General

NASA says astronaut and engineer Christina Koch will become acting deputy chief engineer Nov. 1, succeeding Katherine Van Hooser, who is retiring.

Astral Codex Ten’s Open Thread 455 lists a Stanford meetup date change, a donation match for Legal Impact for Chickens and an AFFINE residency.

NASA has issued a final request for proposals for commercial low Earth orbit destinations, with submissions due Dec. 8 and awards expected in spring 2027.

An anonymous review of We Present Television, a 1940 collection, is a finalist in Astral Codex Ten’s 2026 book review contest.

A software engineer used AI to search historical records, identifying a forgotten meteorite report, three rhinos and possible unrecorded volcanic eruptions.

NASA will brief reporters Oct. 15 on its instruments, sampler and network support for Japan’s mission to study Mars’ moons and return a Phobos sample.

Researchers sequenced Jonathan’s genome and found variants linked to aging pathways, plus an unusually low-entropy mitochondrial methylome.

Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai share the 2026 chemistry Nobel for discoveries on autocatalysis and how chemical reactions can produce mirror-image excesses.

A Landsat 9 image from Sept. 27 shows tea-colored river water and sediment spreading across Rupert and Hannah bays in northern Canada.

Astral Codex Ten’s Open Thread 454 invites reader discussion and shares updates on meetups, Fatima documents, book reviews and AI safety.