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 December 5, 2024: Honey fraud, sticky fingers, a forgotten street, the sun's corona, Monkey Business and more!
News
Hummingbird Robots
Scientists are turning to nature’s tiniest aerial acrobats—hummingbirds—to design next-generation flying robots. Research in bird flight, especially at facilities like The Flight Lab at the University of Montana, is helping engineers create bio-inspired technology for drones, many of which are intended for military use. Hummingbirds can hover, dart, and maneuver with precision. Mimicking these traits could revolutionize how drones are built and operated. The research, funded largely by defense agencies, aims to develop robotic systems as adaptable and efficient as the birds. And it’s not just hummingbirds under study. Flight labs worldwide are examining creatures like dragonflies, hawk moths, and bats to unlock the secrets of their flight mechanics.
Science
The Sun's Corona
What’s next for solar exploration?
Today, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Proba-3 solar probe from Sriharikota, India. The ambitious mission plans to use two satellites to study the sun’s corona—the scorching outer layer that reaches temperatures of 2 million degrees and influences Earth through solar flares and mass ejections.
Proba-3 is designed to demonstrate groundbreaking precision formation flying. The two satellites will maintain a 150-meter separation to create artificial solar eclipses, allowing up to six hours of continuous corona observation per orbit! Proba-3 brings together expertise from 14 European countries and marks another milestone for ISRO, following its recent successes with Aditya-L1, India’s first solar observatory, and Chandrayaan-3, which achieved a historic soft landing on the moon’s south pole.
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Quirky
Honey Fraud
Who’s got sticky fingers?
For the first time, the World Beekeeping Awards won't include a honey category next year. Organizers made the call due to challenges in accurately testing honey for adulteration. Recent investigations have exposed widespread fraud in the honey industry! Earlier this year, nearly half of the honey products tested across Europe were found to be bulked out with cheaper sugar syrups, and in response, scientists have developed new ways to identify fake honey including methods that detect tampering without opening the jar. The advancements aim to make testing more reliable and help protect the integrity of the honey products.
True Spies
Monkey Business
Spy. Counterspy. Mercenary. Informant.
Ricardo ‘Monkey’ Morales was all these things and more. Rising from humble beginnings in Cuba, he served within various intelligence agencies before becoming notorious in the criminal underworld of 1980s Miami. Where some saw a rat, Morales likes to think of himself as a realist.
For nearly 20 years, he played a complex game of cat and mouse with operators on both sides of the law. He’d worked with almost every major agency in the United States, and they all counted him as an asset, but by 1982 Morales was running out of lies and knew it.
In his latest incarnation, he’d teamed up with the Miami police force only to find his own life on the line! When the FBI came knocking to arrest him for drug smuggling, ‘Monkey’ Morales mounted a daring wire-tap operation against the city’s most powerful drug lords.
What came of his wire-tap, operation Tick Talks? Find out in this week’s podcast selection, ‘Monkey Business’, and enter a shadow world of overseas special ops, bombings, drug deals, death threats, and ruthless killings!
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Researchers believe they’ve identified a new ancient human species, Homo juluensis! According to a recent study, documented by Prof. Christopher J. Bae from the University of Hawaii, this species lived in eastern Asia between 300,000 and 50,000 years ago, crafting stone tools and hunting animals. Some scientists think Homo juluensis may be linked to the enigmatic Denisovans, a mysterious group that has puzzled researchers for years.
Denisovans are known mostly through DNA. Despite some modern humans carrying up to 6% of their genes, physical remains are scarce—the most complete fossil is a partial jawbone with teeth, discovered on the Tibetan Plateau. This lack of remains has left Denisovans without an official species classification. The new study argues that Homo juluensis has distinct features, including a large skull and broad teeth, setting it apart as a unique species. However, the similarities between their teeth and those of Denisovans suggest that these two groups might just be one.
Culture
A Forgotten Street
What secrets lie hidden beneath Edinburgh's streets?
Tucked behind a hidden door on the lower floors of the National Library of Scotland is a forgotten piece of Edinburgh's history! Libberton’s Wynd, a street that once thrived in the heart of the old city, was demolished in the 1830s to make way for George IV Bridge.
Remarkably, parts of the street remain intact! The preserved corridor sits between the bridge walls and the library building. It’s not open to the public, but library officials stumbled upon it in the 1990s. They broke open a small hatch hidden behind filing cabinets and discovered a passageway with arches leading into chambers and rooms!
Image Credit: Dowie's Tavern/Libberton's Wynd by George Cattermole
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