Space technology company to build satellite launch site on Adak 

The space technology company SpinLaunch has signed a 100-year land lease with the Aleut Corp., the landowning Native corporation on Adak, where it plans to build a launchpad to send satellites into low Earth orbit.

The agreement was finalized in October 2024 and announced Thursday in a statement from the Aleut Corp.

Aleut Corp. spokesperson Kate Gilling said in an interview that the corporation has been in talks with the California-based space start-up for several years.

“Finally to be at the point where we can announce and share it is very exciting,” Gilling said.

SpinLaunch plans to use Adak as a site for its centrifugal launch technology, which the company calls a mass acceleration system. It spins payloads in a vacuum chamber at high speeds and hurls them into orbit without relying on fuel-powered rockets.

Aleut Corp. Vice President of Regional Affairs Julie Toomey describes it “like a high tech slingshot.”

“It’s cleaner, simpler and significantly more cost effective,” she said.

SpinLaunch first drew attention in 2018 for proposing the method as a lower-cost alternative to conventional rocket launches. The company has since completed about 10 test flights using a scaled-down version of the system at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

In recent years it explored locations for a permanent launch site, which included a 2020 visit to Unalaska. But that did not advance past early discussions.

Adak is the westernmost municipality in the United States and was once the home of a naval air base. SpinLaunch said in its Thursday statement that it chose Adak for the island’s combination of remoteness and existing infrastructure. The island has a deepwater port, regular commercial air service and existing military facilities from the naval base, which closed in 1997.

SpinLaunch also pointed to Adak’s potential for renewable energy development, including wind and geothermal resources.

The island’s population shrank rapidly when the base was decommissioned, falling from over 4,000 residents in the 1990s to fewer than 50 people today. The city closed its school last year due to shrinking enrollment.

Toomey said the existing infrastructure, much of it originating during the military’s buildup in the 1940s, attracted SpinLaunch to Adak.

“There’s operational airport and port infrastructure, former military buildings we can repurpose, and renewable energy potential to help power the site,” she said.

Gilling, with Aleut Corp., said she thinks the project will spur growth and attract families back to the island.

“That will certainly mean an increase in population,” she said. “We’ll need more restaurants. We’ll need more hoteling and housing space. We’ll need more infrastructure. So that influx of a larger population will only bring about benefits for the community.”

Adak does not have a village corporation and is instead under the umbrella of the regional corporation.

Aleut Corp. Board Chair Jenifer Nelson said the project will benefit the corporation’s more than 5,000 shareholders in addition to Adak’s community members.

“We are working to drive meaningful economic development that brings long-term benefits to our shareholders and the region as a whole,” Nelson said.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan has been outspoken in his support for Adak’s development, and Aleut Corp. representatives say he backs the project.

Environmental planning is ongoing, and the Aleut Corp. said it’s paying special attention to nesting bird habitats.
A timeline for launch operations has not been announced.

Tech tumbles, retail rises, China’s DuPont probe: Market Minute

00:00 Speaker A It’s time for Yahoo! Finance’s Market Minute. US stocks continue to sell off sharply as trade war fears mount. The tech-heavy NASDAQ composite set to close in a bear market. Losses building among the big tech players. Tesla, Nvidia, and Apple leading the declines as China is set to impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on all goods imported from the US. On the flip side, Nike and Lululemon getting a lift after President Trump confirms speaking with Vietnam’s top leader on tariffs. Trump said that Vietnam wants to lower its tariffs to zero if it can reach an agreement with the United States. And DuPont sliding as China hits the company with a competition probe. Regulators starting an antitrust investigation into the Chinese subsidiary of the chemicals and materials manufacturer. This comes as DuPont already faces tariff hurdles. And that’s your Yahoo! Finance Market Minute.

The best brutalism books to add to your library in 2025

Love it or hate it, brutalism is an architecture style that changed design history forever. And while you may love Le Corbusier’s Unité d’habitation or dream of owning a flat in the Barbican Estate, lesser-known architects, buildings, and histories may escape you. Fortunately, there are hundreds of books on brutalist architecture that offer everything you need to know about the genre, whether you’re craving a general survey, looking to nerd out over a particular building, or simply searching for something that will look smart on your coffee table. Here, we have put together the best brutalist books which capture the raw power of buildings around the world and the pioneers behind them. Welcome to the brutalist book club.Shop our favourite brutalism books

Brutalist Plants

While brutalist buildings and their formidable exteriors can feel at odds with nature, Brutalist Plants, by Olivia Broome, shows otherwise. This beautifully-photographed tome captures the beauty of stark concrete architecture alongside lush environments—a tactic that many architects used to soften their buildings. Here you’ll take in inspiring images of modernist classics and contemporary structures alike engulfed in greenery—proof that calm can co-exist with a concrete jungle.

Brutalist Italy

Brutalist Italian architecture is the result of a five-year project by photographers Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego. Their work places a spotlight on some of Italy’s most interesting (and most neglected) concrete buildings. The book captures architectural heroes of the era, while also documenting forgotten ones, whether left unfinished or abandoned.

The Barbican Estate

London’s world-famous brutalist icon is celebrated in a book of images and commentary from its architects and residents both past and present. This book takes a deep dive into the functionality of the building and showcases the 140 different flat types via drawings, maps and intricate details – all proof that the Barbican is an icon for a reason.

Concrete Architecture

Concrete Architecture offers more than a century’s worth of the world’s most influential brutalist buildings, from soaring Soviet-era memorials to sculptural apartment blocks. This hefty tome, as its name suggests, is a celebration of concrete and offers a survey of its role in building design, from its earliest usage until the present day.

Brutalist Paris

Brutalist Paris, the first book from the design-focussed map-making company Blue Crow Media, a photographic study of the French capital’s surviving brutalist treasures. This book is not one to skim through, as it focuses on 50 of the French capital’s buildings, each with accompanying academic essays that explore French culture’s deep relationship with architecture, modernity and social change.

Brutal Wales

Brutal Wales dives deep into the surprising history of modern Welsh architecture. This hefty volume is part of a series of publications by Simon Phipps, who has been investigating brutalist architecture across the country for more than 20 years. The book is designed by Marc Jennings, and comes with both Welsh and English language text throughout.

Finding Brutalism: A Photographic Survey of Post-War British Architecture

Simon Phipps is back with another brutalism tome. Yet if you think this fine art photographer is just about aesthetics, think again. Instead, through his lens, he captured the rebuilding of Britain after World War II. Of course the imagery appeals to the eye, however this collection and extensive research also documents the political and social landscape following the aftermath of the war. Read the full review here

amazon
Redefining Brutalism

Simon Henley, an award-winning architect, knows a thing or two about a materials-led approach to designing buildings. But, rather than architecture, this book focuses on the social idealism that underpinned so many of brutalist buildings. For Henley the best examples were a response to society and free from hierarchies. The book goes deep into the critique of brutalism, both positive and negative, and frames this architectural movement as a living and evolving entity.

Frédéric Chaubin. CCCP. Cosmic Communist Constructions

For a view into Brutalism’s wilder side, add this tome about the architecture of the former USSR to your bookshelf. The other-worldly buildings and monuments on display here – constructed between 1970 and 1990 – reflect the ideology of the time with architecture that awes as much as it puzzles.

The Brutalists: Brutalism’s Best Architects

This book takes a look at the architects behind the monolithic, concrete facades. Flip through its pages and encounter 250 architects, both historic and contemporary, that have shaped brutalism as we know it today, through 200 renowned and forgotten works. With more than 350 photographs, The Brutalists is so much more than mere eye-candy.

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Scientists Discover Natural Antibiotics Hidden in Our Cells

A model of the proteasome. Image credits: RCSB.

For decades, the proteasome has been considered a simple molecular shredder. It chews up used or damaged proteins and feeds them to T cells to help them scan for danger. However, a new study suggests this cellular machinery harbors a second, secret talent: it might also produce antibiotics that kill bacteria directly.

A team led by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science described a surprising twist in the proteasome’s activity. The study reveals that the proteasome can generate “defense peptides” — fragments of proteins that act like antibiotics from within, rupturing bacterial membranes and halting infections before the immune system’s more complex operations even begin.

A Surprise From Within

The proteasome is a microscopic barrel-shaped machine found in every cell of the human body. For decades, scientists only knew it for breaking down old or damaged proteins into fragments so their building blocks could be reused. Immunologist Yifat Merbl and her team suspected the proteasome might be doing more.

In a series of intricate experiments—what she described as “dumpster diving”—they uncovered that the proteasome isn’t just disposing of old proteins. It’s transforming them into molecular weapons. When a cell is infected by bacteria, the proteasome undergoes a key transformation. Rather than just chopping up proteins for recycling, it creates antimicrobial peptides (small fragments capable of tearing holes in the bacterial cell walls) from them.

Under a microscope, the results are stark. Images shared by the team show once-healthy Staphylococcus bacteria ruptured and leaking their contents after exposure to these natural antibiotics.

Staphylococcus bacteria, one healthy on the left and one being destroyed as its outer layer is torn open by antimicrobials made by the proteasome. Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science

Field Test Results

To test their theory, the researchers inhibited the proteasome in human cells and then exposed them to Salmonella. Bacterial levels surged. But when the proteasome was allowed to function normally, the cells secreted small peptides that stunted bacterial growth. The effect vanished when these peptides were digested by a general protease, confirming their antimicrobial role.

Digging deeper, the team used a mass spectrometry technique called MAPP (Mass-spectrometry Analysis of Proteasome Products) to catch the peptides in the act. Out of over 50,000 identified peptides, more than 1,000 had the right size and chemistry to be potent antimicrobials.

Ten of the highest-scoring candidates were synthesized and tested against a rogues’ gallery of bacteria — E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Micrococcus luteus, and others. Most were vulnerable to the new peptides, which worked in a dose-dependent fashion. The peptides showed no toxic effects on mammalian cells.

Scientists Discover Natural Antibiotics Hidden in Our Cells

A model of the proteasome. Image credits: RCSB.

For decades, the proteasome has been considered a simple molecular shredder. It chews up used or damaged proteins and feeds them to T cells to help them scan for danger. However, a new study suggests this cellular machinery harbors a second, secret talent: it might also produce antibiotics that kill bacteria directly.

A team led by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science described a surprising twist in the proteasome’s activity. The study reveals that the proteasome can generate “defense peptides” — fragments of proteins that act like antibiotics from within, rupturing bacterial membranes and halting infections before the immune system’s more complex operations even begin.

A Surprise From Within

The proteasome is a microscopic barrel-shaped machine found in every cell of the human body. For decades, scientists only knew it for breaking down old or damaged proteins into fragments so their building blocks could be reused. Immunologist Yifat Merbl and her team suspected the proteasome might be doing more.

In a series of intricate experiments—what she described as “dumpster diving”—they uncovered that the proteasome isn’t just disposing of old proteins. It’s transforming them into molecular weapons. When a cell is infected by bacteria, the proteasome undergoes a key transformation. Rather than just chopping up proteins for recycling, it creates antimicrobial peptides (small fragments capable of tearing holes in the bacterial cell walls) from them.

Under a microscope, the results are stark. Images shared by the team show once-healthy Staphylococcus bacteria ruptured and leaking their contents after exposure to these natural antibiotics.

Staphylococcus bacteria, one healthy on the left and one being destroyed as its outer layer is torn open by antimicrobials made by the proteasome. Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science

Field Test Results

To test their theory, the researchers inhibited the proteasome in human cells and then exposed them to Salmonella. Bacterial levels surged. But when the proteasome was allowed to function normally, the cells secreted small peptides that stunted bacterial growth. The effect vanished when these peptides were digested by a general protease, confirming their antimicrobial role.

Digging deeper, the team used a mass spectrometry technique called MAPP (Mass-spectrometry Analysis of Proteasome Products) to catch the peptides in the act. Out of over 50,000 identified peptides, more than 1,000 had the right size and chemistry to be potent antimicrobials.

Ten of the highest-scoring candidates were synthesized and tested against a rogues’ gallery of bacteria — E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Micrococcus luteus, and others. Most were vulnerable to the new peptides, which worked in a dose-dependent fashion. The peptides showed no toxic effects on mammalian cells.

‘Talk to Me’ Gets Limited Edition 4K UHD Release from Second Sight Films

There’s no point in praying, because When Evil Lurks is coming to 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on June 3 from Shudder.
The 2023 Argentinian supernatural horror film is presented in 4K with Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English subtitles.
The only special feature is a behind-the-scenes photo gallery.
Written and directed by Demián Rugna (Terrified), the film stars Ezequiel Rodriguez, Demián Salomon, Luis Ziembrowski, Silvia Sabater, and Marcelo Michinaux.
When two brothers discover that a demonic infection has been festering in a nearby farmhouse — its very proximity poisoning the local livestock — they attempt to evict the victim from their land. Failing to adhere to the proper rites of exorcism, their reckless actions inadvertently trigger an epidemic of possessions across their rural community.
Now they must outrun an encroaching evil as it corrupts and mutilates everyone it is exposed to, and enlist the aid of a wizened “cleaner,” who holds the only tools that can stop this supernatural plague.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “ >When Evil Lurks