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The unofficial soundtrack of every basketball, squash or hard-court tennis match is the constant high-pitched squeak or shriek of the players’ shoes. But can this squeak be designed out of them while retaining the grip?

That’s the question an international team of engineers and applied physicists, including me, have been investigating. It sounds like a small design tweak. In fact, it cuts to a deep physics problem: how a soft body slides against a rigid one.

Perhaps surprisingly, the mechanism that produces sound when a soft solid slides against a stiffer one has long been the subject of scientific debate. Most theories are linked to the concept of “stick-slip”: when, instead of sliding smoothly, the sliding object rapidly alternates between sticking and slipping.

Your shoes may be fly, but are they also quiet?

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. Then it suddenly slips, turning much of that energy into heat through friction – while also releasing rapid vibrations that radiate out as sound.

But this is not exactly what we observed in our experiments.

After Leonardo da Vinci

Our recently published study took inspiration from the simple-but-effective setup used by Leonardo da Vinci in his studies of friction from the late 15th century.

Leonardo used a wooden block resting on a flat surface. The block was subjected to two forces: a normal force (its own weight) and a tangential force which was applied using an additional weight attached to a cable.

By stacking and combining multiple blocks, Leonardo discovered the two fundamental laws of friction: that friction is proportional with how hard the surfaces are pressed together, and largely independent of the size of the contact area.

But Leonardo never published these findings, which were finally rediscovered and made public in the 19th century in notebooks scattered throughout Europe. In the meantime, the laws of friction had only been formally enunciated by French physicist Guillaume Amontons in 1699 – two centuries after Leonardo’s studies.

Furthermore, these laws are empirical rather than fundamental, and in extreme cases they break down. This led us to the question of what makes a shoe squeak.

A surprising result

One of the biggest difficulties in friction studies is that the interface being tested (where a shoe sole meets a hardwood floor, for example) is hard to get at, and comes under a lot of pressure while slipping at high speed. Placing sensors at the interface is almost impossible – and even if it were, this would probably alter the frictional response.

Our solution was to use an optical trick: we replaced the hardwood floor with a transparent acrylic plate and mounted an array of LED lights along its sides. When each test object – including multiple rubber blocks – made contact with the plate, light would leak into the contact region, brightening up this area alone. That allowed us to visualise exactly which parts of the soft-rigid interface were in contact.

We used a high-speed camera, capable of capturing up to 1 million frames per second, to film how the contact patches evolved while the “sole” was skidding, and recorded the sounds being emitted with a microphone.

We found that at the point of contact, tiny wrinkles in the surface of the rubber block – known as “opening slip pulses” – were created, which then raced along the interface at nearly 100 metres per second. While most of the block remained stuck in place, these rapidly moving wrinkles created the sound in each friction test.

Surprisingly, even tiny geometrical features at the frictional interface had profound effects on the sound generated. When it was perfectly flat and smooth, the pulses were messy and generated a scratch-like noise of many different frequencies – closer to the sound of peeling adhesive tape than a clean squeak.

But when ridges were present, like those on the soles of sport shoes, the pulses were confined by the width of these ridges, making them very regular (not messy any more). This turned the sound into a more musical tone akin to the squeaks heard on a basketball court.

We were also able to determine what decides the precise pitch of a shoe squeak. In each test, it was largely unaffected by either the speed of sliding or magnitude of the force applied (which relates to the weight of a player).

Rather, the clearest link was with the height of the rubber block – or the thickness of a shoe’s sole. Using this knowledge, we created a series of blocks of different heights in order to play a familiar melody, as shown in this video.

Our research lays the groundwork for controlling or suppressing squeaking in many mechanical systems involving soft-on-rigid friction. These range from brakes and tyres to hip and knee replacements, where polymer liners slide against polished metal or ceramic heads.

And yes, it could even lead to the development of squeakless sneakers. Designing intricate patterns that keep plenty of rubber in contact (so the grip stays high) but break the sliding into lots of tiny, out-of-sync microevents could kill the clean note of the squeak, and leave only a soft hush.

Table-top earthquakes

Beyond the realm of sports, this work also relates to much larger geophysical questions. Similar experimental approaches to ours have served as table-top models for studying earthquakes, during which ruptures and slip pulses spread along tectonic faults at extremely high speed.

If we can reproduce earthquake-like slip pulses in the lab, the next challenge is scaling – working out how those centimetre-scale measurements translate to what happens inside real faults in the Earth.

Achieving this could help interpret seismic signals more confidently: using waves recorded far from a fault to infer what has actually happened at the source. Better physics-based models could improve seismic hazard estimates and lead to more reliable hazard maps.

Meanwhile, we’ll keep thinking about squeakless sneakers too.

Gabriele Albertini is Assistant Professor in Structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Nottingham.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/15/can-we-design-sports-shoes-that-dont-squeak-heres-what-the-science-says/

March 14, 2026

Oscars 2026: How to watch all the nominees

Source: Radio New Zealand

The 2026 Oscars are days away, meaning there’s limited time to cram the nominated films before you find out who has won.

For most nominees it’s not too late, with many available on streaming services, to rent or still showing on the big screen.

The only question is: where can you watch what?

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/14/oscars-2026-how-to-watch-all-the-nominees/

March 13, 2026

‘My light is starting to fade’: Married at First Sight star has brain cancer

Source: Radio New Zealand

Married at First Sight (MAFS) personality Mel Schilling says there’s nothing more doctors can do as cancer has spread to her brain.

The 54-year-old Australian TV host wrote on social media on Friday morning that signs cancer had returned appeared over Christmas.

Alongside a picture of herself with her husband, Gareth, and daughter, Maddie, she wrote: “I began experiencing blinding headaches and numbness down my right side. After many tests I was told the cancer had spread to the left side of my brain and, despite subsequent radiotherapy sessions, my oncology team have now told me there is nothing further they can do.”

Schilling is best known for her role as a relationship coach on the Australian and UK version of the reality TV programme, MAFS.

At the end of 2023 she was diagnosed with colon cancer “the size of a lemon”, which was removed, and she was “given the all clear”.

However, in February 2024 a routine scan found “small nodules” in her lungs. Over 16 moths, while filming MAFS, Schilling underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy.

However, the cancer has now metastasised to her brain.

“But I am still here, still fighting, and surrounded by the most incredible love. Simple tasks have become incredibly difficult and I am relying on my beautiful family to look after me,” she wrote in Friday’s update.

“I honestly don’t know how long I have left, but I do know I will fight to my last breath and will be surrounded by the love and support of my people.”

Schilling stepped back from her role on MAFS this year to focus on her health. Season 13 of the Australian version of the controversial programme is currently airing in NZ.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/13/my-light-is-starting-to-fade-married-at-first-sight-star-has-brain-cancer/

March 13, 2026

Drooling into your pillow could indicate a more serious issue

Source: Radio New Zealand

Drooling can be embarrassing, especially if you’re waking up to a newly minted lover beside you. But if you’re sleeping alone or next to a seasoned partner who isn’t disturbed by bodily functions, experts say it’s not a big deal — unless it’s a frequent occurrence.

“Everyone drools at one time or another when we have too much to drink the night before or fallen asleep on the couch after a big holiday dinner,” said Dr Landon Duyka of Chicago’s Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“If this is more of a persistent thing — you’re waking up every night and your pillow is drenched — we want you to see a doctor, especially if it’s recent,” Duyka said. “It could be a sign of a more serious sleep disorder or even a neurological condition such as Parkinson’s.”

Experts say drooling is not a big deal unless it’s a frequent occurrence.

MICROGEN IMAGES/SCIENCE PHOTO LI

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“If you’re concerned, the first thing I suggest is an at-home sleep study to determine if there is a more serious reason behind the drooling,” said Dr Neil Hockstein, a clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology at Philadelphia’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

Sleep apnea

A potentially dangerous reason for drooling is sleep apnea, in which people stop breathing multiple times an hour for up to a minute during the night. In severe cases of sleep apnea, people stop breathing hundreds of times each night.

“When that happens people often switch to breathing through their mouth to get more air, which allows saliva to pool and escape,” Duyka said. “Sleep apnea is a serious medical condition — if your partner tells you that you snore at night or you often wake up with a dry mouth or drooling, consider seeing a sleep specialist.”

Many people who have sleep apnea are undiagnosed, yet the condition can lead to heart disease, diabetes, stroke, depression and even premature death if left untreated.

Mouth breathing

Being a mouth breather is a key cause of drooling, experts say. Some people are born with a tendency to breathe through their mouth, due to extremely small nasal passages or a recessed jaw. A congenital deviated septum, where the thin wall between the nostrils is displaced, blocking one of the airways, can also be a cause.

“If you suspect you might have a blockage due to a deviated septum, enlarged adenoids or the like, it’s a good idea to see an ear, nose and throat specialist who can decide if surgery would be helpful,” Hockstein said.

Celebrities and TikTok influencers frequently recommend mouth tape to limit breathing through the mouth. However, the science is still out on any benefits of mouth taping — and there are harms, especially for people with sleep apnea, according to experts.

A recent analysis found taping or sealing the mouth closed or strapping the chin to keep the mouth closed “could pose a serious risk of asphyxiation in the presence of nasal obstruction or regurgitation.”

The benefits promoted on social media aren’t necessarily backed by science, says the study’s senior author, sleep specialist Dr Brian Rotenberg.

“Improving apnea, improving snoring, making your nose look better, making your jaw look better — it just doesn’t come out in the wash that that actually is what’s happening,” said Rotenberg, a professor at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry in London, Ontario.

Acid reflux

Having a nasty taste in the mouth, chest pain and regurgitation are all signs of acid reflux, the backward flow of stomach acid or food into the oesophagus. It occurs when the lower oesophageal sphincter muscle fails to close properly and can be a cause of drooling.

“A lot of patients with acid reflux will notice they have more coughing at night because they are making more saliva,” Duyka said. “They may wake up in the morning with a throat full of mucus. That’s a protection mechanism, in which your body is trying to compensate by changing the pH of your oesophagus to neutralise and wash away the acid.”

Stuffy nose

Seasonal allergies, colds, strep throat, tonsillitis and sinus infections can inflame nasal tissues and block airways as well, leading to increased drooling, Duyka said.

“An infection like a tonsillitis is going to make you salivate more and then drool; even a cold sore in your mouth will do that,” Duyka said. “The body will produce more saliva as a defence mechanism to flush out bacteria.”

Dental issues

Drooling can also be caused by dental issues, such as teeth grinding or a misalignment between the upper and lower teeth that might be affecting how your mouth closes at night.

“I suggest people speak with their dentist and see if there’s something going on with their bite, to make sure that there isn’t something simple that could be done with an oral appliance,” Hockstein said.

Sleeping position

Side and stomach sleepers are most likely to see signs of drooling as gravity will pull the excess saliva onto the bed or pillow. For back sleepers, saliva may either stay in the mouth or travel down the throat.

However, people with swallowing issues could be in danger due to weaker muscle tone and a loss of sensory input, Duyka said.

“Most of us have a mechanism that would make us cough, sputter and wake up if we are on our backs and have too much saliva in our mouths,” he said. “Some older people don’t have the same sensory system in their throat they used to, so saliva may trickle into their lungs. That’s a risk for what we call silent aspiration.”

A lack of ability to swallow can also be a sign of a more serious condition, Hockstein said.

“I don’t want to instil fear in everyone, but there are rare instances where someone presents with difficulty swallowing and you ask them to walk and notice they’re shuffling a little bit or their facial expressions are somewhat blunted, which can be some of the first signs of Parkinson’s or some other neurodegenerative disease,” he said.

Any concern about drooling should be taken up with an ear, nose and throat doctor, who may recommend a sleep study, Hockstein said.

“I’m going to ask questions such as, ‘Do you snore or wake up with headaches? Are you clenching or grinding your teeth? Do you have fatigue or sleepiness in the afternoons?’ From that, I’ll decide if a sleep study would be helpful,” he said.

“If they don’t have sleep-disordered breathing or a physical cause such as a deviated septum, the first thing I will do is reassure my patient that drooling is typically no problem,” Hockstein added. “If colds or allergies appear to trigger it, I may also suggest an over-the-counter antihistamine.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/13/drooling-into-your-pillow-could-indicate-a-more-serious-issue/

March 13, 2026

And best drama goes to… this year’s totally unhinged award season

Source: Radio New Zealand

With both the Seattle Opera and the Music Center in Los Angeles announcing they launched discount codes like “TIMOTHEE” and “CHALAMET” for their upcoming fine arts performances, an undeniable question is begging to be answered: How in the world did we get here?

Between Timothée Chalamet’s now totally out-of-control “balletgate,” drama over his fellow Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley’s feelings about cats and a terribly handled incident at the BAFTAs involving a racist slur – not to mention a wide-open and extremely late Academy Awards ceremony still to come this Sunday – the 2026 award season has been, in a word, messy.

RNZ will live blog the Oscars on Monday, 16 March kicking off with the red carpet then into the awards show with plenty of witty banter and entertainment intel.

Irish actress Jessie Buckley accepts the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture for Hamnet.

VALERIE MACON

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There were signs something was afoot last week, when an old clip of Buckley, nominated for best actress for her role in Hamnet, resurfaced in which she waxed lyrical on her hatred of cats. Buckley had made the statements around Thanksgiving, yet here we were.

Then, in mid-February, Chalamet aired his own disdain for opera and ballet, the precious kitty-cats of the performing arts. During a town hall hosted by CNN and Variety, opposite his Interstellar costar Matthew McConaughey, Chalamet volunteered that “no one cares” about these hallowed art forms and historic cultural institutions, and that they are struggling to stay “alive”.

The reaction, while not swift, was eventually severe, even though Chalamet had expressed the sentiment — repeatedly — before. Soon enough, AI creations of Chalamet performing opera were making the rounds and everyone from Karla Sofia Gascón to Chalamet’s high school principal to ballerina extraordinaire Misty Copeland were weighing in.

It all puts Chalamet, who has publicly professed his desire for greatness on award show stages in the past, in a tricky situation come Oscar night. Once considered the favorite for his title role in Marty Supreme, things are looking less, well, supreme for him at the moment, even if Oscar voting closed on 5 March, before balletgate reached fever pitch.

Timothee Chalamet makes it hard not to laugh at Marty Mauser’s wildly offensive claims and believable conviction.

Central Pictures / A24

The BAFTA problem

Adding to this already heightened drama quotient was a very serious incident at last month’s BAFTA Awards in London, when an attendee with Tourette Syndrome involuntarily yelled a racist slur at the evening’s first presenters, Sinners costars (and Oscar nominees) Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo. The organisation and the BBC were criticised for their handling of the incident, from how their apologies were issued to the fact that the moment made it to broadcast, despite the ceremony airing on a time delay.

Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo present during the BAFTA Film Awards in London.

Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for BAFTA

Sinners took home three awards that night – for original score, original screenplay and supporting actress for Wunmi Mosaku – and something just as valuable ahead of the Oscars: renewed interest in its message and artistic significance.

Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, starring Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton.

Warner Bros. – Proximity Media – / Collection ChristopheL via AFP

#OscarsSoLate, anyone?

All that and the Oscars haven’t even happened yet!

While Hollywood’s highest honors were handed out even later in the early aughts, the overwhelming majority of Academy Awards ceremonies have taken place in February or the first week of March over the last quarter century (save for 2021 and 2022, when the shows were delayed due to the pandemic and a combination of the Super Bowl and the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, respectively).

All the prolonged momentum and buildup, with plenty of time for these various ‘scandals’ and #gates to spin their wheels, means one thing: there’s no way the Oscars telecast itself can live up to the chaos that has preceded it.

Or can it? One of the most potent elements in this year’s race is its sheer unpredictability. It’s difficult to recall another year when the race was this wide open, this late in the game.

Early on, it seemed like a sure bet that the race would be dominated by 14-time Oscar nominee Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, but now the tea leaves have become more difficult to read after Sinners scored big wins at the BAFTAs and the Actor Awards.

One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Warner Bros. – Ghoulardi Film Co / Collection ChristopheL via AFP

Three of the four acting races are looking similarly hazy, save for Buckley’s odds in the best actress category, cat hate aside.

The uncertainty is maddening, which somehow feels appropriate in these highly uncertain times.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/13/and-best-drama-goes-to-this-years-totally-unhinged-award-season/

March 12, 2026

Joe Rogan keeps highlighting Trump’s biggest liabilities

Source: Radio New Zealand

By Aaron Blake, CNN

Podcaster Joe Rogan Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today Sports / Reuters via CNN Newsource

Analysis – If there’s one figure who epitomized President Donald Trump’s ability to cobble together a winning coalition in 2024, it might have been Joe Rogan – the influential podcaster who made big news by endorsing Trump on the eve of the election after interviewing him.

(On the flipside, much ink has been spilled about the Kamala Harris campaign not booking a date with Rogan’s podcast and the detrimental effect that might have had on her bid to become president.)

Sixteen months later, Rogan epitomizes Trump’s problems in holding that coalition together.

Rogan has broken with Trump on several major issues since mid-2025. And polling shows the issues he’s picked happen to be some of Trump’s biggest political liabilities – including the war with Iran, the Jeffrey Epstein files and immigration enforcement.

Iran

The big, new one is the war with Iran. Rogan said Tuesday that Trump’s ongoing assault on the country broke his promises to his voters.

“But it just seems so insane based on what he ran on,” Rogan said. “I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars and these stupid senseless wars, and then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”

Rogan had also been skeptical of Trump’s plans to target Venezuela before the ouster of Nicolas Maduro back in January. But he said that operation was at least “clean.” The military engagement to bring in Maduro lasted only a few hours, as opposed to the war with Iran, which is nearly two weeks old with no clear end in sight.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me – unless we’re acting on someone else’s interests, like particularly Israel’s interests,” Rogan added. “It just didn’t make any sense to me.”

Nearly every poll shows the war with Iran is unpopular, with a majority opposing it and independents opposing it around 2-to-1. In fact, it might be the most unpopular new military conflict in a very long time.

Epstein

Rogan has for months expressed incredulity about the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files.

Similar to Iran, he’s cast it as a betrayal of Trump’s supporters, even suggesting that their belief Trump would make Epstein materials public if he won the election was a part of why they backed him.

“There’s a lot of stuff about, you know, when we thought Trump was going to come in and a lot of things are going to be resolved. We’re going to drain the swamp. We’re going to figure everything out,” Rogan said in July. “And when you have this one hardcore line in the sand that everybody’s been talking about forever, and then they’re trying to gaslight you on that?”

Last month, he called the FBI’s claim that there is no evidence Epstein had clients “the gaslightiest gaslighting sh*t I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Two days later, on February 12, he took aim at the Justice Department’s strange and inconsistent redactions practices.

“Like, what is this? This is not good. None of this is good for this administration,” Rogan said. “It looks f**king terrible. It looks terrible.”

Jeffrey Epstein pictured with Donald Trump. Getty / Davidoff Studios Photography

Rogan criticized Trump in particular for referring to the matter as a “hoax,” and even entertained the idea that Trump knew what Epstein had been doing.

“It looks terrible for Trump when he was saying that none of this was real, this is all a hoax. This is not a hoax,” Rogan added. “Like, did you not know? Maybe he didn’t know, if you want to be charitable. But this is definitely not a hoax.”

A January CNN poll found just 6% of Americans said they were satisfied with what the federal government had released of the Epstein files to that point.

A more recent Reuters-Ipsos poll from last month showed 65% of Americans said the federal government was “probably” or “definitely” hiding information about Epstein’s death, which was ruled a suicide, and 75% said it was “probably” or “definitely” hiding information about his supposed clients.

Immigration

Rogan has also amassed a growing volume of comments critical of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

It really kicked off in April, when he called the Trump administration’s sending undocumented migrants to a brutal El Salvador prison “horrific.”

By July, he called the administration’s targeting of immigrants without criminal records “insane.”

“Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers, just construction workers showing up in construction sites and raiding them,” Rogan said. “Gardeners. Like, really?”

Later that month, Rogan decried how US citizens were getting caught up in the raids, and how Trump was trying to deport pro-Palestinian activists with legal status.

“A bunch of people that are totally innocent are going to get caught up. They already have been,” Rogan said. “You know, they have been.”

In mid-October, he said people were right to be concerned about out-of-control border-crossings in recent years. But he added that, “The military in the street, I think, is a dangerous precedent.”

He also criticized the administration for “ripping parents out of their communities,” adding: “I did not ever anticipate seeing that on TV on a regular basis.”

“I really thought they were just going to go after the criminals,” he said.

Rogan has called the administration’s targeting of immigrants without criminal records “insane”. OCTAVIO JONES / AFP

Rogan went on to criticize the administration for the killings of both Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January.

“It just seemed all kinds of wrong to me,” he said of Good’s death, adding that it “just looked horrific to me.”

And he even invoked the Gestapo, the secret police in Nazi Germany.

“And then I can also see the point of view of the people who say, ‘Yeah, but you don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be US citizens,’” he said. “They just don’t have their papers on them. Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”

Trump’s approval numbers on immigration have gone from about 10 points positive a year ago to about 10 points negative today – in large part because the American people also see his administration’s enforcement operations going too far.

The killings of Good and Pretti, in particular, have resulted in the administration signaling a change of course in an election year.

Tariffs

This has been one of Trump’s most unpopular issues for a long time. And while Rogan hasn’t spoken about it as much or as forcefully, he has called Trump’s strategy into question.

When Trump launched his tariffs against Canada a year ago, Rogan called the move “stupid.”

“We got to become friends with Canada again. This is so ridiculous,” Rogan said. “I can’t believe there is anti-American, anti-Canadian sentiment going on. It’s the dumbest f**king feud.”

He added the next month: “I’m scared of this tariff stuff because it’s radical change.”

Tariffs have been one of Trump’s most unpopular issues for a long time Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images via CNN Newsource

Uncharacteristically, Trump hasn’t hit back at Rogan.

Asked about Rogan’s criticisms last month by NBC News, Trump said they had spoken recently.

“I think he’s a great guy, and I think he likes me, too,” Trump said.

He added: “And, you know, liking me isn’t important. What happens is that – I think we do a phenomenal job, but I don’t think we’re good at public relations.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/12/joe-rogan-keeps-highlighting-trumps-biggest-liabilities/

March 11, 2026

Australian man sails around the world in homemade boat

Source: Radio New Zealand

There was champagne and smiles as Dan Turner sailed into Antigua, in the Caribbean Sea, this week.

After 16 months at sea and 28,000 nautical miles travelled, the South Australian accomplished what some can only dream of — sailing solo around the world.

And to top it off, he completed the feat in a boat he built in his own garage.

Dan Turner celebrates finishing the Mini Globe Race with champagne in Antigua, in the Caribbean Sea.

Supplied / Dan Turner

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Contestants competed in 5.8-metre Class Globe yachts, starting and finishing in Antigua.

“The welcoming was just insane,” Turner said, reflecting on the final stretch to the finish line.

“There were boats everywhere and people honking horns; it’s something that I couldn’t have even imagined.”

The Immortal Game charges ahead in the Mini Globe Race.

Supplied / Dan Turner

It is a time of reflection, but the journey has not been without its challenges.

Homesickness and battling the elements each day were among the hardest parts of the journey, according to Turner.

“I felt selfish being away from my family, so it was very difficult at times,” he said.

“It was really my family, my friends and supporters that pushed me to dig deep.”

Big swells and long storms

Soon after the race began, Turner said he nearly lost his mast when the forestay — a wire that attaches the mast to the front of the boat — snapped.

“That took some quick thinking to get some of the other ropes to attach the mast to the front of the boat to keep it from falling down,” he said.

“I had big storms … there were 70 knots of breeze near Tahiti and a 12-hour storm cell that was just crazy windy.”

But the adventure was worth the risk, with highlights including docking at “exotic destinations”.

“We got to see some amazing places and cultures around the world,” Turner said.

“You can’t really get to some of these islands, like the Marquesas Islands, unless you’ve got a boat. Meeting some of these people and eating food with the locals was just amazing.”

South Australian man Dan Turner completed his childhood dream of sailing around the world.

Supplied / Dan Turner

Supporting a dream

At home in Adelaide, Turner’s wife, Nikki Turner, anxiously tracked his progress over the past 16 months.

“From the moment that he started building a plywood boat in our driveway, I think there was some scepticism initially that he would be able to sail around the world,” Turner said.

“But we took a really big, deep breath when he rang through and he said that he crossed the finish line in Antigua.”

Turner said while there was a “certain level of fear” when Turner announced his intention to compete in the race, she had been there for each one of her husband’s adventures.

“Anything he puts his mind to, he gives 110 per cent,” she said.

“I’m very happy to have him back on land.”

The Immortal Game sails on

As for the boat he crafted with his own hands, The Immortal Game, it will have another pass around the world — but Turner will not be its captain.

“I’ve actually sold it to another Australian, and I’m bringing it back to Australia to hand it over to him,” Turner said.

“He’s going to do the Mini Globe Race in 2029, so it’ll be good to see the boat continuing its legacy.”

As for what’s next, the sailor said he was looking forward to living “some sort of normal life”.

“I was lucky enough that my wife got to meet me in a few places, but I haven’t seen the kids now for many months … I hope I’ve inspired them and that we can spend a lot of time [together] in the next couple of years before they move out and do their own things,” Turner said.

Turner said she would still like to see her husband on the ocean, but teaching “young tuckers how to sail”.

“And just keeping that passion for dreams and adventure alive,” she said.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/11/australian-man-sails-around-the-world-in-homemade-boat/

March 11, 2026

Researchers teach computer made from human brain cells to play ‘Doom’

Source: Radio New Zealand

SPENCER PLATT

Researchers at Melbourne start-up Cortical Labs have taught their “biological computer” made from living human brain cells to play Doom.

They say it brings biological computers a step closer to real-world uses, such as drug-testing or robotics applications.

Cortical Labs synthetic biological intelligence scientist Dr Alon Loeffler told Midday Report it was the “first code-deployable biological computer”.

“We like to call it neurocomputer, made out of about 200,000 to 800,000 cells that were taken from stem cells and turned into brain cells,” he said.

“Then we had an early access user, a customer of ours, in one-week programme the game Doom, or a free version of Doom, without the copyright restrictions, so that the cells can navigate this environment and try and beat the game.”

He said the cells were very similar to what would be in a real-life brain.

Loeffler said while they were human brain cells, they were not taken from people’s brains, but rather from blood donations.

“We take blood donations from willing volunteers and donors and then our amazing biology team does some biology magic, which is science, but I think of it as magic.

“They turn these blood cells into stem cells, similar to what in the past you’d have to take out of embryos, but now you can just get them from skin cells or blood cells.

“Then those are converted to brain cells or cortical cells, which are then placed on a Petri dish, and we can record the electrical activity from the cells because they communicate via electrical signals, similar to how they would in the brain.”

In that sense, they were alive, he said.

‘Learning to improve over time’

Loeffler said because the system didn’t have sensory inputs such as eyes or ears, the question was how they would encode the information.

A lot of research had gone into that, he said.

“We’re still in the very early stages of understanding that, but the idea is, for example, in the Doom game, if there’s an enemy or demon that appears on the left side, you can send in an electrical input on the left side of the chip, and if it’s on the right side, you could send in an electrical signal on the right side of the chip.

“This is obviously a much more condensed version and simplified version, but then the response of the culture would then kind of tell the game or tell the controller what to do, to move to the left or to move to the right, for example.”

Loeffler admitted the computer was not very good at the game, but would outperform a model that shot randomly.

He said it was “learning to improve over time”.

Loeffler said there were several real-world applications it could be applied to, such as drug development and testing.

“You can test all sorts of different drugs on these cells, and they’ll perform much more similar to biological systems,” he said.

“They’re also much more similar to brains than animal models, so you can kind of remove the need for mice and chimpanzees and sheep in animal models. You could also potentially use them for robotics applications.

“It’s one thing that biological systems are really good at doing, which AI is terrible at doing, is navigating new and changing environments.”

He said if they could improve its ability to understand inputs, they would be able to navigate an environment in a more biological way.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/11/researchers-teach-computer-made-from-human-brain-cells-to-play-doom/

March 11, 2026

Researches teach computer made from human brain cells to play ‘Doom’