A common workout supplement might be less useful than believed. Researchers at the University of New South Wales led the study, published last week in the journal Nutrients. The clinical trial compared people who underwent resistance training while taking or not taking a typical daily dose of creatine, finding no significant difference in added lean body mass by the end; everyone gained mass while training—the scientists just didn’t see more mass in the creatine group as they expected. Creatine is naturally produced by the body and can be found in certain foods such as seafood and red meat. It helps supply energy to the muscles, particularly during intense bursts of activity like lifting weights. According to the UNSW researchers, however, these past trials may have had a critical flaw, since they often had people start taking creatine just as they began their new exercise routine. To get around this possible limitation, the researchers had some of their volunteers take creatine a week before the exercise part of the trial—a 12-week course of resistance training—began, which is known as a “wash-in” period. The volunteers took 5 grams of creatine a day, a dose often used for maintenance once people start taking it regularly (the researchers note that a loading phase is not needed to reach the saturation level of creatine, or the maximum amount of stored creatine that our bodies respond to). People in both groups were relatively healthy, but weren’t big exercisers prior to the study; in total, 54 people completed the trial. The creatine group did seem to experience a small boost in lean body mass on average during the first week (around 0.5 kilograms).

Apple is getting closer to launching Priority Notifications, a feature that uses AI to automatically detect important iPhone notifications and makes them more visible on your lockscreen. The feature is included in the iOS 18.4 release candidate rolled out on Monday, as spotted earlier by MacRumors . There are also more details about what’s coming to watchOS 11.4, too. The release candidate notes show “an option to allow Sleep Wake Up alarm to break through Silent Mode.” That means you can have your Apple Watch sound an alarm even if you mute all other notifications. Apple also launched release candidates for iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, tvOS 18.4, and visionOS 2.4.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly confirmed Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ordered Children's Health Defense to delete a webpage that mimicked the design of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The webpage wrongly linked vaccines to autism, despite scant evidence supporting such a connection. Much of the research making this claim was reportedly not peer-reviewed. Children's Health Defense is the non-profit that RFK Jr. led for years before stepping aside in 2023. The CDC recently said it will re-investigate the link between vaccines and autism. The webpage was intended to look like a real CDC fact sheet, but instead spread misinformation about vaccine safety. RFK Jr.'s move may be related to his newfound power as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Deadly measles outbreaks across the United States have been concentrated in communities with low vaccination rates. The Health and Human Services Department issued a statement saying RFK Jr. has instructed them to request the removal of the webpage. The department stated that it is dedicated to upholding "gold-standard, evidence-based science." During his Senate confirmation hearing, RFK Jr. said he would support vaccines if shown data backing their safety.

The trailer for Andor's second and final season was released, showing the simmering Galactic Civil War. A repeated image in the trailer is Imperial carriers and capital ships hovering ominously in the distance. This imagery has a parallel to a moment in season one when Cinta saw a Star Destroyer come in over Aldhani after the heist. The shot also suggests that Saw is entrenched on Jedha, watching a Star Destroyer loom over the city. Cinta and Vel are seen together in the trailer, but it's hard to say where they are or what their situation is. Vel was shown training insurgents how to aim a blaster at the Massassi base on Yavin IV in a recent video. Luthen and Cassian have a tense conversation about a "different kind of mission" in the trailer. Cassian asks if it will go up in flames, and Luthen responds that it will burn brightly. This suggests that Cassian may be involved in something dangerous for the Rebellion. A shot from behind-the-scenes shows Cassian preparing a blaster rifle in what appears to be Ghorman. Kleya is shown talking to Cassian about a weapon the Empire is building, which could be related to the Death Star. Mon Mothma's speech in the trailer is about the aftermath of the Ghorman Massacre and her leaving the Senate. Dedra has a panic attack and grabs at her collar for no apparent reason. This could be related to trauma or a lingering fear from her experience on Ferrix.

X's director of engineering, Haofei Wang, has suddenly left the company. Wang first joined Elon Musk’s X in July 2023 and was an integral part of the company's leadership, often serving as a conduit between Musk and the rest of the company's engineers. It's unclear why Wang is departing now. Neither he nor a company spokesperson responded to a request for comment in time for publication. X recently added other engineering leadership: Mike Dalton and Uday Ruddaraju, both previously technical leads at Robinhood, joined in January. Their LinkedIn profiles show that they also work at xAI. The company reportedly just obtained a $44 billion valuation from investors — the same price Musk paid for Twitter in 2022.

X’s director of engineering, Haofei Wang, has suddenly left the company. Wang first joined Elon Musk’s X in July 2023 and has been an integral part of the company’s leadership, often serving as a conduit between Musk and the rest of the company’s engineers. More recently, he was seen internally as X’s de facto head of engineering and product, especially with Musk recently focusing more of his time on xAI and DOGE. It’s unclear why Wang is departing now. Neither he nor a company spokesperson responded to a request for comment in time for publication. X recently added other engineering leadership: Mike Dalton and Uday Ruddaraju, both previously technical leads at Robinhood, joined in January. Their LinkedIn profiles show that they also work at xAI, which has become increasingly intertwined with X over the last year.

These Days, You'll Pay A Hefty Premium for One of the Best Gpus. For Example, an RTX 4060 TI CARD COSTS AROUND $ 560 AND AN RTX 4070, IF YOU CAN FIND ONE IN STOCK, IS AROUND $ 730 ALL BY ITELF. However, Today, we see RTX 4070-Equipped Gaming Laptops Going For As Little As $ 899. To be fair, the performance of a mobile rtx 4070 card is more inline with an rtx 4060 or 4060 ti desktop card. This 16-inch laptop is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7-8845HS CPU, RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB of RAM and A 512GB SSD. The MSI Sword has a core i7-13700hx CPU, A 144 Hz Screen, A 1TB PCIE SSD AND AN RTX 4070 GPU. It's $ 999 AFTER A $ 100 Rebate. We Haven't Tested These Particular Two Laptops, But We Having Tested Other RTX 4070-Powered Systems, which should victim similar output. The Gigabyte Aorus 16x with RTX 4070 GOT 114 FPS AT 1080P AND THE HIGHEST SETTINGS ON SHADOW OF THE TOMTB RAUDER.

I’m not the type of person who assumes that the best tech for me is something that was just announced this week. Take, for example, the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones, which were introduced a little under three years ago. These over-the-ear, noise-canceling headphones, currently our pick for the best wireless headphones for most people, are now on sale at Target for $249.99 ($150 less than their usual $399.99) if you’re a member of the Target Circle (which is free to join). You can also grab them at Amazon and Best Buy for around $328, a discount of about $70. While the WH-1000XM5 didn’t offer anything revolutionary when they came out, according to our reviewer, they had a fresh design, cleaner sound, and better ANC than their predecessor. The design was revamped to be more refined and comfortable, and if you tend to take a lot of phone calls, the headphones’ eight microphones will make sure your voice is heard. If you travel a lot, there is a certain inconvenience — the WH-1000XM5s don’t fold down, which means they’re not as easy to store — but otherwise, this is a pair of headphones you might want to check out.

A team of scientists just discovered the longest organic molecules yet seen on Mars. Mars today is inhospitable, with significant temperature fluctuations, a thin atmosphere, and an apparent dearth of liquid water on the planet's surface. But according to new research, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, large molecules found on Mars apparently are as old as life on Earth, raising questions about biological activity on an ancient Mars. The molecules are long carbon chains, containing up to 12 consecutive carbon atoms. The molecules sat preserved on Mars for about 3.7 billion years, undisturbed by geological activity, moisture, or heat. The molecules date to about the same time as the earliest-known signs of life on our planet. Curiosity has roved Mars for years, revealing new details of the planet's ancient environment. Key to that environment is carbon, an element that is both vital to life and useful for bonding molecules, including DNA and RNA. According to a French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) release, the carbon chains "could exhibit features similar to the fatty acids produced on Earth by biological activity." The discovery of these organic molecules offers crucial insights into potential biological processes on early Mars, but to be clear, it's not evidence of past or present life. What it does tell us, however, is that the building blocks necessary for life as we know it were present—and that Mars may once have had the right conditions to support it. "The source of these organic molecules on Mars could not be established in this study," said Daniel Glavin, a senior scientist for sample return at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and co-author of the paper. "These organics could have either been formed by geological processes on Mars (non-biological chemical reactions such as from hydrothermal activity), they were delivered to the surface of Mars from meteorites, or they are the organic remnants of an ancient martian biology." The team made its findings using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory aboard Curiosity. SAM contains a gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer, which make it possible to identify isolated molecules in samples collected by the rover. Curiosity is still going strong, but successors in its mission of understanding Mars' ancient past are already on the way. ESA's ExoMars mission, set to launch in 2028, and the joint NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission will help scientists better assess Mars' composition in the ancient past—and by proxy, the potential of ancient life on its surface. "From the analysis of meteorites and samples returned from asteroids Bennu and Ryugu by the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 missions, we know that the chemical building blocks of life that include amino acids (used to form proteins), carboxylic acids (used in cell membranes) and nucleobases (components of DNA and RNA) were widespread throughout the solar system," Glavin added. Liquid water once existed in vast reservoirs and lakes on Mars. Now long dried up, space agency rovers are tasked with exploring those once-wet environs, seeking signs of primordial life similar to those which eke out existence in Earth's wetter climes. Scientists have seen signs of liquid water beneath the Martian surface, though such speculative findings will require more scrutiny before scientists can say for sure.

Just before Donald Trump took office in January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly held a vote on whether the agency would sue Elon Musk for alleged violations of securities law related to his purchase of Twitter. According to Reuters, four commissioners—three Democrats and one Republican—voted to move forward with legal action against Musk. The lone "no" vote came from Mark Uyeda, who's now the acting head of the agency. The SEC has been investigating the case since 2022, along with other shady activity surrounding Musk's acquisition of Twitter. On January 14, 2025, the commissioners put it to a vote to determine if the agency would pursue legal action based on the findings of its investigation. Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce took issue with how much the SEC wanted to fine Musk but voted for the lawsuit anyway. Uyeda voted no on the motion to sue Musk, and the motion passed 4 to 1. Uyeda started lobbying SEC staffers to sign a pledge declaring that the case against Musk was not motivated by politics, but staff refused to sign the pledge. And now, a little over a month later, Uyeda has been tapped by Trump to be the acting head of the SEC.

The FBI issued a public service announcement Friday about attacks against Tesla dealerships, asking the public to be vigilant in the wake of at least nine known incidents where people have shot up unoccupied Tesla vehicles and tossed molotov cocktails at empty buildings. Another incident Monday included suspected incendiary devices found at a dealership in Austin, according to KXAN. The FBI statement is an unsurprising development, but Attorney General Pam Bondi really ratcheted up the rhetoric on Sunday when she appeared on Fox News to claim the people committing these attacks had “weapons of mass destruction.” “These are not isolated incidents, as you know, and these aren’t vandals,” Bondi told Maria Bartiromo. “These are Molotov cocktails. That could be a weapon of mass destruction that they’re throwing in Tesla dealerships.” The term “weapon of mass destruction” is defined on the Department of Homeland Security’s website as a “nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, or other device that is intended to harm a large number of people.” Attorney General Bondi wants to use the same playbook used after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, to instill fear in the population and justify an overwhelming response. Back in 2002, it was claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had WMDs that somehow threatened the U.S. Today, it’s supposed WMDs against Elon Musk’s businesses. Attorney General Bondi is clearly cooking up a huge response, since she also took it a step further on Fox News and suggested that Jasmine Crockett, an outspoken Democratic congresswoman from Texas, was somehow tied to “domestic terrorism.” Crockett hit back at Bondi’s accusations on MSNBC, telling host Alex Witt on Sunday that she doesn’t promote violence while noting President Trump’s pardons of violent offenders who tried to overthrow the U.S. government on January 6, 2021. “There are also entirely peaceful protests against Musk that are getting far less attention,” Crockett said. The property destruction at Tesla dealerships is getting most of the headlines, but there are also protests popping up at nearly every Tesla dealership across the country over the past two months. Protesters are upset with Musk’s actions as his DOGE goons go from agency to agency slashing and burning things, often without understanding what they’re obliterating. Musk wasn’t elected nor was he confirmed as a cabinet official, but he’s operating like a kind of co-president to Trump.

Security experts from Cato Networks have exposed a new IoT botnet called Ballista. The botnet uses a security gap (CVE 2023-1389) to automatically spread over the Internet, affecting Archer routers of the provider TP-Link, especially the AX21 model, also known as AX1800. The security gap is created by insufficient validation of user inputs in the router web interface, enabling attackers to carry out commands with root rights. After the infection, the malware sets up an encrypted command and control (C2) channel to port 82, through which it can fully control compromised devices. In addition to executing Shell commands, the functional scope of the malware includes denial-of-service attacks and access to confidential data in the system. It spreads further by attacking other TP-Link Archer routers over the same security gap. The botnet has a modular architecture, supporting different functions, including an Exploiter module for distribution and a flooder module for DDOS attacks. According to Cato Networks, organizations from manufacturing, healthcare, services, and technology in countries such as the USA, Australia, China, and Mexico are in the sights of the Ballista botnet. A Censys search identified over 6,000 potentially endangered devices. The security provider assumes that the campaign can be assigned to an Italian threat player based on the IP address of the C2 server and Italian strings in the malware. The botnet shows similarities with other known botnets such as Mirai but acts independently.

As every slasher fan knows, the killer in Friday the 13th isn’t Jason Voorhees—that unkillable hockey-masked maniac would come later. In the 1980 original film, the camp-counselor body count is all due to his mother, Pamela, seeking vengeance against those she blames for her son’s drowning death. We’ve long suspected she’ll be the central figure in Peacock and A24’s prequel series Crystal Lake, and now it’s confirmed who will play her: Linda Cardellini (Dead to Me, No Good Deed, Freaks and Geeks). This news was widely confirmed in the trades today, though reporter Jeff Sneider said Cardellini was in talks for the role over a month ago. In Deadline‘s announcement it noted the premise of Crystal Lake is being “kept under wraps,” but that “Cardellini’s Pamela is believed to be a mother who had given up a singing career to raise a special needs child and takes a dark turn when she loses her son.” The future of Crystal Lake was in turmoil after its original shepherd Bryan Fuller was fired last year—but the ship seemingly righted itself when Brad Caleb Kane (Black Sails, Tokyo Vice, the upcoming It: Welcome to Derry) came aboard as creator, writer, showrunner, and executive producer. As a side note, Kane has his own background in music (he was the singing voice for Aladdin in the 1992 Disney film, among other credits), so while that “singing career” premise is only rumored, it seems like a thematic fit. Casting the versatile Cardellini, who seems more than capable of doing Betsy Palmer, the original Pamela Voorhees, proud feels like an energetic burst in the right direction for Crystal Lake. What do you make of this casting, and does it make you even more excited to spend some time at a cursed summer camp?

Amazon's Big Spring Sale will take place from March 25th to 31st, 2025. It will feature deals on various tech products, including PC hardware, peripherals, and maker-centric items. The sale will include a selection of deals for all visitors, not just Amazon Prime members. Products to keep an eye on AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: now $479 at Amazon AMD's latest gaming king, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, uses AMD's successful 3D V-Cache technology, which provides the 9800X3D its pure gaming prowess. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D comes with eight cores and 16 threads and has a 120W TDP. Acer Predator Helios Neo 14: now $1,249 at Dell (was $1,849) This compact gaming laptop has a small footprint but does not lack power. Inside the small chassis is an Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU, Intel Core Ultra 9-185H processor, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Alienware x16 R2 Gaming Laptop: now $2,699 at Dell (was $3,599) This no-holds-barred machine from Dell is peak laptop gaming with its super powerful RTX 4090 graphics card. Amazon Big Spring Sale Gaming PC deals Alienware Area-51 Gaming Desktop: now $4,649 at Dell (was $5,049) A top-end gaming monitor from Dell with extremely impressive specifications. Sporting a 32-inch screen and luxurious QD-OLED panel, the AW3225QF has a 4K (3840 x 2160 pixel) resolution. Amazon Big Spring Sale GPU deals Due to the general lack of available or sensibly-priced GPUs currently, the chances of a GPU deal are very low. AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: now $479 at Amazon The SN850X is a speedy PCIe 4.0 SSD for PCs, laptops, and the PlayStation 5. This USB cardioid from SteelSeries comes with a mic stand with a built-in shock mount, plus an attachment to mount it to a boom arm if that's your preference. Bright colored keycaps make this keeb really stand out on your desk and the wired connection ensures every key press counts.

Webb has imaged phantasmal billows of bright orange space gas, captured in vibrant detail 630 light-years from Earth. This is the dazzling power of the Webb Space Telescope on full display, revealing the protostellar outflow Herbig Haro 49/50 (or HH 49/50) from the telescope’s perch in space, about one million miles from Earth. Herbig-Haro objects are outflows of material produced by a star’s jets. The large outflows move through material, creating shock waves in space that heat the material; as the material cools, it produces light—revealing objects like the glowing orange outflow above. HH 49/50 was dubbed the Cosmic Tornado in 2006, when it was discovered by scientists using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Webb has better resolution than Spitzer, giving scientists a more precise view of the outflow’s features. Webb’s image of HH 49/50 made use of the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCAM) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to reveal the distribution of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and energized dust grains in the outflow. The data will eventually help scientists model the jet’s properties, as well as how it affects surrounding material. Scientists believe that a protostar named Cederblad 110 IRS4, located about 1.5 light-years from HH 49/50, may drive the jets that are energizing the material in the object. The galaxy seen at the tip of HH 49/50 is much more distant; eventually, HH 49/50 will appear to cover up the galaxy, though according to an ESA release that overlap will take thousands of years.

The killer whales of the rope of the led get Hlouběji into the Arctid. This shows, for example, the finding of a 11 dead grade of Greenland, which has been in the year 2020 Inuitští hunters. Analysis of photographs and samples from the found Tel has shown that young whales belong to the species that is recovering from the threat of extinction in the last denetile, not tracing traces of prey. The precision of the killer whale was the same, which was the right of killer whales, which got into the area from the Atlantic. The killer whales are thus becoming a top of climate change in the Arctic, while the population of the Lednian bears is declining. Vědci nyní nymímují their rostouts in the population of narvalues, Běluh and Greenland, the precision are concerned that the small smaller groups can be foaming. The vision shows that the killer whales can not return to the Arctids for the first time, but they use warming water to return to areas where they hunted the arrival of LED barriers, the Popular Science server wrote. Photo: Pexels

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