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upstart writes:

Ten years after LIGO's historical detection of gravitational waves, the project is cracking black hole mysteries at an astounding pace:

LIGO's discovery of gravitational waves—ripples in space-time from powerful cosmic events—hit astrophysics more like a tidal wave than a ripple. At the dawn of its tenth anniversary, the multinational collaboration has set another scientific milestone, this time solving not one but two mysteries in black hole physics.

A paper published today in Physical Review Letters describes how the LIGO-VIRGO-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration captured the sharpest-ever gravitational wave signal from a black hole merger. Further analysis of GW250114, the signal in question, validates two major predictions made by Stephen Hawking and Roy Kerr in 1971 and 1963, respectively.

First, we're more certain than ever that when black holes merge, the resulting black hole is wider than both parts combined. Second, we only need to know two metrics to describe gravitational disturbances in black holes: mass and spin.

"It's a beautiful, landmark result," Arthur Kosowsky, a theoretical physicist at the University of Pittsburgh who wasn't involved in the new work, told Gizmodo in an email. The latest results are "a confirmation of both the fundamental nature of a spinning black hole and also a remarkable test of strong-field general relativity," he added.

The latest results come almost ten years after GW150914, the first gravitational wave signal ever detected, which LIGO observed in 2015. In 2021, physicists used the 2015 signal to test Hawking's theorem. The team assessed a confidence level of 95% for this test, but with the new, cleaner result, that has jumped to an impressive 99.999%—as close as one gets to the "truth" in modern science.

"A decade ago we couldn't be certain that black holes ever collide in our universe," Steve Fairhurst, LIGO spokesperson and a physicist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, told Gizmodo. "Now we observe several black hole mergers per week. With the 300 gravitational-wave candidates observed to date, we're beginning to provide a census of the population of black holes in the universe."

upstart writes:

Dead Internet Theory Lives: One Out of Three of You Is a Bot:

According to CloudFlare, nearly one-third of all internet traffic is now bots. Most of those bots, you won't ever directly interact with, as they are crawling the web and indexing websites or performing specific tasks—or, increasingly, collecting data to train AI models. But it's the bots that you can see that have people like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others questioning (albeit with seemingly zero remorse or consideration of any alternative) whether he and his cohort are destroying the internet.

Last week, Altman responded to a post that showed lots of comments in the subreddit r/ClaudeCode, a Reddit community built around Anthropic's Claude Code tool, praising OpenAI's Codex, an AI coding agent. "i have had the strangest experience reading this: i assume its all fake/bots, even though in this case i know codex growth is really strong and the trend here is real," he wrote, very [subtly (sp.)] acknowledging how great his own product is.

While Altman suggested some of this may be people adopting the quirks and word choices of chatbots, among other factors, he did acknowledge that "the net effect is somehow AI twitter/AI reddit feels very fake in a way it really didnt a year or two ago." It follows a previous observation he made earlier this month in which he said, "i never took the dead internet theory that seriously but it seems like there are really a lot of LLM-run twitter accounts now."

"Dead internet theory" is the idea that much of the content online is created, interacted with, and fed to us by bots. If you believe the conspiratorial origins of the theory, which is thought to have first cropped up on imageboards around 2021, it's an effort to control human behavior. If you're slightly less blackpilled about the whole thing, then perhaps you're more into the idea that it's primarily driven by the monetary incentives of the internet, where engagement—no matter how low value it may be—can generate revenue.

Interestingly, the theory appeared pre-ChatGPT, suggesting the bot problem was bad before LLMs became widely accessible. Even then, there was evidence that a ton of internet traffic came from bots (some estimates place it over 50%, which is well above CloudFlare's measurements), and there were concerns about "The Inversion," or the point where fraud detection systems mistake bot behavior for human and vice versa.

upstart writes:

This Is the First Time Scientists Have Seen Decisionmaking in a Brain:

Neuroscientists from around the world have worked in parallel to map, for the first time, the entire brain activity of mice while they were making decisions. This achievement involved using electrodes inserted inside the brain to simultaneously record the activity of more than half a million neurons distributed across 95 percent of the rodents' brain volume.

Thanks to the image obtained, the researchers were able to confirm an already theorized architecture of thought: that there is no single region exclusively in charge of decision making and instead it is a coordinated process among multiple brain areas.

To illuminate all the regions involved in this decision making process, the team trained mice to turn a small steering wheel to move circles on a screen. If the shape moved correctly toward the center, the animal received sugar water as a reward.

After running this experiment with 139 mice across 12 labs and monitoring their brain activity, the experiment managed to map 620,000 neurons located across 279 brain regions, with a subset of 75,000 well-isolated neurons then being analyzed. The resolution of the neural map produced is unprecedented in the study of brain and its neural networks during the thinking process. Moreover, it represents a milestone both in terms of the type of specimen observed and the extent of the brain area covered. Until now, only whole brains of fruit flies, fish larvae, or small sections of more complex brains had been mapped.

The results were published in two papers in the journal Nature. Although the scientists involved acknowledge that the data are not definitive, they represent a starting point in the neural study of decisionmaking. The value of this data lies in the fact that the neural pathway of decisionmaking is now clearer, which will allow scientists to better understand complex thinking abilities and perform more advanced analyses. In addition, the dataset is publicly available.

"These initial conclusions corroborate aspects of brain function that were already intuited from the more limited studies available. It's as if we suspected how a movie would end without having seen the ending; now they've shown it to us," Juan Lerma, a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council, told the Science Media Centre España. (Lerma was not involved in the research.) "In short, the data show that, in decisionmaking, for example, many brain areas are involved, more than expected, while in sensory processing the areas are more distinct."

The adult human brain contains about 86 billion neurons, each capable of establishing thousands of synaptic connections with other cells. Although it weighs about 1.4 kilograms, the human brain consumes about 20 percent of the body's total energy at rest, a remarkably high proportion for its size. Although today's supercomputers outperform the brain in numerical calculations, none yet matches its energy efficiency or its capacity for learning, adaptation, and parallel processing. There's still a long way to go before neuroscience can fully map the neural processes of human decisionmaking, but studies like this one take us one step closer.

Journals:
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour
Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making

Original Submission

HeadlineEditor writes:

Martian rock contains 'clearest sign' yet of ancient life on Mars, NASA says

Scientists believe intriguing leopard spots on a rock sampled by the Perseverance rover on Mars last year may have potentially been made by ancient life, NASA announced Wednesday. The team has also published a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Nature about the new analysis, though they say further study is needed.

"After a year of review, they have come back and they said, listen, we can't find another explanation," said Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. "So this very well could be the clearest sign of life that we've ever found on Mars, which is incredibly exciting."

[...] The sample, called Sapphire Canyon, was collected by the Perseverance rover from rocky outcrops on the edges of the Neretva Vallis river valley, a region sculpted by water that once flowed into Jezero Crater more than 3 billion years ago. The rover landed within the crater to explore the ancient lake site in February 2021, seeking rocks created or modified by water on Mars in the past.

Perseverance drilled the Sapphire Canyon sample from an arrowhead-shaped rock called Cheyava Falls in July 2024.

Although the sample is safely ensconced in a tube millions of miles away on Mars, scientists have remained intrigued by the rock because of its potential to reveal whether microscopic life ever existed on Mars.

"The discovery of a potential biosignature, or a feature or signature that could be consistent with biological processes, but that requires further work and study to confirm a biological origin is something that we're sharing with you all today that grows from years of hard work, dedication and collaboration between over 1,000 scientists and engineers here at the (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory and our partner institutions around the country and internationally," said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance project scientist at JPL, during a news conference Wednesday.

Mojibake Tengu writes:

New Unicode version 17.0.0 specification, datafiles and algorithms is now released:

Unicode® 17.0.0
https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode17.0.0/

Important feature for communications and data stores is technical standard #39 Unicode Security Mechanisms, which collects data for confusables and may help righteous programmers to prevent (or mischievous ones to employ) character spoofing in their pieces.
https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr39/tr39-32.html

For us early adopters of fancy new characters or added scripts, Unifont by unifoundry is now conformal too:

Unifont 17.0.01 Released
https://savannah.gnu.org/news/?id=10809

Unicode is a top critical technology for everyone on this globe, both machines and humans, so no more words need to be said. Study it yourself.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Advances in perovskite technology are moving sensors and everyday gadgets closer to operating without batteries:

Researchers at University College London have developed a new type of solar cell capable of efficiently generating power from indoor light, a breakthrough that could reduce reliance on disposable batteries. By refining perovskite-based photovoltaics to capture artificial light more effectively, the team has opened the door to powering everyday devices in homes and offices.

Perovskite, a material already gaining traction in outdoor solar panels, can be tuned to absorb the specific wavelengths of artificial light. Despite this promise, the compound has long faced obstacles. Tiny defects in its crystal structure known as traps impede electron movement, reducing efficiency and accelerating degradation.

To address these issues, the team introduced rubidium chloride during fabrication. The chemical promoted more uniform crystal growth, reducing strain and minimizing defects. They also added two stabilizing compounds to prevent halide ions like iodide and bromide from clustering into separate phases, a problem that previously disrupted electrical flow. This combined strategy enhanced both performance and durability.

The resulting solar cell achieved a conversion efficiency of 37.6 percent under indoor lighting conditions of 1000 lux, roughly equivalent to a brightly lit office. According to the researchers, this sets a record for a device specifically tuned for indoor use with a bandgap of 1.75 electron volts. In practical terms, the cells are six times more efficient than the best comparable indoor technologies currently available on the market.

Durability was another key focus. Tests over 100 days showed that the newly engineered cells retained 92 percent of their initial performance, compared with 76 percent for the control devices.

Under a more rigorous test – 300 hours of continuous exposure to bright light at 55 degrees Celsius – the devices retained 76 percent of their capacity, while conventional samples fell below 50 percent.

upstart writes:

Current and former staffers have come forward:

Meta allegedly suppressed research that suggested kids were exposed to certain dangers when using its VR headsets, according to a report by The Washington Post. Current and former employees have presented documents to Congress that describe incidents in which children were groomed by adult predators in VR, but allege that internal reports were edited to omit the worst of these offenses. Meta has denied these allegations.

Two of these researchers claim they met with a German family in which a child younger than ten had been approached by strangers online while using a Meta VR headset. Some of these strangers allegedly sexually propositioned the child. When the employees issued the harrowing report, their boss allegedly ordered that the aforementioned claims be deleted. When the internal report was eventually published, it spoke of some parents being scared of this type of thing but didn't mention the above incident.

The trove of documents presented to Congress reportedly indicate guidance from Meta's legal team instructing researchers to avoid collecting data about children using VR devices. The memo suggests this is "due to regulatory concerns," likely referring to fallout from congressional hearings that took place in 2021.

The documents also include warnings from employees that children younger than 13 were bypassing age restrictions to use VR headsets. However, Meta has since lowered the minimum age down to ten.

Meta spokeswoman Dani Lever told The Post that the documents were "stitched together to fit a predetermined and false narrative" and that the company doesn't prohibit research about children under 13. "We stand by our research team's excellent work and are dismayed by these mischaracterizations of the team's efforts," she said.

The company didn't confirm or deny the events regarding the family in Germany, but said that if the anecdote was deleted from the official record it was to ensure compliance with a US federal law governing the handling of children's personal data or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from the EU.

That one prohibits companies from collecting personal information without consent, but the researchers maintain they received consent from the child's mother. They also say they received a signed contract from the mother at the start of the interview.

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee is scheduled to discuss these allegations at a hearing later in the week. This particular subcommittee examines laws and regulations regarding online safety.

Cannabis Might be Messing With Female Fertility

upstart writes:

New research shows that eggs and embryos exposed to THC are more likely to develop chromosomal abnormalities:

Cannabis could be risky for women becoming or hoping to become pregnant. New research out today finds evidence that the drug can negatively affect women's fertility.

Scientists in Canada examined the impacts of cannabis on eggs and embryos from women undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment. They found that greater levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) exposure were linked to several harmful changes, including eggs and embryos with the wrong number of chromosomes. Though it's unclear exactly how cannabis may affect pregnancy outcomes in the real world, the findings do support current recommendations to avoid its use during pregnancy, the researchers say.

"Collectively, this data presents compelling evidence that cannabis consumption may negatively impact female fertility," the researchers wrote in their paper, published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

Plenty of research has suggested that cannabis and THC, the primary ingredient responsible for the drug's "high," can harm men's fertility. But according to the researchers, there's been significantly less attention paid to how it might affect women's reproductive health—an increasingly relevant question given the drug's growing legalization in the U.S.

The scientists had earlier shown that THC and its byproducts can reach the ovarian follicles, the structures containing an egg that's eventually released during ovulation. This time, they wanted to get a closer look at THC's potential effects on a woman's eggs.

In the lab, they exposed immature oocytes, better known as eggs, collected during IVF treatment to THC and its byproducts (the eggs were deemed waste material, which the patients consented to being used for research). They also conducted a retrospective analysis of IVF patients, comparing women who tested positive for THC exposure in their follicular fluid to closely matched controls who tested negative for it.

After THC exposure in the lab, the team noticed an increase in the number of aneuploid eggs, or eggs with the wrong number of chromosomes. In the retrospective study, they found that IVF patients positive for THC had a lower embryo euploidy rate, or embryos with the correct number of chromosomes. High enough levels of THC also seemed to speed up the maturation of eggs.

Lead study researcher Cyntia Duval is a postdoctoral fellow at the CReATe Fertility Center in Toronto. She notes that their sample size of IVF patients (62 positive for THC) is too small to truly know if THC can lower a woman's odds of successful pregnancy. But the findings do suggest that cannabis can have real impacts on the health of a woman's eggs and embryos.

Duval and her team are still hoping to learn more about the harmful effects of THC and other cannabinoids on women's fertility. They're next planning to study how these compounds can affect an egg cell's epigenetics—how its genes are actually expressed. It's possible that some epigenetic changes in an egg caused by THC could then be passed along to a resulting embryo.

But she also points out that doctors and health organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, already advise women who are or are hoping to become pregnant to stop using cannabis and other recreational drugs. "Our study provides data, showing how cannabinoids can be associated with altered chromosomal segregation in oocytes and embryos," Duval said.

So while there might be some unanswered questions about THC and women's fertility, the take-home message appears clear: Women should avoid or at least try to reduce their cannabis use while pregnant or trying to conceive.

upstart writes:

Tiny11 Builder update lets users strip Copilot and other bloat from Windows 11:

Tiny11 developer NTDev has emerged from obscurity to announce a new version of the Tiny11 builder script. The tool is designed to create a "streamlined" Windows 11 installation image by removing various pieces of bloatware and unwanted apps that Microsoft has been bundling with the OS for years.

According to NTDev, the latest builder version simplifies the creation process and introduces the ability to remove some of the newest Windows additions, including the Copilot chatbot, the new Outlook client, and Teams.

The release also addresses previous issues with mounting / unmounting the Registry that affected earlier builds. Tiny11 has always aimed to make Windows 11 more compact, and the updated script improves on this by using Microsoft's "Recovery" Lzx compression instead of the older Fast (Xpress) method. NTDev notes, however, that the new compression requires more time and significantly more RAM.

Copilot, Outlook, and Teams have now joined a growing list of bloatware that the Tiny11 builder can strip from a Windows 11 installation image. The list primarily targets UWP apps, but also includes Edge and Xbox. The Xbox Identity Provider service remains intact, so the feature can be restored later if desired.

The Tiny11 builder has been rewritten as a PowerShell script, offering far more flexibility and power than the previous Batch-based version. Thanks to PowerShell, the latest script can reportedly support any Windows 11 release, in any language, and on any processor architecture. The package does not require any external tools except for oscdimg.exe, Microsoft's official utility for creating bootable Windows PE ISO images.

NTDev confirmed that the new Tiny11 builder has been tested on Windows 11 24H2, 25H2, and Canary Build 27934, ensuring broad compatibility under normal conditions. Additionally, a "Tiny11 Core Builder" version exists for creating a Windows image with only the bare minimum needed for testing environments, although the developer cautions that the "core" script is not intended for typical power users seeking to remove bloatware from Windows 11.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Powered by plutonium, running on pure stubbornness:

It is almost half a century since Voyager 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a mission to study Jupiter, Saturn, and the atmosphere of Titan. It continues to send data back to Earth.

Although engineers reckon that the aging spacecraft might survive well into the 2030s before eventually passing out of range of the Deep Space Network, the spacecraft's cosmic ray subsystem was switched off in 2025. More of the probe's instruments are earmarked for termination as engineers eke out Voyager's power supply for a few more years.

On September 5, 1977, the power situation was a good deal healthier when the mission got underway. Launched just over two weeks after Voyager 2, Voyager 1 was scheduled to make flybys of Jupiter and Saturn. It skipped a visit to Pluto in favor of a closer look at the Saturnian moon Titan, which had an intriguing atmosphere.

The launch was the final one for the Titan IIIE rocket and was marred slightly by an earlier-than-expected second stage engine cutoff. NASA averted disaster by using a longer burn of the Centaur stage to compensate, and Voyager 1's mission to Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond began.

Voyager 1's journey to the launchpad began with the "Grand Tour" concept of the 1960s, in which Gary Flandro of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) noted an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune would occur in the 1970s, allowing a probe to swing by all the planets by using gravity assists.

Two missions were planned – one to be launched in 1977 to Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, and another in 1979 to visit Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The concept gained support, but with costs spiraling and NASA also trying to develop the Space Shuttle, it was scaled back to visit two planets with two probes, derived from the Mariner program.

Indeed, the mission was known as the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn project until shortly before the 1977 launch, when the name "Voyager" was selected.

upstart writes:

A new study presents an innovative approach to CO2 removal that addresses two environmental crises at once:

Experts estimate that the global production and disposal of plastics emits nearly 2 billion tons of greenhouse gases per year. The vast majority of these materials end up in landfills, but what if we could repurpose some of that waste to remove planet-warming emissions from the atmosphere?

A team of researchers in Denmark has discovered a way to do just that. In a new study, published September 5 in the journal Science Advances, they transformed decomposed #1 plastic—also known as PET (polyethylene-terephthalate) plastic—into an efficient carbon capture material.

"The beauty of this method is that we solve a problem without creating a new one," lead author Margarita Poderyte, a chemistry PhD candidate at the University of Copenhagen, said in a release. "By turning waste into a raw material that can actively reduce greenhouse gases, we make an environmental issue part of the solution to the climate crisis."

As global temperatures rise, the need to mitigate planet-warming pollutants—such as carbon dioxide—is increasingly urgent. This has led scientists to develop ways to actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere in addition to cutting emissions. At the same time, the growing amount of plastic waste in landfills, oceans, and pretty much everywhere else on Earth has led to a global microplastics crisis that threatens human and ecosystem health.

Poderyte and her colleagues hope their new approach to carbon capture can kill two birds with one stone. Through a chemical reaction known as aminolysis, they upcycled PET plastic—mainly used in plastic bottles and food packaging—into a CO2 sorbent called BAETA.

This material has a powdery structure that can be made into pellets that are very effective at grabbing CO2 molecules. One pound of BAETA can absorb up to 0.15 pounds of CO2, which is quite efficient compared to most current commercial systems.

BAETA is also more heat-resistant than other amine sorbents, remaining stable at temperatures up to 482 degrees Fahrenheit (250 degrees Celsius). However, it requires a greater thermal energy input to reach maximum CO2 absorption and to release the captured carbon for storage or conversion to other resources. This may lead to greater energy costs, but the researchers believe BAETA can provide a scalable, cost-effective carbon capture system.

Journal Reference:https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adv5906

Original Submission

As per The Register, many frustrated users on Reddit and other forums, and my own experiences, accessing Ubuntu's software repositories was very difficult during the weekend. According to the Ubuntu status page, security.ubuntu.com and archive.ubuntu.com began experiencing an outage during the evening (for US time zones) of September 4. Following the initial major outage, both also experienced intermittent periods of maintenance and additional outages that persisted through the weekend. Despite Canonical indicating the outages had been resolved, many users including myself experienced very slow software updates or could not access the servers altogether. From The Register's article:

When is an outage not an outage? According to Canonical's forum, it's when a 36-minute server disruption creates a multi-day backlog that leaves users unable to install or update Ubuntu systems.

Canonical's status page shows that both security.ubuntu.com and archive.ubuntu.com experienced brief issues on September 5 and 7. The incidents appeared short-lived, ending with the reassuring "All components are Operational" message. Case closed, right?

Not exactly. While Canonical's servers came back online quickly, the real problems were just beginning. Users flooded the company's forums throughout the weekend, reporting failed installations and frozen updates. The brief server outages had created a processing backlog that left Ubuntu's repositories effectively broken for days.

"They say the outage was only 36 minutes, but two days later it still isn't working, a frustrated user told The Register yesterday.

Our source wasn't alone. A look at Canonical's forums indicated plenty of users encountering the same issue, prompting terse responses from Canonical representatives who eventaully shut down the discussion.

The Ubuntu Studio Project Leader, Erich Eickmeyer, posted: "We don't need a bunch of 'Can Confirm' and 'me too' posts. Instructions were given as to what needs to happen as 1) a workaround, and 2) what you need to do to get the repos working (you can't)."

There are a large number of Ubuntu mirrors, many of which seemed to function properly during the outage. Tools like mirrorselect can find the fastest mirror for a user, and GUI users can select a mirror from a dropdown list using the "Software & Updates" tool. However, it's still up to command line users to manually update their Apt sources file to the mirror.

The issue seems to be mostly resolved, though I have not been able to find an official explanation from Canonical about the reason for the extended inaccessibility and slowness of their servers. Transparency would be very welcome to this Ubuntu user, especially to provide authoritative information about whether the issues were due to an attack of some sort.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

JetBlue planes will start using Project Kuiper satellite Wi-Fi in 2027:

Amazon's new broadband satellite constellation just scored a big win.

The company announced on Thursday (Sept. 4) that JetBlue will start using Wi-Fi provided by Project Kuiper satellites on its flights in 2027. It's the first such commitment Amazon has received from an airline, a number of which have already signed up to use the services of a competitor — SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation.

[...] Project Kuiper is still in the early stages of construction; just 102 of its planned 3,200 satellites have reached low Earth orbit (LEO) to date.

But all 102 of those spacecraft have gone up in the past four months, on four separate rocket launches. And the company plans to move even faster going forward.

"We're continuing to accelerate our production, processing and deployment rates," Amazon representatives said in the same statement. "Our goal is to begin delivering service to our first customers later this year, and to roll out more widely as we add coverage and capacity to the network."

Amazon's Announcement

JetBlue's Announcement

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Congress and Trump may compromise on the SLS rocket by axing its costly upper stage:

There are myriad questions about how NASA's budget process will play out in the coming weeks, with the start of the new fiscal year on October 1 looming.

For example, the Trump administration may seek to shut off dozens of science missions that are either already in space or in development. Although Congress has signaled a desire to keep these missions active, absent a confirmed budget, the White House has made plans to turn off the lights.

Some answers may be forthcoming this week, as the House Appropriations Committee will take up the Commerce, Justice, and Science budget bill on Wednesday morning. However great uncertainty remains about whether there will be a budget passed by October 1 (unlikely), a continuing resolution, or a government shutdown.

Behind the scenes, discussions are also taking place about NASA's Artemis Program in general and the future of the Space Launch System rocket specifically.

From the beginning, the second Trump administration has sought to cancel the costly, expendable rocket. Some officials wanted to end the rocket immediately,  but eventually the White House decided to push for cancellation after Artemis III. This seemed prudent because it allowed the United States the best possible chance to land humans back on the Moon before China got there, and then transition to a more affordable lunar program as quickly as possible.

Congress, particularly US Sen. Ted. Cruz, R-Texas, was not amenable. And so, in supplemental funding as part of the "One Big Beautiful Bill," Cruz locked in billions of dollars to ensure that Artemis IV and Artemis V flew on the SLS rocket, with the promise of additional missions.

Since the release of its budget proposal in May, which called for an end to the SLS rocket after Artemis III, the White House has largely been silent, offering no response to Congress. However that changed last week, when interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy addressed the issue on a podcast hosted by one of the agency's public relations officials, Gary Jordan:

Here is my one concern. If Artemis I, Artemis II, and Artemis III are all $4 billion a launch, $4 billion a launch. At $4 billion a launch, you don't have a Moon program. It just, I don't think that exists. We have to bring the price down. And so I have to think about and work with members of Congress. What does Artemis IV, V, and VI look like? But to spend that much money in thinking about what we have to do to have a sustained presence, I think becomes very, very challenging.

And so what? What is the answer? I don't know, but those are things that I think about, because you look at what the private sector has done for access to space. For the private sector, again, you can, you can have a satellite and get it into space for, you know, a million, little over a million dollars, like that was unheard of 20 years ago. What's happening to drive the price down of these, of these vehicles. That's what we have to think about, because the $4 billion figure just is too massive to think we can be sustainable at that number.

upstart writes:

Brain scans reveal a common neural signature when people see red, green or yellow:

It's a late-night debate in college dorms across the world: Is my red the same as your red? Two neuroscientists weigh in on this classic "Intro to Philosophy" puzzler in research published September 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience. Their answer is a resounding maybe.

There were two possibilities when it comes to how brains perceive color, says Andreas Bartels of the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. Perhaps everyone's brain is unique, with bespoke snowflake patterns of nerve cells responding when a person sees red. Or it could be that seeing red kicks off a standard, predictable pattern of brain activity that doesn't vary much from person to person.

The answer is overwhelmingly the second option, the new study suggests. "There are commonalities across brains," Bartels says. Along with colleague Michael Bannert, Bartels first monitored the activity of nerve cells spread across visual brain areas as 15 people saw shades of reds, greens and yellows. The team then used those benchmarks to predict what color a person was looking at, based solely on the individual's pattern of brain activity.

The results show that neural reactions to colors are somewhat standard and don't seem to vary much from person to person. But these neuroanatomical findings can't answer the question of how it feels to see red, Bartels says. How brain activity creates subjective inner experiences is a much bigger and thornier question about consciousness, one that will no doubt continue to be debated for a long time.

Journal Reference: Michael M. Bannert and Andreas Bartels, Large-scale color biases in the retinotopic functional architecture are region specific and shared across human brains, J. Neuro Science, 8 September 2025, e2717202025; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2717-20.2025

Original Submission