Last year presented significant challenges for Acadia Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading providers of mental health services.
A New York Times investigation in September revealed that multiple federal agencies were looking into accusations of Acadia unlawfully detaining patients in mental health hospitals. This led to a sharp decline in Acadia’s stock value and rattled investors.
Despite these troubles, Acadia’s CEO, Christopher Hunter, benefitted from the situation. As indicated in the recent financial report, he received a $1.8 million bonus from the board to deal with the “unprecedented government inquiries.” This bonus was on top of his regular compensation, exceeding $7 million in 2024.
Other top executives at Acadia, including the CFO and Legal Advisor, also received substantial bonuses, with the COO promised a bonus as well. These bonuses were given to prevent key leaders from leaving before the investigation was concluded, according to Acadia.
The board of directors at Acadia believed that retaining the current leadership team was in the best interest of the company, its patients, and communities. They emphasized the use of peer market data for evaluating performance and benchmarking.
The Times investigation uncovered that Acadia had been holding patients against their will to maximize insurance payments. This practice had started before Hunter took over as CEO in April 2022 but continued under his leadership.
Following the allegations, Acadia stated that they would vehemently deny fraud and cooperate with the investigation. Hunter assured investors that the claims of holding patients longer than necessary were false and contradicted their commitment to patient care.
After the investigation was initiated, Acadia disclosed that various government agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, were investigating the matter. Additionally, shareholders filed a class action lawsuit against the company, accusing them of withholding information from investors.
Issues were also uncovered in other areas of Acadia, such as a methadone clinic overbilling the government for services not rendered. Inadequate staffing levels at one of the company’s women’s facilities led to tragic incidents, as reported by The Times.
Since September, Acadia’s market value has plummeted by approximately $5 billion, now valued at around $2 billion.
Hunter’s compensation is tied to Acadia’s stock performance, but the company’s stock decline in 2024 caused him to miss his targets. Critics, like Sarah Anderson from the Institute of Policy Research, argue that linking compensation to stock prices can incentivize risky behavior and undermine performance.
As of July, social media and other online platforms must block harmful content for children or face severe fines. Online Safety Law requires tech companies to implement these measures by July 25th or risk closure in extreme cases.
The Communications Watchdog has issued over 40 measures covering various websites and apps used by children, from social media to games. Services deemed “high-risk” must implement effective age checks and algorithms to protect users under 18 from harmful content. Platforms also need to promptly remove dangerous content and provide children with an easy way to report inappropriate material.
Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes described these changes as a “reset” for children online, warning that businesses failing to comply risk consequences. The new Ofcom code aims to create a safer online environment, with stricter controls on harmful content and age verification measures.
Additionally, there is discussion about implementing a social media curfew for children, following concerns about the impact of online platforms on young users. Efforts are being made to safeguard children from exposure to harmful content, including violence, hate speech, and online bullying.
Online safety advocate Ian Russell, who tragically lost his daughter to online harm, believes that the new code places too much emphasis on tech companies’ interests rather than safeguarding children. His charity, the Molly Rose Foundation, argues that more needs to be done to protect young people from harmful online content and challenges.
In Roman arenas, gladiators fought lions and other wildlife. Despite the tales of epic battles found in ancient texts, sculptures, mosaics, and portrayed in modern media, physical evidence of gladiators with animal-inflicted wounds has never been discovered by archaeologists.
Recently, skeletal remains from Roman settlements in the UK provided the first direct evidence of gladiators who were injured by lions.
The discovery was made during excavations in York, where a couple was planning to renovate their garden. The cemetery found at the site halted construction plans and revealed a rich Roman archaeological history in the region.
Tim Thompson, an anthropologist from Maynooth University and author of a paper published in the journal PLOS One, highlighted the significance of this discovery in shedding light on ancient Roman practices.
The site in York contained the remains of over 80 individuals, mostly young men with signs of trauma on their bodies. The demographics, injuries, and burial practices suggest that these individuals were gladiators who fought in the area nearly 1,800 years ago.
One particular skeleton, identified as 6DT19, displayed a unique wound on its hip bone that resembled bite marks from a large animal, possibly a lion.
Further analysis indicated that the injuries on the skeletons could indeed be bite marks from large animals like lions. This finding challenged previous beliefs about the absence of physical evidence of gladiators fighting animals.
Dr. Thompson and his team collaborated with British zoos to study animal bite marks and compare them to the skeletal injuries found on the ancient remains.
Through meticulous analysis and comparison, they concluded that the injuries on the gladiators matched those inflicted by lions. While the bite on 6DT19 likely did not cause death, it provided valuable insights into the practices and culture of the Roman Empire.
This discovery not only sheds light on individual lives from the past but also reveals the extent of Roman influence and entertainment involving gladiator battles with animals.
Dr. Marklein, an anthropologist from the University of Louisville, emphasized the significance of these findings in understanding Roman society and its use of violence as entertainment and political display.
Gladiator games served not only as spectacles of power but also as warnings and demonstrations of Roman citizenship and virtue.
This discovery underscores the complex relationship between humans, animals, and culture in ancient Rome.
A year later, Vermont enacted the Climate Change Superfund Act, holding an oil and gas company financially responsible for the state’s climate damages. A similar law was passed in New York in 2024 and is pending in California, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
Understanding the law involves attribution science, a field that uses global temperature data to model numerous scenarios to determine if extreme weather events like floods and heatwaves are linked to emissions from burning oil, gas, and coal.
A new paper published in Nature Journal on Wednesday magnifies this work to connect emissions from specific entities to the economic impact of extreme events.
“The oil industry is astonished by the state’s climate superfund laws and their increasing popularity, as they are the first policies globally to hold a significant portion of the major losses responsible for the substantial damages incurred by their products.”
The response to the law was swift. In February, West Virginia and other Republican-led states sought to challenge New York’s laws, arguing that only the federal government has the authority to regulate emissions. President Trump signed an executive order this month criticizing the state law as a burden and ideological motivation, calling on Attorney General Pam Bondy to block enforcement.
Environmental attorneys have been exploring how harm can be attributed to greenhouse gas emissions for years, according to Martin Rockman, a climate law fellow at Columbia University’s Sabine Center.
“Attribution science is crucial because it establishes links between particular activities of businesses that profit from fossil fuels and specific harms to states and communities,” Rockman stated. “If you’re causing harm, you should be accountable for mitigating it, it’s that simple.”
The new study will enhance an approach known as “end-to-end” attribution, linking a specific emitter (e.g., a company) to a particular climate-related impact (e.g., extreme heat) and subsequent damage (impact on the global economy).
The study revealed that Chevron’s emissions caused heat-related losses totaling up to $3.6 trillion in the global economy. Christopher Callahan, a postdoctoral geoscientist at Stanford University and the study’s author, noted that such high costs still underestimate the global repercussions of fossil fuel combustion in less affluent tropical regions with minimal emissions responsibility.
“That astounding figure represents the detriment from just one of the climate impacts,” stated Delta Melner, associate director of the Science Hub for Climate Litigation at the Coalition of Concerned Scientists. “The overall harm caused by major emitters is undoubtedly much greater when considering the full range of climate risks.”
Theodore J. Bootras Jr., a Chevron Corporation lawyer, argued that the study “disregards the scientific impossibility of attributing a specific climate or weather phenomenon to a particular country, company, or energy consumer.” He labeled it as futile state litigation and a misleading advocacy campaign for energy penalties and regulations.
Overall, the paper estimated that the global economy would suffer $28 trillion in damages due to extreme heat caused by emissions from 111 major carbon producers between 1991 and 2020.
More than 100 climate-related lawsuits have been filed annually since 2017, as per a recent study. However, these cases scrutinize attribution studies that struggle to connect emissions to estimated economic losses.
This innovative framework can offer similar capabilities in other major damage and liability cases, analogous to those handled in tobacco-related lung cancer lawsuits and pharmaceutical claims for addiction.
Justin Mankin, a geography professor specializing in climate science at Dartmouth University and co-author of the Nature paper, remarked:
World Weather Attribution, a group based at Imperial College London, has regularly published attribution reports over the past decade.
“Unfortunately, we are still one of the few entities engaged in this work, and we are not an official institution. It’s essentially a project I undertake as a university professor in collaboration with a team of colleagues,” stated Friedrike Otto, a physicist aiding in attributing global weather.
Dr. Callahan and Dr. Mankin utilized open-source tools in their models, developing code and data resources they deployed to publish the global costs of climate change on their website.
“We advocate for transparent and open science, particularly since the research was funded by U.S. taxpayers,” Dr. Mankin emphasized, highlighting a significant portion of the research support originating from NOAA, the nation’s leading climate science agency facing funding cuts during the Trump administration.
Extreme weather events have disrupted communities and continue to exacerbate tensions. According to Vermont Senator Anne Watson, the 2023 flood cost Vermont hundreds of millions of dollars, prompting her to sponsor a bill quantifying state damages between 1995 and 2024.
Julie Moore, the secretary at the Vermont Natural Resources Agency, assisted states in organizing their inquiries for more information to better grasp the various approaches in attribution science and comprehend how to assign damages caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
“The charge against us is to establish guidelines on applying attribution science and ultimately send out a cost recovery notice,” Moore explained. According to state laws, oil and gas companies will receive this notice in early 2027.
“The expectation is that it will aid Vermont in securing a substantial amount to cover damages and adapt to a hotter, more humid climate resulting from carbon in the atmosphere,” Watson expressed. “We need a source to determine accountability for this.”
Amidst the Trump administration’s focus on declining US fertility rates, recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that births remained relatively stable in 2024, increasing by 1% compared to the previous year.
In the United States last year, there were 3,622,673 births, according to a CDC report published on Wednesday. From 2015 to 2020, births experienced an average annual decline of 2%, with fluctuations in subsequent years.
The report also outlines the birth rates for women aged 15 to 44, known specifically as the birth rate. This rate declined between 2014 and 2020, fluctuating until 2024, where it reached 54.6 births per 1,000 individuals—an increase of 0.2% from 2023.
Brady Hamilton, the primary author of the report and a CDC statistician, noted that the data continues the ongoing downward trend in teenage births and the upward trend in births among older women observed in the past three decades. However, the CDC refrained from offering specific explanations for this trend.
An analysis of CDC data by a sociologist suggests that this trend largely reflects women delaying childbearing in their 20s and opting to do so in their 30s and 40s. Birth rates increased last year among women aged 25 to 44, while declining in teenagers and individuals under 25.
“There are various factors at play,” explained Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. These factors include considerations about partners, financial stability, job security, and overall expenses.
According to a CDC report, the average woman in 2024 had one or two biological children compared to three or more in 1960. Since 2007, overall birth rates in the US have been decreasing, with sociologists anticipating this trend to persist despite a slight increase last year.
Sarah Hayford, director of Ohio State’s Institute of Population, highlighted that economic improvements post-Great Recession have not necessarily translated into enhanced financial conditions for many individuals, impacting decisions around childbearing.
Guzzo noted that the Trump administration’s policies, including tariffs and federal programs supporting women and children, could impact the environment for childbearing decisions. The administration has expressed concerns over declining fertility rates, with Vice President JD Vance advocating for increased births in the US.
President Donald Trump himself has championed family formation, signing an executive order to expand access to in vitro fertilization. The administration is reportedly considering incentives, such as a $5,000 cash bonus after birth, to encourage more births, although experts suggest these efforts may not reverse declining fertility rates.
Sociologists opine that low fertility rates are not inherently problematic, and the decline in teenage birth rates is viewed as a positive trend. Guzzo expressed optimism that individuals today have more autonomy in deciding the right time for childbearing.
Chinese manufacturers are targeting American shoppers by showcasing luxury items directly from factories on platforms like Tiktok and other social media apps, amid looming air tariffs on China’s exports. The appeal seems to be effective, drawing interest from American consumers.
These manufacturers are promoting products like leggings and handbags from well-known brands at a fraction of the price. They often claim that these items are made in the same factories that produce goods for renowned brands like Lululemon, Hermes, and Birkenstock, although this assertion is typically inaccurate.
American influencers are leveraging videos to endorse these factories and encourage downloads of Chinese shopping apps like Dhgate and Taobao as a way for consumers to save money amidst the import duties imposed by President Trump. This strategy has boosted the popularity of apps like Dhgate, which was among the top 10 most downloaded apps on Apple and Google stores recently.
The videos have gained significant traction on Tiktok and Instagram, garnering millions of views and generating positive sentiments towards China among American viewers, with comments like “Trump picked the wrong fight” and “China is winning this battle.”
Chinese factory owners and workers are utilizing social media platforms, despite being technically banned in China, to directly engage with American consumers. The surge in popularity in the US reflects growing support for China on social media, particularly amidst protests against the Tiktok ban.
These videos act as a unique way for Chinese factories to communicate with American consumers and convey their dependence on Chinese products, especially in the context of tariffs and trade relations between the two countries.
Although questions about the authenticity of the products persist, the demand for direct purchases from Chinese factories remains strong amid the political and economic landscape.
Recent trends show a significant surge in users exploring options to source products directly from Chinese factories, as seen in the spike of related hashtags and posts on platforms like Tiktok and Instagram.
Antibiotics commonly used to absorb pneumonia remove Lyme disease mice at doses 100 times lower than standard antibiotic therapy. This small dose was combined with the targeted effect of the drug on infection, meaning that the animal’s gut microbiota was largely unaffected.
Lyme disease is caused by bacteria in the genus Borelia It spreads mostly among birds and small rodents, but people can get infected via the bites of mites that have given the blood of such animals. Infections generally lead to flu-like symptoms and a “bull” rash. Without treatment, it can cause serious long-term complications such as fatigue and pain.
Standard treatment involves taking the antibiotic doxycycline twice daily at high doses for up to three weeks. This will stop the production of the proteins needed for bacteria to survive, but will not selectively target them Borelia seed. “It will cause chaos normally [gut] It says microbiome. Brandon Footlas At Northwestern University, Illinois.
Looking for a more selective alternative, Jutras and his colleagues first tested how effective it is to have more than 450 antibiotics all approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Borrelia burgdorferi – The most common type of lab dishes that causes Lyme disease.
They then evaluated how best-performing drugs affected the growth of harmless or beneficial bacteria commonly found in people and mouse visceral organs, such as certain strains. E. coli. This revealed that piperacillin is associated with penicillin, commonly used in the treatment of pneumonia and is the most selective target. B. burgdorferi.
Next, the researchers injected 46 mice. B. burgdorferi. Three weeks later, they treated the animals with various doses of either doxycycline or piperacillin for a week. The researchers found that mice received either high doses of doxycycline or 100 times lower doses of piperacillin, with no signs of infection.
They also analyzed stools from mice before and after antibiotic treatment and found that low doses of piperacillin had little effect on bacterial levels. B. burgdorferi In the gut, high doses of doxycycline significantly altered the gut microbiota.
This is probably due to the low amount of antibiotics, which has less impact on intestinal microbial diversity and is the target action of piperacillin. “We found that using piperacillin is targeting certain proteins. B. burgdorferiit is very efficient to kill this Lyme disease agent at low concentrations, not other bacteria, to survive,” says Jutras.
But mice can respond differently to antibiotics than people, John Ocotte at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. For example, they often break down the drug faster, which can change its effectiveness. The Jutras team hopes to test piperacillin in human Lyme disease tests in the coming years.
Peanuts are one of the most common foods that people have allergies
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Adults with peanut allergies reduced the risk of a reaction by eating small peanut proteins every day as part of their trials. This approach has already been approved in the US for children with this condition.
Peanut allergies occur when the immune system mistakenly identifies legume proteins as threats. It reacts by producing more IgE antibodies. This is an important part of the immune response, but an allergic reaction causes overdrive. As a result, inflammation increases, causing symptoms such as swelling, itching, and vomiting. In extreme cases, it can lead to anaphylactic shock, a life-threatening response that can affect someone’s breathing or heart rate.
Until recently, the only solution was to avoid peanuts, but an intervention called oral immunotherapy was approved in 2020 for children with allergies in the US. This involves exposing the immune system to peanut protein, which gradually increases allergens.
However, it was unclear whether this approach worked in adults as well. “Although most of the life of an individual with a peanut allergy is spent as an adult, there was no treatment that reduced the fundamental reactivity to peanuts,” he says. Stephen Till King’s College London. “There are some grounds for suspecting that adults are more difficult to fall out than children, as your immune system is easy to fix when you’re young.”
To fill this knowledge gap, Till and his colleagues recruited 21 adults with peanut allergies. At the start of the study, participants on average only 1/8 of the peanuts were eaten before they developed an allergic reaction.
The team fed each participant a protein equivalent to one-fourth of peanuts each day for two weeks. This dose increased slightly every two weeks for several months, but was able to safely and consistently eat the equivalent of four large peanuts of protein every day.
Three participants dropped out of the study due to an allergic reaction, while three other participants left for reasons not related to treatment. “This dropout number is acceptable for this type of treatment.” Cezmi Akdis At the Swiss Allergy and Asthma Institute.
The remaining 15 participants participated in an allergy test for eating an increase in peanut protein under the supervision of the researchers. All but one of them were able to eat five peanut equivalents without an allergic reaction.
In another part of the experiment, the team analyzed blood samples collected from participants before and after receiving oral immunotherapy. This revealed that the intervention had high levels of IgG antibodies that counteract the effects of IgE antibodies.
“It’s very promising,” Akudith says. “This approach means that adults with peanut allergies may be relieved of the anxiety of eating peanut-contaminated foods.”
However, this is a relatively early stage test, and a larger test is needed to verify the results and establish how long the protection will last, he says. “I think you need to take peanuts daily or regular over the long term to maintain resistance to allergens,” Aqudith says. “People take pills every day, so I think people affected by peanut allergies are following this type of method.”
Do not try to treat allergies without medical supervision.
Jason Citron, co-founder of popular social chat app Discord, resigned as the company’s chief executive on Wednesday.
Citron said in a statement that the new CEO is Humam Sakhnini, a 15-year veteran of the video game industry. Sakhnini was previously vice-president of Activision, the game publisher behind titles such as Call of Duty and Candy Crush.
Discord was released as early as this year and is valued at around $15 billion by private investors in 2021. The app is particularly popular among gamers, with over 200 million users.
Citron will remain on the company’s board of directors and will become Sakinini’s advisor, he said in a statement. Sakhnini helped oversee Activision when Microsoft bought it for $69 billion in 2023 and resigned from the company shortly after the acquisition.
in Interview Using VentureBeat, a game publication that previously reported on management changes, Citron said he was “a more builder, an early stage guy” and “hiring someone like Humam is a step in that direction.”
Discord was founded in 2015 by Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy.
The company grew over the years and gained particularly popularity during the pandemic, when interest in video games reached its peak. In 2021, Discord discussed acquisitions in the $10 billion range with Microsoft, but no deals were made.
Last year, Citron testified at an online congressional hearing on child safety, where the senator grilled him and Chief Executives of Meta, Tiktok and X on safe lapses on social media platforms.
Discord makes money primarily from premium subscription services, but in recent years it has expanded its advertising by people using the app and revenue from so-called microtransactions.
Amazing online announcement Called “the most exclusive invitation in the world,” he followed a tour of the White House with President Trump, a “intimate private dinner” at a Virginia member-only golf club.
Seats will be reserved for each of the top 220 investors in Trump, the cryptocurrency he launched the eve of his inauguration.
On Wednesday, the coin’s biggest buyers announced that they will be invited to meet him, in an astonishing escalation of the Trump family’s efforts to profit from Crypto, a website promoting Trump, the president’s so-called memo coin. The effort was effectively an offer of access to the White House in exchange for an investment in one of Trump’s crypto ventures.
“Get dinner with President Trump and the $Trump community!” the invitation said. “Please let the President know how many card coins you own!”
For months, Trump’s foray into the code has created ethical conflicts with almost precedent in presidential history. When he sold digital currency to the public, Trump also appointed regulators that were cutting crypto enforcement, calling for legislation to boost the outlook for the US industry.
As news of dinner invitations spread across social media, Memecoin’s prices have skyrocketed by over 60%, suggesting investors are in a hurry to accumulate enough coins to compete in the dinner table.
“This is really incredible,” said Corey Frayer, who oversaw the Securities and Exchange Commission’s crypto policy during the Biden administration. “They are making their payment agreements explicit.”
Business entities associated with Trump mean that at least on paper earn a personal profit whenever prices rise. Trump and his business partners also collect fees when the coins are traded. This is a windfall that reached around $100 million in the weeks since the coin debuted in January.
Victoria Haenman, a law professor at Clayton University, said the offer raised concerns about the ways Trump and his business could “manipulate to benefit from the presidency.”
Earlier this year, the SEC issued official guidance that MemeCoins, a kind of cryptocurrency based on online jokes and celebrity mascots, is not subject to agency surveillance. Crypto skeptics criticized the policy as a dangerous move that could open the door to ramp-stretched scams by the Memecoin promoter.
As president, Trump has broad immunity from laws governing conflicts of interest. It was pointed out In the past. White House representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump’s son Eric declined to comment, helping to run the Trump organization, sponsoring $Trump’s coin.
Once a cryptocurrency skeptical, Trump embraced digital currency on last year’s campaign trail.
In the fall, Trump and his sons, Donald Jr., Eric and Baron, said they were starting World Liberty Financial, a company that offers digital currency called WLFI. So far, $550 million of these coins have been sold. According to the company.
Shortly afterwards, Trump’s social media company Trump Media and Technology Group was to provide crypto-related financial products to amateur investors and announced a partnership with digital trading platform crypto.com.
However, Trump’s Memecoin venture is gaining the most attention.
Just three days before taking office, Trump posted about his social media site Truth Social that he was selling coins. $Trump’s sales quickly surged, and the presidential election became a crypto billionaire on paper.
Memecoin tended to rise and fall quickly, and $Trump’s price quickly became a crater. Traders who accumulated coins suffered cumulative losses of over $2 billion.
The dinner announcement seemed calculated to ignite more interest in the coin.
When $Trump was sold in January, a large stash of coins was assigned to supporters of the project. However, rules built into the offering prevented insiders from selling coins Until last weekincreasing the fear that they’ll try to offload their holdings and lower the price of $Trump even further.
Instead, prices gradually rose a few days before the invitation was announced, and spiked when the announcement was published.
On the Memecoin website, the $Trump promoter set up the leaderboard of Coin’s biggest investors. This essentially allows buyers to track their locations in rankings. Dinner invitations will be sent to “the top 220 Trump owners with an average of $220” between April 23rd and May 12th, the website said. The top 25 buyers will get access to a reception with Trump and a White House VIP tour before dinner. (At this point, the 25th investor on the chart owns around 4,000 coins, worth around $54,000.
“The more you hold a card and the longer you hold it, the higher your rankings.” The website said.
Dinner with Trump is scheduled to take place at Trump National Golf Club on May 22, the website calls it “the most exclusive life invitation.”
There could be a secure quantum internet in the middle
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Another step to the quantum internet has been completed and no special communication equipment is required. Two German data centers have already used existing communication fibers to exchange quantum safe information at room temperature. This is in contrast to most quantum communications, and in many cases it requires cooling to very low temperatures to protect quantum particles from environmental disturbances.
Thanks to being encoded into quantum particles of light, known as photons, the quantum internet, which allows for extremely secure exchange of information, is rapidly expanding into the world outside of labs. In March, microsatellites enabled quantum links between China’s ground stations and South Africa. A few weeks ago, the first operating system for quantum communications networks was announced.
now, Mirko Pittaluga Toshiba Europe Limited and his colleagues are sending quantum information through optical fibers between two facilities, approximately 250 km apart, in Kehl and Frankfurt, Germany. This information passed through the third station between them, just over 150km from Frankfurt.
Photons can be lost or damaged when crossing long distances through fiber optic cables, so large quantum internet iterations require “quantum repeaters” and reduce these losses. In this setup, the midway station played a similar role, allowing the network to outweigh the simpler connections between the two previously tested endpoints.
In a notable improvement on previous quantum networks, the team used existing fibers and devices that could be easily slotted into racks that already house traditional communication equipment. This enhances the case where Quantum Internet will ultimately become plug-and-play operations.
The researchers also used photon detectors that cost much less than those used in previous experiments. Although some of these previous experiments spanned hundreds of kilometers, they say that using these detectors reduces both the cost and energy requirements of the new network. Raja Yehea At the Institute of Photonic Science in Spain.
Premkumar Northwestern University in Illinois says that using the types of quantum communications protocols here on commercial equipment highlights how quantum networks are approaching practicality. “Systems engineers can see this and see that it works,” Kumar says. However, he says that in order to be completely practical, networks need to exchange information faster.
Medi Namaji Quantum Communication Start-Up Qunnect in New York says that this approach could be beneficial for future networks of quantum computers or quantum sensors, but it is not as efficient as involving true quantum repeaters.
The Arctic is a rich land. Not only is its beauty, wildlife, cultural heritage, but also among the kinds of products we cherish most: oil, gas, lithium, cobalt, gold.
But those treasures aren’t good for us. As our special report on polar science reveals (see Why the Pole-Disappearing Sea Ice is a Planet-wide Crisis), it is difficult to extract the rich resources of the Arctic for commercial benefits.
Carrying oil and gas from this area is an expensive business, even the suspicious tailwinds of sea ice, which help clean new patches of the ocean for drilling. As industry and transportation gradually move towards power and hydrogen output, demand for oil decreases, making it difficult to justify costs.
The same is true for minerals. Greenland is a hotspot for demand material and perhaps one of the reasons why US President Donald Trump is actively pursuing its acquisition. But even leaving Greenland’s lack of infrastructure is difficult for roads to come to this icy island. This is a dangerous place to invest. The landscape changes rapidly as the glacier melts, revealing new, unstable coastlines that threaten landslides and tsunamis.
For hardness business executives, there are places that are easy and less dangerous to mine.
Crossing the Arctic, melted permafrost is destabilizing existing roads, buildings and industrial sites. For business executives at Hardnose, mine is easier and more dangerous.
To see the Arctic as a ticket to prosperous economic growth is a fool’s errand. Instead of viewing it as a ripe area of exploitation, we should treat it as a scientific wonder while respecting the people who live there. After all, as the fastest changing region on the planet, it is a pioneer of our climate future. And there’s still a lot to learn: how quickly does the ice disappear? How fast does the sea level rise? And what happens when the ice runs out?
In a more positive note, researchers are pioneering more inventive ways to unlock these mysteries, from new “drift” labs to ultra-deep ice training and cutting-edge submarines. The Arctic is filled with opportunities for exploration and discovery. We need to let go of the idea of monetizing them.
The harmful bleaching of corals around the world has increased to affect 84% of the ocean coral reefs, marking the most intense event in recorded history, as announced by the International Coral Reef Initiative on Wednesday.
This is the fourth global bleaching event since 1998, surpassing the 2014-17 bleaching that impacted two-thirds of the reefs during that time. The current crisis began in 2023, and it remains unclear when it will end, with ocean warming being criticized for the phenomenon.
Mark Eakin, the executive director of the International Coral Reef Association and former coral monitoring officer for the US National Marine and Atmospheric Administration, stated, “We’re witnessing a complete transformation of the planet and its impact on our oceans’ ability to sustain life and livelihoods.”
Last year was reported as the hottest year on record globally, with average sea surface temperatures for oceans away from the poles reaching 20.87 degrees Celsius (69.57 degrees Fahrenheit), which is detrimental to corals. These structures are vital for seafood production, tourism, and protecting coastlines from erosion and storms. Coral reefs are often referred to as “rainforests of the sea” because they host a significant amount of marine biodiversity, with approximately twenty five% of all marine species living in and around them.
Corals house colorful algae, which give them their vibrant hues and serve as a food source. However, prolonged warming causes the algae to release toxins, leading to coral bleaching where they expel the algae and turn white. Weakened corals are at an increased risk of death due to these events, prompting NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program to introduce additional levels to the bleaching alert scale to convey the heightened risk of coral mortality.
Efforts to conserve coral reefs are underway, such as initiatives to restore coral populations. Dutch labs are working with coral fragments, including those sourced from the Seychelles, with the intention to propagate them in zoos for potential reintroduction to natural reef habitats. Similar projects, including those in Florida, aim to rescue at-risk corals from high temperatures and rehabilitate them before returning them to the sea.
Nevertheless, scientists stress the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide and methane to combat planet-warming effects and protect coral reefs.
Melanie Mcfield, co-chair of the Caribbean Steering Committee for the Global Coral Reef Surveillance Network, emphasized, “The most effective way to safeguard coral reefs is to address the root causes of climate change by reducing human emissions, primarily from fossil fuel combustion. Inaction poses a significant threat to coral reef ecosystems.”
This update coincides with President Donald Trump’s efforts to bolster fossil fuels and scale back clean energy initiatives as he enters a second term, prompting concerns about the future of coral reefs. Eakin remarked, “The current government is actively dismantling these ecosystems, and eliminating their protections would have catastrophic consequences.”
Orienting yourself in the darkness of a cave seems like a difficult task. However, some bats may have an ingenious solution: use tails.
Larger mouse tail bat (Rhinopoma Microphyllum) Live in groups within small caves that are difficult to fly, so they move deeper by hanging from the cave walls and raw to the rear. They manipulate this way in many situations, depending on the appearance of the predator, or when they want to find a better location in the cave.
Biologists have wondered whether these bats might use their unusually long tails as “sensors” to navigate through the cave. Yossi Yovel Tel Aviv University in Israel and his colleagues designed two experiments to test bat tails.
In the first experiment, researchers recreated a setup that mimics the interior of a cave, creating a maze with obstacles that resemble the uneven, rocky terrain where bats encounter nature. The team measured how long it took the bat to climb the wall, then raw backwards, first naturally and then anaesthetized the tail to measure how smooth it was.
The bat moved its tail back and forth, feeling the obstacles and went through the maze. However, when researchers anesthetized the bat’s tail, the flying mammals navigated the maze without making it smoother and sailed about 10% slower. But they still do that and suggest that they use other body parts to feel the disorder. “When you walk back you can still feel it in your body and feet,” Jubel says. “It’s clear they can do that, but they’ve reduced performance significantly.”
In the second experiment, the researchers designed a Y-shaped maze that presents two corridors with different raised textures that bats can feel. They used the difference in textures of the two corridors to teach bats that one corridor brought rewards, while the other was not. The texture difference was subtle, but one corridor had lattices every 1.5 centimeters and every 1 cm, but the animals were able to distinguish them.
Other bat species have long tails, but researchers say this is the only known thing to use this unique strategy to find its way in the dark. “I don’t think this is common for long-tailed bats,” Jubel says. But “we really don’t know until we test other bats.”
Smartphones are essential in today’s modern life, containing everything from photos and messages to credit cards and bank accounts. Losing or having one stolen can be a nightmare beyond the monetary value of the device.
If this unfortunate event happens to you, taking the following steps can help safeguard your data, prevent fraud, and possibly even lead to the recovery of your phone.
Losing or having your smartphone stolen can be a major inconvenience. Photo: Chris Root/Aramie
Steps to Take as Soon as You Realize Your Phone is Missing
Locate and track your phone using Apple’s Find My iPhone or Google’s Find My Device feature if it’s turned on. You can do this from a computer, tablet, or another smartphone.
Use the tracking feature to remotely lock and mark your phone as lost, protecting your data and preventing unauthorized transactions. You can also remotely erase the device if necessary.
Contact your network provider to block the SIM card and suspend any billing activities. Make sure to disable any payment features linked to your phone.
Notify your credit card company to disable any cards stored on your phone for Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Report the theft to the police and provide them with your phone’s IMEI number, which can be found in your Apple or Google account settings.
Contact your insurance provider if you have coverage for lost or stolen phones.
Change the passwords for your important accounts, starting with your email to prevent unauthorized access.
Remove your phone from all accounts and services to prevent unauthorized access to your personal information.
Actions to Take When You Acquire a New Phone
Setting up security features on your new phone can prevent future incidents of loss or theft. Photo: VladySlav Yushynov/Alamy
When you get a new phone, take the following precautions to ensure the safety of your data and device:
Set strong PINs, short screen lock timeouts, and enable biometric authentication to secure your phone from unauthorized access.
Familiarize yourself with the phone’s settings to enable remote tracking, locking, and erasing in case of loss or theft.
Activate theft protection features such as Stolen Device Protection for iPhone or Theft Protection for Android to safeguard your sensitive data.
Secure your SIM card with a PIN to prevent unauthorized use or transfer to another device.
Make note of your phone’s IMEI number for identification purposes.
Utilize biometric authentication for banking and sensitive apps to enhance security.
Disable certain settings and features to prevent unauthorized access to your phone and data.
Backup your device’s data and settings using cloud services to protect your information.
wWe meet Gustave, the main character of Claire of Thru, who prepares to say goodbye to his ex-girlfriend, Sophie. Once a year, a giant godlike woman visible across the sea, the sedative is awakened, drawing numbers on a large monolith, and depicted in the peaceful town of Lumiere. This process, known as Gommage, has shortened lives for 67 years, and now it’s Sophie’s turn. Shortly after this heartbreaking goodbye, Gustave and his adopted sister Mael are ready to set sail as part of Expedition 33, defeating the pain and ending the terrifying cycle.
Although surprisingly beautiful, the continent you arrive at is not a friendly place. And the path to sedative is filled with surreal monsters called Nevrons. The characters have melee and long-range attacks, but most importantly, they have a wide variety of unique skills, including elemental magic attacks and powerful attacks with multiple hits that have the opportunity to faint. Each member of the team has a special way to deal more damage. Maelle, for example, uses a defensive, offensive, or offensive combat stance inspired by fencing, while Lune’s magic can be spent creating a so-called dirt and making other spells more powerful. Add to this long list of optional passive skills called Pictos and there are a wide range of ways to instantly enhance your character. The interaction with building action points, using skills, dealing damage and defending is truly interesting, and I’ve tried out a variety of tactics, even though it means a lot of time was spent on the menu.
A mystery shrouded in mystery…Clair’s unclear: Expedition 33. Photo: Sandfall Interactive
It may feel overwhelming, but each new skill is gradually introduced, with persistent tool tips in the Battle menu listing the effects and costs of each skill. However, since Battles uses the Parry and Dodge system, Clair Obscur’s fighting can be a very challenge. At least, the battle will soon end if it is inevitable. Successful Parry has a narrower response window than dodge, allowing the character to answer with a powerful counter. Even the normal enemies kept me on my toes with many attacks, but the power to shake the absolute screen of the successful counter felt deeply satisfied each time. I got acceptance continuously because it’s right – it can get boring if you don’t get a hit of dopamine from occasional success, or it’s frustrating if you’re constantly struggling. Also, enemies occur very often. This is intended to increase the difficulty of assumptions, but can also lengthen the attack.
Developer Sandfall Interactive is very open about taking inspiration from Japanese role-playing games. Combat is certainly a prominent example, but I have seen influence everywhere. The menu design is as persona-inspired as combat, but the enemies are as surreal as Bloodborne’s horrifying work. But when it comes to storytelling, Clair Obscur shares the tendency that many JRPGs can make things overly complicated.
But the dialogue is well written and acted. Your party goes through incredibly bad times, but they will be open about it and try to support each other as much as they can. Optional conversations help you get to know everyone better. Some of Claire Obsul’s best writings can be found here. It is the main plot that ultimately gets things tired. Most often, Claire’s obscurity is the adult fantasy that Final Fantasy XVI tried to do. But it’s also a mystery, adding new questions and characters, for hours and hours until it’s all revealed in an absolute dump of late game information. The conversation, location and gameplay are repeated in the final third, and things feel like they are artificially extended.
Towards the end, Claire of Surre is always finding a saddest way out of just a few minutes ago, and he doesn’t want to force you through a long boss fight with operatic metal throughout the soundtrack. It also peaked with a very frustrating ending, making me question everything I spent hours. From combat to enemy design to music, everywhere else, they appreciated the epic talent of Claire of Thru, but too many tears, too many fights were ultimately made for a serious, fumble ending.
The formation of a large overpass 20 million years ago connected continents, influenced climate, separated oceans, and changed the course of evolution. According to recent papers published in Nature reviews the Earth and the environment, researchers from various disciplines such as plate tectonics, evolutionary anthropology, and climate research provide a comprehensive summary of the closure of the Tethys Seaway.
About 30 million years ago, the Earth looked drastically different. Africa was isolated from other continents, and the vast Thetis Ocean extended from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific oceans through the present-day Mediterranean.
However, approximately 20 million years ago, the first land bridge formed between Africa and Asia, dividing the Tethys Sea into the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas.
This land bridge allowed mammals like ancestors, giraffes, and elephants to migrate from Africa to Asia and Europe, influencing the evolution of both land and sea creatures and plants.
Scientists explain how they believe this land bridge was created. Around 50-60 million years ago, rock slabs descended into the Earth’s mantle, forming “conveyor belts” for hot rocks to rise in underground plumes.
About 30 million years later, these hot rocks reached the surface when tectonic plates collided, leading to the uplift of land that connected Africa for the first time in 75 million years.
According to Eivind Straume, a leading author of the study, the formation of this land bridge had a significant impact on continental configurations and evolutionary paths of animals migrating between Africa and Asia.
Researchers suggest that the closure of the Tethys Seaway has affected global climate, causing desertification in the Sahara, intensifying monsoon seasons in Southeast Asia, and enhancing marine biodiversity.
Research has revealed a significant decline in the use of evidence-based language in American political speeches since the 1970s.
Findings published in the journal Natural human behavior stemmed from an analysis of over 8 million speeches delivered in the US Congress over the last 140 years.
“We wanted to understand why some politicians who frequently lie are perceived as honest,” stated Dr. Segun Aroyehun, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Constance in Germany, as quoted in BBC Science Focus. “Often, it is because they speak about their beliefs and come across as genuine.”
Earlier research by Aroyehun and colleagues highlighted a shift in language usage among US Congress members towards belief-driven and intuitive language, departing from evidence-based language.
“There is a clear distinction between evidence-based truth and intuitive truth, where emotions play a crucial role,” Aroyehun explained.
To delve deeper, the team probed historical records to ascertain if this shift was a recent occurrence.
Utilizing machine learning models, the researchers combed through almost 150 years of Congress speeches, establishing a scoring system based on keywords signifying evidence-based or intuition-based language.
While evidence-based keywords comprised terms like “analysis”, “data”, “study results”, and “study”, intuition-based language included phrases such as “perspective”, “common sense”, “prediction”, and “believe”.
Both Republicans and Democrats have exhibited similar language changes in their political speeches over the past 140 years. – Getty
Each speech was assessed based on the evidence-intuition language ratio.
The results were striking. While the ratio fluctuated over the 140-year period, evidence-based language predominated until the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s before a shift took place. Since the 1970s, intuition-based language has gradually gained prominence.
Aroyehun noted that this trend applied to both Democratic and Republican politicians, with a recent uptick observed in evidence-based language among Democrats.
He underscored that the ratio does not determine the veracity of the speech content.
Nonetheless, these linguistic shifts have had repercussions. The team juxtaposed these changes with measures of legislative polarization and income inequality, observing a simultaneous decline in parliamentary productivity—measured by statute quantity and quality—over this period.
“The core message here is the significance of rhetoric,” Aroyehun emphasized. “The nature of truth pursuit reflected in US Congress language is integral to gauging social and political well-being.”
The team aims to employ similar methodologies to analyze speeches in Germany and Italy, tracking trends across diverse democracies.
About our experts
Segun Aroyehun is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the Social Data Science Group at the University of Constance. He holds a PhD from Centro derestigación Computación, IPN, focusing on devising robust strategies to combat offensive content on social media. His research has been featured in publications like Natural human behavior and Natural Communication.
The asteroid called Donald Johansson was captured by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft during a flyby on April 20, 2025. On the closest approach, the spacecraft was at a distance of 960 km (600 miles).
Donald Johansson is a carbonaceous asteroid located in the inner region of the main asteroid belt.
It was discovered by American astronomer Shertebas at the Siding Spring Observatory on March 2, 1981.
Donald Johansson had previously observed a large brightness variation over a 10-day period, so some of the expectations of members of the Lucy team were confirmed when the first image showed what appeared to be an elongated contact binary.
However, researchers were surprised by the strange shape of the narrow neck that connects the two leaves.
“The asteroid Donald Johansson has an incredibly complex geology,” says Dr. Hallevison, principal investigator at Lucy, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute.
“A detailed study of complex structures reveals important information about the building blocks and collision processes that formed planets in the solar system.”
This image of the asteroid Donald Johansson was taken by Lucy Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (l’lorri) by the closest approach from a 1,100 km (660 miles) range. Image credits: NASA/GODDARD/SWRI/JOHNS HOPKINS APL/NOIRLAB.
From a preliminary analysis of the first available images collected by the spacecraft L’Lorri Imager, Donaldjohanson appears to be larger than originally estimated.
“In this first set of high-resolution images returned from the spacecraft, we cannot see a perfect asteroid because the asteroid is larger than the imager’s field of view,” the scientists explained.
“It takes up to a week for the team to downlink the rest of the encounter data from the spacecraft. This dataset provides a more complete image of the overall shape of the asteroid.”
“The NASA Headquarters researcher, Dr. Tom Staller, a scientist with the Lucy Program,” said:
“When Lucy reaches the Trojan asteroid, the chances that she may truly open a new window into the history of our solar system are immeasurable.”
Lucy’s first asteroid flyby target, Dinkinesch and Donald Johansson, are not the main science targets of the mission.
As planned, Dinkinesh Flyby was testing the mission’s system, but the encounter was a full dress rehearsal, with the team conducting a series of close observations to maximize data collection.
Data collected by Lucy’s other scientific instruments, the L’Ralph Color Imager and infrared spectrometers and L’TES thermal infrared spectrometers, will be acquired and analyzed over the next few weeks.
Lucy spacecraft will spend most of the rest of 2025 traveling through the main asteroid belt.
Lucy will encounter the mission’s first major target, the Jupiter Trojan Novel, in August 2027.
A total of 156 million residents in the US, approximately 46% of the population, resided in areas with poor air quality that received an “F” grade from the American Lung Association due to ozone or particle pollution. This indicates a decline in the country’s air quality standards, as per the Association’s 26th Annual Air Quality Data Analysis.
An examination of data from 2021 to 2023 revealed a rise of about 25 million individuals living in unhealthy environments compared to the previous year’s survey results.
The report highlights the impact of climate change, such as increased heat, drought, and wildfire smoke, contributing to changes in air quality nationwide.
Katherine Pruitt, senior director of Clean Air Policy, expressed surprise at the significant increase in the number of people residing in areas with poor air quality, especially due to ozone degradation. She emphasized the influence of hot and sunny weather conditions on this deterioration.
In 2023, the final year of the Lung Association’s analysis, global temperatures recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were among the highest on record. The US experienced the fifth-highest temperatures in its history.
The spike in ozone levels, particularly in states like Texas facing intense heatwaves in 2023, was evident. Pruitt pointed out how towns like Del Rio endured temperatures exceeding 100 degrees for extended periods.
Additionally, heavy wildfire smoke significantly impacted air quality, with regions like the northeast being exposed to the most smoke in modern American history due to wildfires in Canada.
The growing threat of wildfire smoke has hindered progress made under the Clean Air Act, releasing particles that pose health risks. Recent studies indicate that around 25% of Clean Air Act progress has been reversed due to increased wildfire smoke.
Pruitt warned of ongoing environmental degradation and its consequences, emphasizing the need to address emission sources to combat these challenges.
The EPA’s plans to roll back environmental regulations, including revisiting programs under the Clean Air Act, have raised concerns about future air quality standards.
Bakersfield, California, was identified as having the most polluted air in the country from 2021 to 2023, ranking high for both short-term particle pollution and ozone pollution.
Using data from NASA’s transit exoplanetary survey satellite (TESS), MIT astronomers discovered a rocky exoplanet orbiting the bright K-Dwarf Star BD+05 4868A and observed variable transport depths, a feature of comet-like tails formed by the dusty effects expressing the distemination planet. This exoplanet-specific is the presence of a dust tail that is prominent in both subsequent and major directions, contributing to the extinction of starlight from the host star.
Impressions of the collapsed exoplanet artists around a giant star. Image credits: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT.
BD+05 4868A also known as TIC 466376085 or hip 107587, is about 140 light years away from the Pegasus constellation.
A new descattering named BD+05 4868AB approaches the star towards the sun at about 20 times the mercury, completing its orbit every 30.5 hours, but about the mass of mercury.
In close proximity to BD+05 4868A, the planet is roasted at about 1,600 degrees Celsius (3,000 degrees Fahrenheit) and may be covered in boiling magma in space.
Just as planets bubble around the stars, it strips off a huge amount of surface minerals and effectively evaporates.
MIT astronomer Marc Hon and colleagues discovered BD+05 4868AB using NASA’s Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
The signal that turned the astronomer over was a unique transport with a dip that all orbits were deeply fluctuating.
They confirmed that the signal is a tough orbital planet that has long been chasing comet-like fragments.
“The tail range is huge, extending up to 9 million km long, or about half the entire planet’s orbit,” Dr. Hong said.
“The planets collapse at a dramatic rate, and each time a star orbits the star, it appears to be throwing away the amount of material equivalent to Mount Everest.”
Researchers predict that the planet could completely collapse within about 1 to 2 million years.
Dr. Avi Shporer, an astronomer at MIT, said:
Of the almost 6,000 planets astronomers have discovered so far, scientists know only three other collapsed planets beyond our solar system.
Each of these crumbling worlds was discovered over a decade ago using data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. All three planets were found with similar comet-like tails.
The BD+05 4868AB has the longest tail to date and has the deepest transits from four known collapsed planets.
“That means that its evaporation is the most devastating and disappears much faster than other planets,” Dr. Hong said.
Archaeologists discovered and analyzed three hearths at the Upper Paleolithic site of Korman ‘9 (45,000-10,000 years ago) on the right bank of the Dniester River in Ukraine. Their findings show that ice age humans built different types of hearths, using mostly wood, but perhaps using bones and fat to burn fire.
Murphy et al. Provides a high-resolution Earth Character Study on three combustion features related to the profession of Epigravet on the Kolman 9 site in Ukraine, with age dropping to the last glacial maximum.
It is widely assumed that an important tool for human survival, especially in cold weather, is the ability to create, maintain and use fires.
Many literature provides data on the benefits of fire use regarding human evolution and its fundamental function in everyday life.
More recent research also shows the labor-intensive nature of using fireworks. The implication of fire use was not only an essential survival tool, but also played an important role in the way hunter-gatherer groups organize themselves.
This includes how hunter-gatherers acquire resources such as wooden fuel, how to initiate and maintain a fire if they store or cache fuel materials for future use, or how sites and activities are organized around the combustion function.
“The fire didn’t just keep it warm. It was also essential for cooking, making tools and social gatherings,” said Dr. Philip R. Nigust, an archaeologist at the University of Vienna.
“We know that fires have spread around this period, but there is little evidence from the height of the ice age,” added Dr. William Murfrey, an archaeologist at the University of Algarve.
In the current study, the researchers focused on the archaeological site of Komann 9 in Ukraine.
“Korman ‘9 is an Upper Paleolithic site on a north facing terrace on the right bank of the Dniester River in Ukraine,” they said.
“This site was discovered in 2012 while researching a site along the Dniester River.”
Through microstratigraphic analysis, microtransfer and colorimetric analysis, scientists have identified three flat wood furnaces.
One interesting discovery to come is that these fires have reached temperatures above 600 degrees Celsius, demonstrating a sophisticated mastery of fireworks even in the face of extreme environmental stresses.
The analysis also shows that humans use wood as the main fuel during peak ice ages, and charcoal analysis indicates spruce wood. However, other fuels such as bones and fat may be used.
“Some of the animal bones found on the site were burned in the fire at temperatures above 650 degrees Celsius,” said Dr. Majolaine D. Bosch, a museum of the University of Vienna zoo physician, Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Museum of Natural History.
“We are currently investigating whether they are being used as fuel or if they were accidentally burned.”
All three fireplaces are open and flat. However, the new results suggest that fire use was refined as it is likely that fireplaces were constructed and used in different ways each season.
One of the three fireplaces is large and thick, suggesting that a higher temperature was achieved here.
“People had full control over the fire and knew how to use it in a variety of ways depending on the purpose of the fire,” Dr. Nigust said.
“However, our results also show that these hunter-gatherers used the same location at different times of the year during their annual migration.”
William Chase Murfrey et al. 2025. The use of fires during the last Glacier largest era: evidence from the epigravet of Kolmann 9 in the Middle Donierster Valley in Ukraine. Geography 40(2): E70006; doi: 10.1002/gea.70006
New research led by astronomers at the University of Hawaii suggests that our universe could spin.
In the formation of the universe, gravity links galaxies with clusters of galaxies to construct vast co-nes-like structures that link hundreds of millions of light years along an invisible bridge. This is known as Cosmic Web. Image credit: Springel et al. / Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.
“To paraphrase the Greek philosopher Heracritus of Ephesus, he famously said Pantarei – he thought everything would change, perhaps Panta Kaicurtai – he thought everything would change.”
According to current models, the universe expands evenly in all directions with no signs of rotation. This idea fits most of what astronomers observe.
But that doesn’t explain the so-called Hubble tension. It is a long-standing discrepancy between two ways of measuring how quickly the universe is expanding.
One method examines distant exploding stars or supernovas to measure distances to galaxies, providing the magnification of the universe over the past billions of years.
Another method uses artefact radiation from the Big Bang, providing a very early universe expansion rate, about 13 billion years ago. Each gives a different value for the expansion rate.
Dr. Szapudi and his colleagues developed a mathematical model of the universe.
First, the model followed standard rules. They then added a small amount of rotation. Those small changes made a huge difference.
“To my surprise, we found that our model solves paradoxes without conflicting with current astronomical measurements,” Dr. Szapudi said.
“What’s even better is that it’s compatible with other models that assume rotation.”
“So perhaps everything really changes.
The team’s models suggest that the universe could turn once every 500 billion years.
“This idea does not break known laws of physics,” the astronomer said.
“And maybe it explains why measurements of space growth are completely disagreeable.”
“The next step is to turn the theory into a complete computer model and find ways to find signs of this slow, universe spin.”
Survey results It will be displayed in Monthly Notices from the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Balázs Endre Szigeti et al. 2025. Can rotation solve the Hubble puzzle? mnras 538(4): 3038-3041; doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf446
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T 18, Alex Warren found himself homeless in Carlsbad, California. He resorted to sneaking into a local gym for showers and toilet singing while preparing for job interviews and filming Tiktok videos. Fast forward six years later, and he is now a rising star in the world of pop music. His bold ballads have topped the UK charts for five consecutive weeks, making him the longest-running chart-topper of the year. Last week, he cracked the top ten in the US. Upon hearing the final version of his hit, he expressed his excitement, stating that he and his wife listened to it repeatedly during their entire drive home.
Despite potentially being a breakout hit, Warren was already quite famous. He gained recognition on social media by creating viral content, particularly with teenagers. In 2019, he filed a lawsuit against fellow content creators, including D’Amelio Sisters and Addison Rae, for their controversial internet videos during the Covid era, resulting in a hefty settlement. Additionally, he was a star on Netflix’s Hype House Show, where he went to great lengths to film prank videos, even staging a fake wedding with his real wife, influencer Kouvr Annon.
Warren has since transitioned to a more positive lifestyle, settling in Tennessee with Annon and embracing a new chapter in his life. Reflecting on his upbringing in a financially strained and abusive environment, Warren has found solace in his music, creating songs that resonate with his own struggles and hopes to provide comfort and inspiration to his fans.
Despite facing adversity and skepticism, Warren remains determined to share his music with the world. With a supportive team behind him, he aims to diversify his projects and connect with fans on a deeper emotional level. Through his music, Warren hopes to make a positive impact and spread messages of love and resilience.
The Environmental Protection Agency has initiated significant staffing changes by beginning the process of reducing hundreds of staff through a “power reduction” process.
Last month, the agency announced a large-scale rollback of environmental regulations, including key components of the Clean Air Act, with administrator Lieseldin vowing to undermine the fight against climate change.
In February, the EPA placed environmental justice staff on administrative leave and terminated some probationary workers. Many employees are now working remotely or engaging in telework.
The latest action by the agency involves the beginning of the termination process for around 280 workers who were involved in environmental justice and diversity, equity, and inclusive programs. Additionally, 175 EPA employees have been reassigned to new roles.
“Today, the EPA has informed employees focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion and environmental justice of the agency’s necessity to reduce personnel through the handbook and federal regulations governing the RIF procedure,” said EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou in an email statement. “Certain employees have also been notified of their reassignment to different offices as part of this process.”
NBC News has obtained a memorandum sent to employees affected by the power reduction, indicating that the reduced staffing levels at the EPA will come into effect on July 31st.
“President Trump’s election was a call to action from the American people, which includes issuing executive orders for significant changes within the federal bureaucracy to benefit American families, workers, taxpayers, and the government as a whole,” the memorandum explains. “We appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this transitional period.”
Every April, the Lilid Meteor Shower returns to our sky, offering the chance to get a glimpse of the fireballs across the sky.
Though not the most prolific meteor exhibit of the year, Lilid is a welcome treat for Stargazer.
All you need to know about Lilid in 2025 is when to look up, what to expect, how to get the best views and more.
When is Lyrid Meteor Shower 2025?
Lilid will be active from April 15th to 25th, 2025, and peak activity is expected on the evening of April 22nd early on April 23rd.
Your best bet is to still go out before dawn on April 23rd. The radiation point (the part of the sky where the meteor appears to come from) is the best.
Where to see Lilid
Lilids are emitted from the constellation Lyra, located near the bright star Vega, one of the easiest stars in the Northern Hemisphere.
Look east or northeast after midnight and let your eyes clean the sky. Meteors may appear in any direction rather than near meteors.
No telescopes or binoculars are required. In fact, it’s better to see the meteor shower with the naked eye and be able to take in as many sky as possible.
read more:
Can you hear the meteor?
Meteors, Asteroids, Comets: What’s the difference?
How can you tell that a metstone comes from a particular planet?
How many meteors are there?
Under a dark moonless sky, Lilids usually produce 10-15 meteors per hour, but sudden bursts can produce up to 100.
Lilid is known for being quick and sometimes bright, with strange fireballs thrown in properly.
The month around this time will pass the third quarter, so if it rises it will be very bright. Thankfully, this won’t last until around 4am (US and UK). This means you’ll get unobstructed meteor monitoring for hours.
Laila’s constellation. Vega is a bright star in the top right. – Getty
What causes the Lyrid Meteor Shower?
The Lyrid meteor is caused by the Earth passing through the traces of debris left by Comet Thatcher. It finally reached the approach closest to the sun in 1861, so it takes a long time to wait until our path comes again (c. 2276).
When comet dust and rock fragments collide at high speed in the atmosphere (approximately 50 km/s), they burn out and create stripes of light seen from the ground.
Lilid is actually one of the oldest recorded meteor showers. Chinese astronomers observed them over two to six hundred years ago.
Tips for viewing lyrids
Catching a meteor shower is not complicated, but some wise strategies can make all the difference.
Find a dark place It’s quite far from the city lights – less light pollution, the better.
Give me time to adjust my eyes In the darkness. It can take 20-30 minutes to see the sky at its best.
Wear warm clothesEven in spring. The temperature in the early morning can be chilly.
Lie down It allows you to comfortably scan the sky on a blanket or reclining chair.
be patient – Meteors have bursts and may take some time to catch good ones.
If you’re having trouble finding the sky you need, Technology helps. “Star Map apps like Sky Guide, Star Walk 2, and Stellarium will help you find Sky Vega and Lyra using your phone.” Dr. Sham Balajia researcher in space particle physics and cosmology at King’s College London.
“Many apps use augmented reality, so just point your phone in the sky and you’ll see where to look.”
Is this the best meteor shower of the year?
Not at all – that title is usually sent to Persade in August or Geminid in December.
However, Lilid is the first decent meteor shower for Northern Hemisphere observers, and could be surprisingly dramatic.
Additionally, for the UK people, they arrive during school holidays. So, if the sky is clear, it’s the perfect excuse to make a late family stargaze.
read more:
Can you hear the meteor?
Meteors, Asteroids, Comets: What’s the difference?
How can you tell that a metstone comes from a particular planet?
As part of Hubble’s 35th anniversary ceremony, astronomers have acquired a stunning new image of a rich collection of scattered stars. Messier 72.
This Hubble image shows the Messier 72, a spherical cluster about 50,000 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius. Image credits: NASA/ESA/Hubble/A. Sarajedini / G. Piotto / M. libralato.
Spherical clusters are a very old star system, coupled to a single structure, about 100-200 light-years by gravity.
They contain hundreds of thousands, or perhaps million stars. Large masses at the center of the rich stars in the cluster pull the stars inward to form a ball of stars.
Spherical clusters are one of the oldest known objects in the universe and are relics from the first era of the Galactic Layer.
It is believed that all galaxies have a population of spherical clusters. Our Milkyway Galaxy hosts at least 150 such objects, and could be hidden behind the thick disks of the Galaxy.
Messier 72 is It was located It is about 50,000 light years away from Earth, the constellation of Aquarius.
This spherical cluster, also known as the M72 or NGC 6981, is almost 9.5 billion years old.
Its apparent size is 9.4, and appears as a faint patch of light on a small telescope. The best time to observe it is September.
Messier 72 was the first one I discovered it In 1780, by Pierre Messine, a French astronomer and colleague of Charles Messier.
It is the first of the five-star clusters Mechine discovers while assisting Messier, and one of the most remote clusters in Messier’s catalog.
“Messier 72 is a particularly special target as it was the first image to be released in the Hubble Picture of the Week series on April 22, 2010,” Hubble Astronomers said in a statement.
“For 15 years, our team has been publishing new Hubble images every Monday for everyone to enjoy.”
“This has added nearly 800 images to the vast Hubble Image Archive over the years.”
“The impressive variety of star colours in the new Messier 72 images, especially compared to the original image, is the result of adding UV observations to previous visible light data,” they added.
“Colors indicate different types of stars.”
“The blue star is a cluster star originally larger, and after burning much of its hydrogen fuel, it now reaches a hotter temperature. The bright red object is a low-mass star that is now a red giant.”
“Studying these different groups will help you understand the spherical clusters and how the galaxies in which they were born were first formed.”
New genus and species of the Simotoidan isopod, which lived in the early Cretaceous period, have been identified from two well-conserved specimens found in Lebanon. Originating from the environment of freshwater lakes, this isopod provides an unconventional perspective on the evolutionary origins of Simotoids inhabiting living caves and groundwater.
Reconstruction of paleoenvironmental habitats Dysopodus gezei (Foreground): Valemian freshwater lake in the current Bkassine region of Lebanon. Image credit: Aldrich Hezekiah.
Dysopodus gezei He lived in a shallow freshwater lake in Lebanon (Epoch of the early Cretaceous period) about 125 million years ago.
This creature had an elongated body and was more than twice its width (total length 1.8-2.5 cm).
That was a type Isopodorder of crustaceans, including both aquatic and locally populated species.
“Isopoda is a diverse group of Malacostracan crustaceans, including more than 10,000 described organisms,” said Dr. Mario Södel, a paleontologist at the Senkenberg Centre at the University of Tenbingen, and his colleagues.
“Most living species lie in a variety of marine environments ranging from deep waters to sandy beaches and rocky coasts.”
“Isopoda can be considered primarily as a marine group, and it is most likely that the latest ancestor of all isopods is ocean.”
“But there are also many isopods that live outside the marine realm.”
“The species-rich group of isopodas – oniscidea – houses over 3,800 species, most of which live in a variety of fully terrestrial habitats.”
“Apart from the marine and terrestrial environments, isopods also live in brackish and freshwater environments, with about 1,000 described species living in freshwater.”
“Isopods have freshwater habitats colonized in multiple independent habitats, with a wide variety of different species in freshwater habitats, ranging from old to in some cases highly species-rich groups to single phylogenetically isolated species.”
Dysopodus gezei There were strong similarities to the living non-parasitic strains of Cirolanidaea group of isopods within subordered Shimotoida.
“The Shimotoida is a group of isopods that contain scavengers, predators, microrelets and parasites,” the paleontologist said.
“In this, finely repaired and parasitic species can form natural groups.”
“With Timotoida, many freshwater species are parasites that are likely to enter freshwater habitat along with hosts, either fish or crustaceans.”
“There are many representatives of Shimotoida (Shimotoida people – not confused with Shimotoids) throughout their lifetimes that are neither micropredata nor parasites.”
“These are often referred to as Cirolanidae, a group of morphologically distinct isopods.”
Dysopodus gezeiholotype. Image credits: Shadell et al. , doi: 10.1098/rsos.241512.
Two specimens of Dysopodus gezei It was excavated in Lebanon in 2003 and 2023.
“The specimen was found at the Lebanese Disol in Jdeidet Bkassine,” the researchers said.
“These layers correspond to finely stacked, organically rich deposits harvested in five mining areas within the Grace Duriban Alloformation, one in the north of Lebanon, one in the center, and three regions in southern Lebanon.
“All evidence shows a series of small shallow lakes and marsh areas near the volcanic buildings.”
The rarity of living freshwater silolanide species emphasizes the importance of discovery Dysopodus gezei As an extinct species that supports true freshwater archaeological fabrics, it not only has its history of evolution on earth, but also of the evolution of underground freshwater species.
“The discovery of new fossils represents the rare discovery of fossil isopods from freshwater habitats,” the scientist said.
“This places a new perspective on the origins of the existing non-parasitic freshwater simotoid people.”
“This finding does not disprove the colonization of cave and groundwater habitats through the cutting of underground species by regressing coastlines, but the presence of freshwater Simotoids in the eastern Tethian region during the early Cretaceous period gives a different light to the origins of living freshwater animals.”
“Additional specimens of this species may provide more morphological details, as they may maintain fine morphological details, and can then be used to draw more accurate conclusions between Cretaceous freshwater species and existing cave and groundwater fauna.”
Survey results Published in the April 2025 issue of the journal Royal Society Open Science.
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Mario Shadell et al. 2025. Freshwater isopods from 125 million years ago shed new light on the origins of underground freshwater species. R. Soc. Open SCI 12(4): 241512; doi: 10.1098/rsos.241512
Harvard Medical School’s cutting-edge microscopes have the potential to revolutionize cancer detection and lifespan research. However, a scientist who developed computer scripts to extract maximum information from the images found herself in immigration detention for two months, jeopardizing significant scientific advancements.
The scientist in question is 30-year-old Russian-born Xenia Petrova, who worked at Harvard’s renowned Kirschner Institute until her arrest at Boston Airport in mid-February. Currently detained at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, Petrova is fighting against deportation to Russia, where she fears persecution and imprisonment due to her participation in protests against the conflict in Ukraine.
The incident involving Petrova and the detention of scholars across the country have hindered American universities’ ability to attract and retain crucial talent, a concern raised by Petrova’s colleagues. In fields where expertise is highly specialized, the loss of talent could have grave global implications for the future of medicine and scientific discovery. Scientists and faculty members are contemplating leaving institutions nationwide out of fear that their visas may be revoked or impacted by immigration enforcement actions.
“It’s like a meat grinder,” Petrova, as per a person talking to NBC News from the Louisiana facility, described her situation. “We are all in this system, regardless of having a visa, green card, or a valid reason.”
Petrova’s first immigration court hearing in Louisiana is scheduled for Tuesday morning, where she expects more clarity on her asylum case. Dr. Leon Peshkin, a prominent research scientist at Harvard University’s Faculty of Systems Biology and Petrova’s supervisor, received a call from Customs and Border Protection on February 16, notifying him of Petrova’s detention at Logan International Airport for failing to declare a sample of frog embryos used in research.
International researchers are increasingly anxious about the Trump administration’s strict stance on illegal immigration, with concerns that these policies could deter other foreign scientists from coming to Harvard. Recent surveys indicate a significant portion of scientists are contemplating relocating to Europe or Canada due to actions taken by President Donald Trump.
Space Telescope Sciences Scientists According to a team of astronomers led by science scientists at the Sciences, highly ionized neon gas detected in the center of the Spiral Galaxy Messier 83 by a mid-inphrase instrument (MIRI) mounted on the NASA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.
This web image shows the Messier 83. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/A. Adamo, Stockholm University/Feast JWST Team.
Messier 83 is a spiral galaxy, a magnificently designed rod 15 million light years away from the southern constellations of Hydra.
Also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, M83, NGC 5236, Leda 48082, and UGCA 366, the galaxy is about twice as small as the Milky Way.
Messier 83 was like that I discovered it By French astronomer Nicholas Louis des Lacaille on February 17, 1752.
Its apparent size is 7.5, and is one of the brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky. It is the easiest way to observe using binoculars in May.
This is a prominent member of the galaxy group known as the Centaurus A/M83 group, counting the Dusty NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) and the irregular Galaxy NGC 5253.
Messier 83 has been a mystery for a long time. Large spiral galaxies often host active galactic nuclei (AGN), but astronomers have struggled to see what Messier 83 has been the case for decades.
Previous observations suggested that if a super-large black hole exists there, it must be dormant or hidden behind thick dust. However, new Webb observations reveal signs that suggest that this is not the case.
“The discovery of highly ionized neon emissions in the nucleus of the M83 was unexpected,” said Dr. Svea Hernandez, an astronomer with an ESA aura at the Institute of Space Telescope Science.
“These signatures require a lot of energy to be produced, rather than what a normal star can produce.”
“This strongly suggests the existence of a previously elusive AGN.”
“Before Webb we didn’t have the tools to detect such faintly ionized gas signatures at the nucleus of the M83.”
“Now, with incredible mid-red sensitivity, we can finally explore these hidden depths of the galaxy and uncover what we once couldn’t be seen.”
Webb’s mid-infrared observation allowed astronomers to peer into the dust and detect signs of highly ionized gases in small masses near the galactic nucleus.
The energy required to create these signatures is significantly higher than what supernovae and other great processes can offer, making AGN the most likely explanation.
However, alternative scenarios such as extreme shock waves in interstellar media are still under investigation.
“Webb is revolutionizing understanding of galaxies,” says Dr. Linda Smith, an astronomer at The Space Telescope Science Institute.
“For years, astronomers have been searching for the M83 black hole without success. Now we have compelling clues that could finally exist.”
“This finding shows how Webb is making unexpected breakthroughs.”
“Astronomers thought they had ruled out AGN on the M83, but now there is fresh evidence that they will challenge past assumptions and open new paths for exploration.”
Survey results It will be displayed in Astrophysical Journal.
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Svea Hernandez et al. 2025. JWST/MIRI detection [Ne v] and [Ne vi] M83: Evidence of a long-required active galactic nucleus? APJ 983, 154; doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adba5d
According to Borghammer’s “Aha” moment, it came almost 20 years ago. Neuroscientists were reading papers from researchers investigating REM sleep behavior disorders (RBD). This is a condition in which people develop dreams, often discovered in people who develop Parkinson’s disease, and may be a form of early neurological symptoms.
However, rather than starting from the brain, the team looked for the loss of nerve cells in the heart instead. Parkinson’s disease has historically been linked to depletion of neurons in the brain, but it also affects cardiac neurons that manage autonomic nervous functions such as heart rate and blood pressure. And say Borgamer“In all these patients, the heart is invisible. It’s gone.”
Of course, it’s not literal. However, in these people, neurons that produce the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which helps control heart rate, were depleted to the point that the heart did not appear on scans using radioactive tracers. This type of neuronal loss is linked to Parkinson’s disease, but no one was diagnosed with the disease at the time, and brain scans appeared to be normal.
What struck Borghammer was that Parkinson’s disease appears to have not followed the same trajectory in all affected people. Although RBD strongly predicts Parkinsonson’s predictions No one has Parkinson’s experience. RBD.
now, jiang he At the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas and his colleagues are directly considering the effectiveness of drugs that lower blood pressure for dementia and cognitive impairment.
They studied 33,995 people in rural China. They were all over 40 years old and had high blood pressure. Participants were split into one of two random groups, each with an average age of approximately 63 years.
On average, the first group actively received three antitherapeutic drugs, such as ACE inhibitors, diuretics, or calcium channel blockers, actively ensuring lower blood pressure. They also coached home blood pressure monitoring and lifestyle changes that help to reduce blood pressure, such as weight loss and alcohol and salt intake.
Another set treated as a control group achieved local treatment levels with the same coaching and more general levels of treatment, including on average one drug.
At follow-up appointments 48 months later, participants were tested for blood pressure and measured for signs of cognitive impairment using a standard questionnaire.
Concerns about hypertension begin when a person’s systolic pressure exceeds 130 mm mercury (mmHg) or when diastolic pressure exceeds 80 mmHg. blood pressure It has exceeded 130/80.
On average, many people who received the medication lowered their blood pressure from 157.0/87.9 to 127.6/72.6 mmHg, while the control group was able to take it from 155.4/87.2 to just 147.7/81.0 mmHg.
The researchers also found that 15% fewer people who received multiple drug therapies during the study received dementia diagnosis compared to the control group, and 16% suffered from cognitive impairment.
“The results of this study demonstrated that lowering blood pressure is effective in reducing the risk of dementia in patients with uncontrolled hypertensive conditions,” he says. “This proven and effective intervention should be widely adopted and expanded to alleviate the global burden of dementia.”
“Over the years, many people know that blood pressure is likely a risk factor for dementia. Zachary Malcolm At Washington University in Seattle.
Raj Shah Rush University in Chicago says it’s helpful to add evidence that treating high blood pressure can help stop dementia, but that’s just one of the dementia puzzles, as we affect brain abilities as we age.
“You need to treat hypertension for multiple reasons,” says Shah. “Because of people’s longevity and happiness, they can age healthyly over time.”
Marcum also says people should think more broadly than just blood pressure to avoid dementia. He says there is Other known risk factors This is associated with an increased risk of dementia, including smoking, inactivity, obesity, social isolation, and hearing loss.
And many factors are more influential at different stages of life. To reduce the risk of dementia, “a holistic approach is needed throughout your life,” says Shah.
Newly discovered Green Comet is being tracked by a telescope, which suggests it may break apart as it approaches the sun. Naked Eye Spectacle.
Comet Swan from the Oort Cloud Beyond Pluton has been visible through telescopes and binoculars in recent weeks, but experts suggest it may not have survived its most recent journey. Travel past the sun and is fading rapidly.
“We’ll soon be left with a dusty cleavage pile,” stated astrophysicist Carl Battamus in an email.
A newly discovered comet swan on April 6th.Mike Orathon via the AP
Comets are frozen balls of gas and dust from billions of years ago that frequently pass through the inner solar system.
“These are artifacts from when the solar system first formed,” explained Jason Ibarra, director of the West Virginia University Planetarium and Observatory.
The latest comet was spotted by amateur astronomers who used photos from cameras on a spacecraft operated by NASA and the European Space Agency to study the sun.
Unlike Tsuchinshan-Atlas, comets do not come close to Earth. Other notable flybys include Neowise in 2020, and from the 1990s, Halebop and Hi-Aku Take.
A newly discovered comet swan with a streaming tail on April 6th. Mike Orathon via the AP
The comet, also known as C/2025 F2, would have been visible just after sunset, slightly north of the sun. Its green color may be challenging to see with the naked eye.
This was the first journey past the sun for this object, making it particularly susceptible to disintegration, according to Batam. After the flyby, the remainder of the comet vanishes into the outer reaches of the solar system, believed to be its birthplace by scientists.
“I don’t know if it’s ever coming back,” noted Batam.
When you like giant objects Neutron Star and Black Hole Merge or when Supernova If it explodes in a far distance of space, it creates a final product smaller than an object that collides or erupts. The mass they lose is converted to energy according to Einstein’s famous equation E = MC2 Moves in the form of distortions in space. Scientists call these distortions Gravity wavesand they can indirectly detect them by studying how waves interfere with the observation of other distant objects, or directly interfere in facilities such as Laser interferometer gravitational wave astronomy Or ligo.
Scientists working on the Ligo project have discovered that most of the gravitational waves they detect come from the fusion of two black holes. However, these scientists don’t know how these pairs of black holes converge. So far, they have two broad theories about how this happens. The first is when a large star transforms into a black hole, drifting in close proximity due to the complexity of pushing and pulling other nearby objects. These duos are called It was formed dynamically Binary pair. The second is that two giant stars begin their lives in binary pairs before transitioning to a pair of black holes. These duos are called It is formed primitively Binary pair. Scientists cannot use LIGO data to distinguish between these two types of black holes. Can only be detected if integrated. Therefore, there are other ways to know how they merged.
A team of astrophysicists at Cardiff University used a series of computer simulations to test tests that the theory of black hole mergers is likely to reflect the real world. They use the astrophysical collision modeling code PETAR to group or cluster Stars, including black holes pioneers, have evolved over millions of years, and which scenarios have led to the merger of black holes.
The team created 35 model star clusters that vary by size, with a total mass of 1,000,000 times the total mass of the sun’s mass of all constituent stars, how close the stars are, and the percentage of the non-helium-helium-like elements of helium called hydrogen or helium. Metallic. They determined the size of a particular star within these clusters using statistical distributions ranging from 0.08 to 150 times the mass of the sun. Next, we divide the specific variations of cluster size, star density, and metallicity into two model versions. One had no primitive binary pairs, and the other had more than 20 times the sun’s binary companions.
Researchers looked for general trends in how the simulation progressed. They discovered four million years later that the first black hole formed from the largest star was a pair of binary black holes and black holes stars. Simulations using primitively formed pairs showed that binary black holes formed faster around the same time as the first black holes appeared. In simulations without primitively formed pairs, binary pairs still appeared through dynamic processes, but only after millions of years it was at the very heart of a star cluster. In both simulations, the clusters discharged many of the binary black holes on a sufficiently long timescale and quickly integrated.
Final statistical analysis of 35 model star clusters showed that, unless there are large binary stars when formed in star clusters, the majority of black hole mergers come from primitive binary pairs. They also found no clear relationships between how large and dense the star cluster was and the number of dynamic mergers it generated. Dynamic mergers are relatively rare, but we saw how frequently metals in star clusters occurred. They also reported that a small portion of the merged black hole pairs are part of a larger group of three or four black holes!
The team admitted that they rely on a model of binary star evolution, where their outcomes remain uncertain. However, their conclusions argued that many astrophysicists challenged the core assumption that the most detected black holes merged from large, dense clusters of stars. By showing that primitive binaries are the dominant source of mergers, and knowing that most stars form in small clusters, they argued that most ligo detections are likely to come from small star clusters in the distance of the universe.
In the UK’s new regulatory regime, drones are expected to be used for remote NHS-related missions and to inspect offshore wind turbines and supply oil rigs by 2026.
David Willett, head of the government forces overseeing the deployment of new technology in the UK, highlighted the potential of drones in various missions as changes progress in the coming year.
The Minister recently announced plans to allow drone operators to fly long distances without requiring visual gaze, a significant shift from current regulations that restrict drones from flying beyond visual range.
Speaking to the Guardian, Lord Willett mentioned the potential for drones to serve the NHS and other sectors, citing examples of delivering supplies, drugs, and blood samples to remote locations.
He also discussed the potential benefits of using drones in the Scottish Highlands and islands, as well as in agriculture, under the government’s Safer Streets Fund.
Willett emphasized the need for technology and standards to allow drones to operate in busy airspaces and comply with regulations.
By 2026, drones could also be used for tasks like delivering supplies to oil rigs and inspecting offshore wind turbines, although current regulations require maintaining a visual gaze.
The government has allocated £16.5 million to civil aviation authorities to establish a regulatory framework for the use of drones in various missions, addressing the limitations of current regulations.
The NHS has already conducted trials involving the use of drones to deliver emergency pathological items in central London, demonstrating the potential for drones in healthcare and other sectors.
UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle expressed confidence that changes in regulations will position the UK as a leader in adopting new technologies.
“These regulatory innovations pave the way for safer and more efficient drone operations in various sectors, ensuring compliance with regulations and enhancing capabilities,” Willett concluded.
Consumers are increasingly opting for SIM-only transactions over bundled mobile deals that include new phones and data contracts, as they offer better value, analysts say.
The trend of choosing SIM-only transactions signifies a shift from the previous norm of combining phones and contracts. A survey by CCS Insight reveals that over 40% of people currently prefer SIM-only deals, a significant increase from ten years ago when they were less common.
Analyst Joe Gardiner highlights that transitioning to SIM-only transactions can lead to substantial cost savings, as consumers are not obligated to pay for bundled devices’ value.
In the UK, more customers are purchasing SIM-free phones from non-carrier channels like Apple and Samsung, with 4.4 million new mobile phones sold in 2024, according to Gardiner.
Switching to SIM-only deals can be advantageous, especially as contract prices rise. The flexibility and potential cost savings make it an appealing option for many.
Why should I change?
Buying a mobile phone and contract together often proves to be less cost-effective, as consumers are tied to a contract for up to two years. Switching to SIM-only deals offers more freedom and financial benefits in the long run.
Various studies have shown that transitioning to SIM-only transactions can lead to significant savings, with potential annual savings of up to £350 for users.
More players, more value
Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) have introduced more competition in the market, offering consumers a wider range of providers to choose from. These smaller players often excel in flexibility, customer service, and pricing compared to larger network operators.
Providers like ID Mobile, Giffgaff, Lycamobile, and Tesco Mobile operate on the infrastructure of major networks, providing consumers with diverse options.
Best Offers on the Market
Uswitch ranks TalkMobile’s SIM-only deal with unlimited data at £16 per month as the market’s best value offer. Other providers offer competitive deals with varying data allowances to suit different preferences and budgets.
How to switch
Please text “Information” to 85075 to check for any contract obligations before switching to a new provider. Early exit fees should be considered before making the transition.
If you have contracts ending at different times for data and phone services, plan ahead to maintain uninterrupted usage.
Retailers like Apple offer interest-free finance options for buying new phones, while some providers offer flexible payment plans. It’s essential to avoid contracts with high-interest charges.
An income disparity among friends can create conflict. A survey conducted by US financial services company Bread Financial last year revealed that 26% of respondents felt they were “financially incompatible” with their friends, and 21% said they had ended friendships due to financial reasons.
Talia Roderick emphasizes the importance of addressing the wealth gap between money coaches and friends. She notes, “It’s easy for friendships to suffer because money can be such a contentious issue.”
When dining with friends, it’s crucial to discuss how costs will be divided before receiving the bill. This can be a contentious topic. A survey conducted by a comparison website in the dining industry found that 34% believed bills should be split evenly, including tips, while 36% preferred splitting based on individual expenses.
Vivi Friedgut, the founder and CEO of Black Bullion, a free money management app for students, stresses the importance of having open and honest conversations about cost-sharing, whether for household items or dining out.
…Especially in University Settings
Vivi Friedgut, founder and CEO of Black Bullion, emphasizes the need for open and honest conversations. Photo: Room Agent/Aramie
Tom Allingham, Communications Director for The Money Website Save the Student, highlights the common practice of saying, “I’ll pay this time, and you can get the next one.” However, over time, this can lead to imbalances. Allingham explains, “Eventually, one person ends up owing much more than the other.”
Student finances can further complicate matters. According to recent data, most students face a £504 shortfall each month beyond their maintenance loans, leading to disparities within friend groups when splitting expenses.
Utilize Apps to Simplify Splitting Costs
Use apps to streamline bill-splitting. Photo: City Image/Alamy
There is an array of apps and services available to simplify splitting costs among multiple individuals. It’s recommended to explore these options to find the best fit for your specific needs.
One popular bill-splitting app is Splitwise, which allows users to track shared expenses like rent, holidays, meals, and travel costs.
For UK users, Splid is another useful app that supports over 150 currencies and offline functionality, making it ideal for group travel.
Apps like these can help alleviate the awkwardness of splitting costs and promote fairer divisions, as noted by Roderick.
Allingham suggests that apps like Splitwise are particularly effective for splitting minor expenses among friends, such as coffee outings.
Explore Your Bank’s Bill-Splitting Services
Some banks provide bill-splitting services. Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Rex Shutterstock
While Natwest’s Housemate app was well-received for bill splitting, it has since been discontinued. Other banks offer similar tools to facilitate cost-sharing.
Digital banks like Monzo, Starling Bank, and Crew offer features like Split, Split the Bill, and group-based spending options to help users manage joint expenses and split bills easily.
Revolut also enables customers to split bills with other users, providing another convenient option for simplifying group expenses.
oOn Saturday afternoon in Central Park in Shenzhen, a teenage girl gag evacuates from a drizzle under a concrete canopy. Putting stacked bags of potato chips in front of them, they swarm around some smartphones and sing towards the Mandoppo ballad. Their laughter rang across the grass around them, until they drilled holes in a mechanical, lively sound. Someone ordered dinner.
A few meters away from the improvised karaoke session is the “Airdrop Cabinet.” This is one of over 40 things in Deep Shenzhen, run by Meituan, China’s largest food delivery platform. The Hungry Park offers everything you can order, from rice noodles to subway sandwiches and bubble tea.
Loaded with items from a shopping mall less than 3km, drones watch, listen, listen, hover over the delivery station before lowering and depositing the items in a sealed box that can only be unlocked by entering the customer’s phone number. Dinner is served with non-humans. Meituan aims to beat human delivery times by about 10%, perhaps for a journey through the clouds in a thin polystyrene box.
The drone will take off from the rooftop of a shopping mall in Shenzhen, China on April 3, 2025. Photo: Anthony Kwan/The Guardian
Drones are just a part of the broader robotics and artificial intelligence industry that China intends to expand this year.
With the trade war furious, demographic challenges are dragged into the economy, and the prospects for productive relationships with the world’s largest economy seem farther than ever. Chinese leaders see artificial intelligence as key to solving problems created by the shrinking workforce, upgrading its military power, and solving the source of public pride, especially if Chinese companies avoid US-led sanctions on core technologies. And as technology companies have tried to crack down on excessive wealth and influence outside of the control of the Xi Jinping state, which has been shunned by Chinese leaders for many years, Xi’s neighbors are welcomed by folds as they seek to restore confidence in the private sector and encourage domestic innovation.
In March, Prime Minister Li Qiang promised to “unleash the creativity of the digital economy” with a special focus on “embodied AI.” Guangzhou, including the deep Shenzhen high-tech hub, is at the forefront of this movement. The state government recently announced 60m yuan (£6.4m) in new funding for the innovation centre. In particular, Demi Shenzhen is known as China’s drone capital due to its progressive approach to drone regulation, allowing the “low-altitude economy” to develop faster than the rest of the country. China’s Civil Aviation Authority predicts the sector’s value will increase by 3.5TN Yuan by five times over the next decade.
Drones aren’t the only ones who promise or threaten the tempo of Chinese urban life. Humanoid robots are particularly lively. The highlights of this spring festival gala have been seen almost 1.7 billion times, A dance performed by a group of humanoid robots It was created by a company called Unitree. On Saturday, the world’s first humanoid vs humanity – half marathon – took place in the suburbs of Beijing.
The robots will be participating in Saturday’s race. Photo: Ng Han Guan/AP
Rui Ma, a Chinese technology analyst and investor based in San Francisco, said: This shift will enable industry growthIn 2025, it’s much faster than in the past few years. Reinforcement learning means training robots to learn from experience rather than relying on hard models, training humanoid robots in months rather than years, speeding up the pace of innovation. Toy robot dogs are already part of everyday life in China. At Yiwu’s wholesale market, a trade hub in Zhijiang province in eastern China, mothers stay with exporters beyond the price of eyelashes while children play with robotic dogs. In Streets in Shanghaiwoman walking robot dog. This carries a shopping basket on its back.
The drone run by Meituan, which has been loaded with products, will take off from the rooftop shopping at Shenzhen, China on April 3, 2025. Photo: Anthony Kwan/The Guardian
The development of China’s robotics industry is closely linked to advances in AI. For years, China has been catching up to the US. XI wants to promote economic growth through “new quality productivity” that includes advanced technology.
Many in Washington fear that the US lead is narrowing. One of the main tools in the US arsenal controls a critical part of the supply chain of semiconductors, the microchips used to train advanced AI models. The US has restricted exports of its most sophisticated chips to China. This is part of a strategy that former national security adviser Jake Sullivan described as “highfence” with the most strategically valuable technologies in the United States.
However, in January, a previously unknown Chinese company called Deepseek sets the Chinese technological scene and releases the R1, a massive linguistic inference model, to perform at a price that leads its US competitors. The model wiped out 1TN from Wall Street’s main technology index, causing a stock market crash as investors feared that US pole positions in high-tech races were no longer guaranteed.
“You can’t stress too much how crazy it is,” says MA.
Since then, China’s AI industry has been filled with optimism. As an answer to China’s long-term and sustainable growth, it was already being promoted by the government, and now the people are beginning to believe it, says Ma.
Meituan drones remove orders at the “Airdrop Cabinet” in Shenzhen, China. Photo: Meituan
Li Shuhao, a Guangzhou-based high-tech entrepreneur who founded AI marketing company TEC-DO in 2017, was in the US when the Deepseek moment happened. Suddenly, he says, “It was much easier to arrange an interview and a meeting with other AI scientists.”
“Deepseek is like a symbol of the oriental way of doing business,” says Li, a confessed “metal head” surrounded by electric guitars and drum kits in her Guangzhou office. He mentions a strategy by Deepseek founder Liang Wenfeng, who will fund it through his own hedge funds rather than seeking external venture capital funds. “This is how a typical Chinese entrepreneur thinks: survive first and then do something new.”
Deepseek has published the work as open source. This is a principle that the government has long supported and a move that encouraged the widespread adoption of the model. Robotics is a special beneficiary.
Technology is the top priority
The robot supply chain can be roughly divided into three areas: brain, body, and application of technology in the real world. China has long been confident in its capabilities in the latter two regions. The advanced supply chains of other high-tech industries, such as electric vehicles and autonomous drones, show that China has both the ability to produce large-scale industrial components and the ability to assemble them into complex commodities. However, once you solved the most difficult part of the puzzle, it was elusive to create a robotic brain that could learn human-like behavior and movements. You need sophisticated AI.
Deepseek’s R1 model is changing the game and hosting ways for domestic humanoid robot companies to keep up with their international competitors, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a recent memo. The fact that Deepseek’s open source model uses less advanced chips can help level the playing field for Chinese companies.
Engineers will train humanoid robots at the Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre in Shogan Park, Beijing, China on March 28, 2025. Photo: Beijing Youth Daily/VCG/Getty Images
The industry still has its challenges. AI models require a large amount of data to train. While LLM, used for things like chatbots, can draw out a vast universe of content, the Internet, the data in robotic AI models is relatively scarce info on how to physically move spaces and interact with objects and people.
Another sector in which China is focused, the car should be able to navigate six axes, or “degrees of freedom”, forward and rear, left and right, up and down, and rotations between these positions. The same goes for general robotics, such as Meituan’s food delivery loan. To enable humanoid robots to mimic humans on everyday tasks such as cooking, they need up to 60 degrees of freedom. There is a 27 H1 model of Unitree that caused a splash on Spring Gala.
A robot does not have to be completely humanoids to be useful. A wheel or humanoid robot with limited movement can take on automated ripe tasks, such as dangerous or repetitive factory work. Based in Shenzhen, Ubtech has already supplying humanoid robots to its car factories. With a shrinking workforce, China is keen to find ways to automate as much as possible.
The organizers, which was the Boao Forum for Asia last month, business meeting, were keen to cook Jianbing, Delicious pancakes are typical Chinese street food made with the robot arms of the booth, similar to the claws that collect toys packed in an arcade (the resulting snacks weren’t as crisp as humans made). Beijing’s parks have increased their surveillance capabilities by pasting cameras into autonomous buggies running along the path.
The humanoid robot will perform at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum) Annual Meeting held in Beijing, China’s capital, on March 27, 2025. Photo: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock
British companies are being advised to conduct job interviews via video or in-person to avoid the risk of inadvertently hiring North Korean employees.
The caution comes after analysts noted that the UK has become a prime target for misinformed IT workers recruited by North Korea. These individuals are typically hired to work remotely, evade detection, and funnel earnings back to Kim Jong-un’s regime.
In a recent report, Google revealed an incident from last year involving a lone North Korean operative, with at least 12 aliases operating across Europe and the US. These IT workers were seeking positions in defense and government sectors. The new tactic involves fake IT professionals threatening to leak sensitive company data post-termination.
John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, highlighted North Korea’s shift towards Europe, particularly targeting the UK.
He explained, “North Korea is feeling the heat in the US and has shifted its focus to the UK to expand its IT worker tactics. The UK offers a broad spectrum of businesses in Europe.”
Fraudulent IT worker schemes typically involve individuals with a physical presence in countries aided by “facilitators” or agents of North Korea.
These facilitators play crucial roles like providing fake passports and maintaining local addresses. Laptops used by these individuals often connect to servers in Pyongyang, not their current location. However, they seek jobs that offer unique devices for easier monitoring.
“Ultimately, having a physical presence in the UK is key to their expansion strategy across various sectors in the country,” mentioned Hultquist.
Hultquist suggested that conducting job interviews in-person or via video could disrupt North Korea’s tactics.
Sarah Kern, a North Korean specialist at cybersecurity firm SecureWorks, emphasized that the threat is more widespread than perceived by companies.
She recommended thorough candidate screening and HR education on deception tactics. Companies should prioritize in-person or video interviews to verify the legitimacy of potential employees.
“In the US, conducting in-person or video interviews to verify candidates’ background details is effective in ensuring you’re engaging with truthful candidates,” she added.
Kern noted that IT workers may propose unconventional methods like frequent address changes or the use of money exchange services over traditional bank accounts.
Bogus IT experts are infiltrating Europe through online platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Telegram. Upwork stated that attempts to use false identities go against their terms of service, and they take strict action to remove such individuals.
As pointed out by Kern, North Korean IT workers often try to avoid video interviews, likely due to their working conditions in cramped spaces resembling call centers.
tThis is some kind of guy looking at Google Maps for fun. I’m that guy. As a child, I went through the stages of cartography, drawing elaborate maps of fictional islands, peering into the family’s road supervision, working to ensure that the lines and dots of overcrowded pages were harmonized in the eyes of my mind, the shops, and friends’ homes. You can say that the phase never really ended.
Just like some people measure IMDB entries in movies, whenever I start watching the second time, whenever I come across an interesting town, country, or geographical oddity (often in the news business), I burn maps to see what bites of terrain I can discover. I’m not a Geoguessr Savant, but I spent a lot of fun time getting confused by the interesting enclaves and Panhandles and getting tired of the faraway parts of Street View. After finishing a recent episode of Severance, I opened the tab and took an armchair tour through the remote Newfoundland filmed.
I’m not revealing exactly the mystical corners of the internet here. Google Maps is very ubiquitous and has become a utility – I feel like I’ll admit to opening it and praise the virtue of the calendar app or call Centrelink Just to enjoy hold music. There are many other decent navigation apps, but the special source for Google Maps is a mountain of user-generated data.
The key to the power of Google Maps is the compulsive “local guide” volunteer workforce. Clicking on these profiles makes it vaguely illegal, as if you’re tracking it for ASIO. These are users who record every move, gathering hundreds of reviews, from restaurants to payphones, detailing opening hours, accessibility features, and taking the worst food photos you’ve ever seen. I don’t understand these people and their points and badge currency, but I am grateful to them. There are men who reviewed all the public mailboxes in Ballarat and expressed their opinions on all of them. My nearest bus stop has a 3.3 star rating and a single review: “It’s just a bus stop.” got it!
Flumpy: Google’s Neighborhood Cat is a map with (almost) complete ratings. Photo: Google Maps
Some Google Maps discoveries feel like they’re stumbling over other people’s private jokes. Not too far from my girlfriend’s house, the inconspicuous tarmac is dubbed “Tristan’s Roundabout” – The review tab boasts tourist selfies and comically exaggerated admiration for Tristan of the same name, responding in equally enthusiastic terms to reviewers comparable to intersections.
On Google Maps, this roundabout list includes “tourist selfies and comically exaggerated admiration.” Photo: Google Maps
In the surrounding streets, reviewers can be found waxing more lyrical than local attractions. Hole in the ground or Abandoned trailerand the friendly orange cat that writes a sparkling tribute terrible. When I pass through these waypoints as I move around my neighborhood it feels like a digital scavenger hunt. This is the act of realizing and recording small habits of suburban life.
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Maps are packed with political and imperialist symbolism, and Google is mostly more responsible for the dire state of the Internet. At the moment, we are confident that product managers are brainstorming how to put shoes on the maps even more AI slops. But for now, when the internet feels like a constant flow of noise, it’s nice to relax by slowly wrapping around your neighborhood.
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