Science & TechnologyS


HAL9000

Chaos and lies: Why Sam Altman was booted from OpenAI, according to new testimony

Hayden Field
The Verge
Thu, 06 Nov 2025 21:12 UTC
sam altman OpenAI
Sam Altman
OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever was deposed by Elon Musk's lawyers.

"What did Ilya see?" Two years ago, it was the meme seen 'round the world (or at least 'round the tech industry). OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had been briefly ousted in November 2023 by members of the company's board of directors, including his longtime collaborator and fellow cofounder Ilya Sutskever. The board claimed Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board," undermining their confidence in him. He was out for less than a week before being reinstated after hundreds of employees threatened to resign. But observers wondered: What hadn't Altman been candid about? And what led Sutskever to turn against him?

Now, new details have come to light in a legal deposition involving Sutskever, part of Musk's ongoing lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI. For nearly 10 hours on October 1st, bookended by repeated sniping between Musk's and Sutsever's attorneys, Sutskever answered questions about the turmoil around Altman's ouster, from conflicts between executives to short-lived merger talks with Anthropic. He testified that from personal experience and documentation he'd viewed, he'd seen Altman pit high-ranking executives against each other and offer conflicting information about his plans for the company, telling people what they wanted to hear.

Comment: Sam Altman's involvement in the AI biz proven pretty shady. A small sample: From the last article:
Ahead of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's four days in exile, several staff researchers wrote a letter to the board of directors warning of a powerful artificial intelligence discovery that they said could threaten humanity, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The previously unreported letter and AI algorithm were key developments before the board's ouster of Altman, the poster child of generative AI, the two sources said. Prior to his triumphant return late Tuesday, more than 700 employees had threatened to quit and join backer Microsoft in solidarity with their fired leader.

The sources cited the letter as one factor among a longer list of grievances by the board leading to Altman's firing, among which were concerns over commercializing advances before understanding the consequences. Reuters was unable to review a copy of the letter. The staff who wrote the letter did not respond to requests for comment.


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Telescope

Observatory spots biggest, most distant black hole flare ever recorded

Whitney Clavin
CalTech
Tue, 04 Nov 2025 17:32 UTC
illustration black hole eat star
© Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)This artist's concept depicts a supermassive black hole in the process of shredding a massive star (formally called a tidal disruption event or TDE) —at least 30 times the mass of our Sun—to pieces.
The flare, co-discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility, may be the result of a mega black-hole meal

The most massive stars in the universe are destined to explode as brilliant supernova before collapsing into black holes. Yet one huge star appears to have never fulfilled its destiny; in a twist of irony, the star wandered too close to a gargantuan black hole, which gobbled it up, shredding the star to bits and pieces.

That is the most likely explanation to come from authors of a new Nature Astronomy report describing the most powerful and most distant flare of energy ever recorded from a supermassive black hole. The cosmic object was first observed in 2018 by the US National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), based at Caltech's Palomar Observatory, and the Caltech-led Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey, which is also funded by NSF. The flare rapidly brightened by a factor of 40 over a period of months, and, at its peak, was 30 times more luminous than any previous black hole flare seen to date. At its brightest, the flare shined with the light of 10 trillion suns.

Comment: More on the ZTF collaboration:



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Blue Planet

Archaeologist believes new evidence of Atlantis to be found off coast of southern Spain

Stacy Liberatore
The Daily Mail
Mon, 03 Nov 2025 21:01 UTC
cadiz outpost of atlantis
© Shutterstock/Javier HermosoArchaeologist Michael Donnellan now believes the legendary city of Atlantis may have once stood along Spain's southern coast in the city of Cádiz, Spain (pictured)
A new wave of research has revived one of history's greatest mysteries: the story of Atlantis.
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Filmmaker and archaeologist Michael Donnellan claims that evidence preserved by Egypt's ancient priests of Sais points to an advanced civilization that once thrived in Atlantis, before vanishing some 11,600 years ago.

Donnellan told the Daily Mail that the priests described Atlantis as the homeland of their ancestors, a civilization that existed outside the Mediterranean world and 'beyond the Pillars of Heracles.'

He said their account was passed down to the Greek lawmaker Solon, who visited Egypt around 600 BC and recorded the tale that would later inspire the philosopher Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias.

Comment: Dario AS adds:
The archaeologist states that, after eight years of work using sonar and LiDAR scanners, he has identified three submerged concentric walls carved into the seabed. According to Donnellan, the dimensions and layout match the city described by Plato in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias.

Donnellan also claims to have found a rectangular monument at the center, which he links to the Temple of Poseidon. The site includes sculpted canals, collapsed walls, and perfectly cut stone blocks, suggesting a large-scale artificial construction.

The images show his team exploring these underwater structures, where right angles, flat surfaces, and massive rectangular stones displaced from their original positions can be seen, as if a great catastrophe had thrown them.

The trailer for Donallan's series:




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Doberman

Caretakers baffled as abandoned dogs in Chernobyl turn blue

Patrick Reilly
The Daily Mail
Mon, 27 Oct 2025 19:11 UTC
dogs turn blue chernobyl
© Jam Press/@dogsofchernobylThe group, called Dogs of Chernobyl, shared a video showing several packs of dogs with at least one completely blue
The caretakers of the dogs that have made a home at the site of Chernobyl have spotted some canines with blue fur, a first at the disaster zone.

The group, called Dogs of Chernobyl, shared a video showing several packs of dogs with at least one completely blue.

'They were not blue last week. We do not know the reason, and we are attempting to catch them so we can find out what is happening,' the team shared in the video caption.

'Most likely, they're getting into some sort of chemical.'

The organization, an affiliate of the non-profit Clean Futures Fund, added that while the color was alarming to see, the dogs appear to be 'very active and healthy.'
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Comet 2

A meteor's glow appears to coil around Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) over Earth

Gianluca Masi
Virtual Telescope Project
Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:09 UTC
On 24 Oct. 2025, while imaging comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon, we captured a meteor crossing the same field of view. Soon after, its red afterglow showed so nicely, adding its intriguing, fast evolving shape to the scene.
Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon
© Virtual Telescope ProjectComet C/2025 A6 Lemmon and a meteor red afterglow 24 October 2025.
During the imaging session of comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon on the evening of October 24, I had the good fortune to witness a truly fascinating phenomenon — one that, by sheer chance, I was able to capture.

Between 17:39:30 and 17:41:30 UT, a meteor passed right through the region of the sky where Lemmon was visible.

At that moment, a sequence of wide-field images was being acquired using the astrograph that is part of the Virtual Telescope Project instrumentation, installed in Manciano (Grosseto), in the beautiful Maremma region. In the frame taken between 17:43:33 and 17:45:33 UT, the persistent trail left by the meteor is clearly visible, with a distinct reddish hue. The faint, fan-like structure is likely due to some light which reached the imaging device while capturing the picture.
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Galaxy

Rare, stunning 'red sprites' captured in New Zealand skies

Eva Corlett
The Guardian
Mon, 27 Oct 2025 20:20 UTC
new zealand red sprites
© Dan ZafraPhotographers Tom Rae, Dan Zafra and José Cantabrana captured the red sprites – or red lightning - when shooting the Milky Way in New Zealand, October 11, 2025
A trio of photographers in New Zealand have captured images of "red sprites", or red lightning, one of the rarest light phenomena in the world, in which luminous crimson flashes appear in the sky.

New Zealand photographer Tom Rae and Spanish photographers Dan Zafra and José Cantabrana set out to shoot the Milky Way over the Ōmārama Clay cliffs in the South Island on 11 October, when they chanced upon the extraordinary event.

The photographers thought they would be lucky to get clear skies that evening, but their night turned into "an unforgettable one", Rae told the Guardian.
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Telescope

Desert radio telescope spots signs from the early universe

Sharmila Kuthunur
Live Science
Thu, 16 Oct 2025 19:48 UTC
early universe map radio waves
© ICRARAn image of part of the sky seen in radio wavelengths. New research removed many sources of nearby radio "noise" to focus on some of the earliest light in the universe.
Long before starlight filled the cosmos for the first time, the young universe may have been simmering, according to a new study.

The findings suggest that about 800 million years after the Big Bang, energy from newborn black holes and the fading embers of the first stars was already warming vast clouds of intergalactic hydrogen gas, offering a rare glimpse into a largely uncharted chapter of the universe's youth.

Astronomers know that the universe began in an extremely hot, dense state, the Big Bang, about 13.8 billion years ago, and then cooled rapidly as it expanded. Roughly 400,000 years later, temperatures dropped enough for protons and electrons to merge into neutral hydrogen atoms, and the cosmos slipped into the "cosmic dark ages" — a long, lightless stretch when space was veiled by a dense fog of hydrogen gas.
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Jet5

What you need to know about Tesla's antigravity technology: Creating the perfect UFO

Ancient Code Team
Ancient Code
Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:00 UTC
Tesla diagram
© TeslaTesla's Perfect UFO
TV, AC electricity, the Tesla Coil, fluorescent lighting, neon lights, Radio controlled devices, robotics, X-rays, radar, microwave and dozens of other amazing inventions were invented by one of the most incredible geniuses to have lived on Earth, Nikola Tesla.

His inventions had no limits, his imagination did neither. He was cataloged by many as a 'mad scientist' but he was more than that. Today we can say that Nikola Tesla is without a doubt, the father of modern technology.

Among his non-conventional inventions, we can add two that are super-duper advanced: Antigravity technology and Tesla's UFO, or rather IFO.

Tesla had a great interest in Flight, pace and specifically Antigravity, in this article we bring you everything you need to know about Tesla's Antigravity technology.
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Better Earth

NASA finds hidden portals in Earth's magnetic field

Ancient Code Team
ancient-code.com
Thu, 29 May 2025 01:00 UTC
A portal
© Capture-173A Portal
A portal is considered a shortcut, a guide, a door into the unknown. But portals, as we know them, are only present in sci-fi movies...right? Well, according to scientists it turns out that portals actually exist, and not only that, NASA-funded researchers at the University of Iowa to figure out what was going on.

Jack Scudder of the University of Iowa, explains:
"We call them X-points or electron diffusion regions. They're places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun's atmosphere 93 million miles away."
It's a shortcut worthy of the best portals of fiction, only this time the portals are real. And with the new "signposts" we know how to find them.
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Better Earth

Plants self-organize in a 'hidden order,' echoing pattern found across nature

Olivia Ferrari
Live Science
Wed, 22 Oct 2025 15:16 UTC
Namibia's fairy circles
© StuPorts/Getty ImagesNamibia's fairy circles are among the world's drylands that appear to follow a "hidden order" seen across nature.
Scientists have uncovered a "hidden order" in drylands across the planet, where plants follow disordered hyperuniformity — a layout that looks random and disorganized up close but adheres to a clear pattern when viewed from farther away.

The findings explain phenomena like "tiger bush" in West Africa, where bands of plants look like tiger stripes from above, or "fairy circles" in Namibia that look like spots from far away but are actually clumps of plants. These plants are self-organized in a way that helps them cope with drought and function in extreme conditions.

"It was a genuine surprise," study co-author Quan-Xing Liu, a mathematician at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, told Live Science in an email. "We expected to find either a completely random distribution or a regular, clumped pattern... instead, we uncovered a perfect disordered hyperuniform pattern — a form of hidden order no one had recognized before in plant communities."
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