Number 409
China just erased America’s AI lead
Kimi K3, a massive new model by Beijing-based Moonshot AI, threatens the foundations of America’s AI boom. Its release Thursday dazzled developers, jolted Silicon Valley and reset the AI race overnight.
20 years ago, China bet big on electric vehicles. Now Western carmakers are feeling the pain
China’s rise wasn’t a given. It was a gamble. But it is now paying off—and legacy automakers are struggling to cope.
== US only study, but expect it has relevance in some parts of Canada
Driving the speed limit could slash fuel use and emissions at the cost of only 54 extra seconds a day
Speeding in your car to work, to pick up your children from school, or go from one errand to the next not only wastes money in gas and sends harmful emissions into the air, it barely saves you time, new research says.
What animals do before going to war
Conflict over resources such as territory, space, food or mating exerts a powerful evolutionary force on social species, potentially affecting fitness and survival, say the researchers. Traditionally, research has focused on actions between rival groups during contests and the behavioral consequences afterward. But evolution can also select for preemptive behaviors that maximize the chances of winning in a conflict.
Frog protein could become first antidote to deadly red tide toxin
The “red tide” algal blooms that are becoming more frequent along the Pacific coast produce one of the most potent neurotoxins known: saxitoxin, or STX. The toxin accumulates in shellfish and causes paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) when consumed.
Scientists invent new board games to reveal how we tackle the unknown
Playing board games can be fun, challenging, infuriating and a great way to pass the time. They can also help scientists understand how we solve new problems.
First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
Hundreds of planets have been found in the Goldilocks zones of their respective stars – but only a few dozen are small and rocky – like our own Earth – which is another tick for a planet’s ability to support life. But none of those have been found to have an atmosphere.
Rare mutations are helping dangerous hospital bacteria slip past the last-line antibiotic defense
Another last-resort antibiotic has fallen victim to the rapid evolution of drug-resistant superbugs. The powerful antibiotic combination ceftazidime-avibactam (CZA), widely used to treat severe hospital-acquired infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa—particularly in critically ill and immunocompromised patients—can no longer eliminate some of these infections.
This device pulls electricity from humid air using waste materials
Imagine what would happen if the source of your electricity was not the sun, wind, or water flow, but rather the moisture present in the air? The ability of moisture to provide energy has been well-known for a long time, although harnessing that invisible power for generating electricity has been a difficult task.
Don’t lose sleep over reports of 260 Starlink satellites deorbiting
SpaceX proactively deorbits Starlink satellites, which burn up in the atmosphere.
New species of monkey with unusual orange lips discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The first hint that a new primate species might be hiding in the dense forests of Lomami National Park came in 2008, when conservationists photographed an unidentified monkey during an expedition. After a second sighting in 2018, researchers embarked on a dedicated mission to find and describe the mysterious monkey.
Mystery of why some toads survive deadly fungus revealed
The chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is a major cause of devastating declines in frogs and toads around the world. Mass deaths often occur after amphibians transition out of the tadpole or larval stage and acquire the hard skin the fungus feeds on.
New process turns mixed plastic waste directly into hydrogen fuel without sorting
Plastic has become a ubiquitous part of modern life—in water bottles, shopping bags and car dashboards. But once discarded, it is among the hardest materials on Earth to recycle. Most recycling processes require plastics to be sorted by type first, a step that is both labor-intensive and costly. As a result, only 9% of discarded plastic is actually recycled, while 79% is dumped in landfills and another 12% is incinerated, releasing carbon dioxide in the process.
Elephants turn footsteps into messages through ground and skull vibrations
Elephants can communicate with other elephants across distances of up to five kilometers (3 miles) by producing sounds that travel through the air. However, they have a second way of sending signals: seismic waves traveling through the ground.
T. rex babies were born ready to run and feed themselves
Tyrannosaurus rex was a giant of the prehistoric world, standing up to 13 feet (4 meters) tall and weighing around 9 tons (8 tonnes). So you might expect that its hatchlings were also a considerable size.
Asteroid with unexplained orbital shift turns out to be a ‘dark comet’
Typically, astronomers identify comets by their distinct atmospheres, or comae, and their tails, which are created as the sun vaporizes a comet’s ice. These features emit a glow when sunlight bounces off dust and water droplets. As gas escapes the body of the comet, it also acts as a tiny thruster, subtly changing the comet’s path.
Could vitamin B3 prevent silent thief from stealing vision?
Often called the silent thief of sight, glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that gradually damage the optic nerve, often without warning signs. It is linked to increased pressure (ocular hypertension) inside the eye and, if left untreated, can lead to permanent vision loss.
Deep in the Atlantic Ocean, the Lost City hydrothermal field is known for eerie white chimney structures made of carbonate. Alkaline hot springs, loaded with hydrogen and methane, emerge from the seafloor there.
A new stellar census strengthens the case for a 13.8-billion-year-old universe
Astronomers have used the ages of more than 155,000 stars in the Milky Way to independently estimate the age of the universe, and their findings may be good news for the standard cosmological model.
== yjc
Claude’s values across models and languages
The values Claude expresses vary across languages. When Claude speaks in English, it emphasizes different values than when it speaks in Portuguese, Indonesian, or Chinese. How, exactly, do we study the values that Claude expresses and how they change in different contexts?
Study pinpoints insect habitat that draws grizzlies to glacier peaks
When grizzly bears clamber onto the talus slopes high in Glacier National Park, they’re searching for an abundant, fatty meal: army cutworm moths. The inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long) moths hatch on the Great Plains and fly en masse to escape the heat in the stony upper reaches of the Rocky Mountains.
Don’t change lanes—the math of holiday traffic jams
We tend to think traffic jams need a trigger: an accident, roadwork or a lane closure. Yet some of the most frustrating queues have no obvious cause at all. These are known as phantom traffic jams—stop-start waves that travel backward through traffic even though every vehicle is moving forward.
How supermassive black holes feed themselves
If an active galactic nuclei’s jets heat the surrounding gas, it should, in principle, shut off the black hole’s food supply. So how does it keep feeding and growing?
Astronomers spot four white dwarfs hiding under our noses
Astronomers have conducted detailed surveys of the local neighborhood of stars for decades, but white dwarfs like these have been notoriously hard to find. These four nearby systems were of interest because they showed a substantial radial wobble, a phenomenon in which a star subtly wobbles back and forth, indicating that a massive companion object is orbiting.
Hidden in Maya wall writings: A named astronomer emerges from 1,200-year-old calculations
Researchers have reconstructed and transcribed a mathematical formula from the site of Xultun, Guatemala, revealing the name of a Maya astronomer for the first time. During the Classic period (250–900 CE), mathematics and astronomy were a key part of Maya society.
Why we may still be choosing our friends like it’s the Stone Age
The standard social psychology view of friendship is that we are strategic in selecting friends, choosing people who can help us achieve our goals. Examples include networking for a job, studying for an exam or finding a roommate.
Two atmospheric patterns may explain why some heat waves in Europe persist
One reason these prolonged weather events are so difficult to predict is that they depend on complex atmospheric processes over long timescales. Scientists also have only around 20 real-world examples of very long-lasting heat waves (lasting 12 to 26 days) in observational records to study.
Frame-dragging observations validate Einstein yet again
Since its publication in 1915, Einstein’s theory of general relativity has been subjected to a succession of increasingly stringent experimental challenges. Astronomers and physicists have tested its predictions using everything from eclipses and planetary orbits to atomic clocks, pulsars and gravitational waves. Each new experiment has sought evidence that spacetime behaves differently from Einstein’s description, potentially revealing the need for a more complete theory of gravity.
Drawing the line: Virtual fences trigger the same cattle behavior as physical ones
A new study shows that virtual fences trigger behavior in cattle similar to that caused by conventional electric fences, in terms of how they move around the field. This finding puts commonly expressed concerns about animal welfare into perspective.
Envision a world where an ordinary part of your daily diet acts as a robust protector against one of humanity’s most devastating neurological diseases. The search for effective treatments for conditions including Parkinson’s disease has been a long journey, with scientists exploring several intricate directions for many years.
New catalyst could enable safer electrolyzers for clean hydrogen production
Hydrogen could serve as a clean alternative to fossil fuels because, when used as a fuel, it produces water vapor instead of carbon dioxide (CO2). This cleaner fuel has proved particularly promising for the creation of so-called fuel cells, energy storage devices that could power heavy-duty vehicles.
Scientists Find Sugar Deep In Our Galaxy
The space between stars just got a little sweeter.
Night owls are more likely to eat later in the day
For generations, early to bed and early to rise was seen as the blueprint for a healthy life, and any departure from it was often considered unhealthy. Scientists, however, have discovered that whether someone is an early bird who wakes up early and starts the day with energy or a night owl who naturally stays up late and wakes up later is far more than a lifestyle choice. This pattern reflects the body’s natural preference for the timing of sleep and wake cycles within a 24-hour day.
Gravitational waves reveal hidden populations within black hole mergers
Since gravitational waves were first detected in 2015, instruments including LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA have picked up a steady stream of signals from colliding black holes, building a catalog that now numbers in the hundreds. Yet despite this wealth of data, a fundamental question has remained stubbornly unresolved: How do these black holes actually form?
Math reveals how honeybee hives balance the ‘daring few, patient many’ strategy
How do bees make group decisions without a leader? Math experts have determined that the best strategy is for a few to assume the risk of foraging under all conditions while the majority stay safely back and forage only when conditions are favorable.
AI reveals hidden San Andreas Fault movements
When people think about geological faults, they usually think about earthquakes. Yet faults do not move only during earthquakes. Sometimes they slip silently, without generating noticeable shaking, releasing stress over hours or days.
Morning glories reveal 96% drop in adaptation as pollinator pressure reshapes evolution
Facing both climate change and a crashing pollinator population, plants may be evolving to attract pollinators rather than adapting to a warming climate, and the trade-off has resulted in a steep decline in plants’ rate of adaptation.
Capturing the cosmic ‘drift’ before a star is born
Stars like our sun are formed from the collapse of stellar objects called prestellar cores, cold and dense concentrations of gas and dust held together by gravity. While many questions remain about the exact mechanisms of star formation, advanced radio telescopes have given researchers new insights into the inner workings of infant stars.
Brighter days linked to better sleep, study finds
The research throws new light on sleep—one of the body’s most basic needs, which can trigger problems with mood, memory, metabolism and long-term health when disturbed.
Why natural forests survive heat waves better than planted forests
When a record-breaking drought and heat wave swept across China’s Yangtze River Basin in 2022, forests across the region faced an extreme test. The event provided a rare opportunity for researchers to test how different forests respond when rising temperatures and water shortages strike at the same time.
Darwin’s 150-year-old hillside steps mystery may have a new answer from virtual grazing animals
Steep hillsides and mountainsides in many regions worldwide are often covered in characteristic step-like patterns, also known as terracettes. These repeating landforms have fascinated scientists for more than a century, yet the factors contributing to their formation had not been clearly confirmed until now.
A remarkable discovery has been made in an Upper Paleolithic cave in the heart of Israel’s rugged Negev Desert. Years after they were last worn, archaeologists dug up fragile seashell beads, still holding specks of ochre pigment and carefully pierced for stringing. These aren’t just old trinkets but “beach bling” found hundreds of kilometers from the nearest coastline.
Cloudflare Precursor watches your mouse and keyboard to decide if you are human
Cloudflare wants websites to stop asking visitors to prove they are human with irritating CAPTCHA puzzles. Its replacement, however, involves watching how people move, type, scroll, and interact with a page throughout an entire session.
America May Soon Be Facing It’s Largest Labor Shortage in Its History
Economists warn that the worsening labor problem, due in part to a skills shortage and population shifts, will be vast and reach beyond tech. It “could hobble the American economy for years to come,” predicts the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
This factory was severely short on workers. Then it offered flexible work
The freedom to choose your work hours has been a game changer for many white-collar workers. Now, it has quietly become an option for some blue-collar workers as well.
New dinosaur species as long as cricket pitch discovered in Thailand
The plant-eating dinosaur, named Uragasaurus kalasinensis, is thought to have lived about 150 million years ago. It had an unusually long neck and measured up to 20m (66ft) - roughly the length of a cricket pitch.
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Where Does an AI’s Personality Actually Come From?
They aren’t designed, you can’t help perceiving one anyway, and that makes them an engineering problem almost no one is solving.
“To me, consensus seems to be: the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects.”
— Margaret Thatcher