Left Alone With Nothing To Do, AI Agents Started Playing

AI agents left to explore a virtual island without a specific task began inventing challenges of their own. MIT researchers say the behavior bears the hallmarks of play.

== yjc, really jc
Stop-motion movie Wildwood is a staggering masterpiece. It’s a miracle it exists at all

There are the kinds of movies that switch something in your brain. Ones that inspire you to make anything: it just needs to exist, because you’re suddenly reminded how astounding it is that each and every one of us can perform a legitimate type of magic: artistic creation.

== yjc
New study traces van Gogh’s famed ‘Starry Night’ to an actual night sky from 1889

Scientists doubling as art detectives have traced Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” to a celestial scene that suggests a new date for one of the world’s most famous paintings.

How farming helped cause two medieval tsunamis in an Italian lake—and why the danger has returned

On Jan. 3, 1117, a strong earthquake shook northern Italy. A manuscript of the 12th century, kept today in the Vatican Library, recorded what came next: “The lakes also rose so much that very few of those living in the villages nearby escaped this danger.”

Earth’s hemispheres may have worked together to drive past ice ages

Earth was mainly driven into ice ages by more CO2 being stored in the ocean, a process largely driven by changes in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. Yet how the initial growth of large ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere (brought about by natural cycles in Earth’s orbit) then led to changes in the far-flung Southern Ocean that led to CO2 drawdown was unknown.

== yjc
Lost Schrödinger manuscript reveals his true view of quantum randomness

Unlike classical physics, quantum mechanics generally cannot tell us exactly what will happen in an individual event. Instead, it predicts the probabilities of different outcomes. As one of the theory’s early pioneers, Erwin Schrödinger played a key role in debates about what this randomness really means.

== yjc, British perspective
Why should I stockpile and what will I need?

Its “Be Ready” campaign warns that severe weather and cyber attacks could disrupt essential services, and British households need to make sure they have what they need to get through a rocky few days.

== may have seen something on this before, too lazy to double check
First personalised cancer vaccine cuts risk of disease returning in major trial

A new personalised cancer vaccine given alongside a widely used immunotherapy drug has cut the risk of patients dying or their skin cancer returning by 42% in a major clinical trial.

Unauthorized AI agents are reportedly already accessing US bank accounts

Unauthorized third-party AI agents are accessing US bank accounts, according to a report by Axios. Some of these agents are even taking actions that appear to be independent of user instructions, though this is based on unnamed sources within several banking institutions.

How many insects are there—and why do we need them?

An estimated 10 quintillion insects live on Earth, supporting pollination, pest control, decomposition and food webs. Habitat loss, pesticides, climate change and pollution contribute to insect declines, threatening ecosystems and food production. Protecting habitats and reducing harmful chemicals can support insect populations.

== yjc
Not all rattlesnakes are alike: Research suggests personality influences how rattlesnakes use their venom

Imagine encountering a rattlesnake in your backyard or while on a hike. It will most likely “freeze” to avoid attracting attention, but if it feels especially threatened, it may rattle and even strike, delivering a painful dose of venom.

‘Silent’ vultures turn out to use a wide range of sounds to communicate

Vultures were long thought to make few and fairly simple sounds. Yet no one had investigated in detail how the birds use sound to communicate.

When a few people break the rules, bad behavior spreads quickly

The old saying that one bad apple spoils the barrel suggests that an individual behaving badly can have a negative influence on the entire group. The idea now has some fresh scientific backing.

Bering Sea heat wave linked to a surprising boom in the number of hybrid crabs

Marine heat waves are usually seen as destructive events that can disrupt entire ocean ecosystems and trigger massive environmental damage. In 2018 and 2019, an extreme heat wave hit the Bering Sea, causing spring sea ice levels to plummet. This loss of ice helped trigger a devastating collapse in the local snow crab population.

More daily steps over a long period linked to better attention and decision-making

Walking a few extra steps can help your cognitive health go the extra mile. Physical activity has time and again proven its benefits for both mind and body. Regular physical activity, such as walking, is associated with lower blood pressure, while elevated blood pressure has been linked to poorer brain health.

Physicists trap and tame single particle of antimatter for months

According to the Standard Model of particle physics, electrons and positrons should be nearly perfect mirror images of one another. By measuring the positron’s magnetic properties with unprecedented precision and comparing those to the electron’s properties, physicists could put this fundamental symmetry to its most stringent test yet.

Octopus-inspired patch grips skin and reveals pulse through shifting colors

It looks like a small, transparent patch with a rainbow on its surface—or for those old enough to remember, the back of a CD. The patch is the first of its kind in the world and, when combined with an ordinary smartphone camera, can measure two things.

== yjc, short and light on info, but…
Forgotten particle could answer mystery of why we exist, say physicists

Their research tackles one of the greatest conundrums in modern physics—how matter triumphed over antimatter in the aftermath of the Big Bang. According to current theories, both should have annihilated each other after a colossal explosion, leaving nothing but an empty universe of pure energy.

Individual atomic collisions can now be detected in the lab

Tiny atoms and molecules are constantly bombarding each other all around us. While we regularly measure the large-scale effects of these interactions, measuring the effect of each individual collision is far more difficult.

== yjc
Who really made China’s Terracotta Army?

The Terracotta Army near Xi’an, China, is a breathtaking sight: thousands of life-size terracotta figures created in the third century B.C. to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang. They were discovered in 1974, and people have assumed they were built exclusively by men.

A poorly understood brain region tracks the gap between expectations and reality

Adapting to changing situations requires people to continuously revise their expectations about what might happen next when new information becomes available. These expectations are believed to be represented by mental models that help the brain predict outcomes and plan future behavior.

Lone, starless cloud may be a ‘dark’ galaxy

Several processes can suppress star formation at low mass. One is that, after cosmic reionization, the halo’s gas is heated by the ultraviolet (UV) background (the diffuse radiation from quasars and galaxies) and so never becomes cold and dense enough to form stars. Such starless, gas-bearing halos are predicted to exist and are called reionization-limited H I clouds (RELHICs) or “dark galaxies.”

Russian Satellite’s Close Shadowing of Radar Imaging Satellite Is a Big Deal

Russia’s Kosmos 2612 came very close to ICEYE X36, which reportedly has Ukraine connections, after weeks of highly unusual maneuvering.

== yjc
How to spot a white label gadget, and why that’s important

Device manufacturing is the province of a small cluster of Asian factories. Very few companies actually make their own hardware. Even those with a long history of designing and building products outsource the actual work this way. White label manufacturing is a legitimate practice, and even big names will add their brand to gear made by their ostensible rivals.

More than 16 years after BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, marine life has not recovered

Fishes, crustaceans, squid show persistent declines and even chemical compounds in their tissues.

Two dangerous internet security issues are putting site admins on edge

The web is a bit of a hot mess today following the discovery of two severe vulnerabilities. The first involves TLS certificates with extremely weak encryption that could affect everything from VPNs to IoT devices. The other is a severe PHP programming language vulnerability impacting CMS systems including WordPress and Drupal. Both problems could result in large-scale attacks and require massive cleanup jobs, security experts said.

How to use Google’s SynthID AI detection website

It’s a simple way to check whether an image has been created or manipulated, with a few caveats.

Researchers Discover How To Lead Dying Coral Reefs To a ‘Fast And Full Recovery’

Let’s set aside the fact that coral reefs are essential wellsprings of marine biodiversity, colorful aquatic oases that nourish innumerable animals across the entire ocean food chain. These reefs are critical for humans too. By one assessment, the worldwide societal benefits from coral ecosystems—including protected coastal infrastructure, habitats fostering commercial fishing, tourism, and even drug discovery—provide an estimated $9.8 trillion per year in value.

Can a simple photo of your face reveal how ill you are?

An AI tool may be able to help doctors judge how ill a patient is using a single photograph of their face, say US researchers.

Mission blasts off for Mars to grab a piece of its moon

A spacecraft has launched from Japan headed for Mars’ moon Phobos, where it will attempt to grab some moondust and bring it back to Earth.

NASA satellites observe historic 2026 El Niño

El Niño is a natural climate pattern that emerges roughly every two to seven years, marked by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific. NASA scientists are keeping watch as it flips trade winds, redistributes ocean heat, scrambles rain patterns and raises sea surface height across parts of the Pacific.

Tiny brain structure anticipates what we are about to see or feel, study finds

The human brain is constantly taking in information about the world through sight, touch, hearing and the other senses. Influential theories in neuroscience and psychology suggest that it also anticipates incoming sensory information, preparing to process what we are likely to see or feel in specific scenarios.

Could this 93-year-old sprinter’s muscles hold clues to healthy aging?

Emma Mazzenga got back into running in her 50s. Forty years later, she’s as fit as when she started.

Scientists Discover Why Microplastics Trigger Inflammation

Microplastics are a source of extreme concern for health: the presence of these tiny pieces of plastic has been linked to heart attacks, stroke, dementia and brain tumors. But what drives these associations is unclear. Now a study published in Nature offers a tantalizing clue: microplastics interact with water, generating highly reactive molecules.

== Canada is not on the list I looked at
Google Updates Android Earthquake Alerts With 200+ Regions

Google is expanding its Android Earthquake Alerts System from 98 to more than 200 regions worldwide, using smartphone sensors to detect early earthquake activity and warn users before potentially dangerous shaking begins.

Astronomers Discover the First Green Star

How awesome would it be if the sun could take on a spooky green glow for Halloween? It turns out that scientists have discovered that our star may indeed go green, but only billions of years from now after its death — and only if it then starts eating planets like a cosmic zombie.