Assisted Dying Law, Math Advances, and the Heaviest Insect

Good morning. It's Thursday, Oct. 8. Canada will not allow people to register for medically assisted death if their sole condition is mental illness. First time reading? Join millions of insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.

Also in today's Digest: death row inmate speaks after surviving execution attempt (Need To Know), orangutan mothers set up playdates (Sci. & Tech.), the heaviest insect (Etc.), and much more. 

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 Need To Know 

Canada Halts MAID Expansion

Canada will not allow people whose sole condition is mental illness to pursue medically assisted death, the government announced yesterday. However, the federal government said it would work to extend the option to patients with progressing, incurable illnesses before they lose the capacity to decide.

The decision comes after a parliamentary panel concluded Canada’s legal and healthcare systems are not equipped to respond to the mental health expansion. Canada legalized medical assistance in dying in 2016 for terminally ill patients, later widening the criteria to include people who have incurable conditions but do not face imminent death. Around 5% of deaths in Canada—approximately 16,500 per year—are now medically assisted.

Over a dozen countries allow a form of MAID, including France, Australia, and Spain. See how laws differ around the world here, and a map of which 13 US states allow medically assisted death here. 

Math Meets AI

Prominent mathematics groups are calling for greater transparency and collaboration after OpenAI released 377 mathematical results this week, generated by its proprietary AI models. 

The AI behemoth released the new findings a month after it shocked the mathematical community by allegedly cracking the Navier-Stokes equation—one of seven Millennium Prize Problems carrying a $1M prize. Concerns over whether the models were thinking creatively or borrowing heavily from human mathematicians' work prompted OpenAI to form an independent advisory board. At the board’s request, OpenAI provided summaries of the models’ reasoning alongside some of this week’s proofs. But leading mathematicians continue to call for OpenAI to stop testing problems on unreleased models, arguing that doing so threatens the traditional peer-review process and could alienate humans from the discipline. 

OpenAI said its model took about three hours on average to arrive at each solution. Three findings include advances related to three remaining Millennium Prize Problems. See how AI's math abilities have improved over time here.

Pike Speaks

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is able to speak but cannot swallow or move her arms, her lawyers said yesterday. Her first words upon waking were reportedly, "Where am I, and who are you?" The comments come after two doses of pentobarbital injections failed to kill her last week (see write-up). 

Pike, 50, is the first person known to have survived receiving a lethal injection. It is not yet clear how, though her lawyers had previously warned that she had a platelet disorder and small veins. The needle may have been improperly placed, or her vein may have blown, causing the drug to enter her arm as opposed to her bloodstream. Pike's lawyers say she contracted pneumonia and now has a blood clot and swollen arms. She was considered brain-dead Monday, but began speaking the next day, they say, hours before life support was due to be removed.

A court is requiring Tennessee to preserve all evidence related to execution day. Read one journalist’s account of how it unfolded.

 In The Know 

Science & Technology

> Scientists develop ultra-accurate nuclear clock that keeps time by measuring energy shifts inside the nucleus of the atom thorium (More) | What's the difference between nuclear clocks and the widely popular atomic clocks? (More, w/video)

> Autonomous navigation system enables uncrewed aerial vehicles to avoid unpredictable, moving objects, with potential applications in search and rescue operations, mining expeditions, and package delivery (More, scroll for video)

> Orangutan mothers seek out opportunities for their young to play with similarly aged apes, despite being the most solitary of all great apes (More, w/photos)

Business & Markets

> US stock markets fall (S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow -0.7%, Nasdaq -0.2%) as 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields peak at highest levels since 2002 (More) 

> Federal Reserve's September meeting minutes signal another quarter-point interest rate increase may be necessary before the end of the year to cool inflation ​​​​​(More) | Read notes from the central bank's meeting (More) 

> US consumers predict inflation will hit 3.9% over the next year, marking the highest 12-month outlook recorded since May 2023, per new survey data (More) | How are shoppers reacting to rising prices? (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> France suspends police use of stun grenades after a 15-year-old loses his hand during student-led protests (More) | See previous write-up (More)

> Syria is reportedly weighing a request by Saudi Arabia to join in the war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, with one option being deployment of Syrian troops to Yemen (More) | Houthi strikes on Saudi airports reportedly kill three people (More)

> FBI officials say they have arrested an 18-year-old ISIS supporter who purchased an AK-47 from undercover agents, planned to attack Minnesota's Mall of America (More) 

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Clickbait: The world’s heaviest insect is back—and it weighs more than a mouse.

Historybook: American politician John Hancock dies (1793); Great Chicago Fire begins, killing about 300 people and destroying much of the city (1871); Actor Chevy Chase born (1943); Actress Sigourney Weaver born (1949); New York Yankees' Don Larsen pitches the only perfect game in World Series history (1956); Office of Homeland Security is created in the wake of 9/11 attacks (2001).