How romantic were the knights in shining armor?
How often are such stories provided before or on Valentines Day?
Fiction or reality?
Saturday, February 14, 2026
Exploring the medieval roots of romance
Image of the day
Reportedly, Sanae Takaichi is a fan of late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher!
She is a drummer too!
Elephant trunk whiskers exhibit material intelligence, revealing the secret behind an amazing sense of touch
Amazing stuff!
"... The 1,000 whiskers that cover an elephant's trunk have unusual material properties that highlight where contact happens along each whisker, giving elephants an amazing sense of touch that compensates for their thick skin and poor eyesight. ..."
"To the point
- Sense of touch despite thick elephant skin: Researchers have discovered that the hairs on elephants' trunks are responsible for their extraordinary sense of touch.
- Special material properties: Elephant sensory hairs have a stiff base and a soft tip, which enables them to precisely feel objects and recognize where contact is made. These properties are similar to the whiskers of cats and differ from the completely stiff sensory hairs of rats and mice. ...
- Applications in robotics: The findings will be used in the development of robot-assisted sensor technologies that mimic the stiffness gradient of elephant tactile hairs.
..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Mammals such as cats and rats use whiskers to help sense their environment. In rats, the short whiskers and long whiskers resonate at different frequencies, helping rats map out their surroundings as the keratin-based fibers contact the edges and surfaces of nearby objects.
Elephants also have whiskers, which line the length of their trunks. Schulz et al. used micro–computed tomography imaging, electron microscopy, mechanical testing, and finite element analysis to map out the structure and properties of these whiskers.
At the base of the trunk, the whiskers are thick, circular, porous, and stiff, but they progress toward being thin, ovular, dense, and soft toward the tip, which contrasts with whiskers found in most other mammals. This combination of structure and form helps magnify the signals transmitted to the trunk. ...
Structured Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Animals have evolved a diverse array of sensing systems that help them traverse complex terrain, locate food, and detect predators. Many terrestrial and aquatic mammal species use specialized sensory hairs, known as whiskers, as active tactile sensory organs to monitor their environment. A follicle surrounds each whisker’s base with mechanoreceptors that respond to physical whisker stimulation and thereby extend the animal’s sense of touch. Most research focuses on how the geometry and/or neuromechanics of the whisker-follicle structure affect tactile sensitivity. This study analyzes variations in intrinsic whisker properties, including how porosity and stiffness change along the whisker.
RATIONALE
The boneless elephant trunk is covered with about 1000 whiskers that expand the sensory volume of this highly dexterous appendage. These whiskers do not possess the innervated local muscles that allow the characteristic “whisking” behavior commonly seen in rats and mice, and they cannot regrow, so we hypothesized they may also differ in other fundamental ways. This study applies several precise measurement approaches to characterize the geometry, porosity, and stiffness of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) whiskers and uses mechanical simulation to show how the captured characteristics may affect trunk touch.
RESULTS
We measured the geometry, porosity, and material stiffness from the base to the tip of elephant whiskers and entered these properties into our open-source, customizable finite element model that allows whisker properties to vary longitudinally. This simulation was then used to compare elephant whiskers with rat whiskers, which exhibit uniform material stiffness along their length. By contrast, elephant whiskers showcase three independent functional gradients. The geometry of elephant whiskers shows a tapered ovular cross section, facilitating bending as the trunk extends between obstacles. Elephant whisker porosity is characterized by a network of hollow tubules in the inner cortex; this horn-like microstructure at the base merges into a dense whisker tip.
A porous base provides functional benefits of mass reduction and impact resistance, similar to the horns of bighorn sheep.
Our stiffness analysis shows that elephant whiskers transition from a stiff base (modulus of elasticity = 2.99 GPa) to a soft, resilient tip (0.0706 GPa), a shift of two orders of magnitude, although elephant body hair has approximately constant stiffness from base (2.20 GPa) to tip (1.15 GPa). The stiffness gradient of elephant whiskers provides two key benefits over homogenous whiskers: reduction of base stress during large deflection and amplification of signal differences along the whisker length, strengthening the encoding of contact location.
CONCLUSION
The geometry, porosity, and stiffness gradients of Asian elephant whiskers seem tuned to augment tactile sensing. Their tapered ovular geometry increases interaction with textures and allows preferred bending directions; the shift from a porous base to a dense tip reduces mass, increasing the whisker’s resonant frequency and reducing breakage; and the transition from a stiff base to a soft tip increases tip deflection and facilitates contact encoding along the whisker. The physical intelligence of these three functional gradients found together in elephant whiskers expands our understanding of touch and could inspire new approaches in artificial tactile sensing."
Elephant trunk whiskers exhibit material intelligence (original news release)
Functional gradients facilitate tactile sensing in elephant whiskers (no public access)
Functionally graded keratin facilitates tactile sensing in elephant whiskers (preprint, open access)
... with a 3D-printed replica of an elephant's trunk hair, which helped the research team understand how a transition in material stiffness facilitates contact sensing in the tactile hairs of elephants and cats.
A new way to make steel could reduce America’s reliance on imports
Good news!
"... Now Hertha Metals ... is scaling up a new steel production system powered by natural gas and electricity. The process, which can also run on hydrogen, uses a continuous electric arc furnace within which iron ore of any grade and format is reduced and carburized into molten steel in a single step.
It also eliminates the need for coking and sintering plants, along with other dangerous and expensive components of traditional systems. As a result, the company says its process uses 30 percent less energy and costs less to operate than conventional steel mills in America. ..."
Persistent global pesticides threatens biodiversity. Really!
Maybe persistent demagoguery about pesticides since the 1960s! We have been having this discussion about the use of pesticides for several decades! It seems the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages or dangers!
More alarmism and hysteria about pesticides! What are the alternatives (less toxic pesticides, organic agriculture etc.)! Are these alternatives realistic at large scale!
If pesticides were so dangerous, we would be all dead now!
I also have a strong hunch that the metric used in this study, i.e. "total applied toxicity (TAT)" is possibly seriously flawed!
"... a new analysis published last week in Science. Researchers combined safety thresholds from seven international regulatory agencies to follow a single toxicity metric created by the United Nations (UN) called “total applied toxicity” (TAT). They then applied TAT to 625 pesticides, 65 countries, and eight ecological groups including fish, pollinators, terrestrial vertebrates, and even aquatic and terrestrial plants.
The metric revealed that global ecological toxicity increased during the study period of 2013 to 2019. Not all creatures suffered equally; toxicity rose 27% for fish and 43% for terrestrial arthropods, for example. Unsurprisingly, big agricultural powerhouses were big polluters: Brazil, India, Russia, and the United States contributed as much as two-thirds of the toxicity. Crops like fruits, vegetables, maize, soybean, rice, and cereals contributed up to 83% of global TAT. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
During the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference, countries committed to reducing pesticide risk by 50% by 2030. To determine whether the world is on track to do so, Wolfram et al. looked at trends in usage and total applied toxicity (TAT) across more than 600 pesticides and eight species groups globally. They found that TAT has increased for most of these groups, but also that the majority of this impact comes from the 20 or so pesticides most commonly used in agriculture and from the largest crop-producing countries. Increased adoption of organic agriculture and shifts to less toxic pesticides are required to meet global commitments. ...
Abstract
The 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) obligates all countries to reduce pesticide risks by 50% by 2030. In this study, we derived the trends of total applied toxicity (TAT) globally between 2013 and 2019, weighting applied masses by ecotoxicity, of 625 pesticides for eight species groups to assess pathways toward this reduction goal.
We found that the TAT of most species groups has increased; that only 20 ± 14 pesticides per group define >90% of the TAT nationally;
that fruits, vegetables, maize, soybean, rice, and other cereals contribute 76 to 83% of the global TAT; and that
China, Brazil, the United States, and India contribute 53 to 68% of the global TAT.
Our target achievement categorization shows that substantial actions, combining shifts to less-toxic pesticides, increased adoption of organic agriculture, and also provision of national pesticide use data, will be required globally to approach the United Nations’ target."
Increasing applied pesticide toxicity trends counteract the global reduction target to safeguard biodiversity (open access)
Fig. 1. Global trends of the total applied toxicity of pesticides used in agriculture.
Waymo says it now provides 400,000 robotaxi rides per week, up from 200,000 around this time last year.
Amazing stuff! Breathtaking! On the streets of the Phoenix metro area you see a Waymo car at least every few minutes.
"That number will likely grow even more this year, with the company planning to expand operations to more than 20 new cities."
"... Today, with more than 400,000 rides provided every week across six major U.S. metropolitan areas ..."
China has become the first country to issue commercial licenses for autonomous flying taxis.
Good news! China is pushing the envelope! Can the West keep up?
"The announcement signals the start of what China has called ‘a new era in low-altitude economy’ with ambitions to lead in a sector still in experimental stages elsewhere. Chinese planners are preparing the groundwork for a business that could generate up to CNY2 trillion ($280bn) in annual output as soon as 2030, Urban Land reports. ..."
Google AI Introduces PaperBanana: An Agentic Framework that Automates Academic illustrations
Good news! However, they only tested it on a single machine learning & AI conference, i.e. NIPS (Do not use NeurIPS abbreviation)!
Plotting and diagramming made easy!
"PaperBanana is an agentic framework designed to rescue researchers from the manual grind of creating publication-ready academic illustrations. By orchestrating a team of five specialized agents—Retriever, Planner, Stylist, Visualizer, and Critic—it transforms technical descriptions into high-fidelity methodology diagrams and numerically precise statistical plots. The system employs a dual-mode visualization strategy, utilizing image generation for diagrams and executable Matplotlib code for data plots to eliminate "visual hallucinations". Evaluated on the new PaperBananaBench dataset featuring 292 test cases from NeurIPS 2025, the framework outperformed standard baselines with a 17.0% gain in overall quality across faithfulness, conciseness, readability, and aesthetics. Essentially, it provides a professional "NeurIPS look" for AI scientists, ensuring that complex discoveries are as visually impressive as they are technically sound ..."
From the abstract:
"Despite rapid advances in autonomous AI scientists powered by language models, generating publication-ready illustrations remains a labor-intensive bottleneck in the research workflow.
To lift this burden, we introduce PaperBanana, an agentic framework for automated generation of publication-ready academic illustrations. Powered by state-of-the-art VLMs and image generation models, PaperBanana orchestrates specialized agents to retrieve references, plan content and style, render images, and iteratively refine via self-critique. To rigorously evaluate our framework, we introduce PaperBananaBench, comprising 292 test cases for methodology diagrams curated from NeurIPS 2025 publications, covering diverse research domains and illustration styles.
Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that PaperBanana consistently outperforms leading baselines in faithfulness, conciseness, readability, and aesthetics. We further show that our method effectively extends to the generation of high-quality statistical plots. Collectively, PaperBanana paves the way for the automated generation of publication-ready illustrations."
Very bad German habits exposed at the international airport of Frankfurt (FRA)!
I just happened to come through my hometown airport on a very recent trip to Germany!
This kind of German arrogance stinks to heaven. It reminds of Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen [It surprises me that there is no English language Wikipedia article on this subject])! Google translation: "The world should/shall heal from the German essence"
As a German I was deeply appalled by this! It reminded me why I emigrated from Germany to the US many years ago.
The Smoking Lounge of the terminal reminds passengers that smoking is deadly! I have never been a smoker myself, but some of my friends are.
All passengers (domestic and foreign) are reminded to follow the profoundly German obsession with pervasive garbage separation/sorting (Trennmüll). All garbage receptacles at the airport look like that. I deliberately ignored it! Notice they forgot to translate "Abfall"! What an oversight since this trash can definitely does not look very familiar!
Kremlin behind poisoning Russian opposition leader Navalny, five European nations allege
What took so damn long! Putin the Terrible is a killer!
Friday, February 13, 2026
5.8 Million Dirty Names Removed from US Voter Rolls Thanks to Judicial Watch!
Good news! There could be up to 20 million dirty names on voter rolls!
Trump to ban ‘most hated’ start-stop feature in modern cars
Good news! Bravo President Trump!
Don't miss the utterly foolish remarks of governor of California Gavin Newsom at the end of this short video given at the Munich Security Conference! The repeal of the ridiculous endangerment finding from the Obama presidency will probably never return unlike Governor Newsom's claims!
Helion Energy hits new fusion milestone: D-T fusion and 150M°C plasma temperatures - YouTube
Are we finally coming closer to fusion energy!
Maybe private companies will be more successful!
Why South Africa is Deploying Troops to Control Criminal Gangs with Palki Sharma
Serious stuff! Will the government be successful fighting serious crime and large numbers of homicides?
Why ByteDance's Seedance Has Triggered a Panic Mode in Hollywood with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! This is what disruptive, new technologies do! A paradigm shift is underway!
From Exile to Power: Tarique Rahman Set to Be Bangladesh PM with Palki Sharma
Good news! Very recommendable! Will there be major reforms in Bangladesh? This election outcome could be a game changer!
New experiments suggest Earth's core contains up to 9-45 oceans' worth of hydrogen
Amazing stuff! This estimate presents an unusually huge range! They need to measure this again! 😊
From the abstract:
"Earth’s core has long been speculated to be the largest reservoir of hydrogen (H) on the planet. However, current estimates of its H content involve substantial uncertainties, due to the challenge of quantifying H under extreme conditions.
Here, we perform superliquidus metal-silicate partitioning experiments on H using laser-heated diamond anvil cells, and combine it with atom probe tomography.
The direct observation of H at silicon- and oxygen-rich nanostructures in the iron alloy indicates coupled sequestration of silicon, oxygen and hydrogen into Earth’s core during its formation. With the observed molar Si/H ratio close to unity, Earth’s core is estimated to contain 0.07-0.36 wt.% H, equivalent to 9-45 oceans of water. Such an amount would require the Earth to obtain the majority of its water from the main stages of terrestrial accretion, instead of through comets during late addition."
Fig. 4: Metal-silicate partition coefficient of hydrogen inferred from varying H/Si ratios in the metal.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is close to selecting his daughter, believed to be 13, as his heir
Hopefully, she is smart enough and has the guts to end the horrible dictatorship in North Korea (since 1945) and unites the Korean peninsula!
Germany was reunited in 1990!
Scientists used AI to decode the rules of a mysterious Roman-era board game
Amazing stuff! Maybe this game will become a next Christmas gift sensation! 😊 When in Rome, do as the Romans do!
"Scientists used artificial intelligence to decode the rules of a mysterious Roman-era board game found on a limestone disc in the Netherlands, revealing a strategy game where players hunt and trap opponents’ pieces."
"... To get a clearer view of how the stone was used, Luk van Goor of restoration studio Restaura in Heerlen produced extremely detailed 3D scans. “Those scans reveal a lot of details of the lines, and they show that some of these lines are a fraction of a millimetre deeper than others. Those deeper lines were used more intensively. We also see that the stone’s edges are neatly finished, which indicates a final product rather than a piece awaiting further workmanship.” ..."
The Roman game stone photographed on a table
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Warns Apple Over leftist News Bias on News app. Really!
I am not sure that was necessary or a smart move! There are plenty of other news outlets to choose from even from an Apple device.
"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent a letter Wednesday to Apple CEO Tim Cook, warning that the company’s popular News app may be violating consumer protection laws by systematically suppressing conservative news outlets.
The letter followed a study by the Media Research Center, which analyzed 620 stories featured on Apple News in January and found that none came from right-leaning outlets.
Of the total, 440 were from left-leaning sources and 180 from centrist ones, with zero articles from the New York Post or Fox News. ..."
Andrew Ferguson (official photo)
Winter Olympics Disqualify Ukrainian athlete over Helmet
What a stupid athlete! He could have worn the helmet before and after the race!
He was ignorant that the Olympic Games are not a venue for any political expressions! It is supposed to be the games of peace and harmony! Maybe this young man (age 27) needs to read up on the history of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece!
"Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Winter Olympics on Thursday, just 45 minutes before his race, after refusing to remove a helmet honoring more than 20 athletes and coaches killed in his country’s war with Russia."
Ohne Parteibuch Bürgermeister werden – das funktioniert in Deutschland immer häufiger
Das scheint ein interessanter Trend zu sein! Anscheinend waren einige der parteilosen Kandidaten nicht immer parteilos!
"... In Baden-Baden heißt das lockere Bündnis hinter der aussichtsreichsten Kandidatin schlicht „Lencke Wischhusen für Baden-Baden“. Die 40-jährige parteilose Unternehmerin konkurriert mit dem ebenfalls parteilosen Journalisten und früheren Chef von SWR 3 Thomas Jung und dem parteilosen Unternehmer Stefan Hertweck um den Oberbürgermeisterposten. ...
Wischhusen bringt politische Erfahrung mit, sie führte acht Jahre lang die FDP-Fraktion in Bremen, ...
In Ostdeutschland, politisch geprägt durch eine sehr viel schwächer ausgeprägte Parteibindung der Wähler als im Westen, liegen parteilose Kommunalpolitiker schon länger im Trend. ..."
Toller Nachname!
Nigeria’s Fatal Antivenom Shortfall. Really!
Maybe it is time to systematically and routinely kill some of these snakes and destroy their nesting places!
How about eradication of dangerous snakes?
"The death of a high-profile Nigerian singer from a snakebite has ignited widespread outrage over the country’s inadequate supply of antivenom and the need for a national snakebite strategy ..."
Bundestagspräsidentin Julia Klöckner besucht Gaza – Entschuldigung? Warum bitte?
Die ehemalige Weinkönigin hätte gleich da bleiben können! 😊
Sie hat schon die Uniform mitgebracht! (sieh Foto unten)
Wer von den vier Frauen ist die Bundestagspräsidentin?
Trump trägt Obamas Klimapolitik zu Grabe
Die dusseligen Deutschen sollten sich ein Beispiel nehmen und endlich den Klimawahn, der seit vielen Jahren in der Bananenrepublik D tobt, auch beenden!
Der Klimawandel/globale Erwärmung war einer der größten Witze/Dummheiten der Weltgeschichte! Künftige Generationen werden sich noch den Bauch halten vor Lachen!
Only humans have chins: Study shows it's an evolutionary accident. Really!
Does it not provide any significant benefits to humans? How about speech and eating?
So far this paper is only published on PLOS.
The lead author Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel has only less than 4900 lifetime citations!
Why these authors even used the term "spandrel" (the space between the shoulders of adjoining arches) in the title of their paper?
"... "The chin evolved largely by accident and not through direct selection, but as an evolutionary byproduct resulting from direct selection on other parts of the skull," says Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UB Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences. ..."
From the abstract:
"Humans are unique among primates in possessing a chin, yet it is currently unclear whether the form of the symphyseal region of the mandible where the chin is located is the product of direct selection or a by-product of evolutionary pressures on other craniomandibular features.
Here, we conduct an evolutionary analysis of hominoid craniomandibular traits to test three hypotheses: symphyseal mandibular traits evolved
(1) neutrally due to genetic drift,
(2) under direct selection, and
(3) as a by-product (or “spandrel”) of selection on other craniomandibular traits. Evolutionary rates of morphological change, via Lande’s generalized genetic distance, were estimated along each branch of a fully-resolved hominoid phylogeny to reveal patterns of neutral, stabilizing and directional selection.
Directional selection was detected along the branch between humans and the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, against a backdrop of pervasive stabilizing selection and neutral evolution in hominoids. Significant directional selection was found on cranial traits reflecting increased basicranial flexion, neurocranial expansion, and reduction in lower facial prognathism, and on mandibular traits that generate a more parabolic-shaped, gracile mandible with a smaller ramus and shallower corpus.
In contrast, of the nine mandibular “chin” traits, only three were under significant direct selection, while the other six were either under no selection or indirect selection. Thus, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that the symphyseal morphology that forms the human chin evolved largely as a by-product (i.e., spandrel) [???] of direct selection for reduced anterior dental size and the craniofacial changes correlated with the evolution of bipedalism in hominins, rather than as a specific adaptation."
Is the human chin a spandrel? Insights from an evolutionary analysis of ape craniomandibular form
Fig 2. Craniomandibular landmarks with all 22 cranial and 24 mandibular interlandmark distances considered here.
Landmark definitions can be found in S1 Table. Solid colored lines show the expected selection gradients to increase (red) and to decrease (blue) for the nine mandibular symphyseal traits related to the evolution of a chin under a hypothetical model of direct selection along the Homo sapiens branch since the last common ancestor with chimpanzees. [Notice, the authors forgot to explain the meaning of the capital letters!]
Indonesia, as the first country, to send troops to Gaza under Phase II ceasefire
Good news!
US commander lauds Lebanese Armed Forces over Hezbollah tunnel discovery and dismantling
Good news!
Hopefully, the people living in the Gaza Strip will never again allow suicidal mass murderers like Hamas in their midst!
Aurora's driverless trucks can now travel farther distances faster than human drivers
Good news!
"Aurora’s self-driving trucks can now travel nonstop on a 1,000-mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix — exceeding what a human driver can legally accomplish.
The distance, and the time it takes to travel it, offers up positive financial implications for Aurora — and any other company hoping to commercialize self-driving semitrucks.
It takes Aurora about 15 hours to carry freight in its driverless trucks on the 1,000-mile journey, according to the company. ..."
The Trump administration covertly sent roughly 6,000 Starlink terminals into Iran after the regime’s crackdown on demonstrations last month
Bravo President Trump and Elon Musk! Good news! A force for good!
Will the Iranian people finally get rid of this theocratic dictatorship ruling this country since 1979! Mullahs be gone!
"The satellite-internet kits were an effort to keep dissidents online after Tehran stifled internet access. This was the first time the U.S. has directly sent Starlink into Iran. The State Department purchased nearly 7,000 Starlink terminals by diverting funds from other internet-freedom initiatives. Tehran has repeatedly accused the U.S., without evidence, of helping to foment popular dissent and organizing the demonstrations. Iranians were protesting economic mismanagement, a weakening currency and hard-line rule."
The Liberty Bell of our time! "Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof"
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Victor Davis Hanson: China’s Quiet Infiltration of America. Really!
Disappointing! Amateurish! VDH forgot to mention the rather peaceful Buddhism and Confucianism. Most of the Chinese students are also an ambassador for the US knowing first hand what a great country the US is and what great people the Americans are!
This was very poorly argued by VDH! He is getting old!
Why Europe Is Creating an Alternative credit card to Visa & Mastercard
Recommendable! What took so long? Cash was king in many European countries?
Caveat: When government creates or promotes businesses they may fail!
KUKA unter Druck: Was der Absturz des Roboterherstellers über Europas Industrie sagt
Schlechte Nachrichten! Kuka wurde von China aufgekauft und übernommen!
Is the UN About to COLLAPSE? with James Ker-Lindsay
Very possibly! Will anybody miss the UN?
James Ker-Lindsay seems to have romantic fondness for the German representative Annalena Baerbock (current President of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly). He showed her picture at least twice.
Russia Blocks Meta's WhatsApp as Moscow Pushes for State App Max with Palki Sharma
Putin the Terrible at work! When will the lethargic and apathetic Russian people finally get rid of Putin the Terrible!
Switzerland to Vote in referendum on Capping Population at 10 Million with Palki Sharma
Palki's arguments are screwed up in more than one way! Switzerland is a small, wealth country. Thus a 10 million population limit is not a bad idea! No the population will not shrink! Switzerland is too attractive!
I think, Palki is not familiar with robots who will assist an aging population!
Gallup to Cease Tracking Presidential Approval After 88 Years
Bad news! Serious stuff! Wow!
Is this another case of Trump Derangement Syndrome?
Will other opinion poll firms step up?
Caveat: I was not able to find the original news release/statement!
"The company confirmed to The Hill that it would cease publishing approval and favorability ratings for individual political figures this year. The polling agency said in a statement the change “reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.” ..."
The origin of magic numbers: Why some atomic nuclei are unusually stable
Amazing stuff!
"For the first time, physicists have developed a model that explains the origins of unusually stable magic nuclei based directly on the interactions between their protons and neutrons. Published in Physical Review Letters, the research could help scientists better understand the exotic properties of heavy atomic nuclei and the fundamental forces that hold them together. ..."
From the abstract:
"Magic numbers lie at the heart of nuclear structure, reflecting enhanced stability in nuclei with closed shells. While the emergence of magic numbers beyond 20 is commonly attributed to strong spin-orbit coupling, the microscopic origin of the spin-orbit potential remains elusive, owing to its dependence on the resolution scale and renormalization scheme of nuclear forces.
Here, we investigate the evolution of nuclear shell structure with varying momentum resolution in nuclear interactions derived from chiral effective field theory, using the similarity renormalization group to link different scales.
We uncover a novel transition from spin symmetry to pseudospin symmetry as the resolution scale decreases, during which magic numbers emerge naturally.
A similar pattern is found in calculations using relativistic one-boson-exchange potentials, underscoring the robustness of the phenomenon.
This establishes a direct connection between realistic nuclear forces with a high resolution scale and effective nuclear forces at coarse-grained scales, offering a first-principles explanation for the origin of magic numbers and pseudospin symmetry in nuclear shell structure and new insights into the structure of exotic nuclei far from stability."
From Spin to Pseudospin Symmetry: The Origin of Magic Numbers in Nuclear Structure (no public access)
From spin to pseudospin symmetry: The origin of magic numbers in nuclear structure (preprint, open access)
Solid-State Elastocaloric Cooling Hits Sub-Zero Mark
Good news!
"As the race to find alternative cooling tech heats up, researchers are exploring climate-friendly options such as elastocaloric cooling, a solid-state tech that moves heat through reversible phase transformations.
Now, researchers ... have announced the first elastocaloric device capable of reaching subzero Celsius temperatures, marking a milestone in the development of this promising refrigeration technology. The desktop prototype, described in a recent Nature paper, successfully froze 20 milliliters of water into ice within two hours, making it comparable to the performance of a domestic freezer. ..."
"... The features include:
(1) Super-elastic alloy: employing a binary low-transition-temperature nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloy with a high nickel content (51.2 at %) and lowering its austenite finish temperature (Af) to -20.8℃. This alloy maintains excellent super-elasticity and a substantial latent heat even at -20℃, with a peak adiabatic temperature change of 16.3℃ at 0℃ and a functional temperature window of 48.5℃.
(2) Freezing-resistant heat transfer fluid: using a 30wt% aqueous calcium chloride solution as the working fluid. Its low freezing point ensures that it remains fluid in sub-zero operation, while its good wettability on the NiTi surface enhances heat exchange efficiency.
(3) Cascaded tubular architecture: the regenerator operates on a compression-based active Brayton cycle and consists of eight cascaded units, each containing three thin-walled NiTi tubes. This design offers a high surface area-to-volume ratio (8.68 mm-1) and withstands a compressive stress of 900MPa without buckling, as verified by X-ray computed tomography.
..."
From the abstract:
"Elastocaloric cooling using shape-memory alloys (SMAs) is a promising greenhouse gas (GHG)-free alternative to conventional vapour-compression refrigeration that relies on high global warming potential (GWP) gas refrigerants. However, existing elastocaloric systems have not yet reached sub-zero Celsius temperatures, which restricts their application in various freezing scenarios. Here we constructed a compression-based, regenerative elastocaloric cooling device using low-transition-temperature tubular NiTi units in a cascaded configuration. The selected NiTi alloy exhibited superelasticity and substantial entropy changes down to −20 °C.
Moreover, low-freezing-point aqueous calcium chloride solution was used as the heat-transfer fluid, ensuring effective flow at low operational temperatures.
Our desktop device achieved a heat-source temperature of −12 °C from a room-temperature heat sink, paving the way for next-generation green elastocaloric freezing technologies."
HKUST Develops World’s First Sub-Zero Celsius Elastocaloric Green Freezer, Reshaping Freezing Industry with its Zero Emissions (original news release)
Sub-zero Celsius elastocaloric cooling via low-transition-temperature alloys (no public access, but article above has a link to paper)
FDA Approves tDCS headset for Depression Treatment at home
Good news!
"For years, a small group of technology enthusiasts have been applying gentle electrical current to their brains in an effort to gain cognitive benefits, improve sleep, or aid memory. While brain stimulation, also referred to as neuromodulation, can take many forms, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) emerged as a reasonably safe, affordable choice for at-home experimentation for a range of purposes.
These devices have often been home-brewed or sold as wellness tools, but in her research into the do-it-yourself tDCS community, Anna Wexler, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, found that in addition to brain boosting, many practitioners were self-medicating, using electrotherapy to treat symptoms of depression and anxiety. Until recently, there were no medical tDCS devices with U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
In December the FDA approved a tDCS headset produced by Flow Neuroscience for treatment of major depressive disorder. ..."
Flow Neuroscience’s transcranial direct current stimulation device has been approved by the FDA to treat depression
“I think of you, I love you”: 1,000-year-old Viking love messages hidden in Swedish stones
Who knew the fearsome Viking warriors were romantic! What a Valentines Day story!
"... Rune grey stones with sharp carved lines might look plain at first. Nothing emotional on the surface. As reported by BBC, one famous Viking-era message, found on a textile tool near Gothenburg, reportedly reads: “Do you think of me, I think of you, do you love me, I love you.” It sounds almost like a modern text message between partners.Runes were carved on wood, bone, tools, and cloth. But stone lasted the longest. Many were memorial stones, placed near roads or meeting places so travellers would see them. ..."
Credits: The Flyover
Scientists helped reimagine a forgotten battery design from Thomas Edison
Is there anything that Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) has not invented? 😊 Just kidding!
"Key takeaways
- An international research collaboration co-led by UCLA has developed a nickel-iron battery, reviving a chemistry favored by Thomas Edison.
- In the study, the team grew extremely tiny clusters of metal using proteins, then embedded them in an ultrathin carbon-based conductor to make electrodes.
- The resulting battery charged in seconds and kept working after more than 12,000 cycles of draining and recharging, suggesting a potential application in storing renewable energy.
A little-known fact: In the year 1900, electric cars outnumbered gas-powered ones on the American road.
The lead-acid auto battery of the time, courtesy of Thomas Edison, was expensive and had a range of only about 30 miles. Seeking to improve on this, Edison believed the nickel-iron battery was the future, with the promise of a 100-mile range, a long life and a recharge time of seven hours, fast for that era.
Alas, that promise never reached fruition. Early electric car batteries still suffered from serious limitations, and advances in the internal combustion engine won the day. ..."
Israel's President Herzog privately meets lone IDF soldiers and families behind closed-door in Melbourne, Australia
Amazing stuff!
"President Isaac Herzog quietly met with some 12 former lone soldiers serving and their parents on Thursday, in a closed-door gathering where no names were released and no photographs were permitted because of growing fears of repercussions and an emerging movement to publicly hound lone soldiers abroad.
The meeting, held on the sidelines of the last day of Herzog’s visit to Australia, underscored both the pride and the unease felt by Diaspora families whose children chose to join the IDF. ..."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog meets students at Moriah War Memorial College during his state visit following a deadly mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on December 14, in Sydney, Australia, February 10, 2026.
Tap Water Supply to Rural Indian Households Surges from 17% to 82% of all rural households in the past five years
Good news!
"“The Government of India in partnership with States/UTs is implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to provide functional tap water connections to every rural household ... Progress has been substantial: starting from 3.24 crore [30.2 million] (16.71%) connections in August 2019, the number has surged to over 15.79 crore [150.8 million] (81.57%) households as of January 29, 2026, providing water supply to the majority of rural India.”"
Impact Of Jal Jeevan Mission (official press release)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Source)
Israel indicts reservist, civilian for using classified information to bet on Polymarket on IDF military action
There are so many ways to make money!
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Saturday, February 07, 2026
Traveling abroad, expect no or fewer blog posts
I will be traveling to Germany from Sun 2/8 until Wed. 2/11.
By Thu. 2/12, I expect to continue blogging as usual.
Jewish gallery reopens with powerful exhibition exposing Iranian regime brutality
Recommendable! Caution: Some disturbing imagery!
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