I am curious as to just what kind of data is being revealed by someone’s voice; it seems that the real problem is how the information can be used, from a December 29, 2025 Aalto University (Finland) press release (also on EurekAlert but published January 14, 2026, Note: A link has been removed,
You can probably quickly tell from a friend’s tone of voice whether they’re feeling happy or sad, energetic or exhausted. Computers can already do a similar analysis, and soon they’ll be able to extract a lot more information. It’s something we should all be concerned about, according to Associate Professor in Speech and Language Technology, Tom Bäckström. Personal information encoded in your voice could lead to increased insurance premiums [emphasis mine] or to advertising that exploits your emotional state [emphasis mine]. Private information could also be used for harassment, stalking or even extortion.
‘When someone talks, a lot of information about their health, cultural background, education level and so on is embedded in the speech signal. That information gets transmitted with the speech, even though people don’t realise it,’ says Bäckström, an engineering researcher at Aalto University. For example, even subtle patterns of intonation or word choice can be a giveaway as to your political preferences, while clues in breathing or voice quality may correlate with certain health conditions.
One important risk is that medical information inferred from voice recordings could affect insurance prices or be used to market medication. Yet Bäckström also highlights the potential for indirect harm. ‘The fear of monitoring or the loss of dignity if people feel like they’re constantly monitored—that’s already psychologically damaging,’ he says. For example, employers might extract personal information from voice recordings which could be used against employees or to screen candidates, or exes might use such tools for stalking or harassment.
While Bäckström says that the technology to get access to all that information is ‘not quite there yet’, researchers are working to develop protective measures before the problem becomes too big.
So how can engineers such as Bäckström tackle these problems?
Protecting against abuses means ensuring that only the information that’s strictly necessary is transmitted and that this information is securely delivered to the intended recipient. One approach is to separate out the private information and only transmit the information needed to provide a service. Speech can also be processed locally on a phone or computer rather than sent to the cloud, and acoustic technologies can be used to make sure that sounds are only recorded from (or audible in) a specific place.
These are relatively new challenges, driven by rapid technological changes and the growth of large data collections. In 2019, Bäckström and a few others established an international research network on privacy and security in speech technology. The team just published a tool that can address one of the field’s fundamental questions: how much information is there in a recording of speech?
‘To ensure privacy, you decide that only a certain amount of information is allowed to leak, and then you build a tool which guarantees that,’ he explains. ‘But with speech, we don’t really know how much information there is. It’s really hard to build tools when you don’t know what you’re protecting, so the first thing is to measure that information.’
The paper offers a metric which can be used to tell how precisely a speaker’s identity can be narrowed down based on the features of a recording, such as the pitch of their speech or its linguistic content. Existing metrics provide measurements in terms of recognition risk, giving an estimate of whether the speaker in a recording can be matched with a specific feature—for example, the likelihood of being able to tell if the speaker has Parkinson’s disease. Bäckström says those approaches are more difficult to understand and generalize. The new metric is the first to capture how much information is contained in an audio clip.
Better science means better tools
Bäckström sees the research as a step towards informing people about the privacy of different speech technologies. ‘I dream of being able to say that, for example, if you give a recording to whatever service, then at a cost of 10 euros, that company will be able to narrow your identity down to, let’s say, a thousand people. That’s something people understand, so it could be reflected in the user interface. Then we can start to discuss things in concrete terms,’ he says.
Having useful metrics isn’t just needed for communicating with the public. It’s also important for designing and evaluating tools to protect privacy. In a paper just published in the Proceedings of IEEE [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers], Bäckström’s team provided the first comprehensive overview of different threats and possible protection strategies, as well as highlighting paths for further research. The paper also covers privacy risks to people who aren’t using speech services, for example, when data from your voice might be captured as background noise in a recording.
The study highlights that preserving privacy isn’t just a technical issue but also a question of the user’s psychology and perceptions, as well as user interface design.
‘The interface should have ways of communicating how private an interaction is,’ says Bäckström. It should also communicate the system’s competence or confidence to help prevent accidental information leaks or incorrect actions. ‘Communicating those things in the appropriate way helps build long-term trust in a service,’ he adds.
For Bäckström, addressing privacy concerns doesn’t have to be burdensome but can actually mean improving a product or service. For example, stripping out private information from speech would mean less data is transmitted, bringing down network traffic and reducing costs.
‘We often see privacy and utility as somehow contradictory forces, but many privacy technologies have utility benefits as well,’ he concludes.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Privacy in Speech Technology by Tom Backstrom. Proceedings of the IEEE >Volume: 113 Issue: 7 Print ISSN: 0018-9219 Electronic ISSN: 1558-2256 Date of Publication: 19 November 2025
After a summer of wildfires and outstandingly poor air quality, it seems we in the Northern Hemisphere will be facing an even hotter year in 2027. On that basis, it is heartening to see that there are efforts to mitigate the increasingly hot condition of this planet; here’s an August 25, 2026 University of British Columbia (UBC) news release (also received via email) describing one such project, Note: Links have been removed,
UBC researchers and municipal partners have developed a modelling tool to help cities adapt to rising temperatures by mapping where new trees offer the greatest cooling impact.
First piloted in Kelowna and now expanding to Vancouver, CanopyFit accounts for urban constraints like underground utilities, overhead wires and infrastructure that often hinder planting.
“Creating and sustaining extensive canopy cover, by protecting mature trees and planting trees that can grow to large sizes, is one of the most effective investments cities can make to reduce exposure to extreme heat,” said Dr. Melissa McHale, a professor in UBC’s faculty of forestry and environmental stewardship and lead of the Urban Ecology and Sustainability Lab. “The challenge is making space for those trees and helping them thrive where they’re needed most.”
Turning heat maps into action
“A site can look empty on a map and still be impossible to plant,” said Dr. McHale. “CanopyFit accounts for the hidden barriers that determine where trees can realistically go and how large they can grow.”
By combining CanopyFit data with heat maps, shade models and demographic data, researchers can pinpoint priority zones. In Kelowna, the team identified neighbourhoods like Rutland as high priorities for heat relief and equity, while others, like Midtown, faced significant constraints despite high cooling needs.
“Trees are no less important there — overcoming barriers, choosing suitable species and investing in long-term care may just require more resources,” said Dr. McHale.
The analysis found that about half of Kelowna’s new-canopy potential was concentrated in roughly 20 per cent of its highest-opportunity planting sites, suggesting cities can maximize limited budgets by targeting areas where cooling benefits and planting opportunities align.
The team also used satellite imagery and machine learning to improve the city’s heat map resolution from 30 metres to 10 metres, helping planners pinpoint exact locations for cooling interventions.
Researchers found that every 10 per cent increase in tree canopy can reduce mean radiant temperature — the heat people feel from their surroundings — by roughly 1 C.
Science developed with cities
The UBC-Kelowna partnership began in 2022, developing tools for municipal planning needs.
“Our goal is to support the planting and long-term success of more trees across Kelowna, growing a stronger urban canopy for future generations,” said Todd Cashin, urban forestry supervisor with Kelowna. “These partnerships are incredibly valuable because they allow us to accomplish so much more together than we could on our own.”
Cashin noted that recent wildfires and extreme heat have heightened public awareness of the role of urban forests in climate adaptation.
“We’ve known about heat effects in desert-style communities like ours, but sharing that message is easier now,” he said. “After experiencing wildfires and extreme heat events in recent years, more people recognize the important role trees play in creating cooler, healthier and more resilient communities.”
“Cities move faster than academic publishing,” said Dr. McHale. “We develop tools on municipal timelines, test them against real planning decisions and publish once we prove that they are genuinely useful.”
From Kelowna to Vancouver and beyond
While researchers refine the tool through further study, its core methodology is reproducible. Diamond Head Consulting has integrated CanopyFit into its spatial forecasting tools to evaluate Vancouver’s future canopy growth and guide urban planning.
“We saw real alignment between the research methods and the questions cities are trying to answer,” said Amelia Needoba, principal and senior urban forester at Diamond Head Consulting. “It’s been a powerful example of research and practice informing each other.”
For Reg Eddy, arborist and urban forest planner with the Vancouver Park Board, the project supports more strategic canopy planning.
“While results are early, this project aims to improve tree canopy decision-making,” said Eddy. “It will help us identify strategic actions to boost canopy cover in the highest-priority areas.”
The Kelowna research was supported by grants from Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Dr. McHale’s broader research partnership with the City of Kelowna was supported by a UBC Wall Fellowship.
Dale Boyd’s August 27, 2026 article for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) news online website includes a CanopyFit heat map, presumably of Kelowna, Note: A link has been removed,
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Roots in Kelowna, growing in Vancouver
The pilot project is a collaboration between UBC researchers, Vancouver-based Diamond Head Consulting and the City of Kelowna, with the partnership starting in 2022.
It is now expanding to Vancouver. Diamond Head Consulting will be incorporating CanopyFit into their work evaluating Vancouver’s future canopy growth.
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The Vancouver-based company advises cities on how to protect green spaces and balance urban development with tree preservation, recently developing the City of Kelowna’s Sustainable Urban Forest Strategy, which was adopted by city council in 2024.
CanopyFit integrates multiple sets of data including solar radiation and the tree equity score to produce a prioritization map. (Submitted by Melissa McHale)
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I have more about Diamond Head Consulting “Science-based solutions for healthy trees and resilient ecosystems,” from the company’s homepage,
Diamond Head Consulting Ltd. (DHC) is a leading Vancouver-based environmental consulting firm specializing in integrated services across environmental planning, wildfire management, arboriculture, and ecosystem restoration. Since our incorporation in 2001, we’ve grown to a team of over 40 professionals—including registered planners, foresters, biologists, designers, arborists, and GIS specialists.
We work on a wide range of projects across North America, from residential and commercial developments to major infrastructure initiatives, wildfire risk assessments, and city-wide environmental strategies. Our ecosystem restoration division also delivers hands-on project implementation, ensuring that our plans are rooted in real-world results.
Our trusted, collaborative services and high quality products have earned us the loyalty of hundreds of clients including municipalities, government agencies, commercial and residential developers, First Nations, and private landowners. We are proud of our diverse portfolio of experience and our award winning projects. Our reputation stems from an outstanding team of professionals and their dedication to innovation and client care.
Up to 300 media representatives from 50 countries gather in Tashkent and Samarkand today for the start of the International Media Forum “Islamic Civilization: New Look – New Discoveries,” organized by the Center for Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan.
The Forum brings together global media, cinema, publishing, science and digital technology to present Islamic civilization’s contribution to human progress to international audiences in new and compelling ways – through the works of great scientists and thinkers, ancient manuscripts, unique artifacts, documentary films, publishing projects and artificial intelligence. Its aim is to make this heritage understood and valued by audiences worldwide.
The initiative builds on a proposal by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the UN General Assembly in 2017, to present Islam as a religion of peace, knowledge and tolerance. At a time when global media increasingly shape how societies understand one another, that idea carries particular international weight. The Forum sets out to show that the achievements of Islamic civilization – from Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Fergani and Ibn Sina [emphasis mine] to the intellectual and cultural legacy of the Timurid and Baburid eras – belong not to one region or religion alone, but to the shared heritage of humanity.
Participants include heads and representatives of 26 television and radio companies, 24 international publications, 14 newspapers, and five international media associations. CNN and Euronews are the Forum’s general media partners.
The programme combines plenary sessions and professional discussions, documentary screenings, presentations of international media and publishing projects, and meetings between journalists, directors, producers and publishers, alongside the signing of cooperation agreements. A central question running through the sessions is how to tell the story of historical and spiritual heritage in today’s language – through documentary filmmaking, television, publishing, museum technology, artificial intelligence, digital avatars and immersive formats.
Delegates will view the Center’s manuscript and artifact collections firsthand, record interviews, and identify subjects for future documentaries, books and digital projects. The programme also includes a visit to Samarkand – among other sites, the Imam al-Bukhari Memorial Complex and UNESCO World Heritage landmarks – timed alongside events marking the 35th anniversary of Uzbekistan’s independence.
Beyond showcasing existing work, the Forum is designed as a launchpad for new international partnerships – joint films, television programmes, books and digital media projects.
“The International Media Forum continues the initiative of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, voiced at the UN General Assembly in 2017, to reveal to the world the true humanistic essence of Islam – grounded in knowledge, enlightenment, peace and tolerance,” said Dr. Firdavs Abdukhalikov, Director General of the Center for Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan. “At the initiative of the head of state, extensive work is under way to study and preserve the legacy of great scientists and thinkers. Today, it is essential to tell that story in a modern language – through world media, cinema, books, digital technology and artificial intelligence. This is how the President’s vision translates into concrete international media projects reaching millions of people worldwide.”
The Forum marks a new stage in the Center’s long-term strategy: from informing the world about Uzbekistan to co-creating international content that reveals the country’s historical, scientific and cultural heritage through contemporary media.
A growing global network
The Center’s materials and projects have reached media in 65 countries, including 246 news items and sponsored features, seven full-length co-produced documentaries, 27 video projects, 23 television stories and more than 60 books.
The Center for Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan initiates and sponsors a number of international media partnership projects aimed at promoting Uzbekistan’s cultural, historical and intellectual heritage on the global stage. With the Center’s sponsorship, Euronews and CNN have produced more than 25 television and digital features on its history, architecture and collections, and on the return of cultural treasures to Uzbekistan – reaching a combined television audience of over 400 million viewers. Further documentary and special projects have been produced with TRT World and TRT Avaz, while sponsored coverage of Uzbekistan’s cultural heritage has appeared on the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and National Geographic. Cooperation with Al Jazeera Media Network is currently under discussion.
Among the Center’s flagship projects is the documentary series Echo of Enlightenment, featuring Academy Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley, which traces the legacy of Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Fergani, Ibn Sina and other Central Asian scientists [emphases mine] alongside the cultural achievements of the Timurid and Baburid eras. Broadcast on the BBC, CNN and Euronews, the series has reached a combined audience of more than 418 million viewers, and one instalment, Whispers of Wisdom, has won international recognition including the official SILKFEST 26 award in Belgrade and the Terres Travel Festival in Tortosa, Catalonia.
The Tashkent and Samarkand Forum builds directly on this record – moving from individual media projects toward systematic cooperation with the world’s leading newsrooms, broadcasters, directors, producers and publishers, and the joint creation of new global media content on Islamic civilization.
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About the Center for Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan
Opened in March 2026, the Center for Islamic Civilization is located on the historical site of Shash, in the heart of Tashkent, next to the spiritual center of the capital, the Hazrati Imam complex. The three-story building measures 145 by 115 meters, and its central dome rises 65 meters.
The Center’s exposition is based on the Uthman Quran, one of the oldest surviving handwritten copies of the Quran in the world. The manuscript is included in the UNESCO Memory of the World program, dedicated to the preservation and promotion of documentary heritage of world importance.
The area of the main museum exposition is about 15,000 square meters; In addition, the complex includes a research center, digitization laboratories, as well as conservation and restoration workshops. Visitors will be able to see rare artifacts of different historical periods, returned from abroad, including those purchased at international auctions and from private collectors at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan. The exposition also presents collections of museums from around the world and the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Promotion of the Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan (WOSCU). Interactive exhibitions tell about the outstanding achievements of the Islamic Golden Age in the fields of algebra, astronomy and medicine.
Even before the official opening, the Center received wide international recognition. In 2026, it was named one of the most beautiful museums in the world by the Prix Versailles, included by Smithsonian Magazine and BBC Travel in the list of the most anticipated new museums of the year, and also listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest museum dedicated to Islamic civilization.
A December 29, 2025 news item (partner content: Tourism Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan) on Euro News highlights some of “Echo of Enlightenment’s|” science content, Note: All emphases are mine,
A new cultural project from Uzbekistan is challenging how the history of science is usually told. Known as Echo of Enlightenment, the initiative places Central Asian scholars back into a global narrative that often begins in Europe and skips several centuries of intellectual exchange along the way.
Led by the Center for Islamic Civilization in Tashkent, the project is part of a broader effort to present Uzbekistan not only as a historical crossroads, but as a birthplace of global ideas that continue to shape modern life – from algebra and astronomy to medicine and cartography.
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At the centre of the project is a 10-part documentary series, each episode dedicated to a scholar or cultural figure from the Islamic Golden Age with connections to the territory of present-day Uzbekistan. The films combine dramatic reenactment, expert commentary, historical research and modern animation to explain complex ideas and bring the stories to life.
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Among the featured figures are Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, whose work laid the foundations for algebra and algorithms; Ahmad al-Fergani, whose astronomical calculations later influenced explorers like Columbus; and Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a polymath and early pioneer of fields such as geography and anthropology.
Another episode focuses on Ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avicenna, whose Canon of Medicine remained a standard university text well into the early modern period.
The series also devotes significant attention to the Timurid era, often described by historians as Central Asia’s “Second Renaissance”. Viewers are introduced to figures such as Amir Timur, the first Timurid ruler who turned Samarkand into a centre of learning; Mirzo Ulugbek, the 15th-century astronomer whose calculations of the Earth’s year were among the most accurate of his time; and Ali Kushchi, who helped spread astronomical knowledge westward.
Cultural life is not neglected. Episodes on Alisher Navoi, Kamoliddin Behzad and Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur explore how literature, miniature painting and political leadership developed alongside scientific inquiry, reinforcing the idea that knowledge systems rarely exist in a vacuum.
One of the most visually striking instalments recreates Ulugbek’s 15th-century observatory and astronomy school in Samarkand, highlighting their influential role as beacons for scientific inquiry.
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In doing so, Echo of Enlightenment makes a broader argument: that modern science emerged through centuries of cross-cultural exchange, not in isolation. For European audiences, the series offers a reminder that ideas long taught in Western universities often have roots further east.
Rather than nostalgia, the project presents continuity – a case for seeing Islamic civilization not as a closed chapter, but as an active contributor to the shared intellectual history of today’s world.
The Center for Islamic Civilization (CISC) in Uzbekhistan was previewed in a December 5, 2025 article by Rebecca Cairns for CNN (also a CISC partner), Note: Links have been removed,
Four times taller than the Hollywood sign and around seven times larger than the White House, Uzbekistan’s newest cultural center is a monument of epic proportions.
Part museum, part academic research facility, the three-story Center for Islamic Civilization (CISC) in Tashkent will be open to the public in March 2026, and is intended to celebrate and revive Uzbekistan’s historical role as a center of Islamic scholarship.
“This region has been home to many ancestors who influenced world civilization,” said Firdavs Abdukhalikov, director of CISC. “The big question was how to present their influence to the world, to younger generations, in an engaging and modern way.”
Over the past eight years, while the building was under construction, CISC engaged 1,500 specialists from more than 40 countries to help develop the center’s scientific, architectural and cultural elements.
For example, through an “interactive educational zone” that leverages virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence technologies for exhibits such as conversations with “living portraits” of historical scholars and thinkers, the center hopes to inspire children to explore astronomy, medicine, literature and art.
The second floor will be dedicated to research, where international academics can access more than 200,000 books in its library.
“It’s not just a museum — it’s a cultural and educational platform. Here, we don’t only engage with artifacts, but also with the lives and ideas of influential figures,” Abdukhalikov added.
Reviving the past
While Uzbekistan is a secular nation, Islam is a key part of its history and cultural identity.
Arab conquests brought Islam to Central Asia in the 7th century, replacing earlier Zoroastrian and Buddhist traditions, and between the 9th and 12th centuries, the region experienced a golden age of science, literature, and architecture.
Medieval Uzbekistan, and the wider Central Asian region, was “a globalized world before globalization,” said historian Farhan Ahmad Nizami, founding director of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, who’s not connected to the CISC.
Uzbek cities like Bukhara and Samarkand were important stops on the Silk Road, a cross-continental trade route that stretched from Venice to Xi’an for 1,500 years (130 BCE to 1453 CE), and became a confluence of culture and ideas from both the East and West.
“(Uzbekistan’s) contribution in science and arts is obvious, and now people are rediscovering it, although it had not received sufficient attention,” Nizami added.
Later, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Timurid Empire would see a second renaissance of art, science, and diplomacy, with Samarkand at its center, an era that the CISC’s architecture draws inspiration from with its grand, mosaic-covered archways, blue tile-covered domes and intricate ornamentation.
The building, designed by Abdukakhkhor Turdiev, draws inspiration from classical Islamic architecture of Central Asia, particularly the Timurid era.CNN
In the 19th century, Russian expansion saw many parts of Central Asia incorporated into the Russian Empire, and later the Soviet Union, which imposed secular rule and suppressed Islamic practices.
“A significant portion of our cultural treasures left the country during the Soviet times,” says Abdukhalikov.
It wasn’t until 1991 that Uzbekistan regained independence and began reviving its Islamic heritage and cultural identity. To this end, CISC was given a directive to recover its historic items.
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There are criticisms of the center, relating to its cost, the sources of its funding, and the limited religious freedom in the country.
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Cairns’s December 5, 2025 article includes more information and many more embedded images of the stunning CISC.
I have three relatively recent stories about the influence Middle Eastern scientists have had on European science,
An April 22, 2025 posting: “Arabic manuscript containing lost works of Apollonius discussed in new book about Middle Eastern science (etc.) scholarship” about a hidden debt to Arabic and Muslim scientists such as Ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini
A July 9, 2025 posting: “Copernicus’ cosmological model strongly influenced by ancient Muslim astronomer Ibn al-Shatir?”
A July 24, 2024 posting: “11th century Arab-Muslim optical scientist laid groundwork for modern-day physics,” scientist al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham known in Latin as “Alhazen”
Going back further,
A November 9, 2015 posting: “Science in Muslim universities report, a science and Islam exhibit, and a debate about science and Islam”
The exhibit, “1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World” is also an organization called 1001 Inventions and it has a website. It seems that long ago exhibit was the first in a series of 1001 Inventions programmes. Here’s more from the organization’s About 1001 Inventions page, Note: A link has been removed,
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1001 Inventions is a UK based not-for-profit science and cultural heritage organisation co-founded in 2006 by award-winning British producer, philanthropist and social entrepreneur Ahmed Salim.
1001 Inventions creates and delivers global educational initiatives aiming to spark young people’s interest in science while promoting diversity and inclusion.
Through a network of strategic partners, 1001 Inventions has engaged and educated more than 500 million people globally through world-class transmedia productions including interactive exhibits, films, immersive live shows, hands-on workshops, digital content, books and learning material.
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About 1001 Inventions
1001 Inventions is an award-winning international science and cultural heritage organisation that raises awareness of the creative golden age of Arabic Science.
From the 7th century onwards, men and women of different faiths and cultures built on knowledge from ancient civilisations making breakthroughs that have left their mark on our world.
Join us on a journey to the past to inspire a better future!
This really is a reminder that science is a collaborative endeavour (with many influences such as literature, poetry, architecture, etc.) and that knowledge flows back and forth amongst many peoples as it is enriched by that collaboration.
Amanda Vincent’s name has become part of something larger (so to speak), it is included in the name for a new species of seahorse, Hippocampus amandavincentae.
Elana Shepert’s August 11 (?), 2026 article for Vancouver is Awesome charms almost as much as the seahorses do,
Seahorses. These petite ocean dwellers are the stuff of dreams. They look like aquatic, mythical mini horses. And, to top it off, males are the ones who give birth.
Recently, a University of British Columbia [UBC] professor who has dedicated her life to the study and preservation of the unique fish had one named after her — but it isn’t found in Canadian waters.
Amanda Vincent says she’s honoured that the new species has her name, but hopes more can be done to bring the animal she loves from the brink of extinction.
“A third of seahorse species are threatened with extinction. And another third are data deficient, meaning we don’t even know enough to calculate their status,” she tells Vancouver Is Awesome.
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Do we have seahorses in Metro Vancouver waters?
The short answer is: it’s complicated. All “true seahorses,” as Vincent puts it, are designated by the Ancient Greek word hippocampus, and none of these are found in the Pacific Northwest. You may have recognized the word “hippocampus” as the seahorse-shaped part of the human brain. It’s named after these seafarers.
But members of the overarching “seahorse family” are located in Metro Vancouver waters (science is complicated). This group is called Syngnathidae and includes other fascinating creatures such as pipefish and seadragons, in addition to seahorses.
The Vancouver Aquarium often has exhibits with seadragons, but otherwise you won’t find those locally. To spot those mind-bendingly cool aquatic fish, you’ll have to visit the Land Down Under. …
Attention B.C. divers: You can spot pipefish here, which is the closest thing to a seahorse locally. The most-common species is the bay pipefish, slender beauties with curious faces found from California up to Alaska. They are roughly 40 centimetres long and camouflage with their habitats.
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But Canada does have one “true” seahorse, located in Nova Scotia: the lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus).
A new species named after a Vancouver professor
Vincent was recently honoured with a new seahorse species in the Indian Ocean, Hippocampus amandavincentae, named after her.
The new species is a real beauty, says Vincent, often silvery-white through to golden, and may even change colours to match its habitat, “as many species do.” Its range stretches from the Western Indian Ocean to East Africa, up to the Red Sea and down to Western India.
“And it’s a very elegant-looking seahorse, I’m proud to say,” she says happily, but adds they only have a few specimens so far.
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Studying Hippocampus: How seahorses save the world
Vincent says she chose to study seahorses because they’re so unique.
“In seahorses, only the male gets pregnant [emphasis mine]…. So I started studying them way back when I was doing my PhD, because I was so interested in male pregnancy and what that meant for the evolution of sex differences in general. And then I fell in love with these crazy fishes, which are just different from almost anything else,” she explains.
The whimsical creatures also help stir up conversations around conservation.
“If we talk about the fact that bottom trawls drag up everything in their path when they’re fishing, people are like, ‘Well, OK.’ But when I say, ‘Well, there’s seahorses in the bottom of those nets’ … people get a lot more interested,” she says.
Seahorses transformed global export regulations for marine life, and now 185 countries have agreed on export regulations for them. In the wake of this movement, scientists and advocates secured similar regulations for sharks, rays, angelfish and other species, Vincent explains.
An international team of scientists has named a seahorse species from the Indian Ocean, Hippocampus amandavincentae, in honour of Prof. Amanda Vincent, director and co-founder of UBC’s Project Seahorse, for pioneering seahorse science and advancing marine conservation.
This magical seahorse was found by researchers among heaps of fish bycatch at Tuticorin harbour in southern India. This elegant-looking fish measures about 16 cm long and has a short snout, five spines forming an elevated crown on top of its head, and more spines running along its body and tail. Scientists had encountered this iconic fish for more than a century without realizing it was a distinct species. They now believe its range extends across the Indian Ocean, from Mozambique to the Red Sea to India.
Now it finally has a name of its own, Hippocampus amandavincentae, one that is rooted in conservation. The study describing it was published in the leading taxonomy journal Zootaxa.
The naming is the latest recognition of Prof. Vincent’s work in seahorse and marine conservation. Prof. Amanda Vincent was the first biologist to study seahorses underwater, the first to document the extensive trade in these fishes, and the first to initiate a seahorse conservation projec
t–Project Seahorse– [sic] which has put seahorses on the global conservation agenda. In 2021, she became the first marine biologist to receive the Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading animal conservation award.
“We have named this seahorse, Hippocampus amandavincentae, for Amanda Vincent, whose work established seahorse conservation as a field,” said co-author Graham Short, Focal Point for Taxonomy and Evolution in the global expert group for conservation of seahorses and their relatives.
“This honour makes my heart glow. It’s amazing that such a wonderful creature was hiding in plain sight. I surveyed the array of fishes dragged up by trawlers in Tuticorin, India, where this new species was first found, and missed it completely. Now I have yet another special reason to push hard at ending bottom trawl fishing,” said Prof. Vincent.
“The timing is especially meaningful as it coincides with celebrating 30 years of Project Seahorse achievements. I’m deeply grateful to my friends and colleagues for this kindness,” she added.
By looking closely at their snouts and spines, studying their DNA, and revisiting specimens preserved in museums, the researchers were able to resolve this supposed species into three distinct species: Hippocampus amandavincentae,Hippocampus histrix and Hippocampus jayakari.
“Many museum specimens and online biodiversity records of spiny seahorses in the Indian Ocean have been assigned to Hippocampus histrix for decades. Our findings now reveal that these records actually represent multiple species, with practical consequences for global conservation decision-making and policy implementation” said senior author Rajeev Raghavan, an assistant professor at Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies.
“Accurate species identification is a crucial first step towards understanding distribution, population status, and developing effective conservation strategies,” said lead author Shalu Kannan. “This discovery reveals the hidden biodiversity of the Indian Ocean and highlights the importance of documenting and protecting its unique species and the ecosystems they depend on,” she added.
The findings are particularly important because seahorses are globally recognized flagship species threatened by unsustainable fishing, exploitation for traditional medicine and the aquarium trade, and habitat loss. All seahorse species are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Appendix II, meaning their international trade is regulated to ensure it does not threaten their survival. In India, they receive the highest level of protection under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
“Knowing that Hippocampus amandavincentae exists as a separate species, recognizing what makes it unique and understanding where it lives is obviously critical for its conservation. Our team at Project Seahorse will do everything we can to support healthy populations of this and other seahorses,” Vincent concluded.
This is a joint effort, which flirts on the edge of art/science, between two groups according to the Iconic Fishes About page,
About Inspired by #IconicFishes
Inspired by Iconic Fishes is a global art movement inviting people of all ages, from anywhere in the world, to explore, create, craft, share, or tell stories that celebrate the wonders of our iconic fishes: seahorses, pipefishes, seadragons, and their quirky cousins like trumpetfish, cornetfish/flutemouth and bellowsfish. In doing so, we hope to spark curiosity, inspire creativity, and encourage action to keep them and their habitats healthy.
Meet the conservation leaders behind Inspired by #IconicFishes
Project Seahorse
Project Seahorse is a leader in marine conservation, making discoveries & collaborating globally to take effective action for seahorses and their seas.
Project Seahorse works to protect seahorses, for their own sakes and to support ocean conservation more broadly, generating cutting-edge research and using it to prompt and guide highly effective conservation interventions.
Directed by Professor Amanda Vincent, a global expert in marine conservation, Project Seahorse has won many international awards and honours for scholarship and for front line conservation, emphasizing our distinctive blend of skills, experience, and credentials.
Project Seahorse works in collaboration with researchers, governments, conservation groups, and local communities worldwide. Project Seahorse is hosted at The University of British Columbia, Canada, and the Zoological Society of London, UK.
IUCN SSC Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group
Project Seahorse hosts and leads the global Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group (SPS SG) for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC). Our SPS SG is tasked with – and dedicated to – the conservation of seahorses, pipefishes, pipehorses and seadragons — as well as near relatives such as trumpetfishes, cornetfishes/flutemouths, and bellowsfishes/snipefishes.
The SPS SG leads on assessing, planning and acting for these iconic fishes. We provide independent technical and scientific advice to governments and other groups to improve the conservation status of these species. We assess their threats of extinction, undertake research that can make a difference, plan for management and policy change that will benefit the species, and act to ensure survival of their wild populations… all while networking with a host of agencies and organizations. A key element in our work is communicating to improve support for these wonderful animals.
Calling on artists, makers, and dreamersto join a global arts movement that celebrates the wondrous lives of truly #iconicfishes: seahorses, pipefish, seadragons, and their quirky cousins like ghost pipefish, trumpetfish, cornetfish, and bellowsfish.
Because to know them is to treasure them.
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Why this matters?
In treasuring iconic fishes, we champion the health of our oceans By celebrating these remarkable species, we ignite curiosity and rally action to protect the ecosystems they call home. Their beauty inspires a creative movement that shines a light on marine life, its wonders, and its threats. And inspires action to keep our oceans healthy.
The unique power of art Art in all its forms moves us in ways facts cannot – it connects, inspires, and transcends barriers. Through creativity, we spark hope, passion, and meaningful action for the ocean’s future.
So, let’s dance, sing, create or craft for these iconic fishes!
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I find the seadragons particularly fascinating,
Common Seadragon Aquatic – Free photo on Pixabay (pixabay.com)
It looks ‘leafy’ to my inexpert eye; the Iconic Fishes website offers this seadragon description,
Seadragon
There are three species of seadragons, all belonging to the same family (Syngnathidae) as seahorses and pipefishes: the weedy seadragon, the leafy seadragon, and the recently discovered ruby seadragon. They are found exclusively off the southern coast of Australia.
Fun Fact
Seadragons have a long tube snout and leaf-like appendages that extend from their various nobs and ridges, resembling the flowing costumes of dancers. These delicate “leaves” not only give them a graceful, decorative appearance but also help them blend seamlessly into the seaweeds they call home. Just like other fishes in the family, they also have the ability to change colours.
“This is a thrilling discovery,” says Amanda Vincent, director of Project Seahorse. “These charismatic and mysterious animals are so highly cryptic – and, in many places, so threatened – that we often have to be very lucky to find them.”
The divers, Nédia Coutinho and Martin Roy, owners of UW Distribution, an underwater imaging company, spotted the seahorse during a routine dive.
“I was obviously not looking for a seahorse but when I saw it I could not believe my eyes,” says Coutinho. “I was so excited, even without knowing that it’s not common around Nova Scotia. I have dived on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and in the Caribbean and this is the first time I have ever seen a seahorse.”
Seahorses are found in coastal waters around the globe, from northern Europe to the Indian Ocean and from Korea to New Zealand. They are threatened by harmful fishing practices and overfishing, with tens of millions of animals caught and traded for use in traditional Chinese medicine, aquarium display, and as curios. Loss of their habitats also poses problems.
“Seahorses face so many challenges that they desperately need new allies,” explains Vincent. “Globally, there are fewer than 15 scientists studying seahorses in the wild, which is why citizen science initiatives like iSeahorse are so important, and why divers like Nédia and Martin are so integral to their conservation.”
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Amanda Vincent and seahorses have been mentioned here before (way back in 2013). It’s nice to catch up on the latest seahorse news and on Vincent’s more recent work.
Somehow, I must have missed the earlier notices but, on the upside, the folks at the London Arts-Based Research Centre (LABRC) have extended the deadline to September 1, 2026 for anyone wanting to submit a proposal in response to the Call for Papers. Here’s more from an August 13 2026 LABRC notice (received via email),
We would like to announce that the proposal deadline for our Science and Sensibility transdisciplinary conference has now been extended to September 1. Kindly find the conference details below, or visit the conference webpage on https://labrc.co.uk/science-and-sensibility-2026/
“Art and science bear intrinsic similarities in their attempts to illuminate aspects of the human condition. Grounded in exploration, revelation, and representation, art and science work toward advancing human understanding”, Patricia Leavy, Method Meets Art.
According to Richard Dawkins, “There’s real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality”. So why are art and science sometimes considered as two separate fields, rather than two different sides of the same coin? And who says that scientists, engineers, and medical researchers take interest only in matters within the boundaries of the laboratories and hospitals? How might the perspective of art provide fresh avenues for understanding and contribute significantly to the enrichment of scientific knowledge? For poets, writers, and artists there are no such boundaries, for there is poetic wisdom in scientific knowledge, beauty in anatomy, and concepts worth celebrating in writing. And for biographers and memoirists, the medical humanities offer experiences that are worth preserving in prose. Our forthcoming conference seeks to deconstruct the common divide between two seemingly distinct disciplines of art and science, building bridges instead of boundaries, and showing the importance of creatively contemplating, cherishing, and preserving the beauty of what we learn and experience.
This conference, therefore, aims to bring together scholars, creatives, and other arts-based researchers from different disciplines working on topics related to transdisciplinarity, with a focus on the bridging of science with the arts. You may be a scientist or a medical practitioner who writes poems and stories or takes on another art (such as music, sculpture, the visual arts, etc.) or alternatively, you may be a creative inspired by science, or a practioner [sic] in a field that utilises creative approaches for scientific purposes—so the intertwining of your thoughts, ideas, and creativity are welcome, and we can’t wait to hear about your work that combines your creativity with science!
Send us your proposals by August 31st.[extended to September 1, 2026] Presenters can either share academic papers and/or creative work (poetry, prose, photography, music, painting, etc.), as we highly encourage arts-based research. We welcome proposals from scholars (of all disciplines), creatives, graduate students, practitioners and professionals.
So whether you are working on research bridging art with creativity, or you have a piece containing astronomical images, eco-poetry, aesthetic reflections on chemicals and substances, lunar photography, artistic depictions of the human body, alchemical musings, art and arithmetic, psychological fiction (or non-fiction), an ode to omicron, or any other creative pieces arising from “scientific” inspiration, please share them with us!
We welcome 15-minute presentations on topics related (but certainly not limited to) the following fields:
Fiction as a mode for knowledge
Transdisciplinarity in its various forms
Music-based practices
A/r/tography
Physics as an inspiration in literature
Chemistry and the culinary, literary or visual arts
Astrophotography
Alchemy as an art and science
Psychology and the arts
Symbolic healing
Ecopoetics
Anatomy in painting
The medical humanities
Poetry and medicine
Photography and medical technology
Ruminations based on scientific theories
Space poetry
Art therapy
Music and mathematical formulas
Viruses and philosophy
The human body
Mental illness and the arts
Quantum physics and artistic expression
Technological advancements and their impact on artistic creation
Mathematical patterns in visual arts
Neuroscience and creativity
Climate change and environmental art
Data visualization as an art form
Ethical considerations in scientific art collaborations
Evolutionary biology and literature
Augmented reality and immersive storytelling
Artificial intelligence and its role in creative processes
Bioart and biotechnology in artistic practice
Intersection of robotics and performance art
Astronomy and music composition
Psychology of color in visual arts
Medical imaging techniques and artistic interpretation
Intersection of archaeology and art history
Cognitive science and theater/performance studies
Genetics and contemporary art practices
Philosophy of science and its influence on artistic discourse
Ecological activism through artistic interventions
Anthropology and the representation of cultures in art
Social sciences and documentary photography
Nanotechnology and its implications for artistic materials
Ethnomusicology and cultural expressions of scientific knowledge
Marine biology and marine-inspired art forms
Kindly fill out the proposal form by September 1, 2026.
For further queries, please email us on conferences@labrc.co.uk, and kindly allow us at least 2-3 working days to respond.
Want more inspiration? Check out our recently released issue of our literary and arts journal, Indelible, with the special theme of “Science and Sensibility”!
Longevity is usually the characteristics that gets most mentioned (see my May 10, 2023 posting “Answer to why Roman concrete was so durable” when discussing Roman concrete. However, it’s self-healing properties likely contribute to Roman concrete’s longevity. This December 9, 2025 essay by Ray Laurence, professor of ancient history at Macquarie University, for The Conversation, delves into Roman concrete’s self-healing abilities, Note: A link has been removed,
Roman concrete is pretty amazing stuff. It’s among the main reasons we know so much about Roman architecture today. So many structures built by the Romans still survive, in some form, thanks to their ingenious concrete and construction techniques.
However, there’s a lot we still don’t understand about exactly how the Romans made such strong concrete or built all those impressive buildings, houses, public baths, bridges and roads.
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Now, a new study – led by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and published in the journal Nature Communications – sheds new light on Roman concrete and construction techniques.
That’s thanks to details sifted from partially constructed rooms in Pompeii – a worksite abandoned by workers as Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.
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The discovery of this particular building site hit the news early last year.
The builders were quite literally repairing a house in the middle of the city, when Mount Vesuvius blew up in the first century CE.
This unique find included tiles sorted for recycling and wine containers known as amphorae that had been re-used for transporting building materials.
Most importantly, though, it also included evidence of dry material being prepared ahead of mixing to produce concrete.
It is this dry material that is the focus of the new study. Having access to the actual materials ahead of mixing represents a unique opportunity to understand the process of concrete making and how these materials reacted when water was added.
This has re-written our understanding of Roman concrete manufacture.
Previously disregarded as merely evidence of sloppy mixing practices, or poor-quality raw materials, the new study suggests that these tiny lime clasts gave the concrete a previously unrecognized self-healing capability. [emphasis mine] “The idea that the presence of these lime clasts was simply attributed to low quality control always bothered me,” says Masic. “If the Romans put so much effort into making an outstanding construction material, following all of the detailed recipes that had been optimized over the course of many centuries, why would they put so little effort into ensuring the production of a well-mixed final product? There has to be more to this story.”
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Historically, it had been assumed that when lime was incorporated into Roman concrete, it was first combined with water to form a highly reactive paste-like material, in a process known as slaking. But this process alone could not account for the presence of the lime clasts. Masic wondered: “Was it possible that the Romans might have actually directly used lime in its more reactive form, known as quicklime?”
Studying samples of this ancient concrete, he and his team determined that the white inclusions were, indeed, made out of various forms of calcium carbonate. And spectroscopic examination provided clues that these had been formed at extreme temperatures, as would be expected from the exothermic reaction produced by using quicklime instead of, or in addition to, the slaked lime in the mixture. Hot mixing [emphasis mine], the team has now concluded, was actually the key to the super-durable nature.
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Getting back to some of the latest information about Roman concrete, from Laurence’s December 9, 2025 essay, Note: Links have been removed,
The researchers behind this new paper studied the chemical composition of materials found at the site and defined some key elements: incredibly tiny pieces of quicklime that change our understanding of how the concrete was made.
Quicklime is calcium oxide, which is created by heating high-purity limestone (calcium carbonate).
The process of mixing concrete, the authors of this study explain, took place in the atrium of this house. The workers mixed dry lime (ground up lime) with pozzolana (a volcanic ash).
When water was added, the chemical reaction produced heat. In other words, it was an exothermic reaction. This is known as “hot-mixing” and results in a very different type of concrete than what you get from a hardware store.
Adding water to the quicklime forms something called slaked lime, along with generating heat. Within the slaked lime, the researchers identified tiny undissolved “lime clasts” that retained the reactive properties of quicklime. If this concrete forms cracks, the lime clasts react with water to heal the crack.
In other words, this form of Roman concrete can quite literally heal itself.
Pompeii Archeological Park site map, with showing where the ancient building site is located, with colour coded piles of raw construction materials (right): purple: debris; green: piles of dry pre-mixed materials; blue: piles of tuff blocks. Masic et al, Nature Communications (2025)
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the healing of cracks has been observed in the concrete of the tomb of noblewoman Caecilia Metella outside Rome on the Via Appia (a famous Roman road).
Now this new Pompeii study has established hot-mixing happened and how it helped improve Roman concrete, scholars can look for instances in which concrete cracks have been healed this way.
Questions remain
All in all, this new study is exciting – but we must resist the assumption all Roman construction was made to a high standard.
The ancient Romans could make exceptional concrete mortars but as Pliny the Elder notes, poor mortar was the cause of the collapse of buildings in Rome. So just because they could make good mortar, doesn’t mean they always did…
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To answer any of these questions, further research is needed to see how prevalent lime clasts are in Roman concrete more generally, and to identify where Roman concrete has healed itself.
Laurence’s December 9, 2025 essay offers a good introduction to Roman concrete and some of the latest research. The 2025 paper from the MIT team is an accessible read (for people who aren’t experts and offers a deeper dive into the research (which is a little less accessible) Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
An unfinished Pompeian construction site reveals ancient Roman building technology by Ellie Vaserman, James C. Weaver, Claire Hayhow, Kristin Bergmann, Celestino Grifa, Roberto Scalesse, Valeria Amoretti, Antonino Russo, Gennaro Iovino, Gabriel Zuchtriegel & Admir Masic. Nature Communications volume 16, Article number: 10847 (2025) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66634-7 Published: 09 December 2025 Version of record: 09 December 2025
First reported in a December 28, 2025 news item on ScienceDaily, this research story brings together a pop culture reference and theoretical physics,
A University of Cincinnati physicist and an international team of collaborators say they have worked out a theoretical method for producing axions inside fusion reactors. It is a challenge that even two well known fictional physicists could not solve on television.
On the CBS [Columbia Broadcasting System; US] sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” characters Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter wrestled with the same idea across three episodes in Season 5. Despite their efforts, the problem remained unsolved in the show.
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Physicists have outlined how fusion reactors could theoretically produce axions, mysterious particles that may help explain dark matter. The breakthrough solves a problem once joked about on The Big Bang Theory, where the math ended in failure. Credit: Shutterstock [downloaded from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251228020014.htm\
Now UC physics professor Jure Zupan and his co authors from the Fermi National Laboratory, MIT [Massachuetts Institute of Tehcnology] and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology report a possible solution. Their findings appear in a new study published in the Journal of High Energy Physics.
Axions are hypothetical particles that physicists suspect could help explain dark matter. Researchers are interested in dark matter because it helps explain the evolution of the universe after its creation in the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago.
Dark matter has never been observed directly, but physicists believe it represents a majority of the mass in the universe that is attributed to matter, while only a fraction is due to normal, visible matter. Dark matter is called dark because unlike normal matter it does not absorb or reflect light.
Nevertheless, physicists have identified its existence through its gravitational effects, modifying motion of galaxies in the universe and stars in the galaxies. One of the main theoretical possibilities for dark matter is that it is a very light particle, the so-called axion.
In their paper, Zupan and his colleagues considered a fusion reactor powered by deuterium and tritium in a vessel lined by lithium that is being developed in a global collaboration in the south of France [The ITER {International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor}, an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project; Wikipedia entry] . Such a reactor would produce not only energy but potentially also dark sector particles due to a large flux of neutrons that will be created in a fusion reactor.
“Neutrons interact with material in the walls. The resulting nuclear reactions can then create new particles,” he said.
The second way the new particles can get generated is when neutrons bounce off other particles and slow down, releasing energy in a process physicists call bremsstrahlung or “braking radiation.”
The new particles could be axions, or at least axion-like particles. And that’s where the show’s fictional physicists failed, Zupan said.
“The Big Bang Theory” ran from 2007 to 2019 and earned seven Emmys. It remains among the most-watched shows of any streaming service, according to Nielsen.
“The general idea from our paper was discussed in ‘The Big Bang Theory’ years ago, but Sheldon and Leonard couldn’t make it work,” Zupan said.
In one episode, a white board features an equation and diagram that Zupan said describes how axions are generated from the sun. In a subsequent episode, another equation appears on a different board. Below the calculations in a different marker color is an unmistakable sad face — a symbol of failure.
Zupan said Leonard and Sheldon’s equation estimates the likelihood of detecting axions from their proposed fusion reactor compared to the sun — with discouraging results, which explains the sad face.
“The sun is a huge object producing a lot of power. The chance of having new particles produced from the sun that would stream to Earth is larger than having them produced in fusion reactors using the same processes as in the Sun. However, one can still produce them in reactors using a different set of processes,” he said.
The characters in the show never talk about axions or the white boards in the episodes. They’re just an Easter egg for physicists in a show famous for incorporating scientific concepts like Schrodinger’s cat and the Doppler effect into its storylines, along with cameos by Nobel laureates and “Star Trek” alumni alike.
“That’s why it’s fantastic to watch as a scientist,” Zupan said. “There are many layers to the jokes.”
Michael Miller wrote up a brief teaser (March 20, 2026) about a March 19, 2026 Popular Mechanics article by Darren Orr covering the research “We Could Recreate a Bizarre Form of Matter—And Finally Explain How the Universe Took Shape, Scientists Say.” Unfortunately, it’s behind a paywall but for anyone willing ‘to climb the wall’, here’s a link.
For anyone who wants to dig into the theoretical physics, here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Searching for exotic scalars at fusion reactors by Chaja Baruch, Patrick J. Fitzpatrick, Tony Menzo, Yotam Soreq, Sokratis Trifinopoulos & Jure Zupan. Journal of High Energy Physics, Volume 2025, article number 215, (2025) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2025)215 Published: 27 October 2025
From a December 1, 2025 article by Matt Swayne for the Quantum Insider, Note: Links have been removed,
Insider Brief
DARPA has advanced 11 companies to Stage B of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, moving the program from conceptual proposals to technical validation of utility-scale quantum computing architectures.
Stage B will evaluate each company’s R&D plans, risk-mitigation strategies, and prototype roadmaps to determine whether their approaches are realistic and scalable.
The initiative aims to assess whether an industrially useful quantum computer—one whose computational value exceeds its cost—can be developed by 2033.
What Does Stage B Mean for DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative?
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has moved its flagship quantum computing effort, the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), into its next phase — or Stage B — a shift from conceptual review toward rigorous technical validation of utility-scale quantum architectures. A total of 11 companies have moved into Stage B, according to the DARPA project web page.
Under the initiative’s three-stage scheme, participants must first present a plausible architecture (Stage A), then a detailed R&D plan (Stage B), and finally undergo independent verification of hardware (Stage C).
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Which Companies Are Advancing to Stage B and What Qubit Technologies Do They Use?
DARPA reports the following companies (with their qubit technology approach) have been selected for Stage B at this time:
Company
Location
Qubit Approach
Atom Computing
Boulder Colorado
Neutral atom arrays
Diraq
Sydney and US locations
Silicon CMOS spin qubits
IBM
Yorktown Heights New York
Modular superconducting processors
IonQ
College Park Maryland
Trapped ions
Nord Quantique
Sherbrooke Canada
Superconducting qubits with bosonic correction
Photonic Inc.
Vancouver Canada
Optically linked silicon spin qubits
Quantinuum
Broomfield Colorado
Trapped ion QCCD architecture
Quantum Motion
London UK
MOS silicon spin qubits
QuEra Computing
Boston Massachusetts
Neutral atom arrays
Silicon Quantum Computing
Sydney Australia
Precision atom qubits in silicon
Xanadu
Toronto Canada
Photonic quantum computing
The list may grow, according to DARPA, adding that It is likely but not guaranteed that additional teams will enter Stage B in the future. DARPA plans to announce any additional promotion decisions once they contracted with those teams.
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Can a Useful Quantum Computer Be Developed by 2033?
By selecting multiple firms for Stage B, DARPA signals that it believes certain concepts presented in Stage A met the threshold of plausibility. The initiative’s ultimate goal is to assess whether an industrially-useful quantum computer can be developed by 2033 — defined as a system whose computational value outweighs its cost.
The move from conceptual review to rigorous validation suggests DARPA is narrowing focus from “could this work” to “can this be built.”
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What Will DARPA Evaluate During Stage B and How Will Firms Advance?
During Stage B (estimated to last about one year), DARPA will assess each performer’s R&D plan, prototype roadmap, risk-mitigation strategy and manufacturing pathway. After satisfactory review, select firms will proceed to Stage C, where independent verification and validation teams will test actual hardware against benchmarks.
Sense about Science and Taylor & Francis have announced the publication of a comprehensive research integrity toolkit, created with and for early career researchers (ECRs). The guide addresses common questions and provides practical advice to help today’s researchers avoid integrity pitfalls.
At a time when the trustworthiness of information is a question in all parts of society, good research practice faces additional challenges from AI tools and paper mills, as well as the impact of precarious employment and limited funding on the pressure to publish. ECRs can feel these pressures more acutely, making it essential they have confident knowledge of the principles of research integrity.
The toolkit is authored by Sense about Science and Taylor & Francis with input from the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO), guided by honest questions and experiences shared by early career researchers during co-creation workshops. The result is a comprehensive resource which meets the real needs of researchers at each stage of the research process, from initial design through research conduct and manuscript development to peer review and dissemination.
Tracey Brown, Director of Sense about Science, said: “Public trust in science has never been more important, or challenging. This toolkit explores the research integrity issues that early career researchers encounter, the steps to take and the principles that will help them evaluate new situations.”
Jason Hu, Director of Research Integrity Engagement at Taylor & Francis, said: “When you are starting out in your research career there is so much to learn about the requirements and expectations of ethical research practice that it can be quite overwhelming. We were therefore delighted to help demystify and simplify these complex issues through this new toolkit.”
Hu continued, “We hope the publication ethics section will be especially valuable, as it covers many of the questions we regularly receive, such as determining authorship credit, understanding what constitutes plagiarism, and knowing what happens if integrity concerns are raised about a published article. Although it has been designed for ECRs, I’m sure the toolkit will be a useful refresher for researchers at all career stages!”
The new resource can be found on the Taylor & Francis website: Research integrity: A toolkit for early career researchers and is available to download as a PDF from the Sense about Science website.
What is going on with article accelerators these days? I have two stories, one from the US about a room-size accelerator that is commercially available and a story from Japan about work on a desktop-sized particle accelerator for a future iteration.
Starting with the room-sized particle accelerators
Charles Q. Choi’s December 4, 2025 article for IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Spectrum profiles the work on a more compact particle accelerator, Note: Links have been removed,
Particle accelerators are usually huge structures—think of the 3.2-kilometer–long SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Stanford, Calif. But scientists have been hard at work trying to shrink these accelerators down by using lasers to perform the accelerating. These particle accelerators would be the size of single room, and cost much less as well. Now, a startup says its laser-powered accelerator, the first commercial version of such a device, has successfully accelerated a beam of electrons. These could first be used in radiation tests of electronics designed for satellites and spacecraft.
The concept behind the new device was first detailed in 1979. An extremely powerful and ultrashort laser pulse strikes a gas, producing a plasma. The plasma oscillates in the laser’s wake, and electrons are dragged along in the plasma’s path, accelerating them to relativistic speeds.
These “wakefield accelerators“ can generate acceleration fields up to 1,000 times as great as what conventional particle colliders are capable of. Scientists have long suggested that wakefield accelerators could shrink kilometer-scale facilities to the size of a room or smaller.
“Democratization is the name of the game for us,” says Björn Manuel Hegelich, founder and CEO of TAU Systems in Austin, Texas. “We want to get these incredible tools into the hands of the best and brightest and let them do their magic.”
TAU has now successfully generated electron beams using its commercial laser-powered wakefield accelerator. “Laser-powered accelerators have been around in academic labs for more than 20 years,” Hegelich says. “What’s most exciting is that until now, they haven’t been available as tools for industry. This result is a major step to change that paradigm and make compact accelerators useful for the world outside of academia.”
The new accelerator uses a laser supplied by the Thales Group in France, which TAU notes displays exceptional stability. “The goal here is to focus on reliability and reproducibility rather than record performance,” Hegelich says.
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TAU’s first commercial accelerator will be deployed at the startup’s facility in Carlsbad, Calif., which will operate as a showroom for customers to become familiar with the technology. TAU plans to offer use of its accelerator to commercial and government customers starting in 2026.
“This first commercial system will operate in the range of 60 to 100 million electron volts (MeVs) at 100 hertz with capacity to upgrade to higher energies in the future,” Hegelich says. “We’re not rushing to the highest energies yet because there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit in the 100 to 1,000 MeV range, where conventional accelerators are too large to be of practical use.” For comparison, the linear accelerator at SLAC can achieve electron energies up to 50 billion electron volts.
Saúl Morales Rodriguéz’s April 2, 2026 posting on the lifeboat.com blog describes work from a Japanese research team into shrinking particle accelerators even further, Note: A link has been removed,
Using high-intensity lasers, researchers have taken an important step toward miniaturization of particle accelerators by demonstrating free-electron laser amplification at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths (27–50 nm), with an acceleration length of only a few millimeters. By generating high-quality, monoenergetic electron beams (i.e. beams where all the electrons have nearly the same energy), they have achieved a key milestone toward compact accelerator technologies.
The work is published in the journal Physical Review Research.
Researchers at The University of Osaka have hit a vital milestone toward creating tabletop x-ray lasers, with the goal of building ultracompact high-energy electron accelerators.
Summary Free-electron lasers can be tuned to operate over a wide range of wavelengths, but they conventionally require large-scale facilities. Researchers from The University of Osaka show that laser wakefield acceleration can dramatically miniaturize this technology by improving plasma stability and electron beam quality. Their study demonstrates such lasers in the extreme ultraviolet, with the ultimate goal of further refining the technology to operate at x-ray wavelengths.
Osaka, Japan – Using high-intensity lasers, researchers have taken an important step towards miniaturization of particle accelerators by demonstrating free-electron laser amplification at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths (27–50 nm), with an acceleration length of only a few millimeters. By generating high-quality, monoenergetic electron beams (i.e. beams where all the electrons have nearly the same energy), they have achieved a key milestone toward compact accelerator technologies.
The research team led by The University of Osaka’s Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (SANKEN) in collaboration with Kansai Institute for Photon Science (KPSI), National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST), RIKEN SPring-8 Center (RSC), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), used a technique called laser wakefield acceleration to create plasma waves that generate extremely strong accelerating electric fields, thanks to waves within the plasma that travel at almost the speed of light. These potent electric fields are more than 1000 times as strong as conventional accelerators.
Our work has made several substantial improvements over previous techniques, allowing us to achieve free-electron laser amplification at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths,” says lead author Zhan Jin. “We have used laser pulse shaping to improve focusing accuracy. When combined with our specially developed supersonic gas nozzles, we can create more stable wavefronts, enabling precise control of the plasma source.”
Using free-electron laser amplification in this way is essential for reducing the distance required to accelerate electrons. Conventional systems can require hundreds of meters, but the powerful fields generated by laser wakefield acceleration can potentially reduce this to just millimeters. These results show that laser wakefield acceleration is approaching the performance required of practical, high-quality electron accelerators. Demonstrating this at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths is an important milestone, but the research team intends to push this even further.
“Laser wakefield acceleration has long been considered impractical, because of the difficulty in stabilizing the plasma it relies on,” explains senior author Tomonao Hosokai. “We have greatly enhanced the stability and quality of our electron beams, which will allow us to dramatically miniaturize future accelerators, opening the possibility to create compact x-ray free-electron lasers.” This work shows that laser wakefield acceleration can perform on par with practical high-quality high-energy electron accelerators.
Demonstrating free-electron laser operation in the extreme ultraviolet range is a crucial first step toward extending the technology to shorter wavelengths, ultimately enabling compact x-ray free-electron lasers. These exceptionally powerful light sources generate coherent x-rays 10 billion times brighter than the sun and produce ultrashort femtosecond pulses. Their use is currently restricted to large facilities, but miniaturization of these lasers would allow their use in conventional laboratories. Currently, laser wakefield acceleration is one of the most promising ways to accomplish this. The work accomplished by the research team to stabilize the plasma these accelerators rely on is an essential step toward this goal.
Desktop-sized instruments are essential in day-to-day research, and developing compact accelerators and x-ray free-electron lasers will enable advances across fields such as life sciences, materials science, semiconductor development, and quantum science. Constructing desktop-sized accelerators would allow small labs to perform research that currently requires large-scale accelerator facilities.
