23andMe cofounder Linda Avey discussed the company in a social media post on Wednesday. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 2025-03-26T23:20:33Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? 23andMe cofounder Linda Avey discussed the company in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.Avey said the biotech company "lost its way" without product development and "proper governance."23andMe filed for bankruptcy, and CEO Anne Wojcicki resigned this week.23andMe cofounder Linda Avey is mourning what the biotech company could have become.Avey reflected on 23andMe and criticized former CEO Anne Wojcicki in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday, saying that "it was time to express my views on the company, after witnessing the downfall of an idea and brand that could have become the world's leading digital health platform."On Sunday, 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced Wojcicki's resignation. Avey worked alongside Wojcicki and Paul Cusenza to launch the biotech company in Silicon Valley nearly twenty years ago. The company makes direct-to-consumer DNA test kits and explores genetic research. Avey served as co-president from 2006 to 2009 and remained a company board member until 2011.In the post, Avey said the idea for 23andMe sparked after working in life science research for years."A lightbulb went on if I was interested in accessing my own data, wouldn't others feel the same way? Getting deeply personalized information about what makes us 'us' seemed undeniable. It didn't take long for the concept to unfold," she said.Avey said she pursued this goal under 23andMe until 2009, when her time at the company was "cut short.""My time at the company was cut short in 2009, when my co-founder Anne convinced the board that she should run the company. And I must be honest, I was frustrated with the direction the company took after that point," Avey said. "After my departure, she architected a majority vote for herself that eliminated board governance, even as the board expanded over the following funding rounds. For better or worse, the buck stopped with her. It came as no surprise when the board resigned last year."Avey said that 23andMe "was in a unique position" initially, and it's "painful to think what could have been.""The company has amassed one of the largest genetic data collections in the world, and to Anne's credit, created a terrific consumer brand. We can only imagine the importance of the dataset that could have been built, combining blood work, deeper gene sequencing, wearable data, and providing actionable insights," Avey said. "Now, the market is fragmented with data siloed in many different companies."Avey said 23andMe "lost its way" without "consumer-focused product development" and "proper governance.""The 14+ million people who bought into the concept deserve to see their data moved to a secure platform with new leadership and vision," Avey said.Avey rounded out her statement by emphasizing the importance of a balanced C-Suite."There are many cautionary tales buried in the 23andMe story. Striking a balance between the desire for founder control and board oversight is essential; otherwise, why have a board at all?' Avey said. "It's a familiar trope in Silicon Valley that wealth translates into unquestionable business savvy. But no matter how great an idea, the importance of the dynamics of the founding team and their ability to listen to feedback is key."Avey, Wojcicki, and representatives for 23andMe did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.23andMe struggled before filing for bankruptcy23andMe has weathered several storms since 2023.Although privacy concerns have bogged down the company for years, criticism spiked that October over news that some user data had been compromised. Hackers claiming access to the data, including birth details and names, were selling it on the dark web. 23andMe told BI the ancestry data for almost 7 million users were accessed. Following a class action lawsuit, the company agreed to a $30 million settlement last September.That same month, the independent directors of 23andMe's board resigned in a letter addressed to Wojcicki, saying it's "clear that we differ on the strategic direction for the Company going forward."23andMe announced three new independent board members in October 2024 and added another member this month.Wojcicki landed in the hot seat in 2024 when an SEC filing said she "would be open to considering third-party takeover proposals." After consumers expressed concerns over what could happen to their personal data, Wojcicki reversed course.The cracks at 23andMe deepened last November when the company announced it was restructuring its business, laying off roughly 40% of its staff, and ending further development of its therapeutics program.Most recently, 23andMe said it will continue to operate while seeking a buyer."After a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives, we have determined that a court-supervised sale process is the best path forward to maximize the value of the business," chair Mark Jensen said in a press release. "We expect the court-supervised process will advance our efforts to address the operational and financial challenges we face, including further cost reductions and the resolution of legal and leasehold liabilities."

The US has long soughtPresident Donald Trump doubled down on his long-standing ambitions to acquire Greenland in January, saying he won't rule out military force or economic coercion to secure the territory of a NATO ally. While Denmark has repeatedly refused to sell ownership of the self-governingGreenland's formidable ice was also the biggest problem for a legendary Cold War-era top secret project a tunnel city under the ice designed to store hundreds of nuclear missiles within firing distance of the Soviet Union.Camp Century was presented to the public as an Arctic research facility after it was built in 1960, but the covert missile operation wasn't declassified by the US government until 1995.NASA scientists detected the abandoned "city under the ice" 100 feet below the surface last year, sparking concerns about its potential environmental hazards as the climate crisis warms the Arctic more than any other region on Earth.Tunneling through snow and iceA snow removal machine was used to plow the main trench of Camp Century. US Army/Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images Construction began in 1959 on the $8 million remote facility, located about 150 miles away from Thule Air Base, a key Arctic defense outpost and the US' northernmost active military base; it is now named Pituffik Space Base.Named Camp Century because it was initially intended to be located 100 miles from the Greenland ice cap, the site was plagued by harsh winter conditions, including winds as high as 125 miles per hour and temperatures as low as -70 degrees Fahrenheit.Members of the US Army Corps of Engineers transported 6,000 tons of supplies and materials to the site to dig nearly two dozen underground tunnels covered by steel arches and a layer of snow, completing the subterranean base in late 1960.'A city under the ice'Trench construction at Camp Century in 1960. US Army Corps of Engineers Camp Century's largest trench, known as "Main Street," was about 26 feet wide and stretched over 1,000 feet. The sprawling underground complex housed as many as 200 personnel underground.Engineers drilled a well in the camp to access 10,000 gallons of fresh water daily, and insulated, heated piping ran throughout the facility for water and electricity.The base also featured a kitchen and cafeteria, medical clinic, laundry area, communications center, and dormitories. The facility also featured a recreation hall, chapel, and barbershop.'Almost science fiction'US Army engineers transport parts of a portable nuclear power plant. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Camp Century was powered by a 400-ton portable nuclear reactor, the first of its kind. Due to the subfreezing temperatures making the metal very brittle, transporting the PM-2 reactor had to be handled with extreme care during installation.Soldiers maintained the medium-power reactor daily by cutting back snow and ice with chainsaws to protect it from damage. The PM-2 reactor operated for nearly three years before it was deactivated and removed from the facility."Think of all the energy and resources it took to do this, to build those tunnels and put soldiers down there. It's almost science fiction," Paul Bierman, a geoscientist who studied soil samples from the site, told National Geographic. "No one would dream of doing that today."Public location, covert purposeUS Army researchers installed supports to reinforce the trenches in Camp Century. US Army/Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images The US publicly presented Camp Century as a scientific research facility, where researchers and engineers were tasked with analyzing ice cap conditions, glacial movement, and cold-weather survival.However, the scientific objective of the facility was a cover for a top-secret US operation, known as "Project Iceworm," to store and deploy hundreds of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.The initiative remained covert to circumvent Denmark's strict nuclear-free policy following WWII while taking advantage of Greenland's proximity to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.Project IcewormPeople climbed a ladder to the escape hatch leading into Camp Century. US Army/Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images Project Iceworm sought to expand the existing facility by an additional 52,000 square miles three times the size of Denmark to house 60 launch control centers. The facility would have stored up to 600 "Iceman" missiles, modified two-stage intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of 3,300 miles.Aside from its strategic location less than 3,000 miles away from Moscow, Project Iceworm was also seen as a potential way to secure alliances and share nuclear weapons with other NATO countries, particularly France, which wanted to be part of the nuclear partnership between the US and the UK.However, the military operation faced significant challenges, including overcoming bureaucratic hurdles, modifying the Iceman missile to endure extremely cold conditions, and even just continuing underground operations as the Greenland ice sheet became increasingly unstable.The Army decided not to risk the loss of hundreds of missiles if the facility collapsed, eventually canceling Project Iceworm just three years after Camp Century was built.The facility continued to operate at a limited capacity before it was abandoned in 1967.Some scientific successResearchers use a thermal drill to cut through the ice cap. US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory While missiles were never transported to Camp Century, researchers found some success in their studies of ice cores collected at the site and deep soil analysis.The research ultimately contributed to the development of climate models, according to Bierman, who is a professor at the University of Vermont. Ancient soil samples collected at Camp Century were composed of leaves, mosses, twigs, and insects that offered Bierman and his team into how the climate crisis could impact the Arctic over the next century."It takes you from 1966 to global climate change and onward to the effects of Greenland's melting," Bierman said. "That's pretty profound.""There are things we can learn about ice sheets that we can never learn from the ice itself," he added. "It comes from the stuff below the ice."A ticking radioactive time bombAn aerial view of the power plant that powered Camp Century. US Army/Wikimedia After the camp was decommissioned in 1967, the US military failed to remove the facility's waste and infrastructure, assuming that it would eventually be entombed in Greenland's ice sheet over the subsequent decades.Though Camp Century now resides under nearly 100 feet of snow and ice, researchers took inventory of what was left behind and found nearly 136 acres of waste about the size of 100 football fields. A 2016 study found that more than 50,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 63,000 gallons of sewage and radioactive coolant, thousands of gallons of wastewater, and an unknown amount of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) remained buried at the abandoned facility.At the current melting rate of the Arctic, researchers estimate that the waste could resurface around 2100, releasing pollutants that pose a major threat to surrounding ecosystems and human health."Two generations ago, people were interring waste in different areas of the world, and now climate change is modifying those sites," William Colgan, a climate and glacier scientist at York University and lead author of the study, said in a 2016 statement."Once the site transitions from net snowfall to net melt, it's only a matter of time before the wastes melt out; it becomes irreversible," he continued.Who's on cleanup duty?A container of lubricant oil for a US military vehicle was left to rust at an abandoned military base in Greenland. John McConnico/AP As the threat of biological, chemical, and radioactive waste looms, the question remains as to who is responsible for cleaning up the waste, from Camp Century and other abandoned US military facilities scattered throughout Greenland.In 2018, Greenland and Denmark signed an agreement allocating 180 million Danish kroner about $29 million over six years to clean up some of the US military bases. In 2021, the cleanup efforts were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The US hasn't formally taken responsibility to clean up its abandoned facilities. If Trump were to carry through on acquiring Greenland, the world's largest island that is believed to be suffuse with valuable rare earth minerals, the US would contend directly with this looming environmental disaster.Colgan told Politico there haven't been any attempts to clean up Camp Century so far amid fears of disturbing the radioactive site too much."There is actually a conscious effort not to drill into the debris field," he said. "We don't actually know the full nature of what's down there."

By Germain Lussier Published March 26, 2025 | Comments (0) | There are so many chairs, we had to cut out Robert Downey Jr. @ Marvel Studios It took almost five and a half hours, but on Wednesday, Marvel Studios announced the cast of next years big summer release, Avengers: Doomsday. They were revealed in a simple but stretched-out PR stunt in which 27 directors chairs, each bearing an actors name, were revealed about every 15 minutes or so on a livestream. It then ended with the one cast member we did know about, Robert Downey Jr., appearing. That long break between each reveal gave plenty of time for the internet to have fun with the stunt which, we assume, is exactly what Disney and Marvel wanted. Fans joked about who could appear in the movie, who would appear in the movie, who they want to see in the movie, and so much more. Brands got involved, the cuts got deeper, and while the whole thing took the better part of a day, it was all pretty fun. Below is just a small sampling of some of our favorite memes from the Avengers: Doomsday cast announcement, which you can watch right here and read more about here. It's 2032. Another chair is placed. It reads Kat Dennings. I reflect on my children. How much they've grown, and how much I've missed since I started watching the Live Stream. #AvengersDoomsday pic.twitter.com/bb4mfo8bQW Sean O'Connell (@Sean_OConnell) March 26, 2025 I AM RACING DOWN TO @MARVEL CARRYING A CHAIR WITH MY NAME ON IT RIGHT NOW! DON'T LET THEM STOP THE @AVENGERS LIVE FEED!!! https://t.co/xlZCblOVFC Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) March 26, 2025 Rene Zellweger joins #OMITB Season 5! pic.twitter.com/W5Dk3jactg Only Murders in the Building (@OnlyMurdersHulu) March 26, 2025 Yeah, I had to throw myself in there at the end. I had a lot of fun with it. Did you see any clever memes during the event? If so, drop them in the comments below. Avengers: Doomsday, which is now in production, opens May 1, 2026. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.Avengers: Doomsday Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Germain Lussier Published March 26, 2025 By James Whitbrook Updated March 26, 2025 James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson Published March 26, 2025 James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson Published March 24, 2025 James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson Published March 17, 2025 By Sabina Graves Published March 14, 2025

The war chat leak episodein which details of a recent bombing mission were sent from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to head editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberghas got to be one of the funniest White House fuckups of all time. Instead of admitting that they fucked up, however, Hegseth and his government allies have conjured up a series of increasingly ludicrous arguments in an attempt to justify what happened. At the same time, Hegseth has sought to attack and demonize Goldberg and The Atlantic for simply reporting on the information that Hegseth, himself, sent to the journalist. On Wednesday, Hegseth took to X to claim that The Atlantics second story showed that he hadnt released any war plans, with the implication being that Goldberg was some sort of fabulist. Hegseth railed: So, lets me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called war plans and those plans include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. Those are some really shitty war plans, he said. This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an attack plan (as he now calls it). Not even close. Hegseths sophisticated linguistic analysis of the difference between war and attack (because apparently a military attack with bombs isnt an act of warfare) runs parallel to another dopey claim being made by his supporters. That claim suggests that Hegseth, as chief of the DoD, is ultimately responsible for what is classified and what isnt and that the information that was shared with a prominent journalist did not rise to the level of government secrets. Hegseth has also dodged questions about whether the Signal chat took place on personal (as opposed to government-issued) phoneswhich is something that security pros have worried about, since personal phones are much more hackable than government ones. Nobodys texting war plans, Hegseth recently told a journalist who asked about the phones. I know exactly what Im doing, he said, adding: Im really proud of what we accomplished. Meanwhile, rightwing influencers like Ian Miles Cheong have made up excuses for why the real blame for the incident should be placed on the media, not Hegseth. Signal was called the gold standard for encrypted comms. Not just by security experts but by The Atlantic itself. Clinton and the Obama administration used it, Cheong recently wrote on X. Suddenly its a problem that Trumps people are using it? Im not buying it. Yes, while it is true that Signal is considered a really good civilian privacy app, it is for civilians, not leaders of the most powerful military in the world who are regularly targeted by foreign agents. Its group chats feature is the most susceptible element to hacking because it is the most easily overcome by social engineering, stupidity, or whatever Michael Waltz claims was happening when he added the editor of a magazine to the war chat. Hegseths full throated defense seems inconsistent at best and downright divorced from reality at worst. For one thing, it seems clear that some of the information in the chat wasor should have beenclassified. Members of Congress seem to think this is the case, and a current Pentagon official interviewed by CNN has alleged the same. These are operational plans that are highly classified in order to protect the service members, the anonymous source, described as a U.S. defense official, said. It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court martialed for this, they added. How egregious was the group chats operational security failure? That same unnamed official said even his junior analysts know not to do this.Even a former Trump official has claimed that the information is classified. Mick Mulroy, described as the Pentagons top official for Middle East policy during the first Trump administration, told the Military Times: This information was clearly taken from the real time order of battle sequence of an ongoing operation. It is highly classified and protected. Indeed, in a situation that is already thoroughly dumb, Hegseths insistence that hes done nothing wrong only makes him look worse. Truly, if this is a normal chain of events, why doesnt Hegseth make Goldberg a permanent fixture in all pre-bombing IC chats? It can be a running column for The Atlantic: Heres When and Where America Will Bomb Next! where Americans can tune in to read about imminent aerial campaigns in the hours before the bombs drop. Maybe the government can partner with Wikileaks and release the text messages in real-time so that Americans (and, you know, the rest of the world) are on the same page whenever a U.S. military operation is underway.Other participants in the chat fiasco were put on blast Wednesdays during a House Intelligence Committee hearing. Most notably, the new Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, continued to answer questions about the incident and, in so doing, did not come off as particularly well suited to her role. During a particular back and forth with Congressman Jim Himes (D-Connecticut), Gabbard, revealed that (unless shes, you know, a liar) she has a shockingly bad memory for a person who is now tasked with overseeing the entire U.S. intelligence community. Himes questioned Gabbard about why, during a separate Congressional hearing that took place Tuesday, she testified that she didnt think the conversation had included specific information about U.S. weapons packages, targets, or timing. She replied: My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof. Himes: So its your testimony that less than two weeks ago, you were on a signal chat that had all of this information about F-18s and MQ-9 Reapers and targets on strike, and you, in that two-week period, simply forgot that that was there? Thats your testimony?Gabbard: My testimony is that I did not recall the exact details of what was included there. Himes: That was not your testimony. Your testimony was that you were not aware of anything related to weapons packages, targets, and timing. Gabbard then responded that she didnt remember the exact wording that she had used in the hearing from the previous day. In other words: Gabbard seems to have trouble remembering stuff that happened a matter of days (or even hours) in the past. Meanwhile, the government is now putting together a team to understand how Goldberg was added to the group chat, despite the fact that the screenshots of the messages released by The Atlantic (which have been verified as authentic by the National Security Council) appear to clearly show that the editor was added to the chat by national security advisor Michael Waltz. Instead of acknowledging this, the White House has now tasked Waltz, himself, with probing what happened. Also added to the investigative team is the National Security Council, the White House Counsels Office, and Elon Musks DOGE team, because, you know, theyve never done anything stupid.

Coffee Law-Crystallization Temporal Cafe / CPD interiorsSave this picture! Han image studioArchitects: CPD interiorsAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:133 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2022 PhotographsPhotographs:Han image studio Lead Architects: Wang Wei-Cheng More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The 3-month pop-up cafe is located in a gutted, soon-to-be-demolished building. Using deconstruction as a method, basic building materials are applied to meld with the original rough-looking environment of impending demolition. Not only is the result time- and cost-efficient, but the sustainable materials and repurposed space also offer an example of urban regeneration. The deconstruction is the beginning. The reflections on the surfaces from various angles create a crystallization effect, which resembles the reactions that occur during urban transformation and reveals its transitional nature.Save this picture!Save this picture!The client, Coffee Law, aimed to connect the act of having coffee with the urban regeneration exhibition. They worked with the Lienyu Group to exploit the idle building before demolition, all while contributing to the local community. The outcome is supposed to demonstrate the transitional phase of the urban regeneration project, so crystallization was chosen as a visual prototype. The angles created by the small steel units, the cold, agile look of the light fixtures, and the reflections of various materials, all draw associations with the cold and short-lived image of the snowflake.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The choice of recyclable steel units is inspired by the deconstruction of the space. It amplifies the exposed structure, demonstrates versatility, and aims to realize a sustainable circular economy. The patched cement walls and exposed steel and bricks belie the construction of the site. The intervening project aims to fit into the landscape and gives rise to a flow with the building and the exhibition. Materials like the steel counter, cement walls, and light tubes were chosen to present a cold, rough texture. Hazard tape divides the space, reminds patrons of the temporary nature of the project, and provides inspiration for one of the brand's signature products. Sharp angles, reflective surfaces, and an ice-like brushed steel countertop suggest crystallization, representing the city's vitality during the transitional phase like the calm and self-restrained tension felt at the end of an era. The tone also resonates with the cafe brand's "fast and fashionable" marketing character.Save this picture!Save this picture!This coffee brand has been providing diverse coffee-drinking experiences throughout the city. As this location is embedded within an urban regeneration exhibition, instead of pursuing coziness, as their other locations do, it focuses on convenience and mobility. The raised counter facing the entrance under the light fixtures and the high ceiling suggest that customers approach and drink their coffee while standing. The seating area with lightweight folding chairs resembles an outdoor campsite to facilitate events held in this space. Smaller tables and hard chairs remind coffee drinkers to walk around and feel the vanishing memories. Customers are encouraged to take in the exhibition instead of halting for coffee, which is why the seating is designed mainly for a quick stop.Save this picture!Save this picture!The aesthetic concept aims to create a light, chill, yet fading ambiance, while the renovation model is based on circular economics. The project began from the ideas of change and the future, making us ponder: if the building lifespan is limited, what will become of the site when the project ends? To facilitate rapid dismantling, fully recyclable steel was chosen as the main material. Instead of being discarded, it can be recycled and repurposed. The 12X12 cm units are easy to assemble and take apart. The multiple layers symbolize the construction of the building. Although the project is short-term, it is a model of sustainable fashion through the cycle of assembly, disassembly, and on-site material sourcing. In keeping with the efficient use of resources and being easy to take apart afterward, the project is constructed through assembling units, allowing the builder to control the process efficiently and align with the client's expectation of the short 136-day project duration. The materials can later be repurposed for further sustainable urban development projects.Save this picture!Save this picture!Everything changes, including cities. The key point is our perspective on those changes. This project replaces desertion with proactivity, and transforms an idle building into a cafe and an exhibition venue, injecting vitality into the site with mottled cement and cracked bricks. May the space serve the local community, and spread the message of urban regeneration.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Taiwan, TaipeiLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeCPD interiorsOfficeMaterialSteelMaterials and TagsPublished on March 26, 2025Cite: "Coffee Law-Crystallization Temporal Cafe / CPD interiors " 26 Mar 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028295/coffee-law-crystallization-temporal-cafe-cpd-interiors&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Elephants are no pushovers when it comes to walking great distances every day, and they even seem to have a knack for planning their demanding journeys. A new study puts the ingenuity of these mammals on full display, showing how they strategically choose certain routes to make their trips as efficient as possible.The study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, shares several key findings that demonstrate how African savanna elephants move through challenging landscapes. Being the largest megaherbivores on Earth, these animals need to eat heaps of low-calorie vegetation to stay energized, yet their prodigious size makes moving around a physical ordeal. To save energy, the elephants deliberately travel through certain landscapes based on the terrain, vegetation, and water sources.Tracking Elephant MigrationIn the new study, researchers used GPS tracking data from 157 African elephants in Northern Kenya. Researchers analyzed the data collected over 22 years (from 1998 to 2020) with a modeling method called ENERSCAPE, which estimates the cost of movement in legged terrestrial animals based on body mass and the incline of terrain.The researchers paired the estimates with satellite data on vegetation productivity and water availability, and with this information, they were able to devise energy landscapes that would inform them on the ways elephants tended to move.They then followed a process known as step-selection functions to determine how environmental factors influenced elephant movement, comparing the locations elephants visited with other nearby areas that they didnt choose.What Do Elephants Plan For?Elevation is considered an important factor in elephants habitat preferences, but movement costs are more often associated with the slope of terrain. The new study found that 94 percent of the elephants represented by the data avoided areas with steep slopes and rough terrain, showing that they purposefully picked routes that would save them energy.While more detailed research is needed to fully understand how an elephant uses its habitat, this study identifies a central decision-making factor for travelling elephants: save energy whenever possible, said co-author Fritz Vollrath of the University of Oxford in a statement.Whether or not an area has easy access to food also plays a role in elephants movement; 93 percent of the elephants preferred areas with high vegetation productivity.The researchers encountered a different outcome with water availability, finding that only 41 percent of the elephants preferred areas in close proximity to water. The researchers note that elephants preference for water availability may change based on additional considerations like elevation and the presence of humans near water sources. The fact that elephants dont always travel to the nearest river or pond adds a layer of complexity to their decision-making abilities.The speed of the elephants movement also impacts the likelihood of avoiding areas that would be difficult to navigate and waste too much energy. When moving slowly, 74 percent of individualsavoided energetically costly areas, and this increased to 86 percent at intermediate speeds and then to 93 percent at fast speeds.Support for Elephant ConservationThe information gathered from the study will serve as a guide to create more effective conservation measures for elephants, the researchers say. Knowing how elephants choose to move could help conservationists as they design protected areas and migration corridors for the animals. The study could also be used to model how elephants movements may be modified by climate change, which will affect ecological conditions like food and water availability.The next step for researchers is to assess other factors that havent been extensively covered, including seasonal changes, human disturbances, and climate change effects.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Journal of Animal Ecology. Energy landscapes direct the movement preferences of elephantsJack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine

Within glacial ice sheets, there are streams of ice, sometimes called ice rivers, that move much faster than the surrounding ice. If youre having trouble imagining how ice moves inside ice, Elizabeth Thomas, a paleoclimatologist at the University at Buffalo, suggests an analogy to help visualize these icebound rivers.Since the Gulf Stream carries warm water from the tropical Atlantic Ocean up the coast of the Carolinas and then across to Europe, she explains, the Gulf Stream is essentially a river of water that's flowing faster than the ocean around it.The same thing happens in ice sheets. Most of the ice moves very slowly, but in some places, the ice moves much more swiftly than the surrounding ice, and those faster-moving areas are ice streams. And within these streams, researchers have discovered ice quakes.What Causes Ice QuakesRecently, an international team of scientists led by Andreas Fichtner of the ETH Zrich, a public research university in Zrich, Switzerland, discovered many little ice quakes deep within the ice rivers on the Northeast Greenland Ice Sheet.Inside the ice stream are thin layers of sulfates left over from volcanoes, explains Fichtner. These impurities make the ice in these areas a little weaker than the surrounding ice, and the stresses localize near these weak layers, causing them to crack. This is what produces the ice quakes.This discovery shows that ice streams move with what Fichtner calls a stick-slip motion rather than always flowing smoothly like viscous honey.Glacier ice flows by means of many different mechanisms, explains Kristin Poinar, a University at Buffalo scientist who studies the Greenland Ice Sheet. It can ooze slowly and viscously; it can move rapidly and elastically, she says. What we havent appreciated before is that these micro-slip events might add up to be fairly significant to the overall amount of flow.A Better Understanding of Wild IceFichtner hopes this newly discovered mechanism will be included in simulations of ice sheet evolution. These simulations of how ice sheets move over 100-year time scales are essential ingredients of sea-level predictions, he says.The ice sheet models we have today are great, adds Poinar, and theyre about to get better.Thanks to a combination of field and lab studies, scientists have understood the basics of ice flow for almost 100 years, she says, but studies like this one are crucial as scientists hone their understanding of the intricate details of the properties of ice.Ice in the wild has these special properties that lab ice does not. And so, if we aren't studying ice in the wild, we're missing the complexities. We're getting the basics right, but we're missing the complexities that make this particular ice stream flow faster than our models currently predict, says Poinar.And getting those models just right is more important than you may realize, adds Thomas.Most people have never seen a glacier, much less one of the worlds great ice sheets, because theyre so remote, she says. But the water from them ends up in our communities.Having a precise understanding of ice flow dynamics helps scientists better predict sea-level rise.Thats super important because we know that the sea level has already risen by a foot in the past century, Thomas says. This rise impacts coastal communities every time theres a high tide; meanwhile, storm surges are becoming devastating.It Takes a TeamPoinar also notes that this project was a collaboration between multiple international scientists and agencies. This is common in many areas of science, but perhaps especially in glaciology, she says. Thats because it takes a lot of international support to be able to survive in the inhospitable regions where you find glaciers.Living and working in Greenland for long enough to make a measurement like this which is several years takes a lot of international logistical support to keep you fed, warm, and out of the wind.Thanks to this kind of support, Fichtner and his team are planning to continue their research on ice quakes. They are now in the process of determining if Alpine glaciers produce similar quakes.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Antarctic Glaciers. Ice streamsScience. Hidden cascades of seismic ice stream deformationETH Zrich: Ice streams move due to tiny ice quakesAvery Hurt is a freelance science journalist. In addition to writing for Discover, she writes regularly for a variety of outlets, both print and online, including National Geographic, Science News Explores, Medscape, and WebMD. Shes the author of Bullet With Your Name on It: What You Will Probably Die From and What You Can Do About It, Clerisy Press 2007, as well as several books for young readers. Avery got her start in journalism while attending university, writing for the school newspaper and editing the student non-fiction magazine. Though she writes about all areas of science, she is particularly interested in neuroscience, the science of consciousness, and AIinterests she developed while earning a degree in philosophy.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08749-xThe tumour-suppressor protein BRCA2 is discovered to have a previously undescribed role in maintaining genomic integrity and the sensitivity of PARP1 inhibitors.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08770-0Physiological temperatures augment activation of glutamate receptors, which enables the structural basis of neuronal excitation to be elucidated.

A modeling study looked at how anticipated cuts to international HIV funding would affect the rate of new cases and HIV-related deaths in low- and middle-income countries.