Before the first hormonal birth control came out nearly 80 years ago, if you were a person who menstruated, you were stuck with around 12 periods for each of your reproductive years. Now, as hormonal (and non-hormonal) birth control methods have advanced, halting menstruation is easier than ever. In fact, studies show there’s no medical reason for hormonal birth control users to menstruate.

A sense of regularity? Sure. Reassurance that one isn’t pregnant? Definitely. But those boil down to individual comfort. A growing body of research suggests that not getting a period is not only safe but could come with a slew of health benefits, suggesting that continuous birth control could be the wave of the future.

A cosmic ray struck the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and frazzled one of its instruments, according to NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Canada’s contribution to JWST, the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), experienced a puzzling anomaly on January 15, when it suffered a communications delay within the instrument. This then caused NIRISS’ flight software to time out. After a thorough review, a reboot, and a test observation, teams from both space agencies are breathing a sigh of relief.

We’re inching toward a driverless future, but we’re still not quite there yet. And despite fairly slow progress, Mercedes-Benz did just become the first automaker to receive its Level 3 Autonomous Driving certificate in the U.S.

The Level 3 certification for automated driving is still pretty far from fully self-driving cars, but it’s still a major step toward that future. After the shaky start from Tesla and its Full Self-Driving system, we were left disappointed considering the ongoing safety investigations. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz seems to be taking the slow and steady route in its approach to self-driving cars.