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Overnight News Digest: July 12, 2025 [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-12
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, doomandgloom and FarWestGirl. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, JeremyBloom, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw. OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos since 2007, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
A very cross section of sciences: Take your time, browse, relax, return at leisure. :-)
Phys.org: Celebrate the JWST's third anniversary with this stunning image.
On July 11, 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope finished its commissioning and commenced science operations. In the three years since, the powerful infrared space telescope has delivered on its promise. It's looked back in time and surprised us with the galaxies it found. It's directly-imaged exoplanets and studied the atmospheres of others. Among this and all of its other science, it's delivered a stream of stunning images. NASA, the ESA, and the CSA, all partners in the telescope, are celebrating the JWST's third anniversary with the release of new images of NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw Nebula. The Cat's Paw (NGC 6334) is a massive star-forming region about 5,500 light years from the sun that spans about 320 light-years. It's also an emission nebula, meaning its gas is heated up by nearby hot stars and is glowing with ionization. The Cat's Paw is rife with star formation, and astronomers have identified and studied star-forming regions embedded in the nebula. The nebula also contains clumps of interstellar dust as large as 3,000 solar masses.
Space.com: Scientists discover ice in space isn't like water on Earth after all.
Water ice is everywhere in space, from frozen moons to frosty dust grains in interstellar clouds. However, researchers at University College London (UCL) and the University of Cambridge have recently discovered that ice in space isn't like what we thought it was. On Earth, the relatively warm temperatures in which ice exists gives the water molecules enough energy to form an ordered, crystalline structure akin to the symmetry of snowflakes. However, in space, temperatures plunge much lower, down to –148 or –328 degrees Fahrenheit (–100 or –200 Celsius) and colder, and it wasn't thought that water-ice could crystallize under such conditions. Instead, water ice in space was thought to be purely amorphous; in other words, no crystallization and no ordered structure between molecules. When plumes of water vapor from Saturn's moon Enceladus spew into space, that water vapor freezes and snows back onto the icy moon's surface, but those snowflakes would, according to previous theories, not have the intricate structure of snowflakes on Earth. But now, new research suggests that it could, at least to a degree. Matching computer simulations of how amorphous ice freezes to X-ray diffraction measurements of real amorphous ice suggest that in some cases, up to a quarter of amorphous ice can be made up of crystals.
Phys.org: 3I/ATLAS: Interstellar object 'may be oldest comet ever seen'.
A mystery interstellar object discovered last week is likely to be the oldest comet ever seen—possibly predating our solar system by more than 3 billion years, researchers say. The "water ice-rich" visitor, named 3I/ATLAS, is only the third known object from beyond our solar system ever spotted in our cosmic neighborhood and the first to reach us from a completely different region of our Milky Way galaxy. It could be more than 7 billion years old, according to University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins—who is discussing his findings at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2025) in Durham—and may be the most remarkable interstellar visitor yet. Unlike the previous two objects to enter our solar system from elsewhere in the cosmos, 3I/ATLAS appears to be traveling on a steep path through the galaxy, with a trajectory that suggests it originated from the Milky Way's "thick disk"—a population of ancient stars orbiting above and below the thin plane where the sun and most stars reside.
Yahoo Science: This company could save NASA’s doomed Martian Sample Return mission.
Lockheed Martin is trying to position itself as a savior for many NASA missions currently facing the chopping block at the hands of the Trump administration. The administration has already detailed massive budget cuts to NASA, which could include a complete shutdown of the Mars Sample Return mission, which Perseverance has been working on for the past several years. However, Lockheed Martin — yes, the same company known for its extensive role in America’s defense system — has come up with a fixed budget plan to save the Sample Return mission and bring back the collections Perseverance has already made. Over the years, NASA has struggled to bring its plans for Mars exploration to life. While the Mars Sample Return mission was a great idea, its actual execution has been less than smooth, with the budget often skyrocketing above the original numbers NASA provided years ago when it started operating on the mission. The numbers have changed so much, in fact, that even before the Trump administration’s shocking budget cuts, NASA was already looking at possibly canceling the MSR or finding cheaper alternatives. Thankfully, those cuts seem to have been relinquished for now, but it doesn’t mean NASA is out of the fire just yet. x x YouTube Video
Popular Mechanics: Archaeologists Found a 5th-Century Church Inscribed With a Message to Early Christians.
A mosaic adorning the entrance to a fifth-century church in Turkey’s ancient city of Olympus is both just the tip of the iceberg. The mosaic itself extends from the entrance to inside the church, and it’s just one of many ruins from the time period that archeologists have recently discovered, even after years of excavating the city. As crews continued to excavate Olympus’ ancient Kumluca district, they discovered the mosaic outside the early Christian church, known as Church No. 1. The entrance bears an inscription which translates to: “Only those on the right path may enter here,” according to Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as reported by Türkiye Today. “This mosaic inscription is strategically placed at the very entrance of the church,” Gokcen Kutulus Oztaskin, associate professor at Pamukkale University and excavation director on the project, said according to Anadolu Agency.
Yahoo Science: Archaeologists Determine Ancient Origins of Cache of 35 Wooden Tools Found in China.
My bolding.
A joint team of archaeologists, chronologists, geologists, and paleontologists have successfully dated a hoard of wooden tools recovered nearly a decade ago, Ancient Origins reported. The ancient tools were originally found in two separate excavations at an archaeological site in Gantangqing, southwestern China, between 2015–2016 and 2018–2019. They were found nestled with a variety of plant and animal fossils as well as stone artifacts in low-oxygen, clay-heavy sediment, which kept the wood intact over thousands of years. New dating has shown the tools to be around 300,000 years old, which places their creation near the end of the Early Paleolithic Period, or “stone age.” It’s remarkably rare to find wooden tools outside of Africa or western Eurasia which are older than 50,000 years. Of the 35 tools found, 32 were determined by scientists to have been modified at their base, with some possessing rounded ends while others were equipped with thin or edged chisel-like blades. Most of the tools were manufactured from pinewood, with a small number crafted from hardwood.
Yahoo Science: Lost and found: Peru unveils sacred city of Caral hidden for nearly 4,000 years
The site of Caral, one of Peru's most important archaeological areas, has a new jewel in its crown after eight years of excavations, intense research and conservation work. It is called Peñico, and experts consider it to be a "city of social integration" because of its strategic location, which connected the populations of the Supe and Huaura valleys, but also because of the large number of homes, public buildings and ceremonial spaces it housed. On Saturday 12 July, the Caral Archaeological Zone will organise the first Peñico Raymi, a replica of a traditional Andean festival, to inaugurate the new archaeological site.
With a tablespoon of salt...
Yahoo Science: Archaeologist Says He's Found Atlantis in Groundbreaking Discovery.
An archaeologist says he's found the lost city of Atlantis in what would obviously be a groundbreaking find. The claim was made by archaeologist Michael Donnellan at the Cosmic Summit 2025 conference, according to Diario AS. He also played a documentary at the summit "featuring images obtained through underwater technology," the site reported. He repeats the claim in the trailer for that documentary. However, History.com notes that scholars aren't sure whether Atlantis was a myth or real; over the years, other theories have pegged it as being at different locations, including Santorini, Greece. According to Diario AS, Donnellan claims "he has identified three submerged concentric walls carved into the seabed," and that "the dimensions and layout match the city described by Plato in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias," describing Atlantis. Donnellan claims he discovered Atlantis two miles off the coast of Cadiz, Spain, according to LADBible.
Phys.org: Guests at a feast in Iran's Zagros Mountains 11,000 years ago brought wild boars from all across the land.
Have you ever stopped by the grocery store on your way to a dinner party to grab a bottle of wine? Did you grab the first one you saw, or did you pause to think about the available choices and deliberate over where you wanted your gift to be from? The people who lived in western Iran around 11,000 years ago had the same idea—but in practice it looked a little different. In our latest research, published in Communications Earth & Environment, my colleagues and I studied the remains of ancient feasts at Asiab in the Zagros Mountains where people gathered in communal celebration. The feasters left behind the skulls of 19 wild boars, which they packed neatly together and sealed inside a pit within a round building. Butchery marks on the boar skulls show the animals were used for feasting, but until now we did not know where the animals came from.
Phys.org: Discovery of rare medieval music brings sounds of monks back to Devon abbey for first time in 500 years.
For the first time in nearly five centuries, Buckland Abbey in Devon will resonate once more with the sacred sounds of monastic music, thanks to research into a rare 15th-century manuscript and a collaboration between the National Trust and the University of Exeter. The Cistercian abbey, now in the care of the National Trust, was once alive with music, the resident monks and choirboys singing for hours every day. But it fell silent at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when every abbey and priory in England was shut down by King Henry VIII. Now, a centuries-old book once owned and used by the abbey, part of the British Library's collection, will return "home" on loan to Buckland Abbey for the first time since the Dissolution with its music heard once more thanks to the University of Exeter Chapel Choir. Known as a "customary," the richly decorated Buckland Book (c. 1450) contained the instructions the monks needed to carry out their daily religious rituals and services. But unusually, it also contains a rare collection of medieval music copied and added to the book in the early Tudor period.
Phys.org: Iron Age kohl in Iran: Kani Koter cemetery reveals a previously unknown recipe.
An international research team has found that black eye makeup used between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE in the northwest of today's Iran contained natural graphite and manganese oxide—unlike the typical kohl of the time used across the Ancient Near East, which was often based on lead. The team, led by Dr. Silvia Amicone from the Archaeometry working group at the University of Tübingen, discovered the unique formula while analyzing samples from the Kani Koter cemetery on the eastern border of the former Assyrian Empire. The results provide an insight into cosmetic practices in the Ancient Near East and into the material culture of the fringes of the Assyrian Empire. The study has been published in Archaeometry. Kani Koter is a cemetery where the dead were buried during the Iron Age. "The graves include early elite burials with rich grave goods," says Dr. Shelir Amelirad of Heidelberg University. Objects for personal grooming such as mirrors and kohl application tools were found, as well as a ceramic vessel containing a black powder. The objects featured elements of an Assyrian style. The research team analyzed the black powder using a range of scientific techniques.
Phys.org: First hominin fossils recovered from submerged Sundaland.
The Sunda Shelf is home to a rich Pleistocene hominin fossil record, including specimens of Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, Homo erectus, and archaic Homo. Much of the Sunda Shelf is submerged. At times during the Pleistocene, however, the shelf was exposed, forming the large landmass known as Sundaland. Knowledge about the rich and complex evolutionary and migratory history of the hominins that once lived there is hampered by large swaths of the Sundaland landmass being submerged today. Dr. Harold Berghuis and his colleagues recently had the opportunity to examine fossils that had been dredged as part of a construction project. Among the fossils, they found the first ever hominin remains from submerged Sundaland, and one of them belonged to H. erectus. Their study is published in the journal Quaternary Environments and Humans. In 2014 and 2015, the port company Berlian Manyar Sejahtera (BMS) commissioned the development of an artificial island for cargo handling. In the process, they dredged more than 5 million m3 of sand to build a 100-hectare island. During later inspection of the artificial island, vertebrate fossils were noted—in total, 6,732 specimens were recovered.
Phys.org: Bolg amondol: New monstersaur reveals complex evolutionary history of giant Gila monster relatives.
A newly discovered, raccoon-sized armored monstersaurian from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah, United States, reveals a surprising diversity of large lizards at the pinnacle of the age of dinosaurs. Named for the goblin prince from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," the new species Bolg amondol, also illuminates the sometimes-murky path that life traveled between ancient continents. "I opened this jar of bones labeled 'lizard' at the Natural History Museum of Utah, and was like, oh wow, there's a fragmentary skeleton here," said lead author Hank Woolley from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's Dinosaur Institute. "We know very little about large-bodied lizards from the Kaiparowits Formation in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, so I knew this was significant right away."
Never eat anything larger than your head?
Yahoo Science: Numerous Fossils Reveal Jurassic Fish Killed in Same, Bizarre Way.
An extinct genus of ray-finned fish that lived during the Jurassic period seems to have had quite the penchant for overreaching. A new analysis of fossilized Tharsis fish reveals that the carnivorous marine animals seem to have frequently met their end with large cephalopods known as belemnites lodged quite fatally in their gullets. According to paleontologists Martin Ebert and Martina Kölbl-Ebert of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany, Tharsis fish found in the 152 million-year-old Solnhofen Plattenkalk (limestone) formation in Germany appear in multiple instances to have died while attempting to swallow a belemnite nearly as long as themselves.
Phys.org: North America's oldest known pterosaur unearthed in Petrified Forest National Park.
A Smithsonian-led team of researchers have discovered North America's oldest known pterosaur, the winged reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by paleontologist Ben Kligman, a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, present the fossilized jawbone of the new species and describe the seagull-sized pterosaur alongside hundreds of other fossils—including one of the world's oldest turtle fossils—unearthed at a remote bonebed in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. These fossils, which date back to the late Triassic period around 209 million years ago, preserve a snapshot of a dynamic ecosystem where older groups of animals, including giant amphibians and armored crocodile relatives, lived alongside evolutionary upstarts like frogs, turtles and pterosaurs.
Phys.org: How flinging crickets in the air helped save purple martins in Western Pa.
One bird spectacle readily observable in Allegheny County right now comes in the form of 100 purple martins swirling above the fields and their condos at Harrison Hills Park. Nesting in colonies, the handsome dark purple bird is the largest swallow in the nation, boasting a 16-inch wingspan and gobbling up thousands of insects. In 2000, in light of declining numbers in the region and abroad, a local man developed an emergency feeding technique—flinging crickets in the air for famished martins to eat—to lend a hand. Purple martin populations have dropped 33% in the last 50 years because of habitat loss and competition from invasive, non-native birds, including English house sparrows and European starlings, according to the Purple Martin Conservation Association, an international nonprofit headquartered at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Presque Isle State Park. Despite the trend, the birds are making a "big comeback" in the region in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Westmoreland counties, said Ken Kostka of Harrison, who manages the Harrison Hills purple martin site and others he established.
Phys.org: Elephants gesture with an intention to communicate their desires, study finds.
Humans have long mastered the art of expressing their goals and needs through both language and gestures. A similar behavior is also observed in non-human primates, who use complex gestures to convey what they want, but does the use of deliberate gestures extend beyond primates to other members of the animal kingdom? A recent study provided the first-ever evidence that, in the presence of a visually attentive audience, elephants are capable of using a wide range of gestures to convey their desires. The findings were published in Royal Society Open Science. To test whether elephants intentionally gesture to communicate their goals, the researchers presented 17 semi-captive African Savannah elephants in Zimbabwe with two trays: one containing six apples (the desired item) and the other empty (the non-desired item). Their attempts to communicate with the experimenters were then recorded across three different outcomes. The first scenario was when they successfully communicated, and the experimenter gave the elephant all six apples. The second was when their goals were not met, and they were given the empty tray. The third was when their goals were partially met, and they received only one apple from the tray.
Phys.org: Ancient trees are dying faster than expected in Eastern Oregon.
Eastern Oregon's Malheur National Forest boasts some of the state's oldest trees, including pine and larch that live more than 500 years. But many of those ancient trees are dying at an alarming rate, a new analysis shows. Between 2012 and 2023, a quarter of trees more than 300 years old in randomly located sites in roadless areas died, the study found. A triple whammy of drought, bug infestations and competition with younger trees is likely driving the decline. "It's sad to see so many old trees dying," said lead researcher James Johnston, an assistant research professor in the University of Oregon's Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments. "In the moistest and most productive Douglas-fir-dominated forests in Western Oregon, setting forests aside as protected reserves has proven to be a successful strategy for protecting old trees," he said. "But this research shows that we need active management to remove younger trees in order to protect old trees in dry forests of Eastern and Southern Oregon."
Phys.org: Four fungi related to species that hijack brains of insects discovered in Thailand.
The cordyceps species in "The Last of Us," Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, is real and does exactly what the show purports —just not in humans, according to medical experts. Thanks to a relatively high body temperature and complex nervous system, cordyceps are unable to survive in human bodies. In insects, however, many Ophiocordyceps species can hijack their brains, manipulate their behavior, and shoot spores from their bodies, allowing the fungus to spread.
Phys.org: Africa's plants: A database project has recorded 65,000 species, and is still growing.
The African Plant Database lists 65,000 species of flowering plants, ferns and conifers found on the African continent and Madagascar. Since 2006, every plant species ever documented in Africa and Madagascar has been included in the massive online database, with about 200 new species added every year. Cyrille Chatelain is a curator at the Geneva Botanical Garden in Switzerland. He's researched plants in Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar and north Africa and manages the plant database. Here he explains its importance. What's been built and why is it so special? The database was developed by the Geneva Botanical Garden in Switzerland—involved for more than 60 years in research and conservation projects in Africa—in collaboration with the South African National Biodiversity Institute. It's an online list of all known African plant species from almost 1.9 million places on the continent. The value of the African Plant Database lies in the fact that it is updated every day. This is continuous work that never ends. It is not only new species that are added. Over 1,000 amendments and updates about plants are also added every year. So far, the database does not cover Africa's island states, apart from Madagascar. Nevertheless, it is unmatched globally. The only similar list is Australia's Plant Name Index.
Phys.org: Meet the 'plastivore' caterpillars that grow fat from eating plastic.
Plastics play a fundamental role in modern life, but their resistance to biodegradation makes them very difficult to dispose of. New research reveals how "plastivore" caterpillars can metabolically degrade plastics in a matter of days, not decades, and store them internally as body fat—but at what cost? In 2017, a groundbreaking study demonstrated that the caterpillars of the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella), known as waxworms, can degrade polyethylene plastic. Polyethylene is the world's most commonly manufactured plastic, with over 100 million tons of polyethylene produced globally each year. Polyethylene is chemically resilient, which makes it resistant to decomposition and can take decades or even hundreds of years to fully degrade. While this plastic degradation process has been demonstrated by waxworms at a small scale, this ongoing research project is helping us to better understand the biological mechanisms at work, the impact of an all-plastic diet on the health of these organisms, and their viability as a sustainable solution to plastic pollution. "Around 2,000 waxworms can break down an entire polyethylene bag in as little as 24 hours, although we believe that co-supplementation with feeding stimulants like sugars can reduce the number of worms considerably," says Dr. Bryan Cassone, a Professor of Insect Pest and Vector Biology in the Department of Biology at Brandon University, Canada.
Phys.org: Enhanced geothermal systems: An underground tech surfaces as a serious clean energy contender.
A once-overlooked technology that taps into the Earth's heat to generate electricity could supply up to 20% of the electricity in the United States by 2050, according to a new Princeton analysis. Published in Joule, the study found that if the costs of deploying enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) fall as more of the technology is implemented—following trends observed in other energy technologies—then it could emerge as the third-most significant clean energy technology behind wind and solar. The analysis demonstrated that over 250 gigawatts of enhanced geothermal could be deployed by 2050 if the technology can be implemented at baseline or lower-than-expected costs. By comparison, today's grid has a total capacity of around 1,200 gigawatts. With more ambitious federal policies, such as a net-zero by 2050 policy, even the most expensive cost estimates for enhanced geothermal led to over 500 gigawatts of deployment by 2050, including in areas east of the Mississippi River historically seen as low-quality geothermal resources.
Phys.org: In Indonesia, a start-up captures coolants to stop global warming.
In the basement of a Jakarta housing complex, surrounded by the silver piping of the air-conditioning system, Indonesian technician Ari Sobaruddin is doing his part to tackle climate change. Ari and his colleagues will spend 12 hours capturing AC refrigerant to stop this "super-pollutant"—thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide—from leaking into the atmosphere. It is plodding, sweaty work, but Ari, a member of climate startup Recoolit, does not mind. "I love it because it's about preserving nature, saving nature," the 30-year-old technician told AFP. Recoolit began working in Indonesia in 2021 to tackle what it considers an often-overlooked contributor to climate change: refrigerants. These gases found in air-conditioners, fridges and cars are an old environmental problem. In the 1970s, research showed refrigerants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were destroying the ozone layer.
Phys.org: World-first study uses First Nations calendars for solar power forecasting.
The in-depth observations of First Nations seasonal calendars could be key to improving solar power forecasting, according to a world-first study by Charles Darwin University (CDU). The study, "Conv-Ensemble for Solar Power Prediction with First Nations Seasonal Information" published in IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society, combined First Nations seasonal calendars with a novel deep learning model, an artificial intelligence technique, to predict future solar panel power output. Solar is one of the world's leading renewable energy alternatives but there continue to be challenges with the technology's reliability. At present, solar power generation is difficult to predict because of weather, atmospheric conditions and how much power is absorbed on a panel surface. CDU researchers developed the model using the Tiwi, Gulumoerrgin (Larrakia), Kunwinjku and Ngurrungurrudjba First Nations calendars, and a modern calendar known as Red Center. Researchers used data from the Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Center in Alice Springs, and the results show the model can predict solar power generation with a lower error rate. The error rate is less than half of the error rate that popular forecasting models use in the industry right now.
Phys.org: Beat the heat with these cooling gadgets and wearables.
You can only sit in front of the fridge with the door open for so long. As heat waves blast the world like a blow dryer on high, folks are reaching for anything that promises a little personal chill: portable mini fans, cooling neck wraps, high-tech vests and all kinds of heat-beating headwear. Of course, cooling gear helps most when paired with basic and safe strategies against the heat: most importantly hydration, shade and rest. Stay out of extreme heat when possible, and know the signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Yet these wearable wonders and breezy gadgets can offer some relief. They might look quirky, but when the AC struggles and the sidewalk feels like a stovetop, they can start to seem like must-haves.
Hope everyone has a nice, relaxing weekend. :-)
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