Science

An international team of scientists has unveiled the largest and most detailed map of the universe ever created using the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing nearly 800,000 galaxies stretching back to almost the beginning of time. The COSMOS-Web project not only challenges long-held beliefs about galaxy formation in the early universe but also unexpectedly revealed 10 times more galaxies than anticipated along with supermassive black holes Hubble couldn t see.

Shrinking silicon transistors have reached their physical limits, but a team from the University of Tokyo is rewriting the rules. They've created a cutting-edge transistor using gallium-doped indium oxide with a novel "gate-all-around" structure. By precisely engineering the material's atomic structure, the new device achieves remarkable electron mobility and stability. This breakthrough could fuel faster, more reliable electronics powering future technologies from AI to big data systems.

Space is hard. There's no doubt about that. It's completely unlike any environment we have ever faced on the Earth.

The Large Hadron Collider has changed particle physics, and now scientists are dreaming up even bigger supercolliders. But humanity can't match the raw particle-colliding power of a supermassive black hole. In a new paper, researchers describe how supermassive black holes create a dense environment where particles are spinning at relativistic speeds and crashing into each other, releasing other particles that could be detectable on Earth.

When Robert F Kennedy Jr announced that the US would stop recommending covid-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnancies, he bypassed standard protocols and set the stage for future vaccine rollbacks

New mathematical work provides a way to identify when information has been changed by manipulating space-time – and it may form a foundation for future space-time computers

Across many cultures, both men and women rate female faces as more attractive, and women exhibit this preference even more strongly than men

Some time ago I was on the Piers Morgan “Uncensored” show for half an hour, talking about why biological sex is binary (see my post about this here). I now realize how fortunate I was, because I knew in advance that Morgan agreed with me and I didn’t face what Natasha Hausdorff faces below (and many other guests have also faced): unmitigated, rude, and arrogant bullying, as well as constant interruptions. (My solo appearance was followed by a panel of three discussants, and at least one of those people faced Morgan’s opprobrium.)

In the show below (the bullying starts at the beginning and ends at about an hour in, followed by an interview with Ahmed Alnaouq, who, it’s claimed (see below) is from a family of Hamas terrorists. But let’s concentrate on the main guest/target Natasha Hausdorff, someone I deeply admire. She’s a British barrister specializing in international law and also the legal head of the UK lawyers For Israel.  She keeps her cool even under the hottest fire, and you can’t get much hotter than this kind of rude interrogation by Morgan.  There is no debate, no speech, that Hausdorff will refuse to participate in, even if she knows she’ll be subject to booing and hatred, for she feels that she must get the message out about the world’s misconceptions about Israel (e.g., the “apartheid state” and “genocide” canards).  I’ve rarely seen someone so brave on the platform.

Here she tries to give her opinions to both Piers Morgan and libertarian/comedian Dave Smith, but hardly gets a chance to speak. I don’t recommend that you watch the entire first hour, but do dip into it. I recommend, for example, watching the segments beginning at 17:45, 24:35, 27:30, 38:00, and 41:30 (Hausdorff gets two short, uninterrupted spaces to respond, eloquently, at 46:48 and 53:45).  Note that she never interrupts either Smith or Morgan, but listens politely. She is not afforded the same consideration.

Note as well that neither Smith nor Morgan levels any criticisms at Hamas, save for one brief offhand remark by Morgan. Especially notable is the complete dearth of admission by the two men that civilian deaths certainly from Hamas using Gazans as human shields, nor do they offer any approbation for IDF’s care not to kill civilians.

Now if you are anti-Israel you will be taking Pierce’s self-admitted “objective” evaluation of the situation, but I will mention two issues, one of which is dealt with below.

First, Hausdorff is asked several times to admit that Israel has nuclear weapons. Many of us believe they do, but in fact Israel has never admitted it has nuclear weapons (a good strategy if you don’t!), and for a lawyer to say otherwise is simply not on.

Second, Morgan repeatedly brings up the issue of why Israel doesn’t allow foreign reporters into Gaza. In fact it has: Douglas Murray has been several times. Of course, as Morgan says, he was “embedded with the IDF” but if I’m not wrong other journalists from organizations like Reuters have been allowed into Gaza, or at least into Lebanon. But see the article by Sheri Oz below.

And if you’re anti-Israel, you may find support in the words of Morgan and Smith. From me: Kudos to Hausdorff for withstanding Morgan’s verbal cannonade.

 

Here’s a post from Global Disconnect that dissects the segment above, include Morgan’s bullying, his ignorance of the data relevant to the Hamas/Gaza war, and, at the end, the background of guest Ahmed Alnaouq. Click the headline to read.

A few excerpts:

Piers Morgan couldn’t help himself. In his latest so-called debate between comedian Dave Smith and international lawyer Natasha Hausdorff. The so-called “debate: was a staggering display of contempt for both basic debate etiquette and respect for the woman and legal expert he invited to his show. At one point, Piers even sneered that “numbers aren’t her strong point,” a cheap, sexist jab suggesting she’s somehow stupid. In reality, the one who showed no grasp of numbers, facts, logic or any journalistic integrity was him.

. . . Since numbers “aren’t Piers’ thing”, I’m going to help him out: he interrupted Natasha Hausdorff 103 times. Her longest uninterrupted statement lasted 38 seconds, and she generally wasn’t allowed to string five words together before being cut off. Dave Smith spoke uninterrupted nearly every time he had the floor. Piers only interjected 3 times: the first so Piers could clarify his own viewpoint, the second was to agree with Dave, and the third was to pivot back to attacking Natasha. Dave’s longest uninterrupted monologue rolled on for over three minutes. How do you like those numbers, Piers?

. . . Piers Morgan has relentlessly pushed the same false narrative that Israel is starving Gazans or attacking civilians on their way to get food. Let’s start with the most basic and shameless lie—a display not only of journalistic failure, but of a complete lack of integrity as a human being. Israel is not targeting civilians around food distribution points, and that’s not an opinion—it’s documented fact. Hamas itself has admitted to executing people in Gaza. There’s drone and CCTV footage as evidence, even the BBC and The Washington Post—initially eager to repeat Hamas propaganda—retracted their reporting. And yet, Piers Morgan still claims “there is no evidence” that Israel wasn’t responsible. That’s not ignorance—it’s deliberate deception.

. . . To answer the question Piers Morgan so desperately—and theatrically—asks in order to revive the oldest blood libel: that “Jews like to kill children”—only now aimed at the Jew among the nations, Israel. Piers Morgan theatrically performs his “outrage” over Israel not counting the number of children it supposedly “kills,” implying either a deliberate targeting or a cold disregard for their lives—yet not even his own army in any war has ever tracked civilian casualties, let alone child casualties separately, but somehow he demands of Israel what he’s never asked of any other military in any conflict, including wars his own country and brother fought.

. . . As of two days ago, Hamas claims 54,400 total deaths in Gaza, while the IDF estimates around 30,000 were Hamas and militant fighters. That leaves roughly 24,400 civilian deaths if both figures are accepted—giving Piers Morgan the simple math he challenged Natasha on: a combatant-to-civilian ratio of about 1.2:1. That’s already unusually precise warfare, but it gets sharper. Hamas itself admits natural deaths are included in its total, and over the 20-month period, about 8,500 people died of age, illness, or accidents. Excluding those, the adjusted ratio is 1.9:1—meaning 1.9 combatants killed for every 1 civilian. For context, UN and Red Cross data say the global wartime average is 9 civilians for every 1 combatant. So what exactly is Piers screaming about? Is Piers Morgan really that bad at basic math, or is his hatred for Israel so deep it overrides any pretense of journalism or objectivity from the start?

There are more data dealing with the libel that Israel is targeting children in Gaza (at one point he asks Hausdorff how many people she has killed!), but you can read the article for yourself. Just one more quote:

Piers Morgan’s “get out jail” free card is ignorance about the facts on the ground, he loves repeating the falsehood that Israel has banned international media—yet I’m not on the ground, I am not even a journalist and I’m still able to provide basic facts. Piers, Google is your friends—try using it. The truth is, Israel follows the same wartime media protocols as every modern military. No warzone offers unrestricted press access; journalists operate under controlled, coordinated entry by the military in charge, whether it’s in Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere else. If Piers truly wants to report from Gaza, he can apply and follow protocol, just like any other journalist in any other war.

Now, to take up the last issue, here’s a post from the Israel Diaries Substack (click to read):

So the accusation arises over and over – such as in comments to some of my articles on Substack: Why won’t Israel allow foreign reporters into Gaza?

It’s a fair question. It sounds fair.

Let us see what you think, dear readers. Below, I present two alternative theories that may explain why Israel is not letting foreign reporters into Gaza. Each theory has a number of explanatory items. Mark the item you think most likely stands behind the reason why Israel does not let foreign reporters into Gaza.

Before you answer, consider the following:

Where would the journalists even stay?

War correspondents typically lodge in hotels. Are any still operating in Gaza? If yes, fine — reporting might be feasible. If not, the only option would be to embed with one of three entities:

1. The IDF
2. Hamas
3. A still-active NGO, such as UNRWA — which, given what we now know, is effectively a Hamas affiliate.

Now, weigh the following two theories. Each has a list of possible explanations. Below each list is a multiple choice questionnaire on which you can vote for the explanation that seems most plausible to you.

Theory 1 is “The Journalist as Liability,” and theory two is “It’s a cover-up (or something more sinister),” implying that Israel has something to hide.  The article gives arguments on both sides, and readers (not many at this point) have voted, I’ll let you read the short piece for yourself.

Finally, and I haven’t seen this ever before, Hausdorff herself has taken to the news—the pages of the Spectato—to give a post facto analysis of her appearance with Morgan. Click below to read:

A couple of excerpts from the archived version. She begins with her exchange with Morgan about whether a family of children parented by two doctors was really killed in an Israeli strike. The exchange simply shows that, given Hamas’s history of false reports, Hausdorff is reserving judgement (as am I) until the matter is properly investigated.

Being interrupted and harangued, or even having my volume turned down or line cut, is not a new experience for me in “interviews”. It has always been a clear indication that the individuals involved in this unprofessional conduct were out of their depth and at a loss as to how to engage with the evidence I had presented. Nor, indeed, am I the only one experiencing such treatment. Any individual who does not subscribe to the virulently anti-Israel agenda, and who is asked to comment on broadcast media, will have experienced similar playground antics. It is demonstrative of a catastrophic failure by the media to do its job and an abject absence of journalistic integrity.

The pathetic display this week by Piers Morgan demonstrates that he is a significant part of the problem of disinformation about this conflict. Morgan should be well aware that there have been repeated stories emerging from Gaza which have subsequently been debunked only after they spread around the world. The predictable result has been the poisoning of many minds against Israel, on the basis of fabrications and blood libels. My simple entreaty was that the matter should not be prejudged, especially where fake AI generated images had been deployed to support it. Cue frenzied outrage and bile from Morgan.

Defence of fake images in pursuit of a “good story” is, of course, old ground for Morgan. He was dismissed from his role as editor of the Daily Mirror in 2004, following the publication of photographs that purportedly showed British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. The images were later determined to be staged and not taken in Iraq. Morgan stood by their publication and refused to issue an apology on the basis there was no firm evidence that they were fake, though the newspaper did, acknowledging that it had been the victim of a “calculated and malicious hoax” and expressing deep regret for the reputational damage caused to the British Army. Morgan’s defence of his decision to publish those fake pictures stemmed from his opposition to the Iraq war in a disgraceful example of “the ends justify the means”.

Did he learn anything from that shameful incident? The way I was treated on Uncensored suggests not. At least when Morgan was in the employ of a national newspaper, he could be held accountable. But this no longer appears to be the case. He is now free to shout down his guests without consequence.

The problem doesn’t stop with Morgan. The unfair way in which Israel is presented in the Western media, and the refusal to treat Hamas’s claims with scepticism, misleads the public. It increases the threat of violence to Jews around the world, but also, crucially, props up and encourages Hamas, thereby prolonging the war and the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

After all this—the shouting and rudeness and inability to discuss evidence—I ask myself, “If I had it to do over again, would I still have gone on Piers Morgan’s show to discuss the binary nature of sex? And ;my answer is, “Yes, certainly.” For one thing, I knew that he agreed with me, and so expected little haranguing and rudeness. (I’m not sure that, were I Hausdorff, I would have the guts.)  Mainly, though, it was important for me to speak the biological truth as I knew it, and to relate how that prompted the FFRF’s act of censorship.

h/t: Malgorzata

The monster black hole lurking at the center of galaxy M87 is an absolute beast. It is one of the largest in our vicinity and was the ideal first target for the Event Horizon Telescope. Scientists have taken a fresh look at the supermassive black hole using those iconic Event Horizon Telescope images and have now figured out just how fast this monster is spinning and how much material it's devouring.

An attempt to become the third successful private landing on the moon has ended in failure, as ispace's Resilience probe crashed due to a malfunctioning laser sensor

Japan's private space company ispace experienced another setback on Thursday 5th June when its Resilience lunar lander crashed into the surface of the Moon, marking the company's second consecutive failed landing attempt in just over two years.

Dark stars were first suggested in 2007, but now observations with the James Webb Space Telescope hint that we may have actually found some of these unusual cosmic objects

June’s sci-fi hot tips feature a sleep-killing neural chip from Laura Elliott, plus Will Carver's vision of a world where a virus makes us kinder

It's impossible to keep track of it all.

The post Our Medical Establishment is Flailing first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Titan has no liquid water whatsoever on its surface. But it does have liquids. Seas, lakes, streams, rivers…of methane and ethane.

Harvard and PSI scientists have managed to freeze normally fleeting quantum states in time, creating a pathway to control them using pure electronic tricks and laser precision.

It's official. NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request (FY 2026) has been released, and the news is decidedly mixed. In a previous article, we examined the FY 2026 Budget Request (released on May 2nd) and its recommendations for the coming year. With the release of the FY 2026 Budget, what was previewed and the anxiety it caused for many have been confirmed. While the Budget bolsters funding for NASA's exploration programs for the Moon and Mars, it also contains deep cuts to many other programs and the cancellation of key elements in NASA's Moon to Mars architecture.

Taurine supplements have previously been found to extend the lifespan of monkeys and mice, but a new study in humans shows that the amino acid doesn’t decline with age

Metallic nanoparticles injected into the retina partly restored vision in blind mice and could work as a treatment for conditions that damage light-sensitive cells in the eye

News is not only slow, but what news we have is depressing.  Plus I had to sit by the pond this morning while they cleaned out the algae, which scares the ducks, making them flee and hide. And they hide so well that you can’t find them or even see them. Fortunately, after a two-hour absence, they just returned (11 a.m.) and so I’m much relieved.  This is why the presence of a mother duck is essential: the ducklings don’t know what to do. She herds them to a secluded spot and somehow makes them lie down and be quiet.

But nos let’s read about a colossal squid—a rarity just spotted, in a juvenile form, in the depths near the South Sandwich Islands. No, this is not an ancient squid “de-extincted” by Colossal Biosciences, nor is it what most of us thinks of as the “giant squid“, which is in another family. But this species is, as you’ll below, perhaps the biggest squid we know of in terms of mass. It also happens to be the heaviest invertebrate on Earth.

from Wikipedia:

The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is a species of very large squid belonging to the family Cranchiidae, that of the cockatoo squids or glass squids. It is sometimes called the Antarctic cranch squid or giant squid (not to be confused with the giant squid in genus Architeuthis) and is believed to be the largest squid species in terms of mass. It is the only recognized member of the genus Mesonychoteuthis.

The species is confirmed to reach a mass of at least 495 kilograms (1,091 lb), though the largest specimens—known only from beaks found in sperm whale stomachs—may perhaps weigh as much as 600–700 kilograms (1,300–1,500 lb),making it the largest extant invertebrate.  Maximum total length is ~4.2 metres (14 ft). Larger estimates exist, however these include the feeding tentacles measured on dead specimens as in life the squid’s tentacles are hidden, only released when capturing prey. If tentacles are considered, lengths of 10 metres (33 ft) and 14 metres (46 ft) exist, but the former estimate is more likely.  The colossal squid has the largest eyes of any known creature ever to exist, with an estimated diameter of 27–30 cm (11–12 in) to 40 cm (16 in) for the largest collected specimen.

Voilà: an 82-second video.

Wikipedia gives a size comparison of an adult squid with a human:

© Citron

It eats mostly fish and smaller squid, and is preyed on by sperm whales and some sharks. Here’s its beak:

GeSHaFish, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

And here’s a bit from a Scientific American column about the spotting in the video above:

A faintly fluttering specter, at first hardly visible among bits of marine snow falling in slow motion, emerged from the deep-sapphire void. The pilot of the underwater robot brought the creature to the center of the frame, giving scientists on a ship at the ocean’s surface a good view of the strange life-form. Its mostly transparent, speckled dome was topped with fins that busily flapped like tiny wings, and its tentacles were drawn up underneath it, toward its glowing red undercarriage.

There was little fanfare—just a few minutes of quiet, almost reverent observation. But the encounter, 100 years in the making, marked the first time a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) had ever been caught on film in its natural habitat.

“This is one of the planet’s true giants, living in one of our most pristine marine ecosystems,” says Kat Bolstad, an associate professor at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, who helped independently identify the creature from the footage. “It’s a source of fascination and wonder, and it also plays a huge role in Antarctic food webs.”

. . . . “We filmed it because it was beautiful and unusual, and then we kind of descended back all the way down to the seafloor to do the exploration that the rest of that dive was focused on,” the expedition’s chief scientist, Michelle Taylor of the University of Essex in England, said during a press conference. It wasn’t until a few days later, after the team heard from some glass squid experts, that the researchers fully realized the observation’s significance.

. . . “To get footage of a juvenile is so wonderful,” said Aaron Evans, an independent glass squid expert, at the press conference. Scientists know colossal squid are born tiny, and some adult specimens are preserved in collections, but their time between those stages isn’t well understood. “So for us to see this kind of midrange size, in between a hatchling and an adult, is really exciting because it gives us the opportunity to fill in some of those missing puzzle pieces to the life history of this very mysterious and enigmatic animal.”

h/t: Erik