In deep

Life is thriving in the subsurface depths of Earth

Different species thrive beneath the oceans than under the land.

Elizabeth Rayne – Jan 20, 2025 

No matter how deep we dig, we keep finding life. Credit: HAYKIRDI

From the flamboyant blossoms and birds of rainforests to the living rainbows of coral reefs, Earth’s surface is teeming with life. But some of its most diverse and fascinating biomes are thriving in the darkness below.

We used to think that the subsurface was a far-from-ideal place for living things. Habitats that can soak up light and warmth from the Sun have the energy to sustain many forms of life and so were viewed as the most diverse. That view is now changing.

Led by Emil Ruff of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, Mass., new research has unearthed communities of underground microbes that are almost as—and sometimes more—diverse than even reefs and rainforests. Ruff and his team found that subsurface bacteria and archaea are flourishing, even at depths where the energy supply is orders of magnitude lower than enjoyed by organisms in habitats that see the sun

“Subsurface ecosystems may host more than half of all microbial cells,” the researchers said in a study recently published in Science Advances.
Digging deeper

Microbes have adapted to survive just about everywhere. Starting in 2016, Ruff began collecting samples from surface and subsurface habitats all over the world for what would be the first global study to compare microbiomes above and beneath the surface. It is also one of the first to compare the composition and diversity in subsurface ecosystems below the land and ocean.

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Subsurface samples of bacteria and archaea (many of which could only be reached via mines or boreholes) came from rocks, aquifers, and deep sediments found in deserts, springs, the bottom of the ocean, and other habitats. Surface samples were taken from shallow sediments along with ocean and lake water.

Also included were interface samples. Interfaces are environments right on the edge of surface and subsurface, such caves and hydrothermal vents, where organisms on the surface may be influenced by processes occurring in the subsurface, such as seepage, or vice versa.

For the study, the diversity of bacteria and archaea of each individual sample was determined using DNA sequences, and the diversity found in all samples from a particular biome used to determine that biome’s total diversity. Marine and terrestrial habitats were compared, as well as surface and subsurface environments. It was the effort of almost a decade that unearthed some new details about subsurface life.
In the dull, dank dark

So where were the most diverse bacterial and archaeal populations? The researchers discovered that “species richness and evenness in many subsurface environments rival those in surface environments,” as they said in the same study.

At the level of individual samples, subsurface archaea were most diverse in brines, caves, cold seeps, springs, and the deep sea. Subsurface bacteria were most diverse in caves and marine sediments per sample. The total diversity of archaea was highest in marine subsurface and interface environments, while total bacterial diversity was also highest in interface environments.

The archaea most abundant in the marine subsurface include Euryarchaeota and Asgararchaeota. Euryarchaeota tend to thrive in extreme heat and reduce carbon dioxide to generate methane. The methane output of other methanogenic archaea is already being used as fuel, which is why such organisms can be especially useful. Asgararchaeota are the closest archaeal relatives of eukaryotes, or all organisms whose cells have a nucleus within a membrane, including us. There is special interest in studying asgararchaeota for more insight into how eukaryotic life evolved.

Nitrospirota is an archaeal phylum that’s particularly common in the terrestrial subsurface. Some species of nitrospirota are capable of oxidizing ammonia, while others can reduce it to nitrite, which is used by phytoplankton and also defends against pathogens in the human stomach, mouth, and skin.

Proteobacteria is a bacterial phylum that’s especially abundant in the terrestrial and marine subsurface. Some proteobacteria live in deep ocean trenches, and oxidize carbon monoxide (which contributes to global warming and depletes ozone). Bacteria also common in the marine subsurface include Desulfobacteria and Methylomirabilota. Desulfobacteria reduce sulfates, and other sulfate-reducing bacterias have already shown they can be used to help clean up contaminated soil. Methylomirabilota help control methane levels in the atmosphere by oxidizing methane.

Something unexpected that caught Ruff’s attention was how total diversity went up with depth. This was surprising because less energy is available at deeper levels of the subsurface. For archaea, diversity went up with the increase in depth in terrestrial environments but not marine environments. The same happened with bacteria, except in marine instead of terrestrial environments.

Much of what lies far below our feet still eludes us. Ruff suggests that single-cell microbes in even deeper, yet unexplored levels of the subsurface may have adapted to the absence of energy by slowing down their metabolisms so drastically that it could take decades, even centuries, for them to divide just once.

If there really are microbes that manage to live longer than humans with this survival tactic, it is possible similar species might be hiding on planets such as Mars, where the surface has long been blasted by radiation.

“Understanding deep life on Earth could be a model for discovering if there was life on Mars, and if it has survived,” Ruff said in a press release.

Maybe future technology could retrieve samples several kilometers below the Martian surface. Until then, keep digging.

Science Advances, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adq0645


Elizabeth Rayne  is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared on SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Grunge, Den of Geek, and Forbidden Futures. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she is either shapeshifting, drawing, or cosplaying as a character nobody has ever heard of. Follow her on Threads and Instagram @quothravenrayne.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM

Cheating little penguins are big on divorce, and other breeding secrets revealed

By Patrick Pester 

 January 20, 2025

LIVE SCIENCE

A little penguin colony in Australia struggles during years with high penguin divorce rates, but the divorcees could have more offspring in the long run if they find better mates, a new study finds.

Little penguins in a breeding nest in Australia.

 (Image credit: 4FR via Getty Images)

Little penguins "divorce" their partners to search for better mates, but they waste so much time wooing their new love interests that the colony suffers, a new study has found.

There's a common misconception that penguins mate for life — their breeding behaviors are more complicated than that and vary between species. Little penguins (Eudyptula minor) often return to the same mate every breeding season, but some ditch their partners to seek new mates, which scientists call a "penguin divorce."

The new study, published Jan. 11 in the journal Ecology and Evolution, found that these divorce rates are a good indicator of the colony's overall health. The team led by researchers from Monash University in Australia looked at how environmental and social factors, including divorce, influenced reproductive success over 13 breeding seasons on Phillip Island in Australia, which is home to 37,000 little penguins — the world's largest colony.

Divorce (or lack thereof) was the best predictor of reproductive success, with more offspring produced during seasons with low divorce rates, according to the study. But that's not to say committed couples were faithful.

"In good times, they largely stick with their partners, although there's often a bit of hanky-panky happening on the side," study co-author Richard Reina, head of the ecophysiology and conservation research group at Monash University in Australia, said in a statement. "However, after a poor reproductive season they may try to find a new partner for the next season to increase their breeding success."

Related: Meet 'small diver': One of the tiniest penguins ever discovered

Researchers believe penguins divorce for various reasons, including reproductive failure and environmental stress, which can all make penguin pairs less stable. In the long-term, separation can enhance reproductive success by allowing the penguins to find more compatible or "higher quality" mates, the study authors wrote.

However, problems arise for the colony when lots of penguins get divorced during the same season. Separated penguins must spend time searching for mates and engaging in courtship displays, which delays breeding. The study authors also wrote that there's a risk of "no breeding familiarity" and "reduced reproductive efficiency" during the early stages of a new coupling. In other words, new couples aren't as good at breeding and producing offspring as couples that have spent more time together.

Hundreds of divorces

For the new study, Reina and colleagues monitored a site called "Penguin Parade" on the west side of Phillip Island, where visitors can watch penguins waddle back from the ocean to their nests. The team documented almost 250 penguin divorces out of about 1,000 pairs included in the study, with higher divorce rates during less productive breeding seasons and lower rates during more productive breeding seasons.

The team found that other factors weren't as good or consistent at predicting reproductive success. The time penguins spent feeding impacted breeding, but in contrasting ways depending on whether the eggs had hatched, while environmental factors such as sea surface temperature had no significant effect during the study period. The authors noted that their results emphasize the need for an integrated approach to studying seabird reproductive success that considers individual behavior and social dynamics alongside environmental cues.

"Our results also suggest that monitoring divorce rates could offer a valuable, noninvasive tool for tracking reproductive trends in seabirds, particularly in populations facing fluctuating environmental conditions," the study authors wrote.

—4 never-before-seen emperor penguin colonies discovered in Antarctica, thanks to poop smears spotted from space

—Same-sex penguins hatch their first chick at New York zoo

—Mass die-off strikes endangered emperor penguin chicks across 4 of 5 West Antarctica colonies

Patrick Pester
Trending news writer
Patrick Pester is the trending news writer at Live Science. His background is in wildlife conservation and he has worked with endangered species around the world. Patrick holds a master's degree in international journalism from Cardiff University in the U.K.

STOP ME, IF YOU HAVE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE

A Farmer Was Working In His Field—and Found a 1,700-Year-Old Roman Mosaic

It stretches 900-square feet in size.

By Tim Newcomb

Jan 20, 2025 
Popular Mechanics

kolderal//Getty Images

A farmer discovered a 900-square-foot mosaic from the third century in his field in Turkey.

Covered by a thin layer of soil, the artwork depicts a variety of hunting scenes from the Roman era.

A charred wooden roof that fell atop the tiles hundreds of years ago may have preserved the artwork.

Hidden under less than 20 inches of soil on a farmer’s field in Turkey, there lay a colorful mosaic depicting a host of captivating hunting scenes from the Roman era. The 1,700-year-old tiles include images of the now-critically endangered Anatolian leopard biting the neck of an ostrich, a lion chasing a mountain goat, a bear pursuing a stag, and so much more.

And the discovery of this ancient art comes thanks to, or all things, a cherry tree sapling.

The farmer who owns this field not only found the surprisingly well-preserved tiles while planning a cherry tree orchard—he likely uncovered an entire previously unknown settlement from at least the late third century A.D., Emily Cayir, lead archaeologist from the state Archaeology and Ethnography Museum of Elazig, told The Art Newspaper.

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Locating additional stone buildings certainly bring dimension to the site, but it’s the roughly 900-square-foot colorful mosaic that most intrigues experts. The tiles were likely kept in good condition by a charred wooden roof, which would have fallen on the artwork at some point hundreds of years ago. Cayir said that the discovery is likely the largest of its kind ever found in Turkey—with a portrayal of animals instead of patterns or mythological designs—and certainly the first to survive as a whole.

Along with the lion, bear, and Anatolian leopard, the fanciful tiles also show greyhounds approaching a wild boar and pheasants, ducks, geese, and partridges standing near rose bushes and pomegranate trees—all part of “an expression of the eternal cycle of nature,” Cayir said. “The lion and bear,” she continued, “represent authority in Roman tradition, and the depiction of hunting dogs reminds us that humans are part of the food chain, [showing how] the craftsmen used metaphor to convey these ideas.”
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The artwork also features flowers to help transition between the scenes. Cayir said the shading used across the mosaic—from highlighting the animals engaged in hunting movements to the details on the flowers—shows that the creator of the artwork was very highly skilled. Coins dating to the early Byzantine period help date the mosaic to roughly 1,700 years ago, but ceramic remnants show that the site was in use before then as well.
Related Story

Artifact-Filled Tombs Discovered in Egypt

According to The Art Newspaper, Cayir said that the settlement could have been anything from a farming town to a Roman outpost, but whoever controlled the site displayed “an expression of power” through the artwork. She also claimed that the tiles likely once adorned a reception room or dining hall in the residence of an established Roman official.


Across the site, the team has also located a basalt road, irrigation channel, and a building that could have served as a winemaker’s press. They intend to continue searching.

The future of the mosaic remains unknown. Officials hope to preserve it, whether that means constructing a way to protect it without disturbing it, or moving the entire mosaic to a museum. For now, covered for winter, experts can only marvel at ancient hunting scenes that had been just inches below the surface for roughly 1,700 years.


Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.

Giant reserves of 'gold' hydrogen may be lurking beneath at least 30 US states, 1st-of-its-kind map reveals

By Sascha Pare 

 January 20, 2025

LIVE SCIENCE

USGS researchers have unveiled the first map of prospective locations for hydrogen gas in the contiguous United States — and there's a lot more than they previously thought.

A map showing areas in the U.S. that are unlikely to host hydrogen reserves (white to light blue) and likely to host hydrogen reserves (blue to dark blue). 

(Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey)

A first-of-its-kind map of the United States has revealed the likely locations of huge, naturally occurring hydrogen reserves.

The map, which you can explore here, is the first to show prospective locations for hydrogen on such a huge scale, marking areas where hydrogen gas may be lurking beneath the surface in quantities large enough to extract.

The researchers who created the map already suspected there could be more hydrogen buried in Earth's crust than scientists previously thought. But now that the results are out, even the team that created the map can't quite believe their eyes, according to a 

"For decades, the conventional wisdom was that naturally occurring hydrogen did not accumulate in sufficient quantities to be used for energy purposes," Sarah Ryker, associate director for energy and mineral resources at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), who did not participate in the research, said in the statement. "This map is tantalizing because it shows that several parts of the U.S. could have a subsurface hydrogen resource after all."

Related: Massive helium reservoir in Minnesota could solve US shortage

The map is graded from white to dark blue, with dark blue indicating areas that are highly prospective, meaning they are very likely to hold vast hydrogen reserves, and white indicating areas that are not prospective. Highly prospective areas include most of Michigan, eastern Kentucky and southern North Dakota, as well as parts of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Iowa and Oklahoma.

Whether a region is a prospective location for hydrogen depends on three main factors coming together: a source (or sources) of hydrogen, reservoir rocks and natural seals to trap the gas underground. Geologic hydrogen — hydrogen that occurs naturally, also known as "white" or "gold" hydrogen — is produced through chemical reactions in rocks, the simplest being a reaction that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.

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The map shows that at least 30 U.S. states have the conditions needed for hydrogen to accumulate belowground. There is high potential for the gas to be found in large swathes of the Midwest, as well as in areas along the California coast and Eastern Seaboard, according to the statement.

Hydrogen is a source of clean energy. Researchers project that it will account for up to 30% of the future energy supply in some sectors, with demand likely to rise fivefold by 2050.

In a study published last month, the same researchers calculated that Earth's total buried hydrogen reserves could amount to 6.2 trillion tons (5.6 trillion metric tons) of gas. Just 2% of that would supply all the energy required to power the world for 200 years, they said.

But that estimate came with no indication of where those reserves are located, which dictates whether they are accessible and, therefore, extractable. In the previous study, "we showed there is a significant potential for geologic hydrogen as an emerging energy resource," Sarah Gelman, a geologist with the USGS Central Energy Resources Science Center who participated in the new research, said in the statement. "The logical next step was to find where it might be in the United States."

The map and an accompanying report detailing the results were published Thursday (Jan. 16) on the USGS website.


Sascha Pare
Staff writer
Sascha is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.

A look at the Maba hominin skull

Found in 1958, the skull is one of a handful of fossil hominins from southern China that may be connected with the Denisovans.

JOHN HAWKES BLOG
20 JAN 2025 — 

Maba 1 skull in frontal (left) and right lateral (right) view.

On the shelf in my office I have a 3D print of the Maba 1 hominin skull. What is preserved from this individual is not that much: only part of the right parietal and temporal, the adjoining part of the occipital bone, a bit more than half the frontal bone, and pieces of the right zygomatic and interorbital pillar. Sometime after the individual's death the brow was chewed by rodents, exposing a large frontal sinus.

Overall, it leaves a striking impression. The thick fragments of vault have a visual heft, even when printed in plastic.

The pieces of this skull were found in a cave in 1958 by farmers who were digging guano for fertilizer. The cave is within one of two abrupt hills known as the Lion Rocks (shizishan) near the Maba village, which is just south of Shaoguan in Guangdong province. Today these hills are part of a park including a museum that commemorates the find. Large apartment blocks have sprung up all around.

Lion Rocks near Shaoguan, China. The Southern Branch Cave site is within the closer of the two hills. Image: TripAdvisor

For years the Maba skull was one of the few hominin discoveries from southern China. How it might fit together with other fossils was not very clear. The most famous fossil discoveries from China were early Middle Pleistocene in age, including the Homo erectus series from Zhoukoudian, near Beijing.

During the 1980s, early uranium-series dating of a flowstone suggested that the skull dates to the last interglacial, roughly 130,000 years ago. At that age, the skull would be contemporary with the Neandertal fossils from Krapina, Croatia, and the remains of early modern people from Skhūl Cave, Israel. The anatomy of Maba 1 echoes neither of these faraway groups. Some scientists thought of the Maba skull as representing the hominin population of China that lived at the same time that Neandertals lived much further to the west

.

Sites of Middle Pleistocene age in China and adjacent areas of eastern Eurasia. Maba is pictured.

Scientific ideas about the skull's antiquity changed with recent work by Guanjun Shen and collaborators in 2014. This team carried out survey of the cave system to try to better understand the overall chronology, and dated a capping flowstone that they suggested was a minimum for deposition of materials in the area where the skull had been found. The time represented by this flowstone, 230 ± 5 ka, is roughly double what scientists previously considered as the age of Maba 1. Still, there is uncertainty. The skull was not excavated under controlled circumstances and its relationship to sediment deposits will always remain uncertain.

An earlier date does little to change the evolutionary interpretation of the skull. It differs from Homo erectus in its higher forehead, slightly thinner vault bones, and larger brain size. Yet its vault and brow are thicker than in modern people. Examination of the endocranial surface by Emiliano Bruner and Xiujie Wu revealed a frontal lobe anatomy similar to archaic humans. With this in-between form, it's been called “archaic Homo sapiens”, and even Homo heidelbergensis.

In today's way of thinking, Maba 1 is among many fossil individuals from China that might someday be connected with the Denisovans. But unlike many of the Middle Pleistocene fossils from northern and central China, no scientists have yet connected Maba 1 with groups like Homo longi or the Julurens.

Rendering of CT data from Maba 1 including delineation of the endocast (blue), frontal sinus (green), and right orbit (yellow). Image: Bruner and Wu (2016)

No archaeological materials were found with the skull, neither at the time of its discovery nor since. Later exploration of the system by archaeologists in 1960 unearthed part of a human jaw, and excavations in 1984 recovered several teeth. None can be associated with the Maba 1 skull. Recent study of these other human remains by Dongfang Xiao and coworkers showed the jaw and isolated teeth likely came from much later modern humans.

Though the surviving fragments are limited in the information they can provide, it is still possible to say something about the individual's life. The individual was adult at the time of death. Most anthropologists have considered Maba 1 to have been a male individual, based on the thickness and the brow and general size and thickness of vault bones, but this is not certain.Macro photograph of the left frontal bone of Maba 1 showing detail of healed cranial lesion. Image: Xiujie Wu and collaborators (2011)

The left side of the frontal bone reveals what may have been a startling moment of violence during the individual's life. On the bone's external surface a semicircular depression, nearly a centimeter in diameter, is lined with concentric ridges of healed bone. On the internal surface of the frontal, just opposite the depression, is a raised bump. Examined with CT scans by Xiujie Wu and coworkers in 2011, the structure also disrupts the spongy structure within the bone, known as diploë.

This combination of evidence shows that the individual received a severe blow to the head, sufficient to generate not only external fracturing but also a closed-head injury within the skull. While it's not possible to be sure what caused this injury, Wu and collaborators noted that similar injuries often result from interpersonal violence. Whatever happened, the injury did not lead immediately to death. The extensive healing shows that the individual did recover, after a healing process that would have taken at least months and possibly longer.

The Middle Pleistocene fossils of China are giving rise to many new insights. As researchers apply new methods and approaches, they often look at old discoveries with fresh eyes. The Maba skull will always be limited in what it can tell us about the big picture of hominin diversity in this part of the world. Still, it may yet have more to say.

Notes: The work by Shen and collaborators (2014) provides great context about the discovery and the overall layout of the cave system in the Lion Rock. Bae (2010) provides a review of the overall Middle Pleistocene record of China, with description of Maba 1, and Bae and coworkers (2023) review the taxonomic situation. My earlier post on the Julurens gives an overview of new work in northern and central China, and connections with Denisovans.

References

Bae, C. J. (2010). The late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record of eastern Asia: Synthesis and review. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 143(S51), 75–93. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.21442

Bae, C. J., Liu, W., Wu, X., Zhang, Y., & Ni, X. (2023). “Dragon man” prompts rethinking of Middle Pleistocene hominin systematics in Asia. The Innovation, 4(6), 100527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2023.100527

Shen, G., Tu, H., Xiao, D., Qiu, L., Feng, Y., & Zhao, J. (2014). Age of Maba hominin site in southern China: Evidence from U-series dating of Southern Branch Cave. Quaternary Geochronology, 23, 56–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2014.06.004

Wu, X., & Bruner, E. (2016). The endocranial anatomy of Maba 1. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 160(4), 633–643. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22974

Wu, X.-J., Schepartz, L. A., Liu, W., & Trinkaus, E. (2011). Antemortem trauma and survival in the late Middle Pleistocene human cranium from Maba, South China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(49), 19558–19562. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117113108

Xiao, D., Bae, C. J., Shen, G., Delson, E., Jin, J. J. H., Webb, N. M., & Qiu, L. (2014). Metric and geometric morphometric analysis of new hominin fossils from Maba (Guangdong, China). Journal of Human Evolution, 74, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.04.003Chinahistory of paleoanthropologyMiddle Pleistocenefossil profileDenisovansJulurensHomo longiShare on Twitter
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The Cascade Mountains Have Been Hiding a Precious Natural Resource. A Research Team Just Found It.

But it may not be around for long.

By Darren Orf

 Jan 20, 2025 

POP MECH

aaaaimages//Getty Images

The American West is hungry for water, and scientists just found a previously unmapped aquifer three times the size of Lake Mead.

The discovery came when researchers, studying drill holes left behind by previous geothermal experiments, found that rock remained wet further down that previously imagined.
Although a boon for the parched West, the aquifer is fed by snowpack, and scientists estimate dramatic reductions in snow in the Cascades in the coming decades.

As the world warms, water in the American West is becoming more and more vital. Lake Mead and Lake Powell, two of the largest reservoirs out west, were at their lowest levels in 2023, and severe drought in some places is leading to ever-encroaching desertification where fertile grasslands slowly turn arid as the well, metaphorically speaking, dries up.

While this is a concerning scenario for those living in the southwestern U.S., the Pacific Northwest, while extremely dry in the summer months, receives a lot more rain as prevailing winds off the Pacific Ocean and mountain ranges, such as the Cascades, unleash months of moisture on the region. Now, a new study from the University of Oregon says that the Cascades may have squirreled away a lot of that water deep undergound.

Related Story

Groundwater is Disappearing. Survival Is at Stake

A team of researchers led by earth scientists at the University of Oregon (UO) analyzed drill holes created decades ago by scientists surveying for geothermal energy, and after finding evidence of water as the holes went deeper, the researchers found that the Cascades could contain 81 cubic kilometers of water—that’s three times the size of Lake Mead at its maximum capacity. The results of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“It is a continental-size lake stored in the rocks at the top of the mountains, like a big water tower,” UO’s Leif Karlstrom, a co-author of the study, said in a press statement. “That there are similar large volcanic aquifers north of the Columbia Gorge and near Mount Shasta likely make the Cascade Range the largest aquifer of its kind in the world.”

Finding this body of water came as a complete surprise. Initially, the team set out to better understand how the Cascades evolved over time, specifically how water flowed through the region. To do this, they analyzed rocks where two zones of the Cascades collide at Santiam Pass in central Oregon. Usually rocks get warmer as you dig deeper, but while analyzing these long-abandoned drill holes, the scientists noticed that the rocks’ typical temperature gradient was disrupted—a tell-tale sign of water permeating the rock. The scientists measured where rock temps increased again and estimated that the Cascades were hiding one big aquatic secret.

Because the scientists were working with holes drilled for geothermal purposes and not for mapping groundwater, the scientists’ 81-cubic-meter estimate is likely on the lower end of how big this hidden cache of water could actually be. While a possible untapped source of freshwater is cause for celebration, the researchers also urge caution. The groundwater in the Cascades is fed by snow, and snowpack is expected to decline significantly in the Cascades in the coming decades.

“It is a big, active groundwater reservoir up there right now, but its longevity and resilience to change is set by the availability of recharging waters,” Karlstrom says.



Darren Orf
Contributing Editor
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.

Knowing less about AI makes people more open to having it in their lives – new research

 Anggalih Prasetya / Shutterstock

THE CONVERSATION
Published: January 20, 2025 

The rapid spread of artificial intelligence has people wondering: who’s most likely to embrace AI in their daily lives? Many assume it’s the tech-savvy – those who understand how AI works – who are most eager to adopt it.

Surprisingly, our new research (published in the Journal of Marketing) finds the opposite. People with less knowledge about AI are actually more open to using the technology. We call this difference in adoption propensity the “lower literacy-higher receptivity” link.

This link shows up across different groups, settings and even countries. For instance, our analysis of data from market research company Ipsos spanning 27 countries reveals that people in nations with lower average AI literacy are more receptive towards AI adoption than those in nations with higher literacy.

Similarly, our survey of US undergraduate students finds that those with less understanding of AI are more likely to indicate using it for tasks like academic assignments.

The reason behind this link lies in how AI now performs tasks we once thought only humans could do. When AI creates a piece of art, writes a heartfelt response or plays a musical instrument, it can feel almost magical – like it’s crossing into human territory.

Of course, AI doesn’t actually possess human qualities. A chatbot might generate an empathetic response, but it doesn’t feel empathy. People with more technical knowledge about AI understand this.


They know how algorithms (sets of mathematical rules used by computers to carry out particular tasks), training data (used to improve how an AI system works) and computational models operate. This makes the technology less mysterious.

On the other hand, those with less understanding may see AI as magical and awe inspiring. We suggest this sense of magic makes them more open to using AI tools.

Our studies show this lower literacy-higher receptivity link is strongest for using AI tools in areas people associate with human traits, like providing emotional support or counselling. When it comes to tasks that don’t evoke the same sense of human-like qualities – such as analysing test results – the pattern flips. People with higher AI literacy are more receptive to these uses because they focus on AI’s efficiency, rather than any “magical” qualities.

The researchers carried out surveys with a number of different groups, including undergraduates. Owlie Productions / Shutterstock

It’s not about capability, fear or ethics

Interestingly, this link between lower literacy and higher receptivity persists even though people with lower AI literacy are more likely to view AI as less capable, less ethical, and even a bit scary. Their openness to AI seems to stem from their sense of wonder about what it can do, despite these perceived drawbacks.

This finding offers new insights into why people respond so differently to emerging technologies. Some studies suggest consumers favour new tech, a phenomenon called “algorithm appreciation”, while others show scepticism, or “algorithm aversion”. Our research points to perceptions of AI’s “magicalness” as a key factor shaping these reactions.

These insights pose a challenge for policymakers and educators. Efforts to boost AI literacy might unintentionally dampen people’s enthusiasm for using AI by making it seem less magical. This creates a tricky balance between helping people understand AI and keeping them open to its adoption.

To make the most of AI’s potential, businesses, educators and policymakers need to strike this balance. By understanding how perceptions of “magicalness” shape people’s openness to AI, we can help develop and deploy new AI-based products and services that take the way people view AI into account, and help them understand the benefits and risks of AI.

And ideally, this will happen without causing a loss of the awe that inspires many people to embrace this new technology.

Authors

Chiara Longoni
Associate Professor, Marketing and Social Science, Bocconi University

Gil Appel
Assistant Professor of Marketing, School of Business, George Washington University

Stephanie Tully
Associate Professor of Marketing, USC Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

ARACHNOLOGY

'Big boy' spider becomes Australia's largest deadly funnel-web after surprise discovery

By Olivia Ferrari 

January 20, 2025

LIVE SCIENCE

The Sydney funnel-web spider has extremely dangerous venom, but according to a new study this spider is actually three different species — one of which, the "Newcastle big boy," is much larger.

 

Atrax christenseni is the biggest of the three Sydney funnel-web spiders previously thought to be a single species. (Image credit: © Kane Christensen)

One of Australia's biggest and deadliest spiders is actually three different species, researchers discover — and one of these behemoth arachnids is even bigger than the rest.

Sydney funnel-web spiders (Atrax robustus) are glossy black in color and grow to 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) long. The iconic arachnids are also among the most venomous spiders to humans.

Called funnel-web spiders after their long, narrow, silk-lined burrows these spiders can live in suburban areas and wander into houses during the summer when males leave the burrow to search for mates. Their venom contains a toxin that attacks the human nervous system, so bites need immediate medical attention — otherwise, a victim can die within 15 minute

The Sydney funnel-web spider was first described in 1877. Since then, scientists have developed a better understanding of funnel-web spiders and how they are related, describing more types of funnel-web spiders throughout Australia.

Related: What is the deadliest spider in the world?

Now, scientists have untangled how these species are related by collecting wild spiders throughout the Sydney suburbs and analyzing specimens from Sydney's Australian Museum, which has the largest collection of funnel-web spiders in the world. The scientists closely observed the specimens under a microscope and analyzed their genetics.

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The Sydney funnel-web spider Atrax robustus is found throughout the city and suburbs of Sydney. (Image credit: Ramon Mascord© Australian Museum)

This revealed that the Sydney funnel-web spider is actually three species. The study was published Jan. 13 in the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution.

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The "real" Sydney funnel-web spider (the creature originally described in 1877 as Atrax robustus) is found throughout the city and suburbs of Sydney. A second related species is Atrax montanus, which was first described about 100 years ago and then discarded as inaccurate, until the new research found it does exist. It mostly lives further south and west in rainforests. And a third, larger species, Atrax christenseni, can be found in a small region surrounding the city of Newcastle, around 105 miles (170km) to the north of Sydney.

\The third species, Atrax montanus, lives in rainforests south and west of Sydney. (Image credit: Ramon Mascord © Australian Museum)

Atrax christenseni was named for Kane Christensen, former head of spiders at the Australian Reptile Park, who first described it in the early 2000s and gave the spiders the nickname "big boys." These funnel-web spiders are the largest of the three species, growing up to 3.5 inches (9 cm) long.

Danilo Harms, co-author of the study and an arachnologist at the University of Göttingen in Germany, told Live Science his team was the first to systematically define these species' relationships. "You would think that a spider like that had been studied to death… because it's so relevant. There's practical relevance because people get bitten each year," Harms said. "Finding that very little had been done, looking into the very basic stuff you'd want to know, was surprising."

—Deadly spiders that can kill in minutes and survive underwater are hiding out in swimming pools

—Giant funnel-web spider with fangs so big it could bite through a human fingernail arrives at Australian zoo

—Why does Australia have so many venomous animals?

The first antivenom for funnel-web spiders was developed in 1981, and there have been no recorded deaths from these spiders since then. But confusion about the three species may mean that antivenoms are less effective than they could be.

Funnel-web spiders are not aggressive by nature but can attack when cornered, so it's a good idea for people to be mindful when they see one, Harms said. But in case of bites, investigating how these species differ, and how the structure of their venoms differs, can improve the specificity of antivenoms. For example, these species might have different levels of specific compounds in their venom that paralyze humans, which can help researchers tailor antivenoms to each species.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Jan. 21 at 9.20 a.m to correct an error in the headline that suggested A. christenseni is Australia's largest spider

Olivia Ferrari
Live Science Contributor
Olivia Ferrari is a New York City-based freelance journalist with a background in research and science communication. Olivia has lived and worked in the U.K., Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. Her writing focuses on wildlife, environmental justice, climate change, and social science.

THE GRIFT

Welcome to the era of gangster tech regulation

Our tech overlords all have problems, and they want to buy the solutions.

By Elizabeth Lopatto,

VERGE
Jan 20, 2025, 


Image: Mark Harris for The Verge

President Donald Trump is being sworn in today, and we are about to find out what happens when the government is actually as corrupt as our most brain-rotted conspiracy theorists imagine.

“Trump Inauguration, Awash in Cash, Runs Out of Perks for Big Donors,” The New York Times reported, somewhat inaccurately. Sure, the Trump people ran out of VIP tickets, but that’s not what the donors were buying. This is pure, obvious corruption — the kind that used to trigger shame, back when we were a populace that could still experience that emotion.

So what are these men buying?

Our tech overlords all have problems, and they want to buy the solutions. I guess it was easier than making products people actually like.

“First Buddy” Elon Musk spent at least a quarter of a billion dollars electing Donald Trump. Corporations and wealthy donors have sent half a billion more since he was elected. Amazon, Google, Uber, Microsoft, and Meta donated $1 million each to Trump’s inauguration, as did Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. (Joe Biden’s inauguration hardly received this kind of largesse.) “In the first term, everybody was fighting me,” Trump said in December. “In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.”

Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, the three wealthiest men on Earth, are reportedly attending the inauguration; they were to be seated with elected officials and cabinet nominees, before the ceremony was moved indoors. (Cook is also reportedly attending.) Musk will have office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, according to The New York Times.

So what are these men buying?

Real market opportunities are rarer than they used to be. Tech executives and investors have become openly resentful about their products’ societal repercussions and an unconscionable lack of adulation from the citizenry. Zuckerberg in particular seems bored with Facebook, his major moneymaker, and has been searching for a new toy. He spent at least $46 billion plus the cost of a company rebrand on the Metaverse, only to find that his Big New Thing didn’t have legs. His latest Big New Thing is AR glasses, which are heavily reliant on whatever AI (and, likely, tariff) policy Trump will dictate.

Perhaps nobody has spent more to buy a break from public scrutiny than the crypto industry

Nearly every major tech company has at least one lawsuit pending. Apple has an antitrust suit pending. Google just lost one. There’s also a Federal Trade Commission suit that could peel Instagram and WhatsApp off Meta. Trump cares little about the actual purpose of antitrust enforcement: making companies compete for customers with good products. All the pending litigation is just leverage for Trump to punish anyone who doesn’t fall in line. And Silicon Valley is more disinterested in consumers than ever. “Get out of jail free” is a pretty famous card in the game of Monopoly, after all.


Image: Mark Harris for The Verge


Perhaps nobody has spent more to buy a break from public scrutiny than the crypto industry. “The crypto guys are just blowing it out,” an anonymous Trump advisor told Axios. “It used to be $1 million was a big number. Now we’re looking at some folks giving like $10 [million] or $20 million.” They want a friendly Securities and Exchange Commission. Venture capitalist and PayPal Mafioso David Sacks has already been named as a “crypto czar.” And there’s a pending executive order to name crypto “a national imperative or priority — strategic wording intended to guide government agencies to work with the industry,” according to Bloomberg. We may even be about to witness our very first presidential meme coin pump-and-dump.

Crypto is good for little besides crime and gambling, and less regulation means more chances for people to get scammed by the next FTX. (Speaking of gambling, Robinhood donated $2 million to the Trump inaugural fund.) On top of that, the executive order means a higher likelihood of crypto getting shoveled into new government projects — whether it’s useful or not. Crypto capture could even extend to soft-pedaling enforcement of the assorted criminal industries that rely on it.

Then there’s the taxes, of course. The billionaires don’t want to pay them, and Trump is amenable to that. Scott Bessent, nominated for Treasury Secretary, said “the most important economic issue of the day” was making sure tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy stayed in place. Bessent is accused of being a tax dodge himself.

Mass privatization could make things even more profitable for the tech industry

But that’s all small potatoes. The real money is in the military. The venture capitalist Marc Andreessen — also a board member of Meta and major investor in X — has been recruiting Trump administration staffers and even influencing Defense Department and intelligence agency hiring, The Washington Post reports. As usual, he’s given the game away by bragging about it on a podcast.

Silicon Valley investors generally have been bullish on defense tech like industry poster children Anduril and Palantir. (a16z is a major Anduril backer, and both companies are founded and owned by some of the Valley’s earliest MAGA faithful.) They want to shift Pentagon spending away from old-school contractors like Lockheed Martin, which appears to be so freaked out that when the “Big Tech Alert” X account noted it had unfollowed Musk, the Lockheed account DM’d to say it was “inadvertent.”

Musk’s SpaceX has a number of contracts with the US military and intelligence agencies, including the so-called Starshield satellites. He’s used his influence to meddle in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and has even reportedly taken phone calls from Vladimir Putin. The military’s interest in artificial intelligence has also inspired a new race for everything from building out data centers to providing cloud computing. Musk’s xAI, something of an also-ran next to OpenAI, Meta, and Google, could legitimize itself with DoD contracts.

Andreessen has already expressed his displeasure with Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, which will likely be repealed.

This isn’t a friendly clown car all these men have packed themselves into

The AI goldrush likely also interests Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon — as well as an array of startups. As early as 2017, OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman wrote to Elon Musk that the company should aim for a “Government project (when: ??).” (I’ve heard rumors that OpenAI asked for government funding around then; Microsoft also reportedly pitched DALL-E to the military in 2023.) Microsoft has the most to lose in these negotiations — Senators Ron Wyden and Eric Schmitt have expressed concerns that the Defense Department is too dependent on it as a vendor. CEO Satya Nadella has already made a pilgrimage to Mar-A-Lago to grovel before Trump and Musk.


Image: Mark Harris for The Verge


Mass privatization could make things even more profitable for the tech industry. Data/research stuff is an obvious bonanza, but Musk’s criticisms of the F-35 program suggest much broader targeting. Greater military investment in drones, for instance, would likely benefit Anduril. Musk already makes rockets, which means it’s a short leap for SpaceX to make missiles. And should the Trump administration carry out its mass deportation threats, there will doubtless be demand for more databases, mass tracking, and detention centers.


But this isn’t a friendly clown car all these men have packed themselves into. Their interests simply do not align. Zuckerberg is the biggest beneficiary of a TikTok ban and has practically begged Trump to punish Apple for him. Trump may have changed his mind on banning TikTok, though, perhaps because a major conservative donor owns a 15 percent stake. Apple is dependent on Chinese manufacturing and needs exemptions from the Trump administration’s promised tariffs. Andreessen has asked for the breakup of Google, which is now appealing its monopoly judgment. Everyone wants to steal contracts from Microsoft. Jeff Bezos and Musk are rivals for space contacts.

If we know anything from Trump’s first term, it’s that he loves people jockeying for his favor. Sure, that means mess, but it also means funny bedfellows. For instance, everyone hates the EU’s regulatory regime. It’s easy to imagine Zuckerberg, Musk, and Cook teaming up to get Trump to defang the EU’s Digital Services Act — and then immediately turning on each other. Being in Trump’s good graces is a zero sum game, and the prize is that the clown car is eventually going to go right over a cliff.

Selective legal enforcement puts every company under a sword of Damocles

Keeping Trump happy could be expensive, but cheaper than legal battles. Selective legal enforcement puts every company under a sword of Damocles — make the wrong move and you can be cut to shreds by lackeys in Congress or the FCC. Just look at TikTok’s fawning appeals to Dear Leader. The Supreme Court has upheld the TikTok ban, but if Trump only punishes the people he doesn’t like, nothing happens to TikTok. (Crucially, the law’s still on the books to keep other Chinese competitors in line.) Did I mention TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew got a front-row invite to Trump’s inauguration from the man himself?

I suppose I have to explain why this makes the US a shittier place to live, given the “savvy” cynicism I’ve seen about how it’s all rotten here already. Tech companies, padding their bottom lines, have made their experiences worse, a phenomenon so widespread and well-recognized that now there’s slang for it. Whether the scandals are scams, child predation, worker exploitation, or violations of user privacy — pick your poison — Trump has offered tech a way to buy itself out of consequences. That makes life tangibly worse for everyone who isn’t a billionaire.

There are those who will say that this is good — that the corruption is happening in the open instead of the shadows. But public, open corruption allows even more rottenness to fester in secret. Consider all the strongman governments; besides their advances in bribery, what did they innovate? Silicon Valley’s leaders fashion themselves as titans of industry, but what they’re really building is a golden age of grift.

 Elizabeth Lopatto,

 a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg.

Facebook, X, YouTube to do more against online hate speech, EU says

20/01/25 

Meta’s Facebook, Elon Musk’s X, Google’s YouTube and other tech companies have agreed to do more to tackle online hate speech under an updated code of conduct that will now be integrated into EU tech rules, the European Commission said on Monday.

Other signatories to the voluntary code set up in May 2016 are Dailymotion, Instagram, Jeuxvideo.com, LinkedIn, Microsoft hosted consumer services, Snapchat, Rakuten Viber, TikTok and Twitch.

“In Europe there is no place for illegal hate, either offline or online. I welcome the stakeholders’ commitment to a strengthened Code of conduct under the Digital Services Act (DSA),” EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.

The DSA requires tech companies to do more to combat illegal and harmful content on their platforms. Compliance with the updated code could impact regulators’ enforcement of the Act, EU officials said.

Under the revised code, the companies pledged to allow not-for-profit or public entities with expertise on illegal hate speech to monitor how they review hate speech notices, and to assess at least two thirds of these notices received from them within 24 hours.

The companies will also take measures, such as the use automatic detection tools to reduce hate speech on their platforms, and provide information on the role of recommendation systems and the organic and algorithmic reach of illegal content prior to its removal.

They will present country-level data broken down by the internal classification of hate speech such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.