Abel Prize, World's Happiest Country, and the Doolysaurus

 Need To Know 

Gulf Energy Strikes

Iran launched drones and missiles at energy infrastructure across the Gulf yesterday, targeting Qatar's liquefied natural gas complex and facilities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The strikes added further pressure to global energy markets, with Brent crude rising more than 60% since the Iran war began nearly three weeks ago.

The attacks caused extensive damage to Qatar's Ras Laffan terminal, one of the world's largest LNG export hubs, which supplied roughly a fifth of global output before production was halted. The attacks were in retaliation for an earlier Israeli strike on the South Pars gas field, accounting for roughly 70% to 75% of Iran's natural gas production. See why Iranian drones are so deadly here (w/video), and catch up on the war here (w/graphics). 

US President Donald Trump warned the US could target South Pars if Iran attacks Qatar again. Separately, the Pentagon seeks roughly $200B in additional funding from Congress to support operations tied to the war, on top of an annual defense budget currently exceeding $800B. 

Abel Prize Winner

Gerd Faltings will be awarded this year’s Abel Prize—mathematics’ equivalent of the Nobel Prize—the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters revealed yesterday. The 71-year-old German mathematician is known for his 1983 proof helping to define arithmetic geometry. See his reaction here (w/video).

Faltings gave the first proof for the “Mordell conjecture,” a 1922 theorem suggesting increasingly complex equations produce fewer rational solutions. The theorem was once considered unsolvable. However, Faltings found that if a curve’s equation has a variable raised to a power higher than 3, it will contain a finite number of integer or fraction coordinates. He did so by combining number theory and geometry as opposed to relying on the more traditional effort known as the Diophantine approximation approach. 

Rational points have fascinated mathematicians since the time of ancient Greece; to this day, researchers seek to better understand them. Weeks ago, Chinese scientists posited an equation for the first hard limit on rational points in a curve.

World's Happiest Country

Finland was named the world’s happiest country for the ninth consecutive year, the latest World Happiness Report revealed. Nordic countries—including Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—also ranked in the top 10. 

Analysts attribute Finland’s joy factor to its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among factors. Afghanistan maintained its place as the world’s unhappiest country. The results were based on answers from roughly 100,000 people in 140 countries and territories. Respondents were asked to rank their life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10. Finnish respondents gave an average life satisfaction score of 7.7; Afghans answered 1.4. The US, in 23rd place, reported an average score of 6.8. Explore rankings here.

The report's authors cautioned this year that social media use is driving population-level drops in reported well-being among adolescents. Young English speakers and Western Europeans reported a nearly one-point drop on the happiness scale over the past decade. 

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

> Men's NCAA tournament Day 2 of first round tips off; see results from yesterday's games (More) | Women's NCAA tournament first round begins, starting with No. 3 Duke versus No. 14 College of Charleston; see bracket here (More) | All our favorite March Madness resources (1440 Topics)

> Actor Kevin Spacey settles trio of lawsuits in the UK with three men accusing him of sexual assault between 2000 and 2013 (More) | ABC cancels "Bachelorette" season, set to debut Sunday, amid abuse allegations against Taylor Frankie Paul (More)

> "Spiderman: Brand New Day" becomes most viewed movie trailer in history, reaching close to 720 million total views in 24 hours; film releases July 31, characters include the Hulk and Punisher (More) | Watch here (More)

🥳 Disney, Dali, Divas, oh my: Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the 1440 Society & Culture newsletter, and we're covering the most-read content over the past 12 months. From Hollywood to the biggest movie flops, join 145,000+ other readers here!

Science & Technology

> Waymo reports its fleet of self-driving taxis passed 170 million total miles driven as of the end of 2025; vehicles were involved in 92% fewer serious incidents than human drivers (More) | How Waymo cars see the road (More)

> Schizophrenia study reveals a new biomarker for diagnosing the disorder; a form of the brain protein called Cacna2d1 is reduced in patients with the condition, which results in overstimulated neural circuitry (More) 

> Researchers develop new method to measure ability of certain stem cells to regrow cartilage; may help advance regenerative therapies for conditions like osteoarthritis (More) 

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close down (S&P 500 -0.3%, Dow -0.4%, Nasdaq -0.3%) (More) 

> Uber to invest up to roughly $1.3B in electric-vehicle maker Rivian as part of goal to deploy 50,000 robotaxis by 2031 and as Rivian prepares release of autonomous R2 model (More) 

> Crypto.com to reduce workforce by 12%, or roughly 180 employees, a decision attributed to an internal shift toward integrating artificial intelligence (More) | OpenAI to acquire startup Astral, which makes Python tools for developers (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> Forty million Americans in the West are under heat alerts through the weekend, with daily record highs expected from California to Tennessee (More) 

> Chad vows retaliation after alleging a drone from Darfur killed 17 mourners in Chad's eastern town of Tine (More) 

> Thailand's parliament elects new prime minister whose party won on a nationalist, pro-military platform amid tensions with neighboring Cambodia (More) 

In-Depth

> A Journey Through Infertility

The Pudding | Lam Thuy Vo. A moving visualization of the challenges those dealing with infertility face, from the viewpoints of a parent and child. (Read) 

> Border Line War

Long Lead | Christian Caryl, Thomas Dworzak. Countries along the Russian border exist in an uneasy tension, having exited the Cold War but perpetually living under the looming threat of Russia’s imperialist past. (Read, w/photos) 

> The Bloody Origins of the Number Zero

Nightshift | Staff. Believed to have originated in ancient India, the number zero was a hard-fought concept that challenged existing philosophical and religious ideas. (Watch) 

> Why You're Constantly Fighting Off Scammers

Freakonomics | Stephen Dubner. Scammers have been ever-present since the dawn of the digital age. The industry has been supercharged by the advent of AI. (Listen) 

Meet Doolysaurus, a fuzzy baby dinosaur discovered in Korea.

One person's mission to graph 25 years of egg prices.

Is it possible to see Earth's shadow?

World's longest coastal path opens in England.

Clothes do come back in style every 20 years, science says.

See the world's first magazine cover you can play Tetris on.

Hotels.com will pay someone $5K to serve as a room-service critic.

Ignore social media—Earth's gravity will not disappear this year. (via YouTube)

In partnership: 13 under-the-radar European destinations to visit this summer.*

Clickbait: What if exercise involved the bare minimum?

Historybook: Sir Walter Raleigh freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment (1616); Italian physicist Alessandro Volta announces the discovery of the electric battery (1800); Fred "Mister" Rogers born (1928); Author Lois Lowry born (1937); Kenny Rogers dies (2020).

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