A new Airbus passenger jet completed an ultra-long test flight between Australia and France lasting more than 24 hours—paving the way for the world’s longest nonstop commercial flights starting up next year.

The Airbus A350-1000ULR was developed specifically for Qantas Airways’ planned nonstop flights between Sydney and either New York or London. The Australian airline has ordered a dozen of the new airliners for its Project Sunrise routes that aim to start offering tickets for sale in 2027.

The aircraft had been doing initial test flights near the Airbus facilities in Toulouse, France, with a small team of test pilots and test engineers before conducting its first ultra long-haul test flight last week. After taking off from Toulouse on July 23, it flew for 19 hours and 13 minutes before landing in Melbourne, Australia, on July 24.

That set the stage for the likely record-breaking return flight that lasted for 24 hours and 25 minutes between takeoff from Melbourne on July 27 and landing in Toulouse on July 28.

The flight from Melbourne back to Toulouse covered 12,460 nautical miles in total, according to Airbus. Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 shows the flight route stretched across both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans along with North America.

To handle such ultra long-range flights, Airbus describes the aircraft as being equipped with an extra rear center fuel tank capable of carrying 20,900 liters (5,521 gallons). That extends the aircraft range by 1,000 nautical miles to ensure it can cover the nearly 10,000 nautical miles for the nonstop flights between Sydney and either London or New York.

Taking shifts for long flights

The aircraft also features a twin flight crew rest compartment designed to allow pilots to enter or exit rest areas without disturbing each other during commercial flight operations. Multiple pilots are required to take shifts during such long flights.

“To manage fatigue during the 20 to 23-hour flights we implemented four-hour shifts for each pilot, but we rotated the crew every two hours,” said Xavier Pepin, the Airbus test pilot who captained the return flight, in an Airbus post. “This staggered approach ensures that when a new pilot joins the cockpit, they overlap for two hours with the outgoing pilot.”

The first outbound flight to Melbourne included four Airbus pilots and five flight-test engineers who monitored aircraft systems in the cockpit or from work stations in the main cabin. But for the return flight to Toulouse, two Qantas pilots also joined the test flight crew that included three Airbus pilots and five flight test engineers.

“We have organized a schedule to allow a Qantas pilot to take the controls at specific times,” Pepin said. “These pilots are already qualified on the A350, and this mission provided them with their first experience with the -1000ULR variant.”

The aircraft drew considerable attention during its first ultra long-haul round trip. More than 3.6 million people tracked the aircraft during its return from Melbourne to Toulouse, according to Flightradar24. That made it the second-most-tracked flight ever on the flight tracking service, coming in only behind the Royal Air Force flight that carried Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin in 2022.

World record and higher fuel prices in sight

For now, Singapore Airlines currently offers the longest nonstop commercial flights that regularly connect New York City and Singapore and also holds the Guinness World Record for longest-duration nonstop scheduled flight. Such commercial flights typically take between 18 and 19 hours and currently use the Airbus 350-900ULR variant that can carry up to 161 passengers.

By comparison, Qantas Airways expects the maximum Project Sunrise flight time with the new Airbus A350-1000ULR to be 21 hours and 40 minutes during commercial flights between Sydney and New York or London—more than enough to set a new world record. The latest test flight certainly surpassed that benchmark.

Once outfitted for commercial service, each Qantas aircraft would carry up to 238 passengers. That represents the “lowest seat density of any A350-1000 in service in the world,” according to the Qantas Project Sunrise website. The Australian airline is making use of the extra space by including multiple self-serve stations with food and beverages and a “wellbeing zone” that includes room for passengers to stretch out.

Ticket prices have not yet been announced, but Qantas is allocating more than 40 percent of seats to passengers paying higher prices for First, Business, and Premium economy tickets. That could help the airline earn greater profits despite the lower number of overall passengers while pitching the nonstop routes as a unique premium service.

However, Qantas may also consider charging higher ticket prices if it’s still paying higher jet fuel costs in 2027 as a result of the US-Israeli war with Iran and ongoing disruptions to oil tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. Airlines are already facing the prospect of paying an extra $100 billion on jet fuel in 2026 alone, with Singapore Airlines recently reporting its first quarterly net loss since the height of the pandemic in 2022, in part because of soaring jet fuel prices.

Read full article

Comments

eBay and three former executives agreed to pay nearly $56 million in a settlement over a macabre campaign of cyberstalking and harassment that targeted two journalists in 2019.

As we've previously written, the case involved deliveries of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a book about surviving the loss of a spouse, and a bloody pig mask to the home of a couple who run a news website. There were also harassing messages sent via email and Twitter, and an attempt to install a GPS tracking device on the victims' car. Criminal charges resulted in guilty pleas and prison terms for former eBay employees.

The victims were Ina and David Steiner of Natick, Massachusetts, who run the news website EcommerceBytes. "David and I officially settled the lawsuit we filed in 2021 against eBay and its former executives over the stalking and harassment campaign we endured in 2019 designed to stop our reporting," Ina Steiner wrote on EcommerceBytes yesterday. "The landmark civil rights settlement includes $55.7 million in compensation and charitable commitments."

eBay will pay $46.15 million in compensation to the Steiners, announced Scalli Murphy Law, the Steiners' law firm. The settlement includes another $2 million in compensation from former eBay CEO Devin Wenig, $500,000 from former eBay Senior Vice President of Global Operations Wendy Jones, and $50,000 from former eBay Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer.

eBay will give $6 million to various charities, while "Wenig will contribute an additional $1 million to a charity dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights in the name of Ina Steiner," the announcement said. The law firm said that additional "settlements were reached with all other eBay employees named in the civil action." eBay reported $3.1 billion in revenue and $512 million in net income in its most recent quarterly report.

Other former execs went to prison

The main settlement with eBay and former executives did not have any confidentiality restrictions, and it required eBay to "issue a strongly-worded public statement regarding the conduct" of the executives "and the culture of the company in 2019," the Steiners' law firm said.

eBay issued that statement today, saying that "what the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened. We condemn, in the strongest terms possible, the employees who perpetrated and pled guilty to criminal charges for the misconduct against Ina and David Steiner. We also acknowledge the unprofessional tone in internal communications demonstrated, to different degrees and number, by Mr. Wenig, Mr. Wymer, and Ms. Jones."

eBay said that since the 2019 events, "new leaders have joined the company and eBay has strengthened its policies, procedures, controls and training consistent with the company’s ongoing commitment to uphold high standards of conduct and ethics."

Seven former eBay employees and contractors pleaded guilty, and prison sentences were issued to former eBay security executives James Baugh (57 months), David Harville (24 months), Philip Cooke (18 months), and Stephanie Popp (12 months). Two others received a year in home confinement and another was sentenced to time served and a year of supervised release.

"I want to see ashes... Whatever it takes"

Wenig and Wymer were not charged criminally but were accused in the civil lawsuit of giving employees "carte blanche authority" to carry out the harassment campaign.

"Defendants Wenig and Wymer provided the other Defendants with carte blanche authority to terminate the reporting of the Steiners by whatever means necessary, with Defendant Wymer expressing '…I want to see ashes. As long as it takes. Whatever it takes.' Defendant Wymer promised the Defendants he would, 'embrace managing any bad fallout' if the plan went south, further directing, 'We need to STOP her,'" the lawsuit filed in 2021 said.

An amended complaint filed in 2023 described Jones' alleged role: "Defendant Jones asked Defendant Baugh if he could find a way to deal with the issue 'off the radar since comms and legal couldn't handle it.' Jones added, 'Just get it done. I don't want to know the details, just make sure you sync with Wymer.' After the lunch meeting, Defendant Baugh provided regular updates to Defendant Jones."

eBay itself faced criminal charges and agreed to pay a $3 million fine in 2024, while entering into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice.

As a result of the settlement, the Steiners yesterday submitted a court filing to withdraw their complaint and end the civil lawsuit.

"Our clients wanted to uncover the truth, protect journalists and publishers, hold those responsible accountable, deter future corporate misconduct, and help ensure others would never have to endure what they experienced," lawyer Christopher Murphy said. "Through years of discovery, motion [filing], and trial preparation, we were able to accomplish those objectives while securing meaningful compensation for two wonderful people."

Read full article

Comments

It's been nearly five years since Ridley Scott first announced his plans for a TV spinoff of his sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner (1982) and the 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049. It's finally here—or almost, anyway. Prime Video debuted the first teaser for the new ten-episode series, Blade Runner 2099, at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday. We also got a teaser for the third season of Prime Video's Rings of Power and a new trailer for HBO's Lanterns.

Yeoh and Schafer joined show runner Silka Luisa (Shining Girls) onstage for the big reveal, which also included an exclusive clip shown to the audience. Luisa told Entertainment Weekly that the series stays true to the original's "noir principles... and there's a mystery at the heart of the show that looks both forwards and backwards in terms of mythology."  An uprising has occurred and the humans lost, which means they are now the hunted second-class citizens. "The show is really imagining what comes after us, and what does it mean to be human in a world where humanity is no longer relevant," said Luisa.

Per the official synopsis:

Fifty years after the events of Blade Runner 2049, Los Angeles has been reborn, just not by humanity. Cora, a fugitive in a final bid to stop running, takes on one last identity: a Blade Runner. Forced to partner with Olwen, a Replicant days from dying, she hunts down a runaway hiding a truth that could collapse their fragile city.

The incomparable Michelle Yeoh stars as Olwen, the dying Replicant, along with Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) as Cora. The cast also includes Hugo Hamlet as Buster Friendly, as well as Dmitri Abold, Lewis Gribben, Katelyn Rose Downey, Daniel Rigby, Johnny Harris, Amy Lennox, Sheila Atim, Matthew Needham, Tom Burke, and Maurizio Lombardi—all in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

Blade Runner 2099 will premiere on November 25, 2026, on Prime Video.

Rings of Power S3

Prime Video made a major investment in The Rings of Power when it acquired the rights to the source material from the Tolkien estate, even committing to multiple seasons upfront.  We're now coming up on S3 and based on the teaser the streaming platform unveiled at SDCC, we'll finally get to see Sauron (Charlie Vickers) forging the One Ring.

Per the official synopsis:

In season three, Middle-earth is at war. Five years have passed since the fall of Eregion. Sauron’s armies have marched across the whole of the world, conquering all in their path. Only a few isolated pockets stand between the Dark Lord and total victory—Khazad-dǔm, where the Dwarves are now sealed deep within their mountain halls, and the elven realms of Lindon and Rivendell, which are protected by their Three Rings.”

But deep in the land of Mordor, in his newly completed tower of Barad-dûr, the Dark Lord toils day and night, obsessed with harnessing a power that will bring the last of his enemies to their knees: One ring to rule them all… Now, all the free peoples of Middle-earth—Dwarves, Elves, Men, and Wizards alike—must find a way to come together, in a race against time to prevent Sauron from achieving his goal of utter domination of all life

We're also getting some new characters this season, most notably Jamie Campbell Bower as Galadriel's (Morfydd Clark) long-lost husband Celeborn. Zubin Varla will play Khamul the Easterling of Rhun; Eddie Marson will play Thrain, order brother to King Durin IV (Owain Arthur); Andrew Richardson will play Anarion, younger son of Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and brother to Isildur (Maxim Baldry); and Adam Young will play an Orc named Marnukh who "might not be what he seems." Oh, and none other than Simon Pegg will voice the fiery Balrog.

The third season of Rings of Power premieres on November 11, 2026, on Prime Video.

Lanterns

We've seen a couple of teasers thus far for Lanterns, the new DC Universe series coming to HBO Max, both of which made it clear we're in for a show that's closer to a sci-fi True Detective than your standard superhero fare. HBO unveiled a full trailer at SDCC that is a little less Earthbound. It leans into the "space cop" vibe, reveals that shapeshifting Manhunters will be central to the plot, takes us into outer space, and also gives us our first look at Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), a former Corps member gone rogue. HBO threw in seven preview clips for good measure, although these have not been released publicly.

Per the official logline, “The series follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.” There will be two storylines: one set in 2016 about a murder in Nebraska, and the second set in 2026.

Chandler’s Hal Jordan is a former test pilot nearing retirement from the Green Lantern Corps. He’s training Pierre’s John Stewart Jr., a new recruit, to replace him. Nathan Fillion reprises his Superman role as the obnoxious Guy Gardner; we get a brief glimpse of him in the new teaser. The cast also includes Kelly MacDonald as Kerry, a small-town family-oriented sheriff; Jason Ritter as Billy Macon, Kerry’s husband; Garret Dillahunt as William Macon, Kerry’s cowboy father-in-law; Poorna Jagannathan as a woman named Zoe; and Paul Ben-Victor as an extraterrestrial called Antaan.

Sherman Augustus plays John Stewart Sr., with J. Alphonse Nicholson playing the younger version; Nicole Ari Parker plays Bernadette Stewart (mother to John Jr.), with Jasmine Cephas Jones playing the young version of the character. In addition, Chris Coy plays a suspiciously nervous truck driver, Waylon Sanders; Cary Christopher plays a gifted child named Noah; Laura Linney will play a senior Guardian; and Paula Patton will appear in an as-yet-undisclosed guest role. We also know that the show will feature the inter-dimensional prison and the Checkmate organization introduced in Peacemaker’s S2 finale.

Lanterns premieres on August 18, 2026, on HBO Max.

Spaceballs: The New One

Credit: Chris Frawley / Amazon MGM Studios

This long-overdue sequel to Mel Brooks' 1987 cult classic isn't being released until next spring, but that didn't stop Amazon MGM Studios from putting together an SDCC panel this year anyway in a clever parody of the extravagant Marvel panels of yore. Because it's early days, there haven't been any publicly released teasers or trailers, although some teaser footage was shown at CinemaCon in April and yesterday at SDCC.

Apparently we owe this sequel to Josh Gad, who co-wrote the script and pitched Brooks on a cold call. Gad has said he showed the original movie to his daughter during the COVID-19 pandemic and she loved it so much she wanted to see the sequel. Here's the official synopsis:

Somehow, Dark Helmet has returned! Forty years after the events of the first Spaceballs, fifty years after the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, and one year after the events of The Devil Wears Prada 2, the galaxy is once again under threat. A threat so evil, so unstoppable, so completely lacking in any original ideas, that it has vowed to bring back the past… every last bit of it.

With Lone Starr in hiding, Queen Vespa on the throne, and the Schwartz stretched thinner than a franchise releasing TV episodes theatrically, the only hope for the galaxy is Vespa’s undisciplined son, Prince Starburst, and a mysterious Palace advisor named Destiny. Together, they must find Lone Starr, Yogurt, and any other iconic legacy characters fans are demanding before they discover the hard way that, while some threats you can fight, the reboot is not one of them.

The 100-year-old Brooks is reprising his role as Yogurt via motion capture (he filmed his lines in a studio). Also returning: Rick Moranis as Lord Dark Helmet, Bill Pullman as Lone Starr, Daphne Zuniga as Queen Vespa, and George Wyner as Colonel Sandurz. Pullman's son, Lewis Pullman, joins the cast as Prince Starburst, son to Lone Starr and Vespa, along with Keke Palmer as a palace advisor named Destiny. Gad plays a mawg, the same species as the late John Candy's Barf. Anthony Carrigan and Rowan Witt have also been cast in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

Spaceballs: The New One hits theaters on April 23, 2027. May the Schwartz be with you!

Credit: AmazonMGMStudios

Read full article

Comments

A dried-out felt-tip marker and a snapped-off piece of molded black plastic sold for $857,600 at a Sotheby's auction on Wednesday.

What otherwise might have been worthless bits of trash commanded the highest bids due to where the two items were 57 years ago—lifting off aboard NASA's Apollo 11 spacecraft on humanity's first mission to land astronauts on the Moon. More than flown odds and ends, one was the problem that almost stranded Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface, and the other was the simple solution to saving the mission.

"Houston, Tranquility. Do you have a way of showing the configuration of the engine arm circuit breaker?" radioed Aldrin to Mission Control after realizing he or Armstrong had inadvertently broken off the top of the circuit breaker switch that would enable their ascent engine to ignite, beginning their trip back to Earth. "The reason I'm asking is because the end of it appears to be broken off. I think we can push it back in again. I'm not sure we could pull it out if we pushed it in, though."

As engineers on the ground worked to devise a workaround, Aldrin came up with a straightforward idea, as he described decades later in the letter accompanying the artifacts' sale.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin's letter describing the broken circuit breaker switch and felt-tip pin from his Moon mission. Credit: Sotheby's

"While I could have stuck my finger in and reset the switch, there was electricity flowing through the breaker and I did not want to electrocute myself. I had a plastic felt tip pen in one of my suit pockets and it fit into the breaker opening, so I pushed the marker pen into the circuit breaker, it clicked on, and we rearmed the Engine Arm circuit," he wrote.

"Now we could leave the lunar surface," Aldrin said, "rendezvous with Mike Collins in the command module, and head for home. Disaster averted."

Storied switch

The tale of the pen and circuit breaker is well known, having been recounted by Aldrin in his books and talks, as well as for years having been included on the pamphlet packaged with every Fisher Space Pen sold until Aldrin pointed out that as an engineer, he would never insert a metal-tipped writing instrument into a live electrical socket. The pen he used, which was sold on Wednesday, was a Duro-brand Rocket felt-tip marker.

Aldrin also loaned the pen and broken-off circuit breaker switch to the Smithsonian for its "Destination Moon" traveling exhibit featuring the Apollo 11 command module "Columbia." The tour visited five US cities over the course of two years, spanning the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing in 2019.

The location of the engine arm circuit breaker switch in the Apollo lunar module that was broken off on Apollo 11. Credit: NASA

A law enacted in 2012 reaffirmed that Aldrin and his fellow Apollo-era astronauts legally had title to the spacecraft hardware and other crew equipment they kept as mementos from their missions. The pieces are theirs to own, sell, trade, or donate as they desire.

This was at least the second time that the pen and switch had been offered for sale. In 2022, Sotheby's listed the same set as part of its "Buzz Aldrin: American Icon" sale. Despite eliciting bids up to $650,000, the lot failed to reach its reserve and was passed.

This time, the bids reached $670,000, and it was sold on behalf of the Buzz Aldrin Family Trust. The $857,600 total includes the buyer's premium assessed by Sotheby's. The winning bidder was not identified other than as a participant by phone.

Not a record-setter

While the sale price was impressive, the pen and switch did not break into the top 10 list of the highest prices at a public sale for space artifacts and memorabilia. That ranking begins at $1.625 million, the amount paid in 2015 for a Bulova watch worn outside on the surface of the Moon during the 1971 Apollo 15 mission and tops out at the $2,882,500 spent for the former Soviet Union's Vostok 3KA-2 space capsule as auctioned by Sotheby's in 2011.

The broken circuit breaker switch that nearly ended Apollo 11, and the pen that Buzz Aldrin used to save himself and Neil Armstrong. Credit: Sotheby's

As a point of comparison, the second-highest price for a space-flown artifact was the $2,772,500 commanded by Aldrin's Apollo 11 in-flight jacket, which Sotheby's sold in 2022.

Wednesday's "Space Exploration" sale was part of Sotheby's annual Geek Week of science and technology-themed auctions. The sale offered 134 lots, including more than 40 items from Aldrin's collection. In total, it brought in $2,862,336.

A modern Moonshine gold Omega Speedmaster chronograph, one of 24 watches consigned by the Aldrin Family Trust, sold for $70,400. The same 2026 model is still for sale from Omega for $53,500 retail.

Another sale highlight, and the only item other than the pen and switch set to sell for six figures, was the pressure hatch from the Skylab III command module, flown to and from the United States' first space station in 1974. It sold for $192,000.

Read full article

Comments

Forget the sale of the century. The auction house Sotheby’s has geared up for the sale of the epoch. On July 14 it opened live bidding on assorted fossils, but the pièce de résistance is lot 20, a rare 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.

The specimen—dubbed Gus—is billed as one of the largest, most complete T. rexes ever found. Gus is expected to fetch up to $30 million and will go to the highest bidder, whether public museum or private collector. The latter have played an increasingly prominent role in buying fossils, with auction houses, according to paleontologists, contributing to the trend by building hype. But when private collectors swoop in and buy fossils at auction as luxury assets, those pieces of history are effectively lost to science.

By nearly all accounts, Gus is a big deal. In its description, Sotheby’s boasts that the specimen, which was discovered on a ranch in South Dakota, comprises “an incredible 183 fossil bone elements” making it “approximately 61% complete by bone count.” The fossil remains have been mounted in a custom steel armature along with replicas of the missing bones. The result is a reconstructed skeleton posed as if in hot pursuit, its mouth full of dagger teeth ready to tear into prey.

“It does seem to be a spectacular specimen,” says Thomas Holtz, a tyrannosaur specialist at the University of Maryland. The completeness of the skeleton and the high quality of the bone make Gus “scientifically significant,” he says.

Gus is the latest major dinosaur fossil to go up for sale at auction in the US. That trend began in earnest in 1997 when Sotheby’s auctioned Sue, the most complete T. rex on record. That specimen sold for roughly $8.4 million—the most money ever paid for a fossil at auction at the time.

“Before Sue was sold, there were no laws about who owned fossils. There was no value truly ascribed to them,” says Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman and head of the science and natural history department at Sotheby’s. In many other countries the state owns the fossils. But court cases around Sue clarified that in the US, whoever owns the land also owns whatever fossils are on it, Hatton explains. The market has been booming ever since.

But whereas Sue went to a scientific institution—the Field Museum in Chicago—in recent years ultrarich individuals have been snapping up dinosaur fossils at auctions for their private collections, prompting paleontologists to be concerned about the fate of rare specimens. Tech entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd owns a T. rex called Samson. And he’s not the only private collector to own a tyrant lizard king. A study published in 2025 found that there are more fossils of T. rex in private collections than there are in public trusts.

It’s not just T. rex that’s ending up in personal coffers. In 2024, Sotheby’s sold a Stegosaurus named Apex to hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin for the record-setting sum of $44.6 million. And last year the auction house sold the only known juvenile Ceratosaurus in the world to an anonymous buyer for $30.5 million. These examples highlight another trend: As prices soar, museums simply cannot compete at auction.

Credit: Courtesy of Matthew Sherman/Sotheby's

Auction houses say the sales help science by rescuing fossils from the erosion that occurs when they are exposed to the elements, and by helping to get them expertly excavated, prepared, and assessed.

“If a fossil is not excavated, it’s lost to everyone,” Hatton says.

Paleontologists counter that the incentive to sell specimens to the highest bidder and appeal to high-net-worth collectors actively undermines science every step of the way. That begins at excavation, with commercial outfits that take the fossils out of the ground but fail to exhaustively document the geological context in which a fossil was found, which is essential for understanding the age of the organism, how it died, and the ecosystem it inhabited. Mounting the bones for artistic display makes them impossible to study using modern techniques such as computed tomographic imaging, which can reveal hidden features of fossils noninvasively.

Paleontologists also argue that the auction firms play it fast and loose with science to market the fossils in a way that may make them more appealing to untrained buyers. In the case of Gus, Sotheby’s describes holes in the jaw and elsewhere on the specimen as tyrannosaurid bite marks—signs that Gus might have battled with or been scavenged by his own kind. The description does not offer any evidence to support this interpretation of the holes, nor does it mention alternative explanations for such damage.

It’s a dramatic story, but it’s probably wrong, according to Stuart Sumida, a paleontologist at California State University, San Bernardino. Puncture marks are irregularly shaped and have splintered fractures around the edges. The holes on Gus’ bones, in contrast, are perfectly round and smooth-edged. Holes like these are common on tyrannosaur bones and have been previously hypothesized to be the result of infections. “It’s much sexier to say they’re puncture wounds, but this isn’t how puncture wounds look,” Sumida says of the hole in Gus’ jaw. “T. rex probably just had really bad breath.”

When asked by WIRED about the origin of the bite-mark claim, Hatton replied, “The bite marks are very clear, and are not all straight punctures but lateral bites where you can clearly see the shape of the tooth. You can also tell from the edges of the hole whether the break is clean, or if the hole is gradual (which would be more likely the result of a parasitic or other infection that gradually and evenly eats the bone)." She did not indicate where this analysis came from.

But the central issue with auctioning fossils, researchers contend, is that when specimens end up in private hands, they become unavailable for scientific study. Even if a private collector loans a fossil out for display or study at a museum, as happened last year when the American Museum of Natural History in New York City secured a four-year loan of Griffin’s Stegosaurus, such an arrangement violates a central tenet of paleontology: Scientific reproducibility requires that researchers other than those conducting the original examination have access to those same fossils in perpetuity.

That approach allows paleontologists to validate findings, test new hypotheses, and build knowledge of the past. To ensure access, fossils must be held in public repositories on a permanent basis. So vital is this covenant that established scientific journals won’t publish a study on a specimen that isn’t in the custody of a publicly accessible museum, Sumida explains.

Everything scientists have been able to piece together from fossils about prehistory—from the origin of multicellular life to the dawn of humankind—rests on this system.

“A scientifically important fossil isn't just a static object; it's a permanent source of data that future generations of scientists will study with tools that haven't even been invented yet—but only if the fossil remains in the public trust,” says Kristi Curry Rogers, a paleontologist at Macalester College. “Think about all the cool discoveries that have been made in the last 50 years about dinosaur diets, body temperatures, coloration, reproduction, vocalization, neurobiology—none of these discoveries would have been possible if the fossils had disappeared into private collections."

Sales of fossils to private individuals in the US won’t stop, Sumida acknowledges. So he and Rogers are taking a different tack to help keep important fossils in science’s fold. In their respective roles as president and vice president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, they are working to set up the society to act as a liaison between private collectors and museums. Their goal is to persuade private collectors to donate the fossils they buy to science museums right after the gavel falls rather than keeping them as trophy acquisitions.

“When it comes to these public auctions of our shared history, the best outcome is when those with the means to acquire an extraordinary fossil choose to immediately place it in the public trust, where everyone benefits," Rogers says.

Private buyers can avoid the bad PR that comes from opposition to these sales by making their purchase anonymously, which could hinder efforts to persuade them to engage in philanthropy. But the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is hoping that if it can convince even just a few known individuals to donate their fossils to science, they, in turn, will influence others to do the same.

The society is in talks with some collectors and museums, though Sumida declined to share specific details. It doesn’t have a plan in place to approach Gus’ buyer, but it might develop one depending on who purchases the fossil.

“A specimen of this quality deserves to be in a museum collection so that not merely the current generation but future researchers (to say nothing of museum-goers) would be able to study and admire it far into the future,” Holtz says of Gus. “Let us hope that whoever acquires it keeps this in mind.”

This story originally appeared at wired.com.

Read full article

Comments

Lettuce and salad greens have become the prime suspects in an explosive outbreak of the diarrheal parasite Cyclospora, which is surging nationwide but erupting to extraordinary heights in Michigan.

In recent years, Michigan has typically reported around 50 cases of cyclosporiasis, which causes urgent bouts of watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and nausea. But, this year, as of July 14, the state has reported 3,309 cases of the food-borne pathogen. Of those 44 have been hospitalized.

Based on interviews with more than 1,000 people sickened in Michigan, the latest data is pointing to leafy greens as the source, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS).

"Although we do not have a definite product identified as the source of the outbreak, we want to let Michiganders know what we have learned so far so they can take steps to protect their families," Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, said in an announcement. "Early information has shown lettuce as a common product that regularly comes up during the investigation. We will continue to provide updates as we learn more."

Taco Bell suspected

Separately, The Washington Post reported that state and federal officials are looking into whether Taco Bell restaurants may have been a source of food contaminated with the single-cell parasite.

According to local media sources in the Detroit area, Taco Bell restaurants put up signs reading, "We are currently unable to sell Lettuce, Cilantro, Onion, Pico de Gallo, and Guacamole due to a nationwide recall."

It's unclear what recall the restaurant is referring to; no nationwide recalls have been announced by Michigan or federal authorities related to cyclosporiasis cases. The Post reported that Taco Bell did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the signs or the decision to pull certain produce.

A source familiar with the investigation told the outlet that some sickened people interviewed reported having eaten at Taco Bells, while others did not, suggesting that there could be multiple sources of the contaminated food item.

Identifying the source of Cyclospora can be difficult because it can take up to two weeks between when a person eats contaminated food and when they develop symptoms, making recall of the possible food sources difficult, the MDHHS noted. They also pointed to the "complex food distribution networks" as complicating factors in tracking the source or sources.

National situation

While Michigan is seeing the highest numbers of cases, at least 31 states are also reporting illnesses. New York has reported 470 cases. Ohio is seeing at least 397 cases. North Carolina has reported at least 240. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is collecting data on the cases, but is reporting them slowly.) The nationwide tally is well over 4,000 already at this point in the summer, which is when cyclosporiasis cases peak. In past years, the US has typically reported between 2,000 and 5,000 cases a year.

Amid the outbreak with no clear source as of yet, health officials are recommending that people be cautious about leafy greens, particularly bagged or boxed greens. It's recommended to instead buy whole heads of lettuce, discard the outer two or three layers of leaves, and then wash the rest thoroughly. But, sticking with peel-able or smooth-surfaced produce is safer. The safest choice is cooking produce to at least 158° F (70° C), which will kill the parasite.

Past cyclosporiasis outbreaks have been linked to bagged salad mixes and kits, fresh cilantro, fresh basil, raspberries, snow peas, and green onions, MDHHS notes.

People who experience frequent watery diarrhea should consult with their healthcare provider. An antimicrobial treatment can treat the infection, along with rest and hydration.

Read full article

Comments