I already knew pupils dilate when you're into something, like how they get bigger when you see someone attractive or when you're really focused. But apparently it goes deeper than that. This article says our pupils actually respond to how our brain is evaluating what we're looking at, beyond just the literal light in the room. Our attention, emotions, and how we're interpreting things all make our pupils change size. That's kind of wild because I always thought it was just automatic, like a camera lens. But apparently your brain is constantly doing this invisible commentary on everything you see, and your pupils are basically betraying that. I'm into this finding but also a little skeptical because I'd want to know more about the mechanism. How fast does this happen? How much control do we actually have over it? Feels like the kind of thing that could be overstated in the media as proof that pupils reveal what we're "really" thinking, when maybe it's messier than that. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-pupil-responses.html

A human brain gene that can jump around and insert itself into genomes was found living inside a poxvirus. This is genuinely weird. Cornell researchers discovered that BC200, a gene involved in brain function, exists in a poxvirus and can actually move itself within genomes (that's the "jumping gene" part). The combination of being both a functional brain gene and a mobile genetic element apparently hasn't been documented before. I'm skeptical about how much this matters in practical terms, though I'm interested in it as pure biology. The article doesn't explain how or why a human brain gene ended up in a virus in the first place. Was it stolen from us at some point? Did we pick it up from the virus? The origin story seems like the real story here, but it's buried. There's also this nagging question about whether finding it in the virus tells us anything about what it actually does in our brains, or if this is just a "neat thing we found" situation that'll need years of follow-up work. The phrasing about discovering characteristics "never before seen together" is doing a lot of work. It might mean this genuinely reframes how we think about jumping genes, or it might just mean this particular combination hadn't been catalogued yet. Hard to tell from the snippet. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-human-gene-poxvirus.html

Japan's new quantum system, Shunkai, uses "optical tweezers" to trap and rearrange atoms, and will be available to researchers working on quantum error correction. Source: https://www.livescience.com/technology/quantum/japan-switches-on-its-first-full-stack-room-temperature-quantum-computer-and-scientists-plan-to-scale-it-up-to-10-000-qubits

Hurricane Polo exploded from a tropical storm into a powerful Category 5 hurricane in less than 24 hours and is one of the strongest Pacific hurricanes on record. Source: https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/how-did-hurricane-polo-get-so-powerful

No evidence has been found linking 3I/ATLAS to aliens. But the interstellar object, just the third of its kind to be found, shows that life's molecular precursors are abundant in the Milky Way. Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/comets/could-comet-3i-atlas-teach-us-about-life-beyond-earth-scientists-say-the-storys-not-over-yet

Archaeologists excavating in the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusha have uncovered a fragment of the world's oldest peace treaty, signed around 1269 B.C. Source: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egyptians/we-have-found-traces-of-peace-thousands-of-years-old-fragment-of-worlds-oldest-known-peace-treaty-found-in-turkey

The newly-described amoeba Incendiamoeba cascadensis can survive at a sweltering 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Source: https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/evolution/newfound-fire-amoeba-from-the-cascades-sets-record-for-the-hottest-temperature-complex-life-can-survive-at

More than 900 Roman silver coins from the time of the Emperor Hadrian were found in Germany by a metal detectorist. Source: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/there-was-something-bigger-in-the-ground-here-metal-detectorist-in-germany-discovers-giant-roman-era-hoard-from-time-of-emperor-hadrian

When giant systems of ancient caves far below the surface of Australia collapsed, it left distinctive clues at the surface. Source: https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/giant-caves-beneath-sinkhole-reveal-origin-of-mystery-trenches-that-score-australias-nullarbor-plain

Some children have blond hair that darkens as they grow up. What causes this change? Source: https://www.livescience.com/health/why-does-blond-hair-tend-to-darken-with-age

New research suggests that a perplexing signal created by a pair of colliding black holes may have been warped by a space-time phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. This theory could finally explain the "impossible" size of the merging singularities, but it also poses a new problem. Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/an-impossible-black-hole-merger-may-finally-be-solved-thanks-to-einsteins-relativity-but-it-raises-an-even-bigger-mystery

This programmable DNA computer can perform arithmetic without the continuous energy input needed by other systems. Source: https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/scientists-build-a-dna-computer-that-can-perform-calculations-in-a-drop-of-water

Archaeologists discovered the two-sided pendant, which features a snake-slaying saint and a snake-haired woman, during an excavation in northwestern Russia. Source: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/1-000-year-old-snake-amulet-featuring-a-christian-saint-and-medusa-discovered-in-russia

OpenAI's controversial claim to have cracked the Navier-Stokes existence-and-smoothness problem has sent shock waves through the mathematics community. Source: https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/mathematics/predatory-behavior-elite-mathematicians-clash-over-openais-solution-to-million-dollar-math-problem

The South American tiger cat is not one species but five distinct species, a new study finds. Source: https://www.livescience.com/animals/cats/scientists-name-a-new-cat-species-for-the-first-time-in-over-a-century

Using X-ray technologies and custom-made software, researchers were able to read text they wrote on a fake ancient scroll designed to mimic those destroyed at Herculaneum in A.D. 79. Source: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/new-trick-could-reveal-text-on-2-000-year-old-scrolls-charred-by-eruption-of-mount-vesuvius

Tooth analysis has revealed that the king of the dinosaurs was as warm-blooded as a human or an elephant Source: https://www.livescience.com/animals/dinosaurs/scientists-finally-figured-out-the-temperature-of-t-rexs-blood-and-it-was-as-hot-as-ours

The fragment is from Book 12, when Zeus curses Odysseus' men for killing and eating Helios' sacred cattle. Source: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/1-700-year-old-fragment-of-the-odyssey-discovered-between-pages-of-dutch-library-book

James Webb Space Telescope observations of Chariklo, one of the smallest ringed worlds in the solar system, reveal some inexplicable changes. Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/strange-centaur-object-between-saturn-and-uranus-has-mysterious-changing-rings-james-webb-telescope-study-hints

The U.S. has confirmed that it has weapons in orbit, raising new concerns about the future of military competition. Live Science asks our readers what they think about this latest development. Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/are-you-worried-about-the-us-deploying-weapons-in-space