Is this new LEGO model hinting at the frightening reflections of life in the mirror?

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Feedback is the latest science and technology news of new scientists, the sidelines of the latest science and technology news. You can email Feedback@newscientist.com to send items you believe readers can be fascinated by feedback.

Toy trouble

Feedback may be middle-aged, but while it makes the dotage persist, we are not ashamed to admit that we enjoy playing with Lego. So we were naturally intrigued to learn about the “set” released on March 1st.Stem evolution” (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

Builds are a treasure trove of stem-related objects. An apple tree with a DNA double helix, a space shuttle and an Isaac Newton stood nervously beneath it. They all erupt from the pages of a public book, accompanied by minifigures of chemist Marie Scowdowska Curie and agricultural scientist George Washington Carver.

It has a slightly confusing appearance, but it has deeper issues, Reddit thread Flagged us by news editor Jacob Aron; At least one reviewer. It’s very simple: DNA is the wrong way. Many biological chemicals are either left or right-handed, and in terrestrial life, DNA is always right-handed, while LEGO’s DNA molecules are left-handed.

Feedback suggested that despite what experts say, we should go ahead and build a mirror organism where important molecules have a dominant hand that is opposite to existing lives. But then we saw it Jay’s Brick Blog He had already made that statement in their reviews.

Instead, we invite paleontologists around the world to find something wrong Meter long T. Rex Skeleton Kit Lego was released on March 15th. We need to stop buying it.

The thoughts that took part?

The specific tired inevitability has led many large energy companies to rewind their commitment to renewable energy, which prefers to chase immediate profits from fossil fuels.

In late February, BP announced it Boost Oil and gas investments increased by around 20%, cutting renewable energy funds by more than $5 billion. It says this is to maximize shareholder returns. Alas, the company’s net profit was only $8.9 billion in 2024. Ah, how their hands were tied up.

On the day this announcement was made, the story was presented in the UK BBC News Homepage – One headline: “Half of Homes will need a heat pump by 2040,” the government said. Feedback briefly joined some points in our added mind. It reminds me that it’s okay. People in suits know what they’re doing.

After all, BP is not alone. A few weeks ago, Shell released the full results for 2024, but it noted that it had Reduce capital expenditures For renewable energy, it ranges from $2.3 billion to $2.1 billion. Last year, that Abandoned the 2035 emissions target. Similarly, in December, Exxon made plans. Increases that oil and gas 18% output by 2030.

In Rephrase FuturamaPhilip J. Fry: The feedback is shocking. shock! Well, I wasn’t so shocked.

The whole saga begins to wonder whether “corporate strategy” is an equal contradiction with “military information.” In the early 2000s, BP reformed from “British oil” to “beyond oil” and began to show its intention to embrace renewable energy. Then, after the cost of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it abandoned everything and brought its focus back to fossil fuels. Fast forward to 2020 and to the company announcement A new target raft for renewable energy – many of them are now I’m getting far away Due to this recent decline in funding.

If the feedback is indecisive, it will be hard to decide how to wrap this around.

Crunch the numbers

Reporter Michael Le Page draws our attention Journal of Geek Studies. Despite its (somewhat) formal sound name, it is not peer-reviewed, but it publishes “an original contribution that combines academic topics with nerds.”

Therefore, the paper Michael found was published on March 8th and is titled “.When fighting Lancer, are bones a viable weapon? Estimate bite force of intergalactic megapredator“.

For readers unfamiliar with what a rancor is, it is a large reptile-like monster located underground in Jabba, the Palace of Hat Jedi ReturnLuke Skywalker fights. Another Lancer appeared in the 2021 series Boba Fett’s bookBut the less said about it, the better.

Authors Thomas Clements and Stephan Lautenschlager are trying to understand one key moment Jedi Return. To avoid eating, Luke picks up the long bones, lodges vertically to Lancer’s mouth, and opens his jaw. However, Luke’s reprieve is temporary, and Lancer is biting so hard that he smashes his bones into two.

Is this viable? The pair simulates the muscles and bones of Rancor’s jaw, and estimates that they could bite with the force of around 44,000 Newtons. “It allows you to snap large, long bones vertically.” Reassuring, “The bite power of living vertebrates does not approach rancor,” the great white shark and salted crocodile show off 16,000 to 18,000 Newtons.

During his journalistic career, feedback was repeatedly told by his editors, and repeatedly told to write stories that led to practical advice and “news that can be used.” Well, it’s here. Reader: Every time you challenge the crocodile territory, have one or two femurs just in case.

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You can send stories to feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Include your home address. This week and past feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Tesla backers insist Musk should lessen involvement with Trump, according to 46,000 CyberThieves.

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Tesla and Elon Musk are currently facing a “brand tornado crisis moment,” and the CEO of the electric car company is being urged to step down by Donald Trump.

A warning was issued stating that Tesla would be recalling 46,000 cybertrucks in the US on Thursday to address issues with external panels coming loose while driving.

This development comes as protesters announced plans for a major demonstration against EV manufacturers, including Tesla.

Tesla’s stock has seen a significant decline over the past month due to various concerns, including the influence of Musk’s ties to the Trump administration and his involvement in the DOGE (Government Efficiency Sector).

Financial analyst Dan Ives described Doge’s impact on Musk as damaging to his personal reputation and business.

Ives warned investors of a potential crisis facing Tesla and Musk, citing protests at Tesla showrooms and destruction of vehicles.

He emphasized the need for Musk to step back from his role in Doge and formally announce his resignation as Tesla’s CEO to prevent further damage to the company’s reputation.

Additionally, Ives called for a clear roadmap for new vehicle releases and the deployment of self-driving vehicles in June to reassure investors.

Protest groups like Tesla Takedown have organized “Action Day” protests against Tesla and Musk worldwide, condemning Musk’s alleged involvement in illegal activities.

In response, Musk denounced protesters and defended his actions against what he described as unjust attacks on Tesla.

The Tesla recall issued on Thursday addresses issues with the Can Rail panels detaching from vehicles, posing safety risks. Tesla will replace the affected parts for free.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, detached panels can create road hazards and increase the likelihood of accidents.

Tesla has been requested to provide a comment on the issue.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Nvidia Invests Billions in US Manufacturing and CEO

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The CEO of Nvidia, the largest computer chip maker in the world, has committed to investing “tens of billions” of dollars in manufacturing semiconductors and electronics in the United States over the next four years.

Jensen Huang’s remarks indicate a shift in supply chains of California-based AI chip makers away from Asia due to the uncertain tariff threats from Donald Trump.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia stated, “Overall, over the next four years, we plan to invest around $50 billion in electronics manufacturing. I believe we can easily surpass hundreds of billions produced here in the US.”

This announcement highlights the impact of Trump’s “America First” policy on business investments, pushing even companies like Nvidia, the most valuable in the world, to reconsider their global presence.

Founded in 1993, the Silicon Valley company has been driving the AI market boom, leading to its staggering valuation of $2.9 trillion. However, other major US tech giants, such as Apple, have become reliant on chip manufacturers in Taiwan, like TSMC and Foxconn.

Huang expressed confidence in Nvidia’s ability to navigate any challenges in Taiwan, a region prone to earthquakes. “We are prepared to manufacture in the US. Our supply chain is fully diversified,” he added.

He also mentioned the potential for the Trump administration to bolster the US AI industry amidst growing competition with China.

Huang criticized the success of Chinese tech giant Huawei, calling it “the most formidable technology company in China.” He argued that efforts to contain Chinese companies have been inadequate, as evidenced by Huawei’s continued dominance.

Having government support for the industry and addressing energy consumption in data centers is a significant boost for American AI, according to Huang.

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The recent $100 million investment in the US by TSMC, a Taiwanese semiconductor company, supports onshore manufacturing efforts. This move ensures that Nvidia’s Blackwell chips are produced in the US, enhancing supply chain resilience.

Source: www.theguardian.com

British Cybersecurity Agency Issues Warning About Quantum Hacker Threats In Relation to Cybercrime

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

By 2035, the UK cybersecurity agency is urging organizations to protect their systems from quantum hackers, as the prospects for a strong computing breakthrough threaten digital encryption.

The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has issued new guidance recommending large entities, including energy and transport providers, to introduce “post-Quantum encryption” to prevent quantum technology from infiltrating their systems.

NCSC warned that quantum computers, although still in development, pose a serious threat to encryption as they can solve complex mathematical problems that underpin public key cryptography. Quantum Computing’s ability to compute at incredible speeds is a major concern for encryption.

“Today’s encryption methods are used to protect everything from banking communication, but rely on mathematical problems that quantum computers could solve much faster, posing a threat to current encryption methods,” the agency stated.

NCSC recommends that large organizations, critical national infrastructure operators, and businesses with bespoke IT systems implement post-Quantum encryption to combat this threat.

Organizations must identify services that require upgrades by the 2028 deadline, undergo essential overhauls by 2031, and complete migration to a new cryptographic system by 2035 according to the guidance provided.

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Traditional computers use bits to represent information as 0 or 1, but quantum computers can simultaneously encode various combinations of 1 and 0, enabling them to perform much larger calculations at incredible speeds.

However, qubits, the building blocks of quantum computing, are highly sensitive to interference such as temperature changes and cosmic rays, hindering the development of large quantum computers despite significant investments. NCSC hopes its guidance will give organizations ample preparation for the future arrival of quantum computers.

“There is now a new way to encrypt public keys, making it prudent to act now rather than wait for the threat to materialize,” said Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Surrey.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Unveiling the mysteries of the dark universe with a breathtaking new space map

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The Euclidean Mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) has just released its first significant batch of research data, offering a fascinating glimpse into the vast cosmos.

This newly revealed image, covering a 63-square patch of the sky (over 300 times the size of a full moon), showcases millions of galaxies in intricate detail.

But this is just the beginning. The Euclidean mission, aimed at mapping the universe and unraveling the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, which constitute 95% of the universe, has only just begun.

Launched in February 2024 and released in July 2023, Euclid is designed to survey a third of the sky, eventually capturing images of 1.5 billion galaxies. In just a week of observations, the mission has already spotted 26 million galaxies, some located an astounding 10.5 billion light years away.

Professor Carole Mandel, ESA’s director of science, described the release as “a treasure trove of information for scientists to delve into.” In an official statement, she highlighted Euclid’s role as the “ultimate discovery machine,” enabling astronomers to explore the grand structure of the universe with unparalleled precision.

The initial observations of the mission showcase Euclid’s capability to map the large-scale structures of the universe using high-resolution visible instruments (VIS) and near-infrared spectrometers (NISPs), capturing galaxies across vast distances and helping scientists track the intricate web-like structure of space.

This image shows not only light, gravity lenses within the cluster, but also a variety of huge galaxy clusters. The cluster near the center is called J041110.98-481939.3 and is almost 6 billion light years away. -ESA/EUCLID/EUCLID Image processing by CONSORTIUM/NASA, J.-C, Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi

“Euclid’s potential to unveil more about dark matter and dark energy from the massive structure of the Cosmic Web can only be realized once the entire survey is completed,” stated Dr. Clotilde Laigle, a scientist from the Euclidean Consortium.

“Nevertheless, this first data release offers a unique view into the vast organization of galaxies, providing insights into the formation of galaxies over time.”

With an immense data stream – sending back 100 GB of data to Earth per day – scientists are challenged with cataloging and analyzing an unprecedented number of galaxies. To tackle this, AI algorithms, in collaboration with thousands of citizen scientists, have categorized over 380,000 galaxies in their initial dataset.

The AI model known as “Zoobot” was trained over a month on the Galaxy Zoo platform with the help of nearly 10,000 volunteers to enhance their galaxy classification skills.

Dr. Mike Walmsley, an expert in astronomical deep learning at the University of Toronto, highlighted the significance of AI in processing Euclid’s vast datasets.

While scientists are still grappling with this first data release, many are already envisioning the future.

“Euclid will truly revolutionize our understanding of the universe,” stated Professor Christopher Conselice from the University of Manchester. He depicted the results as just “the tip of the iceberg,” foreseeing Euclid’s revelations about dark energy and a complete picture of galactic evolution throughout the ages.

The mission is still in its nascent stages, with the released data accounting for only 0.4% of Euclid’s final investigation scope. Setting the stage for even more profound discoveries, the initial data release indicates that Euclid is poised to offer a remarkable new perspective on the universe. In October 2026, ESA is expected to release Euclid’s first major cosmological dataset, covering larger research areas and multiple deep field paths.

If this initial glimpse is any indication, the coming years promise a deluge of data and discoveries that could redefine our understanding of the universe.

read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Night Owls Beware: Increased Risk of Depression Identified

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Early risers catch worms, but night owls are more susceptible to depression. A recent study suggests that individuals who prefer staying up late are more likely to experience depressive symptoms.

Research conducted by the University of Surrey reveals that this could be due to the fact that night owls often struggle with poor sleep, exhibit lower levels of mindfulness, and tend to consume more alcohol compared to early birds.

“Late chronotype, also known as ‘eveningness’ or ‘night owl,’ refers to a biological inclination to be active in the evenings and have a later sleep-wake pattern,” explained Cognitive Neuroscience Lecturer Dr. Simon Evans, who led the study, as reported by BBC Science Focus. “Since chronotypes have a genetic basis, being a night owl is a natural biological predisposition.”

Evans and his team surveyed 564 university students on their sleep habits, mindfulness levels, alcohol consumption, as well as their levels of depression and anxiety, which reflect tendencies towards negative thinking about situations and events.

“Late chronotypes are particularly prevalent among young adults, with up to 50% of young adults falling into this category,” noted Evans. “This is concerning as delayed chronotypes are associated with a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and substance use.”

The study confirmed that night owls were significantly more prone to developing depression than early birds and reported higher levels of anxiety.

Students with later chronotypes reported poorer sleep quality compared to early risers, which researchers attributed to “social jet lag.”

“Being a night owl is common among young adults,” said Evans. “Given the importance of mental health in youth, work and educational schedules should accommodate night owls for improved sleep.”

Our preference for morning or evening routines is largely influenced by genetics, with younger adults more likely to prefer later schedules, while older adults tend to be early risers. – Credit: rawpixel via Getty

Furthermore, individuals with a delayed chronotype tended to consume more alcohol, a known risk factor for depression. However, the study did not find a direct association between alcohol consumption and depression among the students involved.

In fact, night owls who consumed alcohol were less likely to experience depression than non-drinkers, although most students consumed alcohol in moderation. Researchers suggest that the social connections formed during drinking may offset the negative effects.

Evans also recommended strategies for night owls to protect themselves from depression, including promoting mindfulness through practices like guided meditation, focusing on improving sleep quality, and reducing alcohol consumption.

This study was recently published in the scientific journal PLOS 1.

Read more:

About our experts:

Dr. Simon Evans is a senior lecturer in cognitive neuroscience at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Surrey. He obtained his PhD from the Institute of Neurology, University College London in 2011 and conducted postdoctoral training at the University of Sussex, where he used MRI techniques to study how genetic factors impact brain activity patterns and cognitive performance. Evans’ primary research interest lies in utilizing brain imaging techniques to explore cognitive changes across the lifespan.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

New study shows how this easy snack habit can boost your cholesterol levels

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Exciting news for pecan enthusiasts: these tasty nuts may be even more beneficial for your health than previously thought. Swapping out your usual snacks for pecans could be a smart move for your overall well-being.

A recent study revealed that incorporating pecans into your daily snack routine can lead to improvements in cholesterol levels and enhance the quality of your diet. The research, as featured in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, focused on adults dealing with or at risk for metabolic syndrome—a condition that raises the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes or heart-related issues.

Participants in a 12-week study were split into two groups: one replaced their usual snacks with 57g of pecans daily, while the other maintained their regular diet. The outcome? Those snacking on pecans experienced a reduction in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol (commonly known as “bad” cholesterol), and non-HDL cholesterol.

Lowering LDL levels and improving the HDL to total cholesterol ratio are crucial steps in reducing the risk of heart disease. Dr. Christina Petersen, an associate professor of nutrition science from Pennsylvania, highlighted the benefits of substituting typical snacks with pecans for heart health.

Participants who replaced regular snacks with 57g of pecans per day saw improvements in their cholesterol levels and overall diet quality. – Getty

The study involved 138 adults aged 25 to 70, all meeting criteria for metabolic syndrome, such as obesity, low HDL, and hypertension. Results showed enhanced adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and a higher consumption of plant protein and seafood among those who opted for pecans as snacks.

While weight gain was observed in the pecan group compared to the non-pecan group, the cholesterol-lowering benefits of pecans remained unaffected. According to the researchers, additional guidance on calorie intake could help achieve a balance between energy consumption and pecan nutrition.

In conclusion, making the switch to pecans from less nutritious snacks can have a positive impact on heart health and overall dietary patterns. It’s important to be mindful of calorie intake while enjoying the benefits of these nutritious nuts.

Read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Ancient Fossil Feathers of a Gryphon Vulture Discovered in Italy Dating Back 30,000 Years

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Fossil feathers are usually preserved or embedded in amber as impressions of carbonaceous membranes and lake sediments and marine sediments, but are rarely mineralized. In a new study, paleontologists have examined the mineralised feathers of 30,000 years old Griffon vultures preserved in ash-rich volcanic deposits of the Koli-Albani Volcanic Complex in Rome, Italy. Bird feathers were conserved in three dimensions, conserving tissue ultrastructures such as melanosomes. These ultrastructures are mineralized with nanocrystalline zeolites, a preservation mode that has not been previously reported in fossil soft tissue.

A 30,000-year-old fossil feather of a Griffon vulture preserved in volcanic rocks at the Koli-Albani Volcanic Complex in Rome, Italy. Image credit: Edoardo Terranova.

The fossil vulture was discovered in 1889 near Rome by a local landowner who recognized its incredible preservation.

The entire body was preserved as a three-dimensional impression, with fine details such as the lid of the eye and wing wings.

The new study, led by University College Cork paleontologist Valentina Rossi, shows that feather preservation extends to the pigmented structure of small microscopic feathers.

“Fossil feathers are usually preserved in ancient mudstones laid in lakes and lagoons,” Dr. Rossi said.

“Fossil vultures are preserved in ash deposits, which is very unusual.”

“When analyzing the feathers of fossil vultures, we found ourselves in unknown territory.”

“These feathers are different from what we normally see in other fossils.”

The authors discovered that feathers are preserved in mineral zeolites by analyzing small samples of fossil feathers using electron microscopy and chemical testing.

“Zeolites are silicon and aluminum rich minerals and are common in volcanic and hydrothermal geological environments,” Dr. Rossi said.

“Zeolites can be formed as primary minerals (using clean crystals) or secondary during the natural changes in volcanic glass and ash, giving rocks a mudlock-like side.”

“The changes in ashes due to the passage of water induced precipitation of zeolite nanocrystals, replicating feathers to the details of the smallest cells.”

“Fine preservation of feather structures indicates that vulture corpses were buried in cold thermal clastic matter.”

“We are used to think that volcanic deposits are associated with high temperature, fast-moving thermal breaking flows that destroy soft tissue,” says Professor Dawid Iurino of the University of Milan.

“However, these geological environments are complex and can include cold deposits that can store soft tissue at the cellular level.”

“The fossil record is constantly amazed us with new fossil species, strange new body shapes, in this case a new style of fossil preservation,” said Professor Maria McNamara, a professor of Cork at the University.

“We never found any delicate tissues, such as feathers, preserved in volcanic rocks.”

“Discoveries like these broaden the range of potential rock types that can be found in fossils.

a paper The findings were published in the journal Geological.

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Valentina Rossi et al. Fossil feathers from the Coralbani Volcanic Complex (central Italy, late Pleistocene) preserved in zeolites. GeologicalPublished online on March 18th, 2025. doi: 10.1130/g52971.1

Source: www.sci.news

Research lab identifies meteorites linked to specific asteroid with 75 main belts.

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers from SETI Institute, NASA’s Ames Research Center, and Curtin University have tracked the impact orbits of 75 observed metstone waterfalls to previously unidentified source regions of several of the main asteroid belt.

Impressions of an artist on a rocky asteroid. Image credits: Mark A. Garlick, Space-Art.co.uk / Warwick University / Cambridge University.

“This is a 10-year detective story, with each recorded metstone waterfall providing new clues,” said Dr. Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer at Seti Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center.

“We currently have the first overview of the asteroid belt geological map.”

Ten years ago, Dr. Jenniskens and his colleagues were aiming to build a network of all ski cameras in California and Nevada.

“Others built similar networks that spanned the world, and together formed a fireball observatory around the world,” said Hadrian Devillepova, an astronomer at Curtin University.

“For many years, we have tracked the routes of 17 recovered metstone waterfalls.”

“More fireballs have been tracked by doorbells and dashcam video cameras from citizen scientists and other dedicated networks around the world.”

“Overall, this quest produced 75 laboratory classified metstones with impact trajectories tracked by video cameras and photo cameras,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“It has proven sufficient to start seeing some patterns in the direction of metstones approaching the Earth.”

Most metstones come from the asteroid belt, the region between Mars and Jupiter.

These rocks come from a few larger asteroids that have been broken in the collision.

Even today, asteroids collide and create remnant fields within these asteroid families known as clusters.

“We can see that the 12 metstones (h-cartilage) of ordinary chondrites, which are now rich in iron, come from a debris field called low colonies on the pristine main belt,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“These metstones arrived from low-coupled orbital periods that match this debris field.”

“By measuring the age of cosmic ray exposure in metstones, we can determine that three of these 12 metstones originate from kalin clasters of dynamic ages of 5.8 million years, and two come from Koronis2 clusters of dynamic ages of 100-15 million years.”

“Another metstone can measure the age of Koronis3 clusters, about 83 million years.”

The authors also discovered a group of H-chondrites on steep orbits that appear to originate from the Nere Asteroididae in the central main belt, with a dynamic age of approximately 6 million years.

The mean motion resonance with nearby 3:1 Jupiter can raise the slope to the observed people.

A third group of H cartilage with an exposure age of approximately 35 million years of age emerged from the medial main belt.

“In our opinion, these H-cartilages came from the low masalia asteroids on the inner main belt, as their families have clusters of that same dynamic era,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“Asteroid (20) Masalia, the asteroid that created the cluster, is a parent body of the H-chondrite type.”

Researchers have discovered that low iron (l cartilage) and very low iron (LL chondrite) metstones mainly come from the inner main belt.

“I propose that L cartilage comes from the Hertha Asteroid family, just above the Masalia family,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“The asteroid Elsa doesn’t look like its fragments. Hertha is covered in dark rocks of shock black, which exhibits unusually violent collisions. The L-chondrites experienced a very violent origin 468 million years ago, when these metstones bombarded the Earth with numbers found in geological records.”

Knowing from the remains of the asteroid belt, the birth of our metstones is important for our planetary defense efforts against asteroids on the near Earth.

The orbits of approaching asteroids can provide clues to the origin of the asteroid belt, just like the metstone orbit.

“Asteroids near Earth do not arrive in the same orbit as Metstones because it takes time for them to evolve into Earth,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“But they come from some of the same Astide family.”

Team’s paper Published in the journal Weather and Planetary Science.

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Peter Jenniskens & Hadrien ar Devillepoix. Asteroids, meteors, and meteor-shaped link reviews. Weather and Planetary SciencePublished online on March 17th, 2025. doi:10.1111/maps.14321

Source: www.sci.news

Reconsidering Dark Energy: A Potential Universe-Altering Discovery

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The Mayall Telescope Star Trail in Arizona houses dark energy spectroscopy equipment

Luke Tyas/Berkeley Lab

Dark energy is one of the most mysterious features of our universe. We don’t know what it is, but it controls how the universe is expanding and its ultimate destiny. Now, the study of millions of heavenly objects reveals that they may have been thinking about all the wrong things that could potentially have dramatic consequences in the universe.

“This is the biggest hint we have about the nature of dark energy in the roughly 25 years since we discovered it,” he says. Adam Reese at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

The results come from three years of data collected by Arizona’s Dark Energy Spectroscopy (DESI). By combining this data with other measurements such as background radiation in cosmic microwaves and maps of supernovas, the DESI team concluded that dark energy may have changed over time.

“This is the cutting edge of human knowledge,” says a member of the DigiTeam. It’ll be Percival At the University of Waterloo, Canada. “We see amazing things throughout the universe.”

Desi is attached to a telescope and works by measuring the “redshift” of light emitted from a distant galaxy, or how that wavelength of light extends as it travels through space. From now on, researchers can determine how much the universe has expanded during the journey of light and calculate how this expansion is changing. So far, the team has analyzed light from nearly 15 million galaxies and other bright objects in the sky.

For decades, physicists have agreed that the universe is expanding at a fixed acceleration. This is a cosmological constant known as the lambda, interpreted as the driving force of dark energy. However, in April 2024, Desi’s measurements provide the first hint that the universe may actually be decreasing faster over time, with the cosmological constants not so constant.

Riess, who is not part of the Desi team, says at the time they were not sure if the discovery would last with more data. In fact, it’s just getting stronger. “It’s very exciting for me to see that. [the team] After another year and after they added more data, no issues were found in the analysis. If anything, the outcome is more important,” he says.

That being said, this discovery still does not meet the “5-sigma” statistical levels traditionally used by physicists to discover it as authentic, rather than as a statistical fluke. Current analysis reaches a maximum of 4.2 sigma, but team members Mustafa Ishak Bouzaki At the University of Texas and Dallas, the team says they believe the results will reach five sigma within two years as Digi continues to acquire the data. “This outcome with dark energy is something we never thought it would happen in our lifetime,” he says.

One of the relief, according to Ishak-Boushaki, is that the discovery relies on Desi’s data as well as several other investigations in the universe. Riess compares the situa…To read more, visit Example Website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Dark energy could potentially develop in unforeseen manners as time progresses

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

New results from the collaboration of Digi (dark energy spectroscopy) reveal signs of time-varying dark energy.

Two “fans” corresponding to the two main areas were observed by Desi on top and bottom of the plane of the Milkyway Galaxy. Image credits: Desi Collaboration/DOE/KPNO/NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor.

“The universe will never surprise us and will never surprise us,” said Dr Arjun Dei, a digiproject scientist at Noir Love and associate director of the Central Scale Observatory for Strategic Initiatives.

“By unprecedentedly revealing the evolving textures of our universe's fabrics, Digi and Mayall telescopes are changing our understanding of the future of our universe and nature itself.”

The DESI data, which is employed alone, is consistent with the standard model of the universe. In Lambda CDM, CDM is cold dark matter, and Lambda represents the simplest case of dark energy that acts as a cosmological constant.

However, when combined with other measurements, the effect of dark energy may be weaker over time, increasing indications that other models may be more appropriate.

Other measurements of them include light leftovers from the dawn of space (cosmic microwave background, or CMB), distance measurements of supernovae, and observations of how light from distant galaxies are distorted by the effects of dark matter gravity (weak lenses).

So far, the evolving dark energy preference has not risen to 5 sigma. This is the gold standard in physics that represents a commonly accepted threshold of discovery.

However, the various combinations of DESI data and CMB, weak lenses, and supernova sets range from 2.8 to 4.2 sigma.

This analysis used techniques to hide results from scientists to the end to reduce unconscious biases about data.

This approach sets new criteria for how data is analyzed from large-scale spectroscopic studies.

The Desi is a cutting-edge instrument mounted on the NSF Nicholas U. Mayall 4-M telescope of the NSF Noirlab program, Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Light from 5,000 galaxies can be captured simultaneously, allowing you to carry out one of the most extensive research to date.

The experiment is currently investigating the fourth sky in five years, with plans to measure around 50 million galaxies and quasars (very far but bright objects with black holes in their cores) and more than 10 million stars by the time the project is finished.

The new analysis uses data from the first three years of observations and includes nearly 15 million best measured galaxies and quasars.

This is a major leap, with the one used in Desi's initial analysis improving the accuracy of the experiment with more than twice as much data set, suggesting evolving dark energy.

Digi tracks the effects of dark energy by studying how matter spreads throughout the universe.

Very early cosmic events left subtle patterns in the way matter was distributed. This is a function called Barion Acoustic Vibration (BAO).

Its Bao pattern acts as a standard ruler, and its size is directly influenced by how the universe is expanding at different times.

Measuring rulers at different distances has shown the strength of dark energy throughout history by researchers.

DESI Collaboration begins work with additional analysis to extract more information from the current dataset, and Desi continues to collect the data.

Other experiments offered online over the next few years will also provide complementary data sets for future analysis.

“Our results are a fertile foundation for our theory colleagues looking at new and existing models, and we look forward to what they came up with,” says Dr. Michael Levi, Desi Director and Scientist.

“Whatever the nature of dark energy, it shapes the future of our universe. It is very noteworthy that we look up at the sky with a telescope and try to answer one of the biggest questions humanity has ever asked.”

“These are prominent results from very successful projects,” said Dr. Chris Davis, NSF Program Director at NSF Neil Love.

“The powerful combination of NSF Mayall Telescope and DOE's dark energy spectroscopy instruments demonstrates the benefits of federal agencies collaborating with fundamental science to improve our understanding of the universe.”

Physicists shared their findings in a A series of papers It will be posted above arxiv.org.

Source: www.sci.news

Research on Dark Energy Supports the Evolving Theory

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The Lambda-CDM (λCDM) model has been the basis of modern cosmology for some time, and it successfully explains the large-scale structure of the universe. It proposes that 95% of cosmos consists of dark matter (25%) and dark energy (70%). Dark energy, represented by the cosmic constant (λ), is thought to promote accelerated expansion of the universe, and maintains a constant energy density over time. However, new results from the dark energy research suggest a departure from this assumption, suggesting that dark energy may evolve over time.

This artist's impression shows the evolution of the universe, beginning with the Big Bang on the left. After that, you will see the microwave background of the universe. The formation of the first stars ends the dark ages of the universe, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss/Harvard – Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) was carried out using a 570 megapixel energy-enhanced dark energy camera (decam) mounted on the NSF Víctor M. Blanco 4-M telescope from the NSF Neuroab program, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

By obtaining data of 758 nights over six years, DES scientists mapped almost one-eighth area of the sky.

The project employs multiple observation techniques, including supernova measurement, galaxy clustering analysis, and weak gravity lenses, to study dark energy.

Two important DES measurements, baryon acoustic vibration (BAO) and explosive star distance measurements (type IA supernova) track the enlarged history of the universe.

Bao refers to a standard cosmic ruler formed by early universe sound waves, with peaks spanning approximately 500 million light years.

Astronomers can measure these peaks over several periods of universe history to see how dark energy has expanded the scale over time.

“By analyzing 16 million galaxies, DES discovered that the measured BAO scale is actually 4% smaller than predicted by λCDM,” says Dr. Santiago Avila, an astronomer at the Center for Energy and Environmental Technology Research (CIEMAT).

Type IA supernova acts as a standard candle. In other words, the essential brightness is known.

Therefore, its apparent brightness is combined with information about the host's galaxy to allow scientists to perform accurate distance calculations.

In 2024, the DES team released the most extensive and detailed supernova dataset to date, providing highly accurate measurements of space distance.

New discoveries from the combined supernova data and BAO data independently confirm the anomalies seen in the 2024 supernova data.

By integrating DES measurements with cosmic microwave background data, researchers infer the properties of dark energy, and the results suggest that they evolve time.

When verified, this implies a dynamic phenomenon in which the cosmological constant, dark energy, is not ultimately constant and requires a new theoretical framework.

“The results are interesting as they suggest physics beyond the standard models of cosmology,” says Dr. Juan Mena Fernandez, a researcher at the Institute of Subatomic Physics and Cosmology.

“If more data supports these findings, we may be on the brink of a scientific revolution.”

Although current results are still inconclusive, future analyses incorporating additional DES probes such as Galaxy Clustering and weak lenses could enhance the evidence.

Similar trends have emerged from other major cosmological projects, such as Dark Energy Spectroscopy (DESI).

“We've seen a lot of experience in our research,” said Jesse Muir, a researcher at the University of Cincinnati.

“There's still a lot to learn and it's exciting to see how understanding evolves as new measurements become available.”

Team's paper It will be published in journal Physical Review d.

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TMC Abbott et al. (DES collaboration). 2025. Dark Energy Survey: Final Devalion Acoustic Vibrations and Impact on Cosmological Expansion Models from Supernova Data. Physical Review din press; Arxiv: 2503.06712

Source: www.sci.news

Misinformation abounds in popular TikTok videos about ADHD

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Health information about Tiktok can be misleading

alexphotostock / alamy

More than half of the claims made in the popular Tiktok video regarding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not in line with clinical guidelines.

ADHD affects Approximately 1% According to the global burden of disease research, people all over the world. There is a positive debate about whether ADHD is underdiagnosed. Some psychologists say there can be a substantial proportion of people who have it.

To understand the impact of social media on ADHD perceptions, Vasileia Karasavva The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, and her colleagues watched the 100 most viewed videos on Tiktok on January 10, 2023 using the hashtag #ADHD.

The average video included three claims about ADHD. The researchers presented their own claims to two psychologists. He was asked if it accurately reflected the symptoms of ADHD from DSM-5, a popular textbook used to diagnose mental disorders. Only 48.7% of the claims met that requirement. More than two-thirds of the video attributed ADHD to the problems that psychologists said were reflecting “normal human experiences.”

“We asked two experts to watch the top 100 most popular videos, and we found that they didn't really match the empirical literature,” says Karasavva. “We're like, 'OK, this is the problem.' ”

The researchers asked psychologists to rate the video on a scale of 0-5. We then asked 843 UBC students to describe the videos evaluated by psychologists as five best and five worst ADHDs, and then rated them before rating them. Psychologists earned a more clinically accurate video on an average of 3.6, while students rated it at 2.8. In the least-savvy video, students gave an average score of 2.3 compared to 1.1 from psychologists.

Students were also asked whether they would recommend video and their perception of the prevalence of ADHD in society. “The amount of time you watched ADHD-related content on Tiktok has increased your chances of recommending videos and identifying them as useful and accurate,” says Karasavva.

“They are the ones who wonder how common the outcomes are for Tiktok or all the health content on the internet.” David Ellis At the University of Bath, UK. “We live in a world where we know a lot about health, but the online world is still full of misinformation. Tiktok only reflects that reality to us.”

Ellis says that medical misinformation is likely to be even higher given mental health issues, as diagnosis is based on observation rather than more objective testing.

However, banning ADHD videos on Tiktok is “no use.” Even if it's misinformation, Karasavva says. “Maybe more experts should put out more videos, or maybe it's just that they're doing it for themselves because they're a little more discernible and critical of the content they consume,” she says.

Thichtok declined to comment on the details of the study, New Scientist Anyone who takes action against medical misinformation and seeks advice on neurological conditions should contact a medical professional.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Could our universe be a membrane on the fringe of an unfamiliar reality far away?

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Getty Images/Shutterstock

String theory is the best candidate we have for all theories. Bends to that rule, various entangled theories of traditional physics emerge as part of a sublime, higher-dimensional tapestry. It can unify all four of nature, including the most troublesome gravity of all. If you're lucky, you might even tame big bangs and black holes without losing threads.

There's only one catch. String theory cannot explain the universe like ours. That mathematics can explain billions of different possible universes, but not expanding at speeds of acceleration, it's exactly what we see. Certainly, no one knows that this acceleration is driving. Mystical “dark energy” is the usual placeholder. According to theory, it probably shouldn't happen at all.

For 25 years, this was a big problem, but now I may have found a way past it. On the surface, the answer does not shock anyone who is used to the luxury of modern physics. We need to rethink the universe as part of a much larger company. Doing this can bloat into the content of your mind. In fact, the acceleration of expansion seems to come naturally. However, this new scheme could be the wildest scheme ever. Our familiar spaces are delicately settled between high-dimensional hyperspace and total meaninglessness. “Our proposal says that our existence is like a shadow: a projection onto a wall at the end of the world.” Antonio Padillaa physicist at the University of Nottingham in the UK.

For all the grandeur of the present, the string…

Source: www.newscientist.com

Quantum Satellite achieves record-breaking distance communication over gloves

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

A rocket carrying satellites explodes from China's commercial aerospace zone

VCG/Getty Images

The small quantum satellite created a secure link between China and South African terrestrial stations, sharing quantum encrypted data over a record distance of 12,900 kilometers. Similar microsatellites could become part of the quantum internet of things in the future.

The record-breaking feat that took place in October 2024 was also notable for the use of satellites with small, light payloads. The miniaturized equipment on the Jinan-1 microsatellite weighed only 23 kilograms, about 10 times the payload of previous experiments.

Petite quantum satellites like Jinan-1 say “like what SpareX does with StarLink for the Internet, it could launch many satellites in one shot with the same space launcher.” Laurent de Forge de Panney at Thales Alenia Space, a space technology company headquartered in France.

In this experiment, the researchers used the quantum state of photons to generate a secret key for encrypting and decrypting the data. This key was used to encode photographs of the Great Wall in China and Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and was then transmitted between the Zinan-1 satellite and various ground stations using lasers and telescopes. Research team led by Jianwei Pan The University of Science and Technology in China has performed this quantum key distribution process 20 times, including a test of 12,900 km set record.

There are limits to this showcase of quantum technology. Jinan-1 satellites “apparently optimized for quantum key distributions and do not perform common quantum communication tasks such as teleportation or entanglement distributions.” Alexander Lynn At the National University of Singapore. Nevertheless, Lynn, who praises the demonstration, says it could become part of the actual communications network within the next decade.

Quantum Key Distribution can be “are considered the first practical quantum communication use case,” and “the first step into a quantum information network,” says De Forges de Parny. “China's activities will definitely help develop a second-generation small satellite for the quantum internet,” he says.

The Jinan-1 was originally launched in 2022, and PAN says China will send two or three more quantum satellites in 2025. Other countries are expecting to release their own quantum satellites by 2026. projectfunded by the European Space Agency. Boeing, a US aerospace company, is working on it Another.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The budgie’s brain contains a cognitive map of human-like vocal sounds

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Budgerigars has exceptional voices

ImageBroker.com / Alamy

The Budgerigars are some of the most fashionable birds, and it is reflected in their brains. The Budgie Brains contain maps of voice sounds similar to those found in the human brain, not seen in other birds.

“We've seen that parts of the brain have a representation of voice sounds similar to the important speech areas of the human brain,” he says. Michael Long in Grossmann School of Medicine, New York University.

Budgerigars (Melopstitacus undulatus), also known as a paraquiet, is a small parrot native to Australia. They are epic vocal learners and can mimic a variety of sounds, including human speech. The boudgie, known as the pack, had a vocabulary of about 1,728 words. According to the Guinness World Records. “The ability to mimic phonetically is very rare in the animal kingdom,” Long says.

and Zetian Yang, Additionally, NYU medical schools used silicon probes for a long time to record electrical activity in the Budgies' brains. They focused on a part of the forebrain, the central nucleus of the forebrain horn, which was known to be involved in motor control of vocalization. When Budgies made the call, Long and Yang tracked how their electrical activity had changed.

“Our research was the first to measure parrot brain activity during vocalization,” Long says.

The pair discovered neurons in the central nucleus of the anterior horn thyroid. “There are cells that are active because of consonants,” Long says. Others make vowels, but some are active for high-pitched sounds, others for low pitch.

This brain structure is compared to a keyboard. “There's this kind of key, or in this case, a set of brain cells, and you can represent each of these vocal outcomes and play whatever it wants,” he says. “What the parrot presented is this beautiful and elegant solution to creating vocal sounds.” The human brain has a similar vocal map.

Long and Yang repeated the experiment with a zebra finch (taeniopygia guttata), not vocal mimic. “They have one song they learn,” Long says. “It's about two seconds, sometimes less.” It takes several months to perfect.

Unlike the Budgerigars, the Zebra Finch showed no signs of a “map” of the sound of the brain's voice. Instead, “A Zebra Finch develops chords that are almost almost inexplicable for this song,” says Long. He says that Budgie's brain uses a simple, intuitive system to generate complex calls, while Zebra Finch Brain uses a complex system to make something simple.

“It shows that neural activity and associated vocal behavior are closer to parrots and humans than songbirds and parrots.” Erich Jarvis At Rockefeller University in New York.

“Almost everything we know about the detailed mechanistic basis of learned vocalization comes from several species of songbirds singing relatively simple songs.” Jesse Goldberg At Cornell University in New York. “The parrot therefore offers an incredible opportunity to study both the mechanisms and evolution of complex vocal learning and production.”

I say there are several reasons why I evolved imitation. Zhilei Zhao At Cornell University. One is courtship. “Women actually prefer men with the ability to copy,” he says, and if a man loses his ability, “they are more likely to fool him.” Also, the Budgies have a very dynamic social life. “Form small groups for several days.” Once the group is established, members begin to create unique “contact calls.” “People think it might be something like a password for this group,” says Zhao.

Other skilled mimics may have similar vocal maps in their brains. “My very strong speculation is that other parrots have the same functionality, but they are simply not explored.” He also doubts something similar, the Lyrebirds, a phenomenal mimic that can even mimic artificial sounds like camera shutters.

In the long run, I hope that studying how boudgies produce sounds for a long time will help people understand language disorders. People with strokes often experience aphasia. I can't call the correct words in my head. “You reach for those words and it’s not there,” Long says. “Now we have the opportunity to fight to understand what we think is at the root of many communication disorders that affect people in devastating ways.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Microdosing LSD does not effectively treat ADHD

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Can microdosing psychedelics focus on the mind?

Microgen/Shutterstock

Taking small repeated doses of the psychedelic drug LSD does not reduce ADHD symptoms more than placebo.

Microdosing psychedelic drugs involve taking them several times a week in small amounts, sufficient to avoid experiencing hallucinations. There is little evidence to support this, but there is a broad view that this can increase happiness, creativity and focus. Additionally, some studies have reported that people who microdose as a way to treat ADHD have improved symptoms, but these studies have been observed and rely on self-reported data.

To more rigorously test the effects of drugs on ADHD, Matthias Liechti The University of Basel, Switzerland and his colleagues conducted the first randomized controlled trial of LSD microdoshing for ADHD. They recruited 53 adults living in the Netherlands or Switzerland who had been diagnosed with ADHD and experienced moderate to severe symptoms. Twenty-seven participants received 20 mirogram doses of LSD twice a week at the upper microodour limit, yet only a fifth of the standard dose, while the rest were given a placebo.

Symptoms of ADHD were assessed at the start of the study and were assessed 6 weeks later using a 54-point scale. On average, participants receiving the placebo had an average score reduction of approximately 7 percentage points. This is not a major difference, suggesting that LSD is better than a placebo for improving ADHD symptoms, says Liechti.

However, he says the dosage may have been unsuitable for treating ADHD. LSD, similar to how ADHD medications currently work, may need to be taken daily to experience a reduction in symptoms, he says Conor Murray At the University of California, Los Angeles.

“We still need to check if there is an acute dose while the drug is in your body – does it alleviate the symptoms?” Murray says. “It's kind of the first step, if not, you rarely even have to ask if there's a permanent change.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

NOAA helps rehired workers bounce back, raising questions amid storm chaos

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

This week, workers at the National Marine and Atmospheric Administration faced a sudden change as the federal government attempted to reinstate probationary workers who were previously fired.

Over 600 NOAA workers, including important public safety roles like scientists issuing tsunami alerts, hurricane hunting flight directors, and local forecast office meteorologists, were let go over two weeks ago.

However, a US district judge in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order on Thursday, halting the firing of tens of thousands of workers within the agency and ordering their reinstatement. The Trump administration informed the court on Monday that they were working to reinstate about 24,000 probationary workers affected by widespread layoffs in the federal workforce. (Probationary workers are typically those in their first or second year of federal service, but this status also applies to some promoted employees or former contractors who were hired as full-time employees.)

The Commerce Department confirmed in a court filing that 791 workers, including NOAA employees, had been reinstated across the agency.

The reinstatement process has caused further confusion at NOAA, which had already halted some services due to staffing issues post-layoffs. This included significant disruptions like weather balloon launches in Albany, New York and Cotzevieu, Alaska, which are crucial for accurate weather predictions. Several offices were also closed by the agency.

The reinstatement news came just as a massive storm system swept across the nation, spawning tornadoes and claiming the lives of at least 42 people. NOAA’s National Weather Service division plays a key role in predicting and warning the public about dangerous weather events.

While probation workers at NOAA have technically been reinstated, they are currently on administrative leave and not being asked to return to work. It remains uncertain whether the services previously provided by these workers will be fully restored.

NOAA news agency has directed inquiries to the Department of Commerce, which has not responded to requests for comment.

A Hurricane Modeling Specialist named Andy Hazelton, who was fired last month despite having a PhD, received an email on Monday confirming his reinstatement following the court order.

The email stated, “You will be reinstated to federal service with your previous status, retroactive to the termination date, and placed on paid administrative leave until further action is taken by the court or department.”

Should the court’s order be overturned or the Commerce Department prevail in court, details about potentially reverting to the termination date are unclear.

Hazelton mentioned that he had not received further communication as of Monday and remained hopeful about receiving back pay or eventually resuming his duties.

While the email provided temporary relief, uncertainty remains as rumors persist about further reductions in the NOAA workforce through workforce reduction or Reduction in Force (RIF) measures.

Jaszka, 49, who previously worked as an investigative assistance technician for NOAA law enforcement before being fired, shared similar sentiments.

She expressed frustration at the perception of government workers as a drain on taxpayer resources, fueled by the notion that they are not performing their duties effectively.

Jaszka highlighted the irony of the situation, where government employees were being paid not to work despite their passion for fulfilling NOAA’s mission.

In a court filing, the Commerce Department stated that employees would not be required to return to full duty obligations immediately.

The department is prepared to reinstate all necessary administrative procedures if needed, such as training completion, personnel documentation, badge reissuance, benefit enrollment, and salary restoration.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows – Exploring Feudal Japan in a Historical Gaming Experience

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

jApan, 1581: Iga Province is burning around you. You will be monitored, injured, helpless
Oda Nobunaga – the warlord responsible for many civil wars and the ultimate unification of the country – a smirk from the nearby hill. You draw your katana and glow in the flickering light of flames. This is Assassin’s Creed: Shadows – some exciting ninja games, some history lessons. It’s a strange combination, but it brings together a vast historical fiction adventure filled with discoveries and deceptions.

The turbulent times, when Japan was unified in the late 1500s and seeing the collapse of Nobunaga, are ideal environments that will help you play as despicable ninja and brave samurai. The series’ science fiction framing device means that you, the player, are cornering the mysterious craft by jumping into your ancestor’s memory and defeating a group of terrifying masked samurai one at a time. But most games leave you alone to enjoy feudal Japan.

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During this difficult period there is a constant sense of danger, and each conversation is like a careful step at the edge of the knife. The stories are of course complete fiction, but they weave real historical events and characters, and the Ubisoft developers clearly have become a huge pain to make them feel authentic, authentic, both the scenery and the people who inhabit them. If you automatically remove your shoes when you enter the building, it looks like you’ve seen the famous temple, not as a tourist destination today.

The world is truly luxurious, with several states to explore in all seasons and weather, as well as cities of the era, including Kyoto and Osaka. The giant temples rise above a busy town filled with food stalls and workshops, while mossy shrines are scattered along the winding paths of the countryside. Japan of all colours will see Japan in all colours, from the mild pinks of cherry blossoms in spring to the fiery colours of leaves covering the hills in autumn to the pitch black darkness of winter nights. It’s easy to be distracted by views along the way when surrounded by ancient Red Torigates or when you notice random puppet performances on the streets. I feel that Ubisoft’s Japan is alive. Also, sometimes it feels completely overwhelming.

It’s as fun as riding horses around the country and scouting new villages and historic places, so it’s easy to feel lost because there are so many. There are many missions and side quests that will guide you around the map, but those tasks have many repetitions. To kill a high-level samurai, you need some help. Someone who can help you want the bounty, it includes finding
Another Someone I want you to kill me
different Samurai, etc. After a long time in the game, this starts to grate.

Important Features: You can keep all Japanese cats (and dogs) if you wish. Photo: Ubisoft

The double hero helps to reduce the feeling of you being stuck in a loop repeatedly. For the first 10-15 hours of the game, she steps into sandals on Fujiwarajima Island, a young woman seeking revenge after the house is destroyed, reconstructing her life and helping her set up a network of spies and rebels from a secret mountain base. Then there is Yasuke, a principled black samurai based on a real historical figure of the same name. They appear briefly in the introduction to the game, disappearing until Naoe approaches Nobunaga.

Naoe is bright on her feet, allowing easy expansion of walls and temples, blending into the shadows to sneak around her enemies. Her stealth approach makes for fun, mean moments like stabbing a screen door on a paper for a surprising attack. But that tipped approach costs her when she faces a brawl. The enemy strikes attack her hard, and she is soon overwhelmed in the battle. Yasuke, meanwhile, cruelly strong, runs straight through those screen doors, shrugging on sword strikes, shrugging like the stimulant they tickle. He can still assassinate his enemies like Naoe Can, but he does it from the front, not from the shadows. In a series that traditionally prioritized stealth, it is extremely liberated when you break through the castle gates and everyone faces it head-on. Both characters are viable options for playing most of the game and can be freely exchanged between them (almost) at their own pace.

Few other games have done such a good job in this setting… Assassin Creed: Shadow. Photo: Ubisoft

Unfortunately, no matter who plays, you have to put up with some great things in the fight. Dodge and Parry find themselves surprised in one-on-one scraps, but you often find yourself surrounded as more opponents are warned of your presence. It feels like everything is when you take your time sneaking up around the castle roof and picking enemies, bouncing backwards into the shadows before scopeping your next kill. But the moment you get caught up in a battle on the ground, it starts to feel nasty and frustrating.

I found myself getting frustrated with going back and forth between the quest givers, but I can’t stop thinking about the shadows. Emotionally resonating moments, such as excellent performances and Naoe’s painful recovery after losing everything she cherishes, mean that she feels all her sadness and anger along with the game’s hero. Events are often troubling as the power struggles between the Lord often cost locals a lot and see the unwelcome impact of your actions on allies.

Few games have done such a good job in this environment as they run through lush bamboo forests before creeping up to shrink the walls of ancient castles and steal treasures. These moments of glow are more than making up for that weak point.

Source: www.theguardian.com

First Data Drop from Euclidean Space Telescope Reveals 26 Million Galaxies

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Galactic sea photographed by the Euclidean Space Telescope

ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, J.-C. Image processing by Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi

The extraordinary image from the Euclidean Space Telescope has acquired 26 million galaxies.

Euclid was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in July 2023, and in November of that year it sent its first image back. The six-year mission will image about a third of the sky and build the most detailed 3D map of Cosmos ever created. Once completed, this investigation will help to lighten how dark matter and dark energy behave on a cosmic scale.

ESA is currently being released The first large data on this missionstarts with three “deep fields.” This is an area where the telescope becomes a more detailed peer than the rest of the study area. These three spots represent 63 squares of sky, which corresponds to an area where the full moon is covered 300 times. Over the next few years, Euclide will pass these regions 30-52 times to build more detailed images.

It'll be Percival The University of Waterloo in Canada says that current batches of images are less than 50% of what gather on missions, but there is already plenty of researchers to collaborate. “There's so much you can do about many individual galaxies and their properties because it's not something that's done in space-based research with nearby infrared light or optics like this,” he says. “It's not exactly the same quality as HST [the Hubble Space Telescope]but it's so close that it doesn't just point to individual objects and shoot. We are conducting an investigation. ”

Researchers have already used Euclidean data to find hundreds of powerful gravity lenses. These phenomena are formed when the gravity of an object in the foreground distorts light from a distant galaxy, creating an arc shape or a complete ring. Previously, scientists had to hunt these individually, point them to the HST, and collect more images. Currently, astronomers can search for survey data from Euclidean and find more at once. This helps to gather insights into the evolution of galaxies and the universe.

Using AI models, researchers were able to find and catalog 500 galaxies with powerful gravity lenses with this first data alone, doubling the total seen to date. “The statistics are incredible,” Percival says. “Euclidean ultimately gets this amount of data 200 times.”

The data released so far represents only one week of images from Euclidean, but up to 35 terabytes. This is equivalent to 200 days of high quality video streaming. The next batch of data is expected to be released later next year, and will be a year's worth of images covering 2,000 square degrees and over 2,000 terabytes of storage space.

It can take over 100 years to view each galaxy manually, so AI is used to dramatically speed up the process, he says. Mike Walmsley At the University of Toronto. “We can ask new questions in weeks, not years, but in weeks,” he says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Google settles $28 million lawsuit for allegedly favoring white and Asian employees

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Google has agreed to pay $28 million (£22 million) to settle class action lawsuits by compensating white and Asian employees more and providing them with a higher career track compared to other employees.

The settlement with Alphabet’s Google was preliminarily approved by Judge Charles Adams of Santa Clara County Superior Court in California last week.

Judge Adams described it as “a positive outcome for the class” consisting of at least 6,632 Google employees in California from February 15, 2018 to December 31, 2024.

A Google spokesperson confirmed the settlement, stating, “We refute the allegations of differential treatment and are committed to compensating, hiring, and promoting all our employees fairly.”

The lawsuit was spearheaded by Ana Cantu, who identifies as Mexican and indigenous, on behalf of minority employees at Google from Hispanic, Latino, Indigenous, Native American, and other backgrounds.

Cantu claimed that despite performing exemplary work in Google’s People’s Business and Cloud sector for seven years, she was not compensated or promoted on par with her white and Asian counterparts.

She alleged that Google favored white and Asian employees, placing them in higher “levels” within the company even when performing similar roles as minority employees.

Cantu argued that Google’s actions violated California’s Equal Pay Act, and she left the company in September 2021.

The final settlement amount will be $20 million after deducting legal costs, penalties related to Cantu’s claims under California’s General Civil Attorneys Act, and other expenses totaling $7 million.

Judge Adams has scheduled a hearing in September to review and approve the final settlement. Cantu’s legal representatives have not yet responded to requests for comment.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Elon Musk’s X company sees a resurgence in value with $44 billion acquisition.

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has reportedly surged to the $44 billion valuation he paid for it, marking a significant turnaround in his fortunes as the billionaire shifted from being a key ally of Donald Trump.

Investors recently assessed the platform, previously valued at $440 billion (£33.9 billion) on Twitter, through a secondary transaction, as reported by the Financial Times.

X is currently in the process of raising $2 billion from Fresh Capital in a major funding round by issuing new stocks to pay off debts exceeding $1 billion, which were evaluated at just $10 billion by existing investor Fidelity Investments in late September.

Musk, the world’s richest individual, took control of what was then Twitter in October 2022 and later rebranded it as X, tweeting “The Bird Is Free” in reference to the company’s logo. Subsequently, he made changes to the site’s moderation policy, resulting in some advertisers pausing or leaving.

Following a profanity-laden outburst at the New York Times Dealbook Summit in November 2023, Musk accused advertisers of attempting to “blackmail” him through boycotts, prompting legal action against the global advertising alliance and major companies like Unilever, Mars, and CVS Health for allegedly conspiring to avoid social networks.

The $44 billion valuation reflects a major shift for X and its investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, 8VC, Goanna Capital, and Fidelity Investments. The $2 billion primary fund raise was priced through the secondary agreement.

Since Musk’s acquisition, X’s revenue has declined, but it managed to record an adjusted profit of $1.2 billion last year. Additionally, Musk’s stake in SpaceX now surpasses his Tesla holdings as his most valuable asset, according to Forbes.

Forbes estimates Musk’s net worth at $323 billion, with his SpaceX shares valued at approximately $147 billion—about $2 billion more than his Tesla shares following a decrease in the automaker’s stock price.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

The size of newborn neutron stars determined by astrophysicists

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Chinese and Australian astrophysicists have discovered that neutron stars’ birth rates can be described by a unimodal distribution that smoothly turns on at a solar mass of 1.1 and peaks before declining as a sudden power method.

Impressions of the artist of Neutron Star. Image credit: Sci.News.

Neutron stars are dense remnants of giant stars, more than eight times as huge remnants as our Sun, born at the end of life with the explosion of a brilliant supernova.

These incredibly dense objects have a mass of one to twice the mass of the sun, compressed into a ball of the size of a city with a radius of just 10 km.

Astronomers usually only weigh the neutron stars (which measure how big they are) and are found in binary star systems with different objects, such as white d stars or other neutron stars.

However, in these systems, the first born neutron stars acquire extra mass from their peers through a process called attachment, making it difficult to determine the original birth amount.

“Understanding the birth mass of neutron stars is key to unlocking the history of their formation,” says Dr. Simon Stevenson, an Ozgrav researcher at Swinburne University.

“This work provides an important basis for interpreting gravitational wave detection in neutron star mergers.”

Dr. Stevenson and his colleagues analyzed samples of 90 neutron stars in the binary star system and considered the masses obtained from the birth of each neutron star to measure the distribution of neutron star masses at birth.

They discovered that neutron stars are usually born with a mass of about 1.3 solar masses, with heavier neutron stars being more rare.

“Our approach allows us to finally understand the mass of neutron stars at birth. This has been a long-standing question in astrophysics,” said Professor Xingjiang Zhu of Beijing Normal University.

“This discovery is important for interpreting new observations of neutron star masses from observations of gravitational waves.”

study It will be displayed in the journal Natural Astronomy.

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ZQ. you et al. Determination of the birth mass function of neutron stars from observations. Nut AthlonPublished online on February 26th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41550-025-02487-w

Source: www.sci.news

Opportunistic Miocene freshwater fish fed on cyclic basement diet

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Paleontologists from the Australian Museum Institute, the University of New South Wales, the University of Canberra and CSIRO describe a new species of Osmel-type fish from fossilized bodies found in New South Wales, Australia. The fish’s preserved stomach content indicates an opportunistic bottom-pore-like diet, as evidenced by the ruins of many phantom midge larvae, two insect wings, and bivalve remnants.

Habits and fin locations Fell Aspis Block Sea. Scale bar – 8 mm. Image credit: McCurry et al. , doi: 10.1080/02724634.2024.2445684.

The newly described fish species, which lived in the Myosense period about 15 million years ago, belonged to the Osmerforfos (freshwater smell and its allies).

Named after Professor Jocchen Bloc of Australian National University Fell Aspis Block Sea It is the first fossil freshwater smell found in Australia.

“I am extremely proud that this world’s first discovery was named after me,” Professor Brocks said.

“This discovery opens a new pathway to understanding the evolutionary history of Australia’s freshwater fish species and ancient ecosystems.”

Professor Brox discovered several fossils Fell Aspis Block Sea At the McGrath Flat Fossil Site near Gurgon, New South Wales.

“Before the discovery of this fossil, scientists lacked concrete evidence to identify how this group of fish evolved over time and when they arrived in Australia,” said Dr. Matthew McCurry, of the Australian Museum Institute and the University of New South Wales.

“Fell Aspis Block Sea This is the first fossil freshwater Australian confectionery found in Australia. ”

“The discovery of fossil freshwater fish 15 million years ago provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand Australia’s ancient ecosystems and the evolution of fish species.”

“The fossil is part of a diverse range of fish species in Australia, including species such as Australian greyling and Australian confectionery.”

“But without the fossils, it would have been difficult to tell exactly when the group had arrived in Australia and whether they had changed at all over time.”

Stored stomach contents Fell Aspis Block Sea It offers paleontologists a glimpse into the behavior of these ancient species.

“We know that now Fell Aspis Block Sea Although they provided an invertebrate range, the most common prey was small phantom midge larvae,” Dr. McCurry said.

“One of the fossils shows parasites attached to fish tails. It is young freshwater that burns glotidium.”

“These boys Mussarsatach are riding up and down streams on the gills and tails of fish.”

“This little fish is one of the most beautiful fossils I’ve found at McGrath Flat, and it was a real surprise to me to find the first vertebrate among the abundant fossils of plants and insects,” Professor Brocks said.

One of the most exciting aspects of the piece was that they were able to convey the colour of Fell Aspis Block Sea.

Dr. Michael Frise, a paleontologist at the University of Canberra, said:

“We were able to use a powerful microscope to see structures that produce small colours known as melanosomes.”

“Fossilized melanosomes have previously allowed paleontologists to reconstruct feather colors, but melanosomes have never been used to reconstruct color patterns in long-extinct fish species.”

paper The survey results were published this week Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology.

____

Matthew R. McCurry et al. Paleontology of a new Osmar type fish species from Australia. Journal of Vertebrate PalaeontologyPublished online on March 17th, 2025. doi:10.1080/02724634.2024.245684

Source: www.sci.news

Review of Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft: New Color Screen Upgrades for E-Reader

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

aMazon’s first Kindle with a color screen faced significant challenges, including a rough landing, yellow screen issues, and shipping delays last year. However, with these issues resolved, could the introduction of color screens revolutionize the e-reader market?

While Amazon was not the first to utilize Color E-Ink screens in its e-readers, the company believes that the technology has significantly improved over the past four years. Competitors like Boox and Kobo offer greater contrast and speed, enhancing the overall reading experience.

Priced at £270 (€300/$280), the Kindle Colorsoft exceeds the £125 black and white Paperwhite model it is based on. It is also more expensive than its top-tier color E-Ink rivals. Positioned below the larger 10.2-inch Scribe tablet, Colorsoft is Amazon’s top 7-inch model.

Regular textbooks resemble a monochrome Kindle, lacking added colors. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Despite the new screen technology, Colorsoft retains the traditional Kindle design. It features a smooth black plastic back and a matte touchscreen on the front, with only a power button next to the USB-C port for physical controls. Page turns and other functions are all touchscreen-based.

Compared to black and white books, the grayscale on Colorsoft appears slightly grayish. However, page turns are swift and text remains clear and legible. The adjustable front light with 24 brightness levels and automatic adjustment based on time of day works effectively.

The color screen enhances browsing in libraries and Kindle stores by displaying book covers in color. Diagrams, maps, and photos within books are now rendered in color, aiding comprehension. Users can highlight passages in various colors and easily navigate through content. When a color image covers one-third of the screen, the entire display shifts to color.

While comic pages are visible on the 7-inch screen, some text may require zooming for comfortable reading. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The matte screen on Colorsoft may not be as vibrant as that of a phone or tablet, resembling newspaper printing rather than glossy magazines. However, with increased brightness and vibrant color mode, Colorsoft effectively presents graphic novel artwork.

Reading texts within speech bubbles may pose a challenge due to the 7-inch screen’s size when viewing a full comic page. The Panel view mode on Kindle displays multiple panels simultaneously, though zooming and panning on the Colorsoft touchscreen provide a faster and smoother reading experience.

One of Kindle’s key advantages is Amazon’s extensive e-book store, catering to a wide range of genres including comics and graphic novels. Amazon’s acquisition of Comixology in 2014 expanded the library offerings, seamlessly integrating with the Kindle store.

Zoom in to see the artwork details and read the text easily. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Users can load Epub or PDF files onto their Kindle and purchase books from sources other than Amazon, though only documents sent via Amazon’s Send to Kindle Service will display color on Colorsoft.

Colorsoft would benefit from improved library management capabilities, especially for users with extensive collections of comics and books. While Kindle offers book and manga filters, graphic novels may not be identified as manga. However, the filter functionality works with the Kindle app on tablets.

specifications

screen: 7-inch color e-paper (B&W 300ppi; 150ppi)
size: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8mm
Weight: 219g
water resistance: IPX8 (2m up to 60 minutes)
Connectivity: Wifi 5, Bluetooth
Storage: 32GB
Battery life: 28 hours of reading

A full charge of ColorSoft with a 9W USB-C power adapter (not included) takes about 2.5 hours. It also supports wireless charging. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The battery life of Colorsoft varies slightly due to the color screen, but in testing, it outlasted Amazon’s estimates. Reading a standard black and white book at 40% brightness yielded about 45 hours, dropping to approximately 32 hours when reading a color graphic novel at 70% brightness. Standby battery life was also impressive, with less than 1% drain per day with the Power Save option enabled.

Sustainability

The smooth plastic back feels good in your hand, but it’s no different from the much cheaper Kindle. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Colorsoft will receive software and security updates from Amazon for a minimum of four years. The battery’s expected lifespan is not specified, but it should endure over 500 full charge cycles at 80% capacity. Repair options availability varies by region. The device contains 28% recycled materials, including cobalt, magnesium, and plastic.

Amazon offers trade-in and recycling programs, detailed in the environmental impact report of Kindle Colorsoft here.

price

The price of the Kindle Colorsoft is £269.99 (€299.99/$279.99).

Comparatively, the standard Kindle is priced at £79.99, Kindle Paperwhite at £124.99, Kindle Scribe at £379.99, Kobo Libra Color at £199.99, and Boox Go Color 7 at €279.99. The iPad costs £329.

verdict

Despite its rocky start, Colorsoft demonstrates the potential of Color E-Ink technology. It is poised to become the standard for e-book readers, enhancing not only manga and graphic novels but also regular books with color illustrations.

Viewing book covers and images in color elevates the reading experience without significant drawbacks compared to black and white models. Manga also appears engaging, making outdoor reading on Kindle more enjoyable than on a tablet. However, the 7-inch screen may be insufficient for a detailed graphic novel experience, requiring a larger display like that of an iPad.

Despite its price point, Colorsoft lacks the luxurious feel of higher-end Kindle models such as Oasis. It embodies a utilitarian approach akin to the Paperwhite model.

While the color screen on Colorsoft is impressive, the cost may be hard to justify for a screen of this size primarily suited for standard text. Purchasing during a promotional offer may mitigate any reservations. For users experiencing issues like a yellow tint on the screen, contacting Amazon support for a replacement is recommended.

Strong Points: The vivid color and black-and-white book images, water resistance, fast pinch-and-zoom, extended battery life, automatic front light adjustment, USB-C connectivity.

Cons: Black-and-white page screen flashes, absence of physical page turn buttons, high cost, limited 7-inch screen for detailed graphics, less vibrant than tablets, ecosystem lock-in with Amazon.

www.theguardian.com

New research suggests that modern humans are descended from two ancestor groups

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Over the past 20 years, a general view of human evolutionary genetics is Homo sapiens It first appeared in Africa about 200,000 to 300,000 years ago, and descended from a single lineage. However, a new study from the University of Cambridge shows that modern humans are the result of two groups (potentially HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS and Homo Erectus) It branched out 1.5 million years ago and gathered at a mixed event 300,000 years ago at an 80:20% ratio.

a HOMO HEIDELBERGENSISNeanderthals and Cromagnone. Image credit: Sinc/José Antonio Peñas.

“The question of where we came from has been something that has captivated people for centuries,” said Dr. Trevor Cousins of Cambridge University.

“For a long time, it has been assumed that we evolved from a single, consecutive ancestor lineage, but the exact details of our origins are uncertain.”

“Our research shows clear indications of the origins of our evolutionary being more complex, including various groups that have developed individually over a million years, and have since returned to form modern human species,” added Richard Durbin, a professor at Cambridge University.

Previous studies have already shown that Neanderthals and Denisovans are mated, but Homo sapiens About 50,000 years ago, new research suggests that a much more important genetic mixing occurred long before these interactions were about 300,000 years ago.

Unlike Neanderthal DNA, which makes up about 2% of the genome of non-African modern humans, this ancient mixed event contributes ten times its amount and is found in all modern humans.

The team's methods rely on analysis of modern human DNA rather than extracting genetic material from ancient bones, allowing us to infer the existence of ancestral populations that otherwise left no physical traces.

The authors developed a computational algorithm called Cobraa, which models the methods that ancient populations fell apart and later integrated.

They tested the algorithm using simulated data and applied it to real human genetic data from the 1000 Genomes project, a global initiative that sequences DNA from populations in Africa, Asia, Europe and America.

Researchers were able to identify these two ancestral populations, but also identified some impressive changes that occurred after the two populations were initially decomposed.

“At the moment the two ancestral populations split, we see a serious bottleneck in one of them, suggesting that it had been reduced to a very small size before slowly growing over a million years,” said Professor Aylwyn of Cambridge University.

“This group later contributed to about 80% of modern human genetic material and also appeared to be a population of ancestors that diverged the Neanderthals and Denisovans.”

“However, some of the population genes that contributed to our small numbers of genetic material, especially those associated with brain function and neural processing, may play an important role in human evolution,” Dr. Cousins said.

This is a reconstruction of the artist Homo Erectus. Image credit: Yale University.

Scientists also found that genes inherited from the second population are often separated from the genome regions associated with gene function, suggesting that they may be less compatible with numerous genetic backgrounds.

This suggests a process known as the cleansing of selection, in which natural selection removes harmful mutations over time.

So who was our mystical human ancestors? Fossil evidence suggests species such as Homo Erectus and HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS Although he lived in both Africa and other regions during this period, becoming a potential candidate for these ancestral populations, more research (probably more evidence) is needed to identify which genetic ancestors correspond to which fossil groups.

The authors hope to refine the model to explain more progressive genetic exchanges between populations rather than sharp divisions or reunions.

They also plan to explore how their findings relate to other anthropology discoveries, such as fossil evidence from Africa, suggesting that early humans may have been much more diverse than previously thought.

“It's amazing to see today's DNA and reconstruct events that were hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago,” Professor Scally said.

“And we can tell you that our history is much richer and more complicated than we imagined.”

study It was published in the journal today Natural Genetics.

____

T. Cousins et al. The structured coalescence model reveals the deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans. Nat GenetPublished online on March 18th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41588-025-02117-1

Source: www.sci.news

Future paleontologists may find wind turbine blades to be a significant technological discovery

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

University of Leicester paleontologists Sarah Gabot and Jan Zarashivich have published a new book on how different types of so-called technolosils collapse in the past, including plastic bottles, patios, cell phones, old socks, spherical pens and many other hosts.

Wind turbine blades made from recycled materials may be one of the most surprising fossils discovered by future paleontologists. Image credit: Gemini AI.

In their book, Disposal: How Technorosil becomes our ultimate legacythe author explores what different human items look like, subject to natural processes for thousands to millions of years.

But one technical oil that may really turn your head among paleontologists in distant environments in exploring the extraordinary layers of human epoch is the relic of wind turbines.

“The fossils are not from row towers. They are made of metal and made of recycled metal,” Professor Zalasiewicz said.

“But the giant wind turbine blades are made from materials such as fiberglass, epoxy resin, and carbon fiber. These are extremely difficult to recycle, but they make fossils easier.”

“As wind turbines reach their end of life and are removed, huge 50m-long bladed landfills are growing, sliced into truck-length segments and appearing to be neatly stacked together.”

“Some of them have been buried for millions of years, and if you ultimately stumble upon an inquisitive, distant paleontologist, a massive, hollow, sawbone cemetery,” he said.

“Some are crushed and dulled by the movement of the earth, while others are full of mineral growth, but their impressive shape and enormous size shine through the layers.”

“For our distant explorers, they become a huge puzzle. Can they tell us that they were built to grab the wind, providing clean, renewable energy?”

“Perhaps if they can connect them together — just like we're reconstructing the skeletons of today's giant dinosaurs — we can see their aerodynamic shapes.”

“They become one puzzle among the millions we leave behind in our daily lives (and I think they'll also find more ominous fossils left behind by fossil fuel burning).

“There was nothing like this new fossil cornea in the 400 million years of history on Earth.”

“And now we should begin to understand this amazing, surprising, often toxic, what we leave on the planet.”

“To know how our countless discarded objects become fossilized in the distant future will help us deal with the growing mountains that we live in today.”

The author also explains the types of science that appear to show the footprints of distant humans on Earth for the average reader.

It offers a different perspective on fossils and fossils. It expands the ideas of what people think of as fossils and what they can convey to us.

“It was a real adventure to use an understanding of how fossils are formed in the past and apply it to the very new world of what we now call Technofossils,” Professor Gabbott said.

“But then, we were asked a really tough question. Will the most amazing technolosil we're leaving behind will be millions (or billions) now?”

“There are so many candidates comparable to wind turbines because of the 'the strangest human fossil of all time.' ”

“For example, there are countless different shapes that a pair of Y fronts can take when pressed within a layer (and explores a very specific question in the book).”

“There are some very distinctive, and very hard fossil smoke particles that come out of our power plants.”

“There are strange stories of tea bags, chicken feathers, non-stick frying pans, instantaneous patterns of silicon chips, copper wire that wraps around the world.”

____

Sarah Gabot and Jan Zarashivich. 2025. How Technorosil becomes our ultimate legacy. OUP Oxford

Source: www.sci.news

The double-edged sword of the best map of the early universe ever for cosmologists

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

New image of cosmic microwave background radiation in part of the sky – the zoomed area is about 20 times the width of the moon seen from Earth

ACT collaboration. ESA/Planck Collaboration

The latest and greatest maps of the early universe, five times more detailed than anything before, are accurately supported by the main models of the universe, but are also a double-edged sword, as new data does not provide clues to solve some of the greatest mysteries of cosmology.

The map shows the universe’s cosmic microwave background (CMB). This is a faint remaining radiation from the early stages of the universe. It began as the earliest light just 380,000 years after the Big Bang, but the expansion of the universe over billions of years has shifted frequency from the visible spectrum to microwaves.

Now, new data from Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) gave us a clearer image of the CMB only from half of the sky that can be imaged from the Chilean observatory location.

Joe Dunkley At Princeton University, which worked on the project, the data says it has more vigorously and accurately reduced the composition of the universe, its size, age, and magnification rate. But the truly important discovery was that nothing contradicts the current major model of the universe. Lambda-CDM.

Previous data set the universe’s age at 13.8 billion years old, and the velocity at which it is expanding – known as the Hubble constant – is 67-68 km per 67-68 km per megapulsek distance from Earth. The ACT data essentially confirms this, but increases accuracy and confidence in those findings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggtt9qhn7os

CMB is first mapped by NASA’s Space Background Explorer (COBE) in the 1980s and 90s, then by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropic Probe (WMAP) in the 2000s, and then from the European Space Agency’s Planck Spacecraft to provide early knowledge from 2009 to 2013. universe.

One of the restrictions on the act is that unlike these previous space-based missions, it is a ground-based telescope. Therefore, it is limited to half of the sky. Nevertheless, the action not only provides better resolution and sensitivity than these previous maps, but also measures the direction in which the polarization or light waves of CMB are oscillated, revealing some information about how CMB light evolved over time.

“With a closer look at the polarization of the CMB, we could have seen something different. We could have seen the destruction of standard space models,” says Dunkley. “Every time you look at the universe differently, you can’t be sure the original model is still working. You were ready to see something coming out of that model.

This may be a relief for anyone working on Lambda-CDM, but it was not welcome news for all scientists. Colinhill At Columbia University in New York, he says he wanted to see some evidence in data on a phenomenon that has not yet been recognized (probably a new type of energy or particle). This helps explain the so-called Hubble tension.

“We’ve all been blown away by how consistent we are. [the ACT data] It’s really on the standard model. We all produce models from different aspects, looking for places where they break and where nature can give us something to sink our teeth. And so far, nature hasn’t created that crack,” says Hill.

He says that the most viable theory for the contradiction of Hubble tension requires phenomena that simply do not appear in the ACT data we currently have. This brings the scientist back to seek another explanation. “The new measurements will make theorists, including me, even closer restraint jackets,” says Hill. “That deepens the mystery.”

ACT collected data that constituted this new map between 2017 and 2022, but is now shut down. Dunkley says that while a new Chilean telescope will start work later this year, we are unlikely to get a higher resolution map for a few years. As for the other half of the sky, only two locations on Earth could potentially host a new telescope with results: Greenland and Tibet. Dunkley says that unfortunately Greenland still doesn’t have the infrastructure needed for such a project, and Tibet is politically sensitive.

Jens Chluba At the University of Manchester in the UK, scientists on the project are already working with data, but say the open release of ACT maps will cause a surge in activity.

The Mystery of the Universe: Cheshire, England

Spend a weekend with some of the brightest minds of science. Explore the mysteries of the universe in an exciting program that includes an excursion to see the iconic Lovell telescope.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Alphabet’s Google Parent Company makes historic purchase of cybersecurity firm Wiz

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Alphabet, the owner of Google, has agreed to purchase Cybersecurity Group Wiz for $32 billion (£24.7 billion).

Google is acquiring an Israeli startup in an effort to compete with rivals Microsoft and Amazon in the cloud services market.

Wiz provides services that scan data from cloud storage providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure for security risks. It previously turned down Alphabet’s $23 billion bid last summer.

However, concerns about regulatory approval caused some issues with the initial bid.

If the deal falls through, Alphabet has agreed to pay a $3.2 billion fee. This acquisition indicates a test of the Trump administration’s willingness and shows President Biden’s leadership in acquiring major technology companies.

Alphabet is currently facing pressure from US Department of Justice officials to sell off its Chrome browser to address concerns about its dominance in the search market.

Wiz, founded in 2020 by graduates of the Israeli Intelligence Corps, has offices in New York and Israel, with its European headquarters in London.

Despite the acquisition, Wiz will operate independently from Google, similar to how Microsoft operates LinkedIn.

Wiz will continue to collaborate with major cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud.

Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport will remain in his position until October 2024. Photo: Bloomberg/Getty

“We’re excited for the future,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO. “Google Cloud and Wiz will enhance cloud security and multi-cloud capabilities. Businesses and governments operating in the cloud seek stronger security solutions and a wider range of cloud computing providers.”

Startup CEO Assaf Rappaport previously rejected Alphabet’s $23 billion offer to focus on growth and potentially going public.

Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush commented on the acquisition, highlighting Wiz’s strong presence in the cloud cybersecurity industry.

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Google’s move to acquire Wiz is seen as a strategic step to compete with other tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon in the cloud security space.

Wiz currently generates $750 million in annual revenue, and Google aims to capitalize on the company’s market position for future growth.

Alphabet’s previous acquisitions include Motorola Mobility, Mandiant, YouTube, and Deep Mind as part of its strategy to diversify from search-related ads.

With Wiz’s expertise, Alphabet hopes to gain a larger share of the global cloud market, currently lagging behind Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.

Analyst Dan Ives sees Google’s acquisition of Wiz as a strategic move to enhance cloud security offerings and drive cloud and AI initiatives forward.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Italian newspapers report the launch of the world’s first AI-generated edition | Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

According to Italian newspapers, it is the world’s first fully produced version created by artificial intelligence.

Il Foglio, a conservative liberal newspaper, is conducting a month-long experiment to showcase the impact of AI technology on our work and time, as stated by Claudio Cerasa, the newspaper’s editor.

The four-page IL Foglio AI is included in the Slim Broadsheet edition of the newspaper and can be found on newsstands. Online starting Tuesday.

Cerasa mentioned that Il Foglio AI will be the world’s first daily newspaper fully created using artificial intelligence, covering everything from writing, headlines, quotes, summaries, and even sarcasm. Journalists will have a limited role in questioning and reading the responses generated by the AI tool.

This experiment coincides with global news organizations exploring the use of AI. The Guardian recently reported that BBC News will utilize AI for more personalized content delivery.

The debut edition of Il Foglio AI features stories on US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with various other topics.

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Cerasa emphasized that Il Foglio Ai represents traditional newspapers but also serves as a testing ground for understanding the impact of AI on the creation of daily newspapers.

“Do not consider Il Foglio as an artificial intelligence newspaper,” Serasa stated.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Nicotine pouch flavors are said to increase addictiveness, according to some sources

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

New rat studies published in the Journal of Peer Reviews indicate that the addiction to nicotine pouches and other oral products may be influenced by flavoring (Nicotine and cigarette research).

Nicotine pouches, small bags placed between the gum and lips to provide nicotine without cigarettes, have seen a surge in popularity. Sales in the US spiked from 126 million units between August and December 2019 to 888 million units between January and March 2022 (source).

The growth of nicotine pouches has been rapid in recent years. In 2024, Zyn, the top-selling brand in the US, sold 385 million units, a 50% increase from 2023 (Forbes).

Recent research suggests that the flavors and sweeteners used in oral nicotine products can significantly impact nicotine consumption. In experiments with rats, combinations of flavoring and sweeteners with nicotine solutions were tested to measure the resulting intake.

“We aimed to investigate the influence of sweeteners and flavors on nicotine usage,” said researcher Dr. Dennis Bagdas from Yale University School of Medicine. BBC Science Focus. “While many oral nicotine products contain these additives, their effects on selection behavior and preferences are not fully understood.”

Prior research by Bagdas and colleagues had already shown that sweetened nicotine solutions increase consumption. In this study, rats were given plain, sweet, flavored, or sweetened nicotine options.

As expected, both male and female rats showed a preference for sweetened solutions, with notable gender differences. Females consumed more nicotine when paired with simple sweeteners, while males favored nicotine with cinnamaldehyde.

According to the researchers, this suggests that flavors can impact nicotine consumption in men more than women. The study also revealed that menthol flavors led to increased consumption in men but not in women.

The nicotine pouch is placed between the lips and gums, allowing direct absorption into the bloodstream – Getty

While the study was conducted on rats, Bagdas noted that rodents and humans share similar reward systems, offering insights into human behavior. Further studies in humans are needed to confirm these findings.

“Rodents have well-established reward systems that make them a valuable model for studying the effects of additives on nicotine consumption,” she explained.

“By isolating the impact of specific sweeteners and flavors on nicotine preferences, we can gain a better understanding of how these factors influence consumption, separate from external influences like marketing and social factors.”

The study highlights the potential need for regulatory measures as flavored nicotine pouches are widely available in various forms.

“Our findings on the appeal of oral nicotine products and additives that may heighten dependency risk can guide harm reduction strategies and regulatory policies,” said Bagdas.

“This study underscores the significance of sweetness in oral nicotine preferences, suggesting a need for public health measures to regulate sweeteners and flavors in these products.”

Bagdas also stressed the importance of further research on other ingredients in oral nicotine products that could impact consumption, such as pH modifiers, nicotine sources, and formulations.

About our experts

Dennis Bagdas, DVM, PhD, is a research scientist at Yale School of Medicine specializing in behavioral neuropharmacology. She collaborates with the Yale Center for the Study of Tobacco Product Use and Addiction (Yale TCors) to study nicotine addiction behaviors in adolescents and adults and examine the effects of tobacco ingredients on nicotine intake.

read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

How Elon Musk Continues to Lead Tesla as CEO | Technology

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

hWelcome to Ello and TechScape. In this week’s edition, Elon Musk faces backlash and challenges, Apple improves Siri, and Meta confronts internal struggles.

Mask was assaulted last week, just like Tesla.

My colleague Nick Robbins – Airy Report:

The past 10 days have been rough for Musk as Tesla’s value plummeted due to various concerns. SpaceX also faced challenges with a rocket explosion, while X experienced a cyberattack. Musk’s involvement in Doge and Tesla’s sales event at the White House added to the turmoil.

To uplift Musk’s fortunes, Tesla showcased its vehicles at the White House, garnering support from President Trump. However, this move also highlighted Musk’s reliance on external influence to mitigate his setbacks.

Protesters outside the Tesla Service Center in New Orleans on March 14th.

Amid Tesla’s struggles, questions arise about Musk’s leadership and the company’s future. Will shareholders take legal action to address the declining stock prices and operational challenges?

Other Elon Musk News

Apple rises to Siri’s incompetence

Apple criticized Siri’s delays at a recent meeting.

Apple faces internal challenges with Siri’s AI capabilities lagging behind competitors, raising concerns among iPhone owners and investors.

The saga of Siri’s development reveals internal struggles and doubts about Apple’s AI features. This setback tarnishes Apple’s reputation for innovation and design excellence.

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Mark Zuckerberg welcomed by Donald Trump at the White House.

Meta faces controversy as a former executive exposes internal issues, triggering legal actions and public scrutiny. The book sheds light on Meta’s leadership and decision-making processes.

Wynn-Williams’ book raises questions about Meta’s practices and the truth behind her claims, sparking a debate about the company’s integrity and transparency.

Wider technology

Source: www.theguardian.com

Are you underestimating the actual global population count?

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Population estimates for rural China may be incorrect

ShutterStock/Aphotostory

Rural population estimates underestimate the number of actual people living in these areas by at least half, researchers argue. However, the findings are contested by demographics. Demography says such underestimation is unlikely to change the head count of a nation or world.

Josiasláng-ritter And while his colleagues at Aalto University in Finland were working to understand the extent to which the dam construction project resettled people, they continued to get numbers that differed significantly from official statistics while estimating the population.

For the purposes of the investigation, they used data on 307 dam projects in 35 countries, including China, Brazil, Australia and Poland, completed between 1980 and 2010, and obtained the number of people reported to have resettled in each case as the population of the area prior to evacuation. We then cross-checked these numbers to break down the area into a square grid, and estimated the number of people living in each square to reach the total.

Láng-Ritter and his colleagues discovered that what they say is a clear contradiction. Their analysis shows that the most accurate estimates increased the actual number by 53% on average, while the worst was 84%. “We were very surprised to see how big this underestimation is,” he says.

The official UN estimate of the world population is around 8.2 billion, but Láng-Ritter says the analysis shows perhaps much higher, but refuses to give a specific number. “Today, population estimates are likely to be conservative accounting, and there is reason to believe that these over 8 billion people are significantly more common,” he says.

The team suggests that these counting errors will occur. This is because rural census data are often incomplete or unreliable, and population estimation methods have historically been designed for the best accuracy in urban areas. Correcting these systematic biases is important to avoid inequality for rural communities, researchers suggest. This can be done by improving census in such areas and recalibrating the population model.

If rural population estimates are far more abolished, it could have a significant impact on the provision of government services and plans, Láng-Ritter said. “The impact may be very large because these datasets are used for so many different types of actions,” he explains. This includes planning transportation infrastructure, building health facilities, and risk reduction efforts in natural disasters and epidemics.

However, not everyone is convinced by the new estimate. “The study suggests that the number of local populations in places where you live in the country is incorrectly estimated, but it is not clear that this necessarily implies that the national estimates of the country are incorrect.” Martin Cork At Stockholm University, Sweden.

Andrew Tame The University of Southampton in the UK will oversee WorldPop. This was one of the data sets that the study suggested, lowering the population by 53%. He says that grid-level population estimates are based on combining high-level census estimates with satellite data and modeling, and that the quality of satellite images before 2010 is known to inaccurate such estimates. “The more time we go back, the more those problems come,” he says. “I think that’s something that’s well understood.”

Láng-Ritter believes new ways are needed as data quality remains a problem. “With the data has improved dramatically within 2010-2020, it is very unlikely that the issues we identified have been fully resolved,” he says.

Stuart Giel Basten In Hong Kong, the University of Science and Technology points out that most of the team’s data comes from China and other parts of Asia and may not apply globally. “I think it’s a very big jump to say that there is a very large undercount in other places like Finland, Australia, Sweden, etc. with a very sophisticated registration system based on one or two data points.” láng-ritter admits this limitation but supports the work. “The countries we saw are very different and the rural areas we surveyed have very different characteristics, so we are confident we will provide a representative sample of the whole of the globe.”

Despite some reservations, Gietel-Basten agrees to Láng-Ritter on one point. “I certainly agree with the conclusion that we should not only invest more in rural data collection, but come up with more innovative ways to count people,” he says.

But the idea that the official world population should expand to billions of people as “unrealistic,” Gietel-Basten says. Tatem is more convincing. “If we’re really insufficient in that mass, it’s a massive news story and it goes against everything in the thousands of other datasets,” he says.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Creating Something We Thought Was Cool: The Story of Monolith Productions | Games

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

lLast month, Warner Bros. announced the closure of three game development studios – WB Game San Diego, Player First Studio, Monolith Production. Amid a wave of layoffs and closures in the gaming industry, the news of Monolith shutting down caused shock and anger. The belief that Monolith would always exist was pervasive, with one of the founding members expressing surprise at the possibility of its closure.

Monolith was known for its unique approach to game development, combining visual talent, mechanical originality, and pop culture themes since its founding in 1994. The studio was unpredictable in its game releases, producing a variety of genres from first-person shooters to platformers, dungeon crawlers, and open-world games.

The earthquake led me to my toes…blood. Photo: Monolith Productions/Gog

Monolith’s early days were marked by the release of unique games like “Claw,” a 2D platformer about Pirate Cats, and “Blood,” a first-person shooter that gained popularity for its visual style and creative weapons. The success of “Blood” led Monolith to focus on FPS development, leading to the creation of several acclaimed games between 1998 and 2003.

Inspired by anime…Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. Photo: Monolith Production

One of Monolith’s standout games was “Operative: No One Lives Forever,” which offered a unique blend of spy fiction and shooter elements. The studio continued to create innovative games like “Fear” and “Dreaded,” showcasing its ability to immerse players in compelling and terrifying experiences.

Arguably the best of Monolith… Alma from fear. Photo: Sierra Game

However, Monolith’s later years saw a shift towards working on licensed games and adaptations, with titles like “Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor” showcasing the studio’s creativity and whimsical flair. The innovative Nemesis AI system introduced in the game set a new standard for enemy interactions in open-world games.

Highlights of the Monolith's later years… Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Photo: Monolith Production

Despite its success, the closure of Monolith marked the end of an era in the gaming industry. The studio’s closure raises questions about modern industry practices and the pressure to deliver blockbuster games that cater to a wide audience. Monolith’s legacy of creativity and innovation will continue to resonate in the gaming world long after its closure.

Source: www.theguardian.com

BYD, a Chinese EV manufacturer, claims their new rapid charging system could rival the speed of filling up a gas tank

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker, has announced plans to construct a charging network across China. This network aims to enable EVs to charge as quickly as refilling with gasoline.

Founder Wang Chuanfu revealed the “supere platform” at a home event in Shenzhen on Monday. This platform will support a peak charging speed of 1,000 kW, allowing cars to travel 400 km on a five-minute charge.

BYD’s 1,000 kW charging speed is double that of Tesla superchargers, offering faster charging speeds than before in the industry. Fast charging technology is crucial for increasing EV adoption.

Tesla, already struggling, saw its shares drop 15% on March 10, prompting concerns for owner Elon Musk. The company faces challenges in meeting sales targets and producing self-driving cars, with increasing competition from more affordable EV models from Chinese companies like BYD.

Tesla stocks dropped 4.8% on Wall Street, marking an eighth consecutive weekly decline. Baron.

Wang emphasized the goal of reducing EV charging times to match gasoline vehicle refueling times. The new charging architecture will debut with the Han L Sedan and Tang L SUV, priced from 270,000 yuan ($37,330).

BYD plans to build over 4,000 ultra-fast charging stations to support the new platform, but no specific timeline for construction was provided. Previously, BYD owners relied on public charging poles from other manufacturers or third-party operators.

While Tesla has been offering superchargers in China since 2014, other Chinese EV companies like NIO, Li Auto, Xpeng, and Zeekr have also established charging facilities.

BYD’s sales primarily come from plug-in hybrids, with aims to sell 5-6 million units this year.

Reuters and

Source: www.theguardian.com

New Study Reveals Differences Between Your Brain and Chimpanzees

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

We share 98.8% of DNA with our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. However, despite this almost identical genetic blueprint, chimpanzees have not built civilizations, fought wars, or mastered the art of Tiktok dance routines.

But what exactly makes us stand out? Now, neuroscientists may finally have the answer.

New research published in the journal jneurosci looks at new data from the brains of humans, chimpanzees, and macaques.

“We were interested in finding things that ticked different brains.” Professor Logier Mars, the study co-author said to BBC Science Focus. “And the human brain is something we were particularly interested in, for obvious reasons.”

According to Mars, most studies comparing human brains with other animal brains tend to focus on factors such as overall size, the size of a particular region, or the number of neurons. “But our philosophy is that if we really want to understand what is going on, we need to look into how our brains are organized,” he said.

With that approach in mind, Mars and his team set out to investigate. Similar to the scans used in hospitals, published MRI data were used to create a “connectivity blueprint” for three different species of brains. These blueprints essentially map out whether different regions of the brain communicate with each other.

One area the team expected to find a difference was in the prefrontal cortex. This region is related to complex thinking, planning, and decision making.

This area, often referred to as the “personality center” of the brain, plays an important role in regulating emotions and teaching behaviors. At first glance, it seems to be an obvious place to search for the essence of what makes us human. In fact, this study revealed that this region exhibited more connectivity than in other species.

But was that the whole story?

This image highlights the (red) behavioral domains of the left and right hemispheres showing high divergence after comparison. -Bryant et al. , Jneurosci 2025

“The prefrontal cortex is where researchers tend to see when they look for something unique about humans,” Mars said. “But we have found a difference in many places in the cortex of time just above your ears.

Temporal cortex plays an important role in the processing of sensory information – especially visual, sound, and language. Given our highly social and cooperative nature, it is probably not surprising that these areas are connected more intricately in the human brain.

“We are a very social and cooperative species,” explained Mars. “So these properties are likely the driving force behind the changes we observe.”

All of these suggest that there is no single definition switch that makes humans human. Some believe that highly evolutionary events have led us to dominance, but reality can be more complicated.

Like relatives not too far in the trees, we are the result of the progressive, widespread evolutionary changes that have shaped us over time.

Or, as Mars said, “There’s nothing big that makes us different.”

About our experts

Rosier Mars is a professor of neuroscience at Oxford University. His work focuses on the differences between primate brains, especially humans. Mars’s research is published in the following journals: Natural Communication, Frontiers of human neuroscience, and Science.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Leaders in the Performing Arts Sound Alarm on UK Government’s AI Plan, Warn of Copyright Issues

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

A group of more than 30 British performing arts leaders, including executives from the National Theatre, Opera North, and Royal Albert Hall, have expressed concerns over the government’s proposal to allow artists to use their work without permission.

In a joint statement, they emphasized that performing arts organizations rely on a delicate balance of freelancers who depend on copyright to sustain their livelihoods. They urged the government to uphold the “moral and economic rights” of the creative community encompassing music, dance, drama, and opera.

Signatories to the statement include top leaders from institutions such as Saddlers Wells Dance Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Leeds Playhouse.

They expressed concern over the government’s plan to diminish creative copyright by granting exemptions to AI companies. The statement highlighted the reliance of highly skilled creative workers on copyright and the potential negative impact on their livelihoods.

While embracing technological advancements, they warned that the government’s plans could hinder their participation in AI development. They called for automatic rights for creative professionals and criticized proposals that require copyright holders to opt out.

Additionally, they demanded transparency from AI companies regarding the copyrighted material they use in their models and how it was obtained. The government’s proposed transparency requirements in copyright consultations were noted.

The statement emphasized the importance of music, drama, dance, and opera to human joy and highlighted the backlash against the government’s proposals from prominent figures in the creative industry.

The controversy revolves around AI models that power tools like ChatGpt chatbots, trained using vast amounts of data from the open web. A government spokesperson defended the new approach, aiming to balance the interests of AI developers and rights holders.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease: A New Approach

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Quantum Universe

Quantum physics is confused. Luckily, scientists have been exploring it for years, and finally we are beginning to understand it all. Quantum Mechanics guide now easier. A Whistlestop tour to understand the basic theory that governs very small things.

Near-death experience

They left their bodies, witnessed a bright light, and returned forever. But will the survivors of near-death experiences (NDEs) get a glimpse of something great beyond that? Here’s what NDES can tell us about the mystery of our final moments:

Losing the world under the sea

Discover the lost landscape off the coast of Australia, engulfed in the ocean that could have lived over half a million years ago.

Mystical signals from deep space

Fast Radio Burst: Are these mystical signals from deep spaces becoming even more strangers?

plus

There’s a bit of hope: Having hope is a way to do better for your mental health than mindfulness.
New pieces of obesity puzzle: A better understanding of the human hypothalamus pathways has great medical potential and could lead to new treatments of obesity.
Q&A: Your question answered! This month: Does your name affect your physical appearance? Does something poop gold? How old is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot? Why is it so difficult to switch tasks? What’s the craziest thing ever stolen? And more!

Issue 417 for sale on Tuesday, March 18th, 2025

Don’t forget that BBC Science Focus It is also available on all major digital platforms. There is a version Android, Kindle Fire and Kindle e-book readersas well as iOS App For iPad and iPhone.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Hubble zooms in on the starry regions of the upcoming galaxy

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

New images taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show a small area of the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way.

This Hubble image shows a small area of the Small Magellanic Cloud near the center of open cluster NGC 346. Image credits: NASA/ESA/Hubble/C. Murray.

Small Magellanic Cloud is an elongated dwarf galaxy known for its less prominent bars and eastern expansions.

Also known as the NGC 292 or LEDA 3085, it is about 200,000 light years away from Earth, extending 7,000 light years.

“Most of the Small Magellanic Cloud is found in the constellations of Tucana, but small sections cross the adjacent constellations of Hydos,” said Hubble astronomers.

“Thanks to its proximity, the Small Magellanic Cloud is one of the few galaxies that can be seen from Earth without the help of telescopes or binoculars.”

“For viewers in the Southern Hemisphere and some latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, the Small Magellanic Cloud resembles parts of the broken Milky Way, but in reality, it is farther than any part of our own galaxy.”

The new Hubble image captures a small area of the Small Magellanic Cloud near the center of NGC 346.

Images were made from individual exposures taken with UV light. Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

“With the 2.4m 'eyes' and sensitive instruments, Hubble's view of the Small Magellanic Cloud is much more detailed and clearer than what humans can see,” the astronomer said.

“I used a wide field camera 3 instruments from Hubble. Observe This scene is through four different filters. “

“Each filter recognizes light of different wavelengths and creates a multicolored view of dust clouds floating through the field of stars.”

“But Hubble's view is much zoomed in than our eyes, so it's better to observe objects that are very far away.”

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient hominins discovered in Spain with facial bones dating back 1.1 million years

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Who were the first inhabitants of Western Europe, what their physical characteristics were, and where they lived are some of the pending questions in the study of Eurasian settlements during the early Pleistocene epoch. Information on ancient humanity available from Western Europe is limited and limited to the Iberian Peninsula. Now, paleontologists have discovered a fragment of the midface of humanity at the site of the Sima del Elephante in Sierra de Atapuerc, Spain. Fossils, which were 1.4 million to 1.1 million years ago, represent the earliest human faces of Western Europe ever identified.

Archaeological excavations at the Sima del Elephante in Sierra de Atapuerc, Spain. Image credits: Maria D. Guillen/Iphes-Cerca.

“It is suggested that Eurasia was first settled by Hymonin at least 1.8 million years ago,” he said, institut Catetut Catetut Catetut Catetut de Paleoecologia Humana IEvolucióSocial, Rovira I Virgili, and Museo nacional de Ciencias natures, and colleagues

“Evidence of early human settlements in Western Europe is limited to highly fragmented fossil samples from the Iberian Peninsula, with few clues as to the appearance and classification of these human beings.”

“The fossils from the Spanish site, about 850,000 years ago, are Homo Alivisora species of early people with thin midfaces that resemble modern humans. ”

“In 2007, a Hominin Joborne (ATE9-1) was found at the Simadel Elephante site in northern Spain, between 12 and 1.1 million years ago, but it was not a definitive allocation. Homo Alivisor. ”

In the new study, the authors examined the fossil ruins of Hominin Midface from the Sima Del Elefante site.

The fragment labeled ATE7-1 consists of a substantial portion of the maxilla and zygote bone from the left side of an adult.

Using both physical evidence and 3D imaging techniques, the researchers reconstructed the fossil fragments, estimated to be between 1.4 million and 1.1 million.

They also discovered additional archaeological sites: stone tools and ruins of slaughtered animals.

“These practices demonstrate that the first Europeans had a close understanding of available animal resources and knew how to systematically utilize them,” Dr. Huguett said.

According to scientists, the ATE7-1 fossil does not display the “modern” midface features found in Homo Alivisor Fossils, but there are some similarities Homo Erectus system.

They tentatively allocated fossils Homo aff. Erectusshows affinity for Homo Erectuswithholding further evidence.

This finding may suggest that at least two people live in Western Europe Homo Early Pleistocene species: Homo aff. Erectusand later Homo Alivisor.

“The evidence is why it was assigned to the ''because it is still insufficient for a definitive classification. Homo aff. Erectus“Dr. Maria Martinon Torres, a researcher at the Centro Nacional de Investigation, said he is a researcher at Evolcion Humana in London and University College London.

“This designation recognizes the affinity of ATE7-1 Homo Erectus While it leaves the possibility that it belongs to another species open. ”

“Our findings demonstrate at least two different human invasions of Western Europe during the Pleistocene era, providing fascinating insights into the evolution of the genus. Homo. ”

“While their size is small, pioneering analysis of facial fragments greatly enriched our understanding of the origins and dynamics of the earliest Europeans on the continent.”

“More research and fossil samples are needed to investigate the relationships between these populations and further improve their classification,” the researchers concluded.

Their paper It was published in the journal this month Nature.

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R. Huguett et al. The oldest human face in Western Europe. NaturePublished online on March 12, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08681-0

Source: www.sci.news