OpenAI has announced a new Pentagon agreement after Anthropic missed a deadline last week to resolve a dispute with the US Department of Defense over how its AI system, Claude, may be used. The Pentagon originally awarded Anthropic a contract worth up to $200 million last year to develop artificial intelligence tools for military applications. Since then, reports indicated Claude supported certain operational planning tasks. Anthropic had sought written assurances that its model would not be deployed in autonomous weapons systems or for domestic surveillance. Defense officials stated any use would comply with existing law and signaled they could invoke the Defense Production Act to require cooperation. The Defense Department has now moved to halt use of Anthropic’s tools and designate the company a national security or “supply chain” risk.
True Spies
The Oswald Project
Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone?
On November 22, 1963, gunshots echoed through Dealey Plaza. Within hours, police arrested a 24-year-old former Marine. A rifle tied to Oswald was found in the Texas School Book Depository. Two days later, before he could stand trial, Oswald was shot dead. His final claim to reporters: he was “just a patsy.”
But rewind to 1959. Oswald walks into the US Embassy in Moscow and announces he wants Soviet citizenship. He tells officials he is willing to share classified information from his Marine service, including knowledge connected to the U-2 spy plane program. It is the height of the Cold War, and such a declaration does not go unnoticed.
The Soviets grant him a visa and send him to Minsk. Back in Washington, intelligence files begin to accumulate. Mail is monitored. Movements are logged. Yet key records appear delayed, rerouted, or quietly contained within CIA counterintelligence channels. Years later, declassified documents reveal Oswald had drawn sustained attention well before Dallas. Attention that was then downplayed after the assassination.
So who was he? A defector? A double agent? Join actor Edward Norton, Professor John Newman, and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley in this week’s podcast selection, 'The Oswald Project', as they follow the files, the mole hunt, and a suspect moving through the shadows of the Cold War.
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Scientists have discovered that some baby caterpillars drum out precise vibrational beats to convince ants to adopt them. Findings published Wednesday in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences show that these larvae mimic the colony’s communication patterns, essentially tapping into a rhythmic “secret knock” that signals they belong.
Ant-dependent caterpillar species generate vibrations that match the ants’ own steady pulse, a timing pattern known as isochrony. Both ants and the most socially integrated caterpillars also use a rarer rhythm called double meter, alternating long and short beats, a structure previously documented mainly in a handful of primates. The ants respond by carrying the caterpillars into their nests, where the impostors gain protection and food. In some cases, the guests repay the favor by feeding on the ants’ young.
Researchers found a clear pattern: the more a caterpillar’s survival depends on ants, the more closely its rhythms mirror the colony’s. Rhythm, long studied in birds and mammals, may play a far broader role in the animal kingdom than previously thought, even underground, where a steady beat might mean the difference between life and death.
Nature
Giant Tortoises Return
What does it take to bring back a species that vanished nearly two centuries ago?
Conservationists have released 158 giant tortoises onto Ecuador’s Floreana Island in the Galápagos, part of a long-term effort to restore a population that disappeared in the 1840s. Floreana once supported an estimated 20,000 tortoises of the species Chelonoidis niger, but hunting and other human activity drove the island’s subspecies to extinction.
The comeback began in 2000, when researchers identified tortoises on a neighboring island with distinctive saddleback shells, a hallmark of the lost Floreana lineage. Genetic testing revealed they carried hybrid DNA linked to the extinct population. Scientists launched a selective breeding program, gradually increasing the proportion of Floreana ancestry in the offspring.
The tortoises released carry between 40% and 80% of that lineage. Ultimately, around 700 will be introduced as they reach a survivable age, typically between eight and 13 years old. Charles Darwin visited Floreana in 1835 and was among the last to encounter the original tortoises.
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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.
What happens inside an embryo before its genes switch on?
Research published last week in the journal Nature Genetics revealed that a newly fertilized egg starts organizing its DNA in three dimensions long before the genome becomes active. Using high-resolution 3D imaging, scientists tracked early development in fruit flies (Drosophila) during the narrow window before zygotic genome activation, the moment an embryo begins reading its own genetic instructions.
Biologists previously assumed that DNA at this stage existed in a loose, disordered tangle. Instead, the team observed an emerging scaffold already taking shape. Structures known as chromatin loops, which help regulate how genes will later turn on and off, began assembling well before the embryo started using its genome.
A companion study applied the same imaging approach to human cells and asked what happens when that scaffolding breaks down. Researchers found that cells interpret structural failure as a kind of viral threat, triggering immune-like responses. That misfire can alter gene expression and is linked to inflammation, developmental disorders, and cancer.
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