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Elon Musk's warm welcome by Saudi royals is at odds with his ownership of X, whose users are imprisoned for criticising Riyadh

Elon Musk in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as President Trump arrives on the first leg of his tour to the Middle East (Photo: Alex Brandon/AP)

When he took over Twitter, Elon Musk promised to unleash its animal spirits and roll back censorship. He has called himself a "free speech absolutist".

That designation has come under serious scrutiny since, with the billionaire accused of tilting the platform in all sorts of ways to suit his own ends.

He is an especially fraught situation today, though, as a guest of Saudi Arabia.

Musk and other titans of US industry were treated to a lunch with Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler, on Donald Trump's lavish visit to the Gulf.

The history of Twitter, later X, in Saudi Arabia is a deeply unhappy one.

Free speech absolutism is anathema to MBS and his officials, who tightly suppress dissent.

Decades in prison for tweeting

Often anonymous posts on networks like X are the only way Saudi dissenters can spread their message. It can cost them dearly.

A recent example appears to be Ahmed al-Doush, a British man detained in Saudi Arabia and sentenced to ten years in prison.

His family say the reason for his detention is a critical tweet, posted years ago.

(The opaque nature of Saudi justice means that it's often never made public why someone has been punished, or even that they have.)

In 2023, the Saudi courts sentenced a man to death for posts on X and YouTube. Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi was given the death penalty despite having only 10 followers, Amnesty International said at the time.

After an international outcry, his execution was called off.

In the same year, Fatima al-Shawarbi was handed a 30-year prison sentence for tweeting critically of the Neom megacity project, activists said.

The list goes on. And if you find yourself on the wrong side of the ruling family, you could also end up as Jamal Khashoggi did.

The Saudi journalist was brazenly and brutally murdered in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in 2018 - for which US intelligence held MBS responsible, even though Riyadh blamed "rogue agents" whom it later imprisoned.

Musk is hardly alone as a social media tycoon who does not have much interest in confronting autocrats.

Google, Facebook and others have been comfortable with censorship and repression in countries like China, Thailand (where criticising its monarchy is illegal), India and Turkey.

But Musk breaking bread with the Saudi royals is an especially vivid example.

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'Free speech absolutist' Musk dines with Saudi Arabia, which persecutes X users

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Elon Musk's warm welcome by Saudi royals is at odds with his ownership of X, whose users are imprisoned for criticising Riyadh

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North Korea: Escalation in targeting of families of defectors by regime and mobile surveillance as the UN General Assembly convenes - Civicus Monitor

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North Korea is one of the world’s most repressive states, where civic space is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. The government restricts all civil and political liberties for its citizens, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association and religion. It prohibits all organised political opposition, independent media, civil society and trade unions.

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The Western Enlightenment was a transformative era that reshaped human history, ushering in unprecedented advancements in science, philosophy, individual rights, and economic freedom. Dr. Yaron Brook explores the key ideas and figures that defined the Enlightenment, tracing their profound influence on the modern world.

Enlightenment principles - reason, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - created the foundation for progress and prosperity. But these values are under attack today. Understanding why and how to defend them is crucial for the future of freedom and human flourishing.

This talk promises to inspire and challenge, offering a powerful reminder of the enduring relevance of Enlightenment ideals in shaping a better tomorrow.

Guest Speaker:

Yaron Brook is chairman of the board of the Ayn Rand Institute. He can be heard on The Yaron Brook Show, which airs live on YouTube and Spreaker. Brook is the author of several books, including In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance, Equal Is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and the national best seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government.

Brook was born and raised in Israel. He served as a first sergeant in Israeli military intelligence and earned a BSc in civil engineering from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. In 1987 he moved to the United States where he received his MBA and PhD in finance from the University of Texas at Austin; he became an American citizen in 2003. Brook was an award-winning finance professor at Santa Clara University and is the managing founder and director of BH Equity Research, a private equity and hedge fund.

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The History of the Western Enlightenment - And Why It Matters Today

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The History of the Western Enlightenment - And Why It Matters Today

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Fareed Zakaria: We’re living in an age of revolutions | Johns Hopkins in Washington, D.C.

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The CNN host compares our current moment to previous transformative ages

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Protesters demonstrate against Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and celebrate his departure from the country in Tunis January 14, 2011 [Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]

Fourteen years ago, on January 14, 2011, Tunisians filled Habib Bourguiba Boulevard, the central thoroughfare of Tunis, with cries of freedom and dignity as they celebrated the ousting of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He had fled the country and announced his resignation after 28 days of relentless civil disobedience expressed by public square "occupations" in almost every city of the country, triggered by the haunting self-immolation of fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi in the town of Sidi Bouzid.

The Tunisian people's victory against their longtime oppressor and his suffocating, corrupt regime was so remarkable, so spectacular that it inspired a wave of Arab uprisings across the region.

In major cities from Yemen to Morocco, millions of freedom-hungry denizens joined the Tunisian "occupiers" of the Bourguiba Boulevard to celebrate the ouster of their fiercely authoritarian regime and call for their own liberation. With the Tunisian people's perceived achievement of "karama" (dignity) and "hurriyya" (freedom) a new movement was born that placed the entire region on a revolutionary trajectory of "tahrir" (emancipation).

More than a decade later, the legacy of these uprisings, which came to be known as the "Arab Spring", is mixed at best. One Arab country, Syria, which began its own revolutionary journey right after Tunisia on March 30, 2011, armed rebels managed to oust dictator Bashar Al-Assad only last month, after 14 years of devastating war and loss. In other Arab Spring countries, including Tunisia, the revolution came faster but has been short-lived with authoritarianism, oppression and conflict re-entering the picture soon after the initial successes of the revolting masses.

All this, of course, does not take away from the moral and political valour of the 2011 uprisings. The moral symbolism of these revolutions - as the remarkable victories of once muted peoples against some of the most coercively guarded states in the world - has staying power.

The new social and political patterns of public life that emerged on the back of these revolutions have endured in Tunisia and the rest of the Arab region. The body politic of the state before 2011 was dominated by political decay of delegitimised rulers and undermined by excessive coercion and executive power and by exclusionary practices. These revolutions emboldened peoples of the region to demand a say over the nature of their governance and permanently changed how we talk about and analyse Arab postcolonial state-society relations.

To this day, January 14, 2011, stands as a historic moment that ignited a moral flame, a cry for freedom as it were, for the multitudes populating the Arab geography. It insinuated itself in the hearts, minds and imaginations of Arab youth gripped by the clamour of a better future. Tunisia's revolution and those that followed it in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen drew inspiration, confidence and moral vigour from the meltdown of whole authoritarian apparatuses previously thought immune to sudden, people-powered overthrow.

However, it cannot be denied that the banners of freedom and dignity erected on the ruins of fallen regimes soon gave way to counterrevolutions.

After the overthrow of authoritarian rulers in 2011, the allure of revolution swiftly lost its shine in most Arab Spring countries. This has not transpired as a result of the idea of revolution itself having fallen into disfavour among the Arab publics that were "square occupiers". It certainly was not because ideological rivals of the revolution, including those championing electoral democracies (or even those rooting for "Islamic democracy", such as Tunisia's Rachid Ghannouchi), were given sufficient time to prove or disprove their worth. Rather, swings in the counterrevolutionary pendulum from Tunisia to Egypt resulted in "the revolutionaries" being forced into a defensive stance and pressed to give up their "revolutionary" demands. Indeed, with the passage of time, revolutions and revolutionaries have gradually degenerated in every setting.

In places like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen with their newly acquired freedoms, political parties began to deviate from the original purposes of their democratic beginnings. Rekindling of old forms of political polarisation, economic and social rifts, armed militias and systemic tensions involving deep state actors and civilian protagonists was what led to this deviation. Meanwhile, the wealth gap between the haves and the have-nots that had framed the original cries for freedom and dignity remained intact. This multifaceted crisis tolled the near-death knell of true revolutionary transformation, ie a complete rupture with the ousted authoritarian systems.

The result has been the formation of so-called Arab Spring quasi-democracies that are said to be "hybrid regimes", with mixed brands of authority, having very few of the ideals the Arab street had called for during the Arab Spring uprisings.

Today, the jails of some of these "democracies" are populated with political activists accused of "conspiracy to subvert state power" - coercive charges that many thought were confined to the dustbin of history after the 2011 revolutions. Rule of law, which was one of the core demands of the uprisings, has been abandoned, and the law itself is being mobilised against actors who should be contributing to the nation from an open public square, if not a democratic parliament. Rather than using their know-how for the benefit of the state, they are rotting in jail cells for the crime of intimidating the powers who secured control of the state after the revolutions. Such purges are putting doubt in the minds of the people about whether a revolution that would bring about a complete break from the traditional authoritarian practices of the past would ever be feasible.

Under such democratic reverses, where the freedom of association, participation, contestation and expression is in constant jeopardy, elections themselves inevitably lose credibility. Low voter turnouts speak to this democratic degeneration in elections held in places like Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia.

In many Arab Spring states, the political opposition has the same democratic shortcomings and weaknesses as the ruling powers, resulting in a belief by many voters that elections are futile however fair and free they may be on the surface. Intra-party democracy remains weak, if not absent. Those who lead political parties and civil society organisations tend to cling to power and baulk at democratic alternation of leadership positions. As a result, those who made the 2011 revolutions possible - the people - are losing interest in the electoral process.

Of course, culpability for the democratic degenerations since the 2011 revolutions is not to be placed on deep states or domestic political leaders alone.

Arab authoritarianism has been revitalised and revolutionary fervour culled in more than one case in the past 14 years through pacts that post-uprising Arab governments have made with Western powers and institutions from the United States and the European Union to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For example, in countries like Lebanon and Egypt, the IMF played a key role in keeping authoritarianism alive by providing governments with funds, slashing any hopes their people might have held for new leaders or revolutionary, long-lasting solutions to their economic and political woes.

The Arab street has not forgotten the August 2013 Rabaa massacre, which saw security forces kill hundreds of supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, who had been democratically elected. They are also not indifferent to or unaware of the Western-facilitated Israeli genocide in Gaza and Arab states' inability to put an end to it for 15 long months.

The Arab publics are very much aware that their states with experienced or would-be despots at the helm are now no more than terror or migration watchmen. They protect borders and seek to ensure the elusive "stability" that is of mutual interest to regional and Western leaders.

This is, perhaps, the most consequential and enduring legacy of the Tunisian revolution and the wider Arab Spring. The "emperor" is not defeated, sure. But he is exposed. Just as the vain emperor in the famous Danish folktale, the nakedness of Arab states and their rulers has become impossible to conceal. There are no clothes. There is no cover. There is no "democracy", bargain politics, power-sharing or free citizenship. The uprisings have built a new state-public relationship in the Arab world and let the cat out of the bag: The emperor has no clothes.

Fourteen years after Tunisia's revolution, democracy is still missing in Tunisia and in the wider Arab world. But so are all the emperors' clothes, and the Arab peoples have taken note. The revolutions' legacies live on.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.

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Tunisia's revolution 14 years on: 'The emperor has no clothes'

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The Arab Spring did not bring democracy to the region, but it remains a beacon of hope for struggling Arabs.

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‘No Kings’ anti-Trump protests planned in NY, NJ: Here’s when and where

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Hundreds of “No Kings Day” protests are planned across the United States – including in NJ and NYC – on Saturday, Oct. 18 to protest the Trump administration’s policies.

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A Guide to Abdication in the 21st Century

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Grand Duke Henri joins a short list of monarchs who have abdicated their thrones this century.

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Analysis: How kings and queens and Churchill's ghost are working their magic on Trump | CNN Politics

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Britain gave President Donald Trump a welcome fit for the king he often pretends to be.

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As details of Prince Andrew's past correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein continue to surface, royal experts claim King Charles III is facing mounting pressure from family members to exile his brother as fear of the monarchy's demise lingers.

"Given recent revelations, with mounting media outrage threatening the overall reputation of the monarchy, the extended family isn't taking this lightly," British royals expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital of Prince Andrew's past relationship with the convicted sex offender. "Prince William is enraged. He is actively lobbying to ensure Andrew is 'completely excluded' from all and any family activities. He is also behind removing titles once he becomes king."

On Sunday, The Guardian published a leaked email that was allegedly sent from Prince Andrew to Epstein shortly after a picture of the disgraced royal with his arm around a teenage Virginia Giuffre was released in 2011.
PRINCE ANDREW TOLD JEFFREY EPSTEIN 'WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER' AFTER VIRGINIA GIUFFRE PHOTO SURFACED
"I'm just as concerned for you! Don't worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it," he allegedly wrote in an email sent to Epstein on February 28, 2011. "Otherwise keep in close touch and we'll play some more soon!!!!"

The email was sent three months after Prince Andrew told the he had cut all communication with Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell weeks after his 2019 arrest. The American financier was awaiting trial on U.S. federal sex-trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14. Investigators ruled his death a suicide.

A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace previously told Fox News Digital they don't answer for Prince Andrew as he's no longer a working royal.

"Andrew's narrative doesn't match the intercepted emails," British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard told Fox News Digital. "The general consensus is he didn't ever attempt to end his friendship with Epstein indicating that he has continuously lied."

"As more embarrassing material appears ... there isn't much the monarch can do. It may get worse and this will damage the monarchy."
- Richard Fitzwilliams

"More and more revelations are being unearthed, and he is a huge embarrassment to the Royal Family," Chard added. "The emails have helped the general public form an unfavorable opinion of Andrew. Andrew is a damaging distraction to the Royal Family's dignified role of service. It is rumored that we are at the tip of the iceberg. Further damning revelations are about to land, no doubt further muddying the waters."

Chard said Andrew believes he has "done no wrong."

" Prince Andrew's ego reigns supreme," she said. "He will stay put until his last breath. His emboldened sense of self feels he has done no wrong. In fact, he sees himself as a devoted practicing Christian."

"He is immersed in what he sees as an unfair battle, and he is in it for the long game," Chard added. "Completely detached from the consequences of his actions, it is a big shame that he can't act with an abundance of empathy and foster cooperation, preventing further unfair humiliation to the Royal Family... There is an expectation that it is King Charles responsibility to put an end to the Andrew debacle, however he is not a magician and can't magic him off into thin air."

Andrew stepped down as a royal in 2019 following a disastrous interview with Newsnight, where he attempted to address concerns about his links to Epstein. The televised sit-down backfired when the British prince failed to explain his continued association with Epstein or show sympathy for his victims.

In an explosive new book about the disgraced Duke of York, "Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York," author Andrew Lownie said Prince Andrew and Epstein bonded over "money and sex."

"I think the reason that Epstein and Andrew were such good friends was that they were interested in the same stuff, basically money and sex," Lownie told Fox News Digital in August.
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"Andrew gave Epstein respectability and some useful contacts from his role as a special trade envoy... And for Andrew, Epstein provided someone who would pay [his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson's] bills, someone who provided a ready supply of women and also, as he said in the Newsnight interview, had some useful contacts for him."

"It was a win-win situation for both of them," Lownie added.

As more details surface, the harder it will be for the monarch's chance at changing the narrative, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Fox News Digital.

"As more embarrassing material appears, and very possibly more that involves Sarah Ferguson, there isn't much the monarch can do. It may get worse and this will damage the monarchy," Fitzwilliams said.

According to the , the Duchess of York - who divorced Prince Andrew in 1996 - reached out to Epstein in 2011 after publicly denouncing their friendship during an interview with the Evening Standard.
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During the interview, Ferguson expressed her "deep regret," and promised to "have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again," three years after he had been imprisoned for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

In an alleged email to Epstein following the interview, Ferguson referred to the disgraced sex offender as a "steadfast, generous and supreme friend."

"I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that," Ferguson allegedly wrote.
JEFFREY EPSTEIN CONTACT LIST: AG PAM BONDI RELEASES HIGHLY ANTICIPATED DOJ DOCUMENTS
"I was advised, in no uncertain terms, to have nothing to do with you and to not speak or email you and if I did I would cause more problems to you, [Prince Andrew] and myself," she continued. "I was instructed to act with the utmost speed if I would have any chance of holding on to my career as a children's book author and a children's philanthropist."

In a statement to The Guardian, a representative for Ferguson said she stood by her public condemnation of Epstein.
PRINCE ANDREW, JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S FRIENDSHIP FUELED BY 'MONEY AND SEX': AUTHOR
"Like many people, she was taken in by [Epstein's] lies. As soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations against him, she not only cut off contact but condemned him publicly, to the extent that he then threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with pedophilia," the statement read. "She does not resile from anything she said then. This email was sent in the context of advice the duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats."

A representative for Ferguson did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment at the time.

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King Charles faces family uproar as Prince William tries to 'exclude' Prince Andrew: experts

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Leaked emails between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein contradict the duke's claims of cutting contact, intensifying pressure on King Charles III to exile his brother.

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African monarchs are important figures in their countries. In South Africa, many Zulu people are strongly tied to the royal family and indigenous laws of dispute resolution, including divorce. Polygamy is accepted and divorce is discouraged, even if a marriage is not working out. But now AmaZulu king Misuzulu kaZwelithini has been in the headlines because he filed divorce papers against his first wife, Queen Ntokozo kaMayisela, in order to marry a fourth. The queen approached the court to stop the wedding, claiming that their civil marriage in 2021 - shortly after he became king - forbids remarriage without divorce. Her request was denied, but the king has not proceeded with the new marriage. South Africans are talking about the case because the king is the custodian of Zulu custom. His divorce bid calls into question the changing position of indigenous laws on marriage and divorce. We asked Anthony Diala, a scholar of African customary law, how to make sense of things.
Who are the Zulu royals?

The Zulu royal family is a prominent lineage dating back to the 1500s. They rule the AmaZulu nation, whose estimated 10 million people are the largest ethnic group in South Africa, residing mainly in the KwaZulu-Natal province. They're part of the Nguni people, sharing broader ancestral and linguistic roots.

Prominent Zulu royals include Shaka kaSenzangakhona, known as Shaka Zulu, who transformed the AmaZulu clan into a powerful empire in the 1800s. He was succeeded by his half-brothers because he had no children. Cetshwayo kaMpande led the Zulu during the colonial-era Anglo-Zulu War.

The AmaZulu royals include the king, his consorts, and their legitimate descendants. They are funded mainly through yearly allocations of about $4.2 million (R77.5 million) from the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government. This is almost matched by the income they earn from tenancy fees through their control of the Ingonyama Trust, which owns about 30% of the land in KwaZulu-Natal.

The current monarch grew up in neighbouring Eswatini, studied in the US, and took the throne in 2021. So, in a sense, he is a new generation king. As a significant cultural authority, it is understandable why his family are in the headlines about a divorce.

How does Zulu culture deal with divorce?

The king's move is unprecedented because wives typically remain part of the royal household even if their relationship with the king ends. Generally, the indigenous laws of the AmaZulu discourage divorce.

This is because the clan plays a major role in the marriage contract, its stability, and its dissolution. Due to the close-knit nature of pre-colonial society and the communal nature of income generation, bridewealth ( lobola/ilobolo) was raised by the groom's family mostly through livestock given to the bride's family. Being heavily invested in the marriage, the families of the couple usually intervened when issues that threatened marriage arose. This made divorce rare.

Read more: Zulu monarchy: how royal women have asserted their agency and power throughout history

Before European colonialism, divorce did not need the intervention of a court. Marriage could be nullified only on the grounds of witchcraft, adultery or insanity.

So, as unions between families rather than couples alone, marriage was considered a bond between families. The implication is that a divorced wife in good standing with her husband's family could continue to live in his family homestead. However, this situation is changing.

What is the impact of western culture?

Western culture reflects socio-economic changes of colonialism and globalisation. These include technology, urbanisation, personal income, formal education, social media and statutory laws. It's important to contextualise how these changes are influencing divorce.

Indigenous laws emerged in close-knit social settings and were aimed at promoting clan welfare. In contrast, modern conditions promote individualism, urbanisation, personal income, and binary ideas of gender equality. In the past, the groom's family communally transferred bridewealth. After divorce, bridewealth was returned - fully or partially - to signify divorce. Communal cohesion ensured that the clan promoted marriage stability.

Today, bridewealth is no longer required to validate a customary law marriage. Its role in divorce has diminished, and only state courts can dissolve marriages. In any case, a wide range of customary laws regulate all aspects of marriage.

My research shows that western culture contributes to divorce when Africans adapt their indigenous behaviour to modern conditions. In essence, modernity is altering Zulu indigenous behaviour to conform to western-inspired statutory laws.

Can a balance be found?

Although the Zulu people still cherish the institution of marriage, western culture is changing their attitudes towards divorce. Its influence highlights the struggle between indigenous laws and the legal system imposed by Dutch and British colonisers.

Read more: What the Zulu kingship judgment tells us about the future of South African customary law

Roman-Dutch law is a fusion of English customary laws, Germanic tribal laws and Roman law forms. It forms the basis of South African common law. Balancing indigenous laws and Roman-Dutch law is difficult precisely because indigenous laws are increasingly subject to western culture.

South Africa's 1996 constitution mandates the courts to "apply (recognise) customary law when that law is applicable". But the laws they recognise must not contradict constitutional values and any legislation that regulates customary law.

So, indigenous laws are compelled to conform to constitutional values of equality, non-discrimination and human dignity. Therefore, the regulation of indigenous laws presents western values as superior to indigenous laws. This forces Africans to seek normative validation through western yardsticks.

Read more: Understanding the relevance of African customary law in modern times

Balancing indigenous laws and state laws would need policy focus on how Africans adapt their indigenous behaviour to socio-economic changes.

These adaptations create customary laws, which should be understood as the practices that people regard as obligatory. The solution to balancing indigenous and western culture is to recognise and interpret indigenous laws with their own foundational values, instead of using values that represent the legal systems imposed during colonial rule.

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Royal Zulu divorce drama: South African traditions are having to change with the times

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Zulu custom opposes divorce except in very particular circumstances. But King Misuzulu kaZwelithini has turned to the courts to end his marriage.

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New Louvre Abu Dhabi exhibition is a celebration of the history and royalty of Sub-Saharan Africa | The National

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Kings and Queens of Africa: Forms and Figures of Power is running until May 25

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Jean-Jacques Dessalines: Reassessing the Haitian revolutionary leader’s legacy

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Historian Julia Gaffield discusses her recent biography on Haiti’s first leader, whose life she argues was unfairly tarnished by biased verdicts of history.

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Okayama University Tsushima Campus, 1 Chome-1-1 津島中 Kita Ward, Okayama, Japan

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Okayama University Tsushima Campus, 1 Chome-1-1 津島中 Kita Ward, Okayama, Japan

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Okayama University Tsushima Campus, 1 Chome-1-1 津島中 Kita Ward, Okayama, Japan

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How Urea and Nickel Held Back Earth’s Oxygen Revolution

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When I spotted a headline about Earth’s ancient oceans and urea, my brain immediately went to the obvious place. Urea, the same compound found in urine. Yes, scientists are telling us that a component of wee played a crucial role in one of the most important events in our planet’s history. Sometimes science really does have a sense of humour.

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Scientists in many fields have been getting little attention over the last two years or so as the world focused on the emergency push to develop vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. But labs and researchers have remained busy reporting a dizzying series of major discoveries and achievements.

1. Restoring reefs

Coral bleaching has been a rapidly growing problem as climate change worsens. Without intervention, the reefs will continue to deteriorate. To counter this, scientists have explored the idea of a "coral gym," essentially a " laboratory to make corals stronger," reported. The goal is to "train" coral to survive more extreme conditions.

Warming oceans and rising temperatures are the largest contributors to coral degradation. "One of the things that we do in this lab is subject them to different environmental conditions and evaluate who's a little bit stronger," Ian Enochs, lead of the Coral Program at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told NPR. Researchers created a "complex matrix of aquariums" where they can "subject different types of corals to different environments and not only understand how they might survive, but perhaps help them to do so."

2. AI to find aliens

Scientists have created an artificial intelligence model that can detect alien life, according to a study published in the journal . The algorithm can "distinguish between samples of biological and nonbiological origin 90% of the time," after being "trained using living cells, fossils, meteorites and lab-made chemicals," Live Science reported. "Put another way, the method should be able to detect alien biochemistries, as well as Earth life," Robert Hazen, co-author of the study, said in a .

The AI "does not involve a machine having to look for specific things," but rather "looks for differences between samples," reported. "These results mean that we may be able to find a lifeform from another planet, another biosphere, even if it is very different from the life we know on Earth," Hazen continued. "And, if we do find signs of life elsewhere, we can tell if life on Earth and other planets derived from a common or different origin."

3. Inverse vaccines

Scientists may have found a way to calm immune responses for those with autoimmune disorders using an "inverse vaccine," according to a study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The immune system responds to specific identifying markers on invaders like viruses and bacteria called antigens, [b]ut some immune cells react to self-antigens," which are "molecules from our own cells," explained . "[I]n autoimmune diseases, these misguided immune cells turn against patients' own tissues."

The new research worked by "directing potential self-antigens to the liver," where "immune cells there pick up self-antigens and then stifle T cells that could target these molecules." The experiment was performed on mice. "The method they use is promising and potentially can induce better tolerance," neurologist and neuroimmunologist A.M. Rostami told Science, adding that "we don't know" whether this approach is "applicable to human disease in which we don't know the antigen."

4. Sequencing the Y-chromosome

Scientists have finally sequenced the entire Y chromosome, one of the human sex chromosomes present in those assigned male at birth. The feat has been "notoriously difficult" because of the Y chromosome's "complex repeat structure," according to the research paper published in the journal .

Understanding the Y chromosome can help with a number of health issues, including fertility. Genes have also "been shown to be required for the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease," Kenneth Walsh, a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, told CNN.

5. Discovering the motion of space-time

The gravitational wave finding "does not put any torque on everyday human existence," per the Post, "but it does offer potential insight into the physical reality we all inhabit."

6. Gene therapy for muscular dystrophy

The Food and Drug Administration approved gene therapy for children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, reported . The treatment is limited to children aged four and five while more research is being done on its safety and effectiveness.

Muscular dystrophy appears in boys far more often than girls and can be debilitating, or even fatal in a person's 30s or 40s. The treatment, developed by Sarepta Therapeutics, has faced some criticism, as there are some concerns about whether it is actually safe and effective.

7. Improving heart health

Bempedoic acid works similarly to statins, but since it is only activated in the liver, is less likely to cause muscle aches. Side effects include an increased risk of gout.

8. AI mind reading

9. Slowing Alzheimer's

A drug from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly showed signs of slowing the advance of Alzheimer's disease by approximately one-third, reported. The drug, called donanemab, acts as an antibody specifically created to attack and remove "sticky gunk" called beta-amyloid, which "builds up in the spaces between brain cells, forming distinctive plaques that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's," BBC explained. "We are now entering the time of disease modification, where we might realistically hope to treat and maintain someone with Alzheimer's disease, with long-term disease management rather than palliative and supportive care," Dr. Cath Mummery of the U.K.'s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery told the outlet.

A side effect, however, is fatal swelling in the brain, which potentially affected three of the clinical trial participants.

10. Mice with two male parents

Researchers successfully created live baby mice with two male parents. According to new research, this was done by manipulating the chromosomes of a male stem cell, which turned it into a female egg cell, wrote . "This is the first case of making robust mammal oocytes from male cells," remarked Katsuhiko Hayashi of Kyushu University, who led the research, per The Guardian.

While the vast majority of the mice pups did not survive, the few that did grow up normally and were fertile adults. The genetic manipulation required to create the embryos is "a significant advance with significant potential applications," according to Keith Latham, a developmental biologist at Michigan State University. It could be used to treat or prevent genetic disorders, or even help same-sex couples have biological children.

11. Carbon capture

Scientists have found a way to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert it to baking soda to be stored in the sea. In a recent study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers also found a way to make carbon capture more efficient by using a hybrid of existing methods. "This simple ability to capture CO2 at a high quantity, in a small volume of material, is a unique aspect of our work," said the study's lead author Arup SenGupta, per .

Baking soda is also safe to store in the ocean. "Higher alkalinity also means more biological activity; that means more CO2 sequestration," SenGupta explained. In turn, the ocean can act as an "infinite sink" with an "immense capacity for accessible CO2 storage lasting hundreds to thousands of years," the University of Edinburg's Stuart Haszeldine told New Scientist.

However, to truly be effective, carbon capture needs to be expanded, and will only reach the appropriate scale if "it's made a licensing condition of continuing to sell fossil fuels," added Myles Allen from the University of Oxford.

12. Curing HIV

"It's really [a] cure, and not just, you know, long-term remission," said Dr. Bjorn-Erik Ole Jensen, per . Stem cell transplants are considered high-risk and normally reserved for people diagnosed with cancer. The Dusseldorf patient was only the third to receive the treatment and be cured of HIV. For now, the treatment will likely continue to be reserved for cancer patients, the Post added, but it "shows it's not impossible - it's just very difficult - to remove HIV from the body."
Editor's note: This article will be updated throughout the year.

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From photos of the infant universe to an energy advancement that could save the planet

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Rockefeller University Field Research Center, Tyrrel Road, Millbrook, NY

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Rockefeller University Field Research Center, Tyrrel Road, Millbrook, NY

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Rockefeller University Field Research Center, Tyrrel Road, Millbrook, NY

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Intriguing science discoveries of 2024 - News

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This year, our scientists illuminated the mysteries of memory and aging. They gained new insight into how cancer infiltrates the body and the three neurons that may be driving the impulse to eat. Across fields as diverse as neuroscience, CRISPR technology, and stem cell biology, these groundbreaking discoveries added up to another impressive year for […]

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NASA Space Center Houston Visitor Center, Houston, TX

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NASA Space Center Houston Visitor Center, Houston, TX

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NASA Space Center Houston Visitor Center, Houston, TX

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Old Missions, New Discoveries: NASA’s Data Archives Accelerate Science - NASA Science

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NASA’s science data archives continually enable new scientific discoveries, with over 50% of scientific publications relying on archival data.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill aimed at ramping up the housing supply, bucking opposition from detractors including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and neighborhoods around the state's largest city.

The legislation allows apartment buildings as tall as nine stories to be constructed near mass transit stations regardless of local zoning codes, which supporters say will help tame sky-high housing prices. Bass warned of "unintended consequences," while opponents in residential enclaves said too much construction will spoil their neighborhoods' quiet atmosphere.

The clash emerged as a flashpoint in the long-running battles over how to ease a chronic housing shortage in a state where the median home price is more than $800,000. Newsom, a potential presidential contender, has previously outlined plans for California to add 2.5 million homes. The Los Angeles area has one of the nation's highest percentages of severely cost-burdened renters, and a majority of residents say they have considered leaving due to high prices.

"All Californians deserve an affordable place to live - close to jobs, schools and opportunity," Newsom said in a statement. "Housing near transit means shorter commutes, lower costs and more time with family."

Like Bass, Newsom is a Democrat and his decision signals more housing fights to come in party bastions such as Los Angeles.

In areas such as Westwood, an upscale district with Spanish revival-style homes and high-end condos, some residents said they're worried that a building binge will degrade their quality of life. They also said they have their own plans to add multifamily dwellings in the neighborhood, which according to Redfin has a median home price of $1.2 million.

"Scores of historical buildings and single-family homes would be decimated for no reason," said Steve Sann, chair of the Westwood Neighborhood Association. "We already know where we want our high-density housing. But before we've had a chance to fully implement it, here comes Sacramento with a bulldozer."

The UCLA campus in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who authored the legislation, said it's too soon to estimate how much home construction his plan would unlock. But addressing affordability will require adding density in zones which until now have been off limits, he said.

"If we're not building more housing near the highest quality public transportation, where the hell are we building it?" Wiener said.

Wiener sponsored several other housing initiatives over the years, including a recent measure that exempted some projects from environmental reviews. When Newsom signed that into law in June, he called it part of his "abundance agenda," a political movement gaining ground among Democrats that's leading to more aggressive pro-building measures.

The new California law allows taller apartment buildings within a half mile of heavily used transit stations across eight counties, including places like San Francisco and San Diego. It also removes some protections for building on historical land.

In Westwood, which is tucked between Beverly Hills and Bel Air, residents were concerned that homes previously left untouched by other housing initiatives could potentially be redeveloped. The neighborhood is also due to add two new Los Angeles Metro stations by 2028, which can increase the area affected by the new building rules.

"Once you get that first apartment, watch people just start selling and selling and selling," said Terri Tippit, who has lived more than half a century in a Spanish revival-style home two miles south of the University of California at Los Angeles.

Councilwoman Traci Park, who also opposes the new rules, says they could drive out low-income families from places like East LA by making their homes susceptible to new zoning rules.

A key dispute is that the city already has a plan incentivizing multifamily construction near transit, without touching single-family homes. But critics say that plan's progress has been slow.

Los Angeles wants to add roughly 456,000 housing units by 2029, but only about 3,100 permits for new units were approved in the first half of this year. UCLA housing data analyst Aaron Barrall says he doubts the city can adequately meet its goal while exempting "the vast plurality of the city's land."

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Gavin Newsom Stares Down LA Revolt in California Housing Fight

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill aimed at ramping up the housing supply, bucking opposition from detractors including Los Angeles Mayor Karen

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UC Law SF Professors Explore Supreme Court’s Impact on Individual Rights and Government Power - UC Law San Francisco (Formerly UC Hastings)

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The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

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After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, universities are navigating how to respond when community members says offensive things online. But if “dignity” becomes a rule, it stops inspiring virtue and starts enforcing conformity.

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Clemson Establishes Division of Civil and Individual Rights

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Clemson University has announced the formation of the Division of Civil and Individual Rights, which will be home to the Title IX Office and ADA

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In her single ten-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Justice Rebecca Bradley made more of an intellectual impact than many justices make in two or three times that length of service on the bench. As she declines to run again and finishes her tenure, Wisconsinites owe a deep debt of gratitude to the foremost champion of our constitutional rights and liberties on our state courts.

First appointed by Gov. Scott Walker in 2015 and elected to a full term in her own right after a hard-fought race in 2016, Bradley laid down an early marker for her judicial philosophy in the 2017 case Gabler v. Crime Victims Rights Board.

The state legislature had established an executive agency to protect the rights of crime victims in court proceedings, in itself a noble goal. But the agency was empowered to oversee and even reprimand judges in their conduct of criminal cases, which infringed on a core judicial function.

Bradley explained that this violated the separation of powers, the fundamental constitutional principle that each branch ( legislative, executive, judicial) serves a unique and important function, and that the branches must respect one another's particular provinces. Just like we do not want judges acting as "legislators in robes" by rewriting laws through judicial opinions, we also do not want legislators or executive officials supervising judges as they handle criminal cases.

Opinion: Looking for a free mini puzzle? Lee Hawkins' family history book shows depth of harm from slavery and Jim Crow Play the USA TODAY Quick Cross now.

Bradley opinion set strong rule for judicial independence

The very next year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court took Gabler as precedent for an even more important case: TetraTech v. Department of Revenue. The question in that case was whether the courts would defer to agency bureaucrats when they interpret statutes which the agency administers. In other words, do the judges say what the law is, or do the bureaucrats?

In an opinion that would anticipate the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo in 2024, Wisconsin's high court set down a strong rule favoring judicial independence over agency deference.

The importance of the Gabler case would be apparent again and again thanks to two deeper currents in our state: first, the COVID-19 pandemic, and second, the split in party control of our state government (with a Democratic governor and Republican legislature), both of which put front-and-center questions about governmental power between the branches.

Thus, Bradley's concurring opinion in Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm, the seminal case on pandemic powers, opened by reference to Gabler and the separation of powers: "The people of Wisconsin never consented to any elected official, much less an unelected cabinet secretary, having the power to create law, execute it, and enforce it."

More recently, the governor and attorney general have squared off against the Legislature in a series of cases dealing primarily with committee oversight of executive actions. Though Bradley has been in dissent more often in these cases, she consistently returns to the importance of checks-and-balances between the branches.

However, when judges inappropriately assert their own power to preempt executive or legislative prerogatives, they aggrandize the judiciary outside its proper role, as in Kaul v. Urmanski's abortion decision. There, she said court's "majority erases a law it does not like, making four lawyers sitting on the state's highest court more powerful than the People's representatives in the legislature."

She called out that decision as "a raw exercise of political power" rather than a properly reasoned judicial decision. That is another function of the separation of powers: it requires the judiciary to police itself to stay in its own lane.

Decisions shaped by nation's foundational documents

Throughout these and her other opinions, two key themes emerge. First is her regular return to the foundational documents of our republic: our federal and state constitutions and early explanations of the political philosophy that shaped them, like The Federalist Papers, Locke, and Montesquieu.

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Second is a keen commitment to protecting individual rights and liberties. The separation of powers, for instance, with its system of divided powers and checks-and-balances, is good because it ensures liberty for individual citizens. When governmental power is diffuse rather than concentrated, accountable rather than insulated, and closer to the voters, then it is more likely to respect individual freedom.

Because these principles are embedded across her scores of opinions (for Justice Bradley was an active writer of not only majority opinions, but also dissents and concurrences), she leaves an intellectual legacy that will mark the path for generations of judges to come.

As voters consider candidates to replace her, they will likely face a stark choice in April 2026. Will our next justice join an activist majority enamored with its own power and unafraid to wield it to advance progressive policy goals in spite of long-standing precedents and principles like the separation of powers?

Or will we elect another justice who shares Justice Bradley's conservative convictions and textualist/originalist philosophy, even if not her inimitable style?

Daniel R. Suhr is adjunct legal fellow at IRG. A former policy director for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, he's also an attorney with the Center for American Rights, a nonprofit law firm that holds powerful institutions accountable to the public. A graduate of Marquette, Marquette Law, Georgetown Law, and the University of Missouri, he lives in the Milwaukee area with his family, where they're active in their church and scouts.

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We owe Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley our gratitude | Opinion

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley is the foremost champion of our constitutional rights and liberties on Wisconsin Supreme Court.

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Students identifying as nonbinary on the decline, new study reveals

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A professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, Eric Kaufmann, pointed this out in a recent report.

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Opinion | Nine reasons for cautious optimism about individual liberty

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The pernicious emphasis on group rights over individual rights ran into a unanimous Supreme Court.

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countries without president and prime minister

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10 countries where kings and queens continue to reign

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In this modern world where democracies and republics dominate, the monarchy system still exists. They blend historical splendor with contemporary governance. Kings and queens symbolize unity and continuity, standing tall as the guardians of the traditions of their lands.

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Review: Indonesia’s Red Enlightenment - Inside Indonesia: The peoples and cultures of Indonesia

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A quarterly magazine on the peoples of Indonesia - cultures, politics, economy and environment

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“My books have followed a thread, trying to explain a tension between Latin America and the United States.”

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WASHINGTON - Members of Congress are growing concerned over a lack of information from the Trump administration about the intelligence and strategy underlying its strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, six sources told NBC News.

Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have left briefings about the strikes frustrated with the lack of information, said these people: five congressional sources and an additional source with knowledge of the matter. Some have asked for unedited video of the strikes, reflecting the kind of basic information they seek, but the administration has so far refused to provide it.

At a briefing a few weeks ago, Republican lawmakers were clearly upset with the answers they received, one of the congressional sources said.

"The Republicans were mad that the briefers were unable to answer questions about the legal basis for the operations," the source said.

Some members of Congress - including Republicans who broadly support the attacks and the administration generally - are also concerned about the level of precision of the intelligence used to determine targets and the possibility that an American citizen could be killed in the operations, several of the sources said. A Defense Department spokesperson said members are being fully informed, and last week most GOP senators voted to defeat a measure that would have required congressional approval before more attacks were launched.

Lawmakers are also asking the administration to explain who was killed in the strikes, how they were positively identified as legitimate targets for lethal force, what intelligence indicated that they had possible links to drug trafficking gangs and what information showed that they were heading to the United States with drugs, the sources said.

They have also asked whether the administration has weighed the potential response from trafficking groups, including the possibility of retaliation inside the United States.

Since Sept. 2, President Donald Trump has ordered at least five military strikes in the Caribbean on boats his administration says were moving illicit drugs from Venezuela to the United States. Officials say 27 people have been killed in the attacks, the most recent of which Trump announced Tuesday.

Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted short, grainy video clips of the strikes on social media. The clips include multiple edits, contributing to questions in Congress about whether the targets are definitely the drug smuggling boats the administration has said they are and about the circumstances and locations of the operations. Raw, unedited video could help reassure lawmakers about the origins of the vessels being targeted, as well as provide more context for them to better understand the circumstances under which the vessels are targeted or even where the strikes are occurring.

After the first strike, Trump said the boat the United States destroyed was linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, but the White House has yet to provide evidence to back up that claim. Drugs were found in the water after one strike, an official from the Dominican Republic said at a news conference last month. The United States has not revealed evidence that drugs were on all the boats.

Asked about the lawmakers' request for more information and video, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said administration officials have kept Congress fully informed about the strikes and the legal authorities involved with frequent briefings.

"The Department of War has given numerous briefs and notifications to Congress that have extensive details of the policy, operations, tactical intelligence, and authorities invoked," Parnell said in an email.

Parnell and the White House did not directly address why the administration so far has not provided lawmakers with access to unedited video of the attacks.

A White House official told NBC News, "The Department of War is working through additional requests for information from the Hill."

The administration has provided six classified briefings to relevant congressional committees and lawmakers over the past month, Pentagon and White House officials said.

Although no one on the congressional side disputes that there have been briefings by Pentagon officials, members from both parties have come away from them dissatisfied and frustrated at the vague nature of the information that was shared, the sources said.

NBC News has reported that the United States has been preparing options for strikes inside Venezuela's borders. Many lawmakers fear that extending the bombing to targets on land would pose a significant risk of civilian casualties, two of the congressional sources and the source with knowledge of the matter said. Targeting a vessel on the open seas is one thing, they believe, but striking a location on land brings more perils, including the possibility of inadvertent civilian deaths.

Some members of Congress also believe the strikes are illegal; others have concerns about their legality. The administration provided a letter to Congress in which it said Trump has determined that the United States is now engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug trafficking organizations and that it views members of those groups as "armed combatants," using the same legal rationale the government has previously used to go after Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorist groups.

After the first classified briefing by Pentagon officials, which they felt was lacking, multiple lawmakers asked the administration to give access to unedited video of the strikes to members of Congress, who would view the video only behind closed doors, the sources said. Members believe the raw video could help answer some of their questions. So far, though, the administration has not agreed to the request, the sources said.

During previous administrations, Pentagon and intelligence officials in some cases provided lawmakers with classified, nonpublic video or photos of specific counterterrorism operations.

Although Republicans have privately voiced concerns about the lack of information and clarity about the strikes, last week all but two GOP senators joined in voting down a resolution that would have required the Trump administration to seek congressional approval before it launched more attacks.

The resolution went down to defeat in a 51-48 vote. Two Republicans, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined almost all Democrats in voting in favor. (John Fetterman of Pennsylvania crossed the aisle and joined the rest of the Republicans in voting no.)

Paul said that he believes the strikes have no legal foundation and that the administration needs to provide evidence to justify the lethal bombing raids.

"Is it too much to ask to know the names of those we kill before we kill them, to know what evidence exists of their guilt?" Paul said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., voted against the resolution but said afterward that he was still "highly concerned about the legality" of the strikes, as well as the deployment of U.S. warships and other resources to the Caribbean that could be needed to counter China in the Pacific.

"The administration should adhere to the Constitution and keep the people's representatives informed on this critical national security issue," Young said in a statement.

'Secret list'

More than 20 Democrats in Congress wrote a letter to the administration last month posing a list of questions about the recent strikes and asking for a copy of all legal assessments of the attacks by federal agencies. The administration has yet to respond to the letter, according to a spokesperson for Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., last week accused the administration of failing to inform Congress and the American people about all the groups being targeted and all the groups Trump has designated as terrorist organizations.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Slotkin asked Charles Young, the principal deputy general counsel for the Defense Department, to identify the drug cartels that are viewed as adversaries in the campaign.

"How many new terrorist organizations are we currently in armed conflict with, and could you name them?" Slotkin asked.

Young, who has been nominated to be the Army's next general counsel, told Slotkin: "Senator, it may be more appropriate to discuss that with you in a closed session."

Slotkin replied that "we couldn't get it in a closed session" held with the Defense Department's new general counsel.

"I was a CIA officer and helped with targeting. I have no problem with going after these cartels," she added. "I have no problem designating terrorist organizations in general. But we've never had an instance where there's a secret list of what I understand to be dozens of new terrorist organizations that the American public and certainly the oversight committees don't get to know."

In justifying labeling cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, officials often cite the high death toll from fentanyl use in the United States. But Venezuela is not considered a source for the illegal fentanyl in the United States, which is mainly smuggled over land routes in small, easily concealed amounts across the Mexico-U.S. border, not by boat through the Caribbean, experts say.

A claim by Colombian President Gustavo Petro last week appeared to reflect the concern U.S. lawmakers have about the precision of the strikes and the intelligence behind them. Petro wrote on social media last week that a boat struck on Oct. 3, which the United States portrayed as Venezuelan, was actually from his country and carried Colombian citizens, and he also criticized what he said was a broader political campaign against Venezuela.

In a statement, a White House spokesperson dismissed what Petro said, but it was unclear whether the spokesperson was rejecting his central claim, that the boat was Colombian with Colombian citizens on it, not Venezuelan. The spokesperson did not respond to an attempt to clarify the administration's position.

"The United States looks forward to President Petro publicly retracting his baseless and reprehensible statement so that we can return to a productive dialogue on building a strong, prosperous future for the people of the United States and Colombia," the statement read.

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Members of Congress growing concerned over lack of information from administration about Venezuela strikes, sources say

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Republicans and Democrats say the administration is failing to share basic information with Congress about the intelligence, rationale and goals of its war on drug trafficking.

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Scientists in many fields have been getting little attention over the last two years or so as the world focused on the emergency push to develop vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. But labs and researchers have remained busy reporting a dizzying series of major discoveries and achievements.

1. Restoring reefs

Coral bleaching has been a rapidly growing problem as climate change worsens. Without intervention, the reefs will continue to deteriorate. To counter this, scientists have explored the idea of a "coral gym," essentially a " laboratory to make corals stronger," reported. The goal is to "train" coral to survive more extreme conditions.

Warming oceans and rising temperatures are the largest contributors to coral degradation. "One of the things that we do in this lab is subject them to different environmental conditions and evaluate who's a little bit stronger," Ian Enochs, lead of the Coral Program at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told NPR. Researchers created a "complex matrix of aquariums" where they can "subject different types of corals to different environments and not only understand how they might survive, but perhaps help them to do so."

2. AI to find aliens

Scientists have created an artificial intelligence model that can detect alien life, according to a study published in the journal . The algorithm can "distinguish between samples of biological and nonbiological origin 90% of the time," after being "trained using living cells, fossils, meteorites and lab-made chemicals," Live Science reported. "Put another way, the method should be able to detect alien biochemistries, as well as Earth life," Robert Hazen, co-author of the study, said in a .

The AI "does not involve a machine having to look for specific things," but rather "looks for differences between samples," reported. "These results mean that we may be able to find a lifeform from another planet, another biosphere, even if it is very different from the life we know on Earth," Hazen continued. "And, if we do find signs of life elsewhere, we can tell if life on Earth and other planets derived from a common or different origin."

3. Inverse vaccines

Scientists may have found a way to calm immune responses for those with autoimmune disorders using an "inverse vaccine," according to a study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The immune system responds to specific identifying markers on invaders like viruses and bacteria called antigens, [b]ut some immune cells react to self-antigens," which are "molecules from our own cells," explained . "[I]n autoimmune diseases, these misguided immune cells turn against patients' own tissues."

The new research worked by "directing potential self-antigens to the liver," where "immune cells there pick up self-antigens and then stifle T cells that could target these molecules." The experiment was performed on mice. "The method they use is promising and potentially can induce better tolerance," neurologist and neuroimmunologist A.M. Rostami told Science, adding that "we don't know" whether this approach is "applicable to human disease in which we don't know the antigen."

4. Sequencing the Y-chromosome

Scientists have finally sequenced the entire Y chromosome, one of the human sex chromosomes present in those assigned male at birth. The feat has been "notoriously difficult" because of the Y chromosome's "complex repeat structure," according to the research paper published in the journal .

Understanding the Y chromosome can help with a number of health issues, including fertility. Genes have also "been shown to be required for the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease," Kenneth Walsh, a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, told CNN.

5. Discovering the motion of space-time

The gravitational wave finding "does not put any torque on everyday human existence," per the Post, "but it does offer potential insight into the physical reality we all inhabit."

6. Gene therapy for muscular dystrophy

The Food and Drug Administration approved gene therapy for children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, reported . The treatment is limited to children aged four and five while more research is being done on its safety and effectiveness.

Muscular dystrophy appears in boys far more often than girls and can be debilitating, or even fatal in a person's 30s or 40s. The treatment, developed by Sarepta Therapeutics, has faced some criticism, as there are some concerns about whether it is actually safe and effective.

7. Improving heart health

Bempedoic acid works similarly to statins, but since it is only activated in the liver, is less likely to cause muscle aches. Side effects include an increased risk of gout.

8. AI mind reading

9. Slowing Alzheimer's

A drug from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly showed signs of slowing the advance of Alzheimer's disease by approximately one-third, reported. The drug, called donanemab, acts as an antibody specifically created to attack and remove "sticky gunk" called beta-amyloid, which "builds up in the spaces between brain cells, forming distinctive plaques that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's," BBC explained. "We are now entering the time of disease modification, where we might realistically hope to treat and maintain someone with Alzheimer's disease, with long-term disease management rather than palliative and supportive care," Dr. Cath Mummery of the U.K.'s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery told the outlet.

A side effect, however, is fatal swelling in the brain, which potentially affected three of the clinical trial participants.

10. Mice with two male parents

Researchers successfully created live baby mice with two male parents. According to new research, this was done by manipulating the chromosomes of a male stem cell, which turned it into a female egg cell, wrote . "This is the first case of making robust mammal oocytes from male cells," remarked Katsuhiko Hayashi of Kyushu University, who led the research, per The Guardian.

While the vast majority of the mice pups did not survive, the few that did grow up normally and were fertile adults. The genetic manipulation required to create the embryos is "a significant advance with significant potential applications," according to Keith Latham, a developmental biologist at Michigan State University. It could be used to treat or prevent genetic disorders, or even help same-sex couples have biological children.

11. Carbon capture

Scientists have found a way to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert it to baking soda to be stored in the sea. In a recent study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers also found a way to make carbon capture more efficient by using a hybrid of existing methods. "This simple ability to capture CO2 at a high quantity, in a small volume of material, is a unique aspect of our work," said the study's lead author Arup SenGupta, per .

Baking soda is also safe to store in the ocean. "Higher alkalinity also means more biological activity; that means more CO2 sequestration," SenGupta explained. In turn, the ocean can act as an "infinite sink" with an "immense capacity for accessible CO2 storage lasting hundreds to thousands of years," the University of Edinburg's Stuart Haszeldine told New Scientist.

However, to truly be effective, carbon capture needs to be expanded, and will only reach the appropriate scale if "it's made a licensing condition of continuing to sell fossil fuels," added Myles Allen from the University of Oxford.

12. Curing HIV

"It's really [a] cure, and not just, you know, long-term remission," said Dr. Bjorn-Erik Ole Jensen, per . Stem cell transplants are considered high-risk and normally reserved for people diagnosed with cancer. The Dusseldorf patient was only the third to receive the treatment and be cured of HIV. For now, the treatment will likely continue to be reserved for cancer patients, the Post added, but it "shows it's not impossible - it's just very difficult - to remove HIV from the body."
Editor's note: This article will be updated throughout the year.

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From photos of the infant universe to an energy advancement that could save the planet

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Great Discoveries of 2025 Nobel Prize in Science

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The Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, the most prestigious awards given for scientific achievements in the world, have been announced to honor great discoveries in science. Let’s have a look at the feats recognized this year.

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Food waste is more than just the starting material for compost. From dried-up beet pulp to millipede-digested coconut fibers, scientists are finding treasure in our trash. Four recent papers published in ACS journals detail how food waste contains sustainable solutions for farming and new sources of bioactive compounds for pharmaceuticals.

Sugar by-product may "beet" wheat disease. Researchers report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that sugar beet pulp could help reduce agriculture's reliance on synthetic pesticides. The pulp, about 80% of the beet's original weight, is left over after sugar processing. In experiments, the team converted this pectin-rich material into carbohydrates that activated the plants' natural protection mechanisms against crop diseases, like powdery mildew on wheat.

Composted coconuts help seedlings grow. Millipede-composted coconut fibers could be a sustainable alternative to peat moss that is traditionally used for seedling germination. Peat is harvested from sensitive ecosystems that help preserve groundwater quality. A recent study to find a peat replacement, published in ACS Omega, demonstrated that this coconut "millicompost," mixed with other plant materials, is just as effective for growing bell pepper seedlings.

Radish leaves support gut health. According to a review in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, often-discarded radish tops may be better for you than the zesty root itself. These leafy greens, which also have a peppery taste, are rich in dietary fiber and bioactive compounds. These nutritive compounds, such as polysaccharides and antioxidants, helped beneficial gut microbes grow in several lab and animal studies, which suggests they could also improve overall gut health in humans.

Beet greens supply bioactive ingredients. A paper in ACS Engineering Au details a method for keeping bioactive compounds isolated from beet leaves stable for use as potential ingredients for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food products. By aerosolizing and drying a liquid mixture containing antioxidant-rich beet-green extract and an edible biopolymer, the researchers created microparticles of encapsulated extract. They say the microparticles had more antioxidant activity than the extract itself, so the coating may prevent degradation.

The post Scientists propose 4 new uses for old veggies first appeared in the American Chemical Society Newsroom.

Note: ACS does not conduct research but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. About American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is committed to improving all lives through the transforming power of chemistry. Its mission is to advance scientific knowledge, empower a global community and champion scientific integrity, and its vision is a world built on science. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, e-books and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world's scientific knowledge. ACS' main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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Turning Fruit And Veggie Scraps Into Solutions: Four New Scientific Discoveries For Food Waste - Where The Food Comes From

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Discover 4 innovative ways scientists turn veggie scraps into sustainable solutions for farming, health, and new bioactive products.

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Every year, Prospect puts together a list of Top Thinkers-a curated list of people who, through their ideas, are making an impact in the world right now-and asks you, the readers of this esteemed magazine, to vote for a winner.

This year the Prospect editorial team, together with some of our regular writers and contributors, have chosen 25 people whose work informs us about issues of critical global importance: climate, economics, freedom, geopolitics and technology.

In the climate category, nominees include experts on disinformation, policymaking, diplomacy and investing. One of the activists on the list marries hard-nosed protest with exuberance, empathy and a compelling case for joy.

In economics, our thinkers look beyond money and markets to address some of the biggest global trends and transformations. Among them are scholars whose work helps us understand inflation after the Ukraine War, tech's impact on inequality, Westminster's obsession with growth and the polarisation that could influence the outcome of the 2024 US election.

On the theme of freedom, our thinkers put forward contentious ideas: that the history of the British Empire is "morally mixed"; that the greatest threat from cancel culture isn't to freedom of speech; that the left has much in common with the reactionary right; that liberals have paved the right's way to power; and that homophobia in Uganda, where repressive legislation was passed in 2023, is a political tool used by self-interested politicians.

On geopolitics, our contributors suggested many worthy thinkers on China and US-China relations. Among these, we've highlighted a historian whose account of the influences on Chinese nationalism is essential to understanding Xi's China, and a US government adviser who is challenging the widely held view in Washington that interactions with Beijing are a zero-sum game. Elsewhere, our thinkers include a historian who has made an enemy of billionaires, an academic who asks whether nuclear disarmament is possible and a strategist who is training Ukraine's leaders to think creatively about how to win the war-and then rebuild.

Finally, in the world of technology, our nominees span everything from the risks and opportunities of AI to gene-editing, neuroscience and the possibility of a decentralised world wide web.

A disclaimer: this list is not exhaustive. There are many bright minds who haven't been featured here-this time. But when you visit our website to vote for your Top Thinker, we hope you'll take the time to let us know whose ideas, in your view, will change the world in 2024.
Profiles written by Sarah Collins, Alex Dean, Ellen Halliday, Peter Hoskin, Emily Lawford and David McAllister World's Top Thinkers 2024 is sponsored by Higginson Strategy

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The World's Top Thinkers 2024: ideas for a world on the brink

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As a planet and a civilisation we are approaching tipping points-some frightening, others freeing-that will transform life as we know it. Here, we present our annual list of intellectuals-from priests and strategists to neuroscientists and historians-who will help us navigate the world in the year ahead