The upper panel illustrates the mass loss processes and potential formation of graphite in sub-Neptune atmospheres within the graphitestability regime. The lower panel presents the atmospheric compositions calculated from the thermochemical equilibrium model without and with graphite. — astro-ph.EP
Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes are the most common exoplanets, with a “radius valley” suggesting that super-Earths may form by shedding sub-Neptunes’ gaseous envelopes.
Exoplanets that lie closer to the super-Earth side of the valley are more likely to have lost a significant fraction of their original H/He envelopes and become enriched in heavier elements with CO2 gaining in abundance. It remains unclear which types of haze would form in such atmospheres, potentially significantly affecting spectroscopic observations.
To investigate this, we performed laboratory simulations of two CO2-rich gas mixtures (with 2000 times solar metallicity at 300 K and 500 K). We found that under plasma irradiation, organic hazes were produced at both temperatures with higher haze production rate at 300 K probably because condensation occurs more readily at lower temperature. Gas-phase analysis demonstrates the formation of various hydrocarbons, oxygen- and nitrogen-containing species, including reactive gas precursors like C2H4, CH2O, and HCN, for haze formation.
The compositional analysis of the haze particles reveals various functional groups and molecular formulas in both samples. The 500 K haze sample has larger average molecular sizes, higher degree of unsaturation with more double or triple bonds presence, and higher nitrogen content incorporated as N-H, C=N bonds, indicating different haze formation pathways.
These findings not only improve the haze formation theories in CO2-rich exoplanet atmospheres but also offer important implications for the interpretation of future observational data.
Sai Wang, Zhengbo Yang, Chao He, Haixin Li, Yu Liu, Yingjian Wang, Xiao’ou Luo, Sarah E. Moran, Cara Pesciotta, Sarah M. Hörst, Julianne I. Moses, Véronique Vuitton, Laurène Flandinet
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) Cite as: arXiv:2508.05974 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2508.05974v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05974 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Sai Wang [v1] Fri, 8 Aug 2025 03:17:11 UTC (1,130 KB) https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05974 Astrobiology,
NEW YORK — Amazon is now rolling out a service where its Prime members can order their blueberries and milk at the same time as their batteries and other basic items.
The online juggernaut said Wednesday that customers in more than 1,000 cities and towns now have access to fresh groceries with its free Same-Day Delivery on orders over $25 for Prime members, with plans to reach over 2,300 by the end of the year.
The company said that if an order doesn’t meet the minimum, members can still choose same-day delivery for a $2.99 fee. For customers without a Prime membership, the service is available with a $12.99 fee, regardless of order size.
In the past, Prime subscribers’ grocery orders were fulfilled through Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods.
The expansion is expected to put more pressure on grocery delivery services offered by such rivals as Walmart, Instacart and Target.
The trial of Labour MP Tulip Siddiq over corruption allegations has formally begun in Bangladesh.
The former minister did not attend the hearing, where investigators from the country’s corruption watchdog set out the case against her and 20 other individuals, including her aunt, her mother, her brother and her sister.
She is accused of influencing her aunt Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as Bangladesh’s prime minister last year, to secure a plot of land in a suburb of the capital Dhaka for her family members.
The MP for Hampstead and Highgate, who denies the allegations, said the “so-called trial” was “a farce” built on “fabricated accusations and driven by a clear political vendetta”.
Hasina fled Bangladesh for India last August after being ousted amid a crackdown by government forces on student-led protests which saw hundreds killed.
A copy of the case alleges that whilst she was a serving MP Ms Siddiq “forced and influenced her aunt and the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina using her special power to secure [a plot of land] for her mother Rehana Siddiq, sister Azmina Siddiq and brother Radwan Siddiq”.
As per Bangladeshi law, if an individual has any plot or flat in or around Dhaka, they are not permitted to receive any plot in the lucrative Purbachal project, prosecutors said.
If found guilty, the maximum sentence would be a lifetime imprisonment, according to prosecutors.
The prosecutor for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Tariqul Islam, said Ms Siddiq was being tried as a Bangladeshi citizen as the ACC found her Bangladeshi passport, national ID, and tax identity number.
Ms Siddiq’s lawyers previously told the Financial Times: “Tulip has never had a Bangladesh national identity card or voter ID and has not held a passport since she was a child.”
In a statement on X, Ms Siddiq said: “Over the past year, the allegations against me have repeatedly shifted, yet I have never been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities once.
“I have never received a court summons, no official communication, and no evidence.
“If this were a genuine legal process, the authorities would have engaged with me or my legal team, responded to our formal correspondence, and presented the evidence they claim to hold.
“Instead, they have peddled false and vexatious allegations that have been briefed to the media but never formally put to me by investigators.”
She added: “I have been clear from the outset that I have done nothing wrong and will respond to any credible evidence that is presented to me. Continuing to smear my name to score political points is both baseless and damaging.”
The Bangladeshi authorities issued an arrest warrant for Ms Siddiq earlier this year.
The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for 28 August.
Reuters
Prosecutor Tariqul Islam spoke to the media outside the court in Dhaka
Ms Siddiq resigned as Treasury minister in Sir Keir Starmer’s government in January, saying continuing in her role would be a “distraction”, although she insisted she had done nothing wrong.
It followed an investigation into the allegations against her by the prime minister’s standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.
In his report, Sir Laurie said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties”.
But he said it was “regrettable” that Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of her ties to her aunt.
The trial in Bangladesh relates to three charges, while Ms Siddiq also faces another charge of allegedly illegally acquiring a flat in the Gulshan area of Dhaka.
The ACC is also investigating a separate case against Siddiq and her family over allegations of embezzlement of £3.9bn connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant deal with Bangladesh in 2013.
Siddiq has denied any involvement in the deal.
The investigation is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a political opponent of Hasina.
Bangladeshi authorities estimate that about $234bn (£174bn) was siphoned off from Bangladesh through corrupt means while Hasina was in power.
Dominik Gräff, a University of Washington postdoctoral researcher in Earth and space sciences (pictured in the center), and two crew members load the fiber optic cable, spooled around a large drum, onto the back of the research vessel Adolf Jensen.
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Credit: Manuela Köpfli/University of Washington
As glaciers melt, huge chunks of ice break free and splash into the sea, generating tsunami-size waves and leaving behind a powerful wake as they drift away. This process, called calving, is important for researchers to understand. But the front of a glacier is a dangerous place for data collection.
To solve this problem, a team of researchers from the University of Washington and collaborating institutions used a fiber-optic cable to capture calving dynamics across the fjord of the Eqalorutsit Kangilliit Sermiat glacier in South Greenland. Data collected from the cable allowed them to document — without getting too close — one of the key processes that is accelerating the rate of glacial mass loss and in turn, threatening the stability of ice sheets, with consequences for global ocean currents and local ecosystems.
“We took the fiber to a glacier, and we measured this crazy calving multiplier effect that we never could have seen with simpler technology,” said co-author Brad Lipovsky, a UW assistant professor in Earth and space sciences. “It’s the kind of thing we’ve just never been able to quantify before.”
The data provides, for the first time, a deeper look at the relationship between ice and the water it collapses into, from surface waves to disturbances within the water column.
Their findings were published in Nature on Aug. 13.
The Greenland ice sheet — a frozen cap about three times bigger than Texas — is shrinking. Scientists have documented its retreat for the past 27 years as they scramble to understand the consequences of continued mass loss. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, it would release enough water to raise global sea levels by about 25 feet, inundating coastlines and displacing millions of people.
Researchers also speculate that ice loss is weakening a global current system that controls the climate and nutrient distribution by circulating water between northern and southern regions, called the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.
“Our whole Earth system depends, at least in part, on these ice sheets,” said lead author Dominik Gräff, a postdoctoral researcher in Earth and space sciences. “It’s a fragile system, and if you disturb it even just a little bit, it could collapse. We need to understand the turning points, and this requires deep, process-based knowledge of glacial mass loss.”
For the researchers, that meant taking a field trip to South Greenland — where the Greenland ice sheet meets the Atlantic Ocean — to deploy the fiber-optic cable. In the past decade, researchers have been exploring how these cables can be used for remote data collection through technology called Distributed Acoustic Sensing, or DAS, that records ground motion based on cable strain. Before this study, no one had attempted to record glacial calving with a submarine DAS cable.
“We didn’t know if this was going to work,” said Lipovsky. “But now we have data to support something that was just an idea before.”
Researchers dropped a 10-kilometer cable from a boat near the mouth of the glacier. They connected it to a small receiver and collected ground motion data and temperature readings along the length of the cable for three weeks.
The backscatter pattern from photons passing through the cable gave researchers a window beneath the surface. They were able to make nuanced observations about the enormous chunks of ice speeding past their boat. Some of which, said Lipovsky, were the size of a football stadium and humming along at 15 to 20 miles per hour.
Glaciers are huge, and most of their mass sits below the surface of the water, where ice melts faster. As warm water eats away at the base, the glacier becomes top-heavy. During a calving event, chunks of the overhanging portion break off, forming icebergs. Calving can be gradual, but every so often, the glacier heaves a colossal chunk of ice seaward. The researchers witnessed a large event every few hours while conducting their field work.
“When icebergs break off, they excite all sorts of waves,” said Gräff.
Following the initial impact, surface waves — called calving-induced tsunamis — surged through the fjord. This stirs the upper water column, which is stratified. Seawater is warmer and heavier than glacial melt and thus settles at the bottom. But long after the splash, when the surface had stilled, researchers observed other waves, called internal gravity waves, propagating between density layers.
Although these underwater waves were not visible from the surface, the researchers recorded internal waves as tall as skyscrapers rocking the fjord. The slower, more sustained motion created by these waves prolonged water mixing, bringing a steady supply of warmer water to the surface while driving cold water down to the fjord bottom.
Gräff compared this process to ice cubes melting in a warm drink. If you don’t stir the drink, a cool layer of water forms around the ice cube, insulating it from the warmer liquid. But if you stir, that layer is disrupted, and the ice melts much faster. In the fjord, researchers hypothesized that waves, from calving, were disrupting the glacier’s boundary layer and speeding up underwater melt.
Researchers also observed disruptive internal gravity waves emanating from the icebergs as they moved across the fjord. This type of wave is not new, but documenting them at this scale is. Previous work relied on site specific measurements from ocean bottom sensors, which capture just a snapshot of the fjord, and temperature readings from vertical thermometers. The data could help improve forecasting models and support early warning systems for calving-induced tsunamis.
“There is a fiber-sensing revolution going on right now,” said Lipovsky. “It’s become much more accessible in the past decade, and we can use this technology in these amazing settings.”
Other authors include Manuela Köpfli, a UW graduate student in Earth and space science; Ethan F. Williams a UW postdoctoral researcher in Earth and space science, Andreas Vieli, Armin Dachauer, Andrea Knieb-Walter, Diego Wasser, Ethan Welty of University of Zurich, Daniel Farinotti, Enrico van der Loo, Raphael Moser, Fabian Walter of ETH Zurich, Jean-Paul Ampuero, Daniel Mata Flores, Diego Mercerat and Anthony Sladen of the Université Côte d’Azur, Anke Dannowski and Heidrun Kopp of GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Rebecca Jackson of Tufts University, Julia Schmale, of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Eric Berg of Stanford University, and Selina Wetter of the Université Paris Cité
This research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the University of Washington’s FiberLab, the Murdock Charitable Trust, the Swiss Polar Institute, the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, and the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ.
For more information, contact Dominik Gräff at graeffd@uw.edu.
Article Title
Calving-driven fjord dynamics resolved by seafloor fibre sensing
Taylor Swift will make her first appearance on the New Heights podcast this Wednesday, August 13, at 7 p.m. ET, alongside hosts Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce.
Fans are eager to tune in as the Grammy-winning singer is set to reveal more about her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.
The album announcement was first teased in a promo clip showing Swift pulling a vinyl record from a case with the cover blurred. While a release date has yet to be confirmed, her official store states that pre-ordered copies will ship before October 13, 2025. The color scheme for the era appears to be orange and mint green, sparking speculation among fans about the album’s artistic style.
Rumors of a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter have also circulated after a mysterious date appeared on Carpenter’s website. Swift has hinted at the new era through a countdown timer on her site and themed orange-toned Instagram posts.
The full interview will be available to watch on the New Heights YouTube channel at 7 p.m. ET on August 13, which is 12 a.m. BST on August 14 for UK viewers. Audio versions will be released at the same time on Wondery, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms.
The Life of a Showgirl follows Swift’s 2024 release, The Tortured Poets Department. In the days leading up to the announcement, promotional billboards appeared in Nashville and New York City, accompanied by a Spotify playlist curated by Swift titled And, baby, that’s show business for you!. The episode is expected to draw a massive audience of Swifties eager for every detail of TS12.
Scientists often refer to the mesosphere as the “ignorosphere”—a region that’s too high for planes or weather balloons to explore, yet too low for satellites to probe. Despite our technological advances, we’ve yet to find a decent way to monitor this large stretch of air, which lies about 37 miles (60 kilometers) above the surface. But engineers are inching towards a solution—one inspired by a toy-like invention from the 19th century.
A Nature paper published today presents a proof-of-concept for an extremely lightweight, disc-like structure that levitates thanks to sunlight, no fuel required. Crafted from ceramic aluminum with a chromium base, the device floats on photophoresis, which literally means “light-driven motion.” When sunlight strikes the device, the differences in heat and pressure around the disc create an upward airflow, keeping the disc airborne. The pressure difference produces photophoretic lift—enough to keep these little guys aloft.
Although this particular device was tailored for mesospheric exploration, the physics driving its flight could easily be applied to future missions beyond Earth—including the achingly thin Martian atmosphere, as long as there’s sufficient sunlight, the researchers say.
“Photophoresis requires no fuel, batteries, or photovoltaics, so it is an inherently sustainable flight mechanism,” Ben Schafer, study lead author and an associate researcher at Harvard University, told Gizmodo in an email. “We could use these devices to collect groundbreaking atmospheric data to benefit meteorology, perform telecommunications, and predict space weather.”
The initial idea dates back to 1873, when physicist William Crookes invented a radiometer that fed off sunlight. Subsequent projects attempted to build on Crookes’s invention, but with limited success, as Igor Bargatin, a mechanical engineer at the University of Pennsylvania, explained in an accompanying News & Views article. (Although Bargatin did not participate in the new study, Schafer cited his work as one of the main inspirations for the device.)
Schafer and his colleagues, however, capitalized on previous work and recent advances in nanofabrication technology for their blueprint, constructing samples of “shiny, thin squares with very tiny holes,” as Schafer described them. Researchers from multiple countries teamed up on the project, combining theoretical and experimental steps. Normally, the photophoretic force is weak relative to an object’s size and weight, making it nearly impossible to notice, Schafer explained.
But the new device is so thin and tiny—about half the size of a penny—that the photophoretic force actually exceeds its weight, causing it to levitate. To validate its calculations, the team built a low-pressure chamber in the lab to simulate the atmospheric and sunlight conditions of the mesosphere. To their delight, the tiny discs remained aloft.
Schafer, now CEO of Rarefied Technologies, is moving quickly to bring these devices to commercial use. His team wants to tinker with the fabrication element so the discs can carry communications technology that can collect and send back weather data, Schafer said. “We plan to use passive devices that can be tracked remotely with lidar or radar to collect weather data in the upper atmosphere; this could reach the pilot phase in a couple years,” he explained.
“If the full potential of this technology can be realized, swarms or arrays of such photophoretic flyers could be collecting high-resolution data on the temperature, pressure, chemical composition, and wind dynamics of the mesosphere,” Bargatin added. “What began as a Victorian curiosity might soon become a key tool for probing the most elusive region of the atmosphere.”
Archean Earth. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Francis Reddy
The Eoarchean quartz-pyroxene rock from Akilia Island in Greenland has been proposed as one of Earth’s oldest banded iron formations (BIF) and a potential host for the earliest biosignatures.
However, the origin of its protolith, whether it metamorphosed from an igneous or sedimentary precursor, remains debated. Here, we revisit this longstanding Akilia controversy using potassium isotope analyses, comparing Akilia samples with BIFs and black shales spanning the Eoarchean to Mesoproterozoic.
Our results demonstrate that BIFs and black shales show systematic potassium isotope variations correlated with their potassium contents. Potassium-poor BIF layers display heavier isotopic compositions close to seawater values, whereas clay-rich layers exhibit elevated potassium contents and lighter isotopic signatures.
The Akilia quartz-pyroxene rock was initially characterized by low potassium concentrations and heavy potassium isotopic compositions consistent with chemical sediments deposited from ancient seawater. It was subsequently modified by metasomatic fluids derived from nearby metamorphosed igneous rocks. These findings support a sedimentary origin for the Akilia quartz-pyroxene rock.
Furthermore, our study provides an isotopic framework for interpreting ancient oceanic environments and offers insights into the potassium cycling and habitability of early Earth.
Revisiting the Eoarchean Akilia quartz-pyroxene rock with potassium isotopes: Implications for early-ocean sedimentation, PNAS via PubMed
Astrobiology,
Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻
Trinidadian soca star Yung Bredda earned a major breakthrough with his far-reaching Full Blown-produced smash, “The Greatest Bend Over,” and he’s now tapped Grammy-nominated singer-producer Chlöe and “Shake It to the Max” star Moliy for a new globe-trotting remix.
Out Friday (Aug. 15) via 0207 Def Jam and Polydor Label Group, the new remix finds both Chlöe and Moliy delivering sultry new verses across Full Blown’s “Big Links” riddim, as well as some flashy ad-libs and vocal stacks to complement the zess-infused soca production. Dropping just in time for Notting Hill Carnival (Aug. 23-25), the new remix arrives alongside a new music video that captures the beauty and spirit of carnival celebrations across the diaspora, including St. Lucia’s Carnival, which Chlöe attended in July.
Chlöe, one-half of the Grammy-nominated duo Chloe x Halle, is no stranger to the West Indies. Her last album, 2024’s Trouble in Paradise, was inspired by her time in St. Lucia. Moliy, on the other hand, has the year’s biggest dancehall hit in “Shake It to the Max,” alongside producers Silent Addy and Disco Neil. Best known by its Shenseea and Skillibeng-assisted remix, “Shake It to the Max” peaked at No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped U.S. Afrobeats Songs, Rhythmic Airplay, and World Digital Song Sales. The song also danced all the way to No. 6 on the Global 200. Chlöe and Moliy’s version of “The Greatest Bend Over” comes just a few weeks after Hot 100-topping dancehall icon Sean Paul put his own spin on the track.
“I always loved this song, and I would sing it all the time,” Chlöe exclusively told Billboard. “When I got asked to feature on it, I was excited because I already had a love for it.”
“The Greatest Bend Over,” Bedda’s take on Full Blown’s wildly popular “Big Links” riddim arrived on Dec. 2, 2024. Thanks to early Stateside growth, the song appeared in Billboard’s weekly “Trending Up” column, setting it apart from other riffs on the riddim, including Machel Montano‘s “The Truth,” Kes‘ “No Sweetness,” and Full Blown’s own “Good Spirits.” The song’s success has earned Bredda three nods at this year’s Caribbean Music Awards (Aug. 28), including zess-steam artist of the year, and the people’s choice and soca impact awards. According to Luminate, “The Greatest Bend Over” has amassed over 11.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams and over 44.4 million official global streams.
A team of international scientists has discovered new fossils at a field site in Africa that indicate Australopithecus and the oldest specimens of Homo coexisted at the same place in Africa at the same time — between 2.6 million and 2.8 million years ago. The paleoanthropologists discovered a new species of Australopithecus that has never been found anywhere.
The Ledi-Geraru Research Project is led by scientists at Arizona State University, and the site has previously revealed the oldest member of the genus Homo and the earliest Oldowan stone tools on the planet.
The research team concluded that the Ledi-Geraru Australopithecus teeth are a new species, rather than belonging to Australopithecus afarensis (the famous “Lucy”), confirming that there is still no evidence of Lucy’s kind younger than 2.95 million years ago.
“This new research shows that the image many of us have in our minds of an ape to a Neanderthal to a modern human is not correct — evolution doesn’t work like that,” ASU paleoecologist Kaye Reed said. “Here we have two hominin species that are together. And human evolution is not linear — it’s a bushy tree; there are life forms that go extinct.”
Reed is a research scientist at the Institute of Human Origins and President’s Professor Emeritus at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at ASU. She has been co-director of the Ledi-Geraru Research Project since 2002.
Ledi-Geraru
What fossils did they find to help them tell this story? Teeth; 13 of them to be exact.
This field site has been famous before. In 2013, a team led by Reed discovered the jaw of the earliest Homo specimen ever found at 2.8 million years old. This new paper details new teeth found at the site that belong to both the genus Homo and a new species of the genus Australopithecus.
“The new finds of Homo teeth from 2.6- to 2.8-million-year-old sediments — reported in this paper — confirms the antiquity of our lineage,” said Brian Villmoare, lead author and ASU alumnus.
“We know what the teeth and mandible of the earliest Homo look like, but that’s it. This emphasizes the critical importance of finding additional fossils to understand the differences between Australopithecus and Homo, and potentially how they were able to overlap in the fossil record at the same location.”
The team cannot name the species yet based on the teeth alone; more fossils are needed before that can happen.
How old are the fossils?
How do scientists know these fossil teeth are millions of years old?
Volcanoes.
The Afar region is still an active rifting environment. There were a lot of volcanoes and tectonic activity, and when these volcanoes erupted ash, the ash contained crystals called feldspars that allow the scientists to date them, explained Christopher Campisano, a geologist at ASU.
“We can date the eruptions that were happening on the landscape when they’re deposited,” said Campisano, a research scientist at the Institute of Human Origins and associate professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
“And we know that these fossils are interbed between those eruptions, so we can date units above and below the fossils. We are dating the volcanic ash of the eruptions that were happening while they were on the landscape.”
Finding fossils and dating the landscape not only helps scientists understand the species — it helps them re-create the environment millions of years ago. The modern faulted badlands of Ledi-Geraru, where the fossils were found, are a stark contrast to the landscape these hominins traversed 2.6 million to 2.8 million years ago. Back then, rivers migrated across a vegetated landscape into shallow lakes that expanded and contracted over time.
Ramon Arrowsmith, a geologist at ASU, has been working with the Ledi-Geraru Research Project since 2002. He explained the area has an interpretable geologic record with good age control for the geologic time range of 2.3 million to 2.95 million years ago.
“It is a critical time period for human evolution, as this new paper shows,” said Arrowsmith, professor at the School of Earth and Space Exploration. “The geology gives us the age and characteristics of the sedimentary deposits containing the fossils. It is essential for age control.”
What’s next?
Reed said the team is examining tooth enamel now to find out what they can about what these species were eating. There are still remaining questions the team will continue to work on.
Were the early Homo and this unidentified species of Australopithecus eating the same things? Were they fighting for or sharing resources? Did they pass each other daily? Who were the ancestors of these species?
No one knows — yet.
Maps showing (left) the location of the Ledi-Geraru site within the Horn of Africa on the left, and the location of the Australopithecus and Homo teeth on the right.
Images by Penn State Associate Research Professor Erin DiMaggio
Ledi-Geraru research team, 2025.
Photo by Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Amy Rector
The 13 fossil teeth collected in the Ledi-Geraru Research Area from 2015-2018. The collections at LD 750 and LD 760 localities represent a newly discovered species of Australopithecus. LD 302 and AS 100 represent early Homo already known from the LD 350 mandible discovered in 2013.
Photo by University of Nevada, Las Vegas Associate Professor Brian Villmoare
The 2.6-million-year-old Australopithecus teeth found in the Turtle Flat area.
Photo by Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Amy Rector
ASU Professor Ramon Arrowsmith and Penn State Associate Research Professor Erin DiMaggio. Arrowsmith is guiding a drone used to map the geology. Drones can collect surface geology data much more quickly than can be done by people walking the surface.
Photo by UNLV Associate Professor Brian Villmoare
Reed (right) and Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Amy Rector at Turtle Flat area. “After we found the first teeth, we flagged every piece of fossil on the landscape so that we could see their distribution on the ground. It was lovely to see them!” Rector said.
Photo by Omar Abdulla
University of Arkansas Associate Professor Lucas Delezene compares one of the incisors the team discovered to an Australopithecus maxilla (upper jaw) from Hadar at the National Museum of Ethiopia.
Photo by Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Amy Rector
Reed makes preliminary taxonomic assessments of nonhuman fossils discovered that day.
Photo by UNLV Associate Professor Brian Villmoare
Arrowsmith (left) and ASU Associate Professor Christopher Campisano examine the geology near the Asboli Homo teeth site.
Photo by Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Amy Rector
“Whenever you have an exciting discovery, if you’re a paleontologist, you always know that you need more information,” Reed said. “You need more fossils. That’s why it’s an important field to train people in and for people to go out and find their own sites and find places that we haven’t found fossils yet.
“More fossils will help us tell the story of what happened to our ancestors a long time ago — but because we’re the survivors, we know that it happened to us.”
The paper, “New discoveries of Australopithecus and Homo from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia,” was published in the journal Nature. The team of scientists and field team working on this project is widespread, and many work at Arizona State University or are alumni of ASU.
ASU alumni and current faculty authors include: University of Nevada, Las Vegas Associate Professor Brian Villmoare; University of Arkansas Associate Professor Lucas Delezene; Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Amy Rector; Penn State Associate Research Professor Erin DiMaggio; ASU Research Professor David Feary; ASU PhD candidate Daniel Chupik; Louisiana State University Instructor Dominique Garello; Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine Assistant Professor Ellis M. Locke; Boston University Senior Lecturer Joshua Robinson; West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine Assistant Professor Irene Smail; and the late ASU Professor William Kimbel.
Below, Reed and Campisano talk more about this project in an in-depth interview.
A man who “binge gambled” $40,000 in an 11-hour session was awarded VIP status by the bookmaker BlueBet and assigned a dedicated personal manager who encouraged him to keep betting and took a cut of his losses.
A regulator has found it wasn’t until the man had gambled $700,000 four months later and displayed multiple “clear red flag behaviours” that BlueBet checked whether he could afford to be betting so much.
The Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission (NTRWC), which regulates most online gambling companies in Australia, described Bluebet’s conduct as “unacceptable” and “extremely concerning”.
The regulator found that when the man complained about having run out of money to gamble, his VIP manager supplied him with bonus bets, deposit matches and placed funds directly into his account.
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On one occasion, when the man’s request for an inducement was initially declined, he requested his account be closed. Within two minutes, the VIP manager had placed $500 of bonus bets into his account. The man had already lost $4,000 that day.
A federal parliamentary inquiry, led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, called for inducements like bonus bets to be banned. It warned they encouraged riskier bets, higher losses, and undermined harm minimisation messages.
BlueBet, according to the regulator, prioritised the retention of a profitable customer over its legislated “responsible gambling responsibilities”. It found no evidence the VIP manager had been trained in harm minimisation.
“Instead of monitoring the situation and engaging in meaningful responsible gambling actions, BlueBet chose to award the complainant VIP status and assign a dedicated VIP account manager, whose commission was tied to the complainant’s net gambling revenue,” the NTRWC decision said.
Bluebet told the regulator that it called the man for a “responsible gambling check-in” after he repeatedly failed to place bets on his credit card due to insufficient funds. But the regulator found this call, which went unanswered, was prompted, in part, by “payment processing issues” and not concern for his wellbeing.
On the day after the phone call, the man continued gambling and requested bonus bets from his VIP manager.
“At no stage did the account manager make mention that BlueBet was concerned about his wagering activities from a responsible gambling perspective,” the NTRWC decision said.
“Rather, the VIP manager continued to encourage the complainant to wager with BlueBet through the promise of the provision of upcoming bonuses.”
In the two weeks after the unanswered phone call, the man gambled close to $400,000 with BlueBet.
Missed opportunities
The man’s gambling account was eventually closed when he texted his manager to say he wished he “had been pulled up earlier by you guys” as he had lost everything.
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“Given the numerous earlier red flags, it is extremely concerning that it took the complainant himself reaching out to BlueBet for his account to be closed,” the decision said.
“BlueBet missed multiple opportunities for timely and appropriate action and it’s disappointing that the responsibility fell on the complainant rather than BlueBet taking a more assertive role in protecting the complainant from further harm.”
Despite finding Bluebet’s conduct to be extremely concerning, the bookmaker was fined $53,380, which is less than 10% of the $570,000 the man lost. This was the maximum penalty available to the commission.
The Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie has previously called for financial penalties to be massively increased to ensure gambling companies are effectively punished for their misconduct.
“It should be an amount that hurts the company financially and hurts them so much that they think, ‘heavens, we can’t afford that again’,” Wilkie said in 2023. “It should hurt them so much that shareholders say to the board, ‘that must not happen again’.”
BlueBet merged with gambling company Betr earlier this year and no longer operates as a stand-alone brand. The conduct examined by the regulator took place during 2021.
In Australia, Gambling Help Online is available on 1800 858 858. The National Debt Helpline is at 1800 007 007. In the UK, support for problem gambling can be found via the NHS National Problem Gambling Clinic on 020 7381 7722, or GamCare on 0808 8020 133. In the US, call the National Council on Problem Gambling at 800-GAMBLER or text 800GAM.s
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