The US has passed peak obesity, a new survey suggests

One in eight American adults have tried weight loss drugs.

Antarctica is ‘greening’ at dramatic rate as climate heats

Analysis of satellite data finds plant cover has increased more than tenfold over the last few decades.

What happens when solar panels die?

It could be the defining issue of the coming decades.

The Seven Most Interesting Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Saturn

Scientists continue to learn new things about the planet, its sweeping rings and its many moons.

AI Agent Promotes Itself To Sysadmin, Trashes Boot Sequence

Fun experiment, but yeah, don’t pipe an LLM raw into /bin/bash.

Cheetos Food Dye Turns Mice Transparent

Through a subtle effect, a yellow pigment found in Cheetos snack food enables light to travel straight through tissue.

== yjc, we have article on the secrecy about the largest atoll and the military base below
UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

The US-UK base will remain on Diego Garcia – a key factor enabling the deal to go forward at a time of growing geopolitical rivalries in the region.

NASA’s latest supernova image could tell us how fast the universe is expanding

Measuring the Hubble constant is an active area of research among astronomers around the world,

== seen article year or so back on this subject
Starlink satellites create light pollution and disrupt radio frequencies. And it’s getting worse.

Thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit are still lighting up the sky, frustrating astronomers.

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was not alone

A second, smaller space rock smashed into the sea off the coast of West Africa.

Fly brain breakthrough ‘huge leap’ to unlock human mind

As beautiful as it is complex, the fly’s brain has more than 130,000 wires with 50 million intricate connections.

Tropical moths travel 4,500 miles in woman’s bag

A new species of moth was discovered in a home in Wales, thousands of miles from its native habitat.

We are family: Tracing the evolution of animals

To understand the origins of muticelled life, researchers are studying a motley assortment of simpler animal relatives. The commonalities they’re unearthing offer a trove of clues about our mutual past.

== expect this true in a great many countries, democratic and otherwise
Systems used by courts and governments across the US riddled with vulnerabilities

With hundreds of courts and agencies affected, chances are one near you is, too.

Switzerland and Italy Redraw Border Due To Melting Glaciers

The Matterhorn mountain sits on the border between Italy and Switzerland, near the area that will be changed.

UK Ends 142-Year Coal Power Era in Industry’s Birthplace

The UK’s last coal plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station near Nottingham, ends operations on Monday, September 30.

Brazil’s coast is eroding faster than ever, leaving homes in ruin

The rising level of the Atlantic, spurred on by climate change, is increasingly eating away at the coast.

A Himalayan river may be making Everest taller

A new study says Mount Everest is about 15 to 50m taller than it would otherwise be, thanks to erosion from a river network.

Exxon Mobil’s ‘Advanced’ Technique for Recycling Plastic? Burning It

California lawsuit accuses Exxon Mobil of misleading the public about plastic recycling.

Could Atom-Sized Black Holes Be Detected in Our Solar System?

This story sounds wild—even incredible. Black holes! Dark matter! Jostling planets! Yet the scenario is plausible—and testable soon.

Clean Energy Should Get Cheaper and Grow Even Faster

This is a great example of what the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction.”

New Flexible RISC-V Semiconductor Has Great Potential

The new 6-mW open-source plastic chip can run machine learning tasks and operate while bent around a pencil.

== seen article on this before, but…
With market prices for coffee jumping, could that cup of java be a jolt to your wallet?

Droughts in Brazil and Vietnam have helped push market coffee prices up roughly 80%, worrying roasters.

Are AI Coding Assistants Really Saving Developers Time?

Code analysis firm sees no major benefits from AI dev tool when measuring key programming metrics, though others report incremental gains from coding copilots with emphasis on code review.

== lengthy
Can AI Developers Be Held Liable for Negligence?

Shifting the focus of AI liability from the systems to the builders.

Despite Predictions of Collapse for Ocean Current, Researchers Find a Key Component is ‘Remarkably Stable’

Study challenges previous assertions of Gulf Stream slowdown.

== yjc, things we don’t know exist
What I found on the secretive tropical island they don’t want you to see

The island, which is administered from London, is at the centre of a long-running territorial dispute between the UK and Mauritius.

Did Canals Help Build Egypt’s Pyramids?

Why are Egypt’s pyramids in a remote desert? New research says the Nile used to flow there.

Octopuses Recorded Hunting With Fish - and Punching Those That Don’t Cooperate

Octopuses have often been thought to prowl the seafloor solo using camouflage. But a new study suggests that some have surprisingly rich social lives.

== original on Washington Post, paywall?
== alt link: https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/a-cheap-lowtech-solution-for-storing-carbon-may-be-sitting-in-the-dirt
A cheap, low-tech solution for storing carbon may be sitting in the dirt

Figuring out ways of locking carbon out of the atmosphere, such as by burying wood, is key to stalling the worst consequences of climate change.