Number 347
== yjc, paywall?
A Nature analysis signals the beginnings of a US science brain drain
A trawl of job views and application data suggests jobseekers are looking abroad as the Trump administration’s cuts to science take hold.
Understanding the ‘aha’ moment
Study suggests insight involves exploring greater distances within a solution space.
A mathematical rule has shaped the beaks of birds and other dinosaurs for 200 million years
Finding universal rules in biology is rare and difficult—there seem to be few instances where physical laws are so pervasive across all organisms. But when we do find a rule, it’s a powerful way to explain the patterns we see in nature.
Scientists finally confirm vitamin B1 hypothesis from 1958
The molecule in question is a carbene, a type of carbon atom with only six valence electrons.
Scientists develop pneumatic propellers that could replace diesel engines in ferry boats
“It is demonstrated that pneumatic propulsion, while unconventional, holds promise as a sustainable and energy-efficient alternative to conventional marine engines, particularly for short-distance ferry operations.
Microplastics/: What’s trapping the emerging threat in our streams?
The study explains that microplastics in streams are concerning because they can be ingested by aquatic organisms, posing threats to their digestion and fertility…
A new study examines the acceleration of social-ecological changes in the first kingdom in Poland, the Piast dynasty, identifying the factors that contributed to its failure.
New blood test detects tumor-derived cell-free RNA with high sensitivity
Small fragments of RNA, cast off from dying cells or spit out of the tumor’s twisted transcriptions, floating about in the bloodstream—early signals of a tissue in distress.
== paywall?
The Quest To Build Islands With Ocean Currents In the Maldives
An alternative to dredging aims to capture moving sand to protect the archipelago from erosion and rising seas.
AI Hallucinations Lead To a New Cyber Threat/: Slopsquatting
Attackers can weaponize and distribute a large number of packages recommended by AI models that don’t really exist.
== yjc, not something I ever thought of doing
Looking for the last human place on the internet? Try Google Maps
The navigation app might be built for function – but dig deeper and you’ll find a trove of inside jokes, neighbourhood quirks and charming errors.
WD Launches HDD Recycling Process That Reclaims Rare Earth Elements
Reclaiming minerals could help reduce dependence on China, reduce greenhouse gases by 95%.
== for the coffee drinkers amongst us in Canada,
== though I expect this may be one of the counter-tarrifs that will br dropped once election is over
Your morning cup of coffee is about to cost even more
Many Canadian coffee roasters and brands source their coffee through U.S. middlemen, counter-tariffs apply
Ancient Homo sapiens may have benefited from sunscreen, tailored clothes and the use of caves during the shifting of the magnetic North Pole over Europe about 41,000 years ago.
== repeat?, too lazy to check!
Half of the universe’s hydrogen gas, long unaccounted for, has been found
More than half of normal matter—half of the 15% of the universe’s matter that is not dark matter—cannot be accounted for in the glowing stars and gas we see.
== opinion piece
Should the Government Have Regulated the Early Internet - or Our Future AI?
Maybe it’s time to send the bots off the nearest cliff.
Conservationists Say ‘De-Extinction’ Not the Answer to Saving Extinct Species
Scientists say the Trump administration’s embrace of de-extinction won’t help endangered species.
Could an almighty eruption destroy a dreamy Greek island?
A huge eruption in 1600 BCE left the crater rim and central depression that formed Santorini
Famed AI Researcher Launches Controversial Startup to Replace All Human Workers Everywhere
Every now and then, a Silicon Valley startup launches with such an “absurdly” described mission that it’s difficult to discern if the startup is for real or just satire.
== yjc, a personal story
Beekeepers, struggling with climate change, now face new challenges
Although most people fear the winged, golden insects with their fierce stingers, honeybees play a pivotal role in the production of about 100 crops Americans consume, pollinating the blooms on vegetable plants and fruit and nut trees.
Is There a Greener Way to Produce Iron?
Converting the iron ores found in naturally occurring minerals into pure iron is currently one of the most fossil fuel-intensive parts of the steel manufacturing process.
== opinion piece
DeepSeek’s open source movement
DeepSeek, and the open source AI ecosystem surrounding it, has rapidly evolved from a ‘moment’ into an unstoppable global force.
Scientists Find Rare Evidence Earth is ‘Peeling’ Under the Sierra Nevada Mountains
Seismologist noticed something odd — a series of deep earthquakes that had occurred under the Sierra Nevada at a depth where Earth’s crust would typically be too hot and high pressure for seismic activity.
== repeat?
Curiosity Rover Finds Hints of a Carbon Cycle on Ancient Mars
Rather than cycling, some of Mars’ carbon took a one-way trip into rocks.
Russia seeds chatbots with lies
Any bad actor could game AI the same way.
Engineers Want To Bring Home the World’s Oldest Satellite
Vanguard 1 is the oldest satellite orbiting Earth. Scientists want to bring it home after 67 years
Ancient tooth found near Old Crow, Yukon, belongs to earliest woolly mammoth in North America
Woolly mammoths may have crossed into North America earlier than previously thought, say scientists.
Wasps can successfully exploit unsuitable hosts with help from another species
Parasitoid wasps sometimes lay eggs in unsuitable host insects, a behavior that has traditionally been considered accidental.
The US has a single rare earths mine. Chinese export limits are energizing a push for more
China supplies nearly 90% of the world’s rare earths because it also is home to most of the processing capacity.
Novel technique overcomes spurious correlations problem in AI
AI models often rely on “spurious correlations,” making decisions based on unimportant and potentially misleading information.
Researchers pioneer reconfigurable building blocks for Earth and off-world construction
Today, the construction industry accounts for approximately 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with cement, steel, and concrete responsible for more than two-thirds of that total.
Astronomers confirm the existence of a lone black hole
Prior to this new finding, all the black holes that have been identified have also had a companion star—they are discovered due to their impact on light emitted by their companion star.
Looking to the Pacific, scientists improve forecasts of atmospheric rivers
As atmospheric rivers pounded the U.S. West Coast last winter, scientists deployed increasingly advanced observing tools over the Pacific Ocean to improve forecasts of the powerful storms.
How wide are faults? Earthquake study reveals fault zones are sprawling networks, not single strands
The study emphasizes the importance of thinking of faults in a more three-dimensional manner.
Known as the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier, this molecular machine was first proposed to exist in 1971, but it has taken until now for scientists to visualize its structure at the atomic scale using cryo-electron microscopy.
== yjc
Red, pink or white, all roses were once yellow says genomic analysis
Reconstructing the ancestral traits through genomic analysis revealed that all the roads trace back to a common ancestor—a single-petal flower with yellow color and seven leaflets.
About 15% of World’s Cropland Polluted With Toxic Metals, Say Researchers
Scientists sound the alarm over substances such as arsenic and lead contaminating soils and entering food systems.
== Hue new?
Scientists Claim To Have Found Color No One Has Seen Before
Contested discovery achieved by experiment firing laser pulses into eyes, stimulating retina cells.
World’s fastest memory writes 25 billion bits per sec, 10,000× faster than current tech
PoX could be the key to unlocking performance bottlenecks caused by storage limitations in AI hardware.
Toothpaste Widely Contaminated With Lead and Other Metals, US Research Finds
Most of 51 brands tested, including those for children, contained dangerous heavy metal.
== yjc
Why the ‘Weakest Samurai Warlord’ Is Admired To This Day
This semi-obscure figure from Japan’s Sengoku period wasn’t necessarily the overmatched and ineffective daimyo he’s been painted to be.
Isotopes unearth history of earthquakes in the Apennines
Researchers used chlorine-36 (36Cl) cosmogenic dating to assess seismic activity over millennia on three faults in Italy’s southern Apennines
Study links climate change to rising arsenic levels in paddy rice, increasing health risks
In fact, ingesting rice in regions like southern China and Southeast and South Asia is already a significant source of dietary arsenic and cancer risk.
Experimental bird flu vaccine excels in animal models
Scientists describe a process they’ve developed for creating doses with precise amounts of two key proteins—hemagglutinin (H5) and neuraminidase (N1)—that prompt the body’s immune system to fight bird flu.
Extreme microbial adaptations arise in one of America’s most polluted waterways
Findings suggest that extreme urban ecosystems like the Gowanus Canal may act as reservoirs of both beneficial and hazardous genetic elements
Astrophysicists propose new method to directly detect ultralight dark matter
Researchers recently proposed a new method for the direct detection of ultralight dark matter particles, which is based on astrometry, the precise measurement of the positions and motions of celestial objects.
Project To Suck Carbon Out of Sea Begins in UK
Seawater has got loads of carbon in it compared to the air, about 150 times more. But the energy requirements to generate the products that we require to do this from seawater are huge.
== seen something on this before
Q-CTRL Unveils Jam-Proof Positioning System That’s 50x More Accurate Than GPS
It’s passive (meaning it doesn’t emit signals that could be detected or jammed) and highly accurate.
Microsoft Researchers Develop Hyper-Efficient AI Model That Can Run On CPUs
Microsoft researchers claim they’ve developed the largest-scale 1-bit AI model, also known as a “bitnet,” to date.
You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!
- Rocky Balboa