Thursday, October 16, 2025

BIG Wrap

Shenzhen locked down amid coronavirus outbreak

China's government responded Sunday to a spike in coronavirus infections by shutting down its southern business centre of Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people, and restricted access to Shanghai by suspending bus service. Everyone in Shenzhen, a finance and technology center that abuts Hong Kong, will undergo three rounds of testing after 60 cases were reported Sunday, reports Medical Xpress. All businesses except those that supply food, fuel, and other necessities were ordered to close or...

Iran fires missiles at northern Iraqi city

Iran's Revolutionary Guards force says it targeted an Israeli "strategic centre" with missiles that struck the Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil overnight. Twelve missiles hit areas around the U.S. consulate overnight, causing material damage and wounding one civilian, the Kurdistan Regional Government said. The U.S. said no Americans were hurt, and that its facilities were not damaged in what it called an "outrageous attack." Israel's military and government declined to comment on Iran's claim. But Kurdish officials accused...

Crypto-currency cash machines ordered closed

All U.K. crypto-currency cash machines (ATMs) are operating illegally and must be shut down, the Financial Conduct Authority has announced. Crypto-ATMs look like regular cash machines and let people buy crypto-currency, such as Bitcoin, using their bank cards. But no company offering crypto-currency services in the U.K. has a licence to operate a crypto-ATM. The FCA said all such machines must be shut down or it will take action. According to crypto-ATM directory Coin ATM Radar, there are...

The dark side of the universe – how black holes became supermassive

Black holes are among the most compelling mysteries of the universe. Nothing, not even light, can escape a black hole. And at the centre of nearly every galaxy there is a supermassive black hole that is millions to billions of times more massive than the Sun. Understanding black holes, and how they become supermassive, could shed light on the evolution of the universe. Three physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have recently...

Online survey cheats cast doubt on compensated internet research

A warning from researchers at the University of South Florida: scam artists are taking advantage of online surveys that pay for participation – a method of market research that has become more common since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This conclusion stems from a study that began just before the start of the pandemic in 2020. The Florida Department of Health Bureau of Tobacco Free Florida funded the USF College of Public Health and...

Hawaiian corals show resilience to warming oceans

A long-term study of Hawaiian coral species provides a surprisingly optimistic view of how they might survive warmer and more acidic oceans resulting from climate change. Researchers found that the three coral species studied did experience significant mortality under conditions simulated to approximate ocean temperatures and acidity expected in the future – up to about half of some of the species died. But the fact that none of them completely died off – and some actually were thriving by the end...

The Internet is under threat

The world, both physical and digital, finds itself in unprecedented times as the conflict in Ukraine rages. Corporate giants such as Meta, Google, and Apple, who have always framed themselves as neutral tech firms, are now pinning their political colours to the mast – banning products in Russia in response to its invasion. Meanwhile, the Internet itself is changing for Russian users – with Twitter and Facebook blocked, TikTok not allowing Russian users to post, and...

Global energy CO2 emissions reached highest level in 2021

Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose by 6% in 2021 to 36.3 billion tons, their highest-ever level, as the world economy rebounded from the COVID-19 crisis and relied heavily on coal to power that growth, according to new International Energy Agency (IEA) analysis released today. The increase in global CO2 emissions of over 2 billion tons was the largest in history in absolute terms, more than offsetting the previous year's pandemic-induced decline, the IEA analysis shows....

Crypto platform restricts 25,000 Russia-linked wallets

Crypto-currency trading platform Coinbase has blocked 25,000 wallet addresses related to Russia, the BBC reports. The platform said the addresses were related to Russian individuals or entities it believed to have engaged in illicit activity. The addresses were reportedly blocked over fears crypto-currency could be used to evade sanctions. Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal made the announcement on a company blog. He outlined how the crypto exchange was complying with new rules imposed because of Russia's invasion of...

How physics and biology work together to explore the mechanisms of life

Each of our cells contains about 40 million proteins that together perform all the tasks the cell needs to survive. For a smooth action, the right proteins must be concentrated in specific amounts, at a specific time, and at a specific location. However, establishing such a delicate distribution requires an extremely precise process, happening at tiny spatial resolutions that standard cell biology tools are often unable to detect. To understand how this mechanism works, researchers...