Science News

WIREDThe Kryptos Key Is Going Up for SaleJim Sanborn is auctioning off the elusive solution to K4, the outdoor sculpture that sits at CIA headquarters. But isn’t the value decreased every time someone new learns the secret? Besides isn’t it cheating and defying the original purpose?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/more-than-a-simple-relay-station-thalamus-may-guide-timing-of-brain-development-and-plasticity/ar-AA1KfkSf?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=9c3891007f444aea94c6a49cfb2b23b0&ei=11 Yet more support for the central role of the thalamus in cognitive outcomes. From the article: "Our data indicate that the thalamus likely plays a more active role in determining when cortical regions are plastic, and therefore when they exhibit both adaptability and vulnerability to our environments." Interestingly, Sydnor and her colleagues observed that the maturation of structural connections between the human thalamus and cortex followed a sens…

Here is a fun little study providing evidence for a friendly association between ocelot and opossum. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70322 Also a NY Times article (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/science/ocelots-opossums-friends-video.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE8.rKzr.EcZZx85fiDvm&smid=url-share I think there is a continuing trend in research to be less restrictive in assumptions about the range and capabilities of animal behaviour, which in the past frequently has led to dismissal of unexplained observations.

The article claims that China has installed enough alternative energy generation for carbon dioxide emissions to be falling and will continue to do so. BBC NewsChina's emissions may be falling - here's what you should...Experts are divided if the drop over really means China has reached the peak of its emissions.

Vibroacoustics sites are reporting a University of Turin study that plant increase pollen production in response to the buszzing of bees. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francesca-Barbero-2 https://www.hfsp.org/node/74710

Aging is generally associated with an increase in chronic inflammation. There are multiple hypothesis why that might be the case, including cellular senescence causing issues that the immune system tries to clear up to issues with the immune system itself. These chronic inflammations are associated with a wide range of issues, including dementia. This study is interesting as it provides some preliminary information challenging the notion by looking at inflammation markers across populations with different levels of industrialization. And found that in non-industrialized populations, inflammation is associated with infections, but not with aging, compared to industrialized…

It appears that Ash trees are evolving resistance to the dieback that has swept Europe. BBC NewsShoots of hope for Britain's cherished ash treesScientific evidence suggests ash trees are ‘fighting back’ against a deadly disease.

Weizmann Institute damaged by Iranian missiles. AP NewsIranian missile strikes Israel's 'crown jewel of science'For years, Israel has assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists, hoping to choke progress on Iran’s nuclear program by striking at the brains behind it.Many of those labs focus on the life sciences, whose projects are especially sensitive to physical damage, Fleishman said. The labs were studying areas like tissue generation, developmental biology or cancer, with much of their work now halted or severely set back by the damage. “This was the life’s work of many people,” he said, noting that years’ or even decades’ worth of research was destroyed. For Schuldiner, …

Jayant Narlikar was one of the co founders of the Steady State alternative to the big bang theory of cosmology. Although currently out of fashion, the big ban v steady state saga is reminiscent of the wave v particular theories of light which also see sawed back and fore in popularity. BBC NewsJayant Narlikar: Remembering the Indian scientist who cha...Jayant Narlikar who died at age 86, was dedicated to science education and shaped a generation of Indian researchers.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/james-webb-space-telescope-reveals-that-most-galaxies-rotate-clockwise-180986224/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=92132029

Another one, with is expectations and hurdles. ---> https://sodiumbatteryhub.com/2025/05/07/aeson-power-presents-sodium-battery-innovation-at-ees-europe-2025/

Ran across this article today. Haven't read a copy of the actual paper yet but supposedly promising and re-normalizable. https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/new-theory-of-gravity-brings-long-sought-theory-of-everything-a-crucial-step-closer And the paper https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6633/adc82e Keeping my fingers crossed ... Keeping my

On April 15, the National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ) in Boulder, Colorado, claimed, in the journal Metrologia, to have developed the world's most accurate timepiece, to less than 1 sec/100 million years. Here is the article Accuracy evaluation of primary frequency standard NIST-F4 - IOPscience that details the NIST-F4's workings. This would mean that having synchronized your watch with a T-Rex 100 000 000 years ago, it would be currently off by less than a second. I'm not sure how 'ground-breaking' this is, as I'm not aware of the accuracy of current atomic clocks, and most of us are fairly ignorant of such things. Perhaps @swansont can elaborat…

If you want to read the study it is here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59285-1 If you cannot here is a summary: "Biotic resistance predictably shifts microbial invasion regimes" by Ye, Shalev, and Ratzke (2025) explores how established microbial communities influence the success of invading microbes. The authors demonstrate that "biotic resistance"—interactions among resident microbes—can suppress or even entirely block the spread of invaders, regardless of environmental suitability. Through experiments and simulations, they identify three distinct invasion regimes: consistent, pulsed, and pinned. They also develop a simple, parameter-free model that can ac…

Interesting project although the journalists seem to have moved Weymouth some 300 miles west. Also someone seems to have moved the quote function in the input editor as I can't find it anymore I also wonder if there are enough coconut trees in the world to make this a viable large scale project. Sorry I can't post a longer summary , without the quotes. BBC NewsCould taking carbon out of the sea cool down the planet?A pilot project will test whether it is a useful way of fighting climate change.

Scientists discover the world’s largest coral — so big it can be seen from space | CNN This is cool, but the following video in the story made me, a retired SCUBA instructor, cringe. SCUBA divers / marine biologists, do you see what is wrong with this picture? https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/loops/stellar/prod/video-world-s-largest-coral-4.mp4?c=original

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08800-x As the title of the study suggests, researchers found evidence that shingles vaccine might delay or prevent dementia. It is based on prior work which have found that herpesviruses might be implicated in certain forms of dementia. The study also found evidence that beyond the virus there might be some modulation of the immune response that could contribute to dementia protection.

Betavoltaic battery is going into production https://www.techspot.com/news/107357-coin-sized-nuclear-3v-battery-50-year-lifespan.html “The BV100 harnesses energy from the radioactive decay of its nickel-63 core.” More technical analysis here https://www.wired.com/story/is-this-50-year-battery-for-real/ “this new battery announced by BetaVolt uses a different technology called betavoltaic generation. Instead of tapping thermal energy, it captures the ejected electrons, known as beta particles, from a radioactive isotope of nickel to form an electric circuit. It's made up of several layers of nickel sandwiched between plates of diamond, which…

Hi all. A nuclear energy source substitute on recent news... How real is it among dozens of same style promising technology ? ---> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14447257/China-discovers-limitless-energy-source-power-country.html

The KM3NeT group has found evidence for high enough energy Neutrinos that may provide evidence of primordial Black Hole final evaporation. Black Holes of tens to hundreds of thousand pounds cannot be formed by stellar collapse and may have been formed shortly after the Big Bang event. If found in large numbers, such neutrinos may indicate large numbers of primordial Black Holes; perhaps enough to account for Dark Matter effects. See here for the 'Pop-Sci', quick and dirty explanation Evidence for Stephen Hawking's unproven black hole theory may have just been found — at the bottom of the sea See here for a more detailed analysis Ob…

“Something extraordinary happened on Earth around 10 million years ago, and whatever it was, it left behind a “signature” of radioactive beryllium-10. This finding, which is based on studies of rocks located deep beneath the ocean, could be evidence for a previously-unknown cosmic event or major changes in ocean circulation. With further study, the newly-discovered beryllium anomaly could also become an independent time marker for the geological record.” https://physicsworld.com/a/radioactive-anomaly-appears-in-the-deep-ocean/ A couple of nits, though “Because beryllium-10 has a half-life of 1.4 million years, it is possible to use its abundance to pin down…

"AG2 achieves an impressive 84% solve rate on all 2000-2024 [International Mathematical Olympiad] geometry problems, demonstrating a significant leap forward in AI’s ability to tackle challenging mathematical reasoning tasks, and surpassing an average IMO gold medalist." 2502.03544

Finally we have the recipe for the perfectly boiled egg. I've been doing it wrong all my life. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-024-00334-w

Below is a link to a nasa.gov article regarding NGC922 aka the Bullseye galaxy and a recently released image from the Hubble space telescope. It has been described as rare due to that it has 9 rings surrounding it. It has also been said that the reason for these 9 rings is that a smaller galaxy collided into it through it's centre, the remnants of this smaller galaxy can be seen in the image. Do any members of SF that are interested in this field know of the mechanism of how such a collision would cause these 9 rings? https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-investigates-galaxy-with-nine-rings/