Toggle light / dark theme

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Combining Senolytics and Stem Cells Shows Promise in Mice

A new study associated with Immorta Bio suggests that combining a senolytic vaccine with mesenchymal stem cells might create a synergistic impact. However, the findings rest on acute, artificially induced injury models rather than natural aging [1].

Clearing out senescent cells to help stem cells work

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapies have largely underperformed in the clinic. MSCs are connective-tissue stem cells that help mostly not by becoming new tissue but by secreting repair-promoting factors. Despite strong preclinical promise, clinical MSC trials in fibrosis, inflammation, and organ failure have shown only modest benefits [2].

Physicists finally build a quantum material predicted more than a decade ago

Researchers have achieved a major milestone by creating a long-sought two-dimensional quantum material and confirming its unusual conducting edge states. The ability to control these states through strain could make the material a promising platform for future room-temperature quantum electronics.

AIE Webinar — Making Horsegirls

Go behind the scenes of the acclaimed independent film Horsegirls with the creative team that brought this remarkable story to life. Join moderator, Devin Morrissey as he is joined by writer and director Lauren Meyering, lead actress Lillian Carrier, producers Michael Sherman, Mackenzie Breeden, and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Autism Sensitivity Coordinator Chloe Estelle for an engaging conversation about the filmmaking process—from developing the story and creating authentic performances to producing, promoting, and ensuring an inclusive production environment.

Whether you’re interested in filmmaking, storytelling, or advancing authentic representation of neurodivergent individuals in entertainment, this webinar offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from the talented team behind Horsegirls.

The Godfather of AI: A New Species Is Emerging — And We Can’t Stop It | Geoffrey Hinton (Nobel)

In this exclusive, long-form interview, Turing Award laureate Geoffrey Hinton—often called the “Godfather of Deep Learning”—opens up about the promise and peril of advanced AI. Hinton explains why he left Google, how close we really are to artificial general intelligence (AGI), and what guard-rails governments, researchers, and ordinary citizens can put in place today to keep powerful neural networks from going off the rails.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications so you won’t miss any of our future episodes ► / @thisistheworldofficial.

Watch the interview with Yann LeCun on AI and machine learning: • Father of AI: AI Needs PHYSICS to EVOLVE |…

Geoffrey Hinton is a British-Canadian cognitive psychologist and computer scientist best known as the “godfather of deep learning.” As a professor at the University of Toronto and co-founder of Google Brain, he pioneered modern neural networks—work that earned him the 2018 Turing Award alongside Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio. Since leaving Google in 2023, Hinton has focused on warning about the societal and existential risks of increasingly powerful AI systems.

Unlike other organisms

Unlike other organisms, Clytia medusae can repair damage so rapidly you can actually watch small wounds close within minutes.

Larger wounds heal in less than an hour, a rate of recovery humans can only dream of. And no scar tissue is formed.

These traits make Clytia a unique window into wound healing. The medusae are transparent, allowing researchers to watch cells move in live animals in real time. Their wounds heal rapidly, and unlike mammals there is no immune system to trigger inflammation around a wound or capillary regeneration to obscure the basic mechanics of repair. As a result, scientists can observe epithelial cells stitching damaged tissue back together.

SensorFM: Towards a general intelligence and interface for wearable health data

We present SensorFM, a foundation model for wearable health pre-trained on more than one trillion minutes of sensor data from five million people. By co-scaling model size and data, SensorFM learns a general-purpose representation of human physiology that transfers to 35 health prediction tasks, supports label-efficient adaptation and data infilling, and can serve as a grounding tool for a Personal Health Agent.

Sia Performs “Unstoppable” To Close the 2025 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony

Multi-platinum recording artist Sia closed the Breakthrough Prize ceremony with an inspiring rendition of “Unstoppable” as all prize laureates returned to the stage to a standing ovation.
__
The eleventh Breakthrough Prize awards celebrated outstanding scientific achievements, honoring scientists driving remarkable discoveries in gene editing, human diseases, the search for the fundamental laws of the Universe and pure mathematics. Held at the Barker Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, CA, presentations were given by Christina Aguilera, Drew Barrymore, MrBeast, Lily Collins, Vin Diesel, Jodie Foster, Gal Gadot, Salma Hayek Pinault, Ke Huy Quan, Gayle King, Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Seth Rogen, Lauren Sanchez, Jeremy Strong, will.i.am, and more. With live performances by Katy Perry and Sia. Continued at https://breakthroughprize.org/News/92.

Full show: • 2025 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony: Full Show.

https://breakthroughprize.org

‘Complex numbers are not needed for quantum mechanics’: Physicists develop quantum model that uses only ‘real’ numbers for first time ever

For the first time, physicists have built a working version of quantum mechanics without complex numbers — numbers that have been considered essential to the theory for nearly a century.

Complex numbers combine a regular “real” number with an “imaginary” one — a multiple of the square root of-1, represented by the symbol i — into a single value, like 3 + 4i. The square root of-1 doesn’t correspond to any quantity you could count or measure directly (you can’t have negative one apple, for instance), which is why mathematicians call it imaginary.

Is AI making us stupid?

Not exactly—but how we use it matters.

A new Trends in Cognitive Sciences perspective argues that AI doesn’t inherently erode human intelligence. Instead, it highlights a well-known principle in cognitive psychology: cognitive offloading.

When we let AI perform tasks that require reasoning, writing, memory, or problem-solving, we reduce the amount of mental practice our brains receive. Like physical exercise, cognitive skills strengthen through use and weaken through disuse.

Skills: learned abilities such as writing, mathematical reasoning, diagnosis, or programming. These are most vulnerable if AI consistently replaces the learning process.

Basic cognitive abilities: foundational functions like working memory, attention, and executive control. Current evidence suggests these may be more resistant to decline, although more research is needed.

The key message isn’t that AI makes people “stupid.” Rather: AI can improve immediate performance. Overreliance may reduce long-term learning and skill retention.

AI is most beneficial when it augments human thinking instead of replacing it. This fits with decades of neuroscience showing that practice drives neuroplasticity. The brain adapts to the cognitive demands we place on it. If.

/* */