BERLIN, GERMANY - JANUARY 19: Ricarda Piepenhagen, an activist who suffers from long Covid symptoms ... [+] including cardiovascular and neurological issues, lays photographs of people afflicted by myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), on some of 400 cots set up outside the Reichstag, seat of the Bundestag, in a public protest effort to demand more government-funded research as the Chancellery is seen behind on January 19, 2023 in Berlin, Germany. Chronic fatigue syndrome is also a condition common among people suffering serious effects of long-Covid. The Bundestag is scheduled to debate the issue later today. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)Getty ImagesWomen are at a higher risk of developing long Covid than men. However, men are more likely to suffer from severe Covid-19 infections and have higher mortality rates, according to a new JAMA study. More specifically, women are 1.31 times more likely to have long Covid than their male counterparts.A review of the literature combined with our data suggests that differences in hormonal levels may partially explain the higher prevalence of long Covid in females younger than 55 years. An attenuation in the risk ratio of long Covid for females aged 18 to 39 years may be explained by most pregnant individuals belonging to this age category, the authors explained in the study.Our data align with published data on post-viral myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia, which are disorders that are female predominant and have known alterations in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, they added. Multiple studies have demonstrated that chronic conditions, such as autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, ME/CFS, and Alzheimer's disease, are more prevalent in females compared with males.Globally, more than 700 million people have been infected by the coronavirus since late 2019, and as of early 2025, that resulted in at least seven million deaths. According to the Lancet, by March 2023, more than 65 million people had been diagnosed with long Covid. But several experts argue that long Covid is still under-diagnosed among the masses.A survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that almost twice as many women have long Covid with almost 7% reporting long Covid symptoms, compared with 4% of men. A 2021 study also revealed that a higher risk of developing long Covid was associated with being a woman, along with other risk factors like smoking and older age. Another study's findings claimed that college-educated men had the lowest prevalence of long Covid but women without college educations reported the highest prevalence.MORE FOR YOUTo delve deeper into how gender could potentially influence people's long Covid risks, researchers studied the data of over 12,000 adults who had tested positive for Covid-19. Out of that, 73% were women. They observed that women from the Omicron and pre-Omicron groups had a significantly higher risk of long Covid than men.The clinical and public health implications in terms of sex-based differences in risk of long Covid, especially based on age, pregnancy, and menopausal status, are substantial. It is important to disentangle the role of aging, hormones, inflammatory response, and comorbidities underlying these differential long COVID risk profiles and to identify which groups may benefit from specific treatments, the researchers concluded.Sex steroid-based therapies might be suggested to mitigate long COVID symptoms in females, as has already been suggested for acute COVID-19 in men, they emphasized in the study. "Based on this studys findings, we believe that the sex-based disparity in long-term illness burden due to long COVID may increase in addition to existing postviral sequelae, for example, Epstein-Barr virus, ME/CFS, chronic Lyme disease, post Ebola syndrome."

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesBy Billy PerrigoJanuary 22, 2025 12:50 PM ESTPresident Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $500 billion joint venture between OpenAI, Softbank, MGX and Oracle to build new datacenters to power the next wave of artificial intelligence (AI) in an early signal that his Administration would embrace the technology.The plans, which predate the Trump Administration and involve no U.S. government funds, would result in the construction of large datacenters on U.S. soil containing thousands of advanced computer chips required to train new AI systems.Trump cast his support for the venture in part as a matter of national competitiveness. We want to keep it in this country; Chinas a competitor, Trump said of AI. Im going to help a lot through emergency declarations we have an emergency, we have to get this stuff built.The message echoed recent talking points by the heads of AI companies like Sam Altman of OpenAI, who flanked him during the White House announcement. Altman has argued more vocally in recent months that the U.S. must race to build the energy and datacenter infrastructure in order to create powerful AI before China.The intent is to build datacenters on American soil, so that the U.S. retains sovereignty over the AI modelsOpenAI and Oracle have been working on building out datacenter capacity in the United States since long before Trumps inauguration, and construction is reportedly already underway on some of the facilities connected to Stargate. The new Presidents blessing, however, is a win both for OpenAI which like all tech companies has attempted to position itself in Trumps favor and for Trump himself, who has seized on AI as a means for strengthening the U.S. economy and achieving dominance over China.Stargate also appears to mark an end to OpenAIs exclusive cloud computing partnership with Microsoft, meaning the startup is now free to train its models with other providers. In return for early investment, OpenAI had agreed to train its AIs only on Microsofts systems. But the startup has chafed in the past at what insiders felt was Microsofts inability to supply it with enough computing power, according to reports. Microsoft remains a large investor in OpenAI, and gains a share of its revenue.What could Stargate mean?The goal behind Stargate is to create the infrastructure required to build even more powerful AI systems systems that could perform most economically valuable tasks better and faster than humans could, or that could make new scientific discoveries. Many AI investors and CEOs believe this technology, sometimes referred to as artificial general intelligence, is attainable within the next five years or fewer.But to get there, those AIs need to first be trained. This presents a problem, because the bigger an AI you want to train, the more interlinked chips you need in a datacenter, and the larger the electricity capacity of that datacenter needs to be. Currently, experts say, AIs performance is bottlenecked by these two factors, especially power capacity.Stargate would mean not only the construction of new datacenters to house the latest chips, but also the construction of new energy infrastructure that could supply those datacenters with the gargantuan amount of power needed for an AI training run. Those runs can last for months, with chips running day and night to mold a neural network based on connections within a vast corpus of data.They have to produce a lot of electricity, and well make it possible for them to get that production done very easily, at their own plants if they want at the AI plant they will build their own energy generation and that will be incredible, Trump said Tuesday. Its technology and artificial intelligence, all made in the USA.Much of this electricity is likely to come from fossil fuels. Trump has committed to unleash oil and gas drilling, and has moved to block the grids transition to renewable energy. To cope with the rising demand by U.S. data centers for electricity, utilities companies have delayed retiring coal-fired power plants and have added new gas plants.Will Stargate happen?It already is. Construction has reportedly already begun on a datacenter in Abilene, Texas, that will house part of the Stargate project. But not all of the $500 billion pledged for the joint venture is likely to be available all at once. Of that figure, OpenAI said in a statement that Stargate would begin deploying only a fifth, $100 billion, immediately. The rest will be deployed over the next four years.Stargates announcement led to a rare moment of disharmony between Trump and his most powerful political cheerleader, Elon Musk. They dont actually have the money, Musk posted on X shortly after the announcement. SoftBank has well under $10 [billion] secured. I have that on good authority.Musk has a long and fractious history with Altman. The pair co-founded OpenAI together, but Musk left in 2019 after reportedly mounting a failed bid to become CEO; he now owns the rival AI company xAI and is suing Altman, accusing him of reneging on OpenAIs founding principles. Altman denied Musks allegations on X, inviting him to come to visit the first site already under construction. This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put first, he wrote. He had earlier written: I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time. An OpenAI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.Regardless of the size of Stargates checking account, it would be foolish to bet against a massive surge in datacenter construction on U.S. soil. Tech companies are already investing billions into the construction of facilities where they can train their next AI systems. And with Trump in the oval office, it appears they have succeeded in convincing the highest levels of government that building more AI infrastructure is an urgent national security priority. We wouldnt be able to do this without you Mr. President, Altman said at the White House on Tuesday, addressing Trump. And Im thrilled that we get to.More Must-Reads from TIMEL.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5C of WarmingHome Losses From L.A. Fires Hasten An Uninsurable FutureThe Women Refusing to Participate in Trumps EconomyBad Bunny On Heartbreak and New AlbumHow to Dress Warmly for Cold WeatherWere Lucky to Have Been Alive in the Age of David LynchThe Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise HarderColumn: No One Won The War in GazaWrite to Billy Perrigo at billy.perrigo@time.com

TL;DR: The awards season frontrunner The Brutalist faces intense backlash over using AI tools during post-production. The movie's director, Brady Corbet, responded to the criticism, stating that the crew only used AI to refine the authenticity of a few Hungarian dialogues in the film and that it didn't replace the actors' hard work. The AI tools in question come from the Ukranian company Respeecher. Corbet told The Hollywood Reporter that they only used the tools in post-production to enhance the accuracy of specific Hungarian vowel and letter sounds spoken by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. He maintains that the AI editing did not replace their months of work perfecting their accents with a dialect coach.The film's editor, Dvid Jancs, who first revealed the AI usage in an interview with Red Shark News, explained that as a native Hungarian speaker, he recognized how challenging those nuanced sounds can be for non-native actors. Since the film had a tight budget of around $10 million, they opted to use AI to make targeted adjustments at scale rather than manually editing each sound they figured could be improved. Jancs also insisted that the work done in post was almost identical to traditional dialogue editing techniques, except aided by technology instead of human editors."We were very careful about keeping their performances. It's mainly just replacing letters here and there," said Jancs. "You can do this in ProTools yourself, but we had so much dialogue in Hungarian that we really needed to speed up the process otherwise we'd still be in post."Jancs also revealed that the production team used some AI in background architectural renderings. Corbet clarified that they did not use it to create or render any full building designs; they only used images made to look like dated digital renders.Critics have praised Brody's and Jones's acting performances in the WWII refugee drama. However, the mere notion of employing AI has stoked controversy, with some arguing it should disqualify the film from awards. Besides The Brutalist, other hit films from last year, including Civil War, Alien: Romulus, and Furiosa have also faced criticism for using AI. After the 2023 writers and actors strike, such sentiments reached a boiling point that demanded reassurances that technology wouldn't replace human creativity. // Related StoriesThe Brutalist is not the first film to use Respeecher. The AI voice cloning technology became popular after adding the voice of James Earl Jones to Disney's Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsGalaxy S25 from $300 ($800 $500 trade credit) with $50 Samsung creditGalaxy S25+ from $300 ($1,000 $700 trade credit) with $100 Samsung creditWhy do I have Samsung credit?The newest Android phones are out for preorder now, ready for you to get your hands on them by February 7. This is the Galaxy S25 series from Samsung, featuring three phones; the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra. These phones are set to enter the ranks of our picks for the best Android phones. You can find out everything we already know about the S25 series in our Samsung Galaxy S25 explainer (including an overview of their clever AI features), but here were talking about something far more important: actually getting an S25 or S25+ in your hands. And you can get a discount as well!Tap the button below to see all of the preorder info from Samsung, with the phones laid out on one page, or continue reading to see what Samsung Galaxy S25 preorder deals are available for each phone, one at a time. One important thing to note is that students can get a 5% discount on top of any other discount for any of the phones.$800 $500 trade credit) with $50 Samsung creditNirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsThe standard Galaxy S25 is $500 off, if you trade in a powerful enough phone. Youll also get the chance to get up to $50 in instant Samsung credits, which can be used right away towards things like upgrading your storage, getting other add-ons, or buying the Samsungs device protectionSamsung Care. If you buy on the Samsung site, youll also have access to exclusive colors like Blueblack, Coralred, and Pinkgold. Finally, dont forget that student discount which will drop the phone by an extra 5% if you qualify.Related$1,000 $700 trade credit) with $100 Samsung creditNirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsIf the upgrade to anything over the base model scares you from a price perspective, let this be a nice reminder that it doesnt have to be terrible. A total return of up to $800 will certainly soften the blow, especially if youre trying to get the higher storage option (the leap from 256GB to 512GB is not insignificant, after all, and this credit makes it essentially just cost $20). Remember that you can still get the extra 5% student discount, too, the if you order via Samsung you can get the special Blueblack, Coralred, and Pinkgold colors.Before we begin, you may see that you have Samsung credit. Even if you arent logged it. It appears confusing, but Samsung credits in this case are specifically to reduce the price of something like extra storage, an add-on, orSamsung Care. So, if you see references to Samsung credit you already have, dont be alarmed its not a mistake.Editors Recommendations

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsSamsung Galaxy S25 UltraSamsung Galaxy S25Galaxy S25 PlusSmartThings is truly getting smartSamsungs glitzy Unpacked 2025 eventgave a clear sign that moving forward, phones are entering their agentic era. AI is in the driving seat of mobile experiences, enhancing everything from camera capture to how we get app-based work done.The headline of the event was, of course, the Galaxy S25 series smartphones. At the summit is the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the true showcase of Samsungs imaging capabilities and hardware refinements. The entry-point Galaxy S25 also gets a crucial hardware upgrade to speed up generative AI tasks, while the SmartThings ecosystem is eyeing its biggest sensing overhaul yet.Recommended VideosAndy Boxall / Digital TrendsLets set the ball rolling with the cream of the Galaxy crop. The Galaxy S25 Ultra embraced rounded corners this time around, and a fresh coat of paint as well. There is also a notable jump in the camera capabilities.Please enable Javascript to view this contentSamsung has upgraded the ultrawide sensor to a 50-megapixel unit, over four times as powerful as its predecessor. You also get a fairly capable 200-megapixel sensor, alongside a 10-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom range, and a periscope style long-range snapper with a 50-megapixel resolution and 5x optical zoom range.The company is also talking a leaf out of Apples camera playback for iPhones. The Galaxy S25 Ultra enables support for shooting videos in what Samsung calls Galaxy Log, similar to Apples own Log video capture system on the Pro iPhones.Andy Boxall / Digital TrendsThe idea is to give users the freedom of recording a flat footage, which they can subsequently grade and color-correct to get the desired tonal effect.Apple went all-in with a filter-like toning system with the arrival of the iPhone 16 series. Samsung is now pouring its own version into the Galaxy S25 series by adding analog-style filters to help users get a film-like aesthetic in their photos and videos.There is a new Night Video with Audio Eraser that not only allows users to record detailed videos in low-light surroundings but also lets them to minimize noise elements.Samsung says you can isolate human speech, crowd noise, nature, and wind using the onboard AI algorithms. Notably, this feature is already available on the Google Pixel 9 series smartphones under the Audio Magic Eraser label.Another cool feature is the ProScaler system, which upscales images for viewing on larger pixel-dense screens with a minimum resolution of QHD+.Of particular interest to me was the new Virtual Aperture system, which has been integrated into the Expert RAW system where you can get access to pro-grade photo and video capture tools with loads of manual controls.1 of 5Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in Titanium White Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in Titanium Silver Black Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in Titanium Black Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in Titanium Blue Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in Titanium Jade Green Samsung Over at the front, you will find a 6.9-inch 120Hz OLED panel with Corning Gorilla Glass Armor 2 protection, alongside Cornings glass-ceramic material with an anti-reflective coat on top.Notably, despite its size, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is the thinnest, sturdiest, and lightest Galaxy S phone Samsung has made so far. Just like the latest crop of Apple flagships, Samsung is also using Titanium for its top-of-the-line smartphone.Underneath the glass and metal shell is a 5,000mAh battery that supports 45W wired charging, and allows top-up in wireless mode, as well. Unfortunately, Samsung hasnt quite embraced the Qi 2 wireless charging standard yet, so thats a bummer.Prakhar Khanna / Digital TrendsSamsung is still loyal to the cause of small-ish phones that dont stretch out ones palm. To that end, the entry-point Galaxy S25 still retains a 6.2-inch display, but without skipping on any of the niceties that set its Ultra flagship apart.It serves a bright SuperAMOLED panel that can vary the refresh rate values dynamically between 1Hz and 120Hz, striking the right balance between viewing fluidity and power efficiency.The battery capacity remains stagnant at 4,000 mAh, which is really a shame, considering how labels like OnePlus and Honor have embraced the silicon-carbide battery innovation to fit larger batteries in a small package inside their phones.The most notable change is that Samsung has finally ditched 8GB RAM as a standard, and equipped all Galaxy S25 series phones with 12GB memory. Unfortunately, the storage capacity still starts at a paltry 128GB, so theres that.1 of 7Samsung Galaxy S25 in Silver Shadow. Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 in Pink Gold Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 in Navy Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 in Mint Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 in Icy Blue Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 in Coral Red Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 in Blue Black Samsung The camera hardware has also been carried forward from its predecessor for another year. Headlining the imaging kit is a 50-megapixel primary camera, sitting alongside a 12-megapixel ultrawide snapper, and a 10-megapixel sensor for zoom capture.All three phones draw power from the custom Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy SoC, which is claimed to offer some extra processing grunt and AI processing chops.Samsung has also embedded its own mobile Digital Natural Image engine (mDNIe) on the processor stack to manage the power draw from the display assembly. Moreover, for more efficient heat dissipation, Samsung has equipped the Galaxy S25 series with a larger vapor chamber cooling system.Prakhar Khanna / Digital TrendsThe mid-tier model, once again, plays it safe. The only key areas where it stands apart from the Galaxy S25 are the larger 6.7-inch QHD+ display, a bigger 4,900mah, and support for 45W wired charging, instead of 25W on the smaller trim.The camera hardware is identical, but the storage options start at 256GB on this one. Do keep in mind that Samsung doesnt bundle the charger in the box, so you will have to fork out extra cash for the 45W charger to juice up your Galaxy S25 series phones.All three phones maintain an IP68 class dust and water resistance, just like their respective predecessors. Samsung says it will offer seven years of yearly Android OS upgrades and a matching spell for security update coverage.1 of 6Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus in Pink Gold Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus in Navy Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus in Mint Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus in Icy Blue Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus in Coral Red Samsung Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus in Blue Black Samsung Among the notable AI-first features is a Now Brief system, which keeps users updated and offers suggestions based on information pulled from the local data. Now Brief will also do its job via the dedicated Now Bar, right on the lock screen.The Circle to Search system is also getting an upgrade, and it can now extract phone numbers, email addresses, and website URLs appearing on the screen.Samsung says the Galaxy S25 series also opens the doors for actionable searches with context-aware suggestions. Essentially, when you look up information using the universal search tool, you will also see action suggestions, an approach Apple and OnePlus have also implemented on their phones.Samsungs SmartThings ecosystem for connected home devices has been out there for a while now. At this years Unpacked, Samsung is leveling up the game with HomeAI, a rather ambitious idea that collects a wide range of data from ambient sensors, tracks activity, and turns them into actionable insights and suggestions.To that end, Samsung aims to use mmWave sensors (among other types of low-power home sensors as well as those embedded in devices) to understand activity patterns. For example, it can detect when users are engaged in workouts, sleeping, and working.Based on the activity patterns, it can tell users if there is any scope for improvement and how they can better manage their scheduling to get the best out of their at-home lifestyle. For example, it will tell if the posture of your push-ups could use some adjustments and how to plan the best set.SamsungThe next avatar of SmartThings will also deploy a real-time monitoring and feedback channel. So, lets say that youve been sitting in the same posture on a chair for a while now. When the system detects it, users will be nudged to take a break and straighten their back.Using the sensors embedded in its Frame TV set, Smart Things will detect if you just blow-dried your hair. To handle the mess, it will automatically push the robotic vacuum cleaner into clean-up action.Likewise, when you reach home at the end of the day, the smart home stack will initiate tasks like dimming the lights, turning on the air purifier, and adjusting the room temperature, among others. Generative AI will also lend a hand in creating more immersive in-home map views and natural interactions.Editors Recommendations

The RISD Museum highlights the fragile beauty and striking designs of centuries-old examples of wallpaper from the collection of a French-American couple, purchasedin 1934.

A show at the New York Historical spans centuries in its examination of urbanites nonhuman companions and their shifting roles in the citys society and culture.

a fresh puzzle Fast radio burst in long-dead galaxy puzzles astronomers Result "challenges existing theories that tie FRB origins to phenomena in star-forming galaxies." Jennifer Ouellette Jan 22, 2025 1:06 pm | 5 The new ability to pinpoint sources of fast radio bursts places one recent burst in a surprising location. Credit: Gemini Observatory The new ability to pinpoint sources of fast radio bursts places one recent burst in a surprising location. Credit: Gemini Observatory Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreFast radio bursts (FRBs) are puzzling phenomena because their details are so difficult to resolve, and observations to date have been inconsistent. Astronomers added another piece to the puzzle with the detection of an FRB that seems to originate in a dead galaxy that is no longer producing new stars, according to a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, along with a related paper on the event from scientists at Northwestern University.As we've reported previously, FRBs involve a sudden blast of radio-frequency radiation that lasts just a few microseconds. Astronomers have observed over a thousand of them to date; some come from sources that repeatedly emit FRBs, while others seem to burst once and go silent. You can produce this sort of sudden surge of energy by destroying something. But the existence of repeating sources suggests that at least some of them are produced by an object that survives the event. That has led to a focus on compact objects, like neutron stars and black holesespecially a class of neutron stars called magnetarsas likely sources. Only about 3 percent of FRBs are of the repeating variety.There have also been many detected FRBs that don't seem to repeat at all, suggesting that the conditions that produce them may destroy their source. That's consistent with a blitzara bizarre astronomical event caused by the sudden collapse of an overly massive neutron star. The event is driven by an earlier merger of two neutron stars; this creates an unstable intermediate neutron star, which is kept from collapsing immediately by its rapid spin.Last July, astronomers looked specifically at the properties of polarized light emitting from these FRBs, yielding further insight into the origins of the phenomenon. The analysis supported the hypothesis that there are different origins for repeating and non-repeating FRBs. And earlier this month, a rare burst provided indications that FRBs likely originate near a star and that they share a feature with the emissions of pulsars, another subtype of neutron star. That burst was also consistent with a magnetar's intense magnetic fields being the key to driving these events. However, it's still possible that more than one type of event produces something that looks like an FRB.A surprising sourceFRBs are of particular interest because they can be used as probes to study the large-scale structure of the universe. That's why Calvin Leung, a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, was so excited to crunch data from Canada's CHIME instrument (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment). CHIME was built for other observations but is sensitive to many of the wavelengths that make up an FRB. Unlike most radio telescopes, which focus on small points in the sky, CHIME scans a huge area, allowing it to pick out FRBs even though they almost never happen in the same place twice.Leung was able to combine data from several different telescopes to narrow down the likely position of a repeating FRB, first detected in February 2024, located in the constellation Ursa Minor. When he and his CHIME collaborators further refined the accuracy of the location by averaging many bursts from the FRB, they discovered that this FRB originated on the outskirts of a long-dead distant galaxy. That throws a wrench into the magnetar hypothesis because why would a dead galaxy in which no new stars are forming host a magnetar?It's the first time an FRB has been found in such a location, and it's also the furthest away from its galaxy. CHIME currently has two online outrigger radio arrays in placecompanion telescopes to the original CHIME radio array in British Columbia. A third array comes online this week in Northern California, and according to Leung, it should enable astronomers to pinpoint FRB sources much more accuratelyincluding this one. Data has already been incorporated from an outrigger in West Virginia, confirming the published position with a 20-times improvement in precision."This result challenges existing theories that tie FRB origins to phenomena in star-forming galaxies, said co-author Vishwangi Shah, a graduate student at McGill University. The source could be in a globular cluster, a dense region of old, dead stars outside the galaxy. If confirmed, it would make FRB 20240209A only the second FRB linked to a globular cluster.V. Shah et al., Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2025. DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9ddc (About DOIs).T. Eftekhari et al., Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2025. DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9de2 (About DOIs).Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior 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. 5 Comments

Two similar overlaid patterns create what are called moir patterns, which may be related to superconductivity in some atom-thick materialsRICHARD GERMAIN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYA mysterious form of superconductivity has been found in a twisted crystal, which could help researchers better understand how to make super-efficient electronics.Superconductivity is a rare property that lets some materials conduct electricity with no resistance. We only know of materials that are superconductors at low temperatures or extreme pressures, but a very high or room-temperature superconductor could transform the worlds energy systems by allowing us to send limitless energy over vast distances.Read

HealthThe hormonal changes of puberty, the menstrual cycle and menopause can all affect our sleep, but there are also subtler ways that hormones and sleep interact 22 January 2025 Emir Memedovski/ Getty ImagesIt may come as no surprise that hormonal upheaval say, during puberty or menopause can play havoc with sleep. But our hormones influence sleep all the time, not just during big changes. Whats more, we are starting to see that this relationship goes both ways: as much as our hormones affect how we sleep, how we sleep influences our hormones.A better understanding of this relationship could improve both our sleep and our general health. But, like a lot of relationships, it is complicated.This article is part of special series investigating key questions about sleep. Read more here.There are two basic processes that regulate sleep. The first, known as process S, keeps track of how long we have been awake through the build-up of the neurotransmitter adenosine, a by-product of cellular metabolism. Once enough has accumulated, like sand piling up at the bottom of an hourglass, the pressure to nod off becomes difficult to resist. The second, called process C, is driven by our circadian system, the rhythms of activity in almost all our cells timed to Earths 24-hour cycle of day and night.Process C, which is largely regulated by exposure to light, manages this through the release of two key hormones, melatonin and cortisol. Produced by the pineal gland during the dark hours, melatonin tells the parts of the brain that control sleep that it is night, so we fall asleep at the appropriate time. Cortisol picks up where melatonin leaves off, spiking in the morning and boosting our alertness to rouse us out of bed.Hormones change all the timeProduction of these hormones