Chicago's pollution could be keeping river monsters at bay
By Lauren Leffer
Silver carp pose a big threat to freshwater ecosystems… and also recreational boaters in the U.S. The invasive fish, which can be more than three feet long and upwards of 20 pounds, feed near the water's surface and are easily startled. When boaters go by, the fish leap out of the water by the dozen, and are liable to hit anything in their path—including people.
Even when they go undisturbed by humans, the fish still manage to sow chaos. They outcompete native species for food, and cause a complete reorganization of local ecosystems in the waterways where they establish. Already, they've triggered native species declines in the Missouri, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers and watersheds. And they're on the cusp of gaining some big ground.
Silver carp are less than 50 miles away from entering Lake Michigan. From there, they could subsequently spread through all of the Great Lakes and the rivers that feed into the lakes. Yet mysteriously, something has been holding them at bay for almost a decade. Unfortunately, science increasingly suggests that thing might be urban water pollution. What's a conservation manager to do? Listen closely to the latest episode of The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week to ponder this environmental conundrum.
By Rachel Feltman
In October 1968, the deep-sea submersible Alvin was preparing for a routine dive off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. Then a crucial cable snapped. Luckily, the hatch was still open—so everyone made it out okay. But unluckily, the hatch was open—so the vessel sank 5,000 feet to the ocean floor. It would remain there for nearly a year before being recovered. Alvin made it back to the surface in surprisingly good shape… and so did some of its cargo.
Inside the sub, researchers discovered a metal lunchbox packed with apples, thermoses of beef bouillon, and six bologna sandwiches, all remarkably well-preserved. The sandwiches were only slightly soggy, the apples looked 'pickled,' and despite a grayish tint, the bologna was still pink in the middle. Scientists were baffled. How had this meal survived nearly a year without rotting?
In this episode, we explore the incredible journey of Alvin, the strange science of deep-sea decay, and why microbes in the drink just don't seem up to the task of making a sandwich go bad. And, of course, we have to ask the question—who in their right mind actually took a bite?
By Laura Baisis
We know that dolphins and even dogs can surf in the water—according to viral videos in the early YouTube days. Apparently, bats can also surf. But instead of cruising through the water, the spooky little guys surf the air.
A recent study published in the journal Science found that when some of these winged mammals take on long-haul journeys, they will surf along the warm fronts of storms so that they can make it further while spending less energy. They're working smarter, not harder, and taking advantage of the air to travel a longer distance with less work
The study looked at a group of common noctule bats. These bats are found across parts of Europe, Asia, and North Africa and are one of only four bat species that are known to migrate across all of Europe. Using tiny sensors, the team was able to track the bats' migration. They found that changes in air temperature had a strong association with migratory flight. The bats were more likely to begin their movements just before warm fronts came in, leaving on nights where the air pressure dropped and temperature spiked. They appear to be leaving before incoming storms and then 'surfing' along the air movements that come with warm fronts, like drops in barometric pressure, temperature, and better wind.
Importantly, these findings could have implications for bat conservation. Bats can be susceptible to injury from wind turbines, so knowing when migrating bats might be in the area could allow engineers enough time to periodically shut down turbines.
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Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Baby creature found in UK river for the ‘first time in over 200 years.' See it
While surveying a river in the central United Kingdom, conservationists noticed a small aquatic creature. It probably didn't look like much to the average observer, but it turned out to be a first-of-its-kind sighting in 'over 200 years.' Volunteers and staff with the Don Catchment Rivers Trust recently conducted an electrofishing survey of the River Don in Sheffield as part of their ongoing monitoring efforts, the charity said in an Aug. 18 news release. Among their catch, the team noticed a baby fish and identified it as a young Atlantic salmon, or parr, the organization said. A photo shows the olive green fish. 'Atlantic salmon were once widespread in the River Don but became extinct locally due to pollution, overfishing, and weirs that blocked their migration routes,' the charity said. For decades, conservationists have worked to restore the 'ecologically dead' river, remove as many barriers as possible and install alternative 'fish passes.' 'Although adult salmon have been spotted making their way upstream in recent years, no one knew for sure if they were managing to spawn,' the organization said. 'Now we do.' The recent parr sighting is 'the first time in over 200 years' that Atlantic salmon have successfully spawned in the River Don, conservationists said. 'For almost my entire life I had to witness the misery of this once prolific salmon fishery,' Chris Firth, the organization co-founder, said in the news release. 'Its recovery is beyond my wildest expectation — and the discovery of this salmon parr is the culmination of my life's work.' A video shared on YouTube by the Don Catchment Rivers Trust shows the waterway. It's unclear if the baby salmon is 'an isolated event' of successful spawning 'or the beginning of something extraordinary,' the organization said. Still, a spokesperson for the Great Yorkshire Rivers Partnership said in the release that 'this is incredible news and is testament to the many years of hard work with partners to address the barriers on this catchment.' Conservationists said they plan to continue surveying the River Don, removing barriers and generally improving the salmon migration pathway. Electrofishing, the method used to catch the parr, is a surveying technique that uses an electric pulse to 'temporarily stun fish,' according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The stunned fish are not harmed and released after being identified. The River Don Catchment is in Sheffield and a roughly 170-mile drive northeast from London.
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Fox News
Brain implant turns thoughts into digital commands
A new brain implant now lets people control Apple devices, such as iPads, iPhones, and the Vision Pro, using only their thoughts. Synchron, an endovascular brain-computer interface (BCI) company based in New York, demonstrated the first wireless BCI that works with Apple's official protocol. Ten patients have received the implant: six in the U.S. and four in Australia. With this technology, users living with severe paralysis can navigate apps, send messages, and operate devices hands-free. This breakthrough greatly expands independence, as it enables patients to manage their environment, stream shows, and control smart home devices, all using only their minds. Synchron's advancement in BCI technology marks a significant step for assistive devices and hints at how we may interact with computers in the future. The device's hands-free, voice-free operation offers a powerful new level of accessibility and autonomy for people with disabilities. Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide—free when you join my Synchron is the first company to connect a brain implant directly to Apple devices using Apple's official BCI Human Interface Device (HID) protocol. This means no custom hacks or workarounds. The system simply connects over Bluetooth, just like a keyboard or a mouse, and works with iPhones, iPads, and even the Apple Vision Pro. In a powerful video shared by Synchron, ALS patient Mark Jackson demonstrates the tech in action. After losing the use of his hands, he's now able to navigate his iPad entirely with thought. That includes opening apps, composing messages, and staying connected with the people he loves-all without moving a muscle. Behind the scenes, Synchron's system uses artificial intelligence to decode brain signals and turn them into real-time digital commands. Machine learning models interpret motor intent, such as thinking about tapping your finger, and translate that into actions on the iPad. This AI-powered decoding helps the system feel smooth and responsive as users learn to control it with focus alone. One surprising new feature is the built-in signal strength meter. This visual cue shows patients how strong their brain signal is in real time. A blue box appears over an icon or app and fills up based on how clearly the system reads the user's intent. It may sound simple, but this is a huge deal. It helps users like Mark fine-tune their mental focus, adjust their posture, and improve their interaction without outside help. It's like seeing your brain in action and learning to drive it better. "When I lost the use of my hands, I thought I had lost my independence," Mark says in the video. "Now, with my iPad, I can message my loved ones, read the news, and stay connected with the world, just by thinking." BCIs like Synchron's Stentrode and Elon Musk's Neuralink have connected to devices before, but never like this. Previous setups required custom software or physical adapters. Now, thanks to Apple's new BCI HID protocol, brain-computer interfaces can plug right into the Apple ecosystem like any other accessory. That official integration opens the door to more features, better performance, and fewer setup hurdles. Synchron's COO, Kurt Haggstrom, calls it a "game changer" for both patients and the entire BCI industry. This tech isn't just for people with paralysis, at least, not forever. Today, it's a medical tool undergoing trials. Tomorrow, it could become a consumer product you buy at your local Apple Store. With Apple embracing BCI as a legitimate input method, everything from your phone to your smart home could one day be controllable by thought. That opens the door for more accessibility, more customization, and completely new ways of interacting with technology. Think your devices and data are truly protected? Take this quick quiz to see where your digital habits stand. From passwords to Wi-Fi settings, you'll get a personalized breakdown of what you're doing right - and what needs improvement. Take my Quiz here: Synchron's Apple demo marks a new era in brain-computer interaction. It turns thoughts into action using mainstream tech you probably already own. While it's still in its early stages, the direction is clear: BCI is moving out of the lab and into real life, and Apple is helping lead the charge. Would you trust your brain to control your devices? Or is this one step too far? Let us know by writing to us at Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide—free when you join my Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
National Geographic
11 hours ago
- National Geographic
Goodbye hard drives, hello DNA: How the double helix could transform data storage
A scientist examines a DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) profile on a screen. Photograph by Tek Image, Science Photo Library Illustration and animation by Diana Marques Video research by Patricia Healy Shakespeare's entire catalog of sonnets and eight of his tragedies, all of Wikipedia's English-language pages, and one of the first movies ever made: scientists have been able to fit the contents of all these works in a space smaller than a tiny test tube. They didn't somehow miniaturize them, though. Instead, they used DNA—the building block of all life—to encode the information in these creative works and store it at a microscopic scale. As humans adopt advanced tools like artificial intelligence, tomorrow's currency will be data. Already, tech giants like Microsoft are raising billions of dollars to construct data centers for AI. And there's a very real 'Storage Wars' scramble underway right now to figure out how to preserve and safeguard exponentially increasing amounts of data. Football field-size, gigawatt energy-sucking data centers are one option. Or DNA storage could be an energy-efficient, compact solution. (Ancient DNA, from Neanderthals to the Black Plague, is transforming archaeology) Step 1 Computers store each letter or pixel of digital data in combinations of ones and zeros. We typically think of DNA as a blueprint or instruction booklet—its sequences of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs tell molecular machines how to build the fabric of our very beings. DNA storage flips this paradigm on its head. Computer data make up the inputs, and DNA is the end product. A handful of start-ups are working to perfect the conversion of binary computer code into physical DNA strands, and in doing so, take a shot at disrupting the multibillion-dollar storage industry. Here's how they plan to move the industry away from microfilm, microfiche, disks, and servers. Traditional data storage relies on constant migration to prevent old data from degrading or the technology it's stored in from becoming obsolete. Varun Mehta, CEO of Atlas Data Storage, compares long-term data storage to painting the Golden Gate bridge—by the time you've gone from one end to the other, the first end is rusting and you have to start all over again. 'The same thing happens with long-term data storage,' he says. 'You're always moving from your old tape to your new tape.' He predicts that 'people who want to get off that treadmill will be the first to move to DNA.' Step 2: Encoding digital data in DNA Step 2 To store digital information on DNA, algorithms convert digital codes into combinations of the four letters that represent DNA's chemical bases—T, G, A, and C. In practice, DNA storage involves several steps: deciding on a code, making the DNA using a process called synthesis, and storing the resulting DNA strands. DNA storage methods also include ways to categorize the stored strands and convert nucleotide sequences back into information that may be compatible with computers or accessible in some other way. Though industry members formed the DNA Data Storage Alliance in 2020 in part to set standards, companies in the DNA storage space still approach each of these steps in slightly different ways. (This archaeologist hunts DNA from prehistoric diseases) First, to store information as DNA, scientists have to determine how the data will be translated. DNA is a base 4 system; in contrast, computers store and process information in binary. Instead of assigning a '1' or a '0' to each DNA nucleotide—an A, C, T, or G—you could instead assign a particular combination of two digits to each base—so an A might stand in for '00,' C '01,' T '10,' and G '11.' Theoretically, this means every DNA nucleotide can encode up to 2 unique bits. In practice, the system isn't as efficient as that (there are certain combinations of DNA nucleotides that are less stable or otherwise undesirable, and different chemistry protocols exist for turning bits into DNA bases). Catalog, one DNA storage company, announced in 2022 that it had encoded eight of William Shakespeare's tragedies into a single test tube. To do this, scientists had to translate about 207,000 words into strings of nucleotides using a class of enzymes called recombinases. They claimed their DNA-building machine, Shannon, encoded the plays into millions of nucleotides in a matter of minutes. 'To each of those words, you associate a random bit vector. A bit vector is just a sequences of ones and zeroes of a fixed length,' explains Catalog's head of DNA Computing, Swapnil Bhatia, in a video for the company. The word 'rose' might have a random bit vector stretching 1,000 numbers long, and different companies will have different ciphers for translating words into 1s, 0s, and nucleotides. Step 3: Synthesis Step 3 These letters are one part of the nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. Today, scientists are using them to build DNA strands that can store digital data instead of genetic information. DNA synthesis—the step of actually creating custom DNA strands—is another place where companies diverge in their methods. Catalog uses the principles of inkjet printing to exude tiny droplets containing premade DNA fragments. In each droplet, hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions take place per second to elongate the DNA strands. Atlas Data Storage, meanwhile, relies on semiconductor chips and silicon wafers as the environment for assembling strands of synthetic DNA. 'Once those strands are assembled, we harvest them from our chip,' Mehta says. 'These DNA strands really are like corn stalks growing in a field on this chip and once they've gotten to the height that we want—to the number of bases—then we harvest them.' (Dog DNA tests are on the rise. But are they reliable?) Step 4: Storing the DNA Step 4 The strands are archived in material like sealed vials or other materials. Storing and preserving these synthetic strands presents another set of hurdles. Catalog and Atlas store DNA samples inside metal capsules, where the strands are not exposed to the elements and degraded. To convert DNA back into bit form, one can sequence it—using the same technology that powers genetic testing like 23andMe. This method can't be done indefinitely; eventually, the sample will need to be copied over again to restore it. To create longer-lasting, accessible storage, some groups are working on fluorescent tags. Shining a light on the samples can tell researchers information about a given sample at a glance, the same way metadata can help us organize computer files without having to open them. If companies are able to surmount these challenges, a DNA storage system would take up a fraction of the space of traditional storage methods. 'The theoretical limit is astounding,' Mehta says. 'You could fill 50 petabytes worth of data in in a Tylenol-sized capsule'—or roughly 50,000 times as much data as an iPhone can store. Step 5 When it's time to retrieve digital data from DNA, an algorithm converts the archived information back to ones and zeros– and then back into pixels and letters that we can read. Storing information in such a small physical package raises philosophical questions about the purpose of storage. Could a storage device itself serve a purpose? Scientists have theorized and created proofs-of-concept of fabrics and everyday items like glasses that contain DNA-stored information. The company Catalog has a branch dedicated to 'DNA computing' to search and analyze synthetic DNA without first converting the information encoded in it back into bits. There could be some advantages to working with data in DNA form—rather than moving from one end to another, like a computer processor does, working with the data can occur in many places at once in parallel. DNA's status as the basic building block of life may someday make it one of our most durable technologies, Mehta says, because it means it isn't going anywhere. 'One thousand years from now, there probably will not be any DVD players. In fact, it's hard to find a VHS tape player anymore. But that's never going to happen with DNA, because we need it for our own health,' he says. 'We'll always have that technology available.' A version of this story appears in the August 2025 issue of National Geographic magazine.
