Science & Technology — August 24, 2026

Humanoid robots beat Bolt's sprint record. Chinese humanoid robots at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing ran the 100-meter dash faster than Usain Bolt's 9.58-second record set in 2009.

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Rescue mission for NASA telescope fails. The commercial LINK spacecraft, meant to boost NASA's aging Swift observatory into a safer orbit, failed after launch, dooming the telescope to an eventual fiery demise.

Smithsonian · Read more →

Personalized cancer vaccine notches late-stage win. Moderna and Merck's personalized mRNA vaccine produced positive final-stage trial results in skin cancer, the first late-stage success for the approach.

According to STAT News, the result validates a program that faced significant skepticism, with doubts centered on whether a vaccine tailored to each individual patient could succeed given the major logistical challenges of manufacturing personalized mRNA treatments. The outlet characterized the companies' investment as a gamble that appears to have paid off, marking the first time a personalized cancer vaccine of this kind has cleared a final-stage clinical trial.

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China delays Chang'e-7 moon mission to 2027. China called off the ice-hunting lunar south pole launch a day before flight, reportedly pushing it to 2027 and complicating its 2030 crewed-landing timeline.

Chinese officials said the mission "does not meet the conditions for launch," according to Ars Technica, which reported the postponement reflected a demand for "absolute success." The mission is a key step in China's plan to put astronauts on the lunar surface by 2030, and the two-year slip raises questions about whether that schedule can hold. The abrupt cancellation came just one day before the planned liftoff.

Ars Technica · Read more →