Why 450 US missile silos exist mainly as decoy targets, plus an AI model that cracked a 373-year-old cipher in 44 minutes. Also: your car's tyres broadcast a trackable ID, and a machine melts granite with 27,000°C plasma to bury power lines. [DVYio Newsletter](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/ZpZ7Rasu) This Week I Learnt [View down a missile silo showing the cylindrical missile body, cables, machinery, and concrete walls.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/LDvNQ2Lh) [450 US missile silos exist partly so an enemy would waste warheads destroying them](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/LDvNQ2Lh) [One justification for America's land-based nuclear missiles isn't that they're good weapons but rather that they're good targets. In their 2019 article, Steve Fetter and Kingston Reif describe about 400 Minuteman III missiles in silos managed from bases in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota, spread across 450 potential targets. If Russia ever wanted to disarm the US in a first strike, it would need to fire enough warheads to take out every one of those silos — warheads it couldn't then use against cities, submarine bases, or command centres. That's the “nuclear sponge” idea: the missiles are valuable partly because an enemy has to waste ammunition destroying them. The catch is that the missiles themselves can't survive a large-scale attack unless they're launched before the incoming warheads arrive. The authors estimated that a US president could have less than 10 minutes to decide whether to fire the Minuteman IIIs before Russian warheads arrive. That means acting on nuclear-attack warnings that have, in the past, occasionally turned out to be false alarms. The Air Force's plan at the time was to replace the whole fleet for over $100 billion, but the authors argue that the more than 700 warheads carried by America's virtually undetectable submarines at sea would be enough to retaliate even if the land-based missiles were destroyed. Boeing announced in July 2019 that it wouldn't bid on the replacement contract.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/LDvNQ2Lh) Tech [“Cyphral Distich, 1653” appears beside handwritten cipher symbols, numbered notes, a cipher wheel, and a wax seal.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/aKHj4CSM) [Fable 5.1 appears to have cracked a 373-year-old cipher that turned out to hide a prayer for Charles II](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/aKHj4CSM) Geby Jaff at Vals AI reports that Anthropic's Fable 5.1 cracked Sir Thomas Urquhart's “Cyphral Distich” in 44 minutes. The 373-year-old cipher was ranked #28 on cryptologist Klaus Schmeh's list of top unsolved encrypted messages. The cipher has two lines of 32 numbers, each matched in order to Urquhart's 32 “Proquiritations” (sections earlier in the book). Each number selects a word from the matching section, and that word's first letter goes into the message. The decoded message turned out to be a Royalist prayer for Charles II. [Infographic showing tyre sensors broadcasting unencrypted IDs, captured by a $30 dongle, matched by Claude, and used to distinguish local cars from commuters by tyre temperature.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/SDEBxX6P) [Your car's tyres might be broadcasting a trackable ID every time you drive past](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/SDEBxX6P) Researcher Dave Troy says he tracked cars using unencrypted, unique IDs broadcast by their tyre pressure sensors: with a $30 radio dongle and Claude doing the analysis, he sat on a city street and grouped sets of four tyre IDs to distinguish individual vehicles, even working out which cars were locals versus commuters just from tyre temperature (warmer tyres could suggest longer drives). [Side profile of a person wearing a small black-and-white EEG sensor behind the right ear.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/uLxD8rYd) [Atlas 1.0's EEG wearable claims 20x better signal quality than a $30,000 lab system while you're walking or running](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/uLxD8rYd) EEG (electroencephalography) records the brain's electrical activity, but movement can distort the signal. Atlas claim their wearable brain sensor, the Atlas 1.0 (due in the first three months of 2027), changes that: in the company's own controlled study, it produced 20x better signal quality than a $30,000 lab-grade EEG rig during walking and running. The company also say it can track stress, focus, and mental fatigue while you move through your day. [A luminous spiral galaxy made of stars, with bright clusters winding through a dark, star-filled space.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/LkceoFCv) [OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra this week](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/LkceoFCv) OpenAI say GPT-6 Astra scores 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4 and 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3 (benchmarks designed to be brutally hard for AI). In OpenAI's test inspired by the Hugging Face incident (checking whether a model goes beyond its authorised task), GPT-5.6 Sol did this in 48% of runs without safeguards; Astra did it in 0%. It's rolling out now. Poll How do you eat an apple? Around the middle first, ends last Bite randomly, no pattern Top to bottom in rows Core it and slice first I don't eat apples Last Week's Poll If you could observe one ordinary day from the past, which would you choose? An ancient city 70% A medieval town 8% A Victorian city 8% The 1960s 11% The 1990s 3% Science [Infographic shows a mouse exploring, followed by neuron stages illustrating dendrites computing before the cell body integrates signals.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/VdiLR8RR) [A single neuron might work like a whole neural network on its own](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/VdiLR8RR) A new study in mice found that dendrites (the branching arms of a neuron) can process information on their own and may also store it, separately from the cell's main body. Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center watched mice explore virtual environments. In a brand-new setting, some dendrites updated to represent the new location before the cell body did. When a reward moved within a familiar setting, dendrites sometimes held onto traces of past activity the cell body had already moved on from. This hints that each of our 86 billion neurons might work less like one processor and more like its own small network. [Fluorescence microscopy image showing thousands of blue and purple neuronal signals with scattered green and yellow activity on a black background.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/676ZHN7c) [New microscope scans a zebrafish larva's whole brain 200 times a second to catch individual neuron firings](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/676ZHN7c) Calcium imaging, the usual way to watch neurons fire, is too slow to catch a single spike (it works on the scale of seconds, sometimes minutes). MIT engineers built a modified light-sheet microscope that scans a zebrafish larva's entire brain 200 times a second, fast enough to track individual voltage spikes from neurons scattered across the whole organ at once. A flash of ultraviolet light triggered activity in the tectum (a region that processes visual information). They also saw activity in the cerebellum and hindbrain that wasn't triggered by the flash. [Infographic contrasts six 30-second sprints with 90 minutes of cycling, showing 714 blood proteins changed and links to heart and diabetes protection.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/WxWGqSKq) [Sprint intervals change levels of more blood proteins than steady cardio does](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/WxWGqSKq) In a study of 19 young, healthy men, six 30-second all-out cycling sprints changed the levels of far more blood proteins than 90 minutes of steady cycling. The sprint-interval exercise changed the levels of 714 of the 2,884 proteins measured in blood plasma right after exercise, versus just seven after moderate continuous cycling. The researchers, writing in Cell Reports Medicine, say many of the sprint-boosted proteins (including VWF, POMC, and FABP5) are ones separately associated with a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes. Those protein changes don't establish which workout has greater long-term health benefits. [Four molecules from soil bacteria jointly jam bacterial biotin synthesis, killing bacteria more effectively and reducing infection.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/i4JqLG5S) [Soil bacteria evolved a four-molecule attack that stops other bacteria making a vitamin](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/i4JqLG5S) Researchers at McMaster University found a cluster of genes in soil bacteria (Streptomyces) that makes four separate molecules working together to block the chemical steps bacteria need to make biotin, a vitamin essential for growth and infection. Tests in test tubes and mice showed the four-molecule combo kills bacteria more effectively together than any one alone. Microbial scientist Steven Rutherford suggests that this evolved teamwork could make resistance harder to develop than with single-molecule antibiotics. [Long wooden barn-like house with a steep gabled roof, chimney, and several windows beside a grassy lawn.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) [Dark timber-clad barn interior with large windows, a roof opening exposing beams, and a brick-paved passage beside a grassy yard.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) [White modern interior with exposed concrete beam, glass doors, and a planted atrium framed by weathered wooden walls.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) [Minimalist white kitchen and dining area with a dark blue island table, white chairs, exposed beams, and large windows.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) [Minimalist white hallway with a kitchen island, black fireplace, large windows, and a black candleholder.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) [Glass-walled atrium with a clipped tree, timber walls, and views of fields beyond.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) [Wood-lined atrium with a planted tree, surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows and steeply pitched walls.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) [Barnhouse](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) [Berau, Germany](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/otmfAuU2) Data [Blue accumulated LAPD helicopter flight paths form a map of Los Angeles on black; 8,967 flights over one year.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/qKrQRbN2) [What does a year of LAPD air patrol look like?](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/qKrQRbN2) [/u/Infamous_Echo_5683 mapped a full year of Los Angeles Police Department helicopter flights over the city, from 16 August 2025 to 15 August 2026: 17 helicopters, 8,967 flights, and 12,828 hours in the air. The map uses over 20.8 million position pings picked up via community aircraft-tracking radio receivers (Airplanes.live). There's no map underneath; the shape of the city you see is drawn entirely by where the helicopters flew, with brightness showing how long they spent above each spot rather than how many pings landed there.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/qKrQRbN2) History [Two rectangular stone sarcophagi lie side by side in a narrow, shell-lined rock-cut burial chamber.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/wzk7R2vh) [Egypt's Oxyrhynchus mummy is the first ever found with a papyrus of the Iliad, not the usual magic spells](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/wzk7R2vh) [A 1,600-year-old mummy found at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt had a papyrus stuck to its abdomen bearing part of the ship catalogue from Book II of Homer's “Iliad”. It's the first literary text ever found used this way in Egyptian embalming (other mummies at the site turn up with sealed ritual or magic texts instead). Researchers, including University of Barcelona language scholar Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, still can't explain why a piece of epic poetry would be part of the funeral ritual.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/wzk7R2vh) [Red-brick country house with white-framed windows, trees, and parked cars along a street.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/oyKJaL8K) [The bugged country house that recorded Nazi Germany's top scientists reacting to Hiroshima](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/oyKJaL8K) Ten German scientists, including nine who'd worked on Hitler's nuclear programme, spent six months at Farm Hall, a bugged Cambridgeshire house, unaware that MI6 had wired it for sound before they even arrived. The recordings caught some of them initially assuming the BBC's Hiroshima report must be fake. Werner Heisenberg's own estimate of how much enriched uranium a bomb needed was roughly a thousand times too high, a clue as to why Germany's bomb programme never got close. [Six matte stainless steel tableware pieces, including bowls, a cup, and a shallow dish, arranged on a grey surface.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/2j6mCo3D) [A shallow stainless steel bowl on a grey background.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/2j6mCo3D) [A brushed stainless steel cylindrical vessel with a small pouring spout, photographed on a plain grey background.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/2j6mCo3D) [A brushed silver vase holds a sparse branch with small yellow blossoms against a plain grey background.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/2j6mCo3D) [Off-Shelf Collection](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/2j6mCo3D) [Guberan Studio](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/2j6mCo3D) Random [Workers inspect a large cylindrical tunnel-boring machine positioned against a rock wall at an outdoor quarry.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/ixQupZXv) [A machine that melts granite with 27,000°C plasma to bury power lines underground](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/ixQupZXv) [EarthGrid's prototype tunnel-boring machine uses 27,000°C plasma torches (hotter than the surface of the Sun) to melt through solid granite rather than grind it away, chewing through 3 metres of rock during a January test in a California quarry. Founder Troy Helming says the melted debris gets sucked out through a vortex "like a tornado" inside the tunnel. He's hoping to get the machine into commercial use as early as next year, part of a wider surge in interest in burying power lines and data centres underground since Russia's war in Ukraine exposed how vulnerable above-ground infrastructure is to drone strikes.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/ixQupZXv) [A group of people gathers around a campfire beneath a large tree at night, with stars overhead.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/hoS5Wk9N) [Where human sleep went wrong](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/hoS5Wk9N) The Hadza, a hunter-gatherer tribe in northern Tanzania, sleep in short, broken stretches, staying up late telling stories and dancing, yet report high satisfaction with their sleep. Evolutionary anthropologist David Samson, who studied them for his new book The Sleepless Ape, says our sleep efficiency (time actually asleep versus time in bed) averages 88% in wealthy nations versus just 74% in small-scale societies like theirs. That cuts against the idea that unbroken sleep is necessary to feel satisfied with sleep. [A suspension bridge spans a forested gorge above cascading water, with a full circular rainbow in the mist below.](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/WUmfy3mH) [Sunlight in the spray beneath China's Huajiang Canyon Bridge produced a full-circle rainbow](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/WUmfy3mH) China's Huajiang Canyon Bridge, 625 metres above the Beipan River, sprays a 300-metre-wide water curtain off its deck (originally groundwater the tunnel builders diverted rather than waste). Sunlight hitting the mist recently produced a rare full-circle rainbow beneath it. The curtain doubles as a nightly light-and-sound show, and Chinese state media are calling it the world's highest artificial waterfall. [“An escalator can never break; it can only become stairs.”](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/ukJhXAN6) [Mitch Hedberg](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/ukJhXAN6) [Web](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/Tt89t2SK) · [Twitter](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/D5jDy7dY) · [LinkedIn](https://newsletter.dvy.io/visit/HtyVAoJ3)