Lugh

New research pushes back the data of the earliest Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) to 4.09–4.33 billion years ago, a mere few hundred million years after Earth formed. Furthermore, that life was complex too; perhaps having ~2,600 proteins and a primitive immune system. Implying it existed in a biological community (perhaps on another planet), and did not arise on Earth as an isolated primitive lifeform.

There's more support for the idea that microorganisms may be very widespread throughout the galaxy. Researchers now think there is a vast biome extending as far as 8km down from the Earth's surface. These microbes may have lifetimes of thousands or even millions of years, and don't need sunlight or oxygen.

This vastly expands the number and type of exoplanets that may harbor life, and this makes Panspermia via asteroid ejecta even more likely as an explanation for how life came to Earth.

One of the central assumptions of our current search for alien life is that if we find it, it must have independently arisen in that location. Even in places as nearby as Mars. Should we change our assumptions? Assume Mars did, and probably still does have life, and that we were both seeded from elsewhere?

Life happened fast It’s time to rethink how we study life’s origins. It emerged far earlier, and far quicker, than we once thought possible

The Pursuit of Life Where It Seems Unimaginable

China has now surpassed the US for the number of clinical trials per year, and they're 50-100% faster there, too. U.S. and other Western pharmaceutical firms increasingly license innovative drugs from China; In 2025, deals valued from China accounted for about one-third of big pharma licensing agreements.

The U.S. biotech ecosystem has long been driven by NIH-backed R&D, but that has recently been radically cut. Will this be another case where Trump delivers a win for China? Destroying something at home for right-wing ideological reasons, just to let China swoop in to collect the prize. In this case becoming number 1 in global pharmaceuticals?

Outside America, the rest of the world is a winner here. Chinese industrialisation is driving global deflation and cheaper goods in transport, energy, and computing. It will be great if we can add biotech and pharmaceuticals to that list.

China’s Biotech Is Cheaper and Faster

Africa is the big loser in the current system, as the Mercator map makes it look far smaller than it really is. Europe and Russia would look far smaller (their true size) in a corrected map. Brazil is also a beneficiary with a corrected map; it looks far bigger in reality than the Mercator map represents it.

The campaign seems to be going places. The World Bank says it is phasing out the use of the Mercator map, and various UN bodies are looking at doing the same.

African Union joins calls to end use of Mercator map that shrinks continent’s size

It's worth remembering that 20 years ago in 2005, renewables were just 1% of global electricity capacity. Interesting that coal will finally start declining, but gas hasn't yet. Even though coal power use will increase in the US, its decline in China & the EU is bigger, so coal declines overall.

The IEA forecast renewables to be 50% of global capacity by 2030, but they have always underestimated and been too conservative with predictions, so that may happen sooner. There are still huge economies-of-scale price decreases ahead for renewables. By 2030-35 as renewables approaches 80% will anybody be building new power plants of any other type?

IEA: Renewables will be world’s top power source ‘by 2026’

"is designed with a focus on companionship, according to EngineAI. Equipped with a large language model, it supports intelligent interaction and includes high-fidelity speakers and dual high-definition cameras for voice conversation and gesture recognition."

EngineAI's SA02 is much like a dozen or more 2025 humanoid robots currently being developed around the world. It's mastered moving around with agility, and you can talk to it via an LLM AI. Can it do much more? We'll see. Most 2025 humanoid robots are still taking baby steps when it comes to being useful workers, that can do simple tasks like folding laundry.

But has EngineAI spotted a gap in the market by focusing on companionship? Hundreds of thousands of people already have AI boyfriends and girlfriends. This will provide the identical AI, while also giving those AI friends real 3D bodies. Question - if you're truly in love with your AI boy/girlfriend, would you spend the extra money to give them a body?

Video of the robot

EngineAI to launch SA02, a $5,500 humanoid robot aimed at young people

"The project promotes a soil management strategy(opens in new window) that includes prebiotics (compounds that nourish beneficial microbes), probiotics (live beneficial microorganisms) and postbiotics (beneficial microbial by-products). “These practices contribute to sustainable agriculture by promoting a healthy soil microbiome, reducing reliance on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and enhancing plant resilience to environmental stresses,"

The EU is made up of so many countries with proportional representation, it is one of the few areas in the world where, via coalitions, the Green Party regularly get in power. This has very real effects on EU policy and direction. E.g. It's why the EU is so quickly transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewables. But there are numerous other Green Party initiatives. These often go under-reported, but they'll eventually change the world, and this strikes me as one of them.

Transforming sustainable agriculture through microbial innovation