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May 7, 2025—Whale talk, Vatican smoke and an exploration of whether AI actually could kill all of humanity. --Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | - A new AI platform called Xanthorox markets itself as a tool for cybercrime, but its real danger may lie in how easily such systems can be built and sold by anyone. | 9 min read
- A zombifying fungus awaits the emergence this spring of the Brood XIV periodical cicadas, returning on a 17-year cycle. This brood is one of 15 found only in North America. | 4 min read
- Fitness doesn't have to be about denial and shame, according to a new book that advocates for a more balanced approach. | 14 min read
- Games: Today's Medium-Sudoku and Spellements
| | Whale Talk Whale songs adhere to some of the same patterns and statistical principles that govern human language, including one called Zipf's law of frequency, new research reveals. The law holds that "the most common word in any language appears twice as often as the second-most common, three times as often as the third, and so on," writes freelance journalist Cody Cottier. The story includes a link to a recording of otherworldly humpback whale songs. Give it a listen. | | How they did it: Humpback whale songs were recorded in the South Pacific Ocean. To identify song elements analogous to words, the researchers assigned "word" boundaries to segments with unexpected combinations of sounds. The approach mimics a language-learning strategy that human babies deploy—atypical sound combinations are unlikely to occur within words. | | What the experts say: The finding "strengthens the view that we should not be thinking about human language as a completely different phenomenon from other communication systems but instead we should be thinking about what it shares with them," says psychologist Inbal Arnon. | | Wordlike sections of humpback whale song follow some linguistic laws of human speech. John Natoli/Getty Images | | Vatican Smoke As the media and others await smoke arising from the Sistine Chapel's chimney, Scientific American senior news reporter Meghan Bartels offers an explanation of the chemistry of the Vatican's white and black smoke signals. Reminder: white smoke indicates that a new pope, a successor to the late Pope Francis in this case, has been chosen by the Vatican's cardinals, who have gathered in conclave. Black smoke: no consensus achieved. How it works: The color of smoke derives from the color of small particles suspended in air, says pyrotechnics expert John Steinberg. The particles are the waste products of burning fuel with an oxygen-rich substance. In recent years, the Vatican used a mixture of anthracene and sulfur as the fuel for black smoke, with potassium perchlorate as the oxidizer. To get white particles in the smoke, the recipe calls for potassium chlorate and the sugar lactose as oxidizers. A pine resin called Greek pitch, which is rich in water, yields the white hue. What the experts say: "That's basically what this smoke is. It's a dense fog of water droplets," says Steinberg. | | | | |
A scientist, an engineer and a mathematician at RAND teamed up to undertake a detailed, morbid study of whether AI could actually kill off all of humanity, writes Michael J.D. Vermeer, a senior physical scientist at RAND. Vermeer's essay lays out the logic of the team's conclusions. You likely will feel somewhat reassured, but not completely mollified, by their results. | 5 min read | | - Rejoice! Carmakers are embracing physical buttons again. | Wired
| | - The U.S. Army will seek "right to repair" clauses in its contracts. | 404 Media
| | Once upon a time, probably 2011, the emergence of Brood XIX yielded a most dense carpet of crunchy cicadas in the Bronx. A handful made it into our home, whereupon I discovered that cicadas, dead or alive, are fabulous cat toys. | | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | | |
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