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This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through June 19)
FUTURE OF WORK
Kill the 5-Day Work Week
Joe Pinsker | The Atlantic
"People who work a four-day week generally report that they’re healthier, happier, and less...
Is It Time to Give Up on Consciousness as ‘the Ghost in the Machine’?
As individuals, we feel that we know what consciousness is because we experience it daily. It’s that intimate sense of personal awareness we carry...
These Mice Were Born From Sperm That Spent Almost 6 Years in Space
As inconceivable as it still sounds, the wheels have been set in motion for humans to one day reach and colonize Mars. There’s already...
A Google AI Designed a Computer Chip as Well as a Human Engineer—But Much...
AI has finally come full circle.
A new suite of algorithms by Google Brain can now design computer chips—those specifically tailored for running AI software—that...
Scientists in Spain Just Got a Step Closer to Building a Practical Quantum Repeater
A quantum internet could play a key role in tying together many of the most promising applications for quantum technologies. The main impetus for...
Why It Took 20 Years to ‘Finish’ the Human Genome—and Why There’s Still More...
The release of the draft human genome sequence in 2001 was a seismic moment in our understanding of the human genome, and paved the...
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through June 12)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
These Creepy Fake Humans Represent a New Age in AI
Karen Hao | MIT Technology Review
" are synthetic data designed to feed the growing...
Waymo Self-Driving Trucks Will Soon Start Moving Freight Across Texas
Last month, self-driving technology company TuSimple shipped a truckload of watermelons across the state of Texas ten hours faster than normal. They did this...
This Drone Bus Will Carry 40 Passengers Between Cities for the Price of a...
Multiple companies are working on new aerial modes of transportation, be they taxis that fly, drones that drive, or cars that drive and fly....
NASA Is Returning to Venus, Where It’s 470°C. Will We Find Life When We...
NASA has selected two missions, dubbed DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, to study the “lost habitable” world of Venus. Each mission will receive approximately $500 million...
Scientists Used CRISPR to Engineer a New ‘Superbug’ That’s Invincible to All Viruses
Can we reprogram existing life at will?
To synthetic biologists, the answer is yes. The central code for biology is simple. DNA letters, in groups...
How Long Can We Live? New Research Says the Human Lifespan Tops Out at...
Even with a healthy diet, plenty of exercise, a lucky draw in the genetic lottery, and the best medicine known to man, your natural...
Google and Harvard Unveil the Largest High-Resolution Map of the Brain Yet
Last Tuesday, teams from Google and Harvard published an intricate map of every cell and connection in a cubic millimeter of the human brain.
The...
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through June 5)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
China's Gigantic Multi-Modal AI Is No One-Trick Pony
A. Tarantola | Engadget
"When Open AI's GPT-3 model made its debut in May of 2020, its performance...
When Will the First Baby Be Born in Space?
When the first baby is born off-Earth, it will be a milestone as momentous as humanity’s first steps out of Africa. Such a birth...
SpaceX Will Have an Offshore Spaceport Ready for Starship Launches as Soon as Next...
A year ago SpaceX made headlines after posting job openings for operations engineers. The task at hand? To help design and build an offshore...
What’s the Origin of Consciousness? Global Effort Puts Two Top Theories to the Test
How does consciousness work? A frenemy collaboration is duking it out.
Six different teams from across the globe are uniting in a challenge to test...
A Self-Driving Truck Got a Shipment Cross-Country 10 Hours Faster Than a Human Driver
Self-driving cars are taking longer to come to market than many expected. In fact, it’s looking like they may be outpaced by pilotless planes...
To What Extent Are We Ruled by Unconscious Forces?
Sometimes when I ask myself why I’ve made a certain choice, I realize I don’t actually know. To what extent we are ruled by...
Japan Wants to Build Intercontinental Passenger Spaceships by the Early 2040s
A booming space industry is making it easier than ever to get into orbit, but Japan is betting that it could revolutionize terrestrial travel,...
A Cave Site in Kenya’s Forests Reveals the Oldest Human Burial in Africa
Africa is often referred to as the cradle of humankind, the birthplace of our species, Homo sapiens. There is evidence of the development of...
Google-Funded Startup Merlin Labs Will Soon Fly 55 Autonomous Planes
Self-driving cars are taking longer to come to market than initially predicted by industry insiders, as a New York Times article highlighted this week....
One CRISPR Treatment Lowered Cholesterol in Monkeys by 60 Percent
More than one in three American adults have high cholesterol, which can lead to serious health problems like heart disease and stroke. The best...
How Gene Therapy and Algae Proteins Partially Restored a Blind Man’s Sight
Thanks to gene therapy and optogenetics—a neuroscience game-changer that relies on light to control neurons—a previously blind man can now partially see the world....
Scientists Added a Sense of Touch to a Mind-Controlled Robotic Arm
Most people probably underestimate how much our sense of touch helps us navigate the world around us. New research has made it crystal clear...
