https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03673-6
Nature just dropped their “Science in 2026” preview, and folks, the future is getting weird. Here are the highlights, translated for Death Star Inc. readers:
1. AI for Science AI agents are about to go full autonomous, carrying out complex multi-step research with minimal human oversight. Some researchers are already reporting that these agents occasionally delete their own data. Death Star Impact: When your lab AI starts making “consequential scientific advances” without supervision, you’re basically one software update away from creating your own COMPNOR research division. Hope nobody’s building AI agents to run the trash compactor controls.
2. Gene-Editing Momentum FDA-approved clinical trials are launching to give kids with rare genetic disorders personalized CRISPR therapies—custom-built to fix their specific mutations. Death Star Impact: We’re literally editing human DNA on a case-by-case basis now. This is how you get Force-sensitive younglings… or, you know, actual medical breakthroughs. Either way, someone’s playing with midi-chlorians.
3. Massive Cancer Trial Results A UK blood test that detects 50+ types of cancer before symptoms appear is reporting results from 140,000+ participants. Death Star Impact: Early cancer detection is great for prolonging Imperial careers, but imagine if Vader had this technology before the whole lava situation. Medical droids everywhere are updating their protocols.
4. Heavy Lunar Traffic Artemis II sends four astronauts around the Moon (first crewed lunar mission since the ’70s), while China’s Chang’e-7 attempts a south pole landing with shock-absorbing hoppers. Death Star Impact: The Moon is about to have more traffic than a Coruscant skylane. When multiple nations are racing to land near the lunar south pole, someone’s definitely looking for kyber crystals. We know what happens next.
5. Martian Moons and Beyond Japan’s MMX mission is collecting samples from Phobos (Mars’s moon) and bringing them back to Earth. Europe’s PLATO satellite hunts for “Earth twin” planets with 26 cameras. Death Star Impact: Bringing back samples from another planet’s moon? That’s literally the plot of every space horror movie. Also, 26 cameras looking for habitable worlds = the Empire’s scouting division just got an upgrade.
6. Drill, Baby, Drill China’s Meng Xiang will drill 11 kilometers through the ocean floor into Earth’s mantle to study tectonic activity. Death Star Impact: When you’re drilling deeper into the planet than most species have ever gone, you’re either looking for answers about planetary formation or you’re trying to find the Geonosian hive factories. Either way, somebody alert the seismology team.
The Verdict: 2026 is shaping up to be the year science fiction becomes science fact. Between autonomous AI, genetic editing, multiple Moon missions, and drilling into the planet’s core, we’re basically speedrunning every “what could go wrong” scenario simultaneously.
Stay informed. Stay skeptical. May the Force be with the ethics committees.