Trending Topics: Who are top 6 teams in Western Conference & why?  NBA

Holographic Nails Are Trending—Here's Every Way to Create the Look at Home  instyle.com

Why NASA satellite crashes is trending  CNN

Rutgers trending for class of 2027 Florida OL Sean Hassan following campus visit  247Sports

Trending tickers: Adobe, Ulta Beauty, Rubrik, Berkeley and BP  Yahoo Finance UK

1. Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine  MacRumors
2. PC makers are not ready for the MacBook Neo  The Verge
3. MacBook Neo Teardown Reveals It's the Most Repairable Apple Laptop in Ages  CNET
4. Keyboard Much Easier to Replace on MacBook Neo Than Apple's Other Laptops  PCMag
5. Apple's $599 MacBook Neo is a 'shock to the entire market'—and PC makers are 'taking it very seriously'  Fortune

1. iPhone Fold’s crease-free display is about to hit major milestone, per leaker  9to5Mac
2. Apple’s Foldable iPhone to Feature iPad-Like Interface When Opened  Bloomberg.com
3. 10+ New Features Coming in iOS 27  MacRumors
4. Apple Stays Competitive On New iPhone Fold Price  Forbes
5. Apple’s folding iPhone ‘Ultra’ could cost under $2,000  Macworld

1. FBI Investigating Malware On Steam After A Bunch Of Indie Games Were Revealed To Be Hiding Malicious Files  Kotaku
2. The FBI is investigating malware hidden inside games hosted on Steam  TechCrunch
3. FBI Investigating Steam Games for Malware – Players Asked to Check Their Libraries  VICE
4. FBI Launches Investigation Into Games Removed From Steam Over Malware Concerns  GameSpot
5. FBI launches investigation of Steam games suspected of crypto scams  Polygon.com

1. Apple Grand Central retail store closed due to special activity [U]  9to5Mac
2. Grand Central Terminal hosts Alicia Keys concert to celebrate Apple's 50th anniversary  ABC7 New York
3. Apple Opens 50th Anniversary Festivities in Grand Central Terminal  CNET
4. Surprise Alicia Keys concert turns Grand Central Apple Store into a piano stage  AppleInsider
5. Apple Grand Central Store Closed for Special Activity  The Mac Observer

1. Samsung lists apps that work directly via satellite on Galaxy phones  SamMobile
2. Samsung phones now list apps that support satellite connectivity  PhoneArena
3. Samsung phones can now tell you which apps work beyond cell towers and Wi-Fi  Android Authority
4. Samsung confirms WhatsApp, X, other apps work over satellite on Galaxy phones with no mobile signal  Notebookcheck
5. Samsung Galaxy S25 Satellite Feature: Why It's Hidden  Gadget Hacks

The Daily Minor Planet citizen science project is expanding! In addition to data received nightly from the Catalina Sky Survey’s Mt. Lemmon telescope in Arizona, the project’s science team is now processing images from the Bok 2.3-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The Bok is a mighty telescope run by the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory that is used to survey for new near-Earth objects (NEOs) – asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit.

Data from the Bok telescope peers deeper than the data from the Mt. Lemmon telescope–it reveals objects roughly two to three times as faint. Software often struggles with such faint objects, but humans shine at pattern recognition in this kind of data, making your contributions to this search more valuable than ever. 

Another important feature of the new data is that it mostly comes from the ecliptic, the band of sky where asteroids and comets preferentially travel. The project team expects this deeper, ecliptic-focused coverage to substantially increase the number of main-belt asteroids they can recover and confirm and bring fresh waves of near-Earth asteroid candidates. 

Keep an eye out for new Bok subject sets as they are added. They’ll be a little more challenging and a lot more rewarding!

The Daily Minor Planet is a regularly updated citizen science project hosted by the Zooniverse using nightly data collected by the Catalina Sky Survey. Anyone with a laptop or smartphone can join.

NASA has selected eight student teams as finalists in the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition, giving them the resources to help address a critical challenge for U.S. aviation: maintenance. 

Challenges facing the commercial aviation industry include a shortage of qualified maintenance workers and increasing demands to keep complicated aircraft running for longer. With Gateways to Blue Skies, NASA taps into student innovation to address some of the biggest topics in aviation, and the current competition, RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance, is looking for solutions that can have immediate impact. 

“Through this competition, students will learn about aviation maintenance and be empowered to change its future,” said Steven Holz, associate project manager for NASA’s University Innovation Project and judging panel co-chair for Gateways to Blue Skies. “By grounding innovative ideas in real operational needs and presenting them to NASA and industry experts, these teams demonstrate the kind of critical thinking, collaboration, and forward-looking problem solving that will shape a safer, more efficient aviation industry in the near future.” 

This competition challenged teams of postsecondary students to conceptualize innovative systems and practices that could advance current commercial aircraft maintenance and repair operations. It addresses dual goals for NASA: supporting innovative research and also stimulating the potential aviation workforce of tomorrow. 

The goal for RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance is to generate concepts to improve efficiency, safety, and costs for the aviation maintenance industry by 2035. That timeline differs from many NASA research competitions focused on long-term future technologies; RepAir seeks to address the maintenance issues of today. 

NASA made its selections based on a review of participants’ proposals and accompanying videos summarizing the RepAir concepts. The eight finalist teams will receive a $9,000 prize and will advance to Phase 2 of the competition.  

Phase 2 includes a review of each team’s final paper, infographic, and presentation at the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Forum, held May 18 at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in May and livestreamed globally. Following the forum, members of the winning team who fulfill eligibility criteria will be offered the opportunity to intern with NASA Aeronautics.   

The 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition finalist projects represent an array of capabilities including robotic inspections, augmented reality smart glasses, and sensor and machine learning architectures: 

• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach with Cecil College Maryland 
  Advancing Aircraft Maintenance, Smart Mechanic Glasses 
• Manhattan University  
  Aircraft Enhanced Resilience and Intelligence Systems (A.E.R.I.S) 
• Michigan State University  
  Surface Evaluation Network for Tethered Inspection and Nondestructive Evaluation (SENTINEL) 
• South Dakota State University  
  Surveying Platform and Inspection Device for Enclosed Regions (S.P.I.D.E.R.) 
• South Dakota State University  
  WINGMAN, augmented reality data-logging and information-display system for improved efficiency in line maintenance inspections and reporting 

• South Dakota State University  
  Surface Preservation and Rust Killer (S.P.A.R.K.) Crawler 

• University of California, Irvine  
  Aircraft Structural Health Intelligence for Evaluation and Lifecycle Detection (Air SHIELD) 
• University of Maryland Eastern Shore 
  A Self-Supervised Learning Framework for Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) Fuel Control Unit Health Management in Aircraft known as APU Sentinel 

The Gateways to Blue Skies Challenge is led through the Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program in NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, manages the challenge through the National Institute of Aerospace on behalf of NASA. 

More on the Gateways to Blues Skies: RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance competition is available on the competition’s site. 

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, invites innovative companies, government agencies, and organizations to attend Partnership Days, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, April 15 and 16, at the center.

The event offers a unique opportunity to explore collaboration with NASA on cutting-edge research and development in areas such as aerospace, autonomy, sustainability, and more. Attendees will engage with NASA experts and learn how Armstrong’s capabilities can help accelerate innovation and bring transformative technologies to life.

Space is limited, and RSVP is required by Wednesday, March 25.

To register, scan the QR code on the event poster or email AFRC-CAL-330-Partnerships@mail.nasa.gov.

What: NASA Armstrong Partnership Days

When:  8 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, and 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, April 16, 2026

Where: NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California

Who: Industry leaders, government agencies, and organizations interested in research and development partnerships with NASA

For information about NASA Armstrong and other agency programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong

-end-

Dede Dinius
Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
661-276-5701
darin.l.dinius@nasa.gov

NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) assists in the use of crowdsourcing across the federal government. CoECI’s NASA Tournament Lab offers the contract capability to run external crowdsourced challenges on behalf of NASA and other agencies.

This three-phase challenge invites geophysicists, sensing specialists, nondestructive testing experts, and creative problem-solvers (including AI/ML practitioners) from any field to develop novel methods for detecting subsurface cracks in embankment dams.

Through this multi-phase challenge, teams will embark on a structured journey that moves from concept to development and ultimately to real-world demonstration. In Phase 1, teams will articulate and frame their solution approach and execution vision. During Phase 2, selected teams will detail and validate their designs. Finally, in Phase 3, the selected teams will demonstrate the most promising solutions in conditions that reflect real embankment dam environments. Each phase intentionally builds on the last, increasing in technical rigor and realism while maintaining focus on practical deployment and impact. Together, the phases are designed to support teams in transforming strong ideas into credible, implementable solutions that advance the state of embankment dam crack detection.

Award: $400,000 in total prizes across all three phases

Open date: March 12, 2026

Phase 1 submission deadline: April 30th, 2026

For more information, visit: https://www.herox.com/CrackTheCase

Biofilms are communities of microorganisms that stick to one another and also adhere to a nearby surface. They are intricately associated with life on Earth, enabling functions essential to human and plant systems.

NASA’s Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) Analysis Working Groups study biofilms and many other biological phenomena in an environment that’s important to NASA: the environment of deep space. It’s not well understood how well biofilms react to the many stresses of spaceflight.

Now, a new study, performed in part by NASA volunteers, describes how biofilms adapt to space environments, exploring how biofilms may benefit human and plant health in space.

The volunteers, led by Dr. Katherine Baxter (University of Glasgow) and Dr. Nicholas Brereton (University College Dublin), are part of the Microbes Analysis Working Group. Their findings reframe biofilms from infection risks to essential structures supporting human gut health, immunity, and plant nutrient uptake. The group’s work synthesizes how spaceflight stressors alter biofilm architecture and host interaction. 

Interested in collaborating with others to help terrestrial life thrive in space? You can join the OSDR-Analysis Working Groups and help plan the future of human space exploration.

Learn more about the AWGs.

Submit this form to join the OSDR AWGs

Digg laid off a significant number of staff and shut down its app, but says it's not giving up on the startup.

The data infrastructure startup raised $5.3 million in seed funding led by Wischoff Ventures and South Park Commons.

Facebook is making it easier for creators to report impersonators while tightening rules around reposts and other unoriginal content.

At SXSW, Steven Spielberg said AI has uses in many fields, but not when it comes to replacing creative people in film and TV writing.

The AI industry is constantly churning out news, like major acquisitions, indie developer successes, public outcry, and existentially dangerous contract negotiations.