In space, the dead sometimes speak — and sometimes they scream.

Massive stars end their short, blazing lives in tremendous stellar explosions called supernovae, and they sometimes leave behind dense, highly magnetized balls of neutrons called magnetars. And for reasons that astronomers don’t yet fully understand, sometimes a magnetar lets out a short but powerful shriek.

Astronomers call these Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs: very intense blasts of radio waves that last just a few milliseconds. While most FRBs seem to be one-off events (a brief burst of radio waves from a dead star, and the rest is silence), a recent study suggests many — maybe even all FRBs — may repeat, if only astronomers would listen long enough.

For life on planet Earth, all roads inevitably lead to death, but they’re not all paved the same. This is what Nan Hao, an associate professor in molecular biology at the University of California, San Diego, discovered several years ago. At his lab, Hao spends a lot of time with Saccharomyces cerevisiae — also known as baker’s or brewer’s yeast — studying how these single-celled organisms age, an endeavor that he thinks could inform how humans age, too.

In a paper published Thursday in the journal Science, the molecular biologist and his colleagues at UCSD constructed what they call a gene oscillator that extended the lifespan of lab grown-yeast cells by 82 percent.

Could we put genetic oscillators inside our cells to similarly extend our own lifespans? With further research, it might be a possibility.

Over the past several years, OnePlus has expanded its gadget portfolio to include smart TVs, smartwatches, a mechanical keyboard made in partnership with Keychron. And now its first tablet, the OnePlus Pad, is launching in the U.S. on May 8 for $479.

The tablet is an attractive package. The hardware is as premium as any iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab. There's a keyboard, stylus, and folio case (all sold separately) to turn it into a pseudo-laptop. And that's where the OnePlus Pad stumbles a bit; the software — OnePlus' Android 13-based OxygenOS adapted from the OnePlus 11 — is limiting for multitasking. But if you're only going to do very basic tablet things like watching video or browsing the web, the OnePlus Pad might just be enough.