Overlooked Brain Connections Hold Clues to Cognition and Mental Health

Amazing stuff!

"Key points

• Scientists who use imaging to understand the brain’s complexity often focus on the strongest signals and discard the rest.
• A new study reveals that connections routinely overlooked as “noise” during neuroimaging data analysis can predict behavior with remarkable accuracy.
• The finding could help explain why some people with psychiatric illness don’t respond to treatments, and it could identify new targets for therapeutics.

...

For the study, researchers investigated whether signals discarded by feature selection could reveal meaningful insights about brain and behavior. The team examined brain imaging and behavioral data from more than 12,000 participants across four major U.S. datasets. For every participant, the team calculated the strength of association between brain connections and the outcome they wanted to predict.

All the connections were then ranked from the strongest to weakest associated and divided into 10 non-overlapping groups.

Group one contained the top 10% of connections, those that scientists usually select, while groups two through 10 held the remaining 90% of connections—the connections often dismissed as noise. The team then built 10 prediction models, one for each group. ...

The team found that lower-ranked connections—groups two through nine—consistently achieved prediction accuracy similar to the top 10% of connections. 

In some cases, models built on lower groups of connections performed better than those trained on the top group. The authors suggest this might be because predictive information is widely distributed throughout brain connections and not just concentrated within the strongest ones. ..."

From the abstract:

"A central objective in human neuroimaging is to understand the neurobiology underlying cognition and mental health.

Machine learning models trained on neuroimaging data are increasingly used as tools for predicting behavioural phenotypes, enhancing precision medicine and improving generalizability compared with traditional MRI studies.

However, the high dimensionality of brain connectivity data makes model interpretation challenging. Prevailing practices rely on selecting features and, implicitly, interpreting identified feature networks as uniquely representative of a given phenotype while overlooking others. Despite its widespread use, how univariate feature selection balances the trade-off between simplification for optimizing modelling and oversimplification that misrepresents true neurobiology remains understudied.

Here, using four large-scale neuroimaging datasets spanning over 12,000 participants and 13 outcomes, we demonstrate that edges discarded by feature selection can achieve significant prediction accuracies while yielding different neurobiological interpretations. These results are observed across cognitive, developmental and psychiatric phenotypes, extend to both functional connectivity (functional MRI) and structural connectomes (diffusion tensor imaging) , and remain evident in external validation.

They suggest that focusing on only the top features may simplify the neurobiological bases of brain–behaviour associations. Such interpretations present only the tip of the iceberg when certain disregarded features may be just as meaningful, potentially contributing to ongoing issues surrounding reproducibility within the field. More broadly, our results reinforce that subtle brain-wide signals should not be ignored."

Overlooked Brain Connections Hold Clues to Cognition and Mental Health | Yale School of Medicine

Feature selection leads to divergent neurobiological interpretations of brain-based machine learning biomarkers (open access)

Fig. 1: CPM [connectome-based predictive modelling ] across non-overlapping decile-ranked brain connectivity features.

a, Workflow illustrating the decile-based CPM pipeline, including the initial correlation of connectivity features with phenotypic outcome, ranking features on the basis of group-level correlations between edges and phenotype, splitting features into deciles, and evaluating each decile-based model. DTI, diffusion tensor imaging.

b, Violin plot showing the predictive performance of models trained on each decile of features within the PNC dataset for executive function.

c–e, Radar plots depicting predictive performance across deciles for PNC executive function (c, left), PNC language abilities (c, right), HCPD executive function (d, left), HCPD language abilities (d, right), HBN executive function (e, left) and HBN language abilities (e, right). Bold decile numbers indicate significant predictions.

This 2,200-year-old Roman wreck hid a repair story that rewrites how ancient ships survived long voyages

Amazing stuff! The abstract of this new research paper is disappointing! It is not even an abstract, but more of a teaser.

This paper even uses what appears to be computer vision to generate images presented in this paper! See below.

"Ever since humans have embarked on sea voyages, they needed to ensure vessels were waterproof, resistant to salty seawater, and could withstand microorganisms or sea-dwellers like worms. Until the mid-20th century, however, the study of non-wood materials used to build ships was overlooked. Even today, little work has been done on materials used for waterproofing.

Now, in a new ... study, researchers ... have examined the protective coating of the Roman Republic shipwreck Ilovik–Paržine that sank around 2,200 years ago off the coast of what is now Croatia. ...

"Studying the coatings, we found two different kinds on this vessel: one made of pine tar, also called pitch, and the other of a mixture of pine tar and beeswax. Analysis of pollen in the coating made it possible to identify the plant taxa present in the immediate environment during the construction or repairs of the ship." ...

The wreck was discovered in 2016 and since then the ship itself and its cargo has been examined multiple times. The current study, however, is the first to combine pollen and molecular analyses to characterize the ship's coating and vegetation present during its production and application on the hull. ..."

From the abstract:

"Introduction: The construction of a vessel (from a boat to a large ship) and its maintenance requires waterproofing of its hull and protection against water corrosion and the aggression of microorganisms, worms and other pests. What could be more logical than using an easily accessible and applicable hydrophobic adhesive material?

Many substances have been used over time such as resins, bitumen, plant tars, pure or mixed with beeswax, fats, inorganic elements. Pliny the Elder already mentions zopissa, a mixture of pitch and beeswax (Natural History XVI, 23).

The strong expansion of shipbuilding between the 13th and 19th centuries generated a veritable industry of plant tars.

Methods: In this research work, a new interdisciplinary approach involving the combined use of molecular, palynological and statistical indicators has been implemented to characterize ancient waterproofing materials. This analytical strategy opens new fields of investigation in naval archaeology.

Results and discussion: Beyond the characterization of materials (nature, manufacturing processes, naval techniques, degree of alteration), it especially reveals information about the surrounding vegetation during the production or the application of the waterproofing material. This approach has been applied to the study of the protective coating of the Roman Republican wreck Ilovik–Paržine 1 (around the middle of the second c. BC) found in Paržine Bay (Ilovik Island, Croatia)."

This 2,200-year-old Roman wreck hid a repair story that rewrites how ancient ships survived long voyages

Adhesive coatings in naval archaeology: molecular and palynological investigations on materials from the Roman Republican wreck Ilovik–Paržine 1 (Croatia) (open access)

Fig. 1 View of the excavation of the bow area of the Ilovik-Paržine 1 shipwreck. In the foreground, the cargo of logs and amphoras can be seen. Archaeologists are working near the structure of the bow complex 

A New Type of Neuroplasticity Rewires the Brain After a Single Experience

Recommendable!

"... Recently, neuroscientists described a new form of neuroplasticity that might be helping the brain learn across a timescale of several seconds — long enough to capture the behavioral process of learning from a single experience. In two recent reviews ... describe “behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity,” or BTSP. This type of learning in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory hub, is caused by an electrical change that affects multiple neurons at once and unfolds across several seconds. Researchers suspect that it may help the brain learn in a single attempt. ..."

From the abstract (1):

"Understanding how brains learn and remember remains among the most important challenges in science. Recent studies in the hippocampus implicate a new form of synaptic plasticity, named behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity (BTSP), in the generation of experience-based learning and memory. BTSP is a strong, bidirectional type of plasticity that affects synaptic weights over many seconds of time.

It is induced by single dendritic plateau potentials, as opposed to many action potentials, and is thus capable of producing new place cells in one trial.

Plateau potential initiation is controlled, at least in part, by local feedback inhibition and an instructive input from a higher-order brain region that potentially links the plasticity to current experience.

The new credit assignment procedure in BTSP provides a nonstandard mechanism for memory storage and retrieval that could mitigate the need for widespread synapse stabilization. In addition, it may allow hippocampal networks both to form memories of specific behavioral episodes and to generalize on the basis of past episodes.

Finally, recent BTSP investigations could provide a basis for future explorations into how brains learn and remember, ranging from the systems and cognitive levels down to the basic biochemical building blocks of learning and memory."

From the abstract (2):

"Hebbian synaptic plasticity is currently the main framework to relate neuronal activity, network structure, and learning and memory.

However, recent experimental and computational modeling studies have revealed a new form of synaptic plasticity termed behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity (BTSP).

It is triggered by dendritic plateau potentials associated with somatic burst firing, causes large changes in synaptic strength in a single shot, and operates on the timescale of seconds.

Here we review the recent advances in our understanding of the circuit, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of BTSP, its prevalence in the brain, its role in shaping neuronal representations, and the emerging ideas regarding its contribution to different forms of learning."

A New Type of Neuroplasticity Rewires the Brain After a Single Experience | Quanta Magazine "“Neurons that fire together, wire together” is not the full story. A novel mechanism explains how the brain can learn across longer timescales."

Behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity: properties, elements and functions (1, review article, no public access)

Behavioral Timescale Synaptic Plasticity: A Burst in the Field of Learning and Memory (2, no public access)

Dendrites, the extended branches that receive signals from other neurons, are the star players in a recently described type of neuroplasticity. In this image of stained pyramidal neurons from the cerebral cortex, rootlike dendrites extend from the cell bodies.

HAQERs evolved after hominins split from chimps but before Homo sapiens diverged from Neanderthals

Amazing stuff!

"... Researchers built on past studies documenting the language abilities—and saliva—of 350 elementary school children. They wanted to analyze genetic regulatory sequences called Human Ancestor Quickly Evolved Regions (HAQERs), which influence how genes get expressed. The students’ DNA helped the team confirm HAQERs’ importance in processing and demonstrating language. Then, the researchers looked for the presence of HAQERs in regions of DNA known to have evolved in ancient primates and hominins.

They found that HAQERs evolved after hominins split from chimps but before Homo sapiens diverged from Neanderthals—meaning complex communication likely preceded our own species. This “sliver of the genome has remained relatively constant, even as other aspects have been going up and up and up to make modern humans smarter and smarter ,” author Jacob Michaelson said in a statement. “We can say humans at least had the ‘hardware’ for language earlier than what we previously thought.”

As for why the HAQERs didn’t continue to evolve much after the Neanderthal-human split, the researchers suggest it’s because they promote fetal development—and give babies bigger heads. That tradeoff would have quickly cost the lives of ancient mothers and infants."

From the abstract:

"Language is a defining feature of our species, yet the genomic changes enabling it remain poorly understood. Despite decades of work since FOXP2’s discovery, we still lack a clear picture of which regions shaped language evolution and how variation contributes to present-day phenotypic differences.

Using an evolutionary stratified polygenic score approach, we find that human ancestor quickly evolved regions (HAQERs) are associated with spoken language abilities (discovery N = 350, total replication N > 100,000).

HAQERs evolved before the human-Neanderthal split, giving hominins increased binding of Forkhead and Homeobox transcription factors, and show evidence of balancing selection across the past 20,000 years.

Language-associated variants in HAQERs appear more prevalent in Neanderthals, and HAQER-like sequences show convergent evolution across vocal-learning mammals. Our results reveal how ancient innovations continue shaping human language."

ScienceAdviser

Ancient regulatory evolution shapes individual language abilities in present-day humans (open access)

Fig. 1. Overview of this study and key findings. (ka, thousand years ago; Ma, million years ago.)

Sperm cargo is richer and more important than we thought

Amazing stuff!

I remember way back then when some feminists and some female women's rights activists mocked/dismissed men as mere, dispensable sperm providers. 

"Sperm have long been thought of as streamlined DNA delivery vehicles, carrying little more than a father’s genes to the egg. But a new study shows that in mice, sperm may transmit the father’s influence in another way: During their passage through the epididymis, the coiled tube where they mature after leaving the testes, sperm pick up messenger RNAs (mRNAs)—RNA transcripts of genes that contain the genetic instructions for making proteins. And these mRNAs seem to be transferred to the fertilized egg, a team reports this week in Nucleic Acids Research.

Researchers already knew sperm ferry small RNAs, RNA fragments that can silence gene expression and have been implicated in transmitting the effects of paternal diet, stress, and  exercise to offspring. But mRNAs could be a far more direct route for paternal influence ... The work doesn’t prove these mRNAs from sperm actually function in embryos, she noted, but the discovery of unexpected cargo is “potentially very significant.”"

"... The researchers also found that some mRNAs present in mature sperm are absent from unfertilized eggs, but appear in zygotes after fertilization—suggesting sperm deliver these transcripts to the embryo, ... Because environmental conditions can trigger mRNA production in the father, the observed mRNA transfer “really establishes a mechanism for how the environment can directly influence sperm to then potentially influence the next generation,” ...

the researcher injected long RNA sequences into parthenotes—mouse eggs triggered to divide and develop without sperm. They found the injections shifted the cells’ gene expression to resemble normally fertilized embryos. (They team used RNAs longer than 200 nucleotides, but not mRNA ... The results suggest large RNAs from sperm “can do something after fertilization to regulate embryonic gene expression,” ...

The mechanism may not be limited to mice. The team also sequenced mRNAs from mature human sperm and found counterparts to many mRNAs in mouse sperm, suggesting humans may also deliver RNA messages to their offspring this way."

From the abstract:

"The epididymis plays a critical role in promoting sperm maturation, including remodeling the sperm RNA payload. While small RNAs have been extensively studied in this context, the epididymal contribution to larger sperm RNAs, such as messenger RNAs (mRNAs), remains underexplored. This is largely due to the translational quiescence of mature spermatozoa and the hypothesis that these RNAs are residual by-products of spermatogenesis.

Yet, mRNAs carried by sperm have been detected in the zygote, indicating they may act beyond fertilization. However, whether epididymal somatic cells contribute mRNAs to sperm, as they do small RNAs, has not been experimentally examined. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the mRNA landscape of mouse sperm, epithelial cells, and extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from the proximal (caput) and distal (cauda) epididymis.

Through this analysis and sperm-EV co-incubation experiments, we demonstrate the transfer of mRNAs from epididymal EVs to sperm.

Further, through sperm RNA microinjection into zygotes, we uncover gene regulation in the early embryo driven by the introduction of sperm RNAs, specific to >200-nucleotide RNA species.

These findings reveal the dynamic mRNA profile of sperm that is delivered to the egg and demonstrate that RNA species beyond small RNAs are capable of influencing preimplantation embryo gene expression."

ScienceAdviser

Sperm carry unexpected genetic messages "Maturing mouse sperm get loaded with full-length messenger RNAs that are transferred to fertilized egg, suggesting a new route for paternal influence"

Epididymal extracellular vesicles harbor and convey mRNA to sperm for transfer to zygotes (open access) [This is a long research article!]

Graphical abstract

On Language models recognize dropout and Gaussian noise applied to their activations

This could be an interesting new paper by Yoshua Bengio and his team!

Caveat: I have not yet read the paper.

From the abstract:

"We provide evidence that language models can detect, localize and, to a certain degree, verbalize the difference between perturbations applied to their activations. More precisely, we either

(a) mask activations, simulating dropout, or

(b) add Gaussian noise to them, at a target sentence.

We then ask a multiple-choice question such as ``Which of the previous sentences was perturbed?'' or ``Which of the two perturbations was applied?''.

We test models from the Llama, Olmo, and Qwen families, with sizes between 8B and 32B, all of which can easily detect and localize the perturbations, often with perfect accuracy. These models can also learn, when taught in context, to distinguish between dropout and Gaussian noise. Notably, qwenb's zero-shot accuracy in identifying which perturbation was applied improves as a function of the perturbation strength and, moreover, decreases if the in-context labels are flipped, suggesting a prior for the correct ones -- even modulo controls.

Because dropout has been used as a training-regularization technique, while Gaussian noise is sometimes added during inference, we discuss the possibility of a data-agnostic ``training awareness'' signal and the implications for AI safety."

 

[2604.17465] Language models recognize dropout and Gaussian noise applied to their activations

On Back into Plato's Cave: Examining Cross-modal Representational Convergence at Scale

Food for thought! This could be an interesting paper by Alexei A. Efros and his team.

This paper raises some critical issues!

Caveat: I have not yet read the paper.

From the abstract:

"The Platonic Representation Hypothesis suggests that neural networks trained on different modalities (e.g., text and images) align and eventually converge toward the same representation of reality.

If true, this has significant implications for whether modality choice matters at all. We show that the experimental evidence for this hypothesis is fragile and depends critically on the evaluation regime.

Alignment is measured using mutual nearest neighbors on small datasets (1K samples) and degrades substantially as the dataset is scaled to millions of samples.

The alignment that remains between model representations reflects coarse semantic overlap rather than consistent fine-grained structure.

Moreover, the evaluations in Huh et al. are done in a one-to-one image-caption setting, a constraint that breaks down in realistic many-to-many settings and further reduces alignment.

We also find that the reported trend of stronger language models increasingly aligning with vision does not appear to hold for newer models. Overall, our findings suggest that the current evidence for cross-modal representational convergence is considerably weaker than subsequent works have taken it to be. Models trained on different modalities may learn equally rich representations of the world, just not the same one."

[2604.18572] Back into Plato's Cave: Examining Cross-modal Representational Convergence at Scale

On Separating Geometry from Probability in the Analysis of Generalization

This could be an interesting new paper by Benjamin Recht and his coauthor!

Caveat: I have not yet read this paper.

From the abstract:

"The goal of machine learning is to find models that minimize prediction error on data that has not yet been seen. Its operational paradigm assumes access to a dataset S and articulates a scheme for evaluating how well a given model performs on an arbitrary sample. The sample can be S (in which case we speak of ``in-sample'' performance) or some entirely new S' (in which case we speak of ``out-of-sample'' performance). Traditional analysis of generalization assumes that both in- and out-of-sample data are i.i.d. draws from an infinite population.

However, these probabilistic assumptions cannot be verified even in principle.

This paper presents an alternative view of generalization through the lens of sensitivity analysis of solutions of optimization problems to perturbations in the problem data. Under this framework, generalization bounds are obtained by purely deterministic means and take the form of variational principles that relate in-sample and out-of-sample evaluations through an error term that quantifies how close out-of-sample data are to in-sample data.

Statistical assumptions can then be used ex post to characterize the situations when this error term is small (either on average or with high probability)."

[2604.19560] Separating Geometry from Probability in the Analysis of Generalization

Debatte um Absetzung: Selbst alte Weggefährten halten Trump für wahnsinnig. Wirklich!

Auch unter deutschen Journalisten grassiert das Trump Derangement Syndrome! Wie z.B. Sofia Dreisbach, Washington!

Debatte um Absetzung: Selbst alte Weggefährten halten Trump für wahnsinnig | FAZ (behind paywall) "Sogar im MAGA-Lager wird die Frage lauter: Ist der Präsident noch zurechnungsfähig? Trump aber denkt nicht daran, einen Gang zurückzuschalten."

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.

Meet GitNexus: An Open-Source MCP-Native Knowledge Graph Engine That Gives Claude Code and Cursor Full Codebase Structural Awareness

Recommendable!

"GitNexus is an open-source knowledge graph engine that indexes any codebase into a structured dependency map — capturing every function call, import, class inheritance, and execution flow using Tree-sitter AST parsing — and exposes it to AI coding agents like Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, and Windsurf via a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Instead of letting agents edit code blind and ship breaking changes, GitNexus pre-computes the entire dependency structure at index time so agents can answer architectural questions like "what depends on this function?" in a single query, with confidence-scored blast radius analysis, 360-degree symbol context, pre-commit impact detection, and coordinated multi-file renames — all triggered by one command: npx gitnexus analyze. Fully local, zero server, 13 languages supported, and already at 19,100 GitHub stars"

Meet GitNexus: An Open-Source MCP-Native Knowledge Graph Engine That Gives Claude Code and Cursor Full Codebase Structural Awareness - MarkTechPost

DeepSeek AI Releases DeepSeek-V4

Recommendable! Seems the latest DeepSeek model comes with several  interesting innovations!

"Key Takeaways

• Hybrid CSA and HCA attention cuts KV cache to 10% of DeepSeek-V3.2 at 1M tokens.
• Manifold-Constrained Hyper-Connections (mHC) replace residual connections for more stable deep layer training.
• The Muon optimizer replaces AdamW for most parameters, delivering faster convergence and training stability.
• Post-training uses On-Policy Distillation from 10+ domain experts instead of traditional mixed RL.
• DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Base outperforms DeepSeek-V3.2-Base despite having 3x fewer activated parameters.

..."

DeepSeek AI Releases DeepSeek-V4: Compressed Sparse Attention and Heavily Compressed Attention Enable One-Million-Token Contexts

US Defense Secretary Hegseth warns European allies to stop 'free riding' and help reopen the strait

Good news! Bravo!

During the Cold War, the European NATO members were accused like this many times!

After the Cold War it is perhaps time to dissolve the NATO. Let the Europeans build their own defense!

Hegseth warns European allies to stop 'free riding' and help reopen the strait (partially behind paywall)

China: Teeth ceaning at a dental clinic in Zhengzhou

What an experience!

You pay per natural tooth, crowns are not counted! I never encountered this before in my life.

Dental flossing not applied!

No mirror was provided at the end of service to review your cleaned teeth!

The ultrasonic scaler was applied extensively before and after polishing. Why?

There were two patient seats, two patients in the same small room with about six dental staff. 

Hidden mutations in immune cells linked to autoimmune disease

Good news! This could be a breakthrough!

"New research suggests that autoimmune diseases may be driven by DNA mutations in immune cells that remove the natural brakes on the immune system. It reveals a previously hidden role for somatic mutations — DNA changes acquired throughout life — in diseases beyond cancer.

Researchers ... used a series of cutting-edge techniques to identify previously unseen changes in DNA that may contribute to thyroid autoimmunity, where the immune system attacks the thyroid gland. ...

The researchers used several advanced DNA analysis techniques.
Firstly, they used a method called NanoSeq, which they recently developed and allows detection of rare mutations invisible to traditional DNA sequencing methods, to look for genetic changes that may drive the disease. They found that many B cells had developed inactivating mutations in key genes that normally control the immune system.

Next, using additional methods that look at the DNA of individual cells and microscopic areas of tissue, the researchers found that many B cells in each patient carried several mutations in key genes.

Two critical immune-checkpoint genes, TNFRSF14 and CD274 (or PDL1), were often lost independently in multiple clones of mutated B cells in each patient. Some of these clones had even acquired as many as six driver mutations over many years, silently building up changes in DNA before symptoms appeared, a highly unexpected observation outside of cancer.

Importantly, artificial inactivation of these genes, in experimental studies or during cancer immunotherapy, is known to cause thyroid autoimmunity. The researchers have now found frequent mutations in these genes occurring in autoimmune patients. ..."

From the abstract:

"Our immune system contains multiple checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis posits that somatic mutations in immune-regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints1–3, but testing this has been challenging due to technical limitations.

Here, we use whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, an accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed many B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function mutations in the key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (HVEM) and CD274 (PD-L1), as well as less frequent mutations in other immune genes.

In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune checkpoint mutant clones. Laser microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunostaining, single-nucleus DNA sequencing, and antibody synthesis localised these mutations to B cells, confirmed some to be self-reactive, and identified clones carrying multiple hits.

We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss, and clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small fraction of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring driver mutations.

Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution, providing new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease."

Hidden mutations in immune cells linked to autoimmune disease "Mutations in immune cells may be the missing piece in the autoimmune disease puzzle."

Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity (no public access)

Academic freedom slides globally, as it takes a nosedive in the US. Really!

Let me guess, a case of Trump Derangement Syndrome by the Royal Society of Chemistry! What a piece of junk journalism!

"Academic freedom continues to decline globally, with a marked fall in the US, according to the 2026 update to the Academic Freedom Index. The index revealed that over the last decade academic freedom has slipped in 50 countries, with just nine registering improvement. ...

‘This academic freedom erosion is part of broader democratic backslide that we’re seeing in the US,’ [???] says Jennifer Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. ‘It mirrors the rise of authoritarianism that we’ve seen in Hungary and Turkey [???], where higher education is often targeted.’ ..."

Academic freedom slides globally, as it takes a nosedive in the US | News | Chemistry World

The Trump administration said it would allow executions by firing squad and restore the use of lethal injections in federal death-penalty cases

 As much as I hate capital punishment, but this is good news!

Apparently, the administration of the senile, demented and pathological liar 46th President tried to indirectly abolish the death penalty.

"The Justice Department said many of the limits the Biden administration put on carrying out federal death sentences would be removed. Until recently, firing squads were almost unheard of in modern executions. President Trump, in his first term, reactivated the federal death penalty after a 17-year hiatus and put 13 inmates to death in its final months. Since his return to office, the DOJ is seeking death sentences against 44 defendants."

Wall Street Journal What's news

A majority of health research focuses on men's bodies. Nonprofit FemTechAZ aims to change that. Really!

A case of junk journalism! I have seen at least one other, similar news report this week!

Feminists have been repeating this story since the 1960s or so!

Yes, for historical reasons medicine focused on male bodies in the past, but this is not true anymore for at least the past 50 years. It time to cancel this false, outdated  propaganda!

Caveat: I did not read the entire article.

A majority of health research focuses on men's bodies. Nonprofit FemTechAZ aims to change that

What is wrong with the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire?

A lot! I have been irritated by this so called cease fire agreement since it's inception!

Israel is not at war with Lebanon, but with the Iran sponsored Hezbollah terrorists operating from the territory of Lebanon!

Why was the Lebanese government incapable or unwilling to address the Islamist terrorism attacking Israel on its territory? A huge failure by the Lebanese government! Almost like a failed state!

Google Says 75% of the company's new Code Now Generated by AI

Amazing stuff! Good news! With the help of ML & AI we can now produce so much more programming code (in any programming language)!

"

• Three-quarters of new code at Google is being generated by AI, the company said.
• The number has been steadily increasing as the company pushes staff to adopt AI tools.
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai said a recent code migration was done six times faster thanks to AI agents.

...

 As of October 2024, around a quarter of the company's code was AI-generated, Google said at the time.
Last fall, it said the number had risen to 50%. ..."

Google Says 75% of Fresh Code Now Generated by AI "Google announced this week that 75 percent of all new code created within the company is currently being generated by AI systems and subsequently reviewed by human engineers."

Google says 75% of the company's new code is AI-generated (original news)

Plant seeds can actually sense the sound of rain

Amazing stuff! The sound of rain! Let it rain, let it rain!

"MIT engineers found that plant seeds can actually sense the sound of rain, with rice seeds germinating 30% to 40% faster when exposed to the vibrations of falling water droplets."

"... In experiments with rice seeds, the team found that the sound of falling droplets effectively shook the seeds out of a dormant state, stimulating them to germinate at a faster rate compared with seeds that were not exposed to the same sound vibrations. ..."

"... the first direct evidence that plant seeds and seedlings can sense sounds in nature. Their experiments involved rice seeds that they submerged in shallow water. Rice can germinate in both soil and shallow water. The researchers suspect that many similar seed types may also respond to the sound of rain. ...

They found that when a raindrop hits the surface of a puddle or the ground, it generates a sound wave that makes the surroundings vibrate, including any shallowly submerged seeds. These vibrations can be strong enough to dislodge a seed’s “statoliths,” which are tiny gravity-sensing organelles within certain cells of a seed. When these statoliths are jostled, their movement is a signal for seeds and seedlings to grow and sprout. ..."

From the abstract:

"The ability of natural environmental sound to stimulate seeds and seedlings sufficiently to foster growth has not been previously demonstrated or quantified.

To study this, rain sound is a logical starting point. Rain produces extremely high amplitude sound pressure with commensurate particle displacements in the upper soil, puddles and wetlands where many plant seeds germinate.

Experiments were conducted with controlled rain drops impacting soil and shallow water puddles containing submerged seeds of rice (oryza sativa). Germination rates were measured as the peak sound pressure of drop impact was varied. The displacements of micro-meter-scale statoliths relative to the structure of specialized seed cells that sense gravitational direction were estimated as a function of the controlled rain sound forcing.

The results here indicate rice and related seed types can sense the sound of rain impacting the soil or water surface above them and respond by accelerating germination at depths where impulsive rain sound is sufficiently intense to intermittently shake statoliths from contact with cell membrane receptors and trigger gravitropic growth mechanisms.

The ability to perceive rain sound and respond with accelerated germination is found to be roughly limited to the relatively shallow depths that are also beneficial to seedling survival."

Friday, April 24, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Plants can sense the sound of rain, new study finds

Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds (original news release) "Experiments by MIT engineers show rice seeds sprout faster to the sound of rain."

Seeds accelerate germination at beneficial planting depths by sensing the sound of rain (open access)

Kakapel rock art timeline reveals 9,000 years of painters in Kenya

Amazing stuff! The abstract of this research paper is lousy and dilettante!

"A recent study ... presents the first millimeter-accurate recording of the paintings at Kakapel rock shelter in Kenya, linking the layers of rock art painted over thousands of years to at least three culturally and genetically distinct groups.

The combination of rock art analysis, aDNA, and excavation data makes Kakapel one of the most comprehensively understood rock art sites in eastern Africa. ..."

From the abstract:

"... first described the Kakapel rock art of western Kenya in 1977.  ...

Fieldwork in 2011 was undertaken to ... further research at the site. This paper presents the first millimetre-accurate redrawing of the main panel at Kakapel and places the site within the broader context of eastern African rock art to propose an age and authorship for the different painted traditions represented there.

It thus builds on and extends current understandings of the rock art sequence of eastern Africa."

Kakapel rock art timeline reveals 9,000 years of painters in Kenya

The rock art of Kakapel Shelter, western Kenya (open access)

Figure 4. Kakapel: redrawing of the images in Layer 1 (redrawn by Wendy Voorveld in 2012 and coloured for publication by Kgolagano Vena).

Figure 5. Kakapel: redrawing of the images in Layer 2 (redrawn by Wendy Voorveld in 2012 and coloured for publication by Kgolagano Vena).

Figure 6. Kakapel: redrawing of the images in Layer 3 (redrawn by Wendy Voorveld in 2012 and coloured for publication by Kgolagano Vena).

Figure 1. Map of East Africa showing location of Kakapel rock art site in relation to other sites and places mentioned in the paper.

President Trump likes weed by reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug

Good news! Bravo! Finally, this very long overdue correction has been made!

"Yes, since the passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (enacted in 1971), the U.S. federal government has classified cannabis as a Schedule I drug, placing it in the same category as heroin, LSD, and ecstasy" (Google AI)

"The Trump administration is reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

 

The move marks a significant policy shift that could make it easier to buy and sell pot as well as reward cannabis-industry investors.

Weed has been classified the same way as LSD and heroin since 1970. The downgrade makes it possible to obtain the drug for medical reasons with a prescription; recreational use remains illegal under U.S. law. Doctors and researchers say marijuana can pose real risks to people’s health."

Street Journal What's news

Former girls' high school basketball coach hit with 32 sex charges, including 'deviant sexual intercourse with a student'

Another Me Too event!

"Agrand jury on Tuesday indicted a former Alabama high school girls' basketball coach who's facing 32 sex crime charges in connection with accusations that she sexually abused a student, according to multiple reports.

Paige Adams — former girls' basketball coach at Cold Springs High School — was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Cullman County Jail, according to jail records. ..."

Former girls' high school basketball coach hit with 32 sex charges, including 'deviant sexual intercourse with a student' "The suspect's husband reportedly filed for divorce and asked for sole custody of the couple's child."

CATL claims 6-minute charge and 1,500km range for new electric vehicle batteries

 Good news!

"CATL has developed a battery capable of allowing an electric vehicle to drive 1,500km on a single charge, the Chinese group claimed on Tuesday, as it challenges BYD for supremacy on range and charging speed. ..."

CATL claims 6-minute charge and 1,500km range for new electric vehicle batteries "Chinese group also slashes charging time in race against BYD for electric vehicle battery supremacy"

Packaging artist: CATL announces Qilin EV battery with 1000 km range "The Chinese battery manufacturer CATL is introducing an advanced fast-charging CTP battery in Beijing for lighter cars with more space and range."

CATL's Qilin Battery is continuously being improved.

Democratic lesbian Latina running for US Congress is accused by 4 women of unwanted sexual advances

 Headline of the day! Welcome to the age of gender equality!

"A Latina lesbian member of the Salt Lake City Council has been accused by four people of sexual harassment while she mounts a campaign to win a U.S. congressional seat.

Three of the accusers are elected officials, and all said they were subjected to unwanted sexual advances from Eva Lopez Chavez. ..."

Democratic lesbian Latina running for Congress is accused by 4 women of unwanted sexual advances

Eva Lopez Chavez (Source)

Clearing Strait of Hormuz of mines could take 6 months, Pentagon tells Congress

Where are the Europeans when you need them??? Do some minesweeping!

Only 20 mines? It would take 6 months to remove them???

"... Three officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the discussion’s sensitivity, said lawmakers were told that Iran may have emplaced 20 or more mines in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the movement of Middle Eastern oil through the Persian Gulf. Some were floated remotely using GPS technology, which has made it difficult for U.S. forces to detect the mines as they are deployed, the senior defense official told lawmakers. Others are believed to have been laid by Iranian forces using small boats. ..."

Clearing Strait of Hormuz of mines could take 6 months, Pentagon tells Congress "The Pentagon assessment, shared in a classified briefing for lawmakers, suggests gasoline and oil prices could remain elevated through the midterm elections."

Innovation von Bosch: „Das ist ein Meilenstein für das automatisierte Fahren“. Wirklich!

Ich habe meine Zweifel an dieser Meldung! Ist mir nicht bekannt, das Bosch auf dem Gebiet etwas vorzuzeigen hat.

Innovation von Bosch: „Das ist ein Meilenstein für das automatisierte Fahren“ (behind paywall) "Der weltgrößte Autozulieferer Bosch steckt in der Krise. Nun präsentiert der Hersteller einen Autopiloten mit KI-Software, der das Fahren revolutionieren soll. Losgehen soll es in China, in ein paar Jahren aber auch in Deutschland."

Will the quantum superposition of time soon be tested in a laboratory?

Amazing stuff! Food for thought! Can time run simultaneously faster and slower?

"Trapped ions are versatile platforms used for quantum computing and ultra-precise timekeeping. New results now show that combining these capabilities can reveal a deeper layer of physical reality: quantum superpositions of the passage of time. ...

Few concepts in physics are as familiar, yet as enigmatic, as time.

In Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is not absolute: its passage depends on motion and gravity.

But when combined with quantum physics, this relativistic form of time becomes even more counterintuitive. According to quantum theory, the flow of time itself may exist in a genuine quantum superposition, ticking faster and slower at the same time. ...

Now, a new paper titled Quantum signatures of proper time in optical ion clocks, published on April 20, 2026 in Physical Review Letters ... shows that this striking possibility may soon be tested in the laboratory. ...

In this work, a team ... explores quantum aspects of the flow of time and how they can be accessed with atomic clocks. Their results suggest that the same quantum technologies being developed for next-generation clocks and quantum computers may soon probe something far more fundamental: When a clock’s motion obeys quantum mechanics, its movement can exist in superposition, and with it the recorded passage of time itself.

This is analogous to Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment, where the counterintuitive nature of quantum superposition is illustrated by a cat being both alive and dead; here it is the passage of time itself that is in superposition, like a cat that is both young and old at once. ..."

From the abstract:

"Optical clocks based on atoms and ions probe relativistic effects with unprecedented sensitivity.

They resolve time dilation due to atom motion or different positions in the gravitational potential through frequency shifts. However, all measurements of time dilation so far can be explained effectively as the result of dynamics with respect to a classical proper time parameter.

Here we show that atomic clocks can probe effects where a classical description of the proper time dynamics is insufficient as superpositions of proper time emerge.

We apply a Hamiltonian formalism to derive time dilation effects in harmonically trapped clock atoms and show how second-order Doppler shifts due to the vacuum energy, squeezing, and quantum corrections to the dynamics arise.

We also demonstrate that time-dilation-induced entanglement between motion and clock evolution can become observable in state-of-the-art clocks when the motion of the atoms is strongly squeezed, realizing proper time interferometry.

Our results show that experiments with trapped ion clocks are within reach of probing relativistic evolution of clocks for which a quantum description of proper time becomes necessary."

Scientists at Stevens Institute of Technology Reveal That Time Can Go Quantum in Ion Clock Experiments "Physicists show that atomic clocks can probe time ticking both faster and slower simultaneously, revealing how time itself unfolds in quantum superposition"

Quantum Signatures of Proper Time in Optical Ion Clocks (open access)

Credits: Einstein trifft Quantenphysik: Wenn Zeit gleichzeitig schneller und langsamer läuft "Physiker testen ein radikales Szenario: Zeit könnte gleichzeitig schneller und langsamer vergehen. Atomuhren machen es prüfbar."

Illustration of classical, semiclassical, and quantum proper time dynamics of a trapped-ion atomic clock that we consider. 

Illustration of time-dilation-induced entanglement between clock and motional degrees of freedom, and how it can be observed using trapped atomic clocks with squeezing of motional states. The protocol proceeds from left to right.

The top row shows the motional states in a phase-space representation, where a squeezed state is prepared which then evolves at different frequencies in superposition, depending on the internal clock states.

The bottom row shows the same sequence from the perspective of the clock degrees of freedom represented on a Bloch sphere, where a Ramsey sequence results in a superposition of different time evolutions of the clocks due to the different motional energies.

The entanglement between motion and clock (last column) causes a reduction in visibility of the clock ... which can be measured with current state-of-the-art ion clock systems.

Researchers have imaged every single cell in the body of a newborn mouse

Amazing stuff! 

"Researchers have imaged every single cell in the body of a newborn mouse, using a custom fluorescence microscope, high-speed cameras and an atlas of the mouse body onto which they mapped data. 

“Since Robert Hooke first described cells in 1665, more than 360 years have passed,” ... “Yet no one had directly visualized all cells in mammalian organs or in the whole body of a newborn mammal at single-cell resolution.” They also mapped responses to drug toxicity at a single-cell scale."

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Establishing whole-body cellomics (partially behind paywall)

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is coming back into vogue among drug developers

Good news!

"Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) could be on the brink of a renaissance among drug developers.

For decades, other techniques that assess the structure of drugs — such as X-ray crystallography and, more recently, cryo-electron microscopy — have overshadowed NMR because of its complexity and slowness.

But over the past five years, a suite of contract research organizations (which manage research for drug companies) have been founded with the aim of bringing NMR back into the limelight as the technology improves, to help drug discovery.

Meanwhile, NMR has been used to uncover a completely new conformational state in a group of proteins strongly linked with cancer progression. The newly discovered ‘invisible fold’ in kinases could help make kinase inhibitors more selective. “Conformational dynamics in drug discovery are critical and underappreciated,” ..." 

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

NMR-as-you-go for drug hunters (no public access) "Craving speed and convenience, biopharma companies turn to providers with NMR know-how."

Autonomous, chinese made humanoid Robot beats human world record at Beijing half-marathon

Amazing stuff!

"The winning runner at a Beijing half-marathon for humanoid robots finished the race today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds — significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo. ...

this year’s winner was built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor.  ... the 50:26 robot was autonomous and won due to weighted scoring. ...

About 40% of participating robots competed autonomously, while the remaining 60% were remote controlled ..."

Robots beat human records at Beijing half-marathon | TechCrunch

Humanoid robot sprints to victory in Beijing, beating human half-marathon record "A humanoid robot has won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing, running faster than the human record"

Higher Oil prices? China mysteriously reduced warplane activity near Taiwan over the past three weeks

Good news! 😊 Maybe a welcome relief for Taiwan!

" Could it be high fuel prices, or a desire to avoid upsetting U.S. President Donald Trump? What about China’s annual political confab in early March? Analysts have offered different explanations for a recent trend: a net reduction in daily Chinese fighter plane activity near Taiwan over the past three weeks. ..."

Oil prices, fear of Trump? China mysteriously reduced warplane activity near Taiwan

Female Teacher’s Aide Charged with Sexual Conduct with Student, 15, Sent Him Her Positive Pregnancy Test

Another Me Too event!

Teacher’s Aide Charged with Sexual Conduct with Student, 15, Sent Him Her Positive Pregnancy Test "An Arizona school aide is scheduled for a hearing this week on charges she had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student during which she sent him her positive pregnancy test and discussed how they could force a “miscarriage." ..."

Leftist Southern Poverty Law Center Was indicted as a Funder of White Supremacist Groups

What a mutually beneficial symbioses! What a nice arrangement!

If confirmed, this is pretty bad! What do some political, activist NGOs do?

I have little doubt that these allegations could turn out to be true!

"US officials have announced fraud charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights group that tracks extremist organisations and played a prominent role in confronting the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

In a news conference on Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the non-profit of secretly funding the very groups that it says it opposes, through paying informants who infiltrated them - including within the KKK.

An indictment charges the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. ..."

Southern Poverty Law Center Was the Largest Funder of White Supremacist Groups | Frontpage Mag "The SPLC had been financing what it claimed to be fighting"

US charges anti-extremism organisation over payments to informants in hate groups

Russia, Turkey And Other countries Engage with African Autocrats

Recommendable! What are Russia and others up to?

Caveat: I did not read the entire, long article!

Us Competes With Russia And Others As It Engages African Autocrats: Africa File Special Edition | Critical Threats

Figure 5. Russia Pursues Mediterranean Sea to Atlantic Ocean Corridor

Figure 6. Madagascar Moves Closer to Russia

Figure 8. United Arab Emirate backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Regional Smuggling Supply Lines