Scientists have uncovered how close we can get to perfect optical precision using AI, despite the physical limitations imposed by light itself. By combining physics theory with neural networks trained on distorted light patterns, they showed it’s possible to estimate object positions with nearly the highest accuracy allowed by nature. This breakthrough opens exciting new doors for applications in medical imaging, quantum tech, and materials science.
Briefing
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The global rule that predicts where life thrives—and where it fails
What if all life on Earth followed a surprisingly simple pattern? New research shows that in every region, species tend to cluster in small hotspots and then gradually thin out. This universal rule applies across drastically different organisms and habitats from trees to dragonflies, oceans to forests. Scientists now believe environmental filtering shapes this global distribution, providing new tools to predict how life responds to climate change and biodiversity threats.
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Unusual carbon build-up found in lungs of COPD patients
Scientists have discovered that people with COPD have lung cells that contain over three times as much soot-like carbon as those of smokers without the disease. These overloaded cells are larger and trigger more inflammation, suggesting that pollution and carbon buildup not just smoking may drive the disease.
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Landslides triggered by Hurricane Helene in September 2024
The USGS has published a preliminary report on landslides triggered across western North Carolina, northern South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and parts of southern Virginia by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Over 2,000 failures were triggered by up to c.700 mm of rainfall in a 72 hour period.
Between 26 and 28 September 2024, the remnants of Hurricane Helene swept across the parts of the USA, triggering extreme rainfall in western North Carolina, northern South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and parts of southern Virginia. In western North Carolina for example, 782 mm of precipitation fell in 72 hours. It has been quite difficult to get accurate information about the resultant landslides.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has now put that right with a preliminary field report (Allstadt et al. 2025) that describes the failures that were triggered by Hurricane Helene. There is also an excellent public-facing page with some images and a detailed archive with many more images stored as a zip file.
The report documents 2,217 landslides triggered by Hurrican Helene across the area investigated, and it provides a map to show the distribution:-
The distribution of landslides triggered by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. From Allstadt et al. (2025). The team note that the largest landsides occurred where multiple smaller failures converged to create channelised debris flows, in common with similar events that I have described on this blog (for example in Tanzania, Kenya, India and Pakistan). One such example occurred at “Craigtown”, a small community in Fairview, Buncombe County, North Carolina. This is located at [35.558, -82.317] – the Planet Labs image below shows the aftermath of the event, with the marker placed on Craigtown:-
Satellite image showing the channelised debris flow at Craigtown in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Image dated 5 October 2024. Allstadt et al. (2025) provide these images of the aftermath of the landslide at Craigtown:-
Photographs showing the aftermath of the channelised debris flows at Craigtown in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. From Allstadt et al. (2025). Thirteen people died in the channelised debris flows at Craigtown – eleven in the first event and two responders in a subsequent debris flow. The New York Times has a very powerful article about the impact on the community.
The USGS report is also careful to note that the aftermath of Hurricane Helene could see an elevated level of landslide hazard in the areas that received high rainfall totals. As they put it:
“High-risk landslides may have not yet been identified because of tree cover in areas where field observations have not yet been conducted.”
And finally, the northern hemisphere tropical cyclone season is just warming up. Tropical Depression Wutip has formed in the western Pacific basin and is now expected to travel to the north to make landfall in China. This is not a major storm, but will undoubtedly bring heavy rainfall. There will be many more to come in the coming weeks.
References
Allstadt, K. et al. 2025 Preliminary Field Report of Landslide Hazards Following
Hurricane Helene. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2025–1028.Planet Team 2025 Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://www.planet.com/
Text © 2023. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited. -
The FAIR Package Manager Just Launched as a WordPress Repository Alternative – but What Exactly Is It?
A few days ago, the annual WordCamp Europe meetup took place in the picturesque city of Basel, Switzerland. The biggest announcement from the event was the new FAIR Package Manager – but what exactly is it? In this article we dive into the details, including Matt Mullenweg’s reaction when asked about it on stage.