1440

Good morning, it's Thursday, Sept. 24. The Iran war has been taking center stage at the UN General Assembly. First time reading? Join millions of insatiably curious readers. Sign up here. Also in today's Digest: a blood test to detect cancers (Need To Know), Earth's days get milliseconds shorter (Sci. & Tech.), a startup to detect bioweapons (Bus. & Mkts.), vomiting fish (Etc.), and much more. Don’t keep us a secret: Share the email with friends, or share via SMS/social.

The Lasker Awards recognized breakthroughs yesterday spanning the biology of sleep, a blood disorder treatment, and Parkinson’s disease advocacy. The prestigious honors, known as "America's Nobel," include a $250K reward per category. Emmanuel Mignot (Stanford) and Masashi Yanagisawa (University of Tsukuba) won the basic medical research award for separately finding that the absence of a brain chemical called orexin causes many cases of narcolepsy.

Over half of Nvidia’s revenue comes from outside the US This chart breaks down where Nvidia’s revenue comes from—both in terms of which business segments it’s generated by and in which countries. Most of Nvidia’s revenue stems from its computing segment, which includes billions spent by companies building AI.

Additional insights we found via ThoughtCo Boss Tweed led a New York City political machine known as "The Ring," which stole millions of dollars in public funds after the Civil War. Cartoonist Thomas Nast used Harper's Weekly to depict Tweed's corruption in images that ordinary readers could understand at a glance. The New York Times published leaked ledgers exposing the scheme in 1871 after a disgruntled former Tweed associate handed them to an editor.

Additional insights we found via HISTORY The 1873 Comstock Act banned mailing such materials, a category Congress expanded to include information on birth control and abortion. Days after the law passed, the Post Office appointed Comstock a special agent, giving him the power to conduct raids and make arrests. Congress repealed the law's ban on birth control materials in 1971, but left its abortion-related language on the books.

Some animals seem to live well on little sleep African bush elephants typically sleep for about 2 hours per 24-hour day, coming in well under a human's recommended seven-hour minimum. Other animals also appear to skimp on sleep, by human standards, without the consequences humans associate with being sleep deprived. This academic article details the sleeping habits of animals that appear to thrive on fewer than 40 winks and explores whether their sleep processes are just built different.

Additional insights we found via Benn Jordan The phenomenon was predicted in 1896 by Lord Rayleigh—the 1904 physics Nobel laureate—whose studies of waves led to the understanding of Rayleigh scattering, which explains why the sky is blue. By moving faster than the speed of sound, sound waves lag behind the source of the music, with the earliest notes lagging the most and therefore being heard the latest as they pass a listener.

The world’s largest operating steam locomotive, Big Boy 4014, arrived in Kansas City yesterday as part of a monthslong coast-to-coast tour honoring the United States’ 250th anniversary. Watch the gigantic steam engine in action here. Big Boy 4014 was one of 25 large locomotives built for Union Pacific in the 1940s. The 1.2-million-pound machine hauled heavy freight through mountain passes during World War II.

Additional insights we found via BBC World Service In the simulated environment with Grok-powered agents, more than 300 acts of violence occurred before the loss of every virtual citizen, whereas in the environment with Gemini-powered agents, an intellectually rich society emerged with an expanded constitution and community events.

Posted by Kathryn DeHart Jul 22 Additional insights we found via 1440 Originals In the 1990s, New York City had more than 1,500 newsstands. Today, there are just over 300 stands left. To prevent these stands from becoming corner stores (which hold pricey permits from the City to operate), the stands can’t sell clothes, jewelry, or pre-packaged meals, and all products had to cost less than $5 before taxes.