Two stories about science pushing its own limits. One is a laboratory that runs itself. The other is a puzzle on Mars that nobody can explain.
The Lab That Runs Itself: SLAC's SPIRE Project
Imagine a laboratory where the experiments run themselves. On 8 October 2026, the US Department of Energy announced SPIRE. Its full name is the "Source-to-Discovery Platform for Instrumentation, Robotics and Embodied AI". The project is led by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, together with Stanford and other labs and industry partners.
Its goal is self-driving laboratories. In these labs, AI agents and robots run experiments from start to finish.
SPIRE will work at two of SLAC's flagship facilities. One is the LCLS, the world's most powerful X-ray laser. The other is the SSRL synchrotron. These machines are extraordinary. But they have created a new problem. The X-ray laser now produces data faster than scientists can process it. Brilliant experiments are no longer limited by the hardware. They are limited by human speed.
The project attacks the problem on three fronts. First, robots that delicately handle experimental samples. Second, X-ray and electron beams that correct themselves while running. Third, real-time data analysis that happens during the experiment itself, not weeks later. So the lab can learn and adjust as it goes.
SPIRE is part of a $30 million Department of Energy initiative. It spans four projects under the Genesis Mission. If it succeeds, the laboratory of the future will not just be a place where scientists work. It will be a machine that does science alongside them, around the clock.
Mystery Pits on Mars That Nobody Can Explain
NASA's Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars since 2012. That is fourteen years on the Red Planet. And it is still finding things nobody can explain.
Its latest puzzle is a set of broad, shallow pits. They are about one centimetre wide. They are scattered through the bedrock of Mount Sharp. In a mission update, Michelle Minitti, deputy principal investigator of the rover's MAHLI camera, described the features as "unlike quite anything we have seen in the past". That is a striking statement from a team that has spent over a decade studying Martian rock up close.
Normally, a pit like this has a simple explanation. A small pebble sits in the rock for ages. It eventually weathers out, leaving a hole behind. But these pits break that rule. They are broader and shallower than the usual kind. And there is no object anywhere nearby that could once have filled them. Wind does not explain them either.
Some headlines joked that the pits look like tiny "footprints". They are not footprints. And the cause is genuinely unknown. To crack the mystery, the science team is building 3D models of the pits from stereo images. They hope the shapes will reveal how they formed. Until then, Mars keeps its secret.
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