Certain kinds of gut microbes absorb toxic Pfas “forever chemicals” and help expel them from the body via feces, new first-of-its-kind University of Cambridge research shows.
The findings are welcome news as the only options that exist for reducing the level of dangerous Pfas compounds from the body are bloodletting and a cholesterol drug that induces unpleasant side effects.
The microbes were found to remove up to 75% of some Pfas from the gut of mice. Several of the study’s authors plan to develop probiotic dietary supplements that boost levels of helpful microbes in the human gut, which would likely reduce Pfas levels.
“If this could be used in humans to create probiotics that can help remove Pfas from the body then this would be a nicer solution in that it wouldn’t have so many side effects,” said Anna Lindell, Cambridge doctoral student and a co-author of the study.
Pfas are a class of about 15,000 compounds most frequently used to make products water-, stain- and grease-resistant. They have been linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol, kidney disease and a range of other serious health problems. They are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down in the environment.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has found no level of exposure to Pfos or Pfoa, two of the most common Pfas compounds, in drinking water is safe. They have a half-life in human blood of anywhere from two to five years, by most estimates. That means the body expels half the amount of the chemical that is in blood during that period. Depending on blood levels, it can take decades to fully expel Pfas naturally.
Though the findings represent the first time gut microbes have been found to remove Pfas, they have been found to alleviate the impacts of other contaminants, such as microplastics.
The researchers didn’t set out to determine if the gut bacteria expelled Pfas specifically, but instead looked at a suite of 42 common food contaminants. No Pfas limits for food exist in the US, but there is broad consensus that it is among the main exposure routes.
Some microbes performed well in expelling Pfas, so the study’s authors zoomed in on those.
The authors introduced nine of a family of bacterial species into the guts of mice to humanize the mouse microbiome – the bacteria rapidly accumulated to absorb Pfas eaten by the mice, and the chemicals were then excreted in feces.
The bacteria seem to absorb the chemical, then use a “pump” mechanism that pushes toxins from the cells and aids in excretion, the authors wrote. The mechanism by which the chemicals are pulled into the cell is not yet understood, Lindell said, but she suspects there may be a similar pump. These are developed by microbes to expel other contaminants, drugs or antibiotics, Lindell added.
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The microbes largely addressed “long-chain” Pfas, which are larger compounds and more dangerous than smaller “short chains” because they stay in the body longer. The body more efficiently discharges short-chain Pfas through urine because the compounds are generally water-soluble.
Among the most common and dangerous long chains are Pfoa and Pfna, which the microbes expelled at rates of up to 58% and 74%, respectively.
Lindell and other study leaders have started a company, Cambiotics, that will develop a probiotic based on their findings. They are planning to follow up the research with a human study.
However, Lindell stressed that the probiotic would not solve the broader Pfas crisis: “This should not be used as an excuse to downplay other sustainable solutions or to not address the bigger Pfas problem.”
Cannabis use may leave lasting fingerprints on the human body, a study of over 1,000 adults suggests – not in our DNA code itself, but in how that code is expressed.
US researchers found it may cause changes in the epigenome, which acts like a set of switches that activate or deactivate genes involved in how our bodies function.
“We observed associations between cumulative marijuana use and multiple epigenetic markers across time,” explained epidemiologist Lifang Hou from Northwestern University when the research was published in 2023.
Cannabis is a commonly used substance in the US, with nearly half of Americans having tried it at least once, Hou and team report in their published paper.
Related: Cannabis Can Leave a Distinct Mark on Your DNA, Study Reveals
Some US states and other countries have made cannabis use legal, but we still don’t fully understand its effects on our health.
To investigate this, the researchers analyzed data from a long-running health study that had tracked around 1,000 adults over two decades.
Participants, who were between 18 and 30 years old when the study began, were surveyed about their cannabis use over the years and gave blood samples at the 15- and 20-year marks.
Using these blood samples from five years apart, Hou and her team looked at the epigenetic changes, specifically DNA methylation levels, of people who had used cannabis recently or for a long time.
The addition or removal of methyl groups from DNA is one of the most studied epigenetic modifications.
When epigenetic factors, which can come from other genes or the environment inside a cell or beyond, recruit a methyl group, it changes the expression of our genes. (ttsz/iStock/Getty Images)
Without changing the genomic sequence, DNA methylation affects how easily cells ‘read’ and interpret genes, much like someone covering up key lines in your set of instructions.
Environmental and lifestyle factors can trigger these methylation changes, which can be passed to future generations, and blood biomarkers can provide information about both recent and historical exposures.
“We previously identified associations between marijuana use and the aging process as captured through DNA methylation,” Hou said.
“We wanted to further explore whether specific epigenetic factors were associated with marijuana and whether these factors are related to health outcomes.”
Environmental and lifestyle factors can trigger methylation changes, which can be passed to future generations. (Monkey Business Images/Canva)
The comprehensive data on the participants’ cannabis use allowed the researchers to estimate cumulative use over time as well as recent use and compare it with DNA methylation markers in their blood for analysis.
They found numerous DNA methylation markers in the 15-year blood samples, 22 that were associated with recent use, and 31 associated with cumulative cannabis use.
In the samples taken at the 20-year point, they identified 132 markers linked to recent use and 16 linked to cumulative use.
The buds of a cannabis plant contain the most cannabinoids. (Esteban López/Unsplash)
“Interestingly, we consistently identified one marker that has previously been associated with tobacco use,” Hou explained, “suggesting a potential shared epigenetic regulation between tobacco and marijuana use.”
Multiple epigenetic changes associated with cannabis use had previously been linked to things like cellular proliferation, hormone signaling, infections, neurological disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and substance use disorders.
It’s important to note that this study doesn’t prove that cannabis directly causes these changes or causes health problems.
“This research has provided novel insights into the association between marijuana use and epigenetic factors,” said epidemiologist Drew Nannini from Northwestern University.
“Additional studies are needed to determine whether these associations are consistently observed in different populations. Moreover, studies examining the effect of marijuana on age-related health outcomes may provide further insight into the long-term effect of marijuana on health.”
The study has been published in Molecular Psychiatry.
An earlier version of this article was published in July 2023.
Humans have built so many dams around the world that the Earth’s poles have wandered away from the planet’s rotational axis, new research suggests.
Over the last 200 years, humans have constructed nearly 7,000 massive dams, impounding enough water to nudge the Earth’s poles by about three feet (one meter) and cause a 0.83-inch (21-millimeter) drop in global sea levels, according to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters.
This drift is possible because Earth’s solid crust forms a hard shell around a molten layer of gooey magma. This means that whenever a significant amount of mass is redistributed across the planet’s surface, the outermost rock layer wobbles, shifting relative to Earth’s molten interior. When this happens, different areas on the Earth’s surface end up directly over the planet’s rotational axis. As a result, the planet’s poles pass through different surface locations than before, a phenomenon known as true polar wander.
“As we trap water behind dams, not only does it remove water from the oceans—thus leading to a global sea level fall—it also redistributes mass around the world,” Natasha Valencic, a graduate student at Harvard University and lead author of the new study, said in a statement.
In the study, Valencic and her team analyzed a previously published global database of dams to figure out their locations, the volume of water they store, and how that stored water has impacted Earth’s mass distribution. Previously, the database revealed that 6,862 large dams built between 1835 and 2011 contributed to a decrease in sea levels. Collectively, these dams hold enough water to fill the Grand Canyon twice.
The results showed that global dam-building has caused Earth’s poles to shift in two phases. The first phase, from 1835 to 1954, coincided with a boom in dam construction in North America and Europe. These areas shifted toward the equator, and as a result, the North Pole moved about 8 inches (25 centimeters) toward the 103rd meridian east, a line that passes through Russia, Mongolia, and China.
During the second wave of dam construction, between 1954 and 2011, most dams were built in Asia and East Africa. As a result, the North Pole shifted 22 inches (57 centimeters) toward the 117th meridian west, which passes through western South America and the South Pacific. Polar wander is not linear; instead, it follows a wobbly path, which is why the total shift does not add up precisely to 3.7 feet.
While the results are relatively subtle, they highlight the need for researchers to account for water stored in dams when predicting future sea level rise. In the 20th century, global sea levels rose 4.7 to 6.7 inches (12 to 17 centimeters), but humans trapped about a quarter of that volume behind dams, according to Valencic.
“Depending on where you place dams and reservoirs, the geometry of sea level rise will change,” she said. “That’s another factor we need to consider, because these changes can be quite large and significant.”
The 360-degree hinge could use a bit of tightening. I found its looseness caused the screen to flop and bounce quite a bit when I tapped on it with a fingertip, threatening to cause motion sickness after repeated use.
Battery life is downright poor too. While LG claims “AI-optimized battery efficiency” that can span more than 24 hours, I got just over eight hours on a full-screen YouTube playback test. (Typical battery scores for 16-inch laptops run 12 to 14 hours on this test.) Normally, I run that test at full brightness, but LG seemingly has some buried setting that I was unable to locate, which auto-dims the display periodically. Even this advice, which I found by scouring the web, was unable to disable the feature. The bottom line is that the aforementioned eight-hour battery mark isn’t just low, it’s probably better than it would normally have been due to the dimming feature being active. To that end, even at its maximum brightness, the Gram Pro’s LCD is remarkably short on brightness.
I also encountered some lingering operational bugginess, namely around the laptop’s Wi-Fi implementation. The system repeatedly disconnected from Wi-Fi during initial setup and would occasionally drop its connection during regular use, though never as egregiously as I experienced during first-time Windows configuration.
That may sound like a lot of negatives, but aside from the battery issue and the keyboard, the problems are largely manageable. However, at $1,500 for this configuration (it’s even pricier from LG!), the Gram Pro 16 is getting up there, and the upgraded version featuring a Core Ultra 9 CPU, 32 GB of RAM, and a 2-TB SSD, is even more difficult to swallow. LG still has a few kinks to work out of the Gram Pro design, but it’s covered a lot of ground since 2024—enough to merit a qualified recommendation of this 2025 update.
Behold! The 2025 ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year Awards shortlist has been released, showcasing a spectacular array of astrophotography images ranging from solar prominences and auroras to distant galaxies and beguiling nebulas.
For the past 17 years, the Royal Observatory Greenwich — supported by astronomy camera maker ZWO — has called on the global photography community to compete in an open competition celebrating the majesty and variety of our night sky.
The 2025 competition saw photographers from 69 countries submit over 5,500 entries to compete in a plethora of diverse categories to gain recognition and, naturally, prize money. The overall winner of the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the year will bag a £10,000 (about $13,560 U.S.) grand prize, while the photographers who come out on top in each individual category receive £1,500 (about $2,030 U.S.) for their valiant efforts.
“At ZWO, we believe that astrophotography is not only a way to record the cosmos, but also a way to inspire curiosity, foster education and build communities that transcend borders,” said ZWO founder Sam Wen in a press release revealing the shortlisted images.“Everyone deserves a chance to connect with the universe — and through our support, we hope to bring that experience to more people.”
The winners of each category will be announced in an awards ceremony in September later this year, with the victorious entries — and select runners-up — later being exhibited at the National Maritime Museum in London.
Read on to see the spectacular images shortlisted for the 2025 ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the year awards!
Auroras
This image of a swirling green aurora was captured from a remote location on the Senja Peninsula in northern Norway by Filip Brebenda on Sept 12, 2024. Silvery birch trees dominate the foreground, while a rocky outcrop frames the aurora dancing through the sky above, which is reflected in a placid pool of water between the trunks.
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Photographer Daniel Zafra was able to capture a rare occurrence of a magenta and green aurora reflecting off the waters of California’s Mono Lake in October 2024, alongside protruding rocky formations.
Vincent Beudez imaged a breathtaking auroral display reminiscent of an arctic flower unfolding in the skies over Tromsø in northern Norway on April 4, 2024, framed by the snowy peaks of nearby mountains. He used a Sony Alpha 7S III camera to get the shot.
An image of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), as captured by astrophotographers Bence Tóth, Péter Feltóti, Bertalan Kecskés from Hungary over the course of several sessions over November-December 2024. The galaxy can be seen undergoing a burst of star formation thanks to the tidal influence of a galactic neighbor, with the glowing red form of an emission nebula visible throughout, giving the impression of a cosmic firework display.
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) can be seen shining with the light of countless stars and nebulas in this image taken from the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, China in late 2024. It took around 216 hours to capture the ancient light used in the creation of the image, which shows the bright central bulge and spiral arms of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbor in phenomenal detail.
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 2997 — also known as the Antlia Cabbage Galaxy — is pictured surrounded by glowing red cosmic clouds in this shot by Xinran Li taken from Río Hurtado, Chile in January and February earlier this year. The galaxy exists at a distance of 35 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Antlia and took around 10 hours of observing time to capture using a range of filters.
A distorted moon can be seen rising over the French château of Villebois-Lavalette in this shot by Flavien Beauvais. The shot was taken during the full moon phase in November 2024 using a Canon EOD R7 camera in conjunction with a Sigma 150-600 mm lens.
This composite image captured by Chayaphon Phanitloet from the Nakhon Ratchasima region of Thailand depicts a period in October 2024 when the moon slid in front of Saturn — visible to the left of the image — blocking its light.
Photographer Karthik Easvur created this portrait of a supermoon looming large in the sky over Delhi, India, in November 2024, by stitching together 24 separate images into a seamless mosaic. The so-called “Beaver Moon” was captured using a 6-inch aperture telescope in conjunction with a ZWO camera along with several more helpful peripherals and filters.
Zhang Yanguang was able to capture this perfectly timed composite shot of the International Space Station (ISS) sweeping across the face of the sun from the Fujian region of China on Jan. 24 ofthis year. The photographer deftly maintained the crisp profile of the space station when combining the images during post-processing, while revealing phenomenal detail on the surface of our parent star.
This image of a 311,000-mile-long (500,000 kilometers) solar prominence erupting from the sun was captured on Nov. 7, 2024 from Guangdong province in China by astrophotographer PengFei Chou. The image is constructed from 20 stacked data sets captured over the course of the hour-long eruption.
An artistic view of the sun captured by photographer Damien Cannane, depicting the different phases of a solar eclipse. The arcs in between the eclipsed suns represent a phenomenon known as “Baily’s Beads,” which arise as sunlight shines through valleys on the lunar surface in the moments before and after totality.
Tianyao Yang took this picture of the July 2024 full moon behind skyscrapers in the Lujiazui district of Shanghai. The shot was the culmination of five years of planning and was taken from a distance of 16.5 miles (26.5 km) using a long lens, allowing the photographer to give the moon an outsized appearance compared to the foreground buildings.
This picture, taken from Songyang County, China by photographer Yujie Zhang in August 2024, shows the bright ribbon of the Milky Way tumbling toward a collection of geometric buildings reflected in a foreground body of water.
This placid scene taken with a Canon R6 Mark II camera by photographer Paul Joels captures the Milky Way in the sky over a boathouse in Lulworth Cove in the U.K. A multitude of stars can be seen shining down on the seaside vista, twinkling above a lone boat resting on the roadside.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is seen streaking through the sky above Honolulu, Hawaii, as captured from the Pu’u O Kaimukī Park by photographer Ran Shen on Oct. 12, 2024.
Chester Hall-Fernandez captured this view of the Milky Way setting parallel to the horizon over the Mount John Observatory in New Zealand on July 21, 2024. The MOA-II telescope — the largest telescope on New Zealand’s South Island — can be seen to the right of the image, observing the countless stars populating the southern hemisphere night sky.
An image of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS captured from Namibia in southern Africa by photographers Gerald Rhemann and Michael Jäger in September last year, featuring dust (grey) and ion (blue) tails. The “kinks” in the more tenuous ion trail are created as the solar wind pouring from our parent star impacts the particle trail shed by the wandering comet.
This family portrait of solar system planets — excluding Earth for obvious reasons — was captured with the aid of a 20-inch Dobsonian telescope in Bavaria, Germany, between September 2023 and December 2024 by astrophotographer Sophie Paulin. The planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — can be seen parading in a line from left to right in the composite piece.
Benjamin Barakat captured this image of a lone tree standing in front of star trails from the Hidaybu district of Yemen on March 13, 2024 using a Sony Alpha 7 IV camera.
A full moon is pictured rising over the Dolomite mountains in Italy by photographer Fabian Dalpiaz in November 2024, as the last of the sunlight catches the upper slopes on a cloudless evening.
This composite shot of the Milky Way was captured by Yoshiki Abe from the mouth of a remote cave in the coastal region of Yamaguchi, Japan on Oct. 12, 2024. The foreground image was snapped during a brief window known to photographers as the “blue hour,” which occurs around the time that the sun sets, infusing the environment with a blueish hue. Abe captured his image of the Milky Way later that same night.
A 23,000 pixel-wide panorama of the Utah Desert, imaged at night by astrophotographer Jim Hildreth with the Milky Way arcing high overhead amongst a sea of stars.
Photographer Andreas Karaolis captured this panorama of the Milky Way’s Cygnus region streaking over a verdant hillside in Cyprus in October 2024. Karaolis also made use of the blue hour to capture the foreground image, snapping a series of 30- and 120-second exposures to capture it and the cosmic scene above, before combining them in the post-processing step.
This composite view of the Christmas Tree Nebula and Rosetta Nebula was captured from the Deep Sky Chile Observatory in November and December last year. The colorful view is the result of 150 hours of observation, during which the ancient light of the nebulas was collected using a wide range of filters.
A portrait of the “Running Chicken Nebula” (IC 2944) — an enormous stellar nursery located in the constellation Centaurus — captured by astrophotographer Rod Prazeres from Queensland, Australia over the course of several nights in March and April 2024.
Shaoyu Zhang took this electric view of the “Spaghetti Nebula” (Simeis 147) from Chile and Sichuan, China between December 2024 and February 2025. Over 148 hours of exposure time were used to obtain a “full-spectrum” image of the vast supernova remnant to reveal structures ordinarily hidden behind a veil of cosmic dust.
An image of the Abel 85 supernova remnant captured in the skies above China by Deqian Li. Li used 23.4 hours of light data to create the image, which was captured over the course of a six-day camping trip in Hongyuan county, China with a Takahashi Epsilon-160ED telescope paired with a ZWO astronomy camera.
A 22-megapixel panorama showing the different stages of a total solar eclipse captured during the April 8, 2024 event by photographer Louis Egan from Quebec, Canada. The final piece was created using around 200 individual images.
Peter Ward’s “neon sun” effect was created using ultraviolet data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was remapped to colors visible to the naked eye, and turned “inside out” to surround the sun.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
While competitors release predictable updates to their smartwatches, Samsung isn’t afraid to surprise us (for better or worse) with design and feature changes each year. And with the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic in particular, announced at Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event, my favorite feature has made a welcome reappearance: the physical rotating bezel, a touch of romantic elegance that made me fall in love with Galaxy Watches in the first place. The Galaxy Watch 8 also has a new look and thinner frame, while the Galaxy Watch Ultra keeps the same functional, squared-off frame as before with a new Titanium blue color that will appeal to people who want a more rugged timepiece.
But it’s not just aesthetics that have changed in this year’s revisions. The company is also stepping things up when it comes to health tools, including several features I’ve never seen on a smartwatch, like noninvasive skin analysis and AI-powered coaching for sleep and running. The Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic also have a smarter voice assistant and are the first smartwatches with Google’s Gemini AI baked right inside, ready to handle complex tasks.
This story is part of Samsung Event, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Samsung’s most popular products.
Watch this: The Rotating Bezel is Back! A Look at Samsung’s New Galaxy Watch 8 and Classic
Pricing and availability
The Galaxy Watch 8 starts at $350 for the 40mm model and $380 for the 44mm one. The LTE versions are $50 more: $400 for the 40mm model and $430 for the 44mm watch.
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, with its rotating bezel and physical crown, comes in a single 46mm size and costs $500, or $550 for the LTE model.
The Titanium Blue version of the Galaxy Watch Ultra is $650, the same price as the original 2024 model. This version gets the same internal upgrades as the Watch 8 lineup, including a 64GB storage bump.
All models are available for preorder now with shipping starting July 25. If you reserve early from Samsung you can get $50 in Samsung credit; your wireless carrier may also have deals on the watches and Samsung’s just-announced phones.
The 40mm version of the Galaxy Watch 8 has a new design with a circular screen and squircle frame.
Joseph Maldonado/CNET
Health and fitness features
Samsung continues to expand the Galaxy Watch’s role as a health and wellness tool, building on existing features like ECG, SpO₂ (shorthand for peripheral capillary oxygen saturation), sleep tracking and its AGEs Index, which reflects your metabolic aging process. The headliner is a new Antioxidant Index, which measures carotene (one type of antioxidant) levels in your skin with a simple five-second press of your thumb on the sensor (no needle needed). Since antioxidants help clear toxins from the body, knowing your levels can offer actionable steps for improving your health. The watch will rate your levels on a scale from low to high and then offer generic recommendations on the Samsung Health app on how you can improve your levels if they’re on the lower side.
It’s important to note that this metric isn’t clinically verified and isn’t meant to replace a medical-grade test. It’s designed to offer a baseline reading that may help you make real-time lifestyle adjustments, but it won’t provide the detailed or precise results you’d get from a traditional blood test.
The Antioxidant Index on the new Galaxy Watches.
Joseph Maldonado/CNET
There’s also a new metric called Vascular Load, which measures strain on your heart during sleep. These readings are translated into a low-to-high scale to help you understand how behaviors (like sodium or alcohol intake) may be contributing to long-term heart disease risk.
Sleep tracking gets a serious upgrade, too. A new Bedtime Guidance tool uses a three-day analysis of your circadian rhythm and sleep pressure (aka sleep debt) to recommend an ideal bedtime window. It factors in heart rate, HRV, skin temperature, and even environmental cues like room temperature or brightness (if you’ve got connected SmartThings devices). The goal: Improve your sleep quality, recovery and energy throughout the day.
The new Running Coach gives you a personalized training plan to help meet your goals.
Samsung
The coaching isn’t just for sleep; the new Galaxy Watches are also debuting a Running Coach feature. It starts with a 12-minute running assessment that scores your fitness from level 0 (beginner) to level 10 (marathon-ready). From there, it builds a personalized four-to-six-week training plan tailored to your distance or performance goals.
Similar to Apple’s new Workout Buddy, Samsung’s Running Coach offers real-time, contextual feedback while you’re running, like pointing out a major milestone. But unlike Apple’s version, Samsung’s tool goes a step further by actually adapting your future training plans based on your progress.
Design
The two new Galaxy Watches take a page out of the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s playbook ditching the traditional circular watch face for a “cushion” design that has a round screen set inside a “squircle” frame (square with rounded edges). As someone who thought the Ultra looked too big and masculine for my wrist, I’m still not totally sold on the design shift. But I’m a sucker for that rotating bezel on the Classic (the Ultra’s is static), so I can’t help but love the look, even if it doesn’t feel like it was made for me.
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic brings back the rotating bezel in two color options: white or black.
Joseph Maldonado/CNET
The Classic also adopts the customizable quick-action button of the Ultra that also doubles as a crown wedges between the two navigation buttons.
Despite my preference for the sleeker, edgeless circular design of past Galaxy Watches, there may be some benefits to the new design, including a slimmer form factor. According to Samsung, the Galaxy Watch 8 is 11% slimmer and lighter than its predecessor. When trying it on, I was blown away by how light it felt on my wrist without the usual belly bump bulge of the body.
Pair that with a new band system, which reduces the gap between the watch and your wrist and you have a noticeably more comfortable fit. Thanks to the tighter sensor-to-skin contact, it’s also more accurate at capturing heart rate data. This is still subject to testing, but if it holds up, it may be a justified design trade-off.
Width comparison between the Galaxy Watch 8, Galaxy Watch 8 Classic and Galaxy Watch Ultra. Both the Ultra and the Classic have the crown that doubles as an action button.
Joseph Maldonado/CNET
The Galaxy Watch 8 comes in silver and graphite with an aluminum frame, while the Classic opts for a stainless steel finish in just silver. Size-wise, the regular Watch 8 comes in 40mm and 44mm options, while the Classic is only available in 46mm, which looks pretty large on my 6-inch (15cm) wrist and definitely leans more masculine. I can’t help but miss the days when Samsung offered more feminine options like rose gold or even just plain gold, though it’s been a while since those were part of the lineup.
The new Galaxy Watches are the first smartwatches to debut Google’s Gemini AI assistant out of the box.
Joseph Maldonado/CNET
Gemini on the watch
The new One UI 8 software brings a refreshed user experience that is easier to navigate. Notifications are separated by app and instant access to your six most-used apps. The Watches also takes a page from the Galaxy phone with a new “Now bar” at the bottom of the screen for quick access to active apps like timers or media controls.
But the most important software update is the addition of Gemini AI. The new Galaxy Watches are the first with Google’s AI assistant built-in, bringing more complex commands and contextual understanding to your wrist. You can ask it to check your most recent running pace, start a five-mile run and launch your workout playlist simultaneously, set a timer to boil pasta based on a recipe in your notes, adjust the font size on the watch, or have it draft a text letting a friend know you’re running late.
Since Gemini requires an internet connection to work, you’ll need to have your phone paired nearby or use an LTE version of the watch.
Battery and storage
Let’s set expectations: Just because the Galaxy Watch 8 looks like the Ultra doesn’t mean it matches the Ultra’s three-day battery life. But there’s still good news to share.
Samsung says the Watch 8 has an 8% larger battery than the Watch 7: 325 mAh vs. 300 mAh (for the 40mm), and 435 mAh vs. 425 mAh (for the 44mm). The Classic tops out at 445 mAh, which is still well below the Ultra’s 590 mAh battery. How much that translates into real-world use remains to be seen, but any boost is welcome, especially paired with the efficiency gains from the new Wear OS 6 update.
Storage also doubles across the board, with 64GB now standard (up from 32GB), including a new Titanium Blue version of the Ultra.
This is just a first look based on hands-on time. We’ll find out if these features live up to the hype when put to the test in our full review, coming soon.
In brilliant new images, the James Webb Space Telescope has captured a rare glimpse at the gaseous “shrouds” that surround dying stars before they go supernova.
Known as Wolf-Rayet stars, which were discovered nearly 160 years ago by astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet at the Paris Observatory and named in their honor, these ancient stars are, as Space.com notes, surrounded by a “shroud” of cosmic dust that will eventually explode outward and lay the foundations for new stars.
These aged stars, as Space.com explains, have burned off most of their hydrogen. According to Noel Richardson, the leader of the team at Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that found four new Wolf-Rayet systems, the hydrogen burn-off signals that the stars are dying. As they do, powerful winds that pump out of the star system roughly every eight years create the concentric rings that make up these ghastly “shrouds.”
The #JWST has revealed that multiple Wolf‑Rayet star systems, not just the previously studied WR 140, are encircled by long-lived, carbon‑rich dust shells. These aging, hydrogen‑depleted massive stars, often part of binary systems, generate intense stellar winds that collide and… pic.twitter.com/TI3xbTlprY
While these star systems’ existence has been known for the better part of two centuries, their dusty veils have only been observed once before, when the Webb telescope caught similar imagery around WR-140, an aging binary star system located about 5,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
As explained in an Embry-Riddle statement, this discovery from Richardson and his students not only affirms that other Wolf-Rayet stars form those beautiful, dusty shrouds in the harsh void of space, but also could contribute to our understanding of the stellar life cycle.
Astronomer Ryan Lau — who works at the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab in Tucson and helped Richardson’s team with the new Wolf-Rayet images — said in the university’s statement that he’s looking forward to seeing what else these strange shells can teach us.
“Where does this dust go?” Lau posited. “We want to learn what exactly the chemistry of this dust is. To do that, we need to take spectra to identify specific grain composition — the physical properties — to get an idea of the chemical contribution to the interstellar medium.”
To capture such poignant and awe-inspiring moments in the lives of star systems is already an incredible feat — and with the Webb telescope’s sophisticated equipment, there will likely be more where that came from.
More on Webb: James Webb Discovers First-Ever Exoplanet by Taking a Picture of It
MILAN (Reuters) -Stellantis and Ferrari Chairman John Elkann and his siblings Lapo and Ginevra have settled a tax dispute in Italy over the inheritance of their grandmother Marella Caracciolo, a spokesperson for the three brothers said on Sunday.
The case, opened last year, alleged that the three did not pay taxes in the country on assets they inherited after the death in 2019 of Marella Caracciolo, the wife of late Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli.
The spokesperson said John, Lapo and Ginevra, “with the aim of rapidly and definitively closing a painful personal and family vicissitude”, had reached a “comprehensive settlement” with the Italian tax agency.
“This settlement was concluded without any admission, not even tacit or partial, of the grounds of the objections initially alleged,” the spokesman said, adding discussions were also under way with prosecutors in the city of Turin, Northern Italy, who launched the investigation, although their outcome was not yet defined.
Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, which initially reported the news on Sunday, said the Elkanns would pay at least 175 million euros ($205 million) to settle the tax dispute.
Italy’s Revenue Agency did not respond to a request for comment sent by Reuters.
The case stems from a wider inheritance dispute between the Elkanns and their mother Margherita over the estate of Gianni Agnelli, which has divided one of Italy’s best known business dynasties.
As part of this case, a judge in Turin last year seized money and assets worth almost 75 million euros from five people, including John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann.
($1 = 0.8555 euros)
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and Emilio Parodi; Writing by Giulio Piovaccari and Francesca Landini, Editing by Louise Heavens)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has made establishing east-west energy corridors a priority for Canada. He suggested that such corridors would include new oil and natural gas pipelines, designed to reduce dependence on the United States.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson has gone even further in pushing for subsidization of carbon capture and storage projects that would effectively underwrite the long-term continuation of the fossil fuel industry at taxpayer expense.
While there might be short-term political reasons for backing fossil fuels, such an approach goes against Canada’s long-term interests. Prioritizing fossil fuels undermines the country’s commitments to reduce emissions and takes away the investment needed for it to realize its potential to become a green energy superpower.
Creating energy corridors is in the national interest, and would allow Canada to take full advantage of its abundant and diverse energy and mineral resources. The government also needs to be involved, as the corridors are interprovincial and will require substantial investment. However, the government has limited resources and so Canada must think strategically about its priorities for such corridors.
Canadian taxpayers should not be subsidizing an already lucrative oil and gas industry. Instead, the federal government should prioritize funding clean energy supply solutions.
Powerlines near Come By Chance, N.L., in June 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sarah Smellie
Oil and gas subsidies
Canadian governments have long faced opposition to building new pipelines. The provinces of Québec and British Columbia and many First Nations have strongly opposed new pipeline proposals. More recently, there is some signs of softening under the duress of U.S. tariffs.
Even if such shifts are lasting, it’s for the private sector to step up and invest into these projects. Previous federal investments, such as the Trans Mountain pipeline (TMX), were reflections of the private market’s unwillingness to invest in pipelines because they are bad investments. The 2024 Parliamentary Budget Office report estimated that selling the TMX would result in a loss.
There are reasons to question the soundness of fossil fuels on a purely financial basis. A 2022 Parliamentary budget office report found that climate change reduced GDP by 0.8 per cent in 2021, or around $20 billion. This number is expected to rise to 5.8 per cent per year by 2100 (or $145 billion in 2021 dollars).
By contrast, from 2017 to 2021, federal, provincial and territorial governments received an average of $12 billion annually in revenues from the the oil and gas industry.
The gap between the costs and benefits is only going to increase over time. The costs cut across all aspects of life, including food security, health care, global instability and threats to coastal cities due to sea level rise.
On the other hand, every dollar invested in adaptation today has an estimated return of $13-$15.
Furthermore, a recent study indicates a likely glut in global natural gas markets, and the future prospects for oil are equally questionable. For example, one of Canada’s target markets, Japan, has been reselling its liquefied natural gas imports to other countries, suggesting the glut of oil and gas is likely to continue as cheaper producers, including those in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, who are cheaper and closer to consumers, flood the market.
Cheaper and closer oil producers are also flooding markets in anticipation of declining prices.
There are important opportunity costs of investing money in fossil fuels that could otherwise be invested in the clean energy economy. When new technologies arise, there is a limited window of opportunity for global competitors to enter into an emerging industry.
In light of the shift to electric vehicles, heat pumps and artificial intelligence, it’s clear that energy demand is bound to increase significantly in Canada in the coming years. Canada can become a global competitor, but only if it enters the race now, while the window is open.
Power transmission lines and wind turbines with the Rocky Mountains in the background near Pincher Creek, Alta., in June 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
An East-West clean energy system
Solar and wind prices have declined by 83 per cent and 65 per cent respectively since 2009. However, they suffer from the fundamental issue of intermittency; the sun is not always shining and the wind isn’t always blowing.
While battery prices are declining, they remain an expensive solution. An easier solution is at hand: Canada’s hydroelectric resources. Québec, B.C. and Manitoba have abundant hydro resources that can reduce energy costs throughout the rest of the country.
Alberta and Saskatchewan have potential for significant geothermal power generation. Ontario and the Atlantic provinces could contribute wind and solar. Trading electricity through an integrated national grid increases the investment capital and reduces the need for batteries while diversifying the energy mix.
But we need an east-west electricity market to make this happen.
An east-west grid would reduce the need for every province to run its own power generation system. Creating a pooled market would allow provinces to trade electricity, giving consumers more choice and investors a larger market and potential return on their investment.
More valuable still is the fact that electricity capacity has to be built for the few peak hours and seasons. But most of the time demand is well below full capacity, such as the middle of the night or early summer, when neither heat nor air conditioning is needed in many areas. As peak times and seasons vary across the country, Canada can reduce overall costs by trading the electricity in the lowest cost producing province at a given time to where it’s needed in the other.
By locating some of the new clean energy in First Nations, Canada can also move reconciliation forward. There is potential for a win-win situation whereby Canada increases renewable energy generation while creating new jobs and income for First Nations wherever feasible.
The first step is for regulatory reform across the provinces to support a Canada-wide electricity market, and to provide the funding for the massive infrastructure investment required to connect provincial grids. This would be a federal investment with incredible long-term payoffs for employment, taxpayers and future generations.
Following this plan could truly make Canada an energy superpower on the right side of the energy transition, create thousands of jobs and give the country a global competitive edge — all while helping to save the planet in the process.
This article was co-authored by energy consultant Sheldon Fernandes.
Police have formed a special investigation team to probe the death of actor Humaira Asghar Ali, whose body was found in a Karachi apartment earlier this week, it emerged on Sunday.
Humaira was laid to rest in the Model Town Q Block graveyard in Lahore on Friday following a sparsely-attended funeral, days after her body was discovered at her apartment in Karachi.
An autopsy report by police surgeon Summaiya Syed, seen by Dawn.com, confirmed that the body was in an “advanced stage of decomposition” and at least eight months old.
According to the notification dated July 11th, available with Dawn.com issued by South Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mahzoor Ali, “A special team comprising of the following officers/officials is hereby constituted under the supervision of Deputy Superintendent of Police Imran Ali Jagrani (Clifton Division Acting Superintendent of Police)”, to investigate Humaira’s death.
The team will be headed by Defence Sub-Divisional Police Officer Aurangzaib Khattak with South Assistant Superintendent of Police Nida Junaid, Gizri Station House Officer (SHO) Muhammad Farooq, Sub-Inspector Muhammad Amjad and IT Branch Police Constable Muhammad Adeel as its members.
The notification directed the team to inquire into the facts and thoroughly investigate the death of Humaira to ascertain the cause of death, whether natural, accidental, suicidal or murder, by utilising all available resources and submit a progress report to the SSP’s office on a daily basis.
The autopsy report was released to the police, but the coroner could not determine the actor’s cause of death due to the level of decomposition.
Police had earlier said that when approached, her family in Lahore — particularly her father — refused to take the body for burial, triggering shock across the entertainment industry.
On Thursday, however, her brother Naveed Asghar arrived in Karachi to take the body to Lahore for burial, calling out media outlets for portraying his family in bad light. Police had stated that the actor’s body would be handed over to her brother after DNA matching.
Speaking to journalists, Naveed said, “The body was in police custody. The police had kept the body for investigation before calling us (the family) to claim it.”
He said that for the last three days, the family was in contact with Chhipa and the police.
“According to the guidelines, we were [eventually] going to receive the body and perform the rites,” he said.
Besides being a theatre, film and TV artist, Humera was also a visual artist who studied at Punjab University’s Fine Arts Department and completed a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in painting. During her university days, she had interaction with theatre groups such as Natak, led by Dr Ahmed Bilal, which was a university-based theatre group consisting of students.
She had interactions with Amjad Islam Amjad, Qavi Khan and other senior actors who used to visit the university for lectures. In her early years of performing art, she did about four or five Pakistan television plays. She also extensively did socially relevant and objective theatre those days.
