Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Children and adults shaped clay 15,000 years ago, long before pottery or farming, archaeologists find

Amazing stuff!

"Long before pottery, before agriculture, when the first villages took shape, people in the Levant were already molding clay with their hands, carefully, deliberately, and sometimes playfully. Some of those hands belonged to children. ...

An international team of archaeologists ... has uncovered the earliest known clay ornaments in Southwest Asia, revealing a forgotten chapter in the story of how humans began to express identity, belonging, and meaning through material culture. The findings ... push back the symbolic use of clay in the region by thousands of years.

The ornaments, 142 beads and pendants, were made some 15,000 years ago by Natufian hunter-gatherers living in what is now Israel. These communities were the first in the world to settle permanently in one place, millennia before the rise of agriculture. Until now, clay in this period was thought to play little or no ornamental role. In fact, only five clay beads from this era were previously known worldwide. ..."

From the abstract:
"Ornamental practices are essential for understanding socioeconomic structures and technosymbolic dynamics of prehistoric societies. However, our perception of these practices remains limited and biased, due to preservation issues, e.g., perishable materials, which are known only through indirect evidence or rare conservation contexts. Such is the use of unbaked clay for ornamentation, a practice that became widespread across Eurasia in the Neolithic, sporadically documented earlier in Upper Paleolithic Europe.
Focusing on the Levantine “revolution of symbols,” we report the earliest known clay ornamental tradition outside of Europe: 142 personal ornaments from five Natufian (Late Epipaleolithic, 15,000 to 11,650 calibrated years before the present) sites in Israel. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we show that both children and adults participated in crafting these items, which reflect newly emerging symbolic expressions, some inspired by plant forms. These findings offer original insights into the social organization of craft production and the rise of symbolic practices at the dawn of sedentism, which ultimately shaped the Neolithic transition in Southwest Asia."

Children shaped clay 15,000 years ago, long before pottery or farming, archaeologists find



Fig. 1. Typological variability of Natufian personal ornaments in the Southern Levant.


Fig. 2. Map of the distribution of Natufian sites.


Faecal transplants boost immunotherapy

Good news! Fecal transplants keep on giving!

"Three trials provide compelling evidence that faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy in advanced solid tumors ... in an analysis of three studies ... But challenges for safety, donor selection and product development remain.
Tumours partially or completely shrunk in 75% of FMT-treated people who underwent immunotherapy with melanoma, 80% of those with non-small cell lung cancer and 50% with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) across the studies. The only randomized, placebo-controlled trial, which evaluated immunotherapy plus an oral drug with or without FMT in individuals with metastatic RCC, did not find statistically significant 12-month progression-free survival. But it did find that FMT increased the proportion of people whose tumours shrunk (52% versus 32%)."

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Microbiome modulation in cancer immunotherapy (no public access) "Three landmark trials confirm that fecal microbiota transplantation is a promising approach to enhancing immunotherapy efficacy in advanced solid tumors. The trials also provide insights with major implications for microbiome therapeutic development."


Three studies suggest that FMT improves immunotherapy responsiveness not only by bolstering the growth of good bacteria, which improves the microbiome to help the immune system respond to cancer, but also by killing off bad bacteria.


Spaceflight supercharges anti-bacterial viruses thanks to microgravity

Amazing stuff! Good news!

"Viruses that infect bacteria, called phages, evolve different strategies to infect their targets on the International Space Station than they do on the ground, which could help create new treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections.
Researchers found that the phages took longer to infect E.coli in microgravity, and that the viruses developed microgravity-specific mutations, some of which helped them to better cling onto bacterial receptors.
Once they returned to earth, they were able to kill stubborn strains of E.coli responsible for urinary tract infections that tend to be resistant to bacteriophages."

"... Once the viruses adapted to microgravity by subtly shape-shifting, though, they became even more effective bacteria killers. “A simple microgravity experiment exposes these mutations that have much higher efficacy against pathogens,”  ..."

From the abstract:
"Bacteriophage–host interactions play a fundamental role in shaping microbial ecosystems. While extensively studied on Earth, their behavior in microgravity remains largely unexplored.
Here, we report the dynamics between T7 bacteriophage and Escherichia coli in microgravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Phage activity was initially delayed in microgravity but ultimately successful.
We identified de novo mutations in both phage and bacteria that enhanced fitness in microgravity. Deep mutational scanning of the phage receptor binding domain revealed striking differences in the number, position, and mutational preferences between terrestrial and microgravity conditions, reflecting underlying differences in bacterial adaptation. Combinatorial libraries informed by microgravity selections yielded T7 variants capable of productively infecting uropathogenic E. coli resistant to wild-type T7 under terrestrial conditions. These findings help lay the foundation for future research on the impact of microgravity on phage–host interactions and microbial communities and the terrestrial benefits of this research."

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Spaceflight supercharges viruses’ ability to infect bacteria "Viruses develop tricks to attack bacteria without the help of gravity"



Fig 1. Experimental design to evaluate microgravity interactions on the ISS.


Georg Hackl: „Bananenrepublik“ Deutschland – BRD

Scheint so also ob Hackl meinen Blog gelesen hat! 😊

Georg Hackl: „Bananenrepublik“ Deutschland – BRD "Rodellegende Georg Hackl spricht aus, was Millionen Deutsche denken und täglich erleben – die Unfähigkeit der Regierenden eines einst so erfolgreichen Landes, schnell, richtig und ehrlich zu handeln, um seine Lebensadern für die Zukunft zu erhalten."


Rodellegende Georg 'Schorsch' Hackl, 16.01.2026


A new children’s book called Goodnight Light

Amazing stuff!

"A new children’s book called Goodnight Light appears completely blank during the day but comes to life at night with glow-in-the-dark ink, then folds into a bedside lamp."

Wednesday, March 18, 2026 - Join The Flyover








Several ally countries rejected President Trump's request to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz

This is pretty lousy by these allies! Shame on them!

That Germany and the UK are among them is particularly despicable!

An ally may disagree with Trump's war on Iran, but to refuse to assist protecting the Strait of Hormuz with any navy ships etc. when asked by the US is very bad!

E.g. it should be in every NATO member's best interest to make sure one of the most important shipping lanes in the world is safe to pass for ships! Especially when a country run by an Islamist theocracy threatens the save passage!

Argentina formalizes withdrawal from World Health Organization

Good news! What is the WHO good for? Maybe time for a new international health organization!

"Argentina has officially left the World Health Organization (WHO), the agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. A year after requesting its withdrawal, the process has been completed, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno announced.

President Javier Milei’s administration had informed its decision to leave the organization in February 2025, and sent a notification requesting withdrawal on March 17 of last year. 

The move was in line with United States President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the WHO last year, a process that was completed in January.

“Our country will continue to promote international cooperation in healthcare through our bilateral agreements and regional frameworks, while fully safeguarding its sovereignty and its decision-making authority regarding health policies,” Quirno said in an X post. ..."

Argentina formalizes withdrawal from World Health Organization - Buenos Aires Herald "The moves follows the steps of President Donald Trump and is part of Javier Milei’s alignment with the US"

Disclaimer

I  am currently 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.

Image of the day

Source

This hot pink cricket is no mutant/Arota festae’s unusual hue may help it blend in with immature plants




 

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Very old loom found on the Iberian peninsula about 3450 years old

Amazing stuff!

"When a fire ripped through a wealthy Iberian village 3450 years ago, it left behind heaps of rubble that trapped tools, pots, and jewelry—and, archaeologists argue in a new Antiquity study, one of the oldest looms ever found. The charred, meter-long pine beams, stone weights, and fiber cords open a window on an ancient economy, and perhaps on Bronze Age fashion.

Beginning around 2000 BCE, written sources from Mesopotamia, Mycenae, Egypt and elsewhere indicate that looms and weaving had become a part of daily life. But because they were made of perishable wood, finding an actual loom from prehistoric Europe is extremely rare. “What we find in archaeology is usually just the loom weights, because everything else decays ,”  ... “To find a loom like this, just as it was standing there 3500 years ago, is really remarkable.”

Archaeologists found the loom’s wooden frame when they excavated a site near modern-day Alicante, Spain, in 2008. Close by lay nearly 50 clay loom weights, along with tough grass fibers probably used to lash the frame together—key clues the structure was used for weaving, rather than being simply debris from the collapsed house, the new paper argues. The weights were unusually light, potentially suggesting the weavers were working with delicate material such as sheep’s wool, which would have been a relatively new material in the region."

From the abstract:
"The deep history of weaving is attested by spindle whorls and loom weights, so the evolution of techniques may be tracked through changes in these durable artefacts; however, wooden looms rarely preserve.
Here, the authors document a series of loom weights and associated charred timbers and fibres that represent the remains of a Bronze Age warp-weighted loom, uncovered at the settlement of Cabezo Redondo in south-eastern Spain. Based on the number, weight and size of the weights, hypothetical reconstructions of loom setup and resultant textile products are proposed, revealing possible diversification of weaving processes in the mid-second millennium BC."

ScienceAdvisor



Figure 1. Location of Cabezo Redondo: a & b) aerial views; c) plan of the site. The red arrow and dot indicate the location of the raised platform on which the loom was documented


Figure 5. Different views of the loom timbers during excavation





US Senate Minority Leader Schumer (D): SAVE America Act 'Despicable,' Trump Wants to 'Cheat' in Midterms. Really!

The about 80 years old Chuck Schumer is getting more and more senile and demented like the 46th President! Here is more proof!

When will he finally retire!

The Dimocratic Party needs to accelerate his resignation!

Schumer: SAVE America Act 'Despicable,' Trump Wants to 'Cheat' in Midterms "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the SAVE America Act “one of the most despicable pieces of legislation” he has seen ahead of the bill being brought to the floor for a vote this week."


Chuck Schumer


Why some moments endure: Episodic memory encoding fluctuates with brain's theta rhythms

Amazing stuff!

"... One memory-related theoretical framework, rooted in behavioral science, is the Separate Phases for Encoding and Retrieval (SPEAR) model. This model outlines the idea that the human brain rapidly switches between the encoding of information and the retrieval of stored information. ...

Researchers ... recently carried out a study aimed at testing this theory and the possibility that memory processes change moment-by-moment following this rhythmic pattern. Their findings ... are aligned with the SPEAR model's predictions and suggest that the brain is only disposed to learn new information during brief time windows. ..."

From the abstract:
"Why do some experiences endure in memory better than others? Here we explore the possibility that learning fluctuates rhythmically several times per second, with fortuitously timed experiences being more memorable. Although such fleeting opportunities for encoding would evade our awareness, they are predicted by a prominent model describing how theta rhythms in the brain coordinate memory—the Separate Phases for Encoding and Retrieval (SPEAR) model.
In a preregistered study, we adapted a dense sampling approach to reconstruct the millisecond time course of memory encoding in n = 125 participants. We found that memory encoding fluctuated at a theta rhythm (3–10 Hz), that these rhythms were not a by-product of rhythmic attention and that—like theta rhythms in the brain—memory rhythms were modulated by putative markers of acetylcholine.
Our findings provide behavioural evidence consistent with the SPEAR model of episodic memory."

Why some moments endure: Episodic memory encoding fluctuates with brain's theta rhythms



Object classification, memory test and overall performance.


Toward autonomous self-organizing biological robots with a nervous system

Amazing stuff! Robots don't have to be cold machines! 😊

When will humans and robots converge?

"Biobots, whose growing line of variants started with Xenobots, are fascinating tiny self-powered living robots built exclusively using frog embryonic cells. Originally developed in the laboratories ..., biobots are remarkably motile, moving autonomously through aqueous environments. Since then, the team has shed light on many exciting properties of biobots, including their ability for kinematic self-replication, and responding to sound stimuli.

Biobots can similarly be constructed using human cells in the form of Anthrobots, which have the ability to heal neural wounds in vitro.  Thus, a vision emerged that biobots, made out of patients’ own cells, could one day be deployed to repair spinal cord or retinal nerve damage, clear plaques from the arteries, locally deliver pro-regenerative drugs, and perform other vital tasks in the human body. More fundamentally, ... “Such novel beings, exhibiting both new morphology and behavior, despite their wild-type unmodified genome, can reveal important aspects of multicellular plasticity, of relevance to evolutionary biology, bioengineering, and regenerative medicine. They uniquely enable us to investigate questions like ‘What is the origin of anatomical and physiological properties in living forms that have no history of selection for those traits?’ and ‘What determines the range of possible forms, functions, and lifestyles that a given genome can facilitate?’” ...

Now, ... creating the first “neurobots,” which essentially are biobots that with the help of a micro-surgical technique are integrated with neuronal precursor cells and allowed to grow unperturbed. The study shows that novel types of nervous systems self-organize within neurobots with neuronal processes extending in between neurons as well as towards non-neuronal cells lining the surface of the bots. Target cells include multiciliated cells (MCCs) that allow biobots to be motile, mucus-secreting goblet cells which among other functions facilitate ciliary beating, ionocytes that regulate the balance of ions, and small secretory cells (SSCs) that produce MCC-stimulating molecules. ..."

From the abstract:
" ...These ‘biobots’ are autonomous, self-powered, and able to move through aqueous environments.
Here, we report a new type of biobot, the neurobot, composed of mucociliary epidermis and neural tissue. We show that neural precursor cells implanted in explanted Xenopus ectodermal tissue develop into mature neurons, extending processes both toward the surface and among each other.
These self-organized neurobots exhibit unique morphology, more complex movements, and different responses to neuroactive drugs compared to non-neuronal counterparts. Calcium imaging confirms neuronal activity in neurobots. Transcriptomics reveals increased transcript variability, expression of genes related to nervous system development, a shift toward ancient genes, and up-regulation of neuronal genes linked to visual perception."

Toward autonomous self-organizing biological robots with a nervous system "In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers demonstrate that functional nervous systems can form within self-organized living cellular robots, conferring complex movement patterns and distinct gene expression profiles"

Engineered Living Systems With Self-Organizing Neural Networks: From Anatomy to Behavior and Gene Expression (open access)


The team made an important step towards creating self-organizing biological robots with a functional nervous system. As can be seen in this image, neurobots are made of an outer surface consisting of multicilliated cells, mucus-secreting goblet cells, ionocytes, and small secretory cells, and a nervous system that reaches out to surface cells underneath.


Fig. 1 Construction and development of a neurobot.


Nordrhein-Westfalen will Braunkohletagebau permanent fluten

Wieder eine saudumme Idee aus der Bananenrepublik D!

Wahrscheinlich hat kein anderes westliches Land seine Energieversorgung so gründlich sabotiert wie die Bananenrepublik D!

"Als eines der größten Infrastrukturprojekte der Region preisen Vertreter von RWE, Kommunen und Landkreisen diese gigantische Vernichtung der Energieversorgung. Die geplante Leitung soll künftig Wasser aus dem Rhein in die ehemaligen riesigen Tagebaue Hambach und Garzweiler transportieren. Kern ist ein mehrere Dutzend Kilometer langes Leitungssystem mit rund 10.000 einzelnen Rohrsegmenten. Über diese Verbindung soll Rheinwasser bei Dormagen in die Tagebaue gepumpt werden, um dort Seen und neue Landschaften zu schaffen. ..."

Rheinwasser statt Braunkohle – Wie NRW seine Energiereserven endgültig versenkt "Elsdorf in Nordrhein-Westfalen: Heute Mittag „erster Spatenstich“ für die Rheinwassertransportleitung im rheinischen Braunkohlerevier – oder besser: für den „Kaiser Nero“-Befehl. Denn die Tagebaue sollen geflutet und damit unbrauchbar gemacht werden. Für immer. Milliarden Tonnen Kohlevorräte in der Erde werden damit unzugänglich gemacht."

Only 5 minutes needed to charge an EV with Chinese automaker BYD’s updated “Blade” battery

Good news! The gap between the time to recharge and refuel a car is closing!

Keep in mind, there are at least a hundred million or many more electric motorcycles in daily use in China.

"The minutes needed to charge an EV with Chinese automaker BYD’s updated “Blade” battery from low to 70%. In nine minutes, it can be almost fully recharged. In the U.S., fast-charging sessions can take around 20 to 40 minutes or more, depending on the vehicle. America is trying to catch up."

Wall Street Journal

Amazon adds 1-hour and 3-hour delivery options in 2000 US cities

Good news! How many drones will it take? Busy skies ahead! 😊

"The e-commerce giant is making more than 90,000 items available via this new delivery system. If an item can be delivered to a user within one or three hours, they'll see a label saying so next to that item on the Amazon app."

Techcrunch

Near-earth asteroid contains all five DNA, RNA bases and Vitamin B3, boosting origin of life theories

Amazing stuff!

"Samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu have been found to contain all five nucleobases, adding to evidence that life’s building blocks exist elsewhere in the solar system. The researchers think that such asteroids may have helped deliver these molecules to Earth, potentially kick-starting life.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched a spacecraft to the carbon-rich Ryugu asteroid in December 2014 as part of its Hayabusa 2 mission. The spacecraft made two landings on the asteroid’s surface in 2019, before returning to Earth in December 2020.

Initial analysis of a sample from the mission revealed the presence of the nucleobase uracil, as well as nicotinic acid (vitamin B3), its derivatives and several imidazoles.

Scientists in Japan have now analysed two other samples collected during the mission, using high-performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry to determine the type and abundance of molecules in the sample. ..."

Ryugu asteroid contains all five DNA and RNA bases, boosting origin of life theories | Chemistry World


Samples from the asteroid Ryugu (bottom left) were found to contain all five nucleobases


Labels like “Proudly Human” and “AI-Free” are popping up on various products, marketing materials and websites

To err is human! 😊

"Labels like “Proudly Human” and “AI-Free” are popping up on books, films, and websites as at least eight organizations race to create a universal certification for products made without generative AI, modeled after Fair Trade."

Tuesday, March 17, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Monday, March 16, 2026

Wind- und Sonnenenergie verschlingen weiter Milliarden Euros in Subventionen

Wie der Klimawahn D in eine Bananenrepublik verwandelte!

Wenn Gartenzwerge regieren, die von vielen dümmlichen, naiven Wählern gewählt werden!

"Die Jahresabrechnung der Stromnetzbetreiber über die Subvention von Windkraft- und Solaranlagen für 2025 liegt vor. Danach haben Windkraft- und Solarbetreiber im Jahr 2025 16,5 Milliarden Euro Zuschuss aus dem Bundeshaushalt erhalten. Betreiber dieser Anlagen bekommen 20 Jahre lang eine Einspeisevergütung von 6-12 €ct/kWh (je nach Anlage). Immer dann, wenn die Einspeisevergütung unterschritten wird, wird die Differenz aus dem Klima- und Transformationsfonds des Bundes erstattet. Das passiert, wenn zu viel Windenergie und Solarenergie (zumeist mittags) eingespeist werden. Dann sinkt der Strompreis gegen Null und der Betreiber erhält trotzdem die Festvergütung. Diese Milliarden werden bezahlt von den Mietern und den Autofahrern, die über den CO2-Preis bei der Gas- und Ölheizung sowie an der Tankstelle abkassiert werden. ..."

Wind und Sonne stellen fette Rechnungen "2025 kassierten Wind- und Solarbetreiber 16,5 Milliarden Euro Zuschuss für Strom, der oft wertlos war, verschenkt oder gar nicht produziert wurde. Die Zeche zahlen Mieter, Autofahrer und Betriebe, während die Politik das teure Irrsinnssystem weiter verteidigt."

Parthanatos pathway behind neuron loss in multiple sclerosis identified

Good news! This research indicates possible new treatment options!

"... Researchers... recently carried out a mouse study investigating the possible contribution of a specific molecular process that leads to cell death, called parthanatos, in the loss of neurons resulting from neuroinflammation, such as that associated with MS. Their findings ... suggest that damage to neurons associated with MS is caused by immune responses that trigger internal cell death programs. ...

The researchers subsequently blocked the final stage of parthanatos using genetic pharmacological approaches to inhibit MIF nuclease activity. MIF nuclease is the enzyme responsible for DNA damage in parthanathos. Remarkably, they found that blocking this enzyme reduced DNA fragmentation, led to the survival of more neurons and significantly lowered the severity of the symptoms presented by mice. ..."

From the abstract:
"Central nervous system inflammation is implicated in neurodegeneration across several disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS). While marked therapeutic progress has been made in preventing relapses in MS, primary neuroprotection in this disease remains elusive. This, in part, is due to an incomplete understanding of the molecular pathways involved in immune-mediated neuronal death.
Here we show that parthanatos, a recently described caspase-independent and DNA damage-induced cell death program, contributes to neuron death in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mouse model of autoimmune neuroinflammation.
We reveal that DNA damage increases in neurons during EAE, and that neurons are progressively lost over the disease course. Neurons in affected areas display intracellular hallmarks of the parthanatos cascade.
Genetic or pharmacologic blockade of the final step in parthanatos, genomic fragmentation by macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) nuclease, reduces neuron loss and disease severity.
Transcriptomic characterization of neurons with and without MIF nuclease activity reveals parthanatos-dependent differences in response to EAE. Together, this work establishes parthanatos as a key mechanism of neuron cell death during neuroinflammation."

Parthanatos pathway behind neuron loss in multiple sclerosis identified



Fig. 2: Accumulation of parthanatos markers in lumbar spinal cord neurons during EAE.


Germany became the first major ally to publicly decline Trump’s call for warships in the Strait of Hormuz

What!!! Bad choice! What is wrong with Chancellor Merz? Shame on Germany!

The US has done so much for West Germany during the Cold War! Such ingratitude!

"Germany became the first major ally to publicly decline Trump’s call for warships in the Strait of Hormuz, though South Korea, Britain, and Japan said they were reviewing the request."

"German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Sunday that his country will not participate in an international military mission to protect merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Anadolu reports.

“Will we soon become an active part of this conflict? No,” Wadephul told public broadcaster ARD.

The federal government has a very clear position on this, which Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius have made clear. “We will not take part in this conflict,” he added. ..."

Monday, March 16, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei Secretly Flown to Moscow for Treatment

More rumors about the new Supreme Leader (a son of the killed Supreme Leader)?

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei Secretly Flown to Moscow for Treatment – Report "Upon arrival in Moscow, Khamenei reportedly underwent surgery and is now receiving treatment at a secure medical facility located on the grounds of one of Putin’s presidential residences."


This handout picture taken in Tehran on Oct. 30, 2024, and provided by the office of Iran’s supreme leader, shows Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Feb. 28, 2026 in a US-Israeli military strike.


Largest Drone Raid Since Full-Scale War with over 250 drones Hits Moscow, Oil Depot Burns in Krasnodar

When will the apathetic and lethargic Russian people finally get rid of the warmonger and war criminal Putin the Terrible!

Presumably, about 90 drones were not intercepted and hit Moscow!

"Ukraine may have carried out its largest drone raid on Moscow since the start of the full-scale war, reportedly sending over 250 drones toward the Russian capital across two days, forcing flight restrictions at three of the city's four major airports. An oil depot in Krasnodar Krai also caught fire – the second hit to the same facility in four days. ..."

"... The report says Ukrainian forces have been carrying out a massive assault on Moscow for two days. Overnight, 40 drones were shot down while approaching the capital, and 119 more were intercepted over the weekend, according to updates from Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. ..."

Largest Drone Raid Since Full-Scale War Hits Moscow, Oil Depot Burns in Krasnodar "A massive overnight drone attack targeted the Russian capital. Also, a key oil depot in Krasnodar Krai, sparking a large fire at a fuel hub supplying Russian forces on the southern front."

Chinese researchers say they’ve created the first pure samples of hexagonal diamond, Known as the ultimate semiconductor

Amazing stuff!

"Chinese researchers say they’ve created the first pure samples of hexagonal diamond, a superhard mineral previously found only in meteorites, that outperforms natural diamond in hardness and heat resistance."

From the abstract:
"Known as the ‘ultimate semiconductor’, cubic diamond (CD) has gained substantial interest both scientifically and industrially. Its polymorph, hexagonal diamond (HD), is even more intriguing because of its fascinating properties associated with the meteorite impacts. As no solid experimental evidence has been provided to prove its existence, the physical properties of HD remain largely unexplored.
Here we report the synthesis of millimetre-sized, phase-pure HD from highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) compressed along the c-axis at elevated temperatures. Combining advanced structural characterizations and theoretical simulations, we confirm the identity of HD and clarify the transformation pathway from graphite. Bulk HD exhibits a slightly higher hardness than CD and high thermal stability. These findings resolve the long-standing controversy on the existence of HD as a discrete carbon phase and provide new insight into the graphite-to-diamond phase transition, paving the way for future research and practical use of HD in advanced technological applications."

Monday, March 16, 2026 - Join The Flyover


Bulk hexagonal diamond (no public access)


Fig. 2: Atomic structure of the bulk HD recovered from 20 GPa and 1,300 °C.


Deltaviruses Use a Trojan Horse Method to Spread via a previously unrecognized transmission mode

Amazing stuff!

"Viruses ... employ different strategies to spread. One approach involves a virus relying on another “helper” virus to infect. A classic example is hepatitis delta virus (HDV), which hijacks hepatitis B virus surface glycoproteins to enter cells.

In recent years, scientists have discovered many HDV-like deltaviruses in animals. While helper viral glycoproteins play a role in infectivity, the broader nature of deltavirus–helper virus interactions remained largely unresolved.  ...

Their findings, published in Cell, revealed a previously unrecognized mode of viral transmission. Instead of hitchhiking on the surface of helper virus glycoproteins to enter cells, deltaviruses take a page out of an ancient Greek strategy—the Trojan Horse. Here, deltaviruses can package themselves inside another virus particle as a vehicle to spread and enter other cells. These findings reveal a novel viral transmission route and shed insight into how deltaviruses spread to different tissues. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Deltaviruses hitchhike within helper virus virions, using them as viral Trojan Horses
• The Trojan Horse model is mandatory for productive herpesvirus-deltavirus associations
• This mode of propagation favors deltavirus infectivity
• Trojan Horse model warrants screening for extra-hepatic deltavirus infections in humans

Summary
Hepatitis D-like satellite viruses, known as deltaviruses, have been recently discovered in a wide range of animals. These viruses are thought to expropriate glycoproteins from helper viruses to form infectious particles.
Here, we challenge this paradigm and demonstrate that deltaviruses are packaged within helper virus particles, using them as viral Trojan Horses for cell entry. By leveraging orthogonal electron and optical super-resolution microscopy, we visualize deltaviruses enclosed within virions from rhabdo-, herpes-, and arenavirus families.
We show that this conserved hitchhiking mechanism ensures concomitant deltavirus-helper virus spread, thereby promoting the dissemination of deltaviruses, broadening their host range, and expanding their tropism. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized mode of viral transmission, providing a framework to investigate overlooked deltavirus infections outside of the human liver."

Deltaviruses Use a Trojan Horse Method to Spread | The Scientist "New research shows that deltaviruses can sneak into cells by hitchhiking inside other viruses, highlighting a previously unrecognized transmission mode."



Graphical abstract


Wenn Windparks die Strömungen der Nordsee langfristig bremsen

Windparks sind nicht harmlos! 

Windparks verschandeln die Landschaft!

Windparks töten tonnenweise Vögel, Fledermäuse, und Insekten!

Ist es nicht interessant, dass der Artikel nur die Gigawatt, aber nicht die Anzahl der neu geplanten Windturbinen erwähnt?

"Ein Offshore-Windpark in der Nordsee: Je höher die Windräder sind und je weiter sie auseinander stehen, desto geringer ihr Einfluss auf die Umwelt.

Offshore-Windenergie bietet viele Chancen. Doch der geplante starke Zubau birgt auch Risiken. Helmholtz-Forscher erwarten langfristig eine deutlich veränderte Meeresströmung.

Die Nordsee soll zum „grünen Kraftwerk Europas“ ausgebaut werden. Bis zum Jahr 2050 sollen Offshore-Windparks mit einer installierten Leistung von bis zu 300 Gigawatt entstehen. Allein im deutschen Nordsee-Gebiet sind Anlagen 70 Gigawatt geplant – verglichen mit aktuell etwa acht Gigawatt. Gerade erst haben die Nordsee-Anrainerstaaten auf dem Nordsee-Gipfel umfangreiche Maßnahmen beschlossen, um durch bessere Kooperation und Investitionsanreize den Offshore-Ausbau voranzutreiben. Jetzt aber lässt eine Studie des Helmholtz-Instituts Hereon aufhorchen.

Demnach hat der massive Ausbau der Windparks absehbar erhebliche Wirkungen auf die Nordsee. Die Strömungsmuster könnten sich großräumig verändern, warnt eine Forschergruppe um den Studienleiter Nils Christiansen, die erstmals die Auswirkungen analysiert und ihr Ausmaß für das Ausbauszenario im Jahr 2050 berechnet hat. Die Arbeit der Wissenschaftler, die im Nature-Fachjournal Communications Earth & Environment vorgestellt wurde, zeigt auch Ansätze auf, wie die Risiken frühzeitig minimiert werden könnten."

Helmholtz-Studie: Meeresströmung verändert sich durch Windräder in der Nordsee | FAZ "Offshore-Windenergie bietet viele Chancen. Doch der geplante starke Zubau birgt auch Risiken. Helmholtz-Forscher erwarten langfristig eine deutlich veränderte Meeresströmung."


Das Begleitfoto des Artikels ist auch eine schöne Manipulation der FAZ, da es nur drei Windturbinen zeigt und nicht den ganzen Wald von Windturbinen!


A brain-computer interface allowed people with paralysis to type with their minds

Good news!

"... Two people with paralysis were able to type strokes on a virtual keyboard using an implant that decodes attempted finger movement, with one patient typing up to 80% as quickly as an able-bodied person, according to a new study. ..."

Experimental brain implant lets people type with their mind | STAT "The device helps patients type on a keyboard by decoding attempted finger movement"

Sunday, March 15, 2026

US homicides are way down in 2025

Good news! Thanks to President Trump?

"The homicide rate fell last year to at least a 125-year low, based on projected final-year data. Theories to explain the historic drop range from an influx of federal funding to stepped-up police enforcement, along with longer-term societal shifts, like reduced alcohol consumption and increased time spent alone."

WSJ What's news

Iranians were promised regime change. Many of them feel betrayed. Really!

Sometimes Wall Street Journal produces quite some nonsense/garbage like this headline!

It is entirely up to the Iranian people to finally free themselves from the theocratic tyranny that ruled the country since 1979! If they are unwilling to make a regime change that is their fault!

"They are grappling with the possibility that the war will end with them living under the same authoritarian rule and crushing international sanctions, but in devastated cities with an aggrieved government that has vowed to take an even harder line against dissent. It’s shaping up to be the second time this year they have seen the U.S. retreat on promises of regime change."

WSJ What's news

Amusing

Souce: faz.net 



The US Federal Aviation Administration has announced a set of pilot projects for eVTOLs

Good news!

"The US Federal Aviation Administration has announced a set of pilot projects for a new species of aircraft. Most will test eVTOLs, or small, electric, drone-like aircraft that take off and land vertically rather than using a runway. The program will let companies such as Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation trial passenger flights, cargo delivery, and emergency services while regulators gather data." (Source)

More farmers in more countries are planting genetically modified crops

Good news! However, only 31 countries is still too few countries!

"More farmers in more countries are planting genetically modified crops, which help raise crop yields and farmer incomes and often reduce the need for agrochemicals.

According to a recent industry report, genetically modified crops were planted on 218.7 million hectares of cropland in 2024 across 31 countries, up from 181.5 million hectares and 28 countries a decade earlier." (Source)

The Trump administration ordered the restart of offshore oil operations in California

Good news! Bravo!

"The Trump administration ordered the restart of offshore oil operations in California on Friday, aiming to boost domestic supply after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and global energy prices surged."

"The Trump administration on Friday directed Sable Offshore to restart its operations of the Santa Ynez Unit and Santa Ynez Pipeline System off the coast of California ...

The Department of Energy stated that Sable Offshore’s facility can produce around 50,000 barrels of oil per day, “a 15 percent increase to California’s in-state oil production, that can replace nearly 1.5 million barrels of foreign crude each month.” ..."

Sunday, March 15, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Notes on Any Detector Can Detect Anything

Recommendable new paper by Luc van Gool and his team!

From the abstract:
"Visual prompt-based detection enables generalization to arbitrary novel instances in the target image by using one or a few visual templates.
Previous methods rely on complex relation or explicit feature matching modules, and their designs are deeply coupled with specific detectors, greatly limiting their applicability.
Instead, we propose our `Any Detector can Detect Anything' framework that can enable any detector to detect any object given a single or a few visual templates. Specifically, we design an adapter called Template-Aware Adapter that can be added on top of any existing detector architecture to inject visual template information directly into the detection features. After integration, localization is done on the feature maps as in standard object detectors, effectively transforming any detector into a visual prompt-based detector.
Furthermore, we revisit current visual prompt detection benchmarks and correct their unrealistic test assumptions and class splits, which limit the usability of the developed algorithms in the real world. We introduce a set of realistic benchmarks to remedy these issues. We comprehensively evaluate the proposed model on both existing and our new benchmarks, outperforming current state-of-the-art one-shot and few-shot detection methods by a large margin."

Any Detector Can Detect Anything




Saturday, March 14, 2026

Antarctic sea ice rebounds in 2026, nearing average after four years. Really!

I believe, the shrinking of the Antarctic ice cover was also used as "evidence" for global warming/climate change. However, it appears the ice cover naturally varies from year to year or so.

Notice satellite measurement data only goes back to 1979!

"The area covered by Antarctic sea ice likely reached its annual minimum level at 2.58 million square kilometers (996,000 square miles) on Feb. 26, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Every year Antarctic sea ice reaches a minimum level during the Southern Hemisphere's summer, so this is the point that scientists measure it for annual readings.

This year's level ranks as the 16th smallest since satellite measurements began in 1979.

The 2026 minimum sea ice extent is closer to average than in the past four years, and 730,000 square kilometers above the record low set in February 2023, the scientists said. ...

This year's return to less extreme conditions is not unexpected given the large year-to-year variation of Antarctic sea ice seen in the satellite record," said Walt Meier, scientist at the NASA NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center."

Antarctic sea ice rebounds in 2026, nearing average after four years "Antarctic sea ice coverage has likely rebounded this year, coming closer to its annual summer average after four years of extreme lows, US scientists said Monday."

The cellular switch that explains why humans aren’t nocturnal

Amazing stuff! How mammals became diurnal after nocturnality!

"Early mammals were nocturnal, sleeping during the day while large predators were active. However, after the extinction of dinosaurs, several different lineages of mammals independently transitioned to become active during the day. Exactly how this dramatic change occurred has proved elusive. A new study, published in the journal Science, has revealed a cellular switch which holds the answer. ...

he study looked at how cells from a range of nocturnal (active at night) and diurnal (active in the day) mammals, like humans, respond to environmental signals.

Changes in temperature or osmolarity, as happens to the body throughout the day, caused the cells to respond in opposite ways, including in fundamental cellular functions. This divergence flips the timing of cellular activity, essentially acting as a day/night ‘switch’ at a molecular level.

The researchers pinpointed these differing responses to the mechanistic Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) and With-no-lysine (WNK) kinase pathways, central signalling networks in cells responsible for regulating several key functions, including protein synthesis. This suggested that modification of their activity could enable nocturnal mammals to switch to more diurnal activity.

To explore this hypothesis, the researchers administered diet-based treatments to mice to target the mTOR pathway, as mTOR activity is highly sensitive to nutrient levels. 
Once mTOR function was reduced, the mice began behaving more like diurnal animals, shifting their active hours into the daytime. This underlined that mTOR signalling goes beyond influencing metabolism; it also helps dictate when an animal is active. ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
When ferocious dinosaurs roamed the earth, it was advantageous for mammals to be nocturnal. After these predators became extinct, many mammals (including the ancestors of humans) switched their daily rhythms to be active during the day. Beale et al. explored changes that might allow animals that retain the same fundamental clock components to make this switch. One cue that influences the timing of cellular clocks is temperature. Cells of nocturnal animals were more sensitive to temperature changes, and their clocks ran faster at higher temperatures. This appeared to reflect differential sensitivity of signaling pathways that regulate rates of protein translation through changes in protein phosphorylation. Inhibition of one pathway containing the protein kinase mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) shifted nocturnal mouse cells toward more diurnal activity.  ...

Structured Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The ancestors of modern mammals were strictly nocturnal, avoiding the daytime while dinosaurs dominated. Only after the extinction of nonavian dinosaurs did mammals radiate into daytime niches, meaning that daily physiological rhythms became reversed with respect to the day and night but without any change in the brain’s master circadian clock.
Diurnality evolved multiple times, independently, but can also arise spontaneously in certain nocturnal species under conditions of very low energy balance. No specific neuroanatomical circuit has been demonstrated to function as a nocturnal-diurnal switch in any mammalian lineage, so we tested the hypothesis that this daily biological signal inverter instead has a cell-autonomous basis.

RATIONALE
Circadian timing is intrinsic to most mammalian cells. Daily hormonal cues, such as glucocorticoid and insulin signaling, potently synchronize cellular clocks with each other and the external day:night cycle, with very similar effects on the cellular clocks of diurnal and nocturnal mammals. However, the rates and equilibria of several fundamental biochemical processes were recently revealed to differ markedly between human and mouse cells. We therefore asked whether daily systemic rhythms (temperature, osmolality) that directly affect cellular biochemistry might elicit different effects on the function of diurnal versus nocturnal mammalian cells. To test this, we compared responses of cells and tissues under acute, long-term, and cyclical stimuli at the levels of circadian timing (bioluminescence reporter assays), proteins (proteome), protein modifications (phosphoproteome), and protein synthesis. We used comparative genomics to identify genes evolving with diurnal niche preference, and we perturbed candidate pathways in cells, tissues, and live mice to test causality.

RESULTS
Using daily thermal or osmotic cycles as a tool, we found opposite entrainment of diurnal versus nocturnal cells, reflecting their species’ temporal niche. Mouse and human cells differed not only in the magnitude but also the direction of their response to temperature. Moreover, temperature change evoked opposite shifts in global protein synthesis and phosphorylation between human and mouse cells and implicated differential sensitivity of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) and with-no-lysine (WNK) kinase signaling pathways as plausible mediators.
Comparative genomics validated that genes in these pathways show accelerated evolution in diurnal mammals, rendering diurnal cells more robust against perturbations of solvent thermodynamics and consistent with an energy-saving adaptation. Last, manipulation of mTOR signaling in nocturnal mouse cells and tissues and in vivo was sufficient to shift circadian timing toward being more diurnal.

CONCLUSION
We identified a cell-intrinsic, thermodynamic mechanism underlying the mammalian switch between nocturnal and diurnal activity. By linking cellular responses to thermodynamic perturbation with circadian entrainment through genetic alterations in the mTOR and WNK pathways, our findings explain how diurnality could repeatedly evolve in mammals. More broadly, they highlight that even fundamental cellular properties, such as the response to temperature, may differ systematically between species, with profound consequences for circadian biology and temporal niche."

The cellular switch that explains why humans aren’t nocturnal | University of Cambridge "Differences in cellular pathway activity flip the switch from nocturnality to diurnality and explain a major evolutionary change humans have undergone."



Convergent evolution of cellular clock robustness to perturbation as a route to mammalian diurnality.







How the cell Nucleus Made its Great Debut

Recommendable!

How the Nucleus Made its Great Debut | The Scientist


Ancestral cells could have formed the ER and nucleus using protrusions or invaginations of the cell membrane.


Friday, March 13, 2026

AI Data Centers Go Off the Grid

Good news! When will machine learning & AI make superconductivity and nuclear fusion a reality?

"... Behind the news: All the major tech companies have been scrambling to lock down access to electricity sufficient to support a data-center buildout that is projected to cost $5.2 trillion and consume 156 gigawatts by 2030.

  • xAI bypassed the grid to power data centers in 2024, when the company built data centers in Memphis to house its Colossus and Colossus 2 supercomputers. The facilities are powered by a private collection of dozens of temporary, mobile gas turbines despite a ruling by the Environmental Protection Agency that they were being used illegally.
  • Meta, in addition to building private power stations in the short term, is pursuing a long-term strategy to build nuclear power plants, which are scheduled to come online in the early 2030s. The company committed to help build new reactors and to purchase electricity from older reactors. These deals are expected to supply more than 6 gigawatts.
  • Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft have entered into smaller agreements to obtain nuclear energy. Alphabet is working to reopen a disused nuclear plant in Iowa, Amazon invested in the reactor developer X-Energy, and Microsoft agreed to buy 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity between 2026 and 2030 for an estimated $17 billion.
..."

GPT-5.4 Makes A Splash, AI's Growth on Mobile, Data Centers Go Off-Grid, Apple's Diffusion Research

IPCC's Earth Energy Imbalance Assessment is Based on Physically Invalid Argo-Float-Based Estimates of Global Ocean Heat Content

Dedicated to all climate skeptics! More evidence of sloppy science and alarmism and hysteria!

Global warming is a hoax and climate change is a religion and superstition!

Climate on earth is a very complex phenomena that humans still understand very poorly! We still can not even forecast weather accurately for over 48 hours!

"An international team of scientists has published groundbreaking research revealing that the primary measurement used to support claims of planetary “warming” is fundamentally flawed and scientifically invalid. The paper, published in Science of Climate Change, demonstrates that ocean heat content (OHC) estimates, which underpin the IPCC climate assessments, are based on physically meaningless calculations that violate basic 150-year-old principles of thermodynamics and fail to meet the standards of the scientific method.
The research team ... conducted the first comprehensive analysis of how global OHC is actually measured and calculated. Their findings reveal that the widely cited figure in IPCC AR6 showing Earth accumulating energy at a rate of 0.7 ± 0.2 watts per square meter has an actual uncertainty roughly ten times larger than what the IPCC claims, making the central value “statistically indistinguishable from zero.” “The public has been told that the ocean is ‘warming’ and absorbing over 90% of ‘excess’ planetary heat,” explained Cohler. “But when we examined how these numbers are actually calculated, we found they represent computational artifacts rather than measurements of real physical energy rendering the entire process a category error.” The analysis focuses on data from the international Argo float program, a network of approximately 4,000 autonomous floats that drift through the ocean measuring temperature and other data. These measurements form the backbone of modern climate assessments, including those by the IPCC.
Even leaving aside the fundamental category error, for the sake of argument, this research nonetheless reveals multiple fundamental problems with how this data is processed.
The floats measure temperature at specific locations and depths during their 10-day cycles, but their exact underwater positions remain unknown because they lack navigation equipment while submerged. The system assigns all measured values to the location where the float surfaces once every 10 days, potentially mislocating data by tens of kilometers. The floats are typically spaced 200–500 km (120–300 miles) apart. These sparse measurements are spread across vast ocean surface area and volume using mathematical interpolation, essentially filling in unmeasured areas using assumptions rather than observations.
Most critically, the calculations violate a scientific principle established more than a century ago: temperature cannot be meaningfully averaged across systems that are not in equilibrium. “Temperature describes the state of a specific location at a specific moment,” noted co-author Dr. David R. Legates. “Averaging temperatures from different water masses separated by hundreds of kilometers and weeks of time produces a number, but that number doesn’t correspond to any physical reality.” ..."

From the abstract:
"Global ocean heat content (OHC) anomalies and derived Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) estimates, central to contemporary climate assessments including IPCC AR6, are constructed through processes that violate the scientific method. These metrics rely almost exclusively on temperature
data from the Argo profiling float array. Their validity and reliability hinge on several critical but herein refuted assumptions about measurement representativeness, interpolation/extrapolation methods, the physical meaning of anomalies, and integration conventions. Core Argo and Biogeochemical Argo floats deliver discrete, point measurements of intensive properties like temperature along irregular, untracked three-dimensional trajectories during ascent from 2000 m to the surface. This samples only the upper ocean, excluding roughly 50% of total ocean volume and thermal energy. Horizontal positions are recorded only at surface intervals ~10 days apart, leaving subsurface locations entirely unknown. All data from each ascent are arbitrarily assigned to the
surfacing position, introducing unknown horizontal offsets (up to 50 km) and temporal offsets (up to 10 hours) for the deepest measurements. Anomalies are computed by subtracting values from statistically derived reference climatologies based on sparse historical data over arbitrary
baseline periods. Measured temperatures are then interpolated onto global 3D grids using prescribed covariance functions. These anomalies represent numerical differences without physical meaning as temperature deviations, because temperature, an intensive property, is not additive across non-equilibrium spatial or temporal domains (Essex et al., 2007; Essex & Andresen, 2018). The integrated OHC scalar depends heavily on arbitrary averaging and interpolation rules, producing computational artifacts rather than measures of actual ocean energy uptake or planetary radiative imbalance. Derived EEI values, such as the 0.7 ± 0.2 W m⁻² in IPCC AR6 Figure 7.2, inherit these biases and stem from circular methodology: CERES satellite top-of-atmosphere radiative flux measurements (absolute uncertainties ± 3–5 W m⁻² or higher) are adjusted via least-
squares to match Argo OHC-derived estimates, rather than offering independent validation. We rigorously quantify major uncertainty sources, including unresolved mesoscale variability (± 0.9 W m⁻²), deep ocean ignorance bounds (± 0.35 W m⁻² from sparse Deep Argo), polar under-
sampling (± 0.1 W m⁻²), Nyquist-Shannon aliasing in sparse deep ocean and polar sampling, sealevel budget closure discrepancy between satellite altimetry/gravimetry and Argo OHC (±0.33 Wm-2), arbitrary baseline choices (± 0.2 W m⁻²), Eulerian-Lagrangian discrepancies (± 0.25 W m⁻²),
and untracked trajectories and positional assignments. Although the concepts of OHC and EEI are thermodynamically well-defined physical quantities, the numerical values produced by current Argo-based methodologies are physically meaningless computational constructs that do not validly represent those quantities. We conclude that EEI uncertainties reach >± 1 W m⁻² at 95% confidence, roughly an order of magnitude larger than the uncertainty that IPCC AR6 reports, rendering current OHC change and EEI estimates statistically indistinguishable from zero."

Press Release: IPCC's Earth Energy Imbalance Assessment is Based on Physically Invalid Argo-Float-Based Estimates of Global Ocean Heat Content