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Centuries ago, the heads of decapitated people in Peru were turned into “trophies.” Now, a careful look at this trophy head reveals that it survived into early adulthood despite potentially problematic birth defects.Beth Scafidi, assistant professor of anthropology and heritage studies at the University of California, Merced, writes in a new study that based on several photos of the head, researchers discovered that the person was born with a cleft lip.Cleft lip and palate are related conditions that cause babies to be born with gaps in their lips and palates. Research shows that they are one of the most common…
The fault that struck Myanmar in March tore through hundreds of miles of the earth’s surface, highly efficient in transferring energy from deep underground to the surface.In many earthquakes, the underground moves more than the surface. But the earthquake on the Sagaing Fault was different, a new study shows, because it moved the surface as much as the rock at depths of several miles. This is likely because the origin of the Saiko Fault dates back 14 to 28 million years ago.”Over vast amounts of time, the rough edges and bends of the fault have been carved away,” lead author…
Patient: Male in his 20s living in ChinaSymptoms: A man visited a hospital dermatology department after experiencing various symptoms for about three years. When the man soaked his hands in water, such as when washing his hands, the skin on the back of his hands became thicker, more wrinkled, and white bumps and tumors appeared.He told doctors that his hands felt very itchy and burning whenever this symptom occurred, and that the symptoms were even worse in the summer. Symptoms did not occur during the winter, and his palms remained unaffected throughout the year. you may like The man had…
John Callahan, co-founder of True Ventures, believes that in five years we won’t be using smartphones the way we do now, and in 10 years we might not be using them at all. For venture capitalists with two decades of big winners from consumer brands like Fitbit, Ring, and Peloton to enterprise software makers HashiCorp and Duo Security, it’s more than armchair theory. This is a theory that True Ventures is actively betting on. True didn’t get this far by following the crowd. The Bay Area firm has operated largely under the radar, even as it manages about $6 billion…
December 31, 2026Ravi LakshmananSpyware/Mobile Security The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday removed three individuals associated with the Intellexa Consortium, the holding company for the commercial spyware known as “Predator,” from its list of Specially Designated Nationals. The names of the individuals are: Merom Harpas Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi Sara Alexandra Faisal Hamou Hamou was sanctioned by OFAC in March 2024, and Harpaz and Gambazzi were targeted in September 2024 in connection with the development, operation, and distribution of Predator. At this time, it is unclear why it was removed from the list. Mr…
Earth’s continents are drying out at an alarming rate. Now, a new report paints the most detailed picture yet of where and why fresh water is being lost, and outlines exactly how countries can address the problem.Continental aridity is the long-term decrease in available fresh water across large tracts of land. This is caused by snow and ice melting, permafrost thawing, water evaporation, and accelerated groundwater extraction. (The authors noted that the report’s definition does not include snowmelt from Greenland and Antarctica.)”We always think of water issues as local issues,” lead author Huang Zhang, the World Bank’s global leader on…
Universities and research institutes have long been the repositories of deep technology in Europe. Academic spinouts are now being consolidated into robust startup funnels worth $398 billion, and VC funding is following suit. According to Dealroom’s European Spinout Report 2025, 76 of these deep tech and life sciences companies have reached valuations of $1 billion, revenues of $100 million, or both. These include unicorns such as Iceeye, IQM, Isar Aerospace, Synthesia and Tekever, which are now increasing their funding to support university spin-outs. Just this month, two new funds were launched to provide more funding for talent coming out of…
This was supposed to be the year that climate tech died. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have done their best to dismantle the Biden administration’s hallmark industrial and climate policies. Even the European Union has begun to ease off its most aggressive goals. And yet, as the year closes, the receipts provide a different view of climate and clean energy investing in the U.S. and Europe. Instead of tanking, venture bets in the sector remained essentially flat relative to 2024, according to CTVC, far from the slide some had expected. That resiliency is due in part to continued…
Over the past 30 years, Yellowstone National Park has experienced an ecological cascade. As the elk population declined, aspen and willow trees flourished. This has increased beaver numbers and created new habitat for fish and birds.This change was largely due to the reintroduction of wolves into the park, which as predators helped keep elk numbers in check. But their return may not have reshaped the entire ecosystem as scientists thought, sparking intense debate among scientists about why and how Yellowstone returned.The reintroduction of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the 1990s created a trophic cascade that benefited the entire ecosystem, according…
December 30, 2026Ravi LakshmananVulnerabilities / Email Security The Cyber Security Authority of Singapore (CSA) has issued a bulletin warning of a maximum severity security flaw in the SmarterTools SmarterMail email software that could be exploited to lead to remote code execution. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2025-52691 and has a CVSS score of 10.0. This is relevant in the case of arbitrary file uploads that allow code execution without requiring authentication. “Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an unauthenticated attacker to upload arbitrary files to arbitrary locations on the mail server, potentially leading to remote code execution,” CSA said.…