How a series of miscalculations restarted Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen

Mostafa Salem, CNN
Sat, October 10, 2026


A pro-Saudi-backed Yemeni government fighter fires a vehicle-mounted weapon during what government forces say was an advance against the Iran-backed Houthis, near Dhubab, Taiz Governorate, Yemen, in this still image taken from video released on Monday. - Southern Giants Brigades/ReutersMore

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wanted to make his kingdom a magnet for investment, tourism and the world's biggest sporting events. Now drones and missiles launched from Yemen are slamming into Saudi cities, drawing the kingdom deeper into the regional turmoil he hoped to leave behind.

The civil war in Yemen erupted once again this summer and significantly intensified last month, breaking years of relative calm. Saudi Arabia has for 11 years tried to contain the conflict on its southern border through military force and diplomacy – first waging war with the Iran-allied Houthi group, then pursuing peace talks with them and restoring diplomatic talks with their backer, Iran.

Despite the efforts, a series of miscalculations has left Riyadh exposed to further conflict in Yemen, experts say. Saudi Arabia's ended its longstanding partnership with the UAE late last year over its backing of a rival force in Yemen, misjudged President Donald Trump's willingness to back it if it needed support, and struggled to organize disintegrated armed factions fighting the Houthis in Yemen.

Now, Riyadh is trying to regain its footing by supporting its Yemeni partners in yet another campaign against the Houthis, an operation named "Yemen's Dawn."

Prince Mohammed's ambitions to transform his kingdom have already faced several challenges since his rise to power more than a decade ago. Today, they're coming under further strain as multi-front attacks on oil infrastructure cut into exports, major projects are canceled, and the kingdom is pulled into a war with no clear way out.

At least three people, including a Saudi pilot, were killed this week after Houthi forces struck several airports in the kingdom, according to Saudi Arabia. Regional turmoil has forced the suspension of star-studded film festivals, award shows, and music concerts this year. Meanwhile, the kingdom's flagship financial conference, which is expected to draw high-profile business leaders at the end of October, is coming under pressure amid the strikes.

"They just needed the conflict to stay (as) far away from them as possible without the Houthis disrupting their transformation plans," Michael Ratney, the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told CNN. "Now they find themselves in the middle of it."

A hasty UAE exit

Damaged military vehicles, reportedly sent by the United Arab Emirates to support Southern Transitional Council (STC) separatist forces, following an air strike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in the port of Mukalla, southern Yemen, on December 30. - AFP/Getty Images

When Saudi warplanes struck a shipment of military vehicles sent to Yemen by the UAE last year, a decade-old alliance between two nations fighting Iran's influence in Yemen shattered, leaving the kingdom to contend with the crisis alone after Abu Dhabi withdrew its forces. The break with the UAE shocked the region. Saudi Arabia launched a rare media campaign against its neighbor, accusing it of fueling instability in Sudan and Yemen. Saudi commentators publicly cast the UAE as a younger sibling rebelling against a wiser one.

Saudi Arabia is the "head and body" on which regional stability rests, wrote prominent Saudi journalist Dawood Al-Shirian in January. "If (Saudi Arabia) stumbles, the entire system is disrupted and the Gulf scatters."

As Riyadh pressed for dominance in the Gulf, the ground shifted in Yemen. The four-year ceasefire with the Houthis was already fragile, and the rapid UAE withdrawal as demanded by Riyadh left thousands of fighters who had spent a decade under Abu Dhabi's command disoriented by Riyadh's strategy.

Fighters allied with the UAE say Abu Dhabi's departure left a power vacuum the Saudis didn't fill.

"There wasn't a proper transition when the Emiratis left," a southern Yemeni official, who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely to CNN, said. "It was frightening how different things became. The Emiratis' command and control was very efficient, and the Saudis did not replace this efficiency."

CNN reached out to the Saudi government for comment on whether the forces fighting the Houthis on the ground received enough support and whether there was a proper transition.

Lack of preparation

Protesters brandish billboards depicting the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, flags of Yemen and Iran, and weapons as they take part in a rally held to condemn the US-Israel attacks on Iran that killed Khamenei, in Sana'a, Yemen, on March 1. - Mohammed Hamoud/Getty ImagesMore

Eight weeks after the UAE withdrawal, the US and Israel launched a war on Iran, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The moves sparked a conflict that has plunged the region into unprecedented turmoil and placed Washington's allies, including Saudi Arabia, in Iran's crosshairs.

The timing was unfortunate for Saudi Arabia, several experts say. After contending with the UAE-backed separatist push in Yemen, the US and Israel triggered a regional war. And despite years of trying to stop the war from breaking out in Yemen, the pressure Trump imposed on Iran was expected to eventually trigger a Houthi push on the kingdom.

"The Saudis had to respond after being attacked by an enemy force on their territory… so there was always going to be a response," Ratney, the former US ambassador, said.

Even as Iranian missiles struck the kingdom from the east, Saudi attention focused on the south. The Houthis, still formally in a truce with Riyadh, appeared unwilling to aid their Iranian partners. Tehran instead drew the Saudis in.

In July, Iran sent a commercial plane to carry a Houthi delegation to Khamenei's funeral in Tehran, defying a Saudi air blockade of Yemen. Riyadh struck the Houthi-held airport in Sanaa to prevent the plane from landing. The rebel group retaliated by declaring the truce dead and announced a naval blockade on Saudi ships. It also started a lightning offensive down Yemen's coast, seizing strategic territory at the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the largest escalation since 2022.

A satellite image shows the Saudi Arabia East-West pipeline, located across the Arabian Peninsula, after a strike on September 11. - Vantor

The Houthis attacked Saudi oil facilities and pipelines, disrupting crude supplies and sending prices sharply higher. Saudi forces answered with hundreds of airstrikes.

"The Saudis have made several mistakes and failures," Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst for Yemen with the International Crisis Group think tank, told CNN, noting that Riyadh hadn't prepared for a Houthi offensive and lacked coordination with allied Yemeni forces it inherited from the UAE.

"The areas they've lost created morale issues with their allies and now it's a big challenge for the Saudis as the Houthis have more advanced weaponry which managed to reach several cities in Saudi Arabia," he said.

'Unpredictable' Trump

US President Donald J. Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attend a bilateral meeting at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh, on May 13, 2025. - Win McNamee/Getty Images/File

Another miscalculation by Saudi Arabia was its reliance on continued American support, experts say. Despite signing a new defense pact with Washington last year and being designated a Major Non-NATO Ally by the US, Riyadh has been disappointed by what it sees as waning US commitment to its security.

Prince Mohammed spoke twice with Trump last month, urging him to strike the Houthis, sources told CNN at the time, but Trump declined to intervene. Washington instead met the Houthis in Oman, seeking to protect its own ceasefire with the group, which made it clear that its war was with Saudi Arabia alone, thus allowing US vessels to traverse the Red Sea freely.

For a military that has built its "entire worldview" around partnering with the US, the Saudis are realizing how unpredictable Trump is, said Ratney.

"It was never their concept or the structure of their military to fight these wars by themselves," he said. "Under a normal US presidency, if something like this happens, we would've helped our partner in what would've been a rational and considered process.

"Now we don't have that process, and it ultimately comes down to: what does Trump think? And the Saudis probably feel exposed as a result," he added.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in Cairo, Egypt, on September 15. - Egyptian Presidency/Anadolu/Getty Images

Saudi Arabia has since looked elsewhere. Last month, Prince Mohammed flew to Egypt to meet President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, then invited UAE Vice President Sheik Mansour bin Zayed to Riyadh a few weeks later to discuss regional developments. France agreed to deploy defense assets, including military personnel. Britain said it would send an aircraft to help refuel Saudi jets. More than 100 American military advisers are on the ground providing intelligence and targeting support under a newly established joint forces command.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan agreed on Monday to "activate collective deterrence measures" under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement after an emergency meeting in Riyadh. The pact, set up earlier this year, is meant to coordinate defense and security cooperation among the three. Forces loyal to the UAE also appear to be taking part in the offensive, a sign of at least a partial thaw between the kingdom and the UAE.

A regional solution

Forces loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed government ride in pick-up trucks along a road in the Hays district, south of Hodeidah on September 5. - Khaled Ziad/AFP/Getty Images

But experts warn that outside support and early gains by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government will not settle the conflict. Infighting remains common among the factions, and there is still no clear political end state.

A sustained push against Iranian-backed forces, analysts say, would require organization, regional backing, funding, and logistics that the current coalition has not yet shown it can sustain.

"They need to unify their command centers, they need to resolve the issues they have between the various factions within the group," Hisham Al Omeisy, a senior Yemen adviser for the European Institute of Peace told CNN's Becky Anderson. "Territorial gains they've made would mean nothing if the (Saudi-backed) Yemeni government cannot maintain control over those areas."

Many experts said however that the fighting in Yemen is connected to the US war in Iran, and as long as the conflict between Washington and Tehran is ongoing, the Iranians will continue having a powerful incentive to watch the Houthis disrupt Saudi Arabia.

Gulf states could manage to secure a separate diplomatic solution with Iran, analysts say, or escalate their military strikes to eliminate Houthi leadership.

"Neither of those scenarios fix the conflict in Yemen in any near term," Ratney said. "The Saudis will have to just figure out an imperfect path ahead."

Hikers Spotted 3 Stranded ‘Dinosaur Fish’ In A Michigan River, And Rescuers Found 27

Ashley Driggs
Sun, October 11, 2026 
A-Z Animals.

On Aug. 23, hikers on the North Country Trail crossed Michigan's West Branch Ontonagon River, downstream of Victoria Dam, and noticed three large fish stuck in a shallow, cut-off pool. They called the Michigan DNR's Report All Poaching hotline. That one call set off three separate rescue missions, and by the time crews finished, they had pulled 27 lake sturgeon, fish so old-looking that people sometimes call them "dinosaur fish," out of water that was about to run dry.

Lake sturgeon first show up in the fossil record from 100 million to 150 million years ago, according to the Michigan DNR. This particular group was stuck in a part of the river that barely flows for much of the year, and the reason traces back to a dam.
How the Rescue Grew From Two Fish to 27

DNR fisheries technicians Kyle Urban and Jack Cole were first on scene and found two sturgeon in the pool the hikers had reported. They carried the fish nearly a mile over rough ground to reach flowing water, keeping the sturgeon's gills underwater in hiking bags the whole way.

A second mission, run with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Upper Peninsula Power Company, moved ten more fish. A third brought in extra staff and equipment, and crews found roughly two dozen more sturgeon swimming in a murky, disconnected pool nearby. In total, 27 fish were moved to safety, including one measuring 55 inches. None of the rescued sturgeon were older than 28, though the species can live well past 100.

Why Losing These Fish Would Have Hurt a Recovering Population

Lake sturgeon have been listed as a threatened species in Michigan since 1994, and the state has stocked young sturgeon in the Ontonagon River since 1998 to help rebuild the population there. They are also slow to reproduce: males typically need around 15 years to mature, and females need 20 to 25, according to Michigan Sea Grant.

Because the Ontonagon population is still recovering, the DNR said losing all 27 fish would have been "extremely detrimental." Every adult that survives to spawning age matters more in a population this small.

What Caused the Low Water, and What the State Is Changing

Victoria Dam is run by the Upper Peninsula Power Company, which operates under a federal license to generate hydroelectric power. Under that license, water is pulled from this stretch of the river and piped to a powerhouse downstream, rejoining the river later. That leaves the channel between the dam and the powerhouse with little or no flow for parts of the year, including the section where the sturgeon were trapped, according to the DNR.

As crews worked out how to reach the rest of the fish, the power company released extra water into the channel, within what its permit allows, to buy the remaining sturgeon more room to move. The DNR is now reviewing historical flow and temperature data and looking at extra surveys with its partners, aiming to catch stranded fish earlier next time.

"We can't be everywhere at once," said Cory Kovacs, manager of the DNR's Lake Superior unit. The agency credited the hikers directly: without that one report, the rescue would never have started.

 In India, rescuers find 2-headed wolf snake hatchling whose heads act independently

Marie Perez
Sun, October 11, 2026 


Photo Credit: iStock

A snake rescue in Gujarat revealed a wolf snake hatchling with two heads, four eyes, and one body — the first reported two-headed snake in the state.
Here's what to know

The New Indian Express reported that members of Prakruti Mitra Mandal recovered the non-venomous hatchling in Dhanpur taluka of Gujarat's Dahod district and later turned it over to the Forest Department. It was the fifth such report in India.

According to Kinnar Desai, convener and rescue team leader, the team took the animal to Dahod for observation before reaching out for expert identification.





"After observing the snake, we sent its photographs to experts for identification. It was found to be a wolf snake, which is non-venomous. It is around five to six inches long and appears to be newly born," Desai said, per the outlet.

Desai said such cases are thought to occur only about once in every million snakes. The condition is called bicephaly, an embryonic developmental abnormality in which the front section does not fully split, leaving a single body with two heads or mouths.
More background

Prakruti Mitra Mandal said four similar snakes had already been documented in other parts of India — two cobras and two common sand boas, locally called varudanti. Desai said the Dahod rescue was the third known case involving a wolf snake, according to The New Indian Express.

Even more unusual, the two heads seemed to operate independently. That could make ordinary survival tasks harder, including moving, catching prey, and feeding. Survival may still be possible if the oesophagus develops in a way that allows food to pass properly through the digestive system.

Ancient DNA identifies 146,000 year-old 'Dragon Man' as a Denisovan

Joseph Shavit
Updated Sun, October 11, 2026



Ancient DNA from tooth plaque and proteins from skull bone identify China's Dragon Man as Denisovan, revealing detailed anatomy. (CREDIT: The Brighter Side of News)

Ancient DNA and proteins identify China's nearly complete "Dragon Man" skull as Denisovan.

The fossil, at least 146,000 years old, connects molecular evidence with detailed Denisovan skull anatomy.

DNA came from hardened tooth plaque and proteins from skull bone; the lineage's formal species name remains unresolved.

A trace of hardened plaque on a single surviving molar helped solve the identity of one of Asia's most puzzling human fossils. The nearly complete Harbin skull, nicknamed "Dragon Man," belonged to a Denisovan, an extinct human lineage closely related to Neanderthals.

Two molecular studies published in 2025 supplied complementary evidence. A team led by Qiaomei Fu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology recovered mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus. A separate analysis recovered ancient proteins from skull bone.

The findings appeared in Cell00627-0) and Science. Together, they connect a richly preserved skull with a lineage previously represented mainly by fragmentary remains.

"This is a pin in the map we can use to say, 'This is what Denisovans looked like,'" said Carina Schlebusch, an evolutionary anthropologist at Uppsala University who was not involved in either study.

An ancient skull discovered near Harbin, China, reveals evidence of an extinct human lineage. (CREDIT: Hebei GEO University)

A recognizable skull with an uncertain identity

The Harbin cranium comes from Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China. Direct uranium-series dating established a minimum age of approximately 146,000 years, rather than an exact date for the individual's life.

Its preservation makes it especially valuable. The skull is nearly complete and undistorted, retaining features that small teeth or bone fragments cannot reveal together.

When researchers described it in 2021, its large size, thick brow ridges and heavy upper jaw attracted attention. Hebei GEO University researcher Ji Qiang and colleagues proposed a new species, Homo longi, with the name referring to "dragon."

Other researchers suspected a Denisovan connection because of the fossil's location, age and anatomy. However, comparisons of shape produced conflicting interpretations of its relationship to other ancient humans.

Some analyses grouped Harbin with the Denisovan-associated Xiahe jaw from the Tibetan Plateau. Others separated them, illustrating the difficulty of assigning fossils to populations using anatomy alone.

Denisovans were first recognized as a distinct lineage through genetic evidence in 2010. Connecting their molecular identity with informative skull anatomy remained a major gap in reconstructing human evolution across Asia.

Researchers recovered ancient DNA from dental plaque on a skeleton's only surviving molar. (CREDIT: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Hardened plaque succeeds where bone DNA fails

Fu's team initially searched for ancient DNA in samples from the skull's petrous bone and tooth material. Those attempts did not recover usable ancient human DNA

The researchers then turned to dental calculus, the mineralized plaque attached to the remaining molar. Its hardened structure can preserve biological material long after other sources become unusable.

A sample weighing just 0.3 milligrams yielded ancient mitochondrial DNA. That genetic material comes from the cell's energy-producing mitochondria and provides evidence about maternal ancestry.

Modern contamination complicated the analysis. Nearly four-fifths of the human genetic material extracted from the sample came from modern sources, making careful identification of the ancient component essential.

The surviving ancient sequences matched Denisovan mitochondrial DNA. Comparisons also linked Harbin to an early Denisovan lineage represented by individuals from Siberia. This was not a complete nuclear genome, which would offer a broader account of the individual's ancestry. The independent protein evidence therefore adds an important second line of support.

"We can finally clearly show it's Denisovan DNA, and it's related to early Denisovans," Fu said.

The result demonstrates why researchers sometimes need to examine unexpected parts of a fossil. It also shows that unsuccessful DNA recovery from dense bone does not necessarily exhaust a specimen's molecular evidence.

The Harbin cranium and geographic location of hominin specimens older than 100 ka where human DNA has been retrieved. (CREDIT: Qiaomei Fu et al, Cell)
Skull proteins provide an independent check

The protein study followed a different route, using two samples from the petrous bone. This distinction matters: its evidence did not come from the same plaque sample that yielded mitochondrial DNA.

The researchers identified 95 ancient proteins after separating likely contaminants from material belonging to the fossil. Chemical changes associated with degradation helped authenticate the ancient proteins.

Their analysis recovered 19,299 peptides, the smaller protein fragments used to reconstruct sequences. That provided substantially more protein information than earlier studies of several other ancient human specimens.

Because DNA directs protein production, differences in protein sequences can reveal inherited variation. Researchers compared Harbin's sequences with those associated with Denisovans, Neanderthals, modern humans and other apes.

One Denisovan-associated amino acid variant was supported with high confidence. Two additional variants offered potential support, although the paper treated those identifications as less reliable.

A broader analysis of protein sequences also placed Harbin with Denisovans. The grouping received 98% or 100% statistical support, depending on the comparison dataset, reinforcing the conclusion from mitochondrial DNA.

"Taking the two studies together, it's pretty clear this is a Denisovan individual," said Bence Viola, a University of Toronto paleoanthropologist who was not involved in either study.

Geographic locations and proteomic profiles for the Pleistocene hominin individuals with palaeoproteomic data. (CREDIT: Qiaomei Fu et al, Science)

A better reference for Asia's ancient humans

Harbin gives researchers an anatomical reference anchored by molecular identification. Its skull and tooth features can now guide comparisons with fossils from excavations and museum collections.

That could help assess specimens whose identities remain uncertain. However, resemblance to Harbin would be a reason for further investigation, rather than automatic proof of Denisovan ancestry.

Earlier molecular work had already connected fossils from Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and Taiwan with Denisovans. The Harbin findings add northeastern China to that evidence and strengthen the picture of a geographically widespread lineage.

The protein paper points to Denisovan populations occupying varied environments, including low-lying plains, high plateaus and subtropical woodlands. Establishing relationships among those populations will require additional molecular sampling.

A 2019 study attempted to reconstruct Denisovan anatomy from DNA methylation patterns, proposing features including a long face and wider pelvis. Such predictions addressed a sparse fossil record, but Harbin now offers direct cranial anatomy for comparison.

The skull does not reveal the complete Denisovan body or every population's appearance. It does provide a much fuller view of one individual than the fragments that previously dominated molecularly identified remains.

Proteomic profile of the Harbin cranium. Composition across the 95 proteins retrieved for the Harbin individual. "Plasma proteins" here refers to nonmatrisome plasma proteins. (CREDIT: Qiaomei Fu et al, Science)

The lineage is clearer than the species name

Identifying Harbin as Denisovan does not settle every taxonomic question. Researchers still debate how to classify Denisovans and Neanderthals, including whether to recognize separate species or categories within Homo sapiens.

Genetic evidence shows that Denisovans interbred with modern humans. That history complicates simple divisions, while leaving their identification as a distinct ancient lineage well supported.

The name Homo longi also depends on which other fossils ultimately prove to be Denisovan. If an older applicable species name already exists, taxonomic priority could affect the name used for the group.

"Until we know which specimens are Denisovans, we can't be sure which name is valid," Viola said. Harbin's molecular identity is now much clearer, while its formal classification remains open.

Dig deeper into Denisovan fossils and ancient molecules

These studies explore how genomes, proteins and anatomical predictions have expanded the evidence for Denisovans across Asia.

A High-Coverage Genome Sequence from an Archaic Denisovan Individual: This foundational genome study established a detailed genetic reference for Denisovans and investigated their contributions to living populations. (Science, 2012)

A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan Plateau: Ancient proteins identified the Xiahe jaw, connecting Denisovans with a fossil outside Siberia. (Nature, 2019)

Middle and Late Pleistocene Denisovan subsistence at Baishiya Karst Cave: Archaeological and protein analyses investigate Denisovan occupation and animal use on the Tibetan Plateau. (Nature, 2024)

A male Denisovan mandible from Pleistocene Taiwan: Protein evidence identifies the Penghu jaw as Denisovan, extending the lineage's confirmed fossil distribution. (Science, 2025)

Reconstructing Denisovan Anatomy Using DNA Methylation Maps: This study explores an indirect method for predicting Denisovan anatomical traits from reconstructed gene-regulation patterns. (Cell, 2019)

Research findings are available online in the journals Cell00627-0) and [Science]

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu9677

Scientists name ancient crocodile species found in rock that built the Great Sphinx

Taylor Nicioli, CNN
Tue, October 6, 2026 

A skull of a new prehistoric crocodile species recently identified by scientists. - Paul Burke

The croc family tree may be getting a new branch. Analyzing fossilized remains discovered in the same bedrock that built the Great Sphinx, paleontologists newly identified a crocodilian species that once roamed a shallow sea in what's now Egypt about 45 million years ago.

The Mokattam Formation in northern Egypt is a thick layer of limestone that has preserved prehistoric marine fossils, including fish, sharks and early whales. That same limestone outcrop also provided much of the raw material ancient Egyptians used to build some of their most famous monuments, including the Great Sphinx and the pyramids at Giza.

Now, scientists have identified the extinct crocodile species that lived millions of years before the Egyptians built the structures. Not only do the crocodile specimens share the same geologic foundation as the iconic landmarks, but one of the key fossils, a nearly complete skull, bears a striking resemblance to the Sphinx: The skull, first unearthed in the 1920s, is missing the tip of its snout similar to the Sphinx statue, which famously lost its nose. This coincidental trait inspired researchers to name the new genus Herugavialis after Heru, or Horus, the Egyptian god associated with the construction of the mythical creature.

The species discovery adds to scientists' understanding of the diversity and history of gharials, a group of crocodilians with a complicated evolutionary history, according to the authors of a study published Tuesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

"Herugavialis cairensis is one of the six species of gharials that we see in the Mediterranean across a 43 million year period, from 66-23 million years ago. Of course, there could be even more species that we just don't know about yet," said co-lead study author Paul Burke, a vertebrate paleontologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.

Only two gharial species exist today — found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia — but the lineage's fossil record spans the globe, with specimens uncovered in places including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, Egypt and Japan, Burke said in an email.

A glimpse of prehistoric Egypt

Gharials, or gavials, are characterized by their long, slender snouts. The two living species include the critically endangered Indian gharial, Gavialis gangeticus, and the endangered false gharial, Tomistoma schlegelii. The false gharial gets its moniker from its resemblance to the Indian gharial, despite being a different species.

A present-day gharial or fish-eating crocodile, newly hatched in captivity in Chennai. - Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images

The fossils analyzed in the new study, including the skull and five other specimens, were initially classified in 1927 as the previously named extinct species Tomistoma cairense based on their resemblance to the living false gharial. However, after performing evolutionary analyses to assess the relationships of extinct and living crocodilians, and computed tomography or CT scanning to peer inside the skull, the study authors found that the remains did not belong to the genus Tomistoma.

"It was already known and recognised as something distinct, but more detailed work was needed to resolve exactly what it represented," said co-lead study author Philip Mannion, a professor of paleobiology at the University College London.

Instead, the crocodilian's features represent a new genus, Herugavialis. Burke, who was reconstructing fossil gharials for his doctoral project, noted the subtle differences between the unidentified species and the false gharial, and started to work on an up-to-date description in December 2023.

Herugavialis had razor-sharp, pointed teeth "which, alongside their long, thin snout would have been adapted to capture fish," Burke said in an email. "The Mokattam Formation, where Herugavialis was recovered from, preserves several species of bony and cartilaginous fish fossils, which Herugavialis likely fed on."

The semiaquatic predator's eyes would have also protruded from the skull, similar to the Indian gharial, because the eye sockets were raised like a telescope, Burke added.

A top view of the Herugavialis skull. - Paul Burke

The Herugavialis skull may have not been discovered within the Great Sphinx itself, but the statue and the pyramids are known to be troves for both ancient Egyptian and prehistoric finds. Scientists have previously discovered hundreds of thousands of smaller fossilized organisms, such as bivalves and foraminifera — tiny creatures that lived in Egypt's past marine ecosystem — embedded within the grand monuments.

"It's probable that larger fossils are also present within the walls of these monuments and I think it's very likely that other fossils will continue to be found in this formation, especially of animals that like shallow marine environments," Mannion said in an email, adding that prehistoric turtles could be a potential example.

The vast fossil collection unearthed from the Mokkattam Formation reveal the rich ecosystem and the wide diversity of species that once lived in prehistoric Egypt, he said. Identifying Herugavialis from a nearly centuries-old fossil find also highlights the importance of reevaluating museum collections.

"There are other fossils in similar situations, but often this is just about time and resources, both for researchers and curators, rather than that no-one is aware of their existence," Mannion said.

Reclassifying the crocodile species "helps paint a better picture of what large predators were like in the region," said Alex Hastings, the Fitzpatrick Chair of Paleontology at the Science Museum of Minnesota in Saint Paul, who was not involved with the study.

"This expands the known variety of forms of these amazing long-snouted crocodylians across the Mediterranean in ancient times and gives us better understanding for how that would have influenced ecosystems during the greenhouse environment of the Eocene," Hastings said in an email, referring to the period from about 56 million to 34 million years ago when global temperatures were much warmer than today.

Herugavialis, like many other species, had initially been assigned to a living genus even though the croc was alive a long time ago, he noted. "Studies like this provide crucial data that allows us to realize the real diversity and evolutionary background of these creatures rather than lumping them into living systems."

Taylor Nicioli is a freelance journalist based in New York.

Shahar Nevo named as Bar-Ilan prof. accused of planning mass terror attack against Palestinians

SARAH BEN-NUN AND JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Wed, October 7, 2026 


Prof. Shahar Nevo. (photo credit: BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY/VIA SECTION 27A OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT)

Earlier in the week, it came out that the State Attorney's Office indicted a mathematics lecturer at Bar-Ilan University for allegedly planning a series of mass terrorist attacks.

Shahar Nevo, 59, was named on Wednesday as the mathematics professor at Bar Ilan University accused of plotting terror attacks against Palestinians and Arab-Israelis.

On Monday, the State Attorney's Office indicted Nevo for allegedly planning a series of mass terrorist attacks, motivated by nationalist ideology, against hundreds of Palestinians and Arab-Israelis.

Authorities did not immediately release his name because of a court-issued publication ban, which expired on Wednesday.

The goal of his plan, according to the indictment, was forced mass transfer. Nevo named his plan AY"T, a Hebrew acronym for "Am ya'aseh transfer," which translates as, "The people will carry out transfer."

Nevo's vision was to simultaneously activate terrorist cells in different locations across Israel, led by 72 individuals - including the defendant. They were to be divided into 12 cells of six people each and use a variety of weapons, including handguns, rifles, axes, and hammers.

The intended targets were mixed cities and Arab communities across the country.

Bar-Ilan University immediately suspended Nevo and, on Monday, said it "condemns in the strongest possible terms" and is "deeply appalled by the acts" attributed to Nevo. The university called on authorities to "pursue the matter to the fullest extent of the law, should the allegations be substantiated."

It added, "The University has, and will continue to have, zero tolerance for conduct of this nature - conduct that is fundamentally incompatible with the values we share as Jews, as Israelis, and as human beings, and that stands in clear opposition to the values" of the university.

According to the indictment, the plan was to instruct members of the public to join in "carrying out mass killings and rapidly seizing areas of friction, roads, entrances to and exits from Arab communities, mixed cities, and hospitals… Do not show mercy even to the women or their cruel and repulsive children; do not stop in the face of pleas; harden your hearts. Any pause will lead to an intolerable state of chaos, followed by the massacre of Jews."

The simultaneous mass terrorist attacks, amplified and publicized on social media in real time, were intended to cause all Arab citizens of Israel, including Bedouin, as well as Palestinians living in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, to flee or be permanently expelled to Jordan, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, according to the indictment.

He was charged in the Central District Court in Lod with preparing to commit an act of terrorism, extortion by threats, and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors asked the court to keep him in custody until the legal proceedings against him conclude. A hearing in the case has been scheduled for later this month.

'Careless use of AI is the real threat - not the ghost stories'

BBC
Megha Mohan - Gender and identity correspondent
Fri, October 9, 2026 



Meredith Whittaker believes science doesn't support the idea that AI will turn against humans [Alvaro Alvarez/ BBC]

Warning: This article contains strong language.

Meredith Whittaker has little patience for the AI doom that dominates headlines - she thinks warnings of AI turning on humanity is a fear "not anchored in science".

"The risk is very real," says the boss of the Signal Foundation, which runs the encrypted messaging app of the same name, "but it's not the shiny ghost stories the wild-eyed boys are talking about".

Instead, she believes the more immediate danger is the technology being used carelessly.

She cites an alleged incident, reported by CNN, in which a chatbot used by US intelligence invented information about a Chinese vessel carrying nuclear material, reportedly leading the US to prepare a military response.

"We almost went to war with China," she tells BBC Global Women.

"A system that produces faulty intelligence and almost gets us into a war with China should not be considered super-intelligent by any standards."

Signal has an estimated 40-70 million users - a drop in the ocean next to WhatsApp, which has billions.

But it is renowned for its tough stance on protecting users' privacy - it hides who is sending a message from its own servers, limiting the data available to outside observers or hackers.

Project Maven protest

Time magazine named Whittaker one of the most powerful people in AI. She moves through the rooms where its future is discussed, from Silicon Valley boardrooms to Downing Street, Davos and the Vatican.

She studied literature at university and joined Google in 2006 as an entry-level temp with no computer science degree.

In late 2017, she made her name when a colleague told her about Project Maven, a secret Google contract with the US Department of Defense to build AI for drone targeting.

She understood what it meant to "compress the kill chain": to shrink the time between a machine flagging a target and someone deciding to fire, reducing deliberation. With thousands of colleagues, she pushed back.

"This is going to launder bad intelligence and bad data," she remembers arguing publicly.

The following year Whittaker helped organise a walkout, in which some 20,000 staff protested against the company's handling of several issues, including what they felt was the rushed introduction of new technology. Google dropped the contract and Palantir picked it up.

Whittaker criticises venture capitalists' lack of support for startups led by women [Alvaro Alvarez/ BBC]

She draws a direct line from Maven to the US missile attack on a school in Iran this year, which she says relied on the system and on outdated intelligence that identified the school as a military target.

"This is exactly what we were warning about in 2017," she says.

In response, Palantir told Global Women there was "no evidence that Palantir's software was at fault in this terrible tragedy".

It added that "Palantir is not responsible for the underlying data nor identifying intelligence deficiencies". And earlier this year it's UK and Europe boss, Louis Mosley told the BBC that "there's always a human in the loop, so there is always a human that makes the ultimate decision".

The US military has yet to release the findings of its investigation into the Minab strike, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said it would "never target civilian targets".
'I have a backbone'

Governments, including the UK's, argue for more access to conversations on messaging apps. They say this is to protect women and children.

At London Tech Week 2026, then Prime Minister Keir Starmer said technology companies would be expected to detect and block nude images on children's devices, or face legislation.

Whittaker argues children would be able to circumvent any such measures, calling the government's approach "an unprecedented regime of communication and information controls".

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology told the BBC it is preparing legislation.

Would Signal leave any country, the UK included, that forced it to weaken its encryption?

"Yes! My God, I have a backbone," she says. "It doesn't change based on mood. It doesn't change based on consultants."

Faced with exposing people "who rely on us, sometimes in the context of life or death, to surveillance that could be weaponised against them", she says, "we would leave the market".

The app is fully or partially blocked in Russia, China and Iran.

Whittaker advises women in tech to stand up to bullies [Alvaro Alvarez/ BBC]

Rani Govender, Head of Child Safety Online at the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, told the BBC it hears from children who have been groomed and moved on to end-to-end encrypted platforms, where they are coerced into creating child sexual abuse material.

"Tech companies are responsible for the design choices they make, and they cannot ignore the risks those choices can create for children."

But Signal does have support from some women's groups, often those from the Global South who use the app themselves.

"In a time of state surveillance and cyber-attacks, Signal is a tool for survival," says Hera Hussain, founder of the gender abuse charity Chayn, which is active throughout South Asia.

"With any platform, it can be used by bad actors too, and we have to hold that truth too."
'What do we do about the kitchens?'

I put to Whittaker a case from Canada, where police officers shared racist and misogynistic messages in a Signal group which leaked only when one of them passed it on to the media.

A lawyer for one officer said the men believed Signal was as private and safe as their own home.

"If they had that conversation in the kitchen and their bro snitched, would it be: 'What are we doing about kitchens?'" she asks.

"It has to work for everyone or it works for no-one. This is the principle of fundamental rights. They apply even to assholes."

She points to a US woman jailed after Meta handed over messages showing she helped her daughter access abortion in a state where it had been criminalised.

Private communication, she says, protects people from many kinds of harm - "an abusive spouse, a misogynist law enforcement officer with access to a database, or an authoritarian government that doesn't think women should get educated".

What would she want to say to a woman who wants to enter the tech field but is intimidated by the gendered aspect of the profession?

"Do you love it?" she says.

"Do you sit down at a terminal and feel a rush of energy? Do you enjoy playing with and defining AI systems?"

Then she pauses and says: "Are you able to navigate interesting and gnarly environments where not everyone is going to be chill? Because there's nothing more dangerous than being a coward in front of a bully."

I ask her if these environments are full of bullies.

Her colleague says, "I think that's 2pm" - the time we agreed to end the interview.

Meredith smiles. "I'd say don't be a simp," she says, using a term for someone who shows extreme deference to authority figures.

"It's not going to help you. Don't laugh at the joke if you don't think it's funny."

Additional reporting by Katie Roberts

This is part of the Global Women series from the BBC World Service, sharing untold and important stories from around the globe

How a scientist used Britpop to reach Mars

BBC
Danny Fullbrook - Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire
Wed, October 7, 2026 


Colin Pillinger saw himself as the "front man" of the Beagle 2 mission [Getty Images]

A series of plaques has been unveiled across the UK to celebrate the country's first spacecraft to reach another planet.

Yet the mastermind behind Beagle 2 was never your typical rocket scientist.

With his mutton-chop sideburns, West Country accent and infectious enthusiasm, Professor Colin Pillinger persuaded politicians, pop stars and the public to support what had seemed impossible: a British mission to Mars.

For years the story of this maverick scientist was synonymous with ambitious British failure. So what changed to make it worthy of nationwide celebration?

What was Beagle 2?

Pillinger was born in Kingswood near Bristol and completed his degree at Swansea University.

He gained international recognition for his lunar research before moving to Cambridge University, where he analysed meteorites found in Antarctica that were believed to have come from Mars.

By the 1980s, he had become one of the founders of the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at The Open University in Milton Keynes.

It was here he conceived the idea of sending a lander, named Beagle 2 by his wife, to Mars, where it could study the red planet directly for signs of life.

Pillinger died believing that Beagle 2 had not safely landed on Mars [BBC]

Space exploration was dominated by international superpowers and agencies such as Nasa, which had the funding for such expensive work.

Britain had no dedicated space agency, so Pillinger proposed that Beagle 2 hitch a ride aboard Mars Express, a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft already scheduled to travel to the planet.

When the ride was approved in 1999, the ESA did not guarantee funding or wider support for the project.

Marslife

The scientist believed that capturing the public's imagination would help attract financial backing.

Pallab Ghosh, the BBC's science correspondent, recalled being sceptical when he was sent to meet a "bloke in Milton Keynes who is sending a spaceship to Mars".

Those doubts deepened when Pillinger placed a model of Beagle 2 on the lawn. According to Ghosh, it "did not look much like a spaceship".

On another occasion, Pillinger loaded a Beagle 2 replica into a supermarket trolley and wheeled it around The Open University's car park, demonstrating its compact size to cameras.

The footage was later ridiculed on Have I Got News for You, ensuring it reached an even wider audience.

While Pillinger worked as the face of the project, it was supported by a huge team of scientists and engineers from around the country [Getty Images]

Pillinger persuaded Britpop band Blur to compose a distinctive call-sign that Beagle 2 would transmit to Earth after landing.

Artist Damien Hirst created a spot painting to serve as a calibration target for the lander's onboard camera.

The project eventually won financial support from the UK government, academic institutions, industrial contractors and private sponsors.

Beagle 2 was reportedly built for about £50m; in comparison Nasa spent $25bn on the Apollo programme during the 1960s.
Ground control to Beagle 2

Mars Express launched on 2 June 2003 with Beagle 2 aboard; it was due to reach Mars on Christmas Day.

On Christmas Eve, excited scientists and celebrities gathered at The Open University's London headquarters.

Members of Blur drank mulled wine, singer Myleene Klass handed out jelly babies, and the crowd waited for Beagle 2 to confirm it had landed safely.

The signal never came.

Pillinger and his team believed it had descended too quickly after being caught out by Martian atmospheric conditions.

[Getty Images]

Official inquiries by the government and ESA criticised the project's finances and management structure.

Supporters argued the project had brought industries together behind a single planetary mission.

Pillinger, undeterred, proposed a successor, Beagle 3, which ESA rejected in 2004.

In his 2010 autobiography, My Life on Mars, he recalled a builder stopping him in The Open University car park to shake his hand.

He wrote: "There's nobody in the UK I didn't reach."
Beagle 2 found

Pillinger died in May 2014 after suffering a brain haemorrhage and falling into a coma.

Eight months later, high-resolution images captured by Nasa revealed something surprising.

Sitting in the red dust, just 5km from its intended landing site, was the largely intact Beagle 2.

The images confirmed that much of its landing sequence had worked. Its parachutes and cushioning airbags had deployed as planned.

However, its petal-like solar panels had failed to open fully, trapping the antenna and preventing Beagle 2 from communicating.

Nic Pillinger welcomed plaque to mark the work done on Beagle 2 [Nicola Haseler/BBC]

For his son Nic Pillinger, the discovery meant an achievement that had been "on ice for many years" could finally take its rightful place in history.

Reflecting on the fact that his father died without knowing the mission succeeded, Nick added: "My dad always spoke of himself as being the frontman to the band that was behind this.

"It wasn't just a one-man project. It was a huge number of people working across different institutions coming together to make it happen."


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More on this story

Planetary scientist Pillinger dies

NASA photo of Mars dawn reveals cliffs in unprecedented detail


Eric Lagatta,

 USA TODAY
Thu, October 8, 2026

If you thought sunrises on Earth were beautiful, wait until you see one on our planetary neighbor.

One of NASA's rovers recently captured a stunning sight of dawn on Mars with illuminated cliffs in the distance. The U.S. space agency has a fleet of spacecraft both on the ground and orbiting the red planet that have returned plenty of striking imagery.

But the new photo, courtesy of the iconic Curiosity rover, has now become the most detailed image of the Martian wind-carved cliffs ever captured, according to NASA.



Images from Mars spacecraft show red planet in stunning detail

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie on March 11, 2026, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond Jezero Crater. The photo was assembled from 61 individual images.

Perseverance, along with Curiosity, is one of two NASA rovers that have spent years exploring Mars' surface to uncover secrets about Earth's planetary neighbor and find evidence that Mars once harbored life.More

Here's a look at the Curiosity rover's photo of a dawn on Mars.

NASA rover captures stunning photo of Mars dawn

The captivating shapes of wind-carved crags called yardangs are revealed in this zoomed-in crop of a broader panorama captured by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Aug. 11, 2026. Scientists are eager to learn more about how the yardang layer formed.More

NASA's Curiosity rover used its Mastcam instrument to snap six photos Aug. 11 of Martian cliffs. Once beamed back to Earth, those images were stitched together into a panorama that NASA released Oct. 6.



"Unlike most of Curiosity's Mastcam images, this one was processed without white balancing, preserving the early morning appearance," NASA said in a statement.

The striking view of the distant cliffs as bright morning light illuminates its crags showcases in unprecedented detail features that mission scientists have waited years to see so close, the U.S. space agency added.

Photo unveils more features of Mount Sharp

The wind-carved rocket ridges seen on the horizon are features known as yardangs. In this case, the yardang layer extends about 10 miles across the northwestern reaches of Mount Sharp, according to NASA.

Curiosity, which has spent more than a decade climbing the 3-mile tall mountain, at the end of August reached a milestone of about 1 kilometer in elevation, NASA said – the highest any rover has ever reached on Mars.

As the rover draws closer to the yardangs, NASA said it expects to receive more stunning images from Curisosity that could help scientists determine how the cliffs were formed.
What is NASA's Curiosity rover?

NASA has two car-sized robots – Perseverance and Curiosity – that have spent years exploring the Martian surface for signs that the planet was once habitable.

While Perseverance hums along at a feature known as the Jezero crater, the Curiosity rover has been exploring about 2,300 miles East.

The Curiosity rover began its voyage to Mars in November 2011, landing in August 2012 in the Gale Crater on the boundary between Mars' cratered southern highlands and its smooth northern plains. While exploring the crater, believed to have formed 3.7 billion years ago, Curiosity has collected 42 powderized rock samples with the drill on the end of its robotic arm.

As the iconic rover climbs 3-mile-high Mount Sharp, it is searching for evidence that Mars was once hospitable to life. To that end, the rover has been behind a slew of recent discoveries, including observations of never-before-seen organic compounds.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com

IceCube is built on decades of research into tiny ‘ghost particles’ – but it was the first to find neutrinos coming from deep space

THE CONVERSATION
Doug Cowen, Penn State
Wed, October 7, 2026 


The IceCube Neutrino Observatory sits on tons of clear ice at the South Pole, allowing scientists to detect neutrino interactions. Cmichel67/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA


All visible matter in the universe – stars, planets, you, me – is made up of some combination of 12 fundamental particles. The lightest and most abundant of these are neutrinos. They are also the least visible. With every tick of the clock, more than 100 billion of these "little neutral ones" stealthily zip through you, with energies so low that they leave no trace of their passage.

Belgian physicist Francis Halzen received the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Oct. 6, 2026. Atila Altuntas/Anadolu via Getty Images

Neutrinos have uniquely small masses and the ability to penetrate just about anything, which make them a razor-sharp tool for physicists like me to study how fundamental particles interact with one another. For example, neutrinos may give researchers their best shot at learning why the universe is predominantly made of matter, rather than equal parts matter and antimatter.

Their unusual properties also make neutrinos fiendishly difficult to detect. Physicists have risen to meet this challenge by employing specialized materials at industrial scales. The 2026 Nobel Prize in physics went to physicist Francis Halzen for his work on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a detector located at the South Pole that is one of the longest-running experiments using massive amounts of material to try and catch a glimpse of these fleeting, tiny particles.

Scientists first proposed the existence of neutrinos in 1930, but it took another quarter-century for physicists to discover them. They did so using 10 tons of liquid placed near a nuclear reactor core. They detected the faint whisper of energetic neutrinos emerging from the process of nuclear fission as they collided with particles in the liquid. The first neutrino-related Nobel Prize was awarded in 1995 for this discovery.

Since then, researchers have won Nobel Prizes for discoveries using neutrinos created with particle accelerators, in cosmic-ray air showers in the Earth's atmosphere and in the core of the Sun. The 2026 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the detection of neutrinos created in astrophysical sources, far away from the solar system. Many of the neutrinos used in these discoveries traversed the entire Earth before being detected.
Neutrino oscillations

Neutrinos come in three types, dubbed electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino due to their close relationship with charged particles of the same names. For example, if a particle's decay products include an electron, they will often also include an electron neutrino.

Neutrinos are so light that scientists first assumed them to be massless. We now know that neutrinos of one type have been observed to change, or "oscillate," into another type: something that can only happen if neutrinos have a nonzero mass, even if it's just a tiny amount.

The Super-Kamiokande experiment, an enormous 110 million-pound (50-kiloton) vessel of ultrapure water buried under a mountain in Japan, discovered in 1998 that neutrinos produced in the atmosphere were oscillating. Scientists observed neutrinos changing their type as they sped through the Earth below the detector and – rarely – produced a signal by banging into a water molecule inside the detector.

The signature of an electron neutrino is a 4-inch (10-centimeter) blob of light, while the signature of a muon neutrino is a meters-long track of light. The experiment measured a nonuniform pattern that muon neutrinos could only produce if some of them were oscillating into electron or tau neutrinos as they passed through the Earth, between where they were born in the atmosphere to where they were detected by Super-Kamiokande.

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment discovered in 2002 that neutrinos produced in the Sun were also changing their type as they emerged from the solar core and traveled to Earth. Previous experiments measuring solar neutrinos were only able to see electron neutrinos, which are the only type produced in fusion reactions in the Sun's core.

This observatory, in Sudbury, Canada, used 1 kiloton (over 2 million pounds) of heavy water, which allowed it to see all neutrino types at once. Heavy water contains deuterium instead of hydrogen. And deuterium nuclei contain a neutron that can be liberated by a neutrino and then detected, regardless of the type of neutrino.

Together, Super-Kamiokande and Sudbury Neutrino Observatory solved a mystery that had preoccupied physicists for nearly three decades: Why weren't we seeing as many neutrinos from the Sun's fusion reactions as expected, given the Sun's luminosity? Was the Sun, and by extension many of the stars in the universe, doing something we did not understand?

The definitive answer provided by Super-Kamiokande and Sudbury was that it was the neutrinos themselves that had oscillated. The leaders of the two experiments were awarded a Nobel Prize for the discovery of neutrino oscillations in 2015.

A wide angle view of the inside of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory detector in Canada. 

SNO

The need for an even larger detector

Around the same time that researchers discovered neutrino oscillations, Francis Halzen and others conjectured that powerful astrophysical phenomena out in space, like active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, supernovas and binary neutron star mergers ought to produce very energetic neutrinos.

They knew that the high energies of these astrophysical neutrinos would make them more likely to interact with matter and easier to detect. However, they also realized that they would be much rarer. These neutrinos would be so energetic that to capture an appreciable number of them, and to contain the ones that were captured, the detector would have to be huge, even by neutrino detector standards. It would need a volume of about a quarter of a cubic mile (1 cubic kilometer), and something that big could not be built by hand.

To discover astrophysical neutrinos, they had to piggyback on Mother Nature.

Building IceCube

The experiment's medium had to be clear. That way, when a neutrino collided with a particle in the ice and produced both charged particles and light, that light could be detected hundreds of yards away. The team determined that the deep ice found at the South Pole was sufficiently clear and would allow for a sparse – and affordable – sensor array. The scientists built a prototype detector called AMANDA. Once operational, it soon registered a pattern of light produced by a charged particle moving upward in the detector.

They knew this pattern could only have come from a neutrino created in the Northern Hemisphere that burrowed through most of the Earth. It must have ended its journey by colliding with an atom in the ice near the bottom of the AMANDA detector, producing the upward-going particle.

IceCube's digital sensors wait to be deployed into the Antarctic ice. 

Jim Haugen, IceCube/NSF

Now that they'd demonstrated the South Pole ice cap's viability for neutrino detection, Francis Halzen and his colleagues embarked on a campaign to build a detector at the cubic kilometer scale, encompassing a gigaton of pristine glacial ice. The result was IceCube, which has about 5,000 optical sensors sunk more than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) under the surface of the ice cap.

It took seven years to build IceCube, with construction limited to a few months per year during the Southern Hemisphere's summer. Then in 2013, a few years after it was turned on, IceCube discovered neutrinos of such high energy that they had to be astrophysical in origin. Researchers were unable to pinpoint what produced them, though.

Sending one of IceCube's sensor modules into the array where it can start taking data. Mark Krasberg, IceCube/NSF

A few years later, IceCube saw an energetic neutrino at the same time as a NASA space telescope spotted an energetic gamma ray coming from the same place as the neutrino. Together, these two observations confirmed the origin of an astrophysical neutrino.

As the IceCube scientists learned more about the detector, and developed more sophisticated analysis techniques, they discovered neutrinos emitted by the center of our galaxy, as well as neutrinos emitted by several other astrophysical sources.

As a neutrino travels through the detector, it collides with particles in the ice and releases light, which IceCube's detectors pick up to trace its path.

IceCube scientists also discovered the first astrophysical tau neutrinos by detecting their unique "double cascade" signature. They are also using the detector to make precise measurements of how neutrinos oscillate and to search for new types of neutrinos.

New neutrino telescopes will soon join IceCube's ranks, like KM3NeT, under construction in the Mediterranean, and P-ONE, under development in the Canadian Pacific. IceCube will propose an expansion to IceCube-Gen2. These developments make it highly likely that exciting new discoveries are just around the corner.

Almost 70 years ago, neutrinos announced their presence with the quietest of whispers. Now, to paraphrase the singer Tom Waits, they're "making speeches," and physicists are hanging onto every word.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Doug Cowen, Penn State

Read more:

I'm a physicist who worked on the Nobel‑winning neutrino search – here's how a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice became a telescope for ghost particles from space


IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects


How neutrinos, which barely exist, just ran off with another Nobel Prize

Doug Cowen receives funding from the National Science Foundation.