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Scientists at King’s College in London announced they have managed to grow a human tooth, the BBC reported.

While it might be a long time before lab-grown teeth can be put in a person’s mouth, researchers told the BBC it will assist with their work. While sharks and elephants have the ability to grow new teeth, humans have only one set from adulthood, the scientists found in a study, according to the Independent.

Lab-grown teeth could be a better alternative than implants, which can cause unforeseen problems and require invasive surgery, the researchers said to the BBC.

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Illinois has suspended a minority-only scholarship after the Department of Justice threatened to sue the state, the department said Friday. The department’s move, which came in the wake of a Washington Free Beacon report on the program, is the latest example of how the Trump administration’s legal saber-rattling has deterred the use of racial preferences.

The program, which gave minorities financial aid to complete a master’s or doctoral degree, was run by the Illinois Board of Higher Education and included some of the top universities in the state, including Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. Experts told the Free Beacon that the scholarship was patently illegal and could jeopardize the federal funding of every participating school. That is the verdict the Department of Justice reached when it launched its own probe, concluding that the program “unconstitutionally discriminated on the basis of race in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The department threatened to sue Illinois if it did not suspend the initiative. The state complied, telling the department it would halt all activities related to the program until the Illinois General Assembly had an opportunity to review the matter. Six universities, including Northwestern and the University of Chicago, also said that they had ended their participation in the scholarship, which required schools to “verify” that applicants met the racial criteria.

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A high-end medical practice is offering clients the purported service of scrubbing their blood of microplastics.

In an interview with Wired, Clarify Clinics CEO Yael Cohen said that her London facility’s bespoke blood-filtering service — which is otherwise known as apheresis and generally used for plasma donation or other so-called therapeutic plasma exchange procedures — is so comfortable that some patients doze off during it.

…

Though Cohen and her clinic claim the ability to help ease those ailments, the jury is still out as to how bad microplastics actually are for the human body. While studies in recent years have established links between microplastics and damage to human cells and hearts, that research was all, as Wired notes, observational. Thus far, the only thing we know definitively is that these mysterious particles have been found nearly everywhere researchers have looked, from our blood and guts and brains to archaeological digs and Mount Everest.

While there don’t appear to be any studies about the effectiveness of the Clari procedure, there’s a pretty strong body of evidence suggesting that therapeutic plasma exchange in general is a safe and effective treatment for some autoimmune and neurological disorders.

We have the technology.

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When a pregnant woman had her blood sampled back in 1972, doctors discovered it was mysteriously missing a surface molecule found on all other known red blood cells at the time.

After 50 years, this strange molecular absence finally led to researchers from the UK and Israel describing a new blood group system in humans. In 2024, the team published their paper on the discovery.

“It represents a huge achievement, and the culmination of a long team effort, to finally establish this new blood group system and be able to offer the best care to rare, but important, patients,” UK National Health Service hematologist Louise Tilley said last September, after nearly 20 years of personally researching this bloody quirk.

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Quasicrystals, once considered impossible, were found in a 3D-printed aluminum alloy – and they make it stronger. This could change how we design aircraft and car components.

• Researchers at NIST discovered quasicrystals, rare, non-repeating atomic structures, in 3D-printed aluminum alloys.
• These quasicrystals were found to strengthen the metal, making it more suitable for lightweight, high-performance parts like those used in airplanes.
• Quasicrystals were first discovered at NIST in the 1980s, a breakthrough that challenged long-held scientific beliefs, and earned a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011.

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AMC Networks Inc., owner of the popular cable AMC Channel, is planning to move its corporate domicile from Delaware and reincorporate in Nevada, joining a growing list of companies abandoning the state.

The AMC news hit just days after Madison Square Garden Entertainment announced it was planning to leave Delaware, a move made by at least 20 major companies in the past year, according to Robert Anderson, a Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas.

In a recent shareholder notice, AMC Networks Inc. said it sought approval of plans to ‘redomesticate’ from Delaware to Nevada, marking the latest high-profile exit from a state under fire for its left-leaning judicial system.

You don’t need a picture ID to vote with your feet….

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued an updated guidance late Friday night on product exclusions from President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, imposed under Executive Order 14257 and its amendments (EO 14259). The exclusions cover a wide range of electronic devices, including smartphones, laptops, and related components.

First, President Trump paused reciprocal tariffs for non-retaliating countries (e.g., China) for 90 days last week. Now, updated guidance from CBP reveals that some of the highest-value trade—particularly a wide range of electronics—is excluded from the reciprocal tariffs.

John C. Wright passes the word.

This text is shamelessly copied from Karl Mehta, since the pace at which we are flooded with winning has finally broken me. I simply cannot keep up. But some of these gems were too good not to share, and the Marxist media will not cover the story.

Read the whole thing.

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In a ruling on Thursday, Judge Trevor Neil McFadden said that a rule by the Department of Homeland Security to require illegal immigrants to comply with statutory registration and fingerprinting may move forward as plaintiffs arguing against it failed to “demonstrate that they have standing to bring this suit.”

The case was filed on March 31 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, with the main plaintiff being the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, along with other immigrant advocacy groups.

On Jan. 20, when President Donald Trump took office for the second time, he issued an executive order, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” in which he stated that illegal immigrants must be identified and registered with the federal government.

Apparently the fact that it makes your butt hurt to think of immigrants being inconvenienced in any way is not enough to justify a suit.

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Trying to grasp the brain’s complexity is a little like trying to comprehend the vastness of space – it feels way beyond our scope of understanding.

By mapping a small part of a mouse brain down to an amazing level of detail, new research could help us grasp the magnitude of the neurological cosmos inside our heads.

Though the volume of brain matter analyzed was barely the size of a grain of sand, the researchers still had to describe the relationships between 84,000 neurons via half a billion synapse connections and 5.4 kilometers (3.4 miles) of neural wiring.

The result is the most detailed rendering of a mammalian brain on record, by some distance.

The incredible work took nine years to complete from start to finish, and involved more than 150 researchers and 22 institutions along the way, including representatives from Princeton University, Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, and the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.

The Register.

This year will be Ground Zero for the commercialization of satellite smartphone services, but a key question is whether operators will charge extra for this capability or include it as part of customer subscriptions.

A report by mobile industry analyst GSMA Intelligence says that the monetization of satellite services may hinge on whether mobile operators decide to charge for them, with a mixture of approaches already evident.

To be clear, we’re talking about satellite connectivity with unmodified, standard smartphones, for when you’re out of cellular range or service, not dedicated sat-phones that have been around for years already.

T-Mobile in the US, for example, has already said that satellite service will be included at no extra cost on high-value subscriptions, while customers on other plans can add the service for $15 per month. The company announced a beta service in February, which offers just text messages for now, with data and voice calls coming later.

NBC News, a Voice of the Crust.

he Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that, for now, President Donald Trump is not required to reinstate two members of independent federal agencies he wants to fire.

The provisional decision affects Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order that temporarily blocked lower court rulings that said the two officials should be reinstated.

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Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine exposed the harsh reality that energy dependence can pose a threat to national security. For too long, Romania, like much of Europe, has relied on imported Russian fossil fuels, leaving families and businesses vulnerable to geopolitical manipulation. If Romania is to secure its future, it must cut its reliance on unstable suppliers and invest in domestic energy.

A solution for achieving energy independence? Nuclear energy. Specifically, small modular reactors. These reactors are currently developed in partnership with the United States as a clean, scalable, and safe source of energy.

Romania can benefit from safe, sustainable power generation, strengthen its economy, and attain true energy independence with America’s innovative assistance and technology.

Perhaps if enough desperate small countries try SMRs, and they work, the sclerotic energy establishment in the U.S. will get a clue and reduce the regulatory burden sufficiently for them to take hold in this country as well.

We can only hope.

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The things your doctor tells you ain’t necessarily so.

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President Donald Trump’s tax cuts from his first term helped low- and medium-income earners more than high earners, a new study from The Heartland Institute found.

The conservative think tank based in Illinois examined Internal Revenue Service data from 2017, the year Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, through 2022, the most recent year that tax data is available.

While all income earners got lower rates, high earners paid a larger portion of the tax burden from 2018-2022 compared to 2017 when the tax law was not in effect, the study found.

UK Daily Record.

A 3D digital scan of the Titanic wreckage has given a new insight into the luxury liner’s tragic final hours. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died after the ‘unsinkable’ ship crashed into an iceberg and plunged to the Atlantic Ocean seabed in 1912.

Many of those that survived the disaster told of how the Titanic split in two before sinking – but their testimonies were dismissed for decades, largely thanks to claims from White Star Line employees that it wasn’t possible. It was only when the wreckage was discovered in 1985 that the survivors were proved right.

Next step: Ground-penetrating radar to reconstruct the parts that are now buried in silt.

UPDATE: How did the Titanic 3D scan work? As new details of the ship’s final hours revealed

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What scientists? Well, you know just … scientists….

Most people know that inherited traits between generations is a genetic process, but a new study says other inheritable mechanisms may exist.

Scientists at the University of Toronto studying the hermaphroditic worm Caenorhabditis elegans found that amyloid-like structures—proteins often associated with diseases like Alzheimer’s—can have inheritable traits.

This pathway, or others like it, could explain why some inheritable traits between generations can’t be explained exclusively via DNA and RNA.

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The Deep State is discovering that without the Big Guy in Washington their comfy chairs aren’t so comfy any more.

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Colossal Biosciences, the biotech start-up that’s attempting to revive the woolly mammoth, has brought not just one, but three dire wolves back from extinction. The species, which garnered plenty of attention in Games of Thrones, has not been seen on Earth for over 10,000 years, Bloomberg reported.

The pups in question are Remus and Romulus, two 6-month-old brothers that weigh 80 pounds each and extend four feet long, as well as the younger Khaleesi, a two-month-old female named after Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen in the Thrones franchise. For reference, the brothers are nearly 20 to 25 percent larger than their closest living relative, the gray wolf, would be at the same age—and the duo is expected to be 140 pounds each when they’re fully grown. Among other differences, Remus and Romulus also have wider heads, larger teeth and jaws, and more muscular legs than its kin, Time reported. The trio currently live in a fenced-in nature preserve (in an undisclosed U.S. location), surviving off a diet of beef, deer, and horse meat, along with a special kibble.

Sure, let’s bring back a Pale0lithic apex predator. What could possibly go wrong?

If they wanted to bring something back, why not the Irish elk? At least you could eat it.

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About 45 years have passed since a U.S. state last eliminated its income tax on wages and salaries. But with recent actions in Mississippi and Kentucky, two states now are on a path to do so, if their economies keep growing.

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Two molecular control factors play a key role in splicing, the process by which precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) is cut and reassembled into mature mRNA, a critical step before protein production can occur in the cell. These largely uncharacterized factors are essential for ensuring the proper function of the splicing machinery. A research team led by Prof. Dr. Ed Hurt at the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center, in collaboration with colleagues from Fudan University in Shanghai (China), has uncovered how these two cellular “quality control inspectors” operate.

Proteins, the fundamental building blocks of cells, carry out essential functions throughout the body. The instructions for building them are encoded in DNA. To translate this genetic information into proteins, the relevant DNA sequences must first be transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA).

Initially, the cell produces a precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA) that includes both coding regions (exons) and non-coding regions (introns). Before the mRNA can be used to make proteins, the introns must be removed and the exons precisely joined together, a process called splicing, which takes place in the cell nucleus. The result is a mature mRNA strand made up solely of protein-coding exons, ready to guide protein synthesis.

UK Daily Mail.

Bear in mind that the Daily Mail is a British tabloid, so don’t take anything they say as … reliable.

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Don’t ever say we don’t have useful stuff here.

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RNA vaccines packaged in tiny fatty containers called nanoparticles saved tens of millions from COVID-19. Now, researchers are trying to use similar nanoparticles to fight two other major killers, respiratory failure caused by lung infections such as flu and the atherosclerosis that leads to heart attacks and strokes. In both conditions, the endothelial cells that line blood vessels malfunction, turning down key genes. New research presented at the American Chemical Society (ACS) meeting here this week shows that nanoparticles carrying a payload of RNA can ramp the genes back up, promising to address the diseases at their root.

Nanoparticles are a familiar tool in medicine, but the scheme to use them to treat endothelial cells is “excellent work,” says Robert Langer, a nanoparticle therapy pioneer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Won Hyuk Suh, a biomaterials expert at the University of New Hampshire who organized the scientific session at the ACS meeting, notes that the findings are preliminary but calls them “very interesting and promising.” They were posted on the bioRxiv preprint server in January.

Atherosclerosis and respiratory failure due to infections such as flu might seem to have little in common. But both involve inflammation of endothelial cells. In the case of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the inflammation causes endothelial cells in capillaries adjacent to the lung’s tiny air sacs, or alveoli, to reduce levels of KLF2, a protein “transcription factor” that helps regulate a series of other genes needed for healthy cell function. As a result, these capillaries become porous, leaking fluid into the alveoli, which prevents oxygen from diffusing into the blood, often killing patients.

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Engineers at a University of Bristol spin-out company have created a new technology that can move cells without touching them, enabling critical tasks that currently require large pieces of lab equipment to be carried out on a benchtop device.

The invention could accelerate the discovery of new medicines and unlock personalized medicine screening in clinics.

The groundbreaking concept was unveiled for the first time today in an article in Science published by Dr. Luke Cox, where he describes his journey from University of Bristol student to CEO of start-up company Impulsonics. The article is a prize essay in the Bioinnovation Institute and Science Prize for Innovation.

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The general in charge of defending U.S. skies from drone incursions wants the authority to be able to shoot them down near the Mexican border. Current law greatly restricts U.S. military counter-drone responses, which you can read more about in our deep dive here.

Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot testified to the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that since President Donald Trump took office, he “proposed…a change to the rule of force.” It would “allow us to shoot down or bring down drones that are surveilling over our deployed and mobile troops…not just that are in self-defense, but anything that’s surveilling and planning the next attack on us within five miles of the border.”

“Because they’re mobile,” U.S. troops on the border are not allowed to take down drones under current law, Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and the joint U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), added.

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Defense contractor Anduril has rolled out a new, readily deployable undersea surveillance system called Seabed Sentry, which uses networks of small and relatively low-cost modular sensor nodes. A novel sonar array with a design influenced by the extendable arms on satellites is the main sensor being paired with it now. Expanding fleets of quieter and otherwise more modern submarines, especially in Russia and China, as well as growing threats to critical undersea infrastructure, are driving demand for more and better ways to monitor what happens beneath the waves across the Western world.

Anduril has already been working on various elements of Seabed Sentry for around a year. The system leverages various prior developments, including Lattice, the company’s proprietary artificial intelligence-enabled autonomy software package. The Seabed Sentry name is a callback to Anduril’s first product, the land-based Sentry, which is designed to monitor for threats in the air and on the surface.

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Earth rotates through the axisymmetric part of its own magnetic field, but a simple proof shows that it is impossible to use this to generate electricity in a conductor rotating with this http URL, we previously identified implicit assumptions underlying this proof and showed theoretically that these could be violated and the proof circumvented. This requires using a soft magnetic material with a topology satisfying a particular mathematical condition and a composition and scale favoring magnetic diffusion, i.e. having a low magnetic Reynolds number Rm (C.F. Chyba, K.P. Hand, Electric power generation from Earth’s rotation through its own magnetic field. Phys. Rev. Applied 6, 014017-1-18 (2016)). Here we realize these requirements with a cylindrical shell of manganese-zinc ferrite. Controlling for thermoelectric and other potentially confounding effects (including 60 Hz and RF background), we show that this small demonstration system generates a continuous DC voltage and current of the (low) predicted magnitude. We test and verify other predictions of the theory: voltage and current peak when the cylindrical shell’s long axis is orthogonal to both Earth’s rotational velocity v and magnetic field; voltage and current go to zero when the entire apparatus (cylindrical shell together with current leads and multimeters) is rotated 90 degrees to orient the shell parallel to v; voltage and current again reach a maximum but of opposite sign when the apparatus is rotated a further 90 degrees; an otherwise-identical solid MnZn cylinder generates zero voltage at all orientations; and a highRm cylindrical shell produces zero voltage. We also reproduce the effect at a second experimental location. The purpose of these experiments was to test the existence of the predicted effect. Ways in which this effect might be scaled to generate higher voltage and current may now be investigated.

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Researchers at Stanford Medicine have identified a naturally occurring molecule that mimics the appetite-suppressing and weight-reducing effects of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic. In animal studies, this molecule, called BRP, demonstrated similar benefits without some of semaglutide’s common side effects, such as nausea, constipation, and significant muscle loss.

BRP works through a distinct but related metabolic pathway and activates different neurons in the brain, suggesting it may offer a more precise and potentially safer approach to weight management.

“The receptors targeted by semaglutide are found in the brain but also in the gut, pancreas, and other tissues,” said assistant professor of pathology Katrin Svensson, PhD. “That’s why Ozempic has widespread effects including slowing the movement of food through the digestive tract and lowering blood sugar levels. In contrast, BRP appears to act specifically in the hypothalamus, which controls appetite and metabolism.”

Good luck getting it past the foot-draggers at the FDA and the gatekeepers in the AMA. Maybe we’ll have a usable drug in 10 years, and even then you’ll need a prescription, it will cost an arm & a leg, and your insurance won’t cover it.

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With the promise of newer, cheaper nuclear power on the horizon, U.S. states are vying to position themselves to build and supply the industry’s next generation as policymakers consider expanding subsidies and paving over regulatory obstacles.

Advanced reactor designs from competing firms are filling up the federal government’s regulatory pipeline as the industry touts them as a reliable, climate-friendly way to meet electricity demands from tech giants desperate to power their fast-growing artificial intelligence platforms.

The reactors could be operational as early as 2030, giving states a short runway to roll out the red carpet, and they face lingering public skepticism about safety and growing competition from renewables like wind and solar. Still, the reactors have high-level federal support, and utilities across the U.S. are working to incorporate the energy source into their portfolios.

Good luck getting them past the government EnviroNazis and the kook-Greenpeace Left.

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For the first time, scientists have identified promising drug candidates that irreversibly bind to a notoriously “undruggable” cancer protein, effectively and permanently disabling it.

Transcription factors, proteins that act as master regulators of gene expression, play a critical role in cancer development. Despite years of effort, designing small-molecule drugs to block these proteins has proven largely ineffective. As a result, researchers have recently turned their attention to peptides, short chains of amino acids, as a potential solution for targeting these elusive proteins.

Now, a team from the University of Bath has developed a breakthrough method to discover peptides that can selectively and irreversibly bind to transcription factors inside cells. Using this approach, they have successfully blocked a key cancer-driving transcription factor known as cJun, marking a significant step forward in targeting previously untreatable cancer mechanisms.

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Mitochondria, often called the powerhouses of the cell, are responsible for producing the energy needed for nearly all vital cellular processes. Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland have now used cryo-electron tomography to study mitochondria in unprecedented detail, revealing new insights into their inner structure.

Their findings show that the proteins responsible for generating energy, known as respiratory complexes, do not work alone. Instead, they assemble into large structures called “supercomplexes,” which play a key role in efficiently producing ATP, the cell’s primary energy source.

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Peering into the jungle of microbes that live within us, researchers have stumbled across what seem to be an entire new class of virus-like objects.

“It’s insane,” says University of North Carolina cell biologist Mark Peifer, who was not involved in the study, told Elizabeth Pennisi at Science Magazine. “The more we look, the more crazy things we see.”

These mysterious bits of genetic material have no detectable sequences or even structural similarities known to any other biological agents.

So Stanford University biologist Ivan Zheludev and colleagues argue their strange discovery may not be viruses at all, but instead an entirely new group of entities that may help bridge the ancient gap between the simplest genetic molecules and more complex viruses.

“Obelisks comprise a class of diverse RNAs that have colonized, and gone unnoticed in, human, and global microbiomes,” the researchers write in a preprint paper.

Named after the highly-symmetrical, rod-like structures formed by its twisted lengths of RNA, the Obelisks’ genetic sequences are only around 1,000 characters (nucleotides) in size. In fact, this brevity is likely one of the reasons we’ve failed to notice them previously.

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n a recent essay, scientists challenge the prevailing genetic-focused model of cancer, advocating for a shift towards more holistic views that include non-genetic factors in cancer development.

They criticize the inconsistencies in current genetic research and propose considering alternative paradigms like disruptions in gene regulatory networks and tissue organization theories. This approach could lead to more effective cancer treatments and preventive measures against environmental non-mutagenic carcinogens.

Dallas Observer.

Plano, the so-called “hot air balloon capital of Texas,” landed at No. 6 in the 10 Best Cities in the U.S. to Live In 2025 from Niche, a data-driven platform used to provide information on schools, cities and real estate across the U.S. Niche defines a city as “a principal city for an urbanized area with a population of 100,000 or more.”

Uh, okay. Kind of like getting a literary prize for Best Typeface, but okay.

The recently published list used data from Niche, an AI platform that Forbes says offers “insights into cities, suburbs and neighborhoods across the U.S.” Niche analyzes categories such as best city, best neighborhood, and best spots for young professionals. Niche likes what it sees in Plano.

I’m curious: Why would anybody care about what a AI picks, given the egregious errors of which AI has been guilty? (Other than a published periodical that needs attention, of course.)

Now, I live in Plano and I think it’s a pretty good place to live, but ‘sixth best in the U.S.’? I’m not sure I buy that.

Niche gives Plano an overall score of A+, with its public schools, jobs, nightlife, diversity and health and fitness all receiving A scores. For Dallas-dwellers who rarely venture north of Interstate 635, hearing that Plano is a diverse city with lots of fun to be had might come as a shock, but both are true. According to the latest census, Plano’s population is 53% white, 22% Asian, 16% Hispanic or Latino and 9% Black. A 2020 Dallas Morning News report noted that Plano was slightly more diverse than Dallas.

Ah, there we go. Apparently some people consider ‘diversity’ a feature rather than a bug. I venture to suggest that it’s not so much the ‘diversity’ as it is the type of ‘diversity’ that’s important.

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Taiwan has revealed a new drone boat, or uncrewed surface vessel (USV), the Endeavor Manta. Somewhat surprisingly, this is said to be the first of its kind to have been developed for the Republic of China Navy (ROCN). While global interest in this class of vessels has been growing fast recently, especially in the wake of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Endeavor Manta has been tailored specifically to help defend Taiwan against a possible Chinese invasion.

The existence of the Endeavor Manta was disclosed today by Taiwan’s China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC Corp.), which produces ships and submarines for military and civilian use, during a launch event held in the port of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The event included a demonstration of the USV’s at-sea capabilities and TWZ has reached out to the company for more information.

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Harnessing moisture from air, Northwestern University chemists have developed a simple new method for breaking down plastic waste.

The non-toxic, environmentally friendly, solvent-free process first uses an inexpensive catalyst to break apart the bonds in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the most common plastic in the polyester family. Then, the researchers merely expose the broken pieces to ambient air. Leveraging the trace amounts of moisture in air, the broken-down PET is converted into monomers—the crucial building blocks for plastics. From there, the researchers envision the monomers could be recycled into new PET products or other, more valuable materials.

Safer, cleaner, cheaper and more sustainable than current plastic recycling methods, the new technique offers a promising path toward creating a circular economy for plastics. The study was recently published in Green Chemistry.

Naval News.

Satellite and ground imagery shared on social media recently revealed an intriguing system of Chinese amphibious bridging barges. The design likely aims at facilitating a large scale amphibious operation aimed at a Taiwan-contingency. Naval News in this analysis will provide an overview on the characteristics of these designs and outline their notional application.

Naval News in a notable first reported on the production of these distinct barges in early January. In a follow-up, naval analyst and former USN submariner Tom Shugart provided additional detail on the nature of the designs. The builder of the barges in question is CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering Company (COMEC) in Guangzhou, southern China. The company is frequently referred to by its former name, Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI), including here on Naval News. COMEC is an established provider to the Chinese Navy (PLAN). The yard produces naval designs such as replenishment oilers, hospital ships and submarine support vessels. COMEC in recent years has diversified into building innovative new systems such as a aviation platform for drones and helicopters.

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A stem cell treatment helped improve the motor function of two out of four patients with a spinal cord injury in the first clinical study of its kind, Japanese scientists said.

There is currently no effective treatment for paralysis caused by serious spinal cord injuries, which affect more than 150,000 patients in Japan alone, with 5,000 new cases each year.

Researchers at Tokyo’s Keio University are conducting their study using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS)—created by stimulating mature, already specialized, cells back into a juvenile state.

They can then be prompted to mature into different kinds of cells, with the Keio researchers using iPS-derived cells of the neural stem.

Chinese food is one of the few ethic cuisines that I can eat.

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In his new role as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lee Zeldin has proposed changes that would fundamentally alter government regulation of America’s energy and transportation industries—if the changes can survive legal challenges from environmental groups.

On March 12, Zeldin announced what he called “31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.”

“We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S., and more,” Zeldin said in an official statement.

These changes, he said, would “roll back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden ‘taxes’ on U.S. families” and make it “more affordable to purchase a car, heat homes, and operate a business.”

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One moment a flounder lies hidden in the sandy bottom of the ocean, the next it vanishes in the bloody frenzy of a shark’s dinner. The shark didn’t see or hear the fish; it pinpointed it from the infinitesimal electrical signals of the flounder’s beating heart.

This seeming superpower is called electroreception. It allows sharks to locate electric fields from a few feet away using sensory organs in their skin.

The flounder’s signal sparks a “little jolt in the shark’s brain,” says Chris Braun, who studies animal sensory systems at Hunter College in New York. To appreciate how the shark zeroes in on the flounder, says Duncan Leitch, who researches sensory adaptations in vertebrates at the University of California, Los Angeles, imagine “navigating toward a hot lightbulb with your eyes closed and hand outstretched.”

Electroreception is an extra sense, not a substitute. Sharks hear well, have good vision, and can smell blood in the water from a quarter mile away. But within a few feet, electroreception is the go-to sense. You don’t want to challenge a shark to a game of hide-and-seek.

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Poland is preparing to lay up to one million anti-personnel mines along its eastern border as part of its newly announced East Shield defense initiative, according to Pawe? Bejda, secretary of state at the Ministry of National Defense.

The decision comes as Poland, alongside Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, withdraws from the Ottawa Convention, which bans the use, production, and transfer of such mines.

“We have no choice. The situation at the border is very serious. Mines will be one of the elements of the East Shield,” Bejda stated in an interview with RMF FM, highlighting Poland’s increasing focus on fortifying its defenses against potential threats from Russia and Belarus.

Poland, along with its Baltic allies, recently announced its withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention, citing the need for stronger border security.

“We do not have anti-personnel mines. They have to be produced — we have such capabilities. We want these mines to be manufactured in Poland,” Bejda said, revealing that the state-owned PGZ Group will oversee their production.

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We have the technology. This appears to be more efficient than the normal evaporative operation using nasty chemicals like freon.

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The evolutionary path of modern humans is more complex than previously thought, as new evidence suggests an ancient human ancestral population split into two separate groups that eventually reunited.

According to a new genome sequence analysis conducted by the University of Cambridge, these ancient populations split around 1.5 million years ago before diverging genetically and then reconnecting roughly 300,000 years ago. The modern humans that first arose in Africa between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago were not an even mix, though, as one of these ancestral populations donated 80% of the current genome.

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Advances in the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 over the past 15 years have yielded important new insights into the roles that specific genes play in many diseases. But to date this technology — which allows scientists to use a “guide” RNA to modify DNA sequences and evaluate the effects — is able to target, delete, replace, or modify only single gene sequences with a single guide RNA and has limited ability to assess multiple genetic changes simultaneously.

Now, however, Yale scientists have developed a series of sophisticated mouse models using CRISPR (“clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”) technology that allows them to simultaneously assess genetic interactions on a host of immunological responses to multiple diseases, including cancer.

Politico, a Voice of the Crust.

New York’s top court has struck down a law that would have let noncitizens vote in New York City elections, with the court’s progressive majority overwhelmingly siding with Republicans who challenged the idea.

The law would have made more than 800,000 people eligible to vote in municipal contests such as mayoral races.

“We file some lawsuits that are stretches,” said Joe Borelli, the former Republican minority leader of the New York City Council and one of the plaintiffs who challenged the law. “This one was, from the beginning, an open-shut case.”

The times, they are a-changin’.

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The People’s Liberation Army has unveiled the first of what are expected to be as many as five special barges with bridges capable of overcoming minefields during a potential future invasion of Taiwan.

“Anyone wondering what an invasion of Taiwan might look like now has a fresh visual clue,” wrote Naval News analyst H.I. Sutton about the new barge.

The first barge was photographed at a shipyard in Guangzhou, China, with PLA forces shown conducting exercises. The barge lays out a road-like structure above the water that produces a 2,500-foot causeway capable of handling military vehicles and troops.