Spy agencies brief people in power. We brief you. Each week we bring you one story that matters, and a few that don’t!
Your Brief for March 20, 2025: Frozen light, The Real Sopranos, astronauts return, rethinking Alzheimer's and more!
News
Astronauts Return
NASA astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Butch Wilmore touched down off the Florida coast on Tuesday, ending a surprise nine-month stay aboard the International Space Station. Initially slated for a 10-day trip on Boeing's Starliner last June, they remained on the ISS due to technical issues with the spacecraft, including helium leaks and propulsion failures. Instead of returning as planned, Williams and Wilmore integrated into the ISS crew rotation, assisting with research and daily operations. During their extended mission, they completed 4,576 orbits of Earth, traveling over 121 million miles. The return boosts Williams' career spaceflight to 608 days—the second-highest among US astronauts.
Image Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
True Spies
The Real Sopranos
Could you meet the family—and live?
Giovanni Rocco, known in mafia circles as Giovanni Gatto, grew up playing in the backyards of New Jersey's criminal class—alongside the children of mafia bosses who helped inspire HBO's hit show, The Sopranos. But as an adult, Rocco went undercover to take them down.
Giovanni made a key decision after he left school: to follow the family tradition and join the police force. He made a good street cop—until his supervisor suggested he try helping with undercover investigations. Officers did undercover work the old-fashioned way, relying on instinct, natural ability, and tips passed down from one another. Rocco excelled, leading to a new challenge: applying for an FBI course called "The School"—the Bureau's elite training center for undercover work. It's the kind of place you go if you're heading deep undercover for months or even years among the most dangerous people in the world!
As an FBI agent, Rocco spent years attempting to infiltrate one of America's oldest Cosa Nostra crime families. A journey that pushed his skills to the limit and put him and his family in the mafia's crosshairs.
So what does it take to survive in deep cover? And what toll does it take on those left behind? Follow Giovanni Rocco's descent into the violent mafia world in this week's podcast selection, 'The Real Sopranos', to find out!
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Science
Rethinking Alzheimer's
Could the key to treating Alzheimer’s lie beyond the brain?
For decades, scientists have blamed Alzheimer’s on toxic plaque buildup in the brain, but research suggests that immune dysfunction and metabolic failure may be the real culprits. Scientists now believe the disease isn’t just about misfolded proteins—it may be the brain’s defense system attacking healthy neurons, much like an autoimmune disorder.
This understanding could help explain why treatments targeting plaques have largely failed. If inflammation, insulin resistance, and immune imbalances contribute to Alzheimer’s, then future therapies may need to restore metabolic and immune health instead of just clearing plaques. Researchers suggest that lifestyle changes that improve insulin sensitivity and reduce inflammation could play a key role in prevention and early intervention.
Image Credit: Shutterstock/AtlasStudio
Games
The Quickflip Puzzle
Can you find the answer—and avoid the wrong one?
Quickflip is an online word puzzle that can be both frustrating and addictive. The game presents eight lettered tiles, each hiding an alternate letter underneath. The goal? Flip the tiles to uncover an eight-letter word. The catch? There's a secret eight-letter word you must avoid spelling, and you only get one clue as to what it is! Race to uncover words as quickly as possible. Check it outhere.
Up for another challenge? Puzzlemaker Prasanna Keshava has prepared the crossword 'It's Top Secret' for you to solve!
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Nearly 1,000 years ago, the Italian city of Bologna was home to over 100 towering structures that once dominated its skyline. These medieval towers, built over periods of war and political rivalry, started as defensive strongholds but soon became status symbols for noble families—each vying to build bigger and better.
Constructing a tower was a massive undertaking, requiring a large workforce and sometimes taking up to a decade to complete. Bologna saw its skyline transformed by these ambitious projects. Over the centuries, most towers have collapsed. But 22 still stand today! The tallest, reaching 320 feet (97 meters), leans dramatically—a striking reminder of Bologna’s vertical past. While the city looks very different now, reconstructions show how its skyline may have once looked.
According to a study in Nature, Italian scientists recently froze light into a supersolid—a rare state of matter that behaves like a solid and a frictionless superfluid. Lead physicists Antonio Gianfrate and Davide Nigro achieved this by firing a laser into a specially designed semiconductor crystal, aluminum gallium arsenide, creating exotic light-matter hybrid particles. These particles arranged themselves into a repeating solid-like pattern while still flowing freely, defying classical physics. This light-based version forms under more practical conditions than traditional supersolids, which require near-absolute zero temperatures.
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