05 Sci-Tech

Americans Reject Data Centers -scitechnews.com

pgnewser May 15, 2026 2

Plans by corporate and state America to rapidly build AI data centers could meet stiff resistance is a recent Gallop poll is correct. The poll shows 70% of Americans oppose Data centers, ESPECIALLY in their local regions.

Not only do residents fear the tax on the resources, the taking of land, but also they fear the surveillance capacity of these data centers to enable the state to track the actions of citizens almost in real time.

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Scientists reversed biological age in older adults with a 4-week diet change– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser May 15, 2026 0

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Older adults who cut back on dietary fat or reduced the amount of animal-based protein they consumed showed signs of becoming biologically younger, according to new research from the University of Sydney.

The study, published in Aging Cell, found that adults between the ages of 65 and 75 experienced reductions in their estimated ‘biological age’ after following specific diets for just four weeks. Researchers say the findings suggest dietary changes later in life may quickly improve markers linked to aging and overall health.

The research was led by Dr. Caitlin Andrews from the University of Sydney’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences. While the results are promising, the scientists emphasized that the study provides only an early indication rather than definitive proof that diet can reverse aging. They say larger and longer studies are needed to determine whether these biological changes lower disease risk over time and whether the same effects occur in other age groups.

NASA is chasing an asteroid that contains more gold than exists on Earth– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser May 15, 2026 0

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Somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, a giant metallic world drifts silently through deep space. Unlike ordinary rocky asteroids, 16 Psyche has captured global attention because scientists believe it may contain enormous quantities of valuable metals, including iron, nickel, platinum, and possibly more gold than has ever been mined on Earth. The asteroid’s estimated theoretical value has triggered headlines describing it as a “trillion-dollar asteroid” or even a “space treasure chest”. But for NASA, the real fascination is not simply wealth. Scientists believe Psyche could be the exposed core of an ancient lost planet, offering a rare glimpse into how worlds like Earth were formed billions of years ago.

Can a New Methodology Give Us “Headlights” on AI Work Disruption? | American Enterprise Institute– www.aei.org

pgnewser May 15, 2026 0

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A new working paper by Philip Moreira Tomei and Bouke Klein Teeselink, posted to arXiv in early May, makes claims that, if correct, should reorient the workforce policy conversation. In short, the authors argue that the AI exposure indices that have shaped most current thinking are looking at an incomplete subset of digital work. They identify which jobs and tasks current language models can already accelerate but they miss the jobs with features that make them amenable to automation later.

Tomei and Klein Teeselink build a new index that scores all 17,951 task statements in the federal O*NET database. The authors propose a measure what they call “reinforcement learning feasibility” which asks whether a task has the structural features (e.g., verifiable outcomes, use environments amenable to simulation, discrete decision/feedback loops) that allow AI systems to be trained on it through the post-training methods that are becoming the main drivers of AI capability. They then compare their index to the most-cited existing measure, from Eloundou and colleagues, which looks at whether tasks can be automated with current technology.

‘Golden rule’ in abstract art just discovered by mathematicians– www.scientificamerican.com

pgnewser May 15, 2026 0

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Mathematicians have calculated a “golden rule” for abstract art that famous artists tend to follow when they compose their works. Artificial intelligence, the team found, does not follow such implicit rules about shape placement, possibly explaining why computer-generated art doesn’t usually evoke awe from viewers.

Scientists and philosophers have long tried to decipher why art moves people: Are there underlying features shared among masterpieces? Do painters unconsciously use similar shapes, contours or compositions to elicit an emotional response? Many of the ways researchers have tried to categorize shapes or complexity in paintings are “arbitrary,” however, says Jacek Rogala, a neuroscientist at the University of Warsaw and co-senior author of the new study.

The New Era of Air and Missile Defense– warontherocks.com

pgnewser May 15, 2026 0

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Modern air and missile defense is approaching a structural limit. The model that protected forces over the past two decades remains effective, but only within a narrower envelope than current threats demand. A new approach is required, built on fire-control-level integration, disaggregated survivable architectures, affordable magazine depth, and the integration of offensive action as the central element of defense.

I am a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general and now lead international business development and strategy for Northrop Grumman in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. I previously served as chief operating officer of DEFCON AI. As a defense industry executive, I have a direct commercial interest in the integration and command-and-control issues covered here. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the Integrated Battle Command System, the U.S. Army program most closely associated with the fire-control-level integration concepts discussed, so readers should weigh that overlap most carefully in the procurement section, where my analytical argument and my employer’s commercial position are closest. The argument is not for my company’s solution specifically, but for any architecture or federated set of systems that can deliver sensor-shooter integration, disaggregation, survivability, and coalition interoperability.

The reason is simple: The threat has changed faster than the defensive architecture. Ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, one-way attack drones, and loitering munitions are no longer niche capabilities employed in small numbers. They are becoming routine instruments of coercion and war, used in combinations designed to overwhelm decision-making, exhaust magazines, expose seams between sensors and shooters, and force defenders into bad cost exchanges. Recent combat has shown that even capable defenses can perform well tactically while still revealing strategic fragility. It is time to invest in systems that are not just able to intercept threats, but do so at the scale, speed, cost, and survivability required for a sustained campaign.

LLMs are breaking 20 year old system design — /dev/knill– zknill.io

pgnewser May 15, 2026 0

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The ‘cloud-native’ architecture of the last decade is built on a 20-year-old assumption: that state
lives in the database, and compute is stateless. If you want to scale, you scale the database
vertically (get a larger machine) [1][1] or design the database schema around partition the data
and you scale your application servers horizontally (add more
boxes). Any request can hit any server, the loadbalancer doesn’t care, and the database is the
single source of truth.

LLMs and agents are quietly violating this assumption, and making this architecture increasingly
hard to work with. Not all at once, but in three subtle ways:

Who are the Japanese? Huge DNA discovery rewrites history– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser May 15, 2026 0

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For decades, scientists believed the Japanese population largely descended from two ancient groups: the Jomon hunter-gatherers who lived in the archipelago for thousands of years, and later migrants from East Asia who brought rice farming and new technologies to Japan.

But a major genetic analysis from researchers at RIKEN’s Center for Integrative Medical Sciences suggests the picture is far more complicated.

Using whole-genome sequencing on more than 3,200 people from across Japan, the team found evidence supporting a third ancestral group tied to northeastern Asia and possibly linked to the ancient Emishi people. The findings, published in Science Advances, add powerful support to the increasingly discussed “tripartite origins” theory of Japanese ancestry.

ICE might have your personal data soon – americanistpress.com

pgnewser May 13, 2026 0

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have been using a Palantir tool to track far more than illegal aliens, critics allege. ICE has over 20 million people worldwide in a database that some suspect includes American citizens.

DHS told 404 Media, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is committed to achieving the nation’s mandate to clear the backlog of illegal aliens who pose a threat to the security of our communities. Like other law enforcement agencies, ICE employs various forms of technology while respecting civil liberties and privacy interests.”

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Stunning fossil discovery challenges the origins of animal life– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser May 12, 2026 1

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Scientists studying ancient microfossils from Brazil have discovered that structures once believed to be traces left behind by tiny animals were actually formed by communities of microscopic bacteria and algae. The findings challenge previous ideas about when small animals first appeared on Earth and suggest oxygen levels in ancient oceans may still have been too low to support certain forms of animal life around 540 million years ago.

The research focused on fossils found in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul and was published in the journal Gondwana Research. Earlier studies had interpreted the marks as evidence of wormlike creatures or other tiny marine animals moving through seafloor sediment during the Ediacaran period, which came just before the Cambrian explosion.

Scientists discover hidden chemical signature that could reveal alien life– www.sciencedaily.com

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For decades, scientists searching for life beyond Earth have focused on one central challenge: identifying the right molecules to look for on distant planets and moons.

But new research published in Nature Astronomy suggests the answer may lie not in the molecules themselves, but in the hidden patterns that connect them.

“We’re showing that life does not only produce molecules,” said Fabian Klenner, UC Riverside assistant professor of planetary sciences and co-author of the study. “Life also produces an organizational principle that we can see by applying statistics.”

Women set to lose more jobs to AI than men | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com

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A new report from the US National Partnership for Women & Families says women may face disproportionate disruption from artificial intelligence in the workforce. The study found that while women make up about 47 percent of the US workforce, they account for 83 percent of workers across 15 occupations identified as having the highest exposure to AI.Those roles include secretaries, receptionists, and office clerks, among others. According to the report, around 6 million women work in these positions.

Researchers said workers in these jobs may face greater challenges adapting to AI-related workplace changes due to lower access to resources and reduced flexibility in transitioning to other roles. The report also looked at sectors where women are more heavily represented but less likely to face full automation, including nursing, childcare, and home health care, in addition to others.

While these jobs typically require direct human interaction and physical presence, the study said AI could still affect workers in those fields through monitoring and workplace management systems: “These management systems, sometimes described as bossware, can be difficult for workers to understand or challenge, and may worsen job quality even where jobs are not eliminated,” the report said.

Anthropic announces new Claude-powered legal software as SaaS stocks continue to struggle– finance.yahoo.com

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Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) is expanding its presence in the legal software market as it continues to grow its enterprise footprint.

The latest offerings include integration with platforms law firms already use, such as Box (BOX) and Thomson Reuters (TRI), plugins designed for specific tasks and roles such as corporate counsel, regulatory counsel, and law students, and integration with Microsoft (MSFT) 365.

The launch comes just a week after Anthropic debuted its Claude for Financial Services, which includes 10 customizable AI agents for financial users, the ability to use Claude’s financial capabilities across Microsoft 365, and the option to connect Claude to more applications.

It also comes as the software industry continues to deal with the fallout from the initial debut of Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, which has hammered software stocks over fears that the AI startup will steal market share from existing enterprise platforms.

Anthropic’s new legal products could further raise concerns about the future of legacy enterprise services.

The company’s latest products feature 20 model context protocol (MCP) connectors, which allow Claude to connect to existing pools of data and tools in apps. That includes the ability to use Claude with programs such as DocuSign (DOCU), Ironclad, Datasite, and other legal software.

Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei speaks at the Code with Claude developer conference on May 6, 2026, in San Francisco. (Don Feria/AP Content Services for Anthropic) · ASSOCIATED PRESS

Universal AI is “a pathway to AI fluency that’s accessible and approachable to anyone, anywhere” | MIT News– news.mit.edu

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“Artificial intelligence is not just for computer scientists anymore; it’s going to permeate every aspect of our lives and influence every business,” says MIT President Sally Kornbluth.

The world is reaching an inflection point with artificial intelligence: over half of U.S. adults use generative AI — with 12 percent using it daily at work — and 88 percent of global organizations have integrated AI into at least one core function, up from 78 percent in 2024. AI knowledge is no longer optional for career growth, organizational leadership, and life. Yet, a growing information gap exists between those with the capabilities to leverage AI’s potential and those trying to keep pace.

The need for accessible, practical AI education has never been greater. To meet this moment, MIT Open Learning is launching Universal AI, an online, self-paced, modular program that takes a learner from AI novice to authority, starting with core fundamentals and building to real-world, industry-specific applications.

“We identified a need for an AI learning experience that is universal in breadth and accessibility — one that bridges the gap between deeply technical and surface level introductions to the latest AI tools, and that is designed for a non-technical, global audience,” says Dimitris Bertsimas, vice provost for open learning.

Is the U.S. in a new era of political violence? Experts say it’s complicated– www.scientificamerican.com

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A cluster of high-profile political attacks in the U.S. spotlight the nation’s extreme divisions—but they don’t necessarily signal a broader uptick in politically inspired brutality, experts say.

Politicians, pundits and ordinary Americans are increasingly worried about political violence. The latest round of concern was sparked on April 25, when a 31-year-old man stormed the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C., during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where President Donald Trump was in attendance. Secret Service agents arrested the armed man before he could get to the ballroom where the event was being held. He has since been charged with attempted assassination of the president—which would represent the third serious attempt on Trump’s life since 2024. The man has pled not guilty to this and related charges.

A 160-million-year-old ‘technicolour’ dinosaur fossil discovered in China with four wings and bird-like feathers |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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For years, the evolution of flight seemed fairly straightforward. Dinosaurs developed feathers, with some learning to glide, and eventually, birds appeared and mastered the skies. Now, a strange fossil from China is making scientists rethink that neat timeline. The feathered dinosaur Anchiornis huxleyi reportedly had four wings, colourful feathers, and a surprisingly messy moulting pattern that suggests it may not have been capable of proper flight at all.Experts say it hints that some dinosaurs could have evolved flight-related features and later lost the ability entirely. A bit like modern ostriches or penguins. The fossil has even been described as the first real “technicolour” dinosaur discovery because traces of its original feather patterns were preserved in remarkable detail.

China develops AI-powered technology that converts dirty wastewater into valuable fertiliser |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Chinese researchers have made a significant advancement in circular resource recovery by creating a new way to turn nitrate-laden wastewater into valuable ammonia for fertilisers. They used artificial intelligence to find a super-effective dual-atom catalyst, which led them to a process that tackles two major global issues: water pollution and the heavy energy use of traditional industrial ammonia production. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, show that this method achieves almost three times the conversion efficiency of earlier technologies. By converting runoff from farms and factories, this approach provides an eco-friendly solution to lessen environmental ‘dead zones’ and cuts down on the agricultural sector’s dependence on energy-heavy chemical methods.

Did ChatGPT Commit Manslaughter? – thebethlehem.com

pgnewser May 12, 2026 0

A Texas couple is suing OpenAI, alleging their product, ChatGPT, led to their son’s overdosing on drugs after following the AI platform’s advice.

OpenAI released this statement, “This is a heartbreaking situation, and our thoughts are with the family… ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or mental health care, and we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts…”

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Living Longer Through Other Mammals’ Genes – extinctwire.com

pgnewser May 11, 2026 0

An experiment at the University of Rochester shows the long-life genes of moles could be transplanted to mice, producing mice that live longer than average mice.

Rochester University’s Biology and Medicine Professor Vera Gorbunova explained, “Our study provides a proof of principle that unique longevity mechanisms that evolved in long-lived mammalian species can be exported to improve the lifespans of other mammals.”

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