Category: 7. Science

In Cities of the Absurd: Strange Tales from the Dark Metropolis (En Route 2025), Ken Francis tries to capture the spirit of our age — one in which nearly half (49 percent) of generative AI users with self-reported mental health conditions were using AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Woebot, or Wysa for emotional support. In many cases, this was without any prompting from healthcare providers. In other words, they were seeking emotional support from a source that is actually just a computer program. No wonder a book that attempts to capture the culture is called Cities of the Absurd.

One story, “The Ghosts of Hologram House” addresses the problem in a surreal way: It offers a type of premise similar to that of the 1952 short story “A Sound of Thunder” and the resulting 2005 movie: For a wad of cash back then, the client could travel back in time and shoot a dinosaur.

In “Hologram House,” the reality-altering premise is updated to reflect our age of artificial intelligence. For a wad of cash, we can see our dearly departed again in this life via holograms and LLMs. Our lonely story character wants to see his dearly missed parents again…

The deal is straightforward: For $6,000, a person requests a meeting to interact with a dead person for a short period of time, in my case an afternoon, with such a deceased person(s) recreated into a hologram. I had to supply the company with old film footage, complete with sound, of my parents at family events. The company also required two written anecdotes at such family events, which they inputted into the narrative of the algorithms AI for my parents’ hologram to respond to. The script was recorded by a male and a female actor, then the voiceover was digitally converted to that of my mother and father’s voices.

Such stories are never meant to end well and this one is no exception. No spoilers here but if you have been following Gary Smith’s real-life reporting on AI hallucinations, you won’t be quite as surprised by the unsettling outcome.

And it’s not even science fiction

Perhaps we had better get used to the fallout. These “deadbots” are going live in our culture, as Chloe Veltman noted a few days ago at NPR, powred by dreams of immense profits:

The digital afterlife industry, which manages a person’s digital assets after their death, is expected to quadruple in size to nearly $80 billion over the next decade. That includes the creation of deadbots. The more immersive these bots become, the more technology companies are exploring their commercial potential, causing concern in the research community and elsewhere.

“There is powerful rhetoric with a deadbot because it is tapping into all of that emotional longing and vulnerability,” said New Yorker cartoonist Amy Kurzweil. Kurzweil’s work frequently explores technological topics, including her 2023 book Artificial: A Love Story. The graphic memoir recounts how she and her father, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, created a text-based chatbot of her dead grandfather in 2018 using written materials from his archives. “I could feel like I had some communion with his presence,” she said.

“AI ‘deadbots’ are persuasive — and researchers say they’re primed for monetization,” August 26, 2025

Not all of Francis’s stories end with disappointment (see “The Busybody” or “Kingdom of the Moon” for a pick-me-up). Just enough of them to make you wonder where all this modern urban life is heading.

Kenneth Francis is a freelance writer and part-time university professor of journalism. He also holds an MA in Theology. Over the past 20 years, he worked in editing roles in various publications and he is the author of The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth and co-author of The Terror of Existence with Theodore Dalrymple (2018) and Neither Trumpets nor Violins (with Theodorre Dalrymple and Samuel Hux (2022).. His New English Review articles are archived here.

In the heart of the Butterfly Nebula, the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed glittering crystals, fiery dust, and mysterious molecules that could explain how rocky planets like Earth first formed.

Scientists found both gemstone-like silicates and smoky grains, along with life-linked carbon structures appearing in unexpected places. These discoveries not only showcase the nebula’s dazzling beauty but also shed light on the hidden chemistry that seeds stars, planets, and possibly life itself.

Clues About How Worlds Form

Clues to how planets like Earth first emerged have been uncovered in the heart of a dazzling “cosmic butterfly.”

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists report a major step forward in understanding how the fundamental building blocks of rocky planets take shape.

At the center of the Butterfly Nebula (NGC 6302), located around 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, researchers studied cosmic dust, which consists of tiny mineral and organic particles that also contain elements tied to the origins of life.

From the thick ring of dust surrounding the nebula’s hidden star to the streams of material flowing outward, Webb’s observations revealed new details that provide the most detailed look yet at a highly structured and energetic planetary nebula.

The findings were published on August 27 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Gemstones vs. Grime: The Dual Nature of Dust

While most cosmic dust has an irregular, soot-like structure, some of it arranges into striking crystalline forms that resemble microscopic gemstones.

“For years, scientists have debated how cosmic dust forms in space. But now, with the help of the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, we may finally have a clearer picture,” said lead researcher Dr Mikako Matsuura, of Cardiff University.

“We were able to see both cool gemstones formed in calm, long-lasting zones and fiery grime created in violent, fast-moving parts of space, all within a single object.

“This discovery is a big step forward in understanding how the basic materials of planets, come together.”

One of the Hottest Stars in the Galaxy

The Butterfly Nebula’s central star is one of the hottest known central stars in a planetary nebula in our galaxy, with a temperature of 220,000 Kelvin.

This blazing stellar engine is responsible for the nebula’s gorgeous glow, but its full power may be channelled by the dense band of dusty gas that surrounds it: the torus.

The new Webb data show that the torus is composed of crystalline silicates like quartz as well as irregularly shaped dust grains. The dust grains have sizes on the order of a millionth of a metre — large, as far as cosmic dust is considered — indicating that they have been growing for a long time.

Jets of Iron and Nickel

Outside the torus, the emission from different atoms and molecules takes on a multilayered structure. The ions that require the largest amount of energy to form are concentrated close to the centre, while those that require less energy are found farther from the central star.

Iron and nickel are particularly interesting, tracing a pair of jets that blast outward from the star in opposite directions.

Intriguingly, the team also spotted light emitted by carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. They form flat, ring-like structures, much like the honeycomb shapes found in beehives.

On Earth, we often find PAHs in smoke from campfires, car exhaust, or burnt toast.

First Evidence of PAHs in Oxygen-Rich Nebula

Given the location of the PAHs, the research team suspects that these molecules form when a ‘bubble’ of wind from the central star bursts into the gas that surrounds it.

This may be the first-ever evidence of PAHs forming in a oxygen-rich planetary nebula, providing an important glimpse into the details of how these molecules form.

NGC 6302 is one of the best-studied planetary nebulae in our galaxy and was previously imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Planetary nebulae are among the most beautiful and most elusive creatures in the cosmic zoo. These nebulae form when stars with masses between about 0.8 and 8 times the mass of the Sun shed most of their mass at the end of their lives. The planetary nebula phase is fleeting, lasting only about 20,000 years.

The Misnamed Planetary Nebulae

Contrary to the name, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets: the naming confusion began several hundred years ago, when astronomers reported that these nebulae appeared round, like planets.

The name stuck, even though many planetary nebulae aren’t round at all — and the Butterfly Nebula is a prime example of the fantastic shapes that these nebulae can take.

The Butterfly Nebula is a bipolar nebula, meaning that it has two lobes that spread in opposite directions, forming the ‘wings’ of the butterfly. A dark band of dusty gas poses as the butterfly’s ‘body’.

This band is actually a doughnut-shaped torus that’s being viewed from the side, hiding the nebula’s central star — the ancient core of a Sun-like star that energises the nebula and causes it to glow. The dusty doughnut may be responsible for the nebula’s insectoid shape by preventing gas from flowing outward from the star equally in all directions.

Webb Zooms In with Unprecedented Detail

The new Webb image zooms in on the centre of the Butterfly Nebula and its dusty torus, providing an unprecedented view of its complex structure. The image uses data from Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) working in integral field unit mode.

This mode combines a camera and a spectrograph to take images at many different wavelengths simultaneously, revealing how an object’s appearance changes with wavelength. The research team supplemented the Webb observations with data from the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array, a powerful network of radio dishes.

Researchers analysing these Webb data identified nearly 200 spectral lines, each of which holds information about the atoms and molecules in the nebula. These lines reveal nested and interconnected structures traced by different chemical species.

Finally Pinpointing the Hidden Star

The research team was able to pinpoint the location of the Butterfly Nebula’s central star, which heats a previously undetected dust cloud around it, making the latter shine brightly at the mid-infrared wavelengths that MIRI is sensitive to.

The location of the nebula’s central star has remained elusive until now, because this enshrouding dust renders it invisible at optical wavelengths. Previous searches for the star lacked the combination of infrared sensitivity and resolution necessary to spot its obscuring warm dust cloud.

Reference: “The JWST/MIRI view of the planetary nebula NGC 6302 – I. A UV-irradiated torus and a hot bubble triggering PAH formation” by Mikako Matsuura, Kevin Volk, Patrick Kavanagh, Bruce Balick, Roger Wesson, Albert A Zijlstra, Harriet L Dinerstein, Els Peeters, N C Sterling, Jan Cami, M J Barlow, Joel Kastner, Jeremy R Walsh, L B F M Waters, Naomi Hirano, Isabel Aleman, Jeronimo Bernard-Salas, Charmi Bhatt, Joris Blommaert, Nicholas Clark, Olivia Jones, Kay Justtanont, F Kemper, Kathleen E Kraemer, Eric Lagadec, J Martin Laming, F J Molster, Paula Moraga Baez, H Monteiro, Anita M S Richards, Raghvendra Sahai, G C Sloan, Maryam Torki, Peter A M van Hoof, Nicholas J Wright, Finnbar Wilson and Alexander Csukai, 27 August 2025, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf1194

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For years, one rule in chemistry class seemed simple: certain high-energy carbon species, like vitamin B1, fall apart in water. That’s why many reactions take place in specialized organic solvents instead of the most common solvent on Earth.

A new study puts a crack in that rule. It shows that a reactive carbon species can persist in water long enough to be directly observed and clearly described.

Water is common, safe, cheap, and central to life. If reactive carbon chemistry can run in water, we get a clearer picture of how some enzymes might work inside cells and a cleaner path for industry to make useful molecules.

Vitamin B1 debate began in 1958

Back in 1958, a bold idea suggested that vitamin B1 could form a short-lived, carbene-like species inside cells.

The concept clashed with the old view that water destroys carbenes almost instantly. The debate simmered for decades as tools improved and chemists searched for direct proof.

That proof has now arrived with a made-to-measure molecule that shields the reactive center well enough to persist in liquid water.

The team didn’t just propose it. They produced it and documented it with measurements that settle the case.

“This is the first time anyone has been able to observe a stable carbene in water,” said Vincent Lavallo, a professor of chemistry at UC Riverside and corresponding author of the paper.

“People thought this was a crazy idea. But it turns out, Breslow was right.”

Water, carbenes, and complications

A carbene is a carbon atom with two open spots for bonding. Carbon usually prefers a full set of electrons.

With fewer electrons than usual, it becomes reactive quickly. That reactivity is useful in many lab and industrial reactions because it can rearrange bonds efficiently.

Water molecules are quick to react with electron-hungry species. For most carbenes, that means a fast end to the reaction you wanted to study.

That’s the core reason many chemists long believed carbenes couldn’t play a role in watery environments like cells.

How they proved it

The researchers protected the carbene by surrounding it with bulky groups that hinder attack by water.

By crowding the space near the reactive carbon, they reduced unwanted side reactions while keeping the carbon center active.

They generated the carbene in water and captured its signature using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. That experiment gave a clear, solution-phase fingerprint.

They then obtained a single-crystal X-ray structure that fixed the positions of the atoms in space. Together, those tools moved the result from “likely” to “certain.”

Vitamin B1 connection

Vitamin B1, also known as thiamine, becomes an active cofactor in the body. In that form, it helps enzymes break and form carbon-carbon bonds during metabolism.

The 1958 proposal suggested that, under the right conditions, a carbene-like state forms long enough to assist those bond changes.

Over the years, chemists gathered indirect support, such as the “Breslow intermediate,” but critics could still argue that real carbenes can’t exist in water.

This work removes that roadblock by showing that a true carbene can persist in water when designed correctly.

Cleaner chemistry impact

“Water is the ideal solvent – it’s abundant, non-toxic, and environmentally friendly,” said first author Varun Raviprolu, who completed the research as a graduate student at UCR and is now a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA.

“If we can get these powerful catalysts to work in water, that’s a big step toward greener chemistry.”

A large share of chemical manufacturing still depends on organic solvents that pose fire and health hazards.

If more carbene chemistry can run in water, production lines for some medicines and materials could become safer and easier to manage. Water won’t replace every solvent, but even a partial shift would help.

Vitamin B1 is just the first step

“There are other reactive intermediates we’ve never been able to isolate, just like this one,” Lavallo said. “Using protective strategies like ours, we may finally be able to see them, and learn from them.”

That outlook matters. Many useful reactions rely on short-lived species we seldom catch in the act. With smarter protection and sharper tools, more of those species can move from theory to clear evidence.

Vincent Lavallo put it this way: “Just 30 years ago, people thought these molecules couldn’t even be made,” he said. “Now we can bottle them in water. What Breslow said all those years ago – he was right.”

Science often works like this. An idea arrives before the tools exist to test it. Over time, methods improve, and designs get better. When the right experiment finally lands, the field shifts from debate to result.

Why does any of this matter?

This finding does not claim to show vitamin B1 forming a carbene inside a living cell directly on camera. It shows that water doesn’t automatically rule out carbene chemistry.

The result aligns with a classic proposal about vitamin B1, clears away a key objection, and points to cleaner ways to run powerful reactions in the safest solvent we have.

With good molecular design, a carbene can endure in water and still do its job. That makes the original idea from 1958 chemically realistic and strengthens modern views of how thiamine-dependent enzymes might carry out their work.

“We were making these reactive molecules to explore their chemistry, not chasing a historical theory. But it turns out our work ended up confirming exactly what Breslow proposed all those years ago,” Raviprolu concluded.

It’s a careful piece of chemistry with practical upside – and a reminder that good ideas can wait a long time before the right evidence arrives.

The full study was published in the journal Science Advances.

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Summary: A new AI system developed by computer scientists automatically screens open-access journals to identify potentially predatory publications. These journals often charge high fees to publish without proper peer review, undermining scientific credibility.

The AI analyzed over 15,000 journals and flagged more than 1,000 as questionable, offering researchers a scalable way to spot risks. While the system isn’t perfect, it serves as a crucial first filter, with human experts making the final calls.

Key Facts

• Predatory Publishing: Journals exploit researchers by charging fees without quality peer review.
• AI Screening: The system flagged over 1,000 suspicious journals out of 15,200 analyzed.
• Firewall for Science: Helps preserve trust in research by protecting against bad data.

Source: University of Colorado

A team of computer scientists led by the University of Colorado Boulder has developed a new artificial intelligence platform that automatically seeks out “questionable” scientific journals.

The study, published Aug. 27 in the journal “Science Advances,” tackles an alarming trend in the world of research.

Daniel Acuña, lead author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, gets a reminder of that several times a week in his email inbox: These spam messages come from people who purport to be editors at scientific journals, usually ones Acuña has never heard of, and offer to publish his papers—for a hefty fee.

Such publications are sometimes referred to as “predatory” journals. They target scientists, convincing them to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to publish their research without proper vetting.

“There has been a growing effort among scientists and organizations to vet these journals,” Acuña said. “But it’s like whack-a-mole. You catch one, and then another appears, usually from the same company. They just create a new website and come up with a new name.”

His group’s new AI tool automatically screens scientific journals, evaluating their websites and other online data for certain criteria: Do the journals have an editorial board featuring established researchers? Do their websites contain a lot of grammatical errors?

Acuña emphasizes that the tool isn’t perfect. Ultimately, he thinks human experts, not machines, should make the final call on whether a journal is reputable.

But in an era when prominent figures are questioning the legitimacy of science, stopping the spread of questionable publications has become more important than ever before, he said.

“In science, you don’t start from scratch. You build on top of the research of others,” Acuña said. “So if the foundation of that tower crumbles, then the entire thing collapses.”

The shake down

When scientists submit a new study to a reputable publication, that study usually undergoes a practice called peer review. Outside experts read the study and evaluate it for quality—or, at least, that’s the goal.  

A growing number of companies have sought to circumvent that process to turn a profit. In 2009, Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at CU Denver, coined the phrase “predatory” journals to describe these publications.

Often, they target researchers outside of the United States and Europe, such as in China, India and Iran—countries where scientific institutions may be young, and the pressure and incentives for researchers to publish are high.

“They will say, ‘If you pay $500 or $1,000, we will review your paper,’” Acuña said. “In reality, they don’t provide any service. They just take the PDF and post it on their website.”

A few different groups have sought to curb the practice. Among them is a nonprofit organization called the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Since 2003, volunteers at the DOAJ have flagged thousands of journals as suspicious based on six criteria. (Reputable publications, for example, tend to include a detailed description of their peer review policies on their websites.)

But keeping pace with the spread of those publications has been daunting for humans.

To speed up the process, Acuña and his colleagues turned to AI. The team trained its system using the DOAJ’s data, then asked the AI to sift through a list of nearly 15,200 open-access journals on the internet.

Among those journals, the AI initially flagged more than 1,400 as potentially problematic.

Acuña and his colleagues asked human experts to review a subset of the suspicious journals. The AI made mistakes, according to the humans, flagging an estimated 350 publications as questionable when they were likely legitimate. That still left more than 1,000 journals that the researchers identified as questionable.

“I think this should be used as a helper to prescreen large numbers of journals,” he said. “But human professionals should do the final analysis.”

A firewall for science

Acuña added that the researchers didn’t want their system to be a “black box” like some other AI platforms.

“With ChatGPT, for example, you often don’t understand why it’s suggesting something,” Acuña said. “We tried to make ours as interpretable as possible.”

The team discovered, for example, that questionable journals published an unusually high number of articles. They also included authors with a larger number of affiliations than more legitimate journals, and authors who cited their own research, rather than the research of other scientists, to an unusually high level.

The new AI system isn’t publicly accessible, but the researchers hope to make it available to universities and publishing companies soon. Acuña sees the tool as one way that researchers can protect their fields from bad data—what he calls a “firewall for science.”

“As a computer scientist, I often give the example of when a new smartphone comes out,” he said.

“We know the phone’s software will have flaws, and we expect bug fixes to come in the future. We should probably do the same with science.”

About this AI and science research news

Author: Daniel Strain
Source: University of Colorado
Contact: Daniel Strain – University of Colorado
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Open access.
“Estimating the predictability of questionable open-access journals” by Daniel Acuña et al. Science Advances

Abstract

Estimating the predictability of questionable open-access journals

Questionable journals threaten global research integrity, yet manual vetting can be slow and inflexible.

Here, we explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to systematically identify such venues by analyzing website design, content, and publication metadata.

Evaluated against extensive human-annotated datasets, our method achieves practical accuracy and uncovers previously overlooked indicators of journal legitimacy.

By adjusting the decision threshold, our method can prioritize either comprehensive screening or precise, low-noise identification.

At a balanced threshold, we flag over 1000 suspect journals, which collectively publish hundreds of thousands of articles, receive millions of citations, acknowledge funding from major agencies, and attract authors from developing countries.

Error analysis reveals challenges involving discontinued titles, book series misclassified as journals, and small society outlets with limited online presence, which are issues addressable with improved data quality.

Our findings demonstrate AI’s potential for scalable integrity checks, while also highlighting the need to pair automated triage with expert review.

The ESA’s JUpiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is on its way to conduct detailed studies of Jupiter and its three icy moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. To pick up speed and reach Jupiter by July 2031, the probe will conduct a gravity-assist maneuver with Venus on Sunday, August 31st. According to the ESA, the mission suffered an anomaly with its communications system, which temporarily severed its connection with Earth. Fortunately, a coordinated response by teams at the ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) and Airbus (JUICE’s manufacturer) restored communications in time for the probe’s flyby.

The anomaly occurred when a ground-based antenna in the ESA’s Deep Space Network failed to establish contact on July 16th. A quick diagnostic determined that the issue was not with the ground station, leading the JUICE team at ESOC to fear that multiple systems had failed, prompting the probe to enter survival mode. When this happens, the spacecraft starts to spin and its antenna (which will sweep across Earth once an hour) to transmit an intermittent signal. Since no signal was detected, the two teams began looking into the communications subsystem for indications of problems or misalignment.

As Angela Dietz, Juice Spacecraft Operations Manager, explained in an ESA press release:

Losing contact with a spacecraft is one of the most serious scenarios we can face. With no telemetry, it is much more difficult to diagnose and resolve the root cause of an issue. Waiting was not an option. We had to act fast. Waiting two weeks for the reset would have meant delaying important preparations for the Venus flyby.

To resolve the issue, the team could wait for the next automatic reset, which was fourteen days away. Alternately, they could try blind messaging – sending commands in the direction of JUICE and hope they were received by one of its backup low-gain antennas. This latter approach posed a challenge since JUICE was about 200 million km (125.25 million mi) from Earth and on the other side of the Sun at the time, which imposes a communications lag of 22 minutes to send and receive a signal. Recovery attempts lasted almost 20 hours straight, with the teams working through the night, and they eventually got a response.

The blind commands activated the spacecraft’s signal amplifier (which boosts JUICE’s signals), and contact was re-established. The teams found that JUICE was in perfect working conditions, that no systems had failed, and the spacecraft was still on track to make its flyby with Venus. They also determined that the anomaly was caused by a timing issue with the software that switches the signal amplifier on and off. Said Dietz:

It was a subtle bug, but one that we were prepared to investigate and resolve. We have identified a number of possible ways to ensure that this does not happen again, and we are now deciding which solution would be the best to implement. This was a textbook example of teamwork under pressure. Thanks to the team’s calm and methodical approach, we were able to recover Juice without any lasting impact on the mission.

Timeline of JUICE’s journey to Jupiter and its moons. Credit: ESA

JUICE will make its closest approach to Venus at 07:28 CEST on Sunday, August 31st (01:28 EST; 10:28 PST, Aug. 30th), one of four planned gravity-assist maneuvers. The first occurred in August 2024 when JUICE made a flyby with the Earth-Moon system, and two more will occur with Earth in September 2026 and January 2029. These maneuvers are necessary since JUICE is one of the heaviest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched (6000 kg; 13230 lbs). The coming flybys will also adjust the probe’s trajectory so that it will rendezvous with Jupiter in July 2031.

Further Reading: JUICE

A human-occupied vehicle (HOV) probing the deep Pacific Ocean has cast a light upon a massive undersea ‘metropolis’.

The tortuous system of deep craters and dolomite walls blows the Atlantic Ocean’s famous ‘Lost City’ out of the water.

Through a curtain of falling marine ‘snow’, the ghostly carbonate walls and jagged rocks around twenty hydrothermal vents shimmer in the heat – almost as if they were a deep-sea mirage.

At 11.1 square kilometers (4.3 square miles), the newly discovered hydrothermal field is over a hundred times larger than its Atlantic counterpart.

The Lost City, with its jagged landscape of towers and turrets, was discovered near the mid-Atlantic ridge in 2000, and it was once the largest field of hydrothermal vents known anywhere in the world.

Related: ‘Lost City’ Deep Beneath The Ocean Is Unlike Anything We’ve Seen Before on Earth

It now lies in the shadow of another major aggregation of vents discovered on the whole other side of the world, northeast of Papua New Guinea.

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Researchers at Laoshan Laboratory and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have named the Pacific counterpart the Kunlun hydrothermal field.

Like the Lost City, their discovery is a rarity, and it may be an even better example of how life first started on Earth.

Kunlun’s unique seafloor is gushing hydrogen-rich fluids at temperatures under 40°C – much colder than the ‘black smokers’ of other hydrothermal vents, which resemble underwater chimneys.

Kunlun’s rich hydrogen fluids are thought to resemble the ‘hot soups’ that existed on Earth billions of years ago, when life first began. This makes the location a perfect backdrop for further research on how biological life may form from inorganic matter.

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“What’s particularly fascinating is the ecological potential,” says marine geochemist Weidong Sun from CAS.

“We observed diverse deep-sea life thriving in this environment, including shrimp, squat lobsters, anemones, and tubeworms – species that may rely on hydrogen-driven chemosynthesis.”

Based on an analysis of the hydrothermal field, researchers estimate that Kunlun contributes up to 8 percent of the flux in abiotic hydrogen across all the world’s submarine sources.

That is a huge contribution from just one system, according to Sun and colleagues, led by marine geologists Lianfu Li and Hongyun Zhang from the Laoshan Laboratory.

Unlike the Lost City, which is marked by thin, jagged towers of dolomite, the craters at Kunlun can stretch hundreds of meters in diameter and plummet more than 100 meters deep. Even the shallower depressions are typically deeper than 30 meters.

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“Compared to the carbonate towers formed in the Lost City, these pipes/pits provide a more sustained and stable evolutionary time frame, offering a potentially more suitable environment for the evolution of early life,” the team argues.

The Kunlun pipes were formed when seawater penetrated Earth’s mantle, the interaction between fluid and rock releasing heat and hydrogen. The first stage of formation would have probably resulted in a major explosion, creating a crater. Then, as fractures formed in the rock, more saltwater reactions led to more hydrogen.

Over time, carbonate sediment gradually sealed these channels until the hydrogen started to accumulate again, causing more minor explosions.

The vents are expected to eventually go ‘extinct’ once seawater can no longer probe the depths and interact with hydrogen-rich materials below.

To date, scientists have discovered most hydrogen-rich vents near spreading tectonic plates. Kunlun, however, sits 80 kilometers west of a trench, within the Carolina Plate.

The researchers note that this system, flourishing with deep-sea life, may also be an “ideal target” for retrieving deep-sea hydrogen as an energy source.

“The Kunlun system is unique not just because of the exceptionally high hydrogen flux we observed, but also because of its scale and geological setting,” says Sun.

“It demonstrates that serpentinization-driven hydrogen generation can occur far from mid-ocean ridges, challenging previous assumptions.”

Perhaps there are more undersea metropolises like Kunlun waiting to be found in the ocean’s abyss.

The study was published in Science Advances.

As night falls in the rainforests, orangutans climb into the canopy to construct intricate tree nests, displaying remarkable ingenuity.

These comfy platforms are carefully engineered beds, providing warmth, comfort, protection from predators, and even reduce mosquito bites.

Scientists have long wondered how young orangutans learn to master such complex architecture. Recent findings reveal that they acquire this skill through close observation and practice, a process called observational social learning.

Orangutans build nests for survival

Nest-building is essential for survival. Unlike many behaviors in animals, this skill is neither entirely instinctive nor quickly learned.

Orangutans must manipulate branches, twigs, and leaves with strength and dexterity while making decisions about materials and structure.

Night nests, far more elaborate than day nests, can include linings, pillows, blankets, and even roofs.

To build such structures requires both technical know-how and material knowledge, making nest-building a cognitively demanding task.

Young orangutans begin showing interest in nests at just six months, playing with leaves and branches.

Practice of basic day nests starts around age one, but night nest practice begins only at three years and is not mastered until about the age of eight.

Complex additions, such as multitree nests and comfort elements, appear later. This long timeline shows that the skill is not acquired quickly but gradually, with repeated attempts and guided observation.

Learning from mom

Researchers documented that immatures who carefully peered at their mothers during nest-building were far more likely to practice soon afterward.

Merely being nearby without watching closely did not have the same effect. This highlights the importance of selective attention in learning.

“Nest-building is critical to survival in orangutans but is surprisingly not the focus of a lot of research,” noted Dr. Ani Permana from the University of Warwick.

“We previously reported that it takes multiple years for immature orangutans to learn to nest-build but, based on 17 years of observational data, this paper shows that this learning process is highly dependent on young animals carefully watching the nest-building of others.”

Orangutan nests are complex

The study also showed that young orangutans pay special attention to complex features like multitree nests, twig manipulations, and comfort elements.

These require memorizing multiple steps and sequences. After observing these, immatures increased their practice, suggesting they were specifically learning the more challenging parts.

Simpler nests, such as single-tree day nests, did not trigger the same level of focused observation.

“Orangutan nest-building tendency may have some innate basis, but the details and method must be socially learned, starting from a very young age, by watching and practicing, learning from mistakes as they grow and this paper is the first time this has been shown in wild apes,” Dr. Permana added.

At first, immatures mostly learn from their mothers, but as they grow older, they begin peering at other group members, thereby expanding their knowledge base.

Learning what to use

Beyond construction skills, orangutans also learn what materials to use.

“Aside from learning ‘how to’ build a nest, immature orangutans also appear to learn the ‘know-what’ of which materials to use,” noted Dr. Caroline Schuppli, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.

The choice of tree species is important, and infants – who primarily peer at their mothers – are more likely to select the same species their mothers use.

“Just like human teenagers finding their own path, maturing orangutans increasingly peer at the nest-building of others and begin experimenting with the tree species those individuals use,” Dr. Schuppli continued.

Returning to roots

Interestingly, adults often revert to using the tree species favored by their mothers, even after experimenting with alternatives in youth.

“Ultimately, adult orangutans tend to revert to the nest materials used by their mothers, perhaps recognizing that the most effective methods had already been established,” Dr. Schuppli noted.

“This consistent variation in nest materials across generations indicates that wild orangutan populations possess cultural elements that could be lost without the conservation of the species and their habitats,”

Orangutans learn and pass on traditions

The study emphasized four main points: peering, not just proximity, drives learning; immatures focus on complex multi-step elements; role models expand with age; and knowledge of tree species is socially transmitted.

These findings suggest orangutans display cultural variation, with nest-building traditions passed through generations.

Nest-building is an evolutionarily ancient behavior shared by great apes.

By proving that orangutans acquire this skill through observational social learning, the study suggests that such cultural learning has deep roots in primate history.

It highlights not just the intelligence of orangutans but also their fragile cultural heritage – one that can only continue if their forest homes are preserved.

The study is published in the journal Communications Biology.

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Fireflies light up landscapes at night using captivating bioluminescent displays in search of mates. Some enterprising spiders have now learned to turn those glowing invitations into deadly dinner traps.

Recent research reveals that a species of sheet web spider uses firefly bioluminescence to draw unsuspecting prey into its webs.

This unusual strategy has now been detailed in the Journal of Animal Ecology by ecologists at Tunghai University in Taiwan. The findings show a remarkable case of predators reusing their prey’s own signals for survival.

Spiders twist firefly glow into traps

Researchers noticed that Psechrus clavis spiders leave captured fireflies alive in their webs, where the trapped insects continue glowing for nearly an hour. During this time, the spiders check back repeatedly, seemingly aware of the signal’s value.

This observation prompted experiments in which the team added LED lights mimicking firefly glow to some webs while leaving others untouched.

The results were striking: webs with LEDs attracted three times more prey than control webs, and when counting firefly prey alone, the attraction rate increased tenfold.

This confirmed that glowing prey acted as bait, amplifying the spiders’ hunting success. The researchers also noted that most glowing victims were male fireflies, likely fooled by the lights into thinking they had found mates.

Uncovering signal-stealing spiders

“Our findings highlight a previously undocumented interaction where firefly signals, intended for sexual communication, are also beneficial to spiders,” said Dr. I-Min Tso, lead author of the research.

“This study sheds new light on the ways that nocturnal sit-and-wait predators can rise to the challenges of attracting prey and provides a unique perspective on the complexity of predator-prey interactions.”

The researchers suggest that this strategy may help spiders avoid having to produce their own light, unlike deep-sea predators such as anglerfish.

Spiders target glowing prey

Psechrus clavis spiders (also known as lace sheet weavers) inhabit subtropical forests across East Asia.

Their main prey, the winter firefly Diaphanes lampyroides, emits steady, non-flashing bioluminescence. This constant glow makes them particularly vulnerable to spider manipulation.

Video recordings revealed that the spiders treated various prey species differently. They immediately consumed moths, but they delayed eating fireflies.

“Handling prey in different ways suggests that the spider can use some kind of cue to distinguish between the prey species they capture and determine an appropriate response,” said Dr. Tso.

“We speculate that it is probably the bioluminescent signals of the fireflies that are used to identify fireflies, enabling spiders to adjust their prey-handling behavior accordingly.”

This ability highlights the adaptive nature of the spiders, showing not just opportunism but also prey-specific strategies.

Deception at the heart of survival

The new study emphasizes that sit-and-wait predators often rely on deception because active strategies can be energetically costly.

P. clavis already uses its body color and web structure to lure insects, particularly moths. The use of glowing fireflies as a signal expands this deceptive toolkit.

The researchers speculate that this enhanced return reduces the spiders’ need to invest energy in maintaining bright body coloration for attracting prey.

In other words, glowing fireflies provide an outsourced signal, sparing spiders the cost of producing one themselves.

Testing spiders in the field

The field experiment took place in the National Taiwan University’s Xitou Nature Education Area, a conifer plantation forest that serves as a living laboratory for ecological studies.

This setting allowed the researchers to observe the spiders within a natural environment where fireflies are common and the interactions between predator and prey unfold in real time.

To mimic the glow of captured fireflies, the team used carefully designed LED lights. These artificial lights closely matched the wavelength and intensity of firefly bioluminescence, making them effective stand-ins for the real insects.

Limits of artificial light

Still, the researchers acknowledged that artificial light cannot fully replicate the complexity of genuine firefly signals. Subtle variations in glow, rhythm, and biological cues may influence how other insects respond.

For this reason, the team noted that using live fireflies would provide the most authentic test of the spiders’ strategy.

Yet such an approach poses immense challenges in practice, since handling, controlling, and releasing live glowing insects in the field is both logistically difficult and ethically delicate.

Even with these limitations, the findings carry weight. The results demonstrate that predator-prey interactions involve layers of deception, adaptation, and unexpected strategies rather than straightforward acts of consumption.

A firefly’s light, intended as a call for romance, may instead guide other unsuspecting creatures straight into danger.

In this case, what begins as a signal of attraction becomes a tool for survival in the hand – or rather the web – of a patient spider.

The study is published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

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Astronomers have imaged a newborn gas giant, WISPIT 2b, that sits inside a wide gap in a disk of dust and gas around a young, sun-like star. The event was captured with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO VLT).

The planet shows up as a compact source tucked into the dark lane between bright rings. It moves from epoch to epoch in a way that fits an orbit. The host star, WISPIT 2, is only about 5 million years old, so this is a snapshot of a system that is still assembling.

Richelle van Capelleveen of Leiden University led the research team that reported the discovery. The work brought together researchers from multiple institutions who combined their expertise to confirm the planet’s presence.

Planet forming in its birth environment

Planet catalogs now list nearly 6,000 confirmed worlds around stars other than the Sun, a total tracked by NASA’s Exoplanet Archive in a recent update.

Most of those planets were not seen directly, but inferred from how they tug on or dim the light from their stars.

Catching a forming planet in its birth environment is rare. It presents an opportunity for scientists to test ideas about how giant planets grow and how their gravity sculpts rings and gaps.

Seeing the planet and the disk together also ties structure to cause. That link is essential if we want to explain why planetary systems end up with such different architectures.

Telescopes revealed the young planet

The Very Large Telescope’s SPHERE camera isolated faint light from the star’s surroundings and revealed a multi-ringed disk that stretches to roughly 35 billion miles (56 billion kilometers).

The rings are separated by gaps, and one of those gaps hosts the compact source identified as the planet.

Across multiple observing dates, the point source shifted position in a way that matches Keplerian motion. This means that its motion was governed by gravity in a bound orbit.

The team also showed that the source tracks with the star in the sky, rather than drifting like a background object.

In near infrared images, the planet glows from residual heat left over from formation. That glow stands out against the fainter, polarized light that is scattered by tiny dust grains in the disk.

A planet soon after birth

A companion letter reports a strong H-alpha signal from the planet, the deep red light emitted when excited hydrogen drops to a lower energy state. That detection, made with the MagAO-X instrument in Chile, is a hallmark of gas falling onto the world.

Accretion means the planet is still building its atmosphere. The visible light signal complements the infrared image and nails down the planet’s identity.

Together, these measurements show a consistent picture of a young giant that is still pulling in material from its surroundings. They also give observers multiple ways to follow how its brightness and environment change over time.

Planet shapes surrounding dust rings

The authors show that WISPIT 2b is the first unambiguous planet seen inside a multi-ringed disk. That combination creates a clean experiment for studying how a single, massive body shapes nearby dust and gas.

The outer disk extends to about 35 billion miles (56 billion kilometers) from the star, while the planet orbits near 5.3 billion miles (8.5 billion kilometers). Its gravity likely helps keep the surrounding lane partly cleared by exchanging angular momentum with material in the gap.

Because the disk is bright and well-resolved, researchers can measure ring locations, gap widths, and the vertical height of the scattering surface.

Those geometric clues let theorists estimate disk viscosity, a key parameter that controls how quickly disks spread and how efficiently planets migrate.

Models of giant planet formation

In 2018, astronomers confirmed the presence of PDS 70 b inside a large inner cavity, the first clear case of an embedded protoplanet. That system later turned out to host a second forming planet.

WISPIT 2b now adds a sun-like system with a clearly ringed outer disk and a forming giant farther from its star. It offers a second, different test case for models of giant planet formation and disk evolution.

A benchmark for future research

Astronomers often use the astronomical unit (AU) to express distances in young systems, where 1 AU equals about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). Converting to everyday units keeps the scale clear without introducing new jargon.

At roughly 57 AU, WISPIT 2b circles the star at about 5.3 billion miles (8.5 billion kilometers). The disk itself reaches out to around 35 billion miles, which is large enough to let observers resolve multiple rings and gaps from Earth.

Those numbers come from direct imaging and from fitting the planet’s small apparent motion relative to the star over several observation dates. The fit points to a bound orbit that is consistent with the gap geometry seen in the disk.

“Discovering this planet was an amazing experience,” said van Capelleveen. She emphasized how the system’s clarity makes it an ideal benchmark for future work

That practicality matters. A clean case lets multiple teams compare models to the same measurements and make steady progress.

Imaging planet formation

Follow up with ALMA can trace gas motions near the gap and look for subtle kinks that reveal how the planet perturbs its surroundings. JWST spectroscopy can probe the planet’s thermal emission and search for molecules in its young atmosphere.

More precise astrometry will tighten the orbit and, with time, allow a dynamical mass estimate. That mass can be compared to the gap’s width to check how well current theories predict the link between planet mass and disk structure.

The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Image credit: C. Ginski/R. van Capelleveen et al.

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