China is putting thousands of humanoid robots through their paces at the second annual World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. More than 2,000 machines are taking part in events ranging from soccer, table tennis, and fighting to industrial assembly, packing, and tool manipulation. One robot delivered the weekend’s headline moment in the 100-meter sprint. The Chinese-made machine covered the distance in 9.39 seconds, faster than Usain Bolt’s human world record of 9.58 seconds. The competition comes as China leads global humanoid robot production, accounting for more than 80% of shipments.
True Spies
Brief Histories: Counterintelligence
How do you protect your secrets from those trying to steal them?
In Renaissance Venice, the Council of Ten monitored diplomats, intercepted letters, and used informants and anonymous denunciations to uncover suspected threats. But its methods could also go dangerously wrong: former ambassador Antonio Foscarini was executed for supposedly passing secrets to foreigners, only to be exonerated two years later.
By 1918, Russia’s new Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka, were turning deception against their enemies. When British diplomat Robert Bruce Lockhart and MI6 agent Sidney Reilly became involved in a plot against the regime, Cheka operatives posed as willing defectors to draw out their network before moving against it.
During the Cold War, MI5 scientist Peter Wright brought new technology into Britain’s spy-catching operations, improving surveillance equipment as he hunted for Soviet penetration. Decades later, former State Department counterintelligence officer Robert Booth helped the FBI expose Cuban spy Kendall Myers with a false-flag operation, sending an operative posing as a Cuban intelligence officer to win his trust.
Join series producer Joe Foley in this week’s podcast selection, ‘Brief Histories: Counterintelligence,’ to uncover the evolving battle to protect secrets, expose hidden threats, and outmaneuver the enemy.
Take on immersive games and challenges at SPYGAMES! Test your team's skills and strategy, compete to climb the leaderboards, and recharge with food and drink in your own private space hosted by a dedicated staff member.
Book your next team social.
Take on immersive games and challenges at SPYGAMES! Test your team's skills and strategy, compete to climb the leaderboards, and recharge with food and drink in your own private space hosted by a dedicated staff member.
You like figuring out how things work — and how they might break.
A weak password. A hidden shortcut. A system that looks secure until you start testing its limits.
If you’re a Hacker, you’re naturally curious, analytical, and persistent. You enjoy solving problems, spotting vulnerabilities and finding routes that other people might overlook.
In the intelligence world, those qualities can be used to break into hostile computer systems or test friendly ones, finding weaknesses before someone else can exploit them.
In everyday life, they can make you an inventive problem-solver, a quick learner, and the person who keeps digging until they understand how something really works.
With the end of the one-week exchange between MI6 and CONTROL approaching, M sends Agent 86 Maxwell Smart to investigate a “defective SPECTRE base.” With his ears slightly plugged, Max mishears the target as “Detective Inspector Bayes” and infiltrates her home instead. Using surveillance gadgets supplied by Q, he soon discovers something surprising about her. Solve this week’s SPYSCAPE crossword to uncover what Max has found.
Give your party guests an unforgettable experience designed to engage, entertain, and inspire. Our dedicated staff will be on hand to help, and you'll even get your own private space to celebrate.
Host your birthday at SPYSCAPE or SPYGAMES.
Give your party guests an unforgettable experience designed to engage, entertain, and inspire. Our dedicated staff will be on hand to help, and you'll even get your own private space to celebrate.
Astronomers have identified a star whose unusually close orbit around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, could provide a new way to study the black hole itself. Known as S301, the star passes roughly as close to Sagittarius A* as Saturn is to the Sun and completes its lopsided orbit every 8.7 years.
S301 is also the fastest known star in the Milky Way, reaching speeds of about 56 million mph, around 100,000 times faster than a commercial plane. Researchers believe the black hole’s rotation slightly shifts the star’s orbit each time it passes nearby.
Tracking those changes over the next decade could allow astronomers to directly measure Sagittarius A*’s spin for the first time, test Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, and learn more about how the black hole’s rotation affects the evolution of the galaxy.
What changes inside the immune system when someone reaches 100?
People who reach the age of 100 appear to have unusually high levels of a rare immune cell that can kill cancerous cells. In a recent study published in Cell Reports, researchers in Japan compared blood samples from 28 adults aged 70 to 99, 100 to 109, and 110 and older.
The oldest participants had, on average, a higher proportion of CD4 CTLs, a rare type of immune cell also found in people fighting cancer. These older participants showed no signs of cancer.
Researchers believe the rise in these cells may represent a new stage of immune development that appears around age 100, helping the body remove abnormal cells as they become more common with age. The finding suggests that changes in the immune system later in life could play a role in longevity.
Try brain-teasing challenges at SPYSCAPE and pulse-racing fun in SPYGAMES.
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