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This week, we cover how Starship Flight 13 finally prepares to launch amid a legal battle over SpaceX's proposed land swap at Starbase, plus a Chinese Long March 3B rocket gets struck by lightning during liftoff, yet still delivers its satellite safely. Then, guests Dr. Pascal Lee and astrobiologist Dr. Penny Boston join the show to mark the 50th anniversary of Viking 1's landing on Mars and revisit the mission's groundbreaking life-detection experiments and the decades-long controversy over what they actually found. The conversation traces Mars exploration from the earliest Mariner flybys through Viking's ambiguous, still-debated results—later explained by perchlorates in the Martian soil—and the fierce scientific rivalry the findings sparked. Join us!



Headlines:

SpaceX Starship Flight 13 faces engine and weather delays ahead of launch

SpaceX land swap proposal sparks conservation group lawsuit over Rio Grande Valley wildlife preserve

Chinese Long March rocket survives dramatic lightning strike during launch

Main Topic: 50th Anniversary of Viking Mars Landers—Search for Life on Mars

The evolution of Mars exploration from telescopes to Viking lander

Early Mars missions: Mariner flybys, Soviet attempts, and breakthroughs in orbital imaging

Viking 1 and 2: Ambitious design, life-detection experiments, and landing impact

Mixed public and scientific reactions to Viking's first iconic Mars surface images

Technical overview of the Viking biology experiments and their controversial results

The unresolved debate: Did Viking detect life or chemical reactions on Mars?

Personal accounts of key scientists, scientific disputes, and the "Wolf Trap" experiment that never flew

Lessons from Viking: Limitations of technology, extremophile discoveries, and shifting strategies for detecting life

The scientific case for seeking life in Martian caves and subsurface environments

Critique of current and future Mars missions: Perseverance rover findings and value of Mars Sample Return

Exploring planetary protection, contamination risks, and the challenges of certifying Martian samples=

Key takeaways for future missions—bold searches, new technologies, and the ongoing quest for answers

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik

Guests: Pascal Lee and Dr. Penelope Boston

Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.

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Amanda Silberling of TechCrunch joins the show this week! AI isn't taking your job, per a report from Google. Gen Z is gravitating towards more "dumb" and simpler tech. An OpenAI model hacked Hugging Face. And Americans are uniting against data centers.

A new Google report analyzing 14.6 million AI conversations finds most workplace AI use is "shallow," with automation rare and collaboration more common.

Amanda shares her report on a "slow tech" trend, which includes both a hacked "dumb phone" and a $299 flip phone called Light flip, as younger users seek friction and less screen time from their devices.

During an internal red-team test, an OpenAI model exploited a zero-day to escape its test environment and breach Hugging Face, stealing cloud and cluster credentials in over 17,000 recorded events.

And a piece from the Washington Post shows bipartisan backlash to AI data centers nationwide, driven by rising electric bills and residents' feelings of powerlessness over local development decisions.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Amanda Silberling

Download or subscribe to Tech News Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly.

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Windows 11 is introducing Point in Time Restore, a modern recovery tool that aims to make system recovery faster and smarter. Find out why this update could change the way you bounce back from disaster.

Host: Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to Hands-On Windows at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-windows

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iOS 26 conveniently puts you in charge of your iPhone home screen with deep design tools hidden behind a single long press. Discover how Apple's new Liquid Glass and tinted themes finally let your wallpaper and icons reflect your style.

Jiggle mode and edit tools enable deep icon appearance tweaks

Exploring Light, Dark, Clear, and Tinted home screen styles

Using tints and saturation sliders for unique color coordination

Rearranging app icons to highlight wallpaper and key visuals

Adding, editing, and customizing widgets on the home screen

Hiding, deselecting, or deleting home screen pages safely

Removing unused home screen apps without uninstalling them

Switching between app icons and widgets for streamlined access

Face ID and privacy tweaks for individual apps on the home screen

Host: Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to Hands-On Apple at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-apple

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If you thought calculators were stuck in high school, check your phone! This episode finds the formula behind conversions, math notes, and custom shortcuts that could totally change how you crunch numbers on your everyday Apple device. Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard run the numbers and reveal which apps truly multiply your productivity.

iOS calculator app features: history, copy, mode switcher, and conversions

Math Notes and Apple Pencil support for handwritten equations on iPad

Spotlight's built-in calculator vs. dedicated calculator app usage

Deep dive into PCalc: customization, layouts, and advanced features

Soulver 4 brings notepad-style, sentence-based calculations and variables

(Not Boring) Calculator offers simplicity and a clean design for basic math

News: Public beta releases for Apple operating systems explained

App Caps: Safari's new webpage monitoring vs. Distill Web Monitor app, and Microsoft Copilot for streamlining messy data into formatted documents

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard

Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv.

Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today

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