05 Sci-Tech

Zika virus uses cells’ ‘self-care’ system to turn against host– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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A new study reveals the biological secret to the Zika virus’s infectious success: Zika uses host cells’ own “self-care” system of clearing away useless molecules to suppress the host proteins that the virus has employed to get into those cells in the first place.

While these cell surface proteins are valuable for viral entry, they also have roles in producing an antiviral response. Before that can happen, the virus manipulates a process cells use to keep themselves healthy to lower the proteins’ activity, clearing the way for unfettered viral infection.

Though other viruses, such as HIV, are known to silence host receptors that let them into cells, Zika is unusual for having at least three of its own proteins that can get the job done, said Shan-Lu Liu, senior author the study and a virology professor in the Department of Veterinary Biosciences at The Ohio State University.

The WHO penned the world’s first pandemic agreement — but the US isn’t signing– www.livescience.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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On March 20, 2025, members of the World Health Organization adopted the world’s first pandemic agreement, following three years of “intensive negotiations launched by governments in response to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The U.S., however, did not participate, in part because of its intention to withdraw from the WHO.

Global health experts are hailing the agreement as a historic moment.

What does the agreement mean for the world, and how can it make everyone safer and more prepared for the next pandemic?

Telegram and xAI strike $300 million deal to bring Grok AI to platform | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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“This also strengthens Telegram’s financial position: we will receive $300M in cash and equity from xAI, plus 50% of the revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via Telegram.”

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov announced on Wednesday that the company has teamed up with Elon Musk’s xAI to bring the AI chatbot Grok to the messaging platform.

Durov wrote that he and Musk have agreed to a one-year partnership to bring Grok to Telegram’s users, and Grok will be integrated across all Telegram apps. “This also strengthens Telegram’s financial position: we will receive $300M in cash and equity from xAI, plus 50% of the revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via Telegram,” Durov wrote.

A video posted by Durov stated that the partnership will see Grok pinned for all users on Telegram, will appear in the search bar when asking a question, provide message editing and chat summaries, summarize documents posted in Telegram chats, and can serve as a moderator. The inclusion of Grok will begin in the “summer of 2025,” the video stated.

Spain denies power grid ‘experiment’ caused giant blackout– www.channelnewsasia.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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MADRID: Spain’s government on Wednesday (May 28) denied a press report that an “experiment” on the national power grid caused a huge blackout that crippled the Iberian Peninsula one month ago.

Authorities have been scrambling to find answers after the Apr 28 outage cut telecommunications, halted transport and plunged cities into darkness across Spain and Portugal.

Conservative British daily newspaper The Telegraph reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources in Brussels, that Spanish authorities “were conducting an experiment before the system crashed, probing how far they could push reliance on renewables in preparation for Spain’s rushed phase-out of nuclear reactors from 2027”.

“The government seems to have pushed the pace recklessly, before making the necessary investments in a sophisticated 21st-century smart grid capable of handling it,” it added.

Asked about the report in parliament, Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen said: “It is false, totally false, that the government carried out any sort of experiment on the grid prior to the outage.”

Earth could see more years of extreme heat, top weather experts warn – National– globalnews.ca

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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Get ready for several years of even more record-breaking heat that pushes Earth to more deadly, fiery and uncomfortable extremes, two of the world’s top weather agencies forecast.

There’s an 80 per cent chance the world will break another annual temperature record in the next five years, and it’s even more probable that the world will again exceed the international temperature threshold set 10 years ago, according to a five-year forecast released Wednesday by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.K. Meteorological Office.

“Higher global mean temperatures may sound abstract, but it translates in real life to a higher chance of extreme weather: stronger hurricanes, stronger precipitation, droughts,” said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, who wasn’t part of the calculations but said they made sense. “So higher global mean temperatures translates to more lives lost.”

With every tenth of a degree the world warms from human-caused climate change “we will experience higher frequency and more extreme events (particularly heat waves but also droughts, floods, fires and human-reinforced hurricanes/typhoons),” emailed Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. He was not part of the research.

A Neanderthal Fingerprint Points to Art, and Possibly Portraiture, Around 43,000 Years Ago– www.discovermagazine.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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Artistic mediums certainly change. While modern humans have paint and paper, ancient humans had ochre and pebbles. However, both work well for finger painting, whether for Homo sapiens today or for Homo neanderthalensis thousands of years ago.

According to a new study in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, a team of researchers may have discovered one of the oldest art objects adorned with a fingerprint from across Europe. The object, a pebble, was stamped with ochre by a Neanderthal around 43,000 years ago and was found by researchers in Spain in 2022.

“This object contributes to our understanding of Neanderthals’ capacity for abstraction,” the researchers stated in their study, as it could “represent one of the oldest known abstractions of a human face in the prehistoric record.”

Indeed, the placement of the ochre fingerprint could suggest that Neanderthals were more advanced artists than traditionally thought, adorning objects not only with fingerprints but with human faces, as well.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launches Starship but loses control mid-flight within 30 minutes, crashes into Indian Ocean | Watch video |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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In a groundbreaking move for aerospace engineering, SpaceX launched the ninth integrated test flight of its Starship Super Heavy system from Starbase in South Texas on Tuesday evening. Unlike previous missions aimed at precision landings, this flight intentionally ended in a powerful splashdown. The goal was to gather critical data on the rocket’s structural limits and boost progress toward full reusability. This dramatic crash was a calculated experiment, marking a pivotal step in SpaceX’s mission to create reliable, reusable launch systems for future space exploration, including routine missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

SpaceX Starship lost control in mid-flight causing mission to end with ocean crash

At 7:36 p.m. EDT (2336 GMT), the completely integrated Starship launch vehicle — consisting of the upper-stage Starship spacecraft riding on top of the Super Heavy booster — departed from SpaceX’s Starbase complex on the Gulf Coast near Brownsville, Texas.The launch was live-streamed on SpaceX’s webcast, with observers seeing the rocket rise into the evening sky. The firing of Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines created a powerful plume of fire, exhaust, and water vapor, marking another milestone in the company’s long-term build-out of fully reusable spaceflight systems.For the first time, a previously launched Super Heavy booster powered a Starship flight — an important step toward SpaceX’s larger goal of routine, reusable spaceflight. This specific booster had been upgraded since its previous mission and was being asked to prove it could withstand repeated launches and touchdowns.A few minutes into flight, the first-stage booster broke away from the upper-stage Starship vehicle as anticipated. But SpaceX lost communication with the booster during descent, and it’s thought to have crashed into the ocean instead of executing the controlled splashdown SpaceX had intended. This kept engineers from capturing the full range of descent and landing data, though initial flight data will still be helpful.

Japan Sounds Alarm as Autopsies Find ‘Micro-Scars’ in Hearts of ‘Boosted’ Corpses– slaynews.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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A chilling alert has emerged from Japan after a major autopsy study found that people who died suddenly of an unexpected cardiac arrest after receiving Covid mRNA booster “vaccines” have tiny “micro-scars” in their hearts.

The study found that the previously undetected scarring was caused by repeated mRNA injections.

Researchers warn that difficult-to-detect damage is responsible for global surges in sudden death in the absence of overt ischemic heart disease.

The peer-reviewed autopsy study was led by Japanese cardiologist Dr. Tomomi Koizumi and pathologists Dr. Masao Ono.

The findings of the study were published in the journal JACC: Case Reports.

Koizumi and Ono investigated the presence of cardiac multiple micro-scars (MMS) in three elderly patients who died of unexplained cardiac arrest.

CDC to no longer recommend COVID vaccine for healthy children or pregnant women– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that the COVID-19 vaccine was removed from the recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women.

Kennedy was flanked by FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya when he said he “couldn’t be more pleased to make the announcement.” This comes years after Kennedy founded the Children’s Health Defense, which challenges vaccination among children amid scrutiny of side effects.

“Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children,” Kennedy said. “Now we’re one step closer to realizing President Trump’s promise to make America healthy again.”

Tesla’s humanoid robots aren’t the right fit for factories, says former Optimus lead– www.techspot.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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In brief: Elon Musk puts a lot of faith in Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot. Not only does the CEO believe it will drive the EV firm’s valuation into the trillions, but he also expects thousands of the bots working at Tesla – and other companies’ – factories. However, the former Optimus team lead thinks these robots aren’t the right fit for high-speed, repetitive factory work.

In August 2021, Tesla announced that it was creating a general-purpose, bipedal, humanoid robot capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive, or boring for humans to carry out.

The robot has undergone several design changes since then, with improvements in speed, stability, weight, balance, and other areas.

Last year, Musk made the bold claim that there will be at least one humanoid robot for every person in the world and that Tesla will control a massive share of this market, pushing its value to $25 trillion. He later said that the robots would be put to work in Tesla factories helping build its vehicles – presumably lowering costs by replacing human workers.

North Korea latest adversary to criticize Trump’s Golden Dome– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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North Korea, much like China and Russia in recent weeks, issued a scathing rebuke on Tuesday of President Donald Trump‘s pursuit of his Golden Dome missile defense system.

Trump has made the Golden Dome — a comprehensive air defense system that, once operational, will be able to intercept various missiles fired from land, sea, and space — a signature of his military policy early in his second term in office.

North Korea‘s foreign ministry said that Trump’s plan is the “height of self-righteousness, arrogance, high-handed and arbitrary practice, and is an outer space nuclear war scenario supporting the U.S. strategy for uni-polar domination with the preemptive establishment of the outer space-based military substructure, not a ‘defensive measure’ to cope with the ‘threat’ from someone.”

The ministry accused the U.S. of being “hell-bent on the moves to military outer space,” while claiming that the plan for the Golden Dome, as outlined by the Trump administration, “is also the expression of another attempt to militarize outer space coming from the past strategies for dominating outer space and the epitome of revealing the criminal past of the U.S. which plunged the whole world into the nightmare of the outbreak of a nuclear war.”

BREAKING: CDC removes Covid vax from recommended vaccines list for pregnant women, healthy children | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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“Today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from [the CDC’s] recommended immunization schedule.”

The Covid-19 vaccine has been removed from the Center for Disease Control’s recommended immunization schedule for pregnant women as well as healthy children.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy posted a video to X making the announcement, saying, “Today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from [the CDC’s] recommended immunization schedule. Bottom line: it’s common sense and it’s good science. We are now one step closer to realizing [President Trump’s] promise to Make America Healthy Again.”

NASA warns! Massive 25-storey building sized asteroid is set to pass close to Earth on May 28 – know the speed, time and other key details |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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A massive asteroid named 2025 JR is drawing global attention as it speeds toward Earth for a close encounter. Roughly the size of a 25-storey building, the space rock is set to make its nearest approach on Wednesday, May 28. While it will safely bypass Earth at a distance of 4.6 million kilometers, that proximity is considered unusually close in astronomical terms. The asteroid’s size and speed—combined with its Earth-crossing orbit—have sparked interest among scientists, space agencies, and skywatchers alike. Though there is no risk of collision, the flyby serves as a vivid reminder of how close—and unpredictable—near-Earth objects can be, reinforcing the need for continued monitoring and space preparedness.

On 28 May 2025, Asteroid 2025 JR is set to pass by Earth at 8:40 am IST, which is about 250 feet (76 meters) across, a respectable size in space. It’s an Apollo-class near-Earth object (NEO)—a class marked by asteroids that have orbits that intersect with Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Being of this kind of orbital feature, these asteroids are kept under close watch for how much danger they could pose.The asteroid travels at a staggering 40,800 km/h, a speed that, were it orbiting the Earth, would finish the journey in under an hour. While 2025 JR is not deemed a “potentially hazardous asteroid” because it is below the threshold diameter of 460 feet (140 meters), it is large enough that if it were to strike the Earth, the destruction would be devastating.

Scientists discover bacteria that ‘breathe’ electricity instead of oxygen |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists from Rice University have found a type of bacteria that can survive by releasing electricity instead of relying on oxygen. These microorganisms use a natural process to transfer electrons outside their cells, enabling them to generate energy in oxygen-free environments such as deep-sea vents or the human gut. The finding uncovers a previously hidden survival mechanism in nature and holds significant promise for clean energy, biotechnology, and environmental monitoring. The study offers new insight into how ancient life forms adapted to extreme conditions and how we might use them for future technologies.

FDA Orders COVID-19 Vaccine Makers to Expand Heart Inflammation Warning– conservativeroof.com

pgnewser May 23, 2025 0

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The Food and Drug Administration has directed COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to expand the warning for two forms of inflammation, according to letters made public on May 21.

The FDA told BioNTech, which produces a vaccine with Pfizer, and Moderna to update warnings regarding myocarditis—or heart inflammation—and the related condition pericarditis.

Richard Forshee, acting director of the FDA’s Office of Biostatistics and Pharmacovigilance, said that new information has emerged, including a 2024 FDA study that found some myocarditis patients had signs of heart scarring months after vaccination.

The companies must update labels to state that following administration of the 2023–24 versions, “the highest estimated incidence of myocarditis and/or pericarditis was in males 16 through 25 years of age,” Forshee said. The highest estimated incidence of the post-vaccination inflammation is about 38 cases per million doses for both vaccines, according to the proposed update.

The current warnings say the highest observed risk after Moderna vaccination is in males aged 18 to 24, and after Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination is in males aged 12 to 17.

Why Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Won’t Shield the U.S. from Nuclear Strikes– www.scientificamerican.com

pgnewser May 23, 2025 0

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During a briefing from the Oval Office this week, President Donald Trump revealed his administration’s plan for “Golden Dome”—an ambitious high-tech system meant to shield the U.S. from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile attacks launched by foreign adversaries. Flanked by senior officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the project’s newly selected leader, Gen. Michael Guetlein of the U.S. Space Force, Trump announced that Golden Dome will be completed within three years at a cost of $175 billion.

The program, which was among Trump’s campaign promises, derives its name from the Iron Dome missile defense system of Israel—a nation that’s geographically 400 times smaller than the U.S. Protecting the vastness of the U.S. demands very different capabilities than those of Iron Dome, which has successfully shot down rockets and missiles using ground-based interceptors. Most notably, Trump’s Golden Dome would need to expand into space—making it a successor to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) pursued by the Reagan administration in the 1980s. Better known by the mocking nickname “Star Wars,” SDI sought to neutralize the threat from the Soviet Union’s nuclear-warhead-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles by using space-based interceptors that could shoot them down midflight. But fearsome technical challenges kept SDI from getting anywhere close to that goal, despite tens of billions of dollars of federal expenditures.

Scientists have figured out how extinct giant ground sloths got so big and where it all went wrong– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser May 23, 2025 0

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Most of us are familiar sloths, the bear-like animals that hang from trees, live life in the slow lane, take a month to digest a meal and poop just once a week. Their closest living relatives are anteaters and armadillos, and if that seems like an odd pairing, there’s a reason why. Today, there are only two sloth species, but historically, there were dozens of them, including one with a bottle-nosed snout that ate ants and another that likely resembled the ancestors of modern armadillos.

Most of these extinct sloths also didn’t live in trees, because they were too big. The largest sloths, in the genus Megatherium, were about the size of Asian bull elephants and weighed roughly 8,000 pounds.

“They looked like grizzly bears but five times larger,” said Rachel Narducci, collection manager of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Narducci is co-author of a new study published in the journal Science in which scientists analyzed ancient DNA and compared more than 400 fossils from 17 natural history museums to figure out how and why extinct sloths got so big.

Earth’s core is leaking gold– www.popsci.com

pgnewser May 23, 2025 0

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“When the first results came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold,” Nils Messling, a geochemist at Göttingen University, said in a statement. “Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into Earth’s mantle above.”

Messling and collaborators explained their findings in a study published on May 21 in the journal Nature. The team recently detected trace amounts of the precious metal ruthenium while analyzing volcanic rock samples collected across the islands of Hawai’i. More specifically, they noted the unexpected presence of the ruthenium isotope, ¹⁰⁰Ru.

“Unexpected” is the key word there. While ¹⁰⁰Ru does exist in Earth’s mantle, it’s slightly more abundant inside of the core—alongside 99.999 percent of the planet’s gold and other precious metals. That’s because during the planet’s formation about 4.5 billion years ago, some of the ruthenium that is locked inside Earth’s core originated from a different source than the small amount found in the mantle today. The discrepancies between these two forms of ruthenium is so slight that the equipment used by geologists to study these isotopes hasn’t been able to tell the two apart.