A new guide aimed at helping aspiring science journalists in Turkey to cover scientific topics has been published.
‘Science Journalism in Turkey and Communicating Science to the Public’ (Türkiye’de Bilim Gazeteciliği ve Halka Doğru Bilim İletişimi) is the first Turkish science journalism guidebook for science journalists.
It was written by the science journalist and academic Dr. Gülsen Saray, and reviewed by editors and academics Prof. Dr. Akif Özer and Prof. Dr. Sefa Yüce.
The author, Saray, said: “This guide is a comprehensive resource for those navigating the dynamic profession of science journalism, and it highlights the importance and growth of science journalism in Turkey and Turkish-speaking countries. It will help ensure journalists produce higher-quality, more effective and impactful reporting which is a growing need driven by societal needs and technological developments.”
“The scope, context, and purpose of this guide are to offer practical advice to science journalists working in the field, drawing on the expertise and insights of contemporary and internationally successful science journalists and renowned science journalism institutions … I hope it will be an interesting and useful handbook to valued media members, students who choose the field of science journalism, people working in government or corporate public relations departments, and academics.”
The guide was published by the Balkan Network of Science Journalists and the European Federation for Science Journalism and is available on the BNSJ website.
“This is another in a series of expert guides written by local authors in local languages to make them accessible and relevant to local audiences – journalists wishing to report about science,” said Mićo Tatalović, a board member of the Balkan Network of Science Journalists, who has been coordinating the project. “It is an ambitious, book-length guide that should be a useful reference for both practitioners and those interested in the theory and practice of science journalism.”
Publication of the guide was made possible through the support of EurekAlert!, a science news release platform operated by the non-profit American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
“EurekAlert! is humbled by the opportunity to help support journalists in the Balkans through this locally accessible project,” said Brian Lin, director of editorial content strategy at EurekAlert!. “Our thanks to everyone involved in producing this guide.”
Author bio:
Dr. Gülsen Saray is a science journalist and columnist. She holds a PhD in science journalism, MA in political science and public administration, and BSc in civil engineering. She speaks Turkish, English, and German at an academic level, and has also learned French and Ottoman Turkish. She is also a qualified scientist who has gained experience based on experiments in the construction materials laboratory.
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
Caption: A polarization-sensitive wearable device for perfusion index measurements across skin tones uses polarized light to improve the accuracy of photoplethysmography (PPG) signals across different skin tones. Credit: R. Jakachira (Brown University)
Photoplethysmography (PPG) is an optical sensing technique that measures blood volume changes and underpins devices ranging from hospital-grade pulse oximeters to consumer wearables that track heart rate, sleep, and oxygenation. Despite its widespread use, PPG accuracy can vary significantly across individuals, particularly by skin tone. Darker skin contains more melanin, which absorbs and scatters light, often leading to less reliable readings. This disparity has been linked to inaccuracies in blood-oxygen measurements among people with more melanin.
Most efforts to improve PPG accuracy rely on software-based solutions, such as advanced filtering or machine learning, to clean up noisy signals caused by motion or poor sensor contact. However, these approaches work on low-quality data rather than addressing the root cause: the interaction of light with tissue. In a recent study, published in Biophotonics Discovery, researchers at Brown University introduced a new approach that directly addresses the PPG signal quality that is at the level of the light–tissue interaction.
The team developed a wearable, polarization-sensitive PPG sensor that uses the orientation of light’s electric field to favor signals from deeper blood vessels over superficial layers rich in melanin. The device splits light into two channels: one detects co-polarized light (parallel to the incoming beam), and the other detects cross-polarized light (perpendicular). This design helps filter out superficial scattering and capture stronger signals from deeper tissue.
In tests with volunteers representing light, medium, and brown skin tones, the cross-polarized condition consistently produced higher perfusion index (PI) values—a measure of signal strength—at both red (655 nm) and infrared (940 nm) wavelengths. The improvement was most pronounced for darker skin at the red wavelength.
While the authors caution that the results are preliminary and note that a larger study will be carried out, the approach may reduce bias in PPG-based technologies, laying the groundwork for more inclusive medical and consumer wearables.
“Most PPG devices focus on innovations in the digital signal-processing algorithms,” said senior author Kimani C. Toussaint, Jr. “Instead, as optics researchers, we’re focusing on what can be achieved by engineering the light itself; we think we’re scratching the surface in what could be a new, and more accurate way to obtain better quality PPG signals.”
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Funded by: Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Program, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
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
As the world burns hotter and hotter, we are having to find new ways to deal with fire. I have two stories about fire and technology in the Northern Hemisphere. Perhaps later this year I will be able to round this out with stories about fire and technology from the Southern Hemisphere once the seasons shift. Although I world prefer that at least part of this planet has a quiet fire season.
Europe: France, Spain, and Portugal
John Laurenson wrote an August 4 (?), 2026 article for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news online about the technology being developed to fight fires
Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes across France, Spain and Portugal as wildfires tore through forests and countryside.
In France, four men have already lost their lives fighting the wildfires and another 150 have been injured.
But why are humans and 30-year old planes being used? Why can drones replace soldiers in Ukraine but not firefighters?
Chief sergeant Guillaume Millet, a firefighter of 24 years experience heads the Fire and Rescue Service branch of the CFDT union in the Gironde, the region worst hit by wildfires in France this summer.
He says that while the techniques for tackling fire have not changed much, technology in forest fire detection has.
“The big change, especially in my département, is that now we’ve got cameras assisted by artificial intelligence to watch the forest and see where fires are starting,” Millet says.
“In the Gironde, cameras have replaced the human look-outs we had in watch towers in every town throughout the summer months,” he says. Those lookouts were often students.
The switch has reduced false alarms, he says. “An AI-assisted camera can distinguish with almost total certainty between smoke and dust thrown up by a tractor in a field, for example.”
They have an impressive range as well, detecting fires up to 20km (12 miles) away.
In the Gironde, the system was installed by a company called Midgard. In other parts of France, it’s another French start-up called FireTracking.
“As soon as the system detects a fire, there’s an alert on the fire fighters’ telephones. They open the application and see what the camera is seeing with a x40 [40 times] zoom,” explains FireTracking’s CEO Jean-Simon Chaudier.
“Next to that real-time video there’s a map with the exact location of the fire, the position of any nearby houses and a simulation of how, given the weather, the level of humidity and so on, it is expected to spread from minute to minute,” he adds.
And every minute is vital. “For the past 10 days, for example, we have the feedback from a firefighter that our AI detected seven fires 15 minutes before the first phone call. If you can help a firefighter to save 15 minutes, it’s the difference between a catastrophe and a fire which can be limited to two or three hectares,” Chaudier says.
“After one minute you can put out a fire with a glass of water, after two you need a tank of water, after three minutes you need to send a Canadair,” Chaudier says, talking about the amphibious planes that scoop up water from rivers, lakes and the sea to dump it on the flames that are the spearhead of forest fire fighting here and around the world.
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AI fire detection is going to get better over the coming years. The French civil protection service has a programme called Condor, for example, which is testing solar-powered drones that carry out continuous patrols with electro-optical cameras and AI.
There are also projects with sensors placed among the trees. Spain’s SenForFire, for example, which measures gases released before flames become visible.
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TankerVision: AI-powered fire prediction (a Canadian initiative)
As wildfires grow larger, faster and impact more communities across Canada, researchers at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) are developing new technology that could give first responders a critical advantage: the ability to predict how a fire will evolve hours into the future.
Professor Steven Waslander (UTIAS) is working with researchers at Natural Resources Canada and Simon Fraser University on TankerVision — a project aimed at creating more accurate, AI-powered fire prediction models.
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The team has partnered with government agencies and industry, including BC Wildfire, Alberta Wildfire, Canadian Forestry Services, aircraft operator Conair Aerial Firefighting, and Voxelis, a wildfire monitoring service provider.
“Wildfire growth is currently estimated using 15 to 20 prescribed burns from the 1980s, plus data on weather, wind and forest conditions, all fused with decades of human experience,” says Waslander.
“But this method hasn’t been adapted to current fire severity increases due to climate change and involved a great deal of extrapolation from a limited dataset.”
“Our big idea here is to use AI and computer vision to capture unprecedented numbers of fires from the air to build more sophisticated, data-driven wildfire prediction models.”
To do this, high‑resolution colour and infrared cameras and computers are installed inside the piloted aircraft that are currently used to monitor and fight fires.
In 2024, the team began collecting data onboard a bird-dog aircraft, which circles above wildfires to guide water bombers. These planes spend hours tracking the fire line, making them ideal for gathering continuous, high‑quality footage.
:All the storage is on board the aircraft so our partners can review the data before we start working on it to make sure we aren’t logging any confidential information.”
First, each image is segmented by AI to identify which pixels correspond to fire, smoke or ground. This is trickier than it sounds, as capturing the extent of smoke in an image can be difficult for modern segmentation techniques.
The task poses similar challenges to autonomous navigation in adverse weather conditions — variables Waslander is already familiar with as the lead investigator of the WinTOR all-weather driving program.
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“Last season, we logged 50 fires, which is currently the highest number recorded in one season,” says Waslander.
“This year, we plan to expand the data collection efforts to three aircraft and hope to capture more than 100 wildfires, sufficient to start developing and validating our prediction models.”
The team is now preparing hardware for this fire season and hopes to expand partnerships across the country, including in Ontario, to help transform how Canada responds to wildfires.
The team’s first research paper, focused on segmentation, has been submitted, with a full-system paper and public dataset planned for release in fall 2026.
Waslander says the project resonates deeply with students and researchers who have witnessed the increase in severe fires firsthand.
“I think everyone involved in the project really feels passionately about the direction we’re going and see it as an opportunity to make a real impact on keeping us safe in the years to come as things get hotter,” says Waslander.
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I can’t find anything more about TankerVision on the Natural Resources Canada or Simon Fraser University websites. Hopefully more information will become available.
Replacing firefighters?
The short answer is: not anytime soon. All these technology initiatives are aimed at improving our ability to find hot sports and fires and to respond quickly.
Before diving into the story, Vancouver Police Department’s ‘robo cop’ was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) a few years ago and for anyone unfamiliar with the disease, here’s more from the ALS Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare terminal neurodegenerative disease defined by the progressive loss of both upper and lower motor neurons that normally control voluntary muscle contraction. ALS is the most common of the motor neuron diseases.[8] ALS often presents with gradual muscle stiffness, twitches, weakness, and wasting. Motor neuron loss typically continues until the ability to eat, speak, move, and breathe without mechanical support is lost. At least 50% of people with ALS experience significant changes in thinking and behavior, with 15% of individuals going on to develop frontotemporal dementia.[9][10] …
Lee Marten, right, is a Vancouver police sergeant who is one of the first Canadians to be implanted with a Neuralink brain chip in a bid to help him with symptoms of ALS or spinal injuries. His wife, Lisa, is seen in Toronto Western Hospital on May 20 before his procedure. (Submitted by Lisa Marten)
That prognosis makes the decision to go ahead with an experimental brain implant instantly understandable. Lyndsay Duncombe’s July 2, 2026 article for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news online website details the officer’s and his family’s story,
Sitting in his wheelchair, hands at his side, 48-year-old Lee Marten looks at the computer screen in front of him and imagines moving the cursor across the screen. As quickly as he thinks it, the arrow shifts.
Marten, who is a sergeant with the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) currently on leave, uses the cursor to type letters on a digital keyboard — as fast as, or faster, than human fingers. Right away, the latest Toronto Blue Jays score pops up.
“I know it seems like science fiction,” he said. “But here I am and it works.”
On May 20 [2026], Marten became one of the first Canadian ALS patients to receive a Neuralink brain implant, as part of a clinical trial at University Health Network’s (UHN) Toronto Western Hospital.
He is just the 26th person in the world to undergo the procedure, which is being tested on people unable to move because of ALS or spinal injuries. At least two other Canadians, both quadriplegics, are also known to have received the implant in Canada, and a dual American-Canadian citizen with ALS has had the procedure done in the U.S.
Neuralink is owned by controversial trillionaire [not now on August 5, 2026] Elon Musk, and the hospital has faced criticism for participating in the trial.
But Marten sees the procedure as a chance to improve his quality of life and advance science in a way that could help others.
“Getting a terminal diagnosis, you don’t have much to look forward to,” he said.
“This is going to maybe improve my time that I have left, and allow me to be a kind of trailblazer for anyone else going through this.”
Long road to diagnosis
Marten’s symptoms began in April 2022. He was working on the bike patrol with the Vancouver Police Department when his left foot began to drop.
At first, he thought it was a cycling injury, but he kept losing his balance. A fall off the steps to his garage led to a broken leg.
Doctors attributed the symptoms to a benign brain tumour and Marten had surgery to remove it in March 2024.
But the mobility problems continued to worsen, and three years after he first felt unwell, the devastating diagnosis came. ALS was destroying the nerve cells in his brain and spinal cord. It is progressive and there is no cure.
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The disease’s progression varies from patient to patient, but Marten said the hardest part about knowing he will die from ALS is that he won’t be able to watch his children, Rys, 14, and Carys, 11, grow up.
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“People joke that I’m going to be RoboCop,” he said, laughing, in an interview shortly before the procedure.
“I’m going to be a cyborg, right?”
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The Martens’ biggest hope for the surgery was that it would allow him to communicate with family through a computer after he is no longer able to physically speak.
Lisa said this will be helpful with medical decisions, including those around a potential medically-assisted death.
“We can get his true feelings on what he wants to do,” she said.
The trial at UHN’s Toronto Western Hospital, CAN-PRIME, is one of a handful of Neuralink studies taking part across the world, including ones in the U.S., U.K. and Abu Dhabi.
The procedure involves implanting more than 1,000 electrodes, each thinner than a human hair, into the brain’s motor cortex. Surgeons open the skull and prepare the site, but the electrodes are inserted by a two-metre-tall robot shipped to Toronto from San Francisco.
“The robot is crucial because it’s much more accurate and precise than a human neurosurgeon could do,” said Dr. Andres Lozano, who leads the neurosurgery team at UHN’s Toronto Western.
The hospital has faced criticism for participating in the trial, including from an emergency physician who said that Canadian institutions should not work with companies owned by Musk, who was behind U.S. government cuts to global health. Neuralink has also been criticized for how it shares information.
Lozano said the trial went through a series of ethical screens, and passed all of them. [emphasis mine]
“We jumped at the opportunity to participate because we think the technology is very advanced and we think it really has an opportunity to help patients,” he said, adding that it may be possible in the future for paralyzed patients to control movement of a wheelchair, or even a specialized exoskeleton, through Neuralink brain implants.
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A ‘scary’ change in plans
The day of Marten’s surgery started with stress when they learned his surgery would be different from those of previous Neuralink patients.
For the first time, surgeons would not peel back the dura, or protective layer around the brain. Instead, the robot would insert the chip through the dura.
Lozano called it a “tremendous advance in technology” that could make the operation simpler, and safer.
But the new plan made Lisa nervous.
“They didn’t tell us until just before he went in that he was going to be the first person in the world to have the new procedure done,” she said. “That’s where it got a little scary.”
Lee, on the other hand, was ready.
“I’m like, let’s get ‘er done.”
The procedure took six hours and doctors say it was a success.
Marten woke up in the ICU with 27 staples in his scalp and a brutal headache. Painkillers helped, and he says about an hour after waking up, he was working with Neuralink engineers to try out the device.
“They told me I was the first out of all the participants [to] do that so soon after surgery,” he said. “And I’m like, well, Canadians are just built tougher.”
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Since returning to Vancouver, he has “homework” that consists of doing exercises every couple of days so the Neuralink engineers can monitor how the device is working. It keeps him busy.
Marten has plans to make playlists for his kids, and play video games with them, even when he can no longer move or speak.
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Duncombe’s July 2, 2026 article offers more including images and an embedded video. There’s also a five minute CBC Radio interview of Lindsay Duncombe by Stephen Quinn on CBC’s The Early Edition. Dunscombe was a bit of an ‘easy, breezy’ interview subject who displays the kind of enthusiasm you’d expect from someone presenting science to children; the sort of thing you might expect at a science centre. (Confession: Sometimes I sound like an enthused science fan too.)
It doesn’t seem enough to say bravo to the Martens; they are facing an extraordinarily difficult time with grace and courage.
Now, onto some of the issues not explored in Duncombe’s article or interview.
Ethics and other issues
What struck me in Duncombe’s account is the UHN’s failure to alert the family to a change in how the surgery would be conducted. Six hours notice? Someone had to know that procedure would be different. Wasn’t the surgical team prepped for this change long before? There seems to no reason to give the family only sic hours notice.
Regarding ethics, there’s this somewhat unclear statement in Duncombe’s July 2, 2026 article “Lozano (Dr. Andres Lozano, who leads the neurosurgery team) said the trial went through a series of ethical screens, and passed all of them.”
Whose (which institution? Health Canada, University of Toronto, Toronto Western Hospital?) ethical screens?
Who (which institution? …) conducted these analyses?
How did giving the family six hours notice of a significant change in the operation pass an ethical test?
Does the university and/or the hospital have a financial relationship of any kind with Neuralink?
Does the surgical lead, Dr. Andres Lozano, have any kind of financial relationship with Neuralink?
Is it a good idea to get brain implants from commercial companies?
What about Lee Marten’s thoughts? Does he own them?
I have over the years written a number of pieces about brain or neural implants with a focus on some of these questions. This list includes a number of my postings but I’m going to start the list with a CBC article by Sheena Goodyear,
Why your brain could be the next frontier of data privacy, an October 11, 2024 article by Sheena Goodyear on the CBC Radio’s As It Happens webpage. It includes the As It Happens radio segment along with other embedded materials exploring the issue of neural privacy.
Tech companies want your brain (data), an April 23, 2026 takes a look at data derived from consumer products marketed as devices that aid with meditation or relaxation or focus and worn externally can harvest brain date used for research purposes. Did you check that contract you signed?
There appears to be some action by the Canadian federal government to address privacy issues with neural data. First, here’s a February 13, 2026 opinion piece by Kris Klein for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) about the Canadian federal government’s addition to a list of what constitutes sensitive information, Note: A link has been removed,
Privacy professionals have long lived with a comforting illusion: that “sensitive information” is a relatively stable concept. Health data is sensitive. Financial data is sensitive. Social Insurance Numbers are sensitive. This mental list has served us well for years and fits neatly into training decks and compliance frameworks.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada [OPC] has gently reminded us that this list is not static.
This week, the OPC updated its Interpretation Bulletin on Sensitive Information under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which consolidates court decisions and OPC findings on what counts as sensitive personal information and what that means for consent and safeguards. What’s new? Your brain has now officially entered the chat. The OPC added neural data among the types of personal information that will generally be considered sensitive and require a higher degree of protection.
The bulletin explains a principle privacy professionals know well but sometimes treat as theoretical. While some types of information will almost always be sensitive, any personal information can become sensitive depending on context. Names and addresses are the classic example. Usually harmless, unless the context reveals something deeply personal about the individual.
Under PIPEDA, sensitivity drives two critical compliance outcomes: the form of consent an organization must obtain and the level of security safeguards it must apply. In other words, sensitivity is not an academic label. It determines how hard organizations must work to justify collection, explain purposes and protect the data they hold.
Neural data, now formally on the “sensitive personal information” list broadly refers to information derived from the activity of the nervous system, particularly the brain. This can include data collected through technologies such as electroencephalography, brain computer interfaces, neuroimaging tools or wearable devices designed to measure brain signals. In practice, this can range from clinical brain scans to consumer-facing technologies that claim to monitor our focus, fatigue or emotional states.
In a nutshell, it is data generated by your brain doing brain things.
Used responsibly, neural data has clear benefits. In health care, it can support diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation for neurological conditions. In accessibility contexts, brain computer interfaces have the potential to restore communication or mobility for individuals with severe disabilities. In workplace safety and transportation, fatigue detection technologies are being explored as tools to reduce accidents.
At the same time, the risks are not subtle. Neural data is deeply intimate. It may reveal health conditions, cognitive states or emotional responses that individuals themselves do not fully understand or expect to disclose. Unlike a password, you can’t simply reset your brain. Unlike a credit card number, neural patterns are not easily replaced.
The OPC’s decision to flag neural data as sensitive reflects these realities. It signals that some information is so personal that heightened care is not optional. Organizations collecting or experimenting with neural data should assume that meaningful consent must be robust, safeguards must be proportionate and purposes must be tightly defined.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has added “neural data” to the list of personal information that will generally be considered sensitive and require a higher degree of protection. See the section: Application by the Courts and the OPC in Different Contexts.
Today [June 16, 2026], the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-36, an Act to enact the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act (PPCDA), to amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act [PIPEDA] and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts.
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In a June 17, 2026 blog posting on his companies website (CloudForce) Anton Kuznetsov outlines changes in the proposed bill C-36 that will affect Canadian businesses, Note: Links have been removed,
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Why Canada Needed a New Privacy Law
PIPEDA has governed commercial privacy for 25 years. It was built for a world without cloud infrastructure, AI-driven decision-making, or mass data brokerage. Its enforcement model reflects that: the Privacy Commissioner investigates, recommends, and can apply to Federal Court, but cannot impose fines directly. The maximum penalty for a violation is $100,000.
That limitation has consequences. In 2024-25, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner received 686 breach reports from private-sector businesses under PIPEDA — affecting over 20 million Canadians. Complaints to the OPC rose 32% in the same period. (OPC 2024-25 Annual Report) The average cost of a Canadian data breach reached CA$6.98 million in 2025 — a 10.4% increase year-over-year. (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 – Canada) The enforcement regime was not designed for this environment.
Bill C-36 is the Carney government’s response — a revised version of Bill C-27, which died on the Order Paper when Parliament prorogued in January 2025. (IAPP, Canada’s Bill C-36 introduces privacy reforms, enforcement changes)
What Changes: PIPEDA to PPCDA
Bill C-36 enacts the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act (PPCDA), which replaces Part 1 of PIPEDA — the commercial privacy section. PIPEDA itself survives in narrowed form, renamed the *Electronic Documents Act*, covering only its electronic documents and signatures provisions.
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Dr. Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law and more) offers a rather peppery analysis of the proposed legislation in a June 15, 2026 blog posting and another on June 18, 2026 on his eponymous website.
I have not been able to find a reference to neural data or any other neural implant issues in the discussion about Bill C-36. If someone has located something, please let me know in the Comments.
In the end
Given the same circumstances, if I had been presented with the choice that the Martens were given, I too would have opted for the implant. Desperation will drive you to places you might not visit elsewise.
That six hour notice of a change prior to the operation? It rings alarm bells and brings to mind “move fast and break things” usually accompanied by “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission,” both of them favourites in the technology sector. Neuralink, after all, is a company owned by Elon Musk who is not famed for his deliberation or thoughtfulness and his companies are not known for their openness (see: 2025’s “The Tesla Files; a Whistleblower, a Leak, a Fight for Truth : the Inside Story of Musk’s Empire” by Sönke Iwersen for more about Musk’s Tesla operations [focus on European operations] and its level of secrecy).
There are other issues as well, what happens if the company goes out of business or discontinues this particular product?
I don’t imagine the federal government will manage to cover every contingency but it is concerning that Prime Minister Carney’s Liberals are in such a rush to stimulate ‘innovation’ that they appear oblivious to the implications of technology such as computer-brain interfaces (CBI) and more. For many, (see CBC Radio interview of Lindsay Duncombe) it is treated as the stuff of futuristic science fiction. As you can see from this piece and a cornucopia of articles elsewhere in print and online, that belief is deeply erroneous.
Hopefully, I’m wrong and the Canadian federal government is alive to the many possibilities good and ill afforded by these ‘science fiction’ technologies and is examining ways to ensure safe implementation.
Caption: The left image shows the tomato-picking robot and camera. The right image shows a ‘robot-eye view’ of the tomatoes. Red represents mature fruits, green indicates immature fruits, and blue indicates selected harvesting targets. Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University
In the agricultural sector, labor shortages are increasing the need for automated harvesting using robots. However, some fruits, like tomatoes, are tricky to harvest. Tomatoes typically bear fruit in clusters, requiring robots to pick the ripe ones while leaving the rest on the vine, demanding advanced decision-making and control capabilities.
To teach robots how to become tomato pickers, Osaka Metropolitan University Assistant Professor Takuya Fujinaga, Graduate School of Engineering, programmed them to evaluate the ease of harvesting for each tomato before attempting to pick it.
Fujinaga’s new model uses image recognition paired with statistical analysis to evaluate the optimal approach direction for each fruit. The system involves image processing/vision of the fruit, its stems, and whether it is concealed behind another part of the plant. These factors inform robot control decisions and help it choose the best approach.
The model represents a shift in focus from the traditional ‘detection/recognition’ model to what Fujinaga calls a ‘harvest‑ease estimation’. “This moves beyond simply asking ‘can a robot pick a tomato?’ to thinking about ‘how likely is a successful pick?’, which is more meaningful for real‑world farming,” he explained.
When tested, Fujinaga’s new model demonstrated an 81% success rate, far above predictions. Notably, about a quarter of the successes were tomatoes that were successfully harvested from the right or left side that had previously failed to be harvested by a front approach. This suggested that the robot changed its approach direction when it initially struggled to pick the fruit.
Ultimately, Fujinaga’s research highlights the nuance involved in fruit-picking for robots with factors including fruit clustering, stem geometry, background leaves, and occlusion all being important. “This research establishes ‘ease of harvesting’ as a quantitatively evaluable metric, bringing us one step closer to the realization of agricultural robots that can make informed decisions and act intelligently,” he said.
Fujinaga sees a future where robots will be able to independently determine whether crops are ready for harvest. “This is expected to usher in a new form of agriculture where robots and humans collaborate,” he explained. “Robots will automatically harvest tomatoes that are easy to pick, while humans will handle the more challenging fruits.”
A strawberry being dipped in the agar-based solution. Credit: Clare Kiernan.
University of British Columbia researchers have developed an edible, seaweed-derived coating that can keep strawberries fresh for at least four days at room temperature, outperforming uncoated berries stored in the fridge.
The breakthrough could help address one of the food industry’s most persistent challenges: reducing food waste. Nearly half of all food produced in Canada is lost or wasted, costing the economy an estimated $58 billion annually. Fresh fruits and vegetables are particularly vulnerable to spoilage, losing moisture and becoming susceptible to mould and bacteria during storage and transport.
Published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the findings offer a simple approach for extending produce shelf life and reducing reliance on refrigeration across the supply chain. Maintaining cold temperatures from farm to warehouse to truck to grocery store requires significant energy and infrastructure, especially for fresh produce transported over long distances.
“We wanted to find a simple alternative to cold storage,” said senior author Dr. Tianxi Yang, an assistant professor in UBC’s faculty of land and food systems. “Once we added the coating, the fruit became far less sensitive to changes in temperature and moisture and stayed fresh longer.”
A familiar ingredient, reimagined
The coating is made from agar, a substance derived from red seaweed that is widely used as a vegan alternative to gelatin and as a thickener in foods like puddings and jellies. On its own, agar forms a thick gel. But when researchers combined it with zinc, an essential nutrient, and tannic acid, a naturally occurring plant compound found in grapes and tea, the material transformed — self-assembling into tiny microparticles that create a thin protective layer around the fruit.
When dipped in the solution, strawberries, grapes and apple slices emerged with a thin, edible coating that dried completely clear.
“It was exciting to watch the particles self-assemble in real time, from a cloudy, milky liquid into this incredibly uniform, protective layer,” said doctoral student Ivy Chiu, the study’s lead author. “To our knowledge, no one had made an agar-based microparticle coating like this before.”
Fresher, longer, with a lighter footprint
Over four days at room temperature, coated strawberries lost less than half as much water as uncoated fruit and remained noticeably firmer, with more vitamin C and antioxidants preserved. Grapes and apple slices showed similar benefits, with improvements lasting 14 days and 24 hours, respectively.
By comparison, untreated strawberries stored at room temperature began developing mould within two days, while refrigeration only extended their shelf life slightly — most untreated berries began to deteriorate by day four.
Coated strawberries stored without refrigeration remained mould-free for at least four days, while those stored in the fridge stayed fresh for at least six days.
The coating also showed antibacterial properties and no signs of toxicity in tests using human intestinal cells. For consumers who prefer to remove the coating before eating, most of it can be washed away with tap water within two minutes.
A life-cycle assessment found that the coating has a 14 per cent lower carbon footprint than conventional refrigeration and reduces freshwater ecotoxicity by about 85 per cent, largely by reducing reliance on the electricity and refrigerants required for cold storage.
From lab to grocery aisle
To assess its potential for real-world use, the team replaced laboratory-grade agar with commercially available food-grade agar. The results remained consistent, with coated strawberries showing reduced moisture loss and spoilage while maintaining quality.
“Our hope is to help keep produce fresh for longer throughout the food system,” said Dr. Yang. “If we can reduce spoilage during storage and transportation, we can reduce food waste while using less energy to preserve food.”
The research team is now testing the coating on additional fruits and vegetables and investigating how it could be scaled, tested and integrated into commercial food systems.
