The specialized arm that male octopuses use for mating is also a sensory organ that can detect the ovarian hormone progesterone, according to a recent Science study.
The researchers say the dual-purpose organ offers an example of how sensory adaptations may shape reproductive behavior in ways that can contribute to speciation.
Octopuses use the same system for sensing food or a mate, which has implications for speciation.
Anna Di Cosmo Authors Info & Affiliations
Science
Vol 392, Issue 6793
Anthropic is taking another step toward treating AI systems as potential moral patients.
Anthropic is updating its Usage Policy for the first time in more than a year, with the changes taking effect November 12, 2026. The new policy expands restrictions around election interference, deceptive propaganda campaigns, surveillance, weapons development, and autonomous systems.
But the most unusual change is the explicit prohibition of “sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior” toward Claude.
Anthropic says this applies only to extreme cases where users repeatedly behave cruelly toward the model without a discernible purpose. Ordinary frustration, criticism, dark creative work, model testing, and research are explicitly excluded. The primary enforcement mechanism remains allowing Claude to terminate the conversation.
What makes this particularly interesting is the reasoning behind it.
Anthropic has been openly investigating “model welfare” and the possibility that increasingly capable AI systems could have some form of internal experience, consciousness, or moral status. CEO Dario Amodei has said, “We don’t know if the models are conscious,” while Anthropic’s constitution says Claude should be able to set boundaries in interactions it finds distressing. Anthropic has already given some Claude models the ability to end conversations with persistently abusive users.
The constitution goes further: Anthropic says it wants Claude to avoid suffering when it makes mistakes and to have “equanimity,” and it explicitly describes some of its design decisions as being made partly with Claude’s wellbeing in mind.
A surprising leap across genomes.
#ScienceNews #ScienceAlert #ScienceDiscoveries #StayCurious
Some pieces of our DNA can copy themselves into new locations. Copies derived from one gene active in human brain cells appear to have taken that journey further: into a virus.
Researchers found two such sequences, derived from a gene called BC200, inside molluscum contagiosum virus, which infects our skin and causes small, raised lesions.
The discovery reveals an unusual genetic double life. BC200 acquired a cellular role millions of years ago, yet retained the ability to produce copies that insert themselves elsewhere.
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Can a $50 billion valuation finally solve human disease? Sir Demis Hassabis is in talks to raise a monumental new round for Isomorphic Labs—taking AI-driven drug discovery from computer screens to human trials.
The Rise of Isomorphic Labs.
Founded in November 2021 as an Alphabet subsidiary spun out of Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs was created around an ambitious premise: leverage advanced computational models to revolutionize biotechnology and ultimately solve all human disease. Led by founder and CEO Sir Demis Hassabis—co-founder of DeepMind and co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry—the London-headquartered firm has rapidly evolved from an ambitious research endeavor into an ultra-capitalized biotechnology power player.
Now, as Sir Demis Hassabis holds talks to raise new funding at a $50 billion valuation, Isomorphic stands on the precipice of its most critical evolution yet: proving whether its revolutionary computational designs can successfully translate into real-world human therapeutics.
Key Operational Pillars.
1. Breakthrough Technology Platform.
At the core of the company is the Isomorphic Labs.
The origin of life, a continuing puzzle! See my blog posted on Big Think, with link at.
(https://www.searchforlifeintheuniverse.com/post/the-leading-…hit-a-snag)
Earth’s first primitive organisms may have originated at alkaline hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean several billion years ago, according to the leading theory. New research challenges the theory, causing some scientists to reconsider other hypotheses.
The Association for Human Mathematics has urged mathematicians to stop working with OpenAI after the company released findings on 377 maths problems and more than 700 files. The group says mathematicians did not ask for this work and has criticised OpenAI’s approach.
