How Autonomous Drone Warfare Is Emerging in the Ukraine

Recommendable!

Near future wars will be fought by remotely controlled or autonomous drones and robots!

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

"Rise of the Autonomous Attack Drones

AI-enabled drones and anti-drone tech developed by Ukraine and Russia are remaking the battlefield."

"... “swarms of autonomous drones carrying other autonomous drones to protect them against autonomous drones, which are trying to intercept them, controlled by AI agents overseen by a human general somewhere.” ...

flotillas of autonomous submarines, each carrying hundreds of drones, suddenly emerging off the coast of California or Great Britain and discharging their cargoes en masse to the sky ...

Ukrainian troops first began using drones for battlefield surveillance, but within a few months they figured out how to strap explosives onto them and turn them into effective, low-cost killing machines. ...

Since then, The Fourth Law has dispatched “more than thousands” of autonomy modules to troops in eastern Ukraine (it declines to give a more specific figure), which can be retrofitted on existing drones to take over navigation during the final approach to the target. ... the autonomy modules, worth around US $50, increase the drone-strike success rate by up to four times that of purely operator-controlled drones. ...

thousands of developers, including some who relocated from Western countries, who are applying their skills and other resources to advancing the drone technology that is the defining characteristic of the war in Ukraine. This eclectic group of startups and founders includes Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, whose company Swift Beat is churning out autonomous drones and modules for Ukrainian forces. ..."

How Autonomous Drone Warfare Is Emerging in Ukraine - IEEE Spectrum

An interceptor drone, part of the U.S. MEROPS defensive system, is tested in Poland on 18 November 2025.

A fixed-wing drone is tested in Ukraine in April 2025.

Is the current British Defense Secretary John Healey a fool?

It appears so! What a story!

Caveat: I am not familiar with the details of this case.

"It is a sad state of affairs that gangs of inner-city youths have been allowed to thieve with impunity, in London and elsewhere, and the police generally do nothing about it. ...
Defence Secretary John Healey ... ‘We all know somebody who’s had their phone stolen,’ he told Sky News. ‘We’re not all the chief-of-staff of the Prime Minister,’ replied Sophy Ridge. Yet the question isn’t simply whether the phone was stolen, but the cascade of inexplicable behaviour that followed.

The Met Police took the unusual step of releasing a full transcript of the 999 call in which McSweeney reported the theft. Rather than clearing up the matter, it only prompted further questions. The transcript revealed that McSweeney actually gave police the wrong street name – Belgrave Street in Tower Hamlets rather than Belgrave Road near Westminster – meaning officers checked the wrong CCTV footage and, unsurprisingly, found no leads. McSweeney also failed to tell police he was the Prime Minister’s chief-of-staff, or that the phone contained highly sensitive material."

The Spectator newsletter

A new clue to how the skin detects physical touch

Amazing stuff!

"... While scientists have long known that a protein called PIEZO2 acts as a key sensor for touch, it remained unclear why PIEZO2 is specialized for the localized mechanical forces experienced by sensory neurons, whereas its close relative PIEZO1 responds to broader mechanical stresses such as those generated when cells stretch, as occurs in blood vessels. 

Now, a new study  ... clarify how PIEZO2 detects specific types of force and explain why evolution may have selected it as the body’s primary sensor for light touch. This work may guide future exploration into sensory disorders linked to PIEZO2 mutations. ...

Although PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 appear nearly identical in molecular models, they behave very differently in living cells. PIEZO2 is especially important in the somatosensory nervous system, the network of nerve cells that detects touch. These cells are highly sensitive to small indentations, like a light tap on the skin. By contrast, PIEZO1 responds more readily to general membrane stretch, such as when a cell is pulled or swollen, rather than poked at a specific point.

To investigate the difference, the research team used minimal fluorescence photon flux (MINFLUX) super-resolution microscopy ... Whereas other imaging techniques, including cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), have captured detailed but static images of frozen PIEZO proteins that serve as references for overall shape, MINFLUX allows scientists to track the positions and movements of proteins in cells with nanometer-scale precision. ..."

From the abstract:

"PIEZOs are mechanically gated ion channels that transduce force into electrochemical signals.
PIEZO1 responds to diverse stimuli including membrane stretch2 and shear stress, whereas 

PIEZO2 is generally tuned to detect cellular indentation. The functional specialization of PIEZO2 is proposed to underlie its distinct physiological roles, including mediating the sense of touch. How PIEZO2 achieves this selectivity despite its close structural similarity to PIEZO1 is unclear.
Here we combine single-molecule MINFLUX fluorescence nanoscopy with electrophysiology to link the conformational states of PIEZO2 to channel gating in intact cells. We find that PIEZO2 is intrinsically more rigid than PIEZO1, and that disparate mechanical stimuli paradoxically evoke opposite conformational and gating responses in each channel.

These unique gating properties arise in part from a connection to the actin cytoskeleton, and we identify filamin-B (FLNB) as a molecular tether that is required for this interaction. This complex alters how force is transmitted to PIEZO2 and confers heightened sensitivity to and selectivity for cellular indentation. PIEZO2 and FLNB are co-expressed in somatosensory neurons and colocalize within tens of nanometres at the end organs of cutaneous mechanosensory afferents. These findings help to explain why PIEZO2 is a specialized mechanosensor and provide a molecular blueprint for understanding how cells decode diverse mechanical stimuli across tissues and organ systems."

A new clue to how the body detects physical force | Scripps Research

The molecular basis of force selectivity by PIEZO2 (open access)

Fig. 1: The divergent structural mechanics of PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 in a cell membrane.

Tiny bubbles, sound waves clean produce safely and effectively

Good news! Don't we like bubble bath? Would you like to be a bubble bath scientist? 😊

"... new research finds that a bubble bath with a constant acoustic sound in the water may be the best chemical-free, gentle method for cleaning agricultural produce and possibly medical instruments and semiconductors. ...

Agricultural produce is currently cleaned by washing with bubblers for greens or soft brushes for root crops to clean off sediments. Chorine, ozone and peroxyacetic acid are often added to the water as sanitizers. ..."

From the abstract:

"Traditional surface cleaning methods often suffer from drawbacks such as chemical harshness, potential for surface damage, and high-energy consumption. This study investigates an alternative approach: acoustic-driven surface cleaning using millimeter-sized bubbles excited at low, sub-cavitation frequencies.
We identify and characterize a distinct translational resonance of these bubbles, occurring at significantly lower frequencies (e.g., 50 Hz for 1.3 mm diameter bubbles) than the Minnaert resonance for a bubble of the same size. At this translational resonance, stationary bubbles exhibit amplified lateral swaying, while bubbles sliding on an inclined surface display pronounced “stop-and-go” dynamics.
The theoretical model treats the bubble as a forced, damped harmonic oscillator. In this framework, surface tension supplies the restoring force, while the inertia is governed primarily by the hydrodynamic added mass of the surrounding fluid. It accurately predicts the observed resonant frequency scaling with bubble equilibrium radius R0 (∝R0−3/2).
Cleaning efficacy, assessed using protein-based artificial soil on glass slides, was significantly improved when bubbles were driven at their translational resonant frequency compared to off-resonant frequencies or nonacoustic conditions. These findings demonstrate that leveraging translational resonance enhances bubble-induced shear and agitation, offering an effective and sustainable mechanism for surface cleaning."

Tiny bubbles, sound waves clean produce safely and effectively | Cornell Chronicle

Acoustic-driven surface cleaning with millimeter-sized bubbles at translational resonance

Fig. 1 Translational resonance of an acoustically driven bubble (1.3 mm diameter).

Fig. 5 Cleaning performance and mechanism under resonant excitation.

What's for dinner? Tooth enamel reveals what early Mesopotamians really ate

Amazing stuff! I believe, there were other studies in the past that analyzed enamel to determine e.g. what food was consumed.

"... In particular, the team focused on zinc isotopes (different versions of the same element) in the enamel, as they detail in their study ... "Zinc isotope analysis of dental enamel provides a viable alternative for reconstructing diet in southern Mesopotamia, where collagen preservation is poor," they write.

The zinc in your teeth changes depending on what you are eating. For example, plants absorb zinc from the soil through their roots and carry a distinctive chemical signature. When animals eat plants, the isotope signal shifts slightly in predictable ways as it moves through the food chain. By measuring those shifts in human teeth, scientists can estimate how much plant versus animal food people consumed. In addition to zinc, the team examined carbon and oxygen isotopes and trace elements such as barium and strontium. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

Understanding ancient diets is one of the keys to reconstructing lifeways and social structures. In what are now arid regions like southern Mesopotamia, poor collagen preservation has long hindered direct dietary reconstructions. Here, we apply zinc isotope analysis to human and faunal dental enamel from the third-millennium BCE site of Abu Tbeirah (southern Iraq), offering a method to overcome this limitation. Combined with carbon and oxygen isotopes and trace element ratios (Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca), zinc isotopes reveal an omnivorous diet based on C3 cereals, terrestrial animal protein, and possibly freshwater resources, with no evidence of marine fish consumption. These findings offer individual-level insight into subsistence practices, early-life nutrition, and animal management within a nonelite population in early-urbanized southern Mesopotamia.

Abstract

Reconstructing past lifeways and diets is essential to understanding the emergence of urban societies. However, in what are now arid environments like southern Mesopotamia, poor collagen preservation has long hampered direct isotopic analysis of trophic levels. This limitation has left key gaps in our understanding of subsistence in one of the world’s earliest urban heartlands.

Here, we apply zinc isotope analysis to human and faunal dental enamel from the third-millennium BCE site of Abu Tbeirah (Iraq), integrating δ13C, δ18O, and trace element ratios (Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca). This multiproxy approach reveals an omnivorous diet based on C3 cereals, terrestrial animal products (likely including pigs), and limited freshwater resources, with no or little evidence of marine fish consumption, despite the site’s proximity to the ancient shoreline. Dietary patterns do not vary by sex, suggesting broad access to similar food sources within this nonelite population. Moreover, zinc and carbon isotopes proved valuable in identifying animal feeding practices. Our results provide direct dietary evidence from southern Mesopotamia, overcoming long-standing preservation challenges. The results allow us to evaluate specific expectations about diet and animal management in a collagen-poor context, also highlighting early-life feeding behaviors. They demonstrate the power of zinc isotopes to reconstruct trophic level in collagen-poor contexts, opening broad avenues for bioarchaeological research in early complex societies."

What's for dinner? Tooth enamel reveals what early Mesopotamians really ate

When collagen fails: Zinc isotopes unlock Sumerian lifeways in southern Mesopotamia (open access)

Fig. 2 Scatterplots of isotopic values divided in (A) δ66Zn vs. δ18O in humans, grouped by feeding behavior; (B) δ66Zn vs δ18O, with symbols indicating species and color indicating drinking strategy; (C) δ66Zn vs. δ13C in humans, grouped by feeding behavior; (D) δ66Zn vs. δ13C, with symbols indicating species and color indicating feeding behavior; (E) δ18O vs. δ13C in humans, grouped by feeding behavior; (F) δ18O vs. δ13C, with symbols indicating species and color indicating drinking strategy, compared with available data from Ur

For several years China mapped ocean floors as it prepares for submarine warfare with US

Hopefully, civilian use of these maps will eventually be possible!

Officially, China used equipment from a New Zealand company for this purpose.

Caveat: I did not read the entire, very long article below.

"... In tracing this effort, Reuters examined Chinese government and university records, including journal articles and scientific studies, and analyzed more than five years of movement by 42 research vessels active in the Pacific, Indian or Arctic oceans using a ship-tracking platform built by New Zealand company Starboard Maritime Intelligence.

While the research has civilian purposes – some of the surveying covers fishing grounds or areas where China has mineral prospecting contracts – it also serves a military one, according to nine naval-warfare experts who reviewed Reuters’ findings. ..."

China maps ocean floor as it prepares for submarine warfare with US

Brightpick Launches Gridpicker; Highest-Throughput Robotic Fulfillment System Ever Developed

Amazing stuff!

"Meet Brightpick Gridpicker – the fastest warehouse robot ever created. Gridpicker redefines warehouse automation by combining AI-powered mobile manipulation with high-density grid storage.

Delivering 2x higher throughput than shuttle systems, 5x less labor needs than Goods-to-Person systems, and cube-level storage density – at up to 40% lower cost." (The Robot Report email)

Brightpick Launches Gridpicker; Highest-Throughput Robotic Fulfillment System Ever Developed - Brightpick

VW in talks with Rafael to produce Iron Dome in a German VW car plant - report

Sounds embarrassing, but typical for the banana republic of Germany! Volkswagen is becoming an assembly line for foreign companies!

"Israeli government owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is in advanced negotiations to convert a huge Volkswagen car plant in Germany into a factory for manufacturing components for the Iron Dome air defense system, UK newspaper "The Financial Times" (FT) reports. Iron Dome has already been sold to a range of European countries including Finland and Greece and other countries are in talks to buy the defense system including Germany. Rafael has German subsidiaries engaged in defense production for Germany and other European countries.

Volkswagen has encountered severe financial difficulties with profits cut by tens of percentages in recent years and for the first time in its history the company is considering shutting down factories in Germany."

VW in talks with Rafael to produce Iron Dome - report - Globes "Rafael is in advanced negotiations to convert a Volkswagen plant in Germany into a factory producing components for the defense system, “The Financial Times” reports."

Irre Einmischung: Bundespräsident Steinmeier belehrt die Bundesregierung zum Iran und greift die USA öffentlich massiv an

Wer so einen, seit Jahrzehnten bekannten, Deppen wie Steinmeier (70 Jahre alt) zum Bundespräsident macht braucht sich nicht zu wundern!

Habe hier schon gestern in Englisch zu Steinmeiers kontroverser Rede gebloggt.

Steinmeier belehrt die Bundesregierung zum Iran "Deutschlands Bundespräsident hintertreibt die Außenpolitik von Friedrich Merz und greift die USA öffentlich massiv an. In einem Akt der Selbstermächtigung überschreitet Frank-Walter Steinmeier alle Grenzen seines Amtes."

Bundespräsident Walter Steinmeier

Weltrekord in Bahia: Nexat erntet 637 t Soja in 8 Stunden

Sehr beachtlich!

"Ganz genau 637,76 t Sojabohnen in acht Stunden auf 158,16 ha: Mit diesem Rekordlauf in Bahia hat Nexat eine neue Bestmarke in der Erntetechnik gesetzt. Technisch spannend ist der Fall aber nicht nur wegen der Menge. Der Lauf zeigt, woran Hochleistungsmaschinen heute tatsächlich gemessen werden. Nicht entscheidend ist allein, wie viel Erntegut vorne ins System gelangt. Entscheidend ist, ob die Maschine diese Mengen im Inneren ohne Engpässe weiterverarbeiten kann.

Der zentrale Unterschied des NEXCO-Moduls zu klassischen Mähdreschern liegt im Aufbau des Dresch- und Abscheidesystems. Während konventionelle Maschinen das Erntegut meist längs durch die Maschine führen, arbeitet Nexat mit einer quer zur Fahrtrichtung angeordneten Rotoreinheit. ..."

Weltrekord in Bahia: Nexat erntet 637 t Soja in 8 Stunden "Nexat stellt in Bahia einen Weltrekord bei der Sojaernte auf – rund ein Drittel mehr als der bisherige Bestwert. Wie hat der Hersteller das geschafft?"

Source

So sieht die FDP heute aus

Die Partei wurde gründlich geschoren, zu recht! Ausser Show nichts gewesen in den etwa letzten 20 Jahren oder so!

FDP Generalsekretärin Nicole Büttner hat sich nach einer verlorenen Wahlwette den Kopf scheren lassen. Source

How huntingtin proteins travel in the brain

Amazing stuff!

"Mutant huntingtin protein, which causes the neurodegenerative disorder Huntington’s disease, travels through the brain using tiny ‘tunneling nanotubes’, research has revealed. Researchers found that a protein called Rhes binds with a protein for cellular acidity regulation, SLC4A7, to build tube-like structures creating a highway to shuttle huntingtin from neuron to neuron. Interrupting this pathway minimised the spread of huntingtin in the brain and offers a potential druggable target."

From the abstract:
"Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are membranous structures that mediate intercellular transfer of proteins, including the pathogenic mutant Huntingtin (mHTT) protein in Huntington disease (HD).
We previously identified the ras homolog enriched in the striatum (Rhes) as a key regulator of TNT formation and mHTT transmission; however, the molecular components underlying this process remained unknown.
Here, using unbiased liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis of membrane-associated Rhes complexes, we identify Slc4a7 (solute carrier family 4 member 7), an intracellular pH sensor, as a top membrane-binding partner of Rhes.
Functional studies revealed that small interfering RNA–mediated depletion or pharmacological inhibition of Slc4a7 substantially reduced Rhes-induced TNT formation and suppressed mHTT intercellular transfer.
Mechanistically, Rhes directly interacts with Slc4a7 through both its amino- and carboxyl-terminal domains and modulates intracellular pH to facilitate TNT formation. This interaction does not depend on the transporter activity of Slc4a7. However, inhibition of Rhes farnesylation—a lipid modification that anchors Rhes to the membrane—disrupts its binding to Slc4a7 and abolishes TNT formation.
Slc4a7 knock-out mice showed markedly reduced cell-to-cell transmission of mHTT in the striatum in vivo.
Together, these findings uncover a previously unrecognized Rhes-Slc4a7 signaling axis critical for TNT-mediated mHTT transmission and highlight Slc4a7 as a potential therapeutic target to limit disease spread in HD."

Targeting Tunneling Nanotubes Reduces Spread of Mutant Huntington’s Protein

Membrane-associated Rhes-Slc4a7 complex orchestrates tunneling nanotube formation and mutant Huntingtin spread (open access)

Fig. 1. Membrane-anchored Rhes drives the formation of TNTs between cells.

Tunneling nanotubes connect Rhes expressing striatal neuronal cells

Past greenhouse gas emissions will cost global economy trillions | Stanford Report. Really!

Shocking! Even the Stanford University promotes such nonsense!

Not enough, Nature journal published this dubious research! There is at least a 50 years long history in Western countries of dubious calculations of environmental damages. It is e.g. a cherry picking exercise much liked by biased scientists!

What about e.g. global population growth? What about China?

"In brief

• Researchers developed a new framework for calculating “loss and damage,” or harms from climate change that countries can’t prevent by cutting emissions or avoid through adaptation.
• U.S. emissions since 1990 have caused more than $10 trillion in global economic damages, with roughly a third of the damage hitting the country’s own GDP.
• Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is a potential alternative to compensation for damages caused, but becomes much less effective if action is delayed [???].

..."

From the abstract:

"Climate change is causing measurable harm globally. Political and legal efforts seek to link these damages with specific emissions, including in discussions of loss and damage (L&D); however, no quantitative definition of L&D exists, nor is there a framework to link past and future emissions from specific sources to monetized, location-specific damages.

Here we develop such a framework, which is integrated with recent efforts to estimate the social cost of carbon. Using empirical estimates of the non-linear relationship between temperature and aggregate economic output, we show that future damages from past emissions—one component of L&D—are at least an order of magnitude larger than historical damages from the same emissions.

For instance, one tonne of CO2 emitted in 1990 caused US$180 in discounted global damages by 2020 ($40–530) and will cause an additional $1,840 through 2100 ($500–5,700).

Thus, settling debts for past damages will not settle debts for past emissions.

In other illustrative estimates, a single long-haul flight per year over the past decade leads to about $25k ($6,000–77,000) in future damages by 2100, and US emissions since 1990 caused $500 billion ($180–1,300 billion) of damage in India and $330 billion ($110–820 billion) in Brazil. Carbon removal offers an alternative to transfer payments for settling L&D, but is increasingly ineffective in limiting damages as the delay between emission and recapture increases."

Past greenhouse gas emissions will cost global economy trillions | Stanford Report "Future climate damages from past emissions dwarf the economic harm already inflicted, a new study shows."

Quantifying climate loss and damage consistent with a social cost of carbon (open access)

Chart of the day

Researchers have found that intravenous administration of a nonpathogenic virus, oncolytic alphavirus M1 (OVM), suppresses the growth of glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer, and also reverses the cancer’s suppression of the immune system. OVM triggers an immune response to cell death (ICD), restoration of the immune system, tumour microenvironment (TME) reprogramming and proliferation of immune cells that specifically target the tumour. (Source)

 

Suspended Massachusetts female cop arrested on child rape charges, held on $10K bail

That is a Me Too crime!

"Plymouth Police Officer Samantha Pelrine, 31, faces four charges related to the rape of a child: three counts of aggravated rape of a child with force and one count of rape of a child."

Suspended Plymouth cop arrested on child rape charges, held on $10K bail

Plate tectonics is even older than we thought

Amazing stuff!

The author of the Perspective abstract below is obsessed with Global Warming/Climate Change: "The movement of tectonic plates—massive slabs of rock—over Earth’s surface controls the planet’s habitability by sustaining the carbon cycle that regulates the climate" (The first sentence of the abstract) I have serious doubts that this is correct!

From the Perspective abstract:

"The movement of tectonic plates—massive slabs of rock—over Earth’s surface controls the planet’s habitability by sustaining the carbon cycle that regulates the climate [???] and stabilizes liquid water at the surface .
It also facilitates efficient planetary heat loss, thereby maintaining convection in Earth’s core and the generation of a magnetic field. The presence of a magnetosphere—a space around Earth dominated by its magnetic field—provides shielding from solar and cosmic radiation and mediates the loss of atmospheric gas into space. Deciphering plate motions in Earth’s early history can thus hint at how the planet looked several billion years ago. On page 1278 of this issue, Brenner et al. (2) report differential plate motion 3.5 billion years (Ga) ago by recovering ancient magnetic field records from rocks in Australia. This may provide clues to the nature of early tectonic motions and their role in sustaining habitable conditions."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

Plate tectonics is a global recycling process that underpins most of Earth’s systems. Its onset remains an open question because of sparse early geologic records. Brenner et al. collected paleomagnetic data from approximately 3.4 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia and compared them with existing data from rocks of the same age in South Africa (see the Perspective by Nichols). They detected diverging paleolatitudes, two crustal blocks moving differently around the same magnetic pole. The rate of motion is consistent with aspects of modern plate tectonics but could reflect an earlier style. This plate motion was occurring against the backdrop of the oldest known geomagnetic reversal, which was also discovered from these data.

Abstract

Whether early Earth had a mobile lithosphere and plate tectonics is debated. We present paleomagnetic data quantifying differential motion between lithospheric blocks at ~3.48 billion years ago (Ga). This manifested as 

centimeters per year latitudinal motion of the East Pilbara Craton (Western Australia) across high latitudes, whereas the Barberton Greenstone Belt (South Africa) was stationary at low latitudes. Comparison of this plate motion with candidate analogs suggests either rapid collisional plate tectonics (i.e., an “active-lid”) or an episodically mobile lithosphere. We also document the oldest known geomagnetic reversal at ~3.46 Ga, consistent with an axial dipolar dynamo that reversed less frequently than today’s. The existence and rates of these surface and core geophysical phenomena provide geodynamic context to Earth’s early geophysical and biological evolution."

ScienceAdviser

Ancient rocks reveal early plate motions (Perspective, no public access)

Paleomagnetic detection of relative plate motions and an infrequently reversing core dynamo at 3.5 Ga (no public access)

Japan to temporarily lift coal power plant curbs over Hormuz crisis

One good reason to keep coal power plants around!

"The Japanese government will temporarily lift restrictions on the operation of coal-fired power plants to lower the risk of an energy shortage as the war in the Middle East chokes off supplies of oil and gas from the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources familiar with the matter."

BREAKING: Japan to temporarily lift coal power plant curbs over Hormuz crisis

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.

Jury Rules Social Media Liable for Teen's long-term Addiction. Really!

I hope this ridiculous verdict will not stand! The rest of the world will have a good laugh again about American jurisprudence!

What about the parents of this child?

"Jury Rules Social Media Liable for Teen's Addiction

A Los Angeles jury ruled Wednesday that Meta and YouTube must pay a combined $6 million in damages to a 20-year-old woman who said the platforms hooked her as a child through design features like infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmically timed notifications.

The plaintiff, known as K.G.M., testified she began using YouTube at 6 and Instagram at 9, eventually spending 16 hours in a single day on Instagram, spiraling into depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia.

Jurors targeted platform design itself as a defective product, a legal theory one tech policy professor compared to the tobacco lawsuits. 

More than 1,500 similar suits against Meta, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok are pending in California courts alone."

The Flyover

Israeli strikes on a major Caspian Sea port in northern Iran last week targeted Russian support for Iran in the ongoing war

Cause for concern!

Was this a high stakes gamble to target Russia? Good, that Putin the Terrible is bogged down in the Russia-Ukraine War thanks to the very effective Ukrainian defense!

So far World War III (Russo-Ukrainian War by any other name) has been geographically very limited. Will this war expand to other geographical regions?

"... Israeli strikes on a major Caspian Sea port in northern Iran last week targeted Russian support for Iran in the ongoing war ... This report is consistent with CTP-ISW's previous reporting that the IDF struck a Caspian Sea port that Iran uses to trade both military and non-military goods with Russia. The IDF targeted “dozens” of vessels, a command center, and a shipyard at Bandar Anzali Port, Gilan Province, on March 18. The Israeli strike on the port followed reports that Russia has provided Iran with satellite imagery and Shahed drones since the war began. Israeli media reported on March 19 that the Israeli strikes in Bandar Anzali “shut down” a critical supply line between Iran and Russia for both basic goods, such as wheat imports, and military equipment.The Wall Street Journal added on March 24 that Russia uses the Caspian Sea to receive Iranian Shahed drones as well as artillery shells and other ammunition to resupply its troops on the front lines with Ukraine. More than 300,000 artillery shells and a million rounds of ammunition were shipped from Iran to Russia in 2023 via the Caspian Sea, according to unspecified documents seen by the Wall Street Journal."

Iran Update, March 25, 2026 | Critical Threats

Possible evidence for Iran’s ability to manufacture and operate fiber-optic FPV drones

Bad news! Fiber-optic operated FPV drones have demonstrated to be very effective and devastating in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Such weapons in the hands of religious fanatics?

"A longtime observer of drone operations suggested on March 25 that drone footage posted by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq on March 24 is consistent with a fiber-optic first-person view (FPV) drone. CTP-ISW is unable to authenticate the Islamic Resistance in Iraq’s video. Iran’s ability to manufacture and operate fiber-optic FPV drones and transfer this technology to its regional proxies and partners would pose a significant challenge to US interests in the Middle East, if the footage is authentic."

Iran Update, March 25, 2026 | Critical Threats

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez propose a ban on data center construction

Old and young modern Luddites and socialists united! 😊 Together we are stronger! Caution: satire!

The beauty and the old man or the odd couple! Don't these socialists have any better ideas! 😊

"Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York are introducing companion legislation in their respective chambers today that would halt the projects until Congress enacts comprehensive AI regulation. ..."

Bernie Sanders and AOC propose a ban on data center construction | TechCrunch

Arbor Energy just landed a billion-dollar order to bring rocket turbine tech to the power grid

This could be an interesting approach! But is it competitive? Similar proposals were made before in the past.

"... Arbor’s Halcyon turbines are based on rocket turbomachinery, high-performance engine technology originally developed for spaceflight, and its first commercial turbines will be 3D printed and capable of generating 25 megawatts each. GridMarket’s order, if fully fulfilled, represents 200 units. ...

The startup plans to connect its first turbine to the grid in 2028 and ramp production through 2030, at which point it hopes to deliver more than 100 turbines annually. The goal, Hartwig said, is to eventually produce enough for 10 gigawatts of new capacity every year.

Arbor’s initial designs ... the power plant would ingest organic material like crop waste and wood scraps from farms and timber operations, which would be turned into syngas — a combustible gas mixture — and burned in the presence of pure oxygen. The result would be pure CO2 ...

Since then, Arbor has modified Halcyon to accept natural gas in addition to biomass ..."

Arbor Energy just landed a billion-dollar order to bring rocket turbine tech to the power grid | TechCrunch

Melania Trump wants a robot to homeschool your child

When will the first First Lady be a robot? Just kidding!

When will robot models be introduced in fashion shows?

"At a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, First Lady Melania Trump showed up with a humanoid robot developed by robotics firm Figure AI. The duo waltzed down a red carpet together before the bot gave a brief speech, chirping: “I am grateful to be part of this historic movement to empower children with technology and education.” ..."

Melania Trump wants a robot to homeschool your child | TechCrunch

Polyunsaturated fatty acids in a Western diet activate RXRα marks the spot for Crohn’s disease

The American Society for the Advancement of Science is obsessing with Western diet!

Probably, too much emphasis is given here to possibly exaggerated experiments with mice subjected to unusual food, genetic modifications etc.

Actually, the AAAS is pointing out obese people!

"The intestinal inflammation characteristic of Crohn’s disease is associated with a Western diet, which is high in ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and with dysfunction of an intestinal epithelial cell subset called Paneth cells. Meyer et al. uncovered a role for activation of the nuclear receptor RXRα in Paneth cells by PUFAs in the pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease.

The small intestines of patients with Crohn’s disease, particularly those with a body mass index of ≥ 25, showed increased transcriptional activity of RXRα.

In Gpx4+/−IEC mice, which show Crohn’s disease–like enteritis when fed excess PUFAs, the transcriptional activity of RXRα and expression of RXRα target genes were increased.

A PUFA-enriched diet generated multiple ω-3 and ω-6 PUFA species in Gpx4+/−IEC mice, of which the ω-3 PUFA DHA and ω-6 PUFA arachidonic acid stimulated RXRα in a luciferase activity assay.

Mice with a Paneth cell–specific deficiency in Gpx4 (Gpx4ΔPC) developed intestinal inflammation, similar to that seen in Crohn’s disease, and had higher intestinal amounts of the chemokine CXCL1, whose promoter region contains an RXRα-binding site. The phenotype of Gpx4ΔPC mice was abolished by codeletion of RXRα in Paneth cells and reduced by administration of a neutralizing CXCL1 antibody or antagonists and agonists of RXRα. The authors suggested that the effect of RXRα agonists may be due to their competition with PUFAs for binding to RXRα.

One of these RXRα agonists, isotretinoin, is approved as an oral treatment for acne, and retrospective analysis showed that prior isotretinoin therapy decreased the odds of developing Crohn’s disease. These results implicate the activation of RXRα in Paneth cells by ω-3 and ω-6 PUFAs that are enriched in or are generated by a Western diet as a contributing factor to the development of Crohn’s disease, which could be limited by isotretinoin therapy."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• CD epithelium exhibits increased transcriptional retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRα) activity

• ω-3 and ω-6 PUFAs in a Western diet induce transcriptional RXRα activity in IECs of mice

• PUFA-induced metabolic enteritis is mediated by RXRα in Paneth cells

• Isotretinoin ameliorates PUFA-induced enteritis and reduces the odds of developing CD

Summary

Westernization of diet, partly characterized by long-chain fatty acid excess, perturbs intestinal immune responses in Crohn’s disease (CD). The cellular and molecular framework of lipid sensing in intestinal inflammation remains enigmatic.

By small intestinal transcriptional profiling of CD, we identified increased transcriptional activity of retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRα) specifically in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs).

Transcriptional RXRα activity was induced in IECs of mice by ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) excess in a Western diet. PUFA-induced RXRα activity in Paneth cells governed chronic transmural enteritis by enabling the expression of CXCL1.
Oral exposure to isotretinoin ameliorated PUFA-induced metabolic enteritis in two mouse models, and isotretinoin therapy reduced the odds of developing CD in an analysis of electronic health care records from 170,597 patients. Collectively, we identify RXRα in Paneth cells as a metabolic stress sensor that enables enteritis, providing novel perspectives for the prevention and treatment of CD."

RXRα marks the spot for Crohn’s disease | Science Signaling (open access)

Metabolic stress sensing by epithelial RXRα links westernization of diet with Crohn’s disease (open access)

Graphical abstract

How Not Getting Sick Made the Economy Look Sick in terms of statistical data

Recommendable! Yes, medical services and more ill people increase GDP! A lesson in economics!

Economic textbooks have pointed out this paradox/negative self enforcing cycle for at least several decades that e.g. a roaring economy causes more employees to get stressed out, suffering more accidents etc. and thereby seeking more medical treatment driving up GDP further.

"... The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) cut fourth-quarter real economic output growth to 0.7 percent from 1.4 percent. ...

Demand for health care was lower than initially estimated. The Census Bureau’s Quarterly Services Survey shows health care and social assistance revenue rose just 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter after a 3.0 percent gain in the third quarter. BEA specifically cited new QSS data as the reason it revised down health-care services.

Demand was down because we were healthier than expected. Data from the Centers for Disease Control show severe respiratory illness hospitalizations were low late in the fourth quarter, consistent with a lighter illness period than one would expect in a normal winter ramp-up. Fewer sick people means fewer hospital visits, fewer outpatient visits, and less measured health-care output. So a mild holiday season for the flu and COVID turns out to be bad for GDP accounting, but it is not bad news for actual Americans. ..."

Breitbart Business Digest

Fig: GDP (Second Estimate), 4th Quarter and Year 2025 (Source)

Klarnamenpflicht und EUdi-Wallet: Wie jeder Klick im Internet genehmigungspflichtig wird

Ist das eine maßlose Übertreibung von Tichy Einblick oder was ist dran? Oder ist das ein Fall, wenn einige Deutsche das Gras wachsen hören!

Immer wieder der sog. "gläserne Bürger? Wurde darüber nicht schon seit  über 50 Jahren immer wieder geklagt? Nichts neues!

Warum macht man sich in Deutschland immer noch viele Gedanken darüber seit 1945, während das Thema z.B. in den USA viel unkomplizierter und weniger kontrovers ist?

Klarnamenpflicht und EUdi-Wallet: Wie jeder Klick im Internet genehmigungspflichtig wird "Lange warnte die Polizei vor Klarnamennutzung im Netz. Neuerdings sollen Identitätspflicht und EUdi-Wallet Pflicht werden. Tatsächlich steht der Umbau des Internets zum kontrollierten Zugangsraum für gläserne Bürger bevor. Und da wir alle auf das Internet angewiesen sind, ist das der Weg zur totalen Überwachung"

Israeli teen indicted for working with Iranian operatives, charged with espionage & spraying pro Iran propaganda graffiti in public places

Bizarre! Do Iranian mullahs have respect for children? Not when it is about Israel

Child labor is cheap!

"State prosecutors filed an indictment in the Tel Aviv District Juvenile Court on Wednesday against a 14-year-old from central Israel who is accused of carrying out paid assignments for hostile actors while suspecting they were Iranian.

It is another case in a widening pattern of Iranian efforts to recruit Israelis online for intelligence-gathering and sabotage-related missions during the war, according to the authorities. ...

Last April, the teenager contacted a person in a Telegram group after seeing a message about work he was interested in, and the two agreed that he would perform tasks in exchange for payment in cryptocurrency transferred to a digital wallet, the prosecutors said, adding that he opened four digital wallets into which handlers transferred more than $1,170. ...

Among the tasks attributed to him were: spraying the graffiti slogan, “We are committed to the covenant,” in multiple areas of Tel Aviv and on vehicles; filming streets near Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and neighborhoods in Ramat Gan; and recording a video of the Tel Aviv skyline while describing the location of the Kirya military headquarters.

Prosecutors said he was also asked to rent an apartment near the Kirya, after which he sent a picture of an apartment for rent and spoke with several landlords in the area.

According to the prosecutors, the teen was also instructed to spray pro-Iranian graffiti on Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s home and to prepare video documentation of the minister. The slogan was to read: “We will avenge Ruhollah’s children” – an apparent reference to Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the country’s first supreme leader. ..."

Teen indicted over alleged Iran-linked spying assignments | The Jerusalem Post "A 14-year-old Israeli has been indicted for working with Iranian operatives, carrying out sabotage and surveillance tasks in exchange for cryptocurrency."

World's first proof-of-concept quantum battery prototype

Good news!

"Australian researchers have created the world’s first proof-of-concept quantum battery, opening research into a new generation of energy storage devices.

Quantum batteries don’t yet exist. They would store and discharge energy but unlike current batteries they wouldn’t be based on chemical reactions. Quantum batteries, instead, use principles like quantum superposition and entanglement to store and discharge energy between discrete energy states in subcells within the battery.

These devices would not be subject to chemical and thermal wear and promise incredibly fast charging times which gets even faster as the quantum batteries get bigger.

A major issue with current quantum battery designs, however, is that they discharge within nanoseconds. ...

“My ultimate ambition is a future where we can charge electric cars much faster than fuel petrol cars, or charge devices over long distances wirelessly,” says senior author James Quach who leads quantum science and technologies science research at CSIRO. ..."

"... “Our findings confirm a fundamental quantum effect that's completely counterintuitive: quantum batteries charge faster as they get larger.” ..."

From the abstract:

"Superextensivity, where the response of a physical system scales super-linearly with size, originates from collective quantum effects and provides a promising route to augment next-generation quantum technologies.

While recent work has demonstrated superextensive behaviour in the coherent dynamics of quantum systems, these effects typically occur on short timescales, prohibiting their practical utility.

In contrast, triggering steady-state superextensive effects in, for example, a generated electric current, remains unexplored despite the immediate impact on photovoltaic technologies.

Here, we utilise a microcavity quantum battery as an experimental platform that superextensively captures light energy and converts it to an electric current via the incorporation of charge transport layers into the resonant microcavity. This architecture enables, for the first time, a complete quantum battery charge-discharge cycle.

We demonstrate that strong light–matter coupling induced by the microcavity leads to superextensive scaling of the steady-state electrical discharging power under low-intensity, incoherent illumination.

Our results provide the first experimental demonstration of superextensive light-to-charge conversion in steady-state, highlighting the feasibility of leveraging strong light–matter coupling for enhanced energy harvesting under low-light conditions."

World's first quantum battery prototype | News | ConnectSci

Australian scientists achieve energy storage and quantum battery breakthrough (original news release) "Researchers develop the first quantum battery that could pave the way for long- distance charging of devices and super-fast charging of electric cars."

Superextensive electrical power from a quantum battery (open access)

Fig. 1: Composition of the quantum battery tuned for strong light–matter coupling.

Fig. 2: Superextensive charging dynamics.

CSIRO’s clean lab for engineering prototype quantum batteries

Chart of the day

The rapid, dramatic population decline in China has been mentioned many times before over the years, but here is a chart. Source

Why Africa, Europe, Latin America and Russia are missing from this chart is a mystery!

Machine learning speeds up heterogeneous catalysis simulations dramatically

Good news! This is only the beginning!

"In heterogeneous catalysis, calculations require complicated computational processes due to the variability of reaction pathways and possibilities. Now, thanks to a clever combination of programming and machine learning, researchers have achieved a dramatic increase in the speed of simulations, enhancing the energy efficiency of an otherwise resource-hungry process. The results, reported for reactions to convert carbon dioxide into fuels, could rapidly translate into other industrially relevant reactions, such as depolymerisation and biomass valorisation. ...

Whereas traditional density functional theory (DFT) programmes predict up to 500 steps in 100 processing hours, this new solution speeds the search by orders of magnitude – simulating 370,000 possible pathways in a similar time. ..."

From the abstract:

"The rationalization of catalytic processes relies on the fundamental understanding of competing reaction mechanisms driving reactants to products. The list of elementary steps composing the reaction networks is proposed based on chemical intuition and evaluated via density functional theory. This approach is limited by the size of the network and disregards alternative paths.

Here we present the Catalytic Automated Reaction Evaluator (CARE), a flexible end-to-end framework for heterogeneous catalysis composed of

(1) a rule-based reaction network generator,

(2) a thermodynamic and kinetic parameter evaluator powered by state-of-the-art machine learning models and

(3) a fast microkinetic solver.

CARE reproduces the experimental activity trends in methanol decomposition, identifies the selectivity to C3 products in CO2 electroreduction and generates the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis mechanism including 370,000 reactions reaching C6 products. This comprehensive framework enables the exploration of thermal and electrocatalytic reactions previously not amenable to atomistic simulations."

Machine learning speeds up heterogeneous catalysis simulations dramatically | Chemistry World

An end-to-end framework for reactivity in heterogeneous catalysis (open access)

Fig. 1: CARE workflow from network generation to reactivity analysis.

Deutschlands Wirtschaft fährt auf Verschleiß – mit negativer Nettoinvestitionsquote

Als ob die Bananenrepublik D nicht schon genug schlechte Nachrichten hätte!

Jetzt heißt es Koffer packen: Deutschlands Wirtschaft fährt auf Verschleiß – mit negativer Nettoinvestitionsquote "Brauchte es noch eines konkreten Zahlenwertes, um die dramatische Lage der deutschen Wirtschaft zu belegen, so lieferte ihn das Statistische Bundesamt. Die Nettoinvestitionsquote der deutschen Wirtschaft ist negativ, denn die Abschreibungen überragen die nominellen Investitionen. Langsam, aber sicher gehen die Lichter aus."

FedEx Enters Same-Day Delivery War

Amazing stuff! It is getting crowded! 😊 How many delivery trucks will show up daily in your neighborhood?

Competition is good, more competition is better!

"FedEx Enters Same-Day Delivery War

FedEx is jumping into the same-day delivery war, launching a service to rival Amazon and Walmart as major retailers battle over who can get packages to doorsteps fastest.

The new FedEx SameDay Local, built with last-mile partner OneRail, will offer shoppers two-hour or end-of-day delivery options directly at checkout. OneRail’s platform covers nearly 99% of the country and plugs into retailers’ existing store networks without requiring new infrastructure.

The move comes a week after Amazon rolled out one-hour and three-hour shipping windows in hundreds of U.S. cities, while Walmart already offers three-hour delivery reaching 95% of U.S. households.

FedEx says it’s betting on demand: 80% of customers surveyed want same-day shipping, and nearly half say they’re more likely to complete a purchase if it’s included."

Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Bee Dancing performance is better when more or particular hive mates are watching

Amazing stuff! There is nothing like show business! Bee dance of be damned!

"Honey bees perform their food-directing “waggle dance” with less precision when fewer hive mates are watching, a finding researchers say shows the insects adjust their communication based on the audience."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

We show that the honey bee waggle dance changes depending on how many followers a dancer has and how many appropriately aged bees are available to follow it. When followers were scarce, dancers became less precise, even if the dance floor was crowded with young bees that do not follow dances. These declines in precision appear to arise because dancers search more widely for an audience, increasing their movement during the return run. The results suggest that dancers use simple social cues, such as tactile contacts, to sense follower availability. Thus, waggle dancing is not a one-way signal but a socially responsive behavior shaped by feedback from followers.

Abstract

The honey bee waggle dance, which encodes food location, is often thought to involve only one-way information transfer from dancers to signal receivers. Here, we show that the information content of the dance is influenced by the presence of followers and the number of appropriately aged potential followers in the hive, rather than the total number of bees on the dance floor. Dancers reduced the precision of directional and distance communication when they had fewer actual and potential followers. Even when the dance floor was crowded with young bees that do not follow dances, dancers showed the same declines in precision. These declines appear to arise as a byproduct of audience seeking during the return run, when dancers with fewer followers spent more time moving and covered greater distances across the dance floor. Although their mean waggle run duration and the distance covered per waggle run remained unchanged, both measures became markedly more variable when followers were scarce. Dancers likely use quorum sensing of tactile contacts and, potentially, age-specific odors to sense audience size. These results reveal that waggle dancing is a socially responsive process shaped by feedback from followers, demonstrating bidirectional information flow within this communication system.

"

Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Bee Dancing is Better with the Right Audience "Precision of the food-directional ‘waggle dance’ fluctuates with audience size and who’s in attendance"

The audience shapes the information content of the honey bee waggle dance (open access)

Fig. 1 Increasing the audience size significantly increased waggle dancing.

Study suggests healing skin without scarring may be possible

Good news!

"... The new study published March 20 in Cell reveals a way to fully regenerate skin by unblocking an embryonic healing mechanism that shuts off after birth. Demonstrated on mice, the strategy may help guide the development of similar therapies for human patients. ...

In mice wounded three days before birth, the skin regenerated diverse cell types and closely resembled unwounded skin.

But when wounded at five days after birth, the site was covered by epithelial cells and became packed with collagen scar tissue and abnormally dense nerve fibers and immune cells. Many other skin cell types failed to regrow. ...

They found that postnatal wound sites became densely packed with nerves. This “hyperinnervation” occurs because fibroblasts in postnatal wounds upregulate the gene Cxcl12, which recruits excessive nerves to the area and impairs the regrowth of other skin-cell types.

When researchers depleted Cxcl12 in wounds in postnatal mice, “hyperinnervation” was curtailed, and the skin regrew diverse cell types. Blocking local nerve signaling with botulinum toxin A (Botox) produced similar effects. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• Embryonic skin regenerates diverse cell types after injury, whereas postnatal skin does not

• Postnatal wounds have wound-specific fibroblasts that drive hyperinnervation via CXCL12

• Excessive innervation at the wound site blocks multilineage regeneration

• Reducing hyperinnervation restores multilineage regeneration after postnatal injury

Summary

Some mammalian tissues can replace lost cells within one lineage, but organ-level regeneration—restoring diverse cell types across lineages—remains rare. Here, we show that late embryonic full-thickness skin injuries heal by regenerating epithelial, mesenchymal, neuronal, and vascular tissues with proper connectivity. However, this ability is lost soon after birth, resulting in failure to restore most cell types and hyperinnervation within the wound bed. Single-cell sequencing identified a postnatal wound-specific fibroblast (PWF) population absent after embryonic wounding. Through an in vivo screen, we discovered that three PWF-enriched genes—Timp1, Cxcl12, and Ccl7—inhibit organ-level regeneration and cause hyperinnervation when overexpressed in embryonic wounds. Reducing hyperinnervation in postnatal wounds through the depletion of Cxcl12 in fibroblasts or nerve ablation enables regeneration of diverse lineages after injury. Our study identifies mechanisms that transition an organ from regenerative to non-regenerative, discovers fibroblast-driven hyperinnervation as a key barrier, and demonstrates that removing this barrier unlocks organ-level regeneration.

"

Study suggests healing skin without scarring may be possible — Harvard Gazette "Researchers unblock embryonic regrowth mechanism that shuts down after birth in mice"

Hyperinnervation inhibits organ-level regeneration in mammalian skin (open access)

Graphical abstract

Figure 1 Multilineage regeneration differs between embryonic and postnatal wounding