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Results for " rare " 1,402 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

A meteorite punched through a bedroom ceiling in Hillsborough, New Jersey, in 2024. Scientists have now found hundreds of different amino acids inside it — and the majority are not known to occur naturally on Earth.

The Hillsborough meteorite was collected within minutes of falling through a New Jersey home, giving researchers a rare look at briny asteroid chemistry and a diverse set of extraterrestrial amino acids.

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Aug 15 • 12:30 AM EDT • Science • spacedaily.com
Bruce Willis makes rare appearance at daughter Tallulah's wedding

Bruce Willis showed up for his daughter Tallulah Willis's wedding as he navigates the progression of frontotemporal dementia.

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Aug 14 • 7:52 PM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Bruce Willis makes rare appearance at daughter's wedding

Bruce Willis showed up for his daughter Tallulah Willis's wedding as he navigates the progression of frontotemporal dementia.

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Aug 14 • 7:52 PM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Android 17 QPR2 Beta 3 for Pixel rolling out

Following the last release at the start of last week, Google is rolling out Android 17 QPR2 Beta 3 for Pixel devices in a rare Friday drop.

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Aug 14 • 5:52 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
Volunteer Develops Machine-Learning Tool to Identify Rare Clouds

Certain kinds of clouds are misbehaving – appearing more often and lower in the sky than they used to. To help identify the factors influencing these changes, scientists have asked people around the world with cameras to submit fresh images of these clouds as a part of the NASA-supported Space Cloud Watch project.

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Aug 14 • 1:35 PM EDT • Science • science.nasa.gov
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Rihanna shares rare photos of all 3 children during Barbados trip

For Rihanna, you can take the girl out of the island, but you can't take the island out of the girl.

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Aug 14 • 10:34 AM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Taking the stairs could protect your heart and help you live longer

Simply choosing the stairs could have surprisingly big benefits for your heart and longevity. A large analysis involving more than 480,000 people found that regular stair climbers were 39% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and 24% less likely to die from any cause than people who rarely took the stairs. They also had lower risks of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure.

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Aug 14 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
AI needs science’s search history

“Actually, that’s where the gold is,” said Alasdair Russell, my graduate school friend who leads a pre-clinical genome editing group at Cambridge. He was talking about the winding road of science that is omitted from published papers. “When you’re discussing how to do the experiment, and why this way is better than another way, and what does the data really mean? I know what it shows, but what does it mean?” At RAAIS 2026, he described how his group has begun logging the twisting path of discovery as it happens, recording the verbal and written exchanges that normally disappear. Ideas become nodes in a living graph: they branch when a meeting produces two plausible experiments, merge when separate lines of evidence converge, and go dark when someone quietly stops pursuing them. In his implementation, one agent scores novelty, while another tries to learn “how scientists think and how they navigate through a complex world of data,” so that high-potential nodes can trigger deeper investigation. As frontier AI labs deploy agents toward scientific discovery, giving AI authentic scientific taste remains a trillion-dollar dilemma. The bottleneck is that the record we have kept for centuries of science might be insufficient to get us there. The experiments that never make the paper Peter Medawar, 1960 Nobel laureate and “father of transplantation,” asked in 1963 whether the scientific paper was a fraud, and answered yes: the form of the paper misrepresents the thinking that produced it. Sixty years on, the diagnosis is unchanged. A paper presents a clean progression from hypothesis to result to conclusion. Lost along the way are the unconventional theories, the abandoned or unaffordable methods, and the underwhelming and inconclusive data. It reads like a browser history with every dead end deleted: the ten open tabs, the four rephrased queries, the wrong turn down a subforum. All scrubbed, leaving one clean path from question to answer as the canonical path. What has changed since then is that the discarded material is now worth something. No high-impact journal wants these artifacts, but raw trial and error is the most likely source of the training data required to develop scientific intuition, or what researchers call taste. Earlier attempts to capture the discards were motivated by scientific integrity. The Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine launched in 2002 to publish rigorous studies that disputed established models or exposed ineffective treatments. Its archive preserved negative conclusions after they had become papers, rather than the live alternatives and arguments that produced them. BioMed Central closed it in 2017, saying the mission had been served now that other journals publish null results. A less generous reading is that in fifteen years it published around 200 papers because almost nobody wants to read a negative result, let alone write one up when it will not count toward academic tenure. AI models are different. Even an uninteresting negative result can be useful, provided it is labeled. Earlier this year, Anthropic put a version of this to the test. The company pulled 129 decision points from real Claude Code sessions between January and March 2026, showed models the work up to a human detour, and asked what should happen next. Claude Mythos Preview beat the human choice 64% of the time, while Opus 4.5 managed 51%. The comparison was tilted toward the models because Anthropic deliberately chose moments where the human decision had room for improvement. On 127 further scenarios where the human action was already strong, the models improved on it only about 20% of the time. The study was possible because Anthropic’s researchers work inside a tool that logs by default. The reasoning, detours and outcome are produced in the same working environment. Biology has no equivalent. Its reasoning happens in hallways, at benches, in Slack threads and on whiteboards, while the outcome arrives weeks later somewhere else. The record has to emerge from the work itself. Ask scientists to reconstruct it afterwards and we’ll create another polished account. Subscribe A log is not a label Before any of this becomes training data, a negative result has to say what failed. The first paper published in the Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine examined 234 negative studies across five leading medical journals. Only 30% discussed statistical power, and half clearly defined a primary outcome. Tell a model an experiment failed, without telling it whether the assay was underpowered, a reagent had degraded, or the hypothesis was simply wrong, and it will learn noise with confidence. Decision histories have a second missing label too. When a lab considers five experiments and runs one, only the chosen branch returns an outcome. The other four are experimental counterfactuals. Researchers call this the selective labels problem: the data reveal results only for the actions someone chose to take. Such a record can teach a model to imitate a lab’s taste, but it cannot establish that the taste was good. It also smuggles local constraints into general lessons. A lab that never ran cryo-EM because it did not own a microscope teaches a model that cryo-EM is rarely the right call. Alasdair’s nodes preserve the candidate set, which is the necessary first step. To be useful, each decision record needs six fields: The evidence available at that moment, and nothing that arrived later. The candidates considered, including the ones dismissed in a sentence. For each candidate: the expected result, the confidence attached to it, and the cost in time and money. The route chosen, and the reason. What happened next. How the evidence changed the scientist’s view. These must be timestamped before the outcome, because hindsight turns uncertainty into inevitability. Disagreement also has to survive. Averaging three scientists into one clean rationale reproduces exactly the information loss we are trying to fix. But there is an obvious failure mode here. Once decisions are logged and scored, people log for the record post-facto. Anyone who has watched an electronic lab notebook fill up with retrospective tidying knows how quickly a research tool becomes a compliance exercise. A record that costs a scientist ten minutes of honest reflection per decision is worth far more than one that costs an hour of performance. A publication initiative called Registered Reports offers a useful starting point. Here, researchers submit their rationale, methods and analysis plan for peer review before the data exist, and the journal commits in principle to publish if they follow the approved plan. Nature has now expanded the format across every field it covers. This approach to paper writing timestamps intent before the outcome, but it freezes one plan. A useful search history must also preserve how the plan changed, which alternatives were rejected, when, and on what evidence. Subscribe Run the runner-up Autonomous labs show what happens when decisions and outcomes are connected in a loop. Liverpool’s mobile robotic chemist ran 688 experiments over eight days in a ten-variable formulation space. A batched Bayesian search used each result to choose the next experiments and found photocatalyst mixtures six times more active than the starting formulations. Every completed experiment changed what the system did next. The robot optimized within a goal and search space that humans had already chosen. It did not decide which scientific question mattered. So what this work demonstrates is narrower, but still useful: a search history pays off when the options return standardized outcomes quickly. Open-ended biology is harder because branches can take weeks and the discarded alternatives may never be run. Some exploration therefore has to be bought. Where two branches are plausible and the stakes justify the cost, a lab should sometimes run the runner-up. Otherwise the record captures what today’s scientists usually chose and stays silent on what they systematically overlooked. A funder could ring-fence a small fraction of a grant for the branch not taken, provided that the decision record and the outcome are both deposited. That costs money, but so does having every lab rediscover the same abandoned path. Test whether taste transfers When it comes time to evaluate if our new AI system exhibits taste, the comparison should run across laboratories and fields. At selected decision points in a live research campaign, we should freeze the six fields: the evidence, the candidates, expected results, confidence, costs and the choice made. Experts then rank the options before the outcomes are known, and those outcomes are checked independently later. We could give models one of two diets - papers alone, or papers plus decision histories - and ask them to rank the next experiment on unfamiliar projects. Then, we score information gained per dollar and week, calibration, and how quickly weak branches are abandoned. If histories improve choices only inside the lab that produced them, they amount to useful organizational memory. If they improve choices on unfamiliar problems elsewhere, Alasdair’s group will have captured something science has never managed to write down: a transferable record of taste. Until that happens, a scientific search history is a promising record, not yet a training set.

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Aug 13 • 11:16 AM EDT • Science • press.airstreet.com
Cooper Flagg’s one-of-one is found as sports card market hits new highs

Cooper Flagg’s one-of-one was pulled just four days after release, underscoring a red-hot sports card market where rare collectibles are fetching millions.

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Aug 13 • 6:44 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
There's Never Been a Better Time to Log Into Pokémon Go, as the Game Gives Away a Perfect Stat Mewtwo and Master Ball

Log into Pokémon Go right now and you can claim an absurdly generous one-off prize: a Mewtwo with a unique background and 100% stats, as well as an incredibly rare Master Ball.

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Aug 13 • 4:48 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Star Politics: Can Hamilton beat Marshall in Kansas? Here’s the latest on Senate race

We’re exploring whether the Rev. Adam Hamilton gives Kansas Democrats a rare chance to snap their 94-year U.S. Senate losing streak in 2026.

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Aug 12 • 1:13 PM EDT • Politics • kansascity.com
China is sending scientists to Iran for rare earth ‘exploration and processing’
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Aug 12 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • scmp.com
Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital designated as a NORD Rare Disease Center of Excellence

Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital is being recognized among the nation’s leaders in rare disease care for children and families.

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Aug 11 • 4:32 PM EDT • Health • wxii12.com
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Rare Mario Brothers cartridges being auctioned off for sale after unique find in Wisconsin

A set of unique, extremely rare Super Mario cartridges was found in a gaming store in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and will be auctioned off starting Friday.

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Aug 11 • 4:02 PM EDT • Technology • apnews.com
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College football realignment may not be done after late Protect College Sports Act provision

A 180-day grace period in the Protect College Sports Act could give Power Four schools a rare chance to change conferences without a five-year penalty.

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Aug 11 • 9:29 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
John Hinckley Jr. shares a message for Jodie Foster in rare interview (exclusive)

What John Hinckley Jr. wants to say to Jodie Foster, more than 40 years after he attempted to assassinate President Reagan.

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Aug 11 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Chiefs’ Andy Reid Gets Honest About Rams Amid ‘Rare’ Situation

This could be one of three matchups this season. The post Chiefs’ Andy Reid Gets Honest About Rams Amid ‘Rare’ Situation appeared first on HEAVY.

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Aug 10 • 10:56 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Saber's newest game trailer takes a shot at Gearbox's CEO, if you look closely

The first hint that something might be up with the recent debut trailer for Saber Interactive’s Rideshare Stimulator is an unusual choice of words—aside from that second one in the game’s title. “Don’t take your passengers too seriously,” the trailer’s narrator says, as he describes this upcoming game. It a car game about the gig work of driving eccentric people to their destinations, a riff on Crazy Taxi. And then, he says: “When I think I’ve met the randiest of passengers, someone even stranger gets in.” “Randiest”? That suggests “randy,” which usually means having strong sexual desire. Yet none of the oddball backseat occupants featured in the trailer seem particularly lustful. One is an old man who considers his grandson a failure, another shares the theory that birds might control traffic lights, another says he’s banned from an aquarium. A little later, there’s a license plate, shown 63 seconds into the trailer, on the front of an SUV: USB DRV It’s a Texas plate. The symbol between those letters is a cog wheel. If you know, you know. That’s a reference to Texas-based Borderlands game development studio Gearbox Software (their logo features a cog wheel). More specifically, it’s a reference to Gearbox’s CEO Randy Pitchford, who in 2018 found himself explaining the nature of video he’d saved on a USB drive that was found at a Medieval Times restaurant before being returned to the studio: “It was ‘barely legal’ porn. This girl’s handle was ‘Only 18.’” The “girl” in the video had committed a solo sex act that Pitchford, an avid practitioner of magic, found remarkable. “I realized, this is not a sex worker…This is a fucking magician.” Back then, the USB drive was central to competing lawsuits against Gearbox by the studio’s former lawyer and by Gearbox against him. A settlement in late 2019 “exonerated” Pitchford, per the Hollywood Reporter. The USB story has resurfaced at times, now in a trailer from a company that not long ago was corporate brethren with Gearbox. Saber vs. Gearbox The head of Saber told Game File that the reference is payback. “The dig is because Randy took shots at Embracer in Borderlands 4,” Saber CEO Matt Karch told me when I asked him about the license plate. “Without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living.” Having interviewed Karch during a cross-country flight in late 2024, I can confirm that Karch was unimpressed with Pitchford during their time both working in the Embracer group. I’d approached him not out of surprise that there was animosity but that it was manifesting publicly now. Gearbox was founded in 1999, worked on a port of Halo early on, and developed hit series such as the loot-based sci-fi shooter Borderlands before it was purchased by The Embracer Group in early 2021 for $363 million (with a possible earn-out of over $1 billion, if certain targets were hit by 2027). Saber was founded in 2001, worked on a remaster of Halo early on, had a big hit with zombie shooter World War Z and was purchased by Embracer in early 2020 for $150 million, with a potential earn-out of up to $375 million. For a few years, the Embracer group was a voracious acquirer of game studios. Then, as investment dried up, it choked. In March 2024, Embracer sold Saber to an investment company controlled by Saber CEO Matt Karch, and it sold Gearbox in an all-stock deal to long-time Borderlands publisher Take Two Interactive. Other studios were shut down. Hundreds of developers were laid off. Gearbox didn’t say much about their Embracer experience, nothing too direct, at least. In the summer 2024, Pitchford told reporter and occasional Game File contributor Nicole Carpenter that Borderlands 4’s story was in some way thematically connected to Gearbox’s experience at Embracer: “There’s this cultural and emotional shift in me, personally, and at the studio. What does it mean to trade some autonomy for organization?” When Borderlands 4 came out, there was something stranger: the matter of “Embracer’s Bluff,” a location in the game featuring an AI-powered toilet and a large trash dump, according to a detailed Kotaku account of the place. Gearbox never commented on it; Take Two never got back to me about it when I asked them last year. By contrast, since Saber exited Embracer, Karch has been one of Embracer’s biggest defenders, casting their management as well-meaning and supportive despite the layoffs and studio closures that resulted from their excessive expansion. Like others, Saber’s Karch saw Embracer’s as a shot. With Rideshare Stimulator’s trailer, he’s returned fire. “It’s amazing to me how fast people forget those who went above and beyond for them,” Karch told Game File. A rep for Gearbox did not comment by press time. Game File is a reader-supported publication. Your backing makes my reporting—including any coverage of trailer-based beefs—possible. Good news! I’m currently running Game File’s first big sale of 2026. You can get a one-year subscription for 23% off. Click here to take advantage of the limited-time offer. And thank you for your support! Item 2: In brief… 🚫 Wal-Mart has laid off the staff of Restart, a games media outlet launched in 2024, Aftermath reports. 🟥 A GTA VI preview is on the way, at last, via an “extended look” that will premiere, unusually, on Netflix at 3pm ET on August 27, then officially go live elsewhere six hours later. Last week, Game File noted that Take Two label Rockstar Games is overdue for showing off GTA VI, based on the timing of the initial hands-off previews of GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2. During a call with investors, Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said pre-orders for GTA VI were “unprecedented and astonishing,” but added the company can’t predict how many of those pre-orders represent bonus sales vs. sales that otherwise would have been made at launch. During the same call, Zelnick was noticeably bullish on the future of playing games over streaming cloud connections (predicting wider adoption in three or so years). He sounded unbothered by Sony’s plans to stop making discs for new games (he said the business is 90% digital already and predicted that there could still be limited edition physical editions of games “in the same way there’s still vinyl in the recorded music business.”) 👀 Take Two wrote off $43 million in their spring quarter after deciding “not to proceed with further development of an unannounced title in its pipeline from a third-party developer.” 🤔 Some rare age-demographics from a big publisher: Capcom recently told investors that “users in their 20s account for approximately half of the users of both Pragamata and Resident Evil Requiem.” Item 3: The week ahead Tuesday, August 11 Game releases: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (Switch 2; already out for PC, PS5, Xbox) continues the Bethesda strategy of putting Elder Scrolls games on everything; Royalty Free-For-All is a Smash Bros.-style fighting game featuring public domain characters such as Mother Goose brawling with Oliver Twist in a stage based on the original Little Shop of Horrors movie. Wednesday, August 12 Game release: Pro Jank Footy (PC, console) is an arcade-style Australian Rules Football game with increasingly ridiculous rules, the more you play (I enjoyed the Steam demo) Thursday, August 13 Game release: Super Mario Sunshine (Switch 2, originally released in 2002 on the GameCube) is released for Switch 2’s Nintendo Switch Online service. This game is the black sheep of 3D Mario games. It’s the successor to the breakthrough Super Mario 64 and the rare Mario game built around a single (vacation resort) theme. Mario’s got a water-spraying backpack, a Yoshi pal and a lot of blue coins to collect.

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Aug 10 • 4:27 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
Life On Earth Appeared Not Once But Twice, Both Times Evolving From A Common Genetic Code

For life to get started it may have depended on one of the rarest, and currently most expensive, metals on Earth.

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Aug 10 • 11:51 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com
Scientists Release Biggest 2D Map of the Universe

Key Takeaways The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys combined more than 263,000 telescope exposures to make the largest 2D map of the universe in visible and near-infrared light. Astronomers can pair the Legacy Surveys map with their own observations to explore our universe and search for rare phenomena. The 2D map serves as the foundation for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey to measure the universe in 3D and investigate dark energy. Hold on to your telescopes: the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys team has released the largest-ever 2D color map of the universe. The 5.6-trillion-pixel map contains nearly 4 billion celestial objects, primarily stars and galaxies. The data is available for all to use and publicly viewable through the Legacy Survey Sky Viewer. Astronomers and citizen scientists can explore the map or combine it with their own observations to better understand our universe. Researchers can search for rare phenomena like gravitational lenses, observe fleeting events like supernovae, and investigate two of physics’ biggest mysteries: dark matter, the invisible substance that accounts for most of the mass in our universe, and dark energy, the force driving our universe’s accelerating expansion. The new map builds on earlier versions from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys that have already proved invaluable. To date, more than 1,800 science papers that reference the Legacy Surveys data have been published. “It’s part of the fabric of astronomy research now,” said David Schlegel, a co-lead of the Legacy Surveys and scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). “When you’re working with astronomical objects today, you often start by pulling up the Legacy Imaging Viewer to see what you’re looking at.” Covering roughly 75% of the sky in visible and near-infrared light, the updated map provides a deep view of the extragalactic universe not blocked by the dust and stars of our own Milky Way. Researchers expect it will remain the most comprehensive 2D map of our universe for years to come. More than 160 scientists contributed to data collection for the project, and a team of 20 produced the final dataset released today. It was built by combining 263,407 telescope exposures from three ground-based sky surveys: the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) at NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, the Mayall z-band Legacy Survey (MzLS) at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory, and the Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey (BASS) at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. That was supplemented by years of data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite mission and additional public data. “For our team, these data are fundamental to our investigation of the expansion history of the universe and the formation of our galaxy,” said Arjun Dey, co-lead of the Legacy Surveys and an astronomer at NSF NOIRLab. “But the skies belong to everyone, and this survey gives everyone the chance to explore the sky and marvel at its wonders.” Here be galaxies The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys were originally conducted to prepare for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. The Legacy Surveys’ 2D map is essentially a deep photograph of the sky; it records where galaxies and stars appear and how bright they appear. This crucial step enables DESI to select objects and measure their light in different wavelengths to determine their distances, building the largest high-resolution 3D map ever made. Scientists study the way galaxies have clustered at different ages of the universe to track dark energy over time. In April 2026, DESI completed its original five-year survey ahead of schedule and with vastly more objects than expected. The early results have shown surprising hints that dark energy’s impact may be weakening over time — a paradigm shift that could potentially shape the predicted fate of our universe. DESI expects to publish improved results using their first five years of data in 2027 and is continuing observations into 2028. DESI was so efficient at observing galaxies, the Legacy Surveys map needed to expand. Early on, “it became clear we might run out of galaxies to look at and run out of sky, and we better start doing something about that,” said Schlegel, who also works on DESI. The new Legacy Surveys map has been used to select DESI targets since June 2026 and will guide the telescope’s operations over the coming years. Computing the cosmos Merging hundreds of thousands of images taken on 2,285 nights, each with unique atmospheric and telescope conditions, was a massive computational effort. It took about a year to develop the computer code and eight weeks to process all the images at the Perlmutter supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Berkeley Lab. Beyond supporting DESI, the Legacy Surveys will be a foundational reference for the next generation of telescopes. As new observatories like the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (jointly funded by NSF and DOE’s Office of Science) and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope come online, researchers can compare their observations with one of the deepest and most comprehensive views of the sky ever assembled. The Legacy Surveys data will also help scientists train artificial intelligence tools to analyze petabytes of astronomical data and accelerate new discoveries. It will be among the datasets used in an astrophysics pilot project within the American Science Cloud, part of the DOE’s Genesis Mission. The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of High Energy Physics; the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science user facility; the U.S. National Science Foundation, Division of Astronomical Sciences; and the partner institutions. DESI is supported by the DOE Office of Science and NERSC. Additional support for DESI is provided by the NSF; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation (SECIHTI) of Mexico; the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain; and by the DESI member institutions. ### 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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Aug 10 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • newscenter.lbl.gov
Annual Capitolfest Returns to Rome Capitol Theatre

Rare films will take center stage at the 23rd annual Capitolfest at the Rome Capitol Theatre.

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Aug 10 • 10:34 AM EDT • Entertainment • wktv.com
The sun will vanish over Europe in a rare total solar eclipse: Watch live

A total solar eclipse will plunge parts of Europe into darkness on August 12, 2026, with Spain offering some of the best views. ESA will livestream the spectacle from the Javalambre Observatory, combining telescope feeds, drone footage, and expert commentary. At 20:31 CEST, the observatory will experience 1 minute and 21 seconds of totality, revealing the Sun’s normally hidden outer atmosphere.

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Aug 10 • 6:59 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Vikings’ Aaron Jones raves about ‘special’ teammate amid training camp

Aaron Jones praised Demond Claiborne's rare talent as the Vikings prepare to unleash a revamped rushing attack in 2026.

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Aug 10 • 2:20 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
🙂 Positive (36%)
Box of rare Nintendo games found in Waukesha could be worth millions

A box of old Nintendo games discovered in Waukesha could be worth millions of dollars.

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Aug 9 • 9:33 PM EDT • Technology • weau.com
Iran airs rare clip of supreme leader -- but here's why it does nothing to dispel dire health rumors
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Aug 9 • 5:00 PM EDT • Health • nypost.com
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Bruce Willis' wife backs California bill to track rare brain disease

Emma Heming Willis, wife of actor Bruce Willis, visited the California State Capitol this week to advocate for legislation that would add frontotemporal dementia (FTD) to the state’s neurodegenerative disease registry.

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Aug 9 • 11:20 AM EDT • Politics • kcra.com
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‘You’re hit with a slam of shadow’: Nasa’s air mission to capture rare eclipse data

Two aviators will take off from Iceland to take pictures of the sun while flying at high altitude along solar eclipse’s path

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Aug 9 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • theguardian.com
Rare Nintendo cartridges found in storage could be worth millions

A box of Nintendo games could be worth millions. It had nearly 100 copies of a previously unknown version of Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.

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Aug 9 • 9:54 AM EDT • Technology • abc7chicago.com
Who's Next? TCU's Best Bet to Restart Its NBA Pipeline

After a rare draft drought, Xavier Edmonds and Gavin Sykes headline a new wave of Horned Frogs aiming to impress scouts and restore TCU’s professional pipeline.

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Aug 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
The Reason Why Data Center GPUs Have Such Short Lifespans

Because they're in constant use, become exposed to high heat levels, and rarely undergo maintenance, data centers run through GPUs in just one to three years.

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Aug 9 • 7:47 AM EDT • Technology • bgr.com
Iran Releases Rare Mojtaba Khamenei Video To Counter Explosive Reports On His Health
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Aug 9 • 6:46 AM EDT • Health • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Scientists discover bacteria that lock toxic uranium into a stable form

Deep underground, bacteria may be capable of doing something remarkable: trapping toxic uranium before it spreads. When researchers fed microbes in uranium-contaminated mine water with glycerol, about 95% of the dissolved uranium disappeared within 130 days. The bacteria helped convert it into an unusually stable uranium compound that had rarely been observed before.

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Aug 8 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Wine, beer, or spirits? Massive study finds a surprising health divide

A study tracking more than 340,000 adults for over a decade found that heavy drinking increased the risk of death regardless of beverage type. At lower levels, however, the picture became more surprising: beer, cider, and spirits were linked to higher mortality, while wine was associated with lower risk. Moderate wine drinkers had a 21% lower risk of cardiovascular death compared with people who rarely or never drank.

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Aug 8 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • sciencedaily.com
Blake Lively shares rare look at family life with Ryan Reynolds

Blake Lively has shared another glimpse of a recent family outing with her husband, Ryan Reynolds, following her tumultuous legal battle with her "It Ends With Us" costar Justin Baldoni.

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Aug 8 • 4:22 PM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
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1-of-1 1970 Plymouth GTX 440 Six Barrel 4-Speed Discovered In Canada

A trip into Canada has turned up an extraordinary piece of Mopar history: a 1970 Plymouth GTX equipped with the 440 Six Barrel V8, a four-speed manual, and an exceptionally rare factory-painted black roof. The ... Read more

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Aug 8 • 2:00 PM EDT • Technology • autos.yahoo.com
5 dead from rare flesh-eating bacteria in Louisiana

Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, a flesh-eating bacteria, has hospitalized nine and killed five in Louisiana in 2026, health officials say.

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Aug 8 • 11:37 AM EDT • Health • usatoday.com
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Meowth, Alolan Meowth, and Their Illustration Rares from "30th...

Pokemon has officially revealed Meowth, Alolan Meowth, and their Illustration Rares from 30th Celebration. (Only Alolan Meowth's IR was revealed in

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Aug 8 • 10:20 AM EDT • Technology • pokebeach.com
5 dead, 4 hospitalized in Louisiana from flesh-eating bacteria outbreak: health officials

A rare bacteria found in warm coastal waters has killed five people in Louisiana so far in 2026, with state health officials warning residents to take notice.

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Aug 8 • 10:08 AM EDT • Health • komonews.com
5 dead, 4 hospitalized in Louisiana from flesh-eating bacteria outbreak: health officials

A rare bacteria found in warm coastal waters has killed five people in Louisiana so far in 2026, with state health officials warning residents to take notice.

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Aug 8 • 10:08 AM EDT • Health • katu.com
5 dead, 4 hospitalized in Louisiana from flesh-eating bacteria outbreak: health officials

A rare bacteria found in warm coastal waters has killed five people in Louisiana so far in 2026, with state health officials warning residents to take notice.

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Aug 8 • 10:08 AM EDT • Health • komonews.com
Meteorite that smashed through a New Jersey roof reveals clues to life’s origins

A rare meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey roof contains evidence of ancient salty fluids, organic compounds, and amino acids from a primitive asteroid. Its pristine chemistry could offer new clues about how space rocks helped supply early Earth with some of the ingredients needed for life.

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Aug 8 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Tesla Rolls Out Rare Software Update to Mobile Connectors

In an unexpected hardware drop, Tesla has started pushing a firmware update for its portable Mobile Connector charging units

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Aug 7 • 12:27 PM EDT • Technology • notateslaapp.com
Tennessee voters oust Trump-backed congressman, set fall matchup for redrawn Memphis-area House seat

Former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher defeated U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in a Republican primary Thursday for a significantly reshaped congressional district — marking a rare rejection of a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump.

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Aug 7 • 10:45 AM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Chinese breakthrough paves way for production of graphene-based quantum chips

Researchers overcome instability problem of a rare form of the material long prized for its remarkable properties.

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Aug 7 • 9:01 AM EDT • Science • scmp.com
TikTok star Sydney Towle, who documented her health journey online, dies at 26 after rare cancer battle

Sydney Towle’s family revealed the 26-year-old influencer has died after entering hospice care. Her death comes after a three-year-long battle with a rare bile duct cancer.View on euronews

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Aug 7 • 4:36 AM EDT • Health • yahoo.com
Church protesters could face tougher penalties under rare bipartisan crackdown

A bipartisan House bill would impose civil fines up to $10,000 for protests that disrupt worship within 100 feet of a house of worship entrance.

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Aug 6 • 5:06 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Infrared glasses could push the boundaries of human eyesight

The prototype could help us see light that other animals can.

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Aug 6 • 12:33 PM EDT • Science • popsci.com
Bruce Willis’ wife makes rare comment on meeting actor while engaged to someone else

Bruce Willis wife Emma Heming Willis made rare comments about first meeting the actor while she was engaged to someone else: ‘Loved being around him,’ she said.

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Aug 6 • 12:28 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Leprosy cases climb in Florida: Here’s how to reduce your risk

Leprosy is considered rare in the U.S., and most Americans catch the disease while traveling abroad.

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Aug 6 • 11:15 AM EDT • Health • thehill.com
What is ‘rabbit fever?’ Health officials report 3 probable cases in New York

What is “rabbit fever?” Health officials report several probable causes of the rare but serious disease.

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Aug 4 • 5:44 PM EDT • Health • wbaltv.com
What is ‘rabbit fever?’ Health officials report 3 probable cases in New York

What is “rabbit fever?” Health officials report several probable causes of the rare but serious disease.

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Aug 4 • 5:44 PM EDT • Health • wmur.com
Rabbit fever cases detected in US. How to check for symptoms

Cases of tularemia, or rabbit fever, have been detected in the United States. Here are symptoms and where the rare disease has been reported.

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Aug 4 • 12:59 PM EDT • Health • usatoday.com
Colorado’s No. 1 education ranking reflects the power of school choice

By Peter Mason Colorado is now the No. 1 state in the nation for education, according to the 2026 U.S. News & World Report Best States rankings. That is a distinction worth celebrating. It is also a distinction worth understanding. Rankings like this one rarely have a single cause. Colorado’s rise to the top reflects […]

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Aug 4 • 2:45 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Red Sox Land Adley Rutschman in Stunning Al East Blockbuster

The Red Sox just acquired catcher Adley Rutschman from the Baltimore Orioles, per Jeff Passan. The 28-year-old switch-hitting catcher was the first overall draft pick of the 2019 draft. Multiple outlets confirmed the rare AL East Blockbuster with multiple prospects traded in return for Rutschman. The Orioles will receive C Carlos Narváez. Other names include MLB’s No. […] The post Red Sox Land Adley Rutschman in Stunning Al East Blockbuster appeared first on The Lead.

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Aug 3 • 4:35 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Samsung bans smart TV apps that share users' internet connections with strangers

New security research offers a rare view inside residential proxy networks, which rely on apps that share a person's internet connection with someone else.

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Aug 3 • 8:10 AM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
Good Communication Is Good Business by Geoffrey Losee

The following column was contributed by J.D. Fisher. Mixed-use communities are increasingly common. Restaurants, breweries, retail stores, entertainment venues, and professional offices often operate within walking distance of established neighborhoods. That proximity creates tremendous opportunity, but it also means that a business's decisions may affect more than just its customers. Many business owners understandably focus on obtaining the permits necessary to open their doors. However, municipal approval is rarely the end of the conversation. As a business evolves, whether by adding outdoor seating, live entertainment, extended operating hours, or other new amenities, the applicable zoning ordinance may require additional approvals or impose operational standards designed to balance commercial activity with nearby residential uses. From a business perspective, the question should not simply be, "Can we do this?" It should also be, "Have we communicated with everyone who may be affected?" Recent local news coverage highlighted how differing interpretations of a municipal ordinance can quickly become the subject of public hearings, legal arguments, and significant uncertainty for a business. While every situation turns on its own facts, one common theme emerged: practical solutions are more difficult to achieve if communication breaks down. Businesses can often reduce that risk by engaging early with the relevant stakeholders. That begins with municipal staff. Planning departments are oftentimes willing to discuss how an ordinance applies before substantial investments are made. Seeking clarification in advance may identify permitting requirements or operational limitations that can be addressed proactively rather than after enforcement action. Communication should not stop with local government. Nearby property owners and neighborhood representatives frequently appreciate being informed about proposed changes before they occur. A brief meeting, an informational email, or an invitation to discuss concerns can foster goodwill and reveal potential issues while there is still flexibility to adjust operations. That’s why such meetings often required for substantial projects and may be a good idea even if not required. Perhaps most importantly, businesses should view compliance as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Operational changes that seem minor from a business standpoint may have regulatory implications under local development ordinances. Periodically reviewing proposed changes with experienced land-use counsel or planning professionals can help identify issues before they become disputes. No ordinance can eliminate every conflict between commercial activity and residential expectations. Nor should every disagreement become a legal controversy. But businesses that invest in transparent, proactive communication place themselves in the strongest position to protect both their operations and their relationships within the community. In today's regulatory environment, good communication is more than good public relations, it is good risk management. If your business is planning to expand its operations, introduce a new use, or simply wants to better understand how local land development regulations apply, the attorneys at Rountree Losee LLP are available to help. Our land use and local government practice works with businesses throughout southeastern North Carolina to navigate municipal approval processes, identify potential issues before they become disputes, and keep projects moving forward with confidence. Read more at rountreelosee.com.

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Aug 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • wilmingtonbiz.com
Rock crystal scraper: 45,000-year-old Neanderthal tool that shows they had an 'eye for beauty of form and color'

A chance find of rare rock crystal tools a century ago paved the way for a better understanding of Neanderthals today.

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Aug 3 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has rare meeting with Red Cross amid health concerns

The photos were released as international calls are growing for access to or engagement with the former leader, who has been detained since the army seized power in 2021.

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Aug 3 • 1:39 AM EDT • Health • nbcnews.com
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Two deadly flowers could inspire powerful new medicines

Scientists have figured out how two famously poisonous plants create chemicals with surprising medical potential. After tracking thousands of genes in wolfsbane and larkspur, they identified six enzymes needed to build a complex compound called atisinium. The team recreated the process inside tobacco plants, offering a sustainable way to produce and test these rare molecules in larger amounts.

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Aug 2 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
How a CT couple keeps a rare business going after 40 years. And yes, vacations are rare.

“If you don’t put everything into it, you’re not going to have people coming in,” the owner said.

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Aug 2 • 5:30 AM EDT • Business • courant.com
No cure, no vaccine: Experts warn of rare Bourbon virus after first NY case

A Long Island patient was hospitalized after researchers confirmed the first Bourbon virus case in New York, transmitted by the common lone star tick.

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Aug 1 • 3:15 PM EDT • Health • foxnews.com
How scientists finally confirmed rare pink seaweed as new species

An ancient algae first spotted four decades ago will now join the collection of the Natural History Museum.

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Jul 31 • 7:43 PM EDT • Science • bbc.com
See the heat: An infrared imaging system that outputs in color

Wavelength and intensity in the infrared are translated into colors in the visible.

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Jul 31 • 1:58 PM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com
Molten, Mushy Planet

35 light years away from Earth is a planet a bit bigger than ours that’s probably not hospitable to life -- because it’s molten. Scientists have known about L98-59d for years, but new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope helped reveal an atmosphere rich in hydrogen sulfide, which could only be explained if the planet was in a rare molten state. Living on Earth’s El Wilson and Bella Smith teamed up on this note on emerging science.

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Jul 31 • 10:20 AM EDT • Science • loe.org
First death of 2026 from rare, flesh-eating bacteria reported in South Florida, state health officials say

According to data from the Florida Department of Health, a person from Palm Beach County was reported dead on July 30 after being diagnosed with Vibrio vulnificus.

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Jul 30 • 5:27 PM EDT • Health • cbsnews.com
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A unique antibody system may help explain bats' unusual tolerance of viruses

Researchers found that vesper bats use two separate sets of genes to build antibodies ‪—‬ a rare evolutionary quirk that may give them different ways to fight infection.

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Jul 30 • 12:53 PM EDT • Science • livescience.com
Rare Pokémon game that deletes itself found 20 years later

PokéPark Fishing was only accessible for a while, to a select group of fans in Japan. The 2005 game has since resurfaced, but there's a catc

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Jul 30 • 11:52 AM EDT • Technology • polygon.com
Jonathan Taylor Thomas reunites with 'Home Improvement' cast in rare photo

It may not be a reboot, but the cast of "Home Improvement" is getting the gang back together.

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Jul 30 • 11:19 AM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Merck, Wellcome partner with global health group to make Ebola vaccine for clinical trials

Hilleman Laboratories, ​a Singapore-based joint venture between Merck and the global charity Wellcome, is gearing up to manufacture doses of a ‌promising experimental vaccine against the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola responsible for a fast-spreading outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Jul 30 • 1:09 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com
Sandra Oh Names 'Extremely Rare' Gift She Got During Her 'Grey's Anatomy' Days

“I was really very fortunate,” she said.

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Jul 29 • 2:18 PM EDT • Entertainment • huffpost.com
The Work Behind Trustworthy Science

From ethical review and mentorship to collaboration and reproducibility, strong science depends on processes the public rarely sees. When a scientific breakthrough captures national attention,...

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Jul 29 • 2:16 PM EDT • Science • research.utah.edu
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'Demon cavefish' discovered under WWII chemical weapons facility in Alabama

Introducing demon cavefish (Demogorgonichthys arcanus); the rare eyeless predators that have been hiding in plain sight below a military base for decades.

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Jul 29 • 8:21 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com
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The Science Behind the AI Panic Is Shakier Than You Think

A column by Sascha Lobo Is AI making us dumb? So asked DER SPIEGEL on its cover a while ago. After a few weeks of recovery and a therapeutic intervention with the help of my AI, I feel able to respond. That’s a bit unfair, of course; the article itself is more nuanced than the loud cover, the image of a schoolkid with dull prompt questions, or the subtitle: “AI is conquering the schools, and educators fear a disaster.” The short answer to “Is AI making us dumb?” is: no. The long answer is more interesting, and even carries a preliminary glimmer of the spectacular. Unfortunately, it requires a detour into the sphere of artificial intelligence, into the mogul-field terrain of technology assessment, the attention economy, and the destructive virus of cultural pessimism. Along with narrowing the scope to AI’s effects on education and work rather than on intelligence. Because the honest version of the question would be: Does AI help us learn and work, or not? Generative AI, which set off the still-ongoing hype with ChatGPT, has only existed in relevant distribution since late 2022, early 2023. For a technology-driven transformation of people and society, that is extremely short. For that reason alone, research is still in its infancy. And technology assessment is not a fast discipline anyway. Prominent voices from Elizabeth Eisenstein to RAND to Tom Wheeler say we still cannot conclusively judge the consequences of the printing press. Its invention is a mere 580 years back, and some scholars would rather not circulate assessments that might have to be retracted in two or three hundred years. We’re Going Through Growing Pains A phenomenon that already caused upheaval in social media research makes serious assessment of AI’s consequences even harder: the “moving target” problem of LLM-ology, as the linguist Sean Trott called it in 2025. AI develops so quickly and so unpredictably that researchers often end up studying snapshots of the past. There are concepts, from morphological analysis to anticipatory governance, for keeping research, planning, and regulation halfway meaningful anyway. But even with those, universally valid statements are rare. DER SPIEGEL - The German View is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe We should therefore treat findings about the interplay between humans and AI as far more procedural and situational. Unfortunately, this challenge comes at the worst possible time. We are going through growing pains: AI’s everyday impact has grown very large very fast, and with it the longing for guidance. Annoyingly, the body of solid knowledge has not exploded along with it. Experts cannot be moved to broad consensus on even banal statements about AI. Sascha Lobo, born in 1975, is an author and strategy consultant focusing on the internet and digital technologies. Together with Jule Lobo, he explores the debates of the day in the podcast “Feel the News – Was Deutschland bewegt” (”What Moves Germany”). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says software developers are dying out. Bill Gates considers coders one of only three professions that will survive the AI tsunami. Top tech economists find virtually irrefutable arguments both for and against an AI bubble. The same naturally applies to the structurally youth-hostile debate over whether AI is good or bad for young people. The gap between the demand for insight and the supply of solid knowledge creates an orientation vacuum. This vacuum of AI cluelessness is filled, as the attention economy described by Georg Franck in 1998 would have it, with half-knowledge (funnily enough, often AI-generated), marketing, and self-marketing. After all, infinite money is at stake, along with academia’s best current shot at global fame. But this iridescent froth of interpretation operates more by the algorithmic principles of the digital public sphere than by seriously earned insight. That is why dramatized, fear-feeding claims about AI are so promising. It tempts parts of academia into distorted drivel, and parts of the media then sensationalize the published drivel once more. Was the Research Aimed at a Desired Result? How badly this can influence academia and public perception is demonstrated by one of the most-discussed studies on AI’s effects: “Your Brain on ChatGPT.” The MIT study by Nataliya Kosmyna also gets plenty of space in the SPIEGEL cover story. What was measured and interpreted: lower brain activity in people who write with AI assistance, compared to people who only google or write without any tools. As is common with preprints, the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and it contains substantial weaknesses that experts have sharply criticized. The first round had 54 participants in three groups, the second only 18, who reportedly also came from MIT’s own orbit. There was no preregistration (committing in advance to what you want to find out with which data). In their analysis, Stanković et al. even discovered an opposite effect that the study does not further explain. Some measurement data has not (yet) been published. And the EEG analysis method used is considered too imprecise to support such far-reaching conclusions. The biggest criticism, though, is the suspicion of an activism-driven study. In an interview with Time, lead author Kosmyna said she published the study immediately, rather than after full peer review, because she feared politicians might otherwise decide to put ChatGPT in kindergartens. She considers that absolutely harmful. It is legitimate to hold such a view. It just seems unscientific to approach a study with it, and then to design the setup so that the chance of a fitting desired result remains as high as possible. Ideologies Collide It is not easy to separate genuine AI insights from studies that trivialize and weaken well-founded AI criticism. The same goes for the opposing, AI-enthusiastic narratives, because the pro-AI side works against it with billions in resources. Ideologies collide, fed by egos, PR strategies, moral posturing, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Doomsday marketing makes the search even harder: AI companies can profit from warnings about the dangers of AI, whether through the notoriety of apocalypse narratives or because, in some target groups, danger translates into power. Some seemingly negative findings are therefore quite welcome in the AI industry. If you try to get at the findings presumably less influenced by interest groups, the picture in education seems relatively clear: AI can improve educational outcomes when the right AI is used the right way, namely pedagogically. Simply dumping an AI chatbot into a classroom, by contrast, accomplishes little. Huge surprise. But something else is also obvious: whether they are allowed to or not, kids use AI for school, which is why the controlled integration of AI tools into education is, in the medium term, entirely without alternative. In the world of work, the landscape of findings is more complex and requires more differentiation. A series of serious studies points to an AI effect that suits neither the alarmists, regulation fetishists, and AI opponents, nor the trillion-dollar corporations with their armada of paid scientists, PR professionals, and ecosystems: working with AI helps the inexperienced (at least for now) considerably more than it helps the pros, in certain fields of work, and provided they know how to use it correctly. Missing Domain Knowledge Among the experienced, the professionals, and the high flyers, by contrast, despite frequent time savings, partially negative effects and new problems are emerging. Take the jagged frontier problem: AI solves task A brilliantly and fails completely at task B, even though both look similar even to professionals. Or the verification-cost problem, in which AI’s greater productivity gets eaten up by the enormous effort of checking its output. Or the illusion of competence, because AI makes new domains seem easily penetrable, until you painfully discover that deep domain knowledge is missing. Taken as a whole, the effects of working with AI do lean positive. But the promise that AI works as a turbocharger for everyone and boosts practically everything simply refuses to materialize. The AI magic the world has been feeling since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022 has so far barely shown up in most companies’ numbers. The consulting firm McKinsey has coined a term for this, the “gen AI paradox,” and believes that work processes and corporate structures would have to be rebuilt quite fundamentally to realize AI’s benefits at scale. Reuters just reported that only 3.3 percent of Microsoft’s customers have subscribed to the AI package Copilot. That may be down to the product; in other areas we continue to see soaring successes and new AI triumphs. But after the first quarter of 2026, disillusionment is the word for all too many AI projects at traditional companies: because the promised revolution of AI agents has so far failed to arrive or been postponed, and because of the leveling effect that many of the studies cited here suggest. Against Inequality The societal effects, on the other hand, appear rather encouraging. Many previous technologies operated on the Matthew principle, named for the Gospel verse about giving to those who already have: they tended to reward the more competent and more privileged. AI, however, seems more often to have an equalizing effect once a threshold of access and education is crossed. Some anecdotal insights point in this direction, for example, how an unemployed man in Leipzig successfully defended himself in court in 2025 against fraud accusations from Germany’s federal employment agency — without a lawyer, armed only with ChatGPT. The AI made mistakes and cited invented court rulings, but in the end the man walked away unpunished. And a key capability of artificial intelligence is its capacity to learn: set up correctly and fed with data, it can keep getting better. It is a question of time, or more precisely of AI innovations and training data, until even free AI chatbots write better legal briefs than law graduates with perfect exam scores. Whether that will make anyone dumb is something the world’s press will surely inform us of in due time. Subscribe Leave a comment

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Jul 29 • 4:23 AM EDT • Science • derspiegel.substack.com
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A tiny molecular basket unlocks a powerful new kind of chemistry

Rice University chemists have found a new way to make neodymium, a rare-earth metal, interact with oxygen. Using a specially designed molecular structure described as a “basket,” the team positioned the atoms so they could form a bond once thought unlikely. The breakthrough produced highly reactive compounds that could eventually give chemists alternatives to iron-based molecules used in biological reactions and chemical manufacturing.

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Jul 28 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
"Storm Emeralda" Secret Rares Revealed!

The secret rares from Storm Emeralda are now being posted to social media by fans! The set releases this Friday, July 31st. The main set list was revealed

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Jul 28 • 1:53 PM EDT • Technology • pokebeach.com
Super rare black hole devours unlucky star

Similar black holes are usually found at the center of a galaxy. This one is wandering the cosmos.

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Jul 28 • 11:28 AM EDT • Science • popsci.com
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Repairs to Madame John's Legacy, one of French Quarter's oldest buildings, causes concern

One of the oldest buildings in the New Orleans French Quarter and a rare surviving example of French Colonial architecture is at the center of a years long dispute between local preservationists and the state, nearly three years after the two sides thought they'd worked out a compromise.

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Jul 28 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • nola.com
The biohacking sauna blanket Gwyneth Paltrow calls a '10 out of 10' is $140 off at Nordstrom

Fans of the infrared heat therapy also include Kate Hudson and Miranda Kerr.

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Jul 27 • 2:55 PM EDT • Technology • pagesix.com
Amendment 68: New Opportunity: D.8 Habitable Worlds Observatory Precursor Science Investigations

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is a large-aperture ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared observatory concept recommended by the National Academies of

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Jul 27 • 2:48 PM EDT • Science • science.nasa.gov
Y! Sports Biz: Cheese squeezed financially

The rare annual look at NFL team finances is here.

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Jul 27 • 11:40 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
🧀 Y! Sports Biz: Cheese squeezed financially

The rare annual look at NFL team finances is here.

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Jul 27 • 11:40 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Why use rare earths in rubber production? China is engineering stronger tyres

A new facility leverages decades of research to produce high-strength rubber designed to meet requirements of EVs and heavy-duty transport.

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Jul 27 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • scmp.com
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500,000-year-old elephant bone hammer shows ancient humans were master toolmakers

Early humans in England crafted a rare piece of elephant bone into a reusable hammer for sharpening stone tools nearly 500,000 years ago. The extraordinary find reveals that ancient toolmakers were resourceful, skilled, and capable of surprisingly advanced planning.

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Jul 27 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
What England's local councils tell us about fragmenting politics

Even the most ardent advocate for local democracy would concede that council chambers are not always the most exciting places. Subscribe Whether it’s planning meetings, motions or resolutions, you’d be forgiven for switching off. Unless it’s lockdown and we’re talking about standing orders, of course. Remember Jackie Weaver, who infamously “had no authority here” at a chaotic parish council Zoom call in 2021? Yet, as a general rule since then, council meetings rarely make the headlines beyond local papers and news websites. Reform’s success After Reform’s stunning success at the local elections in May though, the leader of the party’s group on Kirklees Council suddenly found she’d gone viral online for admitting that she didn’t actually understand council procedures. “I don’t understand the constitution”, Councillor Sarah Wood, pictured above, told the council chamber. “I have not had sufficient time to read that as yet. I don’t understand what standing orders are, what they’re made up of, nor do I understand what an amendment is.” Share Channel 4 News Councillor Wood later defended her comments to the BBC, and said that “new councillors and not just us, are coming from jobs”. She claimed that the sharing of the clip mocking her online was an example of “Reform-bashing”. She added: “Yes, we need to know procedures. Yes we need to do the homework. And we have addressed that now and we have put that right.” So, with standing orders getting another moment in the spotlight, not to mention the fracturing and fragmentation from May’s results, we set out to find out how new councillors are doing across England in this new political landscape. New political landscape Where better to start then than Kirklees, in West Yorkshire. Reform is the largest party, the council is under no overall control and has chosen a new leader - Sarah Wood - after two failed attempts to elect one. It is difficult to secure interviews with new Reform councillors, but John Hardie, pictured below, told us it’s been a “whirlwind” since being elected in May. He represents the Dalton ward and told us the party’s lack of political experience hasn’t been a hindrance. “We’ve come with lots of experience, lots of business experience and life experience, and it’s been good, actually, too. And to mix with other councillors who have been in the political world, and we can learn from each other.” Indeed, more parties are now having a say than ever before. In Manchester, the Green Party followed up their victory in the parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by gaining 17 seats on the city council. That makes them the official opposition to Labour, who have long dominated Manchester City Council. [ ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/how-landmark-green-by-election-win) [ How landmark Green by-election win could change British politics ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/how-landmark-green-by-election-win) Krishnan Guru-Murthy · Feb 27 [ Read full story ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/how-landmark-green-by-election-win) Thirza Amina Asanga-Rae, pictured below, is one of those new councillors, representing Moss Side. We asked her how being the official opposition can make a difference. She said: “I think even the fact that we’ve made history in what we’ve done, it’s been a 50-year stronghold of Labour in Manchester, and now that we’ve broken that and chipped in that, there’s real hope that we can not only run the council in the future, but currently hold them to account. So, I think that’s powerful. It’s just going to help shape and build what I call the green wave.” The reality, though, is that several newly elected councillors across the country have already left their roles through resignations, suspensions or defections. ‘It’s a slog’ Asanga-Rae adds: “It’s a job, it’s a slog. Obviously, we’re going through hard times. Austerity is real. We’re talking about food, child poverty, furniture poverty. The list is endless, and I think people who come into a councillor role need to be willing to help, really roll the sleeves up and get involved and help, and I think a lot of the career politicians, who think it’s the ‘la-di-da’ position, get in and realise I’m not going to do this work and bounce.” Share Although Manchester still has a clear majority, many councils, including Kirklees, are now under no overall control. That is perhaps the strongest sign of the political fragmentation we are seeing. Burnley is another example of this. Reform is now the largest party, yet they’re not part of the power-sharing coalition on this council - the Liberal Democrats and a local group of independents. Zulkernehn Hayat, pictured below, is part of The Independent Group. He represents Queensgate ward and told us all councils can benefit from having more independent councillors. ‘This is where I was brought up’ He said: “This is my home. This is Burnley. This is where I was brought up. Why do I need to get approval from somebody in a head office down south somewhere, you know? “This is my biggest argument. If okay, my neighbour comes to me with an issue, I can then take that straight to the council, because I don’t need to get approval from anywhere else. And this is the benefit of being independent.” So, while voters will always inevitably want quick results, perhaps spare a thought for the newly-elected councillors who are still navigating local government - one standing order at a time. 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Jul 27 • 3:01 AM EDT • Politics • channel4news.substack.com
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Congo Ebola death toll tops 1,400 as vaccine trials start

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Jul 27 • 2:11 AM EDT • Health • dw.com
Spines of saber-toothed cats tell a tale of the doomed species

Remains pulled from the La Brea Tar Pits revealed deformed vertebrae and rare tumors, possible signs of inbreeding among now-extinct saber-toothed cats.

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Jul 27 • 12:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencenews.org
7 Rarely Mentioned JDM Engines With Surprising Power

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Jul 26 • 8:45 AM EDT • Technology • jalopnik.com
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Jul 26 • 6:07 AM EDT • Technology • pokebeach.com
Are redheads going extinct?

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Jul 26 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com
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Jul 25 • 2:43 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Jul 25 • 2:08 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Inside 530-million-year-old embryos, scientists uncover rare time-lapse of early animal growth

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Jul 25 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencex.com
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Jul 24 • 8:42 PM EDT • Entertainment • aol.com
John Cusack makes rare comment about why he pivoted away from film career

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Jul 24 • 8:42 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
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Jul 24 • 9:31 AM EDT • Business • nytimes.com
When It Comes to Fusion, Materials Matter

Fusion at high temperatures powers the sun and, if harnessed, could provide a potential source of energy here on Earth. But controlling fusion reactions has other benefits. The process also generates subatomic particles called neutrons that are used in a range of applications spanning medicine, research, and national security. Now, scientists at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that the materials surrounding a fusion reaction can dramatically increase how often it occurs, particularly at low energies where fusion is rare. The study was published July 18 in Nature Communications. Their approach sets up a way to study and engineer nuclear reactions within solid materials, opening a new field of “materials-driven fusion.” Instead of designing materials just to survive the harsh conditions of fusion, researchers might be able to design materials that boost the reaction in specific conditions, similar to the way catalysts speed up chemical processes. “It gives you a new knob to turn that you didn’t have before,” said Arun Persaud, head of the Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology group in Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division. “If we understand this effect better, it opens the door to engineering new materials that would affect the fusion rate under certain conditions. Someday future progress might enable more compact and efficient neutron generators, which have all kinds of applications, like cargo screening, planetary science, and medical therapy and imaging.” In the experiment, researchers used two different methods to pack deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen atoms that is often used in fusion, into thin foils of palladium and titanium. They then fired a beam of deuterium ions at the foils at different energies and measured how often fusion happened. Then they compared the rates from the different materials and methods with the “bare” fusion reaction (not in a material). The team found that fusion rates depended on how the deuterium was loaded into the metal foils. The biggest effect was at the lowest energies, below 2.5 kiloelectronvolts (keV), where theory predicts fusion rates drop off sharply. Instead, researchers found a surprising plateau: Some samples showed elevated fusion rates roughly a quintillion times higher than bare fusion reactions. (A quintillion is a 1 followed by 18 zeroes.) Researchers are not exactly sure why that’s happening, though they have some ideas and ways to test them. The electrons and defects within the material might partially shield repulsive electrostatic forces between deuterium nuclei, making it easier for them to get close together and fuse. Tuning the electronic structure, defects, and composition of materials could help make nuclear reactions happen more readily. “It comes down to better understanding the mechanism so that we can try to enhance it,” said corresponding author Jeremy Munday, a professor at UC Davis. “We’ve seen that we can increase fusion rates, but what is the limit? Can we bring it to lower temperatures or energies? There’s obviously a lot of interest and excitement about fusion, so if there’s something we can learn about the physics at these lower energy scales, maybe there’s something we can translate to other areas of nuclear science.” The team plans to explore a wider range of materials and continue probing the unexpected fusion plateau at lower energies. Their work establishes a reproducible experimental platform to study how solid materials influence nuclear reactions, creating a new area of research that links fusion science with materials science and chemistry. “The work shows conclusively that the material environment where fusion occurs at low temperatures is an active participant rather than a passive container,” said Cameron Geddes, director of ATAP. “That adds a new dimension to fusion research.” This work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ### 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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Jul 23 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • newscenter.lbl.gov
Why the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history is becoming more challenging

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Jul 22 • 2:17 PM EDT • Health • bostonherald.com
OU Health performs rare dual pulmonary valve procedure

Physicians at OU Health have successfully performed a rare and technically complex heart procedure that placed two artificial pulmonary valves at the same time.

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Jul 22 • 12:46 PM EDT • Health • okcfox.com
'Rare' contagious cancer found in fish from Quebec and U.S. lakes

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Jul 22 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • cbc.ca
Why Did This Man Avoid Alzheimer’s? Scientists Reveal Their Astonishing Theory - Futura-Sciences

A Family Plagued by Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Doug Whitney inherited a rare genetic mutation that’s devastated much of his family: many relatives experienced significant cognitive decline as early as their 50s. Yet Doug himself has stayed mentally alert well past the age at which illness struck in the family. According to...

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Jul 22 • 9:00 AM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com