The quokka (Setonix brachyurus) is a small marsupial native to Rottnest Island and parts of southwestern Australia.

It is often dubbed the “world’s happiest animal” because of its naturally upturned mouth, which gives the illusion of a permanent smile.

These nocturnal herbivores belong to the macropod family, making them distant relatives of kangaroos and wallabies.

Quokkas are known for their docile and curious nature, and their seemingly friendly expressions have made them a hit on social media, especially through selfies with tourists on Rottnest Island.

However, it's important to note that they are a protected species, and interacting with or feeding them is restricted by law to prevent health risks and habitat disruption.

Despite their internet fame, quokkas are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN due to habitat loss, invasive species (like foxes and cats), and climate change.

Conservation efforts are in place to monitor and protect their populations, especially in their limited native range.

In a remarkable leap toward carbon neutrality, researchers from Tohoku University in Japan have unveiled a cutting-edge technology that can convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into carbon monoxide (CO)—a key building block for synthetic fuels—in just 15 minutes. This new method uses a cost-effective pigment called cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc), applied directly onto gas diffusion electrodes through a spray-based technique. This crystalline coating significantly improves electron transfer efficiency, making the process not only faster but also scalable for industrial applications.

Previous methods took nearly 24 hours and involved complex chemical preparations, but this breakthrough achieves stable CO output for over 144 continuous hours, surpassing industrial benchmarks at current densities above 1000 mA/cm². The innovation is a milestone in Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU), transforming a major greenhouse gas into a valuable fuel source. As the world races toward decarbonization, this fast, durable, and low-cost approach offers a game-changing tool in the fight against climate change.

#CarbonCapture #CleanEnergy #CO2ToFuel #GreenTechnology #ClimateSolutions

In an unprecedented move to uphold academic integrity, China temporarily disabled AI tools across major platforms during its highly competitive gaokao college entrance exams. From June 7 to 10, tech giants like Tencent, ByteDance, Alibaba, and Moonshot AI suspended features such as image recognition, real-time question answering, and document scanning. This government-mandated blackout was aimed at preventing the misuse of AI by students attempting to cheat, highlighting growing concerns over how generative AI could disrupt standardized testing.

With over 13 million students taking the gaokao each year, the exam is a life-defining milestone in China, determining university admissions and even job prospects. By halting AI functions like Tencent’s YuanBao and ByteDance’s Doubao, the government sent a strong message about preserving fairness in education amid rapid technological change. The move signals a broader global conversation about balancing innovation and ethics in academic environments.

#Gaokao #AIInEducation #ChinaEducation #AcademicIntegrity #AIRegulation

A mind-bending discovery from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is shaking the foundations of modern cosmology—suggesting that our universe may have been born inside a black hole.

The Clue: A Cosmic Rotation Imbalance
While studying early galaxies through the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), astronomers found a strange pattern:
Out of 263 ancient galaxies observed, 66% spin clockwise, and only 34% spin counterclockwise.

In a universe with no preferred direction, we’d expect a 50-50 split. This unexpected bias has scientists thinking: could this be a leftover imprint from the very birth of the universe?

The Theory: A Universe Born from a Black Hole
This observation lines up with an intriguing idea called Schwarzschild cosmology, which proposes:

We Exist Inside a Black Hole:
Our universe could lie within the event horizon of a massive black hole in another, “parent” universe.

Black Holes Create Universes:
In physicist Nikodem Poplawski’s torsion theory, matter doesn’t collapse into a singularity—it gets spun and twisted by extreme gravity, forming an entirely new universe.

The Big Bang Wasn’t the Beginning—It Was a Bounce:
The Big Bang could have been matter rebounding from collapse inside a black hole. The spin of that black hole may have left its fingerprint on the rotation of galaxies in our universe—explaining the JWST’s puzzling spin imbalance.

Skepticism and Alternate Views
Not everyone is convinced. Some researchers suggest the anomaly might be caused by the Milky Way’s own spin influencing JWST’s readings. If that’s true, it may still offer key insights:

We may need to rethink how we measure the cosmos
It might help address big questions like the Hubble tension or the existence of unexpectedly mature galaxies in the early universe

If verified, this could change everything—not only about how we think black holes work, but about how our own universe came to be.

RESEARCH PAPER
Lior Shamir, “The distribution of galaxy rotation in JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey”, MNRAS (2025)

NASA scientists have reported that China’s colossal Three Gorges Dam—the largest hydroelectric dam in the world—has such immense mass and water displacement that it can alter Earth’s rotation ever so slightly. According to the agency, the redistribution of 39 trillion kilograms of water has shifted Earth’s moment of inertia, potentially lengthening the day by 0.06 microseconds.

This effect, while incredibly small and imperceptible in daily life, highlights the profound influence human engineering can have on planetary-scale physics. The dam has also caused measurable changes in Earth's gravity field, according to satellite observations.

But it’s not just time that’s affected—geologists warn that the dam’s enormous reservoir has triggered seismic activity, landslides, and altered ecosystems. Environmental experts have long debated whether the benefits of energy generation and flood control outweigh the ecological and geological consequences.

This is a stark reminder that when humanity builds on a massive scale, Earth itself feels the shift.

#ThreeGorgesDam #EarthRotation #NASA #Hydropower #ClimateImpact