Imagine looking over a beautiful view. The sun peers closely at the snowy peaks of the mountains in the distance, passing through gentle hills with rivers. There is something wonderful about looking at the outlines of a majestic landscape.
It may not be obvious when you see the night sky, but the universe has its own landscape – the galaxy filaments are separated by empty spaces. We've known this for a long time. But now, a group of cosmologists are taking things further, suggesting that the universe has not only landscapes but also timescapes. The idea is that time flows differently depending on where it is.
To say this is against grain is an understatement. We have always thought that at a large scale, time runs at the same speed across the universe. However, in this photo, known as Timescape Cosmology, there is a large patch of the universe that is ticking over billions of years, for billions of years more than we normally imagine.
It may sound strange, but it is the simple elegance of this idea that seduces physicists. Funny physics has nothing to do with it. It arises naturally from established theories. “It's part of the structure of the general theory of relativity,” the inventor says David Wiltshire At the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. “It's not just a part…
Radcliffe’s wave visualization, a series of dust and gas clouds (marked here) throughout the Milky Way. Approximately 400 light years from the sun, marked yellow
Alyssa A. Goodman/Harvard University
Our solar system passed through vast waves of gas and dust about 14 million years ago, darkening the views of the Earth’s night sky. The waves may have left a trace on our planet’s geological records.
Astronomers previously discovered large ocean-like waves of milky stars, gas and dust that ripple up and down for millions of years. One of these closest and most studied is the Radcliffe waves, about 9,000 light years wide and only 400 light years from the solar system.
Now, Efrem Maconi The University of Vienna and his colleagues discovered that the waves of Radcliffe once were far closer to us, surpassing the solar system 11 to 18 million years ago.
Maconi and his team used data from Gaia Space Telescope, which tracked billions of stars in the Milky Way, to identify recently formed groups of stars within the Radcliffe Wave, and identify the dust and gas clouds that formed from them.
Using these stars, they tracked the cloud orbits in time to reveal historic locations to show how the entire wave was moving. They also calculated the past paths of the solar system, rewind the clock for 30 million years, and discovered that the waves and our sun were approaching intimately about 15-12 million years ago. It is difficult to accurately estimate when the intersection began and ended, but the team believes the solar system is within the wave range around 14 million years ago.
This would have made Earth’s galactic environment as dark as it is today, as we currently live in a relatively empty space realm. “If we are in a dense region of interstellar media, that means that the light coming from the stars will dim,” says Macconi. “It’s like being on a foggy day.”
The encounter may have left evidence in Earth’s geological records and deposited radioactive isotopes on the crust, but considering how long ago it happened, this would be difficult to measure, he says. It says it is useful to find such a galactic encounter, as explaining the geological record of the Earth is a continuous problem. Ralph Schoenrich University College London.
More speculatively, the crossing appears to have occurred during a period of cooling, known as the mid-Miocene. Maconi said the two could be linked, but this would be difficult to prove. Schoenrich thinks that is unlikely. “The rule of thumb is that geology outweighs the influence of the universe,” he says. “When you move around the continent or disrupt ocean currents, you need more because climate change is occurring.”
Under tech billionaire Elon Musk, the Doge Task Force cuts jobs across the US government
AFP via Getty Images
The independent task force, US Government Efficiency (DOGE), has closed 18F, a group of in-house technical experts focused on improving the efficiency of the US government. The 18th floor consulted with other government agencies about adopting cost-effective technology and built digital services for tasks such as applying for a passport or submitting online taxes.
Initiatives such as the 18F, another government unit of high-tech consultants, and the US Digital Services (USDS), are “a wealth of professional networks, fixers and dreamers who can modernize government services.” Daniel Castro at Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank.
He says the recent rapid elimination of the 18th floor could halt US government projects. He then expressed his skepticism that Doge is the right organisation to replace USDS or 18F to help the US government use the technology efficiently. “I didn't hire a demolition crew to build a skyscraper,” says Castro.
The US government typically spends over $100 billion on IT services each year, but these expensive technology investments don't often work as they are actually promised. According to to the US Government Accountability Office. 18F said it helped to avoid such waste by consulting with federal and state agencies adopting high-tech solutions and determining which companies could deliver on time and on budget Danhongovernment digital services and technology experts.
Three former 18th floor employees who requested anonymity had recently cut jobs New Scientist. It helped digitize the healthcare application system to make states easy access to federal Medicaid funds. These provide health insurance to 70 million Americans, including 40% of all children and 60% of all nurse residents.
Another former employee interactively collaborated with the US Department of the Interior Website This tracks environmental damage caused by the release of petroleum or other harmful substances. Such data helped ensure that the person responsible for the damages, not the taxpayer, would pay to clean it, they said.
Members of the 18th floor also had the National Weather Service updated. Prediction website To make it more user-friendly. The 18F team worked with USDS to develop a free direct file program. This allows participating states to submit their taxes directly to the Internal Revenue Service, instead of purchasing tax preparation software or hiring an accountant. The government estimates that more than 30 million taxpayers from 25 states will be eligible for services in 2025.
The future of these projects is currently uncertain. Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025, he has changed his name, I'll remake it The USDS is a clumsy USDS, led by government civil servant Amy Gleason, but is actually led by high-tech billionaire Elon Musk. Many previous US digital services members have since been fired or resigned.
Musk I was aiming It was on the 18th floor early in Trump's second administration, but former 18th floor employees had not received official “forced” notifications to close the organization until February 28th. Approximately 85 members on the 18th floor were directly affected by the layoffs, and three more received previous acquisition offers.
The combination of 18F exclusion and layoffs and resignation from the previous USDS team means there is no government-wide mission left to develop and build technology. say Former 18th floor employee. A spokesman for the General Services Agency (GSA), a US government organization that provides operational support to all federal agencies, said: “GSA will continue to support the administration's willingness to adopt best-in-class technologies to accelerate digital transformation and modernize IT infrastructure.”
Male chimpanzees may have sexual contact during stressful periods
Jake Brooker/Chimhunsi Wildlife Orphanage Trust
Some chimpanzees seem to use sexual behaviors like genital rubbing to manage stressful situations. This shows that our closest living relatives – or in fact, as we thought, isn’t that different from highly sensitive bonobos.
Jake Brooker Durham University in the UK and his colleagues investigated the sexual behavior of non-human primates Rolaya Bonobo Sanctuary The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chimhunsi Wildlife Orphanage Trust In Zambia. Both sanctuaries contain a mixture of wild and captive-born apes, allowing them to roam freely and forage within them.
Researchers observed 53 bonobos (Pampaniscus) It spans three groups: Lola Ya Bonobo and 75 chimpanzees (Pantrogloid) across two groups of chimhunsi over the course of the feeding event of events, including swings distributing limited supply of peanuts to specific regions.
“Bonobos and chimpanzees both live in extremely complex social structures. Zanna Clayat Durham University. Predicting such feeding events can be stressful due to the competition for those who will first reach the food.
Researchers observed 107 instances of genital contact in bonobos and 201 instances of chimpanzees five minutes before 45 feeding events in five groups.
“This involves placing your hands or feet in another primate's biogenic area, and it could also involve the genital organs that touch each other, like the bonobo's very well-known genital friction behavior,” says Brooker.
This study revealed differences between species. “We found that sex frequency in these situations was more common in other women and female bonobos, but more common among chimpanzee men,” says Clay. It may be related to the fact that bonobos live in patriarchal groups, but chimpanzees live in patriarchal groups, she says.
“By using sex as a social tool to navigate all kinds of social issues, bonobos have given them a bit of a reputation as a kind of sexy hippie ape,” says Clay. “This study shows that the differences between the two species are not as large as previously assumed. Chimpanzees are known to be aggressive and violent, but in reality they have a truly rich repertoire of behaviors used to manage social life.”
“Chimpanzees definitely draw PR short straws compared to bonobos.” Matilda Brindle At Oxford University.
Chimpanzees use sex in ways that go beyond breeding, unlike human sexuality, but we don’t just have sex for breeding, says Clay. for example, Stress reduction It was given as a reason for people to have sex.
Kit Opie At the University of Bristol in the UK, I wonder if the same level of behavior can be seen in wild environments rather than sanctuaries.
The work may also shed light on our last common ancestors, who lived around five to seven million years ago, before humans branch out from dicks and bonobos, he says.
“If we consider that all three use sexual behaviors to navigate social relationships, it is likely that the common ancestors we share did too,” Brindle says.
The first water molecules could have formed just 100 million to 200 million years after the Big Bang – even the first galaxy kicked off the processes that led to life on Earth.
Shortly after the Big Bang, most of the problems in the universe were hydrogen and helium, with only traces of other lighter elements, such as lithium. Heavy elements like oxygen are not yet present, and water is impossible to form.
These early elements were combined into the first star and produced heavier elements through oxygen-containing fusion. When these stars reach the end of their lives, they explode as supernovae, releasing these heavier elements, allowing oxygen to mix and mix with existing hydrogen to combine H.2O – Water.
Previous research It shows that even the relatively small amount of oxygen produced by the earliest stars could create water molecules, but they say up until now they have not simulated exactly what happens when a protostar becomes a supernova, and how the elements it released blended with the cosmic environment in which the stars were formed. Daniel Warren At the University of Portsmouth, UK. “To do anything less, you just don't know what's going on,” he says.
To investigate this, Whalen and his team used computer models to simulate the birth and death of the first star in a realistic context. These early stars are thought to range from 13 times the massive range of the Sun to 200 times the size of the Sun, so researchers modeled both extremes.
As you can imagine, the larger stars spit out more oxygen and produced more water in the form of steam clouds around the Jupiter mass, while the smaller stars produced Earth's mass, says Whaleen.
Depending on the mass of the star, researchers discovered that water took between 3 million and 90 million years after the supernova explosion. In other words, the first water molecules were formed 100-200 million years after the Big Bang.
Importantly, however, the team discovered that this water was not simply spreading throughout the universe. Instead, gravity caused it, and the other heavy elements produced by the first star were clumped together. That meant these chunks were breeding grounds for the second generation stars, and perhaps the first planet. “It was a huge result,” Whalen says.
“Even before the galaxy took place, this idea of water forming essentially overturning decades of thought about the first emergence of life in the universe,” says Whalen. Team Members Muhammadratif At UAE University, researchers now say they will simulate whether water vapor can survive the destruction of the formation of the first galaxy and harsh radiation.
“We know that the chemistry of life we know requires liquid water and can only be obtained in objects with surfaces in the universe or atmospheric.” avi loeb At Harvard University. It would have been a lot of time before this initial vapor condense into liquid water, but he says it could have helped them to find second-generation stars and their planets using instruments like the James Webbspace Telescope to help them understand this process more, and perhaps these planets could have been habitable millions of years after the Big Bang.
A scientist with a Ph.D. issues tsunami alerts and serves as a Hurricane Hunting Flight Director. Researchers investigate communities that are prone to flooding during storms.
They were part of over 600 workers who were laid off last week by the Trump administration, resulting in around a 5% reduction in the workforce of the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Kayla Besong, a physical scientist at the Tsunami Warning Center, was one of the affected employees. She played a key role in the safety monitoring team, which was reduced from 12 members to 11. She was responsible for programming a system that assessed the risk to the U.S. coastline and issued alerts accordingly.
The layoffs have raised concerns about the impact on public safety programs and the ability to deal with the increasing frequency of weather disasters due to climate change. Last year alone, NOAA recorded a $27 billion disaster that resulted in 568 deaths in the U.S., marking the second-highest death toll since 1980, accounting for inflation.
Meteorologists are facing challenges and criticism, despite their improving accuracy in predicting weather events. The Trump administration’s decision to cut jobs at NOAA has been met with protests and legal challenges. Experts warn that these cuts threaten progress and could hinder crucial scientific advancements.
NOAA has declined to comment on the layoffs, emphasizing its commitment to providing timely information and resources to the public. Former agency officials argue that the cuts jeopardize public safety, especially during weather emergencies.
Congressional Democrats have also opposed the layoffs, citing the impact on public safety and the ability to provide accurate weather forecasts. The cuts have affected essential roles, such as hurricane modeling specialists and flight directors, who play a vital role in predicting and responding to severe weather events.
The reduction in NOAA’s workforce has sparked concerns about the agency’s ability to effectively respond to upcoming weather seasons, potentially putting lives at risk and undermining public safety efforts.
Immediately after my 54th birthday, I received the package. The enclosed instructions said the next time I empty my intestines, I should shave a little of the stool, shave it into a small sample bottle, seal it in a prepaid envelope and drop it in a post. I did the act and a few weeks later I was invited to the hospital. My sample contained blood. Colonoscopy was ordered to rule out colorectal cancer.
Thankfully, I don’t have colorectal cancer. Colonoscopy of 54 is not a classic start to middle age. However, over the next few years, this particular rite of passage may begin to occur much earlier. The proportion of this cancer among people in my age group has been declining thanks to screening programs like this, but talking about under 50 years is much more troubling.
Early onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) is now the circumstance, as is known in people under the age of 50, due to its virtually unprecedented nature of the 20th century. 10% of all new cases worldwide. That number is expected to more than double by 2030, and by then EOCRC is expected to be the most common form of fatal cancer among Americans aged 20-49.
The reasons are uncertain, but ambitious new projects explore potential causes. The idea is that EORC may also be a more clear and aggressive form of illness. Meanwhile, as routine screening expanded to younger groups – in January, the UK reduced the screening age to 50 – and the new, less invasive test…
Flowers and other plants need to pollinate insects to spread and reproduce. Their bright colours and intense smells attract bumblebees that pollinate them and play an important role in their survival. Without pollination, most fruits, vegetables, flowers and plants would not grow and diversify. Bumblebees eat nectar from flower to flower and collect them to store nutrient-rich pollen. In the process, their abdomen are covered in pollen. Pollen spreads from male flowers to female flowers as they fly between them. However, as global temperatures have risen in recent years, many scientists have noticed that bumblebees struggle to find colorful flowers and plants to pollinate.
This concern allowed a team of German scientists to take a closer look at how excessive heat affects bumblebees. They chose two types of Bumblebee to study: Bombus PascuorumAlso known as Carder Bumblebee Bombus Terrestris LinnaeusAlso known as bufftail bumblebee. These two bee species are common in Germany and most other parts of Europe, making them ideal options for research. Known as the ocean west coast climate, the region is a mild, comfortable summer and cool winter with plenty of rain.
Scientists suggested that heat waves due to climate change could affect how carder and bufftailed bumblebees survive during mild summers. In their study, the researchers exposed bees of both species to four different heat treatments and three different foods designed to replicate the scent of bees in the wild.
Scientists kept the bees in a comfortable, simulated environment a week before treatment. They then removed the individual bees and placed them in environments with different temperatures and humidity. Their goal was to simulate irregular weather phenomena such as drought and extreme heat and observe the bees' ability to find the scent of different flowers.
For each test, the researchers placed individual bees in long glass tubes to observe them. They performed their first treatment at 90% humidity and 104°F (40°C) to make the air very wet and hot. They performed a second treatment under the same humidity and temperature conditions, but added sugar syrup. They again administered a third treatment under the same conditions, but added a 24-hour rest period between heat and access to the sugar syrup. They had their fourth and final treatment at the same temperature, but only 15% humidity.
Scientists then applied the floral scent to Okimen, geraniol and nonnal on special absorbent paper and introduced it to each bee. They used a technique called to observe the electrical activity of bee antennas in response to odors Electrounnography. They explained that this process helps track bumblebee behavior after heat treatment.
Scientists have found that all heat treatments affect how bee antennae responded to the scent of three flowers. Specifically, we found that bufftailed bumblebees' sensory responses to flower scents reduced by up to 29%, while bufftailed bumblebees had a 42% to 81% reduction in their scent detection skills. Of all treatments, they found that the fourth treatment with low humidity had the greatest effect on honeybee sensation.
Scientists have concluded that research like theirs is useful when it is necessary to survive, taking into account the bees' experiences in the natural environment. With this in mind for global pollinators facing climate change, scientists have recommended that future researchers prioritize studying the effects of heat stress on cellular changes in bee antennas.
When it comes to sensitivity, the question of which generation is the most sensitive depends on who you ask. American Psychologist Dr. Jean Twenghe has conducted research comparing different cohorts and suggested that “millennials” (those born between 1981 and 1996) exhibit traits such as neurotic narcissism and anxiety more than previous generations. They tend to have unrealistically high expectations and struggle with criticism.
However, other studies have not always supported these findings. Research on nearly 500,000 American high school students between 1976 and 2006 found minimal differences in psychological characteristics across generations, including egoism and sensitivity to social status, which may indicate hypersensitivity.
Contrarily, some studies suggest that older generations may actually be more sensitive. A study from 2019 that analyzed hundreds of people born between 1923 and 1969 showed that those born earlier in the century exhibited greater signs of hypersensitivity.
Another study from 2024 focused on changes in narcissistic traits, including hypersensitivity, over the lifespan and across generations. It revealed that narcissism tends to decrease with age consistently across generations.
Overall, these studies suggest that hypersensitivity tends to decrease with age, with age being a more significant factor than the generation one belongs to. Some experts, like psychologist Professor Cote Rudolph, argue that the concept of individual generations like “Boomers” and “Gen X-ers” is arbitrary, and age and life experiences have a more significant impact.
This article addresses the question of which generation is the most sensitive, as asked by Madison Halladay from Jersey.
To submit a question, please email Questions@sciencefocus.com or reach out on our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page (remember to include your name and location).
For more fascinating science content, visit our Ultimate Fun Facts page.
SpaceX is set to launch the Starship Megarocket on its upcoming test flight on Monday, approximately six weeks after the top stage of the vehicle exploded over the Atlantic during its final test.
Following the incident on January 16th, SpaceX lost contact with Starship about eight minutes after the flight, leading to subsequent explosions that scattered debris and small fragments near Turks and Caicos. Local authorities confirmed no injuries occurred.
The US Federal Aviation Administration initiated an investigation after the accident and grounded the rocket during the probe. On Friday, the agency announced clearance for the spaceship to resume flights, although the investigation remains ongoing.
SpaceX’s own investigation identified the “attic” section as the source of the leak that caused propellant to escape, triggering a fire and shutting down most of the spacecraft’s engines in a controlled sequence.
Strips of the recent SpaceX launch dotted the sky on January 16th. Courtesy Todd Martin
Data transmission ceased over eight minutes into the test flight, resulting in the vehicle disintegrating three minutes later.
Subsequent to the incident, SpaceX implemented several hardware and operational modifications to Starship’s upper stage, without disclosing specific details of the upgrades.
The eighth test flight for Starship, originally planned for Friday, encountered brief delays without explanation.
The FAA green-lit the flight, amidst broader fiscal and personnel reductions targeting various federal agencies during the Trump administration’s tenure. Reuters reported that the Government Efficiency Bureau, spearheaded by SpaceX’s Elon Musk, engaged with the FAA, with SpaceX engineers assisting as specialized government personnel.
The existence of Doge personnel within the FAA’s commercial spaceflight division overseeing private companies like SpaceX remains undocumented, prompting some lawmakers and critics, including Senator Ed Markey, to voice reservations regarding potential conflicts of interest.
The planned Monday launch aims to deploy four mock Starlink satellites mid-flight, marking the first payload release by the vehicle.
Upon separation from the second stage, Starship’s first Hull King stage is slated to return to the launch pad, where SpaceX intends to “catch” it using extensive mechanical equipment at the rocket’s launch tower. This stage was successfully retrieved during the January flight, signaling partial testing success for the company.
The catch maneuver is pivotal in SpaceX’s ambition to establish Starship as a fully reusable rocket system.
If the launch proceeds as planned, the upper stage will soar for about an hour on Monday before splashing down in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.
Standing at 400 feet tall, the spacecraft constitutes the most potent rocket ever developed, comprising a super-heavy first-stage booster and an upper-stage spaceship.
Envisioned to play a crucial role in NASA’s moon missions, SpaceX has been selected by the agency to ferry astronauts during the Artemis III mission scheduled for 2027. Musk hinted at potential application for future Mars missions utilizing the spacecraft.
The personally built spacecraft is a few hours away from landing on the moon, a feat only achieved by one other company in spaceflight history.
The robot lander, known as Blue Ghost, has been orbiting the moon for approximately two weeks, gearing up for a daring descent. Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company, has developed a spacecraft with the goal of landing on the moon around 3:34 am early Sunday.
If all goes as planned, Blue Ghost will become the second privately owned vehicle to land on the moon. In February 2024, another Texas-based company, Intuitive Machines, made history with the Odysseus Lander successfully touching down near the moon’s Antarctic region.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost Lunar Lander took a selfie on Earth. Firefly Air Space
Firefly Aerospace’s future landing attempts are set for 2025 as part of a robotic mission to the moon. Recently, Intuitive Machines launched its second lunar landing vehicle into space. Japanese company, The Ispace, was also sent towards the moon on the same rocket as Blue Ghost, taking a longer route but expected to arrive around late May or early June.
Blue Ghost is targeting a landing site in a 350-mile-wide basin near the moon’s surface, always facing the Earth. This area is believed to be the location of an ancient asteroid impact, according to NASA.
During a recent orbit around the moon, the Lander captured footage showing distant craters on the lunar surface.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost Lander filmed footage of the other side of the Moon on February 24th. Firefly Air Space
Blue Ghost is scheduled to begin its descent around 2 am on Sunday. NASA will broadcast live streams starting at 2:20 am ET on NASA TV.
Equipped with 10 NASA science instruments, the spacecraft will conduct various studies, including surveying the moon’s interior up to 700 miles deep, capturing Earth-focused x-ray images, analyzing space weather interactions with Earth’s magnetic field, and capturing detailed images during the descent for future missions.
The instruments onboard the Lander will examine lunar soil samples, study lunar dust adherence to different surfaces, and use lasers to measure Earth-Moon distance accurately.
Blue Ghost is expected to gather data on the moon for about two weeks.
While in Lunar Orbit, Firefly’s Blue Ghost Lander captured images of the moon’s Antarctic. Firefly Air Space
This mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, a public-private partnership between NASA and US companies to deliver scientific experiments, technology, and cargo to the moon. It is a critical component of NASA’s Artemis program, designed to eventually return humans to the moon.
NASA allocated approximately $101.5 million to Firefly Aerospace to carry out the Blue Ghost Mission.
NASA states that the scientific experiments and technology demonstrations on these missions will enhance our understanding of the moon’s Antarctic region, where future human crews are expected to land.
The Trump administration has publicly stated that Russia is not considered a cyber threat to US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a significant departure from previous assessments.
Experts warn that this policy shift could leave the US vulnerable to Russian hacking attacks and may signal warming relations between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Recent incidents indicate that the US no longer views Russia as a cybersecurity threat.
Liesyl Franz, the State Department’s deputy director of international cybersecurity, did not mention Russia as a threat in her recent speech before the UN Working Group on Cybersecurity. This contrasts with statements from European Union and UK officials who highlighted the threat posed by Moscow.
US policy changes regarding cybersecurity have been made behind closed doors, with new directives focusing on China and neglecting to mention Russia.
Anonymous sources familiar with the matter have expressed concern that the US is ignoring the Russian cyber threat, which was previously a primary focus for agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Reports indicate that CISA officials have been reassigned, raising questions about the US government’s approach to protecting against cyber threats from Russia.
The New York Times reported that CISA officials tasked with safeguarding elections from cyberattacks have also been reassigned.
Concerns have been raised about the shift in US policy towards Russia, as many believe that Russia remains a significant cyber threat to US interests.
The CISA and State Department have not provided comments on these developments.
The change in US policy regarding Russia’s cyber threat is seen as a departure from previous assessments and has raised concerns among experts.
For over a quarter-century, Putin’s Russia has been active in cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, posing a challenge to the international order.
If you have any tips about this story, you can reach out to us at +1 646 886 8761 on Signal
The design of the flow headset resembles a prop from a futuristic movie, featuring a sleek curve and two large circular pads that utilize electrodes to deliver small currents to the brain.
Claimed to aid in treating depression, the company behind the headsets – Flow Neuroscience, priced at £400 (around $520) – boasts a 77% improvement rate in symptoms within just three weeks.
Initially skeptical, I am intrigued by the potential of wearable devices to enhance our well-being. However, I have encountered many grand claims in the past that failed to materialize.
Nevertheless, Flow’s compelling evidence could sway my opinion. Numerous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of the devices on individuals with depression, funded by Flow Neuroscience but conducted by external researchers and mental health professionals.
The most recent research, led by a team from East London University and involving 174 patients in the UK and US, revealed that 56% of those using the flow headset were symptom-free after 10 weeks, prompting consultant psychiatrist Alex O’Neill Kerr to emphasize the significance of these results.
“We’re talking about remission,” O’Neill Kerr remarked. “Symptom-free.”
O’Neill Kerr, who participated in a previous trial with the Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and prescribes the headset in his practice, shared anecdotes of how the device had transformed the lives of some patients.
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“Upon initial use, I was astounded,” O’Neill Kerr noted. “Patients are regaining control of their lives. I recently spoke with an individual using a flow device, and it completely turned their life around.”
While not everyone benefits from using the headset, and not all research yields promising outcomes, recent studies have underscored the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) in treating depression. By sending mild currents to the brain, TDCS stimulates less active areas associated with depression, potentially revolutionizing treatment for individuals who are unresponsive to traditional interventions.
In the trial, more than half of the flow headset users had symptoms – Credit: Justinpadget
O’Neill Kerr highlighted the potential of TDCS to address the underlying communication issues in the brain that lead to depression, offering hope to individuals who do not respond to standard treatments.
With milder side effects compared to traditional antidepressants, such as tingling sensations or headaches near the electrodes, TDCS presents a safer and non-addictive alternative that could be used in conjunction with conventional therapies.
While other TDCS headsets like Platowork and brain driver exist, Flow stands out as the sole device endorsed by the NHS due to its proven efficacy. Ongoing research aims to explore TDCS applications beyond mental health, potentially offering relief for conditions like anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and tinnitus.
Envisioning a future where TDCS becomes a standard treatment option, O’Neill Kerr emphasized the profound impact it could have on patients. “It’s restoring your brain to its natural state,” he concluded.
About our experts
Professor Alex O’Neill Kerr, an expert in treating OCD, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and addiction therapy, has contributed to publications like bjpsych open, Open Journal of Depression, and Journal of Affective Disorder Reports.
Humans have been striving to measure the world we live in for a long time. Our measurement systems and units help us comprehend ourselves and our environment, whether we are dealing with basic physics theories or not.
When we measure something, we compare it to a standard benchmark to ensure accuracy and stability. The current benchmark for time is the atomic clock, which relies on the precise energy levels of electrons in an atom.
Atomic clocks, however, have limitations due to environmental factors affecting the energy levels within the atom. This has led to the exploration of nuclear clocks, especially using the rare thorium-229 isotope.
Thorium-229 has unique characteristics that make it an ideal candidate for creating nuclear clocks. Its nucleus has closely spaced energy levels that can provide more stable measurements of frequency and time compared to atomic clocks.
The recent advancements in using thorium-229 for nuclear clocks have opened up new possibilities for accurate time measurements and potential breakthroughs in fundamental physics theories.
Why go to the nuclear?
Nuclear clocks offer greater stability and accuracy compared to atomic clocks due to the small size of the nucleus and reduced influence from external factors. By utilizing thorium-229 and its unique energy levels, nuclear clocks can revolutionize time measurements.
These advancements in time measurement are not only essential for navigation and communication systems but also play a crucial role in testing fundamental physics theories such as relativity.
Accurate clocks can also help in exploring dark matter and understanding its interactions with normal matter. Nuclear clocks provide a more precise benchmark for detecting the effects of dark matter on time measurements.
What’s next?
The next step after harnessing thorium-229 for nuclear clocks is to develop a functional and reliable clock system. This involves stabilizing a laser to the frequency corresponding to nuclear energy levels and constructing a robust clock design.
While there are challenges in developing nuclear clocks, the potential for unprecedented accuracy in time measurement is promising. These advancements require in-depth calculations and understanding of fundamental forces like quantum chromodynamics (QCD).
Overall, the progress in nuclear clocks signifies a new era in precise timekeeping and could lead to significant advancements in our understanding of the universe and fundamental physics theories.
“Brain corruption” was named the term Oxford’s year 2024. This is defined as the “degradation of a person’s mental or intellectual state” that arises from seeing “trivial” content online, such as a Tiktok video.
It’s a term that is often joked about, but what If there is a grain of truth? This is the seemingly scary implications of a new study published by a large team of brain scientists based at Tianjin Division University in China.
What did this study find?
They scanned the brains of over 100 undergraduates and completed a survey on their habits of watching short online videos. The survey included statements such as “My life will be empty without a short video” and “Not able to watch a short video will be as painful as losing a friend,” indicating how much they agreed.
Interestingly, researchers found that those who felt most obsessed with short videos had significant differences in brain structure. These participants had more gray matter in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). This is an area near the front of the brain that is involved in decision-making and emotional regulation. Similarly, they had more gray matter in the cerebellum – the small cauliflower-shaped structures behind the brain play a role in movement and emotions.
The team concluded that this is bad news, as for Tiktok enthusiasts, having an oversized OFC could be a sign that it is described as “an increased sensitivity to rewards and stimuli associated with short video content.” They speculated that watching too many Tiktok videos could have led to this nerve distension.
Similarly, they suggested that enhanced cerebellum could help the brain process short video content more efficiently – perhaps the result of frequent rampages. This can create a reinforcement cycle. In this cycle, watching more videos strengthens these brain pathways and habits become even more ingrained.
Over 23 million videos are uploaded to Tiktok every day – Photo Credit: Getty
But that’s not all. The team also performed a second brain scan to track participants’ brain activity while participants were resting with their eyes closed.
They found a greater synchronization of activity within multiple regions of the brain. These include the dorsal prefrontal cortex (areas involved in self-control), the posterior cingulate cortex (areas involved in thinking about oneself), the thalamus (a type of relay station for brain signals), and the cerebellum.
The researchers suggested that these functional brain differences could reflect a variety of issues among addiction participants. The issues include the tendency to overly social comparisons while having trouble leaving the video and watching them.
They also asked participants to fill out a survey on “promising temperament.” This is a factor measured by agreeing to statements such as “I strive to reach other people’s outstanding results.”
Interestingly, scientists have found that many links between video addiction and brain differences are also linked to a higher level of envy. This suggests that feeling of envy can make someone more likely to watch a short video. And over time, this habit can lead to potentially harmful changes in the brain.
Does Tiktok cause brain decay?
If you are an avid consumer of fun online videos, or a related parent, the idea that seeing habits can reconstruct brain structures is no surprise.
However, it is important to consider this study in a broader historical context in which new technologies and media have long been causing exaggerated neurological claims. It is also important to understand the deep limitations of research.
It’s been nearly 20 years Atlantic Ocean The magazine ran a cover function that asked, “Is Google making us stupid?” And, in a nutshell, the answer that was asserted was “Yes!” Author Nicholas Kerr lamented that he was once a “scuba diver in the sea of words,” but now, thanks to Google, he zipped “along the surface like a jet ski man.”
Countless brain imaging studies of questionable quality were also published in the same era. Many aim to demonstrate the disaster effect of the World Wide Web on our vulnerable minds.
A few years later, Professor Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist professor of Baronness, launched a media campaign claiming that “mind change” (the impact of the internet and video games on the brain) is just as serious threat to humanity as climate change.
She even wrote dystopian novels about the dehumanizing effects of the internet, but received mixed reviews (One critic (I questioned whether this was one of the worst science fiction books ever written).
Scientists still don’t know how much Tiktok affects the brains of young people, but research is still underway. – Photo credit: Getty
Almost 20 years later, we’re fine. At least I don’t think our brains have been transformed into mash. But of course, these previous horrors were before the appearance of Tiktok. Perhaps there is something uniquely damaging about the types of short, scrollable, meaningless content available today.
I asked Professor Peter Etchellsif this is plausible, expert on the psychological impact of digital technology at Bathspa University. “As far as I know, there is no good science to support the idea that short videos are either tangible or uniquely bad in terms of their impact on the brain,” he says.
read more:
Is short video brain research a good science? Not so, but the evidence suggests that it is not.
What is wrong with this research?
Let’s take a look at some of the limitations of the research. If the goal was to prove that seeing tiktok is harmful to the brain, a more effective approach would be to scan participants’ brains and then consume different amounts of harmful content.
However, this study is completely cross-sectional, meaning that only a single snapshot was captured in time. This was not a pre- and post-comparison of causes and effects.
Or, as Etchell says: “[From this study] I can’t say anything about whether watching a short video will cause brain changes, or whether certain types of brain structures precede certain types of video consumption.
“This research doesn’t really add anything that will help us understand how digital technology affects us.”
Even if we accept the speculative leap of researchers that Tiktok’s videos may have caused the brain changes they observed, there are still some issues to consider.
First, the researchers searched the entire brain for differences that correlated with the scores on the video addiction scale. This approach is a common problem in brain imaging studies as it increases the risk of finding false positives. In other words, the more comparisons you make, the more likely you will stumble over random differences that seem important but are actually just a coincidence.
Second, even if we accept that the observed brain differences are real and caused by seeing Tiktok, interpreting them involves a lot of speculation. Researchers enveloped an increase in brain synchronization (known as regional homogeneity (Reho). However, Rejo itself is not inherently a good or bad thing. In fact, other studies have associated with an increase in Reho in certain brain regions. positive Results such as results observed during meditation training.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in the study relies on questionable survey-based measures of short video addiction that lacks strong scientific validity.
As Etchells put it, “Short video addiction is essentially an invented term, not a formal diagnostic clinical disorder.”
Taken together, these issues suggest that we should not be overly concerned that Tiktok fundamentally shapes the brains of young people in harmful ways.
That said, the excessive amount of time spent watching frivolous videos can still be a problem for some. However, it is more productive to focus on developing healthy media habits rather than worrying about brain changes or addiction.
“In many cases, when research like this hits the news, it’s a good opportunity to pause and reflect on whether we’re happy with the use of the technology,” says Etchells.
“If there’s concerns there, it’s worth thinking about what you can do to eliminate your frustration, knowing that you’ll benefit a lot from these technologies.”
About our expert, Professor Pete Etchell
Pete is a professor of psychology at Bath Spa University. His research focuses on how playing video games and using social media affects our mood and behavior. He is the author of I got lost in a good game We are currently investigating whether game mechanics can promote gambling behavior in other parts of our lives.
New research suggests that Mars once was the perfect holiday destination (if they were willing to overlook radiation exposure or lack of food sources), but also had the right conditions for alien life. why? The discovery of ancient sandy beaches on the red planet suggests that once a large liquid ocean spread across the north of the planet.
“Looking back at the places where the earliest life on Earth developed, it was in the interaction between the ocean and the land, which paints a picture of an ancient habitable environment that can embrace the conditions for microbial life,” he said. Benjamin Cardenasassistant professor of geology at Penn State University in the United States and co-author of the study.
Four billion years ago, these beaches would have been the best variety. The waves are softly wrapped sandy and immersed in the sun.
“We found evidence of a lack of wind, waves and sand. It’s a proper vacation style beach,” says Cardenas, whose research was published. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (pnas).
To find this, researchers used a probe up to 80m (260 feet) below the Mars surface in a region of North Mars called the Utopian Plain, using radar imaging, using a probe up to 80m (260 feet) below the Mars surface.
We discovered 76 hidden structures at depths of 10-35m (33-115ft). Sadly, this turned out to be not a mysterious alien infrastructure (we can dream of it), but rather a sedimentary deposit similar to what is found around the Earth’s coastline.
3.6 billion years ago, the ocean may have covered almost half of the red planet. The Orange Star shows where China’s Roberzouron began its exploration. Meanwhile, the Yellow Star is where NASA’s patient rover landed. Both arrived on Mars in 2021. -Image credit: Robert Citron
The structure, thickness and length of Martian sediments showed that they were not formed by the melting of rivers, winds, lava or ice, but rather by stable ancient seas. In fact, they were roughly the same as 21 people on Earth, including the Bay of Bengal.
Specifically, a formation called “foreshore sediments” is formed by the tide and wind that descends the slope towards the ocean at a 15° angle and carries sediments like sand and gravel.
“This quickly stood out to us because it suggested there were waves, meaning there was a dynamic interface between air and water,” Cardenas said. This interaction, which also took place in the early history of the Earth, is important for the beginning of life.
The discovery suggests that Mars had a warm, humid climate for tens of millions of years.
“We tend to think of Mars as a static snapshot of the planet, but it was evolving. The rivers were flowing, the sediment was moving, the land was built and eroding,” Cardenas said.
“This type of sedimentary geology tells us how the landscape looks, how they evolved, and, importantly, helps us identify where we want to look for our past life.”
read more:
The strange “squeak” in space is baffling scientists
We finally know how life on Earth began, the incredible new asteroid discovery suggests
Here’s how aliens actually get in touch with humanity
Entomologists describe a new species of the Tiger swallow (genus genus) Papirio) From eastern North America.
Papilio Sorstian: (a) male, holotype and (b) female, arotype. Scale bar – 10 mm. Image credit: Derotler et al. , doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1228.142202.
Papirio It is a large genus of swallowtail butterflies within the family Papillonidae.
The only representative of the Papillionini family, the genus contains about 200 scientifically recognized species.
Newly identified members of the genus Papilio Sorstianbelongs to North America Papilio Glaucus Species group.
” Papilio Glaucus The group is a model research system for insect evolutionary biology. ” Dr. B. Christian Schmidt Arknides, nematodes and colleagues wrote on paper from the Canadian National Insect Collection.
“Recognition and boundaries” Papilio Glaucus and Papilio canadensis Three decades of study in speciation, host plant adaptation, hybridization, and molecular evolution have been conducted as a pair of classical sibling species. ”
“Recently, we have discovered a third species. Papilio appalachiansisprovided unprecedented insights into speciation by hybridization. ”
” Papilio Glaucus The group is primarily part of the clades of the subgenos of the New World clades on a large scale Pterourussometimes recognized as a distinct genus,” they added.
“The various within the group demonstrate adaptation to a variety of thermal niches that are warmly characterized (Papilio Glaucus), intermediate (Papilio appalachiansis), and cool (Papilio canadensis) Climate region; all have a wide larval host plant diet and are not limited by its distribution. ”
Papilio Sorstian It is closely related to these three species, but unlike all of the series of characters.
“The most important differences are evident in developmental biology and biology,” the researchers wrote.
“Papilio Sorstian Compared to May for all other species, it is unique during long delays in appearance after adult escape, starting from late June to early July to late June to early July. ”
Papilio Sorstian'The geographical range is Papilio Glaucus The southern end of Papilio canadensis.
“Core Range Papilio Sorstian It includes eastern and south-central Ontario, northern and central New York, and adjacent Vermont, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.2The scientist wrote in his paper.
“In New York Papilio Sorstian He lives in most of the states except the Southeast and New York City metropolitan areas. ”
“In Canada, Papilio Sorstian It extends westward from Montreal, Quebec, to the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario and south to the Niagara region. ”
“The western limits seem to be on the east coast of Lake Huron. We haven’t seen any verifiable specimens of the west there.”
“Current evidence is consistent with the possibility Papilio Sorstian There is a recombinant evolutionary origin of Papilio appalachiansisThey added.
“However, the evolutionary origin of this kind, Papilio Glaucus-complex, I still can’t answer. ”
“Recognizing and defining the taxonomic identity of this unique evolutionary lineage is our hope to provide a staging point on the fertile grounds for future research.”
CJ Derotler et al. 2025. A mysterious new species of the tiger swallow (Capidae, Papillonidae) in eastern North America. Zookeys 1228:69-97; doi:10.3897/zookeys.1228.142202
Taste hydrogels are administered to the mouth via small tubes
Shryn Chen
Electronic tongues that can replicate flavors like cake and fish soup can help you replicate food in virtual reality, but still can’t simulate anything else that affects taste, such as smell.
Yizhen Jia Ohio State University and his colleagues developed a system called e-Taste. This can solve a way to sample food and partially reproduce its flavor in someone’s mouth.
This includes using chemicals that correspond to five basic flavors. Sodium chloride, salty water, sour citric acid, glucose for sweetness, magnesium chloride for bitterness, umami glutamic acid. “These five flavors already explain the very large spectrum of food we have every day,” says Jia.
The system uses sensors to detect the levels of these chemicals in the food, convert them into digital measurements, pumping these values into a pump, and pushing a small amount of hydrogel containing different flavors into a small tube under a person’s tongue.
First, the researchers tested a system with a single flavor and asked how well the device reproduced sour on a 5-point scale, comparing it to a real sample of sour taste. They gave the same number for 70% of the time for the true sour thing that was reproduced.
The team then tested whether the system was able to replicate more complex flavors such as lemonade, cake, fried eggs, fish soup, coffee, etc., and asked a group of six if they could distinguish them, and felt they could have over 80% of the time.
However, I say it’s not very useful to focus on such flavors alone. Alan Chalmers Because other sensations are also involved in our taste at Warwick University in the UK. “Next time you have strawberries, close your nose and eyes. Strawberries are very sour, but are perceived as sweet because of their aroma and red colour. So if you send them just sour on your device, you’ll never know that they’re actually from strawberries.”
“This kind of electron can extract the amount of sweetness [and] It’s sour, but it’s not a taste for a human tongue,” he says.
If you’re like Khloe Kardashian, who recently turned 40, you may have considered testing your biological age to see if you feel younger than your actual age. But while these tests can tell you a lot about your body’s aging, they often overlook the aging of your brain. Researchers have now developed a new method to determine how quickly your brain is aging, which could help in predicting and preventing dementia. Learn more here.
Unlike your chronological age, which is based on the number of years since you were born, your biological age is determined by how well your body functions and how your cells age. This new method uses MRI scans and artificial intelligence to estimate the biological age of your brain, providing valuable insights for brain health tracking in research labs and clinics.
Traditional methods of measuring biological age, such as DNA methylation, do not work well for the brain due to the blood-brain barrier, which prevents blood cells from crossing into the brain. The new non-invasive method developed at the University of Southern California combines MRI scans and AI to accurately assess brain aging.
Using AI to analyze MRI brain scans, researchers can now predict how quickly the brain is aging and identify areas of the brain that are aging faster. This new model, known as a 3D Convolutional Neural Network, has shown promising results in predicting cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease risk based on brain aging rates.
Researchers believe that this innovative approach can revolutionize the field of brain health and provide valuable insights into the impact of genetics, environment, and lifestyle on brain aging. By accurately estimating the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, this method could potentially lead to the development of new prevention strategies and treatments.
Overall, this new method offers a powerful tool for tracking brain aging and predicting cognitive decline, bringing us closer to a future where personalized brain health assessments can help prevent and treat neurodegenerative diseases.
Giant panda (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca) It belongs to the Carnivora order, but they eat mostly bamboo and their unique dietary adaptability has always been the focus of their research. Recent studies have shown that plant-derived microRNAs (miRNAs) can release nanosized vesicles (40-100 nm) released by various cell types into the extracellular space and deliver to animal organisms via exosomes that exert cross-regulatory effects on gene expression. Chinese scientists collected blood samples from three groups of pandas (boy, adult female, and adult male) to investigate the role of plant-derived miRNAs in dietary adaptation of giant pandas and extracted them from blood for small RNA analysis. Their results show that plant-derived miRNAs enter the bloodstream of giant pandas, exert cross-kingdom regulatory effects, and may play an important role in the dietary adaptation process.
Giant Panda Cube Shaoriuu and his mother Baiyun at the San Diego Zoo.
“We have shown that plant-derived miRNAs are present in the blood of giant pandas,” says Dr. Feng Li, a researcher at West Normal University of China.
“Our research has proven that bamboo, which is used as food for giant pandas, affects changes in the feeding habits of giant pandas.”
In this study, the researchers took blood samples from seven giant pandas, including three adult women, three adult men and one boy woman.
In these samples, we found 57 miRNAs that are likely to be derived from bamboo.
“Bamboo miRNAs can enter the body of giant pandas through diet, absorbed by the intestines, enter the blood circulation, and regulate the RNAs of giant pandas as they transfer information and play a role in regulating gene expression in giant pandas,” Dr. Lee said.
These plant-derived miRNAs can regulate a variety of physiological processes, including growth and development, biological rhythms, behavior, and immune responses.
“Bamboo miRNAs are also involved in regulating the smell, taste and dopamine pathways of giant pandas, and all of these are related to feeding habits,” Dr. Lee said.
“When pandas eat more bamboo as they grow, certain miRNAs accumulate, regulating gene expression and aiding in their adaptation to bamboo’s flavor.”
“These miRNAs also affect the sense of the smell of giant pandas, and may allow you to choose the freshest and most nutritious bamboo plants.”
“Therefore, bamboo miRNAs may promote the adaptation of giant pandas from carnivorous to plant-based diets.”
The authors also found that pandas of different ages and genders have different miRNA compositions in their blood.
“Only miRNAs that can play a particular role in regulating gene expression can remain in the body, and those that do not play a role are expelled,” Dr. Lee said.
“For example, some miRNAs regulate reproductive processes and can only be found in the blood of pandas of a particular gender or age.”
“The fact that miRNAs can send signals from plants to animals could open the door to researching the treatment and prevention of diseases in animals.”
“Plant miRNAs also participate in regulating the animal’s immune system, increasing the disease resistance of animals.”
Similarly, studying miRNA-induced changes in plants can also help assess and improve the safety of plant-based foods in animals and humans.
However, more research is needed to draw decisive conclusions about the potential of common miRNAs and their impact on giant pandas.
“The giant pandas are an invaluable national treasure in our country, and blood samples are not easily obtained,” concluded Dr. Lee.
“If possible, we hope to collect blood samples of young pandas who have not yet eaten bamboo for research and perhaps get more surprising results.”
result Published in the journal Veterinary Science Frontier.
____
Herrington et al. 2025. Cross-Kingdom Regulation of Gene Expression in Giant Pandas via Plant-derived MiRNAs. front. Veterinarian. SCI 12; doi:10.3389/fvets.2025.1509698
Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, issued an apology after Instagram users were exposed to violent, graphic, and disturbing content, including animal abuse and images of corpses.
Users reported encountering these disturbing images due to a glitch in the Instagram algorithm.
Reels, a feature similar to TikTok, allows users to share short videos on the platform.
Some users described seeing disturbing videos, including a man being crushed by an elephant, torn apart by a helicopter, and putting his face in boiling oil. Others reported encountering “sensitive content” screens meant to protect users from such graphic material.
A user shared a list of violent content in their feed, as reported by Tech News Site 404, which included videos of a man on fire, a shooting incident, content from an account named “PeopleDeaddaily,” and a pig being beaten.
Another Reddit user expressed concern about the violent content flooding their feed and questioned Instagram’s algorithm’s accuracy and intent.
A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, issued an apology for the error.
The incident occurred amidst changes in Meta’s content moderation approach, although the company clarified that the graphic video flood was not related to any policy changes.
Meta’s Content Guidelines mandate removal of particularly violent or graphic content and limiting the use of sensitive content screens. In the UK, the Online Safety Act requires social media platforms to protect users under 18 from harmful materials.
A campaign group advocating for online safety called for a detailed explanation regarding the Instagram algorithm mishap.
The Molly Rose Foundation, established by the family of Molly Russell, a teenager who took her own life in 2017, urged Instagram to explain why such disturbing content appears on the platform.
Andy Burrows, CEO of the foundation, expressed concern that the policy changes at Meta may lead to increased availability of graphic content on the platform.
Impressions of the artists of Spherex Space Telescope
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The latest addition to NASA's Space Telescope Fleet will be launched this weekend and will soon scan the entire sky in near-infrared wavelength ranges, collecting a wealth of data on more than 450 million galaxies.
The history of the universe, the reionization epoch, and the spectrophotometer for Ice Explorer (Spherex) will be released on March 2nd on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:09 pm local time.
It carries a camera with filters that divide the light that enters like a prism and beams different parts of the spectrum into 102 separate color sensors. As the telescope pans around the sky, it slowly tightens the full image pixels pixel by pixel. This strategy allows you to use a relatively small and simple camera to do what you need to have a heavy, expensive suite of sensors, even without moving parts.
“If you slowly scan the sky slowly by moving the telescope, after a sufficient amount of time, every pixel in the sky is observed over a very wide wavelength range, giving you a coarse spectrum of every bit of the sky that has never been done before.” Richard Ellis University College London. “It's a very small space telescope, but it has some very unique features.”
Ellis says this rich dataset allows for accidental discoveries. “There's a high chance that you'll find something unexpected,” he says.
Infrared data is outside the human vision range, allowing scientists to determine the distance of objects and learn how to form galaxies. It can also be used to determine the chemical composition of an object, potentially revealing the presence of water and other important components.
The interesting stuff thrown by Spherex can be investigated in a more focused way using NASA's existing space telescope fleet.
Christopher Conseris At the University of Manchester in the UK, Spherex says it doesn't match the JWST solution or create similarly adoring images, but it says it will become a “maintainer” for scientific discovery.
“JWST can point to a part of the sky and take some big photos [and reveal] Something completely new. And Spherex really can't do the same thing,” he says. “It's going to be an analysis that takes years, and it's going to cover the sky many times.”
Spherex orbits the Earth 14.5 times a day away from the Earth's surface, completing 11,000 orbits over a two-year lifespan. Three cone-shaped shields protect the instrument from the Earth's radiant heat and interference from the sun.
The same rocket will be released on the polarimeter, another NASA mission to unify the Corona and Heliosphere Fair (punch), which will study the solar winds of the sun.
GEO Group, the largest single private contractor for U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), has expanded its surveillance operations to monitor hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of migrants.
Geo Group, a private prison company and parent company of Bi Inc, has been working with ICE for nearly two decades to oversee the agency’s electronic surveillance program. Currently, they are tracking approximately 186,000 immigrants using various devices like ankle monitors, smartwatches, and facial recognition apps, as reported by Public Ice Data. With the increasing demand from the administration of Donald Trump, which has promised significant deportations, company executives anticipate that this number will surpass the previous peak of 370,000 to 450,000 immigrants within the next year. This statement was made during the company’s fourth-quarter revenue call on Thursday morning.
“About two years ago, ISAP contract utilization peaked at around 370,000,” mentioned George Zorry, executive chair of GEO Group, during a revenue call discussing the ICE and GEO contract. “If the contract exceeds its previous peak usage, achieving revenues of $250 million is possible.”
The company is ramping up the production of additional GPS units in preparation for expanded ICE contracts. Executives suggest they can monitor “hundreds of thousands” of individuals and are positioning themselves to monitor even more, potentially reaching into the millions. Zoley mentioned that GEO Group and its competitor, Core Civic, will engage in conversations with ICE to expand current contracts and electronic monitoring for detention facilities.
“It’s a dynamic situation, rapidly evolving,” he stated. “We’ve shifted from initial proposals to detailed pricing and operational discussions. The procurement process is moving at an unprecedented pace. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Established in 2004 as an alternative to detention, the company’s extensive electronic surveillance program has been entrusted to Bi Inc, a subsidiary of Geo Group. Many individuals wearing ankle monitors raised concerns about overheating, discomfort, or tightness. The company has introduced SmartLink, a Smart Watch location tracker, and a smartphone app as less intrusive monitoring methods. However, during the revenue call on Thursday, executives expressed a desire to return to relying primarily on ankle monitors.
“Our top priority is ankle monitors for high-security monitoring,” Zoley emphasized.
While the company has not received indication from ICE about reissuing a new agreement for their electronic monitoring program, the executive team is focusing on expanding the number of individuals tracked through existing programs. Geo Group plans to invest $16 million to increase federal ISAP use and build up Ankle Monitor inventory to cater to hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of participants.
Company officials believe that under the Laken Riley Act, immigrants charged with violent crimes or thefts must be monitored “indefinitely” under the ISAP program due to the risk they pose. Executives intend to expand the surveillance program to monitor an estimated 7-8 million individuals with non-decisive immigration statuses who entered the US through unauthorized routes. They are also preparing to monitor an estimated 95-100 million people in the United States.
“Given our population size, we view this as an opportunity to enhance detention capacity… The Laken Riley Act mandates a significant increase in electronic monitoring services to combat human trafficking involving individuals with non-decisive immigration statuses and ensure compliance with immigration court requirements,” Zoley stated.
Hero Ideas Dengue fever boy Mosquitoes would have appeared in 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a dengue outbreak exploded in my hometown of Buenos Aires. Dengue fever spreads all the way Aedes aegypti mosquito. This insect thrives in tropical and subtropical climates and is commonly found in many warm and humid regions of Northern Argentina.
However, in recent decades, global warming has spread to traditionally cold, yet mild climates, such as Buenos Aires and Patagonia. One of my best friends had dengue fever in 2020, but as all media attention was focused on Covid-19, the city’s public hospitals had limited testing and there was no way to get proper diagnosis or treatment. Furthermore, there were no effective vaccines or medications for dengue at the time.
During this unsettling time for my friends and people with dengue in Argentina, US company Modern announced its vaccine against Covid-19 just a few days after the genetic sequence of SARS-COV-2 was issued. This has made me think about the terrible corporate bias in scientific research, as mosquito-borne diseases (dengue, zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, etc.) have killed hundreds of thousands of people over the centuries. In fact, mosquitoes are considered the deadliest animals for humans, according to historians. Timothy Wine Guardkilled more people than anything else in history.
However, these diseases affect people in low-income countries, so there was not enough investment in vaccines or treatments. Meanwhile, biotech companies only needed a few months to develop, patent and sell products that tackle Covid-19.
So, this idea came to me to tell the story of the global Southern pandemic through the lens of the mosquito itself.
Partly inspired by the artists I admire (Franz Kafka, David Cronenberg, Hidosi Hino), I leaned a bit ironically on Latin America’s most commercially popular genre, and I was convinced that the imaginary subtitles of my story should be “the self-capacity of a mosquito.” At the same time, one of the themes of my writing was inhumanity, and I was interested in the challenge of making insects the protagonist of a novel (a genre historically designed to tell the human age, psychology, and stories). How can we achieve this by mimicking and empathy with the human experience, especially insects that are as annoying as mosquitoes?
I became a mosquito and had to adopt that perspective. I have given the famous Frobertian motto.”Madame Bobbery, C’est Moi” And I changed it to my own: Le Moustite, c’est moi.
Ursula K. Le Gin once said The basic property of science fiction is to act as a carrier bag allowing for the transition of ideas from fiction to other scientific and technical discourses. This way, this genre becomes a mutational transition ( Dengue fever boy Between literature and non-literary knowledge.
I’ve always been very grateful for this idea. Because nothing in my work as a writer would please me more than studying topics I had never noticed before.
For this book, I consulted dozens of papers and manuals on entomology, and I became a “mosquito” overnight. It was important to know the details of mosquito anatomy, explain it, and understand how its body works and feels. Therefore, although the main character is inspired by my friend, a man, I discovered that the mosquito that tells the disease is a female.
The female perspective was also guided to investigating how non-mammalian oviparous animals are involved in maternal care. Eggs designed for films by HR Giger alien drawn and classified by the naturalist Ernst Heckel, in his illustrated treatise, Georges Bataille’s The story of the eyes It also fueled this oval obsession.
In this novel, I tried to tell a story about climate change from a perspective that restored human lives more than humans. I hope readers will resonate with my hero.
Dengue fever boy Michel Nieva, translated Published by Serpent’s Tail from the Spanish of Rahul Bery the latest choice for the New Scientist Book Club. Sign up here and read with us
In In late January, Lauren Bedson did something that many people thought could not think. She has cancelled her Amazon Prime membership. The catalyst was Donald Trump's inauguration. More Americans are planning to make similar decisions this Friday.
Bedson moved her after seeing pictures of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sitting with other tech moguls and billionaires.
Bedson of Camas, Washington, told the Guardian. “I've lived in Seattle for over 10 years. I've been an Amazon fan for a long time and I think they have good products. But I'm so tired of it. I don’t want to give these billionaire oligarchs my money anymore.”
Emotions have been felt by many Americans since Trump entered the White House. Business and business leaders who were once passive or vocally critical of Trump are trying to protect what they feel comfortable with, questioning the value of brands that consumers trusted. A recent Harris poll found that a quarter of American consumers have changed in their political stance and are no longer shopping at their favorite stores.
Many are inspired by the calls to boycotts coming from social media. One boycott It has become a virus over the past few weeks. “Power blackouts” for businesses that have reduced some of their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals, including Target, Amazon, and Walmart, are scheduled for February 28th, with protesters planning to halt all spending on these companies.
Lauren Bedson has cancelled his Amazon Prime membership. Photo: Lauren Bedson
But people are also deciding to boycott within their communities at kitchen tables, trying to find a way to resist Trump, and perhaps corporate capitalism.
The Guardian asked readers how their shopping habits have changed over the past few months as the political situation began to change after Trump's victory. Hundreds of people from across the country say they no longer shop at stores like Walmart and have targeted targets who publicly announced the end of their DEI goals. Dozens, like Bedson, had cancelled their long-held Prime accounts. Others shut down their Facebook and Instagram accounts in protest of the meta.
Michel Nieva's dengue boy is placed on a drowned future earth
Arami Stock Photo
Does that mean he's dead?
Dengue spreading the strange white surface under the Antarctic sun, and within a second, she saw everything flash. When you believe that a boy, a girl, a destroyed blank will die, how about life to look back at the space for a few moments? You might think of that dear mother. Do you lament your father who has never known or perhaps remembered a humorous or traumatic anecdote involving a classmate? Honestly, not many other things happened during her short time on Earth. However (the mind works in a mysterious and unpredictable way, especially the mind of a mutant mosquito), the destroyed dengue fever didn't think about any of these people, rather the story of her mother reading her at bedtime; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She recalled the opening from her heart:
“Once upon a time, on a frozen, windy winter night, the Queen lived. This Queen watched snow fall as she knits by the window. From the window, the snowflakes slowly and rhythmically fell in an unpredictable pattern, like feathers from endless pillows. She was staring in wonder at the fall of snow, so she accidentally stabbed one of her fingers with a needle. Three drops of blood fell into the snow. And the Queen thought to herself. If I could have a daughter as white as snow, as blood red, as winter!”
This opening is always a volatile dengue boy (as he was at the time). In particular, he didn't understand half of the words: what the hell was it? winterwhat was it coldwhat was it snowand why did they spark such attraction?
A precious daughter snowjust as beautiful winter . . .
The mystery of those words, whose meanings had always escaped him, sparked even greater doubt.
It was impossible to know, and there was no empirical way to experience their effects in this future, when cold, winter and snow was gone from the earth (at least not for a miserable boy from Victoria). Naturally, his mother, who spent all her miserable lives at Victorica, didn't really help. All she knew (or as strong as she believes she knows) was that the snow was soft and beautiful, and that the beautiful child's skin had the same colour and pleasant texture, unlike the dengue children, who had a greenish yellow colour with furry skin. For this reason, the dengue boy, like some kind of qabalic rabbis, was convinced that he could access mystical meanings. cold, winter and snowhe will open up the secret of that mysterious sacred breast and how to get the love of his mother.
Because nothing had hoped that insects would turn white like snow and be as beautiful as winter.
The desire to access the mysterious material hidden in these words grabbed the poor insects and he cooperated with all the dictionaries and encyclopedias that he could find in search of answers. He read the definitions over and over again:
winter. noun. obs. The extinction season of the earth's age that occurred between autumn and spring has also become extinct.
Example: “Winter was the coldest time of the year.”
cold. noun. obs. Physical sensations produced by cold temperatures, the characteristics of ancient winters.
Example: “It was cold during the winter, especially if there was snow.”
snow. noun. Precipitation in the form of small white ice crystals formed directly from air water vapor at temperatures below 32°F. This occurs in terrestrial winters and occurs by artificial means on other planets or Earth.
Example: “There was a lot of snow in the winter!”
The poor boy reads these definitions, rereads them, then reads them again, but he has no understanding of his great disappointment. Is that because (as his classmates always argued) he was half wit? winter, cold, snow. Just words. words! Worse, it was a word that had to be explained using other words, and its definition was even more vague and inaccurate.
Wint-er, cold, sn-ow.
The herbular pictograph, which the boy tasted the phonemes through phonemes, was under the illusion that the flesh that once lay beneath the vivid skin had not evaporated before his eyes. But, although removed from the meaning that once brought them to life, what remained was a hollow corpse of meaningless sounds.
Wint-er, cold, sn-ow.
It was an atmospheric phenomenon that so many humans and other species suffered and endured for thousands of years, and now it was merely a planetary mystery, a speculative prose written by fossils, a biblical water and soil sky, a geological stamp!
The only season Pampas and the Antarctic Caribbean knew was summer, burnt, relentless, homogeneous. So when dengue became neutralised, her body still numbed from the poison, believing that she would die, and that she saw her own blood (to be precise, she saw blood that she indiscriminately sucked from Victoria's children and office workers), yes. Boy), a confused F story Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
And certainly, the memory she believed that her last body was worthy of was that her poisoned body actually landed on the ice rink of Great Winter Cruise, the flagship of the cruise company that traveled along the Antarctic Caribbean coast, recreating the cold season, and now disappearing from Earth, snow, glacier, and iceberg. Operated using AIS cutting-edge technology, these luxurious cruise ships allow tourists to experience the unique winter joys, including one of the biggest attractions, the largest ice rink on the planet.
And it was exactly where dengue died, ruining the fun of tourists. Imagine the scene: On this impressive slab of ice, 100 feet long and 55 feet wide, crowned the terrace of a 21 feet cruise ship, a massive crowd flocked to try a unique experience, perhaps for the first time, as large visitors were not present. Not only was it an opportunity to slide the unmistakably elegant ice skating strides on frozen sheets, but it was to do so at zero temperatures as the atmosphere in which the rink was installed recreated the harsh winter feel of old New York, lurking long under the waves. Plus, it was Christmas, the busiest and most eagerly awaited season in international tourism. And as the carols rang, the enchanting tourists dressed in fierce courts, moving like swans sliding down the Terra Incognita. It mimics the long-standing things at Rockefeller Center in Old New York, and there are also many leagues now under the sea.
Naturally, the sculptor hired on the cruise ship was sharp enough to replace the flames on Prometheus' right hand with a huge block of pure ice, and the Titans had taken from the deep by the planetary age, allowing these wealthy tourists to recover to the geologic era (as long as the cruise continues) which was permanently eclipsed eclocene to Earth. In fact, this was a cruise company slogan.Great Winter Cruise with 12,000 years of history in one place”, as humans promised to completely recreate the topography of a planet that lost winter, as humans knew it was born and died. Thus, “hibernation” (as the company called the advertising cruise experience) proceeded upwards from the floor, narrating winter history in ascending order. It began with a bottom deck that recreated the Pleistocene end in a giant fridge with robotic mammoths and mastodons, including a family-friendly game in which prehistoric mammals had to be set on fire with sticks and stones before they were attacked. The higher levels provided a variety of experiences from the old winter. Historic included the ability to invade Scandinavian cities on Viking ships, kill, sack, rape, or cross the Andes with General San Martin's white horse. Winter precipitation such as snow, hail, and sleet. There was also a huge igloo with outdoor cinemas, casinos, spas, carousels, cocktail bars and sushi and barbecue restaurants. Ancient frozen delights of ice, snow and cold were the real treasures of the gods stolen by Prometheus himself for the exclusive enjoyment of visitors to the cruise. The skaters slid across the rink in an atmosphere of pure joy, and were saved by Christmas carols, people clashing and dancing with each other cheerfully, shining and laughing at each other with the shared bliss. A true, unforgettable celebration recorded forever in the tourist retinus, a real dream, if mosquitoes had not landed violently on ice links and ruined everything.
This extract has been reproduced With permission to write a novel Dengue fever boy Michel Nieva (translated by Rahul Berry) is now appearing in the snake tail. Available from the North American version Astra House. This novel is the latest choice for the New Scientist Book Club. Sign up here and read with us
In a small town in the Netherlands, there is only one factory that produces the only chip manufacturing machine that produces the type of light found naturally on the planet.
Known as EUV, this light is the only way to create cutting-edge semiconductor chips, one of the most valuable and important technologies in the world at scale. The factory is prohibited from selling EUV machines to China.
Below we will explain how the chips are made, why they became the focus of the US-China trade war, how Taiwan was drawn into the vortex, and what comes next. The answer is that we need three planes to travel from deep underground from space, from the dirtiest places in the world to the cleanest places, from the hottest temperatures, from artificial structures smaller than viruses, to the very big, and ultimately two opposite states at the same time.
How are they made?
The chip is made up of a thin, flat layer of silicon (called a wafer) that holds the electrical circuit. These circuits consist of billions of switches called transistors. Very complex and powerful chips containing these networks of transistors are commonly referred to as semiconductors.
If you want to build a semiconductor, you’ll need $380 million. This is the cost of modern EUV machines from Advanced Semiconductor Material Lithography (ASML). Delivery is a nightmare. The machine is so large and delicate that it requires 40 cargo containers, three cargo aircraft and 20 trucks to transport from the Dutch factory in Beldoven. All of this creates light at a shorter wavelength than an X-ray, focusing, and has enough energy to penetrate into solid objects.
Chipmakers strive to meet Moore’s law: its capabilities – or the predictions called the number of transistors on the chip. If the chips keep the same size and ideally smaller, this means that the transistors must be finer.
The ASML machine carries the pattern into a silicon wafer that holds the transistors. The finer the pattern, the more you can stuff it into the chip. Company spokesman Marc Assinck compares the thickness of the pen stroke to the light wavelength. The thinner the pen should be, the more detailed the page is needed. EUV lights have very narrow wavelengths, invisible to the human eye, and pass through most materials.
The light is produced by firing a laser with a tin microscope ball. The tin evaporates into the plasma, and the plasma emits light, travels through the lithography machine and hits a specially made mirror. The light shines through the “mask,” a pattern of one layer of chips. Areas exposed to light cure, and areas that are not exposed will dissolve in the chemical solution, leaving a 3D pattern.
Think of a chip like a 100-story building. Each building takes four months to produce, and each floor has its own layout. This layout features only 25 nanometers. It is about 100 nanometers smaller than influenza virus particles. EUV and other lithography machines carve patterns of these layers one by one.
Building a machine is not easy. Like the chips themselves, they are assembled into dust-free rooms, the cleanest space on the planet. The chips work at the atom level: a single spot of dust can make them useless.
1 is a diagram showing the semiconductor chip structure. FIG. Illustration: ASML
Why is Taiwan so important?
ASML creates a machine that makes the chips, but does not create the chips themselves. This is primarily done by another notable company with another notable name, TSMC, or Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing company. Taiwan manufactures and supplies many of the US semiconductor chips, which adds to protecting Taiwan amid concerns that China will invade.
In 2022, the US persuaded the Dutch government to take control of ASML machines exports and limit sales to China. To date, according to ASML, no EUV lithography machines have been shipped to China. This means that unless you invent your own EUV lithography machine, or you will use deep ultraviolet lithography rather than extreme ultraviolet lithography, rather than in Western countries, if not more powerful than technology a few years old. These machines can produce extremely complex chips on a large scale, but they are not that complicated.
Another technology that the US and China are fiercely competing to advance, artificial intelligence relies on the world's most complex and powerful semiconductor chips. The main designers of these chips are an American company called Nvidia. The chip is generated by TSMC on a machine created by ASML.
China's lack of access to EUV lithography explains why the debut of Chinese chatbot Deepseek shocked the market. Chinese companies have produced products as powerful as Chat GPT, which has advanced, cheaper technology. Deepseek claims that training costs just $6 million compared to Billions of dollars It was spent by US companies to do the same.
“The US believes that AI is a transformative technology and affects almost every sector of the economy,” says Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for The World the Critical Technology. “So we don't want China to gain an advantage.”
It is also important for defense and intelligence. The People's Liberation Army has made “great advances” in recent years in efforts to use AI in combat. According to Center for security and emerging technologies.
However, not everyone believes that access to Chinese ASML machines, including ASML, should be restricted.
At a Bloomberg meeting in October, CEO Christophe Foucet said, “We were asked how much the security threat restrictions are.”
The debate may not need to last long. In 2024, China's Shanghai Microelectronics Company (SMIC) revealed that it had filed a patent for its EUV lithography machine a year ago.
Where do you find rare earths?
China boasts other advantages over the West in the race to produce chips. In addition to silicon, semiconductors require so-called “rare earths,” especially germanium and gallium. Gallium demand is forecast by 2030 More than 350% increase from 2015 level. Demand for germanium is expected to double over the same period. China produces 98% of the world's raw gallium and more than two-thirds of the world's raw germanium.
This is one of the reasons why Donald Trump is putting pressure on Ukraine to hand over its rare earth in exchange for aid and has announced that he has agreed to launch a “recovery and processing initiative” for the rare earth after his first meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Silicon wafers for semiconductor manufacturing. Photo: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy
Does Quantum Chips change everything?
Next is the quantum chip. In theory, quantum chips allow computers to solve problems much faster than the world's current supercomputers. This is because instead of an on or off equivalent, or zero or zero or one, the Quantum chip can be in both states. The general explanation is a maze. A regular computer will find a path through the maze by testing each option one after the other. Quantum computers can test them all at once.
So far, quantum computing has been achieved only in limited circumstances. However, Microsoft announced this month that it had built a chip that means quantum computers could be built within years, not decades.
Meanwhile, China's public spending on quantum technology is four times more than the US. According to The Institute of China Research, a European think tank. Furthermore, the chips are not made from EUV machines. Instead, quantum chips are made by machines that use electrons to engrave patterns onto chips. China has these machines.
China also has resources that are often overlooked in chip discussions, said David Reilly, professor of physics and head of the Quantum program at the University of Sydney.
“The key to all this is people,” he says. As people see their needs and know what the existing way to meet those needs is, breakthroughs can happen and imagine what they are.
“There are a lot of smart people in China. They train a lot of STEM graduates,” he says. And those alumni tend to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees from universities in the US, Australia and Europe before returning.
“The government doesn't want to say it's blind to it, but it has a lot of focus on relocating concrete,” he says. “Invention doesn't happen in a vacuum.”
Exciting news! There are new dancing animals in town, and they go by the name of Happy Feet. Recent research has uncovered the adorable jig that baby loggerhead turtles perform when they approach their favorite feeding spot.
A study captured the lively turtle movements, including tilting their bodies vertically, lifting their heads, opening their mouths, moving their front flippers in a paddling motion, and sometimes even spinning in place.
Researchers noted a distinct difference in the “turtle dance” behavior between feeding and non-feeding areas.
However, the study did not explore how these animals fare on the dance floor. The mystery of how turtles locate their favorite feeding spots during long migrations and lifetimes has intrigued scientists for quite some time.
New research suggests that turtles use Earth’s magnetic fields as a guide to identify the unique magnetic characteristics of their preferred feeding spots and celebrate with a dance when they find them.
In the experiment, researchers recreated two magnetic field signatures found worldwide, corresponding to locations near the Gulf of Mexico and New Hampshire, USA. Turtles were trained to associate each magnetic field with a feeding site.
The results showed that turtles exhibited more “turtle dance” behavior in designated feeding areas, indicating their ability to distinguish between the two magnetic fields.
“Sea turtles can sense both the strength and tilt of magnetic fields,” explained the lead researcher. “They not only detect these magnetic properties but also have a remarkable memory for them.”
This memory was evident as the turtles continued to recognize the designated feeding sites months after the initial experiment, even when not exposed to them. This demonstrates the turtles’ ability to navigate using magnetic cues and retain memories of specific locations.
Adult turtles have been observed returning to foraging sites after migrating for breeding, while baby loggerheads travel to coastal feeding grounds using ocean currents. Previous studies have shown their reliance on a “magnetic compass” for navigation, with the current research exploring their “magnetic map” capabilities.
The research team plans to delve deeper into these mechanisms in future studies to uncover how turtles perceive and use magnetic information for navigation.
Openai, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, has introduced video generation tools in the UK, highlighting the growing connection between the tech sector and the creative industry in relation to copyright.
Film director Beevan Kidron spoke out about the release of Sora in the UK, noting its impact on the ongoing copyright debate.
Openai, based in San Francisco, has made SORA accessible to UK users who are subscribed to ChatGPT. The tool surprised filmmakers upon its release last year. A halt in studio expansion was triggered by concerns from TV mogul Tyler Perry, who believed the tool could replace physical sets or locations. It was initially launched in the US in December.
Users can utilize SORA to generate videos by inputting simple prompts like requesting scenes of people walking through “beautiful snowy Tokyo City.”
Openai has now introduced SORA in the UK, with reported cases of artists using the tool in the UK and mainland Europe, where it was also released on Friday. One user, Josephine Miller, a 25-year-old British digital artist, created a video using SORA featuring a model adorned in bioluminescent fauna, praising the tool for opening up opportunities for young creatives.
'Biolume': Josephine Miller uses Openai's Sora to create stunning footage – Video
Despite the launch of SORA, Kidron emphasized the significance of the ongoing UK copyright and AI discussions, particularly in light of government proposals permitting AI companies to train their models using copyrighted content.
Kidron raised concerns about the ethical use of copyrighted material to train SORA, pointing out potential violations of terms and conditions if unauthorized content is used. She stressed the importance of upholding copyright laws in the development of AI technologies.
Recent statements from YouTube indicated that using copyrighted material without proper licensing for training AI models like SORA could lead to legal repercussions. The concern remains about the origin and legality of the datasets used to train these AI tools.
The Guardian reported that policymakers are exploring options for offering copyright concessions to certain creative sectors, further highlighting the complex interplay between AI, technology, and copyright laws.
Sora allows users to craft videos ranging from 5 to 20 seconds, with an option to create longer videos. Users can choose from various aesthetic styles like “film noir” and “balloon world” for their clips.
There have been numerous ice age animals recovered from the world’s permafrost, ranging from woolly rhinos and wolves to urus, brown bears, and bison. Despite some being slightly damaged, they are often found in excellent condition.
One remarkable discovery was in 2017 when scientists excavated the remains of a small cave lion named Sparta from a frozen bank on the Siberian River. Although its golden fur was muddy and matted, its skin, soft tissue, and organs were all preserved. With closed eyes, it appeared more like a sleeping animal than one that had been dead for 28,000 years.
Another notable find was a two-month-old horse that died 35,000 years ago and was uncovered in Siberia in 2018. Though some fur was missing, the animal was largely intact, with hooves, skin, tail, and nostril hair preserved.
Various well-preserved woolly mammoths have also been discovered, some with grass in their mouths, milk in their bellies, and even dung on their bellies. While videos show people cutting into frozen mammoth carcasses and finding meat that looks fresh, the appearance can be deceiving.
Many animals found from the Ice Age are well preserved on the outside, but on the inside is a different story – Credit: Grafissimo
While these ice age animals and their tissues may appear well-preserved superficially, zooming in reveals a different story. The lack of antifreeze agents when freezing live cells causes ice crystals to form, leading to cell bursting.
Although tissues and organs may seem intact, the cells that form them are not. The damage to these cells has occurred over the thousands of years since the last ice age ended. While these ancient animals may seem well-preserved on a larger scale, they are damaged at a microscopic level.
The most well-preserved ice age beasts are likely those with intact cells, which died closer to the end of the last ice age and have been frozen since. One such candidate is a 9,000-year-old bison discovered in the Russian Far East in 2022, which may have cells viable for cloning attempts.
However, cloning attempts on ice age animals have so far been unsuccessful due to DNA deterioration after death. Despite the optimism, the chances of successful cloning are slim. For now, appreciating these mummified artifacts as they are offers a fascinating glimpse into the ancient past.
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Observe the night sky tonight to witness a rare event known as the “Planet Parade,” where the planets in our solar system align in a row. This phenomenon involves Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune appearing in a straight line for a unique celestial display. This rare occurrence will not happen again until 2040.
The best time to view this spectacular event is on the evening of Friday, February 28th, 2025, when all seven planets will be visible in the sky. Astrophysicists like David Armstrong emphasize the significance of this planetary alignment and the rarity of such an occurrence.
To best observe this phenomenon, head outdoors just after sunset to catch a glimpse of Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. For a more detailed view, consider using binoculars or a telescope to see the distinctive features of each planet. Find a dark, remote spot away from city lights for the optimal viewing experience.
Where should I look to see the planets?
Identifying the planets in the sky can be challenging, but each has its unique brightness and position. Look for Venus in the west, the brightest object after sunset, followed by Jupiter overhead. Keep an eye out for Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, as it remains low on the horizon. The planets’ loose alignment creates a visual path across the sky, making it easier to track their movements.
Why is this planetary parade happening?
The alignment of planets is a result of their orbits in the zodiac plane, creating the illusion of alignment from Earth’s perspective. While this alignment is purely visual and does not have a significant impact on Earth, it provides a fascinating celestial display for observers to enjoy.
Meet our experts
Dr. Sham Balaji: A researcher at King’s College London, specializing in cosmic particle physics and cosmology.
Matt Burley: An astronomer and reader at the University of Leicester’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.
David Armstrong: An associate professor at Warwick University focusing on planet detection and the Neptinia desert.
It's published today International Polar Bear Daynew research will answer questions by showing the first combination of satellite tracking colors and remote camera traps Polar bear (Ursus Maritimus)) Denning is notoriously difficult to study as polar bear moms create dens under the snow in remote areas.
Shooter et al. It reveals the first detailed view of polar bear cults coming out of their burrows. Image credits: Jon Aars/Norwegian Polar Institute.
Turnip survival supports species survival, and denning is the most vulnerable period of life. Less than 50% of Cubs can become adults.
As industry expands in the Arctic, this study highlights the importance of uninterrupted Denning regions to protect polar bear populations.
“Polar bear mothers have increased difficulty replicating due to climate-based changes and could face additional challenges associated with expanding human footprints in the Arctic,” said Dr. Louise Archer, a researcher at the University of Toronto Scarborough University.
“We are excited to introduce new tools to monitor bears during this vulnerable period and gain insight into action across the Arctic.
“Every den we monitor has its own story, and every data point adds to this critical understanding of time and supports a more effective conservation strategy.”
In their study, the authors monitored the behavior of the polar bears in Den Emans held in Svalbad, Norway.
Female polar bears were equipped with GPS satellite collars recording their location, temperature and activity.
Researchers used these collar data to find burrows and traveled through the mountains of Svalbad to deploy time-lapse camera traps at 13 densites over six years.
They found that camera traps provide fine-scale insight into the behavior of the maternal Den, and that satellite collars are accurate and useful for monitoring bears in more remote locations for longer periods of time.
The family appeared in Svalbarbad around March 9th and appeared to abandon the burrow earlier than previously recorded in this group, and further monitoring was needed to establish whether this was a continuing trend.
Changing the timing of denning can put a risk to the cubs' survival as they will less time to develop before they can proceed further towards the sea ice.
In some cases, the bears appeared from the burrow in less than a minute before returning inside, while other appearances lasted for several hours.
In terms of departing den forever, camera footage showed that polar bears remained near the burrow to stay on average for 12 days.
However, this ranged between 2-31 days and was very different among polar bear families.
Some moms switched dens – they were observed leaving their original dens and moving their families to new dens.
Cubs are heavily dependent on their mothers and rarely venture out in their dens alone. The Cubs were only seen in 5% without mothers. In Svalbad, they rely on their mothers for up to 2.5 years.
“This study gives us a total glimpse into one of the most vulnerable and important periods of polar bear life and provides insights that will help guide our collective conservation efforts.”
“Combining innovative technology and long-term research gives us a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by polar bear moms and cubs in the rapidly changing Arctic.”
“Conserving Denning's habitat is essential for population health, and this study provides invaluable insights that can help guide conservation management.”
“There were few studies that included observational data at polar bear burrow sites, and therefore this study contributes significantly to our knowledge of denning ecology,” said Dr. John Arles, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute.
Furthermore, data from the satellite radio collar was available to all mothers, and observational data allowed us to communicate how recorded activity and temperature changes corresponded to behavior. ”
study It will be displayed in Journal of Wildlife Management.
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Louise C. Archer et al. Monitoring the phenology and behavior of polar bears during the emergence of den using cameras and satellite telemetry. Journal of Wildlife ManagementPublished online on February 26th, 2025. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.22725
The near-Earth asteroid called the 2024 YR4 has been closely monitored over the past few months as its chances of impacting Earth increased to about 3% in 2032. After the latest observations from the ESO's very large telescope (VLT), the probability of impact has decreased to about 0.001%.
This VLT image shows asteroid 2024 YR4 near Earth. Image credit: ESO/O. hainaut.
2024 yr4 On December 27, 2024, the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact of Río Hurtado was discovered by the Last Alert System (Atlas) station.
Between 40-90 m in diameter, the asteroid took a close approach to Earth at a distance of 828,800 km (515,000 miles) two days before its discovery.
The 2024 YR4 is currently moving, with the next close approach taking place on December 17th, 2028.
On December 22, 2032, the asteroid quickly rose to the top of the ESA risk list due to its size and potential impact. This is a catalogue of all the space rocks that can affect Earth.
“Uncertainty means that the orbit of an asteroid is like a flashlight beam. It becomes wide and wide and ambiguous in the distance.”
“As we observe more, the beam becomes sharper and narrower. The Earth was illuminated more by this beam. The probability of impact increased.”
The observations of the new VLT, along with data from other observatory data, were able to exclude the impact on Earth in 2032 by Dr. Hainaut and his colleagues, but were able to constrain sufficient orbits for all.
“The narrower beams are now far from Earth,” Dr. Heinout said.
The impact probability reported by the ESA's short-range object adjustment center is about 0.001%, and asteroids no longer place the ESA risk list above.
As the 2024 YR4 is far from Earth, it has become increasingly faint and difficult to observe it with all but the largest telescopes.
“The VLT contributes to the observation of this asteroid due to its mirror size and excellent sensitivity, and is an excellent darker sky at the Delusional Observatory of ESO in Chile, where the telescope is located,” the astronomer said.
“This would ideally help track faint objects such as the 2024 YR4 and other potentially dangerous asteroids.”
“Unfortunately, the same pristine, dark sky that allowed these important measurements is now under threat by Industrial Megaproject Inna by AES Andes, a subsidiary of US utility AES Corporation.”
“The project plans to cover areas similar to the size of small cities and be located at the nearest point, about 11 km from VLT.”
“Because of its size and proximity, INNA will have a devastating effect on the quality of Paranal's sky, particularly due to mild contamination from industrial facilities.”
“In bright sky, telescopes like VLT lose the ability to detect the weakest universe's targets.”
The physicist with Atlas collaboration We presented our first observations of VVZ production at Cern's large Hadron Collider. This is a rare combination of three giant vector bosons.
Three vector boson events recorded by Atlas are when one W-boson collapses into electrons and neutrinos, one collapses into moons and neutrinos, and two moons collapses into z boson. Muons are shown with a red line, electrons are shown with a green line, and a white line where “loss of energy” from Neutrino is destroyed. Image credits: Atlas/Cern.
As carriers of weak forces, W and Z bosons are central to standard models of particle physics.
Accurate measurements of multiboson production processes provide excellent testing of standard models and shed light on new physical phenomena.
“The production of three vector (V) bosons is a very rare process in LHC,” says Dr. Fabio Cerutti, Ph.D., Atlas Physics Coordinator.
“The measurement provides information about the interactions between multiple bosons linked to the symmetry underlying the standard model.”
“It is a powerful tool to uncover new physics phenomena, such as new particles that are too heavy to be produced directly in LHC.”
The Atlas team observed the generation of VVZ with statistical significance of 6.4 standard deviations, exceeding the five standard deviation thresholds needed to assert the observations.
This observation extends previous results from Atlas and CMS collaborations, including observations of VVV production by CMS and observations of WWW production by Atlas.
As some of the heaviest known particles, W and Z bosons can collapse in countless different ways.
In a new study, Atlas physicists focused on seven attenuation channels with the highest discovery potential.
These channels were further refined using a machine learning technique called Boosted Decision Trees, where the algorithms for each channel were trained to identify the desired signal.
By combining the attenuation channels, researchers were able to observe the production of VVZ and set limits on the contributions of new physical phenomena to the signal.
“The resulting limitations confirm the validity of the standard model and are consistent with previous results on the generation of three vector bosons,” they said.
“Analyzing the third run of LHC and the large dataset from future HLHCs will further improve the measurements of the generation of three vector bosons. We will deepen our understanding of these basic particles and our role in the universe.”
Could scientists use parasites in your brain to treat diseases? The concept of utilizing parasites as a medical tool may sound unconventional, but it offers hope for conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Researchers believe that if parasites can transport drugs directly to the brain, it could aid in treating these ailments.
An international team of scientists is doing just that. They are utilizing single-cell parasites called Toxoplasma gondii, which causes the infection toxoplasmosis. These parasites naturally travel from the human intestine to the central nervous system and provide proteins to host cells. In their experiment, bioengineers manipulated the internal system of T. gondii cells to produce and release proteins outside the cell, creating a secretion system.
The team explained that delivering medications to the brain is challenging due to the blood-brain barriers that safeguard the brain from harmful substances. T. gondii has evolved the ability to overcome these barriers, which could be beneficial in this process. Initially, they tested whether T. gondii can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice and then in human brain cells, specifically neurons, before moving on to testing on intact mouse brains to potentially apply the findings to humans.
Their drug delivery system mediated by T. gondii consists of proteins created from at least two regions of different genes that are combined and translated into a single unit, known as a protein fusion. They incorporated a therapeutic drug with a T. gondii protein called takihorin to transport medicine to the brain.
Initially, scientists faced challenges in determining the appropriate dilution factor for the drug compound. They had to find a balance between allowing the proteins to pass through the blood-brain barrier while ensuring they were still therapeutically effective. Through trial and error, they found the correct dilution factor and successfully administered the treatment to the targeted brain area.
The next step involved delivering therapeutic proteins to brain cells through T. gondii. Researchers used lab-grown mouse brain cells and specific proteins that regulate the movement of molecules across the cell membrane, known as vesicle transport protein. They demonstrated that the engineered T. gondii successfully transported healing proteins to the brain cells of lab-grown mice.
The researchers then tested the treatment process on human brain cells cultivated outside of the body. They confirmed that the therapeutic proteins delivered by T. gondii could bind to the DNA of human brain cells. This binding altered gene expression in the laboratory-grown brain cells.
Finally, engineers demonstrated the success of this therapy on whole mouse brains. By ensuring that the therapeutic proteins could pass the blood-brain barrier in live mice, they then evaluated the brains post-euthanasia. Utilizing 3D imaging, they illuminated specific neural pathways and markers in the mouse brain, confirming that the engineered proteins effectively delivered therapeutic proteins to the brain.
The researchers concluded that their findings show progress in drug delivery via engineered parasites but emphasized the need for further research to determine the potential advantages and drawbacks of this method. With the success of this study, they proposed that utilizing engineered parasites for drug delivery could offer new treatment options for brain-related diseases.
Without human-induced climate change, the Earth could have been on track to enter another ice age within 11,000 years. This long-term prediction of the planet's “natural” climate is based on a new analysis of how orbital shapes and the tilt of their axis combine to change the amount of solar energy reaching Earth.
For millions of years, these orbital oscillations (known as the Milankovich cycle) entered and left the planet during the Ice Age about every 41,000 years. However, over the past 800,000 years, these ice ages, also known as ice age, have only occurred every 100,000 years. The term Ice Age, as it is currently, can be used to refer to whenever there is ice on Earth's poles, but generally refers to a wide range of ice Age periods.
The ambiguity of the record as the ice sheets were willingly retreated meant that it was not possible to explain how trajectory changes were involved in driving this long cycle.
If previous research attempted to link orbital changes to a specific period, such as onset of an ice age, Stephen Barker Cardiff University in England and his colleagues took a new tack. They came back fading during the “glacial age” where they saw the overall pattern of the ice age, also known as ice age. This allowed us to link changes in trajectories with changes in ice, despite the ambiguity of ice records over the past million years.
They discovered that these 100,000-year cycles appear to follow simple rules. For the last 900,000 years, following the most circular phase of the orbit, the planets also tilted towards the Sun, thus causing all interglacial periods after the Earth's axis wobbled at the farthest from the Sun.
This suggests that all three of these aspects of Earth's orbit (known as precession, oblique and eccentricity) are combined to create a 100,000-year glacial cycle, Barker says. “Since 900,000 years ago, this simple rule has predicted all of these major glacial end events, which says it's really very easy to predict,” he says.
Under that rule, the next ice age where you currently live is expected to begin approximately 66,000 years from the year, as there is no impact on greenhouse gas emissions. But that could only be started if there was an ice age before that,” says Barker.
The diagonal and gradual stages of precession that preceded the Holocene suggest that the glaciers are likely to be on track between 4300 and 11 and 100 years from now. We may now live in what would have been the beginning of this next ice age. “Of course, it's just a natural scenario,” says Barker.
More than 1.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere as the Industrial Revolution is expected to cause sufficient warming to disrupt this long-term glacial cycle.
“The amount we've already put into the atmosphere is so big that it takes hundreds to thousands of years to pull it out through natural processes,” Barker says. However, he says more research is needed to define the planet's future natural climate in a more detailed way.
It states that this is consistent with previous modeling suggesting that anthropogenic emissions can prevent the onset of the next ice age, from dozens to hundreds of thousands of years. Andrei Ganopolsky At the Potsdam Climate Impact Research Institute in Germany.
But he says even at pre-industrial levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, it was high enough to delay the ice sheet advancement by 50,000 years. This is due to the unusually small orbital changes expected in thousands of years and the unpredictable way that Earth responds to those changes.
As we approach February, Skywatchers have a final opportunity to witness the “Planet Parade” lighting up the night sky.
The celestial event, where all seven planets in the solar system, apart from Earth, are visible most weeks, is set to provide the best viewing chances for Skywatchers worldwide on Friday. This is because mercury, which only recently appeared on the horizon, will be at its highest point above the horizon.
Starting from Friday, mercury and Saturn will become too dim and too low on the horizon for most observers.
If the conditions are right, it should be possible to spot five out of the seven planets with the naked eye with mercury and Saturn in mind. However, a telescope is necessary to view Uranus and Neptune.
Planetary parades occur when multiple planets are visible simultaneously and spread out in an arc across the sky. While not uncommon, it is rare for all seven planets to be visible at the same time. Four planets were visible before sunrise in August, but NASA states that five will not be visible again until October 2028.
To observe the planets in the sky this week, it is best to find locations on clear nights with minimal light pollution.
Saturn is visible near the horizon (it sets below the sky, making it harder to see during moonrise). Mercury has been far from the sun in recent weeks, making it easier to locate. After sunset, near Saturn, it can be seen low in the western sky.
Venus is also situated in the western part of the sky and is usually the easiest planet to spot due to its brightness.
Jupiter can be observed at dusk. NASA. Mars, meanwhile, is the last planet to set before sunrise.
Michael Shanahan, planetarium director at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, suggests searching for mercury and Saturn with binoculars near the sunset point shortly after dusk.
As it gets darker, Jupiter, the brightest star in the sky, can be seen overhead. Towards the east, Mars on Earth remains quite bright,” he added.
Shanahan also mentioned that beyond Friday, individuals can witness what he described as “Planetal Ballet against the Starry Background.”
“Around March 10th, Venus will appear too low. Currently, Venus is a bright spot resembling an airplane,” he noted.
Planetary alignments occur due to the planets orbiting the Sun in a relatively flat, disc-like plane. They move along this metaphorical racetrack at their own pace. Mercury completes its orbit in 88 days, Venus takes 225 days, and Saturn takes over 29 years to orbit the Sun.
When multiple planets align on the same side of the metaphorical track, Jackie Faherty, an astronomer and senior research scientist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, explained to NBC News earlier this month.
The International Space Station may be a little too clean
geopix/alamy
A strategy to keep the spacecraft as clean and infertile as possible to ensure that astronauts do not get sick may be a mistake. Researchers studying the International Space Station (ISS) say our immune system may require stimulation from certain types of molecules and microorganisms to maintain good health.
“The general concept is to have as few microorganisms as possible, but the question is whether it's the best thing for long-term space travel.” Peter Drestein At the University of California, San Diego. “And that's related to places on earth, such as research. [stations]hospitals and submarines, can spend more than a few months. ”
One reason for sterilizing spacecraft is to avoid covering contaminated planets such as Mars with microorganisms from Earth, but the main concern is that infections that can easily be treated on our planets can become a major problem with spacecraft.
Dorrstein and his team analyzed over 700 surface swabs mounted on the ISS.
“The space station doesn't have many molecules and microorganisms,” he says. “It's at the extreme edge of human life.”
The team believes this lack of exposure to the usual wide range of molecules and microorganisms could be one of the reasons why there is a major change in the universe's immune system. On space stations, astronauts are often subject to rashes, abnormal allergies, fungal or bacterial infections, and activation of latent viruses such as Epstein Barr found in one of the samples.
“We don't fully understand that,” says Drestein. “But the way I see this is that you have to ping your immune system regularly.”
Researchers say they need to find ways to ensure that environments like space stations are “more diverse in molecules and microorganisms, but without introducing infectious pathogens.”
One way to do this is Subtilis Bacillus Instead of disinfectant, Drestein says. B. subtilis It is already widely used for antifungal activities.
Growing a variety of plants is also helpful. “We know from other studies that when people are exposed to more plant molecules, they tend to have a reduced connection to asthma and allergies,” Drestein says. He says these plant molecules are not entirely present in the space station.
MrBeast, the world’s largest YouTube star, is planning to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in a move that could value the company at approximately $5 billion (£3.9 billion).
The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has reportedly been in discussions with various wealthy individuals and financial companies regarding participation in the investment round.
The funds are intended to establish a holding company for his expanding empire, which includes a video production company, a chocolate brand called Feast, and a snack business named Lunch. According to Bloomberg, the money could also be used to expand his media and merchandise packaging business.
The talks regarding potential funding are still in the early stages, and it is unclear who will invest and at what valuation. This would not be his first fundraising round, as he has previously secured investments from companies such as New York-based Alpha Wave Global.
If successful, the new funds would help Donaldson further expand his business. With over 368 million subscribers on his channel, he is already the world’s largest YouTuber.
The 26-year-old from Wichita, Kansas, is known for his videos featuring stunts, challenges, and cash giveaways. One of his most popular viral videos involved recreating the set from the Netflix series Squid Game, costing $3.5 million. The challenge had 456 participants competing for a prize of $456,000.
He has also launched the reality competition show “Beast Games” on Amazon, which had limited viewership last month.
Like many YouTubers, Donaldson started on the platform in 2012 and has since ventured into food brands like Fastables and MrBeast Burgers.
Despite earning tens of millions of dollars annually, he is also known for his charitable efforts. Much of his earnings are reinvested into his videos and philanthropy.
However, his work has not been without criticism. He has faced backlash for a history of homophobic comments as a teenager and being a demanding employer. Some have labeled his content as “poverty porn,” claiming that people only benefit from cash, prizes, and gifts by appearing in his videos. Despite the criticism, his efforts to fund cataract surgery for 1,000 people to restore their vision were praised by charities.
aFeathered horses, dust and rain, whisk around you, arrive on a mountain path where purple crystals cover the walls with frost. The weather is still outside, but calm inside the cave at the end of the road. The environment allows you to see what kind of creatures live here. Reidau is a horned wyvern that commands the elements.
You’ve seen it before, but when you unexpectedly appear while you were on another expedition, you descended from the lightning striped sky and sunk its claws into an unfortunate pack of hairy lion-like creatures. You weren’t strong enough to face it, but you’re now. Hopefully.
The next battle is to bite the nail. To try to jump out of the corners and teeth paths of powerful electric bolts and Wyvern, you have to pull out all the tricks you know to wear it out. Fire a grappling hook at a rocky outcrop hanging from the ceiling and bring it over the creature. You blow your mouth while for your mount, leaps back to the dragon’s head, clinging and stabbing with a dagger trying to smash against the wall. You will be flung by, fried, stomped, but you will cling to fight and chew on repair potions at every opportunity.
Then an even bigger predator appears from anywhere, taking the monster you fought desperately for 25 minutes with just that jaw and throw it like a rag doll. Take a closer look at it: it’s what you fight next.
The 15-hour story of Monster Hunter Wilds is a series of escalating and escalating epic battles with bigger, more ferocious creatures. I didn’t do it for a moment. Within hours, you’d fought against awful giant spiders, supple sand dragons, and a disgusting, overgrown oil chick child. After that, you will face a nasty and dangerous version of the beasts of monster hunter games, especially the last 20 years, in addition to the fierce fire drawings and dragons shooting lightning from their faces. It’s literally all the killers, no fillers, a long way from the old game of slow and heavy. There, they had to collect mushrooms and fight raptors before they could go near the Wyvern.
The fight is relentlessly wonderful. When the monster fell I let out a breath that I didn’t notice that I was holding. With the exception of Dark Souls and their siblings, no game made me feel like Monster Hunter. The adrenaline of these battles, the peerless, perfectly balanced feel of oversized weapons, and the pure malice and dignity of the creatures make this game feel unparalleled thrilling despite having played it in some way since I was a teenager. And it’s far better than it was back then. Not only monsters, but their huge natural habitats also ripple overflowing into life.
“The monster’s huge natural habitat is full of life.” Photo: Capcom
Towards the end of the Wild story, I have to admit that I felt some disappointment creep up. I enjoyed almost all of these creatures’ clashes. But I wasn’t trying much. Certainly, I have had a lot of experience with these games, but I’m used to being eaten or torn apart to bite by a new monster several times before conquering it. During the entire Wilds campaign, I was knocked out only twice.
But Wilds’ story turned out to be a 15-hour interactive tutorial on what makes Monster Hunter great. This is a roller coaster of combat thrills designed to sell newcomers on the concept and acquire the taste of scale and visual splendor that Capcom’s modern game engine brings to his favorite series. The real fun begins afterwards.
After taking on the worst creature I’ve ever seen, in the final quest of the story, I was dumped into a base camp in the jungle and sent to capture a small, sparked bird of prey. I was humbled quickly. Embarrassingly, I became lazy and it knocked me out.
Monster Hunter isn’t just about swinging giant spears. It is also about studying quarries, learning their weaknesses and delving into the environment for useful plants and materials used to make coatings of potions, tools and arrows that give you the advantage in battle. Experienced players will help the rookie, so it’s about working with other hunters to complement each other’s playstyle. Being a friend’s Monster Hunter mentor is one of the most rewarding multiplayer gaming experiences out there.
This game cannot be reduced to a series of battles. It’s a community of the world, the ecosystem, and the players. You are some hunters, some nature researchers. Wild goes too far towards frictionless fun in the story, but once I was free to explore, I began to feel more connected to my habitat. From battle to battle, instead of being led by a nose or by my Dascho horse, I climbed up the canopy, scouted for the creatures, took out binoculars, discovered an underwater cave full of hidden corners and useful materials from the campsite. I found myself having to switch weapons more frequently, upgrade armor, and re-recognize myself with a nasty array of gems and doodads that gave hunters useful additional skills.
You can spend a lot of time picking up Wild as a rookie and playing through the story. You can stop there, but it will still be worth the price of admission. But I’ll play it length It’s still time.
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