Welcome to Weeklies, where I recap some of the weird science stories and tech news we’ve seen over the past week.

FlexiVol Lets You Interact With Holograms

Researchers have created a method of physically interacting with 3D holograms, using an oscillating elastic diffuser along with projected images. The above video shows off the tech, with researchers manipulating 3D trucks, and even using their fingers to ‘run’ over virtual terrain.

Do We Live In A Hologram?

What if we’re the hologram? Professor Marika Taylor of the University of Birmingham and other physicists have reason to believe the universe is actually a 2D surface that only seems to have a third dimension. The reality we experience might be more or less an illusion (though no less real than we might think it is). “Holography takes us into an even more extreme world, where not only are the forces quantum in nature,” she says, “but the number of dimensions is different from our perceived reality.”

Robot Marathon Postponed

I’m disappointed to announce that, per Reuters, the world’s very first humanoid robot half marathon has been postponed. I know at least a few of my humanoid robot readers were looking forward to this event, but have no fear – it’s just been pushed back to April 19, next Saturday. The 2025 Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon will be the first marathon in which robots will run alongside humans.

Study: LLMs Pass the Turing Test

A recent study found that GPT-4.5 was mistaken for a human 73% of the time during their testing, while LLaMA-3.1 deceived participants 56% of the time, which the study states is “not significantly more or less often than the humans they were being compared to.”

“Participants had 5 minute conversations simultaneously with another human participant and one of these systems before judging which conversational partner they thought was human.”

I’ve spoken with these LLMs a lot lately, and they can be pretty convincing. The fun (or terrifying) part is, we’re only just getting started!

Top Videos

This week, we have a couple of video highlights. One is footage of a “sun candle” that occurred back in December in Austria. This is a dazzling natural phenomenon that happens when sunlight hits ice crystals in the atmosphere. And to the right, a special (fictional) PSA on what to do if and when those robot dogs take a sudden turn…

Boaty McBoatface Finds An Old Loch Ness Camera

The yellow submarine, fondly named Boaty McBoatface by the community, found a camera dating back to the 1970s 591ft below the surface of Loch Ness this month. The camera was put in place by the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau way back when, and designed to take four pictures when a bait line was disturbed. Unfortunately, Nessie doesn’t appear on any of the recovered photographs.

Time Travel Paradoxes? No Problem!

A recent study by Lorenzo Gavassino of Vanderbilt University suggests that closed time-like curves might prevent paradoxes from arising during time travel by reversing entropy, leading to memory loss and de-aging within the curve and contradictory outcomes “smoothing over” to become logically consistent.

“The level separation turns out to be finely tuned so that, after completing a roundtrip of the curve, all systems are back to their initial state.”

Essentially, a full reset once you’ve returned to the beginning of your journey. You can’t have a grandfather paradox if you forget everything that happened and nothing changes! Want to read the full study? Here you go.

Tropical Tree Has Lightning Powers

Boom! Tonka bean trees in Panama can apparently survive lightning strikes. But that’s not all — researchers have learned that these trees benefit from the lightning, as it removes competition and parasitic vines that aren’t quite as resistant to 1.21 gigawatts. An electrical detox, I guess! The trees have high internal conductivity, allowing them to withstand lightning currents without damage. They’re also known to be hit by lightning “at least five times after reaching maturity,” according to Live Science.

Links of the Week

2006's Deja Vu: A Denzel Washington Time Travel Romp

Syfy takes a quick look at a time travel movie you might have missed.

Got A Spare?

Please be excited for the arrival of 'bodyoids,' spare human bodies that might one day be used for growing transplant organs. Yay!

Asteroid Now Has Chance of Hitting Moon

Asteroid 2024 YR4 may no longer be likely to hit Earth, but its chances of colliding with the moon are now 3.8%.

ChatGPT Mirrors Human Decision Biases

A new study shows that ChatGPT 'thinks' similarly to humans, replicating our own 'mental shortcuts and blind spots.

Learning from Tardigrades

Research into these remarkably resistant creatures may help humans survive the ravages of space, according to one recent study.

2D Time Travel Adventure 'Back In Time' Announced

The game will feature 'real-life catastrophic events' and fast-paced time travel shenanigans.

That’s it for this week’s edition of Weeklies. Check the homepage daily for new news, or catch the previous Weeklies for slightly older news!