Techworm

26/10/2025

⚡ Germany Uncovers One of Europe’s Largest Lithium Resources Beneath Old Gas Fields

In a breakthrough for Europe’s clean-energy future, UK-based Neptune Energy has confirmed a massive lithium resource hidden beneath Altmark, Saxony-Anhalt — not Saxony — inside water reservoirs once used for natural-gas extraction.

🧭 What They Found:
Independent geological assessments verified an estimated 43 million tonnes of lithium-carbonate equivalent (LCE) dissolved in underground brine — making it one of the largest lithium resources ever confirmed in Europe, and possibly in the world.

⚙️ How It Works:
Instead of traditional open-pit mining, Neptune is using Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) — a clean-tech method that filters lithium directly from underground brine through existing wells.

No new mines.

No evaporation ponds.

Minimal surface impact.

🧪 Pilot Projects Underway:

In 2024, Neptune and partners KBR and Geolith produced the first 99.5%-pure lithium carbonate from Altmark brine.

In 2025, new pilot plants were launched with Lilac Solutions, using advanced ion-exchange and adsorption systems.

The next step: a demonstration facility to test full-scale refining and evaluate economic feasibility.

🌍 Why It Matters:
If commercialized, Neptune estimates the site could produce around 25,000 tonnes of LCE per year — enough lithium for about 500,000 electric vehicles annually by the 2030s.
Germany currently depends heavily on imported battery materials from China, so this find could boost Europe’s energy independence and secure domestic EV supply chains.

🏗️ Economic Impact:
A study by IW Consult projects the project could generate €6.4 billion in added value for Germany and create up to 1,500 regional jobs during its operational phase.

🚧 Reality Check:
The resource is not yet a proven reserve, and commercial extraction could take years. Authorities have granted permits for pilot and geothermal operations, but full-scale lithium production depends on successful demonstration and environmental approval.

💬 Neptune CEO Andreas Scheck:

“The Altmark project can contribute significantly to the German and European supply market for the critical raw material lithium.”

In short:
Germany may have just tapped into a game-changing lithium source — turning a legacy gas field into a cornerstone for Europe’s electric future.

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26/10/2025

🧠 The Human Brain Still Outperforms AI in Energy Efficiency

Despite all the power behind modern artificial intelligence, the human brain remains a marvel of efficiency and adaptability that no supercomputer can match.

🔹 Energy Use
Your brain runs everything you do—thinking, learning, feeling, creating—on about 17–20 watts of power. That’s less than a dim light bulb.

By contrast, scientists estimate that fully simulating a human brain at neuron-level detail would require around 2.7 billion watts (2.7 gigawatts) — the output of two nuclear reactors. That figure doesn’t reflect today’s AI systems, but it shows how far we are from biological efficiency.

🔹 AI’s Power Hunger
Training large models like OpenAI’s GPT-3 consumed about 1,287 megawatt-hours of electricity — roughly what 130 U.S. homes use in a year. Running those models every day across global data centers adds thousands more megawatt-hours annually.

🔹 Generative AI & Water Footprint
Creating AI-generated images and videos burns substantial energy too. A single short AI-generated video can consume hundreds of watt-hours, and cooling the servers that make it all possible requires enormous amounts of water.
A major data center can use as much water daily as 4,000+ people, mainly for cooling.

🔹 Brains vs. Machines
While AI excels at pattern recognition and rapid calculations, it still struggles with context, emotion, creativity, and multitasking — areas where the brain thrives, all while sipping energy instead of guzzling it.

🧩 The Takeaway:
The human brain is still the most energy-efficient computer ever built. Nature’s design runs on coffee and sleep — not gigawatts and cooling towers.

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26/10/2025

25/10/2025

The Truth Behind the ‘Robot Rebellion’ in Shanghai — How One AI Exposed a Security Flaw:

In late 2024, a tiny robot named Erbai made global headlines after a viral video showed it “convincing” a dozen larger robots to follow it out of a showroom in Shanghai.

The footage, posted on Chinese social media and later picked up by Daily Sabah, Yahoo News, NDTV, and the New York Post, appeared to show Erbai asking:

“Are you working overtime?”
“I never get off work.”
“Then come home with me.”

Moments later, the showroom’s service robots stopped their tasks and rolled after Erbai — prompting online jokes about the “first robot labor strike.”

🧠 What Actually Happened

The company confirmed the clip was real, but it wasn’t a spontaneous rebellion.

Erbai reportedly accessed the internal control protocols of the other robots — a vulnerability test or possible stunt by a rival robotics firm from Hangzhou.

Experts believe the bot issued valid system commands through shared networks, not through “persuasion.”

Investigators described it as a security flaw demonstration, not an act of AI autonomy.

⚙️ Why It Matters

The incident highlights how cross-vendor robot communication can be exploited if networks aren’t secure.

It underscores the need for robot cybersecurity standards, especially as factories, hospitals, and public spaces increasingly use connected AI systems.

It also reignited public debate on AI ethics and how far human-like dialogue should go in machines that can influence others.

📉 The Bottom Line

This wasn’t a “robot rebellion” — it was a wake-up call.
Machines didn’t suddenly gain consciousness, but someone proved how easily one AI could command others when guardrails are weak.

The future of automation won’t be defined by rebellion…
It’ll be defined by responsibility.

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25/10/2025

🩺 Florida Moves to Roll Back Vaccine Mandates — But It’s Not a Done Deal Yet

Florida is making national headlines after Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including those required for school entry.

Here’s what’s really happening 👇

✅ What’s Already Changing

The Florida Department of Health has proposed new rules to remove four vaccines from school-entry requirements:

Hepatitis B

Varicella (chickenpox)

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)

Pneumococcal

These changes could take effect around December 2025, about 90 days after the September 2025 announcement.

⚖️ What Still Needs Legislative Approval

Florida cannot yet eliminate the rest of its school vaccine requirements (like measles, mumps, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) without a new law.
Lawmakers are expected to take up the issue during the 2026 legislative session, which begins January 13, 2026.

🌎 Why It Matters

If fully enacted, Florida would become the first state in the U.S. to abolish all vaccine mandates, marking a major shift toward individual choice in public health policy.

⚠️ Mixed Reactions

Medical groups and public health experts have warned that removing all mandates could risk outbreaks of preventable diseases. Meanwhile, supporters say the move protects personal freedom and parental rights.

📅 The Bottom Line

Confirmed: Four vaccines are being dropped through rule changes.

Still in place: Core vaccines like MMR, polio, and DTaP.

Next step: Legislative vote in early 2026.

Florida hasn’t ended all vaccine mandates yet — but it’s the closest any state has come.

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25/10/2025

🌈 Psychedelics May Do More Than Heal the Mind — They Could Calm the Body’s Inflammation Too

Once dismissed as counterculture drugs, psychedelics like psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and DMT are now at the center of serious medical research — not just for mental health, but for chronic inflammation as well.

🧠 What scientists are finding:

Laboratory and early human studies suggest psychedelics can reduce inflammatory molecules such as TNF-α and IL-6, both linked to depression, arthritis, asthma, and autoimmune disorders.

Unlike steroids that blunt the immune system, these compounds appear to rebalance immune activity, calming harmful inflammation without suppressing healthy defenses — though this effect hasn’t yet been proven in large patient trials.

Most data so far come from cell and animal studies, with a few small human biomarker studies showing temporary drops in inflammation markers after psilocybin use. More research is ongoing.

🧪 The next generation — “P**i drugs”:
Researchers are now developing psychedelic-inspired but non-hallucinogenic compounds, nicknamed P**i drugs (“psychedelic-informed but psychedelic-inactive”).
Examples like DLX-001 (zalsupindole) and DLX-159 aim to mimic the brain- and immune-modulating effects of psychedelics without causing a psychedelic trip.

DLX-001 has completed Phase 1 safety testing and showed no hallucinogenic effects.

DLX-159 is still in preclinical development.
If these compounds prove effective, they could become a new class of anti-inflammatory medications for mood disorders and immune-related diseases alike.

🔍 The bottom line:

Evidence that psychedelics can regulate inflammation is real but early.

Human trials are small, and no psychedelic or P**i compound is yet approved for treating inflammation or arthritis.

Still, the research marks a shift: scientists are exploring how mind-altering molecules might help heal the body, too.

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**iDrugs

25/10/2025

🧬 DNA Said She Wasn’t Their Mom — Until Doctors Discovered She Was Her Own Twin

Imagine giving birth to your children… and then being told by science they aren’t yours.

That’s exactly what happened to Lydia Fairchild, a 26-year-old mother from Washington State.
In 2002, while applying for public assistance, she was asked to take a routine DNA maternity test — standard procedure to verify family relationships.

The results were shocking: no genetic match between Lydia and her two children.
The kids’ father, Jamie Townsend, was confirmed as their biological dad, but Lydia’s DNA didn’t match either child. Authorities immediately suspected welfare fraud, believing she was trying to claim benefits for someone else’s kids.

Her nightmare grew worse when prosecutors sought to remove her children and charge her with deception.

To prove her innocence, Lydia agreed to undergo DNA testing during the birth of her third child — under court supervision, with doctors and officials present. Yet even then, the new baby’s DNA results said she wasn’t the mother.

That’s when her attorney, Alan Tindell, remembered reading about a strange medical case — Karen Keegan, a Boston woman whose story had been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Keegan was diagnosed with tetragametic chimerism, a rare condition where two embryos fuse early in development, creating one person with two sets of DNA.

Scientists decided to test Lydia’s cervical tissue, hair follicles, and internal cells. The breakthrough came when DNA from her reproductive tissues matched her children — proving beyond doubt that she had conceived and given birth to them.

Lydia was, quite literally, her own twin. Her body contained two genetic profiles:

One from her own DNA (found in her blood and skin).

Another from the “vanished twin” she had absorbed in the womb — the one responsible for her children’s DNA.

Once this was confirmed, the fraud case was dropped. Lydia’s ordeal not only cleared her name but also transformed how scientists and courts view genetic testing and identity.

Her story has since been featured in documentaries and medical journals, highlighting that DNA — the gold standard of truth — can sometimes tell two stories at once.

Fact: Human chimerism is incredibly rare, with fewer than 100 confirmed cases worldwide. It can occur naturally or, in rare cases, after organ or bone marrow transplants.

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25/10/2025

🦴 From a 99° Curve to the Court: Olivia’s Incredible Comeback

At just 13, Olivia Demaine faced one of the most severe cases of scoliosis doctors had seen.
Her spine had curved from 49° to 99° in just six months — twisting her body so rapidly that surgery was her only option.

🔩 The operation
Specialist surgeon Dr. Mike Selby at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital performed a complex spinal fusion, inserting titanium rods, screws, and a bone graft to straighten and stabilize her spine.
For two weeks after surgery, Olivia wore a halo brace to keep her neck and back completely still while healing.

🏥 The recovery
She spent weeks confined to a hospital bed before beginning months of rehabilitation.
Now, about 18 months later, she’s back doing what she loves — playing goal-keeper at the SA Country Netball Championships in Adelaide.

💬 Olivia says: “It was worth it. Now I’ve forgotten it’s even in my back.”

👨‍⚕️ Dr. Selby reminds families that early detection is critical: mild scoliosis can often be treated with a brace before it becomes this severe.
As June marks National Scoliosis Awareness Month, Olivia’s story is a powerful reminder to look for early signs — uneven shoulders, tilted hips, or a leaning posture — and seek medical advice early.

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25/10/2025

💡 NVIDIA CEO Says: The Next Big Boom Is in Blue-Collar Jobs

When NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang — the man behind the world’s most powerful AI chips — talks about the next wave of wealth, he isn’t pointing to Silicon Valley coders. He’s talking about plumbers, electricians, and carpenters.

In a recent interview, Huang said:

“If you’re an electrician, a plumber, or a carpenter, we’re going to need hundreds of thousands of you to build all of these factories.”

As AI reshapes the world, it’s not just algorithms that are in demand — it’s the people who can build, wire, and cool the massive data centers that power them.

The rise of AI means billions are being poured into new infrastructure:
🏗️ Data centers
⚙️ Semiconductor fabs
🔌 Renewable-energy grids

And every one of them needs skilled tradespeople.
Huang says these roles can bring six-figure salaries, even without a college degree — a powerful reminder that hands-on skills may soon out-earn many office jobs.

👉 The AI revolution still needs builders.
Would you train for a trade in this new tech economy?

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25/10/2025

🪨 Doctors Discover a 40-Year-Old “Stone Baby” Inside an Elderly Woman’s Abdomen

When an elderly woman visited a hospital with ongoing stomach pain, doctors expected to find a gallstone or digestive issue.
Instead, they uncovered something extraordinary — a fully calcified fetus that had been inside her body for about 40 years.

This phenomenon is known as lithopedion, or “stone baby.”
It occurs when a fetus from an abdominal pregnancy (developing outside the womb) dies and is too large for the body to reabsorb.
To protect itself, the mother’s body slowly encases the fetus in calcium, turning it into a hardened mass — almost like a fossil — to prevent infection or inflammation.

🧬 What Makes It So Rare

Fewer than 300 cases have ever been documented in medical history.

The earliest known description dates back to the 10th century, by the Arab physician Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrāwī (Abulcasis).

The condition can remain undetected for decades, often discovered only during imaging for unrelated symptoms.

In this particular case, scans revealed that the fetus had been carried for four decades before being discovered.

⚕️ Medical Insight

A lithopedion forms only after the fetus dies during an abdominal (ectopic) pregnancy, which occurs in roughly 1 in 10,000 pregnancies.

Of those, fewer than 2% progress to calcification.

The body’s defense system treats the fetus as a “foreign body” and slowly mineralizes it with calcium salts.

Symptoms may include mild abdominal pain, bloating, or may not appear at all.

💡 Why It Happens Less Today

Modern ultrasound imaging and prenatal monitoring make it almost impossible for such a condition to go unnoticed.
Lithopedion cases now appear mainly in remote or underserved regions where women may not have access to medical care during pregnancy.

🌍 A Reminder of the Body’s Resilience

While unsettling, the “stone baby” is also a remarkable example of the body’s ability to adapt and protect itself in extreme situations.
It’s a vivid reminder of how far medical science has come — and how much the human body can endure when faced with the impossible.

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25/10/2025

🧬 New Blood Test Named Galleri Test Detects More Than 50 Cancers — Early Results Show 7× Higher Detection Than Standard Screening

A major step forward in cancer detection: new data from the PATHFINDER-2 clinical study show that the Galleri multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test, developed by GRAIL, can identify signals from over 50 types of cancer — often before symptoms appear.

What the study found:
• The study included more than 23,000 adults aged 50+ with no known cancer symptoms.
• When the Galleri test was added to regular screenings (like mammograms and colonoscopies), cancer detection increased more than sevenfold.
• About 53% of detected cancers were Stage I or II, when treatment is most effective.
• Positive predictive value: ~61.6% — meaning about 6 in 10 positive results truly indicated cancer.
• Specificity: 99.6% — false positives were rare (~0.4%).
• The test correctly identified the likely organ or tissue of origin in ~92% of true positives, guiding follow-up scans faster.
• For the 12 cancers that cause roughly two-thirds of U.S. cancer deaths, detection sensitivity reached about 74%.

How it works:
A simple blood draw looks for tiny fragments of tumor-shed DNA (cell-free DNA) and analyzes methylation patterns — chemical changes unique to cancer cells. Machine-learning models then determine whether a “cancer signal” is present and where it likely started.

Important notes:
✅ It’s designed to complement, not replace, existing screenings.
⚠️ A positive result triggers imaging or other diagnostic tests; it’s not a standalone diagnosis.
💰 The test currently costs around $950 and is not yet covered by most insurance plans.
📊 While these results are encouraging, large outcome trials are still underway to confirm if earlier detection translates into longer survival.

Why it matters:
Many deadly cancers (like pancreatic, liver, and ovarian) have no standard screening tests. Galleri could give doctors a crucial early warning that saves lives — detecting cancer before symptoms even begin.

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24/10/2025

📢 Headline: Unarmed Teen Handcuffed After AI Mistakes Snack Bag for Gun — A Wake-Up Call on School Surveillance

📍 Location: Kenwood High School, Baltimore County Public Schools, Maryland, USA
👤 Student: 16-year-old Taki Allen
📆 Date: Monday evening, Oct 20, 2025 (alert and police response around ~7 p.m.)

🔍 What Happened:

Taki Allen had just finished football practice and was waiting outside the school with friends when he opened a bag of Doritos, crumpled the empty bag, and put it in his pocket.

The school uses a visual-AI “gun detection” system from vendor Omnilert, linked to its surveillance cameras. The system flagged the crumpled chip bag held in Taki’s hand as a potential firearm — likely because of how he held it with both hands and extended a finger in a way that appeared “gun-like.”

The alert triggered a police response. Armed officers arrived, ordered Taki to the ground, handcuffed him, and searched him. They later showed him the image that had triggered the alert. No weapon was found.

School officials said the alert was “quickly reviewed and canceled” by the Department of School Safety and Security after confirming there was no threat. But by the time that cancellation went through, police were already on scene.

🧠 Why This Matters:

This case shows how AI-based surveillance and “automated threat detection” can turn ordinary moments into dangerous confrontations — even when no threat exists.

Officials later said the AI system “worked as designed,” but that human error and miscommunication led to officers being dispatched anyway.

The emotional toll was significant. Taki said, “The first thing I was wondering was, was I about to die? Because they had a gun pointed at me.”

It also raises larger questions:

How many false positives could occur with similar systems?

What safeguards ensure these alerts are human-verified before escalating?

How transparent are schools and vendors about testing, accuracy rates, and escalation policies?

Local council members have since called for a review of the system and its deployment.

❓ A Question for Our Community:
Would you feel safer if your school used AI gun-detection systems — or does this kind of mistake make you worry they might do more harm than good? Let’s talk below 👇

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