New Research How Well Did the Mysterious Antikythera Mechanism Actually Work? Historians think the 2,000-year-old device was used to predict the positions of celestial bodies. A new digital simulation suggests that its gears may have frequently malfunctioned Divers found the Antikythera mechanism in a shipwreck in 1900. Zde via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 More than a century ago, a group of sponge divers discovered a shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera. It turned out to be the ruins of a cargo vessel dating back some 2,000 years—and hiding a wealth of archaeological treasures. Excavations revealed coins, jewelry, glassware, a seven-foot statue of Hercules and three life-sized marble horses. But the site’s most famous find is a mysterious green gadget: the Antikythera mechanism. Known as “the world’s first computer,” the damaged object was once a bronze box that measured about a foot tall and featured a system of interlocking gears. Only a third of the original device survives: 82 corroded fragments, including 30 gear wheels. Experts think these gears predicted the positions of the sun, moon and some planets, as well as solar and lunar eclipses. “There’s a calendar, there’s an eclipse prediction dial, and there are inscriptions giving you information about what the stars are doing,” Jo Marchant, author of the 2008 book Decoding the Heavens: Solving the Mystery of the World’s First Computer, told Smithsonian magazine’s Meilan Solly in 2023. “The dials and the pointers are telling you everything you need to know about the state and workings of the cosmos.” But now, a study by Esteban Szigety and Gustavo Arenas, two engineers at the National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina, suggests that the Antikythera mechanism didn’t work very well. Eighty-two pieces of the mechanism have been discovered. Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 Instead, it was essentially “just a toy prone to constant jamming,” as Live Science’s Paul Sutter writes. “It could only be cranked to about four months into the future before it inevitably jammed, or its gears simply disengaged. The user would then have had to reset everything to get it going again—similar to trying to fix a modern printer.” For the study, which was submitted to the preprint server arXiv, the researchers created a virtual simulation of the Antikythera mechanism, which approximated how the box’s gears would have fit together. This model relied on previous research by several scientists, including Cardiff University astrophysicist Michael Edmunds, who found flaws in the alignment of the Antikythera mechanism’s gears in 2006. His team suggested that the error-prone device was used for display or educational purposes. Szigety and Arenas’ simulation showed that the mechanical errors Edmunds identified would have caused the Antikythera mechanism to fail. If the errors measured in studies like Edmunds’ are accurate, “the mechanism would not have even been able to move, because it would have jammed or also the teeth would have disengaged,” Szigety tells New Scientist’s Alex Wilkins. “One tooth would rotate and the other wouldn’t rotate.” Experts think the device was used to predict the timing of eclipses and other solar events. Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 However, Szigety thinks it’s unlikely that the gear box never moved, proposing instead that it didn’t have as many mechanical errors as Edmunds concluded. “How could it be that someone invested so much time and so much effort for it to not work in the end?” he says to New Scientist. But as Edmunds tells the publication, “Even if you do come back down to smaller errors that allow it to work, then the major conclusion of my paper isn’t altered—that the lunar pointer on the front was not particularly accurate.” The device has been on display in Athens’ National Archaeological Museum for decades. Any visitor can see why the artifact remains so enigmatic: After 2,000 years underwater, the Antikythera mechanism’s bronze turned into brittle atacamite, a mineral that distorted the device’s measurements. As such, today’s researchers don’t have access to exact dimensions. “Any attempt to apply precision measurements on the current condition of the gears [and] axes includes the effect of the deformation,” Aristeidis Voulgaris of the Thessaloniki Directorate of Culture and Tourism in Greece, tells New Scientist. “In this way, we cannot say that ‘according to our precise measurements, the mechanism never functioned.’” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

The government should be scrutinizing Meta’s power. Unfortunately, its legal attack isn’t cutting to the heart of what keeps Meta big.This week, I spent three days in a Washington, DC courtroom watching Mark Zuckerberg testify. He was there defending his company from being broken up by the Federal Trade Commission, which is seeking to unwind his acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp on the grounds that they were anticompetitive. At times, he was made uncomfortable and challenged with evidence that he wanted to “neutralize” rivals. Primarily, what I observed was the FTC’s misunderstanding of how social media works. To establish the market it argues Meta has a monopoly in, the FTC has defined a subset of social media that it calls “personal social networking services.” This category includes apps that primarily facilitate sharing between friends and family, but for some reason, doesn’t include private messaging apps. The government argues that Meta’s only competitors in this market are Snapchat and MeWe, an obscure, blockchain-based social network that claims to have 20 million users. Conveniently for the FTC, including only these two companies gives Meta a de facto legal monopoly status in the US with 80-percent market share. The FTC must know this market definition is ridiculous because the agency’s lead attorney for the case, Daniel Matheson, didn’t ask Zuckerberg about MeWe once during the roughly 13 hours he was on the witness stand. When he was finally asked about MeWe by Meta’s lead attorney, Mark Hansen, Zuckerberg testified that he hadn’t heard of it before the government’s lawsuit. I sympathize with the difficulty of defining the market for an antitrust case like this, and Judge James Boasberg may ultimately disregard the FTC’s definition (or Meta’s much broader one) for his own anyway. Following Google’s loss of its ad tech monopoly case this week, it’s notable that judges have recently ruled twice in favor of the government in Big Tech antitrust lawsuits. On TV, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson is meanwhile speaking to an audience of one by trying to frame the Meta case as a fight against censorship. That may give the FTC a political edge in scoring a win beyond the courtroom. Whatever kind of legal wrangling the FTC is trying to do here, it’s not getting at the real source of Meta’s power, or even the actual market it operates in. If the government accurately included all the players that Meta considers competitors —TikTok, YouTube, iMessage, X, Telegram, etc.—there is simply no way it could argue that Meta has a monopoly market share in the US. Consumer behavior suggests strongly that this broader market is a reality; Meta presented internal data at trial that showed how Facebook and Instagram traffic surged when TikTok was briefly offline in the US earlier this year.As it focuses on acquisitions from over a decade ago in a market that has undergone radical changes since then, the FTC is largely ignoring what Meta’s business thrives on: network effects. The more people there are on a social network, the harder it becomes to unseat. The lawsuit mentions this as a source of power, but it’s far from the focus of the case.Time after time, Zuckerberg has leveraged network effects to grow his empire. He did it with Facebook to grow Instagram. In turn, the infrastructure developed for those apps has been used to scale WhatsApp, which now has nearly 3 billion users. He’s doing it again by using Instagram to grow Threads and integrating Llama-powered features into all of his apps. ”If any app gets sufficiently large, it has the opportunity to spread out and do different things,” Zuckerberg said from the witness stand. This can be an antitrust issue in its own right—Google, for instance, has been accused of using its leverage in one market to unfairly promote products in a different market—but it’s an enduring source of power that simply breaking up the company won’t solve. Sure, spinning Instagram and WhatsApp off into different companies could create new short-term competitors. But to maintain that competition in the long run, you’d want to let people take their profiles, and possibly even their friend lists, with them to other services. This kind of thing is a privacy and regulatory nightmare to implement, but there’s no denying that people want this level of control—just look at the buzz around Bluesky and ActivityPub, the latter of which Meta has hooked Threads into. []The FTC v. Meta trial is just getting started and may still bring damning evidence that the company needs to be broken up. However, so far, the government appears to be missing the point.ElsewhereOpenAI’s ever-growing ambitions: It’s hard to think of any company in the history of tech that is shipping faster and growing its ambitions more than OpenAI right now. Just this week, we saw the release of GPT-4.1, o3, and o4-mini, reports that it may buy Windsurf, the startup behind the AI coding tool Codeium, for $3 billion, and our scoop that Altman is quietly working on a social network. For a while, it seemed like OpenAI wanted to be the next Google. Now, I’m starting to think it actually wants to be the next Google, Meta, and Apple all in one. Rapid fire: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang flew to China after the US cracked down on his chip exports to the country. / Blue Origin sent Lauren Sánchez, Katy Perry, and others briefly into space. / Anthropic is developing its own AI voice mode. / Meta blocked Apple Intelligence in its apps. / Is this the next Apple Vision headset? / Netflix is aiming to reach a $1 trillion market cap by 2023.Personnel logNoteworthy career moves / job openings:As part of what appears to be a broader shift in OpenAI’s safety efforts, its former head of AI preparedness, Joaquin Quiñonero Candela, is transitioning to focus on how AI can be applied in healthcare. The company also named new advisors to its “​​nonprofit commission.”Sachin Katti is Intel’s new chief technology officer and head of AI as part of a reorganization by new CEO Lip-Bu Tan.Grace Kao is Snap’s new chief marketing officer.Will Wu, Match Group’s chief product and technology officer, is leaving to “go even deeper into AI.” Reed Hastings continued his slow process of stepping back from Netflix by becoming a non-executive director. Bluesky is looking for a head of product. (Ben Werdmuller has some interesting ideas for what someone could do in the role.) Google is hiring for a “post-AGI” AI scientist. Link listMore to click on:Opening statement slides from the FTC and Meta.Emails between Zuckerberg and his leadership team regarding his attempt to acquire Snapchat in 2013.Tom Dotan’s round-up of how the leading AI model providers are doing financially.Dan Shipper’s review of OpenAI’s o3 model. Apple’s post explaining how it plans to use data from those who opt in to improve its AI systems. Google’s Shahram Izadi demos the company’s latest smart glasses prototype at TEDInside HF0, “the monastery where founders meditate on code and profit.”Our own Tina Nguyen on “rise of the infinite fringe.”The, uh… strange way Elon Musk goes about creating his “legion” of kids.If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to The Verge, which includes unlimited access to Command Line and all of our reporting.As always, I welcome your feedback, especially if you have thoughts on this issue or a story idea to share. You can respond here or ping me securely on Signal.Thanks for subscribing.See More:

Here's your best opportunity to sign up for an Audible membership at a stellar price. Starting now and running through April 30, you can sign up for three months of Audible Premium Plus for just $0.99 per month. Premium Plus is Audible's highest tier plan and normally costs $14.95/mo. As a additional subscription perk, you get a free audiobook of your choice for each of those three months and you get to keep them indefinitely.Both new and currently expired Audible customers are eligibleAnyone who doesn't currently have an active Audible membership should be eligible. That includes new subscribers as well as existing members whose subscriptions have since expired. There's always a small your-mileage-may-vary disclaimer with these types of promotions, but fortunately it's easy to check if you qualify: log into your account, and if you see the $0.99/mo banner right on Amazon's Audible page then you're eligible for this promotion.3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 per MonthNon-Current Subscribers Only3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 Per MonthAudible is a subscription service that gives you access to hundreds of thousands of the best audiobooks without ever having to purchase them. There are two paid membership plans: the lower tier Audible Plus ($7.95/mo) and the higher tier Audible Premium Plus ($14.95/mo). The biggest difference between the two is the size of the audiobook library. Whereas Audible Plus only lets you listen to a selection of about 10,000 audiobooks, the Audible Premium Plus plan gives you access to a whopping 500,000 audiobooks. These include all-time classics like Frank Herbert's Dune, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire), The Witcher, The Sandman Series,and The Lord of the Rings.Although the seriously expanded library is the main draw of the Audible Premium Plus membership, there are some other nice perks as well. Every month Premium Plus members get to pick one audiobook to keep in their library indefinitely, even after the membership expires. Also, Premium Plus members can get 30% off any additional audiobooks they wish to purchase in addition to exclusive limited-time discounts.If you were already planning to purchase a couple of audiobooks, then it makes more sense to pay less than $3 to get three audiobooks you get to keep indefinitely and enjoy all the benefits of Audible Premium Plus for three months. This deal only pops up a few times per year, so don't waste your "first-time subscriber" eligibility status on a short 30-day trial.The newest Hunger Games audiobook just releasedSunrise on the Reaping is the newest Hunger Games novel, and it's also available as an audiobook. The book will be narrated by Jefferson White, who you may already know from Yellowstone where he played Jimmy Hudstrom. The audiobook has a listening time of about 12 hours and 48 minutes. It's free to listen with an Audible subscription.Looking for more free trials? Check out the best streaming services with free trials.Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Enter the Infinity Realm Propel into the future in Call of Duty®: Mobile Season 4 — Infinity Realm. Play as the specialists from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and race with jet packs on the new Chase map. Fight for victory in Battle Royale in the updated Arena mode and deploy jump pads to help reach high places. Unlock sci fi aesthetics in the new Battle Pass including futuristic Operator Skins, Weapon Blueprints, the Vargo-S Assault Rifle base weapon, and more. Season 4 — Infinity Realm launches on April 23 at 5PM PT. Multiplayer: Black Ops 4, New Chase Map Black Ops 4 – Reloaded Experience intense Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 gameplay across Hardpoint, Search & Destroy, and Kill Confirmed in this new playlist paying homage to the 2018 game. Deploy as iconic Black Ops 4 Specialists like Ruin, Seraph, Battery, and Prophet, each equipped with a unique Loadout and Operator Skill. The mode features eight different Specialists, four unlocked right away and another four accessible via progression. Each Specialist offers a distinct playstyle; use your unique abilities to overcome the enemy team and declare victory. New Chase Mode Map Race to the finish line in a new map for the competitive Chase mode, featuring a new winter aesthetic and obstacles to overcome, and gives players a jetpack functionality to enhance movement potential throughout the obstacle course. Battle Royale: Arena 2.0, Tactical Bouncer Class Compete in the Updated Arena Gear up for an updated Arena mode, simplifying the ruleset for a more kinetic Battle Royale experience including the following changes: Pick 3 Upgrades: In place of the shop, players will acquire drops that trigger character upgrades. Choose one of three different upgrades to further empower your Specialist. Weapons will also improve as attachments unlock throughout the match. Team Size/Respawns: It’s every player for themselves in a 1v1v1v1v1v1 competitive format with no fixed respawn points. Arena’s format is single round elimination, so make it count. New Battle Royale Class: Tactical Bouncer Open new pathways to your squad using the new Tactical Bouncer class. Place jump pads on the ground that will launch Operators, throwables, vehicles, and more. All players can interact with jump pads, including destroying them to cut off the enemy pursuit. Keep Deploying in Wildcard Battle Royale The Wildcard Battle Royale playlist will continue its limited time run throughout Season 4. Deploy while you still can, gaining special abilities via Battle Royale-specific Wildcards acquired in the match. New Themed Event: Seven Deadly Sins Seven Deadly Sins: Knight’s Path Recruit fellow knights from the Seven Deadly Sins by completing in-game challenges. Aim to collect some of them through milestone rewards, including the Operator Darkwave — Percival and an Epic MG42Weapon Blueprint. Trade your extra character cards with other players and earn special rewards when drawing the Hawk character card. Infinity Realm Battle Pass: New Weapon, Battle Royale Class The Infinity Realm Pass features free and premium items including new Operator Skins, Weapon Blueprints, Calling Cards, and additional Call of Duty Points to spend on your next Premium Pass or Store purchase. Battle Pass Free Tiers Wield the Vargo-S, a fast-firing Assault Rifle with good mid-range damage and reliable handling. In Battle Royale, deploy as the new Tactical Bouncer class to help you and your squad reach high places. Other free tier highlights include a variety of Skins, Weapons Blueprints, Vault Coins, and more. Premium Pass Tiers Purchase the Premium Pass for the chance to earn all the content in the Infinity Realm stream, including Operator Skins Death Angel Alice — Bloody Mary, Beatrice — Societal Shield, Woods — Simulation Alive, and a Battle Hardened — Wired In reskin. Thrive in the Infinity Realm with weapons like the Argus — Circuit Crosser, Type 19 — Biometric Signature, Switchblade X9 — Promethean, Bruen MK9 — Holo Base and the Vargo-S — Hack Injector, based on the new Season 4 weapon. Battle Pass Subscription: Enlist with the Ground Forces by purchasing a Battle Pass Subscription, granting additional monthly rewards along with a 10% boost to Player and Weapon XP, discount coupons, and limited discounts on 10x crate pulls. Season 4 Ground Forces will unlock the Beck — Night Ops Operator Skin, RPD — Face to Face Weapon Blueprint, and Backpack 3 — Face to Face. Season 4 Challenge Pass Complete Standard, Special, and Elite Missions to progress through the Season 4 Challenge Pass. Use your earned Challenge Tokens to purchase items in the Exchange including the Epic operator Mil Sim – Mil Punk and over a dozen Secret Caches. Check the in-game Events tab throughout the season for new Missions and rewards. For a broader glimpse of ongoing seasonal activities, check the Mission Board located in the main menu. Store Update: Seven Deadly Sins, Legendary Draws Seven Deadly Sins: Participate in two Seven Deadly Sins-themed Draws. In one, get the chance to unlock the Meliodas Operator and the Legendary CX-9 —Dragon’s Wrath. The second features the Elizabeth Liones Operator and an angelic Legendary BP50 — Liones’s Gracent. New Legendary Draws: Try for a sci-fi themed Legendary Cipher Skin and his high-performance Chicom — Density Infinite in the Pixelated Warrior Draw. In the Digitized Devil Lucky Draw, get items like a masked up Gunzo Operator Skin and a Legendary Rytec AMR Weapon Blueprint optimized for long-range dominance. New Series Armory Draw: Heat up the competition with fiery Weapon Blueprints including the OTs 9 — Malebranche, MW11 — Scorcher, KRM-262 — Red Fissure, FFAR 1 — Fire and Fury, and a Blueprint based on the new Season 4 weapon, the Vargo-S — Fiery Hell. Cache Frenzy: Throughout the entire season take advantage of weekly events, with a new event starting each week, that provides opportunities to acquire over 50 Secret Caches. These events will vary from daily logins, Ranked match challenges, and tasks assigned to a specific Cache Frenzy Playlist. Battle Pass Vault: Wind back the clock and pick up any Operator Skins and Weapon Blueprints you missed the first time around as Season 6 — To the Skies (from 2022) and Season 4 — Veiling Uprising (from 2023) arrive in the Vault. Season 4 — Infinity Realm launches on Call of Duty: Mobile on April 23 at 5PM PT. See you online. For the latest Call of Duty Mobile news, visit the Call of Duty: Mobile website, as well as Call of Duty: Mobile on YouTube. Also follow Call of Duty: Mobile on X, Instagram, and Facebook. For the latest Call of Duty intel, visit Call of Duty, as well as Call of Duty on YouTube. Also follow Call of Duty on X, Instagram and Facebook. © 2019-2025 Activision Publishing, Inc. ACTIVISION, CALL OF DUTY, and CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. ©Nakaba Suzuki, KODANSHA/The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon’s Judgement Production Committee. ©Nakaba Suzuki, KODANSHA/The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse Production Committee. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. For more information on Activision games, visit the Activision Games Blog. Also follow @Activision on X, Instagram, and Facebook

The Instagram app has its own built-in camera, so users can take photos and videos for Stories without needing another app. While users can save this content to their photo library, some people have noticed that the Save button on the Instagram camera has now disappeared – but luckily there’s already a fix available. Instagram removes and adds back option to save Stories For those unfamiliar, Instagram lets users save photos and videos they’ve taken within the Instagram app, so they can download a copy of that media and use it anywhere else. Many creators do this to repost their content on other social networks like TikTok, for example. However, for some unknown reason, the option to save Instagram Stories has disappeared from the Instagram iPhone app. It’s unclear whether the change was due to a bug or whether Instagram was conducting another A/B test to see how users would behave if they no longer had this option available. The good news is that, after many complaints, Instagram seems to have solved the problem. With the latest update to the Instagram app for iOS, which is now available on the App Store, the option has been added back to the app. TikTok, Instagram’s main competitor, recently removed the option to save videos to the photo library unless the user first shares them on their TikTok profile. Perhaps Instagram considered doing the same to force users to share the content first in the app. If you don’t see the option to save Instagram Stories in your app, go to the App Store and download the latest version of the Instagram app for iOS. Gadgets I recommend: Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

President Donald Trump's escalating tariff war is putting Tesla in serious danger.As Politico reports, the trade war has put Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an extremely awkward position politically.While the president's top henchman's businesses are somewhat insulated thanks to a strong manufacturing presence in the United States, Musk's ambitions to turn Tesla into the "most valuable company in the world" by focusing on autonomous driving and robotics could be thwarted by flatlining international trade.Free trade is the "lifeblood of the auto industry," Wedbush Securities analyst and Tesla bull Dan Ives told Politico. "It’s the lifeblood of autonomous and robotics and the future, not just thinking about domestically, but globally."Trump's disastrous trade war could make it extremely difficult for Musk to deliver on his characteristically overzealous promises. For instance, he told investors last year that his EV maker will "solve autonomy," an extremely ambitious goal that will require major breakthroughs in self-driving technologies. (It's worth noting that the mercurial CEO has made such a promise every year for a decade.)Musk has also made baffling claims that the company's Optimus humanoid robot "will be overwhelmingly the value of the company" and rake in $10 trillion in revenue, making it the "biggest product in history."But given China's extremely dominant role as the top producer of humanoid robotics, Trump's extremely steep tariffs could make achieving such a goal extremely difficult, according to experts — if not outright impossible.Optimus, in particular, "would be the place that you would see [the impact of tariffs] because a lot of those components are not necessarily coming from the US," Constellation Research founder Ray Wang told Politico.Musk has already aired his grievances with Trump's plan to shut down international trade and economically isolate the US from the world.Earlier this month, Musk broke against Trump, railing against the architect of his catastrophic tariff policy, advisor on trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, calling him a "moron."He also publicly stated that he thinks people should be able to work in both Europe and North America as they please and that there should be a "free trade zone" between the two.The reality: no company of Tesla's size and complexity is well-positioned for Trump's tariffs."Over the years, we’ve tried to localize our supply chain in every market, but we are still very reliant on parts from across the world for all our businesses," Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja warned during an earnings call in January, as quoted by Politico. "Therefore, the imposition of tariffs, which is very likely, will have an impact on our business and profitability."The EV maker has already seen the effects of those interventions, suspending new orders for both Model S and Model X vehicles on its Chinese websites last week.The timing couldn't be worse. Tesla has seen sales plummet worldwide, in large part thanks to spiking anti-Musk sentiment. Investors are fearful of terrible news ahead of next week's first-quarter earnings call.Even Musk's SpaceX could suffer from collapsing supply lines as it relies on Chinese-made tech. The space company begged a US trade representative for tariff exemptions, as The Telegraph reported late last month.SpaceX is now scrambling to move production to the US.It remains to be seen where Trump and Musk's rapidly deteriorating bromance will lead next. But considering the extremely unfavorable stock market and massive volatility, Musk will likely waste no time in trying to beg Trump for some reprieve.Share This Article

Performance Marketer – Google & YouTube Ads (Remote)About the RoleWe're looking for a skilled Performance Marketer to join our team and lead high-performing campaigns across Google and YouTube. You'll be responsible for full-funnel strategy, execution, and optimization—scaling enterprise-level ad accounts while delivering clear insights and measurable results.Key ResponsibilitiesDevelop, execute, and optimize Google and YouTube ad campaignsBuild media plans that align with client goals and budgetsMaintain robust tracking, QA, and performance reporting systemsAnalyze campaign data to uncover insights and opportunitiesPresent strategies and results clearly to clients and internal teamsTest new creatives, offers, and bidding strategies regularlyManage and scale ad spend of $100K+/month with precisionRequirementsPlatform ExpertiseAdvanced knowledge of Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Display, Performance Max)Strong command of YouTube Ads for direct response campaignsExperience with GA4, GTM, conversion tracking, and attribution modelsStrategic Thinking and Business AcumenProven success across eCommerce, SaaS, and service-based business modelsStrong understanding of key metrics: CAC, LTV, ROAS, MER, AOV, conversion ratesAbility to adapt offers and strategies based on data and marginsExecutional ExcellenceExperience building and scaling campaigns from scratchSolid QA processes for setup and reportingAbility to manage multiple accounts while maintaining quality and resultsCommunication and ReportingClear and structured communicatorProficient in building dashboards, performance updates, and reportsComfortable contributing to strategy discussions and receiving feedbackPreferred Bonus SkillsExperience with landing page CRO, funnel optimization, and split testingFamiliarity with multi-channel attribution models (e.g., Meta, Email)Background in creative development for YouTube and Display campaignsWhat We OfferRemote work with flexible hoursOpportunity to work with high-growth, diverse clientsCompetitive compensation based on experienceAccess to professional development resourcesCollaborative, results-driven team environmentHow to ApplyIf you’re a performance-focused marketer with a proven track record of scaling campaigns and managing large budgets, we’d love to hear from you.Apply here: https://dfod2lpd4tu.typeform.com/to/EldeFkZ7Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Meet JobCopilot: Your Personal AI Job HunterAutomatically Apply to Remote Sales and Marketing JobsJust set your preferences and Job Copilot will do the rest-finding, filtering, and applying while you focus on what matters. Activate JobCopilot

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April 18, 20255 min readTrump Administration's Science Cuts Come for NSF FundingThe National Science Foundation, which funds key science and engineering research, is the latest U.S. agency to be disrupted by Elon Musk’s DOGEBy Dan Garisto & Nature magazine Some researchers receiving grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation use its ice core facility in Lakewood, Colorado, to store samples. Jim West/Alamy Stock PhotoAll new research grants have been frozen at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) — an action apparently ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to cut spending and workers across the US government.DOGE is also now reviewing a list of active research grants assessed in February by the NSF for terms associated with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and considering more than 200 of them for termination, NSF staff members have told Nature.On Monday, three DOGE members arrived at NSF headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. NSF employees say that DOGE has directed hundreds of research proposals approved during a multi-step review process — but not yet finalized — be sent back to NSF programme officers, who have been told to perform “mitigation work” without any further details. Science first reported the arrival of DOGE at the NSF this week.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.With a budget of US$9 billion, the NSF is one of the largest funders of basic research in the world. From the start of Donald Trump’s second US presidency, the agency has gone through whiplash-inducing changes: it froze all grant payments and then unfroze them in February following court orders; it fired its probationary employees in February and weeks later rehired half of them. And earlier this month, the agency cut its graduate research fellowship programme by half, offering only 1,000 positions instead of the usual 2,000.The NSF has been under heightened scrutiny following the release of an October 2024 report authored by the office of Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas who now chairs the Senate Science Committee. The report alleged that 3,483 research grants awarded between January 2021 and April 2024 by the NSF during the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, “went to questionable projects that promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) tenets”, wasting $2 billion. Today, Democrats in the Science, Space and Technology Committee of the US House of Representatives released an analysis of the Cruz report. The analysis claims major flaws with the report, suggesting that it “jeopardizes the economic and national security of the United States” by “undermining the important work of scientific researchers, educators, and institutions”.A spokesperson for the NSF says it “continues to issue awards” and declined to answer Nature’s questions. Kush Desai, a spokesperson for the White House, says that “the Trump administration is committed to ensuring that federal research spending is in line with the priorities of everyday Americans.” Cruz’s office did not immediately respond to Nature’s requests for comment.To better understand the situation at the NSF, Nature spoke to five staff members, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with the press.DOGE arrivesWhile DOGE visited other US agencies over the past two months — in some cases dismantling them entirely — NSF staffers held their collective breath.But on Wednesday, DOGE turned its attention to the NSF’s grants, the focus of the agency’s mission. Documents seen by Nature show that two members of DOGE, Luke Farritor and Zachary Terrell, have been given access to grant management systems and used that access to prevent grants from receiving funding that were already approved but awaiting finalization. “That, of course, raises the hairs on the back of our neck in a worrisome way,” an NSF programme officer says.Research projects at the NSF go through multiple steps before approval. Proposals are first submitted to NSF programme officers with expertise in the scientific field they focus on. If the proposals pass muster with the officers, those staff members then commission a review from independent experts outside the agency. Only the strongest applications pass this step — the typical success rate is between 20% and 30%. Division directors within the NSF then give the final approval and send the grants on for finalization with the Division of Grants and Agreements. This is where grants are currently being sent back from.Proposals that receive final approval are essentially always funded — until now, the employees say. Before DOGE’s arrival, new research awards at the agency had slowed by half, relative to 2024, Science has reported. On 16 April, they stopped completely.A report under fireThis isn’t the first time since Trump took office that the NSF has re-examined its grants. In February, the agency initiated a review of all its grants to ensure that they weren’t in violation of executive orders from Trump on “radical and wasteful” DEI programmes and “gender ideology”. At that time, it was flagging grants containing any of hundreds of words that the Cruz report claimed were indicators of left-wing ideologies rather than hard science — such as “women”, “black men”, and “inequality”. Since 1980, the US Congress has mandated that as part of its mission, the NSF should broaden the participation of under-represented groups in science.The House analysis found that the report inappropriately flagged grants at minority-serving institutions because the grants referred to the minority status of the institution. It also found that the Cruz report contained a “slew of embarrassing mistakes”, including that it flagged grants completely unrelated to DEI initiatives, such as the genomic diversity of rice and female leopard seals. Additionally, 14% of the 3,483 grants were duplicates, so they were double-counted.Zoe Lofgren, a US representative from California and the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, sent the analysis to the NSF earlier today. “It is imperative that NSF is not intimidated into accepting these vacuous findings and undermining its merit review process by substituting the Cruz Report’s slander for expert opinion,” Lofgren wrote in a letter to NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan.Most of the grants, the analysis found, were flagged because they included language about “broader impacts” of the research to society, a mandatory requirement passed unanimously by the Senate in 2010, before Cruz was a senator, and then again in 2017, after he was.Anthony Gitter, a computational biologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, had a grant about using deep learning for protein modelling flagged by the Cruz report. It contained a single sentence about offering summer research opportunities to underrepresented minorities as part of the broader impact statement. The Cruz report “plays into the narrative that universities are these elitist places that harbour out-of-touch academics that are no longer doing science,” he says. “But it’s out of touch with the data.”This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on April 17, 2025.

Care instructions: ​​​​Rattlesnake plants grow best in a loose, fast-draining soil that you can fertilize monthly (though hold off in the fall and winter). These guys thrive when placed away from direct light, in an ideal temperature range of 70–80 degrees. They’ll need watering when the top of the soil feels dry to the touch; they also enjoy a spritz if their leaves are looking dry.Rattlesnake Plant 6"Small Calathea 'Rattlesnake'Back to top5. Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)Pros:Air purifying characteristicsVery hard to killCons:Grow like weedsA favorite among veterinarians, this plant is easy to grow indoors and incredibly resilient (yes, even to your black thumb!). Spider plants are also great air purifiers, so they can help get rid of your home’s toxins.Care instructions:Spider plants don’t like direct sunlight (it scorches their leaves). Though they’ll tolerate lower light conditions, indirect bright light in temperatures of 60–80 degrees is where they flourish best.Medium Variegated Spider Plant6" Live Spider House PlantBack to top6. Baby Rubber Plant (Peperomia obtusifolia)Pros:Several different varieties to pick fromGood for beginnersCons:Requires lots of light if you want it to grow quicklyDon't get the baby rubber plant confused with a rubber tree (ficus elastica). The peperomia obtusifolia has thick, waxy leaves with big personality. You can find bright green versions or variegated ones that have splashes of light and dark green.Care instructions:Though the baby rubber plant prefers medium to high light situations, it will tolerate low light (it will just grow a bit more slowly). Water it weekly, or whenever you notice the soil is very dry.Peperomia ObtusifoliaBaby Rubber Plant (Peperomia obtusifolia)7. Parlor Palm (Chamaedorea elegans)Pros:Big, fluffy foliageStatement plant for larger roomsCons:Prone to pests like spider mites“The parlor palm is loved not only for its charm, but also for its resilience” Lalicata says. While some palms can be tricky to care for indoors, the parlor palm is low-maintenance, thriving in low light while still maintaining a lush appearance.” Stick one on a credenza or nightstand that’s not too close to a window, as this palm needs only a few hours of indirect light a day.Care instructions:Parlor palms are naturally slow growers that take several years to reach three to four feet tall. As we said, keep this guy out of direct sunlight and keep his soil evenly moist for the best results.Parlor PalmLive Cat Palm TreeBack to top8. Calathea orbifoliaPros:Can thrive in lower-light conditionsBeautiful leaves that look hand-paintedCons:Ideal for plant pros, as it’s finicky about water and lightThe leaf pattern on this particular Calathea is exquisite, if you ask us. This houseplant needs partial shade, which makes it perfect for a plant stand or a shelf in a bedroom that doesn’t get much natural light.Care instructions:We mentioned that Calatheas don’t love the sun (it burns their leaves), but a regular watering schedule will also make sure your plant stays healthy and hydrated, as will keeping it in a room with temperatures of 60–80 degrees (nothing below 55 degrees). It also enjoys ample humidity, so consider regular misting or keeping it near a humidifier.Orbit Peacock PlantBack to top9. Ponytail Palm (Beaucarnea recurvata)Pros: