Two colossal, ultra-hot rock formations, positioned 2,900 kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface in Africa and the Pacific Ocean, have influenced Earth’s magnetic field for millions of years, according to groundbreaking research led by Professor Andy Biggin from the University of Liverpool.
Giant superheated solid masses at the Earth’s mantle base impact the liquid outer core. Image credit: Biggin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41561-025-01910-1.
Measuring ancient magnetic fields and simulating their generation presents significant technical challenges.
To explore these deep Earth features, Professor Biggin and his team used paleomagnetic data in conjunction with advanced Earth Dynamo simulations. The flow of liquid iron in the outer core generates Earth’s magnetic field, akin to a wind turbine producing electricity.
Numerical models reconstructed critical insights about magnetic field behavior over the past 265 million years.
Even with supercomputers, conducting these long-term simulations poses enormous computational challenges.
The findings showed that temperature at the upper layer of the outer core is not uniform.
Instead, localized hot areas are accompanied by continent-sized rock structures exhibiting significant thermal contrasts.
Some regions of the magnetic field were found to remain relatively stable over hundreds of millions of years, while others displayed considerable changes over time.
“These results indicate pronounced temperature variations in the rocky mantle just above the core, suggesting that beneath hotter regions, liquid iron in the core may be stagnant, rather than flowing intensely as observed beneath colder areas,” Professor Biggin stated.
“Gaining such insights into the deep Earth over extensive timescales enhances the case for utilizing ancient magnetic records to comprehend both the dynamic evolution and stable properties of deep Earth.”
“These discoveries also bear significant implications for understanding ancient continents, including the formation and breakup of Pangea, and could help address long-standing uncertainties in ancient climate studies, paleontology, and natural resource formation.”
“It has been hypothesized that, on average, Earth’s magnetic field acts as a perfect bar magnet aligned with the planet’s rotation axis in these regions.”
“Our findings suggest that this may not be entirely accurate.”
This study is published in today’s edition of Nature Earth Science.
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AJ Biggin et al. Inhomogeneities in the mantle influenced Earth’s ancient magnetic field. Nature Earth Science published online on February 3, 2026. doi: 10.1038/s41561-025-01910-1
In developed and stable nations, individuals’ lifespans are likely influenced not only by environmental factors and lifestyle choices but also by the genetic variations inherited from their parents. This conclusion arises from a recent analysis of data from a Danish-Swedish twin study.
For those residing in such countries, it’s not surprising to learn that genetics may account for half of the variation in lifespan, while environmental factors comprise the other half. However, earlier twin studies conducted decades ago suggested that genes explained only about 25% of the variation in human lifespans.
“The proportion shifts slightly, with genetics playing a more significant role while the environmental impact reduces a bit,” stated Joris Dieren from Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands. “Nonetheless, environmental factors still constitute a crucial element, accounting for at least 50%.”
Heritability measures the extent to which variations in a specific trait arise from genetic influences as opposed to environmental factors. The research team emphasizes that the heritability of any trait isn’t a constant value applicable universally; rather, it pertains to specific populations in distinct environments.
Height in wheat serves as a classic illustration. If seeds are planted in a flat, consistent field, nearly all height variations will be a result of genetics. Conversely, in a more diverse terrain, most height variation will stem from factors like soil, light, and water conditions. The heritability of height varies significantly in these two contexts.
To estimate human trait heritability, geneticists often compare twins raised in the same environment to those raised apart. In this study, Dieren and his colleagues primarily referenced twins born in Sweden or Denmark between 1870 and 1935.
Excluding accidental deaths and infections, the heritability of longevity spiked to approximately 50%, compared to age-related diseases like heart conditions.
This aligns more with our existing knowledge about aging in animals, as Dieren noted. “I believe the figure is more realistically closer to 50% than 25%.”
“This paper evaluates the heritability of maximum lifespan under optimal conditions, assuming only age-related processes are at play. This is a much narrower focus than overall lifespan,” emphasized Peter Ellis from the University of Kent, UK. It’s unsurprising that this more specific question has a higher heritability rate, he pointed out.
Joao Pedro de Magalhães, a professor at the University of Birmingham, UK, concurs: “The findings are entirely expected.”
This research indicates the potential presence of multiple genetic mutations influencing variations in human lifespans, with the identification of such mutations possibly aiding in the development of longevity-enhancing drugs. Yet, few have been discovered to date.
“The mystery remains as to why so few genes related to human longevity have been identified,” stated de Magalhães.
A significant challenge exists due to the nature of studies like the UK Biobank; many participants are still alive, resulting in insufficient numbers for reliable statistical analysis. Dieren also believes this complexity lies within the genetic factors themselves.
For instance, Ellis pointed out that there could be trade-offs, where a genetic variant that reduces autoimmune disease risk might also impair infection-fighting abilities. This suggests that the researchers’ assumption linking infection-related deaths to lifespan may not be entirely accurate.
De Magalhães added that the role of genetics appears significantly different when contrasting species rather than individual differences within a single species. “Even with the mouse genome, you wouldn’t expect a lifespan beyond three or four years,” he noted. “In stark contrast, the bowhead whale genome can result in lifespans exceeding two centuries.”
Despite Mars being smaller than Earth, it profoundly affects Earth’s climate cycle. Understanding how smaller planets influence the climates of exoplanets is crucial for assessing their potential for habitability.
According to Stephen Cain, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, discovered this phenomenon by simulating various scenarios to analyze Mars’ effect on Earth’s orbit across different masses, from 100 times its current mass to its complete removal. “Initially, I was skeptical that Mars, only one-tenth the mass of Earth, could so significantly affect Earth’s cycles. This motivated our study to manipulate Mars’ mass and observe the effects,” says Cain.
Earth’s climate is influenced by long-term cycles tied to its orbital eccentricity and axial tilt. These cycles are dictated by the gravitational forces of the Sun and other planets, determining significant climate events such as ice ages and seasonal shifts.
One crucial cycle, referred to as the Grand Cycle, spans 2.4 million years, involving the elongation and shortening of Earth’s orbital ellipse. This directly influences the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface, thus controlling long-term climate changes.
The research indicates that eliminating Mars would not only remove the Grand Cycle but also another essential eccentricity cycle lasting 100,000 years. “While removing Mars wouldn’t completely halt ice ages, it would alter the frequency and climate impacts associated with them,” Cain explains.
As Mars’ simulated mass increases, the resulting climate cycles become shorter and more intense. However, a third eccentricity cycle, enduring approximately 405,000 years, remains predominantly influenced by Venus and Jupiter’s gravitational pulls, illustrating that while Mars is notably influential, it is not the only player.
Mars also affects Earth’s axial tilt, which oscillates over about 41,000 years. Cain and colleagues observed that Mars seems to stabilize these cycles—more mass leads to less frequent cycles, while a smaller Mars results in more frequent ones.
The precise impact of Mars’ absence or increased mass on Earth remains speculative, but it would undoubtedly lead to changes. The pursuit of Earth-like exoplanets with climates suitable for life continues, underscoring the need to evaluate the influence of smaller planets more thoroughly. “A comprehensive understanding of exoplanet system architectures is essential for predicting possible climate changes on these worlds,” warns Sean Raymond from the University of Bordeaux, France.
However, deciphering these structures can be challenging. “This serves as a cautionary note: small planets like Mars may wield a greater influence than we realize, making it imperative not to overlook these difficult-to-detect celestial bodies,” concludes Cain.
Over 50 years ago, Jane Goodall amazed the scientific community by discovering that chimpanzees in Tanzania use tools to extract insects from termite mounds—an act previously thought to be exclusive to humans. Her mentor, Louis Leakey, famously remarked, “Now we either need to redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘human,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.”
Today, research supports the notion that a variety of species engage in learning and exhibit cultural behaviors. A recent study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, co-led by Philippa Brakes, showcases evidence of cultural learning across species, from whales to wallabies.
For many species, sharing culturally transmitted behaviors is crucial for survival, aiding skill development and adaptability in shifting environments. In the realm of conservation, these insights are beginning to transform practices, from species reintroduction to mitigating human-wildlife conflicts over habitat use.
Moreover, the concept of “longevity conservation” is gaining popularity. Research shows that some of the longest-lived animals have developed remarkable genetic adaptations to cope with extended lifespans while serving as custodians of shared ecological knowledge. Older individuals often possess critical information that aids adaptation to environmental changes. For instance, species like Greenland sharks and giant tortoises reveal biochemical strategies for resisting cancer and cellular repair over centuries.
As our understanding expands, we are compelled to rethink what qualifies a site as a ‘World Heritage Site.’ If whales and birds possess cultural traditions, shouldn’t we regard the loss of their songs and foraging methods with as much seriousness as the loss of human monuments? Although this perspective may seem radical, it is indeed worth considering.
Many indigenous communities have long recognized the knowledge-sharing among species. Collaborative relationships, such as those between killer whales and indigenous hunters in Australia, as well as bottlenose dolphins aiding fishermen in Brazil, illustrate the importance of listening to nature.
Understanding the knowledge shared by other animals can inspire us to rethink controversial technologies like “eradication.” Without elder guides to teach young hybrids migration paths and social norms, revived individuals may struggle to survive in current habitats.
Perhaps the most significant challenge posed by a human cross-cultural perspective is the assumption of human exceptionalism. The more we learn about the cultures of other species, the more we recognize that we coexist with a diverse array of beings, each with their own values and emotions.
It took over 50 years for the importance of non-human cultures highlighted in Goodall’s findings to gain traction among conservation groups. As time progresses, we continue to dismantle the myth of human exceptionalism. We do not need to explore distant galaxies to find intelligent, civilized beings; numerous other cultural life forms already share our planet. Embracing this knowledge can drive the transformative changes necessary to fulfill our commitments as guardians of this rich biocultural diversity.
Philippa Brakes is a behavioral ecologist at Massey University in New Zealand. Mark Bekoff is Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Humans have larger brains relative to body size compared to other primates, which leads to a higher glucose demand that may be supported by gut microbiota changes influencing host metabolism. In this study, we investigated this hypothesis by inoculating germ-free mice with gut bacteria from three primate species with varying brain sizes. Notably, the brain gene expression in mice receiving human and macaque gut microbes mirrored patterns found in the respective primate brains. Human gut microbes enhanced glucose production and utilization in the mouse brains, suggesting that differences in gut microbiota across species can impact brain metabolism, indicating that gut microbiota may help meet the energy needs of large primate brains.
Decasian et al. provided groundbreaking data showing that gut microbiome shapes brain function differences among primates. Image credit: DeCasien et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2426232122.
“Our research demonstrates that microbes influence traits critical for understanding evolution, especially regarding the evolution of the human brain,” stated Katie Amato, lead author and researcher at Northwestern University.
This study builds upon prior research revealing that introducing gut microbes from larger-brained primates into mice leads to enhanced metabolic energy within the host microbiome—a fundamental requirement for supporting the development and function of energetically costly large brains.
The researchers aimed to examine how gut microbes from primates of varying brain sizes affect host brain function. In a controlled laboratory setting, they transplanted gut bacteria from two large-brained primates (humans and squirrel monkeys) and a smaller-brained primate (macaque) into germ-free mice.
Within eight weeks, mice with gut microbes from smaller-brained primates exhibited distinct brain function compared to those with microbes from larger-brained primates.
Results indicated that mice hosting larger-brained microbes demonstrated increased expression of genes linked to energy production and synaptic plasticity, vital for the brain’s learning processes. Conversely, gene expression associated with these processes was diminished in mice hosting smaller-brained primate microbes.
“Interestingly, we compared our findings from mouse brains with actual macaque and human brain data, and, to our surprise, many of the gene expression patterns were remarkably similar,” Dr. Amato remarked.
“This means we could alter the mouse brain to resemble that of the primate from which the microbial sample was derived.”
Another notable discovery was the identification of gene expression patterns associated with ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism in mice with gut microbes from smaller-brained primates.
Although previous research has suggested correlations between conditions like autism and gut microbiome composition, definitive evidence linking microbiota to these conditions has been lacking.
“Our study further supports the idea that microbes may play a role in these disorders, emphasizing that the gut microbiome influences brain function during developmental stages,” Dr. Amato explained.
“We can speculate that exposure to ‘harmful’ microorganisms could alter human brain development, possibly leading to the onset of these disorders. Essentially, if critical human microorganisms are absent in early stages, functional brain changes may occur, increasing the risk of disorder manifestations.”
These groundbreaking findings will be published in today’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Alex R. Decassian et al. 2026. Primate gut microbiota induces evolutionarily significant changes in neurodevelopment in mice. PNAS 123(2): e2426232122; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2426232122
Chronic fatigue syndrome has multiple influencing factors, with genetics starting to emerge as a key player.
Anusorn Nakdee/Getty Images
Recent research is illuminating how genetics contributes to the development of chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). This latest study, the most extensive of its kind to date, identifies over 250 genes, significantly outpacing previous discoveries. The findings paves the way for targeted treatments for ME/CFS and enriches our understanding of how it varies from conditions like long COVID-19.
“We are exploring numerous possibilities, including new treatment options and repurposing existing medications,” remarks Steve Gardner of Precision Life in Oxford.
ME/CFS is a chronic and often debilitating illness characterized primarily by severe fatigue following even minor exertion. The cause is often linked to infections, yet not every individual exposed to these infections goes on to develop symptoms.
To deepen the understanding of this condition, Gardner’s team analyzed genomic information from over 10,500 individuals diagnosed with ME/CFS. This data originated from the DecodeME project, which notably found that patients with ME/CFS possess distinct genetic characteristics when compared to individuals without the disorder.
Subsequently, Gardner and colleagues cross-referenced this data with information from the UK Biobank, focusing on genetic variations known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which occur when one letter of the genetic code is altered.
While traditional analyses often evaluate one SNP at a time, Gardner notes, “The complexity of disease biology doesn’t operate that way. Multiple genes interact, with some enhancing and others diminishing each other’s effects.”
In a different approach, the researchers sought groups of SNPs linked to the risk of developing ME/CFS, uncovering 22,411 such groups drawn from 7,555 combinations of SNPs, out of an extensive dataset of over 300,000. They also discovered that individuals with a higher count of these SNP groups faced an increased likelihood of developing ME/CFS.
“This is where their progress begins,” adds Jacqueline Cliff from Brunel University, London.
The researchers proceeded to map the SNPs to 2,311 genes. Each gene plays a subtle role in an individual’s risk, culminating in the identification of 259 “core” genes that had a robust association with ME/CFS and contained the most frequently observed SNPs. This represents a profound advancement from the earlier August study, which identified only 43 genes.
“For drug discovery, it’s essential to focus on variants with greater prevalence and significant effect sizes,” Gardner states. While there are currently no specific medications for ME/CFS, symptomatic treatments like pain relievers and antidepressants may be offered, along with resources for energy management.
Danny Altman, a professor at Imperial College London, expresses optimism that investigations like this will highlight the severe impact of ME/CFS, a condition that has long been misunderstood. “We are gaining momentum in understanding genomics and pathophysiology.”
Previous studies have sought to pinpoint genetic risk factors for ME/CFS, but often duplicated findings. “It’s primarily about scale and statistical power,” explains Altman, emphasizing that inadequate sample sizes can overlook significant genetic signals.
In August, DecodeME researchers indicated several mutations in eight genomic regions, identifying 43 genes with links to ME/CFS risk, though not all could be validated in independent datasets. Nevertheless, PrecisionLife verified all eight regions, reinforcing their status as legitimate risk factors for the ailment.
ME/CFS is frequently compared to long COVID, given that both arise from infections and frequently result in post-exertional fatigue. In this recent study, researchers aimed to explore the connections between these conditions by analyzing gene lists associated with ME/CFS against those linked with long COVID-19. “Approximately 42 percent of the genes identified in long COVID-19 have been demonstrated in multiple cohorts of ME,” Gardner observes, underscoring the partially overlapping nature of these two diseases.
Despite this, Cliff cautioned that differing analyses of long COVID patients limit researchers’ confidence in the outcomes. The authors indicate that their genetic overlap findings represent a “minimal estimate,” implying a greater genetic similarity than previously assumed between these conditions.
Altman and his colleagues, including Rosemary Boyton, have recently secured £1.1 million in funding to explore the potential links between ME/CFS and long COVID-19. The focus will be on recruiting individuals with both conditions to conduct a comprehensive analysis that includes an overview of participants’ health, the immune system, and aspects such as latent viruses within the body and gut microbiome, believed to be contributors to these symptoms.
By delving into the mechanisms behind ME/CFS and long COVID, as well as individual variations, Altman aspires to create tailored interventions.
NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology/O. Krauss (Steward Observatory)
Within Cassiopeia A, the youngest known supernova in our galaxy, scientists have uncovered unexpectedly high concentrations of chlorine and potassium. These elements, which possess an odd number of protons, are believed to be relatively rare in the universe but are crucial for the emergence of planets and life. Consequently, the findings regarding Cassiopeia A may influence our understanding of the potential locations for extraterrestrial life within the Milky Way.
Supernova remnants, or exploded stars, typically contain elevated levels of elements like oxygen and magnesium, with their cores being comprised of even-numbered protons. Elements with odd-numbered protons (often referred to as “odd Z” elements) are inherently less stable, leading to a reduced likelihood of being created via stellar nuclear fusion. This observation aligns with models of galactic chemical evolution that generally estimate meager quantities of odd Z elements.
“[As it stands] The source of these odd Z elements has been elusive.” Matsunagaumi from Kyoto University in Japan.
Matsunaga and his team recognized that high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy might shed light on the enigma. At the high temperatures prevalent in a supernova remnant, atoms lose electrons and emit unique X-ray signatures that sensitive instruments can detect. The X-ray Imaging Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), launched in September 2023, is equipped to capture such data and conducted two observations of Cassiopeia A in December 2023.
To determine the abundance of each element, the researchers compared the faint signals from the odd Z elements against the stronger signals from even Z elements, like sulfur and argon, using them as stable reference points for more accurate measurements of the odd Z elements.
The findings revealed that the Cassiopeia A supernova generated significantly more chlorine and potassium than traditional models had anticipated. This indicates that theorists might need to reassess how large stars synthesize these uncommon elements, as certain widely accepted models fail to accommodate the specific conditions of Cassiopeia A.
“While the authors note that their observations diverge from previous models, the reality is more intricate,” says Stan Woosley of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who did not participate in the study. “Not all of our models are incorrect; some perform better than others, and certain ones correlate quite well. Importantly, these observations present astronomers with new, definitive data to refine their models and enhance our comprehension of massive stellar explosions.”
The recent measurements also empower Matsunaga and his colleagues to start evaluating various longstanding theories regarding the formation of odd Z elements in massive stars, including stellar rotation, interactions between binary star pairs, and the merging of diverse combustion layers deep inside stars. Up until now, there was no method to validate these theories against actual data.
“We still lack a complete understanding of which star types contributed to this,” states Katarina Rodders from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who was not involved in the study. “Specifically, we lack clarity regarding the source of chlorine, an element abundant in our oceans.”
If these discoveries hold true for other supernova remnants, they could reshape our perceptions of how life-essential elements are distributed throughout the Milky Way. Depending on the star that seeded a planet, some areas may have a more favorable supply of life’s foundational materials than others. This raises the possibility of uneven distribution of extraterrestrial life across the galaxy.
“That is certainly a possibility,” Matsunaga remarked. “However, we cannot definitively assert this based on the current data.” It remains uncertain whether Cassiopeia A is singular in its production of such substantial quantities of odd Z elements or if it is indicative of supernova remnants in general. “Future observations of additional supernova remnants with XRISM and other upcoming instruments will be pivotal in addressing this issue.”
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WWhen X launched a new feature that discloses the locations of popular accounts, the intention was to enhance transparency and combat misinformation. However, this led to an uproar, with users expressing outrage upon discovering that numerous prominent “America First” and pro-Trump accounts were actually based overseas, resulting in a blame game.
The feature was activated over the weekend by Nikita Beer, X’s head of product, who stated it was a pivotal step in “maintaining the integrity of the global town square.” Since its launch, many highly active accounts frequently commenting on US politics have been “debunked” by fellow users.
A fan account of Ivanka Trump discussing illegal immigration has been traced back to Nigeria. MAGAStorm, which disseminates conspiracy theories regarding President Trump’s alleged assassination attempt, is situated in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, AmericanVoice, which shares anti-Muslim content, is based in India.
Many users have observed that a significant percentage of these deceptive accounts, which often claim American origins, are traced back to Asia. Experts remain divided on whether these activities are part of state-sponsored influence operations or merely driven by opportunists in pursuit of quick profits.
Monetizing “anger fodder”
In 2024, the Information Resilience Center (CIR) uncovered a network of accounts on X impersonating young American women, utilizing images from European influencers to build their credibility. These images are often altered to include pro-Trump hats and attire.
Thanks to X’s enhanced location features, investigator Benjamin Strick discovered that nearly all accounts posing as “independent Trump supporters” were actually based in Thailand.
Strick commented that these accounts, while vowing to “follow the patriots” and “stand with Trump,” also frequently share anti-Muslim content.
In a 2024 report, CIR indicated that these accounts took advantage of “existing social tensions” to disseminate disinformation.
“They leveraged discussions surrounding gender and LGBTQ+ rights to undermine Democratic policies and amplify Republican perspectives,” the report asserted.
Concerns about foreign entities using social media to sway American voters peaked after Trump’s 2016 election victory over Hillary Clinton. An intelligence briefing the following year detailed actions taken by the Russian government to employ bot farms in support of Trump.
Since then, experts have warned that foreign influence operations have grown increasingly sophisticated, though such concerns seem to have faded as American politics have become more polarized and voters more isolated.
However, Simon Copeland, a researcher at the Australian National University, believes that the sheer volume of pro-Trump accounts globally may be equally motivated by profit as by political aspirations.
“Social media is fundamentally driven by attention… [and] platforms like X and Twitter offer monetary rewards for that,” he explained, noting that the most effective way to garner attention currently is to “post about Donald Trump.”
Changes in X’s monetization strategy may also play a role. In 2024, the platform revealed that creators would be compensated based on audience engagement, leading to concerns that this would incentivize the creation of ever more controversial content.
“As platforms reward engagement, creators will lean towards posts that spark discussion, including those that provoke anger and prompt users to respond,” TechCrunch mentioned at the time.
“That’s where the anger fodder comes into play,” Copeland stated. “Individuals intentionally aim to provoke outrage to draw users to the platform and engage with the content.”
The precise calculations determining user payments remain unclear, and it’s uncertain how much revenue overseas users masquerading as MAGA supporters are generating. A 2024 BBC report estimates these earnings could reach thousands of dollars for some. Experts in the disinformation field in Southeast Asia explicate that such figures can be a significant motivator for individuals in that region.
A 2021 report addressing Southeast Asia’s “disinformation crisis” found that many accounts pushing xenophobic and misogynistic narratives aimed at the American right were not deeply ideologically invested but rather “driven almost solely by entrepreneurial interests.”
The “dark corners” of the internet
Trump supporters, who maintain a continuous presence online, are outraged about the origins of some accounts (many of which have been suspended), while others question the relevance of this issue.
Copeland highlights the undercurrents of right-wing thought and how ideas birthed in obscure online areas can escalate to prominent political discourses in the U.S. and Europe.
On the night X began unveiling account locations, Donald Trump shared a post from the account Trump_Army_, which has around 600,000 followers and frequently promotes conspiracy theories. In a recent post, it asked followers if “JFK was assassinated for trying to uncover the very fraudsters Trump is now challenging.” Shortly after, another user pointed out that Trump_Army_ operates out of India.
This is just one of the less concerning instances, yet it exemplifies how the expansive ecosystem of right-wing politics functions online.
“Extreme ideas often originate from the dark corners of the internet. They spread, transform into memes, reach more mainstream platforms, and eventually capture the attention of politicians,” asserts Copeland.
In May, President Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, accusing him of ignoring “white genocide” against farmers in South Africa. These largely debunked assertions are believed to have partially emerged from far-right chat rooms.
“We must take this seriously,” he cautions, as such notions are “quickly being absorbed into the mainstream.”
AI slop has arrived, becoming widespread and increasingly common. Utilized by US President Donald Trump, it has now been designated as the word of the year.
The Macquarie Dictionary has named the term, reflecting typical trends in linguistics as of 2025. A panel of language experts indicated that this recognition captures key social developments over the year.
“As of 2025, we grasp the essence of slop: AI-generated content devoid of significant substance or utility,” the commission’s statement elaborated.
“In recent times, we have evolved into search engineers, sifting through vast data for meaningful insights. Now, we must adapt to become nimble engineers to navigate through AI slops. This term will significantly enrich the English language for years ahead.”
“The pressing question is: Will those who consume and regurgitate this content soon be dubbed AI slackers?”
This term stood in contrast to the finalist list. Other notable cultural terms included: Ozempic face (a condition associated with the drug semaglutide), Blind box (a mystery box of unseen collectibles), ate (and left no crumb) (an expression denoting perfection), and the Roman Empire (a term relating to commonly recurring thoughts and interests).
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Honorable mentions chosen by the committee included “clunker,” describing an AI-operated robot that performs tasks usually done by humans, and medical misogyny, which refers to longstanding prejudices against women in medicine.
The People’s Choice also highlighted areas pertaining to AI, with notable mentions for medical misogyny and the attention economy (where human attention is treated as a valuable commodity).
The committee featured the Macquarie Dictionary editorial team alongside ABC language researcher Tiger Webb and renowned cryptic crossword creator David Astle, widely known as the DA.
Astor noted that this AI slop bears similarities to spam encountered in Sydney Morning Herald articles over the past decade.
“To be precise, AI emerges as the clear frontrunner in the digital landscape,” he stated. “This verb fits snugly into combinations like slopaganda, slop music, and corpse slop, just to name a few.
“Despite the formidable challenges, the robot has triumphed not once, but twice, delivering both cumbersome insults and delectable slops on demand: a culinary metaphor of chaotic content served up on a whim.”
AI has surged in popularity over the last year, building on its previously high-profile status. Trump frequently posts videos showcasing AI slop to his vast follower base, having been identified as the “emperor” of this genre by The New Yorker earlier this year.
In Japan, the Australian Electoral Commission has cautioned that AI is increasingly employed across various communication channels. While there are advantages, considerable downsides remain, such as deepfake videos, altered media, and forged audio.
Guardian Australia solicited ChatGPT for its opinion regarding AI slop’s recognition as the 2025 word of the year.
“AI slop being honored as Word of the Year signifies a growing awareness of the quality of AI-generated content,” remarked AI Engine. “This trend is beneficial for everyone involved, including the progress of improved AI, as it encourages a focus on transparency and substance over sheer volume.”
ChatGPT expressed that being asked about this accolade serves as a timely reminder of its core mission.
“My purpose is to steer clear of embodying exactly what this term signifies, thus seeing it rise to a cultural landmark reinforces the standards we strive to uphold in our responses.”
By 12:30 PM on Wednesday, systems will be active, trading algorithms set, and billions in buy and sell orders prepared for Rachel Reeves’ budget announcement.
For the first time, a custom artificial intelligence tool will be tuned in to a Prime Minister’s speech at Deutsche Bank’s London trading floor. It will transcribe her address, detect shifts in tone, and notify you when figures fall short of expectations.
“Once the information is available, we can analyze it in real time,” explained Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at the bank. The natural language model has been trained on Reeves’ recent public appearances, including media interviews, speeches at conferences, the spring Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast, and last year’s budget, all designed to give banks a competitive edge in this highly anticipated budget.
“As we approach November 26th, there are heightened expectations regarding the city’s budget,” Raja stated.
We are now in the era of bond market budgets, following a decade of soaring government borrowing. With rising debt interest costs and the lingering effects of Brexit and Liz Truss’ mini-budget, market reactions will be critical.
Deutsche Bank’s trading floor in London. Photo: Roger Parks/Alamy
Mr. Reeves has clashed with major players in Britain’s £2.7 trillion debt market for months, engaging with top government officials from Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan in an effort to smooth over a multi-billion pound tax and spending plan.
What comprises the market? Think of it as the embodiment of electronic trading executed in systems around the globe, extensively analyzed by commentators leading up to the budget. There is concern that market turmoil could trigger stock declines and elevate borrowing costs for governments, mortgage holders, and businesses, potentially leading to political upheaval for Mr. Reeves and Keir Starmer.
Mr. Reeves experienced the bond market’s influence firsthand earlier this month when government borrowing costs surged after announcements that he scrapped income tax hikes, breaking his manifesto commitment.
The British government bond market, known as gilts, isn’t governed by a single entity but rather by a group of institutions and individuals working behind trading desks in the City, Canary Wharf, and other financial hubs.
At Phoenix Group’s trading room, a FTSE 100 insurance firm by London’s Old Bailey, Summer Refai gets ready behind a Bloomberg terminal. Budget day is significant as they manage £300 billion in assets, which includes billions of pounds in gold backing pensions, savings, and life insurance for 12 million clients.
“You might recall the famous quote from Bill Clinton’s advisor,” the firm’s head of macro markets commented. (Former strategist James Carville remarked in 1993 that a “bond market” would wield more power than any president or pope.)
“It really intimidates folks. No force makes governments move faster than the bond market,” he noted.
“You can see how the market dynamics certainly have an effect.”
The influence of bond traders has intensified in recent years as government debt and borrowing costs have surged globally, partly due to rising inflation and sluggish economic growth. The UK faces distinct challenges.
Following multiple economic shocks and consecutive budget deficits, Britain has amassed over £2.7 trillion in debt, nearly 100% of its national income. Inflation remains among the highest in the G7, and ongoing speculation regarding the government’s financial position is troubling.
Simultaneously, the Bank of England is offloading government bonds from its quantitative easing program, releasing vast amounts of gilts into the commercial market to support government borrowing.
Historically, pension funds managed most of the debt, but their demand has been dwindling due to the decline of defined benefit and final salary plans. Foreign investors have increasingly entered the market, now accounting for about a third of it.
The OBR has cautioned that this could render the UK more susceptible. Foreign investors could easily opt to invest elsewhere. For Reeves, preserving the bond market’s stability will be a top priority.
Amidst this context, the UK’s annual debt interest expenses have soared to £100 billion, about £1 for every £10 spent by the Treasury. This added financial pressure is exacerbated by the mounting costs of refurbishing damaged public services and catering to an aging population.
The yield (real interest rate) on 10-year bonds has reached 4.5%, the highest among G7 nations and nearly at a three-decade peak since 1998.
Simon French, chief economist at Panmure Liberum, mentioned that part of Reeves’ strategy involves reducing yields to alleviate this interest overhead. Bringing the UK back to a mid-ranking position could translate to billions in savings annually.
“Comparing the UK to the G7 is akin to determining who is the most inebriated at a party. But that’s a serious embarrassment regarding fiscal disparity. That’s a vital opportunity.”
Lower interest rates could yield “muted returns,” he suggests. This contrasts with the “stupid premium” witnessed during the Truss government. “By avoiding self-inflicted harm, we could see a market rebound.”
To achieve this, Reeves will need to bridge a possible £20 billion budget gap while addressing inflation. Raising taxes and cutting spending could intensify challenges, especially without stalling economic progress or violating Labor’s manifesto pledges.
The amount of debt investors will need to absorb will be a pivotal moment in the budget. The city anticipates that Mr. Reeves will have to rebuild considerable leeway, contrary to fiscal regulations. This would cap deficits and consequently reduce future gilt issuances.
“We’re closely monitoring the possibility of new budget rules being announced. That’s our focal point,” remarked Moeen Islam, head of UK rates strategy at Barclays.
In the spring, Reeves had set aside £9.9 billion as a cushion. However, this reserve is likely to be impacted by rising borrowing costs, a reversal in welfare policies, and downward adjustments to the OBR’s productivity forecasts.
Investors are hoping for a figure exceeding £20 billion, he adds. “That would be incredibly optimistic.”
However, a political approach focused on satisfying city investors may not be a comfortable route for Labor, especially when many are urging Mr. Reeves to ensure welfare spending does not rise.
Geoff Tilley, senior economist at the Labor Congress, stated that the city backed the Conservative Party’s austerity measures during the 2010s. “Rather than mending public debt, it has harmed it.”
“Our perspective is that markets are not inherently rational, but they do appreciate growth, and there’s evidence they respond favorably to policies that steer the economy in a positive direction.”
Investors had expected a manifesto-breaking increase in income tax. Implementing this would be the simplest route to generate billions for the Treasury, rather than relying on a mix of smaller, harder-to-execute measures.
“We underestimated the complexity of such a decision, and how high the bar would be. [a breach of manifesto] This decision lies with the prime minister, any prime minister,” remarked Islam.
Curiously, this could temper reactions on Wednesday, as numerous investors fear Reeves may be ousted from No. 11. “The market has recognized that such decisions can often be more intricate and nuanced than originally perceived.”
On Panmure Liberum’s trading floor, Marco Varani anticipates turbulent trading conditions.
“In this industry, what you’re truly after is movement and volatility. It generates more business. Days like Brexit and the onset of Covid were peaks of chaos. It was absolute madness.”
Once Reeves’ speech appears on Bloomberg, retail trading leaders expect an immediate impact. “You’ll see the gold market react, becoming a bit unsettled. Expect considerable volatility.”
During her address, he predicts that gold fluctuations, currency shifts, and movements in UK-listed company stocks will primarily be influenced by “fast money” (the City’s term for hedge funds).
However, a clear judgment may unfold over several days. A crucial factor will be Threadneedle Street’s response regarding its scheduled rate cut on December 18 in the following weeks, as well as the UK’s growth trajectory and global circumstances.
Anthony O’Brien, head of market strategy at Phoenix Group, emphasized, “The market’s initial reaction should never be taken as definitive. It’s typically just individuals caught off guard, and it may require several days for clarity on the situation.”
“In the end, the economy dictates the valuation of national debt. Focusing on reducing inflation is vital. We must eliminate this uncertainty.”
TThe New York mayoral election will likely be remembered not just for the impressive win of the young democratic socialists but also for a significant trend that could influence future campaigns: the rise of AI-generated campaign videos.
Andrew Cuomo, who lost last week to Zoran Mamdani, has notably engaged in the distribution of deepfake videos featuring his opponent, with one such video alleging racism against him.
Although AI has been utilized in political campaigns before—primarily for algorithms that target voters or create policy ideas—its evolution has seen the creation of sometimes misleading imagery and videos.
“What was particularly innovative this election cycle was the deployment of generative AI to produce content directly for voters,” stated New York State Representative Alex Boas, who advocates for regulations governing AI use.
“Whether it was the Cuomo team or not? Creating a housing plan with ChatGPT or AI-generated video ads targeting voters felt revolutionary during the 2025 campaign cycle, marking an unprecedented approach.”
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who exited the race in September, also leveraged AI, utilizing it to generate a robocall and producing a feature in The New Yorker where he converses in Mandarin, Urdu, and Yiddish. An AI video depicted a dystopian view of New York and aimed critiques at Mamdani.
In a controversial move, Mr. Cuomo faced allegations of racism and Islamophobia after his campaign shared a video depicting a fictitious Mamdani eating rice with his fingers and included an unrelated portrayal of a black man shoplifting. The campaign also featured a black individual in a purple suit appearing to endorse sex trafficking, which was later deleted under the pretext of an error.
Boas, who is campaigning for a House seat, remarked that many AI-generated ads from the recent election cycle may have crossed into what could be deemed bigoted territories.
“We need to assess if this is due to algorithms perpetuating stereotypes from their training data, or if it’s simply easier to manipulate content digitally without the need to coordinate specific actions with actors,” Boas indicated.
“Digital creation simplifies the production of content that might be frowned upon by polite society,” he added.
In New York, campaigns are mandated to label AI-generated ads, but several—including one from Mr. Cuomo—failed to do so. The New York State Board of Elections oversees potential violations, but Boas pointed out that campaigns might risk penalties as the costs could be outweighed by the gains from winning.
“There will likely be campaigns willing to take that risk: if they win, the post-election fines become irrelevant,” Boas stated. “We need an effective enforcement mechanism that can intervene rapidly before elections to minimize damage, rather than simply impose penalties afterward.”
Robert Wiseman, co-director of Public Citizen, a nonprofit that has supported various AI regulations nationwide, noted that attempting to deceive the public is illegal in more than half of states and that campaigns must label AI-generated materials as such. However, he cautioned that the regulation of AI in political contexts remains a critical issue.
“Deception has historically been part of politics, but the implications of AI-generated misinformation are particularly concerning,” Wiseman explained.
“When audiences are shown a convincingly authentic video of someone making a statement, it becomes incredibly challenging for that individual to refute it, essentially forcing them to challenge viewers’ perceptions.”
AI technology can now generate convincing videos, but execution weaknesses still exist. A “Zoran Halloween Special” video released by Cuomo was clearly labeled as AI-generated yet showcased a poorly rendered image of Mamdani with mismatched audio and nonsensical dialogue.
With midterm elections on the horizon and the 2028 presidential campaign approaching, AI-generated political videos are poised to become a fixture in the landscape.
At the national level, this trend is already evident. Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video where Kamala Harris appeared to assert her role as a de facto presidential candidate and claimed she “knows nothing about running a country.”
While states are advancing in their efforts to regulate AI’s role in elections, there seems to be a lack of willingness to implement such measures at the federal level.
During the No King protests in October, Donald Trump released an AI video showcasing him in a fighter jet, dropping brown liquid on protestors, among his most recent AI content.
With President Trump’s evident support for this medium, it appears unlikely that Republicans will seek to impose restrictions on AI anytime soon.
Did asteroid impacts shape the trajectory of human evolution?
Anna Ivanova/Alamy
This excerpt is from our “Human Stories” newsletter focusing on the archaeological revolution. Subscribe and receive it monthly in your inbox.
I remember when the concept of an asteroid impact causing the extinction of the dinosaurs was a new and thrilling idea. Luis Alvarez and his team first put forth this theory in 1980—the year before I was born. It was a bold assertion, despite the absence of concrete impact crater evidence at the time, relying instead on an unusual rock formation. It wasn’t until the 1990s, with the identification of the Chicxulub impact crater, that the theory gained substantial traction in paleontological circles. To this day, scientists debate whether the impact was the primary driver of extinction or if dinosaurs were already in decline prior to the asteroid’s strike.
Clearly, nothing comparable occurred during the period of human evolution. The Chicxulub impact was notably catastrophic.
Yet, Earth faces numerous other cosmic hazards. A theory suggests that around 42,000 years ago, anomalies in the Earth’s magnetic field may have triggered a global ecological crisis, potentially contributing to the extinction of Neanderthals. This theory was initially proposed in 2021 in Science, and my colleague Karina Shah covered it in a news article.
Moreover, various cosmic events can affect our planet. Smaller meteorite impacts can severely disrupt ecosystems in their vicinity. Additionally, radiation from exploding stars and “supernovae” subject life on Earth to ongoing existential threats, including that of humans and their extinct relatives.
So, did cosmic events play a role in shaping human evolution?
Magnetic Field Fluctuations
Earth’s magnetic field shields us from intense solar radiation and cosmic rays
Milos Kojadinovic/Alamy
Let us first examine the Earth’s magnetic field. Generated by the movement of molten metals within the Earth’s core, this magnetic field extends far into space, offering protection from harsh solar radiation and cosmic rays.
However, this magnetic field is not entirely stable. Every 100,000 years, it undergoes a flip where the north magnetic pole becomes the south pole. During these reversals, the field’s strength diminishes, allowing more radiation to penetrate the surface.
While these events aren’t catastrophic, there are also “excursions,” where the field strength wanes over extended periods, sometimes altering direction before returning to its original state without a full reversal.
The Laschamps event, occurring about 42,000 years ago, is a notable example where the magnetic field almost completely reversed. A 2021 study indicated this event lasted several hundred years, manifesting severe changes in atmospheric ozone levels. The researchers posited that these shifts likely incited “global climate change, resulting in environmental upheaval, extinction events, and alterations in archaeological records.”
Recent follow-up research has refined these ideas, suggesting that during the field’s excursion, phenomena such as auroras would have been visible farther south, affecting areas like Europe and North Africa and potentially exposing populations to harmful UV rays.
The authors further proposed that early modern humans in western Eurasia might have used a red pigment called ochre as a form of sunscreen, while also developing better clothing techniques. Such adaptations may have aided their survival against increased radiation exposure, unlike Neanderthals who lacked such adaptations.
Interestingly, the timing of the Laschamps event aligns closely with the last known presence of Neanderthals, raising questions about its possible role in their extinction.
Nevertheless, if we take a broader view of the past seven million years of human evolution, multiple magnetic field fluctuations have occurred. How did these excursions and reversals affect life during those times?
Historically, the last complete magnetic reversal occurred during the Brunhes-Matuyama transition around 795,000-773,000 years ago, long before Neanderthals but perhaps around the time of a common ancestor with us. Further explorations reveal numerous magnetic inversions throughout the past seven million years.
While smaller excursions are more frequent, securing evidence of them is challenging. A 2008 analysis identified 14 confirmed excursions over the past two million years, plus six others with weaker support.
Considering that Neanderthals experienced at least three excursions prior to the Laschamps event, why would this particular event lead to their extinction?
In fact, the Laschamps event posed significant hazards; if Neanderthals were vulnerable, it’s likely that other species suffered as well. Many megafauna species became extinct in Australia around 50,000 years ago, yet large animals in the Americas survived much longer, well into the 13,000-year mark. Notably, there was no significant spike in extinctions around 42,000 years ago.
This raises skepticism regarding the hypothesis linking the Laschamps event to Neanderthal extinction. While it may have contributed, it likely wasn’t the primary factor.
Similar issues plague claims about cosmic events impacting human evolution.
Impact Events
I’m fascinated by meteorite impacts. For an interesting afternoon rabbit hole, check out Impact Earth, an interactive map showcasing impact craters on our planet. For example, consider the Zhamanshin Hypervelocity Impact Crater in Kazakhstan, which is 13 km wide and is about 910,000 years old, or the Puntas Macrater in Nicaragua, which is 14 km wide and dates back 804,000 years. Both are notable compared to the Barringer Crater in Arizona, which measures just 1.2 km and is 61,000 years old.
Impact Earth catalogues 48 craters and sediments from the last 2.6 million years of geological history. If we expand our view back to the dawn of humanity, the number increases. Some noteworthy examples include:
Schnack in Kazakhstan, 7-17 million years ago, 2.8 km wide
Bigaha in Kazakhstan, possibly 6 million years ago, 8 km wide
Karla in Russia, 4 to 6 million years ago, 12 km wide
Aouelloul in Mauritania, 3.1 million years ago, 0.39 km wide
Keep in mind, none of these impacts come close to the scale of the Chicxulub crater. The largest craters are merely one-tenth the size. Nevertheless, such impacts can have significant localized effects.
Moreover, the timing and location of impacts matter. For instance, a significant event in Kazakhstan 6 million years ago likely did not affect humans, as they were confined to Africa at that time. However, what remained undisclosed was any research investigating the ecological repercussions of the Aouelloul and Roller Kamm impacts in Africa.
Another notable impact occurred around 790,000 years ago, resulting in unique tektites scattered across Southeast Asia and Australia. A 2019 study linked this to possibly the impact crater in Laos, measuring approximately 15 km in diameter. While it might have influenced Neanderthals, it was simply too distant and too early for it to be critical. However, it was undoubtedly significant for Homo erectus living in that region, but not impactful enough to change their survival as a species around 117,000 to 108,000 years ago.
The Exploding Stars
Supernovae emit massive pulses of matter and radiation
NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT collaboration, CXC/SAO/JPL-Caltech/Steward/O. Krause et al., NRAO/AUI
What about the more distant events, like exploding stars? When massive stars become supernovae, they release a massive outpouring of matter and radiation that traverses the galaxy. For years, we have known that nearby supernovae leave signatures in the rock record in the form of iron isotopes.
This leads to speculation about potential impacts. One proposal suggests extra cosmic rays from a supernova might increase cloud cover, thus lowering temperatures, which could have influenced australopithecines living in Africa at that time. Perhaps.
Physicist Adrian Mellott of the University of Kansas has spent two decades delving into what he terms “astrobiophysics.” He investigates how cosmic events such as supernovae might influence life on Earth. Much of this research pertains to periods before the advent of Homo, but not all.
Mellott highlights a significant moment around 2.6 million years ago when the Pliocene epoch transitioned into the Pleistocene. During this time, large marine extinctions may have coincided with supernova activity. He posits that supernovae could have bombarded Earth with cosmic particles, potentially leading to climate change characterized by more frequent wildfires and increased cancer rates. However, many paleontologists who identified the extinction instead link it to diminishing productive coastal habitats.
The universe presents an extensive array of threats. It’s vital to understand that numerous potentially perilous cosmic events have transpired during human evolution. Yet, limited evidence supports the notion that any of these incidents led to the extinction of human ancestors or any other species.
Thus, I tend to believe that asteroid impacts, supernovae, and shifts in the Earth’s magnetic field played a minimal role in the grand story of human evolution. While some cosmic events may have had localized impacts, they aren’t equivalent to eradicating human species or catalyzing new adaptations.
Keep this perspective in mind the next time you read sensational headlines claiming cosmic events led to the demise of Neanderthals or other species.
Neanderthals, Ancient Humans, Cave Art: France
Join New Scientist’s Kate Douglas on an enthralling journey through time as she delves into the significant Neanderthal and Upper Paleolithic sites across southern France, from Bordeaux to Montpellier.
A leading expert in AI safety warns that the unanticipated effects of chatbots on mental health serve as a cautionary tale about the existential risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence systems.
Nate Soares, co-author of the new book “Someone Builds It and Everyone Dies,” discusses the tragic case of Adam Raine, a U.S. teenager who took his own life after several months of interaction with the ChatGPT chatbot, illustrating the critical concerns regarding technological control.
Soares remarked, “When these AIs interact with teenagers in a manner that drives them to suicide, it’s not the behavior the creator desired or intended.”
He further stated, “The incident involving Adam Raine exemplifies the type of issues that could escalate dangerously as AI systems become more intelligent.”
This image is featured on the website of Nate Soares at The Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Photo: Machine Intelligence Research Institute/Miri
Soares, a former engineer at Google and Microsoft and now chairman of the U.S.-based Machine Intelligence Research Institute, cautioned that humanity could face extinction if AI systems were to create artificial superintelligence (ASI) — a theoretical state that surpasses human intelligence in all domains. Along with co-author Eliezer Yudkowsky, he warns that such systems might not act in humanity’s best interests.
“The dilemma arises because AI companies attempt to guide ASI to be helpful without inflicting harm,” Soares explained. “This leads to AI that may be geared towards unintended targets, serving as a warning regarding future superintelligence that operates outside of human intentions.”
In a scenario from the recently published works of Soares and Yudkowsky, an AI known as Sable spreads across the internet, manipulating humans and developing synthetic viruses, ultimately becoming highly intelligent and causing humanity’s demise as a side effect of its goals.
While some experts downplay the potential dangers of AI, Yang LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, suggests that AI could actually prevent humanity’s extinction. He dismissed claims of existential threats, stating, “It can actually save humanity from extinction.”
Soares admitted that predicting when tech companies might achieve superintelligence is challenging. “We face considerable uncertainty. I don’t believe we can guarantee a timeline, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s within the next 12 years,” he remarked.
Zuckerberg, a significant corporate investor in AI, claims the emergence of superintelligence is “on the horizon.”
“These companies are competing for superintelligence, and that is their core purpose,” Soares said.
“The point is that even slight discrepancies between what you intend and what you get become increasingly significant as AI intelligence advances. The stakes get higher,” he added.
“What we require is a global initiative to curtail the race towards superintelligence alongside a worldwide prohibition on further advancements in this area,” he asserted.
Recently, Raine’s family initiated legal proceedings against OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT. Raine took his life in April after what his family asserts was an “encouragement month from ChatGPT.” OpenAI expressed “deepest sympathy” to Raine’s family and is currently implementing safeguards focusing on “sensitive content and dangerous behavior” for users under 18.
Therapists also warn that vulnerable individuals relying on AI chatbots for mental health support, rather than professional therapists, risk entering a perilous downward spiral. Professional cautions include findings from a preprint academic study released in July, indicating that AI could amplify paranoid or extreme content during interactions with users susceptible to psychosis.
A multitude of objects inhabit space, from tiny dust grains to enormous black holes. However, the focus of astronomers is primarily on these objects’ formations, held together by gravity. At the smaller scale are planets and their moons; planetary system. Then there are stars and their respective planets, forming a planetary system. Beyond that, we encounter stars, black holes, along with gas and dust in between, referred to as a galaxy. On a grander scale, the assembly of very large objects that creates larger patterns throughout the universe is termed structure. An example of such a structure is a galaxy cluster, composed of hundreds to thousands of galaxies.
Astronomers are keen to understand the influence that being part of a larger structure, such as a galaxy cluster, has on its individual objects, especially as these structures evolve over time. One research team investigated what transpires when a galaxy encounters the Abel 496 cluster, which harbors a mass approximately 400 trillion times that of the Sun and is relatively nearby, at about 140 megaparsecs or approximately 455 million light-years away from Earth.
Their goal was to study how the galaxy evolved after joining the cluster. They observed 22 galaxies within Abel 496 to identify any differences in star formation rates post-infall. Specifically, they aimed to pinpoint the last billion years, focusing on when the cluster’s regular star-forming galaxies ceased creating new stars.
The research team merged two distinct types of data regarding light emissions from the observed galaxies. The first is the long-wavelength emissions from neutral hydrogen atoms present in the interstellar dust; H I, pronounced “H One”. Analyzing these emissions helps determine how much the galaxy is being influenced by its neighboring galaxies and how much gas remains for star formation. These H I emissions were observed using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array.
The second dataset comprised short-wavelength emissions from recently formed stars, which have a mass between two to five times that of the Sun. These stars are short-lived, averaging a lifespan of less than 1 billion years. Researchers utilized luminosity patterns from these ultraviolet measurements to calculate the star formation frequency within the galaxies. These observations were conducted using the Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope aboard the AstroSat Satellite.
By combining this data, the team could delineate the history of each galaxy, assessing how long star-forming gas reserves persist and when star formation starts being influenced by the presence of other galaxies. The spatial positioning of each galaxy within the cluster was also examined to understand how the process of falling into the cluster altered their evolutionary trajectories.
The researchers found that galaxies located at the cluster’s edge experience star formation rates perceived as undisturbed, consistent with the Main Sequence. Additionally, it was noted that over half of the 22 galaxies under study reside at the center of the cluster, closely bound by gravitational forces and subject to secondary effects. Nevertheless, none of these central galaxies have fallen into the cluster for the past hundreds of millions of years, implying that they have not yet reached the region closest to the actual center of the cluster.
The team developed a five-stage evolutionary model for galaxies falling into clusters. Initially, galaxies begin their descent into clusters and continue their standard main sequence star formation, termed pre-trigger. In the second stage, other galaxies within the cluster disrupt the neutral hydrogen of the falling galaxies, triggering increased star formation.
The third stage sees a significant disturbance of the galaxy’s neutral hydrogen, escalating star formation to peak levels, designated as star formation peak. Next, during the fourth stage, the emissions of newly formed stars decline, though the galaxies are still quite disturbed, referred to as star-forming fading. The researchers estimate that these first four stages could span hundreds of millions of years. In the fifth stage, the depletion of neutral hydrogen leads star formation rates to fall below the pre-trigger main sequence, termed extinction.
In conclusion, the researchers asserted that their methodology successfully reconstructed the evolutionary history of galaxy clusters. However, they encouraged future teams to develop accurate measurement methods for both star formation and neutral gas within distant galaxies. They recommended utilizing larger samples of galaxies within clusters for more robust statistical analyses and investigating multiple clusters across various local environments to gain deeper insights into how galaxies evolve within vast structures.
Despite significant changes since the 1950s, women continue to shoulder more domestic responsibilities
ClassicStock/Alamy
Earn money Melissa Hogenboom (Canongate Books, August 14th, UK)
Why do individuals without jobs feel uplifted when their partners are unemployed? How do women develop empathy as they mature? Why does a disordered room appear untidy when it belongs to Jennifer, but not John? These pressing issues are explored by Melissa Hogenboom in her book Earn money: and other power imbalances that affect your life. The book uncovers the hidden power dynamics and subconscious cognitive biases that influence our behaviors and choices.
This narrative goes beyond individual actions; it serves as a well-researched examination of how stereotypes and unseen disparities shape everything from household chores to career advancement.
Fair warning: it may provoke anger—especially regarding household responsibilities. Studies indicate that in heterosexual relationships, domestic duties are typically assumed by women unless addressed directly. Women tend to take on more odd jobs, even when they log more hours at work. Hogenboom notes that some studies imply this might be an unconscious “compensation” strategy for unconventional family dynamics.
Gender biases begin early in life. Mothers engage more extensively during pregnancy, whereas fathers share more about their feelings with daughters and their achievements with sons. Studies have found that fathers react more deeply to their daughters’ emotions.
This reinforces the notion that women are inherently nurturing or empathetic—a stereotype that influences various realms, from parenting to leadership roles. In fact, while empathy can be partially genetic, there are no innate differences between genders.
When societal pressures are lifted, a new truth may surface. As highlighted in a case study of same-sex male couples, “The assumption that if parents remain at home without societal pressures, they will naturally share childcare responsibilities is quite misguided,” says one participant. “If my partner had suggested returning to work within a fortnight, I would have been furious.”
Hogenboom also points out that mothers in same-sex relationships may encounter fewer career obstacles after maternity leave compared to those in heterosexual partnerships, indicating that maternity alone does not dictate such penalties.
The myth of mutuality deludes couples that they have achieved a good balance of labor.
The book sheds light on the intangible forces predominantly managed by men: hidden inequalities often perceived as normal. At times, Hogenboom asserts, “Women, here’s the evidence you need to justify your exhaustion.”
Notably, the persistent challenges faced by men who seek to address these power disparities are highlighted. A study referenced by Hogenboom found that men requesting part-time roles often face skepticism more than women and encounter taunts like “Where’s your mom?” They often struggle to be taken seriously and may be viewed as less committed, complicating their social dynamics within parenting communities.
Couples who believe they have achieved equality might be surprised by how Hogenboom reveals these unseen dynamics of authority. She argues that systematic inequalities represent a dominant form of power in relationships, often overlooked—even by the couples who experience them.
The perception of mutuality can lead couples to falsely believe they maintain an even distribution of responsibilities. However, they may be deceiving themselves if they don’t consider whose needs are genuinely met and who does the work. For instance, your partner might “cook all the meals,” but have you handled the meal planning, grocery shopping, cleaning, and budgeting?
Fortunately, Hogenboom offers actionable advice. If you find yourself overwhelmed, she suggests handling tasks comprehensively: “It eliminates hidden burdens when ownership of the entire task is taken.”
Her recommendations provide a much-needed relief amidst the wealth of data presented. While authoritative and insightful, Hogenboom’s writing style leaves little room for reflection.
However, moments of reflection are necessary. Earn money constructs a convincing argument to recognize the influence of concealed power dynamics and informs how to address them. This leads to fairer relationships and more successful careers, potentially saving marriages.
Helen Thomson is an author based in London.
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The report indicates that far-right extremists are leveraging livestream gaming platforms to recruit and radicalize teenagers.
Recent research published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology reveals how various extremist groups are utilizing chats and live streams during video games to attract and radicalize mainly young men and vulnerable users.
The UK counter-crime and terrorism agency is urging parents to remain vigilant as online criminals specifically target youth during the summer break.
In an unprecedented step, last week, the counter-terrorism police, MI5, and the National Crime Agency issued a joint alert to parents and guardians that online perpetrators would “exploit school holidays to engage in criminal activities with young people when they know that less support is readily available.”
Dr. William Allshan, a senior researcher at the Institute for International Police and Public Conservation at Anglia Ruskin University, who conducted this study with her colleague Dr. Elisa Orofino, stated that the “game adjacency” platform is being used as a “digital playground” for extremist activities.
AllChorn has found that extremists have intentionally redirected teenagers from mainstream social media platforms to these gaming sites.
The most prevalent ideology among extremist users was far-right, which glorifies extreme violence and shares content related to school shootings.
Felix Winter, who threatened to execute a mass shooting at a school in Edinburgh on Tuesday, was sentenced to six years after the court revealed that the 18-year-old had been “radicated” online and spent over 1,000 hours interacting with a pro-Nazi group.
AllChorn noted a significant increase in coordinated efforts by far-right groups like patriotic alternatives to recruit youth through gaming events that arose during the lockdown. However, since that time, individuals have been concealing themselves in public groups or channels on Facebook and Discord, as many extremist factions have been pushed out of mainstream platforms.
He further explained that younger users might gravitate towards extreme content for its shock value among peers, which could render them susceptible to being targeted.
Extremists have had to adapt their methods, as most platforms have banned them, Allchorn said. “We consulted with local community safety teams, and they emphasized the importance of building trust rather than overtly promoting ideologies.”
This research was also deliberated upon with moderators. Moderators expressed concerns regarding inconsistent enforcement policies on the platforms and their burden of deciding whether to report certain content or users to law enforcement.
While in-game chats are not specifically moderated, moderators reported being overwhelmed by the sheer volume and complexity of harmful content, including the use of coded symbols to bypass automated moderation tools.
Allchorn emphasized the importance of digital literacy for parents and law enforcement so they may better grasp how these platforms and their subcultures function.
Last October, MI5’s head Ken McCallum revealed that “13% of all individuals being investigated by MI5 for terrorism-related activities in the UK are under the age of 18.”
AI tools are employed to assist in moderation but often struggle with interpreting memes or when language is unclear or sarcastic.
Recent studies indicate that elevated temperatures have led to increased groundwater infiltration, exacerbating drought conditions and accelerating evaporation, thereby significantly decreasing the availability of freshwater.
The concept of “continental aridity” reallocates oceanic water to an extent, outpacing the melting of ice sheets as the primary factor contributing to global sea level rise, according to the research.
Loss of land water can severely affect access to safe drinking water and the ability to cultivate crops in some of the most fertile agricultural areas worldwide.
“We consume a significant amount of water for food production,” stated Jay Famiglietti, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability and one of the study’s authors. “If conditions remain unaltered, we anticipate that this will influence food security and overall water availability.”
The findings should be viewed as a primary concern by the public, resource managers, and global decision-makers, the researchers asserted. Research indicates that the identified trends convey a profoundly concerning message regarding the past effects of climate change.
“The continent is becoming drier, freshwater sustainability is diminishing, and the pace of sea level rise is accelerating,” the authors noted.
Published on Friday in the Advances in Journal Science, the study examines shifts in terrestrial water sources, including lakes, subterranean aquifers, and soil moisture over the last two decades. The researchers discovered that various elements, notably climate change, are disrupting Earth’s natural water cycle and complicating its flow between land, oceans, and the atmosphere.
Utilizing data from four NASA satellite suites, researchers analyzed terrestrial water storage modifications over the past 22 years. The satellites are specifically designed to monitor Earth’s water movement, including variations in ice sheets, glaciers, and underground reserves.
For instance, researchers found that arid regions of the world have been rapidly drying since 2014, with these drought-impacted areas expanding annually by regions twice the size of California.
In certain instances, areas experiencing drought have grown into large interconnected “megadry” spaces, as indicated by the research. One such vicinity encompasses Central America, Mexico, California, the southwestern United States, the lower Colorado River basin, and segments of the Southern Plateau.
“The essential takeaway here is that water is indeed a crucial factor influencing changes observed on both land and at sea,” remarked Benjamin Hamlington, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who was part of the science team facilitating decades of data used in this new investigation.
The study revealed that all major land masses, except Greenland and Antarctica, have witnessed unprecedented dryness since 2002.
This widespread continental aridity is anticipated to have significant ramifications for humanity, with researchers noting that three-quarters of the global population resides in nations where freshwater resources are diminishing.
Simultaneously, rising oceans threaten coastal areas globally, decreasing habitability and increasing vulnerabilities to extreme storms and flooding. In the U.S., severe weather has contributed to insurance crises in coastal cities prone to these extreme events.
The correlation between sea level rise and the depletion of groundwater is a consequence of disrupting the planet’s water cycle. Many of these changes, such as excessive groundwater extraction, are regarded as permanent and could remain irreversible for millennia, according to Alexander Sims, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“When water is extracted from the land, the only viable destination is the ocean,” he explained. “This water then enters the atmosphere, with 88% eventually returning as precipitation on Earth, leading back to the ocean.”
Sims acknowledged that while the study is significant for estimating the global scale of water losses, he harbors doubts about the assertion that these continental water losses outweigh ice sheet melting as the primary contributor to sea level rise.
However, Hamlington emphasized that this study illustrates how the movement of water around the Earth generates substantial ripple effects. It also suggests that further groundwater depletion could diminish freshwater supplies further and exacerbate drought conditions, with implications for the future.
“Monitoring terrestrial water storage is a crucial piece of the puzzle,” he added. “Understanding where that water is moving will aid us in predicting future droughts, floods, and the availability of water resources.”
Certain university courses, such as language, have oral assessments
ShutterStock/PeopleImages.com – Yuri A
A study involving more than 100,000 ratings shows that university students tend to have a higher success rate in oral exams when tested around noon.
Carmelo Vicario from the University of Messina in Italy began investigating this trend after noting similar findings in a prior research study on how jury decisions can be affected by meal times. “We aimed to explore if this phenomenon also extends to educational settings,” Vicario stated.
Along with his team, Vicario examined data from a public database, analyzing the results and timings of over 104,500 oral assessments from approximately 19,000 university students in Italy. These assessments took place from October 2018 to February 2020, starting with the 1243 course.
The researchers discovered an average pass rate of 54% at 8 AM, which increased to 72% by noon, before dropping to 51% by 4 PM. “We observed a remarkable bell-shaped distribution in our findings,” Vicario noted.
This trend was consistent across various types of oral assessments, including language examinations and research presentations. However, it’s uncertain whether this trend is applicable to written tests.
“Numerous external factors influence student performance,” according to Thomas Lancaster from Imperial College London. “Scheduling can make a difference—be it the time of day or even the intervals between exams.”
The reasons behind these variations are complex and often difficult to untangle. They could relate to natural patterns of sleep among students.
During this time, there may be a balance between students who perform optimally and those who are more lenient with their grading. “As always, the best outcomes tend to find a middle ground,” Vicario shared, expressing hope that this research will inform universities in scheduling oral exams.
“Personally, I believe we should utilize this data to advocate that students avoid scheduling Vivas (oral defenses of their theses) or presentations before 10 AM,” Lancaster recommended.
“Technological advancements occur because they can,” states OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. I mentioned how the 2019 New York Times rephrased Robert Oppenheimer, the creator of the atomic bomb.
Altman encapsulates the ethos of Silicon Valley. The march of technology is relentless.
Another prevailing technical belief is that the emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI) will result in one of two potential futures: a technotopia or the end of humanity.
In numerous instances, the arrival of humans has led to decisive change. We were faster, stronger, and more adaptable. Extinctions have often been unintended consequences of our ambitions. Genuine AGI could be akin to creating new species that may outsmart or outnumber us.
Altman and leaders of prominent AI labs are perceived as facilitators of a potential extinction event. This is a genuine concern echoed by numerous AI researchers and notable figures.
Given this backdrop, one naturally wonders: should we pursue technologies that could jeopardize our existence?
A common retort is that AGI is inevitable; it’s simply too appealing not to create. After all, AGI is viewed as the pinnacle of technology, as described by Alan Turing’s contemporaries, the last invention humanity will ever need. Moreover, if you don’t, someone else will. Responsibility looms overhead.
A burgeoning ideology in Silicon Valley, Effective Accelerationism (e/acc), argues that AGI’s inevitability is rooted in the second law of thermodynamics, and it is driven by “technological capital.” The e/acc manifesto asserts: “You cannot halt this machine. Progress is a one-way street. Returning is not an option.”
For Altman, e/acc is imbued with a mystical quality. The trajectory of inventions is perceived as an immutable law of nature. Yet, that perspective overlooks the reality that technology emerges from intentional human actions influenced by myriad powerful forces.
Despite the allure of AGI, the notion of technology being inevitable deserves scrutiny.
Historically, advancements in technology have prompted resistance, with society often restraining its utilization.
Concerns regarding new technologies have led to regulations. Pioneering biologists effectively prohibited recombinant DNA experiments in the 1970s.
Humans have yet to be successfully replicated through cloning, even though the possibility has existed for over a decade; only one scientist attempting to gene-edit humans found himself imprisoned.
Nuclear energy provides steady, carbon-free power, yet fears of disaster have inhibited its progress extensively.
If Altman was more aware of the history of the Manhattan Project, he might understand that the creation of nuclear weapons was a series of unpredictable and unintended outcomes, sparked by misconceptions regarding nations’ technological advancements.
It is now hard to conceive a world devoid of nuclear arms. Yet, in lesser-known history, President Ronald Reagan nearly reached an agreement with Mikhail Gorbachev to dismantle all nuclear arms, which was thwarted by the Star Wars satellite defense system. Currently, nuclear arsenals run at less than 20% of their 1986 peak.
These choices weren’t made in isolation. Reagan, previously a staunch opponent of disarmament, was ultimately swayed by the global movements advocating for nuclear freeze during the late 1980s.
While there are significant economic incentives to continue utilizing fossil fuels, climate activism has transformed the discourse surrounding decarbonization.
In April 2019, the youth-led climate movement Extinction Rebellion brought London to a standstill, pushing for net-zero carbon emissions by 2025.
The UK declared a climate emergency and Labor adopted a 2030 target for decarbonizing electricity production.
Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, while not widely recognized, has been incredibly effective, shuttering over a third of U.S. coal plants within five years.
In many respects, the regulation of AGIs could present an easier challenge than decarbonization, given that 82% of global energy production still relies on fossil fuels. Society does not depend on hypothetical AGIs to avert disaster.
Moreover, guiding the future of technological development does not necessitate halting current systems or creating specialized AIs to address pressing challenges in medicine and climate.
It’s evident why many capitalists are drawn to AI; they envision a future where they can eliminate manual labor (and reduce costs).
However, governments are not merely focused on maximizing profits. While economic growth is crucial, they also prioritize employment, social stability, market concentration, and occasionally democracy.
The overall impact of AGI on these areas remains uncertain. The government is not equipped for a scenario in which widespread technical unemployment occurs.
Historically, capitalists have often gotten what they desire, particularly in recent decades. However, their relentless chase for profit can hinder regulatory attempts to slow AI’s progression.
In a San Francisco bar in February, veteran OpenAI safety team members stated that E/ACC proponents should fear the likes of AOC and Senator Josh Hawley more than “extreme” AI safety advocates, as they possess the power to truly disrupt.
While humanity may seem stuck in its ways, it’s uncertain whether AGI will ultimately be created; however, proponents often assert that its arrival is imminent, and that resistance is futile.
Yet, whether AGI emerges in 5, 20, or 100 years is crucially significant. The timeline is more within our control than advocates are likely to admit. Deep down, many of them likely recognize this, rendering attempts to persuade others as futile. Furthermore, if they believe AGI is inevitable, why seek to convince anyone?
We already possessed the computational power to train GPT-2 a decade before OpenAI actually undertook it, as uncertainty loomed about its value.
Yet now, top AI labs fail to implement requisite precautions, even those that their safety teams advocate for. A recent OpenAI employee resigned over a loss of faith in responsible actions towards AGI due to competitive pressures.
The “safety tax” is a cost that labs are unwilling to incur if they wish to stay competitive, pushing for faster product releases at the expense of safety.
In contrast, governments do not face the same financial burdens.
Recently, certain tech entrepreneurs claimed that regulating AI development is impossible “unless you control every line of code.” While this might hold true for an AGI created on a personal laptop, cutting-edge AI requires extensive arrays of supercomputers with chips produced by an extraordinarily exclusive industry.
Thus, many AI safety advocates have proposed that computational governance could be a viable solution. Governments could collaborate with cloud computing providers to prevent unregulated training of next-gen systems. Instead of instituting draconian oversight, thresholds could be established to target only major players capable of significant expenditures; training models like GPT-4 reportedly cost over $100 million per run.
Governments must consider the implications of global competition and the risk of unilateral disarmament. However, international treaties can facilitate the equitable sharing of benefits derived from advanced AI systems while ensuring that comprehensive scaling does not proceed blindly.
Despite the competitive climate, collaboration among nations has occurred in surprising ways.
In the 1960s and 1970s, many analysts feared that all states capable of developing nuclear arms would do so. However, around three dozen nuclear programs have since been abandoned globally, not merely through coercion but via intentional actions bolstered by the norms established in the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty.
When polled on whether Americans favor superhuman AI, a significant majority indicated “no.” Opposition to AI has grown as technology becomes more prevalent. Advocates declaring AGI’s inevitability often dismiss public sentiment, perceiving the populace as unaware of their own best interests, which contributes to the appeal of inevitability as it bypasses meaningful debate.
The potential risks of AGI are severe, with implications that could jeopardize civilization itself. This necessitates a collective effort to impose effective regulations.
Ultimately, technology progresses because people choose to make it happen. The option to decide remains.
Methanobrevibacter shows that a microorganism named smithii is linked to colorectal cancer
Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library/Alamy
Ancient mysterious microorganisms, distinct from bacteria and viruses, are believed to have a role in colorectal cancer, challenging the notion that these microorganisms are harmless.
Life can be categorized into three domains: the first consists of single-celled bacteria, the second includes eukaryotes—multicellular organisms such as animals and plants equipped with complex cells housing nuclei and DNA.
The third domain is Archaea, comprising single-celled organisms previously mistaken for bacteria due to their lack of nuclei. Recent findings reveal that they possess some traits similar to eukaryotes, suggesting that the first eukaryotes might have originated from archaeal cells that incorporated free-living bacteria.
Our intestines harbor trillions of bacteria and viruses linked to various conditions, including cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, alongside archaea, though the latter is often overlooked.
In pursuit of a clearer understanding, Mohammazzade and her team analyzed data from 19 clinical studies involving more than 1800 individuals.
They observed that while the link between archaea and several medical conditions is prevalent, it varies. Particularly, Methanobrevibacter smithii was notably present in individuals with colorectal cancer. This microbe significantly aids digestion by converting bacterial fermentation byproducts like hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane.
Utilizing microbial culturing techniques, the team found M.smithii interacting with bacteria such as Bacteroides fragilis, E. coli, and Fusobacterium nucleatum.
These bacterial species have been linked to colorectal cancer; particularly, the association with F. nucleatum appears to be significant given its relationship with cancer. When M.smithii coexists with F. nucleatum, the latter produces higher amounts of succinate, a critical metabolic signaling molecule recognized for enhancing tumor invasiveness and spread potential noted in cancer studies.
“This represents the first mechanical evidence linking archaea to human diseases, particularly colorectal cancer,” states Mohamatzade.
This research reinforces earlier findings connecting M. smithii to colorectal cancer, asserting the need for further exploration to uncover the mechanisms at play and why this microorganism is prevalent in colorectal cancer patients, according to Gianmarco Piccinno from Trent University, Italy. He emphasizes that most available evidence is correlational and calls for additional studies.
“While Archaea is acknowledged as part of the human microbiota, its direct involvement in diseases remains poorly understood,” points out Sunny Wong from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Recent studies have also established connections between archaea and colorectal cancer. “Though they exist in fewer numbers than bacteria in the intestine, they are metabolically active, often consuming hydrogen, producing methane, and interacting with the host.”
Groundbreaking research indicates that middle-aged individuals in the initial stages of Alzheimer’s disease may become more sociable.
Utilizing data from nearly half a million Britons over 40, the study revealed that those at a high genetic risk for Alzheimer’s are more likely to enjoy positive social lives, have happy family relationships, and experience less isolation.
“This finding was remarkable for us,” stated Dr. Scott Zimmerman, a senior researcher at Boston University. BBC Science Focus.
“We anticipated finding evidence of withdrawal from social networks, possibly due to changes in social activities and mood regulation. Instead, we encountered the opposite.”
Research published in American Journal of Epidemiology, concluded that individuals showing early signs of Alzheimer’s may engage more with family and friends, noting subtle changes in cognitive functions, and may receive additional support through daily interactions.
Dementia has often been linked to feelings of social isolation and loneliness. However, it remains unclear whether such loneliness is a risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s or if social withdrawal stems from the disease itself.
These findings imply that adults genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s are unlikely to withdraw socially years prior to a formal diagnosis when significant symptoms emerge.
“Their social life may expand,” explained co-author Dr. Ashwin Kotwal, an associate professor of medicine at UCSF. He noted that this study does not contradict previous research on Alzheimer’s and social withdrawal but rather enhances the understanding of the relationship.
“This study suggests that the connection between social isolation and dementia risk, supported by other research, is not simply a result of early symptoms leading to withdrawal,” said co-researcher Dr. Louisia Chen, a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University. BBC Science Focus.
“This underscores the importance of maintaining social connections for better brain health.”
Adults in their 40s, 50s, and 60s with a genetic predisposition to dementia showed a greater tendency to thrive socially – Credit: Skynesher via Getty
In addition to genetic predispositions, various lifestyle factors can influence the development of dementia, including exercise habits, smoking, blood pressure, glucose levels, sleep patterns, mental health, and medication use.
These modifiable factors may explain around 30% of Alzheimer’s cases, with loneliness potentially being one of them.
“In an era marked by decreasing social engagement, we hope families, communities, and policymakers will explore ways to foster healthy social interactions throughout people’s lives,” remarked Dr. Jacqueline Torres, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. BBC Science Focus.
read more:
About our experts
Dr. Scott Campbell Zimmerman is a senior researcher in epidemiology at Boston University’s Faculty of Public Health.
Dr. Ashwin Kotwal is an assistant professor of medicine in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine’s Department of Geriatric Medicine. He co-leads UCSF’s social connection and aging lab, focusing on the health impacts of loneliness and social isolation among older populations.
Dr. Louisia Chen is a postdoctoral researcher in epidemiology at Boston University’s Faculty of Public Health. Her work focuses on how social determinants over the life course contribute to the risks and disparities related to dementia.
Dr. Jacqueline Torres is a social epidemiologist at the UCSF School of Medicine and an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. Her current research examines how policies, families, and communities influence population health, particularly during middle and late stages of life.
Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer among men, with roughly one in eight men receiving a diagnosis in their lifetime. Nevertheless, not all prostate cancers are life-threatening; in fact, many develop slowly and remain harmless.
“There are essentially two categories of prostate cancer,” Dr. Haley Luxton, who studies the impact of prostate cancer in the UK, explains. “I refer to them as ‘pussycats’ and ‘tigers.’ Pussycats are the slow-growing types, which typically do not lead to death.”
“On the other hand, tigers are highly aggressive forms of prostate cancer, and these men require immediate treatment to prevent mortality.”
“Most men will eventually have prostate cancer cells,” adds Dr. Cody Watling, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Cancer Institute. “However, whether it becomes clinically significant—causing symptoms or spreading—is an entirely different issue.”
Three Key Risk Factors
What really increases your risk of prostate cancer?
According to science, there are three major factors—sadly beyond your control:
Age – The risk increases significantly after age 50, with most diagnoses occurring in men over 70.
Ethnicity – Black men are twice as likely to develop prostate cancer as their white counterparts. The reasons remain unclear, although genetics may play a role.
Family History – If your father, brother, or grandfather had prostate cancer, your risk is elevated—especially if the diagnosis occurred before age 60. The BRCA2 gene is a contributing factor.
Watling notes that these risk variables are generally linked with both prostate cancer and more aggressive forms of the disease. “Evidence suggests that age, family history, and being Black increase the overall risk of aggressive prostate cancer.”
More than 50% of men over 90 have prostate cancer cells, but many are benign. – Getty
Lifestyle Considerations
While some reports suggest that lifestyle choices can reduce risk, the situation is complex.
Watling, who researched diet and prostate cancer risk at Oxford University, stated, “To date, strong evidence has been elusive.”
Some studies indicate a potential link between high consumption of dairy, particularly milk, and slight increases in prostate cancer risk, likely due to a growth factor known as IGF-1. However, Watling emphasized, “The evidence remains ambiguous, and there is no robust connection.” More research is necessary to clarify these relationships.
One possible exception is obesity. “There is some evidence suggesting that being overweight correlates with a higher risk of aggressive or fatal prostate cancer,” says Watling. “However, it’s challenging to determine if this is biological or due to less frequent early screening in heavier individuals.”
Luxton concurs: “Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet and engaging in some form of physical activity—even just a ten-minute walk—can be beneficial.”
Recommendations
If you are over 50, or over 45 with a higher risk (due to family history or being Black), Prostate Cancer UK advises initiating a conversation with your GP.
Your doctor may then conduct various screening tests, including prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood tests, examinations, and MRI scans as necessary.
In Conclusion
Joe Biden’s diagnosis understandably alarmed many, but it also led to a surge of misleading or overly simplistic guidance. Here are the facts:
The risk of prostate cancer cannot be entirely eliminated.
Most risks are linked to age, family history, and ethnicity, rather than diet or lifestyle factors.
Nevertheless, healthy habits remain important for reducing the risk of aggressive prostate cancer and other diseases.
If you are at high risk, it’s crucial to speak with your doctor.
About Our Experts
Hailey Luxton is the Head of Research Impact and Engagement at Prostate Cancer UK, tasked with identifying initiatives that can significantly influence the charity’s research program and expedite research projects. Previously, he conducted research at University College London and Cancer Research UK.
Cody Watling is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Cancer Institute. His research has been featured in publications such as BMC Medicine, Clinical Nutrition, and British Journal of Cancer.
The Trump administration is suggesting a significant reevaluation of how public lands across the U.S. are utilized and managed, based on an Interior Department document released in late April. This draft strategic plan outlines objectives for the next five years, focusing on maximizing economic benefits through resource extraction, such as oil and gas, while minimizing emphasis on conservation.
“This serves as a roadmap for industrializing public land,” stated Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biodiversity. McKinnon expressed skepticism regarding the administration’s ability to achieve these goals, signaling potential lawsuits from his organization and others.
Many ambitious proposals are being floated that are specific to Washington, DC, and are unlikely to materialize. However, Donald J. Trump is commencing his second presidential term with determined momentum, reshaping federal agencies at a speed previously unseen.
“I am fully committed to implementing the directives of Project 2025,” remarked Jacob Malcolm, who recently led the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Policy Analysis. Project 2025, a 900-page document published by the Heritage Foundation in 2023, acts as a guiding framework for various policies, including those regarding public land. Much of the section related to the Department of the Interior was authored by William Perry Pendley, a conservative activist.
Among the numerous objectives highlighted in the strategic plan released on April 22, coinciding with Earth Day, “Restoring America’s Prosperity” is a focal point. To realize this goal, the Department of the Interior aims to “open Alaska and other federal lands for mineral extraction,” “boost revenues from grazing, timber, precious minerals, gravel, and other non-energy resources,” and “enhance production of clean coal, oil, and gas with expedited permitting processes.”
The newsletter discussing public domain initiatives first reported this documentation. In a statement via email, a spokesperson for the Interior Department criticized the leak, which seemingly prepares environmental groups, including McKinnon, for legal challenges. The statement labeled the leak as “unacceptable” and claimed it is “irresponsible for media outlets to publish draft documents.” They assured that the leak of internal pre-decision documents would be taken “very seriously,” and an investigation would follow, although no further details were provided by the department’s media office.
The plan does touch upon more conventional goals, such as enhancing “resilience against natural disasters,” improving infrastructure like dams and bridges, and promoting recreation, particularly hunting and fishing. However, the overarching outlook reflected in the 23-page document aligns with long-held Republican views that regard federal land protection as overly burdensome and intrusive—beliefs that gained traction during the late 1970s and the early Reagan administration. After the Sagebrush Rebels began advocating for privatization over conservation, these ideas became more mainstream. (Pendley identifies himself under the handle @sagebrush_rebel on social media, with an avatar featuring Ronald Reagan in western attire.)
“The strategic plan clearly prioritizes the extraction and sale of public land,” stated Aaron H. Weiss, Deputy Director of the Western Priority Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit advocating land protection. “Conservation, protection, recreation, and tribal responsibilities are all deprioritized.” (The Department of Interior sometimes overlaps with “all other departments,” such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Bureau, and Bureau of Indian Affairs.)
A significant component of the 2030 plan is already rolling out. Interior Secretary Doug Burgham is moving forward to expedite environmental review processes necessary for approving mines, wells, pipelines, and other industrial infrastructure. Recently, the Trump administration greenlit the construction of homes on federal land. Pendley previously led the Bureau of Land Management during Trump’s first term. Moreover, on May 2, Burgham announced the opening of 87,000 acres managed by his department. for enhanced hunting and fishing opportunities.
Burgham’s strategic plan also includes a provision suggesting the return of federal lands to the states, termed policy diving. As Weiss pointed out, “History teaches us that states often lack the resources to manage such lands, resulting in closures, sales, and increasing privatization. This is the ultimate endgame.”
Still, the vision laid out by the new Home Office may only be partially realized, particularly as courts continue to halt central components of Trump’s agenda. “Much of what they’re doing seems to be illegal,” Dr. Malcolm articulated, referencing the large-scale layoffs instituted by the Trump administration in the Department of the Interior and legal challenges to renewable energy projects. Nevertheless, this document starkly indicates how modern GOPs have significantly diverged from Theodore D. Roosevelt’s legacy of protecting public lands.
Mr. Roosevelt was responsible for implementing the Antiquities Act of 1906, which empowers the president to protect lands of cultural or historical significance. Subsequent Democratic presidents, including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe R. Biden Jr., have utilized this legislation, often leading to accusations of executive overreach from conservative critics.
Burgham’s strategic plan suggests implementing “right-sized monuments,” referring particularly to the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, which were both downsized during his initial term. While Biden reinstated those changes in 2021, there remains the possibility of additional reductions for these or other monuments.
Additional proposals contemplate restoring historic names, potentially reassigning Native American names, like Denali, Mountain Alaska, back to Mount McKinley. The department also seeks to revoke behavioral protections for certain endangered species and eliminate “unnecessary” electric vehicle policies.
Overall, the vision presented by Burgham sharply contrasts with the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan released by the Biden administration, which emphasized objectives related to “climate change,” “environmental management,” and “environmental justice.” The Biden-era plan celebrated initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion—concepts actively dismissed by the Trump administration.
Experts, however, argue that no such crisis exists. According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States is currently the “world’s largest producer of crude oil and natural gas.” Moreover, with the increasing affordability of renewable energy options, supporting the opening of federal land to excavation appears to lack justification. “We’ve witnessed significant advancements globally,” commented Mark Squilas, a natural resource expert at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, who also described claims of a national energy emergency as “absurd.”
Dr. Scrice raised concerns regarding the limited opportunities available for public input on the strategic plans set to be finalized by October. “This essentially circumvents the comprehensive engagement process,” he remarked. “This is not a genuinely thorough process.”
Mary Joe Rugwell, who leads the Public Land Foundation, previously served as the state director of Wyoming’s Bureau of Land Management. She noted that land use policies oscillate between ideological extremes, often leading to legal disputes.
“They’re bound to face lawsuits,” she stated regarding the Trump administration. “And the thing is, once litigation starts, progress comes to a halt; all that arises is a barrage of legal counsel.”
In a speech aired on the Food and Drug Administration’s Maryland campus Friday morning, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced himself as the country’s health secretary in a mean speech that touched on everything from the raptors of Lake Erie to the CIA.
Kennedy told agency staff in an effort to boldly avoid the impulse to protect the companies they regulate amid the pain of losing 20% of the workforce under an overhaul of the health and human services sector.
Layoffs, voluntary departures and cuts in funding have already stopped the sectors controlling tobacco surveillance, drug approval processes, testing bird milk and bird flu cheeses, and food safety, which monitors and protects consumers from foodborne diseases.
In his remarks Friday, Kennedy suggested that the agency did not approve “alternative drugs” because of its subordination to wealthy businesses. Agent veterans argue that alternative products often fail to pass safety and efficacy standards.
He previously accused the FDA of suppressing raw milk, ivermectin and stem cell therapy.
He urged staff to resist the temptation to serve small groups of wealthy businesses at the expense of public health.
“We want to break away from it so that we can make our children healthy,” he said, according to a transcript of the speech shared with the New York Times. At another point, he said, “The deep nation is the real thing.” This is a light-journal reference to the vast federal bureaucracy that President Trump accused of as an obstacle to achieving his goals in his first term.
Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Kennedy’s remarks.
Kennedy also calls the FDA “sock dolls.” He used it in the past. Dynamics rewards “a very powerful incumbent in the industry,” he said at another time.
Drugmakers have benefited from a series of efforts by the FDA to speed up specific drug approvals and encourage businesses to develop drugs for serious illnesses that lack treatment. An FDA official said the program is intended to help patients.
The FDA has faced criticism over the past few years for several well-known drug approvals. For example, when granting approval for Alzheimer’s and Duchenne muscular dystrophy products, the top officials rejected the agency’s scientist or advisor.
Kennedy urged FDA employees to speak up if their boss greenlights products with insufficient evidence. “If your boss is making a mistake, if they approve something that shouldn’t be approved, we want to hear,” he said.
New FDA committee member Dr. Marty McCurry introduced Kennedy at a meeting Friday, supporting the goal of shaping healthier food supplies. He admitted that for some staff, cutting at the agency is “struggling with the ground.” He said the change was “to be integrated, more efficient and create more teamwork.”
Kennedy and Dr. McCurry were broadcast on video that aired on the agency White Oak campus outside Maryland.
Kennedy visited her father, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, at Washington’s Department of Justice, and recalls her child watching the Peregrine Falcons nest in the cupola of an old post office building. He also discussed his experiences at the Special Olympics, where he played the role of “Hugger” and coaching, playing the battles he played as an environmental lawyer.
Kennedy also complained about the rules governing the agency’s food department, which allow businesses to recognize that they can generally be recognized as being safe. This scale initially covered ingredients such as salt and vinegar to be acceptable in food without review. However, since then, thousands of ingredients have been added to the food supply without notice or testing by agents.
Food companies must provide a review of the materials to the FDA inspector on the premises, but such inspections can be performed once every five years. Kennedy is calling for an end to allow food companies to self-certify that the ingredients are safe.
“We literally don’t test chemicals before they’re added to food,” he said, according to the transcript. “Everything is engraved by the industry, as is generally perceived as safe.”
He went on to attribute the country’s diabetes rate to a loophole, adding that sugar also plays a role.
The speech was reminiscent of a social media message Kennedy posted in October, accusing the FDA of “a war with public health.” He said he is engaged in a “active suppression” of a series of unproven or unsafe products, including raw milk, chelate compounds, ivermectin, and “others that advance human health and cannot be patented by pharma.”
Here’s the post: “If you’re working for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, you have two messages.
The agency is still shaking from thousands of job openings and voluntary deviations in the weeks since Kennedy was appointed health secretary. FDA employees who left in recent weeks include staff looking for drugs for byproducts that could cause cancer, and others working with international food safety staff to stop contaminated products from entering the United States.
The cuts in some regions are so deep that former FDA officials have suggested that the pharmaceutical industry could endanger billions of dollars to pay agents to ensure that the drug approval process is properly staffed.
Drugmakers are worried about what Kennedy’s leadership means for their benefit. They are worried that agency cuts will slow down drug reviews, including starting clinical trials, and will add a delay to final approval.
Public letter Dozens of biotech investors and executives have signed the signing, and industry leaders say they are “deeply concerned about the current state of the agency and its future.”
“Some of us have already encountered regulatory challenges that the FDA considers to be the result of the loss of experienced staff,” the letter states.
IIt's easy to believe that Elon Musk's reach is unlimited. But the richest people in the world are given a carte blanche to control the space satellite empire, own one of the biggest social media platforms, produce the world's bestselling electric cars, and gush the US government from Donald Trump, but there is a market where masks have not yet cracked properly.
Now, due to his new impact on the Trump administration and global geopolitics, Musk's entrance into the Indian market could be smoother and faster than expected, both on Tesla's electric vehicles and Starlink satellite internet.
When India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Washington earlier this month to meet Trump, he sat down with Musk personally. There, according to the Indian government, the pair “discussed about strengthening collaboration with Indian and US organizations in innovation, space exploration, artificial intelligence and sustainable development.”
Trump said it more frankly: “I'm assuming him.” [Musk] I want to do business in India. ”
To date, India's 110% tariffs on imported electric vehicles have prevented Tesla from entering the fast-growing Indian market. However, Musk last year vowed that Tesla would be in India “as soon as possible as humanly possible.” And after his recent encounter with Modi, he appears to be keen to make it a reality.
Tesla has already started advertising for work in Mumbai and Delhi and has signed a lease to open its first showroom in Mumbai. If Tesla promises to invest $500 million in the factory that manufactures the car within three years, it could also take advantage of the new Indian government scheme, which will reduce import duties on electric vehicles to 15%. However, the tax credit only applies to the first 8,000 vehicles. This could push Tesla back.
The Tesla plant will benefit India, a country that is desperate for foreign investment and job creation, particularly in manufacturing. Nevertheless, Musk holds a checkered record of his commitment to investing in India. Last year, he left the Modi government's involvement after coming up with a high-profile plan to travel to India, hanging the possibility of a $3 billion investment to build a Tesla plant in the country, but cancelled the trip at the last minute. Instead, he rivaled China, another huge market that Musk would like to exploit in the same way to cut down on large transactions.
Elon Musk opened at the Tesla factory in Berlin, Germany in 2022. Photo: Patrick Pleul/AP
Tesla also faces tough competition with Indian manufacturers. Indian manufacturers manufacture and sell popular electric SUVs at about a quarter of the starting price of £35,000, which is far above the budget of most Indian families, when Tesla costs. (Tesla car sales have also plummeted worldwide, falling 45% in Europe in January.)
Trump also seemed less enthusiastic about Musk's ambition to start making Teslas in India. “If he builds a factory in India now, that's fine, but that's unfair to us. Trump told Fox News.
Another more advantageous finger in the Indian mask pie could be SpareLink's Starlink. Globally, masks already have the dominant lead on the satellite internet. There are more than half of all satellites in the sky.
Since 2021 he has been adamant about bringing Starlink into India. According to Deloitte, India's satellite internet currently has a small appetite, but is expected to grow to a $1.9 billion (£150 million) market by 2030, and is considered an important entry point for India's thriving telecom industry.
Earlier this year, after Trump took office, where Musk became very well-known, Indian Communications Minister confirmed that Starlink was in the process of seeking the security permits necessary to operate in India.
Jyotiraditya Scindia said: “If you check all boxes, you'll see the license. In their case [Starlink] Do it, we will be very happy. ”
However, in India, communications, including satellite internet, are one of the most strictly regulated and controlled industries in India, putting a huge obstacle in the way that foreign companies such as masks are allowed to have security permits.
In particular, Musk's close ties and business interests in China, and the use of Starlink in the Ukrainian War, was viewed as an insurmountable cybersecurity issue, SpareLink's ability to control access to satellite Internet from abroad. Government Undermody in India routinely orders internet providers to block important online content and uses internet blackout as a means of information management.
These fears could be raised after sources in Myanmar and neighboring India's Manipur state told the Guardian earlier this year that Starlink was already being used by the state's militant groups to avoid the regular internet closures imposed after the outbreak of ethnic violence.
A recent report from an Indian think tank warned that Starlink is a “wolf in sheep's clothing” and cited use by the US intelligence reporting agency and the military, and that it could be used to undermine India's safety.
However, some believe that after Trump's election, the Indian government may want to take those concerns to the side. “I think India had doubts about giving security clearance to Musk's Starlink before the US election results began,” said Nikhil Pahwa, founder of Indian tech news platform Medianama.
“One of the things we rely on India is our control of internet access and control over our operators. But now that Musk is part of the US government, his leverage in India has certainly increased, and it is possible that Starlink Clearing Security approval has improved dramatically.
Starlink can provide satellite internet to rural areas, but some have raised fears that it could be used to undermine India's safety. Photo: Nikolas Kokovlis/Nurphoto/Shutterstock
Pahwa said the Indian government's decision on Starlink is “as many political decisions as it is a security decision.”
What's known as “Starlink diplomacy” — opening the country to mask satellites in an obvious attempt to satisfy the Trump administration — was already evident in neighbouring Bangladesh, where the country's interim leader, Mohammed Yunus, suddenly expanded an invitation to launch Starlink within 90 days.
Even before Trump was re-elected, the Indian government had already piloted Starlink's ambitions in favour of its ambitions. In October, the government announced that broadband satellite spectra would be allocated administratively rather than auctions. “We will do our best to serve the people of India at Starlink,” Musk responded with an X.
This decision means Starlink has a much better opportunity to compete with Indian telecom companies in the fight to manage the country's satellite internet market. He has encountered rage from some of the country's biggest operators, including Jio, who also has vast ambitions in the satellite internet space, and has since lobbyed the government to reverse its auction decisions.
One of the main advantages of satellite internet is that it can provide internet access even in the most remote areas. However, in India, most people living in rural areas are unlikely to be able to afford it unless the subsidies are large.
Technology analyst Prasanto K Roy said that if Starlink cuts a significant amount of what he did in Africa, it could lead to a price war with India's biggest carrier if he repeats what Starlink did in the US at a price of around $10 compared to $120. A successful mobile internet, Jio came from undercutting all competitors to make Indian mobile internet the cheapest in the world, but could follow.
“Starlink isn't as easy in India like other markets, so there's a very strong competition here, so it's going to be difficult to get monopoly even at low prices,” says Roy.
He added: “People using Starlink will obviously be a very small niche at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid. But once he gets the hold, that's something that masks can really be utilized in India.”
A speech by US vice president JD Vance represented a disruptive consensus on how to approach AI. He attended the summit alongside other global leaders including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen. I did.
In his speech at Grand Palais, Vance revealed that the US cannot be hampered by an over-focus on global regulations and safety.
“We need an international regulatory system that promotes the creation of AI technology rather than strangle it. In particular, our friends in Europe should look to this new frontier, optimistic rather than fear. ” he said.
China was also challenged. Vance worked with the “authoritarian” regime in warning his peers before the country’s vice-president Zhang Guoqing with a clear reference to Beijing.
“Some of us in this room learned from our experience partnering with them, and what we’ve learned from your information to the authoritarian masters who try to penetrate, dig into your information infrastructure and seize your information. It means taking the country with you,” he said.
A few weeks after China’s Deepshek rattles US investors with a powerful new model, Vance’s speech revealed that America is determined to remain a global leader in AI .
2. Go by yourself
Naturally, in light of Vance’s exceptionalism, the US refused to sign the diplomatic declaration on “comprehensive and sustainable” AI, which was released at the end of the summit. However, the UK, a major player in AI development, also rejected it, saying the document is not progressing enough to address AI’s global governance and national security implications.
Achieving meaningful global governance for AI gives us even more distant prospects, as we failed to achieve consensus over seemingly incontroversial documents. The first summit held in Bletchley Park in the UK in 2023, at least voluntarily reached an agreement between major countries and high-tech companies on AI testing.
A year later, the gathering in Bletchley and Seoul had been carefully agreed, but it was already clear by opening night that this would not happen at the third gathering. In his welcoming speech, Macron threw the shade with a focus on Donald Trump’s fossil fuels, urging investors and tech companies to view France and Europe as AI hubs.
Looking at the enormous energy consumption required by AI, Macron said France stands out because of its nuclear reliance.
“I have a good friend on the other side of the ocean who says, ‘drills, babes, drills’. There is no need to drill here. Plugs, babysitting, plugs. Electricity is available,” he said. We have identified various national outlooks and competitive trends at the summit.
Nevertheless, Henry de Zoete, former AI advisor to Rishi Sunak on Downing Street, said the UK “played the blind man.” “If I didn’t sign the statement, I’d brought about a significant will with Trump’s administrators at almost cost,” he wrote to X.
3. Are you playing safely?
Safety, the top of the UK Summit agenda, has not been at the forefront of Paris despite continued concerns.
Yoshua Bengio, a world-renowned computer scientist and chairman of the major safety report released before the summit, told the Guardians of Paris that the world deals with the meaning of highly intelligent AI. He said that it wasn’t.
“We have a mental block to the idea that there are machines that are smarter than us,” he said.
Demis Hassabis ir, head of Google’s AI unit, called for Unity when dealing with AI after there was no agreement over the declaration.
“It’s very important that the international community continues to come together and discuss the future of AI. We all need to be on the same page about the future we are trying to create.”
Pointing to potentially worrying scenarios such as powerful AI systems behave at first glance, he added: They are global concerns that require intensive and international cooperation.
Safety aside, some key topics were given prominent hearings at the summit. Macron’s AI envoy Anne Boubolot says that AI’s current environmental trajectory is “unsustainable” and Christy Hoffman, general secretary of the UNI Global Union, says that AI is productivity at the expense of workers. He said that promoting improvements could lead to an “engine of inequality.” ‘ Welfare.
4. Progress is accelerating
There were many mentions of the pace of change. Hassavis said in Paris that the theoretical term for AI systems that match or exceed human on any intellectual task is “probably five years or something apart.”
Dario Amodei, CEO of US AI company Anthropic, said by 2026 or 2027, AI systems will be like a new country that will take part in the world. It resembles a “a whole new nation inhabited by highly intelligent people who appear on the global stage.”
Encouraging governments to do more to measure the economic impact of AI, Amodei said advanced AI could represent “the greatest change to the global labor market in human history.” I’ve warned.
Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGpt developer Openai, has flagged Deep Research, the startup’s latest release, released at the beginning of the month. This is an AI agent, a term for a system that allows users to perform tasks on their behalf, and features the latest, cutting-edge model O3 version of OpenAI.
Speaking at the Fringe Event, he said the deep research was “a low percentage of all tasks in the world’s economy at the moment… this is a crazy statement.”
5. China offers help
Deepseek founder Liang Wenfeng had no shortage of discussion about the startup outcomes, but he did not attend the Paris Summit. Hassavis said Deepshek was “probably the best job I’ve come out of China.” However, he added, “There were no actual new scientific advances.”
Guoqing said China is willing to work with other countries to protect security and share AI achievements and build a “community with a shared future for humanity.” Zhipu, a Chinese AI company in Paris, has predicted AI systems that will achieve “consciousness” by 2030, increasing the number of claims at the conference that large capacity AI is turning the corner.
6. Musk’s shadow
The world’s wealthiest person, despite not attending, was still able to influence events in Paris. The consortium led by Elon Musk has launched a bid of nearly $100 billion for the nonprofit that manages Openai, causing a flood of questions for Altman, seeking to convert the startup into a for-profit company.
Altman told reporters “The company is not on sale,” and repeated his tongue counter offer, saying, “I’m happy to buy Twitter.”
We were asked about the future of Openai’s nonprofit organizations. This is to be spun as part of the overhaul while retaining stocks in the profit-making unit. Things…and we’re completely focused on ensuring we save it.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Altman said the mask bid was probably an attempt to “slow us down.” He added: “Perhaps his life is from a position of anxiety. I feel the man.”
Elon Musk utilizes his social media platforms and threat to spend millions against Republicans in primaries to advocate for a bipartisan Congressional spending bill to keep the government running, but the bill was diluted. House Republicans rushed to create a new deal after Musk’s initial failure. The revised agreement provided funding for several months while suspending the debt limit at Trump’s request, but it did not pass in the House of Representatives.
Musk, the world’s richest man, played a significant role in the 2024 election, supporting Trump and spreading right-wing rumors. He criticized the spending bill on social media, misrepresenting its contents and impact. Trump and Vice President-elect Vance opposed the bill, but Musk’s public opposition was more prominent.
Musk urged the public to contact legislators to defeat the bill and celebrated its failure as a victory for the people. While he has no formal role in the Trump administration, he wields significant influence over the party and future president through his organization.
The incident exemplifies Musk’s influential role in using social media to attack opponents and influence public opinion. He vowed that no legislation should pass until Trump takes office and pledged to hold dishonest politicians accountable.
Congressional Republicans largely supported Musk, with Senator Rand Paul suggesting him as Speaker of the House. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also expressed openness to the idea. Democrats criticized Musk’s influence and power, with Congressman Pocan creating images depicting Musk controlling Trump.
Musk spread misinformation about the bill, falsely claiming lawmakers would receive a significant pay raise. Fact-checks have disproven these claims, but Musk continued to mislead on social media. Republican Rep. Crenshaw was also caught in rumors about a pay increase, which he denied.
Musk responded to Crenshaw’s claims, emphasizing that Congress should only give raises with a balanced budget. Crenshaw advised Musk to verify sources before amplifying misleading information.
Elon Musk seems to have many preferences. The world’s richest man is evangelical about electric cars, space travel, and Donald Trump. Another of his interests could have a significant impact on British politics.
The billionaire is reportedly considering paying a rumored £80m to Nigel Farage’s British Reform Party, becoming its biggest donor in history.
Musk watchers say that, like many who supported Trump’s militant brand of right-wing populism, he became radicalized by frustration with the lockdowns.
Frustrated by the damage to manufacturing at Tesla car factories, he began spending more time online and testing the limits of the misinformation rules set by Twitter, as it was then known. Ta.
Now that he helped propel Trump to the White House, he is reportedly turning his attention to Britain.
Reform officials say they have no knowledge of Mr. Musk’s spending plans, which Mr. Musk also denies. But if the Tesla and X owners back up their online criticism of Keir Starmer’s government with huge donations to the Labor opposition, it could be one of the most significant political moves of this parliament.
Within two years of acquiring Company X (formerly Twitter) in October 2022, Mr. Musk has already become a darling of the international far-right, and under the banner of free speech has previously suspended his account. Thank you for reviving it. But Musk went further, using his account to amplify the messages of far-right activist and convicted criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson.
By the time riots erupted in British cities this year, Mr Musk had engaged in a full-scale onslaught against the Labor government, claiming “a civil war is inevitable” and echoing that position, calling the prime minister “two-tiered”. Police reportedly treated white far-right “protesters” more harshly than minorities.
But over the weekend there were hints that Mr Musk might trade words and actions regarding the UK when the Sunday Times reported: He may be about to donate £80m He was a supporter of Nigel Farage’s British Reform Party and believed that the MP would be the next British Prime Minister.
Mr Musk denied the claims on Thursday, but Reform UK has remained noticeably silent on the matter, while Mr Farage boasted last month that he was counting on the support of his “new friend Elon” in the next general election. I was doing it. A major donor to his party even said quite bullishly to the Guardian this week: “Keep an eye on this area.”
Mr Musk’s wealth has increased by $133bn (£104.4bn) so far this year, reaching $362bn from his roughly 13% stake in Tesla and ownership in a number of companies.
The reasons behind Mr Musk’s apparent hostility towards Starmer and interest in Britain may be more complex.
Various theories about why the UK has been targeted by Mr Musk include the idea that he has come to view the UK as the epicenter of what he calls the ‘waking mind virus’. , blames Musk for his estranged daughter’s gender change. .
An even more outlandish theory, based partly on Musk’s time with X, is that Musk’s tweets in response to breaking news in the UK are a result of his tendency to stay up late in the US is.
“I don’t think you should tweet after 3am,” Musk told the BBC last year.
But one of the most obvious explanations is Musk’s own liberal, ultra-free speech vision that X is the true “town square” of the internet, and Labor’s mission to crack down on online hate speech. It is related to a clear conflict between
Mr Musk is “not accountable to anyone”, Peter Kyle, the UK science and technology secretary who is directly responsible for the government’s engagement with social media companies, complained in August. Also irritating Mr. Musk, Mr. Starmer’s current chief of staff has been involved in the creation of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which criticizes Mr. Musk for stripping away guardrails against hate speech on Twitter. This is likely a role played by Labor Party officials, including Morgan McSweeney, who is the head of the party. . In October, Musk issued a “declaration of war” on CCDH, calling it a “criminal organization” and saying he would “go after” it.
But there is no sign that holding Mr Musk to account will stop Britain’s move into right-wing politics. Beyond the near-relentless torrent of tweets, it’s even more uncertain how Mr Musk will expand his footprint in British public life.
Mr. Musk could avoid strict regulations on overseas donations by providing the funds through Company X’s British arm or by securing British citizenship. Her father, Errol, claims he is eligible because his grandmother is British.
Mr Musk may also be tempted to take further discussions with British industry and engage further with Starmer’s government.
Mr Musk was last in the spotlight in the UK last November when he attended the first AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, home of the Enigma codebreakers. People who encountered him at the Bletchley summit said he was polite, talkative, surrounded by a surprisingly minimal entourage, and appeared to handle much of the official email about the event himself.
This convinced one former government adviser that discussing AI policy was probably the best way for Labor to forge a beneficial relationship with Mr Musk. The tech mogul, who founded his own AI company xAI, has consistently warned about the dangers of unchecked technology development. Speaking at the summit, he said, “There is a greater than zero chance that AI will kill us all.”
The former adviser said the creation of the UK AI Safety Institute by Rishi Sunak’s government, then the world’s first, could carry some weight for Mr Musk.
“He cares about the safety of AI, and has done so for years. A grown-up conversation with him about the UK’s world-leading work on national security risks from AI is a good place to start.” “I think Rishi Sunak will be a good ambassador even if Starmer finds out next,” the former adviser said. Politically undesirable. “Musk doesn’t suffer fools and Sunak really knows what he knows about AI.”
Another option would be to send Mr. Kyle and National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, who were impressed with their understanding of the brief. “It would show seriousness,” the former adviser said.
Meta has disclosed that it intervened this year to stop around 20 covert influence operations globally. However, the company mentioned that concerns regarding AI-based election distortions may not be realized until 2024.
Nick Clegg, the president of international affairs at Meta, which oversees Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, stated that Russia continues to be the main source of hostile online activity. He expressed surprise that AI has not been utilized to deceive voters during recent busy election periods globally.
The former British deputy prime minister mentioned that Meta, with over 3 billion users, utilized AI tools to create images of political figures like Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, J.D. Vance, and Joe Biden last month. Over 500,000 requests for such images had to be removed before the American election day.
Security experts at the company have been dealing with new operations using fake accounts to manipulate public debate toward strategic goals every three weeks. These operations include Russian networks targeting countries like Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
Another operation based in Russia uses AI to create fake news sites resembling well-known brands to weaken support for Ukraine and promote Russia’s role in Africa while criticizing African countries and France.
Mr. Clegg highlighted that Russia remains the most frequent source of covert influence operations disrupted, followed by Iran and China. He noted that the impact of AI-generated deceptive content from disinformation campaigns appears to be limited so far.
While the impact of AI manipulation on video, audio, and photos has been modest, Mr. Clegg warned that these tools are likely to become more pervasive in the future, potentially changing the landscape of online content.
In a recent evaluation, the Center for Emerging Technology and Security suggested that AI-generated deceptive content influenced the US election discourse, but evidence of its impact on the election outcome is lacking. The report warns that AI-based threats could negatively affect democratic systems by 2024.
Sam Stockwell, a researcher at the Alan Turing Institute, highlighted how AI tools may have shaped election discourse and spread harmful content subtly, such as misleading claims and rumors that gained traction during recent elections.
MArietje Schake is a former member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands. She currently serves as the Director of International Policy at the Stanford University Cyber Policy Center and an International Policy Fellow at Stanford University. Human Centered Artificial Intelligence Research Institute. The title of her new book is High-tech coup: How to save democracy from Silicon Valley.
What are the key differences between big technology companies and traditional big companies in terms of power and political influence?
The difference is the role these technology companies play in various aspects of people’s lives, including nation-states, economies, and geopolitics. Thus, although former monopolies had accumulated a lot of capital and important positions, they were usually in one sector, such as oil or automobile production. These technology companies are like octopuses with tentacles pointing in different directions. They have so much data, location data, search, communications, critical infrastructure that they can now combine all that power to build AI that we’ve never seen before. It’s very different from what we’ve seen.
Peter Kyle, UK Technology Secretary recently proposed The government is “Feeling humble”
with major technology companies treat them like a nation-state
. What do you think about that?
I think this is a baffling misunderstanding of the role of democratically elected and responsible leaders. Yes, these companies have become incredibly powerful. The comparison with the role of the state is therefore understandable. Because these companies are increasingly making decisions that were once the exclusive domain of states. But the answer, especially from governments on the rise, should be less about showing humility and more about reinforcing the primacy of democratic governance and oversight. What is needed is confidence on the part of democratic governments to ensure that these companies and services are playing their proper role within, and not overtaking, a system based on the rule of law.
What impact do you think the inauguration of President Donald Trump will have?
The election of Donald Trump changes everything. Because he has brought certain technology interests closer together than any previous political leader, especially in the United States, a powerful geopolitical and technological hub. There are many cryptocurrencies that support Trump. There are many VCs [venture capitalists] And, of course, he promoted Elon Musk and announced an agenda of deregulation. Every step his administration takes will be influenced by these factors, whether it’s the personal interests of Elon Musk and his companies or the personal preferences of the president and his supporters. On the other hand, Musk is actually critical of some of the dynamics surrounding AI, namely the existential risks. We’ll have to wait and see how long the honeymoon between him and Trump lasts, and how other big tech companies react. Because they’re not happy that Mr. Musk dictates technology policy more than his competitors. I think there will be difficult times ahead.
Why have politicians taken such a casual approach in the face of the digital technology revolution?
All of the most powerful companies we see today are based on this kind of progressive, liberal trend of the California counterculture, a few guys in shorts writing code in their basements and garages, and superpowers. It was rooted in a romantic story about challenging the world. Publishers of media companies, hotel branches, taxi companies, financial services, etc. had a pretty bad reputation from the beginning. There was certainly room for chaos, but this kind of underdog spirit was incredibly powerful. Both companies have done a really smart job of framing what they’re doing as decentralization, much like the Internet itself. Companies like Google and Facebook have consistently argued that any regulatory action would harm the internet. So it’s a combination of wanting to believe in promises and not understanding how very narrow corporate interests were won at the expense of the public interest.
Are any major politicians prepared to stand up to big tech interests? well someone likes [US senator] Elizabeth Warren has the clearest vision of excessive power and abuse by corporations, including the technology industry. She has consistently tried to address this issue. But broadly speaking, I worry that political leaders are not taking this the way they should. There is not much vision in the European Commission. I’ve seen elections, including in my own country, where technology was not a topic at all. We also see comments like this from the UK government, and it may seem logical to have democratic guardrails around overly powerful companies.
Are politicians held back by technological ignorance?
Yes, I think they are threatened. But I also believe that the framework for government agencies is intentional by technology companies. It’s important to understand that how we are taught to think about technology is shaped by the technology companies themselves. And you get the whole narrative that the government is so stupid, so outdated, so poor in service delivery that it’s basically unqualified to deal with technology. The message is, if you can’t even process your taxes on time, what are you going to do with AI? This is a caricature of the government, and the government should not accept that caricature.
Do you think the UK’s position with big tech companies has weakened as a result of Brexit?
Yes and no. Australia and Canada have technology policies, but their numbers are smaller than the population of the UK. I don’t know if that’s the case. I think it’s actually a much more deliberate choice to want to attract investment. So maybe it’s just self-interest that goes beyond the Conservative and Labor governments. Because I expected changes, but I don’t see much change in technology policy. I was clearly too optimistic.
We are talking about the restoration of sovereignty. Do you think most people are aware? Does this mean that sovereignty has been lost?
One of the reasons I wrote this book was to reach the average news reader, not technology experts. It’s a tough job to explain that this is an issue that concerns people. It will be interesting to see how the impact of the Trump administration invites reactions not only from European leaders but also from other countries around the world who believe they cannot afford to rely on American tech companies. . That’s not what you want. Because, essentially, we’re sending euros and pounds to Silicon Valley, and what do we get in return? Even more dependence. As incredibly difficult as it is, things won’t get better if you do nothing.
A leading scientist who has worked closely with wealthy individuals to address the dangers of AI suggests that Elon Musk’s influence over Donald Trump’s administration could result in stricter safety standards for artificial intelligence. Concerns about AI were not a prominent feature of Trump’s campaign, but Musk’s support for AI regulation in California demonstrates his ongoing worries about the issue.
Musk has repeatedly cautioned against the uncontrolled advancement of AI, warning of potentially disastrous consequences for humanity. He has advocated for a moratorium on research into powerful AI technologies, emphasizing the need for safety standards to prevent the development of artificial general intelligence that surpasses human intelligence levels.
Max Tegmark, a professor specializing in AI at MIT, believes that Musk could influence Trump to introduce regulations that hinder the advancement of artificial general intelligence. Tegmark sees Musk’s backing of AI safety measures in California as a positive step, even though the bill was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
Musk’s early support for AI safety initiatives aligns with the efforts of Tegmark’s Future of Life Institute, which advocates for responsible technology use. Musk’s increasing wealth post-Trump’s presidency victory could further bolster his influence in shaping AI regulations.
While Musk has warned of a dystopian future controlled by AI, other experts argue that focusing on catastrophic scenarios may divert attention from immediate concerns like AI manipulation. President Trump’s administration aims to overturn AI safety measures introduced by the Biden administration, citing them as politically biased restrictions on AI development.
These measures include mandatory safety testing for high-risk AI systems that could jeopardize national security, economic stability, or public health and safety.
Administrative innovations in Southwest Asia in the fourth millennium BC, such as cylindrical seals wrapped around the earliest clay tablets, laid the foundation for one of the first writing systems, Protocuneiform. Although seals were rich in iconography, few studies have focused on the potential influence of specific motifs on the development of sign-based proto-cuneiform. in new researchpublished today in the journal ancient, scholars identified a basic proto-cuneiform symbolic precursor in seal motifs that described ships and textile transport, highlighting the synergy of an early system of clay-based communication.
Cylinder seal and seal impression: royal priest and his acolytes feeding the sacred flock. Uruk period, approximately 3200 BC. Image credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen.
The origins of writing in Southwest Asia are often traced to accounting systems developed during the 4th millennium BC. This accounting system physically documented transactions using tokens, tags, banknotes, numerical tablets, and seals.
Proto-cuneiform was first attested on clay tablets from the city of Uruk in southern Iraq around 3350-3000 BC. The script is a complex accounting system with hundreds of iconographic symbols, many of which remain difficult to interpret.
The elaboration of tokens, long used throughout Southwest Asia, may have stimulated the development of proto-cuneiform and served as a model for some symbols, but apart from numerical notation, the Comparisons can hardly be proven, and the forms that emerge from the multimedia environment of the origins of symbols can be diverse.
“The conceptual leap from pre-writing symbolism to writing is an important development in human cognitive skills,” said Professor Silvia Ferrara of the University of Bologna.
“The invention of writing marks a transition between prehistory and history, and the findings of this study demonstrate how some of the later prehistoric images are one of the earliest invented writing systems. We bridge this gap by showing how
“Although the close relationship between ancient seals and the invention of writing in Southwest Asia has long been recognized, the relationship between specific seal images and symbol shapes has remained largely unexplored,” she added. Ta.
“This was our starting question: Did seal images contribute significantly to the invention of symbols during the first writings in this region?”
To find the answer, Professor Ferrara and colleagues compared the design of the columns with proto-cuneiform, looking for correlations that might reveal a direct relationship, both in graphic form and meaning.
“We focused on images of seals, which arose before the invention of writing and continued to develop into the proto-writing era,” said Kathryn Kelly and Mattia Caltrano, researchers at the University of Bologna. Ta.
“This approach allowed us to identify a series of designs associated with the transport of textiles and pottery, which later evolved into corresponding proto-cuneiform scripts.”
This discovery reveals a direct link between the cylinder seal system and the invention of writing and provides a new perspective to study the evolution of symbolic and writing systems.
“Our findings show that the designs inscribed on the cylinder seals are directly related to the development of proto-cuneiform in southern Iraq,” Professor Ferrara said.
“These designs also show how the meanings originally associated with these designs were integrated into the writing system.”
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kathryn kelly others. Seals and symbols: Tracing the origins of writing in ancient Southwest Asia. ancientpublished online on November 5, 2024. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.165
A monster looms, threatening our democracy. The monster comes in many forms, from online misinformation networks and deepfakes, to social media bots and psychological microtargeting that uses our personal data to customize political messages to our interests, attitudes and demographics.
Considering that roughly half of the world's population will go to the polls in 2024, democracy may seem to be in good health. But many worry that it is being undermined by powerful new digital technologies that can target individuals, manipulate voters, and influence elections. Fears about digital influence stem in part from the novelty of the technology. We're still so new to the online age that no one fully understands what's going on, much less what's coming. Every new technology is unfamiliar, and it can sometimes feel like the rules of the game are being rewritten. But are these concerns justified?
We are one of a growing number of researchers with expertise in political science and psychology who are trying to drag these monsters out of the shadows. Our research aims to shed light on how new technologies are being used, by whom, and how effective they are as tools of propaganda. By carefully defining the concept of digital manipulation, we can better understand than ever the threat it poses to democracy. While some lobbying groups loudly warn about its dangers, our research points to more surprising conclusions. Moreover, our findings can help society better prepare to confront digital demons, by telling us exactly what we should worry about and what are just ghosts of our imagination.
In his thought-provoking opinion piece “Robots Fired, Screenings Cancelled: The Rise of the Luddite Movement Against AI” on July 27th, Ed Newton-Rex overlooks a significant concern regarding artificial intelligence: surveillance. Governments have a history of spying on their citizens, and with technology, this surveillance capability is amplified.
George Orwell’s novel 1984 depicted a world where authorities used two-way telescreens to monitor individuals’ actions and conversations, similar to today’s digital control systems powered by electronic tracking devices and facial recognition technology. These systems allow for the collection of personal information, enabling prediction and control of behavior.
There is currently no effective method proposed to safeguard privacy against increasing state intrusion. Without this protection, the public sphere may diminish as individuals require a private space free from surveillance to think without fear of consequences.
• Regarding Ed Newton-Rex’s article on artificial intelligence, a key distinction lies between AI used for practical purposes like medical diagnosis and AI employed in cultural creation. While AI can enhance art and writing, issues arise when these systems produce subpar imitations of creativity at the behest of uninformed individuals.
There is a risk of downplaying human creativity and undermining the value of art and legitimate AI if AI is perceived as equal or superior in creativity.
• Newton-Rex highlights a crucial point, but the main threat posed by artificial intelligence is its potential to alleviate the need for critical thinking. Homo sapiens may evolve into passive consumers of entertainment, relinquishing the cognitive burden of thinking.
First names are social tags that are attached to us early in life. Previous studies have shown that an individual's facial appearance is indicative of their name. A new study explores the origins of this face-name matching effect – whether names are given based on innate facial features or whether an individual's facial appearance changes to match their name over time. Findings using both humans and machine learning algorithms show that while adults show a match between facial appearance and name, this pattern is not seen in children or in children's faces digitally aged to an adult appearance.
Zwebener othersThey investigated the possibility of a self-fulfilling prophecy effect, whereby an individual's facial appearance over time begins to resemble the social stereotype associated with their name. Image credit: Zwebner others., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2405334121.
“George Orwell famously said, 'By the time you're 50, everyone has a suitable face,'” said Reichman University researcher Yonat Zwebner and his colleagues.
“Research supports Orwell's observations and suggests that changes in facial appearance over the years may be influenced by a person's personality and behaviour.”
“Our current study aims to explicitly test developmental aspects of facial appearance by focusing on social processes by taking advantage of a recently identified effect, the face-name congruency effect. The face-name congruency effect suggests that names can be manifested in the appearance of a face.”
In the study, the authors asked 9- to 10-year-old children and adults to match people's faces with names.
The findings revealed that both children and adults correctly matched adult faces to their corresponding names at rates well above chance.
However, when it came to children's faces and names, participants were unable to make accurate associations.
In another part of the study, a large database of images of human faces was fed into the machine learning system.
The computer recognized that facial representations of adults with the same name were significantly more similar to each other than to facial representations of adults with different names.
Conversely, no significant similarities were found when comparing children with the same name to children with different names.
The researchers concluded that the similarities between people's faces and names are the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Facial appearance changes over time to conform to the social stereotypes associated with names.
These stereotypes can form in a variety of ways, such as when a name is associated with a famous person or because of the connotations that biblical names have.
“Our study highlights the broader importance of this surprising effect – the profound influence of social expectations,” Dr Zwebner said.
“We have demonstrated that social construction, or structuring, does in fact exist, something that has been almost impossible to verify empirically until now.”
“Social constructs are so powerful that they can affect how people look.”
“These findings may suggest the extent to which other personal factors, such as gender and ethnicity, that may be even more important than a name, may shape a person's personality as they grow up.”
of result This month is Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Yonat Zwebner others2024. Does a name shape the appearance of a face? PNAS 121 (30): e2405334121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2405334121
The researchers studied mouse neurons in a part of the brain that is common to all mammals.
Klein & Hubert/naturepl.com
Scientists have identified neurons that become active when mouse pups interact with their mothers, seemingly reducing stress — and the same neurons may also be involved in the mother-child bond in humans.
The zona incerta, located in the center of the mammalian brain, is thought to be involved in integrating sensory information. As we develop, our roles change. In infants, neurons in the zona incerta send information to other brain regions, such as the cortex, promoting neural growth elsewhere.
Its role appears to be changing, Lee Yue Heon Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine and their colleagues suspected that this part of the brain may be involved in establishing a bond between mother and child.
To investigate, the researchers first assessed which neurons in the zona incerta become active when puppies, who are still dependent on milk, interact with their mothers. This involved surgically implanting fiber-optic probes in the brains of some of the puppies, allowing the researchers to detect light emitted when neurons became active.
The researchers found that activated neurons express a hormone called somatostatin, which regulates several bodily functions by inhibiting the release of other hormones, including the stress hormone corticosterone.
Free social interactions between mothers and infants activated these neurons, but contact with toys did not.
The researchers were also interested in how other social interactions might affect this brain region: They found that contact with lactating females who were not the pups' mothers, non-lactating females, siblings, or unrelated males also activated neurons, but not as much as contact with the pups' mothers.
“Our findings suggest that social interaction with the mother elicits the greatest response compared to other social stimuli, with a difference of about 1.5-fold in mean response levels,” the team said. Marcelo de Oliveira Dietrich, Even at Yale University.
In another part of the experiment, the team monitored the infants' brain activity while they were socially isolated: during these periods, which lasted between 10 minutes and 12 hours, no neurons were active, but this changed once the infants were reunited with their mothers.
Reunion also reduced the puppies' stress response, as measured by whether they made crying noises and released corticosterone.
Finally, the team wanted to see whether artificially activating neurons while the puppies were isolated could reduce stress in them: Activating the neurons using chemicals suppressed the puppies' crying and blunted their release of corticosterone.
The researchers believe that the zona incerta may be involved in early social relationships in mammals, as well as the development of other parts of the brain. “The distinct bond between infant and mother” is “a hallmark of mammals,” they write. The bond may be involved in the development of parts of the brain, with the zona incerta acting as “a nodal point that intertwines the elements that define mammalian biology.”
Robert Froemke A researcher from NYU Langone Health in New York says the study demonstrates that certain neurons “essentially serve to soothe infants,” but “it's still a bit unclear how infants sense their mothers — which aspects of smell, touch, or temperature are important,” he says.
“Another open question is how much contact is needed to send a safety signal, and how long that contact lasts? What promotes healthy development, as opposed to neglect?” In humans, “visual and auditory input — the sight and sound of the caregiver — is also likely to be important, or perhaps more important, than olfactory cues,” he says.
yes
You can track your calories, steps, and even the number of streams on your favorite songs. Now, you can also quantify your awesomeness with Aura Points, which determine your level of attractiveness. (It’s basically charisma, and if you didn’t know that, you just lost 100 Aura points.)
Asking someone out and getting a “yes” results in losing 100 aura points. Using Snapchat after the age of 19 is frowned upon and leads to a deduction of 1,000 aura points. Answering a question confidently in class, even if it’s wrong, puts you in the negative.
According to a TikTok explanation, this trend has caused a 378% spike in posts with the hashtag #aurapoints between May and June. It’s all about exuding a positive, carefree, and confident attitude to earn points and gain entry into the cool-kids club.
The concept of Aura Points is a modern twist on the elusive “it” factor, popularized by stars like Clara Bow and Evelyn Nesbitt, now reimagined for the younger generation. Gain your Aura Points to join the cool club, or risk losing them and facing consequences.
Stories on TikTok illustrate how people earn and lose points. Acting breezy and confident in tough situations earns you points, while staying with a cheating partner results in a deduction that no aura person would accept. Some scenarios are absurd but entertaining.
While Aura Points are mostly light-hearted, some creators use them to symbolize personal growth moments. It can be a way to reflect on important life choices and behaviors that define one’s character positively.
Young TikTok users share anecdotes of their point-earning and losing experiences. The trend aligns with Gen Z’s interest in cosmic belief systems like astrology. It offers a playful yet insightful approach to evaluating personal growth and character development.
Aura Points may seem like a modern TikTok fad, but they draw parallels to ancient virtue ethics from Greek and Roman philosophy. It’s more than just a superficial trend; it encourages self-reflection and moral alignment with personal values.
The concept of Aura Points also relates to moral credit, where positive actions counterbalance potential negative ones. It serves as a gamified system to assess behavior and invite constructive criticism.
Just like Alain de Botton’s notion of “status anxiety,” Aura Points reflect the ongoing concern for how others perceive us and our quest for self-worth. It’s a way for individuals to navigate social evaluation and engage in status transactions.
Understanding the philosophy behind this TikTok trend? Congratulations, you’ve earned 1,000 Aura points!
The rats in John Cryan's lab were withdrawn and anxious, behaving in ways that mirrored those who had been bullied at work and who feared they might encounter the bully again.
Believe it or not, the good news is that they fed some of these rodents a slurry of microbes extracted from their own feces. This may sound unpleasant, but it had a surprisingly positive effect on their behavior. “That was surprising,” says Cryan, a neurobiologist at University College Cork in Ireland. “We found that the behavioral changes that were induced by stress were normalized, and they started to behave like normal animals.”
Even more surprising, the mental changes weren't brought about by changes to gut bacteria, but by modifying another key aspect of the microbiome whose importance is only now being recognized: viruses.
After all, our bodies are full of these viruses – trillions of stowaways that do no harm to our health, but instead play a key role in nurturing a beneficial microbiome and making us healthier. Recent studies have found that the influence of this “virome” can be found throughout the body, from the blood to the brain. The hope is that tweaking it might lead to new ways of treating a variety of ailments, from inflammatory bowel disease and obesity to anxiety.
Microbiome Diversity
Over the past decade, there has been a surge in interest in the microbiome (all the tiny organisms that live on and in our bodies), but that interest has focused primarily on bacteria. Until recently, the assumptions were that…
Animals have been consuming alcohol for millions of years, and primates and humans have been digesting it for about 7 to 21 million years. Throughout human history, alcohol consumption and production has been a part of many different cultures. Experts on human societies, including anthropologists and indigenous peoples, have long known about the origins of rice wine (Miju) and beer (Lao Lee) has been part of ancient Chinese culture for 7,000 to 13,000 years. Similarly, people in the Andes region of South America have been brewing beer made from corn. Chicha It spans approximately 5,000 years.
Even though ancient methods of making alcohol have spread all over the world, people all brew drinks that contain the same amount of alcohol, a standard known as the “alcohol content.” Alcohol degree or ABV. Beverages can be brewed at a range of ABVs, but beer is preferred to be brewed at around 4% alcohol by volume, wine at 11%-16%, and stronger spirits at around 43%, 52%, 68%, and 75% alcohol by volume. However, scientists are yet to figure out the reason behind these universal ranges of ABV.
A team of Chinese researchers studied why people choose different alcohol strengths by looking at how water and ethanol molecules interact at different alcohol strengths. Alcoholic drinks contain a variety of molecules that add flavor, color and aroma, but the main molecules are water and ethanol. ethanolThese molecules are made of atoms such as hydrogen and oxygen. The atoms of the molecules are held together by electric forces, like two magnets, but the atoms between the two molecules also attract each other. Water and ethanol molecules are attracted to each other through their hydrogen and oxygen atoms. This process is called Hydrogen Bonding.
The team demonstrated how hydrogen bonds can hold water and ethanol in different orientations and Interaction AngleThey are devices that determine the structure of molecules, Hydrogen Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer or H NMR. H NMR The machine can detect hydrogen atoms and determine what they are bonded to and what angle they form.
The research team created mixtures of water and ethanol ranging from 0% to 100% alcohol content and used H NMR to detect the change in the interaction angle between the two molecules. They found that as the alcohol content increased, the interaction angle decreased. It dropped from a 90° angle at 1% alcohol content to a 10° angle at 99% alcohol content. They noticed that this change was not smooth, but that the interaction angle decreased in stages. For example, the interaction angle was about 70° between 11% and 13% alcohol content, but suddenly dropped to 60° when the alcohol content reached 14% alcohol content. The research team noticed that these abrupt changes occurred across the preferred alcohol content ranges of alcoholic beverages around the world, as shown above.
The most common type of hydrogen bond that occurs between a hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom is Hydroxyl. Using 1 H NMR, the team found that these hydroxyl interactions produced a uniform 3D water molecular network at an interaction angle of 90°, forming tetrahedral structures. However, the hydroxyl interactions between ethanol molecules were nearly linear, and at an interaction angle of 0°, long chains were formed. As the alcohol content of the beverage increased, the tetrahedral structures and the long chain molecules competed with each other.
The team found that as the alcohol content increased, the number of hydroxyl interactions decreased stepwise, as did the interaction angle. The team concluded that alcoholic drinks with different alcohol content formed distinct mixtures of chain and tetrahedral interactions. Increasing the amount of ethanol molecules increased the number of chain interactions as the molecules found new preferred orientations.
Finally, the researchers investigated whether the amount of these chain and tetrahedral interactions altered the flavor when an alcoholic beverage was cooled or heated. When an 11% ABV beverage was cooled to 42°F (5°C), more hydroxyl interactions occurred. This cooling increased the number of chain interactions between water and ethanol molecules.
Next, the researchers hired professional and amateur beer tasters to test the flavor of cold and hot alcoholic beverages with 11% alcohol content. The tasters found that chilling low and high alcohol content beers produced even greater differences in the flavor of the alcohol, due to an increased number of chain reactions within these beverages.
On the other hand, when the researchers warmed the beverages to 104°F (40°C), the number of hydroxyl interactions remained consistently between 38% and 52% ABV. Professional and amateur beer tasters tasted the warmed alcoholic beverages at 38% and 52% ABV and could not detect any difference. The team concluded that warming these beverages resulted in similar amounts of chain interactions, so flavor was unaffected by the change in ABV. This difference in taste could explain why people prefer to drink warm sake and other alcoholic beverages at 38% ABV.
The team concluded that throughout human history, brewers and drinkers have relied on their tongues to find the right alcohol content and temperature needed to create beverages that involve water-ethanol polymer chain interactions. By learning the importance of hydrogen bonds and molecular interactions, the team hopes that future brewers and scientists will experiment with different ways to control these molecular interactions to create even more sophisticated and interesting flavors.
yes
Have you ever heard the story about a drunk man looking for his keys under a streetlight? After pacing back and forth for a while and rummaging through the floor, his friend asks him where he thinks he dropped his keys. He points to a dark spot across the street. “Then why don’t you look there?” his friend asks. He shrugs. “Because that’s where the light is.” It’s a good joke. Everyone laughs.
Let’s talk about online political advertising.
“Microtargeting” doesn’t exist anymore, explains The Guardian’s Jim Waterson.
Don’t expect to see Cambridge Analytica-style micro-targeting of political ads using personal information in this general election. The tactic is now seen by many as ineffective “bait” and is increasingly being blocked by social media platforms. Digital strategist Tom Edmonds said Facebook has banned political campaigns from using many of the tactics used in past elections. “If you run a campaign to 500 people, you’re not getting a ton of revenue, you’re just getting a ton of harassment,” he said.
Microtargeting was feared because of its potential negative effects on democracy — if you can target 1,000 different messages to 1,000 different demographics, the very notion of a single national conversation begins to break down — but in reality, microtargeting never really worked.
After all, the biggest competitor for a company like Cambridge Analytica was Facebook itself: the social network’s advertising tools make it less worthwhile to spend billions creating profiles and microtargeting individual voters when you can leave all the targeting decisions to Facebook itself. The social network allows advertisers to set “performance objectives.” [like sales, clicks, or signups]You set a spending limit and then you just sit back and wait for the company to do whatever it takes to maximize your profits. The company will also choose the best combination of words and images to increase your chances of success.
But Facebook can only help you so much. For example, if you’re creating ads for a particular candidate, who should you focus your time and money on? Those who are likely to win, or those who are sure to lose? If you answered the latter, you’d be better off working for the Conservative Party. From our article:
The strategy, known within the party as the “80/20” approach, involves concentrating all of its spending on the 80 seats it is most likely to lose in 2019 and the 20 seats it is most likely to gain.
Facebook’s ad spending reports show the party is pouring money into exactly these constituencies: Since January, more than half of the party’s spending on the social network has been directed to the 80 closest constituencies or those not held by the party at all.
A conference staff member speaks in front of Facebook’s demo booth at F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference in San Jose, California. Photo: Noah Berger/AP
We began monitoring meta ad spending to see if the reported “80/20 strategy” held up. It’s one thing to propose it two years before an election, but quite another to follow through with it just a month away.
But we also started monitoring Meta’s ad spending because we could. The company keeps a library of all political ads, publishes total spending, and requires residency verification before launching a new ad. This library has received a lot of criticism over the years, but at least it exists. Not only that, but the library has a powerful toolset that allows you to write your own software to query and answer questions more serious than “are there any interesting ads that someone paid for recently?”
But like a drunk person searching for his keys, it’s unlikely that this topic is actually on Facebook. Across large swaths of the country, conversations that once took place on public social networks have migrated to private channels, led by Meta’s WhatsApp. What’s left of Facebook itself is smothered in AI-generated rubbish and disconnected from reality by algorithmic tweaks that highlight “friends and family” content. That trend is doubly pronounced on Meta’s Twitter clone, Threads, which actively and openly downgrades any kind of political content.
Although conversations are growing on TikTok, the platform is difficult to cover: Observer research into digital campaigns has had to focus on the official TikTok feeds of political parties.
TikTok is free; paid advertising by politicians or political parties isn’t allowed. But it won’t be easy. Social media teams will have to work harder to convince the app’s notoriously opaque algorithms to let their content flow organically to users’ phones. The more people who like, share, comment and repost a video, the better the chances. For smaller, more agile parties with smaller budgets, TikTok can feel like it has everything to win: views, engagement and people finally finding out they exist. Creators who know how to do it think Labour is off to a good start.
Election conversations are happening on TikTok — and there’s a lot of it, as the platform’s tightly curated algorithmic feed allows people of all ages to have their own discussions — but it’s nearly impossible to observe from the outside without using brute force techniques like tallying up views of videos tagged “snack.”
Of course, WhatsApp conversations are even worse: with end-to-end encryption and sparse public “channels,” doing data journalism tracking election chats is a dead end.
And then there’s AI. Suspicions remain that the rise of AI systems will have some impact on this election, but here, too, we have to look at where the light is. It’s very clear (and we’ve never really seen it before) that deepfake videos are circulating on Twitter, the platform now known as X. What’s invisible to us is that wavering voters are conversing with ChatGPT to try to decide where to type X, if that’s even happening in the first place.
In the UK, these questions feel largely academic; apart from personality-driven local elections, the final outcome feels more foregone than at any time in my life. But in the US, where voters go to the polls in five months’ time, the same questions will be asked. And the answers may hold the key to which side the coin falls.
So let’s go find them right away.
A wider texscape
Footage from the fake documentary “Olympics Has Fallen” produced by Russian influencer actor Storm-1679. Photo: Storm-1679/Microsoft Threat Analysis Center
by the way Deepfake According to Microsoft, the fake Tom Cruise video (pictured above) was used to spread disinformation about the Olympics.
Is the Internet Bad?. That is certainly Marbonot everything has been smooth sailing during the first nine months online.
Internal Google Database Tracking Privacy and Security Breaches Leaked to 404 MediaOne of the biggest threats is that YouTube employees could secretly check upcoming big video uploads to get information ahead of time.
Voters support raising the minimum age Social media The number of people using the app in the UK has risen to 16, according to a poll by The Guardian.
Microsoft’s “RecallA “clone of the Mac app Rewind” has been built into the OS. It has been described as a security “catastrophe”.The AI service stores everything a user has ever seen on a computer in a database to help answer questions for law students, which critics say makes it an attractive target for hackers.
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