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How deep do AI relationships really go? Attachment theory expert explains
Attachment is the term psychologists use for the most significant relationships that hold people's lives together. But what makes an attachment relationship different from all others? According to the pioneering American–Canadian developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth, it must meet the following six conditions.

The relationship must persist over time, and it must have been formed with a particular subject who cannot be replaced. The relationship must be emotionally significant, involve the desire to remain close to them and cause distress at involuntary separation. Finally, when threatened, the person must seek security and comfort in their relationship with that subject.

The first five conditions describe any lasting affectionate bond, such as a close friendship. Only the sixth turns it into an attachment bond specifically. Simply liking someone, feeling close to them or spending hours together isn't enough to create an attachment relationship.

Interestingly, though, nothing in these six conditions specifies a human on the other side.

This was already noticed long before the emergence of AI chatbots with the power to converse. Deities, pets and objects (ranging from children's blankets and stuffed animals to cherished household items and even phones and computers) have all been found to supply security and comfort when someone is feeling distressed.

Today, AI companion apps are commonly sold on the promise of lasting and close relationships. Many of their users describe feeling real grief when an app is updated or withdrawn. But do such experiences meet the narrow definition of attachment?

The honest answer is: We don't really know yet.

What the evidence suggests
Research on human–AI relationships has so far recorded users' feelings about chatbots, their frequency of use and their reactions to chatbot withdrawal. It hasn't tested these relationships comprehensively against the six conditions described above...
Source: Phys.org
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Scientists Discover a Surprising Shortcut to Nuclear Fusion
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have identified a potentially much more efficient way to achieve nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun. Their calculations suggest that changing the order in which plasma is heated and compressed could dramatically reduce the energy needed to reach ignition, a crucial milestone in the pursuit of practical fusion power.

For more than seven decades, scientists have relied on an equation called the Lawson criterion to determine whether plasma can remain sufficiently hot and dense for long enough to sustain fusion reactions without additional external heating. Developed in the 1950s, this equation establishes the conditions required for ignition, but it does not explain the most efficient way to achieve them.

Now, PPPL physicists Luis Delgado-Aparicio, Masayuki Ono, and Jonathan Menard have updated that decades-old framework. By incorporating four additional factors that influence the behavior of fusion plasma, they have developed a more comprehensive model for determining how fusion systems should heat and maintain their fuel.

To understand the significance of the discovery, it helps to know what plasma is. Often called the fourth state of matter, plasma is a gas so hot that its particles become electrically charged. When plasma reaches ignition, the energy released by fusion reactions produces enough heat to sustain the process without further external heating. Achieving this condition efficiently is one of the central challenges facing fusion energy researchers...
Source: SciTechDaily
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They War-Gamed Dimming the Sun. It Went Even Worse Than You Think
When it comes to deciding the fate of the planet, Colleen Golja always thought science and reason would have a seat at the table. That was until one morning last September in London, when the climate researcher took part in the first in a series of war games. The goal: to prevent an uncontrolled global race to develop a technology aimed at cooling the planet but that comes with vast, unknown risks that could reshape life on Earth.

“I thought that would be such an easy thing. Like, we can all agree to do ethical research and make sure it's for the better of all humans,” she told WIRED. “And boy, was I wrong.”

The simulation, titled Exploring Geopolitical Tipping Points and Climate Cooling Strategies, saw a couple dozen foreign-relations experts, scientists, military personnel, and former government officials from across the world convene in a meeting room at Queen Mary University of London. After making introductions over coffee and little yogurts, they sat at tables arranged in a square with the name of the country or organization each person was playing: national governments, climate NGOs and nonprofits, indigenous groups, and tech companies. Golja was assigned to provide technical advice to help participants make scientifically literate decisions.

The point of the game was to stress-test the world’s response to a group of prospective technologies known collectively as solar radiation modification. These technologies promise to reverse global warming by reflecting away a portion of the sunlight reaching Earth, for example by spraying particles of sulphur dioxide or some other manufactured substance into the atmosphere. The cooling effect of this kind of solar geoengineering is widely accepted. It would mimic the well-known impacts of large volcanic eruptions, which temporarily cool the planet by half a degree or more. But the fallout is less certain—and less equal. Some regions will suffer: Models predict drying in sub-Saharan Africa and more intense tropical storms in the Atlantic. The cooling effect would also last only as long as the geoengineering continued; after that the global temperature could shoot back up with wild and hard-to-predict effects...
Source: Wired
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New mRNA Vaccine Reduces Risk of Melanoma Recurrence by Over 40 Percent
An experimental vaccine offers new hope to patients with melanoma, one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer. The pharmaceutical companies Merck and Moderna released the results of a Phase 3 clinical trial that evaluated the efficacy of a personalized mRNA-based vaccine that, when combined with immunotherapy, reduced the risk of disease recurrence or death by 42 percent compared to treatment with the immunotherapy drug alone.

Georgina Long, medical director of the Australian Melanoma Institute and the study’s principal investigator, said in a statement that these results are “transformative” and “have the potential to make a foundational shift in how we treat patients with earlier-stage melanoma.” ...
Source: Wired
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What evolved first—our brain or gut?
What if the brain evolved to serve the gut? Scientists at Flinders University are challenging a cornerstone of biology, arguing that the gut's nervous system may be the body's original "brain," with the brain evolving later to support its needs.

An opinion piece published in The Journal of Physiology draws on evidence from physiology and evolutionary biology to suggest the nervous system may have originated in the gut. The paper offers a perspective on one of evolution's fundamental questions: why did brains evolve in the first place?

Flinders researchers argue the answer may lie in a much older nervous system embedded in the gut, which helped early organisms to secure the energy necessary to survive.

Rethinking the body's command structure
Lead author Dr. Tim Hibberd says the idea challenges the traditional view that the brain sits at the top of the body's command structure.

"We are proposing a different way of looking at the nervous system," says Hibberd, from Flinders' College of Medicine and Public Health.

"The enteric nervous system in the gut can sense its environment, process information and coordinate complex responses. In many ways, it functions like a brain in its own right."

Often referred to as the body's "second brain," the enteric nervous system contains hundreds of millions of neurons and can operate independently to coordinate digestion and other essential functions.

Researchers now argue it may be more accurate to think of this as the body's first brain...
Source: Phys.org
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Japan launches spacecraft to mysterious moons of Mars in a bold mission to bring home soil samples
A Japanese spacecraft rocketed toward Mars on Tuesday on a quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring back samples.

Five of the world's space agencies joined forces for the five-year mission that will attempt to land a robotic prospector plus a rover on Phobos, the larger and closer of Mars' two pint-sized moons.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which is leading the sampling effort, launched the spacecraft before dawn from the country's main spaceport on Tanegashima Island. Officials declared success an hour later when the spacecraft separated as planned from the rocket's upper stage. Flight controllers burst into applause and jumped to their feet, shaking hands and embracing.

No one has managed to get samples from Mars or its moons yet
While NASA has successfully landed nine spacecraft on Mars over the past 50 years and China scored a 2021 touchdown, no one has ever reached Phobos or its sidekick Deimos. And no one has managed to fetch samples from Mars, let alone its moons.
If successful, bits of dust, soil and rocks from Phobos will arrive on Earth in 2031.

"There's a lot of adrenaline and a lot of excitement and a lot of wow," said NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler, who's involved with the project.

Japan has an edge going in, with two asteroid sample returns already under its cosmic belt...
Source: Phys.org
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With climate-resilient crops in mind, study tackles flaw in photosynthesis
Rising temperatures and increasing drought are shortening crop-growing seasons in many parts of the world. Now scientists in Sweden report new advances toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis, work that could eventually contribute to efforts to adapt crops for climate change.

A team at KTH Royal Institute of Technology created and tested about 15,000 genetically altered versions of bacterial Rubisco—an enzyme that helps turn carbon dioxide into material for growth. Paul Hudson, professor in systems biology at KTH, says the study focused on bacterial rather than plant Rubisco and searched for versions that support bacterial growth.

In their article published in Science Advances, the researchers report they found several promising variants—and identified numerous changes that didn't appear to work.

Rubisco's costly inefficiency
Arguably the most important enzyme for life on Earth, Rubisco's role in bacteria and plants goes hand in hand with photosynthesis. Where sunlight provides the power, Rubisco captures carbon dioxide and incorporates it into material the organism can use to make sugars and grow.

Nevertheless, the enzyme is surprisingly inefficient. It works slowly and sometimes captures oxygen instead of CO₂. Plants must then spend energy recycling the unwanted products.

While the study focused on a bacterial Rubisco rather than the plant enzyme, its large database of successful and unsuccessful mutations offers a possible map for designing better enzymes, which may help researchers improve computer models of how Rubisco responds to genetic changes. The lessons may eventually guide work on plant Rubisco, but producing faster-growing, climate-resilient crops will require further testing in plant cells and whole plants...
Source: Phys.org
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