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Science history: James Webb Space Telescope launches — and promptly cracks our view of the universe
The James Webb Space Telescope blasted off from a launchpad in French Guiana in 2021, before reaching a spot in orbit a million miles away. It soon began breaking cosmology.
'What the heck is this?' James Webb telescope spots inexplicable planet with diamonds and soot in its atmosphere
Scientists using the James Webb telescope observed a distant exoplanet with an atmosphere of soot and diamonds, challenging all explanations.
The Year in Entertainment 2025: The TV that was top
The small screen took us everywhere from the shores of Cousins Beach to the emergency room at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center this year. Here's a look at the shows and limited series that defined 2025:It was the medical procedural drama The Pitt that scored the top prize at the Emmys this year. Led by Noah Wyle, who won the best actor in a drama Emmy for his portrayal of Dr. Robby in the new series, The Pitt's first season followed the challenges faced by health care workers on the front lines over the course of a single, 15-hour shift at the hospital. Other big winners at the ceremony included Seth Rogen's new comedy series The Studio, as well as the Netflix limited series Adolescence.Many prestige shows captured the cultural zeitgeist in 2025. Fans traveled to Thailand to check in for season 3 of The White Lotus, while the mystery at Lumon Industries continued to unfold as Severance season 2 rolled out. The Last of Us viewers mourned a fan-favorite character during its sophomore season, while Star Wars fans returned to a galaxy far, far away to bid farewell to Andor as it debuted its second and final season.Nobody could stop talking about The Summer I Turned Pretty. Whether you were team Conrad or team Jeremiah, fans couldn't keep their eyes off the dramatic third season of the teen romance series, which spanned from the U.S.'s East Coast all the way to Paris. While the series ended with Belly finally picking which brother she wanted to be with, the story isn't quite over. A feature film that will end the romantic saga has been greenlit by Prime Video.Finally, the year ended with the release of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things. It turned Netflix's streaming records upside down, accumulating 59.6 million views in its first five days and becoming the best-ever premiere week viewing numbers for an English-language series on the streaming platform.Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Plant science with a twist
Biology and engineering researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have uncovered the mechanism of plants’ twisting roots.
The iPad-like OnePlus Pad Go 2 is now available for $399 with free stylus or case
The holiday shopping season is just about over, but if you’re still looking for an easy gift — for you...
A national grant expands faith and health education - News
A new grant is helping Missouri State faculty teach students how to recognize and respond to the influences of faith and spirituality in care settings.
These space stories made us look up in 2025
Space is always inspiring and 2025 was no exception, with finding Betelgeuse’s buddy, debuting a prolific survey telescope and more.
The disunity of science is a feature, not a bug
Mathematical models wield miraculous power, but mistaking them for reality has trapped science in a destructive quest for a “Theory of Everything.” Physicist and philosopher Ragner Fjelland argues that this leads to bloated, Frankenstein theories kept alive by clumsy, ad-hoc amendments, which reduce rather than boost science’s power. Fjelland calls for a radical shift in our attitude: we must reorientate towards creating entirely new theories, celebrating rather than lamenting disunity and diversity in science. Science, from the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century to the present day, has more or less developed in a “reductionist” way. The fundamental assumption is that all sciences may be ordered in a hierarchy that can be represented as an upside-down pyramid. At the top we find the human sciences, and at the bottom physics. Strong (or “ontological”) reductionism maintains that all theories at one level can be completely reduced to the lower level, all the way down to theories of atoms and elementary particles, or whatever is “at the bottom.” In the end, all diversity in the world can be unified in one fundamental theory. Hence it is called a final theory, or a Theory of Everything.One of the central figures in developing the idea of a Theory of Everything is the Dutch theoretical physicist Gerard 't Hooft, who received a Nobel Prize in physics in 1999 for his work. He emphasizes the non-empirical status of the theory:There exists no closely resembling alternative theory. This means that any slight change brought about in the rules would make the theory unlikely or inelegant. The theory will be a "package deal": take it, or leave it. This should hold both for the local laws and for the boundary conditions.This endeavor is not new. On the contrary, it goes all the way back to the birth of Western philosophy 2,500 years ago. The Babylonians made regular astronomical observations during a period of 600 years, from 747 BCE until 150 ACE. They developed mathematical techniques to predict astronomical phenomena, but they made no attempts at explaining them. However, the Greeks developed models, both material and theoretical, to explain the observed phenomena.The best example is Plato’s late dialogue Timaeus. Here he introduces a divine craftsman, the Demiurge, who has constructed the universe according to an original plan. Plato seems to have thought that the original plan is what is actually real, while the material world is merely an imperfect realization of it. He therefore does not, in the Timaeus, reconstruct the material universe, but the original plan, which can then be used to explain the material universe.Plato’s aim in producing a theoretical model is to reconstruct the original plan. That is what he carries out in Timaeus—and some modern physicists have embarked on the same project. For example, Einstein’s basic attitude is reflected in the title of Abraham Pais’ biography: “Subtle is the Lord...,” echoing Einstein’s comment, “Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not.” In an interview Einstein compared our situation to a child who enters a huge library. The child knows that someone has written the books, but he does not know the languages in which they are written. He suspects that there is a mysterious order, but he does not know what it is.___“We have all been working in what Husserl called the Galilean style; that is, we have all been making abstract mathematical models of the universe to which at least the physicists give a higher degree of reality than they accord the ordinary world of sensation.”Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize in Physics (1979)___This Platonist view is contrary to a widespread impression of science, symbolized by the picture of the “father” of modern science, Galileo Galilei, with his telescope. According to this impression, Galileo liberated himself from the dominating metaphysics of his day—basically Aristotelian philosophy—and constructed a telescope that he directed towards the sky, showing that Jupiter has four moons. He also performed experiments with bronze balls rolling down inclined planes and found the law of freely falling bodies.However, in other cases Galileo emphasized the unreliability of our senses. It is easy to see why. He defended Copernicus’ heliocentric hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, we are not at rest at the center of the universe, but moving at a tremendous speed through space. Why don’t we observe this motion? Galileo praises Copernicus because “with reason as his guide he resolutely continued to affirm what sensible experience seemed to contradict.” In other places he directly refers to Plato. SUGGESTED VIEWING The quest for a final theory With Michio Kaku Galileo’s Platonism goes back to his early writings. In The Assayer, published as early as 1623, Galileo compared the universe to a grand book that is written in the language of mathematics, and “its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.” Therefore, things that cannot be described by mathematics—for example, colors, smells and odors—are not real. They are merely subjective.This division into subjective and objective, advocated by Galileo and his younger contemporary René Descartes, is normally associated with a mechanistic world view, which is regarded as the opposite of Platonism. When we reduce something to, for example, molecules and atoms, we move “downwards.” In contrast, the Platonist moves “upwards,” to abstract entities. However, it only shows that when we address fundamental questions, we should be careful in applying everyday spatial metaphors like “up” and “down.”___Nature is complex, and we cannot in general construct mathematical models that adequately describe the world.___The endeavor of finding a Theory of Everything has been heavily criticized. In 2006, the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin published “The Crisis in Fundamental Physics.” He argued that one of the most fundamental principles of science is that we should only regard theories as scientific if we have the possibility to show that they are false by experiments. Although he did not refer to Karl Popper, other critics have referred to Popper and argued that a theory is not scientific if it cannot be falsified (see for example Ellis & Silk 2014).These were not the first physicists to be anti-reductionists. In 1972, the journal Science published an article by the physicist Philip Anderson with the title “More Is Different.” This is the kind of article a scientist would normally write only after he has won a Nobel Prize. However, Anderson won the Nobel Prize for physics five years later, in 1977. The article is amazing, not primarily because it argues in favor of anti-reductionism in general, but because it argues for anti-reductionism within physics itself. Anderson’s conclusion was:At each stage entirely new laws, concepts, and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one. Psychology is not applied biology, nor is biology applied chemistry.We may say that Plato started the “unity of science movement,” based on Euclidean geometry as the model of all knowledge. A distinguishing mark of geometry is that all possible constructions can be reduced to a few fundamental principles. We have to acknowledge that this approach has limitations. In general, we can easily model technological systems. In addition, we may construct simplified and idealized models that capture important aspects of systems, from various perspectives and for various purposes. But nature is complex, and we cannot in general construct mathematical models that adequately describe the world. In a complex system, each level has its distinct, emergent, properties that are characteristic of this level. Therefore, a complex system should be investigated at different levels and from different perspectives. Instead of exclusively pursuing a scientific ideal based on the unity of science, we should acknowledge the diversity—or even the disunity—of science.
10 Transformational Health Discoveries of 2025
From advancements in male birth control to the science of supplements, Scientific American highlights some of the most fascinating health and medicine stories of 2025
10 Transformational Health Discoveries of 2025
From advancements in male birth control to the science of supplements, Scientific American highlights some of the most fascinating health and medicine stories of 2025
Physicists made atoms behave like a quantum circuit
Using ultracold atoms and laser light, researchers recreated the behavior of a Josephson junction—an essential component of quantum computers and voltage standards. The appearance of Shapiro steps in this atomic system reveals a deep universality in quantum physics and makes elusive microscopic effects visible for the first time.
Best space photos of 2025
An alien comet, a Martian volcano, a man’s fall from the sun and a groundbreaking telescope’s first images: Here are the most jaw-dropping space photos of 2025.
Tala Health Launches With $100M to Transform Patient Care Through AI Collaboration
The funding, led by Sofreh Capital, ranks among the largest early-stage rounds for a healthtech startup this year.
Nominate UT Health San Antonio in the 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards - UT Health San Antonio
The YourSA San Antonio Express-News’ Readers’ Choice Awards give the San Antonio community the opportunity to recognize the healthcare organizations they trust most. Thanks to the continued support of patients, faculty, staff and the San Antonio community, UT Health San Antonio has earned top honors in multiple categories in past years, reflecting its commitment […]
iPhone Fold and future Galaxy foldable may end up copying the original Pixel Fold
According to a new report, Google's original Pixel Fold form factor will be copied by the iPhone Fold and a future Galaxy foldable.
New Omaha Chamber report urges state business incentives overhaul, ways to stem ‘brain drain’
A new report from the Greater Omaha Chamber urges a revamp of state business incentives and other changes to help stem "brain drain."
Your chatbot keeps a file on you. Here’s how to delete it.
A clickable guide to fixing the complicated privacy settings from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini and Meta AI.
Spotify says ‘anti-copyright extremists’ scraped its library
This is not the Christmas present that Spotify would have been hoping for: a huge chunk of its metadata being released on filesharing.
Full-length Replay: Vasco da Gama v Corinthians
Final, partido de vuelta de la Copa de Brasil 2025.
The internet just made a 300TB copy of Spotify!
Nearly all of Spotify has been scraped, and it's already on torrents.
Top science stories of 2025
In a year of funding chaos, ongoing climate change and pollution perils, we also saw the most powerful telescope yet, personalized gene therapy, and the next-best-thing to an HIV vaccine — not to mention a brand-new color
Subaru Telescope reveals a hidden giant planet
Astronomers have uncovered a massive hidden planet and a rare “failed star” by combining ultra-precise space data with some of the sharpest ground-based images ever taken. Using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaiʻi, the OASIS survey tracked subtle stellar wobbles to pinpoint where unseen worlds were lurking—then captured them directly.
Glittering new James Webb telescope image shows an 'intricate web of chaos' — Space photo of the week
This mash-up of data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals two galaxies mid-collision, with their spiral arms overlapping and bending toward their neighbors' cores.
Unemployment is low, but companies are slow to hire: How job seekers faced a Great Frustration in 2025
Job seekers in 2025 faced long searches, slow hiring, and growing frustration. They shared their biggest challenges and how they're coping.
Streeting says NHS ‘coping’ during resident doctors’ strike but faces difficult recovery over Christmas
Five-day industrial action is due to end tomorrow, and health secretary says talks will resume in new year
Transformational Astrophysics And Exoplanet Science With Habitable Worlds Observatory's High Resolution Imager
Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will be NASA's flagship space telescope of the 2040s
Microscopic 'Christmas Tree' is Remarkable Highlight of Science Project Comparing the Vast and Small
A microscopic 'Christmas tree' is a seasonal look at a remarkable science project that found eerie comparisons between the vast and tiny.
Port: On politics, both good and bad
As this year ends, and a new election year is set to begin, some thoughts on what good politics look like.
KQED Politics Team Looks Back at the Defining Political Stories of 2025 and Ahead to 2026
The politics team reviews the biggest political stories of 2025 and makes predictions for 2026.
Bill to improve rural veteran health care sees support from North Dakota providers
The bill from Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) seeks to make health care more accessible to veterans living in rural areas.
Zack Scrivner granted mental health diversion amid felony abuse and weapon charges
KBAK CBS 29 and KBFX Fox58 are the news leaders for Bakersfield, California and serves surrounding communities including Oildale, Lamont, Shafter, Wasco, Buttonwillow, Maricopa, Tehachapi, Arvin, California City, Delano, McFarland, Ridgecrest and Taft.
He cost Chicago millions. City wants to keep doing business
Plus: The CTA promises more cops, Trump cuts student support funds and more
Safey Holiday Travel Tips - Richmond City Health Department
As you and your family prepare to travel during the holiday season, Richmond and Henrico Health District (RHHD) remind you to take important steps now to keep you and your […]
Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment: SCOTUS & Copyright Law
On December 1, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the landmark copyright case, Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Discover insightful episodes on Legal Talk Network's portfolio of legal podcasts featuring in-depth interviews and discussions with leaders in legal technology and practice management. Stay updated with the latest trends and tips for enhancing your legal practice.
Personnel note: Kevin Jogerst named Government Affairs Advisor at GrayRobinson
'Since joining GrayRobinson, he has consistently gone above and beyond for our clients and colleagues ...'
NASA Webb Telescope Discovers Lemon-Shaped Planet, the ‘Stretchiest’ Ever Seen
An unusual object orbiting a rapidly spinning star might be a new phenomenon in the universe.
Video Ted Cruz on defense bill, helicopter safety and rising use of AI in politics
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joins ABC News Live to discuss the defense authorization bill, his ROTOR Act on helicopter safety, public frustration with Congress and concerns over AI in politics.
LG Will Let TV Owners Delete Microsoft Copilot After Customer Outcry
LG Electronics Inc. will let owners of its televisions delete Microsoft Corp.’s artificial intelligence software amid a consumer backlash.
Santa Ragione's provocative horror Horses sells 18,000 copies - but it may not be enough to save the studio
Santa Ragione's controversial horror game, Horses, has sold over 18,000 copies despite being deplatformed from Steam an…
Hubble Space Telescope spies dusty debris from two cosmic collisions
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has gotten a rare peek at the aftermath of two cosmic collisions — and helped scientists solve a decades-old mystery.
A Small Business Owner Noticed 'A Competitor 100x Bigger' Bought Their 'New Innovative Product.' Now They're Worried It's About To Be Copied
A small business owner selling on Amazon recently shared a dilemma that hit a nerve with the r/smallbusiness Reddit community: A massive competitor just bought their “new innovative product,” and now they fear it’s about to be copied. Fear Of Being Crushed By A Giant “A competitor 100x bigger than me just ordered my new product,” the seller wrote. “The name on the shipping label was ‘business name’ LLC and the business name is a billion dollar company… and the name of the person is someone whose
McNeese’s Small Business Center to Help Entrepreneurs Win 2026
The Louisiana Small Business Development Center (LSBDC) at McNeese State University is inviting entrepreneurs in southwest Louisiana to a free training in January titled “Winning 2026: Strategic…
Odyssey Entertainment Group Surpasses $30 Million Sales Milestone In First Four Years
Nashville-based Odyssey Entertainment Group, the talent and creator management company led by [...]
Following controversial bans from Steam and Epic, Santa Ragione's Horses has sold 18k copies and repaid debts
Horses has sold over 18k copies, despite being banned from Epic and Steam.
Nome students fish for science
Last Friday, a group of Nome-Beltz high school students decked out in their winter gear stood in two rows, fishing for tomcod in the Nome Inner Harbor.
Life beyond Earth? Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock on the mysteries of space
Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist and science educator who has worked on a number of instruments that are revolutionising our view of the cosmos, including the James Webb Space Telescope. This year she will be giving the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, Britain’s most prestigious public science lectures, in which she will be exploring some of the big questions space science still has to answer.
Retired cop jailed for 37 days over Charlie Kirk meme sues, saying his First Amendment rights were violated
A retired Tennessee law enforcement officer was held in jail for more than a month this fall after police arrested him because of a Facebook post of a meme related to the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Republicans Clinch Democrats’ Bid to Force Vote on ACA Subsidies
After the speaker denied them a vote on extending the subsidies, four Republicans from competitive districts joined Democrats’ bid to go around G.O.P. leaders and force action.
OnePlus 15R Hands-on: If only battery and refresh rate were the name of the game
If you stuff a bigger battery and faster display into a device that copies its more expensive counterpart, does that...
CIAC bans Connecticut sports writer from high school games and events for 'expression of violence'
The writer complained in the column about spending $56 for a copy of his birth certificate and a Real ID to attend a high school football game at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Blog emphasizes importance of self-care for health care workers
As part of the AHA’s stress and coping resources, Zelia Baugh, JPS Health Network senior vice president of behavioral health, and April Jastrzab, JPS behavioral health director, write about how self-care is vital to the health care workforce, especially during the holiday season.
This giant microbe organizes its DNA in a surprising way
3-D microscopy shows that the giant bacterium Thiovulum imperiosus squeezes its DNA into peripheral pouches, not a central mass like typical bacteria.
New Public Science Center Opens at Kitt Peak National Observatory - Visitors celebrated the opening of the Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach, the first science center located inside a telescope
Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach is a new science education and astronomy outreach center that has just opened at U.S. National Science Foundation Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.
NASA Completes Next-Gen Telescope, And It Could Soon Reveal Whether We're Alone
A new era begins.
Samsung may respond to the iPhone 18 Pro by copying the Galaxy S9 camera
Apple may have prompted Samsung to go down memory lane and bring back a long-forgotten camera feature.
Trilith entertainment zone, ‘next-generation’ cinema near grand opening
Following years of design tweaks and construction, the full scope of a public-accessible Trilith project described as a new metro Atlanta epicenter for arts, culture, and entertainment is just weeks from its world premiere. Officials with Trilith LIVE, the entertainment and special events component of the massive New Urbanism project a half-hour south of Atlanta, today announced their grand opening season will officially kick off Jan. 15.
'We were amazed': Scientists using James Webb telescope may have discovered the earliest supernova in the known universe
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope report that a powerful gamma-ray burst detected in March may have been produced by the explosion of a massive star just 730 million years after the Big Bang.
Angie Nixon still mulling political future as 2026 nears
Compounding Nixon’s Senate hopes, and likely fueling her delay in making a decision, is a difficult, if not nonexistent, path to victory statewide.
NASA’s Webb Observes Exoplanet Whose Composition Defies Explanation
Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have observed a rare type of exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system, whose atmospheric composition
Legal sports betting linked to sharp increases in violent crime, study finds
As legalized sports betting sweeps across the country, new research shows it comes with a measurable rise in violent and impulsive crime on game days.
Roundtable: Did COP30 do enough for health?
As the world heats up, human health needs to be much more firmly on the climate negotiations agenda, say four experts
Today’s Papers: Supercoppa, Fiorentina judgement day, Lukaku in Arabia
La Gazzetta dello SportSuper re-match The Inter pactBarella and Lautaro have given the Nerazzurri squad a boost after taking the lead in Serie AFirst semi-final in Riyadh on ThursdayMilan: The no.9 p...
Hollow Knight: Silksong sells over 7m copies in three months
Team Cherry announces Sea of Sorrow expansion for Silksong and Hollow Knight: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
Barcelona XI vs Guadalajara – Predicted lineup and team news
Barcelona make the trip to Estadio Pedro Escartín to take on third-tier outfit CD Guadalajara in the Copa del Rey Round of 32 on Tuesday, as the holders begin the defence of the trophy they lifted la...
LG quietly added an unremovable Microsoft Copilot app to TVs
The latest place you may find Microsoft Copilot is on your LG smart television, whether you want it or not.
Another sweep: Fabián Basabe endorsed by every elected official in North Bay Village
‘When people take the time to get to know him, they see the truth. He is a unifier.’
30 models of the universe proved wrong by final data from groundbreaking cosmology telescope
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile has released its final batch of data after 15 years — and it proves that the Hubble tension, a rift in our understanding of the universe, is very real.
LG Quietly Installs Microsoft Copilot on Its Smart TVs—And You Can't Delete It
LG TV owners are not happy about the AI app showing up unannounced, becoming a permanent fixture on their homescreen.
ESA students on public school sports teams? This bill would allow it
Sen. John Kavanagh, a Republican from Fountain Hills, pitched a similar effort in the last legislative session.
LG webOS TVs are now installing Microsoft Copilot automatically with no option to remove it
Reddit users say LG webOS update added Microsoft Copilot and locked it in place An owner of an LG TV has started a Reddit thread claiming that a recent
Outstanding Seniors in the College of Science: Hamdan Alhammadi
The College of Science is proud to recognize 10 outstanding seniors who went above and beyond during their time as Wildcats. Hamdan Alhammadi is this semester's recipient from Mathematics.
COP 30: entrenching the crisis of climate politics
As the dust settles after COP30 in Belém, the scale of the failure becomes impossible to ignore. The world is on a path toward catastrophic warming, ecological systems are collapsing, and millions…
Scientists Find the Strongest Evidence Yet of an Atmosphere on a Molten Rocky Exoplanet
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system. Observations of the ultra-hot super-Earth TOI-561 b suggest that the exoplanet is surrounded by a thick blanket of gases above a global magma ocean.
Business School Undergrads Are Still Coming — But They’re Taking Longer To Decide
Applications to undergraduate business programs climbed 38% over five years, but global enrollment remained largely flat.
Microsoft Copilot AI Comes to LG TVs, and Can't Be Deleted
Microsoft's Copilot AI chatbot is arguably one of the most controversial add-ons ever implemented in the Windows 11 operating system. However, the controversy doesn't stop at PC operating systems. It seems to extend to TVs as well. According to Reddit user u/defjam16, his LG TV webOS received an upd...
Star Trek Fans Need To Watch This Underrated Sci-Fi Series On Peacock
This sci-fi series streaming on Peacock isn't trying to copy the Star Trek franchise, but it should appeal to Trekkies for many of the same reasons.
I write about ultraprocessed foods, yet I still can’t tell you how to avoid them. Here’s why
“Ultraprocessed” has become a bad word in our food supply, but regulators are struggling with how to define the term to help consumers. Here’s why that’s so hard to do.
Strange, 7-hour explosion from deep space is unlike anything scientists have seen — Space photo of the week
Astronomers used major telescopes across the world to probe a cosmic explosion 8 billion light-years from the solar system.
A Car Designer From A Top Brand Used AI To Create This Lexus EV In 24 Hours
A professional car designer turned two simple sketches into a Lexus EV concept in 24 hours using only AI
LG Update Installs Unremovable Microsoft Copilot on Smart TVs, Ignites Backlash
LG's recent software update has forcibly installed Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant, on smart TVs without removal options, sparking widespread user backlash over privacy, bloatware, and loss of control. This highlights growing tensions in smart devices, where monetization often overrides user preferences.
Rob Long reveals legislative priorities
He's wasting no time in tackling issues that matter to his constituents.
Mystery group continues promoting Jay Collins
The shadow campaign continues.
SCV’s top cop speaks with business community
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Capt. Brandon Barclay, the SCV’s de facto “chief of police,” shared a message with the business community Thursday, touting another month of reduction in overall crime numbers […]
Comet 3I/ATLAS is getting greener and brighter as it approaches Earth, new images reveal
New images taken with the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii confirm that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has gotten brighter and greener since its close flyby of the sun in October.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst Receives $1 Million in Advanced Surgical Microscope Equipment Funded by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards - NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the acquisition of three new state-of-the-art Leica surgical
NASA’s Webb, Curiosity Named in TIME’s Best Inventions Hall of Fame
Two icons of discovery, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and NASA’s Curiosity rover, have earned places in TIME’s “Best Inventions Hall of Fame,” which
Powerful men in politics and media shown in new Epstein estate images
Newly released photographs from Jeffrey Epstein's estate do not reveal wrongdoing, but do show Epstein in the company of powerful men from the worlds of politics, business and entertainment.
New photos from Epstein’s personal collection show Trump, Clinton and much more
The undated photographs are from Epstein’s email account and computer, according to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, who published the photographs on Friday.
New photos released from Epstein’s estate showing Trump, Bannon, Bill Clinton and other high-profile people
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate Friday showing the many powerful figures in the late sex trafficker’s orbit, including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and others.
I visited an underrated city in Sweden before heading to Copenhagen, and it ended up being a highlight of my Europe trip
Malmö, Sweden, is just 20 minutes from Copenhagen, Denmark, via train. Affordable and fun, it's totally worth adding to your trip to Scandinavia.
2026 Flathead Valley Winter Sports Preview
The snow has fallen and the sun is officially on hiatus, which means Flathead Valley athletes are trading in their cleats and knee pads for goggles, headgear and basketball shoes. Area teams and athletes over the last few weeks have been amping up their preparation ahead of the start of the high school winter sports […]
School of Science welcomed new faculty in 2024
Shaoyun Bai, Abigail Bodner, Jacopo Borga, Linlin Fan, Whitney Henry, Gian Michele Innocenti, Christoph Kehle, Aleksandr Logunov, Lyle Nelson, Sergey Ovchinnikov, and Shu-Heng Shao joined the MIT School of Science in 2024.
James Webb telescope spots 'monster stars' leaking nitrogen in the early universe — and they could help solve a major mystery
Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope spotted huge stars leaking nitrogen in an early galaxy, hinting that such 'monster stars' might have been the source of ancient supermassive black holes.
Disney Fires Off Cease-And-Desist Letter To Google Claiming Its AI Services Infringe On Copyright On A “Massive Scale”
The letter comes as Disney struck a deal with OpenAI.
NASA’s Webb Detects Thick Atmosphere Around Broiling Lava World
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system, as
Disney Accuses Google of Using AI to Engage in Copyright Infringement on ‘Massive Scale’
Disney is accusing Google of copyright infringement on a "massive scale" using AI models and services to "commercially exploit and distribute" infringing images and videos.
How the James Webb Telescope recorded the earliest supernova ever | - The Times of India
Science News: The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the universe's earliest supernova. This event offers a rare glimpse into the early universe. It shows how
NFL Week 15 predictions by Microsoft Copilot AI for every game
Microsoft Copilot AI is coming off another respectable week predicting the results of NFL games. Here are its NFL Week 15 picks.
The New WHO Pandemic Treaty and Global Health Governance: Incorporating Common but Differentiated Responsibilities into PABS - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
On May 20, 2025, the World Health Assembly unanimously adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, an international treaty designed to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. The product of three years of arduous negotiations, the treaty marks a new era of global cooperation in public health. However, core aspects of the agreement remain unresolved—notably the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System, which is intended to ensure equitable access to pandemic-related materials and benefits. To support the successful implementation of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” should be formally incorporated into the negotiating agenda of the PABS annex. Introduction For the first time, an international treaty has enshrined the principle of “One Health,” the compelling idea that the health of animals, humans, and the environment all contribute to pandemic risks. SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009–10), Ebola (2014–16), and COVID-19 all emerged through zoonotic spillover from animal hosts—respectively, civets, hogs, and bats. Together, they underscore the need for a coordinated, cross-sectoral approach. The Pandemic Agreement responds to this call, requiring state parties to acknowledge the ecological interplay and commit to a comprehensive “One Health” strategy. Specifically, Article 5 charges governments to address “the drivers of pandemics and the emergence and re-emergence of infectious disease at the human-animal-environment interface,” including wild animal markets, deforestation, and antibiotic overuse. Yet the effectiveness of this “One Health” vision depends equally on the free flow of scientific information and data among countries and institutions. Just as environmental and animal health factors have been neglected in past global frameworks, so too has data sharing been marginalized, despite its centrality to timely detection and response. The Pandemic Agreement takes an important step by requiring governments to enhance data collection and cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO). However, these provisions will remain aspirational without a robust Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex. The PABS system will determine whether countries and researchers can rapidly exchange pathogen samples and genetic data while ensuring equitable access to resulting research and development, including diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. Without such mechanisms, the treaty’s promise to operationalize “One Health” and strengthen global preparedness will risk becoming largely symbolic, echoing earlier failures to translate shared principles into coordinated action. Equity Concerns When the 2025 Health Assembly adopted the Pandemic Agreement, it left the difficult question of access to pathogens and the sharing of resulting benefits to be addressed in a separate agreement. Negotiations on this separate agreement, PABS, are now underway in Geneva. Yet governments remain divided over fundamental questions of equity between the countries that primarily contribute to the system and those that primarily draw from it—and consequently benefit. For example, wildlife in countries bordering the equator is likely to produce PABS materials, but companies in Europe are likely to use them to develop lucrative products. The most likely contributor countries are likely to be those biodiverse countries around the equator, such as Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia, where the number of human-mammalian viral host interactions is large. Conversely, countries most likely to benefit from this material are those with the technology, investors, and infrastructure to capitalize on genomic data, such as the United States, EU member states, and Japan. This imbalance reflects a broader pattern seen in prior international frameworks. Now, as in the past, the wealthiest countries in the world (a useful heuristic is membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)) disproportionately benefit from systems in which pathogens and genomic sequencing data are contributed to a common source. Under the International Agreement on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the “Plant Treaty” or “Seed Treaty”) and the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework, companies from Europe and North America disproportionately withdraw biological samples and data for development into lucrative medical products. Their governments and companies have both statutory and contractual claims to the products that those companies correspondingly produce. PABS appears poised to follow the same pattern. The text calls for strong language on access to pathogens and associated data, but the corresponding benefits that should flow to poorer countries are couched in equivocal or non-binding language. Common but Differentiated Responsibilities To address these inequities, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” should be formally incorporated into the negotiating agenda of the PABS annex. Common but differentiated responsibilities are often a feature of climate change negotiations. The basic principle is that, even though all countries should reduce carbon emissions, governments that became rich and powerful through massive carbon emissions (e.g., France, the United Kingdom, the United States) should have a greater obligation to address the resulting crises. Applied to PABS, it would require that governments hosting and supporting companies developing lucrative products carry greater obligations toward the cost of running the PABS system; share benefits or final medical products; and transfer technology to help countries worldwide develop their own capacities to innovate and manufacture vaccines during an emergency. For example, an annex could mandate that any company based in an OECD country that withdraws PABS material would be obligated to donate the resulting diagnostics, therapeutics, or vaccines to the WHO during a public health emergency or pandemic. Questions remain about how robust those donations would be, but the principle is that they should deliver highly significant lifesaving benefits to be equitably shared. Theoretically, this approach mirrors the PIP Framework, in which companies withdrawing influenza samples are required to pay half of the operating costs. In practice, however, the framework has fallen short. The PIP Framework Secretariat has struggled to secure payments from companies, with companies often disagreeing over how much is owed. Additionally, without another pandemic influenza to test the strength of the agreement during a public health emergency, corporate compliance with sharing mechanisms remains unknown. Even if these limitations did not characterize the PIP Framework, partially paying for operating expenses does not address the inequity in access to genetic data and pathogen samples that left less developed countries last in line for COVID-19 vaccines (and, before them, H1N1). Common but differentiated responsibilities would go further, addressing governments’ legitimate grievances regarding information sharing. It would make withdrawals of PABS material and resulting products more transparent, building trust across the board. Enforcement and Enduring Success A key implication of this approach is that the governing mechanism of the PABS must have real enforcement authority. The WHO Pandemic Agreement delegates its core governance responsibilities to a Conference of the Parties (COP)—a governing body composed of one representative from each participating government, similar to those established under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The proposed WHO Pandemic Agreement COP is charged with oversight functions but ultimately possesses no real authority to compel a government to take any action it does not wish to take. The text does not give the COP the ability to, for example, sanction a party that does not comply with either textual obligations or PABS provisions. In other words, there are no effective mechanisms in place to ensure compliance. Perhaps just as significant, establishing a meaningful enforcement mechanism within the PABS system would strengthen the WHO’s credibility and its ability to ensure compliance across global health governance. By setting a precedent for accountability, such a mechanism could enhance the organization’s authority not only within the Pandemic Agreement but also in enforcing the revised International Health Regulations and other frameworks for public health emergencies. Conclusion The PABS annex can—and should—be different. It should establish clear responsibilities for funding as well as for sharing the diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines that result from contributions to the system. The system, in turn, must include a dedicated body empowered to hold governments and the corporations they sponsor accountable for their responsibilities before, during, and after pandemics. Doing so would restore trust in the broader agreement, which was eroded as commitments were repeatedly diluted while parties scrambled to meet their own self-imposed deadlines during the Pandemic Agreement negotiations. A robust PABS Annex would cement a grand social bargain. Wealthier countries and their corporations would gain unimpeded access to scientific information essential for developing and manufacturing lifesaving medical products. As such, they would stand to gain considerable economic benefit. Yet that privilege must be matched with responsibility. The grand bargain must include not only the right to innovate, but also the duty to ensure that innovation serves all. As medical products are developed and produced through collective contributions, every person must have equal access. All human beings deserve an equitable chance to survive—to save their own life, the lives of their families, and the well-being of their communities. … Sam Halabi, JD, MPhil, is the Bette Jacobs Endowed Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Health and the Director of the Center for Transformational Health Law at Georgetown Law. He serves as the co-lead for the WHO’s Working Group on Regulatory Consideration on AI and Health’s training workstream. He earned his JD from Harvard, his MPhil from Oxford, and undergraduate degrees from Kansas State University. Lawrence Gostin, LLD (Hon.), JD, BA, is University Distinguished Professor and Founding Director and Timothy and Linda O’Neill Professor of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He is the author of Global Health Security: A Blueprint for the Future (Harvard University Press, 2021); Global Health Law (Harvard University Press, 2014); Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (University of California Press, 3rd ed., 2016); Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (University of California Press, 3rd ed., 2018); Law and the Health System (Foundation Press, 2014); Principles of Mental Health Law & Practice (Oxford University Press, 2010). He also directs the WHO Collaborating Center at Georgetown University. Image Credit: United States Mission Geneva, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons