Spy agencies brief people in power. We brief you. Each week we’ll bring you one story that matters, plus a few that don’t!
Your Brief for October 24, 2024: The Spy's Son, mycelial networks, space cuisine, Under Western Eyes and more!
News
The Boeing Strike
Despite being the largest US exporter by dollar value, Boeing has struggled to profit since 2018. On Wednesday, Boeing’s production workers voted to continue to strike, turning down a proposed deal that included a 35% pay raise over four years, $7,000 bonuses, and other benefits. The vote follows a weeks-long standoff, with tensions already raised as the aerospace company reported a massive third-quarter loss pushing total losses to $8 billion. In his first public call with investors, new CEO Kelly Ortberg announced plans for a cultural overhaul to repair the company’s image following layoffs and other downsizing measures.
True Spies
The Spy's Son
Could you befriend a traitor?
When he was arrested in 1996, James Nicholson—nicknamed ‘Batman’—was the highest-ranking CIA officer to be convicted of espionage for the Russian Federation. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1994—a humid day in June—cool by local standards, but the tall American sweats as he navigates the bustle of the city. It’s not just the weather; he’s nervous, too, but only in that primeval gnawing way that no amount of training can ever truly suppress. Outwardly, he projects supreme confidence. After all, he is Harold James Nicholson. CIA.
Nicholson—Jim to his friends—is en route to a meeting with the local head of the SVR, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. But this is business as usual; nothing to see here. In the wake of the Soviet collapse, the CIA and SVR have struck an intelligence-sharing agreement focused on tackling Islamic terrorism. Nicholson enters the Russian embassy in the spirit of collaboration. Unfortunately for his paymasters in Virginia, the American spy feels especially generous. And the offer he makes is irresistible in its simplicity. Jim Nicholson will sell American secrets to the Russians!
As far as it’s known, he’s the highest-ranking CIA officer in the agency's history ever to turn traitor—selling secrets between 1994 and 1996. Join veteran CIA case officer John Maguire in this week’s podcast selection, ‘The Spy’s Son’, on an operation to bring down his colleague… Jim!
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Quirky
Space Cuisine
What are the dinner specials in space?
A single carbon-rich asteroid may be able to feed deep space explorers for as long as 600 years. Published in The International Journal of Astrobiology, the findings could significantly reduce dependence on Earth-based food supplies - currently the main source of nutrition for astronauts. Researchers modeled the biochemical makeup of the 85-million-ton asteroid Bennu, calculating that roughly 5,500 to 175,000 tons of asteroid-derived nutrients should sustain an astronaut for one year—paving the way for more sustainable space missions far from Earth! The study draws from defense-funded experiments that explored how to turn hard plastics into edible food via pyrolysis. The oxygen-free heating technique first converts plastic into oil, which is then consumed by microbial bacteria, ultimately producing human-edible biomass!
Nature
Mycelial Networks
Do fungi make decisions?
Despite lacking a brain, these organisms display decision-making, shape recognition, and problem-solving skills. A study published in Fungal Ecology by researchers from Tohoku University and Nagaoka College revealed the surprising cognitive abilities of fungi. Researchers observed fungi adjusting their growth based on the spatial arrangement of resources. Mycelial networks respond to environmental signals by creating connections with varying densities, suggesting fungi may 'remember' resource locations and optimize how they forage. Lead researcher Yu Fukasawa remarked on the findings, explaining that "fungi have memories, they learn, and they can make decisions,". Pretty cool!
Image Credit: Fukasawa et al.
Books
Under Western Eyes
Did Joseph Conrad foreshadow a revolution?
Conrad published Under Western Eyes in 1911 following his breakout novel on spies and spying, The Secret Agent (1907) - a doppelgänger that is also chilling and prophetic. The narrator in Conrad’s novel is an Englishman, and through his ‘Western Eyes’ we view Russia as a despotic state that rules using the blunt instrument of oppression, a self-defeating course that can only foment discord and revolution.
The book was published six years after the Russian Revolution of 1905; a tumultuous period encompassing a wave of mass political and social unrest directed primarily against the Tsar, nobility, and the ruling class. While Tsar Nicholas II and the monarchy narrowly survived 1905’s unrest, its strikes, peasant uprisings, and military mutinies foreshadowed the 1917 Russian Revolution. In the decades before Conrad published Under Western Eyes, he joined the French merchant marine as an apprentice and was involved in arms smuggling for the Carlist political cause in Spain. In 1878, he arrived in England and spent 16 years in the British merchant navy! Discover more about Conrad, and his writings about a double agent, in this SPYSCAPE article.
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What would you do if you found a piece of history in your filing cabinet?
A privately owned copy of the US Constitution, printed in 1787, was found stashed in a metal filing cabinet and recently sold at auction for $9 million! The historic document is one of only 100 official copies printed that year and among eight still known to exist. The copies were initially sent to state leaders to review before ratification, and this particular copy is one of the few not held in a public institution—seven of the eight belong to libraries or archives. The rare Constitution was discovered in 2022 in a neglected room of a property in Edenton, North Carolina, once owned by Samuel Johnston, the state’s first governor. Johnston, who led North Carolina from 1787 to 1789, oversaw the state convention that ratified the Constitution.
Image Credit: Shutterstock/Mike Flippo
Science
Hidden Beneath Europa
What secrets lay beneath the surface of Europa?
NASA has launched the Europa Clipper spacecraft on a $5.2 billion mission to investigate the potential for life on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. This is NASA’s first mission to Jupiter since 2011, taking off aboard SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The ship will travel 1.8 billion miles to reach Europa, arriving in April 2030. Over its four-year mission, it will conduct approximately 49 flybys of Europa, studying the moon's surface and peering beneath its thick icy surface. Scientists believe there's a vast ocean trapped under this surface, potentially holding double the amount of water found on Earth! Using a suite of advanced instruments, including penetrating radar, the mission aims to determine the characteristics of this hidden body of water!
Image Credit: NASA
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