The 'Lightning carrier' conceptUSS Tripoli completed flight deck operations with 20 F-35Bs as part of the US Marines' Lightning carrier concept demonstration. US Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Samuel Ruiz Taking its aviation capabilities even further, the US Navy used the Tripoli to test the "lightning carrier" concept, tasking the amphibious assault ship to function as a full-fledged carrier.In 2022, the Tripoli departed its homeport in San Diego for the Western Pacific, spending the first few months of its seven-month maiden deployment putting the experimental concept to the test.The assault carrier carried 20 F-35B stealth fighters on board the most ever loaded aboard a big-deck warship."We refer to the ship as 'assault carrier 7,' and 'assault' is traditional for an LHD and LHA," Capt. Joel Lang, then-commander of the Tripoli, told reporters at the time. "Typically, the air combat element is a blend of rotary and tilt-rotor in order to enable that assault force to go ashore. We are proving the tactics and the techniques and the procedures to employ the 'lightning carrier' concept."Produced by US defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the fighter jet has a stealth design to vastly reduce its ability to be tracked by radar and is touted as one of the world's most advanced fighters. The F-35B variant has a powerful propulsion system that gives it the unique capability of vertical takeoff and landing.Developed by Rolls-Royce, the lift fan delivers an additional 20,000 pounds of thrust on top of the aircraft's engine thrust, allowing it to land and take-off like a helicopter.The F-35B allows Marine aviators to operate aboard smaller flattops and makeshift airstrips, especially on expeditionary missions. With far more advanced capabilities and avionics, the F-35B is set to replace the US military's only other STOVL fighter jet, the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier, which is expected to retire by 2027.

Theres an intra-MAGA fight playing out right now over Andrew Tate, a far-right influencer and self-described misogynist who arrived in Florida on Thursday morning. Tate, along with his brother Tristan, had been awaiting trial in Romania on human trafficking charges, but they were allowed to return to the United States overnight. Some of his supporters in the online right celebrated: It was a triumph for the rule of law, the conservative commentator Candace Owens posted on X. But some conservatives have criticized his release and the alleged role of the Trump administration in securing his return.Those critics have tended to be pretty mainstream conservative thought leaders and commentators folks like the podcaster Ben Shapiro, who complained that America does not need more self-proclaimed pimps and terror supporters with outstanding criminal allegations of sex trafficking and a history of pornographic distribution. The critics include members of Trumps own party, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.These split reactions to Tates arrival are revealing an underlying schism on the right: between the more conventional social conservative wing of the coalition, and the more provocative, manosphere-adjacent realm of tech bros and podcasters who seem ascendant in the second Trump term.Tate became a far-right podcasting star in the 2020s with his explicitly sexist philosophy of masculinity. He quickly gained a wide following among both young men specifically, and several prominent MAGA figures, including Trumps own former personal attorney and current adviser Alina Habba, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump Jr.He and his brother were arrested in 2022, when Tate was charged with rape and the brothers were accused of leading a human trafficking operation. (Both have denied the allegations.)RelatedBut reports had been circulating that people in Trumps orbit were taking on the task of trying to free them. The Financial Times reported that US special envoy Ric Grenell raised the Tates case to Romanias foreign minister at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month. But not everyone was pleased with the Tates return.In Congress, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley was among the critics. I would hope our government wasnt involved in any way, he told reporters. I dont think conservatives should be glorifying this guy at all.DeSantis also condemned them, and asked the states attorney general to see what legal recourse they had to respond.Florida is not a place where youre welcome with that type of conduct, he said. I dont know how it came to this. We were not involved. We were not notified. Clearly the federal government has jurisdiction whether they want to rebuff his entry into the United States.Throughout the first month of Trumps presidency, Trump has been nearly universally praised by his coalition. The Republican base has remained loyal, even as his popularity among other segments of the American electorate have steadily declined. So this split among elites in the coalition stands out and raises questions about just how durable these pro-Trump bonds will be.We should wait and see, but I can say that if Trump really did bless allowing the Tate brothers to come to the US, it would be the primary exhibit that his administration is guided by a hyper-online right that is very out of touch with the real world and needs to touch grass, the conservative radio host Erick Erickson posted on X.Trump, at least, for now, seems to be distancing himself. When asked if he had intervened, Trump was curt. I know nothing about that, he said. I didnt know anything about it.We may still get more details about how or why Tates restrictions were lifted, and the Romanian charges havent been dropped. But as he reenters the American public square, this schism may continue to widen especially as both sides vie for more influence over Trumps policy, over the Republican Party, and over the future of conservatism.See More: Politics

Making moments last from family trips has transformed from the glossy sheen of a photo album filled with memories to a culture of if it wasnt shared on social media, then it didnt happen. The meaningful joy of putting together visuals of our lives as keepsakes has turned into creating digital displays that can often be more stressful to assemble. When photos and videos just go up on the cloud and arent chronicled, that can make it hard to look back even on core pieces of our experiences. My favorite albums growing up were of yearly theme park and museum adventures. Trying to recreate that with my own kid has been quite challenging; the stressors of finding the right filter and vertical shots killing horizontal shots becomes glaringly obvious when you try to put them into photo books. It really has you looking sideways. And dont get me started on the panic I get from having deteriorating home videos as my drives fill up with videos of my childs first theme park visits. Before our daughter was born, I had many theme-park adventures with my husband. I love taking pictures where it looks like youre inside a Disney fairytale, Universal Studios movie set, or Meow Wolf sci-fi portal. Getting the right shot (with the fewest tourists in the background) is an art. Its taken me so many Disneyland trips with my Magic Key to Galaxys Edge to find the perfect-picture spotsbut its worth it, since the theme parks photo pass program doesnt always get the best shots and is quite pricey. When I got around to putting together albums of specifically themed stories I wanted to tell, I landed on Star Wars very quickly and wondered if I could piece together my own adventures with datapad scans (phone pictures). io9/Gizmodo Between attending the opening of Galaxys Edge at Disneyland, to visits to Batuu with friends in lightly in-universe inspired outfits, and finally taking a trip aboard Disney Worlds now-defunct Galactic Starcruiser, I tried out a book from an unnamed service and the print job left much to be desired. As my family expanded, I became intent on finding the best options to chronicle a whole new journey. In order to create my own physical library of photos the first steps Ive taken to curate amusement park and themed travel is to commit to printing pictures every quarter of my childs life as she grows. At six months, Im ordering many more photos for albums, utilizing various models of printers, and snapping instant Polaroids to see which will have the best lasting quality, while trying out online photo book albums.To be real, most of the pictures I take are on my iPhone, because taking time to learn the ins and outs of a more professional camera is too much right now. But nothing beats a classic and one that I know can stand the test of time, Kodaks Polaroid camera, is compact and perfect for on-the-go instant pictures that have that summer vacation scrapbook feel. I definitely favor the 600 and use one I nabbed from retro-tech hub Retrospekt. There are of course newer Polaroid models with the capability to connect to an app for uploading images, if thats more your style. I recently tried to get into the 35mm trend after seeing teens and bachelorette parties use them around Walt Disney World. I didnt expect the market for 35mm cameras to be so intense, since the youths have decided its in style to grab one and not know how the photos will turn out until theyre printed. What a concept, right? The re-seller market of those Canon and Sony battery-operated ones is insanely overpriced and will make you want to dig up the family one in the attic. For my baby shower I used a number of Hello Kitty collaboration 35mm cameras (again from Retrospekt) which guests loved. Good luck with getting the film rolls processed though; with Costco shutting down photography stations its been a lot harder to do. Retrospekt, Kodak, Shutterfly, Ceremony Club Thankfully there are services like Shutterfly which make getting those photo album prints a whole lot less complicated. Out of the various companies out there, its produced the best results for me. The app syncs really easily to my phones camera roll to grab selections after Ive pored over them for hours. It also helps you realize how often youre taking vertical pictures, and serves as a reminder to get more artistic when you snapfor instancea shot of droids wandering around Galaxys Edge or fantastic shots of the Sleeping Beauty Castle. When I did my baby name reveal at Disneyland using both my own photos and Disneylands Photo Pass (because I wanted to cover all the bases), I ordered a book from Shutterfly to display and really took to the matte feel of the pages and quality of the cover. It felt like a childhood picture book to have in my library. Single image printing is a whole other adventure. Ive tested some smaller picture tech in order to print wallet-sized imageswhich, by the way, where have the wallet picture inserts gone? The one I found to have really solid print quality is the Canon SELPHY series, which operates off its own app that syncs seamlessly with your phone images. It is however a little complicated to use as you have to buy ink rolls and photo paper specific to the model, and they tend to run out at different times: the paper might run out when theres still ink or vice-versa ,which is tedious. And taking it on the go isnt as easy, but I did love using it at home during the holidays to print pictures of Universal Studios Grinchmas. Kodak has more simple model options, like the Barbie Step Slim Wireless Photo printer, which doesnt require ink and is lightweight for travel, but the smartphone image quality varies. Albums are becoming harder to find in person. Youll more often than not find the scrapbook type, which requires sticky corner edges, at craft stores like Michaels. Online you can find albums to fit your collections of photos from special trips. The Ceremony Club recently released a wedding series thats a vibe for Disney destination wedding parties, giving each chapter of your fairytale a modern book bound aesthetic. For other trip prints Ive found that Topdrawers photo albums come in various sizes including Polaroid-friendly options, and with designs that can fit in gorgeously on a coffee table or showcased in your library.From rediscovering analog photography tech thanks to cute pop culture collaborations, to getting to experiment with online scrapbooking, making theme park trip memories can be still be interestingas well as certainly a bit more tedious than expected. Thankfully the market is seeing a shift as younger generations crave more tangibility to document their lives outside of uploads on social media and brands appear to be listening. Theres various instant cameras on the market that provide immediate prints and also have the capability point, shoot, print, and save onto a device to share online. Kodaks Printomatic is one Ive tried thats a little too sensitiveand my model doesnt have a preview window before printing, so the results have been chaotic to say the least, and maybe not worth the price of buying more printer sheets till I get the right shot. Im only six months in on the mission to capture my little ones childhood as cinematically as possible and Im willing to try whats out thereexcept AI. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

AsStar Trek: Voyager turned 30 at the start of this year, Ive had a lot of fun revisiting the first season of the show and re-examining what really works about that debut season three decades later. Ive hit my first snag, perhaps of many to come inVoyagers decidedly mixed run of episodes: the first one that just kind of doesnt really mesh together for me now, all these years later. That episode is Ex Post Facto, a weird but loosely familiar format for Voyager to dive into just eight episodes into its run. Primarily set on an unidentified alien planet, home to a people called the Beneans at war with a neighboring species, the Numiri, the episode focuses on the plight of Tom Paris. Accused of a murder he swears he didnt commit, despite seemingly overwhelming evidence against him, Tom is forced to relive the memories of his victims final moments every 14 hoursan alien process that is slowly but surely degrading his brain functions to a point of almost certain death. Paramount It is and it isnt a kind of take on one ofStar Treks most beloved tropes, the trial episode. The trial itself is over before the episode even beginstheres a reason I didnt include Ex Post Facto in my ranker ofTrek trial episodes, because it mostly concerns Tuvoks post-trial investigation of the crime to prove Toms innocence, rather than the trial process. But that in and of itself is still a riff on the idea, as much as Ex Post Facto itself riffs on other episodes in that genre that came before it. Its got elements of A Matter of Perspective, theTNG trial episode that uses the Holodeck to alter recreations of the incident that update in real time based on witness testimonies. In playing with memory itselfthe evidence against Tom is that the Beneans can use technology to withdraw memory engrams from the deceased and put them in a technological host during criminal investigations, letting them provide evidence in their own murder trialtheres echoes to a similar early DS9 episode, Dax where Jadzia is put on trial for a crime her predecessor as host of the Dax symbiont, Curzon, allegedly committed. The thing is, while aping episodes like that, Ex Post Facto just kind of isnt as interesting. Tuvok makes for an interesting investigative foil, of course, as the cool and collected logical arbitrator. It leverages early Voyagers clear interest in Tom as a focal character on the crew, but it never really leans into his unorthodox backgroundthat hes an ex-convict still trying to prove himselfas an interesting complication during the episode. For all the times Ex Post Facto has Tuvok remind Paris that hes going to prove the truth of the case regardless of whether or not it condemns Tom or absolves him, the episode never really goes far enough to make that feel like its actually on the table. It kind of knows you know that Tuvok is going to find a way to prove Toms innocence. Theres no drama in their relationship here, pitting them on either side of an ethical debate, like there is in Riker and Picards debate over Data in the legendary Measure of a Man. The shocking opening aside, showing Tom supposedly committing the murder, Ex Post Facto almost treats his absolution as a foregone conclusion. Which it would be in most Star Trek showsimagine how wild it would be if this was something Tom and the Voyager crew just had to live with going forward!but Ex Post Facto never makes it feel like that absolution is truly earned. Paramount Its a problemVoyager begins to face more and more as it brushes up against some really great ideas. An episodicTrek show that has a premise that craves some sort of long-form serialization, there are so many examples of Voyager having a killer idea that just has to be put on the wayside because everything has to be back to the status quo in time for the next episode. Last week in my anniversary musings over Eye of the Needle,I touched on how sometimes, in spite of that,Voyager could still play with expectations and make things work in that push-and-pull in really cool ways. Alas, Ex Post Facto is just kind of an episode that barely tries to do that, and suffers for it. So why is its anniversary worth nothing then, 30 years later? Well, because this is what revisiting a series is about. Especially one with such an up-and-down reputation like Voyager hasand I say that as someone who loves it dearly as my firstStar Trek! But just discussing the greatest hits of it wouldnt be a fair assessment or tribute to the series as it passes this major milestone. Not every episode is going to be great. Some are going to be middling, some are going to be awful (Im dreading getting to Cathexis in my season one rewatch). ButVoyager wouldnt beVoyager without those peaks and valleysand in the grand scheme of things, Ex Post Facto is a pretty minor bump on that road thats still worth acknowledging. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

QUAN NHN House / TOOB StudioSave this picture! Triu ChinArchitects: TOOB STUDIOAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:45 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Triu ChinMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. Quan Nhn Street belongs to the old Quan Nhn village in the K Mc area, carrying deep historical and cultural traditions. Despite rapid urban development, this place still preserves many historical sites and famous temples.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Quan Nhn House is built on a modest plot of land that is located on the narrowest section of Quan Nhn Street and surrounded by a bustling area of shops and services. The house is divided into two main parts: Living Space and Rental Space. The living area is elevated to a certain height to minimize exposure to noise and dust, while also creating an open and airy space for commercial activities on the ground floor.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Regardless of the fact that the house has limitations in size and view, it does not lack large voids that bring in natural light and energy. Seemingly, the sky is the only thing that sets no limits for the house.Save this picture!Traditional materials such as red clay tiles and well-fired bricks, which are deeply familiar to old villages in Vietnam, help create a warm and intimate atmosphere. Their presence connects the daily life of a newly settled family with the cultural essence of the surrounding neighborhood.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officeTOOB STUDIOOfficePublished on February 28, 2025Cite: "QUAN NHN House / TOOB Studio" 27 Feb 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1027310/quan-nhan-house-toob-studio&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

One would think that astronauts living quarters in space need to be perfectly sterilized, but it turns out that creating a "dirtier" environment with more microbes from Earth may boost their health. New research has shown that the International Space Station (ISS) is overly sterile, and while this may not sound like an issue, it carries some surprising consequences; the sterile nature of the station has led to a low diversity of microbes, which could be what is causing astronauts to develop health complications like immune dysfunction, skin rashes, and other inflammatory conditions while in space.A study recently published in the journal Cell analyzed samples that were collected by astronauts, finding inadequate microbial diversity compared to human-occupied environments on Earth. Introducing environmental microbes from Earth into the ISS, the study suggests, may help stave off health problems that are often experienced by the astronauts living there.Analyzing Bacteria on the ISSIn the study, researchers called on astronauts to swab 803 different surfaces on the ISS, which gathered 100 times more samples than previous surveys have examined. The samples returned to Earth, where they were analyzed to determine the presence of bacterial species and chemicals. The researchers then constructed 3D maps that displayed where each sample was found on the station and how the bacteria and chemicals might be interacting.The results, detailed in a statement, showed that human skin was the primary source of microbes in the ISS and that chemicals from cleaning products and disinfectants were present all throughout the station. Certain microbial communities were also present in different areas of the station the dining and food prep areas contained more food-associated microbes, while the space toilet contained more urine- and fecal-associated microbes and metabolites.The Benefits of MicrobesThe ISS, however, is missing microbes from natural environments that bolster human health. Most microbes which live all around us and even populate our own skin and gut arent out to harm humans; many actually provide health benefits like helping to digest food into nutrients and fighting diseases. Being in nature can support the positive growth of ones microbiome, the community of microorganisms that coexist with us and live inside our bodies.Compared to natural environments on Earth, where beneficial microbes reside in soil and water, the ISS lacks diverse microbial communities. The samples were more akin to those found in industrialized, isolated environments like hospitals and closed habitats.The researchers claim that introducing microbes from Earth could potentially reinforce the microbial community on the ISS without posing any hygienic risks to astronauts.Future built environments, including space stations, could benefit from intentionally fostering diverse microbial communities that better mimic the natural microbial exposures experienced on Earth, rather than relying on highly sanitized spaces, said co-first author Rodolfo Salido of the University of California, San Diego.Keeping Astronauts HealthyFuture studies will be geared toward the detection of pathogenic (or disease-spreading) microbes and signals of human health from environmental metabolites, small molecules that are products of cellular metabolism. An enhanced understanding of these factors will help scientists decide how to move forward, potentially encouraging healthier living spaces for astronauts and people working in similarly sterile places here on Earth.If we really want life to thrive outside Earth, we can't just take a small branch of the tree of life and launch it into space and hope that it will work out, said Salido. We need to start thinking about what other beneficial companions we should be sending with these astronauts to help them develop ecosystems that will be sustainable and beneficial for all.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:National Acadamies. Are all microbes dangerous?Jack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.

Nature, Published online: 26 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00551-zBut even a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation could have grave consequences worldwide.

Nature, Published online: 26 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08584-0This Review summarizes advances in mass-spectrometry-based proteomics and explores the potential applications of these technologies in the clinic.

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