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Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, have developed a new, easily manufacturable solid-state thermoelectric refrigeration technology with nano-engineered materials that is twice as efficient as devices made with commercially available bulk thermoelectric materials. As global demand grows for more energy-efficient, reliable and compact cooling solutions, this advancement offers a scalable alternative to traditional compressor-based refrigeration.

In a paper published in Nature Communications on May 21, 2025, a team of researchers from APL and refrigeration engineers from Samsung Research demonstrated improved heat-pumping efficiency and capacity in refrigeration systems attributable to high-performance nano-engineered thermoelectric materials invented at APL known as controlled hierarchically engineered superlattice structures (CHESS).

The CHESS technology is the result of 10 years of APL research in advanced nano-engineered thermoelectric materials and applications development. Initially developed for national security applications, the material has also been used for noninvasive cooling therapies for prosthetics and won an R&D 100 award in 2023.

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MIT researchers have invented a new water-harvesting device — a high-tech version of “bubble wrap” — that can pull safe drinking water straight from the air, even in extreme environments like Death Valley, the driest desert in North America, according to LiveScience.
In a study published June 11 in Nature Water, the team described how their innovation could help address global water scarcity. “It works wherever you may find water vapor in the air,” the researchers wrote.
The device is built from hydrogel, a material that can absorb large amounts of water, sandwiched between two glass layers resembling a window. At night, the hydrogel draws moisture from the air. During the day, a special coating on the glass keeps it cool, allowing water to condense and drip into a collection system.
The hydrogel is molded into dome shapes — likened to “a sheet of bubble wrap” — that swell when absorbing moisture. These domes increase surface area, helping the material absorb more water.

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New pictures have emerged showing work being done on the Japan Self-Defense Forces’ prototype electromagnetic railgun currently installed on the test warship JS Asuka. An at-sea test of the weapon in this configuration is expected to come before the end of the month, if it has not occurred already. Japan’s continued developments in this realm stand in notable contrast to the U.S. Navy’s shelving of its promising pursuit of this category of weapons in the early 2020s after major technical hurdles emerged.

The images of Asuka and its railgun in port in Yokosuka, seen at the top of this story and below, come from @HNlEHupY4Nr6hRM on X who originally posted online. All of the images were taken on June 30. Additional photos of the ship taken recently are also circulating online. Asuka, a 6,200-ton-displacement dedicated testbed with a warship-like design, first emerged with the turreted railgun on its stern flight deck in April.

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The Trump administration’s border czar Tom Homan announced on X Tuesday evening that not a single person detained at the border in June was released into the country.

Note that they do not say that none snuck in. They merely say that they didn’t play catch-and-release the way Democrats do.

ScienceAlert.

As if sequencing a full human genome wasn’t tricky enough, scientists are now attempting to reconstruct our species’ genetic material from the ground up.

It’s an ambitious and controversial project called the Synthetic Human Genome (SynHG) project, and work has already begun on a proof-of-concept.

The goal of this crucial first step is to use the human genome blueprint to write the genetic code for a single, enormously long strand of DNA in just one of our chromosomes – making up approximately 2 percent of our total genome.

The entire DNA content will be digitally designed before it is then built in the lab.

According to proponents, this project could kickstart a genetic revolution, profoundly changing our understanding of human DNA and possibly enabling designer cell-based therapies and virus-resistant tissue transplantation.

Nick Norwitz.

Nick was valedictorian of his class at Dartmouth, and went on to take a PhD in Metabolism at Oxford, then returned to Harvard Med school to get an MD.

ScienceDirect.

Abstract
Intrasexual competition between women is often covert, and targets rivals’ appearance. Here we investigate appearance advice as a vector for female intrasexual competition. Across two studies (N = 192, N = 258) women indicated how much hair they would recommend hypothetical clients have cut off in their hypothetical salon. Clients varied in their facial attractiveness (depicted pictorially), the condition of their hair, and how much hair they wished to have cut off. Participants also provided self-report measures of their own mate value and intrasexual competitiveness. In both studies, participants’ intrasexual competitiveness positively predicted how much hair they recommended clients have cut off, especially when the hair was in good condition and the clients reported wanting as little as possible cut off – circumstances wherein cutting off too much hair is most likely to indicate sabotage. Considering data across both collectively, women tended to recommend cutting the most hair off clients they perceived to be as attractive as themselves. These data suggest that just like mating, intrasexual competition may be assortative with respect to mate value. They also demonstrate that competitive motives can impact female-female interactions even in scenarios which feature no prospective mates, and are nominally unrelated to mate guarding or mating competition.

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The left-wing Ford Foundation has a new president: Heather Gerken, the scandal-plagued dean of Yale Law School whose tenure attracted national attention when administrators threatened the professional prospects of a second-year student for his use of the term “trap house” in an email.

Both Yale and the Ford Foundation announced the move in Monday morning emails. Ford Foundation board chair Francisco Cigarroa called Gerken “a thoughtful and innovative leader and a tireless advocate for equity, justice, and values of democracy,” while Yale president Maurie McInnis praised her work “to foster discourse across the political and ideological spectrum.” Neither message mentioned the free speech and anti-Semitism scandals that defined Gerken’s tenure and led Yale to pass her over when it named a new president in the spring of 2024.

Gerken made headlines in 2021 when Yale Law School administrators who reported to her spent weeks threatening a Native American law student for sending a lighthearted email invitation to classmates, asking them to a party at his “trap house” apartment for a Constitution Day celebration. Yale Law School diversity director Yaseen Eldik called the language “triggering” and suggested the student’s decision to serve fried chicken at the party could be “used to undermine arguments that structural and systemic racism has contributed to health disparities in the U.S.,” according to leaked audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon at the time. Eldik also suggested the student’s membership in the conservative Federalist Society could feel “oppressive to certain communities.” The blowback was so intense that Gerken was reportedly in danger of losing her job.

The Crust take care of their own.

NBC News, a Voice of the Crust.

The Supreme Court on Friday handed a major win to the Trump administration by allowing it to take steps to implement its proposal to end automatic birthright citizenship.

In a 6-3 vote, the court granted a request by the Trump administration to narrow the scope of nationwide injunctions imposed by judges so that they apply only to states, groups and individuals that sued. That means the birthright citizenship proposal can likely move forward at least in part in the states that challenged it as well as those that did not.

The ruling immediately sparked a response from plaintiffs who have sued to block the executive order, with their lawyers vowing to continue the legal fight.

It has long been widely accepted, including by legal scholars on left and right, that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment confers automatic citizenship to almost anyone born in the United States.

But they were wrong. It was designed to give citizenship to freed slaves after the Civil War, not foreigners pursuing anchor babies.

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The Trump administration announced a Gulf of America oil and gas lease sale that would span roughly 80 million acres, an area that is larger than the United Kingdom.

The behemoth lease sale, which will be the first offshore lease sale since President Donald Trump took office, is scheduled for December 2025 and will offer 15,000 blocks of federal waters across the entire gulf. Companies with winning bids will be subject to a reduced royalty rate, something that could potentially drive greater industry interest and participation in the sale, according to the Department of the Interior (DOI).

It is the latest action the Trump administration has taken in pursuit of its aggressive energy dominance and “drill, baby, drill” agenda. The announcement also represents a U-turn from the Biden administration’s approach to drilling, which involved shutting down oil production, canceling offshore lease sales, and hiking royalty fees for producers.

The Telegraph (UK).

Reform UK would win the most seats of any party if a general election were held today, a poll has found.

The first large-scale MRP poll conducted by YouGov since Sir Keir Starmer entered No 10 last year shows that Nigel Farage’s party would win 271 seats if voters went to the polls now.

Britain would face a hung parliament, with Reform not returning enough MPs to govern on its own. But it would make Mr Farage the leading contender to become the next prime minister.

The YouGov model, which makes projections for results in every parliamentary constituency, puts Labour in second place with 178 seats and the Liberal Democrats in third with 81 seats.

The Conservatives would suffer further collapse if the country went to the polls again, winning just 46 seats, down from 121.

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Belarus opposition figure Sergei Tikhanovsky, who was released following an appeal from the White House, said on Sunday, June 22nd, that U.S. President Donald Trump could secure the freedom of all Belarusian political prisoners.

Tikhanovsky spoke to reporters in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius a day after he was released from several years of prison with more than a dozen others. He said he hoped to return to Belarus, “but when, I don’t know yet.”

Tikhanovsky was joined at the news conference by his wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who took the mantle of the opposition movement after he was jailed.

The prisoner release on Saturday came just hours after U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg met Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the highest-profile U.S. visit in years.

Tikhanovsky, 46, had been imprisoned for more than five years. The popular YouTuber had planned to run against Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election, but was arrested and detained weeks before the vote.

Tikhanovskaya—a political novice at the time of her husband’s arrest—ran against Lukashenko in his place but lost after what the opposition described as widespread falsification. She later fled Belarus.

The eastern European country still holds more than 1,000 political prisoners in its jails, according to Belarusian human rights group Viasna.

Belarus, ruled by Lukashenko since 1994, has outlawed all genuine opposition parties.

Will Trump get any credit for this victory on the part of the Usual Suspects? Of course not.

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The U.S. has directly entered the war against Iran, striking three nuclear facilities, President Donald Trump announced via social media. The attack came on the ninth day of the Israel-Iran war in which Israeli forces have been attacking Iranian nuclear weapons facilities among other targets, including ballistic missile launchers, air defense systems, military leaders, and nuclear scientists.

…

Trump did not say how the facilities were attacked. However, as we explained earlier today, at least two separate groups of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers were heading westward across the Pacific Ocean. The destination was unclear, and it’s possible other B-2s were sent clandestinely to hit the targets. Other aircraft could also have been involved. However, B-2s carrying 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bombs are widely seen as the only readily available conventional option for targeting the deeply-buried enrichment facility at Fordo, in particular, short of a ground raid.

…

Sean Hannity, Fox News commentator and close friend to Trump, has stated that the strike included six weapons dropped from B-2s on Fordow, and the other two sites were struck by Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles. We cannot confirm this, but it’s the first thing we have heard detailing the assets used.

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President Donald Trump announced Saturday evening that the U.S. had dropped bombs on three major nuclear sites in Iran.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” the president posted on Truth Social. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space.”

“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” he added. “All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this.”

“NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump concluded.

Cue Narrative Media meltdown.

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The remains of captain Cook’s ship, HMS Endeavour, has been located off the US coast after sinking 250 years ago.

Between 1768 and 1771, the ship became the first European vessel to reach eastern Australia. It was then sold and renamed the Lord Sandwich before sinking off the US coast during the American War of Independence in 1778.

For centuries the ship was lost, but now the wreck has been found in Newport Harbour, Rhode Island.

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he 2009 discovery of footprints (human and animal) left behind in layers of clay and silt at New Mexico’s White Sands National Park sparked a contentious debate about when, exactly, human cultures first developed in North America. Until about a decade ago, it seemed as if the first Americans arrived near the end of the last Ice Age and were part of the Clovis culture, named for the distinctive projectile points they left behind near what’s now Clovis, New Mexico. But various dating methods indicated the White Sands footprints are 10,000 years older. Now there is a fresh independent analysis that agrees with those earlier findings, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

Daily Mail (UK).

Wyoming is rapidly establishing itself as a top destination for ultra-wealthy individuals and businesses, drawn by its tax advantages and high-end real estate market.

As one of nine US states with no state income tax, Wyoming offers significant financial incentives for affluent residents.

Additionally, the state’s Dynasty Trust laws allow families to transfer wealth across generations while avoiding estate, inheritance and state income taxes – further solidifying its status as a tax shelter.

The state’s appeal is amplified by its business-friendly environment and low property taxes, attracting both individuals and companies seeking to minimize their tax burdens.

‘Wyoming is the most tax-friendly state,’ Latham Jenkins, a real estate agent with Live Water Jackson Hole told Realtor.com. ‘Retirement benefits are not taxed at the state level, and it’s one of the most business-friendly states in the nation.’

It would be even better if it weren’t shackled to our dysfunctional Federal regime.

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For centuries, humans have searched for ways to extend life. Alchemists never found the philosopher’s stone, but scientists have consistently shown that a longer life can be attained by eating less – at least in certain lab animals. But can we find a way to live longer while still enjoying our food?

Compounds that mimic the biological effects of dieting could be the answer, and the two most popular diet-mimicking drugs are rapamycin and metformin. In a new study, my colleagues and I found that rapamycin prolongs life almost as consistently as eating less, whereas metformin does not.

Huey Lewis, call your office.

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The Department of Interior (DOI) released a draft analysis that proposes reopening up to 82 percent of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) to oil and gas leasing and development, the agency said in a June 17 statement.

NPR-A was set aside as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy by President Warren Harding in 1923. In 1976, the reserve was transferred to the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

In 2022, the Biden administration announced the closure of almost half of the NPR-A reserve to oil and gas drilling, overturning a policy from the first Trump administration that sought to boost oil development in the region.

The latest proposal reverses the Biden-era restrictions, “consistent with the Trump administration’s commitment to Energy Dominance and regulatory reform,” the DOI said.

The proposal supports a presidential action, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025.

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Israel’s campaign against Iranian ballistic missiles and their launchers appears to be having an effect. On Tuesday, Iran was able to fire 20 ballistic missiles. That is far fewer than in previous days, which had seen around 370 ballistic missiles unleashed at Israel in total, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). A spokesman for the IDF on Tuesday said this campaign has resulted in Iran pushing back its launchers further from Israel. Operation Rising Lion, Israel’s effort to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and dismantling its military, is now in its fifth day.

“We have delivered significant blows to the Iranian regime, and as such, they have been pushed back into central Iran. They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan,” said Brig Gen. Effie Defrin. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) added that on Tuesday, it “conducted intelligence-based strikes on 12 missile launch sites and storage facilities. These missiles were aimed at Israeli civilians.”

All told, Israel said it has destroyed over 200 ballistic missile launchers, “which is a significant portion of Iran’s arsenal, according to the military,” Times of Israel reporter Emanuel Fabian stated on X. “The strikes on the launchers have disrupted Iran’s attempts to fire more missiles at Israel, but the IDF assesses that Iran still has the capability to launch attacks and cause devastating harm in Israel. “

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Hooray! Repealing the Jones Act is the best thing we can do for profitable international trade.

It will also stick a thumb in the eye of the unions, who are in the pocket of the Democrats.

Next up: Davis-Bacon Act. I hope, I hope, I hope….

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For months, many, most, if not all economists have been predicting a re-inflation due to the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. They are not small increases but dramatic increases that shattered a 70-year postwar run of low tariffs. Every bit of economic theory would suggest that the new taxes paid on imports by American businesses and consumers would feed into price increases.

Those price increases keep not happening.

The consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) data came out last week. They once again underscored the point. Inflation is not dead but it has hit new lows relative to what we’ve been through for four years. Tariffs seem not to have made any difference at all.

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Down syndrome is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21, which leads to a range of developmental differences. Researchers have long sought strategies to correct this duplication, because current interventions do not address the added genetic material at its source.

Recent work points to a promising approach with CRISPR-based methods.

Ryotaro Hashizume and colleagues from Mie University in Japan report that it is possible to cut away the surplus chromosome in affected cells, which appears to bring their behavior closer to typical function.

Armada Of USAF Tankers Just Deployed East Over Atlantic Spurring Speculation

IAF Destroys Iranian Aerial Tanker 1,400 miles From Israel, Farthest Strike Yet

Israel Escalates To Attacking Iranian Energy Targets After Ballistic Missiles Hit Tel Aviv

Leftist Protesters Attempting “Global March To Gaza” Get Beaten And Arrested In Egypt

Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader, US official tells AP (Aamer Madhani/Associated Press)

Over 200 Dead as Israel, Iran Trade Strikes for 3rd Day

‘Strategic Decapitation’: Israel Expands Operations, Targeting Iranian Political Institutions as Netanyahu Taunts ‘Weak’ Regime in Tehran

Iran Launches Fresh Missile Attack On Tel Aviv

Iranian Missile Strikes Leave Fiery Aftermath In Haifa

Rescuers Search Ruins In Israel’s Petah Tikva After Iranian Strike

Israel’s Military Gives Statement Amid Iran Missile Attack

The Register.

The function of archival storage is to keep data for the long term – decades and beyond – reliably and affordably. Currently, the main medium for this is LTO tape and it is slow, has a limited life, and not enough capacity considering the implications of ever-increasing image and video resolution and AI-infused data generation. However, there is as yet no viable tape replacement technology at scale, only possibilities, with optical storage more practical and nearer to productization than DNA or other molecular storage.

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The Classic Learning Test, an alternative to standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, has scored recent legislative victories in Texas and Oklahoma, with another win expected in Louisiana. These changes allow students to use their CLT score when applying for college.

Jeremy Tate, a former schoolteacher who created the CLT in 2015, spoke with The Daily Signal about the legislative victories and future goals of the Classic Learning Test. As its CEO, he is passionate about offering students an alternative college entrance exam.

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Gee, I wonder why.

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the 9–0 opinion in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission.

Catholic Charities Bureau is a nonprofit organization that functions as an arm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin. The bureau oversees several other entities that render charitable services to communities across the state.

Wisconsin law excuses religious organizations that are “operated, supervised, controlled, or principally supported by a church or convention or association of churches” from paying state unemployment tax.

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In an energy conversation dominated by buzzwords and breakthroughs, it’s easy to overlook the quiet, proven solutions that are already delivering results. Exhibit A: wood pellets.

These compact cylinders aren’t flashy or trend on social media. For the uninitiated, they are carriers of renewable carbon and energy, sourced from responsibly managed forests; a real, scalable, domestic resource that delivers energy security, climate value, and rural jobs while sustaining and growing forests. Wood pellets are emerging as one of the smartest plays in America’s energy and climate portfolio.

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Among the many iPadOS 26 features Apple plans to unveil at WWDC next week, one curious addition stands out: Apple Pencil reed calligraphy, as reported by Bloomberg. But what does that actually mean?

Last year, Apple introduced the Apple Pencil Pro, bringing squeeze gestures, barrel roll detection, and haptic feedback to its stylus lineup for the first time. Now, with iPadOS 26, it’s pairing those hardware upgrades with a new software feature that’s bound to resonate with Arabic users and calligraphy enthusiasts everywhere.

A few weeks ago, Mark Gurman reported on his Power On newsletter that Apple had “been expanding its retail footprint” in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and India, and that Apple was on track to announce two features that would please users in those regions.

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Caloric restriction and methionine restriction-driven enhanced lifespan and healthspan induces ‘browning’ of white adipose tissue, a metabolic response that increases heat production to defend core body temperature. However, how specific dietary amino acids control adipose thermogenesis is unknown. Here, we identified that weight loss induced by caloric restriction in humans reduces thiol-containing sulfur amino acid cysteine in white adipose tissue. Systemic cysteine depletion in mice causes lethal weight loss with increased fat utilization and browning of adipocytes that is rescued upon restoration of cysteine in diet. Mechanistically, cysteine-restriction-induced adipose browning and weight loss requires sympathetic nervous system-derived noradrenaline signalling via ?3-adrenergic-receptors that is independent of FGF21 and UCP1. In obese mice, cysteine deprivation induced rapid adipose browning, increased energy expenditure leading to 30% weight loss and reversed metabolic inflammation. These findings establish that cysteine is essential for organismal metabolism as removal of cysteine in the host triggers adipose browning and rapid weight loss.

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This week, the Supreme Court tossed out the Mexican government’s lawsuit against seven major U.S. gun manufacturers, holding that a federal statute called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act barred Mexico from filing the lawsuit in the first place.

In the suit in question, Mexico alleged the gun companies were civilly liable for billions of dollars in damages for violence committed in Mexico by Mexican drug cartels, on the theory that the companies aided and abetted unlawful sales of firearms to Mexican traffickers.

The Court’s unanimous opinion in the case, Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, is a resounding victory for America’s lawful gun industry. Among other things, it ensures that foreign governments can’t use abusive litigation to dictate America’s national gun policy or compel American gun companies to undermine the constitutional rights of American citizens.

The ruling also underscores some inconvenient truths for the Mexican government about the reality of gun violence in that nation. Try as it might to cast one of America’s most regulated industries as the villain orchestrating with drug cartels to keep Mexico awash in violence, the Mexican government’s claims have always been little more than disingenuous attempts to blame anyone but itself for the nation’s cartel-driven and corruption-fueled violence woes.

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A massive American financial institution publicly renounced debanking customers for their political views.

Citigroup Inc. promised not to discriminate against people based on their political views in a statement on Tuesday. Citi also committed to abolishing a 2018 policy that forced customer and product restrictions on gun manufacturers wanting to work with the bank. Citi specifically referenced “recent executive orders” and “regulatory developments” in their statement, likely in response to President Donald Trump’s opposition to debanking.

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Sometimes the old ways are best.

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Discovered by scientists in 2000, more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath the surface, the Lost City Hydrothermal Field is the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean. Nothing else like it has ever been found.

For at least 120,000 years and maybe longer, the upthrusting mantle in this part of the world has reacted with seawater to puff hydrogen, methane, and other dissolved gases out into the ocean.

In the cracks and crevices of the field’s vents, hydrocarbons feed novel microbial communities even without the presence of oxygen.

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Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed into law Wednesday a measure banning transgender students from girls’ athletic events, making the state the latest to keep transgender athletes from competing on women’s and girls’ teams.

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The U.S. Air Force says it has tested a modified 500-pound-class GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, optimized for use as an anti-ship munition as part of its Quicksink program. The service has already demonstrated a 2,000-pound-class Quicksink bomb, and the new version could offer a valuable lower-cost anti-ship weapon that bombers and tactical jets could also carry more of on a single sortie. At the same time, there are questions about the exact scope of maritime targets that a Quicksink GBU-38 might be effective against.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced the test of the GBU-38-based Quicksink munition today, but did not say when exactly it had occurred. A B-2 Spirit stealth bomber dropped the weapon over the Gulf Test Range, which the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida manages. The Air Force first unveiled the Quicksink program in 2021 after a test of the 2,000-pound-class type, which is a modified GBU-31/B JDAM.

…

At least when it comes to the 2,000-pound-class version, the Quicksink bomb combines the JDAM kit with a new imaging infrared seeker fitted to the nose. The Air Force has said in the past that the resulting munition, which is capable of engaging moving targets, navigates to a designated area first via GPS-assisted INS before switching over to the seeker. The weapon then finds and categorizes the target by checking its length against a detailed internal reference database. The seeker then provides additional course correction data to put the bomb on a path where it is intended to detonate right next to the target ship’s hull, just below the waterline. Initial cueing to the target, which the launch platform or offboard sources could provide, is required. The computer-generated video below depicts a full engagement cycle.

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The U.S. Army has reached its fiscal year 2025 recruitment goal of 61,000 active-duty enlistments—four months ahead of schedule—marking what officials call a pivotal moment in military readiness and national morale.

No more sharing showers with transgender freaks? No more GirlBoss commanders? Damn that Trump!

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The demand for O–negative blood — the universal donor type — often exceeds supply and donations have a limited shelf life. Looking to address the issue are a group of Japanese scientists led by Hiromi Sakai at Nara Medical University. They’ve developed a new type of artificial blood that can be used in patients of any blood type.

The artificial blood is created by extracting hemoglobin — a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells — from expired donor blood. It is then encased in a protective shell to create stable, virus-free artificial red blood cells. As these artificial cells have no blood type, there is no need for compatibility testing. The synthetic blood can reportedly be stored for up to two years at room temperature and five years under refrigeration. That is a significant improvement over donated red blood cells, which can only be stored under refrigeration for a maximum of 42 days.

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In a rare but resounding act of judicial sanity, the Supreme Court of the United States has delivered an 8-0 ruling that reins in one of the most abused weapons in the bureaucratic arsenal: environmental obstructionism. The case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, stemmed from a challenge to a planned railway in Utah, a project that environmentalists attempted to kneecap through endless litigation under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In a time when green tape has been weaponized to stall or cancel everything from pipelines to housing, this decision marks a turning point—and it’s worth celebrating.

 

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The Trump administration is sending three Cabinet members to Alaska this week as it pursues oil drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reinvigorating a natural gas project that’s languished for years.

The visit by Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin comes after Trump signed an executive order earlier this year aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in Alaska. It also comes amid tariff talks with Asian countries that are seen as possible leverage for the administration to secure investments in the proposed Alaska liquefied natural gas project.

Their itinerary includes a meeting Sunday with resource development groups and U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski in Anchorage before heading to Utqiagvik, an Arctic town on the petroleum-rich North Slope where many Alaska Native leaders see oil development as economically vital to the region.

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We truly live in amazing times.

Watch it.

This is pretty slick, with obvious applications to semiconductor manufacturing.

We live in amazing times.

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The Navy has taken a rare step and relieved a one-star admiral who oversaw the service’s unmanned and small combatant programs, including one of its newest class of warships, according to a statement released Monday.

Rear Adm. Kevin Smith was relieved from leadership of the program office by Dr. Brett Seidle, acting assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

As the program executive for unmanned and small craft, Smith oversaw the Navy’s design, development, construction, maintenance and modernization of unmanned maritime systems, as well as systems for mine warfare, special warfare and expeditionary warfare. The office is also overseeing the planning and construction of the Navy’s Constellation-class, next-generation guided missile frigates.

Pete Hegseth is cleaning house.

“During his tenure as the major program manager for the Constellation-class frigate, the program office was awarded the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award for 2021 as the top program office in the Department of Defense,” his biography boasted.

Uh-huh. See USS Constellation Update at the NavyMatters blog for the truth: The program is at least 3 years late and will undoubtedly be even later – and way over budget. That is not a kind of ‘excellence’ that David Packard would have liked.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

The Times (UK).

There is good news for your future palate. It turns out that insect burgers may not be on the menu after all.

And, assuming we are still consuming at least some meat in our climate conscious future, it seems unlikely that our livestock will be eating them either.

A study commissioned by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has found that insect protein is generally worse for the environment than less outré non-meat protein alternatives — such as soy.

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In the race to an all-optical AI data center, a major player has now placed a bet on a different horse. Semiconductor manufacturing giant TSMC announced that it will work with Sunnyvale startup Avicena to produce microLED-based interconnects. The technology is a pragmatic twist on replacing electrical connections with optical ones to meet the high needs of communication among an increasing number of GPUs in a low cost, energy efficient way.

Thanks to the computational demands of large language models and their cousins, AI clusters are facing unprecedented requirements regarding amounts of data, bandwidth, latency, and speed. Sooner or later, the copper wires that connect processors and memory within a single AI data center rack will have to be replaced with optics. “There’s a huge push to get optical connections as close to the board as possible,” says Lucas Tsai, a vice president at TSMC.

Avicena offers a unique approach, using hundreds of blue microLEDs connected through imaging-type fibers to move data. The company’s modular LightBundle platform avoids problems with lasers and their associated complexity that threaten the reliability, cost, and power consumption of other optical chiplets. Tsai says “it’s very unorthodox!” But it is ideal for these short distance applications, and that’s precisely what makes it interesting.

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BLUF: Always put both the seat and the lid down on a toilet before flushing. You’ll be glad you did.