The UK’s most powerful supercomputer is now fully operational, having already helped to develop vaccines earlier this year. Built by the University of Bristol and funded with public money, the Isambard-AI system joins Cambridge’s Dawn machine as part of a national push to boost public AI infrastructure. Officials say it will support projects such as reducing NHS wait times and developing climate tools.
Image Credit: Bristol Centre for Supercomputing
Articles
Airborne Surveillance
How do you spy from the sky?
In 1794, two French officers rose above the battlefield in a hydrogen balloon, watching enemy movements and signaling to troops below. A century later, U.S. forces were sending up kites with cameras and pigeons with coded messages.
By the 20th century, spies had wings. The U.S. military flew open-cockpit planes with handheld cameras in WWI, and launched high-altitude U-2 surveillance missions during the Cold War. But aerial espionage didn’t stop at planes. Intelligence agencies turned to satellites, drones, and even animals—training hawks, wiring crows, and strapping cameras to birds mid-flight. The CIA even built remote-controlled insects! Discover more in this SPYSCAPE article.
New mission location activated. Come test your skills.
After you complete your debrief you will receive 10 short missions to play on the streets of Covent Garden — time to put what you've learned into action.
The largest known Martian meteorite on Earth, weighing 54 pounds, recently sold for $5.3 million at Sotheby’s. Dubbed NWA 16788, the rare reddish rock was discovered in the Sahara last November and confirmed as genuine in a leading meteoritics journal. Scientists believe it was launched from the planet by an asteroid impact, traveling 140 million miles before crash-landing in Niger; its surface forged by intense heat and pressure. Of the 77,000+ recognized meteorites on Earth, only about 400 are confirmed to be from Mars!
Image Credit: Sotheby's
True Spies
The Survivor
Could you cross into Nazi Germany undercover?
Marthe Cohn was 22 when she slipped past a German border guard using the name "Marthe Ulrich". Her real name might've meant a death sentence. Disguised as a German nurse, she fed intelligence to the French Army from deep inside enemy territory, right under the nose of the SS.
Marthe was born in Lorraine, near the French-German border, and raised speaking both languages. She never set out to be a spy, but when the opportunity arose, she seized it. Her most daring mission led her to the Siegfried Line, where she gathered secrets from a high-ranking SS officer—intel that helped Allied forces break through Germany’s final defenses.
What were those secrets? Join Marthe Cohn in this week’s podcast selection, 'The Survivor', to infiltrate Nazi lines and find out.
Leverage CIA and MI6 expertise to develop your team.
Looking for a smarter way to bring your team together?
Your team will uncover their hidden strengths through interactive challenges and authentic personal profiles that celebrate what each team-member has to offer.
Physicists have detected a massive black hole collision, challenging current models of how black holes form and grow. The signal was picked up by LIGO, a U.S.-based observatory that measures gravitational waves using lasers and precisely engineered detectors.
The black holes involved were huge and rapidly spinning, falling into a mass range that scientists had previously considered unlikely. As they merged, the waves they produced traveled across the universe and were recorded by LIGO’s twin facilities through tiny shifts in laser distance.
The findings come as U.S. funding for gravitational-wave detection is under review, even as researchers continue to make significant discoveries. Results were presented on July 14 at the GR-Amaldi gravitational waves meeting in Glasgow.
Try brain-teasing challenges at SPYSCAPE and pulse-racing fun in SPYGAMES.
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