Herzog & de Meuron confirm their expertise in the design of spaces forhealing and recovery with Kinderspital Zrich, but replicability is questionableTo reach the new childrens hospital in Zrich, we have to leave behind the cobbled, medieval streets of the city centre and head up the hills. On a foggy, rainy Wednesday in February, they were green and wet, dotted with vineyards, fruit orchards and scattered residential buildings, at times offering glimpses of the lake and its shimmering grey expanse. Nestled between several other medical facilities and private hospital buildings, Zrichs private and university Kinderspital (or as it is affectionately known in these parts, the Kispi) was conceived by Baselbased practice Herzog & de Meuron over the course of a decade, following a competition win in 2011, and finally opened its doors to the public last autumn.Click to download drawingsApproaching the Kispi means walking alongside a long facade, where the wood is showing signs of the effect of the humid and wet Swiss winter. Many plants are already climbing up the walls, striving to grow and adapt to their new home, and getting ready to fully bloom come spring. The main entrance is shaped by two large wooden gates, which in a different universe could have signalled the entrance to Tolkiens Rohan. Imposing and disproportionately large, they give way to a low tunnel clad in timber and marked by portholes placed at a childs height to show glimpses of what awaits inside which leads to an impressive round tripleheight courtyard. Open to the sky, it is full of vegetation, trees and birdsong. A little girl is riding her bicycle around the green, humming along.This feels new, and it is. The Kispi opened in November 2024, with a considerable delay and more than CHF 150 million over budget, totalling a cost of CHF 761 million. When running massively over budget during construction, the Zrich government decided to inject CHF 250 million into the project; the move made the news but was described by the city as necessary. The Kispi is Switzerlands largest paediatric university hospital, founded in 1874 under the patronage of the private Eleonore Foundation. Offering a full spectrum of paediatric, medical and surgical care, including many rare diseases, makes it a meeting point for specialists and clinical research teams. One of the first impressions the hospitals medical director, Michael Grotzer, heard from a visiting mother was that she felt safe. Thats about the biggest compliment we can get, he points out. Entering the hospital, the first impression is indeed that this cannot be a hospital. With wooden ceilings throughout, Artek childrens furniture in waiting rooms, an expansive cafeteria with floor to ceiling windows, as well as impeccable (and expensive) finishes everywhere, it could be a youth hostel in an affluent neighbourhood, a disproportionately large mountain chalet or a coworking space in a Nordic country.Beyond material qualities, it is both the spatial considerations and organisation that set Kispi apart. Pierre de Meuron describes the hospital as a town with courtyards, streets, alleys and squares, providing clear and memorable orientation, plenty of daylight and a connection to nature. Christine Binswanger, Herzog & de Meuron partner and Kispi project lead, points to the idea of a holistically conceived, functional building that is calm and quiet despite its diversity. A linear distribution indeed offers easy access to the different facilities; a main central corridor connects all areas of the building, while large circular courtyards, skylights and expansive glazed areas bring daylight into the hospital.For Grotzer, who worked alongside the architects from 2018 until the opening, the fact that the Kispi doesnt look, feel or smell like a hospital is a helpful factor when considering healing processes. He mentions a 2024 University of Toronto study that probes the potential for incorporation of nature into the hospital environment as a component of a therapeutic hospitalisation showing exposure to nature leads to a better healing experience. For him, this confirms the power of architecture. On Kispis second floor, all 200 inpatient rooms have views to the nature outside and a small porthole window, placed at a childs height. One of the buildings most remarkable features, the rooms allow every child to have an independent space and bathroom, and welcome the parents as well, who can spend the night next to their children. While from the inside these are organised along gently curving corridors that run alongside the edges of the building, from the outside they appear as independent units, all with pitched roofs at different angles, like a linear sequence of mountain huts that are randomly squashed together. It is one of the buildings playful, almost humorous, moves, which seek to bring lightness and pleasure to those who inhabit it. The Kispi is made not in a childish way, but in a childspecific way, Grotzer points out, noting how the atmosphere plays a positive role. Parents report that the waiting times, which arguably make up most of the experience inside any medical facility, are made easier by themed rooms patients and siblings can play in a forest or outer space, or read in the Harry Potter cave. There is also an outdoor playground, pleasant break rooms where parents can work, eat and drink coffee or tea, as well as a school and kindergarten for children spending longer periods at Kispi. Raphael Heftis colourful lighting installation Starmix, on display at the spiral staircase, highlights the main access between floors, and is one of the many artworks that greet patients and their families at unexpected moments.A more unusual and particularly sobering space is the socalled room of silence, located in the basement, where bereaved families can spend time mourning the loss of a child. Past a screen of small sleigh bells, a fully woodpanelled room features diverse seating arrangements offering the possibility to sit together or in solitude. It is an ample, grave space, marked by a fulllength floortoceiling window revealing a large, ancient boulder found on site during construction. This element could evoke the stillness and muted comfort of a Zen garden, but it is also a testament to the magnitude of what takes place inside this building life, death, and everything in between.Medical facilities are concentrated on the ground and first floors, including an emergency department, the polyclinic entrance, a pharmacy and different ambulatory specialties. The Kispi is a private hospital, but in Switzerland, that does not mean that it is only for the few. The whole national health system is privatised, with every person in the country having mandatory private health insurance that allows access to health facilities in the country. At the Kispi, that means more than 8,000 inpatient cases, 140,000 outpatient and 42,000 emergency cases per year. The hospital specialises in oncology and dermatology, and serves a wide range of children coming from both Zrich and the neighbouring towns and villages. The spacious offices for staff, distributed along the short edges of the buildings first floor, include numerous typologies of meeting and break rooms that allow for a flexible use of the space, as well as garden offices filled with plants on all four corners of the building. Employees are encouraged to leave their belongings in a locker at the entrance and plug into any workstation they deem convenient for the day.As a complement to the Kispi, Herzog & de Meuron also designed a circular tower across the street, which hosts a sevenstorey paediatric research and teaching centre. The two buildings are almost polar opposites. While the horizontal hospital is a timberclad concrete frame with a facade that seeks to disappear within the surroundings, the research centre stands tall, a Guggenheim lookalike cylinder placed at the foot of the hill. Two large semicircular portals that seem to crawl up the facade serve as entrances, much like periscopes, and lead to what the architects call an agora: a central gathering space with a double-height ceiling that is surrounded by three auditoriums, a caf and, on the first floor, a study space. On the afternoon of my visit, the caf was full, the study space and auditoriums empty.For such a simple spatial concept a circle from where all other spaces radiate the building is confusing. A series of halfstorey accesses lead to dead ends or emergency exits, and finding a toilet proves to be a labyrinthine endeavour. The study space features a halfsunken circular shelf with embedded desks an impressive work of carpentry that further peers onto the agora below; hard to say if studying here is a voyeuristic activity or a focused one. Overall, spaces are clean and muted, overtaken by white plastered walls, a few wooden panels marking features such as the auditoriums and various exposed concrete spiral staircases a favourite Herzog & de Meuron trope, seen in several of their other projects, including the Kispi.While the idea of a hospital as a holistic experience is not that common, Kispis concept is a derivation of a formula that Herzog & de Meuron have already experimented with, namely in the REHAB Basel project also led by Binswanger and completed in 2002. This groundbreaking project for a clinic for neurorehabilitation and paraplegiology already put in practice the larger concept of the hospital as a city, in a lowrise, timberclad building organised around open courtyards. The formula seems to function so well that a further derivation is at the core of the firms New North Zealand Hospital in Denmark, currently under construction and expected to finish in 2026, with Binswanger part of the core team. The architects describe the lowrise, woodenclad building arranged around a courtyard as an appropriate typology for a hospital because it fosters exchange; across the various departments, the employees work on a shared goal: the healing of the ailing human being.Many established architecture firms copy and rehash their best ideas over and over again. The idea of the horizontal hospital might be a Herzog & de Meuron trope, but it is true that the architects have cracked the code for what makes a good space for healing and recovery. However, it is only thanks to the tightly coordinated work between the office and the medical teams, for over a decade, and the resources that enable it, that projects like Kispi can be made possible.2025-04-07Reuben J BrownShare AR April 2025Buy Now

Detail of Into Being. All photos by India Hobson. Images courtesy of the artist and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, shared with permissionLaura Ellen Bacon Brings Somerset Willow Into Being at Yorkshire Sculpture ParkApril 7, 2025ArtKate MothesFrom pliable lengths of sustainably sourced Somerset willow, Laura Ellen Bacon (previously) weaves elegant, meandering sculptures. Whether installed on a wall, streaming from windows, or curled up on a plinth, her works invite us to wander through installations that appear alive and moving. Bacons latest solo exhibition, Into Being, just opened at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The Derbyshire-based artist created pieces for the parks 18th-century chapel, centering around an eponymous piece that extends six meters into the nave and reaches three meters high. Mirroring shapes from nature like seed pods, burrows, and cocoons, the undulating form welcomes visitors to step inside a kind of gentle, organic embrace.The artist with Into BeingJoining a continuum of artists like Andy Goldsworthywho has four works permanently on display ay YSPNicola Turner, and Kate MccGwire who utilize natural materials to create enigmatic in situ installations, Bacons site-specific works respond directly to their surroundings. She constructed Into Being on location at YSP over the course of eight weeks, re-interpreting the space by drawing with willow. About 80 bundles of Dicky Meadow, a variety known for its slender and straight stem, wind their way through the galleryIn Britain, people have been weaving with willow for upwards of 10,000 years, primarily using the material for creating baskets. The thin stems are soft, flexible, and lightweight, making them easy to handle and bend. Bacon has developed her own methods during the past two decades, experimenting with relationships between curves and lines, tightness and looseness, and knots and twists to create contemporary, abstract compositions.Branches that have naturally fallen from beech trees at YSP form part of the sculptures supporting structure, which, through its material and form, conjures up a primal instinct to nest and reconnect with the natural world, says a statement. When the installation is dismantled later this year, the material will be repurposed on the YSP grounds to create wildlife habitats. Into Being continues through September 7 in West Bretton, England. Find more on Bacons website and Instagram.ContactDetail of ContactInto BeingDetail of Into BeingDetail of Into BeingConfidantDetail of Into BeingDetail of Into BeingNext article

The United States national metrology institute, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is to cease providing updates to tens of thousands of older common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) held within its National Vulnerability Database (NVD).In an announcement posted last week, the standards body said that every CVE with a published date prior to 1 January 2018 would now be marked as deferred within the NVD dataset.We are assigning this status to older CVEs to indicate that we do not plan to prioritise updating NVD enrichment or initial NVD enrichment data due to the CVEs age, NIST said in a statement.NISTs announcement comes as the organisation struggles to deal with a backlog of thousands of CVEs that need to be analysed and processed. At points last year, this backlog hit 18,000 records as new submissions surged by 32%. It has been exploring the use of new technologies, including machine learning, to try to automate its way out of its dilemma.Like most other authorities on the matter, NIST expects that vulnerability submission volumes will continue to rise in 2025.NIST said it would continue to accept and review requests to update the metadata it provides for its CVE records, and should new information come to light that indicates an update to said data is appropriate, it will continue to prioritise this work subject to time and resource availability.It will also continue to prioritise any CVEs added to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agencys (CISAs) Known Exploited Vulnerability catalogue, regardless of their age.Tim Mackey, head of software supply chain risk at Black Duck, said: While it may be concerning to see older CVEs, particularly those associated with prominent vulnerabilities, be triaged to a lower priority, the reality is that the CVE remains in the NVD with a recognition that updates to older CVEs are infrequent.For practical purposes, I would view any organisation that hasnt patched or mitigated something now labeled as Deferred as having an underperforming patch management or DevOps cybersecurity programme.Lets make this event a call to action for Product Security Incident Response Teams to inventory all software and then triage all vulnerabilities with a Deferred status, he said.In recent weeks NIST has additionally been subject to a series of cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the new body led by Elon Musk that has been tasked with making thousands of redundancies across the federal government, and it is understood that it plans to fire 20% of the workforce at NISTs parent, the Department of Commerce.Last week, a number of US politicians pressed commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on these cuts and warned that they may threaten NISTs work on developing standards and pose a danger to both industrial and consumer safety and security, as well as damaging American leadership and soft power on the global stage.According to Computer Weeklys sister title Cybersecurity Dive, CISA has lost at least 170 roles through DOGEs cuts to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), while many other staffers at the US national cyber agency which was established by president Trump during his first term have resigned amid cratering morale.Read more about vulnerability managementConfused by the distinctions between penetration testing and vulnerability scanning? You're not alone. Learn the key differences between the two and when to use each.Although patch and vulnerability management are intertwined, they differ in critical ways. It's important to have distinct tools and processes to execute both effectively.Artificial intelligence is improving how enterprises address security vulnerabilities, resulting in stronger security postures and smaller attack surfaces. Learn more.

Four months after the beta release, Android 15 features are finally coming to Samsung phones. But there's a catch.

There was just a weekend blitz of new information about Marathon, including a reveal about when the big drop of information will take place.

In a nutshell: April means one thing for many Americans: tax season stress. And while you're scrambling to file before the deadline, cybercriminals are just as busy working to trick you into handing over your personal and financial information. Now, Microsoft has issued a warning about a new wave of tax-themed phishing scams that are more convincing than ever. It's tax time, and scammers are pulling out all the stops. Their latest schemes include fake IRS emails, malicious PDFs, and even QR codes designed to redirect victims to malware-infested websites.Many of these attacks aim to unleash dangerous payloads such as Latrodectus, BruteRatel C4, and AHKBot on Windows devices along with remote access trojans that can give attackers full control over your system. The ultimate goal is all too familiar: steal your data, drain your accounts, or even open credit cards in your name.The emails might look legitimate, at least at first glance. With subject lines like "Unusual Activity Detected in Your IRS Filing" or "Important Action Required: IRS Audit," they're crafted to scare you into acting fast.Opening any attached documents, such as PDFs, can set off a chain reaction. Victims are often redirected through a maze of shady links, eventually landing on a fake DocuSign page that downloads malware the moment you click "Download."Some scammers are taking a more patient approach, starting with a seemingly harmless email from a fake "potential client" claiming their previous CPA botched their taxes and urgently needs assistance. If you bite and reply, the next message could include a malicious PDF disguised as tax documents. // Related StoriesMicrosoft flagged one such campaign targeting accountants, where the attachment delivered GuLoader a highly evasive malware downloader that uses encrypted shellcode and cloud hosting to bypass security. Once inside, it deploys Remcos, a remote access trojan, giving attackers full control of your system. From there, they can steal sensitive data or manipulate your system at will.As for how to avoid getting scammed, take a deep breath. Scammers thrive on panic, so don't let them rush you. Always double-check sender addresses, avoid clicking links in unexpected emails, and never download attachments unless you're absolutely certain they're safe. Remember: the IRS will never reach out via email, text, or social media to request personal or financial information.Microsoft also confirms that its security tools are actively blocking these scams. Defender for Office 365 automatically flags and blocks phishing emails and malicious attachments, while Defender for Endpoint provides comprehensive protection across devices.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsEvery Switch game that has startup issues on the Switch 2Every Switch game that has compatibility issuesIt is easy to get wrapped up in the excitement over a new console and miss some important fine print details. Nintendo was eager to share all the Switch 2 launch games and a massive list of upcoming Switch 2 games to get everyone excited to get their hands on the console, but it also let us know that most original Switch games would also be playable on the Switch 2. We learned a lot about certain Switch 2 Edition games and how they would perform so much better on the Switch 2 vs. Switch, but that asterisk of most games running on the new hardware was never focused on in any of the presentations. We all have a massive library of Switch games at this point we would like to be able to carry forward, so lets shed some light on all the Switch games that wont work on the Switch 2.Giovanni Colantonio / Digital TrendsNintendo has broken down games that dont work on Switch 2 into two categories, with the larger one being games that have startup issues. These games simply wont boot on the Switch 2 as of now, though Nintendo claims to be working on a solution to get them working. For now, assume you wont be playing any of these titles on your Switch 2:112 OperatorA Boy and His Blob Retro CollectionAbyss Memory Fallen Angel and the Path of MagicACA NeoGeo Art of Fighting 2ACA NeoGeo Samurai Shodown IIACA NeoGeo The King of Fighters 95ACA NeoGeo The King of Fighters 96AirheadAlchemy GardenAnother Crabs TreasureArcade Archives Burger TimeArcade Archives Crime CityArcade Archives Dig DugArcade Archives Gradius IIIArcade Archives New Rally-XArcade Archives Pac-LandArcade Archives XeviousAstral FluxBaron: Fur Is Gonna FlyBatman: The Enemy WithinBeyond the Ice Palace 2Boot Hill BountiesBoot Hill HeroesBotany ManorBus Simulator 2023: City DriverCats Hidden in ItalyCats on DutyCrazy Strike Bowling EXDadish 2Darksiders GenesisDead by DaylightDeath ComingDOOM: EternalEggy PartyEnder Magnolia: Bloom in the MistEverdream ValleyEverspaceFables Mosaic: Snow WhiteFelix the Catfig.Final FantasyFitness BoxingFloor KidsFortniteFRAMED CollectionGal Guardians: Demon PurgeGang BeastsGas Guzzlers ExtremeGRID AutosportGuns Gore and CannoliI Got Isekaid Into A ShmupInferno 2Island Flight SimulatorJurassic Park Classic Games CollectionKids vs ParentsKill la Kill IFKorean Drone Flying Tour Jeju Island-1KosmokratsLibrary of RuinaLittle Nightmares Complete EditionManticore Galaxy on FireMexican Train Dominoes GoldMonster Loves You Too!MODEL Debut #nicolaMonster Energy Supercross The Official VideogameMUSYNXNASCAR RivalsNBA 2K18NBA 2K25Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl FleetNeverwinter Nights: Enhanced EditionNobody Saves the WorldNova-111Oddworld: Strangers WrathOK K.O.! Lets Play HeroesOMG Police Car Chase TV SimulatorOnigo HunterPaliaPerserverance: Complete EditionPineview DrivePizza TowerPlants vs. Zombies: Battle for NeighborvilleRaiden III x MIKADO MANIAXRhapsody: Marl Kingdom ChroniclesRiMS RacingRiver City Girls ZeroRocket LeagueRoller ChampionsSaviors of Sapphire Wings/Stranger of Sword City RevisitedSkulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-fide EditionSlayin 2Soul Dog TDSouth of the CircleSouth Park: The Fractured But WholeSportitions24Star Wars Episode I: RacerStar Wars: Dark Forces RemasterStrania The Stella Machina EXSummer PocketsSuper Mega Baseball 3Super Neptunia RPGTaiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm FestivalTaito MilestonesThe CubeThe Jackbox Party PackThe Jackbox Party Pack 2The Journey Down TrilogyThe Talos Principle: Deluxe EditionTouhou Gouyoku Ibun ~ Sunken Fossil World.Travis Strikes Again: No More HeroesTricky TowersTrip World DXTrouble Witches Final!TroveTrover Saves the UniverseTT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge 3Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[cl-r]Undernauts: Labyrinth of YomiV-Rally 4Warface: ClutchWarframeWarp ShiftWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?Wolfenstein 2: The New ColussusWolfFang 2001 SkullFang Saturn Tribute BoostedWorld of Tanks BlitzXtreme SportsVictor Vran Overkill EditionLabyrinth of Galleria: The Moon SocietyClosed NightmareKonosuba: Labyrinth of Hope and the Gathering Adventurers PlusSenran Kagura ReflexionsStar Melody Yumemi DreamerFamily TrainerBeyblade Burst: Battle ZeroNights of Azure 2: Bride of the New MoonUndernauts Labyrinth of YomiAssault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn TributeProcess of EliminationTokyo Xanadu eX+Meiji Katsugeki Haikara Ryuuseigumi -Seibai Shimaseu, Yonaoshi Kagyou-Recommended VideosNintendoThe other distinction is games that do technically work on the Switch 2 but have some kind of technical issues. Nintendo isnt clear about what these issues could be, but again claims to be working on fixing them in the future:Alan Wake RemasteredAlien: IsolationArcade Archives OrdyneArcade Archives PheliosArcade Archives Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PlusArcade Archives Tetris The Grand MasterAsphalt Legends UniteDadishDexDust: An Elysian TailElderandFactorioFall GuysFamily ChessGames Advent Calendar 25 Days 25 SurprisesGodlike BurgerHarvestellaHitman 3 Cloud VersionHot Wheels UnleashedJust Dance 2019Klondike SolitaireLovers in a Dangerous SpacetimeMatchpoint Tennis ChampionshipsMega Man Legacy CollectionMotoGP 21My Brother RabbitNoir Chronicles: City of CrimeOvercooked! All You Can EatPocoyo PartyPort Royale 4Raiden IVxMikado RemixReal Car Driving Simulator & Parking 2022 GamesS.N.I.P.E.R. Hunter ScopeSaints Row 4: Re-ElectedSmileBASIC 4Steven Universe: Save The LightStreet Fighter 30th Anniversary CollectionStumble GuysUta no Prince-sama: All Star for Nintendo SwitchUta no Prince-sama: Amazing Aria & Sweet Serenade LOVE for Nintendo SwitchUta no Prince-sama: Debut for Nintendo SwitchUta no Prince-sama: Repeat LOVE for Nintendo SwitchNicoNicoPilot SportsPuru-Chara Friends: Hoppe-chan and Sanrio CharactersClockwork Ley Lines Wandering Witch in the Heat HazeNeptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja WarsEditors Recommendations

Suzuka, sakura, a snoozer F1 in Japan reminds us a great track might not make for a great race Here's why the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix was so boring. Jonathan M. Gitlin Apr 7, 2025 12:34 pm | 0 Red Bull marked the occasion of its last Japanese race with its engine partner Honda with this livery, which calls back to Honda's first F1 car in the 1960s. Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images Red Bull marked the occasion of its last Japanese race with its engine partner Honda with this livery, which calls back to Honda's first F1 car in the 1960s. Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreFormula 1 held the third round of its 2025 season at Suzuka in Japan yesterday. The race used to be held toward the end of the calendar, but F1 now visits while the cherry blossoms are blooming, which certainly makes for some good visuals. With a hefty timezone difference between Suzuka and fans in Europe and the US, a difficult decision must be made: Do I stay up all night to watch it live? Let's just say I was glad I did that for qualifying on Friday nightand I was equally glad I slept in the following night and watched the race on Sunday morning.The circuit at Suzuka is one of the few old-school tracks left on the calendar. Along with places like Monaco, Catalyunya, and Spa-Francorchamps, it's a real driver's track; anyone who's played it in Forza, Gran Turismo, or the racing franchise of your choice will know what I mean. The first corner is flat after a long straight. The left-right-left-right of turns 3-7 might be the best set of esses on any track in the world. It even crosses over itself in a figure-eight.Like Spa, though, some bits have become less of a challenge for modern F1 cars with their immense amounts of power and grip. 130R used to be a test of nerve, but now the cars barely notice it as a corner.The problem is that, like at Monaco and Catalunya, there's not really anywhere to overtake. A lot of what we think of as driver's tracks don't actually race very well, and Suzuka is unfortunately one of them. Your best chance is at the Casio triangle, the chicane between 130R and the final corner that leads onto the start-finish straight. If not there, maybe into turn 1maybebut only if you have a big speed advantage. And in 2025, no one has that big of an advantage, even with the effect of the drag-reduction system down that main straight.Cherry blossoms, grass fires An early race in Japan means beautiful cherry blossoms. Clive Rose/Getty Images An early race in Japan means beautiful cherry blossoms. Clive Rose/Getty Images This year, it also meant grass fires, which caused several red flag periods on Friday and Saturday. TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP via Getty Images This year, it also meant grass fires, which caused several red flag periods on Friday and Saturday. TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP via Getty Images An early race in Japan means beautiful cherry blossoms. Clive Rose/Getty Images This year, it also meant grass fires, which caused several red flag periods on Friday and Saturday. TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP via Getty Images On Friday and Saturday, the practice sessions and qualifying were frequently brought to a halt in red flag periods. The cause? The dry grass at trackside catching fire as a result of sparks from F1 cars as they passed by. All F1 cars have to be fitted with a synthetic wooden plank on their underbody that is there to detect if the car has been run too close to the groundLewis Hamilton was disqualified after the race in China for violating this rule. But there are titanium skid blocks that poke out a few millimeters from the plank's surface, and these are what make contact with the track surface when a car bottoms out (and before any wear to the plank), giving off a shower of titanium sparks.Titanium skid blocks were common in the 1980s (pre-plank) and were reintroduced in 2015, perhaps with the show in mind as much as anything else. This is the first time I can remember them causing a problemfive problems, in fact.On Friday, the newly swapped Red Bull and RB drivers got their first experience in the cars they will drive for the rest of the season. Liam Lawson looked much more at home in the RB, a team he raced with for part of last year. The Williams might be the fastest car in the midfield right now, but the RB looks to be more exploitable by the drivers. Meanwhile, Yuki Tusnoda was fast in the Red Bull, within a few tenths of a second of his outrageously skilled teammate Max Verstappen.Thats a new track recordSadly for Tsunoda, one of those grass fire red flags interrupted his run plan during the second of three qualifying sessions, and he did not progress to the top 10. With overtaking as difficult as it is in Suzuka, he looked dejected while being interviewed as he contemplated having to start from 14th. Still, he showed much more comfort in the car than Lawson did during the first two rounds, and Red Bull boss Christian Horner had to answer many uncomfortable questions from the media on the topics of Red Bull's car and its driver-selection process.Throughout the practice sessions, the orange and black McLarens had the measure on everyone else, with Mercedes' George Russell looking quite quick, too. But Q3 is where it really counts, and Verstappen's final lap was one of the all-time greats. Whether you like him or not, the Dutch driver is at a level no one else can match right now, and he dragged his Red Bull to a time it shouldn't have been capable of, breaking the overall track record for Suzuka in the process. F1 prevents me from embedding the YouTube video in this post, but you can view it for yourself on YouTube.Speaking of onboards, we're spoiled with both a visorcarm (pioneered by Formula E, to give credit where it's due) and the gyrocam, which might be the most immersive onboard feed yet. It has a wider field of view than the normal onboard camera and is not as well-stabilized, so you get a much better impression of just how much an F1 car vibrates at speed. Only a few cars carry a gyrocam at each race for now, but I'm eager to see it become more widespread.Neither Lando Norris nor Oscar Piastri in the McLarens had perfect laps; Piastri in particular gave up plenty of time in the first sector of the track. Regardless, all three were separated by just 0.044 seconds, with the gap between Verstappen and Norris being a mere 0.012 seconds. All three were faster than Sebastian Vettel's record time set in 2019. Comparing the onboard feeds, it is awe-inspiring how late Verstappen was able to brakesuccessfullyfor the Casio triangle, maybe 20 m after everyone else.Isack Hadjar, in the other RB, put in something of an inspiring performance, too, not just making it into the top 10 but doing so in severe discomfort while his over-tightened lap belts were threatening his reproductive health. I'm more and more impressed with this young French driver, who certainly never seems to have a boring moment.The reputation of Haas rookie Oliver Bearman went up a few points this weekend as well. Haas brought a new floor for its car to Japan that has successfully solved a handling problema self-described "risky move" by team boss Ayo Komatsu that paid off despite no wind tunnel testing ahead of fitting it to the cars, and Bearman used a line around the final corner that he picked up in iRacing to shave a few extra milliseconds. Japan's F1 fans turn out like no others, and of course there's cosplay. Mark Thompson/Getty Images Japan's F1 fans turn out like no others, and of course there's cosplay. Mark Thompson/Getty Images This was probably my favorite among the elaborate fan helmets. Mark Sutton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images) This was probably my favorite among the elaborate fan helmets. Mark Sutton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images) This fan is paying homage to Art Mezzario. Mark Thompson/Getty Images This fan is paying homage to Art Mezzario. Mark Thompson/Getty Images This was probably my favorite among the elaborate fan helmets. Mark Sutton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images) This fan is paying homage to Art Mezzario. Mark Thompson/Getty Images Mezzario-inspired Red Bull and RB fans. Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images Could it be Japan if there were no samurai? Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images Don't mess with Red Bull? Mark Thompson/Getty Images That mask is just disturbing. Mark Thompson/Getty Images I hope these fans enjoyed seeing Yuki in the Red Bull at home. Despite his not-great result, he actually did well in what's a very tricky car. Mark Thompson/Getty Images Sometimes you just need a gigantic head. MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images The hats of Suzuka are something else. Cars with working DRS flaps have been showing up for a few years now. Mark Thompson/Getty Images A pair of McLaren fans get into the spirit. PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images This guy didn't bother with the rest of the car, just the rear wing and DRS flap. Mark Thompson/Getty Images Not only do you get to express your support for the sport or a driver, but you also get to keep the sun and rain off your head. Clive Rose/Getty Images No car at all here, just a big red bull. Mark Thompson/Getty Images Well, it's Japanyou have to include at least a couple of robots, right? Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images I wonder what theyre doing with AI?Sim racing is not uncommon among the F1 drivers, although this might be the first instance I remember of one of them mentioning they tried something they learned while gaming. But it also got me wondering.A few years ago, Sony AI built GT Sophy, an AI agent that could play Gran Turismo at a level high enough to beat the very best human players in the world. In the process, GT Sophy learned faster ways around some corners that had eluded all the humans. I'd love to know if any F1 teams have approached Sony AI to try to use those tools to go fasteror perhaps even built their own. As I learned last year, General Motors is making quite good use of AI/ML in motorsport as it competes in IMSA and the World Endurance Championship, IndyCar, and NASCAR, and I have to imagine F1 teams do something similar, even if it seems unlikely that any of them would go on the record with me.ZzzzzzzzzzThe race itself was perhaps best summarized by McLaren's Piastri in the cool-down room after the event. A video wall played the race highlights for the top three finishers as they awaited the podium ceremony, and it didn't take very long. "That's all that happened in that race?" asked Piastri. "For a race that felt like it was pretty flat out, there was nothing," he said.Ironically, a grass fire would have been the best chance for something unusual to happenperhaps while Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli was in the lead as a result of not having made his pit stop yet. A red flag period during an F1 race allows competitors a free tire change in the pits while the race is suspended, and if the racing fates wanted to make Antonelli the youngest winner in F1 history, yesterday would have been the day to make that happen. Turn 1 at Suzuka is not the best place to overtake. Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images Maybe in Hollywood, but that's not real life; morning rain made the grass damp enough that nothing went up in flames. A recent repave of the track surface not only increased grip but basically eliminated tire degradation, which in turn meant the drivers could race flat out rather than having to manage their tire wear by driving more slowly than the cars are capable. With everyone on basically the same strategy, in cars that are very closely matched in performance and starting lined up in order of that performance, the end result was a foregone conclusion. In fact, there was more overtaking at last year's Monaco Grand Prix.Piastri appeared to have more speed than his McLaren teammate, but Norris was staying further back from Verstappen on purpose. This ruleset was introduced in part to reduce the wake of dirty air given off by an F1 car at speed, but much of that progress has been reversed as teams have evolved their designs to improve their balance and prevent the aerodynamic-induced oscillations known as porpoising.So the top three finished where they started, as did almost everyone else. Verstappen came first, giving his Honda engine partners a home win in the final year of Honda's association with Red Bull. Norris came second, still one point ahead of Verstappen in a championship that still has more than 20 races left to go. And Piastri had to settle for third on his birthday, a stinging lesson in the importance of stringing together a qualifying lap.A three-way fight for the crown? Max Verstappen (L), Oscar Piastri (M), and Lando Norris (R) compare notes after the race. Credit: Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images McLaren might not have been too upset with the finishing order, though. In 2007, it also had two of the fastest drivers on the grid in Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, as well as the fastest car (at times). Either Hamilton or Alonso could have won the world championship that year but took points off each other, allowing Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to score more than either by year's end. This year, Verstappen and Red Bull appear to be the underdog, but they've also just come off four victorious seasons, and as we saw yesterday, that team makes very few mistakes during the actual races.We won't have long to wait for round four: the sport heads to Bahrain this week. That was the site of its preseason test days, although that event was held in unseasonably cold weather that means much of what the teams learned then may be inapplicable this coming weekend.Jonathan M. GitlinAutomotive EditorJonathan M. GitlinAutomotive Editor Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC. 0 Comments

The Breakthrough Prize ceremony is hosted annually in celebration of scientific achievements but the event's red carpet is all about fashion.The event was held in Santa Monica on Saturday night, and actors, musicians, billionaires, and more were in attendance.Though some of those guests arrived in stunning fashion, others missed the mark with their ensembles.Here are the best and worst looks of the night.Lauren Snchez stunned in a vintage gown and diamond jewels.Lauren Snchez attends the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Santa Monica. Steve Granitz/Getty Images She walked the red carpet with her billionaire fianc Jeff Bezos, who sported a classic tuxedo.Snchez, on the other hand, stood out in a red, sleeveless gown made by John Galliano in 1994 and previously worn by Sophia Loren.The satin garment had an asymmetrical bodice with a low neckline, form-fitting fabric across the waist, and a skirt that flowed around her ankles.She completed the look with diamond earrings, a statement necklace, and a crystal-covered clutch designed by Judith Leiber to look like an astronaut.Salma Hayek Pinault's chunky gold jewelry clashed with her flowing black ensemble.Salma Hayek Pinault attends the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Santa Monica. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images Yves Saint Laurent designed her layered look. It featured billowing sheer sleeves, a keyhole cutout at the chest, and a tiered skirt with a thick waistband.Though the black outfit was chic and suited the actor, it was far simpler than her statement gold accessories.She wore shining platform heels, a chunky necklace with a large floral charm, a matching ring, and numerous bracelets on both wrists.The bold jewelry might have looked better with a more form-fitting look that highlighted it better.Lizzo brought the drama in a mermaid-style gown and colorful makeup.Lizzo attends the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Santa Monica. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images The musician opted for a strapless gown designed to look like it was wrapped around her body. It had ruching across the chest, waist, and hips, a layered skirt with pleats, and a short train.The dress was glamorous, bold, and one of the best seen on the red carpet.Equally as stunning were her accessories and makeup. Lizzo wore elbow-length gloves that matched her dress, as well as red blush, red eye shadow, and blotted lipstick.She also wore her hair in loose, slicked waves to create the illusion that it was wet.Christina Aguilera's white gown looked more like a princess costume than a designer red-carpet look.Christina Aguilera attends the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Santa Monica. Taylor Hill/Getty Images Dolce & Gabbana designed the musician's dress, which was sleeveless, floor-length, and wrapped with a visible corset around her waist.The latter detail as well as its sheer, cape-like shoulder pieces distracted from the gown's glamour. She also wore delicate jewelry and her hair in a half-up, half-down style. Both added to the look's overall princess aesthetic.The outfit would have worked better at a medieval-themed event or as a princess costume.Sergey Brin chose a sparkling suit for the occasion.Sergey Brin attends the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Santa Monica. Taylor Hill/Getty Images Brin, the billionaire cofounder of Alphabet, was one of the best-dressed men at the Breakthrough Prize ceremony.He wore a black suit that mixed traditional menswear styles with modern red-carpet aesthetics. His trousers were solid and straight, while his satin button-down added a fun texture to the top half of his look.The most interesting part of his look was his suit jacket, which was decorated with pearls, crystals, and beads to create a leaf pattern.MrBeast played it too safe with his fashion.MrBeast attends the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Santa Monica. Jesse Grant/Getty Images He sported a traditional tuxedo comprised of pleated dress pants, a suit jacket with satin lapels, a white button-down shirt, and a black bowtie.Though the social-media star has worn dress clothes for other occasions, MrBeast noted on Instagram that the Breakthrough event marked his first time wearing an actual tuxedo.Kate Hudson glimmered in gold.Kate Hudson attends the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Santa Monica. Gilbert Flores/Getty Images The actor sparkled in Elie Saab Couture. Her off-the-shoulder gown was made from tan mesh, embellished with metallic sequins, and shaped in loose puffs.Between its oversize details and sparkling lines, the dress looked as though it was cascading across Hudson's body.She wore it with silver rings, gold earrings, and a brushed-back hairstyle.Katy Perry made a statement in silver, but it wasn't her best look.Katy Perry attends the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Santa Monica. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images Perry wore Gaurav Gupta for the Breakthrough ceremony. Her asymmetrical dress had a thick neckpiece, deep cutouts across its bodice, a backless top, and a floor-length skirt.With the dress, the musician proved that silver is absolutely one of her colors. However, its skin-colored mesh was visible beneath its daring chest piece, which distracted from the outfit.Its swirled design and matching headpiece also didn't appear to fit Perry perfectly.

Its hard to know what to think about AI.Its easy to imagine a future in which chatbots and research assistants make almost everything we do faster and smarter. Its equally easy to imagine a world in which those same tools take our jobs and upend society. Which is why, depending on who you ask, AI is either going to save the world or destroy it. What are we to make of that uncertainty?Jaron Lanier is a digital philosopher and the author of several bestselling books on technology. Among the many voices in this space, Lanier stands out. Hes been writing about AI for decades and hes argued, somewhat controversially, that the way we talk about AI is both wrong and intentionally misleading.Jaron Lanier at the Music + Health Summit in 2023, in West Hollywood, California. Michael Buckner/Billboard via Getty ImagesI invited him onto The Gray Area for a series on AI because hes uniquely positioned to speak both to the technological side of AI and to the human side. Lanier is a computer scientist who loves technology. But at his core, hes a humanist whos always thinking about what technologies are doing to us and how our understanding of these tools will inevitably determine how theyre used.We talk about the questions we ought to be asking about AI at this moment, why we need a new business model for the internet, and how descriptive language can change how we think about these technologies especially when that language treats AI as some kind of god-like entity.As always, theres much more in the full podcast, so listen and follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you find podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.What do you mean when you say that the whole technical field of AI is defined by an almost metaphysical assertion?The metaphysical assertion is that we are creating intelligence. Well, what is intelligence? Something human. The whole field was founded by Alan Turings thought experiment called the Turing test, where if you can fool a human into thinking youve made a human, then you might as well have made a human because what other tests could there be? Which is fair enough. On the other hand, what other scientific field other than maybe supporting stage magicians is entirely based on being able to fool people? I mean, its stupid. Fooling people in itself accomplishes nothing. Theres no productivity, theres no insight unless youre studying the cognition of being fooled of course.Theres an alternative way to think about what we do with what we call AI, which is that theres no new entity, theres nothing intelligent there. What there is a new, and in my opinion, sometimes quite useful, form of collaboration between people. Whats the harm if we do?Thats a fair question. Who cares if somebody wants to think of it as a new type of person or even a new type of God or whatever? Whats wrong with that? Potentially nothing. People believe all kinds of things all the time. But in the case of our technology, let me put it this way, if you are a mathematician or a scientist, you can do what you do in a kind of an abstract way. You can say, Im furthering math. And in a way thatll be true even if nobody else ever even perceives that Ive done it. Ive written down this proof. But thats not true for technologists. Technologists only make sense if theres a designated beneficiary. You have to make technology for someone, and as soon as you say the technology itself is a new someone, you stop making sense as a technologist.If we make the mistake, which is now common, and insist that AI is in fact some kind of god or creature or entity or oracle, instead of a tool, as you define it, the implication is that would be a very consequential mistake, right? Thats right. When you treat the technology as its own beneficiary, you miss a lot of opportunities to make it better. I see this in AI all the time. I see people saying, Well, if we did this, it would pass the Turing test better, and if we did that, it would seem more like it was an independent mind. But those are all goals that are different from it being economically useful. Theyre different from it being useful to any particular user. Theyre just these weird, almost religious, ritual goals. So every time youre devoting yourself to that, it means youre not devoting yourself to making it better.One example is that weve deliberately designed large-model AI to obscure the original human sources of the data that the AI is trained on to help create this illusion of the new entity. But when we do that, we make it harder to do quality control. We make it harder to do authentication and to detect malicious uses of the model because we cant tell what the intent is, what data its drawing upon. Were sort of willfully making ourselves blind in a way that we probably dont really need to.I really want to emphasize, from a metaphysical point of view, I cant prove, and neither can anyone else, that a computer is alive or not, or conscious or not, or whatever. All that stuff is always going to be a matter of faith. Thats just the way it is. But what I can say is that this emphasis on trying to make the models seem like theyre freestanding new entities does blind us to some ways we could make them better. So does all the anxiety, including from serious people in the world of AI, about human extinction feel like religious hysteria to you? What drives me crazy about this is that this is my world. I talk to the people who believe that stuff all the time, and increasingly, a lot of them believe that it would be good to wipe out people and that the AI future would be a better one, and that we should wear a disposable temporary container for the birth of AI. I hear that opinion quite a lot.Wait, thats a real opinion held by real people?Many, many people. Just the other day I was at a lunch in Palo Alto and there were some young AI scientists there who were saying that they would never have a bio baby because as soon as you have a bio baby, you get the mind virus of the [biological] world. And when you have the mind virus, you become committed to your human baby. But its much more important to be committed to the AI of the future. And so to have human babies is fundamentally unethical. Now, in this particular case, this was a young man with a female partner who wanted a kid. And what Im thinking is this is just another variation of the very, very old story of young men attempting to put off the baby thing with their sexual partner as long as possible. So in a way I think its not anything new and its just the old thing. But its a very common attitude, not the dominant one. I would say the dominant one is that the super AI will turn into this God thing thatll save us and will either upload us to be immortal or solve all our problems and create superabundance at the very least. I have to say theres a bit of an inverse proportion here between the people who directly work in making AI systems and then the people who are adjacent to them who have these various beliefs. My own opinion is that the people who are able to be skeptical and a little bored and dismissive of the technology theyre working on tend to improve it more than the people who worship it too much. Ive seen that a lot in a lot of different things, not just computer science. One thing I worry about is AI accelerating a trend that digital tech in general and social media in particular has already started, which is to pull us away from the physical world and encourage us to constantly perform versions of ourselves in the virtual world. And because of how its designed, it has this habit of reducing other people to crude avatars, which is why its so easy to be cruel and vicious online and why people who are on social media too much start to become mutually unintelligible to each other. Do you worry about AI supercharging this stuff? Am I right to be thinking of AI as a potential accelerant of these trends?Its arguable and actually consistent with the way the [AI] community speaks internally to say that the algorithms that have been driving social media up to now are a form of AI, if thats the term you wish to use. And what the algorithms do is they attempt to predict human behavior based on the stimulus given to the human. By putting that in an adaptive loop, they hope to drive attention and an obsessive attachment to a platform. Because these algorithms cant tell whether somethings being driven because of things that we might think are positive or things that we might think are negative. I call this the life of the parity, this notion that you cant tell if a bit is one or zero, it doesnt matter because its an arbitrary designation in a digital system. So if somebodys getting attention by being a dick, that works just as well as if theyre offering lifesaving information or helping people improve themselves. But then the peaks that are good are really good, and I dont want to deny that. I love dance culture on TikTok. Science bloggers on YouTube have achieved a level thats astonishingly good and so on. Theres all these really, really positive good spots. But then overall, theres this loss of truth and political paranoia and unnecessary confrontation between arbitrarily created cultural groups and so on and thats really doing damage.So yeah, could better AI algorithms make that worse? Plausibly. Its possible that its already bottomed out and if the algorithms themselves get more sophisticated, it wont really push it that much further. But I actually think it can and Im worried about it because we so much want to pass the Turing test and make people think our programs are people. Were moving to this so-called agentic era where its not just that you have a chat interface with the thing, but the chat interface gets to know you through years at a time and gets a so-called personality and all this. And then the idea is that people then fall in love with these. And were already seeing examples of this here and there, and this notion of a whole generation of young people falling in love with fake avatars. I mean, people talk about AI as if its just like this yeast in the air. Its like, oh, AI will appear and people will fall in love with AI avatars, but its not. AI is always run by companies, so theyre going to be falling in love with something from Google or Meta or whatever. The advertising model was sort of the original sin of the internet in lots of ways. Im wondering how we avoid repeating those mistakes with AI. How do we get it right this time? Whats a better model?This question is the central question of our time in my view. The central question of our time isnt, how are we able to scale AI more? Thats an important question and I get that. And most people are focused on that. And dealing with the climate is an important question. But in terms of our own survival, coming up with a business model for civilization that isnt self-destructive is, in a way, our most primary problem and challenge right now. Because the way were doing it, we went through this thing in the earlier phase of the internet of information should be free, and then the only business model thats left is paying for influence. And so then all of the platforms look free or very cheap to the user, but then actually the real customer is trying to influence the user. And you end up with whats essentially a stealthy form of manipulation being the central project of civilization.We can only get away with that for so long. At some point, that bites us and we become too crazy to survive. So we must change the business model of civilization. How to get from here to there is a bit of a mystery, but I continue to work on it. I think we should incentivize people to put great data into the AI programs of the future. And Id like people to be paid for data used by AI models and also to be celebrated and made visible and known. I think its just a big collaboration and our collaborators should be valued.How easy would it be to do that? Do you think we can or will?Theres still some unsolved technical questions about how to do it. Im very actively working on those and I believe its doable. Theres a whole research community devoted to exactly that distributed around the world. And I think itll make better models. Better data makes better models, and theres a lot of people who dispute that and they say, No, its just better algorithms. We already have enough data for the rest of all time. But I disagree with that. I dont think were the smartest people who will ever live, and there might be new creative things that happen in the future that we dont foresee and the models weve currently built might not extend into those things. Having some open system where people can contribute to new models and new ways is a more expansive and just kind of a spiritually optimistic way of thinking about the deep future.Is there a fear of yours, something you think we could get terribly wrong, thats not currently something we hear much about?God, I dont even know where to start. One of the things I worry about is were gradually moving education into an AI model, and the motivations for that are often very good because in a lot of places on earth, its just been impossible to come up with an economics of supporting and training enough human teachers. And a lot of cultural issues in changing societies make it very, very hard to make schools that work and so on. Theres a lot of issues, and in theory, a self-adapting AI tutor could solve a lot of problems at a low cost.But then the issue with that is, once again, creativity. How do you keep people who learn in a system like that, how do you train them so that theyre able to step outside of what the system was trained on? Theres this funny way that youre always retreading and recombining the training data in any AI system, and you can address that to a degree with constant fresh input and this and that. But I am a little worried about people being trained in a closed system that makes them a little less than they might otherwise have been and have a little less faith in themselves.Listen to the rest of the conversation and be sure to follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: