Technologies

Tardigrade fossil in 16-million-year-old amber a ‘once in a generation’ find

The microscopic «water bear» is as about as rare as they come.

A long, long time ago, a miniscule animal met its end in a sticky trap of tree resin. Sixteen million years later, that tiny tardigrade fossil was discovered in Dominican amber. It’s now something of a science celebrity. Talk about a glow-up.

The fossil tardigrade is remarkable for its rarity and for being a new species and a new genus.

Tardigrades are known as «water bears» due to their appearance when seen under a microscope (here’s what they look like when they walk). They’re nearly invincible, able to survive exposure to space and even being shot out of a gas gun (to a point).

While the fossil micro-animal looked like a modern tardigrade on the outside, researchers were also able to examine its innards. «Of all the currently known and formally named tardigrade amber fossils (three so far, including this Dominican amber fossil), this is the first fossil wherein we were able to visualize its internal structure (i.e. foregut),» Marc Mapalo, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University, told me. Mapalo is lead author of a paper on the find published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The tardigrade was so different from known specimens it earned its own genus and the name Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus.

«The discovery of a fossil tardigrade is truly a once-in-a-generation event,» said co-author Phil Barden in a New Jersey Institute of Technology statement on Tuesday. Barden’s lab found the fossil.

Spotting a teensy tardigrade that’s half a millimeter long in ancient amber is no easy feat. «At first I thought it was an artifact in the amber— a crack or fissure that just happened to look a lot like a tardigrade,» Barden said. The tiny claws tipped him off to what it really was.

Humans can buy tardigrade plush toys, tardigrade-emblazoned T-shirts and even tardigrade jewelry. «As microorganisms they live on a scale that is difficult to comprehend, yet they have these funny little legs and conspicuous cute faces that seem somehow familiar, like the bears they’re sometimes named after,» Barden said.

While more tardigrade fossils may yet be found in other amber samples, it’s a challenging mission.»You could spend the rest of your life screening through amber and never find one,» Barden said. He considers the discovery to be «enough tardigrade luck for one career.»

Mapalo hopes the find will encourage researchers to take care when studying amber and to keep their eyes peeled for the critters. The fossilized animals can tell us about how tardigrades have changed over time. There’s a lot left to learn about these mighty water bears, both ancient and modern.

Technologies

AI Brings Val Kilmer Back to the Big Screen a Year After His Death

Kilmer’s estate approves plans to use generative AI to resurrect the late actor for a role in the historical drama As Deep As the Grave.

Actor Val Kilmer died in 2025, but he’ll be seen in an upcoming movie he didn’t live to film. The historical archaeologist drama As Deep As the Grave will include an AI version of the actor who died at age 65 after a battle with throat cancer. It’s not the first time we’ve seen studios use AI this way, but it could be the most successful.

Director and writer Coerte Voorhees revealed to Variety on Wednesday that he would use AI to bring Kilmer’s likeness back to play Father Fintan, a Native American priest.

As Deep As the Grave tells the true story of an archaeologist couple who worked with the Navajo people in the 1920s to learn about America’s very first civilizations. Voorhees says that Kilmer agreed to play the role five years ago, but the actor’s struggles with throat cancer made him unable to complete work on it. There’s no date yet for the film’s release.

Hollywood actors have increasingly found themselves at odds with generative AI, a technology that has rapidly begun to infiltrate nearly every aspect of the entertainment industry. From writing scripts to generating digital likenesses of actors’ faces and voices, AI now has the ability to replicate performances with striking realism. In some instances, studios have gone even further, creating entirely new AI «actors» who can perform without ever stepping onto a set. This has raised complex questions about consent, compensation, and creative ownership, as performers grapple with the reality that their identities and craft can now be reproduced, modified, or even replaced by algorithms.

These attempts have been strongly opposed by the SAG-AFTRA labor union representing entertainers, which has been engaged in strikes against video game companies and is currently in precarious negotiations with film and TV studios. The labor guild has certain protections against generative AI following a strike that lasted more than 100 days, including requirements for clear consent and fair compensation. The current negotiations would expand these protections.

A SAG-AFTRA representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Voorhees says that Kilmer’s children approve of this AI resurrection.

«[Kilmer] always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,» his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in a statement, according to Variety. «This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 19

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 19.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s a pretty easy one today, but we’ve got all the answers in case you’re stumped. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Ghost’s word
Answer: BOO

4A clue: Magician’s «And just like that, it’s gone!»
Answer: POOF

5A clue: With 7-Across, it’s full of stars
Answer: NIGHT

6A clue: White bills in Monopoly
Answer: ONES

7A clue: See 5-Across
Answer: SKY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Score of 4 on a par 3
Answer: BOGEY

2D clue: ___ and aahs
Answer: OOHS

3D clue: Frequently, in poetry
Answer: OFT

4D clue: Like the sands of Harbour Island, Bahamas
Answer: PINK

5D clue: Dissenting votes
Answer: NOS

Technologies

Customers Prefer Apps Over Websites for Wireless and Home Internet Service

Easier logins are a key reason customers are happier with apps, according to the J.D. Power study.

When you last checked your mobile or home internet bill, did you reach for your phone or sit down with your laptop or desktop computer? According to a new J.D. Power study, people would rather access their accounts via apps than websites. And that preference is especially strong when it comes to telecom companies such as mobile carriers and home internet providers (which increasingly overlap).

According to the 2026 US Telecom Digital Experience Study, surveyed customers gave app login an average satisfaction score of 681 for wireless carriers and 689 for internet service providers (out of 1,000 points). Website login trailed those by 38 points and 42 points, respectively. J.D. Power gathered evaluations from 12,082 customers of eight internet providers and 14 wireless carriers.

Biometric logins were a major factor in the decision. When accessing an account, there are always one or more layers of authentication just to get in. An app tends to speed you through the door using face or finger recognition to sign in or load a passkey.

Built-in services like Apple’s Passwords app can also use biometrics to unlock and fill in saved credentials in websites, but the experience isn’t as smooth. J.D. Power noted that maintenance issues and slow responsiveness also derail the website login experience across both segments.

This helps explain why carriers have invested heavily in improving their apps. For one, T-Mobile’s T-Life app is increasingly the central point of customer interaction. And AT&T just this week rolled out a new app — named simply AT&T — that is a single resource for its mobile and broadband customers.

AT&T’s Jeff Dixon, assistant vice president of Digital Product Management and Development, emphasized the importance of speed in the company’s app overhaul.

«We did focus on performance to make it snappy throughout,» he said, noting extensive architectural work on back-end services to cache and pre-fetch data.

The J.D. Power study also found that the gap between satisfaction with telecom companies’ apps and websites was wider than in other industries, suggesting that wireless and internet providers need to shore up their web experiences. There was a 25-point gap between apps and websites for wireless carriers, and an 11-point gap for internet service providers.

Overall, customer satisfaction was 654 out of 1,000 for wireless carriers and 659 for internet providers. Scores were based on four factors in order of importance: design, system performance, tools and capabilities, and information.

Ranking among the wireless carriers, Mint Mobile got the highest score (704), with Spectrum Mobile coming next (678) and followed by a tie between Metro by T-Mobile and T-Mobile itself (672). It’s worth noting that, of those, Spectrum is the only one not owned by T-Mobile.

For internet service providers, T-Mobile ranked the highest in the survey with a score of 695, followed by AT&T at 675 and Verizon at 669.