Scientists have long debated the origins of exceptional human achievements. This literature review summarizes recent evidence from multiple domains on the acquisition of world-class performance. We review published papers and synthesize developmental patterns of international top scientists, musicians, athletes, and chess players. The available evidence is highly consistent across domains: (i) Young exceptional performers and later adult world-class performers are largely two discrete populations over time. (ii) Early (e.g., youth) exceptional performance is associated with extensive discipline-specific practice, little or no multidisciplinary practice, and fast early progress. (iii) By contrast, adult world-class performance is associated with limited discipline-specific practice, increased multidisciplinary practice, and gradual early progress.

A nanobody-based immunolabeling method, vDISCO, boosts the signal of fluorescent proteins and allows imaging of subcellular details in intact transparent mice. It uncovers neuronal projections and skull–meninges connections in whole adult mice.

A major ancient Roman industrial site on the River Wear may be one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the last hundred years, experts say.

Situated in northern England, the Roman site has yielded more than 800 whetstones on the riverbanks, with the expectation that hundreds or even thousands more may remain buried and await discovery. Durham University’s Department of Archaeology oversaw the work, which potentially could reframe our past understanding of Roman activity in the area.

Roman Whetstones

Marine turbidites are layers of mud and sand deposited on the deep ocean floor by massive underwater landslides and are often used as a historical record for reconstructing earthquake histories.

However, they can be unreliable because it is difficult to show they were not triggered by a storm or flood rather than a quake. In a new study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers detail a new way to link these mud layers to the specific landslides that caused them. This could mean much more accurate earthquake timelines.

Sometimes science can be painfully slow. Data comes in dribs and drabs, truth trickles, and veracity proves viscous.

The world’s longest-running lab experiment is an ongoing work in sheer scientific patience. It has been running continuously for nearly a century, under the close supervision of several custodians and many spectators – and it’s ever so slowly drip, drip, dripping away.

It all started in 1927, when physicist Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland in Australia filled a closed funnel with the world’s thickest known fluid: pitch, a derivative of tar that was once used to seal ships against the seas.

Researchers found an indirect prompt injection flaw in Google Gemini that bypassed Calendar privacy controls and exposed private meeting data.

A malvertising campaign is using a fake ad-blocking Chrome and Edge extension named NexShield that intentionally crashes the browser in preparation for ClickFix attacks.

The attacks were spotted earlier this month and delivered a new Python-based remote access tool called ModeloRAT that is deployed in corporate environments.

The NexShield extension, which has been removed from the Chrome Web Store, was promoted as a privacy-first, high-performance, lightweight ad blocker created by Raymond Hill, the original developer of the legitimate uBlock Origin ad blocker with more than 14 million users.

A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to hacking the U.S. Supreme Court’s electronic filing system and breaching accounts at the AmeriCorps U.S. federal agency and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Federal prosecutors said that 24-year-old Nicholas Moore, of Springfield, Tennessee, had accessed the Supreme Court’s restricted electronic filing system at least 25 times between August and October 2023 using stolen credentials.

Additionally, he sometimes logged into the Supreme Court’s systems multiple times per day using the same compromised credentials.

A stream of events and reports at the Forum’s Annual Meeting will mark this ‘Year of Water’ and how to tackle a water cycle out of balance. Here’s what to know.