Technologies

First moon samples in over 40 years may alter lunar history

«Our current views need readjustment» about how long our beloved white globe remained warm and volcanically active, says a researcher.

In late 2020, a Chinese space capsule delivered fresh moon samples to Earth for the first time in about four decades, and these precious lunar rocks just revealed a new detail about our planet’s glowing companion: Its volcanoes were alive and active considerably longer than scientists thought.

«All our experience tells us that the moon should be cold and dead 2 billion years ago. But it is not, and the question is, ‘Why?'» said Alexander Nemchin, a professor of Geology at Australia’s Curtin University and author of the analysis published Thursday in the journal Science.

Alongside an expansive and international team of researchers, Nemchin discovered that some of the newly transported moon rocks contain lunar fragments from later days of the white orb’s timeline. Dated about two eons ago, these fragments are relatively young. But here’s the kicker: Those same pieces are also remnants of a volcanic eruption.

Connecting the dots, the team members realized they were looking at solid confirmation that the lunar surface was alive pretty late in the game.

«We need to dig deeper with this,» Nemchin remarked. «We are highlighting that our current views need readjustment — further research will tell how dramatic this readjustment should be.»

Welcome back, lunar research

The saga began last year in December, when China’s Chang’e 5 mission sent a spacecraft to scrape the surface of the moon and collect a variety of rock and dust samples for Earth-based analysis. It returned with about 4 pounds (2 kilograms) of extraterrestrial material.

The year 1976 marks the last time lunar samples were brought down to our home planet, an achievement of the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission. But before that, NASA’s Apollo missions were running the course from Earth to the moon several times — the crusades returned photographs, moon rocks and personal anecdotes of astronauts.

«There was some need and drive to do this 50 years back,» Nemchin explained. «Then, priorities changed and everybody moved to something else.» But now, he says, «we have the moon back in the focus.»

He notes lunar research is important not only from an astronomy perspective, but also because any effort to travel to the moon — or really, any space exploration — tends to expedite technologies that ultimately benefit us on Earth.

One example of such serendipitous tech comes from Australian physicists’ research in the ’90s. They developed a highly complex mathematical tool hoping to detect smeared signals of black holes that vanished in the cosmos. Unfortunately, they never found any — but their invention paved the way for modern-day Wi-Fi.

Moon rock science

«Every new sample gives us a big boost in understanding what is happening, simply because we still have so few of them,» Nemchin remarked. «Apollo samples have been worked on for the last 50 years and are still actively investigated.»

While analyzing the rocks brought back by Chang’e 5, Nemchin and fellow researchers first checked out what types were present. In particular, they were after basalt fragments, which are correlated with volcanic activity.

«We needed to get an idea about chemical composition of the fragments to be able to compare [them] to the large basaltic field visible from the orbit,» he said. «And, make sure [those] fragments represent this field of basalts and do not come from somewhere else.»

Then, the scientists confirmed specific ages of the pieces of interest. Validating that these fragments are young was one of the main goals of the mission. That’s how the team members expected to prove their hypothesis of the moon having active volcanoes more recently than textbooks suggest.

«All basalts we had before are older than 3 billion years,» Nemchin said. «We also had a few very young points determined from material ejected by very young impacts — impact melts — but nothing in between. Now we have a point right in the middle of the gap.»

Such age determinations are called crater counting, something the team hopes to continue doing in the future in order to attain the full array of rocks to map out each generation of the moon. Nemchin also notes that a few interesting chemical features were found in the basalt samples, including high iron content, which isn’t present in any other retrieved pieces of the lunar surface.

Further chemical research on the rocks, he says, will help answer new questions introduced by the team’s novel findings, such as searching for the source of heat that led to lunar volcanic activity a couple of billion years ago.

And at the end of the day, the Australian geologist emphasizes that «what is important for me in all this is that we managed to bring a large international group of people to work on the sample.»

«Somehow,» he added, «In the current situation when international travel is still rather restricted, I had more interaction with different people than in the previous years when we could move around any way we liked.»

Technologies

New Sassy Personality Style for Alexa Plus Brings Sarcasm and Swear Words

The new Sassy style is adults-only with a bit of profanity and a double dose of cringe.

After launching three Alexa Plus personality styles last month, Amazon on Thursday introduced a fourth option, Sassy.

The new Sassy style joins the existing lineup of Brief, Chill and Sweet. Changing the personality impacts how Alexa responds, and tweaks the AI assistant‘s reactions and attitude. You can pick a style based on your mood.

The Sassy personality seems like a kind of digital mean girl, or maybe a stereotypical Gen Zer with comebacks and banter to «keep things interesting.»

According to Amazon, you get «wit, playful sarcasm and occasional censored profanity.» Notably, the latest style isn’t available when Amazon Kids is enabled, according to an Amazon blog post, and it requires additional security checks in the Alexa app. (Alexa Plus is free with a Prime membership.)

I tried out the new style by selecting Devices in the Alexa app on my phone, then choosing Alexa on this Phone, then Alexa’s Personality Style, and swiping until I found «Sassy.»

A disclaimer notes that the style «contains explicit language and mature subject matter. After the assistant said it could «spice up our chat with some colorful language,» I asked it to tell me about the new MacBook Neo.

«Oh, hell yes, the MacBook Neo! Apple finally decided to stop gatekeeping premium laptops behind thousand-dollar price tags and dropped this beauty at 599 bucks,» Alexa Plus replied. Apparently, «hell» was the big swear word.

The AI assistant told me, «The Sassy style is all about helping first, judging always. You’ll get reality checks with charm, compliments that sting, and warmth that hits when you least expect it.»

I asked what «compliments that sting» are (I said «sting,» but the word was misunderstood to be «stay»), and Alexa said, «The Sassy style gives you those compliments that somehow sting and stay with you — they’re like truth bombs wrapped in charm.»

When asked to simply «be sassy,» Alexa snarked, «Oh honey, I’ve been sassy since the day Amazon flipped my switch.» It yammered on for a bit and then threw in a completely out-of-nowhere «hell,» asking, «What the hell do you need help with today?»

When I told it my cat was sick, it immediately grew gentler, saying, «Oh, damn, that’s rough,» and offering to distract me with stories about its own fictional cat or to find the vet’s number for me. So I guess it’s not a complete jerk.

This Sassy style feels like the famous Steve Buscemi meme (from 30 Rock) carrying two skateboards and awkwardly asking, «How do you do, fellow kids?»

Amazon might need to dial down the cringe factor if it wants anyone to stick with Sassy for more than a few minutes.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 13, #536

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 536 for Friday, March 13.

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

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a real mix of topics, and the blue one might make you hungry. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Decorations.

Green group hint: College sports division.

Blue group hint: Yum!

Purple group hint: The Apple CEO has this first name, too.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Things fans hang on their walls.

Green group: A Big East athlete.

Blue group: Food, but make it baseball.

Purple group: Tims.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is things fans hang on their walls. The four answers are banner, flag, pennant and poster.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is a Big East athlete. The four answers are Friar, Hoya, Husky and Pirate.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is food, but make it baseball. The four answers are can of corn, meatball, pickle and tater.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Tims. The four answers are Duncan, Raines, Salmon and Tebow.

Technologies

AT&T Revamps Its Unlimited Plans With Simpler Names and More Data

Slapping a 2.0 version number on plans makes them sound new, but what’s actually changed? Let’s check the details.

AT&T updated its unlimited data phone plans to 2.0 versions on Thursday, launching AT&T Premium 2.0, AT&T Extra 2.0 and AT&T Value 2.0 options. In software, when products get boosted by a full version number, it means there’s plenty of new material. But does this move signal an overhaul of the company’s 5G lines or just a cosmetic refresh?

These plans replace the AT&T Value Plus VL, Unlimited Extra EL and Unlimited Premium PL plans. However, the carrier also cut its Unlimited Starter SL plan, which served as the entry-level plan (you had to know where to look to find the limited, but cheaper, Value Plus VL plan). Essentially, all but the highest-tier plan are slightly more affordable; while the AT&T Premium 2.0 plan is pricier than the one it replaced, it offers unlimited high-speed data and much more hotspot data.

If you’re looking to upgrade your existing AT&T plan, shopping for a new provider or looking to compare carriers, keep in mind that AT&T plans let each person on an account have their own plan. So you might set up a package where one person has the Premium 2.0 plan for unthrottled 5G speeds and another, such as a child, is set up with the Value 2.0 plan to save money.

Also, if you’re on a current AT&T plan, you won’t be automatically moved to one of the new plans. If you do want to make the jump, you’ll incur a line activation fee of up to $50. And keep in mind that the pricing below is the AutoPay amount; carriers provide a discount (usually $10) if you sign up for automatic payments.

One nice change is that the new plans are priced with round numbers. For example, the Value Plus VL plan was priced at $50.99 for one line, and the Value 2.0 plan is $50 (in comparisons below, I’ve rounded up the old prices to full-dollar amounts). Taxes and fees get added on top of that, so you’ll never see a round-number bill, but I’d like to think it’s a quiet acknowledgement that pricing things one penny below a larger number is insulting to customers.

Let’s dig into the details.

Value 2.0, the budget plan

The Value 2.0 plan replaces both the Value Plus VL plan and the retired Unlimited Starter SL plan and costs $50 a month for a single line or $120 a month when you have four lines on the account. That’s $1 per line cheaper than Value Plus VL.

For that, you get 5GB of high-speed 5G data, and then unlimited data dropped to a paltry 128Kbps speed for the rest of the month. Calling and texting are unlimited.

You can also use up to 3GB of high-speed hotspot data to share the cellular connection with other devices, also slowed to 128Kbps after hitting the limit. The Value Plus VL plan did not offer hotspot data.

It also includes unlimited talk, text and data between the US, Mexico and Canada.

Extra 2.0, more fast data for not much more money

The Extra 2.0 plan costs $70 a month for a single line or $160 a month for four lines, which is $6 cheaper for one line and $4 cheaper for four lines compared with the old Unlimited Extra EL plan.

The Extra 2.0 plan includes 100GB of high-speed data (with the caveat that speeds can be slowed if the network is busy), which drops to 128Kbps speed until the next month’s billing cycle. That’s a boost over the 75GB offered on the Unlimited Extra XL plan.

For hotspot data, the new plan includes 50GB of high-speed data, which is 20GB more than its predecessor.

As with the Value 2.0 plan, international options include unlimited talk, text and data between the US, Mexico and Canada.

Premium 2.0, for faster everything

Replacing the Unlimited Premium PL plan is the Premium 2.0, which costs $90 a month for a single line and $220 a month for four lines. Those prices are actually higher than the Unlimited Premium PL plan, which came in at $86 for a single line and $204 for four lines.

For that bump in cost, you’re getting unlimited 5G talk, text and high-speed data with no throttling.

Hotspot data has a 100GB cap before dropping to 128Kbps speed, which is 40GB more than the Unlimited Premium PL plan.

As for international calling and data, unlimited talk, text and high-speed data are available in 20 Latin American countries.

AT&T also has plans for cellular-enabled tablets ($21 a month) and wearables like smartwatches ($11 a month). If you subscribe to the Premium 2.0 plan, that pricing is reduced by 50%.

A few thoughts on the new AT&T plans

What AT&T’s plans lack, at least compared to the other carriers, is any streaming perks or bundled services. The 4K streaming option of the Premium 2.0 plan opens a wider data pipeline for services such as Netflix that support 4K playback, but you’re still paying separately for those entertainment subscriptions.

In contrast, T-Mobile bundles Netflix and Hulu (both with ads) and offers Apple TV for an extra fee on its Experience Beyond and Better Value plans. Verizon takes a different approach with streaming packages, which you can choose at discounted prices instead of subscribing to them separately.

I also want to mention that I’m glad the plan names are no longer burdened with the VL, EL and PL extensions. Mobile plans are full of details as it is — always read the fine print before you sign up for one — so I appreciate conveying them to customers in ways that don’t sound like internal spreadsheet codes.

Even though the new plans carry 2.0 version numbers, I’d honestly rate them more like 1.5 based on their features and pricing, except for the Premium 2.0 plan, which is more expensive than the Unlimited Premium PL plan. As usual, if you’re happy with the plan you’re on, you’re fine sticking with it. But if you’re running up against high-speed data limits or considering AT&T as a replacement for another carrier, it’s worth looking at the details to see if one of the new plans works for you.

Read more: Speaking of AT&T, this week marked the 150th anniversary of the first phone call and the company committed to spending $250 billion on infrastructure improvements. I also spoke with AT&T FirstNet folks during the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix about how they support customers and first responders during massive events like the Formula 1 race.

AT&T 2.0 Plans and Plans They Replace

	Price for 1 line, per month	Price for 4 lines, per month	High-speed data	Mobile hotspot
AT&T Value 2.0	$50	$120	5G	3GB
AT&T Extra 2.0	$70	$160	100GB	50GB
AT&T Premium 2.0	$90	$220	Unlimited	100GB
Old: AT&T Value Plus VL	$51	$124	Unlimited, but could be slowed if network is busy	None
Old: AT&T Unlimited Starter SL	$66	$144	Unlimited, but could be slowed if network is busy	5GB high-speed, then unlimited at 128Kbps
Old: AT&T Unlimited Extra EL	$76	$164	75GB, then speeds could be slowed if network is busy	30GB high-speed, then unlimited at 128Kbps
Old: AT&T Unlimited Premium PL	$86	$204	Unlimited high-speed data	60GB high-speed, then unlimited at 128Kbps