Vierbeinige Roboter „Anymal“ des Schweizer Robotic-Start-ups Anybotics

Die Roboter kommen! Auf den Hund gekommen! Sehr animalistisch!

"Er läuft Patrouille in Umspannwerken, Gasanlagen und Stahlhütten. Er kann Treppen erklimmen und sogar 3D-Modelle der Anlagen erstellen, die er inspiziert. Die Rede ist von einem neuartigen Tier, das die Natur so nicht vorgesehen hatte – dem künstlichen Hund.

Der rot-graue Vierbeiner „Anymal“ des Schweizer Robotic-Start-ups Anybotics ist keine Zukunftsvision, sondern Alltag, schreibt das Handelsblatt. Der Roboter wird bereits weltweit eingesetzt, teilweise gibt es für ihn sogar Hundenamen und Hundehütten.

„Wir haben inzwischen mehrere Hundert Roboter in Betrieb, die pro Tag zwei bis acht Stunden arbeiten“, sagt Firmenchef Peter Fankhauser. Zu den Anybotics-Kunden gehören der Industriekonzern Siemens und das brasilianische Bergbauunternehmen Vale. ..."

Verfassungsschutz: Extremisten in Berlin immer jünger, linker und islamistischer

Welcher Robotertyp überzeugt in Unternehmen "Zweibeinige Roboter stehlen den „Robodogs“ zwar die Show. Doch vierbeinige Modelle werden Experten zufolge bisher viel häufiger eingesetzt. Branchenkenner erwarten ein enormes Marktwachstum."

Anybotics-Chef Fankhauser: Der Firmengründer mit seinen vierbeinigen Anymals. 

Why are white-black marriage rates so low in the US? Really!

This study relies way too much on statistical modeling! 

Notice also the ideological usage of Black v. white! Very annoying and disturbing! How biased is this research?

Spatial exposure seems to be overemphasized and narrowly defined, i.e. childhood neighborhood, but what  e.g. what about military service?.

Some black folks may say white people can't dance and have no rhythm! 😊 Just kidding!

"Americans rarely marry outside of their race or class in a nation where residential segregation is relatively common. It is a dynamic widely viewed as a contributing factor to income inequality and intergenerational social mobility.

A new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper examines whether increased exposure to members of other race and class groups affects marriage rates between Black and white partners, based on an analysis of Census data and federal tax records. The overall rate has grown slowly over the years and currently stands at only 11 percent of intermarried couples. ..."

From the abstract:

"Americans rarely marry outside their race or class group, a pattern with well-documented implications for inequality and intergenerational mobility.

Limited exposure—or interactions with members of other groups—may partly explain these low intergroup marriage rates. We instrument for exposure using variation in childhood neighborhoods based on whether other race and class groups had more opposite-sex children of similar age.

Exposure increases interclass (high- and low-parent-income) marriage but has no detectable effect on interracial (White and Black) marriage.

A spatial marriage market model predicts that residential segregation—one of many forms of exposure—accounts for more than one third of marital sorting by class but less than 5% by race."

Why are white-Black marriage rates so low? — Harvard Gazette "New research suggests increased exposure between groups results in more couplings across class but not racial line."

Who Marries Whom? The Role of Segregation by Race and Class (open access)

Delayed and Denied Care for hundreds of ICE Detainees. Really!

Nice try at propaganda! Did these illegal immigrants have medical care from where they came from? Why and how did they immigrate if their health is poor or if they need medical care?

KFF stands for Kaiser Family Foundation.

"Hundreds of people in ICE detention facilities across the U.S. are alleging medical neglect—saying they’ve gone untreated for conditions including diabetes, cancer, HIV, epilepsy, and high blood pressure—along with a lack of basic disability care, reports a joint investigation by KFF Health News and the AP.  

 

The findings, drawn from court filings across 33 states, show a system under strain as the detained population surged to 75,000+ people this year, up from ~40,000 a year earlier, amid the Trump administration’s push for deportations.  

Previously, medically vulnerable detainees were often released on humanitarian parole. Now people with serious conditions remain in custody under “mandatory detention.”  ..."

"... KFF Health News and AP analyzed thousands of court cases filed since Trump’s second inauguration that use a legal route known as habeas corpus to argue people are being held illegally [???] by ICE. The records offer a rare window into how those detained say, often under penalty of perjury, ICE is handling their medical needs. Reporters also interviewed more than 50 detainees, family members, and lawyers. ..."

Global Health NOW: Delayed and Denied Care for ICE Detainees; and The Rise in ‘Battery Cows’

Festering Infections to Untreated Cancer: ICE Detainees Describe Medical Neglect Across US

The world’s largest privately owned laser just turned on

Good news!

"Fusion startup Xcimer Energy on Wednesday flipped the switch on its Phoenix laser system, which the company says is the largest privately owned example in the world.

Xcimer’s approach to fusion power is modeled after the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which proved in December 2022 that a controlled fusion reaction could release more power than required to ignite it. ...

Xcimer’s plans for a fusion power plant call for two lasers capable of firing in microsecond-long pulses. Light from those pulses will be fed through a compression system, of sorts, which will delivers the lasers’ energy to the fuel target in nanoseconds. The quicker the fuel is compressed, the more likely it is to generate usable fusion reactions.

Phoenix is a step toward an eventual power plant. The system uses excimer amplification, similar to those used in semiconductor manufacturing but significantly more powerful. At full strength, the krypton-fluoride laser generates over 1 kilojoule of energy ... and its core is 38 meters long. ..."

"... What comes next

Phoenix is the first step in Xcimer’s roadmap toward commercial fusion energy.

• Anvil (2028): Commercial-scale excimer amplifier delivering 200 kilojoules on target in a complete two-sided beamline.
• Vulcan (early 2030s): 4–12 megajoule laser system targeting wall-plug breakeven and supporting high-energy-density and national-security applications. Xcimer expects to select a Vulcan site this year.
• Athena (mid-2030s): Commercial-scale laser fusion power plant designed for continuous grid-scale electricity generation.

..."

The world’s largest privately owned laser just turned on | TechCrunch

Xcimer Energy announces the start of operations for Phoenix, a prototype system for industrial-scale laser fusion architecture (original news release)

Scientist adjusts laser optics at Xcimer Energy in Denver, Colorado.

5 key points in Trump's new AI order

Sounds good to me! Laissez faire, laissez passer!

"Less than two weeks after scrapping an executive order on AI, President Donald Trump signed a new one on Tuesday. Promising to promote innovation and security, the policy represents a turning point in the White House’s AI governance ...

• It's created a voluntary review system: tech companies will be asked to share frontier models with the government for review 30 days before they plan to release them.
• There’s no mandatory licensing: the government will not require permits before software can be deployed.
• It establishes a dedicated AI cybersecurity clearinghouse: the new hub will coordinate security checks with the private sector.
• It's a watered-down version of the order Trump shelved last month: the earlier version requested models 90 days before their release.
• But it’s still a move towards stronger AI oversight: the policy marks a clear departure from the White House’s previous hands-off approach.

..."

5 key points in Trump's new AI order

Nordbrücke in Bonn gesperrt: Der Verkehrs-Kollaps in NRW geht weiter

Wie die Bananenrepublik D zusehends zerfällt!

Nordbrücke in Bonn gesperrt: Der Verkehrs-Kollaps in NRW geht weiter "Sofortige Vollsperrung der Rheinbrücke Bonn-Nord: Bei Untersuchungen wurden irreversible Schäden festgestellt. Über die Brücke führt die Bundesautobahn 565, die die A 61, A 555 und A 59 miteinander verbindet. Das Verkehrschaos ist vorprogrammiert."

This strange crystal acts like metal and glass at the same time

Amazing stuff!

"A remarkable crystal called molybdenum oxychloride could help make futuristic technologies like smart contact lenses and ultrathin AR [augmented reality] glasses a reality. Scientists have created the first detailed experimental map of its optical properties, revealing the strongest light-bending effect ever measured in a natural material. The crystal can act either like a reflective metal or transparent glass, allowing it to manipulate light with extraordinary efficiency while being thousands of times thinner than a human hair. ...

When positioned one way, it reflects light much like a metal. Rotate it by 90 degrees, and it becomes transparent like glass. This unusual characteristic stems from its extreme optical anisotropy, meaning its properties vary dramatically depending on direction. ...

Rare Light-Slowing Effect Found in Visible Light

The researchers also identified a rare epsilon-near-zero point at 512 nm (green light).

At this point, part of the material's optical response falls almost to zero. As a result, light effectively slows down while the electric field inside the crystal becomes stronger. This combination can significantly enhance interactions between light and matter. ..."

From the abstract:

"The realization of extreme optical anisotropy is foundational for nanoscale light manipulation.

The van der Waals (vdW) crystal MoOCl2 has emerged as a promising candidate for this quest, hosting hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths. However, the fundamental anisotropic dielectric tensor governing this behavior has remained elusive.

Here, we resolve this problem by providing the first experimental determination of the full dielectric tensor of hyperbolic vdW MoOCl2. Via spectroscopic ellipsometry, Mueller matrix, and reflectance measurements, we quantify the material’s optical duality: a metallic optical response (ε1 < 0) along the crystallographic a-axis and a dielectric response (ε1 > 0) along the orthogonal directions.

This dichotomy drives an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) condition at ≈512 nm and results in a giant in-plane birefringence of Δn ≈ 2.2 for MoOCl2. As a result, our work provides the critical missing experimental parameters for MoOCl2, establishing it as a benchmark hyperbolic and ENZ material."

This strange crystal acts like metal and glass at the same time | ScienceDaily "A newly mapped crystal can manipulate light in astonishing ways, opening the door to ultrathin AR glasses, smart contact lenses, and tiny high-speed optical chips."

Giant Optical Anisotropy and Visible-Frequency Epsilon-near-Zero in Hyperbolic van der Waals MoOCl2 (open access)

Credits: Neuer Kristall macht optische Bauteile tausendfach dünner

Graphical abstract

Wirtschaftsweise Monika Schnitzer findet klare Worte zur wirtschaftlichen Situation der Bananenrepublik D

Zur Malaise der Bananenrepublik! Zu viel Klimawahn und Umweltschutz! Am deutschen, grünen (Un)Wesen wird die Welt nicht genesen!

Die Chinesen lachen sich kaputt über die dusseligen Deutschen!

"Sie ist Professorin und Vorsitzende des Sachverständigenrats der Wirtschaftsweisen – Monika Schnitzer. Bei der Vorstellung des Gutachtens am 27. Mai war sie eine Frau der klaren Worte. Aber sie begnügt sich nicht damit, einmal im Jahr kritisch über die Wirtschaftsentwicklung Deutschlands zu sprechen.

Sie tat es schon wieder – diesmal in einem Interview mit der Berliner Zeitung. Sie sprach nicht professoral, sondern mit klaren, für jedermann verständlichen Worten: „Wir stecken in einer strukturellen Krise. Das eigentliche Problem ist, dass Deutschland seit sechs Jahren praktisch kein Wachstum mehr hat.“ Deutschland habe an Wettbewerbsfähigkeit verloren. „Besonders ist das im Verhältnis zu China. Viele unserer Produkte kauft China nicht mehr, sondern stellt sie selber her. Gleichzeitig machen chinesische Unternehmen uns auf internationalen Märkten Konkurrenz – etwa bei Elektroautos sowie im Maschinen- und Anlagenbau. Dahinter stehen nicht nur hohe Arbeits- und Energiekosten. Es wird auch deutlich, dass wir nicht mehr so innovativ sind wie früher.“"

Fliegt Friedrich Merz sein Reform-Gipfel um die Ohren?

„Wir haben es einfach nicht angepackt“: Wirtschaftsweise Schnitzer erklärt, warum Deutschland absteigt "Deutschland steckt laut Monika Schnitzer in einer strukturellen Krise. Im Interview spricht die Ökonomin über Sozialstaat, Wachstum und politische Versäumnisse."

Monika Schnitzer (Quelle)

Disclaimer

Since end of February, I  am blogging from behind the Great Firewall of China.

My Internet service in China is very spotty. Thus, I am not able to blog as usual.

How does a spherical robot with 20 legs move?

Amazing stuff!

"... Researchers took inspiration from the symmetry in nature to build a variety of Argus bots with 16 to 22 legs. Each leg had a motor and a camera for seeing a near-360-degree picture of its surroundings, which made the robot capable of moving in any direction without adjustment. Across tests, the team found that more symmetrical robots were more successful on tasks, more energy efficient, and more resilient against injury. A 20-legged Argus, specifically, was especially successful at navigating diverse terrains, self-stabilizing, and responding to mechanical failures. ..."

"Symmetry is a central organizing principle in natural systems, yet its use as a unifying design strategy in robotics has largely remained limited to geometric form.

We show that symmetry can instead be leveraged at the level of dynamic actuation capability. We introduce dynamic symmetry, the uniformity of a robot's attainable center-of-mass accelerations, and formalize it through a measure coined as dynamic isotropy.

Across more than 1,000 simulated morphologies, we found that higher dynamic symmetry consistently improves trajectory tracking, task success, robustness, resiliency, and energy efficiency, with the benefits becoming most pronounced as dynamic isotropy approaches its theoretical limit.

To study this regime systematically, we developed Argus, a family of spherical robots designed to explore the effects of increasing dynamic symmetry.

Members of the Argus family vary in their actuation geometry and dynamic symmetry level, while sharing a common architectural principle: radially oriented linear actuators that directly shape the robot's center-of-mass dynamics. Among them, we build a physical 20-leg Argus variant that achieves near-extreme dynamic isotropy and demonstrates orientation-invariant locomotion, agile traversal of cluttered and deformable terrain, rapid self-stabilization, and resilience to partial actuator failures.

Its distributed sensing further enables omnidirectional perception and object interaction during continuous motion.

These results show that designing robots for symmetry not only in morphology but also in their attainable dynamics provides a powerful and general pathway toward agility, robustness, and multifunctionality in uncertain terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments."

From the abstract:

"Symmetry is a central organizing principle in natural systems, yet its use as a unifying design strategy in robotics has largely remained limited to geometric form.

We show that symmetry can instead be leveraged at the level of dynamic actuation capability. We introduce dynamic symmetry, the uniformity of a robot’s attainable center-of-mass accelerations, and formalize it through a measure coined as dynamic isotropy.

Across more than 1000 simulated morphologies, we found that higher dynamic symmetry consistently improved trajectory tracking, task success, robustness, resiliency, and energy efficiency, with the benefits becoming most pronounced as dynamic isotropy approached its theoretical limit.

To study this regime systematically, we developed Argus, a family of spherical robots designed to explore the effects of increasing dynamic symmetry. Members of the Argus family vary in their actuation geometry and dynamic symmetry level while sharing a common architectural principle: radially oriented linear actuators that directly shape the robot’s center-of-mass dynamics.

Among them, we built a physical 20-leg Argus variant that achieved near-extreme dynamic isotropy and demonstrated orientation-invariant locomotion, agile traversal of cluttered and deformable terrain, rapid self-stabilization, and resilience to partial actuator failures. Its distributed sensing further enabled omnidirectional perception and object interaction during continuous motion.

These results show that designing robots for symmetry not only in morphology but also in their attainable dynamics provides a powerful and general pathway toward agility, robustness, and multifunctionality in uncertain terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments."

ScienceAdviser

Omnidirectional, sea-urchin-like robot defies traditional designs

Extreme Dynamic Symmetry Enables Omnidirectional and Multifunctional Robots (original news release)

Extreme dynamic symmetry enables omnidirectional and multifunctional robots (no public access)

Plants smell growth rates of other plants and adopt their own growth

Amazing stuff!

"All plants constantly release volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, into the air ... But a new study suggests that healthy plants may also be sniffing out the competition.

Researchers tested three barley varieties with different growth speeds: a slower-growing cultivar ... an intermediate grower ... and a fast-growing one named ... Over 25 days, the team exposed plants to each other’s VOCs and tracked both physical growth and changes in gene activity.

Based on the type of airborne chemicals released by the specimens nearby, the plants grew more or less aggressively. Barley exposed to scents from fast growers bulked up their biomass, while plants surrounded by slower-growing neighbors dialed themselves back too. Being around slower growers boosted stress response pathways, while fast-growing neighbors triggered genes involved in cell growth and DNA replication. ..."

From the abstract:

"Plants continuously emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can influence the physiology and behavior of neighboring plants. While the ecological role of stress-induced VOCs is well established, the function of constitutive VOCs released by undamaged plants in mediating plant-plant interactions remains less understood.

Here, we demonstrate that barley plants can detect the growth rate of undamaged conspecific neighbors through constitutive VOCs and respond by modulating their growth-defense trade-off accordingly.

Exposure to volatiles from cultivars with contrasting growth (slow or fast) triggered distinct shifts in biomass accumulation and gene expression in receiver plants, whereas VOCs from cultivars with similar growth rates had negligible effects.

Transcriptomic analysis revealed cultivar-specific transcriptional reprogramming of growth- and defense-related pathways, suggesting that constitutive VOCs convey information about emitter identity and competitive vigour that receiver plants use to adaptively reallocate resources and prime stress responses in anticipation of competition. These findings uncover a previously unrecognized role of constitutive VOCs as reliable cues of emitter identity and vigor, mediating adaptive responses in neighboring plants under competitive scenarios."

ScienceAdviser

Plants select growth strategies by spying on their neighbors’ scents

Volatiles released by undamaged plants mediate the adaptive growth strategies in neighbors (open access)

Israel’s defense exports hit new record in 2025

Who does not like weapons tested in combat including Arab countries?

"... A geographical breakdown shows there was growth in deals with the Abraham Accords countries (the UAE, Morocco and Bahrain), which accounted for 15% of deals, compared with 12% in 2024.

Europe had seen a surge to 54% in 2024 due to the Arrow 3 sale to Germany for about $3.5 billion, and in 2025 this fell back to about 36%.

Asia-Pacific, an arena affected by the Chinese threat, rose from about 23% to about 32% of deals in 2025. ..."

Israel’s defense exports hit new record - Globes "Despite the ongoing war and growing needs to supply the Israeli military, defense exports grew 30% last year."

Pacific Fusion's latest prototype packs 440 gigawatts into an 80-nanosecond burst

How close are we to nuclear fusion as a regular power generator?

"Pacific Fusion took the wraps off its latest pulser module prototype on Tuesday, a piece of equipment that allows the company to move ahead with its demonstration fusion facility. Construction on the demo is expected to begin this summer. ..."

"... Today, we’re excited to announce the completion of our second set of technical milestones, keeping us on track to achieve net facility gain, the point at which a fusion machine produces more energy output than is initially stored in the machine, by 2030. ...

With this milestone, we have now demonstrated:

• Architecture: The module is the highest peak power impedance matched Marx generator ever developed with 90-bricks in 9-stages and ~2-nanosecond timing jitter, tested into a variety of loads.
•  Power: ~440 GW of peak output power and ~1.1 MV peak voltage in 80 nanoseconds. This is the highest power, single-step pulser module ever demonstrated.
•  Critical components: We’ve validated a low-cost trigger system capable of synchronizing all stages into a single, coherent pulse – a key requirement for scaling to full system performance. And we’ve established the platform as a testbed for critical components like vacuum insulators, helping reduce supply chain risk. 

..."

Pacific Fusion's latest prototype packs 440 gigawatts into an 80-nanosecond burst | TechCrunch

Validating the next building block toward affordable fusion power

The Pacific Fusion team at work on the module prototype

Gericht verhängt Geldstrafe für „Lügenfritz“-Spott gegen Friedrich Merz

Was für ein kleinkarierter Bundeskanzler! Unglaublich!

"... Nach „Pinocchio“ eines von vielen weiteren Spottwörtern für den wortbrüchigen Kanzler. ... Für Merz und den ihm zuarbeitenden Apparat reicht das wieder einmal, um den Staat in Bewegung zu setzen. Der Tagesspiegel berichtet, dass das Amtsgericht Öhringen den Strafbefehl wegen Beleidigung gegen Personen des politischen Lebens erlassen hat.

Der Fall gehört in eine Serie, die inzwischen selbst für Berliner Verhältnisse völlig grotesk ist. Rund 300 Strafverfahren wegen Beleidigung des amtierenden Kanzlers standen nach Tagesspiegel-Recherchen im Raum; das Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg verpflichtete das Kanzleramt, Recherchen dazu zu ermöglichen. ..."

Gericht verhängt Geldstrafe für „Lügenfritz“-Spott gegen Friedrich Merz "Friedrich Merz lässt Bürger wegen Spott juristisch verfolgen wie kaum ein Spitzenpolitiker vor ihm. Jetzt kostet „Lügenfritz“ 30 Tagessätze. Ein Kanzler, der so regiert, beschädigt seine Autorität selbst - wieder ein neuer Begriff, der sich in Windeseile verbreitet"

A Glimpse at the Origins of Life Through chirality

Amazing stuff!

"... In a new study ... the researchers found that an electron experiences a magnetic field of different strength when traveling through each mirror-image form. This asymmetric behavior not only challenges conventional assumptions but also lends support to a theory about how life began on Earth. ...

Although chiral molecules can exist in two forms, scientists realized more than 150 years ago that living organisms “choose” only one: a left-handed form for proteins and a right-handed form for sugars, DNA and RNA. ...

A first step toward solving the puzzle came in 1999, when ... passed an electric current – a stream of electrons – through chiral molecules and discovered that each mirror-image form behaves differently. Electrons act like tiny magnets, with north and south poles, and possess a property called spin, which determines their magnetic orientation. As these tiny magnets move through a chiral molecule, they follow a spiral path, which causes them to experience a magnetic force that can either accelerate or hinder their motion. The researchers found that the two mirror-image forms exert opposite effects: One mainly speeds up electrons whose north pole aligns with their direction of motion, while the other speeds up electrons whose north pole points in the opposite direction. ...

that the two mirror-image forms not only favor electrons with opposite spins but also transmit them with different efficiencies. ...

The experiments revealed substantial differences in the strength of the magnetic field experienced by electrons in the two forms ...

“Our breakthrough was realizing that the difference between these two seemingly identical forms only emerges in motion,” ..."

From the abstract:

"Two fundamental questions have puzzled scientists for more than 150 years. “How did life become homochiral?” and “why was this specific handedness selected?”

Recently, it has been shown that homochirality could have emerged through the enantioselective interactions of molecules with magnetic substrates due to the asymmetric crystallization of an RNA precursor on a magnetite substrate, abundant on early Earth.

This phenomenon is based on the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect. Despite its robustness, this model could not provide an answer to the second question: Why one specific handedness (D for RNA) was selected.

Here, we demonstrate that spin-involving processes can have different outcomes in the two enantiomers of chiral molecules.

In chiral molecules with unpaired electrons or while electrons are passing through them, the total angular momentum vector, J, is aligned along the “easy axis,” which is defined by the magnetic anisotropy induced by the spin-orbit coupling and asymmetry of the molecular field.

The magnitude J is the same for both enantiomers, but the vectors may be aligned differently relative to the molecular frame in the two enantiomers.

This difference can be quantified by, for example, by the angle between J and electric dipole moment of the molecule, μ.

We show by direct measurements, theory, and ab initio calculations that dynamic spin processes in chiral molecules could result in different efficiencies of spin-related phenomena, including the interaction of chiral molecules with magnetic surfaces. The findings may provide an explanation for the specific homochirality in nature."

A Glimpse at the Origins of Life Through a Deceptive Mirror - Chemistry | Weizmann Wonder Wander - News, Features and Discoveries "Scientists may have solved a 150-year-old puzzle about why life favors one mirror-image molecule over another"

Dynamic breaking of mirror symmetry in spin-dependent electron transport through chiral media causes enantiomeric excesses (open access)

Adsorption of crystals of a biological chiral molecule onto a gold-coated cobalt surface. Larger crystals of one specific form of the molecule (left) tend to accumulate on this surface to a greater degree than those of its mirror-image form (right). ...

Fig. 1. The alignment of the total spin and the magnetic vectors.

More young people are looking frequently to AI chatbots for mental health help and many do not disclose it

Good news! What about older adults?

"... a new study finds one in five young people, about 8 million, lean on chatbots for mental health advice. ...

Nearly 1 in 5 adolescents and young adults reported using ChatGPT, Meta AI, Character.AI or other chatbots for mental health help when they were feeling stressed, angry or sad. That’s an estimated 8 million individuals, researchers report June 1 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Using a similar survey, the same research team had found in 2024 that 1 in 8 young people sought this advice from chatbots, which are not regulated or licensed for mental health treatment. ...

Suicide is a leading cause of death among children, adolescents and young adults. ..."

From the keypoints and abstract:

"Key Points

Questions  As of 2025, what percentage of US adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 21 years used artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for mental health advice, and among those who use AI chatbots for this purpose, to what extent did they tell others?

Findings

This national survey including more than 42 million US youth (population-weighted) found that almost a fifth of adolescents and young adults reported using AI chatbots for mental health advice, representing an increase by almost half from 1 year prior. Most users told no one that they used AI chatbots for this purpose.

Meaning

AI chatbots are widely used by adolescents and young adults for emotional and psychological support, underscoring the urgent need for parents, clinicians, and policymakers to understand their evolving role in youth mental health care.

Abstract

Importance

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots has coincided with a persistent youth mental health crisis in the US, raising a question about the extent to which young people are turning to this technology for mental health advice.

Objective

To assess the prevalence, frequency, perceived helpfulness, and disclosure of AI chatbot use for mental health advice among US adolescents and young adults in 2025.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This cross-sectional, nationally representative survey was conducted with adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 21 years in November 2025.

Exposures

Exposures included self-reported age, sex, race and ethnicity, census region, metropolitan status, and prior discussion with a clinician about mental health in the past 6 months.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Self-reported use of AI chatbots for mental health advice, including any prior use, frequency of use, perceived helpfulness of responses, and disclosure of use to others. Respondents were also asked whether they had spoken with a physician about their mental health in the prior 6 months. Using multivariable logistic regression analysis, variation in responses was assessed according to respondents’ demographic and geographic characteristics.

Results

Among a US population-weighted 42 825 655 youth (unweighted, 1009 youth; median [IQR] age, 17 [15-18] years; population-weighted 21 410 663 male [50.0%]), 19.2% of adolescents and young adults (population-weighted n = 8 207 180) in 2025 reported having used AI chatbots for mental health advice. Among those who sought advice from AI chatbots, 42.8% did so at least monthly, and 91.7% rated the advice as somewhat or very helpful.

Most adolescents reported they had not disclosed AI chatbot use for mental health advice to anyone (63.3%).

Use of an AI chatbot for mental health advice was more common among females compared with males (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.10; 95% CI, 1.36-3.23), respondents aged 18 to 21 years compared with respondents aged 12 to 14 years (aOR, 3.65; 95% CI, 1.98-6.74), and those who had spoken with a physician about their mental health in the prior 6 months compared with those who had not (aOR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.18-3.03).

Conclusions and Relevance 

In this nationally representative survey study of US adolescents and young adults, a fifth reported using AI chatbots for mental health advice. AI chatbots are already embedded in many youths’ mental health information ecosystem, underscoring the need for parents and clinicians to proactively discuss chatbot use to promote safety, appropriate expectations, and linkages to evidence-based care."

More young people are looking to AI chatbots for mental health help

AI Chatbot Use and Disclosure for Mental Health Among US Adolescents and Young Adults (open access)

Credits: The Flyover

Scientists uncover hidden sex differences in the human immune system or e.g. why women are more prone to autoimmune diseases

Good news!

"... Now, researchers have discovered over 1,000 genetic switches that operate differently in female and male immune cells, driving higher overall activity of inflammatory pathways in females. ...

Until recently, technological limitations meant that immune differences between the sexes were studied using bulk blood analysis, which measures the average activity across a whole mixture of cells, masking specific cell behaviours. Advances in single-cell technologies now allow researchers to study individual immune cells in great detail. This study is the first to examine immunity differences between males and females at single-cell resolution on this scale.

The team sequenced over 1.25 million peripheral blood mononuclear cells – immune cells circulating in the blood – from nearly 1,000 healthy individuals. ...

The analysis revealed distinct cellular profiles between the sexes.

Males had higher proportions of monocytes, cells that act as first immune responders, and their genetic activity was more concentrated on basic cellular maintenance and protein-building functions.

In contrast, females possessed higher levels of immune cells called B cells and regulatory T cells, with genetic activity heavily skewed towards inflammatory pathways. ...

they discovered that the vast majority of these variations reside on autosomes – the shared non-sex chromosomes – identifying over 1,000 sex-specific genetic switches in these regions.

Importantly, these genetic controls were linked directly to autoimmune conditions. The team found specific variants affecting the female-biased expression of two genes associated with systemic lupus erythematosus, potentially helping to explain why lupus is nine times higher in women compared to men. ..."

From the abstract:

"Sex has a key role in disease susceptibility (in particular, autoimmunity). Sex differences in the immune system originate from genes and their interactions with both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. However, the cellular-level factors influencing sexual dimorphism are not fully understood.

We thus examined immune sex differences at single-cell resolution to dissect the genetic impacts. Female-biased sex-differentially expressed genes (sex-DEGs) in multiple immune cells were involved in tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) signaling, whereas male DEGs were enriched for ribosomal-related functions. While cis-expression trait quantitative loci (eQTLs) were less common on sex chromosomes, we identified over 1,000 sex-specific eQTLs and 51 sex-interacting eQTLs on autosomes.

When we examined the effect of genetic control on sex-DEGs, we found genetic variants affecting the female-biased expression of FCGR3A in natural killer (NK) cells (rs2099684) and ITGB2 in monocytes (rs760462), both of which are associated with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Our work reveals biases masked in bulk analyses and highlights sexually dimorphic genes and pathways at baseline."

Scientists uncover hidden sex differences in the human immune system | Garvan Institute of Medical Research "The study maps over a million cells to help explain why women are more prone to autoimmune diseases like lupus."

The impact of sex on the immune system explored at the single-cell level (open access)

Graphical abstract

Figure 1 Overview of study

Figure 3 Sex-differential expression

Universal molecular aging clock predicts death risk across multiple mammalian species

Amazing stuff!

"... A multinational team of researchers have now given us a powerful molecular clock that, with the help of biological markers, can predict age as well as the risk of death in mammals. ...

They discovered that certain genes serve as universal markers of aging, and that these genes behave almost identically across mammals as they get older, regardless of species. By analyzing gene expression of these markers across more than 11,000 samples from mice, rats, macaques, and humans, researchers developed a universal aging clock. ..."

"... The study also separated gene expression changes associated with aging and mortality into modules that represent different biological processes, such as inflammation, energy production, and extracellular matrix organization. The authors developed individual transcriptomic clocks for each module and showed that different diseases and medical or lifestyle interventions may affect biological age through distinct primary processes. ..."

From the abstract:

"Ageing and interventions modulate health and mortality, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms of this modulation remain unclear.

Here we integrate more than 11,000 transcriptomes from more than 25 tissues across 4 mammals (mouse, rat, macaque and human) to develop accurate, interpretable rodent and multi-species biomarkers of chronological age and expected mortality, predicting lifespan-modulating interventions, time to death, chronic diseases and rejuvenation.

Ageing-related changes were conserved across species and cell types, revealing universal transcriptomic signatures of mammalian ageing and mortality, including CDKN1A and LGALS3, whose protein levels were also associated with mortality and multimorbidity in UK Biobank.

Mortality-associated features were recapitulated across in vivo and in vitro damage-accumulation models, including inflammation, replicative senescence, metabolic inhibition and γ-irradiation, and were attenuated or reversed by cell immortalization, reprogramming, heterochronic parabiosis and early embryogenesis.

Network analysis uncovered a modular architecture of ageing- and mortality-associated hallmarks, encompassing inflammation, interferon signalling, mitochondrial function, chromatin modification and extracellular matrix organization.

To quantify ageing of individual cellular components, we developed module-specific clocks, which revealed pathway-specific effects of interventions: chronic diseases primarily accelerated inflammatory-module ageing, whereas caloric restriction and Klotho (also known as Kl) deficiency targeted mitochondrial and metabolic modules.

Transcriptomic and DNA methylation clocks showed correlated age acceleration in human blood, which was strongest for the chromatin-associated module clock, highlighting mechanistic links between molecular ageing modalities. This study reveals conserved signatures and a modular architecture of mortality regulation, providing a framework for quantifying and targeting ageing of cellular subsystems across species and tissues."

Universal aging clock predicts death risk across multiple mammalian species

Gene Expression ‘Clocks’ Reveal Shared Molecular Signatures of Aging and Mortality Across Mammals (original news release) "Mass General Brigham researchers identify conserved gene expression signatures linked to biological aging and risk of disease and mortality, offering a new framework for quantifying aging and evaluating interventions that modulate healthspan and lifespan"

Gene-expression patterns can be used to estimate mortality risk and chronological age (no public access) "Massive analyses of RNA transcripts from rodents, monkeys and humans reveal hallmarks of ageing that could expedite the development of anti-ageing interventions."

Universal transcriptomic hallmarks of mammalian ageing and mortality (open access)

Fig. 1: Rodent multi-tissue transcriptomic clocks capture molecular changes associated with ageing and mortality.

Fig. 2: Transcriptomic biomarkers of ageing and mortality are conserved across mammalian species and cell types.

U.S. President Trump endorsed the CDC’s reduced schedule of recommended childhood vaccinations

Good news! Bravo President Trump! 17 vaccinations for a child translates into how many vaccinations per year?

How much is too much! When does childhood vaccination become an obsession?

"U.S. President Trump endorsed the CDC’s reduced schedule of recommended childhood vaccinations in an executive order signed Friday, citing a commitment to “protecting religious liberty and parental authority”; the CDC announced the reduction from 17 to 11 recommended vaccines in January. ..."

"... The assessment reviewed 20 peer, developed nations and found that the U.S. is a global outlier among developed nations in both the number of diseases addressed in its routine childhood vaccination schedule and the total number of recommended doses but does not have higher vaccination rates than such countries. In fact, many peer nations that recommend fewer routine vaccines achieve strong child health outcomes and maintain high vaccination rates through public trust and education rather than mandates.

For example, in 2024, the U.S. recommended more childhood vaccines than any peer nation, and more than twice as many doses as some European nations. At the lower end is Denmark, which immunizes children against 10 diseases compared to a total number of 18 diseases for which protection was provided in 2024 in the U.S. ..."

Global Health NOW: Ebola Latest: A Kenyan Quarantine Facility for Americans?; and A Military Legacy of PFAS

CDC Acts on Presidential Memorandum to Update Childhood Immunization Schedule

A daily pill for pancreatic cancer could be a game changer even for previously treated patients

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

"A daily pill for pancreatic cancer could be a game changer—doubling survival time with fewer side effects than chemotherapy; patients who took daraxonrasib lived ~13.2 months, compared with 6.6–6.7 months for those who did not, per the results of a clinical trial of 500 participants presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago this past weekend. ..."

"Chemotherapy remains the mainstay systemic treatment for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and the disease continues to hold a dismal prognosis. Most PDACs (>90%) are driven by mutant forms of KRAS, which were historically considered ‘undruggable’; however, recent pharmacological breakthroughs in targeting this protein are providing new hope. Now, new data from a phase I/II trial demonstrate the promising efficacy of daraxonrasib — a novel non-covalent inhibitor that targets the active ‘ON’ conformations of mutant and wild-type KRAS, HRAS and NRAS — in this disease. ..."

From the abstract:

"Background

Current therapies offer limited benefit for patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC). Aberrant activation of the RAS pathway is the key driver of PDAC, with oncogenic RAS mutations present in more than 90% of cases.

Daraxonrasib is an oral RAS(ON) multiselective, tri-complex inhibitor of the active guanosine triphosphate–bound state of mutant and wild-type RAS.

Methods

In this phase 3, international, open-label, randomized trial, we randomly assigned patients with previously treated mPDAC to receive daraxonrasib or chemotherapy of the investigator’s choice. The dual primary endpoints were overall survival and progression-free survival in the subpopulation of patients with RAS G12 mutations (the RAS G12 population). Key secondary end points included overall survival and progression-free survival in the overall population ...

Results

A total of 500 patients, including 91.8% with RAS G12 mutations, were randomly assigned to receive daraxonrasib (248 patients) or chemotherapy (252 patients). The median overall survival in the RAS G12 population was 13.2 months with daraxonrasib and 6.6 months with chemotherapy, and the median overall survival in the overall population was 13.2 months and 6.7 months, respectively; the hazard ratio was 0.40 in both populations (P<0.001).

The median progression-free survival in the RAS G12 population was 7.3 months with daraxonrasib and 3.5 months with chemotherapy, and that in the overall population was 7.2 months and 3.6 months, respectively; the hazard ratios were 0.45 and 0.49, respectively (P<0.001 for both comparisons).

Adverse events that occurred after the start of treatment were reported in all the patients in the daraxonrasib group and in 97.7% of those in the chemotherapy group; the incidence of adverse events of grade 3 or higher was 61.8% and 69.6%, respectively. Treatment-related adverse events that led to treatment discontinuation occurred in 1.2% of the patients in the daraxonrasib group and in 11.2% of those in the chemotherapy group.

Conclusions

Among patients with previously treated mPDAC, treatment with daraxonrasib led to significantly longer overall survival and progression-free survival than chemotherapy. ..."

Global Health NOW: Ebola Latest: A Kenyan Quarantine Facility for Americans?; and A Military Legacy of PFAS

Daraxonrasib or Chemotherapy in Previously Treated Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer (no public access)

Pan-RAS inhibitor daraxonrasib shows promise in pancreatic cancer (no public access)

A new app, The Mall, is building a universal feed for online shopping

Good news!

"... a startup called “The Mall” is bringing the concept online with an app that lets users create a personalized virtual mall from their favorite brands and track sales in one place. ...

The pair founded The Mall in October 2025, with a focus on bringing together fashion brands under one digital roof.

Instead of partnering with brands or using APIs, The Mall uses technology to scrape retail websites, pulling in entire catalogs, and tracking product and pricing information within its own app. This scraping is frequent enough to keep an eye out for sales, restocks, drops, and other promotions, which it then alerts users to via push notifications.

At launch, users create their own virtual mall by adding their favorite brands upon signing up, which allows them to immediately track any changes. While The Mall’s current database includes more than 10,000 brands, consumers can add any other brand they want, simply by sharing the brand’s Instagram or TikTok account. ..."

A new app, The Mall, is building a universal feed for online shopping | TechCrunch

An AI data center construction boom in the US since about 2020

Good news!

"... AI data center construction spending, on the other hand, is soaring. Compared with a year ago, it is up 28.1 percent to $50.7 billion. It now accounts for 52 percent of private office construction and 2.3 percent of all construction spending.  On a longer timeline, the growth is truly explosive. Compared with February 2020, spending is up around 420 percent.

The shift has been remarkably fast. A year earlier, in April 2025, data centers accounted for 44.5 percent of private office construction.

Two years earlier, in April 2024, they were just 32.9 percent. 

In dollar terms, data center construction has climbed from $28.3 billion in April 2024 to $39.6 billion in April 2025 and $50.7 billion in April 2026. ..."

Breitbart Business Digest

Nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine since 2022, top UK intel chief says

Bad news!

When will the lethargic, apathetic Russian Slav(e)s/Serfs finally get rid of their last tsar, the megalomaniac, warmonger and war criminal Putin the Terrible! He is an ugly remnant of the Cold War and a former KGB agent. He is a wannabe Stalin. Please Russian people make the world a better, more peaceful place again! How many more young Russian men will be killed or maimed before you act!

"... Russia is now losing roughly 1,000 troops a day in killed and wounded along the front, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. ..."

Nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, top UK intel chief says

Norway becomes ninth country to sign up for French nuclear deterrence

Good news! About time!

"... Norway will not host nuclear weapons in peacetime ... But the new French doctrine, which was announced ... by Emmanuel Macron, the country’s president ... in March, promises to link existential threats to European allies to a French nuclear response even if the U.S. may disengage. All decision-making powers will remain in Paris, as will the control over nuclear weapons. France would, in effect, act as a protective power for Europe. ...

Others are farther along: The discussions in Poland, for example, envision a possible role for forward deployment of French nuclear-capable Rafale aircraft.

The nuclear-deterrence framework is perhaps most mature in Germany: The two countries formed a steering group on the issue earlier this year, promising first concrete steps by the end of 2026. ...

France is one of five countries permitted under international treaties to possess nuclear weapons, and one of nine that actually do. At around 290 warheads, the French nuclear arsenal is the fourth-largest in the world, after China, the U.S. and Russia, and ahead of the U.K."

Norway becomes ninth country to sign up for French nuclear deterrence as trust in US falters "President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative is gaining steam, as German officials plan to observe French nuclear operations."

US general holds rare meeting with Cuban military officials near Guantanamo Bay on Cuba

What is President Trump up to regarding Cuba?

Will Cuba libre finally happen?

"The top U.S. general overseeing forces in Latin America held a rare meeting on Friday with senior Cuban military officials at the perimeter of U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the U.S. military said on Friday, confirming a Reuters story. ..."

US general holds rare meeting with Cuban military officials near Guantanamo Bay

English for trippers: Lethality & mortality for mere mortals

Mortars are mortal! What about mortar between bricks?

The Loss of Cholesterol Transport Enzymes Impedes Tumor Growth in p53-deficient cancers

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

"Cancer cells have a voracious appetite, rapidly consuming nutrients to sustain unchecked growth. Many cancers carrying mutations in the tumor-suppressor gene TP53 are particularly dependent on cholesterol production, using the lipid as a key fuel source for proliferation. ..."

"Scientists have found a potential new way to tackle aggressive cancers by altering how tumour cells process cholesterol in mice.

The team created a ‘cholesterol traffic jam’ in cancer cells with a mutation in the tumour-suppressing gene TP53 by disrupting the enzymes that move the lipid around a cell — phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinases (PI5P4Ks). “When you delete these kinases, the animals are 100 percent protected and never develop a tumour,” ... Targeting PI5P4Ks could be a new treatment strategy for tumours that often have TP53 mutations, such as breast cancers."

"... The scientists conducted experiments in mouse and human cancer cells showing that PI5P4Ks influenced the movement and behavior of organelles that carry cholesterol around our cells. In cancer cells with TP53 mutations and PI5P4Ks, cholesterol-laden lysosomes were found near the exterior cell membrane. Without PI5P4Ks, lysosomes remained in the interior of the cells, near the nucleus. ...

location is critical for lysosomes transporting cholesterol. While positioned near the edge of the cell, lysosomes and their cargo are in proximity with many receptor proteins, enzymes and signaling molecules that exist around the cell membrane. This includes mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), an enzyme that governs cell growth and runs amok in cancer. ..."

From the abstract:

"In p53-deficient cancers, targeting cholesterol metabolism has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach, given that p53 loss dysregulates sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 pathways, thereby enhancing cholesterol biosynthesis. While cholesterol synthesis inhibitors such as statins have shown initial success, their efficacy is often compromised by the development of acquired resistance. Consequently, strategies are being explored to disrupt cholesterol homeostasis more comprehensively by inhibiting its synthesis and intracellular transport.

In this study, we investigate a previously underexplored function of PI5P4Ks, which catalyzes the conversion of PI(5)P to PI(4,5)P2 at intracellular membranes. Our findings reveal that PI5P4Ks play a key role in facilitating lysosomal cholesterol transport, regulating lysosome positioning, and sustaining growth signaling via the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. While PI5P4Ks have previously been implicated in mTOR signaling and tumor proliferation in p53-deficient contexts, this work elucidates an upstream mechanism that unifies these earlier observations."

Nature Briefing: Cancer

The Loss of Cholesterol Transport Enzymes Impedes Tumor Growth "Kinases that shuttle cholesterol within tumor cells help fuel growth. Blocking these enzymes may starve cancer cells, suggesting a promising therapeutic target."

Cholesterol-craving cancers need lipid enzymes to use metabolites for growth (original news release) "Study finds kinases move cholesterol in the cell to where it can activate a growth pathway in many aggressive cancers"

Noncanonical PI(4,5)P2 coordinates lysosome positioning through cholesterol trafficking (open access)

Fig. 1. PI5P4Ks are crucial for support of tumor maintenance and are rarely mutated in human cancer.

Fig. 4. Breast cancer cells require PI5P4Ks for survival and cholesterol sensing.

On Measuring Progress Toward AGI: A Cognitive Framework

This could be an interesting research paper by Google ML & AI researchers!

"... To understand AI capabilities across these cognitive abilities, we propose a three-stage evaluation protocol that benchmarks system performance in relation to human capabilities:

• Evaluate AI systems across a broad suite of cognitive tasks covering each ability, using held-out test sets to prevent data contamination
• Collect human baselines for the same tasks from a demographically representative sample of adults
• Map each AI system’s performance relative to the distribution of human performance in each ability

..."

From the abstract:

"Despite widespread discussion of AGI, there is no clear framework for measuring progress toward it. This ambiguity fuels subjective claims, makes it difficult to track progress, and risks hindering responsible governance.

As a starting point to address this gap, we present a framework for understanding system capabilities in relation to human cognitive abilities. Drawing from decades of research in psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, we introduce a Cognitive Taxonomy that deconstructs general intelligence into 10 key cognitive faculties.

We then propose a rigorous evaluation protocol in which a system's performance is measured across a suite of targeted, held-out cognitive tasks, generating a 'cognitive profile' that can be used to understand a system's strengths and weaknesses. We hope this framework will provide a practical roadmap and an initial step toward more rigorous, empirical evaluation of AGI."

Measuring progress toward AGI: A cognitive framework (blog post) "We’re introducing a framework to measure progress toward AGI, and launching a Kaggle hackathon to build the relevant evaluations."

[2605.28405] Measuring Progress Toward AGI: A Cognitive Framework (open access)