Indigenous cradles: The powerful invention that changed lives

Indigenous communities relied heavily on the resources foraged and prepared by women. For many tribes across the western United States, plant foods formed the core of the diet. The women in these tribes were making trade-offs between their roles as household or community breadwinners and their obligations as mothers.

== I believe this a duplicate/repeat, but…
‘A mini pot of gold’: Researchers discover new tiny fungi species in Alberta

Three new evolutionary groups and 13 new species of “stubble fungi”—so named because they resemble beard whiskers—have been identified and described through a 13-year study, which also reported an additional 29 species found in the province for the first time, including nine in Edmonton.

Little bettongs’ dramatic nut-cracker performance

Native Australian animals range from high-hopping kangaroos to fast-running emus—but clever little bettongs also have a special ability to find and eat the food they love.

Mystery of how turtles read their magnetic map solved—they feel the magnetism

Setting off from the beach of their birth, hatchling loggerhead turtles embark on some of the world’s most impressive migrations, covering thousands of kilometers over decades. But the intrepid youngsters are not without direction.

Quantum calculations expose hidden chemistry of ice

When ultraviolet light hits ice—whether in Earth’s polar regions or on distant planets—it triggers a cascade of chemical reactions that have puzzled scientists for decades.

Cuisines can be broken down into simple ‘culinary fingerprints,’ research finds

It is a simple equation, especially for a mathematician. Loved ones, plus food, equals good times.

New fabric reflects 96% of sunlight to keep wearers cooler in extreme heat

As global temperatures rise and heat waves intensify, a new textile innovation promises to keep people cooler, drier, and more comfortable in extreme heat.

Climate change is now warming the deepest parts of the Arctic Ocean

While it is well known that climate change is heating the world’s oceans, it was thought that the deep sea was safe from its effects—until now.

Engineers repurpose a mosquito proboscis to create a 3D printing nozzle

When it comes to innovation, engineers have long proved to be brilliant copycats, drawing inspiration directly from nature. But now some scientists are moving beyond simple imitation to incorporating natural materials into their designs.

The Suez Rift—once deemed inactive—is still drifting, study reveals

The Gulf of Suez Rift began forming about 28 million years ago, when the Arabian tectonic plate began drifting away from the African plate. This motion created a long and deep fracture in Earth’s crust that lies beneath the narrow strip between Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, where Africa and Asia meet.

Theia and Earth were neighbors, new research suggests

About 4.5 billion years ago, the most momentous event in the history of Earth occurred: a huge celestial body called Theia collided with the young Earth. How the collision unfolded and what exactly happened afterward has not been conclusively clarified.

British army will use Call of Duty to train soldiers

Lessons from conflicts, including Ukraine, have demonstrated the real-world value of gaming technology in training drone operators and enhancing cyber capabilities.

Scientists discover new type of lion roar, which could help protect the iconic big cats

A new study has found African lions produce not one, but two distinct types of roars – a discovery set to transform wildlife monitoring and conservation efforts.

Japan says world’s largest nuclear plant to restart

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site closed in 2012, as Japan — which previously generated 30% of its electricity from nuclear power — shuttered most of its fleet in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown. But like much of the world, it is looking once again to nuclear power for reliable, low-carbon energy.

Scientists reveal what triggered Santorini ’earthquake swarm’

The seismic activity started to stir beneath the Greek islands of Santorini, Amorgos, and Anafi in January 2025. The islands experienced tens of thousands of earthquakes - many of which were over magnitude 5.0 and could be felt.

New nanogel technology destroys drug-resistant bacteria in hours

The innovation centers on a heteromultivalent nanogel: a flexible particle made by crosslinking polymers and adding sugar residues (galactose and fucose) alongside antimicrobial peptides.

Bacteria ‘pills’ could detect gut diseases—without the endoscope

In the U.S., millions of people have colorectal cancer or inflammatory bowel disease, including colitis, which can cause intestinal bleeding, diarrhea and cramping. The gold-standard diagnostic is a colonoscopy using an endoscope, a device with a camera at the end of a long cord that is threaded into the large intestine.

Discovery of rare protist reveals previously unknown branch of eukaryotic tree of life

A research team has discovered Solarion arienae, an extremely rare and morphologically unique unicellular eukaryote that sheds new light on early eukaryotic evolution.

== US perspective, but expect it is true elsewhere. Canada?
American Kids Can’t Do Math Anymore

What happens when even college students can’t do math anymore? A Recipe for Idiocracy?

This moss survived 9 months outside the International Space Station in the harshness of space

Space is a harsh environment: it’s a vacuum with freezing temperatures, super high ultraviolet radiation and, of course, almost no oxygen.

== yjc
Microsoft Exec Asks: Why Aren’t More People Impressed With AI?

Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s head of AI, vents after the company receives backlash for saying ‘Windows is evolving into an agentic OS.’

New malaria drug heralds resistance breakthrough

The new drug—known as GanLum—uses a completely different mechanism to fight the malaria parasite, meaning it works even when the parasite is resistant to existing treatments.

‘City of seven ravines’: Bronze age metropolis unearthed in the Eurasian steppe

An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the remains of a vast Bronze Age settlement, Semiyarka, in the Kazakh steppe—a discovery that is transforming our understanding of urban life and metal production in prehistoric Eurasia.

Why mysterious structures within Earth’s mantle hold clues to life here

For decades, scientists have been baffled by two enormous, enigmatic structures buried deep inside Earth with features so vast and unusual that they defy conventional models of planetary evolution.

Type 1 diabetes cured in mice with gentle blood stem-cell and pancreatic islet transplant

A combination of blood stem cell and pancreatic islet cell transplant from an immunologically mismatched donor completely prevented or cured type 1 diabetes in mice in a study by Stanford Medicine researchers. Type 1 diabetes arises when the immune system mistakenly destroys insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas.

New drug could be a breakthrough in treatment for killer TB, trial suggests

Globally, an estimated 10.7 million people fell ill with TB last year and 1.23 million died from it.

‘Parasocial’ is Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year

The word describes a one-sided connection someone has to a person they do not know.

== yjc, another perspective on possible AI bubble
The contradiction at the heart of the trillion-dollar AI race

Google’s ultra-private CEO Sundar Pichai is showing me around Googleplex. But it’s a laboratory, hidden away at the back of the campus behind some trees, that he is most excited to show me. This is where the invention that Google believes is its secret weapon is being developed.

UC Berkeley scientists hail breakthrough in decoding whale communication

The research shows overlap between whale calls and human language.

Some People Never Forget a Face, And Now We Know Their Secret

A new study reveals that the people who never forget faces look ‘smarter, not harder’.

== lengthy
An AI Podcasting Machine Is Churning Out 3,000 Episodes a Week — and People Are Listening

On track for 150,000 episodes by the end of 2025, Inception Point AI’s Quiet Please podcast network values quantity over quality.

== yjc, US perspective
‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ is Expanding Fast, and That Should Worry Everyone

When Nigel Morris tells you he’s worried about the economy, you listen. As industry observers know, Morris co-founded Capital One and pioneered lending to subprime borrowers, building an empire on understanding exactly how much financial stress the average American can handle.

These B.C. wolves figured out how to pull up crab traps to get food

Researchers who looked at wolves in Heiltsuk First Nation say it opens up possibilities for future study.

== yjc, another perspective
Why the world’s largest-known spider web surprised this scientist

“To find so many spiders in one spot in a cave, that was the first surprise,” Sarbu, a scientist who studies caves, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

== yjc
Google boss says trillion-dollar AI investment boom has ’elements of irrationality’

Every company would be affected if the AI bubble were to burst, the head of Google’s parent firm Alphabet has told the BBC.

How fishes of the deep sea have evolved into different shapes

Fish species living in the deep sea feature a surprisingly large range of body shapes that evolved in different ways and at different rates depending on where the fishes live in the ocean.

== yjc
If AI is a bubble, what happens when it pops?

This recent round of bubble fear isn’t about the tech itself. Rather, it’s a growing realization that the boom is being funded in a way that’s starting to resemble some historically devastating bubbles of the past.

Iran Begins Cloud Seeding To Induce Rain Amid Historic Drought

Authorities in Iran have sprayed clouds with chemicals to induce rain, in an attempt to combat the country’s worst drought in decades.

== yjc
Why Hotel-Room Cancellations Disappeared

In the past, a hotel booking had been an easy thing to cancel. Up until the day before check-in, you could generally modify your plan without incident, and absent any fees. But this no longer seems to be the case.

From seabirds to sea turtles: the fatal toll of plastic revealed

Scientists have analysed 10,000 marine animal autopsies to understand how plastic ingestion leads to death. The researchers were surprised by how little plastic can be dangerous.

Jeff Bezos will head a new engineering-focused AI startup called Project Prometheus

Bezos’ co-founder and co-CEO in the venture is physicist and chemist Vik Bajaj. He is best known for his work at Google X, the company’s moonshot factory that works on “radical new technology.”

== yjc, British perspective
Keyless car theft devices used by criminals sell for £20k online

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data on police recorded crime from the Home Office, more than 100,000 vehicles were stolen within the last 12 months.

Within a second after the Big Bang, particle interactions may have created black holes, boson stars and cannibal stars

Before atomic elements came together, less than a second after the Big Bang, if particles condensed into halos of matter, these halos may then have collapsed, creating the first black holes, boson stars, and so-called cannibal stars.

== yjc, just about the only cooking oil in our home
Healing, purification and holiness: How ancient Greeks, Romans and early Christians used olive oil

Today, olive oil is often hailed as helping to protect against disease, but beliefs in its medicinal or even sacred properties date back millennia.

AI at the speed of light just became a possibility

Tensor operations are the kind of arithmetic that form the backbone of nearly all modern technologies, especially artificial intelligence, yet they extend beyond the simple math we’re familiar with.

Gut bacterium could be key to tackling obesity crisis

The internet, libraries and bookshops are full of plans and advice on how to lose weight, from fad diets to intense exercise routines. But there could be another route to keeping the pounds away.

Nature-inspired navigation system helps robots traverse complex environments without GPS

Robots could soon be able to autonomously complete search and rescue missions, inspections, complex maintenance operations and various other real-world tasks. To do this, however, they should be able to smoothly navigate unknown and complex environments without breaking down or getting stuck, which would require human intervention.

A potential quantum leap

The dream of creating game-changing quantum computers — supermachines that encode information in single atoms rather than conventional bits — has been hampered by the formidable challenge known as quantum error correction.

Fear Drives the AI ‘Cold War’ Between America and China

In Washington and Silicon Valley, warnings abound that China’s “authoritarian AI,” left unchecked, will erode American tech supremacy. Beijing is gripped by the conviction that a failure to keep pace in AI will make it easier for the U.S. to cut short China’s resurgence as a global power.

Data centre in the shed reduces energy bills to £40

An Essex couple have become the first people in the country to trial a scheme that sees them heat their home using a data centre in their garden shed.

== yjc
While Meta Crawls the Web for AI Training Data, Bruce Ediger Pranks Them with Endless Bad Data

Early in March 2025, I noticed that a web crawler with a user agent string of was hitting my blog’s machine at an unreasonable rate. I followed the URL and discovered this is what Meta uses to gather premium, human-generated content to train its LLMs. I found the rate of requests to be annoying.

== paywall?
A ‘Peak Oil’ Prediction Surprise From the International Energy Agency

The International Energy Agency says weak climate action and energy security fears are effectively delaying peak fossil fuel consumption.

Scientists Confirmed What Is Inside Our Moon

This, researchers hope, will help settle a long debate about whether the Moon’s inner heart is solid or molten, and lead to a more accurate understanding of the Moon’s history – and, by extension, that of the Solar System.

BaRKnCats 2025 Fungi

A few photos of some of the fungi in our yard this month.