The brightest take on this week’s science

Every man who uses a toilet makes a quiet choice: sit or stand.

Now, a small randomized trial in Colombia has put both postures to the test.

Researchers watched just over 50 healthy men aged 18 to 39 pee once sitting and once standing, at least a day apart.

Neither position changed how fast the men peed at their peak, or how much came out.

This doesn't mean posture never matters, since men with enlarged prostates or other urinary issues may still be better off sitting.

Still, for healthy men, the team says either position works.

Pick your stance freely, as long as you aim well.

Read more.

From space, Earth looks peaceful and alone.

Our planet actually sits inside two invisible donuts of radiation, and for more than a decade, scientists thought the inner one held back 'killer' electrons like a wall.

Now, a Japanese satellite has caught those electrons surging inside that barrier after the giant solar storm of May 2024.

At around 3 megaelectronvolts, their numbers ballooned more than 5,000 times over pre-storm levels.

This doesn't mean the wall leaks all the time: it took a storm in the most powerful category to breach it.

Still, these electrons can pierce satellite shielding and pose a radiation hazard to astronauts.

Our cozy corner of space is a lot less sealed than we thought.

Read more.

A) Intestinal villi
B) Lung alveoli
C) Fallopian tube
D) Deep-sea sponge

Answer at the bottom.

AI can analyse data. 

AI can generate recommendations. 

But someone still has to make things happen in the real world. 

DIT AgTech does. 

DIT AgTech combines hardware, AI, nutrition automation and real-time data to turn intelligence into action across livestock operations. 

It gives ranchers technology that works alongside them, automating supplementation and helping them produce more with less. 

That's Physical AI. 

And it's already operating in the real world, across 500+ deployed units and 370,000 head of livestock on the platform. 

As AI moves from screens into the physical economy, DIT AgTech is building the infrastructure for it in livestock production. 

And the market is massive. 

Livestock is still one of the world's least automated major industries. The race to bring Physical AI to it has barely begun. 

Be one of the first to see where this is going.

Invest in DIT AgTech Today

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An afternoon doze in the armchair is one of life's simple pleasures.

Now, a study of nearly 1,000 older Americans suggests those naps deserve a closer look.

Over about five years, people over 65 who napped every day or most days had a 48 percent higher rate of dementia than those who rarely or never napped, nearly one and a half times the rate.

Short naps and unplanned naps were also linked to higher rates.

The study was only observational, and frequent napping could be a sign of brain changes rather than a cause.

Still, they say napping is a risk factor we should pay more attention to.

Our naps may be telling us more than we realized.

Read more.

The dog pictured above lives in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, and may be possibly descended from pets left behind in 1986.

More than 30 generations later, dogs near the old power plant are genetically distinct from dogs just 16 kilometers away.

Some neighborhoods really do keep to themselves.

Read more about it here.

Some hawkmoths have evolved a bizarre way to jam the sonar of hunting bats: screaming at them with their genitals.

No joke.

Read more about this rude defense here.

Microscope answer: Fallopian tube.

This is the inside surface of a human fallopian tube, seen with a scanning electron microscope at about x2000. The red tufts are cilia that beat toward the uterus, sweeping the egg along. The blue-purple cells are secretory cells with tiny microvilli, which keep the tube moist and may feed the egg.