🧑🏽‍💻 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange a free man after 14 years, butterflies make record 8-day, 2,600-mile transatlantic flight, Bezos blames Elon Musk’s rockets for spewing too much heat in the neighborhood

Plus: Iceland could face a prolonged period of volcanic unrest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 June 27, 2024 | [Read Online]( Get IE’s ‘Amped for fun’ T-shirt Elevate your streetwear game with our Gildan Heavyweight T-Shirt. Crafted from 100% cotton. The Interesting Engineering Shop is now live with a curated collection of merchandise designed especially for engineers. [Shop Now for $25.99]( Ending his 14-year-old legal saga, the Wikileaks founder has finally arrived home. Julian Assange touched down in Australia’s Canberra on Wednesday evening (local time). His return became possible after a U.S. court in Saipan agreed to free him under a plea deal as Assange pleaded guilty in court. The 52-year-old admitted that he obtained and published US military secrets. Assange was sentenced to five years and two months by the Saipan court. However, he spent more time in prison in the UK, fighting his extradition to the US. Therefore, District Judge Ramona Manglona said Assange was free to go. For more on this development, check out today’s [Must-Read.]( 🔥Today’s job of the day as featured on [jobs.interestingengineering.com](: >[Â]([Senior Data and Analytics Engineer]( > [Business Manager, Platform Engineering - Associate]( Reading Time: 4 mins Did a friend forward this e-mail to you? [Subscribe here.]( MUST READ 🧑🏽‍💻 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange a free man after 14 years During more than a decade-old legal saga, Assange lived in a [high-security jail in the UK]( for five years and spent the earlier seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He faced [18 criminal charges]( in the U.S., and if he were found guilty, Assange would have received a sentence of nearly [175 years in prison](. However, the U.S. dropped all remaining charges apart from one charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information. The case centered around a [massive Wikileaks disclosure in 2010]( when the website released a video from a US military helicopter that showed [civilians being killed]( in the Iraqi capital, [Baghdad](. It also published thousands of [confidential documents]( suggesting that the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan, reported the BBC. 🦋 Painted lady butterflies brave record 8-day, 2,600-mile transatlantic flight Painted lady butterflies were observed completing an epic [2,600-mile]( (4,200 km) flight across the Atlantic from West Africa to French Guiana before arriving in South America. These remarkable butterflies flew across the Atlantic in just [5 to 8 days](, propelled by favorable trade winds. “We usually see butterflies as symbols of the fragility of beauty, but science shows us that they can perform [incredible feats](. There is still much to discover about their capabilities,” said Roger Vila, a researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology. 🚀 Jeff Bezos blames Elon Musk’s rockets for spewing too much heat in neighborhood There’s a fiery feud brewing between billionaire space companies [Blue Origin]( and [SpaceX](. Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, has [filed a complaint]( with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Bezos’ company is worried about the [environmental impact]( of SpaceX’s massive [Starship rocket launches]( at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. And has requested the FAA to cap SpaceX launches of Starship Super Heavy (Ss-SH) boosters and rockets in Florida. Love what you're reading, but too many emails? Sign up to IE+ to get Blueprint Weekly, our exclusive weekly premium newsletter that gives all the insights you love in a more digestible weekly format– plus, enjoy an Ad-Free experience on our website. Try IE+ today for just $1 in the first month. [Subscribe here]( HOT TOPICS OF THE DAY SCIENCE > Iceland is no stranger to volcanic activity, but recent eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula have scientists predicting that the country could face a prolonged period of volcanic unrest. ([More]() > New research into the electrical communication channels between nerve and muscle cells in zebrafish will provide new insights into the nature of muscle disorders in humans, according to researchers. ([More]() > In a critical global public health development, a candidate vaccine for tuberculosis (TB) has been created using a gene-editing approach. ([More]() ENERGY > In the electric vehicle-obsessed world of today, Japan has hit the jackpot by finding huge mineral deposits near an isolated island in the country’s exclusive economic zone. ([More]() > Fervo Energy has announced the signing of two power purchase agreements (PPAs) totaling 320 MW with Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the nation’s largest electric utilities. ([More]() > Energy Harvesting is a green technology that captures (or "harvests") wasted energy and converts it into electricity. The ubiquitous vibrations that surround us are one of the promising sources for energy harvesting. ([More]() INNOVATION > Researchers from the Centre for Quantum Software and Information (QSI) developed an affordable, handy personal quantum computer emulator. ([More]() > A new power transmission technology has emerged in Woburn, Massachusetts, promising to redefine energy distribution efficiency without compromising on visual impact. ([More]() > EPFL researchers have succeeded in directing floating objects around an aquatic obstacle course using only soundwaves. Their novel, optics-inspired method holds great promise for biomedical applications. ([More]() VIDEO > Methane from agriculture is a huge factor in Earth’s climate change problem. MIT has developed a new catalyst to take methane out of the equation. ([More]() > The Wind Runner will be the world’s largest aircraft, dedicated to transporting wind turbine blades. ([More]() IE QUIZ: THE RESULTS In yesterday’s quiz, we asked, In which bucket would a heavy lead ball fall? The answer is: C Ready for more brainy challenges? Gear up for future IE quizzes by following us on [Instagram]( and [Facebook!]( FROM THE WEB > Nearly half of the world's large lakes have lost resilience, or the ability to bounce back after an abrupt disturbance, in recent [decades]( > The migration of 6 million antelope in South Sudan dwarfs previous records for world’s biggest, aerial study [reveals]( > Listening to earthquakes that occur on Mars could offer a new tool in the search for liquid water on the Red [Planet]( > An Argentine scientific institute has cracked the genome of the leafhopper, the insect which carries the bacteria responsible for wiping out vast swathes of the South American nation's latest corn [crop]( > NASA's mission to an asteroid worth $10 quintillion is on its way, using ion thrusters to get there by the end of the [decade]( > The leading hypothesis for the origin of firefly lights has been overturned by a genomic [analysis]( Additional Reads --------------------------------------------------------------- [⚙️ Mechanical:](Explore the wonders of mechanical engineering. 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