Crowd Movement Follows a Vortex Pattern, Physicists Find
Crowds don’t move chaotically—physicists from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France) have shown that large groups of people form rotating vortices instead.
The researchers analyzed crowd dynamics during the San Fermín festival in Spain, using balcony-mounted cameras and computational models. Unlike previous studies that treated crowds as clusters of individual agents, they modeled the crowd as a dense, fluid-like continuum.
As the crowd filled the square, it reached a critical density of 4 people per square meter, triggering the slow formation of overlapping vortices. When density rose to 9 people per square meter, new vortices appeared every 18 seconds. Interestingly, participants were likely unaware they were moving in circles.
🔗 Study in Nature
Crowds don’t move chaotically—physicists from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France) have shown that large groups of people form rotating vortices instead.
The researchers analyzed crowd dynamics during the San Fermín festival in Spain, using balcony-mounted cameras and computational models. Unlike previous studies that treated crowds as clusters of individual agents, they modeled the crowd as a dense, fluid-like continuum.
As the crowd filled the square, it reached a critical density of 4 people per square meter, triggering the slow formation of overlapping vortices. When density rose to 9 people per square meter, new vortices appeared every 18 seconds. Interestingly, participants were likely unaware they were moving in circles.
🔗 Study in Nature
Nature
Crowds suck people into a vortex — surprising physicists
Nature - Studying crowd dynamics could inform strategies that help to prevent dense gatherings from becoming dangerous.
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DARPA Plans to Build Structures Directly in Space
Instead of launching massive structures from Earth, DARPA’s NOM4D program aims to build them directly in orbit using advanced manufacturing. This could revolutionize space construction by eliminating launch constraints like weight and size.
- What will they build?
Large antennas, solar arrays, and reflectors—assembled or even printed in space.
This tech could lead to orbital factories and lunar bases, using materials from the Moon or asteroids. If successful, it’s a major step toward a true space economy.
🔗 More: The Debrief
Instead of launching massive structures from Earth, DARPA’s NOM4D program aims to build them directly in orbit using advanced manufacturing. This could revolutionize space construction by eliminating launch constraints like weight and size.
- What will they build?
Large antennas, solar arrays, and reflectors—assembled or even printed in space.
This tech could lead to orbital factories and lunar bases, using materials from the Moon or asteroids. If successful, it’s a major step toward a true space economy.
🔗 More: The Debrief
The Debrief
DARPA Program Plans to Build Massive Structures in Orbit with Paradigm-Shifting Technology
DARPA is testing new in-space manufacturing techniques that could enable the construction of massive, mass-efficient structures in orbit.
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How Tears Dry
Tears are 98% water, with the remaining 2% containing salts, glucose, proteins, and lipids. As they evaporate, water disappears first, leaving behind tiny crystalline traces.
Interestingly, emotional tears contain more proteins than reflex tears (like from cutting onions), affecting how they dry. A little chemistry in every tear! 🔬💧
Tears are 98% water, with the remaining 2% containing salts, glucose, proteins, and lipids. As they evaporate, water disappears first, leaving behind tiny crystalline traces.
Interestingly, emotional tears contain more proteins than reflex tears (like from cutting onions), affecting how they dry. A little chemistry in every tear! 🔬💧
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“Vacation-Style” Beaches on Mars?
Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery on Mars, revealing evidence of “vacation-style” beaches with sand and waves. Using data from the Zhurong Mars rover, scientists identified hidden layers of rock under the planet’s surface, suggesting the presence of an ancient northern ocean. This finding offers the clearest evidence yet that Mars once had a significant body of water and a more habitable environment for life.
“We’re finding places on Mars that used to look like ancient beaches and ancient river deltas,” said Benjamin Cardenas, assistant professor of geology at Penn State. “We found evidence for wind, waves, no shortage of sand — a proper, vacation-style beach.”
The Zhurong rover’s ground-penetrating radar allowed scientists to explore the Martian subsurface, revealing formations similar to those found on Earth’s beaches. This discovery paints a picture of ancient habitable environments capable of supporting microbial life.
Read more about this fascinating discovery here: Penn State University Article
Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery on Mars, revealing evidence of “vacation-style” beaches with sand and waves. Using data from the Zhurong Mars rover, scientists identified hidden layers of rock under the planet’s surface, suggesting the presence of an ancient northern ocean. This finding offers the clearest evidence yet that Mars once had a significant body of water and a more habitable environment for life.
“We’re finding places on Mars that used to look like ancient beaches and ancient river deltas,” said Benjamin Cardenas, assistant professor of geology at Penn State. “We found evidence for wind, waves, no shortage of sand — a proper, vacation-style beach.”
The Zhurong rover’s ground-penetrating radar allowed scientists to explore the Martian subsurface, revealing formations similar to those found on Earth’s beaches. This discovery paints a picture of ancient habitable environments capable of supporting microbial life.
Read more about this fascinating discovery here: Penn State University Article
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Dark Matter: Measured at Last! 🌌
For the first time, scientists directly measured the amount of dark matter in our part of the Milky Way! 🛸 Using pulsars—spinning cosmic lighthouses—they detected the faint gravitational pull of this invisible substance.
🔬 The result? Less than 1 kg of dark matter exists in a volume the size of Earth! 🤯 Even though dark matter dominates the universe, locally it’s incredibly sparse.
💡 This breakthrough helps us map dark matter in our galaxy, refine theories of gravity, and better understand the unseen forces shaping the cosmos. The invisible is becoming visible!
For the first time, scientists directly measured the amount of dark matter in our part of the Milky Way! 🛸 Using pulsars—spinning cosmic lighthouses—they detected the faint gravitational pull of this invisible substance.
🔬 The result? Less than 1 kg of dark matter exists in a volume the size of Earth! 🤯 Even though dark matter dominates the universe, locally it’s incredibly sparse.
💡 This breakthrough helps us map dark matter in our galaxy, refine theories of gravity, and better understand the unseen forces shaping the cosmos. The invisible is becoming visible!
phys.org
Breakthrough enables measurement of local dark matter density using direct acceleration measurements
Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, the Pei-Ling Chan Endowed Chair in the College of Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and her team have pioneered the use of gravitational acceleration measurements ...
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🚀 Metal Made in Space Lands on Earth for the First Time! 🌍✨
The European Space Agency (ESA) has achieved a groundbreaking milestone in space manufacturing! For the first time in history, a piece of metal produced in microgravity has been successfully returned to Earth.
This achievement is part of the ElectroMagnetic Levitator (EML) experiment, which studies the behavior of metals and alloys in space. In microgravity, materials can be created with properties that are impossible to achieve under Earth’s gravity, opening up new possibilities for advanced manufacturing.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has achieved a groundbreaking milestone in space manufacturing! For the first time in history, a piece of metal produced in microgravity has been successfully returned to Earth.
This achievement is part of the ElectroMagnetic Levitator (EML) experiment, which studies the behavior of metals and alloys in space. In microgravity, materials can be created with properties that are impossible to achieve under Earth’s gravity, opening up new possibilities for advanced manufacturing.
ESA
Metal made in space lands on Earth
The first metal 3D part ever created on orbit has landed on Earth.
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A view of Earth from the first privately-owned spacecraft to successfully land on the Moon in history.
On March 2, 2025, the Blue Ghost lander, developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed in the Moon’s Mare Crisium region. This marks the first time a private spacecraft has achieved a fully successful lunar landing.
On March 2, 2025, the Blue Ghost lander, developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed in the Moon’s Mare Crisium region. This marks the first time a private spacecraft has achieved a fully successful lunar landing.
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🌍🚀 A “Seed Pyramid” on the Moon – Humanity’s Backup Plan
Alongside a suite of scientific instruments, the Blue Ghost lunar lander has delivered something truly unique to the Moon: a pyramid containing life’s seeds and Wikipedia encoded in DNA.
This project was developed by the biotech company LifeShip in collaboration with the Arch Mission Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving human knowledge for future generations—or perhaps even extraterrestrials. If life on Earth were to face extinction, these seeds could potentially help revive it.
This is the third lunar library sent by Arch Mission Foundation, adding to their efforts to safeguard humanity’s legacy beyond Earth.
🔬 What’s inside the pyramid?
🌾 100 types of plant seeds & DNA from 500 plant species
🪴 Essential crops, iconic ornamental plants, and sacred medicinal herbs
🌲 The tallest trees on Earth – coastal redwoods
📀 Images of 100 plants preserved on ceramic plates by Cerabyte, designed to last for billions of years
A small step for @science, a giant leap for planetary backup. 🌱🌕✨
Alongside a suite of scientific instruments, the Blue Ghost lunar lander has delivered something truly unique to the Moon: a pyramid containing life’s seeds and Wikipedia encoded in DNA.
This project was developed by the biotech company LifeShip in collaboration with the Arch Mission Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving human knowledge for future generations—or perhaps even extraterrestrials. If life on Earth were to face extinction, these seeds could potentially help revive it.
This is the third lunar library sent by Arch Mission Foundation, adding to their efforts to safeguard humanity’s legacy beyond Earth.
🔬 What’s inside the pyramid?
🌾 100 types of plant seeds & DNA from 500 plant species
🪴 Essential crops, iconic ornamental plants, and sacred medicinal herbs
🌲 The tallest trees on Earth – coastal redwoods
📀 Images of 100 plants preserved on ceramic plates by Cerabyte, designed to last for billions of years
A small step for @science, a giant leap for planetary backup. 🌱🌕✨
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By the end of 2025, a lawyer’s caliber will be determined 90% by the quality of their AI assistant.
Reasoning models have made a breakthrough in legal skill qualification and practice efficiency.
The first randomized controlled study assessed how senior law students performed six legal tasks using:
• A RAG-based AI legal tool (Vincent AI),
• An AI reasoning model (O1-preview OpenAI),
• Or no AI at all (as lawyers worldwide still commonly work today).
The study revealed:
• Both AI tools significantly improved legal work quality.
AI assistance boosted performance in five out of six tested legal tasks, with:
• Vincent AI delivering a statistically significant improvement of 38% to 115%,
• O1-preview increasing performance by 34% to 140%, showing particularly strong results in complex tasks like drafting persuasive legal letters and analyzing legal complaints.
• Reasoning models enhance not just clarity, organization, and professionalism but also the depth and rigor of legal analysis.
• Hallucinations were minimal.
Notably, Vincent AI exhibited about the same error rate as law students working without AI (humans, after all, are also prone to confabulations).
• The findings sharply contrast with previous studies on older large language models like GPT-4.
In other words, a breakthrough has occurred—the emergence of AI models capable of genuine reasoning.
Two Key Takeaways
1. The study convincingly demonstrates that integrating domain-specific RAG capabilities with reasoning models creates a breakthrough synergy in legal competence and productivity.
2. These results not only herald the imminent arrival of next-generation AI legal tools but will also fundamentally reshape the future of the legal profession.
#LLM
Reasoning models have made a breakthrough in legal skill qualification and practice efficiency.
The first randomized controlled study assessed how senior law students performed six legal tasks using:
• A RAG-based AI legal tool (Vincent AI),
• An AI reasoning model (O1-preview OpenAI),
• Or no AI at all (as lawyers worldwide still commonly work today).
The study revealed:
• Both AI tools significantly improved legal work quality.
AI assistance boosted performance in five out of six tested legal tasks, with:
• Vincent AI delivering a statistically significant improvement of 38% to 115%,
• O1-preview increasing performance by 34% to 140%, showing particularly strong results in complex tasks like drafting persuasive legal letters and analyzing legal complaints.
• Reasoning models enhance not just clarity, organization, and professionalism but also the depth and rigor of legal analysis.
• Hallucinations were minimal.
Notably, Vincent AI exhibited about the same error rate as law students working without AI (humans, after all, are also prone to confabulations).
• The findings sharply contrast with previous studies on older large language models like GPT-4.
In other words, a breakthrough has occurred—the emergence of AI models capable of genuine reasoning.
Two Key Takeaways
1. The study convincingly demonstrates that integrating domain-specific RAG capabilities with reasoning models creates a breakthrough synergy in legal competence and productivity.
2. These results not only herald the imminent arrival of next-generation AI legal tools but will also fundamentally reshape the future of the legal profession.
#LLM
Ssrn
AI-Powered Lawyering: AI Reasoning Models, Retrieval Augmented Generation, and the Future of Legal Practice
Generative AI is set to transform the legal profession, but its full impact remains uncertain. While AI models like GPT-4 improve the efficiency with which lega
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Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden have developed a collective of disk-shaped autonomous robots that mimic the adaptive behaviors of biological tissues. Inspired by how embryonic cells transition between fluid and solid states to form structures, these robots can rearrange themselves to act either as a rigid material or flow into new configurations. This advancement opens new possibilities for adaptable robotic systems capable of self-healing and dynamic reconfiguration.
The Current
How to get a robot collective to act like a smart material
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden develop a robot collective that can act like a smart material
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Tune in every Friday for our weekly @science podcast! Today, we're diving deep into the latest groundbreaking discoveries:
🔹 Mars Reveals Secrets: NASA’s Perseverance rover found unexpected minerals on Mars, hinting at ancient life-friendly conditions. Unusual deposits of kaolinite suggest Mars once had a warm, wet environment ideal for microbial life.
🌌 Ultra-Hot Nova Surprise: Gemini South telescope captured a recurrent nova eruption in a nearby galaxy with unprecedented chemical signatures, including extremely ionized silicon shining nearly 100 times brighter than our sun.
🦴 Walking Upright 2 Million Years Ago: A newly discovered fossil from South Africa confirms that our ancient relative, Paranthropus robustus, walked upright like humans and was surprisingly small, highlighting new insights into early human evolution.
🚬 Smoking Fuels Antibiotic Resistance: New research reveals cigarette waste promotes the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in water bodies and even human lungs, highlighting yet another hidden health hazard of smoking.
🧬 Nanoparticles vs. Cancer: Breakthrough research at UCLA uses innovative nanoparticle technology to stop pancreatic cancer from spreading. This method combines immune therapy and mRNA to create personalized cancer treatments.
🛰️ Voyager's Final Chapter: NASA is carefully powering down instruments on Voyager spacecraft to extend their missions as long as possible. These probes continue to send back data from beyond our solar system, over 15 billion miles from Earth.
Join us today as we explore these groundbreaking stories and more!
Stay curious, stay informed, and see you in the podcast! 🚀🌍
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🔬 BREAKTHROUGH IN AI-POWERED HEALTHCARE
Google Research has unveiled significant advancements in AMIE (Artificial Medical Intelligence Engine), a cutting-edge AI system designed for longitudinal disease management.
🔹 What makes this important?Unlike traditional diagnostic tools, AMIE follows patients throughout their entire treatment journey, continuously adapting and personalizing care plans based on patient progress.
🔹 Key innovations:
• Multi-modal data integration combining medical images, clinical notes, and lab results
• Temporal neural networks that detect subtle changes in patient condition over time
• Interpretable AI models that explain recommendations to physicians
🔹 Clinical results are impressive:
• 94% accuracy in detecting cancer recurrence
• 12% improvement in survival rates in oncology applications
• Early detection of neurodegenerative disease progression by 7 months compared to standard monitoring
This represents a paradigm shift from reactive to proactive healthcare, where AI doesn't just diagnose but becomes an integral part of the entire treatment process.
The research team emphasizes their commitment to ethical AI development with strong privacy protections and transparency principles built into the system.
Full research paper: https://research.google/blog/from-diagnosis-to-treatment-advancing-amie-for-longitudinal-disease-management/
#AIinHealthcare #MedicalAI #GoogleResearch #AMIE #FutureOfMedicine
Google Research has unveiled significant advancements in AMIE (Artificial Medical Intelligence Engine), a cutting-edge AI system designed for longitudinal disease management.
🔹 What makes this important?Unlike traditional diagnostic tools, AMIE follows patients throughout their entire treatment journey, continuously adapting and personalizing care plans based on patient progress.
🔹 Key innovations:
• Multi-modal data integration combining medical images, clinical notes, and lab results
• Temporal neural networks that detect subtle changes in patient condition over time
• Interpretable AI models that explain recommendations to physicians
🔹 Clinical results are impressive:
• 94% accuracy in detecting cancer recurrence
• 12% improvement in survival rates in oncology applications
• Early detection of neurodegenerative disease progression by 7 months compared to standard monitoring
This represents a paradigm shift from reactive to proactive healthcare, where AI doesn't just diagnose but becomes an integral part of the entire treatment process.
The research team emphasizes their commitment to ethical AI development with strong privacy protections and transparency principles built into the system.
Full research paper: https://research.google/blog/from-diagnosis-to-treatment-advancing-amie-for-longitudinal-disease-management/
#AIinHealthcare #MedicalAI #GoogleResearch #AMIE #FutureOfMedicine
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