A recent study found that people with diets high in fat and sugar had worse spatial memory than those who ate these foods less often. This may not be much of a surprise. We’ve long known that unhealthy eating can contribute to the onset of cognitive decline. What may come as a surprise is that the people in this study were between the ages of 18 and 38.Do we need to start protecting our brains from cognitive decline while we’re still young? “Definitely,” says lead author of the study, Dominic Tran, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Sydney who focuses on learning, memory, and cognition.Fat, Sugar, and Impaired Brain FunctionFor the study, college students were asked to navigate a virtual maze to locate a treasure chest. In order to find the treasure chest, the subjects had to estimate distance and direction and remember the location of landmarks. They did this six times; in a seventh and final trial, researchers removed the treasure chest from the maze, and the students had to find its location by memory. The subjects with diets higher in saturated fat and refined sugar were worse at remembering how to find the location of the treasure chest. The results held even after the researchers controlled for body mass index, suggesting that the difference in cognitive function was related to the types of food being eaten (fat and sugar) and not to body weight.Tran and colleagues point out that the study was small and did not involve altering the diets of the subjects and comparing the differences before and after. Still, the study adds to a growing body of evidence that fat and sugar can contribute to impaired brain function, even in young people. “Over the past 10 years or so, there has been a lot of research investigating the impact of high-fat/high-sugar diets on cognitive functioning, and the results are quite worrying,” says Tran.Cognitive HealthMost of us don’t begin thinking about our cognitive health until we start having achy joints, or worse yet, begin to have trouble remembering words. But Francesa Farina urges us to start thinking about brain health while we’re still young. Farina is a neuroscientist with the Global Brain Health Institute, and much of her work centers on the detection of risk factors for dementia in young adulthood and midlife. “I think we still have a perception of Alzheimer's and dementias as diseases of old age,” she says. “But more and more, the science is telling us that the brain changes that underlie these diseases are happening 10, 20 years before that.” That means we need to start paying attention to our risk factors while we’re still young.Farina points out that some of the lifestyle factors that can increase the risk of dementia, such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, are becoming more frequent in young people. The good news is that lifestyle changes now can reduce the risk of cognitive problems down the road.It might be hard to convince young people that they need to make an effort now to reduce the risk of getting a disease they don’t expect to get until they’re older. But Tran’s research suggested that the effects of a poor diet can be felt right away. Perhaps we need a change in messaging. Farina recommends framing the discussion as “brain health” rather than dementia. And ensuring good brain health is a lifetime project. In fact, Farina says we need to consider these risk factors even in children.Not Too Late to Reduce Fat and SugarCan cognitive impairments like the ones in Tran’s study be reversed? Tran thinks it’s possible. “We are very hopeful that improvements to diet quality can improve cognitive deficits associated with unhealthy diets,” he says. His team plans to study that next. Meanwhile, his advice is to eat a healthy, balanced diet with reduced saturated fat and sugar. “You don’t have to cut these out completely,” he says, “but eating them in moderation, infrequently, should be the goal.”This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:International Journal of Obesity. Consumption of a diet high in fat and sugar is associated with worse spatial navigation ability in a virtual environmentNeuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. The impact of saturated fat, added sugar and their combination on human hippocampal integrity and function: A systematic review and meta-analysisAvery Hurt is a freelance science journalist. In addition to writing for Discover, she writes regularly for a variety of outlets, both print and online, including National Geographic, Science News Explores, Medscape, and WebMD. She’s the author of Bullet With Your Name on It: What You Will Probably Die From and What You Can Do About It, Clerisy Press 2007, as well as several books for young readers. Avery got her start in journalism while attending university, writing for the school newspaper and editing the student non-fiction magazine. Though she writes about all areas of science, she is particularly interested in neuroscience, the science of consciousness, and AI–interests she developed while earning a degree in philosophy.

pixel_dreams - Fotolia News Security tests reveal serious vulnerability in government’s One Login digital ID system A ‘red teaming’ exercise to simulate cyber attacks on the government’s flagship digital identity system has found that One Login can be compromised without detection By Bryan Glick, Editor in chief Published: 16 May 2025 12:37 External security tests on the government’s flagship digital identity system, Gov.uk One Login, have found serious vulnerabilities in the live service, Computer Weekly has learned. A “red teaming” exercise conducted in March by IT security consultancy Cyberis discovered that privileged access to One Login can be compromised without detection by security monitoring tools. According to Cyberis, red teaming tests the resilience of systems by simulating the tactics, techniques and procedures of cyber attackers to show how well an organisation can detect and respond to an incident. Computer Weekly has been asked by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) not to reveal further details of the vulnerability while the Government Digital Service (GDS) seeks to fix the problem. Compromising the highest levels of access to a system risks exposing personal data and software code to any cyber attackers able to exploit the vulnerability. A government spokesperson said: “Delivering best practice, we routinely conduct red teaming exercises to test security infrastructure. Where issues are found, we work urgently to resolve them.” The existence of a serious current vulnerability will raise further concerns over the security of One Login, which is intended to be the way that citizens prove their identity and log in to most online government services. There are already six million users of the system, and it is used to access more than 50 online services. Last month, Computer Weekly revealed that GDS was warned by the Cabinet Office in November 2022 and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in September 2023, that One Login had “serious data protection failings” and “significant shortcomings” in information security that could increase the risk of data breaches and identity theft. GDS said the concerns were “outdated” and arose “when the technology was in its infancy in 2023”, despite One Login being used at that time to support live services. “We have worked to address all these concerns as evidenced by multiple external independent assessments. Any suggestion otherwise is unfounded,” said a spokesperson, at the time. A whistleblower first raised security concerns about One Login within GDS as long ago as July 2022. The issues identified included system administration being performed through non-compliant devices with a risk of transmitting security vulnerabilities, such as malware or phishing attacks, that could compromise the live system. The NCSC recommends that system administration for key government services should be conducted from a dedicated device used only for that purpose, known as a privileged access workstation (PAW), or alternatively to use only “browse down” devices, where the security level of the device is always the same or greater than the system being managed. The whistleblower warned that a lack of PAWs and use of browse-up administration were significant risks. Computer Weekly subsequently revealed that the One Login team has yet to fully meet NCSC guidelines – the system only complies with 21 of the 39 outcomes detailed in the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) – an improvement on the five outcomes it successfully followed a year ago. The One Login development team is also yet to fully implement the government’s Secure by Design practices, although GDS said the system “meets these principles”. Earlier this week, we further revealed that One Login had lost its certification against the government’s own trust framework for digital identity systems, after a key technology supplier allowed its certification to lapse and, as a result, One Login was removed from the official accreditation scheme. In a meeting with private sector digital identity providers this week (Wednesday 14 May), DSIT secretary of state Peter Kyle explained how One Login will underpin the forthcoming Gov.uk Wallet, which will be used to deliver digital versions of key government documents, such as driving licences. Kyle talked about the “rapid journey” he hopes the government will take in delivering digital identity services for citizens and stressed the importance that such systems are “delivered safely [and] securely”. The government spokesperson added: “Gov.uk One Login follows the highest security standards for government and private sector services – including dedicated 24/7 eyes-on monitoring and incident response. As the public rightly expects, protecting the security of government services and the data and privacy of users to keep pace with the changing cyber threat landscape is paramount.” Questions are also being asked in Parliament about the security of One Login. In recent weeks, Liberal Democrat peer and digital spokesman Tim Clement-Jones and Conservative peer Simone Finn have separately submitted Parliamentary questions to DSIT asking for reassurances about the system. Finn asked whether the government has “quantified the likelihood and potential impact of insider threats, unauthorised privileged access, and production environment compromise within One Login”. In response, DSIT minister for the future digital economy and online safety, peer Maggie Jones, said: “The Gov.uk One Login team collaborates closely with the NCSC to assess and mitigate risks associated with insider threats, unauthorised privileged access, and production environment compromise, aligning with the Cyber Assessment Framework outlined in the Government Cyber Security Strategy 2022-2030. “While assessments of insider threats have been made, copies of these assessments will not be placed in the Library of the House, as they are part of ongoing security measures and internal governance processes.” Clement-Jones asked: “What steps [the government is] taking to address security issues in the One Login digital identification system?” Jones replied: “One Login follows the highest security standards for government and private sector services. As the public rightly expects, protecting the security of government services and the data and privacy of users to keep pace with the changing cyber threat landscape is paramount. “Security best practice is followed with a number of layered security controls which include: Security clearances for staff with ‘Security Check’ clearance required for all developers with production access; identity and access management controls that block staff from viewing or altering personal information; a secure by design and compartmentalised system architecture; technical controls around building and deployments; logging and monitoring to alert on access to environments that contain personally identifiable information; and robust procedures for addressing any unauthorised or unaccounted for access.” Speaking to Computer Weekly about the security concerns, Clement-Jones said: “How is the government’s flagship digital identity system failing to meet standards so badly, given that it is expected to shortly form an essential part of our immigration controls? We need answers and quickly.”  Read more about One Login Companies House goes live with One Login ID verification – People can verify their identity with Companies House using Gov.uk One Login as the central government body becomes the 36th service to start using the digital identity system. GDS goes serverless to bring personalisation to online government services with One Login – GDS has opened up about the reasons why it’s opted for a serverless infrastructure to underpin One Login, and how it hopes the system will provide UK citizens with a more personalised experience. One Login digital identity project makes headway – Government services are lining up to work with the GDS on its One Login digital identity system, according to its director of digital identity, Natalie Jones. In The Current Issue: UK MoJ crime prediction algorithms raise serious concerns Interview: Markus Schümmelfeder, CIO, Boehringer Ingelheim Download Current Issue GraphQL as an ‘essential protocol’ for AI-API orchestration – CW Developer Network Mind the insight-to-impact gap, Qlik captures analytics ‘in the moment’ – CW Developer Network View All Blogs

Horses migrated back and forth repeatedly between North America and Eurasia, during the Late Pleistocene. But when a warming environment flooded a land bridge, it cut off travel between the continents, leading to both the decline of the horses in North America and changes to the land caused by their absence, according to a report in the journal Science by an international team that includes 18 indigenous scientists.The team drew upon both tribal knowledge of environmental events as well as the cutting-edge scientific tools. The study both provides a glimpse of the horse’s history on two continents as well as ways to think about conservation in the future.Grazing and Roaming HorsesHorses, when unfenced, tend to graze in a flower petal pattern around a water source. When the food runs out, they move on to another area and repeat the process. Along the way, they do what horses do — fertilize the land. Horse droppings often contain seeds and attract bugs. Some seeds grow into plants. Some bugs attract animals. When the horse disappears from an area, this process stops.“In this way, the horse is not only responding to change, it is also actually part of the change,” says Yvette Running Horse Collin, a member of the Lakota Nation, a scientist at the University of Toulouse, France, and an author of the paper. “If provided the opportunity, you would find that horses today would also move great distances in response to changes in the environment. In doing so, they provide a great service to all life. Where the horse goes, other life follows.”Ancient Horse FossilsHorses were both agents and objects of change over the past 50,000 years. The scientific team analyzed genomes from 67 ancient horse fossils found across Beringia, Siberia, and continental North America, dated them with radiocarbon and isotopes, and compared the data to all known lineages.The study reveals a wider range of horse genetic diversity during the late Pleistocene period than we see today, as well as long, bi-directional transcontinental migration. For example, some lineages found in Siberian and Iberian fossils show genetic traces of North American horses.The study suggests that not only did the closing of the bridge between continents affect the North American horse population, but other effects of warming made an impact as well. As eras shifted from Pleistocene to Holocene, grasslands turned to wet, boggy tundra unsuitable for horses to graze and difficult for them to travel upon.Climate and Geological ChangeThe authors emphasize that the study shows the necessity of looking at whole systems, not just an individual species to understand the past impacts of climate and geological change. The same applies to future conservation efforts.“In order to have successful conservation efforts for the horse, you must also put in place successful conservation efforts for other forms of life," Collin says. “It is for this reason that one of the research outcomes of this study is to suggest the creation of corridors that would allow life to move — together — as needed."Some tribes involved in the study intend to put those concepts into practice in the Black Hills of South Dakota. They will provide scientific measures of those efforts and intend to share the results with the wider scientific community.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:Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Solar storms batter Earth every year, creating the occasional aurora and sometimes even paralyzing power grids. But these common phenomena pale in comparison to a monstrous event that inundated the planet with particles from the Sun around 14,300 years ago, identified as the strongest solar storm ever recorded in a recent study.The study, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, has shed light on the extreme solar particle event that Earth experienced in 12,350 B.C.E. Such extreme events have only occurred a handful of times throughout history, and this is the first time one has been observed before the Holocene, around the end of the last Ice Age. The Impacts of Solar StormsOccasionally, the Sun launches a burst of accelerated particles into space, prompting what is called a solar particle event. These are often too weak to have considerable impacts here on Earth, although stronger events can pierce the planet’s magnetic field and disrupt technological systems.   Extreme solar particle events (ESPEs), however, are in a class of their own. Only eight of these events have been identified during the Holocene (the current epoch, ongoing for almost 12,000 years) — notable storms took place around 994 A.D., 663 B.C.E., 5259 B.C.E., and 7176 B.C.E. A separate 2024 study states that ESPEs are “up to three orders of magnitude stronger than” any solar particle event that has been observed directly by satellites in the modern age. The same study predicts that if an ESPE were to hit Earth during a period when its magnetic field is weakened, it could cause DNA damage in humans and impair aquatic ecosystems.Measuring the Strongest Solar StormThe ESPE that occurred in 12,350 B.C.E. takes the word “extreme” to a new level, having been much stronger than solar storms that followed in the Holocene.“Compared to the largest event of the modern satellite era — the 2005 particle storm — the ancient 12,350 B.C.E. event was over 500 times more intense, according to our estimates,” said Kseniia Golubenko, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oulu in Finland, in a statement.The researchers gleaned the details of this storm — including its strength, timing, and terrestrial effects — through a model they developed, called SOCOL:14C-Ex. The data used to assess the 12,350 B.C.E. event comes from a radiocarbon deposit in a tree from Southwestern Europe; tree rings act like records for solar particle storms, preserving radiocarbon spikes in the atmosphere (called Miyake events) that were once caused by ESPEs.  The model was first tested on an ESPE that occurred around 775 A.D., the previous titleholder of the strongest solar storm. It then determined the intensity of the 12,350 B.C.E. event, confirming that it was 18 percent stronger than the 775 A.D. event. Preparing for Solar StormsThe newly developed model has allowed researchers to better understand radiocarbon data in ancient glacial conditions, different from the relatively stable and warm conditions of the Holocene. In the present day, we likely won’t have to worry about an ESPE as intense as the 12,350 B.C.E. event in our lifetime; less intense, yet still formidable solar storms are still a cause for concern, however. For example, the Gannon solar storm that hit Earth in May 2024 caused a series of short-lived communication and navigation problems. Although the current solar cycle reached its peak near the end of 2024 (meaning an overall decline in solar activity is soon to follow), scientists are still determined to improve solar storm predictions. Details surrounding the 12,350 B.C.E. event may even assist preparation efforts in the future.“This event establishes a new worst-case scenario,” said Golubenko. “Understanding its scale is critical for evaluating the risks posed by future solar storms to modern infrastructure like satellites, power grids, and communication systems.”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:Earth and Planetary Science Letters. New SOCOL:14C-Ex model reveals that the Late-Glacial radiocarbon spike in 12350 BC was caused by the record-strong extreme solar stormJack 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.

xAI blamed an “unauthorized modification” for a bug in its AI-powered Grok chatbot that caused Grok to repeatedly refer to “white genocide in South Africa” when invoked in certain contexts on X. On Wednesday, Grok began replying to dozens of posts on X with information about white genocide in South Africa, even in response to unrelated subjects. The strange replies stemmed from the X account for Grok, which responds to users with AI-generated posts whenever a person tags “@grok.” According to a post Thursday from xAI’s official X account, a change was made Wednesday morning to the Grok bot’s system prompt — the high-level instructions that guide the bot’s behavior — that directed Grok to provide a “specific response” on a “political topic.” xAI says that the tweak “violated [its] internal policies and core values,” and that the company has “conducted a thorough investigation.” It’s the second time xAI has publicly acknowledged an unauthorized change to Grok’s code caused the AI to respond in controversial ways. In February, Grok briefly censored unflattering mentions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of xAI and owner of X. Igor Babuschkin, an xAI engineering lead, said that Grok had been instructed by a rogue employee to ignore sources that mentioned Musk or Trump spreading misinformation, and that xAI reverted the change as soon as users began pointing it out. xAI said on Thursday that it’s going to make several changes to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Beginning today, xAI will publish Grok’s system prompts on GitHub as well as a changelog. The company says it’ll also “put in place additional checks and measures” to ensure that xAI employees can’t modify the system prompt without review and establish a “24/7 monitoring team to respond to incidents with Grok’s answers that are not caught by automated systems.” Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Despite Musk’s frequent warnings of the dangers of AI gone unchecked, xAI has a poor AI safety track record. A recent report found that Grok would undress photos of women when asked. The chatbot can also be considerably more crass than AI like Google’s Gemini and ChatGPT, cursing without much restraint to speak of. A study by SaferAI, a nonprofit aiming to improve the accountability of AI labs, found xAI ranks poorly on safety among its peers, owing to its “very weak” risk management practices. Earlier this month, xAI missed a self-imposed deadline to publish a finalized AI safety framework.

xAI blamed an “unauthorized modification” for a bug in its AI-powered Grok chatbot that caused Grok to repeatedly refer to “white genocide in South Africa” when invoked in certain contexts on X. On Wednesday, Grok began replying to dozens of posts on X with information about white genocide in South Africa, even in response to unrelated subjects. The strange replies stemmed from the X account for Grok, which responds to users with AI-generated posts whenever a person tags “@grok.” According to a post Thursday from xAI’s official X account, a change was made Wednesday morning to the Grok bot’s system prompt — the high-level instructions that guide the bot’s behavior — that directed Grok to provide a “specific response” on a “political topic.” xAI says that the tweak “violated [its] internal policies and core values,” and that the company has “conducted a thorough investigation.” It’s the second time xAI has publicly acknowledged an unauthorized change to Grok’s code caused the AI to respond in controversial ways. In February, Grok briefly censored unflattering mentions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of xAI and owner of X. Igor Babuschkin, an xAI engineering lead, said that Grok had been instructed by a rogue employee to ignore sources that mentioned Musk or Trump spreading misinformation, and that xAI reverted the change as soon as users began pointing it out. xAI said on Thursday that it’s going to make several changes to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Beginning today, xAI will publish Grok’s system prompts on GitHub as well as a changelog. The company says it’ll also “put in place additional checks and measures” to ensure that xAI employees can’t modify the system prompt without review and establish a “24/7 monitoring team to respond to incidents with Grok’s answers that are not caught by automated systems.” Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Despite Musk’s frequent warnings of the dangers of AI gone unchecked, xAI has a poor AI safety track record. A recent report found that Grok would undress photos of women when asked. The chatbot can also be considerably more crass than AI like Google’s Gemini and ChatGPT, cursing without much restraint to speak of. A study by SaferAI, a nonprofit aiming to improve the accountability of AI labs, found xAI ranks poorly on safety among its peers, owing to its “very weak” risk management practices. Earlier this month, xAI missed a self-imposed deadline to publish a finalized AI safety framework.

It’s difficult to pin the destruction of a tsunami to a tsunami — that is, unless someone was around to witness the devastation. But a new study shows that there are some surprising geological sources that scientists can consult as an archive of ancient tsunami occurrences, many millions of years after they occur. Turning to Hokkaido Island in Japan, the Scientific Reports study suggests that deposits of amber in deep-sea sediments on the island may reveal tsunamis that occurred there between 116 and 114 million years ago. At that time, the study authors say, one or more tsunamis may have swept this fossilized tree resin — then still soft — from the island’s forests to the ocean floor, where it settled and solidified, preserving its particular method of deposition within its structure.“We describe extraordinarily rich amber concentrations in Early Cretaceous deep-sea deposits,” the study authors write in their study. “The most plausible cause for the presence of this enigmatic amber in a deep-sea setting is large-scale tsunamis.” The Ancient Traces of TsunamisAmber concentration in Hokkaido deep-sea sediments. (Image Courtesy of Aya Kubota, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) from Kubota, A., Takeda, Y., Yi, K. et al. Amber in the Cretaceous Deep Sea Deposits Reveals Large-Scale Tsunamis. Sci Rep 15, 14298 (2025). This work is openly licensed via CC BY 4.0.)Despite their immediate devastation, tsunamis don’t leave a distinctive or long-lasting trace on the landscape. “Large-scale tsunamis destroy coastal areas and rapidly transport huge amounts of plants and other debris over long distances,” the study authors write. “However, due to their poor preservation potential and the lack of unequivocal identifying features, tsunami deposits are rarely recognized in the geological record.”One part of the problem is that the traces of ancient tsunamis are deposited along the coast, a dynamic landscape that’s constantly changing due to the crashing of continuous waves. Another is that distinguishing between tsunami deposits and storm deposits is incredibly difficult, with tsunamis leaving some of the same signs as hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons.The new study suggests, however, that records of ancient tsunamis may be found in the form of amber and other terrestrial material deposited in deep-sea sediments. Indeed, studying sediments that were once buried beneath the open ocean on Hokkaido, the study authors found that soft amber was moved, in water, so rapidly from land to sea between 116 and 114 million years ago, that it was probably transported by a tsunami. Read More: 5 Worst Tsunamis in HistoryAmber ArchivesTo arrive at their results, the study authors focused on amber-filled silica deposits from Hokkaido’s Shimonakagawa Quarry, which were deposited when the area was still covered with water. Fluorescence imaging found that “flame structures,” or distinctive flame-shaped deformations, were preserved within the deposits. Forming in amber that is still soft at the time of its deposition, these distortions suggest that the fossilized resin on Hokkaido traveled from land to open ocean in water, without popping up for air, only to sink to the ocean floor and solidify. “These resin deformations occurred underwater, implying their direct transport,” the study authors write. “Such rapid and direct transport of terrestrial materials from land to ocean could be driven by a tsunami.”According to the study authors, there are signs that landslides (and, thus, earthquakes) may have occurred on Hokkaido at around the same time in the Early Cretaceous, adding additional support to the tsunami theory. There are also displaced masses of mud, tree trunks, and other plant material that appear to have been deposited rapidly within the sediment between 116 and 114 million years ago — a deposition that is also more indicative of a tsunami than a storm. Similar deposits of amber in deep-sea sediments may reveal other tsunamis at other sites, the study authors say. And these archives aren’t limited to amber alone, as other material that starts on land and travels to open ocean may also signal the occurrence of ancient tsunamis, many millions and millions of years ago. “Large-scale tsunamis may not be recorded in coastal areas due to the destruction of such settings,” the study authors write, but deep-sea sediments and the terrestrial deposits within can still “serve as significant archives for large-scale destructive events.”Read More: Here’s How Earthquakes Cause TsunamisArticle 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:Scientific Reports. Amber in the Cretaceous Deep Sea Deposits Reveals Large-Scale TsunamisSam Walters is a journalist covering archaeology, paleontology, ecology, and evolution for Discover, along with an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Internet Roadtrip is Twitch Plays Pokémon meets Google Maps, from the creator of Infinite Craft Maine event. Image credit: Internet Roadtrip News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on May 15, 2025 The internet is currently driving to Canada via Google Maps, and I'm along for the ride. This is Internet Roadtrip, the next browser-based creation from Infinite Craft developer Neal Agarwal, which launched last week and has since picked up momentum. 1610 so-called "drivers" are currently online, traversing the highways of New England via images from Google Streetview that update every 10 seconds. Just as with internet phenomenon Twitch Plays Pokémon, viewers can collectively vote to determine which direction the car heads next. Internet Roadtrip launched with its car initially placed upon the streets of Boston - there's a handy map to show the virtual vehicle's full journey to date - but after a brief foray to the city's southern suburbs it has been driven north ever since. Eight days later and Internet Roadtrip is now enjoying a slow drive north through the picturesque state of Maine, and there's currently discussion in its chat feed about stopping off at the tourist hotspot of Bar Harbor (which, to be fair, is lovely this time of year). In a brilliant turn of events, Internet Roadtrip's journey through Maine has caught the attention of a local student-run radio station (WBOR), which spent some time curating songs to be picked up on the in-game FM radio. A radio station in Maine (WBOR) is currently curating songs for us in the in-game radio[image or embed]— Neal Agarwal (@neal.fun) May 12, 2025 at 8:56 PM To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Just as with Twitch Plays Pokémon, there's a fun community building in the chat - and a general consensus that the vehicle is headed north of the US border to Canada. Will it get there? And where will it go next? I'll be keeping an eye. For now, viewers are having fun remarking on some of the grandiose place names Maine features for some of its tiny rural towns. Travelling from state capital Augusta up to the border you can pass through Calais, Cambridge, China, Denmark, Lebanon, Madrid, Mexico and Moscow. As I write this, Internet Roadtrip is currently in South China, Maine. "What a pleasure to be able to peer into others' imaginations like this," Christian Donlan wrote of Agarwhal's brilliant creation Infinite Craft upon its launch last year. "It really does feel like a chance to see how your friends' brains truly work."

Geologists turned to tiny bubbles to investigate the dynamics driving magma flow beneath Hawaii’s volcanoes as the country’s islands drift northwest on a tectonic plate. They found that, as the islands slip away from the hotspot that fuels Kiluaea on the “Big Island, magma flow not only slows, but shifts deeper underground," according to a report in the journal Science Advances.“This challenges the old idea that eruptions are fueled by magma stored in the Earth’s crust and suggests a new possibility that magma is stored and matures in the Earth’s mantle, and eruptions are fueled from this deep mantle reservoir,” Esteban Gazel, a Cornell University scientist and author of the paper, said in a press release.Understanding Volcano EruptionsTo reach this conclusion, scientists employed a technique that will help increase understanding of what causes eruptions and help them predict those events more accurately. They focused on tiny gas bubbles that become trapped inside crystals within magma — a phenomenon called “fluid inclusion.” Calculating the pressure and depth at which those bubbles are captured gives scientists more precise information about magma’s activity.“The technology allows us to measure pressure from depths with an uncertainty as small as just hundreds of meters, which is very, very precise for depths that are tens of kilometers below the surface,” Gazel said in the release. “Before this, measuring magma storage was much more difficult, with uncertainties that could span kilometers.”Read More: 5 of the Most Explosive Volcanic EruptionsLooking at Different Volcano Life StagesThe scientists applied the method to samples from three Hawaiian volcanoes that are at different stages of their “lives.” Kilauea’s magma was stored at relatively shallow depths of about a mile, as predicted. They found two magma storage areas beneath Haleakala — a shallow one just over a mile down, and a deeper one at 12 to 16 miles in the Earth’s mantle. Diamond Head on the island of O’ahu, showed magma storage around 13 to 18 miles deep, all within the Earth’s mantle.“Knowing these depths precisely matters, because to understand the drivers of eruptions, one of the most important constraints is where magma is stored,” Gazel said in the release. “That is fundamental for physical models that will explain eruptive processes and is required for volcanic risk assessment.”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:Science Advances. Crustal to mantle melt storage during the evolution of Hawaiian volcanoesBefore joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Achieving peace is a team effort. And there is no I in Team.  DC Studios has dropped the official teaser for Peacemaker Season 2, which streams August 21 on Max. Eagly returns... and hope springs eternal. In Season 1 of the R-rated action-adventure-comedy series, which explores the origins of The Suicide Squad character played by John Cena, mercenary Christopher Smith returns home after recovering from his encounter with Bloodsport. Per the logline, the upcoming season follows the vigilante “as he struggles to reconcile his past with his newfound sense of purpose while continuing to kick righteous evil-doer butt in his misguided quest for peace at any cost.” Hopefully, his incredibly animated friend Eagly can keep him grounded in his ongoing search for purpose. Returning cast includes Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick. New Season 2 cast members include Frank Grillo, David Denman, Sol Rodriguez, and Tim Meadows. James Gunn wrote all eight episodes of Peacemaker Season 2 and directed three, including the first episode. Gunn, Peter Safran, and Cena serve as executive producers. Greg Mottola, Peter Sollett, and Althea Jones also direct. Gunn’s Troll Court Entertainment and The Safran Company produce in association with Warner Bros. Television. VFX for Season 1 were crafted by Clear Angle Studios, Crafty Apes, Mr. Wolf, Peerless, Proof Inc, Rodeo FX, and Wētā FX. For Season 2, we know Wētā FX is involved, we’re guessing at least for the work on Eagly. You can read about their incredible first season raptor work here. Check out the teaser now: Source: DC Studios Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologist—L'Wren brings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.