Beth Washington – Page 11

The UK got rid of coal—where’s it going next?

Energy, energy policy, renewable energy, Science, Sustainability / Beth Washington / February 7, 2025

Clean, but not fully green

The UK has transitioned to a lower-emission grid. Now comes the hard part.

With the closure of its last coal-fired power plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, on September 30, 2024, the United Kingdom has taken a significant step toward its net-zero goals. It’s no small feat to end the 142-year era of coal-powered electricity in the country that pioneered the Industrial Revolution. Yet the UK’s journey away from coal has been remarkably swift, with coal generation plummeting from 40 percent of the electricity mix in 2012 to just two percent in 2019, and finally to zero in 2024.

As of 2023, approximately half of UK electricity generation comes from zero-carbon sources, with natural gas serving as a transitional fuel. The UK aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent to 48 percent by 2027 and achieve net-zero by 2050. The government set a firm target to generate all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2040, emphasizing offshore wind and solar energy as the keys.

What will things look like in the intervening years, which will lead us from today to net-zero? Everyone’s scenario, even when based in serious science, boils down to a guessing game. Yet some things are more certain than others, the most important of these factors being the ones that are on solid footing beneath all of the guesswork.

Long-term goals

The closure of all UK coal-fired power stations in 2024 marked a crucial milestone in the nation’s decarbonization efforts. Coal was once the dominant source of electricity generation, but its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions made it a primary target for phase-out. The closure of these facilities has significantly reduced the UK’s carbon footprint and paved the way for cleaner energy sources.

With transition from coal, natural gas is set to play a crucial role as a “transition fuel.” The government’s “British Energy Security Strategy” argued that gas must continue to be an important part of the energy mix. It positioned gas as the “glue” that holds the electricity system together during the transition. Even the new Starmer government recognizes that, as the country progresses towards net-zero by 2050, the country may still use about a quarter of the gas it currently consumes.

Natural gas emits approximately half as much carbon dioxide as coal when combusted, making it a cleaner alternative during the shift to renewable energy sources. In 2022, natural gas accounted for around 40 percent of the UK’s electricity generation, while coal contributed less than two percent. This transition phase is deemed by the government to be essential as the country ramps up the capacity of renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar power, to fill gaps left by the reduction of fossil fuels. The government aims to phase out natural gas that’s not coupled with carbon capture by 2035, but in the interim, it serves as a crucial bridge, ensuring energy security while reducing overall emissions.

But its role is definitely intended to be temporary; the UK’s long-term energy goal is to reduce reliance on all fossil fuels (starting with imported supplies), pushing for a rapid transition to cleaner, domestic sources of energy.

The government’s program has five primary targets:

Fully decarbonizing the power system (2035)
Ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars (2035)
Achieving “Jet Zero” – net-zero UK aviation emissions (2050)
Creating 30,000 hectares of new woodland per year (2025)
Generating 50 percent of its total electricity from renewable sources by 2030

Offshore wind energy has emerged as this strategy’s key component, with significant investments being made in new wind farms. Favorable North Sea wind conditions have immense potential. In recent years, a surge in offshore wind investment has translated into several large-scale developments in advanced planning stages or now under construction.

The government has set a target to increase offshore wind capacity to 50 GW by 2030, up from around 10 GW currently. This initiative is supported by substantial financial commitments from both the public and private sectors. Recent investment announcements underscore the UK’s commitment to this goal and the North Sea’s central role in it. In 2023, the government announced plans to invest $25 billion (20 billion British pounds) in carbon capture and offshore wind projects in the North Sea over the next two decades. This investment is expected to create up to 50,000 jobs and help position the UK as a leader in clean energy technologies.

This was part of investments totaling over $166 million (133 million pounds) to support the development of new offshore wind farms, which are expected to create thousands of jobs and stimulate local economies.

In 2024, further investments were announced to support the expansion of offshore wind capacity. The government committed to holding annual auctions for new offshore wind projects to meet its goal of quadrupling offshore wind capacity by 2030. These investments are part of a broader strategy to leverage the UK’s expertise in offshore industries and transition the North Sea from an oil and gas hub to a clean-energy powerhouse.

Offshore wind

As the UK progresses toward its net-zero target, it faces both challenges and opportunities. While significant progress has been made in decarbonizing the power sector, the national government’s Climate Change Committee has noted that emissions reductions need to accelerate in other sectors, particularly agriculture, land use, and waste. However, with continued investment in renewable energy and supportive policies, the UK is positioning itself to become a leader in the global transition to a low-carbon economy.

Looking ahead, 2025 promises to be a landmark year for the UK’s green energy sector, with further investment announcements and projects in the pipeline.

The Crown Estate, which manages the seabed around England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, has made significant strides in facilitating new leases for offshore wind development. In 2023, the Crown Estate Scotland announced the successful auction of seabed leases for new offshore wind projects, totaling a capacity of 5 gigawatts. And in 2024, the government plans to hold its next major leasing round, which could see the deployment of an additional 7 GW of offshore wind capacity.

The UK government also approved plans for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, which will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when completed. Located off the coast of Yorkshire, this massive project will ultimately generate enough electricity to power millions of homes. Dogger is a joint venture linking SSE Renewables, Equinor, and Vattenfall.

This is in line with the government’s broader strategy to enhance energy independence and resilience, particularly in light of the geopolitical uncertainties affecting global energy markets. The UK’s commitment to renewable energy is not merely an environmental imperative; it is also an economic opportunity. By harnessing the vast potential of the North Sea, the UK aims not only to meet its net-zero targets but also to drive economic growth and job creation in the green energy sector, ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come.

Recognizing wind’s importance, the UK government launched a 2024 consultation on plans to develop a new floating wind energy sector.

The transition to a greener economy is projected to create up to 400,000 jobs by 2030 across various sectors, including manufacturing, installation, and maintenance of renewable energy technologies.

Its growing offshore wind industry is expected to attract billions in investment, solidifying the UK’s position as a leader in the global green energy market. The government’s commitment to offshore wind development, underscored by substantial investments in 2023 and anticipated announcements for 2024, signals a robust path forward.

Moving away from gas

Still, the path ahead remains challenging, requiring a multifaceted approach that balances economic growth, energy security, and environmental sustainability.

With the transition from coal, natural gas is now poised to play the central role as a bridge fuel. While natural gas emits fewer greenhouse gases than coal, it is still a fossil fuel and contributes to carbon emissions. However, in the short term, natural gas can help maintain energy security and provide a reliable source of electricity during periods of low renewable energy output. Additionally, natural gas can be used to produce hydrogen, potentially coupled with carbon capture, enabling a clean energy carrier that can be integrated into the existing energy infrastructure.

To support the country’s core clean energy goals, the government is implementing specific initiatives, although the pace has been quite uneven. The UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is being strengthened to incentivize industrial decarbonization. The government has also committed to investing in key green industries alongside offshore wind: carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS), and nuclear energy.

Combined, these should allow the UK to limit its use of natural gas and capture the emissions associated with any remaining fossil fuel use.

While both countries are relying heavily on wind power, the UK’s energy-generation transformations are different from Germany’s. While both governments push to make some progress on the path to net-zero carbon emissions, their approaches and timelines differ markedly.

Energiewende, Germany’s energy transition, is characterized by what some critics consider to be overly ambitious goals for achieving net greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045. Those critics think that the words don’t come close to matching the required levels of either government or private sector financial commitment. Together with the Bundestag, the chancellor has set interim targets to reduce emissions by 65 percent by 2030 and 88 percent by 2040 (both compared to 1990 levels). Germany’s energy mix is heavily reliant on renewables, with a goal of sourcing 80 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030—and achieving 100 percent by 2035.

However, Germany has faced challenges due to continued reliance on coal and natural gas, which made it difficult to reach its emissions goals.

The UK, however, appears to be ahead in terms of immediate reductions in coal use and the integration of renewables into its energy mix. Germany’s path is more complex, as it balances its energy transition with energy security concerns, particularly in light of how Russia’s war affects gas supplies.

The UK got rid of coal—where’s it going next? Read More »

Parrots struggle when told to do something other than mimic their peers

animal behavior, Behavioral science, Biology, parrots, Science / Beth Washington / February 7, 2025

There have been many studies on the capability of non-human animals to mimic transitive actions—actions that have a purpose. Hardly any studies have shown that animals are also capable of intransitive actions. Even though intransitive actions have no particular purpose, imitating these non-conscious movements is still thought to help with socialization and strengthen bonds for both animals and humans.

Zoologist Esha Haldar and colleagues from the Comparative Cognition Research group worked with blue-throated macaws, which are critically endangered, at the Loro Parque Fundación in Tenerife. They trained the macaws to perform two intransitive actions, then set up a conflict: Two neighboring macaws were asked to do different actions.

What Haldar and her team found was that individual birds were more likely to perform the same intransitive action as a bird next to them, no matter what they’d been asked to do. This could mean that macaws possess mirror neurons, the same neurons that, in humans, fire when we are watching intransitive movements and cause us to imitate them (at least if these neurons function the way some think they do).

But it wasn’t on purpose

Parrots are already known for their mimicry of transitive actions, such as grabbing an object. Because they are highly social creatures with brains that are large relative to the size of their bodies, they made excellent subjects for a study that gauged how susceptible they were to copying intransitive actions.

Mirroring of intransitive actions, also called automatic imitation, can be measured with what’s called a stimulus-response-compatibility (SRC) test. These tests measure the response time between seeing an intransitive movement (the visual stimulus) and mimicking it (the action). A faster response time indicates a stronger reaction to the stimulus. They also measure the accuracy with which they reproduce the stimulus.

Until now, there have only been three studies that showed non-human animals are capable of copying intransitive actions, but the intransitive actions in these studies were all by-products of transitive actions. Only one of these focused on a parrot species. Haldar and her team would be the first to test directly for animal mimicry of intransitive actions.

Parrots struggle when told to do something other than mimic their peers Read More »

DOJ agrees to temporarily block DOGE from Treasury records

department of government efficiency, department of justice, doge, elon musk, Policy, Treasury Department / Beth Washington / February 6, 2025

Elez reports to Tom Krause, another Treasury Department special government employee, but Krause doesn’t have direct access to the payment system, Humphreys told the judge. Krause is the CEO of Cloud Software Group and is also viewed as a Musk ally.

But when the judge pressed Humphreys on Musk’s alleged access, the DOJ lawyer only said that as far as the defense team was aware, Musk did not have access.

Further, Humphreys explained that DOGE—which functions as part of the executive office—does not have access, to the DOJ’s knowledge. As he explained it, DOGE sets the high-level priorities that these special government employees carry out, seemingly trusting the employees to identify waste and protect taxpayer dollars without ever providing any detailed reporting on the records that supposedly are evidence of mismanagement.

To Kollar-Kotelly, the facts on the record seem to suggest that no one outside the Treasury is currently accessing sensitive data. But when she pressed Humphreys on whether DOGE had future plans to access the data, Humphreys declined to comment, calling it irrelevant to the complaint.

Humphreys suggested that the government’s defense in this case would focus on the complaint that outsiders are currently accessing Treasury data, seemingly dismissing any need to discuss DOGE’s future plans. But the judge pushed back, telling Humphreys she was not trying to “nail” him “to the wall,” but there’s too little information on the relationship between DOGE and the Treasury Department as it stands. How these entities work together makes a difference, the judge suggested, in terms of safeguarding sensitive Treasury data.

According to Kollar-Kotelly, granting a temporary restraining order in part would allow DOGE to “preserve the status quo” of its current work in the Treasury Department while ensuring no new outsiders get access to Americans’ sensitive information. Such an order would give both sides time to better understand the current government workflows to best argue their cases, the judge suggested.

If the order is approved, it would remain in effect until the judge rules on plantiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction. At the hearing today, Kollar-Kotelly suggested that matter would likely be settled at a hearing on February 24.

DOJ agrees to temporarily block DOGE from Treasury records Read More »

7-Zip 0-day was exploited in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine

Biz & IT, Security / Beth Washington / February 6, 2025

Researchers said they recently discovered a zero-day vulnerability in the 7-Zip archiving utility that was actively exploited as part of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The vulnerability allowed a Russian cybercrime group to override a Windows protection designed to limit the execution of files downloaded from the Internet. The defense is commonly known as MotW, short for Mark of the Web. It works by placing a “Zone.Identifier” tag on all files downloaded from the Internet or from a networked share. This tag, a type of NTFS Alternate Data Stream and in the form of a ZoneID=3, subjects the file to additional scrutiny from Windows Defender SmartScreen and restrictions on how or when it can be executed.

There’s an archive in my archive

The 7-Zip vulnerability allowed the Russian cybercrime group to bypass those protections. Exploits worked by embedding an executable file within an archive and then embedding the archive into another archive. While the outer archive carried the MotW tag, the inner one did not. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-0411, was fixed with the release of version 24.09 in late November.

Tag attributes of outer archive showing the MotW. Credit: Trend Micro

Attributes of inner-archive showing MotW tag is missing. Credit: Trend Micro

“The root cause of CVE-2025-0411 is that prior to version 24.09, 7-Zip did not properly propagate MoTW protections to the content of double-encapsulated archives,” wrote Peter Girnus, a researcher at Trend Micro, the security firm that discovered the vulnerability. “This allows threat actors to craft archives containing malicious scripts or executables that will not receive MoTW protections, leaving Windows users vulnerable to attacks.”

7-Zip 0-day was exploited in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine Read More »

The Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance is quite a name, quite a car

car review, Cars, Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance four-door / Beth Washington / February 5, 2025

The powertrain has been tuned for power delivery, not maximum efficiency—that isn’t the job of a car wearing the AMG badge—and has an almost-dizzying amount of drive modes, suspension settings, and levels of battery regeneration, all configurable from Mercedes’ flat UI infotainment system that can be a little busy to look at but which remains very intuitive (and comes with rather excellent voice recognition). In fact, this might be the least-distracting implementation of MBUX I’ve encountered so far.

When you first start the AMG GT 63 S, it defaults to electric mode, as long as the battery has some charge in it. Top speed is capped at 87 mph (140 km/h), and the electric motor has more than enough torque to make using this mode perfectly pleasant. Your neighbors will appreciate the silence as you leave in the morning, too. There are three levels of lift-off regen, up to the highest setting, which is a one-pedal driving mode.

The Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S engine bay. Jonathan Gitlin

Comfort fires up the V8 as necessary but will defer to the electric motor whenever possible. It upshifts the nine-speed transmission early, and with the dampers set to Comfort as well, this is the mode you’d use with passengers on board. Because the car is meant to be a performance hybrid, the powertrain will use spare engine power to recharge the battery pack whenever it can and will fully charge the pack in about 30 minutes of driving.

One mode maintains the battery’s state of charge, another is for slippery conditions, and then there’s Sport, Sport+, and Race. These offer escalating levels of performance, with more boost from the electric motor supplementing the raucous V8, faster shift times from the transmission, sharper throttle maps, and more regenerative braking. Finally, there’s an individual mode for you to pick your own settings.

The Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance is quite a name, quite a car Read More »

Sick right now? Flu is resurging to yet a higher peak this season.

CDC, flu, health / Beth Washington / February 5, 2025

Currently, flu activity is categorized as “very high” in 29 states, and “high” in 15. States in the South are ablaze with flu. Louisiana, Tennessee, and South Carolina are at the highest “very high” level. But parts of the Northeast corridor are also seeing extremely high activity, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York City.

As often is the case in flu seasons, the age group hardest hit this year are children ages 0 to 4. The CDC recorded 16 pediatric deaths linked to flu in week 4 of the season, bringing the season’s total pediatric deaths to 47.

Overall hospitalizations are up. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there have been at least 20 million illnesses, 250,000 hospitalizations, and 11,000 deaths from flu so far this season. About 44 percent of US adults have gotten their flu shot, far below the public health goal of 70 percent.

Laboratory surveillance of influenza cases in week 4 indicates that nearly all of the cases are from influenza A viruses, about an even split between H1N1 and H3N2, which has been the case over the course of the season. Around 2 percent of cases were the influenza B Victoria lineage.

Sick right now? Flu is resurging to yet a higher peak this season. Read More »

Bonobos recognize when humans are ignorant, try to help

Behavioral science, Biology, cooperation, Neuroscience, Science, theory of mind / Beth Washington / February 4, 2025

A lot of human society requires what’s called a “theory of mind”—the ability to infer the mental state of another person and adjust our actions based on what we expect they know and are thinking. We don’t always get this right—it’s easy to get confused about what someone else might be thinking—but we still rely on it to navigate through everything from complicated social situations to avoid bumping into people on the street.

There’s some mixed evidence that other animals have a limited theory of mind, but there are alternate interpretations for most of it. So two researchers at Johns Hopkins, Luke Townrow and Christopher Krupenye, came up with a way of testing whether some of our closest living relatives, the bonobos, could infer the state of mind of a human they were cooperating with. The work clearly showed that the bonobos could tell when their human partner was ignorant.

Now you see it…

The experimental approach is quite simple, and involves a setup familiar to street hustlers: a set of three cups, with a treat placed under one of them. Except in this case, there’s no sleight-of-hand in that the chimp can watch as one experimenter places the treat under a cup, and all of the cups remain stationary throughout the experiment.

To get the treat, however, requires the cooperation of a second human experimenter. That person has to identify the right cup, then give the treat under it to the bonobo. In some experiments, this human can watch the treat being hidden through a transparent partition, and so knows exactly where it is. In others, however, the partition is solid, leaving the human with no idea of which cup might be hiding the food.

This setup means that the bonobo will always know where the food is and will also know whether the human could potentially have the same knowledge.

The bonobos were first familiarized with the setup and got to experience their human partner taking the treat out from under the cup and giving it to them. Once they were familiar with the process, they watched the food being hidden without any partner present, which demonstrated they rarely took any food-directed actions without a good reason to do so. In contrast, when their human partner was present, they were about eight times more likely to point to the cup with the food under it.

Bonobos recognize when humans are ignorant, try to help Read More »

Top 10 moments of RFK Jr.’s reality-bending confirmation hearings

antivax, health, Health and Human Services, rfk jr / Beth Washington / February 2, 2025

There were a lot of doozies as RFK Jr. tried to convince lawmakers he’s pro-vaccine.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC. In addition to meeting with the Senate Finance Committee, Kennedy also met with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Thursday. Credit: Getty | Win McNamee

In hearings Wednesday and Thursday, senators questioned President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over his fitness to be the country’s top health official and control the mammoth $1.7 trillion agency.

Kennedy would come to the role not with a background in medicine, public health, or science but as a former environmental lawyer who has become one of the most prominent and influential anti-vaccine advocates in the country. For decades, Kennedy has spread misinformation about lifesaving vaccines, sowed doubt about their safety, and peddled various conspiracy theories.

That includes his unwavering false claim—despite decades of research to the contrary and countless debunkings—that vaccines are linked to autism (they are not). Kennedy has also made the bizarre false claim that Lyme disease, a bacterial infection spread by tick bites, is “highly likely” to be a military bioweapon (it is not). When asked about this by Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in the Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday, Kennedy admitted, “I probably did say that.” In the hearing Thursday, held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), Kennedy did not deny falsely claiming that AIDS is a different disease in Africa than it is in the US.

The hearings were predictably contentious, at times raucous and emotional, and filled with staggering, reality-bending comments and moments. Here are our top 10:

1. “I am pro-vaccine,” Kennedy tried to claim.

For much of the two hearings, Kennedy tried to walk back his decadeslong history of attacking and undermining vaccines, claiming that he is not anti-vaccine but rather in favor of following the science and ensuring safety. But, his statements in and out of the hearings were conflicting. For instance, in the hearing, he touted that all of his children were vaccinated. But in previous public statements, he has said that he would “do anything, pay anything” to go back in time and not vaccinate his children.

At numerous times, senators tried to pin Kennedy down on his stance on vaccines overall, as well as on specific vaccines. Generally, Kennedy responded that if the senators personally showed him data indicating that a vaccine is safe, he would change his views and even “publicly apologize” for being wrong. (A pledge he couldn’t make if he thought they were safe now.) He refused to say that vaccines do not cause autism.

Some of the senators tried to show him data, referencing the deep scientific literature supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines, including the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine (MMR) and the HPV vaccine. Some even held up stacks of studies. “The evidence IS there,” Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said forcefully. But Kennedy always raised quibbles with whatever studies senators presented and said he would discuss individual studies with senators after the hearing.

At the conclusion of the HELP hearing Thursday, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a former gastroenterologist, confronted Kennedy with a high-quality meta-analysis finding no link between autism and vaccines. But Kennedy again dismissed it and referred Cassidy to an article published online by an anti-vaccine advocate.

Cassidy then looked up the study while another senator questioned Kennedy and raised the issue in his closing remarks. “I looked at the article by Dr. Mawson and it seems to… have some issues,” Cassidy said. “I’ll just put that to the side.

“And that is why I’ve been struggling with your nomination,” he continued. Cassidy noted that he agreed with Kennedy’s comments on topics such as chronic health issues and obesity, but “as someone who had discussed immunizations with thousands of people… I have approached it using the preponderance of evidence to reassure, and you have approached it using selective evidence to cast doubt.”

Cassidy wondered aloud: “Does a 71-year-old man who has spent decades criticizing vaccines and is financially invested in finding faults with vaccines, can he change his attitudes and approach now that he’ll have the most important position influencing vaccine policy in the United States?… Will you overturn a new leaf?”

2. “A perfect metaphor”

Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) raised concern that Kennedy not only cast doubt on vaccine safety, but had said that the people who run the country’s vaccine program should be in jail, likening them to Nazis and pedophiles. Murphy quoted Kennedy saying in 2013, “To me this is like Nazi death camps. Look at what it does to the families who participate in the vaccine program. I can’t tell why someone would do something like that, I can’t tell you why ordinary Germans participated in the Holocaust. I can’t tell you what was going on in their minds.”

Murphy also noted that Kennedy called the Catholic church’s sexual abuse cases a “perfect metaphor” for the vaccine program in the US.

In his response to Murphy, Kennedy only doubled down on the claims, arguing that certain members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine program had, like members of the Catholic church, “written off a generation of kids” due to “misplaced institutional loyalty to the CDC and because of entanglements with the drug companies.”

“You said it was a perfect metaphor,” Murphy pressed, still alarmed by the comparison of immunization to child sex abuse.

“Well, if you have 1 in 36 kids with neurological injuries and if that is linked, then that’s something we should study,” Kennedy replied, referring to the rate of autism (again falsely linking the condition to vaccines).

3. “She’s not going to be a pincushion”

Despite the slips, Kennedy kept trying to convince senators that he was not anti-vaccine. Other senators, meanwhile, seemed to celebrate Kennedy’s track record.

“You brought to light the vaccines over the last couple years,” Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said. “I’ve had my first granddaughter here in a couple of weeks and my son and his wife have done their research about vaccines, and she’s not going to be a pin cushion. We’re not going to allow that to happen. But you brought that up… I appreciate you doing that.”

4. “We can’t move forward”

Without question, the most emotional moment of both hearings was during questioning by Senator Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), who spoke of how the false link between vaccines and autism had affected her and her family. “You may not know that I am the proud mother of a 36-year-old young man with severe cerebral palsy,” she said, her voice cracking. “And a day does not go by when I don’t think about what did I do when I was pregnant with him that might have caused the hydrocephalus that has so impacted his life. So, please do not suggest that anybody in this body of either political party doesn’t want to know what the cause of autism is,” she said, her voice rising.

“Mr. Kennedy, that first autism study rocked my world,” Hassan continued, referring to the deeply flawed, now retracted 1998 study published in the Lancet by Andrew Wakefield, who first claimed to find a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. “Like every mother I worried about whether in fact the vaccine had done something to my son,” she said. But, the study was small (12 children, only eight with autism), and editors later found “clear evidence of falsification of data.”

“Over time, the scientific community studied and studied and studied and found that it was wrong,” Hassan said. The study was retracted in 2010. “Sometime science is wrong. We make progress, we build on the work, and we become more successful. And when you continue to sow doubt about settled science it makes it impossible for us to move forward. So that’s what the problem is here—it’s the relitigating and rehashing and continuing to sow doubt so we can’t move forward. And it freezes us in place.”

5. “It will cast a shadow”

In addition to stalled progress, many senators expressed deep concern that Kennedy’s confirmation could lead to needless suffering and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. But Cassidy took the possibility one step further.

“As a patriotic American, I want President Trump’s policies to succeed,” Cassidy stated. “But if there is someone that is not vaccinated because of policies or attitudes you [Kennedy] bring to the department, and there’s another 18-year-old who dies of a vaccine-preventable disease… it’ll be blown up in the press. The greatest tragedy will be her death. But I can also tell you an associated tragedy: that will cast a shadow over President Trump’s legacy.”

6. “Of the ages”

During Sanders’ questioning Thursday, he drew attention to another vaccine: COVID-19 vaccines. Sanders referenced a study that estimated the vaccines saved more than 3 million lives in the US and prevented more than 18 million hospitalizations. President Trump, meanwhile, once called them “one of the greatest miracles of the ages,” Sanders noted.

However, Sanders pointed out that Kennedy had, during the height of the pandemic, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke authorization of COVID-19 vaccines and refrain from approving any future COVID-19 vaccines.

Sanders asked Kennedy if the scientists and the president were wrong.

“Senator I filed that lawsuit after CDC recommended the vaccine for 6-year-old children without any evidence that it would benefit them and without testing on 6-year-old children and that was my reason for filing that lawsuit,” Kennedy responded.

This answer was misleading, at best. The 2021 petition Kennedy filed was specifically to revoke existing authorization and block all future COVID-19 vaccines for “all demographic groups,” not just children. It further requested the FDA to prohibit minors from participating in COVID-19 vaccine trials and to refrain from issuing any authorizations for minors under age 16 to get Pfizer’s vaccine or under age 18 to get any other COVID-19 vaccine.

Sanders then pressed Kennedy if the COVID-19 vaccine saved lives.

Kennedy responded: “I don’t know. We don’t have a good surveillance system, unfortunately.”

Sanders: “We don’t know?”

Kennedy: “I don’t think anybody can say that. If you show me science that shows that…”

Sanders: “You know, Bobby, you say ‘If I show you’—you’re applying for the job. I mean, clearly, you should know this. And that is that the scientific community has established that—that [the] COVID vaccine saved millions of lives—and you’re casting doubt. That is really problematic.”

7. The basics

Beyond vaccination, Kennedy stumbled through basic explanations of Medicare and Medicaid, which are managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) housed within the HHS. On Wednesday, Kennedy described Medicaid as “fully paid for” by the federal government—that is incorrect; it is jointly funded by the federal government and states. He also completely flubbed understanding that CMS has the authority to enforce the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA).

On Thursday, Hassan asked him to define the purpose of Medicare Parts A, B, and C. Kennedy got the answers for all three wrong. He described Medicare Part A as “mainly for primary care or physicians,” when the answer is that it covers inpatient care at hospitals. For Part B, Kennedy said it was “for physicians and doctors,” when the correct description is coverage for outpatient care and home health. And Part C, Kennedy described as “a program where it’s the full menu of all the services: A, B, C, and D.” Part C covers Medicare Advantage, the private insurance option for seniors on Medicare. “It appears you don’t know the basics of this program,” Hassan said.

8. 5G and “other things”

In a quick exchange with Senator Andrew Kim (D-NJ), Kennedy confirmed some of his other concerning beliefs. “In the past you said ‘Wi-Fi radiation does all kinds of bad things, including causing cancer,'” Kim began. “Do you still stand by that statement?”

Kennedy replied, “Yes.”

He has pushed the unproven claim that Wi-Fi “opens up your blood-brain barrier.”

Kim moved on quickly: “And 5G, do you feel the same way?” Kennedy said yes again, clarifying that he was talking about electromagnetic radiation generally, which “changes DNA” and does “other things.”

9. Lucrative position

On Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) highlighted that Kennedy has made a lot of money from being an anti-vaccine advocate. In the past two years, Kennedy earned $2.5 million from working with a law firm encouraging people to sign up to be part of lawsuits against vaccine makers. If they sign up, Kennedy gets paid. If the law firm wins the case, Kennedy gets a 10 percent cut.

Warren asked Kennedy if he would agree that he wouldn’t take personal compensation from any lawsuits against drug companies while being health secretary and for four years afterward. Kennedy would not agree to do that. Instead he argued that Warren was insisting that he not be allowed to sue drug companies. “No I am not,” she protested, noting that she was only asking that what he did as secretary wouldn’t benefit him financially.

“The bottom line is the same: Kennedy can kill off vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it,” Warren concluded.

“Senator, I support vaccines. I support the childhood schedule. I will do that. The only thing I want is good science,” Kennedy replied.

10. Onesies

The last big moment of the hearings goes to Sanders for having the best visual aids. On Wednesday, in the Finance committee hearing, Sanders brought large posters of baby clothes (onesies) that are currently for sale by Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group Kennedy founded and ran between 2015 and 2023.

One of the onesies read “Unvaxxed Unafraid” and the other read “No Vax No Problem.” Both are currently on sale for $26 each.

Sanders asked Kennedy if he would ask CHD to stop selling them. Kennedy didn’t answer the question, only noting he had resigned from CHD to run his political campaigns. Bernie pressed: “Are you supportive of this clothing, which is militantly anti-vaccine?”

“I am supportive of vaccines. I want good science,” Kennedy replied.

“But you will not tell the organization you founded not to continue selling that product,” Bernie concluded.

Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes.

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Google Pixel 4a’s ruinous “Battery Performance” update is a bewildering mess

android, Battery capacity, battery replacement, Google, Google Pixel, google pixel 4a, louis rossman, payoneer, pixel 4a, Tech / Beth Washington / February 1, 2025

Two hours on a charge or less

Pixel 4a phone, face down, with headphone jack at the top facing viewer at 45 degrees. — Credit: Ron Amadeo

One Ars staffer who had a Pixel 4a still in use received the update. They saw their battery life drop from “Still working” to “Two hours on a charge,” in their estimation. They had chosen the Google Store credit option before the update arrived and before the battery life drop became apparent. Once chosen, a different appeasement option could not be selected.

Others have noted all but unusable battery life on their phones, as seen on subreddit threads and blog summaries.

Even technically savvy Pixel owners will have a hard time avoiding the update. Google last week removed all of the Pixel 4a’s factory images from its website, preventing owners from rolling back their firmware without having to go hunting for an image (or convert to a third-party offering, like LineageOS). With no source and debug code posted for the tweaked kernel, third-party firmware providers cannot easily incorporate the battery fixes.

Some Pixel 4a owners have reported that, even after a battery swap, their devices have the same limited battery capacity. This would affirm Martin’s suggestion of a faulty battery cell type and that batteries with those same cells are still being used in replacements. (Martin’s post provides serial numbers one can look for on the battery part to indicate the cell manufacturer.)

$30 per year to receive $50

As seen on a wiki page on the Pixel 4a battery program hosted by repair advocate and YouTube creator Louis Rossman, and noted by Pixel 4a owners on Reddit (and the Ars staffer), the $50 credit offered by Google is paid out through vendor Payoneer.

Signing up to be paid through Payoneer requires providing a Social Security number or other identification, birth date, and checking account details to a financial services firm most non-business owners would not recognize. Payoneer notes on its site that it charges a $30 annual account fee for accounts that receive less than $2,000 in 12 months. It is seemingly left up to Pixel 4a owners to close out their Payoneer accounts after receiving their credits.

Google Pixel 4a’s ruinous “Battery Performance” update is a bewildering mess Read More »

Trump’s FCC chair investigates NPR and PBS, urges Congress to defund them

brendan carr, npb, PBS, Policy / Beth Washington / January 31, 2025

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS in a move that Democrats described as an attempt to intimidate the media.

“I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation regarding the airing of NPR and PBS programming across your broadcast member stations,” Carr wrote in a letter yesterday to the leaders of NPR and PBS.

Carr alleged that NPR and PBS are violating a federal law prohibiting noncommercial educational broadcast stations from running commercial advertisements. “I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Carr wrote. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

Carr’s letter did not provide any specific examples of underwriting announcements that might violate the law, but said the “announcements should not promote the contributor’s products, services, or businesses, and they may not contain comparative or qualitative descriptions, price information, calls to action, or inducements to buy, sell, rent, or lease.”

Carr: Defund NPR and PBS

Carr pointed out that NPR and PBS member broadcast stations are licensed by the FCC. He also stated his opposition to government funding for NPR and PBS, though he acknowledged that isn’t up to the FCC. Carr wrote:

For your awareness, I will be providing a copy of this letter to relevant Members of Congress because I believe this FCC investigation may prove relevant to an ongoing legislative debate. In particular, Congress is actively considering whether to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS programming. For my own part, I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

To the extent that these taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for-profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements, then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars.

The FCC’s Democratic commissioners, Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks, issued statements denouncing the investigation. “This appears to be yet another Administration effort to weaponize the power of the FCC. The FCC has no business intimidating and silencing broadcast media,” Gomez said.

Trump’s FCC chair investigates NPR and PBS, urges Congress to defund them Read More »

OpenAI teases “new era” of AI in US, deepens ties with government

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Donald Trump, microsoft, openai, Policy, science breakthrough, us national laboratories / Beth Washington / January 31, 2025

On Thursday, OpenAI announced that it is deepening its ties with the US government through a partnership with the National Laboratories and expects to use AI to “supercharge” research across a wide range of fields to better serve the public.

“This is the beginning of a new era, where AI will advance science, strengthen national security, and support US government initiatives,” OpenAI said.

The deal ensures that “approximately 15,000 scientists working across a wide range of disciplines to advance our understanding of nature and the universe” will have access to OpenAI’s latest reasoning models, the announcement said.

For researchers from Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Labs, access to “o1 or another o-series model” will be available on Venado—an Nvidia supercomputer at Los Alamos that will become a “shared resource.” Microsoft will help deploy the model, OpenAI noted.

OpenAI suggested this access could propel major “breakthroughs in materials science, renewable energy, astrophysics,” and other areas that Venado was “specifically designed” to advance.

Key areas of focus for Venado’s deployment of OpenAI’s model include accelerating US global tech leadership, finding ways to treat and prevent disease, strengthening cybersecurity, protecting the US power grid, detecting natural and man-made threats “before they emerge,” and ” deepening our understanding of the forces that govern the universe,” OpenAI said.

Perhaps among OpenAI’s flashiest promises for the partnership, though, is helping the US achieve a “a new era of US energy leadership by unlocking the full potential of natural resources and revolutionizing the nation’s energy infrastructure.” That is urgently needed, as officials have warned that America’s aging energy infrastructure is becoming increasingly unstable, threatening the country’s health and welfare, and without efforts to stabilize it, the US economy could tank.

But possibly the most “highly consequential” government use case for OpenAI’s models will be supercharging research safeguarding national security, OpenAI indicated.

OpenAI teases “new era” of AI in US, deepens ties with government Read More »

Weight saving and aero optimization feature in the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3

car review, Cars, Features, First drive, Porsche 911 GT3 / Beth Washington / January 29, 2025

Among the changes are better aero, shorter gearing, and the return of the Touring.

The Porsche 911 GT3 is to other 911s as other 911s are to regular cars. Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

VALENCIA, SPAIN—A Porsche 911 is rather special compared to most “normal” cars. The rear-engined sports car might be bigger and less likely to swap ends than the 1960s version, but it remains one of the more nimble and engaging four-wheeled vehicles you can buy. The 911 comes in a multitude of variants, but among driving enthusiasts, few are better regarded than the GT3. And Porsche has just treated the current 911 GT3 to its midlife refresh, which it will build in regular and Touring flavors.

The GT3 is a 911 you can drive to the track, spend the day lapping, and drive home again. It’s come a long way since the 1999 original—that car made less power than a base 911 does now. Now, the recipe is a bit more involved, with a naturally aspirated flat-six engine mounted behind the rear axle that generates 502 hp (375 kW) and 331 lb-ft (450 Nm) and a redline that doesn’t interrupt play until 9,000 rpm. You’ll need to exercise it to reach those outputs—peak power arrives at 8,500, although peak torque happens a bit sooner at around 6,000 revs.

It’s a mighty engine indeed, derived from the racing version of the 911, with some tweaks for road legality. So there are things like individual throttle valves, dry sump lubrication, solid cam finger followers (instead of hydraulic valve lifters), titanium con rods, and forged pistons.

I’ve always liked GT3s in white.

For this car, Porsche has also worked on reducing its emissions, fitting four catalytic converters to the exhaust, plus a pair of particulate filters, which together help cut NOx emissions on the US test cycle by 44 percent. This adds 3 lbs (1.4 kg) of mass and increases exhaust back pressure by 17 percent. But there are also new cylinder heads and reprofiled camshafts (from the even more focused, even more expensive GT3 RS), which increase drivability and power delivery in the upper rev range by keeping the valves open for longer.

Those tweaks might not be immediately noticeable when you look at last year’s GT3, but the shorter gearing definitely will be. The final drive ratios for both the standard seven-speed PDK dual-clutch gearbox and the six-speed manual have been reduced by 8 percent. This lowers the top speed a little—a mostly academic thing anyway outside of the German Autobahn and some very long runways—but it increases the pulling force on the rear wheels in each gear across the entire rev range. In practical terms, it means you can take a corner in a gear higher than you would in the old car.

There have been suspension tweaks, too. The GT3 moved to double front wishbone suspension (replacing the regular car’s MacPherson struts) in 2021, but now the front pivot point has been lowered to reduce the car diving under braking, and the trailing arms have a new teardrop profile that improves brake cooling and reduces drag a little. Porsche has altered the bump stops, giving the suspension an inch (24 mm) more travel at the front axle and slightly more (27 mm) at the rear axle, which in turn means more body control on bumpy roads.

A white Porsche 911 GT3 seen in profile

Credit: Porsche

New software governs the power steering. Because factors like manufacturing tolerances, wear, and even temperature can alter how steering components interact with each other, the software automatically tailors friction compensation to axle friction. Consequently, the steering is more precise and more linear in its behavior, particularly in the dead-ahead position.

The GT3 also has new front and rear fascias, again derived from the racing GT3. There are more cooling inlets, vents, and ducts, plus a new front diffuser that reduces lift at the front axle at speed. Porsche has tuned the GT3’s aerodynamics to be constant across the speed range, and like the old model, it generates around 309 lbs (140 kg) of downforce at 125 mph (200 km/h). Under the car, there are diffusers on the rear lower wishbones, and Porsche has improved brake and driveshaft cooling.

Finally, Porsche has made some changes to the interior. For instance, the GT3 now gains the same digital display seen on other facelifted 911s (the 992.2 generation if you’re a Porsche nerd), similar to the one you’d find in a Taycan, Macan, or Panamera.

Some people may mourn the loss of the big physical tachometer, but I’m not one of them. The car has a trio of UI settings: a traditional five-dial display, a more reduced three-dial display, and a track mode with just the big central tach, which you can reorient so the red line is at 12 o’clock, as was the case with many an old Porsche racing car, rather than its normal position down around 5 o’clock. And instead of a push button to start the car, there’s a twister—if a driver spins on track, it’s more intuitive to restart the car by twisting the control the way you would a key.

You can see the starter switch on the left of the steering wheel. Porsche

Finally, there are new carbon fiber seats, which now have folding backrests for better access to the rear. (However, unless I’m mistaken, you can’t adjust the angle of the backrest.) In a very clever and welcome touch, the headrest padding is removable so that your head isn’t forced forward when wearing a helmet on track. Such is the attention to detail here. (Customers can also spec the car with Porsche’s 18-way sports seats instead.)

Regular, Touring, Lightweight, Wiessach

In fact, the new GT3 is available in two different versions. There’s the standard car, with its massive rear wing (complete with gooseneck mounts), which is the one you’d pick if your diet included plenty of track days. For those who want a 911 that revs to 9 but don’t plan on spending every weekend chasing lap times, Porsche has reintroduced the GT3 Touring. This version ditches the rear wing for the regular 911 rear deck, the six-speed manual is standard (with PDK as an option), and you can even specify rear seats—traditionally, the GT3 has eliminated those items in favor of weight saving.

Of course, it’s possible to cut even more weight from the GT3 with the Weissach Pack for the winged car or a lightweight package for the Touring. These options involve lots of carbon fiber bits for the interior and the rear axle, a carbon fiber roof for the Touring, and even the option of a carbon fiber roll cage for the GT3. The lightweight package for the touring also includes an extra-short gear lever with a shorter throw.

The track mode display might be too minimalist for road driving—I tend to like being able to see my directions as well as the rpm and speed—but it’s perfect for track work. Note the redline at 12 o’clock. Porsche

Although Porsche had to add some weight to the 992.2 compared to the 992.1 thanks to thicker front brake discs and more door-side impact protection, the standard car still weighs just 3,172 lbs (1,439 kg), which you can reduce to 3,131 lbs (1,420 kg) if you fit all the lightweight goodies, including the ultra-lightweight magnesium wheels.

Behind the wheel

I began my day with a road drive in the GT3 Touring—a PDK model. Porsche wasn’t kidding about the steering. I hesitate to call it telepathic, as that’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s extremely direct, particularly the initial turn-in. There’s also plenty of welcome feedback from the front tires. In an age when far too many cars have essentially numb steering, the GT3 is something of a revelation. And it’s proof that electronic power steering can be designed and tuned to deliver a rewarding experience.

The cockpit ergonomics are spot-on, with plenty of physical controls rather than relegating everything to a touchscreen. If you’re short like me and you buy a GT3, you’ll want to have the buckets set for your driving position—while the seat adjusts for height, as you raise it up, it also pitches forward a little, making the seat back more vertical than I’d like. (The seats slide fore and aft, so they’re not quite fixed buckets as they would be in a racing car.)

The anti-dive effect of that front suspension is quite noticeable under braking, and in either Normal or Sport mode, the damper settings are well-calibrated for bumpy back roads. It’s a supple ride, if not quite a magic carpet. On the highway, the Touring cruises well, although the engine can start to sound a little droning at a constant rpm. But the highway is not what the GT3 is optimized for.

On a dusty or wet road, you need to be alert if you’re going to use a lot of throttle at low speed. Jonathan Gitlin

On windy mountain roads, again in Normal or Sport, the car comes alive. Second and third gears are perfect for these conditions, allowing you to keep the car within its power band. And boy, does it sound good as it howls between 7,000 and 9,000 rpm. Porsche’s naturally aspirated flat-sixes have a hard edge to them—the 911 RSR was always the loudest race car in the pack—and the GT3 is no exception. Even with the sports exhaust in fruity mode, there’s little of the pops, bangs, and crackles you might hear in other sports cars, but the drama comes from the 9000 rpm redline.

Porsche asked us to keep traction control and ESC enabled during our drive—there are one-touch buttons to disable them—and given the muddy and dusty state of the roads, this was a wise idea. (The region was beset by severe flooding recently, and there was plenty of evidence of that on the route.) Even with TC on, the rear wheels would break traction if you were injudicious with the throttle, and presumably that would be the same in the wet. But it’s very easy to catch, even if you are only of moderate driving ability, like your humble correspondent.

After lunch, it was time to try the winged car, this time on the confines of the Ricardo Torno circuit just outside the city. On track, the handling was very neutral around most of the corners, with some understeer through the very slow turn 2. While a low curb weight and more than 500 hp made for a very fast accelerating car, the braking performance was probably even more impressive, allowing you to stand on the pedal and shed speed with no fade and little disturbance to the body control. Again, I am no driving god, but the GT3 was immensely flattering on track, and unlike much older 911s, it won’t try to swap ends on you when trail-braking or the like.

The landing was not nearly as jarring as you might think. Porsche

After some time behind the wheel, I was treated to some passenger laps by one of my favorite racing drivers, the inimitable Jörg Bergmeister. Unlike us journalists, he was not required to stay off the high curbs, and he demonstrated how well the car settles after launching its right-side wheels into the air over one of them. It settles down very quickly! He also demonstrated that the GT3 can be plenty oversteer-y on the exit of corners if you know what you’re doing, aided by the rear-wheel steering. It’s a testament to his driving that I emerged from two passenger laps far sweatier than I was after lapping the track myself.

The GT3 and GT3 Touring should be available from this summer in the US, with a starting price of $222,500. Were I looking for a 911 for road driving, I think I might be more tempted by the much cheaper 911 Carrera T, which is also pared to the bone weight-wise but uses the standard 380 hp (283 kW) turbocharged engine (which is still more power than the original GT3 of 1999). That car delivers plenty of fun at lower speeds, so it’s probably more useable on back roads.

A green Porsche 911 GT3 seen at sunset — Credit: Porsche

But if you want a 911 for track work, this new GT3 is simply perfect.

Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica’s automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC.

Weight saving and aero optimization feature in the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3 Read More »

Author name: Beth Washington