Science: Automatic, across-the-board budget cutsâmdash;called sequestrationâmdash;will take place in 2013 unless the US Congress manages to agree on how to reduce the federal debt over the next decade. Government science funding programsâmdash;including the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NSFâmdash;could see their budgets cut by as much as 8.2%. Sequestration, which most administration officials agree is a drastic measure, was never intended to be implemented; it was merely the result of a political deal in 2011 to enable Congress to raise the government’s debt ceiling.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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