An Artificial Intelligence Engine to React to Player Inputs in a Bleeding Edge Game: An Empirical Analysis of the US-SDGs

On the international front, the decision to withdraw from or drastically scale back long-standing commitments will have severe consequences. The United States is often the largest contributor to global initiatives directly linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world’s plan to end poverty and achieve environmental sustainability. The country provides around 20% of the core budget for the WHO, which has already been notified by the president of his intent to leave. Although the United States will not formally depart until next year, the WHO’s more than 8,000 staff members have already been told by director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to put all but essential travel on hold.

A new artificial intelligence engine can be used to create worlds that respond to player inputs. In the Bleeding Edge game, researchers trained the engine on one-second slices of the game in order to make it more efficient. WHAM can create a number of game scenarios that retain items added by the player, and it can adhere to the game rules.

What will the government do after Donald Trump leaves office? An expert report from the New York Times on MSSM topological qubits (MSQB)

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl shows no signs of a rare genetic disorder, after becoming the first person to be treated for the motor-neuron condition while in the womb. The child’s mother took the gene-targeting drug during late pregnancy, and the child continues to take it. Ris Diplam modifies the expression of a genes to make more of a proteins that is needed in maintaining motor neurones in the brain.

Microsoft has announced that it has created the first ‘topological qubits’ — a way of storing quantum information that the firm hopes will underpin a new generation of quantum computers. Some researchers were suspicious of the company’s claims after the announcement came in a press release with few technical details. Microsoft says it has disclosed some of its data to selected specialists. Is it possible that they are seeing what they think they are seeing? Steven Simon, who was among those briefed, said that it looks good.

On day one of Donald Trump’s second term as US President, he signed dozens of directives that have overhauled US science, including banning federal programmes that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The National Endowment for the Arts, which receives grants and loans from the government, was plunged into chaos after a federal judge temporarily blocked the order. Trump has slashed the federal workforce, which includes scientists.

Experts warn there might be more disruption to come. A number of the policies rolled out so far have their proposals put forward by the Heritage Foundation. The document also called for slashes to climate research and new rules that could make it easier to fire government employees, including scientists, who were hired to positions on the basis of expertise rather than being politically appointed.

Keeping our rubbish better contained: A case study of New York City’s containerization approach to urban rat control in the era of DeepSeek

Chinese policymakers have been trying to get their country’s image in the forefront of innovation. The launch of the large-language model DeepSeek-R1 has now put the spotlight on China’s wider artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. Chinese firms are invested in solving manufacturing problems at scale more than their US counterparts. The two nations are not related and who is winning the race may no longer be relevant.

In a warming climate cities are losing battles against rats. Efforts to control urban rat populations rely heavily on poisons and traps, cruel and largely ineffective measures that can have knock-on effects on other wildlife. Thankfully, research has shown that there’s another way (and bonus, it’s not too difficult to implement): we keep our rubbish better contained. New York City’s containerization approach is one example of a successful changing city-wide Sanitation system, despite some careful planning. All without the need for a violent end to rat life.

Source: Daily briefing: First in-womb treatment for motor-neuron condition is a success

Comment on ‘Scenarios, policies and initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion’ by R.A. Murdoch, A.J.P. Gowdy, I.M. Kovlev, J.

In normal cells, cellular machinery removes non-coding sequence from immature mRNA and joins coding sequence to exon in a process called splicing. The resulting mRNA sequence is used to guide the formation of an amino-acid chain that makes up a protein. In a tumour (b), splicing can go wrong. In those instances, the cells produce incorrect or unusual proteins. The cells are labeled as ‘foreign’ by the neoantigens that are produced by the proteins. Nature News & Views is a 7 min read.

In an editorial, Nature Computational Science commits to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion among their authors, readers and communities. The 4 min read was Nature Computational Science.

How should we respond to this, if we are a part of the global enterprise of education, health, science and engineering? To support researchers and to defend their ability to work is one of the things that needs to be done to denounce these actions. Understandably, those working at — or even leading — federal agencies might feel that they cannot speak up, but researchers at other organizations, such as universities, scientific societies, businesses, labour unions and campaign groups have more freedom, and must exercise it by showing support for affected colleagues.

There are differences of opinion between researchers in all scientific fields. Discussion and further study are the best ways to reach a shared understanding. Shutting down scholarship isn’t a solution.

These are unacceptable attacks on people’s rights and on academic freedom. The decades of progress in science will come to an end if they don’t reverse it. The research consensus is that data that is disaggregated is essential to achieving the goals. Sex and gender are included into study design in order to improve science and medicine.

Another executive order mandated the cancellation of policies and initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion, which the Trump administration has incorrectly described as illegal, radical and wasteful. Cancelling public initiatives and stopping federal funding for the study of certain issues could cause harm. The White House wrongly calls gender ideology extremism and there is no reason for cancelling policies and funding for initiatives that recognize the complexity of sex and gender.

The bulk of the agency’s more than 10,000 members of staff have been put on leave. It’s website and most of the buildings are not accessible. Although life-saving programmes are technically exempt from any immediate changes, in practice there are few, if any, USAID staff or functioning financial systems available to keep the payments that fund them going. The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief disbursed more than $100 billion for the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS, but funding is up in the air.

At least one million women in countries around the world have lost access to contraceptive care as a result of a 90-day ‘pause’ on funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the world’s largest single-country source for aid, including scientific assistance. In 2023, the United States disbursed $72 billion in international assistance, some 60% of which was provided through USAID.

Trump has also cancelled US federal funding for international climate-change projects, which totalled some US$11 billion in 2024, amounting to around 10% of annual global public climate finance. He withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, which is a blow to tackling climate change and will delay efforts to raise finance for the countries most affected by global warming.

The courts may force the White House to moderate or reverse some of its decisions if people and organizations challenge some of the administration’s actions. There is a desire to degrade, if not eliminate, independent, science-based evidence and expert advice as well as a disregard for international agreements.