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Lost for over 100 years, World War 1 era US submarine found along with bomber that sank in same area in 1950

Lost for over 100 years, World War 1 era US submarine found along with bomber that sank in same area in 1950

Time of India24-05-2025
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In a historic deep-sea expedition off the coast of San Diego, researchers have captured stunning, never-before-seen imagery of the U.S. Navy submarine USS F-1 , which sank on December 17, 1917, following a fatal collision during a training exercise. The accident claimed the lives of 19 crew members, whose final resting place has now been thoroughly surveyed and documented using state-of-the-art underwater technology.The high-resolution images of the World War I-era submarine were taken during a joint research expedition conducted from February 24 to March 4, 2025, by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and several interagency partners, including the U.S. Navy, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).Using advanced deep-sea imaging tools such as the human-occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin and the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry, researchers successfully located the submarine more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the surface.The mission also captured detailed imagery of a U.S. Navy Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber that crashed nearby during a training flight in 1950.'Advanced ocean technology and simple teamwork played a big part in delivering these new images,' said Bruce Strickrott, senior pilot of Alvin and manager of WHOI's Alvin Group. 'As a U.S. Navy veteran, it was a profound honor to visit the wreck of the F-1 with our ONR and NHHC colleagues aboard Alvin.'The discoveries were made during a scheduled training and engineering dive intended to test equipment and develop new deep-sea research techniques. Alongside the technology trials, the expedition served as a somber reminder of the risks faced by sailors past and present.'It was an incredibly exciting and humbling experience to visit these historically significant wrecks and to honor the sacrifice of these brave American Sailors,' said Brad Krueger, underwater archaeologist for the NHHC, who completed his first dive aboard Alvin to visit the F-1 site.The USS F-1, originally conducting a 48-hour performance test, was lost when it collided with the USS F-3 in dense fog. Only three crew members survived. More than a century later, the wreck has been found lying intact on its starboard side, remarkably preserved by the deep-sea environment.To honor the fallen, a remembrance ceremony was held aboard the research vessel Atlantis, where the names of the 19 lost sailors were read aloud, and a bell rang 19 times—once for each life lost.'The Navy has a solemn responsibility to ensure the legacies of its lost Sailors are remembered,' said Krueger. 'History and archaeology are all about people, and we felt it was important to read their names aloud.'Advanced imaging tools, including multi-beam sonar and high-resolution cameras, enabled the creation of 3D photogrammetric models of the submarine and bomber wrecks. These reconstructions provide not only educational and historical value but also serve as crucial training assets for future oceanographic missions.'We were careful and methodical in surveying these historical sites so that we could share these stunning images, while also maintaining the reverence these sites deserve,' said Anna Michel, NDSF chief scientist and co-lead of the expedition.
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Science retracts NASA arsenic bacteria paper after years of controversy
Science retracts NASA arsenic bacteria paper after years of controversy

The Hindu

time14 hours ago

  • The Hindu

Science retracts NASA arsenic bacteria paper after years of controversy

In 2010, in the waters of Mono Lake in California, NASA-funded scientists claimed to have found a microbe called GFAJ-1 they said rewrote biology. It had allegedly replaced the phosphorus in its DNA with the toxic element arsenic. The announcement, made at a high-profile press conference on December 2 that year, stunned the world. The findings, soon published in the journal Science, hinted that life could rely on a radically different chemistry. Lead author and microbial geobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon declared, 'Life as we know it may be due for a revision.' Speculation surged: had NASA stumbled onto alien biology? Set the ball rolling On July 24 this year, Science announced that it would be retracting the GFAJ-1 paper, nearly 15 years after its splashy debut, citing shifting editorial standards and lingering public confusion. 'It's important to have any groundbreaking work independently evaluated before drawing far-reaching conclusions,' University of Minnesota synthetic biologist Kate Adamala said. 'We want the public to be excited, but the message must match the strength of the data.' Mainstream media amplified the drama. One headline read: 'NASA Discovers Life Not As We Know It'. Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, a site that tracks withdrawn papers and promotes research transparency, and executive director of The Centre for Scientific Integrity, saw the media blitz as pivotal. 'Without the hype, this paper might never have been retracted.' He pointed to NASA's style of communication as a key factor in the storm that followed in 2010. 'Historically, NASA hasn't always had a respectful relationship with journalists,' he said. 'They're great at promoting themselves, and sometimes at overselling.' Peer review in public To the people at large, the prospect of arsenic life hinted at alien biochemistry. But for many scientists, the GFAJ-1 paper raised more questions than answers. Critics began pointing out that arsenate is unstable in water, so its role in DNA seemed chemically implausible. 'If true, this would have overturned nearly a century of data, but nothing in the chemistry suggested it was possible,' Steven Benner, an early critic and chemistry professor at University of Florida said. Others were initially intrigued. 'I was very excited and impressed. It was a big deal in the origins community,' Adamala, then a graduate student, said. But like many, her enthusiasm waned as flaws emerged. Microbiologist Rosemary Redfield became a leading critic and one of the first replicators to disprove the findings. 'It's a fine example of how easy it is for scientists to be misled by an attractive hypothesis and of why we need both formal peer review and informal outside scrutiny.' By late December, the backlash gained traction. Blogs and Twitter (now turned the paper into a case study on post-publication peer review. Sheila Jasanoff, professor of science and technology studies at Harvard, noted that while such public spaces can foster valuable crowd-sourced peer review, they also risk overreach. 'These days science, like true crime, has spilled outside the constraints of officially authorised review. However, like all forms of democratisation, such informal policing can run out of control if it is driven by a mob mentality that is out to shame or undermine a researcher or a research program.' The original team stood by their findings — but by now the tone had shifted. Evidence falls apart Over the next 18 months, multiple labs tested the paper's core assertion. In 2012, Science published two studies that refuted it. Redfield's team found no arsenate in GFAJ-1's DNA. Tobias Erb's group confirmed the microbe still needed phosphorus to grow, i.e. it hadn't rewritten biology, just tolerated low-phosphate conditions. Wolfe-Simon maintained that her team's methods showed arsenic was incorporated into DNA and were robust enough to rebut Benner's contamination claims. Science didn't retract or flag the paper, saying claims should be resolved by further research, not editorial action. And since no fraud was alleged, the rebuttals sufficed. 'The whole debate ends up circling around the semantics of words like 'error', 'fraud', 'misconduct,'' Oransky said. 'But this paper, let's be honest, has been understood as unreliable since at least 2012, if not earlier.' Why science took so long For Benner, the GFAJ-1 paper reflected differences in scientific perspectives. Biologists saw phosphorus as essential, chemists knew arsenate's instability, geologists accepted mineral substitutions, and astrobiologists embraced radical possibilities. 'It wasn't that reviewers were incompetent,' Benner said. 'They just didn't all speak the same scientific language.' He saw another deeper flaw. NASA's astrobiology community often relies on consensus panels that falter when no one challenges ideas outside their domain. 'Multidisciplinary science is essential,' he said, 'but when it's superficial, weak claims slip through. This wasn't peer review breaking down: it was different communities assuming they shared standards while working from very different assumptions.' Adamala echoed this concern: 'Young scientists in interdisciplinary fields should embrace continuous peer review, as reliance on collaborators' expertise can miss flaws that later scrutiny might catch.' Correction sans closure 'They're right to retract a paper whose high-profile conclusions were entirely wrong,' Redfield said. One senior researcher noted that the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, which many journals have adopted as a measure to improve research integrity, justify a retraction if the findings are unreliable. Here, multiple labs found phosphate in the arsenate medium, undermining the paper's core claim that the microbe grew by substituting arsenic for phosphorus. 'The growth experiments at the heart of the paper were flawed,' the researchers said. 'Even if it was an honest mistake, the core conclusions didn't hold up.' Adamala said that it's a good example of self-regulation in science. 'Slowly but surely, mistakes do get corrected.' Oransky was more measured: 'Science is now acting on an expanded definition of retraction that's consistent with what's been possible for a long time, but rarely used.' Not everyone sees it as black and white. Jasanoff warned that retractions can erase the very messiness that makes science work. 'Rather than draw hard lines between truth and error, science advances through open debate,' she said. 'It's better to preserve a record that shows how scientists test, challenge, and refine their ideas, even when plausible claims later prove wrong.' Benner, for his part, expressed worry that broadening retraction policies could weaken the informal scrutiny that exposed the paper's flaws, raising questions about balancing error correction with preserving the scientific process. Today, the whole saga has transformed into a cautionary tale. Adamala said the controversy may have cast a shadow over exotic chemistry research in astrobiology, making scientists more cautious about bold claims. Who pays the price? Wolfe-Simon's rise and fall was swift. In 2010, she was hailed for a potential revolution in biology. Two years later, she quietly exited both NASA and mainstream science, her research career derailed by controversy and lack of funding. 'Good scientists would have responded by getting back into the lab and doing the necessary follow-up work. But these authors still don't admit mistakes,' Redfield said, pointing to their rebuttal letter in response to the retraction. Ariel Anbar, a coauthor of the now retracted paper, said, 'Science cited no misconduct or specific mistake. We stand firmly by the integrity of our data.' He also criticised the journal for not sharing a blog post it published regarding the retraction with the authors, calling it a breach of COPE guidelines. Oransky disagreed: 'What guideline is this referring to? Furthermore, standing by your data doesn't mean there aren't errors in it.' Anbar also said the team rejected 'the alleged error' and that it was raised in 2011 and rebutted in a peer-reviewed exchange. 'They may reject it,' Oransky replied, 'but that seems to be the rationale for the retraction.' Nonetheless, Oransky also said Science's retraction notice could have been clearer. He explained that retractions often imply misconduct, so when Science called the paper unreliable but not unethical, it still put the authors on the defensive. 'You can see that here, they're saying: 'But there was no misconduct. No clear error.'' Jasanoff said she doesn't see it completely as an individual failure. She argued that the unusually long delay until retraction may reflect less a concern with scientific uncertainty and more with a broader institutional tendency to manage reputation, especially in an era of heightened fears over misinformation. Wolfe-Simon's arc underscored a stark truth: high-risk discoveries bring both acclaim and vulnerability. When science goes public, its failures play out just as visibly as its triumphs, leaving lasting questions about how to correct course without crushing the people behind the work. A slow machine Peer-reviewers cleared GFAJ-1 and media hype propelled it, but shifting editorial norms more than new data undid it 15 years later. Oransky singled out Science's editor-in-chief, Holden Thorp, for leading that shift. 'Other journals have done it, but he's been consistently engaged in a way that encourages open conversation, no matter whether people agree with specific decisions or not.' That kind of editorial openness, he added, may be the real legacy of the arsenic life saga. Jasanoff, however, cautioned that every retraction risks erasing the visible, iterative debate that builds trust. 'It is better for people to understand that science moves through trial and error, and gradual self-correction. It is not a binary. All science is provisional.' Benner drew a parallel to the 1976 Viking missions, where a premature 'no organics, no life' verdict in Science stifled debate. 'Calling the ballgame early had an unfortunate result. It prevented the dialectic the scientific process needs.' The arsenic life case endures not because of its flawed claim, but for what it revealed about the pressures shaping modern science: how spectacular findings — especially from institutions like NASA — can short-circuit scrutiny, and how correcting course means confronting the very systems that made such claims irresistible in the first place. Anirban Mukhopadhyay is a geneticist by training and science communicator from Delhi.

'It's pure genius': Trump wants to rename 'artificial intelligence' because..
'It's pure genius': Trump wants to rename 'artificial intelligence' because..

First Post

time2 days ago

  • First Post

'It's pure genius': Trump wants to rename 'artificial intelligence' because..

Trump said he dislikes the word 'artificial' in Artificial Intelligence, claiming, 'It's not artificial, it's genius, pure genius.' He gave a curious reason to rename it, saying he doesn't like anything that's artificial. read more President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for renaming Artificial Intelligence at a major AI summit attended by top tech leaders and investors, including AI czar David Sacks. As he laid out his vision for US dominance in the sector, Trump argued that the term 'artificial' should be dropped — and gave a curious reason why. 'Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence. I don't even like the name,' Trump said during his address. 'I don't like anything that's artificial. We should change the name, it's not artificial, it's genius. It's pure genius.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The comment came as Trump unveiled his AI Action Plan, which focuses on rapidly expanding AI development in the US by cutting regulations and boosting exports of American-made AI technology. As part of the plan, Trump proposed rolling back environmental rules to fast-track construction of AI supercomputers and data centers, a move likely to spark backlash due to the industry's high environmental impact. He also linked the initiative to broader political goals, vowing to scrap Biden-era AI policies that evaluate risks based on climate change, diversity, and misinformation. Trump echoed concerns from conservative tech donors, who claim platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are biased against the right. The speech comes days after Trump was criticised for sharing AI-generated content without disclosure. Trump mocks copyright concerns over AI training data President Donald Trump dismissed growing concerns from authors and publishers about their work being used to train AI systems without compensation, arguing that paying for every piece of content would be unrealistic. 'You can't expect a successful AI program if you have to pay for every article, book, or anything you've read or studied,' he said at the summit. Mocking the idea, Trump quipped, ''Gee, I read a book, I'm supposed to pay somebody.' We appreciate the concern, but it's just not practical.' He added, 'Gaining knowledge from a book or article isn't a copyright violation. You shouldn't need to strike a deal with every content creator just to learn from their work.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD

Govt greenlights 10 new reactors; 13.7 GW nuclear boost by 2032 in the works
Govt greenlights 10 new reactors; 13.7 GW nuclear boost by 2032 in the works

Time of India

time2 days ago

  • Time of India

Govt greenlights 10 new reactors; 13.7 GW nuclear boost by 2032 in the works

New Delhi: India's nuclear power capacity is projected to increase from 8,780 MW to 22,480 MW by 2031-32, driven by the commissioning of eight reactors under construction and 10 more sanctioned projects, Union Minister Jitendra Singh informed the Lok Sabha. At present, India operates 24 nuclear reactors with an installed capacity of 8,780 MW. Additionally, eight reactors with a total capacity of 6,600 MW are under construction. These include 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) such as RAPP-8 and GHAVP-1&2, the 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) implemented by BHAVINI, and Light Water Reactors (LWRs) built under foreign cooperation including KKNPP-3&4 and KKNPP-5&6. Ten reactors with a projected capacity of 7,000 MW are at the pre-project activities stage. These include Kaiga 5&6, GHAVP 3&4, Chutka 1&2, and Mahi Banswara 1 to 4—all PHWRs. Upon the progressive completion of these ongoing and sanctioned reactors, the total installed capacity is expected to reach 22,480 MW by 2031-32. "The specific measures outlined to reach this goal involve a multi-faceted approach, leveraging both indigenous development and international collaboration," Singh stated in a written reply. Future expansion includes development of Indigenous Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs), aligned with India's three-stage nuclear programme designed for efficient utilisation of limited uranium and abundant thorium resources. These efforts will be supported by a closed fuel cycle approach. Deployment of Bharat Small Reactors (BSRs) is also being pursued to decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial sectors. Additionally, plans are in place for the development of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), including Indian SMRs of different capacities and Indian-designed LWRs. The government has launched a Nuclear Energy Mission with an outlay of ₹20,000 crore to support research and development of SMRs. The plan also includes increasing international cooperation on SMRs and nuclear fuel, along with potential exports of reactors, services, and supplies.

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