You can add Perplexity to the growing list of AI companies offering $200+ per month subscription plans to users who want unlimited access to their most advanced products and tools. As of today, Perplexity Max is available on iOS and the web.
The subscription comes with unlimited monthly usage of Labs, the agentic creation tool Perplexity released this past May. People can use Labs to generate spreadsheets, presentations, web applications and more. Perplexity is also promising early access to new features, including Comet, a new web browser the company claims will be a “powerful thought partner for everything you do on the web.” The company adds Max subscribers will receive priority customer support, as well as access to top frontier models from partners like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Perplexity will continue to offer its existing Pro plan, which remains $20 per month. Admittedly, the company is courting a small demographic with the new subscription, noting it’s primarily designed for content designers, business strategists and academic research.
OpenAI was the first to open the floodgates of very expensive AI subscriptions when it began offering its ChatGPT Pro plan at the end of last year. Since then, Anthropic, Google have followed suit.
There is much to commend about Australia’s lung cancer screening program, which started on July 1.
The program is based on gold-standard trial evidence showing this type of screening is likely to reduce lung cancer deaths.
Some people will have their life prolonged due to this screening, which involves taking low-dose CT scans to look for lung cancer in people with a significant smoking history.
In some of these people, cancer will be detected at an early stage, and they can be treated. Without screening, these people may have died of cancer because it would have been detected at a later, incurable stage.
However, for some people, screening could also harm.
How can screening harm?
Screening for disease, including cancer, can cause harm – during screening, diagnosis and treatment.
With lung cancer screening, a positive scan can prompt an invasive lung biopsy. This is where a sample of lung tissue is obtained with a special needle guided by imaging, or through surgery under anaesthesia.
If, after examination under the microscope, the pathologist thinks there is lung cancer, then more extensive surgery and other treatments will likely follow, all of which have a risk of side effects.
The diagnostic label “lung cancer” itself is distressing, and the stigma attached to the diagnosis may worsen this distress.
These harms and risks may be considered acceptable if the treatment prevents the person’s cancer from progressing.
However, as with other cancers, screening is likely to also cause overdiagnosis and overtreatment. That is, some of the lesions picked up through screening and diagnosed as cancer, would have never caused any trouble if they’d been left alone. If these lesions were left undetected (and untreated), they would never have caused symptoms or shortened the person’s life.
But all patients with a cancer diagnosis will be offered treatment – including surgery, radiotherapy and cancer drugs. Yet patients who really have an indolent (non-lethal) lesion have the same risk of harm from diagnosis and treatment as others, but without potentially benefiting from treatment.
A related issue is that of “incidental findings”. Reports from lung cancer screening programs overseas show there is a large potential to find things other than cancer on the CT scan.
For instance, some people have lung “nodules” (small spots on the scan) that fall short of being suspicious for cancer, but nonetheless need close monitoring with repeat scans for a while. For these people, we need to make sure health-care workers follow protocols that prevent unnecessary intervention in a nodule that is not growing.
The scans can also pick up other conditions. These include calcium in coronary arteries, small aneurysms of the aorta (bulges in the body’s largest artery), or abnormalities in abdominal organs such as the liver.
Some of these “incidental findings” may lead to early detection of disease that can be treated. However, in many cases the findings would not have caused any issues if they’d been left undetected, another example of overdiagnosis. These patients experience risks from further cascades of interventions triggered by the incidental finding, but without these interventions improving their health.
The potential for overdiagnosis and overtreatment is greater if screening extends beyond the high-risk group with a history of heavy smoking. Some people who don’t meet the eligibility criteria may still want to be screened. For example, lung cancer awareness campaigns may lead to people who don’t smoke requesting screening. If screening staff decide to refer them for imaging, this may result in unofficial “leakage” of the screening program to include people at lower risk of cancer.
For example in the United States, an estimated 45% of scans done in its screening program are for people who do not meet eligibility criteria. In China, about 64% of those screened may be technically ineligible.
We see the results of this in a number of Asian countries with widespread, non-targeted screening, including of people who do not smoke. This has resulted in high rates of cancer diagnosis – much higher than we would expect in this low-risk group – and even higher rates of lung surgeries.
These surgeries, which involve cutting into the chest wall to remove lung tissue, carry significant operative risks. They may also cause longer-term impacts by removing normal lung tissue.
Regular independent evaluation needed
In Australia, for the eligible population with a significant smoking history, we anticipate net benefit, on balance, from the screening program.
However, if unintended consequences from screening are higher in real life than in the trials, then this could tip it the other way into net harm.
So, regular independent re-evaluation of the program is needed to ensure anticipated benefits are realised and harms are kept to a minimum.
This should include analysis of data across the population to look for signs of benefit, such as decreases in rates of advanced-stage lung cancer and deaths.
These data should also be scrutinised for signs of harm from overdiagnosis and overtreatment – including of both cancer and non-cancer conditions.
There is much excitement about the potential for lung cancer screening to prevent some Australians from dying from this devastating disease. We too have cautious optimism the program could make a real difference.
But we can’t let this optimism blind us to the potential for harm.
This is the next article in our ‘Finding lung cancer’ series, which explores Australia’s first new cancer screening program in almost 20 years. Read other articles in the series.
More information about the program is available. If you need support to quit smoking, call Quitline on 13 78 48.
This new feature at INDYCAR.com will show special, one-off liveries that teams will race at NTT INDYCAR SERIES events this season.
The first installment focuses on The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport on Sunday, July 6 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (1 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Kyle Kirkwood – Andretti Global
Andretti Global will run a special Honda-inspired livery for Kirkwood, who has won three races this season in his Honda-powered No. 27 car.
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course holds special meaning for Honda, with the manufacturer’s Marysville Auto Plant under an hour away from the track. With more than 12,000 employee tickets distributed, the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio is a centerpiece in Honda’s impressive motorsports calendar. The Fourth of July race weekend also marks a major milestone for the Honda organization and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES – the one-year anniversary of the debut of the hybrid unit, a movement Honda has helped lead both on and off the track.
Honda has won all nine races so far this season, with Alex Palou claiming six wins and Kirkwood three.
Alex Palou – Chip Ganassi Racing
OpenAI, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence organizations, is expanding its partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing to become the primary partner at this event.
Palou has won six races this season and leads the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship.
Felix Rosenqvist – Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian
Rosenqvist’s livery will pay tribute to legendary hard rock front man Ozzy Osbourne and his band, Black Sabbath.
The No. 60 Honda will sport a striking purple livery inspired by primary sponsor SiriusXM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard (channel 38) channel, which features hard rock and heavy metal classics curated under the influence of Ozzy.
The special livery also celebrates a monumental moment in music history: Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s upcoming “Final Show at the Back to the Beginning” concert on July 5 in Birmingham, England. The concert will feature icons like Metallica, Slayer, Alice in Chains and more.
Tom Brady is spending some quality time with daughter Vivian as they enjoy the summers.
The 47-year-old athlete took to his Instagram account and shared some rare glimpse into his summer getaway with 12-year-old daughter.
In the candid post, he shared a snap of the pre-teen in which she can be seen relaxing in a tube, while soaking up the sun.
For the photo she looked back at Tom and posed giving thumbs up with a smile.
The retired NFL star also posted scenic photo of the water on his Stories along with a flag emoji of Spain indicating they are somewher in the country near beach.
Gushing over his daugther Tom caption the picture “My little mermaid soaking up the sun and the sea,” and ended the text with a red heart emoji.
It is pertinent to mention that Tom shares Vivian along with son Benjamin, 15, with ex wife Gisele Bundchen. He is also father to 17-year-old son Jack whom he shares with ex actress Bridget Moynahan.
The James Webb Space Telescope has delivered the clearest, deepest images yet of the Bullet Cluster, unveiling thousands of faint, distant galaxies and offering the most precise map of dark matter in this iconic colliding galaxy cluster.
“With Webb’s observations, we carefully measured the mass of the Bullet Cluster with the largest lensing dataset to date, from the galaxy clusters’ cores all the way out to their outskirts,” said lead author Sangjun Cha, a PhD student at Yonsei University in Seoul.
Previous studies relied on less lensing data, leading to less precise estimates of the system’s mass.
“Webb’s images dramatically improve what we can measure in this scene – including pinpointing the position of invisible particles known as dark matter,” said co-author Kyle Finner, an assistant scientist at Caltech.
How light shows the dark
The Bullet Cluster is made of two massive galaxy clusters bound by gravity. It acts as a natural gravitational lens that magnifies background galaxies.
James Jee, a professor at Yonsei University and research associate at UC Davis, is a co-author of the study. “Gravitational lensing allows us to infer the distribution of dark matter,” he said.
To visualize this effect, Jee compares it to ripples on a pond. You can’t see the clear water unless there are ripples that distort the shapes of the pebbles below – just as dark matter distorts the light from galaxies behind it.
By measuring thousands of galaxies, the scientists used Webb’s images to weigh visible and invisible mass in the cluster.
The team also mapped the faint glow of intracluster stars – those not bound to any single galaxy. These drifting stars may closely trace dark matter.
Webb’s dark matter reveal
Webb’s observations produced a layered view, combining near-infrared data with X-ray imagery from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, revealing hot gas in pink, the bullet shape in the cluster, and the newly refined dark matter distribution in blue.
“We confirmed the intracluster light can be a reliable tracer of dark matter, even in a highly dynamic environment like the Bullet Cluster,” Cha said.
This strengthens the case that these unbound stars closely trace dark matter’s invisible scaffolding.
The new map reveals detailed structure, including an asymmetric mass region on the left side of the larger cluster. This feature indicates prior collisions that have left behind signatures in the distribution of matter.
Mysterious nature of dark matter
Dark matter does not emit, reflect, or absorb light, making it notoriously difficult to study. Yet the Bullet Cluster offers a rare laboratory, showing dark matter separated from hot gas during a cosmic collision while still aligning with the galaxies.
“As the galaxy clusters collided, their gas was dragged out and left behind, which the X-rays confirm,” Finner explained. “Webb’s observations show that dark matter still lines up with the galaxies – and was not dragged away.”
The results set tighter constraints on the possibility of dark matter particles interacting with each other. They support theories that dark matter passes through itself without friction, consistent with its mysterious and ghostly nature.
Clues to a chaotic past
The elongated mass and clumps in the new map hint at a more complex history for the Bullet Cluster, suggesting multiple collisions over billions of years.
“A more complicated scenario would lead to a huge asymmetric elongation like we see on the left,” Jee said.
The Bullet Cluster, located in the Carina constellation 3.8 billion light-years from Earth, is so massive that even Webb’s powerful NIRCam could only capture part of it.
“It’s like looking at the head of a giant,” Jee explained. “Webb’s initial images allow us to extrapolate how heavy the whole ‘giant’ is, but we’ll need future observations of the giant’s whole ‘body’ for precise measurements.”
Future missions, deeper maps
NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching by May 2027, will complement Webb’s discoveries with wide-field near-infrared imaging.
The Roman telescope will enable complete mass estimates of the Bullet Cluster and allow scientists to simulate its ancient collision in detail.
“With Roman, we will have complete mass estimates of the entire Bullet Cluster, which would allow us to recreate the actual collision on computers,” Finner said.
Through these detailed observations, Webb is enriching our understanding of dark matter. It’s also advancing knowledge of how massive structures form and evolve, offering a clearer view of the hidden forces shaping the cosmos.
The study is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, CXC
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They don’t call Monza the “Temple of Speed” for nothing. Except for three chicanes added over the decades, this is as classic a racing circuit as they used to be—a couple of straights connected by fast right-hand corners. Lewis Hamilton’s 2020 pole lap here was at an average of 164.267 miles per hour. If you want to go faster on a closed circuit, you’ll need an actual oval.
Monza is maybe one of the few race tracks where you can really experience what the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS is capable of. Pirelli laid a GT3 RS on its OEM-fit Trofeo RS tires for us to drive at its media event for the new P Zero family. You can read about the rest of the tires here, but this experience required its own story.
The 992-generation GT3 RS has been out for a few years now, and I’d driven it on track previously, but that didn’t prepare me for what it was like at Monza. This car’s radical aero package generates 900 pounds of downforce at 124 mph and 1,895 pounds at 177 mph. Few road cars can match that downforce figure, and you’ll need a hypercar to beat it. The figures are broadly comparable to what a 911 GT3 R race car would run around a high-speed track like Le Mans… or, for that matter, Monza.
Photo by: Porsche
Photo by: Wikimedia Commons / Will Pittenger
Obviously, downforce creates drag, which reduces top speed. That might sound like a bad thing at a place like Monza, and yes, in a racing environment, you wouldn’t want to run too much wing here. But Monza’s two ultra-fast right-handers, Curva Grande at the top, and the Parabolica at the bottom, let you experience the full effects of the GT3 RS’s downforce. It feels otherworldly.
To better describe this, it’s worth briefly explaining how tire and aero grip work. A tire has a maximum grip level in both lateral and longitudinal acceleration, measured in G-force or simply “G,” which is the force on our body exerted by acceleration in any direction.
You can plot out that force in a 2-D circle on a graph, which is helpful for looking at how combined lateral (turning) and longitudinal (accelerating and braking) forces a tire can take before losing grip. You might be able to corner, accelerate, and brake separately at a maximum of 1 G each, but if you’re accelerating and turning at the same time, you can only have a portion of each direction’s maximum achievable grip.
This friction circle is ever-changing, impacted by the wear level and temperature of the tire, slip angle, the friction coefficient of the road surface, and the vehicle’s weight transfer under acceleration, braking, and turning. If you go to racing school, you dive deep into all of this, but what you need to know here is that on its own, a tire is only capable of taking so much lateral and longitudinal acceleration before losing grip.
Photo by: Pirelli
It is a vast oversimplification to say that, in cornering, pure mechanical grip from the tire alone decreases with speed past a certain point… but that’s basically the case. Aerodynamic grip, created from downforce-generating wings, splitters, diffusers, etc., essentially makes the 2-D traction circle bigger. But what’s especially interesting is that downforce rises with the square of speed: In other words, aero grip increases with speed. Not infinitely, of course, because the tires can only handle so much, but enough that it fundamentally changes your approach to driving.
In practice, it goes like this. Curva Grande is really just a flat-out run from the slow first chicane to the less slow second chicane. Mentally, I couldn’t get myself to keep my foot to the floor.
My experience isn’t uncommon. If you’ve spent your track time in low-grip road cars, or even race cars with high mechanical grip but little to no aero, getting your head around downforce is tricky. Intellectually, you know what the car can do—or at least you have some concept of it—but getting yourself to go against your instincts honed through years of prior driving experience is hard. Especially when you don’t want to ball up someone else’s Porsche GT3 RS.
With another session, ideally after a look at a data comparison between me and someone quicker, I could’ve maybe gotten there. But I had a hell of a time regardless. The feeling of G-force on your body as you accelerate through the corner and downforce rises is like nothing else. I’m thankful this car has bucket seats and six-point harnesses, because if it didn’t, I don’t think I could hold myself up.
Photo by: Pirelli
The feeling of G-force on your body as you accelerate through the corner and downforce rises is like nothing else.
Then there’s the braking. I decided to be a bit conservative, but still brake a little later than I did in the Carrera GTS. Even I knew I could go deeper in this car because of the downforce, but I’m still too early. There’s something a bit demoralizing about arriving at corner entry far slower than you need to be, but for me, that gives way to astonishment at what the car is capable of. It forces you to rethink what’s possible, and the added context of a “normal” sports car like a Carrera GTS just makes what the GT3 RS does that much more astonishing.
The Parabolica might be the best corner on the track, though the surprisingly quick Lesmos runs it close. Despite looking fairly tight on the track map, it’s fast, and you get back to power so early, the car seemingly straining against its limits, until it (and you) can take a breath on the main straight.
I don’t want to say the GT3 RS is a race car for the street, because in some ways, it’s more advanced than a 911 GT3 race car, with its adjustable differential, active aero, and, well, the fact that it’s got a nice leather interior. But not much else with a license plate quite delivers the same race-car experience, and at a place like Monza, that’s especially obvious.
Photo by: Pirelli
For as alien as the car feels to someone of my experience, it’s also very approachable. The car isn’t nervous, it just dares you to up your game to match its capabilities. And a huge credit to Pirelli for making such a friendly tire in the Trofeo RS. The company’s engineers all talk about maintaining a nice plateau of grip once you’re past the tire’s peak, rather than a sudden drop-off. Maybe the peak isn’t quite as high for one fast lap, but realistically, the tire offers more speed for longer.
There are other tracks where you can take full advantage of the GT3 RS’s downforce, but not many are quite so evocative. Even beyond its “Temple of Speed” nickname, there’s something vaguely religious about the place. Maybe it’s Italy, where everything inspires that sort of reverence.
Or maybe it’s the way that the RS’s 9,000-rpm flat-six noise echoes between the grandstands, the trees, the bridge on the way to the variante Ascari, and everywhere else. Maybe it’s knowing you’re at the one of the oldest purpose-built tracks still in operation in the world, second only to Indy.
It’s a place for the indoctrinated to worship, and no points for guessing my beliefs.
Visma–Lease a Bike is testing new carbon-spoked Reserve wheels at the 2025 Tour de France.
The rims are pre-existing – we spotted 34 and 57mm deep front wheels, and a 64mm-deep rear wheel – but all have been reverse-engineered with carbon spokes. The 57/64 combination appears to be a new wheelset designed specifically for the updated S5, which we’ve also seen at this year’s Grand Départ (look out for a gallery on that bike coming soon).
Until now, Reserve hasn’t employed carbon spokes in its wheels.
Carbon spokes are generally considered to be lighter and stiffer than steel spokes. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
In order to fit the spokes, Cervélo’s sports marketing director Richard Keeskamp said Reserve (a sibling brand of Cervélo) worked with hubset specialists Tune, to develop custom hubs with a lightweight shell and ceramic bearings.
The spokes attach to the rim via alloy nipples, which, in theory, makes them easier to replace.
Reserve has worked with hub specialists Tune. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
The design is similar in principle to that adopted by Hunt on its 48 Limitless UD Carbon Spoke Disc wheelset (plus others) and the FFWD Raw 44 hoops.
Keeskamp confirmed to BikeRadar that, in this case, the spokes are just as aerodynamic as their steel counterparts due to their bladed design.
Keeskamp said that the spokes were being trialled in deeper wheels because there was no aerodynamic drawback. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
We weren’t able to weigh the wheels, but Keeskamp confirmed the carbon spokes were chosen for their lighter weight (relative to most steel spokes), as well as the more lively ride sensation they offer.
This tallies with my broad reflections when testing the Hunt and FFWD wheels, while Keeskamp said that the Visma pros who have tried the wheels were enjoying how they handled when climbing and descending.
Expect to see them raced in anger when the Tour hits the mountains, and Jonas Vingegaard and co. try to usurp pre-race favourite Tadej Pogačar.
Co-driven by Hannah McKillop, Raftery finished fourth in the Hankook-equipped category on last month’s ORLEN OIL 81st Rally Poland to equal her fourth-place finish in Hungary in 2024.
Although Rally di Roma Capitale wasn’t part of the Junior ERC schedule in 2024 under the championship’s event rotation system, Raftery is aware of what’s in store having tackled the event alongside former co-driver Ronan Comerford in 2023.
Raftery has previous Rally di Roma Capitale experience to count on
“The temperature is going to be the biggest challenge, it’s going to be 35 or 40 degrees outside the car which means inside the car it’s going to be nearly double that,” said the 24-year-old from Ireland. “Maintaining focus and concentration over a long weekend and be able to commit to the notes is very important.
Each rally this year we’ve improved our pace and our seconds per kilometre and that’s our goal again this weekend coming
“With the temperatures we need to look at the tyres and manage and maintain them as best as we can and it’s the same with the brakes. Two of the stages are over 30 kilometres each so it’s a big challenge. I’m expecting it to be the most difficult event of the year but with the right preparation it will be interesting to see how we get on. Each rally this year we’ve improved our pace and our seconds per kilometre and that’s our goal again this weekend coming.”
After three rounds, Raftery, who drives a Peugeot 208 Rally4 for HRT Racing, is seventh in the Junior ERC standings, which is headed by ADAC Opel Rally Junior Teams Calle Carlberg. The Swede, runner-up in 2024, makes his Rally di Roma Capitale debut having won the last two rounds.
Jaspar Vaher will be a contender aboard his Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF
Welshman Ioan Lloyd is second in the standings followed by Spaniard Sergi Pérez, Swede Victor Hansen and Estonian Jaspar Vaher, who competes in a Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 run by MS Munaretto. Finn Tuukka Kauppinen pilots a second Lancia for the Italian squad.
Keelan Grogan and Craig Rahill compete under the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy banner in Peugeot 208 Rally4s, also the car of choice for Italians Francesco Dei Ceci and Tommaso Sandrin, Portugal’s Kevin Saraiva and Swiss newcomer Yohan Surroca.
Estonian Kevin Lempu relies on Ford Fiesta Rally4 power, while Finland’s Leevi Lassila and Austrian Luca Pröglhöf drive Opel Corsa Rally4s with Pröglhöf back in action after missing ORLEN OIL 81st Rally Poland through illness.
Luca Pröglhöf is back in action following illness
The thoughts of the entire Junior ERC community remain with the family and friends of Matteo Doretto, who lost his life in a private testing accident in Poland last month. The 2024 Italian Junior champion, who was 21, had been excitedly looking ahead to Rally di Roma Capitale, which would have formed his home event.
Fans across the globe can experience the excitement and drama of the ERC with every stage of every rally broadcast Rally.tv platform. In addition, the ERC is broadcast in a number of countries around the world and fans are advised to check local listings for details.
Seven in 10 respondents to a 2024 US survey said they would still reach for a home COVID-19 test if they thought they were infected, UMass Chan Medical School researchers report in JAMA Network Open.
The team used the Ipsos KnowledgePanel to ask 2009 adults whether they would test and, if not, the reasons for not testing, from October 31 to November 7, 2024. The average participant age was 51.5 years, 51.2% were women, 60.7% were White, 18.0% were Hispanic, and 12.1% were Black.
The investigators noted that COVID-19 remains a threat, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating 28,000 to 46,000 related US deaths and 230,000 to 390,000 hospitalizations from October 2024 to April 2025.
“Early identification of infection enables prompt care and steps to reduce spread,” they wrote. “Timely initiation of oral antiviral medications is associated with lower hospitalizations, deaths, and long-COVID incidence among adults at high risk.”
Older, healthy respondents more likely to test
Most participants (70.0%) said they would test if they suspected a COVID-19 infection. Factors tied to intent to test were age older than 60 years, excellent health status, trust in the healthcare system, reliance on data to make health decisions, previous completion of a home test, and Black, Hispanic, or mixed race.
Test hesitancy may delay oral antiviral initiation and could result in missed opportunities to limit transmission.
The proportion endorsing each reason for not testing were perceived lack of a reason to test (53.6%), a belief that a positive test result wouldn’t be useful (30.1%), lack of trust in tests (20.7%), forgetting that testing is an option (19.4%), preference of not knowing the results (9.1%), lack of awareness of where to procure a test (5.8%), inability to pay for testing (4.9%), and other reasons (8.3%).
The authors called for raising awareness of the value of testing. “Nearly one-third of US adults would not or might not test for suspected COVID-19, largely because they do not see value in testing,” they wrote. “Test hesitancy may delay oral antiviral initiation and could result in missed opportunities to limit transmission.”