Witnessing Creation.

To the middle of nowhere.

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1. Scientists have just identified the formation processes of some of the Universe's earliest galaxies in the turbulent era of the Cosmic Dawn. JWST observations of the early Universe around 13.3 to 13.4 billion years ago – just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang – have revealed telltale signs of gas reservoirs being actively slurped into three newly forming and growing galaxies. "You could say that these are the first 'direct' images of galaxy formation that we've ever seen," says astrophysicist Kasper Elm Heintz from the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark, who led the research. "Whereas the James Webb [Space Telescope] has previously shown us early galaxies at later stages of evolution, here we witness their very birth, and thus, the construction of the first star systems in the Universe." (Sources: sciencealert.com. webb.nasa.gov, news.ku.dk)

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2. Iran increased its stockpile of near bomb-grade uranium, a move that could flame tensions across the wider Middle East as Tehran prepares to hold presidential elections next month. It’s the first nuclear-safeguards assessment since Iran’s president and foreign minister died in a helicopter crash just days after top officials from the United Nations’ atomic watchdog traveled to the country to secure greater cooperation in their monitoring efforts. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors verified on Monday that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium rose 17% over the last three months, according to a nine-page, restricted report circulated among diplomats and seen by Bloomberg. That’s enough uranium to fuel several warheads, should Iran make a political decision to pursue weapons. (Source: bloomberg.com)

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3. In a sharp departure from a years-long policy, Iran’s leading officials are now openly threatening to build and test a nuclear bomb. Earlier this month, Kamal Kharazi, a former foreign minister, said that Tehran had the capacity to build a bomb and that, if it faced existential threats, it could “change its nuclear doctrine.” “When Israel threatens other countries, they can’t sit silent,” he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Arabic on May 9. To emphasize that this wasn’t a gaffe, he reiterated the position a few days later when he addressed an Iranian Arab conference in Tehran. Kharazi isn’t just any old diplomat. He heads a foreign-policy advisory body that reports directly to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who also appointed Kharazi to the regime’s Expediency Council. He would not have spoken without Khamenei’s blessing. For Iranian officials to openly acknowledge the possibility that Iran could pursue a nuclear weapon is a momentous change and marks the collapse of a previous taboo. (Source: theatlantic.com)

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