Today’s the day! At 5 p.m. ET, we’ll be hosting our second Nice News Book Club meeting, this one featuring Stephanie Harrison. The author of New Happy will chat about her research-backed philosophies on finding joy and answer some of your questions. She’s been a Nice News fave for a while now, so we can’t wait for you all to hear from her directly. Click here to RSVP and get info on how to join the virtual, hourlong event. P.S. Nice News readers can also get an exclusive 40% off of this daily supplement with the promo code NEWHAPPY40 thanks to event sponsor Beam.
The winning shots of the 2025 GDT Nature Photographer of the Year awards are in (our favorite is “full-circle rainbow”)
Science
Our Solar System May Indeed Have 9 Planets, Paper Finds
Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)
Scientists believe our solar system may have a mysterious ninth planet — and no, it’s not Pluto. For about a century, astronomers have had a hunch that another planet has been waiting to be discovered. And one group of researchers recently gathered some celestial clues indicating that this “Planet Nine” is more than hypothetical, per a new paper accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. The potential planet in question is about the size of Neptune, and it’s so deep into the solar system that it could take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to orbit the sun. The Earth, for reference, takes one year to complete the trip. Because it’s so far away, scientists used infrared surveys taken 23 years apart to measure the object’s orbital motion,and they found that the celestial body moved ever so slightly. If it’s indeed a planet, it would explain some of the mysterious clustering around the Kuiper Belt, as well as other longstanding mysteries of the universe. “If the existence of Planet Nine can be confirmed by observations in the near future, it will improve our understanding of the history and structure of the entire solar system in early stages,” the team concluded in the paper.
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Olympian Frederick Richard Flips for a World Record — And a Bigger Purpose
Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images
Team USA Olympic medalist Frederick Richard literally bent over backward to break a world record (for a good cause). The Massachusetts native, known as “Frederick Flips” on social media, may have recently set the record for the most backflips achieved in 24 hours, all the while raising money to purchase gymnastics equipment for kids in Africa. Richard live streamed the ambitious endeavor, setting out to complete 1,002 backflips to snag the title and rack up donations, one jump at a time. He not only hit that goal, but proceeded to keep going for another hour, tallying 1,111 total backflips. As of yesterday, a GoFundMe launched by Richard’s sister Alexandra had raised more than $42,000 of its $100,000 fundraising goal. “Gymnastics is not cheap. Equipment is expensive,” Richard said in an Instagram video. “That’s why it’s so hard to get into. We’re trying to change that.” Watch Richard complete his record-breaking flip in honor of Alexandra, who helped him organize the Saturday event and gave birth to a son that same day. Needless to say, it was a big day for the Richard family!
Health
Where Does Consciousness Reside in the Brain? Scientists Explore the Puzzling Mystery
ajijchan/ iStock
Consciousness is often defined as the awareness of yourself (your thoughts, sensations, feelings, and memories) and the world around you. But it’s not clear where exactly this power resides in the brain. The front, the back, somewhere in between? Neuroscientists explored this question in a recent study by measuring electric and magnetic activity and blood flow in 256 people’s brains as they looked at images of different faces and objects. Contrary to previous theories, the team found that consciousness might not be located in the frontal lobes, which are associated with high-level cognitive functions and intelligence. Rather, the researchers suggest it might arise in the sensory zones near the back of the brain where taste, smell, and vision are processed. “Why is any of this important?” asked study co-author Christof Koch in an interview with Reuters. “If we want to understand the substrate of consciousness, who has it — adults, pre-linguistic children, a second-trimester fetus, a dog, a mouse, a squid, a raven, a fly — we need to identify the underlying mechanisms in the brain, both for conceptual reasons as well as for clinical ones.” A better understanding of consciousness could also help doctors as they navigate working with patients in comas or vegetative states. “Knowing about the footprints of consciousness in the brain will let us better detect this covert form of ‘being there’ without being able to signal,” Koch added.
In Other News
In a first,fossil fuels provided less than half of U.S. electricity for an entire month (read more)
Advanced tools are enabling doctors to detectstomach cancer at earlier and more treatable stages (read more)
A powerful telescope’s new filter could help scientists predict potentially damaging solar storms (read more)
Two cute: Critically endangered tamarin twins born at a U.K. zoo are being co-parented with all the snuggles (read more)
In honor of 125 years of Puccini’s Tosca, peruse a former pasta factory that houses 70,000 opera costumes (read more)
Inspiring Story
A+ day for this teacher
Teachers’ Day came early for Victoria Washington. Two weeks ago, the North Carolina educator of 20 years bought a $1 lottery ticket on her way home from school and won the $172,302 jackpot. “It was the most exciting feeling I’ve ever had,” she said. “It was unreal.”
Photo of the Day
Carl Court/Getty Images
What on Earth is going on here? It’s the Maldon Mud Race — an annual U.K. competition that one woman previously described as “harder than childbirth.”
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