Cleantech Microbes, Intel GPUs, Epstein Email, and a Fossil Superstar!

U.K. Police Investigate Peter Mandelson Over Alleged Email Leak

London – U.K. police have launched a criminal investigation into Peter Mandelson, the United Kingdom's former ambassador to Washington, over claims he leaked sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein, NPR reported on February 4, 2026. The investigation was prompted by allegations that Mandelson shared confidential government information with Epstein.

The investigation comes at a time when several other technological and scientific advancements are making headlines.

In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the Eagle Mine, the only active nickel mine in the U.S., is testing a new process to extract more nickel from lower-quality ore, according to MIT Technology Review. The mine's owner began testing a fermentation-derived broth developed by the startup Allonnia earlier this year. The process mixes the broth with concentrated ore to capture and remove impurities, potentially extending the mine's operational life. "This approach could help companies continue operating sites that, like Eagle Mine, have burned," said Kent Sorenson, Allonnia's chief technology officer.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan announced that the company will begin producing graphics processing units (GPUs), a market currently dominated by Nvidia, TechCrunch reported. These specialized processors are used for gaming and training artificial intelligence models. Kevork Kechichian, Intel's executive vice president and general manager of the data center group, will oversee the project, according to Reuters.

In South Africa, Lazarus Kgasi, a Black fossil digger, has become a prominent figure in paleontology, NPR reported. Kgasi, who initially took a job as a fossil digger to support his family, now works at the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Nature News published an author correction regarding a paper on cotranslational assembly of protein complexes in eukaryotes. Extended Data Fig. 4d was mistakenly presented as a partial duplicate of Extended Data Fig. 2a in the original article published on August 29, 2018. The corrected figures are now available. The corrections do not affect the results of the study.