Women & the Wind is an independent, self-produced documentary following three women as they cross the North Atlantic aboard a 50-year-old wooden catamaran.
Their voyage follows the journey of plastic pollution across the ocean, exploring the deep and fragile synergy between humanity and nature.
Scientists engineer unsinkable metal tubes The superhydrophobic design could lead to resilient ships, floating platforms, and renewable energy innovations.
More than a century after the Titanic sank, engineers still have hopes of someday creating “unsinkable” ships. In a step toward reaching that lofty goal, researchers at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics developed a new process that turns ordinary metal tubes unsinkable —meaning they will stay afloat no matter how long they are forced into water or how heavily they are damaged.
Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics and senior scientist at URochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and his team describe their process for creating aluminum tubes with remarkable floating abilities in a study published in Advanced Functional Materials.
By etching the interior of aluminum tubes, the researchers create micro- and nano-pits on the surface that turns it superhydrophobic, repelling water and staying dry.
When the treated tube enters water, the superhydrophobic surface traps a stable bubble of air inside the tube and prevents the tube from getting waterlogged and sinking, in a similar way that diving bell spiders trap an air bubble to stay buoyant underwater or fire ants to form floating rafts with their hydrophobic bodies.
“Importantly, we added a divider to the middle of the tube so that even if you push it vertically into the water, the bubble of air remains trapped inside and the tube retains its floating ability,” says Guo.
Guo and his lab first demonstrated superhydrophobic floating devices in 2019, featuring two superhydrophobic disks that were sealed together to create their buoyancy.
But the current tube design simplifies and improves the technology in several key areas.
The disks that the researchers previously developed could lose their ability to float when turned at extreme angles, but the tubes are resilient against turbulent conditions like those found at sea.
“We tested them in some really rough environments for weeks at a time and found no degradation to their buoyancy,” says Guo.
“You can poke big holes in them, and we showed that even if you severely damage the tubes with as many holes as you can punch, they still float.”
Multiple tubes can be linked together to create rafts that could be the basis for ships, buoys, and floating platforms.
In lab experiments, the team tested the design using tubes of varying lengths, up to almost half a meter, and Guo says the technology could be easily scaled to the larger sizes needed for load-bearing floating devices.
The researchers also showed how rafts made from superhydrophobic tubes could be used to harvest water waves to generate electricity, offering a promising renewable energy application.
Since 2023, Russian satellites, called Luch‑1 and Luch‑2, have repeatedly moved very close to European commercial and government satellites in GEO orbit. According to the article, intelligence services believe they are positioning themselves inside the narrow beams connecting ground stations to the satellites so they can capture unencrypted control and communications data. Many older European satellites do not encrypt command links, so if Russia records these, it could possibly impersonate ground controllers, send false commands, nudge satellites off-position, or potentially cause collisions or deorbiting.
From FT by Sam Jones, Peggy Hollinger and Ian Bott
Unencrypted European communications are being targeted by Moscow
European security officials believe two Russian space vehicles have intercepted the communications of at least a dozen key satellites over the continent. Officials believe that the likely interceptions, which have not previously been reported, risk not only compromising sensitive information transmitted by the satellites but could also allow Moscow to manipulate their trajectories or even crash them. Russian space vehicles have shadowed European satellites more intensively over the past three years, at a time of high tension between the Kremlin and the west following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
For several years, military and civilian space authorities in the west have been tracking the activities of Luch-1 and Luch-2 — two Russian objects that have carried out repeated suspicious manoeuvres in orbit. Both vehicles have made risky close approaches to some of Europe’s most important geostationary satellites, which operate high above the Earth and service the continent, including the UK, as well as large parts of Africa and the Middle East. According to orbital data and ground-based telescopic observations, they have lingered nearby for weeks at a time, particularly over the past three years.
Since its launch in 2023, Luch-2 has approached 17 European satellites. Both satellites were suspected of “doing sigint [signals intelligence] business”, Major General Michael Traut, head of the German military’s space command, told the FT, referring to the satellites’ practice of staying close to western communications satellites. A senior European intelligence official said the Luch vehicles were almost certainly intended to position themselves within the narrow cone of data beams transmitted from Earth-based stations to the satellites. The official expressed concern that sensitive information — notably command data for European satellites — was unencrypted, because many were launched years ago without advanced onboard computers or encryption capabilities. This leaves them vulnerable to future interference — or even destruction — once hostile actors have recorded their command data.
The manoeuvres in space come as Russia steps up its “hybrid warfare” in Europe, including sabotage operations, such as the severing of subsea internet and power cables. Intelligence and military officials are increasingly worried that the Kremlin could extend such disruptive activity into space, and is already developing the capability to do so. While China and the US have developed similar technologies, Russia has one of the most advanced space-spying programmes and has been more aggressive in its use of the vehicles to stalk satellites. “Satellite networks are an Achilles heel of modern societies. Whoever attacks them can paralyse entire nations,” German defence minister Boris Pistorius said in a speech last September. “The Russian activities are a fundamental threat to all of us, especially in space. A threat we must no longer ignore,” he added.
The European satellites approached by Luch 1 and 2 are primarily used for civilian purposes, such as satellite television, but also carry sensitive government and some military communications. Luch 1 and Luch 2 were unlikely to have the capability to jam or destroy satellites themselves, the European intelligence official said. However, they have probably provided Russia with large amounts of data on how such systems could be disrupted, both from the ground and in orbit. Traut said he presumed the Luch satellites had intercepted the “command link” of the satellites they approached — the channel linking satellites to ground controllers that allows orbital adjustments. Analysts say that with such information, Russia could mimic ground operators, beaming false commands to satellites to manipulate their thrusters used for minor orbital adjustments. Those thrusters could also be used to knock satellites out of alignment or even cause them to crash back to Earth or drift into space. Intelligence gathered by Luch 1 and 2 could also help Russia co-ordinate less overt attacks on western interests.
Monitoring other satellites can reveal who is using them and where — information that could later be exploited for targeted ground-based jamming or hacking operations. The Luch vehicles were “manoeuvring about and parking themselves close to geostationary satellites, often for many months at a time”, said Belinda Marchand, chief science officer at Slingshot Aerospace, a US-based company that tracks objects in space using ground-based sensors and AI. She added that Luch 2 was currently “in proximity” to Intelsat 39, a large geostationary satellite that services Europe and Africa.
Since its launch in 2023, Luch-2 has hovered near at least 17 other geostationary satellites above Europe serving both commercial and government purposes, Slingshot data shows. “They have visited the same families, the same operators — so you can deduce that they have a specific purpose or interest,” said Norbert Pouzin, senior orbital analyst at Aldoria, a French satellite tracking company that has also shadowed the Luch satellites. “These are all Nato-based operators.” “Even if they cannot decrypt messages, they can still extract a lot of information . . . they can map how a satellite is being used, work out the location of ground terminals, for example,” he added. Pouzin also said that Russia now seemed to be ramping up its reconnaissance activity in space, launching two new satellites last year named Cosmos 2589 and Cosmos 2590. The vehicles appear to have similarly manoeuvrable capabilities to Luch-1 and Luch-2. Cosmos 2589 was now on its way to the same range as geostationary satellites, which orbit 35,000km above Earth, Pouzin said. But Luch-1 may no longer be functional. On January 30, Earth telescopes observed what appeared to be a plume of gas coming from the satellite. Shortly after, it appeared to at least partially fragment. “It looks like it began with something to do with the propulsion,” said Marchand, adding that afterwards there “was certainly a fragmentation” and the satellite was “still tumbling”.
Tribute to the life of Natalia Molchanova - get a glimpse into the life of freediving legend Natalia Molchanova.
Natalia was a freediving world champion and the holder of 42 world records.
She remains the world’s most titled freediver ever, achieving world records in all freediving disciplines.
She won a total of 22 individual gold medals and two team gold medals at Freediving World Championships during her career.
On 25th September 2009, she became the first woman ever to pass 100m (328ft) of depth on a breath-hold in Constant Weight with a freedive to 101m (331ft).
Natalia was the president of the Freediving Federation.
She designed and established its educational program from beginner to instructor level.
Natalia shared her passion and knowledge of freediving both through her courses and with her university students in Moscow.
Today, thousands of freedivers have been trained by the Freediving Federation and several hundred instructors share Natalia’s knowledge with a new generation of freedivers.
In 2015, the presidency was passed to her son Alexey Molchanov, also a freediving world champion and record holder.
Natalia led research in freediver physiology and was interested in relaxation techniques and improving freediving performance and safety.
She was the author of many articles, books, and educational materials on freediving.
Much of her work has been translated into English.
Her love and passion for the sea are also reflected in poems she wrote and a short artistic movie she created, for which she received a number of festival awards.
Natalia’s life was about freediving.
Natalia’s aspiration was always to strive for safe and efficient freediving, and to achieve this through the provision of education and training, and producing the world’s best freediving equipment.
Picture this: recline comfortably, shut your eyes, exhale slowly, and draw in a deep breath, filling your lungs to capacity—then hold that breath.
As seconds trickle by, your focus narrows inward, honing in on your body.
Pressure builds in your chest, and your heartbeat becomes pronounced.
As the urge to inhale intensifies, you face a choice—succumb to immediate panic or delve deeper into a calm state, attempting to steady your heart rate, quiet your mind, and quell restlessness as your body braces for oxygen.
How long can you maintain this breath?
The average adult manages about 30 seconds.
Can you extend it to one minute?
Maybe two?
But can you imagine holding it for nine minutes and two seconds?
Natalia Molchanova achieved this feat, setting the women’s world record in static apnea—holding her breath motionless in a pool—in 2013.
Two years later, Molchanova, hailed by many as the greatest free diver in history, vanished off the coast of Spain during a leisure dive on a sunny August morning.
Her body was never recovered.
Before submerging that day, Molchanova had already secured 41 free diving records across various disciplines.
She could maintain motionless stillness in water, descend over 100 meters on a single breath, and traverse hundreds of feet underwater with or without weights.
Her favorite thrill?
Descending 25 meters and unclipping from an emergency rope line, allowing herself to sink freely.
“Freediving isn’t merely a sport; it’s a path to self-discovery,” Molchanova expressed in a 2014 interview.
“When we dive, free from thought, we realize our wholeness, our unity with the world. When we think, we create separation. On the surface, thoughts abound, cluttering our minds. Freediving helps reset this.”
Born in 1962, Molchanova initially pursued competitive swimming but paused at 20 to start a family. For two decades, she led a conventional life in Moscow, finding joy in riding scooters around the city until, at 40, she stumbled upon a magazine article about free diving, igniting a passion that catapulted her to the pinnacle of the sport within a decade.
The first 25 meters of a dive pose a challenge as our buoyant bodies resist sinking.
Free divers often use weights to overcome this.
Beyond this depth, however, pressure transforms, causing the body to descend rapidly.
Mastery of this requires disciplined control over panic and the impulse to breathe.
During dives, Molchanova entered a state she termed “attention deconcentration,” akin to meditation.
It involved relinquishing thoughts, turning inward, heightening bodily awareness, and embracing sensation over contemplation.
Chemical shifts in deep dives induce nitrogen narcosis, altering consciousness.
Molchanova’s trained mental state enabled her to navigate this, recognizing when her body had endured enough.
Her accomplishments in diving led her to study physiology, eventually joining the faculty of Moscow’s Russian State University.
Her diving prowess earned her the presidency of the Russian Free Dive Federation.
Yet, Molchanova cared little for accolades or records.
She found solace in the ocean’s depths, where she tested herself, surrendering to pressure, meditation, and an unknown world. “Compared to the ocean, the pool is like running on a treadmill versus running in the forest,” she remarked.
Her underwater experiences inspired poetry and set records, blending academic prowess with poetic insight.
On August 2, 2015, Molchanova disappeared while diving off Formentera, Spain, with friends.
Despite her unparalleled skill, she never resurfaced.
Efforts to locate her proved futile.
Sara Campbell, a fellow free diver, lamented her loss, describing Molchanova as the greatest the world had seen.
In Molchanova’s own words: From her poem “The Depth” I have perceived non-existence The silence of the eternal dark, and the infinity. I went beyond the time, time poured into me And we became immovable. I lost my body in the waves Perceiving vacuum and quiet, Becoming like its blue abyss And touching on the oceanic secret. I’m going inwards recollecting What I am. I am made of light. I peer intensely: The depths reveal a breath I merge with it, And unto the world emerges.
From ArticToday by Alexandra Middleton, Bjørn Rønning
Since the late 2000s, several Western countries have attempted to build optical fiber subsea cables across the Arctic Ocean.
Some projects, such as Finland’s Arctic Connect, have been suspended, while others are still years away from completion.
While the Far North Fiber and Polar Connect projects are still on the agenda, the time it will take to secure partnerships, gather findings, and build a commercial case in an unstable geopolitical climate means they are far from being realised.
At the same time, pressing security, militarization and sovereignty concerns are driving the development of regional Arctic undersea cables.
For both Norway and Greenland, recent moves to overhaul digital infrastructure reveal a shift toward digital sovereignty, where state control over Arctic fiber cables is prioritised over commercial profit. Securing connectivity in Northern Norway
Norway is advancing a government-funded replacement for the ageing Svalbard cable system, linking mainland Bodø, Jan Mayen, and Longyearbyen before the current infrastructure’s technical lifespan ends in 2028.
A new digital infrastructure project, “Arctic Way,” is set to extend high-speed fiber connectivity deeper into the polar north than ever before.
Lacking a purely commercial business case, the project is primarily a strategic defense initiative designed to secure Norway’s sovereignty in the High North.
However, limited excess capacity will be released to the market.
The Norwegian Parliament approved the project on March 25, with SubCom contracted for production and laying of the cables, and the Norwegian Armed Forces designated as a primary customer for certain segments
Planned to go live in 2028, the system will span 1,567 miles (2,522 km).
Once completed, it will stand as the world’s northernmost repeated subsea cable system, securing a vital communications lifeline for communities and strategic interests in the High North.
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Major work began in 2025 with comprehensive route surveys of the seabed, followed by the manufacturing of the specialized cable in 2026.
While crews build the necessary terminal stations on land through early 2027, the critical marine installation is scheduled for May to September 2027 to avoid the worst of the Arctic winter.
Delivered by the American subsea manufacturer SubCom, the Arctic Way is designed as an open cable system — a flexible architecture that allows for easier upgrades as technology evolves. Greenland’s push for sovereignty in connectivity
Greenland is developing its telecom landscape through a policy of digital protectionism.
The territory’s state-owned operator, Tusass, has effectively blocked low-earth orbit competitors such as Starlink — a move designed to protect the revenue streams that sustain Greenland’s expensive physical network.
These cables serve as Greenland’s lifeline, and constructing additional ones ensures the country remains connected even if issues arise.
Greenland wants to keep its digital infrastructure under sovereign control rather than relying on foreign companies.
To make this happen, Greenland is mobilising funding from several sources.
Denmark is covering the highest cost through its defense budget, paying for a secure cable link to Europe.
The EU is adding grants to help lay new cables along Greenland’s coast, and Tusass is investing its own funds to bring fiber to towns and build a new data center in Nuuk.
By combining these efforts, Greenland is creating a strong, reliable network that depends on trusted partners, not private tech giants or countries that might pose a risk.
For Greenland, this is about more than fast internet; it is about safety and sovereignty.
The recent rhetoric by U.S. President Donald Trump about acquiring Greenland further strengthens the case for Denmark financing a sovereign data cable for Greenland.
It’s part of a push for more state and military-funded submarine cables in the Arctic.
What lessons does the regional development of these cables teach us at a larger scale, transarctic projects?
The most viable pathway for these projects involves directed state funding, positioned as a strategic measure to safeguard allied interests.
Furthermore, integrating future transarctic projects into existing regional networks is likely to yield significant benefits as it will improve socio-economic opportunities of these remote Arctic places.
