Bio-Based MOF Aerogel Combines Electromagnetic Shielding, Fire Resistance, and Insulation
Researchers at Beijing Institute of Technology and the University of Southern Queensland have created a bio‑based aerogel that merges electromagnetic shielding, fire resistance, thermal insulation, and sound absorption. By embedding nickel‑based metal‑organic frameworks into a cellulose matrix and carbonizing the composite, the material achieves a minimum microwave reflection loss of over ‑50 dB while cutting peak heat release by more than 60 %. The aerogel contains only about 5 % filler by weight, preserving ultralight density and matching the thermal conductivity of commercial insulators. Laboratory tests also show broad‑band acoustic damping, positioning the material as a multifunctional solution for aerospace, EVs, and energy‑efficient buildings.
Stevie Nicks and Sabrina Carpenter Sing 'Landslide' At Met Gala
Stevie Nicks made her Met Gala debut on May 5, 2026, sharing the stage with pop star Sabrina Carpenter for duets of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and “Don’t Stop.” Nicks’ four‑song set also featured “Gypsy” and her solo anthem “Edge of Seventeen,” while Carpenter performed...
One Simple Tip to Learn Faster and Remember More
The post explains that brief periods of eyes‑closed rest after learning dramatically improve memory retention, rivaling the benefits of a short nap. Studies show a 15‑minute rest session can double recall of newly learned material and sustain the advantage a...
People Who Find Small Talk Exhausting May Not Necessarily Be Introverted — some Simply Find the Performance of Pleasantness More...
The article argues that exhaustion from small talk often stems from the performance of pleasantness, not introversion. It distinguishes authentic, brief exchanges that feel energizing from scripted, prolonged pleasantries that require constant self‑monitoring. The author explains why this “performed” interaction...
The First Modern Car Without Hydraulic Brakes Is Headed to Production
Brembo unveiled Sensify, a fully electronic brake‑by‑wire system that eliminates traditional hydraulic fluid and components. The plug‑and‑play solution can be embedded in a vehicle’s zonal architecture or added to existing platforms, and it is designed to support advanced driver‑assistance and...
One Step at a Time: Keep Going
Reminder from a Psychologist: You’ve got this. You can do hard things. One step at a time. Take a break if you need but please don’t give up on yourself. You’ll get there. Slowly if needed. You’ll see.
Reading Books Adds Years to Your Life
Reading books can help you live longer. Here are 5 studies that show how: 1) Researchers followed 3,635 adults aged 50 and older over 12 years and examined how reading habits related to survival. They found that people who regularly read books...
HHS Unveils Plan To Curb Psychiatric Overprescribing, Encourage Tapering
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a coordinated plan to curb the overprescribing of psychiatric medications and promote safe tapering for patients. The initiative brings together the Administration for Children and Families, the Centers for Medicare &...
Healing Deep Wounds While Managing Everyday Life
It's honestly so simple. Just heal your family trauma, regulate your nervous system, break your addictions, process centuries of cultural trauma, repair your attachment style, reparent your inner child, and develop a spiritual practice that dissolves the boundaries between self and...
How Lifeson Convinced Emmett to Bring His 'Fat Bastard' On Tour
Canadian rock veterans Triumph have resumed touring with their "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded" trek, featuring guitarist Rik Emmett wielding a white double‑neck Gibson after a nudge from Rush’s Alex Lifeson. The tour, running from April 10 to early June with a makeup...
Move Your Body When Words Fail
Not everything needs words. Some things just need to move. If you feel stuck, try this— hum, sigh, make sound… let your body do what your mind can’t.
HTeaO Partners with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for May Fundraiser
Iced‑tea franchise HTeaO is teaming with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for a month‑long fundraiser in May. Starting May 1, customers can round up their purchase to the nearest dollar, and the chain will swap its blue straws for yellow ones to...
STAT+: Are Analysts Too Quick to Gloss over Lilly’s Liver Case?
Analysts are being criticized for downplaying a recent liver safety issue at Eli Lilly, raising concerns about market oversight. Meanwhile, biotech earnings showed mixed results, with Vertex shelving an mRNA cystic fibrosis candidate and Pfizer and Alkermes delivering near‑consensus Q1 numbers....
Introducing Our Fall 2026 Catalog
Duke University Press released its Fall 2026 catalog, showcasing books slated for publication from June through December 2026. The centennial edition features a nostalgic cover collage and a special message from Director Dean J. Smith. Readers can pre‑order selected titles at a...
My Meatloaf’s Secret Ingredient Impresses Top Chefs
In my latest “Next Course” essay, I share a recipe for the meatloaf I served two top chefs and chat with Francis Lam, the voice behind “The Splendid Table.” https://nextcourse.beehiiv.com/p/the-secret-ingredient-in-my-go-to-comfort-food
Ideas Podcast: Furious Minds
Laura K. Field’s new book *Furious Minds* dissects the intellectual currents that forged the MAGA New Right and fed the second Trump administration. Drawing on Straussian political theory, she charts three overlapping camps—Claremonters, Postliberals and National Conservatives—and shows how their...
Former IndyCar Driver Sam Schmidt On The Power Of Purpose
Former IndyCar champion Sam Schmidt explains how a defined purpose transformed his post‑racing ventures. He details the shift from pure competition to purpose‑driven leadership at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and his venture‑building portfolio. By embedding purpose into hiring, sponsorship negotiations, and...
How Accurate Is Your Smartwatch Data?
Smartwatch accuracy has markedly improved, especially in GPS tracking, where dual‑band GNSS now limits marathon‑scale errors to 200‑600 m. However, wrist‑based heart‑rate sensors still suffer from cadence lock, cold‑induced blood flow reduction, and vibration, making chest‑strap or dedicated armband monitors the...
Two Good Books
The post spotlights two distinct novels as fresh reading recommendations. "The Correspondent," a 285‑page epistolary debut by Virginia Evans, was released in 2025 by Penguin Random House and follows a septuagenarian’s letter‑filled life in Annapolis. "Mating," a roughly 500‑page work...
How To Crack Eggs Like A Bakery Pro And Shave Time Off Every Dessert
Professional bakers often crack two eggs against each other instead of using a bowl rim, a method that speeds up high‑volume baking. The technique creates a clean break in one shell while the other remains intact, minimizing stray fragments. After...
The First Male Neanderthal Genome
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have released the first high‑coverage male Neanderthal genome, extracted from a 110,000‑year‑old bone found in Russia’s Altai Mountains. The genome reveals a small, roughly 50‑person population with signs of inbreeding, and shows that the...
Watch Stevie Nicks and Pop Superstar Sabrina Carpenter Duet on Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide at at the Met Gala
Stevie Nicks made her first Met Gala appearance on May 4, sharing the stage with pop star Sabrina Carpenter for a duet of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.” Nicks then performed “Gypsy,” “Edge of Seventeen,” and closed with “Don’t Stop” backed by a 12‑piece choir and Carpenter’s...
The Movie’s Called Tony, But All I See Is Antonio Banderas
A24 released the first trailer for *Tony* on the same day as the Tony Awards nominations, turning the awards buzz into a film‑marketing event. The biopic follows a 19‑year‑old Anthony Bourdain during a wild summer in Provincetown, with Dominic Sessa...
'KPop Demon Hunters' Passes 1 Billion Viewing Hours
Netflix’s original film “KPop Demon Hunters” has crossed the 1 billion viewing‑hour threshold, making it the platform’s most‑watched title over any six‑month span. The movie reached peak weekly viewership 11 weeks after launch, defying the typical early‑peak pattern of Netflix releases....
Anthony Seldon Found Hope in Auschwitz
Historian and biographer Anthony Seldon has released his latest work, *The Path of Light*, chronicling a 1,300‑kilometre trek to Auschwitz. The book intertwines personal observations with stories of wartime courage, resistance and moral clarity. Seldon uses the pilgrimage to draw...
Research Shows Sulfur Cathodes Show High Theoretical Promise, but Practical Battery Performance Remains a Major Barrier
A new Nature review highlights sulfur cathodes’ extraordinary theoretical energy density—up to 2,600 Wh/kg and 1,675 mAh/g—but shows that performance collapses when cells are built to commercial standards. Under realistic sulfur loadings of 4‑6 mg/cm² and lean electrolyte (<5 µL/mg), capacities fall to 400‑600 mAh/g...
Astronomers Explore the Surface Composition of a Nearby Super-Earth
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured infrared spectra of the nearby super‑Earth LHS 3844b, revealing mineral signatures that indicate a silicate‑rich, airless surface. The planet, 48 light‑years from Earth and roughly 1.3 times Earth’s radius, orbits its red‑dwarf host every 11...
Start ADHD Tasks Calmly: Expert Tips to Prevent Conflict
A child behaviour expert tip: how to help an ADHD child start tasks without fights or shutdowns.
Croz Boyce Share “Steven’s Sunshine Rejected” Video Ahead of Friday’s Debut Album
Croz Boyce, the new instrumental duo of Animal Collective’s Avey Tare and Geologist, released their second single “Steven’s Sunshine Rejected” ahead of their self‑titled debut album dropping on May 8 via Domino. The track is paired with an underwater river video...
Hello From Puglia
The author writes from a small desk in Lecce, Italy, shortly after launching a new book and hosting a food tour. She describes Lecce as unusually clean, quiet, and uncrowded, contrasting it with typical Italian city scenes. The post highlights...
Finn Wolfhard Announces North American Headline Tour
Actor‑musician Finn Wolfhard announced a North American headline tour to promote his upcoming second album, Fire From The Hip, slated for release on July 10, 2026. The tour launches on July 17 in Washington, DC, and will travel across the United States...
Rotated Lithium Niobate Crystals Unlock Conductive Interfaces in Otherwise Insulating Material
Researchers at Paderborn University and international partners have shown that rotating two lithium niobate crystals creates highly conductive interfaces, even though the bulk material is insulating. By thermally compressing and twisting the crystals at precise angles, they observed emergent conductivity...
Siri Hustvedt’s Heartbreaking Memoir Is a Study of Love and Loss
Siri Hustvedt’s new memoir "Ghost Stories" chronicles the first year after the death of her husband, celebrated novelist Paul Auster, in 2024. The book weaves personal reflections, journal excerpts, and Auster’s letters to their grandson Miles into a scholarly meditation...
Podcast: Why Your Brain Always Wants More, and How to Fix It
The Two Percent podcast features Leidy Klotz, a UVA professor whose research reveals a pervasive bias: people favor adding solutions over subtracting, even when subtraction is optimal. Klotz’s work, highlighted in a Nature paper, shows that subtractive changes improve health,...
28ft Rogue Wave Slams Florida Beach ‘Like a Tsunami’ (Video)
A 28‑foot rogue wave slammed Fort De Soto beach in the Florida Gulf, tossing tents, chairs and beachgoers into the surf. The incident follows a University of South Florida study that recorded 32 rogue waves in Tampa Bay over a four‑year span,...
Bad Bunny’s Ageing Transformation At The 2026 Met Gala
Bad Bunny arrived at the 2026 Met Gala as an aged alter‑ego, complete with grey hair, a beard and hyper‑realistic prosthetic skin. The transformation, engineered by makeup artist Mike Marino, directly referenced the Costume Institute’s “Costume Art” theme focused on the...
Own Your Mistakes, Unlock Real Growth
This quote never fails to humble me. And I keep coming back to it for a reason. When something goes wrong again and again, the tempting move is to look outward: The deadline. The market. The team. The timing. At some point I have to ask:...
Here’s All the Free Content Coming to Tubi This Month
Tubi is rolling out a massive free‑content slate on May 1, 2026, adding dozens of movies and series across action, horror, sci‑fi, romance, and more. The platform also debuts three new originals – a six‑part World Cup docuseries, a Formula 1 alt‑cast...
Your Brain Isn’t Broken. Your System Is.
The post argues that conventional productivity hacks fail for adults with ADHD because they assume consistent motivation and linear task execution. It reviews Tanvir .I’s new book *Finally Focused*, which redesigns productivity around dopamine cycles, time blindness, and executive‑function deficits....
Authenticity Beats Fame: Discomfort Fuels True Fulfillment
"My life was a fraud. And my reason for existence was convincing people that I was not a fraud." Mike Posner had the hits. The money. The recognition. And he was miserable. Because avoiding discomfort doesn't protect you; it hollows...
Top Corp Illegally Trains AI on Pirated Authors' Books
“I find it distressing and infuriating that one of the top-10 richest corporations in the world knowingly used pirated copies of my books, and thousands of other authors, to train Llama, which can and has produced competing material,” Turow https://t.co/wCFSd4NIR0...
✘ How Many People Does It Take to Change a Band?
The article examines how lineup changes affect a band’s identity and longevity, citing examples from Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Steely Dan, The Fall, and the Velvet Underground. It argues that a band can survive, reinvent, or collapse depending on whether a core creative vision...
Russia's Ekspress‑AMU4 Launch Pushed to 2028
Ekspress-AMU4, Russia's first civilian geostationary communications satellite to be developed in isolation from the West, completed acoustic tests, but its launch just slipped from 2026 to 2028 due to components' delays... https://t.co/Mz5ys2bFrq
Breathe Into Painful Emotions to Reveal Your Needs
Our difficult emotions aren't just painful experiences that we need to tolerate. If we breathe into them for a moment, we’ll begin to see them as data that signposts our needs and values. https://t.co/QPiCLbqasQ
3 Reasons Kellie Pickler's 'American Idol' Return Was So Special
Kellie Pickler, 39, returned to the national stage on May 4, 2024, performing “A Broken Wing” with Hannah Harper on American Idol. The duet was part of a 20‑year class‑reunion episode that culminated in a Top 3 reveal. It marks Pickler’s first...
Large AI Models Gain Spatial Intelligence for Complex Robot Manipulation
A new Science #Robotics study endows large AI models with spatial intelligence, enabling them to guide robots through complex manipulation tasks such as orienting objects towards a camera or rearranging spoons to align them perfectly. https://t.co/HtYuOHGgTd https://t.co/5pEPLQOHeM
From Telecom to Longevity: Big Science Aging Talk
TODAY @ 10AM PT: LBF Conversation with Todd White @DToddWhite (Director @ Thalion Initiative). We'll be discussing Big Science for Aging Biology, fundraising, and his founder story pivoting from a career in telecom to longevity biotech. 👉 RSVP: https://t.co/UJP8xs8nrc
Dozens of Venice Biennale Artists Stage ‘Drone’ Perfomance in Protest of Israel’s Participation
The Venice Biennale’s professional pre‑opening featured about 60 artists staging a “Solidarity Drone Chorus” to protest Israel’s participation. The performers hummed a Gaza‑originated “Drone Song,” aiming to sonically occupy the space and echo the daily drone strikes that Palestinians endure....
BA Strips European Business Class Luxury to Speed Cleaning
British Airways Cuts “Last Hint Of Luxury” From European Business Class This Week — To Save Cleaning Time - View from the Wing https://t.co/diMlzB46ah
Manon Hily Clips the Chains on Trip Tik Tonik 5.14d
Manon Hily redpointed the classic French sport route Trip Tik Tonik (5.14d) in October 2025, marking her first ascent at that grade. The climb, originally graded 5.14b/c and upgraded to 5.14d after a 2011 hold removal, is renowned for its...