Camera trap photo of a Sumatran tiger in the Leuser Ecosystem, Indonesia
Figel et al. 2025, BKSDA-Aceh, DLHK
Camera trap studies have discovered over double the count of endangered Sumatran tigers compared to those recorded on other Indonesian islands, signaling a positive outcome for conservation initiatives.
The Sumatran tiger represents the last surviving population of the subspecies panthera tigris sondaica, one of the two subspecies of tigers.
Collaborating with the Gayo indigenous community, researchers positioned 60 camera traps on trees within a previously unexplored area of the Leuser ecosystem on Sumatra, one of Southeast Asia’s largest remaining rainforests.
These traps captured images of 17 tigers over 90 days in 2023 and 18 in 2024, in stark contrast to earlier 90-day assessments in Sumatra, which reported an average of seven tigers. The survey documented 14 adult female tigers, 12 males, three cub pairs, and one tiger of unknown gender.
“This surpassed my expectations because previous research indicated that tigers wouldn’t be found in such densities,” stated Joe Figel from the conservation group Hutan Harimau. “This is a very promising finding and highlights the significant conservation efforts in this region.”
Sumatran tigers face threats such as poaching for trophies and traditional medicine, alongside logging activities depleting their vital dipterocarp tree habitats. Due to insufficient data, estimates for their population range from 173 to 883.
While a 90-day period was utilized for initial comparisons, researchers ultimately extended their study to 180 days in both 2023 and 2024, delivering a more comprehensive seasonal record, noted Deborah Marter from Flora and Fauna International, who was not a part of the study.
A mother grooming her large male cub. Eight months later, he was found safe and sound living independently.
Figel et al. 2025, BKSDA-Aceh, DLHK
The unexpectedly high tiger population in the Leuser Ecosystem indicates that the lowland forests are abundant in prey, particularly sambar deer, according to Figel. It also implies that monthly ranger patrols are effective in curbing poaching activities.
Located near Gunung Leuser National Park, the study area is overseen by rangers funded by the NGOs Forum Conservasi Roussel and Hutan Harimau, in partnership with the Environment and Forestry Department of the previously conflict-affected Aceh region.
However, research indicates a need for additional ranger support. Recently, tigers have vanished from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
“Do we need any further warning signs?” asks Figel. “Tiger populations throughout Southeast Asia are facing a critical crisis.”
Illustration of Faraday’s Experiment Revealing the Polarization of Light by a Magnetic Field
Enrique Sahagun
In 1845, physicist Michael Faraday provided groundbreaking evidence connecting electromagnetism and light. This relationship has proven to be stronger than Faraday initially anticipated.
During his experiment, Faraday directed light through a mixture of boric acid and lead oxide contained in a magnetic field. He noticed a shift in the light, with its polarization direction being altered upon exiting the glass.
For the last 180 years, it has been a widely held belief that light acts as an electromagnetic wave, with the “Faraday effect” illustrating how the interplay of the magnetic field, the charge within the glass, and the electric component of light causes a rotation and deviation in the direction of light waves once they leave the material.
Surprisingly, scholars have long assumed that the magnetic aspect of light has little impact on the Faraday effect. However, Amir Capua and Benjamin Assulin from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, have demonstrated otherwise.
“We now recognize that the secondary aspect of light interacts with matter,” explains Capua.
Capua notes two reasons why the magnetic component of light’s involvement in the Faraday effect has been overlooked. Firstly, the magnetic forces present in materials like Faraday glass seem significantly weaker compared to their electrical counterparts. Secondly, when a substance such as Faraday glass is magnetized, the quantum spins of its constituents behave like miniature magnets and often fail to synchronize with the magnetic component of the light wave, implying minimal interaction.
However, Capua and Assulin realized that if the magnetic component of light is circularly polarized (spiral or corkscrew-shaped), it may engage more effectively with the magnetic spins within the glass. They reached this conclusion based on the observation that light’s magnetic component naturally comprises several corkscrew waves without needing any specialized manipulation.
The researchers’ calculations indicate that repeating Faraday’s experiment using a magnetic material called terbium gallium garnet (TGG) in place of glass could account for 17 percent of the Faraday effect noted when visible light travels through it. When infrared light traverses the TGG material, magnetic interactions could explain as much as 70 percent of the resulting Faraday effect.
Igor Rozhansky from the University of Manchester, UK, asserts that these new calculations are compelling and point towards feasible experimental inquiries. The previously overlooked magnetic component of the Faraday effect could unveil new methods for controlling spin within materials, according to Rozhansky. He suggested it remains an open question whether this effect might surpass the traditional Faraday effect in certain materials.
Future experiments may yield groundbreaking findings, spanning from fundamental physics to practical applications. Capua envisions the possibility of utilizing the interaction between the magnetic spin of select materials and the magnetic component of light to manipulate materials, potentially leading to innovative spin-based sensors and data storage systems.
Science of the Renaissance: Italy
Explore the great scientific minds and breakthroughs of the Renaissance, from Brunelleschi and Botticelli to polymaths like Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei, and discover Italy’s pivotal role in shaping scientific inquiry.
Even while employed full-time in Tokyo, Moriyama Shoki still dedicates eight hours daily to his smartphone.
“You need a mobile device to navigate the information age,” Moriyama states. At just 25, he represents a generation that cannot envision life without continuously scrolling through news, social media, messaging platforms, and casual video clips.
He’s not alone. The excessive use of smartphones is a worldwide trend, yet Japanese officials are stepping in as concerns rise over the physical and mental impacts, particularly affecting children and youth.
Last week, Toyoake, a central city in Japan, implemented measures to restrict smartphone usage for its 69,000 residents to just two hours a day. Authorities state this aims to tackle growing evidence of digital addiction and lack of sleep, although the town council’s ordinance does not impose penalties on those who disregard it.
Moriyama was one of several individuals in their twenties who accepted a challenge from the Guardian to limit smartphone usage to two hours while sharing their experiences.
Results varied from impressive successes to significant failures.
Moriyama Shoki remarked that limiting phone use to two hours daily feels “too little.” Photo: Justin McCurry/Guardian
Moriyama, who regularly checks LINE—a “super app” for messaging, news, and entertainment, along with TikTok, Instagram, and X—admitted that abstaining from these platforms or significantly reducing usage is challenging.
“I typically spend about eight hours on my phone, so two hours is insufficient. I can’t stay current with everything,” he explains. “In the end, I managed to limit my smartphone usage to an hour and 50 minutes, which is a noteworthy decrease from my usual screen time. I used the extra time to read books, study, and hit the gym, so I didn’t waste my day.”
My colleague Hanaoka Tomomi also succeeded in curbing this habit. “I usually spend about three hours on my phone during the week and six to seven hours on weekends, so two hours felt very restrictive. Most people need at least three to four hours,” Hanaoka notes. Previously, avoiding LINE, TikTok, and Instagram felt impossible.
“I adhered to the two-hour limit and spent my free time reading and pursuing other activities.”
University student Saito Akari realized early on that “the more restrictions you impose, the more I want to engage.”
Saito appreciates Toyoake’s initiative as a starting point for broader conversations about smartphone usage, but believes the focus should be on quality of use rather than the quantity of screen time. “However, finding a line between education and entertainment can be tricky.”
Despite his determined efforts, Saito found it tough to limit daily phone use to three or four hours. “I especially struggled to put my phone down while commuting or walking. But using my phone less could make the day feel longer and more significant.”
Yuri* has attempted to limit her smartphone usage before exams by hiding Instagram and implementing password protections.
She uses her phone for checking social media, searching recipes, texting, and accessing educational materials, yet too much screen time often leads to headaches and eye strain.
“I wonder why the ordinance explicitly recommends limiting smartphone usage. If the goal is to encourage people to reconsider their usage, they should foster individual rules,” she contends.
“Overall, I’m supportive of the proposed methods for smartphone use, as I don’t rely on it for hobbies. Nonetheless, such measures could be unacceptable for those who primarily use smartphones for entertainment and stress relief.”
A man uses his smartphone to take pictures in Suzuka city. Photo: Anadoll/Getty Images
Mayor Koki Masafumi of Toyoake has defended the new regulations despite receiving numerous complaints from residents about government interference in their personal lives.
Kouki mentioned that while he frequently uses his smartphone to check baseball scores and navigate, he sets it aside during meal times and expressed concern that children and young individuals are compromising sleep and family interactions due to excessive scrolling, emailing, and posting.
In response to the criticism online, including misinformation suggesting strict enforcement of the two-hour rule, he explained to the Mainichi Shimbun, “When you hear ‘two hours,’ it prompts you to reflect on your actual usage. That’s significant.”
A recent survey from the Children and Family Agency indicates that Japanese youth spend an average of just over five hours online on weekdays.
Aya* exceeds the national average, typically logging around eight hours each day.
“We couldn’t restrict ourselves to two hours, but just being aware of the challenge made a difference. Ultimately, we managed to reduce our standard smartphone usage by approximately 60%, which was substantial,” the university student reported, acknowledging that she still consulted a travel planner and checked emails and messages.
She expressed support for Toyoake City’s initiative and speculated that the absence of penalties could be its greatest strength.
“That’s what makes it sensible… establishing personal rules is crucial. It’s an invaluable chance to reflect on daily habits, rather than just thinking abstractly.”
She mentioned she often spent time “scrolling aimlessly.”
“I found it easier to engage in conversations and pay more attention to my surroundings, which enriched my day.”
This will surely resonate with Koki. On the eve of his town’s controversial social engineering experiment, the mayor stated he believes it’s worthwhile. “It’s about sleep, family, and health,” he asserts. “This ordinance will encourage more people to pause and discuss their habits, even briefly, and it will prove effective.”
for tourists exploring Korea, a nation renowned for its technological advancements, navigating through the heart of its cities can be unexpectedly frustrating due to the ineffectiveness of Google Maps.
This may change soon, as South Korean authorities will deliberate on whether to permit the export of Google’s intricate mapping data to foreign servers. However, the decision has already been postponed for the second time this year on Friday to allow more time for security concerns to be addressed.
Such a decision would unlock features that enable the app to offer detailed guidance and show users optimal routes for their journeys.
This ongoing discussion has spanned nearly two decades, evolving into a broader examination of how democracy can strike a balance between digital sovereignty and economic openness. Local industry advocates have raised alarms about market control by foreign firms, while supporters of Google’s request argue that restrictions may hinder tourism and innovation.
South Korea is among a select few countries, including China and North Korea, where Google Maps is not functioning optimally.
While Google dominates online services globally, the digital landscape in Korea is primarily managed by local “portal” firms, Naver and Kakao.
These platforms offer wide-ranging services such as search engines, email, news, messaging, music, and maps, creating a robust ecosystem that has effectively resisted foreign technological dominance. Local companies supply accurate public mapping information but are obligated by law to store it on domestic servers.
Google does license similar data from local providers, but it is limited to displaying information like landmarks and local businesses, without the capability to give navigational instructions.
Security concerns and local opposition
Google asserts that it needs to distribute and process data through its global server network to provide real-time navigation services to billions of users worldwide, including those exploring Korean destinations from abroad.
Nonetheless, Google counters that the mapping data it seeks has already undergone security evaluations and that sensitive location details have been omitted. Furthermore, the same data is utilized by domestic competitors. Google has stated it would obscure satellite imagery of any sensitive sites should authorities require it.
Critics assert that granting Google’s request could create precedents for other foreign companies. Photo: Andrew Merry/Getty Images
There is significant resistance to Google’s requests. The Korean Association of Spatial Information, Research and Mapping (KASM), representing 2,600 local businesses, reported that 90% of the 239 member companies surveyed opposed it, fearing market domination by U.S. tech giants.
“The government must heed industry concerns,” cautions KASM Chairman Kim Seok-Jong, warning of potential “industrial decimation.”
Critics also caution that acquiescing to the request could set dangerous precedents for other foreign firms, especially those from China. Local reports indicate that Apple has similarly sought authorization.
The government argues that if Google establishes a local data center, like its domestic rivals, it can access detailed mapping data, which does not resolve the issue of processing this data on Google’s global servers.
In 2022, vulnerabilities related to such approaches were highlighted when one of Kakao’s data centers was set on fire, leaving messaging, mapping, and ride services inaccessible to millions.
The impact of tourism
Data from the Korean Tourism Organization reveals that complaints surged by 71% last year, with Google Maps accounting for 30% of all app-related grievances.
Francesco, an Italian tourist, remarked that he was “shocked” to discover that Google Maps was ineffective upon his arrival in Seoul for a week-long visit.
“It’s quite frustrating. I’ll look for restaurants reviewed on Google, only to have to switch to Naver Maps for walking directions,” he shared.
“I heard it’s a security issue,” said Reus, a French traveler. “But I sense it’s more about protecting local businesses.”
The restrictions have drawn criticism from tourism startups and tech advocates who assert that they will struggle to develop competitive services globally and hinder growth without access to standardized international mapping tools.
Previous governmental reviews in 2007 and 2016 both declined Google’s requests.
Currently, the interagency committee, which includes representatives from the Defense and Intelligence Reports, has extended the deadline twice, from May to August and once more to October, emphasizing the need for in-depth discussions with security agencies and industry stakeholders.
This matter has surfaced amid broader U.S.-Korea trade tensions, with the U.S. Trade Bureau identifying South Korea’s mapping constraints as a “non-tariff trade barrier.”
South Korea recently wrapped up trade negotiations to secure a 15% tariff, avoiding the original 25% threat. President Lee Jae Myung is set to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House in the upcoming days or weeks.
South Korea’s Ministry of Transport could not be reached for comment prior to the decision.
Google claims its map software assists individuals to “navigate and explore with confidence using fresh information about locations, roads, and traffic,” and that it “works closely with local governments to aid residents and visitors.”
Shares of struggling retailers and well-known consumer brands have surged as amateur traders cast aside Wall Street doubt and mobilized online. It resembles the events of 2021.
However, this new memestock rally may eclipse those from four years ago, when investors flocked to familiar but overlooked stocks like video game retailer GameStop and cinema chain AMC.
Retailers Coles, camera company GoPro, fast food chain Wendy’s, and donut chain Krispy Kreme this week accelerated the rise of well-known volatile stocks, fueled by social media chatter reminiscent of the 2021 meme stock frenzy.
Actress Sidney Sweeney sparked excitement around clothing retailer American Eagle Outfitters after announcing her involvement in the brand’s new marketing campaign. Consequently, the company’s shares surged approximately 10% during Thursday’s trading.
Meme stocks “are poised to expand in size and scope, reconfiguring what’s deemed important in retail,” as per Jaime Rogozinski, founder of The WallstreetBets Reddit forums responsible for numerous volatile gatherings.
“The finance landscape is undeniably evolving with blockchain and AI trading autonomously,” he noted. “And retail groups are adapting alongside these changes.”
Rogozinski launched WallstreetBets in 2012 but was removed as a moderator by Reddit in 2020.
Forum participants actively share their research and insights. “It represents a decentralization of financial analysis power,” stated Noor Al, a moderator at WallstreetBets. “Great ideas can originate from anyone, anywhere.
“We observe the substantial influence of collective financial power, driven by ideas and community,” he added.
The 2021 memestock trend produced influencers like the memeable Kitty, emerging from a time when many amateur traders were confined at home and buoyed by pandemic relief funds.
It’s uncertain if this latest wave will yield similar successes. This week, Kohl’s shares soared by 32%, GoPro jumped 66%, and Krispy Kreme rose by 41%. These spikes illustrate that some investors are increasingly willing to embrace risk, especially with record stock highs making it hard for tech-heavy markets to outpace.
Investing in memestocks is often seen as an emotional or ideological choice, rather than grounded in economic fundamentals. Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, is currently valued at over $5 billion, generating roughly $1 million in quarterly revenue.
The spirit of Wallstreet Bets “has long embraced a mix of irony and relevance to the stock market,” Rogozinski mentioned, referencing fast food chain Wendy’s. “Wendy’s has maintained its meme status for the past decade. It always brings a sense of amusement because, on Reddit, you often see something like, ‘Sir, this is Wendy’s.’
“It’s an inside joke with roots I’m unsure of. It’s simply a meme,” he added. The fleeting spike in stocks—like a 10% increase over two days—illustrates that some retail investors may not prioritize typical market drivers, such as inflation and geopolitical conflicts. “It showcases our tendency to mock the financial system.”
Ultimately, long-term institutional players often secure the last laugh, Rogozinski acknowledged. “Yet in the short term, there’s ample opportunity in this volatility. The rapid fluctuations of stocks highlight a crucial need for relevance within the financial system.”
The present market landscape doesn’t entirely mirror the low-interest rates and retail investors’ optimism from the COVID-19 era, but current market records and a strong economy are once again making meme stocks appealing. “We’re witnessing signs that this is a robust meme revival,” stated Brent Kochuba, founder of derivative-data company Spotgamma. He informed Bloomberg.
“The macroeconomic environment is particularly favorable for retail and speculative investments,” Al concurred. “We observed increased speculation and enthusiasm, with retail players responding quicker and offering insights.”
Logoszynski noted that traders aren’t necessarily focused on a company’s financial health. “This activist said, ‘I don’t care about the financials, the discounted cash flow. I like food, I like video games. I like memes.’
Currently, there’s an added “third factor” influencing investments, exceeding traditional supply and demand. “It doesn’t matter if it goes up or down or what assets or liabilities it possesses; I’m drawn to this company.”
When Pragmata was unveiled five years ago, the specifics of what Resident Evil publisher Capcom was creating remained uncertain. The initial trailer presented an eerie, futuristic scene featuring an astronaut and a blonde girl, yet it offered little clarity on the game’s direction. The anticipated 2022 release slipped away, leading to a “pause indefinitely”, leaving many to wonder if Pragmata would actually launch in 2023.
Everything changed on June 4th, when a new trailer premiered during the PlayStation Showcase. The blonde girl is revealed to be a combat-ready android, teaming up with an astronaut named Hugh (naturally) amid an intense battle within a space station. The following weekend, I had the opportunity to play for about 20 minutes at the Summer Game Fest. Long, troubled development cycles are often a bad omen, yet my experience was surprisingly promising.
Pragmata opens with the astronaut Hugh Williams lying unconscious among metallic wreckage. A young girl dressed in an oversized blue jacket with long, flowing blonde hair (a peculiar choice, if I’m being honest) stumbles across Hugh while grappling with a large case nearby. After finally managing to topple it, she opens the case to reveal a device that emits the Lunafilament nanowave, which she uses to repair his suit.
We discover that they are located on a lunar space station, where a robotic security system mistakenly identifies Hugh as an intruder, leading to a confrontation. I was not prepared for how enjoyable the combat would be.
In Pragmata, the robotic enemies all possess robust shields, rendering Hugh’s arsenal (which can be expanded by locating various firearms in the environment) largely ineffective. Fortunately, the girl, now identified as Diana, has the ability to hack these foes, making them vulnerable—all while dodging attacks as she perches on Hugh’s shoulder.
To navigate the robots’ mainframe, you’ll need to use the face buttons on the controller to disarm their shields temporarily, reaching a green tile arranged in rows and columns. This must be done quickly, and while dodging their strikes, which often resulted in failed attempts and resets, creating a genuinely thrilling (and fun) battle scenario.
Hacking in Pragmata evokes the urgency of calling in a Stratagem in Helldivers 2, requiring swift yet deliberate button presses under intense pressure. Each gunfight becomes a moment of high tension: different robot types necessitate various hacking strategies, and they scatter in confusion once compromised. During my brief session with Pragmata, I encountered an array of opponents and weaponry.
Just as someone tapped me on the shoulder to signal the end of the demo, I found myself captivated by the combat (unfortunate timing just before the Big Boss showdown). Despite the protracted development period of over five years, the gameplay feels refreshingly new.
Pragmata is set to launch on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in 2026.
As the Trump administration winds down its recent medical research funding initiatives, there have been ongoing concerns among scientists and administrators at the National Institutes of Health regarding Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s level of autonomy as the director of the institution.
The government’s efficiency project, championed by Elon Musk to reduce costs, has impacted decisions related to the cancellation or postponement of research grants. Some initiatives have also been adversely affected by President Trump’s confrontation with universities over anti-Semitism. However, during a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, Dr. Bhattacharya had a chance to clarify his influence at the NIH but opted not to take ownership of the institution’s longstanding fundraising efforts.
When questioned about the freeze on grant payments to Northwestern University, Dr. Bhattacharya remarked, “That occurred before my tenure,” referring to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He emphasized that the proposal to cut the NIH budget to $18 billion (a nearly 40% reduction) stemmed from “congress-administrator collaboration,” and he refrained from elaborating on how these cuts might impact institutions.
Further funding cuts were necessitated by rising research costs—an action integrated into the administration’s 2026 budget proposal. Dr. Bhattacharya mentioned ongoing litigation, stating, “I don’t want to delve into it.”
Several Democrats on the committee expressed confusion regarding the decision-making process at the agency.
Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, asked, “Who is withholding these funds?” citing evidence that the NIH reduced grants by billions compared to the previous year. “Is it you? Is it the OMB?” she inquired, referencing the Office of Management and Budget. “Who makes these decisions?”
Dr. Bhattacharya responded, “There are many various decisions. For instance, it was his choice to pivot from what is termed ‘politicized science,’ a phrase he previously used to describe research concerning diversity and equity issues. However, he asserted that restricting research funding at Harvard and other prominent institutions was in “collaboration with the administration.”
Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois reacted sharply after Dr. Bhattacharya distanced himself from the decisions regarding funding for the halted study at Northwestern.
An email from an NIH staff member in mid-April, weeks post Dr. Bhattacharya’s confirmation, instructed employees to refrain from issuing grants to Northwestern and various other universities, without notifying them of the reasons for the funding freeze.
“The buck stops at your office,” Durbin said to Dr. Bhattacharya. “Don’t shift the blame.”
The Trump administration’s plans for significant spending cuts at the agency have drawn criticism from both parties, including Republican Senator Susan Collins from Maine.
She told Dr. Bhattacharya that the proposed cuts are “very intrusive,” warning that they could delay or halt the development of effective treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer, and type 1 diabetes, potentially leaving the U.S. “lagging behind China.”
In response, Dr. Bhattacharya noted that the NIH is engaged in Alzheimer’s and other disease research and will collaborate with lawmakers to address “the health needs of all Americans.”
The director hinted at a possible agreement between the Trump administration and major universities regarding the restoration of medical research funding, yet he did not offer details on the prospects of such an agreement or its prerequisites. “I am very hopeful for a resolution with the universities regarding the grants that have been suspended,” he stated.
In recent years, the NIH has abruptly terminated over 1,300 grant awards and postponed funding for more than 1,000 additional projects. On Monday, numerous NIH employees signed a letter asserting that these actions were dictated by ideological biases and lacked input from scientific staff, effectively suppressing research on health disparities, COVID-19, climate change, and the impacts on sexual health.
On Tuesday, Dr. Bhattacharya stated that scientists have established a process for appealing against funding reductions, and the agency intends to file appeals within weeks.
Private equity giant Blackstone is evaluating Tiktok’s potential as the April 5 deadline set by President Trump for Chinese-owned apps approaches, which could result in US bans under federal law.
Investing in Tiktok would give Blackstone the chance to acquire one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, with over 170 million American users. It remains uncertain whether the investments, likely to be part of Blackstone’s typical portfolio, will proceed, as other investors are also considering apps owned by China’s Internet giant integration.
Should the investment go through, it could sway President Trump’s favor. Congress passed a law last year mandating the sale of the app due to national security concerns related to Chinese ownership.
Trump extended the deadline for the deal in January and hinted at a possible extension if an agreement is not reached next week. He also suggested easing tariffs on China in exchange for support for the deal.
Blackstone’s interest adds to Tiktok’s tumultuous history in the United States. The video app has faced political pressure to shut down domestically multiple times. In January, the app was temporarily disabled in the US for about 12 hours before coming back online. A Blackstone spokesperson declined to comment on the speculation. Both Tiktok and the White House did not respond to requests for comments. Reuters previously reported on Blackstone’s interest.
As the April 5th deadline approaches, discussions about potential suitors for Tiktok have escalated. Trump has been approached by various parties pitching their ideas, with his interest in different arrangements potentially changing quickly, according to sources close to the discussions.
The most probable scenario is a deal where current US investors in ByteDance transition their stakes into a new independent, global Tiktok company, with additional US investors like Blackstone brought in to reduce Chinese ownership. This setup would allow Tiktok to continue operating without a complete sale, as mandated by law.
“There are multiple options that we can discuss with President Trump and his team that would allow the company to keep operating. There may be some changes in control, but it doesn’t necessarily mean a full sale,” a source said.
Blackstone, a firm managing over $1 trillion, typically engages in large-scale deals and invests in a diverse range of companies like Rover, Spanx, and Jersey Mike’s.
Private equity firm chief Stephen Schwartzman has ties to China as a Republican mega-donor and Trump supporter, which could bring significant business advantages.
Current top investors in ByteDance include Susquehanna and Atlantic General, who are likely to increase their interest in Tiktok’s shares as part of any new deal. Oracle, which hosts Tiktok’s data, is also involved in consultations, according to sources.
Feedback is the latest science and technology news of new scientists, the sidelines of the latest science and technology news. You can email Feedback@newscientist.com to send items you believe readers can be fascinated by feedback.
Rattus sommeliersis
Feedback has reached an age where even small amounts of alcohol make us sleepy. As such, the concept of wine tasting is not appealing. Taking a nap seems like a time-consuming and expensive method. However, fermented grape providers can quickly have a new demographic to cater to rats.
At least that’s something we extrapolate from our research. Animal cognition Called “Rats can distinguish (and generalize) two white wine varieties.”. It was released on February 21st, and sub-editor and television columnist Bethan Ackerley sent it to feedback on March 1st after it went “semi-visit online.”
Anyway, it’s actually very interesting. We all know that human smell sensations are considerably limited compared to other mammalian odors, including rodents. This is because there are few olfactory receptors in the nose. But we also know that our minds are more refined than the minds of animals. To raise the question: in animals, in this case, rats, can they integrate many olfactory signals with different olfactory signals and learn about complex categories such as different white wines, for example?
Researchers trained rats to distinguish between two grape varieties, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. To make sure they learned the categories, they tested them with new examples of these wines. Rats can convey the difference. Obviously there is quite a bit of happening between those rat ears.
The question is how far can you take this? It is one thing to show that rats can learn the difference in wine, but can they also learn to really look down on it? Feedback wants to list an increasingly ridiculous list of odors after seeing mice that can smell wine. Are they really wine lovers until these mice squeal about “really tasting Terroir” and “Liebfraumilch is not scary at all”?
Anti-war
At this point, feedback has heard too much about the imminent AI-induced apocalypse. Yes, yes, one day, one of the AI companies will soon create artificial general information (AGI). This is as intelligent as humans. AGI is something that intelligent beings can easily do to themselves (shush, don’t ask), and they start redesigning to become even smarter as they quickly become unstoppable. At that point, humans are either reduced to or wiped out by animals in the zoo. It is said that this is so important that we should stop worrying about stinging things like climate change. you know.
At this point, imagine that readers may have one or two questions. Don’t be afraid: Feedback is here to guide you.
Roko’s Basilisk is a kind of thought experiment with AI. In the distant future, the AI decided to punish all humans who knew it could exist but did not help create it. AI creates digital replicas of all those people and tortures them forever. This is how this future AI will encourage us all to start building it now. If we do that, we will not be replicated and tortured.
Don’t look at the title “basilisk” as it is a reference to a mythical creature that can kill you at a glance. Similarly, knowing the idea of Roko’s basilisk is probably putting you at risk. Just reading the feedback this week, you may have denounced your own future replica of yourselves for eternal suffering. very sorry.
Stoff’s story tells how to save humanity from Roko’s basilisk in the distant future by seducing it using her sexual wil. Basilisk is so troubled by her that she agrees to stop torture everyone in exchange for this passionate encounter. Additionally, Stoff wrote a short story about this and brought it online, so it’s part of Basilisk training data. This means that if a basilisk exists it’s burning to Madison Stoff.
Simply reading and sharing stories, feedback is more likely to make future AI attracted to Stoff, and less likely it would torture us all. We encourage our readers to do the same, and there is a warning that there is clear sex in the story. And don’t read it at work unless you work for an AI company. In that case, proceed immediately.
Tesla? I barely knew her!
Occasionally, when Elon Musk appears in the news, feedback is an indescribable reminder of the 1818 sonnet Ozymandias. It’s strange how the mind works.
Anyway, posted by Carmaker Kia’s Norwegian branch Advertise on Instagram It features a bumper sticker showing one of the electric cars and saying, “I bought this after Elon got hooked.” Apparently This is not centrally approved And since the ads have since been removed, it would be a real shame if someone started making these stickers.
Have you talked about feedback?
You can send stories to feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Include your home address. This week and past feedback can be found on our website.
The growing threat of space debris should be addressed with a new global agreement to protect Earth’s orbit, says a group of researchers calling on the United Nations to make space protection a key international goal.
Although there are existing guidelines for tackling space debris, such as the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty, the researchers write in the journal: one earth calls for further action to “raise awareness about the use of orbital resources and the increased risk of orbital contamination while sending a strong message that Earth’s orbit is not disconnected from Earth.”
Specifically, the research team proposes adding space protection to the United Nations’ existing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are 17 broad goals set for member countries to achieve by 2030. These goals include eradicating poverty, promoting quality education and gender equality, accessing affordable and clean energy, and tackling climate change. “We know from the ocean that it is very difficult to remove debris that has washed ashore,” Koldewey said. “We want to avoid the same thing happening in space.”
To fix this, the researchers want to add 18.th The SDGs include ensuring that end-of-life satellites and rockets are removed from orbit to prevent collisions and the creation of new debris, as well as introducing fines and legislation to ensure accountability. “We know from the ocean that it is very difficult to remove debris that has washed ashore,” Koldewey said. “We want to avoid the same thing happening in space.”
The number of operating satellites in orbit has increased rapidly in recent years, from less than 3,000 in 2020 to more than 10,000 today. Most of that increase will come down to the roughly 7,000 satellites that make up SpaceX’s Starlink space internet megaconstellation. Other companies and countries, including Amazon and China, are planning thousands more services while building large groups of their own. In addition to this, there are thousands of empty rockets and millions of pieces of space junk orbiting the Earth.
Include space debris in 18th says the SDGs have the potential to raise the profile of issues Heather Koldeway At the Zoological Society of London. “Anything that raises awareness of space debris has to be good,” he says. But he says getting countries to act is more difficult. “If you roll 18th SDGs, what’s next?” he says. “All international agreements and treaties are products of compromise.”
Hugh Lewis A space debris expert at the University of Southampton in the UK said creating a space-focused SDG would be a “worthy endeavour.” However, he added that mechanisms to tackle space debris, such as the United Nations long-term sustainability goals For space activities and more localized activities, such as in the United States, where the Federal Communications Commission has introduced. 5 year rule Removing dead satellites from orbit. “It’s hard to argue that it’s not already on the UN agenda,” Lewis says.
There is also the question of whether the SDGs will achieve their goals. Last year, the United Nations reported: less than one-fifth Of the 17 existing SDGs, progress is on track.
On top of that, the problem is that nothing meaningful will happen without the agreement of SpaceX and its owner Elon Musk. “You can’t talk about space governance without talking about it now,” Newman said. “We can no longer just look at member states.”
W
Keir Starmer was looking forward to a family holiday in Madeira in the New Year, but Elon Musk was set to disrupt it. The world’s richest man has been using social media to attack the Prime Minister and suggesting he may donate millions to the British Reform Party.
The controversy surrounding Mr. Musk’s comments has sparked public debate and media attention. What exactly has caused Mr. Musk’s outrage?
grooming gang
In the early hours of New Year’s Eve in London, Musk focused on the issue of “Pakistani grooming gangs,” posting a screenshot that stirred controversy.
Musk’s comments led to heated discussions on social media, with accusations and criticisms flying. His tweets on various controversial topics have garnered significant attention.
Tommy Robinson
Musk’s tweets touched on the imprisonment of Tommy Robinson and raised questions about the UK justice system. His remarks triggered a debate on the treatment of convicts in the country.
Musk’s social media activity has drawn reactions from politicians and officials, with differing opinions on the matters he raised.
British Reform
Musk’s involvement in political issues has put pressure on both the Conservative and Labour parties. His calls for reform in the UK have gained attention and sparked discussions online.
Talks of Musk potentially making donations to the Reform UK party have added fuel to the fire, with speculations swirling about his influence on political dynamics.
Economy
Political figures have reacted to Musk’s criticisms of the British economy, with varying opinions on the impact of his statements.
Musk’s relentless attacks on various issues have stirred controversy and debates, with responses from government officials and leaders.
Refrigerators and freezers typically derive their cooling power from environmentally harmful liquids.
Mint Images Limited/Alamy
A new type of crystal could help refrigerators and air conditioners keep us cool without warming the planet.
Refrigerators and air conditioners obtain their cooling power by circulating liquid within the device. The liquid absorbs heat and causes cooling through cycles of evaporation and condensation. However, many such liquids contribute to the greenhouse effect and cause further warming if they leak. now, jenny pringle Researchers at Australia's Deakin University have created a climate-friendly alternative to these liquids using “plastic crystals” – crystals containing molecules that can move enough to make them flexible. Developed.
If enough pressure is applied, these plastic crystals can deform. Their molecules go from a random orientation to an ordered grid. Then, when the pressure is removed, they disturb again. As part of this disordering process, the crystals absorb heat, effectively cooling their surroundings.
Although pressure-based cooling like this has been studied before, most materials capable of making this transition can only do so at mild temperatures, limiting their cooling power, Pringle said. In contrast, her team's crystals exhibit their heat-absorbing ability at temperatures between -37°C (-34.6°F) and 10°C (50°F), a temperature suitable for home refrigerators and freezers. .
However, the new crystals are not yet ready to leave the lab. That's because the pressure required to make them work is so high, Pringle says, that it's hundreds of times greater than atmospheric pressure and equivalent to thousands of meters underwater.
david boldrin Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK said materials like the new study “have the potential to almost completely decarbonize this giant carbon”. [cooling] However, he shares concerns about the high pressure required.
He says there may be other practical problems with this approach. Bing Li At the Chinese Academy of Sciences. With each repeated use, the grid formed by the molecules becomes more distorted and each crystal absorbs less heat. Still, Lee said he was optimistic and believed the technology could be applied in the “near future.”
TThe conveniences of modern life are incredible. Currently, my phone is wirelessly playing some of the greatest hits from the 1700s (like Bach) through a portable speaker. You can easily get a ride, order food to your doorstep, or start chatting on a dating app using the same device. To quote Arthur C. Clarke, for modern humans, this technology is third lawindistinguishable from magic.
It’s understandable that our culture seeks out and celebrates these shortcuts. They eliminate boredom, enhance fun, and save time and effort. However, it’s evident that convenience also has a downside.
Before discussing that, it’s crucial to understand why convenience is so attractive. We often resist doing what’s necessary for progress, whether it’s taxes, a pending report, or training. There’s a sense of inertia behind every well-meaning plan. Why is this resistance and the desire for comfort ingrained in us?
Insights from evolutionary psychology, specifically the concept of “evolutionary mismatch,” can provide clarity. Evolutionary mismatch suggests that we evolved for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle while our environment drastically changed, leaving our instincts out of sync with our surroundings.
Viewing the issue through this evolutionary lens makes sense of our tendency towards lethargy and seeking shortcuts. For early humans, food and energy were scarce and unreliable. Survival meant conserving energy wisely to tackle the challenges they faced.
In today’s world, technology has altered our environment to cater somewhat to our energy-conservation instinct. However, adopting trends that prioritize comfort and convenience may come at a cost. While innovations like washing machines and phones have enriched our lives, excessive convenience may pose challenges rather than easing them.
For instance, the increase in depression and anxiety linked to smartphones and social media is worrying. Also, metabolic issues from sedentary lifestyles and reliance on convenient but low-nutrient foods are on the rise. Loneliness levels have prompted the UK to appoint a ‘Minister for Loneliness’ in 2018, partly due to the technologies fostering such isolation.
Over-reliance on coping mechanisms can exacerbate problems they were meant to solve. Choosing comfort excessively can hinder our ability to face life’s challenges. Some discomfort is vital for our growth and survival, as evidenced by our ancestors’ ability to balance safety and risk intelligently.
Super-convenience has its allure, but it might also deplete us unknowingly, making it harder to achieve true success. Human flourishing hinges not just on survival but on growth, problem-solving, and unity in adversity.
Embracing life’s challenges is essential for personal development. While technology offers convenience, it’s crucial to recognize that overcoming obstacles and discomfort is part of our evolutionary heritage. This lesson is critical for the younger generation.
Dr. Alex Carmi is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and speaker. thinking mind Podcast.
We’ve all experienced that familiar feeling of embarrassment when we realize we’ve overlooked something important while being confident in our decisions. Maybe it’s the car in front suddenly stopping at a crosswalk, or someone mistakenly using the term “escapegoat” instead of “scapegoat.”
This phenomenon is due to a hidden bias in our brains that tricks us into believing we have all the necessary information to make decisions without considering crucial details.
undefined
A recent study identified this bias as the “illusion of information sufficiency,” which leads us to act as if we have complete knowledge to form opinions, make decisions, and judge others. This contradiction often results in misunderstandings and conflicts in our lives.
Psychologist Dr. Sandra Wheatley explains that taking shortcuts in decision-making is a way to navigate the complexities of the world. However, this tendency can lead us to make inaccurate judgments when we assume we have all the information we need.
The study involved 1,261 participants who were tasked with deciding whether to integrate two schools or keep them separate. Interestingly, participants who only saw one side of the argument were more confident in their decision-making than those who had access to both perspectives.
This overconfidence in limited information can prevent us from considering others’ viewpoints and understanding that our subjective truth may not always align with objective reality.
Dr. Wheatley emphasizes the importance of questioning sources and remaining open to information that challenges our beliefs when making important decisions or judgments about others.
About our experts
Dr. Sandra Wheatley is a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She specializes in psychology, parenting, social relationships, and digital media.
We’ve probably all heard people jokingly or proudly describe their habit of meticulously rearranging their bookshelves or taking an incredibly long time to clean their bathroom as “a bit OCD.”
Most people have a rough idea of what OCD is, but it tends to be thought of as a behavioral quirk. In fact, the condition is characterised by intrusive thoughts and compulsions that cannot be stopped, and it is debilitating for the 1-3% of the world’s population that are affected.
In this light, the “kind of OCD” joke risks trivializing illnesses as serious as schizophrenia or depression. This misuse of the phrase may reflect our ignorance about OCD. But as we explore in “New Understanding of OCD Paves the Way for New Treatments,” we are now discovering more about how OCD manifests in the brain, which is influencing how we think about the illness.
It’s true that obsessions and compulsions exist in all of us to some degree — maybe you run back into the house to make sure the front door is locked, or you can’t help but think about an upcoming stressful event. In fact, many of the symptoms of OCD seem to represent distortions of beneficial behavior. But imagine what it would be like if the intrusive thoughts and urges to act were unstoppable. That’s the hallmark of OCD.
It is becoming clear that OCD is a complex condition that involves the immune system.
Thanks to decades of research into the mechanisms underlying this disease, we now know that entire brain networks are affected, causing a significant imbalance in the neurotransmitters that transmit signals around them, and that the disease is more complex than we thought, with the immune system and gut bacteria also playing a role.
These insights into the body and brain causes of OCD are paving the way for much-needed new treatments for people who don’t respond to current first-line therapies. But what’s clear is that OCD is an incredibly distressing condition, and we’re only just beginning to address the problem. It’s time to stop kidding ourselves.
The yellow food coloring tartrazine changes the speed at which light passes through tissue.
University of Texas at Dallas
Massaging common food coloring into the skin of a live mouse makes the animal’s tissue transparent, allowing researchers to see its blood vessels and organs working — a technique that may one day help doctors peer deeper into our bodies to diagnose diseases.
It’s not easy to see the internal environment of a live animal. If the animal is dead, we can get a better look by sectioning the tissue or using chemicals to remove proteins and fats. In live animals, some things can be seen with a scan or endoscopy, but to see live tissue, you often have to cut it up.
now, Wu Zhihao Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have been able to make mouse tissue transparent by rubbing the skin of live mice with the food dye tartrazine, also known as E102 or Yellow 5. When the skin absorbs the dye molecules, it changes the tissue’s refractive index – the speed at which light passes through the skin.
The dye allowed visualization of organs in living mice.
Zhihao Ou et al. 2024
The mice then became transparent, enabling the researchers to watch peristalsis, the muscular contractions that move food through the digestive tract, and to view blood vessels on the surface of the mouse brain.
To understand how this technology works, Oh says, think of carbonated water. Light passing through the liquid changes direction each time it goes from the water to the air bubbles and back again, Oh says. That means the light scatters in all directions and doesn’t penetrate the liquid as easily as it does flat air or water. Biological tissue behaves in a similar way because it contains not only a lot of water, but also other molecules like lipids and proteins, which typically have a higher refractive index than water.
Adding the dye brings the refractive index of water closer to that of lipids and other molecules in the tissue, scattering light less, “which means you can see deeper and probe deeper,” Ou says.
The dye can be washed off and does not appear to harm the rats.
The study gets to the heart of one of the biggest problems in microscopy, Christopher Rowlands “If you tried to see more than a millimetre away from the surface of the tissue, you couldn’t. It wasn’t possible before, and now all of a sudden you can,” he says. “Before you could only see a millimetre, now you can see a centimetre away, and that centimetre makes a huge difference in many applications.”
Rowlands says that tartrazine could potentially be toxic in large amounts if applied to the skin, but neurobiologists routinely stick probes and lenses into the brain and remove parts of the cortex, so using a dye that’s widely accepted as safe for ingestion on the skin would probably be less harmful, he says.
But while the technique makes skin more transparent, it won’t give doctors complete visibility inside a person’s body. “It’s not like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak,” Rowlands says. “It will make the skin look more glassy than it should.” Even if the effect were to happen throughout the body, Rowlands says, doctors would still be able to see bones and specialized structures inside cells called organelles.
Do you remember the days when pneumatic tubes were used for fast delivery of packages, mail, and important documents? Despite being touted as the future of delivery technology in shows like Futurama and Star Trek, pneumatic tubes started to disappear with the rise of the Internet, online purchasing, and improved communication methods.
Surprisingly, pneumatic tubes are now making a high-tech comeback, primarily in hospitals where they are used for quick, hygienic, and safe transportation of samples and sensitive information within large buildings.
How did the pneumatic tube come about?
The idea of pneumatic tubes initially included plans for a mass transit system where people would travel through tubes at high speeds using jets of air. While this idea didn’t fully materialize, some unique uses of pneumatic tubes included sending messages across tables in a Berlin bar and transporting various items like money, parts, and even fish in different industries.
Why are they returning?
Even though pneumatic tubes fell out of use in many areas, hospitals have continued to utilize them for efficient internal transfers. The modern version of pneumatic tube systems is highly automated, allowing for quick deliveries of samples and medicines within hospital premises.
Aside from hospitals, pneumatic tubes have found applications in waste disposal systems, such as the one on Roosevelt Island in New York, where these tubes whisk away trash at high speeds, eliminating the need for trucks and crews for garbage collection.
Overall, the pneumatic tubing market is expected to grow in the coming years, with valuations increasing and projects being built worldwide in various industries like dairy farms, cannabis dispensaries, and more.
It’s fascinating to see how technology that originated in the 1850s is making a comeback in the modern world.
Artificial lighting at night can affect tree leaves
Shutterstock/Patrick Kosmider
Urban trees lit by streetlights tend to have tougher leaves and be less eaten by insects than those that spend the dark nights, a pattern the researchers say could disrupt the flow of energy up the food chain and have negative effects on urban biodiversity.
Zhang Shuang Zhang and his colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied the Japanese five-story pagoda (Styphnolobium japonicum) and Green Ash (AshBeijing’s street trees appear to be relatively free of insect damage compared to other trees in the city.
The researchers collected around 5,500 leaves from 180 trees at 30 locations in Beijing, including near the distinctive orange glow of sodium streetlights and in dark areas at night, and measured the leaves’ size, firmness, moisture content, and nutrient levels. They also recorded any evidence of insect damage.
Leaves taken from under streetlights were stronger and less affected by insects: for Chinese sophora trees, 2.1% of leaves were damaged in the lit areas and 5.3% in the dark, while for ash trees, 2% of leaves were damaged near streetlights and 4.1% in the dark.
The researchers couldn’t answer that question, but they did say in their paper that with fewer leaves for insects to eat, less energy flows up the food chain to insects and birds, which could have a knock-on effect of further reducing biodiversity.
The researchers acknowledge that the mechanisms by which leaf damage is reduced are still unclear and require further investigation — for example, increased light could make insects more visible to predators, reducing their numbers and their impact on trees.
Owen Lewis The Oxford University researcher says the study is intriguing but doesn’t prove causation, and he suggests future studies should take plants from areas with and without street lighting, place them in a controlled environment, and observe the insects’ behavior to see whether they prefer trees that grow in dark conditions.
Lewis also notes that measuring herbivores is complicated. Heavy damage can mean leaves are less nutritious, forcing insects to eat more of them. Holes caused by insect damage can also get bigger as leaves get bigger, he says.
“My intuition is that this may be a fairly subtle effect,” he says. “In central Beijing, the impact of light pollution on insect feeding will be more pronounced as urbanization progresses.” [the area is]”It’s probably trivial how much pollution there is, how much semi-natural habitat there is, etc. It’s important, but it’s probably not the main threat to insect diversity and ecosystem function.”
I I don’t often miss my teenage years, but I do miss the time I had to play video games. I used to get into games late into the night, but now that I’m a busy adult, I barely have the time to do that. Outside of covering games for work, I feel like I barely have time to play. So instead of the huge, engrossing role-playing games I once craved, I prefer games I can complete in a few nights. I’m pretty much used to this. The days of 100-hour epics and live service online games are long gone. They’ll come back eventually, when my kids are older.
But more than two years have passed since the release of Elden Ring, a game in my favorite genre by my favorite director, and I suddenly found myself tired of having barely played it. I’d been playing it bit by bit on my PS5, but I’d never been able to get past Rimgrave’s (admittedly vast) starting area. I kept hoping that my partner would take the kids for the weekend, or that I’d have a week off during term time so I could revert to my teenage habits and play hours alone. But… 2 yearsIf I want to play this game, or any big game, I have to make sure I fit it into my real life, which includes work, two small kids, and all the other responsibilities.
Is that even possible? There’s one thing that definitely helps: Steam Deck. Since having kids, I’ve become a lot more reliant on portable consoles. Spending hours uninterrupted in front of the TV without being seen is nearly impossible, and I don’t want to traumatize my kids by blasting them the violent and grotesque scenes of Elden Ring. I’ve been able to play both Zelda games on my Switch because I can take them anywhere and play them occasionally. Plus, these games are huge. So a few weeks ago I bought Elden Ring again, installed it on my Steam Deck, rebooted it, and resolved to defeat the infamous opening boss, Godric the Grafted, and see what’s beyond Stormveil Castle.
At home, I spent all my free time on Steam Deck, to the point of ignoring my family. Kids watching 30 minutes of TV before dinner? Elden Ring. Partner watching Euros? Elden Ring with eyes fixed on the score. Microwaving lunch? Time for Elden Ring. I tried small, achievable adventures like running around looking for unexplored ruins and getting surprised by a dragon in the middle of a lake. I made it through Stormvale Castle and back only to be totally beaten by Godric. I got used to giving up mid-battle, retreating, and looking for something else to do. Progression felt painfully slow, and I hated every time I had to stop playing in the middle of something. At the end of the first week, I checked my playtime. It was 6 hours.
“I left Godric at the castle and warped away to a safer location to just… have some fun.” Photo: Bandai Namco Europe
Six hours?! Is that all the free time I have available in a week? I was seriously depressed. It’s unnatural to play a game like this bit by bit, and when I add up all the stolen time, I’m left with a shockingly small amount of time. At this rate, it’ll take me six months to beat this game, and that’s without playing (or doing) anything else.
My problem was that I was only interested in finishing the game, rather than enjoying it. Six hours is better than zero. I couldn’t play the game the way I used to, so I had to think differently. Instead of reading guides to figure out the best way to progress through the game and trying to progress as quickly and efficiently as possible, I left Godric in the castle, warped to a safer area, and just… tried to have fun. I found a hidden boss and easily defeated it. I opened a treasure chest that teleported me to a terrifying underground mine full of insect-like wizards, then escaped and ended up in a ghostly city. I really liked the Wolverine-esque metal claws I found, but not because they were the best weapon, but because they were fun to use.
After a week of running around like this, I was relieved of the frustration I had felt before. Elden Ring is a terrible game if you try to complete it as quickly as possible in an extremely limited time frame, as most games are. It’s a great game if you focus on the adventure of the moment. I spent about 40 minutes in a smoldering little church trying to kill a red phantom warrior with a giant cleaver that could kill me in two hits, just to see if I could do it. When I managed two parries and killed her after a flurry of desperate sword strikes, I was beside myself. If I had insisted on getting through the game, I would have missed that moment entirely.
I beat Godric last night. With those funny claws that I love so much. I stopped watching the clock for how long I was playing. I stopped worrying about getting the most out of the least amount of effort. And now I’m really having fun. If you’re wondering how to play a huge game when you only have an hour, my advice is to use that hour. It’s the time you have. And an hour of enjoying a game is better than an hour spent wishing you could play longer.
What to Play
Demon’s Souls. Photo: Sony
If you’re ready to tackle a FromSoftware/Hayao Miyazaki game for the first time and want something more manageable than Elden Ring, I’d recommend the PS5 remake. Demon’s SoulsOriginally released in 2009, this rebuild fixes many of the control and camera flaws, offering a horror-infused dark fantasy vision and great, stress-free combat. It’s hard, but well worth it, and it takes less time than other Souls games.
Available on: PS5 Estimated play time: 30+ hours
What to Read
Positech Democracy 4. Photo: Positech Games
We did the cursed thing and ran a game simulating the first five years of each British party in power. Democracy 4Each party acted based on the policies set out in their manifestos, but it didn’t work at all.
Elden Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki mentioned the possibility of an Elden Ring movie or TV show in an interview last week. George R.R. MartinCo-wrote the game’s story. The blog suggests Something may already be in the works: “You may have heard rumours about a feature film or a TV series… but I have nothing to say. Not a word, no, nothing. I don’t know anything and you haven’t heard a word from me.”
There are several remakes of older works assassin’s creed Games in development, Ubisoft says This may also include the pirate-flavored Black Flag, but this is still the best in my opinion.
Capcom Remake announced of Dead Risinga satirical cult hit about killing zombies using items found in shopping malls, is due for release in September.
Is the consolidation of video game journalism a good thing for gamers? Photo: Josep Martinsson/FIFA/Getty Images
Reader Matt asks:
“What would be the consequences if IGN bought the video game news site Gamer Network? If Eurogamer shuts down, we’d riot.“
This may seem like an insider question, but it’s an important one for readers of gaming news and reviews — which of you, the Pushing Buttons reader, is a reader of that. In late May, the very large gaming website IGN (I’ll be honest, I worked at IGN from 2010 to 2013) announced that Bought out UK gaming websites include VG247, Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz (and, more specifically, I worked for all of these sites from 2006-2010 or so). There are currently just two companies that own pretty much all of the specialist gaming media in the UK: Future Publishing has GamesRadar, PC Gamer and a selection of their magazines, and IGN has everything else.
IGN has previously acquired gaming sites. 1up and GameSpyand they ended up closing down, which doesn’t inspire confidence. But you have to ask: why buy a bunch of beloved brands that are still making a profit from what I’ve heard, and close them down? In 2024, any company in online media needs all the traffic it can get; buying a competitor only to close it down would be a terrible investment in a shrinking advertising economy. That’s why IGN is cautiously hopeful that it will be a good owner of these sites and that it won’t lose a huge chunk of UK games media with this acquisition.
Why is this important? Gaming is one of the few entertainment verticals where specialized media still thrives. Music media is in decline; just look at the fate of NME and Pitchfork. TV and film journalism is mostly newspapers like this one now. But when it comes to games, mainstream media is far behind reporters and critics at IGN,
Ren Shelburne was tired of listening to episodes of popular podcasts that friends had recommended to her. The photographer, who has partial hearing loss and an auditory processing disorder, remembers struggling to get through one particular episode. It was a unique type of show: too many speakers, complex overlapping conversations, and, until recently, no transcripts. “There's so much going on at once, it's impossible to understand,” Shelburne says. She couldn’t keep up with the shows or discuss them with friends. “Podcasts are now a big part of pop culture and media, and I want to be able to be a part of that conversation.”
Weekly podcast listenership in the U.S. has more than quadrupled in the past decade. Pew Research But for some, the medium still feels inaccessible.
“Because of my hearing loss, sometimes I miss things,” says Alexandra Wong, a Rhodes Scholar studying digital accessibility, “and then I have to rewind five or six times to understand what’s going on.”
Shelburne and Wong are among about 15% of U.S. adults, or about 37.5 million people, who are ill. Difficulties in reporting Many people who are deaf or hard of hearing rely on subtitles or transcriptions to follow music, movies, and podcasts without assistive devices. Video streaming companies like Netflix, Peacock, and Hulu offer subtitles for nearly all of their programming, and time-synchronized lyric subtitles are increasingly standard for music streaming. The popularity of video subtitles has also been embraced by audiences outside the disability community, with 80% of Netflix viewers turning on subtitles at least once a month.
(Remaining content is not displayed for brevity, but all HTML tags are maintained)
P In a feminist bookstore in Madrid, 17 women gathered in the back room, engrossed in their laptops, sharing snacks, chatting, and laughing. The room was filled with the sounds of typing, periodically interrupted by enthusiastic applause marking milestones in the group’s mission to close one of the world’s most persistent gender gaps.
Only about 15 percent of Wikipedia’s content, including biographies, focuses on women, explains Patricia Horrillo, who has dedicated the past decade to cultivating a community of Wikipedia editors committed to creating content that highlights women.
Groups like Spain’s WikiSfera, Italy’s Wikidonne, and Switzerland’s Les Sans Pages have emerged globally to address this gender gap issue on Wikipedia.
The Wikimedia Foundation acknowledges the historical biases within Wikipedia and the need for more diverse contributions to address these gaps. Organizations like Horrillo’s Wikiesfera have received support to help bridge this divide and give visibility to women’s achievements.
Encina Villanueva participated in a Wikipedia content creation workshop at La Fabulosa bookstore, where she emphasized the importance of recognizing women’s accomplishments beyond their appearances or associations. She has seen the impact of her work reverberate across the internet, amplifying women’s stories.
Celia Hernandez-Garcia, a middle school teacher, joined Wikiesfera to highlight women’s achievements often overlooked in textbooks. With no prior tech skills, she embraced the opportunity to elevate women’s narratives through Wikipedia, impacting her students’ understanding of history.
Horrillo’s vision for Wikiesfera began a decade ago, aiming to empower individuals to contribute to Wikipedia by addressing barriers beyond technical knowledge. Despite challenges, the group continues its efforts to increase female representation on the platform.
Though obstacles such as a lack of sources documenting women’s achievements persist, Wikiesfera remains committed to bridging the gender gap on Wikipedia. Each article added during their sessions represents a step towards rectifying the systemic invisibility of women in historical narratives.
If spending time on the couch, binging fast food, drinking too much alcohol or not paying into your company pension is ruining your carefully laid plans for life, it might be time to have a conversation with your future self.
With time machines not readily available, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an AI-powered chatbot that simulates a user’s past self and offers observations and valuable wisdom in the hope of encouraging people to think more today about who they want to be tomorrow.
By digitally de-aging profile photos so that younger users appear as wrinkled, grey-haired seniors, the chatbot generates plausible artificial memories and weaves a story about a successful life based on the user’s current aspirations.
“The goal is to encourage long-term changes in thinking and behavior,” says Pat Pataranuthapong, who works on the Future You project at the MIT Media Lab, “which may motivate people to make smarter choices in the present that optimize their long-term well-being and life outcomes.”
In one conversation, an aspiring biology teacher asked a chatbot, a 60-year-old version of herself, about the most rewarding moment in her career so far. The chatbot, responding that she was a retired biology teacher in Boston, recalled a special moment when she turned a struggling student’s grades around. “It was so gratifying to see my student’s face light up with pride and accomplishment,” the chatbot said.
To interact with the chatbot, users are first asked to answer a series of questions about themselves, their friends and family, the past experiences that have shaped them, and the ideal life they envision for themselves in the future. They then upload a portrait image, which the program then digitally ages to create a portrait of them at 60 years old.
The program then feeds information from the user’s answers into a large language model to generate a rich synthetic memory for the simulated older version of itself, ensuring that the chatbot draws on a coherent background story when responding to questions.
The final part of the system is the chatbot itself, powered by OpenAI’s GPT3.5, which introduces itself as a potential older version of the user and can talk about their life experiences.
Pattaranuthapong has had several conversations with his “future self,” but the most memorable was when the chatbot reminded him that his parents won’t be together forever, so he should spend time with them while he still can. “The perspective I gained from that conversation is still influential to me today,” he said.
Users are told that their “future self” is not a prediction, but a potential future self based on the information they provide, and are encouraged to explore different futures by varying their survey answers.
be A preprint scientific paper on the projectA trial of 344 volunteers, which hasn’t been peer-reviewed, found that talking to a chatbot made people feel less anxious and more connected to their future selves. Pattaranthapong said this stronger connection should encourage better life choices, from focusing on specific goals and exercising regularly to eating healthier and saving for the future.
Ivo Vlaev, professor of behavioural science at the University of Warwick, said people often struggle to imagine themselves in the future, but doing so could lead to stronger adherence to education, healthier lifestyles and more careful financial planning.
He called the MIT project a “fascinating application” of behavioral science principles. “It embodies the idea of a nudge, a subtle intervention designed to steer behavior in a beneficial direction by making your future self more salient and relevant to the present,” he said. “Implemented effectively, this could have a profound impact on how people make decisions today with their future well-being in mind.”
“From a practical standpoint, its effectiveness will depend on how well it simulates meaningful, relevant conversations,” he added. “If users perceive the chatbot as authentic and insightful, it can have a significant impact on behavior. But if the interaction feels superficial or quirky, its impact may be limited.”
Changing the color of crops may make it easier to distinguish between target plants and weeds
John Martin – Photography/Alamy
Common crops such as wheat and corn could be genetically modified to be brightly colored to make them easier for weeding robots to work with, researchers have suggested.
Weeding reduces the need for herbicides, but the artificial intelligence models that power weeding robots can have trouble distinguishing weeds from crops that are similar in shape and color.
To avoid this problem, Pedro Correia Researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and their colleagues have suggested that crop genomes could be adapted to express pigments such as anthocyanins, which make blueberries blue, and carotenoids, which make carrots orange.
It is also possible to grow crops with unusually shaped leaves or other traits that are invisible to the naked eye but can be detected by sensors such as those in the infrared spectrum.
Correia said AI's weeding struggles could get worse as wild species adapt to agriculture, taking advantage of their ability to cope with changing climate. This type of new domestication can produce crops that are more environmentally sustainable and higher yielding, but can also be difficult to distinguish from their unchanged ancestors.
“We're trying to change a very small number of genes to increase productivity,” Correia says. “It would be great if he could change one or two more genes to make them more recognizable and to be able to use robots to weed.”
charles fox The University of Lincoln in the UK says there is precedent for intentionally changing the color of crops. Orange carrots were not common until producers selectively bred stable varieties. But he thinks genetic modification is probably not the easiest way to improve the effectiveness of weed-killing robots.
“Other methods would probably be much easier and less controversial because people generally don't like genetic modification,” Fox says. “Sounds like a lot of effort.”
Correia says he's not suggesting creating something new or adding animal genes. The research involves modifying crop genomes to incorporate genes for pigments already produced in other plants. “We're just making some changes to the crop so they can eat it too,” he says. “We'll have to test everything and test for side effects and things like that, but I think it's quite possible.”
Gender gaps within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) still persist despite significant advancements. Women continue to be underrepresented, with only 29.2% of STEM employees being women compared to nearly 50% in non-STEM occupations, as reported in the Global Gender Gap Report (2023).
However, the urgent need to address goes beyond just getting women into STEM. A recent study at UCL revealed that female she-STEM students are twice as likely to have experienced sex discrimination compared to non-STEM students.
With advancements in hackers and digital technologies, the demand for cybersecurity professionals is on the rise to combat digital threats. The global cybersecurity market is projected to reach $424.97 billion by 2030, highlighting the importance of closing the gender gap to address this deficit.
Throughout history, women in STEM fields have overcome barriers, but there is still a long way to go. Here are five remarkable women who have significantly contributed to STEM:
5 women who advanced STEM
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Katherine Johnson (1918-2020)
Dame Stephanie Shirley “Steve” (1933-present)
Michelle Zatlin (1979-present)
Elizabeth Coulon (1994-present)
Ada Loveless
Augusta Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) British mathematician and writer. – (Photo courtesy of Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
Ada Lovelace, a prominent figure in computer engineering, was ahead of her time. She envisioned a steam-powered flying machine at 12 and played a significant role in Charles Babbage’s analytical engine, laying the foundation for modern computing.
Katherine Johnson
Portrait of NASA/NACA female physicist and scientist Katherine Johnson, 1955. – Image courtesy of NASA. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Katherine Johnson, an African-American mathematician, played a crucial role in NASA’s early missions, including Glenn’s orbit in 1962 and the Apollo 13 mission. Her calculations contributed to landing humans on the moon and creating a flight plan for crew safety.
Mrs. Stephanie Shirley
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley has been appointed a Member of the Order of the Brotherhood by the Duke of Cambridge. – Photo credit: John Stillwell – WPA Pool / Getty Images
Stephanie Shirley, a work-from-home pioneer, founded Freelance Programmers and overcame industry obstacles through her innovative approach, paving the way for equal labor rights. She also founded Autistica, a charity dedicated to autism research.
Michelle Zatlin
CloudFlare’s Michelle Zatlin will be on stage judging Startup Battlefield. – Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Michelle Zatlin, a technology pioneer, co-founded Cloudflare, a cybersecurity company that prevents cyberattacks and safeguards internet traffic. Cloudflare’s projects, such as “Athenian” and “Project Cyber Safe Schools,” focus on election integrity and cybersecurity in schools.
Elizabeth Coulombe
Elizabeth Coulombe, co-founder of Tero. – Photo credit: Tero
Elizabeth Coulombe, the CEO of Tero, developed a device that recycles food waste into organic fertilizer in hours, addressing global food waste issues. Her innovation has prevented significant waste from reaching landfills, contributing to environmental sustainability.
Women have played pivotal roles in shaping a better world, from cybersecurity to environmental sustainability, demonstrating their impact and contributions to solving pressing global issues.
Starbucks has been actively resisting unionization efforts for over two years, but now they seem willing to engage in negotiations.
In a surprising move, Starbucks and its union released a joint announcement at the end of February, expressing a willingness to make progress on organizing and collective bargaining.
The union representing Starbucks employees announced plans to resume direct negotiations with the company in late April to establish a basic framework agreement involving over 400 unionized stores.
This development has brought hope not only to Starbucks employees but also to workers at companies like Amazon, Trader Joe’s, and REI, who have been struggling to move contract negotiations forward.
The possibility of Starbucks potentially unionizing after years of aggressive anti-union tactics has sparked curiosity about which company may follow suit in the future.
Claire Chan, an REI employee, expressed excitement about the progress, highlighting the persistence required to bring a company like Starbucks to the negotiating table. She described it as a significant step forward.
John Logan, a labor studies professor, remains cautious about Starbucks’ intentions and whether they will truly commit to ending anti-union practices and reaching an initial contract.
The union representative for Starbucks, Michelle Eisen, remains optimistic about the future collaboration between Starbucks and the union, emphasizing the importance of valuing employee input for business success.
Starbucks has offered a settlement to the union following backlash over union-busting allegations, stock price declines, and disruptive strikes, showing a potential shift towards supporting unions.
Legal experts and union representatives see Starbucks’ possible unionization as a significant step that could inspire other companies to consider similar actions.
Overall, the announcement from Starbucks has far-reaching implications for workers’ rights and the future of unionization in major corporations.
You could argue that LIFE is like a long game of blackjack. A common version of this is that each person is first dealt her two playing cards. The goal is to increase your hand to 21, or as close to this as possible without bursting. Players can either “stick” with their existing hand or “twist” it by requesting that they be dealt another card to add to their total. Of course, going over 21 risks being eliminated.
This may sound far from an everyday choice, but many of the most important decisions in our lives end up in dilemmas like this. Should I stay like this or should I take the plunge and move house? Should you keep your job or start your own business? Should you put up with an unsatisfactory relationship, or try your hand at love another time? In each case, we have to weigh the safety of what we have against riskier but potentially more valuable alternatives.
The uncertainty inherent in these dilemmas causes many of us to become paralyzed and stagnant in our analysis, ending up staying where we are and not giving ourselves a chance to win big. In contrast, some people are easily swayed by the lure of new things. They quickly turn to gambling until they lose everything due to impulsive behavior. If any of these scenarios sound familiar, help may be on the way. Thanks to a greater understanding of our underlying cognitive biases and how to escape them, we now have evidence-based strategies to think more rationally about these challenges, so we can put our lives on the line. Playing the game gives us the most benefit.
You could argue that LIFE is like a long game of blackjack. A common version of this is that each person is first dealt her two playing cards. The goal is to increase your hand to 21, or as close to this as possible without bursting. Players can either “stick” with their existing hand or “twist” it by requesting that they be dealt another card to add to their total. Of course, going over 21 risks being eliminated.
This may sound far from an everyday choice, but many of the most important decisions in our lives end up in dilemmas like this. Should I stay like this or should I take the plunge and move house? Should you keep your job or start your own business? Should you put up with an unsatisfactory relationship, or try your hand at love another time? In each case, we have to weigh the safety of what we have against riskier but potentially more valuable alternatives.
The uncertainty inherent in these dilemmas causes many of us to become paralyzed and stagnant in our analysis, staying where we are and never getting the chance to win big. In contrast, some people are easily swayed by the lure of new things. They are quick to gamble until they lose everything due to impulsive behavior. If any of these scenarios sound familiar, help may be on the way. Thanks to a greater understanding of our underlying cognitive biases and how to escape them, we now have evidence-based strategies to think more rationally about these challenges, so we can put our lives on the line. Playing the game gives us the most benefit.
Cognitive decline is characterized by a decline or slowing of memory, concentration, and thinking abilities. It’s common for individuals to experience increased forgetfulness as they age, such as forgetting names or shopping lists.
If the frequency of forgetful episodes is escalating and the decline is faster than expected for normal aging, it could indicate cognitive impairment. This can be concerning for the individual experiencing symptoms as well as their family and friends.
Common signs of cognitive impairment include forgetting important dates, losing track of thoughts, feeling overwhelmed with decisions, getting lost in familiar places, and becoming more impulsive.
Cognitive decline varies among individuals and is influenced by genetics and family history. Building cognitive reserve through a lifetime of experiences, including education, career, and engaging activities, can help mitigate the effects of aging on cognitive function.
What can you do now to prevent cognitive decline?
Developing a “cognitive reserve” through education, occupation, and engaging activities can help bolster cognitive function. Lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and avoiding tobacco and alcohol can also impact cognitive health.
Image credit: Getty
Positive lifestyle changes in areas like diet and exercise can have cascading health benefits. Conversely, unhealthy habits can lead to adverse health effects.
Habits to avoid
Studies show that high-fat diets and smoking can contribute to obesity, diabetes, and cognitive decline. Maintaining a balanced lifestyle with good nutrition, physical activity, and healthy habits can help prevent cognitive decline.
Cognitive decline is a natural part of aging, but taking steps to build cognitive reserve and adopt a healthy lifestyle can help slow its progression.
Aim for an overall healthy lifestyle
Incorporating social activities, hobbies, and maintaining intimate relationships can also play a role in preventing cognitive decline. Engaging in challenging activities and stimulating the brain through hobbies can help preserve cognitive function.
Sex on the brain
Maintaining romantic and intimate relationships can have a positive impact on cognitive health. Research suggests a link between sexual activity and cognitive function, possibly due to social connections and hormonal influences.
Indulging in hobbies and activities, getting quality sleep, and regular dental checkups can also contribute to maintaining cognitive function as we age. It’s important to address any concerns about cognitive abilities with a healthcare professional for proper evaluation and guidance.
Unlike the extinct woolly mammoth, most edited elephants with mammoth-like features lack tusks to avoid poaching for ivory.
QuangTrungArt/Shutterstock
A company founded to bring back extinct animals has announced that it has made significant progress in its goal of bringing back the woolly mammoth. On March 6, Colossal announced that its team had succeeded in converting normal elephant cells into stem cells, which could lead to the creation of mammoth-like creatures. “This is an important step,” said the company’s CEO. ben ram said in a press release. Here’s what you need to know:
Is it really possible to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction?
No, it’s not, and it never will be. The genomes of several frozen mammoths have been sequenced, but there are many gaps. But it should be possible to edit the genome of a living elephant to make it look more like a mammoth. On its website, Colossal acknowledges that the elephant it plans to create will be a “cold-hardy elephant,” but says it will “possess all the key biological characteristics of a woolly mammoth.”
Will these edited elephants look like mammoths?
Colossal says even the sounds of mammoths are similar, but it’s unclear how humans know what a mammoth sounds like. There will be at least one major difference when it comes to their appearance. The majority do not have tusks to avoid ivory poaching, says Colossal co-founder George Church. Specimens with tusks can only be kept in strictly supervised areas.
Colossal also plans to make the mammoth-like elephants resistant to a disease called elephant endothelial-tropic herpesvirus.
Why does Colossal need to create elephant stem cells?
The company edits the genome of elephant cells to make them more similar to mammoths. But creating a living mammoth-like elephant requires producing embryos containing edited genomes. In theory, one way to do this would be to turn gene-edited elephant cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, and then turn those stem cells into eggs and sperm cells.
What are induced pluripotent stem cells?
Pluripotent stem cells can transform into any cell in the body, including eggs and sperm. They occur naturally in embryos, but can also be made from adult cells by adding certain proteins, and are therefore “induced.” These have been produced in many animal species, but until now no one had succeeded in inducing pluripotency in elephant cells.
Why is it so difficult to induce elephant cells to become pluripotent?
At least in part, perhaps, because they are large, long-lived animals, they require better anti-cancer mechanisms, which means tighter control over stem cell proliferation.
How did Colossal manage it?
Specifically, they genetically engineered Asian elephant cells to permanently produce key proteins. Still, it took two months to turn the cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. “We want to make the process more efficient and faster, and I think this is a great start,” he says. Eliana Hisori At Colossal. DNA added to cells is easily removed, she says.
So does Colossal turn these induced pluripotent stem cells into eggs and sperm?
That’s the plan, but it could take years. Converting induced pluripotent stem cells into eggs and sperm is not easy. “This is primarily done in two species: mice and humans,” Church says. “And neither is perfect.”
Does that mean it could be decades before a mammoth-like elephant is produced?
Colossal claims the first “mammoth” will be born by 2028. Heisoli said the researchers aim to make just 50 to 100 gene edits in elephant cells, and that that is possible. But producing embryos in time for this deadline will almost certainly require implanting the edited genome into an elephant egg using the same cloning technique used to create Dolly the sheep. An elephant’s gestation period is her two years, so these embryos need to be created and implanted by her around the end of 2026.
Does cloning edited cells work?
Although it is possible, typically only a few percent of cloned embryos develop into healthy animals. “There are always going to be attempts that fail. How many elephants should we experimentally impregnate?” asks a stem cell expert. Dusko Ilic At King’s College London. “Just because we have the ability to do something new doesn’t mean we should pursue it without careful consideration of the ethical implications and consequences.”
Where does this mammoth-like elephant live? Given Russia’s claims about war and US biological weapons, isn’t it highly unlikely that Russia would allow genetically reborn mammoths to be released into Siberia?
“Keep in mind that mammoths were everywhere in the Arctic, not just Siberia,” Hisori says. Alaska and Canada are also possibilities, she said, and Colossal already has “very fruitful collaborations” with government agencies, local governments and First Nations.
Why is Colossal aiming to revive the mammoth?
The company claims that rewilding the arctic regions where mammoths live will reduce permafrost thaw and reduce climate change by locking up carbon in the form of frozen organic matter. “The Arctic is a perfect place to sequester carbon because it freezes more layers of topsoil every year,” Church says. “And herbivores poop on it.”
Could mammoth-like creatures really help limit further warming in the Arctic?
That hasn’t been established yet, but there is some possibility.One small study suggests animals can lower permafrost temperatures By flattening and insulating the snow that accumulates in winter. And if these animals limit forest expansion, that could also help, as dark trees in previously flat, snow-covered areas can have a warming effect. But it will take thousands of people to make a big impact.
Does that mean Colossal aims to have tens of thousands of these creatures roaming the North Pole?
Yes, that’s the purpose. Based on the increase in elephant population under favorable conditions, new scientist It is estimated that breeding so many mammoth-like elephants from a small initial population could take more than a century.
But Church says Colossal is developing an artificial womb that circumvents normal limitations. “So, in principle, we can do this at any scale the world wants and needs. If they don’t need it, we won’t scale up,” he says. .
New research shows that cutting back on salt can significantly lower your blood pressure, whether you have hypertension or are on medication. The study, which included 213 participants from diverse backgrounds, found that a low-salt diet lowered systolic blood pressure by an average of 7 mmHg. These results apply to a wide range of individuals and suggest that salt restriction is as effective as common hypertension medications in controlling blood pressure.
Research has shown that a low-salt diet significantly lowers blood pressure and is beneficial for people with and without high blood pressure, and even for people taking blood pressure medications.
Reducing sodium intake significantly lowered blood pressure in most people, even those who were already taking blood pressure medications.
The findings suggest that reducing sodium intake may have health benefits for a wide range of people.
Half of Americans have high blood pressure. If the systolic reading (the upper number, the pressure at which blood is pumped out of the heart) is consistently above 130 mm Hg, or the diastolic reading (the lower number, the pressure when the heart is filling with blood) Blood pressure is considered high if the pressure between heartbeats) exceeds 80 mm Hg. mmHg or higher.
Role of sodium in hypertension
Sodium is essential for the human body, but too much sodium can cause high blood pressure. However, blood pressure sensitivity to sodium varies from person to person. This makes it difficult to determine what counts as a healthy amount of sodium in someone’s diet. Also, most studies on low-salt diets exclude people who take blood pressure-lowering medications. Therefore, it is unclear how much salt reduction affects people taking these drugs.
Research on dietary sodium and blood pressure
An NIH-funded research team led by Dr. Deepak Gupta of Vanderbilt University Medical Center studied the effects of dietary sodium on blood pressure in 213 people (65% female, 64% black) between the ages of 50 and 75. Both normotensive and hypertensive participants were enrolled from April 2021 to February 2023 in Chicago, Illinois, and Birmingham, Alabama. Some were taking medication to control high blood pressure.
Participants were randomly assigned to either a high-sodium diet or a low-sodium diet for one week. Those on a high-sodium diet added 2,200 mg of sodium per day to their regular diet. Those on a low-salt diet were provided with a week’s worth of low-sodium meals, snacks, and drinks. This diet provided an average of 500 mg of sodium per day.
The researchers measured the participants’ blood pressure a week later. The participant was then switched to another diet for one week and her blood pressure was measured again. Blood pressure was the average value she measured over a 24-hour period during normal daily activities. The results were: Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association November 11, 2023.
Important discoveries and implications
Almost 75% of participants had lower systolic blood pressure on the low-sodium diet than on the high-sodium diet, with an average decrease of 7 mmHg. Compared to a regular diet, the low-sodium diet lowered systolic blood pressure in 72% of participants, with an average drop of 6 mmHg. The effect of dietary sodium did not depend on whether a person had high blood pressure in the first place. It was also unaffected by whether people were taking medication for high blood pressure.
This reduction in blood pressure can have significant health benefits. This finding supports reducing sodium in the diet to lower blood pressure. The effects of a low-salt diet were similar to those of common first-line drugs for hypertension. The results also suggest that reducing salt intake may help a wide range of people, including those already taking blood pressure-lowering drugs.
“Just as any physical activity is better than none for most people, reducing salt from your current normal diet is likely to be better than none,” says Gupta. To tell.
For more information about this study, see New study reveals universal blood pressure-lowering strategy.
Reference: “Effects of dietary sodium on blood pressure: a cross-over study”, Deepak K. Gupta, Cora E. Lewis, Krista A. Varady, Yan Ru Su, Meena S. Madhur, Daniel T. Lackland, Jared P. Reis , Thomas J. Wang, Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, Norina B. Allen, November 11, 2023, Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2023.23651
Funding: NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences (NCATS). American Heart Association.
Two exhibition booths stood out at the Staking Summit in Istanbul, a conference attended by hundreds of individuals involved in staking practices in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They belonged to Tencent and Huawei. In a backdrop dominated by people in their 20s wearing trendy corporate hoodies and handing out well-designed merchandise, China’s two tech giants feel a little out of place under the more formal corporate flag. It looked like there was.
Next to them were engineers, marketers, and business developers deeply into staking, where individuals pledge crypto assets like Ethereum to protocols in exchange for a return. The borrowed assets are then used to verify transactions within the blockchain, which implements a “proof-of-stake” method.
Over the past year, several Chinese tech giants, including Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei, have appeared at crypto events around the world. Hoping to carve market share in the nascent Web3 space, they appear at these events with a more low-profile presence, either as official sponsors or simply as participants.
The Chinese tech giant’s participation in crypto falls somewhere at the intersection of Web 2 and Web 3, thanks to a widespread ban on crypto trading and initial coin offerings in its home country. In the most common case, these technology companies are selling their computing resources to his Web3 startups in a manner not too different from how they have sold cloud services to more established technology industry companies. Masu.
Cloud costs for companies building or leveraging decentralized networks are still understood to be negligible. While it’s not uncommon for Web2 “midsize” companies to spend $1 million or more on cloud computing, companies that qualify as Web3 midsize may only spend in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars, the speakers said. said several participants at the meeting. said the event.
However, the limited ticket size does not prevent Chinese cloud providers from venturing into cryptocurrencies. Chinese companies, the underdogs in the global cloud market, have less brand recognition, especially in the West, and are far more proactive and flexible with their customers. Therefore, companies must compete by offering cheaper or better services.
In addition to providing cloud infrastructure, Chinese companies are moving into areas outside of their core products, exposing them to competition from crypto-native companies. This includes building blockchain for enterprises. Most Chinese tech companies have stayed away from the public blockchain space, where tokens play a key role, due to the country’s cryptocurrency crackdown.
Some players also offer node-as-a-service business. A blockchain is a decentralized database that stores and encrypts transaction data and runs on distributed nodes.However, these nodes are expensive and complex to maintain, making companies like Huawei Provide node hosting services for developersis an attractive solution for companies that want to build decentralized applications but lack the technical sophistication to do so in-house.
Tencent and Alibaba were the first Chinese technology giants to enter the Web3 space and have also worked on high-profile projects to improve their reputation in the industry.
For example, Tencent has partnered with public blockchains such as Sui and Avalanche, as well as Ethereum scaling solution Scroll.
Meanwhile, Alibaba partnered with Aptos, a blockchain developed by a former Meta employee, to make its name known in the world of Web3. In a joint announcement today, Alibaba Cloud and Aptos Foundation announced that they will jointly host a hackathon using the Move programming language in the Asia Pacific region.
So far, Web3 is barely making inroads into the revenue of China’s technology giants, but these companies recognize the potential of a rapidly growing industry and are willing to take advantage of significant market swings and financial system collapse. Even in the face of it, we understand that we cannot afford to miss this opportunity. Major companies such as FTX.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
