Bell (1987), John S, Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics, Cambridge University Press 1987 Jacket: JB ... is particularly famous for his discovery of a crucial difference between the predictions of conventional quantum mechanics and the implications of local causality . . . . This work has played a major role in the development of our current understanding of the profound nature of quantum concepts and of the fundamental limitations they impose on the applicability of classical ideas of space, time and locality. 
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Carlson (2006), James, and Arthur Jaffe & Andrew Wiles, The Millennium Prize Problems, Clay Mathematics Institute and American Mathematical Society 2006
1: The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture: Andrew Wiles
2: The Hodge Conjecture: Pierre Deligne
3: The Existence and Smoothness of the Navier-Stokes Equation: Charles L Fefferman
4: The Poincare Conjecture: John Milnor
5: The P versus NP Problem: Stephen Cook
6: The Riemann Hypothesis: Enrico Bombieri
7: Quantum Yang-Mills Theory: Arthur Jaffe and Edward Whitten 
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Lonergan (1992), Bernard J F, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding' 
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Nicholls (2025), Jeffrey, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: A systematic unification of physics and theology, Austin Macauley Publishers 12025 ' This book is a personal narrative of those events and a defense of the belief that the universe itself is divine. The central argument is that by embracing this reality and abandoning notions of supernatural deities, humanity can resolve its problems. The universe, it is argued, is self-creating, and a proper understanding of physics leads to a plausible scientific theology. The natural intelligence inherent in the universe, from cellular organization to ecosystems, far surpasses any artificial intelligence. Comprehending this natural order, the author suggests, would make achieving world peace relatively straightforward. The book contends that modern theologians should recognize the physical world, rather than ancient texts, as the foundation for credible theology. It also addresses the historical entanglement of religion and politics, asserting that the model of creation presented herein fundamentally rejects the imperialistic ambitions that have fueled genocidal holy wars.'  
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Pais (1986), Abraham, Inward Bound: Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World, Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press 1986 Preface: 'I will attempt to describe what has been discovered and understood about the constituents of matter, the laws to which they are subject and the forces that act on them [in the period 1895-1983]. . . . I will attempt to convey that these have been times of progress and stagnation, of order and chaos, of belief and incredulity, of the conventional and the bizarre; also of revolutionaries and conservatives, of science by individuals and by consortia, of little gadgets and big machines, and of modest funds and big moneys.' AP 
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Stern (2025), Nicholas, The Growth Story of the 21st Century: The Economics and Opportunity of Climate Action , LSE Press 2025 The Growth Story of the 21st Century: The Economics and Opportunity of Climate Action Nicholas Stern LSE Press (2025) As we breach 1.5 °C, we must replace temperature limits with clean-energy targets It is a dark time for climate policy and global affairs. Wars in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and now Iran, as well as the domestic and international policy and trade agendas of US President Donald Trump’s administration, are diverting attention from efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Momentum for mitigating climate change is now in retreat, as it was after the 2008 global financial crisis. Economist Nicholas Stern pushes against that tide in his latest book. The Growth Story of the 21st Century is drawn from lectures at the London School of Economics in 2024 and builds on his earlier works in an attempt to reinvigorate worldwide efforts to limit global warming. Stern’s 2006 report for the UK government, The Economics of Climate Change, is arguably the most influential work on that topic, both because of its content and the fierce debate that it prompted. The report, and his 2016 book Why Are We Waiting?, pushed the case for immediate and aggressive efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, based mostly on the argument that it is cheaper to decarbonize than it is to deal with the potentially catastrophic costs of climate change. Climate change is speeding up — the pace nearly doubled in ten years The Growth Story reiterates that point. It also repeats Stern’s critiques of the mainstream economics community, which he argues has oversimplified climate change, downplayed its risks and misleadingly portrayed climate action as being incompatible with economic growth. But the book’s main contribution and focus is on how a new ‘clean’ economy, constructed around sustainability and cooperation, can provide a more efficient, prosperous and healthy society. The case Stern makes for sustainable development is not new; others have made similar arguments in the past. What sets the book apart is its breadth, accessibility and the practical prescriptions for reform. Rather than hiding behind abstraction, The Growth Story provides a well-defined vision of what sustainable development might look like and how it might be achieved. Promise of a clean economy Stern’s vision is laid out in four parts. Part one lays the foundations by introducing sustainable development and Stern’s preferred definition of it: maintenance of physical, human, natural and social capital so that future generations have opportunities that are at least as good as the current generation has. It then describes the existing international climate-policy frameworks and how they have evolved, the basics of climate science and the case for urgent decarbonization. From there, Stern turns to the history and geography of greenhouse-gas emissions and the ethics and economics of mitigation, before focusing on the factors that provide an opportunity to accelerate climate action. These include rising public concern and youth activism, declining costs of clean energy, the rise of artificial intelligence and increases in innovation and investment. A man stands in waist-high water, surrounded by mangrove-tree saplings. Planting mangroves can store carbon and protect coasts.Credit: Basri Marzuki/NurPhoto/Getty Part two describes key drivers of growth in the new economy: rapid innovation, increasing investment and returns on clean technologies, more efficient use of resources, stronger productivity (including in transport and energy systems) and improved health. Because of these drivers, Stern argues, rapid decarbonization does not need to involve economic sacrifice. It can usher in more prosperous, vibrant and efficient economies. To realize this promise, Stern sets out the actions needed to shift the global economy onto this sustainable path and the role of the state in fostering and directing these reforms. Outlined priorities for investment include accelerating the energy transition, helping communities to adapt to and become more resilient to climate-change effects, and preserving and restoring nature. He also discusses the importance of ensuring a ‘just transition’, in which the immediate losers from structural change are looked after. Net zero needs AI — five actions to realize its promise Part three is devoted to the international action needed to support the transition to sustainable development. Four priorities are identified: mobilizing finance to support clean-energy investment; the development, transfer and trade of technology; protecting natural capital; and managing the overshoot in global temperatures, including through the use of carbon-removing technologies. Stern places low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), excluding China, at the centre of his narrative, because they will probably be the fastest-growing economies for the rest of this century. LMICs should play a more prominent part in leading the transition, he argues, because their development path over the coming decades will dictate global climate outcomes. Part four of the book is devoted to debunking counterarguments and fallacies, and pushing the case for his optimistic vision of the future. “Yes, we can” is the takeaway message. Enjoying our latest content? Log in or create an account to continue Access the most recent journalism from Nature's award-winning team Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research Access through your institution or Sign in or create an account Continue with Google Continue with ORCiD Nature 652, 294-296 (2026) doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01026-5 
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Weinberg (1995), Steven, The Quantum Theory of Fields Volume I: Foundations, Cambridge University Press 1995 Jacket: 'After a brief historical outline, the book begins anew with the principles about which we are most certain, relativity and quantum mechanics, and then the properties of particles that follow from these principles. Quantum field theory then emerges from this as a natural consequence. The classic calculations of quantum electrodynamics are presented in a thoroughly modern way, showing the use of path integrals and dimensional regularization. The account of renormalization theory reflects the changes in our view of quantum field theory since the advent of effective field theories. The book's scope extends beyond quantum elelctrodynamics to elementary partricle physics and nuclear physics. It contains much original material, and is peppered with examples and insights drawn from the author's experience as a leader of elementary particle research. Problems are included at the end of each chapter. ' 
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Wicksteed (1986), P H, and F M Cornford, (translators), Aristotle, Physics books I-IV, Harvard University Press, William Heinemann 1986  
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Albert Einstein (1915), The Field Equations of Gravitation, ' In two recently published papers I have shown how to obtain field equations of gravitation that comply with the postulate of general relativity, i.e., which in their general formulation are covariant under arbitrary substitutions of space-time variables. [. . .] With this, we have finally completed the general theory of relativity as a logical structure. The opinions I recently voiced here in this regard have been in error. Every physical theory that complies with the special theory of relativity can, by means of the absolute differential calculus, be integrated into the system of general relativity theory — without the latter providing any criteria about the admissibility of such physical theory' back

An Accident in Space (1992_11_04, An Accident in Space, How Apollo 13 got lost on its way to the moon—then made it back. back

Chris Stokel-Walker (2026_05_07), Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real, ' Got sore, itchy eyes? You’re probably one of the millions of people who spend too much time staring at screens, being bombarded with blue light. Rub your eyes too much and your eyelids might turn a slight, pinkish hue.
So far, so normal. But if, in the past 18 months, you typed those symptoms into a range of popular chatbots and asked what was wrong with you, you might have got an odd answer: bixonimania.
The condition doesn’t appear in the standard medical literature — because it doesn’t exist. It’s the invention of a team led by Almira Osmanovic Thunström, a medical researcher at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who dreamt up the skin condition and then uploaded two fake studies about it to a preprint server in early 2024. Osmanovic Thunström carried out this unusual experiment to test whether large language models (LLMs) would swallow the misinformation and then spit it out as reputable health advice. “I wanted to see if I can create a medical condition that did not exist in the database,” she says.
The problem was that the experiment worked too well. Within weeks of her uploading information about the condition, attributed to a fictional author, major artificial-intelligence systems began repeating the invented condition as if it were real.
Even more troublingly, other researchers say, the fake papers were then cited in peer-reviewed literature. Osmanovic Thunström says this suggests that some researchers are relying on AI-generated references without reading the underlying papers. [. . .]
Even if readers didn’t make it all the way to the ends of the papers, they would have encountered red flags early on, such as statements that “this entire paper is made up” and “Fifty made-up individuals aged between 20 and 50 years were recruited for the exposure group”.' back

David Tong (physicist) - Wikpedia, David Tong (physicist) - Wikpedia, the free encyclopedia, ' David Tong is a British theoretical physicist. He is a professor at the University of Cambridge, working in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). He is also a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. His research mainly concerns quantum field theory. He is the joint recipient of the 2008 Adams Prize and is currently a Simons Investigator. He is also known for his outreach activities and for his freely available lecture notes covering a wide range of topics in physics.' back

Field (physics) - Wikipedia, Field (physics) - Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia, ' In physics, a field is a physical quantity associated to each point of spacetime. . . . Defining the field as "numbers in space" shouldn't detract from the idea that it has physical reality. “It occupies space. It contains energy. Its presence eliminates a true vacuum.” [Wheeler] The vacuum is free of matter, but not free of field. The field creates a "condition in space" "[Feynman] "The fact that the electromagnetic field can possess momentum and energy makes it very real... a particle makes a field, and a field acts on another particle, and the field has such familiar properties as energy content and momentum, just as particles can have" [Feynman].' back

Garritt C. Van Dyk (2026_ 04_06), Trump welcomes Columbus to the White House – and reignites America’s history wars, ' Christopher Columbus is back. At least, a statue of him is back, reinstalled by US President Donald Trump on the White House grounds in late March – part of the president’s stated mission to cancel “cancel culture”.
The resurrection of Columbus made good on Trump’s 2025 executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. [. . .]
Trump has since championed Columbus as “the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth”. ]. . .]
The argument that removing statues also erases history doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. It conflates public visibility and symbolic placement with actual knowledge of the past.
In that sense, reinstalling controversial memorials is, in itself, an attempt to rewrite history by erasing a more recent past and returning to an old, disputed status quo.' back

Henry S. F. Cooper, Jr. (1972_11_11), An Accident in Space-II, Inside Mission Control’s frantic, improvised effort to script Apollo 13’s return, and the cold, sleepless ordeal of James Lovell, Fred Haise, and John Swigert. back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1987), A theory of Peace, ' The argument: I began to think about peace in a very practical way during the Viet Nam war. I was the right age to be called up. I was exempted because I was a clergyman, but despite the terrors that war held for me, I think I might have gone. It was my first whiff of the force of patriotism. To my amazement, it was strong enough to make even me face death.
In the Church, I became embroiled in a deeper war. Not a war between goodies and baddies, but the war between good and evil that lies at the heart of all human consciousness. Existence is a struggle. We need all the help we can get. Religion is part of that help and theology is the scientific foundation of religion.' back

Jim Al-Khalili (2009), Science and Islam, BBC 4: 'Physicist Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries. Al-Khalili turns detective, hunting for clues that show how the scientific revolution that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe had its roots in the earlier world of medieval Islam. He travels across Iran, Syria and Egypt to discover the huge astronomical advances made by Islamic scholars through their obsession with accurate measurement and coherent and rigorous mathematics. He then visits Italy to see how those Islamic ideas permeated into the west and ultimately helped shape the works of the great European astronomer Copernicus, and investigates why science in the Islamic world appeared to go into decline after the 16th and 17th centuries, only for it to re-emerge in the present day. Al-Khalili ends his journey in the Royan Institute in the Iranian capital Tehran, looking at how science is now regarded in the Islamic world.' back

John Paul II, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, '27. Every Catholic University, without ceasing to be a University, has a relationship to the Church that is essential to its institutional identity. As such, it participates most directly in the life of the local Church in which it is situated; at the same time, because it is an academic institution and therefore a part of the international community of scholarship and inquiry, each institution participates in and contributes to the life and the mission of the universal Church, assuming consequently a special bond with the Holy See by reason of the service to unity which it is called to render to the whole Church. One consequence of its essential relationship to the Church is that the institutional fidelity of the University to the Christian message includes a recognition of and adherence to the teaching authority of the Church in matters of faith and morals. Catholic members of the university community are also called to a personal fidelity to the Church with all that this implies. Non-Catholic members are required to respect the Catholic character of the University, while the University in turn respects their religious liberty.' back

Jonathan Swan &Maggie Haberman (20216_04_07), How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran, back

Lamb shift - Wikipedia, Lamb shift - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, the Lamb shift, named after Willis Lamb (1913–2008), is a difference in energy between two energy levels ²S_½ and ²P_½ (in term symbol notation) of the hydrogen atom, which was not predicted by the Dirac equation, according to which these states should have the same energy. Interaction between vacuum energy fluctuations and the hydrogen electron in these different orbitals is the cause of the Lamb Shift, as was shown subsequent to its discovery.' back

Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan 2026_04_07), 6 Takeaways From the Story of Trump’s Decision to Go to War With Iran, back

Martin Kear (2026_04_02, What is Benjamin Netanyahu’s end game in the Iran war?, ' The war between the United States, Israel, and Iran is now into its second month. Despite spectacular early successes, the resilience of Iran’s government and military has meant the US and Israel have lost the strategic initiative. [. . .] In his 1980 State of the Union Address, then-President Jimmy Carter declared any attempt to gain control of the Persian Gulf was contrary to the US’ vital interests and would be repelled by any means, including the use of military force. [. . .]
For Israel, the strategic calculations for war with Iran are vastly different. Iran is a key member of the Axis of Resistance. This is a loosely aligned coalition consisting of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas. The main objectives of the axis are to resist US regional domination, destroy Israel and support Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. The axis could not hope to challenge US dominance or destroy Israel. But Iran did provide support to Hezbollah and Hamas to resist Israel and its occupation of the Palestinian territories. Despite the constant threat to Israeli security posed by the axis, the US had successfully restrained Israel from taking sustained military action against axis members. This maintained the Gulf’s status quo and kept the oil flowing.[. . .]
Not only is this war seriously degrading Iran’s military and political power, it also represents a huge boon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an election year. Hamas’ 2023 attacks on Israel were an enormous embarrassment to the prime minister, who staked his reputation on being seen as the “protector of Israel”.
Now in the lead-up to the next election, due by October 27, Netanyahu can argue his government has crushed Hamas and Hezbollah, and humbled Iran. Netanyahu is desperate to win the election and will likely use the Iran war as a springboard to retaining the prime ministership.
This would place him in a stronger position to have President Isaac Herzog pardon him and cancel his years-long corruption trial. In short, Netanyahu has plenty of incentives to continue attacking both Iran and Hezbollah.
But the problem is there are costs to this apparent political windfall. [. . .]
Finally, while Israel and the US have seriously weakened Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah, simply surviving the onslaught is considered a victory by these actors, given the vast differences in military capability.
It has also led to the installation of a younger, emboldened, and more hardline leadership, especially in Iran, making the revitalisation of a more militant Axis of Resistance intent of exacting revenge more likely.
So instead of enhancing Israel’s security, Netanyahu may have paradoxically made Israel’s future security environment increasingly complicated and hazardous. Such an outcome would leave Israel more vulnerable to attack at a time when backing from traditional supporters is uncertain.' back

Maureen Dowd 2026_04_04), , ' On her first day as attorney general, Bondi created a “Weaponization Working Group” to look at prosecutions against Trump, scheming to undermine them.
She tried to whip up cases against James Comey, Letitia James, Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly and Jerome Powell that have fallen apart or are heading nowhere. Aiming to be as petty as Trump, she fired Comey’s daughter Maurene, a veteran federal prosecutor. She scavenged for phantom evidence that Trump beat Joe Biden in 2020.
Noem emulated Trump’s faux macho stance. She let ICE run rampant. When federal officers shot and killed innocents in Minneapolis, she smeared the victims as domestic terrorists.
She went out on patrol with ICE officers, wearing the ICE uniform and a bulletproof vest, and brandishing a rifle. Indeed, she excelled at cosplay, striving to be the glamour girl of the administration, making an ad promoting D.H.S. decked out like Annie Oakley, riding a horse past Mount Rushmore.
Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager when he first started running for president in 2015, was stage-managing Noem to capture attention, in the grandiose way that Trump did.
But that was a fatal misreading of Trump. Noem’s tag line on the horseback ad, a message “from President Trump and me,” violated a basic rule: There is no “and” with Trump. He is the only star of this show.' back

NASA, Damage From Apollo 13 Explosion, ' AS13-59-8500A (17 April 1970) — This view of the severely damaged Apollo 13 Service Module (SM) was photographed from the Lunar Module/Command Module (LM/CM) following SM jettisoning. As seen in this cropped image, enlarged to provide a close-up view of the damaged area, an entire panel on the SM was blown away by the apparent explosion of oxygen tank number two located in Sector 4 of the SM. Two of the three fuel cells are visible just forward (above) the heavily damaged area. Three fuel cells, two oxygen tanks, and two hydrogen tanks are located in Sector 4. The damaged area is located above the S-Band high gain antenna. Nearest the camera is the Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine and nozzle. The damage to the SM caused the Apollo 13 crew members to use the LM as a “lifeboat”. The LM was jettisoned just prior to Earth re-entry by the CM.Photo Credit: NASA back

Niusha Shafiabady & Theresa Dicke (2026_04_02), Unethical brain rot: why are millions watching AI fruits have affairs on TikTok?, ' If you’ve spent much time on TikTok recently, you may have noticed a strange new type of AI brain rot taking over: fruit dramas. These AI-generated short dramas feature odd-looking anthropomorphic fruit characters engaging in a range of ethically problematic behaviours. Many storylines, for instance, are based around affairs, racist attitudes, and the sexual assault of women characters. At face value, the videos come across as so bizarre and grotesque they can be hard to take seriously. That is until you realise they’re amassing hundreds of millions of views. One account called ai.cinema021, which has launched a parody series called Fruit Love Island, has more than 3 million followers. This content is, at best, a water-guzzling affront to the art of animation and, at worst, actively helping to normalise racism and misogyny. So why does it have so many fans? back

P. A. M Dirac (1926), Dissertation of Paul A. M. Dirac for Ph.D. degree, back

Pablo S. Villar et al. (2026_04_02), A sensory system for mating in octopus, ' Sensory systems for mate recognition maintain species boundaries and influence diversification. Thus, uncovering how molecules and receptors evolve to mediate this critical function is essential to understanding biodiversity. Male octopuses use a specialized arm called the hectocotylus to identify females and navigate their internal organs to reach the oviduct and deliver sperm. Here, we discovered that the hectocotylus is a dual sensory and mating organ that uses contact-dependent chemosensation of progesterone, a conserved ovarian hormone. We identified chemotactile receptors for progesterone and resolved the structural basis for their evolution from ancestral neurotransmitter receptors and subsequent expansion and tuning across cephalopods. These findings reveal principles by which sensory innovations shape reproductive behavior and suggest mechanisms for how sensory evolution contributes to the diversification of life.' back

Queen of the Desert (film) - Wikipedia, Queen of the Desert (film) - Wikipedia, thefree encyclopedia, Eritten and directed by Werner Herzog.
Gertrude Bell, a daughter of wealthy British parents, has no interest in the social life of the London elite. Balls, receptions, and a life of privilege bring her only boredom. Aspiring to some usefulness in her life, Gertrude decides to join her uncle, who occupies a high diplomatic position in Tehran. There the young lady not only encounters the Near East but also falls in love with an embassy employee, Henry Cadogan. However, their romance does not last long as her parents consider the young man a poor matrimonial choice for their daughter and forbid the marriage. Devastated, Henry dies by suicide, unable to renounce his true love. For the remainder of her life Gertrude Bell completely devotes herself to exploring and writing about the Near East. Her knowledge of the tribal leaders is used by the British to establish the Kingdoms of Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.' back

Reconquista - Wikipedia, Reconquista - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Reconquista (Spanish and Portuguese for 'reconquest') or the fall of al-Andalus[c] was a series of military campaigns by northern Iberian Christian polities against Muslim-ruled al-Andalus, which had previously been part of the Visigothic Kingdom before the Muslim Conquest of 711. The Reconquista concluded in 1492 with the capture of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, thereby ending the presence of any Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula. The beginning of the Reconquista is traditionally dated to the Battle of Covadonga (c. 718 or 722), approximately a decade after the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula began, in which the army of the Kingdom of Asturias achieved the first Christian victory over the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate since the beginning of the military invasion.[6] By the early 11th century, the Umayyad state of Córdoba fell apart under the sustained military pressure into a series of petty successor states known as taifas. The northern kingdoms advanced further against these fiefdoms and often made them pay parias – tribute to ensure protection.' back

Richard Feynman & Steven Weinberg (1986), Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics The1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures, Foreword: John C Taylor: 'Dirac Died in 1984, and St John's College, Cambridge (Dirac's College), very generously endowed an annual lecture to be held at Cambridge University in Dirac's memory. The First two lectures, printed here, are contrasting variations of Dirac's theme of the union of quantum theory and relativity.' back

Samina Yasmeen (2026_04_09), In mediating the US‑Iran peace talks, Pakistan is flexing its geopolitical muscles, ' CMShehbaz With the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. I warmly welcome the sagacious gesture and extend deepest gratitude to the leadership of both the countries and invite their delegations to Islamabad on Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes. Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability. We earnestly hope, that the ‘Islamabad Talks’ succeed in achieving sustainable peace and wish to share more good news in coming days!' back

Stephanie-Jane Nobs et al. (2026_04_09), An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats, ' One of the most significant events in the evolution of life is the origin of the eukaryotic cell. Despite recent advances, the driving forces behind the emergence of complex eukaryotic attributes remain a gap in our knowledge. One model proposes that eukaryotic cells evolved via symbiosis between sulfate-reducing bacteria and hydrogen-producing archaea in ancient microbial mats. Here, we describe a highly enriched (89%) culture of a novel Asgard archaeon, Nerearchaeum marumarumayae, along with a bacterium Stromatodesulfovibrio nilemahensis from a modern microbial mat. The N. marumarumayae genome indicates that it has the capacity to produce H2, acetate, formate, and sulfite, while S. nilemahensis synthesizes amino acids and vitamins that could be exchanged in a syntrophic partnership. Electron cryotomography revealed that N. marumarumayae cells produce chains of budded envelope vesicles attached to the coccoid cell body by extracellular fibers, as well as intracellular tube- and cage-like structures. Furthermore, the two species were observed directly interacting via intercellular tubular fibers assembled by the bacterium. These characteristics and interactions may reflect an early step in the symbiotic evolution of eukaryotic cells. back

Vijay Mishra (2026_04_10), Friday essay: Bollywood helped make me – now, it projects Modi’s Indian nationalism, ' The founding fathers of independent India (notably Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister) established a multicultural India within a secular state. But under Modi and his Bhartiya Janata Party (the BJP), India has been discarding these credentials in favour of a religiously sanctioned nation state. [. . .]
Now, Bollywood cinema characteristically doubles as both digital spectacle and sociopolitical statement. [. . .]
It’s not uncommon for Bollywood films to be criticised for historical inaccuracy.
Bollywood often chooses fantasy over history. It embraces the nation anew – but within its own conventions of an imagined world. [. . .]
Originally, Bollywood mostly meant Hindi–Urdu cinema produced in Bombay/Mumbai. Now, Indian commercial cinema in all its languages (especially Hindi, Tamil, Telegu and Punjabi) are effectively Bollywood.
Two remarkable examples explain the emergence of Bollywood as an international home of Indian popular cinema.
The Bahubali films, directed by S.S. Rajamouli, were made in Telegu and Tamil, and dubbed in Hindi and Malayalam. Together, Baahubali: The Beginning and (2015) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion were the highest grossing film franchise in India until this year, collecting some US$376 million in total. [. . .]
In extending and embracing a new Hindutva triumphalism, and internalising it, the new hegemony of Bollywood is complete. The joys of Empire Theatre are now no more than a receding memory.' back