Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Terranos, had her conviction upheld by a US court. She defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars through a failed blood test startup that was once valued at $9 billion. Despite refusing to appeal for several years, Holmes was convicted. The court also upheld the conviction of Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes’ former romantic partner and president of Theranos.
A three-judge panel at San Francisco’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed claims of legal error in separate trials conducted in 2022.
Holmes, who started Terranos as a university student and became its public face, was indicted in 2018 alongside Balwani. They were tried separately and received sentences of 11 years and 3 months and 12 years and 11 months in 2022. Holmes was ordered to compensate investors $452 million, but the penalty was waived due to limited financial resources.
Holmes’ sentence was reduced by over two years for good behavior in prison, leading to her release in 2032 after serving nine years.
Holmes’ attorney filed an appeal in April 2023, claiming that her trial was marred by improper procedures and evidence presentation.
The US prosecutor countered, stating during the initial appeal hearing in 2024, “It’s undisputed that the device didn’t function,” and highlighting the shortcomings of Theranos’ Edison blood test machine. Holmes asserted that the Edison could draw a single drop of blood from a patient and conduct a variety of medical tests, but her inventions never delivered on their promises.
Before the appeal ruling, Holmes featured on the cover of People magazine for her first interview since being imprisoned earlier that month. She described federal prisons as “hell and torture” and expressed how being incarcerated had changed her.
“The person I used to be must now step aside as I stand here, a prisoner, and face my reality,” she said, reflecting on her two young children and husband.
when Mike Schwede was first sitting on the Tesla Roadster 15 years ago, he felt like he was witnessing the future. In 2016, he became a proud Tesla owner, enjoying the admiration he received from other drivers as he cruised along European highways in his electric vehicle.
However, the shine of owning a Tesla has started to fade recently. For years, the brand was closely associated with Elon Musk and his stance on the climate crisis. Schwede was dismayed when Musk pledged to increase oil and gas production after supporting Donald Trump.
“He was becoming increasingly bizarre,” said Swiss entrepreneur and digital strategist Schwede. The final straw came when Musk made a fascist-style salute during Trump’s inauguration in January. “It was completely repulsive to me,” Schwede stated. “I was no longer enjoying being a Tesla owner.”
Data from the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers revealed that nearly half of new Tesla car sales in Europe had plummeted last month. Analysts attribute this decline to customers turning away from the brand due to Musk’s far-right political affiliations.
The Texas-based automaker sold 9,945 vehicles in Europe in January, a 45% drop from the previous year, according to the association.
The parody “Tesla – Swastical” ad was posted at a London bus stop. Photo: People vs Elon
Existing Tesla owners who are discontented with Musk’s views are beginning to voice their concerns.
Schwede considered selling his car, but with over 60,000 miles already driven, the resale value was minimal. Instead, he decided to donate 10 cents per kilometer driven to various charities, aiming to support LGBTQ+ youth and combat hatred, extremism, and far-right movements. “That didn’t sit well with Elon,” Schwede remarked. “It was my way of seeking personal retribution.”
Some European Tesla owners are pushing back against Musk’s political associations by engaging in small acts of resistance, demonstrating their displeasure with his far-right leanings.
Patrick Schneider from Germany created an “anti-Elon sticker” line for Tesla cars to express his dissatisfaction. The stickers, featuring messages like “Buying this before Elon went crazy,” have gained popularity in response to Musk’s political alliances.
Far-right AFD Alice Weidel is talking online with Elon Musk during her speech at the start of the campaign. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke/EPA
Demand for these stickers has surged, with up to 2,000 being sold daily, not only in German-speaking countries but also internationally. Schneider noted, “Elon Musk inadvertently fueled this for us.”
Norwegian researchers have connected the dots from 2,000 years ago, suggesting that a woman could have engraved her name on the oldest dated runestone ever discovered in Norway.
The inscription starts with the word “I” in the Lunic script, hinting that it might be the author’s name. The runestone was unearthed in the Hall cemetery, a small town in southern Norway, towards the east of the capital.
“The text essentially indicates that it is the name of the Rune attendee,” Christel Zilmer, one of the study’s co-authors, told NBC News over the phone. He shared that the script was found by a Rune attendee.
Rune stones appear to be part of the excavation. Museum of Cultural History
Experts believe that the Germanic alphabet script drew inspiration from the Roman alphabet, with Runes serving as key components in early Scandanavian communication. This form of communication was prevalent in the region until the late Middle Ages.
Rune inscriptions have been identified on items like Danish bone knives, iron knives, and combs, estimated to be around 700 Guangxi around 150 AD, correlating with other runestones discovered by archeologists.
These inscriptions often carried messages involving spells for the deceased and enchanting words.
However, the evolution of Runes over time remains a mystery, and deciphering them without an archaeological context can pose significant challenges.
The reconstruction and accompanying illustrations reveal the rune inscription. Christel Zilmer
Recent research indicates that the fragments uncovered in 2021 belonged to a single slab, aiding scientists in understanding language evolution and the significance of such stones.
Two years later, additional fragments were discovered, and it appears that the inscriptions span across all fragments, suggesting they are part of a single stone.
“By finding two additional pieces that fit perfectly into the existing inscription, it has almost completed the inscription,” Zilmer remarked.
Due to the stone’s deterioration and weathered state, deciphering the exact text containing the names of the attendees poses some challenges, but it is noted that the inscription ends with a “-u”, which peaked researchers’ interest.
Excavation was found at the Swingyad Site, west of Oslo, Norway. Museum of Cultural History
If confirmed as a woman’s name in ancient runes, it could be the earliest known record of female Runes inscription.
The fragments buried alongside cremated human remains in the pit allow scientists to use radiocarbon dating, tracing the fragments back to a period between 50 BC to 275 AD, providing valuable context.
“There could be a series of interconnected events here involving different individuals. It’s possible that the stone served multiple purposes,” Zilmer commented.
While much of the research is still underway, there remains a conspicuous gap in our understanding, as Zilmer noted.
“It’s akin to a puzzle with missing pieces, but exploring how these individual fragments, some inscribed, could potentially connect is an intriguing prospect,” she added.
Asteroids flying near Earth in 2032 are expected to safely pass through the planet, with a shock chance of just 0.004%. NASA said Monday.
This is a significant downgrade to the risk from the record highs the space agency gave earlier last week.
The asteroid known as the 2024 YR4 is between 130 and 300 feet wide and is large enough to cause local damage if it hits Earth. However, the exact odds of the event have been an impressive target since the space rock was first detected about two months ago.
The extremely slim chances NASA estimated on Monday were even smaller than the 0.28% chance it gave late last week. Just a few days ago, the agency had the chance to 1.5% and 3.1% before that.
With the short odds exceeded 3%, the first object officially classified as Level 3 of 10 out of 10 in a measurement known as the Torino Scale became the space rock.Richard Binzel first proposed it nearly 30 years ago.
Level 3 classification means that objects are worthy of attention by astronomers, and pose a threat of “close encounters.”
Named after an Italian city officially adopted by astronomersIn 1999, the Turin Impact Hazard Scale is a way to communicate to the public the risks posed by asteroids and other space objects near Earth to planets.
The scale is color-coded, with categories ranging from 0 (white without risk) to 10 (red for a particular collision). With a 3.1% chance of colliding with the Earth, 024-year-old 4 was temporarily placed in the mid-yellow zone of the scale.
The gusts of news reports about the asteroids have attracted more attention than ever on Turin's scale. Binzel said this type of situation was exactly why he created the system in the first place.
“The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has made it a great opportunity to learn about the world,” said Bindel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “But it's like being between a rock and a difficult place because we want to report what we know to maintain the trust of our people, but we don't want to raise unnecessary anxiety. Because.”
The challenges of walking that thin line are revealed in Asteroid 2024 YR4.
According to NASA, the reason for the recent decline in impact probability is The ground telescope was able to get a better look Based on these observations, on the Space Lock on February 19th and 20th, astronomers were able to improve models of asteroid orbits, allowing them to estimate the Space Lock trajectory more accurately. This will help scientists to more reliably predict where 2024 YR4 will be on December 22, 2032, where asteroids are likely to encounter closely with Earth.
The shifting probability is somewhat dizzy, but according to Bindsel, the possibility that such a close-Earth asteroid could dance like this is completely normal.
The Asteroid 2024 YR4 is thought to measure up to 300 feet in diameter.Atlas
When Binzel debuted the Turin scale in the astronomical community decades ago, his goal was to promote greater public awareness of shock risk. According to him, the idea was to implement something similar to the Richter scale, which measures the magnitude of an earthquake, or the Saffir Simpson scale, which assigns categories to hurricanes based on wind speed.
But when he first presented the system at the 1997 UN conference, it wasn’t well received, he said. According to Biinsel, some astronomers were skeptical that it would help the public.
In the same year, scientists discovered an asteroid called XF11 in 1997. We thought this could hit Earth in 2028. It didn’t take long for astronomers to eliminate potential conflicts, but the ending story expanded in news reports, followed by subsequent denunciations. Something that was perceived as a major mistake.
“It ended up being a bit of embarrassment,” Binzel said. “Astronomers did not make any errors, but there was no good way to convey uncertainty. So this classifies objects that cannot be immediately ruled out over centuries of Earth. This motivated me to propose a simple system for
Binzel once again presented the scale in Turin at a conference held in Turin in 1999, attended by representatives from the NASA and the European Space Agency. In that workshop, the system was ultimately adopted by the International Astronomical Union, a non-governmental organization made up of professional astronomers who act like the governing body of the astronomical community.
In addition to using colours and numbers to accommodate different risk levels, the scale includes explanations of potential outcomes, the possibility of changing risk assessments, and actions that the government or the public should take.
For example, the level 6 threat in the orange zone explains the possibility of close shaving by “large objects pose a serious and uncertain threat of a global catastrophe.”
Astronomers recommend giving this object “critical attention” to know if a collision occurs. “If the encounter is less than 30 years, the government's emergency plan could be guaranteed,” the scale states.
On the other hand, Level 3 threat, according to the scale explanation, means that “current calculations provide more than 1% chance of a collision that can be locally destructive.” “Perhaps observations of the new telescope lead to reallocation to level 0. Attention by civil servants is valuable if the encounter is within ten years.”
Naturally, Binzel was correctly suspected when asteroid 2024 YR4 was considered to be the 3 that would eventually be downgraded.
Meanwhile, however, the 2024 YR4 hit an unpleasant milestone. It is the only known astide with a classification above level 1, and set the record to reach the highest impact probability and spend the longest time with the probability above 1%. According to the European Space Agency.
The higher classification of similar or larger sized asteroids on the Turin scale is in 2004, when asteroid Apophis was temporarily ranked as Level 4, with an estimated 2.7% chance of hitting Earth There was a possibility.
Vincell said he was pleased to witness the scale feature in real time, but he is pleased to be modest about his connection to it.
“At the end of the day, if Turin scale helps, there's a great deal of satisfaction. It really makes my day,” he said. “But it's nice to hide my name behind where the scale was adopted. It helps to keep my phone from ringing too much.”
Scheduled to appear in space this week, the Robot Moonlander is set to mark the second moon mission of a company that made history last year by becoming the first private company to successfully land on the moon’s surface.
The spacecraft, named Athena, was built by Intuitive Machines, a company based in Texas. It is equipped with a drill and various instruments to analyze the chemical composition of rocks and soil beneath the lunar surface.
The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Moon Payload Services Program, which aims to assist private companies in developing Moonlanders. The anticipated landing site is the plateau of the lunar Antarctic region, specifically a flat mountain known as Monsmouton.
NASA is particularly interested in the Antarctic region of the Moon due to the presence of water ice in permanently shadowed craters. The presence of water could be crucial for establishing permanent bases on the moon, and Athena’s mission will focus on searching for groundwater.
Athena is scheduled to launch on top of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday at 7:17pm from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The same rocket will also launch a lunar mapping satellite developed by NASA, called the Lunar Trailblazer.
In addition to these missions, NASA plans to send the Spherex Space Observatory into orbit on Thursday to study the origins of the universe. SpaceX’s Starship Megarocke is set for its eighth test flight on Friday, and another robot Moonlander developed by Firefly Aerospace will attempt to land on the moon over the weekend.
Following its release, the Athena Lander is expected to travel for about a week before landing, potentially as early as March 6th. The mission will also test a 4G communications system developed by Nokia on the moon’s surface.
During the mission, Athena Lander will deploy a drone named Grace to explore the landing site through a series of hops. The company aims to replicate their historic moon landing success from February 2024 near Marapart A crater in the Antarctic region of the Moon.
The goal is for Athena Lander to successfully land and fulfill its mission objectives, paving the way for future lunar exploration and potentially aiding in establishing human presence on the moon.
Pere Santamaria was 15 years old when she developed myasthenia. This autoimmune condition can cause extreme muscle weakness and sometimes lead to difficulty breathing. In Santa Maria's case, it affected the muscles in the eye that controlled his vision, causing him to look double.
“It personally had a huge impact on me,” he says. “I was in adolescence and suddenly I couldn't play sports and couldn't live a normal life. I had to take very high doses of corticosteroids, so I was able to have balloons. It's inflated like that.”
Worse, these drugs simply attenuate the body's general immune response, rather than addressing the causes of autoimmune. In other words, Santa Maria did not expect that taking them would cure his condition.
As years went by, Santa Maria developed an additional autoimmune state. “I just wanted to understand the disease and mechanisms, and hopefully I can help others in the end,” he says.
He is now progressing towards that goal. He works as an immunologist at the University of Calgary, Canada. Santa Maria It is at the forefront of pushing to reprogram the immune system and develop new therapies to encourage the human body to end a destructive war against its own organization.
As these treatments move to clinical trials, there are signs of promise. Certainly, some are very effective, so with a single dose, in some cases, people have been symptomatically gone for years. So, is the end of an autoimmune state visible now?
Innate and Adaptive Immunity Systems
Our bodies have several lines of defense against pathogens. …
African elephants have extra copies of genes that help resist cancer
Neil Aldridge/Nature Picture Library/Aramie
Larger animals live longer and have more cells, and are expected to be at a higher risk of developing cancer. A comprehensive analysis of 263 species suggests that this is true, but also finds that some large animals have evolved ways of reducing risk.
“We provide the first empirical evidence that there is a link between body size and cancer prevalence, meaning that larger species increase cancer than smaller species. “I say it. George Butler University College London.
To gain a broader view, Butler and his colleagues analyzed data on the size and cancer rates of 79 bird species, 90 mammal species, 63 reptiles and 31 amphibians. The data comes from previous studies by other researchers who sifted through autopsy records that record whether a breeding animal stored in a place like Zoos or an aquarium had cancer when it died. .
The team found that smaller animals were slightly more likely to have cancer than fewer animals at the time of death. Each 1% increase in body weight was associated with an average increase of 0.1% in cancer rates between birds and mammals. Because body mass data were not available in reptiles and amphibians, the team used body length and found that it was associated with an average increase in cancer rate of 0.003% for every 1% increase.
Butler and his team say their discoveries will challenge a long-standing idea known as the Pete Paradox. on the other hand, Veragolbunova At the University of Rochester in New York, the weak correlation still needs explanation.
“The increased risk they see is very, very minor and not proportional to their body size,” she says. “If you take small animals like mice and humans are 100 times larger, or elephants are 100 times larger, the difference in cancer rates is not 100 times higher in humans and 1000 times higher in elephants.”
It suggests that larger species have evolved more ways to protect themselves, Golbunova says.
Indeed, by using evolutionary trees to infer evolutionary rates of animal body size, the team said that if the size increases more rapidly during evolution, birds and mammal species of similar sizes can be We found it to provide better protection against cancer.
Previous studies have identified genetic adaptations in elephants and whales, protecting against cancer by improving DNA repair and preventing broken cells from dividing.
A deeper understanding of how some animals resist cancer can lead to new treatments for people, says Golbunova. “In these cancer-resistant animals, there are specific biological pathways of different fine-tuning, for example, targeting these pathways and then killing cancer cells more efficiently, or perhaps killing cancer cells. You can even prevent cancer from occurring,” she says.
“As these mechanisms have been tested over millions of years in the course of evolution, they are likely to become highly promising drugs,” she says.
Illustrations of two types of traboa, or sledge, which may be used by ancient people in North America
Gabriel Uguet
Drugmarks and human footprints, composed up to 22,000 years ago, have been found at several sites in White Sands National Park in New Mexico. These are thought to have been made by people pulling long pieces of wood stacked with goods, and are the earliest evidence of such activities.
This type of primitive vehicle is known as the trabore. “It’s basically a wheelless wheel.” Matthew Bennett He is a member of a team studying track at Bournemouth University in the UK.
They were widely used all over the world, but this is the oldest evidence of their use, says Bennett. “Nothing is this old.”
There are many ancient animal footprints in the ancient arid lake of White Sands, but in 2017, human footprints were discovered. In 2019, the team found a long drug mark in connection with human footprints.
“They happen in many different regions, so it was widespread,” Bennett says. “It’s not just an original family using travois.”
Some of the drag marks are made up of a single row. The team believes this was made by a trabore made up of two long wood joined in the form of a triangle. One end of each piece is held in one hand, but there is only a single point of contact on the ground.
The other drag marks consist of two parallel lines. These were probably the result of a trabore where two wood intersected in an x-shape, providing two handles and two ground contact points, which would have been more stable.
Drugmarks often pass through the footsteps of people who are supposed to be pulling a travoy, as expected. In some cases, there are parallel tracks with footprints (often children’s footprints), indicating that others are walking together.
Drag marks created by ancient vehicles in White Sands National Park, New Mexico
Bournemouth University
Elsewhere in the world, Trabois was often pulled by dogs and horses, says Bennett, but there is no evidence that white sand people used animals.
Footprint dates, Announced in 2021 challenging the traditional idea that humans did not move to America until the ice sheet began retreating about 15,000 years ago.
“The people in the US debate are very controversial, but we’re pretty confident about the date,” says Bennett. “The traditional story is that the ice sheets have parted ways and they have come, but you can go through before the door closes.” Another recent discovery is that humans have 33,000 years ago. It suggests that they may have reached the Americas.
Bennett says it’s very likely that there are tracks around the world that are not aware of what they are. In fact, he says his team has already discovered similar markings elsewhere in the US.
Artist's impression of the moon's Athena spaceship
NASA
This week, a private space mission was launched on the moon, aiming to reach the southernmost point we've ever visited on the moon. The Athena spacecraft, built by an intuitive US-based machine, will be released from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 12:17am on February 27th (7:17pm on February 26th). It will be installed on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Also, several other missions hitch on the same rocket, including expeditions that mine asteroids.
The intuitive machine became the first private company to succeed on the moon last year when Odysseus' spacecraft landed near the moon's Antarctica. The spacecraft's instruments remained in operation, but Odysseus made a troublesome landing, flipped over, limiting the amount of data the equipment could collect, and shortening the mission.
The company hopes for a cleaner landing as Athena begins its descent towards the end of March. The planned landing site is near the highest mountain on the moon, the lunar mewton, about 60 kilometers from Antarctica, and Athena's attempts have become the most southern approach to date. If the ship is successful, it will start a moon night and operate for several weeks on par with the moon in a day before it loses power.
Athena carries over 10 musical instruments and missions from both NASA and other private companies. That's not all. The Falcon 9, the same one that fires Athena at the moon, also carries three unrelated spacecraft. These are asteroid-controlled spacecraft from space company Astroforge, and the first mission of this kind will investigate potential minable metal space rocks later this year. You can also map water to the moon along with NASA's lunar satellite aboard, looking for future landing sites. The third spacecraft, built by epic aerospace, is designed to help other satellites move between orbits.
Once Athena lands, NASA instruments will excavate up to 1 meter into the lunar soil to sample it, then look at water sediments and other chemicals. NASA would like to know if these will be present in sufficient quantities for future astronauts to be used as part of the Artemis Moon Landing, which is planned for the agency to be released in 2027. It's there.
Several small rovers will also be released near the landing site, including the plant pot-sized Yaokirovers of Japanese company Dimon. The heavier 10kg mobile autonomous exploration platform (MAPP), built by Space Company Lunar Outspost, explores and creates 3D maps of landing sites, testing how the 4G phone network built by Nokia works in a Lunar environment. Masu. Sitting on a mapp will be a much smaller, ant-sized robot built by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The intuitive machine deploys a suitcase-sized hopping robot called Grace. Grace runs a series of four hops, jumping into the air up to 100 meters, travelling a distance of about 200 meters until it lands in a deep, permanently shaded crater. Scientists have seen evidence that these areas do not get warmer than -170°C (-274°F), but have never been visited in person. Grace scans the bottom of this crater. This crater is scanned for about 45 minutes, about 20 meters below, before popping out again.
Biologists discovered a new species of the tree frog genus and redescribed another Litrea Living on the Australian continent.
Swirling wooden frog (Litrea Reverata). Image credit: Stephen Mahony.
Litrea The large genus of tree frogs native to Australia, including the Bismarck Islands, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the Lesser Sunda Islands and the Moluccan Islands.
This genus contains approximately 100 species and belongs to the monomorphic subfamily liriinae within the family Perodridae family.
A newly discovered species named Eungella Whirring Frog (Litoria eungellensis) and lives only 20km2 The cool Montertaine temperature forests in Queensland's Enguera Mountains are above 900 m above sea level.
This frog is separated by several hundred km from its nearest relative.Litrea Kolbeni).
These two species survive only in isolated, cool, humid, high altitude environments, with few opportunities to shift their habitat as temperatures rise.
“The 'adapt or corruption' mantra does not apply equally to a species,” said Professor Michael Mahony of Newcastle University.
“The frogs are literally running out of space. They are nowhere to be left because the climate model is isolated on the summit to predict warm, dry conditions.”
Dr. Luke Price, a researcher at the Museum of South Australia, said:
“Wet tree frogs only occur in wet forest habitats, and therefore occupy the wet forest habitats interconnected along a large divisional range from northeastern New South Wales to Tablelands in Atherton. I'm sure he was. Current experience.”
“We're not talking about climate warming related to human influences or greenhouse effects, we're talking about much older changes related to continental movements and global meteorological distribution.”
Researchers have also revealed this Litoria eungellensis and Litrea KolbeniDespite its similar appearance, the bright mustard yellowish body with red spots hidden behind the legs – has evolved separately for at least 1.5 million years.
The subtle differences in mating calls and genetic analysis confirmed their distinct evolutionary pathways.
“Litoria eungellensis Currently, it holds the enviable title of one of Australia's top 10 frogs.
“Species that are limited to such small areas face immeasurable risks, from wildfires to pollution events. One catastrophic event has managed to wipe them out completely.”
“The observation that species are confined to isolated patches of high-altitude cool rainforest habitat suggests that they are already living at biological limits, and due to climate warming, species are in the form of a sinus. There's no place to enlarge or move around.”
“A similar situation occurs Litrea Kolbenibut it is slightly larger. ”
Both species meet the United Nations for conservation standards for listed as Critical at riskmainly due to their limited distribution and the increased threat of climate change.
“These frogs already live at biological limits,” Professor Mahoney said.
“Their survival depends on active conservation efforts, as there is no place to move.”
On the other hand, it's more broad Litrea Reverata It appears to be less threatened when seen in New South Wales and southeast Queensland.
But the obvious stability of Litrea Reverata His assessment of no formal surveillance of this kind and not threatened may be more so because it is based solely on observations from interested biologists and community scientists,” said Dr. Price. I did.
The findings highlight the urgent need to understand and mitigate the impact of climate change on vulnerable species.
“We need to realize that not all species can adapt quickly enough,” Professor Mahoney said.
“Target conservation and habitat protection are essential to prevent these unique frogs from disappearing forever.”
Survey results It will be displayed in the journal Zootaxa.
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Luke C. Price et al. 2025. Systematic evaluation of molecular genetic, morphological and acoustic variation reveals three species Litrea Reverata Complexes (Anal: Perodridae). Zootaxa 5584(3):301-338; doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5584.3.1
meet xingxiulong yueorum A new species of early extermination Zauropodmorph dinosaurs that lived in present-day China during the early Jurassic period.
Fossilized skeleton of xingxiulong yueorum. Image credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences.
xingxiulong yueorum It belongs to Masopoda A large group of Sauropodomorph dinosaurs described in 2007.
The new species is merely the second member of the previous monopolar genus. xingxiulong.
“xingxiulong yueorum It is distinguished from xingxiulong chengi By owning a pendant-shaped fourth trochanter with a distal end, an Astragalus with a rear almost straight dorsal margin, and a Pedalgiet V with two factors” Paleonanthropology and Chinese Academy of Sciences University, and colleagues.
Partial postcranial skeletal structure of xingxiulong yueorum It was discovered in 2015 near the city of Lufen in Yunnan Province, China.
“The Rufen Formation is one of the most important sedimentary units for understanding the evolution of early Jurassic sauropod dinosaurs,” the paleontologist said.
xingxiulong yueorum Estimated to reach lengths of 8-10 m (26-33 feet) – twice the size xingxiulong chengi.
“Both of both species xingxiulong There are usually four sacral vertebrae associated with delayed sauropods and sauropods, suggesting a complex early evolution of sauropods,” the researchers said.
According to the team, the discovery xingxiulong yueorum Adds diversity of Sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Lufeng Formation.
“This finding contributes to an understanding of the complex patterns that characterize the early evolution of Asian sauropods,” the authors concluded.
Their paper It was published in the journal on February 3, 2025 Historical Biology.
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Xiang-Yuan Chen et al. New species of xingxiulong (Dinosaur, Sauropodmorpha) from the lower Rufen Formation in the Jurassic region of Yunnan Province, China. Historical BiologyPublished online on February 3, 2025. doi:10.1080/08912963.2025.2458130
The conditioner for the black hair on the left comes from the wooden powder on the right
Feng Shui King/Stockholm University
This sustainable wood-based hair conditioner may smell pure white and peat-like, but its creators suggest that the tests may work similarly to commercial products. They claim that it could become a future for hair care.
“We use the power of nature.” Ievgen Pylypchuk At Stockholm University in Sweden. “We combine high-level science with old traditions… [to] Get something really cool: simple, convenient, and very effective. ”
Pylypchuk and his colleagues used lignin, a polymer, a central component of wood and bark, as a starting point for bio-based conditioners. When extracted from wood, lignin naturally interacts with waterIt also functions as a surfactant, but is an important ingredient in surfactants. It also contains natural antioxidants that help preserve the conditioner, providing UV protection, says Pylypchuk. “In this context, lignin functions as a multifunctional platform,” he says. “It protects against UV rays and keeps you moisturized.”
The researchers combined lab-developed ligning gel with coconut oil and water to create the final product. Team Members Mika ShipponenStockholm University also claims it works much the same as commercial conditioners. When used with moist bleached human hair samples and then washed away, combing hair while 13% moisturizing reduces the “drag” and resists, compared to the commercial products tested. has decreased by 20%.
One potential drawback is that the current formula of conditioners is “pain black” and smells like “cooked wood” that resembles peat, Shipponen says. It does not prevent researchers from pondering its commercialization. They say they test hair, towels and pig skin formulas and wash them off without leaving any dirt. Even the smell is very comfortable, says Pylypchuk. “I personally liked it so much, and most of the people in our lab – maybe because they work with Lignin – they liked it.”
Pylypchuk and Sipponen There is a patent We hope that ligningel and conditioners will become consumer products, offering people a more sustainable alternative to current products that rely on ingredients derived from fossil fuels. They say the next step is to see if it causes irritation to the eyes and skin prior to the trials of living hair.
However, American cosmetics researchersTrefor Evans, Previously, he was at the Textile Research Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, where he questioned how well his products would work compared to his commercial rivals. “I've been doing these experiments for 30 years, and traditional conditioner products reduce the power of the comb by 80%, perhaps 90%,” he says. Shipponen believes that variations in hair testing methods and condition during analysis can explain whether his team was reduced by only 20% of commercial conditioners.
The appearance and unusual smell of wood-based conditioners may drive away consumers, Evans says. “Patent literature is absolutely packed with stuff. “And the reason is that you don't just need effectiveness. What you really need is aesthetics for consumers to buy it.” ”
So, will a black, lush, environmentally friendly conditioner be a hit with consumers? “It sounds a bit like a starter,” Evans says.
NASA/Magdalena Ridge 2.4M Telescope/New Mexico Institute of Technology/Ryan
The world’s space agency has reduced the chance that asteroid 2024 YR4 will affect Earth by less than 1%. This strongly suggests that potentially catastrophic conflicts will be avoided. However, the asteroid probably passes very extraordinarily close to our planet, giving astronomers a rare opportunity to observe the asteroid in close proximity.
“We don’t expect the impact probability above 1% will exceed 1% in 2032 due to our close approach with the Earth,” he says. Richard Moisle With the European Space Agency (ESA). “The most likely further development is a further reduction in impact probability, perhaps even dropping to zero.”
The alarm last December regarding the asteroid 2024 YR4 was first raised in December last year, when it discovered it could be on Earth’s collision course in 2032. It looks like it’s 40-90 meters wide and can produce a fatal explosion if attacked by a city. Over the next few weeks, global telescopes and space agencies have closely tracked their orbits, honing their future paths more accurately. On February 17th, we reached our highest shock risk with one in 32nd chance, but in the next few days this reduced to a 67th or 1.5% risk.
On February 20th, new observations led to a sudden downgrade of this risk, with NASA having a 0.27% impact chance of 1-in-360, and ESA having a 0.16%, or 1-in-in-in- in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in- in-ine 625. These ratings placed it at 1 on a 10-point Turin scale used to evaluate the hazards brought about by such objects. That score has decreased from 3. So, 2024 YR4 is now considered one of many low-risk asteroids discovered each year, but ultimately misses Earth.
I say this is good news Gareth Collins At Imperial College in London, asteroids still serve as a dry run for planetary defense systems and scientific purposes. “This still makes for an epic, close approach. If the risk of a hit was so high, it must be close to us,” he says.
Space companies that were sketching possible schemes to deflect NASA, ESA and asteroids, say they will likely continue their plans. Niklas Voight At OHB, a German space company. Voigt and his team were beginning to think about the mission to deflect the 2024 YR4, but the new risks won’t change that, he says. “The risk has decreased, but for the time being, we are still working on the topic.”
A close approach could be a good opportunity to test its ability to deflect asteroids, says Voigt – the only previous attempt to do this was NASA’s DART mission, the 160m in 2022 The asteroid-shaped trajectory of the . Satellites can be constructed to send to the 2024 YR4, he says, as well as the ESA’s Ramses satellite, to travel to observe the asteroid Apophis, passing near Earth in 2029. It is set to do so.
The final decision on what to do about YR4 2024 will likely not be made until the planned observation in March using James Webb Space Telescope. Not only does it collect orbital data, it also helps to better assess the size and composition of the asteroid. That information will be provided to the UN Assisted Space Mission Planning Advisory Group, which will determine the best action around the end of April. “These are very useful exercises to find a pinch point to make a decision, as you have time to do something wise in advance,” Collins says. “Absolutely, these committees are still meeting, but they’re probably less stressful.”
The possibility of an Earth shock has plummeted, but the risk of a YR4 collision with the moon in 2024 rose from 0.3% to 1.2%. “There’s a clear possibility that those numbers will rise even further,” says Moissl. “The exact impact of the effects of the moon from objects of this size is still under evaluation.”
The response to this object is also a useful rehearsal for other asteroids of concern, Collins says. “We want to avoid screams in the future, as the public is used to this threat, thinking, ‘Oh, that’s never going to happen.’ ”
Envision the future of HR. Picture receiving a notification on your phone informing you that due to recent organizational changes, new personnel need to be recruited. The message includes a list of six well-qualified candidates who align with the organizational culture and are available to start within a month. Your task is simply to choose the best candidate to interview.
Much of this future scenario is already a reality. Platforms like Employment Heroes offer advanced AI tools to assist small businesses in managing HR and recruitment. These tools can even predict future needs and suggest potential candidates proactively.
Utilizing AI tools, Employment Heroes analyzes clients’ businesses, including organizational structure, turnover rates, and hiring timelines, making it easier for small businesses to operate. This global employment management platform uses AI to provide insights and recommendations, such as identifying when a position needs to be filled.
This workforce planning capability has traditionally been inaccessible to small and medium-sized businesses, placing them at a disadvantage in recruitment and staffing. Now, they have access to expertise and support equivalent to that of large corporations.
The right candidates can already line up as soon as a vacancy occurs. Photo: Maria Corniva/Getty Images
This type of predictive HR is particularly beneficial for high-growth SMEs. By providing insights into future staffing needs, it enables strategic planning that ensures the right talent is in place at the right time.
Looking ahead, AI-enabled HR platforms will automate various employment management processes, from employment terms to bonus structures, streamlining operations for small businesses and ensuring fairness and transparency.
Baillie, the Head of People at Mobile Marketing Agency ConsultmyApp, highlights the impact of the Employment Hero platform on recruitment processes, emphasizing its role in enhancing inclusivity and ensuring competitive pay packages.
SmartMatch enables SMEs to deliver competitive packages by analyzing industry trends. Photo: FG Trade/Getty Images
Employment Heroes’ SmartMatch feature offers real-time data insights on industry trends, helping small businesses set competitive pay ranges and attract top talent.
By leveraging data-driven benchmarks, small businesses can align their compensation packages with market standards and ensure they remain competitive in attracting and retaining the best employees.
Let’s reimagine the possibilities. Discover how Employment Hero can revolutionize your work processes.
Four British parents who are suing Tiktok for the alleged unlawful deaths of their children express concerns about the suspected deletion of their child’s data from social media platforms.
These parents have filed a lawsuit in the US claiming that four children died in 2022 after participating in the “Blackout Challenge,” a viral trend that emerged on social media in 2021.
A week after the lawsuit was filed, Tiktok executives mentioned that certain data had been deleted due to legal requirements. UK GDPR regulations mandate that platforms do not retain excessive personal data.
The parents were surprised by how quickly their child’s data was removed.
Isaac and Lisa Kennevan. Lisa expressed doubts on Tiktok’s claim of removing her son’s data.
“My initial reaction was that it’s a complete lie,” said Lisa Kennevan, whose son Isaac passed away at 13.
Liam Walsh remains skeptical about Tiktok deleting data on her daughter Maia, who passed away at 14, as the investigation is ongoing. He has issued a statement.
Ellen Room is advocating in Congress for the introduction of “Jules’ Law” in memory of her 12-year-old son Julian.
“If you have a physical diary in [your children’s] bedroom, I’m sure you’d read it to understand. Nowadays, they’ve moved online, and social media serves as a diary for kids. So why not examine their online diaries for potential answers?” she remarked.
Archie Battersbee and her mother, Hollie Dance. Dance has struggled to obtain access to Archie’s data despite him being under 13 when he passed away. Photo: Distribution materials
Hollie Dance should have automatic rights to the data, as her son Archie Battersbee was 12 years old, but she faces challenges in accessing it. “There are still three [of his] active accounts. I can see them myself,” she noted.
Tiktok has stated that searches related to dangerous challenges have been blocked since 2020. The platform aims to remove harmful content preemptively and direct users to safety resources.
Dance mentioned that she has screenshots of dangerous challenges that were easily accessible.
The parents expressed their wish to restrict their children’s access to social media and were unaware of the limited rights they have to their children’s data.
“Essentially, we’re handing the kids loaded guns,” Kennevan remarked. “A child’s brain isn’t fully developed until around 25. The amount of exposure to content isn’t healthy. They’ve witnessed harmful content, such as porn, at ages 10 and 11. They don’t need social media.”
Isaac Kennevan passed away at 13.
This year, the Online Safety Act was enforced, obliging platforms to take action against illegal or harmful content. Walsh expressed skepticism towards Ofcom.
Dance suggested that the organization should screen all videos before they are uploaded to the platform.
Walsh revealed that a US court exposed a video of her child, leading to a damaging impact on her mental state. She intends to press manslaughter charges against the company in UK courts.
Room explained that the family resorted to a US lawsuit after being unable to file a case in the UK due to legal constraints.
Ellen Room and her son Julian; Ellen highlighted how social media is akin to a child’s diary. Photo: Distribution materials
She emphasized on making a difference for other families and parents. “It’s challenging and emotionally draining, but we’re going to make an impact here,” she mentioned.
DNA can store digital data such as visual and audio files
Science Picture Co / Alamy
Artificial intelligence can read data stored in DNA strands within 10 minutes, not the day required for previous methods, and DNA storage approaches practical use of computing.
“DNA stores huge amounts of data in a very compact form and remains intact for thousands of years.” Daniella Bar-Lev At the University of California, San Diego. “In addition, DNA is naturally replicable and offers a unique advantage for long-term data storage.”
However, getting encoded information within DNA is a monumental challenge as the strands become confused when mixed and stored. During the data encoding process, individual strands may be replicated incompletely, and some fragments may be lost completely. As a result, data readings stored in DNA are similar to reconstructing books from boxes filled with pages that go beyond the finest, varied.
“The traditional methods suffer from this confusion and require several days of processing,” says Bar-Lev. The new approach “rationalizes this with AI trained to find patterns of noise,” she says.
Bar-Lev and her colleagues developed an AI-driven method called DNAFormer. The system includes a deep learning AI model trained to reconstruct DNA sequences, another computer algorithm to identify and correct errors, and a third decoding that brings everything back to digital data while correcting any remaining mistakes. Includes algorithms.
In experiments, DNAFormer can read 100 megabytes of DNA storage data 90 times faster than the next fastest method developed with traditional rules-based computing algorithms, while achieving better or equivalent accuracy. I did. The decoded data included colored images of the test tube, a 24-second audio clip from astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous Moonlanding speech, and text on why DNA is a promising data storage medium .
The team says they plan to develop a version of DNAFormer tailored to new technologies for encoding data into DNA. Omar Savery Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
“Crucially, our approach doesn't rely specifically on us. [DNA] Synthesis or sequencing methods can be adapted to future, still undeveloped technologies that are more commercially viable,” he says.
Artificial intelligence is trained on human-created content, known as actual intelligence. To train AI to write fiction, novels are used, while job descriptions are used to train AI for writing job specifications. However, a problem arises from this approach. Despite efforts to eliminate biases, humans inherently possess biases, and AI trained on human-created content may adopt these biases. Overcoming bias is a significant challenge for AI.
“Bias is prevalent in hiring and stems from the existing biases in most human-run recruitment processes,” explains Kevin Fitzgerald, managing director of UK-based employment management platform Employment Hero. The platform utilizes AI to streamline recruitment processes and minimize bias. “The biases present in the recruitment team are embedded in the process itself.”
One way AI addresses bias is through tools like SmartMatch offered by Employment Hero. By focusing on candidates’ skills and abilities while omitting demographic information such as gender and age, biases can be reduced. This contrasts with traditional methods like LinkedIn and CVs, which may unintentionally reveal personal details.
AI helps businesses tackle bias when screening for CVs. Photo: Fiordaliso/Getty Images
Another concern is how AI processes information compared to humans. While humans can understand nuances and subtleties, AI may lack this capability and rely on keyword matching. To address this, tools like SmartMatch evaluate a candidate’s entire profile to provide a holistic view and avoid missed opportunities due to lack of nuance.
SmartMatch not only assists in matching candidates with suitable roles but also helps small businesses understand their specific hiring needs. By analyzing previous hires and predicting future staffing requirements, SmartMatch offers a comprehensive approach to recruitment.
Understanding SME needs and employment history allows SmartMatch to introduce you to suitable candidates. Photo: Westend61/Getty Images
By offering candidates the ability to maintain an employment passport, Employment Hero empowers both job seekers and employers. This comprehensive approach to recruitment ensures that both parties benefit from accurate and efficient matches.
For small and medium-sized businesses, the impact of poor hiring decisions can be significant. By utilizing advanced tools like SmartMatch, these businesses can access sophisticated recruitment solutions previously available only to larger companies.
Discover how Employment Hero can revolutionize your recruitment process.
Kevin Fitzgerald, managing director of UK Employment Heroes, emphasizes the importance of managers in businesses. He mentions that technology has advanced greatly, especially in the past decade, allowing for the digitization of many administrative tasks. According to Fitzgerald, AI should not be seen as a vague or scary new technology, but rather as a practical way to streamline and automate time-consuming tasks, enabling employees to focus on more valuable and interesting work.
The Employment Hero Survey revealed that 52% of respondents found the platform improved organizational efficiency, with 42% reporting faster processes and 65% using less paper.
By using AI to handle tasks like onboarding and data entry, employees have more time to focus on important aspects like welcoming new recruits and integrating them into the team quickly. Fitzgerald also mentions how AI can help with tasks like organizing employment contracts and setting up new employees in payroll systems swiftly.
Integrating AI into the workplace aligns with the shift towards flexible and hybrid work practices. This approach not only helps manage time effectively but also boosts employee engagement and energy levels.
Using AI for tasks such as payroll and HR automation is part of a long-term trend in digital transformation. Small and medium-sized businesses can now access tools like the Employment Operating System for Employment Heroes, consolidating multiple functions onto one platform for efficiency and cost savings.
AI’s ability to automate routine tasks and handle complex data processing makes it an invaluable tool in enhancing productivity and job satisfaction. By freeing up time and minimizing distractions, employees can engage in deep work, leading to improved efficiency and overall satisfaction.
Fitzgerald emphasizes that AI is user-friendly and embedded in platforms like Employment Heroes, providing powerful tools for staff to enhance their work. Embracing AI not only accelerates productivity but also empowers employees to work smarter, fostering a positive work environment.
Rethink what is possible with Employment Hero and revolutionize the way you work.
Tribal palm trees Trachycarpeae Fossilization analysis shows that it once flourished in Axiang Canada Phytris – Microscopic siliceous structures produced in specific tissues in many plant families – from the territory of the northwestern Canada.
Palm plant stones from the Eocene Giraffe Region (AQ) and modern plant stones extracted from Coryphoid Palm leaves Trachycarpus Fortunei. Image credit: Siver et al. , doi: 10.1093/aob/mcaf021.
“The palm is a monocot flowering plant of the Arecaceae family distributed primarily to tropical and subtropical regions around the world,” the University of Connecticut said. Professor Peter Siver And his colleague.
“It's a large family, with a particularly high variety of species, especially in Central and South America and Southeast Asia.”
“In general, the palms thrive in warm, wet conditions, so the majority of the species are found in rainforests.”
“There are significantly fewer species found in both Southern Europe and the southern regions of the United States, and families are completely lacking in more north latitudes.”
“In the southeastern US subtropical area, the palm is largely restricted to state coastal areas along the Gulf of Mexico, and some inland along the Atlantic coast that stretches north along Florida. It's growing to Tennessee.”
“The majority of the palms are found in climates marked with both high average annual temperatures and high average annual rainfall, but several species can be found under cool, dry conditions.”
Professor Siver and co-authors discovered fossilized plant matter from a tree in Trachycarpeae in ancient lakebed sediments extracted from the area of the Giraffin Balite Pipe in Canada's northwest territory.
Four aquatic organisms, largely restricted to today's warm subtropical and tropical regions, were also found in the same sediments.
These 48 million years ago (early Eocene) fossils exhibit much warmer climates than previously thought, challenging the challenge of ice that first formed in the Northern Hemisphere.
“This discovery of palm fossils in the north provides clear evidence that the Arctic Circle was once iceless and has a climate similar to today's subtropical climate,” Professor Shiver said.
“These findings provide a window into past greenhouse conditions and help refine models to predict future climate change.”
In addition to confirming records of the northernmost palms during this period, the authors established that this evolutionary characteristic appeared in the early Eocene: linear arrays of plant matter in palm leaves., Fossilized Stegmata – Fossilized Stegmata were also recorded.
The presence of multiple warm, adaptive aquatic species further strengthens the support of this prehistoric Arctic region's lush, temperate ecosystem.
“Our research contributes to a broader understanding of the extent and timing of ice formation in the Earth's climate history, particularly during the Cenozoic era,” the researchers said.
“Restructuring these past environments will give scientists valuable insight into how ecosystems respond to long-term climate change.”
Survey results It will be displayed in the journal The Anniversary of Botany.
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Peter A. Shiver et al. Palmphytris in sub-Western Canada means ice-free winter in the late Eocene period 48 million years ago. The Anniversary of BotanyPublished online on February 10th, 2025. doi:10.1093/aob/mcaf021
Grace Oh, like many HR experts, used to dread the end of the month. It was the time to handle the company’s payroll, one of the most time-consuming and critical tasks in her department.
As the Director of People at Audio and Media Company Communicorp UK, ensuring smooth monthly payroll processes was essential for the employees’ well-being and productivity.
Although Oh had already implemented digital systems to streamline administration, she felt there was room for improvement. About a year ago, she decided to introduce a new AI-powered system from Employment Hero. This system reduced her monthly payroll processing time to just an hour, allowing her team to focus on more strategic tasks.
Grace Oh: “Let AI do the job, and we humans can do our thing.”
For Oh and her team, the AI-powered system not only automated payroll but also transformed other HR functions like onboarding, probation check-ins, and feedback processes. The AI system ensured that new recruits had a positive experience and that employee engagement was enhanced through consistent and structured interactions.
By utilizing AI, the company was able to conduct regular one-on-one meetings with staff, improving communication and accountability. Additionally, AI tools were deployed for performance reviews, goal setting, and recruitment, leading to more efficient and effective processes.
With AI handling routine tasks, Oh and her team were able to focus on more impactful work that required critical thinking skills. AI’s ability to automate administrative tasks allowed HR professionals to concentrate on building relationships and driving employee engagement.
By having AI take care of “shallow work,” HR professionals can focus on building relationships with their employees. Photo: Miquel Llonch/Stocksy United
While implementing AI in HR functions can raise concerns, Oh’s experience showed that addressing fears and providing training is crucial for successful adoption. Leading by example, choosing the right technology vendor, and providing ongoing support are key factors in AI integration.
A year later, Oh has no regrets about implementing AI. She has witnessed positive feedback from employees and executives, highlighting the system’s efficiency and impact on the organization’s goals.
Rethink what’s possible with Employment Hero and transform the way you work.
This supernova event may have occurred at the Upper Centaurus Lupus Society. This is a group of giant stars about 457 light years away from Earth.
Illustration of an exoplanet like Earth after X-ray radiation exposure. Image credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss.
Life on Earth is constantly evolving under continuous exposure to ionizing radiation from both terrestrial and cosmic origins.
The radioactivity in the bedrock gradually decreases over timescales of billions of years, but the level of cosmic radiation fluctuates as the solar system moves through the Milky Way.
Nearby supernova activity could increase the level of radiation on the Earth’s surface by several orders of magnitude, which is expected to have a major impact on the evolution of life.
In particular, radiation levels improve as the solar system passes near a large group of stars known as the OB Association.
The winds associated with these large star factories are expected to inflate the super bubbles of high temperature plasma first. This could be the birthplace of most of the Core Collapse explosions taking place within the AB Association.
The solar system entered such a super bubble, commonly known as the local bubble, about 6 million years ago, and is now close to its centre.
“The Earth entered the local bubble and passed its stardust-rich appearance about 6.5 million years ago, sowing the planet with old iron 60, the radioactive iron of iron produced by the exploding stars. did it,” astronomer Santa Cruz, and colleagues at the University of California.
“Then, 20-3 million years ago, one of our neighboring stars exploded with incredible force, providing another cohort of radioactive iron to the planet.”
When Nojiri and her co-authors simulated what the supernova looked like, they discovered that it hammered the Earth with cosmic rays for 100,000 years of explosion.
This model perfectly described previously recorded spikes of radiation that shocked the Earth around that time.
“We’ve seen from other papers that radiation can damage DNA,” Nojiri said.
“It could be an evolutionary change in the cell or an accelerated mutation.”
Meanwhile, the author came across research into viral diversity in one of the Rift Valley Lakes in Africa.
“I can’t say they’re connected, but there are similar time frames,” Nojiri said.
“We found it interesting that the virus’s diversification is increasing.”
study It was published in Astrophysics Journal Letter.
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Caitlyn Nojiri et al. 2025. Bubble Life: How nearby supernova left short-lived marks on the cosmic ray spectrum, leaving an indelible trace of life. apjl 979, L18; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ADA27A
According to a new study led by scientists at the University of Barcelona and Alcala, the bottleneck event took place between 130,000 and 50,000 years ago.
Neanderthal. Image credit: Trustee of the Museum of Natural History in London.
“Neanderthals are the most well-written humans in the fossil record in terms of morphology, genetics, behavior and culture,” said Dr. Alessandro Urciori, a colleague of a University of Barcelona.
“Recent molecular clock-based analyses, along with Denisovan, have divergences from 765,000-550,000 years old or older human lineages based on morphological data.”
“The Neanderthal lineage was differentiated soon after, and is testified by genetic and morphological evidence from the Simah delos Hussians of the Middle Pleistocene, which was previously thought to be expressed. . HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS And now it is considered the early population of the Neanderthal lineage. ”
“Genetic divergence times are now well established for the entire clade, but also include relationships with the medieval Pleistocene populations of Europe, the medieval and late Pleistocene Neanderthal populations, and the evolution of the complete. There is a continuing debate over the connected evolutionary processes” Classic Neanderthal “Form of the late Neanderthal.”
“This is due to the mosaic form of the intermediate Pleistocene specimen, which is claimed to have evolved by the Neanderthals.”
In this study, the researchers measured the morphological diversity of semicircular canals, the structure of the inner ear that caused sense of balance.
They focus on two exceptional collections of fossils. One is from the site of Sima de los Husos in Spain, and dates 430,000 years old, making up the largest sample of pre-production available in the fossil record. Another location 130,000 to 120,000 years ago in Krapina, Croatia.
They calculated the amount of morphological diversity (i.e., disparity) in the semicircular canals in both samples, compared them to one another, and compared them with classic Neanderthal samples of different ages and geographical origins. .
The findings show that the morphological diversity of the semicircular canals of classical Neanderthals is clearly lower than the diversity of early Neanderthal morphologies before the Nianderthals, consistent with previous palaeogenesis results. It is revealed.
“The inclusion of fossils from a wide range of geographical and temporal ranges allowed us to capture a comprehensive photograph of the evolution of Neanderthal,” said Dr. Mercedes Conde Valvade, a researcher at Alcala University. .
“The reduced diversity observed between Krapina samples and classic Neanderthals is particularly impressive and clear, providing strong evidence of bottleneck events.”
“The results, on the other hand, challenge the previously accepted idea that Neanderthal origins are associated with a significant loss of genetic diversity and encourage the need to propose a new explanation of their origins.”
“We were surprised that pre-Neanderthal people in Sima de los Husos exhibited similar morphological diversity as early Neanderthals in Krapina,” Dr. Urshuuori said.
a paper The findings were published in the journal Natural Communication.
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A. Urushiuori et al. 2025. A semicircular canal that sheds light on bottleneck events in the evolution of the Neanderthal clade. Nut commune 16, 972; doi:10.1038/s41467-025-56155-8
tHe could be the smallest and cheapest line of Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 line to buy, offering it to lessen top performance and latest AI features, and mini Android is still great It’s proof.
Unlike the previous generation of Samsung’s smaller models sold in the UK and Europe, the regular S25 has the same top-flight chip as the huge and expensive ultra models.
The rest of the S25 has not changed significantly since last year. It still has a great 6.2-inch screen, three cameras on the back, flat aluminum sides, and front and rear glass. This makes it the most compact of high-end Android phones that compete with Apple’s iPhones at a size that others, including Google’s Pixel 9, are steadily growing.
The regular S25 is significantly smaller and lighter than the S25 Ultra’s Superphone siblings. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
Samsung is good for squeezing solids for 37 hours from the S25, but the smaller battery is most modern Android. It was generally used with a mixture of 5G and WiFi, and actively using the screen for more than six hours to charge the phone every other day. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip makes the S25 one of the fastest mobile phones, perfect for gaming, but also densely packs battery life.
AI Upgrade
All major changes to the S25 are software and AI-based. Runs one UI 7 (Android 15) with the same latest version as the S25 Ultra. This includes a variety of new AI tools that extend the writing, summarization, and drawing tools introduced last year.
Most of the new tools are designed to find the information you need in advance and predict what you want to do to perform multiple complex tasks on your phone via text or voice commands.
Gemini replaces Bixby and Google Assistant on the S25, and is far more capable. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
Google’s Next Generation Gemini Assistant It’s the biggest upgrade, allowing you to interact with information from the mobile phone’s web and apps without having to manually tap on a button. Ask you to date your calendar from the party invitation flyer that you have been texted and it can do so. Find restaurant recommendations and send them to friends as dinner suggestions with simple voice commands. You can also understand what’s on the screen from text, photos, and videos to answer questions, find more information, and take actions.
When it works, it can almost become magical. But you can’t rely on getting things right every time. It can lead to trivial things like spelling different names. It also allows you to confidently hallucinate information that is clearly visible at first glance, but is actually completely wrong. Neither Google nor Samsung have solved these basic issues that plague all AI bots at this time.
Samsung’s New “now” bar at the bottom of the lock screen It’s more successful as a useful place to see timely information widgets, timers, media play controls, and other useful bits. You can swipe through those stacks to see what’s going on and quickly change tracks.
Samsung supports S25 with software and security updates Seven years since releasematches the best from Google and Apple.
specification
Main screen: 6.2in FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120Hz
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Galaxy Elite
Ram: 12GB
Storage: 128, 256, or 512GB
operating system: 1 UI 7 (Android 15)
camera: 50mp + 12mp 0.6x + 10mp 3x; 12MP front
Connectivity: 5G, USB-C, WiFi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 5.4, UWB, GNSS
water resistance: IP68 (1.5m in 30 minutes)
size: 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2mm
Weight: 162g
Sustainability
The S25 has wireless and USB-C charging, reaching 50% full power in 25 minutes for over an hour (power adapter not included). Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
Samsung doesn’t provide the battery with the expected lifespan, but it should last more than 500 full charge cycles at least 80% of its original capacity.
Mobile phones contain multiple recycled materials such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, plastic, rare earth elements, and steel. Samsung offers trade-in Recycling scheme For old devices. The company is open to Annual Sustainability Report and affects impact assessments Some individual products.
Three cameras on the back, including a 3x telephoto camera, will boost Apple and Google’s dual camera rivals to the S25. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
The S25 has a triple camera setup with a 50-megapixel main, 12MP Ultra Wade, and 10MP 3X telephoto. This hasn’t really changed since the 2022 S22 and is the exact same combination as last year’s model.
That is, you generally take very good photos with three cameras. The main is the best and can produce some great shots, but it tends to over-brighten some scenes, and highlights are blown away, such as bright direct light washing people’s shots. Masu. The S24 has improved the zoom by 2x and is slightly more detailed, but the 3x zoom is solid, but out of reach compared to the average 5x camera, a slightly more expensive rival there is. The Ultrawide is equally solid, closing off a great but less groundbreaking package.
The S25 also shoots excellent videos, excellent portraits, and features many modes with one exception. There is no macro photography mode. This is a shame. Overall, the S25 has a great camera system. It’s not a problem with the Pixel 9 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro, but it’s perfect for size and money.
In the quest for clean energy and a shift away from fossil fuels, scientists may have uncovered new sources of power, potentially hidden in our mountains. A team of researchers from Germany has identified a vast reservoir of hydrogen gas, generated by rocks formed millions of years ago, through advanced simulations.
This discovery is significant as hydrogen (H2) as a power source does not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, making it a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels that contribute to climate change. Additionally, the production of hydrogen results in water instead of harmful emissions. However, the challenge lies in the fact that natural hydrogen production is rare, with the current synthetic production relying on fossil fuels.
The main hurdle in hydrogen production is sourcing it naturally. While geological processes can generate natural hydrogen without the need for fossil fuels, the availability of large accessible reserves remains uncertain. The recent study conducted by German researchers could potentially address this issue.
“We may be on the brink of a new era in natural hydrogen exploration,” said Dr. Frank Zworn, the lead author of the study published in the journal Advances in Science. “This could pave the way for a new natural hydrogen industry.”
Researchers at the GFZ Helmholtz Center for Geosciences in Germany utilized simulations of plate tectonic processes to identify a substantial reserve of natural hydrogen.
Natural hydrogen can be generated through various methods, such as bacterial transformation of organic matter or the splitting of water molecules due to radioactivity in the Earth’s crust. However, one of the most promising natural methods involves a geological process known as “serpentinization,” where rocks from the Earth’s mantle react with water to release H2 gas.
According to researchers, when these hydrogen-rich rocks are situated near the Earth’s surface, they can create potential zones for large-scale hydrogen production via excavation. These rocks are brought closer to the surface through processes such as continental rifting and mountain formation over millions of years.
As the crustal plates collide and create mountains, deep mantle rocks push up to the surface of the Earth. ‘Hot spots’ of hydrogen gas were identified where these rocks surfaced. – Image credit: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 USGS/ESEU Frankswaan edition, GFZ
By analyzing two processes, researchers determined that mountain formation offers ideal conditions for hydrogen generation. The combination of cold environments in mountains and increased water circulation could enhance hydrogen levels significantly. Simulations showed that rocks emerging through mountain formations have 20 times the hydrogen capacity compared to those brought to the surface via continental rifting.
Signs of natural hydrogen production have already been observed in mountainous regions such as the Pyrenees, European Alps, and Balkans. The research team anticipates that their findings will inspire further exploration of natural hydrogen in these areas and other mountainous regions.
Professor Sasha Brune, the head of the geodynamic modeling section at GFZ, emphasized the economic prospects tied to natural hydrogen. He stated, “It is now crucial to delve deeper into the migration pathways of microbial ecosystems that consume hydrogen, both shallow and deep, and to gain a better understanding of where potential hydrogen reservoirs can be formed.”
The artist's impression of what asteroid 2024 YR4 looks like as they approached Earth in December 2032
NASA
NASA downgraded the risk that the 2024 YR4 would hit the planet by 1.5% in 2032. 1-in-67from the height of a 1-in-32 The chance was the best odds ever.
Astronomers discovered that an asteroid was slamming barrels towards Earth in December, and that has since been the focus of telescopes and space agencies around the world. As they collected more data on the exact orbit of the asteroid, astronomers were able to calculate the likelihood of hitting Earth more accurately. The asteroid is thought to be between 40 and 90 meters wide and can release energy equivalent to TNT's 7.7 megatonnes.
According to NASA, the likelihood of a 2032 collision has increased from a coincidence of one-third since it was first discovered. It then moved to 1/67, 1/53, 1/53, 1/53, 1-in-43, 1-in-38, 1-in-32, and now it's 1/67 I did. The European Space Agency has slightly different odds, Currently giving asteroids a 1.38% chance of collision. These changes reflect an increasing understanding of the asteroid path, meaning they may not necessarily impact Earth.
But we are running out of time to predict the risks of asteroids. One problem is that the 2024 YR4 flies behind the sun in April and goes outside from most Earth-based telescope views. It says it limits the amount that astronomers can narrow down their predictions. Hugh Lewis At the University of Southampton, England. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going down before April. It could continue to rise, but in the end I still miss us. ”
Once the asteroid pops out of sight, it is rare to get any more information before it comes back into view in 2028. However, astronomers can look at past data to reveal previously overlooked asteroid observations. Trajectory. The process is already being carried out by the world's space agencies, Lewis says.
We hope that important information about the size and composition of the asteroid will be collected by James Webb's Space Telescope in the coming months, Lewis says. This helps us understand whether an asteroid can make it intact through Earth's atmosphere and whether it can cause an impact or not.
“It helps us to determine what we need to do about it because if it's a stone asteroid, it's a very different proportion of iron metal asteroids,” Lewis said. I say it. Stone-rich asteroids will be even worse as stone-like asteroids potentially split during impact. “Mass makes a huge difference in terms of whether energy and the atmosphere affects it.”
Mouse tends to become an unconscious peer by pulling its tongue
Wenjian Sun et al. 2025
When they unconsciously find another mouse, it appears that some mice are trying to revive their companions by stepping into them and biting them and pulling their tongues aside to clean their airways. This finding suggests that caregiving behavior may be more common in animal kingdoms than we thought.
now, Lee Chang The University of Southern California (USC) and his colleagues filmed what happened when they introduced a familiar cagemate who was active or anesthetized and unresponsive to a laboratory mouse.
In a series of tests, on average, animals spent about 47% of the 13-minute observation window to interact with their unconscious partners, showing three different behaviors.
“They start with sniffing, then grooming, and very intensive or physical interactions,” says Zhang. “They really open their mouths and pull out their tongues.”
These more physical interactions included licking the eyes and chewing on the area of the mouth. After focusing on the mouth, the mice pulled the tongue of their unresponsive partner in more than 50% of cases.
In another test, the researchers gently placed a non-toxic plastic ball in the mouth of an unconscious mouse. In 80% of cases, the support mouse successfully removed the object.
“If you extend the observation window, your success rate can be even higher,” says team members. Huizhong Taoeven at USC.
The awakened mouse began walking again earlier than it was unharmed for the mouse. Then, as their responsibility moved and responded, the caregiver’s mouse slowed down and stopped the caregiving behavior.
Additionally, caregiver mice spent more time when they were familiar with unconscious mice than they had previously met.
Restoration behavior is not an analog of CPR that requires specialized training, Zhang says. It’s like awakening someone using a strong smelly salt or slapping, or doing basic first aid so that the unconscious person can breathe. It is also important during surgery to place the tongue of anesthetized patients to prevent airway blockage, he says.
Zhang and his colleagues found that behavior is driven by oxytocin-releasing neurons in the amygdala and hypothalamic regions of the brain. The hormone oxytocin is involved in other compassionate behaviors in a wide range of vertebrate species.
“I have never observed these types of behavior when I run experiments in the lab, but have never left a recovery animal with my partner until I have fully awakened.” Christina Marquez at the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Coimbra, Portugal. “The fact that three independent labs observe similar behaviors indicates that this is a robust finding, but we are observing what we observe in nonhuman species; We really need to be aware that we personify too many things that result from intentions that go beyond what is observed.”
Zhang and his colleagues believe that the behavior is innate, not learned. This is because all animals tested were only 2-3 months old and never saw this behavior or anesthetized cage companions.
He suggests that such instinctive behavior plays a role in strengthening group cohesion and may be more widespread among social animals than we have seen.
It may be difficult to see this behavior in wild mice, says Marquez. “Mouses are often prey animals that do not live in large groups, so they usually hide very well from us. However [the fact] That we haven’t seen it doesn’t mean they don’t do it. ”
Musk referred to Mogensen as an “idiot” and used a light pejorative term that escalated quickly.
“SpaceX could have brought them back a few months ago.” The tweet was posted. “I presented this directly to the Biden administration, and they rejected it. The return was delayed for political reasons. Idiot.”
Mogensen, who shuttled between the space station on a SpaceX rocket and capsule, replied 13 minutes later, acknowledging Musk’s earlier praise for his work with SpaceX.
“Like me, you know that Butch and Suni are back with Crew-9, just like me, as planned since September last year.” He mentioned in another tweet about NASA’s plan to bring Willmore and Williams back to Earth alongside two current space station crews. “Even now, you haven’t sent a rescue ship to bring them back. They’ve returned to the Dragon Capsules they’ve been working on with the ISS since September last year.”
Mogensen was the commander of the Space Station from September 2023 to March 2024, continuing to be stationed at his recent orbital post.
Neither the White House nor NASA immediately responded to requests for comment.
Former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who led the space station in 2013, also reiterated his initial comment on X on February 14th.
“Suni and Butch have never been ‘stuck’ in space,” Hadfield stated. “They are well-prepared and dedicated to their missions, like all professional astronauts. Leading the Space Station Commander is Suni, and they are onboard spacecraft working diligently on behalf of NASA and all their partners. I commend their dedication.”
Spatt’s role as one of Trump’s top political advisers has raised new questions about his tendency to disseminate false and misleading information. Musk has also recently spread several misleading claims regarding fraud and spending within the US government.
Wilmore and Williams were launched on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 to the International Space Station, intending to spend about a week as part of their test flight.
However, the capsule encountered several issues and was forced to prolong its stay at the space station. Ultimately, NASA decided to return the Starliner to Earth in September.
Elon Musk in Washington on February 13th. Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Under the Biden administration, NASA has requested SpaceX to bring Willmore and Williams back to Earth. Their return, initially set for this month, was postponed to late March. NASA cited the need to “finalize” the new SpaceX spacecraft that will transport four new crews to the space station.
This flight, called Crew-10, is scheduled to carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers, Russian astronaut Kiril Peskov, and Japanese astronaut Onishi to the space station.
Upon their arrival, Wilmore and Williams will depart the station in another Dragon capsule, alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Alexander Golbunov.
Typically, incoming crews overlap with outgoing ones during handover periods, allowing astronauts to exchange information about ongoing experiments, maintenance tasks, and other protocols.
Musk also reiterated on Thursday. He suggested that the space station should be deorbited, proposing a timeline of two years instead of NASA’s plan to deorbit the facility by 2030.
“It has served its purpose. There are limited further utilities,” he stated. “Let’s aim for Mars.”
Astronomers investigate the possibilities of life around other stars, primarily by focusing on the distance that exoplanets orbit them. If the exoplanet is close enough to the star, all its water is not frozen and far away The water has not evaporated and does not peel offit is said to be within Residence zone. Many other factors, including the presence of planets, can determine how much life is likely to appear on a planet. A planet like Jupiter That system or a Big Moon By orbiting it, the researchers agree that the habitable zone is the need for a baseline.
One team of astronomers investigated one of these other aspects of livability. It is a danger around the stars around which the exoplanets are in habitable zones. Most stars are far enough apart so they do not directly interfere with their neighbor's planets. However, given time, adjacent stars can cause problems for those living in the stellar system.
The size of the sun can pull each other's planets with gravity if they pass each other within 20 billion miles of the Earth's distance, or 200 times the distance within 30 billion miles or 30 billion kilometers. these Flybys They may drag out exoplanets from their respective habitable zones or throw them entirely out of the star system! Up to 200 trillion miles or 300 trillion kilometers, also known as 10 PulsecStars that are more than eight times the mass of the sun die in an explosion called an explosion Supernova It can immerse nearby planetary systems with enough x-rays and gamma rays to destroy the atmosphere, deplete the ozone layer, and potentially wipe out all living things.
To assess the risks of these events, this team analyzed data from GAIA Data Release 3 and Hipparcos A catalogue containing 146 known star systems with planets in habitable zones. Of these 146 star systems, only 84 closest to the Sun, within 220 parsecs, quarter mile, or seventh quarter kilometers, within the range of uncertainty of 10 parsecs. There is an adjacent star measured at. By focusing on these 84, teams can best assess the true risks of the disappearing level of events facing these systems.
To assess the risk of Flybys, they used an equation to estimate the number of interstellar interstellar path encounters based on the radius of the star system. Movement. They have plugged data related to each of the 84 stars into their Python programs, and found that they are likely to pass with another star within the next 5 billion years. The team supports the general hypothesis that the general hypothesis that fewer adjacent stars are likely to support life, as this example comes from the star with the most neighbors in the entire set. I've explained it.
To assess the risk of supernova, they identified other stars within 10 parsecs of 84 star systems and used their brightness and temperature to calculate mass. For any star that is more than eight times the mass of the Sun, they calculated that the supernova will immerse any planet within this 10 parsecs range with the 100 billion times that the radiation Earth receives from the Sun. They discovered that only two of the 84 stars they tested have large adjacent stars within 10 parsecs, but other scientists say that up to 20 parsecs are He admitted that it suggested that it could be too close to remain still unharmed.
Overall, the team concluded that the risk of extinction-level events caused by adjacent stars facing known habitable zone planets. However, they warned that the current astronomical catalogue was incomplete. In other words, their calculations should be viewed as a low-end estimate of the real risks faced by potential alien lives. They suggested that deep future research could improve estimates of the risks faced by living in these systems and help to expand the number of systems where researchers can perform similar risk analyses.
We've all seen it frequently in science fiction films, so the concept seems completely plausible. Characters enter commands, and spacecraft reverse speed, jump to hyperspace, and create wormholes through space and time.
Whatever the terminology, the outcome is always the same. They fly through fictional universes faster than the speed of light, so travel between star systems is not only possible, but practical.
But in the real universe we live in, a huge barrier appears to forbid this. According to Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity, it cannot travel faster than light.
The light travels at an incredible speed of approximately 3 x 108 meters per second. This means that when you look at the universe, you won't see the heavenly objects as they are currently appearing. You can see how light from them first emerged when they departed across the universe.
Within the solar system, these delays are relatively short. For example, it takes only one second of sunlight to bounce off the surface of the moon and reach the Earth, but it takes eight minutes to cover the distance between the sun and our world.
Due to the enormous distance from us, if the sun suddenly disappears, you won't notice until 8 minutes later – Photo Credit: Getty
The more visible the longer the delay, which gives rise to the light-year concept as a measure of distance. Our closest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.25 light years away. In other words, it takes 4.25 years to get there from there. Therefore, the stars are not as they are now, and look like 4.25 years ago.
Beyond the vast expanse of the universe, distance is ultimately measured in billions of light years. This is what makes cosmology possible. The more we see the universe, the older the objects we see, and we can diagrammaticize today's evolution into stars and galaxies.
But if you can travel there and see what those objects look like now, wouldn't that be great?
Having a warp drive may sound like it, but it has some pretty weird results. For one thing, it would ruin the notion of causality.
Causality is our common sense perception that precedes effectiveness. But if you saw a faster spaceship trip towards you, you will see the ship in two places at once. The light carrying information about the ship's departure would not have reached the eye before the ship could be seen along the way.
Worse, the mathematics of relativity shows that if the speed exceeds the speed of light, literally time travel is possible.
This creates a full-scale causal paradox such as the famous “grandfather's paradox.” And how does it work – will you just no longer exist?
read more:
What happens at Black Hole Event Horizon?
Ghost Detector: This new machine can reveal the deepest secrets of the universe
Do you know what the star core looks like?
Negative energy inside
At first glance, Einstein's theory appears to protect us from such head-envelope challenges, as it appears to make it impossible to move faster than light. Masu.
According to the equation, the energy required to accelerate the ship to such a speed is infinite. However, researchers then began to look at mathematics in more detail.
A general theory of relativity – Einstein's extension of his special relativity – he proposes that the universe is made of adaptive fabrics called the space-time continuum, and he uses gravity to make this fabric I explained that it was distorted.
Who knows if tachyons exist, but if so, the theory suggests that it travels faster than light. – Image credits: Science Photography Library
1994, Physicist Dr. Miguel Alcubière At the University of Wales, and at Cardiff, we showed that solutions exist within the theory of general relativity that can be interpreted as warp drives. The problem was that it requires an exotic substance known as “negative energy” to make it work.
Astronomers have toyed using the concept of negative energy to explain why the universe appears to be accelerating, but with an understanding of physics, matter is comfortable to exist It cannot be done.
Then in May 2024, A group of researchers reexamined mathematics We will use only the types of particles and energy that make up the planet and people to see if the Alkbiere Warp phenomenon can be generated.
Their conclusion: Yes, they did. Dr. Jared Fuchs And colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA, discovered that they could arrange for normal material and energy to create warp phenomena and transport people through space. But there was a catch: they could only make it work at sub-light speed.
“It takes a lot of energy to make small changes to the space,” Fuchs says. To move the passenger seat, the size of a small room requires a small house-sized “warp bubble” for the size of a small room. And to make it, you need to narrow the mass of Jupiter several times. It becomes the volume that is the size of a small asteroid.
“now, [is that] Is it possible? perhaps. [Is it] Practical? I wouldn't say that,” says Fuchs. Even if it was possible to create such a device, the old boundaries still exist. To accelerate faster than the speed of light, you need an infinite amount of energy.
“We will not resolve the future of rapid transportation like Star Trek,” admits Fuchs.
Trouble with Tachon
Other researchers have conducted their own research into relativity. Professor Andrzej Dragan Collaborators at the University of Warsaw in Poland decided to consider possible solutions within the equation of particles that travel faster than light.
Physicists have previously messed with such concepts. They even called such virtual particles “tachyons,” but essentially considered them more than mathematical curiosity. However, Dragan and her colleagues found an equation explaining Tachyon's behavior.
“Mathematically, they make perfect sense,” says Dragan. In other words, our familiar world of secondary particle particles could coexist with the upper heart family of the second family, the tachyon.
Unfortunately, this does not mean that spacecraft can speed faster than light. To do that, Dragan explains that it requires the infinite energy that Einstein predicted, as well as the infinite energy to slow the Tachyon down to a sub-blue-minal speed.
“You can't exceed the speed of light in either direction,” says Dragan.
Nevertheless, the study We have proposed some fascinating results that may explain some of the most inexplicable observations physicists are working on.
When dealing with Tachon, Dragan and his colleagues encountered the causal issues they had been expecting. But the more I looked into these details, the more I realized that something surprising was happening. The strict lack of causes and effects was very similar to the behavior of normal, everyday subatomic particles.
The theory of relativity explains the behavior of the universe at its largest scale, while quantum theory describes the subatomic domain as a very different location.
Quantum theory introduces probability into particle interactions. For example, we know that an atom can absorb photons of light and at some stage it will re-emit that photon, but we cannot predict when or in which direction it will take.
In other words, the exact cause is hidden from us, and all we have left is an observable effect. Dragan suggests that when tachyon interacts with normal substances, the outcome of that interaction is unpredictable – like the emission of photons.
So, while these latest ideas do not seem to open a route to practical warp drives, they may only show a deeper look at the nature of the cosmos and the origins of quantum behavior.
About our experts
Dr. Jared Fuchs He is the CEO of Celedon Solutions Inc. and works in the Faculty of Physics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA. His work has been published Classical and quantum gravity.
Professor Andrzej Dragan He is a filmmaker and professor of physics at the University of Warsaw in Poland, and a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore. His work has been published Physical review, Classic and Quatnam Gravity and New Journal of Physics.
read more:
What is the most powerful material in the universe?
This is our first photo of a star outside our galaxy
How the hidden “scars” of the universe unlock time travel
Feedback is the latest science and technology news of new scientists, the sidelines of the latest science and technology news. You can email Feedback@newscientist.com to send items you believe readers can be fascinated by feedback.
It’s solved! or not
Feedback likes true crime as much as the next pathologically curious ghoul, so toe to the well of speculation about Whitechapel murders from 1888-91 and almost God’s Jack the Ryper I soaked it occasionally. Frankly, we weren’t far ahead of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. From hellwhich links the murders (spoilers!) to British institutions and Freemasonry. However, the field of “Ripperology” goes far beyond one quirky graphic novel.
It all depends on shawls that appear to have belonged to Edows. Edows was gathered by police officers at the time and remained in his family for over a century. The shawl came to auction in 2007 and was purchased by a lippelologist Russell Edwards. He arranged for shawl to have a DNA test; result It was released in 2019. Get it by geneticists Jari Louhelainen and David Miller Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) From the two of them. There is a genetic marker that is common to Karen Miller, suggesting that it came from Edows. The other matched with the distant relative of Aaron Kosminski, the barber who was the suspect at the time of the murder.
Feedback will definitely ring this story forever, but we want to add something – not one of the latest news articles. We looked at the 2019 survey and found that the editor added “.Expression of concern“August 2024.
It refers to the letter to the editor, “concerns raised by third parties after publication.” And then the bomb comes. “During the investigation, the publishers and editors made every effort to obtain the original raw data from MtDNA analysis from the authors. However, the authors have been advised that due to device data failures and other complications. He said the data is no longer available.”
Yes, you read it correctly – the evidence of important mtDNA can never be verified because the author lost it. Perhaps Moore was right about evil mental powers after all.
The author argues that romantic love is “a means to the end of what feels important and valuable.” Feedback isn’t sure about it, but let’s try it. This leads them to a “multiplied three-factor model” that determines the “possibility of an actor falling in love with his partner.”
Specifically, “Love for a partner depends on the actor’s perception that (1) the partner has merit traits. These two factors are the actor’s exploration of the importance of the actor. Suppose the size and multiple combinations will determine the likelihood that an actor will be engrossed in his partner.”
In other words, the chances you might fall for someone are to find out how good they think they are, how grateful they think you are, and how you find the meaning of your life It’s a combination of how much you care about.
Feedback tried to extrapolate this to dating advice. If the amount of gratitude you show to your partner is a predictor of whether they will fall into you, if you show to your partner, if you show to your partner, then if you show to your partner, then the person will be Frequent suggestions that you should play hard seem counterproductive. Instead, they tend to fall in love, so it seems a good idea to find a partner who is desperately exploring the importance of life. However, this may have its own drawbacks. In particular, such partners may join the cult.
Good luck.
bite that hand
With news editor Jacob Aron Financial TimesFeedback learns that humanity in AI companies does not want potential employees to use AI when writing job applications. Their work ads stated: “We encourage people to use AI systems during their roles, but we want to assess your non-AS support communication skills.” But why is it artificial? mosquito? Are AI characters full of gaffs that are insurmountable to sift through?
This feedback learned it a few days after the news broke that Chinese AI company Deepseek was outperforming the US technology giant by curious coincidence. Openai complained quickly.review It shows that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled the model, that is, he is engaged in copyright theft.
In summary, these AI companies don’t like being attacked in AI writing slops and don’t like it if they use their work to train AI without permission. As a writer who has almost certainly been stripped down by AI companies and has never seen Penny in return, feedback can say “Bwahahaha, suck on you.”
Have you talked about feedback?
You can send stories to feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Include your home address. This week and past feedback can be found on our website.
aSk what the most important kit of SK Any DJ is. Whether you play a laptop, CDJS, or deck, a decent pair of headphones is a portal for mixes and is a key element to getting right.
Fortunately, we have put together some of the world’s best selectors to help them faithfully and faithfully evangelize the gospel, from trusted professional brands to traditional one-year models. That very important bass.
My favorite headphones DJ
Sennheiser HD 25
129 lbs at Sennheiser
£117 on Amazon
I love bass, bass, bass, bass. I first bought these headphones in 1993 and currently use the HD 25-C-II model. They are perfect for people with small heads and ears that require fat bottom ends and crystal clear monitoring. Sound must have the ability to push away the noise of festival spaces, yet be accurate in a quieter, more intimate environment, and Sennheiser’s small closed ear cups provide the best sound isolation.
They had to work hard, and each set was repeatedly shot from my head repeatedly, and a 3M spiral cable (or curly pigtail extension cable, as I’m calling it nostalgic) was an essential lifeline . It gives me a huge range of movements. And did I say they’re hammering? They may look cheap and plastic, but it’s hard to beat the build, and every part is interchangeable. They are tired and hardworking. DJ Polett
I’ve been away from lollipops for a long time, as these one headphones were always considered New York’s. Everyone was following Larry Levan. You love Jimi Hendrix, so you’re going to buy a Fender Stratocaster. If you love basketball, you’ll be wearing anything LeBron James wears. Larry was the superstar DJ of the day, and everyone followed. But I’m from Detroit.
However, one of the main reasons I started using lollipops has to do with protecting my hearing. Most of our DJs play too loudly, not just the booth, but also to hear us queue. They were hurting my ears when my headphones were always tied to my head. With Lollipop, I don’t always have to have it. Often I hold it in my hand.
I use reloops because they are inexpensive and utilitarian. You don’t have to look sexy. I haven’t taken him to dinner. Let’s look like a hammer. It doesn’t have to be titanium, it needs to work. I have some $2,000 headphones, and I can get on stage and everyone will think, “Oh, he’s so great with those headphones on.” But no, reloops do their job. I don’t care anything else. Carl Craig
Headphones are probably the most important thing to make DJs right. I have been using these technologies for over 20 years. This is the same as the legendary turntable. The bass sounds really well through them, and I rarely take them off. Move your headphones past your ears and over your head to listen to the monitor. They are not too bulky and are good value for money. The only downside is that the leather headband can sweat when the club temperature gets hot in the summer. But that hasn’t stopped me from wearing them for most of my career. Seveno
m
A favorite thing about Monster Hunter is that despite its name, it often feels more like a prey than a predator. Armed with swords several times with your own size and weight, you often go beyond time to become an incredible creature in this action game. The weather will often beat you at Monster Hunter Wild next week. As storm clouds gather, the daily hunt of relatively unthreatened creatures brings you a scary lightning dragon that will eat you for breakfast. The monsters intertwined with each other, tearing them with their teeth and claws as they turn their tails towards the hill.
Over the past few weekends, players have practiced Wilds in the Beta Test, trying out exquisite character creators and several hunts against the scary lions (doshaguma) and overgrown poisonous chickens (gypseros). As someone old enough to play these games on the PlayStation 2, I’ve been distorted uncomfortably with my fingers with my fingers as the PlayStation appeared in portable during the overseas grades of Japan. Ta. What was once a hard, dense game that hid all the thrills behind the barricades of a Mushroom Rally Quest, is now fluid, charming and globally popular. The 2018 entry, Monster Hunter World, broke Capcom records, reaching sales of 203 million people.
Ryozo Tsujimoto, the series producer and son of Capcom founder Kenzo Tsujimoto, has been with Monster Hunter since the early 00s, when Capcom’s online gaming designer. Obviously it still excites him. He is in front and center of many Wild promotions. “It’s really good to see our team play so many people playing games at the same time,” he told me at a recent Tokyo Game Show. “There are many things we can discover by watching players pick up and try out the game. It’s something we don’t see in our own tests. So we can see how players are responding. And we have some masks of the developer team at the booth.”
The main innovation in Wild is how monsters interact with each other. Previously, herbivores were Potter about herd grazing, but only the addition of the current generation consoles has been able to create a seamless ecosystem where teams meet each other and get caught up in the war on the grass. “To have the creatures travel together realistically is challenging in terms of making it look plausible,” says Wiles manager Yuya Tokuda. “If they all moved perfectly in sync, it would be a bit creepy and unconvincing as animal behavior in the pack. But if each monster was a complete wildcard like before, then it would be. It would be unacceptable to keep everything together. While each creature has personality, hitting the balance between herd and puck actions is a lot of work, and we do nothing I had to make sure not to do that.”
www.theguardian.com
Apple is saying goodbye to the home button after 18 years with the launch of the new iPhone 16E.
The budget-friendly iPhone 16E replaces the 2022 iPhone SE, marking the end of Apple products with Touch ID buttons that started with the iPhone X in 2017.
Priced at £599 (709 Euros/$599/$999), the iPhone 16E offers a modern experience similar to the regular iPhone 15 and the latest iPhone 16. To achieve a lower price, some features have been omitted. This new model replaces the £599 iPhone 14 and £429 iPhone SE, representing a significant price increase for the cheapest new iPhone when it ships on February 28th.
The iPhone 16E is similar to the iPhone 14, but comes with the latest A18 chip. Photo: Apple
The iPhone 16E features an aluminum frame, glass front and back, and a 15.4cm (6.1 inch) OLED screen with slim bezels. It is available in black or white only and retains the notch design from the iPhone 14, housing the Face ID sensor for unlocking the phone and authorizing payments.
Starting with 128GB of storage, the iPhone 16E is powered by Apple’s latest A18 chip, enabling access to the company’s AI tools. It includes 5G, Apple’s first new modem, satellite emergency messaging, USB-C charging, and action buttons instead of a mute switch.
Unlike other models, the iPhone 16E has a single 48-megapixel camera and does not include the newly added camera control button.
With the introduction of the iPhone 16E, Apple aims to capture market share in countries like China and attract more users to its intelligent features. This move positions the company to compete with rivals like Google Pixel and Samsung devices.
Tropical riverbank ecosystems – what can be seen along rivers and wetlands – have now recovered within just two million years of North China's extinction. Terrestrial ecosystem.
An illustration depicting the beginning of the mass extinction of the Endopermians. Image credits: Dawid Adam Iurino/Paleofactory, Sapienza Rome University of Rome/Jurikova et aldoi: 10.1038/s41561-020-00646-4.
The mass extinction of the Endopermians occurred about 252 million years ago, and due to extreme environmental changes such as global warming, ocean acidification and long-term drought, more than 80% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species. I've cleared up all of that.
Dr. Li Tian, a researcher at the China University of Earth Sciences, said:
“It has long been theorized that low-latitude land areas remained uninhabited for a long period of time, 7-10 million years after extinction, but our results suggest that some ecosystems have previously been considered. It suggests it's more adaptable than it was.”
To reconstruct the timeline of ecosystem recovery on the land, Dr. Tian and colleagues analyzed trace fossils (such as burrows and footprints), plant relics, plant relics, and vertebrate fossils . 247 million years ago.
These fossils were obtained from lake and river deposits in central central China.
Researchers used a combination of techniques such as biostratigraphy, biology (studying microfossils), sedimentology, and geochemical analysis.
Their research suggests harsh environments at the beginning of the early Triassic period, with only sparse and simple living remaining.
Fossils of this era represent monospecific communities. This means that there is little evidence of biodiversity, and only a single type of organism dominates.
Fossils showed a significant decrease in biological size compared to before the end of Permian, a common indicator of extreme environmental stress.
However, fossils from the Spacyan stage (approximately 249 million years ago) show increased plant stems, root traces, and signs of piercing activity, suggesting a more stable and structured environment .
Scientists also discovered fossils of medium-sized carnivorous vertebrates, indicating that a multi-level food web was established at this stage.
The revival of the action that dug a hole that was largely vanished after the events of extinction was a significant discovery.
Hole-digging behavior promotes sediment and plays an important role in cycling nutrients in riverbank ecosystems, suggesting that animals adapted to environmental stress by escaping underground during this period. Masu.
The findings challenge the view that ecosystem recovery on post-extinction lands is far behind marine life, and that some ecosystems are already stable within relatively short geological time frames. It is revealed.
“Our research is the first to suggest that, contrary to past assumptions, life in the tropical House of Representatives' riparian ecosystems has recovered relatively quickly after the mass extinction of Permians,” said Jinnan. Dr. Tong also spoke from China's University of Earth Sciences.
“The fossil records we studied suggest that riparian zones played an important role in stabilizing post-extinction ecosystems.”
“The rivers and wetlands served as shelters, providing more stable conditions and more stable conditions, allowing life to rebound faster than in arid inland areas.”
Team's paper Published online in the journal Elif.
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Wenwei Guo et al. 2025. Following the mass extinction of Permians, rapid recovery of riparian ecosystems in the hypoxic environment of northern China. Elif 14: RP104205; doi: 10.7554/Elife.104205.1
According to an analysis of new data from NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the ejaculation ability that orbits Sagittarius a* emits a constant flow of flares with no period of rest. Some flares are faint flickering for a few seconds, while others are blindly bright eruptions that spit out every day. There is also slight flicker than the surges for several months at a time.
The artist's concept depicts an ultra-high Massive black hole in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy known as Sagittarius a*. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/RALF CRAWFORD, STSCI.
“We expect flares to occur in essentially every super-large black hole, but our black holes are unique,” says Dr. Farhad Yousef Zadeh, an astronomer at Northwestern University. Ta.
“It's always bubbled up with activity and doesn't seem to reach a stable state.”
“We observed Sagittarius A* multiple times throughout 2023 and 2024, and noticed changes in all observations.”
“We saw something different each time, and that's really surprising. It didn't stay the same.”
Dr. Yousefzadeh and his colleagues used it Webb's nircam instrument Observe Sagittarius A* in total of 48 hours, increments of 8-10 hours over a year.
They expected to see the flare, but Sagittarius A* was more active than he had expected.
The accretion disk surrounding the black hole produced 5-6 large flares per day, during which several small subflares were generated.
“Our data showed constantly changing and bubbly brightness,” Dr. Yusef-Zadeh said.
“And boom! A huge explosion of brightness suddenly appeared. Then it settled down again. No patterns were found in this activity. It seems random. The activity profile of the black hole is what we see every time we see it. It was new and exciting.”
“It appears to be caused by two separate processes: short bursts and long flares. If the accretion disk is a river, the short, faint flicker is like a small ripple that fluctuates randomly on the surface of the river. .”
“But longer, brighter flares are like tidal waves caused by more important events.”
“Mild faults in the accretion disk can produce faint flickers. Specifically, turbulent fluctuations within the disk cause plasma (high-temperature charge gas) to be compressed and temporary. It can cause a burst of radiation.”
“This is similar to the way the solar magnetic fields gather together to compress and eject solar flares.”
“Of course, the environment around the black hole is much more energetic and extreme, so the process is more dramatic. But the surface of the sun also bubbles up with activity.”
Astronomers attribute large, bright flares to magnetic reconnection events. This is the process in which two magnetic fields collide and release energy in the form of accelerated particles. These particles, moving at a speed close to the speed of light, emit a burst of bright radiation.
“The magnetic reconnection event is like a static electricity spark, and in some ways it is also an electrical reconnection,” Dr. Yusef-Zadeh said.
The team wants to use Webb to observe Sagittarius A* for a long period of time.
“When you're watching such a weak flare event, you have to compete with the noise,” said Dr. Yousef Zadeh.
“If you can observe 24 hours a day, you can reduce the noise and see features that you didn't see before. That would be great. Also, these flares show periodicity (or repeat yourself) or really You can also check if it is random.”
F. Yusef-Zadeh et al. 2025. Nonstop Variation of SgrA** Uses JWST at wavelengths of 2.1 and 4.8 microns: evidence of clear populations of faint and bright variable emissions. apjlin press; Arxiv: 2501.04096
Personalized mRNA vaccines, including those for pancreatic cancer treatment, are currently in phase 1 of clinical trials. The research was recently published in Nature.
Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates among cancer types, with less than 13% of patients surviving beyond five years after diagnosis. The disease is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, with nearly 90% of cases already progressing when detected.
Pancreatic cancer cells have a high tendency to spread rapidly to other parts of the body, usually after the primary tumor has grown large. Symptoms typically only appear in late stages, and there are currently no routine screening methods like mammograms or colonoscopies for this cancer.
Effective treatments for pancreatic cancer are limited, with survival rates remaining around 10% despite the best available therapies. The development of personalized mRNA vaccines for cancer treatment aims to change this narrative.
Before the widespread use of mRNA vaccines for Covid-19, researchers were exploring their potential for cancer treatment. These vaccines work by training the immune system to identify and attack cancer cells, essentially turning the body’s immune response into a cancer-fighting mechanism. Current research is focused on melanoma, colorectal cancer, and other solid tumors.
The success of mRNA cancer vaccines relies on generating a robust response from T cells, a type of immune cell that recognizes and fights off intruders. These T cells need to be durable and capable of detecting and eliminating cancer cells, including those in pancreatic cancer which present unique challenges due to limited mutation targets.
A recent clinical trial evaluated the efficacy of an mRNA vaccine in pancreatic cancer patients who had undergone surgery to remove the tumor. Results showed that the vaccine elicited a response in half of the participants, generating tumor-targeting T cells that persisted for years. This promising outcome underscores the potential of mRNA vaccines in improving outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients.
The study also highlighted the need for further research to determine the long-term impact of these vaccines on patient outcomes. The development of ready-made mRNA vaccines that target common mutations in pancreatic cancer tumors is another area of ongoing investigation, offering a more standardized approach to treatment.
Overall, early findings suggest that mRNA vaccines hold promise in enhancing the body’s immune response against pancreatic cancer, offering hope for improved survival rates and outcomes in the future.
WASHINGTON – Patrick Montague, a federal firefighter investigator, was unexpectedly fired by the Trump administration on Saturday night, along with thousands of other Department of Health and Human Services employees. Patrick, 46, from Kentucky, had 26 years of experience in firefighting and prevention programs, as well as academic training and technical expertise. Despite receiving repeated praise from his supervisors, he was let go before completing his two-year probationary period due to his alleged inadequate performance.
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Montague was part of a program aimed at reducing firefighters’ risks while on duty. Three out of the five members of his program were fired in a similar manner. The sudden layoffs were attributed to billionaire Elon Musk’s influence on cutting federal programs and reducing government workforce.
The termination of these employees, including Montague, has raised concerns about the impact on important public safety programs, such as the Fatal Firefighter Survey and Prevention Program. These programs were created to enhance the safety and well-being of firefighters across the country.
Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Firefighters, emphasized the importance of investing in firefighter safety programs and expressed hope that the Trump administration would prioritize such initiatives.
In addition to the firefighter safety programs, layoffs within the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health have also affected workers responsible for maintaining the national firefighters’ cancer registry. The registry, established by a law signed by Trump in July 2018, tracks and fights cancer deaths among firefighters.
The disconnect between Trump’s public praise for firefighters and the sudden layoffs of those working on critical firefighter safety programs has left many scratching their heads. Union officials and advocates for fire safety are puzzled by the contradictory actions taken by the administration.
Despite the termination notices citing performance issues, many affected employees, like Patrick Montague, believe that their performance was satisfactory and are baffled by the decision to let them go.
According to the most comprehensive assessment, glaciers around the world have been shrinking by more than 5% on average since 2000. This rapid melting rate has accelerated by more than a third over the past decade as climate change continues in stages.
It is said to be “a problem of warming level for glaciers.” Noel Goomeren At the University of Edinburgh, UK. “They are climate change barometers.”
The new numbers come from a global consortium of hundreds of researchers known as the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise. This group sought to reduce uncertainty about how much of the planet's 200,000 or so glacier melted by assessing different size measures using standard procedures. This includes gravity and elevation measurements from 20 satellites, as well as ground measurements.
Between 2000 and 2011, glaciers melted at an average rate of approximately 231 billion tons of ice per year, researchers found. This melting rate increased to 314 billion tonnes per year between 2012 and 2023, an acceleration of more than a third. In 2023, a mass of approximately 548 billion tons was recorded.
These numbers are consistent with previous estimates. But this comprehensive look “gives a little more confidence in the changes seen in the glacier,” says Gourmelen, part of the consortium. “And there's a clear acceleration.”
Overall, thawing of roughly 7 trillion tons of glacial ice since 2000 has increased sea level by almost 2 centimeters, melting into the second largest contributor of sea level rise, resulting in the expansion of water from warming oceans. Ta.
“This is a consistent story of glacial changes.” Tyler Sutterley At Washington University in Seattle. “Areas that have had glaciers since ancient times have lost these ice symbols.”
Alps glaciers have lost more ice than any other region, shrinking nearly 40% since 2000. In the Middle East, New Zealand and the West, glaciers have seen more than 20% reductions. Depending on future emissions, the world's glaciers are predicted to lose quarter to half of the ice by the end of the century.
Olivine rock naturally reacts with carbon dioxide, but it’s a slow business
Renhour48 via Wikimedia/CC0 1.0 Universal
The new process will allow crushed rocks to capture carbon dioxide more quickly from the air by turbocharged with already widely adopted carbon removal techniques.
Natural silicate minerals such as basalt react with water and CO2 to form solid carbonic acid materials, a process known as reinforced lock weathering (ERW). Research suggests Spreading crushed silicate rocks on farmland increases the amount of carbon the soil can absorb, while improving farmer crop yields.
but Matthew Canan Stanford University in California believes that the carbon advantage of ERW is exaggerated as natural silicates do not reach the climate quickly enough to extract large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. “The data is very clear. They don’t weather at a useful speed,” he says.
Conversion of silicates into more reactive minerals increases weathering rates and makes ERW a viable climate solution, he says. Canaan and his colleagues Yuxuan Chen Stanford University also developed a method for producing magnesium oxide and calcium silicate using a process inspired by cement production.
“When you take calcium sources and magnesium silicate and heat it, you can make calcium silicate and magnesium oxide,” says Canaan. “The core reaction is what is called ion exchange, and it exchanges magnesium for calcium.”
“The reason it’s strong is because calcium silicate is reactive and so is magnesium oxide,” he says. “I put one reactive thing in and two come out.” The ingredients get the weather thousands of times faster than standard silicates, says Canaan.
The ki used in this process must be heated to 1400°C for the reaction, and energy may be provided by natural gas. This means that this method generates significant carbon emissions, but Canaan can capture these at sources or use several reactive minerals to capture the emissions at the site. It suggests that booking can offset it.
When the emissions associated with material production are taken into consideration, one ton of reactive material removes about one ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Researchers can now create 15 kilograms of reactive rocks per day, but they hope to turn the idea into a commercial venture by selling the materials to farmers for use on farmland.
Rachel James The University of Southampton, UK, challenges Canaan’s claim that traditional ERWs do not work, pointing to many documented examples of intensified weathering tests. However, she welcomes attempts to accelerate the weathering rate of silicate.
“The climate crisis now requires action, so what you can do to speed up weathering rates is extremely beneficial,” she says. “Weathering is essentially a slow process and frankly, we want to see meaningful carbon dioxide removal on a timescale of 10 years or more than 50 years.”
However, she warns that the team is likely to face problems with expanding production and deployment. She says that using minerals in agricultural systems does not guarantee that all captured carbon is permanently trapped.
Phil Renforth At Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, the proposal is said to be a smart idea, but it takes more research to understand how it should be unfolded. “They essentially produce cement minerals, which may not be an ideal candidate mineral in addition to agricultural soils,” he says.
Microsoft’s artificial intelligence models can replicate realistic video game footage the company says will help designers create games, but experts are not convinced that the tool will help most game developers. yeah.
Neural networks that can generate consistent, accurate footage from video games are nothing new. A recent Google-created AI produced a fully playable version of a classic computer game destiny No access to the underlying game engine. original destiny, However, it was released in 1993. More modern games are more complex with sophisticated physics and computationally intensive graphics, and have proven difficult for AIS to faithfully replicate.
now, Katja Hofmann Microsoft Research and her colleagues developed an AI model called Muse. This allows you to recreate the complete sequence of multiplayer online battle games Bleeding edge. These sequences follow the physics that underlie the game, and appear to keep players and in-game objects consistent over time. This means that the model has a deeper understanding of the game, says Hofmann.
The Muse is trained with seven years of human gameplay data, including both controllers and video footage. Bleeding EdgeNinja Studios is a Microsoft-owned developer. It works similarly to large language models such as ChatGpt. If given input, it imposes predicting the next gameplay in the form of video game frames and their associated controller actions. “To this day, for me, it’s a very moving thing to me, purely from training models to predict what will come next. I learn a sophisticated and deep understanding of this complex 3D environment,” Hoffman said. I say it.
To understand how people use AI tools like Muse, the team researched game developers and learned which features would be useful. As a result, researchers added the ability to repeatedly adjust changes made on the spot, such as changes to player characters or new objects entering the scene. This could help you come up with new ideas and try out what-if scenarios for developers, says Hofmann.
However, the muse is still limited to generating sequences within the original boundaries Bleeding Edge Games – Can’t come up with new concepts or designs. And I say it’s unclear whether this is a model-specific limitation or something that can be overcome with more training data from other games. Mike Cook King’s College London. “This is a long way from the idea that AI systems can design their own games.”
The ability to generate consistent gameplay sequences is impressive, but developers may prefer greater control, says Cook. “If you create a tool that is actually testing the game code itself, you don’t have to worry about persistence or consistency because you’re running the actual game. So these are introduced by generative AI itself. It’s solving the problem.”
It is promised that the model is designed with developers in mind, he says Georgios Yannakakis The Digital Games Institute at the University of Malta may not be feasible for most developers who don’t have that much training data. “Does that come down to the question of it being worth it?” says Yannakakis. “Microsoft has been collecting data for seven years and training these models to demonstrate what they can actually do. But real game studios can afford it. [to do] this? “
Even Microsoft itself is vague about whether AI-designed games could be on the horizon. When asked if there was a possibility that developers in the Xbox gaming division would use the tool, the company declined to comment.
Hofmann and her team hope that future versions of Muse can generalize beyond training data, but they can create new scenarios and levels for the games they are trained to work in a variety of games. I hope that I can do it. Challenge is because modern games are very complicated.
“One way games distinguish themselves is by changing the system and introducing new concept-level ideas. So machine learning systems go outside of their training data and go beyond what they see. It’s extremely difficult to innovate and invent,” he says.
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