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Olivia Farnsworth: The Girl Who Feels No Pain, Hunger, or Fatigue
Olivia Farnsworth from the UK is a unique medical case—she doesn’t feel pain, hunger, or fatigue. This rare condition is caused by a deletion in her 6th chromosome, meaning a segment of the chromosome is missing. She is believed to be the only person in the world exhibiting all three symptoms simultaneously.
The inability to feel pain is the most dangerous aspect of her condition, as she could sustain serious injuries without realizing it. Her family must constantly monitor and protect her. Additionally, her mother ensures she eats regularly, as Olivia doesn’t experience hunger signals and could easily forget to eat.
Sleep is an even greater challenge. Without medication, Olivia cannot fall asleep naturally and can stay awake for up to three days in a row. To manage this, she follows a strict regimen of sleeping aids.
Olivia’s case remains a fascinating and rare example of how genetic anomalies can dramatically alter human perception and biology.
@science
The IM-2 Athena lunar lander, developed by Intuitive Machines, has completed its mission in the Moon’s southern polar region. However, it did so ahead of schedule—because it tipped over upon landing. This mishap echoes last year’s incident with the company’s first lander, IM-1 Odysseus. That one, despite ending up on its side, managed to function for some time since its solar panels could still charge the batteries.
Unfortunately, IM-2 fared worse. The designated landing ellipse was just 50 meters across near Malapert Massif, but the actual deviation was much larger—250 meters, according to the company, and up to 400 meters, per NASA. Engineers noted issues with the clarity of data from the laser altimeter, and an image sent from the lander confirmed that it had come to rest on its side inside a crater. Given that this region receives only slanted sunlight, combined with the extreme cold of the lunar night and the poor orientation of the solar panels, IM-2 has no chance of waking up again.
As a result, the two small rovers and the drill meant to extract regolith from nearly a meter deep were unable to fulfill their primary missions—though at least they managed to prove they were functional.
#space #moon #science
🚨 Science Podcast Alert! 🎙️
Tune in every Friday for our weekly @science podcast! Today, we're diving deep into the latest groundbreaking discoveries:
🔹 Mars Reveals Secrets: NASA’s Perseverance rover found unexpected minerals on Mars, hinting at ancient life-friendly conditions. Unusual deposits of kaolinite suggest Mars once had a warm, wet environment ideal for microbial life.
🌌 Ultra-Hot Nova Surprise: Gemini South telescope captured a recurrent nova eruption in a nearby galaxy with unprecedented chemical signatures, including extremely ionized silicon shining nearly 100 times brighter than our sun.
🦴 Walking Upright 2 Million Years Ago: A newly discovered fossil from South Africa confirms that our ancient relative, Paranthropus robustus, walked upright like humans and was surprisingly small, highlighting new insights into early human evolution.
🚬 Smoking Fuels Antibiotic Resistance: New research reveals cigarette waste promotes the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in water bodies and even human lungs, highlighting yet another hidden health hazard of smoking.
🧬 Nanoparticles vs. Cancer: Breakthrough research at UCLA uses innovative nanoparticle technology to stop pancreatic cancer from spreading. This method combines immune therapy and mRNA to create personalized cancer treatments.
🛰️ Voyager's Final Chapter: NASA is carefully powering down instruments on Voyager spacecraft to extend their missions as long as possible. These probes continue to send back data from beyond our solar system, over 15 billion miles from Earth.
Join us today as we explore these groundbreaking stories and more!
Stay curious, stay informed, and see you in the podcast! 🚀🌍
By the end of 2025, a lawyer’s caliber will be determined 90% by the quality of their AI assistant.
Reasoning models have made a breakthrough in legal skill qualification and practice efficiency.
The first randomized controlled study assessed how senior law students performed six legal tasks using:
• A RAG-based AI legal tool (Vincent AI),
• An AI reasoning model (O1-preview OpenAI),
• Or no AI at all (as lawyers worldwide still commonly work today).
The study revealed:
• Both AI tools significantly improved legal work quality.
AI assistance boosted performance in five out of six tested legal tasks, with:
• Vincent AI delivering a statistically significant improvement of 38% to 115%,
• O1-preview increasing performance by 34% to 140%, showing particularly strong results in complex tasks like drafting persuasive legal letters and analyzing legal complaints.
• Reasoning models enhance not just clarity, organization, and professionalism but also the depth and rigor of legal analysis.
• Hallucinations were minimal.
Notably, Vincent AI exhibited about the same error rate as law students working without AI (humans, after all, are also prone to confabulations).
• The findings sharply contrast with previous studies on older large language models like GPT-4.
In other words, a breakthrough has occurred—the emergence of AI models capable of genuine reasoning.
Two Key Takeaways
1. The study convincingly demonstrates that integrating domain-specific RAG capabilities with reasoning models creates a breakthrough synergy in legal competence and productivity.
2. These results not only herald the imminent arrival of next-generation AI legal tools but will also fundamentally reshape the future of the legal profession.
#LLM
A view of Earth from the first privately-owned spacecraft to successfully land on the Moon in history.
On March 2, 2025, the Blue Ghost lander, developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed in the Moon’s Mare Crisium region. This marks the first time a private spacecraft has achieved a fully successful lunar landing.
🚀 Metal Made in Space Lands on Earth for the First Time! 🌍✨
The European Space Agency (ESA) has achieved a groundbreaking milestone in space manufacturing! For the first time in history, a piece of metal produced in microgravity has been successfully returned to Earth.
This achievement is part of the ElectroMagnetic Levitator (EML) experiment, which studies the behavior of metals and alloys in space. In microgravity, materials can be created with properties that are impossible to achieve under Earth’s gravity, opening up new possibilities for advanced manufacturing.
“Vacation-Style” Beaches on Mars?
Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery on Mars, revealing evidence of “vacation-style” beaches with sand and waves. Using data from the Zhurong Mars rover, scientists identified hidden layers of rock under the planet’s surface, suggesting the presence of an ancient northern ocean. This finding offers the clearest evidence yet that Mars once had a significant body of water and a more habitable environment for life.
“We’re finding places on Mars that used to look like ancient beaches and ancient river deltas,” said Benjamin Cardenas, assistant professor of geology at Penn State. “We found evidence for wind, waves, no shortage of sand — a proper, vacation-style beach.”
The Zhurong rover’s ground-penetrating radar allowed scientists to explore the Martian subsurface, revealing formations similar to those found on Earth’s beaches. This discovery paints a picture of ancient habitable environments capable of supporting microbial life.
Read more about this fascinating discovery here: Penn State University Article
DARPA Plans to Build Structures Directly in Space
Instead of launching massive structures from Earth, DARPA’s NOM4D program aims to build them directly in orbit using advanced manufacturing. This could revolutionize space construction by eliminating launch constraints like weight and size.
- What will they build?
Large antennas, solar arrays, and reflectors—assembled or even printed in space.
This tech could lead to orbital factories and lunar bases, using materials from the Moon or asteroids. If successful, it’s a major step toward a true space economy.
🔗 More: The Debrief
Wolves Respect Borders Better Than Humans? 🐺🗺️
This map shows GPS tracking data from wolves belonging to six different packs. The fascinating part? They strictly respect territorial boundaries—there’s almost no overlap between their ranges.
#science #ecology #wildlife
At this very moment, somewhere in the world, robots are being trained to replace athletes. Their training is based on datasets from Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant. 🚀🤖 #FutureOfSports #AI
@science
Otter Gang Wars in Singapore
In Singapore, rival otter clans are battling for territory in the city’s waterways. These intelligent animals form tight family groups, defending prime locations through dramatic chases and skirmishes. As their numbers grow, so does the competition. Who will dominate the otter underworld?
🚗 History in Motion: The Birth of the First Gasoline-Powered Car
On January 29, 1886, Carl Benz made history by receiving a patent for what is widely regarded as the first commercially viable gasoline-powered car—the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. This groundbreaking invention marked the beginning of the automotive era and set the foundation for modern motoring.
Benz's Motorwagen was a marvel of its time, featuring elements that are still synonymous with today's vehicles. It boasted a robust chassis, an internal combustion engine, electric ignition, a carburetor, a cooling system, transmission, and brakes—precursors to the sophisticated systems in modern cars.
However, one notable omission was a reliable steering mechanism. This challenge led to the Motorwagen's unique three-wheeled design, sacrificing a second wheel for better maneuverability—a clever workaround that highlights Benz's resourcefulness.
Over five years, approximately 25 units of this pioneering vehicle were produced and sold. Unfortunately, none have survived, leaving us with only historical accounts and a replica at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. This reproduction stands as a testament to Benz's legacy and the ingenuity of early automotive pioneers.
As we reflect on this milestone, it's remarkable to consider how far automotive technology has evolved—from the three-wheeled marvels to the sleek, efficient machines of today. Here's to Carl Benz, the father of the gasoline engine and the man who ignited the spirit of motoring innovation. 🚗💨
#Science #Innovation #CarlBenz #AutomobileHistory #MercedesBenzMuseum
Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt—255 compared to Egypt’s 138!
The pyramids in Sudan, located in the region of Nubia, were built during the Kingdom of Kush, an ancient civilization that ruled along the Nile from the 8th century BCE to the 4th century CE. Geographically, this corresponds to the northern part of modern Sudan.
Kushite pyramids are smaller and more slender in shape compared to their Egyptian counterparts. On average, a Kushite pyramid stands between 6 and 30 meters tall, whereas the iconic Egyptian pyramids, like the Great Pyramid of Giza, reach heights of up to 138 meters.
The Kushites began building pyramids approximately 800 years after the Egyptians stopped constructing theirs. Like the Egyptians, the Kushites used these monuments as royal tombs for kings, queens, and nobles.
One of the largest concentrations of Kushite pyramids is found in the ancient city of Meroë, which is home to around 200 pyramids.
Sadly, in the 1830s, many Sudanese pyramids were severely damaged by an Italian treasure hunter, Giuseppe Ferlini. Seeking quick access to their interiors, he destroyed the tops of around 40 pyramids using explosives, causing irreparable damage to these ancient structures.
Today, Sudan’s pyramids remain in a fragile state, suffering from the effects of wars and a lack of resources for preservation. Meanwhile, Egypt’s pyramids continue to draw millions of tourists each year, overshadowing the lesser-known but equally fascinating legacy of the Kingdom of Kush.
🚨 Environmental Catastrophe in the Black Sea Region
Dear friends, colleagues, and followers,
We are reaching out to you with an urgent matter. A devastating environmental disaster has occurred in the Black Sea region. Two vessels, severely damaged by a recent storm, have spilled significant amounts of fuel oil, threatening the unique ecosystem of the Black Sea.
The flora and fauna of the entire coastline are now in grave danger. This unprecedented situation affects every nation bordering the Black Sea, and it demands immediate action.
We are calling on the scientific community, companies with expertise in environmental restoration, and anyone with innovative technologies or solutions to help mitigate the impact of this disaster.
If you or your organization have knowledge, technologies, or ideas on how to clean up the spill and restore the fragile ecosystem, we urge you to get in touch with us. If you know someone who could assist or provide guidance, please share this post with them.
Let us join forces to help the Black Sea recover as quickly as possible. Together, we can make a difference.
🌊 Let’s protect and restore the unique beauty of the Black Sea for future generations.
__
Please contact @Wmkali
$500B and Trump, Musk, Altman, Nadella—it’s like a kindergarten show.
Every media outlet, blogger, and Telegram channel has been buzzing for the past 24 hours about this so-called Stargate Project.
But when you listen to what the project insiders are saying, it becomes clear: if this isn’t a scam, it’s just a perfectly timed PR stunt conveniently aligned with the whole inauguration buzz.
You’ve all heard of Trump, I assume.
Musk vs. Altman? Check the picture for that drama.
And Nadella playing clueless with his “All I know is I’m worth my $80 billion” act? Here’s the link: YouTube.
So how do we take their statements seriously now?
🧠 Engineers at MIT have developed a magnetic robotic thread designed to remove blood clots from the brain.
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🔬 BREAKTHROUGH IN AI-POWERED HEALTHCARE
Google Research has unveiled significant advancements in AMIE (Artificial Medical Intelligence Engine), a cutting-edge AI system designed for longitudinal disease management.
🔹 What makes this important?Unlike traditional diagnostic tools, AMIE follows patients throughout their entire treatment journey, continuously adapting and personalizing care plans based on patient progress.
🔹 Key innovations:
• Multi-modal data integration combining medical images, clinical notes, and lab results
• Temporal neural networks that detect subtle changes in patient condition over time
• Interpretable AI models that explain recommendations to physicians
🔹 Clinical results are impressive:
• 94% accuracy in detecting cancer recurrence
• 12% improvement in survival rates in oncology applications
• Early detection of neurodegenerative disease progression by 7 months compared to standard monitoring
This represents a paradigm shift from reactive to proactive healthcare, where AI doesn't just diagnose but becomes an integral part of the entire treatment process.
The research team emphasizes their commitment to ethical AI development with strong privacy protections and transparency principles built into the system.
Full research paper: https://research.google/blog/from-diagnosis-to-treatment-advancing-amie-for-longitudinal-disease-management/
#AIinHealthcare #MedicalAI #GoogleResearch #AMIE #FutureOfMedicine
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden have developed a collective of disk-shaped autonomous robots that mimic the adaptive behaviors of biological tissues. Inspired by how embryonic cells transition between fluid and solid states to form structures, these robots can rearrange themselves to act either as a rigid material or flow into new configurations. This advancement opens new possibilities for adaptable robotic systems capable of self-healing and dynamic reconfiguration.
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🌍🚀 A “Seed Pyramid” on the Moon – Humanity’s Backup Plan
Alongside a suite of scientific instruments, the Blue Ghost lunar lander has delivered something truly unique to the Moon: a pyramid containing life’s seeds and Wikipedia encoded in DNA.
This project was developed by the biotech company LifeShip in collaboration with the Arch Mission Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving human knowledge for future generations—or perhaps even extraterrestrials. If life on Earth were to face extinction, these seeds could potentially help revive it.
This is the third lunar library sent by Arch Mission Foundation, adding to their efforts to safeguard humanity’s legacy beyond Earth.
🔬 What’s inside the pyramid?
🌾 100 types of plant seeds & DNA from 500 plant species
🪴 Essential crops, iconic ornamental plants, and sacred medicinal herbs
🌲 The tallest trees on Earth – coastal redwoods
📀 Images of 100 plants preserved on ceramic plates by Cerabyte, designed to last for billions of years
A small step for @science, a giant leap for planetary backup. 🌱🌕✨
Dark Matter: Measured at Last! 🌌
For the first time, scientists directly measured the amount of dark matter in our part of the Milky Way! 🛸 Using pulsars—spinning cosmic lighthouses—they detected the faint gravitational pull of this invisible substance.
🔬 The result? Less than 1 kg of dark matter exists in a volume the size of Earth! 🤯 Even though dark matter dominates the universe, locally it’s incredibly sparse.
💡 This breakthrough helps us map dark matter in our galaxy, refine theories of gravity, and better understand the unseen forces shaping the cosmos. The invisible is becoming visible!
How Tears Dry
Tears are 98% water, with the remaining 2% containing salts, glucose, proteins, and lipids. As they evaporate, water disappears first, leaving behind tiny crystalline traces.
Interestingly, emotional tears contain more proteins than reflex tears (like from cutting onions), affecting how they dry. A little chemistry in every tear! 🔬💧
Crowd Movement Follows a Vortex Pattern, Physicists Find
Crowds don’t move chaotically—physicists from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France) have shown that large groups of people form rotating vortices instead.
The researchers analyzed crowd dynamics during the San Fermín festival in Spain, using balcony-mounted cameras and computational models. Unlike previous studies that treated crowds as clusters of individual agents, they modeled the crowd as a dense, fluid-like continuum.
As the crowd filled the square, it reached a critical density of 4 people per square meter, triggering the slow formation of overlapping vortices. When density rose to 9 people per square meter, new vortices appeared every 18 seconds. Interestingly, participants were likely unaware they were moving in circles.
🔗 Study in Nature
A Historic First: Russian Cosmonaut Defends Thesis from Space
For the first time in history, a Russian cosmonaut has successfully defended a scientific thesis from aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Hero of Russia Ivan Vagner presented his master’s dissertation remotely, with a live video feed shared by Alexey Komissarov, the rector of RANEPA. His research focused on improving the efficiency of government organizations, offering practical recommendations for optimization.
Watch Earth Live from the ISS – Now in 4K! 🌍🚀
The International Space Station (ISS) now offers a live 4K stream of breathtaking views of Earth! Perfect for a moment of meditation, the feed provides a stunning perspective from space.
The system includes three cameras:
🔹 A wide-angle view capturing Earth’s vast horizon.
🔹 A detailed view covering an area of 240×180 km.
🔹 A docking camera that monitors spacecraft arrivals and departures.
Since the ISS orbits Earth every 90 minutes, the stream goes dark every 45 minutes when night falls. During these gaps or signal losses, previously recorded footage is played.
Tune in and experience our planet like never before! 🌌📡
Researchers at EvolutionaryScale have utilized an advanced AI model, ESM3, to design a novel green fluorescent protein named esmGFP. This protein’s genetic sequence is only 58% similar to its closest known counterpart, indicating a significant divergence that would have taken over 500 million years to evolve naturally. This breakthrough not only showcases the potential of AI in accelerating molecular design but also opens avenues for advancements in medical research and biotechnology.
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⭐ Happy Chinese New Year!
Following the success of the Chinese startup DeepSeek, many are surprised at how quickly China has caught up with the US in AI. However, China’s progress in algorithmic efficiency hasn't come out of nothing. Chinese students have long outperformed others in math and programming at international olympiads 🏆
When it comes to producing outstanding performers in math and science, China's secondary education system is superior to that of the West. It fosters fierce competition among students, a principle borrowed from the highly efficient Soviet model 🎖
In contrast, most Western schools discourage competition, prohibiting public announcements of students' grades and rankings. The rationale is understandable — to protect students from pressure or ridicule. However, such measures also predictably demotivate the best students. Victory and defeat are two sides of the same coin. Eliminate the losers — and you eliminate the winners ☯️
For many students, motivation to excel in high school comes from treating it as a competitive game, striving to rank first against strong opponents. Removing transparency in student performance can make school feel meaningless for ambitious teenagers. It’s not surprising that many gifted kids now find competitive gaming more exciting than academics — at least in video games, they can see how each player ranks 😵
Telling all students they are champions, regardless of performance, may seem kind — until you consider how quickly reality will shatter this illusion after graduation. Reality, unlike well-meaning school policies, does have public grades and rankings — whether in sports, business, science, or technology. AI benchmarks that demonstrate DeepSeek's superiority are one of such public rankings. And more are coming. Unless the US secondary education system undergoes radical reform, China’s growing dominance in technology seems inevitable 🇨🇳
The reaction time of a cat is approximately 20–70 milliseconds, while that of a snake ranges between 44–70 milliseconds.
For comparison, the reaction time of a human is around 250 milliseconds.
Scientists Capture Rare Footage of “Black Ejections” on the Sun
Researchers have shared remarkable footage of rare “black ejections” on the Sun, captured by the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) and the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISZF) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The video reveals a “ghostly structure of an intense black color,” part of which is ejected into space while the rest dissipates in the solar corona.
This black plasma cloud is associated with a cold prominence containing large amounts of neutral hydrogen. This hydrogen can almost completely absorb the short-wavelength radiation falling on it from behind. The entire process lasted about three hours.
Stay tuned for more fascinating discoveries!
The image doesn’t show a mission control center for space exploration; instead, it’s the control room of the EAST experimental fusion reactor. Located at the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, EAST has set a new record for plasma confinement—1,066 seconds. The previous record of 403 seconds was also achieved there in 2023. This is a major breakthrough.
The key takeaway is that physicists have developed a way to sustain plasma for over 1,000 seconds. ITER, the world’s largest fusion reactor under construction in France, is expected to operate using similarly long pulses. Chinese experts are actively contributing to the ITER project, making this achievement a win for the global scientific community.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with updates from Chinese research centers, the information provided is incomplete. For example, there is no mention of the plasma’s temperature. In previous EAST experiments, it reached 120 million degrees Celsius, whereas ITER’s plasma is expected to exceed 150 million degrees (and up to 300 million degrees at its core).
Nevertheless, this is excellent news. Now we wait to see how Japan responds. Over a year ago, experiments began at JT-60SA, currently the largest tokamak in operation. It is designed to confine plasma at temperatures of up to 200 million degrees.
#Physics #Energy #Fusion #science