Spider-Man's fictional power inhibitor draws on real RNA medicine

The X1 took off from Plattsburgh International Airport and climbed to about 1,100 feet. Heart Aerospace said its four electric motors delivered more than one megawatt of power during the flight. The aircraft has a wingspan of 106 feet and weighed more than 25,000 pounds at takeoff.

According to the company, the batteries supplied about $5 worth of electricity during the flight. That figure covers energy alone. It does not include the much larger costs of developing, buying and operating an aircraft, such as maintenance, crew, airport fees, battery replacement and financing.

Heart describes the X1 as the largest fully electric aircraft yet flown. The claim refers to the aircraft’s overall scale, but there is no single universally used measure of aircraft size. The X1 is comparable in dimensions to a small regional airliner, although it was built as a technology demonstrator and did not carry passengers.

The aircraft flew under an experimental airworthiness certificate issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration. Its first flight was conducted within a restricted test envelope and included takeoff, a low-altitude climb, basic maneuvers and landing. A successful first flight does not demonstrate the range, reliability or regulatory compliance needed for commercial passenger service.

The X1 is helping Heart develop the ES-30, a proposed 30-seat hybrid-electric regional aircraft. Heart currently lists a planned all-electric range of 125 miles and a hybrid range of up to 500 miles. The company is targeting type certification in 2031. Those figures and the schedule are development goals, not demonstrated performance or regulatory approvals.

Battery weight remains one of the main barriers to fully electric airliners. Batteries store much less energy per unit of weight than jet fuel and do not become lighter as their charge is used. Heart therefore plans to combine electric propulsion with fuel-powered turboprop engines on the ES-30 for flights beyond its intended battery-only range.

The company says the ES-30 could reduce aircraft operating costs by more than 40% when it enters service. That estimate has not yet been demonstrated in commercial operations and depends on the final aircraft, energy prices, maintenance needs and certification requirements.

The X1 flight is an important engineering milestone for Heart, but it does not show that a battery-electric regional airliner is ready for airline service. Further flight testing and development will be needed before the company’s commercial plans can be assessed.

Source: www.zmescience.com

Adhesives are widely used in manufacturing and construction, but bonding surfaces underwater remains particularly difficult. Water forms a hydration layer on submerged materials that can prevent adhesives from making close contact with a surface and can weaken bonds over time.

Researchers have now developed a supramolecular underwater adhesive designed to overcome this problem. The material, described in a study published in Nature Communications, relies on a process known as solvent-exchange-mediated self-assembly.

The researchers created a supramolecular ionic liquid known as BP16TPB and dissolved it in dimethyl sulfoxide, or DMSO. When the mixture comes into contact with water, solvent exchange triggers a rapid rearrangement of its molecular components.

This causes the initially flowable material to assemble into a dense, water-resistant network capable of adhering to submerged surfaces.

According to the researchers, the process involves several molecular interactions, including hydrogen bonding, π–π stacking and electrostatic interactions. It is also assisted by the Marangoni effect, in which differences in surface tension drive fluid movement.

Together with the hydrophobic nature of the adhesive, this flow helps overcome the thin layer of water that normally prevents close contact between an adhesive and a submerged surface.

In laboratory experiments, the material bonded to surfaces including ceramic, epoxy and plastic. It reached an underwater adhesive strength of approximately 1.1 MPa after only 10 seconds of curing.

The researchers also tested the long-term durability of the bond. In one experiment, a bonded sample supported a 2 kg load during more than three years of continuous underwater immersion, indicating strong resistance to long-term degradation and deformation under a constant load.

The adhesive also showed some ability to be reused. During laboratory cycling tests, it could be detached and reattached underwater while retaining adhesive performance over eight cycles.

The researchers report that the material also remained functional in acidic, alkaline and saline solutions. However, its performance declined at temperatures above approximately 70°C (158°F) .

The findings could contribute to the development of new adhesives for underwater maintenance and other applications where conventional glues perform poorly. Potential uses could include marine infrastructure and other systems that require durable bonding in wet environments.

The researchers also suggest that the underlying self-assembly strategy could help guide the development of other environmentally responsive materials whose properties change when exposed to different surroundings.

Source: sciencealert.com

Radio galaxies are powered by active galactic nuclei, bright central regions associated with matter falling toward supermassive black holes. Some produce jets that feed enormous radio-emitting lobes. When the jets stop, the lobes remain visible for a time as their particles lose energy. Astronomers call these systems remnant radio galaxies.

Researchers led by Sushant Dutta of the University of Cape Town and the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy studied 14 candidate remnants in the XMM-Newton Large-Scale Structure field.

They combined observations from the MeerKAT MIGHTEE and uGMRT superMIGHTEE surveys with data from LOFAR, GMRT and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. Together, the observations covered radio frequencies from 144 MHz to 1.5 GHz.

Models of the sources' radio spectra classified 12 as remnants and reclassified two as active. The result shows why observations at several frequencies are important: candidates selected from limited data can be misidentified.

The models estimated total spectral ages of about 8 million to 42 million years, with a median of roughly 12 million years. These estimates are shorter than those for many remnants examined in earlier studies. The fraction of each source's estimated lifetime spent in the remnant stage ranged from 4% to 83%, suggesting that the sample includes galaxies at very different stages after their jets switched off.

Most of the sources are at relatively high redshifts. The researchers found an association between higher redshift and younger estimated spectral age after accounting for radio luminosity. They said stronger energy losses involving the cosmic microwave background, along with rapid expansion in low-density environments, could help explain the pattern. The observational study does not establish either explanation as the sole cause.

The sample is small, and the ages depend on models of how particles and magnetic fields evolve in the radio lobes. Even so, the findings point to a faint population that previous surveys may have missed. Future surveys with the Square Kilometre Array should find many more such sources and test how common short-lived remnants are.

The study was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Source: phys.org

The talks took place in a working group under the Eurasian Economic Commission's Advisory Committee on Customs Regulation. Kuat Rakhimov, director of the commission's Department for Customs Legislation and Law Enforcement Practice, chaired the meeting.

One proposal from Kazakhstan would add coded information about relevant prohibitions and restrictions to declarations for express cargo and e-commerce goods. Standardized codes could allow customs systems to check some information automatically. The change may eventually shorten processing times, but the commission did not announce that it had been adopted or give a date for implementation.

Participants also considered a simplified declaration for goods sold by businesses in EAEU countries to individual buyers abroad through marketplaces and other online platforms. The proposal is intended to make customs procedures easier for exporters engaged in e-commerce.

The commission said it would prepare amendments to the rules for completing the e-commerce declaration. This means the measures remain under development.

The EEC has worked on special customs forms for express cargo and online trade for several years. Its Board approved an express-cargo declaration form and completion rules in 2018. It approved the structure and format of a separate declaration for e-commerce goods in December 2024.

Source: pravo.by

Dan Farag, director of innovation and practice at the Young Foundation, argues that community organisations and trusted local networks can play an important role during floods, infrastructure failures and other emergencies.

He proposes making more underused public land available for community food growing. He points to groups such as Incredible Edible as examples of residents working together to grow and share food. Such projects may strengthen local skills and connections, although they could not replace the national food supply on their own.

David E Alexander, emeritus professor of emergency planning and management at University College London, calls for elected politicians to lead a public discussion about long-term food planning and emergency reserves.

He cites Roadmap for Resilience: A UK Food Plan for 2050, an 86-page report produced through a research programme funded by UK Research and Innovation. The roadmap proposes changes to farming, diets, business planning, data and food-system governance. It is a research-led set of recommendations, not an adopted government plan.

Antony So, a co-author of the National Preparedness Commission's 2025 report Just in Case: 7 Steps to Narrow the UK Civil Food Resilience Gap, argues that emergency stocks must form part of a wider resilience system.

He points to Switzerland, where the federal government and private companies jointly maintain compulsory stocks. The system covers essential foods and agricultural inputs including fertiliser and animal feed. The Swiss government sets the required goods and quantities, while private businesses own and manage the stocks.

So argues that reserves alone would be insufficient during a prolonged crisis if electricity, fuel, water, transport or communications failed. Food security depends on all these systems continuing to function.

Together, the letters make the case for a broader public debate. Their proposals range from neighbourhood food growing to national contingency planning, but they share the view that resilience involves people, infrastructure and institutions as well as stored food.

Source: theguardian.com

The Met Office forecast a shift to cooler, more unsettled weather after a heatwave. Some places could receive intense showers, while others may get little rain. Water running quickly from hard, very dry ground can add to local flood risk when rainfall is particularly heavy.

That does not mean the drought is ending. At the start of August, Environment Agency figures showed that seven areas of England were in drought. Reservoir storage across England had fallen to 69%, which was 11.6 percentage points below the long-term average for that time of year. Five monitored reservoirs were classed as exceptionally low.

The dry conditions were also affecting rivers, wildlife and farming. The agency reported low flows, algal blooms, fish deaths and restrictions on water abstraction. More than 25 million people were covered by temporary limits on water use in early August.

Water supply problems continued in south-east England. South East Water said thousands of customers in parts of Kent lost supplies before most connections were restored. The company asked customers to limit use while storage tanks recovered.

Wessex Water also announced a temporary-use ban covering about 1.4 million customers in parts of south-west England. It was the company's first such restriction since 1976. Thames Water, which had already imposed restrictions, asked customers to keep reducing demand.

Brief downpours can reduce immediate pressure on vegetation and lower wildfire risk, but drought recovery normally requires sustained rainfall. Rivers, reservoirs and groundwater respond over different timescales, so several wet days in one area cannot restore depleted water resources across England.

Flooding and drought can therefore occur at the same time in different places, or even in the same region. A short, intense storm can overwhelm drains and produce rapid runoff while longer-term river flows, groundwater and reservoirs remain unusually low.

Source: theguardian.com

he National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said investigators had identified a group suspected of laundering 150 million hryvnias, about $3.4 million, to provide bail for a defendant in a major corruption case from 2025.

The agency said the suspects included a former lawmaker, the chair of a state bank's board, the head of its supervisory board and a deputy head of the presidential office. Investigators released few other details.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Iryna Mudra as a deputy head of the presidential office on the same day. Her office was searched, according to lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko, but investigators had not publicly named Mudra as a suspect in the information reported by the Associated Press. Zelenskyy was not implicated in the case.

The investigation added to political pressure on the government a day after former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for a way to hold national elections during the war.

Fedorov said Ukraine should find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism to restore a full democratic process if the war continues. Ukraine is under martial law, which currently prevents national elections. His statement was therefore a political proposal, not an announcement that a vote had been scheduled.

Zelenskyy dismissed Fedorov in July during a disputed military leadership reshuffle. The decision prompted street protests from supporters of the former minister. Khmara then served as acting defence minister before lawmakers confirmed him in the post on August 19.

Source: apnews.com