April is the cruelest month Research roundup: Tattooed tardigrades and splash-free urinals Also: The first live footage of a colossal baby squid; digitally unfolding an early medieval manuscript. Jennifer Ouellette – Apr 30, 2025 3:16 pm | 3 Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more It's a regrettable reality that there is never time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we've featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost) missed. This year, we're experimenting with a monthly collection. April's list includes new research on tattooed tardigrades, the first live image of a colossal baby squid, the digital unfolding of a recently discovered Merlin manuscript, and an ancient Roman gladiator whose skeleton shows signs of being gnawed by a lion. Gladiator vs lion? Puncture injuries by large felid scavenging. Credit: Thompson et al., 2025/PLOS One/CC-BY 4.0 Popular depictions of Roman gladiators in combat invariably include battling not just human adversaries but wild animals. We know from surviving texts, imagery, and artifacts that such battles likely took place. But hard physical evidence is much more limited. Archaeologists have now found the first direct osteological evidence: the skeleton of a Roman gladiator who encountered a wild animal in the arena, most likely a lion, based on bite marks evident on the pelvic bone, according to a paper published in the journal PLoS ONE. The skeleton in question was that of a young man, age 26 to 35, buried between 200–300 CE near what is now York, England, formerly the Roman city of Eboracum. It's one of several such skeletons, mostly young men whose remains showed signs of trauma—hence the suggestion that it could be a gladiator burial site. "We used a method called structured light scanning [to study the skeleton]," co-author Tim Thompson of Maynooth University told Ars. "It's a method of creating a 3D model using grids of light. It's not like X-ray or CT, in that it only records the surface (not internal) features, but since it uses light and not X-rays etc, it is much safer, cheaper, and more portable. We have published a fair bit on this and shown its use in both archaeological and forensic contexts." The team compared the pelvic lesions found on the subject skeleton with bite marks from modern animal specimens and concluded that the young man had been bitten by a "large feline species," most likely a lion scavenging on the body around the time of death. The young man was decapitated after death for unknown reasons, although this was a ritualistic practice for some people during the Roman period. While the evidence is technically circumstantial, "we are confident with our conclusions," said Thompson. "We've adopted a multidisciplinary approach to address this issue and have drawn on methods from different subjects, too. Our use of contemporary comparison zoological material is really what gives us the confidence." DOI: PLoS ONE, 2025. 10.1371/journal.pone.0319847  (About DOIs). Tattooed tardigrades False-colored SEM image of the tardigrade after rehydration and fixation. Credit: American Chemical Society Tardigrades (aka "water bears") are micro-animals that can survive in the harshest conditions: extreme pressure, extreme temperature, radiation, dehydration, starvation—even exposure to the vacuum of outer space. Scientists have exploited the robustness of these creatures to demonstrate a new ice lithography technique that can be used to essentially tattoo patterns at the nanoscale on living creatures. They described their method in a paper published in the journal Nano Letters. Creating precision patterns on living organisms is challenging because the latter require very specific conditions in order to thrive, while fabrication techniques typically require harsh environments—the use of corrosive chemicals, for instance, vacuum conditions, or high radiation. So researchers at Westlake University tested their ice lithography on tardigrades in their dehydrated state (cryptobiosis). Once cooled, the tardigrades were coated with vaporized anisole, creating an ice layer. The team used an electron beam to etch patterns in that layer. Once the creatures were warmed back up, the parts of the ice layer that had not been exposed to the beam sublimated away, and the pattern was preserved on the tardigrade's surface, even after the creatures were rehydrated. Granted, only about 40 percent of the tardigrade test subjects survived the full procedure, but further improvements could improve that rate significantly. Once the technique is fully developed, it could enable the fabrication of nanoscale patterns for marking living organisms, such as tracking single cells as they develop or for the creation of sophisticated biosensors. DOI: Nano Letters, 2025. 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c00378  (About DOIs). Holograms that can be grabbed A 3D car is grabbed and rotated by a user. Credit: Iñigo Ezcurdia A volumetric display consists of scattering surfaces distributed throughout the same 3D space occupied by the resulting 3D image. Volumetric images can be viewed from any angle, as they seem to float in the air, but no existing commercial prototypes let the user directly interact with the holograms—until now. There is a new kind of volumetric display called FlexiVol that allows people to interact directly with 3D graphics displayed in mid-air. Elodie Bouzbib of the Public University of Navarra presented the research at the CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Japan this month. The key lies in a fast oscillating sheet known as a diffuser, onto which synchronous images are projected at high speed (2,880 images per second) and at different heights; human persistence of vision ensures that these images are perceived as true 3D objects. But the diffusers are usually made of rigid materials and hence pose a safety hazard should a user try to reach through and interact directly with the hologram; safety domes are usually employed because of this. FlexiVol replaces the rigid diffuser with elastic bands that will not permanently deform or twist, distorting the 3D display, and has a different resonant frequency from the volumetric system. The team was inspired by the taxonomy of gestures used with 2D elastic displays and touch screens: swiping, for instance, or pinching in and out to make an image larger or smaller. They tested FlexiVol with a selection of users performing three sample tasks showcasing the ability to manipulate the 3D graphics, such as "grasping a cube between the thumb and index finger to rotate it, or simulating walking legs on a surface using the index and ring fingers," said Bouzbib. Look ma, no spashback! A high-speed video depicting the tests used to measure the critical angle. Credit: Thurairajah et al., 2025 Men, are you tired of urine splashback when you use the loo? Scientists at the University of Waterloo have developed the optimal design for a splash-free urinal, dubbed the Nautilus (aka the "Nauti-loo"). We first covered this unusual research back in 2022, when the researchers presented preliminary results at a fluid dynamics conference. Their final findings have now formally appeared in a paper published in PNAS Nexus. Per the authors, the key to optimal splash-free urinal design is the angle at which the pee stream strikes the porcelain surface; get a small enough angle, and there won't be any splashback. Instead, you get a smooth flow across the surface, preventing droplets from flying out. (And yes, there is a critical threshold at which the urine stream switches from splashing to flowing smoothly, because phase transitions are everywhere—even in our public restrooms.) It turns out that dogs have already figured out the optimal angle as they lift their legs to pee, and when the team modeled this on a computer, they pegged the optimal angle for humans at 30 degrees. The next step was to figure out a design that would offer that optimal urine stream angle for men across a wide range of heights. Instead of the usual shallow box shaped like a rectangle, they landed on the curved structure of the nautilus shell. They conducted simulated urine stream experiments with the prototypes, et voila! They didn't observe a single droplet splashing back. By comparison, the other urinal designs produced as much as 50 times more splashback. The team did come up with a second design with the same optimal angle, dubbed the Cornucopia, but unlike the Nautilus, it does not fit a range of heights, limiting its usefulness. DOI: PNAS Nexus, 2025. 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf087  (About DOIs). Colossal baby squid First confirmed live observation of the colossal squid in its natural habitat. Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute In 1925, scientists first described the colossal squid in a scientific paper, based on the discovery of arm fragments in the belly of a sperm whale. This species of squid is especially elusive because it prefers to stay in the deep ocean, although occasionally full-grown colossal squid have been found caught in trawl nets, for instance. One hundred years after its discovery, the colossal squid has now been filmed alive in its deep-ocean home environment for the first time by a team aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too) in waters off the South Sandwich Islands. Colossal squid can grow up to 23 feet long and weigh as much as 1,100 pounds and have distinctive hooks on the middle of their eight arms. Juvenile squid have transparent bodies. It was a baby squid just 30 centimeters long that the team captured on video at a depth of 1,968 feet (600 meters) during a 35-day expedition searching for new marine life; a remote submersible dubbed SuBastian took the footage. The scientists hope to eventually be able to capture an adult colossal squid on camera. The team also filmed the first confirmed living footage of a similar cephalopod species, the glacial glass squid, spotted in the Bellingshausen Sea near Antarctica back in January. Digitally unfolding a Merlin manuscript Virtual opening of CUL’s Vanneck Merlin fragment. In 2019, conservationists at Cambridge University discovered a fragment of an Arthurian medieval manuscript that had been repurposed as the cover of a land register document. Written between 1275 and 1315 CE, it was far too fragile to manually unfold, but the university library's Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory has succeeded in digitally unfolding the fragment so that the text can be read for the first time, while keeping the original artifact intact as a testament to archival practices in 16th-century England. Their method could be used to noninvasively study fragile manuscript fragments held in other collections. The team used a combination of CT scanning, multispectral imaging, and 3D modeling, as well as an array of mirrors, prisms, magnets, and other tools to photograph each section of the fragment. In this way they were able to reconstruct and virtually unfold the manuscript, revealing the text. Scholars had originally thought it was a text relating to Sir Gawain in Arthurian lore, but it turned out to be part of a French language sequel to the King Arthur legend called the Suite Vulgate du Merlin. There are only 40 known surviving manuscripts of this work. One section concerns Gawain's victory over Saxon kings at the Battle of Cambenic; the other is a story of Merlin appearing in Arthur's court disguised as a harpist on the Feast of the Assumption. Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 3 Comments

As chief information officers, you've likely spent the past few years integrating various forms of artificial intelligence into your enterprise architecture. Perhaps you've implemented machine learning models for predictive analytics, deployed large language models (LLMs) for content generation, or automated routine processes with robotic process automation (RPA). But a fundamental shift is underway that will transform how we think about AI governance: the emergence of AI agents with autonomous decision-making capabilities. The Evolution of AI: From Robotic to Decision-Making The AI landscape has evolved through distinct phases, each progressively automating more complex cognitive labor: Robotic AI: Expert systems, RPAs, and workflow tools that follow rigid, predefined rules Suggestive AI: Machine learning and deep learning systems that provide recommendations based on patterns Instructive AI: Large language models that generate content and insights based on prompts Decision-making AI: Autonomous agents that take action based on their understanding of environments This most recent phase, AI agents with decision-making authority, introduces governance challenges of an entirely different magnitude. Understanding AI Agents: Architecture and Agency Related:At their core, AI agents are systems conferred with agency, the capacity to act independently in a given environment. Their architecture typically includes: Reasoning capabilities: Processing multi-modal information to plan activities Memory systems: Persisting short-term or long-term information from the environment Tool integration: Accessing backend systems to orchestrate workflows and effect change Reflection mechanisms: Assessing performance pre/post-action for self-improvement Action generators: Creating instructions for actions based on requests and environmental context The critical difference between agents and previous AI systems lies in their agency. This is either explicitly provided through access to tools and resources or implicitly coded through roles and responsibilities. The Autonomy Spectrum: A Lesson from Self-Driving Cars The concept of varying levels of agency is well-illustrated by the autonomy classification used for self-driving vehicles: Level 0: No autonomous features Level 1: Single automated tasks (e.g., automatic braking) Level 2: Multiple automated functions working in concert Level 3: "Dynamic driving tasks" with potential human intervention Level 4: Fully driverless operation in certain environments Related:Level 5: Complete autonomy without human presence This framework provides a useful mental model for CIOs considering how much agency to grant AI systems within their organizations. The AI Agency Trade-Off: Opportunities vs Risks Setting the appropriate level of agency is the key governance challenge facing technology leaders. It requires balancing two opposing forces: Higher agency creates greater possibilities for optimal solutions, compared to lower agency when the AI agent is reduced to a mere RPA solution. Higher agency increases the probability of unintended consequences This isn't merely theoretical. Even simple AI agents with limited agency can cause significant disruption if governance controls aren't properly calibrated. As Thomas Jefferson aptly noted, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." This applies equally to AI agents with decision-making freedom in your enterprise systems.  The Fantasia Parable: A Warning for Modern CIOs Disney's "Fantasia" offers a surprisingly relevant cautionary tale for today's AI governance challenges. In the film, Mickey Mouse enchants a broom to fill buckets with water. Without proper constraints, the broom multiplies endlessly, flooding the workshop in a cascading disaster. Related:This allegorical scenario mirrors the risk of deployed AI agents: they follow their programming without comprehension of consequences, potentially creating cascading effects beyond human control. Looking to the real world and modern times, last year Air Canada's chatbot provided incorrect information about bereavement fares, leading to a lawsuit. Air Canada initially tried to defend itself by claiming the chatbot was a "separate legal entity," but was ultimately held responsible.  Also, Tesla experienced several AI-driven autopilot incidents where the system failed to recognize obstacles or misinterpreted road conditions, leading to accidents. The Alignment Problem: Five Critical Risk Categories Alignment -- ensuring AI systems act in accordance with human intentions -- becomes increasingly difficult as agency increases. CIOs must address five interconnected risk categories: Negative side effects: Preventing agents from causing collateral damage while fulfilling tasks Reward hacking: Ensuring agents don't manipulate their internal reward functions Scalable oversight: Monitoring agent behavior without prohibitive costs Safe exploration: Allowing agents to make exploratory moves without damaging systems Distributional shift robustness: Maintaining optimal behavior as environments evolve There is currently a lot of promising work being done by researchers to address alignment challenges that involves algorithms, machine learning frameworks, and tools for data augmentation and adversarial training. Some of these include constrained optimization, inverse reward design, robust generalization, interpretable AI, reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), contrastive fine-tuning (CFT), and synthetic data approaches. The goal is to create AI systems that are better aligned with human values and intentions, requiring ongoing human oversight and refinement of the techniques as AI capabilities advance. Solving the Trade-Off: A Framework for Engendering Trust in AI To capitalize on the transformative potential of agentic AI while mitigating risks, CIOs must enhance their organization's people, processes, and tools: People Re-skill the workforce to appropriately calibrate AI agency levels Redesign organizational structures and metrics to accommodate an agentic workforce. Agents are capable of more advanced workflows, so human capital can progress to higher-value roles. Identifying this early will save companies time and money.  Develop new roles focused on agent oversight and governance Processes Map enterprise functions where AI agents can be deployed, with appropriate agency levels Establish governance controls and risk appetites across departments Implement continuous monitoring protocols with clear escalation paths Create sandbox environments for safe testing of increasingly autonomous systems Tools Deploy "governance agents" that monitor enterprise agents Implement real-time analytics for agent behavior patterns Develop automated circuit breakers that can suspend agent activities Build comprehensive audit trails of agent decisions and actions The Governance Imperative: Why CIOs Must Act Now The shift from suggestion-based AI to agentic AI represents a quantum leap in complexity. Unlike LLMs that merely offer recommendations for human consideration, agents execute workflows in real-time, often without direct oversight. This fundamental difference demands an evolution in governance strategies. If AI governance doesn't evolve at the speed of AI capabilities, organizations risk creating systems that operate beyond their ability to control.  Governance solutions for the agentic era should have the following capabilities: Visual dashboards: Providing real-time updates on AI systems across the enterprise, their health and status for quick assessments. Health and risk score metrics: Implementing intuitive overall health and risk scores for AI models to simplify monitoring for both availability and assurance purposes. Automated monitoring: Employing systems for automatic detection of bias, drift, performance issues, and anomalies. Performance alerts: Setting up alerts for when models deviate from predefined performance parameters. Custom business metrics: Defining metrics aligned with organizational KPIs, ROI, and other thresholds. Audit trails: Maintaining easily accessible logs for accountability, security, and decision review. Conclusion: Navigating the Agency Frontier As CIOs, your challenge is to harness the transformative potential of AI agents while implementing governance frameworks robust enough to prevent the Fantasia scenario. This requires: A clear understanding of agency levels appropriate for different enterprise functions Governance structures that scale with increasing agent autonomy Technical safeguards that prevent cascading failures Organizational adaptations that enable effective human-agent collaboration The organizations that thrive in the agentic AI era will be those that strike the optimal balance between agency and governance -- empowering AI systems to drive innovation while maintaining appropriate human oversight. Those that ignore this governance imperative may find themselves, like Mickey Mouse, watching helplessly as their creations take on unintended lives of their own. 

President Donald Trump has had longstanding grievances against China on trade policy. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images 2025-04-30T19:43:34Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? President Trump on Wednesday defended his administration's trade stance regarding China. Trump during a Cabinet meeting said US children might have to contend with fewer dolls from China. "They made a trillion dollars … selling us stuff … much of it we don't need," he said of China. President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his tariff approach with China by saying American children might end up with fewer toys — and the toys they do end up with might cost more.During a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump was asked if he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the commander-in-chief contended that China's factories "aren't doing business.""They made a trillion dollars with [former President Joe] Biden … selling us stuff … much of it we don't need," Trump said. "Somebody said, 'Oh the shelves are going to be open.' Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls.""Maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally," he added. In recent weeks, there have been growing fears that a prolonged US-China trade war will cause major supply chain issues, as Trump earlier this month slapped 145% tariffs on Chinese goods.China responded by upping the tariff rate on US goods to 125%, but on Wednesday, Reuters reported that the Chinese government has quietly exempted some products from the sky-high tariffs. The exact details of the exempted products are not yet clear.Many economists have been critical of the Trump administration's trade plan, questioning the approach that the president has taken with most countries — as well as the more hardline stance that it has taken with China.Last Thursday, China said it had not yet engaged with the US in trade talks."China's position is consistent, and we are open to consultations and dialogues, but any form of consultations and negotiations must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and in an equal manner," Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong said at the time.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC News on Sunday that he felt there was a "path" to resolve the trade clash with China."The first path will be a de-escalation, which I think the Chinese are going to have to have," he said. "A trade deal can take months, but an agreement in principle and the good behavior and staying within the parameters of the deal by our trading partners can keep the tariffs from ratcheting back to the maximum level."A White House spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Recommended video

During an oral argument on Wednesday, the Supreme Court appeared all but certain to divide along party lines in a case that seeks to fundamentally expand the role religion plays in American public schools. This isn’t surprising: Almost immediately after Republicans gained a supermajority on the Supreme Court, they started rewriting the Court’s religion decisions to make them more favorable to the religious right. One month after Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation gave the GOP their sixth vote on the Court, Roman Catholic Diocese v. Cuomo (2020) revolutionized the Court’s approach to religious objectors who seek exemptions from obeying the law — overruling a decision that was only a few months old in the process. Since then, the Court has handed down case after case overruling previous religion decisions, usually to the benefit of the Christian right. The Court’s new decisions give religious conservatives far more ability both to ignore laws they do not like, and to demand that the government fund their religious institutions. After less than five years in power, the Court’s new majority has rendered the country’s religion jurisprudence unrecognizable, even to a lawyer who would have been considered an expert in the Constitution’s approach to religion less than a decade ago.On the surface, Wednesday’s argument in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond merely signaled that the Court’s Republican majority will very likely take the next incremental step in its seemingly inexorable march toward integration of church and state. Upon closer inspection, however, the Oklahoma argument was unlike some of this Court’s early forays into religion because some of the Republicans explicitly acknowledged that they are rewriting the Constitution’s approach to religion, and a few of them even appeared to signal where they want this revolution to end.As Justice Brett Kavanaugh said late in the Oklahoma argument, the Court now has a “different constitutional understanding” of whether separation of church and state is even permitted. That new understanding, Kavanaugh suggested, is this: So long as an American can choose not to participate in a state-backed religious operation, church and state do not need to be separate — indeed, separation of church and state is often unconstitutional under this framework.In Oklahoma, which is about whether states must pay for religious charter schools using taxpayers’ money, Kavanaugh’s new regime would mandate a great deal of state funding for religious schools, so long as parents retain a “choice” about where to send their child. Under Kavanaugh’s approach, if “no student is compelled to go to a religious charter school,” state charter school programs like the Oklahoma program at issue in this case must fund religious instruction.Again, this approach to religion is fundamentally different from how previous generations of justices viewed the Constitution — in Everson v. Board of Education (1947), for example, the Court said that “no tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion.” But, at the very least, the Court’s new majority now appears to have settled on the rule it will apply in future cases seeking to mandate government funding of religious faith.Oklahoma is the culmination of a series of decisions that not only reject Everson, but also seek to turn it on its head. The rule is no longer that church and state must be separated. The Court’s current majority mandates that they must be entangled with each other.In fairness, the right of citizens to choose whether to participate in religious institutions has animated the Court’s religion cases for quite a while. In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), a 5-4 Court ruled that states may voluntarily include religious schools in a private school voucher program, so long as parents ultimately got to decide whether to send their child to a religious school. But Zelman merely established that government funding of religious private schools is permissible, not that it is required.That changed in a trio of cases that culminated in Carson v. Makin (2022). Carson held that, once a state sets up a private school voucher program, “it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.” So, once a voucher program exists, state funding of religion is now mandatory.That said, Carson also held that states are still allowed to “provide a strictly secular education in its public schools.” The question in Oklahoma is whether state charter school programs — charter schools are classified as nonreligious public schools under both federal law and the laws of 46 different states, even though they are often run in partnership with a private entity — are allowed to provide the strictly secular education the Court spoke of in Carson.After Wednesday’s oral argument, there appeared to be broad willingness among the Court’s Republicans (minus Barrett, who is recused from this case) to expand religious schools’ access to public money once again. Those justices seemed ready to rule that Oklahoma’s public charter schools are actually private schools, and therefore, the state must fund religious charter schools. The specific school at issue in Oklahoma, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, would be the first religious charter school in the nation.If you accept Carson as legitimate, it’s not that much of a stretch to conclude that religious charter schools are mandatory. The state’s best argument that Carson does not apply to charter schools is that the Court held, in Biden v. Nebraska (2023), that an entity which “was created by the State to further a public purpose, is governed by state officials and state appointees, reports to the State, and may be dissolved by the State” is a public institution, unlike the private schools at issue in Carson. Oklahoma law provides that charter schools cannot exist without state sponsorship, and the state exerts considerable control over charter schools — including approving their curriculum and requiring them to be audited by the state.But none of the five Republican justices who heard the Oklahoma case appeared persuaded that charter schools count as public entities that are allowed to be strictly secular. Chief Justice John Roberts, the closest thing this Court has to a moderate Republican, compared Oklahoma’s charter schools to government contractors — he pointed to the Court’s decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) a government contracting case which held that a city could not exclude religious adoption agencies that refuse to place children with same-sex couples from its broader adoption program. Meanwhile, many of the justices appeared genuinely angry that religious schools have been excluded from state and federal charter school programs for as long as those programs have existed. Justice Samuel Alito went on a rant about how current law permits charter schools that teach that being LGBTQ is a “perfectly legitimate lifestyle,” but doesn’t permit the government to fund religious viewpoints. Kavanaugh, at one point, suggested that the longstanding rule establishing that charter schools must be secular is “rank discrimination against religion.”In fairness, Kavanaugh at least acknowledged that his Court recently changed the rules. When Gregory Garre, the lawyer defending Oklahoma’s ability to have a nonsectarian charter school program, pointed out that both federal law and every relevant state’s law provides for secular charter schools, Kavanaugh responded that “at that point it was considered constitutional to discriminate against religious entities.”Based on Wednesday’s argument, it appears likely that the Court will adopt the rule Kavanuagh articulated shortly thereafter — that government funding of religious schools is required so long as individual citizens retain the choice to send their children to a non-religious school.Will there be any limits on the Court’s new rule?Democratic Justice Elena Kagan, for her part, spent much of the argument trying to draw out the implications of her Court’s new approach to religion. What if a religious charter school refused to educate children who do not share the school’s faith? Or suppose that a religious charter school wanted to toss out state curricular standards altogether? She brought up the example of an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva where instruction would focus almost entirely on the Talmud, to the exclusion of topics like math and English. Would taxpayers be required to fund this school as well?Indeed, the implications of the Court’s new rules could be quite significant if they are applied outside of the public school context. If a religious individual believes it is a sin to ride a bus with people of another faith, does that mean that the state must now provide faith-segregated buses? If a city council puts out cookies and potato chips for attendees to snack on, do they violate the Constitution if these snacks are not kosher or halal? What if they are both kosher and halal, but they cannot be eaten by someone who holds the idiosyncratic religious belief that it is a sin to eat unhealthy food? Is the government required by the Constitution to give this person carrot sticks?Kavanaugh’s view, at the very least, suggests that it is unconstitutional discrimination for the government to provide a benefit of any kind without also providing religious versions of that same benefit.It’s worth noting that Oklahoma is the second oral argument in the last several days where the Republican justices appeared eager to reshape public schools in a Christian conservative image. Last week, in Mahmoud v. Taylor, most of the justices sounded extremely sympathetic to religious parents who objected to books being taught in public schools that have LGBTQ characters. Depending on how the Court rules in Mahmoud, it could impose such high burdens on schools that want to teach such books that public school districts will have little choice but to exclude them — effectively imposing a “Don’t Say Gay” rule on every public school in the country.The Court’s rulings in both cases will come in the next few months. But for now, it appears the Republican justices’ religious conservative revolution is likely to march onward, remaking public schools, and potentially many other public institutions.See More:

Balatro is no joke (Playstack) Sony has announced the PS Plus line-up for May, and fans of dinosaurs, Warhammer, and deck builders will be very pleased. While it’s usually possible to predict what the biggest games of the year will be at the AAA level, the best thing about indie titles is they can come out of nowhere and steal the conversation entirely. That was definitely the case for Balatro, a poker-themed roguelike deck builder created by solo developer LocalThunk, which went onto sell over 5 million copies and secure a Game Of The Year nomination at The Game Awards. If you haven’t yet been ensnared by its addictive qualities, Balatro will be available as one of the free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers in May. The game will be available to both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 owners from Tuesday, May 6 for anyone who is subscribed to the PlayStation Plus essential tier. While it’s perhaps better suited to handheld devices like the Nintendo Switch and mobiles, it’s worth taking for a spin on Sony’s console if you haven’t yet tried it – especially if you have a PlayStation Portal. More Trending Other games about to debut include Ark: Survival Ascended, a revamped version of 2017 dinosaur survival sim, Ark: Survival Evolved, in Unreal Engine 5. The game launched in early access in 2023 to a mixed reception, and based on Steam reviews it hasn’t changed much since, but it supports up to 70 players online if you fancy some chaos. The final game on the May line-up is Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, a retro first person shooter which is a fascinating curiosity – even if it does get repetitive after a while. All of these games will be available to claim from May 6 to June 2, 2025. It’s worth noting you can just add them to your library during this time and download them later, as long as you have a PlayStation Plus subscription. You still have until May 5 to pick up this month’s games, which includes RoboCop: Rogue City, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory. It’s a mixed bag in May (Sony Interactive Entertainment) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Some say the trial is unethical. Others, that not doing it would be immoral

By Isaac Schultz Published April 30, 2025 | Comments (0) | The exoplanet WD 1856 b, in an artist's concept. Illustration: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have directly detected the faint glow of a planet that’s colder than any world whose light has been directly observed—an astonishing detection that reveals the extreme conditions of some worlds in our universe. The exoplanet, WD 1856+534 b, was first spotted in 2020 and is twice as old as our solar system. The world is about the size of Jupiter but about six times more massive and much chillier, clocking in at an average temperature of just -125° Fahrenheit (-87° Celsius). That makes it the coldest exoplanet ever directly observed by its own emitted light. The team’s research describing the exoplanet and its thermal emission is currently hosted on the preprint server arXiv. The exoplanet is orbiting a white dwarf, the ghostly ember of a dead star. In fact, that’s what made the object’s detection possible; typically, stars are so bright that they drown out the much duller glow of the planets orbiting them. WD 1856 b’s star is so dim that the exoplanet itself was visible to Webb’s gaze. Astronomer Mary Anne Limbach from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Michigan contributed to the study. What’s arguably weirder is where this planet is hanging out. WD 1856 b orbits just 0.02 astronomical units from its white dwarf star—closer than Mercury is to our Sun. “WD 1856+534 b is now the first intact exoplanet confirmed within a white dwarf’s ‘forbidden zone,’ a region where planets would have been engulfed during the star’s red giant phase,” the team explained in the paper, adding that its “presence provides direct evidence that planetary migration into close orbits—including the habitable zone—around white dwarfs is possible.” The team’s work also puts WD 1856 at the top of the cold world pecking order. Just behind it is Epsilon Indi Ab, a planet studied by Webb just last year, which at the time made it the coldest imaged planet beyond our solar system at an estimated temperature of 35 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees C). Suffice to say, WD 1856 b is much colder. The findings also settle a lingering identity crisis. Until now, WD 1856 b could have been a low-mass brown dwarf. But with its faint temperature and revised mass estimates (no more than 5.9 Jupiter masses), it’s officially part of the catalog of thousands of exoplanets scientists have compiled over the last few decades. The research is also a major proof of concept for JWST’s ability to study cold, mature planets—and a reminder that even worlds orbiting the burnt-out cores of dead stars can still glow, however faintly. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Margherita Bassi Published April 26, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published April 23, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published April 23, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published April 17, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published April 13, 2025 By Passant Rabie Published April 1, 2025

House of the 7 Trees / Hersen Mendes ArquiteturaSave this picture!© Joana França Architects: Hersen Mendes Arquitetura Area Area of this architecture project Area:  512 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Joana FrançaMore SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Situated on a piece of land within the Brazilian cerrado, the Casa das 7 Trees, developed by the Hersen Mendes Architecture office, was designed to balance the natural and the built environment, establishing a unique relationship between the residence and the surrounding nature. Save this picture!"We want to enter the house and feel like we are stepping outside," was the clients' request. With this premise, the design started from the natural vegetation of the land—especially the trees, which were mapped, preserved, and incorporated into the architectural conception. The name of the residence pays homage to the seven trees that guided its implantation.Save this picture!Taking advantage of the natural slope of the land, the house was placed on the flattest area, gradually advancing as the elevation changes. In some sections, the construction stands above the ground, creating a dynamic that moves forward and recedes in tune with the landscape. The permeability of the soil was prioritized to maintain the natural flow of water and preserve the local fauna and flora. During construction, moments of pollination were observed, reinforcing the harmony between the building and the environment.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!At the highest point of the land, the owner's studio, dedicated to art and sewing activities, is completely suspended on two tree-shaped pillars. It connects to the social area of the house by a walkway with yellow metallic brises, which protect against sun exposure.Save this picture!In addition to the integration with nature, the use of local materials was prioritized, such as ecological bricks produced without burning, minimizing environmental impacts. The house also features a photovoltaic energy system to supplement its energy consumption.Save this picture!Inside, the spaces are fluid and versatile, without rigid boundaries. The house received a diverse curation of furniture and artworks, natural materials like Bahia Beige marble on the floor, and coatings in earthy, green, and neutral tones. Save this picture!Notably, the TV wall, suspended from the floor, conceals a cabinet and is complemented by a fireplace at the base. The volumes of the headboard in the bedroom and the kitchen support, which do not touch the ceiling, contribute to the fluidity of the spaces.Save this picture!The library has become a central element in the project. Instead of being an isolated room, it spreads throughout the house, with shelves distributed along the ground floor, allowing different corners to be chosen for reading. The shelves are made of corten steel, the same material used for the stairs and the bathroom door.Save this picture!The lighting was designed to be functional and discreet: in the dining room, metallic strips direct the light downward; in the TV room, the lighting highlights the slab, creating a cozy atmosphere.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less About this office MaterialsMaterials and TagsPublished on April 30, 2025Cite: "House of the 7 Trees / Hersen Mendes Arquitetura" [Casa das 7 Árvores / Hersen Mendes Arquitetura] 30 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1029676/house-of-the-7-trees-hersen-mendes-arquitetura&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

🎥 Welcome to the first episode of CGHOW Q&A! In this weekly series, I answer your questions and respond to comments from both Discord and YouTube. Whether you're curious about Unreal Engine Niagara VFX, need help with a specific effect, or just want to connect — this is where I reply to YOU directly! 🗓️ New Q&A videos every Tuesday! Join the conversation and your comment might be featured next week. 💬 Want to get featured in the next episode? Drop your questions in the comments or join our Discord community here: 👉 https://discord.gg/WYpgcqPq 📌 Covered in this episode: – Replies to your VFX and Unreal Engine-related questions – Feedback on Niagara FX techniques – Quick tips and insights for artists and developers 🔔 Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe for more Unreal Engine VFX tutorials! Thanks for being part of the CGHOW community 🙌 #CGHOW #UnrealEngine5 #NiagaraVFX #GameDev #VFXArtist #QandA #unrealenginetutorial FAB - https://www.fab.com/sellers/CGHOW Whatsapp - https://bit.ly/3LYvxjK Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/Ashif Twitter - https://twitter.com/cghow_ 👉👉 If you Liked it - http://bit.ly/2UZmiZ4 Channel Ashif - http://bit.ly/3aYaniw Visit - https://cghow.com/ Gumroad - https://cghow.gumroad.com/ #cghow #UE5 #UE4Niagara #gamefx #ue5niagara #ue4vfx #niagara #unrealengine #realtimevfx

Ayahuasca — a psychedelic medicine traditionally used by Indigenous communities in South America — has become fashionable, with celebrities like the musician Sting, actress Lindsay Lohan, and NFL quarterback Aaron Rogers drinking it to take a trip into their subconscious minds. When used to treat mental health, some studies have shown that the psychedelic can be effective. An article in the journal PLOS Mental Health that examines what conditions are most likely to lead to a positive outcome report that making such determinations can be tricky.Revisiting Ayahuasca ExperiencesAn earlier survey of 10,836 ayahuasca ceremony participants found that over half reported adverse mental states after ayahuasca use. Many experienced visual distortions, hallucinations, “feeling down, depressed, or hopeless,” “feeling disconnected or alone,” and “feeling energetically attacked,” according to the earlier study. The new study dove deeper into a subset of the same participant pool — 5,400 who had the most complete data — to determine what factors most likely lead to either adverse effects or a positive experience. Among those users, 14.2 percent reported a previous anxiety disorder and 19.7 experienced a prior depressive disorder.Read More: Peyote vs. Ayahuasca: What Is the Difference?Mental Health and Ayahuasca's ImpactThe researchers found that the drug’s long-term effects depend, in part, on each recipient’s mental health history, as well as a variety of factors related to the setting in which the drug is ingested. Using the drug among people with experience both taking and administering it seemed to prove beneficial, according to the study."What stood out most to us was the significant difference in mental health outcomes between users who had supportive environments [during their use] and those who didn’t,” José Carlos Bouso, from the International Centre for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Services (ICEERS) and an author of the study, said in a press release. “This emphasizes the importance of a responsible and well-prepared setting for those seeking healing through ayahuasca."Experienced Guidance The authors recommend that further ayahuasca research be conducted in a group or community setting, rather than a clinical one. Such work could identify participants with previous mental health issues and assign someone experienced to guide them.Also complicating matters, some participants who initially — or even long term — had some negative experiences said they ultimately benefited from ingesting it.“Our study reveals that the post-ayahuasca mental states, traditionally seen as adverse, can contribute to improved mental health, especially in individuals with previous anxiety, and depressive disorders,” Bouso said. “This suggests the need for a more nuanced understanding of these states as potentially beneficial experiences.”So, even a bad trip could eventually be good.This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:PLOS Global Public Health. Adverse effects of ayahuasca: Results from the Global Ayahuasca SurveyBefore joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.