The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that governments dealing with economic challenges brought about by artificial intelligence (AI) should look into implementing fiscal policies such as taxes on excessive profits or environmental taxes to offset the carbon emissions linked to AI.
The IMF highlights generative AI, which enables computer systems like ChatGPT to create human-like text, voice, and images from basic prompts, as a technology advancing rapidly and spreading at a swift pace compared to past innovations like the steam engine.
To address the impact on jobs due to AI, the IMF proposes policies like a carbon tax considering the environmental effects of operating AI servers. The IMF emphasizes the importance of taxing carbon emissions from AI servers to incorporate environmental costs into the technology’s price.
The IMF report released on Monday highlights the significance of taxing carbon emissions associated with AI servers due to their high energy consumption and the potential to impact data centers’ electricity use. Data centers, servers, and networks currently contribute up to 1.5% of global emissions, according to a recent report.
In addition, the report cautions that introducing AI could reduce wages, widen inequality, and empower tech giants to strengthen their market dominance and financial gains. It recommends higher taxes on capital income, including corporate taxes and personal income on dividends, interest, and capital gains, to address these challenges.
Furthermore, the report stresses the need for governments to prepare for the impact of AI on various job sectors, both white-collar and blue-collar, and suggests measures like extending unemployment insurance, targeted Social Security payments, and tailored education and training to equip workers with necessary skills.
To overhaul the tax system and introduce new taxes reflecting real-time market values, the IMF recommends leveraging AI’s analytical capabilities. While cautioning against universal basic income due to its high cost, the IMF suggests considering it if AI disrupts jobs significantly in the future.
Ella Dabra Norris, deputy director of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department and co-author of the report, encourages countries to explore the design and implementation of systems like UBI if AI disruption intensifies.
If you have ever set a goal to change your appearance, know that you are not alone. Approximately 43% of UK adults aim to lose weight. For some, this goal may lead to more extreme methods such as cosmetic or plastic surgery.
However, when does this desire for self-improvement become problematic? About 3% of the general population may develop a condition known as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), where individuals have a constant urge to alter their physical appearance.
Individuals with BDD perceive significant flaws or defects in their appearance that may not be as noticeable to others. For example, Rebecca, a 36-year-old woman, believes she has a “moon face” due to acne scars, while Tyson, a 17-year-old, works out excessively because he feels too skinny. Despite reassurances from others, they continue to struggle with their self-perception.
BDD is not a new phenomenon and has been recognized since 1891. Factors such as genetics, brain function, and adverse childhood experiences can contribute to the development of BDD. Society’s focus on appearance can exacerbate this condition, as attractive individuals often receive social advantages.
Social media has also played a role in heightening BDD prevalence, with filters, editing tools, and curated content leading to unrealistic beauty standards. Excessive social media use has been linked to increased BDD symptoms and a desire for cosmetic procedures.
People with BDD often engage in extreme behaviors to alter their appearance, such as mirror gazing, excessive grooming, or seeking cosmetic treatments. However, studies have shown that cosmetic surgery may not provide lasting relief for individuals with BDD, and their symptoms may worsen post-surgery.
Cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure and response prevention (CBT-ERP) is a recommended treatment for BDD, offering relief for up to 70% of individuals. It is essential for cosmetic surgeons to identify BDD in patients before performing procedures to prevent further distress.
Instead of fixating on appearance, individuals can focus on engaging in hobbies, limiting mirror time, and taking breaks from social media to improve self-esteem. Developing a broader sense of self-worth beyond physical appearance is key to overcoming BDD.
*Names and descriptions do not reflect actual clients.
RCW 7 is located in the constellation Puppis, about 5,300 light years from Earth.
This Hubble image shows the nebula RCW 7. Image courtesy of NASA/ESA/Hubble/J. Tan, Chalmers University, University of Virginia.
“Nebulae are regions of space that are rich in the raw materials needed to form new stars,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“Due to the effects of gravity, some of these molecular clouds collapse and merge into protostars surrounded by a rotating disk of remaining gas and dust.”
“In the case of RCW 7, the protostar forming here is particularly massive, emitting intense ionizing radiation and a powerful stellar wind that propelled the star into a “H II region“.
“The H II regions are filled with hydrogen ions. HI refers to regular hydrogen atoms, and H II is hydrogen that has lost an electron.”
“Ultraviolet rays from the massive protostar excite the hydrogen, which then emits light that gives the nebula its soft pink glow.”
“IRAS 07299-1651 still resides within a cocoon of glowing gas, in clouds swirling towards the top of the nebula,” the researchers said.
To expose this star and its sibling, the new image was created from separate exposures taken in the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
“This massive protostar is most bright in ultraviolet light, but it also emits a lot of infrared light that penetrates much of the surrounding gas and dust and can be seen by the Hubble Telescope,” the scientists said.
“Many of the other large visible stars in this image are not part of the nebula, but are located between the nebula and the solar system.”
Assuming a circular orbit, IRAS 07299-1651 is estimated to have a minimum total mass of 18 times that of the Sun and a maximum period of 570 years.
“The formation of the H II region marks the beginning of the end of the molecular cloud,” the authors said.
“Over just a few million years, radiation and winds from the massive stars gradually disperse the gas, and this dispersion continues as the most massive stars end their lives in supernova explosions.”
“Only a small portion of this gas will be absorbed by new stars within the nebula, while the rest will spread throughout the galaxy and eventually form new molecular clouds.”
Think back to the last time you put together a puzzle. How long did it take you to connect the first piece? Did you aim for the edge pieces, or did you look for random pairs? Now imagine that the puzzle pieces are fossils of marine creatures that lived in ancient oceans. How would you put the pieces together? Which animals appeared first, and how long did they live for? This is the “puzzle” paleontologists face when studying the fossil record.
Researchers studying the fossil record have found that a mass extinction occurred at the end of the Permian Period 250 million years ago, leaving the oceans largely empty. They propose that the Earth's higher temperatures and changes in water chemistry killed 80% of marine life, ending the Paleozoic Era. Sometime later, during the Triassic Period, marine communities were reorganized to include a diversity of organisms similar to those found in today's oceans. As such, scientists believe that Triassic marine life is a precursor to modern marine ecosystems.
Paleontologists initially thought that marine animals recovered slowly from this extinction, because complex fossil ecosystems were only discovered 10 million years later. More recently, researchers have found diverse marine animal fossils just 3 million years after this mass extinction. However, these studies leave a gap of 3 million years between the mass extinction and the appearance of modern-like marine life in the earliest Triassic period.
An international team of researchers hypothesized that a collection of fossils in southern China called the Guiyang Biota could help fill in this gap: These ancient animals were covered in deep-sea sand, forming a layer of exceptionally well-preserved fossils, LagerstätteLagerstätten often form in calm undersea environments that can preserve delicate animal parts like bones and scales. Based on their location and their position within the rocks, the team proposed that the Guiyang fossils date to the Early Triassic period.
The scientists explained that the fossils at the site included animals across all five levels of the food chain, including 10 species of bony fish, two species of shrimp, lobsters, sponges, eels, and plankton. They found that fish ate lobsters, which ate clams, which ate plankton, which ate algae, which provided energy, forming a complete modern-day marine community. The scientists suggested that these fossils may be younger than the oldest diverse fossil ecosystem scientists have ever unearthed from the Early Triassic Period.
The researchers used three methods to determine the age of the Guiyang fossils: First, they looked at the eel-like creature's teeth. ConodontsThey only lived during certain periods in Earth's history, and the researchers found that conodont teeth from the southern China fossils belonged to Triassic conodonts, supporting their original dating estimates.
Second, the researchers measured chemical signals. Carbon isotopesfound in the rock walls surrounding the fossils. Scientists have measured carbon isotopes in rocks throughout Earth's history. By matching the increases and decreases in carbon isotopes in rocks to patterns of carbon isotopes from different periods in the rock record, researchers can estimate the age of the rocks. They found that the carbon isotopes in the Guiyang rocks matched the patterns of carbon isotopes in rocks from the Early Triassic Period, further supporting the Triassic age of the fossils.
Finally, the researchers needed to establish a precise age for the Guiyang rocks to determine how rapidly the fossil assemblage developed after the mass extinction event. They used a dating method based on the radioactive decay of uranium into lead. U-Pb datingIt is found in minerals extracted from two volcanic ash layers in the rock wall.
The team explained that these ash layers were located just below and just above the fossil layers in the rocks, meaning they fell just before and just after the fossils formed. U-Pb dating determined that the fossils were between 250.79 and 250.92 million years old. The team interpreted these dates as indicating that the marine creatures lived only 10,000 to 1 million years after their extinction 250 million years ago.
From the Triassic Lagerstätte fossils, the researchers concluded that marine ecosystems recovered quickly from the end-Permian extinction, re-establishing complete food chains within one million years of the mass extinction. The researchers propose that this diverse group of organisms thrived during a cold period in the warming Triassic environment. The researchers suggest that future researchers should examine whether a short period of cool weather allowed these organisms to survive the heat, or whether other factors, such as favorable ocean chemistry, were involved.
Wondering how to best pet a cat? The answer might surprise you. Although petting is often considered a bonding activity, not all cats enjoy it.
As Dr. Lauren Finca, a cat behavior expert from Nottingham Trent University, explains: “While some cats may like being petted, most cats may not be thrilled with our typical petting methods. Cats tolerate petting due to the positive relationship with their owners, including treats, food, and affection.”
“Cats are not naturally social or tactile animals, so when it comes to petting, it’s important to keep in mind their preferences,” advises Finca.
It’s essential to pay attention to your cat’s body language to understand their comfort levels with petting. Avoid areas like the lower back and belly, as touching these spots can make cats feel threatened due to their exposed vital organs.
According to Finca, early socialization and handling play a significant role in a cat’s tolerance for petting. Each cat’s preferences may vary, so it’s crucial to observe their reactions and adjust accordingly.
Watch out for signs of negative arousal in cats, such as turning away, freezing, or abrupt grooming behaviors. Cats may subtly communicate their discomfort through tail movements, ear positions, or body language.
What’s the best way to pet a cat?
When petting a cat, focus on areas like the cheeks, chin, and base of the ears, where cats enjoy being touched. Look for signs of positive excitement like purring, rubbing, and tail wagging to ensure your cat is comfortable.
Remember Dr. Finca’s guidelines for petting, known as CAT:
C: Give your cat choice and control during interactions, allowing them to approach you for petting.
A: Pay attention to your cat’s behavior and body language to recognize signs of discomfort or the need for a break.
T: Think about where you’re touching the cat, focusing on areas they enjoy and avoiding sensitive spots like the tail and belly.
By following these guidelines, you can ensure a positive petting experience for both you and your feline friend.
About Dr. Lauren Finca
Dr. Lauren Finca is a feline behavior expert at Nottingham Trent University with over a decade of experience in cat research. She collaborates with organizations like Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, ICatCare, and ISFM on various behavioral and welfare projects.
TTen years ago, Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom Super IntelligenceThe book explores how superintelligent machines might be built and the implications of such technology, one of which is that such machines, if built, would be difficult to control and might even take over the world to achieve their goals (in Bostrom's famous thought experiment, this was to make paperclips).
The book was a huge hit, generated lively debate, but also attracted a fair amount of opposition. Critics complained that it was based on an overly simplistic view of “intelligence,” that it overestimated the likelihood of the imminent emergence of superintelligent machines, and that it offered no credible solutions to the problems it raised. But the book had the great merit of forcing people to think about possibilities that had previously been confined to academia or the fringes of science fiction.
Ten years later, he takes on the same target again. This time, instead of a book, he makes a film titled “Situational Awareness: The Next DecadeThe author is Leopold Aschenbrenner, a young man of German origin who now lives in San Francisco and hangs out with Silicon Valley's intellectual elite. On paper, he sounds like a Sam Bankman Freed-type whiz kid: a math genius who graduated from a prestigious US university as a teenager, spent time at Oxford with his colleagues at the Future of Humanity Institute, and worked on the OpenAI “superalignment” team.Currently disbandedAfter working at Yahoo! Auctions for $1.2 billion in 2017, he founded an investment firm focused on artificial general intelligence (AGI) with funding from Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison. These are two smart guys who don't play for losers.
So this Aschenbrenner is clever, but at the same time, he's playing the game.The second point may be relevant, since the gist of his lengthy essay is essentially that superintelligence is coming (with AGI as a stepping stone), but the world isn't yet ready to accept it.
The essay is divided into five sections. The first section lays out the path from GPT-4 (its current state) to AGI (which the author believes could arrive as soon as 2027). The second follows a hypothetical path from AGI to true superintelligence. The third describes four “challenges” that superintelligent machines would pose to the world. The fourth section outlines what the author calls the “projects” necessary to manage a world with (or dominated by) superintelligent machines. The fifth section is Aschenbrenner's message to humanity in the form of three “tenets” of “AGI realism.”
In his view of how AI will progress in the near future, Aschenbrenner is fundamentally an optimistic determinist, i.e., he extrapolates the recent past under the assumption that trends will continue. To see an upward curve, he has to extend it. He grades LLMs (large-scale language models) by their capabilities. Thus, GPT-2 is at the “preschooler” level, GPT-3 at the “elementary school student” level, and GPT-4 at the “smart high school student” level, and it seems that with the massive increase in computing power, by 2028 “models as smart as PhDs and experts will be able to work next to us as colleagues.” By the way, why do AI advocates always consider PhDs to be the epitome of human perfection?
After 2028 comes the big leap from AGI to superintelligence. In Aschenbrenner's world, AI won't stop at human-level capabilities. “Hundreds of millions of AGIs will automate AI research, compressing a decade's worth of algorithmic progress into a year. We will rapidly evolve from human-level to superhuman AI systems. The powers and dangers of superintelligence will be dramatic.”
The third section of the essay explores what such a world might be like, focusing on four aspects of it: the unimaginable (and environmentally catastrophic) computational requirements needed to run it, the difficulty of maintaining the security of an AI lab in such a world, the problem of aligning machines with human purposes (which Aschenbrenner believes is difficult but not impossible), and the military implications of a world of superintelligent machines.
It is not until the fourth topic that Aschenbrenner's analysis really begins to disintegrate thematically. Like the message in the Blackpool stone pole, the nuclear weapons analogy runs through his thinking. He sees the US as being at a stage in AI after J. Robert Oppenheimer's original Trinity experiment in New Mexico, ahead of the USSR, but not for long. And of course, China fills the role of the Soviet empire in this analogy.
Suddenly, superintelligence has gone from being a human problem to being a US national security imperative. “The US has a lead,” he writes. “We must maintain that lead. And now we're screwing it. Above all, we must lock down AI labs quickly and thoroughly before major AGI breakthroughs leak out in the next 12 to 24 months. … Computer clusters must be built in the US, not in the dictatorships that fund them. And US AI labs have an obligation to cooperate with intelligence agencies and the military. A US lead in AGI cannot ensure peace and freedom by simply building the best AI girlfriend app. It's ugly, but we must build AI for US defense.”
All we need is a new Manhattan Project and the AGI Industrial Complex.
What I'm Reading
The dictator is shot Former Eastern Bloc countries fear Trump It's an interesting piece. New Republic About people who know something about life under oppression.
Lawful interference Monopoly Recap: The Harvey Weinstein of Antitrust This is a blog post by Matt Stoller about Joshua Wright, the lawyer who has had a devastating impact on U.S. antitrust enforcement for many years.
Our perception of reality is quite limited because we evolved on the African plains 3 million years ago. Our senses were shaped to help us survive in that environment, with eyes that can detect approaching predators and ears that can hear the rustling of grass.
Although our senses have given us a basic understanding of the world, they also deceive us at times. The majority of nature remains hidden from us, and things are not always as they appear.
Here are a few examples of things that seem obvious but are not necessarily true:
1. The Earth is flat
Many ancient peoples believed the Earth was a disk. – Photo credit: Alamy
While the Earth may appear flat, evidence such as ships disappearing over the horizon and the curved shadow of the Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse point to its spherical nature. Observations like the first circumnavigation of the globe also support the round Earth theory.
Proving the Earth’s size involved measurements and calculations, with early estimates by Eratosthenes aligning closely with modern figures.
2. The stars revolve around the Earth
It may seem logical that stars move around a stationary Earth, but evidence such as artillery deviations and the Foucault pendulum disproves this. The invention of the pendulum provided physical proof of the Earth’s rotation.
3. Living things are designed to suit their habitats
The apparent design in nature is often attributed to mutations and natural selection rather than intentional design. DNA plays a crucial role in the adaptation of organisms to their environments.
4. Your time is the same as everyone else’s
Speeds close to the speed of light and strong gravitational fields (such as near a black hole) distort time. – Photo credit: Science Photo Library
The concept of time is influenced by speed and gravity, as demonstrated by Einstein’s theories. Time dilation occurs in different gravitational fields, impacting the flow of time.
5. The moon won’t fall
Newton’s insights about gravity and orbital mechanics explain why the moon stays in orbit rather than falling to the Earth. Objects in free fall experience weightlessness due to the effect of gravity.
6. Stars are tiny dots on the celestial sphere
The Milky Way galaxy contains over 100 billion stars. – Photo credit: Getty
The apparent size of stars is deceiving, with parallax observations revealing their true distance and magnitude. Spectral analysis further confirms the nature of stars as distant suns.
7. We can know what the universe is like “now”
The concept of “now” is complex in a universe where light travels slowly through vast distances. Observations of distant objects reflect their past states, allowing us to study the history of the universe but not its current state.
Research indicates that a lack of dietary fiber may result in accelerated brain aging, potentially contributing to the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Expert nutritionists, such as Dr. Emily Leeming and Nutritional Psychologist Kimberly Wilson, presented this theory at the Cheltenham Science Festival.
In fact, dementia, a condition characterized by memory loss, is described as a model of accelerated brain aging by Wilson. This highlights the importance of dietary fiber for brain health and overall well-being.
Most adults in the UK are not consuming enough fiber, falling short of the recommended intake of 30g per day for optimal health. This deficiency poses a risk factor for various health conditions, including cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases.
According to Leeming and Wilson, consuming fiber-rich foods is essential for brain protection. Fiber is metabolized by gut bacteria, producing short-chain fatty acids that play a crucial role in maintaining the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. These fatty acids help prevent the passage of harmful substances into the brain.
If you are not getting enough fiber in your diet, Leeming suggests incorporating fiber-rich foods like rye bread, beans, nuts, and vegetables. Additionally, consuming dark chocolate and root vegetables with the skin on can help boost your fiber intake.
By increasing fiber consumption, individuals can support their gut health, manage blood sugar levels, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Leeming and Wilson emphasize the importance of fiber for overall health and well-being.
Our experts, Kimberly Wilson and Dr. Emily Leeming, have extensive experience in nutrition and psychology, respectively. Wilson is a licensed psychologist and author, while Leeming is a Registered Dietitian and Research Fellow with a focus on the gut microbiome.
G7 leaders have raised concerns about China’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war and the production of cheap goods causing “harmful overcapacity,” despite German apprehensions.
During the annual summit held in Puglia under the Italian presidency, a 36-page report by the U.S. condemned Chinese subsidies on products like solar panels and electric vehicles, attributing them to global distortions, market disruptions, and overcapacity that threaten worker resilience, industry security, and economic stability.
Specifically, U.S. officials pointed out China as a major supplier of materials used by Russia against Ukraine, expressing concern over the long-term security implications. Despite Ukrainian President Zelensky’s assurance that Chinese leaders vowed not to provide weapons to Moscow, U.S. President Joe Biden highlighted China’s arms supply to Russia.
The U.S., Japan, and the EU, along with an informal eighth partner at the G7 summit, have expressed worries over Beijing’s heavy subsidies in green energy and technology sectors flooding global markets with unfairly priced products, creating stiff competition for Western companies, especially in the green technology space.
The National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, mentioned plans to address China’s non-market policies having detrimental global effects. China’s top official, First Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, is set to visit Brussels to discuss EU plans for increased tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars.
In a bid for diversity at the summit, global leaders from countries like India, Turkey, UAE, Brazil, and Mauritania were invited to participate. The G7 emphasized the importance of cooperation to address collective challenges, as expressed by Italian Prime Minister and G7 President Giorgia Meloni.
Russia faced stiff consequences at the summit, including wider sanctions, loss of control over state assets, and a new 10-year US-Ukraine security pact. A proposed $50 billion loan to Ukraine funded by interest profits from Russian state assets marked the beginning of economic pressure on Russia.
The final statement from the summit demanded Russia to cease its illegal aggression in Ukraine, pay reparations for inflicted damage, and explore legal options to enforce compliance. Russia dismissed the security pact as a nominal agreement and criticized the appropriation of frozen asset proceeds.
While Zelensky addressed Indian Prime Minister Modi on revising India’s reliance on Russian oil, discussions focused on the rising oil prices set by Russia and India’s growing purchases of Russian offshore crude.
The U.S. and EU impose price restrictions on Russian crude sales to prevent Western involvement unless sold below a certain cap. India, currently the largest buyer of Russian offshore crude, has not joined this ban, prompting calls for stricter price caps and actions against transportation exceeding the imposed price limit.
Ren Shelburne was tired of listening to episodes of popular podcasts that friends had recommended to her. The photographer, who has partial hearing loss and an auditory processing disorder, remembers struggling to get through one particular episode. It was a unique type of show: too many speakers, complex overlapping conversations, and, until recently, no transcripts. “There's so much going on at once, it's impossible to understand,” Shelburne says. She couldn’t keep up with the shows or discuss them with friends. “Podcasts are now a big part of pop culture and media, and I want to be able to be a part of that conversation.”
Weekly podcast listenership in the U.S. has more than quadrupled in the past decade. Pew Research But for some, the medium still feels inaccessible.
“Because of my hearing loss, sometimes I miss things,” says Alexandra Wong, a Rhodes Scholar studying digital accessibility, “and then I have to rewind five or six times to understand what’s going on.”
Shelburne and Wong are among about 15% of U.S. adults, or about 37.5 million people, who are ill. Difficulties in reporting Many people who are deaf or hard of hearing rely on subtitles or transcriptions to follow music, movies, and podcasts without assistive devices. Video streaming companies like Netflix, Peacock, and Hulu offer subtitles for nearly all of their programming, and time-synchronized lyric subtitles are increasingly standard for music streaming. The popularity of video subtitles has also been embraced by audiences outside the disability community, with 80% of Netflix viewers turning on subtitles at least once a month.
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The movement of Earth’s inner core has been a topic of debate in the scientific community for the past 20 years, with some studies suggesting that the inner core rotates faster than the Earth’s surface. However, a new study has presented clear evidence that the inner core started to slow down around 2010 and is now moving at a slower pace compared to the Earth’s surface.
king othersIt shows that Earth’s inner core gradually super-rotated from 2003 to 2008, then repeated a slower rotation 2-3 times along the same path from 2008 to 2023. Image by USC Graphic/Edward Sotelo.
“When I first saw the earthquake records suggesting this change, I was puzzled,” said John Bedale, a professor at the University of Southern California.
“But when we found 24 more observations showing the same pattern, the result was inevitable.”
“The inner core is slowing down for the first time in decades.”
“Other scientists have recently proposed similar or different models, but our latest work offers the most plausible solution.”
The inner core is believed to be rotating and moving relative to the Earth’s surface, as it is now moving slightly slower than Earth’s mantle after about 40 years of moving faster.
Compared to the rates observed over the past few decades, the inner core is now slowing down.
The inner core is a solid iron-nickel sphere surrounded by a liquid iron-nickel outer core.
Located more than 4,828 km (3,000 miles) beneath the Earth’s surface, the inner core is roughly the size of the Moon and poses a challenge for researchers as it cannot be visited or directly observed.
Scientists rely on seismic waves from earthquakes to study the movement of the inner core.
In contrast to previous studies, Professor Vidale and his team used waveforms and repeating earthquakes in their research.
Repeating earthquakes are seismic events that occur in the same location and produce identical earthquake records.
The study analyzed recorded seismic data from 121 repeating earthquakes around the South Sandwich Islands between 1991 and 2023, as well as data from Soviet and nuclear tests from the early 1970s and other studies on the inner core.
“The slowing down of the inner core is attributed to the churning of the liquid iron outer core that surrounds it. This churning creates a gravitational pull from the Earth’s magnetic field and the dense region of the rocky mantle above,” Prof Vidale explained.
“We can only speculate on how these changes in the inner core’s movement will impact the Earth’s surface.”
“The retreat of the inner core could briefly alter the length of the day. This alteration lasts for milliseconds and is almost imperceptible amid the noise of the ocean and atmosphere,” he added.
Wang others Retrograde motion of the inner core due to reversal of seismic waveform changes. Nature. Published online June 12, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07536-4
Voyager 1 Due to technical issues, scientific observations are being carried out for the first time. Happened November 2023.
Voyager 1 launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 5, 1977, 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. This artist's concept drawing depicts one of NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Voyager 1 stopped transmitting readable science and engineering data to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though mission controllers were able to confirm that the spacecraft was still receiving commands and was otherwise operating normally.
In April 2024, they prompted Voyager 1 to begin transmitting engineering data containing information about the spacecraft's health and condition, partially resolving the problem.
On May 19, they carried out the second stage of the repair process and sent commands to the spacecraft to begin transmitting science data.
Two of the four scientific instruments immediately returned to normal operating mode.
The other two instruments required additional work, but all four are now returning usable science data.
The four instruments will study plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles.
This infographic highlights major milestones of NASA's Voyager missions, including visiting four outer planets and escaping the heliosphere, a protective bubble of magnetic fields and particles generated by the Sun. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
The twin Voyager probes are NASA's longest-serving missions and the only spacecraft to have explored interstellar space.
Launched in 1977, both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 traveling faster and reaching Jupiter and Saturn first.
Together, they have revealed a lot about the solar system's two largest planets and their moons.
Voyager 1 is more than 24 billion km (15 billion miles) from Earth, and Voyager 2 is more than 20 billion km (12 billion miles) from Earth.
The probe will celebrate its 47th anniversary of operation later this year.
“Voyager 1 and 2 are the only spacecraft to directly sample interstellar space, the region outside the heliosphere – the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun,” NASA engineers said.
“Voyager 1 has resumed science, but additional minor operations are required to remove the effects of the problem.”
“Among other tasks, we will resynchronize the timing software in the spacecraft's three onboard computers to ensure commands are executed at the right time.”
“We will also be maintaining the digital tape recorder that records the plasma wave instrument data that is sent back to Earth twice a year.”
Physicists at the University of Vienna have used a maximally entangled quantum state of light paths in a large interferometer to experimentally measure the speed of the Earth’s rotation.
Silvestri othersThey have demonstrated the largest and most precise quantum-optical Sagnac interferometer to date, sensitive enough to measure the Earth’s rotation rate. Image courtesy of Marco Di Vita.
For over a century, interferometers have been key instruments for experimentally testing fundamental physical questions.
They disproved the ether as a light-transmitting medium, helped establish the theory of special relativity, and made it possible to measure tiny ripples in space-time itself known as gravitational waves.
Recent technological advances allow interferometers to work with a variety of quantum systems, including electrons, neutrons, atoms, superfluids, and Bose-Einstein condensates.
“When two or more particles are entangled, only the overall state is known; the states of the individual particles remain uncertain until they are measured,” said co-first author Dr. Philip Walther and his colleagues.
“Using this allows us to get more information per measurement than we would without it.”
“But the extremely delicate nature of quantum entanglement has prevented the expected leap in sensitivity.”
For their study, the authors built a large fiber-optic Sagnac interferometer that was stable with low noise for several hours.
This allows the detection of entangled photon pairs with a sufficiently high quality to exceed the rotational precision of conventional quantum-optical Sagnac interferometers by a factor of 1000.
“In a Sagnac interferometer, two particles moving in opposite directions on a rotating closed path reach a starting point at different times,” the researchers explained.
“When you have two entangled particles, you get a spooky situation: they behave like a single particle testing both directions simultaneously, accumulating twice the time delay compared to a scenario where no entanglement exists.”
“This unique property is known as super-resolution.”
In the experiment, two entangled photons propagated through a 2 km long optical fiber wound around a giant coil, creating an interferometer with an effective area of more than 700 m2.
The biggest hurdle the team faced was isolating and extracting the Earth’s stable rotation signal.
“The crux of the problem lies in establishing a measurement reference point where light is not affected by the Earth’s rotation,” said Dr Raffaele Silvestri, lead author of the study.
“Since we can’t stop the Earth’s rotation, we devised a workaround: split the optical fiber into two equal-length coils and connect them through an optical switch.”
“By switching it on and off, we were able to effectively cancel the rotation signal, which also increased the stability of larger equipment.”
“We’re basically tricking light into thinking it’s in a non-rotating universe.”
The research team succeeded in observing the effect of the Earth’s rotation on a maximally entangled two-photon state.
This confirms the interplay between rotating reference systems and quantum entanglement, as described in Einstein’s special theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, and represents a thousand-fold improvement in precision compared to previous experiments.
“A century after the first observations of the Earth’s rotation using light, this is an important milestone in that the entanglement of individual quanta of light is finally in the same region of sensitivity,” said co-first author Dr Haokun Yu.
“We believe that our findings and methods lay the foundation for further improving the rotational sensitivity of entanglement-based sensors.”
“This could pave the way for future experiments to test the behaviour of quantum entanglement through curves in space-time,” Dr Walther said.
Team work Published in a journal Scientific advances.
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Raffaele Silvestri others2024. Experimental Observation of Earth’s Rotation through Quantum Entanglement. Science Advances 10(24); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado0215
Climate activists protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London in March.
Andrea Domeniconi/Alamy
This week, more than 400 climate scientists from UK research institutes published an open letterAhead of the general election on 4 July, he called on UK political parties to commit to stronger climate action in the next Parliament.
Their demands included a “credible” carbon reduction strategy for the country, during an election campaign where there has been little in-depth discussion about the UK's transition to net zero.
Why are scientists worried? After all, the UK has one of the most ambitious climate targets in the world – a legally binding target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 – and has halved its greenhouse gas emissions since 1990.
While great progress has been made in decarbonizing the electricity supply, with around half of all electricity now generated from zero-carbon sources, other sectors are lagging behind. The Committee on Climate Change, the UK government's climate advisers, say that outside the electricity sector, the rate of emissions reductions needs to quadruple over the next seven years for the UK to meet its commitment to cut emissions by 68% by 2030. I said in OctoberHe warned it was “unlikely” the UK would get there under current plans.
“There's a real sense of frustration in the climate science community,” he said. Emily Schuckberg “We are yet to see the level of response that is required,” said a Cambridge University researcher who co-authored the scientists' letter.
The slow progress means problems are piling up, waiting for the next administration to tackle them.
Transportation and Buildings
By the end of the decade, emissions from surface transport – roads, rail and ships – need to fall by around 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, four times the rate of reduction over the past decade. Electric car sales may be growing strongly, but sales of electric vans and trucks are sluggish, and the number of public charging points is not growing fast enough to keep up with the volume of electric vehicles travelling. Meanwhile, public transport use has fallen sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, It's not back to the previous level.
Getting the transport sector to net zero will require more than just convincing everyone to buy electric cars, Michael Pollitt The Cambridge researchers say that reducing the number and size of cars is a key part of the puzzle. “We need more…and electric vehicles.
When it comes to buildings, home heating is the biggest pain point. Around 23 million homes in the UK are heated by gas boilers. By the middle of the century, all of these homes will need to be heated with zero-carbon energy sources, and it is expected that most will switch to heat pumps.
But the pace of the transition is too slow: just 69,000 heat pumps will be installed in UK homes in 2022, far short of the target of 600,000 per year by 2028. Part of…addition, increasing the affordability and efficiency of heat pumps will be crucial for decarbonizing home heating.
It is urgent to solve these problems. Nick Air One Oxford professor who signed the open letter said that a gas boiler installed in 2035 would still be heating homes in 2050. “For heat pumps and cars, we need to be pretty much sorted by the early 2040s, which means we need to get very serious about it in the 2030s,” he said.
That's why the UK government's inaction over the last decade, when it should have been focusing on preparing industry for mass adoption, is so worrying.
Agriculture and Aviation
Beyond heat, power and transport, tougher choices lie ahead. For example, emissions from agriculture and land use have remained almost unchanged for a decade, but need to be reduced by 29% by 2035. Achieving these reductions will likely require actions…
“The biggest challenge is starting to implement policies and regulations that will affect people's daily lives.” Leo Mercer “If policies are not communicated well, people will react quite strongly,” said the professor at the London School of Economics.
Alongside its domestic challenges, the UK needs to rebuild its reputation on the international stage: under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the UK hosted the COP26 climate summit and led international coalitions on deforestation, methane and electric vehicles.
However, progress on climate change measures in the UK has slowed, cuts in international aid and climate diplomacy; Britain's international reputation has suffered, and the government's decisions to approve new fossil fuel projects in the UK while urging lower-income countries to “move away” from fossil fuels have also antagonized the British public.
Unless a country like the UK can demonstrate that net zero is achievable and desirable as a national strategy, it will face an uphill battle to persuade lower-income countries to cut emissions, which is why it is crucial the UK restores its reputation as a climate leader in the next parliament, he says.
Next year, countries are due to submit new commitments under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. “So this is a pivotal moment for the international community,” she said. “This parliament will be crucial…cing in the 2030s,” he said.
What each party is proposing
So which party can take action on the scale needed to get the UK back on track? All the major parties agree on the need to reach net zero by mid-century, and Labour and the Conservatives are remarkably in agreement on the need for renewable energy, particularly offshore wind.
But Labour has made an eye-catching promise to deliver a fully decarbonised electricity grid by 2030. Adam Bell A former senior UK government official at Stonehaven, a British consultancy, said the target was “highly ambitious” and would push government agencies to the limits of their capabilities. [Labour] It could be even more ambitious.”
But for Eyre, a credible climate manifesto should also include ambitious targets in the areas where the UK is seriously off track: home energy efficiency, heat pump adoption, industrial emissions, land use, solar power and electric vehicles. “It's not a matter of doing one or two of them,” Eyre says. “We need to do them all.”
Many experts privately doubt that the major parties have policy programmes with the pace and scale needed to get to net zero by 2050. Absent that, looking for enthusiasm for the challenges ahead may be the next best way to gauge a party's credibility. In Eyre's eyes, the next UK government is embarking on a “10-year plan on the scale of the introduction of the steam engine.” “If you don't have a positive vision yourself, you're not going to sell it to the public,” he says.
Many of the circled objects represent previously unknown supernovae.
Collaboration between NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI and JADES
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered a surprising number of supernovae in the distant universe, including some of the most distant yet seen. Their discoveries increase the number of known supernovae in the early universe by a factor of ten.
The researchers imaged the same small patch of sky twice, in 2022 and 2023, and found 79 new supernovae. “It’s actually very small, about the size of a grain of rice held at arm’s length,” the researchers said. Christa DeCourcy “We’ve spent more than 100 hours on JWST,” said Dr. [observing] I took my time with each image, which gives them a lot of depth.”
Astronomers then compared the two images with each other and with previous photos of the same area taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, looking for bright spots that appear in one image but not the other.
These specks are relatively faint stars that shone brightly before fading in bright supernova explosions. Some of them are candidates for the most distant supernovae ever found, although their distances have yet to be confirmed. And one of them is definitely the most distant one ever seen. This star exploded when the universe was only about 1.8 billion years old.
Such supernovae would have produced the heavy elements that are now widespread throughout the universe, so they would have had lower concentrations of these elements than modern supernovae. “The universe at this early stage was fundamentally different from what has been explored in the past by the Hubble Space Telescope and especially ground-based surveys,” he said. Justin Pierre “This is really new territory that JWST is breaking into,” he said during a presentation at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland, where observations could help shed light on what the first stars were like.
Climate activists protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London in March.
Andrea Domeniconi/Alamy
This week, more than 400 climate scientists from UK research institutes published an open letterAhead of the general election on 4 July, he called on UK political parties to commit to stronger climate action in the next Parliament.
Their demands included a “credible” carbon reduction strategy for the country, during an election campaign where there has been little in-depth discussion about the UK's transition to net zero.
Why are scientists worried? After all, the UK has one of the most ambitious climate targets in the world – a legally binding target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 – and has halved its greenhouse gas emissions since 1990.
While great progress has been made in decarbonizing the electricity supply, with around half of all electricity now generated from zero-carbon sources, other sectors are lagging behind. The Committee on Climate Change, the UK government's climate advisers, say that outside the electricity sector, the rate of emissions reductions needs to quadruple over the next seven years for the UK to meet its commitment to cut emissions by 68% by 2030. I said in OctoberHe warned it was “unlikely” the UK would get there under current plans.
“There's a real sense of frustration in the climate science community,” he said. Emily Schuckberg “We are yet to see the level of response that is required,” said a Cambridge University researcher who co-authored the scientists' letter.
The slow progress means problems are piling up, waiting for the next administration to tackle them.
Transportation and Buildings
By the end of the decade, emissions from surface transport – roads, rail and ships – need to fall by around 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, four times the rate of reduction over the past decade. Electric car sales may be growing strongly, but sales of electric vans and trucks are sluggish, and the number of public charging points is not growing fast enough to keep up with the volume of electric vehicles travelling. Meanwhile, public transport use has fallen sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, It's not back to the previous level.
Getting the transport sector to net zero will require more than just convincing everyone to buy electric cars, Michael Pollitt The Cambridge researchers say that reducing the number and size of cars is a key part of the puzzle. “We need more radical thinking about intercity transport, including prioritising lanes for small vehicles and dramatically reducing the size and weight of vehicles,” they say. “If people can travel in significantly smaller cars and public transport, that's the route to net-zero transport.”
When it comes to buildings, home heating is the biggest pain point. Around 23 million homes in the UK are heated by gas boilers. By the middle of the century, all of these homes will need to be heated with zero-carbon energy sources, and it is expected that most will switch to heat pumps.
But the pace of the transition is too slow: just 69,000 heat pumps will be installed in UK homes in 2022, far short of the target of 600,000 per year by 2028. Part of the problem is finances: heat pumps are much more expensive to install than gas boilers, and they are often more expensive to run as well, due to an additional levy on grid costs. “We absolutely have to get the price of heat pumps down,” Porritt says. “Unless the price of heat pumps comes down significantly, they will be a major obstacle to decarbonising heating.”
It is urgent to solve these problems. Nick Air One Oxford professor who signed the open letter said that a gas boiler installed in 2035 would still be heating homes in 2050. “For heat pumps and cars, we need to be pretty much sorted by the early 2040s, which means we need to get very serious about it in the 2030s,” he said.
That's why the UK government's inaction over the last decade, when it should have been focusing on preparing industry for mass adoption, is so worrying. “We know what needs to be done,” Eyre says, “but the last two years in particular have been a period of no real action being taken.”
Agriculture and Aviation
Beyond heat, power and transport, tougher choices lie ahead. For example, emissions from agriculture and land use have remained almost unchanged for a decade, but need to be reduced by 29% by 2035. Achieving these reductions will likely require actions to change the way people eat. Similarly, reducing aviation emissions will require actions to curb demand, such as taxes on frequent flyers.
“The biggest challenge is starting to implement policies and regulations that will affect people's daily lives.” Leo Mercer “If policies are not communicated well, people will react quite strongly,” said the professor at the London School of Economics.
Alongside its domestic challenges, the UK needs to rebuild its reputation on the international stage: under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the UK hosted the COP26 climate summit and led international coalitions on deforestation, methane and electric vehicles.
However, progress on climate change measures in the UK has slowed, cuts in international aid and climate diplomacy; Britain's international reputation has suffered, and the government's decisions to approve new fossil fuel projects in the UK while urging lower-income countries to “move away” from fossil fuels have also antagonized the British public.
Unless a country like the UK can demonstrate that net zero is achievable and desirable as a national strategy, it will face an uphill battle to persuade lower-income countries to cut emissions, which is why it is crucial the UK restores its reputation as a climate leader in the next parliament, he says. Katerina Brandmeyer At Imperial College London.
Next year, countries are due to submit new commitments under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. “So this is a pivotal moment for the international community,” she said. “This parliament will be crucial not only to ensuring delivery in the UK, but also to raising ambition globally.”
What each party is proposing
So which party can take action on the scale needed to get the UK back on track? All the major parties agree on the need to reach net zero by mid-century, and Labour and the Conservatives are remarkably in agreement on the need for renewable energy, particularly offshore wind.
But Labour has made an eye-catching promise to deliver a fully decarbonised electricity grid by 2030. Adam Bell A former senior UK government official at Stonehaven, a British consultancy, said the target was “highly ambitious” and would push government agencies to the limits of their capabilities. [Labour] It could be even more ambitious.”
But for Eyre, a credible climate manifesto should also include ambitious targets in the areas where the UK is seriously off track: home energy efficiency, heat pump adoption, industrial emissions, land use, solar power and electric vehicles. “It's not a matter of doing one or two of them,” Eyre says. “We need to do them all.”
Many experts privately doubt that the major parties have policy programmes with the pace and scale needed to get to net zero by 2050. Absent that, looking for enthusiasm for the challenges ahead may be the next best way to gauge a party's credibility. In Eyre's eyes, the next UK government is embarking on a “10-year plan on the scale of the introduction of the steam engine.” “If you don't have a positive vision yourself, you're not going to sell it to the public,” he says.
You’ve probably experienced this scenario before: after a long day, feeling mentally and physically drained, all you want to do is crawl into bed and sleep.
However, your brain, the most powerful biological supercomputer in the universe, decides to play tricks on you. Instead of allowing you to rest, it keeps you wide awake, with thoughts racing through your mind at lightning speed.
So why does this happen? Why does it prevent us from sleeping when we need it the most? The answer is simple: when you’re too tired, your brain overrides the signals for sleep and keeps you awake.
If you’ve heard of being “over-fatigued” before, it’s often used to describe babies who become agitated and unsettled from being awake too long, leading to sleep disturbances and stress.
Similarly, adults can experience the same issues when unaddressed emotions interfere with the body’s natural sleep processes. The longer you stay fatigued, the more challenging it becomes to fall asleep.
Fortunately, there are ways to break this cycle. In the sections below, we’ll explore what causes excessive fatigue and share three scientifically proven steps to combat it for good.
Excessive fatigue impacts your sleep quality
Being overly tired is a paradoxical situation. When you’re physically and mentally drained, your brain is actually overstimulated and in a state of hyperarousal, making it difficult to transition to sleep.
This hyperarousal state affects essential functions that promote sleep, particularly hindering the buildup of sleep pressure in the brain.
Sleep pressure refers to the buildup of neurochemicals and hormones that increase throughout the day, signaling your body’s need for rest.
“Interestingly, as sleep pressure rises, the brain can become more excitable,” explains Professor Matt Jones, a Neuroscientist at the University of Bristol. “The neurons in the cerebral cortex tend to fire more frequently as wakefulness increases.”
“The primary theory is that sleep helps reset sleep pressure, preventing the brain from becoming overly excited and metaphorically ‘exploding!'”
When you’re vigilant and overwhelmed by racing thoughts, this process of resetting the brain for sleep is disrupted, particularly impacting the locus ceruleus area in the brainstem.
“In times of hyperarousal, the activity in this brain region remains high, impeding the transition to sleep and resisting mechanisms that facilitate falling asleep,” Jones clarifies.
Furthermore, persistent fatigue and sleep deprivation can exacerbate troubling thoughts, making it harder to sleep the following night.
“A study in 2019 found that individuals with insomnia were more likely to ruminate about recent embarrassing events and have disrupted sleep compared to healthy sleepers,” he explains.
“Insomniacs might even become hypersensitive to their heartbeat, showing how an unrested brain struggles to ignore irrelevant stimuli,” Jones adds.
“A well-rested brain can filter out unnecessary information, but insomnia disrupts this process, leading to increased mental strain,” he concludes.
When you’re too tired and key brain regions remain hyperaroused while trying to sleep, essential processes for rest are disrupted.
Dr. Alex Scott, a Psychology lecturer at Keele University, explains that in today’s society, people struggle to regulate their emotions and process daily experiences effectively due to various distractions.
“At the end of the day, we are less inclined to deal positively with our emotions, often exaggerating worries and ruminating in bed,” he shares.
Scott suggests that when fatigued, individuals tend to use unhealthy coping mechanisms, like rumination and blame-shifting.
If rumination proves ineffective for alleviating fatigue, Scott recommends the following three strategies:
1. Avoid counting sheep
Paradoxically, trying too hard to fall asleep can make it even harder. Instead of using traditional methods like counting sheep, Scott encourages individuals to understand that sleep is an automated process that cannot be forced.
“Focus on processing your emotions through exercises like a worry journal,” Scott advises.
2. Maintain a worry diary
Although it may seem tedious, journaling your worries can significantly improve sleep quality for those with sleep issues, according to Scott.
Before bedtime, write down all your concerns in a journal, allowing you to acknowledge them and develop strategies to address them the next day.
“The act of writing down your worries may help you rationalize them and temporarily set them aside, promoting better sleep,” Scott explains.
3. Establish a bedtime routine
Creating a relaxation routine before bed, ideally starting an hour before sleep, can help alleviate mental fatigue and prepare your mind for rest.
“Engage in activities like reading, mindfulness, or journaling during this time to unwind and avoid associating your bed with worries,” Scott suggests.
Learn more about our experts
Professor Matt Jones: A Neuroscientist at the University of Bristol, delving into the science of sleep, memory, and decision-making. His research has been featured in numerous academic journals, such as Frontiers in Neurology, Sleep, and the Neuroscience Journal.
Dr. Alex Scott: As a Psychology lecturer at Keele University, Scott explores the relationship between sleep and mental health issues. His work has been published in esteemed journals like the British Journal of Health Psychology and the British Medical Journal.
Tesla shareholders have given their approval to a contentious referendum regarding CEO Elon Musk’s leadership, resulting in an agreement to pay him $45bn (£35.3bn).
The results, which were released on Thursday, reflect a struggle for the billionaire tycoon to retain the largest compensation package ever awarded to an executive at a publicly traded U.S. company.
“First of all, I want to say I love you guys so much!” said Musk, expressing his elation as he took the stage after the vote.
The vote followed a ruling by a Delaware judge in January that invalidated a previous payment to Musk, which was then valued at about $56bn (£439m), citing lack of board independence from Musk’s influence and an unlawful process in reaching the amount.
The outcome is seen as a win for Musk and the Tesla board, who actively lobbied shareholders to support the deal. It could potentially challenge the judge’s decision to nullify the payment and aid in demonstrating that shareholders were adequately informed about the payment and directors’ relationships with Musk prior to voting.
Tesla’s board cautioned that Musk may sever ties with the company if the package was not approved, but Musk asserted he had substantial backing from investors.
Despite opposition from major shareholders like Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and the California State Teachers Retirement System, as well as proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, the vote does not automatically guarantee the release of the funds, and further legal debates are expected.
The vote may trigger additional litigation that could prolong legal proceedings, and the approval of relocating Tesla’s legal headquarters from Delaware to Texas could complicate the matter further.
Tesla initially introduced Musk’s compensation package in 2017, which included stock options based on meeting specific company goals. The package was approved by shareholders in 2018 but faced legal challenges alleging board deception and unfairness.
Judge Katherine McCormick of the Delaware Chancery Court criticized Tesla’s board process for determining Musk’s compensation, highlighting conflicts of interest and close relationships with Musk’s associates. Despite this, the board aims to challenge Judge McCormick’s ruling.
Barsoni othersTwin disks and jets erupting from a pair of young stars in WL20. Image credit: NSF / NRAO / B. Saxton / NASA / JPL-Caltech / Harvard-Smithsonian CfA.
WL20 It is located in the Rho Ophiuchus Molecular Cloud Complex, more than 400 light years from Earth.
“What we found was absolutely surprising,” said Dr Mary Barthony, lead author of the study.
“We've known about the WL20 system for some time, but what caught our attention was that one of the stars in the system appeared to be much younger than the others.”
“Using MIRI and ALMA together, we were able to see that this one star is actually two stars next to each other.”
“Each of these stars was surrounded by a disk, and each disk emitted a jet parallel to the others.”
ALMA and Webb's MIRI observe very different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Used together, they allowed astronomers to discover these hidden twins in the stellar system's radio and infrared wavelengths: ALMA found the disk, and MIRI found the jet.
They analyzed archived ALMA data to reveal the composition of the disk, and MIRI data to reveal the chemical composition of the jet.
They also analyzed high-resolution images, revealing the size of the massive disk – about 100 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
“Without MIRI we would never have known these jets even existed, which is amazing,” Dr Barthony said.
“ALMA's high-resolution observations of the disks surrounding the two newly observed stars reveal the structure of the disks.”
“Someone looking at this ALMA data and not knowing there are twin jets would think it's a big edge-on disk with a hole in the middle, rather than two edge-on disks and two jets. That's pretty remarkable.”
Combining multi-wavelength data from ALMA and Webb revealed the complex processes involved in the formation of several stellar systems.
“We plan to take advantage of ALMA's future upgrades, such as the broadband sensitivity upgrade, to continue unlocking the mysteries surrounding the birth of stars and planetary systems,” the researchers said.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended that pharmaceutical companies develop coronavirus vaccines targeting the KP.2 strain, a descendant of the highly contagious JN.1 variant that began spreading widely in the United States this winter. The announcement comes just one week after an FDA advisory committee unanimously recommended updating COVID-19 vaccines in the fall to target the JN.1 variant or its descendants.
After the vote, there was disagreement between committee members and Dr. Peter Marks, the agency’s top vaccine regulator, over which strain the agency should choose. Most committee members expressed a preference for JN.1, but Dr. Marks favored choosing a newer strain like KP.2. “We’re paying an incredibly high premium for the mRNA vaccines to get the freshest vaccine,” Marks said, likening getting the vaccine to buying milk at the store.
The FDA said it had initially advised drugmakers on June 6 to target the JN.1 variant, but the agency continues to monitor circulating strains and “based on the latest available data and recent increases in COVID-19 cases in areas of the country, the FDA has further determined that the JN.1 lineage is preferred for improved vaccines,” with the KP.2 strain preferred “when possible,” the FDA said.
The JN.1 is hardly in circulation in the United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention As of Saturday, KP.2 accounted for 22.5% of new coronavirus cases in the U.S., while its sister variant, KP.3, accounted for 25% of new cases.
The FDA’s decision allows pharmaceutical companies to begin manufacturing and distributing the vaccine, which is expected to be used as part of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns this fall.
Three pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax, are producing coronavirus vaccines. Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are mRNA-based, while Novavax’s vaccine is protein-based. Because protein-based vaccines take a long time to produce, Novavax has indicated that it will not be able to produce the KP.2 vaccine by the fall. Instead, it plans to distribute the JN.1 vaccine that it has already produced.
This is the third time the vaccine has been updated to target circulating strains. The process of selecting the next vaccine is becoming more routine, similar to the annual influenza vaccination update, with vaccinologists selecting the strains in the spring and then conducting vaccination campaigns in the fall.
At the advisory committee meeting, the pharmaceutical company presented data showing that compared to current vaccines that target the variant XBB.1.5, which is not currently in circulation, the JN.1 vaccine should generate higher levels of antibodies against circulating virus strains.
The committee did not recommend who should get the latest vaccine, leaving that to the CDC, which will be holding its own advisory committee meeting later this month.
As summer approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Florida is already facing extreme weather conditions. Storms have hit South Florida, bringing heavy rain and causing severe flooding in cities like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Sarasota. This comes after an early-season heatwave pushed temperatures above triple digits. All of this is happening as forecasters predict a particularly active hurricane season.
These events are all exacerbated by climate change, a reality that clashes with the current state politics in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis has become known for his opposition to addressing climate change, with recent legislation deprioritizing climate change in the state’s energy policy. This goes against the scientific consensus that these extreme events are linked to climate change.
DeSantis has also signed bills that prevent cities and counties from implementing measures to protect against heat-related illnesses in the workplace. This leaves workers vulnerable as Florida faces a warmer-than-normal summer.
Experts argue that DeSantis’ policies are out of sync with climate science and hinder efforts to protect people from the impacts of climate change. The state’s refusal of federal funding for climate change initiatives further complicates efforts to address the issue.
While some Republicans are beginning to take climate change more seriously, it remains a divisive issue. Former President Donald Trump and DeSantis have downplayed the threat of climate change, aligning themselves with a stance that dismisses the urgency of addressing it.
Despite these challenges, climate change advisers stress the importance of taking action to protect communities from the impacts of global warming. It is crucial for states like Florida to prioritize mitigation measures to safeguard against the worsening effects of the climate crisis.
A scorching hot day in Bucharest, Romania, June 2019
lcv / Alamy
In the future, city dwellers could beat the heat with clothes made from new fabrics that keep them cool.
Made from plastic material and silver nanowires, the fabric is designed to keep you cool in urban environments by using the principle of radiative cooling, a natural process in which objects radiate heat back into space.
The material selectively emits a narrow band of infrared light that allows it to escape the Earth’s atmosphere, while at the same time blocking radiation from the sun and from surrounding structures.
Jo Bo-jun, a researcher from the University of Chicago, Illinois, and his team say the material “is more than half [the radiation]” from buildings and the ground,” he says.
Some cooling fabrics and building materials already use this radiative cooling principle, but most of their designs don’t take into account radiation from the sun or infrared radiation from structures like buildings and pavements, and they assume the materials are oriented horizontally against the sky, like roof panels, rather than vertically like clothing worn by a person.
Such designs “work well when they face something cooler, like the sky or a field,” Su says, “but not when they face an urban heat island.”
Xu and his colleagues designed a three-layered fabric: the inner layer is made from common clothing fabrics like wool or cotton, and the middle layer is made up of silver nanowires that reflect most of the radiation.
The top layer is made of a plastic material called polymethylpentene, which does not absorb or reflect most wavelengths and emits a narrow band of infrared light.
In outdoor tests, the fabric remained 8.9°C (16°F) cooler than regular silk fabric and 2.3°C (4.1°F) cooler than a broad-spectrum radiation-emitting material. When tested against the skin, the fabric was 1.8°C (3.2°F) cooler than cotton fabric.
Su said this slight difference in temperature could theoretically increase the amount of time a person can comfortably be exposed to heat by up to a third, but that this has yet to be tested.
“It’s always been difficult to make this material practical as a fiber.” Aswath Raman, the UCLA researcher added that the study is a good example of applying the physical principles of radiative cooling to a practical material. Other materials with similar properties could also be used on vertical surfaces in buildings, he said.
The malaria drug artemisinin is extracted from the plant wormwood.
Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
A drug already used to treat malaria may also be effective in treating polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
A small study of 19 women with PCOS found that the commonly used drug artemisinin improved menstrual cycle regularity and reduced high testosterone levels that are common in PCOS patients.
The underlying cause of PCOS is unknown, but it is linked to several hormonal imbalances, including excess testosterone produced by the ovaries, which can lead to symptoms like irregular menstrual periods, infertility, and increased acne and body hair.
Affected people also tend to have reduced sensitivity to insulin, the hormone that regulates sugar, which leads to weight gain and exacerbates the hormonal imbalance.
Currently, PCOS patients are treated individually depending on their symptoms, for example undergoing laser treatments to remove body hair or taking birth control pills to regularize menstruation.
While investigating the effects of various drugs on fat cells in mice, Chi Kun Tang Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, found that artemisinin reduced symptoms in mice with PCOS-like conditions.
His team then gave 19 women with PCOS artemisinin for three months and found that all of them experienced a drop in testosterone levels, and most also saw a reduction in another substance called anti-Müllerian hormone. Associated with PCOSTwelve of the participants also experienced more regular menstrual cycles after taking the drug.
In other studies using mouse and human cells, the team found that artemisinin could reduce testosterone production in the ovaries.
Stephen Franks The Imperial College London researcher says that although the 19 women had a healthy BMI on average, weight loss tends to reduce PCOS symptoms, suggesting that artemisinin may work through another mechanism: improving insulin sensitivity. “If the results are as positive in a randomized trial as they are in this pilot study, it would be exciting,” he says.
Elisabeth Stener-Victorin Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, say the fact that artemisinin is already generally safe when used to treat malaria means that it could soon be repurposed as a new treatment for PCOS.
Australian paleontologists have discovered the fossilized skeleton of a previously unknown Anhangeria pterosaur, dating back 100 million years.
Reconstructing your life Haliskia petersenii Image courtesy of Gabriel N. Ugueto.
The newly identified pterosaur species lived in what is now northeastern Australia's state of Queensland during the Early Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago.
Scientific Name Haliskia petersenii This flying reptile had a premaxillary crown and curved teeth.
It also had a long wingspan of about 4.6 metres (15.1 feet).
“Haliskia petersenii “About 100 million years ago, when much of central-west Queensland was underwater and covered by a vast inland sea, and on Earth where the southern Victoria coastline is now, it would have been a fearsome predator,” said Adele Pentland, a PhD student at Curtin University.
Fossilized remains Haliskia petersenii Kevin Petersen, curator of the Kronosaurus Corner Museum, in November 2021 Toule back formation Of the Eromanga Basin.
“Haliskia petersenii “The fossil is 22 per cent complete, more than twice as complete as the only other partial pterosaur skeleton found in Australia,” Mr Pentland said.
“The specimen includes a complete lower jaw, the tip of the upper jaw, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, both wing bones and part of a leg.”
“There are also very thin and delicate throat bones present, indicating the presence of a muscular tongue, which would have been useful when eating fish and cephalopods.”
Pentland and colleagues Anhangeria is a group of pterosaurs known to have lived all over the world, including in what is now Brazil, Britain, Morocco, China, Spain, and the United States.
“The global nature of the Anhang-area pterosaurs, and in particular their success across Gondwana (e.g. in the Eromanga and Araripe basins), may have been made possible by niche partitioning within this clade,” the paleontologists said.
“However, rigorous testing of this hypothesis will require multiple locations and better time constraints.”
“Additional data on this clade are available Haliskia petersenii ” sheds light on the palaeoecology of Anhangeria pterosaurs and highlights the taxonomic diversity of these flying reptiles from the Cretaceous of Australia.”
Team paper Published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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A.H. Pentland others. 2024. Haliskia petersenii A new Anhangelian pterosaur that lived in the early Late Cretaceous of Australia. Scientific Reports 14, 11789; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-60889-8
To find out whether air taxi passengers need to worry about collisions with birds, a number of tests were carried out by a German emergency program.
Colliding a real air taxi with a real bird would be complicated and dangerous, so perfection was impossible, so experimenters made do by dropping artificial “bird bullets” onto a rigged metal plate that allowed them to measure the force of the impact.
Aditya Devta and Isabelle Metz of the German Aerospace Center and Sophie Armani of the Technical University of Munich described these violent encounters as follows: Preprint paper(Thanks to reader Mason Porter for pointing this out.)
This study was, necessarily, a rough step toward definitively answering the big questions.
The report said the bird shots were dropped manually and faced various challenges, including “inconsistency and lack of repeatability” due to human involvement. Future efforts should “eliminate human involvement and [so as to] “Improve the accuracy and repeatability of force measurements.”
Collision in the middle of the track
Speaking of experiments involving birds and flying taxis, have you heard of the moose and bullet train experiment? Yong Peng and his colleagues from Central South University in China began investigating what happens when these heavy animals meet at high speed.Analysis of moose movement trajectory after collision between bullet train and moose” “.
The questions go beyond the initial simple collision: the scientists mention two possible complications: “If the moose lies on the tracks after the collision, it could increase the risk of train derailment” and “if the moose is thrown into the air during the collision, it could strike and damage the pantograph, disrupting train operation.”
Previous investigations have relied on mathematical simulations using finite element methods and less-heavy experiments, using fresh beef muscle tissue (from cows, not elk) and a type of stress-strain testing machine called a “split-Hopkinson pressure bar.”
Essentially, the force of the impact “depends on the area of contact between the train and the moose,” the scientists report.
Regarding these complexities, the report states: “The moose will not be pushed aside by the V-shaped locomotive and derail, and the moose will not be thrown into the air to the height of the pantograph, causing no damage to the Shinkansen pantograph.”
The study suggests something bigger is on the way: “Only a scenario of a train crossing the tracks at 110km/h hitting a moose was simulated, which cannot fully reflect the risk of a train-moose collision. Therefore, further speeds and attitudes are needed to enhance ongoing research.”
Feeling cheeky
Slowly and gently, new findings about sources are coming in from readers. These concern the off-label use of ketchup and other sticky foods to make electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes work better (Feedback, May 25).
Brian Leffin Smith adds a musical note: “You don’t need human skin to test whether ketchup electrodes are better than regular gel electrodes. I have equipment that applies a low voltage to plant leaves (or anything else) and converts the varying current into a MIDI signal that can be sent to a computer or synthesizer to play sounds… Anyway, in a statistically insignificant but anecdotally and culinarily interesting test, I found that low-salt ketchup placed between an ECG electrode and a chili leaf produced a fairly high E, while the proper gel placed on the adjacent leaf produced a G. I thought this might be useful, but now I don’t think so.”
Dave Hardy makes a point about practicality: “In the early 1970s, my GP said that gel was ridiculously expensive, but that strawberry jam would work just as well. I don’t know if he tried a range of options or just used what he had on hand (this was in the Falkland Islands).”
Death of a Star
It is surprising how few people are hailed as “famous pathologists.” news The paper reported on the death of one of them: “Dr. Cyril Wecht, the prominent pathologist who argued that more than one shooter killed JFK, has died at age 93.”
One of the first celebrated pathologists, Bernard Spilsbury (1877-1947), helped establish London’s reputation as a hotbed of fascinating and intricate murder mystery investigations.
Royal College of Physicians RevealedAfter his death, he said that Spilsbury’s career had been a truly dramatic one: “The famous Crippen trial in which he was involved [William] Wilcox’s attempts to prove that the murders were committed with hyoscine hydrobromide first attracted him to public attention, and he lamented it at every trial he subsequently attended, which no doubt accounted for his stern and cold demeanor towards all but his closest friends.
Spilsbury’s attitude was by no means contemptible. One aspect of the job of dissecting a corpse is the terrible stench of rotting bodies, which can put off sensitive people. Spilsbury was not a sensitive person in this respect. His colleagues were amazed at how enthusiastic he was about dissecting a corpse. Obituary To put it politely, it was an “olfactory disorder.”
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible
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My daughter is one of the kids the U.S. Surgeon General has warned about. Our nation’s children have become “unwitting participants” in a “decades-long experiment.” Social media use poses mental health risks to young people. Young people’s “near-constant” use of social media leads to poor sleep, depression, and anxiety.
Before sixth grade, my daughter saved up her dog-walking money to buy a phone. She found a used iPhone 13 Mini on Craigslist. I set high expectations for her to get good grades, keep her room clean, take out the trash, etc. Little did I know then that the iPhone would systematically undermine her ability to accomplish these tasks and so much more.
When my daughter walked under an inflatable arch into her classroom on her first day of middle school, I took comfort in the fact that I could reach her. Like most parents, I associated my cell phone with safety, not danger. I didn’t know that social media developers were controlling her next swipe, or that her “human future” was being sold to the highest bidder, enriching the richest corporation in the history of mankind.
I learned the hard way through my daughter’s lies, manipulation, failing grades, through the “zebra stripes” scars painted on her arms.
Her school photo from sixth grade captures my daughter in her “emo” phase: feather earrings, Pink Floyd T-shirt, crooked smile. The innocence of the photo was quickly replaced by selfies: selfies with pursed lips making a peace sign; selfies with her head tilted to one side, half-face, full-body; selfies in bed. Her camera roll records her degradation: selfies of her crying, selfies with swollen eyes, selfies of her unable to leave her bedroom.
By spring semester, my daughter’s grades were slipping. I assumed she had ADHD, so I took her to a psychiatrist for a psychiatric evaluation. The afternoon sun filtered through the faux-wood blinds, casting strips of light on the black hoodie she always wore. The doctor’s questions started out predictably: Can’t concentrate in class? Can’t finish your homework? Can’t sleep? Then the interview took a scary turn. Do you feel like your life isn’t worth living? Have you ever hurt yourself? Have you ever wanted to die?
I widened my eyes at the child’s profile and answered, “Yes.”Tearing out my guts.
Doctors diagnosed her with depression and anxiety. Further testing revealed that she spent 80% of her attention on gaining the approval of her peers. No wonder she was failing math. It was a miracle she was passing her classes when only 20% of her brain was dedicated to school.
The doctor prescribed therapy and Lexapro. These helped, but he didn’t inform me of the epidemic of cell phones among middle schoolers. I later learned that my daughter is the first generation of 10-14-year-olds to actively use social media. These girls have a 151% increase in suicide rates and a 182% increase in self-harm. Her treatment assumed that her suffering was personal, not structural. In our country, we prescribe drugs to solve this societal crisis.
At the time, I was unaware of this and allowed my daughter to continue using social media. One day, I got a text message from another mother. I stared at the screen, wondering why this mother was sending me such a revealing selfie. Then I noticed a mole on the woman’s chest. It was my daughter’s.
When I showed the photo to my daughter, she gasped. She handed over her phone. I discovered she had circumvented screen limits and been on social media until the early hours of the morning. She had sent the image on Snapchat to someone named PJ. He claimed to be a 16-year-old boy, but his responses were so graphic I suspected he was older. I was horrified to learn that a cell phone is a two-way street and a platform that adults can use to abduct and traffic children.
I had a family meeting with my daughter, her father, and my mother-in-law. We agreed that my daughter would delete her social media accounts and get rid of her phone until the new school year started. After a summer of traveling, relaxing in person, and spending time with family, my daughter’s energy returned. The bags under her eyes faded, and she stopped sighing, shrugging, and rolling her eyes. She woke up and laughed. Sometimes she even wanted me to hug her.
It was hard to give my daughter’s phone back before seventh grade, but we had made a commitment. I wanted to reinforce her good behavior. I created new rules: no social media, no devices in the bedroom, turn off the phone at 8 p.m. Charge the phone on the kitchen counter. I bought an alarm clock and a sound machine. We endured a digital detox. My daughter started playing soccer. My insomnia was cured. We joined a gym and worked out together.
But within a few months, my daughter had relapsed again. Little lies, big lies. A friend’s mother sent me an email with selfies of her daughters vaping and hanging out at the mall with boys they’d never met. We had another family meeting.
“This might seem weird, but maybe my daughter doesn’t need a cell phone,” her mother-in-law said.
The words rippled through my mind. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Cell phones were destroying my daughter, but I couldn’t imagine life without them. I stayed true to the idea of the cell phone, its ideals. I had a cell phone again.
When I told her my daughter had lost her cell phone until she was in high school, she threw a tantrum. that She was the only child in her class without a cell phone, but once the tantrum subsided, she began to regain her composure. Then, within a few weeks, signs of her addictive behavior began to reappear.
I found an iPhone charger in the outlet next to her bed. She said it was to charge her AirPods. She threw herself on the ground to stop me from searching under the bed. One night, I was lying in bed thinking and it occurred to me. My daughter two Phone. I accidentally broke my Mini on a weight training machine while working out, so I bought her a new iPhone 13. I confiscated the 13, but I was able to give the Mini to her.
When I asked her the next morning, she said, “I sold it to a friend at school.” She couldn’t tell me who she sold it to or how much she paid for it.
“I’ll find it,” I said. I see you Gestures. I was distraught, but with calm confidence and a little humor, I went through backpacks and drawers, rifled through pockets, entered rooms unannounced, and tried to catch her in the act. My daughter remained calm the whole time I searched. I began to wonder if I had gone completely crazy. I bought a metal detector.
Then one night, I walked into my daughter’s room. She jumped up and pulled back the comforter. I ran to the bed and reached under the covers. The charging cord! My fingers traced its length to the plugged-in phone.
We stared at the Mini in my hands, the Snapchat app glowing beneath the cracked screen, and she looked at me, her eyes wide and filling with tears.
That night, my heart pounded against the pillow as I scrolled through her social media. Her communications were urgent and earnest. She begged one boy in particular, Damien, to get back to her. When he didn’t respond, she said she was depressed and began sexting him and sending him pictures of her breasts.
Through my sister, I found the answer in Johan Hari’s Stolen Focus. The book explores why and how our attention span is declining: “The phones we own and the programs that run on them have been purposefully designed by the smartest people in the world to capture and hold the most of our attention.” Of course. My daughter was young and vulnerable to this manipulation. She measured her self-worth within a system that was both attention-addicted and attention-starved at the same time. She had internalized an algorithm where provocative content wins. “The more outrageous something is, the more attractive it is,” Hari writes.
Our social experiment is being replicated in homes across the country. As parents, we want our kids to be safe. We want them to contact us if a shooter comes to school. But the biggest danger is At the inner Make phone calls on your cell phone, not outside.
One of the reasons our kids are addicted to their phones is because we are. My friends complain of insomnia, but they can’t imagine leaving their phones outside of their bedrooms. Addressing my kids’ phone use means addressing my own. I have to restrain myself from texting while driving. I’ve also stopped rushing to the charging station each morning to check if I’ve missed any messages.
After the seventh grade, my daughter that A child. Without a phone, she’s the kid who dribbles a soccer ball in her living room, races down the street on her skateboard, becomes an honor student and joins the track team. The kid who wags her hands while chatting with friends, braids her hair, falls asleep reading a book.
These days, we use my phone to plan outings together, listen to audiobooks, and sing along to her songs and mine (Shakira, Sade, Ice Cube, Fugees). Last weekend, we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to visit family. As the June gloom settled over the shoreline, my daughter and I bodysurfed into the crashing waves. “Again!” she said, jumping up, enthralled by the feeling of the waves rolling under her belly.
My daughter is not the only child like this. A woman I met recently confiscated her 11-year-old son’s phone after she discovered him sexting. Since schools were required to wrap their phones in rubber bands, the sick middle-schooler has built community and focused in class. The trend is spreading fast. UK children have been learning mostly in “no-phone environments” since the Department for Education ordered it.
Individuals and and Changes to the system to check cell phone usage. I’m interested to see what happens with this change when my daughter reaches high school.
IThere's been a lot of speculation regarding the outlook for the games industry in 2024. Following a surge of investment during the pandemic, the industry experienced a temporary boost in growth as people sought entertainment and social interaction while adhering to safety measures at home. However, this year has seen a correction, with studios and companies that expanded too rapidly now scaling back, leading to layoffs and studio closures. Job opportunities for developers have decreased, and games that faced delays due to the pandemic are taking longer to release, resulting in fewer titles compared to the previous year.
The Summer Game Fest, which has taken the place of E3 in Los Angeles, reflects this industry slowdown. What was once a grand trade show is now a more modest event held in smaller venues away from the main convention center. The shift from elaborate press conferences to online livestreams signifies a change in the industry landscape. However, amidst this decline, there is a bright spot in the success of indie games.
Indie games like Palworld, Helldivers 2, and Hades II have emerged as top sellers on platforms like Steam, showcasing the creativity and innovation present in the indie gaming scene. In contrast, big-budget blockbusters from major publishers are facing challenges, with titles like Redfall and Suicide Squad receiving mixed reactions. The industry’s focus on franchised games and live service models is leading to a lack of fresh ideas and risks being taken.
UFO 50, a collection of 50 games. Photo: Mossmouth
However, the indie gaming scene is thriving, with a multitude of creative and unique games being showcased at events like the Summer Game Fest. Titles like UFO 50, Tales of the Shire, and Fear the Spotlight offer players fresh experiences and showcase the diversity of the indie game market. As the industry shifts towards more indie success stories, there is hope for a resurgence of innovative and original content.
While the gaming industry’s major players continue to rely on established franchises and blockbuster titles, it is the indie developers who are driving forward with new ideas and creative approaches. With initiatives like Outersloth supporting indie developers and new entrants like Blumhouse entering the gaming space, there is a sense of revitalization and excitement surrounding indie games.
As the industry evolves, it is clear that the future of gaming lies beyond the traditional giants. With a global community of players and creators, the possibilities for innovation and growth are endless. While the big names may dominate headlines, it is the indie scene that is truly pushing boundaries and shaping the future of gaming.
What to Play
Star Wars: Hunters. Photo: LucasFilm Games/Zynga
For a fresh gaming experience, try out Star Wars: Hunters on platforms like the Nintendo Switch and smartphones. This team-based arena shooter offers diverse characters from the Star Wars universe and engaging gameplay mechanics. With a focus on intuitive controls and immersive visuals, this game is a must-try for Star Wars fans and gamers alike.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, iPhone, Android Estimated play time: 20+ hours
What to Read
No guns in sight… Catto's Post Office is one of the cosy titles featured on Wholesome Direct. Photo: Inn Shambles Studios
What to click on
Question Block
Elden Ring…can't swim. Photo: Bandai Namco
This week's Question Block explores the dilemma of how video games handle water-related challenges and the consequences of immersion versus gameplay mechanics. The debate over drowning animations and failure states in games highlights the complexities of creating authentic yet engaging gaming experiences.
Whether a game opts for realism or streamlined gameplay, the approach to water mechanics can shape the player’s experience and immersion in the virtual world. As the industry evolves, designers face the challenge of balancing authenticity with player engagement to deliver memorable and enjoyable gaming experiences.
For more insights into game design and industry trends, stay tuned to Question Block and other engaging content related to the evolving world of video games.
Helldivers 2, reminiscent of the sci-fi military satire and hyper-grotesque brutality of Starship Troopers, took the gaming world by storm upon its release in February. This cooperative action game offers immersive and hilarious gameplay, pitting players against terrifying insects and crazed robots in various desolate landscapes. Each battle feels like a part of a grander narrative, amplified by Arrowhead Game Studios’ adept use of social media channels.
Our Review: “Everything about this game is incredible, including the incredible things it sets out to do.” Read the full review
Animal Well
An ethereal joy…Animal Well. Photos: Shared Memories
Animal Well may seem like a niche game where players control a blob trapped in a well, but it surprises with its twisty puzzle-platform mechanics. This atmospheric and dreamy adventure features visuals reminiscent of a lost 1980s arcade game peeked through a window. Navigate the well, acquire new skills, and encounter charming creatures in this unique experience.
Our Review: “In an age where major video game companies are focusing on developing video games that are designed to function like sports, what a treat to see a game this complex and restrained on offer.” Read the full review
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
A skilled warrior…Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Photo: Ubisoft
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown marks the return to the roots of Ubisoft’s iconic adventure series. Straying away from modern 3D exploration, this game offers precise 2D platforming as players embody the skilled warrior Sargon on a mission to rescue Prince Ghassan. Traverse labyrinthine fortresses, master jumps and dodges, and engage in intense boss battles in this new classic of the “Metroidvania” genre.
Our Review: “It’s been 13 years since the last all-new Prince of Persia game, so if this is a new direction, I’m excited to see what the results are.” Read the full review
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Capcom’s epic role-playing adventure, Dragon’s Dogma 2, may seem like a standard genre offering at first glance. However, this quirky and sometimes awkward game is filled with unique lore and quirky characters, offering a fun and hilarious experience reminiscent of a 1980s fantasy film.
Our Review: “To sum up this game in one sentence, it prioritizes fun over functionality. What you need to understand is that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a very silly game.” Read the full review
Crow Country
Horror ride…Crow Country. Photo: SFB Games
Embark on a creepy survival horror adventure in Crow Country, where something sinister lurks in an abandoned theme park near Atlanta. This game takes inspiration from classic horror titles of the mid-90s, offering a spine-chilling experience reminiscent of games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Our Review: “Crow Country is more than a collection of PS1-era classics; it’s a true triumph in itself.” Read the full review
Lorelei and the Laser Eye
Immerse yourself in a mysterious and bizarre adventure with Lorelei and the Laser Eye. Navigate through an abandoned hotel, unraveling a twisted mystery that intertwines art, film, and perhaps even murder. Each room presents a new puzzle to solve, offering hours of cerebral and stylish gameplay.
Our Review: “An engaging puzzle game that uses creepy visuals and a puzzling storyline as an essential part of the experience, not just a design gimmick.” Read the full review
Cinematic…Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Photo: Xbox Game Studios
Embark on a dark and chilling journey with Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, as troubled warrior Senua navigates through the frozen and terrifying landscapes of ancient Iceland. Dive into Viking legend and explore themes of pain and determination in this extraordinary cinematic experience.
Our Review: “Hellblade II is a work to be cherished. Who knows how many more intelligent masterpieces this risk-averse industry will produce in the future?” Read the full review
Baratoro
A fascinating card game…Balatro. Photo: LocalThunk/Playstack
Balatro is an indie gem that combines poker, solitaire, and deck-building gameplay into an addictively fun experience. This roguelike card game features special abilities and a challenging gameplay loop that keeps players coming back for more.
Our Review: “A trippy take on poker that seamlessly blends different game elements. Read the full review
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Enter the world of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the middle installment in Square Enix’s revered Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy. Join eco-hero Cloud on a quest to defeat his nemesis Sephiroth after recovering from a climactic battle with the malevolent Shinra Corporation. Immerse yourself in detailed storytelling, strategic combat, and a captivating RPG experience.
Our Review: “Longtime fans will devour every morsel of sweet fan service here and savor every moment spent with this much-loved cast.” Read the full review
Tekken 8
The technique that shakes the monitor…Tekken 8. Photo: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Tekken 8 emerges as the preeminent fighting game among a resurgence of iconic titles like Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1. With a diverse roster, powerful moves, and innovative fighting mechanics, Tekken 8 captures the essence of classic PlayStation 1 fighting games, delivering an exhilarating combat experience.
Our Review: “Familiar yet innovative, quirky yet intuitive, Tekken 8 provides a satisfying gameplay experience with its dynamic fighting system.” Read the full review
Honorable Mention
Hauntii, Sea of Thieves (PS5 version), Botany Manor, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Supermarket Times.
Since the 1920s, Edwin Hubble Ever since it was discovered that the universe is expanding, astrophysicists have been asking themselves the question, “Where does matter come from?” In the Big Bang theory, a possible explanation, not a TV show, astrophysicists propose that the universe began with an explosion, a single hot, dense point expanding, then cooling down to transform from pure energy into solid matter. But that origin story ends with the two smallest elements: hydrogen and helium. Not everything in the universe is made of these two elements, leaving scientists with a new question: “Where does other matter come from?”
The emergence of nuclear physics in the early 20th century gave astronomers their first big clue. Researchers studying stars noted that stars are very bright and require a large source of energy to produce that much light. Nuclear physicists, including Albert Einstein and his famous E = mc2 The equations showed that one of the most powerful sources of energy in the universe is the smashing of smaller atoms together to create larger ones – nuclear fusion. And that's exactly what stars do in the hot, dense regions at their centers, called “nuclear fusion.” coreBut there's a limit to this process in stars — specifically, iron, which is the 26th of the 92 naturally occurring elements. Stars create energy by colliding elements with each other, but elements bigger than iron need to generate more energy than they can give off, which is why elements heavier than iron, like gold and uranium, remain unexplained.
Researchers have discovered the next clue in a massive, bright stellar explosion in the night sky. SupernovaIt turns out that massive stars, more than 10 times the size of the Sun, burn up their accumulated elements to fuse rapidly. These stars not only shine, but also run out of energy to hold themselves together, exploding and scattering their outer layers of elements in all directions. This is a supernova explosion. For decades, astrophysicists thought that heavy elements were created from a chaotic mixture of light elements and free energy. However, careful observation of supernovae has shown that the amount of heavy elements produced in the explosion is less than what is needed to explain the abundance of heavy elements in the universe.
Astrophysicists got the final clue in 2017 when the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory detected the first binary neutron star (BNS) merger.RaigoThe final stage in the life cycle of a massive star, between 10 and 25 times the mass of the Sun, is Neutron StarDuring this stage, the star's core collapses, and the electrons and protons in atoms get so close together that they fuse into neutrons. Two neutron stars orbiting each other collide, scattering debris into the surrounding galaxy. Researchers propose that this phenomenon could provide the energy and matter needed to fuse heavy elements into the heaviest naturally occurring elements.
Researchers from Peking University and Guangxi University wanted to test whether BNS mergers could produce elements heavier than iron. Because the event is extremely rare, occurring only a few dozen times per year across our galaxy, they couldn't just point their telescopes into space and hope for luck. Instead, they used advanced nuclear physics software to simulate a BNS merger.
The researchers gave their simulations specific initial conditions, such as what atoms were present in the stars when the collision began, the rates of nuclear reactions and decay, the number of electrons mixing, and the sizes of the colliding neutron stars. They then mathematically described how temperature, volume, and pressure relate to matter. Equation of stateIt simulates the effects of the collision and calculates what elements would be formed and released into space.
The team found that these BNS mergers could produce huge amounts of very heavy elements, between 300 and 30,000 times the mass of the Sun, which is 10 to 1,000 times the amount produced by supernovae. The team believes that this result could explain the abundance of heavy elements observed in the Galaxy in relation to other cosmic effects, e.g. Galactic WindHowever, the researchers acknowledged that their findings cannot explain the abundance of all heavy elements, especially those at the lower end of the atomic mass range they studied. They explained that these elements are probably still being created in the cores of collapsing stars, but suggested that future researchers should further test this hypothesis.
TerraForm Labs has agreed to a $4.47 billion civil settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. They were found liable by a jury for misleading cryptocurrency investors who suffered losses of an estimated $40 billion when their TerraUSD and Luna tokens crashed in 2022, causing a widespread downturn in the cryptocurrency industry.
A final sentence against Terraform and its founder Do Kwon was filed in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. The sentence is still pending approval from U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who presided over the trial that concluded on April 5.
TerraForm’s judgment includes $4.05 billion in disgorgement and interest, as well as a civil penalty of $420 million. Due to TerraForm’s bankruptcy filing in January, it is unlikely that most of this amount will be paid and will be treated as an unsecured claim in the ongoing Chapter 11 liquidation process.
The total judgment amounts to $4.55 billion, which includes an $80 million civil penalty against Kwon. Kwon is also required to agree to a ban from cryptocurrency transactions and transfer $204.3 million to TerraForm’s bankruptcy estate.
The SEC stated in a court filing that, “If entered, this judgment would ensure maximum recovery for harmed investors and permanently shut down TerraForm. Accordingly, the proposed judgment is fair, reasonable, and in the public interest.”
Both Terraform and Kwon have agreed to the sentence. No immediate comments were provided by the men’s lawyers. Kwon was previously found guilty of fraud in an early April civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan.
The SEC alleged that TerraForm and Kwon misled investors regarding the stability of TerraUSD, which was meant to maintain a constant value of $1. They were also accused of falsely claiming that TerraForm’s blockchain was utilized in a popular mobile payment application in South Korea.
Luna, a more traditional token created by Kwon and closely linked to TerraUSD, plummeted in May 2022 when TerraUSD failed to uphold its peg to the dollar.
Kwon has been detained in Montenegro since March 2023, with the United States and South Korea seeking his extradition for criminal prosecution, although he has not yet appeared in court. Kwon maintains his innocence.
Where everyone knows your name Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson ( sometimes) Widely available, with weekly episodes
The two Cheers stars reunite and rekindle their friendship while chatting with their interviewees, and as you’d expect, there’s plenty of laughs. Starting with Will Arnett, the host is questioned about his comedic prowess just as much as his guests, including a great anecdote about Harrelson and Arnett playfully upsetting Bono at a celebrity dinner party. Alexi Duggins
Steve Fishman was an intern at a local Connecticut newspaper in the ’70s when he was hitchhiking with a man named Robert Carr III. While writing his story, he discovered that the man was the murderer of three people. Fishman uses confession tapes and interviews with detectives to recount what happened. Holly Richardson
New podcast “Animal” features stories of hamsters, puffins and more. Photo: Irina Vasilevskaya/Getty Images
animal Widely available, all episodes available now
A warm and personal look at the beauty of the animal kingdom, the show is full of magic, from helping a baby puffin escape a cliff and back into the sea to the charming tale of a dog rescuing a lost hamster. Come see the adorable animals and hear their amazing stories. advertisement
Sam Smith’s new podcast is named after their childhood bedroom, the haven they retreated to after so many hard days. Now they’re sharing those feelings with celebrity guests. The first guest is Elliot Page, who gives a moving talk about coming out, the joy (and anger) of being trans, and not feeling shame. Hannah Verdier
American satirist Jon Stewart is releasing a news-heavy podcast to coincide with the turmoil of the US election. The first episode is about corruption, which naturally brings up Donald Trump, and Stewart hosts thoughtful monologues with knowledgeable guests about the dysfunction of democracy, economic reform and challenging conventional wisdom. HV
There is a podcast
Coco Khan and Nish Kumar, hosts of the pod “Save the UK”. Photo: Lucy North/PA
this week, Hannah Verdier 5 best podcasts election From open-minded analysis of the US elections unfolding on both sides of the Atlantic to Nish Kumar and Koko Khan asking the all-important questions in the UK
Election dysfunction Just in time for an election-packed year, Beth Rigby guides Conservative MP Ruth Davidson and Labour’s Jess Phillips (with special guests on the campaign trail). With their feet firmly in the thick of British politics, the trio can offer real insight into the US and UK election campaigns. With an informed, gossipy approach, they share perks like theories on why Rishi Sunak chose the 4th of July, how leaders are preparing for TV debates, and a chat with Angela Rayner.
Run Up On all things related to the US election, host Astead W. Herndon takes a measured approach and covers a wide range of opinions in this New York Times show. Some of the opinions may surprise you. Is Donald Trump “over-prosecuted”? Yes, that’s the accusation that Conway made when Herndon asked Kellyanne Conway and Serinda Lake what women voters really want. What do the youngest voters think of the oldest president? Can celebrities help swing the election? And what’s next? If you want to catch up on all the dramatic developments in the election campaign in a 30-minute episode, this podcast is for you.
Oh God, what’s next? Every Tuesday and Friday, the political podcast modestly promises to “make the unbearable bearable with the highest quality guests, analysis and bad jokes” (“Gloomy people on the dance floor,” “What’s the story? Conservatives in mourning,” and “Things are only getting wetter, anyone?). There will also be bonus episodes in which the team will respond quickly to the latest election campaign gaffes and surprises, starting with Rishi Sunak’s pesky national service scheme for lazy young people. Additional panel shows are scheduled during election week, ensuring lively debate.
Pods will save the UK Crooked Media’s Save America features four former Barack Obama aides offering insider insight, while Nish Kumar and Koko Khan (above) provide laughs in the UK version. If you’re into the left, the hosts are relentless, with Khan especially delivering some scathing criticism in his heavyweight interviews. Important questions are asked, like “Would you kiss a Conservative?” With the countdown to the election on, a thoughtful episode addresses the human side of policy, asking what trans and non-binary people need now.
Politics Weekly UK Could Sunak lose his seat in the election? That’s just one of the questions posed by John Harris on The Guardian’s politics podcast as the election looms. Harris cleverly describes the election as “the political equivalent of a 12-hour wait at the emergency room” and asks why Sunak’s campaign is so chaotic and bleak. The conversation is candid and features quality guests from across the political spectrum, so the show doesn’t have to rely on comedy to make the election fun. Guests include reporters in the middle of the election, such as The Guardian’s Pippa Crerar and The Spectator’s Katie Bowles. The Guardian also has short election episodes every weekday on its Today in Focus feed.
Please try…
New series from former Invisibilia presenter Yowei Show ProxyIt’s about honest, human conversations with strangers.
Comedian Chloe Petts delves into the big history of small rooms in a Radio 4 series. Toilet Humor.
NASA had to reassure the public that there was no emergency on the International Space Station after audio from a medical training drill was mistakenly played during a livestream on Wednesday night.
The regularly scheduled livestream was interrupted at 6:28pm ET by an unidentified speaker, apparently a flight surgeon, communicating with the ISS crew about what to do for the commander, who was suffering from severe pressure illness.
The speaker advised crew members to “check the pulse again” before placing the injured astronaut in a spacesuit filled with pure oxygen. She said any treatment was “the best treatment” and better than nothing.
“Unfortunately, Commander's prognosis is relatively uncertain,” she said.
“I'm concerned that there are people with severe DCS,” she said. [decompression sickness] He “hits” and tells the crew to get him suited up as quickly as possible.
She mentions that there is a hospital in San Fernando, Spain, with a hyperbaric treatment facility, apparently implying that she would order an emergency evacuation of the space station.
But after stirring up fear among space enthusiasts listening in, NASA revealed that this scenario wasn't real: All crew members aboard the ISS were safely asleep at the time.
NASA said there was “no emergency on board the International Space Station.”
“At approximately 5:28 p.m. CDT, audio was broadcast on NASA's livestream from a ground-based simulated audio channel indicating the crew member was experiencing symptoms associated with decompression sickness,” NASA said in a statement. X's message.
“The audio was inadvertently transmitted from an ongoing simulation in which crew and ground teams were training for various scenarios in space and is not related to an actual emergency,” NASA said in a statement.
“The International Space Station crew was asleep at the time. All crew members are healthy and safe, and tomorrow's spacewalk will begin as scheduled at 8 a.m. EDT,” it added.
The emergency training came after two astronauts aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft successfully docked with the ISS last week.
Tesla shareholders are set to approve Elon Musk’s $56 billion remuneration package by a significant margin before the company’s important annual general meeting later today. The compensation package, the largest ever granted to a CEO of a U.S. company, will be subject to an investor vote after being previously rejected by a U.S. court this year. Shareholders will also vote on Musk’s proposal to relocate Tesla’s legal base to Texas.
Several investors, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and the California State Teachers Retirement System, have indicated their intent to oppose the compensation package. Proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services have also advised shareholders to reject the pay.
On the eve of the meeting, Musk suggested on X (formerly Twitter) that investors overwhelmingly supported both the compensation package and the Texas relocation: “Both Tesla shareholder resolutions have now passed by large margins! Thank you for your support!!”
The results will be disclosed at Tesla’s headquarters in Texas at 4:30pm ET (9:30pm UK time).
Even if the remuneration package is approved, Musk may encounter further obstacles, including potential litigation. Legal experts doubt that the Delaware court that rejected the initial package would accept a new, nonbinding vote to reinstate it.
Originally approved by Tesla’s board in 2018, the compensation has faced legal challenges from shareholders. Judge Kathleen McCormick of Delaware raised concerns about the size and necessity of the package in her January ruling.
In her ruling, McCormick questioned the necessity of the compensation plan, stating, “Perhaps swayed by the ‘all-positive’ rhetoric or enthralled by Musk’s superstardom, the board never asked the $55.8 billion question: Was this plan truly necessary for Tesla to retain Musk and achieve its goals?”
During its annual developers conference on Monday, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, an eagerly anticipated artificial intelligence system designed to personalize user experiences, automate tasks, and, as CEO Tim Cook assured, set “a new standard of privacy in AI.”
Although Apple emphasizes that its AI prioritizes security, its collaboration with OpenAI has faced criticism. The service, launched in November 2022, has raised privacy concerns by collecting user data for model training without explicit consent. Users will have the option to opt out of this data collection starting in April 2023.
Apple has assured that its collaboration with ChatGPT will be limited to specific tasks with explicit user consent, but security experts remain vigilant about how these concerns will be addressed.
Late to the game in generative AI, Apple has trailed behind competitors like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, whose AI ventures have boosted their stock prices. Apple has refrained from integrating generative AI into its main consumer products.
Apple aims to apply AI technology responsibly, building Apple Intelligence products over several years using proprietary technology to minimize user data leakage from the Apple ecosystem.
AI, which requires vast data to train language models, poses a challenge to Apple’s focus on privacy. Critics like Elon Musk argue that it’s impossible to balance AI integration and user privacy. However, some experts disagree.
“By pursuing privacy-focused strategies, Apple is leading the way for businesses to reconcile data privacy with innovation,” said Gar Ringel, CEO of a data privacy software company.
Many recent AI releases have been criticized for being dysfunctional or risky, reflecting Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” culture. Apple seems to be taking a more cautious approach.
According to Steinhauer, “Historically, platforms release products first and address issues later. Apple is proactively tackling common concerns. This illustrates the difference between designing security measures upfront versus addressing them reactively, which is always less effective.”
Central to Apple’s AI privacy measures is its new private cloud computing technology. Apple intends to conduct most computing internally for Apple Intelligence features on devices. For tasks requiring more processing power, the company will outsource to the cloud while safeguarding user data.
To achieve this, Apple will only share the data necessary for each request, implement additional security measures at endpoints, and avoid long-term data storage. Apple will also open tools and software related to its private cloud for third-party verification.
Private cloud computing represents a significant advancement in AI privacy and security, according to Krishna Visnubotra, VP of product strategy at Zimperium. The independent audit component is particularly noteworthy.
The ancient Maya civilization of Central America has fascinated scholars for centuries with its incredible astronomical calendar and magnificent step pyramids.
But alongside their glorious culture, they are also associated with another dark cultural phenomenon: human sacrifice. And according to recent research, very It's certainly dark.
New findings from an analysis of ancient DNA from the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza suggest that many of those sacrificed were children, including a high proportion of identical twins.
El Castillo, also known as the Temple of Kukulkan, is the centerpiece of the Chichen Itza ruins in the Yucatan state of Mexico. – Image credit: Johannes Krauss
Published in a journal NatureThe study looked at human bones found in a xultun, or underground cistern, located near a large sinkhole known as the Sacred Cenote.
Radiocarbon dating (when scientists use decaying radioactive carbon to estimate the age of organic remains) suggests that the chultun was used between the early 7th century AD and the mid-12th century AD.
“The only people in Chultung were children between the ages of three and six.” Dr. Rodrigo BarqueraThe lead author of the study is BBC Science Focus“Until now, we haven't had the opportunity to report the sex of these individuals because when they are that young, you can't determine their biological sex based on the bones alone.”
Moving quickly on from how bleak a hole filled with 100 children looks, DNA evidence revealed that all 64 people tested were male, and about 25% were close relatives, including two sets of identical twins.
The chance of having identical twins is about 1 in 250, so two sets of male twins in such a small sample size is unusual.
Barquera explained that twins had a special meaning to the Mayans because one of their most important myths involves heroic twins who defeat the king of the underworld.
The team believes that unlike other sacrificial rituals that were intended as offerings, the sacrifice of identical male twins may have been undertaken to honour the existence of hero twins.
Detail of the reconstructed stone tzonpantli (skull house) at Chichen Itza. – Image courtesy of Christina Wariner
While that's not great news for identical twins in Mayan culture, as Barquera says, it would have been a huge honor for the family: “It was more like, 'Wow, the gods or the powers that be have chosen us to be the guardians of these children who will one day participate in this magical ceremony.'”
“We know this because the site has been there for over 500 years. This isn't something that happened once or twice; it's been a widely held belief for at least five centuries,” he said.
Next, Barcela and his team hope to confirm their findings by comparing them with other similar archaeological sites.
About our experts
Rodrigo Barquera He is a postdoctoral researcher in the Archaeogenetics department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. He has authored nearly 200 academic research papers, which have been published in such renowned journals as: Nature and Nature Communications Biology.
At an estimated distance of 140 parsecs (457 light years), the L-type subdwarf star CWISE J124909+362116.0 (J1249+36 for short) has a total velocity of at least 600 km/s, exceeding the local galactic escape velocity. Remarkably, the star may have been ejected from a globular cluster in the outer reaches of the Milky Way sometime in the past 10 to 30 million years.
A simulation of the hypothetical J1249+36 white dwarf binary ends with the white dwarf star exploding in a supernova. Image courtesy of Adam Makarenko / WM Keck Observatory.
The star immediately stood out as its speed across the sky was initially estimated to be around 600 km/s.
This speed is fast enough for the star to escape the gravity of the Milky Way, making it a potential hypervelocity star.
To better understand the properties of J1249+36, Professor Adam Burgasser of the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues used the W. M. Keck Observatory to measure its infrared spectrum.
These data revealed that the object is a rare L-type subdwarf star, a class of stars with an extremely low mass and temperature.
Spectral data and imaging data from multiple ground-based telescopes allowed the team to precisely measure J1249+36's position and velocity in space, and predict its orbit within the Milky Way galaxy.
“What makes this source so interesting is that its speed and orbit suggest it is moving fast enough to escape the Milky Way,” Professor Burgasser said.
The researchers focused on two scenarios to explain J1249+36's unusual orbit.
In the first scenario, J1249+36 was originally a low-mass companion to a white dwarf.
If a companion star is in a very close orbit with a white dwarf, it can transfer mass, causing periodic explosions called novae. If the white dwarf gathers too much mass, it can collapse and explode as a supernova.
“In this type of supernova, the white dwarf is completely destroyed, so the companion star is freed to fly away at the orbital velocity it was originally moving at, plus a bit of a supernova blast,” Prof Burgasser said.
“Our calculations show that this scenario holds true. However, because the white dwarf no longer exists and the remnants of the explosion that probably occurred millions of years ago have already dissipated, we have no conclusive evidence that this is its origin.”
In the second scenario, J1249+36 was originally a member of a globular cluster, a tightly bound group of stars that is immediately recognizable by its distinctive spherical shape.
The centers of these clusters are predicted to contain black holes with a wide range of masses.
These black holes can also form binary systems, and such systems prove to be great catapults for any star that happens to get too close to them.
“When a star encounters a black hole binary, the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can cause the star to be thrown out of the globular cluster,” said Dr Kyle Kremer, an astronomer at the University of California, San Diego.
The scientists ran a series of simulations and found that, on rare occasions, these types of interactions can cause low-mass subdwarf stars to be ejected from globular clusters and follow orbits similar to the one observed in J1249+36.
“This is a proof of concept, but we don't actually know which globular cluster this star is from,” Dr Kremer said.
“By tracking J1249+36 back in time, we find that it lies in a very crowded part of the sky that may be hiding undiscovered star clusters.”
To determine whether one of these scenarios, or some other mechanism, can explain J1249+36's orbit, the team wants to take a closer look at its elemental composition.
For example, the explosion of a white dwarf star could produce heavy elements that could pollute J1249+36's atmosphere as they escape.
Stars in the Milky Way's globular clusters and satellite galaxies also have unique presence patterns that could shed light on the origins of J1249+36.
“We're basically looking for a chemical fingerprint that will pinpoint exactly what system this star came from,” says Roman Gerasimov, also of the University of California, San Diego.
“Whether J1249+36's high-speed movement is the result of a supernova, a chance encounter with a black hole binary, or some other scenario, its discovery offers astronomers a new opportunity to learn more about the history and dynamics of the Milky Way.”
Coloured dyes were essential commodities in the Mediterranean region during the Late Bronze Age.
Berger and his colleagues unearthed a purple dye factory at site K10 (marked in red) outside Colonna, Aegina, during the Bronze Age. Image courtesy of Berger others., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304340.
of The small island of Aegina It is located in the middle of the Saronic Gulf, between Attica, the Peloponnese and the central Aegean Sea.
The island has played an important role in the cultural history of the Aegean for thousands of years.
From the Neolithic to the Byzantine period (6th millennium BC to the 10th century AD), Aegina's main settlement was located on a small, well-protected promontory on the northwest coast called Cape Colonna.
During the 2nd millennium BC, this densely built and heavily fortified settlement reached the height of its economic prosperity and culture.
Representative monuments, outstanding finds and rich tombs indicate an economically stable and complex social system integrated into inter-regional trade networks and emerging cultures in the Middle and Late Bronze Age Aegean.
in New paper In the journal PLoS OneDr. Lydia Berger from the Université Paris-Lodron de Salzburg and her colleagues describe the remains of a 16th century BC purple dye workshop at Aegina Colonna.
The existence of this workshop is inferred from three main pieces of evidence: purple pigment preserved on pottery shards believed to be remnants of dye containers, dyeing tools such as grinding stones and waste pits, and crushed shells of marine snails harvested for the pigment.
Analysis of the chemical composition of shells and pigments indicates that the workshop mainly produces Mediterranean snails. Murex striped dye (Hexagonal column trunk).
Excavations at the site also uncovered numerous burnt bones of young mammals, mainly piglets and lambs.
Archaeologists hypothesize that these may be the remains of animals that were ritually sacrificed as sacred offerings to protect the dye-producing areas. This practice is known from other cultural sites, but the exact relationship of these bones to dye production is not yet entirely clear.
The site provides valuable insight into the tools and processes of Mycenaean purple dye production.
Further investigations may reveal more information about the scale of dye production at Aegina Colonna, details of procedures at the site, and the use of this dye in regional trade.
“The discovery for the first time of a remarkably large amount of well-preserved pigment, a large amount of crushed mollusc shells and several functional installations allows detailed insights into the production of purple dye on the Greek island of Aegina around 3,600 years ago,” the researchers said.
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L. Burger others2024. More than just a colour: Archaeological, analytical and procedural aspects of Late Bronze Age purple dye production at Cape Colonna, Aegina. PLoS One 19(6):e0304340;doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0304340
“We’re facing a jungle – the noise, the smell, the risk of disease,” stated Penny Reynolds, who resides across the street from the land designated for the Bainbridge facility.
Safer Human Medicine has reassured residents that they take all necessary precautions to ensure that all waste remains on-site and is sent to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, and that most of the noise is contained on-site with no detectable odors.
Greg Westergaard, the CEO of monkey breeder Alpha Genesis, mentioned that establishing a monkey facility entails significant effort.
“It would involve extensive training and infrastructure,” he explained. “There will be unpleasant odors and wastewater from cleaning.”
Residents of Bainbridge point to the backgrounds of several executives at Safer Human Medicine, two of whom previously held leadership roles at companies that were under investigation, as a reason to be skeptical of their efforts.
CEO of Safer Human Medicines, Jim Harkness, is the chief operating officer of Envigo. He recently pleaded guilty. Thousands of dogs were abandoned, leading to a $35 million fine. Former Chief Operating Officer Kurt Derfler has left Charles River Laboratories. The Department of Justice issued a subpoena The probe was part of an inquiry into the potential smuggling of wild monkeys from Cambodia, and Charles River Laboratories stated at the time that any concerns about its involvement were “unwarranted.”
Neither Mr. Harkness nor Mr. Derfler faced individual charges related to those incidents.
Safer Human Medicine declined an interview request. “Envigo was functioning under unprecedented circumstances brought on by the pandemic,” they said in an email. They also stated that “we have been committed to operating responsibly and ethically in this field for decades and will continue to do so.”
Long-tailed macaques, also known as crab-eating macaques, are climbing the pillar in Indonesia in 2023.Chaidir Mahyudin/AFP via Getty Images file
Safer Human Medicine has stated that they do not use wild-caught macaques. Herpes BThe macaques will be sourced from Asia, but the specific location has not been disclosed.
Community activism in Bainbridge has made an impact. What was initially promoted as a “significant investment” is now overseen by Rick McCaskill, executive director of the Bainbridge and Decatur County Development Authority. Approximately $400 million and 260 jobs Things took a turn quickly. Following pushback from the community, Bainbridge leaders decided in February to Withdraw support for the Safer Human Medicine Project.
“The division and fear within the community seemed to outweigh the benefits of the project,” McCaskill remarked.
Monkeys used for research are housed at seven national primate research centers, each with its own breeding colonies, as well as other facilities across the country. While the national primate research centers mostly utilize rhesus macaques, pharmaceutical companies tend to prefer long-tailed macaques, which Safer Human Medicine intends to use.
Animal testing for drug development was formerly mandatory in the United States, but President Joe Biden will lift the ban in 2022. FDA Modernization Act 2.0 Signed into LawAllow non-animal options where possible. Several members of Congress voted this year to The bill was submitted. We advocate for a shift away from animal testing.
“There are various alternatives available today, such as AI, computer models, and organs on chips,” stated Jim Newman, spokesperson for the American Association for Medical Progress, a group that supports animal testing when necessary, “but current options can only reduce the number of animals to a certain extent.”
An artist’s rendering of a monkey enclosure proposed for Bainbridge, Georgia.Safer Human Medicines
Currently, researchers still rely on monkeys for certain tests, and some animal researchers cite a U.S. Shortage of long-tailed macaques — Imports reportedly dropped by over 20% in 2020 due to China halting exports, leading to a surge in prices of long-tailed macaques.
Safer Human Medicine believes that their proposed facility can address the monkey shortage, intending to start with 500 to 1,000 monkeys and then expand. They stated that the facility would be funded by industry and private donors in the US, without specifying them.
The extent of opposition from local residents to the facility remains unclear. Some local politicians who opposed the facility lost recent elections, but it is uncertain if their defeat was linked to their stance.
Nevertheless, Faircloth asserted that her group has no intention of backing down.
“If we don’t stand up for our rights, they will walk all over us,” she declared. “And we can’t allow that to happen.”
A building damaged by a drone strike in Kiev in October 2022
Roman Fritzina/Associated Press/Alamy
A group of climate experts estimates that the first two years of Russia's war in Ukraine will result in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to about 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The extra warming caused by these emissions will lead to extreme weather events around the world, with impacts estimated at $32 billion.
Ukraine intends to add these climate-related costs to the list of damages for which Russia is responsible and for which it seeks compensation.
“This will be an important pillar in the compensation case we are building against Russia,” Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strylets said in a statement.
“These are the costs to economies and societies caused by extreme weather events due to emissions-driven climate change,” said Leonard de Klerk, a climate businessman and founder of the War Greenhouse Gas Accounting Initiative.
The group today Fourth evaluation The report estimated the impact of the war from February 2022 to February 2024. It found that rebuilding bombed-out buildings, roads and other infrastructure was the biggest source of emissions, accounting for almost a third of the 175 million tonnes – a figure that also includes reconstruction that has yet to take place.
The remaining third is a direct result of the war, with fuel use accounting for the largest proportion.
About 14% of the total is due to passenger airlines having to reroute flights to avoid Russia and Ukraine. For example, a flight from Tokyo to London now travels over Canada instead of Russia, increasing flight times from 11 to 15 hours.
About 13 percent is due to an increase in wildfires recorded on satellite imagery, which is due not only to weapons-fired fires but also an end to fire management in occupied territories, the assessment said.
In most cases, there is a great deal of uncertainty around the figures as there are no official figures to rely on, and instead the group must rely on open source assessments and figures from past conflicts.
There's also the issue of how far to go in assessing the cascading effects of war: “We try to be as comprehensive as possible,” de Klerk says, “but at the same time, there are limitations. Some effects are too remote or too hard to quantify.”
Estimating how much damage additional emissions will cause (known as the social cost of carbon) is another tricky area: “The science of trying to put a monetary value on future damages is still developing,” says de Klerk.
The estimated figure of $32 billion Based on 2022 research The social cost of carbon is about $185 per tonne of CO2.
If this amount, which is growing every day, were to be paid, De Klerk thinks that one part should be sent to Ukraine to be used for measures such as reforestation and helping to capture some of the carbon, while the other part should go to the countries most affected by global warming, probably through the existing system. Green Climate FundBut where that money will go is a political decision that has yet to be resolved.
Low-income and small island nations have fought for decades to establish the principle that high-income countries with large greenhouse gas emissions should compensate them for loss and damage caused by their emissions. A loss and damage fund was finally established last year as part of an international climate agreement.
Kathy Schwartz had been sober for 10 years, but battling cravings was a daily struggle. “They were always in my head,” she said. But last June, the cravings subsided.
After being prescribed the weight-loss drug semaglutide, she not only lost nearly 30 kilos over 10 months, but also eliminated her desire for drinks or pills. “The cravings went away, and I didn’t realize that was a side effect,” Schwartz says. Amazingly, the depression and anxiety that had previously hit her in waves also subsided.
Schwartz isn’t the only one to have had this experience: New research is showing that semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, as well as other diabetes and weight-loss drugs that mimic gut hormones released after eating, can have surprising benefits for brain and mental health.
Though it’s still early days, evidence suggests that these drugs could potentially be repurposed to treat depression, anxiety, addiction, and even certain eating disorders, as well as neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. What’s more, these benefits appear to be mediated not simply through weight loss, but through a direct effect on the brain.
The history of drugs like Ozempic dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, when researchers discovered them. A gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 has been discovered. When GLP-1 was injected into rodents in the lab, it was able to stimulate insulin secretion. Even more amazingly, these animals started to eat less and lose weight. We now know that this hormone leads to an increased feeling of fullness.
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