whale Museum, 190 miles north of the Arctic Circle

  

  By Sarah Kula for the Smithsonian Magazine
  
  Called The Whale, the new venue is under construction in Andenes, a village on the northern tip of the island of Andøya, roughly 190 miles above the Arctic Circle. It’s scheduled to begin welcoming visitors on June 4, 2027, inviting guests to explore the majestic marine mammals through science, art, storytelling, sound and architecture.

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• Wednesday, August 19th 2026 - 21:47 UTC

  A personalized mRNA therapy passes a phase 3 melanoma trial for the first time

  

  Pharmaceutical companies Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Moderna announced on Wednesday that their individualized neoantigen therapy, intismeran autogene, met its endpoints in a phase 3 trial in melanoma patients. It is the first positive result at that stage for an mRNA-based cancer treatment.

• Wednesday, August 19th 2026 - 08:45 UTC

  Australia launches program to vaccinate colonies of little penguins against avian influenza

  

  According to ABC News Australia wildlife conservation agencies in the state of Victoria have launched a program to vaccinate little penguins against the H5 strain of avian influenza. Over the next few weeks, experts plan to capture and vaccinate more than 5,000 birds in colonies on Philip Island and St. Kilda.

• Wednesday, August 12th 2026 - 00:05 UTC

  Colombia asks for supplies but not foreign rescue personnel after the earthquake

  

  Colombia's government has requested international aid in the form of supplies for those affected by Monday's magnitude 7.4 earthquake, but has not called for foreign rescue teams, despite offers from at least six countries and multilateral bodies.

• Wednesday, August 5th 2026 - 21:44 UTC

  SpaceX rocket stage crashes into the Moon after 18 months adrift

  

  The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket struck the lunar surface on Wednesday near the Einstein crater, in an unplanned impact that NASA described as safe and posing no risk to Earth or to missions operating on the Moon.

• Monday, July 20th 2026 - 19:01 UTC

  Scientists begin first study of whisky matured in Antarctica

  

  A team of scientists has begun the first analysis of a whisky matured in Antarctica, aiming to determine what three years at temperatures as low as -35°C did to the spirit's maturation, chemistry and taste.

• Friday, July 17th 2026 - 22:25 UTC

  Venezuela raises official death toll from June double earthquake above 5,000

  

  The official death toll from the double earthquake that struck northern Venezuela on June 24 rose on Friday to 5,069, after 139 new fatalities were added, according to the president of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez. The tally, released via Telegram, keeps the number of injured at 16,740 and of people left homeless at 17,907. Authorities present these figures as provisional, more than three weeks after the disaster.

• Friday, July 10th 2026 - 18:51 UTC

  British Antarctic Survey confirms Antarctica's first dinosaur fossil, 40 years on

  

  A bone collected in Antarctica four decades ago has been identified as the first dinosaur fossil found on the continent, according to a study published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. It is a tail vertebra from a titanosaur, the group of long-necked sauropods that includes the largest land animals that ever lived.

• Friday, July 10th 2026 - 08:55 UTC

  PAHO warns Venezuela quake health emergency has entered critical phase

  

  The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Thursday that the health emergency stemming from the earthquakes that struck north-central Venezuela on June 24 has entered a critical stage and is “far from over,” with the focus on preventing disease outbreaks among the displaced population. According to the official toll cited by the organization, as of July 8 the quakes had left 3,811 people dead and 16,740 injured.

• Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 08:51 UTC

  Venezuela's quake toll passes 2,295 a week on, with tens of thousands still unaccounted for

  

  A week after the twin earthquake that struck north-central Venezuela, the official toll rose to at least 2,295 dead and 11,267 injured, according to National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who has been the main voice for the figures since the disaster. The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the country, Gianluca Rampolla, warned that the number “will keep growing” as rescue and debris-removal work advances.