05 Sci-Tech

China-Egypt ties grow as BRI, other multilateral mechanisms provide platform to deepen cooperation – The Manila Times

pgnewser October 22, 2025 0

Blurb:

In eastern Egypt, rows of photovoltaic modules from Chinese solar technology giant LONGi are providing substantial and stable clean electricity for the water pump irrigation systems in the region’s agricultural and pastoral areas. With an installed capacity of 500 kilowatt, it can save over 50,000 yuan ($6,968.4) in electricity costs monthly, effectively reducing agricultural production’s operational costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

During this year’s Solar & Storage Live Egypt, held from April 29 to 30, the company signed framework agreements for the supply of 50 megawatts of photovoltaic modules with Egyptian distribution partners Egypta Group and Reestech. Following this, LONGi, together with Huawei, Egypta Group, and Egyptian project owner Mecca, signed a 30-megawatt project cooperation agreement, the company told the Global Times in a statement.

Plants self-organize in a ‘hidden order,’ echoing pattern found across nature– www.livescience.com

pgnewser October 22, 2025 0

Blurb:

Scientists have uncovered a “hidden order” in drylands across the planet, where plants follow disordered hyperuniformity — a layout that looks random and disorganized up close but adheres to a clear pattern when viewed from farther away.

The findings explain phenomena like “tiger bush” in West Africa, where bands of plants look like tiger stripes from above, or “fairy circles” in Namibia that look like spots from far away but are actually clumps of plants. These plants are self-organized in a way that helps them cope with drought and function in extreme conditions.

Mysterious cosmic object discovered in young star system could rewrite planet formation rules |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser October 22, 2025 0

Blurb:

In a new discovery outlined in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers have identified a mysterious celestial body known as Companion Candidate 1 (CC1), orbiting within the young WISPIT 2 system. Initially observed during a study focused on the protoplanet WISPIT 2b, this intriguing object may represent either a dense dust clump reflecting long-wavelength light or possibly a low-mass star enveloped in a dusty disk. The detection, made using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, has sparked fresh scientific curiosity about how planetary systems form and evolve. CC1 may be the missing piece that reveals more about the complex processes occurring within transitional disks around young stars.

A giant wave is rippling through the Milky Way, and scientists don’t know why– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser October 22, 2025 0

Blurb:

Our Milky Way is constantly in motion: it spins, it tilts, and, as new observations reveal, it ripples. Data collected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope show that our galaxy is not only rotating and wobbling but also sending out a vast wave that travels outward from its center.

For about a century, astronomers have known that the Milky Way’s stars orbit its core, and Gaia has precisely tracked their speeds and trajectories. Since the 1950s, scientists have also recognized that the galactic disc is not flat but warped. Then in 2020, Gaia uncovered that this warped disc slowly oscillates over time, similar to the motion of a spinning top.

A second moon for Earth? NASA’s quasi-moon begins its 50-year orbital journey around our planet until 2038 |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser October 22, 2025 0

Blurb:

Astronomers have found that Earth has acquired a new cosmic partner, a tiny asteroid named 2025 PN7, which will orbit with our planet for approximately 50 years. Though described by some as a “mini-moon,” scientists clarify that it is not actually a satellite like our Moon. Rather, it’s a quasi-moon, an uncommon variety of asteroid that moves in almost the same orbit and velocity as Earth around the Sun, giving the illusion that it is orbiting our planet. Measured to be roughly 19 metres in diameter, 2025 PN7 was discovered in August 2025 and is set to continue being close to Earth’s orbit until some time after 2083 before slowly moving away into outer space.

Euthanasia for children is the devil’s latest sinister attack on innocent life– www.lifesitenews.com

pgnewser October 21, 2025 0

Blurb:

The fight against euthanasia reached a new level yesterday, as Fox News published an article that blows the lid off the sinister nature of the industry.

Reporter Asra Nomani has just published an investigative report detailing the predatory-like behavior of what she calls “Assisted Suicide Inc.”

“A Fox Digital investigation reveals … opponents of euthanasia face a multimillion-dollar global lobby that could be called Assisted Suicide Inc., a sprawling network changing laws worldwide, developing euthanasia services for funeral parlors, selling ‘suicide pods,’ promoting ‘suicide tourism’ and even training ‘doulas for death,’” she writes.

Trump Signs Critical Minerals Agreement With Australia– legalinsurrection.com

pgnewser October 21, 2025 0

Blurb:

President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a critical minerals agreement to counter China, which is holding tight to its own rare earth metals.

According to Bloomberg, Australia “holds the world’s fourth-largest deposits of rare earths.”

With China trying to control the rare earths and critical minerals market, Australia hopes to become “a viable alternative” for countries.

Australia has these key elements:

  • Neodymium and praseodymium: needed for high-strength magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines
  • Dysprosium and terbium: needed for magnets used in high temperatures
  • Lanthanum and cerium: used in catalytic converters and batteries
  • Europium and gadolinium: needed for phosphors used in screens and medical imaging
  • Samarium: used in high-temperature permanent magnets and lasers

 

UN Cuts Down 100,000 Amazon Trees to Make Way for ‘Climate Change’ Summit– slaynews.com

pgnewser October 21, 2025 0

Blurb:

The United Nations (UN) is facing backlash after reports confirmed that around 100,000 trees were cut down in the Amazon rainforest to build new roads and infrastructure for its upcoming COP30 “climate change” summit.

The conference is set to take place in the Brazilian city of Belém in November.

It will bring an estimated 70,000 delegates and activists to the region to discuss “saving the planet” and “protecting biodiversity.”

Scientists create LED light that kills cancer cells without harming healthy ones– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser October 21, 2025 0

Blurb:

Scientists have developed a promising cancer therapy that uses LED light and ultra-thin flakes of tin to eliminate cancer cells while protecting healthy tissue. Unlike traditional chemotherapy and other invasive treatments, this new method avoids the painful side effects patients often endure.

The breakthrough comes from a partnership between The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Porto in Portugal, made possible through the UT Austin Portugal Program. The collaboration aims to make light-based cancer therapies more accessible and affordable. Current versions of these treatments rely on expensive materials, specialized lab setups, and powerful lasers that can sometimes damage surrounding tissue. By switching to LEDs and introducing tin-based “SnOx nanoflakes” (“Sn” is the chemical symbol for tin), the researchers have created a safer and potentially low-cost alternative.

Cells Have a Crystal Trigger That Makes Them Self-Destruct When Viruses Invade– www.scientificamerican.com

pgnewser October 21, 2025 0

Blurb:

A special class of immune proteins protect us from pathogens but also drive inflammation and cell death

By Viviane Callier edited by Tanya Lewis

A model showing proteins called death fold domains (green) telling a caspase enzyme (blue) to kill the cell after it has been compromised by pathogens.

Stowers Institute for Medical Research/Tayla Miller

The immune system has a tough job: When a tiny virus invades one of our cells, that cell must detect it and, within minutes, decide what to do. If the cell quickly self-destructs, that will prevent the virus from spreading throughout the body. But such a response to a false alarm will mean the cell will die unnecessarily.

AI Is Changing What High School STEM Students Study– www.wired.com

pgnewser October 21, 2025 0

Blurb:

In the early 2010s, nearly every STEM-savvy college-bound kid heard the same advice: Learn to code. Python was the new Latin. Computer science was the ticket to a stable, well-paid, future-proof life.

But in 2025, the glow has dimmed. “Learn to code” now sounds a little like “learn shorthand.” Teenagers still want jobs in tech, but they no longer see a single path to get there. AI seems poised to snatch up coding jobs, and there aren’t a plethora of AP classes in vibe coding. Their teachers are scrambling to keep up.

“There’s a move from taking as much computer science as you can to now trying to get in as many statistics courses” as possible, says Benjamin Rubenstein, an assistant principal at New York’s Manhattan Village Academy. Rubenstein has spent 20 years in New York City classrooms, long enough to watch the “STEM pipeline” morph into a network of branching paths instead of one straight line. For his students, studying stats feels more practical.

Nuclear stocks surge after Army launches program to deploy small reactors– www.cnbc.com

pgnewser October 15, 2025 0

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Nuclear stocks rallied Wednesday after the U.S. Army launched a program to deploy small reactors.

Shares of NuScale, a small reactor developer, soared 17%. Oklo and Nano Nuclear were up nearly 7% and 4%, resepectively. The uranium company Centrus was up 13%.

The U.S. Army on Tuesday launched a program to build micro nuclear reactors in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit. The microreactors will be commercially owned and operated with the goal of helping developers scale up their businesses, according to the Army.

The Abortion Pill is So Dangerous for Women It Puts 1 in 25 Women in the ER– www.lifenews.com

pgnewser October 15, 2025 0

Blurb:

On Sept. 30, hours before the federal government shut down, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had a baffling act to fit in. The FDA stealthily approved a new generic version of the abortion drug mifepristone.

Mifepristone, a drug the FDA itself admits sends as many as 1 in 25 women to the emergency room even under strict use conditions, is not only responsible for the deaths of countless unborn children, but also has taken the lives of too many mothers along with it.

Ironically, the approval came barely a week after the administration warned pregnant women to reconsider taking Tylenol to avoid harm to their unborn children.

CBO Data Shows We Can’t Afford To Extend Obamacare Subsidies– thefederalist.com

pgnewser October 14, 2025 0

Blurb:

Are you the kind of person who likes to spend $4 for every $3 you take in? If so, your financial management “skills” might qualify you to run for Congress. With people like that running the show, is it any wonder that interest costs on our national debt surpassed $1 trillion last year for the first time ever?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) review of the fiscal year that just concluded on Sept. 30 provides one of many reasons why Republicans should reject Democrats’ demands to end the “Schumer Shutdown” — namely, a permanent extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies as part of $1.5 trillion in spending. While most Republican lawmakers won’t win any awards for fiscal rectitude, on this issue at least, they’re exhibiting the courage not to make a bad situation worse.

AI Could Make it Harder to Establish Blame for Medical Failings, Experts Say– www.madinamerica.com

pgnewser October 14, 2025 0

Blurb:

From The Guardian: “The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare could create a legally complex blame game when it comes to establishing liability for medical failings, experts have warned.

The development of AI for clinical use has boomed, with researchers creating a host of tools, from algorithms to help interpret scans to systems that can aid with diagnoses. AI is also being developed to help manage hospitals, from optimising bed capacity to tackling supply chains.

But while experts say the technology could bring myriad benefits for healthcare, they say there is also cause for concern, from a lack of testing of the effectiveness of AI tools to questions over who is responsible should a patient have a negative outcome.

Newsom Forces Apple And Google To Track Kids’ Ages Under New California Law– dailycaller.com

pgnewser October 14, 2025 0

Blurb:

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a first-in-the-nation law that forces operating systems and app stores to pass along users’ age brackets to apps — a win for Big Tech over Hollywood in a year-long fight over how to police kids online.

The Digital Age Assurance Act, carried by Democratic Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, pushes age-gating up the stack to Apple, Google and other OS makers starting Jan. 1, 2027, with civil penalties up to $7,500 per child for willful violations. It avoids photo-ID uploads and instead has parents enter a birth date at device setup; apps must request the resulting age signal via API.

Are Abortion Pills Contaminating Our Water?– www.lifenews.com

pgnewser October 14, 2025 0

Blurb:

As the use of the mifepristone chemical abortion pill continues to rise in the U.S., concerns are growing that residue from the powerful drug as well as the remains of aborted babies are contaminating the water supply and may be contributing to fertility problems, as well as other health concerns.

Recently released research by Liberty Counsel Action (LCA) pointed out that when mifepristone was originally approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000, it was predicted that the impact of the drug on the environment would be minimal, and therefore “no further study was completed.” As LCA noted, since mothers who take the abortion pill are instructed to deliver their dead baby into their toilet at home, the assessment “failed to address the issue of how the fetal remains would be disposed of, essentially ignoring the reality that in many cases, said remains would enter U.S. water systems in violation of various fetal disposal and medical waste laws.”

More Evidence Emerges That One of Saturn’s Moons Could Harbor Life– www.wired.com

pgnewser October 14, 2025 0

Blurb:

A recent study of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, has detected several organic compounds that had never been recorded there before. The findings, published this month in Nature Astronomy, provide new clues about the interior chemical composition of this icy world, as well as new hope that it could harbor life.

The researchers analyzed data from the Cassini probe, which launched in 1997 and studied Saturn and its moons for years until its destruction in 2017. For Enceladus, Cassini gathered data from ice fragments forcefully ejected from the moon’s subsurface ocean up into space.

Earth enters ‘new reality’ as coral reefs reach first climate tipping point– phys.org

pgnewser October 14, 2025 0

Blurb:

The world faces a “new reality” as we have reached the first of many Earth system tipping points that will cause catastrophic harm unless humanity takes urgent action, according to a report released by the University of Exeter and international partners.

With ministers gathering ahead of the COP30 summit, the second Global Tipping Points Report finds that warm-water coral reefs—on which nearly a billion people and a quarter of all marine life depend—are passing their tipping point.

DJI fights U.S. government classification as ‘Chinese military company,’ appeals ruling– mashable.com

pgnewser October 14, 2025 0

Blurb:

DJI is continuing to fight the U.S. government’s classification of it as a “Chinese military company,” filing an appeal in its unsuccessful lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DoD, recently renamed the Department of War).

In a ruling against DJI last month, a U.S. district court allowed the DoD’s designation of the Chinese drone manufacturer as a “Chinese military company” to stand. Despite disagreeing with the DoD’s allegation that DJI is “indirectly owned by the Chinese Communist Party,” the judge determined that there is evidence that the company does contribute to the “Chinese defence industrial base,” as drones are of substantial use in military contexts.