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25 states and DC sue Education Department over loan limits, citing health system strain

Democratic attorneys general in more than 20 states and Washington, D.C., on Tuesday filed suit against the Education Department over new limits set to go into effect for graduate student loan borr…

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May 19 • 6:44 PM EDT • Health • thehill.com
Trump-backed Navy SEAL vet delivers major blow to Massie in fiery GOP primary

Trump targeted GOP critic Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky's record-breaking $32 million House primary, backing former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein to unseat him.

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May 19 • 3:17 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Effects of early exposure to toxic metals

Scientists found that toxic metal exposures during specific time windows increased the risk of brain and mental health symptoms a decade later.

nih.gov logo
May 19 • 1:52 PM EDT • Health • nih.gov
Chicago Reader names a new publisher

The Chicago Reader has named a new publisher as the long-struggling alternative news outlet continues its latest turnaround effort.

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May 19 • 1:19 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
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Blackstone Hotel sold at discount to local investor

The local investor behind the two biggest downtown hotel purchases of the past year has picked up a third in the historic Blackstone Hotel on Michigan Avenue.

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May 19 • 1:13 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
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Munson Army Health Center trains staff and patients during full-scale fire drill

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas – Delivering safe healthcare includes preparing for the unexpected. That preparation was on display May 13 as Munson Army Health Center conducted a full-scale fire drill during normal patient care hours.

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May 19 • 11:36 AM EDT • Health • dvidshub.net
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Ukraine's defense industry has a battle-proven edge

Ukraine's homegrown weaponry has extensive use on the battlefield, which industry says has Western partners interested.

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May 19 • 11:27 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
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Illinois joins suit arguing Trump grad loan caps threaten healthcare workforce

Illinois joined 25 Democratic-led states suing the Trump administration over new graduate student loan caps they say could worsen healthcare worker shortages.

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May 19 • 11:20 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
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Scientists Are Building Artificial Brains from Living Cells

Artificial neural networks built with biological cells promises massive energy savings.

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May 19 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • popularmechanics.com
Watch live: Rethinking Psychedelic Treatment for America’s Mental Health Crisis

Psychiatry is at an inflection point — and the stakes are high. Mental illness costs the U.S. economy more than $280 billion annually, drives veteran suicide rates, and places mounting strain on ev…

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May 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • thehill.com
Phillies news: Kyle Schwarber, Gage Wood, Max Scherzer

Gage Wood hype train is leaving the station.

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May 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Auto suppliers push for USMCA renewal as tariffs jolt business

Manufacturers are paying close attention to how the rules of North American trade will be rewritten yet again.

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May 19 • 5:45 AM EDT • Business • crainsdetroit.com
Why CMOs must become enterprise growth leaders

CMOs must reclaim their role as enterprise growth leaders by connecting marketing to business outcomes, proving impact, and embracing AI and analytics.

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May 19 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • adage.com
Russia putting anti-jam antennas on foam decoys for Shaheds: Ukraine

Ukrainians have been finding 12-element Kometa antennas, which provide stronger jamming resistance, on their cheap Gerberas, a top analyst said.

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May 19 • 12:27 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Girls flag football championships highlight rapid growth of the sport in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

New Jersey's top girls flag football teams took the field Monday at the Eagles' Jefferson Health Training Complex, competing for a state title ahead of Pennsylvania's championship matchup later in the day.

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May 18 • 7:17 PM EDT • Sports • 6abc.com
Political violence and civil unrest trends 2026

War has overtaken civil unrest as the political violence exposure companies fear most, as conflicts in Europe and the Middle East disrupt global trade flows, strain political alliances and heighten risks to business assets.

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May 18 • 6:00 PM EDT • Politics • commercial.allianz.com
Kudos to Cheer Club, College of Business faculty, Cybersecurity team and more

Becky Cottrell, Ph.D., Department of Social Work, and Bridget Arend, Ph.D., School of Education Becky Cottrell from the Department of Social Work and Bridget Arend, Ph.D., from the School of Education co-authored an article recently published in an international journal. Read the article. Biff Baker, Ph.D., College of Business Biff Baker, Ph.D., received a Best in Track award from the Society for Advancement of Management for research examining bureaucratic inefficiencies within Section 8 subsidized housing programs. The study focuses on how administrative delays and communication breakdowns can create housing instability for families and discourage landlord participation. It also offers recommendations to improve accountability and trust in public housing systems. Brendan Fry, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics and Statistics Brendan Fry, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, co-authored the article “Modeling the Impact of Venous Collapsibility on Retinal Oxygenation,” published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. The interdisciplinary research brought together scholars from the University of Delaware, Indiana University Indianapolis, McGill University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. Access the article. Bridget Arend, Ph.D., School of Education Bridget Arend, Ph.D., professor in the School of Education, co-published the book “Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning: A Resource for More Purposeful, Effective, and Enjoyable College Teaching, Second Edition” with James R. Davis. The book explores practical approaches to improving college teaching and student learning experiences. Buy the book. College of Business Faculty At the 2026 Western Decision Sciences Institute international conference, Sally Baalbaki-Yassine, Ph.D., Debora Gilliard, Ph.D., and David Lynn Hoffman, Ph.D., from the College of Business received the Best Case Study Paper Award for “Oreo: A Global Success Story in Brand Evolution and Market Leadership.” Lisa McVicker, Ph.D., and Apryl Brodersen, Ph.D., also had their paper, “Electronic Performance Monitoring: Employer Panacea or Legal Quagmire?” accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Leadership. Community Engagement Exchange Program Metropolitan State University of Denver was selected to host international Fellow Aleja Henao Espitia of Bogotá, Colombia through the Community Engagement Exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State. View Espitia's LinkedIn profile. David Varel, Ph.D., College of Letters, Arts and Sciences MSU Denver historian David Varel, Ph.D., has been awarded a 2026 ACLS Fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies. The fellowship program supports outstanding scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, and selected just 63 scholars from more than 2,000 applicants this year. Varel’s project, “The Black Chicago School: Academic Activism in the Age of American Apartheid,” explores the work of Black scholars who challenged scientific racism, built alternative institutions and helped lay the foundation for the modern civil rights movement. The fellowship provides up to $60,000 to support full-time research and writing. Learn more about the fellowship. MSU Denver Office of Financial Aid Team Several MSU Denver employees were recognized for leadership and service during the Colorado Association of Financial Aid Administrators (CAFAA) conference held in May in Crested Butte. Don Holtzen, interim associate director of systems, chaired the conference and was recognized for his service as CAFAA conference chair and technology chair during the 2025-26 term. Holtzen also received the Postsecondary Institution Professional of the Year award, which recognizes financial-aid professionals who have made significant contributions to their institutions and to CAFAA. Tori Pacheco, associate director of Student Services, helped design décor and facilitate the conference and was recognized for her service as CAFAA secretary during the 2025-26 term. Destiny Candelaria, call center coordinator, served on the conference planning committee and presented on One Stops during the event. Michael Nguyen, executive director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, assisted as a CAFAA board member and was recognized for serving as president-elect during the 2025-26 term. Richard Balbag, program assistant I, received the Distinguished Support Staff Member of the Year award, honoring staff members who have made exceptional contributions to their financial-aid offices. Military Friendly Recognition Military Friendly has awarded MSU Denver Gold Status as a military-friendly university and ranked the University No. 7 nationally for military spouses. The recognition reflects MSU Denver’s strong support systems for veterans and military spouses, including transfer credit assistance and retention-focused resources. As of 2026, 1,050 military-connected students are enrolled at the University, advancing institutional priorities around serving veterans and supporting student retention. MSU Denver Cheer Club The MSU Denver Cheer Club earned third place in the 4-Year College Small Coed Intermediate division at the USA Spirit Nationals. Celebrate the win on Instagram. MSU Denver Cybersecurity Team An MSU Denver cybersecurity team earned first place in the Strategist category at the 2026 CYBER RECon National Competition hosted at Fort Meade, Maryland, by U.S. Cyber Command. Led by Jeffrey London, Ph.D., and undergraduate student Matthew Bopp, the team competed against universities and law schools nationwide with its 30-page legal analysis on cybersecurity and free speech titled “Freedom of Speech and MDM: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation.” The paper also earned Bopp a personal invitation to apply to the University of Maryland School of Law. MSU Denver Debate Team MSU Denver Debate won the 2026 Sierra Sustainability Summit hosted at Yosemite National Park in April. Students Kat Conte and Simon Bernhard bested teams from George Washington University, Gallaudet University, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the University of San Francisco and Tennessee Tech in the modified present-and-defend style competition. Their proposal recommended adapting Colorado’s Keep Colorado Wild Pass model to support California state parks facing budget constraints. Learn about the summit. MSU Denver Women’s Golf MSU Denver Women’s Golf was represented on the national stage this month as junior Neige Dunn competed as an individual at the NCAA West Regional. She became the first Roadrunner in 10 years to qualify for NCAA Regionals as an individual. Get the details.

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May 18 • 5:59 PM EDT • Business • early-bird.msudenver.edu
Inter Miami CF and Heron Sports & Entertainment to Join FIFA World Cup 26™ Celebration in Club’s Elite Facilities

Inter Miami CF and Heron Sports & Entertainment will join the FIFA World Cup 26™ festivities by hosting a series of special events across its world-class facilities - Nu Stadium, Inter Miami CF Stadium and the Florida Blue Training Center. Inter Miami CF’s world-class facilities will host four nations preparing

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May 18 • 5:28 PM EDT • Entertainment • intermiamicf.com
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Inter Miami CF and Heron Sports & Entertainment to Join FIFA World Cup 26™ Celebration in Club’s Elite Facilities

Inter Miami CF and Heron Sports & Entertainment will join the FIFA World Cup 26™ festivities by hosting a series of special events across its world-class facilities - Nu Stadium, Inter Miami CF Stadium and the Florida Blue Training Center. Inter Miami CF’s world-class facilities will host four nations preparing

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May 18 • 5:28 PM EDT • Sports • intermiamicf.com
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The parking meter deal Chicagoans love to hate is poised for another sale

The City Council is likely to push for better terms in the concession contract under a new owner.

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May 18 • 4:25 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
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Scientists May Have Finally Solved Why Most Humans Are Right-Handed

Walking upright and bigger brains may explain our unusual handedness.

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May 18 • 4:23 PM EDT • Science • zmescience.com
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Science behind sobriety field tests

Albany High students in Elizabeth Lopatniuk's health classes participated in a dynamic lesson about the effects of alcohol on the body. After taking an in-depth look at the science behind why and how alcohol slows the activities of the brain and central nervous system, students learned about how a variety of factors can impact the level of intoxication and how blood alcohol concentration can impair one's ability to operate a motor vehicle. Albany High Student Resource Officer Nick Schuler led students through an overview of field sobriety tests that are routinely performed during a traffic stop when an officer suspects a driver may be under the influence of alcohol. Officer Schuler explained the three elements of a physical sobriety test, including walking a straight line with turns and checks for motor skill patterns, standing on one foot to check for balance and following a moving stimulus with eyes only to check for Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN), an involuntary, rhythmic jerking of the eyes as they look to the side. Students volunteered to try walking a straight line both with and without alcohol impairment simulation goggles. Officer Schuler pointed out particular behaviors and patterns that would lead to a failed field sobriety test during the simulation. As prom and graduation festivities approach, we applaud our Albany High staff for empowering our Falcons with valuable lessons so they can make wise and safe choices.

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May 18 • 4:20 PM EDT • Science • albanyschools.org
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Science behind sobriety field tests

Albany High students in Elizabeth Lopatniuk's health classes participated in a dynamic lesson about the effects of alcohol on the body. After taking an in-depth look at the science behind why and how alcohol slows the activities of the brain and central nervous system, students learned about how a variety of factors can impact the level of intoxication and how blood alcohol concentration can impair one's ability to operate a motor vehicle. Albany High Student Resource Officer Nick Schuler led students through an overview of field sobriety tests that are routinely performed during a traffic stop when an officer suspects a driver may be under the influence of alcohol. Officer Schuler explained the three elements of a physical sobriety test, including walking a straight line with turns and checks for motor skill patterns, standing on one foot to check for balance and following a moving stimulus with eyes only to check for Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN), an involuntary, rhythmic jerking of the eyes as they look to the side. Students volunteered to try walking a straight line both with and without alcohol impairment simulation goggles. Officer Schuler pointed out particular behaviors and patterns that would lead to a failed field sobriety test during the simulation. As prom and graduation festivities approach, we applaud our Albany High staff for empowering our Falcons with valuable lessons so they can make wise and safe choices.

albanyschools.org logo
May 18 • 4:17 PM EDT • Science • albanyschools.org
Inter Miami CF and Heron Sports & Entertainment to Join World Cup Celebration in Club’s Elite Facilities

Inter Miami CF and Heron Sports & Entertainment will join the FIFA World Cup 26™ festivities by hosting a series of special events across its world-class facilities - Nu Stadium, Inter Miami CF Stadium and the Florida Blue Training Center. Inter Miami CF’s top-notch facilities will accommodate four nations preparing

intermiamicf.com logo
May 18 • 4:07 PM EDT • Entertainment • intermiamicf.com
Inter Miami CF and Heron Sports & Entertainment to Join World Cup Celebration in Club’s Elite Facilities

Inter Miami CF and Heron Sports & Entertainment will join the FIFA World Cup 26™ festivities by hosting a series of special events across its world-class facilities - Nu Stadium, Inter Miami CF Stadium and the Florida Blue Training Center. Inter Miami CF’s top-notch facilities will accommodate four nations preparing

intermiamicf.com logo
May 18 • 4:07 PM EDT • Sports • intermiamicf.com
Douglas County adult dies from hantavirus, health officials say there’s no link to cruise ship outbreak

Hantavirus infections caused by the strain found in Colorado usually happen in the spring and summer.

cpr.org logo
May 18 • 4:06 PM EDT • Health • cpr.org
Does Ukraine need US help anymore?

Russia’s invasion has stalled

theweek.com logo
May 18 • 3:04 PM EDT • Politics • theweek.com
Cardinals training facility site in Phoenix will have Dignity Health medical campus

Dignity Health has plans to build a 300,000-square-foot medical campus at the site of the new Arizona Cardinals performance center in Phoenix.

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May 18 • 2:55 PM EDT • Health • ktar.com
Developer proposes indoor sports complex on East Brainerd Road

A developer wants to build a large indoor sports complex on East Brainerd Road.Planning documents filed with Hamilton County show a request to rezone property i

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May 18 • 2:16 PM EDT • Sports • newschannel9.com
Blanche’s Quest for Knowledge

From Tuesday, May 26, at 10:00 a.m. to Monday, June 1, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. local time. Koin Blanche for a research-focused adventure featuring Field Research tasks and Incense encounters. The following Pokémon will appear more frequently in the wild: Some Trainers might even encounter the following: The following Pokémon will be attracted to Incense: […]

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May 18 • 1:57 PM EDT • Technology • pokemongohub.net
Training Naturalists Behind Prison Walls

A kestrel swoops to grab a smaller bird on the wing and eats it, right in front of a group of men in the garden at California Health Care Facility, or CHCF, a prison in Stockton, where the garden has become both a thriving ecosystem and a science classroom for people incarcerated there. As the feathers fly, UC Davis researcher Laci Gerhart pulls out a bird guide and shows the incarcerated men how to identify the bird by its size and coloration, noting that kestrels are North America’s smallest raptor and one of the few that are sexually dimorphic.

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May 18 • 1:03 PM EDT • Science • biology.ucdavis.edu
MoMI announces the 2026 season of 'Open Worlds: Science' Programs

With themes ranging from walking for brain health, infinity day, NYC wildlife, and more May–October 2026 Astoria, New York, May 18, 2026 — The wildlife of New York City, walking and brain health, the nature of infinity, and alien encounters are some of the subjects explored in the second season of Open Worlds: Science, science-focused programs presented as part of Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI)’s free Open Worlds initiative. Running through October, Open Worlds: Science features scientist-led talks, screenings, and hands-on activities that all relate to science and the moving image to help illuminate and excite visitors of all ages about the ways science affects daily life.

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May 18 • 1:00 PM EDT • Science • iloveny.com
DraftKings to close sportsbook at Wrigley Field: report

DraftKings will stop taking in-person bets at Wrigley Field on May 31, blaming rising city and state sports wagering taxes.

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May 18 • 12:28 PM EDT • Sports • chicagobusiness.com
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'It's kind of a no-brainer': Why pop band MUNA is tackling politics on album 'Dancing on the Wall'

“Dancing on the Wall” is a departure from MUNA’s previous work, trading the sunshine-y pop instrumentals, country influences and sweeping ballads of their self-titled album for gritty, atmospheric tracks influenced by 1990s punk and rave scenes.

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May 18 • 12:05 PM EDT • Politics • wunc.org
AMC Reunites with Chris Hardwick for ‘I Think You’re Overthinking It’ Podcast

It "will look at all the ways our brains can spiral," says Hardwick.

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May 18 • 12:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • cbs19news.com
Station Yards eateries hit with drop in business amid LIRR strike

Businesses near one of Long Island's busiest train stations experience a downturn as the LIRR strike disrupts commuter traffic, leading to fewer customers and reduced sales.

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May 18 • 11:52 AM EDT • Business • newsday.com
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The Impact of Proposed Changes to the HIPAA Security Rule for Business Associates

A final rule updating the HIPAA Security Rule is due for release as early as May 2026. According to HHS/OCR, the modifications to the Security Rule will The final rule implementing changes to the HIPAA Security Rule is due in May 2026. The final rule will have major implications for business associates of HIPAA-covered entities.

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May 18 • 11:27 AM EDT • Business • hipaajournal.com
Microsoft admits faulty drivers were killing Windows 11 battery life for years

Microsoft is changing how Windows evaluates third-party drivers as bad ones were silently draining batteries and tanking performance for years.

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May 18 • 11:22 AM EDT • Technology • pcworld.com
New MatterChat Model Helps AI to ‘See’ the Language of Science

From writing emails to generating computer code, much of the artificial intelligence prevalent in our daily lives has succeeded by mastering one domain: text. However, this leaves a major blind spot in the physical sciences, where models depend on the high-resolution, three-dimensional data of the physical world, like the intricate lattice of atoms in a crystal. Delivering on the promise of using AI for science requires teaching these data-driven text models to seamlessly “talk to” physics-based models. Now, a new AI framework from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), called MatterChat, solves this problem by creating a specialized “bridge.” It connects the conversational power of a Large Language Model (LLM) with a physics-based AI that models “interatomic potentials”: the complex physical forces between atoms. The resulting system already significantly outperforms general-purpose AI tools like GPT-4 at predicting material properties, and the team hopes it can accelerate scientific discovery by serving as a robust research partner that provides grounded insights and generates step-by-step instructions for synthesizing novel materials. A paper describing this work was recently published in Nature Machine Intelligence. “Traditional simulations can provide the physical rigor required for materials science, yet their computational cost remains prohibitive for high-throughput screening. Conversely, while LLMs excel at rapid knowledge synthesis, they inherently lack the ‘structural vision’ to interpret materials directly from their underlying atomic coordinates,” said Yingheng Tang, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Applied Math and Computational Research Division (AMCR) and lead author on the paper. “MatterChat was built to solve this dilemma, empowering LLMs with a structural ‘vision’ that allows researchers to leverage their full potential for solving complex, real-world materials challenges.” Empowering language models to solve complex challenges in materials science To build MatterChat, the Berkeley Lab team drew inspiration from technologies like Vision Question Answering (VQA) and Text-to-Image (T2I) generation. In these tasks, AI must translate high-level text concepts into visual images, or vice versa. Doing so requires developers to build tools that “bridge” two fundamentally different forms of data. The researchers adapted this concept to the physical sciences. With MatterChat, they created a “bridge model” that successfully connects an LLM’s general knowledge with the deep understanding of the atomic-scale world encoded in scientific interatomic potentials. Until now, researchers using LLMs to solve materials problems usually had to feed them raw data files as if they were just strings of text. It’s like asking an AI to understand a complex 3D engine based only on a parts list: the LLM can read the names, but it can’t “see” how the atoms fit together in space. MatterChat solves this by training a specialized AI bridge model, pre-trained on millions of crystal structures and an LLM, to align the LLM’s representation of the world with the interatomic potential’s representation of the world. The bridge model can translate physical insights into a format the LLM can actually understand. By giving the LLM these “scientific eyes”— a scientific “inductive bias” in the terminology of AI — the Berkeley Lab team has transformed it into a robust research tool capable of providing grounded scientific insights into complex materials challenges, such as predicting thermal stability or analyzing electronic band gaps. “We think of atoms as living in a physical space, but from a machine learning perspective, they are just vectors living in some very non-trivially structured manifold in a high-dimensional Euclidean space; and, of course, the same is true for the sentences and paragraphs that we use to express our ideas about those atoms,” said co-author Michael Mahoney, Berkeley Lab’s Scientific Data Division (SDD) AI Initiative Research Lead. “The bridge model basically gets those two structures to ‘talk with’ each other.” As a proof-of-concept of this general approach, the team trained their bridge model on a dataset curated by pairing nearly 143,000 stable atomic structures from the Materials Project with their corresponding physical properties. This training data was automatically assembled using the Materials Project’s API and deliberately enriched with properties fundamental to microelectronics design — like formation energy and bandgap — allowing MatterChat to learn the complex patterns connecting a material’s atomic blueprint to its functional performance. To validate their model, the researchers benchmarked MatterChat against a suite of other AI systems, from general-purpose LLMs to other specialized scientific AI methods. The results show that MatterChat consistently outperformed its competitors across a range of tasks. The model was more accurate in classifying material types and demonstrated superior precision in predicting numerical properties. For example, it excelled at predicting a material’s bandgap, a property critical for designing new electronics from high-capacity energy storage to next-generation computer chips. “Our design is significantly more efficient because we don’t have to build a massive AI model from the ground up,” said co-author Zhi (Jackie) Yao, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s AMCR. “Instead, we take two powerful, pre-trained models — a structural encoder for materials physics and an open-source LLM — and use them off-the-shelf. The only component we actually train is the lightweight ‘bridge model’ that translates between them. It’s the difference between building an entire car factory and simply designing a smart adapter that connects a world-class engine to a world-class navigation system. This approach is not only computationally efficient, but also makes the system modular, so we can easily upgrade components or adapt the bridge for other scientific domains in the future.” Crucially, this modular design highlights exactly how institutions like Berkeley Lab and the Department of Energy are carving out a highly valuable niche in the booming AI landscape. Rather than competing with Silicon Valley tech giants to build ever-larger language models from scratch, the lab is focusing on the specialized connective tissue that makes commercial AI useful for hardcore science. Because the bridge model approach underlying MatterChat is forward-compatible, it is perfectly positioned to leverage these parallel tracks of innovation. As Mahoney pointed out, “We expect that industry will continue to develop improved LLMs, and we expect domain scientists and facilities will continue to generate new data. An important part of scientific machine learning is not simply to solve problems on today’s data, but instead to develop general methods that will be forward-compatible with orders of magnitude more data, whether from scientific domains or from LLMs.” According to Yao, the MatterChat project, which was initially developed and enhanced with funding from a Berkeley Lab Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) Program, will now expand its capabilities. In a collaboration with Fermilab, MatterChat is already contributing to a U.S. Department of Energy Genesis Mission project — called Accelerating eXtreme Environment Specs-to-Silicon (AXESS) — that aims to speed up the development of next-generation, high-speed, radiation-hardened detectors for challenging particle physics experiments by using advanced 3D integrated circuits (chiplets) and AI-driven data analysis. In addition to the LDRD support, the team also credits supercomputing resources at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), located at Berkeley Lab, with MatterChat’s success. “We are incredibly grateful to NERSC; this research simply would not have happened without access to the Perlmutter supercomputer through their AI for Science program,” said Tang. Wenbin Xu, a NERSC postdoctoral fellow at the time, was also a major co-author of the work, as was Benjamin Erichson, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s SDD, highlighting the benefits of AMCR-SDD collaboration on AI for science. ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

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May 18 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • newscenter.lbl.gov
Scientists May Have Found the Blueprint of the Human Body at the Bottom of the Ocean

Scientists discovered that the brainless sea anemone build their bodies with a technique common in bilaterians... which is what humans are.

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May 18 • 10:35 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
Elon Musk compares his company’s work to that of Jesus

In an interview on Monday, the billionaire said his Neuralink brain-implant company is progressing in its development of “Jesus-like technologies.”

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May 18 • 10:34 AM EDT • Technology • marketwatch.com
Trump admin rolls out Workforce Pell Grants to fast-track workers into high-demand jobs

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the new Workforce Pell Grant program will help Americans train quickly for in-demand jobs.

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May 18 • 9:53 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
Healthy eating improves memory but sugary diets may cause lasting damage, animal study finds

As concern grows about the long-term health effects of modern diets, new research led by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has examined how changes in what we eat affect memory and brain function.

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May 18 • 9:40 AM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com
2026 Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards

Learn about the 2026 Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards from Ad Age and Modern Healthcare, honoring impactful healthcare advertising, marketing and communications campaigns.

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May 18 • 9:19 AM EDT • Health • adage.com
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Reimagining mental health: Stanford Medicine experts chosen to lead precision task force

Stanford Medicine’s Leanne Williams was chosen to lead the Precision Mental Health Commission to redefine and streamline how psychiatric conditions are diagnosed and treated. She’s pushing for a data-driven approach that begins with brain imaging.

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May 18 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • med.stanford.edu
🚨 Six-time CL winner goes! Real announce legend's exit

He wore the shirt of Los Blancos for a lifetime – or rather, for 23 seasons. As a youth player, he helped lay the foundation stone for the Valdebebas training complex. Today, the paths of Dani Carva...

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May 18 • 7:14 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
How Carle Illinois College of Medicine is changing the health care innovation ecosystem

Carle Illinois College of Medicine blends medicine, engineering and AI to speed health care innovation from concept to patient care.

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May 18 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • chicagobusiness.com
How Carle Illinois College of Medicine is changing the health care innovation ecosystem

Carle Illinois College of Medicine blends medicine, engineering and AI to speed health care innovation from concept to patient care.

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May 18 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
Chicago power families: Who holds influence now

These 14 families wield influence across Chicago and Illinois through business, politics, philanthropy, sports and civic institutions.

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May 18 • 6:35 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
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Power Families of Chicago: Crown, Duchossois, Melman and Wirtz

Some long-familiar names — Crown, Duchossois, Melman and Wirtz — are among Chicago's most powerful families.

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May 18 • 6:30 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
Power Families of Chicago: Velasquez

With second-generation leaders in Azteca Foods and a history of philanthropy and civic activism in Pilsen, the Velasquez family is among Chicago's most powerful.

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May 18 • 6:30 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
Power Families of Chicago: Hoffmann

The Hoffmanns — whose company operates 52 platform businesses in eight vertical categories — are among Chicago's most powerful families.

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May 18 • 6:30 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
Power Families of Chicago: Sacks

With influence in education, philanthropy and political circles, Michael and Cari Sacks are among Chicago's most powerful families.

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May 18 • 6:30 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
Connecting care: How Meridian supports Michigan’s foster youth

Meridian’s foster care program helps Michigan youth access care, stability and everyday support during times of transition.

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May 18 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • crainsdetroit.com
Illinois infrastructure investment strengthens economy and workforce

U of I professor Rober Bruno on how public infrastructure spending fuels job creation and long-term growth in Illinois.

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May 18 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
Detroit’s lunch business struggles as hybrid work, economy reshape routines

The traditional sit-down “business lunch” is no longer the reliable revenue stream it was before the pandemic began in early 2020.

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May 18 • 5:44 AM EDT • Business • crainsdetroit.com
Inside the U’s baby science research lab, a look at how the world learns

The University of Minnesota Child Brain and Perception Lab explores how infants and toddlers make sense of the people around them. MPR News spent a day recently at the lab watching one of the “pilot babies” discover their world.

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May 18 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • mprnews.org
Q&A: Georgia sports physician shares soccer safety tips before the World Cup

As World Cup excitement builds, Dr. R. Amadeus Mason shares tips to help recreational soccer players prevent injuries, train safely and stay healthy on the field.

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May 18 • 5:00 AM EDT • Sports • ajc.com
Kyowa Hakko highlights Cognizin citicoline’s science-backed cognitive health benefits

Kyowa Hakko USA is spotlighting citicoline’s benefits for cognitive performance and long-term brain health through multiple complementary mechanisms. The supplier will exhibit its citicoline ingredient Cognizin at this week’s Complementary Medicines Australia (CMA) Innovation Day 2026 in Sydney, Australia (May 21). CMA Innovation Day is one of Australia’s annual industry gatherings for the nutraceuticals supply chain, showcasing the latest innovations shaping the market for vitamins, minerals, and supplements in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

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May 18 • 4:30 AM EDT • Science • nutritioninsight.com
Exeter batteries drained in Harlequins loss

Exeter boss Rob Baxter says his side looked like a team in need of a rest during their 41-24 defeat by Harlequins.

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May 18 • 3:20 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Louder than noise: Noam Bettan let music, not politics, define his performance

Israelis can take pride in Bettan, who represented the country with professionalism and restraint, blocking out all the outside noise to deliver a stellar performance.

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May 18 • 1:54 AM EDT • Politics • jpost.com
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AI piplines correctly identify genetic basis for disease

Large language models use reasoning capabilities to identify new genetic factors causing disease - even without any medical training.

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May 18 • 1:00 AM EDT • Science • advancedsciencenews.com
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Poets&Quants’ World’s Best 40-Under-40 Graduate Business Professors Of 2026

As a professional club player in Spain, Raul Villamarin Rodriguez noticed that the biggest mistakes in a basketball game didn’t come from complicated plays or lack of training. The professors selecte...

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May 17 • 8:15 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
Four Health Sciences Library Faculty Members Receive Honors from the Medical Library Association

Four faculty members with The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center (HSLIC) recently received recognition from the Medical Library Association (MLA). Research Training Institute Fellows, Emily Roberts & Will...

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May 17 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • hscnews.unm.edu
Scientists think they’ve cracked the mystery of human right-handedness

A new study suggests humans became overwhelmingly right-handed because of two major evolutionary shifts: walking on two legs and developing much larger brains. Researchers found that as human ancestors evolved, their right-hand preference steadily intensified — transforming a mild tendency into one of humanity’s most distinctive traits.

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May 17 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
AI reveals the invisible magnetic chaos wasting energy inside electric motors

Electric vehicles are pushing scientists to tackle one of the biggest hidden energy drains inside electric motors: magnetic energy loss. Now, researchers in Japan have developed a powerful AI-driven physics model that can peer into the chaotic “maze-like” magnetic patterns inside motor materials and reveal how heat and microscopic magnetic structures trigger wasted energy.

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May 17 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Amy Grant discusses health challenges, songwriting, and Nashville shooting response

Multi-platinum singer Amy Grant shares her journey through major health battles, including open-heart surgery and recovery from a brain injury on 'Fox News Sunday.'

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May 17 • 4:23 PM EDT • Health • foxnews.com
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Scientists Discover Ancient “Language Switches” Hidden in Human DNA

Researchers have identified tiny genetic “switches” that appear to play a surprisingly large role in human language ability.

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May 17 • 4:08 PM EDT • Science • scitechdaily.com
Rockford science students study, make rainbows

The Science Club, hosted by Pattie Martin at Rockford Elementary School, recently had what school officials describe as "A colorful time learning about rainbows this month.

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May 17 • 3:19 PM EDT • Science • reflector.com
What is Ebola and why is WHO treating outbreak as global health emergency?

Strain of fatal disease has no vaccine and conflict in DRC makes containing spread difficult as Uganda reports cases

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May 17 • 1:37 PM EDT • Health • theguardian.com
Free Mind Matters Brain Health Summit in Lexington (Adults 55+)

The University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging will host its 18th annual Mind Matters Health Summit to connect brain health experts with the community.

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May 17 • 1:25 PM EDT • Health • wave3.com
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Metabolic health emerges as key to brain and memory problems in bipolar disorder

While they share similar depressive and cognitive symptoms, the biological underpinnings of bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder are distinct. A novel study appearing in Biological Psychiatry: ...

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May 17 • 1:00 PM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com
Crowds pack into Washington's National Mall for prayer rally

President Donald Trump was expected to address the gathering, which got underway as a light rain fell, in a video message. Other top Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were also on the schedule as part of the celebrations this year marking 250 years of U.S. independence.

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May 17 • 12:55 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
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South Louisiana parents turn tragedy into mental health mission after son’s suicide

Rain Will Bring Flowers Foundation works to bring mental health awareness and suicide prevention to students of all ages across the state.

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May 17 • 12:03 PM EDT • Health • wafb.com
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Seven essential gadgets to live with when you have back pain, from grabbers to lap desks

When I slipped a disc, I discovered an array of gadgets that help take a load off your back and solve the constraints of limited mobility

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May 17 • 10:15 AM EDT • Technology • theguardian.com
Scientists Gave People Wings in VR, And It Triggered Changes in The Brain

Your brain is ready for this.

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May 17 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com
Trailhead Cannabis dispensary is open for business

Trailhead Cannabis is a family-owned dispensary that opened in late April next to Highway 371 by Brainerd and is looking to break the stigma of cannabis use.

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May 17 • 8:37 AM EDT • Business • brainerddispatch.com
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John Cena plans to lift weights in his 80s: longevity lessons from WWE

WWE icon John Cena said he's training for longevity with 3 tips he picked up in his pro wrestling career. He wants to stay strong for years to come.

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May 17 • 8:33 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Scientists reveal how seven days of fasting transforms the human body

Scientists have discovered that the human body undergoes a dramatic internal transformation during extended fasting, with major changes appearing only after about three days without food. In a seven-day water-only fasting study, researchers tracked thousands of proteins in the blood and found widespread shifts affecting organs throughout the body — including the brain. While the body quickly switches from burning glucose to fat, the most intriguing biological changes linked to potential health benefits didn’t emerge until later in the fast.

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May 17 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Kids’ mental health - time to close the gap: Marissa Kiefer

Mental and behavioral health challenges among young people are not rare -- they’re part of life for many families. But at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s, we’re dedicated to trying new approaches, writes guest columnist Marissa Kiefer, president of University Hospitals' Rainbow Babies & Children’s and MacDonald Women’s hospitals.

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May 17 • 5:32 AM EDT • Health • cleveland.com
To Critics, Trump Remarks Reveal a Billionaire Out of Touch

The president has never pretended to be an ordinary American, but a recent “truth bomb” has opened him to criticism that he doesn’t grasp the economic strain of his war with Iran.

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May 17 • 5:02 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
To Critics, Trump Remarks Reveal a Billionaire Out of Touch

The president has never pretended to be an ordinary American, but a recent “truth bomb” has opened him to criticism that he doesn’t grasp the economic strain of his war with Iran.

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May 17 • 5:02 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
'A hidden blood pump': How chewing more boosts your brain

While it's widely known that chewing more improves digestion, research suggests it can also boost our brains and even help fend off Alzheimer's.

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May 17 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • bbc.com
Why aren't brain transplants possible?

Lining up donor and recipient nerves for a potential brain transplant is one thing. Getting them to communicate is another.

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May 17 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com
Training cops to handle mental health crises is key, experts say. One SC man's story explains why.

Sending South Carolina police officers to a five-day crisis intervention course can be a drain on agencies’ manpower. But proponents say it’s worth the temporary hit to staffing and logistics,

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May 17 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • postandcourier.com
World Health Organization declares Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency

Health officials are working to contain a new Ebola outbreak in the DRC of a virus strain with no known vaccine.

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May 17 • 3:34 AM EDT • Health • npr.org
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What Your Brain Is Actually Doing While You Doomscroll, According to Science

If you find yourself endlessly scrolling as you maneuver through the various landmines intent on detonating your attention span, it could mean that you have some kind of digital addiction problem. But it could also mean your mental focus is so strong that you’ve quietly figured out how to treat social media like an external […]

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May 17 • 2:30 AM EDT • Science • vice.com
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W.H.O. Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency

Just a day after the outbreak was announced, cases were confirmed in the capitals of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There is no approved vaccine for the strain.

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May 17 • 1:48 AM EDT • Health • nytimes.com
‘Never-ending’ AI slop strains corporate hacking reward schemes

‘Bug bounty’ programmes have seen a jump in spurious AI-generated submissions

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May 17 • 12:00 AM EDT • Technology • ft.com
WHO Declares Congo-Uganda Ebola Outbreak Global Health Emergency

The World Health Organization declared an Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, warning that a rare virus strain with no approved vaccine or treatment may already be spreading more widely than detected.

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May 16 • 9:31 PM EDT • Health • bloomberg.com
A new Ebola outbreak has already killed 87 people in Democratic Republic of Congo

Health officials are working to contain a new Ebola outbreak in the DRC of a virus strain with no known vaccine.

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May 16 • 8:15 PM EDT • Health • opb.org
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Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice with breakthrough nanotechnology

A new nanotechnology treatment reversed Alzheimer’s symptoms in mice by restoring the brain’s natural cleanup system. The specially engineered nanoparticles helped clear toxic amyloid proteins from the brain and repair the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects and regulates the brain’s environment. In one striking experiment, elderly mice treated with the therapy later behaved like healthy younger mice.

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May 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
WHO declares international health emergency over rare Ebola strain

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May 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • timesofisrael.com
Now What? With Carbon Pricing Eroded and Pipeline Politics Advancing, Here Are the Pathways for Climate Success

At the end of a whirlwind week of news on carbon pricing and electricity strategy, capping a madcap year of pretty much non-stop, dramatic change, the word across much of Canada’s climate and energy transition community is that climate policy in this country has been shredded. Eviscerated. Hit with a sledgehammer by policy rollbacks that have pushed the country’s 2050 net zero target “well out of reach”. That means it’s never been more important to look for the rays of hope and glimmers of possibility. To glimpse the seeds of the next set of strategies to get Canada’s climate pollution under control and the country into the accelerating global dash away from fossil fuels. And then, once we’ve spotted those possibilities, get on with the hard, day-to-day slog of trying to make them a reality. Nothing takes away from the frustration and the deep disappointment so many climate and energy hawks are expressing, the sense of betrayal by the author of Value(s) and the former UN special envoy for climate action and finance. But we knew two things as the week drew to a close. We’re looking at the world as it most definitely is. And we don’t get to give up finding the pathways to confront climate change and deliver faster, deeper carbon cuts that leave no one else behind. So really, the first question we all have to ask ourselves is: What’s next? Subscribe All the Oxygen in the Room The outpouring of anger and grief over the carbon pricing deal between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been absolutely understandable. So much of the climate community poured years, more than a decade, into dragging the current federal pricing regime across the finish line, then defending it from a deluge of three-syllable rhymes after the Trudeau government proved utterly incapable of delivering its own message. The policy foisted on us by neo-classical economists took up all the oxygen in the room, burned through years of climate response time that we won’t get back, while cornering climate hawks into the position that the best response to the crisis of our lifetimes is a new tax…in an era of historic anti-tax sentiment. I mean, really—what could possibly have gone wrong? Against that history, let’s appreciate columnist Max Fawcett’s point that even a modest carbon pricing agreement with a government as off-the-wall libertarian/conspiracist as Danielle Smith’s—those adjectives are mine, not Max’s—is a win worth savouring (as long as Smith keeps her promises for a change). But part of living in the world as it is (no, I’m not letting that go) is to be clear-headed about what we can and can’t control. And one thing we get to decide, after seeing this week’s carbon price festivities take up all the oxygen yet again, is whether we want to keep letting that happen. Particularly when success down that road depends on a factor that no one with a climate agenda can control or influence—a provincial carbon pricing mechanism that has been manipulated and eroded beyond its lowest possible denominator. Thankfully, that’s not the way it has to go. Not when we have so many other powerful, practical tools at our disposal, including the ones still available to us through this abominable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and Alberta. Tools In Our Toolbox When I started roughing out this list, I didn’t expect it to grow to nearly a dozen bullet points. It’s probably still incomplete. Some of the greatest hits in today’s climate solutions toolbox include: • No Carbon Capture, No Pipeline: On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney explicitly stated that there’s been no change to the MOU provision that there will be no West Coast pipeline without an industry commitment to build its massive, $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage (CCUS) hub in Northern Alberta, and vice versa. The two megaprojects were joined at the hip when the MOU was signed Nov. 27, and the implementation agreement this week affirmed that they still are. A parade of independent analysts have spent years pointing to the economic and technical flaws in CCUS, while the industry kept postponing its investment decision until it could arm-twist the government for more “clarity” (by which it meant even more lavish taxpayer subsidies) on the project. Now the industry itself is running away from the CCUS hub and insisting the pipeline should proceed without it, but Carney doesn’t seem to be budging from a central tenet of the MOU to which Smith has signed on. • No Subsidies, No Investors: Climate analysts and advocates have quite rightly been hammering away at Carney and his team, insisting that any new capacity the industry wants to build must proceed without new subsidies. The government has responded with a growing collection of funding and financing mechanisms for the very wide menu of industrial development and nation-building projects they say they want to take on, and that menu always includes fossil fuel infrastructure. But it’s hard to see how even the combined fiscal clout of the federal and supportive provincial governments will deliver the financial backing private investors would need when the business case for new fossil fuel development is evaporating before their eyes. Particularly when… • No Market, No Demand, No Investors: As our friend Markham Hislop at Energi Media (our apparently sleepless friend, given the massive volume of great material he’s been churning out) points out this morning, the biggest vulnerability in any pipeline deal is the assumption that Asian buyers will want the oil or liquefied natural ga that our fossil industry is so keen to send them. Hislop writes in part: Ottawa and Alberta are effectively betting that countries like China and India will continue increasing oil imports for decades as their economies grow and energy consumption rises. That assumption underpins the entire economic rationale for expanding oil sands production and building billions of dollars in new export infrastructure. But Asian energy systems are changing rapidly… China, India, South Korea, and other major hydrocarbon importers are now investing hundreds of billions of dollars into electricity systems built around wind, solar, batteries, nuclear, hydro, and expanded transmission infrastructure. Domestic “energy sovereignty” is increasingly replacing the old energy-security model based on stable oil and gas imports. Those investments are expected to sharply slow oil demand growth and eventually reverse it, even as overall energy consumption continues rising. There are also refining constraints. Many Asian refineries and petrochemical complexes are already optimized to process discounted heavy crude from the Middle East and Latin America. That raises serious questions about how much additional Canadian bitumen Asian markets can absorb at profitable prices. Small wonder that there’s still no private sector investor for the project, despite Smith’s government desperately beating the bushes to put together a deal. For now, Alberta is acting as proponent and covering early start-up costs for a pitch to the federal Major Projects Office, which could actually turn into the next tough hurdle for Smith and her pipeline to jump. • Canada Day Looms: How ironic that Canada’s birthday this year could become a major chokepoint for the provincial premier who’s been working so diligently to tear the country apart! The July 1 target date for Alberta’s pipeline proposal is baked into the MOU, was reaffirmed by the implementation plan, but it hadn’t dawned on me that it cuts both ways. As one very smart colleague wrote in an email yesterday, “they’ve thrown the ball into Alberta’s court to get the project proposal on the table really quickly and to have to do a whole pile of work to put together a massive, complicated project that would typically take years to assemble, and they’ve given them weeks to do it.” That makes July 1 a looming deadline that Smith won’t be able to run away from politically, especially with the separatists in her party and her caucus breathing down her neck. (See previous ref to off-the-wall.) But if Alberta comes in with a sloppy, incomplete submission, even after Carney bent over backwards to simplify the application process and the rules that govern it, it may be harder for the province or the industry to blame Ottawa and insist on the faster process they claim their investors are demanding. (Oh, wait—which investors would those be??) • We’ll See You In Court (Then We’ll See You Again): If Carney did cave, that would be just one more reason for Indigenous and other affected communities to take the government and the process to court—Just as Alberta First Nations did, successfully, in response to Smith’s half-baked separation referendum. Veterans of the Harper era have been warning that a shoddy process around fossil fuel infrastructure or other major projects will be a recipe for the very delays that process seeks to avoid. And now more than ever, with renewable energy and energy storage eating fossil fuels’ lunch in import markets around the world, a delayed pipeline or LNG terminal may be as good as a cancelled one. • Charged Up, Ready to Go: With its goal of doubling Canada’s electricity supply to meet a doubling of demand by 2050, the national electricity strategy that Carney unveiled Thursday has a lot to like. With its explicit language about speeding the shift from fuels to more efficient and affordable electricity, global investment and deployment patterns that already favour that shift, an emerging bidirectional power grid, the role of front-line options like rooftop solar and heat pumps, the emergence of electric vehicles as behind-the-meter energy storage, and the domestic jobs and manufacturing to make it all happen, the document doubles down on the essential cornerstone of a faster shift off fossil fuels. The strategy envisions a more prominent role for gas and nuclear power. But some of those provisions were already in the Clean Electricity Regulations that climate hawks are now fighting so hard to defend, inserted as a compromise in a futile attempt to mollify the industry and its political representatives in Alberta and Saskatchewan. But once again, gas will be a tougher sell when it’s more expensive and now so much more unpredictable than the clean alternatives. The new nuclear technologies are still speculative and deeply vulnerable to cost overruns. Increasingly, utilities, developers, and investors know it. Carney declared Thursday that “it doesn’t do us good to be sitting in court all the time with provinces. It doesn’t do us good to be talking past each other. What does do us good is to come together with specific projects.” There are no guarantees, but so much of the language and narrative-building in the electricity strategy suggests the lion’s share of those projects will be renewable. • The Party Has Already Started: The electricity strategy only rarely digs down to specific projects, but provinces representing three-quarters of Canada’s population are already embracing a faster transition. Hydro-Québec is working on a 10-year, $185-billion renewable energy and grid buildout by 2035. Ontario recently brought 10 provinces and territories together in a National Energy Corridor Agreement to boost interprovincial and -territorial transmission infrastructure. And the MOU implementation agreement commits Alberta to facilitate investment in renewable energy projects, a big step back from its continuing, punitive restrictions on renewables development. The electricity strategy envisions much of the financing and infrastructure that will be needed to pull those advances together into an integrated whole. • Delivering on Affordability: The MOU implementation plan has little or nothing to say about affordability (are you surprised?), but the electricity strategy does, with a top-line pledge to reduce home energy costs for seven out of 10 Canadian households by 2050, a total saving of $15 billion across the board. It’s just a start, but it puts affordability on the government’s narrative map. If they’re serious and deliberate about patching together a least-cost energy strategy, it’ll have little if any room for oil, gas, or nuclear—not with powerful evidence, for example, that electricity prices are higher when those prices are set by gas. • Smith Proves that Canada Works: By signing a deal that makes it harder to claim the federal government is blocking a new pipeline, Smith has helped prove Carney’s constant anti-separatist refrain that “Canada works”—incurring the rage, no doubt, of her own political base. Canada also needs to work for anyone who depends on a clean environment, healthy and thriving ecosystems, and safe, stable climate. But with Smith and her separatist constituents setting up as a fifth column for annexation by Donald Trump’s United States, let’s set aside any notion that 51st state status for Canada is a recipe for anything other than climate disaster (and so much else). Resisting and withstanding Trump (just 170 more sleeps until mid-term elections, which is a damn sight better than the 730 we started with) doesn’t mean a free pass for a pipeline, but we can still appreciate it that keeping Canada whole and sovereign is still Carney’s Job One. • The Words Not Spoken: Apart from a commitment to export a million barrels of “low-emission” Alberta bitumen per day (memo to Smith and Carney: You realize that that’s less than the industry is already exporting??), the MOU implementation plan says nothing about the international trade and economic sovereignty deals that Carney has been travelling the world to negotiate. It didn’t have to. Carney doesn’t need permission from Danielle Smith, her American enablers, or her separatist allies to continue building the alliances that will ratchet down our economic dependency on our unstable, unreliable neighbour to the south. But every connection he builds with countries outside North America helps align our economy and our future with a faster shift off fossil fuels. Little if any of this was on our bingo cards a year or two ago. But it’s the pathway that has opened up to us. And if it gives Canada any climate or energy gains at all in an era still dominated by Trump and his increasingly ridiculous tariffs, his loutish trade negotiations and his continuing annexation threats, we have to take the wins. Not least because they’ll be the point of departure for what we can achieve in 2027, 2029, and beyond, as Trump’s grip and this era begin to loosen and then fade. What is Carney Doing? If this line of thought is right—and it’s a possibility, not a prediction—it means that Carney’s actions and decisions are largely about buying time. Time for Trump’s power to wane. Time for Alberta’s separatist/conspiracist virus to spread, mutate, die out, or at least die back, with help from a vaccine of federal steadiness and calm (appropriate enough, for a movement populated largely by vaccine deniers) that no conspiracy theory can dismiss. And time for the government’s trade and investment agenda to deliver results—even knowing that some of those results will bring impacts that front-line communities will not and should not accept. In the immediate moment, none of this changes the way the wider climate community has to respond, from campaigners to investors to front-line practitioners. All of our voices are still essential. But those voices will be stronger and more confident if we have a clearer sense of the brutal game we’ve been pulled into, and a plausible path (or two it three) for playing it to the win we need. This conversation also underscores our biggest task for the remaining years of what was supposed to be the “decisive” decade for climate response: if we can shift the energy narrative in Canada, make it a mainstream view that the country’s preoccupation with oil and gas has us falling farther behind a changing world, we’ll see far better results in the 2030s and beyond. For many veteran climate advocates, taking on that part of the fight will begin with recognizing that most of our friends and family, neighbours and colleagues already understand that climate change is real and right in front of us: they’re looking away and staying silent because they don’t have what climate communicator Katharine Hayhoe calls “efficacy”. As Hayhoe recently pointed out in a feature interview with The Energy Mix, it amounts to science denial to keep hammering away at the dire news about global warming without also helping audiences understand what they can do about it, with multiple studies telling us why that won’t work. Far better to open those conversations with the dominant crises like energy security, food security, emergency preparedness and business continuity, affordability, and financial security that have knocked climate change far lower on the list of public priorities, and will likely keep it there. We Knew This Would Happen Climate hawks have always known this day would come. For decades, we warned that everyone had to pay attention to climate change right now, because it would be much tougher to respond once the crisis itself started affecting our daily lives. We were right, and here we are. But now, thanks to decades of hard work, communities and countries have an alternative to doubling down on fossil fuels. “In 10 years everyone will have ‘always known’ that solar and batteries were going to win,” Morgan Solar Executive Chair Mike Andrade writes on LinkedIn. With the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz roiling energy priorities around the world, Canada and the United States are among the shrinking number of countries that are still very keen on fossil fuel development. Understanding that gap is a first, essential step in spotting the opportunities ahead, and averting the deep economic as well as environmental and social risk we face if we don’t seize them. Thanks for reading The Energy Mix Weekender! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Mitchell Beer traces his background in renewable energy and energy efficiency back to 1977, in climate change to 1997. Now he and the rest of the Energy Mix team scan 1,200 news headlines a week to pull together The Energy Mix and The Energy Mix Weekender. Chart of the Week BYD Eyes 20 Dealership Locations After Canada Greenlights Chinese EV Imports ‘Sledgehammer’ Carbon Price Deal Boosts Emissions by 230Mt, Aims for Fall 2027 Pipeline Approval ‘Worse Than Harper’: Regulatory Rollback Would Stop Canada from Assessing Project Impacts, Critics Warn Electricity Strategy Aims for Doubling by 2050, Allows ‘Flexibility’ for Gas Power Plants Opposition Mounts as O’Leary’s Data Centre Approved in Drought-Stricken Utah Diluted Carbon Price Misses ‘Reality of the World We’re In’, Could Impede Diversified Trade: Climate Institute $200B in Clean Energy Investment Will Need On-Time Delivery, Reliable Policies, Trade Association Says ‘Sovereign Pipeline’: CEO Pitches to Keep Trans Mountain in Government Hands What a Supercharged El Niño Could Mean for Canada Canada’s future is electric, and here’s how a power grid superhighway would get us there (Toronto Star) The Perilous Waters of Hecate Strait (Globe and Mail) Saudi Aramco profits jump despite conflict in Middle East (The Guardian) Farmers confront rising cost of fertilizer and fuel as spring seeding under way (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Clarkson forecasts 24% decline in offshore oil, gas capital expenditures (Oil & Gas Journal) Pipe Dreams: How Oil and Gas Fail to Deliver Economic Development in Africa (Oil Change International) Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition (Climate Home News) Iran war threatens the dream of a post-oil economy in the Gulf (Washington Post) U.S. Oil, Gas Work Force Hits Lowest Level Since 2022 (Rigzone) Why Polestar Is Doubling Down on Net Zero as Rivals Pull Back on EVs (Bloomberg) Why this Michigan utility plans to sell its hydro dams for $13 (E&E News/Politico) Levees can no longer save New Orleans (Vox)

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May 16 • 6:41 PM EDT • Politics • energymixweekender.substack.com
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Is China becoming Europe’s top science partner amid an American brain drain?

‘Massive changes in the global flow of talent’ are creating opportunities, according to the head of Germany’s Max Planck Society.

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May 16 • 6:00 PM EDT • Science • scmp.com
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Svitolina upsets Gauff to win Italian Open thriller

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina battles to a third Italian Open title courtesy of a thrilling three-set win against Coco Gauff in the final.

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May 16 • 3:48 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Latvia’s president asks opposition leader to form new government

If opposition leader Kulbergs were to form a government, the cabinet lineup would need to be approved by parliament.

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May 16 • 3:22 PM EDT • Politics • aljazeera.com
A new Ebola outbreak has already killed 87 people

Health officials are working to contain a new Ebola outbreak in the DRC of a virus strain with no known vaccine.

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May 16 • 2:37 PM EDT • Health • npr.org
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DRC health minister warns ‘very high’ Ebola lethality rate as toll hits 80

Africa CDC concerned that outbreak of Bundibugyo strain could spread rapidly due to intense population movement.

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May 16 • 2:35 PM EDT • Health • aljazeera.com
ENTERTAINMENT: Opera in the Ozarks sets summer season; CALS screens ‘The Grocery List Show’

Opera in the Ozarks, the summer music festival and opera training program, will feature two fully staged operas and one opera pairing, June 26-July 24 at Inspiration Point Center for the Arts, five miles west of Eureka Springs.

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May 16 • 1:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • nwaonline.com
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