NASA funding cuts are already affecting research and educational programs across the USDCStockPhotography/ShutterstockNASA has cancelled contracts and grants worth up to $420 million, following guidance from the Trump administrations Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The cuts will impact research projects and educational programmes across the US, but NASA is being tight-lipped about confirming exactly which organisations are affected.After DOGE, an independent task force led in effect by tech billionaire Elon Musk, announced the cuts, NASA confirmed the amount but refused to specify which programmes were cancelled. Casey Dreier at The Planetary Society, a non-profit organisation based in California, compiled a list of programmes that recently lost funding using the agencys public grant database. NASA has since taken down the database and did not respond to questions about the lists accuracy. AdvertisementMany of the cuts on Dreiers list align with President Donald Trumps scepticism towards climate science and his administrations aggressive targeting of its interpretation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.Climate-related cancellations include a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that uses satellite sensors to map the impacts of extreme heat, air pollution and flooding on prisons. Another target was University of Oklahoma research to develop digital twin simulations that predict the effects of floods on tribal lands.But it is unclear why NASA ended support for other research, such as using bioengineered cells to examine how spaceflight affects the human body or modelling how lunar dust could contaminate future moon missions.Voyage across the galaxy and beyond with our space newsletter every month.Sign up to newsletterNASA spokesperson Bethany Stephens told New Scientist that the agency is optimising its workforce and resources in alignment with the Department of Government Efficiencys initiatives. DOGE has pushed agencies across the US government to slash funding or shut down altogether.But cancellations of ongoing grants and contracts fly in the face of the rigorous review process that selected them in the first place as the most scientifically deserving proposals, says Michael Battalio at Yale University. Politics cannot and should not define what is scientifically worth studying at the level of individual grants, says Battalio, who studies the atmospheres of Mars and Titan in preparation for future missions.The DEI-related cuts disturb me the most, says Bruce Jakosky at the University of Colorado Boulder, who was the lead scientist on NASAs MAVEN mission to Mars. Those grants are about reaching out to underrepresented groups and ensuring that people have access to training and education none of them appear to be about promoting less qualified people over more qualified people.For instance, NASA cut funding for a conference hosted by the National Society of Black Physicists, a long-standing non-profit organisation that promotes the professional well-being of African American physicists and physics students. We were told that the reason for cancelling the contract was to comply with the executive order from the president concerning DEI, says Stephen Roberson, president of the National Society of Black Physicists. We are looking to appeal this decision and receive further clarification on why our annual conference where people of all races and academiclevels present their scientific work is considered DEI.New Scientist reached out to researchers and organisations that appear to have been affected, but with the exception of the National Society of Black Physicists, most did not respond. The San Diego Air & Space Museum, which appeared on Dreiers list, said its NASA funding for educational events seems to still be intact despite NASAs database showing a change in the grant end date. NASA did not respond to a request to confirm the status of this funding.Topics:

There is a form of nothingness even more empty than the vacuum of spacePanther Media GmbH / AlamyThe following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or mathematician to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. You cansign up for Lost in Space-Time here.Most of us complain about nothing from time to time. Like when you open the fridge, see the empty shelves, and sigh, Theres nothing to eat even though theres a half-eaten yogurt and some suspicious

People harvesting cowpeas in Tahoua, NigerJake Lyell/AlamyHuman urine that has been matured in the sun for at least one month appears to be both a fertiliser and an effective pesticide. The findings could be particularly helpful for combatting insect infestations in West Africa, where soil quality is typically low and traditional pesticides are expensive.Farmers taking part in a previous trial in Niger to investigate the use of urine as a fertiliser discovered that it was also having a pesticide effect, as plants treated with it had less pest damage than those that werent.

Like all medications, GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy have side effectsIuliia Burmistrova/Getty ImagesThe use of weight loss treatments like Ozempic and Wegovy has skyrocketed in the Western world. But as more people turn to these treatments, which mimic the appetite-suppressing hormone GLP-1, more potential side effects are emerging, including hair loss.Evidence of this first appeared during clinical trials of Wegovy. Of the more than 2100 adult participants taking the drug, 3 per cent experienced hair loss, compared with only 1 per cent of the roughly 1200 participants taking a

Scott WilsonWe all know the story: give every chimpanzee on the planet a typewriter and wait until something monumental occurs, either the recreation of the complete works of William Shakespeare or the heat death of the universe. Last year, mathematicians concluded the chimps would never achieve the former the likelihood of one typing even the more modest bananas in its lifetime is a meagre 5 per cent. That some of our closest relatives fail this test speaks to how human culture is like nothing else in nature. Ask biologists to explain why this is, however, and things get complicated.The problem became clear this century as studies revealed that culture, far from being uniquely human, is present across the animal kingdom, from whales to ants. This has encouraged researchers to search for the key ingredient that explains why our culture and ours alone flourished.It hasnt been easy, and for a surprising reason: animal cultures are far more sophisticated than we assumed. We once thought they couldnt become more technologically advanced, yet research published a few months ago suggests they can. We also suspected that animals lacked the smarts to learn complicated behaviours from one another but last year, we discovered that even bees may be sufficiently brainy to do so. Views have changed, says Edwin van Leeuwen, an animal cognition researcher at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. We now know much more about animals than we did before.In updating our expectations of animal cultural behaviour, though, we seem to have made explaining the culture gap much harder.

Hanuman langurs have adapted their behaviour to thrive around human environmentsOndrej Prosicky / AlamyA group of monkeys in India has developed a range of ingenious techniques to acquire food peacefully from devout tourists.Revered as holy at the Dakshineswar temple complex near Kolkata, Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entellus) quietly grab visitors legs, tug on their clothes, hold their hands or simply stand up in front of them, often around vendors food stands. The wild primates usually continue such begging tactics until they get their particular treat of choice: sweet buns, says Dishari Dasgupta at the Indian Institute of

In March 2024, a cargo ship smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, MarylandUPI / AlamyOne year after a container ship ran into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, causing the structures collapse, a study has identified other major US bridges that are surprisingly vulnerable to similar catastrophic ship strikes and their collective risk is so high that such incidents may occur every few years.Modern bridges can reduce the chances of ship collisions with measures like increasing the spacing between support piers and adding

MindBy studying the brains of autistic girls, we now know the condition presents differently in them than in boys, suggesting that huge numbers of women have gone undiagnosed 31 March 2025 Daniel StolleIn China, it is known as the lonely disease. The Japanese term translates as intentionally shut. Across the world, there is a perception of autistic people as aloof, socially awkward and isolated, seeming to not only lack the kind of automatic social instinct that enables successful interaction, but also the desire to achieve it. There is also a perception that autistic people tend to be men.For decades, researchers myself included have thought of autism as a predominantly male condition. The more we studied boys and men, the clearer the picture of autism that emerged or so we thought.Today, we have come to realise that we were missing a huge piece of the puzzle all along. Not only have we been failing to recognise autism in vast numbers of women and girls preventing them from getting a diagnosis and support but we have now made the profound discovery that the female autistic brain works differently than the male one, especially when it comes to social motivations and behaviours. As a result, an entirely new picture of autism in girls is crystallising, forcing a radical rethink of everything we thought we knew.Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition, commonly diagnosed by the age of 5. Current standard diagnostic criteria refer to persistent difficulties with social communication and social interaction, as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviours, activities or interests to the extent that these limit and impair everyday functioning.The World Health Organization estimates that 1 per cent of children worldwide are autistic, but

A cave orb spiderblickwinkel/AlamySpiders known for elaborate circular webs have altered their spinning style in dark spaces to create apparent tripwires for walking prey.Those that make circular webs are known as orb-weavers, and most of them trap mosquitoes, beetles and other flying insects in sticky spiral frame webs sparsely attached to outdoor structures, like tree branches. But European cave orb spiders (Meta menardi) anchor their webs to cave walls using twice as many silk strands, which appear to vibrate when tripped by unsuspecting crawlers, says Thomas Hesselberg at the University of Oxford.

An observer hiding inside a black hole can eavesdrop on quantum objects outside itvan van/ShutterstockQuantum eavesdropping is possible across a black holes event horizon, one of the most impermeable cosmic boundaries at least in one direction.Daine Danielson at the University of Chicago, Illinois, wanted to know how the structure of space-time, the fabric of our reality, influences quantum objects. This led him and his colleagues to a thought experiment where two people, Alice and Bob, end up separated by one of space-times most extreme objects.

The thigh and shin bones of Paranthropus robustusJason L. HeatonA fossilised left leg unearthed in South Africa belongs to one of the smallest adult hominins ever discovered smaller even than the so-called hobbit, Homo floresiensis.The diminutive hominin was a member of the species Paranthropus robustus. This was one of several species of Paranthropus, a group of ape-like hominins that shared the African landscape with the earliest representatives of our human genus, Homo, between about 2.7 and 1.2 million years ago. Paranthropus had heavily built skulls that housed small brains and large teeth which some species

Aspirins health-boosting potential could extend beyond easing pain and preventing heart diseaseDavid Burton / AlamyImagine if a cheap, accessible and relatively safe pill could prevent cancer in those who have never had it and stop it from returning among those in remission. The idea that aspirin is such a wonder drug is the subject of intense research, but the picture is muddled.The notion that aspirin could have anti-cancer properties dates back decades. In 1988, researchers in Australia linked the painkiller to a lower risk of colorectal, or bowel, cancer. More than 100 of these observational studies

EnvironmentThe rate at which the planet is warming has sped up since 2010, and now researchers say that China's efforts to clean up air pollution are inadvertently responsible for the majority of this extra warming 31 March 2025 A steel factory in Hebei, China, in 2015Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA recent surge in the rate of global warming has been largely driven by Chinas efforts to reduce air pollution, raising questions about how air quality regulations are influencing the climate and whether we fully understand the impact of removing aerosols from the atmosphere. This extra warming, which was being masked by the aerosols, accounts for 5 per cent of global temperature increase since 1850.In the early 2000s, China had extremely poor air quality as a result of rapid industrialisation, leading to a public outcry in the run-up

HealthThere are many claims about the benefits of microdosing weight-loss drugs, from anti-inflammatory effects to extending longevity. Do any of them stack up? 26 March 2025 Getty Images; AlamyMadison Burgess decided to get serious about weight loss when the scale hit 91 kilograms (200 pounds). She began taking Ozempic. The medication worked better than she ever thought possible: even on the low starter dose, she lost more than 2 kg (5 lbs) within the first week.Problems began, however, when Burgess, a 25-year-old healthcare administrator from Bloomfield, Michigan, ramped up her intake, as per the manufacturers guidelines. The higher doses were rough on me, she says. The constipation, nausea, diarrhoea and acid reflux hit hard and made eating difficult. Thats when she decided to drop back down to a lower dose and determine whether she could continue seeing benefits.This article is part of a special series investigating the GLP-1 agonist boom. Read more here.Burgess is just one of a growing number of people who are microdosing a practice more typically associated with psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin by taking lower-than-standard amounts of weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro (see How they work, below).For some, the hope is to avoid side effects while losing weight, while others want to tap into the anti-inflammatory effect of these medications or reap their other benefits for the heart and the brain (see A wonder drug?, below). Microdosing the drugs has even been touted for extending longevity by ultra-wealthy elites like tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, and is rumoured to be the secret weapon of Hollywood stars wanting to look svelte for photo calls.The question is, does this off-label, low-dose experimentation work?

HealthLow-intensity steady-state cardio has been touted as a way to lose weight and put less strain on your body while exercising. Science of exercise columnist Grace Wade looks into whether it works 26 March 2025 A long stroll in the park doesnt sound too badShutterstock/GorgevWhen it comes to exercise, my aim is usually to get the most out of each workout, pushing myself to my max. No gain without pain, right? But maybe that isnt always the case.In the past few years, low-intensity steady-state (LISS) cardio has been growing in popularity as a way to lose weight. One example is the TikTok 12-30-3 workout trend, where you walk up a 12 per cent incline for 30 minutes at 3 mph (4.8 kilometres per hour). This type of exercise involves slower aerobic

Marshall (voiced by Dave King) finds the amazing Blue Angel mushroomWarner Bros. DiscoveryCommon Side EffectsJoseph Bennett, Steve HelyChannel 4 (UK); Cartoon Network, Max (US)One of the best shows I watched last year was Scavengers Reign, a lushly animated sci-fi series about an interstellar cargo ship that crashes on a planet full of strange, dangerous life. Sadly, it was cancelled after a single season. So, I was pleased to learn that one of its creators, Joseph Bennett, had partnered with writer Steve Hely on a new animated show called Common Side Effects, all about a

A common symptom of measles includes a rashAleksandr Finch/ShutterstockThe US is currently facing its most severe measles resurgence in years. On 26 March, Ohio became the fifth state to declare a measles outbreak this year, joining Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Kansas.How many measles cases are there in the US?As of 27 March, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed 483 measles cases in the US this year. This is the highest number of infections since 2019, when there were more than 1200 confirmed cases. The CDC is aware of more potential measles cases but is waiting for confirmation before including them in the case count.Which states are affected by measles?So far, 19 states have confirmed at least one measles case this year: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington. Fourteen of these states have reported only isolated incidences, meaning the infection didnt spread to more than one other person.AdvertisementHowever, five states declared a measles outbreak, defined as at least three related measles cases. As of 28 March, confirmed measles cases totalled 400 in Texas and 44 in New Mexico. There were seven cases in Oklahoma as of 25 March. Kansas and Ohio have confirmed 23 and 10 measles cases, respectively, as of 26 March.Has anyone been hospitalised or died?The CDC reports that 70 people have been hospitalised for measles so far this year. One unvaccinated child also died from the virus on 26 February in Texas the countrys first recorded measles death in a decade. A second possible measles-related death is under investigation in New Mexico.When did the outbreak start?Texas was the first state to declare a measles outbreak. The Texas Department of State Health Services issued an alert on 23 January after identifying measles in two unvaccinated adults who lived together in Houston and had recently travelled abroad. A week later, the state confirmed an additional two cases in unvaccinated children on the other side of the state in Gaines county. It isnt clear if these two incidents were related.Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday.Sign up to newsletterSince then, measles has rapidly spread through Gaines county, located in western Texas, infecting at least 270 individuals. Gaines county has a large rural population and low vaccination rate: just under of children in kindergarten which usually starts at age 5 were vaccinated against measles. The real rate may be lower, as the data doesnt include home-schooled children.The outbreak has since spilled into neighbouring communities, including those across the state border in New Mexico, which announced its first case on 11 February, and Oklahoma, which announced its first two cases on 11 March. The New York Times reported that state health officials also believe the Kansas outbreak, which began on 13 March, is related to those in New Mexico and Texas.The latest outbreak in Ohio is unrelated to those in other states. The Ohio Department of Health declared the first case on 20 March in an unvaccinated man who had contact with someone who had recently travelled abroad. All nine of the other confirmed cases are related to this first unvaccinated man.Who is most affected by measles?Nearly all of the confirmed measles cases 97 per cent have occurred in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Only 2 per cent of cases are in people who have received two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Two doses of the vaccine is 97 per cent effective against measles while one dose is only 93 per cent effective.Children and adolescents are particularly susceptible to measles. The majority of cases 75 per cent are in people 19 years old and younger. Children are also at risk of developing serious complications from measles. About 1 out of every 20 children with measles develops pneumonia and about 1 out of every 1000 with the illness experiences brain swelling, which can lead to hearing loss, intellectual disability and death.Why are there so many measles cases?The US declared measles eliminated in 2000. However, occasional outbreaks still occur due to waning vaccination rates. Measles is a highly contagious virus. Each case can lead to an additional 12 to 18 cases if people arent protected against the disease. When more than 95 per cent of people in a community are fully vaccinated against measles, most people in the area are protected through herd immunity.In the 2019 to 2020 school year, more than 95 per cent of US kindergarteners were vaccinated against measles. Yet that number fell to less than 93 per cent in the 2023 to 2024 school year, leaving roughly 280,000 kindergarteners at risk of infection.What is the US doing to contain the outbreak?Vaccination is the best protection against measles. The fact that we now have a measles case in Ohio adds emphasis to the importance of being fully vaccinated, Bruce Vanderhoff at the Ohio Department of Public Health said in a press release announcing the states first case. This disease can be very serious, but it is preventable. I strongly encourage you to protect yourselves and your children by getting vaccinated.However, the US secretary of health, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has stopped short of calling on people to get vaccinated. The decision to vaccinate is a personal one, he wrote in a Fox News article on 2 March. Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.Topics:

US President Donald Trumps executive orders have led to drastic cuts across the sciencesSHAWN THEW/POOL/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockIn a letter to Michael Kratsios, director of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Trump administration said on 26 March that the US needs to revitalise its science and technology enterprise and accelerate research and development. But President Donald Trump has spent the early months of his second term dismantling the very research apparatus built for this purpose.His latest directive invokes the idea of the endless frontier, a vision set out at

The evolution of the anus may have driven the body plan of all advanced animals, including humansMattLphotography / AlamyThe anus is a wildly successful innovation, but how did it evolve? A genetic analysis suggests it probably began as an opening used to release sperm that later fused with the gut an example of evolution repurposing structures.Once a hole is there, you can use it for other things, says Andreas Hejnol at the University of Bergen in Norway.It is thought that early animals evolved

There is a small chance of asteroid 2024 YR4 striking the moonESA/NASAFor a brief period earlier this year, the worlds space agencies were warning that the sizeable asteroid 2024 YR4 had an uncomfortably high 3.1 per cent chance of hitting Earth in 2032. Thankfully, more detailed observations have now dropped those odds to near zero, but fresh analysis using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows there is still a chance it will impact our moon something that astronomers are excited to see.In February, when concerns of an impact with out planet were still high,Andrew Rivkin

Nations that emit the most greenhouse gases would have the most responsibility for overshooting the 1.5C goalschankz/ShutterstockEach country should be held responsible for how much it is to blame when the world overshoots the 1.5C warming limit by assigning a net-zero carbon debt if it has pumped out more than its fair share of emissions, a team of climate scientists is proposing.The aim is to encourage those with greater responsibility for the overshoot to make amends by, say, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or helping other countries reach net-zero faster.

African forest elephantsWill Burrard-LucasNight has fallen; an elephant mother and her calf walk through Nouabal-Ndoki National Park, which covers more than 4000 square kilometres of rainforest in the northern Republic of the Congo. This remarkable photograph above of the critically endangered African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) was captured using a camera trap.The image is included in photographer Will Burrard-Lucass year-long project showcasing the parks rarely seen animals. Working with nonprofit organisation the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Burrard-Lucas captured the images with a professional-grade digital camera inside a weatherproof enclosure (shown below), combined with lights and a motion-detecting trigger.Will Burrard-LucasAdvertisementThis set-up needs to be rugged and reliable, capable of withstanding extreme weather conditions and the curiosity of wildlife, says Burrard-Lucas. He consulted with WCS experts about where to place cameras, such as near trails through dense vegetation, which tend to be animal highways.Burrard-Lucas hopes his images will help efforts to protect endangered species: If these images inspire even a few people to learn more, visit as tourists or take action for conservation, then they have served a purpose.Topics:

Pollution like the smoke seen at this garbage dump in Pakistan ispart of an ongoing polycrisisARIF ALI/AFP via Getty ImagesA Climate of TruthMike Berners-Lee (Cambridge University Press UK: On sale now US: On sale from 10 April)Mike Berners-Lee admits he is worried about getting bad reviews for his new book, which criticises sections of the UK media for having editorial agendas effectively set by their owners. In the readable but dispiriting A Climate of Truth: Why we need it and how to get it, he points the finger at the BBC, Rupert Murdochs empire, the

Smartphones can be a distraction from other tasksPheelings media/ShutterstockDo you find yourself distracted at work, turning to your smartphone for a bit of mindless scrolling? One solution is to put your phone out of reach but unfortunately, it seems this may not work.People turn their phone upside down, hide it under a notebook, sometimes you see the slightly fatalistic throw it over my shoulders behind me, says Maxi Heitmayer at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London. He has previously studied phone use and found that people interact with their devices about every 5 minutes. AdvertisementTo see if this distraction can be avoided, Heitmayer and his colleagues recorded 22 university students and office workers, aged between 22 and 31, working as usual on their laptops on a desk in a private room. On one day, the participants kept their phones within arms reach. On a second, they kept their phone on a second desk 1.5 metres away, meaning they had to stand up to check it.The researchers found that the volunteers spent an average of 23 minutes carrying out leisure activities on their phone on the first day, but spent 16 minutes when their devices were further away. Yet they didnt work for any longer on the second day instead, the participants simply spent more time carrying out leisurely activities on their laptop, mostly on social media. You can use the phone less, but this whole scrolling on social media for longer than you intended just migrates to the laptop, says Heitmayer.This shows that whats distracting is not the device in itself, but more the underlying activity, so maybe social media or gambling or whatever people do online, says Daantje Derks at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.Sign up to newsletterHowever, she points out that larger studies tracking people in their normal working environment are needed to verify these initial results. Its an experimental lab study people usually have other people around them, and their lives are much more dynamic than this setup, so this could change how they work, says Derks.Journal reference:Frontiers in Computer Science DOI: 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1422244Topics:

A view of the early universe captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, including numerous little red dots whose nature is uncertainNASA, ESA, CSA, Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin)A mysterious class of small, red objects in the early universe might be explained by black holes inside dense cocoons of gas, like a star.Since launching in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has found hundreds of objects in the early universe that appear extremely red and compact, dubbed little red dots (LRDs).

Urine separation is alive and well along with other ways to recover useful compounds from sewageRosanna U/Connect Images/AlamyMany years ago, I wrote a feature for New Scientist about an innovation in waste-water treatment called urine-separation toilets, which, at the time, looked like becoming a desirable accessory for the eco-conscious. To cut a long story short, the Western habit of flushing urine away using clean water then separating it out again in sewage plants is extremely wasteful. Toilets that collect undiluted urine separately and send it off for processing into fertiliser save large amounts of energy and water.

Josie FordFeedback is New Scientists popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com Rattus sommeliensisFeedback has reached an age where even a small amount of alcohol makes us sleepy, so the notion of going to a wine tasting holds no appeal. It seems a terribly time-consuming and expensive way to have a nap. However, purveyors of fermented grapes could soon have a new demographic to cater to: rats.At least thats what were extrapolating from a study in Animal Cognition called Rats can distinguish (and generalize) among two white wine varieties. It was published on 21 February, and subeditor and TV columnist Bethan Ackerley sent it to Feedback on 1 March after it went semi-viral online which goes to show how rapidly we can spring into action when faced with a breaking story.AdvertisementAnyway, its actually quite interesting. We all know that humans sense of smell is rather limited compared with that of other mammals, including rodents. Thats because we have fewer olfactory receptors in our noses. But we also know or at least presume that our minds are more sophisticated than those of animals. Raising the question: to what extent can animals, in this case rats, integrate lots of different olfactory signals to learn about complex categories like, say, different white wines?The researchers trained rats to discriminate between two grape varieties: riesling and sauvignon blanc. To confirm they had learned the categories, they tested them on new examples of these wines. The rats could tell the difference. Evidently, theres quite a bit going on between those rats ears.The question is, how far can we take this? Its one thing to show rats can learn the differences between wines, but can they also learn to be really condescending about it? Feedback wants to see rats that can sniff a wine, then enumerate a list of increasingly ridiculous odours sorry, notes of that they can apparently detect in it. Until these rats are squeaking on about how you can really taste the terroir and isnt Liebfraumilch just utterly dreadful, are they really wine connoisseurs?Anti-AI tacticsAt this point, Feedback has heard far too much about the supposedly imminent AI-induced apocalypse. Yes, yes, someday soon one of the AI companies will create an artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is as intelligent as a human. The AGI will then start re-engineering itself to become even smarter, because that is a thing that intelligent beings can readily do to themselves (shush, dont ask questions), and will rapidly become unstoppably intelligent. At which point humans will either be reduced to zoo animals or wiped out. This, we are told, is so important that we should stop worrying about piddling things like climate change. Uh-huh.It was in this frame of mind that Feedback came upon a new science fiction short story by Maddison Stoff. We cant tell you the name of the story, because it makes ironic use of a word that would get stopped by an email filter, but we can quote Stoffs description of it as a very funny, intimate sci-fi story reinterpreting the meme of Rokos Basilisk through the medium of a pseudo-erotic self-insert fan-fiction.We imagine that, at this point, readers may have one or two questions. Fear not: Feedback is here to guide you.Rokos Basilisk is a sort of thought experiment about AI. Sometime in the distant future, an AI decides to punish every single human who knew it could potentially exist but didnt help to create it. The AI creates digital replicas of all those people, and tortures them for eternity. This, you see, is a way for this future AI to incentivise all of us, right now, to start building it: that way, we wont get replicated and tortured.The basilisk of the title is a reference to a mythological creature that can kill you with a glance, so you mustnt look at it. Likewise, even knowing about the idea of Rokos Basilisk supposedly puts you at risk from it. Simply by reading Feedback this week, you may have condemned a future replica of yourself to an eternity of torment. Sorry about that.Stoffs story recounts how she saves humanity from Rokos Basilisk by, in the distant future, seducing it using her sexual wiles. The Basilisk is so besotted with her, it agrees to stop torturing everyone in exchange for this torrid encounter. Furthermore, Stoff wrote a short story about this and put it online, so its now part of the Basilisks training data meaning, if the Basilisk ever comes into existence, it will have a burning crush on Maddison Stoff.Simply by reading and sharing the story, Feedback made it more likely that the future AI will be attracted to Stoff, and less likely that it will torture us all. We encourage readers to do the same, with a warning that the story has some explicit sex in it. And maybe dont read it at work unless you work at an AI company, in which case go right ahead.Tesla? I barely knew her!Occasionally when Elon Musk turns up in the news, Feedback is unaccountably reminded of the 1818 sonnet Ozymandias. Its strange how the mind works.Anyway, the Norwegian branch of carmaker Kia posted an advert on Instagram showing a photo of one of its electric cars, complete with a bumper sticker that read I bought this after Elon went crazy. Apparently this was not centrally approved and the advert has since been taken down, so it would be a real shame if anyone started making these stickers.Got a story for Feedback?You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This weeks and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.

Quantum computers theoretically offer advantages over ordinary machinesQuantinuumQuantum computers could soon be able to solve genuinely useful mathematical problems faster than classical computers, claims quantum computing firm Quantinuum. It would be the first example of these exotic machines showing a true advantage over ordinary devices.Such problems relate to a branch of mathematics called knot theory, which is used to classify knots by the number and nature of the points at which they cross over. The concept has been applied to cryptography, physics and molecular biology; it has even been suggested as a way for spacecraft to navigate

Peatlands such as Mnnikjrve bog in Estonia are important carbon sinksVincent JasseyMicrobes in carbon-rich soils ramp up their rate of photosynthesis in warmer conditions, suggesting current climate models may be overestimating the total emissions expected from degrading landscapes as the climate warms.As the world warms, natural ecosystems like peatlands and permafrost are expected to start rapidly releasing stored carbon dioxide as microbial activity shifts in their soils. These environments could be huge sources of future emissions, with estimates suggesting the northern hemisphere stores 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon in permafrost, while the worlds peatlands

Getting an AI to write software for you? Thats vibe codingronstik/AlamyWant to write software, but havent got the first clue where to start? Enter vibe coding, a term that has swept the internet to describe the use of AI tools, including large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, to generate computer code even if you cant program.What is vibe coding and where did it come from?Vibe coding basically refers to using generative AI not just to assist with coding, but to generate the entire code for an app, says Noah Giansiracusa at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Users ask, or prompt, LLM-based models such as ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot to produce the code for an app or service, and the AI system does all the work. AdvertisementThe term was coined by Andrej Karpathy, a skilled software engineer who was head of AI at Tesla and a founding engineer at OpenAI the maker of ChatGPT. In February, he posted on X about a new kind of coding I call vibe coding.Karpathy described it as where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. The term was born and the idea took hold. That captured a moment that resonated with so many people, because theres a whole bunch of people who are non-programmers who are starting to play with LLMs, writing code and getting amazing results out of them, says Simon Willison, a software developer.What is the point of vibe coding?Software engineering can be a tricky thing to learn and as a result, many people dont bother. Vibe coding can help people with ideas for tools, apps and services to make them a reality without the challenge of learning the specifics of a programming language.The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.Sign up to newsletterOn the one hand its a gamechanger, because a lot of people are vibe coding, and over the course of a few prompting cycles you can get something thats amazing and something that for people who cant program its better than anything they could do on their own, says Matt Wood at Northumbria University, UK. But it can also result in incomplete, error-strewn software, he adds.So is vibe coding a good thing or a bad thing?Opinion is split. Youve got all these people on LinkedIn and Twitter making outrageous claims that nobody needs to learn to program anymore, says Willison, who believes that is overstating the power of vibe coding.My sense is that this is a promising direction that will get a lot better and that well see a lot more of in the near future, but at present its a bit limited and has some reliability issues, says Giansiracusa. The code produced can often be buggy, and because the people prompting it dont have the inherent knowledge to fix it, they are overly reliant on the same LLMs that made the errors to fix them.Will vibe coding change software engineering?One of the big claims about AI is its ability to take our jobs. But there is little evidence that vibe coding will replace software engineers despite some social media boasts. Its not going to replace programmers, says Wood.I feel like the job of a software engineer is to produce software that works, says Willison. One of the reasons I dont think were going to be put out of our jobs by these systems is actually, a huge amount of the work that we do with software engineers has nothing to do with typing the code.Topics:software