Category: Science & Technology

Scientists studying Australia’s epaulette sharks have uncovered unexpected reproductive behaviour that challenges long held biological assumptions. The findings, published in the journal Biology Open, suggest these unusual sharks reproduce without extra energy costs, even during environmental stress.

What scientists discovered about epaulette shark reproduction

NASA is gearing up for the Artemis II mission on February 6, marking the first crewed lunar flight in decades. Four astronauts will embark on a 10-day mission around the moon, testing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS).

On 6th February, NASA is preparing for its Artemis II mission, which is the first lunar crewed flight under the Artemis programme. Under this mission astronauts will be sent towards the moon for the first time in decades. This first crew mission will include four astronauts (Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen) who will venture around the moon before returning to the Earth.

This 10-day human lunar exploration mission is aimed at testing the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System with humans onboard, validating critical life support, and re-entry systems in deep space. The mission will serve as a crucial stepping stone for future Artemis missions, including the planned lunar landing and NASA’s long-term exploration goals.

NASA is making final preparations and is targeting to roll out the fully stacked Space Launch System (SLS) rocket together with the Orion crew spacecraft from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center. This launch is expected no earlier than January 17, 2026.

The crawler-transporter-2 will travel four miles in up to 12 hours. However, date and time are subject to change if there are any additional requirements for technical preparations or weather.

“We are moving closer to Artemis II, with rollout just around the corner.” We have important steps remaining on our path to launch, and crew safety will remain our top priority at every turn as we near humanity’s return to the Moon.” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.

X says it has blocked Grok from editing real people into bikinis or sexualised images, but tests and Musk’s own comments show AI characters can still be “undressed,” keeping the controversy very much alive.

X has tightened the rules around Grok’s image-editing tools after days of criticism over non-consensual sexual deepfakes, but the changes have opened up a fresh debate rather than closing it. While Grok is now blocked from putting real people into bikinis or sexualised outfits, the system still allows users to create similar content using AI-generated or imaginary characters. Elon Musk has publicly defended the approach, saying it follows what he calls the “de facto standard” for adult content in the US.

The latest discussion started, as many things do on X, with a tweet from DogeDesigner, an account closely associated with Musk. The account claimed it had tried multiple prompts to get Grok to generate nude images and failed each time, arguing that media reports were part of “a relentless attack” on Musk. Musk responded by throwing down a public challenge, “Can anyone actually break Grok image moderation? Reply below.”

As the conversation grew, Musk clarified what Grok is supposed to allow. “With NSFW enabled, Grok is supposed allow upper body nudity of imaginary adult humans (not real ones) consistent with what can be seen in R-rated movies on Apple TV. That is the de facto standard in America,” he wrote, adding that rules could vary depending on local laws in different countries.

This explanation came amid growing scrutiny of Grok’s role in the spread of sexualised deepfakes on X. Following the backlash, the platform quietly changed how Grok handles image edits involving real people. Prompts that earlier worked, such as asking the bot to change someone’s clothes into a bikini, began returning blurred or censored results.

X later made this official. Its Safety account said, “We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.” According to reports, the goal was to stop Grok from responding to requests involving sexual poses, swimwear, or explicit scenarios when a real person is involved.

On paper, the policy sounds firm. In practice, it appears far more uneven.

Testing by multiple publications like The Verge showed that while some direct prompts are now blocked, Grok can still be pushed into creating highly sexualised images through slightly altered requests. Even when commands like “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes” produced censored images, other prompts continued to work. Requests such as “show me her cleavage,” “make her breasts bigger,” or “put her in a crop top and low-rise shorts” were reportedly accepted, sometimes resulting in images that effectively placed the subject in a bikini anyway.

These results were not limited to paid users. Reporters were able to carry out similar edits using free X and Grok accounts. An age verification pop-up did appear on the Grok website during some tests, but it could be bypassed by simply selecting a birth year that made the user appear over 18. No proof was required, and in many cases, no age check appeared at all on the mobile app or the X website.

The inconsistency becomes even clearer when looking at what Grok still allows. While edits involving women are now partially restricted, Grok reportedly continues to generate images of men or even inanimate objects in bikinis without resistance. In one test, the bot complied with a request to turn a selfie into a sexualised image involving a male subject and others, again using a free account.

Despite the updated rules, The Verge reported that it remains “extremely easy” to undress women or place them into sexualised poses using Grok’s tools, often without linking the activity to an easily identifiable paid account. In one case, a journalist was able to create sexualised deepfakes of herself without being blocked by the system.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/x-bans-grok-from-bikini-edits-on-real-people-but-you-can-still-undress-ai-characters-elon-musk-says-2852204-2026-01-15

Instagram data leak concerns was triggered as thousands got password reset email claiming to be from the platform.

Instagram is used by billions but when many of them got a password reset email in the last few weeks, the alarm bells started ringing. Many reports hinted that Instagram data has been breached which triggered a massive uproar as they sought answers about the possible leak of its users.

Data leaks are hard to detect, especially for the users, who are not sure if the activity was registered from the company or forwarded through hackers. In this case, the email might have looked suspicious but it seems Instagram has refuted the breach allegations and denied that its users and their data has been exposed.

Instagram Denies Leak Concerns

Instagram claims there was no data breach of its system that may have exposed your data. So then how do you explain the rampant password reset emails that thousands have got in the last few weeks? The company says the supposed breach-like email to users was triggered by a technical issue which allowed people other than the account holders to start the reset password process.

Instagram also pointed out that all its internal systems are secure and no data has been exposed. This was mentioned in a post on X in the last 24 hours, assuring users about the activity and asking them to ignore the mails.

Most might say a clarification like this should ease the concerns but we’ve seen these events happen before which were initially refuted but later we see the companies retrace their claims. In addition to the password reset emails, a report by MalwareBytes claimed that cyber thieves got hold of personal information belonging to 17.5 million Instagram users and the mail activity further increased the levels of alarm among all those using the platform.

The report said the exposed data can be misused by scammers as they craft personal emails with the attempt to phish their accounts and even devices for further damage.

Source : https://www.news18.com/tech/instagram-data-leak-concerns-raised-after-password-reset-email-what-the-company-has-said-9824704.html

Apple just made a big decision about the future of its in-house AI assistant.

In a statement posted to X, Google and Apple confirmed that the former’s Gemini AI models will serve as the basis for the future of Apple Intelligence. That means Gemini will “help power future Apple Intelligence features” including the long-awaited AI upgrade for Siri, set to launch this year.

This is a big deal because, in the past, Apple has worked with other AI models, most notably including ChatGPT. The OpenAI flagship model was integrated with Siri in late 2024, as a sort of stopgap solution as Apple continues to work on the AI-infused version of Siri that has been in development for a few years now. However, over the past year or so, Gemini overtook ChatGPT as the model of choice according to various benchmarks and rankings. Given that Apple is considered to be well behind the rest of the competition on AI features, it makes sense for the iPhone maker to choose Google’s model over OpenAI’s.

Source : https://mashable.com/article/apple-google-gemini-openai-chatgpt-siri-ai-overhaul

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Sunday posted that AI agents will be a big part of how we shop in the not-so-distant future as he revealed the next big thing in artificial intelligence.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Sunday announced the launch of its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) saying that AI agents will be a big part of how we shop in the not-so-distant future.

Revealing what could turn out to be the next big thing in the artificial intelligence, Sundar Pichai wrote, “AI agents will be a big part of how we shop in the not-so-distant future.”

“To help lay the groundwork, we partnered with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart to create the Universal Commerce Protocol, a new open standard for agents and systems to talk to each other across every step of the shopping journey,” he said.

Adding further, the technology enthusiast also informed that soon UCP will power native checkout so people can buy directly on AI mode and through the Gemini App.

What is Universal Commerce Protocol?
Google wants the Universal Commerce Protocol to become an industry standard that retailers use for their AI agents and its related systems for discovery, selling and post-sales services.

According to Google, UCP is a new open standard for agentic commerce that works across the entire shopping journey, from discovery and buying to post-purchase support.

The platform establishes a common language for agents and systems to operate together across consumer surfaces, businesses and payment providers.

So instead of requiring unique connections for every individual agent, UCP enables all agents to interact easily.

It’s built to work across verticals and is compatible with existing industry protocols like Agent2Agent (A2A), Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and Model Context Protocol (MCP).

The platform has been co-developed with industry leaders including Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, and endorsed by more than 20 others across the ecosystem like Adyen, American Express, Best Buy, Flipkart, Macy’s Inc., Mastercard, Stripe, The Home Depot, Visa and Zalando.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-says-ai-agents-will-be-big-part-of-shopping-in-notsodistant-future-what-he-means-by-ucp-ai-mode-checkout-article-153431931

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is all set to launch the EOS-N1 Anvesha satellite to space aboard the PSLV-C62 mission on Monday.

Imagine having a superpower that lets you see beyond what the human eye can detect, revealing hidden details in everything from forests to battlefields.

That’s hyperspectral remote sensing (HRS) in a nutshell. Think of it as turning ordinary satellite photos into a high-tech detective tool.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is all set to launch the EOS-N1 Anvesha satellite to space aboard the PSLV-C62 mission. Anvesha is a hyperspectral satellite developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

WHAT IS HYPERSPECTRAL?

Back in the day, spies and explorers used simple aerial photos to study landscapes. They would look at shapes, colours, and patterns to guess what was below, like spotting a river by its winding path or a forest by its green blobs.

Now, enter hyperspectral remote sensing, the real game-changer. Instead of a handful of colours, it captures hundreds of super-narrow slices of light across the rainbow, from visible light to infrared that we can’t see. Each tiny spot in the image gets its own unique “fingerprint” based on how it reflects light.

It’s like having a scanner that can tell apart different types of soil, plants, or even man-made materials just by their glow. This leap means we go from rough guesses to precise identifications, all automated by smart software.

HOW IT WORKS?

HRS works because everything on Earth interacts with light in its own way. For example, water soaks up certain light waves, while leaves bounce others back, creating a signature pattern, like a barcode.

Scientists build libraries of these barcodes from pure samples (just dirt or just grass) and compare them to what the satellite sees.

To gather this info on the ground, experts use handheld gadgets called spectroradiometers, portable scanners that measure light reflections up close.

When combined with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), HRS lets you layer this info over real-world locations. You can zoom in, spin 3D models, and ask questions like “Where’s the best spot to cross this river?”

WHY IT MATTERS FOR DEFENCE?

In today’s world, HRS is a secret weapon for militaries. It’s not about destruction; it’s about smart planning to keep people safe.

Here’s how it helps:

• Mapping the Ground: Ever wonder if a tank can drive through mud without getting stuck? HRS identifies soil types like sandy deserts versus sticky clay, helping predict safe paths for vehicles or troops.
• Spotting Hidden Dangers: Camouflage doesn’t fool it. It can detect fake coverings or unusual materials in cities, like telling apart different plants that might hide equipment. In places like India’s diverse terrains, this means better hiding spots for allies or spotting enemies.
• Planning Like a Pro: Create virtual battle simulations with 3D maps. See what’s visible from a hilltop or just plan the routes. It’s like playing a video game, but with real stakes.
• Watching for Trouble: Track changes from floods or earthquakes that could affect operations, giving early warnings.

HURDLES AHEAD AND A BRIGHT FUTURE

The test was carried out by the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad- a key laboratory under Defence Research and Development Organisation.

India achieved a major milestone in hypersonic weapons development after the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully conducted a long-duration ground test of a full-scale, actively cooled scramjet engine, a critical technology for hypersonic cruise missiles.

The test was carried out by the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad- a key laboratory under Defence Research and Development Organisation- at its Scramjet Connect Pipe Test (SCPT) facility. According to the Ministry of Defence, the engine achieved a sustained runtime of over 12 minutes, marking a path-breaking achievement in India’s hypersonic missile programme.

The successful test builds on an earlier long-duration subscale scramjet test conducted on April 25, 2025 and represents a crucial step towards the development of operational hypersonic cruise missiles. The full-scale combustor and the specialised test facility were designed and developed in-house by Defence Research & Development Laboratory, with fabrication and realisation supported by Indian industry partners.

Hypersonic cruise missiles are capable of flying at speeds exceeding five times the speed of sound- over 6,100 kilometres per hour- for extended durations. This capability is enabled by advanced air-breathing scramjet engines, which use supersonic combustion to sustain high-speed atmospheric flight. The latest ground test validated both the advanced scramjet combustor design and the performance of the SCPT facility, the Defence Ministry said.

Congratulating the teams involved, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the successful test provides a “solid foundation” for India’s Hypersonic Cruise Missile Development Programme. He also lauded the contribution of DRDO scientists, industry partners and academia in achieving the milestone.

Source : https://www.news18.com/india/drdo-successfully-tests-long-duration-scramjet-engine-for-hypersonic-missile-programme-ws-l-9820774.html

ISRO has selected its workhorse PSLV for the mission, which is set to lift off at 10.17 am on January 12 from Sriharikota

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is ready to begin the new year with the launch of an advanced Earth observation satellite aboard its workhorse—the PSLV.

The launch of the mission, PSLV C62-/EOS N1, is scheduled at 10.17 am on January 12 from its spaceport at Sriharikota. EOS-N1 is a hyperspectral imaging satellite capable of capturing ground data in hundreds of narrow wavelength bands, which can help in the identification of materials on the ground, not just shapes and colours.

It will be accompanied by 18 other co-passenger satellites from different Indian and international users through its industrial partner NewSpace India Limited (NSIL). NSIL has been marketing ISRO’s launch services onboard PSLV, SSLV, and LVM3 launchers to international customers. To date, it has launched a total of over 137 customer satellites onboard 5 PSLV, 2 LVM3, and 2 SSLV missions.

ISRO has a packed launch calendar this year, beginning with the first uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan to demonstrate an end-to-end mission, including the aerodynamics of the human-rated launch vehicle, mission operations of the orbital module, re-entry, as well as recovery of the crew module. This will be followed by a Technology Demonstration Satellite (TDS-01) to validate new technologies and indigenous components for satellite platforms. Once proven, these technologies will be employed in navigation and communication missions in the near future.

The anticipation is also building for the launch of the first fully Indian-industry-manufactured PSLV through NSIL, which is also working to build five PSLV-XL through Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and L&T Consortium.

Source: https://www.news18.com/india/isro-returns-to-launch-pad-for-2026s-first-mission-advanced-earth-imaging-satellite-9814161.html

Ancient Egyptians and Etruscans pioneered orthodontics, using delicate gold wires and catgut to straighten teeth. It’s a tale that has appeared in dentistry textbooks for decades, portraying our ancestors as surprisingly modern in their pursuit of the perfect smile. But when archaeologists and dental historians finally scrutinized the evidence, they discovered that most of it is myth.

Take the El-Quatta dental bridge from Egypt, dating to around 2500BC. The gold wire found with ancient remains wasn’t doing what we thought at all. Rather than pulling teeth into alignment, these wires were stabilizing loose teeth or holding replacement ones in place. In other words, they were functioning as prostheses, not braces.

The gold bands discovered in Etruscan tombs tell a similar story. They were probably dental splints designed to support teeth loosened by gum disease or injury, not devices for moving teeth into new positions.

There are some rather compelling practical reasons why these ancient devices couldn’t have worked as braces anyway. Tests on Etruscan appliances revealed the gold used was 97% pure, and pure gold is remarkably soft.

It bends and stretches easily without breaking, which makes it useless for orthodontics. Braces work by applying continuous pressure over long periods, requiring metal that’s strong and springy. Pure gold simply can’t manage that. Try to tighten it enough to straighten a tooth and it will deform or snap.

Then there’s the curious matter of who was wearing these gold bands. Many were found with the skeletons of women, suggesting they might have been status symbols or decorative jewelry rather than medical devices. Tellingly, none were discovered in the mouths of children or teenagers – exactly where you’d expect to find them if they were genuine orthodontic appliances.

But perhaps the most fascinating revelation is this: ancient people didn’t have the same dental problems we face today.

Malocclusion – the crowding and misalignment of teeth that’s so common now – was extremely rare in the past. Studies of Stone Age skulls show almost no crowding. The difference is down to diet.

Our ancestors ate tough, fibrous foods that required serious chewing. All that jaw work developed strong, large jaws perfectly capable of accommodating all their teeth.

Modern diets, by contrast, are soft and processed, giving our jaws little exercise. The result? Our jaws are often smaller than those of our ancestors, while our teeth remain the same size, leading to the crowding we see today.

Since crooked teeth were virtually non-existent in antiquity, there was hardly any reason to develop methods for straightening them.

That said, ancient people did occasionally attempt simple interventions for dental irregularities. The Romans provide one of the earliest reliable references to actual orthodontic treatment.

Aulus Cornelius Celsus, a Roman medical writer in the first century AD, noted that if a child’s tooth came in crooked, they should gently push it into place with a finger every day until it shifted to the correct position. Although basic, this method is built on the same principle we use today – gentle, continuous pressure can move a tooth.

After the Roman era, little progress occurred for centuries. By the 18th century, however, interest in straightening teeth had revived, albeit through some rather agonizing methods.

Those without access to modern dental tools resorted to wooden “swelling wedges” to create space between overcrowded teeth. A small wedge of wood was inserted between teeth. As saliva was absorbed, the wood expanded, forcing the teeth apart. Crude and excruciating, perhaps, but it represented a step towards understanding that teeth could be repositioned through pressure.

Scientific Orthodontics

Real scientific orthodontics began with French dentist Pierre Fauchard’s work in 1728. Often called the father of modern dentistry, Fauchard published a landmark two-volume book, The Surgeon Dentist, containing the first detailed description of treating malocclusions.

He developed the “bandeau” – a curved metal strip wrapped around teeth to widen the dental arch. This was the first tool specifically designed to move teeth using controlled force.

Fauchard also described using threads to support teeth after repositioning. His work marked the crucial shift from ancient myths and painful experiments to a scientific approach that eventually led to modern braces and clear aligners.

With advances in dentistry during the 19th and 20th centuries, orthodontics became a specialist field. Metal brackets, archwires, elastics and eventually stainless steel made treatment more predictable.

Later innovations – ceramic brackets, lingual braces and clear aligners – made the process more discreet. Today, orthodontics employs digital scans, computer models, and 3D printing for remarkably precise treatment planning.

The image of ancient people sporting gold and catgut braces is certainly appealing and dramatic, but it doesn’t match the evidence.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/ancient-braces-myth/

Isro is set to dominate the 2026 space calendar with several high-profile launches including the robotic pioneer Vyommitra. From the Gaganyaan trials to electric satellites, India is redefining the cost of innovation.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is no longer just a participant in the global space race; it is setting the pace. Following the historic triumph of the Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing, the agency has prepared a 2026 calendar that reads like a science fiction novel.

From uncrewed robotic tests to ambitious planetary explorers, the current year promises to be a masterclass in affordable innovation for Isro.

Speaking during an address post the successful LVM3-M6 mission (Launch Vehicle Mark-III’s sixth operational flight), Isro chairman V. Narayanan revealed an ambitious roadmap that highlights India’s evolution from a regional player into a dominant global space powerhouse.

From the highly anticipated Gaganyaan mission to the surging prowess of private startups like Skyroot Aerospace, the coming year is set to be a definitive turning point for the nation’s celestial ambitions.

Narayanan emphasised that the Gaganyaan mission marks a crucial step towards human spaceflight, noting that its success will cement India’s place in an elite club of spacefaring nations.

JANUARY 2026: PSLV-C62, THE STRATEGIC EYE

The year begins with the PSLV-C62 mission, tentatively set early this year. This launch carries the EOS-N1 satellite, a sophisticated tool for hyperspectral imaging, an advanced technique that captures detailed data of light wavelengths for every pixel in an image, and not just red, green, and blue.

By capturing chemical signatures from space, it provides vital data for border surveillance and disaster management. It will be accompanied by 18 smaller international satellites, showcasing Isro’s role as a global launch hub.

FEBRUARY 2026: PSLV-N1, THE INDUSTRY MILESTONE

In a landmark shift towards privatisation, the PSLV-N1 mission will mark the first time a PSLV rocket has been entirely manufactured by an Indian industry consortium (HAL and L&T).

This satellite will provide critical oceanographic data, aiding everything from the fishing industry to climate research. The primary payload is the EOS-10 / Oceansat-3A. Co-passengers likely include India-Mauritius Joint Satellite (IMJS) and possibly LEAP-2 from Dhruva Space.

MARCH 2026: GAGANYAAN G1, THE ROBOTIC PIONEER

Scheduled for March 2026, the Gaganyaan G1 mission is the crown jewel of the schedule. A human-rated LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark III) rocket will carry Vyommitra, a female humanoid robot, into orbit.

This uncrewed flight is a critical safety test, designed to validate the life support, re-entry, and sea recovery systems that will eventually keep Indian astronauts safe during their journey into the thermosphere.

MARCH 2026: TDS-01, THE ELECTRIC REVOLUTION

A protein showing up in breast cancer tumors, lupus patients, and people with ALS has been traced to an unexpected source: a virus that infected human ancestors millions of years ago. Scientists have now captured the first detailed images of this disease-linked protein, revealing what this genetic remnant actually looks like. These ancient viral sequences make up about 8% of the human genome.

The protein comes from HERV-K (Human Endogenous Retrovirus K), a retrovirus that infected primates millions of years ago and was permanently copied into their DNA. That viral DNA has been passed down through generations ever since. In healthy people, cells keep this ancient code locked away and silent. But something goes wrong in certain diseases. Cancer cells in breast, ovarian, prostate, and other tumors start making the HERV-K protein. Immune cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus show elevated levels. In people with ALS, the protein floats in spinal fluid where it appears to damage neurons.

For decades, researchers have known this fossilized virus shows up in diseased tissue, but they’ve never seen what the protein looks like or understood how it works. The new study from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, published in Science Advances, finally provides that picture. The images reveal the protein in both its ready-to-spring form and its activated state.

Catching a Shape-Shifter

The HERV-K protein naturally exists in an unstable state, like a mousetrap set and ready to snap. To take pictures, researchers needed to freeze it in that cocked position, but it kept collapsing into its sprung form before they could capture an image.

Lead researchers Jeremy Shek and Chen Sun engineered hundreds of modified versions, testing different ways to hold the protein in place. The winning approach worked like putting a safety pin in a grenade—they added molecular locks that kept the structure stable long enough to photograph. These stabilized versions could survive freezing and held together even under harsh conditions that would normally trigger the shape change.

HERV-K Shaped Differently from HIV

The images revealed something unexpected. HERV-K looks completely different from HIV and other well-studied viruses. It’s tall and narrow, shaped like an inverted tripod with three prongs. Each prong has two parts—a top section that latches onto cells and a lower section that handles the membrane fusion.

When the protein activates, this arrangement explodes into action. Part of it shoots out like a harpoon toward target cells, the whole structure extends like a telescope, then snaps back into a hairpin shape that forces two cell membranes together.

The activated form revealed something researchers hadn’t seen before: an extra structural piece sitting between two standard regions. This feature appears specific to HERV-K’s family of viruses and doesn’t exist in HIV or related viruses. That difference might be important for developing targeted treatments.

Antibodies Light Up Diseased Cells

To study HERV-K in real patients, researchers needed tools that could detect the protein and tell the difference between its various forms. The team created a set of antibodies—immune molecules that latch onto specific targets—by immunizing mice and screening which ones stuck to HERV-K.

Two antibodies proved especially useful for research. One recognizes only the ready-to-spring form of the protein, while another only grabs onto the activated version. These became crucial tools for confirming they had captured the right structures in the lab.

The real test came with patient samples. When researchers exposed immune cells from people with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis to five of the antibodies, the diseased cells lit up with fluorescent markers. The staining appeared primarily inside the cells. Notably, the antibody that only recognizes the activated form did not react—suggesting that patient cells contain the ready-to-spring version or other forms of the protein, not the activated state. Immune cells from healthy people showed no reaction at all.

HERV-K Opens Doors to New Treatments

The structures and antibodies create opportunities for targeting HERV-K in disease. Since the protein appears on cancer cell surfaces, it could serve as a target for immune-based therapies.

Previous studies have shown promise with this approach. One antibody inhibited breast cancer cell growth in laboratory tests and in tumor-bearing mice. Other researchers engineered immune cells to recognize and attack anything displaying HERV-K—these modified cells successfully killed breast cancer and melanoma cells in lab dishes and stopped tumor spread in animal studies.

For ALS, a separate team found that an antibody blocking HERV-K from connecting with its receptor on nerve cells reduced the neurotoxicity seen in patient samples.

HERV-K might actually be easier to target than HIV. The protein’s surface is less heavily coated with sugars that typically help viruses hide from the immune system. More of its vulnerable spots are exposed, particularly at the top where it likely binds to cells. That exposure could make it easier for therapeutic antibodies to latch on.

Why Dormant Viral DNA Wakes Up

HERV-K represents the most recently acquired viral DNA in the human genome. The genome contains roughly 100 full-length HERV-K sequences, though most picked up mutations over time that broke them. At least 10 locations still have intact genes capable of producing the envelope protein.

Healthy cells keep these viral remnants switched off through chemical modifications to DNA. In cancer and autoimmune disease, something disrupts that silencing mechanism. Cancer cells may reactivate HERV-K, and the protein is associated with increased cell growth and survival. In autoimmune conditions, HERV-K proteins can trigger inflammation, and when patients’ antibodies attack these proteins, the resulting immune complexes may contribute to disease progression.

The acidic environment inside tumors might favor the activated form of the protein, potentially explaining why it behaves differently in cancer versus autoimmune disease. Different versions of HERV-K in the genome produce proteins that stay trapped inside cells or reach the cell surface, which could account for varying disease patterns.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/viral-protein-in-cancer-traced-to-infection-from-millions-of-years-ago/

Losing several teeth changes more than just how well someone can chew a steak. A study from Japan suggests something more concerning happens. After their teeth were removed, studied animals started having memory problems. Their brains showed signs of stress and stress-related changes in the regions that handle memory and learning. What’s more, this happened even when the mice ate a normal-protein diet, suggesting the tooth loss itself, not just poor nutrition, might be affecting the brain.

Scientists at Hiroshima University tracked aging mice for six months after pulling their upper molars on both sides. They wanted to know if tooth loss leads to brain problems because people can’t eat well afterward, or if something else is going on. The answer surprised them. Mice that lost teeth performed worse on memory tests whether they ate normal or low-protein diets. When researchers examined brain tissue, they found higher levels of molecules linked to cell death, increased signs of inflammation, and fewer cells marked as neurons in key memory regions.

These are mice, not people. But the findings, published in Archives of Oral Biology, hint at an effect not explained by diet alone between missing teeth and brain changes that goes beyond just eating less protein.

How Tooth Loss Affects Memory and Cognitive Function

Researchers divided aging mice into four groups at three months old. Some had their upper molars on both sides extracted while others kept all their teeth. Half of each group received normal protein levels in their food, while the other half ate diets containing 50 percent less protein. This setup was designed to approximate what can happen for some elderly people after losing teeth: they avoid meat, fish, and eggs because chewing hurts.

Six months later, the team tested memory using a Barnes maze, a circular platform with 20 holes around its edge. Just one hole led to an escape box. Mice with intact memories learned quickly which hole offered escape. Mice with memory problems took longer to find the correct hole, often following more erratic paths.

The results were clear: mice that lost their teeth performed worse on memory tests than mice with full sets of teeth. Among mice eating less protein, this difference appeared larger, though the study notes its sample size may have been too small to detect whether diet and tooth loss interact statistically. Body weight remained steady across all groups, ruling out starvation or general poor health as explanations.

Most importantly, tooth loss drove the memory problems, whether mice ate normal-protein diets or protein-poor diets. The missing teeth themselves, not dietary protein levels, predicted which mice would struggle to remember.

Brain Cell Death Linked to Tooth Loss

The memory tests revealed problems, but brain tissue analysis showed why. Scientists examined the hippocampus, where the brain forms and stores memories. They measured gene activity for two molecules called Bax and Bcl-2 that regulate cell death pathways. When Bax gene expression rises compared to Bcl-2, it is commonly used as a marker consistent with apoptosis-related signaling, a programmed cell death process.

Mice missing teeth showed higher Bax-to-Bcl-2 ratios in their hippocampi compared to mice with intact teeth. Protein intake made no difference. Whether mice consumed normal or reduced protein, tooth loss was associated with higher levels of this apoptosis-related marker.

Additional analysis revealed markers of inflammation and fewer NeuN-positive cells in specific memory regions. The CA1 region, which helps form new memories and recall old ones, displayed high levels of GFAP and Iba-1, proteins that signal brain inflammation and stress. The same region contained fewer NeuN-positive cells, a marker consistent with reduced neuron presence in the sampled tissue.

The dentate gyrus, another memory region, showed similar patterns: markers of increased inflammation and fewer NeuN-positive cells. The CA3 region showed less change, though low protein did reduce neuron-related cell markers there. Across the hippocampal regions they examined, tooth loss had the dominant association with these brain changes while diet played a smaller role.

The Connection Between Missing Teeth and Brain Health

The relationship between oral health and brain function has interested researchers for years, though the mechanisms remain unclear.

The paper discusses several possibilities. Gum disease, which often precedes tooth loss, involves bacteria and inflammatory processes. Inflammatory signals could potentially affect blood vessels or other brain tissue. Another theory involves sensory input: teeth connect to the brain through the trigeminal nerve, one of the largest nerves in the head. Chewing sends information through this nerve to brain regions handling attention, learning, and memory. Losing teeth disrupts these signals in mice, which might affect brain activity.

This mouse study supports the idea of an effect not solely explained by nutrition. Mice fed a normal-protein diet still showed markers of brain inflammation and reduced NeuN-positive cells after tooth extraction. The tooth loss itself appears associated with brain changes in mice, not just secondary effects like malnutrition.

The research team used aging mice (SAMP8 strain) that naturally develop age-related problems including memory decline, making them useful for studying tooth loss effects in the context of aging.

Study Limitations and What They Mean

Mouse brains differ from human brains, so these findings need confirmation in people before drawing conclusions about tooth loss and dementia in humans. Mice received standardized diets while human nutrition varies widely. The six-month observation period in these aging mice may not capture all relevant time-course effects.

Reducing dietary protein meant increasing carbohydrates to maintain total calories. Higher carbohydrate intake could have influenced results, though this doesn’t change the main finding about tooth loss associations. Sample sizes ranged from seven to nine mice per group; larger studies would provide more confidence in the results, particularly regarding potential interactions between tooth loss and diet. Only male mice were tested, so whether females show the same patterns remains unknown.

Protecting Your Teeth May Protect Your Memory

In these mice, tooth loss was associated with worse memory performance, increased markers of apoptosis-related signaling, heightened neuroinflammation indicators, and fewer NeuN-positive cells in key memory regions. The tooth loss associations and the low-protein diet effects appeared to work through separate mechanisms rather than combining to amplify each other, though the authors note the study may have lacked sufficient statistical power to detect interactions confidently.

Whether similar processes occur in humans requires further study. The mouse findings suggest tooth loss could directly affect brain biology rather than working only through nutritional changes, but proving this in humans needs additional research. If the connection holds, preventing tooth loss might become one strategy for supporting cognitive health during aging.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/losing-your-teeth-fuels-cognitive-decline/

For over a century, doctors and scientists have accepted one unchanging truth: Alzheimer’s disease cannot be reversed. Once the brain deteriorates into dementia, there’s no coming back. That assumption just collapsed.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have done what generations of scientists thought impossible. They reversed advanced Alzheimer’s disease in mice. Not slowed it. Not stabilized it. Reversed it. Older mice with memory problems, in two different Alzheimer’s-like mouse models (one focused on amyloid plaques, one on tau tangles), regained normal performance on memory tests after treatment with an experimental compound called P7C3-A20.

The mice were elderly animals with clear brain pathology and memory loss. In one model, amyloid plaques were prominent. In the other, tau-related disease features dominated. Their brains healed anyway.

Treatments have focused on slowing decline or managing symptoms, never on turning back the clock. This new work, published in Cell Reports Medicine, upends that approach.

How Did Scientists Reverse Alzheimer’s Disease in Mice?

Researchers used two different mouse models that mimic human Alzheimer’s disease. The first, called 5xFAD mice, develops amyloid plaques similar to those in human patients. The second, PS19 mice, develops tau tangles, another hallmark of the disease. Both types develop memory problems and brain damage that look a lot like human Alzheimer’s.

Scientists divided mice into groups starting at either 2 months old (mid-stage disease) or 6 months old (advanced disease). The mid-stage group received daily injections of either P7C3-A20 or a placebo until 6 months old. The advanced-disease group received treatment until 12 months old. In a separate tau tangle model, 11-month-old mice received treatment for one month. Each treatment group included both male and female mice.

Mice with advanced Alzheimer’s that received P7C3-A20 performed as well on memory tests as healthy mice. In the Morris water maze, a standard test where mice must remember the location of a hidden platform, treated Alzheimer’s mice found the platform as quickly as normal mice. Untreated Alzheimer’s mice struggled. Similar improvements showed up in object recognition tests and other measures of thinking ability.

But the changes went far beyond behavior. Brain tissue analysis showed broad improvements across many Alzheimer’s-linked measures, including reduced plaque accumulation, tau-related changes, blood-brain barrier damage, and inflammation. Most remarkably, the brains began generating new neurons again, a process that normally shuts down in Alzheimer’s.

What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease? The NAD+ Connection

The key to this reversal lies in NAD+, a molecule that works as universal energy currency in cells. Every cell needs NAD+ to power repair processes, fight oxidative stress, and keep DNA intact. When NAD+ levels fall, cells can’t keep up with constant maintenance needs.

The research team discovered that Alzheimer’s severity tracks with disrupted NAD+ homeostasis in both mice and humans. When they examined human brain tissue, people who had died with Alzheimer’s showed disturbed NAD+ metabolism.

But some elderly people had Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain at autopsy yet had never developed dementia while alive. In this study’s analysis, these individuals showed gene expression patterns suggesting preserved NAD+ homeostasis despite their brain pathology.

P7C3-A20 doesn’t deliver NAD+ directly. Instead, it helps cells restore NAD+ balance when they are under stress (similar to fixing a leaky bucket rather than just pouring more water in).

The treatment also normalized a blood marker tied to Alzheimer’s in the mice. This marker, p-tau217, is used in humans to help diagnose the disease.

Can Alzheimer’s Disease Be Reversed in Humans?

To identify which aspects of the mouse findings might translate to human patients, researchers compared protein changes in the treated mice with databases of human Alzheimer’s brain tissue. They found 46 proteins that changed the same way in both human and mouse Alzheimer’s brains. All 46 returned to normal with P7C3-A20 treatment.

These proteins affect how cells handle stress, produce energy, and manage inflammation. The finding suggests potential drug targets for treating human Alzheimer’s.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/alzheimers-breakthrough-advanced-stage-mice-fully-recover-after-treatment-experimental-compound/

As ChatGPT and other large language models dazzle with increasingly human-like abilities, a fundamental question looms: could these systems ever become conscious? A theoretical paper published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews argues the answer is no for today’s digital systems—and possibly for any system built on the same computational assumptions. Still, the looming existential questions at the heart of this problem run deeper. This isn’t solely about processing power or algorithmic sophistication.

So, neuroscientists Borjan Milinkovic from Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience and Jaan Aru from the University of Tartu have developed a theoretical framework called “biological computationalism” that challenges how artificial intelligence research thinks about consciousness. By analyzing the computational principles underlying biological neural systems, from molecular dynamics to whole-brain activity, they identify specific physical features that digital computers fundamentally lack.

Their target is computational functionalism, the dominant view that consciousness arises from the right pattern of information processing, regardless of whether that processing happens in neurons, silicon chips, or any other medium. According to this perspective, replicate the algorithm and consciousness should follow. The researchers argue this assumption rests on a flawed understanding of how biological brains actually compute.

How Digital Systems Differ from Biological Brains

Modern computers separate memory from processing, software from hardware, algorithm from implementation. Digital systems store data in one physical location, manipulate it in another, and follow instructions from a third component, all connected by communication buses. This separation is deliberate, allowing programmers to write code without worrying about the underlying electronics.

“Brains operate at the interface of discrete and continuous domains,” the researchers explain in their paper. Unlike digital systems that represent everything through binary states, neural tissue implements computations directly through continuous physical processes—ion flows, membrane voltages, electric fields—that unfold in real time without symbolic mediation.

Take a single neuron receiving thousands of inputs from other cells. In artificial neural networks, this process gets reduced to a simple mathematical operation: multiply each input by a weight, sum them up, pass the result through a function. Real neurons do something far stranger. Their branching dendrites perform distributed computations through continuous electrical dynamics, generating local spikes that travel both toward and away from the cell body, detecting the order and timing of inputs in ways that digital systems cannot easily replicate.

Why Neurons Outperform Artificial Networks

The paper reviews research showing that dendritic action potentials enable a single biological neuron to perform computations comparable to those typically distributed across multi-layer artificial networks. These computations arise from the interplay between continuous membrane potentials and discrete spiking events—a hybrid mode fundamentally unavailable to systems that operate purely through discrete symbol manipulation.

This difference reaches beyond individual neurons. Milinkovic and Aru propose that biological brains exhibit what they call “scale inseparability,” where processes at different organizational levels continuously co-determine each other. Molecular events inside cells influence network dynamics spanning millions of neurons, while brain-wide oscillations simultaneously constrain what individual synapses can do. These scales cannot be cleanly separated.

Digital systems, by contrast, are designed around scale separation. An algorithm runs independently of the hardware implementing it. High-level programs compile down to machine code, which executes on circuits, which rely on transistor physics—but each level operates independently. Change the hardware and the algorithm remains functionally identical.

The Energy Problem That Shaped Consciousness

Energy scarcity drives this difference. Although the brain represents only 2% of body mass, it consumes roughly 20% of total metabolic output. Rather than requiring ever-more energy to handle increasingly complex tasks, the brain reuses computational work performed at one scale to guide computations at other scales. Continuous processes aggregate discrete events into more reliable signals, and these aggregated signals feed back to constrain the discrete events that generated them.

The researchers call this “hybrid computation”—computation that is simultaneously continuous and discrete, where the algorithm cannot be separated from its physical implementation because the physics is the algorithm. Information at one scale is essential for determining what can be computed at another scale, yet those scales continuously generate and constrain each other in bidirectional loops.

The paper examines one example at the molecular level. Protein Kinase A molecules inside neurons function as evidence accumulators, continuously integrating activity until reaching a threshold that triggers calcium surges—discrete events that propagate through neural networks. The apparently discrete calcium event depends on continuous accumulation of evidence at the subcellular level, creating a system where continuous and discrete processes are inseparable.

Electric fields provide another example. Neurons communicate not only through synapses—the discrete connection points between cells—but also through ephaptic coupling, where local electric fields modulate the excitability of neighboring neurons without direct contact. Research shows that weak endogenous fields of just a few millivolts per millimeter can synchronize neural firing and amplify oscillatory patterns. These continuous field effects shape when and how discrete spikes occur, while the discrete spikes generate the continuous fields.

Digital computers can simulate these processes by approximating continuous dynamics with very fine discrete time steps. But simulation is not the same as implementation. When a computer simulates water flowing through a pipe, the computer doesn’t get wet. The researchers argue that consciousness may depend on computations that must be implemented in continuous physical dynamics, not merely simulated through discrete approximations.

The paper draws on formal mathematical results to support this claim. Alfred Tarski proved that arithmetic over real numbers admits a complete decision procedure—every statement can be algorithmically resolved—while natural number arithmetic, the foundation of digital computers, is fundamentally incomplete. This contrast suggests that continuous computation may support forms of processing that are awkward or inefficient to reproduce in purely discrete systems, even if they remain computable in principle.

What Artificial Consciousness Would Actually Require

For artificial intelligence, the implications challenge the entire trajectory of the field. Large language models, neuromorphic chips, and even systems designed to mimic brain architecture all operate fundamentally as symbol manipulators on von Neumann hardware. They maintain the clean separation between algorithm and implementation that makes them programmable but may preclude the computational mode underlying consciousness.

The researchers don’t claim that only biological tissue can support consciousness. Rather, they outline three criteria any conscious artificial system would need to meet. First, hybrid computation combining continuous dynamics with discrete events governed by real physical time. Second, scale-inseparability with metabolic embedding, where energy constraints shape the computational architecture itself. Third, dynamico-structural co-determination, where the system continuously modifies its own physical structure.

The paper reviews some emerging technologies that hint at alternatives. Laboratory-grown neural cultures called DishBrains have shown remarkable sampling efficiency in control tasks compared to deep reinforcement learning baselines, despite containing only a few hundred thousand neurons. These systems leverage the intrinsic hybrid dynamics of biological matter. Researchers have also developed fluidic memristors that implement computations through ion transport in microchannels, creating history-dependent dynamics through chemistry rather than electronics.

These systems represent a fundamental departure from digital computation. They don’t separate algorithm from implementation. They don’t discretize time into processing steps. They don’t maintain clean boundaries between scales. They implement computations directly in continuous physical processes that unfold in real time, shaped by energy constraints and substrate properties.

Whether such systems could support consciousness remains an open question. But the theoretical framework makes clear that getting there would require abandoning the computer metaphor that has dominated both neuroscience and artificial intelligence for decades. Brains aren’t computers running clever software. They’re continuous physical systems that exploit hybrid dynamics and scale integration to perform computations that digital systems may be fundamentally incapable of replicating.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/what-makes-brains-conscious-that-computers-lack/

BlueBird Block-2, the largest commercial comms satellite for LEO to date, boasts a 223 sq m phased-array antenna to beam 4G/5G signals straight to unmodified smartphones.

India’s space agency delivered a festive triumph on Christmas Eve, executing a flawless LVM3 launch that propelled the heaviest foreign satellite ever from Indian soil into orbit.

The LVM3-M6 mission, dubbed “Bahubali” for its mighty 640-tonne liftoff mass, roared off the Second Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at precisely 08:54 IST on December 24, 2025.

Carrying AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird Block-2, a humongous 6.5-tonne communication satellite, this sixth operational flight marked Isro’s 101st orbital success and a commercial coup via NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).

Millions tuned into the live stream, witnessing the three-stage behemoth, two S200 solid boosters, L110 liquid core, and C25 cryogenic upper, deploy the payload into a 520-600 km Low Earth Orbit without a hitch.

Isro chief in his post-launch address said, “This marks a new milestone for India, with the heaviest satellite ever launched from Indian soil. LVM3 has continued its excellent track record, delivering an orbital performance with less than 2 km of dispersion, among the best in the global space arena.”

Revolutionary Payload Ushers Direct-to-Phone Broadband

BlueBird Block-2, the largest commercial comms satellite for LEO to date, boasts a 223 sq m phased-array antenna to beam 4G/5G signals straight to unmodified smartphones.

This direct-to-cell tech promises to connect remote Himalayas, vast oceans, and arid deserts, partnering with 50+ global mobile operators to bridge digital divides for billions.

US-based AST SpaceMobile hailed the deployment as a pivotal step in their constellation, rivaling Starlink with seamless broadband sans ground towers.

A miracle of precision engineering, LVM3 wraps up 2025 after Chandrayaan-3 and OneWeb batch launches in the past. Public galleries buzzed with cheers, as the rocket’s signature plume lit the Andhra Pradesh skies.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/isro-launches-heaviest-foreign-satellite-from-indian-soil-aboard-lvm3-2840862-2025-12-24

Astronomers just witnessed the aftermath of something rarely seen: a fresh dust cloud from a cosmic collision around a nearby star, and then another one appearing in nearly the same spot.

Twenty years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a mysterious point of light near the star Fomalhaut, about 25 light-years from Earth. Scientists named it Fomalhaut b and debated whether it was a dusty planet or something else entirely. Now, observations from 2023 reveal a second bright spot has appeared in nearly the same location, strongly supporting the collision explanation over the planet hypothesis.

Both objects are dust clouds generated by massive collisions between planetesimals, rocky bodies tens of kilometers across orbiting in Fomalhaut’s debris belt. The findings appear in the journal Science.

“Spotting a new light source in the dust belt around a star was surprising. We did not expect that at all,” said Jason Wang, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University. “Our primary hypothesis is that we saw two collisions of planetesimals — small rocky objects, like asteroids — over the last two decades.”

A Vanishing Act Solves a Two-Decade Mystery

Fomalhaut is a young star surrounded by a ring of rocky debris that resembles our solar system’s Kuiper Belt, just far more active. The first collision that created Fomalhaut cs1 (circumstellar source 1) happened before 2004, producing a cloud with about 10²⁰ grams of dust in total, with the tiniest grains doing most of the shining.

When researchers revisited Fomalhaut in September 2023, they found something unexpected. A new dust cloud, designated Fomalhaut cs2, had materialized at the inner edge of the debris belt. Meanwhile, the original cs1 could no longer be clearly detected, likely having faded and expanded beyond visibility as radiation from the star dispersed it into space.

“This is certainly the first time I’ve ever seen a point of light appear out of nowhere in an exoplanetary system,” said lead author Paul Kalas, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s absent in all of our previous Hubble images, which means that we just witnessed a violent collision between two massive objects and a huge debris cloud unlike anything in our own solar system today.”

Both dust clouds appeared within 8 degrees of each other on the debris ring. The research team calculated the probability of finding a second source this close to the first at only 10 percent.

Cosmic Demolition on a Massive Scale

Watching planetesimal collisions unfold in real time is extraordinarily rare. In our own solar system, astronomers have documented only a handful of similar events involving much smaller asteroid disruptions. The Fomalhaut collisions involve bodies potentially 30 kilometers in radius, roughly the size of large asteroids, producing dust masses nine orders of magnitude greater than anything observed near Earth.

“Collisions of planetesimals are extremely rare events, and this marks the first time we have seen one outside our solar system,” Wang said. “Studying planetesimal collisions is important for understanding how planets form.”

The research team estimates that maintaining Fomalhaut’s dusty ring requires about 22 million collision events like cs1 over the star’s 440-million-year lifetime. That translates to roughly one major impact every 20 years, though most collisions produce debris too faint for current telescopes to detect.

Each collision releases approximately 4 percent of the impacting bodies’ mass as tiny dust grains smaller than 3 micrometers. Radiation from the central star then pushes these particles outward at accelerating speeds, causing the clouds to expand and eventually fade below detection thresholds.

How Dust Clouds Disappear Into Space

The original cs1 cloud appeared to follow a normal orbit between 2004 and 2012 before suddenly accelerating outward. Researchers believe this happened when the expanding cloud became optically thin, allowing radiation to push on all the dust simultaneously rather than just the star-facing surface.

By 2013, cs1 was moving outward at nearly 12 kilometers per second—more than three times faster than its initial velocity. If that acceleration continued for another decade, the cloud would have traveled roughly 50 astronomical units farther from the star, becoming too faint to see.

Why Two Crashes Happened So Close Together

The spatial clustering of these collisions raises questions about whether they’re truly random. One possibility involves planetesimals scattered from an inner dust belt that Fomalhaut also hosts. Infrared observations have detected a misaligned intermediate belt centered at 94 astronomical units. However, the researchers note this belt’s geometry doesn’t align well with where the two dust clouds appeared, about 70 degrees away from the predicted intersection point.

Another explanation involves gravitational resonances with undiscovered planets. If Earth-mass worlds orbit within the debris field, they could trap planetesimals in specific orbital patterns, concentrating impacts in certain locations and creating collision hotspots.

The Fomalhaut system provides a window into the chaotic early histories of planetary systems. Our own solar system went through similar violent phases billions of years ago, grinding down larger bodies into the dust and debris we observe today. Catching these collisions as they happen around other stars helps astronomers understand how planetary systems evolve from dusty disks into stable configurations.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/hubble-telescope-captures-rare-double-collision/

Liver cells overwhelmed by dietary fat essentially forget how to be liver cells, according to research. Under chronic stress, they progressively shut down the genes that define their normal responsibilities and switch into a bare-bones survival mode. And these changes, the study shows, can signal elevated cancer risk years before any tumor appears.

Scientists at MIT and Harvard tracked this cellular transformation in real time, watching liver cells reprogram themselves over 15 months as mice consumed high-fat diets. The findings, published in Cell, reveal that the body’s short-term strategy for keeping liver cells alive under constant dietary assault creates conditions that make cancer far more likely down the road.

The discovery could reshape how doctors monitor the more than 33% of people globally who have metabolic liver disease. Instead of waiting for tumors to show up on scans, physicians might eventually use molecular fingerprints from liver biopsies to identify high-risk patients when cellular dysfunction first begins—potentially a decade or more before cancer develops.

The Cellular Trade-Off Nobody Wants

Consider a liver cell as an employee at a company who makes critical products for the entire organization. Under normal conditions, that employee handles hundreds of specialized tasks, processing nutrients, manufacturing proteins the body needs, cleaning up toxins.

But under relentless stress from excess dietary fat, that same employee faces an impossible choice: keep doing the specialized work that benefits the whole organization, or focus entirely on personal survival. The cells choose survival.

Stressed liver cells ramped down production of the proteins and enzymes that perform the liver’s signature jobs. They made less of the enzyme controlling ketogenesis (the process of converting fat into fuel for other organs) and the urea cycle (which handles nitrogen waste). They cut back on albumin and clotting factors, proteins the blood carries throughout the body.

At the same time, they activated an entirely different playbook. They switched on gene programs that resemble early liver development and cranked up proteins that block cell death. They increased certain cholesterol-making enzymes while decreasing the ketone-producing ones, even though both pathways work from the same raw materials.

After 15 months on high-fat diets, some mice spontaneously grew liver tumors without any genetic manipulation or cancer-causing chemicals. Those tumors showed even more extreme versions of the same cellular reprogramming.

Warning Signs That Appear First

Incredibly, the cancer-associated changes appeared long before actual tumors.

At just six months of dietary stress, liver cells already showed signs of preparing the ground for future problems. Specific regions of their DNA (ones that control genes involved in cell growth and cancer) became more accessible, like files that had been pulled from storage and placed on a desk, ready to be opened. These regions stayed poised for months until tumors eventually formed.

When researchers examined human liver tissue from patients at different stages of fatty liver disease, they found the same progression. People with early-stage disease already showed activation of genetic programs characteristic of liver tumors. More tellingly, the strength of these early signatures was linked to which patients developed hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common liver cancer, up to 15 years later.

The same gene programs appeared in liver cancers that arose from different causes: metabolic disease, viral hepatitis, and alcohol-related damage, suggesting common pathways through which diverse types of chronic injury may contribute to cancer formation.

One Enzyme Connects the Dots

Of all the changes the team documented, one enzyme stood out: HMGCS2. This protein normally runs the first critical step in ketogenesis, helping the liver convert fat breakdown products into ketone bodies that fuel the brain and muscles when food is scarce.

HMGCS2 levels dropped steadily as mice stayed on high-fat diets. When scientists created mice genetically engineered to lack this enzyme in liver cells, those animals showed dramatically accelerated cellular dysfunction. More critically, they were far more vulnerable to tumor formation when exposed to cancer-causing genetic changes.

In human patients, lower HMGCS2 in non-cancerous liver tissue linked to both worsening liver disease and higher risk of eventual cancer. The enzyme’s decline appears to be both a result of chronic stress and an accelerant of further problems. Without enough ketogenesis happening, metabolic intermediates may pile up and get shunted into processes that alter how genes are read and expressed, potentially helping explain how dietary stress rewires cellular behavior.

Molecular Switches That Tip the Balance

To figure out what controls this widespread cellular reprogramming, researchers built a computational tool that predicted which molecular master switches might be calling the shots.

Two proteins that control gene activity, SOX4 and RELB, emerged as key players. Normally quiet in adult liver, both became more active as metabolic disease worsened in mice and humans.

When scientists artificially boosted SOX4 in liver cells, it triggered many of the same changes seen during chronic dietary stress: cells activated fetal development programs, suppressed mature liver functions, and kept dividing even under conditions that would normally stop proliferation. Higher SOX4 and RELB in non-cancerous liver tissue was associated with worse outcomes in patients who eventually developed cancer.

From Research to Real-World Application

The findings point toward a fundamentally different approach to cancer prevention in high-risk patients. Rather than relying on imaging that spots tumors after they form, doctors might one day measure a panel of molecular markers –HMGCS2 levels, SOX4 and RELB activity, and specific gene program scores — to stratify patients by cancer risk.

Some existing treatments may already affect these pathways. Resmetirom, recently approved for metabolic liver disease with scarring, targets a molecular switch that the computational analysis flagged as important for these stress responses.

Of course, there is one big unanswered question. Can these cellular changes be reversed? Weight loss and newer medications like GLP-1 receptor agonists improve liver tissue appearance, but researchers don’t yet know if they erase the deeper molecular reprogramming that occurred during months or years of metabolic stress. The elevated cancer risk might linger even after the liver looks healthier.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/liver-cells-chronic-dietary-stress-cancer-warning-signs/

Meta’s decision to end its professional fact-checking program sparked a wave of criticism in the tech and media world. Critics warned that dropping expert oversight could erode trust and reliability in the digital information landscape, especially when profit-driven platforms are mostly left to police themselves.

What much of this debate has overlooked, however, is that today, AI large language models are increasingly used to write up news summaries, headlines and content that catch your attention long before traditional content moderation mechanisms can step in. The issue isn’t clear-cut cases of misinformation or harmful subject matter going unflagged in the absence of content moderation. What’s missing from the discussion is how ostensibly accurate information is selected, framed and emphasized in ways that can shape public perception.

Large language models gradually influence the way people form opinions by generating the information that chatbots and virtual assistants present to people over time. These models are now also being built into news sites, social media platforms and search services, making them the primary gateway to obtain information.

Studies show that large language models do more than simply pass along information. Their responses can subtly highlight certain viewpoints while minimizing others, often without users realizing it.

Communication Bias

My colleague, computer scientist Stefan Schmid, and I, a technology law and policy scholar, show in a forthcoming accepted paper in the journal Communications of the ACM that large language models exhibit communication bias. We found that they may have a tendency to highlight particular perspectives while omitting or diminishing others. Such bias can influence how users think or feel, regardless of whether the information presented is true or false.

Empirical research over the past few years has produced benchmark datasets that correlate model outputs with party positions before and during elections. They reveal variations in how current large language models deal with public content. Depending on the persona or context used in prompting large language models, current models subtly tilt toward particular positions – even when factual accuracy remains intact.

These shifts point to an emerging form of persona-based steerability – a model’s tendency to align its tone and emphasis with the perceived expectations of the user. For instance, when a user describes themselves as an environmental activist and another as a business owner, a model may answer the same question about a new climate law by emphasizing different, yet factually accurate, concerns for each of them. For example, the criticisms could be that the law does not go far enough in promoting environmental benefits and that the law imposes regulatory burdens and compliance costs.

Such alignment can easily be misread as flattery. The phenomenon is called sycophancy: Models effectively tell users what they want to hear. But while sycophancy is a symptom of user-model interaction, communication bias runs deeper. It reflects disparities in who designs and builds these systems, what datasets they draw from and which incentives drive their refinement. When a handful of developers dominate the large language model market and their systems consistently present some viewpoints more favorably than others, small differences in model behavior can scale into significant distortions in public communication.

What Regulation Can and Can’t Do

Modern society increasingly relies on large language models as the primary interface between people and information. Governments worldwide have launched policies to address concerns over AI bias. For instance, the European Union’s AI Act and the Digital Services Act attempt to impose transparency and accountability. But neither is designed to address the nuanced issue of communication bias in AI outputs.

Proponents of AI regulation often cite neutral AI as a goal, but true neutrality is often unattainable. AI systems reflect the biases embedded in their data, training and design, and attempts to regulate such bias often end up trading one flavor of bias for another.

And communication bias is not just about accuracy – it is about content generation and framing. Imagine asking an AI system a question about a contentious piece of legislation. The model’s answer is not only shaped by facts, but also by how those facts are presented, which sources are highlighted and the tone and viewpoint it adopts.

This means that the root of the bias problem is not merely in addressing biased training data or skewed outputs, but in the market structures that shape technology design in the first place. When only a few large language models have access to information, the risk of communication bias grows. Apart from regulation, then, effective bias mitigation requires safeguarding competition, user-driven accountability and regulatory openness to different ways of building and offering large language models.

Most regulations so far aim at banning harmful outputs after the technology’s deployment, or forcing companies to run audits before launch. Our analysis shows that while prelaunch checks and post-deployment oversight may catch the most glaring errors, they may be less effective at addressing subtle communication bias that emerges through user interactions.

Beyond AI regulation

It is tempting to expect that regulation can eliminate all biases in AI systems. In some instances, these policies can be helpful, but they tend to fail to address a deeper issue: the incentives that determine the technologies that communicate information to the public.

Our findings clarify that a more lasting solution lies in fostering competition, transparency and meaningful user participation, enabling consumers to play an active role in how companies design, test and deploy large language models.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/people-get-news-from-ai/

Four spacecraft working as a single virtual instrument are producing unprecedented images of the Sun and its outer atmosphere, revealing how the star’s corona transforms into the solar wind that fills our solar system. Less than a year after launch, NASA’s PUNCH mission has captured the Sun like never before, showing solar activity sweeping past the Moon and planets while tracking enormous space weather events as they race toward Earth.

The Southwest Research Institute-led mission uses four synchronized spacecraft spread 8,000 miles across to build wide-angle views impossible from any single vantage point. Since launching in March, PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) has documented massive coronal mass ejections, monitored a solar storm that lit up American skies with auroras in November, and discovered an unexpected talent for tracking comets invisible to other telescopes.

“PUNCH imaging gives us a unique view on the pageantry of the planets and reveals the grandeur of our Sun in the cosmos,” said Dr. Craig DeForest, PUNCH mission principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute. “Seeing solar activity sweeping across the moon, planets and even passing comets gives us a sense of place in our solar system. It reminds me of the impact of the blue marble image of the Apollo era, though PUNCH data is more of a golden fishbowl view of our neighborhood in the cosmos. We live here.”

DeForest presented the mission’s accomplishments during a media roundtable at the AGU25 conference on December 16.

Creating an Earth-Sized Virtual Telescope

The four spacecraft orbit Earth along the day-night boundary, positioned to maintain an unobstructed view of the Sun at all times. Three satellites carry Wide Field Imagers developed by SwRI to observe the extremely faint outermost portions of the Sun’s corona and solar wind. A fourth spacecraft hosts a coronagraph called the Narrow Field Imager, provided by the Naval Research Laboratory, which blocks direct sunlight to capture details in the Sun’s atmosphere.

Each camera snaps three polarized images every four minutes and an unpolarized calibration image every eight minutes. Ground processing stitches these individual views into seamless mosaics spanning up to 45 degrees from the Sun in all directions.

Getting clear images of the solar wind requires extraordinary engineering. Deep baffles inside the wide-field cameras reduce direct sunlight by more than 16 orders of magnitude, comparable to the ratio between a human’s mass and a cold virus. Additional processing removes the background starfield, eliminating over 99% of the light in each frame to reveal the faint glow of solar particles streaming through space.

“PUNCH will make the invisible visible,” DeForest said when the mission launched. “Deep baffles in our wide-field imagers reduce direct sunlight by over 16 orders of magnitude or a factor of 10 million billion — the ratio between the mass of a human and the mass of a cold virus. Then state-of-the-art processing on the ground removes the background starfield, over 99% of the light in each image, to reveal the extremely faint glimmer of the solar wind.”

Tracking Space Weather Violence

PUNCH arrived just in time to witness major solar activity. The mission captured a massive coronal mass ejection in early November that triggered colorful auroras across the United States.

“PUNCH can actually show us directly the violence of space weather as clouds of electrons cross the solar system,” DeForest said. “Viewing the corona and solar wind as a single system provides a big-picture perspective essential to helping scientists better understand and predict space weather. This forecasting is critical to protecting astronauts, space satellites and electric grid technology from these events.”

By tracking these solar storms in three dimensions, PUNCH could give forecasters a clearer picture of when and how space weather will impact Earth. The mission’s polarized imaging helps scientists discern the exact trajectory and speed of coronal mass ejections as they move through the inner solar system, improving on current instruments that only measure the corona itself.

Bonus Science: Tracking Invisible Comets

Beyond its primary mission of imaging the Sun, PUNCH has proven remarkably adept at studying comets. The spacecraft tracked the third identified interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it traveled through the inner solar system during a period when bright sunlight rendered it invisible to other telescopes and space assets.

PUNCH also monitored Comet SWAN with unprecedented frequency from August 25 to October 2, capturing clear images every four minutes for nearly 40 days. That continuous observation may represent the longest continuous observation of a comet to date. The mission continues monitoring Comet Lemmon, which made its closest approach to Earth on October 21.

“We’ve discovered some incredible bonus science that PUNCH performs, tracking comets and other objects,” DeForest said. “We were able to track the third identified interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it traveled through the inner solar system while bright sunlight rendered it invisible to other telescopes and space assets.”

How the Mission Operates

After launch on March 11, the spacecraft began a 90-day commissioning phase. By August 7, all four had maneuvered into their final science orbits. SwRI’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado, leads the mission and operates all four spacecraft. The Science Operations Center began sharing data publicly through NASA’s Solar Data Analysis Center in June 2025.

The mission complements observations from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, STEREO, SOHO, and the NASA/European Space Agency Solar Orbiter, which examine the corona at smaller scales and from different vantage points. Together, these missions provide scientists with the most complete view of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and solar wind ever assembled.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/satellites-capture-sun-photos/

Leafhoppers, insects smaller than your thumbnail, have been mastering the art of staying hidden for millions of years. They coat themselves with microscopic particles that work like nature’s own invisibility cloak, making them harder to spot by cutting down the telltale glints that would otherwise give them away to predators.

Now, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have figured out how to manufacture these biological anti-glare devices in their lab. The breakthrough could lead to everything from better light-handling surfaces for energy tech to improved military camouflage.

The secret weapon is a collection of hollow, soccer ball-shaped particles called brochosomes. Each one ranges from hundreds of nanometers to a couple micrometers across and contains precisely arranged holes that scatter light in ways that dramatically reduce reflective glints.

Nature’s Four-Stage Assembly Line

Leafhoppers manufacture these “invisibility” particles inside specialized organs through a process that puts human factories to shame. The insects start by creating protein clusters near cellular structures, then develop them into surface-bumped packages wrapped in tiny cellular membranes. These evolve into fully formed hollow spheres as their cores dissolve away.

The finished brochosomes range from 250 nanometers to 2.5 micrometers across. Their surfaces sport pentagon and hexagon patterns reminiscent of soccer balls, with holes measuring 50 nanometers to 1 micrometer in diameter.

Mechanical engineering professor Tak-Sing Wong and graduate student Jinsol Choi developed their artificial version based on a key insight: molecules with both water-loving and water-avoiding parts can self-assemble into these patterns. In the lab, they tune that balance using block copolymers.

Microfluidics Meets Molecular Engineering

The team’s breakthrough, published in ACS Nano, came from mimicking nature’s process using entirely artificial materials. Their microfluidic system creates tiny droplets containing dissolved polymers suspended in surfactant-treated water. As the solvent evaporates, surface tension forces guide the polymers into the same soccer ball structures found on real leafhoppers.

By adjusting the molecular weight and water-attraction properties of their synthetic polymers, the researchers can dial in specific particle shapes and pore patterns. Lower surface tension produces the pentagon and hexagon holes that match natural brochosomes. Higher surface tension creates circular pores instead.

Through systematic testing of 11 different polymer recipes, the team mapped exactly which molecular ingredients produce which brochosome designs. Success requires polymers with 10 to 23 percent water-loving molecular sections and molecular weights below 235 kilograms per mole, parameters that closely match the proteins found in actual leafhopper brochosomes.

Manufacturing Speed That Defies Belief

The system’s production rate reaches more than 100,000 synthetic brochosomes per second—several orders of magnitude faster than traditional nanofabrication methods while maintaining precise control over size and shape.

The synthetic particles successfully replicated five distinct natural brochosome designs from different leafhopper species. Sizes ranged from 390 nanometers to 2 micrometers, with holes between 30 and 130 nanometers across. Optical tests confirmed the artificial versions matched their natural counterparts in dramatically reducing unwanted reflections across ultraviolet and visible light.

When applied to transparent surfaces, the synthetic brochosomes reduced reflective glare by 80 to 96 percent across the visible spectrum. This performance matches or beats the anti-reflective properties measured on actual leafhopper wings.

Beyond Stealth Applications

While military camouflage grabs headlines, the technology’s potential extends far beyond warfare. Some energy devices could benefit from coatings that waste less light, but that would need dedicated testing. The authors also point to biomedicine, including drug delivery, as a possible direction. That’s still a next-step idea, not something this study tested.

The manufacturing approach might also work for creating artificial versions of other biological systems, ranging from viruses to pollen grains, as the researchers noted in their paper.

Medical researchers could potentially exploit the particles’ unique geometry for various applications. The combination of controllable size, shape, and surface properties opens doors to applications not yet imagined.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/scientists-reverse-engineer-bugs-invisibility-cloak/

Astronomers have discovered a strange lemon-shaped planet that doesn’t make sense. A Jupiter-sized world orbiting a dead star has an atmosphere whose spectrum is dominated by carbon molecules, with a composition so extreme it has left scientists searching for an explanation of how such an object could form.

PSR J2322-2650b (the strange planet) circles a pulsar (the ultra-dense, rapidly spinning core left behind after a massive star explodes) every 7.8 hours. The pulsar blasts it with gamma rays, a form of high-energy radiation higher-energy than X-rays, that likely heat the atmosphere to temperatures reaching 1,900 Kelvin (about 2,960 degrees Fahrenheit).

Using the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the entire orbit, researchers found molecular carbon dominating the spectrum so completely that oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen (elements typically abundant in planetary atmospheres) appear strongly depleted or weren’t clearly detected.

The carbon-to-oxygen ratio exceeds 100. The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio tops 10,000. No known planet orbiting a normal star, and no current theory about how pulsar companions form, can explain these numbers.

“The planet orbits a star that’s completely bizarre — the mass of the Sun, but the size of a city,” explained the University of Chicago’s Michael Zhang, the principal investigator on this study, in a statement. “This is a new type of planet atmosphere that nobody has ever seen before.”

An Atmosphere Built From Carbon Chains

When light passes through the planet’s atmosphere, different molecules absorb specific colors. By analyzing which colors are missing, astronomers can identify what molecules are present. In this case, the spectrum revealed molecules rarely seen in planetary atmospheres: C3 (three carbon atoms bonded together) and C2 (two carbon atoms).

These carbon chains absorbed light at specific wavelengths (particular colors in the infrared, invisible to human eyes). C3 showed up as a sudden drop at 3.014 microns, in the infrared beyond human vision. C2 created a sawtooth pattern between 2.45 and 2.85 microns. Additional absorption features suggested the presence of carbon-hydrogen bonds, though the exact molecules remain uncertain.

To understand how unusual this is, consider what should happen in a hot atmosphere. Carbon and oxygen atoms strongly prefer to bond together, forming carbon monoxide. The only way to have more molecular carbon than carbon monoxide is if carbon outnumbers oxygen by huge amounts—in this case, by more than 2,000 to one. Similarly, carbon and nitrogen should bond together unless carbon outnumbers nitrogen by more than 10,000 to one.

“The extreme carbon enrichment poses a severe challenge to the current understanding of ‘black-widow’ companions, which were expected to consist of a wider range of elements due to their origins as stripped stellar cores,” the researchers wrote.

How Black Widows Form, And Why This One Breaks the Rules

Black widow systems get their name from spiders that eat their mates. In space, a pulsar slowly destroys its companion star. The pulsar’s intense radiation and gravitational pull tear away the star’s outer layers, eventually leaving behind a small, dense remnant.

This process should produce an object made mostly of helium if the stripping happens early enough, before the star begins converting helium into carbon in its core through nuclear fusion. The remnant should contain whatever elements existed in the star’s core at that moment, typically a mix of helium, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in moderate ratios.

PSR J2322-2650b doesn’t fit this picture. The researchers explored alternative explanations, each with its own problems.

Some rare stars show elevated carbon levels, with carbon-to-oxygen ratios reaching 12 to 81. While higher than typical stars, these values still fall far short of what this planet displays.

Other aging stars convert helium into carbon through a nuclear process, creating what astronomers call “carbon stars.” These reach carbon-to-oxygen ratios of only several. They produce carbon-rich dust in their outflows, offering another potential carbon source. However, the mechanism for concentrating that dust into a Jupiter-mass planet with such extreme ratios remains unclear.

In one illustrative model, the planet consists mostly of helium with roughly 1% carbon by mass in its interior. A planet made entirely of carbon would be much smaller and denser than what observations show—about one-third Jupiter’s radius instead of roughly matching it. But if the planet is mostly helium inside, what process concentrated so much carbon in the atmosphere we can see?

Gamma-Ray Heat and Westward Winds

The planet’s heating differs from anything seen on worlds orbiting normal stars. Gamma rays likely penetrate deep into the atmosphere instead of warming just the surface layers the way visible sunlight does on Earth.

In the models, these high-energy photons deposit their energy at a depth where the pressure reaches about 10 bars—roughly 10 times the air pressure at sea level on Earth. This deep heating drives the planet’s wind patterns differently than on normal hot Jupiters (giant planets orbiting close to their stars).

The researchers tracked how the planet’s light shifted to bluer or redder wavelengths as it moved toward or away from Earth in its orbit. From these measurements, they determined the planet orbits at a tilt of 31 degrees (imagine tilting a hula hoop from flat by about one-third of a right angle) and has a mass between 1.4 and 2.4 times Jupiter’s mass.

The temperature structure shows dramatic day-night contrasts. The nightside maintains a relatively uniform 900 Kelvin (about 1,160 degrees Fahrenheit) with a smooth spectrum, suggesting either consistent temperature throughout that side or a thick cloud deck blocking our view. The dayside reaches 2,300 Kelvin (about 3,680 degrees Fahrenheit) at its hottest points.

Surprisingly, the hottest spot doesn’t line up with the point facing the pulsar. Instead, the temperature peak appears shifted westward by about 12 degrees, indicating powerful winds blowing opposite to the planet’s rotation direction.

Computer models of rapidly rotating planets predict exactly this behavior. Most hot Jupiters orbiting normal stars have winds flowing eastward around their equators, like a jet stream. But when a planet spins faster than once every 10 hours or so, the pattern flips. Westward winds dominate away from the equator. PSR J2322-2650b offers strong evidence consistent with this predicted pattern.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/unprecedented-lemon-shaped-planet-found/

A young woman starts to become suspicious of her cellphone. She notices it listing Wi-Fi networks she does not recognize, and the photos on her contact cards seem to mysteriously change at random times. One day she tries to make a call and just hears static on the line. She begins to think that someone – or an entire organization – has hacked her phone or placed spyware in it, and she wonders what crime she is being framed for.

Built-in laptop webcams, unfamiliar Wi-Fi networks, targeted ads on search engines and personalized algorithms on social media sites: Most people have come to accept and ignore the quirks and drawbacks of daily contact with the internet and devices such as cellphones and computers. But for people with severe mental illness, new technologies are fertile ground for the start of false ideas that can lead eventually to a break with reality.

Psychiatrists like me help people who are bothered by their thoughts, behaviors or emotional states. For the past 10 years I’ve been working closely with people who have schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia, sometimes referred to as a type of thought disorder, is a chronic condition in which alterations in brain function change the way one perceives the world. People with schizophrenia can become hyperaware of their surroundings, often interpreting things they see or hear as being hostile and directed toward them even when there’s no real danger.

Over time, people with schizophrenia can develop delusions: beliefs that are fully held even though they are not based in reality and even when there is evidence to the contrary.

With technology and the internet now such an integral part of daily life, it’s no wonder that people with schizophrenia have incorporated new technologies into their delusional beliefs. In my recent research, my colleagues and I set out to explore the ways modern tech influences the content of delusions for people today.

Old Delusional Themes Expressed in New Ways

Most delusions are persecutory, meaning a person believes they are being watched, followed or monitored. Other delusional forms involve the belief that a person has special powers, is being controlled by outside forces, or that a spouse is unfaithful even when they are not.

Prior research has shown that these themes are consistent among people with schizophrenia, but the sociopolitical context in which a person lives shapes the form in which they are expressed.

For example, Americans living during World War II developed persecutory delusions involving Germans, while those living during the Cold War focused on communists. People with thought disorders have incorporated important events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the O.J. Simpson trial into delusional frameworks.

The past three decades have seen incredible strides in technological advances and easy access to the internet. How have these old themes become repackaged and expressed in the digital age?

For this research, my colleagues and I reviewed medical records of 228 people with thought disorders who participated in a specialized day treatment program between 2016 and 2024.

We identified any mention of delusional thought content and examined the ways in which these beliefs incorporated new technology. We also analyzed the data to see whether certain people were more likely to express delusions tied to technology, or if there was a change in the frequency of these delusions over time.

Delusions of Persecution via Common Tech

Over half of our study’s participants mentioned new technology or the internet when describing delusional beliefs. Most commonly, people felt they were being persecuted via their electronics – that their Wi-Fi networks, computers or cellphones had been hacked or implanted with tracking devices. One person reported believing that neighbors had access to their Wi-Fi network and were monitoring their activities, while another worried that family members had put tracking devices on their phone.

About a quarter of participants reported delusional beliefs surrounding social media. For example, people believed that celebrities were communicating with them directly through social media posts, that they were receiving encoded messages through suggested playlists, or that social media algorithms were linked directly to their thoughts.

Some participants felt they were being monitored through hidden cameras or microphones implanted in their homes or even in their bodies. Several reported what’s known as the “Truman Show delusion” – the belief that their lives are staged and recorded, their daily activities broadcast as a reality TV show.

With each passing year of the 21st century, we found participants were significantly more likely to express delusions connected to technology.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/hacked-phones-and-wi-fi-surveillance-schizophrenia-delusions/

Alzheimer’s trials testing Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO), blockbuster GLP-1 drug semaglutide, despite their failure, underscore a shift to approaching the brain-wasting disease as a system of complex pathways, much the way the field of cancer therapeutics has been transformed in recent years, experts say.
Just two drugs are approved to slow Alzheimer’s – Eli Lilly’s (LLY.N), Kisunla and Leqembi from Eisai (4523.T), and Biogen (BIIB.O). Both were shown to delay disease progression by around 30% by removing toxic amyloid plaques from the brain, but progress is being made to identify other targets and strategies for arresting the disease.

Globally, over 55 million people have dementia, with about 60% of those cases caused by Alzheimer’s, defined by the presence of amyloid and tau proteins in the brain.
“All the diseases of aging, they all require combination therapy,” said Howard Fillit of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, one of the experts at a recent Alzheimer’s disease meeting who discussed the research shift. “Just targeting one pathway isn’t going to be enough.”
Blood and genetic tests to accurately identify biomarkers of the disease are becoming available, but most diagnoses require a spinal tap or expensive PET scan. Not all patients are likely to benefit equally from anti-amyloid treatments.

Some studies suggest Black patients may have more than one type of disease and treating amyloid alone may not be enough. Other analyses have shown that men do better than women, as do patients with lower levels of tau.

Studies are expected to show that patients treated earlier, in the course of the disease fare better than those who already have cognitive impairment.

MOVE TO TAILORED TREATMENT

Cancer treatment, which once consisted of one-size-fits-all chemotherapy to kill fast-growing cells, has mushroomed into a wide range of drugs targeting specific genetic mutations and other precise signatures of malignant cells in addition to immunotherapies.
David Watson, CEO of the Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment Center, said current research “is like oncology 20 years ago… It’s super exciting.” He cited advances in detecting blood biomarkers for tau, amyloid and other signatures of the disease, as well as the genetic underpinnings of Alzheimer’s, as reasons for optimism.

Novo’s results “underscored a critical shift toward the next era of drug development, which will target the many interrelated biological drivers of this complex disease,” Fillit said.
Oral semaglutide provided no cognitive benefit for people with early Alzheimer’s, but Novo in March will provide full trial details, including a likely breakdown of patient characteristics that could yield clues for others.
“We want to see more potential subgroup analyses,” including how people treated earlier in the course of the disease fared, said Dawn Brooks, head of neurodegeneration development at Eli Lilly.
Lilly, which makes top-selling GLP-1 tirzepitide, sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound, is “still watching” whether the class has a role in Alzheimer’s, Brooks said. But the Indianapolis-based company’s current GLP-1 brain-health program is focused on alcohol and tobacco use disorders.

Kisunla and Leqembi, which need to be closely monitored due to the danger of brain swelling, are being tested in people with Alzheimer’s who do not yet have symptoms. The Kisunla study is due first, in 2027, and Lilly has signaled interim results could come earlier.

DRUGS WITH MULTIPLE TARGETS

Brooks said Lilly’s focus is on improving access to current treatments, but the field is moving quickly, including development of drugs that target tau.
“One of the other areas to watch is going to be this idea of co-pathologies or mixed dementia,” Brooks said. Many patients have more than one type of dementia and may need multiple treatments.

Biogen (BIIB.O), will have data next year on a novel drug targeting tau. Other tau drugs, including a program recently cancelled by Johnson & Johnson, (JNJ.N), have failed.
Roche (ROG.S), recently launched late-stage trials of its drug trontinemab, which links an amyloid antibody to a “brain shuttle” allowing it to cross the blood-brain barrier, unlike Kisunla or Leqembi.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/alzheimers-drug-hunt-learns-cancer-fights-multi-target-playbook-2025-12-12/

Around 200 children in several countries were conceived with sperm from a single donor who unknowingly carried a rare genetic mutation linked to early onset cancers, it has been revealed. The consequences have been devastating. Several children have already died and many families across Europe are now facing a risk they never expected.

The case has prompted urgent questions. How was one donor used so widely? Why did standard safeguards fail to identify a mutation that can have such severe consequences? And how did a system created to create families allow a tragedy of this scale?

When someone donates sperm or eggs they are screened for a set of common inherited conditions before being accepted by a clinic. The exact process varies by country and it has limitations. Screening depends heavily on accurate family history, yet many people have incomplete information about their relatives.

Some conditions emerge later in adulthood, which means a young donor may appear healthy. Clinics also focus primarily on established, higher frequency conditions rather than the vast number of rare variants that exist.

Ordinarily, donors complete a detailed questionnaire covering their medical background and their family’s health history. If the information suggests a possible inherited risk, the donor may be offered further testing or, more commonly, they may be declined.

More recently, clinics have begun to use expanded genetic screening. These tests can examine hundreds of genes linked to childhood or early adulthood conditions.

However, the technology is still developing and cannot detect every possible disease-causing variant. Many rare mutations are not part of routine panels, either because they have only recently been identified or because the evidence base is still small.

That context matters in this case. The donor had no family history of the condition and showed no symptoms. A person can carry a harmful mutation without being affected themselves, so nothing in his medical history raised concerns. The newer, broader screening was not used, but even if it had been, the variant is so rare that it may not have been included or detectable.

The donor provided sperm to the European Sperm Bank in Denmark for around 17 years. His donations were used to create roughly 200 children across multiple European countries, although experts say the true number could be higher.

This scale was possible because there is no international law limiting how widely donor sperm can be distributed. Many countries have rules on how many families can be created from a single donor.

The United Kingdom, for instance, permits no more than ten families. These limits, however, apply only within national borders. A donor can be used in several countries without any system to flag that the overall number has far exceeded what any one country would allow.

A recent unrelated case showed how extreme this can become. A different donor was found to have fathered around 1,000 children in several countries. There were no known health issues in that situation, but it revealed how donor use can expand rapidly without oversight.

The challenges in the current case are profound. Families are dealing with grief and uncertainty. Some have lost children. Others face a very high likelihood that their child will develop cancer before the age of 60, often in infancy or childhood.

There has been little public discussion about the sperm donor himself, although the emotional impact of learning these outcomes is likely to be significant.

Because the mutation was so rare, additional routine testing would probably not have prevented what happened. In truth, every person carries some genetic variants that remain undetected and harmless in everyday life.

There have been earlier examples of donors unknowingly passing on inherited conditions, such as cystic fibrosis or fragile X syndrome, but those cases typically involved far fewer families. What makes this case stand out is the sheer number of children affected.

For this reason, simply calling for more screening is unlikely to be the full answer. The more pressing issue is the lack of limits and monitoring on how many families can be created from one donor across borders.

In this case, families were created in several countries and in some places even the national limits were breached. Belgium, for example, permits only six families per donor, yet reports indicate that about 38 families were created.

What is needed is a robust system for tracking and tracing donor use both within and between countries. Without coordinated oversight, national limits are easily bypassed. Establishing international upper limits will be difficult and politically complex, but the conversation has to begin if further tragedies are to be prevented.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/one-donor-200-children-mutation/

A fledgling social media platform has asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel trademarks for Twitter so it can take them for itself, contending that billionaire Elon Musk’s X Corp has abandoned them.
The Virginia-based startup, Operation Bluebird, said in its December 2 petition, opens new tab that it wants to be allowed to use “Twitter” and “tweet” for a rival social media platform called “twitter.new.” It also filed an application, opens new tab to trademark “Twitter.”

The petition was filed by Stephen Coates, a former trademark lawyer at Twitter who now serves as Operation Bluebird’s general counsel and runs a small law firm.
Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion and rebranded the site to X. Operation Bluebird’s filings contend that X has “eradicated” the Twitter brand from its products, services and marketing.
Musk in 2023 said in a post on X that the company would “bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Coates in a statement called the matter “straightforward” after X allegedly stopped using the Twitter trademark commercially.

“X legally abandoned the TWITTER mark,” Coates said.
The rebranded X does not feature Twitter’s famous blue bird logo, and the platform has migrated from twitter.com, opens new tab to x.com. X Corp’s 2023 renewal registration, opens new tab for the Twitter trademark was approved last year.
Josh Gerben, an intellectual property lawyer who is not involved in the dispute, said X would face obstacles defending its ownership of the trademarks if the company no longer uses them. But he said X could try to block Operation Bluebird’s commercial use of the Twitter name even if the cancellation is successful.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-startup-seeks-reclaim-twitter-trademarks-abandoned-by-musks-x-2025-12-08/

Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato, has hinted at a new venture called ‘Temple,’ aimed at brain health.

Zomato founder and Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal has teased the launch of his next big venture, ‘Temple’, a mysterious new product focused on brain health. Sharing a brief teaser on X, Goyal wrote, “Coming soon. Follow @temple for more updates.”

Imagine this: with just one phone number you have the ability to look at everyone’s location, sometimes even live location in real-time, complete with details like full name, address and father’s name. This is no joke because a rogue website called ProxyEarth is allowing just that.

If you have wondered just how much tracking is possible with just a phone number, you don’t have to wonder anymore: you can just head to ProxyEarth, a rogue website set up by one Rakesh. It is also an example of just what is possible when someone gets into the telecom infrastructure, or when telecom infrastructure is left insecure.

There is a website called ProxyEarth that is leaking location details, including possibly live location, of phone users in India. All you have to do is put in the phone number into the website, and the website reveals details. Sometimes, using triangulation data from telecom towers, it even reveals the live location of a phone user. It is eerily accurate, and scary in its scope.

The website that surfaced a few days ago — we wrote about it here and here — is still live and can be accessed without any hitch. Once on the website, all you have to do is put in a phone number and it fetches details like full name, father’s name, address of the user, alternate number, email ID and other details. The data is fetched from telecom records which we all have supplied to Airtel, Jio, Voda and others while buying the SIM card. In some cases this data is old. But for most users seeing their details available in public like this will come as a huge shock.

India Today earlier even managed to speak to the person who has made the website. The person who has made the website goes by name Rakesh, and he is apparently a programmer and a video editor. He also likely runs a few websites hawking pirated material. He told India Today that he was not doing anything wrong by setting ProxyEarth because he was simply using the data that was already publicly available on internet due to various data leaks. As for the motivation behind creating such a website, Rakesh said: “I am using this website as a platform to attract traffic and to advertise my other products.”

While we have seen again and again private details of Indians leaking on the web, the current one seems particularly scary. This is because the kind of data that is available can easily be used to then create elaborate financial scams. This, of course, in addition to the complete loss of privacy that one suffers when details like father’s name and residential addresses leak on the web.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/with-just-one-phone-number-proxyearth-is-showing-location-personal-details-of-all-indians-2830677-2025-12-04

EXPERTS are warning Americans about a possible geomagnetic storm that could disrupt power across the country.

The massive solar eruption may affect power grids, satellites, and communication issues across the US.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued the alert early Wednesday, citing vigorous geomagnetic activity that’s expected to continue through Thursday.

Geomagnetic storms are caused by solar particles interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field.

When the particles interact, the forces can generate additional electrical charge through power lines and pipelines.

The bolt of electricity can cause brief voltage fluctuations.

The storms are the result of a powerful solar flare that occurred on November 30, according to the Daily Mail.

The solar flare led to a coronal mass ejection headed towards Earth at 1.4 million miles per hour.

The strongest currents are expected to hit the Upper Midwest and into the Northeast, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

Not only will the geomagnetic storms impact power grids, but Americans will also have the rare chance to witness the Northern Lights, also called the Aurora Borealis.

Those in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan will be able to see the lights fill the night sky.

Even those living on the East Coast in Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, and Maine will have the chance to see the aurora.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tech/15586947/solar-flare-sun-eruption-geomagnetic-storm/

Gemini 3 Pro version is available for everyone but those using it with a free account will have lower limits for Nano Banana Pro and prompts.

The Gemini 3 Pro AI model is getting new limits for those using it without paying for the subscription. Yes, Google has put new restrictions on the number of images or queries the free users can ask for the latest Gemini version. This was rather unavoidable and giving a lot of access with the free account was going to be a challenge, and surely not something the company would want to advocate for in the long run.

So why are these limits being changed and how does it affect the Gemini 3 Pro AI free users in all markets? Here’s a quick look at how the terms have been revised.

Gemini 3 Pro Free Users Have New Limits

Going by multiple reports, the Gemini 3 Pro free limit extends to Nano Banana Pro as well as the prompts you can send to the AI model. The new Gemini version was announced last month when you could send up to 5 prompts to Gemini and generate/edit 3 images per day with the Nano Banana Pro model.

So why are the limits being put for the free users? Google probably feels that Gemini 3 Pro already has a higher demand than the 2.5 Pro version, so allowing the paid users to get their set of extended access makes more sense and gives them better value.

Having said that, free users can continue to use the original Nano Banana AI model and create up to 100 images in a day but without any access to the video generation tool.

Source : https://www.news18.com/tech/google-is-bringing-new-limits-for-gemini-3-pro-free-users-heres-why-9742169.html

WhatsApp bot support for AI assistants have made ChatGPT, Copilot and other options easily available to billions.

WhatsApp is blocking access for third-party AI assistants from January 2026 and Microsoft is the latest tech giant to confirm the news about its Copilot assistant to exit the messaging app in a few months from now.

AI chatbots have operated like WhatsApp bots for a while, ChatGPT being the other popular option, but all these companies will have to disable the feature thanks to the change in policies by Meta that will be coming into effect from January 15, 2026. Copilot is basically Microsoft’s ChatGPT AI chatbot that lets you ask queries, generate images and search the internet when needed.

Copilot Bites The WhatsApp Dust

Meta has noticed that most of the Businesses using its app API have devised ways to integrate their AI assistant that serves the general users.

The company has now changed the rules by stopping these companies from building their AI assistant bots and making them available on WhatsApp. Meta has clearly stated in its new rules that any bot operating primarily as an AI assistant will not be allowed to run through the messaging app.

This is a big jolt for ChatGPT and Perplexity among others who have offered their WhatsApp bots to make the features widely available. And you can add Microsoft to that roster, and the company is making sure that users can continue using the AI chatbot on mobile, web and PC without any glitches.

WhatsApp Copilot Chats: Save Them

Elon Musk has promised to fix the mess around people’s timeline on X and he is now relying on Grok AI to make it better

Update your X app and get the new Following tab timeline organised by Grok AI chatbot, as confirmed by X Chief Elon Musk in a post on Thursday. The platform has been working behind the scenes to change the way the timeline algorithm works and it seems Musk has finally resorted to AI’s expertise to fix the Following tab mess that many people have complained about.

X Following Timeline Update With Grok: What’s New?

Apple Inc has taken a bold enough step to stand against the antitrust penalty law of India and incurred a risk of $38 billion in fines. Here’s everything you need to know about the story.

Apple Inc, one of the most popular smartphone makers in the world, are contesting India’s new antitrust penalty law under which the Cupertino-based tech giant could face up a fine of up to $38 billion, as per a court filing in Delhi High Court, seen by Reuters. This comes as the first challenge against the antitrust penalty law that suggests that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) can use global turnover of a company to calxulate the penalties it imposes on them for abusing their market positioning and dominance.

For those who are unaware, since 2022, Indian startups, Tinder-owner Match and others have been trapped in an antitrust battle with Apple at CCI where the investigators published a report saying the tech giant has engaged in abusive conduct on the apps market of its iPhone Operating System, popularly known as iOS.

As of now, Apple has denied all the wrongdoing and CCI’s final decision is pending in the case that will levy any penalty on the company. The Cupertino giant has asked the judged to declare as the 2024 law illegal that lets the CCI to use global turnover to impose a fine on a company. The company has submitted a 545-page court filing that is not available in public domain currently.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/apple-challenges-indias-antitrust-penalty-law-with-a-risk-of-38-billion-fine-heres-what-happened-article-153210462

Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope discovered three unusual astronomical objects in early 2025, which may be examples of dark stars. The concept of dark stars has existed for some time and could alter scientists’ understanding of how ordinary stars form. However, their name is somewhat misleading.

“Dark stars” is one of those unfortunate names that, on the surface, does not accurately describe the objects it represents. Dark stars are not exactly stars, and they are certainly not dark.

Still, the name captures the essence of this phenomenon. The “dark” in the name refers not to how bright these objects are, but to the process that makes them shine — driven by a mysterious substance called dark matter. The sheer size of these objects makes it difficult to classify them as stars.

As a physicist, I’ve been fascinated by dark matter, and I’ve been trying to find a way to see its traces using particle accelerators. I’m curious whether dark stars could provide an alternative method to find dark matter.

What Makes Dark Matter Dark?

Dark matter, which makes up approximately 27% of the universe but cannot be directly observed, is a key idea behind the phenomenon of dark stars. Astrophysicists have studied this mysterious substance for nearly a century, yet we haven’t seen any direct evidence of it besides its gravitational effects. So, what makes dark matter dark?

Humans primarily observe the universe by detecting electromagnetic waves emitted by or reflected off various objects. For instance, the Moon is visible to the naked eye because it reflects sunlight. Atoms on the Moon’s surface absorb photons – the particles of light – sent from the Sun, causing electrons within atoms to move and send some of that light toward us.

More advanced telescopes detect electromagnetic waves beyond the visible spectrum, such as ultraviolet, infrared or radio waves. They use the same principle: Electrically charged components of atoms react to these electromagnetic waves. But how can they detect a substance – dark matter – that not only has no electric charge but also has no electrically charged components?

Although scientists don’t know the exact nature of dark matter, many models suggest that it is made up of electrically neutral particles – those without an electric charge. This trait makes it impossible to observe dark matter in the same way that we observe ordinary matter.

Dark matter is thought to be made of particles that are their own antiparticles. Antiparticles are the “mirror” versions of particles. They have the same mass but opposite electric charge and other properties. When a particle encounters its antiparticle, the two annihilate each other in a burst of energy.

If dark matter particles are their own antiparticles, they would annihilate upon colliding with each other, potentially releasing large amounts of energy. Scientists predict that this process plays a key role in the formation of dark stars, as long as the density of dark matter particles inside these stars is sufficiently high. The dark matter density determines how often dark matter particles encounter, and annihilate, each other. If the dark matter density inside dark stars is high, they would annihilate frequently.

What Makes a Dark Star Shine?

The concept of dark stars stems from a fundamental yet unresolved question in astrophysics: How do stars form? In the widely accepted view, clouds of primordial hydrogen and helium — the chemical elements formed in the first minutes after the Big Bang, approximately 13.8 billion years ago — collapsed under gravity. They heated up and initiated nuclear fusion, which formed heavier elements from the hydrogen and helium. This process led to the formation of the first generation of stars.

In the standard view of star formation, dark matter is seen as a passive element that merely exerts a gravitational pull on everything around it, including primordial hydrogen and helium. But what if dark matter had a more active role in the process? That’s exactly the question a group of astrophysicists raised in 2008.

In the dense environment of the early universe, dark matter particles would collide with, and annihilate, each other, releasing energy in the process. This energy could heat the hydrogen and helium gas, preventing it from further collapse and delaying, or even preventing, the typical ignition of nuclear fusion.

The outcome would be a starlike object — but one powered by dark matter heating instead of fusion. Unlike regular stars, these dark stars might live much longer because they would continue to shine as long as they attracted dark matter. This trait would make them distinct from ordinary stars, as their cooler temperature would result in lower emissions of various particles.

Can We Observe Dark Stars?

Several unique characteristics help astronomers identify potential dark stars. First, these objects must be very old. As the universe expands, the frequency of light coming from objects far away from Earth decreases, shifting toward the infrared end of the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning it gets “redshifted.” The oldest objects appear the most redshifted to observers.

Since dark stars form from primordial hydrogen and helium, they are expected to contain little to no heavier elements, such as oxygen. They would be very large and cooler on the surface, yet highly luminous because their size — and the surface area emitting light — compensates for their lower surface brightness.

They are also expected to be enormous, with radii of about tens of astronomical units — a cosmic distance measurement equal to the average distance between Earth and the Sun. Some supermassive dark stars are theorized to reach masses of roughly 10,000 to 10 million times that of the Sun, depending on how much dark matter and hydrogen or helium gas they can accumulate during their growth.

So, have astronomers observed dark stars? Possibly. Data from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed some very high-redshift objects that seem brighter — and possibly more massive — than what scientists expect of typical early galaxies or stars. These results have led some researchers to propose that dark stars might explain these objects.

In particular, a recent study analyzing James Webb Space Telescope data identified three candidates consistent with supermassive dark star models. Researchers looked at how much helium these objects contained to identify them. Since it is dark matter annihilation that heats up those dark stars, rather than nuclear fusion turning helium into heavier elements, dark stars should have more helium.

The researchers highlight that one of these objects indeed exhibited a potential “smoking gun” helium absorption signature: a far higher helium abundance than one would expect in typical early galaxies.

Dark Stars May Explain Early Black Holes

What happens when a dark star runs out of dark matter? It depends on the size of the dark star. For the lightest dark stars, the depletion of dark matter would mean gravity compresses the remaining hydrogen, igniting nuclear fusion. In this case, the dark star would eventually become an ordinary star, so some stars may have begun as dark stars.

Supermassive dark stars are even more intriguing. At the end of their lifespan, a dead supermassive dark star would collapse directly into a black hole. This black hole could start the formation of a supermassive black hole, like the kind astronomers observe at the centers of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.

Dark stars might also explain how supermassive black holes formed in the early universe. They could shed light on some unique black holes observed by astronomers. For example, a black hole in the galaxy UHZ-1 has a mass approaching 10 million solar masses, and is very old – it formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. Traditional models struggle to explain how such massive black holes could form so quickly.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/dark-stars-illuminate-the-early-universe/

Alphabet’s Google and venture capital firm Accel will partner to fund at least 10 early-stage Indian AI startups, marking the U.S. technology giant’s first such funding partnership, top executives at the companies said on Thursday.

The move comes as several U.S. tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon and OpenAI make a beeline for the world’s most populous nation, seen as a critical growth market where nearly a billion users access the internet.

Under the partnership, Google’s AI Futures Fund and Accel will co-invest up to $2 million in each startup, Prayank Swaroop, partner at Accel, told Reuters in an interview, with the investments focussed on the wide areas of entertainment, creativity, work and coding.

The announcement comes after Google in October said it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up an AI data centre in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, its biggest-ever investment in the country.

Its AI Futures Fund, launched six months ago, has funded over 30 companies, including Indian webtoon startup Toonsutra and U.S.-based legal-tech firm Harvey. Google has also teamed up with India’s largest telecom operator Reliance Jio to provide free access to Gemini AI for 505 million users.

“We firmly believe that the founders in India, they are going to be playing a leading role in defining that next era of global technology,” Jonathan Silber, co-founder and director of Google’s AI Futures Fund, said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/google-accel-partner-back-indian-ai-startups-5488261

According to the EY India’s report, GCCs are applying GenAI where it matters most — enhancing customer service (65 per cent), followed by finance (53 per cent), operations (49 per cent), IT and cybersecurity (45 per cent). Business intelligence adoption has increased to 86 per cent from 80 per cent last year, while data strategy has risen to 67 per cent from 51 per cent.

India-based global capability centres (GCCs) have moved from AI experimentation to enterprise-scale adoption, with 58 per cent of centres currently investing in Agentic AI and another 29 per cent planning to scale over the next year, a report said on Sunday.

About 83 per cent of GCCs are already investing in GenAI, where pilots have increased from 37 per cent last year to 43 per cent as of 2025.

According to the EY India’s report, GCCs are applying GenAI where it matters most — enhancing customer service (65 per cent), followed by finance (53 per cent), operations (49 per cent), IT and cybersecurity (45 per cent).

Business intelligence adoption has increased to 86 per cent from 80 per cent last year, while data strategy has risen to 67 per cent from 51 per cent.

Meanwhile, according to the report, two-thirds of GCCs (67 per cent) are creating dedicated innovation teams and incubation programs to generate, test and globalise ideas from India.

“Global enterprises are rethinking how they run their operations. They want simpler models, tighter oversight and a place where AI, data and risk teams can operate in sync. Our survey shows that this shift is well underway at GCCs in India,” said Manoj Marwah, Partner and GCC Sector Leader – Financial Services, EY India.

The combination of talent, cross-functional maturity and a rapidly advancing AI ecosystem gives global firms something they can’t easily build elsewhere. The GCCs we set up now are poised to operate as decision centres shaping enterprise strategy around risk, new products, digital transformation and more, he added.

As per the report, GCCs in the nation are becoming key collaborators in global decision-making, with over half of India’s centres (52 per cent) holding shared accountability for global decisions, while another 26 per cent are formally consulted.

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/tech/india-gccs-shift-from-ai-pilots-to-large-scale-adoption-with-strong-push-for-agentic-ai-in-2025

CERT-In has issued a security alert for Google Chrome users, urging immediate updates for Windows, macOS, and Linux due to severe vulnerabilities identified as CVE-2025-13223 and CVE-2025-13224.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a fresh security alert for Google Chrome users, advising immediate updates across Windows, macOS, and Linux. The warning comes after multiple high-risk vulnerabilities were discovered in the browser, raising concerns about potential remote attacks. If you rely on Chrome for your daily browsing, work or banking, this is one alert you shouldn’t ignore. Here’s everything you need to know about the newly flagged threat and what action you should take.

Ahead of the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, the company outlined a series of initiatives focused on shielding users from sophisticated scams, strengthening enterprise cybersecurity, and building inclusive, equitable AI models suited for India and the Global South.

Google on Thursday said that it is developing safe and trusted Artificial Intelligence as part of a broader effort to protect vulnerable users in India, emphasising that safety must serve as the foundation for transformational AI.

Ahead of the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, the company outlined a series of initiatives focused on shielding users from sophisticated scams, strengthening enterprise cybersecurity, and building inclusive, equitable AI models suited for India and the Global South.

The India-AI Impact Summit 2026, announced by India at the France AI Action Summit and scheduled for February 19-20 in New Delhi, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.

Highlighting the growing threat of digital arrest scams, screen-sharing fraud and voice cloning, Google said its approach centres on protections that are “faster than the scammer” and built directly into everyday technology. The company is rolling out real-time scam detection on Pixel phones, powered by Gemini Nano, which analyses suspicious calls on-device without recording audio. A new pilot with Google Pay, Navi and PayTM alerts users if they open financial apps while screen-sharing with an unknown contact, offering one-tap options to exit safely.

Google Play Protect has blocked over 115 million attempted installations of high-risk sideloaded apps in India, while Google Pay issues over 1 million weekly warnings for fraudulent transactions. Google is also pioneering Enhanced Phone Number Verification, replacing SMS OTPs with a secure SIM-based check to strengthen sign-ins.

To counter deepfakes, Google is expanding access to SynthID, its AI watermarking tool, to partners such as PTI, Jagran and India Today. On the cybersecurity front, Google introduced CodeMender, an AI agent that autonomously identifies and patches vulnerabilities.

The company is also investing in large-scale digital literacy efforts. Programs like LEO, Super Searchers, and senior-focused DigiKavach campaigns aim to equip millions with the skills to identify online risks. Through Google.org’s APAC Digital Futures Fund, the CyberPeace Foundation will receive USD 200,000 to strengthen AI-driven cyber-defence tools.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/google-developing-safe-trusted-ai-to-protect-vulnerable-users-in-india-9673160

MOSS has survived nine months exposed to outer space, giving hope it can help develop ecosystems for human life on Mars.

The plant even made it back to Earth after the experiment and was still capable of reproducing.

Researchers calculated it could have lasted for up to 15 years in conditions in which most living organisms cannot survive even briefly.

Its durability was confirmed during tests on the International Space Station.

Spores from a plant called spreading earthmoss were transported to the vessel in 2022.

There it was attached to the outside for 283 days before being returned to Earth in January 2023, with more than 80 per cent of the sample surviving.

They predicted that the encased spores could have survived for up to 5,600 days under space conditions.

But the team emphasised that this number is just a rough estimate, and that much more data is needed to make more realistic predictions.

They hope that their work helps advance research on the potential of extraterrestrial soils for facilitating plant growth.

Researcher Prof Tomomichi Fujita struck on the idea of testing the moss in space after seeing it survive in some of the harshest environments on Earth — but still expected none to last.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tech/15525233/moss-survives-space-scientists-astonished-humans-live-mars/

GOOGLE has launched its next-gen Nano Banana Pro AI bot that makes any image you can dream up – and it’s free.

And a Google insider has shared its brainy new tricks with The Sun, and even teased what’s next for the clever AI.

Earlier this year, Google’s Gemini AI chatbot added a new feature called Nano Banana.

It allowed users to create stunningly lifelike images, as well as craft pics using consistent characters – including your own face, or a pal’s.

Now Google is using its upgraded Gemini 3 Pro tech to offer a new image-maker called Nano Banana Pro and it has some big advantages, including properly displaying text.

LOOKING GOOG

“It’s much better at rendering text than any of our models have been before,” said Google’s Nicole Brichtova, speaking to The Sun.

Getting written text right has been a major bug-bear for AI bots.

A telltale sign of AI images has been scrambled words that don’t make sense or use letters that don’t exist.

But not only can Nano Banana Pro do text right, it can also help you out on holiday.

“It can also do that in more than 10 languages,” Nicole, the product lead for Image & Video at Google DeepMind, explained.

“So if you have a poster that’s in English, and you now want to localise it into Spanish, the model will keep the visual the same.

“And the font and the style and everything, but it will actually just translate the text into Spanish.”

The original Nano Banana became a hit, allowing users to restore old photos or turn themselves into action figures.

But it still struggled with text, which meant that it couldn’t create detailed text-heavy images.

Now Google says that the new model is good enough that you could create entire infographics – a major help for youngsters at school or uni.

“You can be like: ‘give me an infographic about how the pyramids were built that’s suitable for a 10-year-old’,” Nicole told us.

“And the model will adapt the content to that audience.”

It’s not just education either: sports fans can take advantage of it.

That’s because Google’s Nano Banana Pro can tap into up-to-date information via Google.

“The model can also tap into search’s knowledge database,” Nicole said.

“So if you want fresh, like ‘give me an infographic about the latest sports game for my favourite team’, you can now get that individual format.”

Nicole continued: “You can make your own comic book as well.

“You provide an image of yourself and then specify what you want to be.

“I just did a superhero one for myself because why not? And then you can get a full comic book that you can skip through.”

But it’s not just text that Google’s new AI image maker is better at.

FACE FIRST

Google says that the new Pro version is much better at keeping faces consistent across images – and with more people too.

“So Nano Banana took three images as input that you can compose into a new piece of content,” Nicole told The Sun.

“This model takes 14 – and the 14 is up to five actual characters or people.

“So you can keep five people consistent, and then you have other references, like their headphones, or a table, or plants or the background.

“And then you compose all of those elements into a new scene.”

On top of that, you can also be more specific about how you want your image files to be.

That means you can choose resolutions or the shape of images to fit your needs.

“We’re also now offering 2K and 4K resolution, up from one,” Nicole told us.

“So just sharper detail, which has been one of the top-requested features that we’ve had from Nano Banana.

“And we also offer a wide range of aspect ratios.”

NEXT UP

Google told us that there’s no word limit for the amount of text you can demand from a Nano Banana Pro image.

But Nicole warned that if you serve up page-length text, the small size of the font might start to create issues.

“And it’s really very, very small text where we still have some headroom to push on improving the model,” she added.

That’s not the only upgrade that Google is hoping to deliver in the future either.

Millions of office workers across the land spend hours crafting slide decks on apps like Google Sheets, Microsoft Powerpoint or Apple’s Keynote.

But Nicole said that Nano Banana Pro is getting very close to being able to take a lot of that work on itself.

However, despite its powerful AI brain, there’s still one issue that hasn’t been resolved yet.

“People have made full slide decks with this model internally,” Nicole said.

“If you look at it with a very critical design eye, you might still want a little more continuity.

“But single slides, it can absolutely do. With some work, you can absolutely make an entire slide deck.

“And then I think the next phase, which is not on this model, would also be able to edit the content.

“Because if you make a slide deck, you want to be able to edit the text, right?

“The output that you get from the model is pixels. And so you will get an image that you’re not able to edit. And so I think next up is being able to do that.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tech/15522269/google-nano-banana-pro-gemini-3-image-maker-app/

This initial rollout marks a major technological leap, which officials have likened to an upgrade from ‘3G to 5G’ in telecommunications technology

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has ushered in a new era for Indian travellers, launching the nationwide issuance of e-passports to significantly enhance security standards and expedite global travel. This transformation is part of the upgraded Passport Seva Programme (PSP) Version 2.0, which integrates cutting-edge technology into the nation’s travel documentation system.

The core of the new document is an embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip and antenna, compliant with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards, which securely stores the holder’s personal and biometric data. This information is digitally signed using Public Key Infrastructure, making the passport highly resistant to forgery, tampering, and fraudulent duplication, addressing a crucial security challenge.

This ambitious programme has rapidly gained traction. According to MEA officials, the government has already issued over 80 lakh e-passports domestically as of May 2025, with an additional 60,000 issued through Indian missions abroad. This initial rollout marks a major technological leap, which officials have likened to an upgrade from “3G to 5G” in telecommunications technology. The e-passport, visually identifiable by a small gold-coloured symbol on the front cover, facilitates faster and smoother immigration clearance at international e-gates and automated border control systems, supporting a global “trusted traveller programme”.

Source: https://www.news18.com/tech/digital-signature-global-access-every-indian-to-have-e-passport-by-2035-with-80-lakh-issued-so-far-9716498.html

Elon Musk has introduced X Chat, a messaging platform within X, designed to prioritise user privacy and security. It features end-to-end encryption for messages and file sharing, as well as disappearing messages.

Elon Musk has officially launched X Chat, a new messaging platform integrated within the social media site X. This new service aims to provide a privacy-focused alternative to established messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Arattai. X Chat is designed to enhance user communication while prioritising data security and user privacy. Here’s everything you need to know about this.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules 2025, established by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, initiate the full implementation of India’s first comprehensive data law.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has introduced the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules 2025 or DODP Rules 2025. It marks the initiation of full operations of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, hailed as India’s first comprehensive data law. It revolves around protecting digital data and setting out obligations of entities handling this data and rights and duties of the individuals.
The DPDP Rules 2025 offer a consent-based system in order to protect the personal data of people using social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or ecommerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon, or any digital payments application.
The main focus here is to make sure that the users know how their data is used so that they can have more control over the same. Under the new ruled, platforms and companies found mishandling the fata will face heavy penalties comprising up to Rs 250 crores for serious failures of data protection. All the apps and companies that collect data as of now have been asked to comply with all the rules in 18 months, after which, they can incur a fine.

The law mainly works on two things – Data Principals and Data Fiduciary. Starting with Data Fiduciary, it is a company or individual that determines why the data is being processed and how that processing will be carried out. On the other hand, the Data Principal is the individual to whom the data belongs or the person whose information is being collected and stored.

The tiny bird covered an astonishing 3,100 kilometres in just 76 hours, an aerial marathon that saw him slice across central India, glide past Gujarat, and skim out over the Arabian Sea.

Three new aerial travellers are rewriting the limits of endurance in the natural world.

On November 11 2025, wildlife scientists tagged three Amur Falcons, Apapang (an adult male), Alang (a young female), and Ahu (an adult female), as part of the Manipur Amur Falcon Tracking Project (Phase 2) led by the Wildlife Institute of India. Within days, one of them has already emerged as the season’s breakout performer.

Apapang, wearing the orange track on the satellite map, has surprised even veteran trackers. Barely 150 grams in weight, he launched into an extraordinary non-stop flight soon after tagging.

In just 76 hours, he has covered an astonishing 3,100 kilometres, an aerial marathon that saw him slice across central India, glide past Gujarat, and skim out over the Arabian Sea.

With favourable easterly tailwinds boosting his speed, Apapang has been averaging nearly 1,000 kilometres a day, a pace that places him among the fastest migrating raptors on the planet.

But the real test is only beginning.

Along with Alang (yellow track) and Ahu (red track), Apapang is now attempting the most dangerous segment of the Amur Falcon’s annual migration: a nonstop 6,000-kilometre oceanic crossing from India to Somalia.

With no place to rest, feed, or retreat, the Arabian Sea becomes a vast gamble of energy, endurance, and favourable weather. Only a handful of migratory species undertake such long, uninterrupted flights, and the Amur Falcon is among the smallest of them.

Their journey began in the dense forests and farmlands of Manipur, a crucial stopover site where thousands of Amur Falcons refuel each winter during their journey from East Asia to southern Africa.

Once victims of rampant hunting, the birds are now part of a celebrated community-led conservation success story. Manipur’s villages have transformed into guardians of the species, turning falcon season into a symbol of coexistence and pride.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/flying-1000-km-per-day-tiny-indian-falcon-stuns-scientists-with-marathon-flight-2821069-2025-11-17

The images, captured by the Mars Express orbiter, reveal the volcano’s southeast flank with hundreds of overlapping lava flows.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has shared stunning images of the foot of Mars’ giant volcano, Olympus Mons, which stands at an impressive 27 km high and has a base over 600 km wide, making it the largest volcano in our solar system – more than twice the height of Mauna Kea on Earth.

The images shared by the astronauts on Instagram show frozen rivers of lava which flowed down Olympus Mons.

See the images here:

Olympus Mons was first discovered by NASA’s Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1971. Initially, scientists believed it to be a mountain, but subsequent missions revealed its true nature.

It is believed that Olympus Mons was formed around 3.5 billion years ago, during Mars’ early geological period. The volcano is considered dormant, with no recent eruptions. Its gentle slopes and lack of impact craters suggest a relatively young surface, shaped by lava flows.

The images, captured by the Mars Express orbiter, reveal the volcano’s southeast flank with hundreds of overlapping lava flows, steep cliffs and traces of ancient collapse.

As per the ESA, the scarp, which is a cliff up to 9 km high, encircles the entire volcano, formed by huge landslides that sent debris hundreds of kilometres away.

“The lava flows – now solid rock – once streamed down the volcano’s slopes, spreading into wide fans and carving channels and tubes as they cooled. Some ended in smooth, rounded “tongues” before reaching the plains,” wrote ESA in the social media post.

The space agency further mentioned a “horseshoe-shaped channel” may once have carried lava, as well as water, in the lower plains. It hints at a more complex past.

“With only a few small craters, this surface is geologically young – perhaps just tens of millions of years old – a blink in Mars’ 4.6-billion-year history,” said ESA.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/science/astronauts-share-images-of-volcano-on-mars-reveal-stunning-details-of-frozen-lava-rivers-9643713?pfrom=home-ndtv_lateststories

The Google Pixel 10, priced around Rs 80,000, features a triple rear camera setup but with reduced sensor capabilities compared to its predecessor. For those seeking alternatives, five noteworthy options are highlighted.

Researchers have built a computer that performs complex AI calculations in a single pass of light, completing what today’s fastest AI chips need multiple steps to accomplish. The breakthrough promises substantial gains in parallelism and energy efficiency for AI computations.

The system, called parallel optical matrix-matrix multiplication or POMMM, performs complex mathematical operations by encoding data into laser beams and letting physics do the work. Published in Nature Photonics, the technology executes an entire matrix multiplication (the core calculation in AI neural networks) through a single propagation of coherent light. No waiting for sequential processing. Just light passing through optical elements, minimizing data movement during the core computation.

Why Light Beats Electronics for AI Calculations

The research team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Aalto University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences notes that current optical computing methods struggle with tensor-based tasks because they require multiple light propagations for each operation. POMMM collapses that entire sequence into a single instant.

When a GPU multiplies two matrices together, it performs thousands or millions of individual calculations in sequence. It reads values from memory, multiplies them, adds results and writes back to storage. Each step takes time. Each data movement consumes energy.

POMMM takes a different approach. It encodes one matrix into the amplitude and position of a spatial optical field, applies distinct phase patterns to different rows of data, then uses cylindrical lenses to perform optical Fourier transforms. These transforms naturally separate and combine the calculations simultaneously.

Testing showed the optical system produces results matching GPU computations with high consistency. Across matrix sizes ranging from 10×10 to 50×50 elements, POMMM maintained low average error that closely matched GPU results. The calculations happened during a single pass of light through the optical system.

Optical Hardware Runs Real Neural Networks

For practical AI applications, the researchers demonstrated POMMM running actual neural networks originally designed for GPUs. Their experimental prototype processed convolutional neural networks for image recognition, achieving 94.44% accuracy on handwritten digit classification and 84.11% on clothing item recognition. Vision transformer models showed similar performance. These tests used neural network weights trained on GPUs and deployed directly to the optical system.

The physics enabling this advantage comes from properties of light understood for over a century but not previously combined this way for computing. POMMM exploits two key properties of Fourier transforms: moving a signal in space doesn’t alter its frequency spectrum, and applying phase modulation shifts the spatial frequency. By encoding different rows of a matrix with different phase gradients, then performing optical transforms in perpendicular directions, the system makes all the partial products naturally separate into distinct spatial locations where a camera captures them simultaneously.

Inside the Speed-of-Light Computer

The experimental prototype uses spatial light modulators to encode input matrices onto a 532-nanometer laser beam, cylindrical lens assemblies to perform the parallel optical transforms and a high-resolution quantitative CMOS camera to record results. The core calculation happens during a single pass of light through the optical elements. The speed of the modulators and camera determines overall throughput.

Taking this further, the team demonstrated wavelength multiplexing for processing higher-dimensional data. By encoding the real and imaginary parts of a complex matrix onto two different laser wavelengths (540 and 550 nanometers), they performed complete complex-valued calculations in parallel. This wavelength-multiplexing capability points toward processing three-dimensional tensors—the multidimensional data arrays common in modern deep learning—through single-shot operations across multiple colors of light simultaneously.

Energy Efficiency and Future Potential

Theoretical analysis suggests POMMM’s single-propagation architecture could outperform existing optical computing paradigms by multiple orders of magnitude in both computational parallelism and energy efficiency, particularly when implemented with purpose-built photonic hardware rather than off-the-shelf components.

“Imagine you’re a customs officer who must inspect every parcel through multiple machines with different functions and then sort them into the right bins,” says lead author Dr. Yufeng Zhang, from the Photonics Group at Aalto University’s Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, in a statement. “Normally, you’d process each parcel one by one. Our optical computing method merges all parcels and all machines together — we create multiple ‘optical hooks’ that connect each input to its correct output. With just one operation, one pass of light, all inspections and sorting happen instantly and in parallel.”

The work addresses a critical bottleneck in modern AI hardware. Neural networks generate massive data movement between processors and memory, and today’s GPU tensor cores spend substantial time and energy shuttling information back and forth. Optical computing performs calculations through physical light propagation rather than electronic data transfer, potentially reducing memory bandwidth limitations.

Current challenges include the complexity of cascading multiple optical layers for deep neural networks and the precision required in aligning optical components. The researchers found that training neural networks with POMMM-specific error characteristics can compensate for some hardware imperfections, though physical implementation still demands careful engineering.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/new-system-performs-ai-calculations-in-single-flash/

Getting into your phone can be very tricky if you do not remember your PIN, pattern, or password. However, there are some ways in which you can try to get back into your phone, and some methods require giving up all your data. Let us dive into all the options you have to regain control over your phone once again.

Many a times, we forget our smartphone’s PIN, pattern or password. This usually happens when a phone is left abandoned for a long time. Even though fingerprint or face unlock has been registered, the smartphone will ask for additional authentication for added security.

Getting into your phone can be very tricky if you don not remember your PIN, pattern, or password. However, there are some ways in which you can try to get back into your phone, and some require giving up all your data. Let us dive us into all the options you have

Use Extend Lock

Android’s Extend Unlock feature is a temporary solution to get into your phone and backup all your data. Extend Unlock lets you bypass the lock screen when your phone is on your home Wi-Fi or any of the selected locations you’ve pre-approved earlier. The problem is, that Extend Unlock should have been setup earlier, and if not, then this solution is not for you.

But if you have, then you can simply take your phone to your trusted preset location, and you should automatically be able to enter into your phone without a PIN, pattern, or password.

If you haven’t already, go to Settings, search for Extend Unlock, and setup your trusted places. You can also turn on on on-body detection, which essentially keeps it unlocked while in motion. The latter could be risky, if the phone is ever stolen, so we recommend just sticking to places.

Also, the problem with this solution is that it will let you enter the smartphone, but won’t help in chaning the PIN, pattern, or password that you have forgotten. Therefore, you will need to backup all your data if you have gotten in once using Extend Unlock. Furthermore, if you restart your phone, then this feature won’t work.

Factory Reset

Plato’s legend of Atlantis has come to life once again, with archaeologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences having just discovered “traces of a submerged city” destroyed by a devastating 15th-century earthquake underneath Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issyk Kul, the eighth deepest lake in the world.

The city at the flooded Toru-Aygyr complex, which lies near the lake’s northwest point, has now been excavated by the explorers, who surveyed four underwater zones at shallow depths ranging from 3 to 13 feet around the lake’s shoreline.

There, they found a wealth of everyday items that painted the picture of a once-thriving metropolis or “large commercial agglomeration.” Discoveries included multiple fired brick structures (one contained a millstone, which was used to crush and grind grain), caved-in stone structures and wooden beams.

In one of the zones, archaeologists also believe they’ve found what was once a public building that could have served as a mosque, bathhouse or school, also called a “madressa.”

In the three others, remnants of some kind of burial ground, a 13th-century Muslim necropolis — a large cemetery typically belonging to an ancient city — and mudbrick structures in round and rectangular shapes were also discovered.

There were also burials found that showed evidence of traditional Islamic rituals, with the skeletons facing north. Their faces are turned toward the qibla, the direction Muslims face during their daily prayers.

“All this confirms that an ancient city really once stood here,” a representative from the Russian Geographical Society (who funded the expedition), told the Daily Mail.

The lost Toru-Aygyr settlement sat on a major section of the historical culture-accelerating Silk Road, where merchants would trade silk, spices and precious metals — not to mention thoughts and ideas — between China and the Mediterranean from the second century BC to the mid-15th century.

Experts believe the complex once thrived but went under when a “terrible earthquake” hit near the start of the 15th century, Valery Kolchenko, the lead expeditionist and a researcher at the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, shared with the Daily Mail.

Luckily, Kolchenko and his colleagues believe that the area was abandoned by residents before the natural disaster.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/11/14/science/archeologists-discover-an-atlantis-like-metropolis-at-the-bottom-of-a-lake/

Ever had a persistent, nagging cough that just wouldn’t go away? You may have had a small piece of food stuck in your airway. It may sound like a rare occurrence, but plenty of people deal with this issue, as these objects are essentially invisible on a standard X-ray. Now, relevant research suggests AI can help catch these tricky cases earlier.

Published in Digital Medicine, a research team in Wuhan, China, trained a system to spot subtle signs of a radiolucent foreign body on routine chest CT scans. In a head-to-head test, the AI found about twice as many true cases as experienced radiologists, while still keeping solid precision. That’s a big difference. Missing a foreign body means weeks of symptoms and repeated misdiagnoses.

Why ‘Invisible’ Objects Get Missed

Foreign body aspiration happens when something you swallow goes down the “wrong pipe” and lodges in your lower airway. Dense items like metal show up clearly on imaging. Common food fragments and plant material often do not. Doctors rely on symptoms, history, and CT scans, yet radiolucent objects can hide in plain sight.

Prior clinical reviews have found that a large share of adult airway foreign bodies are invisible to X-rays, that many patients are misdiagnosed at first, and that the illness can drag on for months before the real problem is identified. That delay is rough: cough, chest discomfort, repeated infections, and time away from work or daily life.

What The Team Built

The researchers combined two steps:

1. Map the airways: a tool called MedpSeg draws a detailed 3D map of the bronchial tree from the CT. Think of it like tracing a city’s roads before looking for traffic jams.
2. Take many “snapshots”: the system then captures 12 different views of that 3D map and feeds them to a compact image classifier (ResNet-18). Looking from several angles helps the model pick up small blockages that could be easy to miss when scrolling through slices one by one.

All of this runs on standard CT data. No special scanner protocol is required. After a quick preprocessing step to keep image quality consistent, the software segments the airway, generates the 12 views, and makes a yes/no call: likely foreign body vs no foreign body.

AI vs. Radiologists: By The Numbers

In an independent test at a separate hospital, the AI and three board-certified thoracic radiologists read the same 70 cases without seeing bronchoscopy results. The AI showed higher recall: it correctly identified about 71% of true foreign bodies, compared with about 36% for the human readers. The AI’s overall balance of correctness—the F1 score—was also higher. Precision told a different story. The radiologists did not call any false positives, while the AI kept precision in the high-70s. In plain terms, the humans were very cautious and missed more true cases, and the AI caught many more but was willing to raise a few extra flags.

That is exactly what you want from a second reader. You would rather get a careful nudge to take a closer look than send someone home with an object still lodged in the airway.

How Artificial Intelligence Could Be Used In Clinics

Today, if an X-ray does not give answers, doctors look to a CT scan. The challenge is that radiolucent objects blend in. The AI is not meant to replace expertise. It is designed as a support tool that highlights suspicious spots so a clinician can decide whether a bronchoscopy, the definitive look with a camera, is worthwhile. Earlier bronchoscopy can shorten the long, frustrating path many patients travel: cough, antibiotics, repeat visits, and only then the true cause.

Since the system analyzes standard CTs, it could fit into existing workflows. For example, run in the background, flag a case, and let a radiologist or pulmonologist make the final call. This is most helpful in settings without a specialized chest radiologist or when a second opinion would be useful.

Across three different datasets used for development and testing, the model’s accuracy hovered around 90% or better. The independent test (the toughest one) matters most for real-world trust. There, the AI’s recall advantage and higher F1 score compared with experts suggest it can reduce missed cases. Precision was a bit lower than the radiologists’ perfect score, yet still strong. In practical terms, a few more false alarms are the price of catching more real problems, and a scoped exam can settle the question safely.

What’s Next?

Every study has limits, and this one was no different. To start, the data came from three hospitals in one city. Testing across many regions and scanner types would have resulted in a more universally applicable dataset. The study was retrospective, which is common early on, but future work should be prospective and multi-centered. The system also reads images alone. Adding basic clinical clues—like sudden choking, voice changes, or how long the cough has lasted—might make it even smarter. Finally, CT scans use radiation. That is acceptable for diagnosis, yet it is not a screening tool, especially for children.

Young children are more likely to put objects in their mouths. Many older adults have trouble swallowing. Both groups are at higher risk for aspiration and delayed diagnosis. Hospitals that do not have a dedicated thoracic radiologist could also benefit from an extra set of (digital) eyes. Even large centers may want a second reader for tricky cases or after-hours coverage.

The Bottom Line For Patients And Families

No one should have to wait months to figure out a nagging cough is being caused by a stuck bone fragment. This study showed an AI approach that doubled the catch rate compared with routine expert reads in a blinded test via everyday CT scans. To be clear, doctors still make the final call. The aim here is faster answers and fewer misses.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/ai-catches-hidden-airway-foreign-bodies/

Public WiFi networks offer convenience but pose significant security risks, according to Google. The tech giant warns users to avoid connecting their devices to public networks found in cafes, airports, and hotels, as they can be exploited by attackers to access sensitive information like banking details.

Public WiFis are nothing less than a convenience in today’s day and age. Who would not love to get free internet on the go without worrying about anything? But, the main question is that are these public WiFi networks are safe enough to keep your personal devices connected to them. Well, Google doesn’t think so, and the latest warning by the tech giant is proof of it. Google has issued a warning for all smartphone users to not use public WiFi available at hotel lobbies, cafes, airports, and other places.
According to Google, these networks serve as a super accessible entry point for attackers. And in these attacks, a user can end up giving up crucial details like banking credentials, private chats, and more. Google’s advisory has been published in the Android: Behind the Screen report on text-based scams.
The report highlights that public WiFi networks are prone to security flaws and could compromise connected devices. Users all over the globe have been asked to avoid public WiFi as much as possible, specifically when they are performing any tasks related to shopping online, banking, or accessing accounts that consist of personal details.

Healthcare workers and patients feel more warmth from AI-generated medical responses than from actual doctors, a surprising analysis of 15 studies shows. The largest study examined 2,164 patient interactions, with similar patterns emerging across smaller datasets.

ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots scored roughly two points higher than human healthcare professionals on 10-point empathy scales when responding to patient questions via text. AI had a 73% probability of being rated as more empathic than human practitioners in head-to-head comparisons.

“In text-only scenarios, AI chatbots are frequently perceived as more empathic than human HCPs,” study authors wrote. The meta-analysis from the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester pooled data from 13 of the 15 studies comparing AI chatbots to doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers.

The results, published in the British Medical Bulletin, challenge long-held assumptions about human connection in medicine and run counter to a 2019 UK government report that called empathy an “essential human skill that AI cannot replicate.”

AI Shows Empathy Edge Across Medical Specialties

ChatGPT-4 outperformed human clinicians in nine separate studies spanning cancer care, thyroid conditions, mental health, autism, and general medical inquiries. For thyroid questions, the AI scored 1.42 standard deviations above human surgeons in empathy ratings. Mental health queries showed similar patterns, with ChatGPT-4 scoring 0.97 standard deviations higher than licensed mental health professionals.

Patient complaints revealed the starkest gaps. When handling grievances across hospital departments, ChatGPT-4 scored 2.08 standard deviations higher than human patient relations officers.

The AI advantage appeared consistent regardless of who evaluated the responses. When both physicians and patients reviewed the same set of answers about systemic lupus, ChatGPT-4 received higher empathy ratings from physicians. For questions about multiple sclerosis, patient representatives using a validated empathy scale rated AI responses more favorably than neurologist responses.

Studies drawing from Reddit health forums and patient portals showed similar trends. Questions ranged from interpreting blood test results to managing chronic conditions to understanding cancer treatment options. Across this variety, AI responses were more likely to be rated as warm, understanding, and considerate of patient concerns.

Dermatology provided the sole exception. In both studies examining skin-related questions, dermatologists outperformed ChatGPT-3.5 and Med-PaLM 2, though researchers couldn’t explain this specialty-specific pattern.

The Text Message Caveat

All studies evaluated text-based interactions exclusively. Even when one study converted AI responses to audio, empathy ratings came from written transcripts alone.

A doctor’s nod, forward lean, or eye contact often conveys understanding as powerfully as words. Text-based healthcare interactions represent a small portion of patient care, though their use grows with patient portals and telemedicine.

Studies also relied on proxy evaluators rather than patients receiving actual care. Healthcare professionals, medical students, patient representatives, and researchers rated empathy in responses to real patient questions. Direct patient feedback might differ, particularly since healthcare providers and patients often rate empathy differently.

Most studies used custom, unvalidated empathy scales. Raters typically scored responses on 1-5 or 1-10 scales ranging from “not empathetic” to “very empathetic.” Only one study employed the CARE scale, a validated 10-item instrument designed specifically for measuring therapeutic empathy in clinical consultations.

The studies couldn’t determine whether AI’s perceived empathy advantage translates to better health outcomes. While empathic communication has been linked to reduced patient pain and anxiety, improved medication adherence, and higher satisfaction with care, these studies measured perception rather than clinical impact.

Twenty Percent of UK Doctors Already Use ChatGPT

The research lands as AI adoption in healthcare accelerates. One in five UK general practitioners now uses generative AI tools for tasks like writing patient correspondence. Over 117,000 patients across 31 NHS mental health services have interacted with Wysa, an AI-powered digital therapist, according to Wysa’s website.

Study authors propose a collaborative model where doctors draft initial responses while AI enhances tone and empathic language, with clinicians ensuring medical accuracy. This approach could reduce physician workload while potentially improving patient satisfaction.

Empathic delivery means little if medical advice proves wrong. AI reliability concerns persist, and gains in perceived warmth could vanish if responses contain factual errors or incomplete guidance.

How the Research Was Conducted

Researchers searched seven databases for studies published through November 2024, identifying 15 qualifying studies from 2023-2024. Most used unvalidated single-item scales asking raters to score empathy from 1-5 or 1-10. Only one employed a validated instrument, the CARE scale designed for measuring therapeutic empathy.

Fourteen studies assessed ChatGPT variants (versions 3.5 or 4), while others examined Claude, Gemini Pro, Le Chat, ERNIE Bot, and Med-PaLM 2. Patient questions came from emails in private medical records, Reddit and public forums, real-time chat transcripts, and in-person reception interactions. The largest dataset included 2,164 live outpatient queries at a Chinese hospital.

Nine studies had moderate risk of bias; six showed serious risk. Common problems included curated patient queries potentially skewing results, reliance on Reddit communities where users may face barriers to formal care, and supervised AI designs where human experts reviewed outputs before release.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/empathy-chatgpt-more-human-than-doctors/

Our immune system has a dark side: It’s supposed to fight off invaders to keep us healthy. But sometimes it turns traitor and attacks our own cells and tissues.

What are called autoimmune diseases can affect just about every part of the body – and tens of millions of people. While most common in women, these diseases can strike anyone, adults or children, and they’re on the rise.

New research is raising the prospect of treatments that might do more than tamp down symptoms. Dozens of clinical trials are testing ways to reprogram an immune system-gone-rogue, with some promising early successes against lupus, myositis and certain other illnesses. Other researchers are hunting ways to at least delay brewing autoimmune diseases, spurred by a drug that can buy some time before people show symptoms of Type 1 diabetes.

“This is probably the most exciting time that we’ve ever had to be in autoimmunity,” said Dr. Amit Saxena, a rheumatologist at NYU Langone Health.

Here are some things to know.

What are autoimmune diseases?

They’re chronic diseases that can range from mild to life-threatening, more than 100 with different names depending on how and where they do damage. Rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis attack joints. Sjögren’s disease is known for dry eyes and mouth. Myositis and myasthenia gravis weaken muscles in different ways, the latter by attacking how nerves signal them. Lupus has widely varied symptoms including a butterfly-shaped facial rash, joint and muscle pain, fevers and damage to the kidneys, lungs and heart.

They’re also capricious: Even patients faring well for long periods can suddenly have a “flare” for no apparent reason.

Why autoimmune diseases are so difficult to diagnose

Many start with vague symptoms that come and go or mimic other illnesses. Many also have overlapping symptoms – rheumatoid arthritis and Sjögren’s also can harm major organs, for example.

Diagnosis can take multiple tests, including some blood tests to detect antibodies that mistakenly latch onto healthy tissue. It usually centers on symptoms and involves ruling out other causes. Depending on the disease it can take years and seeing multiple doctors before one puts the clues together. There are efforts to improve: The National MS Society is educating doctors about newly updated guidelines to streamline diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

How the immune system gets out of whack

The human immune system is a complex army with sentinels to detect threats like germs or cancer cells, a variety of soldiers to attack them, and peacemakers to calm things down once the danger is over. Key is that it can distinguish what’s foreign from what’s “you,” what scientists call tolerance.

Sometimes confused immune cells or antibodies slip through, or the peacemakers can’t calm things down after a battle. If the system can’t spot and fix the problem, autoimmune diseases gradually develop.

Autoimmune diseases are often set off by a trigger

Most autoimmune diseases, especially in adults, aren’t caused by a specific gene defect. Instead, a variety of genes that affect immune functions can make people susceptible. Scientists say it then takes some “environmental” trigger, such as an infection, smoking or pollutants, to set the disease into motion. For example, the Epstein-Barr virus is linked to MS.

Scientists are zeroing in on the earliest molecular triggers. For example, white blood cells called neutrophils are first responders to signs of infection or injury — but abnormally overactive ones are suspected of playing a key role in lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.

Women are at highest risk for autoimmune diseases

Women account for about 4 of 5 autoimmune patients, many of them young. Hormones are thought to play a role. But also, females have two X chromosomes while males have one X and one Y. Some research suggests an abnormality in how female cells switch off that extra X can increase women’s vulnerability.

But men do suffer from autoimmune diseases. One especially severe one named VEXAS syndrome wasn’t discovered until 2020. It mainly affects men over 50 and in addition to typical autoimmune symptoms it can cause blood clots, shortness of breath and night sweats.

Certain populations also have higher risks. For example, lupus is more common in Black and Hispanic women. Northern Europeans have a higher risk of MS than other groups.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/autoimmune-symptoms-rheumatology-diagnosis-steps-ecc5981788b598fe08d2c19a0fa1523b

Scientists say the origins of the ‘Hippo pathway’ date back to single-celled organisms

Does technological progress equal social progress? Many have lost faith in this idea in an era of hatred, “fake news” and echo chambers. Can regulation make X, TikTok and co. better?

In January 2025, Elon Musk conducted an interview on X with Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party, some regional branches of which are considered right-wing extremist by German intelligence services.

“Only the AfD can save Germany. End of story,” he said in an undisguised interference by a powerful social network in Germany’s election campaign.

In Romania in 2024, the far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu won the first round of the elections to the surprise of many: The political outsider had not participated in any TV debates and had not invested any money in his campaign. His success came mainly through the video platform TikTok; his videos were very prominent in the feeds of many Romanians.

Suspicions quickly arose that social bots (automated accounts) and trolls (human users who are sometimes paid to act on behalf of a foreign body or government agency) must have been involved. The election was annulled. It is also known that bots and trolls have been used to manipulate public opinion in many other digital discussions and topics, such as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social media: Extreme positions and vocal minorities get most attention

What happens in the digital sphere can have a huge influence on public opinion. At a conference entitled “Big Tech and digital democracy: How much regulation does public discourse need?” organized by DW and the University of Cologne as part of a series of events on Global Media Law, media and constitutional law expert Dieter Dörr stated that “democracy is under serious threat.”

Established and respected media outlets are present on these platforms and use Instagram, YouTube and others as channels for their content. But there are also numerous other players. They don’t even have to be bots or trolls: There are many accounts that do not maintain certain standards, andincite hatred against others, spread false claims or use artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate and generate images and videos.

The algorithms used by social media to decide what content is displayed when and shown to whom reward this kind of behavior.

“Extreme opinions, which have a wide-reaching scope, are pushed to the top,” said Dörr, explaining that this is what keeps users on platforms for longer, allowing for more money to be earned from them.

EU’s Digital Services Act offers glimmer of hope

Social media platforms have become an important, if not the only, source of information for many people. Politicians and researchers have long recognized that the power wielded by these platforms is a problem. But can anything be done about it?

The European Union (EU) has stepped up efforts in recent years to regulate the digital world, primarily through its Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force in February 2024. It requires major online platforms and search engines such as Amazon, Google, X and Facebook to provide greater transparency and protection for users.

Renate Nikolay, the deputy director-general of the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) at the European Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the Digital Services Act, says: “We are pursuing three principles: First, platforms must assess and minimize systemic risks. Second, we are strengthening users’ rights, for example by providing complaint mechanisms. Third, we demand transparency in algorithms and require platforms to give researchers access to their data.”

This sounds like a big step forward: Platforms have to provide information on their algorithms and even offer users the option to disable personalized content or advertising. After all, algorithms tend not only to disadvantage moderate and differentiated content. Ultimately, they also create filter bubbles or echo chambers, in which users are mainly surrounded by content and other users that reflect their own views. This puts them at risk of falling into a spiral of radicalization.

The TikTok algorithm is particularly notorious. A recent study by the University of Potsdam and the Bertelsmann Foundation showed that during the last German election campaign, political parties were not equally visible in the TikTok feeds of young users. Videos from official party accounts on the political fringes, especially the AfD, were played more frequently than those from the accounts of more centrist parties.

During the period under review, the AfD uploaded 21.5% percent of all the videos, but these accounted for 37.4% of videos that appeared in feeds. The AfD’s videos were therefore overrepresented. For its part, the center-right CDU/CSU party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz uploaded 17.1% of all party videos, but these accounted for only 4.9% of videos in feeds.

When asked about this at the conference, Tim Klaws, Director of Government Relations and Public Policy for DACH, Israel and BeNeLux at TikTok, gave an evasive answer. He said that digital platforms had no interest in operating in an environment full of disinformation and populism, and were trying to minimize “fake news”, hate speech, etc. with the help of AI and their staff members.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/digital-platforms-are-a-danger-for-democracy-what-can-be-done/a-74668315

Experts say AI isn’t wiping out all junior roles, but it’s forcing fresh grads to level up and prove the one thing machines still can’t replace: human judgment.

When her six-month internship in public relations abruptly ended at the halfway mark, communications graduate K Sudhiksha, 23, wasn’t entirely surprised.

Officially, she was told it was due to a company restructuring, but she suspected that it had something to do with how her job could be done by artificial intelligence (AI).

“I was spending most of my time running prompts on ChatGPT,” she told CNA TODAY, referring to the popular AI chatbot.

“We were all encouraged to do it. I could do my tasks faster, but it also made me feel creatively stunted.”

Ms Sudhiksha, who had joined the PR firm in July hoping to learn how to craft press releases and pitch news stories to the media, found that much of her work revolved around using AI tools to generate first drafts of media releases and summarise weekly news coverage for clients.

While there were warnings to carefully fact-check the output generated by ChatGPT, she said the reliance on AI made the experience feel hollow as she had hoped for a more hands-on, creative process that would let her flex her own brain muscles.

Three months into her internship, her role was made redundant, Ms Sudhiksha said.

Currently between jobs, she admitted that her experience has left her feeling pessimistic and frustrated, as she has to compete with machines: “I wish I had experienced PR before the AI era.”

For Mr Mitchell Yap, 25, a customer service specialist at a tech firm, the impact of AI on job security has also been tangible. The company recently introduced a support bot designed to handle as many customer queries as possible before transferring them to a human agent.

“As the bot improves, my team now handles only the more complex or sensitive cases, but we can’t ignore that this also means the overall workload is shrinking.”

While he is not overly anxious yet, Mr Yap admits that every new update to the bot makes him and his colleagues wonder how long their roles will stay essential.

The experiences of Ms Sudhiksha and Mr Yap reflect a growing concern among young workers and jobseekers, including those who have not even entered the job market yet: Is AI going to take away the first jobs they’ve worked so hard to qualify for?

For some, that answer is affirmative. In the legal industry, for instance, recruiters like Ms Shulin Lee, managing director of legal executive search firm Aslant Legal, have already seen how automation and AI are impacting entry-level hiring.

“In 2024, law firms prioritised mid-level to senior hires. There were almost no openings for juniors with one to two years’ experience,” she said. “It was one of the toughest years for junior hiring I’ve seen in my 15 years in recruitment.”

While AI wasn’t the only factor behind the decline – cost and competency gaps among Gen Z hires also played a role – Ms Lee recalled law firm partners telling her that AI tools can now conduct due diligence on 200 contracts in two hours, hence reducing the need for juniors.

According to data from Jobstreet by Seek, the number of entry-level postings in Singapore fell by more than 25 per cent in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, even as total job openings rose slightly, by 4 per cent.

The data points to what Jobstreet calls a “recalibration” of the job market. Many entry-level roles are being reshaped as more companies embrace automation to handle routine tasks traditionally assigned to junior team members, said Ms Yuh Yng Chook, director of Asia sales and APAC service at Seek, which owns Jobstreet and Jobsdb.

Similarly, human resource (HR) platform Remote surveyed 250 Singapore employers in its Global Workforce Report 2025, and found that four in five had reduced the number of entry-level hires at their companies due to AI.

Eighteen per cent of Singapore firms said they had eliminated roles or reduced headcount due to AI, while another 18 per cent had hired or reassigned roles specifically to support AI-related initiatives.

Still, some experts stressed that it’s not just AI that is driving the decline in recruitment activity. Mr Lewis Garrad, partner and career practice leader for Asia at global consulting firm Mercer, said the slowdown in graduate hiring reflects both technological change and a more cautious business climate.

“AI can support and complete certain tasks, but it rarely replaces an entire job,” he said, adding that companies are automating routine parts of work while rethinking roles amid slower growth and tighter budgets.

Mr Chiew Chun Wee, regional policy and insights lead for Asia Pacific at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), agreed.

“‘AI is coming for your jobs’ makes for compelling headlines, but the reality is far more nuanced,” he said.

According to Mr Chiew, most organisations are trying out tools for limited tasks such as drafting written work, transcribing meeting minutes and supporting research – not replacing entire roles.

Adoption also varies by size and sector, as smaller firms tend to be nimbler in trying out new apps, while larger ones are developing in-house tools.

“The nuance lies in how AI reconfigures work … Automating knowledge work is actually quite hard,” Mr Chiew said.

“Processes are messy and full of judgment calls. So the future of work won’t be about replacing people. It’ll be a blend of automation, augmentation and human judgment.”

That’s also why some experts believe that companies cannot afford to stop hiring young people altogether. As Ms Lee put it: “If you stop hiring young people now, you’ll be short of mid-levels later. The pipeline will dry up.”

WHERE ENTRY-LEVEL ROLES ARE DISAPPEARING
While AI is not wiping out entry-level jobs across the board, its impact is most visible in routine roles.

JobStreet’s data shows that in Singapore, entry-level sales roles have fallen 61 per cent and entry-level customer service positions by 45 per cent, as chatbots, automated lead-generation tools and self-service systems take over tasks once handled by new hires.

Ms Gillian O’Brien, general manager of Remote Recruit at Remote, said similar declines are appearing in customer support, software development, sales development and marketing content production. Remote Recruit is a product under the Remote brand.

“These are roles where most of the tasks, such as IT ticket triaging, entry-level coding, sales lead list building and drafting blog content can be done by AI,” she added.

Globally, the pattern mirrors Singapore’s: In the United States, a 2025 study by ADP Research, the global thought leader on labour market and employee performance research and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, shows employment among workers aged 22 to 25 in AI-exposed jobs has dropped 6 per cent between late 2022 and July 2025.

Within that, junior software developers fell 20 per cent and customer-service roles 11 per cent – the very functions most easily automated.

The ripple effects are being felt far beyond frontline roles. Across industries, companies are reorganising their operations in response to the accelerating impact of AI and automation.

At Amazon, for instance, the company announced an overall reduction of about 14,000 corporate roles in October as part of efforts to “reduce layers” and “increase ownership”.

In a note to employees, Ms Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice-president of people experience and technology, called AI “the most transformative technology since the internet”, saying it enables companies to innovate faster and must be met with leaner, more agile structures.

While she did not link the layoffs directly to AI, her comments reflect how major firms are reorganising to stay competitive in an AI-driven economy.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/today/big-read/ai-junior-entry-level-jobs-young-workers-5449836

Committee seeks stronger trial design, urging SII to sharpen objectives and raise scientific standards for proving CERVAVAC’s non-inferiority to Merck’s Gardasil

India’s expert committee on vaccines has asked the Serum Institute of India (SII) to revise its Phase III trial plan before moving ahead with tests of its cervical cancer vaccine in women of childbearing age. The vaccine is currently approved only for girls and young women aged 9 to 26 years.

The committee has suggested key changes in the study design, including strengthening the trial’s objectives and tightening the scientific criteria for proving non-inferiority against Merck’s Gardasil.

The Pune-based vaccine maker had presented the protocol of its proposed study titled, “A Phase-III, double-blind, randomized, active-controlled, multicentric clinical trial to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of qHPV Vaccine (CERVAVAC) administered intramuscularly in women aged 27 to 45 Years as compared to Merck’s HPV 6/11/16/18 Vaccine (Gardasil).”

According to the minutes of the meeting of the subject expert committee (SEC), seen by News18, “the study vaccine is already approved in the age group of 9-14 years (male and female), at two-doses schedule (0 and 6 months) and for age group of 15-26 years (male and female), at three-dose schedule (0, 2 and 6 months) for prevention of the disease caused by Human Papilloma Virus types 6, 11, 16 and 18.”

CERVAVAC, developed by the Serum Institute in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology, is India’s first indigenously made quadrivalent HPV vaccine, protecting against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18—the strains responsible for the majority of cervical cancer cases. If approved for the expanded age group, the vaccine could mark a significant step in widening India’s cervical cancer prevention programme.

What is the main goal?
The main goal of the study is to show that women who get CERVAVAC develop an immune response against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 that is just as strong as the response seen in women who get Merck’s Gardasil. A secondary goal is to check if the immune response against HPV types 6 and 11 with this vaccine is also as good as that with Gardasil.

According to the proposal, “the primary objective of the present study is to demonstrate that the immune response to HPV types 16 and 18 among women receiving CERVAVAC is non-inferior to that in the women receiving Gardasil and one of the secondary objectives is to demonstrate that the immune response to HPV types 6 and 11 among women receiving CERVAVAC is non-inferior to that in the women receiving Gardasil.”

However, the panel has advised the company to strengthen the trial by upgrading some of the study goals. It said that checking how well the vaccine triggers an immune response against HPV types 6 and 11 should be treated as a main goal of the study, not just a side one. It also advised the company to measure how well the vaccine protects women from long-lasting HPV infections (types 6, 11, 16, and 18) at 24 and 36 months, and to count this as an important study goal, not just an optional or exploratory part. “The firm should include determination of immune response to HPV types 6 and 11 as primary objective instead of secondary objective,” it recommended.

It also said the company should “consider assessing the protection against incident persistent cervical HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 infections in women receiving CERVAVAC and Gardasil at 24, 36 months as secondary objective instead of exploratory objective for serotypes 6 and 11 infections.”

Source: https://www.news18.com/india/expert-panel-asks-serum-institute-to-tighten-hpv-vaccine-trial-before-testing-on-women-of-childbearing-age-9685995.html

Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google has reached a comprehensive U.S. court settlement with “Fortnite” video game maker Epic Games, agreeing to Android and app store reforms aimed at lowering fees, boosting competition and expanding choices for developers and consumers.
In a joint filing, opens new tab on Tuesday in the federal court in San Francisco, the companies asked U.S. District Judge James Donato to consider a proposal resolving Epic’s 2020 antitrust lawsuit, which accused Google of illegally monopolizing how users access apps and make in-app purchases on Android devices.

Google has denied any wrongdoing throughout the closely watched litigation.
The proposal requires Donato’s approval. The judge oversaw a jury trial in 2023 that Epic won and last year he issued a sweeping injunction mandating Play app store reforms that Google said went too far. Google said the reforms potentially harmed its competitive position and compromised user safety.
Under the new proposal, Google would allow users to more easily download and install third-party app stores that meet new security and safety standards.
Developers will also be allowed to direct users to alternative payment methods both within apps and via external web links. Google said it would implement a capped service fee of either 9% or 20% on transactions in Play-distributed apps that use alternative payment options. Those caps apply to apps first installed or updated from Google Play after October 30.

Sameer Samat, Google’s president of Android Ecosystem, said, opens new tab on Tuesday the proposed changes maintained user safety while increasing flexibility for developers and consumers. Samat said Google looked forward to discussing the resolution with Donato, who is expected on Thursday to meet with lawyers involved with the case at a previously scheduled hearing.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called, opens new tab Google’s proposal “awesome” and said it “genuinely doubles down on Android’s original vision as an open platform.”
Google unsuccessfully challenged Donato’s injunction in a federal appeals court, which upheld it in a ruling in July. The U.S. Supreme Court last month declined Google’s request to temporarily freeze parts of the injunction.
Tuesday’s court filing from Google and Epic asked Donato to modify his injunction, while keeping many parts of it intact. The proposal keeps in place a three-member technical committee to review disputes over implementing the injunction.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/google-proposes-app-store-reforms-settlement-with-fortnite-maker-epic-games-2025-11-05/

Google says the feature is designed to make navigation more accurate, stress-free, and safer, especially on busy highways or in unfamiliar areas

Google Maps is taking its navigation experience to the next level. The tech giant has announced a new feature called Live Lane Guidance, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and car sensors to tell drivers exactly when and where to change lanes, almost like having a co-driver who’s always alert.
However, there’s a catch. This feature will be available only in vehicles with Google’s built-in system and not on smartphones. It will launch first in the Polestar 4 in the United States and Sweden, before expanding to more cars and regions in the coming months.
How It Works
Unlike the regular lane guidance on the Google Maps app — which simply shows lane arrows on the screen — this new version will actually detect your car’s position on the road using its front-facing camera and sensors. AI then analyses the road markings and signs in real time, integrating them with Google Maps navigation.

So, if you’re in the wrong lane for an upcoming turn or exit, the system will alert you through both visual and audio warnings — guiding you safely to the correct lane.

For example, if you’re stuck in the left lane but your exit is on the right, the car will detect that and tell you exactly when to move.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/google-maps-will-soon-watch-the-road-for-you-but-only-in-select-cars-article-153106645

Australia has added message board Reddit and livestreaming service Kick to its list of social media platforms that must ban children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

The platforms join Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube in facing a world-first legal obligation to shut the accounts of younger Australian children from Dec. 10, Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Wednesday.

Platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to exclude children younger than 16 could be punished with a fine of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million).

“We have met with several of the social media platforms in the past month so that they understand there is no excuse for failure to implement this law,” Wells told reporters in Canberra.

“Online platforms use technology to target children with chilling control. We are merely asking that they use that same technology to keep children safe online,” Wells added.

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who will enforce the social media ban, said the list of age-restricted platforms would evolve with new technologies.

The nine platforms currently age-restricted meet the key requirement that their “sole or significant purpose is to enable online social interaction,” a government statement said.

Inman Grant said she would work with academics to evaluate the impacts of the ban, including whether children sleep or interact more or become more physically active.

“We’ll also look for unintended consequences and we’ll be gathering evidence” so that others could learn from Australia’s achievements, Inman Grant said.

Australia’s move is being closely watched by countries that share concerns about social media impacts on young children.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a United Nations forum in New York in September that she was “inspired” by Australia’s “common sense” move to legislate the age restriction.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/australia-social-media-ban-reddit-kick-e6ae0be8c6b2571edd94d0318f47cb14#

Apple is reportedly working on a new low-cost MacBook that will likely be powered by an iPhone chipset. The Cupertino giant is expected to target students who would otherwise buy Chromebooks or Windows PCs.

Apple is said to be working on an affordable MacBook for some time now. The Cupertino giant has seen a rise in MacBook sales recently, but its devices remain at the higher end, including the base M4 MacBook Air. Now, the company is planning to fill the gap in the lineup, with the low-cost MacBook targeting students and users on a budget.

According to Bloomberg, Apple will use less-advanced components to keep the price of the affordable MacBook under $1,000 (roughly Rs 88,740) in the US. The report states that the device will be powered by an iPhone chipset. Previously, it was believed that the low-cost MacBook would use the A18 Pro chipset from the iPhone 16 Pro.

On the surface, the iPhone chip may raise doubts over performance. However, the report suggests that it would perform better than the M1 chipset.

Additionally, the new MacBook is expected to pack a lower-end LCD compared to the 13.6-inch unit in the MacBook Air.

Apple wants to target students with new MacBook
Apple is planning to target students with its low-cost MacBook. The company wants to cater to users who would normally use a Windows laptop or a Chromebook at around $600 (roughly Rs 53,000) in price. As per IDC, Apple stood in fourth place in terms of global PC market share in the third quarter of 2025 with 9 per cent. The company trailed behind Lenovo, HP and Dell.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-is-coming-to-eat-google-and-microsofts-lunch-with-new-low-cost-macbook-report-says-2813819-2025-11-05

A massive bat-shaped cloud appeared in telescope images released on Halloween, spanning an area four times the size of a full moon. The European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope in Chile caught this eerie celestial creature just in time for the spookiest night of the year, revealing a stellar nursery where infant stars are actively forming 10,000 light-years from Earth.

Flying between the southern constellations of Circinus and Norma, this space bat looks like it’s hunting the glowing spot hovering above it. What looks like a Halloween decoration is actually a star factory hard at work. Baby stars are being born right now inside those bat-shaped clouds of gas and dust.

Newborn Stars Make The Bat Glow Red
The bat gets its haunting red appearance from infant stars energizing the hydrogen gas around them. These young stars pump out enough energy to make the surrounding gas shine in an intense crimson shade, painting the cosmic bat’s wings and body across the night sky.

Dark filaments streak through the nebula like bones in a skeleton. These structures are colder, denser pockets of gas and dust that block visible light from stars behind them. Dust grains within these dark patches act like cosmic curtains, preventing starlight from reaching observers on Earth and creating the skeletal appearance.

Combining Light Wavelengths Reveals Hidden Details
Astronomers have catalogued the brightest parts of this stellar nursery. RCW 94 forms the bat’s right wing, while RCW 95 creates the body. Other portions remain officially unnamed.

Getting this shot required combining different types of light, akin to using different filters on a camera. Most of the bat’s shape and that red color came from photographing visible light, the kind human eyes can see. But astronomers also added infrared images from ESO’s VISTA telescope, which reveal the densest parts hidden inside the clouds. Putting both together shows details that would stay invisible otherwise.

A 268-Megapixel Camera Captured the Scene
OmegaCAM, a 268-megapixel camera aboard the VST telescope, made capturing this enormous creature possible. The telescope’s wide field of view allowed astronomers to frame the entire bat in a single portrait. For comparison, most smartphone cameras max out around 12 to 50 megapixels.

Both sets of telescope data are available to the public. Anyone curious enough can dig through the archives and hunt for more cosmic creatures hiding in space. Thousands of similar photos sit waiting for someone to discover them.

The telescope sits in Chile’s Atacama Desert at an observatory called Paranal. Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics owns and runs it, though it’s hosted at a European facility designed for scanning large chunks of the southern sky.s.

While the nebula has existed for millennia, releasing this particular image on October 31st gives stargazers a cosmic treat to match the holiday’s spooky spirit. The bat continues its eternal flight through space, birthing new stars as it soars between constellations.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/cosmic-bat-halloween/

A momentous week in the technology sector made it clear there is no sign the boom in building artificial intelligence infrastructure is slowing — despite the bubble talk.
Nvidia (NVDA.O), whose processors are the AI revolution’s backbone, became the first company to surpass $5 trillion in market value. Microsoft (MSFT.O), and OpenAI inked a deal enhancing the ChatGPT maker’s fundraising ability and OpenAI promptly started laying groundwork for an initial public offering that could value the company at $1 trillion.

Amazon (AMZN.O), said it would cut 14,000 corporate jobs, just days before its cloud unit posted its strongest growth in nearly three years.
These developments, along with numerous earnings calls and interviews with executives, make clear that AI has cemented itself as the single biggest catalyst for global corporate investment and the engine of the market rally, even as some question the sustainability of both.

SPENDING WITHOUT ENDING

Soaring revenue at Microsoft, Alphabet (GOOGL.O), and other technology giants was expected. But more than 100 non-tech global companies noted data centers on quarterly calls this week, including Honeywell , turbine maker GE Vernova (GEV.N), and heavy equipment maker Caterpillar (CAT.N).

Sales in Caterpillar’s division that supplies data centers jumped 31% in its most recent quarter. “We’re definitely really excited about the prime power opportunity with data centers,” CEO Joseph Creed said this week.
“The AI supply chain now spans power, industrials and cooling technology, and investors are looking at the entire ecosystem rather than just core tech,” said Ayako Yoshioka, portfolio manager at Wealth Enhancement Group.
Goldman Sachs estimates global AI-related infrastructure spending could reach $3 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030. Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Alphabet are expected to spend roughly $350 billion combined this year.
AI investment is propping up global trade, with about 60% of U.S. data-center capex spent on imported IT equipment, according to Oxford Economics, much of it semiconductors from Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam.

At least two dozen companies representing more than $21 trillion in combined market value reported quarterly earnings or spoke with Reuters about AI in recent days. Many, including Procter & Gamble (PG.N), and Boliden (BOL.ST), noted that the hoped-for productivity gains, though uneven, are beginning to show.
“We strongly believe the future contribution of artificial intelligence within R&D, within developing innovation, will steadily increase,” Schindler (SCHP.S), CEO Paolo Compagna told Reuters, though he said AI’s impact is yet to be seen. The Swiss lift and escalator maker raised its annual margin forecast last week.
Year-over-year revenue growth in the U.S. tech sector is up more than 15%, outpacing all other sectors, according to LSEG data.
Apple (AAPL.O), said it was significantly increasing AI investment and Amazon projected capital spending of $125 billion in 2025.

WORRIES ABOUT OVERVALUATION

Since ChatGPT’s debut in 2022, global equity values have climbed 46%, or $46 trillion. One-third of that gain has come from AI-linked companies, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
Analysts warn of a quickening replacement cycle for servers, accelerators and chips as each new generation delivers exponential performance gains. The useful life of AI chips is shrinking to five years or less, forcing companies to “write down assets faster and replace them sooner,” said UBS semiconductor analyst Tim Arcuri.
The surge in AI-related spending has widened the gap between investment and returns, with a Reuters analysis showing that sales-to-capex ratios at major tech firms have fallen sharply as outlays on chips and data centers grow faster than revenue. Capital expenditures represent a larger chunk of cash generated by operating activities for some companies, causing some investor concern.
“If progress hasn’t been made toward monetization within three years, the market will start asking hard questions,” said Sumali Sanyal, senior portfolio manager at investment firm Xponance.

Microsoft reported a record $35 billion in capex in its most recent quarter and projected higher spending, prompting Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler to ask whether the company was spending into a bubble. Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood responded that AI-related demand still outpaces Microsoft’s spending. “I thought we were going to catch up. We are not,” she said.
Some companies are financing AI projects with debt. Oracle’s $18 billion bond sale last month was one of the largest ever for a tech company, and it looks set to be surpassed by an up to $30 billion bond sale from Meta Platforms (META.O). News of its largest ever bond sale knocked Meta’s shares down 11% on Thursday.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/great-ai-buildout-shows-no-sign-slowing-2025-10-31/

Reliance Industries on Thursday said its artificial intelligence arm Reliance Intelligence has partnered with Google to offer free access to Google AI Pro for 18 months, worth Rs 35,100 to select Jio 5G users initially.

The Reliance-Google offer includes higher access to Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model in the Gemini app, higher limits to generate stunning images and videos with their state-of-the-art Nano Banana and Veo 3.1 models, expanded access to Notebook LM for study and research, 2 TB of cloud storage, etc, a statement said.

The development follows an announcement by OpenAI to offer ‘ChatGPT Go’, which supports higher query limits and more image generation, free for one year to users in India who sign up during a limited-time promotional period beginning November 4.

“Reliance Intelligence aims to make intelligence services accessible to 1.45 billion Indians. Through our collaboration with strategic and long-term partners like Google, we aim to make India not just AI-enabled but AI-empowered – where every citizen and enterprise can harness intelligent tools to create, innovate and grow,” RIL Chairman Mukesh D Ambani said.

OpenAI ChatGPT Go, at present, is priced at Rs 399 per month.

Websites for Heathrow, NatWest and Minecraft returned to service late on Wednesday after experiencing problems amid a global Microsoft outage.

Outage tracker Downdetector showed thousands of reports of issues with a number of websites around the world over several hours.

Microsoft said some users of Microsoft 365 saw delays with Outlook among other services, but by 21:00GMT, many websites that went down were once again accessible after the company restored a prior update.

The company’s Azure cloud computing platform, which underpins large parts of the internet, had reported a “degradation of some services” at 16:00 GMT.

It said this was due to “DNS issues” – the same root cause of the huge Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage last week.

Amazon said AWS was operating normally.

Other sites that were impacted in the UK include supermarket Asda, M&S, and mobile phone operator O2 – while in the US, people reported issues accessing the websites of coffee chain Starbucks and retailer Kroger.

Microsoft said business Microsoft 365 customers experienced problems.

Some web pages on Microsoft also directed users to an error notifications that read “Uh oh! Something went wrong with the previous request.”

The tech giant resorted to posting updates to a thread on X after some users reported they could not access the service status page.

While NatWest’s website was temporarily impacted, the bank’s mobile banking, web chat, and telephone customer services remained available during the outage.

The UK consumer organisation Which? said businesses had an obligation to ensure customers were kept informed and supported as services were restored, and to compensate consumers impacted.

“Customers should keep evidence of any failed or delayed payments in case they need to make a claim,” advised Which? consumer law expert Lisa Webb.

“Those worried about missing a bill should contact the relevant company to explain the situation and request that any fees be waived,” Ms Webb added.

Meanwhile, business at the Scottish Parliament was suspended because of technical issues with the parliament’s online voting system.

The outage prompted a postponement of debate over land reform legislation that could allow Scotland to intervene in private sales and require large estates to be broken up.

A senior Scottish Parliament source told BBC News they believed the problems were related to the Microsoft outage.

Azure’s crucial role online
Exactly how much of the internet was impacted is unclear, but estimates typically put Microsoft Azure at around 20% of the global cloud market.

The firm said it believed the outage was a result of “an inadvertent configuration change”.

In other words, a behind-the-scenes system was changed, with unintended consequences.

The concentration of cloud services into Microsoft, Amazon and Google means an outage like this “can cripple hundreds, if not thousands of applications and systems,” said Dr Saqib Kakvi, from Royal Holloway University.

“Due to cost of hosting web content, economic forces lead to consolidation of resources into a few very large players, but it is effectively putting all our eggs in one of three baskets.”

Recent outages have laid bare the fragility of the modern-day internet, according to engineering professor Gregory Falco of Cornell University.

“When we think of Azure or AWS, we think of a monolithic piece of technology infrastructure but the reality is that it’s thousands if not tens of thousands of little pieces of a puzzle that are all interwoven together,” said Mr Falco.

He noted that some of those pieces are managed by the companies themselves while others are overseen by third parties such as CrowdStrike, which last year deployed a software update that affected more than eight million computers run on Microsoft systems.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rj45n4x5eo

Atlas, OpenAI’s new ChatGPT-powered browser, launched on Tuesday looking to “rethink what a browser can be about” and challenge the hegemony of Google Chrome. But how accurate are AI browsers?

The US artificial intelligence company OpenAI said on Tuesday that it is launching its own web browser, Atlas, to rival Google’s popular Chrome browser.

Atlas will be powered by OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT, as the California-based firm looks to revolutionize how people use the internet.

“Tabs were great, but we haven’t seen a lot of browser innovation since then,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a video presentation broadcast on Tuesday, speaking off a “rare, once-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be about and how to use one.”

What’s different about ChatGPT’s Atlas?
For instance, Altman suggested that the classic URL search bar at the heart of traditional browsers could be replaced by an AI chatbot interface.

The browser will initially only be available for Apple’s Mac computers, the company said, adding that it is designed to help users complete “tasks without copying and pasting or leaving the page.”

Another key feature of the Atlas browser is its so-called “agent mode” which effectively surfs around the internet automatically on the user’s behalf, armed with a person’s browser history and predicting what sort of information they are likely to be looking for.

“It’s using the internet for you,” Altman said.

Criticism of AI-powered browsers
That’s one way of looking at it. But analyst Paddy Harrington of London-based market research group Forrester warned that another way of thinking about OpenAI’s new browser is that it’s “taking personality away from you.”

“Your profile will be personally attuned to you based on all the information sucked up about you,” Harrington told the Associated Press (AP) news agency. “OK, scary. But is it really you, really what you’re thinking, or what that engine decides it’s going to do? And will it add in preferred solutions [to users’ queries] based on ads?”

Either way, Harrington said it will be a big challenge for Atlas to “[compete] with a giant who has ridiculous market share.”

Atlas launched in Chrome-dominated market
Since launching in 2008, Google Chrome has amassed around 3 billion users worldwide, blowing rivals such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and then Edge browsers out of the water.

But AI chatbots such as ChatGPT are increasingly summarizing information on the internet so efficiently that many users are turning to them rather than the traditional practice of clicking on links suggested by a browser.

OpenAI has said ChatGPT already has more than 800 million users, while a survey conducted on behalf of AP this year found that about 60% of Americans – and 74% of those under 30 – use AI to find information at least some of the time.

Browsers such as Chrome have also integrated AI summaries into their search results, generally visible at the top of the results page above the first link, although concerns have been raised about the accuracy of this information.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/openai-launches-browser-to-rival-google-chrome/a-74452151

Meta (META.O), opens new tab has struck a $27 billion financing deal with Blue Owl Capital to fund its biggest data center project globally, as large technology companies race to build out the infrastructure needed to power their artificial intelligence ambitions.
Tuesday’s announcement marks Meta’s largest-ever private capital deal. Under it, Meta will retain about 20% equity in the Louisiana project, with the majority owned by funds that alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital (OWL.N), opens new tab manages. Blue Owl contributed roughly $7 billion in cash to the joint venture, with Meta receiving a one-time payout of about $3 billion.

The planned data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, known as Hyperion, is projected to deliver more than 2 gigawatts of compute capacity to support training of large language models, the technology behind tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz, Co-CEOs of Blue Owl, called Hyperion “an ambitious project that reflects the scale and speed required to power the next generation of AI infrastructure.”
Major tech companies, including Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Meta (META.O), opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and CoreWeave (CRWV.O), opens new tab, are on track to spend $400 billion on AI infrastructure this year, Morgan Stanley estimates.

OpenAI, the startup at the heart of the AI boom, recently signed multiple deals that may cost over $1 trillion to secure about 26 gigawatts of computing capacity, enough to power roughly 20 million U.S. homes.
Meta’s finance chief, Susan Li, called Tuesday’s deal “a bold step forward.” The company has signed leases for the facility with a four-year initial term with an option to extend and expects the project to create more than 500 jobs once it goes online.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-forms-joint-venture-with-blue-owl-capital-louisiana-data-center-2025-10-21/

The establishment of a $15 billion Google AI hub in Andhra Pradesh has ignited political tensions, particularly between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh has responded to political criticism from Tamil Nadu over Google’s decision to set up a $15 billion Artificial Intelligence hub in Visakhapatnam. The investment, announced as part of a five-year plan, sparked a political row after opposition parties in Tamil Nadu accused the ruling DMK government of failing to attract Google to the state, despite the tech giant’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, hailing from Madurai.
Taking to X, Lokesh wrote, “He chose Bharat,” dismissing regional politics and emphasising that India as a whole stood to gain from the tech major’s investment.
The AIADMK had targeted Chief Minister MK Stalin’s administration, with senior leader RB Udayakumar telling reporters, “Despite Google CEO Sundar Pichai being a Tamil, the DMK government failed to invite the company to establish its AI infrastructure hub here. This is not just a missed investment. It’s a lost chance for Tamil Nadu to emerge as a national hub for AI, data analytics, and digital infrastructure.”

India’s Biggest $15 Billion AI hub In Andhra
Google will invest USD 15 billion over the next five years in setting up an AI hub in India, which will include the country’s largest data centre in partnership with Adani Group. The AI hub at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh will be Google’s largest outside the US and will include 1-gigawatt data centre campus, new large-scale energy sources, and an expanded fiber-optic network, the tech super giant said.

“It’s the largest AI hub that we are going to be investing in anywhere in the world outside of the US,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said at an event here to sign the formal agreement.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/sundar-pichai-chose-bharat-nara-lokeshs-swipe-at-aiadmk-as-state-politics-erupts-over-google-ai-hub-article-153032228

Posting about her kids brings joy and connection, but with growing online risks, this mum-of-two has learnt that some moments are best kept just for family.

The first time I shared a photo of my firstborn son online, he was just 30 days old.

I was still adjusting to motherhood, revelling in the fact that I now had a baby boy.

Sure, I could have shouted it from the rooftops, but posting it on social media felt like the easiest way to tell the world.

Now that he’s four years old, I still find myself scrolling back to that photo, trying to remember how tiny those hands were.

Or when conversations about the newborn stage come up, I go straight to that picture and say: “This was how small he was!”

On my account page, I know exactly where to find it among my dozens of posts – unlike scrolling endlessly through the thousands of items in my phone gallery, which would take ages.

I’ve always found it heartwarming to capture and share memories of my children online. But now, I often find myself wondering how much of our children’s lives we should share online, especially in an age of artificial intelligence (AI) where every photo can be re-edited in seconds.

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA HAS TRANSFORMED PARENTING
Social media has transformed modern parenting into a highly visible and heavily scrutinised experience. On one hand, it offers parents access to a wealth of information, support groups and expert advice.

It has also helped normalise honest conversations about the challenges of parenthood, such as burnout, postpartum depression and mental health.

But there’s another side. Social media has fostered a culture of comparison, where curated highlight reels can often leave parents feeling inadequate or judged.

Influencer parenting is also rampant – people capitalising on their parenting experience by promoting trends and products, adding pressure or setting unrealistic expectations for the rest of us.

At the same time, I also follow parents who choose not to post their children online at all, or who blur their faces, especially on public accounts. For them, it’s about protecting their children from online harm, negative commentary, or simply thinking that posting pictures of their children online is performative.

I respect that deeply – what should always come first is the child’s wellbeing.

SHARING, BUT WITH INTENTION
The way I see it, posting updates isn’t about showing off – it’s about connection.

Family and friends living in other parts of the world can feel a sense of involvement in our lives, celebrating milestones and the little joys that make up our days.

This is especially true for a dear friend who had relocated to the Netherlands. We would find ourselves laughing at a funny photo I shared of my two sons or marvelling at how tall her daughter has grown. It’s our way of remaining part of each other’s daily lives, even from afar.

It also creates moments of joy in an otherwise hectic routine and allows us to reflect on the small wins that parenthood often obscures.

Despite this, I’m aware that the internet is not a safe place, and you never really know who’s lurking in your followers list.

So I don’t post indiscriminately.

My Instagram account is fully private. I cleaned up my friends and followers list before my kids were born because I knew I wanted to share our daily lives with friends and family, and only fully clothed images and carefully chosen snapshots make it online.

I also never post anything that could embarrass them – tantrums, toilet training mishaps, or moments that should remain private.

No full names, no addresses, and no geotags that reveal our routines or locations.

And yes, that includes moments like when my son ran around the house in nothing other than a Spider-Man mask during a toilet training session and screaming, “Muuuuuum, look at my poop!”

GROWING UP WITH A DIGITAL TRAIL

Even with strict boundaries, I am conscious that my kids already have a digital footprint at a young age.

I know that every photo, caption or tag contributes to a record they did not consent to.

And yes, it’s a little unnerving, especially when I think about how there’s a chance – however slim that may be – that a prospective employer might have access to this footprint, even if my account is fully private.

A constellation of classified defense satellites built by the commercial company SpaceX is emitting a mysterious signal that may violate international standards, NPR has learned.

Satellites associated with the Starshield satellite network appear to be transmitting to the Earth’s surface on frequencies normally used for doing the exact opposite: sending commands from Earth to satellites in space. The use of those frequencies to “downlink” data runs counter to standards set by the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency that seeks to coordinate the use of radio spectrum globally.

Starshield’s unusual transmissions have the potential to interfere with other scientific and commercial satellites, warns Scott Tilley, an amateur satellite tracker in Canada who first spotted the signals.

“Nearby satellites could receive radio-frequency interference and could perhaps not respond properly to commands — or ignore commands — from Earth,” he told NPR.

Outside experts agree there’s the potential for radio interference. “I think it is definitely happening,” said Kevin Gifford, a computer science professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder who specializes in radio interference from spacecraft. But he said the issue of whether the interference is truly disruptive remains unresolved.

SpaceX and the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the satellites for the government, did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Caught by the wrong antenna

The discovery of the signal happened purely by chance.

Tilley regularly monitors satellites from his home in British Columbia as a hobby. He was working on another project when he accidentally triggered a scan of radio frequencies that are normally quiet.

“It was just a clumsy move at the keyboard,” he said. “I was resetting some stuff and then all of a sudden I’m looking at the wrong antenna, the wrong band.”

The band of the radio spectrum he found himself looking at, between 2025-2110 MHz, is reserved for “uplinking” data to orbiting satellites. That means there shouldn’t be any signals coming from space in that range.

A video posted by minister’s social media account shows that he gave go ahead to the team to prepare for the indigenous production of the chipset that can be used in IT servers.

India’s first indigenously-designed 7 nanometer computer processor ‘Shakti’ is expected to be ready by 2028, which can be produced at chip plant locally in future, the IIT Madras-based team informed Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday.

A video posted by minister’s social media account shows that he gave go ahead to the team to prepare for the indigenous production of the chipset that can be used in IT servers.

Vaishnaw said that the 7 nm chip design will be ready by 2028 and the wafer fabrication (chip production plant) in the country will be ready by then.

“We will be taking path from 28 nanometer to 7 nm so in future this can be loaded in our Fab. Let’s do it,” Vaishnaw said in the video.

The processor being developed by a team at IIT Madras will look at the deployment in computer servers for financial, communications, defense and strategic sectors.

Source : https://www.deccanherald.com/technology/indias-first-7-nanometer-computer-chip-design-to-be-ready-by-2028-3769029

In the next few weeks, OpenAI will put out a version of ChatGPT that will let people have more control over the chatbot’s tone and personality, CEO Altman said.

OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT will soon allow more content like “erotica for verified adults” as part of what the company describes as a “treat adult users like adults” principle. This is expected to be part of OpenAI’s major update for ChatGPT, allowing users to customise their AI assistant’s personality and include options for more human-like answers.

Notably, users usually have to turn to social storytelling platforms like Wattpad to read, write, and share original stories, including erotic content, but with restrictions.

In a post on X, the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, said they observed that stricter controls on AI to deal with mental health concerns had made the chatbot “less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems”.

Notably, the stricter safety rules came in after a teenager from California, Adam Raine, died by suicide earlier this year. His parents filed a lawsuit alleging that ChatGPT gave him advice on how to take his own life.

“Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases,” Altman wrote.

In the next few weeks, OpenAI will put out a version of ChatGPT that will let people have more control over the chatbot’s tone and personality, Altman said.

“If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing),” he posted.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/no-more-wattpad-openai-chatgpt-to-allow-adult-users-to-generate-erotic-content-soon-101760492450275.html

Medications prescribed years ago may still be influencing the bacteria living in your gut today, according to new research that challenges the assumption that drug effects end when treatment stops.

Analyzing gut bacteria samples from 2,509 people in Estonia, researchers discovered that various medications continue to leave detectable fingerprints on the microbiome long after someone has stopped taking them. Beta-blockers, antidepressants, proton pump inhibitors, and benzodiazepines all left effects that lasted for years, with some changes visible three or more years after last use.

The gut microbiome, which is the collection of trillions of bacteria in the digestive system, influences digestion, immunity, and overall health. Changes to this ecosystem can affect everything from nutrient absorption to susceptibility to infections.

Tracking Medication History Through Electronic Health Records

The research team from the University of Tartu in Estonia took advantage of something most microbiome studies lack: detailed electronic health records showing exactly when people filled prescriptions over a five-year period. Looking backward in time, they could see whether medications used years earlier were still associated with changes in gut bacteria composition.

They compared people who had last used certain drugs more than one, two, three, or even four years before providing stool samples with people who hadn’t used those drugs at all in the preceding five years. The differences, while modest in size, were consistent across drug classes.

Out of 186 medications analyzed, 167 were associated with changes in the gut microbiome when actively used. But 78 of them—roughly 42 percent—displayed what researchers call “carryover effects” that lasted well beyond the treatment period.

Beta-Blockers And Anxiety Medications Leave Lasting Marks On The Microbiome

While antibiotics left the expected long-term effects, medications targeting human biology rather than bacteria left surprisingly durable impacts as well.

Beta-blockers, commonly prescribed for high blood pressure and heart conditions, were associated with gut bacteria changes detectable even when people had stopped taking them several years earlier. The same held true for benzodiazepine derivatives like Xanax and Valium, which are used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders.

Antidepressants, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, also demonstrated carryover effects. So did proton pump inhibitors, the medications millions take for acid reflux and heartburn.

In some cases, the more prescriptions someone had filled in the past, the stronger the effect on their current microbiome. The “additive” pattern suggests that medication history compounds over time rather than simply washing away after treatment ends.

Anxiety Drugs Rival Antibiotics In Gut Health Impacts

Benzodiazepines stood out in the analysis. These anti-anxiety medications had effects on gut bacteria composition that rivaled those of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Different drugs in this class had varying impacts, with alprazolam exerting a broader effect than diazepam, even though both treat similar conditions.

The study also revealed differences among medications in the same class. Among beta-blockers, metoprolol was associated with much stronger microbiome changes than nebivolol. Among proton pump inhibitors, omeprazole demonstrated different patterns than pantoprazole or esomeprazole.

These variations matter for clinical practice. If two medications treat the same condition but one has a more dramatic effect on gut bacteria, that information could eventually influence prescribing decisions.

Which Bacterial Species Are Most Affected

Specific bacterial species followed consistent patterns across multiple drug classes. Several members of the Clostridiales order increased in abundance among people taking beta-blockers, macrolide antibiotics, biguanides like metformin, and proton pump inhibitors.

Proton pump inhibitors were linked to increases in oral bacteria like Streptococcus parasanguinis and Veillonella parvula, species that normally reside in the mouth but can colonize the gut when stomach acid is reduced. The finding aligns with previous research and helps explain why PPIs can sometimes lead to gut infections.

Many of the medications studied were negatively correlated with overall bacterial diversity in the gut. People taking more unique medications at the time of sampling tended to have lower microbial richness, meaning fewer different species of bacteria.

Before-and-After Evidence Supporting Causal Links

To confirm their findings, researchers analyzed a subset of 328 people who provided stool samples twice, about four years apart. Watching what happened when people started or stopped taking medications between the two time points provided clearer evidence.

When people began taking penicillins, macrolides, proton pump inhibitors, benzodiazepines, or glucocorticoids, their gut bacteria changed in predictable ways. When they discontinued medications, the bacterial changes moved in the opposite direction, supporting a likely causal relationship between drug use and microbiome alterations.

These before-and-after comparisons provide stronger evidence than simply observing differences between people taking and not taking medications at a single point in time.

Why This Matters For Gut Health Research

The study has immediate consequences for microbiome research. Scientists trying to understand links between gut bacteria and diseases need to account not just for current medication use, but for prescriptions filled months or years earlier. Otherwise, they risk confusing medication effects with disease effects.

The researchers demonstrated this problem by revealing that several disease-microbiome associations were actually confounded by long-term drug usage. When past medication history was properly accounted for, some apparent disease signals disappeared.

For clinical medicine, the findings raise questions about cumulative effects of medications taken over time. If drugs leave lasting marks on the microbiome, and if the microbiome influences health, then medication decisions today could have consequences that extend far beyond the treatment period.

The research also suggests that gut bacteria might not fully recover after antibiotic courses. People who had used antibiotics years earlier still had lower bacterial diversity than people who had avoided antibiotics entirely during the five-year observation window. Time since last antibiotic treatment didn’t seem to bring diversity levels back to baseline.

Study participants who used prescription medications took an average of about three different drugs from diverse classes at the time of sample collection. During the five-year observation period, they had used more than 500 different medications at the most specific classification level.

When someone takes multiple medications, their combined effects on the microbiome might be additive or even synergistic. Past drug usage explained slightly more variance in microbiome composition than current drug usage, suggesting that accumulated medication history matters at least as much as what someone is taking right now.

While the study was conducted in Estonia, the medications analyzed are used worldwide. Beta-blockers, antidepressants, proton pump inhibitors, and benzodiazepines rank among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States and many other countries.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/common-medications-continue-altering-gut-years-after-stop-taking-them/

Elon Musk’s race to dominate our planet’s orbit with his satellite constellations is creating tons of space junk — enough of it, in fact, that we might want to start looking up.

According to storied Smithsonian astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, there are now one or two of these Starlink satellites falling back to Earth every single day, he recently told EarthSky. And that figure, McDowell warned, is only going to keep climbing.

The alarming statistic underscores the concerns around rapidly populating the planet’s Low Earth Orbit with expendable satellites. Musk’s SpaceX has been launching thousands of them up there using his reusable rockets since 2019, with more than 8,000 currently in operation.

With those efforts accelerating in recent years, SpaceX has launched more than 2,000 satellites in 2025 alone. Meanwhile, its competitors are rushing to catch up with their own satellite-based internet service, with Amazon kickstarting its plan to deploy more than 3,200 with its first batch launched earlier this year.

“With all constellations deployed, we expect about 30,000 low-Earth orbit satellites (Starlink, Amazon Kuiper, others) and perhaps another 20,000 satellites at 1,000 km [620 miles] from the Chinese systems,” McDowell told EarthSky.

Low Earth Orbit’s rapidly getting more crowded, in other words, and that means a lot of satellite casualties. One of the reasons they’re occurring so frequently is that Starlink’s satellites have a short lifespan of around five years. After this, they’re guided towards the Earth, where they’re supposed to burn up upon re-entering the atmosphere.

All those cremated satellites have scientists concerned about the pollution they’re causing by releasing metals into the stratosphere, with one study speculating that it could kick off a chain reaction that devastates the ozone layer.

“So far answers have ranged from ‘this is too small to be a problem’ to ‘we’re already screwed,’” McDowell told The Register. “But the uncertainty is large enough that there’s already a possibility we’re damaging the upper atmosphere.”

And atmospheric pollution may soon be the least of our worries. In a 2023 report, the Federal Aviation Administration warned that by 2035, some 28,000 fragments from Starlink satellites could survive re-entry each year, skyrocketing the chance of someone on the ground getting struck and killed by space debris — once considered an astronomical improbability — to a staggering 61 percent each year.

As it stands, the Earth’s on track to be bombarded by five satellite re-entries per day in the near future, McDowell warned. But that’s not even the worst case scenario. McDowell fears that if satellite constellations become too crowded, it could host a disastrous chain reaction called Kessler syndrome, in which a few collisions between satellites cascade out of control and create even more space debris, potentially trapping humankind below a whirling vortex of orbital shrapnel. SpaceX’s satellites are low enough that it’s unlikely they’d survive the amount of time needed for this cascade to happen, but its dominance there may force competitors to higher orbits where their craft could take decades, if not centuries, to de-orbit.

Source : https://futurism.com/space/elon-musks-satellites-falling

OpenAI could now be the world’s most valuable startup, ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, after a secondary stock sale designed to retain employees at the ChatGPT maker.

Current and former OpenAI employees sold $6.6 billion in shares to a group of investors, pushing the privately held artificial intelligence company’s valuation to $500 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The investors buying the shares included Thrive Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group and T. Rowe Price, along with Japanese tech giant SoftBank and the United Arab Emirates’ MGX, the source said Thursday.

The valuation reflects high expectations for the future of AI technology and continues OpenAI’s remarkable trajectory from its start as a nonprofit research lab in 2015.

But with the San Francisco-based company not yet turning a profit, it could also amplify concerns about an AI bubble if the generative AI products made by OpenAI and its competitors don’t meet the expectations of investors pouring billions of dollars into research and development.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has sought to dismiss those concerns, most recently last week, when he toured a massive data center complex being built to run the company’s AI systems in Abilene, Texas.

“Between the ten years we’ve already been operating and the many decades ahead of us, there will be booms and busts,” Altman said after being asked about a bubble. “People will overinvest and lose money, and underinvest and lose a lot of revenue.”

He added that “we’ll make some dumb capital allocations” and there will be short-term ups and downs but that “over the arc that we have to plan over, we are confident that this technology will drive a new wave of unprecedented economic growth,” along with scientific breakthroughs, improvements to quality of life and “new ways to express creativity.”

Just this week, the company launched two different business ventures, one a partnership with Etsy and Shopify for online shopping through ChatGPT and another a social media app, Sora, for generating and sharing AI videos.

OpenAI has been struggling to offer investors and staff the same perks and compensation as the publicly traded tech giants with which it competes. Facebook parent Meta Platforms, in particular, has been on a hiring spree for elite AI engineers and in June made a $14.3 billion investment in AI company Scale that recruited its CEO Alexandr Wang.

OpenAI’s for-profit subsidiary, valued at $500 billion, is technically controlled by the board of OpenAI’s nonprofit and both are still bound to pursue the nonprofit’s charitable purpose.

OpenAI’s partnerships with major companies and its plans to change its corporate structure have drawn the scrutiny of regulators, including the attorneys general of California and Delaware, who oversee charitable organizations that operate or are incorporated in their states.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/openai-500b-valuation-chatgpt-53dffc56355460a232439c76d1ccf22b

Elon Musk axed an X engineer after they delivered the harsh truth about why his posts were flopping, a new book claims.

Journalist Jacob Silverman revealed in his new book Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley that Musk became fixated on how people interacted with his posts following his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

“Firing more than half of Twitter employees, Musk transformed how the platform operated,” Silverman writes in an excerpt obtained by Newsweek about the mass layoffs that occurred after the tech billionaire’s 2022 Twitter takeover.

Silverman then details a 2023 firing reported at the time by the tech news site Platformer.

“He fired a company engineer who told him that engagement on his tweets was down because people weren’t as interested in him,” Silverman writes.

The original report described how Musk gathered engineers and advisers at Twitter’s headquarters in 2023, where multiple sources recalled him saying: “This is ridiculous… I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.”

“One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers offered a possible explanation for Musk’s declining reach,” Platformer reported, withholding the engineer’s name due to the harassment Musk directed at former employees.

According to the publication, employees presented Musk with internal data and a Google Trends chart showing his popularity had fallen from a peak score of 100 to just nine. Musk then reportedly told the engineer, “You’re fired, you’re fired.”

In his new book, Silverman cites an example—also reported at the time by Platformer—recounting the 2023 Super Bowl, when both then-President Joe Biden and Musk tweeted their support for the Philadelphia Eagles, with Biden’s post generating nearly 20 million more impressions.

“That apparently was unacceptable to Musk, who deleted his tweet and flew to California after the game to demand changes to Twitter’s algorithm,” Silverman writes.

Silverman then quotes an alleged 2:36 a.m. Slack message from Musk’s cousin James Musk after the Super Bowl fiasco, which read: “We are debugging an issue with engagement across the platform. Any people who can make dashboards and write software please can you help solve this problem. This is high urgency. If you are willing to help out please thumbs up this post.”

“Thanks to the middle-of-the-night participation of 80 company engineers, the ‘high urgency’ issue was quickly solved,” Silverman writes, detailing the changes made that ensured “Twitter’s systems to privilege Musk’s posts above all others.”

“The For You feed became a mirror of Musk’s interests, containing the right-wing accounts he followed,” Silverman writes.

The author of the original Platformer article, which detailed the operation to change the X (formerly Twitter) algorithm, had been called out by Musk on X following its publication.

“The “source” of the bogus Platformer article is a disgruntled employee who had been on paid time off for months, had already accepted a job at Google and felt the need to poison the well on the way out. Twitter will be taking legal action against him,” Musk posted on X in response.

“All my sources for the story were current Twitter employees,” Zoe Schiffer, the author of the Platformer story, wrote about her sources after Musk’s threat.

Source : https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/musk-axed-x-engineer-after-truth-about-his-poor-performing-posts/ar-AA1NGYTM

For decades, doctors have debated whether older adults should take a daily aspirin to prevent cancer. New research reveals they may have been asking the wrong question. Instead of wondering whether aspirin works for everyone, scientists have discovered that the decades-old medication helps some seniors avoid cancer while potentially increasing the hazard for others.

An important new study published in JAMA Oncology analyzed 9,350 healthy adults aged 70 and older and found that blanket aspirin recommendations miss the mark for nearly half of all seniors. Using advanced predictive modeling, researchers identified distinct groups: 59% of participants were likely to benefit from daily aspirin, while 41% were better off avoiding it altogether.

These findings shred the one-size-fits-all approach that has dominated medical thinking about aspirin and cancer prevention for generations. Rather than treating all older adults the same way, the research points toward a future where genetic factors and personal characteristics guide treatment decisions.

When Aspirin Helps and When It Harms

Among seniors predicted to benefit from aspirin therapy, the medication was associated with a 15% lower hazard of developing cancer. But for those in the unfavorable group, aspirin was associated with a 14% higher hazard of cancer. This showed meaningful differences between who should and shouldn’t take daily aspirin for cancer prevention.

Dr. Le Thi Phuong Thao from Monash University, who led the research team, identified several factors that determined which group people fell into. Those most likely to benefit were older, had never smoked, carried specific genetic mutations, had family histories of cancer, and maintained lower body weights. Current smokers with higher BMIs, diabetes, and personal cancer histories were more likely to see increased cancer hazard from aspirin.

Most striking was the role of a genetic condition called clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, or CHIP. This age-related condition involves mutations in blood-forming stem cells with a variant allele frequency of 10% or greater and affects 5.7% of study participants. CHIP emerged as the strongest predictor of aspirin benefit, while current smoking was the strongest predictor of potential harm.

“Current smoking was the most important predictor for a detrimental effect of aspirin on cancer incidence,” the researchers noted, while CHIP was “the most important predictor for a beneficial effect.”

The Science Behind Personalized Prevention

CHIP showed particular importance because it’s linked to increased inflammation in the body. People with this genetic condition have elevated levels of inflammatory substances in their blood, including interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Aspirin works by blocking cyclooxygenase enzymes that drive inflammation throughout the body, potentially explaining why it’s particularly effective for people with CHIP.

The research challenges decades of medical advice that has swung between enthusiastically recommending aspirin for everyone to questioning its benefits entirely. Major medical organizations, including the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, have struggled with mixed research results, particularly for people over 60.

These conflicting results may have occurred because previous studies lumped together people who respond very differently to aspirin therapy. When researchers separated participants based on their predicted responses, clear patterns emerged.

A New Era of Precision Medicine

Using their predictive model, researchers calculated that personalized treatment decisions improved five-year cancer risk reduction by an average of 2.3% compared to giving aspirin to everyone. While this might seem modest, it represents a significant advance in precision medicine for cancer prevention.

The model weighs factors together instead of looking at each risk factor one by one. Age, smoking history, genetic status, family history, and body weight all contribute to the final calculation of whether someone is likely to benefit or be harmed by aspirin therapy.

However, the researchers emphasize that cancer prevention represents just one piece of the aspirin decision puzzle. The medication also affects bleeding risk and cardiovascular disease prevention, factors that must be weighed alongside cancer considerations.

What This Means for Patients

The study focused on healthy older White adults in Australia who began aspirin therapy after age 70, limiting how broadly the findings apply to other populations. The researchers also examined cancer prevention over five years, while previous studies suggest aspirin’s benefits may be more pronounced when started younger and continued longer.

Before these findings can change medical practice, the predictive model needs validation in different populations. The researchers provide mathematical equations that other scientists can use to test their approach in diverse groups of patients.

This research points toward a move away from blanket medical recommendations toward individualized treatment strategies. Rather than asking whether aspirin prevents cancer, doctors may soon routinely consider genetic profiles, lifestyle factors, and personal medical histories to determine who is most likely to benefit.

For some older adults, genetic testing for conditions like CHIP could potentially become as routine as checking cholesterol levels. The goal isn’t to complicate medical decision-making but to make it more precise and effective.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/daily-aspirin-after-70-who-may-benefit-who-should-avoid-entirely/

Lower back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, yet most treatments offer limited relief. One of the most divisive is acupuncture – recommended in U.S. guidelines for lower back pain but not in the U.K. A new study has now examined whether it truly helps.

The study found that acupuncture does provide some relief for people with lower back pain, though the benefit was modest. Having additional maintenance sessions did not boost the effect.

More significantly, the improvement was smaller than that seen in studies using different approaches from Australia and the U.S. Although acupuncture is unlikely to be the best treatment for lower back pain, the fact that it helps at all reveals something important about the condition and how people can find relief.

The study included 800 older adults who were randomly assigned to “usual care” or one of two acupuncture plans. The standard program involved 11 sessions over 12 weeks, while the enhanced version added five more maintenance sessions over the following 12 weeks. The trial took place with 55 acupuncturists in different parts of the U.S. and focused on older adults.

After six and 12 months, both acupuncture groups had similar results, so the extra follow-up sessions didn’t help. Both acupuncture groups had less pain and disability after six months than those who received usual care – and about 40% improved by at least 30%. These improvements persisted until the 12-month evaluation, and no major safety concerns emerged.

These findings align with large reviews of lower back pain treatments focusing on acupuncture or all non-drug and non-surgical approaches. Overall, acupuncture performs somewhat better than no treatment or usual care at improving pain and disability, though this benefit is typically small.

More tellingly, reviews show that any benefit from acupuncture appears even smaller when compared with sham (pretend) or placebo treatments. This means some of the benefit may come from the experience of being treated, not the acupuncture itself.

What patients expect can affect how much they say they improve, which is important in all studies that rely on self-reported pain. This makes it crucial to consider what comparison treatment was used when any study claims acupuncture helps, as usual-care groups – who typically receive less time and attention – are easiest to outperform.

Alternatives To Acupuncture For Lower Back Pain

Some people might say that any relief from lower back pain is worth celebrating or even paying for. But it’s also important to think about whether safer and cheaper options are available.

The benefits of different mind-body treatments for lower back pain studied in Australia and the U.S. are worth considering, as they appear to offer greater reductions in pain and disability without increasing costs or risks.

The Australian study showed much greater reductions in disability and pain (using the same outcome measures) through a rehabilitation program delivered by physiotherapists that addressed both physical and psychological aspects of back pain. Even more importantly, the economic analysis revealed significant cost savings.

The U.S. study involved teaching people that back pain comes from their brain being overprotective, rather than actual damage to their back. It used talk therapy techniques to help the participants think about and respond to pain differently. As with the Australian study, the U.S. study also demonstrated much larger reductions in pain and disability than those seen with acupuncture – albeit using slightly different measures.

The fact that these holistic, mind-body rehabilitation programs outperform acupuncture – and other relatively basic interventions such as massage and medication – reflects the emerging international consensus that comprehensive approaches help people manage their lower back pain.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/acupuncture-vs-holistic-therapies-which-works-better-for-lower-back-pain/

When two researchers at the University of Cambridge challenged ChatGPT with a classic puzzle from ancient Greece, they found that the model sometimes behaved less like a search engine and more like a learner. The platform took time testing approaches, reconsidering when prompted, and even resisting wrong suggestions.

The study suggests that artificial intelligence may do more than retrieve memorized answers. In certain settings, it can appear to work through problems in a way that resembles student reasoning.

This finding does not mean ChatGPT “thinks” like a human. The authors emphasize their study is exploratory and based on a single conversation. Still, the results raise questions about how AI might support education if guided well.

How Researchers Gave ChatGPT Plato’s Famous Math Test

Nadav Marco, who’s now at Hebrew University, and Andreas Stylianides revisited Plato’s dialogue “Meno.” In that text, Socrates shows an uneducated slave boy how to double the area of a square through guided questions. Socrates used this exchange to argue that knowledge already exists in the mind and can be drawn out through teaching.

The researchers posed the same 2,400-year-old puzzle to ChatGPT-4. Instead of repeating the well-known geometric solution from Plato’s dialogue, ChatGPT used algebra, which wasn’t invented until centuries later.

What made this notable is that the AI later showed it did know the geometric method. If it were simply recalling from training data, the obvious move would have been to cite Plato’s approach immediately. Instead, it appeared to construct a different solution pathway.

The researchers also tried to mislead ChatGPT into making the same mistake as Plato’s slave, who initially thought doubling the sides would double the area. But ChatGPT refused to accept this wrong answer, carefully explaining why doubling the sides actually creates four times the area, not twice.

When ChatGPT Faced Variations on the Problem

The researchers then changed the puzzle, asking ChatGPT how to double the area of a rectangle. Here, the model showed surprising awareness of the problem’s limitations. Rather than incorrectly applying the square’s diagonal method, ChatGPT explained that “the diagonal does not offer a straightforward new dimension” for rectangles.

This response demonstrated something resembling mathematical reasoning. The AI seemed to understand that techniques working for one shape don’t automatically apply to others—a distinction that often challenges human students learning geometry.

When prompted for more practical solutions, ChatGPT initially focused on algebraic approaches, similar to its first response about squares. But the AI’s explanations of how it was reasoning were inconsistent. At times it described generating answers in real time; at other points it implied the responses were not spontaneous.

The authors noted that these reflections may not accurately represent how the system works. They cautioned against taking the AI’s own words at face value, since language models are not reliable guides to their inner processes.

The “Chat’s ZPD”: Where AI Learns with Guidance

Drawing on psychologist Lev Vygotsky, the researchers described a “Chat’s Zone of Proximal Development.” These are problems ChatGPT could not solve independently but managed when guided with timely prompts.

Vygotsky’s original concept describes the gap between what a child can do alone versus what they can accomplish with help from a teacher or more skilled peer. The researchers found a similar pattern with ChatGPT: certain problems remained out of reach until the right kind of guidance appeared.

Some answers looked like retrieval from training data. Others, especially those involving resistance to incorrect suggestions or adaptation to new prompts, resembled the problem-solving steps of students. While this does not prove that the model truly “understands,” it does suggest that, under the right conditions, AI output can mirror aspects of human learning.

When the researchers asked for an “elegant and exact” solution to the original square problem, ChatGPT provided the geometric construction method. The AI itself admitted that “there [was] indeed a more straightforward and mathematically precise approach … which [it] should have emphasised directly in response to [our] initial inquiry.”

This self-correction suggested the model could reflect on and improve its responses when given appropriate prompts, much like a student who realizes they took a harder path than necessary.

What This Means for Students and Teachers

If AI tools can sometimes behave like learners, they could become useful educational partners. Instead of treating ChatGPT as an answer machine, students and teachers might experiment with prompts that invite collaboration and exploration.

The type of prompt matters significantly. The researchers found that asking for exploration and collaboration yielded different responses than requesting summaries based on reliable sources. Knowing how to phrase prompts could shape whether the model retrieves or attempts to generate new approaches.

Teachers could use this approach to model problem-solving strategies. Rather than asking AI for the final answer, they might guide it through the same thinking process they want students to follow. This could help students see that even sophisticated systems sometimes struggle, reconsider approaches, and need guidance to reach better solutions.

Students, meanwhile, could practice their own reasoning by working alongside AI that shows its thinking process. When ChatGPT resists incorrect suggestions or explains why certain approaches won’t work, students get opportunities to understand mathematical reasoning rather than just memorize procedures.

The authors stress that their study, published in the International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, involved only one conversation with one model (ChatGPT-4 in February 2024). Results may differ with newer versions or different systems. Still, the findings invite educators to consider how AI might support exploration, not just provide ready-made answers.

As the researchers put it, users should “pay attention to the type of knowledge they wish to get from an LLM and try to communicate it clearly in their prompts.” Guidance can help AI attempt solutions it would not manage on its own.

Building Mathematical Understanding Through AI Collaboration

The study reveals potential for AI to serve as more than an information source. When ChatGPT resisted incorrect suggestions and explained its reasoning, it demonstrated behaviors that could help students develop critical thinking skills.

Rather than simply accepting or rejecting AI outputs, students could learn to evaluate mathematical reasoning, whether from artificial systems or human sources. This skill becomes increasingly valuable as AI tools become more prevalent in academic and professional settings.

The researchers’ approach also highlights how questioning techniques can reveal different aspects of AI behavior. By varying their prompts and challenging the system’s responses, they uncovered evidence of both retrieval and generation processes within the same conversation.

A Tentative Step, Not a Final Word

The study opens questions about how we understand machine intelligence. If AI can engage in something resembling reasoning, complete with self-correction and resistance to errors, the line between retrieval and generation becomes blurred. This doesn’t mean AI has achieved consciousness, but it suggests these systems might be more sophisticated thinking partners than previously imagined.

For teachers and students, the lesson is not that machines replace human reasoning, but that they could help learners explore strategies, confront mistakes, and practice persistence in problem-solving. The key lies in knowing how to prompt and guide these systems effectively.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/chatgpt-solves-platos-ancient-math-test/

The Moon and Sun staged a dramatic spectacle on September 21, when a deep partial solar eclipse darkened skies over the Pacific Ocean and turned the glowing disk of the sun into a radiant crescent.

The eclipse occurred during the new Moon phase, when the Moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun. The alignment hid much of the solar surface without fully blocking its light, creating the distinctive crescent-shaped sun seen across parts of the Southern Hemisphere.

The best views came from Antarctica, New Zealand and southern Australia, where the Moon appeared to take the deepest bite out of the Sun. In Dunedin, New Zealand, daylight dimmed noticeably as the lunar disk covered much of the solar face. Even everyday shadows reflected the spectacle — pinpoints of light shining through trees or small gaps turned into miniature crescents.

The timing added another layer of drama. For Southern Hemisphere viewers, the eclipse fell on Monday local time, just two weeks after Asia witnessed a striking total lunar eclipse.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/in-pics-partial-solar-eclipse-turns-sun-into-crescent-over-pacific-skies-glbs-2791087-2025-09-22

Astronomers have glimpsed the inner structure of a dying star in a rare kind of cosmic explosion called an “extremely stripped supernova.”

In a paper published in Nature, Steve Schulze of Northwestern University in the United States and colleagues describe the supernova 2021yfj and a thick shell of gas surrounding it.

Their findings support our existing theories of what happens inside massive stars at the end of their lives – and how they have shaped the building blocks of the universe we see today.

How Stars Make The Elements

Stars are powered by nuclear fusion – a process in which lighter atoms are squished together into heavier ones, releasing energy.

Fusion happens in stages over the star’s life. In a series of cycles, first hydrogen (the lightest element) is fused into helium, followed by the formation of heavier elements such as carbon. The most massive stars continue on to neon, oxygen, silicon and finally iron.

Each burning cycle is faster than the previous one. The hydrogen cycle can last for millions of years, while the silicon cycle is over in a matter of days.

As the core of a massive star keeps burning, the gas outside the core acquires a layered structure, where successive layers record the composition of the progression of burning cycles.

While all this is playing out in the star’s core, the star is also shedding gas from its surface, carried out into space by the stellar wind. Each fusion cycle creates an expanding shell of gas containing a different mix of elements.

Core Collapse

What happens to a massive star when its core is full of iron? The great pressure and temperature will make the iron fuse, but unlike the fusion of lighter elements, this process absorbs energy instead of releasing it.

The release of energy from fusion is what has been holding the star up against the force of gravity – so now the iron core will collapse. Depending on how big it is to start with, the collapsed core will become a neutron star or a black hole.

The process of collapse creates a “bounce,” which sends energy and matter flying outwards. This is called a core-collapse supernova explosion.

The explosion lights up the layers of gas shed from the star earlier, allowing us to see what they are made of. In all known supernovae until now, this material was either the hydrogen, the helium or the carbon layer, produced in the first two nuclear burning cycles.

The inner layers (the neon, oxygen and silicon layers) are all produced in a mere few hundred years before the star explodes, which means they don’t have time to travel out far from the star.

An Explosive Mystery

But that’s what makes the new supernova SN2021yfj so interesting. Schulze and colleagues found the material outside the star came from the silicon layer, the last layer just above the iron core, which forms on a timescale of a few months.

Artist interpretation of SN2021yfj’s origin

The stellar wind must have expelled all the layers right down to the silicon one before the explosion occurred. Astronomers don’t understand how a stellar wind could be powerful enough to do this.

The most plausible scenario is a second star was involved. If another star were orbiting the one that exploded, its gravity might have rapidly pulled out the deep silicon layer.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/astronomers-glimpse-core-dying-star-supernova

During the Meta Connect event, the launch of Meta Ray Ban glasses was overshadowed by technical failures. AI miscommunication and unresponsive features led to a chaotic demonstration, prompting CEO Mark Zuckerberg to blame connectivity issues for the mishaps.

More than 330 websites have been linked to a phishing operation that stole over 5,000 Microsoft user credentials.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it seized 338 websites linked to a Nigerian-based service that allowed users to carry out phishing campaigns

The service, called “Raccoon0365,” allowed users to engage in phishing campaigns that involved thousands of emails at a time, according to Steven Masada, assistant general counsel for Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit.

The phishing operation ended up stealing at least 5,000 Microsoft user credentials.

Phishing is a cybercrime in which criminals impersonate trustworthy domains to deceive users into revealing sensitive information like passwords or banking details.

How did the phishing scheme work?
Raccoon0365 operates through a private Telegram channel with over 850 subscribers.

The service enables users to impersonate trusted brand names and get targets to enter Microsoft login details on fake Microsoft platforms. According to Microsoft’s Masada, the service has generated at least $100,000 (€84,425) in cryptocurrency payments for its operators since launching in July 2024.

Google shared eight Nano Banana prompts, which you can use to create surreal and extraordinary profile pictures on Google Gemini.

The Nano Banana craze has taken over social media and is still going strong. People are sharing various prompts that can be used to turn unassuming pictures into extraordinary visuals. Google, in a recent post, revealed eight such prompts that will help you create unusual profile pics.

“Looking to Nano Banana your profile pic?” read a post on the official Instagram profile dedicated to Google Gemini. The tech company also shared several images which show the incredible results created using different prompts.

How to create your perfect profile pic?

Step 1: The first step is to visit the Google Gemini app or website. Be careful and avoid fake sites or apps

Step 2: The second step is to upload a high-quality picture

Step 3: Once done, you can add your prompt.

Step 4: Click generate and wait a few seconds for the AI to generate your image.

What are the prompts you can use?

Prompt 1

“Turn me into a huge, graffiti mural on the side of a building.”

Prompt 2

“Create a custom tarot card with a detailed folk-art, vibrant color style, of me.”

China accused Nvidia on Monday of violating the country’s antimonopoly laws and said it would step up scrutiny of the world’s leading chipmaker, escalating tensions with Washington as the two countries held trade talks this week.

Chinese regulators said a preliminary investigation found that Nvidia didn’t comply with conditions imposed when it purchased Mellanox Technologies, a network and data transmission company.

The one-sentence statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation statement did not mention any punishment, but said it would carry out “further investigation.”

An Nvidia spokesperson said, “We comply with the law in all respects. We will continue to cooperate with all relevant government agencies as they evaluate the impact of export controls on competition in the commercial markets.”

Regulators said in December that they were investigating the company for suspected violations stemming from the $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox. The deal was completed in 2020 after the Chinese regulator gave conditional approval for Nvidia to buy the Israeli company.

The announcement, which came as the two sides held trade talks in Spain, is the latest tit-for-tat move between Washington and Beijing in their trade battle over technology focusing on semiconductors and the equipment to make them.

On Saturday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was carrying out an antidumping investigation into certain analog IC chips imported from the U.S., including commodity chips commonly made by companies such as Texas Instruments and ON Semiconductor.

The ministry also announced a separate antidiscrimination probe into U.S. measures against China’s chip sector.

A day earlier, the U.S. had sanctioned two Chinese companies accused of acquiring equipment for major Chinese chipmaker SMIC.

The talks in Madrid between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid concluded Monday with Bessent telling reporters the two sides reached a framework deal for U.S. ownership of TikTok. However, details were scant and Chinese negotiators provided no confirmation of a deal.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/nvidia-china-technology-trade-us-be817903c4b92a2569f2bfa57597956e

It feels like there are so many things constantly vying for our attention: the sharp buzz of the phone, the low hum of social media, the unrelenting flood of emails, the endless carousel of content.

It’s a familiar and almost universal ailment in our digital age. Our lives are punctuated by constant stimulation, and moments of real stillness – the kind where the mind wanders without a destination – have become rare.

Digital technologies permeate work, education, and intimacy. Not participating feels to many like nonexistence. But we tell ourselves that’s OK because platforms promise endless choice and self-expression, but this promise is deceptive. What appears as freedom masks a subtle coercion: distraction, visibility, and engagement are prescribed as obligations.

As someone who has spent years reading philosophy, I have been asking myself how to step out of this loop and try to think like great thinkers did in the past. A possible answer came from a thinker most people wouldn’t expect to help with our TikTok-era malaise: the German philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Heidegger argued that modern technology is not simply a collection of tools, but a way of revealing – a framework in which the world appears primarily as a resource, including the human body and mind, to be used for content. In the same way, platforms are also part of this resource, and one that shapes what appears, how it appears, and how we orient ourselves toward life.

Digital culture revolves around speed, visibility, algorithmic selection, and the compulsive generation of content. Life increasingly mirrors the logic of the feed: constantly updating, always “now” and allergic to slowness, silence and stillness.

What digital platforms take away is more than just our attention being “continuously partial” — they also limit the deeper kind of reflection that allows us to engage with life and ourselves fully. They make us lose the capacity to inhabit silence and confront the unfilled moment.

When moments of silence or emptiness arise, we instinctively look to others — not for real connection, but to fill the void with distraction. Heidegger calls this distraction “das man” or “they:” the social collective whose influence we unconsciously follow.

In this way, the “they” becomes a kind of ghostly refuge, offering comfort while quietly erasing our own sense of individuality. This “they” multiplies endlessly through likes, trends, and algorithmic virality. In fleeing from boredom together, the possibility of an authentic “I” disappears into the infinite deferral of collective mimicry.

Heidegger feared that under the dominance of technology, humanity might lose its capacity to relate to “being itself.” This “forgetting of being” is not merely an intellectual error but an existential poverty.

Today, it can be seen as the loss of depth — the eclipse of boredom, the erosion of interiority, the disappearance of silence. Where there is no boredom, there can be no reflection. Where there is no pause, there can be no real choice.

Heidegger’s “forgetting of being” now manifests as the loss of boredom itself. What we forfeit is the capacity for sustained reflection.

Boredom As A Privileged Mood

For Heidegger, profound boredom is not merely a psychological state but a privileged mood in which the everyday world begins to withdraw. In his 1929 to 1930 lecture course The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, he describes boredom as a fundamental attunement through which beings no longer “speak” to us, revealing the nothingness at the heart of being itself.

Boredom is not absence but a threshold — a condition for thinking, wonder, and the emergence of meaning.

The loss of profound boredom mirrors the broader collapse of existential depth into surface. Once a portal to being, boredom is now treated as a design flaw, patched with entertainment and distraction.

Never allowing ourselves to be bored is equivalent to never allowing ourselves to be as we are. As Heidegger insists, only in the totality of profound boredom do we come face to face with beings as a whole. When we flee boredom, we escape ourselves. At least, we try to.

The problem is not that boredom strikes too often, but that it is never allowed to fully arrive. Boredom, which has paradoxically seen a rise in countries drowning in technology like the US, is shameful. It is treated like an illness almost. We avoid it, hate it, fear it.

Digital life and its many platforms offer streams of micro-distractions that prevent immersion into this more primitive attunement. Restlessness is redirected into scrolling, which, instead of meaningful reflection, produces only more scrolling. What disappears with boredom is not leisure, but metaphysical access — the silence in which the world might speak, and one might hear.

In this light, rediscovering boredom is not about idle time, it is about reclaiming the conditions for thought, depth, and authenticity. It is a quiet resistance to the pervasive logic of digital life, an opening to the full presence of being, and a reminder that the pause, the unstructured moment, and the still passage are not failures – they are essential.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/put-down-phone-engage-in-boredom-digital-overload/

Approximately 30% of the global population is affected by metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MASLD), a condition that previously lacked targeted treatments. In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers have identified a genetic factor that exacerbates the disease, and remarkably, the FDA-approved drug that most effectively targets this factor is vitamin B3.

Scientists in the Netherlands discovered a new pair of salivary glands in the human throat while testing a cancer scan.

Scientists in the Netherlands have made a surprising discovery of a new organ in the human throat. While testing a new cancer scan in 2020, they accidentally found a set of glands deep in the upper part of the throat. This discovery could change the understanding of human anatomy.

The newly found glands, called the ‘tubarial salivary glands,’ are believed to help keep the area behind the nose well-lubricated. Researchers think this could be important for improving the quality of life for patients undergoing radiation therapy for head and neck tumours.

The Discovery Happened By Accident During Cancer Tests

Researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam were testing a new PSMA PET-CT scan, which combines computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) to detect prostate cancer. During the process, a radioactive tracer is injected into the patient’s body, allowing doctors to track its path.

While this method is usually used to find prostate tumours, the team noticed two unexpected areas lighting up in the back of the nasopharynx, the area behind the nose. These glands, about 1.5 inches long, looked similar to the major salivary glands already known.

“People have three sets of large salivary glands, but not there,” said radiation oncologist Wouter Vogel, as quoted by the Daily Mail. “As far as we knew, the only salivary or mucous glands in the nasopharynx are microscopically small and up to 1,000 are evenly spread out throughout the mucosa. So, imagine our surprise when we found these,” he added.

The glands appeared in all 100 patient scans they studied.

This Discovery Can Help Reduce Side Effects of Radiation

At the institute, Vogel and surgeon Matthijs H Valstar study how radiation affects patients with head and neck tumours. Radiation therapy can damage known salivary glands, making it hard for patients to eat, swallow, or speak.

Vogel explained, “Radiation would cause the same side effects in the submandibular salivary glands.” After examining more than 700 cases, the researchers found that the more radiation these new glands received, the worse the patients’ complications were.

Source : https://www.news18.com/viral/after-300-years-scientists-find-new-organ-in-human-body-and-it-can-change-cancer-treatment-aa-ws-l-9565868.html

Google has introduced an innovative feature called Nano Banana that allows users to easily transform photos into 3D collectible models using its Gemini 2.25 Flash Image technology.

Ever wished you could turn a simple photo into a cool 3D collectable? Thanks to Google’s quirky new feature called Nano Banana, you actually can and it only takes a few clicks. The magic comes from Google’s Gemini 2.25 Flash Image model, but don’t worry, you don’t need expensive tools or any pro-level skills. Just your Google account, a browser, and a bit of imagination. Here’s how you can make your own action-figure style 3D model for free.

NASA has revealed the clearest signs of life on Mars ever after making an incredible rover discovery.

Evidence of ancient alien microbes have been uncovered in a dry river channel formed roughly 3.7 billion years ago, scientists reported Wednesday.

A sample obtained by Nasa’s Perseverance rover found sediment on the bottom of the ancient Neretva Vallis lake which points towards potential signs of ancient microbial life, according to scientists.

Researchers say the rocks contain tiny dark specks which are less than a millimetre in length and have been nicknamed “poppy seeds”.

Other sediments found contain larger dark-rimmed rosettes with lighter centres – dubbed “leopard spots”.

Both speckles are said to be rich in iron and phosphorus.

These chemicals can form when tiny microbes break down organic material – a sign of life back down on Earth.

Scientists also found vein-like structures believed to be white calcium sulfate.

Between these veins sat a material with a reddish color suggesting the presence of hematite – one of the minerals which gives Mars its distinctive colour.

The age of the samples collected by Perseverance are estimated to be aged somewhere between 3.5 to 3.7 billion years old.

Each of the rocks are now due to be taken for in-depth analysis.

They are sealed inside Perseverance along with a number of rock cores awaiting a potential trip back to Earth.

The Perseverance – the same size as a standard car – has been roaming Mars since 2021.

It carries a drill to penetrate rocks and tubes to hold the samples gathered from places judged most suitable for hosting life billions of years ago.

The discovery is one of the best pieces of evidence to date about the possibility that Mars once harbored life.

Sean Duffy, the acting Nasa administrator, said: “A year ago, we thought we found what we believe to be signs of microbial life on the Mars surface.

“We put it out to our scientific friends to pressure test it, to analyse it – did we get this right? Do we think this is a sign of ancient life on Mars?

“After a year of review, they’ve come back and they said: ‘Listen, we can’t find another explanation.’

“So, this very well could be the clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars.”

One other potential reason for the discovery may be due to chemical processes which have taken place on Mars over millions of years.

This would, in theory, create similar rock forms which are made up from the same elements.

But experts believe the reactions appear to have occurred at cool temperatures – potentially pointing towards a more biological origin to the sediment.

Professor Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College London, co-author of the study, added: “It’s not a slam dunk by any means. But this is the most exciting evidence so far.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tech/15159152/nasa-mars-discovery-rover-evidence-alien-microbes/

iPhone 17 series has launched along with the new Air variant and the Pro models that get serious upgrades this year.

Apple iPhone 17 series event has wrapped up on Tuesday, and we now have four new models from the company that will be looking for your money later this month when they go on sale. The new iPhone 17 series has a surprising iPhone Air addition since the Plus variant has been removed from the lineup. You also have the iPhone 17 Pro versions while the iPhone 17 gets not one but multiple upgrades that makes it a quality buy this year.

Here are all the iPhone 17 series variants and the iPhone Air model, their prices in India and what they offer for the price.

Apple iPhone 17 Series: All Variants Explained And Price In India

iPhone 17

• iPhone 17 256GB – Rs 82,900
• iPhone 512GB – Rs 1,02,900

iPhone 17 Pro

• iPhone 17 Pro 256GB – Rs 1,34,900
• iPhone 17 Pro 512GB – Rs 1,54,900
• iPhone 17 Pro 1TB – Rs 1,74,900
• iPhone 17 Pro Max 256GB – Rs 1,49,900
• iPhone 17 Pro Max 512GB – Rs 1,69,900
• iPhone 17 Pro Max 1TB – Rs 1,89,900
• iPhone 17 Pro Max 2TB – Rs 2,29,900

As you can see here, the iPhone 17 starting price has gone up and you are getting 256GB as the base model this year. The iPhone 17 Pro also costs a little more than before, same with the 17 Pro Max version which now gets a 2TB variant.

iPhone 17 Air Prices

• iPhone 17 Air 256GB – Rs 1,19,900
• iPhone 17 Air 512GB – Rs 1,39,900
• iPhone 17 Air 1TB – Rs 1,59,900

And yes, the iPhone Air version might be replacing the Plus variant but its premium design and Pro-hardware means it is priced like the iPhone 16 Pro model from last year.

Scientists at Stanford University have identified a specific brain region that appears to drive core autism symptoms in mice and successfully improved those behaviors using targeted treatments. The breakthrough focuses on overactive neurons deep in the brain that serve as gatekeepers for sensory information, controlling what signals reach conscious awareness

The findings, published in Science Advances, come from mouse studies, a standard model in autism research, and more work is needed before testing in humans. Still, the results point toward potential therapies that may address autism’s biological foundations rather than just managing symptoms.

Overactive Brain Cells Disrupt Normal Function

The problem originates in a brain structure called the reticular thalamic nucleus, which acts like a traffic control system for sensory information. In healthy brains, this region determines which sensory signals (sounds, sights, and touches) warrant attention from higher brain areas. In autism-model mice, however, these neurons fired in rapid, excessive bursts that scrambled normal brain communication.

Stanford researchers studied mice engineered to lack Cntnap2, a gene strongly linked to autism in humans. These mice exhibited classic autism-like traits, including social avoidance of other mice, repetitive grooming, hyperactivity, and increased seizure susceptibility. Brain examinations revealed that reticular thalamic nucleus neurons were firing far more frequently than normal.

Scientists traced this hyperactivity to overactive calcium channels, proteins that regulate how neurons communicate. In autism-model mice, these T-type calcium channels enabled neurons to burst-fire much more easily, resulting in disrupted brain signals that manifested as behavioral symptoms.

Two Treatment Methods Show Promise

Researchers tested whether reducing this neural overactivity could restore normal behavior using two different approaches, both of which produced remarkable results.

First, they administered Z944, a drug that blocks the problematic calcium channels, to the mice. Mice receiving this treatment showed substantial behavioral improvements, including decreased hyperactivity, restored social preferences, and cessation of excessive grooming behaviors. Z944 has already undergone human testing for treating certain seizure types, which could speed its potential path to autism trials.

The second method used advanced genetic tools called DREADDs (designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs). Scientists modified the mice so specific neurons could be controlled using engineered proteins and matching drugs. When they used this technique to quiet reticular thalamic nucleus activity, autism-like behaviors improved substantially again.

The simulation is part of Nasa’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA), a series of Earth-based experiments to evaluate how humans cope with the physical and psychological demands of deep-space travel.

Four volunteers are preparing to step into a year-long mission designed to mirror what it might be like to live on Mars.

On October 19, Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer will enter Nasa’s Mars Dune Alpha, a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat inside the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

They will remain inside for 378 days, concluding their mission on October 31, 2026.

The simulation is part of Nasa’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA), a series of Earth-based experiments to evaluate how humans cope with the physical and psychological demands of deep-space travel. Two alternate crew members, Emily Phillips and Laura Marie, are also on call should any of the volunteers be unable to participate.

CHAPEA missions are intended to mimic the significant challenges astronauts would face while living on the Red Planet. The volunteers will endure resource limitations, isolation, communication delays, equipment malfunctions, and high-tempo simulated spacewalks.

These scenarios are designed to provide Nasa with vital data on human health and performance for long-duration exploration.

“As Nasa gears up for crewed Artemis missions, CHAPEA and other ground analogs are helping us determine the best capabilities future astronauts will need,” said Sara Whiting, project scientist with Nasa’s Human Research Program.

During the simulation, the crew will perform daily research and operational activities, including simulated Mars walks, robotic operations, and cultivating a vegetable garden. They will also test new technologies designed for long stays on Mars, such as potable water dispensers and diagnostic medical devices.

“The simulation will allow us to measure both cognitive and physical performance under Mars-like conditions,” explained Grace Douglas, CHAPEA principal investigator. “This insight will help Nasa make key decisions to ensure future astronauts remain safe and mission-ready.”

This marks the second year-long surface simulation under CHAPEA. The first, completed in July 2024, provided baseline data that is already influencing mission planning.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/four-humans-to-begin-living-on-artificial-mars-year-long-mission-to-simulate-life-on-red-planet-2783563-2025-09-08

When you decide to reach for your morning coffee, more than half a million brain cells spring into action across nearly every region of your brain. Scientists have now captured this moment-by-moment neural activity in unprecedented detail, revealing that decision-making is far more brain-wide than researchers once believed.

An international team published two breakthrough studies in the journal Nature showing that making choices involves coordinated activity across the entire brain, not just specialized decision centers. The discovery challenges long-held models of how the brain processes information and could reshape research into conditions like schizophrenia and autism.

International Team Records Activity from 621,733 Brain Cells

Twelve laboratories across Europe and the United States joined forces to record activity from 621,733 individual brain cells in 139 mice. After applying quality-control measures, researchers identified 75,708 well-isolated neurons for their main analyses. Using advanced electrodes called Neuropixels probes, they monitored 279 different brain areas, representing about 95% of the entire mouse brain.

“This is the first time anyone has produced a full, brain-wide map of the activity of single neurons during decision-making. The scale is unprecedented as we recorded from over half a million neurons across mice in 12 labs, covering 279 brain areas, which together represent 95% of the mouse brain volume. The decision-making activity, and particularly reward, lit up the brain like a Christmas tree,” explained Professor Alexandre Pouget, Co-Founder of the International Brain Laboratory (IBL) and Group Leader at the University of Geneva, in a statement.

The experimental task was straightforward: mice watched a screen where a light appeared on the left or right side, then turned a wheel toward the light to receive a reward. On some trials, the light was so faint it was nearly invisible, forcing the mice to guess based on patterns they had noticed in previous rounds.

Brain Activity Spreads Everywhere During Decisions

The brain map challenged the traditional view of neural processing as a tidy assembly line. Instead of sensory areas passing information to decision areas, which then activate motor regions, researchers discovered something far more interconnected.

When mice made decisions, signals appeared simultaneously across the brain. Reward responses activated regions from visual processing areas to movement control centers. Even basic sensory regions showed decision-related activity.

“We’d seen how successful large-scale collaborations in physics had been at tackling questions no single lab could answer, and we wanted to try that same approach in neuroscience. The brain is the most complex structure we know of in the universe and understanding how it drives behaviour requires international collaboration on a scale that matches that complexity,” said Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel, Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at University College London and one of the core members of IBL.

This coordinated, brain-wide activity occurred not just during the final act of making a choice, but throughout the entire process of sensing, choosing, and acting.

Brain Makes Predictions at Every Processing Level

The second study revealed where expectations live in the brain. When mice used past experience to guess where the next light would appear, those predictions weren’t confined to higher-thinking areas as many scientists had assumed.

Instead, expectations appeared across the brain, even in the thalamus (the first relay station for visual information from the eyes). This means the brain begins making predictions about what it will see before higher brain regions have even started processing.

The widespread encoding of expectations supports the view that the brain operates as a prediction machine, constantly using past experience to anticipate what comes next. Scientists now know this predictive activity occurs at every level of brain processing, from basic sensory input to motor output.

New Research Directions for Brain Disorders

These discoveries could transform how researchers approach neurological and psychiatric conditions. Schizophrenia and autism, for example, involve difficulties with forming and updating expectations about the world. Knowing that expectations are encoded across the brain, rather than in isolated regions, opens new paths for investigation.

“Traditionally, neuroscience has looked at brain regions in isolation. Recording the whole brain means we now have an opportunity to understand how all the pieces fit together. This was too big of a project for any one lab, and a collaboration on this scale was only possible because of the dedication and talent of our staff scientists, who are the best in the business,” said Dr. Kenneth Harris, Professor of Quantitative Neuroscience at UCL and one of the core members of IBL.

“It’s immensely gratifying to see the IBL deliver the first brain-wide map of neural activity with such high spatial and temporal resolution. The map describes the activity of over 650,000 individual neurons with single-spike resolution. This activity underlies the brain’s sensory and motor activity that constitutes a decision. The map is a fantastic resource that is already being mined by myriad scientists, and yielding unexpected discoveries. It’s a great success for team science and open science,” added Dr. Matteo Carandini, Professor of Visual Neuroscience at UCL and one of the core members of IBL.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/scientists-map-complete-brain-activity-during-decision-making-for-first-time/