Author name: Kris Guyer

new-study-settles-40-year-debate:-nanotyrannus-is-a-new-species

New study settles 40-year debate: Nanotyrannus is a new species

Nanotyrannus, paleontology, Science, Taxonomy, tyrannosaurs / /

For four decades, a frequently acrimonious debate has raged in paleontological circles about the correct taxonomy for a handful of rare fossil specimens. One faction insisted the fossils were juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex; the other argued that they represented a new species dubbed Nanotyrannus lancensis. Now, paleontologists believe they have settled the debate once and for all due to a new analysis of a well-preserved fossil.

The verdict: It is indeed a new species, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature. The authors also reclassified another specimen as a second new species, distinct from N. lancensis. In short, Nanotyrannus is a valid taxon and contains two species.

“This fossil doesn’t just settle the debate,” said Lindsay Zanno, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University and head of paleontology at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “It flips decades of T. rex research on its head.” That’s because paleontologists have relied on such fossils to model the growth and behavior of T. rex. The new findings suggest that there could have been multiple tyrannosaur species and that paleontologists have been underestimating the diversity of dinosaurs from this period.

Our story begins in 1942, when the fossilized skull of a Nanotyrannus, nicknamed Chomper, was excavated in Montana by a Cleveland Museum of Natural History expedition. Originally, paleontologists thought it belonged to a Gorgosaurus, but a 1965 paper challenged that identification and argued that the skull belonged to a juvenile T. rex. It wasn’t until 1988 that scientists proposed that the skull was actually that of a new species, Nanotyrannus. It’s been a constant back-and-forth ever since.

As recently as 2020, a highly influential paper claimed that Nanotyrannus was definitively a juvenile T. Rex. Yet a substantial number of paleontologists still believed it should be classified as a distinct species. A January 2024 paper, for instance, came down firmly on the Nanotyrannus side of the debate. Co-authors Nicholas Longrich of the University of Bath and Evan Saitta of the University of Chicago measured the growth rings in Nanotyrannus bones and concluded the animals were nearly fully grown.

Dueling dinosaurs

Lindsay Zanno, associate research professor at North Carolina State University and head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, with the Dueling Dinosaurs fossil.

Lindsay Zanno of North Carolina State University, who also heads paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, with the “dueling dinosaurs” fossil. Credit: N.C. State University/CC BY-NC-ND

Furthermore, there was no evidence of hybrid fossils combining features of both Nanotyrannus and T. rex, which one would expect if the former were a juvenile version of the latter. Longrich and Saitta had also discovered a skull bone, archived in a San Francisco museum, that did belong to a juvenile T. rex, and they were able to do an anatomical comparison. They argued that Nanotyrannus had a lighter build, longer limbs, and larger arms than a T. rex and likely was smaller, faster, and more agile.

New study settles 40-year debate: Nanotyrannus is a new species Read More »

the-chemistry-behind-that-pricey-cup-of-civet-coffee

The chemistry behind that pricey cup of civet coffee

chemistry, coffee, Food science, kopi luwak, Science / /

A sampling of scat

Kopi luwak is quite popular, with well-established markets in several South and East Asian countries. Its popularity has risen in Europe and the US as well, and India has recently become an emerging new market. Since there haven’t been similar studies of the chemical properties of kopi luwak from the Indian subcontinent, the authors of this latest study decided to fill that scientific gap. They focused on civet coffee produced in Kodagu, which produces nearly 36 percent of India’s total coffee production.

The authors collected 68 fresh civet scat samples from five different sites in Kodagu during peak fruit harvesting in January of this year. Collectors wore gloves to avoid contamination of the samples. For comparative analysis, they also harvested several bunches of ripened Robusta coffee berries. They washed the scat samples to remove the feces and also removed any palm seeds or other elements to ensure only Robusta beans remained.

For the manually harvested berries, the authors removed the pulp after a natural fermentation process and then sun-dried the beans for seven days. They then removed the hulls of both scat-derived and manually harvested berries and dried the beans in an oven for two hours. None of the bean samples were roasted, since roasting might significantly alter the acidity and chemical composition of the samples. For the chemical analysis, 10 distinct samples (five from each site where berries were collected) were ground into powder and subjected to various tests.

The civet beans had higher fat levels, particularly those compounds known to influence aroma and flavor, such as caprylic acid and methyl esters—contributing to kopi luwak’s distinctive aroma and flavor—but lower levels of caffeine, protein, and acidity, which would reduce the bitterness. The lower acidity is likely due to the coffee berries being naturally fermented in the civets’ digestive tracts, and there is more to learn about the role the gut microbiome plays in all of this. There were also several volatile organic compounds, common to standard coffee, that were extremely low or absent entirely in the civet samples.

In short, the comparative analysis “further supports the notion that civet coffee is chemically different from conventionally produced coffee of similar types, mainly due to fermentation,” the authors concluded. They recommend further research using roasted samples, along with studying other coffee varieties, samples from a more diverse selection of farms, and the influence of certain ecological conditions, such as canopy cover and the presence of wild trees.

Scientific Reports, 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-21545-x  (About DOIs).

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please-do-not-sell-b30a-chips-to-china

Please Do Not Sell B30A Chips to China

Please / /

The Chinese and Americans are currently negotiating a trade deal. There are plenty of ways to generate a win-win deal, and early signs of this are promising on many fronts.

Since this will be discussed for real tomorrow as per reports, I will offer my thoughts on this one more time.

The biggest mistake America could make would be to effectively give up Taiwan, which would be catastrophic on many levels including that Taiwan contains TSMC. I am assuming we are not so foolish as to seriously consider doing this, still I note it.

Beyond that, the key thing, basically the only thing, America has to do other than ‘get a reasonable deal overall’ is not be so captured or foolish or both as to allow export of the B30A chip, or even worse than that (yes it can always get worse) allow relaxation of restrictions on semiconductor manufacturing imports.

At first I hadn’t heard signs about this. But now it looks like the nightmare of handing China compute parity on a silver platter is very much in play.

I disagreed with the decision to sell the Nvidia H20 chips to China, but that chip was and is decidedly behind the frontier and has its disadvantages. Fortunately for us China for an opaque combination of reasons (including that they are not yet ‘AGI pilled’ and plausibly to save face or as part of negotiations) chose to turn those chips down.

The B30A would not be like that. It would mean China could match B300-clusters at only a modest additional cost. If Nvidia allocated chips sufficiently aggressively, and there is every reason to suggest they might do so, China could achieve compute parity with the United States in short order, greatly enhancing its models and competitiveness along with its entire economy and ability to fight wars. Chinese company market share and Chinese model market share of inference would skyrocket.

I turn over the floor to IFP and Saif Khan.

Saif Khan: Trump is meeting Xi this week for China trade talks. Congress is worried Trump may offer downgraded Blackwell AI chips as a concession. If this happens, it could effectively mean the end of US chip restrictions. Thread with highlights from our new 7,000-word report.

First – the reported chip specs: The “B30A” is rumored to be half of NVIDIA’s flagship B300: half the processing performance, half the memory bandwidth, and half the price. This means the B30A’s performance per $ is similar to the B300.

The B30A would: – Be far better than any Chinese AI chip – Have >12x the processing performance of the H20, a chip requiring an export license that has been approved for export in only limited quantities. – Exceed current export control thresholds by >18x

At a system level, a B30A-cluster would cost only ~20% more than a B300-cluster, a cost China can subsidize. Chinese AI labs would have access to supercomputers for AI training as powerful as those available to US AI labs.

When you put it that way, selling these chips to China seems like a really crazy thing to do if you care about whether American AI and American AI models are better than their Chinese counterparts, or you care about who has more compute. It would be a complete repudiation of the idea that we should have more and better compute than China.

Caleb Watney: I would simply not give away the essential bottleneck input for the most important dual-use technology of our era to the US’s primary geopolitical rival.

Hard to understate what a blow this would be for American leadership in AI if [sales of B30As] happens.

The US was not selling our supplies of enriched uranium to the Axis powers as we were building the Manhattan Project.

We could go from a 31x compute lead (in the best case scenario) to actually giving China a 1.1x compute lead if we sell the farm here.

The full report is here.

But won’t US chip restrictions cause Huawei to backfill with its own AI chips? No, for both supply and demand reasons.

On the supply side, China faces bottlenecks due to US/allied chipmaking tool controls. AI chips require two components: processor dies and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). US capacity for processors is 35-38x of China’s (or adjusting for China’s higher mfg errors, 160-170x).

China fares even worse on HBM, making virtually none this year. Even next year, the US advantage will be 70x.

As a result, five different analysts find Huawei makes an extremely small number of AI chips. They’ll be at 1-4% of US AI chips this year, and 1-2% in 2026 as the US ramps and Huawei stalls.

On the demand side, China will likely create artificial demand for inferior Huawei chips. So B30A sales to China will have minimal effect on Huawei market expansion. Instead, sales would supercharge China’s frontier AI & arm Chinese cloud to compete globally with US cloud.

Michael Sobolik (Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute): Allowing Nvidia to sell modified Blackwell chips to China would unilaterally surrender our greatest AI advantage to the Chinese Communist Party.

This would be a grave mistake.

This is why @SenatorBanks’ GAIN AI Act is so important. American chips should go American companies, not China.

America First!

China is going to maximize production on and progress of Huawei chips no matter what because they (correctly) see it as a dependency issue, and to this end they will ensure that Huawei chips sell out indefinitely, no matter what we do, and the amounts they have is tiny. The idea that they would be meaningfully exporting them any time soon is absurd, unless we are selling them so many B30As they have compute to spare.

Huawei is going to produce as many chips as possible, at as high quality as possible, from this point forth, which for a while will be ‘not many.’ Our decision here has at most minimal impact on their decisions and capacity, while potentially handing the future of AI to China by shoring up their one weakness.

Congress is trying to force through the GAIN Act to try and stop this sort of thing, and despite the political costs of doing so Microsoft sees this as important enough that it has thrown its support behind the GAIN Act. If the White House wants to make the case that the GAIN Act is not necessary, this is the time to make that case.

Even if you believe in the White House’s ‘tech stack’ theory (which I don’t), and that Huawei is much closer to catching up than they look (which again I don’t), this is still madness, because ultimately under that theory what matters are the models not the chips.

The the extent anyone was locked into anything, this newly empowered and market ascendant hybrid Nvidia-China stack (whether the main models were DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi or someone else) would lock people far more into the models than the chips, and the new chips would provide the capacity to serve those customers while starving American companies of compute and also profit margins.

Then, if and when the Huawei chips are produced in sufficient quantity and quality, a process that would proceed apace regardless, it would be a seamless transfer, that PRC would insist upon, to then gradually transition to serving this via their own chips.

Again, if anything, importing massive supplies of Nvidia compute would open up the opportunity for far earlier exports of Huawei chips to other nations, if China wanted to pursue that strategy for real, and allows them to offer better products across the board. This is beyond foolish.

Is a major driver of potentially selling these chips that they would be exports to China, and assist with balance of trade?

I don’t know if this is a major driving factor, especially since the chips would be coming from Taiwan and not from America, but if it is then I would note that China will use these chips to avoid importing compute in other ways, and use them to develop and export services. Chips are inputs to other products, not final goods. Selling these chips will not improve our balance of trade on net over the medium term.

Is it possible that China would not see it this way, and would turn down even these almost state of the art chips? I find this highly unlikely.

One reason to find it unlikely is to look at Nvidia’s stock over the last day of trading. They are a $5 trillion company, whose stock is up by 9% and whose products sell out, on the chance they’ll be allowed to sell chips to China. The market believes the Chinese would buy big over an extended period.

But let’s suppose, in theory, that the Chinese care so much about self-sufficiency and resilience or perhaps pride, or perhaps are taking sufficient queues from our willingness to sell it, that they would turn down the B30As.

In that case, they also don’t care about you offering it to them. It doesn’t get you anything in the negotiation and won’t help you get to a yes. Trump understands this. Never give up anything the other guy doesn’t care about. Even if you don’t face a backlash and you somehow fully ‘get away with it,’ what was the point?

This never ends positively for America. Take the chips off the table.

Does Nvidia need this? Nvidia absolutely does not need this. They’re selling out their chips either way and business is going gangbusters across the board.

Here’s some of what else they announced on Tuesday alone, as the stock passed $200 (it was $139 one year ago, $12.53 post-split five years ago):

Morning Brew: Nvidia announcements today:

– Eli Lilly partnership

– Palantir partnership

– Hyundai partnership

– Samsung partnership

– $1 billion investment in Nokia

– Uber partnership to build 100,000 robotaxi fleet

– $500 billion in expected revenue over through 2026

– New system connecting quantum computers to its AI chips

– Department of Energy partnership to build 7 new supercomputers

Throughout this post, I have made the case against selling B30As to China purely on the basis of the White House’s own publicly stated goals. If what we care about are purely ‘beating China’ and ‘winning the AI race’ where that race means ensuring American models retain market share, and ensuring we retain strategic and military and diplomatic advantages, then this would be one of the worst moves one could make. We would be selling out our biggest edge in order to sell a few chips.

That is not to minimize that there are other important reasons to sell B30As to China, as this would make it far more likely that China is the one to develop AGI or ASI before we do, or that this development is made in a relatively reckless and unsafe fashion. If we sell these chips and China then catches up to us, not only do we risk that it is China that builds it first, it will be built in extreme haste and recklessness no matter who does it. I would expect everyone to collectively lose their minds, and for our negotiating position, should we need to make a deal, to deteriorate dramatically.

Even if it is merely the newly supercharged Chinese models getting market penetration in America, I would expect everyone to lose their minds from that alone. That leads to very bad political decisions all around.

That will all be true even if AGI takes 10 years to develop as per Andrej Karpathy.

But that’s not what is important to the people negotiating and advising on this. To them, let me be clear: Purely in terms of your own views and goals, this is madness.

Discussion about this post

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If things in America weren’t stupid enough, Texas is suing Tylenol maker

autism, health, paxton, Policy, robert f kennedy jr, texas, Trump, tylenol / /

While the underlying cause or causes of autism spectrum disorder remain elusive and appear likely to be a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors, President Trump and his anti-vaccine health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—neither of whom have any scientific or medical background whatsoever—have decided to pin the blame on Tylenol, a common pain reliever and fever reducer that has no proven link to autism.

And now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the maker of Tylenol, Kenvue and Johnson & Johnson, who previously sold Tylenol, claiming that they have been “deceptively marketing Tylenol” knowing that it “leads to a significantly increased risk of autism and other disorders.”

To back that claim, Paxton relies on the “considerable body of evidence… recently highlighted by the Trump Administration.”

Of course, there is no “considerable” evidence for this claim, only tenuous associations and conflicting studies. Trump and Kennedy’s justification for blaming Tylenol was revealed in a rambling, incoherent press conference last month, in which Trump spoke of a “rumor” about Tylenol and his “opinion” on the matter. Still, he firmly warned against its use, saying well over a dozen times: “don’t take Tylenol.”

“Don’t take Tylenol. There’s no downside. Don’t take it. You’ll be uncomfortable. It won’t be as easy maybe, but don’t take it if you’re pregnant. Don’t take Tylenol and don’t give it to the baby after the baby is born,” he said.

“Scientifically unfounded”

As Ars has reported previously, there are some studies that have found an association between use of Tylenol (aka acetaminophen or paracetamol) and a higher risk of autism. But, many of the studies finding such an association have significant flaws. Other studies have found no link. That includes a highly regarded Swedish study that compared autism risk among siblings with different acetaminophen exposures during pregnancy, but otherwise similar genetic and environmental risks. Acetaminophen didn’t make a difference, suggesting other genetic and/or environmental factors might explain any associations. Further, even if there is a real association (aka a correlation) between acetaminophen use and autism risk, that does not mean the pain reliever is the cause of autism.

If things in America weren’t stupid enough, Texas is suing Tylenol maker Read More »

openai-data-suggests-1-million-users-discuss-suicide-with-chatgpt-weekly

OpenAI data suggests 1 million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT weekly

AI, AI assistants, AI behavior, AI ethics, AI safety, AI sycophancy, Biz & IT, chatbots, chatgpt, machine learning, Mental Health, openai, sam altman / /

Earlier this month, the company unveiled a wellness council to address these concerns, though critics noted the council did not include a suicide prevention expert. OpenAI also recently rolled out controls for parents of children who use ChatGPT. The company says it’s building an age prediction system to automatically detect children using ChatGPT and impose a stricter set of age-related safeguards.

Rare but impactful conversations

The data shared on Monday appears to be part of the company’s effort to demonstrate progress on these issues, although it also shines a spotlight on just how deeply AI chatbots may be affecting the health of the public at large.

In a blog post on the recently released data, OpenAI says these types of conversations in ChatGPT that might trigger concerns about “psychosis, mania, or suicidal thinking” are “extremely rare,” and thus difficult to measure. The company estimates that around 0.07 percent of users active in a given week and 0.01 percent of messages indicate possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania. For emotional attachment, the company estimates around 0.15 percent of users active in a given week and 0.03 percent of messages indicate potentially heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT.

OpenAI also claims that on an evaluation of over 1,000 challenging mental health-related conversations, the new GPT-5 model was 92 percent compliant with its desired behaviors, compared to 27 percent for a previous GPT-5 model released on August 15. The company also says its latest version of GPT-5 holds up to OpenAI’s safeguards better in long conversations. OpenAI has previously admitted that its safeguards are less effective during extended conversations.

In addition, OpenAI says it’s adding new evaluations to attempt to measure some of the most serious mental health issues facing ChatGPT users. The company says its baseline safety testing for its AI language models will now include benchmarks for emotional reliance and non-suicidal mental health emergencies.

Despite the ongoing mental health concerns, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on October 14 that the company will allow verified adult users to have erotic conversations with ChatGPT starting in December. The company had loosened ChatGPT content restrictions in February but then dramatically tightened them after the August lawsuit. Altman explained that OpenAI had made ChatGPT “pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues” but acknowledged this approach made the chatbot “less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems.”

If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal or in distress, please call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline number, 1-800-273-TALK (8255), which will put you in touch with a local crisis center.

OpenAI data suggests 1 million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT weekly Read More »

australia’s-social-media-ban-is-“problematic,”-but-platforms-will-comply-anyway

Australia’s social media ban is “problematic,” but platforms will comply anyway

age checks, age estimation, age gate, australia, online child safety, Policy, social media ban / /

Social media platforms have agreed to comply with Australia’s social media ban for users under 16 years old, begrudgingly embracing the world’s most restrictive online child safety law.

On Tuesday, Meta, Snap, and TikTok confirmed to Australia’s parliament that they’ll start removing and deactivating more than a million underage accounts when the law’s enforcement begins on December 10, Reuters reported.

Firms risk fines of up to $32.5 million for failing to block underage users.

Age checks are expected to be spotty, however, and Australia is still “scrambling” to figure out “key issues around enforcement,” including detailing firms’ precise obligations, AFP reported.

An FAQ managed by Australia’s eSafety regulator noted that platforms will be expected to find the accounts of all users under 16.

Those users must be allowed to download their data easily before their account is removed.

Some platforms can otherwise allow users to simply deactivate and retain their data until they reach age 17. Meta and TikTok expect to go that route, but Australia’s regulator warned that “users should not rely on platforms to provide this option.”

Additionally, platforms must prepare to catch kids who skirt age gates, the regulator said, and must block anyone under 16 from opening a new account. Beyond that, they’re expected to prevent “workarounds” to “bypass restrictions,” such as kids using AI to fake IDs, deepfakes to trick face scans, or the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to alter their location to basically anywhere else in the world with less restrictive child safety policies.

Kids discovered inappropriately accessing social media should be easy to report, too, Australia’s regulator said.

Australia’s social media ban is “problematic,” but platforms will comply anyway Read More »

porsche’s-2026-911-turbo-s-is-a-ballistic,-twin-turbo,-701-horsepower-monster

Porsche’s 2026 911 Turbo S is a ballistic, twin-turbo, 701-horsepower monster

car review, Cars, First drive, Porsche 911 Turbo S / /

Other upgrades

To handle the 61 hp (45.5 kW) of additional power over the outgoing car, the new Turbo S features 10 mm wider tires at the rear—sticky Pirelli P Zero Rs to be exact. Porsche also outfitted a new form of active suspension to the Turbo S, which uses one of the pumps from the Panamera’s trick new Active Ride suspension to drive actuators at each of the car’s four corners.

By raising or lowering pressure, the 911 Turbo S effectively varies the stiffness of its anti-rollbars, resulting in a cushier ride for daily driving and a more aggressive one in Sport or Sport Plus. The feeling of the Turbo S is never exactly plush—those low-profile tires aren’t ideal for that—but neither is it harsh. I felt quite comfortable cruising over the broken Malagan asphalt, making this an ideal daily driver.

I didn’t even mind the soft-top convertible in the Cabriolet, which raises and lowers quickly and, even at highway speed, doesn’t add much road noise to the equation. Still, if I were buying, I’d go coupe instead of Cabriolet, if only for the extra headroom and cleaner styling.

I won’t be buying, though, because I can’t afford one. The 2026 Porsche 911 Turbo S starts at $270,300 for the coupe or $284,300 for the soft-top Cabriolet, plus a $2,350 destination fee. That’s for a reasonably well-equipped car, including the new active suspension and carbon-ceramic brakes, but start digging into the options catalogue or ponder the expanded palette in Porsche’s Paint to Sample lines, and you’ll quickly find yourself on the painful side of $300,000. That’s a mighty amount of money for a 911, a whopping $40,000 MSRP increase over last year’s model, but given the wild level of engineering required to deliver this much power and responsiveness, it doesn’t feel completely out of line.

Porsche’s 2026 911 Turbo S is a ballistic, twin-turbo, 701-horsepower monster Read More »

f1-in-mexico-city:-we-have-a-new-championship-leader

F1 in Mexico City: We have a new championship leader

Cars, F1, Formula 1 / /

Doing so vaulted him past his teammate Oscar Piastri to regain the lead Norris held in the early part of the season, albeit by just a single point. But if that makes it sound like it was a boring race, think again.

Behind Norris, the chasing pack went into turn 1 four-wide. Both Ferraris were in the mix: Charles Leclerc qualified second, and his teammate Lewis Hamilton was third. Max Verstappen could qualify his Red Bull no higher than fifth, behind George Russell’s Mercedes. A number of drivers had to take to the grass at turn 1 to avoid crashing, giving Norris plenty of breathing room to build a lead.

Behind him, things were a little more interesting. Leclerc managed to keep second place, but with much less speed than Norris, a following pack formed behind him. By lap 7, Verstappen had managed to fight his way past Russell, then diced with Hamilton, his old foe from the 2021 title. Neither car was able to keep entirely to the track, and Hamilton was handed a 10-second penalty, putting an end to any thoughts of finally grabbing his first Ferrari podium finish. Eventually, he finished eighth.

The stadium section doesn’t have the best sequence of corners, but there are few places to get a good a view of the cars. Peter Fox/Getty Images

Norris, Leclerc, and Verstappen all stuck to a one-stop strategy, with the Red Bull driver starting on medium tires and then swapping to the softs; his rivals did the opposite. Verstappen was in a much stronger position in the final phase of the race, with newer, softer rubber than the Ferrari ahead. But although he closed the gap to fractions of a second, he was denied a chance to overtake Leclerc when a virtual safety car interrupted the race with just three laps to go.

With his third place, Verstappen is now 36 points behind championship leader Norris, with a total of 116 points left on offer for the season.

Fourth went to the Haas of Oliver Bearman, who saw a chance early on to get into the front-running pack but was unable to hold off Verstappen for the final podium spot toward the end of the race. As for Piastri, he was able to claw his way back to fifth after starting eighth. That earned him 10 points, so he only gave away five to Verstappen, although Norris now leads him by 357 points to 356.

The next race will be in Brazil on November 9.

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man-takes-herbal-pain-quackery,-nearly-dies,-spends-months-in-hospital

Man takes herbal pain quackery, nearly dies, spends months in hospital

case report, cortisol, health, herbal supplements, hormones, supplements / /

Deadly doses

The supplements were: Artri King, Nhan Sam Tuyet Lien, and Linsen Double Caulis Plus. All are known to contain unlisted glucocorticoids, according to the Food and Drug Administration. And testing of two of the man’s supplements by the hospital confirmed the presence of the steroids.

Doctors determined that the man had essentially overdosed on the glucocorticoids—he had taken doses that exceeded the normal levels of glucocorticoids in the body. The steroids likely suppressed immune responses, leading to his infections and GI ulcers. But, more significantly, the excess steroid levels also caused his HPA axis to essentially shut down. While it’s possible to get the HPA axis back up and running after withdrawal from excessive steroid use, the amount of time that takes can vary. Further, if a person stops taking large doses of glucocorticoids abruptly, rather than gradually—as in the man’s case—and particularly after chronic use—also as in the man’s case—it can lead to an adrenal crisis. In retrospect, the man had all the signs of a crisis.

The doctors started treating him with hydrocortisone (medication cortisol) to get him out of danger. But it took six weeks before his HPA axis showed signs of recovery on tests. By that time, he had developed recurrent bacterial infections in his blood and had persistent delirium. It was only after several months in the hospital that he was able to be discharged back home.

In the end, the doctors describe the man’s case as a cautionary tale. Many Americans use supplements, but their efficacy is largely unproven, and they are not rigorously regulated for safety. And even though, in this case, the FDA had issued warnings specifically about the three supplements the man took, his case highlights that public awareness of such dangers remains low.

“Clinicians must remain vigilant in assessing supplement use and educate patients on potential risks, particularly regarding hidden glucocorticoids, to prevent serious health complications such as adrenal insufficiency,” the doctors conclude.

Man takes herbal pain quackery, nearly dies, spends months in hospital Read More »

the-android-powered-boox-palma-2-pro-fits-in-your-pocket,-but-it’s-not-a-phone

The Android-powered Boox Palma 2 Pro fits in your pocket, but it’s not a phone

android, boox, e-readers, Google, Tech / /

Softly talking about the Boox Palma 2 Pro

For years, color E Ink was seen as a desirable feature, which would make it easier to read magazines and comics on low-power devices—Boox even has an E Ink monitor. However, the quality of the displays has been lacking. These screens do show colors, but they’re not as vibrant as what you get on an LCD or OLED. In the case of the Palma 2 Pro, the screen is also less sharp in color mode. The touchscreen display is 824 × 1648 in monochrome, but turning on color cuts that in half to 412 × 824.

In addition to the new screen, the second-gen Palma adds a SIM card slot. It’s not for phone calls, though. The SIM slot allows the device to get 5G mobile data in addition to Wi-Fi.

Credit: Boox

The Palma 2 Pro runs Android 15 out of the box. That’s a solid showing for Boox, which often uses much older builds of Google’s mobile OS. Upgrades aren’t guaranteed, and there’s no official support for Google services. However, Boox has a workaround for its devices so the Play Store can be installed.

The new Boox pocket reader is available for pre-order now at $400. It’s expected to ship around November 14.

The Android-powered Boox Palma 2 Pro fits in your pocket, but it’s not a phone Read More »

bats-eat-the-birds-they-pluck-from-the-sky-while-on-the-wing

Bats eat the birds they pluck from the sky while on the wing

bats, Biology, birds, Ecology, hunting, Science / /

There are three species of bats that eat birds. We know that because we have found feathers and other avian remains in their feces. What we didn’t know was how exactly they hunt birds, which are quite a bit heavier, faster, and stronger than the insects bats usually dine on.

To find out, Elena Tena, a biologist at Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, and her colleagues attached ultra-light sensors to Nyctalus Iasiopterus, the largest bats in Europe. What they found was jaw-droppingly brutal.

Inconspicuous interceptors

Nyctalus Iasiopterus, otherwise known as greater noctule bats, have a wingspan of about 45 centimeters. They have reddish-brown or chestnut fur with a slightly paler underside, and usually weigh around 40 to 60 grams. Despite that minimal weight, they are the largest of the three bat species known to eat birds, so the key challenge in getting a glimpse into the way they hunt was finding sensors light enough to not impede the bats’ flight.

Cameras, which are the usual go-to sensor, were out of the question. “Bats hunt at night, so you’d need night vision cameras, which together with batteries are too heavy for a bat to carry. Our sensors had to weigh below 10 percent of the weight of the bat—four to six grams,” Tena explained.

Tena and her team explored several alternative approaches throughout the last decade, including watching the bats from the ground or using military-grade radars. But even then, catching the hunting bats red-handed remained impossible.

In recent years, the technology and miniaturization finally caught up with Tena’s needs, and the team found the right sensors for the job and attached them to 14 greater noctule bats over the course of two years. The tags used in the study weighed around four grams, could run for several hours, and registered sound, altitude, and acceleration. This gave Tena and her colleagues a detailed picture of the bats’ behavior in the night sky. The recordings included both ambient environmental sounds and the ultra-frequency bursts bats use for echolocation. Combining altitude with accelerometer readouts enabled scientists to trace the bats’ movements through all their fast-paced turns, dives, and maneuvers.

Bats eat the birds they pluck from the sky while on the wing Read More »

dinosaurs-may-have-flourished-right-up-to-when-the-asteroid-hit

Dinosaurs may have flourished right up to when the asteroid hit

asteroid, Biology, dinosaurs, evolution, Impact, paleontology, Science / /

That seemingly changes as of now, with new argon dating of strata from the Naashoibito Member in the San Juan Basin of present-day New Mexico. Many dinosaur fossils have been obtained from this region, and we know the site differs from the sort of ecosystem found at Hell Creek. But it was previously thought to date back closer to a million years before the mass extinction. The new dates, plus the alignment of magnetic field reversals, tell us that the ecosystem was a contemporary of the one in Hell Creek, and dates to the last few hundred thousand years prior to the mass extinction.

Diverse ecosystems

The fossils at Naashoibito have revealed an ecosystem we now label the “Alamo Wash local fauna.” And they’re fairly distinct from the ones found in Wyoming, despite being just 1,500 kilometers further south. Analyzing the species present using ecological measures, the researchers found that dinosaurs formed two “bioprovinces” in the late Cretaceous—essentially, there were distinct ecosystems present in the northern and southern areas.

This doesn’t seem to be an artifact of the sites, as mammalian fossils seem to reflect a single community across both areas near the mass extinction, but had distinct ecologies both earlier and after. The researchers propose that temperature differences were the key drivers of the distinction, something that may have had less of an impact on mammals, which are generally better at controlling their own temperatures.

Overall, the researchers conclude that, rather than being dominated by a small number of major species, “dinosaurs were thriving in New Mexico until the end of the Cretaceous.”

While this speaks directly to the idea that limited diversity may have primed the dinosaurs for extinction, it also may have implications for the impact of the contemporaneous eruptions in the Deccan Traps. If these were having a major global impact, then it’s a bit unlikely that dinosaurs would be thriving anywhere.

Even with the new data, however, our picture is still limited to the ecosystems present on the North American continent. We do have fossils from elsewhere, but they’re not exactly dated. There are some indications of dinosaurs in the late Cretaceous in Europe and South America, but we don’t have a clear picture of the ecosystems in which they were found. So, while these findings help clarify the diversity of dinosaurs in the time leading up to their extinction, there’s still a lot left to learn.

Science, 2025. DOI: 10.1126/science.adw3282 (About DOIs).

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