Tech
If the Webb telescope detects these molecules, they may point to life
Considering humans don't have a spacecraft capable of traveling to planets beyond the solar system, scientists have to get creative if they want to find clues of life existing light-years away.
Now a group of scientists is proposing a new way for astronomers to look for signs of aliens using the James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration of NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies: look for methyl halides.
These gases — composed of carbon, hydrogen, and a halogen, like chlorine — are mostly made by bacteria, algae, fungi, and plants. The chemicals are particularly intriguing as a potential sign of life because they can be detected in infrared light, which is Webb's viewing specialty.
Furthermore, scientists think the gases may show up in higher concentrations around worlds with hydrogen-thick atmospheres, a type of planet Webb scientists are hunting for. These worlds, thought to have seas, are called "Hycean," combining the words "hydrogen" and "ocean." They would be among a class of planets called sub-Neptunes: smaller than Neptune but larger than Earth.
Their larger size is what makes them easier targets to observe than small rocky worlds like Earth.
"One of the great benefits of looking for methyl halides is you could potentially find them in as few as 13 hours with James Webb. That is similar or lower, by a lot, to how much telescope time you’d need to find gases like oxygen or methane," said Michaela Leung, a planetary scientist at the University of California in Riverside, in a statement. "Less time with the telescope means it’s less expensive."
Credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi illustration
The paper, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, follows a controversial study in 2023, wherein another team used Webb to study the planet K2-18 b's atmosphere and found a tenuous, unconfirmed chemical signal for dimethyl sulfide gas. That molecule is produced by phytoplankton, or microalgae, in Earth's waters, and because it's believed the substance is only produced by living things, the previous team suggested it could be an indication of life.
The report created a lot of hubbub among habitable world experts. Skeptics criticized the weakness of the signal and other claims in the research, such as the belief that the planet is a water world with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. The team was convinced it was a Hycean world because Webb detected other molecules, such as methane and carbon dioxide, and no signs of ammonia, consistent with predictions for these planets.
Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Joseph Olmsted illustration
But one thing the debate emphasized was the need for more research on what kinds of gases Webb could be well-suited to detect, as well as which ones are good bets for biological activity. Oxygen, for example, might be impossible to detect, due to current technological constraints.
The new paper from the UC Riverside team posits Webb could detect one particular methyl halide, methyl chloride, on Hycean planets. The amount needed for detection is about 10 parts per million, which is similar to what is found in some areas on Earth. Computer simulations showed the telescope could detect it in as few as 14 observations.
Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration
Webb conducts atmosphere studies using a technique called transmission spectroscopy. When planets cross in front of their host stars, starlight is filtered through their air. Molecules within the atmosphere absorb certain light wavelengths, or colors, so by splitting the star’s light into its basic parts — a rainbow — astronomers can detect which light segments are missing to discern the molecular makeup of an atmosphere.
One thing to note about the theorized Hycean worlds: Although scientists are curious if microbes could exist on such planets, humans would not be able to breathe in that environment. Still, if astronomers began to find methyl halides in several exoplanets' atmospheres, it could mean microbial life isn't rare in the galaxy.
"That would reshape our understanding of life’s distribution and the processes that lead to the origins of life," Leung said.
It’s hard enough getting into the content creator space without the platform you’re on putting up restrictions. However, Instagram is now the latest social media app to institute such a restriction — forcing people to have at least 1,000 followers before they go live on the site. Previously, Instagram let anyone go live, regardless of account status.
The news first started circulating after smaller creators posted the notice on other social media channels.
The notice reads, "Your account is no longer eligible for Live. We changed the requirements to use this feature. Only public accounts with 1,000 followers or more will be able to create live videos."
Credit: Chance Townsend / Instagram screenshot
TechCrunch followed up with Instagram and confirmed that the social network giant made this change intentionally. As expected, small creators aren’t fans of the change, and it’s been mostly maligned across all of social media. Creators with private accounts won’t be able to go live at all, even if the account has over 1,000 followers. Instagram says the change was made to “improve the overall Live consumption experience.”
There are pros and cons to the decision, as TechCrunch notes. On the one hand, small creators will have an even harder time breaking out into the segment than they already do, as accumulating followers without buying them can be a long and painstaking process. By contrast, Instagram likely removed a lot of low-quality streams this way that only have a couple of viewers each, which makes it easier to find better live content while also saving Meta money.
This change brings Instagram more in line with TikTok’s live streaming rules. However, the number of followers you need on TikTok can vary, with plenty of people getting access long before they reach 1,000 subscribers. As of this writing, Facebook’s Help Center says that going live on Facebook only requires a 60-day-old account and at least 100 followers. YouTube still allows users to go live after just 50 followers, while Twitch remains the easiest to get started with a 0 follower limit.
Lovense is well-known for its selection of remote-controlled vibrators. It’s slightly less known for a massive security issue that exposed user emails and allowed accounts to be wholly taken over by a hacker without even needing a password. Fortunately, both issues have been fixed, but it didn’t happen without some drama.
As the story goes, security researcher BobDaHacker (with some help) accidentally found out that you could uncover a user’s email address pretty easily by muting someone in the app. From there, they were able to figure out that you could do this with any user account, effectively exposing every Lovense user’s email without much effort.
With the email in hand, it was then possible to generate a valid gtoken without a password, giving a hacker total access to a person’s Lovense account with no password necessary. The researchers told Lovense of the issue in late March and were told that fixes were incoming.
In June 2025, Lovense told the researchers that the fix would take 14 months to implement because it did not want to force legacy users to upgrade the app. Partial fixes were implemented over time, only partially fixing the problems. On July 28, the researchers posted an update showing that Lovense was still leaking emails and had exposed over 11 million user accounts.
"We could have easily harvested emails from any public username list," BobDaHacker said in a blog post. "This is especially bad for cam models who share their usernames publicly but obviously don't want their personal emails exposed."
It was around then that the news started making its way around the news cycle. Other researchers began reaching out to show that the exploit had actually been known as far back as 2022, and Lovense had closed the issue without issuing a fix. After two more days in the news cycle, the sex toy company finally rolled out fixes for both exploits on July 30.
It’s not Lovense’s first roll in the mud. In 2017, the company was caught with its proverbial pants down after its app was shown to be recording users while they were using the app and toy. Lovense fixed that issue as well, stating that the audio data was never sent to their servers.
Sony and Marvel have revealed a fresh look for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, and it’s a return to basics. In a very short 22-second teaser, fans got a decent look at Spidey’s new suit, which leans heavily into the classic comic design.
Gone is the ultra-slick Stark Suit, the high-tech armor gifted by Tony Stark, which Holland’s Peter Parker wore in three solo films and multiple Avengers crossovers.
Spoilers for 2021’s No Way Home:
By the film’s end, Peter’s high-tech suit is wrecked — and so is everything else. It's a brutal reset that leaves Peter truly alone and stripped of all the Stark tech that powered his previous adventures. This mirrors the more grounded, scrappy origins many fans felt had been missing from the MCU’s version of the character.
The closing shot in No Way Home is of a homemade suit — vibrant, hand-sewn, and all Peter — and signaled a fresh start. Now, with Brand New Day on the horizon, we’re finally seeing that suit in action. And yeah — it looks great. Here’s hoping the movie lives up to it.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters July 31, 2026, with Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton at the helm.
You can no longer go live on Instagram unless you have 1,000 followers
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