This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest phones, smartwatches, apps, and other gizmos that swear they’re going to change your life. Optimizer will be taking a break for the holidays and will be back January 9th. Opt in for Optimizer here. […]
Struggling to shake the dust? Here’s why December is the month of mental fatigue, reward systems and quietly losing momentum.
Elephant societies respond to death in ways that look uncannily similar to our own reactions. Here’s why it has researchers describing them as “compassionate.”
If there’s one thing Republicans and Democrats came together on in 2025 – at least at the local level – it was to stop big, energy-hungry data center projects. For communities sick of rising electricity bills and pollution from power plants, data centers have become an obvious target. Fights against new data centers surged this […]
Polling shows that nearly half of Americans now believe aliens have visited this planet—and that the number who aren’t sure has dropped by two-thirds. The reasons why, experts say, are complicated.
While online conspiracies swirl, comet 3I/ATLAS made a close pass by Earth on Dec. 19, giving astronomers a rare glimpse of a fascinating object as it leaves forever.
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft has observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, collecting rare data as the ancient object made its closest approach to Earth.
SpaceX says it has lost control of a Starlink satellite that’s now falling back to Earth after suffering an anomaly. The sudden loss of communications, drop in altitude, “venting of the propulsion tank,” and “release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects,” suggests the anomaly was some kind of explosion. SpaceX says […]
Jupiter and Sirius shine side by side in the southeast tonight, mimicking the mythical “Christmas Star” story. Here’s exactly when and where to look.
What is the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and why does it matter to you?