James' World 2

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A quarter-century later, lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, from our ubiquitous phones to implanted medical devices to satellites blinking at us in the night sky. And Jeevarajan, now vice president and executive director of the Electrochemical Safety Research Institute (ESRI) at ULRI, continues to lead the charge toward making them safe, wherever they’re used. 

As much as she relished her time as a senior scientist at NASA, Jeevarajan joined ULRI in 2015, eager to embrace the organization’s broader safety goals. In 2021, she was tapped to lead ESRI, newly created with the mission to “advance safer energy storage through science.” She quickly built the institute to a staff of 21 chemical engineers, electrical engineers, fire engineering scientists, materials scientists, computer-modeling experts, and other specialists. 

Located in a University of Houston technology park, the team collaborates with researchers in academia and industry to understand the workings of

different energy-storage systems—particularly advanced batteries and hydrogen—including what may cause them to break down and when they may become dangerous. The question that drives ESRI’s work, says Jeevarajan, is “what can we do to make the world a safer place, especially with respect to energy… and sustainability?”  

It’s a question of particular pertinence now, as battery-powered devices are crucial in the move toward renewable energy. Lithium-ion batteries—light, powerful, rechargeable—are the most widely used. But if improperly manufactured or managed, they are subject to uncontrollable overheating known as thermal runaway, which can lead to disastrous fires, smoke, and chemical emissions. 

Newer energy-storage alternatives could help mitigate these threats, says Dhevathi Rajan Rajagopalan Kannan, a research scientist at ESRI who is in charge of that project. Among the alternatives: sodium-ion batteries, which, given the abundance of sodium, are cheaper and more sustainable to produce. “What I’m trying to understand is whether the sodium-ion battery that is being used, or that is available, is safe or not,” he says. And it’s a race against time: “That is a fundamental understanding we are trying to get to before it gets more commercialized and mass-produced and adopted within the U.S.” 

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The devastating and tragic floods that have killed at least 120 people in Texas were the latest in an increasingly familiar tale of extreme rain and its devastating consequences. Whether it’s so-called 1,000-year rain events like the one seen in the Texas Hill Country or the effect of tropical activity, like central North Carolina saw when Tropical Storm Chantal moved inland, there have been more and more headlines of communities being caught by surprise.

The economic losses can also add up. The Texas floods caused an estimated $18 billion to $22 billion in damages and economic loss. Last year, Asheville, North Carolina, saw damages of at least $53 billion after Hurricane Helene stalled over the city. And recent flooding in New Mexico and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, also damaged homes and businesses.

More floods are likely on the way, scientists warn. Global warming is creating conditions that are more suited for bigger storms. (Warm air holds more moisture.) Outdated infrastructure, inadequate warning systems, and cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the National Weather Service, are only going to make matters worse.

For business owners, a flood can be catastrophic, even if business was going well beforehand. While there’s little you can do to stop flood waters from entering your offices, especially in the event of a flash flood, there are steps you can take to protect yourself in the aftermath, and a few that might offer some protections to founders who are looking for a new space.

Scout the location

While it’s critical for some businesses, like retailers, to be in a convenient spot for foot traffic, it’s important to consider the locational risks before you sign a lease or buy a building. Find out if the building is in a flood zone (FEMA has a handy tool that lets you search by address, and the First Street Foundation’s Flood Factor is another way to assess risk). If it’s a high-risk zone, consider another location. If it’s low, that’s good, but that doesn’t mean you’ll want to bypass getting flood insurance.

Get the right insurance

Once you understand the risks of your business’s location, make sure you’re insured. Note that commercial property insurance will not cover you in the event of a flood. You’ll need to get specific commercial flood insurance to protect both the physical location of your business as well as all of its contents. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) from FEMA will cover up to $500,000 in losses, and it’s generally the most affordable option.

If that amount is insufficient in the event of a complete loss, consider private flood insurance, which might offer broader coverage, but be prepared to pay more for it (perhaps a lot more). And some private insurers won’t offer coverage in areas that are more likely to experience flooding. Additionally, business interruption insurance often has exclusions for flooding.

Just because you’re not in a high-risk area doesn’t mean you’re safe. The NFIP points out that one-third of the flood insurance claims it receives occur outside high flood risk areas.

Design your business with a flood in mind

If you’ve yet to begin construction on your business or are in the process renovating, there are steps you can take that will make recovery easier in the event of a flood. Opt for tile instead of carpet when you’re installing the floors. Installing cement board instead of drywall will make it much easier to reopen sooner, as it doesn’t absorb water and won’t attract mold. Rather than wooden baseboards, go with a composite material. If you’re building from scratch, place your electrical outlets higher than normal, which could prevent them from taking in water if disaster strikes. And if it’s practical to elevate the building, consider that.

Have a plan in place

Chaos follows any natural disaster. And, sadly, scammers do as well. The best way to avoid both is to have an emergency plan in place. Have contractors on retainer, so you can reopen as soon as possible. Never work with a repair company you’re unfamiliar with that claims to “know the system” or shows up promising miracles after the flood. (Having a regular contractor can also be beneficial in non-emergency times.)

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A man looks at a damaged road after severe flash flooding in Hunt, Texas. Photo: Getty Images

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The Trump administration had promised a bombshell. Americans, many of whom had spent years wondering over the unknowns in the Jeffrey Epstein case, would finally get their hands on the secret files that would explain it all. What really happened when the accused sex trafficker died in jail back in 2019? And who was on his “client list”—a rumored collection of famous and powerful people who participated in Epstein’s crimes?

In a September 2024 interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Donald Trump suggested that he would release the list if reelected. “Yeah, I’d be inclined to do the Epstein; I’d have no problem with it,” Trump said. He indulged speculation about Epstein after his reelection as well. In February, the White House hosted a collection of MAGA-world influencers and gave them binders full of heavily redacted Epstein-related documents labeled Phase 1, suggesting more to come.

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Photo-illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Sezeryadigar / Getty; Rick Friedman / Corbis / Getty.

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Stephen Shore, an autistic professor of special education at Adelphi University, has said: “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” This quote is popular in the autism community and among researchers because it reflects something they grapple with all the time: the truly incredible diversity of experiences that fall under the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“The beauty of the autism spectrum is: it speaks to this heterogeneity. And the downside [is that] it covers up the differences,” says Fred Volkmar, a psychiatrist and a professor emeritus at Yale University. Right now, individuals are placed on the spectrum based on the level of severity, from level 1 to level 3, of two different criteria: social communication difficulties and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Those coarse groupings, however, miss so much of the nuance. That’s why researchers have spent decades trying to use genetics and behavioral characteristics to divide the spectrum into meaningful subtypes. The hope is that such subtypes can help guide care for autistic people and their families and reveal what causes different presentations of autism in the first place.

Now, in a study published on Wednesday in Nature Genetics, researchers have bridged an important gap by connecting different clusters of behavioral and developmental traits with underlying genetic differences. By analyzing data from a group of 5,392 autistic children, they identified four distinct subtypes of autism, each with different kinds of challenges, that are connected to specific types of genetic variations.

“For families navigating autism, understanding their child’s specific subtype can provide greater clarity and open the door to more personalized care, support, and connection,” says Natalie Sauerwald, co-lead author of the paper, who studies genomics at the Flatiron Institute in New York City. But it’s not yet clear whether these four subtypes, which were identified with statistics in a nonrepresentative, largely white group of autistic kids, will be useful to help diagnose and care for autistic people in real-world clinical settings.

When genetic sequencing of the human genome began in earnest in the 1990s, autism researchers hoped to identify the genetic cause—or more likely, causes—of the condition. “Twenty years ago, the geneticists were saying, ‘We’re not even going to need autism [as a diagnosis]; we’re just going to have genetically defined disorders,’” says Catherine Lord, a psychologist specializing in autism at the University of California, Los Angeles.

That hasn’t come to pass. “Autism genetics is very complex,” says the new study’s co-lead author Aviya Litman, a genomics graduate student at Princeton University. Despite autism being between 60 and 80 percent heritable, it’s hard to pin down a specific genetic cause for any one individual—the cause is only clear for about 20 percent of autistic people tested, Litman explains. Researchers have now identified hundreds of genes associated with autism, meaning that if an individual has certain genes, they have a much higher chance of being diagnosed as autistic. But even with this knowledge, scientists haven’t been able to reliably connect how these genes translate to specific autistic traits and developmental trajectories.

To bridge that gap, Litman, Sauerwald, and their colleagues turned to data from a large study that tracked genetic information, traits, and development of 5,392 autistic kids between the ages of four and 18. The researchers evaluated the young participants on social communication abilities, restrictive and repetitive behaviors, developmental milestones, and more. Using a computer model, statistical tests, and clinical judgment, the team separated the participants into four robust groups based on patterns in their traits and development.

• Social and Behavioral Challenges: These kids, 37 percent of the participants, had more difficulty with social communication and restrictive and repetitive behaviors than other autistic children. They also had more challenges with disruptive behavior, attention, and anxiety. These children, however, did not experience significant developmental delays.

• Mixed ASD with Developmental Delay: These kids, 19 percent of the participants, were more varied in their social communication and restrictive and repetitive behaviors, and they showed some developmental delays compared with nonautistic children.
• Moderate Challenges: These kids, 34 percent of the participants, had consistently fewer difficulties with social communication, restrictive and repetitive behaviors, and other core autistic traits compared with other autistic children, though they still had more difficulties with them than nonautistic children. They did not have developmental delays.
• Broadly Affected: These kids, 10 percent of the participants, had more severe and wide-ranging difficulties with social communication, restrictive and repetitive behaviors, and other core autistic traits, including developmental delays, compared with other autistic children.

These groups still contained a lot of variation within them, but participants in each were more similar to one another than they were to participants in other groups. The four groups were also replicated in another, smaller population of autistic children.

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Muharrem Huner/Getty Images

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Last we saw Leonardo DiCaprio, he had an all-black Dodgers cap glued to his head for three days straight as he tried to avoid getting papped at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding. This cap has become a bit of a calling card for DiCaprio. He wore it to Glen Powell’s ketchup launch party, he wore it during a recent outing to Rao’s, and he’s worn it (or some other cap) in most paparazzi shots of him from the past few years. However, DiCaprio decided to let the top of his head breathe on Friday, when he attended Wimbledon completely hat-free.

As you can see in the photo above, he is having an amazing time. The sun is reaching the crown of his head for the first time in ages, and it appears to be putting him in a great mood. Other photos show that DiCaprio was laughing and chatting with his seatmates, as well as sipping on a fun little drink. It’s a far cry from his appearance at the 2023 U.S. Open, at which he sort of lurked in the corner of a box wearing, you guessed it, his black baseball cap.

Is this hatless version of DiCaprio the result of a stately British dress code? If you are a tennis fan, you probably already know this, but no. Actually, Wimbledon is sort of famous for being pro-hat, specifically Panama hats. But it’s not that a baseball cap is too casual, either. There was a man sitting directly in front of DiCaprio wearing the all-white version of the actor’s preferred look:

For whatever reason, DiCaprio just decided to leave his beloved chapeau at home. And you know what? Hats off to him!

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Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage

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The experts uncovered the towering marvel some 7,870 feet (2,400 m) below sea level during an expedition organised by the Schmidt Ocean Institute over the summer.

“A seamount over 1.5 kilometres tall which has, until now, been hidden under the waves really highlights how much we have yet to discover,” Jyotika Virmani, the executive director of Schmidt Ocean Institute, said in a statement.

The cone-shaped feature covers 5.4 square miles (14 square kilometres) and is located in the Pacific Ocean, in international waters, 97 miles (156 kilometres) from Guatemalan waters.

The team made the exciting discovery thanks to multibeam sonar mapping during a six-day crossing from Costa Rica.

Seamounts serve as vital rocky habitats for deep-sea corals, sponges, and invertebrates since the majority of the Earth’s seabeds are covered in loose, muddy sediment.

Satellite data suggests there are more than 100,000 unexplored seamounts that will be uncovered through ongoing seafloor mapping.

“A complete seafloor map is a fundamental element of understanding our ocean,” Virmani said. “It’s exciting to be living in an era where technology allows us to map and see these amazing parts of our planet for the first time.”

The Schmidt Ocean Institute is working alongside the Seabed 2030 project and other partners to map out the entire seafloor by the end of the decade.

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The researchers made the exciting discovery thanks to multibeam sonar mapping (Schmidt Ocean Institute)

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