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What time is UConn vs South Carolina in Final Four? Start time, location, TV Channel
Everything you need to know to tune into No. 1 UConn Huskies vs No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks including start time and streaming options for the Final Four
What time is UCLA vs Texas in Final Four today? Start time, location, TV Channel
Everything you need to know to tune into No. 1 UCLA Bruins vs 1 Texas Longhorns including start time and streaming options for the Final Four
Shohei Ohtani Ends Home Run Drought
Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run of the season on Friday, a three-run blast off of Washington Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas.
What's next for North Carolina coaching search after Tommy Lloyd inks new deal with Arizona?
Here are the top names to know for the Tar Heels after Tommy Lloyd's decision.
For All the Talk About Crimson Desert, Nothing Beats MLB The Show on the US PS5 Chart
Home run
Legislator calls for Albany County to drop sales tax on clothing, footwear
Republican Mark Grimm is introducing legislation to cut the county sales tax on purchases of clothing and shoes costing less than $110 per item.
The Rise of Socialism: Washington business owners slam new ‘millionaires tax’
Washington shop owners, talk show radio host Arri Hoffman and a local democratic socialist, Rep. Shaun Scott, discuss the impact of the state’s new “millionaires tax” and how socialist economic policy is impacting local business.
Tribal gas stations see surge in business as fuel prices hover significantly below WA state average
Tribal gas stations in Washington are experiencing a significant surge in business as drivers seek lower prices amid rising fuel costs.
Democrats see Georgia's failure to curb data centers as an electoral gift
Georgia lawmakers have ended their legislative session without addressing concerns over data centers
50-year-old expired salmon found: the shocking discovery that baffles scientists - Futura-Sciences
Unexpected Treasures in Forgotten Cans Decades-old cans tucked away on a shelf might sound like the start of a food safety nightmare, but recently, they’ve become a scientific goldmine instead. In April 2024, the journal Ecology and Evolution published a study that lifted the lid—literally—on an astonishing scientific resource: canned...
Here's how United's new 'basic business class' will work
United's new premium fare structure is meant to make business class cheaper by unbundling things you may not need, like lounge access or seat choice.
As fuel prices soar, United is raising bag fees
The carrier says it will charge $10 more for the first and second bags checked by passengers on flights in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the rest of Latin America.
Politics Friday: 3 congressional candidates vying for their party's endorsement
Friday at noon, a check-in on the only Minnesota congressional race guaranteed to send a new person to Washington. MPR News politics editor Brian Bakst speaks with three candidates seeking to represent the 2nd Congressional District.
Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Having written a lot of model release blog posts, there’s something much harder about reviewing open models when they drop relative to closed models, especially in 2026. In recent years, there were so few open models, so when Llama 3 was released most people were still doing research on Llama 2 and super happy to get an update. When Qwen 3 was released, the Llama 4 fiasco had just gone down, and a whole research community was emerging to study RL on Qwen 2.5 — it was a no brainer to upgrade. Today, when an open model releases, it’s competing with Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, GLM 5, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-OSS, Arcee Large, Nemotron 3, Olmo 3, and others. The space is populated, but still feels full of hidden opportunity. The potential of open models feels like a dark matter, a potential we know is huge, but few clear recipes and examples for how to unlock it are out there. Agentic AI, OpenClaw, and everything brewing in that space is going to spur mass experimentation in open models to complement the likes of Claude and Codex, not replace them. Especially with open models, the benchmarks at release are an extremely incomplete story. In some ways this is exciting, as new open models have a much higher variance and ability to surprise, but it also points at some structural reasons that make building businesses and great AI experiences around open models harder than the closed alternatives. When a new Claude Opus or GPT drops, spending a few hours with them in my agentic workflows is genuinely a good vibe test. For open models, putting them through this test is a category error. Something else to be said about open models in the era of agents is that they get out of the debate of integration, harnesses, and tools and let us see close to the ground on what exactly is the ability of just a model. Of course, we can’t test some things like search abilities without some tool, but being able to measure exactly the pace of progress of the model alone is a welcome simplification to a systematically opaque AI space. Share The list of factors I’d use to assess a new open-weight model I’m considering investing in includes: Model performance (and size) — how this model performs on benchmarks I care about and how it compares to other models of a similar size. Country of origin — some businesses care deeply about provenance, and if a model was built in China or not. Model license — if a model needs legal approval for use, uptake will be slower at mid-sized and large companies. Tooling at release — many models release with half-broken, or at least substantially slower, implementations in popular software like vLLM, Transformers, SGLANG, etc due to pushing the envelope of architectures or tools. Model fine-tunability — how easy or hard it is to modify the given model to your use-case when you actually try and use it. The core problem is that some of these are immediately available at release, e.g. general performance, license, origin, etc. but others such as tooling take day(s) to week(s) to stabilize, and others are open research questions — with no group systematically monitoring fine-tunability. In the early era of open models, the days of Llama 2 or 3 and Qwen pre v3.5, the architectures were fairly simple and the models tended to work out of the box. Some of this was due to the extremely hard work of the Llama, Qwen, Mistral, etc. developer teams. Some is due to the new models being genuinely harder to work with. When it comes to something like Qwen 3.5 or Nemotron 3, with hybrid models (either gated delta net or mamba layers), the tooling is very rough at release. Things you would expect to “just work” often don’t. I’ve been following this area closely since we released Olmo Hybrid with a similar architecture, and Qwen 3.5 is just starting to work well in the various open-source tools that need to all play nice together for RL research. That’s 1.5 months after the release date! This is just to start really investing more into understanding the behavior of the models. Of course, others started working on these models sooner by investing more engineering resources or relying on partially closed software. The fully open and distributed ecosystem takes a long time to get going on some new models. All of this is lead-in for the most important question for open models — how easy is it to adapt to specific use-cases? This is a different problem for different model sizes. Large MoE open-weight models may be used by entities like Cursor who need complex capabilities in their domain, e.g. Composer 2 trained on Kimi K2.5. Other applications can be built on much smaller models, such as Chroma’s Context-1 model for agentic search, built on GPT-OSS 20B. The question of “which models are fine-tunable” is largely background knowledge known by engineers across the industry. There should be a thriving research area here to support the open ecosystem model. The first step is to understand characteristics of different base and post-trained models to understand what they look like. The second step is to tune pretraining recipes for open models so they’re more flexible. Interconnects AI is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe For The ATOM Project and other Interconnects endeavors, we’ve put in substantial effort to measuring adoption trends in the open ecosystem. Everything takes a long time to unfold after a model is first publicly available — and adaptability is why. What we know for sure now, when Qwen has been going from strength to strength with its releases, is that technical staff across the industry has gotten comfortable working with Qwen models. Countless research methods and datasets were made to work with Qwen. It’ll take patience for any other model family to get to this point — a patience I’m not sure many open model builders have. This takes us to Gemma 4, Google’s latest open models. Gemma 3 was released more than a year ago, in March of 2025, and is a bit underrated. Gemma 4 comes in 4 sizes for now, with a bigger, MoE model of over 100B total parameters rumored but not released yet. The models we have today come in sizes of ~5B dense, 8B dense, 26B total 4B active MoE, and 31B dense. I’m most excited that they’re finally adopting a standard Apache 2.0 open source license. This’ll massively boost adoption. The standard of better licenses for strong open-weight LLMs was set by mostly Chinese open model labs in the last 1-2 years, and now U.S. companies are following suit. I will personally be so happy if the horrible Llama licenses and Gemma terms of service were an ~18-month transient dynamic of the industry being nervous about releasing strong open models. The Gemma 4 scores look very solid, the small models have incredible benchmark scores (especially in general domains like LMArena) and the 31B model rivals the recent Qwen 3.5 27B, which is the leading member of that class. The ~30B size range is an important one, as it’s accessible both to researchers and to enterprises looking to deploy the model in real use-cases. Where the 7B model scale is the default for tinkering and research, a 30B model is the default for seeing if an open model can unlock substantial value in your specific workflow — a good mix of intelligence, low price, tractability for downstream training, etc. This takes us back to the above adoption criteria I mentioned for open models and the bigger question — do I think Gemma 4 will be an overwhelming success? Previous Gemma models have been plagued by tooling issues and poorer performance when being finetuned. Gemma 4’s success is going to be entirely determined by ease of use, to a point where a 5-10% swing on benchmarks wouldn’t matter at all. It’s strong enough, small enough, with the right license, and from the U.S., so many companies are going to slot it in. I’m cautiously optimistic that Gemma 4 is going to work better here. Winds are shifting for open models built in America. We saw GPT-OSS go through a bumpy launch to become an overwhelming success. There’s a collective energy around the likes of Reflection, Arcee, Nemotron, Gemma, Olmo, and peers that show substantial demand for building new stacks around open models. There’s capital to be spent on AI stacks across the economy by those who want more ownership of everything, including the model. After launching The ATOM Project 240 days ago, the conversation is shifting into the next stage. Summer of 2025 was a crisis moment where the U.S. AI scene realized it can’t wait and figure out open models after building AGI. The two markets will capture different areas and proceed in parallel. Now that more companies in the U.S. are releasing strong models, we need to improve the ecosystem so that these models are easy to use, understand, and build value around. It’s the hard work to build another inflection point in these adoption plots I’ve been updating consistently, but that’s the work to be done. Join me in it. More data coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek:
AI tax scams surge ahead of filing deadline, Better Business Bureau says
With the tax filing deadline fast approaching, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in San Antonio is warning taxpayers about a growing and increasingly sophisticated threat: scams powered by artificial intelligence.
White House proposes 23% cut to NASA budget, slashing science funding and prioritizing moon missions
The White House is proposing $18.8 billion for NASA's fiscal year 2027 budget, reducing science funding while prioritizing moon missions.
NHL Playoff Race: What the Penguins need to do
The Penguins lost to Tampa last night but still remain incredibly well-positioned to secure a playoff spot this season. Here’s the relevant standings for them as of now. While there could be other avenues with a Wild Card spot, for now we’ll keep it simple on the most straight-forward path available to Pittsburgh: finishing in […]
‘The Madison’ Star Ben Schnetzer Reveals His Favorite Scene to Film
Why there was something magical about that day on set in Montana.
Maternal health crisis: Why Massachusetts is losing its edge
Despite years of investment by the state, maternal health disparities continue to grow.
Nintendo has made some changes to Mario user icons in latest Switch 2 and Switch update
A little interesting discovery has been made regarding the recent Switch 2 and Switch update, as Nintendo made some changes to a number of Mario icons. It looks like for the first batch, new renders are being used. The differences can be a bit hard to spot, but they are present. Here’s a look (version 21.2.0 on the left, version...
Surprise! Zendaya wears something blue, after the old, new and borrowed
l e weddings marriage fashion entertainment lifestyle | WWL
Op/Ed: N.C. under-invests in PK-12 public education
Partly as a consequence of North Carolina’s budgetary austerity, its spending on pre-K-12 public education has sunk to harmfully low levels. We’re chronically short of teachers; turnover is too high; and teaching is a less appealing career for smart professionals. Our children suffer.
What are Joleans? What to know about Dolly Parton clothing line
Dolly Parton partners with Good American for a new 'Joleans' denim collection, available now, featuring sparkle and rhinestones. Shop it today
Surprise! Zendaya wears something blue, after the old, new and borrowed
First she wore something old. Then new, then borrowed — and now blue. Zendaya showed up at her New York premiere for “The Drama” in a dazzling blue Schiaparelli couture
Big Month for Small Business in Macon-Bibb
Macon-Bibb County’s Office of Small Business Affairs (OSBA) hosted and co-hosted five workshops and panels throughout March, reaching nearly 800 participants across the community. “These workshops and panels are about making sure our small businesses have access to the information, connections, and opportunities they need to grow,” said OSBA Director Charise Stephens. “When we invest […]
I shop at Aldi for one; best things I buy for myself on tight budget
As a solo shopper on a tight grocery budget, I buy fresh and frozen ingredients at Aldi to make cheap dinners, lunches, snacks, and breakfasts.
Sharon Stone Reveals Surprising Actor as ‘Best Kisser in the Business’
Stone admitted that the A-list actor 'knocked me out' with his smooching skills.
Surprise! Zendaya wears something blue -- after the old, new and borrowed
l e weddings marriage fashion lifestyle entertainment | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for more than five more months, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component will be moved under the screen on the devices, which will result in merely a smaller Dynamic Island.
Ratatan's Nintendo Switch version officially cancelled, dev explains why
It’s now official that the Nintendo Switch version of Ratatan has been cancelled. You may recall that the game was featured in an Indie World Showcase presentation earlier this year. A Nintendo Switch 2 version was announced, but the original Switch version was nowhere to be seen. Now we know what happened. An update was shared on the official Kickstarter...
Scientists Just Discovered There’s Actually Something Faster than the Speed of Light
Scientists experimentally confirmed what we’ve known to be true for half a century—darkness can “travel” faster than light.
Microsoft says Copilot is for entertainment purposes only, not serious use — firm pushing AI hard to consumers tells users not to rely on it for important advice
These might be boilerplate disclaimers, but they kind of contradict the company's ads and marketing.
Who did Commanders land in CBS Sports' latest 2026 NFL mock draft?
The Washington Commanders are predicted to select an edge rusher with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft in CBS Sports latest mock draft.
That ACA subsidy isn’t free money. It could cost you at tax time.
If your income exceeds the amount you estimated, you will probably qualify for less in assistance and will have to pay money back.
Editorial: Kaufman Astoria Studios foreclosure fight a warning sign for city’s entertainment industry
The foreclosure battle could spell more trouble for New York's entertainment industry going forward.
Poll: Virginia voters narrowly support redistricting to favor Democrats
A slight majority of Virginia voters supports giving Democrats a temporary edge in congressional maps, but opponents are more motivated in new Post-Schar School poll.
Trump pushed the Iran war in prime time. The public wasn’t sold.
The president is in a precarious political moment seven months before the midterm elections, facing some of his lowest approval ratings and presiding over an unpopular war.
Agency Brief—Terri & Sandy continues leadership revamp with Martin hire
This week, we’ve got an exclusive on Terri & Sandy’s C-suite hire, and we dive into Publicis Groupe’s continued push into sports.
Commanders TE Chig Okonkwo 'total opposite' of Zach Ertz
Zach Ertz is a potential Hall of Famer and was great for the Commanders, but Chig Okonkwo gives something different.
Celebrate Science Day Takes Off at New Location: Reading Regional Airport
From helicopters to birds and the principles that lift them skyward, guests of all ages will discover how things fly while also enjoying a wide range of interactive STEM activities beyond aviation.
Did Commanders GM Adam Peters provide too much intel?
There are some who think Adam Peters may have actually tipped his hand. We don't agree.
Opinion: Science Communication Is Central to the Practice of Science
Explaining and defending knowledge is as essential to the scientific enterprise as publishing research.
GTA 6 Will Likely Borrow Ideas From Red Dead Redemption 2, Former Rockstar Dev Says
"I'll be surprised if they don't use something from Red Dead 2."
PSL crackdown! Fakhar Zaman’s appeal dismissed, ban confirmed
Pakistan Super League opener Fakhar Zaman's appeal against a two-match ban for ball tampering has been dismissed. The appellate body upheld the original decision, finding him guilty of breaching the code of conduct during a match against Karachi Kings. This means Fakhar will miss crucial upcoming fixtures for the Lahore Qalandars.
Guardianship is not a homelessness policy
By Amelia McKeon The federal government’s proposal to expand guardianship for homeless veterans is being framed as compassionate. It is anything but. It is a dangerous shift toward using one of the most restrictive legal tools we have as a substitute for real solutions — and it risks turning guardianship into a mechanism for forced […]
Nashville Predators Avoid Near Collapse In Shootout Win Over Kings
Evangelista's shootout heroics secured a dramatic win after Nashville squandered a three-goal lead, pushing past the Kings in a thrilling eight-round conclusion.
New Mexico Wellness Wire: Health officials warn against baby birds as Easter gifts
Salmonella infections often occur after consuming contaminated food or water or touching animals, their waste or places they live.
Ryan Gosling drops out of the Daniels' follow-up to Oscar-winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
The reasons pertain purely to scheduling, EW has learned.
The politics of Judas
What motivated Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus Christ? Money? Revolutionary sentiment? If either, why did Judas bemoan his betrayal? If Judas did have such political motives, then his actions are more
High stakes, big budgets: How brands are navigating a massive sports year
Brands are ditching one-off bets for long-term partnerships. As sports marketing budgets hit record highs, CMOs are choosing their battles.
Lynx bring back Janel McCarville as assistant coach
The Minnesota Lynx are bringing back former WNBA champion Janel McCarville as an assistant coach for the upcoming season. The team announced several additions to the team’s operations and coaching staff on Thursday. McCarville returns to Minnesota, where she was part of the Lynx 2013 championship team, as well as a star for the Gophers. Minnesota also hired Jasmine Allen as basketball ...
This tiny claw in a 500-million-year-old fossil just rewrote the origin of spiders
What started as routine fossil cleaning turned into a major scientific surprise when researchers uncovered a tiny claw in a 500-million-year-old specimen where no claw should exist. That detail revealed Megachelicerax cousteaui, the oldest known relative of spiders, pushing the origins of this group back by 20 million years. The fossil shows that key features of modern spiders and horseshoe crabs were already emerging during the Cambrian Explosion.
National Public Health Week is ready, set for action
NPHW 2026 will take place next week, April 6-12. Its theme is “Ready. Set. Action!,” which supports a bold approach to improving health and wellness, meeting the moment with clarity and positivity, and engaging in collaboration and partnerships to make things happen.
Illumination's Mario movies aren't just bad, they're antithetical to Nintendo
Nintendo is known for its charm and quality, two things that are missing in Illumination's animated Super Mario movies.
Thieves take more than $100K worth of equipment at bizarre business break-in, HPD says
Houston police say they are searching for suspects after a group of thieves broke into a construction services company overnight and made off with multiple pieces of heavy equipment.
Hawks hope to keep soaring against youthful Nets
The last time the Atlanta Hawks visited the Brooklyn Nets, Trae Young injured his right knee and rarely played for them again before being traded to the Washington Wizards.
Exclusive: US intelligence assesses Iran maintains significant missile launching capability, sources say
Roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers are still intact and thousands of one-way attack drones remain in Iran’s arsenal despite the daily pounding by US and Israeli strikes against military targets over the past five weeks, according to recent US intelligence assessments, three sources familiar with the intel told CNN.
Acting CHA leader tells staff it’s business as usual, defying Johnson’s attempt to block CEO hire
Matthew Brewer's insistence to move ahead despite the mayor efforts to remove him makes it clear Johnson will have to pursue legal action or otherwise convince a supermajority of the CHA’s board to reverse course.
HCMC co-administrator steps down after four months
County officials are pushing the state to approve a 1% sales tax that would support the safety-net hospital in Minneapolis.
Entertainment and California regulators push back against Warner-Paramount merger
California officials and Hollywood figures are pushing back on a proposed $111 billion Warner Bros.-Paramount merger, citing antitrust concerns, job risks, and media consolidation.
Grief causes our emotional software to glitch. This simple tip can help
We need to treat emotional health "as something we practice, not something we address only in crisis," KD Hall writes.
Physicists Found Something That Can Move Faster Than Light: The Darkness Inside It
This is fine.
'He got screwed': Former UVA Health CEO files defamation suit against lawyers over patient harm allegations
The former head of UVA Health is pushing back against allegations made by more than 30 doctors that his practices, policies, and procedures caused harm to patients.
14 things to do around the Seattle area this weekend
From shopping and eating along the 2 Line to joining the “West Coast’s largest book club,” here are the latest local things to do around the Seattle area.
Sixers discuss recent offensive success after big night vs. Wizards
The Philadelphia 76ers discuss their recent offensive success after a big night in a win over the Washington Wizards.
Apollo and FC Barcelona just proved legacy markets are losing their grip on business
New York and California built dominance over decades. But costs, regulation and red tape is pushing companies and capital to states like Florida.
ESPN dubs DT DeSean Watts Washington's top newcomer for 2026
ESPN labeled one of Washington's most important transfers, DT DeSean Watts, as the Huskies' top newcomer for the 2026 season.
Federal panel packed with Trump allies approves White House ballroom project
The vote by the National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday marked the final procedural hurdle for President Donald Trump’s plans.
How we came to be: Scientists get first look at the evolution of early complex animals
WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually lead to us.
Leela Gray hauls $561K within months of challenging Anna Paulina Luna for CD 13
Gray averaged roughly $10K per day in fundraising since launching and said more than 75% of contributions came from within Florida.
TOP DAWG ENTERTAINMENT AND WARNER RECORDS PRESENT: NATIONAL AWFUL DAY
Warner Records helps spotlight #NationalAwfulDay, launching April 6, 2026, a first-of-its-kind cultural moment encouraging people across the country to openly acknowledge life's challenges without judgement. To commemorate the holiday and drop the pressure to pretend everything's OK, supporters can download and share an official National Awful Day graphic HERE.
Kendra Duggar tells Joseph she no longer has their kids in multiple phone calls to jail
Kendra Duggar told Joseph Duggar that she no longer has their kids in several jail phone calls from Washington County Detention Facility.
Apple bans vibe coding apps from the App Store
Apple pulled Anything, Replit, and Vibecode in March under Guideline 2.5.2. Last month it added AI coding to Xcode.
Even Microsoft knows Copilot shouldn't be trusted with anything important
: Terms admit it is for entertainment only and may get things wrong
Weekend Entertainment | The Summit Has Got Our Number
Only a few people at the 330 Day concert knew anything about Ceci Taylor, who was one of the singer-songwriters on the bill.
Harris Oakmark shuffling investment team as choppy stock market bites
Changes at the top come as recent returns in Harris Oakmark’s key funds fall below historical averages.
Beirman named inaugural Degner Teaching Professor in Culinary Food Science
Known for her creativity, energy and commitment to students, Erica Beirman has been named the inaugural Nancy and Rich Degner Teaching Professor in Culinary Food Science.
Best things to get at Costco, according to member of 11 years
As an executive member who visits my local store weekly, there are several items I always buy at Costco, like baby clothes, vitamins, and towels.
Walgreens’ private equity owner plans to double pharmacy chain’s profits
Sycamore Partners, a New York-based buyout firm, wants to grow the retailer’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization to $4 billion.
Branching out: Farmers and scientists team up to see how trees can reshape the future
Nate Lawrence is an ecosystem scientist at the Savanna Institute. “If we can robustly quantify how trees are improving something – let's say maybe improving water quality – then there's probably a way that we can plant more trees as a result of that finding,” he explained.
Apple reportedly has four new products ready to launch, pending one thing
Apple has at least four new products that reportedly are ready to launch, save for one key holdup: the forthcoming Siri upgrades.
A Game Pass for indie games: meet Indie Pass, a $7-a-month subscription launching with 70 titles
Indie.io's Jess Mitchell says the platform will help smaller creators with discoverability in an ever-busier games landscape
Golden Entertainment Deal Gives VICI New Partner And Valuation Gap To Watch
Golden Entertainment shareholders have approved a master transaction agreement with VICI Properties. The deal clears the way for VICI to participate in Golden Entertainment's take private transaction. Upon completion, Golden Entertainment is expected to de list from Nasdaq and work with VICI as a key real estate partner. For investors watching NYSE:VICI, this move adds a fresh angle to the story around a company already known for its focus on gaming real estate. The shares most recently...
Potatoes on the moon? Oregon State University scientists show it could work
Researchers grew potatoes in soil that mimics the powdery sediment on the moon's service. With just a little added compost, the plants produced a decent haul of potatoes.
Sharing her passion for science
By Danielle Rush Communications Specialist, Indiana University Kokomo Hisako Masuda, Indiana University Kokomo professor of biochemistry, was honored by the Indiana Academy of Science (IAS) as its 2026 Distinguished Scholar. The award is given to an individual who is recognized by the IAS as having an exceptional record of scholarship. Recipients are selected from nominations submitted to its awards committee. “I was surprised,” said Masuda, who joined IU Kokomo’s faculty in 2013. “I feel there are many good scientists in the Academy, so I wasn’t expecting it at all.” Patrick Motl, dean of the School of Sciences, said the Academy recognizes up to one member per year, and that Masuda is the second or third IU Kokomo faculty member to receive the commendation. “Clearly this speaks to the strength of Dr. Masuda’s accomplishments in research and scholarship and that her work stands out amongst her peers in Indiana,” said Motl, who received the award in 2019. “Many of the institutions that participate in the IAS are undergraduate institutions or primarily undergraduate institutions, but even having that caveat, Dr. Masuda has built and maintains a very active research program in her lab, working exclusively with undergraduates. She is passionate about science and can share that passion with her students. To carry on a quality research program with so many students involved in so many projects is truly remarkable and I am glad that the IAS acknowledged that for Dr. Masuda.” The IAS specifically commended her for involving more than 50 undergraduates in her research in bacterial metabolism, genomics, and their phenotypic plasticity at IU Kokomo, and publishing 23 articles with many student co-authors. Masuda’s current work primarily focuses on biodegradation and chemical repurposing of nylon. Using soil bacteria, her lab studies bacterial biodegradation of nylon and other environmental pollutants. She applies principles of green chemistry while developing a method to convert nylon waste into other nontoxic polymers. In collaborative work with health scientists, her lab investigates gut microbiomes of Indiana native birds as well as human subjects in a clinical study. She became interested in converting plastic waste while earning her Ph.D. at Rutgers University, working on methods to remove environmental waste not using chemicals or other intrusive methods. She learned about Nylon 11, which is used in pipes for transferring oil, interior components for cars, catheters, and in other industrial hard plastics. Nylon 11 is nontoxic, she added, so it is safe to include students in the research. “Those are considered to be nonbiodegradable, and have to go to a landfill,” she said. “I thought if we could come up with a way to biodegrade it, that would make some kind of impact.” Eventually, she wants to develop a product that would convert nylon waste to something useful, and to reduce waste and microplastics in the environment. “That would be my goal at some point, that we can make that change, and also make people more aware of their use of plastics,” she said. “I hope students stop to think about what we can do as scientists to address issues currently impacting us.” She appreciates the IAS for its support of scientific research at Indiana institutions, and IU Kokomo and the School of Sciences for providing funding for students to attend the Academy’s annual meeting. She added that IU Kokomo has also supported her research with funding from the School of Sciences and Academic Affairs. “Without that, I couldn’t do my research,” she said. Masuda has also earned a Senior Research Grant from the IAS, IU Kokomo’s Distinguished Research Award, and the IU Kokomo Junior Faculty Annual Research Award. She is a Fellow of the Indiana Academy of Science. Education is KEY at Indiana University Kokomo.
Easter weekend fills the KMC with hunts, festivals and live entertainment
Egg hunts, spring markets, medieval battles and live music are set to fill the Kaiserslautern Military Community with activity all weekend, offering something for families, food lovers and night-out seekers alike.
Earth’s magnetic field went wild 600 million years ago and scientists finally know why
Hundreds of millions of years ago, Earth’s magnetic field behaved in a way that has long baffled scientists, showing wild and seemingly chaotic shifts unlike anything seen before or since. A new study suggests this chaos may actually hide a deeper pattern: instead of random fluctuations, the magnetic field may have followed a global, organized structure.
Publicis is buying 160over90 in its biggest sports marketing bet yet
Publicis is acquiring160over90, a sports marketing agency with blue-chip clients such as Coke and Marriott.
Yagan raises $100M for consumer AI investments
It’s the fourth fund for Chicago venture capital firm Corazon Capital.
Alperen Sengun Provides Positive Health Update After Rockets Victory Over Bucks
Houston Rockets star center Alperen Sengun delivered good news for the fan base Wednesday night. Sengun logged 29 minutes against the Milwaukee Bucks, finishing with 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 2-of-2 from three. What makes those numbers more impressive is that Sengun has battled multiple injuries throughout the year.
Another blow to blue-state business hubs
Apollo is eyeing a new headquarters in Florida or Texas.
Guest Commentary: Teaching Kids to Cook is Public Health
The CEO of Vetri Community Partnership on what the loss of federal SNAP-Ed funding might mean — and how you can help
3 biggest takeaways for Sixers following important win over Wizards
Here are the three biggest takeaways for the Philadelphia 76ers following their important win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.
Google creates confusion with a "new" Wear OS 6.1 update
Google's developer docs list "new" Wear OS 6.1 features, including time zone detection, despite the update launching in late 2025.
Congress is in no rush to authorize Trump’s ballroom after judge’s ruling
The president doesn’t appear interested in seeking lawmakers’ approval for his $400 million project — and they’re not inclined to give it.
Ballroom commission changed documents at White House’s request
Records show a staffer asked the commission to soften language about its own authority over the president’s project — and it complied.
Lamont, Democrats split on Connecticut Option health plan
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said establishing any new health insurance plan “would be a tall order.”
Fall River's commercial economy 'strong,' mayor says. 4 things to know
Fall River's Mayor Coogan highlights the city's economic strength, job growth, and development in his 2026 State of Business speech.
High Seas Treaty must stop the lobbyists and bring the science
Campaigners warn fishing industry lobbyists are attempting to rewrite the High Seas Treaty in their favour — with days left of UN ocean talks.