For over two centuries, enslaved people across North America risked everything to escape bondage, and slaveholders had a ready tool to try to stop them: the local newspaper. As print publications spread through American towns and cities in the 18th and 19th centuries, enslavers turned to their pages to post detailed notices seeking the capture […]

The 1930s brought the worst economic collapse in American history. Banks failed, unemployment soared past 20 percent, and most households operated on tight, uncertain budgets. Yet wedding photographs from this decade tell an unexpected story. Brides and grooms frequently appeared in attire of striking sophistication, sculpted gowns, tailored suits, and carefully chosen accessories that seem […]

In the early 1970s, the Ohio River was both a vital economic artery and a stark reminder of the environmental costs of industrial growth. Barges carried coal, steel, chemicals, and other goods through the heart of the Midwest, while millions of people depended on the river for drinking water, recreation, and livelihoods. At the same […]

Walking into a school cafeteria in the 1970s meant more than just finding a seat. The moment you set your lunchbox down on that long, noisy table, every kid around you took notice. Before you even opened it, a silent verdict had already been passed. That small rectangular box, usually dented, always loud when it […]

Incluso los animales más simples, sin cerebro ni órganos especializados, dedican una parte sustancial de su vida a dormir. Un nuevo estudio revela que medusas y anémonas marinas pasan cerca de un tercio del día en reposo, un hallazgo que refuerza la idea de que el sueño surgió como un mecanismo ancestral para proteger las células nerviosas.

Dormir es una de las conductas más desconcertantes de la biología. Durante horas, los animales reducen su actividad, reaccionan peor a los estímulos y se exponen a riesgos evidentes. Aun así, la gran mayoría de los seres vivos con sistema nervioso lo hacen de manera regular. La pregunta de por qué el sueño es tan universal ha acompañado a la ciencia durante décadas, y suele abordarse desde el estudio de cerebros complejos, como los de mamíferos y aves. Sin embargo, una investigación reciente ha llevado la mirada mucho más atrás en la historia evolutiva.

El trabajo se centró en dos animales marinos pertenecientes al grupo de los cnidarios, una de las ramas más antiguas del árbol evolutivo con neuronas. Se trata de la medusa invertida Cassiopea andromeda y la anémona marina Nematostella vectensis. Ambos carecen de cerebro y poseen, en su lugar, una red difusa de células nerviosas repartidas por el cuerpo. A pesar de esa simplicidad extrema, los investigadores descubrieron que estos organismos muestran patrones de sueño sorprendentemente similares a los de animales mucho más complejos.

Dormir sin cerebro

Para determinar si una medusa o una anémona están dormidas no basta con observar si permanecen quietas. Los científicos utilizaron un criterio habitual en estudios del sueño animal: la reducción de la capacidad de respuesta a estímulos. En condiciones normales, estos cnidarios reaccionan rápidamente a cambios de luz, movimientos del agua o estímulos mecánicos. Cuando su respuesta se vuelve más lenta y errática, y ese estado es reversible, se considera un equivalente funcional del sueño.

Mediante este enfoque, el equipo observó que tanto Cassiopea como Nematostella pasan alrededor de ocho horas al día en un estado de reposo profundo. En términos relativos, eso supone aproximadamente un tercio del ciclo diario, una proporción muy cercana a la que se observa en los seres humanos. En el caso de la medusa invertida, el patrón es aún más llamativo: además de dormir por la noche, suele realizar un breve descanso adicional durante el día, comparable a una siesta.

El hallazgo desafía la idea de que el sueño esté ligado exclusivamente a cerebros capaces de procesar información compleja, almacenar recuerdos o regular emociones. Estos animales no sueñan, no aprenden de la misma manera que los vertebrados y no poseen estructuras neuronales centralizadas. Aun así, duermen, y lo hacen durante una fracción notablemente constante de su vida.

Ritmos opuestos, misma necesidad

Aunque la cantidad total de sueño es similar, el momento en que ocurre varía entre ambas especies. La medusa invertida es principalmente diurna: pasa las horas de luz activa y reduce su actividad cuando cae la noche. La anémona marina, en cambio, muestra un comportamiento casi opuesto. Su actividad aumenta al atardecer y durante la noche, mientras que el reposo más prolongado se concentra en las primeras horas de la mañana.

Las causas de estas diferencias también parecen distintas. En Cassiopea andromeda, la luz actúa como el principal regulador. Cuando el entorno se oscurece, el animal entra rápidamente en un estado de reposo. Si se altera artificialmente el ciclo de luz y oscuridad, su patrón de sueño se ajusta en consecuencia. En Nematostella vectensis, por el contrario, el sueño está gobernado por un reloj biológico interno que sigue funcionando incluso en condiciones de oscuridad constante.

Pese a estos contrastes, el resultado final es casi idéntico: una cantidad diaria de sueño muy estable. Para los investigadores, esta coincidencia sugiere que existe una necesidad fisiológica profunda que impone un “mínimo” de descanso, independientemente de cuándo se produzca. La función del sueño, por tanto, podría ser más básica y antigua de lo que se pensaba.

El vínculo con el daño en el ADN

La pregunta clave es por qué un animal tan simple necesitaría dormir. Sin un cerebro que consolidar recuerdos ni una mente que ordenar experiencias, ¿qué se gana con el reposo? La respuesta propuesta por el estudio apunta a un proceso celular fundamental: la reparación del ADN.

Durante los periodos de actividad, las neuronas de medusas y anémonas acumulan daños en su material genético. Estas lesiones pueden deberse a múltiples factores, como el metabolismo normal de la célula o la exposición a la radiación ultravioleta. Al analizar los tejidos nerviosos, los investigadores comprobaron que los niveles de daño en el ADN disminuyen de forma significativa durante el sueño.

Cuando los animales fueron privados de su descanso habitual, el daño genético continuó acumulándose. El efecto no era sutil: las diferencias entre animales bien descansados y aquellos mantenidos despiertos eran claras y consistentes. Según los autores del trabajo, esto indica que el sueño actúa como una ventana temporal en la que las neuronas pueden activar mecanismos de reparación sin las interferencias asociadas a la actividad constante.

Este resultado fue descrito en un artículo publicado en la revista Nature Communications, donde se plantea que la función original del sueño pudo haber sido, precisamente, proteger la integridad de las células nerviosas en los primeros animales con sistemas neuronales.

Cuando el sol induce al sueño

Para reforzar esta hipótesis, el equipo realizó experimentos adicionales. Expuso a medusas y anémonas a radiación ultravioleta, conocida por causar roturas en el ADN. Tras la exposición, ambos animales aumentaron de manera notable la cantidad de tiempo que pasaban dormidos. Un efecto similar se observó cuando se les administró una sustancia química que induce daños genéticos de forma controlada.

“Cuanto mayor es el daño en el ADN, mayor parece ser la presión para dormir”, señalan los autores del estudio. Esta relación directa sugiere que el sueño no es solo una consecuencia pasiva del cansancio, sino una respuesta activa a un problema celular concreto. Dormir permitiría a las neuronas detener temporalmente su actividad y dedicar recursos a la reparación.

Desde una perspectiva evolutiva, este mecanismo tendría mucho sentido. Las neuronas son células muy especializadas que, a diferencia de otras, no se dividen ni se reemplazan fácilmente. En organismos primitivos, perder neuronas podía comprometer funciones esenciales para la supervivencia. El sueño habría surgido como una solución eficiente para mantenerlas en buen estado.

Un papel inesperado de la melatonina

Otra de las sorpresas del estudio fue el papel de la melatonina. Este compuesto, conocido como la “hormona del sueño” en humanos, se produce en el cerebro y ayuda a regular los ritmos circadianos. Cuando los investigadores administraron melatonina a las medusas y anémonas durante sus fases activas, ambos animales entraron en un estado de reposo prolongado.

El efecto se produjo independientemente de si la especie era diurna o nocturna. En otras palabras, la melatonina inducía el sueño incluso cuando el animal normalmente estaría despierto. Esto indica que los mecanismos bioquímicos que responden a esta molécula ya existían mucho antes de la aparición de cerebros complejos y glándulas especializadas como la pineal humana.

“El hecho de que la melatonina funcione en animales sin cerebro sugiere que los componentes químicos del sueño son extremadamente antiguos”, destacan los investigadores. La regulación hormonal del descanso podría haberse establecido en los primeros sistemas nerviosos, y luego haberse conservado y refinado a lo largo de cientos de millones de años de evolución.

Una función que se amplió con el tiempo

A partir de estos resultados, los autores proponen un escenario evolutivo en el que el sueño aparece inicialmente como un proceso de mantenimiento celular. En los primeros animales con neuronas, dormir habría servido principalmente para reparar el ADN y preservar la funcionalidad de las células nerviosas. Con el paso del tiempo y el aumento de la complejidad del sistema nervioso, el sueño habría incorporado nuevas funciones.

En vertebrados y, especialmente, en mamíferos, el descanso nocturno se asocia hoy con la consolidación de la memoria, el aprendizaje, la regulación emocional y la eliminación de desechos metabólicos del cerebro. Según esta visión, estas funciones serían añadidos relativamente recientes sobre una base mucho más antigua.

El estudio de medusas y anémonas ofrece así una ventana al pasado profundo de la biología. Al observar cómo duermen animales que se parecen poco a nosotros, es posible identificar qué aspectos del sueño son esenciales y cuáles son producto de una evolución posterior. La idea de que una conducta tan cotidiana como dormir tenga su origen en la necesidad de reparar el ADN de unas pocas neuronas primitivas refuerza la noción de que, incluso en la biología más simple, el descanso nunca ha sido un lujo, sino una necesidad vital.

Este trabajo se suma a una creciente línea de investigación que busca comprender el sueño no solo como un fenómeno del cerebro humano, sino como un rasgo fundamental de la vida animal. Medusas y anémonas, silenciosas y aparentemente simples, se convierten así en inesperadas maestras sobre uno de los grandes misterios de la existencia.

The U.S. Navy has signed a major agreement with Boeing valued at approximately $880 million. The primary purpose of this funding is to significantly upgrade and maintain training systems for aircrews and maintenance personnel operating the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and anti-submarine aircraft. This initiative is intended to substantially improve fleet combat readiness and strengthen capabilities […]

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A further illustration of the drive to accelerate defense programs is the U.S. Air Force’s decision to involve an active operational pilot in joint flights with a test pilot during the early stages of the B-21 Raider nuclear bomber’s flight-test program. Military aircraft testing traditionally follows a well-defined sequence that precedes operational deployment. Historically, this […]

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Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from PetaPixel: China dominates the consumer drone market, so it is perhaps surprising that it is no longer possible to fly or even purchase a drone in Beijing. The new law that passed last month makes it illegal to buy, rent, or fly a drone without prior approval from the authorities. Users must also complete an online training session and pass a test on drone regulations. Under the new rules, drone users are also not allowed to repair or replace their drones in Beijing. Not only that, but a drone in a repair shop must be picked up in-person, rather than sent back by delivery. The BBC reports that drones must now be registered before being brought into and out of the Chinese capital. "I have to apply for permission for each flight, which is very inconvenient," drone enthusiast Steven Wang tells CNN. "And starting this year, the wait time is getting longer, and the reasons for rejection are becoming more vague." Despite China being the birthplace of the consumer drone industry, it is increasingly difficult for hobbyists to fly there. Beijing authorities say that the rules are made to "strengthen the management of unmanned aerial vehicles" and "safeguard the security of the capital."

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Nel 2025, la mortalità infantile negli USA raggiunge un minimo storico. Scopri le cause e le disparità razziali che persistono.

Sfere luminose con accelerazioni impossibili, un ufficiale dell'intelligence rimasto senza parole, e un documento CIA del 1952 che consigliava di "smentire" l'ipotesi extraterrestre per non creare panico. Sono alcuni dei contenuti dei file sugli UFO appena declassificati dal Pentagono — oltre 200 documenti in tre tranche. Nessuna prova di vita aliena. Ma molte domande senza risposta.

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Trump administration's decision to halt all foreign use of Anthropic's most capable AI models was prompted by conversations between Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy and U.S. officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, people familiar with the matter said. Researchers at Amazon had used a series of prompts to get Anthropic's Fable 5 model to provide them with information that could be used to aid cyberattacks and was supposed to be off limits, Jassy told the officials, according to people familiar with the matter. Tech industry executives have been in regular touch with the administration about the power of cutting-edge AI tools. Shortly afterward, White House officials held a meeting to discuss how to respond and security researchers began testing Amazon's claims. The officials asked Anthropic to fix the vulnerabilities or take down the model, according to administration officials. The officials decided that the most direct way to address that risk was by preventing foreign governments, companies and individuals from accessing the tool, the people said. President Trump later signed off on the action despite reservations about it hindering innovation, a senior White House official said. The administration had long felt that Anthropic, one of the leaders in America's AI race, couldn't be trusted to manage the security risks its new model presented. Friday's call between some administration officials and Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei reinforced that feeling, the people said... Anthropic has said that the vulnerabilities like those flagged by Amazon are relatively basic. The company has said that other publicly available models are capable of discovering them and that they don't represent a full so-called jailbreak, a point of view shared by some security researchers familiar with Amazon's research. The article points out that Amazon is "a big investor in Anthropic, supply Anthropic with chips for data centers.

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It's the U.S. law that allows wiretaps without a warrant for surveilling foreign targets. And the U.S. Congress just let it lapse. Sort of. NPR reports: Each year, the provision is used by American intelligence agencies to collect the electronic communications of hundreds of thousands of foreigners located outside of the United States. The government says that more than 60% of the president's daily intelligence briefing relies on information collected under the authority. The tool officially lapsed at the end of the day on Friday. What happens now? Intelligence collection under FISA's Section 702 is authorized annually by a federal court — and the law allows for that collection to continue for the duration of the court's authorization, even if the law lapses before the court's next approval. That means companies — electronic communications service providers, in this context — will still be legally required to turn over material to intelligence agencies. Still, some lawmakers worry that the companies compelled to turn over communications may attempt to challenge the law in court, possibly leading to an indeterminately long window during which they stop providing intel. Advocates on all sides of the surveillance fight believe those challenges are ultimately likely to fail, but those closely linked to the intelligence community emphasize that even a small pause comes with risks ahead of major events like America's 250th celebration and the World Cup.

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UPDATE: Amazon CEO's Talks With U.S. Officials Triggered Crackdown on Anthropic Models. "Anthropic said on Friday it will 'abruptly disable' its most advanced AI models for all users," reports Reuters, "after the U.S. government ordered it to suspend access to the models for foreign nationals, citing national security concerns. The company received the export control directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all foreign nationals, without being given specific details of its national security concern, Anthropic said in a statement." Anthropic's blog post writes that the directive applies to foreign nationals "whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance." "Access to all other Anthropic models will not be affected." We received the directive from the government today at 5:21pm (ET)... Our understanding is that the government believes it has become aware of a method of bypassing, or "jailbreaking" Fable 5... We have not even received a disclosure of a concerning non-universal potential jailbreak that led to a harmful result. The potential jailbreaks that have been disclosed to us are either entirely benign responses or are minor findings that provide no Mythos-specific uplift. To date, the government has only given us verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak, which essentially consists of asking the model to read a specific codebase and fix any software flaws. Our understanding is that one potential jailbreak was shared with the government. We have reviewed a report that we believe is the basis of the government's directive and validated that the level of capability displayed there is widely available from other models (including OpenAI's GPT-5.5), and is used every day by the defenders who keep systems safe... We are complying with the government's legal directive and are removing access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all users. However, we disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people. If this standard was applied across the industry, we believe it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers. As we have stated publicly, we believe the government should have the ability to block unsafe deployments, as part of a statutory process that is transparent, fair, clear, and grounded in technical facts. This action does not adhere to those principles. We apologize for this disruption to our customers. We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible. Reuters notes that Amazon's cloud unit AWS "said late on Friday that Anthropic has asked it to revoke access to the models for 'all users in all regions.'" Dean Ball, a former White House official who contributed to the AI Action Plan the administration issued in the summer of 2025, said in a post on X that the order suggests all "non-Americans" would be restricted from using Anthropic's latest models, including those based in the U.S. "This means you should expect to have to prove your citizenship to use Anthropic models," Ball said. Several key Anthropic personnel, including co-founder Chris Olah, AI researcher Andrej Karpathy and philosopher Amanda Askell, were born outside the United States.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: The first quarter of 2026 produced the most blocked and delayed data center projects on record, according to a new study shared with NBC News. The study -- conducted by Data Center Watch, a project of the AI intelligence firm 10a Labs that tracks local data center activity -- found that data center opponents blocked or delayed at least 75 projects nationwide worth about $130 billion from January through March, the most in a three-month period since the group began tracking in 2023. "The quarter reflected a structural shift rather than a cyclical spike: communities have internalized an opposition playbook, legislative sessions introduced formal regulatory uncertainty, and the number of active opposition groups more than doubled to 833 across 49 states," the authors wrote, noting that the total number and value of data centers blocked or delayed during the first three months of 2026 roughly matched the total for all of 2025. [...] The report found that legislative pushes for moratoriums on constructing data centers ballooned during the first quarter of 2026, sponsored by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The report found such proposals introduced in 14 states from January through March, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introducing a federal version. Though none of the proposals has been signed into law, one did reach the desk of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in Maine. She vetoed it in April. More than 300 bills were introduced in statehouses across the country just in the first six weeks of 2026, the authors found, saying it marked "a clear shift from incentive-focused policies toward regulatory oversight as the scale of energy demands became clearer." What's more, the study found that the number of active grassroots opposition groups across the country more than doubled from 396 at the end of 2025 to 833 by March. The authors found that the states with the most opposition groups through that month were Maryland, Ohio and Texas. "In some cases," they wrote, "opposition mobilized before any project was officially filed, the mere rumor of a data center was enough to trigger organized resistance."

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The non-profit organization Helios Horizon, based in Florida, USA, announced the successful completion of what it describes as the first piloted flight of an electric aircraft powered by solid-state battery cells. On June 5, project lead and test pilot Miguel Iturmendi conducted a series of short test hops at the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport in central […]

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German developers have introduced a highly mobile next-generation air defense system designed to protect military units while on the move. Its platform-independent architecture allows the system to be integrated onto a variety of vehicle chassis. One of Germany’s leading defense contractors has unveiled its latest mobile air defense solution. Designated the IRIS-T SLS MK4, the […]

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Una visione offuscata prima in un occhio e poi nell’altro ha allarmato Nelize Pretorius e i medici pensarono si trattasse di congiuntivite. “Riuscivo a malapena a vedere”, ha ricordato. “Stavo perdendo la vista e nessuno sapeva spiegarmi il perché”, ha dichiarato ad ABC . La causa del problema non risiedeva affatto nei suoi occhi. Si trattava di […]

Palm-lined streets, neon motel signs, bustling downtown storefronts, and crowded beaches under the Florida sun. The color photographs of 1950s Florida capture a state standing at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. While much of the country knew Florida as a vacation paradise, the people who lived there experienced a decade of rapid growth, changing […]

New York City in the 1970s was a city on the edge. Overcrowded, underfunded, and gripped by a spiraling crime wave, it tested the limits of every institution trying to hold it together, none more so than the men and women of the New York City Police Department. The photographs taken during this era capture […]

A thermal imaging still has been circulating rapidly online, allegedly capturing an unidentified aerial vehicle flying at night near the Groom Lake military base in Nevada, commonly known as Area 51. The image has prompted active discussion and comparisons with publicly available information about the development of a next-generation low-observable fighter aircraft for the United […]

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