The secret to this acrobatic skill lies in an extremely flexible part of the spine that allows cats to twist in the air and land safely. It's well established that when cats fall, they're able to land perfectly most of the time, nimbly maneuvering to right themselves before they hit the ground. Now, researchers at Japan's Yamaguchi University have advanced our understanding of this extraordinary ability, focusing on the mechanical properties of feline spines. What they found, as detailed in a recent study in the journal The Anatomical Record, is that those sure-footed landings are due in part to the fact that a cat's thoracic region is much more flexible than its lumbar region. While a cat's ability to rotate in the air without something to push again seems to defy the laws of physics, it's instead a complex righting maneuver.

Who needs a supercomputer when you can calculate pi with a box of sewing needles? Happy Pi Day! March 14 is the date that otherwise rational people celebrate this irrational number, because 3/14 contains the first three digits of pi. And hey, pi deserves a day. By definition, it's the ratio of the circumference and diameter of a circle, but it shows up in all kinds of places that seem to have nothing to do with circles, from music to quantum mechanics. Pi is an infinitely long decimal number that never repeats.

Plus: A porn-quitting app exposed the masturbation habits of hundreds of thousands of users, Russian hackers are trying to take over people's Signal accounts, and more. The United States and Israel's war with Iran has now been ongoing for two weeks, and the bombs continue to fall. But many of Iran's missiles are failing to hit their targets. WIRED's team in the Middle East detailed how countries in the Gulf region are intercepting these weapons . Of course, the international conflict is not just happening in the physical realm.

Japan Approves the World's First Treatment Made With Reprogrammed Human Cells Researchers in Japan pioneered reprogrammed cells 20 years ago. Now the country has given the first-ever authorizations to manufacture and sell medical products based on the technology. Human iPS cell colony established from fibroblasts. Its actual width is approximately 0.5 mm. On March 6, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officially granted conditional and time-limited marketing authorization to two regenerative medical products derived from reprogrammed iPS cells, marking exactly 20 years since the creation of mouse iPS cells .

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen says the conflict is stranding cargo and threatening inflation. After years of chaos in the global supply chain, Ryan Petersen, CEO of the logistics company Flexport, felt 2026 might offer some modicum of order. The pandemic was firmly in the rearview mirror. Red Sea shipping channels--which had been closed due to the Gaza crisis--were finally opening. The Supreme Court struck down many of Donald Trump's tariffs, and some Flexport customers were hoping for refunds.

China's OpenClaw Boom Is a Gold Rush for AI Companies Hype around the open source agent is driving people to rent cloud servers and buy AI subscriptions just to try it, creating a windfall for tech companies. George Zhang thought OpenClaw could make him rich, even though he didn't really understand how the viral AI agent software worked. But he saw a video of a Chinese social media influencer demonstrating how it could be deployed to manage stock portfolios and make investment decisions autonomously. Zhang, who works in cross-border ecommerce in the Chinese city of Xiamen, was intrigued enough that he decided to try installing OpenClaw in late February. Zhang is one of the many people in China who got swept up in the craze over OpenClaw recently.

In today's episode, we discuss how the saga between Anthropic and the Department of Defense is far from over. This week on, our hosts look at what's at stake for Anthropic after the company sued the Department of Defense. They also take a look at the strategy behind the Trump administration sharing action-filled war memes on social media, and share a scoop about how a controversial company is taking in millions in government contracts by helping organize America250 celebrations. Plus: Could AI come for the jobs of venture capitalists? Can AI Kill the Venture Capitalist? Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Zoë, Leah and I have really enjoyed being your new hosts these past few weeks, and we want to hear from you. If you like the show and have a minute, please leave us a review in the podcast or app of your choice. It really helps us reach more people, and for any questions and comments, you can always reach us at uncannyvalley@WIRED.com . This week, we're diving into Anthropic's lawsuit against the Department of Defense after the company was labeled as a supply chain risk. We're also discussing why on earth the Trump administration is sharing action film memes about the war in Iran and how a little known events company formed by some of the organizers of the January 6th rally is making bank in Trump's second term in office . Also, we'll talk about whether venture capitalists should be worried about AI taking their jobs .

WIRED spoke with Nick Fox, Google's SVP of knowledge and information, about how AI is changing the company's advertising business. Google executives have insisted for months that the company has no immediate plans to put ads in Gemini. But in an interview with WIRED, Google's senior vice president of knowledge and information, Nick Fox, says the tech giant is "not ruling them out." "I would expect that the learnings that we get from ads in AI Mode would likely carry over to what we might want to do in the Gemini app down the road," says Fox. "It's an odd thing to say, but our research shows that users actually like ads within the context of Search. Over time, we'll figure out what makes sense in the Gemini app." Google has spent the past year racing to catch up with OpenAI in the AI chatbot market.

A 2023 law championed by Republicans requires the CDC have a director confirmed by the Senate. For months, though, it's had only acting directors--and the White House won't say when that will change. As the agency rotates through a cast of leaders, it's unclear when--or if--the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will get a permanent director under Donald Trump's second term as president. Following Jim O'Neill's departure as acting CDC director last week, National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya will now lead both agencies temporarily. It's the latest in a series of shakeups at Trump's CDC, which has lost about a quarter of its staff to mass layoffs carried out by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. last year.

Anthropic doesn't want its AI used in autonomous weapons or government surveillance. Those carve-outs could cost it a major military contract. When Anthropic last year became the first major AI company cleared by the US government for classified use--including military applications--the news didn't make a major splash. But this week a second development hit like a cannonball: The Pentagon is reconsidering its relationship with the company, including a $200 million contract, ostensibly because the safety-conscious AI firm objects to participating in certain deadly operations. The so-called Department of War might even designate Anthropic as a "supply chain risk," a scarlet letter usually reserved for companies that do business with countries scrutinized by federal agencies, like China, which means the Pentagon would not do business with firms using Anthropic's AI in their defense work.